A Kingdom Without Thrones

Your own tale of two mecha.
Locked
Dean_the_Young
Posts: 1293
Joined: Mon Apr 09, 2007 7:24 pm
Location: Near Rockets

A Kingdom Without Thrones

Yes, I've been lazy of late. But I've also put some major work in the meantime on a number of things. This is one of them: a full stand-alone mini-series. The entire project is closer to completion than not, but I felt I could lead in with the completed first part. The first main section has been written, and I intend to post one part a day, to draw it out. Hopefully by the end I will either (a) have finished the tail-end of the project, or (b) have almost finished the tailpend of the project. This project, by the way, is instead of writing the few weak drabbles I would need to finish the 00 episode oneshots. Those last ones are on hold for now.


And so behold, my largest project to date. An AU of Gundam 00, in my own style. Pishaw to such things as continuous flow of events, detailed descriptions, and action scenes!






A Kingdom Without Thrones

---

Mikashell Corner clenched his fists, trembling in a mix of fury and fear as his executioners stood before him. Victim of consequences no mere mortal could have hoped to ward off or even foresee, the head of the Corner dynasty could only watch as his final moments passed as these, these amateurs dealt their sentence on him. True professionals would know better than to gloat!

“The game may be over now, Mikashell, but you can take pride in how far you came. You’ve gained immortality, of a sort, as the longest-lived secret that Celestial Being didn’t know about. You and yours went quite the distance in this scheme of your family. True, the solar furnace was beyond your reach, but still, the incomplete GN drive idea was a nice touch. Unfortunately for you, Schenberg explicitly rejected that possibility.”

And now they were gloating. To him! These brats had no comprehension of the trouble they had caused! “Schenberg,” he ground out, “for all his genius is a military novice. No matter how perfect the Gundams, weight of numbers will overpower a mere five. I took the steps necessary to secure the goals of Celestial Being.”

“Yes, yes,” the gunman said, sounding bored. “Which is why you kept it such a secret and siphoned hidden funds for so long. Don’t think you can talk your way out of this one, Mikashell. You knew the costs when you took up your family’s conspiracy, and now you are paying them.”

The head of the Corner family said nothing. As long as the Corner family remained, so would hope.

“And don’t worry, we’ll take care of your son, and his son. Can’t leave the viper nest alone after only killing one, after all.” The eldest Corner’s eyes widened at the thorough, yet expected, ruthlessness.

“Goodbye, Mikashell. This world will be a much better place without you and yours.”
I'm sorry this letter is so long, but I did not have time to make it shorter. -Mark Twain

Official Jerid Fanboy
Dean_the_Young
Posts: 1293
Joined: Mon Apr 09, 2007 7:24 pm
Location: Near Rockets

A short one today.

---

As coherence slowly returned to the man, the first thought that came to his mind was continuing one left off centuries before: “…three, two, one…”

The second thought, while he was coughing and suffocating as un-worked lungs and a heart centuries past its expiration date struggled to restore circulation to his cold body, was more along the lines of “Next time, I will take the offer for artificial organs.”

They may have been thoughts unexpectedly mundane for a man of such genius and vision, but Aeolia Schenberg could be excused on the grounds of having just returned from centuries of suspended animation and for being, quite literally, the oldest man alive. It was a testament to his mind, receiving oxygen through the oxygen mask for the first time in far too long, that his third and fourth thoughts were on the grander implications of recognizing his continued existence. As his breathing became less labored and his heart resumed a more natural pace, a sense of exhaustion came down upon him, and all he could do was look outside his glass sarcophagus.

Eyes searching the Veda chamber, he saw figures in uniform space suits standing around him, and one who worked the main console with the air of one who knew exactly what he was doing. Their expressions changed as they saw his feeble responses, and before he drifted off once again Aeolia heard a voice through the intercom in his stasis pod.

“Welcome back, Aeolia. Wake up soon, and see the new world.”
I'm sorry this letter is so long, but I did not have time to make it shorter. -Mark Twain

Official Jerid Fanboy
Dean_the_Young
Posts: 1293
Joined: Mon Apr 09, 2007 7:24 pm
Location: Near Rockets

Unsurprisingly, hospitals still stink in the future. The smell of disinfectants, the sterile white surfaces, as familiar as they were Aeolia wouldn’t have minded having something, well, a bit more cheerful awaiting him when he woke up. Maybe a poster, or a bed cover.

There was one temporary distraction, however. A young man of mixed Asian and European ancestry was sitting in a chair beside his bed, reading a book which Aeolia was amused to note was War and Peace. Upon noticing Aeolia’s stirrings, the man put down the book.

“Ah, you’re finally awake! Welcome to a brave new world, Mr. Schenberg!” the voice from before said with a strange smile. “I’m sure you have many questions, but your body is still weak and needs to recover. I’m sorry, but our experience with suspended animation hasn’t revolutionized as much as everything else in the world since your disappearance. Oh,” he said with an abashed look on his face, “I’m sorry. I'm blabbering and yet I haven’t introduced myself. My name is Benjiro Aker, and it’s a pleasure to meet with you.”

“Benjiro… as in one who appreciates peace?” he asked as he tried to shift himself into more of a sitting position. His weak muscles failed him though, and he was forced to accept Ben’s assistance even as the other man nodded. “It is a good name. Thank you,” he replied, somewhat pleased that his voice was still firm despite its weakness. “I’m sorry to doubt, but is there truly peace?”

The younger man nodded. “Yes. The last significant conflict by your measure was years ago. Since then, the Union of Humanity has unified the entire world. It was a long struggle, but you left all the tools needed for the future. The Solar Elevators, colonies, mobile suits, the Solar Furnaces, even Veda and the Gundams. Everything you left helped shape today. ”

Aoelia felt a faint smile come to his lips. “I am glad that there are some who appreciate my life’s work.”

Benjiro smiled his odd smile.
I'm sorry this letter is so long, but I did not have time to make it shorter. -Mark Twain

Official Jerid Fanboy
Dean_the_Young
Posts: 1293
Joined: Mon Apr 09, 2007 7:24 pm
Location: Near Rockets

And now, a much larger section and the introduction to the first visible change of this world.

---

“There’s a man who would like to meet you,” Benjiro said shortly after Aoelia woke up a few days later. The young Japanese man had been at Aeolia’s side for most of that time: answering questions, asking his own, and discussing technology and history. Benjiro, as it hapened, was an engineering student, and the son of an American mobile suit ace who had been stationed in Asia during the Final War. The young man would talk about any and every technological advance with Aeolia, though he claimed he was too ignorant to discuss much details in the way of politics.

“I know you are likely still tired, but he’s the closest this century has produced to a mind like yours. He helped finalize the solar elevator system, and has been key in independently rediscovering many of your postulates and theories. Would you like to see him?”

The Originator of Celestial Being nodded, his mind already anticipating and considering the multitude of possible ways the conversation with any man of proposed brilliance could go. Benjiro nodded to a person out of sight, and the small hum of an electric motor preceded the arrival of a man in a wheelchair. He was an old man, older than Aeolia was in waking years. He face was white and wrinkled, but he maintained a good deal of white hair that fell down his back.

“May I introduce Professor Eifman, Graduate of Yale and Harvard, and twice a Nobel Laureate?” Benjiro asked, before inconspicuously fading into the background.

“Forgive me if I don’t rise to shake your hand,” the visitor’s voice said clearly, despite his age, “but my body has long since worn itself past any means of healing, even those of your miraculous particles of light.”

Aeolia smiled slightly. “So you discovered their healing properties? It was a possibility I had only theorized. I am impressed.”

“Don’t be,” replied Professor Eifman. “It was my last and brightest student who did so. It saved his best friend’s life.”

“He sounds like an intelligent man,” Aeolia said politely. “I look forward to meeting him in the future.”

“You will have to wait awhile, for he is dead. He was assassinated because he knew so much about your particles. Some feared his knowledge of GN particles would be used against them,” Eifman said, with little trace of rancor in his tone.

“I see,” Aeolia replied, not bothering with false apologies. “Hopefully this new world will spare future generations similar experiences.”

“Certainly,” Eifman replied. “At least until they forget, or power struggles break this world apart. Though I suspect you prepared your own hidden contingencies for that.”

Aeolia said nothing.

“But I did not come here to discuss the future. There is one thing I have waited these many years to ask, and that is why. Why did you set these events into motion? You planned, but just how far ahead did you think?” Eifman looked straight into Aeolia’s eyes, and the founder of Celestial Being saw that his words were being judged by a mind no weaker than his own. He considered his words with care.

“I looked, and I saw nothing but bloodshed, for as far as human history could see. I saw humanity trapped on Earth, clawing itself until there would remain no way to survive, until humanity died on this planet. I wanted to give humanity the tools to survive.”

“This only goes so far as to explain the orbital elevators and the solar energy system.” Eifman noted.

“I soon saw that the same means of salvation would be the targets during war. The pride and fears of nations would lead them to move a hair’s breadth from destroying the world. Terrorists might target elevators, armies might seize colonies, and either could be used against the Earth to devastating effect.”

“Mankind has courted destruction since the beginning. Yet we haven’t. And for centuries we have also retained the means to destroy ourselves. Yet we haven’t. Mankind would survive, and grow.”

“But the loss and the waste of human conflicts! The needless conflicts that serve no purpose but to advance other conflicts and the means to fight them. Visionaries once realized that everyone has the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and yet no one has ever worked to ensure the first and most fundamental of these! Someone has to act!” Aeolia spoke with more expression than he had expected. He was seeking to convince Eifman much as he had convinced the first of his allies centuries ago.

“You say this even when it means taking life and denying the other two?” Eifman asked, expression neutral.

“Once life has been secured and protected, the others will follow. It might take years, but life will move on as humanity connects with one another, and restrictions will loosen regardless.

Eifman looked harder, and then leaned back. “I can only hope you prove right,” the Professor said. “However, I believe that your peace is wrong. People will forget, and the same cycle will simply repeat itself. Once it does, all the sacrifices of others you have offered for a temporary respite will be for nothing.”

“I do not like this world,” he said, “even though I had as much a hand in its creation as any man of my generation could hope for. I believe the methods were wrong, and perversions of nobler intentions. It has peace, but I do not believe it required what was forced for it.” He paused, and then continued. “As a selfish human being, I do not believe it was worth losing two of my beloved students. I am pleased to have met you before I died, Aeolia Schenberg. May you be as pleased with your new world.”

And with that, the older man turned his wheelchair around and slowly drove out of the room. Benjiro, who had been watching from the corner, approached once the door shut. “I apologize if his comments upset you; I did not know exactly what he planned to say.”

Aeolia waved off the apology. “I knew that there would be people who would not love me for what I did. I know that there are likely people who hate me for the costs of peace. But I made my choice long ago: no price would be too large for an end to war and conflict.”

Benjiro did not so much smile as appreciate the subtle irony.
I'm sorry this letter is so long, but I did not have time to make it shorter. -Mark Twain

Official Jerid Fanboy
Dean_the_Young
Posts: 1293
Joined: Mon Apr 09, 2007 7:24 pm
Location: Near Rockets

A short piece, but one that makes some important hints as to the history of this universe. Just one more piece after this in the Aeolia-centered intro/prologue.

---

“Are you sure you are feeling recovered? The Doctor did say that your recovery could take longer than expected, on account of your age. Please don’t feel pressed into leaving today,” Benjiro said as the two men entered their private car in a train on the South American orbital elevator.

“No, I have slept in that bed more than enough. I have been waiting to see the Earth again for far too long. I am more than ready to return to Earth via the Solar Elevators.” While the concern was touching, Aeolia considered that more than enough of his remaining time was spent on that closed satellite.

Aeolia glanced at the video screen of the compartment, which was broadcasting an image of the Earth below. It was an altered image: computer generated graphics displayed all three towers, even though only one was actually visible at any time. Benjiro looked at the image, and made a pleased sound in his throat.

“Ah, I’m pleased to see that the Pillar of Heaven’s reconstruction is nearly complete.” Aeolia’s raised eyebrow prompted the young man to continue. “Two of the towers were affected in the Final War, you see. While the Heart of Africa was easier to repair, the Pacific Tower suffered much more damage. Enough energy was available from the South American tower to sustain the world for a time, but colony construction has lagged in the meantime.”

Aeolia considered, and then closed his eyes and leaned his head back. “That is all in the past now, though, and will likely never happen again. Colonization will be safe from the horrors of war.”

“I suppose so,” consented Benjiro. “Mr. Schenberg, shall we go over the list of those who will be waiting to meet you at the end of this elevator?””
I'm sorry this letter is so long, but I did not have time to make it shorter. -Mark Twain

Official Jerid Fanboy
Dean_the_Young
Posts: 1293
Joined: Mon Apr 09, 2007 7:24 pm
Location: Near Rockets

Er, oops? No excuses. Here's the last part of the Schenberg arc. The main body will be posted once I finish it.

---

Aeolia looked up when the door opened. Into the cell walked Benjiro, two security guards following behind him. One was vaguely Hispanic, the other had the pale face of a Scandinavian. Both were expressionless as they took their positions inside the cell. “I hope your breakfast was to your liking” Benjiro said, his ever-present smile still on his face.

“It was a hearty meal,” Aeolia agreed, and then said nothing else.

“Don’t act like that, Mr. Schenberg!” Benjiro said. “We handled you with the utmost care: no one will ever be able to say that the man who shaped this world was abused in any way.”

“Just so that I might die at noon today? You could have saved yourselves the effort of reviving me.”

Benjiro frowned. “I wish they hadn’t chosen death penalty, I truly do. I would have much preferred if you had been given life without parole on some Pacific island, but there is always the chance that some Celestial Being remnant has been waiting for just such a chance.”

“Or maybe they heard that my desire for the rest of my life was to live on this planet in peace, and they didn’t want to give the Criminal of the Millennia his dream.”

Benjiro considered it, and shook his head. “Union judges may be harsh, but we aren’t spiteful. The deciding factor was most likely politics. The populations of Eurasia have already been somewhat mollified by their inclusion into the jury as equals: many of the ones who remember the Final War thank you for it, after all.”

“It was hardly what I had intended. I had expected…” Aeolia trailed off.

“Expected what? That four mobile suits, magnificent as they were, would be able to take on the world’s armies? That they would last longer than a mere six or seven months? Or were you expecting that when the powers of the world came together to defeat the physical embodiment of your ideals, that they would remain allied and not stab each other in the backs, fighting over the decisive power like a pack of animals? Or…”and here Benjiro leaned forward, “were you ashamed that your Gundams were the warlords in unifying this world through blood and flame?”

“I told you before, did I not? No price is too large for an end to war and conflict. My belief has not changed, no matter how different the means to that goal are from what I had intended.”

Benjiro leaned back and laughed. “That is what I always admired about you, Mr. Schenberg! A man not only of genius, but also of principle! My father was right about you, Mr. Schenberg. He truly was. He had said you would appreciate this world that he helped make.”

“I appreciate his trust,” Aeolia said dryly. “But how will he feel the next time, when someone else builds a true Gundam, and not one of those fakes who spew red GN particles?”

“Mr. Schenberg,” Benjiro said, “by the time that happens, the Union will be ready with its own, not just the imitations or captured machines that my father piloted. After all,” and he smiled his damnable smile at the irony of the situation of lecturing the man who had created the Gundams, “those who wish for peace prepare for war.”
I'm sorry this letter is so long, but I did not have time to make it shorter. -Mark Twain

Official Jerid Fanboy
Locked