Chapter 2: Decision
Signum was doing sit-ups in the training centre when Vita came in with a carton of milk in her hand. “Yo, Signum, catch” Vita said. Signum looked up only to see a milk carton fly into her face and splashed milk everywhere. Vita laughed and doubled over from laughing too hard. “That wasn’t very nice of you, Vita.” “I told you to catch did I not?” Vita replied with a snigger. Signum took some tissue paper and wiped the milk off her uniform.
Signum then turned to look at Vita. “So what is it you want? Surely you’re not here to throw a carton of milk at me.” Vita looked around and whispered. “You have not seen Hayate anywhere, have you?”
“Why the secrecy?”
“Uhm…personal reasons. Don’t try and question me.”
Signum smiled at Vita, as if telling Vita she knew what was going on. She summoned a holomap and zoomed in on Saint Church. “Try there,” challenged Signum. “Don’t try and toy with me! I want to know where her exact location is!” yelled Vita. “I already told you the place. You just have to look for her inside Saint Church. Just try not to give that birthday present with a blushing face.”
Vita was dumbfounded but she shook her head and left. As she was off duty, Subaru Nakajima skated around in a park and chilling out. Not long after, Teana came by with her motorbike. “Hey, Subaru, over here!” Teana waved to Subaru. “You’re off duty too?” “Yeah! My superior officer decided to give me a break for doing a good job in my work. What say we go to the city centre and chill out a bit?”
Subaru nodded and leapt onto the pillion seat of Teana’s bike. “Okay, Tia, lets go!”
At the city centre, Teana and Subaru took a seat at a roadside bench while licking ice cream. “Hey, Tia, have you seen the news of a TSAB cruiser being destroyed by another cruiser in this star system Admiral Chrono dubbed as the Solar System?”
Teana nodded. “It was all over the media. I must say, the hostile cruiser was one behemoth of a thing. I heard that it was Captain Nanoha’s race that was responsible for that since they were the only inhabitants in that system. I think.” “Me think so too.” answered Subaru. “But then again, how did they advance so quickly?” Teana shook her head and said “Unknown since Chrono knew little of Captain Nanoha’s homeworld. I know, perhaps they made a pact with high tech inhabitants from other worlds and learned their technology!”
Subaru stared at Teana with a passive look. Her ice cream splatted onto the road. “You have a wild imagination. Nanoha would be so proud to learn that her teachings were put to good use by thinking about aliens”. Teana was about to say something when Subaru grinned at Teana. “Just messin’ with you. C’mon, let’s go somewhere else.”
Nanoha entered Admiral Chrono’s office only to see no one but Fate. “Fate-chan, where is Chrono?” “He left a few minutes ago to deal with some matters so I was ordered to talk to you and Hayate about it but it seems like Hayate isn’t here yet. Since we’re the only two here for the time being…fu fu fu, how about you lay back on the couch and I’ll massage you?” Fate had this hungry look on her face. “Uhm…I don’t think this is the right time, Fate-chan. How about we think of something to discuss?” suggested Nanoha with a nervous laugh. “Hmm, in that case, let’s discuss on how to massage you later then.” “Eh heh heh, very funny.” Nanoha said with a laugh.
Just then, Hayate came in with Reinforce Zwei riding on her shoulder.
“Well, I’m here but where is the Admiral?” asked Hayate. “He has a few matters to attend to.” replied Fate. “We were ordered to discuss this among ourselves and make our decision. I’m sure Chrono ni-san briefed you about what we are about to discuss.”
“He sure did, Fate.”
“Since you’re the one with the highest ranking among us, you start first.”
Hayate scratched her head and thought for a while. Then she cleared her throat and began. “Right then, since we were offered chances for peaceful talks…I say we take matters into our own hands. If we let them top brass to do the talking, who knows what will happen. Regius Gaiz is bad enough but if any of the high rankers have his personality, he, or she might order the execution of the negotiator for having the gall to show up”. Nanoha and Fate looked at each other. Nanoha spoke up. “I was thinking of killing him. Then again, this situation requires democracy.” “Something she is bad in.” said Fate. “You’re the one to talk, Fate-chan.” Nanoha shot back.
Hayate cut them short and said, “I want to make this short and simple so I’ll summerize everything. We have three choices: 1) Let the top brass do the talking, 2) We do the talking, or 3) Kill him, as Nanoha suggested. If the top brass do the talking, the outcome might result with war as one of them might kill him.”
“So we kill him ourselves in secrecy.” said Nanoha.
“Let me finish first. If we pick the second choice, we might have a chance to wriggle our way out of this one since we are much more sensible.”
“Unlike a certain someone.” joked Fate.
“Oh c’mon, could you at least let me finish before we decorate our discussions with sarcasm and nonsense? Anyway, if we resolve to the third option…it is just as bad as the first one. I say we take matters into our own hands.” said Hayate.
“Oh well, if you say so.” said Nanoha.
“Same here.” said Fate.
Vita, who was about to enter the office, overheard the discussion by eavesdropping. “A negotiator? Now this is interesting.”
Suddenly, someone tapped her shoulder and made her leap in surprise. It turned out to be an elderly man in his 50s. He had a briefcase with him and this man wore shades. The clothing he wore was a black tuxedo.
“Excuse me, young lady, where can I meet this Admiral Chrono?” he asked. Vita asked him back. “Who are you?”
The man laughed and patted her head. “I am the Terran negotiator. The name is Jake Guitard and the military sent me here to discuss about the intrusion of one of your ships into Terran-controlled space. I’m sure you must be wondering why my arrival went unnoticed.”
“Not exactly, old man.” replied Vita. “If you wanna see the Amiral, how about you give me a carton of milk and I’ll let you through?”
The old man laughed and his face complexion seemed to change into a horrid looking zombie. He opened his briefcase and a leech-like thing leapt out and latched onto Vita. “What is this?! Get it off me!” “That will be your master, young lady.” Jake replied with an evil tone. The creature latched onto her face next and Vita struggled to pull it off but to no avail. Moments later, Vita fell to the floor. Hayate heard something from inside the office.
“What was that? I thought I heard Vita”. She opened the door to find an elderly man there. Nothing seems out of the ordinary. “I’m sorry, you are?” “Jake Guitard. I am the negotiator.”
Hayate scratched her head in confusion. “How did you get here so quickly?” “Terran ships travel very fast with Advance Hyperspace Drives. Anyway, won’t you let me in?” Hayate turned to look at Nanoha and Fate. They just shrugged lamely.
“Right then, please come in”. Jake entered the office and sat on a chair. “Hope you are ready for some talks because it might be your last decision that you’ll ever make.”
At that moment, Nanoha quickly sensed that something was wrong.