A Life's Time Part 7
Heero exited the elevator to see Duo leaning against the wall playing with the end of his braid.
"Duo?" Heero blinked at the other man. "It's past midnight. What are you doing still up?"
"What's it look like?" Duo picked up a bag by his feet. "Interested in a snack?"
Heero nodded. "Your room, or mine?"
"Doesn't matter." Duo shrugged. Heero led the way to his dorm and performed the retinal scan before inviting Duo in. "Where have you been?"
"I was working with Lily and Wufei on the AI," Heero answered as he shrugged off his jacket. "You don't mind if I get changed, do you?
Duo glanced down at his own loose jeans and t-shirt. "Go ahead." He pulled out two bottles of juice and an assortment of crackers and fruits as Heero ducked into the bathroom to change into his shorts and a t-shirt before washing his face. He gestured for Duo to sit in the chair and sat down on the bed as he accepted the bottle of juice from Duo.
"Working on the AI this late?" Duo asked. "Doesn't Wufei enforce a bedtime for the kid?"
"She took a long nap in the afternoonm" Heero answered. "They'll work another hour or so, they said. It's easier for us to work with her when we won't get called to work elsewhere every half an hour."
Duo nodded. "Makes sense I guess." He took a swig of juice. "There's only a few more days until the face-off," he said, glancing at the calendar.
Heero nodded gravely. "Lily's managed to use the information from the half-perfect AI to continually predict what would need to be done in order to perfect it." He took a few grapes and chewed thoughtfully. "Tomorrow, she wanted to call you to help her build something."
"Build something?"
"A scanner." Heero took a few more grapes and swallowed them before he continued. "She's got a prototype idea of how to scan people at a distance."
"I can put something together if you give me blueprints," Duo said slowly. "But I can't exactly create it. I'm no doctor or scientist," he pointed out bluntly.
"No, you aren't," Heero nodded in agreement. "So far, she's been using one of the brain wave scanners from the medical bay, but it's not useful at a distance. She did, however, consider the things she had looked up before when she tried to implement the retinal scanners and the hologram projectors. She wants to use one of the scanning lasers, you know the ones in fighters that scan an enemy ship and tell you information about angles, weapons, heat sources and the lot?"
Duo nodded. "You mean she can program one of those somehow to scan people?"
Heero nodded. "Wufei came up with the idea of an x-ray type of system that can get readings past the fighters, and from there, she will read heat sources and judge by that to see if she can get an accurate reading via the AI. Remember how I said the faction's AI could analyze a human down to their sweat glands?"
Duo nodded again. "So you mean she can create that kind of program and technology, but she wants me to build it, then install it into a fighter."
"Exactly."
"If this weren't for such dire consequences, I'd say it sounds fun." Duo sighed, looking towards the door. "So that's what she's doing now? Reading over other blueprints so she can apply those ideas to this scanner?"
Heero nodded. "How are things coming along with Lady Une, Quatre, and Trowa?"
"Same old." Duo took a drink of his juice. "Quatre and Trowa want to join us and we could definitely use their experience, not that I'm saying Preventer Agents are untrained. But like you said, removing them from their public spotlight and putting them with Preventers will alert the media that something is up and we can't afford that. Lady Une has pulled protocol and asked that a certain radius twenty miles off coast is to be cleared of civilians for a Preventers training course and Relena has been informed of this possible threat."
"Right." Heero recalled that the Vice Foreign Minister would've been informed of any possible consequences and would have been helpful in making sure that the public didn't see the battle. "So she's pulled the proper strings to make sure no satellite feeds will be made public?"
"Yes and no," Duo chuckled. "Two satellites are in orbit to see that sea and airspace. One of them belongs to Quatre Winner, and the other...Quatre also has a lot of ownership. So Quatre's pulled his strings to make sure things aren't seen."
Heero nodded, studying Duo. "How..." He had to swallow before he spoke again. "How are you doing, really?" he asked. "Falling back into this fighting routine and everything."
Duo studied Heero's eyes for a long moment. "A part of me hates it," he murmured. "Even though I got to see you again, see Wufei, meet Lily and all of that, see all the new technology Preventers has, I still hate it. My being here just indicates something needs my war expertise, and I hate that."
Heero nodded slowly. "But?" He could tell there was more Duo wanted to say.
"But the other part of me loves it." Duo shrugged. "Once a soldier, always a soldier. Being in those flight simulators isn't as thrilling as piloting a Gundam, but it's somewhat close." Duo gave Heero a lopsided grin. "Well, closer than bickering my way into a contract with a client."
Heero chuckled at that answer.
"Just promise me, Heero." Duo reached forward to touch the other man's knee. "When this is all over, we'll do more normal things. Like eating in a restaurant instead of the Preventer cafe, having coffee and a late night movie instead of juice and fruit just to ensure that we can still get a good night's sleep. Things like that."
"Okay." Heero took Duo's hand. "When we make it out, we'll do all of those, and anything else you want."
"Even go to a beach?"
"The beach." Heero nodded. "Just preferably not the one where you shot me."
Duo chuckled. "How about an amusement park."
"If you think the amusement park can stimulate your adrenaline better than the flight sims here at the Base, then yes, we can go."
Duo sat next to Heero. "The movies? Arcade? And a visit to Quatre and Trowa, off the vid screen?"
"Movies, arcade, a visit to L4. Do I need to write these down?" Heero felt warm to feel Duo so close.
"Where do you want to go, Heero?"
Heero thought for a moment. "Sanq," he said after a moment. "You were worried when I disappeared. I should at least see Relena and let her know I'm alive."
Duo looked at the ground. "Guess so."
"Duo." Heero squeezed the other man's hand. "I also want to go back to Maxwell Church with you."
"What?" Duo looked up, feeling a slight tingling in his spine when he realized how close he was to Heero.
"I want to see the place with you," Heero said softly. "Bring flowers to them, and pay my respects to the people who had a hand in making Duo Maxwell." He reached his other hand around to hesitantly take Duo's braid. "If it's all right with you," he added.
Duo smiled, a genuine smile. "I'd like that, Heero."
Heero returned the smile as a wave of relief washed over him. He leaned forward and kissed Duo before pulling back. "Should go to bed."
"Yea." Duo released Heero's hand, slid his arm around the other's waist and laid his head down on the other man's shoulder. "Just a few more minutes, okay?" he whispered. "I only met you a few days ago, and every time I see you, it's all about work."
"I know." Heero leaned his head against Duo's. "And each time I have a few minutes of free time, you're busy too."
"Guess that's what happens when you're trying to stop an uprising with Mr. Justice, the not-so-scary-once-schizophrenic Lady Une, and Lily the genius kid," Duo chuckled. "Everyone's always demanding your attention, aren't they?"
"Yours too," Heero pointed out. "If it's not 'Maxwell you need a better battle plan because you haven't got a Gundam; get it on my desk in five minutes', its 'Maxwell, go back to the flight sims and try not to do maneuvers its not made to do and don't wreck it'. Then it's 'Duo, remember that while you were a reckless and lucky son-of-a-gun in the war, the other agents don't have your experience', or it was...what was it? Oh yea, 'Duo, give me back that slice of apple pie, it's your second helping and I haven't had one yet!'." Heero pointed out the reprimands he knew Duo received earlier that day from Wufei, Lady Une, Quatre and even Lily.
Duo chuckled, recalling the little girl's face as she stomped over to Duo from the other end of the table where she was sitting with Wufei, and held out her hand for the small dish holding the slice of pie. "I guess when you've got a kid who can make Wufei bow to her every need, it's best to let her have her apple pie." He turned his head and buried it against Heero's neck.
"She just likes a bit of attention and Wufei has been the one caring for her for the past while."
"You've got my attention now," Duo murmured.
Heero played with the end of Duo's braid. "Stay tonight?"
"You mean this morning." Duo stated, turning his head slightly to glance at the clock built in by the bed's headboard. "It's almost one thirty."
"Okay, this morning then." Heero yawned. "Will you?"
"Yes." Duo nodded.
~*~
"This is the x-ray part." Lily pointed. "And you need to help me fit it in with the retinal scanner that will go somewhere on a fighter so that it can scan a fighter. Then you have to wire the feed to this computer." Lily lifted a laptop that Wufei had given her. "The pilot doesn't see it, but everything gets recorded here."
Duo blew his bangs up as he studied the parts. "Is the x-ray going to work?"
"I combined it along with the spare scanner Wufei got for me."
"You mean the part you make me take out of a back up fighter," Wufei grumbled.
Lily ignored the Chinese man. "So basically, the scanner itself reads heat sources and performs an x-ray of the fighter jet. I added the element of the x-ray to it so that it reads the fighter within and takes his or her heat source into consideration. If you can get that rewired back to the microchip that feeds it to this laptop, then it's a matter of interpreting the data." Lily patted the laptop beside her. They were sitting in the maintenance area of the first floor garage that, to Duo's surprise, contained not only cars but also several fighters. Wufei had explained that they were for emergencies and back up and Duo would be building the entire mechanism into the spare fighter. If it worked, Wufei would take that fighter out to the battle that was three days away.
"We don't have much time," Wufei said. "The afternoon of the day before battle, we're moving out to the large submarine with the fighters and agents. We commence battle the next day and see what happens."
Duo nodded. "So I've got a day and a half."
"Is that enough time?" Lily asked, worried.
"Should be," Duo nodded. "I mean, you've laid out everything and made the scanner portion, though I do want to know how you did that. It's a matter of putting it together, then into the fighter, and making sure it rewires back to your laptop there and works properly."
"It will need to be tested," Lily agreed. "And it wasn't hard to make the scanner. It's like a puzzle. When you have the blueprints you just pick out what you want, fit them together and try it out. How did Quatre Winner build a Gundam?"
"Point taken," Duo nodded.
"I'm going to do the briefing on the battle plan," Wufei said with a glance at his watch. "Lily, you're to stay with Duo."
"Okay."
"No problem, Wu-man."
"Wufei," Wufei said, but the two were already ignoring him, pointing at parts and the blueprints that Lily had displayed on her laptop. He sighed and left the room.
"How much time did you spend on this?" Duo studied the contraption that was the scanner. Despite how fast Heero explained the girl could read and understand things, he still found it hard to believe; he hadn't seen it himself.
"Long enough," the girl answered. "I'll show you how it works." She picked up a small battery box. "I used this to test out the scanner earlier." She connected the two wires to the place on the scanner that Wufei had showed her would enable the contraption to work. She then connected it to the port on the second laptop and flipped it open. "I'll scan you."
"You know, the idea that you've used an x-ray element in there makes me afraid you'll see things you shouldn't be seeing," Duo chuckled nervously as the girl pointed the scanner towards him.
She gave him a look. "I told you that it will give heatwave readouts to the computer." She tapped the wire connected to the computer.
"So, what do you see?"
"Your readings." She turned the laptop towards him, and Duo could see an image of his being displayed on the screen in various colors, sitting in the exact position he was in. When he moved an arm, the corresponding arm on the screen also moved.
"Hey, it's exactly like when my Gundam read data off another machine," Duo exclaimed. "Wicked!"
"That's what I've been trying to tell you." She rolled her eyes. "This computer is going to be our version of the AI. If this is how the faction wants to read our agents, then they will have several of these, or many, not just several, rewired to the AI itself. That will give read outs and so-called predictions. It can do a full three-sixty and x-ray through your own fighter to read whoever you're trying to trace, so your fighter doesn't always have to be facing it. That would be rather useless."
"Right." Duo nodded. It made sense now that he was seeing things.
"So." She typed a few commands on the computer. "If I told you right now that we have to put this into a box and make sure it works with the microchip for redirecting information to this laptop, what would you do?" She continued to type as Duo thought, studying the materials around him.
"I would-"
"Build four extra L-shaped slices of metal to it so you can screw it into a box to prevent it from knocking around, but first, make sure that it works with the microchip feeder."
Duo stared at the girl.
"Did it work?" Lily asked, putting the scanner down on the ground next to the laptop. She looked up to see the braided man staring at her, his jaw slack. "I take it as a yes." She smiled. "Now, just to get it at a distance."
Duo closed his mouth. "I sort of thought that there'd be like, a red laser beam scanning me or something."
She gave him a 'don't be dull' look, although to him it looked like she was adorably excited with the progress more than anything. "Don't be silly, if you do that, then they'll know they're being scanned."
"Ah," he chuckled. "How silly of me." He reached over to ruffle to girl's bangs. "Let's get to work."
~*~
Several hours later, about an hour away from lunchtime, Wufei was faced with Duo and Lily, the older and taller of the two holding the laptop as the younger and shorter one clutched his shirt although, she was careful not to wrinkle it too much.
"Please Wufei?" Lily pleaded. "You're going to be out on the field and your fighter's the one with the scanner! We need to know how far it will work, and if the turbulence of flying and things will short the scanner out!"
"You know, Wufei, we have to run a test drive or else it won't work," Duo echoed the plead. "You're leaving soon and if you do a test run we can tweak it a bit, Lily and I."
"I understand," Wufei sighed. "But why must it be me and you, Maxwell? And why must Lily come along?"
"Because I'm the one who understands the scanner and the laptop!" Lily declared. "And if you're going to have to do evasive maneuvers or predict someone who seems unpredictable, then Duo is the right person."
"Run your battle plan against me," Duo said firmly. "I'll double strap with Lily, and if she gets the readings properly, then I'll know how to deflect you. Then when we're done, we'll have lunch, then Lily and I will tweak the machine and you can consider what we did during the battle against your moves."
"Please Wufei?" Lily begged. "I need to test it out or we won't really know how long range it really will be."
"Why me?" Wufei muttered.
"Because another soldier won't be able to handle Shinigami!" Lily knew what buttons to push and she did so by giving Wufei an ego boost, even though it meant pushing Duo down to do so. Duo didn't seem to mind, but Wufei didn't fall for it.
"I'll send Heero out," Wufei growled. "I'll speak to Lady Une and get him to meet you both in the hangar, but don't take too long out there." He turned. "Maxwell, make sure you strap her in properly and don't be reckless. If she makes a mess, you're cleaning my fighter before I go out to battle. I'll stay behind and log onto the same port as the microchip and make sure I can record things at a distance."
"Yes sir!"
Thirty minutes later, the two fighters were hovering almost twenty miles from shore, cloaked in stealth mode. They had changed the ammunition to something akin to paint balls but instead of paint, it contained water; this made it easier to clean after the battle and was useful for actual hands-on training with the other agents. They had similar fighters and Duo recalled what Lily had said when they were setting up in the garage.
**Flashback**
"Trust me, Duo?"
"Sure, why?" Duo knelt.
"You have three screens to see your enemy, right?"
"Right."
"If I take one of those and put in the proper feed, it will read the scanner and I won't have to carry the laptop. Can you battle Heero with two screens?"
"Take the left one," Duo automatically said. "Besides, if it works, we should be reading each one of Heero's moves, correct?"
"Right!" She grinned. He made sure her flightsuit was on properly; when Wufei had gotten her uniform custom made, he had completed the outfit with flight suit and a working helmet including communications. Duo made sure that the girl was properly suited and that her helmet was secure before he donned his own.
"Shinigami calling Lilykins, do you read me?"
"Loud and clear Shinigami." The girl's voice was excited and Duo could see through her helmet the excitement in her eyes.
"Come on then, let's go." He tapped the girl once on the helmet, and helped her into the fighter.
**End Flashback**
Lily now sat on Duo's lap, double-strapped in with the girl so that her back was snug against his chest. His own feet were planted firmly on the floor controllers of the Ritzler X254 model fighter he was using. They had used two strips of cloth to tie the girl's ankles to his legs and she held onto his forearms, promising to let go and keep her hands on her seatbelt when he asked her to. To the girl, it was as close to piloting as she would ever get, at this age that is. She wiggled for a moment before she studied the fighter she knew Heero was in. A smaller screen flashed on and she grinned at the Japanese man.
"Ready when you are, nothing big because you've got Lily with you," Heero said.
"Roger that," Duo replied, and the screen vanished. "Ready, Lilykins?"
"Roger, Shinigami!" The girl nodded.
"Take this for me." Duo had been ready to put his gloves on, but now, he pulled off the watch that Heero had given him. "I don't usually wear watches in battle and this is going to be a fun one."
"It's too big for me," Lily said, trying to strap it to herself. "I'll drop it."
"Here." Duo slid the watch over the sleeve of her flight suit and buckled it to her upper arm so that the watched faced her. "Feel okay?"
"Yes. Thanks, Duo."
Duo turned his attention back to the screen where Heero's fighter made the first move. Immediately, he switched on the scanner and tugged on his gloves.
"Hands on my arms baby girl," he told her, immediately feeling her hands hold his forearms. "Here we go!" he crowed.
Heero's statistics appeared on the left screen and Lily studied it along with the scroll of text at the side and bottom as Heero's fighter cut close to Duo's and Duo sent his Ritzler off in the opposite direction before making a turn to face Heero again.
"He's going to head for your left, then twist under you and get you with his butt's guns," The girl informed him. Duo chuckled at her choice of words for the hind-torpedoes from Heero's fighter.
"I guess that means we go up in a three-sixty vertical loop and get him with two missiles!" Duo saw the fighter come towards him and he readied himself. A slight twinge of surprise hit him when Heero did exactly what Lily said he would do and Duo managed to score one of the missiles before Heero's fighter dropped away. They flew further away in order to gauge whether or not the scanner worked at a further distance and they were now almost half a mile away from Heero, who was closing in.
"I'm going to go straight for him," Duo informed the laughing girl. His lips twitched in a smile, but his concentration was on the fighter on his screen.
"He's going to sweep right," she said as the two fighters neared each other. "Get him with your left shooter."
"Roger that."
"Looks like we're gonna crash!" Lily said. Her heart was racing and he could feel it through their flight suits.
"Calm down Lilykins." The other fighter swerved right and Duo released a few shots from his left shooter, flipping his fighter neatly to avoid Heero's attempts to shoot him down. Duo crowed as they managed avoid getting shot and Lily cheered.
"Heero, we're going to go further," Duo said, calling up the communication link between the two fighters.
"Roger that, I'll go in this direction and we'll try again, for long range first."
"Roger."
If not for the visuals of the figher, Heero would not be able to see Duo's fighter. He aimed and locked onto his target, then let a few missiles fly.
"The readings are more general." Lily studied the screen and Duo glanced at it to see that there were fewer colors over Heero's projection on the screen. "How far are we?"
"Almost a mile."
"That's our limit," Lily said as Heero's fighter turned. "Missiles. Six of them."
"I'll lock on to them, then move forward at a fast speed, then send two more to get him."
"Let one of them hit you. Don't make Heero feel bad, yet. I'll tell him later."
Duo chuckled. "If you say so."
Lily only crowed in answer when a few moments later, Duo's maneuver allowed him to, once again, land a blow to Heero's fighter.
"Got your data?" Heero appeared on the small screen, though he didn't look miffed at the fact he wasn't getting any shots. He only looked concerned.
"Yes," Lily nodded. "Back to base?"
"Roger that." Heero's concerned face vanished.
TBC...
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