The following morning brought a sense of excitement to the members of Pixie Team. Once again, they drew watch over the fleet as it moved into the next position within the asteroid belt. The hangar had an atmosphere full of anticipation as work crews rushed to perform routine maintenance on the soon-to-be-launched VFs. Cal had gotten up early to get started on his day and patiently waited for his team's operations window to begin, while he reclined on one of the wings of his RVF to read. The tablet in his hand contained the manuals he needed to read in preparation for his assessment tests.

Cal heard a voice coming from below him near this RVF. "So, that's where you've been hiding." Cal sat up to look down from his perch on the wing. Klan stood with her arms crossed looking up at the pair of legs dangling over the edge before Cal's head popped into view. He hopped down to the ground and gave a friendly salute. "I'm starting to like coming here when I feel like being alone for awhile." Klan took a step back in reaction to his statement. "Oh, I'm sorry. I will leave you alone, then." Cal stopped her from walking away. "No, it's okay. I was just about done anyways. It's about time to go, isn't it? Shouldn't you be in a miclone tank right about now?" "I was on my way when I saw you lying down up there, so I thought I'd haunt you really quick. We were wondering if you were going to have breakfast with us this morning, but now I know where you've been all this time. I take it you're reading your manuals already?" Klan started to walk towards the micloning tanks and Cal followed her for a bit to answer her question. "Yep. I should be done soon. I'll try to finish them up by tomorrow." Klan stopped for a moment before leaving the hangar to go to the micloning tanks. "Sooner or later, we'll make a real pilot out of you yet..." she casually said as she walked through the door.

...

Will's VF grappled with one of the Vajra mecha-drones from the nearby nest, but quickly wounded it with several shots from the small laser cannons on the battroid's head. It tried to flail its way out of harm's reach by retreating, but this move only allowed Will to use his gunpod to finish it off. He quickly moved to intercept more incoming drones by switching to fighter mode and opening fire with a salvo of missiles. "That's three already, Cal! Try and keep up!" Nene answered his taunts before Cal could, "You're gonna have to do better than that to keep up with me, my Lilliputian friend," she said as she simultaneously knocked out three drones with missile kills. "Check out the big brain on Nene with the antique literature reference!" Cal had to remark.

"Did you find that nest yet?" Klan asked. "Yes, Ma'am, I'm sending you the coordinates now." Pixie Team formed up on Klan's wing as she headed deeper into the uncharted areas of the asteroid field. Klan's mind was quite preoccupied with her fears of losing one of her pilots, however. She knew that they were entering the territory of an aggressive nest of Vajra and it was only going to get more difficult from this point on. She looked behind her on the left and saw Nene and Will following closely behind. Turning to look the other way behind her, she saw Cal following in formation, awaiting his next orders. He noticed that she was looking in his direction and gave an enthused thumbs-up from inside of his cockpit to help assuage any of the doubts she had discussed with him the day before. "If you start to doubt yourself out there, just look behind you and you'll see that I'll be right there following you to wherever you choose to take us." Cal's words echoed in her mind to help her deal with her hesitations. The sight of his, Nene's, and Will's well-being brought a temporary feeling of relief to her consciousness.

The brief moment of calm ended as the team approached the Vajra nest. As was the usual stratagem, Klan, Nene, and Will drew the defending drones away from the cavern's entrance so Cal could get a clear shot with the incendiary bombs. He flipped the switch on his flightstick and hit one of the buttons on top to fire the incendiaries. The bombs approached the mouth of the cavern, but gunpod fire met them before they reached their targets. As they harmlessly detonated outside of the cave, two VF-27's and several Ghost V-9's came out of the cavern and opened fire on Cal.

Caught completely off-guard, Cal did his best to dodge the barrage of projectile fire that was piercing the space all around him. "It's an ambush! I'm in deep shit right now!" Cal yelled out over the radio. Using his finely-tuned piloting skills, he did what he could to weave through the barrage of gunpod fire. Unfortunately, the combined precision firing of the 27s and V-9s severely damaged the super pack parts on Cal's RVF as his radar warned him of several incoming missiles. The fold-magnetic chaff he used caused most of the missiles to impact on the false targets, but he still had a few to get rid of. Weighed down by the now-useless super pack, Cal jettisoned the parts and they served as false targets for the remaining missiles to impact upon. He wasn't out of the woods just yet, though. He was being pursued by two 27's and a handful of V-9 drones.

Klan's red Queadluun dropped in behind Cal as he tried desperately to escape. She aggressively opened fire on the pursuing enemy targets, causing them to scatter out of their formation. "Klan! Handle those 27's for me. I can take the Ghosts!" "Are you nuts?? You lost your super pack. There's no way you'll be able to outmaneuver them!" Cal began to punch up instructions on his control panel to invoke an ECM procedure that Luca had taught him. "Don't worry about me. I learned this little trick from Luca." As soon as he hit the "execute" command, the Ghost fighters began to behave erratically. Their accuracy fell way below the standards of even the greenest of human pilots of the NUNS. Cal performed a tight 180 and knocked down all of the disoriented V-9 drones with a few well-placed salvos of gunpod fire. "The mighty Lieutenant Wagner and his amazing RVF-25. What other kinds of tricks does he have in that bag of his?" Klan joked as she aggressively negotiated with the two 27's. It looks like this little ambush was going to turn in their favor, after all.

Nene desperately tried to finish off a very hard-to-hit fighter-drone. Her focused efforts temporarily blinded her from the rest of the enemy drones in the area. By the time she noticed one closing in on her, she was unable to defend herself properly. Will came out of nowhere to deliver a punch to the incoming drone with his battroid's fist. The drone lifelessly drifted away with a good chunk of its body missing, due to the powerful melee strike from Will's VF. The glow on his pin-point barrier-reinforced fist began to wane as he turned to make sure Nene was still okay. "I've got your back, my Brobdingnagian friend." Nene was flabbergasted by Will's rebuttal to her earlier literary reference. "What??" she hypothetically asked with a chuckle. Cal's laughter could be heard laughing over the comm lines. "Ohhh, ha ha ha ha... Will, even you can surprise me sometimes," he said.

Klan was locked in combat with the two 27s, but she found the exchange between her pilots quite amusing. A smile crept across her face as she continued to battle her opponents with zeal. Her combat had taken her far away from the position of the nest that they were supposed to be destroying. Fortunately for this turn of events, it allowed her unfettered free range to fight the 27s without any pesky Vajra drones interrupting them.

Cal swooped into her area with a spread of gunpod fire directed at one of the 27s. In retaliation, his target changed its attention to him and entered pursuit as he tried to leave the area unnoticed. Without a super pack to assist his speed and maneuvering, he was a very easy target to engage for the pilot of the 27. Cal desperately tried to lose his pursuer through the use of combinations of the flashbangs and fold-magnetic chaff. However, The 27 fought its way through the debilitating effects of the countermeasures and closed in on Cal's RVF. It switched to battroid form and began charging its gunpod for a shot from its heavy beam cannon. Cal saw the incoming attack in his mirrors and desperately tried to make himself a hard target to hit. He quickly switched to GERWALK to change his thrust vector 90 degrees upwards. The quick decision may have saved his life as he partially dodged the white-hot energy of the charged projectile. However, the legs on his GERWALK did not clear the edges of the projectile and his engines were destroyed in the aftermath. Without a super pack or his main engines, Cal's RVF floated helplessly through space as he was carried only by the remaining inertia.

Klan was having no difficulty gaining the upper hand on her target. Each movement made by the pilot of the 27 was matched by her textbook-like maneuvers. The 27's pilot was getting desperate with each failed escape attempt. Klan was finally on her way to scoring her first kill of a 27. The aspect tracking reticule on her viewscreen locked onto its target as she furiously pursued it at high speed. "I've got you now..." she said to herself as she prepared to fire. Her radio crackled with Cal's desperate call for help. "My engines have been completely destroyed and I'm disabled! I'm a sitting duck out here!" Klan could see his crippled ship out of the corner of her eye. The legs of his GERWALK had been melted off, leaving only a couple of nubs extending from the joint section. The VF-27 that had been pursuing him was charging up another heavy beam cannon shot to finish off its target.

Time seemed to freeze as Klan dove deep into her subconscious to override her warrior-like desires for the kill in front of her and to do what she really knew was the right thing. The most recent turn of events was another item on the list of reasons she had started to enjoy flying with her new team. The friendly banter between them, the way they always seemed to be there for each other when they needed help the most, and their shared desires to complete their mission parameters. As she saw Cal's incapacitated RVF, her recent memories of interactions with him came to mind. Their reconciliations with each other, their shared thoughts, and even the uninvited advice that he had no inhibitions of giving to her out his concerns for her well-being. An image of the RVF-171EX, whose destruction she had witnessed several days earlier, came into her mind. That image was then replaced with her recent memory of Cal giving her a thumbs-up from his RVF-25 behind her earlier.

"No," she told herself, as time returned back to normal and she changed her Queadluun's trajectory. She chose to forego the elusive 27 kill and save her beloved wingmate. In an instant, she had positioned herself in front of Cal's RVF as the 27 fired its heavy beam cannon. Cal witnessed her red Queadluun moving in front of him and realized that Klan was attempting to take the hit for him. "No, Klan!" he yelled in futility as he hit the eject button in his cockpit. The EX-gear instantly enveloped his body with its protective armor as the canopy burst away to give him room for the escape.

The Queadluun's arms and legs came together to form a rudimentary shield from the incoming attack. Despite the reinforcement of its defenses, the overwhelming energy in the particle beam melted away the thick armor surrounding the pilot and the suit's vital systems. The thicker armor on the arms deflected a lot of the damage away from the cockpit, but the propellant tanks and ammunition packs detonated upon destruction, causing a very large explosion. The profile of Klan's Queadluun gave protection to Cal as he tried to escape using his EX-gear's propulsion system. His RVF was not as lucky, though. Hit by the residual energy from the beam after passing through Klan's Queadluun, it was completely destroyed in the aftermath.

The smoke and flaming cinders of wreckage began to clear to reveal whatever may have remained. Cal's heart had already sunk into his bowels as he witnessed his favorite pilot and commanding officer sacrifice herself to save his life. He floated in space in disbelief as he waited for some kind of miracle to come along and show him that she was still alright. Amazingly, the "chickling" hat, which Cal had been using as a bit of a memento decoration in his cockpit, had survived the destruction of his ship. It floated by in front of him mostly intact, but the feathery wings had been burned off. The withered wings seemed to represent his destroyed desire to fly, now that he had lost the one person who he regarded as his motivation to better himself as a pilot. His entire world now consisted of himself and the hat, which he coddled in his arms with teary eyes.

The visibility in the local space began to return to normal and Cal saw the cloudy image of a large chunk of wreckage floating away from Klan's last known position. He shook his head to clear up his vision and noticed the figure of her body still encircled by the protective cage that makes up the core of the Queadluun's cockpit. "Klan!" he yelled as he fired the boosters on his EX-gear and flew towards her. Every ounce of his will became dedicated to hoping that she was still alive. Her flightsuit had several burn marks on it and her body was positioned awkwardly, indicating that it had been violently shaken and concussed by the explosions.

Cal flew up to her body and began beating on the cracked visor of her helmet, hoping that she could still hear him. "Klan! You'd better not be dead! Are you going to let these assholes beat you?! Wake up, dammit!" Miraculously, his words seemed to reach her as she struggled to open her eyes amidst the pain she was suffering from her injuries. She grunted as she tried to utter a single word, "Cal..." A smile followed that word as she focused her gaze on him. "Yeah, it's me! Stay with me, girl. You're gonna get out of this little scrape alive, you hear me?! I'll make sure of it!" Cal said with confidence.

As if to defy his very words, the 27 that had shot them both down emerged through the remaining smoke and wreckage. Klan's facial expression told Cal of the impending danger approaching him from behind. He turned around to see the 27 closing in on their position and armed the rifle that was attached to his EX-gear. "Oh, no you don't!" He boosted towards the 27, firing his peashooter in a futile effort to defend Klan. She couldn't believe that Cal was crazy enough to think that he could make a single dent with that tiny rifle. What in the world would possess him to do such a thing??

The battroid was unfazed by his small-arms fire and raised its gunpod to finish them both with a single shot. Suddenly, projectile fire from above knocked the gunpod out of the 27's hands, causing it to float away and explode. Nene and Will entered the scene to protect their fallen wingmates. "Don't die, Klan!" Nene exclaimed as she continued to fire upon the evading 27. Realizing it was now outmatched without its primary weapon, the 27 transformed to fighter mode and flew away. No doubt to rejoin its partner, who had bugged out of the fight earlier.

Now left in the silence of empty space, the members of Pixie Team rushed to make decisions on what to do to save their injured commanding officer. Will stood guard in his VF's battroid form, while Nene ejected herself from the cockpit of her Queadluun to tend to her sister. Nene gently grappled her sister's body at various places, attempting to feel out injuries through her pressure suit. Her face was not very assuring of Klan's prospects for survival as she reared upwards and opened a channel to the Quarter. "This is Lieutenant Rora of Pixie Team. We have lost two of our fighters in combat. Both pilots are still alive, but Commander Klang is critically injured and needs medical attention immediately! Request emergency medical evac! I also need a strike on a hostile Vajra nest in sector 7883 Epsilon!" Jen Wentz's voice returned a prompt response, "Roger that, Lieutenant. I have a team on the way to extract your party and a strike team will be en route shortly." Cal replied to Jen's message, "Jen, I'm okay. Thanks for the quick response. You'll make a fine officer some day." Jen's face turned slightly red in reaction to his compliments, but she smiled because she knew he was probably right.

Cal's attention turned back towards Klan as his new job was to make sure that she did not slip away from them. "Klan, you scared the shit out of me. Why would you do such a thing?!" Cal asked with a teary smile. Klan closed her eyes and exhaled slightly before answering, "I told you I'd do whatever it takes to make sure you all made it back alive. I never said anything about my own well-being." Cal feigned anger over her words, "Keeping you alive is my job, dammit!" He cleared his expression and replaced it with a playful smile. Klan tried to smile in response, despite still being in pain. Nene and Will watched their exchange and looked at each other. Even though she could not physically see Will in his battroid, Nene knew he was smiling at her and she smiled in return.

Will's sensors picked up a couple of distorted signatures closing in on their position from the direction of the Vajra nest. Without Cal's RVF to enhance their sensor capabilities, he had to assume it was hostile incoming. "Nene!" he exclaimed. She knew what he was trying to say and re-entered her Queadluun. The two pilots blasted off towards the signatures to defend Cal and Klan as they waited for the medical evac. After they had been left alone, Klan opened her eyes again and looked at Cal. "I can't move a thing. I'd hug you if I could... I'm just glad you're okay," she remarked with a struggling smile. He just laughed in relief and smiled back.

Will and Nene had met a pair of patrolling Vajra drones. They had no problems dispatching the threat, in order to protect their disabled teammates. Ozma opened up the comm lines as he zoomed by them, "Nene. Garrett. Follow us towards that nest. The medevac team has arrived and is already tending to Klan." "Yes, Sir!" they answered as they moved into formation.

...

The pilots of the strike team returned to the medevac team's position just in time to escort them back to the ship. With a heavy heart, Nene looked towards the shuttlecraft used to carry Klan. Will could hear her sigh over the comm lines. He maneuvered his VF closer to her Queadluun and put his battroid's hand on the shoulder of her power armor. She manipulated her Queadluun's hand onto his battroid's hand in response.

Inside of the medical shuttle, Kanaria realized that she was completely out of her league. She gave a very disconcerting look at Cal, who was standing off to the side as he spectated. The shuttle landed on the flight deck of the Quarter, along with its escort fighters. Ozma was quick to hop out of his VF to find out what was going on. Kanaria met him outside of the shuttle to give her report. "Ozma, this... I can't do anything for her. Not only am I too small, but this goes way beyond my medical expertise. She's got numerous internal hemorrhages and needs surgery to repair them." "Do you think it's safe to miclone her?" Ozma asked. Kanaria shook her head and responded, "It would probably kill her if we did it with that much internal injury. The micloning process would just exacerbate the problem, since it deconstructs and reconstructs her body in its current state. The internal anatomy changes during the micloning process, in order to place vital organs into better-protected areas while in macro form. There's no telling what kind of additional damage would be done if we did. All I can do is patch up some of her wounds and give her some morphine for the pain."

Ozma nodded and looked downwards to think for a moment. Cal had already thought about the correct course of action. "Commander, we need to get her onto a Zentraedi medical ship. I know there's one in the fleet. Can I make the call?" Ozma nodded to give him permission. Cal opened up a channel to hail the medical frigate. Nene helplessly watched on as Will stood beside her on the flight deck. From his diminutive vantage point, he could still see the worry and distraught on her face. He used his EX-gear to fly up towards her face and show her that he was sympathetic to her feelings. With a teary disposition, she smiled at his sympathy and gently embraced him towards her body with both of her hands. Despite their difference in physical size, the two pilots had found in each other the ability to see eye-to-eye when it came to their feelings.

Cal turned back to Ozma to report his success. "The frigate is on its way here and can meet the shuttle halfway to save time." Ozma nodded in response, but Cal wanted to make another request. He stood at attention and saluted as he made his appeal. "Sir, permission to escort the shuttlecraft to the medical frigate!" Ozma looked at Cal in disbelief of his question. "Denied. I need you here. Besides, you don't have a bird," he said as he turned away to walk back to the deck elevator. Cal leaped forward and pulled Ozma's shoulder to turn him around again. "Sir! Please let me do this. It's important to me that she remains safe from harm." He stood in front of Ozma, still saluting. Ozma stared him down to gauge Cal's true feelings on the matter. Cal's eyes seemed to quiver from the intensity of his emotions as he fought to hold back the tears in front of his squadron commander.

Immediately, Ozma understood the importance of the matter to Cal. Truly, Cal was willing to do what it takes to protect that which is important to him. To Ozma, it was amazing to see that the two pilots, who have given him so much grief as of late, could reconcile their differences with each other and become good friends. He thought of how he'd feel if he were in the same position as Cal and either Cathy or Ranka had been seriously injured. He nodded with a look of assertion on his face. "I can tell by that look on your face that you know what it's like to put the well-being of others in front of your own, just for the sake of protecting them. If I still said 'no', you'd figure out a way to disobey my orders, wouldn't you?" Cal didn't respond because he wasn't sure if he was being tested by Ozma.

He remained at attention while Ozma smiled and turned towards one of his pilots, who was still in his VF's cockpit with the canopy open. "Pullman! Give this man your bird. He has a mission to perform!" The pilot was surprised at the intrusion of his precious VF, but complied with the orders from his commanding officer. "Y-yes, Sir!" he said as he hopped out of the cockpit and onto the flight deck. Ozma turned back to Cal, who had realized that his request was being approved and wore an apprehensive smile on his face. "You have 24 hours. Good luck, pilot," Ozma said with a smirk and a salute. "Yes, Sir! Thank you, Sir!" Cal said, returning the salute.

Cal ran over to the now-vacant VF-25 and began to climb into the cockpit. He turned towards Nene, who was holding out her hand for Will to stand on. He looked at them both, smiled at their togetherness, and nodded to tell them that he would take care of Klan. They nodded in return and watched as he acclimated himself to the foreign cockpit of another pilot's bird. After a few seconds, the canopy lowered and the engines fired up. The remaining pilots and crew of the Quarter remained on the flight deck as they witnessed the shuttlecraft and its escorting VF leave the ship towards an uncertain conclusion. They all shared heavy hearts, in hopes that their comrade would somehow pull out of this alive.

...

On the Zentraedi medical frigate, Cal felt completely out of place amongst the many giants who rushed to do their jobs. He remained close to the one Zentran who was familiar to him; assuring her of her survival at every moment's opportunity. The morphine made it hard for Klan to stay focused on remaining conscious. The Zentran doctors and nurses rushed the gurney towards the operating rooms with gusto. Their boisterous voices echoed all around Cal as they discussed Klan's condition with each other, along with their plans to save her from bleeding to death internally. However, Cal's voice was the only one she could hear. "We're almost there, Klan. These doctors will do whatever it takes to make sure you don't die; I can assure you that."

She struggled to locate Cal's position on the gurney as she looked around for the source of his voice. She turned her head to the side and saw him standing on her pillow while holding on to the gurney's railing to keep from falling off. The hallways of the Zentraedi ship sped by in a blur; Klan could not focus on anything but Cal, since he was physically close to her. She mumbled something unintelligible, but Cal shook his head in response. "Stop trying to talk, you can tell me when you get out of the operating room, okay?"

One of the Zentran doctors spoke to Cal as they approached the doors to the O.R. "Okay, little guy, you need to hop off so we can take care of your friend here." Cal nodded to him and stepped back a bit in preparation to take off using his EX-gear. Klan mumbled something again as she began to lose her visual focus on Cal. He turned back to her and left her with his final words, "Don't you die in there, Klan. I may not outrank you, but that's still an order, you got it?"

The wings to his EX-gear unfolded and the engines fired with a "pop!" His feet left the surface of the gurney and he floated away from Klan. As they entered the doors of the operating room, Klan had somehow gained the strength to lift her arm and reach out for Cal as he began to fall out of focus. Her hand grasped at the air in futility. Despite the loss of clarity of her vision, she could still see the worried expression of his face and moved her hand towards her head to salute his orders. He saluted in return as he began to fight back the tears caused by her powerful gesture. "That has to be the toughest woman I've ever met," he said to himself as he watched the doors swing open and shut from their hinges.

Captain Wilder had made his way down from the command deck and into Ozma's office in the hangar. He, Ozma, Kanaria, Nene, and Will all stood around the desk as they reported the string of recent events to him. Wilder had received reports of numerous pilot casualties in the fleet during that day's operations, due to several other planned ambushes by Galaxy forces. As he read Kanaria's medical reports on the condition of Klan, he slammed the tablet down on Ozma's desk and gritted his teeth. Everyone in the room jumped at the abrupt display of anger from their usually-calm captain. "Sir?" Ozma asked. Wilder turned around and began to walk out of the office. "Ozma, I need you to come with me," he said. Ozma and Kanaria looked at each other briefly before he followed Wilder out of the office. The remaining pilots in the room didn't know what to say to each other. They were befuddled with confusion over the matter and simply chose to leave the room without even a mere utterance.

Once again, the command staff of the Quarter had convened in Captain Wilder's office to discuss matters further. Wilder had broken radio silence with Aimo to contact his superiors at NUNS HQ. After delivering his report, Fleet Admiral Perry opened up communications with him to give a response. "Captain Wilder, your disregard for the imperative radio silence with us is unorthodox. However, given your reasons, I can see how you would justify such an action. I've gone over your report and I am unsure of your suggested actions based on the most recent turn of events." Wilder looked at his command staff and they all nodded to acknowledge that they were on his side. He turned back to the monitor and gave his rebuttal. "With all due respect, Sir, I believe that you don't understand the magnitude of the situation out here. We've sustained considerable pilot casualties because of more well-coordinated ambushes on our unsuspecting VF squadrons. Obviously, these attacks were designed to inflict as much attrition as possible to our forces. If you ask me, they're softening us up for an attack." Wilder's command staff stood behind him nodding to Perry.

He took Captain Wilder's words into deep consideration for a moment as he prepared his response. "I cannot deny that you and your crew are the best we have out there. If you and your command staff are united on this, then I suppose I can't deny you your opinions. I will discuss this with the defense council immediately. Stand by for our response." The video feed blanked out as the comm line was terminated. Wilder turned back to his command staff and issued his orders. "We're terminating the prospecting phase of the operation. We need to turn our focus towards capturing or destroying City Galaxy and its forces. Issue the order to all ships in the fleet: 'Hold position and deploy to exercise maximum defensive effectiveness'."

Commander Choi felt it would be best to constructively challenge Wilder's abrupt and unauthorized orders. "Sir, we don't have permission to do that just yet. Are you sure that it will be wise to overstep your bounds?" Wilder sternly glared into her eyes. "I stand here confident that all of the fleet's captains will agree with us. Even if NUNS HQ denies our request, we know that what we are doing is the right thing." Ozma chimed in with a bit of playfulness, "You love to play 'pirates', don't you?" Wilder smiled at Ozma and the two nodded at each other as they reminisced about their past escapades as unaffiliated pirates several months ago. Monica stood by and watched as the seasoned commanders executed their powerplay with NUNS command. Ever the absorbent sponge, she was quickly learning the ways of a ship commander as she witnessed their every move.

A feeling of sadness and fading hope overcame the crew of the Quarter, as they learned of Klan's condition. Their beloved Skull Squadron was down two pilots and the orders of 'seek and destroy' issued by Captain Wilder told them of the impending encounter with a force of unknown size and power. All they could do was steel their determination to survive and fight on, despite the looming threat of an encounter.

...

Even though the fleet had not yet begun to fight its battle, the battle over Klan's well-being was coming to a close. Cal had fashioned a chair out of several table ornaments around him and he sat leaning forward with his hands clasped in front of his face. Worry dominated the demeanor on his face. He watched Klan sleeping on her hospital bed, while the EKG monitor rang into Cal's thoughts with every beep. Her pulse was erratic and the blood pressure readings rose and fell, still unable to stabilize.

The doctor entered the room, spooking Cal out of his focused state. He stood up and walked to the edge of the table as the doctor stopped at the side of her bed. He acknowledged Cal's presence with a nod and checked her vital signs. He scribbled some notes on her medical chart and hung it back onto the foot of the bed. Noticing Cal's look of anticipation for any news, he put his hands into his medical coat and smiled. "It looks like she's gonna make it," he said. Cal slightly smiled, but he wanted to know more. "That's it?" he asked. The doctor laughed at his prying. "Is she your girlfriend or something?" Cal's heart jumped at the question and he frowned. "No, she's my commanding officer, but she's just as important to me. Tell me more. What's going on with her?"

The doctor came and sat down in the enormous chair next to the table that Cal was standing on. He put on a look of frankness as he crossed one of his legs over the other and rested his folded hands on it. "She's lucky to be alive. She must have some good genes in her because her body took a beating and she's still with us. In fact, her internal injuries are healing very fast... much faster than a human's would if it were in the same condition. I'll bet dollars to dimes that she's got some commander-class Zentrans in her lineage. Those are some tough and durable people, I gotta tell ya. I envy that about Zentrans. Sometimes I wish I was Zentraedi," he said. Cal looked at him with confusion over his words. "You wish you were Zentraedi?" he asked. The doctor turned his head and pointed at his ears. They were round, like a Human's.

"You're... You're Human??" he asked. The doctor smiled and nodded. Cal was very surprised to meet a Human being who lived with Zentrans in their normal size. The doctor proceeded to explain his story to Cal. "When I graduated medical school, I grew an interest in the Zentraedi culture. I wanted to live amongst them and learn of the differences between theirs and our cultures. Since I was a certified doctor, I applied to be stationed here to use my skills to help out around here. Of course, in order to fit in here, I had to take a few extra classes on the minor differences of Zentraedi anatomy and then I had to undergo the macronization process."

Cal looked down to think about his fear of macronizing. Even though his subconscious feared the concept of genetic reconstruction by a machine, he knew that there was little to fear of it in reality. However, the fact that Klan's body undergoes a complete change when she miclones was enough to keep the fires of uncertainty burning within him. "Did you have to put a lot of consideration into the decision to macronize?" he asked. The doctor laughed and responded, "Ha ha, yes... It is quite a paradigm shift in your consciousness. You grow up all of your life understanding that you would generally stay the same as you are, and not having to worry about choosing to make such a change to yourself. I had to put in a lot of consideration before convincing myself that it was the best choice for my desires and my career. Once it happened, though, all that worry and apprehension went away and I was able to live my life normally... except as a giant."

The two continued their conversation for a bit longer before the doctor was called away to another patient's room. He left Cal with a lot to think about; being able to fulfill his dream of piloting a Queadluun didn't seem too far out of reach, all of a sudden. His focus quickly changed to the importance of the present, as he took a seat and tried to make himself comfortable enough to possibly fall asleep. The doctor's positive prognosis did lift some of the worry off of his mind, but he wasn't going to be completely convinced until he saw a conscious Klan again.

...

Thanks to the accurate foresight of Captain Wilder, the fleet had already positioned itself in preparation for its first offensive move against the ghost-like forces of Macross Galaxy. After receiving the official nod from NUNS command, Captain Wilder sat alone in his office while discussing the fleet's strategy with the other ship captains over his viewscreen. The rest of the ship had heard of the success of Klan's surgery, but they waited for confirmation that she was going to fully recover.

Will had finally gotten to sleep after having spent a lot of time consoling Nene. Unfortunately, he was awoken by a knocking at the door to his quarters. He groggily opened the door and found Nene standing in the hallway, looking for his company once more. "I can't sleep," she told him with a look of sadness on her face. Will strained to keep his eyes open, despite being bombarded by the light from the hall. He took a step to the side to invite her in. He led her to Cal's bunk where he told her to lie down. Pulling up one of the chairs to the bedside, he sat down and began to rub her back and shoulders to help her calm down so she could sleep.

Nene's worries melted away as she focused on the comforting feeling coming through Will's hands on her back. She thought about how he was willing to spend some of his valuable sleeping time to help her feel better, but realized that she was imposing on him a bit in order to make herself feel better. After lying there for awhile, she reached around her body with her hand and grabbed Will's hand to stop him from rubbing her back anymore. "You don't have to do this," she whispered. Will smiled and responded, "It's okay. I just don't want to see you hurting like that." Nene thought about his response for a moment before she tugged at his hand to tell him to lie down next to her.

Will swallowed the lump in his throat as he realized that he was being invited onto the bed. He cautiously positioned himself on the small bunk so as not to intrude into her personal space too much. Nene noticed his apprehensiveness and rolled over to put her arms around him. She nestled her face into his neck and pulled his body closer to let him know that it was okay to get a little more personal. Will slowly placed his arm around her and made himself comfortable. She gave him a gentle kiss on the neck before settling in to close her eyes. "Thank you," she whispered. Will responded by rubbing her back once again until she finally fell asleep.

...

Several kilometers away on the Zentraedi medical frigate, Cal had finally fallen asleep on the rudimentary bed he constructed. Unfortunately there was nary a blanket for someone his size anywhere in sight. He seemed to be quite uncomfortable as he slept, both from his concerns for Klan and from the harshness of the "bed" he was lying on.

While he slept, Klan had begun to regain her consciousness. She fought to open her eyes as they adjusted to the dim lights in the room. She waited for several moments as everything began to come into view. At first, she could not remember where she was and her mind raced through its most recent memories to come up with an explanation for her current state. She looked at the hypodermic needle inserted under her skin and felt the leads from the EKG monitor on her body. A sudden feeling of loneliness crept over her as she sought to come up with the answers as quickly as possible. She frantically started to search around the room with her eyes until she turned her head and saw Cal asleep on the table next to her bed.

The sight of him suddenly reminded her of what had happened. "Don't you die in there, Klan. I may not outrank you, but that's still an order, you got it?" Her memory repeated the last words she could remember in her mind. The image of him fading out of her field of vision had haunted her subconscious for some time while she was unconscious. She realized that he had been watching over her while she slept and rolled onto her side to get comfortable in her bed.

She noticed Cal had been curled up into a fetal position for warmth while he slept. His sculpture-like tenseness indicated that his body was trying desperately to stay at a nominal internal temperature. She clicked her tongue at his stubbornness in not finding something to keep himself warm while he slept. She looked around for something to use as a cover for him, but could not find anything to use. There was only one thing she could think of that could help him without waking him from his sleep.

During his sleep, Cal's subconscious noted the sudden appearance of a pleasant fragrance permeating his dreams. In an effort to discover the source of the smell, his mind sought to awaken his body. He opened his eyes after a couple of hours to find that he was shrouded by a tuft of Klan's long, blue hair. Her scent had pierced into his dreams, but he also realized that only she would do such a thing for him. Even though he could see that she was asleep, he realized that she had awoken recently. Her sideways posture indicated that she was probably watching him sleep for some time until she fell back to sleep herself. Cal focused his gaze on the EKG monitor, which displayed a steady, nominal heart rate and blood pressure. It was more good news to help ease his worried mind.

As he sat up and rubbed his eyes, he suddenly had an epiphany. "Now, I know why... That's gotta be the reason," he mumbled to himself with a smile. He climbed back into his chair and leaned forward to watch Klan sleep. He now knew that she was going to be okay and it was only a matter of time before he was able to talk to her again. He reached over and grabbed the chickling hat that he brought with him onto the ship. He gazed intently upon the charred remains of the wings and began to think of how he was going to replace them. His conscience reminded him that he still had a lot of reasons to keep flying and he pictured the hat with wings once again. A satisfied smile began to creep across his face as he thought about what it is that he planned to do in the near future with this situation.