Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ The Magicians of Gundam Wing ❯ Mars Terra-forming Project ( Chapter 10 )

Chapter 10: Mars Terra-forming Project

Trowa walked into the kitchen and looked around with his hands on his hips. He sighed in noisy exasperation.

Roku looked up from his bowl of cereal. Milk dripped from his whiskers. “What's the matter, Papa Trowa?”

“My staff has wandered off. This is what I get for not keeping it straightened.”

“Couldn't Papa Duo ask his knife where it is?”

“Good idea. Is he up yet?”

“No, but Papa Heero and Papa Wu-Fei went outside to exercise a little while ago, so I think he's awake.”

“He should be getting up anyway. Zechs will be here soon to show us the facility and give us our assignments. I just told Quatre to get up.”

“Will I have a work assignment too, Papa Trowa?”

“No, we should probably be sending you to school. We got a little lax about your studies during the quest.”

“Would there be other kids like me at school?”

Trowa smiled. “No one is quite like you, Roku, but yes, there would be other kids there. We can ask Zechs about it when he gets here.”

“I think I would like to meet other children, but I guess I would have to stay a little boy most of the time.”

“That would probably be best.” Trowa patted Roku on the head.

Quatre came into the kitchen. “Good morning, Roku. What have you got there?”

“Cereal. It's shaped like little o's. I like it.”

Quatre peered into his dish. “I used to eat that when I was little, too. Maybe I'll have some.” He got a bowl out of the cupboard and a spoon from one of the drawers. “Where is everyone?”

“Heero and Wu-Fei are outside. Duo's still in bed.”

“He better get a move on,” Quatre said. “I don't want to keep Zechs waiting.”

“I'll get him up. I need his help anyway.” Trowa headed toward the bedrooms.

“What's he need Duo for?” Quatre mumbled around a mouthful of cereal.

“His staff slithered off.”

“Oh.”

Heero and Wu-Fei came in.

“Good morning, Quatre!” Wu-Fei said cheerfully.

“Morning. It sounds like you're over the sneezing.”

“Yes, thankfully. The anti-histamine Zechs had the pharmacy send over worked. We've been outside for an hour and I haven't even felt like sneezing.”

“That's good news.”

Trowa returned leading a bleary-eyed Duo.

“Explain to me again why we're getting up so damned early?” Duo complained.

“Vacation's over,” Heero stated flatly. “Time to get back to work.”

“Work is a four-letter word,” Duo muttered under his breath.

“Do you want some cereal, Papa Duo?” Roku asked. “It's good.”

“Yes! Food!”

“Did you find Papa Trowa's staff?”

“Yeah, it's out in the park somewhere. We can pick it up on the way to work.”

They were just finishing their breakfast when Zechs arrived. Since he was already done eating, Roku bounded over and stood on his hind paws to open the door. Zechs regarded him with a faintly surprised expression.

“So the report that someone saw a tiger yesterday was not a hallucination.”

“I'm Roku, Count Zechs.” Roku changed back to a little boy.

Zechs lifted an eyebrow, but otherwise did not appear startled at all. “That's an interesting skill. Are you a tiger who can appear as a boy or a boy who can appear as a tiger?”

“Well,” Roku said seriously, “I was born a tiger, but Mama is a human, and I've also been a bird and a dragon and a little girl. But most of the time, I'm a tiger. But I've been a little boy a lot of the time lately, too. So I guess I'm a tiger and a boy.” He smiled sweetly at Zechs.

Zechs nodded gravely. “That makes sense. And you are Quatre's son.”

“Yes. He's my Mama.”

“I see. And your father is…?”

“Papa Trowa and Papa Heero and Papa Duo and Papa Wu-Fei.”

“All four?”

“Yes.”

“How interesting.” Zechs regarded the five Gundam pilots with a faint smile. “I can see that my work terra-forming Mars is nothing next to whatever you've been up to. I look forward to learning the details.”

He received five rather sickly smiles in return.

“If you're ready, I'd like to get started.”

“We're ready,” said Heero.

“I'm still eating!” said Duo.

“We're done!” Heero declared.

“Fine!” Duo grumbled. He quickly shoveled the rest of his cereal into his mouth. “Let's go.”

“If you don't mind Zechs, we'd like to visit the school as well,” Trowa said. “We need to get Roku enrolled.”

“Of course. We'll go there first.” Zechs led the way across the park.

Along the way, Trowa retrieved his staff from under a bush. “I'm annoyed with you,” he said.

“I was just looking around,” the snake hissed back. “This is a fascinating place.”

Trowa looped the staff over his shoulder and it clamped itself together around his waist. “Just stay with me from now on.”

Zechs observed the exchange curiously. “You brought a snake with you?”

“It's not really a snake,” Trowa replied casually. “It's sort of mechanical.”

“I see.” Zechs pointed ahead of them. “There's the school. Each residential dome has its own school that serves all ages. The education program is quite personalized. It's one of our best selling points when it comes to attracting employees for the project.”

The school building was a U-shaped structure with a playground in the middle that was currently occupied by two dozen or so children. Four adults, two women and two men, were watching the children play. They turned to watch the approaching party.

“Good morning, Count Merquise,” one of the women greeted them.

“Good morning, Miss Allen. I'd like to introduce some new arrivals to our community.” Zechs introduced the five pilots. “And this is Roku, their son. He'll be starting school today.”

Miss Allen smiled at Roku. “How do you do, Roku? Welcome to Residential Dome Six.”

“It's nice to meet you, Miss Allen,” Roku replied politely.

“Why don't you go and get acquainted, Roku? Classes start in fifteen minutes.”

“Ok.” Roku went to join the other children.

Quatre watched apprehensively. “Do you think he'll be all right?” he murmured to Trowa. “He's really not spent that much time with people his own age.”

“He'll be fine,” Trowa said. “Everyone likes Roku.”

“I wonder if I should have reminded him not to… you know… do things.”

“I think he'll remember.”

“Roku's been home-schooled all his life,” Wu-Fei told the four teachers. “He may be a little behind in some subjects.”

“Don't worry, Mr. Chang. We'll do a few assessment tests and devise an education plan tailored to meet his needs.”

Wu-Fei smiled. “That sounds fine.”

“See you later, Roku!” Duo called.

Roku waved back. He was already hanging upside down from the horizontal bar.

“Shall we go?” Zechs asked.

“Let's get to work,” Heero replied.

As the group walked away, the teachers approached their new student.

Miss Allen smiled brightly. “Roku, we are all very happy to have you join our school. Where did you live before coming to Mars?”

“I lived on Earth. In England.”

“Oh! Well, I hope you don't find living in Mars Colony too strange. Living in domes is a little different from living in the open on Earth.”

Roku dropped to the ground. “Yes it is, but I like it.”

Miss Allen clasped her hands together. “Let me introduce everyone. I'm Miss Allen and I teach science and math. This is Mr. Brooks. He teaches history and social studies. Mrs. Levin teaches languages, primarily English. Mr. Yashita teaches pre-school.”

Roku greeted each teacher in his usual polite way.

“I also serve as the school principal,” Miss Allen continued. “The first thing we'll need to do is assess your skill level in different subjects.” She smiled disarmingly. “Don't worry about it too much, though. This is just so we know how challenging to make your class work.”

“Ok.”

“Do you know any languages besides English, Roku?” Mrs. Levin asked.

Roku nodded. “Papa Wu-Fei taught me a little Mandarin and Cantonese. I learned some Japanese from Papa Heero, but Mama says I can't repeat most of the words he uses. Papa Trowa taught me to speak French because Mama thinks it's pretty, and I learned Arabic from Mama's friends in the Maganac corps when we were there a few weeks ago.” Roku paused and the teachers all stared at him in surprise. “Oh, and I know Latin, too, but I'm not supposed to speak Latin except in emergencies.”

“Can you read and write in any of those languages?” Mrs. Levin asked faintly.

“A little. I read and write English the best because I learned that first, but I know a lot of Chinese characters. I can read and write Latin and French a little bit because they're really close to English. I'm afraid I can't read Arabic at all.”

“Ah… That's ok.” Mrs. Levin was a little pale.

The other children were staring at Roku and whispering. Noticing this, Mr. Yashita asked, “Do you have any special skills or interests that you would like to share, Roku?”

Roku was pretty sure he should not mention any of his native skills. “I can fly an airplane and a space shuttle, although I'm not that good at landing yet, and I can pilot a mobile suit.”

Everyone stared at him.

“H… How old are you, Roku?” Miss Allen asked.

“I'm nine.”

“Well… ah… I can see you have a few advanced skills.” She glanced in faint alarm at her fellow teachers. “But we'll be focusing on the basics for now. Why don't we go in and start the day's lessons? Roku, you can start with the class in my room. Then the class moves to Mr. Brooks' room after snack and Mrs. Levin's room after lunch.” She and her fellow teachers herded the children into their classrooms.

On the train to the main dome, Quatre was a little worried. “This is the first time we've left Roku completely alone without one of us nearby. You don't think he'll worry do you?”

Trowa patted Quatre's hand. “Don't worry, Quatre. Roku is extremely self-reliant.”

“Besides,” Duo added, “he can probably teleport to wherever you are if he really wants to.”

“Roku can teleport?” Zechs asked in mild surprise.

“I've never seen him do it, but that doesn't mean he can't,” Duo said. “We suspect Roku can do pretty much whatever he wants to. He's one talented little kid.”

“I'm surprised you were allowed to take him off Earth. I would think the scientists there would want to study him.”

“I daresay they would, but Quatre forbids it.” Duo winked at Zechs. “And trust me, you do not want to do something Quatre forbids. He gets a bit testy, especially where Roku is concerned.”

“I'll have you know I've been quite restrained,” Quatre said huffily.

“That's because you're so scary, no one ever risks it after you threaten them.”

Quatre glared at Duo. “I am not scary!”

“See what I mean?” Duo whispered to Zechs.

Zechs just smiled.

The Mars terra-forming project required engineers, technicians and workers of all different skill sets. The scientific and mechanical skills of the five Gundam pilots were immediately put to good use.

Duo was assigned to fly transports hauling materials to different terra-forming seed sites.

Quatre and Wu-Fei worked with the scientists, analyzing air and soil samples and measuring bacteria and lichen growth.

Heero and Trowa worked in the engineering department, maintaining both the terra-forming equipment and the domes themselves.

For the first week or so, days passed routinely. But that didn't last. A spate of minor equipment failures kept the engineering department very busy. Heero became suspicious when he and Trowa had to return to the same equipment storage dome to repair a failed motor on one of the external access doors for the third time in as many days.

“This is ridiculous!” Heero growled angrily to Trowa. “We already replaced this motor. It tested out perfectly when we left. There is no reason for it to have failed.”

“It's almost like someone deliberately sabotaged it,” Trowa nodded in agreement.

Heero and Trowa stared at each other for a second, and then Heero looked around, glaring particularly into the many darker corners of the small dome. Glittering green eyes stared back at him. Then tittering laughter echoed from the dark. Heero began swearing under his breath.

“Get your little gray butts out here right now!” he shouted.

Half a dozen sprites edged out into the light with big grins on their little faces.

“What are you doing here?” Heero demanded.

“The Man with Many Faces has come to an interesting place,” said one sprite. The others all nodded, their green eyes shining.

Heero drew a deep breath. “Well, you have to stop breaking things. You might kill someone.”

“We only make the machines stop,” the sprite said.

“So the Man with Many Faces will have something to do,” said another.

“I have plenty to do without your help! Can't you just watch?”

“That is not as much fun.”

“You want to have fun?” Heero scrubbed a hand over his face. “You can help me, then.” He held up the burned out bearing on the motor the sprites had damaged. “Go find this part in the store room and bring it to me. You know where that is?”

The sprites all nodded.

“Good. Go and get it. Try not to be seen.”

The sprites all disappeared. Heero promptly plopped down on his butt. “I'm really getting sick of this.”

“But it could be quite helpful if they do bring the part,” Trowa pointed out.

“If they bring it.”

They waited. Five minutes later, two sprites reappeared, lugging the part between them. They plunked it down on the floor in front of Heero. He stared at it in surprise for a moment.

“Thank you,” Heero said finally. “That's just what we needed.”

The sprites beamed. “You're welcome, Man with Many Faces.” They disappeared.

Trowa gazed thoughtfully at the spot where the sprites had stood. “You know, maybe the reason they bother you so much is because you don't summon them and ask for favors. My staff told me that many spirits actually like being told to do things.”

“You think so?”

“It could be.”

“Well, I suppose it's worth a try. It can't be any worse than what's been happening.”

“True.”

Trowa repeated this theory to Quatre on the train home that evening.

“That makes sense,” Quatre said. “And it's a good idea if it will reduce the number of incidents I've been hearing about. People are starting to talk.”

“They aren't blaming us, are they?”

“Not specifically. We aren't the only new people to come to Mars Colony recently.”

“That's good.”

“But if Duo starts gambling, that will draw attention to us,” Wu-Fei said.

“Don't blame me!” Duo promptly defended himself. “I've been sticking to dice instead of cards so I don't have an unfair advantage. It's not my fault if these people are no better at dice than the worker's on Quatre's resource satellite.”

They arrived home to find Roku and Sally sitting on the lawn not far from their house playing cards.

“Hey Sally!” Duo called. “We haven't seen you for days.”

“I've been helping out at the main hospital. There have been a lot of accidents resulting in minor injuries lately.”

“Nothing serious I hope,” Heero said with a faintly guilty tone.

“No. Just bruises and scrapes, mostly.” She grinned at him. “Does this have something to do with you?”

“I hope not,” Heero muttered.

“But we think we can get it to stop,” Trowa added.

“That would be good. Damn!” She smiled fondly at Roku. “You beat me again!”

“I'm good at this game,” Roku admitted. “Papa Duo taught me.”

“You're not cheating, are you?” Quatre asked.

“No, Mama. I use the real rules, not Papa Duo's rules.”

Everyone turned to look at Duo. Duo tried to look innocent.

Sally stood up. “I hope you don't mind; I'm inviting myself to dinner. Noin's busy tonight.”

“You're always welcome, Sally,” Wu-Fei said. “Come in.”

Roku gathered up the cards and stood up. “Mama, Miss Allen asked me to tell you that she would like to speak with you and Papa Wu-Fei about my home-schooling when you have time.”

Quatre paled. “What happened?”

“Nothing. She just wants to know why Papa Wu-Fei taught me algebra, geometry, calculus, probability and statistics, physics, chemistry, biology, thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, medieval history and philosophy without ever covering modern history.”

“Is that all?”

Roku nodded.

“I guess we can go talk to her before work tomorrow.”

“Ok.”

Trowa and Quatre followed Roku and the others into the house.

“Man, teachers sure are getting demanding!” Quatre said. “You try to give a kid a solid foundation in the basics and they still find something to complain about!”

“It's definitely not like it used to be,” Trowa agreed.