Chapter 22: Fragile and Perilous
Chapter 22:
Fragile and Perilous
Fragile and Perilous
S
UPER EVA’S HOVERING MECHANISM
didn’t work like Eva-02’s or Euro-II’s graviton-based Allegorica system. Instead, the Vertex system used an A.T. Field to create variances in the density of air through which the Eva could float.
Flight had been envisioned as one possible application of the A.T. Field deflection technology developed for the Eva-01 Type-F, back when the Eva was a testing platform. But in its former state, Eva-01 hadn’t been able to generate an A.T. Field of sufficient magnitude to enable flight—not even in momentary bursts, let alone a sustained duration—and so the work was shelved. But with the tremendous strength of Super Eva’s A.T. Field, the experimental technology was finally becoming reality.
A second pair of Allegorica wings, like those that had made a Pegasus out of Eva-02, were currently under construction in Cage One for eventual installation on Eva-00 Type-F, but between the N
2
reactor, the graviton governors, phase-space interference technology, and the various tech to bring it all together, the wings alone contained more parts than the Eva’s body. It wasn’t something that could be built quickly.
Compared to those massive, extravagant wings, Maya called Super Eva’s small wings “a human-powered aircraft that only a brute could fly.” Whereas the Allegorica was a distillation of human engineering and craft, these wings enabled the Eva to bend the laws of physics. The process was especially distasteful to the engineer when combined with Super Eva’s outrageous origins and power. Shinji didn’t understand that kind of thinking, but when he’d seen those small wings under construction, with their arrays of field-guiding plates, he’d thought they looked like paper airplanes.
Because the flight system required Super Eva and Shinji’s concerted effort to generate a continuous, high-power A.T. Field, maybe it
was
like a human-powered aircraft.
Can I really catch up to Asuka like this? We’re talking about a flight all the way to the
moon
.
At last, the Eva began to rise.
“I…I can’t keep my feet on the ground,” Shinji said.
KREEEEE!
Super Eva’s fingers slid sideways across the hardened bakelite like nails on a chalkboard.
We’re flying! But—
“Oh no!”
The giant couldn’t stabilize itself and crashed into the surrounding structures. Anything caught in the gentle glow of Super Eva’s wings, and the subsequent bending of space, was shaken about, twisted, and broken by the violent phasing.
Hyuga’s voice came over the comm.
<<
The walls have taken all the punishment they can. The cage is going to collapse!
>>
Shinji tried to find anything for Super Eva to grab hold of to catch its balance, but the giant was rampaging and wouldn’t let Shinji direct any fine movements. He at last got his Eva to grab on to whatever it could, which turned out to be a long column that came loose with hardly any resistance. It was Euro-II’s cross-shaped spear.
“Sh-Shinji-kun!” Maya cried out.
Shinji looked to her, and then Super Eva fell toward the cage’s ceiling.