InaG Chpt 20

==It's not a Gundam - Chapter 20 -Nina I- Book 2 -==
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===The price of fame===
New Avalon Institute of Science
New Avalon, Federated Suns
March 3027
She was treated to a Hero's Welcome the moment she arrived on New Avalon.
 
She had wealthy people, powerful people line up to say hello, shake hands, and smile for the camera.
 
The press wanted an interview with 'The Princess of Jalastar', men old enough to be her father asking for her hand with eyes firmly set on Gundam, plenty more were in no uncertain terms willing to bribe her with enough money for her to live like an ACTUAL Princess.
 
Then the vultures disappeared.
 
The First Prince brought her under his wing ... and the vultures had already scrambled toward Atreus. The Exarch turned out to be a Cameron. It answered as many questions as it created.
 
She usually saw Hanse Davion in passing. Only polite greetings and small topics as he visited her and the NAIS between FedSun work.
 
Mr. Ardan was genial, to the annoyance of her minder sent by MIIO.
 
But her most common point of contact was Dr. Banzai. The man proved busy and seemed to run 24/7 on Caffeine.
 
The man who had invented Electromagnetic Armor was putting his work between making his own Planet Defensors, rediscovering Kearny-Fuchida physics, reinventing SLDF equipment, and dissecting Nina's Battlemech. If he wasn't grabbed by one division for one project or another every other day.
 
Most days it left her in a lab, alone, her sole company being a Haro, and the silent demon looming above her.
 
The bestial mech had ripped apart whole lances. In the span of an afternoon she had become an Ace; and somewhere inside her she knew it was undeserved.
 
Gundam did most of it. Gundam killed them all. It was something she had to reconcile and to rationalize. It wasn't a good feeling to not feel anything.
 
Despite being hooked into dozens of different machines and restrained by a harness that would have held down even dropships ... the giant did not looked tamed.
 
It was tempered, not rabid; patient, not instinctive.
 
"Your an AI aren't you?" She asked out loud, "Your self-aware. Somehow."
 
Her fingers ran across a keyboard. Through folder after folder, through line of code after line of code she searched and found nothing to prove it.
 
Even what little she knew of the SDS and the Junkers robots said that there were signatures of a thinking, adapting program nestled somewhere in it's data core.
 
And yet there was no sign of it. Even hooking up her Haro to Gundam it did not 'speak' back to it.
 
"Ms. Keith."
 
She turned toward the door to see a reedy man with brown eyes.
 
"Count Anton Vitios." The man introduced himself, "Of the Capellan March."
 
"One of Hasek's Vassals."
 
"Indeed. The Duke has for years fought against the enemies of our Federated Suns for years. More often than not the March has face the CCAF alone."
 
Michael Hasek-Davion, brother-in-law to Hanse Davion and rival to the throne. Ruler of the Capellan March he stood between the heart of the Federated Suns and House Liao raiders.
 
"What it would do for a machine such as this..."
 
"It's why it's here." She explained, "It's here to be studied."
 
"Imitations are just that: imitations. Liao, Kurita, Calderon, none of them will stop with cheap copies of Junker-tech. Your a patriot aren't you, Ms. Keith? Surely you understand that letting this machine pick up dust will not do. The UC-DB-"
 
"How do you know about UC-DB?"
 
It was her mother's legacy. She only just came across it. Only she knew. Her, Hanse, and his Inner Circle.
 
"It's my duty to know." He recovered, "Even you must understand that the Suns NEED whatever secrets Ms. Mora Boscht had kept."
 
Anton stepped forward and Nina subconsciously gripped her wheelchair's controls. A wave of unease washed over her.
 
"Please leave." She spoke.
 
"I don't see the reason why I should-"
Anton froze. So did Nina. Her blood chilled and suddenly she found it hard to breath. Her neck craned toward Gundam.
 
It didn't move. But she knew it was glaring. Thankfully not at her. The Count who seemed so tall in her mind shrank in her eyes. The Marcher paled. He wiped the sweat from his brow but that didn't lessen the weight pushing down upon him.
 
Suddenly the door opened and the frowning face of Yvonne Davion met Anton's gaze.
 
"Intimidation." She spoke, "Trespassing. Unauthorized disclosure of State secrets. Must I say more, Count Vitios?"
 
The Count regained his composure, "You will find that I have a right to be here as representative of a Marcher Lord."
 
"As if I trust one of Hasek's lapdogs."
 
"Believe what you will." He huffed, "New Syrtis business is not the concern of New Avalon."
 
"And New Avalon business is not the concern of New Syrtis. As The Prince's Champion I am ordering you to leave. Now."
 
It was punctuated by two burly men in suits filing In to her left and right. Their faces were granite and as grim as the grave.
 
"As you say." Vitios frowned, "Michael will have words with you."
 
The Count left, politely escorted out by the guards.
 
When he was finally gone and the door slammed shut behind him Yvonne answered with a harsh whisper, "And I have plenty for him as well."
 
The Prince's Champion looked at Gundam. As fast as the pressure came so did it leave. The demon now looked as still and lifeless as any other Battlemech.
 
"Ms. Keith?" Yvonne spoke.
 
"Y-yes." Nina answered.
 
"I am sorry about the lapse in security. Hasek is a weasel with plenty more weasels kissing his feet."
 
"It's fine."
 
It wasn't.
 
"I see why it was called the White Devil." Yvonne observed, "When did it get Claws and Talons?"
 
In the Mobile Suit-era of Battlemech the lack of hands now became a near-liability as melee combat and mech-scale hands tools became more common. If an armless mech didn't have manipulators installed then a pair of Leo arms was a cheap and plentiful jury rig any Mechtech could do. Those Mechs that had weapon arms, like Gundam had to resort to grafted digits. Except she went farther, using the 'Iron Nail' design that her father had scribbled one day as a basis.
 
"I added them." She answered, "Gundam was undergoing a refit before..."
 
The elderly lady put on her hand on her shoulder, "I understand. I've had to see off plenty of people I cared about over the years."
 
"...How do you do it?"
 
"Never alone. Though it seems Hanse neglected that part in all his duties."
 
"He means well." She half-heartedly defended.
 
"So do a lot of idiots." The Davion rolled her eyes, "But it takes a minder to make sure they don't do something TOO stupid."
 
Yvonne walked over to a console and read through a stream of readouts.
 
"Is this what you discovered?"
 
"I-it is." She answered, for some reason finding the Champion more comforting than most, "I was reading through Gundam's OS and found it."
 
UC-DB was not a folder. It was a database. A highly encrypted, highly compressed database of work that one Mora Boscht and Chuck Keith had compiled. Little had been gleaned from it. But just the scraps made it worth it's weight in gold.
 
"I don't understand why my parents hid this."
 
"I can imagine." Yvonne spoke, "Knowledge in the wrong hands is knowledge wasted and abused."
 
She pointed at one line in particular: Endo-Steel C.
 
"Your parents found out how to make Endo-Steel, or at least something close to Endo-Steel without orbital facilities or high-grade ores."
 
C stood for Centrifuge and it was a process that could take even scrap and rusted steel and remake it into a material that rivaled E-Carbon at reduced cost and ecological footprint. It was an attempt to recreate Lunar Titanium, whatever that was.
 
"It wasn't complete." She explained, "but from what Jalastar told me your mother wanted to leave Gundam as a symbol."
 
"For what?"
 
"Hope. And a Brighter Future. Between the Junkers and what the NAIS has learned from what you have given us we are looking at decades of scientific advances done in years. And I don't mean just weapons technology."
 
What was once dumped in landfills and left to pollute the oceans and orbit could now be recycled. Dozens of Balls and Oggos over New Avalon were disposing of centuries of space junk, the metal junk being stockpiled to be recycled into new homes, ships, and infrastructure. It was only a matter of time before the prototype industrial centrifuges were brought online.
 
"It is why I wanted to donate this to the NAIS at the beginning."
 
"For that we are grateful." Yvonne admitted, "Though I was surprised to know you decided to stay with us and Gundam rather than living off somewhere in comfort."
 
She could have. Any Lostech find was the same as finding lost buried treasure like any Pirate Holovid. All that wealth she could have gotten by simply walking away ... but Nina chose to not run away. Not anymore.
 
"We could ask the same about Exarch Cameron." She spoke, conviction in her voice, "I don't want to wait to waste away."
 
The older women smiled with genuine approval, "Good. Then that means we can get to work."
 
Nina blinked, "work? With what?"
 
"You. The Prince wanted to make sure you could handle yourself. And I think that sometimes a Mech chooses it's MechWarrior."
 
Nina looked toward the Gundam. For split second she saw the optics in it's eyes click and focus on her.
 
...perhaps in all too literal sense.
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Chapter 20