I met with the senior military officers inside this conference room. It looked like pretty much any conference room, with a wooden table and chairs. Hot tea was served by this private; it felt good going down my throat.
A woman wearing a green Class "A" army uniform- which was basically a coat and a skirt with all the rank insignia and service ribbons, sat on one of the chairs.
"Colonel Satori, United Nations Army intelligence," she said when she first introduced herself. "I have already met Lieutenant Gashtar when he first arrived here."
"Are we waiting for someone?" I asked as I sat in the chair.
"Yes."
"Colonel, we have a connection," said this dark-haired lady in a similar uniform, but with fewer decorations as well as three chevrons on each sleeve.
"Thank you, Sergeant Isavia," said Satori.
A screen in the back of the room revealed the image of another conference room. Sitting at the head of the table in the other room was this man in a similar outfit to the colonel's. He had black hair. His most notable feature was his left hand, which was made of stainless steel.
"Nova," said the man. "Nice to speak with you. We have not been in the same room in a long time."
"Always an honor to speak with you, sir," said Satori. "I have two people, who traversed two continents while fighting the Invid. They have something interesting to say."
"I should introduce myself," said the man on the screen. "Brigadier General Jack Emerson, United Nations Army, Director of Intelligence for the Anti-Invid Alliance Command."
Gabe stood up. He was dressed in his Space Marine Class "A" uniform, which consisted of trousers, a mandarin-collared shirt, and a coat. "Second Lieutenant Gabriel Gashtar, United Nations Space Marines, only known survivor of Titan Squadron," he said.
I introduced myself. "General Emerson, I am in the private sector. I am employed by Trans Galactic."
Emerson tweaked with his left hand with his right hand, and then used his left hand to pick up a cup of coffee. "I know of their privateering ships," he said.
"General Emerson," said Colonel Satori, "allow me to be brief, sir. The lady here had been exposed to Spores from the Flower of Life, and has had visions of what I suspect was the past of the Invid Regency. There have been prior reported cases of humans having hallucinations when exposed to the Spores."
I heard the capital "S".
"What were these dreams?"
I stood up, recalling the reliving of the Invid memories- the destruction of the original Invid homeworld, the first contact with Tirol, the Zentraedi attack on Optera, the rise of the current Regent and Regess.
"There is still much we do not know about that Flower," said the general. "Still, the vision that the Invid were not originally from Optera, as we have thought this past decade, and that their homeworld was destroyed by a planet-busting weapon. What were these enemies called?"
I paused for a few seconds. "The Children of the Shadow," I answered. "They definitely were not the ancestors of the Robotech Masters."
"Sir, there must be a way to get this message to Moon Base ALuCE," said Satori.
"The Invid keep jamming transmissions to and from Earth," said Emerson. "We did manage to a few minutes of two-way voice communication with a General Edwards from Expeditionary Command last year, but no two-way communication since then. Who knows if General Edwards is even still alive?"
"If I have another Invid dream again, I will make sure to let Colonel Satori know," I said.
"Thank you," replied General Emerson. "Our meeting is concluded."
"Yes, sir," replied Satori. "I will e-mail you any further developments."
Emerson's image disappeared from the screen.
"If anything comes up, ma'am, we'll contact you," Gabe said to Satori.
Oooooooooo
A few days later, I went to the Veritech Museum with Itzak. The boy clearly had never been to a museum before. The museum was in a giant hangar. We were visiting some of the exhibits. I saw a mock-up of the Alpha prototype in battloid mode, and a plaque telling us that it the prototype was developed right here, around the time I was born, but it took another eight years, with the development of better power plants and smaller transformation mechanisms, before the Alpha and Beta were deemed suitable for mass production and deployment. We visited more exhibits, including those showing how the transformation mechanisms worked. I was able to read every schematic.
I could see the amazement in Itzak's eyes as he took in every exhibit.
I went to one exhibit surrounded by velvet rope. It was this triangular shape, about two meters wide, with one crescent shaped green surface and four long, thin cylinders attached to it, two on each side.
That was the head of a battloid.
There was a plaque on a stand near the exhibit.
The Head of Skull One
Skull One was the first VF-1S Valkyrie veritech fighter, a design for use by veritech squadron and wing commanders. During the First Robotech War, Skull One was flown into combat by former test pilot LCDR Roy Fokker, UNS. After five years of service in combat, Skull One was retired and delivered to the Robotech Research Center here, where it was disassembled for study in designing future generations of veritech combat aircraft. The head of its battloid rests here for all to see.
"Wow," said Itzak. "Nice story."
"My dad flew in Skull Squadron during the first war," I said. "He mentioned his training, having to practice, his life on the ship. He did not talk too much about the combat, though."
"Neither did my dad."
I heard this beeping. For a second I wondered what it was, before I realizled it was my cell phone. I had not carried a cell phone for over a year; I was still reacclimating to the idea.
COL Satori has a plan. Meet me.
"Gabe has something important," I said.
"I'll be fine HERE," said Itzak. . "I'll text you if there's any trouble."
Ooooooooooooo
I lay down on the leather couch. The purple-haired woman, wearing a black blouse and white trousers.
"I can draw what you dreamt about," she said. "Better than you could."
"We'll see," I replied.
Colonel Nova Satori spoke with us. She was interested in the ancient enemy that the Invid Regency had. She knew this forensic artist and we went to her studio, located inside a loft. It was a large place, with a wooden floor. There were many portrait stands. I glimpsed at some of her detailed drawings, which had this photographic quality.
"Are you ready?" asked the colonel.
"Yes," I replied.
"Now just relax," said the artist. She held out a pocket watch suspended by a chain. "Focus on the watch. Good. Now let go. Let go of your conscious self."
I then felt somehow detached, as if I was watching myself.
"You were an Invid?"
"Yes," I heard myself say.
"What did you look like?"
This went on. I heard myself answer her questions. She asked about the enemy spaceships and that planet-busting missile. She even asked for details such as how many thrusters the ships had.
Then I well, became fully awake.
"Did you get the answers you needed?' I asked.
"Take a look," she replied.
I saw the pictures. I saw pictures of the Shadow ships. They were very detailed. They looked like several boxes connected together, and the front had like an open mouth.
I then looked at the warheads that I dreamed destroyed the original Invid homeworld. It was shaped like a mushroom. The base of the cap had a series of circular arcs around the perimeter, and had a round top. There was another drawing, this time showing the cap separating from the stalk.
These drawings were like photographs, much more detail than the crude scribblings I made in that cave.
"I'm impressed," I said. "How long did this take?"
"An hour and a half," replied the artist. "I did get much detail from you. That's why these drawings are so detailed.
Colonel Satori was taking some pictures. 'I am going to make sure the Allied Command and the E.V.E. computer network gets these pictures," she said. "They will need to know how important it is to get these pictures to Expeditionary Command. I had better get back to the office. There's over an hour of work to catch up on. "
I had no argument there.
Oooooooooo
There was another milestone. It was as great as the feeling I had when we finally reached the end of the Nile River a year ago.
I could walk without a cane.
And so I walked around Dr. Stacy Embry's office in the Ocean Patrol hospital.
"You could sit still," said the doctor.
"Let her walk for a while," said Vocational Nurse Vic Yahagi. "To be able to walk on her own two feet." He then spoke to me. "Remember those follow-up visits."
"Got it," I replied.
"I will need to examine you, Miss," said Dr. Embry.
I sat down for the examination. I imagined myself as a mecha, and Dr. Embry as the mechanic.
Ooooooooo
I celebrated my newfound mobility by hanging out at this bar and grill in what was the downtown section of this underground city. It reminded me of this bar and grill in Aresburg on Planet Mars so long ago. I had some bar food like onion rings and mozzarella cheesesticks.
I had a dance with Gabe as music played. It felt so great. I noticed Itzak, Laureline, and Doc watching us.
"You'll be great when we go to the Ides of March Ball," he said. "Imagine me in dinner dress blues, silver bars on my shoulders."
"I'd better get a dress," I said.
"It better look good on you."
"Oh, not as good as it would off me," I whispered.
Not long afterward, I had an interesting meeting. Mark Landry, the Chief of Staff, led us all to this place. We entered this huge chamber and met two people. One of them was Colonel Nova Satori, in her green Class "A" uniform.
The other was this old man in a three-piece suit. His thin hair was white.
"So these are our guests, Mark," he said.
"Yes, sir," he replied.
"I am Chairman Daryl Embry," said the old man. "I manage the civilian community down here."
"Second Lieutenant Gabriel Gashtar, United Nations Space Marines," replied Gabe.
We all introduced ourselves.
"What is this regarding?' asked Doc.
"We shall let the E.V.E. explain it," said Embry.
The room we were in had so many monitor screens. There was this dry, staticky smell.
An image of a woman with teal hair appeared on all screens.
"I am the Enhanced Video Emulation System," said this female voice. "Also known as the E.V.E."
Gabe, Laureline, Itzak, and Doc had this sense of wonder. I looked towards Embry, Landry, and Satori; I could tell they were much more familiar with the E.V.E.
Gabe introduced himself. "What do you request of us, ma'am?" he asked, standing stiff and tall, clad in his Class "A" service uniform.
"I have been aware of your journey," she replied. "I should tell you more about myself."
"Okay," said Colonel Satori.
"I was the computer system for Lord Zor's space yacht, compiled by Lord Zor himself," said the E.V.E. "His yacht was part of the Zentraedi 118th Transport Fleet, which transported VIP's of the Robotech Masters."
"And Zor was the VIP of VIP's," said Itzak.
"About forty-six years and seven months ago, as your old United Earth Government measured time, Lord Zor, disagreeing with the corruption of the ruling lords over Tirol and its colonies, sent his space yacht to parts unknown, taking with it the only protoculture matrix and its secrets. It took twenty three months' external travel time before his yacht crash landed on this planet that you call Earth. Your people rebuilt his ship, finishing nearly a decade later. Four years after that, the computer core was transferred here to the Robotech Research Center for study."
"Thank you for the history lessons," said Laureline.
The E.V.E. addressed me. "It is my understanding you were exposed to the spores of the Flower of Life," she said.
"That was a year ago," I answered.
"And you have experienced the memories of past Invid."
"Yes."
"Explain these memories."
And so I did,- the destruction of the Invid cradleworld, the first contact with Tirol, the bombing of Optera, the rise of the current Regent and Regess.
"This information must be transmitted to the Expeditionary Forces," said E.V.E. "I have downloaded the images from those dreams, including that of the ships and weaponry of the Shadow."
"Ma'am," asked Colonel Satori, "do you have a plan of getting a hyperspatial signal past the Invid jamming?"
"There is too much information that we can not just punch through the signal jamming," said E.V.E. "But we could use a sneaker net?"
"Sneaker net?" asked Doc.
"We will upload the data into storage devices and send them on ships to the Moon Base. The garrison there should be able to forward the data to Expeditionary Command."
"Ma'am," said Gabe. "I wholeheartedly volunteer to deliver the data to the Moon Base."
"In twelve hours, a debris field will be directly above us. It will be our best chance to sneak an alpha fighter through."
"Twelve hours, ma'am," said Colonel Satori. "We can make it work."
"There is one thing I must ask, ma'am before we go," said Gabe. "Why did the ship land here?" It could have landed on Mars, or Glorie, or even a black hole."
"I locked on to a source of hyper-spatial signals," answered E.V.E. "Historical records indicate that a team of researchers were experimenting with the transmission of hyper-spatial signals on a research station on Earth's moon at the time of my arrival."
That was interesting.