Nadesio and Jimmy Buffett do not belong to me.
Chapter 9
Nobody Talks to the Captain No More
"It's been a week. Has there been any change?"
Hideki shrugged at Chase's question, leaning against the bulkhead nearest to the helm. "Last I heard, the doctors went ahead and repaired his legs, but he's still not awake. Megumi must be frantic."
Chase nodded as he made a few adjustments on the helm. "I bet. Personally, after a week under Captain Ahab, I'm frantic to have the skipper back too."
The engineer smiled. "It's not as bad as it could be. Just wait until my revival."
"Speaking of which," Chase broke in. "What's this note about needing another singer?"
"A man can't sing Minmei, Chase," Hideki told him. "There are some things that are simply sacred."
"Whatever," Chase told him. "It's your show."
Hideki smiled. "It's just for the Minmei stuff," he said diplomatically. "The rest of the stuff is yours."
"Like I said, it's your gig." Chase typed in a few more commands. "The only thing that worries me is your description of what your ideal singer is."
"How so?"
"All I'm saying is where are we going to find a fifteen year old Asian girl who can sing?"
The two went quiet for a moment, then a light came on.
At Ops, Ruri looked up. "Oh no..."
&&&&&&&&
"Well it didn't take long for the genetic manipulation to wear off, did it?" Ryoko asked as she did her walk around. Standing nearby, Rikari said nothing. "He's back to being a dickhead."
The redhead shrugged. "He's a Jovian officer. He'll run the ship like a Jovian one. That's all he knows."
Ryoko ducked and looked at the directional nozzles behind the Aestivalis knees. "Still, he would have been better off running the ship the way Jun would have."
"Captain Aoi's style is much different from a Jovian one," Rikari reminded her. "It puzzles some of us sometimes."
"Like what?" Ryoko asked, jumping up and hanging on her Aesti's index finger. "Treating people like people?"
"In a weird way, yes," she replied. "Jovian soldiers are soldiers first."
Ryoko huffed. "For us, the fact that we're people is what gives us our strength."
"He'll get the hang of it," Rikari assured her.
&&&&&&&&&&&
The holomonitor near the head of his bed beeped in a steady rhythm while visually showing Jun's vital signs with graphs and charts and projections.
Megumi understood what it all meant, but preferred to rely on her own senses, the touch of her hand holding his, the blood pumping through his arteries. She squeezed a little tighter.
Nothing. Nothing but a steady, unerring pulse.
A week had passed since they brought him back, a week and still nothing.
"Still no change, huh?" she asked with a forced smile. "You're still stubborn about these things, aren't you?"
At least he was off the ventilator. The doctors were able to repair his legs, though they said it would take him months to relearn to use them.
For Megumi, though, it was nothing new. When he returned from Phobos, the doctors had to replace parts of scarred tissue that burned him when his ejection system malfunctioned. She'd learned a long time ago that Jun Aoi was stronger than a lot of people gave him credit for. Whiplash during the second time he tried to fly, shot by Minato's boyfriend, and that was before he was shot down.
Though he never spoke of it, the doctors and Ryoko had told her how her husband had managed to save his own leg while in prison. It was something taught to pilots at SERE school, though rarely used. His legs burned and infected and knowing the Jovians weren't going to help him, he stopped waving the flies away.
Attracted to the infection blossoming in his leg, the flies landed and laid eggs. The eggs hatched, and the deathly white maggots grew fat on the dead and infected tissue in his leg...1
"Maggots only eat dead tissue," Ryoko had said.
When Ryoko had told her that, Megumi, a woman who had been through nursing school and thought she had seen it all, promptly vomited.
"You're going to come back to me," she told him quietly. "I'll be here, waiting, when you wake up."
&&&&&&&&&&&&&
"Royoko, ya hafta do somed'n!"
The wing king looked up as she pulled her helmet off. She had landed from her patrol only a few moments ago to find Moira and what looked like the angry half of the ship waiting for her when the cockpit opened.
"Moira, what are you talking about?" Ryoko asked her. "I've been off the ship for three hours. You're going to have to be a lot more specific."
The Scot held up a sign, the corners ragged as if it had been torn off a wall.
ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES NOW PROHIBITED BY ORDER OF THE XO.
"Da pop'njay lizard went a'n locked up all ev 'er booze, Royoko!" Moira cried. "Der isn'a a drop to be found anywhere!"
"Jesus Christ," Ryoko muttered. She took a breath and decided to try to be diplomatic. "What would you like me to do?" she asked.
"I've got twenty lads here, Royoko," Moira told her. "We say storm 'da bridge 'an..."
"Woah! Hold the comm!" Ryoko said, hopping down from the cockpit. "You want to MUTINY... over BEER?"
Moira looked sheepish for a moment. "Well 'an dat ain't all," she said. "He's pulled all women security furces off duty, took 'der godedamn guns away, fer Chrissakes! He reassigned three of me Marines to 'da kitchen!"
For the first time, Ryoko noticed that an overwhelming majority of Moira's mob was female.
"Royoko, you outrank 'da bastard!" Moira hissed. "Ya hafta do SOMEDING!"
"I'll talk to him," Ryoko hissed, starting for the ops desk.
"Talk?!"
"Yes, Moira, talk!" Ryoko bit back. "It might not be as satisfying, but it's what Jun would want us to do FIRST! While Jun's out of action, HE'S the CO."
The Scot fumed. "Fine 'den," she told her. "Ya go ahead and talk. Da rest of his dainty females will go try on ar new burquas." With that, she and the mob stormed off.
"Fucking perfect," Ryoko hissed.
Before she talked to the Vice, she had another problem she had to deal with.
&&&&&&&&&&&&&
Lieutenant Junior Grade Priscilla "Pixy" Everett thought she was in trouble from the moment she entered the wing king's office.
Seeing Ryoko look up from her terminal, she snapped to attention. "MA'AM!"
"Take a seat, Pixy," Ryoko ordered quietly.
Pixy sat and folded her hands in her lap.
Ryoko didn't look up from her screen. "Your first long range patrol is tomorrow," she said simply. "You're going to be on Drifter's wing."
The young blonde gulped and hoped Ryoko didn't notice.
She did.
"You're not cut out for this," she said. Ryoko finally looked up at her. "There's no shame in it."
Pixy's breath caught in her throat. "Ma'am, I..."
"Don't get me wrong," Ryoko continued. "You can fly well enough. It's combat where you get a little... fuzzy."
"I'm scared," she replied. "I didn't think I would be, but..."
Ryoko nodded. "Pixy, I need good pilots... desperately. But I can't have those pilots freezing up when they're needed most. So you tell me what you want to do."
The girl looked at her lap. "I don't know," she whispered.
The wing commander sat back in her chair and looked at her sympathetically. "Jun could probably use an aide de camp. Do your patrol tomorrow, and I'll start the paperwork."
&&&&&&&&&&&&&
"Colonel Subaru, I assure you, no one is changing anything," Genechiro said, hanging onto the ragged edge of civility. "A few administrative actions were taken. That's all."
On the other side of the comm window, Ryoko arched an eyebrow. "Administrative actions, huh?" she replied.
"Yes, until Captain Aoi wakes up, it is in my purview as XO to make those kind of decisions."
"Look, Tsukuomi," she tried civilly, "I'm not arguing. I'm merely suggesting that you take a look at some of those decisions. After all, there's little point in implementing decisions that Jun is just going to overturn the second he sees them, right?"
Genechiro forced a smile. "I'll keep that in mind. Out."
Ryoko's face disappeared.
The XO slammed a fist down on the command panel. Were this a Jovian vessel, that... WOMAN... would be sewing shirts in the laundry, not telling him how to run a combat vessel.
"I brought you your tea."
He snapped out of his reverie and turned to find Aurora standing there with a cup of tea. "I'm sorry, what?"
"Your tea," the blonde elaborated, offering the cup and saucer with her good hand, the other still in the chem cast from her ordeal on Ford Festiva. "You have some about this time every day, right?" The scientist continued as Genechiro took the cup. "I noticed you haven't had time to get some from the kitchen this past week. Too busy, huh?"
"Thank you," he said, caught off balance.
"Something troubling you?"
He shook his head.
"Something troubling Ryoko?" she tried again. "I kind of heard it. You seem a little upset."
Genechiro grit his teeth. "I'm just a little tired of hearing about how Jun Aoi would do it better."
"I know the feeling," she told him quietly. "Sometimes I feel like I'm just a placeholder for Dr. Franssenge, you know?"
"You've performed... adequately," Genechiro let out hesitantly.
"You really think so?" Aurora brightened.
Genechiro, sensing the trap he just walked into, sighed. "Yes... adequately."
The scientist smiled broadly. "Thanks! I don't see why everyone thinks you're so mean!"
The XO growled.
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
"What now?"
Izumi watched her breath freeze in front of her as the temperature continued to drop. They were safe in the asteroid for the time being. She bit her lip and tried to think up something that would get them out of this mess. "I think..."
Suddenly, static squealed over her comm link. She tried switching to the back-up frequency, but static met her on every channel. Swearing to herself, she sealed her helmet and popped her canopy.
Floating carefully to the ground, she saw Hikaru doing the same. She tried the comm in her helmet with no success and growled. Bouncing up to Hikaru, she took the red-head's helmet in her hands and placed her own visor firmly against it.
"They have a Compass Call!(2)" she shouted, the vibrations from her voice reverberating across their visors, making her audible. "Comm is out!"
"What now?!" Hikaru shouted back.
"We have to warn the others!" she replied. "We have to make a run for it!"
"My port engine is fried!" Hikaru told her.
"Then one of us has to stay here!"
&&&&&&&&&&&&&
Izumi marched down the corridor and turned at Engineering. She found Hideki in one of the back-shops, working on making advanced rounds with the laser cutter. The Jovian looked up and smiled.
"Colonel," he greeted. "What can I do for you?"
"I need a favor," she told him simply.
"What do you have to trade?" he asked with a smile.
Izumi was prepared for this. She had heard through the rumor mill that Hideki was running a favor factory, even getting Ryoko to owe him one.
"Open a tab?" she asked.
"Depends on what you need from me," he told her.
"Access to Jovian military records," she said plainly.
"Easy but dangerous," he warned, turning back to his task. "You'll owe me big."
She nodded ambivalently.
"Lucy!" he called.
A grasshopper peeked around the corner at them and twittered.
"Go with Colonel Maki," he ordered. "She has some questions."
The machine twittered and walked toward Izumi.
"Bring some of your nicer-looking pilots to the revival tonight, and we'll call it even," Hideki told her with a smile.
"Ecchi," she replied with the beginnings of a smile.
&&&&&&&&&&&&
Though she couldn't understand Lucy's twitters, the grasshopper made things easier, walking right up to a viewer and detaching a cable from her torso the moment they entered her quarters.
Without a word, Izumi plugged her in and brought up a holo-board, scrolling through options until she reached the personnel records. She paused twice, not really sure herself if she wanted to know. She wasn't even sure the Jovians would keep such information on file.
But they did. And at the end of an extensive list, she found what she was looking for.
DE472-91
SM044-96
LC020-96
ND033-96 (3)
Izumi sat back in her seat and sighed. Just to make sure, she clicked the link, requesting details.
ND033-96
BELT DEFENSIVE CAMPAIGN
JULIET-CLASS AESTIVALIS
CONFIRMED KILL
Biting her finger in anxious thought, Izumi closed Rikari's service record and left the room.
&&&&&&&&&&
"IS EVERYONE HAVING A GOOD TIME TONIGHT?!" Hideki shouted into the microphone as Chase finished a guitar riff. The crowd, about fifty Nadesico crewmembers and a surprising number of Jovians, cheered.
The engineer beamed. So far his anime showing was a complete success. Although he was originally just going to show Macross, he had gotten into the spirit and shown some Gekigangar and a few other titles as well. A surprising number had stayed for the concert afterward.
"Let's hear it again for our Minmei stand-in, Ruri Hoshino!"
Standing on stage nearby, in a green and yellow dress, Ruri looked bored. "I want to die," she said into the mic.
"And a round of applause for Uncle John's Band!" Hideki added to fresh applause. Chase did another riff.
"Now before the shock troops show up and break things up..." Hideki joked, "We've got one more song for you..."
"Too late!"
Hideki looked up at the entrance to the conference room...
And found shock troops there, Genechiro in the lead.
"Wow, you really called that one," Ruri noted.
"Clear this room!" Genechiro ordered. People started pouring out as if someone had just shouted, "Gas! Gas! Gas!"
Hideki sighed. "Tsukuomi, what's the problem?"
"The problem?" Genechiro asked angrily. He pointed at the screen where the Macross credits were still playing. "Spreading heresy is a crime, not a problem."
"The captain approved this!" the engineer spat back.
"Well as the current commander, I'm disapproving it." He turned to one of the troops. "Put him in the brig."
"What?!"
Chase stepped up. "Whoa! Hold on there, John Wayne! You can't do that!"
"Oh no? Him too!" he ordered, pointing at Chase. Guards stepped forward and put handcuffs on the two men.
Ruri furrowed her eyebrows. "Mr. Warren is right," she told him deadpan. "Under UEAF regulations, you can't just arrest people you disagree with."
Genechiro looked at her. "I disagree with that."
&&&&&&&&&
"So... I guess he CAN arrest people he disagrees with," Chase noted.
Sitting on the other side of the brig cell, Ruri looked angry enough to kill.
"Baka... Baka... Baka..."
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
Ryoko watched the screen in her office as Drifter and Pixy's Aestivalis took off. Biting her lip, she turned and sat down again, addressing the man across the desk from her.
"Scarf is going to take the RJ solar north and listen for comm traffic between these two planetary bodies. I'd like your guys to provide security."
Rikari took a few notes. "Something about Drifter or Pixy troubling you?"
Ryoko was taken off guard, but recovered quickly. Crossing her arms over her chest, she leaned back in her chair. "It's Pixy's last flight," she said. "She's going to be an aide."
The Jovian arched an eyebrow. "That will put you another pilot short," she noted. "What prompted this?"
The wing king knew she had to walk a finer line with Rikari than most. They were technically the same rank, and the Jovian was her de facto deputy, so she couldn't just dismiss the Jovian officer's concerns.
Finding the right words, Ryoko laid it out. "Pixy has aggression problems."
"What? You mean she's too bold?"
"No, I mean she doesn't have enough," Ryoko said in exasperation. "She doesn't have the kind of killer instinct a robot pilot needs. She hesitates. It's... It's dangerous."
"She's young," Rikari reminded her gently. "She's what? Twenty-two?"
"Yeah," the teal-haired woman replied.
"Try to remember what it was like when you were twenty-two."
Ryoko bit her lip. "When I was twenty-two..."
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
Twenty-two year old Ryoko Subaru rolled her sleeves up. "All right, Xian Mei," she growled. "You want it that bad? Let's go!"
The Chinese woman she was threatening put her hands on her hips. The other three pilots in the Nergal Test Cadre paid no attention. Fights between Ryoko and Xian were a normal occurrence these days. When they were testing on Earth, they could at least stay on different sides of the base. On board the UES Valkyrie, on loan to Nergal for space flight testing the new space frame, there was no avoiding one another.
Xian stuck her tongue out, and Ryoko charged, catching the taller woman across the waist and carrying her ten feet like a Raiders linebacker.
Hikaru didn't even look up from her manga as the two fell over the footboard of her bed, scratching and pulling hair. Angry screeches were exchanged.
The lights in the room turned red, prompting Hikaru to break her attention from her Gekigangar manga. "Another drill?" she sighed. "Jeez..."
Ryoko and Xian didn't bother to stop as an older man's voice came over the loudspeaker.
"This is the captain," he announced. "May I have your attention, please."
Ryoko screamed as Xian got a good grip on her teal hair and pulled with all her might.
"A few moments ago, this ship received word that an unknown fleet appeared on long-range lidar approaching Mars from the direction of Jupiter."
Xian grunted as Ryoko got a good shot to her gut in.
"Quiet!" Hikaru hushed them.
"The Sixth Fleet, under the command of Admiral Fukube, intercepted the fleet just short of the Martian Defense Line... and has been roundly defeated."
Ryoko and Xian finally stopped and listened.
"We are now receiving reports of the total destruction of the Mars Utopia colony... as well as the complete destruction of the spacecraft carriers Akagi, Katsuragi, Sohryu and Ayanami..." (4)
Ryoko dumped Xian off her and shot to her feet, staring at the loudspeaker in shock.
"All of the questions I know you're asking yourselves mean nothing right now," the captain said. "The priority now is to get this ship combat ready. Department heads, attend to your departments. Remember your training, trust the man next to you, and we will get through this."
"That is all."
&&&&&&&&&&&&
Ryoko regarded Rikari for another moment. "When I was twenty-two, I had more important things to worry about," she said.
She was interrupted by a knock at the door. Looking up, she found Scarf standing in the doorway. "You got a moment, Colonel?"
"Come in, Scarf," Ryoko replied. "What's on your mind?"
The Texan glanced at Rikari, then back at Ryoko. "Alone?"
The Jovian got the hint and stood up. "We can finish this later," she said, offering Ryoko a salute. "Colonel."
Watching the Jovian officer walk out, Scarf turned to Ryoko and took a breath. "I didn't realize you had male RJ pilots," she said flat out.
"What do you mean?"
"The XO has ordered me to stand down," she told the wing commander. "I'm not to fly my bird anymore."
Ryoko rubbed her temples. "Goddammit," she muttered. Looking back up at the pilot, she took a breath. "Ignore him. I need you out there."
"What about him?"
"I'll handle him."
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
Megumi stepped onto the bridge, and was surprised to see Aurora running between stations, making adjustments.
"Aurora?" she began. "What's going on? Where is everyone?"
Squeaking in panic as the helm terminal began to beep, Aurora rushed to Chase's seat and made a few adjustments before sighing in relief and turning back to Megumi.
"Um... what's the term for a Navy prison?" she asked.
Megumi arched an eyebrow. "The brig."
"Yeah, they're in the brig," she announced.
"THE BRIG?!"
"Yeah," Aurora said sheepishly. "There was a... um... failure to communicate."
"What are they doing in the brig?!" she cried.
"Mrs. Aoi, how is the captain?"
Turning, she found Genechiro standing there. Brushing aside the question and that he addressed her by her salutation rather than her rank, Megumi put her hands on her hips.
"Commander Tsukuomi, why is the entire bridge crew in the brig?"
Genechiro's face turned cross. "In the captain's absence, I have to run this ship to the best of my ability, and spreading heresy has a corrosive effect on morale and unit cohesion."
"So... Aurora is running the bridge?"
"Only until one of the men from the laundry can come up and take her place."
The commo huffed. "I see," she said. "And who will be taking my place at comm? A guy from the mail room?"
Genechiro smiled. "Oh, no need to worry about that. Women in the more womanly fields like communication will remain at their posts."
Aurora cocked her head as her ears picked up a low, crunching sound. She swallowed nervously as she realized it was the sound of Megumi's teeth grinding together. She watched as her idol started toward the lift.
"If you will excuse me, Commander," she said, voice syrupy sweet. "I need to go change into a longer skirt."
Genechiro smiled. "Excellent! You've already heard about the new dress code!"
The doors closed behind Megumi, and Aurora could swear she heard thumps as Megumi bashed her head against the door.
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
"All right!" Ryoko screamed as she marched onto the flight deck. "I want to know what kind of bullshit joyride you people think this is!"
The crewmembers huddled around the Rivet Jack jumped to attention as she approached. "MA'AM!?"
"Scarf is thirty minutes late to pre-brief!" Ryoko barked. "Where is she? And if the answer is 'hung over,' I swear to Christ I'll space every last one of you!"
"We don't know, Ma'am!"
Ryoko was taken aback. The spacing part of her tirade was only hyperbole. Even so, if her pilot was drunk and out of commission, so would the rest of the RJ crew. Yet the rest of them were there with their gear, looking generally puzzled.
"So... Where the fuck..."
"Try the brig!"
She turned and saw Megumi walking up to her.
"I was just there," she said. "They've got Scarf, Chase, RURI..."
"For what?!"
"Get this," Megumi said, preparing her. "Heresy."
"Wot's the deal?" Moira asked, walking up.
"That's it," Ryoko muttered, walking to a vid panel. Turning it on, Genechiro's face appeared.
"Ms. Subaru," he said in greeting.
She ignored the slight. "I want my flight crews and everyone else you've got in the brig on bullshit charges released right now," she said icily. Megumi took a step back. Usually Ryoko got louder when she was angry. She only got quieter when she was positively livid.
"Denied," he said. Almost as an afterthought, he added. "Furthermore, after some thought, I've decided to make some personnel switches. Colonel Rikari will be taking over as wing com..."
"Release them now," she repeated, cutting him off. "FURTHERMORE," she said in a deliberate impersonation. "I'm making some personnel changes of my own. When Lieutenant Commander Hoshino arrives on the bridge, she will relieve you of command and..." (5)
"That is quite enough, MS. Subaru!" he said. "You're forgetting who you're talking to!"
"I know who I'm talking to, Tsukuomi," she said, her voice still frosty, but picking up steam. "An asshole!"
"That is insubo..."
"I'm going upstairs!" she announced. "And I'm getting my men!"
"MS. SUBARU, YOU ARE UNDER ARREST!" he screamed. "Remain there until security arrives."
With that, he disappeared.
Ryoko started shaking in rage.
"Royoko?" Moira asked.
Suddenly, the wing king turned. "We have sixty seconds!" she cried. "Moira, I need Marines sealing those doors! Now! Crew chiefs, I need birds ready to fly RIGHT NOW!"
People started scrambling.
"Oh, Ryoko," Megumi said in mock disappointment. "ANOTHER mutiny?" She smiled.
"Jun can court martial me when he wakes up," Ryoko told her. Around them, Marines were scrambling from the weapons lockers in full battle-rattle, taking up positions by the doors.
"Wot's the plon?" Moira asked, adjusting her kevlar.
Ryoko handed Megumi her sidearm. "I'm going upstairs...in an Aesti," she said. "The rest of you need to buy me some time."
"Ye've lost yer foking mind, Royoko!" Moira told her. "Wit 'dat distorshon field op, ye'll smash rot into da ting as sone as ye launch!"
"That's why I'm going out manually," she said. "I'm going to climb up the superstructure and point the biggest gun I have at that chauvinist's head."
She started for her Aestivalis.
&&&&&&&&&&&&&
"Are you really that stupid?" Rikari asked him.
Genechiro crossed his arms over this chest as Aurora dashed from station to station behind him, checking read-outs. "I'm the commander, they're the crew. It's how things are."
"These are not Jovians!" she hissed at him. "You cannot apply your rules and expect them to take it!"
"I can, and they will!" he shot back. "And if you don't like it, you can join the others in the brig!"
Rikari came to attention and saluted. "If you will excuse me, Commander," she spat. "Something tells me I don't want to be on this bridge when Colonel Subaru arrives."
&&&&&&&&&&
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
On the other side of the door, Moira smiled.
"SECURITY FORCES!" the cop yelled from outside. "Open up!"
Sixteen Marines and two ground-combat Aesti's racked their weapons.
"It's open!" Moira sang with a smile.
A pause.
"Um... That's okay, we're good," she heard.
"Royoko," she breathed. "Yo've got yer minutes."
&&&&&&&&&&&
Using magnetic grapples, Ryoko carefully made her way up the port side of the ship. She had to be extremely cautious. With the distortion field up and only fifty yards away, an accidental drift could cause her to crash.
She hoped Moira and the others were okay. Security Forces were pros, but she knew up against the Scot's Marines, there was the potential for a good deal of blood.
Her Aestivalis arrived at the neck of the superstructure, where the bridge section met the rest of the ship. Pushing off, Ryoko floated slowly upward toward the bridge window. Carefully unslinging her fifty-cal, she drifted right in front of the bridge and stopped.
Opening a comm window, she didn't waste time.
"Everyone who doesn't want to die, leave the bridge!"
Genechiro's face appeared in front of her own. "You don't honestly believe I'm going to just hand you the ship? I'll have the Nadesico's weapons blow you out of the sky!"
"Good plan," she conceded. "Except you made two mistakes. One, at this range, there are only a few weapons on Nadesico that can be trained on me, and I know them better than you do. Second, with Ruri in the brig, good luck getting Omoikane to override the IFF system to where you could even BEGIN targeting me."
"Pfft!" the Jovian countered. "In two minutes, I can have a dozen Y-Types out there!"
"I see another robot out here, and I kill the man driving it!" Ryoko told him. "Now you..."
"DRIFTER'S HIT! DRIFTER'S HIT!"
"The fuck?" Ryoko asked in surprise.
Aurora's face appeared next to Genechiro's. "Um... Excuse me, but while I was checking the comm station, I noticed there was a message, so I..."
Ryoko didn't wait. She tapped into the comm feed from the SWACS. Pixy's voice came rushing over the line.
"Drifter's hit!" she repeated. "House, this is Longshot Two! Say again, Drifter is hit!"
"The SWACS says the patrol was checking out some kind of cosmic cloud and they were jumped," Aurora said. "What should I..."
"Scramble fighters immediately!" Genechiro ordered.
"It won't do any good," Ryoko said in wrathful impotence. "Even if they burned their engines out, they couldn't get there inside half an hour." She took an angry breath. "They're on their own."
"He's in a flat spin!" came Pixy's voice. "He's ejecting! House, Longshot Two, we have a May West in the water! Oh hamburgers! Here they come again!"
&&&&&&&&&&&&
Their feud forgotten for the moment, Genechiro listened to the comm net, his heart pounding in his chest.
"They're coming out of the cloud!" Pixy announced. "Engaging!"
He heard gasping grunts as Pixy started high-g maneuvers. "Come on, come on," he heard her whisper. A high-pitched whine, eerily reminiscent of a EEG flatline came over the line. "Tone! I've got tone!" she cried. "FOX TWO! FOX TWO!"
&&&&&&&&&&&
"Come on, Pixy," Ryoko whispered. "Come on."
"SPLASH ONE! SPLASH ONE!" the young woman shouted.
"Yes!" Ryoko cried, slamming her hand into the IFS reader.
"I've lost the other one! The other one's in the cloud somewhere! Cat's Eye, Longshot Two, bogey dope!" she ordered.
"Longshot Two, Cat's Eye," Ryoko heard an SWACS tech respond slowly and clearly. "Vector two-two-seven, descend to Angel's Five for target."
"Roger! Moving to engage!" Ryoko listened to her breath, accelerated and heavy from adrenaline for several seconds. "I got him! I got him!" More grunts as Pixy turned hard.
"Come on, Pixy," Ryoko urged. "Waste him!"
"TONETONETONE!" she screamed. "FOXTWOFOXTWO!"
&&&&&&&&&&&&
Genechiro waited breathlessly for several seconds, looking up at the lidar feed from the SWACS.
"SPLASH TWO!"
"YES!" Genechiro hissed, slapping the command terminal.
"House, this is Longshot Two," Pixy announced. "Repeat, splash two. I need an SAR bird out here for recovery."
"Um..." Aurora began, Megumi's earpiece at her head. "That's... um... good?" she shrugged.
Ryoko jumped in at this point. "Understood, Longshot Two," she said. "Remain on station for security."
"Roger that!"
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
Pixy heard and felt the dull clunk that signaled her Aesti coming to berth. Reaching out, she shut down the transpositional engine and the avionics. Taking a deep breath, she popped the canopy...
And applause met her.
Half the crew was standing below her Aesti, cheering. She looked to her left and saw her crew chief placing two diamond-shaped decals on the side of her robot below her name.
Smiling, she laughed shortly and started climbing down. When her feet touched ground, someone slammed into her, embracing her in a bear hug. She recognized Drifter's laugh and hugged back.
"Lieutenant."
She quickly came to attention and saluted. "Commander!"
Genechiro stood there, Ryoko at his side. He gave her a once over and nodded.
"Well done," he said simply.
"For a woman?" Ryoko asked suspiciously.
The Jovian was about to answer, but looked around at the assembled crew first. Men and women in different suits seemed intent on how he'd answer. His face softened. "No," he answered quietly. "Just well done."
&&&&&&&&&&&&&
"So Ryoko and Genechiro have decided to put it behind them," Megumi said softly. "Just like that. I guess being reminded of how dependent we are on one another out here jostled them pretty good."
She turned and smiled down at her husband. The EKG beeped steadily, but betrayed no sign of change.
Sighing, her smile slipped. "We miss you," she told him. Turning, she started for the door, reaching out and dimming the lights on her way out.
"'Gumi chan?"
She froze, her breath catching in her throat. Turning slowly, almost fearfully, she saw lidded blue eyes looking back at her.
"Jun chan!"
Tears rolling down her face, she all but tackled her overwhelmed husband.
Author's Notes:
1. The technique Jun used on Phobos is based on the experience of a U.S. Navy pilot shot down over Vietnam and shared during a POW/MIA luncheon at Offutt AFB. During the meal, the pilot told the story of how he allowed maggots to eat away the infected tissue in his leg until they were fat, then washed away with his own stale urine. To their credit, no one seemed to lose their appetite.
2. "Compass Call" is the name given to the EC-130Hs based at Davis-Monthan AFB, AZ. The role of the Compass Call is to fly near enemy territory and jam, intercept or fake enemy radio and cell phone transmissions.
3. Tail numbers are used to identify individual aircraft. In this case, ND033-96, identifies the thirty-third craft of that model released in the year 2196 and that it was based on the ship bearing the marker, ND, in this case, the Nadesico.
4. Evangelion reference. All the carriers listed are named for Eva characters. Ritsuko Akagi, Misato Katsuragi, Asuka Langley Sohryu and Rei Ayanami.
5. As operations officer, Ruri would be third in command of the ship and next in line of succession.