File 10.3 - Forced Plays

“What?!” yelped the team leader from behind his monitor. It got the attention of most of the staff in the room. “There’s not enough time, sir!” With his conference happening over the headset, no one knew what was happening.

‘What’s going on now?’ thought Paul, ‘I really don’t like the look in his eyes.’ Sliding over to Natalie, he kept a passive ear out in the background. “How’s Shizuka?”

“Panicked and confused. She doesn’t understand why it’s not working. Not that any of us know any better.” All of the data said things were green. The fact that the activation went off successfully last night should have meant that everything was fine. A minimum sync rate was needed to get the connections made, naturally, but if she established it once that minimum was actually lower than the initialization. “It’s the mind, I’m no psychologist or doctor. So I don’t know why it’s not working.”

“Part of it is a state of mind, right?”

“As much as I understand it. But I don’t really know what’s wrong with her. I’m not her trainer, CO or mother. We’ve hardly had much of any interaction.”

“You’re going to be seeing each other a lot in the future, no time like now to start on that relationship.”

“There’s hardly much I’m going to be able to bridge in the moment to change things.”

“She’s a fourteen year old alone inside a coffin of metal and circuitry. She just needs a friend.”

Natalie looked down at the cockpit feed. She knew what Paul was saying. It made sense. It just wasn’t that easy. Her mind turned back to the activation test. Seeing the numbers and knowing that they did to other Potentials. What she saw happening to Shizuka inside the machine left her shaken. ‘If I walk her through and it activates too low… The system could turn her into a mindless puppet…’

Before she could come to a moral decision to push Shizuka forward, someone higher up made the call for her. The call with the committee finished and the team leader called out to everyone for attention. “We’re halting the mock battle.”

A sigh of relief came from Natalie. ‘I won’t have to force her. We can take our time…’

“I need Od work crews to scramble immediately! We’re equipping it with live ammunition and getting it to the launcher! I need it in the air in sixty seconds!”

“Launching? But the test!”

“We’re switching to a real combat test! The Njord and Skadi are disadvantaged right now due to their size and mobility, only the Od has the maneuverability.”

“You can’t be serious?!”

“You’ve got forty-five seconds before launch!”

Paul’s hands clenched tightly at the sudden new orders. However, he knew they come from well above any of them. There was nothing that they could do about it. He turned around to look out the window. “Ed! Change of plans, the Od will be launching immediately to aid the Njord and Skadi in battle!”

“Eh? Did I hear ya right?”

“Yeah, transport’s already in route to get you to the launcher. You remember the sequence for mid-flight equipment changes?”

“Mostly.”

“You’ll be getting live practice, the work crews are going to be loading you up on the move! You’ve got thirty seconds before launch!”

“Wha tha hell?!”

“These are orders, team’s here now. I’ll walk you through the process!”

“Dammit…”

Natalie looked away from the sudden chaos stirred up by the change in orders. She hung the pad at her side for a moment looking at the team leader. It was plain to tell that there was more. “What about the Freya and Shizuka?”

“They’re to remain on standby in the launcher fully loaded.”

“But the Freya isn’t even activated!”

“I’m aware, those are the orders.”

‘So you’re telling me to make Shizuka activate the Freya by any means…’ A grimace carved through her lips at the thought. She wanted to protest the orders, but there was nothing she or even he could do about them. They came directly from the committee, people that didn’t understand what was really happening down below them. It was easy to issue orders like they could just happen with a snap of a finger.

Turning towards the windows to look at the Freya being picked up by the transport already, worse thoughts came to her. ‘They wouldn’t launch her without being activated just expecting it to work when tossed in? They wouldn’t do that would they?’ She wasn’t too sure what was going on. In all of the chaos and insanity such fears seemed frighteningly possible to her.

Natalie jumped out of the monitoring station going after the transport. She pulled the pad back up connecting with Shizuka. “Shizuka, can you hear me?”

“Yes. I’m sensing movement, what’s going on?”

“I’m coming to you. They’re moving the Freya back to the hangar.”

“Is it because I couldn’t start the machine?”

“Things have changed. I’ll explain it to you in person.”