"We have survived the unsurvivable and now the ordinary is extraordinary." Quote from the Log of Captain Henry J Gloval
"Oh my God," Kim hissed, "look over there!"
The three couples had just sat down at a table after getting their food.
"Hmmm?" Vanessa quizzed, titling her head.
Sammie though, was looking about, her eyes sharp for whatever it was her friend saw.
"Oh wow!" She gasped, spotting it. "That's Lisa, with Lieutenant Hunter, again!"
"Sssh!" Vanessa hushed her. "You don't have to let the whole universe know."
Sammie stuck her tongue out at her.
"You two," Kim set down her tray and held up her hands for calm. "This is no time to argue, the important thing is, that's the second time we've seen them together in just a few days and he's saved her life three times all ready. I bet there's something going on between them."
"Well, of course there is," Sammie shook her head, "are you dense?"
"There's no need to be rude, you know," Kim snapped, narrowing her eyes.
"I'm just saying –" Sammie began.
"Why are you talking like that?" Rico asked, breaking in.
"Huh?" Sammie turned to him.
"About people who aren't even with us right now," Rico elaborated, "they can't hear you, can they?"
Vanessa giggled. "I really hope not!"
"It's…uh…" Kim shared a look with her friends, feeling a little embarrassed. "It's called gossiping," she finally admitted.
Rico, Konda and Bron also shared looks. "'Gossiping'?"
"Yeah, you do it too, you know, like when you told all your friends about pressing lips with us," Sammie said, defensively, arching her eyebrow.
At the mention of that the three ex-spies gulped audibly and turned to each other.
"That wasn't really true, though, we…just sort of… made it up! We were just trying to tell them about how micronian society works," Konda spoke up, "but you all ready know how it works, why do you do it then?"
"Because it's fun!" Vanessa remarked.
"Oh," Bron put down his fork and scratched his head, "why?"
The Bridge Bunnies looked at each other…it was rather hard to explain.
"Because," Kim stammered, "uh…well…er..."
"Maybe because we don't know what's going on exactly," Vanessa mused, "its fun to speculate."
"Hmmm?" Rico looked at Konda and Bron questioningly.
"Anyway," Sammie attempted to steer the conversation away from the 'whys' of gossiping. "What do you think, Vanessa, about Lisa and Lieutenant Hunter I mean?"
Vanessa looked over at the two, who were deep in conversation. "I don't know, you know how Lisa is…I think she likes him, but I bet he doesn't know it."
"Uh," Kim rolled her eyes. "Men never know these things, even if you beat them over the head with it."
Rico, Konda and Bron stared at each other.
"You don't have to hit us!" Rico burst out.
"Yeah!" Konda agreed with a hard nod.
"We know you like us," Bron added, "uh…you do like us, right?"
The Bridge Bunnies looked at them in surprise for a moment, then burst out laughing.
"Of course we do!" Kim reassured them.
"This isn't about you guys," Sammie added, patting Rico's hand. "If you don't get things you have a good excuse, Lieutenant Hunter is just oblivious."
"Poor Lisa," Vanessa sighed.
"She doesn't look so 'poor' right now though," Kim pointed out, nodding towards the two of them, at that moment Lisa laughed.
"Hmmm," Vanessa leaned forward, hands folded under her chin. "Maybe he's not as dumb as we thought."
"I hope not," Sammie replied and giggled. "If he was, he'd hardly be able to talk!"
Seloy groaned painfully as she was finally released from her Quaedluun-Rau, which was now sadly nothing more than a twisted heap of scrap.
She was acutely aware that Miriya and her mate had stayed in the hanger bay the entire time, and now Miriya stepped forward.
"Can you move, Seloy?" She called.
Every muscle ached, but slowly Seloy managed to stretch out her arms and place them on either side of the Queadluun-Rau's mangled cockpit and slowly stood to climb out, half way to standing, however, a wave of dizziness passed over her and she fell back into the seat.
"Ugh." She moaned.
She closed her eyes waiting for the dizziness to pass, sweat had formed on her brow when she opened her eyes again.
By that time Miriya had come right up to the mecha and was looking up at her with worried eyes. "You are all right, Seloy?" She turned to look at one of the white coated micronians who had come up beside her as well and spoke to him in the micronian language.
"I can get out of my mecha," Seloy assured Miriya, certain that her First Officer was asking him for help, and she had her pride.
Taking a deep breath, she again placed her hands on either side of the cockpit and stood, managing to swing her legs out clear.
They gave way as soon as they touched the ground and she slumped against her mecha in a heap.
"Seloy," Miriya came closer. "The doctor must look at you again, find out exactly where you have been injured."
Seloy turned, her brows furrowed. "No, not a male," she shook her head.
"But you have to," Miriya objected.
"I will be fine," Seloy insisted, trying to move into a more comfortable position, but a sharp ache from her ribs prevented her. "A Zentraedi does not need a 'doctor'," she added.
Miriya shook her head. "But –"
"You have brought me down to the micronian planet, but you cannot have me do this." Seloy spoke strongly, rather sure that the only reason she was able to was because her old commander was now so small.
Miriya backed away, returned to her mate, the two of them speaking together for a few moments.
Miriya returned to her side. "Seloy, would you agree to be looked at by a female doctor?"
"A female?" Seloy looked down, blinking hard, her vision seemed hazy.
"Yes," Miriya confirmed. "There are also female doctors."
Seloy considered objecting, but decided to give in…Miriya would keep at her until she did. "Very well, I will…"
She saw the relieved look on Miriya's face as she went and spoke to the male 'doctor', who nodded and headed off.
A few mil later a female returned, dressed in the same style of white coat, she looked rather taken aback at having been asked to look over a full-sized Zentraedi.
Seloy hoped in the end this indignity would be worth it….
Grel wished he was anywhere else but in the main hanger bay of Lady Azonia's ship.
Neither he nor Khyron had seen any Zentraedi females yet, but Grel had the unsettling feeling it wouldn't be long before they did.
As if in answer to that there was the sound of a hatch sliding open and it was enough to make Grel want to flee back into the howling winds outside.
"Lord Khyron, welcome aboard."
It was a voice he had heard many times, but only ever over a communicator. Now it was in the very room he was in…
"Lady Azonia," Khyron returned his tone so calm that Grel turned to stare at him.
His commander was standing with folded arms, looking up towards the walkway, with a smirk on his lips.
"You know of my aide, Yiata, of course," Lady Azonia continued, her voice made Grel's skin crawl.
Still he looked towards the aide in question, another face he had seen on the comm. screen many times before.
"And this is Grel," Khyron spoke as if it was an afterthought.
The purple eyes of the Commander of the Female Zentraedi rested on Grel for a moment, and he felt the bile rise in his throat before he quickly averted his gaze.
"We finally meet face to face," Lady Azonia continued.
"Indeed," Khyron returned.
Grel couldn't understand how his Commander could be so calm, in fact it was almost like he was…enjoying himself.
"So, my Lord, what are we to do about our situation?" Lady Azonia continued.
"A fine question, my Lady," Khyron returned, his smirk widening. "One I'm afraid I don't have the answer to. One thing is certain however, neither your group nor mine will be able to take off for a long time."
Grel managed to sneak a look at the two females in time to see Lady Azonia nod, stroking her chin thoughtfully.
"Quite right… but we certainly will escape this planet…eventually."
"Of course we shall," Khyron gave a low chuckle, "and we will make the micronians pay when we do. "
Grel was momentarily distracted from his disgust, making the micronians pay was certainly a fine prospect.
"We have much to discuss then, and the Loading Bay is not quite the place for it," Lady Azonia remarked. "Perhaps you would like to come to the Conference Room?"
Grel heard a sharp intake of breath, but it wasn't him, it was Lady Azonia's aide, Yiata.
Glancing up quickly, Grel saw her staring at her commander, her face pale, looking as if she was about to say something. Lady Azonia gave her a silencing look and the small red haired Zentraedi shut her mouth.
She was the only one who was shocked however, Grel was almost knocked off his feet by what Khyron said next.
"I would be delighted, my Lady Azonia."
With that he headed towards the elevator that would take him to the walkway level. Grel, still rooted to the spot did not follow, which Khyron noticed as he reached the elevator doors.
"Are you just going to stand there?" He snapped, looking over his shoulder.
"Uh…" Grel tried to think of a way to escape the situation…it was one thing to be here in the Loading Bay, with the females high up on that walkway, it was quite another to actually go into the same Conference Room…
But Khyron was giving him that look that brooked no opposition and swallowing the sick feeling in his stomach, Grel nodded and headed towards the elevator.
Miriya's thoughts were not on food as Maximillian led her to what the humans called 'the mess' (the reason behind the term was one Miriya couldn't figure out. The food served there was presentable enough). Her thoughts were on Seloy and the rest of the Quadronos.
Seloy at least, would probably survive, but it seemed the rest of them, her combatants-in-arms, were no more than memories.
"Would you look at that?" Maximillian exclaimed as they entered through large sliding hatch.
Pulled from her thoughts, Miriya focused on the inside of the room. There were not too many people inside, not that one could have been able to guess from the noise level.
"It's a regular pow-wow," Maximillian continued, with a grin on his face.
She had never heard that term before, she considered the 'comics' she'd seen, where whenever one character hit another there was a sound written out.
"It is quite loud," she agreed. "But I don't see any signs that things will turn violent… "
Maximillian looked at her his eyes wide behind his glasses, then he laughed. "No, no," he shook his head and he put his arm around her shoulders. "I just meant there's a lot going on in here, that's all."
Miriya looked around again, Maximillian was right, she noticed Lieutenant Hunter and Commander Hayes seated together at one table, they seemed to be in a serious discussion. On the other side of the room the 'Skull Leader' and his mate, Lieutenant Grant were sitting with two dark skinned micronians she didn't know.
Also there were the three Zentraedi ex-spies, each sitting beside a female micronian, Miriya recalled that those particular females were often referred to as 'The Bridge Bunnies'. Yet another example of the micronians' confusing language. Miriya thought, They certainly don't look like' rabbits'.
Then she saw Corporal Hart, one of their squadron, sitting by himself, rather involved in eating a dish Miriya recognised as 'pasta'. As he reached for his glass he noticed them and waved.
Maximillian waved back and taking Miriya's hand led her over to Hart's table.
"Hey, you two," Hart greeted them. "Long time, no see."
"Good food today?" Maximillian asked, as they both sit down.
"Hell yeah," Hart rose his fork, heaped with spaghetti strands to them. "I guess the chefs are as happy as the rest of us." He took another bite, then put the fork down. "Where have you two been anyway?"
"Miriya found one of her old squad mates out there," Maximillian explained, patting her hand. "We brought her in."
Hart's eyes widened. "You mean…a full sized Zentraedi?"
Miriya nodded, wondering if Hart was bothered by this, she hadn't heard him make any anti-Zentraedi comments, but that didn't mean…
"Wow," Hart though, seemed more impressed that anything else. "And the Brass let her aboard? Where is she?"
"A medical team is looking over her," Maximillian told him, "they think she'll be OK."
Hart nodded and took another forkful of pasta. "What'll happen to her after that though? Will she be shrunk to our size?" He looked at Miriya.
"No, Seloy would never submit to that."
"She may not have a choice," Hart replied, offhandedly.
Miriya frowned at his tone. "What do you mean by that?"
"Well, the planet's practically a wasteland, there can't be a lot of food out there. I mean we'll probably be able to regrow stuff, but that's gonna take a while, in the meantime we can't really have fifty foot tall Zentraedi running around. They'll need a half field of corn just for dinner!"
Miriya hadn't considered that…she had to agree that Hart made sense, but the idea of Zentraedi being forced to undergo micronisation was not a thought she wanted to entertain. She knew if it happened there would be a lot of anger, after all, there were still times when even she felt uncomfortable at her size and she had Maximillian in return.
Right now he seemed to sense her unease and took her hand, giving it a reassuring squeeze.
"Well, whatever the case, there's right now to deal with," he said in his soothing way. He smiled. "I'm completely starved, what about you?"
Miriya took another look at the pasta, which did smell very good and nodded.
"All right then, why don't I get us both a serving?" Maximillian got to his feet and winked at her. "Ladies should be waited on after all."
Miriya smiled and felt a blush rise in her cheeks, she had never been called a lady before.
But she was surprised when Hart looked up and asked Maximillian to see if he could get him a second serving, she had been under the impression that only females cared to be called ladies.
It's going to be a very long time before I understand micronians, she thought, not for the first time and certainly not for the last.
Minmei didn't think she had ever been hugged so tightly then she was right at that moment by her Aunt Lena.
"Oh, I'm so glad you're all right!" Her aunt said, her voice catching slightly. "Max and I were so worried about you!"
Blinking away her tears so as not to worry Aunt Lena further, Minmei pulled back and smiled up at her. "Of course, I'm OK, Auntie, you know me."
Lena gave a small laugh. "Ever the optimist," she shook her head, and stepped back. "And what about Kyle? Where is he?"
Minmei frowned, but quickly tried to cover it up. When she, Kyle and the rest of them had finally been given permission to leave the observation deck she had told him that they should go and find Aunt Lena and Uncle Max right away. After all, they were probably worried sick.
Kyle, however, wanted nothing to do with it, claiming that after a cold night on a cold tiled floor he was completely exhausted and didn't want to have to deal with his parents.
Minmei had felt a flash of anger at his comments, and had almost told him to stop being so selfish, after all she had lost her parents, and so had a lot of other people. You should be grateful you have yours! She had wanted to say, but had decided it would do more harm than good.
But now she had to tell Aunt Lena something, something other than that her own son couldn't be bother to come see her after everything that had just happened.
"Kyle's…well…he was absolutely exhausted, you know how he worries…he's in a shelter fast asleep."
If Aunt Lena was upset by that, she didn't show it, instead she put her arm around Minmei's shoulders and led her over to where Uncle Max was talking with Cathy and Keiji Lynn, Jason's parents.
At the sight of them, Minmei realised she hadn't seen her other cousin yet, which was a worry, but as she turned to her Aunt to ask after him a blur launched itself at her almost out of nowhere.
"Minmei!" Came a shriek and arms wrapped around her waist. "You made it! Everyone heard you singing! It was sooo cool!"
Minmei laughed and shaking her head put her hands on her little cousin's shoulders. "Jason! There you are. Where have you been?"
"Mama and Papa made me go to bed," Jason told her, his brown hair flopping back as he looked up at her. "I snuck out though, don't tell them."
"I think they all ready know," Aunt Lena remarked with a calm smile.
Jason looked over his shoulder to see his parents heading their way. "Oh no, I don't wanna go back to bed."
Luckily for him, Cathy and Keiji were so glad to see Minmei again, they didn't ask their son why he was out of bed. Instead each of them hugged her in turn.
"The hero of the war!" Cathy cried, patting her cheek. "You saved us all!"
Minmei felt a blush rise in her cheeks. "Oh no, Cathy, I just helped. It was the pilots really…"
Keiji was shaking his head. "No, we all know that your singing was what shocked the aliens and kept them from fighting back."
"I wish I could have been up there too!" Jason spoke up, his eyes wide. "You saw the whole battle, didn't you?"
Minmei swallowed, remembering, it certainly hadn't been anything to be excited about, at least in her opinion. "It was better that you were safe with your mother and father," she said instead.
Jason made a face, obviously not believing her.
"You did very well, my girl," Uncle Max spoke up, coming over to kiss her cheek and give her a warm hug. "The military played a big part of course, but I don't think we would have made it without you."
Minmei smiled and returned the hug, but wished that everyone could find something else to talk about. She for one, wanted to move on from all this, there didn't seem much point going over it.
But everyone else seemed to and as they chatted on, Minmei's thoughts turned to Rick, she wondered what he was doing right now, she wondered…
It suddenly hit her like a slap. Oh my God, is he all right? Did he even get through it?
The thought almost made her burst into tears, she hadn't even considered it! Surely it couldn't be…
Everyone was so busy talking to each other they didn't notice Minmei as she backed away and hurried to find a member of the military, hoping that she would be able to find out what had happened to Rick, hoping that he was still alive.
"Hey, who's that over there with Roy and Claudia?" Rick asked, suddenly noticing his Big Brother over Lisa's shoulder.
"Hmm?" Lisa turned to look over her shoulder, turning back she gave a small smile. "Oh, that's Claudia's brother, Vince and his girlfriend, they survived, can you believe it?"
"Are you kidding?" Rick's eyebrows rose. "That's totally amazing!"
Lisa nodded. "Miracles can still happen it seems."
Rick noticed her change in tone and realised what she was thinking. "I'm uh…sorry about your father."
Lisa looked taken aback and for a second Rick was certain he'd made a big mistake, but then she gave him a shaky smile. "Thanks…at least I can take comfort that he died doing his duty. That's how he would have wanted to go."
"Yeah," Rick agreed, although he couldn't imagine feeling that way himself.
Lisa's voice surprised him. "So…did…um… did you have any family on Earth?"
Rick looked up to see her nervously fiddling with a lock of her hair, and she wouldn't meet his eyes.
He had to admit to being taken aback. Since when does Lisa ask personal questions?
He decided to answer, though he was pretty sure his answer wouldn't make her feel better. "Uh…no…lucky me, huh?"
Lisa looked up at him, her green eyes surprised. "I certainly wouldn't say that. You're only twenty years old, your parents…I mean…" her cheeks reddened and looked down at the table again. "You must have lost your parents young. How old were you…if you don't mind me asking, I mean…"
Rick didn't, so he answered. "Well, my mother died when I was about six, I'm not sure what from or how…I never asked my Pop about it."
Lisa nodded. "I know what you mean, my mother died when I was eight, she had cancer, but I didn't know it until I was about sixteen. My father certainly never talked about it with me…I found some letters of hers."
Her voice was soft and it touched Rick, he hadn't know that about Lisa, he had known about her family's long military history, but not that she had lost her mother so young.
"I'm sorry," he wanted to reach out and touch her hand, but didn't feel comfortable doing so. "That must have been really tough."
"Well," she met his eyes, "no more tough than you had it."
"Maybe, but my Pop wasn't in the military, I mean not by then, he and I spent a lot of time together, right up until he died. Your dad was an Admiral, he must have been away from home a lot."
Lisa shrugged, and became tight lipped, Rick got the feeling it wasn't something she wanted to talk about.
He moved the conversation on. "I didn't expect my father's death, it was kind of like one minute it was perfectly well, the next…" He shrugged. He hadn't really given that time of his life much thought and with good reason…it might have been more bearable if Roy had been there…
Turning he looked out the large view port window of the mess at the fingers of lightening the flashed in the sky and the rain pounded against the windows.
We need a new subject, he decided, and looking about the rest of the mess noticed Max and Miriya.
"Hey, you heard about the female Zentraedi Max and Miriya found right?"
Lisa looked up, confused for a moment. "Oh, yes. From her old unit, Miriya called them the 'Quadronos'."
"Gloval and the rest of them really let her on board, that's pretty amazing."
Lisa frowned. "Why wouldn't she be allowed on board, we and the Zentraedi are no longer fighting, it's only right we take care of the injured."
Rick scratched the back of his head, surprised at Lisa's reaction, he hadn't meant it as an insult or anything like that. "Well, uh, yeah, I know… I just meant…well, she's like fifty feet tall, what's going to happen when she's recovered? Where are they even going to put her?"
"The hanger bay will do, Lang will come up with something," Lisa told him with certainty.
Rick had never seen Robotech's premiere scientist at work, but Lisa sounded like she knew what she was talking about.
"But still, are the Zentraedi going to stay that size? Like if Commander Breetai and the rest of them land?"
Lisa took a sip of coffee. "That's a difficult problem," she finally commented. "As I said, they're no longer our enemies, but our society or what's left of it, isn't really capable of supporting fifty foot aliens. I'm not sure, though, how many Zentraedi will want to be 'micronised' as they call it and we certainly wouldn't want to force them to do it."
Rick raised his eyebrows, taking a sip of his own coffee and making a face, it had gone cold. "Why not?" He pushed the cup away.
"Human…that is…alien rights for one thing," Lisa answered, "do you think we should have the right to dictate to them about what size they have to be?"
Rick ran a hand through his hair. "Hadn't really thought about it to be honest. But Miriya and Rico, Konda and Bron and the rest of them became our size, it's not as if it'll kill 'em or anything."
Lisa shook her head. "That's not really the point. The point is...well it's about freedom, after all, the Zentraedi have spent their entire history being dictated to by their 'Masters'. Are we going to do the same?"
Rick looked out the window again and finally spoke. "Deep."
Lisa gave him an annoyed glance. "These are serious issues, you know, if we're going to have any chance of surviving together we'll need to figure them out soon."
He was taken aback by the serious look in Lisa's eyes…Rick hadn't give much thought about what would happen now that the battle was over, in all honesty he had just assumed that everything would fall into place. Obviously Lisa had a different take on things.
Maybe everything won't be so simple after all…
