April 2001
It had been fifteen minutes in the cell. It had taken neither more than a split second to register the hiss and snick of the air vents closing out. Anyone colony-born KNEW sounds like that. Usually measures like that were in place, and alerted you to a breech somewhere. Most people would prefer being locked airtight and wait for rescue teams than hard vacuum. But this was no disaster. Both had a pretty good idea that there was no breech or automatic security measure.
"Didn't think this was Une's style," Duo commented, staring up at the closed vents. He had a vague hysterical need to do some damage, but kept the futile impulse under in hopes of conserving oxygen.
"It's probably not," Wufei commented. His eyes were closed and he was leaning against the far wall, his legs crossed in a lotus style. "She is more the type for public executions."
"Heh, boy do I know that." Duo snorted. "What a lousy way to go. I mean I've got all these things I want to know."
Curious ebony eyes turned to meet violet. "Like what?"
Duo seemed startled by the question. With a little twisting, he managed to wipe the sweat that had beaded on his brow. "Um like why all clouds, if you stare at them long enough, look like alligators, normal alligators, hole-y alligators, mutant alligators...."
The Chinese boy twitched. "I was being serious, Maxwell."
"So was I!" Duo grinned. "Philosophy, physics, all that rational stuff... Well, if I wanna know the answers, I can get some stuffy old guy's opinion on that matter and that's it. There are other wonders worth having. A textbook will tell me how clouds form, why the wind shapes them, but not ONE mentions why they all look like alligators."
This brought a brief chuckle from Wufei and an answering smile from Duo. For a while, only the sounds of heavy breathing broke the silence that should have been filled with the hiss of life support. After a while, Wufei spoke up.
"I have a less than rational wonder myself."
Duo seemed to perk up from his slouch, looking over at his companion.
It took a little maneuvering, but Wufei managed to remove a thin metal circle from a hidden pocket within his silk pants. It was thin enough to have passed the weapons search, or had just been considered harmless.
The ring itself was a faintly golden color, pocked with the lines of modern minimicrochips. The sharp, right angled lines carved into the ring occasionally glowed as they caught the light. Trapped in the center of the ring was a mass of metal pieces. A nimble finger passed over a section of sensors and the black metal shards sprung into the air and away from each other, spinning in a chaotic cyclone without ever leaving the perimeter of the golden circle.
Duo wasn't just familiar with it, he remembered building it.
"Wow, you kept that?" he asked, watching the motion of the pieces.
Wufei regarded the other with curiosity. "You didn't think I would?"
"Heh, I admit to wondering a bit." Duo shrugged. "You didn't seem too impressed at the time I gave it to you."
"At the time," Wufei confessed, "I was a little too surly to deal with puzzles."
"Puzzle?" Duo blinked. He was pretty sure his overactive imagination was at work, but he already felt like air was short. "Maa, well it is.... and it isn't. You've got to know what it is, then it's really easy. Almost common sense even."
Wufei turned the metal circle base module over in his hands, the pieces above it whirred and zipped around, both spread apart and contained by the each componant's magnetism. "It's a magnetic puzzle. A child's game." Wufei said, glancing over at Duo. The American hadn't lost his grin, but had tilted his head, eyes serious and studying. Somehow, it was enough to let him know that he was missing the point.
"Do you remember what I said when I gave it to you?" Duo asked, casually.
Wufei shook his head. "It was in English. My own studies in the language are.... bare. I was only beginning in the language when I was called to fight by honor."
"Oh," Duo looked downcast a moment. "That was the hint to decode it. You didn't get anything at all?"
The Chinese boy concentrated, rocking back slightly in his cross-legged position. If nothing else, he wished the bar on the cuffs were a little more accommodating with movement. His elbows were starting to ache. Then again, if they were more accommodating, Duo'd have had them both out of there the moment they'd realized that the vents had closed.
"The last word, friend I think it was... no it was plural..."
Duo's grin was beaming. "Then you've got all you really need. Honestly, that's the key to the puzzle."
"What does friends have to do with magnetism." Wufei asked, glancing at the pieces dancing around in the ring. There was no pattern to it at all. At least in the usual children's toys there was something; if you stared at it long enough, a single manipulation that became apparent and the pieces would form a little picture or something rewarding. He'd tried all of the usual tricks with no luck, before he'd finally pocketed it, marking it off as a strange minded prank from the tricksterish pilot.
"It has everything to do with it. It's the art of opposites and likes." Duo scooted over to Wufei's side as he talked until he was directly across from him. The vaguely glassy look in normally sharp violet eyes was an indication of how far the room's air had been depleted, as if the bad taste of it wasn't indication enough. "There doesn't ever seem to be anything binding them together you know. Maybe a few common interests, the poles, but that's also the same thing that keeps them at a distance.... still they never leave the ring."
"But the real thing happens," Duo grinned. With as much of a flourish as he could manage, he lifted both hand and pushed an index finger straight into the center of the fray. "When you apply just a little pressure."
The slow entrance of the finger reset the magnetic equilibrium, and almost with a frantic determination, the metal pieces slammed together forming familiar Japanese symbols floating serenely in the air, blocking any further advance from the invader. He knew the magnetism of the pieces were strong enough that even a hammer couldn't scatter the formation again, unless Duo withdrew.
It was the message, written out in the symbols that drew his attention though.
"Think of where Man's glory
Begins and ends,
And I'll tell you My glory
Was that I had such friends."
"It rhymes rather nicely in English..." Duo apologized quietly, flopping onto his back. The boy had somehow managed to capture the end of his braid with his restricted hands and was fiddling with the tip.
Staring at the floating symbols, it took the Chinese scholar a few moments to organize his thoughts again. "How long did this take you?" he whispered.
"Um.... two weeks to work up the guts to ask Heero to help me with the kanji. I feel like an idiot about getting worked up about that, really. He just thought it was great when I explained it. Well, he never said as much, but the 'hn' was a lot softer than usual."
Through the disconnected feeling that had seeped in, Duo knew that he was babbling. Concentrating, Duo pulled himself back towards the question. "Three days in the actual mechanics... I've always been good at that you know." Duo turned away from his preoccupied fidgeting, glancing at Wufei quickly, then back to the tuft of chestnut hair being ran through deft fingers. "Figuring out the puzzle myself, though, that was about 15 years."
"I'm honored..." Wufei said. "Knowing you is an unexpected gift." With a deliberate reverence he released and pushed at the point at the center, watching the magnetic pieces skitter and orbit each other, then seem to zoom back into formation. He glanced up over the 'child's toy' at Duo. The American seemed to be struck into an embarrassed silence, not used to the sentiment offered him by the pilot of Shenlong.
As he noticed the black eyes on him, the American transformed into the jester again, a half smirk on his face. "It's nothing," he said.
/Iie,/ Wufei thought, but didn't contest it. They both knew the truth of it. With a deliberation he stretched himself out, focusing inward to slow everything down but his awareness. It would buy them a few minutes. Maybe...
Somewhere in the distance, he heard Duo complaining about what a boring way to die this all was. He felt his lips twitch an involuntarily fond smile. He knew somehow, that they'd get out of there, that the few minutes would be enough, and despite his complaining, Maxwell would be trying to conserve oxygen too. The others were still outside. It would be enough.
After all, all it takes is a little pressure.
OWARI
The poem within is by W.B. Yeats. (I only wish I could write that!)
Please send comments to: Nixerchan@aol.com