Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ The Palace of Justice ❯ 10 ( Chapter 10 )
[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]
By: Lethanon 
Anime/Manga: Gundam Wing Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Romance / Sci-fi / Thriller | Type: Continuation | Uploaded On: 01.17.2011 | Pages: 4 | Words: 5.7K | Visits: 429 | Status: Work In Progress
Anime/Manga: Gundam Wing Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Romance / Sci-fi / Thriller | Type: Continuation | Uploaded On: 01.17.2011 | Pages: 4 | Words: 5.7K | Visits: 429 | Status: Work In Progress
10:
Trowa was relieved when he woke up before the lights came on, and before Wufei woke up and everyone realised he’d smothered Wufei in his sleep. He rolled his eyes at himself and unwound his arms from around Wufei, pulling himself free with dubious care, breathing a huge sigh of relief when Wufei didn’t wake and hurrying to have a much needed shower.
He’d expected to feel worse about having to go back to work, but now that Wufei was awake he felt calmer about the whole thing and he knew his mind had refocussed on the next thing on their list to do; getting out. And, if you were Heero, possibly blowing up Frank. It made Trowa chuckle as he got out of the shower and got dressed in a white suit to wear down to Level 1. He was just doing up the cuffs when the lights came up and he smirked at Heero and Duo as they tried to untangle themselves from each other and the bag.
“Trowa? You’ve been here too long, man, you look happy to be going to work!”
Trowa didn’t bother pointing out that he was happy to be doing something, even if it meant he wasn’t there watching over Wufei. He suspected Wufei would be glad not to have him hovering for even just a few hours of the day.
Duo grumbled and crawled into the bathroom, literally...on hands and knees, kicking the door shut behind him. Trowa chuckled when it didn’t slam, as he had expected.
“Okay, so I need to try and find Hanger 101. You want me to check out anything else?”
“No. I’ll send Duo to look at anything else I think of.”
Dismissed! Trowa would have walked straight out but he had the ridiculous urge to go kiss Wufei goodbye before he went and he had to physically touch the wall to stop himself from doing it. Instead he pushed at the door and it disappeared for him.
“I’ll meet you at the interchange cafe!” He called out to Duo as he left.
He would have been a fool if he didn’t check the shuttle area for the monk, so he did. He even went and checked on his candle but it was gone, swept away at some point in the night, the area cleared for today’s offerings. He hadn’t thought he would see the monk again so soon, and probably not until he found Hanger 101, but he tried anyway.
He gave up before his lingering could be noticed and caught the shuttle down to Level 3, catching the next shuttle to the interchange and going in to the cafe, smiling and waving to Tracey as she served another customer.
“Morning Mister Bloom, I won’t be a minute!”
“I’m not in a hurry, take your time. I’ll just get two of the usual, yeah?”
“Yeah, sure thing! I’ll bring it over.” And she went back to serving the other customers while Trowa went and found a nondescript booth against the far wall where he could see out the window with ease but people walking by would having trouble seeing him.
As promised, Tracey didn’t take long to bring out his coffees and muffins and she looked curiously at the empty seat.
“Your friend’s not coming today? I just assumed he was and made two orders.”
“He’s just running a bit late, that was exactly what I wanted,” he reassured her, smiling at her and tasting the coffee, moaning in appreciation because it really was a good coffee, every time. “It’s great. Thank you Tracey, here...” He fished his card out of his pocket and handed it over so she could charge it.
“You want a coffee to take away as well? Yeah, that’d be great. Make it two?”
“Not a problem,” she agreed, and he noticed she looked a little different to usual, more dressed up. She was wearing heels, and she’d left her hair down with a pretty clip on the side. He didn’t try to disillusion her, because it looked good and maybe someone might actually notice her and take her on a date or ten. She deserved that.
Duo arrived, running into the cafe and waving to Tracey, blowing her a kiss before sliding into the booth opposite Trowa and grinning at the waiting muffin and coffee.
“A man could get used to this.” Trowa supposed Heero didn’t make breakfast very often. Even having someone buy him breakfast had to be a bit of a novelty for Duo. The meal he’d cooked for them the night before had been simple but cooked extremely well, and he imagined Duo had taken up cooking to avoid having to eat whatever rat packs Heero kept trying to replace his meals with.
“I even ordered you an extra coffee to take away.”
“Aww, I’m so touched!” Duo emphasised just how touched he was by biting into his muffin with gusto.
“Wufei awake yet?”
“Nope, dead to the world.”
Trowa sat back in his seat and sipped his coffee slowly, enjoying the warmth of it and the steamy bitterness so early in the morning. The caffeine hit wasn’t anything to sneeze at either and even though he hadn’t felt particularly tired he knew he needed to be sharp today and he had a lot to get done, so it definitely wasn’t going to hurt.
“So what’s Heero got you doing? Rumour mongering?”
“Pretty much. Seeing what’s being said around the place, try and lay some false ones of my own. Wants me to start looking for anything on The Passion Flower as well.”
“From the shuttle? Well, in order it was La Pasionaria, Origen, Trowa Barton. I figure we’ve had the second and third, it’s just the first we’re missing. Heero agreed and told me to see what I could find out.”
Trowa nodded. He’d forgotten about it entirely, and he shouldn’t have but he thought all things considered he could be forgiven forgetting one cryptic message. It was an odd one though, and possibly as impossible to predict as the Origen had, at least he hoped Wufei going for a job interview and getting abducted and forced to be the conscience of a mysterious disappearing self aware colony was impossible to predict, because if it wasn’t and it was somehow a common occurrence life was just never going to be the same again, and he rather liked his life.
“You might want to check the library. There was a Spanish revolutionary centuries ago...they called her La Pasionaria. Maybe there’s a clue?”
“Huh. I didn’t know that, I just knew there was an actual flower called the Passion Flower, so I’ll look them both up.”
Trowa nodded, suddenly not envying Duo the freedom of not having a job. He was still out and about and if they got desperate Trowa knew Heero would go out too, leaving Wufei to hold down the fort. Or just sleep really, since it didn’t really need holding down, though Trowa knew Heero would be just as paranoid as him about guarding Wufei, just in case someone did figure out where he was and came to collect the Origen. Better for Heero to be sitting there with a gun at the ready than hope Wufei woke up when someone barged through the door.
But if he was going to be out, he’d rather it be on Level 1 with the military, keeping an eye on what was going on down there, and getting them the vitals they needed. And solving strange mysteries like Hanger 101. It also helped that he got to pilot a very cool Fighter. Heero hadn’t flown one yet, and he would have totally rubbed it in if he thought Heero wouldn’t try to go enlist just to be even with him.
I won’t stop by here on the way home, not even sure what time I’ll finish today, so I’ll see you tonight,” he noted softly, waving to Tracey to get his take away coffee and card back. She had them ready at the counter as he passed and he didn’t bother looking back at Duo, knowing he was getting ready to head out as well.
He was right on time to work, making a show of sniffling a few times and coughing as he got changed and people gave him a little extra space. They continued to do so as he continued to sniffle all the way to his Hanger.
“Bloom, I thought I told you to stay home!”
“You did Sir, but...I was feeling okay when I got up, guess it just isn’t as out of my system as I thought,” he whined deliberately and the man took pity on him, getting him a blanket from the stores and sending him down to his simulator.
“Turn the heater on in there or something!”
“Yes, Sir!” He hurried down to his simulator, climbed inside and closed the door with a satisfied grunt.
There was little he could do without arousing suspicion, but he did access his flight details and saw he was rostered on for scouting duties in three days time. There was a scouting group in two days marked with a blue star as his original one had been and he guessed that was a satellite run, making note of the time and date.
He waited until lunch time before venturing out, finding his superior officer again and asking quietly if he could go for a walk, to help his lunch settle. The man readily agreed, told him to catch the shuttle and do a few laps or just have a look around, it would do the new guy good to get a better handle on where things were anyway. He even gave him a nice shiny pass in case anyone asked what he was doing.
He took the man’s advice and did a lap on the shuttle first, peeking into each Hanger and making a mental note of what was in it and its dimensions but when he got back to his own there was no unaccounted for space. He hadn’t expected it to be that easy but it meant he had to get off the shuttle and take a walk. He stuck to the outside wall, running his hand along it and occasionally leaning to give the idea he was using it as a support rather than the careful feeling out he was doing, testing the pressure of it and tapping to listen for any clue that a panel was different.
It took hours and when he got back he was no closer to figuring it out than he had been, but the search had left him frustrated and tired. He went back to his simulator and slumped down in the chair, staring at the ceiling and spinning in an anti-clockwise direction. He felt like he was turning the clock backwards, and subsequently was gaining more time and even if it didn’t work it made him feel better about not finding Hanger 101, which meant he could almost put up with the hell Heero was going to give him over it. Not that Heero would say anything, but Heero didn’t really need to say anything, he just had to grunt and turn away and glare at his laptop and you generally felt like a goose. Trowa didn’t like geese; the sound they made was annoying.
He took out his simulation manual and flicked through, looking for anything interesting, just trying to get ideas really, when something caught his eye. An image of the controls in front of him and it wasn’t that anything was wrong really, there was just something nagging at him and he started comparing it to the real thing in front of him.
The buttons were all the same, the controls identical, the joystick even the same make as in the actual SiS, there was nothing amiss but something about it was still nagging him and he had to wonder if he wasn’t coming down for something for real when he finally realised there wasn’t going to be a door into Hanger 101.
Then his stomach started protesting at the mere thought of Molecularization. It still meant he had to find the way in, and he ran the simulator because he could scope out the outside of Frank from the comfort of his workspace, smirking because the manual did stress that the simulator was made from real footage of Frank and the external sensors to ensure that everything they trained with was the real deal. Trowa could certainly appreciate that attention to detail, especially when it made him life so much easier.
He did several laps of the whole colony, but could see nothing externally that would indicate there was an additional Hanger. His internal lap had been slow and calculated and he knew there was no missing floor space. When he flew a lap and counted all the pads they were present and accounted for, no extra Molecularization possibilities.
Except one.
He flew his simulator around to Frank’s nose and parked himself in front of the eye, studying it for a long time. He hadn’t given much thought to the insignia until now, but they still had no idea what it was supposed to mean.
The eye made more sense now they knew about the Origen. The third eye was always associated with the pineal gland and for a long time was considered the seat of the soul; the place where the mind met the body. Did that make the eye the Origen? But it was also the place Frank sucked people into himself, which the Origen had nothing to do with as far as Trowa could tell. And what of the sword cutting through it? Decoration? It had to mean something, he doubted a group of know it all scientists had decided to just randomly cut through the middle of their souls with a blade, unless it was some weird form of Harakiri? He was sure that made even less sense.
Either way, the eye wasn’t telling him anything and he suspected he was going to have to do some research of his own. He was about to give up on the simulator all together when he decided to fly over the top of Frank. Preventers had gotten very few shots of Frank at all, and none of the top. He found it immediately curious that nothing had managed to fly overhead, only underneath where the military could react accordingly.
From above, Frank was a sleek, endless slip of inky darkness. Not a single seam in his exterior was visible though there had to be some. He was beautiful and Trowa sat for a while just staring, awed once again by the sheer size of the endeavour someone had taken upon themselves. It made the Gundams look like child’s play. It left him feeling small and insignificant and he suddenly wanted, very badly, to go home, not to His Room inside Frank, but on solid ground on Earth, in his ridiculous apartment and his stupid body corporate who wouldn’t let him have a pet elephant despite his reassurances he would clean up all its poo and fertilize all the gardens free of charge.
He was leaning towards Heero’s method of things. Blow Frank to Hell.
He gave up his search, admitting defeat. The only ways in and out of Frank were the eye, and the military pads, and none of those led to Hanger 101.
He froze and stared out into the nothing of Space, then dropped back down to stare at Frank’s underside. The military inside Frank was huge, an army all Frank’s own, but they were still running enlistment drives, and Trowa had been put straight through. They needed pilots, which meant there were pads not being used.
“Halle-fucking-lujah.”
He exited the simulator and grabbed the ‘on a walk’ card his superior had given him and went for another walk. He lingered at each Hanger, counting personnel and Fighters, comparing the numbers until he got to Hanger 100 and paused when he saw a lone mechanic working on one of the SiS-50s. A mechanic doing his job was by no means a strange sight, but Trowa had never seen one work alone.
“Hey,” he said softly, wandering over with his hands in his pocket, looking up at the SiS as if her were just admiring it while in fact he was trying to look up its skirt, so to speak.
“Hi! Takin a walk?”
“Um...yeah. How’d you know?” Like it wasn’t obvious by the fact he was wandering around staring at crap with a walk card in his hand.
“You’ve got a free pass,” the mechanic laughed, pointing to the card and Trowa played alone, laughing at his own stupidity and shoving the card in his pocket as if he was embarrassed and hadn’t had the thing out where everyone could see it on purpose.
“She broken?”
“Not sure,” the man grunted, pulling open a hatch in the floor and shoving his hands in, hauling out a mess or wiring that made Trowa cringe. He was suddenly glad Frank had employed him as a Pilot instead of a Mechanic. The homework he would have had to do to get through a day’s work would have left him a zombie and then he would have had to listen to Duo’s bad zombie jokes and likely watch several awful movies.
“It’s a shame...they’re beautiful to fly.”
“Flyboy huh...should’ve guessed. You get that goofy look on your face when you look at them,” the mechanic laughed softly. “She flies just fine, just won’t Molecularize right. Thought it was a DNA fault at first, but everything works just fine far as all the tests can tell. So they thought it was the SiS, but when they put it on another pad, she went out just fine.”
“So it’s gotta be the pad then?” Bingo, finally it only took him all day but he’d found the damn thing and Heero could shove his cold shoulder in someone else’s face.
“I’m thinkin so, but everyone else has just about given up on it. I’m not the givin up type, so I come in here whenever I get a bit of free time and take another look.”
An admirable quality, but curiosity killed the cat and if someone didn’t want the problem solved the poor mechanic was likely to lose his life. Not that Trowa could do anything to help. If he warned the guy it would look suspicious, and if he helped he’d likely meet the same fate. Instead, he just shook his head and told the guy he worked too hard. The man just agreed and Trowa took one last look before walking away, whistling softly under his breath, feeling content with his day’s work.
It still annoyed him that he had to go back and sit in his simulator pretending to work until the clock struck six and the mass exodus from Level 1 began. He found a seat on the shuttle and caught it back out, changing as slowly as he could force himself to and heading back up to Level 3. He paused at the cafe, sticking his head in to say Hi, making sure Duo wasn’t there and ordering a cup of tea to take away while Tracey told him in hushed whispers about the search for something that had been stolen from Level 5. Men in expensive looking suits had apparently gone to every business on Level 3, telling them to keep an eye out for a man with Wufei’s description. Trowa oohed and ahhed in all the right places and on the inside threw the hissy fit of his life. Not that Wufei was thinking of leaving the room anytime soon, but if he’d wanted to go for a walk he should have damn well been able to. But that was never the way it worked. He smiled and thanked her for the tea and hurried out.
He stopped only once more. To go into the temple. The crowds were in, peak traffic lines down to the altar and the various forms of worship so it didn’t look odd that he didn’t line up, but he went to stand in the corner and watch, pretending to pray, just waiting.
The monk came from behind a curtain to the side of the altar. He walked slowly down the side wall and came to stand beside him, looking too serene and comfortable as he surveyed his flock. Trowa idly wondered how much money religious groups made inside Frank. The people were so determined to follow their daily routines exactly, he doubted they ever missed a worship. If all of those people paid twenty cents every time they chose a fortune stick, how much was that alone every day making the temple? Maybe he should audit them. Did anyone ever get audited inside Frank? When was the end of the tax year on an invisible colony? Did you even have to pay tax? Maybe all these people moved here to avoid paying it?
Not likely.
“Long day?”
“Aren’t they all. Was productive though.”
He saw the monk’s lips twitch as if he wanted to laugh but the man just continued to stand there, watching everyone in a way not unlike the way Trowa watched everyone. It made him uneasy. He didn’t particularly like being made to feel uneasy.
“Does the temple pay taxes?”
“But of course!” The monk chuckled but he looked far too serious when he turned to look at him. “Don’t we all?”
He knew. Trowa just laughed and shrugged, not bothering to lie. The monk knew Trowa didn’t pay, somehow knew he wasn’t from there. Maybe from that first bumbling expedition when they’d first encountered one another, or maybe he knew more than that but either way he knew. Trowa contemplated the pros and cons of killing him now, and when he came up with only one pro and a long list of cons decided he had spent far too much time recently with Heero. He couldn’t just go around killing monks in their temple and expect no one to notice.
“I’m actually quite good with them, if you ever need a hand? I used to be an accountant.”
Trowa nodded, getting the message loud and clear.
“That would be appreciated. Thank you.”
“No need for thanks. Everyone needs a friend, eventually.”
Trowa just hoped eventually was still a long time away and was grateful when the monk left, wandering into his flock and talking quietly to those who greeted him. Trowa thought there was no cowardice in turning on his heel and leaving, and it wasn’t fleeing if you weren’t running. Really.
Wufei was sitting up in bed, laptop on his knees, reading. He looked up immediately when Trowa came in, and Trowa fancied the small smile was for him, though it could have easily been for whatever Heero had just said that was making Duo laugh so hard where they were both sprawled on the sleeping bag.
“Did you find it?”
“I think so.”
They were all staring at him, but he didn’t really feel like talking. There was something weird about walking into a room where everyone else had already been talking and you had no idea what the conversation was about. He didn’t like it, and he was tired so he waved off Heero’s glare and went straight to the bathroom. He wanted his five minutes, and to wash of the dirty feeling of being watched that had come over him at the temple. Stupid monk.
When he came out Wufei had moved across on the bed, leaving him room to sit beside him and was watching him expectantly. Trowa was surprised by the offer, unsure of where he stood with Wufei. Not knowing what Wufei wanted and knowing all too well what he himself wanted was driving him half mad somewhere inside that he hadn’t dared to take a good look at yet. But the offer was too tempting and he went over and sat down next to him, looking down at the laptop curiously.
“It’s what Heero’s hacked so far. I’m just...checking it.”
“He thinks some of its inaccurate,” Heero noted bluntly. It was clear he didn’t like it, and Trowa wished he’d been a fly on the wall when the issue had started, but it was equally clear he suspected Wufei was right.
“You think Frank is giving us what information he wants us to have, and not necessarily what information we need,” Trowa clarified and they all nodded. He sighed and slid down lower into the pillows so he could stare at the ceiling. It made sense, of course, it just unfortunately also indicated there was a good chance Frank really was one of the bad guys. Which meant he had to start thinking of a way to evacuate the entire populous so Heero could go bomb-happy.
“So you think you found the extra Hanger?” Duo was wide-eyed and ready for a story. Trowa suspected he just wanted to have a story told to him instead of having to read about it. Had he really had to read that many books today? Did Frank even have a library?
“Yeah. There’s a Molecularization pad that’s apparently faulty. They’ve tried the Fighter on other pads and it goes out just fine, but on this one...nada.”
“Bingo,” Duo agreed immediately. “So how are you gonna get in?”
“I don’t know yet, but I made friends with a mechanic who’s been working on it. Everyone else has given up, so it won’t look odd if I give him a hand.”
“And maybe get as stubborn about it as him and try and work on it a bit yourself as well,” Duo nodded knowingly and Trowa was just grateful to have someone around who thought of infiltration the way he did instead of Heero and Wufei’s approach of ‘blow it open’. Not that Duo didn’t like bombs, but he understood the need to be quiet occasionally.
Very occasionally.
“You were right about the ancient dead Spanish chick,” Duo said. “Other than that, I’ve got the anatomy of the actual flower. Which they do grow here, along with a whole bunch of other stuff. Level 2 has a whole 40 sectors just for agriculture and when I went down and asked about greenhouses they pointed me to Level 5, who have an aviary. There are passion flowers there.”
“So we’re leaning toward the actual flower being the clue,” Wufei pointed out, and Trowa suspected he did it just because he knew Trowa hated when someone pointed out the obvious. He was even smirking.
“Well, maybe,” Duo corrected. “The dead Spanish lady was interesting...she’s famous for the quote ‘They shall not pass’.” He shrugged and Trowa had to agree in their current situation it could mean something, but he also agreed the actual flower growing in an aviary on Level 5 was much more likely.
“So tomorrow I’m being a mechanic and Duo is going to the aviary? Great.”
“Aw, don’t be jealous! I promise, I’ll come back at least half as dirty as you!” Duo grinned and moved into the kitchenette, raiding the cupboards for something to eat and pulling out spaghetti before heading for the fridge. Trowa tuned him out, relieved after last night that he wouldn’t burn down His Room, make too huge a mess, or create something none of them could eat.
“I did find out the next satellite should be brought inside in two days.”
“That’s soon,” Wufei noted. “But fits the schedule I think the system was following. He averaged two a week.”
“Alright. Wufei and I will complete the transmission tomorrow, and Duo and I can attach it when it comes in, since you’ll have to go to work.”
It grated and he scowled at the look on Heero’s face that clearly said he thought he had scored a point, but Trowa couldn’t argue because facts were facts. He had to get into Hanger 101, and they had to lay the transmitter. Heero was just excited because he might get to shoot stuff.
“Only one problem,” Wufei pointed out and they all stared at him. “You don’t know where the satellite will be?”
“Oh yeah,” Duo mumbled at the stove, mixing something in a pot that actually smelt really good. Trowa’s stomach grumbled in response and he put a defensive arm over it when Wufei arched a brow at him. Just because some people got to sit in bed and suck on smoothies all day.
“You know,” Heero grunted.
“No,” Wufei corrected with a frown, but he was looking at Trowa now. “I don’t. But there’s a way I can find out.”
They were all looking at him now and Trowa felt his heart pound harder into his chest when Wufei lifted up something he had been working on. A cable with a fine point needle on the end.
“No!” Trowa refused immediately, entirely on instinct and when his mind caught up with his mouth he only repeated himself. “Hell no!”
“I can plug myself in from here, I won’t be connected to Frank while Nataku is there, I’ll just be able to access his systems! It’s the perfect solution!” Wufei was angry at being so quickly denied, but Trowa suspected he was angrier at himself for being useless to them and was just trying to find a way to help. This was not, in Trowa’s opinion, an option. Unfortunately Heero didn’t agree.
“It’s not going to hurt him.”
“That you know of! You have no idea what will happen if he plugs himself back into that thing!”
“Shut up, both of you!” Wufei glared at them all and carefully got up. Walking looked like it hurt him and he was unsteady on his feet, his sense of balance still skewed but he went to the Computer and he opened a panel on the side, revealing a row of ports. He used the pin to point at Trowa sternly.
“You don’t get to decide what I can and cannot do. That’s mine. And I can do this. You don’t know that, I do. I’m the Origen. I know everything.”
It made Trowa pause and Wufei had known it would, he could tell. Was it really Frank who had said that, or had it been Wufei? How much of Frank was Wufei? To what extent did the Origen dictate what Frank did? How could they ever be sure? But Wufei was right...he was the only one who knew, and Trowa was just going to have to trust him.
He walked over and took the cable from Wufei, ripping it out of his hands before he could even attempt to feebly struggle with him over it and he pointed at the bed.
“Go lie down, idiot. I’m not letting you shove it in the back of your own fool head!”
Wufei’s eyes went wide but Trowa turned away, unable to see whatever emotions he might find there. Instead, he went about connecting the cable Wufei had made, amused to be hotwiring a Computer instead of a car, grateful when Heero tossed him a connector clip to hold it all in place. He surprised himself when his hands were steady, no sign of shaking, as he went back to the bed.
Wufei rolled onto his side, facing the wall and Trowa was just relieved he didn’t have to see his face. He brushed Wufei’s hair over his shoulder and Heero carefully cut away the bandage, revealing the silicone plug that took up much of the space at the top of Wufei’s neck, and the small port there waiting to be filled.
“You asked for this,” Trowa reminded him softly, then he took a deep breath, and pushed it home.
Trowa was relieved when he woke up before the lights came on, and before Wufei woke up and everyone realised he’d smothered Wufei in his sleep. He rolled his eyes at himself and unwound his arms from around Wufei, pulling himself free with dubious care, breathing a huge sigh of relief when Wufei didn’t wake and hurrying to have a much needed shower.
He’d expected to feel worse about having to go back to work, but now that Wufei was awake he felt calmer about the whole thing and he knew his mind had refocussed on the next thing on their list to do; getting out. And, if you were Heero, possibly blowing up Frank. It made Trowa chuckle as he got out of the shower and got dressed in a white suit to wear down to Level 1. He was just doing up the cuffs when the lights came up and he smirked at Heero and Duo as they tried to untangle themselves from each other and the bag.
“Trowa? You’ve been here too long, man, you look happy to be going to work!”
Trowa didn’t bother pointing out that he was happy to be doing something, even if it meant he wasn’t there watching over Wufei. He suspected Wufei would be glad not to have him hovering for even just a few hours of the day.
Duo grumbled and crawled into the bathroom, literally...on hands and knees, kicking the door shut behind him. Trowa chuckled when it didn’t slam, as he had expected.
“Okay, so I need to try and find Hanger 101. You want me to check out anything else?”
“No. I’ll send Duo to look at anything else I think of.”
Dismissed! Trowa would have walked straight out but he had the ridiculous urge to go kiss Wufei goodbye before he went and he had to physically touch the wall to stop himself from doing it. Instead he pushed at the door and it disappeared for him.
“I’ll meet you at the interchange cafe!” He called out to Duo as he left.
He would have been a fool if he didn’t check the shuttle area for the monk, so he did. He even went and checked on his candle but it was gone, swept away at some point in the night, the area cleared for today’s offerings. He hadn’t thought he would see the monk again so soon, and probably not until he found Hanger 101, but he tried anyway.
He gave up before his lingering could be noticed and caught the shuttle down to Level 3, catching the next shuttle to the interchange and going in to the cafe, smiling and waving to Tracey as she served another customer.
“Morning Mister Bloom, I won’t be a minute!”
“I’m not in a hurry, take your time. I’ll just get two of the usual, yeah?”
“Yeah, sure thing! I’ll bring it over.” And she went back to serving the other customers while Trowa went and found a nondescript booth against the far wall where he could see out the window with ease but people walking by would having trouble seeing him.
As promised, Tracey didn’t take long to bring out his coffees and muffins and she looked curiously at the empty seat.
“Your friend’s not coming today? I just assumed he was and made two orders.”
“He’s just running a bit late, that was exactly what I wanted,” he reassured her, smiling at her and tasting the coffee, moaning in appreciation because it really was a good coffee, every time. “It’s great. Thank you Tracey, here...” He fished his card out of his pocket and handed it over so she could charge it.
“You want a coffee to take away as well? Yeah, that’d be great. Make it two?”
“Not a problem,” she agreed, and he noticed she looked a little different to usual, more dressed up. She was wearing heels, and she’d left her hair down with a pretty clip on the side. He didn’t try to disillusion her, because it looked good and maybe someone might actually notice her and take her on a date or ten. She deserved that.
Duo arrived, running into the cafe and waving to Tracey, blowing her a kiss before sliding into the booth opposite Trowa and grinning at the waiting muffin and coffee.
“A man could get used to this.” Trowa supposed Heero didn’t make breakfast very often. Even having someone buy him breakfast had to be a bit of a novelty for Duo. The meal he’d cooked for them the night before had been simple but cooked extremely well, and he imagined Duo had taken up cooking to avoid having to eat whatever rat packs Heero kept trying to replace his meals with.
“I even ordered you an extra coffee to take away.”
“Aww, I’m so touched!” Duo emphasised just how touched he was by biting into his muffin with gusto.
“Wufei awake yet?”
“Nope, dead to the world.”
Trowa sat back in his seat and sipped his coffee slowly, enjoying the warmth of it and the steamy bitterness so early in the morning. The caffeine hit wasn’t anything to sneeze at either and even though he hadn’t felt particularly tired he knew he needed to be sharp today and he had a lot to get done, so it definitely wasn’t going to hurt.
“So what’s Heero got you doing? Rumour mongering?”
“Pretty much. Seeing what’s being said around the place, try and lay some false ones of my own. Wants me to start looking for anything on The Passion Flower as well.”
“From the shuttle? Well, in order it was La Pasionaria, Origen, Trowa Barton. I figure we’ve had the second and third, it’s just the first we’re missing. Heero agreed and told me to see what I could find out.”
Trowa nodded. He’d forgotten about it entirely, and he shouldn’t have but he thought all things considered he could be forgiven forgetting one cryptic message. It was an odd one though, and possibly as impossible to predict as the Origen had, at least he hoped Wufei going for a job interview and getting abducted and forced to be the conscience of a mysterious disappearing self aware colony was impossible to predict, because if it wasn’t and it was somehow a common occurrence life was just never going to be the same again, and he rather liked his life.
“You might want to check the library. There was a Spanish revolutionary centuries ago...they called her La Pasionaria. Maybe there’s a clue?”
“Huh. I didn’t know that, I just knew there was an actual flower called the Passion Flower, so I’ll look them both up.”
Trowa nodded, suddenly not envying Duo the freedom of not having a job. He was still out and about and if they got desperate Trowa knew Heero would go out too, leaving Wufei to hold down the fort. Or just sleep really, since it didn’t really need holding down, though Trowa knew Heero would be just as paranoid as him about guarding Wufei, just in case someone did figure out where he was and came to collect the Origen. Better for Heero to be sitting there with a gun at the ready than hope Wufei woke up when someone barged through the door.
But if he was going to be out, he’d rather it be on Level 1 with the military, keeping an eye on what was going on down there, and getting them the vitals they needed. And solving strange mysteries like Hanger 101. It also helped that he got to pilot a very cool Fighter. Heero hadn’t flown one yet, and he would have totally rubbed it in if he thought Heero wouldn’t try to go enlist just to be even with him.
I won’t stop by here on the way home, not even sure what time I’ll finish today, so I’ll see you tonight,” he noted softly, waving to Tracey to get his take away coffee and card back. She had them ready at the counter as he passed and he didn’t bother looking back at Duo, knowing he was getting ready to head out as well.
He was right on time to work, making a show of sniffling a few times and coughing as he got changed and people gave him a little extra space. They continued to do so as he continued to sniffle all the way to his Hanger.
“Bloom, I thought I told you to stay home!”
“You did Sir, but...I was feeling okay when I got up, guess it just isn’t as out of my system as I thought,” he whined deliberately and the man took pity on him, getting him a blanket from the stores and sending him down to his simulator.
“Turn the heater on in there or something!”
“Yes, Sir!” He hurried down to his simulator, climbed inside and closed the door with a satisfied grunt.
There was little he could do without arousing suspicion, but he did access his flight details and saw he was rostered on for scouting duties in three days time. There was a scouting group in two days marked with a blue star as his original one had been and he guessed that was a satellite run, making note of the time and date.
He waited until lunch time before venturing out, finding his superior officer again and asking quietly if he could go for a walk, to help his lunch settle. The man readily agreed, told him to catch the shuttle and do a few laps or just have a look around, it would do the new guy good to get a better handle on where things were anyway. He even gave him a nice shiny pass in case anyone asked what he was doing.
He took the man’s advice and did a lap on the shuttle first, peeking into each Hanger and making a mental note of what was in it and its dimensions but when he got back to his own there was no unaccounted for space. He hadn’t expected it to be that easy but it meant he had to get off the shuttle and take a walk. He stuck to the outside wall, running his hand along it and occasionally leaning to give the idea he was using it as a support rather than the careful feeling out he was doing, testing the pressure of it and tapping to listen for any clue that a panel was different.
It took hours and when he got back he was no closer to figuring it out than he had been, but the search had left him frustrated and tired. He went back to his simulator and slumped down in the chair, staring at the ceiling and spinning in an anti-clockwise direction. He felt like he was turning the clock backwards, and subsequently was gaining more time and even if it didn’t work it made him feel better about not finding Hanger 101, which meant he could almost put up with the hell Heero was going to give him over it. Not that Heero would say anything, but Heero didn’t really need to say anything, he just had to grunt and turn away and glare at his laptop and you generally felt like a goose. Trowa didn’t like geese; the sound they made was annoying.
He took out his simulation manual and flicked through, looking for anything interesting, just trying to get ideas really, when something caught his eye. An image of the controls in front of him and it wasn’t that anything was wrong really, there was just something nagging at him and he started comparing it to the real thing in front of him.
The buttons were all the same, the controls identical, the joystick even the same make as in the actual SiS, there was nothing amiss but something about it was still nagging him and he had to wonder if he wasn’t coming down for something for real when he finally realised there wasn’t going to be a door into Hanger 101.
Then his stomach started protesting at the mere thought of Molecularization. It still meant he had to find the way in, and he ran the simulator because he could scope out the outside of Frank from the comfort of his workspace, smirking because the manual did stress that the simulator was made from real footage of Frank and the external sensors to ensure that everything they trained with was the real deal. Trowa could certainly appreciate that attention to detail, especially when it made him life so much easier.
He did several laps of the whole colony, but could see nothing externally that would indicate there was an additional Hanger. His internal lap had been slow and calculated and he knew there was no missing floor space. When he flew a lap and counted all the pads they were present and accounted for, no extra Molecularization possibilities.
Except one.
He flew his simulator around to Frank’s nose and parked himself in front of the eye, studying it for a long time. He hadn’t given much thought to the insignia until now, but they still had no idea what it was supposed to mean.
The eye made more sense now they knew about the Origen. The third eye was always associated with the pineal gland and for a long time was considered the seat of the soul; the place where the mind met the body. Did that make the eye the Origen? But it was also the place Frank sucked people into himself, which the Origen had nothing to do with as far as Trowa could tell. And what of the sword cutting through it? Decoration? It had to mean something, he doubted a group of know it all scientists had decided to just randomly cut through the middle of their souls with a blade, unless it was some weird form of Harakiri? He was sure that made even less sense.
Either way, the eye wasn’t telling him anything and he suspected he was going to have to do some research of his own. He was about to give up on the simulator all together when he decided to fly over the top of Frank. Preventers had gotten very few shots of Frank at all, and none of the top. He found it immediately curious that nothing had managed to fly overhead, only underneath where the military could react accordingly.
From above, Frank was a sleek, endless slip of inky darkness. Not a single seam in his exterior was visible though there had to be some. He was beautiful and Trowa sat for a while just staring, awed once again by the sheer size of the endeavour someone had taken upon themselves. It made the Gundams look like child’s play. It left him feeling small and insignificant and he suddenly wanted, very badly, to go home, not to His Room inside Frank, but on solid ground on Earth, in his ridiculous apartment and his stupid body corporate who wouldn’t let him have a pet elephant despite his reassurances he would clean up all its poo and fertilize all the gardens free of charge.
He was leaning towards Heero’s method of things. Blow Frank to Hell.
He gave up his search, admitting defeat. The only ways in and out of Frank were the eye, and the military pads, and none of those led to Hanger 101.
He froze and stared out into the nothing of Space, then dropped back down to stare at Frank’s underside. The military inside Frank was huge, an army all Frank’s own, but they were still running enlistment drives, and Trowa had been put straight through. They needed pilots, which meant there were pads not being used.
“Halle-fucking-lujah.”
He exited the simulator and grabbed the ‘on a walk’ card his superior had given him and went for another walk. He lingered at each Hanger, counting personnel and Fighters, comparing the numbers until he got to Hanger 100 and paused when he saw a lone mechanic working on one of the SiS-50s. A mechanic doing his job was by no means a strange sight, but Trowa had never seen one work alone.
“Hey,” he said softly, wandering over with his hands in his pocket, looking up at the SiS as if her were just admiring it while in fact he was trying to look up its skirt, so to speak.
“Hi! Takin a walk?”
“Um...yeah. How’d you know?” Like it wasn’t obvious by the fact he was wandering around staring at crap with a walk card in his hand.
“You’ve got a free pass,” the mechanic laughed, pointing to the card and Trowa played alone, laughing at his own stupidity and shoving the card in his pocket as if he was embarrassed and hadn’t had the thing out where everyone could see it on purpose.
“She broken?”
“Not sure,” the man grunted, pulling open a hatch in the floor and shoving his hands in, hauling out a mess or wiring that made Trowa cringe. He was suddenly glad Frank had employed him as a Pilot instead of a Mechanic. The homework he would have had to do to get through a day’s work would have left him a zombie and then he would have had to listen to Duo’s bad zombie jokes and likely watch several awful movies.
“It’s a shame...they’re beautiful to fly.”
“Flyboy huh...should’ve guessed. You get that goofy look on your face when you look at them,” the mechanic laughed softly. “She flies just fine, just won’t Molecularize right. Thought it was a DNA fault at first, but everything works just fine far as all the tests can tell. So they thought it was the SiS, but when they put it on another pad, she went out just fine.”
“So it’s gotta be the pad then?” Bingo, finally it only took him all day but he’d found the damn thing and Heero could shove his cold shoulder in someone else’s face.
“I’m thinkin so, but everyone else has just about given up on it. I’m not the givin up type, so I come in here whenever I get a bit of free time and take another look.”
An admirable quality, but curiosity killed the cat and if someone didn’t want the problem solved the poor mechanic was likely to lose his life. Not that Trowa could do anything to help. If he warned the guy it would look suspicious, and if he helped he’d likely meet the same fate. Instead, he just shook his head and told the guy he worked too hard. The man just agreed and Trowa took one last look before walking away, whistling softly under his breath, feeling content with his day’s work.
It still annoyed him that he had to go back and sit in his simulator pretending to work until the clock struck six and the mass exodus from Level 1 began. He found a seat on the shuttle and caught it back out, changing as slowly as he could force himself to and heading back up to Level 3. He paused at the cafe, sticking his head in to say Hi, making sure Duo wasn’t there and ordering a cup of tea to take away while Tracey told him in hushed whispers about the search for something that had been stolen from Level 5. Men in expensive looking suits had apparently gone to every business on Level 3, telling them to keep an eye out for a man with Wufei’s description. Trowa oohed and ahhed in all the right places and on the inside threw the hissy fit of his life. Not that Wufei was thinking of leaving the room anytime soon, but if he’d wanted to go for a walk he should have damn well been able to. But that was never the way it worked. He smiled and thanked her for the tea and hurried out.
He stopped only once more. To go into the temple. The crowds were in, peak traffic lines down to the altar and the various forms of worship so it didn’t look odd that he didn’t line up, but he went to stand in the corner and watch, pretending to pray, just waiting.
The monk came from behind a curtain to the side of the altar. He walked slowly down the side wall and came to stand beside him, looking too serene and comfortable as he surveyed his flock. Trowa idly wondered how much money religious groups made inside Frank. The people were so determined to follow their daily routines exactly, he doubted they ever missed a worship. If all of those people paid twenty cents every time they chose a fortune stick, how much was that alone every day making the temple? Maybe he should audit them. Did anyone ever get audited inside Frank? When was the end of the tax year on an invisible colony? Did you even have to pay tax? Maybe all these people moved here to avoid paying it?
Not likely.
“Long day?”
“Aren’t they all. Was productive though.”
He saw the monk’s lips twitch as if he wanted to laugh but the man just continued to stand there, watching everyone in a way not unlike the way Trowa watched everyone. It made him uneasy. He didn’t particularly like being made to feel uneasy.
“Does the temple pay taxes?”
“But of course!” The monk chuckled but he looked far too serious when he turned to look at him. “Don’t we all?”
He knew. Trowa just laughed and shrugged, not bothering to lie. The monk knew Trowa didn’t pay, somehow knew he wasn’t from there. Maybe from that first bumbling expedition when they’d first encountered one another, or maybe he knew more than that but either way he knew. Trowa contemplated the pros and cons of killing him now, and when he came up with only one pro and a long list of cons decided he had spent far too much time recently with Heero. He couldn’t just go around killing monks in their temple and expect no one to notice.
“I’m actually quite good with them, if you ever need a hand? I used to be an accountant.”
Trowa nodded, getting the message loud and clear.
“That would be appreciated. Thank you.”
“No need for thanks. Everyone needs a friend, eventually.”
Trowa just hoped eventually was still a long time away and was grateful when the monk left, wandering into his flock and talking quietly to those who greeted him. Trowa thought there was no cowardice in turning on his heel and leaving, and it wasn’t fleeing if you weren’t running. Really.
Wufei was sitting up in bed, laptop on his knees, reading. He looked up immediately when Trowa came in, and Trowa fancied the small smile was for him, though it could have easily been for whatever Heero had just said that was making Duo laugh so hard where they were both sprawled on the sleeping bag.
“Did you find it?”
“I think so.”
They were all staring at him, but he didn’t really feel like talking. There was something weird about walking into a room where everyone else had already been talking and you had no idea what the conversation was about. He didn’t like it, and he was tired so he waved off Heero’s glare and went straight to the bathroom. He wanted his five minutes, and to wash of the dirty feeling of being watched that had come over him at the temple. Stupid monk.
When he came out Wufei had moved across on the bed, leaving him room to sit beside him and was watching him expectantly. Trowa was surprised by the offer, unsure of where he stood with Wufei. Not knowing what Wufei wanted and knowing all too well what he himself wanted was driving him half mad somewhere inside that he hadn’t dared to take a good look at yet. But the offer was too tempting and he went over and sat down next to him, looking down at the laptop curiously.
“It’s what Heero’s hacked so far. I’m just...checking it.”
“He thinks some of its inaccurate,” Heero noted bluntly. It was clear he didn’t like it, and Trowa wished he’d been a fly on the wall when the issue had started, but it was equally clear he suspected Wufei was right.
“You think Frank is giving us what information he wants us to have, and not necessarily what information we need,” Trowa clarified and they all nodded. He sighed and slid down lower into the pillows so he could stare at the ceiling. It made sense, of course, it just unfortunately also indicated there was a good chance Frank really was one of the bad guys. Which meant he had to start thinking of a way to evacuate the entire populous so Heero could go bomb-happy.
“So you think you found the extra Hanger?” Duo was wide-eyed and ready for a story. Trowa suspected he just wanted to have a story told to him instead of having to read about it. Had he really had to read that many books today? Did Frank even have a library?
“Yeah. There’s a Molecularization pad that’s apparently faulty. They’ve tried the Fighter on other pads and it goes out just fine, but on this one...nada.”
“Bingo,” Duo agreed immediately. “So how are you gonna get in?”
“I don’t know yet, but I made friends with a mechanic who’s been working on it. Everyone else has given up, so it won’t look odd if I give him a hand.”
“And maybe get as stubborn about it as him and try and work on it a bit yourself as well,” Duo nodded knowingly and Trowa was just grateful to have someone around who thought of infiltration the way he did instead of Heero and Wufei’s approach of ‘blow it open’. Not that Duo didn’t like bombs, but he understood the need to be quiet occasionally.
Very occasionally.
“You were right about the ancient dead Spanish chick,” Duo said. “Other than that, I’ve got the anatomy of the actual flower. Which they do grow here, along with a whole bunch of other stuff. Level 2 has a whole 40 sectors just for agriculture and when I went down and asked about greenhouses they pointed me to Level 5, who have an aviary. There are passion flowers there.”
“So we’re leaning toward the actual flower being the clue,” Wufei pointed out, and Trowa suspected he did it just because he knew Trowa hated when someone pointed out the obvious. He was even smirking.
“Well, maybe,” Duo corrected. “The dead Spanish lady was interesting...she’s famous for the quote ‘They shall not pass’.” He shrugged and Trowa had to agree in their current situation it could mean something, but he also agreed the actual flower growing in an aviary on Level 5 was much more likely.
“So tomorrow I’m being a mechanic and Duo is going to the aviary? Great.”
“Aw, don’t be jealous! I promise, I’ll come back at least half as dirty as you!” Duo grinned and moved into the kitchenette, raiding the cupboards for something to eat and pulling out spaghetti before heading for the fridge. Trowa tuned him out, relieved after last night that he wouldn’t burn down His Room, make too huge a mess, or create something none of them could eat.
“I did find out the next satellite should be brought inside in two days.”
“That’s soon,” Wufei noted. “But fits the schedule I think the system was following. He averaged two a week.”
“Alright. Wufei and I will complete the transmission tomorrow, and Duo and I can attach it when it comes in, since you’ll have to go to work.”
It grated and he scowled at the look on Heero’s face that clearly said he thought he had scored a point, but Trowa couldn’t argue because facts were facts. He had to get into Hanger 101, and they had to lay the transmitter. Heero was just excited because he might get to shoot stuff.
“Only one problem,” Wufei pointed out and they all stared at him. “You don’t know where the satellite will be?”
“Oh yeah,” Duo mumbled at the stove, mixing something in a pot that actually smelt really good. Trowa’s stomach grumbled in response and he put a defensive arm over it when Wufei arched a brow at him. Just because some people got to sit in bed and suck on smoothies all day.
“You know,” Heero grunted.
“No,” Wufei corrected with a frown, but he was looking at Trowa now. “I don’t. But there’s a way I can find out.”
They were all looking at him now and Trowa felt his heart pound harder into his chest when Wufei lifted up something he had been working on. A cable with a fine point needle on the end.
“No!” Trowa refused immediately, entirely on instinct and when his mind caught up with his mouth he only repeated himself. “Hell no!”
“I can plug myself in from here, I won’t be connected to Frank while Nataku is there, I’ll just be able to access his systems! It’s the perfect solution!” Wufei was angry at being so quickly denied, but Trowa suspected he was angrier at himself for being useless to them and was just trying to find a way to help. This was not, in Trowa’s opinion, an option. Unfortunately Heero didn’t agree.
“It’s not going to hurt him.”
“That you know of! You have no idea what will happen if he plugs himself back into that thing!”
“Shut up, both of you!” Wufei glared at them all and carefully got up. Walking looked like it hurt him and he was unsteady on his feet, his sense of balance still skewed but he went to the Computer and he opened a panel on the side, revealing a row of ports. He used the pin to point at Trowa sternly.
“You don’t get to decide what I can and cannot do. That’s mine. And I can do this. You don’t know that, I do. I’m the Origen. I know everything.”
It made Trowa pause and Wufei had known it would, he could tell. Was it really Frank who had said that, or had it been Wufei? How much of Frank was Wufei? To what extent did the Origen dictate what Frank did? How could they ever be sure? But Wufei was right...he was the only one who knew, and Trowa was just going to have to trust him.
He walked over and took the cable from Wufei, ripping it out of his hands before he could even attempt to feebly struggle with him over it and he pointed at the bed.
“Go lie down, idiot. I’m not letting you shove it in the back of your own fool head!”
Wufei’s eyes went wide but Trowa turned away, unable to see whatever emotions he might find there. Instead, he went about connecting the cable Wufei had made, amused to be hotwiring a Computer instead of a car, grateful when Heero tossed him a connector clip to hold it all in place. He surprised himself when his hands were steady, no sign of shaking, as he went back to the bed.
Wufei rolled onto his side, facing the wall and Trowa was just relieved he didn’t have to see his face. He brushed Wufei’s hair over his shoulder and Heero carefully cut away the bandage, revealing the silicone plug that took up much of the space at the top of Wufei’s neck, and the small port there waiting to be filled.
“You asked for this,” Trowa reminded him softly, then he took a deep breath, and pushed it home.