| Building A New Life 4 Wufei rubbed his eyes wearily. He had been working on the Declaration of Independence and the Civil Codes for lack of a better term. He’d reviewed ESUN’s legal codes and legislative systems and realized that they were built on older systems. Statutes contradicted each other and there were loop holes all over. Starting fresh was looking better and better. He just hoped his team caught any loop holes he left. He stopped rubbing for a moment as he realized that he was head of a legal team composed of some of the most brilliant legal minds of the age. He set his work aside, it wasn’t what he was supposed to be doing. He started outlining what the new legal system should do. He'd leave the actual Civil Codes to the experts. He looked up several hours later to see Milliardo standing in the door. “Come away, ‘Fei. You’ve been at this for hours. You need to rest or you won’t be any use to anyone.” Wufei yawned, stretched and agreed with Milliardo. “Ok, I’m tired and I know I need to rest. How do you feel about corporal punishment?” Milliardo almost ignored this question as the bags and circles decorating Wufei’s eyes told their story. “Not fond of it. Come to bed.” Wufei blinked. “I thought.” Milliardo grinned at Wufei. “That’s an entirely different bred of cats. And you know it.” “I’m too tired for this.” Wufei sighed wearily. “I can tell. Come on. I’ve got a nice meal in our quarters and then I’m putting you to bed.” Milliardo smiled at Wufei gently. “Why don’t you write up notes and give them to your think tank?” “What do you think I’ve been doing for the last few hours? I finally got my head out of my ass and used it for what it was meant for. I’m not going to try to handle it by myself. I’m just writing a general out line and I have the final veto. Why have a legal team that’s the dream of most colonies and ignore it?” “Haven’t a clue.” Milliardo put his arm around Wufei and let him lean against his torso. “Just do your best, turn everything over to your team and wait for results.” “I will. Bed now? I’m so tired I’m getting silly.” “Food, bed. In that order, coming right up.” Wufei let Milliardo take care of him. ~<O>~ Heero examined the results of Duo’s last series of tests and smiled. One of his rare, sweet, real smiles. Duo was healed. He’d healed much faster than the doctors had thought he would, mostly due to Heero’s stem cells and the tinkering the professors had foisted on him during his training. Although, Heero had to admit, Duo’s stubbornness had helped considerably. Duo had only skipped his therapy once, when an emergency had come up in the animal import operation. He’d skipped to get that straightened out and tried to make up for it the next day. Heero hadn’t let him as it would only have done him more harm than good. “Well, it seems that I’ve lost a patient and regained a lover. You’re 100%, love.” Duo grinned at him and stretched carefully. “I feel well. I still have a bit of a limp, when will that go away?” “Soon. It’s just a residual effect. A bit more therapy will get rid of it. All in all, however, you’re good to go. So, where do you want to go?” Duo considered for a moment then announced in a determined tone, “Out-side.” Heero just nodded, he’d thought that Duo would like a walk. “Ok. I made arrangements for suits, ours are still in our Gundams. I know you hate strange suits, so do I, but if you want to go out-side, you’ll have to wear one.” Duo didn’t bother to object, he wanted to go very badly. “Ok, just as long as I get to go over the suit myself.” Heero just grinned. “After I go over it first.” Duo laughed and tugged on Heero’s hand. “Let’s get going then.” ~<O>~ Their arrival at the Out-side port was greeted with what amounted to indifference. Duo quickly realized that Heero had made them an appointment with a tourist trap outfit. He had to laugh at that, it nearly guaranteed them anonymity. While Heero was checking them in, Duo looked around. The bay was neat, clean and well organized. The suits were all in special racks that made it easy for inexperienced people to get into them. He also noticed several people in uniforms walking around the area, obviously checking to make sure that the few people who were suiting up got everything sealed up properly and all the attachments activated. Heero finished checking in and looked around to find Duo. He had to smile when he saw where Duo was. Duo was standing in front of the large view port, watching the shuttles and space ships moving around the colony. Heero joined him, wrapping his arms around Duo’s waist. They watched until their names were called. “Well, that’s us. Love, don’t cause a scene, these poor guys have their jobs to do. We don’t need their help but if we refuse some ass will assume that they don’t need it either.” Heero snorted softly into Duo’s ear. “Well, it’s true, you know it is.” “Yes, it’s true. And I’ll just look at it like this. I never had a suit handler but I always wanted one. As long as they don’t object to me inspecting both suits we’ll be ok.” “Same here. We better go, they’ll be passing off our reservation if we don’t.” They found their suit bay by the flashing light over the top of it. It didn’t take more than a moment for them to walk over to the area. They were met by a man with sergeant’s stripes on his sleeve. “Maxwell and Yuy?” They nodded. “This way. I’ve got a whole lecture I have to give you. I can tell you don’t need it but it’s the rules. Or I can give you a hand out, if you promise to really read it.” Duo held out his hand with Heero a second behind. “My name is Sergeant Matthew. Please do not call me sarge, I hate that.” Heero nodded absently as he scanned the handout. It was standard precautions for Out-side maneuvering with a few special one’s aimed at inexperienced tourists. Rules like not unhooking from the group tether, or fooling with the backpack. Duo just scanned the rules even quicker then snorted. “Ok, now that that’s over, I’d like to examine my suit, please.” Sergeant Matthew blinked for a second. “That’s different. Did you read the rules? That was awful fast.” “I read real quick. So does Heero.” Duo turned to Heero. “What’s the hold up?” “Nothing. I just thought I’d let you deal with the sergeant, I don’t want to scare him.” “Well, son, I don’t think ... um.” Heero pinned the sergeant with one of his cold glares. “Ok, I’m officially worried. Where the hell did you learn that glare” “Oden Lowe. I want to look over both suits. I don’t care about your rules, I’m not trusting my life ... or his, to a suit I haven’t looked over myself.” Sergeant Matthew shrugged, he wasn’t used to this but if the kid thought he knew what he was doing, let him do it. It could turn out to be amusing. Each suit had a complete crew of it’s own, or each bay, neither Duo nor Heero was sure which and it didn’t make much difference. They each had a crew of four people to help them on with the OSW suits. Duo snorted and mumbled to Heero, “And why they don’t just call them out-side Walk suits, I don’t know.” “Acronyms just sound so much more official than space suits.” Heero took one of the suits off its rack while Duo took the other. A smallish woman from one of the crews reached over to pat Duo on the shoulder. “Don’t worry, honey, we really check them over good. We wouldn’t let anything bad happen to you.” Duo looked up from his examination of one of the seams. “That’s good, but I think I’d rather double check than find out that someone missed something. That’s why skydivers still pack their own ‘chutes.” The woman just laughed. “And would you know something wrong if you saw it?” Heero just handed her the suit he was examining. “Yes, we would. This one has a sprung seam.” He pointed to the seam in question. It wasn’t sprung much, just enough that, if it was stressed any, the suit might blow out. And when that was the only thing between you and cold space, might was a very big thing. “Well, slap my ass and call me Mary. Even though my name is Helen. That’s not good. I’ll pull that suit and get out another. Excuse me.” She hurried away, returning in a few minutes driving a suit mover with a rack of suits hanging from the hook. She parked up at the head of the bay and used a hydraulic arm to put a suit on the rack and another on the floor. Heero took the new suit back to the work table and started going over it. One of the tenders assigned to the bay came over to help him. His glower set the man back a bit but he stuck to his job, rather grimly it was true. Heero asked for a tool once and was handed the item at once. Duo was still checking over the suit he’d taken. His frown indicated complete concentration. He also had help from the professional crew, a couple of who actually recognized him. Duo looked over at Heero. “How's it going? This one's good to go. Full tanks, electronics perfect, seams tight. Clean an' sweet.” “I'm still checking this one. Almost done. Looks good so far, but after that last one, I'm not taking any chances. It'll be a bit.” “Don't rush on my account, lover. I'll just sit here and admire your magnificent a ... abs.” Heero snorted softly, he knew what Duo had been about to say, as did everyone else around. Duo laughed softly. “Little pitchers have big ears.” He pointed to a group of children standing nearby. The crew-members either laughed or smiled. They were used to being careful of their remarks, it amused them that the two Gundam pilots were so aware of children. Heero went back to his suit check while everyone in both crews stood around admiring his efficient motions. It didn't take him long to finish his work. “Ok, this suit is right and tight. I'll take it.” There were a few laughs as the people who knew who the two men were had kept their mouths shut. They realized that the pair needed privacy and recreation, not smothering fans. “Ok then. We'll get you suited up and on your way. A guide will be provided, because it's a station regulation. Unless you've passed the EVA test administered by this station, you have to have a certified guide.” Heero just nodded, Duo didn't even bother, he headed straight for his suit and started the process of wriggling into the thing. The first thing they had to do was get dressed in the tight under suit that protected them from chafing at the pressure points. This was fairly easy as they were more than familiar with them and they all worked the same, strip, stretch the neck, wriggle in and zip it across the shoulders. It helped that the handlers were used to strange, naked people. One of the handlers had to stop them from stripping off in the bay. “No! Not here, silly. We have cubicles in the back for that. Little pitchers, incase you've forgotten.” Duo laughed like a loon, Heero blushed slightly. They went to the back, got into the suits and returned to the bay, ready to don the space suits. The rest of the handlers had done their jobs, making sure, even though Heero and Duo and already done it, that the suits were ready for the Out-side walk. Now it was time to get the men into the suits. This was easier than expected as they already had experience in getting into the suits. Heero had no trouble at all, he squeezed into the suit in record time and turned to check on Duo. He was having a bit harder time than he liked, he still had to take some care with his back, twisting a certain way hurt. His handlers eased him into his suit and 'buttoned' him up. Heero initiated the com check with a simple and startling, “01 to 02, reply please.” “02 to 01, copy that ... Com check to control. 02 to control.” The reply was simple too. “Com is designated as T-EVA 2. I read you 02.” “01 to T-EVA 2. Check.” “T-EVA 2 to 01, check acknowledged. Read you both loud and clear. Do you know the click code?” Two yeses answered him and he cleared them for out-side walk. Heero walked behind Duo, watching him move in his suit. He moved easily, confidently, so Heero relaxed. This was going to be fun. A walk on the out-side of a station or colony was an amazing thing. You could see the stars, shuttles, ships and other people so clearly without the thick plexiglass causing distortions. It was nice to be able to do it without some chore or other to worry about. This was going to be just for the fun of gawking like tourists. One of the interesting things about this bay was, the exit. Tourists were notoriously bad at using pressure locks, they didn't understand how they worked and would try to open one door or the other before the pressure was equalized. This caused all sorts of problems, including explosive decompression. The station was equipped with state of the art 'step through' shields. All that was needed to get out-side was a small controller and some nerve, you activated the control and just stepped through the shield as if it wasn't there, the air stayed in-side and you got out-side. No fuss, no muss, no panic. Duo loved it, Heero thought it was very efficient, he decide to find out where the shields came from, he had some ideas for Mina Hurr. After they stepped through the shield they were clipped to a tether and to their guide, he explained the rules again and started them around the gradual curve of the station. As they walked, Malcolm pointed and talked. He told them the names of the huge cruisers and barges tethered to the colony by enormous tubes and cables. He also pointed out other bays and told them about the companies who owned them and what they did. Heero noted details without thinking about it. Duo just gawked like a tourist. Heero found that amusing. Duo touched the mic toggle with his chin and said, “Look, they look like a giant centipede!” Heero looked where Duo was pointing and saw a group of tourists walking over the curve of the station. They did look like a giant bug with many legs. Each suit was attached to the tether with a short cable and there were handles on it for extra security, for the tourists, not the suit. Everyone seemed to be clinging to the handles and they shuffled along, carefully not breaking the magnetic contact for a second. Duo couldn't help snickering. Heero laughed outright. “Don't be mean, they're probably scared half to death. We even get a heart attack once in a while.” Their guide tugged them in the direction of the crawling group. “Let's go over, if you don't mind. I think that's my friend Mat. He'll get a kick out of meeting you.” Duo touched helmets with Heero. “Ok? I think it'll be fun.” “Sure. I don't see any harm.” Heero toggled his mic. “Sure. Let's go.” They walked at an angle to intercept the group moving much faster than them. Malcolm spoke to the other guide as soon as they were in short range capability and found out that the other guide was his friend, who was delighted to talk to Malcolm. Because the short range radio was a different frequency than the tour group or cen com, Heero and Duo could hear what was being said. “Hey, Mat, got two good one's, really know what they're doing. How's your group?” “Mal, lucky sod that you are. My group ... well, let's just say, I wish them well. And that they never set foot out-side again. At least not on my watch. Bunch of idiots. all they've done so far is complain, tangle the tethers and trip over every crack and bump. I swear, I don't know why they let some of these people out-side at all.” “Man, that's bad luck. You need help?” Heero's eyes met Duo's through the faceplates. “No, it's just the same ol' same ol'. But I swear, if I get one more idiot who asks me if I know who they are, I'm gonna scream. I don't care who they are, all I know is they're trouble.” Heero had to stick his two cents worth in. “Well, I like that! Do you know who I am?” The surprised laugh was everything he'd hoped for. Duo laughed so hard he doubled up, the two guides steadying him, or hanging on, Heero wasn't too sure. The reply was nearly smothered in laughter. “No, I don't and I really don't care. Wanna join the tour for a while? We got permission to go see the new dish installation.” After a quick consultation they decided to join the group. The group, who had been waiting patiently, were informed that they would have two additions as well as an extra guide. No one objected so they shuffled on their way. Duo wondered why he couldn't hear the tourists, he knew a group that large had to have at least one big mouth in it. “Malcolm, why don't we hear anyone talking?” “A group that big is usually on a need to talk circuit. We'd go out of our minds if we had to listen to all the chit-chat. Cen-com has each tour group on a separate frequency and watch-dogs it, replying to comments and questions. The tour guide gives his talks on a common frequency and Cen-com tells him if he needs to talk to someone. It's a bit complicated but it works.” Duo got a crawling feeling on the back of his neck. “So, why are we talking to each other so easily?” “Small group. We're in direct com because Cen-com set it up that way. It has something to do with manual switching and computer relays, but I don't understand it. As long as it works, who cares, and if it stops working, what am I supposed to do about it from here?” Heero just gave one of his noncommittal grunts. Duo didn't say much, he just started to worry. They walked for a bit, Mat gave a small talk about the huge communications dish they were going to see and another on a ship connected to the hub. Duo stayed silent for the most part while Heero enjoyed talking to cen-com. Then he announced that they were going into a 'null' spot, a place where communications were spotty. He told the group that they wouldn't be able to speak to cen-com for a while but that they could speak to him, or Malcolm. “Well, there we are. I just hope they remember they have to chin the toggle. Mal, your two look awfully familiar. Who are they?” Mal just snickered, “What are their call signs again?” “01 and 02, and, oh, shit! For real?” “For real as far as cen-com can tell. And they caught a stressed seam on one of their suits. Made a big splash amongst the crew.” Mat gave a soft snort, which carried clearly over the helmet mike. “So? A stressed seam isn't worth worrying about. All the suits have at least one.” Heero added his voice to the conversation. “01. A stressed seam isn't something to fool around with. You'll kill someone with that sort of carelessness.” Duo just grunted, as he had his mic open the sound was transmitted to the four on the open circuit. That was when Heero realized that the setup was very odd, for a civilian outfit. The open mics didn't shut down the head phones so the suits with open mics were on what amounted to a party-line, everyone could hear everyone else. He was glad that most of the tourists hadn't opened their mics, the babble would be untranslatable. “I'm not careless. I know what I'm doing. The seam isn't that stressed. Look, it's right here.” Mat stretched the side of the suit to show the seam in question. The seam promptly split. Mat stood for one second, then the realization hit him, his scream nearly deafened them. The split seam leaked air for a moment then split a bit more. The suit tanks, trying to make up for the drop in air pressure, emptied themselves, turning the suit into an unguided missile. Mat shot into space, pulling several of his tourists off the surface of the station, the magnetics in their boots breaking seal with the metal skin of the station. Duo grabbed the nearest tourist and held on, the man, not realizing what he was doing, tried to push him off. “No! Hang on to me! You'll be pulled into space!” One sentence turned the man from an offended pusher to a clinging, panic stricken octopus. Duo maneuvered his feet back into contact with the station skin and made sure his magnetics made full contact. Heero, meanwhile, had grabbed the short cable between Mat and the rest of the group and, using his enormous strength, unclipped him from the string of people and let him shoot into space. He now had hold of the end of the cable with a huge U of people strung out into space, only saved from disappearing along with Mat by the rest of the string on one end and Heero on the other. Heero tugged hard but nothing happened. He glared and realized that every single person disconnected from the station was flailing around like a lunatic. He tried to speak to them but nothing happened, they were still in the dead zone. “Fuck! Dammit!” Duo took over when he realized that all Malcolm was doing was mourning his lost friend, at the top of his lungs. “Malcolm! Shut the fuck up!! Toggle off, if you can't shut your loud mouth.” The screaming abruptly stopped. “01! Have you got them?” “02, for now, but my magnetics aren't capable of handling the strain much longer. I can feel them letting go.” Cen-com could hear them in a staticy, broken way and tried to talk to them, all either Heero or Duo could hear was a few broken words. Heero replied grimly, “01 ... 01 ... 01 ... to ... cen-com ... cen-com ... silence ... silence ... do ... not ... copy. repeat ... 01 to cen-com, we do not copy.” Duo snapped, “01, let them chatter, we got other fish to fry. Take charge.” So Heero did. In a frozen voice that commanded instant attention he announced. “Can the chatter! Shut up! Keep the frequency clear unless you've got something worth while to say.” The noise cut off at once. “Thank you. Anyone who's still attached to the colony must keep contact. You're one of the things that's keeping the line from drifting. Hold you places, do not try to help. My partner will pull the detached people in one at a time. If you have any EVA experience, hold up your hand.” All the while he was talking, Heero was reeling in people like fish. The third man he pulled in made contact and immediately started helping pull in the next person, he also started talking. “That's my son. Help him!” Heero continued to pull on the tether. “We've got him. You have EVA experience?” “Yeah, we get my son clamped down and I'll help your buddy pull people in from his side. We'll get it done!” “That's right. We will.” Heero made sure the son was clamped to the surface firmly and motioned for his helper to go to Duo. Duo was struggling to do two things at once, keep the string of detached people from pulling more of the tourists off the station and calm the remaining people down enough to keep them from making the situation worse. It didn't help that his radio was still clogged with screaming and shouted demands for someone to do something. Suddenly a shuttle zoomed in overhead. It hovered and a door opened in its belly. Three heavy suited rescuers drifted out, reoriented and moved quickly to the line of detached suits. One of the figures thumped down beside Duo, another beside Heero, the third took a position at the middle of the loop of drifting, wriggling suits. “Ok, got the chain, up or down?” Before anyone on the rescue team could do anything much, the whole chain of tourists began to talk, all at once, no one could understand any of them. Heero snapped, “One at a time. You're all safe now, so wait your turn. Sound out when your number is called.” Malcolm finally managed to pull himself together and call his cen-com, using the rescue ship's booster. He filled them in quickly and asked what to do. They told him to take orders from the head of the rescue mission. He switched frequencies and told the captain of the group he was ready for orders. “Ok, kid, here it is, 'Shut up and get out of the way. You'll be under investigation until we get this sorted out.'” Duo heard this, of course, and took exception to the captain's tone of voice. “Look, pal, Malcolm didn't do anything wrong. He wasn't the guide for that group, he was ours. So lighten up.” “Well, where's the other guide then?” Heero answered that one. “Headed for Mars orbit. He's the reason half the train is off the skin.” The silence that met this comment was interrupted by one of the other rescuers who identified herself as 'Mama'. She wanted to know when they were going to decide what to do with the drifters. While they'd been talking and Heero and Duo had been stabilizing the line, the rescuers had been getting all the drifters reattached to the station skin. Now they had to decide whether to take them to the hovering shuttle or walk them to the nearby doorway. Captain Jack could be heard sighing heavily. “Ok. Here we go. Do not tell me your name, I don't care what it is. Your number is on the back of your left glove and on the back of your backpack. When your number is called, you will tell us if you want to go up to the shuttle or walk to the door. You will say either 'door' or 'shuttle'. When you state your preference you'll either be taken straight to the shuttle or left tethered to make the walk to the door. Medical help will be waiting at either sight. Now, the numbers of the group designated 'tour' start with twenty. Number Twenty.” There was some complaining from people who wanted miracles and some screaming when people realized they had to wait their turn. Heero moved up and down the line touching helmets with people, reassuring or threatening, as needed. Duo did the same only he seemed to be drawn to the children in the group. He coaxed and cajoled, comforted and commanded. It took them nearly ten minutes to get everyone sorted. The sorting process interested Duo and infuriated Heero. He couldn't understand why some people wanted to know if they knew who they were. Of course they didn't, why should they? He listened as Captain Jack got everyone sorted out and organized. Then had to do it all over when the people who wanted to go up to the shuttle realized that they had to go up a zip line. More sorting and shuffling ensued. Mama wound up in charge of the group that was taking a zip up to the shuttle, Captain Jack had to go back up to the shuttle as well. That left 'Junior', Heero and Duo to make the walk to the door with fifteen terrified, inexperienced people on a slender cable. Heero didn't like the idea much and said so. “Cen-com to 01. There's no way we can force them to take the shuttle if they don't want to. Please help our guide get them to safety.” Heero's grunt said it all. Duo kept his mouth shut. It didn't take either of them long to wish they'd decided to take the shuttle back, whether this group needed help or not. “I don't want to walk anymore. Why can't they send a bus for us?” “I'll fucking sue them for everything they have. Don't they know who I am?” “Mommy, why didn't we take the nice shuttle, I'm tired.” And on and on, all the while cen-com was trying to get them to be quiet. They needed to be on the same frequency as the guides now, so that they could help anyone who needed it. Finally, Duo started laughing. Not the merry laugh of a happy Duo. He was laughing the terrifying manic cackle of Shinigami. Heero clamped his mouth shut on a soft whimper. This was not good. “Everybody shut up. The next person to open their mouth without something really important to say is going into space ... naked.” The silence was deafening. “Thank you. I've heard a few questions. So, no bus, they don't work on the skin. None of us care who you are, you're just meat to get from one place to the other safely.” Then his voice became tender. “Little girl, I don't know why your Mommy didn't take the shuttle, maybe she's stupid. Sorry.” Someone started to say something, Duo cut him off in a voice as cold as the space around them. “Did I call your number?” No reply. “Didn't think so. 01 will issue orders. You will obey.” Heero cleared his throat. “Ah-hem! No one talks unless it's about something important. If you've got a problem, speak up. Otherwise, can the chatter.” Cen-com called in, the silence finally allowing them to get through. “Cen-com to 01. Please lead your group to Docking Bay 342-a-16.” They gave exact directions, in degrees and feet, to the door of the bay. Heero noted them and started out, leading his chain of tourists toward the entrance to the station. Duo moved back and forth along the line, snarling at some, gently encouraging others. Some cringed away when they didn't need to and other's tried his patience to a thread. A man grabbed him and clanked their helmets together. “How much longer do we have to drag this useless mess along with us. I say clamp them down right here and take those of us who are worthwhile on. I have things to do.” Duo pealed him off like a dirty rag. The little girl was too young to realize that she hadn't turned off her mic, or even how to do so. “Mommy, I'm really scared. And I'm tired. Can't you carry me just for a little while?” “I'm sorry, honey, I can't. I don't know if I'm supposed to. What if I do something wrong and you ... I can't. Don't worry, it won't be long now.” Duo moved toward the small figure, who was struggling to keep up with her longer legged companions. Before he could reach her he was snagged again. This time the demand seemed more reasonable and the woman let go of Duo the second he turned towards her. “I'm really sorry for grabbing you but I didn't know how to get your attention any other way. You told us to stay off the radio. We're all really tired. Why can't we stop for a rest. I'm sure we'd all appreciate it.” Duo put his hand behind her head to guide her helmet against his. “Kick the switch with your chin.” The woman twisted her head awkwardly to touch the toggle. “Yeah, that one. Just bump it with your chin. Good. ... Now, to answer your question. We don't have enough air. There's a dial gage right at eye level on the inside right of your faceplate. It's in percentages. If you've got more than 20%, I'm a monkey's uncle.” “I've got about ... um ... 15%. Is that bad?” Duo sighed. “Yeah, real bad. You're going to be breathing recirc before you hit the bay door. You can only do recirc for about ten minutes before you start to go hypoxic. Just keep putting one foot in front of the other. I'm going to have to carry that kid.” “I'm sorry to be so much trouble. But ... I think maybe you should check some of the larger men. They may be in real trouble.” Duo sighed and wished he could rub his face. “Lady, how the hell do you expect me to change a bottle on one of these suits? They're sealed systems. You can't do any maintenance from the outside. You have to open the suit to do anything to them. Sorry,” He sighed again. “Didn't mean to snap.” He pulled away from the woman, praying that he didn't have to deal with some panicked man, out of O2 and fighting. He pushed the thought out of his mind and moved on to the little girl. “You tired, sweet thing? If Mama says it's ok, I'll carry you for a while. OK?” “Yes, sir, I'm really tired. I wish I could have a piggy-back ride, but Mama says not.” “I think I can convince your Mama to let me carry you.” He leaned into the woman and touched his helmet to hers. She flinched away but Duo wrapped his hand around her helmeted head to keep them in contact. “Don't pull away and keep walking. I'll carry the little one, if you say it's ok.” “I'd be glad for you to do it, if it's ok. I'm afraid she's not going to be able to keep going much longer. I'm so scared for her. I'll be fine but she's so little.” Duo just reached over and swung the little girl onto his hip. “What's your name, sweeting?” “Anna-Marie. You going to carry me?” “Sure am.” “Can I ask you a question?” “You just did.” “Oh, you! You're just silly. Who was that laughing? It was really creepy. But it sure made everyone quit jamming the frequencies with stupid stuff. I'm sorry I was so loud, I was really scared.” They were interrupted by Heero's transmission. “01 to 02. Can the chatter or get her radio turned off.” Duo just replied, “02 to 01. Sorry about that. I didn't realize her radio was still on. Will comply. I'll see if I can't get her to turn it off.” He returned his attention to Anna-Marie. “Honey, you're radio is still on. How did you get it on in the first place?” “It was just on, I guess. I didn't turn it on. How do you get it off?” Duo explained and was pleased to hear the sharp click as she chinned the toggle to turn off her broadcast. “Good girl! I'm really proud of you. Now, we're about ten minutes from the door. Can you read the white gage right there?” He tapped her helmet right over the gage, hoping that would get her to look at it. “Sure, the one for my air? It's got a red needle and the needle is on ... um ... looks like 35 marks. Is that good?” Duo breathed a sigh of relief. “Yeah, it's real good. That's how much air you have left. Thirty-five percent of your load is left.” “Oh, ok. Can I just be quiet for a while? I'm really tired.” “Sure. I'll just be real quiet too.” Duo eyed his own gage, which said he had 20% of his air left. He chinned another control in his helmet and tried the frequency. “02 to 01, you copy?” “01 to 02. I copy. What is it?” “What's your oxy load?” “25%. Yours?” “20%. I'm good. But there's at least one person with only 15%. I wonder how many have less. You think cen-com can get us the count?” “I'll ask. You make another trip down the line then stay at the back door.” “Gotcha. Headed back.” Duo hitched Anna-Marie into a more comfortable position on his hip and moved down the line, wondering how he was going to check oxy levels without terrifying the whole group. Anna-Marie had his answer. “Mr. Duo, the man that got lost used to look at the back of my pack. What's there? Is it bad?” “Don't know, sugar pie, let me take a look.” Duo put the little girl on her feet and turned her around. He examined her pack for a moment and found a flap. He opened the flap and saw a complete read out of every suit function, including oxy levels. “No, it's nothing bad, in fact, it's really good.” As Duo made his way down the line he just stopped each person long enough to open the flap and look at the gauges, making mental notes as he did so. There were three people with less than 20% left, including Anna-Marie's mother. This worried him but there wasn't much he could do about it. He contacted cen-com on a closed frequency and told them the problem. They told him that there wasn't much that could be done, the suits had to be opened to be serviced, that included refilling the oxy tanks. Duo snarled, said a rather sour 'Thank you.' and tacked himself onto the end of the line, clipping his leash onto the last clip along with Anna-Marie's. The line shuffled on, no one could hear the sobbing of some, the cursing of others and no one cared to. The cen-com controller who was listening to the still open mics could only pray that the talkers had enough oxygen to make it. Talking used oxygen, something some of them couldn't afford. Duo followed silently, carrying Anna-Marie again. She was mostly silent, only asking once if there was some way she could get a drink of water. Duo told her how to find the sippy straw only to be informed that the water tank was empty. He snarled softly, heads were going to roll when he got back into the station. It took them another stressful ten minutes to make it to the door. The double doors of the lock would take another two or three minutes to cycle, luckily the lock was big enough that all the group would fit in at one time. As the lock was half way through the opening cycle it didn't take them long to get inside it. Duo checked to make sure that everyone was in the lock. He knew that at least two people were on rebreather by now and only had a few more minutes before they were breathing 'dirty gas', air that had been recycled too many times. The inner lock seemed to take forever to open but when it did they were rushed by several crews of suit handlers. These people had been gathered from all over the station, hurrying to the site to help get the distressed tourists out of their suits as quickly as possible. Duo put Anna-Marie down and stripped off her helmet quickly. “You ok, sweetie? Let me get you a drink.” Duo turned to find a water bottle pressed into his hand. “Thanks 'Ro. Poor thing's about to blow away.” He handed the bottle to Anna-Marie and watched as she gulped it down thirstily. “Thank you, Mr. Duo. I was really dry. Where's my Mama?” “Don't worry, we'll find her in a minute. I want the medic to look you over first.” Heero was 'unbuttoning' Duo's suit as Duo took care of Anna-Marie, his nimble fingers making quick work of unfastening the seals. Heero turned his attention to his own suit and, with the aid of a handler, pealed it off. He turned back to Duo to help him get Anna-Marie out of her suit. It didn't take them long to get her out of the suit. She was small and limber and crawled out the second Heero got the chest seals open. She was wearing a suit skin just like all the adults and shivered a bit in the huge cold docking bay. Duo wrapped his arms around her the second Heero peeled him out of his suit and went in search of a medic. It only took him a second to find one as there seemed to be one attending each victim. He called to the woman then got out of her way. Heero turned to find another medic waiting to attend him. The medic stuck small sensors on his chest, back and abdomen. He checked his readouts, pulled off Heero's sensors and started to replace them. Heero stopped him, “Wait. Let me see the readouts.” The medic handed him the readout unit. “The readouts are well within our usual parameters. Yuy, Heero. Thanks. Will ... Never mind, I see someone else has gotten to Duo already.” The medic attending Duo was looking at his readout and mumbling to himself. Heero went to see what was going on. “What's wrong?” The medic looked up. “These readings are ... strange. I'm not sure whether the sensors messed up or ... um ... can you give me his name? He insists that it's Puddin' Tame.” Heero snickered. Duo could be very strange at times like this. “His name is Maxwell, Duo. Let me see his readings. I just checked them this morning so I know what normal is ... for him.” The medic handed the scanner over a bit doubtfully. “He's ok. All his readings are a bit elevated, just like mine are, but well within normal for us. If that's all?” The medic nodded. “I need to get the young lady back to her mother, check on things and ... Duo!” Duo turned to grin at Heero. “What should we do next?” “Man, get a great, honkin' drink of something cheap and strong, go home, fu ... er ... Anna-Marie, why don't we go find your mom, ok?” Anna-Marie just nodded gravely. “OK, we can find Mom, then you two can go and have sex.” Duo choked. “What? I'm eight not four. I had a class. I know where babies come from and everything.” Heero bit his lip then gave up, he threw his head back and laughed. “Oh, priceless. Duo, speechless, someone write it down. Come on, let's go find your mom.” Heero held out a hand to Anna-Marie. She took it and held Duo's hand too. They walked down the ragged line of victims, all of whom where under the care of one or more medics. Heero glanced around, it looked like a battle field. One where most of the battle had been fought in space. He gulped and clutched at Duo. Duo simply gripped his hand in strong fingers and pulled him aside. “Mr. Duo? Is something wrong with Mr. Heero? Can I help?” Anna-Marie was too young to know much about PTSD but she knew that something was distressing Heero. “You sure can, munchkin. Just let's give Heero a great big hug. Ok?” Duo wrapped his arms around Heero and so did Anna-Marie. They just cuddled him until he sighed, rubbed his face and pushed away gently. “Better. I'm sorry if I scared you, Anna. I saw things when I was in the war. This brought back some bad memories. Come on, let's find your mom.” “Ok. I'm sorry you got bad memories. Mama says that, if you got bad dreams, you should try to think of good things before you go to sleep. Maybe that'll work with memories too. You think?” Heero squeezed her hand, careful not to crush it. “Maybe. I'll try it. I think a really pleasant memory would be getting you back to your mom.” It didn't take them long to find her. Anna-Marie let out a squeal and pulled away from Duo. “Mama! Mama, there you are. I was so worried for you. Are you alright?” The woman was flat on her back on a gurney, wearing an oxygen mask. “Yes, I'm fine, just a little tired. I ran out of air in the lock, but I'll be fine.” She held out her arms for her daughter and Anna-Marie climbed onto the gurney with Duo's help. “Just lay down here and rest for a while.” The woman was pale and a bit sweaty. Anna-Marie snuggled down beside her mother and fell asleep at once. “Excuse me, I know you're still feeling unwell, but I really need to ask you a few questions.” Heero took the woman's hand in his and patted it. “My name is Marie and you are?” Marie touched her oxygen mask to make sure it was still in place. “Heero. When you started your tour, did you, by any chance, look at your gages?” “Yes, and Anna-Marie's too.” “How much oxygen did you start out with?” “About 60%. Is it important? The guide assured me that it would be more than enough. But I did run out.” “It's important. As far as I know, it's against station regulations for anyone to leave the station without at least 90%. And suit maintenance was ... sub-par at best. There's going to be trouble over this.” Duo brought over a blanket and tucked both Anna-Marie and Marie in. “You rest now. We're going to get to the bottom of this.” Marie snuggled her daughter and lay back to rest until they could be taken to the hospital for a thorough check up. Heero was just getting ready to reorganize the evacuation when Quatre's voice rang out. “JUST EXACTLY WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?” Duo clutched Heero's arm. “Oh, hell, please tell me that tour company didn't belong to Q. Please, pretty please with sex on it.” Heero sighed, he had been hoping to avoid this. “No, it belongs to the colony, but all the suits were made by Winner Inc. Can we leave now?” They tried to sneak out but, thanks to Trowa, Quatre knew they were there. He stopped them with two simple words. “Help me.” Duo sighed and went to his side with Heero right behind him. “Ok, Q, what do you need?” “I need you to do the job I've hired you for. Find out what the hell happened to one of my suits. Find out why that young man lost his life and all those other people were short of gas.” “Ok, we'll do that. Just keep the press off our asses until we can come up with something.” Quatre glanced at Trowa who just nodded and walked off to deal with the reporters standing behind a hastily erected barrier. He just told them that there was no news to release yet. He also told them that there would be a press conference when they had anything to tell. They all left, grumbling; but they left. Trowa returned to Quatre's side and announced, “I got rid of them for now, but, if we don't have a real press conference soon, they'll all be on us like ants at a picnic. You two need to take a few hours down time?” Duo shook his head. “I'm good.” He turned at Heero's grunt. “ 'Ro, my back is fine. I'm a little sore from getting in and out of the suit. But the entire walk was in null grav so there was no stress. If we take down time now, they'll have time to cover everything up. Come on. We need to look into this right now.” Heero nodded. “Ok, you're right.” He turned to Quatre. “We need credentials that'll let us access the maintenance records on the suits as well as the recommended optimal parameters. I assume you have them, or they're on the way here.” Quatre just took two ID cards out of his jacket pocket and handed them to Heero and Duo. “Right here. I'll expect a report in ... six hours?” Duo nodded. “You got it.” Quatre smiled, nodded to both his friends and headed for a side door, Trowa in tow. Heero watched for a second, grinned at Duo and remarked. “Man is dick whipped for sure.” “You know it. 'Fei's got Milliardo under his thumb too.” Heero laughed. “Well, let's get this over with.” “Right behind you.” ~<O>~ It didn't take them long to run into the first resistance. The owner of the tour agency was busily 'cleaning up' his books. Luckily, they were electronic. Heero just handed him a court order for all his maintenance records. Quatre had gotten it from a judge and emailed it to Heero. Heero showed it to the owner, a Mr. Millian, and ordered him away from the computer. The secretary who'd shown him in just quietly closed the door. “Excuse me. I'll take over here. You really don't think you can delete information so thoroughly that I can't find it, do you?” Heero settled at the key board and reconstructed the information more quickly than the man had deleted it. He connected his computer to the business one and downloaded every file on it. “I'll be analyzing this information for a bit. You might want to tell your people to cooperate with my partner. He's not in a good mood right now, your incompetence endangered some children, one of them a young girl. We both care way too much about children. You could use the phone right there.” Heero glowered at them man. “Do I make myself clear?” Mr. Millian reached for the phone, paling a bit. “I thought so.” Heero returned to his analysis, seemingly ignoring the man, but he listened to every word that was said. Millian hung up the phone and resentfully settled himself in his guest chair. He watched as Heero recovered other files he was sure had been deleted months ago. They were added to the analysis data base. The only thing he could think of was how small Heero's computer was, he wasn't sure it was powerful enough to analyze the mass of data the young man had stuffed into it. He picked his lip nervously. “Don't do that, all you'll do is make it bleed. You should have had second thoughts when it would do you some good.” “You don't understand, all I did was cut a few corners. Corners that didn't really make any difference.” Heero eyed the man for a moment. “All the regulations are there for a reason. You can't cut corners on something when someone's life depends on it being done right. You didn't even bleed off the tanks on the proper schedule.” Heero looked up and realized that the man had no idea what he was talking about, he sighed and went back to work. ~<O>~ Duo, meanwhile, was in the bay again. He just walked in, flashed his badge and started asking some very uncomfortable questions. He got few answers and a cold shoulder from many of the people that had been friendly just a few short hours ago. Or long hours, if you'd been stranded on the skin by a sprung suit and a disconnected line of panicked tourists. He sighed and handed his papers to the head of the department. “This is a legal paper that allows me to interview any of your people. I want to talk to the head of each crew. Any complaints about the maintenance schedules? I want to know about all of them. And let everyone know that no one's in trouble. I know that you all need your jobs and didn't want to endanger them.” “It's a lose lose situation. No one in the administration understands suit maintenance, the regs are loose, and the station inspectors over worked. We do what we can when we can, but even some of the guides don't understand the problem. Like that boy we lost today. I'm just sick about it, but what could we do. Losing our jobs wouldn't do any one any good.” Duo held up his hand. “I'm from L2 so I'm actually on your side. Just point me to the one's who'll look best in court. 'Cause I think that's where this is headed, Winner is really pissed. An' you won't like him when he's pissed.” The supervisor rubbed his face. “Hell, come on, I'll get you some coffee and a desk. My name's Norman, what's yours?” Duo shook his head. “I'm sorry, I'm still recovering from that accident. Name's Duo Maxwell. I was on the short line tour. Just me, Heero and the guide. We joined up with the other tour to see the new dish. Now, I'm here annoyin' the hell out of you. Coffee would be great.” Norman led Duo to a small office containing a desk, computer station, filing cabinet and guest chair. He shrugged. “It's small but it's empty. You can use the computer if you want or just use the net hookup. I'll be back with coffee and your first interview. Um... sorry about your reception. Everyone thought you were a reporter. Shift changed while you were out-side.” Duo laughed softly. “Now I'm insulted. Reporter? Bite your tongue.” Norman laughed and left Duo to set up his computer, check his email and wait for coffee and his interviewee. It didn't take long for the woman to arrive. She was one of the people who'd given him the shoulder when he'd tried to talk to her. Now she came with apologies and coffee. Duo forgave her at once. “Here. Coffee, black, no sugar. You want fancy we got ... packets. Um ... sorry about earlier.” Duo took the coffee, remarking, “Defile good coffee with packet sugar and powdered pseudo-cream? Don't think so. As to the other, I ought to be highly insulted, but since you thought I was a reporter, you're forgiven. Now. ... I got a bunch of questions to ask you.” “Ok, sure. Ask away. Don't know what good I can do, but I'm all ears.” “And very cute one's too.” They both laughed at this then settled down to business. Duo led the woman through a set of questions that covered most of the data they needed to have. She answered easily and as completely as she could. Duo entered her answers in a form that Quatre had had made by someone in his office. All in all, he didn't like the answers very much. Duo spent the rest of the day interviewing person after person. They all had the same story, they followed the rules of the corporation to the letter but the company was run by a bunch of bean counters who wouldn't know proper suit maintenance if it jumped up and bit them. Which it did, just not in a good way. “Ok. Norman, can you come in here?” Duo eyed the computer screen and sighed. “That's an awfully big sigh. What's the deal?” Norman settled in the guest chair and leaned back. “Who do we get to arrest?” “I'm trying to decide. The company regulations don't live up to the stated maintenance required by the manufacturer. There's going to be some real fall out. You don't mess around with WEI maintenance schedules and get away with it. They're there for a reason and I think there's even a contractual requirement of some kind. But ... I'm not a legal johnny ... but, I think there's going to be some heads roll. An' I'm gonna be around to watch 'em.” Norman looked a bit surprised. “Well, we actually get to do something about this? That's good. I heard that Winner has a new fixer. Some guy named Yuy. You know him?” “Yeah, I'm his partner, Maxwell. Didn't I tell you?” “Doesn't matter. All that matters is that we get to go back to a proper maintenance schedule. And someone pays for Mat. He was a good kid, but he listened to the bosses too much. We been doing maintenance the best we could beyond the regs the desk jockeys set. But we couldn't do enough.” “Heero is still analyzing all the data, and the interviews. When he's done, we'll send a report to Quatre and that'll be it. All over but the screaming.” Norman snorted. “That little ... pansy? He couldn't wipe his nose without one of his sister's permission.” Duo shook his head, glared until Norman apologized then snapped, “Where the hell did you get that idea? He's in charge, not his sisters. He's been fighting them off since the end of the war. He's settled business now and he's building his own colony. He gave three or four of his worst problems companies of their own. He's buying them back now.” Duo rubbed his face and the stretched. “I'll send the last of my information and ask Heero what he wants to do next. See you around. I know they are going to call you in to testify.” “I'll be ready, willing and able. I really want to get whoever it was decided we didn't need to stick with the company check lists. We all protested the change, you know. Everyone who signed the petition got a ... job review letter.” Duo blinked for a second, he'd heard about those. “If you can get me a copy of one, I'd really like to have it.” Norman grinned rather evilly. “Got one right here and a copy of the petition ... with signatures. How's that?” “Great! I'll send it to Heero.” Duo accepted the chip and stuck it into the reader slot. He sent the information to Heero then checked his email. He got an acknowledgment of the data send and a 'return to quarters'. He just said good-bye to Norman, reminding him to stand by, shut down his computer and left. He met Heero in the corridor to their apartment and smiled a bit wearily. “No rest for the wicked. I must be a real son of a bitch. Some walk in the park, huh, love.” Heero just shook his head. “I acquired a new name. I do think I like it though.” “Yeah, I bet. What is it?” “The Fixer.” Duo chuckled as he opened the door. “Wonder if I'll ever get a different name. I like Fixer. Nice.” “Me too.” Heero flopped wearily onto the couch followed by Duo, who flopped a bit more gently. “Couch ... nice. I'm tired.” “We should eat.” “Soon.” They both kicked off their shoes. Heero swung around and picked Duo's feet off the floor. Duo let Heero put his feet in his lap and pulled Heero's into his. Each man intended to rub the other man's feet, neither one of them succeeded. They fell asleep instead. |
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