Neon Genesis Evangelion Fan Fiction ❯ Stargate: Evangelion ❯ Chapter Three ( Chapter 3 )

Heat rose in curling waves from the long runway at Nellis Air Force base, a watery edge to the arid desert landscape. The deception of moisture, the ever-present mirage could turn desperate men’s minds into empty husks-And lure unsuspecting travelers to a very dry demise.

But here on the air base, the true danger came from works of man, not of nature.

The roaring of turbofans signaled the touchdown of the transport jet, a massive flying wing that descended like a hot air balloon, sailing more than flying in for a landing. The massive craft was followed by another, falling into line with more grace than the large size of the aircraft suggested. They slid gently the last hundred meters into the air base proper, the hangars their destination. Both came to rest only a few dozen meters from the waiting personnel.

“Damn… What are they? Blimps or flying wings?” Asked Jack O’Neill, the aircraft pilot within him perking up at these new machines. General O’Neill smiled slightly by him.

“Little of both, actually,” explained Carter. “Their wings are made up of hundreds of honeycomb-like cells. About half of them are filled with fuel, while the other half can be filled with helium, with allows the aircraft to have the advantages of both an airship and a jet.” The blonde smiled slightly. “The engineering difficulties alone are staggering! The materials required and the computer control, along with the required fuel…” Carter quickly descended into reducing the logistics of the aircraft before her to numbers and variables, something that had led both O’Neills to automatically going into ‘screensaver mode’ when they couldn’t understand a word she was saying. Daniel smirked at the glazed-over look appearing in both O’Neill’s eyes.

Guess he was lying about how her techno babble was sexy.

He then noticed the drool coming from the corner of Jack Jr’s mouth. He grimaced.

On the other hand…

---

“And I’ve read all your papers, Dr. Carter! Your theory on quantum displacement within a wormhole was fascinating!”

“Really?” Samantha Carter was a bit taken aback by the Second Child, Asuka Sorhyu Langley’s, enthusiasm regarding her scientific endeavors. On the transport to the Pacific fleet rendezvous, she’d overheard some of the crew’s comments regarding the “German bitch.” But so far, the red-headed girl had been nothing but adoring, polite and inquisitive towards the blonde colonel.

Probably not used to dealing with kids. “I mean… I thought you were a psych major…” Asuka shook her head with a smile.

“Yes, but I also took a year of theoretical physics, and I did a few reports on your work. The ‘quantum foam’ phenomenon was particularly intriguing. I always wondered how you came up with the numbers for it.” Asuka smirked slightly.

“If anything… The struggle to get top secret clearance was worth it just to get to see what you’ve been working on. And, well…” The girl looked out the window of the transport, and Carter followed her gaze.

The other flying wing was visible in the porthole, and underneath it, in the hands of the inactive Unit 04, was the Stargate. Underneath their own plane was Asuka’s Unit 02, but they couldn’t see it from here. Carter smiled softly.

“Yeah…” Both pairs of blue eyes met.

“Do you think I could go on a mission? With you? When we get there, of course.” Asuka’s smirk was more pronounced. “First Eva pilot to go through the Stargate.”

“Well, I’ll have to ask the general. But, I don’t think there’d be a problem,” Carter explained with a slightly wider smile. Asuka returned it, then grimaced as her gaze turned towards the front of the cabin.

“Ha! You call that a course correction? I’ve seen mice in RC drones do a better job than you!” Jack Jr., apparently extraordinarily bored, had taken to tormenting the pilots, who were grimacing and trying, resolutely, to ignore the boy.

“What a show off… I bet he hasn’t flown a plane in his life,” Asuka snorted. Carter hid a smile.

“Feh… Stupid jerk. I’ll just have to beat him down in combat with my Eva. I’ve been training for nine years to fight the Angels… I can’t wait to see him choke in our first battle,” Asuka grinned viciously. She noticed Samantha Carter coughing violently next to her.

“Are you all right, Colonel?”

“Um, hem, sure… Just… Something in my throat,” Carter explained, fighting down another wave of laughter.

---

“Sempai?”

The faux-blonde looked up from her lab notes, to her assistant, Lieutenant Maya Ibuki, who was looking over the nearby computer station.

“Yes, Maya? What is it?” Ritsuko got out of her seat and came to her apprentice’s side. Maya pointed at some of the data she was reviewing, brightly colored chromosome maps. In particular, the lieutenant’s digit traced down a neon green sequence of genes.

“I’ve been looking over the data we got from the SGC two days ago?” Ritsuko hummed in acknowledgement. The paperwork on her desk was just a small sample of the enormous amount of information the interstellar forays of the Stargate Command had yielded on genetics, medicine, life enhancement, and biology, to name only a few fields.

“In particular, I was looking over the sequences on the so-called ‘Ancient Technology Activator’ gene, or ATA.” Maya magnified the sequence, a few numbers running down the screen in furious analysis.

“And…?” Ritsuko prompted.

“I was using the new subroutines to scan the genetic structure of the pilots for any anomalies we couldn’t detect before… And I found something odd.” Maya clicked a few keys, bringing up two smaller windows with chromosome maps as well. On the tops of the windows were the labels Ikari, Shinjiand Ayanami, Rei.

“Both pilots have the ATA gene?” Ritsuko asked, frowning. Maya nodded.

“I didn’t think much of it, until I ran the same scan on the data from the Marduk Institute’s sampling for the selection of pilots.” More windows appeared, all with various labels of names on them. Ritsuko’s frown deepened.

“They all have the gene,” she murmured, the same sequence in each window. Maya clicked through a few more windows, demonstrating that indeed, the archaic genetic code of the extinct race survived in every child of at least 14 years of age the Institute had surveyed.

“What else did you find?”

“The gene was not found in any children above 14 years of age… Except in Jack O’Neill Jr., the general’s son, who is 15. And the general was proven to already have the gene.” Maya cycled through a few more windows. “Previous studies that the SGC conducted indicate that, on average, only 4 to 5% of any population should have even the dormant form of this gene. The Atlantis expedition, for instance, had the largest purposely assembled population of ATA positive adults- but it was only a couple dozen out of a thousand or two.” Ritsuko narrowed her eyes.

“But suddenly, every child born after Second Impact is demonstrating the active version of the gene?” Maya nodded, licking her lips uneasily. Ritsuko murmured something under her breath.

“Sempai?”

“Maya… I’d like you to scan the DNA samples from all the staff members here at NERV. Look for this gene. I’m hoping that-” The screen flashed an angry red warning. Information classified TOP SECRET. Requires Clearance Level One-Gold to proceed.

Maya looked at Ritsuko, confused.

“Sempai?” Ritsuko cursed under her breath.

“I can’t access it…”

“But I thought your clearance was-”

“It’s Level One. Level One-Gold is reserved for the Commander, and the Commander only,” the bottle blonde grumbled. The lithe brunette was confused.

“Why would-?” Maya stopped at Ritsuko’s harsh look.

“Just… Forget it. I’ll talk to the commander about this…”

“Something else…” Maya began uneasily. “I ran the same scan on the Evangelions…”

“They have the gene too?” Ritsuko guessed. Maya nodded.

“… What does this mean, Sempai?”

“I don’t know,” Ritsuko lied. Gendo, what the hell have you been hiding from me…?

---

Shinji Ikari grimaced at the downblast from the helicopter’s rotors, his eyes crinkling at the wind tearing at his eyes. With a slight push from Misato, he headed out onto the flight deck, the wind dying down little by little with every step away from the helo.

“Hey! Come back here!” He looked up as Touji ran across the deck, chasing his hat, the special one he’d gotten just for Misato.

It fluttered and danced in the air, before finally coming to a stop in front of a pair of white shoes. Touji blinked, before looking up at what was attached to those shoes… And the long, lightly-freckled legs… Leading up to a pair of pure white panties underneath a yellow sundress, which connected to-

“PERVERT!” POW! Touji was sent head over heels by the force of the punch, grimacing at the feet of Shinji, Misato, and an enthusiastically filming Kensuke.

“Wow! She just belted him!” The military otaku enthused, filming the fuming girl’s angry face.

“WHAT WAS THAT FOR?” Roared Touji, getting to his feet with fury burning in his eyes. The girl scoffed.

“That was the price for the view. A very exclusive view, I might add, you pervert!”

Misato smiled wryly.

“Nice to see you too, Asuka, dear. You’ve grown a lot since the last time I saw you.” Asuka flipped her hair back under her wide-brimmed sunhat, and smirked.

“I have… So, who’s the Third Child?” Shinji coughed hesitantly, while Kensuke pointed at him. Asuka’s keen eyes ran over the Third, a scowl forming.

“You? Well… You’re certainly nothing to look at,” the redhead sneered.

“You want something to look at? Here!” Touji growled, pulling down his pants and boxers. Shinji and Kensuke turned away, grimacing, while Misato fought down snickers. Touji found his act of defiance sending him crashing into the flight deck by way of Asuka’s fist once again.

“PERVERT!” Slap! Slap!

“OW! Hey!”

“What’d we do?” Shinji winced. Asuka stuck up her nose.

“C’mon, the stupid captain wants to see you.”

“Really have a way with visitors, don’t you, Sorhyu?” Laughed a voice in American-accented Japanese over the flight deck. Asuka and the others turned towards the source of the voice, the redhead scowling at the speaker-A short, dark blond-haired boy with a grin on his face.

“None of your bees wax, Fourth!” The boy sighed, shaking his head and muttering to himself, before he closed the last few feet between himself and Misato’s little group. He held out his hand.

“I’m Jack O’Neill… Jr., that is. Fourth Child.” Shinji blinked a little at the Western expression, before Jack coughed and withdrew it.

“Oops, forgot…” He bowed respectfully, a smaller smile gracing his face in place of the broad grin he’d had. “Pleasure to meet you. That harpy over there is the Second Child, Asuka Langley Sorhyu.”

“Who you calling a harpy, jackass?” Demanded Asuka, snorting. Jack held up his hands.

“Sheesh, would you relax? Did we really have to go when you started your-”

“Don’t start, Fourth! Or I’ll tell Colonel Carter where her missing panties went!”

“Like you have proof! You probably took them yourself!”

“WHAT?!”

“These… Are the new pilots?” Shinji asked numbly. Misato sighed.

“Great. Four temperamental teenagers are all that stands between us and total annihilation…” She grimaced as the bickering between the Second and Fourth Children escalated in volume over the wind running down the flight deck.

---