Chapter 7: Chinese Food

—November 6, 2017—
—22:30 GST—
Jinai's command ship was badly damaged and there were fires in all starboard compartments from where Ajax's cannon had blown off the side of it, but Jinai himself couldn't seem to care less. He merely sat there, a living picture of bored indifference on the scene of what would have driven a normal man to suicide. He let the junior officers prattle away the damage reports; he was far too engrossed in the all consuming task of letting his mind wander. One of his holographic monitors clicked on, showing the face of a considerably displeased Kraken Foruk. "What happened there Jinai? Not paying attention?"

"Guess not." Jinai boredly reached into the pocket of his uniform and came up with a holographic plate, something no one in the higher command staff knew he even had. Lacul would have forbidden it if he knew of its existence, but Jinai had made sure he never did know. "That Shikari is one tricky little meltran. It's no wonder you've had so much trouble with her."

Kraken paused a moment, then started to smile. "Impressive isn't she?"

"Impressive isn't exactly the word I was looking for." Jinai clicked on the plate and scrolled through the images to the one he was looking for, a picture he had taken on a planet that had been shattered to dust half a million years ago, in front of a house that no longer existed. "How inconvenient."

Kraken seemed slightly offended, which Jinai immediately picked up on. "Inconvenient? She's more than just an annoyance to you, isn't she?"

"How do you mean?" Jinai could definitely sense something odd in Kraken's voice. "Sounds like you admire her."

"Of course not, but she's perhaps the first worthy opponent I've ever faced. Actually, this is starting to get fun."

"Tell that to Lazuli. She's lost a dozen scouts to these people in the last four days and she's getting incredibly bitchy." Jinai closed the channel and went back to studying the holographic image. He remembered that day, his son's twelfth birthday, the day his second wife told him she had a surprise for all of them waiting back behind the house. This photograph was taken a few moments before they were supposed to go back and find out what it was, with that song playing in the background that, like so many other songs he'd heard at one time or another, he could reproduce with just about any instrument on a whim. The reason he remembered this particular picture and the song that seemed to go with it was because a few seconds after the camera scanned the image, all of them looked up to the horizon behind it to see thousands of Regult battlepods surging over the horizon... he never did figure out what Shenna's surprise was, and when that blast from the Regult's plasma cannon turned her body to ash he realized he would never know. It could have been much worse if Gepernich hadn't realized the value of Jinai's talents and kept him on as a frontline officer. He'd been promised that Saori and the boys would all be kept in a safe place, which to him was all that mattered. If there was any place else to go, Jinai would have taken his family and run to it, but no one was really safe from the Supervision Army and he knew that better than most.

Jinai tucked the holographic plate back into his pocket and called up the ship's navigation officer, ordered him to plot the enemy fleet's de-fold coordinates. He didn't know why Kraken was so caught up with this woman Shikari, but he himself would be only too happy to be rid of her.

.
—November 16, 2017—
—24:22 GST—
Minmei was in one of her sour moods, the same kind of mood she had been in when she met Richard that day almost two years ago, only this time she lacked the proper dosage of alcohol and friend chicken to smother herself into oblivion. No amount would do this time, the source of her troubles was entirely different: her two children were hungry and she was exhausted. She kept glancing at that picture on the wall of Miko on her last birthday. Miko the maniacal, Miko the reason incarnate why she could never be with the man she loved. And the memory of the attack on Megaroad City was still so fresh in her mind. All she could see in the future was a short and violent end to her life and her children, as well as everyone else in the Republic. It was as if all the high spirits of the colony thus far had drained her of the will to live, and now all she could think to do was lie there on the couch, staring at the TV, sulking herself into an early grave. Once or twice she glanced at the faint scars on her fingertips from her last terrible mistake, but besides that she was totally motionless. For an hour. Then three hours. Taosan started crying again, but she stayed put through the fourth hour, drifting into sleep.

She was half sleeping well into the fifth hour of her sofa vigil, with Taosan all cried out and Yu silent as always when the doorbell rang. Minmei woke from her nap in a zombie-like state and walked across the living room to the front door, not really even thinking about who could be on the other side of it. She just opened it blankly, and there was a delay of almost fifteen seconds before her brain even registered the fact that there was someone standing outside her door.

Kai Chan was there, leaning against the doorpost in an old, wrinkled uniform with his nose in a newspaper. "You been reading the POPs lately?" He said calmly. Minmei shook her head, only now shaking herself from apathy and realizing even who and where she was. "There's this gag poll they've been doing, celebrity politics. They say that if you ran for Mayor or for the Chancellorship more than 80 of Gallaron would vote for you."

Minmei blinked slowly, then stepped down from the doorway and hugged Kai Chan. "I need a friend tonight..." she was so exhausted from the day she was almost in tears, and Kai Chan noticed how much she was leaning against him.

"You alittle tired?"

"I feel like I'm still dead." She murmured, sinking into his chest like a cushion.

Kai Chan bear hugged her and carried her into the house like a sack of groceries. "Why don't you run for office anyway?" he said seriously. "It definitely pays better than volunteer worker at the hospital."

Minmei pulled away and leaned against the wall. "Because of the new constitution. You can't hold office without a degree, and I've never been to college, and I don't intend to go."

"Yeah, I guess so." He set the newspaper down on the table next to the phone and leaned against the wall next to her. "So, how's the manhunt going? You getting laid yet?"

Minmei smiled again. Just having him here was very good for her mood. "That's none of your damn business, but thanks for asking." She walked across the living room and planted herself on the couch while Kai Chan dropped into the armchair behind her. She felt more awake now with her friend in the room with her and clicked on the TV. "You want something to eat?" She said finally.

"I ordered out. Fei Chan said he was gonna make something special for us."

Minmei was thankful for that, but feigned annoyance. "How do you know I didn't eat already?"

"I called your cell phone but nobody answered. The light was on in your house so I figured you must have been asleep."

Minmei was impressed. "Nice of you to plan ahead like that." She turned back to the front and went back to watching TV, waiting for the food to arrive. For some reason, she kept glancing over her shoulder at Kai Chan, sitting in the arm chair behind her, staring over her shoulder at the TV screen. She tried to ignore him, but his presence there was just too much... "You can sit here if you like." She said, gesturing to open space next to her on the couch.

"You don't wanna stretch out?"

"No, I'm a sloucher." Minmei said sinking into the cushion. "C'mon. It feels creepy to have people looking over your shoulder."

"Alright." Kai Chan moved up and sat down on the couch cushion on the opposite side of the couch. He looked at the TV as Minmei channel surfed. "I was wondering, what movies were you in?"

Minmei thought about it. "I was in that crappy sitcom a few years ago, and then I did Fokker's Fate, and Perigee... and a long time ago I was in Little White Dragon..."

"I saw White Dragon just last week. That was YOU!"

"Yup."

"You know, I thought about that... I mean, I knew it was your voice singing the theme song but I didn't think..." Kai Chan looked at her for a long time. "Must be the hair. You look really different."

"I was sixteen years old then, Kai Chan." She laughed.

"That's true..." He shrugged. "I loved you in White Dragon. Are your other movies anything like that?"

"Kinda."

Kai Chan nodded. "You're pretty good. "

"I certainly am." Minmei said proudly. "But it takes alot of work to be successful in this business. And with volunteer work and looking after the kids, I have NO spare time at all. Sometimes I think I'm going crazy."

"Yeah, I worry about you sometimes... how come you don't quit? You make more than enough from royalties."

"I've got... plans, Kai. You wouldn't understand."

"C'mon, Minmei. You don't ever seem to have time for anything, you're always worn out... if you're not going to slow down, you should at LEAST get someone to help you out."

"It's nothing new to me, Kai. I'll manage." Minmei said. "Now as for you, what do you and your friends do with your spare time?"

Kai Chan thought again of the little rubber ball, and the thousands of hours he and his companions had spent chasing it around the ship. He thought about Private Beecher's slinky, the coffee stain on the wall that Private Forest told people would grant three wishes if you stared at it long enough, and about Sergeant Alako's deck of cards over which the marines had shared many a dirty or racist/sexist/blonde joke at each other's expense. More than anything, he thought of the thousands of hours he and his battalion had spent complaining about the barely-edible food pastes they provided for the ship's macron crewmembers that very frequently resulted in explosive diarrhea. "I hang out with my comrades in the corp. We spend most of our time training, sharing war stories, getting ready for the battle ahead... or something like that. I admit, if any of us had any money we'd probably blow it all at strip clubs, but since we're all broke we just settle for some of your posters."

For some reason, Minmei was intrigued. "Which posters?"

"Private Forest has the Sunset Beach pinup from the 2013 catalogue, you were wearing that skimpy bikini top with the thong underneath that waterfall and your nipples were sticking up. I really like that one."

"Me too." Minmei said, remembering the issue. "Actually, that's my favorite one. Obviously, I am NEVER showing that one to the kids."

"I can't promise I won't do the same." Kai Chan found what he was looking for in the TV guide and read it over. "Did you say you were in Perigee?"

"Yeah, it came out like three years ago..."

Kai Chan grabbed the remote and turned the channels. "I never got to see that."

Minmei grabbed the remote back. "No, don't! That was such a horrible movie...!"

Kai Chan snatched the remote back. "Let me decide that!" Minmei reached for the remote, but Kai Chan held it up away from her. "You want me to stay or not?"

Minmei sighed in defeat. "Okay, fine."

.
—25:04 GST—
SDF-04 Monitor was back in space, back out on its way to the front lines of combat, but her captain was hardly thinking about getting back to work at a time like this. Hikaru had all the patience in the world when it came to Misa's recovery, but even he was beginning to find the situation exasperating. Misa was still struggling just to move her legs on the waste level paralleled bars where she spent hours a day just practicing moving her foot back forwards and back, but aside from her incredible leap the night before they went to see Minmei, she had made almost no progress at all. Hikaru didn't understand this, since Misa had been able to stand fully under Gallaron's two and a half gravities, but back in space on the way to the front lines, she could barely managed to sit up strait. He found himself getting discouraged for the first time, and though he never would have said anything out loud, he had started to accept that fact that Misa's condition might very well be permanent.

He couldn't even stand to be in the same room with her today, leaving Miko up to supervise the proceedings. As always, Misa was struggling on the bars, supporting most of her weight on her arms, moving her legs with patience and concentration. Hikaru resolved to take a nap in the bedroom and wait for Misa to finish, so she could sit back down in the wheelchair where he could best ignore her condition. Later that afternoon, something woke him up from his sleep rather abruptly, and once his ears adjusted he could just barely tell what it was. Miko was shouting, laughing at something obviously very exciting. He looked at the clock and saw it was a little after 3:00 PM on Saturday, and with the sun already setting on the horizon he figured Miko must be watching TV. He felt guilty for sleeping the whole day away and leaving Misa alone like this, so with some great effort he heaved himself off the bed, smoothed the covers and let himself wander into the living room…

Misa was nowhere in sight when he came in Miko was sitting on the floor watching a Battlestar Galactica marathon on TV. She was sitting perfectly still, a rarity for sure, staring at the TV screen almost afraid to blink. He figured Misa must be grateful for this all too rare period of calm, but when he looked around he could see she was nowhere in sight. "Miko, where's your mother?"

"She went for a walk." she said vacantly, still staring at the TV and the swirling melee of space fighters shooting back and forth.

Hikaru looked around; her wheelchair was still perched next to the bars, though her walking stick was no longer stashed under it. "She just left?"

"Yeah. She said to stay here."

Hikaru grabbed his coat and made for the door. "Stay right here, I'll be back in a few."

"Uh huh," She said absently, folding her legs and waiting on the floor where she was and braced herself for at least seven more hours of sci-fi broadcasting.

Hikaru left the apartment and closed the door behind him. Down the hall and just around the corner of the noisy ice machine, he found Misa leaning against the wall, using the cane to hold herself steady. Her face was covered with sweat, even in the mildly chilled air of the Monitor's open city block. "Misa?" he said gently, "Are you okay?"

Misa nodded slowly, still leaning against the wall. "It's like my legs are asleep…"

"Koru said it would be like that. Just give it some time."

"Help me…" Misa held out her arm, Hikaru grabbed her and helped her balance. She was almost totally unable to shift her weight one way or the other. She might as well be limp, but she had just enough control to keep from falling over. "Let's go to King Laos, have a nice relaxing dinner there, just the two of us."

"What about Miko?"

"We won't be long, she'll be okay with her TV shows."

"C'mon, we can't just leave her alone..."

"Hikaru!"

"Okay, okay..." Hikaru turned back down the hallway, but Misa grabbed his arm.

"Leave the chair, I wanna walk."

Hikaru paused in the hallway, turned and searched his wife's eyes for some kind of plan. "I don't mean to be insensitive or anything, but do you have any idea how long that's gonna take?"

"Then we'll just walk to the bus stop, or else we'll call a cab and we'll walk to the curb and back. I'm just tired of being the Misa-mobile, I want to use my legs..."

"Alright," Hikaru grabbed her elbow to steady her, straitened her up, felt her losing her balance under his grip. He felt it was like trying to hold up a pole vault. "So we should be back in… what, an hour?"

"Sounds good, yeah." She grabbed onto his arm for support. Carefully, slowly, she shuffled her feet forward. She struggled for a few steps, patiently and slowly making her way down the hallway and towards the front door of the apartment building. After what might have been the longest walk of her life, Misa reached the door and looked back down the hallway to the place where she started. They were barely six feet from her front door. "Damn... this hallway isn't as long as it looks."

"Yeah, I noticed that."

She thought for a moment, calculating the distance to the King Laos down the street. At the rate she was moving they might just arrive within a week... "How about we just walk for a while and then order out. King Lao's delivers until dawn."

Hikaru frowned. "This place doesn't deliver as fast as Fei Chan used to. It could be awhile."

Misa smiled and with painstaking effort took another step. "I'm in no hurry." she shifted and tried to keep going, but her legs were not responding at all and Hikaru had to hold her up until she could get it back. "Goddamn, this is taking so long…"

"You know what you look like when you walk like this?" Hikaru said, trying to break the tension.

'"What?" Misa saw it coming even before he said it, "Oh wait, let me guess... An old lady, right?" she said giggling.

"No." Hikaru said, pushing the door open with his shoulder and helping Misa through it to leave the building. "You look just like baby learning to walk." Just the mention of the word made Misa's eyes flash like a pair of tiny suns. She took another step, this one a bit more coordinated than the last and Hikaru didn't have to help her as much. Hikaru seemed to notice the sudden burst of progress. "The sooner you get back on your feet, the sooner we can start on Miko's sister." Misa's legs were still not responding to her as well as they needed to, but she was keeping her balance now and taking more and more coordinated steps. Hikaru figured she just needed something to take her mind off what she was doing, so he brought out his last trump card. "Better yet, let's start today. I'm sure you'll be ready when the time comes."

Misa stopped there, reached down and started pinching her legs. "Dammit, this is taking too long!"

"You're trying too hard. Don't think about it, just walk!" Hikaru grabbed her again and started walking this time picking up the pace a bit. They walked alittle faster, but still slow enough that a turtle would have passed them like a speeding truck. Misa followed along as best she could, stumbling every couple of steps, but she used Hikaru as a crutch and braced herself on the walking stick whenever she needed too.

After half an hour, they had just managed to get to the end of the block when Misa decided to turn back. "At this rate, I know I'll be ready in time." She said as they came to the corner. "Let's go back home."

Hikaru nodded in agreement. "Should we send Miko off somewhere?"

"Check and see."

Hikaru walked back to their front door and poked his head inside. Miko was still parked in front of the TV. "Honey, are you gonna be okay by yourself for a little bit?"

"Uh huh..." She said absently, not looking away from the TV.

Hikaru tested her, "Miko, Santa Claus is in the hallway, he says he has some ice cream for you."

"Uh huh..." She said again, equally absent as a flash of explosion from a Cylon fighter lit her face.

"That's what I thought." Hikaru closed the door and locked it shut with his key. "That settles that."

.
—November 7, 2017—
—01:55 GST—
Shikari had been tossing and turning all night, her dreams had turned bizarre and she was seeing things in strange ways she had never imagined possible. For hours in her sheets she trembled, tossed, turned one way then the other, sleeping in chaos of imagery so intense she actually cried out a number of times in some combination of excitement and fear. In her sleep her body did strange things she couldn't begin to understand, and then screaming she woke up from her dream. It was two in the morning, just after dawn. Her sheets were soaking with sweat and her mattress seemed weighted down by gallons of moisture. She was trembling; the images of the dream had been at once so vivid and exciting yet so frightening and bizarre at the same time. She was confused, and even now she wasn't sure if it had even been a nightmare. Her insides felt like they'd just been twisted in a knot then messaged back out again, her skin was actually tingling just with the draft of the air circulators in the walls. The confusion of the dream was so random she couldn't even put her thoughts together in a way that made sense, but the only thing that she could seem to remember was that in involved Captain Harper, and it seemed to have something to do with a bullet-train going into a tunnel...

There was a strange sensation like there was something she urgently needed to do right now, though exactly what was simply beyond her understanding. She remembered a remedy she'd read somewhere for situations like this, and she crept off into the bathroom of the Captain's quarters to take a long, cold shower. She didn't understand why, but she kept thinking of Harper and the dream, and something about the dream that made her feel very strange inside... "HOLY SHIT!" She turned the water on quite a bit colder than she had intended, and the spray of ice cold water actually forced the air out of her lungs. She tried for a few moments to stand it before she finally managed to adjust the handle to a level that wouldn't form crystals in her blood. After a few minutes she started to calm down, and her thoughts drifted to more practical things. Mainly she worried about Broli, and about his relationship with Corina. She thought it would be wise to do something nice for them next chance she got, perhaps buy them a pet or something for their anniversary or one of their birthdays— or whatever day Broli had ultimately chosen for his own birthday. Her mind went over this for a few minutes until she turned off the shower and slipped back into her uniform, deciding she'd had enough sleep for one night.

The video monitor on the wall next to the bed started beeping, and Shikari tapped the controls with her thumb and answered. "Captain Speaking."

"Priority message for you sir, it's coded and on a secure channel." Febb said on the monitor.

"Is this in regards to the ammunition supply we've been waiting for?"

"I don't know. There's no header on the message."

"Well who's it from, then?"

"Don't know."

Shikari figured it must have been Broli or else a wrong number. But a coded channel? This was a strange thing to transmit without a header or an ID. "Put it through then."

She finished the last button on her uniform just as the monitor flickered to life, and to her astonishment the General found herself face to face with a Zentradi officer in a Supervision Army uniform. "General Shikari Raskanos of the Gallaron Space Defense Forces. I presume that is you?"

Shikari wasn't sure what to say at first, having never actually communicated with an enemy before, but she decided in this case it was best just to be courteous. "That's right. Are you Kraken."

"Yes." The Zentradi stood up from whatever it was he was sitting on and stepped closer to his monitor. "I've been watching you."

"Have you?"

"Yes. I've been watching your ship and your tactics. Did you know you are one of the most skilled tacticians I have ever seen in all the years I've traveled these stars?"

Shikari was flattered, almost as much as she was that day Harper called her beautiful. It took all her will power just to keep from blushing. "Skilled nothing, I'm just lucky."

"That could be, or it could be that you're fighting for the wrong side."

Shikari blinked slowly. "What are you talking about? What other side is there?"

Kraken smiled slightly. "The Supervision Army has far greater resources than Gallaron, General. We have better field officers and better ships, and we have the means to conquer the entire galaxy and build our own empire once Gallaron falls. You are the only major obstacle to that goal, and if you fought for us there'd be no stopping you. And with you at my side, with Jinai behind me and Bennet as a patsy, we could even overthrow Lacul and take his army for ourselves. We could build our own empire and rule it like dictators, the highest authorities in the galaxy. If you joined forces with me, you and I could rule it all."

Shikari found the offer was tempting, and if Kraken could be trusted—which he probably couldn't—she stood to gain quite a strategic advantage over almost everyone else in the galaxy. She had joined Gallaron for much the same reason, why not another change of affiliations? "How would you plan to beat Lacul?" She asked, more out of skepticism than curiosity. "I'm sure you know he can't be killed..."

"But he has many weaknesses and I've been around him long enough to know how to exploit them. It may be enough just to contain him or seal him up like all the others, and we alone would be the masters of the Supervision Army then. But for all of this to work, I need YOU. You're the only one in Gallaron with kind of ability I'm looking for, and as I'm sure you've guessed, recruiting new talent in the Supervision Army is far from easy."

Shikari started smiling. It was perhaps the most enticing offer she had ever received in her life. Then again, she reminded herself that the sum of all her experiences as an active soldier between training and her most recent combat action amounted to about twelve years, maybe she wasn't thinking this over clearly. In any case, there was little for her to loose by switching sides, and staying one step ahead of Kraken would be easy for her especially. "Kraken that sounds like a..." Then the memory of the dream flashed through her mind again, and just like that she felt weak in the knees and she started to sweat. It felt like there was an itch somewhere deep inside her that she had no idea how to scratch, centered around the memory of Captain Harper's face, and for some reason Broli and Corina. "I'll consider it, but there are things here that... there are people here I care about and I don't want to abandon them just yet."

Kraken nodded. "I understand how you feel. The offer stands on the table General, and if you're still undecided before too long I might extend it to include anyone you would like to bring with you in our transaction. I trust you'll make the right decision."

Shikari sighed. "You're certainly not making it easy for me. I would appreciate some proof of your sincerity first."

Kraken nodded. "I'd expect you would. Given enough time I would provide such proof on request, but until then I'll see you on the battlefield."

.
—26:57 GST—
The table in front of the couch was littered with the corpse of an empty carton of shrimp fried rice, sweet and sour pork and a half emptied bowl of Fei Chan's signature "Cantonese Ramen Special," along with several empty soda cans and a double fudge brownie they hadn't gotten around to eating yet. Kai Chan was watching as the ending credits of Perigee rolled and muted the TV for the ending theme. Minmei looked up at him and found him sitting ramrod strain on the couch, staring ahead like a zombie. "My God!" He said at last. "That was a bad movie! That was a REALLY bad movie!"

"You see, you never listen to me!" she scolded. "I told you it was bad, didn't I? I tried to warn you but you just HAS to see it..."

Kai Chan opened up another soda can. "Even for an action flick, that was brutal! And that shower scene was kinda conservative, considering how they lead up to it..."

"You know, that's exactly what Hikaru said! I told them a thousand times I wasn't going to do a sex scene, and they finally backed down on it, but for some stupid reason they kept the whole buildup to the damn thing! Would it really be that much trouble to take a few minutes out of the movie to actually explain what's going on?"

"Well, that's Megaroad Studios for ya. That kind of filmmaking should have died with Hollywood."

"Tell me about it. You know what, the only positive experience from that whole movie is that I learned how to skydive."

Kai Chan chuckled. "I'd definitely call that a positive experience."

Minmei left the couch and headed off to the kitchen. "You gonna eat that last brownie?"

"Naw, it's all yours." Kai Chan heard something off behind the couch, and looked over to see one of the babies scooting towards him across the carpet on his belly. He picked the kid up off the carpet and looked at him for a long time before he was sure which twin it was. Yu boy chirped when he picked him up but didn't make another sound. "Their birthday's comming up next a month."

"I'm, surprised you remembered." Minmei said from the kitchen. "You thinking of adopting one of them?"

Kai Chan laughed and set Yu on his lap. "C'mon, I couldn't handle a kid! Actually, you should think about getting yourself a husband."

Minmei came back with a large glass of milk and sat back down next to him. "Do they still have those at Sears?"

"No, only married men hang out in stores these days. If you want a reliable husband and father figure, you should talk to my brother."

"Fei Chan?"

"Yup. He's got the magic eye, he'll fix you up with the man of your dreams."

Minmei took a bit of the brownie, washed it down with the milk. "I'm not looking for the man of my dreams, I'm looking for a husband. I need a REAL man, a guy with the balls to take the blame for his own mistakes, not some jackass prince charming who's only useful between the sheets."

Kai Chan thought about it. "Private Forest is pretty forthright. I should hook you up with him..."

"So he can call me Jenny? No thank you." Minmei chuckled.

"C'mon, you know Forest! He's a sweet guy!" Yu rolled over in Kai Chan's lap and put his toes back in his mouth, and Kai Chan could have sworn he was reacting to something he said.

Minmei chuckled again. "You're sweet too, Kai, and there's no way I'm asking you out!" She finished the brownie and topped it off with the glass of milk.

"Well hey, just leave it to the Three Kings. We'll get you fixed up before you know it... Fei Hong can help from beyond the grave, you know."

Minmei smiled at him, but then thought of another subject. "Kai, I want you to be totally honest with me. We're not going to win this war are we?"

Kai Chan stared at her for a long moment, taken slightly by surprise, and shook his head. He imagined she had probably asked Hikaru the same question, and right now he was in no mood to baby her. "The defense line is crumbling, and their numbers are endless... Shit, we must have dropped hundreds of them at Gulara, but they just kept on coming. We can't keep this up forever, it's only a matter of time."

Minmei looked at her feet. It was the answer she had been expecting, but hearing it out of Kai Chan seemed to drive the reality home even harder. "I wish there was something more I could do. I've been trying to help the wounded soldiers and I've been doing things to inspire people..."

"I still think you should sing in battle." he said, leaning forward to talk more directly to her. Yu sat up and scooted onto the couch, sinking into the space on the cushion between them. "At this point, just about anything would be a big help. The way things are going we're looking at the total collapse of the entire defense force by this time next year."

Minmei growled. "Kai, I'm not a soldier, I'm a song and a dance! I'm just a performer, nothing more!"

Kai grinned. "Elvis Presley was a performer. You think HE dodged the draft?"

"But..." Minmei gave this some thought. Kai had an interesting point, but somehow it wasn't the same. "Well I'm not drafted, and I sure as hell am not Elvis."

"No, you're Minmei. The question is, are you JUST Minmei, or are you something more? You've got a voice that could melt comets, and the Supervision Army would never see you coming."

"Well I... I guess I'll think about it."

"But don't think too long. Unless something happens soon we might not have a planet left to defend." He hugged Minmei and turned to leave, but found his index and pinky fingers trapped in the grasp of baby Yu. He thought to pry the little fists off his fingers when by accident he became caught Minmei's eyes. She caught his in the same way, and for a few moments both of them drew a blank. It was one of those awkward silences where neither of them could figure out what to say, where neither of them could think of a reason to say anything at all. This went on for two full minutes while Yu played with Kai Chan's fingers, until abruptly his brain seemed to come back on line and blinking he finally thought of something to say. "You know, you look really cute with your hair braided."

Minmei squinted at him. "When was my hair ever braided?"

"I mean in the movie." Kai turned to Yu and started to pull himself free, but the little fingers seemed to be made of steel. "You had a braid in your hair in Shao Pai Lon. I kinda liked that look."

Minmei could barely remember it, and at the time she never even gave it much thought. Then again, that was during a time in her life she rarely gave much thought to anything at all. "You think so?"

"Yeah, I think so. Besides, it might be a good way to go around unnoticed. It makes you look REALLY different." He went back to prying Yu's fists off his fingers, and after a moment he gave up and leaned down to the kid. "You wanna let go of me, don't you?" Yu shook stared at him. "Please?" Yu stared at him more. "I'll buy you candy when you I come back, I promise." Yu let go of Kai's fingers, rolled over on the couch cushion and shoved his toes back in his mouth. "Thanks Yu. I'll see you Minmei." Kai Chan pulled himself off the couch, hugged her again, and in moments he swept back out of the house like a gentle wind.

Almost as soon as the door closed behind him, Minmei walked over to the mirror and toyed with her hair, pulling it back behind her head out of view in an attempt to picture it. She adjusted it here and there, not exactly sure what to make of it or how the new look suited her, but it was different, that much she knew. She tied her hair behind her head and walked upstairs to find Taosan rolling around on the floor. "What do you think Taosan? You like it?" Taosan stared at her for a moment, then went back to his strange aimless game of rolling around on the floor, ultimately rolling into a wall and turning around to go back the other way. "I guess not." Minmei let her hair down again and walked down the stairs to collect Yu and put them both to bed.