I wasn't dead.

I hurt too much to be dead.

Opening my eyes, I looked and saw a curtain surrounding me. I can feel I was on a bed, and there was this antiseptic smell in the room.

The curtain was opened, and this Air Force nurse in a white outfit was revealed to me. I figured I was in a hospital somewhere.

"I see you are awake, Lieutenant," he said.

I saw and felt that my right arm was in a sling. I flexed my fingers, making sure that I can still move them. I moved my legs, thanking God that I was not paralyzed. Standing up, the room spun around and sharp spikes of pain penetrated my head.

"Take it easy, Lieutenant," said the nurse. "The doctor said you have a concussion."

"When can I get back to duty?" I asked.

"We'll need to run some more tests. We have a brain-scanning machine in Valencia Air Force Hospital in Spain. We'll have to set up an appointment. Look on the bright side, Lieutenant. You get a free trip to Spain. There's a remote if you want to watch TV."

And so I watched TV on the Sony color television. All of the news channels were about the attack. From what I have heard, there were attacks on military facilities all over Earth.

"We have captured the remains of the enemy," said Supreme Commander Anatole Leonard. "They have been taken to undisclosed locations for study. Casualty reports have come in. Seven thousand of us were killed in this massive attack. Among them was Ocean Patrol Admiral Hao Sung, commander of the Robotech Defense Forces Command…"

I lay in bed watching the TV, wondering if anyone in our battalion was killed.

About an hour later, Lieutenant Jack Emerson and Executive Sergeant Rebekah Avital visited me.

"How are you feeling?" asked Emerson.

"My head hurts, sir," I replied.

"If you hurt, you are still alive," replies Sergeant Avital.

"Was anyone from our battalion killed?"

"No," replied Emerson. "And you should thank Sergeant Avital for that. She got you out of that hovertank while under enemy fire."

"Thank you," I said to the sergeant.

"It was my duty, sir," replied Avital. "You would do the same for Lieutenant Emerson or me or anyone else."

"At least you have a place to sleep," said Emerson. "The men's BOQ was hit. I have to sleep in this Quonset hut with the others. You got your own private room."

"And it is the same size as my old room," I said.

"You're lucky indeed," said Lieutenant Emerson. "I still have to finish my reports. We will see you soon."

Sergeant Avital saluted me; I was unable to return her salute due to my condition. And so they left.

Oooooooo

The Air Force doctors prescribed painkillers to deal with my headaches. The painkillers did make me feel a little loopy. Having a busted arm was a huge inconvenience those first few days, including when I was using the bathroom, which the Army called the latrine.

I managed to make an international call to my parents back home in Jamaica. It was a privilege given to soldiers wounded in combat.

"How are you doing?" asked Mom.

"My arm is in a sling," I said. "And I got headaches."

"So you think joining the U.N.'s Army would be some adventure, like a video game?" asked Dad. "People get hurt and even killed. If you wanted to march around in the uniform, you could have joined the Jamaican Defense Force."

"Were there any casualties in Jamaica?"

"Fortunately, no," said Mom. "To be honest, we don't have much worth attacking. We haven't been attacked since that Robotech War almost twenty years ago."

"I don't have that much time left on the phone. How are Paul and Larry?" I asked. Paul was my big brother, and Larry was my three-year-old nephew.

"They're doing well," said Dad. "Try not to get hurt."

"I'll be careful, Mom, Dad. But I have to put my men's safety before my own."

I hung up the phone.

Eventually, I was transported to the Air Force hospital in Valencia in Spain for my brain scan, to check for any permanent brain damage. I was in this ambulance that took me through the Gibraltar Tunnel and then through the highways of Spain and into Valencia. I wished that I could have done some sightseeing of the Spanish countryside.

The hospital was bigger that the one in Gibraltar Base; the inside looked pretty much the same- white and antiseptic, with doctors and nurses walking around in their white outfits. This blond-haired doctor in a white coat had me lay down.

"You will hear a buzzing sound, Lieutenant," he said.

And so I did. I lay inside this chamber inside this huge machine and sure enough, there was this buzzing sound. After a few minutes I got out.

"We'll be studying the results, Lieutenant," said the doctor. "You should have transportation back to Tangier."

So the ambulance brought me back to the base hospital. I soon had to do this physical therapy where I had to do exercises with my arm and hand. This lady, Air Force First Lieutenant Sharp, was my physical therapist.

One day, Lieutenant Jack Emerson and Lieutenant Michael Meyers came to visit me in the hospital cafeteria. It looked like a smaller version of the mess, with a coffee machine and a vending machine with snacks.

"Are there any news, sir?" I asked.

"It's Jack while we're in here," said Jack. "The base is still rebuilding the men's BOQ; we still got to sleep in those Quonset huts."

"So who is the enemy?"

"We don't know," answered Mike. "They haven't made any demands. We also don't have contact with Space Station Liberty; I've tried accessing their public servers and I can't get through."

"The real battle is up there, in space," said Jack. "Our fleet and the enemy fleet are still up there. If the enemy destroys our defense fleet, they can bomb us from orbit."

"I wonder what we can do," I said.

I flexed my hand, realizing that I was powerless against the enemy.

Oooooooo

I couldn't worry about a war that would be decided in space, so I concentrated on getting my hand on tip-top working shape again. I got to know Lieutenant Sharp. She mentioned that her first name was Melissa, and she was from this place called Georgia, in North America.

"The Air Force paid for my education," she said. "I want to go to civilian practice back home as soon as my service obligation is done."

"And this war?" I asked.

"I don't know. If we know what these aliens wanted. I guess Earth's Supreme Command will have to worry about it."

Neither of us wanted to talk about what would happen if the enemy won. Instead, she spoke about the beagle that she had at home in Georgia, and her house in the forested hills.

Then one day, the doctor came to see me.

"You have a clean bill of health, Lieutenant," said the doctor. "You may return to active duty."

I had been so busy with therapy that I did not notice that my headaches were gone.

"I'd better get back to the office before I am AWOL, sir," I said.

And so I did. Along the way I passed by the men's BOQ. It was a wreck, and bulldozers from a construction battalion were still cleaning things up.

I went back to the troop office. It still looked the same as before.

I immediately noticed the lavender complexion of Lieutenant Colonel Lupon Kravshera. I immediately saluted and reported for duty.

"Good morning, Lieutenant," said the colonel. "I'm here to give you something." He opened this velvet box, and there was a purple medal shaped like a heart. "Here is your Purple Heart for getting wounded. And you should thank Executive Sergeant Avital that you are not receiving this posthumously."

"I will do that, sir," I said. I faced Sergeant Avital. "Thank you."

Colonel Kravshera left the office. A young red-haired man whose sleeve markings indicated that he was a private first class faced me.

"And you are?" I asked.

"Private First Class Glenn LaBelle, sir," he said.

"As you were, Private," I said.

"Lieutenant," Jack said to me. "Listen, we've an important assignment for you. Sergeant Avital will be accompanying you."

And so we went on assignment.

It was a march. All of us were marching along the roads of the base. Being the officer, I marched in front of the column, with Sergeant Avital marching beside me. I knew the importance of formation marching, as it upholds unit cohesion. As I learned back in Basic, we always work as a team.

The next few weeks were routine. I had to sleep in the Quonset hut, and my first night there was much more rustic than sleeping in the hospital bed. There was little privacy.

"You know," said Mike. "Too bad they can't make the women's BOQ coed until the men's BOQ is rebuilt."

I and a few other officers laughed. For the next few weeks, I saw the scaffolding for the men's BOQ go up as the construction crews worked. I also had to check on the maintenance of the hovertanks, including a new VHT-1 Spartas that was assigned to me, and we continued to do training in the simulators as well as PT to keep ourselves in shape. I had also learned that contact with Space Station Liberty was re-established.

One day, Lieutenant Emerson had a meeting in the office.

"The colonel has informed us that we will be doing joint exercises with an Air Force squadron," said Jack.

And so we did.