Lisa sighed and did what she could to adjust the new uniform to fit her better. A bit of tailoring will need to be done to get the uniform to fit correctly. While she understood the practicality of wearing pants instead of a skirt especially on a starship, she questioned why no one thought to change the color.
"White pants are never easy to wear, especially ones as form fitting as these," thought Lisa as she turned around to look at her backside in the mirror. The sides of the white uniform were yellow as were the sleeves. Over the uniform, Lisa wore a long sleeved, white capelet with blue epaulets and blue stripes to indicate her rank as Commander. A small blue UN Spacy emblem was embroidered on the right side of the chest. While she had not yet been fully reinstated to active duty, Captain Hunter and Dr. Lang had thought it best for Lisa to appear in front of the council in regulation uniform. White leather, low heeled boots finished her outfit, and Lisa was glad those at least fit properly.
She had to admit she felt better than she had in a long time, donning the uniform had returned a sense of normalcy to her. Lisa recognized that the uniform had always given her a sense of safety and belonging as she had always wore a uniform since her days as a schoolgirl attending private school to when she joined the joined the military academy at sixteen.
Taking a final in the mirror and running her hands over her pinned up hair a final time, Lisa exited the bedroom into the living room. Seeing Captain Hunter, also in uniform, staring out into space from the big bay window behind the desk that was in the living room, Lisa cleared her throat to get his attention.
Rick turned around at the noise and nodded to see Commander Hayes standing in front of him.
Lisa quickly gave a smart salute and announced, "Commander Hayes reporting for duty, sir."
"At ease Commander," commanded Captain Hunter. Lisa smoothly transitioned her stance and waited for her Captain to speak. Rick took a moment to take in the changes, the uniform and the low bun Lisa had styled her hair in. While different from the loose locks he was used to seeing, he noted that the bun displayed her fine high cheekbones, clear skin and bright green eyes better than the long hair she somewhat used as a shield.
Rick couldn't help but remember the many times he had stood in front of her in salute or at ease waiting for instructions. He was impressed how natural it came to her. Even after these many years in service, he never felt he had the composure that Lisa exhibited.
"Are you ready to go?" he asked as he stepped closer to her.
"Yes, I'd like to get this over with as soon as possible. Meetings with the Council are best to be done with as soon as possible." replied Lisa with a wry smile.
Rick couldn't help but chuckle and agree with her and then added, "I'm surprised to hear you say that, I was always under the impression that you always followed orders from the council."
Lisa flushed a little angrily at the seemingly innocuous comment and said a bit starchly, "That may be true, but there are ways to get the orders to be in line with one's objectives than not."
Rick held up both his hands in defense, "I didn't mean anything by it, in fact Gloval shared with me a few incidences in which your solutions became "orders from the Council."
Not wanting to the drag the conversation out longer, Lisa gave a tight smile and asked, "Do you think we should leave now?"
As Captain Hunter and Commander Hayes walked through the corridors of the ship, Rick pointed out areas of interest to Lisa and gave her a brief tour. There were many curious looks given along with the general greetings and salutes that they were met with. Lisa was an unknown figure to those on base and it wasn't often that Captain Hunter was seen with a woman.
As they headed to the Council Room, unbeknownst to Rick a pair of keen blue eyes noticed the Captain and the unknown woman in the Commander's uniform approaching. The two were engaged in some type of conversation and Captain Hunter was speaking to his companion more expressively than he had with anyone she had ever seen him with, besides Max and Miriya of course.
She quickly pulled back a few feet into an adjacent corridor and pulled from her uniform pocket a high definition camera and quickly took a few auto shots hoping one of them would be clear enough for her to identify the brown haired lady walking with Captain Hunter. She watched as they entered the Council chambers. Knowing that a Council meeting could take hours even for a minor thing, the photographer hurried to her office to download the photos and see if she figure out the new Commander's identity.
Captain Hunter and Commander Hayes were issued into the conference room. Large display monitors surrounded the top of the walls and in the center a long mahogany conference table already set for the discussion. They took a seat at the table and Rick watched as Lisa poured herself a tall glass of water from the carafe and set it next to her. She offered to pour Rick a glass as well, but he declined. He was anxious to get this interview over with and get back to his duties. He never felt comfortable addressing the council, they had always been at odds with Rick, complaining to Admiral Gloval of his lack of tack, somewhat abrasive attitude and general disrespect of the Council. Unfortunately, his hero status with the general population and respect earned from his peers and colleagues in the military left the Council little choice to allow his selection as Captain to the Megaroad to be approved.
It wasn't long before another side door opened and the three Generals walked in. Rick and Lisa quickly stood and saluted the Generals before being allowed to be reseated.
General Maistroff, a tall man with greying brown hair, was the first to speak, greeting Lisa in a warm familiar manner, "Commander Hayes, may I say on behalf of UN Spacy and the Council, we welcome you back home and hope that you have recovered sufficiently to be able to share your ordeal with us. We were all very relieved to hear of your recovery and hope that we find you back in active status quickly." Taking a quick glance at Rick and then to Lisa, Maistroff continued, "Good leadership is never lacking in command and the Council has much respect in your abilities in this area. "
Rick wasn't surprised but was stunned that they Council was opening implying that if they had a chance to replace Rick in command that they would, and was about to open his mouth to respond when he heard Lisa speak up first.
"Council Members, thank you for the warm welcome, at this time I am still considering all options for my future, but come before you today to relay my experience with the Zentraedi. I hope the information shared may still provide value to the Megaroad's mission. I have been quite impressed with the magnitude of operation that the exploratory forces are tasked with and from what I have read of records and what have seen so far, I am impressed with all the officers in command and could not see any better choices than the ones the Council has made."
Colonel Lee at this point, interjected, smiled and said, "Of course Commander Hayes, Colonel Maistroff meant no disrespect to the Captain here, only that a top notch former graduate of the military and Robotech Academy can only help but to improve and enforce the ideals and traditions the military hold."
Lisa didn't say much, just nodded her head graciously indicating that she acknowledged the comment and waited for the generals to continue with their interrogation.
As they left the Council room, Rick couldn't help but notice the fatigue on Lisa's face and tried to lighten the mood.
"I think that may have been the best council meeting I have ever been at, it seems that in finding you Commander Hayes, I actually did something that the Council approves of."
Rick was rewarded by a laugh from Lisa and he realized that she probably hadn't laughed much since she had been captured and recovered. Her laughter made him smile in return and they both found themselves laughing about their shared ordeal with the Council.
Making their way back to base quarters, Rick asked Lisa what she had planned for the remainder of the day. Happy to discuss her plans with him, she explained that she was to meet with the academy councillors to get her study materials to retake the test and then she was going to go through the electronic transmissions that had been sent to her from Earth. Rick commented that he was surprised that she had not gone through them yet. Lisa took a moment to gather her thoughts before speaking.
"Don't get me wrong Captain, I am very excited to hear the transmission from Admiral Gloval and from Claudia and the rest of the girls, it's just that I didn't want to do it while I was still on the Velaruse. Being able to see and review that information on my own time without everyone hovering over me and allowing me to acclimate on my accord is what I need."
Rick nodded his head in understanding, listening to Lisa openly speak about her thought process and plans to move forward. He had not known her enough on the SDF-1 to be privy to these types of conversation and her thought analysis. Her thoughts and actions were well thought out but he did seem to note some emotional detachment from her on the subject. It was as if she was going through the motions as was expected of her and he wondered if returning to the military was what she really wanted.
Lisa couldn't help but to to be drawn to the man walking with her. This Rick Hunter was an enigma to her, from accounts she had read, Rick had played a key role in the war with the Zentradi and in the recovery process. He was not the boastful pilot she knew of long ago and very much admired this Rick Hunter who she found to be smart, analytical and thoughtful in his ways. It didn't hurt him that he had grown physically as well and carried himself confidently. She had noted in the meeting with Colonels that he did not allow them to put words in his mouth or lead him into saying something he did not feel or believe and it had impressed the hell out of her.
While Rick changed dramatically over the last 10 years, Lisa wondered how he saw her. In essence, who she was now was almost the same as she was 10 years ago. Although their conversations since her recovery had been pleasant and there was none of the bickering that they had shared before, she wondered if Rick remembered their disagreements of the past and that at one time called her an "ole sourpuss" and a "weasel"
Her captivity had given her time to self reflect and she had found herself ashamed of behavior after Karl's death and how she cut herself off from well meaning family and friends and developing an Ice Queen persona. Lisa was naturally quite shy and tended to keep to herself. During her recovery on the Velaruse, it was a personality defect that she wanted to work on and that she would make the most of her second chance.
Elsewhere on base, long fingers tapped the table impatiently as the facial recognition program was still running. The initial search results had not yielded a hit and Sue was impatient to discover who Captain Hunter was with. Her search parameters of new recruits, officers and females under the age of 30 had not been successful. The woman had looked familiar and it nagged at Sue that she couldn't be placed.
Frustrated with her lack of success, Sue once again widened her search parameters to only exclude males, hoping that the net was cast wide enough to get a bite. An hour later, Sue was pleased to hear the ding that indicated a match had been found. Putting down the coffee that she had poured and had been slowly drinking as she waited, Sue turned back to her computer to review the results.
Her eyes widened in disbelief in what was displayed on the screen. Surprised by the results, she tried to access the file only to find that it had been marked as confidential and needed a much higher clearance than she had to access it. Annoyed that she would need to find someone help her "unlock" the file, the only information that was accessible was a name and the words MIA.
AN: Thank you all for hanging in there with me on this. Sorry I'm not updating as fast as I used to be able to. Love and appreciate all the reviews, comments and words of encouragement. It really helps me to keep going