“Part Two”
Thanks to Raleigh’s intel, Neas and Lauren had access to the
exact coordinates to the Shatterdome in Hong Kong. According to him, the
Shatterdome was the primary headquarters of the Pan Pacific Defense Corps and
factories for the construction, repair and maintenance of the Jaegers.
It was also the last remaining Shatterdome in operation.
They materialized the T.A.R.D.I.S. in one of the
available quarters.
“Right, so, as we discussed, you’re staying here in the
console room with Gizmo,” Neas told Raleigh. “Pop and I will stay in touch with
you through our earpieces, and you’ll be able to see what we see through our
video specs.”
He and Lauren each wore horn-rimmed glasses.
Lauren demonstrated a pair that projected a live feed
through the Type-Z’s onboard view screen. Raleigh saw himself standing right
where he was in front of her, and even the strands of her blond hair at the
edges of the frame.
The Time Lords met up with Pentecost on the helipad.
Outside, in the cold rain, they tucked their hoods over to prevent contracting
influenza.
Arriving mere minutes before him came as a surprise to
the marshal.
“How did you two get here before us?”
Neas shrugged. “Told you we had our own transport.”
Pentecost could only accept this with a comprehending
albeit doubtful nod.
“This is Mako Mori, one of our brightest in charge of the
Mach-3 Restoration Program,” he introduced of the young beautiful Japanese
woman that accompanied him.
Mako addressed Pentecost in her native tongue, though
Neas was able to discern her address: “I was hoping Mr. Becket would have
joined us.”
“So was I,” Pentecost glumly responded in the language.
Neas left the exchange private.
The Shatterdome tour began as soon as the four stepped
out of the rain and into an elevator. There, they found two large containers
with alien specimens submerged in a light green fluid.
“What in the world are these?” Neas questioned.
“Step away from that, sir!”
Neas blindly followed the order without knowing who gave
it.
He turned to see two men rush into the elevator before
the doors closed.
“Mister Neas, this is our research team – Doctor Hermann
Gottlieb and Doctor Newton Geiszler,” Pentecost introduced.
“Call me ‘Newt,’” Geiszler insisted. “Only my mother
calls me ‘Doctor’.”
Shaking the nerdy American scientist’s hand, Neas
gestured to the specimens and asked, “So you two are the ones who brought these
in?”
“That is cor-rect,” Newt confirmed. “They’re Kaiju
specimen and extremely rare, so look
but don’t…” He paused as soon as he laid eyes on Lauren, who managed to keep
her hair dry from the rain and look positively stunning in the eyes of
Geiszler. “…touch.”
Neas recognized the attraction, though it flew completely
over Lauren’s head.
“You must be a very
brave man to catch specimens like these from actual Kaiju,” she commended
Geiszler.
“Actually, ma’am, he didn’t,” Gottlieb (the archetypal
Englishman) said. “He bought them.”
Geiszler brashly cleared his throat. “Not in front of the
superiors, Hermann!”
“I have asked you not
to refer to me by my first name—!”
The two scientists proceeded to bicker.
“These yahoos
are the only research team on Kaiju?”
Neas and Lauren heard Raleigh say over their earpieces. “God help us.”
When he managed to pry himself away from his colleague,
Geiszler approached Lauren, rolling his sleeves to show the unique tattoos on
his forearms. He pointed to one in particular. “Seen this guy? He’s called
Yamarashi. He was one of the largest Category Threes ever to come out of the
Breach. He was two thousand and five hundred pounds of awesome.”
“Please excuse him,” Gottlieb said. “He’s a Kaiju
groupie. He loves them.”
“Shut up, Hermann,” Newt barked. “I don’t ‘love’ them. I
study them. And, unlike most people, I want to see one up close one day.”
Neas heard Raleigh scoff into the console microphone.
“This guy…he doesn’t have a clue. My brother and I fought Yamarashi in 2017. If
this guy really knew what he was like
up close, he wouldn’t brag so much.”
The elevator finally reached their floor, much to the
relief of Neas, who could not take any more of Newt Geiszler’s serenading of
Kaiju to Lauren. She, on the other hand, left him with parting remark that sent
the groupie’s heart soaring…
“I look forward to working with you and Dr. Gottlieb, Dr.
Geiszler.”
Newt was trapped in a trance of romance. “Me, too.”
Hermann disapprovingly shook his head. Lovesick over eye candy with brains, he
thought on the matter.
Led into a large, busy hangar bay, Neas and Lauren were
shown the Jaegers stationed in the Shatterdome – the only remaining mechs: “Crimson
Typhoon,” which featured three arms and piloted by the Wei Tang triplets;
“Cherno Alpha,” piloted by a pair of Russians, Sasha and Aleksis Kaidonovsky;
and “Striker Eureka,” the only Mark-5, piloted by two Australians, Chuck and
his father, Hercules “Herc” Hansen.
Lastly, they were introduced to “Gipsy Danger,” the
Mach-3 American Jaeger once piloted by Raleigh and his late brother, Yancy.
Even seeing the faded blue Jaeger through Neas and
Lauren’s video specs made Raleigh feel melancholy: “I forgot how beautiful she
was. Hadn’t laid eyes on her since they decommissioned her after that day. I
still remember it vividly. We were deployed on the Gulf of Alaska. A Kaiju
Knifehead emerged out of the Breach. We went against Pentecost’s orders of
keeping a fishing boat safe from the fight. The boat in one hand, our fist
hitting the Knifehead with the other.
We had it on the ropes, until the second it decided to
take one last stab. I thought we could’ve finished it with the left
Plasmacaster, but it knew what we had in mind before we even let loose. It amputated
the arm and breached the right side of the pod, tearing away half of the
head…and Yancy with it. After then, it was just it and me…and I wasn’t going to
let it get away with what it took from me that night.”
Raleigh’s recount of the incident left Neas and Lauren
feeling sympathetic.
Suddenly, his reasons for turning down Pentecost made a
lot of sense.
“Miss Mori has your candidates for partnering with the
Gipsy picked,” Pentecost told Neas. “You’ll meet them soon.”
“In the meantime, I will show you to your rooms,” Mako
offered.
“We’ve, uh, already picked one out,
thank you,” Neas quickly told her.
-------------------
Neas frowned. “Who’s the perfect candidate for what?”
“Mako,” Raleigh elaborated. “For the drift.”
“Drift?” A baffled Lauren questioned.
“It’s a type of mind meld where the Jaeger pilots share memories,
instinct, and emotions,” Raleigh explained. “It’s meant for us to act as one
and control the very movement of the Jaeger itself, one pilot controlling the
right hemisphere, the other on the left hemisphere.”
“And should something like this were to happen between a
human and a Time Lord?” The tone in Lauren’s voice suggested protest in the
very idea. “Neas, this whole idea is going from bad to worse!”
“Pop…”
“A Time Lord brain merging with a human one might
overwhelm it!”
“But I’m half
human.”
“Yeah, on your mother’s side.”
“Just trust me. I’m confident it’ll
be safe.”
----------------
The next morning – the first one Neas and Lauren spent at
the Shatterdome – Neas could not have felt more like an outsider than he did
once stepping into the mess hall. He passed the more experienced Jaeger pilots,
each of them side-eyeing him.
Only one bothered to show a bit of courtesy.
“Mister Neas, come sit with us,” Herc Hansen offered.
The Time Lord wondered if the Jaeger veteran could sense
the bit of Australian in him left from a previous regeneration by his friendly
demeanor.
He accepted, taking a place at a table where Chuck
already sat with the Hansens’ pet bulldog, Max. Unfortunately, Chuck did not
share in his father’s enthusiasm of the new pilot on the block.
“So you’re the new guy, eh? Nice glasses,” he said of
Neas’s video specs. “Hope you don’t plan on wearing those, once you’re inside a
Conn-Pod.”
Neas snickered. “No. They’re just for style. I don’t
actually need them.”
“Yeah, well, whatcha really need is experience, mate,”
Chuck snapped. “Look at the other blokes ‘round here. They’re whatcha call real Jaeger pilots, not greenhorns like
yerself. You’re a free agent, mate, and your inexperience is gonna bring the
rest of us down with ya.”
On that impression, Chuck left the table with Max in tow.
“That’s one a ray of sunshine,” Neas heard from the
opinionated Raleigh.
“I apologize for my son,” Herc told Neas. “He’s a smart
kid, but I never know whether to give him a hug or a kick in the—”
Commotion arose within the mess hall, urging Herc and
Neas away from their meal and to a television set where several other crewmen
were beckoned by a newscast on a new type of Kaiju that emerged from the
Breach.
Through Neas’s video specs, Raleigh observed it clear on
the view screen.
A three hundred-and-fifty-four-foot amphibious reptile
battling another Kaiju in Pacific waters. It ended in the reptile’s favor,
killing it with the swipe of its long tail that snapped the Kaiju’s neck.
“Since when do Kaiju kill one of their own?” An uneasy
Raleigh questioned.
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