Lost In Time

Part XII

December 28, AC196

"What the hell is that?" Duo exclaimed, staring at the alien-shaped object currently on the desk in front of him.

Quatre frowned as he closely examined the object. "I was told by Lady Une that this was the object that caused the disappearance of all those Mobile Suits."

"Sure doesn't look like something that would cause a lot of problems."

The pilot of Zero Four glanced back at the object, and couldn't help but agree with Duo on this. Its rectangular shape wasn't the least intimidating and its size wasn't exactly impressive either: a mere twenty-five inches in width and forty inches in length didn't seem like the kind of size that would be the cause of the recent 'events'. Certainly not if you compared it with the size of a Gundam.

"Never judge a book by it's cover."

Deathscythe's pilot scowled at Trowa. "Well, thank you for those wise words, Master Yoda, but I'd figured that one out myself already. Now, the words I would really appreciate-"

"Duo, please," Quatre pleaded. "Now's not the time. And by the way, Trowa's right, size does matter in this case. Who knows what it might do if activated?"

"I don't know, say – vaporise eighteen Mobile Suits in less than one day?"

Sandrock's pilot sighed. You just couldn't win a argument with Duo Maxwell. "Not if it's power source is depleted, like Lady Une indicated earlier."

"So?" Zero Two retorted. "Can't we just refill the damn thing and get it on with?"

Quatre sighed again. "It's not that easy, unfortunately-"

"If you two would stop bickering," Trowa suddenly interrupted, "-maybe you would notice that it might be less difficult than we originally thought."

"Oh yeah?" Duo replied sarcastically. "How's that?"

"I think it draws it power from a fusion reactor, such as the one installed in-"

"... every Gundam," Quatre breathlessly replied.

"But Lady Une said it ran out of fuel, right?" Duo inquired. "That doesn't make any sense... why would it run out of fuel if it doens't run on fuel in the first place?"

Present Day

Stargate Command, hidden deep in the bowels of Cheyenne Mountain – situated in the middle of Colorado Springs – had never, in its previous years of existence, seen so much visitors as today. Although it was mostly NORAD that suffered most of the consequences brought forth by the incriminating article published earlier that day, most of the SGC-personnel were edgy. And worse.

"NO! I refuse to be put on hold any longer!" Major-General Hammond shouted, his face nearly as red as the phone he was holding in his right hand. "Give me the president NOW!"

'One moment, please...'

General Hammond sighed. This was the ninth time he'd been told to wait another moment... and he still hadn't talked to the President yet.

'I'm putting you through right now, sir.'

"Thank you," Hammond replied. At last!

There was a click, and the General was entertained with some classical music (he thought it was Beethoven) for a couple of seconds, when suddenly a familiar voice came through.

"George, how nice hearing from you again! How are things down there in the Springs?"

The General sighed again. "I'm afraid things aren't going so well today, Mr. President. I don't know if you've heard it already, but after this morning's Colorado Springs Courier..."

Two levels above, three hours later, the situation hadn't improved much.

"No! NO! Don't touch that!" Sam Carter yelled to one of the Marines who'd been sent by the Pentagon as 'reinforcements' to contain the crisis situation - that was quickly escalating. Rumor was that no less than fivehundred inhabitants of the Springs had already assembled at the gate to Cheyenne Mountain, looking for official confirmation from the military. (Why the Marine was twenty-six levels underground instead of aiding his collegues at the surface, Sam didn't know)

"Sorry, ma'am," the man quickly apologised, as he put a strange looking object back on a shelve in the Major's laboratory, where it belonged.

"It's alright," Sam sighed, trying to focus on her work, but lacking the encouragement to do anything at all. "Guess we're all a little on edge lately."

"Yeah," the Marine confirmed. "Certainly after this morning's newspaper – I mean, what a rush! I never would've guessed something big like this had been covered up by the government. I mean, I knew something-"

"Wait a minute," Sam looked up from her work. "That's it! I've got it!"

"Huh?" the Marine looked more than a little confused, while the Air Force officer rushed past him, towards the elevators, and yelled after her: "What's it? What did you get?"

Meanwhile, Daniel and Teal'c were having a field day with keeping all sixteen Serpent soldiers confined to their quarters.

"What's going on?" one of the soldiers asked.

"What's all that fuzz about?" another one added.

The archeologist sighed. "Apparently, a local newspaper revealed classified information about this base and a couple of pictures of your friend's entry into Earth's atmosphere. So, so far nothing for you to worry about..."

"And what about our suits?" yelled yet another soldier.

This time it was Teal'c who answered. "I am confident your Mobile Suits are as safe as they can be. General Hammond has sent as many reinforcements to the woods as he can spare at this moment."

"He'd better," the Yellow Squadron commander muttered. "He'd better..."

"Major!" Jack O'Neill exclaimed, as a certain blond scientist almost knocked him down on the way to the General's office. "Calm down! At this speed, you'll get a heart attack sooner or later."

"Sorry, sir," Carter apologised. "But I think I've found a way to get us out of this mess."

"What?" the Colonel replied with a hint of sarcasm. "You found a way to a – send eighteen Mobile Suits back to their rightful time, b – come up with a credible cover story for this leak of gigantic proportions, c – found the damn mole who gave away classified information in the first place and d – discovered how to defend ourselves from Apophis' imminent surprise attack?"

"Just B," the Major answered with a grin. "Give me enough time though, and I might find an answer to the other three problems as well."

"Well then – lead the way, Major," Jack said, as he gestured towards the General's office.

The Briefing Room however, was unusually quiet. The two Gundam pilots that were to be interrogated by the General himself, were nowhere to be seen.
"Damnit, Yuy," Wu Fei muttered as they were – once again – climbing up the elevator shaft. "Are you sure about this?"

Heero only grunted an affirmative 'Hn' as he passed the Level 21, painted on the wall. To be honest, he wasn't really sure about anything at the moment, but sitting in that damned briefing room while the rest of the base was in a chaos (and that was an understatement), didn't exactly look like the brightest thing to do.

Of course, climbing up an elevator shaft of a top-secret facility, maybe wasn't such a bright thing to do either – but hey, he didn't hear anyone complain (except for Wu Fei).

As the elevator was suddenly activated, both Gundam pilots pressed themselves against the wall to let the elevator slide by, but unfortunately the thing had to make a stop at the twenty-first floor (Figures, Heero thought) – and as such, the two pilots overheard a conversation they probably weren't meant to overhear.

"...don't know what to do with those Mobile Suits in the forest. Plus, our buddies in the Briefing Room!"

"Yeah, I thought about that too, but-"

Zero's pilot could clearly distinguish two different voices: that of the grey-haired Colonel and the blonde Major who'd interrogated him earlier that day. They were about to exit the elevator when a third voice joined them. That of the General.

"I'm afraid that's out of our hands at the moment, Colonel."

"General – we were just looking for you!"

"As I was looking for you two, Colonel, Major," Hammond replied. "I just got off the phone with the President, and I've got some bad news. After a meeting with the Joints Chiefs of Staff, they've decided to order the immediate destruction of the eigtheen Mobile Suits..."

December 28, AC196

"So, what you're saying is," the Deathscythe pilot tried to comprehense Quatre's explanation. "That it just needs to be recharged? Like some kind of battery?"

Quatre shrugged. "Essentially, yes. I think it was designed to last only, like, fifteen to twenty times – depending on what it does, of course. That's probably why it not only 'vaporised' Heero and Wu Fei, but the entire squadron of Barton Foundation suits as well, before 'running out of fuel'."

Duo contemplated this for a moment. "Alright, next question. What does it do? I mean, a small thing like that couldn't possibly wipe out two Gundams and sixteen Serpent suits!"

"To be honest – I have no idea. But what's more, why would a device like that be installed in a Gundam? Both Altron and Wing Zero wouldn't really need it, right?" the blonde pilot added.

"And if the device does indeed draw its power from a Gundam fusion reacter," Trowa interrupted, "Wouldn't it make sense that a device like this would be installed in every Gundam?"

Sandrock's pilot looked up. "I guess it would... but I built Wing Zero using the Winner resources in the first place. I would certainly remember if something like this was on the blueprints!"

"Then there's only one viable explanation left, right?" Duo suddenly looked worried. "It had to Wu Fei's."

"It's all nice and well to know who was responsible for this mess in the first place," Trowa replied. "But that's not getting us anywhere. We need to know what the thing does."

As Trowa finished his phrase, the three pilots suddenly looked at eachother in realization. In order to find out what the device did, there was only one thing to do...