When the blue flash of the matter transport ended, Anika Callan stood holding a sleeping Heero in her arms. She pulled him to the waiting bed near the wall of her Antarctic base. Carefully, Anika arranged Heero’s prostrate form on the cot. Both shorter and easier than I was expecting. Grandmere Luczia was right; he is such a cold fish. He’ll turn into a frozen one if he stays here in the cold too long! That ugly tank top can’t be warm. She turned away from the unconscious Gundam pilot to the stasis box behind her. After carefully programming it to hold them for two centuries and six years, Anika hurriedly worked her way around the ice cave collecting the assorted items she had brought with her and deposited them into her machine. She then wheeled her sleeping prize into the framework. She began the countdown and sat down on the bed to worry. Not much fazed Anika anymore, but her knowledge of exactly how this could go wrong made her uncomfortable. If the controls had a faulty connection from the cold, the stasis machine would still freeze her and her possessions in time but there was no way to tell when they would escape the field. And if they were released too late or too early, all of her plans would be worth nothing. Or the even bleaker possibility of a small nuclear explosion could occur. At least she would never know if that happened.

         “Three, two…” Anika braced herself for a shock her subconscious expected. Around her, the background simply shimmered briefly and transformed from the quiet blue shades of ice to the pristine white paint of a laboratory. She exhaled heavily and unsteadily exited the machine. Picking up the phone on the wall, she spoke to the operator. “Hello, Raoul. Tell the medics to get into the Nursery. Plan Found Egg has hatched and we’ve got a fledging in here.” Almost instantly, four middle-aged men rushed in shouting questions at each other. Two serene and amused women followed them. Anika politely excused herself from all of them. She staggered down the hall to the nearest refresher and promptly threw up into the sink.

         “Here, Cal’. Let me help.” Two rough, strong hands swiftly took her bundle of hair from her and held it far away from her neck while she vomited again, all without touching her skin. Anika ran the water to rinse the vomit down the sink and then washed her face.

         “Thanks, Lance. How’d you to find me?”

         “Oh, the guys and I remembered how sick you got after the test runs, so Mick sent me to prowl the refreshers around here about an hour before you were due back.” The mechanic seemed to blush behind his grease stains.

         She smiled at the thought of the large burly man behind this. Good ol’ Mikhail. Always got something to help when she needed it. He was the closest thing she had to family since the Neoz Wars came. Not that ‘Neoz Wars’ was the best name for what happened. More like ‘Neoz Waltzing Over Resisting Armies and Completely Destroying the Populace.’ At that time, the first move made by Neoz in the nations they conquered was to assign their conquered people to ‘duties.’ Any who resisted were either shot outright or simply disappeared. Anika’s parents had been scientists in Madagascar who refused to take part in the wars. When their laboratory resisted an assignment to a munitions factory, soldiers assaulted the facility and the Callans vanished. But not before they helped their nine year old daughter escape to their old friend Mikhail at the Nova Traffic Hub. Mikhail had taken Anika in as if she were his own and began teaching her basic flight, and then later mechanics, to distract her from her past. The memory of his kindness during those first hard years had been the only thing to keep her going during the training with Neoz. His kindness and the knowledge that the prize student of The Khush’nada Training Facility would one day be razing it to the ground. Anika’s smile grew feral with anticipation. Soon, soon…She shook the thoughts from her head. “What was that you just asked?”

         “The Gundam pilot. When will he come around?”

         “Oh. Him. I don’t know, an hour? That’s the normal effect of Sleepsoft.” She faked a nonchalant shrug. Anika didn’t believe in showing affection. It gave men funny ideas when they thought you had a preference. She thought of that proctor during her second year at KTF. Fortunately for her, the ‘accident’ occurred before he could come back after her. Even she had been surprised by the effects of a pulse welder explosion.

         “Well, I ought to get back to the hanger. The boys’ll be wanting to hear from me.” Lance waved as he walked down the hall. Anika lounged by the ‘fresher door until he turned the corner, then hurriedly walked to the infirmary. After checking in with the nurse, she waltzed into Heero’s room. As he was still sleeping, she sat on the floor by the bed and leaned back to wait. She had almost dropped off herself when she heard him moan. Quickly, she turned around to where her face was level with his. He shook his head and turned towards her. He opened his eyes and yelled.

         “Good morning. Sleep well?” She asked, all wide-eyed innocence. He groaned and held his forehead.

         “What did you give me?”

         “Just a dose of Sleepsoft. The headache will soon pass. Don’t get up yet, you’ll be sick! You’ve only been out for an hour or so our time. Of course, it’s been that plus a few dozen decades real time.”

         Heero looked at the ceiling, then closed his eyes again. “Duo.”

         “Pardon?”

         “Duo put you up to this, didn’t he? How like him.”

         “No, Duo has nothing to do with this. He’ll never even know.”

          “Right. This just happens to be exactly the sort of thing he would do. Even your costume is something he’d pick out.”

         “Heero, I’ve never met Duo. He died before my parents were born. This is a future two hundred and six years from when I brought you. Like I said, this wasn’t Duo’s idea.”

         He looked back at her. “I don’t believe you.” She sighed resignedly and looked him in the eye. There he saw only his reflection, but something about her sad gaze made him change his mind. “Yet. Get me out of this bed and I’ll listen to you explain.”

         She smiled at this and jumped to her feet. He took her gloved hand and moved to the edge of the bedside. Carefully, he stood up. The world swam as he staggered against the girl. She softly swore and muttered something about nurses and kitchen knives. Heero steadied himself, refusing to give into the waves of nausea. I will not be this weak. Not in front of her. Great. Now I sound like Wufei. He pushed away and walked to the door on his own. In the polished steel, he saw her amused face. Again, her sheer confidence infuriated him. She is just so smug! Heero paused at the door and turned his head. “Who are you anyway?”

         “I’ll tell you that along with everything else. First, let’s just get you past Nurse Jinsu before she attacks me for disrupting her patients.”

* * * *

         After a few minutes of arguing with Nurse Jinsu in the waiting room and few more spent traveling through the myriad halls and lifts of Base 1, Heero and Anika found themselves in the canteen chatting over some tea, and waiting for their lunch.

          “…And so I injected you with the Sleepsoft so that I could be certain you came.”

         “You kidnapped me.”

         “Pfft. Semantics.” Anika waved off the issue with her hand and began searching for another packet of real sugar. Heero decided it wasn’t worth it to push the argument when she obviously didn’t care. He had other interests to address as well.

         “You aren’t as formal now.”

         Anika winced at the comment. “Um, well, I get formal when I’m a little nervous. And I was invading your space.”

         “I see. “ He paused. “You know, you look familiar.”

         “About time you noticed. You certainly spent enough time with my ancestors. Why do they never have anything but saccharine? Everybody uses sugar, they know that.”

         “Your ancestors?” Heero prompted.

         “Noin and Peacecraft. Blighted newts! That was the last pack and I just spilt it! Newts, newts, newts!”

         Heero pondered her statement. “So they were involved after all.”

         “Yep. I get it from both sides of the family. Tree sorta branches for about eight generations, then runs right back into itself. Weird when you think about it, but not really. I mean, that was over a hundred and fifty years ago right? Another odd fact: until I grew my hair out, some people said I looked just like Luczia. Apparently I didn’t get hardly any of the piloting instincts, though. I guess that I’m really more of a mechanic slash engineer. Actually, I designed most of the Gundam you’ll get.” She looked away from the table. “Ah, here’s lunch. Hope you like roast beef!” She swiped a payment card through the robotic server and it placed the trays in front of them.

         Heero waded through all she had said and focused on her last sentence. “There is a Gundam?”

         Anika grinned at him. “Why, yes. Whatever did you think we wanted you for? Knitting?”

         Heero’s glare intensified. “That’s it. I want to know exactly why I’m here. Tell me or I’m leaving.”

          Anika laughed aloud. “Leaving for where? All right, all right. I’ll tell you everything I know. Geez, someone could get hurt by that look. Don’t spread any of this! Some of it not even the innermost know.”

         So why do you? Heero gave Anika an appraising look, and returned to stirring his tea. “I’m listening.”

* * * *

         “As you know, two hundred years ago the world adopted the policy of total pacifism. Eventually, all weapons were destroyed and the world organized into a republican government similar to that of the ancient United States of America. But the problem with total pacifism is that it only takes one man to destroy it. Or in this case, one computer.

         Scientists had developed computer programming to the level of art by AC 300, and were approaching sentience by the 350s. The final jump was made in 375 by one Monsieur Edmund D’Louchraine. He developed Artificial Intelligence and created a supercomputer capable of the complete range of human thought. But this machine was incapable of emotion. Determined to replicate all of humanity in machine, D’Louchraine developed a way to transfer a human personality and memories into a computer. Thus, the computer would respond to stimuli the same way a man would. It could feel love, hate, sorrow, and joy. Or lust for power.

         “At the same time m. D’Louchraine was creating his Prometheus, the world was becoming fascinated by the past. Specifically, your era. History moves in circles, eh? So does fashion. It had become all the rage to dress like you, to talk like you, and even to live like you. And D’Louchraine was no different. He had become fascinated by a famous leader of that time, Treize Khushrenada. This may seem harmless to you, but what I haven’t told you is that m. D’Louchraine not only devised Artificial Intelligence, he also designed the time displacement devices I used to get you here. That’s right, you guessed it. Our dear friend D’Louchraine went back and copied Treize’s personality for his most powerful computer.

         “But Treize was a oily bolt, and the computer copy of him was no less than the original. With instant access to the complete history of the current times, the Khushrenada Copy (KC) decided to play dumb and bide its time. Only, D’Louchraine knew the true capabilities of the machine, but he concealed them in a strange bout of hero worship. With the aid of its creator, KC began constructing Mobile Dolls and recruiting aggressive dissidents via the comp-net. Finally, in 397, it made its move and seized control of its county, Rhodesia. Those chafing under the role of pacifism flocked to KC’s banner of Neoz and began to conquer all of the Earth. The surrounding areas fell without much of a fuss, but eventually the people managed to scrap together some defenses. But it almost wasn’t worth it to fight, because Neoz weaponry was so advanced they would win anyways.

         “The resistance did slow down the expansion of Neoz, though. It hasn’t managed to expand past the African continent yet and lately efforts to revolt have distracted it. But it seems almost as if KC was saving something up for one last grand assault. So that’s why we need your help. It was, and is, suspected that KC is creating a Gundam suit and plans to transfer part of its consciousness to it. And we could not stand against it unless we have a Gundam and a skilled pilot of our own. Most of the young people have been pre-conditioned against violence (another fad that arose; don’t get me started), and none of the older men have experience controlling a weapon of any sort. So we decided to use the technology used for KC to bring back the only men we thought could withstand its efforts.”

         Heero, who had said nothing during her explanation, suddenly broke in. “Men? I thought you only brought me.”

         “The original plan was to design a Gundam based on historical documents and I, the youngest of the designers, was to pilot it. An agent planted in Neoz Headquarters managed to sneak out the latest versions of the infusion technology before he was uncovered. Using them and the time displacement apparati, we secretly copied the personality of Treize’s archenemy and imbued the Gundam with it. I took it for a test flight, upon which the Gundam decided that I was not a good enough pilot and refused to operate for me or by itself. The infusion of the personality was irreversible and so instead of having to steal together another Gundam, it was decided that it was just simpler to capitulate to its demands for you. Besides, we had found two stasis boxes dating back to your era so we halfway expected something like this to happen. So I was sent back to get you, and, well, here we are!”

         Heero’s eyes had narrowed for the second time in this conversation. “Who is this Gundam?” He had a sneaking suspicion that he already knew the answer to his question.

         ”Actually, you know him quite well. Just not quite like this. How to put it…Let’s just say…you’re going to fly the Lightning Count!”