Title: Alternate Dualities
Author: WingNut
Archive: http://www.fanworkrecs.com, GWA, anywhere else, please ask
Category: adventure, angst, romance, lemon
Rating: NC-17 overall
Warnings: AU - AAAAAAAAAAAU. Some yaoi, het, lemon, violence, language, OOC and/or death, depending on the universe. You should be a legal adult to read this. Open-mindedness helps, too.
Spoilers: maybe, depending on the universe.
Disclaimers: I don't own the characters from Gundam Wing; Bandai, Sunrise and Sotsu do. I just play with them for non-profit fun until they run screaming back to their creators.
Pairings: all over the map; Duo-centric.
Blurb: Set in AC201, Duo is slipping from one alternate universe to another, trying to get back home.
Notes: started June 2001.
Part 8e ~ Project
The number of youngsters decreased rapidly the further Duo went along the Admin hall. He checked the rooms on either side of the corridor as he went, finding office supplies, janitorial areas, a series of empty meeting rooms, and one large room being set up for a banquet.
Then he saw large double doors on his right labelled 'Project Administration,' and slid through the wall. Bingo, he thought. He was in a large, open office area, filled with people and cubicles. The walls were decorated with posters of Mars, photographs of groups of smiling people, and engineering diagrams.
He recognized the outline on the poster from 25 feet away - the large colony ship he had used in his simulation. He floated closer, checking it out.
The Zephyr boasted all the features he remembered from the simulation run - the powerful engines, the long central shaft with the spread-out particle beam generators, and the cockpit near the nose, protected by the yellow shield. The poster showed the Zephyr with cut-away sections to display the inner workings of the ship, along with notes and explanations.
The engines were huge, as befitted an interplanetary ship, capable of producing great power for acceleration, braking, or, Duo was surprised to discover, conversion by the shield generators in the nose. Damn, if he had figured *that* out during the simulation, he could have powered a shield so strong that he could have sat back and coasted through the meteor swarm without worrying about anything except avoiding those monster rocks in the middle.
The particle beam generators he had ended up using to destroy the meteors during the simulation were designed for the excavation of various oxygen-processing sites around Mars. It would be far more efficient to direct the beam from an orbiting ship than it would be to haul a generator overland.
Interspersed between the generators were interchangeable and detachable sections. Some were to be fitted as living quarters, some as cargo holds. Each section container had short-range manoeuvring thrusters to enable it to be dropped and remote-piloted to an exact location on the planetary surface. This would allow the terraforming equipment to be guided right to the sites excavated by the particle beams.
The cargo design would also mean faster turnaround times when reloading the ship on the Earth end of the run. When the Zephyr returned from Mars, it could simply attach to pre-loaded cargo containers and be on its way with a minimum of down time. The ship wouldn't even have to come to a complete stop - the manoeuvring thrusters on each container ensured that the holds could be accelerated to match the ship's course and make the pickup even faster. The massive amounts of equipment needed to terraform an entire planet would have to be transported over multiple trips, and the long transit time to Mars meant that every minute saved at the turnover point was precious.
The design made sense; it was clever and logical, and he liked what he saw - but something about it made that uneasy, twitchy feeling come back. There was something wrong here, something amiss, something that he must have noticed subconsciously during the simulation...
He stared at the poster for long moments, but he couldn't get a handle on the problem. Finally, frustrated, he began checking out the people in the various cubicles.
He floated through the cubes and peered over the workers' shoulders. Most of the staff seemed to be deeply absorbed in budget figures -tabulating numbers, or putting the final touches on some sort of financial presentation. He wasn't an expert in accounting, but there didn't seem to be anything of out-of-place among the various papers strewn across the desks.
Then his attention was caught by a familiar figure, and he zipped over to one of the offices lining the outer wall, this one labelled Project Co-ordinator. Une was inside, working at a computer screen. Her hair was neatly braided and coiled, and the light from the screen flashed off her glasses. If it weren't for the slight smile on her lips, Duo would have said she was in full colonel mode - well, since there hadn't been a war in this universe, she probably wasn't the same Treize-obsessed-psycho-bitch-from-hell she had been during the war in Duo's own universe. Here, she probably ran the Project with the same combination of efficiency, ruthlessness, and compassion that had worked so well with the Preventers.
He slid over her desk to see what she was working on, and found that she was reviewing his own simulation score. As he watched, she added his name to a long list - the ranked pilots' list Mil had spoken of. The top ten made for very interesting reading:
1. Milliardo Peacecraft
2. Duo Maxwell
3. Quatre Winner
4. Odin Lowe, Jr.
5. Lucrezia Noin
6. Trowa Barton
7. Meiran Long
8. Triton Bloom
9. Wu-Fei Chang
10. Dorothy Catalonia
He shimmered with glee to see his name so high on the list (higher than the odious Odin's!) It felt oddly heartwarming to see Wufei's wife's name, and to know that she had survived in this reality. But it was really weird to see both Trowa Barton and Triton Bloom - in Duo's universe, the man killed before he could pilot the gundam Heavyarms, and the young soldier who had taken his identity - on the same list.
The list was multi-coloured, with a legend at the top explaining that green was for pilots who were Go for next launch, red was for Reserve, and orange for Undecided. Most of the names in the top third of the list were green, most of the rest were red. Duo's name was in orange, as was Mil's, and a few others scattered through the list.
That uneasy feeling was back.
He stared at the list, thinking. The Undecided status of himself and Mil made sense - he was a new and therefore unknown quantity, and there were political pressures that were affecting Mil's status -but why was Quatre listed as Go?
He loved Quat like a brother, but he would have sidelined this universe's unstable little blond right past Undecided and into Reserve status without a second thought - unreliability was not a great quality in a pilot responsible for other lives.
Admin had to know about his problems - Noin had mentioned Quatre going to Juvie Jail, which implied a criminal record of some sort, and Quat was receiving his pills from the Project's medbay now, which meant official records. So who in their right mind would leave a loose cannon like that on the Go list?
He glanced at Une again, at the braids and the glasses and the serene little smile. Maybe she wasn't in her right mind after all...
...or maybe there was something else going on here, some other reason for the pilot statuses on the list. But if the members of the next mission team were being chosen because of something other than their ability to do the job, then what would happen when they finally reached Mars and they couldn't function as they were supposed to? There had already been one disaster, when the automated flyers had failed to function in the Martian winds; another failure caused by inept human pilots could sink the whole Project. Maybe that was the point.
But who would gain from ruining the Project?
Hidden priorities, secret reasoning - it made his absent skin itch.
A chime on Une's computer sounded, and a reminder message popped up on the screen: "Project executive board shuttle arriving in 15 minutes." Une immediately started shutting down her computer and closing up her office.
Duo thought quickly - should he follow Une and have a look at the executive board members, or should he stay here and try to uncover something more from the remaining staff? Then he saw Une pop a data disk prominently labelled 'Duo Maxwell - evaluation' out of her computer and slip it into her jacket pocket. That was it - he was following that disk.
Whoever was going to move him from Undecided to either Go or Reserve would have to review that data. He wanted to see who Une passed the disk to. If he were really lucky, she would discuss his score with whoever-it-was, and he would be able to figure out how the pilots were chosen, and why.
Duo followed Une as she strode out of the office and farther down the Admin corridor until she came to a shuttle port. Several people were gathered to one side, and Une joined them, smiling and returning greetings. Duo didn't recognize any of them. Although he watched carefully, he didn't see Une pass the disk to anyone.
More people joined the group, but none approached Une. Duo looked over each new arrival, but could see no sign that Une was paying them much attention.
He looked down the corridor, and was startled to see a blurry Noin and Mil approaching. What the...?
He rose up out of range automatically, looking down from above and trying to figure out what was going on. He was astonished to see detailed images of the couple, walking in front of their physical bodies. Noin's image was a fainter reproduction of herself in full colour, whereas Mil's was a bright, sparkling silver.
Mil's image appeared to be made of the same spirit-stuff as Duo's soul or Quatre's empathy, but it was incredibly detailed, showing his clothes and every nuance of his features, down to the individual strands of long hair.
It was amazing. Duo knew from experience that he couldn't shape his own spirit into anything except a vaguely amorphous blob. And how the hell was Mil moving his spirit and his body at the same time? Anytime Duo moved his spirit, his body stayed still, and when Quatre consciously used his empathy, he had to concentrate.
Noin's image was surprising as well, if only because he hadn't seen her doing this before when he'd peeked in on her and Quatre.
As Noin and Mil approached the shuttle port, faint, coloured images began to appear from each person waiting there. Most images overlapped their physical bodies, but they seemed to move independently.
Duo watched, intrigued, as one woman's image smiled and then laughed, and then about 2 seconds later, her physical body did the same thing. A man's image put away his glasses, and his physical body followed suit a moment later.
The usefulness of this became clear when Une's image, stepping back to look at the shuttle port's clock, moved directly into the space occupied by Mil's silvery image. Mil's image flinched at the impact and stepped sideways into an open spot, and his physical body moved smoothly onto the new path, going around Une's body even as she moved. Neither seemed to notice that a collision had been avoided.
Duo was fascinated. So the silvery image must be Mil's newtype ability at work, with the other, coloured images called up by Mil's presence. It seemed to be a form of precognition, of being able to react to the actions of others as, or even before, the actions were started. No wonder the man had been given the nickname 'Lightning Count' - his reflexes would be phenomenal.
Ha, but they weren't really reflexes, they were 'preflexes'!
Mil had come to a stop, and was apparently intending to stay where he was, as his image was overlapping his physical body. Noin, beside him, was talking in a low voice, her image overlapping her body as well.
Duo floated closer, then looked around himself carefully. There was no image of his soul preceding him. That made sense, Duo decided. The coloured images Mil's talent interacted with seemed to be representations of what the surrounding physical bodies would do, not what their intentions were, or what their spirits were feeling.
The shuttle port door beeped in warning, and the hatch opened, allowing the arriving board members to step onto the satellite. Duo floated back to take up his station over top of Une again.
He watched as the executive board members entered the station, his heart sinking as recognized the first four people: Duke Dermail, Dekim Barton, General Septem, and, striding smoothly behind like a lethal predator, Treize Khushrenada.
Any hope Duo had held of being wrong about the danger he had felt died immediately. He couldn't believe that it was coincidence that four of the most bloodthirsty men in his universe's recent history were gathered together, or that the results of their collaboration would be anything but violent.
The first three men appeared completely mundane, but Khushrenada was another story. There was a diffuse silvery aura around the man, strongest just above his skin, but spreading out almost 20 feet.
The sparkling cloud had an interesting effect - whenever it brushed up against another person, a faint silvery image of that person seemed to be pulled slightly out of their physical body. Most people turned to look at Treize when this happened, usually smiling and taking a step towards him as well.
Duo had never seen Treize in person before, but he'd heard Zechs, Noin, and Une all talk about his presence, his charisma, and his charm. Seeing him now, in spirit form, it was obvious that it was a form of newtype ability. At last he understood why Treize's personal troops had followed him loyally on his path to glory and mayhem, back in his own universe. If it hadn't been for Wufei, the man would have ruled the entire Earth Sphere.
Duo was annoyed to discover that he was not immune to Khushrenada's ability. When the faint aura touched his spirit, he felt both a ripple of pleasure, and the urge to turn his attention to Treize. To his shock, he discovered that he had actually drifted closer to the man without really intending to. Angry and a little worried, he pulled back to his former position above Une.
Treize's effect on Une was frighteningly noticeable. Her silvery image floated completely free of her body towards Treize. She was almost quivering with anticipation, her eyes glued on his face. When he finally deigned to glance her way, she fairly radiated happiness at his notice. What was deeply disturbing to Duo was that there was a second, much fainter, silvery Une-image leaning out of her body, pulling away from Treize with a look of desperation.
Before he could see much more, the two groups began to merge and break up into smaller clusters, and the subsequent overlapping before-images from Mil's talent, silvery images called up by Treize's talent, and real physical bodies made it extremely difficult to track who was going where, or their reactions to the two newtypes in their midst.
Duo, centred above Une, was saddened but completely unsurprised to see her hand his evaluation data disk to Treize. She murmured, "The results you wanted on the new pilot's simulation, sir."
Treize nodded. "Thank you, Lady. And your assessment?"
"The same as for the other. They are both too great a risk, Your Excellency."
"Ah. I see." Treize ran a thumb thoughtfully over the disk, before putting it in his jacket pocket. "I will make my final decision before I leave."
End Page Forty Three
(:./wingnut/alter43)
