Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Wufei's Justice ❯ Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing. Darn, darn, darn!

Wufei's Justice

Chapter One

Sally stared out at the glittering field of stars without seeing a single one. Wufei had finally figured out something was wrong.

Took him long enough.

She could hear him tapping away at his laptop behind her, and was briefly reminded of Heero Yuy. She smiled at the comparison and was about to mention it, knowing he'd growl at her, when she remembered that she wasn't speaking to him, and why. Damn him. Why did he have to be so arrogant and insulting?

The tapping stopped.

"The sensor logs have been tampered with," Wufei said.

Sally whipped around. "What?"

"It looks like some of the logs have been deleted. Someone tried to cover it up, but as you can see, they didn't quite succeed." He turned the laptop toward her.

Sally scrolled through the logs and at first glance they seemed in order, but a closer look betrayed inconsistencies in the time indexes on the logs.

"Damn." A pattern to the discrepancies jumped out at her. "Look, the deleted logs all appear at a regular interval. Perhaps scans of the same sector?"

Wufei moved to watch over her shoulder as she continued to scroll through the data.

"Yes, that's highly probable." He glanced at her, their noses only inches away from each other and she was momentarily distracted by the intense blackness of his eyes. "If you check the data bank logs to see if anything is missing from there, I will try to ascertain which sector the deleted scans are from."

"Sounds good," Sally said, nodding. She would put her personal battle with Wufei aside for now. This was business.

###

She smelled like cinnamon and something else he couldn't quite put his finger on. Wufei found he had to forcibly restrain himself from moving any closer to her in an attempt to identify that mouth-watering scent. His cheek brushed her hair. Silky.

He moved quickly away. What was he doing? They had a job to do, and not the run of the mill data retrieval from a satellite that this was supposed to be, but something far more serious.

For scans to be deleted and the evidence of such action partially covered up could only mean that someone had accessed the satellite with the intent of stealing information. But why? And what information had been taken?

Peace was into its second year. The Preventers had successfully headed off two serious attempts to restart the wars. One, a plan to assassinate Relena Darlian that Heero had discovered and prevented, the other, a rogue scientist and his group of fanatics manufacturing a new weapon that used Artificial Intelligence chips as part of the guidance system, destroyed by Duo in an apparent accidental explosion.

Industrial espionage or someone thinking that the peace was breeding complacency into those who prevented war. Greed. That's all this could be.

But the Preventers were not a complacent organization. And now that all five of the former Gundam pilots were working for them in one capacity or other, their operations had only gotten more in-depth. Quatre with connections to the manufacturing and business communities, Duo with his contacts in amongst the sweeper groups, Trowa and his circus cover that got him into prisons and palaces alike, and Heero's uncanny ability to ferret out information, no matter how well encrypted or hidden gave the Preventers a whole new level of competency. They were a regular spy agency now, filtering out information that enabled them to stifle unrest and uprisings with a speed that was just as good a deterrent as any weapon created.

Wufei knew how well the Preventers functioned, as a front line officer he saw the results day to day.

He went back to the satellite, accessing the scanner memory core, reconstructing as much of the deleted logs as he could. Traces of the logs were still present on the hard drive. Slowly, he was able to piece together several of them, including data on what sector that had been scanned and the results of the scans.

He read the data then read it again. Shit. He hit the activation switch on the VidScreen next to him on the wall.

"We've got a problem."

"I was just going to call you Wufei," Sally said. "You won't believe what I found in the data banks."

"I believe it. After what I just discovered in these scan logs…I believe it. Give me five minutes to download this new information and I'll meet you in the shuttle."

"Roger."

He began the download and waited, fingers itching to tap out the commands that would complete the process. But, a short string of programming code at the end of one of the deleted logs caught his eye. He stared at it, belatedly realizing that it was a parasitic program, activated the moment he reconstructed the log, and it was running. He read the line of code over twice then accessed the satellite's main control computer. It was sending information out via the onboard communication system to an unknown location.

Shit.

Wufei quickly shut down the communication system, but he knew it was too late the damage was done. It was 99.9% certain that whoever erased the logs knew someone had discovered that fact and that the deleted logs had been reconstructed.

He had just painted a huge red and blue bull's-eye on himself and Sally. They had to get away from the satellite. Now.

Time for finesse was gone. Wufei grabbed a screwdriver and attacked the bulkhead around the scanners memory core. He tore away the panel and ripped out the core, grabbed his laptop and everything else he could get his hands on and hurried back to the shuttle.

As soon as he reached the cockpit, he dumped everything on the floor, shoved it under his seat and activated the VidScreen on the control console.

"Where are you?"

Sally's face appeared on the screen, a frown creating a wrinkle between her eyes. "I'm in auxiliary science, still examining the information I retrieved from the data bank on the satellite. What's--?"

"Well get up here. We're leaving."

"Why? What happened?"

"I'll explain everything as soon as you get here. Hurry."

Sally entered the cockpit running. Wufei had already disengaged them from the satellite and started the drive system. She sat down in the co-pilot's seat.

"What course do you want to set?" she asked with quick glance.

Wufei pulled up the list of what was nearby.

"One of Quatre's new mining projects is close. Let's head for that."

Sally nodded her finger's flying over the controls. "Course entered and set."

"Firing engines." Wufei depressed the button to get them under way. He turned to Sally. She was staring at him an unreadable expression on her face. Waiting.

"I found a parasitic program at the end of one of the reconstructed logs. By the time I noticed it, it had already activated the communications system onboard the satellite."

"Damn," Sally said. "Do the logs give any indication of who did this?"

"None so far, but I didn't have time to examine them in any detail. How about the data banks, anything there."

"Quite a bit, but none of it good. There's data missing all over the place, going back more than a year."

"What kind of data?"

"Traffic, communications, and, of course, the scanner logs."

"We need to call this in."

"Agreed."

"I'll start looking through the scan logs for evidence of who's behind this, you contact Heero. Use an encrypted channel."

Sally nodded, already beginning the encryption process as he left the room with the memory core.

Wufei wasted no time in hooking the core up to the shuttle's main computer. He typed in a command that would begin a high-level search and reconstruction of the entire memory core. Once completed it should provide the information they were looking for.

He made his way back to the shuttle's cockpit.

"And we're headed to a small manufacturing facility owned by the winner corporation," Sally was saying to Heero, she looked over her shoulder at Wufei as he entered.

"Heero, I've initiated a complete reconstruction of the scanner logs. We should know what sector those logs were from shortly," Wufei said taking up a position behind Sally.

"Good," Heero said. "We'll see if we can find anything out about this from our end. Heero, out."

"Hmmmm," Sally hummed deep in her throat. "Something about this whole thing feels wrong. Parasitic programs take time to insert, and this one was placed into a log fragment, not even a complete file." She turned to stare at him. "It doesn't make sense."

Wufei's stomach dropped down into his shoes.

She was right. It didn't make sense for anyone to insert a parasitic program into an incomplete file that had been deliberately deleted.

"What have I done?" he whispered, thinking hard, staring at a spot in the middle of the air.

"Wufei…what--?"

But Wufei had no time to answer her questions he had to stop the shuttle's computer from completing the task he had ordered it to do. He ran to the auxiliary science station and yanked the cable connecting the satellite's memory core to the computer.

"Wufei, what's wrong?" Sally yelled following him.

"I've made a grave mistake." He threw the cable on the floor violently. "You were right there was no reason to have a parasitic program in that file fragment, unless it's primary function was to infect other systems."

"Oh no."

"Yes. It's already in the shuttle's computer."

"The communication system!" Sally burst out. "Could it activate--?"

"Yes! Quickly!"

Sally turned and ran to the cockpit, but it was too late. A short burst of digital data was already being transmitted in a repeating loop.

"Who ever planted that parasite has our exact position and heading," Wufei said, slamming a fist on the console.

"But why?" Sally looked confused. "To what purpose?"

"I don't know. But, I won't sit idly by while someone hunts us down."

"What do you mean? This is one of the fastest ships in space?"

"Speed cannot defend against multiple attackers."

"What?" Sally demanded incredulous. "How do you know more than one craft will attack us? " She crossed her arms and glared at him. "How do you know anyone will?

"A program that sophisticated wasn't put there by accident, it was deliberately planted. This is all one giant trap."

"Trap? For us?"

"For a Preventer, any Preventer. We're the only ones retrieving information from these satellites."

"But Wufei-"

"We have no time to discuss this, woman. We must get away while we still can."

"Get away, as in abandon ship?" At his nod she asked, a small smiled on her face. "You're not going to stay and fight?"

"I have not given up, woman!" How dare she imply that he was a coward! "Staying here and doing nothing would be the cowards' way, whereas I intend to win this battle through superior strategy."

Sally raised one eyebrow.

"In other words, you're going to try and cheat."

"Yes." Wufei made direct eye contact with her. "As you well know, all's fair in love and war." He smiled, showing his teeth. "So, of course, I will cheat."