GO OUTSIDE AND USE YOUR FUCKING EYES STOP
- Exchange between two American observation stations during King Ghidorah's arrival on Earth, December 20th 1966
The photo had been projected to the whiteboard wall of the conference room, blown up to the point where the subject of the picture was taller than anyone in the room, yet still paltry to its true size. With all of the observation cameras and drones in the city, they had their pick of pics, but the one they had chosen was rather apt- the giant at a slight crouch, arms crossed as he fired his beam.
Misato frowned and shook her head. It. Its beam. Anthropomorphizing the giant was dangerous territory, even if it was more human-like than any nonhuman she'd ever seen, even more than...
She turned to look at the crowd in the rather small conference room, their faces only illuminated by the glow of the projector hanging from the ceiling. They were all so young -as to be expected after half the planet died fifteen years ago- but the harsh light highlighted the bags under their eyes and the wrinkles of their scrunched brows and made them all look so very old.
Something told her she'd look just as bad, and not only from the stress of a kaiju and Angel attacking at the same time. Driving Asuka and Shinji to the apartment had been so much fun.
"I know it's been a pretty long-" she paused to dramatically check her watch. "-early afternoon."
Chuckles rippled across the audience, more sounds of relief than genuine mirth. That was good. Panic didn't help brainstorming sessions.
"We have a lot on our plates today. Repairs for Unit-01 and the city, specimen retrieval, cleanup, and some Godzilla-sized mysteries, but this one takes precedent."
She reached her hand back and rapped the wall behind her with her knuckles. "Unidentified Giant Humanoid Lifeform One, that's what we're calling it for the time being. One hundred meters tall, twelve and a half thousand metric tons based off its footprint indentations. Where did it come from? We don't know. What can it do? We don't know. What is it doing here? We don't know."
"What we are going to do," she continued, "is find out."
"Is it an Angel?" someone in the crowd blurted out.
It was Ritsuko's turn to talk. The blonde scientist got up from her seat at the front and stood on the other side of the projection.
"Considering what we've seen, we can safely it is not an Angel," she said. "Despite the orb on its chest resembling a core, MAGI analysis of blood patterns returned with code orange. Which is jargon for 'we don't know what it is, but it's not any of those things'. That's not getting into its actions, which are completely unlike both observed and hypothesized Angel behavior."
"Actually, that thing in its chest is a good starting point." Misato grabbed a marker and drew a circle around the giant's orb. "I want to hear ideas on what it might be."
"Could it be an analogous organ to an Angel core?" someone at the back asked.
"I'm not discounting that idea," Misato said. She wrote CORE ANALOGUE on the whiteboard and drew a line to the circle. "Any other ideas?"
"That chime it made along with the flashing, could it be a form of communication?" asked Maya.
"Doubtful," Ritsuko said, which prompted Maya to look at the floor with a blush. "Far too simple for even basic mathematical proofs."
"The way it sped up, it was like a countdown," Hyuuga piped up. "Maybe an indicator of energy reserves?"
"That's possible," Misato said as she wrote it down.
"It might not be power, but something else," Maya suggested. "Maybe it can't survive in our environment for very long."
"That begs the question of where it goes," Aoba said. "Which is also related to where it even came from. It was like it popped out of nowhere."
"Or grew to giant size," Misato added. She decided to write SOURCE near the corner and underlined it. "Footage shows it seemed to rise from a point in the park, as though it was originally smaller."
"Human-sized?" someone asked, unsteadily.
"Wouldn't we have spotted it beforehand?" another retorted. "There should have been sightings..."
"Maybe there have been. The eyes and silver skin are eerily similar to those reports about little grey men we've had since the forties. Maybe the Americans were covering up something at Roswell after all."
"What if it can disguise itself as a human?" Maya piped up.
"I don't want to even think about that. Would we have to start screenings?"
"What can you even screen for? We don't even know if this thing has DNA."
Misato sighed as she continued rapidly scribbling all the ideas on the board. She knew she was going to have to rein it in soon, before it got too out of hand. The fact of the matter was that, whether it was some Angelic sub-species, or a humanoid kaiju, or even a genuine spaceman, they weren't going to figure that out today in this room.
A natural break in the furor came unexpectedly, when the door slid open and Commander Ikari stepped inside, shadowed by Subcommander Fuyutsuki. The room became as quiet as a tomb as he surveyed everyone within, his gaze betraying nothing of the thoughts behind it. Then, with nary a word, he sat down at the far end of the room, one leg lazily crossed over the other. Fuyutsuki opted to stand instead, straight as a pillar and arms folded behind his back.
When it became clear the commander wasn't actually going to say anything, Misato cleared her throat. "I think we've hit the cap on discussing what it could be. Now let's focus on the other questions. Why did it attack the Angel?"
"If it's a humanoid kaiju, it could be merely territoriality," Aoba offered.
"I don't think it's a kaiju, and I don't think it's territoriality," someone near the back said. "It left Unit-01 alone."
"Maybe it didn't see it as a threat."
"That's not it," Misato said.
Clicking with the remote, she moved to another slide. Instead of a photo, it was a short soundless video, showing the giant as it went into a fighting stance and circled about the Angel. Pausing, she pointed to the image.
"Look where it stopped. It deliberately put itself between Unit-01 and the Angel. It left its back open to the Eva, while simultaneously protecting it. An animal wouldn't do that, and an intelligent being wouldn't do that unless it implicitly trusted us. If that doesn't convince you, there's this."
She clicked the remote again. Another soundless video was now projected on the wall, showing Godzilla looming over the giant as it stood between him and Unit-01. A quiet fell upon the room, an all-too-familiar one that had pervaded history classes for fifty years. Even when just on a screen, the King of the Monsters commanded your attention.
"It stopped Godzilla from destroying Unit-01. It didn't fight him- the reason for that in itself is something we can debate all day, but what's not up for debate is that instead of standing by or even fleeing, it put itself in harm's way with no clear benefit to itself, just to prevent the Eva from getting vaporized. If that's not proof of it being both intelligent and benevolent, I don't know what is."
"How do we know it wasn't a calculated gamble to get on our good side?" Aoba asked. "Intelligence implies belligerence. There's no telling what sort of information-gathering abilities it has- how do we know it hasn't tapped into our most secure systems? It might know how to perfectly counter us, and is just waiting for the right moment to strike."
"If it was hostile, wouldn't it have let Godzilla destroy Unit-01, or even do the deed itself?" Maya countered. "The Second Child egressed from the Unit, a perfect target, but the giant didn't attack her or the Eva."
"I'm inclined to agree with Lieutenant Ibuki," Misato said. "It had its perfect moment to strike. No working Evas, no available pilots, and a hostile Godzilla. It could've let him destroy Unit-01 while it focused on mopping us up. It killed an Angel in under a minute- I think it would've been able to take us out in just as much time. But it didn't."
"Regardless of its... priorities, I'd say we are leaning towards this giant being some manner of intelligent entity," affirmed Ritsuko. She adjusted her glasses. "Now the question is- why the lack of communication? I would say that is currently the biggest argument against assigning benevolence to this giant. A non-hostile intelligence would've attempted to advertise that it is not a threat."
"Perhaps it didn't feel the need to," someone suggested. "It might've felt not killing us was advertisement enough."
"It could be some sort of non-interference clause," Hyuuga piped up. "Maybe it can't talk directly to us mud-covered natives out of fear of cultural contamination."
"I think you're jumping the gun on assuming it's an honest-to-god alien," Aoba retorted.
"Stay focused, please," Misato said tiredly.
Maya spoke up. "Maybe it can't communicate, at least not easily. I don't think that mouth is actually usable, or even a mouth at all. Perhaps it speaks to its own kind via radio or telepathy. That's not very compatible with us."
"That's actually a very good point." Misato started writing on the board again. "I think we should look into alternate means of communication, in case this thing shows up again. Which it might not, for all we know. Which, as this meeting has demonstrated, is still virtually nothing. This... giant is an utter enigma. No one has any prior knowledge to work from here."
"I would disagree, Major Katsuragi."
Misato blinked in surprise as she looked to the far wall, everyone else joining in short order. Commander Ikari remained seated, but even then his presence seemed to stifle everyone else's, demanding the room focus on him and him alone. Not for the first time, Misato was astounded at the complete contrast between Shinji and his father.
"Zoom in on Godzilla's face and replay the video." An order, not a request.
The projection shifted. Godzilla's face dominated the wall now, burning eyes the size of dinner plates as they glared at the giant. Misato couldn't help but feel a slight tightness in her throat at the sight.
"Take note of his countenance," Commander Ikari said. "Godzilla's facial expressions are almost as complex as those of primates in terms of conveying emotion. There is displeasure there, yes, but this particular expression is one used only when the source of his displeasure is not something he deems a threat. He has made similar and well-documented displays whenever irritated by Rodan or Anguirus, kaiju with whom he had formed social bonds."
"Something which doesn't happen overnight," Misato said. "He's encountered this giant before."
"And does not deem it a threat, either to him or this planet. See how he turns away. Head tilted slightly upwards, in a dominance display that simultaneously exposes his throat."
"He did not back down from this giant out of fear." Commander Ikari stood up, and adjusted his glasses. For a moment, the orange glint of the lenses made his gaze mirror the one on the screen. "He did it out of respect."
Misato nodded slightly. "Thank you for your insight, commander."
"As for this discussion, I think it has served its purpose for the day," he said, seeming to disregard the pleasantry. "We have much to do today, and ultimately the Angels are our highest priority. I will assign personnel to research this newcomer; in the meantime you are to focus on restoring NERV to combat readiness."
With that, the commander left, Fuyutsuki following after him. Misato let out a long sigh, and looked to the gathered staff.
"Dismissed."
The crowd quietly got up from their chairs and filed out of the room. Ritsuko mentioned something about needing to supervise the dissection of the Angel and followed in short order, leaving only Misato.
A hand went to her cross, thumb gently rubbing the slightly textured steel as she sat down in one of the now-empty chairs. With the other hand, she used the remote to move to another slide. Once more the silver giant dominated the wall, one arm raised skyward and the other bent upwards at the elbow, fists clenched. In that photo at least it seemed less some mysterious alien entity, and more a hero of old rising to slay the evils of the world.
Her eyes fell to the text at the bottom of the photo.
TENTATIVE NAME:
ULTRAMAN