It was now the third year of the War with the Zentradi. Hikaru Ichijyo now preferred to use the name that Minme had given him; "Rick Hunter". The name was generic… but most of the crew aboard the SDF1 found it much easier to both pronounce and remember than "Ichiyo". Rick often wondered where she had got either name from. Rick was not the name of any of her relatives… nor any of her previous boyfriends. There seemed to be no real reason that she had choses that name. What was really odd if that once Ichiyo had changed his name to "Rick", people aboard the SDF1 stopped confusing him with other people who were originally from Japan. Most people now assume that Rick was born in North America; something that please Rick. This was really odd since his features had not changed, but it was also comforting.
Rick had always been a huge fan of American movies, America music, and America comicbooks. Rick usually became a fan of a band in America two-three years after the band had actually broken up. The albums would be marketed in Japan as "American Classic Rock" and they would usually include a few bonus tracks that were not on the U.S. editions. But these tracks were usually not so good so Rick would just import the American album which costs about one third as much as the Japanese edition. Rick also 'occasionally' bought "Chinese" editions which were even cheaper than the U.S. prices.
Rick, and friends, had recently been captured by the Zentradi and were still trying to figure out how to escape the Zentradi ship. Rick's mind often drifted so nonsense that had nothing to do with the current missions. Maybe, it was just his way for dealing with stress which was brought on by the neverending war with the Zentradi. RIck was also wondering if he was going to get paid for his time in captivity.
There was also something unusual about one of the rooms that was quarted to several Zentradi. The Zentradi seems to have replicated, (pirated), many human released albums on compact disk. These were obvious fakes and were much larger that what could fit into a C.D. player. These disk were about twenty times the size. The language seemed to be in human language as well as two other languages which did not appear to be a Zentradi dialect.
One of the Zentradi was bringing Rick the daily meal that the Zentradi provided to all of their prisoners. Rick's meal always seemed to be less mushy than his comrade's meals. Rick felt that maybe the Zentradi wanted to engage their prisoners in non-relevant conversation. And against the advice, "orders", of Rick's superiors, Rick decided that his fifth day in captivity was the day he was going to break to ice and start up a conversation with some of them about "Earth" media stuff!
Rick started right away right after the Zentradi had set the tray down. Rick just started having a normal conversation with the Zentradi… who did not respond to Rick in the slightest. Rick kept it up for the next couple days. It was on the third day the the Zentradi surprised everyone and not only engaged Rick in conversation… but also spoke fluent U.N. Spacy English. The Zentradi just wanted to know what "classic rock music" was popular aboard the SDF1. Rick's comrades were in both shock and amazement at the conversation taking place. Rick went on for what seemed like hours to the Zetradi's amusement. A few other Zentradi also stopped by to listen but they did not stay for too long.
The Zentradi had a name… one which Rick could not even begin to announce. Rick asked the Zentradi if he could give him a "classic rock name". The Zentradi looked like that idea was pleasing to him. Rick gave him the name, "Big Bob"! "Big Bob" was easy for Rick's comrades to both remember and pronounce.
On the eighth day, a female Meltron also joined "Big Bob" in bringing the food to the prisoners. She was beautiful, beyond compare. She also had a much better power face than "Bob" and Rick could not read her at all. She started talking about Zentradi histories. She relayed in under a few hours was absolutely amazing. It was clear to Rick that the Zentradi had not even used a fraction of their force with their was against U.N. Spacey. The Zentradi seemed like they were pretty much unbeatable. She eventually got to the part about music being something sacred to their culture.
Rick suggested a "trade". Rick felt that humans would be very interested in listening to Zentradi/ Meltron music. With the trade, the Zentradi would get the entire catalogue that was aboard the SDF1 libraries.
Rick also asked the Meltron name if he could give her the name "Miko". And he quickly explained that "Miko" could also mean "priestess" within Earth cultures. She seemed somewhat hesitant was accepted the name "Miko" She explained that was she something like a priestess within her own culture. Rick had already suspected that much :) and that is one reason that he spoke with a very respectful tone whenever he spoke to her.
One of Rick's teammates, who wasn't lucky enough to get a 'clearance', kept telling Rick that Rick was "fraternizing with the enemy. His name was "OrBee". It was a stupid name and Rick felt that a stupid name was meant for such as stupid person. OrBee was the same rank as Rick and had about the same level of education. But OrBee just wasn't too bright and he was always looking for the flaws in others, and found such flaws even when such flaws did not actually exists. He also lied several times when he was recruited. That is just one reason that he could not get even a simple clearance. OrBee never knew when the talk and when to just shut up and let the grownups do the talking :)
One day, the Zentradi instructed everyone to leave the holding cell. Both Rick and Comrades were all being taken somewhere else. Rick could recall the way OrBee cried because he thought the SDF force was about to be executed. Rick did not feel the least bit of sympathy for him. He had always been a baby and Rick was not going to comfort him just because OrBee never seemed to act like a grownup. OrBee was trying to act all chummy with Rick and Rick was not having any of it.
To Rick's surprise, they were all being lead to a SDF U.N. Spacey ship. It seemed that higher ups from U.N. Spacey's leadership were talking face to face with the Zentradi. Rick was so looking forward to heading back to the SDF1… where both Minme and "great food" would surely be waiting on him. Just as Rick was about the board the shuttle, a Colonel approached Rick and instructed Rick that he needed to remain on the Zentradi ship with him. The Colonel explained that since Rick had became so familiar with Zentradi customs and was also a familiar face to the Zentradi, that Rick would be staying on the Zentradi ship with the Colonel while "talks" were taking place.
Rick told the Colonel that "I would like nothing better" but that Rick needed to go back to the SDF1 for a few hours to retrieve his digital music library! The Colonel knew this was a B.S. excuse for Rick to go back and get 'laid', but the Colonel also was willing to let Rick go back for a full three hours if Rick were to bring back the Colonel's guitar. Rick knew exactly which guitar the Colonel meant!