"Captain Barton? Sir?"
Trowa barely acknowledged the lieutenant's voice as he crouched down to inspect the frost coating the front panel of the module in front of him. Ice crystals glittered in the light of his hand lamp as he ran it over the panel. What was that? Leaning closer, he studied the faint scuff marks that had caught his attention. Grooves in the frost?
"Yes?"
"Team three is checking in. They have arrived on L2- V08771. Proceeding into the core, sir."
"Good." He hesitated, not sure if it was simply paranoia telling him that something was wrong, or the memory of making similar marks through frost while attempting repairs to Heavyarms in Antarctica. Finally deciding to error on the part of paranoia, just in case, he glanced up at Lieutenant Hawes. "Tell them to look for signs of forced entry into the module plates."
"What?"
"The ice on this plate is thinner than on the rest of the panels... and it's scuffed. Like someone has taken the plate off recently. Warn the rest of the teams."
"Yes sir."
Turning back to his work, he began to remove the panel cautiously. The bolts were tight, the ice making it awkward to work in heavy gloves. Gritting his teeth, he forced himself to concentrate on his work, and not the frost beginning to coat the faceplate of his suit.
"You really think this was sabotage?" Crowley asked, moving around Trowa's kneeling body to hold his own wrist light steady.
"I don't know yet," Trowa shrugged. "But it's a possibility."
"But... why would anyone sabotage the temperature controls of a colony?" Hawes asked plaintively. Trowa couldn't help rolling his eyes at the naïve tone in the other man's voice. Lord, spare us from innocents and fools- Forcing his thoughts back to the task at hand, he only shrugged in answer.
"Crowley, give me a hand. Hold this steady." The other man took the weight of the panel as Trowa forced the last bolt free. "Okay, move it out slowly."
They lifted the panel away from the console. Trowa let out a slow breath when nothing further happened. Good- it wasn't trapped. Crouching in front of the open module, he moved the hand lamp closer to take a look at the boards inside. As he had expected, two of the circuit boards were blackened. Maybe he wasn't just being paranoid.
Finishing the repairs as quickly as he could, he tried to ignore the uneasy feeling that they were running out of time. Something's coming, he thought grimly. This had been far too easy. Well, other than the discovery of malfunctioning heat packs on a majority of the colony's environmental suits; that had delayed their trip into the core for nearly six hours. He wondered suddenly if that had any connection to the sabotaged boards inside the main console.
"Sir!"
"What?" The knot of unease tightened into dread in his stomach. "Hawes?"
"Sir, Captain Yuy for you sir."
Trowa nodded and flipped his communicator from the closed channel he was on with his team to the private channel to Heero.
"Heero?"
/"How are your repairs going?"/
"Finally finished here." Trowa stood up, leaving Crowley and Hawes to replace the module cover. "We'll be heading back out of the core in about ten minutes. What's up?"
/"The last L1 team is nearly finished."/ Heero hesitated. /"My team is currently en-route to the L2 Cluster."/
"I think we can handle this on our own, Heero." He frowned, more than a little pissed off that Heero didn't trust them to take care of L2; despite the feeling that something was coming, which only increased his uneasiness.
/"I thought as much,"/ Heero sighed. /"If nothing else, I'll pick you up and we can go on to L6 from there. Unless you would rather spend Christmas Day with someone else?"/
"Oh." Trowa blinked, feeling like an idiot. "I'd like that, actually. Sorry-just kind of jumpy today."
/"Me too. I'll see you in a few hours then."/ There was a pause, before his partner spoke again, almost in a whisper. /"Love you."/
"Love you too. But you'd better take me someplace nice for dinner, since you didn't take me to Earth."
/"I promise. Yuy out."/
Trowa felt some of his uneasiness fade, faced with the prospect of actually getting to spend an evening with his lover. Whatever was coming- they'd face it together.
"Alright, let's head back to the ring." He nodded to his two teammates. It was with a feeling of relief that the door to the control room closed behind them, and they started the long trek back through the maze of halls towards the colony ring.
Relena Peacecraft smiled as Quatre Winner handed her a glass of champagne. Lowell watched their reflections in the window out onto the runway, and wondered why he felt like he was standing on the other side of the glass.
"What is this for?"
"It's Christmas Morning... we should celebrate the fact that war ended one year ago."
"Ah." She raised her glass to tap against his. "Merry Christmas, then."
Chang glanced over at them with a faint grin. "He's just happy Maxwell isn't here to spike his grapejuice with something alcoholic."
"And what about you? Are you not going to celebrate?"
"He's flying the first leg," Quatre Winner smiled at his partner. "I offered him grapejuice as well."
"If I'm going to celebrate, I might as well do it right. But not when I'm flying." Chang shrugged. "Perhaps later."
"Robert... join us?"
"No thank you, Senator." He shrugged a little apologetically, though he kept his eyes locked on the approaching shuttle as it was towed towards the gate, rather than looking at his companions.
"Is something the matter?"
"No." He finally glanced back at her, wondering if she saw the exhaustion on his face. "It... has just been a rough few days. I'm a little too tired to celebrate."
"You should have said something earlier," Relena said quietly. "I do appreciate you giving up your Christmas day to accompany me. Especially if you've just come off a case."
"I'm fine," He shrugged. "We still have a two day flight before we reach L6. I'm sure I'll be very rested by the time we reach the colony."
"Relena..."
She started in surprise at the sound of her brother's voice behind her, turning quickly to see him standing in the doorway. "Milliardo? What on earth are you doing here this early?"
"I came to wish you a Merry Christmas," he said smoothly, though Robert could see the same strain on the blond's face that he felt on his own.
"Thank you." She moved to hug him warmly. "Merry Christmas. Would you like some Champagne? We're celebrating a year of Peace."
"Thanks, but no." He smiled at her, but the smile didn't reach the haunted blue eyes. A moment later, Zechs had pulled away from her to look straight at him. "Lowell."
"Zechs."
"I was hoping to catch you before the shuttle left."
"Is everything alright?" He felt a sudden flash of panic, but the other man quickly shook his head.
"Everything is- the same. I need your signature though." Zechs excused himself from his sister, crossing the room to where Lowell stood at the window. "And Sally sent these for you." He handed a small bottle to him. "Just in case."
Lowell took them, then glanced at the label. He blinked, not sure why Sally would have sent Zechs to give him mild sedatives. Unless..."She had trouble sleeping last night?"
"Dorothy poured half a fifth of scotch down her throat." Zechs shrugged. This time the smile was more than slightly cynical, and Lowell realized belatedly that both of them had automatically lowered their voices. "That seemed to work."
"Yeah," Lowell sighed. "I thought about trying that. But- well-I probably would have missed the shuttle." He glanced up at the other man. "Did you even try to sleep?"
"Not for long." Zechs shivered. "Lowell-Duo said you were interested in a possible transfer to Purgatory. Are you sure? We...will probably have a lot of cases this bad."
"I am." Lowell met Zechs' eyes evenly. "If you all will have me."
"Sign this, and I'll talk to Une." Zechs held out a transfer request. Somehow, he wasn't surprised to see it had been filled out already.
Lowell signed it quickly, before he could start second-guessing his decision. He could see the puzzled look Relena was giving them over Zechs' shoulder. He didn't even bother to look at either Winner or Chang.
"Thanks." He glanced up at Zechs as he handed the form back.
"Thank you. For watching his back. And hers, before." Zechs gave him a last measuring stare before he turned away. "And for watching over Relena."
"It's my job."
"Yes, but we asked you to go above and beyond-without giving you a lot of info." Zechs hesitated, then glanced back at him over one shoulder. "Be careful, Lowell. Watch your back."
Lowell stared at him for a moment, wondering if there was something more to the warning than he knew about. No, he reminded himself, that's what Duo always said in the field. Shrugging it off as just the normal parting ritual for Purgatory, he smiled crookedly.
"I will."
"Good." Zechs nodded once then moved back to hug his sister a last time. "Have a good trip, Relena."
"Thank you." She was still looking bewildered as the tall blond left again. Conscious of the three sets of eyes staring at him, Lowell shoved the pill bottle in his pocket and turned back to stare out the window again.
tbc