After the Drift

Chapter Twenty-Nine: Finding a New Direction

June 2024

With dealing with my depression, anxiety, bonk on the head, parents also dealing with much of the former, boyfriend and his testosterone driven idiosyncrasies and Jaeger pilot stresses, the past few months were a blur.

I finally felt physically able to continue working, but decided to take myself into K-Science instead of working on the Jaegers I used to love.

I worked daily with Hermann and Newt. Which was an experience in and of itself. Between Hermann's constant chattering and Newt's constant crazy ranting, I went through pain relievers like tic-tacs.

"But to drift with a kaiju would be to drift with...pure evil, Newton. They are here to destroy us."

Newt scoffed loudly. "But that's the point, Hermy!" Hermann scoffed loudly and threw a pen on his desk.

"We could see what their plans would be, we could understand the intricacies that we are completely devoid of now! We could understand why, how! Maybe even a way to pull the plug! Stop the uglies from coming through ever again!"

He tapped the large glass tank containing a dead kaiju's brain. Something clicked for me.

"We could-"

I raised my hand and Hermann gestured to answer me over more of Newt's ranting. Newt sent a glare my way. He wasn't really on Team Ruby. More like he was told to deal with me by Pentecost himself.

"Well what if we did plug the breach? I know just throwing some rocks in it wouldn't help but what if we... I don't know. Blew it up with nuclear missiles?"

Newt threw his hands in the air. "And cause global contamination along with it. Poison everything. World wide Chernobyl."

"A world we have to fix is better than not even a chance of fixing it, is it not, Newt?" Hermann raised an eyebrow at his colleague.

"I think we could just find a way to fix it easier, know their weaknesses and find a way to protect ourselves if we just- drift. With. The. Kaiju!" He ended on a shout.

Hermann shook his head. The shouting matches were a daily and even he had begun to grow tired of them along the stress of increased attacks.

"Newt, there are too many unknowns with drifting with the beast. We don't know if what you want to do could be done in reverse to us." He sent me a glare again.

"Why are you here again? Shouldn't you be off lubricating something, mech?" I clenched my jaw. His irritating nickname for me always got under my skin.

"Newton. She's here to help. As is everyone else." Hermann said diplomatically. Newt just growled again and began flipping pages in a book angrily.

Hermann came over to my desk and put a hand delicately on my shoulder.

"Again, don't mind him. Stress is a powerful thing. As is knowledge and the curiosity to seek it." He wandered away to check stats on something or other.

I turned back to my computer. The stats that littered my screen were from the radiation that leaked from prior kills of kaiju and what it was doing to the surrounding areas.

I had hope that looking into what was leeching into the land and sea may provide an answer as to what could be used to destroy them.

                                      ——————

Finally done with the twosome, I made my way to the cafeteria.

Inside I could see the groups looking much sparser than they had in weeks prior.

Some blonde hair caught my eye and at first thinking it was Lucie, ended up being my mother and father eating with their crew.

I headed over towards them before I heard a "Darl'!"

I turned and saw Chuck waving from beside his father. Herc gave me a nod and resumed his eating. I smiled and waved back at Chuck.

Sitting on the floor near his feet, was his surprise. Max sat up and wiggled his whole body when he saw me coming their way. His tongue lolling out of the side of his mouth.

I turned to wave at my parents but only saw my mother and the some of their crew left. Waving with a sad smile, mom got up and followed after where I presumed my dad had gone.

I had barely spoken with or seen him since Lucie's death. He took it on as his own personal failure and poured himself into beating back the enemy.

I swallowed hard and went to Chuck and Max. I pulled Max into my lap as I sat at Chuck's feet.

"You alright, love?"

I looked up at him and gave a half assed smile. "As good as I can be after a day with Newt." He laughed hard and nodded.

He looked down tenderly on Max and I as I rubbed the dog's tummy. Max started snoring almost immediately. What a hard life being a puppy.