I don't own Ranma or Robotech

Chapter 2 Into the Big Dark

The entire ship rocked as outside the poorly understood phenomena labeled fold-space flashed in a multihued display like the entire universe had taken an acid trip. Gloval, the only one on the bridge who had known people involved in the free love movement, had to stop himself from saying 'the colors man, the colors!' The ship was rocking fit to fall apart, and he could see his bridge crew were far too worried, even scared in the case of the younger trio to appreciate his humor, even if they would have understood it. He kept his captains mask on, radiating calm concern, not letting even a hint of panic into his voice. "Time until fold exit?"

Lisa Hayes tried to match her captain's controlled tone as she replied, and came remarkably close for someone so young. "Ten seconds, Captain, the fold tunnel is destabilizing too quickly to be part of the end fold process however, so I think our calculations must have been wrong somehow."

"I see. Should we brace for impact?"

Lisa shook her head, the damage was already done coming out of the fold tunnel wouldn't be dangerous for the ship. "Fold sphere expanding and becoming more unstable, controls no longer responding."

Claudia looked up anxiously. "Engineering reports the fold generators and reflex core are overheating badly! They're requesting help from the emergency team."

"Zero. Out-fold successful."

Lisa reported and nodded to Claudia who immediately turned back to her console, slapping the interior communications button. "All available emergency teams report to reflex core and the nearest fold space engine for repair work!"

Sammy frowned looking at her controls as whole sections blinked out. "Captain, I've lost feed from fold-space generators 2-5." She hit her own comm. button and frowned when no one replied. "No one in any of those sections is replying."

Gloval frowned. "Do what you can Lt. While Ensign Porter and Commander Grant are working on that Commander Hayes, Lt. Laird, let's see if we can figure out how far off course we are and how close the enemy is."

Vanessa nodded, and both she and Lisa turned back to work, but almost immediately Vanessa spoke up. Captain, I'm getting a large gravitonic reading to our left and down 29 degrees."

Lisa cut in at the same time. "Captain I'm getting unidentified object readings from dead astern and to our left side, large metalic objects…" she trailed off as her tactical display updated and she paled. "Captain it's the Daedalus and the Prometheus! We somehow took them with us!" Without waiting to be told she slammed her own intercom connecting her to the Veritech and Destroid barracks and waiting rooms. "All Veritech fighters mobilize on SAR. Repeat all Veritechs mobilize!"

"My god, the Prometheus was under water so their crew might be alright but the Daedalus…." Gloval said under his breath, yet his self recrimination served no purpose for now and he pushed it aside.

Kim looked up from her calculations, "Um, captain, we're nowhere near the moon. By my astrogation charts, we're near Pluto, about halfway between it and the Oort cloud."

Vanessa spoke up next, her voice nearly shrill with alarm. "Captain! The unknown gravitonic reading, it's Macross Island! We brought what looks like the entire island with us, including the city and the civilian shelters!"

Everybody paused in what they were doing for a moment, the magnitude of the disaster stopping them cold. Gloval took a deep breath and let it out slowly then began to bark out orders. "Alright priorities, Lisa get Roy on the line he's to be out there with as many Veritech fighters as can liftoff. You and he are on SAR, the priorities are the civilian shelters get them to the nearest airlock, where Lt Laird will be rigging up something for them to connect to. Commander Grant, once you've determined our position, you're in charge of organizing the inflow. I want the civilians placed as far inside and as safe as they can be, probably in that huge main hold we've never truly used to its full capacity. Lt. Young hold us steady here or if you can close on the Daedalus. Colonel Mannstein" he looked at the screen set into the roof of the main viewport which showed the man's face still dressed in his operator's uniform from the battle before. "I want every destroid we have out on the hull that can get out there. Hooks, tethers and lines. I want you to drag the Prometheus and Daedalus in as close as you can, that way we can get any survivors off as fast as possible." The colonel nodded and cut the connection, and Gloval turned to Sammy. "Lt. Porter, get in touch with Dr. Lang. Your repair crews and anyone else you want to recruit will be exempt from the other work crews." He looked around and everybody was still staring at him. "Move it ladies!" At that everyone turned to their duties.

Ranma and her mother were too deep in the superstructure of the space fortress to know what was going on and had just reached the infirmary when the ship finished it's space-fold. Ranma was still munching on rations bars taken from the commissary, having consumed fifteen of them already when Claudia's orders for the repair crews rang out over the intercom. Ranma groaned, but he felt his core and knew he had regained about a third of the energy lost from the fighting. Unlike the Saijins in the DragonBall manga he'd read while staying with the Tendos he couldn't use food to completely replace the ki he had lost, but the ration bars were enough to give him back some of it. He was still going to feel it for a while but he could function and even fight if he had to.

He looked over at his mom who nodded sadly. "Go, I think we both need to do whatever we can to help here." She moved over to help a nurse who was struggling with a maintenance worker that had been badly electrocuted, holding the man down so the nurse could administer the knock out gas.

Without a word Ranma ran out of the infirmary. He grabbed the first soldier he came on halting the man's progress by grabbing his arm. "Where's this fold space engine thing?"

The man answered automatically so preoccupied with his own destination he didn't even realize he was talking to a civilian. "Down the corridor on the left take the ladder, keep taking the ladders going down and to the left fifteen decks then follow the signs." Ranma thanked the man and ran off leaving the man to stare after him wondering what the hell that was about.

Ranma followed his directions, and began to feel the temperature around him going up ten floors up from his destination. By the time he got off the last ladder it was like a sauna but he kept moving. The floor he found himself on was huge; large enough to let Veritechs through, but Ranma ignored the size of the hall and kept moving as fast as he could. Five minutes after leaving the hospital, he arrived at a huge, heavily reinforced latch about three stories tall. The lock was open and about a hundred men were moving in and out of it on the ground floor and up on walkways along the sides of the chamber.

Inside Ranma spotted Dr. Lang arguing with several men and he trotted over, looking up in awe at what he guessed was the fold space engine. It looked like a huge cylinder with two large spheres with huge wires leading up to a third sphere suspended off the ground by single see through ball, with other equally large wires leading into the surrounding walls on all sides. It was what was in the central sphere that held his attention though. The interior of the sphere was filled with pure golden ki, glowing so brightly in his eyes it was almost like looking at a miniature sun. The power of it was coming off in waves, almost suffocating him, though no one else seemed to notice anything but the heat, so hot no one could come close even with protective gear. A few were still trying but most had evacuated the room and the ones that were left were falling like flies from the heat.

This was Dr. Lang's crowning achievement. Oh not building the engine, that was beyond humanities current technology. But reverse engineering, that Dr. Lang had done, figuring out the principles involved and how to reverse engineer the theory behind both the reflux energy and the fold-space engine. Now he was seeing his life's work dying in front of him, melting down faster than they could stop it.

They had already lost four of the five fold space engines, and now the primary engine and the reflex generator were going to go to unless they could stop it. "Goddamn it no, I will not jettison the generator! If we do that the engine will blow and we won't have any power! Keep cutting the connections between it and the space fold drive! It's still building up harmonics, maybe we'll get lucky and once it's disconnected it'll phase itself out like the others!"

"Hey doc, ya need any help? What's goin' on?"

Dr. Lang turned at the voice and he and the engineering officers stared at Ranma. "Ranma what are you… never mind, no there's nothing even someone with your unique abilities can do here, not unless you can somehow cool down the engine tremendously and quickly."

Ranma blinked. He hadn't realized the heat was the problem, he just thought that was because of the huge ki reservoir in the engine. "I can do that." He turned walking forward and summoning the soul of ice. Two engineers who tried to stop him reeled back in shock as the air around him cooled noticeably even through their suits. He walked slowly forward, and gasped as the heat intensified. "Alright you want to play it like that? Soul of Ice second form!" Another step forward and his skin started to blister and steam from the difference between his temperature and the temperature around him.

Around him the engine crew stared as he walked forward without any kind of protective gear into the heat haze around the engine in shock, wondering if they were really seeing this.

He was still a yard away from the main cylinder/sphere when the heat began to break through even the Soul of Ice's second form. Ranma paused gathering himself, and then pushed his emotions down even further, pushing everything away except the cold. "Soul of Ice perfect form, Ice Age." At his every word the humanity seemed to leech out of him, and the last was said with no emotion at all, as if a glacier had spoken.

Ranma leaned forward, the soul of ice not even allowing him to notice as the skin under his hands blistered on contact with the engine, and suddenly the heat of the engine began to fade. The soul of ice battled with the heat generated from the fold space engine's misalignment, one of many critical mistakes that would be found out later. Right now Ranma pitted his swiftly shrinking core of ki against the heat of the engine, forcing it back slowly, so slowly. If he had been at full strength this would have been a lot easier, not easy by any means but easier. He was not and it was it was taking all his self-control to not panic even through the soul of ice as he felt his reserves drain away as the minutes went on. The battle went on for fifteen minutes then thirty and at last the heat receded far enough for the overwhelmed cooling devices to finally come on line and aid the beleaguered martial artist. Ten minutes later the heat shielded engineers were able to rush forward and started to pull him away. Dr. Lang came forward, grinning like a madman inside his own suit. "You did it Ranma, I don't know how but you did it! We really do have to sit down and have a talk sometime though that was truly phenomenal!"

One of the engineers, a large hulking man of Asian descent with a close cropped goatee and bald head looked up as he heard the name of their savior for the first time. "Ranma?" he mused speaking to himself inside his heat suit.

Ranma turned away, looking at Dr. Lang for a moment before crashing to the deck falling into a stupor, utterly drained, more drained than he had ever been before. All around him engineers began to run toward him, as his eyes closed at last. Dr. Lang ran to the nearest comm. and shouted into it, not even bothering to choose a channel. "Corpsman to the engine room, corpsman to the engine room, need immediate medical assistance!"

The next thirty hours was the most hectic and frenzied time in Lisa Hayes' young life. It was her job to direct the Veritech flights in their SAR mission, keep track of where they had searched and had yet to search, direct the few shuttles the SDF-1 had in their rescue efforts, oversee Sammy, Kim, and Vanessa as they did their own jobs, and make certain that Colonel Mannstein was doing his job as well as he could. Her job as executive officer was always demanding and intense, after all the old saying that executive officers forged the sword while the captain wielded it was still true, but this was the first time she had ever truly felt overwhelmed. Yet she had risen to the occasion in spectacular fashion. Not only was the SAR carried out efficiently, but there were zero accidents on her watch, something that set the operation far beyond anything the Space Navy had done before. The only blemish on the time was the strange case of a civilian plane being found near the SDF without a pilot. Lisa however had other things to worry about and soon forgot all about it.

Now the first aspect of the job was nearing completion and Colonel Mannstein looked out at her from the bridge of his Monster –class command Destroid. "Commander, we have finished towing in and tying down the Daedalus, ready to move on to the Prometheus." This hadn't been nearly as easy as it sounded, things just worked differently in space, and the Destroid operators had not been trained for it as well as the Valkyrie pilots.

"Wait one colonel." She looked at her screen, making certain Daedalus was in the position that she wanted it to be. This was her idea, and the captain had told her to run with it. The SDF-1 had two huge articulated docking clamps on its sides, right in front of the main engines that doubled as huge airlocks. She had thought that rather than breaking the ships to get inside them and get the trapped crewmen out, they could weld them into these docking clamps. That way not only would they be able to get their crews out easier, the ships would be mostly intact and their interior infrastructure available for use. In the case of the Prometheus this would give them the sub's ICBM's and missile launchers completely intact. While the Hercules-class missile platforms had not fared well against the enemies capital ships, they would still be useful in close range and as directional mines. The Daedalus was even better. Having been a super-carrier it had nearly as much fighter/robot repair capabilities as the space fortress, and had space for five squadrons of Valkyries adding a fourth again to their complete of space fighters. And the factory that was part of the SDF-1 could churn out as many Veritechs and Destroids as they had raw material to build. Industry wise, they would be in a far better position than they had been, even after repairing the damage caused by the space-fold disaster.

She ran a few calculations, and then nodded. "Alright Colonel, I want the third and fourth Spartan squads to remain and help the welding teams. If they power their lasers down they can double as welding tools, and those two squads are reporting to have the most fuel remaining of the Spartan teams. Your other squads can move to the other side of the ship and start roping in the Prometheus. Claudia, get on the horn and tell Captain Conner that he's next and to prepare for… well just make certain they have everything battened down that can be battened down." Claudia nodded. They had been ecstatic to learn that Captain Conner and his entire crew had survived the fold-space disaster. Unfortunately they had yet to raise anyone on the Daedalus, though they had determined that someone was still alive on the super-carrier. Roy Fokker had gotten close enough to use Morse code on the hull, and had reported a response in a few sectors.

Lisa was about to turn off the connection to colonel Mannstein when he interrupted her. "A moment commander, I have something I wish to say to you." He paused visibly stealing himself as Lisa looked on, face hardening. The two had several run-ins before the battle, and the way he had refused to follow her orders at the beginning of the battle back on earth had soured her further towards him. Thus she was pleasantly surprised when Mannstein actually spoke. "I must apologize for my attitude toward you. I realize that it has come across as sexist, or perhaps ageist, and there may have been a part of that in my attitude toward you. But the main reason that I did not respect your position was because of your father." He held up a hand as she made to speak her eyes flashing. "Let me finish. I served with your father, and I did not like him then, nor has that dislike gone away since he received flag rank, if anything it has gotten worse. I will not share my reasons for that dislike now, they are not truly relevant to my apology, but I feared that you had received your position not just through nepotism but to be your father's personal spy on the SDF-1."

"My father and I haven't gotten along since I transferred to the Space Force." Lisa growled through clenched teeth angry at the insinuation.

"I had heard rumors to that effect, but thought they were a smokescreen and still felt you were unqualified for your position. The past three days have proven me wrong." Colonel Mannstein's hard face seemed to crack a bit as he smiled slightly. "You have performed in an exemplary manner commander, and I am proud to be working with you."

He saluted and Lisa smiled back, happy that she had won this formidable man over. "Thank you for the compliment colonel, and I accept your apology. Now get back to work." She smirked and colonel Mannstein actually chuckled a little before signing off. Behind Lisa, Gloval smiled under his cap as he turned off his own monitor. From little things teams are formed.

The work continued for another three days and during that time Lisa, Gloval and Mannstein kept working, forcing everyone else to take shifts off as they continued to organize and direct the work being done. In that time every civilian shelter was found and the civilians brought abroad the ship. Large amounts of the cityscape was also brought in, placed wholesale by the Spartans and Veritechs in the cavernous main bay, the bay that had been so huge that the military had never used the entire space, thinking in the future it could hold support and assault ships not yet designed. Work was continuing inside, now with civilian workers helping out while the military reprioritized the bulk of the Veritechs, who had been towing the shelters and pieces of the city to reclamation of any resources, metal, plastics anything up to and including pieces of the three ships destroyed in the alien bombardment. Unfortunately those ships didn't have the bulk or armor of the Daedalus, and what crew had survived the bombardment had not survived the space-fold.

It was with a start that Gloval looked at the tactical display and realized that they had finished. The Prometheus had been welded into the left sides docking clamp of the SDF-1 and every large piece of debris had been roped in and brought aboard. He looked up and saw Lisa looking back at him with a triumphant expression on her exhausted face. Captain Gloval heard the hatch open behind him and he reached down to the master speaker. "All hands, all hands this is captain Gloval speaking. Operation over, I repeat recovery operations are finished. All Veritech fighters return to base, all Destroids return to hangers. Well done to everyone. I am declaring ropeyard, repeat ropeyard. And never has it been more deserved." Ropeyard meant that every sailor who wasn't at that moment doing a job critical to the running of the ship would have 24 hours off to rest and recover. He changed the channel to the command line and spoke into it. "I would like to meet in three hours with the command staff and civilian representatives, but that is three hours away. Until then, everyone has earned some time off." He stood up and saluted Claudia who had just come on shift. "Commander Grant you have the com." He walked off the bridge, shooing Lisa in front of him.

Work continued around Macross of course. After all the civilians weren't effected by ropeyard, and DR. Lang and his assistants ignored the order as did the medical teams. But the majority of sailors and soldiers heard the order and obeyed thankfully.

One young man however had just woken up, and found he had work to do.

Ranma woke up feeling refreshed, but starving. With a groan he sat up and looked around, finding himself in a hospital bed sans clothing. He was dressed in a hospital gown, and that was it. To one side, her red hair standing out against the stark white of the wall was his mother and he smiled happily seeing her. An even better sight was walking through the door as he raised his body and went to swing his legs around to stand. Kasumi walked in with a tray piled high with ration bars. She smiled widely at seeing Ranma awake. "Ohayo gosaimasu Ranma. How are you feeling?"

Ranma grinned at her pulling her squealing into a hug, something that even two months ago he would never have dared to do. While the two were not a couple they were very close and such displays of affection were becoming more frequent the longer they were away from Nerima and the influences therein. "I'm great, a little stiff and a lot hungry, but I slept long enough to replace most of my energy. How long was I out?"

"You were out for a little under six days my son." Nodoka said, looking up from her chair and smiling at the way the two interacted. While Ranma had vowed to never marry someone from a family his sperm donor made a deal with, there was still obvious affection between the two and maybe even love. Maybe someday soon I will have some grandchildren she thought giddily after all I won't care if they're legitimate or not!

Ranma looked over and pulled her into a hug in turn, gripping her tightly around the waist. Having someone there when he woke up after collapsing or injuring himself was something he loved. No one had been there for him growing up and seeing Kasumi and his mother there like this showed him they truly cared about him more than anything else could. "Ohayo, momma." He whispered into her hair and Nodoka had to blink back tears at the address, one she had only heard once before from Ranma since Genma had taken him away from her. That time had been when Ranma had first revealed his curse and she had accepted him despite it. She didn't know what she did right just now but neither did she care. This feeling of love was the only important thing.

He pulled back grinning widely at his two favorite ladies and they laughed at his happy face. "So that all wasn't a dream, we were really attacked by aliens and I've really been offered a commission in the SDF?"

Nodoka smiled at his sheer exuberance. "No, that wasn't a dream Ranma. You have definitely turned Dr. Lang and the science teams belief's on their heads. I believe he'll want to speak to you as soon as he's free. Unfortunately he and the rest of the crew are very busy right now."

Ranma blinked then shrugged, motioning her to elaborate as he moved back against the head of the bed, grabbing a few of the ration bars from Kasumi's tray. Kasumi sat at the foot of the bed and the two filled him in on the disaster, the fold space engines disappearing and the city and the other ships being brought with them, and the work everyone was doing, as well as explaining how his own heroics saved the last fold-space generator and the main reflux core.

Ranma sat and listened eating hungrily. He would need several meals worth of food and even more rest to get back into peak condition. The amount of ki he had used, and the healing his body did automatically while he was asleep had drained him beyond anything he had ever done before. "Huh, so they're rebuilding Macross inside the SDF-1. That makes this all even cooler. How're the Lynn's taking it though? I imagine that it's causing them a lot of problems." Kasumi and Nodoka exchanged glances but didn't answer right away. "What's wrong? They didn't follow Minmei out into the city did they?"

Nodoka sighed and answered as Kasumi began to clean up the wrappers from the ration bars. "Shao and Fei are fine they were in one of the first shelters recovered. But Minmei hasn't been seen since she and that young boy, Rick Hunter left. His plane was recovered, but he and Minmei weren't inside it. Small volunteer search teams have been scouring the outer areas of the SDF-1 for them, but there's been no sign of them. With the ship being so huge with so many places that aren't in use and so many ways inside, they could be practically anywhere. And the sailors and soldiers haven't had the manpower to devote more than a few off duty personnel to searching for them. The civilian police force has sent out their own teams at the Lynn's request since they got organized but so far no luck."

Ranma's eyes narrowed grimly and he swung his legs off the table standing up in a single motion. "Where're my clothes?" Nodoka reached into a bag next to her and pulled out a set of his clothing, smirking as Kasumi stood up abruptly her face crimson as Ranma turned away accidentally flashing her his front before the hospital rag fell into place and then his rear as he turned. Kasumi licked her lips but tore her eyes away as Ranma realized what he was doing and jumped away, putting his back against the wall. "Gomen Kasumi, um, could ya both leave for a second while I change?"

Nodoka took the still furiously blushing Kasumi by the arm and gently guided her out of the room. Of course she couldn't resist poking fun at her the moment they were in the hallway. "So Kasumi-chan, did you find my son manly enough for you?" Kasumi put her hands on her still blushing cheeks and glared at the older woman but didn't answer.

A moment later Ranma exited the room dressed in a tight muscle shirt with a dragon coiling up its side and his regular black kung-fu pants. "Well, I'm off to find Minmei."

"And how are going to find Minmei my son?" Kasumi nodded, wondering the same thing.

Ranma shrugged. "Don't know." Both women face-faulted, then looked up at him in consternation from where their faces had imbedded themselves into the floor. "But I made a promise to Shao that I'd look after his niece, and I'm gonna find her and bring her home. That's all there is to it." Kasumi and Nodoka both nodded, and walked with him out of the hospital area. There was a bit of trouble with Ranma releasing himself from the hospital but as there was nothing wrong with him anymore they couldn't stop him. He had been admitted with third degree burns on his hands and forearms as well as two broken ribs and extreme exhaustion, but with his ki healing ability and the days spent sleeping he didn't even have any scars from the burns left. He still was nowhere near one hundred percent, and his ki would take weeks of solid food and sleep to build up to his normal level, but his body was fully healed.

Ranma left the hospital and went in search of Dr. Lang, thinking he would have some idea of where to start looking. After getting several different directions he found his way to Dr. Lang's office. The doctor was just leaving as Ranma came up behind him in the corridor. He was wearing a long gray lab coat over pants and a tweed shirt and his grey white hair was sticking out every which way as if he had been electrocuted. "Hey doc, love the whole mad scientist look you've got going on. Got a quick question fer ya."

The doctor jumped startled out of his thoughts by the voice behind him, but he smiled as he recognized the tone. Coarse and completely lacking in any military discipline Ranma might be, but he was certainly friendly enough and Dr. Lang was looking forward to researching his strange abilities more thoroughly at a later date. "And here I was going for a more erudite version of Einstein. Would you mind explaining exactly how it is you're walking around without third degree burns on your hands, or is it something else related to this ki thing you mentioned?"

"Yep, ki healing, listen doc I didn't actually come and find ya ta talk about that, I want ta sit down with you sometime and talk about this kind of stuff, but I got a job ta do first. One of my friends is missing, the girl that was in the mess hall when we first met. Her name's Minmei and I was wonderin' if ya could tell me where ta start lookin, or where not ta look if ya know what I mean?" Dr. Lang nodded thoughtfully then informed Ranma that anywhere there were people moving around had already been searched thoroughly, but the outer shell, including the forward areas near the bottom of the hull, was unused, and mostly unexplored. He also gave him an automatically updating map/GPS device which would let him know when he was accidentally retracing his route as well as where he hadn't been. Ranma thanked him and took off in the direction he pointed.

About three hours jogging took him past the last area of the ship that had been fully converted for human use into areas that were as the doctor had described disused and empty. He paused for a moment before reaching out with his senses, trying to get a feel for the place.

Captain Gloval looked around the table in the flag officers meeting room as he and the others were waiting for Dr. Lang to arrive. To one side Colonel Mannstein and Captain Connor of the Prometheus sat, talking quietly while down the table from them Lisa and Roy were also talking quietly with the chief medical officer of the SDF-1, captain Angleti. With Claudia manning the bridge they were the totality of his flag officers. Captain Roche of the Daedalus had not survived, nor had any of his officers save a very junior Lt. from the super-carriers engineering section.

To his other side sat the four civilian representatives. To his immediate right sat Nodoka, who had been elected as one representative. This had surprised him, but she had volunteered to take the place of Lynn Fei, a well known and respected restaurant owner whose daughter was apparently still missing. Next to her sat mayor Luan and beside him the chief of police and the manager of the cities only hospital finished that side of the table.

Dr. Lang came in then, sitting at the far end from him. "I'm sorry I'm late I was tied up by a little matter on the way here."

Gloval nodded cordially and cleared his throat, gaining everyone attention. "Welcome ladies and gentlemen. I have called this meeting for two reasons. One, to make certain that we all know where we stand, as well as this battleship's long term goals, and two to give us all an opportunity to get to know one another and iron out any problems that any of us see popping up in the near future. I realize this is nowhere near an ideal situation, but we're all stuck out here together and must make the most of it." The military personnel all nodded, as did the civilians rather unhappily but willingly. "So without further ado I will turn this meeting over to my executive officer Lt. Cm. Hayes who will give a brief overview of the recent operations and where we are now."

Lisa nodded and took over the thread from where she sat. After giving a brief overview of what had happened, she went on to specifics. "We were able to recover every civilian shelter listed in Atara Island's records but our luck stopped there I'm afraid. Of the 35,000 sailors abroad the Daedalus we were only able to recover 349, all from the ships engineering section. The hatches leading to that section were the only ones that were airtight. I'm afraid the rest of the crew perished during the fold-space jump." She paused there, letting everyone have a moment of silence for the dead as Henri Gloval wondered if he would ever forgive himself for the catastrophe that caused the loss of so many fine men and women.

Lisa went on. "As you all know we successfully welded the Prometheus and the Daedalus to the SDF-1's docking clamps, which double as large airlocks. Dr. Lang has some ideas I'm told about making that a permanent fixture but he will talk about that later. The main problem however is that without all five of the space-fold engines we have no way of getting back to earth quickly, and I for one would not be willing to trust a space-fold jump with the one remaining engine until we know what went wrong the first time." There was heartfelt agreement for that from all corners of the room and she went on. "As it stands, we have two ways to get back to Earth. The first is a straight shot, which would take us a little under three years at the best speed the Macross can offer. The other way is to slingshot around Jupiter, using the gravity of the planet to speed us up, and would take about a year off the trips time."

Nodoka raised her hand quietly for attention. "What about the aliens who attacked us on Earth, commander? Where are they now, do we know?"

Lisa shook her head. "At present long range radar doesn't detect anything near us. It's estimated we through them off our trial by jumping out here, but we can't expect that to last forever. Judging from what little data we have the aliens can't jump that far in-system, they were moving rather slowly between Earth and the moon after they first showed up, so maybe they have energy or tech restraints or something along those lines. I wouldn't like to make plans prior to getting more data." Nodoka nodded and Lisa went on.

"Thanks in large part to the amount of material we collected off the Rapier and Escalade, our industrial capacity is at an all time high. With the repair facilities of the Daedalus working and the fortresses own factories we'll be able to replace nearly any material losses among our forces given enough time. Unfortunately we are short on comestibles. Our hydroponic section can make up some of the difference, but we never intended to feed this many people on what we have in our stores. We have nearly eighty-thousand people on board after all; more than three times what was the envisioned crew size. Plans are already in place and work will begin shortly on enlarging our hydroponics section as workers become available. A rationing system is already in place, and we have a few ideas of how to convert that to payment stubs for the soldiers and civil workers in the future."

Mayor Luan spoke up then. "I think it'd be a good idea to turn that entire project over to us captain. We have a lot of manpower just sitting around right now. If we make it mandatory for everyone to help out, we can finish rebuilding Macross city within the hold of the fortress and then go on to create more hydroponic stations. The sooner we can do that the faster things can go back to some semblance of normalcy and the better morale will get. I'm certain your soldiers would also like to have a port of call on hand shall we say?"

Everyone laughed but Roy took the opportunity to speak up. "I like that idea a lot Mr. Mayor but I think we can also give the civilians the chance to do something else at the same time. Our losses among Valkyrie pilots were horrendous and we need to replace them. Our first line of defense in outer space will be the Valkryies, and we can't send back to Earth for more. No matter how many guns we have we need bodies to pull the triggers."

Mannstein nodded calmly. "It's true, in space destroids are of limited utility. We can waive most of the physical requirements under wartime conditions, and open up the training to all comers, as well as opening it up to sailors and soldiers who want to be retrained."

Everyone nodded but captain Conner interjected. "I can't say I like the idea of giving multi-million dollar machines over to unblooded civilians, and I like having to rely on them for our first line of defense even less. My crew and I are looking at ways to make our ICBMs be more effective in space, but I would also like to see the SDF-1 have more weapons than it has. Other than a few secondary weapons systems and the main gun, the fortress needs more of a punch."

While the civilians didn't think much of his initial comments, no one could argue with what he said at the end. "I can't argue with the idea of adding more weapons to the SDF-1. It was in theory supposed to be the carrier/support/command system in a battle group, but as we are alone out here we will need more of an offensive punch." Gloval said.

"And more defense surely." Mayor Luan stated. "We need some way to make certain that the ship isn't destroyed as we are fighting the enemy. I saw the estimates of how much damage the artillery of the enemy did to the pacific fleet during its bombardment, and I don't think even the SDF-1 could survive a pounding like that, no matter how inaccurate they are."

Dr Lang spoke up then, a thoughtful expression on his face. "I may have some ideas about both of those, but let me see if they are actually workable before I present them." Gloval and everyone else nodded, willing to give the renowned doctor time before pressing him for details.

The meeting continued for four more hours hammering out details large and small as the group got to grips with the strange situation they found themselves in. One such detail was that the civil police would take precedence over the military. Not only did the police commissioner have more men, but this freed up the majority of the MP's for other duties, giving a small but welcome surge of warm bodies who could be assigned elsewhere. In the same way the hospital and its workers would take over the worst injured and long term care cases, allowing the military medical teams to concentrate on short term patients and emergencies.

Another detail was how much and what interior renovations/improvements the civilians would take on and be able to handle above and beyond helping to finish the city and enlarge the hydroponics gardens. Mayor Luan wanted to keep his constituents as busy as he could in an attempt to get them to concentrate on what they could control rather than worry about their circumstances. Other things, such as christening the SDF-1 theMacross, after the city that it was now carrying and details about the academy were also hammered out.

The academy had initially been designed to only be a finishing school for soldiers and the space forces, but with the current crisis this was thrown out the window. The academy would be enlarged to fit at least a thousand recruits and five hundred re-training military personnel at a time. This meant the buildings and barracks would have to be enlarged, and this was added to the growing list of construction work needed. Over his strenuous objections Colonel Mannstein was nominated to be the commandant of the academy for now, while Captain Connor took over his duties and learned more about Destroids and Veritechs before replacing Mannstein as commandant giving them depth at the position.

All in all Gloval felt the meeting was a rousing success. Everyone got to know one another and many problems were worked out before they could become issues. The feeling as the meeting broke up cheered him up as well; it was reserved but optimistic and resolute, just what the current problem required.

He looked up and cocked his head as Nodoka waited by the door until everyone left before moving over to stand by his chair. "You have the remainder of the day off correct?" She asked in tone of voice that sent shivers of excitement down his spine.

"Um, well yes I suppose I do. I ordered ropeyard for everyone after all, and I need rest and sleep to recover from the stress of the past six days as much as the next man."

"I'm certain you do, but you also deserve a bit of a reward for how well you dealt with the crisis." She reached down and dragged him to his feet gently by use of his uniform's tie and began to drag him away, a predatory smile on her face and a sway to her hips. "I can't guarantee that you'll get much sleep, but doctors have been saying for decades that sex is a good way of dealing with stress."

Gloval carefully did not jump into the air and shout "Hurray!", instead allowing her to pull him along passively to his quarters.

Rick sighed happily as he stepped out of the water. While he and Minmei and trouble initially once they had found this place things started to look up for them. When Rick had gone to take Minmei home he had used his own biplane and had thought he could simply drop her off in the city. He didn't want to think about the fact that he had hoped to also get to know her a little better, or perhaps get some place to stay nearby. But that hadn't happened.

Instead of exiting the SDF-1 into atmosphere, the plane had only been in atmosphere for a few moments before everything went completely crazy. Rick had no idea what had happened, but after the crazy went away so too did the atmosphere on the plane. Thankfully Rick always kept two oxygen masks in his plane and these masks kept them alive long enough for him to get his plane back to the SDF-1 and crash into a hole caused by a plate of armor tearing off near the bottom of the fortress, from which they were able to get into areas of the ship that had atmosphere. Since then they had been trying to find a way to the used sections of the fortress in hopes of coming into contact with other people. They had searched for three days by his estimate, but had had no luck.

Instead, what they had found was a strange pool in one of the huge corridors, the ones that were the equivalent of three human stories. It looked as if a water main or something had broken letting the water run down to here eventually creating a large pool from an indent in the metal plating of the floor.. Around the pool had sprouted first apparently moss and mildew, and then surprisingly actual grass. The two had made a camp out of Rick's emergency gear and had settled down. With Minmei's ankle twisted during the crash Rick often went out alone to continue the search for other people but Minmei didn't want to be left alone and he would be forced to come back after only an hour or two.

If he was honest with himself Rick was actually having fun. Minmei was good company, she was pretty, had a lovely singing voice, she was cute, a good listener, cute, a good enough cook to make even his meager emergency rations into something tasty, she was pretty, a good conversationalist and interesting to talk to, and did he mention she was pretty? The two had even shared a few kisses, one when Rick pulled her out of the hole in the fortress into a hallway that had atmosphere and an emergency shutter closed behind them, and again when he found the paradise they were currently camping at. All in all, there were worse places to be and people to be with, and he stopped looking for other people seriously after the second time Minmei screamed and called him back.

Minmei on the other hand, seems to be getting more and more depressed, forcing him to spend more and more time trying to cheer her up then looking around for supplies or anything else that could help them. Even now she was moaning. "Oh Rick, what'll we do? We haven't found any sign of any other people, what if it's just us here in the fortress, what if something horrible happened to everyone else? We could be all alone here for the rest of our lives!"

Minmei wrung her hands in growing panic and made to stand up but Rick pushed her back down to a sitting position. She had badly aggravated her ankle several times, and it was nowhere near well enough to take her weight. "Don't panic Minmei, there's no way that could happen. The fortress is just too big that's all, eventually someone will either find us or well I mean" he stammered "would it be so bad just the two of us here? Just, just us for the rest of our lives?"

"Oh Rick," she looked at him sadly. The idea had a certain appeal, but could she really be happy with just Rick around for the rest of their lives? After all there were her friends and family to consider, and what about her dream of being an idol star, how could she do that if she was stuck here alone here with Rick?

Before she was forced to answer or the silence between them could become too awkward a voice spoke out of the darkness in the space above the pool. "You know, that's cute'n all but what say we get you two out of here, okay? You can roleplay 'me Tarzan you Jane' later."

Ranma jumped down from near the break in the ceiling where the water was coming from about three stories up to land next to the pool, his smirk visible in the camp light. Minmei and Rick both stiffened at the voice of first, but when Ranma landed he was met with the solid thump of Minmei throwing herself hurt ankle and all into his arms. "Ranma! Thank you thank you thank you thank you for finding us! I knew you would do it!"

Surprised Ranma went over backwards with Minmei landing in the pool of water and triggering his change.

Rick, watching this from the sidelines was of two or perhaps even three minds at the sight. On the one hand Ranma's finding them meant he could lead them back to civilization. On the other hand, he was extremely jealous at how close this Ranma character and Minmei were. This was the third time that they had hugged in his presence, and Minmei seem to look to him for assurance and protection much more than Rick. To add to his insecurity stories of Ranma and some Kasumi girl had made up a large amount of Minmei's conversation with him.

And third was the normal guy reaction to seeing two smiling and very pretty girls hugging and almost fondling one another while knee-deep in water that was soaking through their clothing, making it stick to their skin. Rick reached up pinching his nose as he felt the blood start to flow and shook his head trying desperately to get the image out of his head of him joining the two in the pool. Ranma would probably not take kindly to the suggestion. He turned away asking as he picked up the light, "how did you find us Ranma?"

Ranma got out of the water shaking his shirt in trying to squeeze it dry a little causing her breasts to stick out even further and for Rick's nose to bleed noticeably.

Minmei looked at him, saw where he was staring and huffed, turning away angrily. She was still young, she had time to grow. It wasn't her fault that Ranma looked like a supermodel! The fact that Ranma was a guy really helped overcome her jealousy towards him.

"I found you by following the channels of energy in the fortress. You probably wouldn't understand but this whole place is like some kind of living, breathing body. I can't explain it better than that. Check back with me though after I talk with Dr. Lang, maybe he may have some ideas."

Ranma was telling the truth here. Much like when he was in Roy's Valkyrie in certain areas of the ship Ranma felt ki, as if he was close to a living person or animal. The whole ship sort of reminded him of a giant crab. A crab was never without its shell and indeed the shell was the part that most people saw, but the shell wasn't alive. It was simply what the crab was living in. Ranma had followed his sense until he was into what he would call the shell of the crab and then began a systematic search along the few remaining lines of ki for his friend through use of Dr. Lang's GPS. But it still took six hours of searching at his top speed after he left what he would call the main living areas of the ship to find them.

Now he stood looking up for to where the water fell from three stories up down into the pool where Rick and Minmei had made their camp. He looked back down at the GPS and realized that if the GPS was accurate, they were somewhere below the main reflux generator. The water might even be coming from some kind of cooling system, which would make sense. He'd have to tell Dr. Lang about that when he got back, as well as have a really, really long talk with him. This whole ship was making Ranma rethink everything he had ever been taught about life energy. If it could be created artificially, then what was it really?

Realizing his wet shirt was a lost cause Ranma turned picking up Minmei in his arms and then turned back to Rick. "Grab anything you want to keep and let's go kid. I want to get Minmei back to her folks as soon as possible. And we should get that ankle looked at too." Minmei giggled as she was carried along feeling even more like a princess in a fairy tale. Rick, though, was a little more irritated but still went along with it. He grabbed the few keepsakes he had taken from his plane and followed after the two shining the light down onto their feet while Ranma led the way.

After a few minutes walking in silence Ranma asked "so you're a pilot right? Does that mean you're going to join the SDF now?"

Rick cocked his head quizzically "what do you mean?" He listened aghast as Ranma told them about what had happened, about the losses the Valkyrie fighters had sustained, and how because of that the military had thrown the door open so anyone who wanted could sign up for Valkyrie training.

"I'm going to join up. I've already been offered a job. You should join up too Rick you're a pilot so you'd get in easy."

Rick looked at him angrily. "I'm not a soldier! I fly I don't kill!"

Ranma looked back at him thoughtfully over her shoulder for a moment before answering. "Is that all ya think soldiers do? I gotta tell you you're wrong. Soldiers and policemen are there to defend other people. Yes, they have to kill sometimes to do it. On the other hand, what if they didn't do that? What if they weren't there to protect people, then anyone who thought that they could get away with somethin' just 'cause they were stronger or had more weapons or anything like that could run roughshod over them. Without the SDF forces and without people like you and me signing up eventually there won't be anyone to defend people like Kasumi, my mom, Minmei or her family anymore. That's one reason I'm so eager to join up. It's a martial artist's duties to protect those weaker than themselves. If I have to kill to do that, I can, I ain't happy about it but I can do it."

"Besides," she went on, grinning happily and nearly smothering Minmei between her breasts with the hug she accidently gave the girl "I get to go into space! Do you have any idea how cool that is?!" Minmei giggled as she tried to wriggle out of Ranma's tighter grip pushing her head around her breasts and making them bounce in such a way that Rick again had to look away with a nosebleed.

Still, his mind was on what Ranma had been saying. He couldn't argue with anything he had said but it was fighting the indoctrination of a lifetime. His father had always taught him that a pilot shouldn't have to be a killer. That flying was something almost like a religious experience, and that doing it to fight other people, to kill other people, cheapened it. On the other hand he couldn't argue with the fact that he was a damn good pilot, and he wouldn't be able to use his skills if they really were in space. And the idea of defending Minmei and her family struck a chord in him as well. "I'll think about it." He said thoughtfully. "I don't want to make a snap decision here."

Minmei poked her head over the redheads shoulder looking back at him. "Well, until you decide you can stay with me and my family. I know you don't have a place to stay in the city, and we can always use the extra help in the restaurant. Just ask Ranma," she giggled. "She makes the cutest waitress, at least when she lets Kasumi and me dress her up. And Kasumi's cooking is fantastic! Since she joined my aunt and uncle in the kitchen our restaurant has never been more popular!"

Ranma looked down at her and sneakily moved his hands to the side as if he was dropping her. She only had a second to squeak before his hands were underneath her again and he laughed "it ain't nice to tease the person who's carrying you. After all, look what could happen." Minmei pouted spectacularly but subsided. Ranma led the way back to the living area of the ship as the three began to exchange stories about what had happened since they had seen each other in the mess hall. Rick impressed Ranma with his quick thinking, but he also angered Ranma a lot with how quickly he took off without making certain that it was safe. Still, Ranma found he liked the hotshot pilot.

It took them four hours to get back going in a straight line thanks to the GPS, and by the end of it Rick was ready to collapse from the pace Ranma had set and maintained. It took another hour for Minmei and Rick to be processed in and Minmei given a medical exam for her ankle.

After that, however, it was only 40 minutes later that Ranma was able to return Minmei to her aunt and uncle. Rick was introduced to them as well, and Minmei was fulsome in her praise of Rick for protecting her, getting her back to the fortress and looking after her after she was injured. Shao was a little skeptical as Minmei wouldn't have been injured in the first place if she had stayed with Ranma and Nodoka in the mess hall but Fei was very thankful for the care Rick had shown her niece. The night ended on a high note, and everyone went to bed happy about being back together, with Rick given the room formerly reserved for their youngest cousin who had been sent back to his parents a week before the attack on the island.

Everyone slept soundly that night worn out by the day's events. The only exception was Rick, who went to bed dreaming of him and Minmei in Tarzan and Jane costumes and certain bedroom games they could've played while they were out in the wilderness alone. These dreams were mixed in with dreams of flying, and wondering what he should do from now on.

end chapter