Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Reprieve ❯ Chapter 10 ( Chapter 10 )

Chapter 10

"Hydraulic Systems terminal. Thrusters Failing. Brakes jammed."

Heero scowled at the voice feed, wondering what exactly had gone wrong inside his Gundam for so many systems to have failed at once. He needed to land and repair the damned thing, but that seemed unlikely. He was, after all, in space, in a Gundam, with the brakes jammed. He would be noticed, he would probably damage any colony he approached and he would make a complete fool of himself when he crash landed. No, landing was not a pleasant option. Unfortunately the only other option was to fix the damn machine in no gravity. Nasty.

"Damn."

Caving in to the inevitability of the situation, Heero shut down all systems and undid his harness, crawling over the back of his seat to the access panel in the floor. It was going to take hours to fix the Gundam; a Gundam which should have had no problems launching from Earth. But problems it had, and he had a feeling they had been sustained in that last firefight. It would never have gotten hat heated if he had had support, but the other Gundam's had all but disappeared and he had no time to find them. He had a mission to complete…and a broken Gundam to fix.

Heero sighed heavily as he moved first to the thrusters at the wings of his Gundam. The coils had overheated and burst the injector caps. The fuel was leaking and had burnt a hole through the inner casing, burning the wires that connected to the hydraulic system, emptying the fluids into the brake system below…It all made a sick kind of sense and at the same time no sense at all. It should not have happened, except someone had replaced the inner Gundanium casing with iron filament. Why anyone would do that was beyond him. The only good thing about it was that the filament had soaked up most of the leaking fuel and it hadn't mingled with the hydraulic fluid…and the sparks coming off the broken wiring couldn't ignite the cold metal. So, his Gundam was at no risk of blowing up which may have happened had the filament been there, but then he could argue that had the Gundanium been there the damage would never have happened anyway.

The whole thing stank of Sweeper interference and that meddling idiot mechanic. He wanted to throttle pilot 02 but instead could only throw his strength against the dead systems of his Gundam.

It was several hours later when his scanners booted up and a warning light began flashing above his head. Grumblig as he climbed back into his cockpit, Heero fired up as many of his surveillance systems as he dared with hydraulic fluid still pooled in a small cage below.

A cargo vessel was headed his way, colony number C8923 written in heavy black letters along the side. It looked like some kind of salvage ship. Heero almost panicked, wondering if the Sweepers had found him after all, but the colony number gave it away as something else. Just an ordinary salvage worker out for a good score. And if Heero wasn't careful they were going to win themselves a Gundam.

"C8923 calling unidentified suit. Do you read?"

"Roger." He just wanted to say `no'.

"Status?"

"Alive." Idiot. If they're talking to you, they're not dead, right? Honestly, couldn't the woman come up with a better question?

"No shit Sherlock! Obviously, if you answered met he first time I know your damn alive! Man, couldn't I have found one that didn't have space fever? Look, just wait a few minutes and I'll get you on board, alright?"

Heero stared at his coms, not sure if he should just attack the ship or run for it. That kind of language reminded him of other salvagers he knew all too well. The last thing he wanted to do was get chummy with another boat load of idiots. The same kind of idiots that got him into this mess to begin with, he had to remind himself as the ship approached.

Growling in annoyance, Heero strapped himself in, hoped the filament managed to stay put and fired up his buster rifle. Nothing exploded, so he sung the rifle into the path of the ship and sent out his identification; a big scrambler that infected any system and basically informed them they were about to die. One of the few adjustments Duo Maxwell had made that hero actually liked.

"A Gundam!"

Now who's turn is it to say `no shit sherlock', Heero wondered icily. He still couldn't believe she had suggested he had space fever! After finally getting rid of Relena and taking a new mission he had thought life was start to resemble normal again, but it just seemed to be getting worse. Ever since he didn't go on that one mission with the baka. One choice…one bad decision.

"Get out of my way!"

"Oh, don't be silly. Your Gundam's butt is sparking like its got the runs. Hydraulic problems hey? And maybe a fuel leak by the looks of it. Lucky for you I've got a few odd bits from salvaged MS on board. As I said, sit tight, I'll get you on board and we'll see what we can do about getting you mobile again. Geesh. How come I find all the crackpots."

Heero wanted to just blast her into a million pieces, but he needed the parts. That, and judging by what she had said she was the only person on board. What could one girl do to him? He was a trained Gundam pilot. With a broken Gundam.

"Acknowledged."

"Do I sound like some old military nut to you? Freak, just talk normal. Honestly, next thing he'll be calling me ma'am."

The ship was finally upon him and Heero realized it was much larger than he had originally calculated. It would easily fit two Gundams in its hold and up to ten smaller MS. He watched in stoic silence as the doors opened and he was able to nudge Wing inside. The doors shut an Heero heard the room pressurize a moment before Wing went crashing to the floor.

"Idiot, can't you even land the damn thing? What sort of lame-arse pilot are you anyway?"

Heero flushed a dark red.

"Brakes are jammed…so's the landing gear!"

"Nothing like telling me that before I put on the gravity in there you moron! God really hates me, I know it now!"

Heero now knew all salvagers were the same. They were all crazy, foul-mouthed idiots hated by God. He had no desire to know anything else about them.

Climbing out of his Gundam, he found the ground just as the side door opened and a slim figure sauntered in, hands in her pockets. She was the weirdest looking girl he had ever seen. Dressed in filthy dark blue jeans, a striped shirt with the sleeves rolled up and a bandana covering short, dark hair, she looked like some twisted space pirate. Heero wondered if he should have stayed in his Gundam, or perhaps brought his gun out with him.

"Wow, that's some junk you've got there!"

"It is a Gundam. Not…junk."

"Oh, I know that, sour puss. Don't worry. I know how you fly boys are. I wont touch anything you don't ask me to on your bit of trash you don't lay a finger on mine." She held out a grease smothered hand. "The name's Hilde. You are?"

"Heero Yuy."

Hilde looked like she had just swallowed a bad prune.

"Uh, yeah…I always want to masquerade as dead politicians too…" She rolled her eyes as she turned away. "Get what you need off those Virgo's. Just give me a yell if you want a hand." And with that she left, leaving Heero with an oddly comforting pile of MS it looked like he had encountered before.

"Old friends for dinner."

*

Wufei struggled into wakefulness through a thick haze of hurt. Everything ached, not in the way it had after he crashed his Gundam but in a much more direct way. He could pinpoint all the little aches from whacks and smacks he would rather not recall. Which made him think of…

"Duo!" He sat up quickly, ready to search for his companion, only to find Duo sitting right beside him, legs crossed, an apple in is hand. He looked…whole. Perfectly fine. Healthy. The only sign of injury was the brace on his left arm. A brace, Wufei reminded himself, not a cast. "Duo.."

"It's called an apple. I never had one before I joined the Sweepers, but since then…Howard says they keep the doctors away, so I try to eat `em all the time, but between you and me I don't think they work all that well."

Wufei just stared past the apple at Duo's completely serious face and tried to reconcile this oddly innocent, wild fey creature with the injured, somewhat broken boy he had spent the past few weeks getting to know. Not that he minded seeing Duo like this, it was just…odd.

Duo suddenly reached out and traced feather-light fingers over the bandage on Wufei's arm. There was something in his face that made Wufei self-conscious and he shivered under Duo's scrutiny.

"I wish…I wish it didn't hurt so much…and that I could lend you some of me…then you wouldn't know pain…" His fingers moved to a bruise on Wufei's cheek. "And I wouldn't hurt you."

Wufei grabbed hold of the lithe digits, marveling at the naturally pale colour and smooth texture of healthy skin. Everything broken was mended. He couldn't grasp the entirety of that fact.

"I…it's not…I don't mind."

Duo smiled and for a moment it looked like he might cry, but then he was turning as the door opened and Howard stepped in, enveloping Duo in a strong hug. It was obvious to Wufei that this was not the first time they had seen each other since the drug worked its magic. Howard's attention was now focused more on Wufei, which he didn't especially like. Since when had he become a member of their weird little family?

"Get dressed. Po's already on my bridge…I don't even want to think about the ways she's corrupting my men!"

"Ooh, corruption. You think she'll corrupt me, old man?" Duo winked as he slipped under Howard's lunging grab and snatched the pile of black clothing off the corner of the bed.

"Brat! Stay away from that woman!"

"What do you think Wufei? Should I stay away?" Duo asked this as he stuck his head into a back, oddly coloured shirt that was strangely familiar to Wufei. It was the same shirt he had seen Duo wear the day he self-destructed. The priest's shirt. It indicated, more than anything else, that pilot 02 was ready for duty, a fact Wufei was not quite prepared to admit, even as his own battle clothes were tossed in his direction.

"Stay away from the Onna, or she'll try and adopt you, and then her men will adopt you…and then you'll have to cook their dinner."

Both Duo and Howard blinked.

"But…I can't cook!" Duo protested and Wufei almost dropped his trousers as he tried to pull them on. That had not been the response he had been expecting.

"Then she would make him cook for you too," Howard explained, as if this were the most obvious thing, poking his thumb in Wufei's direction. To Wufei's dismay this explanation seemed to satisfy Duo. Whatever education he had had at the hands of the Sweepers had indeed been…odd. He knew the schematics of a Gundam inside out but still believed an apple could keep a doctor away. Odd was an understatement.

Finally dressed, Wufei did a quick inventory of his own injuries, was satisfied he was healing quickly, and followed Howard and Duo out the door. Duo kept glancing sideways at Wufei as they made their way not to the bridge but to the cargo bay and out into the Sweeper's Pacific Base.

"What?" Wufei finally growled at Duo who plunged a hand into a pocket and held out an apple.

"You look hungry," he shrugged.

Wufei accepted the small gift, suddenly ravenous, wondering how Duo had known he was hungry at all. The tables had turned while he was asleep and Wufei was finding it hard to adjust.

They stopped below a vertical shaft with the head of a ship sticking out of it. When Wufei leaned out to look over the edge he caught sight of the biggest ship he had ever seen, ready for launch…pointing straight up.

"We going somewhere, old man?" He heard Duo ask, voice a little shaky Wufei knew how he felt. The word `Peacemillion' was painted across the wings of the ship.

"I'll explain once we're inside. I don't want to have to explain myself twice."

So they walked into the head through a panel in the base of the ship, climbing through several currently vertical shafts Wufei suspected were in fact corridors when then ship was horizontal.

"I learnt to fight in Deathscythe against this ship," Duo confided, grabbing hold of one of Wufei's hands. Wufei realized the hand was shaking and a glance at Duo confirmed he had paled again since they came on board.

"Against this ship?" Wufei wondered, recalling the size of the monstrosity and comparing it to a Gundam. Surely that wasn't possible…

Duo didn't reply as they finally came to a bridge that also hung vertical ready for launch. Most of the crew appeared strapped in. Wufei noticed Po was strapped against a wall seat, two familiar faces strapped to her left.

"Hey, I thought I told you mice to bugger off!" Duo sapped at the other two pilots and Wufei groaned. The last thing they needed was a brawl. Still, he was curious as to when Duo had encountered the other two pilots.

"Duo, meet Quatre Rabarba Winner and Trowa Barton, pilots 04 and 03," Howard said in some amusement. "Quatre, Trowa, these two are Duo Maxwell and Wufei Chang…Don't let them scare you. They're as unscary as they come."

Wufei bristled at that comment and Duo still looked ready to eat the mice like some fat cat. Luckily, Howard wasn't finished with any of them.

"We've all got our marching orders. We're headed for the moon."

"Why?"

Wufei's head snapped around to stare at Duo in amazement. Gone was a boy why had a moment before been joking around like a kid on Christmas and there standing among them was 02, pilot of Deathscythe, ready for orders. Wufei did not like how quickly that change had come about. Not one bit.

"Heero accepted a mission a week ago."

All four sets of pilot eyes narrowed dangerously.

"What mission?" Quatre asked quietly.

"To destroy the moon base."

All four pilots were quiet for a moment. Then…

"Not possible alone," Trowa replied stoically, apparently accepting the mission.

"I go where Trowa goes, but I've a bad feeling about this," Quatre added.

"How big is the base?" Wufei interjected, wanting schematics.

"Let him try it alone."

Wufei gaped at Duo, but the face he looked into was a cold mask, devoid of any emotion save retribution.

"Duo!" Sally objected, obviously horrified. Wufei could not blame her, but she also understood, in a small way, where Duo was coming from. He only had to remember the pain in a single needle to understand. Had Heero just come and done his bit on their mission, how much would have been different?

And yet…Wufei was not sorry. He would probably still be fighting alone, somewhere in the middle of space without an ally in sight and no purpose other than the memory of his very dead wife. There was more to war than that, more to battle…more to life. At the same time there had to more to it than revenge. Ironic that the one who had shown him that was the one who seemed incapable of grasping that fact.

"Let's go," Wufei said quietly, climbing into a seat beside Sally and strapping down. He watched Duo move stiffly to the seat beside him and simply held out a hand, waiting.

It wasn't until halfway through the launch sequence that Duo finally grasped it, winding alabaster digits through gold and leaning his head on Wufei's shoulder.

When they broke through earth's atmosphere Wufei realized he had gripped down on Duo's hand hard enough to bruise and released it only to have Duo grab hold again. Wufei was about to question him when Duo lifted his head a little and whispered in his ear.

"I don't mind either."