第五章「追憶」2

CHAPTER.05 – MEMORIES (2)

A young girl, never meant to be anything more than a disposable experiment, was now being ushered in to the mobile suit research area, located in a separate section of the Institute.

Arlette Armage.

That was the new name she had been given. She was there to participate as a researcher in the development of Newtype exclusive mobile weaponry.

“Being a Newtype does not necessarily mean that a pilot has a talent for combat.”

Arlette remembered Char’s words to her as if they had been spoken only yesterday.

“In the coming era, people like you will also be needed.”

As if in response to those words, Arlette rapidly began to distinguish herself. Since she demonstrated remarkable ability in the fields of dynamics and structural studies, it was not long before she found herself in charge of a portion of the development project.

From its inception, the Flanagan Institute had been a gathering of individuals shunned by the traditional scientific community. Nobody around her objected to her origins.

Praise was rewarded based solely on results.

Such a simple concept both surprised Arlette, and filled her with joy. Here was the first place where she was not an experiment, but a human being. While she had previously been almost machine-like, rarely showing any emotion, she had now come to resemble a normal girl her age, laughing, getting angry, and even occasionally telling jokes.

It was only natural that Arlette came to hold a faint admiration for Char, the man who had found her, and shown her this new way of life. But she was sure to never betray those feelings to anyone around her.

Char Aznable was a man forever out of her reach.

Char always concealed his face behind a mask or sunglasses, not even revealing himself to his superiors or those directly under his command. The official story was that he did this to hide facial scars he had suffered in his youth, but strong rumors were stirring that he, in fact, had another reason to avoid showing his face.

Even Arlette, who at the time was still a child, could see that Char did not allow anybody to get close to him.

After all, until recently, she had been the same way.

Between Arlette and Char there stood an invisible wall, tall and wide. However, there was one exception, one person who overcame that wall with ease and could stand beside Char.

Lalah Sune, a natural newtype who Char had discovered prior to Arlette. Arlette had been part of the research team that had developed Lalah’s custom Newtype mobile armor.

While she was most often aloof, and kept her distance from the other researchers, for some reason Lalah had often spoke with Arlette. Perhaps she sensed the similarities they shared.

Their conversations never amounted to much more than reporting seeing a bird outside of the facility, or mentioning that the stars happened to look exceptionally beautiful that day, but Arlette always looked forward to them.

Perhaps she also felt a sort of sympathy for Lalah.

If I had an older sister, maybe she would be someone like this…

At some point, Arlette began to think that way.

Char. Lalah.

I want to help them.

I want to repay these people who allowed me to have normal, human, feelings. At the time, this was truly how Arlette felt. However, not long after, Lalah perished in battle. She had been shielding Char from an enemy attack. Arlette had not been present at the time.

Char said nothing upon his return, but Arlette felt the invisible wall that separated him from the rest of the world growing ever taller and wider.

Not long after that, the peace agreement was signed, and the One Year War came to an end.

Char disappeared from the public eye.

He changed his name and appearance, and made his way through various organizations. Arlette chose to follow him. She could have chosen to leave him and live out a normal life. However, for Arlette, the idea of living a “normal life” was well outside the scope of imagination.

The only place for her to live was under Char’s command.

Even if she was never able to climb over the invisible wall separating them.

Many years came and went.

Char, who had still retained the aura of a young boy about him when they had first met, passed through his youth, and small lines began to appear on his face. However, Arlette did not change. The plethora of experiments she had been subjected to in her childhood significantly hindered her growth. Arlette felt as though her body was trying to return to that time— attempting to avoid becoming an adult.

In the end, Arlette was never able to climb the wall.

× × ×

“Hey, what are you doing?”

The unexpected sound of Mehmet’s concerned voice snapped Arlette back to reality. She saw the man who appeared to be the enemy leader, who up until now had been standing idly with his head down, blow past Mehmet and take off at a sprint.

He had something in his arms.

He was headed for the back of the lab.

The location of the main server room!

“Arlette! Take cover!”

Mehmet ran over and pulled Arlette to the ground. Just as she was falling, everything was engulfed in light.

× × ×

“Are you alright, Arlette?”

“Y-Yes.”

Arlette’s voice was muffled under Mehmet’s arms.

Slowly, reluctantly, she raised her head and gazed out upon the gruesome scene. One corner of the lab had been completely blown away.

The surrounding terminals and experimental equipment had also been destroyed in the blast. Even if something in that area happened to remain, there was no way it would still be in working order.

“He got us. Who would have thought he’d blow himself up…”, Mehmet whispered dejectedly from behind Arlette.

Surveying the area in despair, Arlette happened to see a large dark shape sprawled on the ground out of the corner of her eye. Without thinking she squeezed her eyes shut.

“It’s best not to look.”

Mehmet settled Arlette into a crouching position, then stepped out of the rubble.

“This is horrible.”

Glancing again at the destruction around him, Mehmet let out a sigh.

“Commander!”

From the shadows, crew members of the Mastema began to emerge. It appeared they had all been able to take shelter from the blast.

“Apologies, commander. The prisoners we had in custody managed to get away. Shall we pursue them?”

“No, there is no time. More importantly how are things over there?”

“Y-Yes, commander, we are fine.”

“I’m not talking about you! I’m talking about the servers!”

Mehmet pushed past his subordinates, and ran towards the main server room.

“Shit.”

Mehmet’s handsome face contorted with disgust. Having suffered the damage of an explosion at point-blank range, most of the server mainframe had been crushed, and sparks were flying out from various spots. At the very least, most of the data would be lost, at worst it was possible the servers had suffered a complete crash.

“They got us good.”

“So they’d rather die than hand over their treasures, huh? What a bunch of savages.”

With the crestfallen voices of his subordinates behind him, Mehmet pondered the best course of action. What to do? Could it still be possible to transfer data out of the server in its current condition…?

“Arle—“

As he turned to speak to her, Arlette had already started to work behind Mehmet. Glancing around the area, she searched for a terminal that was relatively undamaged. Seeing the blueish-white light of an LED from one corner of the lab, she ran over to inspect it.

It still had power.

“It might just be possible.”

Upon hitting the switch, the screen immediately lit up and the OS began to boot up. Arlette’s fingers moved rapidly over the keyboard.

“Alright, the circuit is intact.”

She turned and reported to Mehmet, who had followed her over to the terminal.

“It seems I can still access the main server. If there is any surviving data I might be able to salvage…”

“I’ll leave it to you!”

Before Arlette could finish her explanation, Mehmet leaned over and shouted.

“Understood.”

Arlette began quickly typing again. Her emotions upon touching a keyboard, which she had been using almost every day, almost overcame Arlette. Resisting this, she entered the command to access the main server. Mehmet watched with bated breath as Arlette silently worked at the terminal.

“If this doesn’t work, there is nothing more we can do…”

Various windows flashed on and off the monitor, each time causing Arlette’s fingers to tremble slightly on the keyboard. One after another, countless error messages appeared on the screen, each serving to make Mehmet more anxious.

“Please… be intact. We can’t go back empty handed, having gained nothing…”

Eventually the sound of Arlette’s keystrokes stopped, and the window open on the screen displayed a wall of text and equations.

“How is it? Is the data still salvageable?”

Arlette nodded slightly to Mehmet, who was peeking at the screen nervously. The other Mastema crew members let out a cheer.

An excited Mehmet urged on Arlette, “Perfect, can you keep working on this?”

“Yes.”

As she answered, Arlette took her PDA (Personal Data Access port) from her pressure suit and attached it to the terminal. Quickly inputting commands, data began to download from the terminal to the PDA. The data transfer indicator starting blinking on and off.

“Thank you so much, Arlette. It was definitely the right choice to bring you here.”

As Mehmet thanked her and bowed deeply, Arlette added on, “Um, Mehmet…”

“Yes?”

“There might be some more surviving data in addition to this.”

“Really?”

“Yes. Not digital data, but materials that have already been taken out from the servers. It was a- um… yes, a red binder, I think. It may have gotten destroyed in the explosion, but if not…”

“A red cover, right? Ok, leave it to me.”

Mehmet turned to his subordinates.

“You heard her! There is not much time. Let’s search for as long as we can.”

Nodding, Arlette turned away from the soldiers who had taken off to search various spots in the lab, and her fingers again began dancing on the keys.

“Thank you”

After a quick word of thanks, Mehmet took off after his subordinates.

“…”

Left alone in front of the terminal, Arlette quietly bowed her head in the direction of the departing Mehmet.

“Mehmet, I’m so sorry…”

She had lied.

No matter where they looked, the crew would never find a red binder in the lab. She had needed to distract them for a while. Arlette turned around. The wall behind her was made of pressure-resistant glass, made to allow direct observation of the prototype Mobile Suit test flights in space. Beyond the window was only the immense darkness of space. The faint light behind her cast Arlette’s reflection onto the surface.

She fixed her eyes out into space.

The day the Second Neo Zeon War ended. Char had gone into battle, piloting the Sazabi that Arlette had prepared, and departing the Neo Zeon flagship, Rewloola. Char was headed into battle against Amuro Ray, his fated enemy, and the one who had killed Lalah.

He would never be seen again.

Arlette bit her lip whenever she thought about how, right before he left, all she could bring herself to say to him was something meaningless like “Good luck”.

At that time, she thought he slightly smiled at her. What could he have been thinking as he went out to fight his greatest enemy. There is no way to know now.

However…

If there is something to be found.

If there is a way to be even a little closer to him that day.

The wreckage of Char’s Sazabi, destroyed in the battle with Amuro Ray’s ν Gundam, should still be on the surface of Axis. She knew that the coordinates were not that far from the lab in which she stood now. It was right there, almost within reach…

× × ×

The monitor in front of her signaled that the data transfer was complete. Arlette disconnected her PDA and turned around.

With this, the Mastema crew’s plan was a success. But that wasn’t the reason Arlette had come.

Mehmet and the others were still searching the lab. They could only remain there for less than 15 more minutes. They were likely planning to search until the last possible moment. No one was looking back towards her. With the debris from the explosion, the area around the terminal was out of their view.

“…”

Arlette set her PDA down in clear view on top of the console, and walked away from the terminal. She moved slowly, continuing to use the objects around her to stay out of view. She headed for the hatch they had entered earlier, the hatch that led to the Axis outer wall.

She peeked behind her.

Nobody seemed to have noticed her.

“Wait for me, Captain, I’m on my way.”

Opening the hatch, Arlette again floated off into the darkness of space.