Episode 9 continued...
The following day, the Centurion Team is deployed in its mobile suits inside the Zum City colony…not to do combat with enemy mobile suits, but to replace the broken solar panels that supply the colony with both lighting and supplemental electrical power. Mobile suits designed to destroy and kill are today used to build and provide for a better way of living.
The Centurion Gundam holds a solar panel in place, then uses its beam saber to weld the panel to the colony’s internal wall. A regular hydrosuit crew might need an hour to do the same job, but the high-powered Gundam mobile suit has completed the task in a fifth of the time.
Elsewhere, Athena uses the Cour De Leon to repair the colony’s communications network relay located at the tip of the colony’s outer shell. The restoration of this facility will allow Zum City to easily communicate with the rest of Cislunar Space once again.
Having completed her work, Athena transforms the Cour De Leon to Waverider configuration and returns to the inside of the Zum City colony via an access hatch.
Athena watches Jolie put on quite a show as she deftly guides the Centurion Gundam through the repair work. On the streets of the city, the children that Jolie had entertained by juggling apples a day or two earlier gape in youthful awe and fascination as Jolie uses the Centurion Gundam to restore light and energy to their home. Even the adults cannot help but be impressed.
Athena smiles as she lands the Cour De Leon in a nearby clearing. She is not going to chew Jolie out for showboating this time. If anything, Jolie is doing the morale of the city’s people (and not just the kids) a great amount of good by showing that Federation soldiers can have a sense of fun in them as well.
Something else Jolie can teach me, Athena realizes.
At 12:00, both the military personnel and civilians alike take a break for lunch.
Athena sits on the front steps of the Zum Royal Palace, stretching her aching muscles, cramped from too many hours spent inside the cockpit of a mobile suit. The results of the recent work have been very satisfying, but also very tiring. Athena is looking forward to a nice, long soak in a hot bathtub at the end of the day’s work.
Athena cranes her neck to look back at the magnificent edifice behind her. Some nineteen years ago, Athena’s mother Cenna gave birth to her within the majestic palace. Athena has no memories of living inside the palace as an infant, however. Mere weeks after her birth, the infant Athena, her mother, their staff of domestic servants, and the Zeon military leaders left to protect them at all costs were forced to flee Side 3 for the Asteroid Belt as the Earth Federation Forces defeated the Army of the Archduchy of Zeon at Side 3. Athena then spent the next seven years of her life at Axis Fortress in the Asteroid Belt before returning to Cislunar Space at the age of eight in U.C. 0087, when Lady Haman Khan led the Axis Zeon Forces into the First Neo Zeon War. During that conflict, Athena had spent some time living within the palace and learned to hate its large, cavernous halls and the portraits of her grandfather, uncles, and aunt staring down severely upon her. No one had told Athena then that her family had committed unspeakable atrocities against all of humanity. Her circle of handlers and the military leaders who served her had always praised the Zabis as enlightened leaders…almost saints. It was only after Colonel Char took her out of circle of influence of those sycophants that Athena discovered the horrible truth about her heritage, saddling with her with a crushing sense of guilt too much for any individual to bear.
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The Royal Palace of the Archduchy of Zeon in Zum City, as it looked in U.C. 0079. From here, the Zabis ruled the Archduchy of Zeon with an iron fist for ten years. It was also in this building that Minerva Zabi (Athena Ibaz) was born in U.C. 0079
Athena sighs, attempting to push aside those terrible memories. The long shadow of her family’s name and legacy has continued to haunt her, as hard as she has tried to bury their ghosts and disown her heritage.
Athena spots Jolie rushing up the steps carrying two plastic boxes of food. For the duration of the operation, the Special Forces have been eating the same kinds of meals being given to the civilians of Side 3.
“Hey,” Jolie says, handling Athena one of the boxes, “Hope you like fish. I got you grilled tilapia with mashed potatoes.”
Athena, who actually does prefer fish over red meat, smiles and takes the box from Jolie, “Thanks. I love fish. This is good.”
Jolie sits down next to Athena on the steps of the entrance of the palace and opens her own lunch box…creamed chicken on rice. Sitting side by side on the steps with their matching Federal Forces uniforms, Athena and Jolie resemble a pair of high school girls more than two Special Forces officers.
“This stuff isn’t bad for processed rations,” Jolie says, taking a bite of her lunch with the included plastic fork.
“I made sure that the people here got some decent food,” Athena says, taking a bite from her own lunch, “They’ve been living off stale, molded, unsanitary food for much too long. They’re human beings: they deserve better than that.”
“You’ve done a lot of good for them, ‘Thena,” Jolie says, chewing, “I think you ought to be proud of what you’ve done here.”
“Too much pride isn’t a good thing,” Athena observes, as she fiddles with her food, “Of all of humanity’s flaws, pride is probably the most dangerous of them all.”
Athena then adds, “By the way, good work this morning on the solar panel replacement work. Not only did you get the job done very efficiently, but you gave the people here a good show as well. I was impressed too.”
Jolie grins. Her best friend and commanding officer doesn’t dish out direct praise very often, so when she does, it’s something to be savored, “Well, I did promise the kids I’d put on a show for them with the Centurion Gundam.”
As if on cue, the children run by the two Centurion Team officers, playing a game of tag. The kids wave to Athena and Jolie as they run by, and the two pretty officers smile and wave back at the children.
“I really hope I can have kids of my own someday,” Jolie sighs wistfully, “I’d love to be a mom and have a whole bunch of kids.”
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Jolie Minh, aged sixteen. Jolie's goals don't reach as far as her friend Athena's. Jolie has no long-term objective more ambitious than falling in love, getting married, and settling down to have children someday. Jolie willingly supports Athena's crusade, however, because she understands that a peaceful and stable world must be achieved before her dreams, simple and modest as they are, can come true.
Athena smiles and says nothing.
“What about you?” Jolie asks, “Ever think about having kids of your own someday?”
Athena replies, “Maybe someday…when the wars are finally over. Of course, even if I can really succeed in making that happen, I’ll probably be too old to have children by then.”
“You’re only nineteen, ‘Thena,” Jolie points out.
“I feel much older than that, though,” Athena says.
The two friends continue eating their lunches in silence for a few minutes, until a transport flatbed passes by bearing a large Christmas tree…a real, organic Christmas tree, at least ten meters tall.
“Wow!” Jolie says, “Look at that!”
The tree is to be erected on the former Mall of the Archduchy in front of the palace. Delighted Side 3 citizens, young and old alike, run to the spot where the Christmas tree is to be erected. Nothing like this has been seen in Zum City in at least twenty years.
“Cool!” Jolie enthuses.
Athena smiles, “I arranged to have that tree brought here from the hydroponics forest at Side 6.”
“You arranged it?” Jolie says, amazed, “But how did…?”
“Paid for it out of my own paycheck,” Athena says, “The Treasury Department certainly wasn’t going to give me the budget for something like this. It cost me an entire month’s pay, but what the hell. It’s not like I’m going to spend it on food and clothing,” Athena indicates her plastic boxed meal and her Federal Forces uniform.
Jolie looks at Athena with warm admiration, “’Thena, you are so sweet sometimes.”
Athena smiles and blushes at Jolie’s praise, “These people deserve to have some happiness in their lives. They’ve suffered enough. I’m just doing what I can for them. It’s not enough, though.”
“They’ll have a happier holiday this year, at least,” Jolie observes.
“Well, I hope so, anyway,” Athena says, knowing how the situation could turn for the worse very swiftly.
Episode 9 to be continued...