Sat at the back of the observation bay, Ritsuko ignored the hustle and bustle of technicians setting up the extra equipment to manage three live sync tests from one bay. After all, they knew their jobs and could do them perfectly well without her supervision. Her attention was instead focused on the window, and the blue-armoured giant in the test bay beyond it. How, she wondered, was that... thing going to react to the Commander's precious doll's current state of agitation?
Would it reject her? That would be convenient.
Would it fly into a rage and try to murder them all again? That would... not be convenient, even if the window had been given extra reinforcement and a catch net to block at least the larger pieces of glass.
Maybe everything would go smoothly and let Gendou smirk at her this Saturday during their 'conference' and tell her everything was going to the scenario. That would be annoying, but possibly for the best. Quite apart from the whole practical question of having three deployable pilots, if he was relaxed about the state of the scenario, he'd probably be more... considerate. And maybe even take some feedback on taste.
She pushed aside a treacherous and unhelpful thought about that, and fished her cigarettes out of her labcoat pocket. "Ibuki! I'm going for a smoke."
She had a cigarette between her lips by the time the door closed behind her. Alone in the hallway, she sparked up and took a long drag. As she blew the smoke ceilingward, the elevator door across the hall slid open and Misato stepped out.
"Ugh, Ritz, are you still smoking the same shitty cigarettes? At least Kaji managed to find a decent brand."
"If they tasted good I'd smoke more. How are your pilots?"
Misato shrugged. "Rei seems twitchy. Shinji and Asuka are... well, I told you before, Shinji's grown a sharp tongue, and Asuka's a little bit less... forceful than I'd expect. And they're probably both still a bit rattled from the shootings. The body they saw wasn't a pretty sight."
"Keep me posted. Anything that stands out could be important." Ritsuko glanced down at her cigarette. "Especially with that throwing a wrench into things."
Misato's eyes narrowed. "You know, you're not very good at sounding like you care."
"When was I ever good at..." Ritsuko paused, and remembered a certain weekend back in uni, just after Misato and Kaji had broken up. "Don't answer that."
"See you inside, Ritz," said Misato with a grin as she brushed past Ritsuko, the accidental contact giving that troublesome memory a signal boost.
She smoked the rest of her cigarette far faster than was sensible and headed back inside where there would be work to do, at least if the technicians were finished.
"Synchronization complete."
Asuka shifted uneasily in her seat. Something wasn't quite right. She was used to Unit 02's barely-contained rage seeping through the link, but today it felt different. Blurred. Confused. She toggled on her commlink. "So what's my score?"
"You're averaging fifty seven point three, Asuka," replied the voice of that nice friendly lieutenant – Ibuki, her name was. "There's some jitter on that, though. You're swinging by two percent either way."
Three percent down on my last test at NERV Berlin. "Huh. You sure that reading's correctly calibrated?"
"We're using the calibration curve that was sent over with you and Unit 02."
Oh, wonderful. She looked around the inside of the Evangelion cage, comparing it to its counterpart in Berlin. "Tell them to make sure they sent the latest curve. They sent me by sea without underwater gear, after all."
"I'll get that double-checked for you, Asuka."
The commlink fell silent, leaving Asuka sitting in an entry plug in an idle Evangelion with nothing to do.
"Synchronization complete."
Shinji's grip on the controls relaxed slightly. Everything was... off. The intangible warmth he was used to was a little cooler, a little harder to grasp. He reached up to his A10 connectors to check they were properly in place, but everything seemed to be in order. He toggled on his commlink. "This doesn't feel right. It should feel warmer."
"Hang on, Shinji, let me check the thermal readouts for the plug," replied Lieutenant Ibuki. "Does anything else feels unusual?"
"No, just that."
"OK." Ibuki paused, and Shinji heard a clatter of typing. "Thermal profile says the temperature in the entry plug is the same as usual. No hot or cold spots."
Shinji looked up, through Unit 01's gaze, at the empty observation box, and shook his head. "I'm not talking about that kind of warmth," he said. "When I sync with the Eva, it feels warm inside. Like..." He trailed off, unable to find the words to express it.
"Well, your sync score is lower than last time. You're on 51%." More typing. "You and Asuka are both showing some jitter on your score – about 2% either way."
Dr Akagi joined in the conversation. "Hello, Shinji. We'll have to look more closely at these results, but for the moment, there's no major concern. You should be fine to pilot in the field if an Angel attacks – just be mindful of the jitter. We might need to run a field exercise with you and Asuka."
There's no 'might' about it, Ritz."
The voice in Ritsuko's ear was friendly enough, but the remark reminded her that all was still not entirely well between herself and Misato. She nodded. "Of course. When should we run it?"
"Sunday."
"Possible. Let's see Ayanami's results first. Maya, do the honours."
"Synchronization complete."
Rei looked around the cage. This was not how a sync test should feel. Sync tests were supposed to happen in her baseline neurological state. All of her results had been taken in that state. As long as her sync ratio in that state was adequate, she would be certain of being able to operate Unit 00.
"Congratulations, Rei! Your score is up five points from your last sync test. You're almost level with Asuka. Whatever you're doing, keep it up."
Rei paused. She wished to dispel Lieutenant Ibuki's impression that her sync rate improvement was the result of something she had done, but she did not wish to draw Dr Akagi's attention to the anomaly. Her continued heightened awareness was a difficult burden to bear, but any intervention would be... blunt.
"Thank you, Lieutenant. I shall do my best." An idea occurred to her. Sitting in the entry plug, wearing her plugsuit and immersed in LCL, was a much more pleasant condition than any practically maintainable condition she could reach in her living quarters. "Would you like to get an extended data set?"
Ritsuko wanted the data in front of her to go away. Ayanami's sync rate was stable, and higher than normal for a sync test. Gendou's decision to leave her be would stand up to scrutiny. "Excellent work," she said, trying not to sound like she was gritting her teeth. "Let's get a few more minutes of background data before shutdown."
"So, Ritz, are we good for Sunday?"
Ritsuko looked at her old friend and nodded. "I suppose. Ayanami and I will be unavailable due to an essential procedure, but I believe Lieutenant Ibuki can handle the Project E side of the exercise."
"I can live with that. What kind of 'essential procedure' are we talking about?"
Ritsuko recalled the 'conference' following the last time she'd given Misato more information than Gendou thought was strictly necessary where the surveillance systems were online, and barely suppressed a shudder. "That information's only available at the Commander's discretion. If you don't feel like asking him, you'll just have to trust me."
"Right." Misato paused. "Everything OK, Ritz?"
"As good as can be expected given the threats we face."
If she said it enough, maybe she'd believe it herself.
