Chapter 10
Sophia walked into the meeting room at 7:58, hastily pulling her hair into a ponytail at the nape of her neck. She instantly spotted Duo, who was twisting the end of his braid through his fingers and glancing nervously at the seat next to him. The only empty seat at the table aside from Lady Une’s chair.
Drawing up as much dignity as she could muster, Sophia walked to the chair and sat down, causing Duo to jump just a little.
Without warning, a paper airplane flew in their direction, hitting Sophia in the nose. She grabbed the plane and unfolding it quickly saw a color photocopy of the picture with the words "WHAT ANIMALS!" at the top of the page in bold letters. Sophia lifted her gaze and glared knowingly in Sally’s direction.
Sensing something was wrong, Duo glanced at the paper in her hand and did a double-take. He grabbed it out of her hand and his mouth dropped to his chin. With something like a growl, he bared his teeth and glared at Sally as his hand crumpled the page with the picture on it.
As the digital clock on the wall blinked a bright red ‘0800’, Lady Une walked in the room, her regulation uniform starched to perfection. Her hair flowed down her back and curved over her shoulders, her glasses gleamed without a scratch. She walked to the large leather armchair centered in the middle of the table and across the room from a video screen. Glancing casually around the room, she saw Duo stuff the paper under the table and relax his features. Her lips twitched slightly upward; she knew what was on the paper for everyone had received on in their mailbox this morning. Looking over to Sophia, she waved her hand at the space in front of her on the opposite side of the table.
"Preventer Inazuma. Please proceed with the report."
Sophia stood and walked over to the video screen on the wall. Standing in the crescent shaped cut-out area of the meeting table, Sophia stood at attention across from Lady Une.
"Lady, fellow Preventers," Sophia began, nodding slightly to each mentioned in turn. "Preventer Maxwell and I spent the night—"
Sally interrupted her diatribe with a derisive snort. Glancing quickly at her, Sophia suddenly exuded anger and danger without changing an iota of her expression. Sally deadpanned and became incredibly interested in her fingernails.
"Preventer Maxwell and I spent the night working through piles of data to piece together the mystery shrouding the New Base’s involvement in mobile suits and the sudden shuttle take off to X18999."
She paused to turn to the video screen and inserted a small disk of base surveillance. Soldiers materialized on the screen in the military formations Sophia had watched.
"Many soldiers," Sophia continued, "in fact too many to count were at the base training as they used to before the Eve Wars. In charge of military operations was none other than Mariemaia Khushrenada."
Touching the screen lightly, the image changed to focus on a young girl. Lady Une twitched nervously in her seat as she watched her young charge yell at those under her command.
"Miss Khushrenada had only arrived at the base a day before we had. She had filled out a prescription of Fentanyl 6 days prior to this date. The medication bottle contained 30 pills, one maximum for each day. There were 3 left in the bottle when we found it. After reading some entries in her diary, Preventer Maxwell and I deduced that she had been experiencing abdominal and spinal pain. I later read some communicator transcript records to a hospital on X18999. I later identified it as the Khushrenada Memorial Hospital."
"Appropriate," Lady Une commented, uncrossing her legs only to re-cross them over the opposite knee. She reached for a glass of water in front of her. Lady Une took a deep gulp and replaced the glass on the table, pushing her glasses up the bridge of her nose. "You would think," the Lady continued, "that she would want to be inconspicuous."
"Of course Lady," Sophia said as she tapped the screen again. An image of a large building in a high construction area popped into view. "However, the Khushrenada Memorial Hospital, which opened 2 years ago, was located on the New Base’s speed-dial. Preventer Maxwell and I believe it was used in an urgent effort to get Miss Khushrenada to a hospital as fast as possible."
"And what of technological production?" Lady Une inquired.
Inserting another disk into the machine, Sophia turned to the group. "No new mobile suits were seen at anytime, although Miss Khushrenada enjoyed using old-type Taurus and Virgos. Only their internal wiring systems have been updated, but the weapons drives remain the same as they did years ago in the wars. All suits were outfitted with a human counterpart."
"Which means," Duo said quietly, "she’s not focused on total destruction and conquering of a place, she wants emotion and sweat to go into the battles that win those places. She wants a challenge, but she wants to win."
"Precisely," Sophia continued. She tapped the screen every few seconds to change the image. "One of the main unanswered questions is: why are all these men and women fighting? The last war ended almost 4 years ago. No major military operations have taken place since then. They had to have been recruited somehow."
Sophia tapped the screen a last time and a blank screen came up as the disk whirred to a quiet stop. She ejected the disk and placed it next to the others.
"At the moment, Preventer Maxwell and I are trying to identify the people you all have viewed on the disks here today. We have found some of the higher ranking officers to be doctors, even some still fresh out of medical school. And that, Lady, was all we were able to find," Sophia concluded, walking back to her seat and letting out a sigh.
Lady Une scanned the notes and report she was given quickly. Turning to her subordinates, she took off her glasses and meticulously folded them and then placed them before her.
"Run a list of all hospital personnel at Khushrenada Memorial. Check out all the names and find out who is treating Mariemaia. Try to ID those who were at the base and talk to their families. We need to know why. And there are about 10,000 ‘whys’ at the moment. Thank you all for coming. Meeting dismissed.