PART TWO: JULY, 2034
2034 was, I think, the weirdest year in history. I mean, the Regis was laying ruin to Earth, and we all knew it, but back on Tirol it was like total peacetime. We knew our home planet was in the middle of a war, but there was nothing any of us could do about that right then, so we all just sort of played the old ostrich game.
I think some of us might have actually managed to forget what was happening back on Earth — this means you, Sean Phillips, if you should ever learn to read — if it hadn't been for the Sterling girls reminding us from time to time that this wasn't peacetime, it was just an intermission.
The problem was that none of us really wanted to be reminded. I, for one, felt like we'd get back into the war soon enough; right then I wanted to just have that one year of peace, with nothing going on except a lot of domestic stuff. I seem to remember that Karen didn't care much for that attitude. Or any of my others, for that matter.
Jack Baker, Upwardly Mobile
*****
Dr. Harry Penn would never have considered himself a man who was governed by impulse. He was a scientist, and he had never managed to acquire the knack of acting on impulse. Every time he tried it — which wasn't often — the attempt seemed to end in utter chaos. Dropping in on his daughter for a visit this morning definitely fell right into that category.
Karen looked less than delighted to see him when she opened the door. At first he figured he had woken her up, because she certainly wasn't very wide awake. Then he caught sight of Jack Baker looking on from the kitchen, making coffee and wearing nothing but an old bathrobe. It was painfully obvious he had spent the night with Karen.
"Ahh, Papa. Hi, come in, we were just about to have some coffee. Why don't you join us?" She knew she sounded stupid, but she'd only been awake for about five minutes, and her father was the last person she wanted to see under the circumstances. Considering the way he and Jack had always gotten along, it took quite an effort to play referee even when she was her most alert, which she decidedly was not just now. Karen didn't even want to think of what might happen.
"Morning, Baker," Dr. Penn observed coldly. Jack grunted something that might have been 'good morning' or 'piss off', or anything in between. Behind her father's back, Karen shot him a look which he interpreted to mean, behave yourself or you're going to die. He nodded, rolling his eyes toward the ceiling to show what he thought of the interruption, and handed the scientist a cup of coffee, rather more abruptly than was quite necessary.
Karen sat down at the table in the kitchenette and yawned behind her hand. "So, what brings you out so early, Papa?" she asked, just to have something to say.
"It isn't really all that early, Karen," her father told her, glancing at his watch.
"No, I guess it really isn't. We just decided to sleep in this morning since neither one of us was duty today. It just seems early."
"We had a late night," Jack added. Karen gave him a warning kick under the table. she knew from experience that where her father was concerned, the less out of Jack, the better.
Dr. Penn cleared his throat. He was trying to be pleasant, but he wanted to make it perfectly clear that he didn't wish to hear the details. "Well, as a matter of fact, I had a rather late night myself. It's been so clear lately that I had to take advantage of the weather conditions and do a bit of sky-watching. Fantoma was particularly lovely last night. I don't suppose you were outside enjoying the stars, were you, Baker?" He regretted the taunt the second the words were out of his mouth, realising with horror the opening he had just presented.
Jack couldn't help it. Goaded into by Penn's inevitable supercilious attitude towards him, he took the bait, unintentional though its presentation might have been.
"No," he said meaningfully, "I was inside enjoying your daughter."
Karen sat waiting for the sky to fall as her father and lover regarded one another in quiet distaste. After a few tense moments, Dr. Penn got up and addressed himself to his daughter. "Karen, I think I've changed my mind about having coffee with you this morning. I have too much work to do. I'll see you later." He left without another word.
"And I'm sure we'll all look forward to that," muttered Jack as soon as he was out the door. He gave an uncomfortable laugh as he caught sight of Karen's face. "Well, you know what they say about uninvited guests...." he told her defensively.
"I'm not sure invited guests are all that much better." she stalked off to the bedroom to get dressed, leaving him wondering if maybe he shouldn't just sneak out to safety while he had the chance. He looked down at his robe and decided he might as well face Karen instead of the draughts outside.
she apparently decided to dress slowly in an attempt to control her temper, because it was quite awhile before she came out again. When she finally appeared, Jack watched her warily, trying to judge how angry she was.
"Am I in trouble?" he asked, adopting a slightly conciliatory tone.
Karen just looked at him, staring him down. "Are you ever not in trouble?" she asked, heading for the front door.
"Hey, where are you going?"
"Out. To calm down."
Jack took a deep breath. "I guess I probably shouldn't be here when you get back, huh?"
Karen didn't say anything. She just folded her arms, looked at him with raised eyebrows, and left.
Jack shook his head and sighed, running a hand through his tousled red hair. "Nice work, Baker," he told himself.
* * * * *
Although Karen wasn't scheduled to be on duty that day, she decided to go into the base anyway, so she could work off some of her frustration at the gym. That's where Marie Crystal found her, zipping through an advanced kata at an exhausting pace.
Marie had always considered herself to be in especially good shape, and been proud of her athletic prowess, but she was beginning to wonder if she could really compare to her friend. Karen wasn't even breathing hard, but Marie felt a little tired just watching.
"Hey, slow down. You'll wear yourself out if you keep up that pace," she said, as Karen came to the end of her routine and immediately grabbed a couple of hand weights and started swinging them around.
Karen gritted her teeth a bit as she answered, "If I slow down I will commit murder. And since I don't particularly want to spend the rest of my life in the brig, I think I'd better work off the tension this way."
Marie nodded to herself, recognising the symptoms. "What'd he do this time?" she asked.
"What makes you think he did anything?"
"Well, because to the best of my knowledge, Jack's the only person who has the ability to piss you off quite this much. Am I close?"
"Too close. Shut up." She practiced with the weights for several minutes more, then she threw them aside, feeling a little calmer. she sat down on one of the benches lining the wall of the gym and motioned for Marie to join her. "Well," she sighed, "you want to hear about Big-Mouth Baker's latest stunt?"
Marie nodded, feeling more and more curious. She shook her head sympathetically as her friend told her the details of that morning's encounter, rather glad that she had never had the opportunity to introduce Sean to her parents.
"He really believes in starting the day off right, doesn't he?"
Karen snorted. "Oh, yeah. He usually acts like an overgrown juvenile delinquent at the best of times, but he's really operating in full jerk mode today."
"Sounds that way. How old is Jack, again?"
"Twenty-seven. Or thirty-two, depending on how you view the effects of the space fold we went through. Technically speaking we're the same age, but realistically speaking... I figure with any luck he might reach maturity by the time he's sixty. If I don't kill him first, that is," she added.
The two women walked over to an exercise mat that had just been vacated and started doing a saddle-stretch together. Karen decided it was just typical of the sort of day she was having when she noticed the way Marie looked in her tight silver and green leotard. Then she realised that all she was doing was depressing herself further, so she told herself firmly not to waste her time being envious. Besides, she reminded herself, her own figure was perfectly adequate, even if she wasn't quite as over-developed as Lt. Crystal.
They concentrated on their workout without speaking for quite a while. Finally Marie broke the silence. "I wish we could figure out what we see in those guys," she said musingly.
Karen shook her head. "Forget it. It's a lost cause. I mean, I have never understood what it is between Jack and me, and I don't think I ever will. I flat-out don't know what it is that I love about this guy." She stopped stretching and got up to lean against the practice bar. "He's absolutely hopeless. He's selfish and immature and he's always putting his foot in his mouth. We fight constantly, and we're always competing, but... from day one I've found him impossible to resist. Figure it out," she shrugged.
"I can't figure it out. If I could, I wouldn't have exactly the same problem with Sean. He drives me completely insane — and at that, you wouldn't believe how much better he is than he used to be — but for all that, I just cannot picture my life without him."
"I know, I know," sighed Karen. "Say, do you ever get the feeling that they probably discuss us the same way, while they're doing manly things?"
Marie nodded. "They probably talk about us while they're hanging out at the local porn shop."
"I don't think there is one."
"No, but if there was, that's where they'd be."
Karen laughed. "Of course. One of those arcane rituals of male bonging. They probably look at dirty magazines, do a lot of bragging, and dissect our characters."
"I don't think it's our characters they're interested in discussing," snorted Marie.
"Ahem. Well, no. but I still think I'm essentially right. Especially since I got a good dose of that bragging this morning."
"Oh, yeah. When we were in the ship en route here, most of the guys used to hang out in the lounge and talk about the women on the ship, and make comparisons, and do a lot of bragging like you said. And Sean was right there leading the pack."
"I'd believe it," Karen said. "And now Jack's taking lessons from him — as if he needed lessons in how to behave like a macho jerk."
Marie smiled and shook her head. "Well, we're the idiots who fell in love with them," she reminded her. "You know, this is a nice change, to be able to have another woman to talk to. I've never really had a lot of close female friends before this last year."
"Really?" asked Karen, a little surprised. "What about Dana?"
"Ho!" exclaimed Marie. "That girl's a topic all to herself. She makes less sense than any man in existence. And furthermore she knows it all. I think she must get that from her mother."
Karen's mouth fell open is astonishment. "Miriya?! Oh, come on! I've known the woman for years, and she's never been a know-it-all."
Marie shrugged. "Well, I don't know her very well, but I remember the conversation I had with her just after we got her. She said she'd been away from flying for several years, but that didn't stop her from criticising the mecha I flew. Said the logan was nothing but a flying bathtub with legs. It's a common insult, I admit, but you wouldn't think a legendary ace pilot would be so closed-minded."
Karen laughed. "Actually, they're exactly the ones you'd think would be closed-minded about it."
"Well, that's probably right. You seem to have cheered up.."
"Yeah," Karen agreed. "I feel a lot better just venting, but the real test is going to be when I see Jack again."
"All you have to do is remember what I tell myself every time Sean and I are having problems: he may be annoying, but at least he keeps the bed warm!"
"Oh, you're terrible!" laughed Karen.
* * * * *
"Happy birthday, my love," said a soft voice in Bowie's ear.
The sight that met his eyes as he woke up was what he considered the best possible birthday present ever. Musica was kneeling over him, smiling, holding out a white-frosted cupcake with one candle.
Bowie grinned at her sleepily and asked, "Did you make that?"
"Well, no," she admitted. "Do you mind?"
"You know better than that. I didn't fall in love with you for your cooking abilities, you know!"
"Then why did you fall in love with me?" Musica asked teasingly.
He looked at her tenderly. "If you could only see yourself right now, you wouldn't even have to ask," he told her. She looked beautiful; still kneeling there in front of him on their bed, wearing a long white nightgown, shoulder-length green hair in sleepy disarray. She had allowed Dana to cut her hair two years ago, and the style suited her so well — and pleased Bowie so much — she had decided not to grow it out again.
Bowie leaned forward and blew out the candle, wishing that he could wake up to such a sight every morning of his life. "Did you make a wish?" asked Musica. "That is the tradition, isn't it?"
"Yes to both questions." He pulled her into the crook of his arm, then added with a laugh, "And no, I can't tell you what it is. That's another part of the tradition. But I'll tell you one thing, though: I don't want to get out of this bed today."
She looked surprised. "Why not? I thought a person's twenty-first birthday was supposed to be particularly important. Some sort of milestone."
"That's part of the reason," sighed Bowie. "Some kind soul — either Dana or my mother — is going to get the bright idea to throw me a surprise party. And I'd rather just have a nice quiet birthday without anyone except the person I'm with right now."
"That sounds nice."
He took a bite of the cupcake and smiled at her. She smiled back as she watched him. Suddenly Bowie pinched off a piece of the cake and fed it to her, enjoying her surprised look. The two of them finished the cupcake that way, smiling at one another with their eyes.
"You know what this reminds me of?" he asked abruptly. "Weddings."
"Weddings?" questioned Musica, puzzled.
He explained. "At wedding receptions the bride and groom feed each other bites of the wedding cake. I never saw the point in it till now," he admitted.
"The only wedding I ever saw was Dennis and Nova's, and they didn't have a cake," she reminded him.
"I know. That wasn't exactly your everyday, average sort of wedding. We can have something more traditional, if you like. Or, well, anything else you want."
"What?" Musica was lost.
Bowie flashed her a nervous sort of grin. "That wasn't exactly how I meant to bring up the subject." He held her hands, breathing deeply, and said. "I've been thinking about this for a long time, Musica. Will you marry me?"
Her eyes went wide. "Will I... marry you? Oh, Bowie!" she said, and flung herself at him in a way that would have deeply shocked the Robotech Masters.
Some time later, when he disentangled himself from her arms momentarily, Bowie mused, "Well, if they do decide to throw a surprise party tonight, we'll be the ones with the surprise."
* * * * *
The very worst kind of boredom is the sort where everyone around you has something to do, decided Dana. "This isn't any fun at all," she said aloud. The remark got no response.
Her parents were busy playing computer chess, so they didn't have the time to talk to her. And Aurora... Dana had to laugh a little at the sight. Her sister was draped upside down over the sofa, legs stretched up the back, torso on the seat, head hanging off the front, engrossed in a copy of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night.
Dana herself was flitting around the apartment, doing pirouettes, watching the way her new outfit swirled around her as she moved. She had taken to wearing traditional Tiresian robes in her off-duty hours, partly because they were so comfortable, but mostly because of the flattering effect they had on her appearance.
But since holding a fashion show without an audience was an activity of somewhat limited interest, she was so relieved when the doorbell chimed that she launched herself at the door and hit the release button so hard she almost hurt her hand. When the door slid open, she grabbed Angie and kissed him as hard as she could before he even had a chance to say hello.
"Boy, am I glad to see you!" she told him, practically dragging him inside.
Angelo gave her his characteristic puzzled half-smile. "I'm glad. That was, uh, quite a greeting," he said, rather breathlessly.
She tilted her head to the side coquettishly. "Didn't you like it?" she asked him teasingly.
"I got no objections," he told her with a grin. "But why so passionate all of a sudden.?"
Dana shrugged. "I was bored to tears. I needed some un-academic company, since I seem to have been thrown over for Shakespeare and a game of chess."
"Oh." He looked over at Aurora and almost did a doubletake when he noticed the way she was sitting. He walked over and looked down at her quizzically. "Uh — Little Ma'am? Is there some reason you're sitting like that?"
Aurora folded the book across her chest and sighed, looking up at him. "Like what?"
"Well, uh, upside down."
"He means can't you even sit down the normal way?" interrupted Dana.
Her sister put away the book and shrugged at them. "Well, most people do things the normal way, so they don't actually need me to do it, too, do they?" she asked reasonably.
"Guess not," said Angelo, exchanging perplexed looks with Dana. Kids! they both seemed to say. Aurora gave them a satisfied nod and went back to the play.
Dana pulled a face and turned to Angie, complaining, "See what I mean?" He nodded. "If you hadn't shown up when you did, I would have been left to my own devices all afternoon, probably."
"Boy, that sounds dangerous!"
"Certainly does," interrupted Max, coming over to join them.
"Hey!" objected Dana. "Game over?" she asked her father.
Max looked faintly embarrassed. "Yeah. I just got check-mated by my soulmate," he said, nodding toward Miriya.
"Oh, Mom sunk you, huh?" Dana asked sympathetically.
"Barely. It was a tough match."
"Really?" Miriya put in. "It didn't seem especially difficult to me. Maybe a couple of tense moments here and there, but all in all it wasn't that tough."
Max winced. "I'm never going to be able to live that down, am I?"
Miriya grinned and told him, "I'd say the probabilities are against it." Then she laughed and put her arms around her husband affectionately. "You know I'm just teasing, Max. You're nearly impossible to beat. That's why I enjoy the challenge so much."
Angelo looked puzzled by the whole exchange, while Dana was very nearly doubled up with laughter.
"That's what I said to her when we first met," explained Max. "I beat her at a video game, then turned around and told everyone in earshot how easy it was to win, and then asked her out. That's how nerds in love behave."
Angelo smiled. He had heard part of the story from Dana, but never the whole thing. "I'm not sure I blame her for trying to kill you!" Then he winked at Dana and asked, "But did you ever hear about our first date? I don't think it was much less of a disaster. She just stopped short of pullin' a knife is all."
"If I had had a knife I wouldn't have given much for your chances," Dana told him. "Besides, it wasn't a date."
Angie smirked at her. "How d'you figure that?"
Max gave Miriya a look that suggested they both would be well advised to stay completely out of the discussion.
"Well..." Dana frowned, stuck for an answer. "Well, it couldn't have been a date because you weren't the person I intended to go out with in the first place." She tossed her hair smugly, with a 'so there' expression on her face.
"Then how come you ordered me to go to the movie with you? And called me handsome as I recall."
Dana calmed down enough to laugh at the irony. "Well I thought I was teasing when I said that, but I guess maybe I wasn't after all. And I ordered you to take me out as a punishment for making fun of me." She tossed her head again.
"Some punishment!" snorted Max, startled into laughter by the rationalisation. He wasn't sure how, but somehow his daughter could continually find new things to say to surprise everyone.
"He didn't wanna go, though," said Dana, as though she hoped to prove something by the statement.
"Well, who'd want to go see Revenge of the Martian Mystery Women?" asked Angelo.
"Any idiot who likes to laugh like a banshee at stupid movies and embarrass his date, that's who!" Dana screwed up her face and turned a little red as she realised what she had just said.
"Touché," smiled Miriya. "I'd say you both lose."
Everyone was laughing at the outcome, but no one laughed as hard as the two combatants. "She's right," admitted Angie. "This is startin' to get stupid."
Dana nodded. "Hey, did you have some reason for coming over right now, or did you just want to pick a fight with me?"
He started to object, "I didn't —" but managed to stop himself just in time. "I just wanted to know if you wanted to go out for a while."
"Out where?"
He shrugged. "Just out. Think you're the only one who wanted company?" He gave her an embarrassed grin. He had always been uncomfortable talking about his feelings anyway, and it was much worse in front of her parents. Angelo just hadn't been brought up that way.
Fortunately Dana understood all about that; she took his arm and said, "Sounds good to me. But now you have to take me to a movie after all that discussion — it's only logical. You just better behave yourself, though."
"I promise." He didn't bother asking what was so logical about it; he had long since learned that Dana had her own logic, which was not subject to any rational law in the universe. At least not one anybody had ever heard of.
Aurora had sat listening to the previous conversation, grinning through much of it, not saying a word. Now, though, she gracefully unwound herself from her eccentric position on the couch and quietly asked if she could go along with them.
Dana looked none too pleased for a moment, then she shrugged and said, "Oh, yeah, I guess you can go... pest!" She rumpled her sister's hair and got her own pulled in retaliation, by an extremely sneaky maneuver Aurora had picked up form the master herself. Dana tried tickling her but the little girl moved neatly out of the way. Both of them were giggling as it turned into some rather mild rough-housing.
Angelo turned to Max and Miriya with a 'what the hell is going on here' look. He knew better than to be surprised, but somehow he just couldn't help it. Max shrugged at him, and Miriya gave him a look that seemed to challenge him to handle it himself. He decided he was up to it. Putting a hand on their shoulders, he said, "Now wait a minute, girls! If you don't behave I'm not gonna take you anyplace."
The two sisters exchanged glances, completely unimpressed. They turned around, shrugged, giggled, and stuck out their tongues in unison. Angelo just sighed and shook his head.
"I think I should probably put on some shoes before we leave," said Aurora, looking down at her bare feet as if noticing them for the first time.
"And I really ought to file my nails," sighed Dana, with an exaggerated wink at her fiance. "Last one in is a pile of rotten Protoculture!"
Aurora gave her a raised eyebrow look. "Oh, Dana, grow up," she said with that air of calm superiority she adopted rather too often. Then, having caught her sister off guard, she took off like lightning in the direction of the bedroom they shared, Dana on her heels.
"Does it ever occur to you to wonder why our two children were born fourteen years apart?" Max asked Angelo.
"No. You know, I just hope for the sake of my own future kids — not to mention the sake of my own future sanity — that it's not inheritable."
Max looked over at the table in the corner that held a collection of family photos, letting his gaze rest on one of the few surviving pictures of his parents. "Well, it does seem to run in the family. Dana's kind of like my mom was, only wilder."
"Great," said Angelo, with a touch of irony in his voice.
* * * * *
It didn't take Aurora long to abandon them at the movie. She wanted to concentrate on the aesthetic quality of the movie. The fifty-year-old ninja film had little more than the usual intellectual value, but it was artistic and beautifully photographed, and it disturbed her concentration to have her sister and would-be brother-in-law acting silly in the adjoining seats.
Dana was throwing synthetic popcorn at Jason Lynn, who was sitting by himself four rows in front of them. Jason turned around several times to give her an exasperated look before going back to watching the old celluloid fantasies of Sonny Chiba. He had tried to persuade Minmei to go with him, but she couldn't handle the hero's resemblance to her poor lost Kyle. Jason found it all the more fascinating for that very reason.
Finally Angie took pity on his friend. "Why don't you leave him alone?" he suggested to Dana. "You made me promise to behave, remember?"
"Well, I have to do something with this stuff," she told him defensively. "It's certainly not worth eating."
"Oh. Right," said Angelo tolerantly. He gave her a sideways glance, stretched exaggeratedly and put his arm around her... and immediately wound up with a face full of popcorn.
He was still spluttering and trying to wipe all the stuff out of his hair as Dana told him mischievously, "I thought you were more inventive than that!"
"I try," he shrugged. She giggled and snuggled against his shoulder. Angelo glanced down at her affectionately. "This is sure a lot more fun than our first date."
"That wasn't a date."
He sighed. "I thought we got all that settled."
"In a crazy universe like this, is anything ever really settled?" asked Dana philosophically.
"Well, I hope maybe a few things will be one of these days."
"You mean like our finally being able to get married?"
"I don't mean who's gonna end up with the spider teapot," said Angelo, pointing back at the action on the screen. They both laughed and went back to watching the movie, snuggled together with their heads touching.
Time was running out in this interval of peacetime, and they were determined to enjoy it while they could.