Chapter 227: The Price of Freedom
"Wow!" Through the bridge's main screen, Hathaway, now sixteen years old, looked at the planet vaguely visible in the distance in astonishment, "I can't believe it really only took a split second to get back to the moon, Mr. Judau!"
"Indeed awesome, but I'm exhausted." As a jumper, Judau wiped his forehead, "The trial version is too demanding on the user, I really hope that Dr. Lingus can make a full version out."
"But if the requirements for the users reduce, Mr. Judau, your talent as a jumper will be wasted, right?" Hathaway turned around to face Judau, "The boson jumping device is not in mass production, if there is no restriction on its use, it should be assigned to the regular army and the big consortium, how can it be sold to our civilian mining ship?"
"That's not necessarily true." Judau sneered, "The boson jump device and the MS on this ship were obtained from Dr. Lingus by Sister Sayla, and as to how the deal was made, hey hey, I don't know. Just think about how expensive these things are. I am a mere miner on Jupiter, how can Dr. Lingus specially arrange them for me?"
"Mr. Judau, you think too much, there is nothing between Ms. Sayla and the Doctor. After all, the Doctor's family…" Hathaway scratched his head, trying to find a suitable word, "Is tightly controlled? "
Judau imagined and couldn't help but grin, "I'll just have fun picking up trash."
After the launch of the Wheel of Angels, the government fully liberalized the Jupiter extraction permit for private individuals. As a price for the license, the excavated Chulip crystal will be forcibly recovered by the government at a reasonable price. Judau Ashta, who just turned twenty-three this year, was one of the few people who received a mining license.
The trial version of the boson jumping device used on Judau's mining ship was a derivative developed by Dr. Lingus during the construction of the Wheel of Angels, and was so limited in function and demanding on the users. With the help of Sayla and his own talent, Judau was lucky enough to get one.
After the private extraction of Jupiter was liberalized, the general public finally knew what the Jupiter fossils placed in front of the P.L.A.N.T. Supreme Convocation were. After the concept of BETA became popular, and with the promotion of Angels as an alien invasion of the Earth, the complaints on the Internet related to the Wheel of Angels gradually disappeared.
"After this, I'm going to take a good rest for a while." Judau patted Hathaway's shoulder hard, "It's rare to meet a NewType like you, it's a pity that you have to join the army."
"No, I've talked to my father that I won't join the A-Laws." Hathaway hastily waved his hand, "No one rules that a soldier's child must make a soldier, and the president's son still must be a president, right? That kind of stagnant world is really hopeless. Just thinking about it, I feel depressed and suffocated."
Judau's eyes lit up, "Then do you want to work for me after graduation? One day, Dr. Lingus will be able to develop an official version of the boson jumping device, and then I will definitely take the Shangri-La to the outside of the solar system!"
"I haven't thought about it yet. I always wanted to study botany, but now I think the universe is also very interesting. It's a bit too early to make a decision now…" Hathaway couldn't help but misplaced his eyes under Judau's gaze and changed the subject, "By the way Mr. Judau, the beautiful lady I met last year didn't go with us this time."
"You mean Louka? Last month, we broke up." Judau instantly became downcast, "Oh, women! No matter how romantic at the beginning, they will eventually become snobbish. In this world, only a sister can warm my heart. Hathaway, you also have a sister, you must understand what I am talking about, right?"
"Not necessarily, Audrey is pretty good, just …" Hathaway recalled all the past with Audrey over the years, the more he thought about it, the more depressed he felt, "Just… she may not like me much. I always feel as if she already has someone she likes …"
"Dr. Lingus's daughter? It is said that she is very beautiful? You have to know, this kind of thing -" Judau was about to say some words of comfort, then he suddenly frowned, "A NewType is approaching in, or two? Beecha, did you find anything on the radar?"
"Judau, it's not good!" Beecha, who was acting as CIC on the bridge, exclaimed almost at the same time, "An MS is approaching, its identification signal is …ZAFT? I'm trying to contact it, but the other side refuses to reply!"
"What is the situation? Is it a ZAFT that ran out from the moon?" Judau immediately made a decision, "Immediately report the situation here to the moon's space control center, just in case, be ready to counterattack."
"Ple? Audrey?!" Hathaway finally perceived who was coming and was dumbfounded for a moment.
"Report those two names as well, the moon side knows what to do." Judau gave Hathaway a worried look, "It doesn't look like it's going to be a conflict, why don't we just back off? It's better for us to stay out of Dr. Lingus' family's business."
"No, they're both ignoring me, something is definitely wrong!" Hathaway gazed at him, "Mr. Judau, please lend me F97 for a while!"
"… I knew it. NewType is really troublesome." Judau covered his face with one hand, "F97 was borrowed from Dr. Lingus, if you break it, you are responsible to pay it yourself. That thing is too expensive, I can't afford to pay."
…
"Mineva, what should we do?" Ple looked at the young girl beside her who didn't say a word, "Hathaway keeps following us, if this continues, the joint location will be exposed."
"I really don't want to get him involved, it will just become more trouble." Mineva pondered for a moment, "What is the success rate of capturing him alive?"
"Let's see," Ple cocked her head, "F97 is a special MS designed by Uncle Ade according to the Jupiter environment, and Kshatriya has just been upgraded, we have an advantage from the MS point of view. But Hathaway's driving skill is very good, I don't have an advantage under the same conditions. So combining the above two points, well ~ I don't know."
"Then let's try it first. I'll take care of interfering with him with words, it would be the best to win without a fight." Mineva frowned lightly, "Involving you in my affair is not something I want, it is necessary to try to control the scale of the situation."
"Control the scale of the situation?" Ple snorted out a laugh, "I think, well, Mineva, you may have made a big mess …"
"Yes? I'm just trying to make a name for myself in advance of my future identity, and get some man who's used to deceiving himself to come to his senses before the Wheel of Angels starts." Mineva grunted sorrowfully, "Don't take me for Lacus, that crazy woman even lost the right to go out on a date with her own husband."
"Uh, Mineva, you look creepy like that." Ple winced, "Well, have you ever thought that Uncle Ade might prefer a cherub type of girl? You see, you also said that Sister Ange is most pleasing to Uncle Ade, right? And you always acted like you were innocent and cute when you were little, so maybe he actually liked you back then?"
"He has to face reality before he can accept it, what's more … eh?" Mineva's tone changed, "He likes innocent, cute, heartless little angels. Ple, are you implying someone in this cockpit other than me?"
"Ahhhhh, here we go again, I shouldn't have talked to you about this!" Ple puffed out her cheeks unhappily, "Hathaway, sorry, take my Funnels!"
Kshatriya, which looked like a giant green pepper, opened its four wings at the same time as it turned to face the visitor. Each of its wings contained six Funnels, and the twenty-four Funnels swooped towards F97 in an aggressive manner.&
Unfortunately, so many Funnels didn't stop F97 from advancing. The dazzling particle beams hit F97's surface without causing any damage to the fuselage itself, and F97 continued to steadily close the distance to Kshatriya despite being unable to avoid such an intense barrage.
"Anti-beam cloak? I can't believe it's already been installed in practice?" Mineva suddenly put on a look of gnashing teeth, "Having time to make such toys, but having no time for me! He is really too much!"
"Ahem, Mineva?" Ple interrupted her carefully, "F97 is good at a close fight. I may be unable to beat it if it gets close."
Before Mineva could say anything, F97 had already rushed to the front of Kshatriya, and the huge cross-shaped thrusters behind F97 rotated at a delicate angle, allowing it to dodge the cluster fire of the Kshatriya's particle cannon in the nick of time. The beam saber, which was obviously larger than the others, slammed into the I-field around Kshatriya's body, and then it drew back and dodged Kshatriya's chopping blow instantly.
"Look at him, Mineva, look at him!" Ple, who had missed the sneak attack, slapped the control panel in front of her with dissatisfaction, "He always said that he wanted to be a botanist. How could a botanist be so good at fighting like him?!"
"It's better to let me do it." Mineva rushed to speak on the public channel decisively before F97 launched the next wave of attack, "Hathaway, it's me."
"Audrey! It really is you! The one with you is Ple, right?" F97 stopped its forward momentum and froze in place as Hathaway's shocked voice rang out on the channel, "Why did you and Ple appear here in ZAFT's MS? Why did you ignore my communication request and attack me without any reason? What the hell happened?"
"It's a little tricky to explain, we attacked you because we don't want to get you into trouble." Mineva looked down at the radar. There were no other pursuers besides F97 for the time being, but only for the time being, she had to make it quick, "First of all to correct you a mistake, I am no longer Audrey Lingus. My name is now Mineva Lao Zabi, and that is my real name."
"Did you and the Doctor have a fight?" This was Hathaway's first reaction, "Isn't it good for you to talk openly and honestly? Why do you have to get away from home?"
Talk openly and honestly. Get away from home. Mineva's face became depressed the moment she heard these, "That's the biggest reason of all."
"What did you say?" Hathaway pursued in confusion, "I didn't hear you clearly, what is the biggest reason?"
"Ha …" Mineva ignored Ple's squint with a serious light sigh, "Hathaway, do you know what the Wheel of Angels does?"
"I know." Hathaway answered without thinking, "On the surface, it's an armed fortress, but in fact, it exists as the last ark of mankind. Once an enemy that even Dr. Lingus cannot deal with, the selected survivors will aboard the Wheel of Angels and escape away from Earth."
"Is this approach acceptable to you?" Mineva asked.
"At first glance, it's very cruel, but in general, it's for the sake of all mankind. If this is the Doctor's decision, then I understand him." Hathaway calmly responded, "The only slight dissatisfaction is to sell the valuable dormant cabin on the Wheel of Angels at a high price to rich men, but in order to exchange for sufficient funds, this is necessary. And from what I know about the Doctor, if it really comes down to the wire, he'll abandon these rich men and let the truly valuable people live."
"Uncle Ade is indeed that kind of person, yes." Mineva unconsciously smiled, "But it looks like Uncle Bright didn't tell you the truth either."
"The truth?" Hathaway was horrified. He and Mineva were both NewType, which meant that Mineva couldn't lie to him.
"Those dormant pods aren't for survivors as you might think, their only application is for NewType," Mineva narrowed her eyes, "Once the Wheel of Angels' Chulip crystal reactor falls into power deficit due to lack of raw materials. NewType will be used as a battery and stuffed into the dormant pods, using a technology called GN-Drive to squeeze energy from it through the NT's spiritual resonance."
The cockpit of F97 fell into silence and Hathaway felt his brain couldn't react to what Mineva said, but Mineva didn't stop there.
"So why does the Wheel of Angels need so much energy? It just so happens that I overheard the 'real' use of the Wheel of Angels from Uncle Ade one day." Mineva screwed Ple's face, because the latter also opened her mouth wide and stared at her with a shocked look, "The 'real' Wheel of Angels can greatly increase the mental ability of a NewType at the core, so as to achieve the purpose of brainwashing the whole world. "
"And Dr. Lingus is the NT at the core of this, and only an NT as powerful as him can take on this responsibility." Hathaway murmured and took over, "Absolute peace can be achieved if all of humanity is brainwashed, only then can all productivity be used to develop technology, and only then will there be a chance of surviving the various crises in the universe in the future, at the cost of giving up all of humanity's free will…"
"Hathaway, you sure are clever." Mineva raised the corners of her mouth in triumph, "Uncle Ade calls this program - the Destiny Program."
