Back from the Stars
chapter 1
The sound of footsteps in the hallway quickly faded until it disappeared completely. She was alone. When she realized she was indeed, she let herself fall into the large leather chair behind the heavy desk. At her back the dying sun cast faint rays that barely lit the large room.
-You didn't wait for me.
She murmured as he ran a hand over the folders piled on the desk and over the laptpop that had once belonged to him.
Despite it all a tear peeked out at the edge of her eye and slid down her pale cheek. She let go a contrite sigh and forced herself to get up. She jumped to her feet and grabbed all the paperwork and the laptop in her arms. She walked to the door and tried to open it with an elbow. Her long hair swirled in the air.
Only with considerable effort was she finally opened the door. The corporal at the counter immediately snapped to attention.
-Admiral Hayes!
-I will take this to my quarters.
She said pointing at her folder-laden arms.
-I've had enough for today.
The young officer nodded and proffered to help. Lisa Hayes glanced one last time at Admiral Gloval's office. She shook her head as she felt a migraine attack her brain. She had been like this all the time since she had returned from her long journey with SDF2, a week earlier. She could not get used to the Earth's gravity.
Yet that dark, ravaged planet had once been her home.
As the elevator doors closed she decided to visit the military cemetery, immediately, the next day. She wanted to see that grave, she wanted to mourn those tears that refused to come forth.
Flowers...
Yes she would bring him flowers and tell him how much she had missed him.
Would there be flowers in here?
As she left the Headquarters, the security guards at the exit handed her a respiratory mask and made sure she wore it.
-Is this really necessary?
They looked at her as if she had spoken in another language. One of them was a micronized Zentraedi.
-I'm afraid so, ma'am. As a precaution, you shouldn't inhale the air for too long.
Lisa got into the military car with darkened glass windows. When she was in the back seat alone, she took off her mask and grabbed her smartphone.
She typed a short text then rested her head on the seat and closed her eyes. Maybe she was just adjusting her system to the Earth atmosphere after that long journey. Yet on Tirol* she had not felt that kind of discomfort. She smiled faintly at the memory of that savage planet.
Your dream has come true.
she thought
A new text message snapped her out of her thinking.
"I'm still at the base. I'm going to be late. It's really a mess here."
Nothing else.
Lisa sighed but decided not to answer
The car headed into the former military quarter of New Macross.
Nothing was different and yet everything really was. The old tin can houses had been torn down and small 2-story buildings had been built in their place.
Lisa had been temporarily assigned the house used for the UEG members visiting from Monument.
Now it was Leonard who was in charge over the two main cities. It seemed so unreasonable to her.
She put on her mask again as she crossed the driveway bordering the street. The guard at the entrance took her thick folders and opened the door for her. When she was in the lobby she squeezed her eyes shut, trying to adjust them to the darkness
-I'm home!
She said weakly, without conviction. Then she raised her tone of voice.
-I'm home! Darling where are you?
The following morning Lisa Hayes had decided to stay at home and devote herself to looking carefully through Admiral Gloval's papers. She shut herself in what was momentarily her office. She had commitments at the headquarters and also an agenda with Lang, who had returned to Earth after 20 years with her, but she was in no hurry. She felt that she still had to adjust to gravity, whatever that meant.
Lisa stared at herself in the window pane. She never thought she would look like that at forty-two. She showed no more than 28, 30 years old. She knew that outside the solar system time spun at a different speed, but even that was something she experienced only by actually living it. sHe sighed as he pulled back his hair and then tied it into a ponytail.
Like the day before, a tear peeped over the rim of her eye. Gloval had left behind a meticulous compendium of records and papers from the Kyron attack in January 2012 and to the launch of SDF2 a few months later, until his death. Likewise, he had taken care to help in the dismantling of the RDF and had joined Leonard and Emerson in structuring the Southern Cross. Exedore and Claudia had been standing by his side all these years. The Zentraedi Malcontents and then the bacteriological warfare*... this new pandemic that did not intend to end. The population decimated by radiation. Diseases, cancers, leukemia, death.
Lisa ran a hand over her forehead. Her palms were sweating.
It's impossible.
She opened her eyes wide and blinked repeatedly. She had not heard that name in such a long time.
It was just a footnote at the bottom of a long file
"June 2012, Captain Rick Hunter resigned from the Defense Forces. Useless my remarks."
It was handwritten in the Admiral's scrawl.
Lisa paused to listen to her heartbeat. It was racing. She rose from her chair, staggering, feeling all the past washing over her like a rough tide. She grabbed her coat, her hat and yes, that damn mask. And closed the doors behind her.
-To the Military Cemetery!
she said to the driver who was waiting for her at full attention.
On the way she picked up the phone and for a moment she seemed to make a call but then turned it off and tucked it into her pocket.
-Listen Corporal... is there any store, or a greenhouse where I can buy flowers?
-Yes Admiral. There is only one greenhouse in New Macross, in which food items are grown, but maybe-I don't know. You could try looking for flowers there, though I don't think...
-Is the matter that... bad...?
She muttered as if speaking to herself.
-Yes, ma'am!
He replied with diligence.
-How old are you sergeant?
Lisa lifted herself onto the seat and approached the driver.
-Have you ever seen a flower? A flower in a field, or even in a pot, by the side of a road?
The guy shook his head.
-No, ma'am...
At that moment she vividly recalled a small yellow flower. It was a dandelion. A young man with bright blue eyes full of hope, had given it to her. She carefully have taken it from his hands.
"There is a whole field of flowers, they were born where there was only death and destruction, Lisa! I can't wait for you to see it!"
She shut her eyes until the car stopped in front of the named place. She put on the mask and got out of the car.
-Shall I wait for you Ma'am?
-No...go to rest. I will call you later.
The greenhouse was a giant glass and metal structure with the somewhat anachronistic name of Macross Farm. Lisa wistfully recalled the ground and atmosphere requalification project conceived by Lang and his team: it had set off with hope and enthusiasm. She knew it wasn't her fault but she was starting to feel a latent sense of guilt for having left Earth, her planet, to go light years away for 20 long years...
She had reached to the stars...
And now...
She entered the main door, reserved for the customers
It was indeed an impressive building complex. Divided into 5 levels in height, it was powered by wind turbines placed on the roof. Vegetables and fruits of all kinds were grown artificially. Lisa stared in amazement at every corner of the glasshouse.
A female clerk came up to her.
-Good morning...
she cast a quick glance at the ranks on the lapel of her coat
-Admiral?
She said with a hint of surprise
-How can I help you?
-Good morning.
replied Lisa .
-I...I was looking for...I don't know if it's possible to have any but...I was looking for some flowers.
Suddenly she felt uncomfortable.
-Some... some flowers for a grave
she specified
The salesgirl stared at her intently. Then she opened her mouth in a disarming smile.
-Of course madam! We have very little space to dedicate to flowers, and believe me until a few years ago you wouldn't have found a single one, but then the management decided to reserve an 'area of the greenhouse for planting ... there are a few species, you know, and sure, the flowers are not to be eaten, but they are so beautiful and people are buying them all the time!
Suddenly the girl fell silent and raised a hand to her mouth.
-I'm sorry Admiral, I got caught up in the enthusiasm myself, I didn't want to bore you.
Lisa smiled back.
-Not at all. I'm also enthusiastic that I could find some flowers. Real flowers.
-On the fourth floor, please come. The elevators are over here.
The sliding doors swung open with a small beep, and the girl greeted the clerks of the fourth floor amiably.
-Anna! Anna, come here!
she said, gesturing to a young zentraedi bending over an earthenware planter.
The girl approached them as she wiped her hands in her plain linen apron.
-Good morning! ...
-Anna, the Admiral... Admiral pardon me, I did not ask for your name.
Lisa smiled coyly. It had been years since she had been dealing with civilians. Of course, there was also a civilian crew on the SDF2 but who didn't know her?
These women had probably been born a few years after her leaving.
-Hayes, Admiral Hayes.
The Zentraedi girl brought a hand to her mouth
-Oh my God! You are Admiral Hayes! Admiral Hayes of SDF2, it's so wonderful to have you here! You, you are so... young!
The other girl too had widened her eyes in surprise but immediately regained a more professional attitude.
-Anna the Admiral is looking for some flowers, for a grave. Be sure to show her the lilies and gladiolules or whatever new we have!
Anna nodded vehemently several times and clasped her hands together in excitement.
-Yes and by the way we are lucky, madam, because new blossoms are being ready today, Mr. Hunter is setting them up right now!
The other girl smiled
-Then you are in very good hands, Admiral. Surely you will find what you are looking for.
However, at hearing that name Lisa froze. Just as she did shortly before at watching it written in Gloval's report.
-Are you okay, ma'am?
-I'm fine... fine...
Hunter... it's surely a case of homonymy.
Lisa ran a hand through her hair briskly, and followed the salesgirl through a hallway lined with spindly hydrangea plants and climbing wisteria.
They were small and fragile but desperately attached to the ground. So was the human kind after the war. She just couldn't believe she had come home.
The flower chamber the young Zentraedi had mentioned before, was bathed in artificial light: the room was dotted with dozens of LED lamps that cast a soft yellow hue. The whole room looked like tropical. There was no one in there.
-Please Admiral, take a look.
Said the girl, then she politely remained in a corner as Lisa made her way through walls of climbing monstera pots and several planter boxes. The scent was intoxicating. A scent she thought she had forgotten.
She sidestepped a series of bashful, skinny sunflowers and rounding the corner found herself in front of a large window flooded with light. For a moment she was blinded and squinted, unable to see anything. Then a voice startled her.
-Anna, is that you?
Lisa shivered and squeezed her eyelids tighter, still trying frantically to focus. The glare of that radiant sun hurt her eyes and she instinctively brought a hand to her forehead, like a visor. It was then that she saw a shadowy figure walking toward her. The bright light was at its back, and Lisa could only make out the outlines of some shoulders and an unruly mass of hair against the window. When her eyes became accustomed to the harsh light she could see him.
It was him.
She did not know what to say. Perhaps he had not recognized her, perhaps he had even forgotten her. He caught herself thinking that if she had not been wearing her Admiral's badges maybe it would have been better, maybe she would pass unnoticed...
But in the very few moments when these thoughts were swirling in her mind, she also thought about running like hell from that place... away from him.
-Lisa? I mean... Admiral Hayes... is that you?
His voice. His voice was still the same, squeaky, young, fierce. Lisa instinctively nodded and brought a lock of hair behind her shoulder.
-Captain Hunter... it's good to see you again.
-Now I'm just Rick... Hunter
He made a crooked smile.
She looked alarmed and swept a hand across the air.
-Of course ... of course, I ... pardon me, Rick.
Years had passed over his face. Little wrinkles surrounded his ocean-blue eyes. His eyes. Lisa involuntarily blushed. They were so blue and deep that so many memories immediately flooded back to the surface of that sea.
Silence had spread around them like a mist. Lisa suddenly doubted that she was even there and took a step forward, then another. Before too long she was in front of him and was able to feel his warmth. He was taller, so it seemed . And his shoulders had grown broader and more defined. Without ceasing to gaze at him she offered her hand, as she had done that time over twenty years before, when he had rescued her from the Alaska base*. It was the end of the great battle against Dolza.
Rick Hunter clumsily removed his thick rubber gloves and put them in his pocket, then reached out his hand, to clasp hers.
At the contact they both got quite moved. He coughed a few times and then smiled again, awkwardly.
-It's good to see you too Lisa...I mean... Admiral.
Lisa smiled softly. Then they both withdrew their hands. He looked at her ecstatically. Maybe it was just a dream. But no, he had seen it on the MBS news last night. The armored SDF2, the first to set out on the colonization plan, was now back, after 20 years - and after being listed as missing for the past 7 years. Everyone had been despairing, especially because in those 20 years a new class of colonizer vessels had left outside the solar system nonetheless. They were called Megaroads* and were still on their way to the stars.
Rick had shuddered as he listened to the news. Lisa, Max, Miriya, Lang, Breetai, Jonathan Wolf, and all his fellow Skull Squadron comrades were still alive. He could not believe it. By now Death had taken everything he had. There was nothing left for him anymore.
And of course, he never expected to see her so suddely in the most improbable place, where no one was probably going to look for him. For the past few years, he had been approaching the military again, but on the sidelines. And that greenhouse, where mankind was trying to defy the dying of the planet, was like a spot where his hope could still survive and where he often took refuge. He had become a lonely and impassive man. Yet he felt that this feeling was too much for him...
Rick quickly recomposed himself and put on his gloves again. His face took on a rigid stance. He clenched his jaw and swallowed hard.
Lisa.
-Lisa forgive me but I... I have to get back to work.
She winced
-But of course! I'm... Sorry... for having disturbed you...
She felt something like a fire heating her chest. She felt her cheeks flush. It was as if all those years had not passed by. Rick Hunter still had the ability to unnerve her with just two randomly tossed words. Yes he was ignoring her, why not? After all ... maybe she had definitely gotten used to having honors and pomp and ceremony wherever she went and to an almost adulatory respect. But Rick Hunter had never cared about military decency. She wondered how he considered the Army. If he happened to be in contact with the Southern Cross after the deposing of the Defense Forces. His valor and skills could not be wasted. The new apparatus was in need of a soldier like him, she knew for sure.
Lisa took a few steps and peered over her shoulder, looking around for the Zentraedi clerk. Blossoms surrounded them.
-Well, I...
she started hesitantly.
-I ...came here to get some flowers. I ... would like to bring them to the Admiral Gloval's grave.
At the mention of his name, her voice cracked a bit. Rick sensed it, but still decided to ignore her. His voice became even colder
-Yeah I see. Here are the fresh-cut flowers. Have you already chose what to get?
He took a few steps toward a large counter where moments earlier he was trimming the branches from their seedlings.
Gladioluses, dandelions, roses, snapdragons. Callas, daisies. Dozens of stems were piled on the table, dazzlingly, colorful crowns.
Lisa smiled, showing a small dimple on her cheek.
-They are... they are all so beautiful I...
She reached out a hand and left it in midair unsure whether to touch them or not. She felt his gaze on her
-What ... do you recommend? I... I haven't been seeing flowers for a long time...
She shyly lifted her gaze up to his tired face. A bitter wrinkle had scarred the corners of his mouth.
-Well, I... I didn't catch whether you work here or not...
she said in a thin voice
Rick breathed deeply and then returned to the back of the counter.
He stared at her again. She was so young. There was something that had mesmerized him against his will. Yes she was every bit as the young Lieutenant Hayes, the ice queen, scarier than a demon... her beautiful and fierce Commander Hayes.
-Rick... is there something on my face?
She tried to giggle but a weak, dull sound came out of it.
-No it's just that... you're so young. I'm sorry, you've probably been told this may times before, but well I ...it seems like time hasn't passed for you.
She bit her lip slightly.
-Forgive me Admiral, I should not address you like this.
Lisa opened her eyes wide.
-What? No, you, you have... you haven't said anything wrong well, and then... yes, you are right. See, it's that time runs at a different speed outside the solar system than it does on Earth. That is why I and ... I, have aged just a little bit.
She smiled as she recalled how he had called her when they first met. An old lady.
Rick nodded. He had turned serious and Lisa's smile died on her lips. She noticed that he was uneasy toward her.
However, she wanted to lengthen the time she could spend there as much as she could.
They stood still in silence. Then finally he let out a sigh, as if exhausted, or impatient.
-Anna! Anna, where are you?!
he yelled in an commanding voice.
The young Zentraedi rushed into the chamber with her eyes wide with terror.
-I'm here Mr. Hunter!
Rick grimaced, then, with a quick move, he took off his heavy rubber apron.
-Help the Admiral with these.
he said, casting a quick glance at the bunches of flowers.
Lisa winced. He walked by her side not even looking at her.
He was already down the hall when she heard him speak. In one breath and without turning back, he said.
-It was a pleasure to see you again. Farewell, Admiral Hayes.
Lisa stood stranded as he disappeared at the end of a mass of small saplings piled in a row.
Her heart skipped a beat. She opened her mouth to answer but he was already out of sight. She shut her dry lips, and for a moment she felt things she had not in a long time. She wondered if it was a dream or just the gravity doing its work.
-Admiral...Admiral Hayes which flowers did you choose?
Lisa was keeping looking in that direction.
-Captain Hunter works here? -I mean... Mr. Hunter?
The girl named Anna reddened.
-No. Well yes, sometimes you know. I... I don't know.
Lisa deduced that she had been instructed not to give away any information.
-It's okay Anna, really, its not important.
As the elevator descended,he looked keenly at his reflection in the mirror. He wanted to punch himself in the face. He knew she had returned. Yet that unexpected visit had shattered him. That was why he had run away. He had been hideous and rude:
as usual with her.
He smiled bitterly.
Who knows maybe she can still remember all the times I made her mad and pissed off. Maybe...
He shook his head, not quite expecting Admiral Hayes to have kept any memories. Of them. Of them together. Twenty years had been a millennium long for him, but Lisa? She had crossed an entire galaxy to reach the planet of the Robotech Masters.
She had realized the dream of a whole generation. Rick was caught thinking of Gloval... he would never know that his visionary project had finally come to life.
When he was on the tarmac outside the greenhouse, he put on his respirator mask.
He cast a glance at the sky. A few VTs were re-entering the air base. They were the new model VFA-6. They had been momentarily named Alpha*.
He bitterly recalled when the Lightning III tests were completed.
The SDF2 had left one clear night, in March, escorted by two squadrons of VF-4: the Skull led by Max Sterling and the Wolf, commanded by Jack Archer.
That night Rick had experienced the most searing disillusionment of his life: it still burned like an open wound. Back then he had hated Lisa, Max, Gloval, the Zentraedis, anything. A few months later he had resigned from the RDF. He was so stupid then, so immature. He thought he could forget but he hadn't. Roy had told him: "once that Robotech thing gets in your blood..."*
Rick Hunter shook his head again and headed for the parking lots. He got into the car and as he turned the key he realized that his hands were shaking. He gripped the wheel tightly until his knuckles whitened.
When he exited the underground parking lots, he drove past the entrance of the greenhouse and spotted her again. Straight as an arrow with that regal, stern stance of hers. She was clutching a bouquet of flowers in yellow and orange hues.
Rick slowed his driving visibly. For a moment he seemed to think hard. Then he chewed a curse.
He stopped the car.
She saw him and opened her eyes wide: in the sickly light of that veiled sun they were glowing like two precious gems.
-Those flowers won't last long out there!
He yelled
Lisa nodded but her gaze was confused.
Then Rick pushed the car door wide open.
-Come on, I'll take you there.
-Oh that's not necessary...
she murmured.
All of a sudden she felt a kind of awe.
-Come on!
Rick waved his hand as if to hurry her
So she slowly walked down the steps of the greenhouse and quickly entered the car.
She held the flowers in her arms, as one would hold a baby.
-Rick, thank you I...
she took off her mask, and he could clearly see that she was blushing.
-Its okay. I've been thinking about going to the cemetery, too. I'll show you Gloval's grave. It's all very much different since ...
his voice crackled for a moment.
-Since you left.
-Yes ... I thank you.
They remained practically silent for the entire ride. Lisa glanced at him from the corner of her eye every one and then. His profile was still as perfect as it had been all those years ago. She could well remember when she had first seen him on the tacnet, that day, at Macross Island ... the only thing she had been able to think was ... how handsome he was.
Then she glanced at his hands; he wore no rings. Maybe he hadn't married? And what about Minmay?
But Lisa didn't have the guts to ask anything. He was so sullen and she felt strangely awkward. The famous Admiral Hayes was no longer his senior officer. How could she be questioning him?
-So how many years has been since you left?
-Uh?
Lisa blushed again as he asked her point blank.
-Years? Well... I...
she slightly shifted three-quarters in her seat.
-Lang says up to the whole solar system we traveled with an average of 10.50 miles per second, but then, when we exited to another galaxy, every year it was like halved...So I think, we think...I mean...Dr. Lang estimated that for the SDF2 crew it was about 11 years and not 20 like here on Earth.
Rick squeezed his eyes shut
-This is unbelievable, you know it's hard for me to figure it out.
-I guess it is, also because it's so hard to believe it and ...
-Here we come.
Rick cut her off dryly.
The car entered the huge black shed inside. It had an elaborate roof in spires, similar to a temple-a cold, sinister temple. The car crossed an avenue lined with crosses of various shapes and sizes and stopped in a gap.
Rick rushed out of the car and pulled open Lisa's side door, but he didn't offer his hand. She felt a chill as she placed her heels on those shiny black tiles.
-Admiral Gloval's grave is this side.
Rick led the way. His knee-length coat mingled in the darkness of the bulkheads of that mausoleum. His hair, too, was still dark. Not even a strand of white in it.
Lisa felt a kind of nausea take hold of her. What was that horrible place? She wondered if it had not been unwise to walk out like that, alone, to satisfy a longing of the heart.
But Gloval had been like a father. His death had devastated her.
And then there was Rick Hunter, a few steps ahead, and Lisa didn't know if she could trust him. He was so distant. All of a sudden a nameless fear had seized her.
-Rick wait!
She said in a subtle, uncertain voice.
He turned and for a moment his gaze softened and got lost in hers.
He nodded
-Forgive me, Admiral. I am not used to walking together with ... anyone.
They took a black-tiled path that turned into a round plaza surrounded by bronze statues: it was the monument to the fallen soldiers of the Khyron attack. A life-size reproduction of a downed Varitech towered toward the ceiling.
-There it is, old Gloval's grave.
Rick pointed to a large dark stone, purposely hidden around much more prominent graves.
Lisa held her breath for a long time, just forgetting how to breathe. She took a few hesitant steps, squeezing the flower stems in her hands.
Admiral Gloval had left earthly life a few years earlier, in 2028, at only 68 years old* while the war against the Robotech Masters was raging. They had been defeated but Lisa knew he had been struggling with a long illness before succumbing against an invincible foe.
Rick glanced at her as she bent down and gently passed a hand over the marble slab that had his name and ranks engraved on it. He couldn't stop staring at the thick mass of her hair, shiny and groomed into locks that covered her back. Her figure was graceful, her long, straight legs were still perfect.
He never thought he would see her again. Then he remembered that he had once hated her, with such a rage that it made his blood boil, and he was surprised to find no trace of it, now that she was here. Everything seemed to be suspended
Maybe I'm just dreaming. And she is dead
He caught himself thinking.
-Lisa, Admiral, can you wait here for me? He said in a neutral voice.
She turned abruptly, and rose to her feet. He met her bright gaze, green as the hills and spring fields, as the pools of water in a wood before the holocaust.
She looked startled.
-I ... actually ... Rick...
She passed a lock of her hair behind a shoulder. A gesture he remembered so well
-I...
She wanted to say no, that she was afraid to stand alone, but his icy gaze and her position prevented her from saying it
-It's okay.
She said, trying to sound calm.
-I'll be waiting for you here.
Lisa was left alone. Completely alone inside that huge coffin of bronze and steel. She wondered why no one was visiting the deads ... she had heard that the citizens of New Macross had been dying all the time in the past few years.
A twinge of remorse that she could not cast out, had gripped her. She caressed the bronze bas-relief that reproduced the unique features of Henry Gloval.
-I'm sorry...
She whispered under her breath.
-I'm so sorry.
The car stopped at the crossroads leading to the military quarters. Lisa had casually inspected the interior. The seats were covered in dark leather. At the rearview mirror dangled a small wooden cross. On the back seats, upturned, were sacks of manure and compost and work tools.
Rick turned off the car panel and looked at her.
-You don't mind going on foot from here, do you?
-Oh no of course not! You were just so... nice to accompany me to the cemetery I... Rick I'm very grateful.
-Yeah sure...
he breathed noisily, his hands on the wheel: Lisa could see that his knuckles were whitening.
-I haven't been around here, well...since...
She understood.
-It doesn't bring me bad memories, it's just that...
Suddenly he stared at her and that look seemed to pierce her soul
-Just... memories...
Lisa held her breath and as much as she could she reciprocated his gaze, gently.
All of a sudden she did not want to leave. She wished that time would stop, or at the very least go back.
But this, this was not possible.
Lisa grabbed her bag, put on her mask, and got out of the car. Rick started the car, then he snapped a salute with that arrogant smile that had not changed. And she gave it back, keeping up the game, as if Rick were still her subordinate. She kept on watching the car until it was lost behind the curves that led to the highway. She then walked toward her temporary quarters.
When she returned home, she was greeted by a different atmosphere from a few hours earlier. The curtains had been drawn and a scent of cleanliness invaded her nostrils. Lisa Hayes let go of her bag and coat in the hallway and walked down the corridor of that unfamiliar house.
The kitchen was flooded with light; there were people hustling in it. It took a while for her to focus.
-Can we set it up here Captain Archer?
Said a voice she didnt know.
Further words she could not catch.
Lisa felt a slight annoyance. She cleared her throat and then shouted.
-I'm home!
Her voice was weirdly high-pitched.
A head of neck-length black hair peeped out from the top of the stairs
-Mom!
Lisa instantly changed her face.
-Hi sweetheart!
The child rushed down the stairs with an excited look on his face, she tried to reach up with her arms spread out to hug him and kiss him on the cheek, but he squirmed away
-Oh stop it! Look Mom...
-Don't want to kiss your mother? After all, she didn't show up all day.
Lisa snapped to the right, suddenly indisposed.
-Good evening to you, too.
she said in a flat voice.
He greeted her with a cocky smile.
Lisa felt him approaching and her whole body stiffened.
-Where have you been?
She looked at him resentfully.
-Who are those people?
she replied instead.
-Oh Mommy! you gonna listen to me!
Lisa looked away from both of them.
-Jack and I just went shopping, and these are the things I bought, and those people are the workers who are setting things up
-Exactly! I got two displays and a new device. It's called XBox here! It doesn't run the games we had on the SDF2. Obviously. These ones are new and are wayyy much cooler!
The boy was on a roll
-We also got some furniture, beds, and an enoooormous barbecue to set up in the kitchen!
Lisa turned around swaying her hair over her shoulders.
-Jack! How could you possibly have bought all these things!? We won't be here for long!
He glanced her in annoyance.
-I hope so! But still, the furnitures in this house sucked. I don't want to sleep in a second-hand bed. And neither you, right Son?
The boy burst out laughing; he had a funny, mischievous laugh. His eyes were green as Lisa's but he was otherwise a carbon copy of his father.
She shook her head.
-Don't you want to see what we got? Come on mom!
-Yes... I'll get changed and be right there.
Jack Archer watched her as she headed off up the stairs.
-Elizabeth.
he called out
She turned to face him.
-Don't be late.
Lisa nodded and disappeared into the bedroom. A new king-size mattress was leaning against the wall. She dropped onto a leather chair and tossed her shoes on the floor.
All of a sudden she felt she wanted to scream, or maybe cry, or both. She sighed loudly. Then picked up the phone she had been given by the Army and called the dispatch.
-Yes, Admiral Hayes. I need to speak with Commander Grant. Yes, it is an urgent matter. Have her call me back.
They arranged to meet the very tomorrow morning at Claudia's office in Monument.
-It was about time you came to visit me!
Lisa threw back a chilling shiver when she saw her friend, her best friend, walking toward her. She was pacing with a cane and her curling dark hair was now almost completely white. She looked thin, very thin, and despite her imposing height, she was as if hunched over herself.
Yet her loud cheerful voice was still the same.
-Claudia...
The two women hugged each other, unable to keep the tears from flowing down as copiously as a river in flood. Claudia took Lisa's face in her hands and caressed her cheeks gently, drying away the tears.
Look at you, you're so young-you're so beautiful!
-Oh shut up... and you' you look good too!
-Ah you shut you up! I know very well that I look like hell, there's no need for you to lie!
Then she burst into an infectious laugh. Her smile was still the same as always and Lisa felt a knot in her throat.
Claudia's office in Monument city was right in front of Commander Leonard's. Lisa cast a long glance at the gleaming plaque on the top of the armored door.
-The war has ended only a few months ago.
Claudia took a seat on a sofa of soft white fabric, and Lisa sat down next to her.
-I ... can't believe that ... they ... they arrived here on Earth ahead of us ...*
Lisa's hands were frozen. She was twisting them in her lap.
-They ... betrayed their people. They -have, for some strange reason, decided to come here and take back what no longer exists.
Claudia sighed. It was a question she and Gloval had been racking for years without finding an answer.
-But tell me. what has happened to you instead? You'll already know all about how things played out here in the old godforsaken earth. Instead, I don't know a damn thing about the colonization mission. Would you like some tea? Or do you prefer red wine?
Lisa glanced at her confusedly.
-Can you drink-I mean wine?
Claudia twirled a hand in the air. Her fingers were long and slender, with nails painted in pink.
-Sure. I'll probably will die drunk.
She giggled
But Lisa did not feel like laughing.
She grabbed her hands and squeezed them tightly.
-I can't hear you say these words...Why these masks? What strange virus is floating in the air? Is it pandemic? Claudia-please. What is this "flower of life" thing?
-Leonard will debrief you when he returns. Not me.
-Leonard Leonard,Leonard! I haven't heard of anything else since we got here!
Claudia stood up and took a few steps into the room.
-Lisa ... Lisa ... I can't believe it's been 20 years and you're still the same impatient little girl.
She took a bottle of red wine from the small refrigerator. It was already open and half empty. Or half full.
The two women leaned against the window pane. Once again Lisa contemplated that horrible landscape, a radioactive desert. Similar in every way to the Earth after the holocaust.. after the Rain of Death.
-I went to visit Gloval's grave...
she started.
Wine and emotion did not help her to hold back the tears.
-Oh Claudia! please forgive me, it's all so terrible!
Claudia dropped the glass on the table and hugged her.
-It seems like everything is falling apart. That our mission was just... meaningless...that it was just all a waste of time...
she pulled away from her and looked straight into her eyes. For a moment she said nothing. Then she sniffed, her gaze lost out the window in the fading sun.
-I met Rick.
She said without any inflection.
Claudia parted her lips in surprise. Suddenly she didn't know what to say.
-You?
-Yes I...I don't know how it happened but I...
Lisa started to wander nervously around the room, passing a hand through her hair over and over.
-I went to this greenhouse. To this huge greenhouse in new Macross and there -to get some flowers. And there...there was Rick...oh it's incredible I know, but it was him...
Lisa's eyes had grown wide open. In the sunlight they had taken on an almost amber hue.
Claudia nodded
-And...you... and did you talk?
-You... You've heard from him? Did you have any contact with him over these years? How is he doing?
Claudia stared at her, that look in her eyes said more than a thousand words.
-Why do you care now Lis? It has been almost twenty years.
Lisa gasped because Claudia's voice had sounded nearly scornful
She felt hurt. And she answered nothing
-I'm sorry Lisa. But Rick has had a hard life. He probably didn't expect so much suffering, maybe...he just figured out a different future.
Lisa's eyes were sizzling with boiling tears.
-He was so...cold. So distant.
-Lisa...
Claudia took her hand and made her sit on the couch next to her.
-You are married now, to Archer. You have a beautiful baby boy...
Lisa squeezed her eyes shut. A deep wrinkle appeared on her forehead. She bit her lips.
-I want to know what happened to Rick!
she said impetuously.
-I need to know.
She added, lowering her voice.
-What's up with Jack?
Lisa lifted her long eyelashes and gave that menacing look her friend knew so well.
Claudia raised her hands in surrender.
-Ok okay...the ice queen is back straight from Tirol!
-Claudia...
-I will tell you everything. As long as you tell me how it's going with your family. I would love to meet my little Jack.
Lisa smiled softly.
-He's really little you know?
She made a gesture with her hands, as if measuring an invisible package.
-He looks like a 6...7-year-old boy...
Claudia furrowed her brows.
-Time is relative outside the solar system. He is suffering from it, he hasn't started school yet, but he wants to fly the new VTs, you know, like his... father.
At the mention of the word "father", Lisa's face darkened.
-Maia, Max's daughter is like that too - actually all the children born during the mission are not growing up.
-Well neither are you, my beauty.
Lisa smiled sadly. She did not know if Claudia meant in age as much as in maturity.
-Me, I don't care, I just don't want Jack to feel uncomfortable here on Earth.
The bottle of wine was done, and Claudia opened up a new one.
-What is your husband going to say if you stayed here in Monument tonight?
Lisa shook her head.
-I don't think he cares.
She stood up and put a hand over the empty glass, as if to cap it.
-Claudia, you promised. Tell me what happened to Rick. Please.
They talked until nearly 10 pm, until the corporal at the front desk knocked to dismiss himself.
-Commander Grant. If you permit I shall lock the entrances.
-Yes, we are leaving too.
The corporal noticed that Admiral Hayes's eyes were swollen, and red with tears, but he played dumb and retired.
Lisa sniffed up again.
Claudia clasped her hands tightly
-Believe me the best thing you can do is to stay away from him. You already made that choice two decades ago. You cannot repeat the past.
Lisa clenched her jaw hard. Her phone was ringing again and again. She jumped to her feet.
-The past...
she muttered
-Is that your husband calling ?
-Yeah, he is.
Lisa headed for the coat rack, and started to don her heavy trench.
-I'll be expecting you in New Macross. Don't let me down Claudia. I only have you.
Claudia grinned sadly.
-I promise you, Hayes.
When she took her seat on the old Super Orchid, the one that young pilots once used for training , Lisa pulled the chair down completely and stretched her legs.
The old Varitech was in great shape, the flight would last about 1 hour. She checked her phone once more; her husband's calls were countless.
There were also some calls from her son, Jack.
Lisa brought both hands to her head pressing hard on her temples. She could feel her brain bursting.
She suddenly thought that that plane she was traveling in was going to break down and crash somewhere on a desolate plane. It would catch fire. Then nothingness.
How can I think something like that?
She shook her head: Claudia's words echoed in her mind over and over again.
"When he learned that the SDF2 was about to depart went out of his mind. First with Gloval and then with Leonard and Emerson. He blamed the UEG for not notifying him and for wanting to bump him off in favor of Archer. Indeed, he was still being disciplined for not getting in on Christmas attack*. Above all, he was heartbroken that the Skull Squadron was being assigned to Max. And then came to me crying drunk. Saying that you were abandoning him. After all he had done for you. After all the times he had saved you at the risk of his life."
Lisa squeezed hard the hem of her skirt.
"He couldn't believe that his entire squadron would leave the Earth and simply forget him. And what about Lang? Had he just used him for his own purposes? Lisa, Rick was devastated. And then there was Minmay. She needed him and he had no one else but her. He had me and Gloval okay, but at some point he started to desert his assignments and within a few months he resigned. It was a bad blow for the Admiral.
But Rick, you know what he's like? He is more obstinate than a mule!... In the meantime, the RDF has been dismantled. Edwards put great effort in it. And then this pandemic began. They said it was the Rebel Zentraedis who had developed a virus in a lab. That it was being spread through flies... can you believe it?
In a short time it was spreading all over the world. The air had become the worst enemy for mankind.
In the end Minmay got pregnant and for a long time I didn't see them again. Rick started working for the Government but as a civilian. He was testing airplanes. Besides, he couldn't do anything else, right?
... And then the baby was born. He was like him in every way. They named him Roy."
Lisa reminisced as Claudia's eyes filled with tears.
"But the virus was actually already in his blood. In his mother's womb. The baby was beautiful... he lived almost three years. Then the worst disease took him away. One Christmas night. That's when it all fell apart, including Rick and Minmay's relationship. And she left because she had started to hate our planet."
I will bring the power of Culture to outer space through my songs!
That slogan was well known all over the universe. Lisa remembered it well-it had also reached SDF2 along with Minmay's new hits.
"Yes the Macross Diva had left Earth with one of the new colonizing ships, the Megaroad 03. They were heading for a planet called Eden. Rick despite himself remained here. You see, he could actually have left as well and even got a squadron under his command. But he says he was done with the military. Yet when Dana joined the infantry at Southern Cross, he looked quite proud. I think he gave her some flying lessons with the new Alpha prototypes.
I didn't know he was into plants. However, I seem to remember that behind his old tin box he kept a small garden? Do you remember Lisa? You used to do his laundry all the time, you can't have forgotten that."
Lisa squinted her eyes, trying to chase back the tears. The damn phone was still ringing.
-Hello
-The UEG meeting was long.
-Jack, cut it out.
-I know you went to see Claudia, don't get mad! You have been on edge lately. That's no excuse, however, for ditching your husband and son two days in a row.
-I'm busy and you... you know that.
Lisa was so nervous that her hands were shaking.
-I'll be home in about twenty minutes.
Then she looked out the window. She could see her reflection, her puffy eyes, her cheeks red from her crying. How long had it been since she had cried like this?
It was so hard to accept it all. Admiral Gloval's dreams of peace had been lost yes -what did that old movie say?* Like tears in rain. But it was not only the old Captain's dream. It was also her dream... and Rick's.
All the past had returned with the power of a hurricane that swept over everything, leaving her disarmed after such a long time.
To be continued
notes:
1) In the OG Robotech timeline, Tirol it is the home planet of the Robotech Masters.
2)From episode 27, Force of Arms
3) In the OG Macross timeline the Megaroads vessels were colonizing ships
4) In the OG Robotech timeline it was the main fighter in service with the Robotech Expeditionary Force
5) From episode 1, Boobytrap
6) The 2nd Robotech war ended in 2032
7) From episode 35, Season Greetings. ( In this retelling Rick did not take action but stayed on with Minmay).
8) Eden, is the planet where the OVA Macross Plus is set.
9) From the Movie Blade Runner, 1982
Hi everyone, this story originated after a long period of thinking about my writing and about Robotech fandom. It is an undeniable fact that lately it is very deserted.
So I tried, for the first time, to write an AU hoping to meet the readers' liking. I had never thought of anything like this before. it's just an experiment, let's see how it goes.
I have often talked with my friend Misa Ichijyo about this crazy idea, and here we are.
I also wanted to thank Sempai Fokker for helping me with the Southern Cross timeline and his nice support!
See you super soon
lov
Mao