Une stared at the computer screen in front of her, hoping that the pattern she was seeing was only residual paranoia left over from the war, and not the very real danger she feared.
"Une...?" Sally placed a cup of coffee on her desk, then slumped wearily into the chair across from her. "It's barely six in the morning. Have you even left this office to eat since yesterday?"
Lady Une blinked, then glanced half guiltily at the mostly untouched plate of food on the corner of her desk. For a long moment, she couldn't remember when she'd gone to the cafeteria to get it. "I have. At least- I think so," She sighed. "And I have to say, you don't look much better."
Sally started to protest, then apparently thought better of it and merely shrugged. "I- haven't been sleeping well the last few nights."
"The Harbor murders? Or L2?"
"Yes. To both." The blond woman shivered. "As for their last case, let's just say, that if that's the kind of thing they usually deal with, I'm beginning to understand why the Homicide department always looks on the brink of collapse."
Une glanced up at her in surprise, worried by the hollow tone in Sally's voice. "How bad was it? I have been paying more attention to the situation in space, frankly. But since Robert Lowell didn't rush into my office the minute the case was solved, requesting a transfer to another city to get away from them, I figured it couldn't have been too terrible."
"It was- bad." Sally said nothing more for a long moment. "I don't know how they do what they do- but without Zechs' team, we never would have solved that one. And a lot more innocent people would have died."
"I'm sensing a but..."
"But eventually they are going to burn out. Even they can't keep up this pace for long." Sally frowned. "They may have unique abilities, but they won't do us much good dead from exhaustion."
"What do you suggest I do?" Une asked grimly. "Every Preventers department is stretched thin. It's only been a year since the war ended, and the Preventers were formed. What remains of local police units cannot handle the monumental task of restoring order and maintaining peace, and that has fallen to us as well."
"At least stop expecting three people to do the jobs of eight," Sally sighed, obviously trying to choose her words carefully. "They are only human. And even they need help sometimes. Something that may be a fool's hope now."
"I know they aren't the easiest agents to work with, or the most popular..."
"It's gone well beyond that," Sally said grimly. "I've been hearing more rumors in the halls. It was hard enough to find anyone who would act as backup for them before. It's going to be nearly impossible now. They're known as the Spook Squad- and that's without anyone else knowing about some of their more- unusual talents. If word of that gets out, and it will once Maxwell goes back into the field with the forensics team-"
"In that case, I suppose it's a good thing that Lowell put in a transfer request, asking to be assigned permanently to the homicide department," Une said quietly, more than a little disturbed by the breadth of the gap between the three agents, and the rest of the Preventers. She hadn't realized that things had gotten quite so bad.
Sally rolled her eyes. "And how exactly is that helping, when he's at the far side of the colonies on bodyguard duty for Relena?"
"I know," Une sighed. "But I didn't have much choice. Relena is too important to the peace to risk..."
"Then I suggest you either find a permanent replacement for Donatello, or call Yuy back from L3 and reassign him to duty as her bodyguard." Sally nearly smiled at the shocked look on Une's face before continuing. "All I'm saying is that you can't keep asking them, Lowell included, to drop everything to baby-sit Relena. Or to cover the cases that would normally have gone to the other pilots instead. Besides, you sent her on a shuttle with two gundam pilots on it. How much more protection did you think she needed?"
Une stared at her for a moment, then sighed. "You're right. I- those damn nightmares- I haven't been thinking clearly." She looked back at the computer monitor for a long moment, leaving Sally to wonder what she was seeing. "But you might also be wrong about how much protection she needs right now."
"What?" Sally blinked, looking surprised. "Why? The danger is over now, right? They should be reaching L6 any time now..."
Une sighed, not sure whether to laugh or cry. "The shuttles docked with the colony twenty minutes ago."
"Une?" Sally leaned forward, watching her worriedly. "Has something- else-"
"Gone wrong?" Une finished wearily, rubbing her eyes and waving Sally into her normal seat. "You might say that, yes."
"What happened?"
"L6 is apparently... deserted."
"What?"
Lady Une ignored Sally's gasp. "I got a report from Howard right before you came in. The pilots are searching the hangar and administration offices as we speak. So far, they have not reported any bodies or signs of violence. There's just- no one home."
"Have the escape pods launched?"
"No. And there are four empty ships docked in that hangar. No breaches, no signs of foul play. The emergency seals were not activated."
"That's-that's not possible. Two hundred people don't just vanish off a colony, leaving their ships behind."
"I've been going over Yuy's reports from the L3 riots. Just from those three colonies that experienced rioting- we're getting reports that nearly three hundred people are missing and presumed dead. Except that we have not recovered anywhere close to that many bodies."
"But... you said there were no signs of violence on L6."
"Not that they've found yet," Une shrugged. "So far they haven't gone beyond the hangar itself."
"I don't like this..."
"Neither do I," Une frowned grimly. "It seems just a little too coincidental that Senator Peacecraft, the head of the Sweepers and four out of the five Gundam Pilots, one of whom is the co-CEO of Winner Enterprises, are stranded on a deserted colony on the far side of nowhere..."
"At the same time the majority of Preventers ships we had in space right now, as well as the entire Sweeper fleet, are tied up with the disaster at L2," Sally finished the thought. "You think this is a trap?"
"I don't know. But if it is... whoever set it is likely to make a devastating haul."
"Why haven't you ordered them off that colony then?"
"According to Howard, it's going to take two hours to get the shuttles refueled and ready to launch. He also pointed out that it might take nearly that long to hack the launch codes for the abandoned ships. I've dispatched the entire remaining complement of Preventers from L4 as backup, but the nearest of those Preventer ships to them are still nearly eight hours out."
"What about one of the ships from L2?"
"Even if we could spare a ship from L2 instead, it would take nearly the same amount of time to get there."
"So-what do we do now?"
"We wait." Une shook her head, then tilted her computer screen towards Sally. "And in the meantime, look at this and tell me if you see a pattern forming."
Trowa looked around cautiously, wishing that the control console for the fuel pumps had been placed much closer to the door. The silence and shifting shadows from the few lights in the room were beginning to make his skin crawl.
"It's just the dark," he muttered to himself. "Everyone is afraid of the dark."
/"Trowa?"/ Quatre's voice asked over the comlink, sounding worried. /"What's wrong?"/
"Nothing. Just remembering a conversation I had with Duo about his love of horror movies," Trowa shook his head. "Have you found anything yet?"
/"No."/ He could hear the tension in Quatre's voice; and the guilt.
"Quat, this was not your fault."
/"I should have left all of the Maganac Corps here, when we had to leave for L4..."/
"And if you had- we would have lost even more of the population of that colony." Trowa scowled inside his helmet. "And they might all be missing now."
/"Trowa, have you found the pump switch yet?"/ Heero interrupted, sounding uneasy.
"I'm almost there. Got it." He flipped the row of switches, jumping as the rumble of machinery filled the silence. Trowa couldn't tell if anyone else responded over the noise of the pumps. Turning quickly, he headed back for the doorway. It was past time to meet up with Heero, and start searching the rest of the colony.
Wufei paused at the mouth of the docking tube from the last ship. Looking back down the length of the hanger towards their two shuttles, it was hard to put his finger on quite what was wrong about the scene. Other than that it was just too quiet and still, he mused silently.
As he stepped onto the dock, one of the suited sweepers gave him an exaggerated thumbs up. He waved in return, though most of his attention was on Quatre as his partner emerged from the ship next to his.
"Anything?"
/"Nothing."/ Quatre sounded more shaken than Wufei had heard him since the final battle on Libra. /"They can't all be dead...."/
"None of them may be dead," Wufei growled. "They just aren't here. We'll find them Quat."
/"Y-yeah."/ Quatre moved to his side, matching him step for step as they headed across the empty hangar towards to offices where Heero and Trowa were to meet them. /"I just have a really bad feeling about this."/
"So do I," he muttered, shaking his head. "And I'm not an empath. So don't get too freaked out, as Maxwell would say."
/"Have you ever noticed just how much you quote him?"/ Trowa's voice asked over the comlink. /"I thought you said his figures of speech annoyed you."/
"I do not quote Maxwell." Wufei flushed a little, and was almost grateful for the helmet concealing his face from Quatre as his lover snickered.
/"You do,"/ Quatre agreed. /"Rather frequently."/
"If I do... and I'm not admitting any such nonsense, it's only because of the fact that occasionally, his words do tend to hold a- fair assessment of the situation."
/"Right,"/ Trowa muttered. /"Keep telling yourself that, Chang. God, this place is giving me the creeps."/
/"Where are you?"/ Heero asked curtly.
/"In the main corridor, overlooking the hangar bay- haul your asses, guys. We're burning time here."/
/"We'll meet you at the main section doors to the ring in two minutes,"/ Heero growled. /"Ahmed, is your team ready to move?"/
/"Standing by, Yuy."/
It took less than two minutes for the two ex-Gundam Pilots to reach the main doors. The emergency section seals had not been deployed-which meant that no one in the control tower had tried to stop the mass exodus of the entire population. Assuming that they weren't simply dead and piled in a room somewhere on this colony, he reminded himself sharply as he and Quatre eyed the empty, silent streets of the colony ring. A moment later, Heero and Trowa emerged from the upper level to join them.
"Now what? Transportation? Or a further look around?" Wufei asked.
To his surprise, rather than answer, Trowa reached for the seals to his helmet.
/"What the hell do you think you're doing?"/ Heero sounded angry, and almost frightened; though Wufei was still hesitant to apply that emotion to the Japanese man.
"We don't have enough suits for the injured to make it to the med center- so we'd better find out sooner rather than later if it's safe," Trowa growled. "And I've had about all I can take of being in this thing." He glared at Heero. "The air's breathable."
"And if it hadn't been?" Heero asked, slowly removing his own helmet.
"Then you'd be hauling my ass back to the shuttle right about now, and no one would be heading for the medical center." Trowa peeled off the rest of his suit, then ran a hand through sweat-damp hair. "Looks like that construction transport over there could be pressed into service for getting the more severely injured to the inner ring."
"Let's get this over with," Wufei sighed, as he and Quatre shed their suits as well. "I just hope they left the keys."
"Keys are for amateurs," Trowa snorted, already heading for the transport.
"He lived with Duo for too damn long." Wufei shook his head.
"Ahmed, start moving out of the hangar. We're working on transport for you just inside the colony itself."
/"Understood. We're moving out now."/
Dorothy stepped through the door into Purgatory, relaxing once she was inside the familiar sanctuary. She'd had a year to practice ignoring her fellow agents and the silence that tended to fall upon any room she entered, as well as the snide whispers that followed her out of each room again; but now it seemed different. The whispers held a tinge of fear that she found disturbing.
For the first time, she wondered if Une would let them set up a satellite Preventer's office, strictly for the Homicide Unit. But as quickly as the idea occurred to her, she knew it for a futile hope. Une might wish she could forget about them, but she wasn't about to let any of them that far off the leash.
She slumped into her chair, automatically glancing at the computer where she had left Epyon running a scan of the records databases for leads on the newest case Une had assigned them. But to her surprise, instead of his preferred screensaver, the monitor was strobing through the color spectrum in an indication of distress.
Dorothy pressed her palm against the monitor and felt the link activate with a warm pulse. "Epyon?"
He pulsed through the spectrum again, though the frantic pace was slowing slightly.
"What is it?" She tried again.
He's coming. The computer seemed unsure, which did not reassure her in the least. Coming back...
"Who's coming?"
He's coming. You have to stop him.
"Epyon. Stop whom?"
A stream of images answered her, and to her shock she recognized images from her nightmares. The image of the twisted hallway was blotted out by the door as it flew outward, and then everything went dark.
'Epyon... that has already happened. It's safe now."
He's coming. The program insisted. Not over-just beginning.
"Who is coming?"
I don't remember.
She shivered, suddenly feeling very cold as she tried to think of another way to ask the question. "Epyon... where is he coming from?"
Location unknown.
"What is just beginning?" Dorothy pressed anxiously.
Event unknown.
"Epyon... when is this happening?" Instead of an answer, Epyon repeated the nightmare, this time continuing on to the final scene of the bodies floating in space. She stared at the bodies of two children as they passed her view. For the first time, she realized that they had all assumed the nightmare had ended. "Is this happening now?"
Soon.
"Is this happening at L6?" She forced herself to remain calm as she asked the question.
The computer hesitated for a long moment. Location is not L6. Location unknown.
"God help us all..." she muttered. "Epyon, try to find out where this is happening. If I am going to talk to Lady Une, I have to have something concrete to tell her."
Yes Dorothy.
Trowa watched as Heero moved cautiously around the corner of the hotel, then reappeared a moment later to motion for him to follow. They were in the area of the quadrant that had been constructed in preparation for the arrival of the Senators and Earth Sphere dignitaries presiding over the dedication ceremonies. The utter silence was, if possible, even more unnerving here than it had been in the hangar.
The small cluster of buildings in the single block rose out of the center of the open quadrant, the sole relief in a vast stretch of emptiness. Nothing else had been erected yet, though streets had been laid out. Construction vehicles were parked at random, interspersed with piles of building materials and the odd rudimentary construction mobile suit. But there were only the three buildings standing.
Looking back over his shoulder, he could see where the Preventers had abandoned the transport at the entrance to the inner ring. The group should be reaching the medical center soon. Taking a deep breath, he tried to ignore the paranoia that kept him wanting to glance over his shoulder for enemies. There was no way than anyone could sneak up on them- there was nothing blocking line of sight but the buildings they were standing outside of. Nothing was moving but the other pilots, for as far as he could see to where the colony disappeared around the curved horizons. With a sigh, he turned and followed Heero towards the entrance to the hotel.
Once inside, they found themselves standing in an ornate, but deserted lobby. Trowa glanced at Heero questioningly, not sure whether he even wanted to suggest splitting up. The longer they spent on this colony, the less he liked it. The situation was far too similar to the horror movies he'd watched with Duo for his comfort. To his relief, Heero did not suggest splitting up either.
"Quatre, what's your status?" Trowa asked grimly, as Heero made his way behind the front desk and started searching through drawers. A moment later, he held up a set of master keycards with a triumphant sigh.
/"Our building's empty,"/ Quatre replied, his voice sounding as strained as Trowa felt.
"We're going to search the rooms." Heero tossed one of the keys to Trowa as they started down the first hallway.
/"We're on our way in to join you,"/ Quatre started, only to be interrupted.
/"Master Quatre!"/ Ahmed's voice was an unusual mix of elation and panic, as he cut into the comlink. /"Master Yuy! You must come!"/
/"Ahmed? What happened? Where are you?"/ Quatre asked sharply.
/"In the medical facilities. Master Quatre-It's Auda. He's here!"/
Trowa met Heero's shocked gaze for a long moment, before both pilots headed for the door at a dead run.
TBC