Epilogue: Command
The warship's empty bridge was quiet and comforting, lit only by the standby panels. In an hour, Vanessa would meet her XO, Commander Allison May-Reyes, and her CAG, Commander Jose May-Reyes, along with the rest of her senior officers in the wardroom, to go over the details of the ship's approaching launch and at last begin the Pioneer Mission. For now, though, the bridge was her own private sanctuary. Seeing her reflection in a dark monitor, she thought the white jacket, blue half-cape, and red trim looked good. For once, she didn't feel like an imposter. She adjusted her peaked white cap and the strap of her eyepatch, then ran her fingertips across the sensors station, remembering the bridge of the SDF-1. Will this bridge begin to feel like home, one day? Her gaze drifted to the dedication plaque mounted on the bulkhead.
UES JEANNE D'ARC
TOKUGAWA CLASS BATTLECARRIER
UN SPACY REGISTRY SBC-02
LUNAR FLEET YARDS
COMMISSIONED 2017
CHIEF OF STAFF ADMIRAL CHARLES MCCAMMACK
DESIGN ENGINEER: DR. E. LANG
BUILT BY UNITED EARTH GOVERNMENT ROBOTECH SPACE SYSTEMS DIVISION
"I am not afraid… I was born to do this."
The hatch slid open with a hiss, startling Vanessa.
"Mind if an old warhorse interrupts, Captain Leeds?" a gravelly voice asked, wryly.
"Maistroff?" Vanessa straightened and saluted. "I mean, not at all, General."
General Maistroff smiled tightly and waved away the salute. "Relax, Captain. I see much less point in formality these days. Yet another change that old age and experience have brought on me. Head of North American Training Command sounds impressive, but my subordinates all move paper, and I don't make any meaningful decisions." He strode to the observation port. "So, this is the carrier we've been waiting for. Excited about your new command?"
"A bit," Vanessa admitted, joining him. "Petrified, as well."
"Don't be," Maistroff growled. "You've prepared for this. I knew you were capable of leading even while you were still in a hospital bed, missing half your limbs."
Vanessa smiled. The passage of time had done nothing to mellow his gruff straightforwardness. "I'll try to remember that."
Maistroff reached into the pocket of his somber black coat and brought out a shiny, foil-cased cylinder. "Would you believe this is the same cigar I planned to smoke when I was in temporary command of the SDF-1?"
"The one Sammie scolded you over?" Vanessa asked.
Maistroff snorted, and stripped away the packaging. "As Lieutenant Porter is, sadly, no longer with us, I don't think she would begrudge me finally lighting this in honor of your first starship command."
Vanessa's eye stung. "No… I don't think she would."
They stood side by side and watched the silently blinking lights of the Lunar Yards. Support gantries, arc welders, and small craft formed their own tiny, shifting constellations in front of the two officers as dockyard crews made the minor repairs and refits the Jeanne d'Arc needed after its shakedown cruise in order to be ready for the pathfinder phase of the Pioneer Mission. Maistroff lit his cigar with an old-fashioned matchstick, and an aroma of cinnamon and cedar soon filled the bridge. He exhaled smoke and chuckled softly.
"Hope I don't set off some kind of damned alarm."
"I think I can take care of it, if you do."
Maistroff took another puff, and Vanessa was reminded of Admiral Gloval at the viewport of the SDF-1, his cold pipe clenched in his teeth. She felt an ache in her heart that had never quite gone away. They continued to watch in silence for a while.
"Been a long time since we last talked," Maistroff noted.
"You told me not to communicate with you, in that last message, right before the Battle of Manhattan."
"So I did. And you were angry with me."
Vanessa nodded. "At first. Until I figured out what you were trying to tell me."
"Thought you'd get it right away. 'Carry out your duties and responsibilities as you have previously.' When have you ever been a good little soldier who stayed quiet and did what she was told?"
Vanessa smiled at the jab. "It was the rest of your message, really. That part about the end of the Allied Fleet. Why didn't you just suggest it to Breetai before? Using the disbandment of the fleet as leverage over the UEG?"
Maistroff shook his head. "How many times do I have to tell you? I'm no visionary. That was your idea, not mine. I was just trying to warn you. Besides, Breetai wouldn't have listened to me about something like that. He needed to be hit a little closer to home, I think. And you pulled it off- the Zentraedi, Manhattan, reshaping the entire armed forces in your own image."
"That's a ridiculous exaggeration. I only played a small part in all of that."
"Hmph." Maistroff took a deep draw on his cigar, and blew out another cloud of smoke, courteously directing it away from Vanessa. "Perhaps so. But there are certainly a lot of traitors rotting in prison thanks to you. And a lot of Zentraedi and Terran officers in command positions on your and Captain Pentiet's recommendations."
"That's simply justice."
"Call it what you want. Between the reforms in the UN Spacy, the formation of the Global Military Police, and the voting bloc that Senator Nantes is putting together in the Assembly, I don't think Admiral Gloval would even recognize the government and military he left to us."
Vanessa swallowed back her sadness at the mention of her beloved former captain. "You say it like he wouldn't approve."
Maistroff looked over at her sharply. "What? No, Henry was always ready to do what was necessary. What was right. I'm the one who held back change for far too long, set in my ways." He paused, then added, quietly, "You know, I don't regret the stand I finally took, or that it cost me my position." He turned to Vanessa, looking uncomfortable in a way she'd never seen before. "It's just… for all of the power and influence I dedicated my career to gathering and hoarding, you would think that once I had it, I should've been able to accomplish more good than I actually did."
Vanessa didn't know what to say as he stubbed out the cigar and disposed of it. He turned back to her with a pained expression on his face.
"I'm sorry I left such a burden to you and the others."
Vanessa's breath caught, emotion breaking over her. She suddenly found herself throwing her arms around the startled old general. She leaned her head into his shoulder and murmured in a choked voice, "Do you know that, even though you were both so different… when you're near me, Admiral Gloval doesn't seem so far away?"
Maistroff hesitated, surprised by her words, and slowly lifted his arms and held her. "Captain-" He cleared his throat. "Vanessa, they're never that far. You and Hayes carry on the best of all of them. Why else do you think I pushed you both forward, the way I did?"
Vanessa smiled through a sob, and after squeezing him once more, she stepped back and dried her tears with the back of her hand.
"Farewell, Captain Leeds," Maistroff said for the final time. He looked at her from under the brim of his cap with what might have been pride as, this time, they exchanged salutes. He withdrew, leaving behind on the bridge an aroma of tobacco that, Vanessa believed, never quite went away.
The End
Author's Note:
Thank you, everyone who has continued with me through book two. As with book one, it has grown with the telling, and taken Vanessa and Bron in directions I never imagined at the start. Book three will will concern Vanessa's part in the REF's mission. I've thought about the fact that Robotech was a multi-generational story, but, given that it was established in book one that Vanessa's dream is to reach the stars and become an explorer, her story is not complete. Book three, Venture will begin posting in a new story starting at midnight, Wednesday, January 10.
Vanessa Leeds captains the battlecarrier UES Jeanne d'Arc at the vanguard of the Robotech Expeditionary Force's Pioneer Mission. She and her crew of explorers and soldiers venture out into unknown space, seeking a new future for humanity, but as the Masters' empire continues to collapse, sharks gather in the void between the stars.