NOVEL NEXT Chapter 3 [old]
[Gundam Nova]
March 26th, 5:35 P.M. Earth Standard Time. Siga-8
Bang!
“What do you mean, you letting the mother and the child go!?” the old man wearing a luxurious suit stomped on the table, his cigar breaking in half at the force of the impact as he angrily stared at the two suited men.
“The woman claims to have a connection to Sir Ottoman of the Earth Conglomate. Of course, we didn’t believe it at first but she…pulled out the golden brooch with the insignia of the Ottoman House.”
“What do you care about!? It obviously a fake one! There is no way someone from that family will come to godforsaken colonies! Get information on them! I want it on my table in the next hour and if you can’t even do that, I will kick you out into space. Now go!”
With his word, the two men quickly rush out of the room, With not one soul around, The old man drops down to his chair, releasing a frustrated sigh.
“Damn, incompetent peasant.” taking a new cigar from the drawers, he lights it with an antique lighter, taking a huge puff, he blew it out, filling the air with smoke.
Knock… Knock… Knock…
3 slow knocks come from the door that separates this room from the other.
“Come in.” He said softly but loud enough to let the one on the other side hear.
The door opened slowly, revealing a girl with grey hair, in a dress, She walked slowly as the door closed behind her, once she saw the man, her face lit up, and quickly skipped toward him.
“Father! Listen, I finally have a toy I want!” the man put his cigar down and caught the girl in his arm.
“Oho, what is it then, there is nothing in this universe that Papa can’t get for you.” His face turned from a frown to a light smile as he put the child on his lap.
“It this round thing that can roll around, it got wings that flip around too! oh, and it can speak!” The child list it happily, counting the things that she saw in one hand.
As the man listened to the girl listing, he began to wonder. A toy that he never heard before, if it was an AI-power toy then there were plenty of those around, but from his daughter's word, it seemed to be more than that.
“Slyvia, where did you see that toy?” he asked.
“I saw it in the park today! A girl was holding onto it. It rolls around so cutely but that girl takes it away…” her voice saddened at the thought, she really wanted it but that girl had to take it away from her.
“On the park…is she the one that hurt your brother?”
“Hm? Mm….right! she's the one who punches him! Why? Is it something to do with my toy?”
“Yes, yes. but don’t worry, Papa will get you that toy, now go and play with your brother.” He sends his daughter away, with a smile. As the child leaves, The old man lets out another sigh.
He takes out his phone and starts dialing the number.
[Gundam Nova]
March 27th, 00:37 A.M. Earth Standard Time I.J.C 191.
“Testing Unit 01, 02, 03, Please Response.” A woman’s voice rang out from the screen, her voice was clear.
“Tester 01, System all green.”
“Tester 03, System all green.”
“Tester 02, Leg unit has been damaged by the asteroid field. MARIA has not picked up the small asteroid, Mobile Suit is moving too fast for Maria to process.”
“Understood, Tester 02, immediately return for repair, Tester 01, 03. Continue to test the capability of the suit.”
“Copy that.” The connection was cut off, and people began to murmur at each other, talking about the new topic.
but among this group of people, is a man with striking blue hair, his gold eyes roaming around the room, amidst the scientist, his attire that befits the royalty did not fit in at all. Yawn comes from him as he watches the other 2 units fly flawlessly through the asteroid field.
“What’s wrong, My liege?” The woman beside him asks, noticing the bored look of her master. Her military attire stands out among the whiteness of the coat in this room.
“No…nothing, I just think that the suit is kind of slow.”
“That is, of course, a natural course of this experiment, We deliberately limit the mobile suit output so that we could adjust the MARIA to be able to adjust to the Mobile Suit speed.” An old man in a research coat answers him.
“The MARIA is already outdated, plus it got leaked to others already, so we can’t capitalize on it anymore, And the fact that you guys couldn’t create a better AI is the proof that we will start falling out.” He said, getting up from his chair and starting to stretch.
“She was a genius, too bad she just had to disappear like that. We could have her make a new program for us. Unlike you lot who couldn’t even decode this and just had to patch this thing to be barely usable.” His sharp words make the old researcher flinch, 5 years of hard work getting dismissed as if it didn’t matter.
“Let’s go Sera, I seen enough.”
“Yes, my liege.” She follows after her liege without batting an eye for the researcher, leaving him alone with the rest of the room.
They walk in silence, with her listening to his footsteps and maintaining the perfect distance. in the empty hallway, the man suddenly looks behind, he looks toward her.
“Is there something, my liege?” She asks, watching her liege observe her face.
“Hm…Did you…Change your makeup? No, no, you never wear make-up. Then maybe-”
“If you trying to compliment me so that you can lure me into your bed, I suggest you stop, it not going to work.” She quickly shut off his idea, knowing him, that was his intention.
“Eh, worth a try. By the way, How do you think about those suits?” He shrugs as he starts to walk again while asking her opinion.
“The suit is faster than I can keep track of, I suggest you ask, Captain Oregan for his opinion.”
“You only suggest that 'cause you know he hates my guts, but well you're probably right. He is one of the best after all. Oh, How is father doing?”
“His illness is starting to get the better of him, and he is still longing for Dr. Kremhild.” With her words, the man stopped. turning his head with a smile.
“She is still his favorite child, after all. Too bad he going to die before he gets a chance to meet her again.”
She watched in silence as her liege started walking again, She could see it in his eyes, the happiness when talking about his lost sister, it was not born from fondness, but from hatred.
“Well, go do your duty, I’m going to take a break.”
“Understood.”
She watched as her master disappeared, and the empty hallway became dead silence without even the sound of walking.
[Gundam Nova]
March 27th 5:43 P.M. 191 I.J.C Siga 8
The car came to a stop at the familiar house, a house where her paradise is waiting for her. With the shopping bag in hand, Araya unlocked her house and she could hear the sound coming from the living room.
[Metallica, a place once full of smiles has turned into a place for blood, with the rise of an extremist group trying to Eliminate Earth Conglomerate's control….]
A news report, she probably forgot to turn it off, but what intrigued her more was the familiar sound of the keyboard, the clicking and cracking that made her feel at home.
Tic..tak tak…
“Hm…There is no problem with the program itself…but it's just that the spec of Haro’s body isn't as high as I thought it would be…”
Silent mumble that was already becoming the norm in this household, the little angel's face planted on the screen, letting light reflect off her unblinking eyes.
“If I want him to be able to run as long as possible I need to take off much of his unnecessary function and make him take longer to process information and respond back, but that only increases his operation time by around 2 hours…”
Araya silently walks toward the kitchen, places down her groceries, and slowly makes her way back with a cup of cold pudding in hand.
Her little angel didn't even notice her, too focused on the problem at hand to even process what was going on in her surroundings…she truly took after him.
Araya watches as her little angel hand moves swiftly, unlike other children, who are too clumsy to even hold a cup properly, Yoha's hand moves swiftly and is graceful, each movement has a purpose.
She watches as Yoha writes line after line of code, stopping to run diagnoses and then rewrite them again and again, the pudding in her hand is already losing its cool and starting to feel a bit warm.
How much time has passed in silence like this? That she didn't know, but when Yoha's hand finally stopped moving, Araya knew it was time.
With one last test run, Yoha stood up and picked up Haro who was charging the battery next to the TV.
“Eh? Mama! How long since you come back!” Yoha put down Haro who was already awake on the couch, he rolled next to Yoha calling her Mama too.
“Since around…2 hours ago, I got your favorite Pudding too.” She stops to look at her watch before answering and hands Yoha her pudding.
“Pudding!” She quickly takes it from her hand, eyes gleaming with innocence, one of the only times where she could see that childish side of her daughter, the truly genuine one.
Yoha is not like the other children, she often loses in her thoughts, talks to herself, and sometimes even bursts out something that Araya doesn't understand…it sounds like…Japanese? It seems like she is trying to sing some song she heard.
But does any of that matter? No, it was not, after all, Yoha is still the same baby girl she gave birth to all those years ago.
“Here! Mama, eat it too!” Yoha hands her a spoonful of pudding, she smiles lightly opens her mouth, and lets the girl feed her.
Her hand naturally moves toward the young girl's head and slowly caresses them.
“Ah, right! Since Mama is the one to wake Haro up, you have to help me upgrade him! You already watch me right? I need help with something I don't really understand.”
Yoha asked her, she does this thing when she wants something, and her eyes naturally start to gleam as if it is shining.
“It's about how to extend Haro's battery span, isn't it? We could have just added more external battery, that way we wouldn't have to recode him.”
And Araya watches as Yoha starts to freeze, almost dropping the pudding had she not caught it in time. It was at a time like this that Araya started to question if her daughter was a genius or an idiot.
Always try to find a way to improve things the roundabout way and not the simplest trick in the book, which is good sometimes but not for a small problem like this.
“I will go back to work, ok? Have fun, sweetie.” she kissed the freezing child on the forehead before placing the Pudding down.
And here is the most fun part of the day, hiding behind the door, and waiting for a bit.
“...Arhg! Again! I forgot I could do that! External battery! Haro's body contains a small computer that could operate for hours but it lacks efficiency so I just try to look the harder way, I could've just got the battery!”
Giggle to herself, Araya was sure that tonight's work would be done before midnight.