Disclaimer:  I don't own any of the Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within characters used in the story.  All belong to Square.

Author's Note:  This doesn't fit with any of my stories continuity-wise, though some of the incidents may sound familiar.  Anyway, I hadn't intended to start this yet, but then I realized how much I missed writing "Salvation."  Dang, I miss putting Hein and Aki together!  Then, I sat down and wrote almost the whole first chapter of this in one sitting instead of working on "Life's River Shall Rise," like I had intended…  and started chapter two of this, as well.  Does anyone want to buy a bunch of unreliable muses?

TERMINAL

Chapter One

A Twist of Fate

2063

"Doesn't anything on the damn station work?" Colonel Hein snarled as he was escorted to the nearest hangar.  His breath gusted around him in frosty puffs, and he was suddenly grateful for the whim that had made him select a black leather coat as his outfit of choice.

Chief Technician Scott Formain wasn't fazed by the colonel's attitude.  "You were warned.  The Zeus Cannon requires time to build.  And with most of the power being used in the labs, the cannon control room is a low priority."

Hein inwardly seethed.  Those stupid bureaucrats who ran the International Council didn't understand the need for the Zeus!  Yes, so maybe its construction had been a drain on the economy, but it would be worthwhile once the cannon was operational!  Not like these damned scientists, who hid in their labs, trying to "understand" the Phantoms.  Why bother?  He'd blast them all away with the Zeus, and then what would millions of dollars been unwisely spent on?

Assuming, of course, the cannon ever reached the operational stage.  After two years during which the project had been shut down, there were so many glitches in the systems that straightening them out would take almost another year!

This latest incident was merely one of many, though the first to actually force Hein to leave.  The control room had decided to shut down its life support systems, and the room had automatically sealed itself, leaving a handful of technicians to die of cold or asphyxiation before the doors could be pried open.  If the system hadn't been isolated from the Zeus Station's systems, everyone on the station could have died.

As a result, all unnecessary personnel were being evacuated.  Hein, despite his dubious rank as the man in charge of the Zeus, was deemed "unnecessary" and was therefore leaving the station a week earlier than planned.

"I apologize for the delay," Formain said stiffly.  "You will be informed when we have the control room ready again."

Hein just snorted.  "As ready as it was now?  And is this going to delay the replacement of the corrupted ovo-packs in the generators?"

"I don't know, Colonel," Formain said, struggling to hide his annoyance.

"The Council will not be pleased when I report this to them," Hein said.  He glared at the technician, making the man squirm under his piercing gaze.

"We'll get the information to them as quickly as possible," Formain said quickly.  "As soon as we assess the damage."

Hein didn't deign to reply; he joined the rest of his men who were boarding the shuttle.  This is perfect... Hein thought angrily.  They put me in charge of the cannon, and I can't even stay on board!

He was fuming as he took his seat well away from the rest of the soldiers, technicians, and scientists being evacuated.  The Council had trusted Hein to bring the Zeus Cannon project back on track, but all these incompetent fools kept bungling the process!  He'd been due to return planet side to play a role in the upcoming worldwide cleansing mission, but not like this.  Not as a failure.  He'd hoped to have something to tell those who doubted the project.  Something to quiet the naysayers once and for all.

Hein sighed and pulled a photo from his coat's inner pocket.  Shutting out the noise of the other passengers, he focused his eyes on the two figures in the picture, a woman and a little girl barely five years old.

"I'm doing it for you," he whispered, running a gloved finger over their images.  "So why is it all going wrong?"

*    *    *

Aki ran her fingers down Gray's rough cheek, lingering over his lips.  He smiled, a gruff expression but genuine nonetheless, and grabbed her hand in his own, then leaned into the caress.

"I'll miss you, Aki," he told her softly.  His eyes never strayed from her own, and she could see how much he meant it.

"I'll miss you too, my captain," she said, her voice a little husky.  Captain… She liked the way the word sounded.  Gray had tried for so long to achieve the rank, and now his dream had come true.  But with it had come a month long tour of duty in Chicago.  Gray was eager to see his hometown again, Aki knew, though he had no family left there after the city's partial fall twelve years ago.

"'My captain,'" Gray repeated.  "I like that..." He looked thoughtful for a moment.  "Think I should ask all of my men to call me that?"

Aki slapped him lightly on his arm.  "They can call you captain, but you're only my captain."  She smiled at him.  "I am glad that you made the rank.  But I wish you weren't going to be gone so long."

Gray pulled her into a tight embrace, and Aki leaned against his chest with her eyes closed for a moment before pulling away.  "I'll write to you as often as I can.  I'll call too, if they'll let me.  It's only a month," he said, attempting to reassure her but sounding as unhappy as she felt.

"I know," Aki whispered, leaning forward to kiss him.  It would be their last kiss before he departed, and Aki wanted to make it memorable.

They parted, both a little breathless.  "I need to get going," Gray said reluctantly, after a quick glance at the clock.  He hefted his suitcase, and Aki quickly straightened his collar, then walked with him to the door.  "Behave yourself," Gray said, a teasing grin on his face.  "Don't do anything dangerous."

Aki pouted.  "Gray, in this world, anything is dangerous."  She walked with him from his apartment to the jeep waiting to take him to the hangar.  Both fell silent as the corporal driving the vehicle directed Gray to place his suitcase in the back.  They didn't exchange another kiss before Gray took his place in the jeep, both having decided it would make him look unprofessional, but from the longing in his eyes before the jeep pulled away, Aki knew he wished they'd had a better good-bye.

It's not like he's going to be gone forever, Aki reminded herself sternly.  But still, she missed him already.

Don't do anything dangerous.  Gray's words haunted Aki.  They almost sounded prophetic.  Did he know what she and Dr. Sid had planned?  If he knew about the live Phantom that was arriving in New York in two days time, or knew what they'd planned with it, she doubted Gray would leave, even if it cost him his career.

*    *    *

After almost two months of zero gravity, the return of his full weight made Hein stagger.  He caught himself on the wall, leaning against the cold concrete until his body stopped shaking.

Fighting back the nausea, Hein carefully picked his way across the hangar, maintaining his balance with only the greatest of difficulty.  He needed to report to General Hudson, the man in charge of New York, as soon as possible.  It wasn't an interview Hein looked forward to.

He made it, still lurching drunkenly though feeling less wobbly on his feet.  Hein struggled to regain his balance, not wanting to seem weak in front of the general.  He strode up to the desk sergeant, who saluted him.  Hein ignored the gesture.  The sergeant ushered him into the office.

General Hudson, a rugged military man in his fifties, didn't bother to hide his dislike of the young colonel who had entered his office.  "So you goofed, I hear."

Hein struggled to control his anger.  "The Zeus Station is incomplete…  There were bound to be glitches."

"So I've seen from this report," Hudson said, with a languid gesture towards his console.  "Quite the height of technology, isn't it?"  He seemed amused by the station's deficiencies.  "You have your work cut out for you."

Hein just grunted.  "What would you like me to report?" he asked.  "You seem to have everything already."

"There's nothing I want from you, Colonel."  The general said the rank distastefully, making it clear what he thought of men who rose in rank without proving themselves in combat.  "But it seems I'm stuck with you for now, until the cleansing mission.  I guess I should put you to use.  That is, if you feel up to it?'

Hein refused to rise to the bait.  Clearly, Hudson knew he didn't adapt to gravity changes very well, and that he'd be ill for more than a day.

"Yes," the general said thoughtfully.  "There is something you could help me with tomorrow, something that has my men nervous.  They're transferring a live Phantom to one of the labs –"

Hein sat bolt upright.  "What?"  One of those abominations was going to be inside the city?  "How could you allow that?" he demanded.

"We need more information about the enemy.  Obviously, we can't study them in the field, so my men have captured a small one for Dr. Sid."

If General Hudson had hoped invoking the famous scientist's name would calm Hein, he was wrong.  "You can't do that!  It's not safe; it'll kill everybody!"

"I can allow that," Hudson's tone was cold.  "I want you to minimize the possibility that it'll wreak havoc.  If you think you can do that."

Hein snarled.  "I'll be there," he said.  "But make sure you have it on record that I don't approve of this."

"Noted," the general said calmly.

*    *    *

Aki couldn't contain her shudder of fear when she saw the Phantom for the first time.  Its humanoid body had become visible with its exposure to the bio-etheric barrier that enclosed it.  Aki had never really seen a Phantom this close before, and something about its asymmetrical features triggered a primal fear that had made herself, her fellow scientists, and even the soldiers with them, wary of getting close to it.

"Ugly bastard, isn't it?" Dr. Sid said, coming up behind her and laying a hand on her shoulder.  "Capable of destroying an entire city."  A sad expression flickered across Dr. Sid's face, and Aki realized he must have been remembering his wife.  Not surprising, really; at the sight of the Phantom, Aki's thoughts went to her long dead parents.  "We must be very careful," Dr. Sid murmured, checking the readouts on the specially constructed cage.  "We may have the general's permission, but did you see that colonel?  The one in the black leather?"  His lips twisted distastefully, and Aki agreed:  What a waste that coat was, when there were so few cows to supply leather these days.  "He's going to be watching us, waiting for us to make a mistake.  What we're doing here is dangerous.  If something goes wrong, the Council won't hesitate to shut us down.  It's not too late to back out," Dr. Sid said quietly.

Aki licked her lips nervously.  "You know you can't continue your studies without me," she said.  "I'm not afraid."

When Dr. Sid had first scanned her, he'd discovered there was something unusual about her spirit, something he'd never seen before.  A fragment of her spirit, when compared to a Phantom's, seemed to be the complete opposite of it.  Since Phantoms and spirits were energy, and opposing waves cancelled each other out, then it seemed as if Aki's spirit could hurt a Phantom.  If Dr. Sid's theory was correct, Aki's spirit could lead to more powerful weapons.

But they had to test it, first.  Aki was going to implant a piece of her spirit into the Phantom.  And she'd have to be close to it to do so, without a barrier between them.

"Another could go in there and place the spirit as well as you could," Dr. Sid reminded her.

"It's my spirit," Aki murmured, her gaze never leaving the Phantom's pacing form.  "I wouldn't ask another to do this for me."

"Are you ready?" Dr. Sid asked.  She knew he was unsurprised by her decision.  "We can have everything ready within the hour."

Aki took a deep breath, then slowly let it out.  "I'm as ready as I'll ever be," she said.

*    *    *

This is stupid… Why did General Hudson authorize the use of a Phantom in an experiment within the city?  Hein moved at his fastest walk, trying not to run through the hall of the USMF's scientific wing.  He'd heard from a trio of soldiers who were participating as guards that the experiment was going to begin in fifteen minutes… and he wanted to make damn certain some stupid scientist wasn't going to make New York another San Francisco.

Brushing past another soldier acting as sentry at the door, Hein ignored the man's startled salute and entered the lab, where Dr. Sid stood by a row of monitors next to a young woman Hein only vaguely remembered seeing earlier.

So they haven't begun yet.  Maybe I still have time to stop this foolishness.

Dr. Sid turned at his arrival, and barely hid the look of disgust on his weathered face in time.  "Colonel Hein," he said, and the woman beside him turned to face Hein as well.  "To what do we owe the pleasure of your company?"

The man's patronizing tone annoyed Hein.  "I want you to stop this experiment at once," he snarled.

"We have General Hudson's approval," the woman said fiercely, her dark eyes flashing in anger.

"Calm down, Aki," Dr. Sid warned.  "But Dr. Ross is right," he said to Hein.  "We do have the general's permission.  And if this experiment pays off, it could give us a new edge over the Phantoms."

"Or it could give them an edge over us when that thing breaks loose and destroys the city," Hein said angrily.

The console beside Aki bleeped, and she scanned the readouts that appeared on the screen.  "Barrier is powered up," she said.

"If you'll excuse us, Colonel, we have an experiment to perform," Dr. Sid said, turning his back on Hein to check the screen before him.

General Hudson had explained what he knew of the experiment to Hein:  The Phantom would be prodded into a specially constructed room where complex scanners could analyze the Phantom's spirit and monitor what passed for its vitals.  Meanwhile, someone had to enter the room to "infect" the Phantom with… something; the general hadn't known the details.  In other words, a scientist and two armed soldiers were going to enter a small, confined space with a Phantom.

"Since it seems that I can't stop you," Hein said through clenched teeth, "let me in there."

Even the solemn Aki looked stunned.  "We can't allow that," she said quickly.  "The two who are going with me are prepared for this.  You…" she faltered, but she met his eyes defiantly.  "You are an unknown variable.  You could ruin everything."

Hein ignored her and turned to Dr. Sid.  "I could ruin everything by bringing a stop to the experiment now," he said.  "At least this way, I can minimize the chances of disaster."

Hein had the satisfaction of seeing the elderly scientist swallow his anger and adapt a more subdued expression.  "All right.  But you are not to interfere with the experiment in any way, do you hear?  It's risky enough as is."

"I wouldn't dream of it," Hein said silkily.  "I want to let you dig your own grave."

Dr. Sid's thin hands clenched, and behind him Aki shot Hein a look of pure loathing.  It must gall her that I'm going to be in there to protect her.  Hein allowed a smug smile to slip across his features.

Then the expression faded.  I'm going in there with a Phantom… One of the bastards that killed my family.  At his sides, his clenched fists began to shake.  No…  I can do this!

Hein took the Nocturne offered him, numbly realizing it had been years since he'd fired one.  Target practice with a handgun couldn't prepare him for the half-remembered weight of the bio-etheric weapon.  He fingered the trigger as he tried to regain a feel for the weapon.  It wouldn't look good for a colonel to be unable to use the weapon.

"Do you have any armor?" Aki asked.  He didn't like her vaguely superior tone.  She could sense his fear…  And she sounds almost like me…  In her shoes, I wouldn't want me along, either.

"Do you?" Hein countered, eying the silver body suit favored by the scientists in the field.  It offered little in the way of protection.

Neither did the armor, for that matter.  Perhaps he shouldn't interfere.  The human race was losing, and anything Dr. Sid could offer would be of use.

Aki's nose crinkled slightly.  "I'm going in the way I am."  She turned her attention from Hein to the dart gun before her.  Its reconfigured injection dart carried what resembled an ovo-pack of this substance that was supposedly harmful to the Phantoms.  Hein didn't see the difference, really.

"Let's go," Aki said with a sharp nod to the armored soldiers, and a last scathing look at Hein.  Hein returned her gaze impassively.

Aki keyed the code that would form a break in the room's small barrier, allowing them to enter before closing off behind them.  Hein eyed the small space nervously, wondering how they were expected to survive a Phantom encounter.  Idiot woman!  You've signed your death warrant and brought us with you!

In front of them was the small enclosure where the Phantom was contained.  At Aki's command, it would be released.  Hein had asked why they couldn't just shoot the monstrosity through the barrier, but Hudson had just said something vague about this new spirit energy being diluted when passing through a barrier's energy.

With trembling fingers, Aki pressed the door-release button for the Phantom's cage, then backed hastily away.  So she's not as confident as she pretended to be.  That wasn't good…

The Phantom's hooting cry ripped through the air and the beast lunged forward.  It had been maimed by the soldiers capturing it, Hein had been told, by shearing off the extendible tentacles.

Aki wasted no time; she fired, and the bio-etheric dart hit the thing's chest dead center.  It slowed its charge, long, misshapen arms falling just short of Aki.  It screamed and began to thrash, and Aki backed further away.  Around Hein, the other soldiers readied their Nocturnes, but Aki lifted her hand, and they held their fire.

A thin film of blue spread through the creature's body, and for a moment it seemed that the creature was going to break apart.  Then its body glowed an angry red again, but it still shrieked as if in agony.

When it stilled, sinking through the floor slightly to the barrier beneath, Aki moved forward.

"Don't…" Hein began.

"It's dead," she said with surprise.  The Phantom lay limp, its glowing features slack.  It looked as if it should be solid, rather than formed from energy.  One ongoing theory about their origins was that the Phantoms had been created as a weapon and their features had been based off their creators.  "I think," Aki finished.

She turned away, but kept a wary eye on the creature.  "All right, Sid," Aki said.  "Let us – "

It had looked as if Aki had cleared the Phantom's body, but its arm, hidden from sight below the floor, suddenly lashed upwards.  Hein reacted without thinking; he was closest to Aki, and only he had seen the movement in time.  He sprang, knocking the scientist out of the way of the alien.

They landed on the floor, and as Hein struggled to his feet, he saw an amber glow just beneath his shirt that thrust slowly outwards as the Phantom's fingers pressed through his chest.  His whole body felt as if it were on fire, and the world around him began to fade slowly away as his spirit was drawn from him.

The last thing he heard as he slumped forward was the firing of the Nocturnes and the Phantom's screams, and then there was nothing.

To Be Continued…