Chapter 20: Commercial Interplay
The research was progressing at a frighteningly fast pace. Now that Ade had become an NT himself, his understanding of the data was unparalleled from the past, plus Amuro, in addition to being a powerful NT, also possessed a notable technical force himself. With the strong combination of the two, technical difficulties were overcome with great force one by one, and the only regret was that they came home late every day.
C.C. didn't say anything except for a complaint on the first day, because she started to become equally busy. To be honest, it was quite a refreshing experience to come home every day and see C.C. working on something instead of lying on the couch watching TV. Watching the C.C. now, Ade thought that she might really be too bored in general and that he should have found something for her to do long ago.
"Captain Amuro, no matter the Zeta Gundam or the report to the Federation, they only know my research of the bio-sensors." Ade said to Amuro freely, "Everything about the psychic sensing framework is known only by you and me. I leave the decision up to you."
Having progressed so far, it was only a matter of time before the successful development of the bio-sensors required by the Federation. With Ade's "memory" and his own understanding of psychic sensing in the past few days, he proposed to Amuro a conjecture of the Psycommu system and the Psycho Frame. After repeated discussions between them, the conjecture gradually took shape, but was not tried.
He never had the idea of replacing Inle with the Psycommu system to replace the D.R.A.G.O.O.N system. Because he knew that Alice would be very upset if he did so. And since he and Alice had always worked well together, there was nothing wrong with maintaining the status quo.
"To be honest, it doesn't work for me at all. Psychic sensing is just a handy radar for me, and it's perfectly strong enough now, and I don't want it to increase its influence on me to that point at all." With only the two of them in the office, Ade poured both Amuro and himself a cup of black tea, "So I'll leave the decision up to you. Whether this kind of thing should be made or not, and whether the Federation should know about it or not, Captain Amuro, you be the judge."
"Thank you." Amuro picked up his cup of tea and took a sip, "Although it hasn't been tried yet, it's very feasible in theory. What exactly to do with it… I can't judge it for a while, but I'll think about it after I return to Earth. But after meeting you, I want to believe in the possibility of human …"
"This is not urgent, but there is another problem." Ade pointed to his head, "Is it really impossible to turn off this thing? In case I have to make a trip to PLANT, wouldn't I be like a big broadcast to Aznable?"
Not just in case, but really have to go. He believes that after arriving at PLANT, he would like a light bulb in front of Char all day.
"It's impossible to turn it off, just like you can't turn off your sense of smell or hearing." Amuro shrugged helplessly, "But you can choose not to notice it, just like your vision receives an almost infinite amount of information at all times, but you can look only at what you want to see. Mental sensing is a similar organ."
"So I can't stop people from perceiving me either…" He got no quarrel with Char, it's not that he's afraid of anything, it just doesn't feel very convenient, "So by analogy, perceiving distance is like people's vision, right? But when you came, we found each other from so far away."
"That's why I said you have good qualities, or at least very talented in perception. As for Char," Amuro looked like he wanted to say something, "You don't have to worry too much, he doesn't have very good eyesight."
Knock, knock, knock, there was a knock on the door.
"Please come in."
"Adrien-san, is Zeta really designed for human-ah, sorry to interrupt! " Shinn saw Amuro in the room and quickly bowed his head in apology.
"It's okay, I'm the one who let you in. Captain Amuro, this is Shinn Asuka, our test pilot from Anaheim, who is now in charge of the commissioning of the Zeta Gundam." Ade gestured for Shinn to enter the office, "Shinn, this is Captain Amuro Ray that I spoke to you about earlier."
"Hello." Amuro shook Shinn's hand politely, and Shinn looked nervous. To him, Amuro was considered an enemy who killed his parents, right?
"Shinn, you're just in time. Didn't you always have something to say to Captain Amuro before? Now is the chance." He didn't know how to explain it to Amuro, and he could only try to send a complicated emotion to Amuro. Amuro understood and nodded slightly to him, "Some words are better asked in person. I believe that Captain Amuro can understand it."
"That …" Shinn looked at Amuro and then at Ade, a little overwhelmed by the suddenness of what had happened.
Ade sent him an encouraging look.
Shinn took a deep breath, looked up and stared into Amuro's eyes, and asked in as smooth a voice as he could, "Captain Ray, may I ask what you think about things like being a hero of the Federation?"
"I never felt like a hero of anything, those are just Federation propaganda slogans. To those who had everything taken away by me in the war, I am rather the devil, right?" Amuro's voice was calm, "But that wasn't my own will either, I was just a soldier who followed orders."
"So Captain Ray, do you think that you're innocent? Thinking that no one you killed was your own fault?"
"Of course it was my fault, I pulled the trigger, and I'm twelve thousand percent conscious of the fact that I'm an executioner. I hate myself for that, and I hate the war itself even more." Amuro looked straight into Shinn's crimson pupils, "But besides hating, I have more important things to do now, and you do too, don't you?"
"… Yes. "
"I can feel your grief. I have done so many irreparable things that cannot be forgiven, but I will still stick to what I have to do now." Amuro paused for a moment, seemingly in thought, "One must be hopeful."
"Surely, Captain Ray thinks the same way …" Shin stood up and bowed, "Thank you, Captain Ray. Thank you, too, Adrien-san."
"Don't thank me, you're the one who grew up." Ade gestured for Shinn to sit down, "So down to business, I remember the Zeta Gundam started testing. After it's handed over to the Federation, Captain Amuro will be its pilot, so it's okay to tell him. Right? Is there another New Type in the Federation? At least I haven't heard of it."
"There is at least one other New Type besides me that I know of, but he is trusted by Brigadier Hymem and is not caged like me." Amuro chuckled to himself, "Captain Paptimus Scirocco, recently promoted to Major I believe. He hasn't been advertised much to the outside world, so I don't know if you've heard of it."
"Scirocco? Is that the feminist with a grandmother's haircut, talking in a strange way?"
"… Although I don't know where you get this kind of strange information, we are saying the same person I believe." Amuro looked back at Ade's description and felt funny, "But he insists on only riding in MSs himself designed, so there's a good chance that Zeta will be assigned to me."
"That means the Federation is ready to use you, otherwise, it doesn't make sense to spend so much money on Zeta." Ade looked to Shinn, "So what's wrong with Zeta?"
"Well, I didn't mean to complain about Adrien-san's design, absolutely nothing of the sort!" Shinn waved his hand nervously at Ade, "It's just that the center of gravity of the cockpit is not fixed when Zeta is deformed. With gravity, it is a little better, it's just especially shaky. But in the zero-gravity environment, after the deformation finished, sometimes I don't even know which direction I'm facing …"
"… true, it seems that you still need training. How can it be a problem of my design? This is clearly your spatial perception ability is still insufficient." To design such a complex structure, he had tried his best to make sure that it wouldn't fall apart during deforming. Do you want the cockpit not shaking? Boy, this is not an anime. "Captain Amuro, do you want to give it a personal try? Since it'll be yours, why not experience it in advance?"
…
"Adrien sir, was it too rude of me to talk to Captain Ray like that before?" Amuro went to make preparations before driving Zeta, Ade and Shinn waited at the control center, "I got a little excited just now and didn't control myself."
"Captain Amuro is a very broad-minded man, he didn't care about it. In fact, it's the opposite, he understands you very well, and you've really improved a lot too." Looking at Shinn scratch his head a little embarrassed, Ade asked, "How is Mayu doing these days? Is she okay?"
"Well, well, Adrien-san!" The sudden raising of Shinn's voice startled Ade, luckily there was no one next to them. "You, you already have Miss C.C., right?!"
"… What's going on in your head? Mayu is only fourteen years old!" Ade felt it's both funny and annoying, "It's just a very common concern. Don't worry, I will not steal your sister."
"Ah … ah …" Shinn's face turned red and his mouth opened like a goldfish. Ade thought, if this is an anime, there would be a special effect of smoke coming out of his head.
"Take a deep breath. I didn't hear anything just now."
"… hiss … hoo." Shinn tried to pretend that nothing had just happened, "Well, Mayu is not too happy lately and has been feeling like a burden. But I don't think she needs to do anything. I don't feel like she's a burden at all."
"That's your bad." Shinn looked at Ade with a puzzled face. Ade explained, "Mayu has always been under your care. Now that she is grown up, it is natural to want to do something for the sake of the family. Of course, you won't ask her for anything in return, but have you considered what she thinks? Receiving favors all the time and not being able to pay anything back is a very heavy burden for the person receiving them."
"… Then what should I do?"
"Find something for her to do. Preferably something rewarding, something that will give Mayu a little sense of accomplishment and gain." So it's fun to be a mental health counselor, "Look, Captain Amuro is out."
No paint, no weapons, just an empty skeleton. Zeta Gundam appeared on the big screen in that way. Amuro only briefly read the operation manual beforehand, so he hasn't been used to control Zeta. The fuselage's movements were pretty fumbling.
But it didn't take long for the movements to become smooth and natural, and Amuro began to try various maneuvers in the zero-gravity environment. Immediately after that, he started to try to switch between the MS form and the aircraft form statically. Next is the movement in the transformation, maneuver in the transformation, transformation after the connection of a variety of difficult maneuvers. His actions are getting faster and faster with all kinds of unseen combos popping up, making everyone who watched it feel dazzled.
Ade could not believe that the Zeta Gundam in front of him was designed by himself. He always felt that the fancy transformation function was just a waste.
"Is this the strength of the strongest New Type?" said Shinn, who was impressed with his eyes wide open, "I can't believe I've been proud of my driving skill for a long time…"
"This is Amuro Ray, feedback on Zeta Gundam." The voice of Amuro rang out from the audio device in the control center, "A design that balances mobility and balance, diverse offensive methods, smooth stance switching, and excellent operating feel. Dr. Adrien, what a masterpiece!"
