Chapter 15: Pulse
Chapter 15:
Pulse
Pulse
A
SUKA RECONNECTED EVA-02
to the Allegorica system. Once the power supply was operational, she drained the LCL from the entry plug. In the low gravity, she used a pulmonary suction device to expel the fluid from her lungs. Her throat made a grating, whistling sound, and the plug’s vital sensors detected she was hyperventilating. The climate conditioner automatically regulated the concentration of oxygen in the air, and after a little time, her breathing relaxed.
The Q.R. Signums had vanished without a trace.
There were reports that when an Angel Carrier and its larva died, the remains disappeared after a short time. Though Asuka didn’t want to face it, the possibility that these enemies might be recycled indefinitely crossed her mind.
“Maybe I should incinerate them with another N
2
bomb just to be sure.”
What was that human figure the pulse formed in the dust?
The heartbeat had gone away without Asuka realizing at first. When she noticed that the deep rumble had been replaced by total silence, it was like it had never been there at all. Her Eva’s sensors picked up a faraway underground tremor, but nothing strong enough for her to feel herself. Asuka was alone again. But back in this noiseless space, she realized something.
Deep in her chest, she could hear her own heart beating—
THUMP, THUMP
—announcing its presence like a lighthouse in the night.
I’m here. I’m here.
For the first time, she thought of her heartbeat as more than a mere mechanism for circulating blood. A heartbeat was a primal and basic rhythm sent to the self and to the outside.
It was Super Eva’s heartbeat, after all, that had drawn out the powerful Armaros.
Casually, as if the heartbeat had led someone else into a battle to the death against a mind-invading Angel and its zombified host, Asuka remarked, “I’m sure that heartbeat came from Super Eva.”
But despite her calm demeanor, she was tired—exhausted, really. Asuka’s half-awake state allowed her thoughts to tumble freely, untethered by rationality.
Was that pulse Shinji and Super Eva asserting their existence?
Could that distinctive rhythm have produced its performer’s image?
But just as she began to drift off, she roused herself and renewed her grip on the control stick.
“No sleep yet. I need to deal with the Carrier’s corpse first.”
Its left arm still dangling limply, Eva-02 Allegorica slowly went back into motion.
