"Breach on the Pacific Rim" - Part Three

“Part Three”

            “So, none of you have seen this guy before until now?”

            In his T.A.R.D.I.S., Neas replayed the news footage of the new Kaiju beast – the gigantic reptile – on the console room view screen.

            Raleigh watched it with his new Time Lord associates as many times necessary.

            Shaking his head, he responded, “He’s like nothing I’ve seen before. It doesn’t act like most we’ve faced out there.”

            “Perhaps he’s helping the cause,” Lauren rationally surmised.

            “I highly doubt it,” Raleigh denied. “For the last decade, Kaiju have only had one shared purpose: to destroy human civilization.”

            “Well, this rogue Kaiju must have a different agenda,” Neas said. “And that could make it a powerful ally for us.”

            Again, Raleigh skeptically shook his head. “I still don’t know.”

            The gentle, harmonious chirping of a relaxed Mogwai redirected Raleigh’s attention from the view screen to a nearby console platform chair where Gizmo had been seated.

            “Giz,” Lauren sweetly said, going to scoop and snuggle the tiny creature in her arms. “Have we been ignoring you? Oh. I’m sorry.”

            “What is he?” Raleigh curiously inquired.

            “He’s a Mogwai,” Lauren told him.

            Raleigh giggled at the adorable lifeform. “Wish the human race could’ve been invaded by little guys like this.”

------------------

            Later that day, Neas met the candidates to partner with for the drift, an event surveyed by Mako and Pentecost.

            With previous hand-to-hand combat skills inherited from not just the Time War but the Mortal Kombat tournament and many other excursions, besting his opponents was a piece of cake.

            Each one went down in seconds to the bō staff they were armed with.

            After each takedown, he would notice a look of disapproval by Mako.

            At first, it didn’t mean much to him; but, as the points grew in his favor, he couldn’t help but feel defensive.

            “Something the matter, Miss Mori?” He sensitively asked.

            “You are not fighting the best of your ability.”

            Neas frowned. “Oh, really?”

            “You could have easily taken them down with two moves early, but you struggle.”

            “Struggle?” Neas scoffed. “Let me tell you something. I didn’t earn the nickname ‘Gladiator’ for nothing. You have no idea what I did in the Time Wa—” He stopped himself before he blathered too much of his Time Lord past in front of everyone. “Tell you what. How ‘bout you and I go one-on-one?”

            On this challenge, Mako turned hopefully to Pentecost.

            “No,” he firmly said. “We stick to the cadet list we have, Ranger. Only candidates with drift compatibility.”

            “Which I have, Marshal,” Mako pleadingly attested.

            “This is not only about a neural connection, but also a physical compatibility,” Pentecost reminded her.

            “You know, you’re right, Marshal,” Neas contemptuously said. “I don’t think your brightest has what it takes to step with the big boys.”

            A collection of groans resounded from the audience of attentive crewmembers.

            “Did I really just say that?” Neas whispered to the unseen Raleigh.

            “Oh, yes, you did,” he remarked in his own disbelief through the earpiece.

            Pentecost stood firmer than ever, while Mako looked on Neas challengingly.

            Eventually, Pentecost approved and Mako took position in the ring, removing her jacket and boots and taking hold of a bō staff.

            Neas could see the fire in her eyes, which were fixed solely on him.

            Through his video specs, Raleigh could see it as well.

            “Oh, she’s gonna annihilate you,” he uttered with amusement.

            “Yes, thank you for your astute observation,” Neas irritably muttered.

            The match proceeded on.

            Mako proved to be more of a challenge than Neas initially perceived, taking the bigger and stronger of the two opponents down three times in a row. “Three to one,” Mako noted after the third straight takedown. “Perhaps it is you who cannot step with the big boys.”

            “Ouch,” Raleigh snickered over the comm. “Was this how you expected things to go dow—?”

            Angry and frustrated, Neas shut off his earpiece with a single tap and ripped off his video specs, tossing them aside. Raleigh could still see the match from the floored position, yet he could not hear the aggressive grunts of the two combatants or the brutal clangs of their connecting bō staffs.

            Neas managed to gain equal footing with Mako, evening their match with perfect fluidity, speed, and synchronization.

            “Enough.”

            At Pentecost’s beckoning, the match ended on a tie.

            Both Neas and Mako were sweat-drenched and out of breath.

            “I knew it,” the former enthusiastically said. “I knew she was the candidate I needed. Mako’s my co-pilot for the Gipsy Danger.”

            Mako looked on him with surprise and immense gratitude.

            “You do not get to decide your co-pilot, Mister Neas,” Pentecost declared. “I’ve made my own decision. Report in two hours, and I will let you know who your co-pilot will be.”

            And with that, the marshal departed, as did the audience of crewmembers.

            Alone at the center of the ring, Neas stood with a discouraged Mako.

            “Am I the only one who saw what just happened?!” Neas exclaimed to her. “We’re draft compatible, Mako. You and I know it. Why doesn’t the marshal?”

            Mako was reserved, keeping her head down and avoiding eye contact with Neas.

            “Thank you for giving me a chance,” she said, close to a whisper.

            She then retrieved her jacket and boots, exiting the training area.

            Raleigh witnessed the entire scene through the video specs still lying on the floor, sighing in discouragement.

            He glanced over to Gizmo, who had been watching as well.

            “Pretty good match, eh?” He asked the Mogwai.

------------------

            Working with Lauren was a mixed bag for Gottlieb and Geiszler.

            Whereas Hermann valued her remarkable expertise in dimensional rifts, Newt took more pleasure in her body than her brains.

            After he finished writing the longest equation on the biggest blackboard, Hermann climbed down from the ladder beside it to approach his longtime colleague, who was supposed to be dissecting the Kaiju specimens they brought with them. Instead, his eyes had been locked on Lauren the whole time.

            Rolling his eyes with disgust, Hermann purposely cleared his throat. “Newton, I would appreciate it if you would bring your attention to other matters.” When he was still unable to reach Newt’s attention, he gave a good whack to his left arm with his cane.

            “Ow!” Geiszler loudly yelped.

            With Lauren’s attention directed on them, Newt quickly refocused on his work.

            And he did so just in time, as Pentecost paid the three brainiacs a visitation.

            “What’s the status, gentlemen…and lady?”

            Lauren stepped forward. “Well, based on Hermann’s data, we can start to expect the Kaiju attacks to happen more frequently, with a Double Event occurring in the next seven days.”

            “And possibly a triple soon after,” Gottlieb supported.

            “This sounds like predictions,” a frustrated Pentecost said. “What I need are concrete facts…results…and, if possible, a way we can avert this massacre before it ever starts!”

            “The only feasible solution would be to permanently close the breach,” Lauren said. “But to do that you’d have to drop a nuclear bomb into it – and where are we gonna get one of those on short notice?”

            “I have my ways,” Pentecost icily professed. “Tell me more about this ‘nuclear bomb’ idea of yours, Dr. Curtsinger.”

            Lauren didn’t anticipate he would take her unrealistic theory so seriously.

            Not wishing to disappoint the man, she continued, “Well, again, going by Hermann’s notes, the breach is supposedly atomic in nature, using Earth’s tectonic energy to maintain a stable connection that permits the Kaiju to enter your…our dimension. It folds space-time to close the extreme distance between two points – and that makes it vulnerable to attack. Hence my idea of the nuclear bomb. A dispersal of energy greater than its own would destabilize the breach and destroy it.”

            Listening to her spat the specifics of physics made even Hermann fawn over the brainy blonde.

            “And as beautifully explained as that was by our lovely new colleague, I wouldn’t dare myself to jump into that plan without more valued information,” Newt spoke up.

            “What is it that you are proposing, Dr. Geiszler?” Pentecost addressed.

            “There’s more to the Kaiju than we understand – for instance, did you know that each one that has come through that breach are just clones?” Newt exposed. “I have a living Kaiju brain in the lab that I can tap into the same way Jaeger pilots drift, telling you exactly how to get through the breach!”

            “You’re suggesting initiating a neural link between a human brain and a Kaiju brain?” Pentecost could not have sounded more incredulous of the idea. “Dr. Geiszler, could you imagine how damaging that would be on a human test subject? No one has ever drifted with something as foreign – as alien – as a Kaiju.”

            His words brought unease over Lauren, who could only think of Neas and their earlier conversation in the T.A.R.D.I.S. over the same topic of debate. She barely caught Newt pleading to her.

            “C’mon, Lauren…Dr. Curtsinger,” he beseeched. “Back me up on this.”

            The look of desperation on his face crushed her, but she couldn’t let it hinder her own judgment. “I’m sorry, Newt,” she said. “The marshal’s right. It’s a dangerous idea. It would best to just move on with something else.”

            Heartbroken by her lack of support, Newton was left to watch her and Pentecost have the final say on the matter, returning to their activities. Only Hermann remained beside him, reveling in his misery.

            “So much for your would-be groupie girlfriend,” he derided.

-------------------

            Donned in a “Drivesuit,” specialized body armor that interfaced with Jaegers while also keeping the pilot protected from Kaiju attacks, Neas reported to the Conn-Pod of the Gipsy Danger.

            To his surprise, Pentecost appointed Mako as partner, against better judgment.

            A trial run of the Gipsy Danger commenced with Neas and Mako taking the controls. Pentecost assessed from the control room with engineer Tendo Choi, as well as Lauren, who joined with the hope of nothing going wrong.

            “Prepare the neutral handshake,” Pentecost instructed Choi.

            Raleigh was in Neas’s ear the whole time, walking him through the experience, relaying his words over to Mako, who was just as new to it as him.

            As the process began, however…

            “Marshal!” Gottlieb cried, rushing into the control room. “Newton created a neural bridge from garbage and drifted with a Kaiju!”

            It was clearly not the news Pentecost wanted to hear during such a momentous occasion. Neither was it for Lauren, who had just watched her Time Lord son engage in a neural link with a human.

            “Shut it down!” She ordered Choi.

            “I can’t,” he said. “It’s already been established.”

            Inside the Conn-Pod, it was easy for Neas to absorb Mako’s memories in the drift; but Mako was distressingly overloaded with his.

            All his previous regenerations and their encounters surged through her mind.

            She discovered herself back in the form of her childhood self, trapped in the battlefield within the city of an alien planet. Large metallic beings that were nowhere close to Jaegers strolled across, blasting away any living being in their way while screaming, “EXTERMINATE!”

            One had the pre-adolescent Mako cornered, preparing to fire.