"So I just ask myself, when has life ever made sense?" Remark attributed to Rick Hunter

Rick could hardly keep still…had after combat briefings always lasted this long? He didn't think so.

But Roy was up there, having met him and the team as soon as the Vermillion returned below decks, the battered and broken shuttle in tow.

There had been no chance to see what had happened to Lisa, medics had immediately swarmed over and Rick and the team had been herded into the debriefing room.

And here they were, Rick absolutely desperate to get to the hospital to see what had happened to Lisa…he thought about telling his Big Brother to hurry it up, or even just running from the room.

Then like an answer to his prayers, Roy wrapped up the debriefing just at that moment and with what was probably the sloppiest, quickest salute ever given by an officer of the RDF, Rick high-tailed it out of there, almost knocking down Miriya who was hovering outside the door waiting for Max.

He threw a quick apology over his shoulder, but didn't slow down, commandeering a jeep and taking off, tyres squealing in a manner that would have put Roy to shame.

Time seemed to stretch on forever as he drove down the streets of Macross City towards the Hospital, but in reality he made it there in record time.

The same woman was there behind the reception desk and looked rather surprised to see him yet again.

"Yes?" She asked as he came to a screeching halt in front of her.

"Commander Lisa Hayes," Rick said, breathless from the mad dash he'd made. "She was just brought in…"

The receptionist tapped on a few keys of her keyboard and then looked up. "She's here, but she's in Intensive Care right now, you can't see her."

Rick cringed, Why does this always happen? He thought, wanting to scream, but he held back from doing so.

"I…that is…" he tried to come up with a reason, the only one he could think of was that he was Lisa's boyfriend or something…but there was no way he could say that. Apart from anything else she'd kill him…

If she was all right that was.

"This is really important," he finally said, "can't you…can't you tell me if she's all right, at least?"

The receptionist looked at his face and decided to take pity on him. "Give me a moment," she told him returning to her typing.

Rick tapped his fingers against his thigh, wondering how much longer he would have to wait –

"Commander Hayes's condition is reported to be fine," the receptionist finally remarked. "She was knocked unconscious and is suffering from low-grade hypothermia, but that's all."

Rick let out a breath he hadn't even realised he was holding.

"Thank God," he whispered.

Still he wanted to see her…

"I just need to get a drink of water…" he began.

If the receptionist suspected him of anything (and she'd be quite right to) she didn't show it, instead she just nodded and directed him down the hall.

Of course, Rick didn't go there, remembering the hospital layout from his own time there he quickly headed for the elevator bank intent on reaching the fifth floor where the ICU was located.

Since he knew where he was going none of the doctors or nurses questioned him, which was perhaps worrying considering…but Rick really didn't care right then.

Arriving at the doors to the ward, Rick looked about waiting for the hallway to be clear before sneaking in.

Before he could however, the double doors swung open.

"Rick!"

It was Claudia, Rick was so surprised to hear her voice he actually jumped a little.

It was not just Claudia though, behind her were Captain Gloval and the Bridge Bunnies.

Oh great, Rick moaned inwardly, this'll be out before we even we even leave the building.

"Lt. Hunter." True to form the Bridge Bunnies greeted him with giggles. Captain Gloval just seemed surprised to see him there.

"Lieutenant, to what do we owe this visit?" He asked, tugging at his jacket collar, his standard habit when deprived of his pipe.

"I…uh…that is…uh," Rick could barely make a sentence. He saw Claudia looking at him with a knowing smile on her face.

"Lieutenant Hunter is just showing the proper concern for a commanding officer," she spoke up, surprising Rick by her tactfulness.

"Ah," Gloval nodded.

Rick decided to jump on the reason. "Yeah! I mean, I know Li- Commander Hayes and I haven't always got on, but er…you know."

"Hmm yes," Gloval replied not looking as if he did.

"Lisa's asleep right now," Claudia told him, then looked at the Captain. "It would be all right for Lt. Hunter to visit her briefly, don't you think? After all he did provide cover."

To Rick's relief Gloval nodded, seeming not to see anything odd in the request. "Certainly, Hunter, but don't wake her, I want my First Officer back on her feet as quickly as possible."

Rick cleared his throat slightly nervously. "Of course, sir, no problem…" he even saluted.

The Bridge Bunnies cracked up laughing again, but Claudia hushed them.

"She's in room 504," she told him, pushing the door open to let him by.

Rick did gratefully, seeing as when it swung shut he could no longer hear the excited whispers of Sammie, Vanessa and Kim.

Max sat next to Miriya in the small off-duty room, he didn't really think it was a good idea to bring her into town and they needed all the quiet time they could to talk before the wedding. There was so much to explain…

"I spoke to the 'Skull Leader' today," Miriya told him, which surprised him. Sure Roy had said there were no hard feelings, but Max knew that that didn't mean they'd be best friends.

"When did you do that?"

"While watching you and your men in battle," Miriya looked thoughtful. "He explained a very interesting concept to me…why you micronians fight so well. I had always thought that this society of yours would hinder your abilities, but in fact it only heightens them. You must fight to protect your own kind, I'd never have imagined it."

Max felt just the opposite, but it was easy to understand why Miriya felt the way she did.

She reached out and took his hand, a gesture she seemed to enjoy almost as much as kissing. "You must tell me more about these customs of yours. You said we will live together once we are married, I have shared quarters before, before I became First Officer, but this will be different?"

And how! Max cleared his throat a little nervously. He wondered how he would explain it all, after all there were several things about marriage that would be so far out of the Zentraedi experience…

He decided to start simple. "Well, uh…" he pushed his glasses up on the bridge of his nose. "The most important thing is we'll be a team, we'll look out for each other, help each other out, be there when the other one needs us, that sort of thing."

"So we will remain together even during battle?" Miriya asked.

"Uh…" Max was somewhat taken aback, but then it would make sense that that would be the first thing Miriya would ask about.

There were of course, female pilots in the RDF, Max had never actually flown with any of them, but he knew the RDF wouldn't have any problem with Miriya signing up based on her gender.

But a Zentraedi…flying for them against her own race?

Max decided to side step that particular issue for now.

"Something like that, yes, but it'll be for the ordinary things too, preparing meals, cleaning up our stuff, you know."

"Hmmm," Miriya was somewhat intrigued by the notion of 'stuff'. Zentraedi had almost no personal items, except for combat medals, so the entire notion that one could have enough possessions to necessitate cleaning them up every so often really was something new.

"But I do not have any personal items, Maximillian," she suddenly said, frowning.

"Well…they aren't everything," he reassured her, "but hey, you do have some things, your new clothes for starters."

Miriya smiled, almost shyly as she brushed down the skirt of her pink dress. "I do like this particular article you chose for me, it is quite unlike anything I have ever worn, but…I enjoy it."

Max grinned, pleased to hear that, he had been a little worried that his choice was too feminine, after all a dress was probably as far away from the uniforms of the female Zentraedi as one could get.

"But what else?" He was startled by her voice. "There are other things about marriage, too, I have heard…to do with this…being born process micronians have." She was looking at him curiously. "How does this process work? What is involved?"

Max gulped.

And here we go…


Always a light sleeper even at the best of times, the sound of the door opening was enough to wake her.

Lisa suppressed an urge to groan in annoyance. No doubt it was a doctor here to check on her condition and she supposed she couldn't begrudge them that.

But, no-one took her wrist to feel her pulse or test her reflexes or shine a light in her eyes to test her pupils.

She considered going back to sleep, but curiosity got the better of her and she slowly opened her eyes.

At first her unfocused eyes couldn't make out who it was, but then…

"Rick," she whispered, her voice still dry and raspy.

Rick gave a jump of surprise. "Lisa, I…uh…" he backed away slightly, "I…er…didn't mean to wake you…"

"If it wasn't you, it'd be someone else," she assured him, letting her heavy eyes close, but then she opened them again. "What are you doing here, anyway?"

Rick looked surprised. "Well, why wouldn't I be here? I mean…you came and visited me when I was shackled up here."

It took a moment for Lisa to remember that occasion and when she did she couldn't help a small stab of embarrassment. She had really made an idiot of herself that day.

"Thanks for the thought," she told him.

"You're…OK then…I mean, I'm sorry that you got hit –"

Under normal circumstances, Lisa probably would have sat right up and told him how ridiculous he was sounding. But she was just too tired for that. "It wasn't your fault," she said out loud.

As soon as she said the words she felt a jolt of deja vu.

Rick had said almost those same words to her when she had apologised to him.

"And you saved my life, I'd wager," she managed a small smile. "How many times is that then?"

"Uh…" Rick gave a sheepish grin, "I didn't keep count."

Lisa gave a small laugh. "I'd say three."

"Well, I'm glad I did," Rick spoke and she was surprised at how serious he sounded. "I mean, where would we be without the SDF-1's most capable officer?"

He had meant it as a compliment she knew, but her heart fell a little at his words. Don't be so surprised, Hayes, she chastised herself, why on Earth would he see you as anything more than 'Old Sourpuss'?

She didn't reply and he seemed to take it as a sign he'd overstayed his visit.

"Well…I better get going…I'm not even supposed to be here," he told her.

"Hmm, well that's no surprise," Lisa couldn't resist a jab.

She managed to get a smile out of him.

"I do value my life, you know, so I'll…uh…get out of your hair. Get well soon."

Lisa's eyes had closed again, but she sensed that Rick had stepped to the side of the bed. Her heart quickened…how was he going to say goodbye to her…

For the briefest moment she actually thought he would kiss her cheek, but instead he squeezed her hand gently.

"Sleep well," he said and left the room.

Lisa sighed and immediately fell back to sleep, all ready beginning to think the whole thing was just a dream…

Minmei wondered what she was doing…Kyle had said this was what needed to be done, but that didn't make her feel any less worried about it.

Nervous, she brushed her hair again, trying to steel herself, in ten minutes she was to go back out there and face Karen Frost.

For a moment she considered running away…but really what good would that do?

It's not as if there's anywhere to hide on this ship, she reminded herself, at least not for me.

Putting down the hairbrush, she fiddled absent-mindedly with the sleeves of the new dress Aunt Lena and Uncle Max had brought her for her birthday.

Seventeen…I'm only seventeen, she told her reflection in the mirror, all the attention, all the fame, it was so bizarre…

But then this was her dream.

There was a knock on the door and then Kyle's voice. "Minmei, you better come out, you need to get fitted for your mic."

"Coming, Kyle," she called, surprised at how steady her voice was.

Patting her hair into place, she turned and left the room, Kyle was waiting for her just outside and he took her arm with a smile. "You look great…ready to take on the Icewoman?"

Minmei gave a small smile at the nickname, uncreative as it was and somewhat inaccurate, Karen Frost had been a perfectly nice person.

After everything she was quite use to the fuss as the sound crew and camera people rushed about. Vance stood near the director looking nervous, more nervous than her if possible.

Kyle was the very epitome of cool and collected as he helped her take her seat once she was hooked up to the mic and then he went to stand next to Vance.

"Well, here we are again," Karen Frost greeted her with a smile, sitting on the chair opposite with the grace of a long time on-air personality. "I hope it goes better this time."

Minmei nodded, she hoped so as well!

"All right," the director spoke briskly, "we're on the air, in five…four…three…"

Karen Frost spoke to camera one. "Good evening, SDF-1, here with us today for a second interview is the one, the only, Miss Lynn Minmei," she held her hand out towards Minmei, who gave her best smile to second camera.

"Good evening, Karen," she piped up, "it's great to be here. It's been longer than usual since I've spoken to my fans."

Karen nodded. "It certainly has, I don't think there's been a week aboard without mention of you since before the Miss Macross Pageant."

Minmei smiled, thanks to Kyle she knew this question was coming. "I did need a bit of a break…after my movie and the Birthday Concert…it was all getting a bit too much."

"I imagine so," Karen gave her a sympathetic look. "How did you spend your week off?"

"Oh, I spent it mostly with my Aunt and Uncle and my cousin, I love spending time at the White Dragon restaurant."

"I imagine so, it's where you made your start in singing," Karen commented.

"It is," Minmei sneaked a quick look at Kyle, who nodded and gave her the thumbs up. "I made up my first song while watching my Aunt serve the customers," she giggled, "it was called More Rice With My Order, Please!"

There was an appreciative laugh, not just from Karen, but from the rest of the crew too.

"Do you think you could give us a demonstration?" Karen asked with a wink.

Minmei laughed and looked over at Kyle, who nodded. "Well, I guess since you asked nicely…"

Karita arrived back at base just in time to see the Minmei interview.

He had managed to make a good impression on the head workman while helping to repair doors during the reconstruction of the city (and had somehow not revealed himself as a Zentraedi) and had been invited to continue helping with odd jobs around the SDF-1.

All the Zentraedi crowded around the screen, on the edge of their seats. It had been over two lon since they'd seen her.

Mardul had saved a spot for him and squeezing next to his friend, Karita focused on the interview unfolding.

Minmei had got to her feet and a spotlight shone on her.

"This is going to be pretty awful," she warned, "I was only six or seven when I made it up."

Anything Minmei sung though enthralled the Zentraedi, even something as silly as what she did then.

"More rice with my order please!

Did you hear me?

I work all day out there

And when I get here,

All I really need

Is more rice with my order, please."

"Wow," Zerel, who was among those closest to the screen breathed, as if he had heard something completely out-worldly. "Do you think we should all get rice?"

The other Zentraedi all nodded in agreement and immediately went about pooling their money together. Ordinarily, the military provided their meals, from the mess, so getting something from a store in the city would be quite an experience.

Of course, Rico, Konda and Bron were on hand, the three micronian females been on duty and the twenty turned to them for help.

"How do we get this rice?"

"Do we need one of those non-combat vehicles to get there?"

"Should we wear anything special?"

Rico put up hand for quiet. "No, no, we don't have to leave here, we can 'order in'."

The Zentraedi looked at each other in interest, there was a completely new term to them.

"'Ordering in'," Mardul repeated, "what's that?"

"We can give orders here?" Another Zentraedi asked, eyes wide. "We're not even military anymore!"

"Wow, these micronians are great!" Another one cheered.

"It's not quite the same as the orders we used to give or get," Konda raised his voice to be heard over the chatter.

"It's just a micronian term that means we call the restaurant up and they'll bring the food to us here."

In some ways though that was even more amazing to the Zentraedi, who were still getting used to the wide range of micronian foods. Now to find out they could ask other micronians to bring it to them.

Bron offered to be the one who would called the White Dragon.

The Zentraedi crowed around him as he picked up the yellow communicator the micronians called a 'telephone' and dialled a number.

"White Dragon, please," Bron said, mimicking the way he had heard Sammie speak on her portable telephone device once.

It seemed he had it right, though, as the operator on the other end of the line did so.

"White Dragon," a female answered the phone, her voice reminded Bron of Minmei. "Can I take your order?"

"Yes, please…uh…rice for um…twenty-three."

There was a brief pause on the other end of the line and Bron wondered if he'd said the wrong thing. He had seen a few micronian movies involving this 'ordering in' technique, but perhaps he'd missed something…

"Rice for twenty-three…well…we should be able to do that, it'll be about an hour, though," the female finally spoke to Bron's great relief. "What sort of rice?"

Bron stared at the receiver. "What sort?" He repeated.

The Zentraedi all looked at each other and shrugged.

"Yes, we have plain fried or steamed, egg, spice, vegetable, Zongzi, Congee…" the female rattled off.

Bron was getting a bit of a headache, leave it to the micronians to have so many choices.

"Just the…uh…normal kind."

There was another brief pause. "All right, fried rice then, for twenty-three, that will come to a hundred dollars, where do you want it delivered to?"

Bron experienced a shot of panic when he was told the price. "Uh, just a mil," he told her, covering the mouth piece of the handset. "How much of that micronian money we got?"

Karita, who had proved himself adept at counting, went over it quickly. "I got fifty."

"That's only half of what we need," Bron informed them.

There were sighs of disappointment.

"I'll never understand this money thing…"

"Yeah, why do the micronians make it so complicated."

Rico held up a hand again. "Look, we're gonna get food from the mess anyway, we can all have a little bit of rice each, just so we can see what Minmei's talking about. Who knows, we might not even like the stuff."

The Zentraedi talked among themselves and then agreed this was a good idea.

Bron took his hand away from the receiver. "Er…we've only got fifty dollars here, so um…we'll just get that much worth of rice."

"OK then, we'll have it delivered to…?" She prompted again.

At that point Bron realised he wasn't quite sure how to describe where the Zentraedi were housed. He looked pleadingly at Konda, who had always had a decent sense of direction. "Any idea where we are? They need to know where to send the rice."

Konda, though, didn't have much of a clue either. "Just tell them big building near the gates on the base…they have to know where that is."

Bron relayed the information, which resulted in another pause from the female on the other end but finally she said. "All right then, it'll be about forty-five minutes."

"Thanks," Bron put the phone down, feeling a great sense of achievement, the micronian society was fun, but it sure was complicated.

Lena Lynn hung up the phone shaking her head. As soon as the man on the other end of the line had mentioned his location she realised why his ordered was so strange.

"Max, dear!" She called, coming into the kitchen, which as always at this time of night was crowded with chefs working feverishly.

Her husband looked up from a particularly complicated dish, the speciality of the house. "Hmm, dear?"

"We've just had a take-out order for fifty dollars worth of plain fried rice."

Max's eyes almost boggled. "Good lord! Couldn't they think of anything interesting?"

Lena walked over to him and spoke quietly into his ear. "It's the Zentraedi defectors."

"Oh," a look of understanding crossed Max's face, then he shook his head. "Still, you might have introduced them to the wonders of my Fish Soy Soup?"

"I didn't really think it was appropriate to make a sales pitch to them, dear."

"Hmpf…" Max grunted, but nevertheless yelled over his shoulder. "Fifty bucks worth of fried rice!"

A few of the chefs shared his confusion, but quickly got to work on the order.

"I was wondering, though, who should deliver it," Lena still spoke quietly. "After all, not everyone welcomes the Zentraedi."

"That's true…" he mused, then was thoughtful. "We could send Jason, he's not adverse to meeting aliens."

"Max," Lena gave him a good natured slap on the arm. "He's only eleven…and all ready in bed."

"Well, send Reiko…she doesn't pay attention to anything anyway, she wouldn't notice who she was delivering stuff too, even if those aliens were still their original size!"

Captain Gloval returned to his quarters, yet another shift up on the Bridge had finished and as was the case these days, he could only sigh in relief, particularly considering everything was all right up there.

The main Zentraedi Fleet was apparently still under orders not to attack the SDF-1 directly and thank God for that…

He sank into the armchair he had position in order to look out over the star field.

The SDF-1's position was one in which the Earth could be seen, a sight that was comforting, but at the same time depressing.

He thought of Lisa lying in the hospital, and then of her father, his old friend, Donald Hayes.

The two had been through a lot during the Global Civil War. Originally on opposite sides, Gloval, Russian by birth had fled that country to Italy, an ally of the US.

He had worked his way up the ranks of the Soviet Navy submarines, eventually becoming a Captain 2nd Class in charge of his own submarine. But it hadn't taken him long to become disillusioned with the way of life and so had fled and joined the ranks of the UN Navy.

Originally, he and Hayes had been closed, both dedicated to their duty and the men under their command. Gloval could still chuckle over the time he and Hayes had disobeyed direct orders so their soldiers could have decent food to eat.

But not long after the SDF-1 crashed on Macross Island, the friendship had gone awry, for reasons that Gloval still couldn't figure out. He assumed it had something to do with Hayes having lost his ship with all hands (excepting himself, who had been called off board when the radar picked up the massive electro-magnetic disturbances caused by the SDF-1 appearance), whilst Gloval on USS Kenosha had escaped the tidal and heat waves intact with his crew relatively unscathed.

This was all in the past though, and Gloval knew it did him no good to dwell on it, sometimes friendships died and that was a fact that had to be lived with.

But one shouldn't make innocent people suffer as a result, he thought, grimly as he lit up his pipe. He was sure that Lisa had suffered and not just physically. All Gloval could do was hope that Hayes felt as bad about what had happened to the shuttle as he did.

He turned his mind away from those thoughts to ones more pressing…such as the wedding he had, rather recklessly now that he thought about it, given permission to proceed.

He wondered, now, exactly what he was getting into. He, of course, didn't doubt Sterling's or First Officer Parina's – for that matter- sincerity, but actually going ahead with this Zentraedi-Human marriage…it did seem like a rather crazy idea…

But maybe it will prove something, more than anything else that the two races are not so different, he thought as he poured a small glass of wine. And not just to those on this ship…

And then an idea came to him…the perfect idea.