Re: While in the Gambit.
Thirty six hours from last post:
The day starts with everyone waking up and getting ready for the day ahead of them. The commanding officers dress in uniforms getting ready for a meeting with commander Rockatansky. Meanwhile Thirteen and Lt. Grey dress in their flight suits for a training exercise.
Meanwhile the others (Skyrah, Iphigenia, Matt, Severian, sillia,and Kariza) rise and dress in their civilian clothing and get ready for their twenty four hour liberty pass to the Marcus Antonius. They take their time to dress up a bit and grab their overnight bags before heading to the Hanger. As ordered they report to the hanger at 0900 to a wait transport to the Marcus Antonius for the twenty four hours. They reported to Deck Chief Draven, who led them to the transport alpha beta linked and prepping to take off. Once aboard the beta, they are told to strap in and standby.
As Cerise, Miriana and Kaarle enter observation room zero one they see commander Rockatansky standing in front of a two way mirror looking down into a brightly lit room with twelve tubes lining three walls opposite of a door. There are twelve blank monitors on the wall, to the right of the mirror. Both Thirteen and Michelle are standing just passed the threshold frozen in place with primal fear, as they take in the room which had them trapped, in their memories of another place. The high ceiling hid the occupants behind the high mirrors.
Without words, Commander Rockatansky signals the others to approach the mirror so they can watch the two below. Miriana feels a cold paralyzing sensation run down her spine, “Listen” he says in his usual cold tone as he reaches down pressing a button.
A female voice booms over the rooms PA as a small table rises from the floor. “Thirteen, Michelle Remove your cerebral implants now!” Thirteen’s hand reaches behind his head sub-consciously as if he is noticing the implant for the first time. Indeed with his memory missing, it could be his first time. Michelle on the other hand was shacking uncontrollably as she pleaded with the voice; “Please, I don’t want to remove it.”
A short thirty minutes later the others are on the flight deck of the Marcus Antonius and given the quick rundown of the ship rules. They are walked to the small township of the colonist. It’s about the size of a medium shopping mall that is three stories high with open floor space to allow those to look up or down to the other levels. The center of the ground floor level had a small skating ring, arcade, and a bunch of play activities for all ages, the second floor held shops and several service shops to get various luxury services such as ones nails, hair and even massages which are available all hours of the day. More shops and restaurants occupy the third floor along with the ships small three auditorium movie theater. The ceiling had a replicated natural sky which at this time was showing mid morning. At the far end is the soldiers Hotel, the place where the troops of the fleet get to truly let their hair down.
Back on the Gambit those in the observation room would miss understand Michelle. However the female voice on the PA was commanding and firm; “Michelle, you made your choice. Remove the plug.” In tears Michelle begs; “Please, I don’t want to do this, PLEASE!” Thirteen feels like he is in some distant dream as he watches Michelle while he fingers his own implant. The voice returns; “MICHELLE, remove the plug now or suffer the consequences!” Thirteen is once again told to remove his plug as he watches Michelle remove hers. Reluctantly they followed their orders and placed them in the table and taking the new ones offered and placing them into the cerebral jacks. The Voice returned and instructed them to climb into the Mecha synchro tubes. Thirteen despite his feeling of anxiety instinctively climbed into the first one to open feeling as if a nightmare was just about to pounce upon him. Monitor four suddenly activates in the observation rooms, Michelle on the other hand, again pleaded with the voice in tears visibly shaking; “Please, I do not want to do this, I was transferred, I don’t want to be a part of your experiment anymore.” Again the Voice commanded Michelle to enter the plug. And when she began to refuse, two NERV medics enter the room.
Those on the Marcus Antonius enter the Hotel where the Receptionist smiles at them as they approach the reception desk. She greets them with a genuine warm friendly greeting. She hands each of them a room key to their own room and three movie tickets for the theater. While in a civilian house the rooms would be considered small, here in the depth of deep space where they are crammed into the same size room with five others, it felt like a mansion. In the fifteen by ten foot space a TV hung on the wall, a queen size bed, a small table with two sitting chairs and a private bath with an actual bathtub made this place perfect for any soldier. There were even fake windows which kept time with the ships day and night settings.
However on the Gambit, even Miriana is visibly disturbed as the NERV personnel enter the room; Why could Michelle not just follow orders, she thought to herself. Cerise, Kaarle are awestruck as they watched what was going on below. Cerise is surprised that the Commander just stood there in cold silence after his revelation with her just days before.
Michelle was yelling at the two medics to stay back as they approached her, as one pulled a syringe out. The voice once again returning to the PA: “Cadet Grey, this is your last chance, get into your synchro tube now or you will be returned to the NERV and face disciplinary actions." Those watching could hear Commander Rockatansky whispering “I’m sorry”. The feelings in the room was tense and gut wrenching as they watched her climb into a tube which caused monitor 9 to come to life. The synchro tubes entries closed and the two were in complete darkness for several moments before a red light lit their faces. Michelle can be heard begging for her release, while thirteen sat in complete silence.
The Marcus Antonius finds the group checked in and ready to head out to get some food and look around. They find a great café style restaurant which served brunch. They each savored every bite of the nonmilitary food which is cooked to each of their different taste. It was like heaven to them. As the group sets out to explore the shops, they are approached by a little girl in a dress made to look like a candy wrapper, holding a tray of chocolate treats. She asked them if they would like to sample a taste of heavenly treats that her father makes. The treats are indeed excellent chocolate with different flavored centers.
Those on the Gambit are finding their day less pleasant as those on the Marcus. Commander Rockatansky says to the assembled group; “this is going to be hard to watch. But I want you to fully understand what is happening since your team is going to be experiencing this more then you may like. You are not to stop it or try to interfere with it. Your careers will be over in a second if you do. But understand what these kids will be going through for the rest of their lives.” He says looking directly at Miriana as he said the last part before continuing; “as their commanders know that they are always suffering.” With that he returns to his silence.
The two in the synchro tube become ridged as they felt the first sensations entering their brains, their faces contorting and twisting in many different forms of terror as their worst fears become the primary thoughts in a non-stop scene. For Thirteen tears begin to flow as his mind begins to see his fears come to life, he is abandon, disgraced, discarded by those in his team, his friends, even those in the control rooms. Michelle can be heard repeatedly saying no, no, stay away, as she is used as a medical experiment, constantly being poked and prodded, her mind being taken over by some foreign entity. Being forced to kill those she loves and cares about. Then as if they both snap, they scream in pain before the look of pure hatred appears on their faces as if they would kill anything that moved. Miriana sub-consciously knows they are fighting for their very lives. And if they should fail in this process they would not survive. Only the strong live through it.
The Marcus is filled with the great smell of fresh baked bread as it is being pulled out of a hot oven. Those window shopping find the shops are filled with fun toys and clothing, small trinkets and some of the high end objects which most soldiers’ desire. The shop keepers are all friendly and helpful to their needs. The hobby and craft shops have many different activities to help kill anyone’s boredom on long voyages. While it is not surprising that most the desired goods are generally twice as expensive as those of freedom station shops. But unlike the Robotech factory, goods are on limited supplies here. So no one complains about the prices.
Back on the Gambit, in Lab Zero Zero, the mecha synchro tubes open up and their two occupants look as if they just step out of hell. The Voice booms over the PA system once more: “Good work guys, your synchro ratio is still in the high 80’s percentile range, you are now synced with your new mecha. Please step out of your tubes now.” Thirteen notices Michelle still sobbing in her tube as he climbs out of his tube unable to stop the sudden urge to heave up his breakfast all over the floor. The Voice repeats the order for Michelle to exit her tube. One of the two NERV medics reached behind his back as they approach her as she continued refusal to obey the PA’s voice. She screams at them to get away from her and despite his desire to assist his teammate, Thirteen finds himself frozen in place. When the first Medic is struck by Michelle’s fist he steps back as the other removes a pistol and shoots her.
The Old movie playing on the Marcus’s theaters is a flic about a young girl named Sarah trying to rescue her baby brother from the Goblin King named Jared. The group discusses the movie The Labyrinth while having a great lunch at the taco stand, a small Mexican food eatery which was quite the popular place to eat. They are laughing and making jokes unaware of what is happening back on the Gambit. They discuss which of the restaurants they would eat at for the evening meal.
Looking down from his place in the Observation room, Commander Rockatansky watches as the medic fires a powerful sedative into Michelle’s chest, with an expression of anger. He listens to the voice tell Thirteen to return to his quarters. Which he reluctantly follows as his question about Michelle is ignored. The voice tells the medics to bring Michelle back to the NERV.
The officers standing next to the Commander are shocked when he contacts the female voice, his voice and confidence was domineering as he spoke. “Misato, tell your men to hand her over to Sgt. Franklin or have Sinji Ikari and Rei Ayanami report to my office within the next hour.” The female voice sounded angry with her reply; “That’s Captain Katsuragi, commander and she has showed signs of catastrophic failure and needs to be reevaluated immediately.” His lips twist into a smile as if he was winning some type of battle of wills as he continued; “Misato, I cannot stop you from taking Michelle, however I have mission command and I am allowed to have any twelve GK’s I desire. As I have stated I expect to have the two replacements pilots within the hour. Or tell your men to surrender my pilot at once. I know you’re in contact with them right now.”
The Female voice of Captain Misato Katsuragi can be heard receiving commands from some strange male voice before she replies for the last time. “Your request to have your pilot handed over to your men has been granted for now Commander! But this will not happen again.” His last response to her is a brief one. “Thank you captain.”
Commander Rockatansky turns to the officers; “Make sure your pilots are ok and let them rest for the night. Now if you will excuse me, I have to go deal with this situation.” With that he leaves the room.
The second movie aboard the Marcus is a sci-fi B flic called Moon 44. A show of space helicopters trying to protect a corporate mining company from their competitors. The group makes fun of it as they eat their dinner at the fancy steak house. Their drinks are good and strong, the food cooked to perfection and the service is five stars. They decide to go and do their own things afterwards and enjoy some private time. They find their rooms to be a pleasant time to be enjoyed as privacy is rare on the Gambit. They report to the Hanger to find their alpha beta being prep to return them to the Gambit feeling refreshed and happy. They are all smiles as they touch down on the Gambits decks.