I don't own Robotech, this is a fanfiction only.

I looked at Roy and could not help but to laugh at the way he was reacting to the way me and Lisa were behaving, "Honestly brother, there is nothing going on between me and Commander Hayes, it was all an act, in case there had been cameras and listening devices places on that battlepod."

Lisa looked at Roy and nodded her head, "Do you honestly think I am so easy or so desperate that I would fall in love with a man I spent so little time, and so know so little about him? I honestly didn't know your lover had such poor opinion of me, Claudia."

As we reached the door to the Captain's quarters she decided to knock. As we were told to enter I saw the Captain look at us with a smile on his face, and new he was at the very least happy that we had made it back alive.

"So I gather that you two managed to learn a thing or two of the giant aliens that are attacking us, mind telling me what you learned, it might help me prepare for our report to Headquarters once we have been able to establish a secure communications line."

I looked at him and understood what he wanted to know, "Well we had left on that recon mission, but then we were met with an enemy ambush it seems, and due to that Commander Hayes and her pilot were taken captive, I believe the pilot was killed due to the attack they did to disable her plane."

"My squad tried to rescue Commander Hayes, but unfortunately was met with some difficulties, meaning the difficulties came from having to fight a high ranking officer of the enemy, they apparently did not want to cause our deaths, the fight caused severe damage to my Veritech fighter and injuries to me or so I was told, the only way they had to save my life was to inject into me a blood transfusion, the only blood compatible was the high ranking enemy that caused the injuries in the first place."

The Captain looked at me and began to nod his head, as I saw that he understood what I said I decided to continue, "The giant aliens don't have children like we do, they grow new soldiers as clones, so everything they need to know to be soldiers is genetic, they pass information that way to the clones of each successive generation or to replace ones of officers that died, the transfusion indeed saved my life, but had the unexpected side effect that I learned everything as if I was the son of that Zentradi, that is what they call their species, officer that injured me."

"To make matters worse, I have a complete understanding of their language, culture, military, and armaments. I know all this because the man that is now considered my father or at least he considers me his son knew. The fact is, they consider their actions a retaliation of when the battle fortress fired the main weapon, they had no intention of starting a war, as far as I understand they were only interested in recovering the battle fortress that we call Macross."

The Captain remained quiet for a little bit, and then he looked at me and at Lisa for a second, "Why do they want the fortress bad enough that they will resort to this level of aggression, that is what I would like to know. They are sending their soldiers to their deaths, and I would like to know what exactly do they want from this fortress that can make all those death worth it."

Lisa looked at him, "Their supreme commander actually questioned us about something, something they think we know of, something they call protoculture. They were quite insistent about the subject actually. Whatever this Protoculture is must be something extremely important to them, do you have any ideas why they would value whatever that is so highly?"

I closed my eyes and tried to think anything that was linked to it and sure enough, I remembered why or at least why my father thought the Zentradi need the knowledge of Protoculture.

I opened my eyes and looked at him, nodded my head, "Yes, I do think I have a vague reason for it, it has to do with their population, to be more specific their method of reproduction. They reproduce and maintain their numbers through cloning. It is the problem of making a copy of a document, if you keep making copies of that copy the quality of the copy degrades, the same thing, they will develop genetic abnormalities, diseases and defects if they go on doing too much the entire species could die."

"The knowledge of Protoculture could have the means to randomize their genetic code, to make add to the population and keep the entire species from degrading. If you think of it along those lines, a few thousand dead would be much of a cost, if the cost of failure is the death of their or should I say our entire species."

The captain was quiet for a long moment as he looked at me several times, "So you could probably understand their transmissions as well, that might be useful and the value of this Protoculture would explain why they simply don't destroy the battle fortress. They literately can't afford to destroy it if the knowledge they need is somewhere in here."

I looked at Lisa and then at the Captain, "Aren't you going to ask me will I have a problem in shooting the enemy? Am I loyal to the people not so long ago I considered members of my species? I have to say, I am more surprised you didn't order my capture, have me tortured till you learned everything I acquired thanks to that blood transfusion and have me killed as a genetic defect or possible traitor."

The Captain began to walk towards me and he placed his hand on my shoulder, "Rick, I have no doubt that you are very much the defender of this ship and the people aboard it, I didn't ask or do any of those things because I would never consider the possibility of you becoming a traitor or discriminate you in such a way."

"Since you ask, is there something else that is bothering you?" I told him that somehow I don't know due to my body changing the way it has, but the man who donated the blood to save me does feel like he is my father, and thus the aliens I once considered my enemy do feel like they are my people.

"Somehow I think the only reason I can even think of killing them is because the human side of me desensitized me to the notion, I still don't like it from a moral point, if I could, I would like permission to disable any battle pods I fight against, instead of our right destroy them."

The Captain asked me if the battle pods could be disabled to render them unable to fight, I told him that it would depend on the type of battle pod, but in most cases yes, if the control center located behind the leg section of the battle pod was shot, it would render all sensors and fire controls inoperable. They would need to return to the ship and have that part replaced and that would take no less than eight hours.

The Captain remained quite for a very long time, I had to admit that I felt like I had just gotten into trouble by what I said, "Rick, I think you are the only one that should know about that weakness, if others knew they would use that information to make destroying the enemy that much easier for themselves. It is no secret that the people here don't particularly hold them in high regard."

I, of course, understand that better than most civilians, I was there when they landed and their actions pretty much put us in our current situation. I can also understand the desperation by some Zentradi, it was hard for me knowing what I know now to think their attacks are mere malice.

Ok, ok, at least one of them would attack for the joy of it, I just hope they don't call him. My Zentradi knowledge was not perfect, but if there is anything I do remember correctly, I hope they don't call on the man even his own men hate, the backstabber.

"Now if you will excuse us, Captain, I have to assign a new patrol schedule with my men." I was about to leave when the Captain told me that I and my subordinates actually had three days leave and that I should get my dress uniform ready. It seems that the civilian government wants a chance for a photo opportunity with the so-called space heroes who valiantly escaped enemy captivity.

That made me realize that while Zentradi culture may not be democratic, the established rank based government was not such a horrible idea after all. To have to get dressed just so that some celebrity can pin a medal, and a sleazy politician can get some photos to help his or her get elected, I will need a second shower after that.

"Did you hear skipper, they are going to give us three days leave, and to make matters even better you know that beauty pageant winner? Well, Miss Macross is going to be when they give us those medals, I am looking forward to this."

I don't know if I should call Ben Dixon an adult after hearing him say that, honestly the guy was acting like a kid in school. "You take it from me boys, all I am looking forward to is the three days leave. I haven't been able to go to the gym in a few weeks, you want to flirt with Lynn Minmay, go right ahead, I am looking for a nice workout, a shower, and my bed."

Max began to laugh, "Or are you really looking forward to three days that you can ask a certain lady out on a date or two?" I swear I want to hit Max after he said that, he just doesn't understand that the entire romance thing between me and Lisa was an act to throw off the people we thought would try and recapture us.

I will not deny it, the lady is beautiful, she really is a great person, but Max is assuming that such a lady doesn't already have someone in her life. She has a beautiful face, nice figure, respectful, loyal, intelligent and quick to understand her surroundings, how could someone like that not have at least five or six men trying to woo her?

As I told them if they actually wanted to make an impression they should get their dress uniforms ready, as we all reached the mess hall, they both went to pick stuff they wanted to eat, me I went to get myself a tall cup of coffee and a light dinner, for some odd reason I had a feeling that eating a heavy meal was not such a good idea.

"Why if it isn't Rick Hunter, tell me isn't there something you rather be kissing than that coffee mug?" I turned around and found that Claudia and Roy were sitting right next to me, one at each side of me, when did they get their food and sit without me noticing?

I looked at Claudia and then looked at Roy, "You know something brother, your girlfriend is right, there is something I rather kiss than this mug, but unfortunately, I am still on duty, I will have to wait till this entire award ceremony to end to kiss that."

Claudia must be in a good mood cause she was smiling, at least she was smiling till Roy told her that the thing I wanted to kiss was not a person but my pillow. "Look, you spent all that time alone with Lisa, and I mean that lady is usually an Ice Queen, for you to survive that it must mean that something warmed up my friend to you, it must be love."

I looked at Claudia and began shaking my head, "Claudia do I need to remind you some of us are trying to eat dinner? Look we had to pretend that we were a rather romantic couple to help us escape, but you heard her, she is not the type to as you are probably thinking fall in love with someone that quickly, what? Do you believe in love at first sight or what?"

"Trust me, after that award ceremony that lady is going to become rather popular, and that means she will have a ton of potential suitors after her, she will not even have time to think of little old me."

After twenty minutes of her teasing and comments that I wanted to be in bed with her friend, otherwise known as Commander Hayes, I began to actually realize why in the world the Zentradi didn't allow men and women to serve together.

As the dreaded event came, my squadron and Lisa were all dressed in our dress uniforms, didn't realize that this uniform would make Lisa look like that, honestly I had trouble keeping my gaze focused on the crowd, the way her uniform just seem to mold to her figure, the way she did her makeup and hair, the fact that she was standing next to me and apparently was wearing a rather nice perfume didn't help matters.

I honestly had to concentrate and call on my discipline to stop myself from looking at her, but thankfully a few of the cameras have a nice reflective shine and I did notice she did, in fact, looked beautiful.

Truth be told I was expecting someone like Jan Morris, I mean let's face it, I would never expect Lynn Minmay of winning, I know she is the waitress of our favorite restaurant. Let's face it, I always believed Max and her were involved considering he was actually asked to sing at her birthday party or so Ben tells me.

As she pinned the medal on Lisa, she kept saying some words of gratitude that were clearly scripted. The only thing I could not help was when she pinned the medal on me, she gave me a kiss on my right cheek, she smiled at me with a cute smile and moved on to pin the medals for everyone else.

Call me crazy if you want, but I somehow get the feeling she and Max have been having relationship problems, and she just used me to get even with him. All I know that after the pinch Lisa gave me, I knew two things, she was mad, and she was not going to be in a good mood for a long time, but why would she care? It's not like she loves me, she even told Claudia that we were just pretending.