17-Jul-2000
Title: Shades of Red
Author: Laekin (seregill@aol.com) and bonnejeanne (bonnejeanne@yahoo.com)
Archive: GW Addiction & Darkflame if she wishes
Category: yaoi, angst
Rating: NC-17
Pairings: 1x2, 5x4x3 (or some weird order of the same)
Warnings: Lemon/Limey stuff, later; angst, suspense. Language.
Spoilers: Series, EW but not really
Disclaimer: Gundam Wing characters and universe are the property of the copyright owners. Our stuff is ours. No money being made here. As with all our fics so far, while our goal is to stay as in character as possible, any discrepancies are our mistakes.
Feedback: Any and all comments, feedback, critiques welcome, be they short or long.
Nimitz was an hour and a half drive from the Estate. With Trowa leading they made it in close to 45 minutes. No one challenged them as they came to the security checks, four boys on bikes were pretty obvious and Sally's promise of clearance was coming through. Reporters could already be seen hanging around the outside gates as they drove on through and up to the command bunkers.
A young airman was waiting for them and with a sharp salute led them into the complex.
"Captain Noin is expecting you, gentlemen."
The command center of the complex was fully active with a large vid screen showing multiple camera angles of the shuttle. People milled around, scurrying too and fro. Noin stood leaning over a consol, obviously reading some numbers, then looking up at the shuttle which to an experienced pilot looked like it was burying it's nose at a bad angle.
"They have got to be out of their minds! What the hell were they shooting up there. Jarvis.. I want a complete structural integrity report... NOW."
The young airman cleared his throat a touch nervously and Noin whipped around looking to the four boys and she exhaled.
"Hey guys."
Noin walked over to the four, lowering her voice that was already getting hoarse from shouting.
"I'd love to say it's a pleasure.. but it's not for any of us at the moment. The damn fools capped the pilot and it looks like the bullet... or bullets did some damage to the automatic stabilizers. Now they want to bring the shuttle down through the atmosphere to Earth. I guess they think they can use it to escape with Quint."
Shuttles, though now a common form of transport had one vulnerable area. Re-entry to the atmosphere. Unless using one of the rare *windows* they had to burn down through the atmosphere. The angle had to be exact to put the strain on the specially designed bellies and it was not an easy feat. The stabilizers helped automatically adjust the shuttles pitch and turn... kinda like power steering since it's a bitch to arm wrestle a 10 ton space vehicle through the sky.
"At the moment they are still in space but they're not the most patient people. We're trying to establish radio contact with them." Noin's frustrated expression said clearly just how much success they were having on this front.
"Do we have any idea how many of them are up there?" Wufei asked.
"We think 6 but we're not certain. The shuttle's take off weight is wrong for there to have just been 6 unaccounted for passengers. I think it's more likely there were 8."
Wufei exchanged a look with Heero.
"Where's Quint? Are you having her brought here?" Wufei asked.
At this Noin looked positively disgusted. "The politicians are still fighting over the best course of action on that."
Wufei shook his head. "Noin, if I have to go get her myself I will. Call Sally. Tell her that."
Before Noin could react to this, Heero added, "Tell the terrorists, when you contact them, that you agree to all their demands. Then tell them that in order to get the shuttle down safely, since it's been damaged, you need to get a new pilot and a shuttle engineer on board."
Noin is nodding to Heero and stepping to the communicator when Duo, who has been watching the shuttle with Trowa spoke quietly.
"That's not going to work Heero. Look."
On the large screen they can see the shuttle begin to gracefully turn and its buried nose was starting to lift. There is no doubt that the shuttle was being *piloted* at the moment.
"Quatre," Heero said quietly, with a deep scowl.
"I don't know if he's in control... but he's definitely piloting." Trowa murmured.
Wufei shook his head. "Doesn't matter. We just go in using stealth. Noin, are the scouts ready to go?"
"Yes, Wu..." The rest of her words are cut off by Quatre's voice coming over the loud speakers.
People jumped, surprised, having not expected the shuttle to contact them. In a measured controlled tone that belied not a hint of anything except concern, Quatre was contacting Nimitz.
Well actually he was sort of arguing with someone at the moment. "It is the closest base to this position that has the equipment necessary. *You* are the one insisting on going down, we're running out of time."
A cultured, cold tone answered. "Very well." Then the tell tale click of a weapon cocking.
Taking a breath Quatre begins again. "Nimitz, this is shuttle 543, we need to make an emergency burn through the atmosphere. We're sans stabilizers, I need a visual angle report. Confirm please?"
As Quatre was speaking, Heero moved instantly to the person in the area who had the comm channel to reply and removed his headset, placing it on his own head before anyone could react.
"543, this is Nimitz, confirming. Here is your report..." he said and began giving the information Quatre was asking for, knowing the blond would recognize his voice. No special code needed, Quatre would understand that Heero and the others are there.
There was the... barest hint of a chance in the blonde's answering tone. Still it spoke volumes to the other boys. He knew... and it was helping. With more confidence Quatre began to return information to Heero. With the exception of the stabilizers the shuttle was in good shape.
"...by my count Nimitz we have a 90 second window to get from a 3% tilt to the required 54%. This match with your numbers?"
"Matches perfectly, 543," Heero said. "Is this the shuttle captain? Whoever you are, you have some impressive skills, there."
Though he couldn't be seen a small little flush came over Quatre's cheeks and he had to stifle a giggle. It was inappropriate for the situation but still... compliments from Heero were rare. Quatre began to look for the hidden meaning as he began to struggle with the shuttle.
Trowa had to fight a wince as he could hear the strain in his lover's next words. The shuttle must weigh a ton. "Negative Nimitz, just a spoiled brat who enjoys flight simulators."
There was the muffled sound of an unamused voice and a small struggle in the cockpit and someone yelling. All the while the shuttle on the screen is beginning to level out, slowly... almost painfully slowly. As the altercation stopped, Quatre's voice started up again. "This is a lot more difficult then those simulators. Makes me wish I'd done better than 80%."
Wufei snorted. He glanced at Trowa. "They know they have Mr. Winner up there, but not that they have a Gundam pilot," he said.
"It's good," Heero said off-mike. "If they think he's a rich guy they'll try harder to keep him alive."
Then on-mike, "You are doing great, 543, but try and give yourself another two degrees, you are still not quite in the groove."
Trowa nodded thoughtfully watching as the shuttle began to flame as it hit the atmosphere. His voice quiet, "He's also confirmed 8. I don't think Quatre scored 80% on anything." A small twitch at the corner of his mouth.
Over the speakers, "Acknowledge Nimitz. I'm going to fire the nose thrusters and cut power to the back engines. That should swing us up."
From behind him, again came irate voices, they could hear snippets of conversation.. "... damn... kill engines... we're going... killed!!" Then a cooler tone, icily in control, "Shut up Regis."
"Noin get emergency teams out there," Wufei said. "He'll bring her down but no telling what shape she'll be in."
Duo's arm snaps up towards the screen. "Look! He's dumping fuel."
Sure enough, at the back of the shuttle are twin clouds of shuttle fuel being expelled from the engines.
Trowa takes a step towards the monitors, his brow's furrowing in confusion. Softly speaking. "What is he doing..."
"Preparing to land hard," Wufei guessed.
Trowa nods but Duo moved quickly to a console, beginning to toggle in numbers. The braided boy's eyes were focused, none of the playboy in his face at the moment, all the aspects that made him the pilot he was coming to the fore.
"More specifically... he's preparing to land where *he* wants to. He just cut down the shuttle's range by nearly 500,000 square miles."
Trowa looked to Heero quickly. "Something tells me that *they* don't know what he just did."
Heero shrugged. He wasn't going to say anything that would tip them off.
Trowa... *knew* this but at the same time he was agitated. Quatre was taking a hell of a risk and the green-eyed boy was not happy.
Wufei stepped up close to Trowa and said, for his ears only, "Trowa. He's a Gundam pilot. He knows what he is doing. The safe way would *not* be safe for him."
The tall boy turned a little, looking at Wufei. Though he'd been keeping himself tightly in check a little of his composure slipped in the face of his lover. For Wufei's ears only, "They have a gun to his head Wufei. I can't get that picture out of my mind's eye. You heard them.. they are unstable."
"Don't try to get the picture out of your mind's eye. Keep it there. And remember who he is. The greater the danger, the more precisely he will act. It's what we were all trained to do, and what the war honed to a fine point. He'll make it out of this," Wufei said, his voice low and firm.
Trowa took a long slow breath and then nodded his head, turning to look back at the screen. Sure enough the trick had worked and the shuttle was brought around to the perfect pitch, making it's decent gracefully through the upper atmosphere.
Noin, having waited while Wufei spoke with Trowa, now approached him, speaking softly. "I've got the emergency teams in position. Sally is working on the officials holding Quint."
From the shuttle they could hear the cool, cultured voice speaking. "Very nicely done. Now, cut communication."
"Of course." Quatre answered and there was a moment of silence but instead of the communication being cut, Quatre somehow managed to flick on the cockpit's surveillance equipment. Now sending both visual and audio.
Heero quickly killed the mike and set the channel not to allow any signal back unless it was done from where he was, so that no one would accidentally give away the deception on the ground.
They all looked at the pictures coming through.
There were two cameras. One that covered the majority of the cockpit itself and showed Quatre sitting in the pilot's seat a little disheveled but none the worse for wear. Two men were in the cockpit with him. One sat in the co-pilot's seat and looked decidedly nervous, holding a gun on Quatre. The second stood in the doorway. He was in complete control of himself with hard gray eyes that show a frightening level of intelligence.
The second camera was set in such a way that Nimitz could see the passenger compartment of the shuttle. Not all the men were in view but 3 could be seen holding guns on the frightened passengers who had been corralled together.
The gray-eyed man watched the sky lighten and clouds begin for a moment. Then he looked to the nervous man.
"What's our status, Regis?"
Nervous man seemed to have a hard time taking his eyes off Quatre but he turned and looked at the gauges.
"We're through the atmosphere, Synclair."
"Alright, let's get to Kinba."
The man licked his lips, frowning. "Uh... shit! We don't have enough fuel."
Synclair, who had been turning away to the passenger compartment, looked back. His voice was calm and icy. Very much a soldier's voice. "What do you mean?"
Regis tapped on the gauges and checked auxiliaries then turned back, sweating. "We don't have enough fuel. We have to land in 20 minutes."
Synclair slowly looked over towards Quatre. Measuringly. Quatre watched the man from the corner of his eye. "Bringing the shuttle around and into a forced burn through, took up more fuel than a regular entry."
Synclair looked as if he didn't quite buy this. In fact... it became apparent that the man was no dummy on three counts. One.. he knew this was a load of crap, two he knew he couldn't do anything about it *now* and three... he didn't shoot his most important hostage out of spite.
Heero meanwhile had been using the console in front of him to calculate what landing places would be available within the fuel requirements. Space-faring shuttles could not simply put down in a wheat field, a runway would be needed that could handle the weight of the craft and that would make the choices finite.
Synclair continued to watch Quatre with a gleam of appreciation in his eyes then he turned to Regis. "Calculate where you can land this bird. Preferably... not Nimitz."
With that the man stepped out of the cockpit and up to a man standing just off camera. Close enough still to the secondary camera mikes to be picked up even though Quatre and Regis couldn't hear him.
"Cato, do you have some Contentment on you?" Synclair asked in a tone that makes it clear that Cato isn't supposed to have this item on him but that Synclair will not be angry if the other man's answer is affirmative.
"Mmm.. yeah boss a little. Thought Amanda might.. you know." Came the answer.
"Yes. I need a little bit now. Go burn it into a liquid."
"Right."
Duo, meanwhile had gone still as a statue. His face sheet white and a pen he was holding snapped in his white knuckled hands.
Heero heard the exchange as well and got it. He glanced at Duo and caught the boy's eyes, giving his head a short single shake and throwing a very brief glance back to Trowa.
Contentment was a well-known L2 drug and Duo had had... brushes with it. He looked back at Heero, he wasn't going to say anything, he was going to hope he was guessing wrong. At the same time he gave Heero a very pointed look... wasn't there any way to stop the visual feed?
Heero scowled. He wanted the visual for his own purposes. He frowned at the console. Then he decided on another tactic. He turned to Noin.
"We are out of time for the red tape bullshit," he said shortly. Then he looked at Trowa. "Go get Quint. Now."
Trowa looked as if he wanted to protest but he was used to taking orders, he was comfortable taking orders and it would give him something to *do*, so he nodded shortly to Heero and brushed past Noin, heading out the door, commanding a driver and a car.
Heero looked back at Duo, as if to say, all right?
Duo's jaw knotted but he nodded to Heero, turning away. It wasn't all right. He *knew* what was coming and for the first time since this all started Duo fought his own emotional response. He'd seen what Contentment did and he'd had it used on himself before. He hated to think of his *little brother* being subjected to the stuff. It was bad enough when you "wanted" it... it was... inconceivable to think about if you didn't want it.. weren't expecting it.
Heero jerked the now-useless headset off, dropping it onto the floor and walked over to Duo, taking his face into his hands. He put his lips next to Duo's ear and said, "Is it worse than killing him?"
Duo shook his head a little in the hold of those hands. His jaw still knotted tense and tight. Whispering back to Heero. "No... of course not... it just brings back a lot of memories Heero." Duo's voice was strained.
"Then bring back a few more. Remember who you are and who he is. We do what we have to do. We'll get him back and then we'll deal with the bad memories. Not now." Heero said, his lips still next to Duo's ear. It was as much as he could do in public and a lot more than he'd ever done before with so many people around. He couldn't take time for anything more. He let his hands drop from Duo's face and stalked back to the console, staring at the short list of landing sites as if he could burn through the console with his eyes.
Duo had gotten himself back together and given Heero's cheek the barest of brushes with his own before the other boy drew back. Taking a breath, Duo turned to watch the visual feed from the two cameras, burning the details of features on his memory in case they all needed to go hunting later.
Heero ran through the short list. Nimitz was out. Of the remaining two possibilities, both abandoned airfields from the height of the Alliance's days, the closer of the two was also further from a major population center, and would appear more remote to the criminals. Heero decided that was where they would go. The monitor might allow them to confirm that but just in case, he called Wufei and Duo over with the jerk of his head and simply pointed to the name on the list, and brought up a map of the area relative to where they were now.
Wufei nodded. "We need confirmation but I'm willing to go on your hunch."
Duo studied the map and the name again then he nodded. "It's the most logical point."
Motion back at the visual monitors pulled Duo's eyes back up to the feed from the cameras. His body stiffened but he didn't say anything as the man he guessed was Cato came into view carrying a small syringe.
TBC
Let us know what you think!
Laekin and bonnejeanne
Please send comments to: Seregill@aol.com or bonnejeanne@yahoo.com