Disclaimer: All Robotech characters and vehicles are property of Harmony Gold USA.
This is a prequel to Second Chances. Yeah…I could have been more creative with the title, but it marks this as part of the same AU continuity. And I'm not going to bother coming up with funky chapter titles either this time around.
Chapter 1
Ben was bored and annoyed, maybe more bored and annoyed than a twelve year old had a right to be. He was stuck on yet another airplane with his parents, apparently as part of the torture to make him miss every person he had ever known. All this traveling had started a couple of days ago, although it seem like months to Ben right now. His parents had come and picked him up from his grandparent's farm, probably for the last time. He had been spending summers there since he was eight and now his parents were taking him too far away to come back again. Yeah, his Mom and his Grandma had both said he could come back on his own when he was older, but how much fun would that be? It wouldn't be any fun at all if he had to wait until he was his parent's age before he would ever see the farm again.
It wouldn't have been too bad except he didn't get a chance to say goodbye to any of his pals in his neighborhood at home either. Since his Mom and Dad were dragging him halfway around the world, they thought it was a good idea to go straight to the airport! Ben didn't even know they were going to a new home until one of the last letters they had written to him while he was at Grandma and Grandpa's. So after the long ride back to Chicago and what seemed like several hours waiting to get through security at O'Hare, they were on a 737 heading to Los Angeles on the first leg of their trip. Apparently Mom and Dad had all of everyone's possessions packed up and shipped to the new place while he was visiting the farm. So all they had to do was get themselves to the new place, some rock in the boonies of the Pacific called Macross Island. Five hours later, and they were in the International Concourse at LAX with a 3 hour layover until the plane for their next leg left. That was going to be a 747 to Tokyo with a brief stop in Hawaii, but it wasn't going to be the final destination. This day is going downhill fast, groused Ben to himself.
Sitting in the concourse was mind numbingly dull. There were no good books at the newsstands. There were no arcades or video games to kill time. And worst of all, there were no good food joints and what they had were super overpriced. The layover itself was too short to bother leaving the concourse for later. This just totally sucks, thought Ben for the thousandth time. He couldn't even chat with his parents; they seemed too busy talking about the adult stuff they'd have to do when they got to that stupid island. Why couldn't they just have let me stay with Grandma and Grandpa?
Not soon enough for his taste, the boarding for the flight to Tokyo began. They were way back in the tail section in coach, so it took Ben and his parents forever to get to their seats. Then it seemed like they had hardly any time to get settled before the huge plane began to taxi for take-off. At least this leg Ben was so exhausted he fell asleep almost as soon as they were airborne. It only felt like a few minutes, but Ben slept the whole way to Hawaii. The weather was beautiful when they landed, but they weren't getting off the jet here; only the passengers staying in Hawaii left the plane, some to be replaced by those leaving Hawaii for Japan, and all the transfers had to take place while they were refueling the big airliner. After an hour at most, the big jet taxied again for take-off for an even longer flight to Tokyo. And they were going to lose a day on top of it when they crossed the International Date Line.
The jet lag had all of the Dixons body clocks messed up, so even though it was a dark, moonless night, Ben and his parents couldn't sleep. His Mom had remembered to pack a deck of playing cards, so they were able to kill a couple of hours with various games, but soon that became monotonous too. Mrs. Dixon tried to keep her son's spirits up, but the long days of travel were wearing on everyone.
"Really Ben, things won't be so bad when we get to the new house. I promise, it won't be for nothing we're going to Macross."
"I guess I know that Mom. I just really miss Grandma and Grandpa and being at their farm. It really feels like I may never see the ever again. And we left so quick I never got to go home and say goodbye to all my buddies in the neighborhood."
"You don't think your father and I aren't giving up friends and family too? We won't be seeing my own father for a long while either. Your Grandpa Leo will be oh so glad to hear you think of him as chopped liver, if you think of him at all."
"Geez Ma, you know that's not what I meant. You know I like Grandpa Leo just as much as Grandpa Jordan and Grandma Becca. It's just that leaving right from the farm means it was fresher in my mind. So…Grandpa Leo really wants you and Dad to set up a dry-cleaning store when we get to this island?"
"Yes he does Ben. There's a big project going on there that the U.E.G. is involved in and your grandfather figures that if there's a large number of soldiers based on Macross then they will be needing just such a service to help keep their uniforms clean."
"So why did I have to come?"
"What kind of parents would we be if we left you back on the mainland, even if it was with other family members? We love you and wanted you to stay with us. I'm sorry if it's causing you some sadness, but your father and I couldn't bear for you to be that far away from the two of us."
That little talk gave Ben more things to think about and soon he dozed off again, dreaming of being a big shot in the dry-cleaning business. In his dream, Ben was in charge of over a hundred stores around the world and he was all grown up like his Dad and had a super gorgeous wife with black hair and violet eyes (1) and ten fancy cars and a huge house with twenty bedrooms and two tennis courts and three swimming pools and a guest house as big as the house they used to live in and…who was shaking him? "Wake up sleepy head. We'll be landing in about twenty-five minutes." came his Mom's voice.
The airport in Tokyo seemed OK, but after a while, all airports kind of start looking the same. Ugh…it was going to be the same deal as in Los Angeles: a long layover that wasn't long enough to make leaving the airport worthwhile. At least the newsstands had some interesting looking manga, and some of them were English translations. (The beauty of an international airport.) The next leg was going to be a short hop to Okinawa. Apparently there were no flights directly from Tokyo to Macross Island, most likely because of the heavy UN military presence on Macross. When they finally took off, it was an uneventful leg, which was fine by Ben, but when they landed in Okinawa the military connection to Macross Island was very clear. Their layover at this stop, which looked like the old United States base that had been here for half a century, was only long enough to change planes, but the next plane they got on looked more like an Air Force transport than a commercial craft. Since the Dixons had been flying throughout UN controlled territory, there really was no need for passports, but now that they were almost to Macross, they were required to present their immigration paperwork and identification proving their identities. Ben got a bit nervous trying to imagine what kind of top secret stuff might force the UN to use such strict security protocols.
Their time in the security checkpoint was actually very short; it was only nervousness that made it seem like forever. Once through the checkpoint, they were herded to the transport and shown their seats. It looked like a normal airliner interior, so Ben figured this craft was for personnel only. Good, thought Ben, I would hate to be stuck sitting on a shipping crate. They were up in the air in no time and it was another smooth flight, but it was a long over-water flight, so there was nothing really to see, not even an occasional boat on the ocean. Ben was back to being bored but the anticipation of arriving at the very final destination kept him from napping again. He did daydream a little during the trip, going back to the dream he had on the flight to Tokyo. Ben was really digging the idea of lot's of cars but was very confused why he dreamt about mushy stuff like having a wife. But those violet eyes she had were kinda cool.
An announcement from the pilot brought Ben back to the present. They were making the final approach to Macross Island, which would be visible on the right side of the plane, the side Ben was sitting on. Ben stuck his nose to the window, straining for a peak, and was shocked to see this gigantic blocky thing taking up a huge chunk of the island, almost like the island wound up being built around this …thing. The pilot made another announcement. "If you'll look out your windows now, you'll see one of the main features of Macross Island, the craft the UN Spacy has dubbed SDF-1. The scientists, engineers and technicians are working around the clock to rebuild it so we will be able to defend our planet and should be finished within a few more years." (2) "Wow." was the only thing out of Ben's mouth. After several days traveling, this one sight washed all the boredom away from the young boy.
The only airfield was that of the military base, but they were able to dedicate one of the runways to the small bit of commercial traffic that flew into the island. Ben's eyes widened as they came in for touch down; they would be landing almost parallel to the massive spacecraft. Massive was an understatement. When the Dixons could finally exit the transport, they looked over towards the SDF-1 in absolute awe: the thing looked like a metal mountain. They only had a short time to gawk at it though as they were soon escorted into the civilian concourse area where they were able to catch a taxi. They had no checked baggage, only carry-ons.
All during the ride to their new house here on Macross, Ben was twisting around in his seat in order to keep that space fortress within view, which wasn't difficult since it towered over all the buildings on the island. He kept wondering if they gave tours of it. It looked huge enough to hike through for two weeks and still not see everything in it. Ben began to dream of going into space on it when it launched, but he wasn't sure he was going to be old enough when it finally did launch. At the very least, all the daydreaming made the taxi ride pass by quickly. Before Ben knew it, they were parked in front of their new home.
It was sunset local time as they grabbed their bags from the taxi's trunk and trudged into the house. Ben found his room, but most of his stuff was still packed. His bed was set up, but there were no sheets on it. Ben found the moving box labeled "Sheets" and quickly found a summer set to make his bed with. The weather felt pretty tropical here; Ben doubted he would ever need his flannel sheets again. With everyone's body clocks thrown off from all the traveling the last few days, Mrs. Dixon thought it was best to just go to bed now, and wake up fresh the next morning. That was the only way they were going to adjust to the jet lag. That suited Ben just fine; the adrenaline rush from seeing the big battle fortress was beginning to wear off and he was starting to feel exhausted again. Without any further urging from his mother, he trudged up stairs, took his sneakers off and collapsed on the bed, dreaming of space flight and girls with violet eyes.
Author's Notes: This story picks up pretty much right after Ben's final flashback in Bloom of Hope where he is having one final talk with his grandmother before his parents come to pick him up from the farm. Since Ben did not join the RDF until after it had folded to Pluto, it follows that he had to have been part of the civilian population of Macross Island at that point in time. This story will begin to explore that back story and Ben's adventures growing up on Macross Island.
(1) This dream might have had a touch of premonition in it. ;-)
(2) It is approximately late 2004 in this timeline.
