January 23, 2001
Sequel to 'Have You Ever...'
Standard Warnings and Disclaimers apply.
"So we'll hit here, here, here, and here," Jack said, pointing at the four strategic spots on the satellite print out Nita had pulled out. "Got it?"
The three women and three men surrounding the table nodded.
"We'll go in with teams of two," she said, not looking up as the door slid open. "What's our ETA?"
Dev checked her console before replying. "Two forty-six."
"How long do we have once we're in?" one of the men they'd been forced to bring along asked.
"No more than ten minutes," Nita answered. "That's plenty of time to get in, set the charges and get the hell out.
"Any sign of resistance?" another asked.
"No, everyone's too concerned with the war," Nita replied.
"But it's still a good idea to be on alert," Blaire added.
Jack looked up at the newcomer then, still frowning even when Kat nodded in answer to her silent question. "Well," she said, turning back to the rest of the company. "I suggest you get your rest now. We'll meet up in two thirty."
The three men stood, recognizing the dismissal, and left for the quarters they'd been assigned to. Jack waited until the door shut tight behind them before launching into her tirade.
"Why the hell aren't we turning this ship around and taking her back?" she practically screamed. "She has no business being here when we're about to blow up an entire fucking colony!"
"Think about it," Dev shot back. "Which is more dangerous: being here with us where we can at least keep an eye on her...? Or being in the middle of a fucking war?"
"We can't continue to protect her, Jack," Blaire said, her voice sounding soft and fragile against the heated words of her sister. She ran a hand through her short strawberry locks. "She has to grow up sometime."
She felt torn between wanting to protect her sister and needing to carry out their mission. Jack growled with her frustration, whirling to hit the wall--hoping the pain would give her something to focus on other than her split desires. Her hand met with a fleshy palm before it could scrape the cold metal of the ship. She glared at Kat.
"You gotta focus," the younger girl said. "You're no good to us like this; you're no good to yourself, and you're definitely no good to Rini like this."
Jack's shoulders slumped and she sighed, her frustration and tension leaving her with that one breath. "You're right," she whispered, her head falling onto Kat's shoulders as the other girl wrapped her arms around her and held her tight.
'I should go,' he had said after a moment, pulling away from the longhaired boy. Silently he had be hoping the boy would tell he no, that he should stay. He waited for those words or some other sign that the boy at least wanted him a little bit.
It never came.
'You should do what you have to,' Duo had whispered, turning back to the bed, turning away from him.
'Yes, of course," Wufei had replied, wanting to scream, wanting to cry, wanting to drag the other boy back to his room and lock him in there until this entire war was over. In the end he'd just turned away and made his way back to his own, empty room. For some reason, he always had the empty room. Even if they were partnered for some reason or another... He was always given his own room.
Did he frighten the others? Was there something so horribly wrong with him that the others didn't want to be with him?
It was always the same: fall asleep in an empty room, wake up in an empty room. Was that all that life was willing to give him? An empty room? No wife, no family--those simple things had already been torn away from him. Was he also to be denied companionship for the rest of his days?
Maybe those days weren't so many anymore...
His grip on the arm crunch tightened and he pushed the two metal ends together more forcefully then he'd intended, gracelessly knocking his knuckles together. He grunted and re-adjusted his grip on the tiny contraption.
He felt lonely, he realized. Even on this ship where there were literally hundreds of people, he was lonely. Alone. So he had come to this small cafeteria. It had been empty, but at least it wasn't his room. Minutes later Trowa had joined him, tossing him the metal device Wufei was now using. Wufei had shot him a wary look and Trowa quickly demonstrated how the device was used. And then the taller boy had fallen into silence as the arm crunch creaked with each depression.
Wufei hadn't been surprised when the blond member of their team--we're they really a team? Did team members feel lonely?--had joined them. After all, where one was, so followed the other. The two pilots of Gundam 03 and 04 naturally gravitatedtowards one another. No one talked. No one seemed to know what to say, so they all just stayed there in a semblance of comfortable silence.
When the door hissed open yet another time they all looked up, hopeful.
It was like a prayer being answered, Wufei thought.
"Hey, anyone see Heero anywhere?" Duo asked, hanging in the doorway.
She'd almost gotten her head chewed off--if not for being there in the first place, then for lying to Doce back on Peacemillion. The girl had said she was tired and not much in the mood to go sightseeing throughout the large ship. Her sister's friend, Sally, had led them to her own quarters and offered Carina the opportunity to rest while she and Doce checked out the med-unit. The doors hadn't even cooled before she was up and making her way back to the conference room her sisters were in with that cute guy. It had been a cinch sneaking back onto the Shooting Star--after all, it was her ship too so no one questioned her.
Of course, she'd almost screwed herself over by coming out of hiding too soon, but her legs had cramped up from hiding in one of the smuggling compartments and she just *had* to get out. Jack had almost had Dev turned the shuttle around, but Blaire stopped her, saying time was short...
It was the weirdest thing, though. Blair had looked... sad, when the strawberry blonde said that, and Carina didn't miss the look that passed between her blonde sisters. She had wanted to ask her older sister what's wrong, but never had the chance. Jack had ordered her to quarters and told her to stay there until they got to wherever it was they were going. Yeah, they wouldn't even tell her what their destination was. That sucked. What sucked more was that Kat, after 'escorting' her to her own damn room had locked her in.
Carina had banged on the walls and door, shouting to her sisters, but no one answered. She was more than just a little peeved several hours later when the door finally hissed open again.
She jumped up with a start, blinking against the dull light filtering in behind her sister's form.
"We're here," Jack said, some hesitance in her voice.
"Where's here?" Carina countered, crossing the distance between them.
Jack looked stubborn for a minute--as though she wasn't going to tell the younger sibling... and then she sighed. "An old satellite off Lagrange Point 4," she answered, turning and striding back down the corridor towards the rear of the ship.
"Why here?" Carina shot, stepping up to keep pace with her. The dark haired girl didn't answer, and when it seemed like she wouldn't anytime soon, Rini started to repeat the question.
Jack stopped outside the hanger door, her hand on the control panel, her head bowed as if she was carrying a great weight. Around them, the ship hummed. And then the seventeen-year-old looked up, her large dark eyes focusing on the fifteen-year-old golden image of herself.
"We're here to destroy this satellite," she said, her voice dead. Carina gasped, her eyes growing wide. "I'd tell you to stay here," Jack continued, not allowing the girl to get a word in, "but I don't think you'd listen to me, would you?"
Carina glared at her sister, her lips forming into a little pout.
"So you're coming in with me. Stick close, don't touch anything, and be quiet," Jack finished, palming the control panel.
The door slid open with a hiss and Jack stepped through. Carina hesitated for only a second, and then darted after her, the door swooshing shut behind her.
End of Part 26
Andrea Readwolf
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