Sea of stars 13b

[trekkiexb5]

sorry for the split!!


I paid for it by entertaining the flabbergasted and enthusiastic Duo in our room all afternoon.

Between his questioning on every aspect of our relationship and getting exasberated on my silence on it and letting me on all the gossip about my fellow pilots, the afternoon passed slowly.

Wufei soon joined us bringing several bottles of very potent Chinese rice wine with him.

?I have never been so impressed by you, Heero, as I have been today.? Wufei said offering us both glasses. ?I must say, though, you took advantage of the situation. I wonder if it would be the same if he had arrived first.?

I cocked my eyebrow. ?I had several contingency plans prepared, Wufei-? I took a sip on the fiery liquid. ?Even if this idiot didn?t perform as expected.?

Duo?s mouth opened and closed, sputtering. Wufei smirked and put back the entire glass.

I don?t know how he can do that. My throat was still burning from the first sip.

The conversation continued until we made it through two and a half bottle and Duo and Wufei were wasted. I had only two glasses.

Duo was going on about the wedding plans when Relena came in. And she was not happy.

?Duo,? she exclaimed at the sight. ?Hilde?s going to be very upset at you!?

He gulped and ran out muttering obesities. I should have thought of that before.

Wufei calmly picked up the last bottle and walked over to her. ?Here,? He proffered the unopened rice wine to her. ?A gift- for having some intelligence after all, women.? And he, too, left.

Relena shook her head and shut the door behind him. She sat the bottle on the dresser and looked around. ?Nice room,? she commented, glancing around at the large and rather ornate room.

?Yes,? I answered back, placing the empty bottles and glasses on the small bar. ?Are you mad at me??

She shook her head. ?No, no- actually, I?m mad at my brother.? She stopped walking around. She slipped onto the large bed, her feet dangling.

I walked up to her on the bed.

She squinted up at me. ?Heero? Are you drunk??

?No- only two glasses, though that stuff is very powerful.? I paused, cocking my head at her. ?Why? What?s really wrong??

She sighed. ?I needed to get my anger of my brother off my chest.? I nodded. ?I asked him about the Gundams, and he denied it, that bastard.? She shook her head.

?And?? I prompted.

?And I called him an asshole and stormed out. Noin is staying with him at the hospital. He should be back later this evening.? She sighed again as she collapsed on the bed. ?I am so tired.?

I laid down next to her. ?You hear the information Duo gave me.?

?If its about Quatre and Trowa sleeping together, Quatre told me.?

Oh yes, the best rambling the whole afternoon, and the most surprising. Wufei and I were surprised that two of our friends, male friends and fellow Gundam pilots, were, as Duo put it, ?Shaggin??

She covered her eyes with her arm. ?WAS, is the operative word here, Heero. They aren?t anymore. Quatre said he was ?curious? that?s all.?

Interesting. I got a different view from Duo. He said it was ?intense.? This is something I will need to question Trowa. Then I remembered something else I needed to know.

?Damn.?

?Heero??

I raised myself upon one side, leaning on my elbow. ?I forgot to ask why nobody told us about Halstine?s capture.?

She groaned, covering her face with her hands. ?Damn, so did I!?

?I suppose I shall make it my mission to located the information.?

She turned to face me, her eyebrow cocked. ?Oh, is that the only mission you have Heero? I seem to recall you announcing to king and country that you have been having undo familiar with moi.?

?That doesn?t make you my mission, woman.? I mock growled, pressing my face towards hers. ?However, I shall accept it nevertheless.?

I barely saw the grin on her face when I leaned down for a kiss. We spent the remaining afternoon hours making sure the bed was?comfortable.

Not to mention, completing my mission.

+++

The next several days were tedious to the extreme. Meeting Duo?s future in-laws, ceremony practice, etc.

But I did finally corner Trowa and found out the reasons behind the relationship.

The long and short of it, especially coming from Trowa, is that Quatre was curious?and going through some serious rebellion issues with the family. I guess 50 older sisters ?helping? you run a company and keeping major secrets from them would run anyone into the ground.

I don?t know. I don?t have a family.

I think.

But, there was a man within the Winner family inner circle that was enticing (Trowa?s word, not mine) Quatre into having a homosexual relationship. And then blackmail him. Trowa got wind of it and tried to tell Quatre, but he wasn?t listening. So Trowa decided to be Quatre?s guinea-pig.

Well- that?s what he told me. It seems a little unreal to me. Quatre doesn?t seem the type for homosexuality. Trowa- well, the best way to describe him is bi.

I think there was more to it than that but I didn?t press. The relationship seemed to be ended ambically on both sides.

That piece of information cured two days ennui. My Halstine question, correction, OUR Halstine question plagued me for almost a week until the answer to it finally came to me.

Well?

Actually, she was sitting at the breakfast table the fifth morning after we arrived.

Dorothy Cantolina

?Well, Heero, Mr. Yuy, Miss Relena.? She smirked primly, holding her teacup elegantly. ?I hear congratulations are in order.?

I didn?t answer, instead pinned Duo with a classic ?Death Glare.? ?Explain or Hilde will be planning your funeral instead of a wedding.?

Duo stuttered, wildly glancing around the table at his co-conspirators. And gave them way, too.

?I feel I?m not welcome here, after Mr. Maxwell took the trouble to invite me.? She pouted at me.

Daring me.

I don?t trust her.

Neither does Duo.

I whirled back at the floundering Duo. ?Answer me.?

?I would like an explanation, also,? Relena spoke up. All eyes around the table turned towards her. ? I don?t care who you invite, Duo. After all, this is your wedding. But I would have liked some forewarning of her. Both of us have past unresolved issues with Dorothy, and a wedding is not the time or the place for such them.?

A tense silence followed.

Duo broke eye contact with Relena and started stuttering, again.

My patience was growing thin and my anger increasing each moment this little eye-dance continued between Trowa, Duo and Quatre. I stood there with my arms crossed. I felt Wufei?s anger and Sally?s too. Noin looked confused and Zechs, well he could be a mirror image of me.

Dorothy seemed non-plussed and drank her tea calmly.

Quatre blushed deep scarlet when I glared at him, his eye inverting down. Hilde, Hilde! She looked embarrassed. Trowa?

What a minute!

My mind added the emotions in the room and realized something. I spoke. ?This has to do with Halstine, correct??

Behind me, Relena gasped.

Zechs, Noin, Wufei, and Sally surprised.

My guests, shocked.

Trowa blushed.

Trowa was embarrassed.

I my death glare swiveled to point at him and he flinched. The Perfect Soldier is still alive and well, ladies and gentlemen. ?You explain, Trowa.?

With a furtive glance at his co-conspirators and with a cough he began. ?She volunteered to be bait.?

Huh?

?Explain.? That was Zechs, his voice cold and calm, and very angry. For good reason. Every time she was around, something happened to Relena. And he worked with her for a time, too.

?She?volunteered to attract the attention of Halstine so we could trap him. It worked.?

Duo spoke up. ?All she asked was to be invited to the wedding.?

I placed my gaze to the lady in question. My hackles were raised. Dorothy never risks something without getting something in return to further her goals.

What was her goal?

She, looked calm, but the hand holding the cup was quavering, spilling drops over the side.

How close did he get?

I waited for more but no one moved.

No one said a word.

My anger was at the boiling point. Knowing that I was about to spill blood, I did the only thing I could without putting anybody in the hospital: I walked away.

This secret was small, in the scheme of things, but still?

I felt BETRAYED by my friends.

Worst, Zechs and I were actually in agreance. Shit!

I stormed out of the building proper, and entered the extensive garden. I could not believe it. Why? Why was I so bothered by it? Why did my head hurt, and my?heart?

I was still mulling over the questions when Relena found me pacing a shot time later.

She took my hand, walking next to me. ?Are you all right??

Maybe?I don?t know.

?I don?t know. Should I be angry with them? It doesn?t seem all that important?? I trailed off, unsure how to explain it. Hell, I couldn?t even write it down after the fact.

She nodded, her face solemn. ?I?m angry, so should you. I told them how upset I really was. I much I felt betrayed. How much less upset I would have been if I knew about Dorothy and her involvement. If I knew what they were doing. But they kept us out of the loop, for what they thought were good reasons, but still?? she sighed, stopping in front of a bench. She smiled slightly and giggled. ?As mad as I was, and you are, Millardo and Wufei burned the hair off of them. My brother threatened that whoever survived him will still have to face you!? She paused. ?Are you still angry at my brother??

Am I? No, when I punched him, it took care of my many years of frustration. And the fact I didn?t upset Relena bled any residue hate out of me. ?No. I wonder if he?s mad at me for hitting him?? I mused, and then I shook my head. ?I suppose I could hit everyone else??

Relena smiled at let out a small laugh. ?Oh, yes- that would solve everything. Then we could have the wedding at the hospital chapel, so the doctors could be on hand in case someone doesn?t make it down the aisle.?

?Then??

She sighed. ?I don?t know, Heero. I yell Millardo into submission. You could use the patented ?Death Gaze? with the same effect.?

Hn?

I whirled around, suddenly hearing rapidly approaching footsteps. I placed my hand on Relena?s shoulder, forestalling questions. My instincts came to the fore. An enemy? Unlikely, but who?

Wufei appeared around the bend, instantly relaxing my muscles. He came to stand in front of us.

?There?s a call from Colonel Une. She wants to speak to all the pilots.?

I suppose I?ll have to deal with my anger issues later.

Inside, we gathered around in the study: Wufei, Zechs, Noin, Relena, Quatre, Trowa, Duo, Sally and I. Yes, not all are pilots. Since when do we actually obey orders?

On the screen, Colonel Une looked relaxed compared to the last time I saw her.

?Everyone,? she spoke, giving no greeting. ?I need a little recon mission. Nothing serious that would interrupt the wedding plans, or dangerous,? She added, seeing that Duo was about to speak up. ?Jus something that is, shall we say, not exactly sanctioned by the Preventers.? This perfect for us.

She continued. ?I need you to check into an old warehouse of Tempest Orbitals on L2. I?m sure you are familiar that they are the makers of the recently failing weather satellites?? You mean the blasted satellites, Une. ?It was abandoned seven years ago, shortly after they purchased it.?

Hn. Interesting time frame. Tempest, according to my research, is an Earth-based company, so why would they buy a factory on a colony in the middle of a war?

Une interrupted my thoughts. ?That itself is interesting. But the best part is that they bought it from DNAgenies, at a tenth of the property value. And it is a biotech firm.?

?So?? Quatre spoke up. After all, business is his area of expertise. ?Many factories bought out during the war and many companies sell old factories to other companies.?

She smiled, grimly. ?Because, Quatre, Tempest Orbitals was bought out by Helix Pharmicals, who used to be called, drum roll please, DNAgenies.?

?Why would a company sell property, sell it, then change their name, and then buy out the company they sold it to in the first place?? Duo asked her.

?No,? I interrupted her answer. ?The question is why is a pharmicial company is interested in a satellite company??

Une smiled. ?Exactly. Also why they spent over six million credits for security that hasn?t been used in years. These, ladies and gentlemen are the questions I would like solved by recon-ing this place for me.?

Hn. Six million. Not a whole lot in the big business scheme of things but enough to buy one of the top of the line remote security systems for it.

Une was nonplussed over Zechs injury, and didn?t ask any questions. She replaced him with Sally, who would be useful if we ran into any medical information and equipment we may not understand or recognize.

Une also reassured a nervous Hilde. ?This isn?t big mission. I anticipate zero danger. It?s just?under the fence, if you ill. Just take a look around and leave. It shouldn?t any problems.?

Hn. Everything someone says that, something always happens? For me, I didn?t like this mission at all, for some reason. I don?t know why.

But I was about to.

WE left the next night, heading to one of the worst parts of the colony. Most of the neighborhood had no power and was still damaged by the wars.

A quick recon told us that there were several cameras, as well as, several high quality computer locks on the gates and on the compound door itself. Very goods locks. It would be tough for the average thief to break.

But I?m not average. And I have my laptop. And my hacking programs.

With Quatre hooking my connections up, I proceeded to hack my way through the gate lock?s codes.

Fifteen seconds.

Glad I haven?t lost my touch.

Duo and the other returned from the patrol of the perimeter as I shut down the cameras. Armed and in black, we proceed across the darkened courtyard to the main door.

For a factory, there wasn?t any large delivery door. Odd. No wonder the satellite company had any use for it.

I broke through the locks on the main door. Twenty-five seconds. I have been keeping a mental tab on the street value of the security systems used thus far. Barely a fraction of the money they spent.

Must mean the big stuff is inside.

Passing the threshold, I felt strange. This felt?wrong.

I shook my head and joined the others in the front offices. A few recon minutes later gave that these rooms and the warehouse spaces were empty except for a thick coat of dust and old furniture.

No trash, no nothing.

We split up, to get a more through look around, me going with Duo, of course. It seems I would forever be paired with him. All we found more dust. But something?

I walked to the back of the factory spaces, to an employee?s restroom. I don?t know why? Duo and I stopped, and as I knelt in the dust in front of the door, Duo radioed to the others our position.

I found the rest of the money. I have never seen such a sophisticated lock, ever. And it was locking a bathroom door.

Hn.

I had the urge to run. For some reason I did not want to go through that door. Going through that door would be?bad. Shaking my head of these irrational concerns, I set up to pick this lock.

This one took me an agonizing seventeen minutes, but I did it.

The door lock slid back and the door swung open.

Fresh air and dust.

Unlike the rest of the factory, there was power here.

Everyone became tense, hands massaging the weapons in their hands. Duo and I cautiously opened every stall as Quatre and Trowa checked out the shower room.

?Heero,? Trowa?s voice crackled loudly in my ear. ?Come look at this.?

We all collected in the showers. Quatre was kneeling on the floor, scanning one of the walls with a device we brought.

He looked up at me. ?There?s a door behind this wall.? Pointing the scanned wall. A few minutes of pushing and pulling everything, a loose tile next to the showerhead caused the door to slide open.

The urge to run became a full-fledged fear. I wanted to run away. Why? I?ve never been here, haven?t I?

Very, very cautious, now, we walked in, flanking and covering each other silently. The passageway was sloped down, twisting upon itself so we were underneath the factory. Another door opened to a large area.

We all blinked, our night vision killed by the sudden bright light. But there was no one here. There was dust, not as thick as the main factory. Air was circulation.

The room itself, for all intents and purposes, looked like a computer control room. A floor to ceiling screen dominated one wall, with several rows of computer stations. The opposite from it was cubicled off with low partitions and looked like office space.

Oh, and a large door rested in on the door opposite us.

Ignoring the computer for now, I headed straight for the door.

Well, I tried, but Duo grabbed my shoulder. I turned and saw everyone shaking their heads.

They were right, of course. We should secure this room before moving on. What was I thinking? I knew better.

I shrugged his had off and headed to the desks. For some reason I didn?t want to deal with the computer.

Quatre took my laptop and sat at one of the computer stations. Trowa and Wufei joined him.

Duo and I, along with Sally started to search the desks. Minutes passed as we silently searched, the only noise was the opening and closing of drawers.

Nothing. Clean. Pristine, not even paperclips.

Hn.

Is I stood up from the desk in the back of the room, something caught my eye. In the shadow of the corner, I spotted something on the floor. Abandoning my desk, I walked up to it.

It was a half bag of shredded paper, its contents scattered on the floor.

Excellent.

I knelt down, running my hands through the pile, looking for something to match. I randomly placing several pieces together, trying to put together a bizarre puzzle.

Then I noticed a coloured piece, not completely shredded.

It looked like the top of letterhead. On the paper was a symbol, not representing one of the three companies involve or any other. It was a DNA helix with a Roman Centurion helmet on to it. The only words were ?The New Centurion Project.?

Then it happened. Out of nowhere, I was in pain. Not broken leg pain.

P A I N.

Every nerve in my body was screaming in agony.

And so was I.

And then?darkness.











*******
Glossary-


******

R&R pleez!!!!

[Kari]

*grumbles* Why did you stop?? *whines* I wanna read more!!

[Morrighan]

Trekkie!! How could you?!

*grumbles* Stupid cliffie...

Can't wait to see more!

[athena]

Ahh! *hypervenilates* You've done it again! Cliff hangers!

But, even so. This chapter was great. It cleared up a lot of things--like the Dorothy issue, and we get to see more of the pilots and what they've been up to. (Just got a major plot bunny for that side story, so I'll get working on that).

I love Heero's reactions here. His anger and, even though he is losing his perfect soldier side, he's still got it in him. Which is kind of sad, knowing that he still needs it.

Now I CAN'T wait for the next chapter! *laughs* Another really great read, Trekkie.

*hugs*

love, athena

[trekkiexb5]

Thanks! btw, sorry the misspells and grammer errors. I don't have a beta at the moment.

[Akasha]

This is to much for me. I come back to read on updates only to be pushed back into oblivion to wait to be pulled back up again by progress.

[trekkiexb5]

I just re-read this...

THis is got to be the WORST grammer I have had in a looonnngggg time!!

Sorry folks!

[Elyn Yuy]

Wow!!! This is sooo good!!! Is there a 14? 13c? Answers!!!



What's going on?!

Elyn Yuy

"Curiousity may have killed the cat, but what about the girl?"