29-Mar-2004
Title: Tetractys
Author: Sol, but archived as Zefyr on FF & MM
Chapter 08 "Yesod, IV" --- ONGOING
Story Started: 21 Dec 2003
Genre: Semi-AU, AU-in-AU, Drama, Sci Fi
Pairings: Wait and see.
Rated: R for the time being
Archived: fanfiction.net and gwaddiction.com
Warnings: Violence, language, adult situations, butchered scientific theory
Archiving: Ask permission for each story separately, please.
Critiques: Always welcome, especially constructive.
Meiran lowered the headset, her expression troubled, and studied the door of the small cabin before getting to her feet. Shutting off the communications device, she dropped the headset on the small ledge, and opened the door that led into the main cockpit. Wufei and Quatre were chatting quietly as they reviewed the flight plans, and making small adjustments against the systems. They were flying low over the ocean, to remain below radar, and it necessitated vigilance because they'd have little warning if other shuttles were in the same airspace.
"Take it up to a clear level," Meiran said, sliding into the seat behind them. "I need to talk to you two."
"You should be sleeping," Quatre replied. He didn't turn around.
"This is more important," she told him, her tone brooking no argument. When neither said anything, she sighed. "Please. I... I need to know. I can't go into battle with you if I don't trust you."
"What have we done to make you distrust *us*?" Wufei said, also without turning around. His voice was thick, as though he were struggling to hold something back. "We're not the ones who basically tricked us into falling through a space-bend to end up here, with no information and no warning."
"And fewer answers once we arrived," Quatre muttered.
"It's not like you're a walking bundle of answers, yourselves," Meiran retorted. "I just talked to Doro... your team mates left just after us... and there was an altercation in the shuttle bay."
"Altercation?" Quatre was silent for several minutes, and Meiran watched as the two men shared a look. Wufei shook his head, then, and Quatre frowned. His fingers tapped on the console for a second, and Wufei was quiet before nodding once, curtly. Quatre spun his chair to face Meiran. "What else happened?"
"They determined there was a bomb on the shuttle. Killed a man in cold blood, and defused the bomb," Meiran said, flatly. "What do you mean, what else?"
"Oh, that," Wufei replied. His shrug seemed excessively nonchalant to Meiran's eyes, however, and he didn't turn around. "We know."
"How do you know? There's been no communication with base until I spoke to Doro," Meiran said. "I've been watching the lines." The two men didn't answer, and she frowned, pressing the issue on instinct. "Tell me. I won't be happy about keeping silent if that's what you prefer, but I need to know. You can trust me, but I... I can't fight at your side unless I can trust you, too."
"I know we can... " Wufei hit several switches and the shuttle gained altitude. His eyes narrowed, studying the skies, and he hit another switch. The shuttle leveled off, and he swung his seat around to look at Meiran. "I know we can trust you."
"You can?" Meiran was too startled to continue her original series of questions. "You... " She shook her head. "I'm sorry. Sometimes I forget you're nothing like the Wufei I knew, and then you go and say something that reminds me again."
"I know," Wufei said, and his smile was tired, but genuine. "I know. And I know I can trust you, because I know you're speaking the truth."
"And I know you're scared," Quatre added. "But more than that, you're angry that you might be blindsided by our secrets."
Meiran raised her eyebrows, looking back and forth between the men. "Are you saying... you can... "
"I can tell when someone's speaking the truth, or has malicious intentions," Wufei said, his eyes not quite meeting hers.
"Empath," Quatre said.
"Oh." Meiran considered that for a second, and nodded slowly. "And Heero... or Duo? One of them can move things telekinetically."
"Heero." Quatre leaned back, and ran a hand through his hair. The white-blond strands fell back down in his face, masking his blue eyes. "Duo... he's a pre-cog."
"Sees the future," Meiran whispered, then raised her head. "Trowa?"
"Minds." Wufei shrugged. "Reads the surface thoughts."
Meiran flinched, despite herself. "So is that why he... " She remembered the huddled shape, cringing as she stepped in the room, and Duo's angry look. Protective, and almost possessive, guarding Trowa viciously. Meiran shuddered, her tone softening. "It must be hell, for him... for all of you. To be around people, like you have been since you got here."
Quatre looked surprised. "Actually... yeah. Normally, when we're not on a mission, we're isolated."
"Isolated? Physically, or emotionally?"
"Yes." Wufei rubbed his forehead, and turned around to check the instruments again, his voice slightly gruff. "We... being around other people can sometimes be difficult, especially if people are tense. They tend to consider all their options, which hurts Duo, seeing all the possibilities. And they move too quickly, which throws Heero off." Wufei's voice dropped lower. "And they think too intently, too loudly, which gives Trowa headaches. Their fear and alarm gives Quatre muscle cramps and stomach pains... "
"And you?" Meiran leaned forward, intently. "What about you?"
"In the palace," Wufei said, his fingers running along the edge of the console, "everyone is always a little worried, guarding themselves, wondering whether they'll be to blame if something goes wrong. Lies, around us, all the time. Always smiling faces, and lies... "
Quatre made a muffled clicking sound with his mouth, and Wufei frowned, looking away. Quatre's eyes narrowed, staring at Wufei, and Meiran shifted in her seat.
"Stop that," she said. "You're doing something." Quatre's expression turned puzzled, and Meiran gave him an exasperated look. "Don't even try to pull that on me. I'm a mother. I can also tell when someone's holding back on me, if you didn't know."
She was startled when Quatre laughed, a bright sound, throwing his head back. He quieted, the laugh fading into a chortle, and his blue eyes were merry as he gave her a measuring look. "We have implants. Microphones in our jaws, which have a two-mile radius, and cochineal implants... Treize installed them, years ago. They need tweaking every now and then, but we've gotten used to our own codes, to speak when we don't want others to know."
"Why not just ask Trowa what each other's thinking?" Meiran attempted to look casual about the question.
"He can't." Wufei adjusted the shuttle's altitude, bringing them down a bit. "Those three... what their abilities can't impact each other. Just like I don't know when Quatre is lying, and he doesn't know what I'm feeling."
"That doesn't make any sense." Meiran frowned. "Wouldn't those be useful, as team mates?"
"No, we'd go insane." Quatre leaned back, crossing his arms. His expression was less guarded, and he seemed more relaxed, suddenly. "We nearly did, the five of us, at first. No breaks, no escape. Trowa was catatonic, Duo screamed until his vocal cords required reconstructive surgery, Heero destroyed everything, unable to control---"
"The breaking point was when Quatre went into a coma," Wufei interrupted. "That's when Treize had his scientists get back to work, and came up with the buffer."
"Buffer?" Meiran looked back and forth between the two men. "Like... a barrier?"
"We share each other's abilities, to some minor extent," Quatre said. "That's the simplest explanation. Makes us impervious. If you asked Duo to say what would happen to Heero or Trowa in the future, he couldn't. They're big dark spots in his vision, but he could see what will happen around them, and the impact they'll have, if he followed a thread of someone near them. For us, Duo says it's the hint of a shadow."
"And you, with them... ?"
"It takes a lot, to go past the surface," Quatre admitted, his lips curling in a crooked smile. "But we've known each other for almost ten years. For the most part, we can both read those three pretty well."
"For the most part," Meiran repeated, a little skeptically.
Wufei surprised her, grinning over his shoulder at her. "Yeah," he said. "But we all know how to hide from each other, if need be. To really read each other, we have to be in direct contact. We can push past the barriers when we need to."
"At the same time, being in direct contact cuts us off from everything else," Quatre said, and his eyes were steady. "That is the one thing we would prefer you not say, except to those you would trust with your life. That's our weakness, that we have to shut off the stimuli, or we risk going insane."
Meiran realized the depth of his sincerity, despite the even tones. She remembered Trowa's whimpers, and Duo's protectiveness, and Heero's barely-controlled fury. She nodded slowly, trying to express the seriousness with which she treated his polite request. "Those three... when I heard Duo yelling, and I stopped at their room---"
"Those three slept separately, last night," Quatre said, exhaling, the tension leaving his body in a controlled rush. "That meant they were open and exposed."
"Sounds like a stupid thing to do," Meiran muttered.
"That's what I said," Wufei commented. "But they... "
He shook his head, and Meiran noted the stiffness in his shoulders, and decided she wouldn't follow that line of questioning. Instead, her mind took a different route. "I don't know anyone who can do any of that," Meiran said, quietly. She studied the sky outside, the coming sunset as they traveled west, across the open waters of the Pacific. "In your universe... "
"No," Quatre said, his lids lowered. "Treize did it all. Maybe we had the beginnings of the abilities, for there to be something. His scientists spent a year experimenting, but we were the only ones who survived."
"He wanted an army of unbeatable soldiers, who'd know when someone was lying, could choose the best based on knowing everything around them... " Wufei shook his head. "One of those few things that makes me still believe there might be a God, was the discovery that people can only handle one ability at a time. And those few who can even handle that are far and few between."
"Why you five?"
"No idea, really. Possibly due to something the scientists did to us, while training as Gundam pilots."
Quatre gave her a lazy smile, and Meiran couldn't help the fact that her heart skipped a beat as once again she was reminded of just how dangerous the man could be. Quatre, as a boy, had been polite, but preoccupied, troubled. Quatre as a man, as *this* man, she told herself, was lethal, but still charming, and damn gorgeous, too. She wondered what her own Quatre would've been like, had he lived. A thought struck her that she was the only pilot who'd been trained for the Gundams, who was still alive in her universe. She pushed it away, at the same time as she fought back a yawn, feeling exhaustion creeping up on her. She decided to push forward while the men were still in a talkative mood.
"So... Duo saw the future, Trowa found the person thinking about the bomb, and Heero defused it?"
"That about covers it," Quatre said, amused. "Trowa said they scared the shit out of most of the people there, but at least they were left alone on the shuttle."
"Blew their cover, too," Wufei muttered. Quatre shot Wufei a quick glare, but the Chinese man only arched an eyebrow. "Yeah, I know," he said, as though Quatre had spoken. "But still, there were better ways to handle it."
Forestalling Quatre's response, Meiran interrupted again. "So... Trowa is doing better?"
"He'll be even better when we can find a way to either take a break or build up our control," Wufei replied. "Quatre and I... we're the ones who deal more with outsiders, except when those three are on a mission. The rest of the time, they keep to themselves."
"I see." Meiran couldn't stop the next yawn, and gave Quatre an apologetic look when he raised his eyebrows at her, and pointedly looked towards the door to the cabin. "I know, I know... I'm just running on pure adrenaline right now," she commented. "But I needed to know... and I really appreciate you telling me. I don't know what I can do, to help you five. But I will, if there's something... "
"We know," Quatre said, gently. "We are grateful for the offer. I think, though, that we just need time to acclimate. Doro mentioned the space-bend had made people more sensitive, in some ways."
"To food, to light, to sound," Meiran said, and exhaled sharply, blowing her bangs out of her face. "But not to... well, the scientists didn't have your... talents, so I guess it's hard to say."
"Where are these scientists?" Wufei glanced over his shoulder, his fingers moving across the console as working under their own power, without a need for him to supervise. "Who are they?"
"Doctor Darrow is a physicist, and Doctor Lang is a mechanical engineer." Meiran sniffed. "We lucked out with Doctor Lang, but Doctor Darrow's only contribution so far has been to talk at length about what's different between his universe and ours."
"Like the fact that you created a space-bend with a piece of chalk and some symbols?" Quatre arched an eyebrow, and spun his chair to check the instruments.
"Things seem to work differently everywhere," Meiran said quietly. "And it's not really chalk and symbols. Viveka... " She pushed away the flash of pain at losing her friend, and noticed Quatre wince. "Sorry," she whispered, ducking her head. "It's still a bit raw, for me. She was... I'll miss her. Viveka was a mathematician, so that symbol was her own design for focusing. Timothy... one of the first to go... held a rose. His sister reportedly stabbed her hand with a thorn on the stem from that same rose. What's important is that each focused their entire will, somehow, into pushing into the bend. It's hard to describe, and I don't really understand it myself."
"I think I get it," Quatre said, turning to Meiran, and his smile was sad. His eyes looked old, far more worn and vulnerable. "Sometimes... it's amazing what the human mind can accomplish, when you set aside the expectations that create limitations."
"Yeah... " Meiran sighed and stood up. Suddenly, she felt ancient, as though weighed down, and she thought of Zhiyi's smile. For once, it didn't help. That bitch had Zhiyi, and Meiran had a flash of panic that they wouldn't get there fast enough.
"Don't worry," Quatre said, the smile slipping to reveal a mirror of her pain. "We'll do everything we can, but you need sleep."
"I need a lot of things," Meiran said quietly. "Like world peace, but I guess now isn't the time to ask." She tried to smile, but couldn't.
"Someday it will be," Wufei said, then. "If you believe, and you stay strong in the fight, it'll happen."
For a moment, Meiran held her breath, before remembering it wasn't her Wufei. Shaking her head, she opened the cabin door, her eyes closing even as she crossed the three feet to the single bunk. Collapsing onto the bunk, she rolled over on her side and fell into dreams where Viveka was laughing, Zhiyi was painting, and her own Wufei greeted her with open arms.
The door slid open, only a few inches, to reveal Lena's bright blue eyes. "Can I come in?" Her voice was hesitant, and Heero looked up. Duo's head was in his lap, and he was stroking the other man's face. Trowa was stretched across three seats across from them, his head resting on Heero's feet.
"No place to sit," Heero said.
"I'll make a spot," Lena replied, stepping over Heero's outstretched legs. She leaned against the far wall of the little cabin, and slid down to a sitting position, stretching her legs out ahead of her. "We should be arriving in about a half-hour. We've received word that two shuttles are already down and being unloaded. The technicians are trying to complete Deathscythe Hell as---"
"Deathscythe what?" Duo blinked, and yawned, twisting in place to look at Lena. "What kind of name is that?"
"Hilde named it," Lena said.
"Who's Hilde?" Duo gave her a baffled look.
"She was our Maxwell's girlfriend," Lena whispered, embarrassed. "She's... she's being transported to Bremen currently, to stand trial for crimes against the government." Lena glanced at Trowa, and lowered her voice further. "Along with Cat."
"Cat?" Trowa's voice was thick with sleep. "Cat... Catherine," he said, startling Lena, who nodded. "My sister," he added.
"Biologically?" Lena frowned, and shook her head. "That was never confirmed. But they were like sister and brother. When our Trowa... Well, Cat doesn't like war. She's more of a pacifist than I was, really. But she wasn't going to let her brother's goals go down. He believed, enough to die for it, so she... " Her voice trailed off, uncertain what to say with the three men all watching her so closely. She shrugged.
"Where is she now?" Duo's fingers curled on the edge of the seat.
"With Hilde, heading for trial." Lena put her head against the wall and stared at the ceiling. "Losing Hilde was rough. She's a damn fine pilot, but then... our Maxwell was the best. Just amazing. He taught her so much." She grinned, despite herself. "Hellion, but... anyway, Cat's not the best pilot, although no one can top her on marksmanship. She can hit a fly at a hundred paces, blindfolded." Lena laughed, aware it was probably a bitter sound. "Cat's kind of our fulcrum, I guess you could say. I figured it out, a while back. I'm the idealism, Hilde's the pragmatism, Doro's the strategy, Meiran's the spirit, and Cat is the one who... well, she *listens*. She knows where we are, and what we need. Without her... it seems like we're drifting. We're lacking the one who listens, and Mei, Doro and I... we talk too much." Lena flushed, feeling awkward. "Like now," she added.
"Talking is good," Duo said, and Trowa flipped onto his back, his knees bent on the seats so he could fit. Duo sighed, a long move, and closed his eyes. "But listening... it's really underestimated, how valuable that can be." He opened his eyes, and stared at Trowa, who turned his head away.
"Will you tell me... " Lena chewed her lower lip, and hesitantly glanced at Heero. His eyes were hooded, but he moved a little, and she realized he was watching her, from under those thick messy bangs. Lena dropped her gaze, intimidated. "What happened in the shuttle bay? How did you know?"
The three men were silent, until Duo broke the silence with a soft laugh. "Ah, but that would be telling, gorgeous."
"That's kind of the idea," Lena said, a bit irritated by his laissez-faire attitude. "My people are skittish enough, without you shooting people across a crowded shuttle bay. I'd like to know how you knew, and whether this is going to be a common thing."
"We kill people," Trowa said, flatly. "That's what we do. So, therefore, you can expect to see us do it again."
"And on a pretty regular basis," Duo added, that cold smile still on his lips. Heero's hand fell on Duo's cheek, and he closed his eyes, moving his head until his face was buried against Heero's thighs. The fingers played across Duo's head, pulling the braid out, smoothing it down.
Lena's gaze followed the movement, up Heero's arm, to his shoulder, and to his face, still studying her. She tried not to flinch, but instead let her expression ask the question in her mind. Heero frowned, ducking his head to look at Duo, before shaking his head abruptly.
"We'd tell you," he said, quietly, and gently. "But... we don't know. We will, as soon as we can."
"You mean you'll tell me as soon as you know you can trust me," Lena said. She considered that. "I just don't want my forces too scared to trust you by the time I finally get an explanation."
"That's a risk," Trowa agreed. "We can only assure you that we don't kill people indiscriminately. Did you check the man's pockets? Or search his background?"
"We confirmed that he'd sold information to Barton's government," Lena admitted. "However, we've managed to track his location for the past week, based on base records, and he wasn't in much position to know or hear anything. The last interaction we've traced, using the information in his pockets, was from a week ago. The bomb wasn't for you."
"It was for you," Trowa said.
Lena was startled, and tried to hide it with a nonchalant shrug. "That's one of the risks. It's not like we can cover all our bases ahead of time... so to speak. People join our forces, and we do the best we can to make sure we don't trust them until we know we can."
"Point taken," Heero told her. "But we do the same. And until we have confirmation, we'll have to ask you to believe us when we assure you that we will act only when we have just cause."
"Or when I order it?" Lena raised an eyebrow, curious.
"Depends," Duo replied, turning his head to stare at her. "Are you our commanding officer?"
"For the time being." Lena grinned wryly. "Doro's actually the one in charge of things, when it comes to the big picture. Me... I'm just a mediocre pilot. I'm looking forward to retiring, actually."
Heero snorted. "Likely chance, in this universe."
"Why do you fight?" Trowa's voice was calm, almost distant.
"For peace," Lena said, automatically. She frowned when Trowa turned his head away a little, as though disbelieving. "I do," she insisted. "It's not peace when it's been forced on you. Having Mariemaia Khushrenada come down like an avenging angel and tell us we're supposed to be happy under her dictatorial---" She broke off, realizing all three pilots were staring at her in shock. "What?"
"Treize's *daughter*?" Duo let his head fall back, groaning. "A spoiled brat in any universe, I see. That damn family. Too bad we can't go back in time and castrate Khushrenada's father."
Lena giggled despite herself. "Doro might have something to say about that, since Treize was her uncle. Hm, or maybe her cousin. I can never keep those European aristocrats straight, at least." She made a face. "Doro keeps trying to educate me, but it still hasn't taken. Guess not being raised with the knowledge, it's never---" She realized the pilots were staring again, and rolled her eyes. "What now?"
"Not being raised with what knowledge?" Heero's look was oddly calculating.
"Oh." Lena shifted, feeling her tailbone starting to fall asleep from being pressed against the hard floor. "I'm not Darlian's daughter, I'm his adopted daughter. My brother and I were the only surviving members of the Sanq royal family." She sighed. "My brother died ten years ago, so I guess that makes me the *only* member of the Sanq royal family. Not like it's ever done me much good."
"Weren't they pacifists?" Trowa sat up, stretching, and turned, patting the seat next to him. Lena got up with a groan and a thankful smile. Trowa leaned back, stretching his legs out next to Heero's, and tucked his toes under Duo's neck, ignoring the other man's quiet growl. "They were, in our universe."
"Ours, too," Lena replied. "But between the two... standing by and doing nothing for some empty principles, or making a difference? I couldn't make much of a difference standing on the sidelines, even with a pretty dress." She shrugged. "And... my Heero... I guess he changed me, the way our Trowa changed Cat."
"The principles of pacifism aren't empty," Heero said. His head was down, and he sounded sad.
"For most of my life, I thought I would rather die on my feet than live life on my knees," Lena said, staring down at her lap as she fingered the seams of her jeans. "But now... I'm older. Now, I just don't want to die."
"No one does," Duo said, and his gaze was inward.
"No," Lena said. "No one does."
"Take Nataku," Meiran said, and zipped up her flight suit. "I'll take Shenlong."
"Shenlong's incomplete," Quatre replied, reviewing the charts for Old Moscow's base.
"Exactly." Meiran snapped the holder around the ends of her braids, and flipped them over her shoulder. "If I don't get out, I don't want them getting their hands on a complete Gundam."
"You'll get out," Wufei said, coming up behind her. He didn't touch her, though a part of him wanted to. Glancing at Quatre, the other man understood, and moved away, over to where Sandstone was waiting, at the end of the shuttle. Wufei nodded, acknowledging the gesture, and placed his hands on Meiran's shoulders, tentatively. The woman tensed at the touch, then relaxed, and he turned her to look at him. "You'll get out. I know this."
"How?" Her lower lip jutted, stubbornly. "You've not been dealing with this world. There's always the chance---"
"But you're Nataku," Wufei said, softly, feeling as though he were speaking with a ghost. Not even my ancestor, he thought, a bit wryly. "I never told my wife... my Meiran that," he said, then smiled. "Not until it was too late... but she was the strongest person I knew. And I can see her in you."
He leaned forward, and pressed his lips against her forehead, marveling again that he'd grown tall enough that he didn't need to lean over to do so. It reminded him once again that she was a stranger, in many ways, and not his own Meiran. He pulled back, embarrassed, and relieved that she only nodded before pulling away. Without a word, she climbed into Shenlong. The hatch closed, and Quatre hit the mechanism for the shuttle doors to open. The great beast slid out, sitting up with a creaking of metal and a whisper of jets. Then the shuttle bay doors closed, and Wufei could hear the scream as the jets kicked in. When the doors opened again, Shenlong was gone.
"Now, we wait, and then we follow," Quatre said.
He put the view screen on a ledge by the shuttle doors, and began setting the self-destruct mechanism on the shuttle. If they didn't return, the shuttle would blow in six hours. Sooner, if someone else attempted to access it, or its systems without the proper code.
"I hate the waiting part," Wufei grumped. He leaned against Nataku, and watched his partner. "None of this feels real, quite yet."
"I suspect that will change the minute we're in the Gundams," Quatre said, finishing with the programming. He came to face Wufei, and leaned against Sandstone's supine body. "Damn." He grinned.
"What?"
"Getting back in a Gundam. I'm feeling shorter already. I think I'm shrinking. Am I shrinking?"
Wufei rolled his eyes and crossed the ten feet to press himself against Quatre. He had to tilt his head back to stare up into Quatre's eyes, demonstrating the four inches of difference in their heights. "If you're shrinking," Wufei growled, "then I'm not even five-feet tall now."
"Oh, you feel tall enough," Quatre murmured, pressing his lips against Wufei's. There was a pause, and the two broke off the kiss at the same instant, but Wufei didn't move away. "Is this stupid?" Quatre's eyes were wide, looking more like the child Wufei had first met than Wufei had seen in years.
"Once, I would have agreed with Yuy," Wufei said, letting his forehead drop down onto Quatre's shoulder. "But now... if we don't have much time, I'll take what I can get. There's no point in saving things for later."
"You've been hanging out with Maxwell for too many years," Quatre said.
"No, that's your influence."
"If only." Quatre chuckled, the rumbling in his chest soothing to Wufei. Quatre raised a hand, and ran it across Wufei's head, down to Wufei's shoulder. "I wonder if the rest of the guys arrived safely."
"I think we'd know if they didn't." Wufei closed his eyes.
"You think so?" Quatre sounded surprised. "I never really thought about it, I suppose. We haven't had a real challenge in years. Not like this."
"True." Wufei shrugged, and pulled away. "I don't know if I'd know, if anything happened to any of you, but I'd like to think I'd know. It feels right, to think that."
Quatre was silent, his hand lingering on Wufei's shoulder, and then he dropped it, glancing at his watch as his hand was lowered. "Almost time," he said.
"I'll run systems check," Wufei said, switching mindsets smoothly.
"Roger," Quatre said. "Ten minutes and counting."
Wufei climbed up Nataku's chest, lowering himself into the cockpit with a strong sense of déjà vu, if such could happen when so much was the same, and yet completely different. I am a grown man now, he told himself, and recalled saying the same thing, ten years ago at the onset of Operation Meteor. He wondered vaguely if there were a world where Operation Meteor succeeded. He wondered, then, if there were a world where it had failed, and peace had succeeded instead. He hoped so.
"Line open," Quatre said over the 'com. "Meiran's running on point-five-five-seven-charlie-david."
"Roger," Wufei said, switching to shuttle control and opening the bay doors. "Exit point systems beginning. Systems check, fifty percent complete."
"Seventy percent complete," Quatre replied. "Unload process beginning. Disembarking now. Meet at seventeen-sixteen, north-north-west of base, in fifteen."
"Systems check complete, all systems go." There was a thump as Nataku rolled onto the grassy field behind the shuttle, then came to its feet. "Visual confirmation of---"
"Chang! Winner!" Meiran's voice was frantic. "Six Long! I need---"
The line went dead.
End Part 8
(:./sol/tetra8)
