"It is unprecedented." Mr. Green, a nasally individual commented. "To think some one like he existed, and under our very own noses!"
Mr. Yellow couldn't suppress a chuckle at that. Leave it to the man with the biggest nose in the room to make a crack about noses. He carefully hid that humor, however, it just didn't pay to upset members of the Council. "Be that as it may, we are not here to discuss the peculiarities of Ikari's child." he turned to the man, who quietly sat at a desk before the council, hands steeple together, eyes hidden behind his reflective glasses as his crony Fuyutsuki stood behind and to the right, a silent sentinel. "The request for increased funds, however, does."
"We are man's only hope against the Angels." Gendo reminded the council.
"A fact we do not relish being shoved in this council's face." Green sniffed disdainfully, "With Unit 00's resulting damage caused by it's activation, added to the horrendous cost of maintaining NERV in it's present state, need I remind you just who pays these bills?"
"Enough." Lorenz snapped, leaning forward, "These trivial matters do not matter. You're primary concern, Ikari, should be the Human Instrumentality Project, and not in the accounting department." he steepled his hands together, "We will not accept any delays to the time table, is that understood?"
"Understood."
"Very well. Enjoy your time in Britain, Ikari." he nodded towards the man, before continuing, "The rest of this meeting does not concern you."
Gendo and Fuyutsuki's blanked out, as if some one had flipped the light switch. Purple, a man of African descent voiced his concerns, "Is the HIP even required now that we discovered proof humanity has not reached an end of it's evolutionary chain?"
Lorenz said nothing as he thought about that. It was true, the primary reason they had even initiated a retelling of the Dead Sea Scroll was just for that purpose, every single member within SEELE had come to the realization humans could no longer evolve from what they had become, which was why they sought to initiate Third Impact in order to give evolution a tiny nudge. "I'm more concerned with the fact this proof is related to Ikari."
"Yes." Green sniffed, "It's an unprecedented coincidence."
"That man lacks the means to hide something like this from us." Yellow snorted, "Our own Intel within NERV report he was as surprised by this discovery as we are."
"The question." Magenta, an aristocratic fat man, spoke up. "Is what to do now that we have this information."
"For the time being, we should continue with the HIP." Lorenz explained, "I have sequestered Doctor Frost."
"The geneticist?" Magenta frowned, "I see." It made sense, now that he thought about it. The Ikari boy might be living proof Evolution was still possible out side Third Impact, and if he knew Lorenz by any stretch of the imagination, which he did, it was only logical the man would seek something like this. "But what would we tell her?"
"Nothing about the HIP." Green broke in.
"Or anything about the EVANGELIONS." Yellow entered.
"She only needs to know the facts, gentlemen." Purple broke in, "His name, and what we want done. How she goes about that would be up to her, so long as she accomplishes the mission."
Lorenz pressed a switch on his desk, their forms vanishing and replaced by gigantic dominos. A light snapped on, showing a woman with strawberry blond hair, light white skin, dressed in a lab coat. She looked a little put off to be there, her expressive blue eyes narrowed angrily, thin lips twisted into a rather nasty snarl.
Amanda Frost was a woman born of a Noble German family, she grew up relishing in the fact her families money could buy her whatever she wanted. However, as Third Impact rolled around during her thirteenth birthday, all that changed. She quickly found herself with out the luxury of her money, most of the worlds economical power having been lost, or switched hands so many times during the upheaval their bank records were lost. Living on the streets for a while, she learned just how much of a spoiled brat she had been growing up, and developed a bit of a soft spot for the less fortunate.
Through a Relief Aid, her mother remarried and her life was just a little bit better then a common piece of street trash. Not to be deterred, she had struggled and fought her way through college like everyone else, eventually acquiring the attention of GEHIRN with her astounding understands of Genetics. Enrolling with them, she helped devise the more up to date chemical composition that derived the LCL used by the Evangelions of today. After which, she quickly found herself involved in a special study group designed specifically for the purpose of pursing the possibility of human evolution. She was generally a nice person, but a coldness had settled deep within when her world had been ripped so violently from her during second impact. Thankfully that was a side of her she kept bottled up, only ever really coming out when things really, really didn't go her way.
And here she was, once again before the demented dominos. Her, like everyone else who had taken part in the Evolution research, had been thoroughly interrogated by these things. For what reason she really didn't know, nor did she really want to find out.
"Good Afternoon, Doctor Frost. I trust you're feeling well." Domino Number 01 spoke up, it's voice muffled behind a synthesizers to avoid recognition and detection.
"Oh, I don't know about that." she quipped, with a half lidded glare directed at the monolith, "You dragged me out of my lab, so let's just get this over with."
"Cooperative." Domino 02 chuckled, "We like that."
"I'm sure you do." she drawled, before blinking as 3D screens began to pop up all around her in a crude semi-circle. DNA chains, sequences, lab analysis, pictures, reports. There was a literal treasure trove of information, but she didn't have a clue why they decided to show her all this.
"This information was gathered from a reliable source." 01 began, "Concerning a certain child by the name of Ikari Ranma, who has been designated the Third Child as stated in the Marduk report. I assume your familiar with the name."
"Only briefly." she allowed, looking over the information. The names of the Children were generally passed around before the child him/herself had actually been notified. She remembered reviewing a brief dossier on the boy, but shrugged it off as unimportant. It didn't concern her, since he was Japanese, unlike the Second Child Asuka, who she knew personally, though that was mainly through her less then satisfactory relationship with her Guardian, Kaji.
"Very well. If you turn to the right, you'll view a spread sheet collected by the Head of Project E, Doctor Ritsuko Akagi." 02 interjected.
Frowning a bit, she did as she was told. Data concerning physical well being, muscle density.. she blinked. "What the?"
The monoliths were silent for a time as the woman reviewed the information, her eyes growing a bit bug-eyed at everything she was seeing. Finally, the doctor sat back down with a look of shocked wonder. "He's.. he's..." she mumbled.
"Your assignment." 01 began.
"What?" Amanda dead panned.
"We are going to transfer you to NERV's main facility, and assign you as the new Chief of Medical Operations. We want you to do what you can concerning Mr. Ikari. Discover if the information we have is as reliable and.." 03 tapered off there.
"Discover if his enhancements are hereditary, and if so, bring us proof." 01 finished.
Amanda blinked. Why oh why did this have to happen to her, of all people?
---
Let's Look Towards
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(Posted Tue, 11 Jan 2005 09:44)
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