"Lt Hunter, please just follow my commands,"ordered Lt. Commander Lisa Hayes in a stern voice. "But Commander, I would be better off staying in this section and wiping up the remaining pods than to be redirected to section 8. Can't you send the Ghost squadron, they are closer" argued Rick as he concentrated on shooting down the pod in front of him.
"Hunter, this is not a request, but an order!" said Lisa angrily, "Redirect your squad to section 8, there are incoming pods and Knight squadron needs the additional support."
"Yes ma'am," sighed Rick as he gave the orders to his team to redirect to section 8. Soon his team was engaged in supporting the Knight squadron who had lost a third of their members. With the Vermillion squad's help the section was cleared without additional lost of life and the Zentraedi pods withdrew as their forces were overcome by the faster Veritech fighters.
Back in the locker room of the SDF-1 Rick complained bitterly about Lisa's orders and attitude and questioned out loud why he was always the one she picked on. Even after his rescue of her of Mars Base Sara, Lt. Cmdr. Hayes never seem to give Rick any slack and many times sent him and his teammates into unnecessary danger. Some of the other squad leaders who had also been at the receiving end of Lisa's sharp tongue and demeanor during battles, egged Rick on by agreeing with him and adding to the fuel by questioning her leadership ability. The other, older, experienced squad leaders stayed quiet during Rick's rant, but left the locker room to inform Lt. Commander Roy Fokker about his little brother's complaints. While they weren't against the moaning and groaning of the fighter pilots and them themselves have made comments about ineffective commanders, they knew Lisa's worth and trusted her leadership abilities and in her tactical air strategies. They also knew that speaking up for Lisa in the locker room wasn't going to change the brash pilot's thoughts about Lt. Cmdr. Hayes and that the only one that could help with that would be the one person that they knew Rick looked up to, his older brother and ace fighter pilot Roy Fokker.
It wasn't until a few days later that Rick and Roy were able to meet up in Roy's quarters.
"God Roy, I just don't get her," said Rick as he ran his hand through his wavy black hair. "It's like she's a robot when she's giving orders, all glassy eyed and steel looks..and some of the orders she gives doesn't even make sense to me, it's a wonder we make it though each time. She treats me like an amateur even though Max and Ben and I have been through so many battles with one another and every time I disobey one of her orders, she acts like the world is going to end. I don't know how she thinks she can tell us what to do when we are the ones in the midst of battle and can see what's going on."
Roy let Rick continue to rant until he ran out of steam. During Rick's complaints Roy contemplated if he should tell Rick about Lisa and her "special abilities." He didn't want to make things worse or enforce Rick's belief that Lisa was robotic with no human emotions. Roy knew first hand what a kind, caring person Lisa was and hated the fact that his little brother disliked one of his favorite people.
Roy had met Lisa during the Unification Wars, where she had been the air tactical specialist on some of the missions he had flown even though she had not graduated yet from the academy. He had initially been shocked at the age of the woman giving commands but soon came to trust her orders. Roy had also met Lisa socially a few times as well, as her father Admiral Hayes, entertained from time to time and Roy as an ace pilot and test pilot for the RDF for the VF-1 ended up being invited to some of those social events. His friendship with Lisa continued since their reassignment to Macross Island serving on the SDF-1 and his relationship with Lisa's best friend Claudia Grant solidified their friendship.
Roy rubbed his large hand over his face and put his cup down as Rick finished his ranting about Lisa.
Before Rick could continue, Roy held up his hand, and said, "Ok, I got it. No more." He paused and contemplated on what he was going to tell Rick. He knew that Rick was a fairly compassionate person and knew that Rick could also keep a secret. Roy wasn't the type to share confidences but in this case he felt that he had to, to help both his friend and his little brother.
Roy cleared his throat, "Rick, I understand what you mean, but you have to believe me when I say that Lisa is by far the best tactical strategist we have against the Zentraedi and you need to lay off her and follow her directions. I know Lisa can come off as unfeeling and uncaring sometimes, but that is absolutely not true. I don't know of anyone else on this ship who gives as much as she does and what she goes through to make sure as many pilots come home after each battle as possible. Lt. Cmdr. Hayes is your commanding officer and the First Officer of this ship and she needs your unconditional support."
"C'mon Roy, are you serious? You aren't even taking me seriously, you know sometimes I am right." argued Rick.
"Yes, that is true, sometimes you are right and as the Commanding Air Officer and equal rank to Lisa, I have every right to gainsay her order, but how many times have you seen me interfere." said Roy
"Rarely" said Rick dryly.
"Exactly,"said Roy. "Now I am going to tell you something that I don't ever want you repeating or mentioning and if I ever hear you refer to Lisa as a robot again, I will throw you in the brig in an instant, brother or not!"
Rick looked at Roy intensely, he could only a few times in his life recall when he had seen Roy act so seriously about something and he knew that whatever Roy was about to tell him was important and was surprised when Roy started on Lisa's background history.
"I don't know how much you know about her, but I'm going to tell you what I know, you can draw your own conclusions, but I hope it will change your attitude towards her. Lisa lost her mom when she was fairly young, probably about the same age you were when your mom passed away, Rick. Her father, wasn't able to stay with her at home much and was unwilling to move her from base to base, so she stayed at home watched over by a housekeeper and staff. When she was twelve she was sent to boarding school and at sixteen entered the military academy. I don't know if you know this and you may know given that you saved her life at Mars Base Sara, but when Lisa was 15, she met a man Karl Riber, who transferred to the Base Sara to escape the Unification War. I don't know when they got engaged, but Lisa suddenly switched from going to Julliard to study music to the military academy. Her father, was pleased as punch, until he realized that the reason Lisa entered the academy was to eventually transfer to Mars Base Sara. Lisa had two years to go at the academy when we got word that the base was being shut down due to lack of funding and those on the transport ship back to Earth were killed in an attack led by rebel United Earth forces. Lisa always thought her father had something to do with what happened to Mars Base Sara and relations between them were a bit tense for a while. Well that year things got worse.
During the last weeks of a cadet's second year in the academy there are some assessment tests that the cadets are put through, and of course Lisa came through all of those with flying colors and top of her class. However, it was her test results in warfare and strategy that were unusual that made the academy and the higher ups take notice of her. The test for those categories are not your usual use a #2 pencil type of test. Those test results are generated based on simulations where timing and decisions made, impact the outcome of results. Most second years barely pass that test but Lisa, scored the highest score in the history of the academy and apparently even the programmers of the simulations thought that Lisa had cheated somehow to score that high on the test."
Rick laughed at that, he couldn't see Miss By The Books cheating for a higher score. Her morale compass was set too high.
Roy continued, "While no one accused Lisa of cheating, they did start to subject her to numerous psychological tests and more difficult simulations. She passed them all with high marks and that is when they realized that they had something special in their hands. They watched videos of Lisa as she went though the simulations and noticed that Lisa's mind just seem to take over. Her brain was aware of every enemy ship and location. She seemed to be able to infer what the next step the enemy was going to make and had a response for all these scenarios in her head ready to execute them. Her hands seem to fly over the controls as she reviewed new data coming in. The simulations weren't enough for them. Before Lisa even graduated the academy, she was assigned to the aircraft carrier Yamada where she served for 6 months. During that time she was responsible for leading the pilots into battle...even though she didn't know it." Roy paused in his story, "They brought her onto the Yamada under the guise that she was going to participate in some friendly war games for training exercises. During battles, they would put her a room similar to a simulation station and was asked to defend and attack. While we could hear her orders, all our responses were sent back through the TacNet where they were redirected to her communications officer who fed her new information coming in from those in the field. We didn't get to have any contact with her directly on the TacNet and that is when some of knew something strange was going on. Those battles were brutal and the loss of lives on both sides were high.
At some point, Lisa figured out what was going on and demanded that she be put on the bridge during battles and that she be allowed direct communication with the pilots on the TacNet. We immediately saw a change in the strategies as well, they were no longer win at all cost but to win with the least amount of human life loss. That's when I really got to know Lisa..." Roy stood up and walked to a small bookcase and pulled out a photo album and flipped to a page and handed it over to Rick.
Rick had never seen this album before and looked at the page that Roy turned to. In the photo he saw a grinning Roy giving a thumbs up to the camera with his right arm wrapped tightly around the shoulders of a a much younger Lisa Hayes. Lisa, not yet quite eighteen in the photo, didn't look at all like the confident, no nonsense, officer Rick was used to dealing with. Rick saw a much younger, teenage Lisa, who's honey brown hair was a little below shoulder length, her body, small and thin not yet fully developed in the officer's uniform she wore. While Lisa smiled in the photo, Rick could see that the smile didn't quite reach Lisa's eyes and that her beautiful green eyes were tense and filled with sadness.
"They isolated her on that ship Rick, they tried to keep her from interacting with the crew and limited who had access to her, Rick they treated her more like a weapon than a 17 year old girl," Roy's voice cracked a bit and Rick looked at his big brother to see him wipe his eyes. Roy cleared his throat and looked at the picture Rick held. "Like I said, I had seen and talked to her before at some social events and when I found out what was going on I threw a fit. Between my tantrums and arguments and Lisa's refusal to participate in the simulations they knew they had to do something. Lisa was allowed more freedoms at that time but the damage was already done. Most of the pilots were afraid of her and didn't want much to do with her. Her age didn't help either as the other commanding officers didn't know what to do with a child prodigy or how to interact with her. I became her friend Rick, because in a way, she reminded me of you. She was so lonely and scared.
I found her one night leaning on the railing of the ship looking out into the stars. I never forgot what she told me that night and even now I still think about it. She wasn't going to jump off, she told me, that she knew her duty and then Lisa started crying... "I didn't know Roy, I didn't know that they weren't simulations, that I unknowingly sent those people to their deaths.. I feel sick every time I think about it. It was so easy for me to see clear to the win, but once you add in the human factor it makes it a lot harder to execute on those decisions knowing that you may be sending someone out and that they may never return." We talked a lot that night and I convinced her what she was doing was right. Lisa coming from a military background, understood that there needed to be those that fought and defended for those that can't and that the sacrifice we all make were well understood when we joined the service. Lisa's accepted her role since then but it doesn't mean she doesn't feel it ever time one of us doesn't come back."
Roy continued, "Gloval tried to save her, y'know. Her own father okay'ed her removal from the academy to the Yamada and sanctioned the experiment. Gloval's known Lisa since she was a child and when he received command of the SDF-1, he asked for Lisa specifically to be his First Officer. I think that he was trying to protect her in some way as I don't think he thought that we would be traveling in space fighting off 50 ft aliens."
Roy looked at Rick, who didn't say much and was still looking at the album Roy had shown him. Rick's finger slowly traced Lisa's outline in the photo and without looking up said, "So what should I do?"
"Do?" said Roy, "Well don't let her know what I told you that's for sure and secondly, just think before you open that big mouth of yours. She doesn't want or need your pity and Lisa's main goal is to get these citizens back to Earth with as little human life lost as possible." Roy stretched out his long body, "Hey I gotta go meet Claudia, you can stay here and think about what I said if you want, just clear out of here in the next few hours okay?" Roy said with a wink.
Rick had a lot to think about after Roy left, Rick did feel bad about all the times he gave Lisa a hard time on the TacNet and decided that he would try and listen and accept her commands without the back talking.
Over the next few months, Rick's relationship with his commanding officer was not as tense. They had survived being trapped together on Dolza's ship and had even began a friendship of sorts afterward. Lisa gave Rick less of a hard time and was even friendly to him at times when they encountered each other on the ship.
It wasn't until Rick got shot down by friendly fire during the last attack that Rick admitted to himself that he started to feel something for his commander officer other than respect. Lisa had come to his room to apologize for the mistake that she made during the last encounter and could barely look at him when she came to see him. He hated seeing her down like this and tried to tell her it wasn't her fault but the way her eyes looked, all teary and tense, reminded him of the picture Roy had showed him so long ago. Rick wanted to do anything he could to take that look away from her eyes but Lisa left without really allowing him to say anything at all.
A few days later during his recovery, Lisa came back to visit and delivered the news that Roy was in a coma and Ben was dead.. Lisa wanted to hug Rick and share in his pain, but the expression on his face and the way he looked at her, made Lisa step back from comforting him. She whirled out the room and out the door, crying and wondering what she could do to stop the pain.
Rick recovered from his wounds and returned to duty. He would visit Roy daily and talk to his big brother about his day and try to do anything to make Roy wake from his coma. He would run into Claudia often as they shared the shifts and wondered where Lisa was. It was Claudia who finally approached Rick.
Rick was just leaving Roy's room when Claudia came down the hall. They chatted about Roy's condition for a bit and Rick was about to leave when Claudia stopped him. "Rick...I know you two don't always get along, but Lisa's been having a hard time dealing with what happened to Roy. They are pretty good friends even if you don't see it, but I am worried about her."
"What do you mean, Claudia? I've talked to her on the TacNet, she seems to be okay" said Rick.
"Have you seen her on the TacNet?" pressed Claudia.
Now that he thought about it, most of the communications he had with her was radio communication only and not visual communication. He missed seeing her pretty face but there had been other missions and battles where they were limited to radio communication only.
"No, now that I think about it, I haven't seen her since she told me about Roy and Ben." replied Rick a little worried now.
"I can't get through to her, Rick.. She's doing her duty and showing up for her shifts on time, but she looks awful. I don't have time to help her and help Roy too and she brushes me off when I try and talk to her about it." Claudia sighed, "I don't want to lose her too. Do you think you can talk to her Rick and see if you can talk some sense into that girl?"
Seeing the worried look on Claudia's face and knowing that Roy would also want Rick to help Lisa, Rick responded that he would see what he could do and gave Claudia a hug.
It took Rick a few hours to locate Lisa as she wasn't in her quarters or on the bridge and no one seemed to know where she was. It wasn't until he stopped in the mess hall for a cup of coffee that he found out where Lisa had been spending her time. As he sat and sipped his hot coffee, he couldn't help but overhear two officers conversation.
"She's been in there for days.. and looks like a mess," said the first officer.
"I'm surprised Gloval hasn't noticed, what has she been doing in there?" replied the second officer.
"Well that's the funny thing, that room is only used to run outcome scenarios and usually only when you are planning an attack, and that room hasn't really been used much since we haven't been trying to attack the Zentraedi." the first officer replied.
The second officer responded, "well maybe her and Gloval are working on a surprise for the Zentraedi."
Rick had heard enough and had good idea where he might find Lisa.
Rick took the base elevator to a level of ship he had never been in but had heard about. If his guess was right, Lisa was in one of the simulation rooms. The level was quiet and dark as most of the large rooms were not in use. He walked down the halls opening and closing doors until he found one where he heard voices coming through.
Rick opened the door and looked into the room and saw Lisa standing in front of a computer console with 9 large 50 inch screens set 3x3. Lisa was talking into the headset and Rick watched as the screens switched from displaying data to displaying a visual of a battle going on. On her computer console, Lisa watched the data coming in through to the console. He couldn't hear what she was saying but watched as Lisa slammed her hands against the console, took her headset off and threw it against the screen. Rick had never seen Lisa lose control like that and approached her cautiously. Rick slowly walked toward her as he saw Lisa pick up the headset and readjust them on her head. As he got closer he could overhear her commands.
"Computer, please rerun simulation 88653."
As the computer ran back the attack on the SDF-1 that Roy was last in, Rick watched as Lisa's gave commands into the headset and watched as her hands brought up different data points on the console in front of her. He looked up as the screens displayed, "No change to outcome"
"Dammit," he heard Lisa cry out, "Is there nothing I could have done?" At this point Lisa cried out in frustration and sat heavily into the chair that was behind her. She took off the headset again and leaned her head into her hands.
At this point, Rick thought that he should let her know what he was there. "Lisa," he called out haltingly. There was no response from the Lt Commander. "Lisa," Rick said louder, "hey it's me Rick are you okay?" Rick was right behind Lisa at this point and reached out and slowly put his right hand on her left shoulder. Still there was no response from her and Rick was worried. He grabbed her by the other shoulder and turned her around and Rick see Lisa silently sobbing into her hands. Her whole body shook from the force of her crying and Rick not knowing what to do, knelt in front of Lisa.
"Lisa, it's okay, whatever it is, it's ok..." Rick said in a soothing voice. He pulled her hands away from her face and held them in his own as he looked into her tear stained face. Lisa finally realizing that someone was there and talking to her pulled her hands away and stared back at Rick. With a soft cry of recognition, she turned her face from him and wiped her tears. "Rick," she said in a shaky voice, "What are you doing here?"
Rick studied Lisa for a few moments. He didn't see how anyone could miss Lisa's deterioration. Her skin, normally so clear and bright, was dull and there were dark circles under her eyes. There were hollows under her cheek and her hair usually so shiny and full of movement, hung dry and limp. The worse were her green eyes, usually so bright with fire and determination, looked at him as if not seeing him at all.
"Claudia's been worried, and I've been worried, what are you doing here" said Rick softly, not wanting to scare Lisa.
"I can't seem to win Rick, no matter what I do, I can't seem to win.."said Lisa still in a trance.
"What are you trying to win Lisa," said Rick
"There wasn't anything I could do... I tried everything Rick..." Lisa said again.
Rick pressed Lisa for information as he was still confused, "What were you trying to do?"
At that, Lisa threw herself into Rick's arms and started sobbing anew, "I'm so sorry Rick, I tried everything I could. I wanted to see if there was anything I could have done from keeping Roy from getting hurt, if there was a possibility I didn't see that would have saved Roy."
Rick stunned by Lisa's confession, sat back on his haunches and wrapped his arms around the still shaking, sobbing Lisa. He had never seen anyone breakdown in this way and he knew that there was nothing Lisa could have done to keep Roy from getting hurt.
Lisa continued between sobs, "Every time I look at you and Claudia, I feel so guilty, that maybe there was something that I could have done."
Rick rubbed his arms up and down Lisa's back trying to comfort her. He was alarmed at how thin she felt and how he could feel the bones of her back. He knew he had to get her out of that room. "Shhhh Lisa, stop crying, there is nothing you could have done. Claudia and I know you did your best out there like you always do."
Lisa quieted for a minute and then tried to push her way out of Rick's arms, "You don't get it, you never have," Lisa started yelling, and struggling to free herself from Rick's tight hold on her. "You think it's funny to disobey my commands. How am I supposed to keep you safe if I can't predict what you are going to do! You are just like Roy and if I lose you, I don't know if I could take it. Every time you deviate from my plans, I have to recalculate and adjust to make sure I can bring you home safe!"
Rick was stunned by Lisa's admission but didn't loosen his hold on her. He knew that if he didn't hold onto her that Lisa would be ripped apart by her demons. Rick continued to hold her and cradle her and stroke her back until he felt the sobs fade and her body relax. Rick looked at Lisa in his arms, she was still awake but quiet, occasionally taking in deep breaths to calm herself. Rick turned her head to face him.
"Lisa, listen to me. Roy is still alive and will recover, there is nothing you could have done to stop him from getting hurt. Do you hear me? Roy's knows how to take care of himself and if there was a mistake made, it wasn't on your part." Lisa opened her mouth to say something, but Rick shut it closed softly with his fingers. "I also wanted to say I'm sorry. I didn't realize that my disobedience was having that kind of affect on you, but you have to understand that I know what I am doing out there and I wouldn't willingly put myself or my squad in jeopardy, especially now that I know I have someone on the ship that cares about me. I can't promise to always follow your orders but I will try harder to let you know what I am going to do before I do it. That's not always going to be possible in the midst of a battle but please know that I will always try and make it home." Lisa looked at Rick and nodded her head.
"Okay, I'm going to take you back to your quarters and I'm going to tell Gloval about what you've been putting yourself through, I don't know what's going to happen, but I want you to know what Claudia and I will both be there for you."
Lisa looked at Rick, "They already know...Gloval and the ship's psychiatrists. I wasn't in danger of harming anyone on the ship and not really of danger of harming myself except through neglect. They've never stopped watching me, observing me..."
Rick felt a surge of anger at her words, "No more Lisa, you can't do this anymore. You are barely skin and bones at this point and you were already thin to begin with. You may still be capable of doing your duties, but no more of this. No more rehashing what could have been, okay?
Lisa just nodded her head and started to pick herself up off the floor. Rick seeing how physically weak she was, picked her up and held her close to his chest. "Rick, it's okay, I can make it back on my own."
"Stop being so stubborn Lisa and just let me take you back."
Lisa emotionally and physically exhausted just wrapped her arms around Rick's neck and buried her head into his neck as he carried Lisa back to her quarters where he stayed with her until she ate, bathed and went to sleep.
Capt. Gloval, after meeting with Rick and hearing his report, didn't say much to Rick when he asked for an explanation of their non interference. Gloval gave no real response but said cryptically that "she may be our best chance at survival." before he dismissed Rick.
Lisa recovered quickly over the next couple of days and Rick was glad to see the bags under her eyes disappear and the light come back in Lisa's eyes. Lisa never made mention of her feelings for Rick and Rick still not sure about his feelings for Lisa decided not to address it as he didn't know if what she said was only said during the heat of the moment.
However, knowing that Lisa cared whether or not he came back from battle meant the world to him and Rick decided that he wanted to get to know her better, but Lisa was sent back down to Earth a few weeks later to try and convince the United Earth Government to negotiate a peaceful settlement with the Zentraedi.
Roy recovered from his injuries and woke from his coma. He was going to be released from the hospital in the next couple of days, and him and Rick had a lot to talk about. Roy watched the myriad of emotions that went through Rick's face as he retold what happened between him and Lisa.
"Thanks, Rick, for looking out for her like that, I don't know how many times Lisa's quick thinking has gotten me out a jam, even those jams I caused myself. She needs someone to understand her, to love her and I hope one day she finds that right person." said Roy looking at Rick intensely. Rick flushed, he knew what Roy was thinking and just nodded his head in agreement.