Robotech: The Stargate Saga

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters and universes that I am about to mangle around and mash together for my own demented author amusement – sadly all Robotech and Stargate characters and concepts remain the property of Harmony Gold and MGM respectively – I am merely borrowing them and make absolutely no profit from their use. As a result, please keep the legal attack dogs – also known as lawyers – firmly muzzled and on a leash as I have no money to give to anyone.

Authors Note: This chapter was originally going to be another interlude chapter but as these things sometimes do it took on a life of its own and has since graduated into a full-length chapter. Chapter events run concurrent with chapters eight and nine.

Chapter Ten

Lake Gloval

New Macross City

That Same Time

Doctor Emil Lang climbed out of the small electric car he had just parked in its normal bay. However, he didn't immediately begin moving to enter the research complex where he now worked, endeavouring to unlock yet more of the secrets and mysteries of robotechnology. While they had learned so much since that day twelve years ago when the SDF-1 fell out of the sky and crashed on Macross Island they still knew comparatively little about the more complex, not to mention esoteric, aspects of the incredible suite of sciences and technologies that came under the catch all term of robotechnology.

Unfortunately, that was not why he had come here today, it was after all his day off and even with his rank and position the UEG representative in the building – a somewhat stuck in the mud American bureaucrat named Richard Woolsey, who honestly reminded him of the holographic doctor from the pre-arrival sci-fi series Star Trek: Voyager, not that he would ever admit to watching it - wouldn't hesitate to tell him off for coming in when he was not scheduled to work. No what had brought him here was the thing across the street from his workplace, and which had been in every single dream he had had for the last few days.

That something was of course the SDF-1 which towered like a modern colossus over the streets and buildings of New Macross City. For all that she had been through, and despite the fact that she would never fly again there was simply too much damage from that devastating battle with Dolza and the Zentraedi Grand Armada, the ship stood like a giant mechanical sentinel – protecting the people of this city as she had done every day since that fateful day when they'd been dumped out by Pluto by there one and only attempt to fold space. An attempt that they knew now – from talking with the Zentraedi – to have been doomed to go wrong from the start due to them folding so deep inside Earth's gravity well. If only we had known, he thought not that it would have really changed anything given the sheer amount of forces the Zentraedi at that time had been able to call upon.

Mentally he shrugged off those thoughts. There was no point in dwelling upon what might have been after all. That whole 'what if' question was after all potentially a very dangerous kind of thought to fall into. Instead, he told himself firmly to live in the here and now, which currently included trying to figure out why this ship – and a specific part of her near the control room for the reflex furnaces, none of which was anywhere near operational any longer due to damage with only the ships secondary fusion generators working and those were only doing so to provide the lion's share of electrical power to New Macross City. Though even that would change in a few more months once they finished building the new power plant a few miles outside the city limits.

Knowing there was really only one thing for it he glanced around, noting that the street was quiet which was not unusual for this time in the morning, before crossing and beginning to make his way towards the now largely derelict battlefortress. As he got closer the evidence of the SDF-1's last ferocious battle with Dolza and the main Zentraedi Fleet became more readily apparent. The hull was covered with a mosaic of pits, tears and cracks – which had been sealed over by nano polymer layers in the hull giving it the appearance of having scabbed over – not to mention a seemingly endless number of scorch marks. It made the ship look somewhat like an old prize fighter, proudly displaying the scars of a lifetime of combat.

Not for the first time it occurred to him that it was frankly a miracle that they had survived that battle and managed to land the badly damaged vessel back here on Earth. After all, while the surface damage looked extensive it was nothing compared to the damage inside the ship as the self-repair systems could really only do so much and generally prioritized maintaining the integrity of the hull itself and certain essential supporting sections of the ships internal spaceframe. Which, the last time he looked at it, now somewhat resembled a giant lump of bizarrely shaped Swiss cheese from all the holes that had been blown in it during the battle. It was honestly a wonder that the ship hadn't broken apart during re-entry from all the damage she'd sustained, though it was also a testament to the incredible strength of the metals that made up the hull and support structures that, that had not taken place.

He mentally shook away those thoughts and the memories that came with them as he arrived at the entrance to the SDF-1 – which was still guarded by a pair of marines with two fully armed Spartan destroids standing over them as backup. To say the guards were surprised to see him was an understatement though they nevertheless checked his credentials and biometrics – ensuring he was who he said he was – before stepping aside and letting him go aboard.

He couldn't help the shiver that ran down his spine, and felt goosebumps appear on his skin, as he entered the ship. While it was reasonably warm for the time of year outside – surprisingly really since there was still quite of bit of debris and dust in the atmosphere from the Rain which was making global weather patterns unpredictable to say the least – inside the ship it was distinctly chilly. Which really wasn't that surprising as with, so few people stationed on the SDF-1 now – mostly just those engineers assigned to babysit the fusion generators and a small marine security detachment – life support and environmental control to most of the ship was either completely shut down or at very least running on minimal power. Of course, it, and the reduced lighting turning the interior of the ship into a maze of long shadows, gave the interior of the battlefortress a distinctly haunted house feeling.

"But then there probably are ghosts here," he muttered to himself in his native German thinking of all those who had fought and died on this ship. People like Roy Fokker, Jeff Kramer, Ben Dixon, and countless others, he would not be at all surprised if some echo of them remained here. An imprint in the alien power systems perhaps as it wouldn't be the first time that robotechnology had presented them with something that seemed downright supernatural in nature – like the temporal distortion they'd first experienced when the ship had crashed to Earth over a decade ago. To them they had been exploring the ship and trying to outwit dangerous automated defence drones that had still been online, for hours when outside only minutes had passed. Though the next time they'd gone aboard the time distortions had stopped, and the drone's shutdown, and they'd never quite figured out what had caused them in the first place though their best guess had been it had something to do with the ships fold system, which had been stressed to an incredible degree in bringing this ship here from its native galaxy.

Okay enough stalling Emil, he told himself firmly before beginning to head towards where whatever was making him dream of this ship seemed to be coming from. Hopefully he would soon have some answers, maybe then he would be able to get a decent night of sleep.

It took him far longer to reach his destination, which was down low in the ship near the legs that in the ships normal cruising configuration would have been the engine nacelles, than he had expected. He had had to divert a few times, twice due to corridors and sections being blocked by debris left over from the battle and once due to an entire section of the ship which had been flooded due to an unsealed breach in the hull letting in the waters of Lake Gloval. While internal bulkhead doors had confined the flooding to just that one section it had been an unpleasant surprise to turn a corner and suddenly be walking through freezing cold water.

Finally, though, and after some exertion climbing down emergency ladders and through crawlspaces that were designed more for maintenance and repair drones than six foot tall hundred- and eighty-pound humans, he reached his destination. In appearance it resembled a wall of solid robotech alloy, a wall he had seen numerous times before as it always barred access to whatever section of the ship that separated the power plants from the ion fusion sublight engines – indeed they'd only ever been able to access those through the maintenance crawlspaces – and which had previously defied all attempts to get through or see what was on the other side. Even plasma torches – which had with some effort and quite a bit of time ultimately been able to cut through robotech alloys – and later lasers hadn't even scratched it for some reason that nobody could determine.

Yet somehow, he knew now how to get passed it.

Almost without thinking about it he walked over to a section of the wall and pressed on it. For several seconds nothing happened then the section of wall under his hand glowed and dissolved. Pulling his hand away he saw inside a small keyboard – covered with alien numeric characters – glowing softly with a pale bluish-white light. Not sure how he knew, but knowing he did, he reached in and typed in a simple numerical code. The response was immediate as the entire wall began to glow softly, and there was a feeling of something that was both ethereal and unbelievably powerful at work before a split appeared from deck to ceiling in the centre of the wall and slowly parted, showing that the whole wall was one giant pair of doors eventually revealing a corridor beyond.

It was immediately obvious that this previously hidden section was very different in design to the original design of the rest of the ship. Whereas the other corridors had been constructed from purple-blue metal and scaled for a race of literal giants – though he was aware that was slowly but steadily changing as more and more Zentraedi were choosing to undergo the micronization process – the one beyond was not being clearly scaled for more human sized beings it was also composed of a strange composite that had an appearance almost like a green marble. Something further reinforced by the ribbons of different shades of green rippling through the material. The deck was made from a similar material though it was much darker in colour, shading more towards black with speckles of grey here and there, while the ceiling seemed to be made of semi-translucent red panels through which he could faintly see various pipes and conduits. Seemingly every few meters there was an ornamental light fitting on the wall which seemed to take a vaguely starburst pattern around a softly glowing oval shaped crystal.

Emil couldn't stop himself from staring at in amazement, especially as the section seemed to be completely intact unlike the rest of the battlefortress where it was easier to count those sections that weren't damaged from those that were. Then he shook himself and reached for the small comm device that he had brought with him, as curious as he was as to what was in the previously hidden section, he wasn't stupid enough to go in alone. It took only a moment for the comm device to put him through to the main command centre on the SDF-2 and for him to arrange for a squad of marines, some of his fellow robotechnologists and other technicians to join him. Then he found somewhere to sit down and wait, well aware that when they arrived, they'd enter this section and maybe, just maybe, the final secrets of the SDF-1 – including why the vessel was so important to the Robotech Masters the mysterious, but undeniably powerful aliens who had created the Zentraedi - would at last be revealed.

Ascended Planes

Once more standing before his viewing pool Zor watched the patiently waiting Terran scientist. From what he had seen and knew of him he knew that Emil Lang was a brilliant man, grasping aspects of robotechnology nearly instantly that many other scientists on not just Earth but on his native Tirol struggled with and figuring out how to apply them. Some of which were a surprise even to him as he would never have thought about the concept that Lang had termed mechamorphosis allowing vehicles to radically change form and function. He had been especially impressed with the transforming fighter planes that had given the Zentraedi so many headaches especially in the battloid form whose capabilities honestly rivalled the bioroids his former people used.

If only we had met when I was mortal, he thought with a slight wistful look appearing on his face. Had he met Emil Lang when he was mortal, he would sure they would have gotten along famously. Indeed, he could only imagine what himself, Lang and Cabell would have been able to create, the secrets and mysteries they would have cracked, had they met and been able to form their own little triumvirate of geniuses. The wistful looked faded from his face, being replaced by a distinctly melancholy expression as it occurred to him how anything they created would have eventually been perverted into yet another tool of conquest and oppression by Nimuul and the other self-proclaimed Robotech Masters. They certainly hadn't hesitated to pervert everything else including the Zentraedi, who had never been intended to be the warriors they currently were - instead when he and Cabell had created them they'd been meant to be miners on those worlds where the atmospheric pressure and surface gravity was too high for Tirolians worlds like Fantoma – though that was thankfully slowly changing as the Zentraedi began to learn from their current allies that there was so much more to life and living than being at war all the time.

At the thought of Nimuul and the others Zor felt the familiar anger return. He knew he would never be able to truly forgive them for what they had transformed his former people into, changing them from polite, friendly traders into ruthless imperialists. Even if they fell tomorrow, he knew that, without help and rehabilitation from another race – like maybe the Asgard who they had run into a few times in the past, though the last such meeting had not been pleasant and led to half a dozen Asgard battlecruisers wiping out a Zentraedi force five times their size in about thirty seconds – his people might never again become the enlightened people they once were. They probably wouldn't even have a future given the Invid were so determined to recover the Flowers of Life and were quite willing to either enslave or wipe out anyone who stood in their way.

Guilt stabbed at him when he thought about the Invid. His meeting with them, and his telepathic melding with the Regis, had changed them in so many ways. Though it had been his second meeting with them – with Nimuul and the others virtually holding an ion rifle to his head in the form of keeping his father prisoner to ensure his compliance -that had ultimately driven both the Regis and the Regent mad with rage and hatred as he'd been forced to lead the Zentraedi in a horrific crime one that had transformed Optera from a paradise world into a desolate wasteland. If only the Others would let me intervene there, he thought sadly, he would have taken as many of the spare Flowers of Life seeds as he could back to Optera and given them to the Invid along with the Alteran knowledge needed to regenerate their world fully removing the need to ravage entire galaxies in search of both the Flowers and the knowledge to restore Optera. Unfortunately, the rulers of the Ascended were not inclined to let him do that, it would be too much interference in the affairs of the lower planes, too much of a risk of becoming like the Ori to take.

A stance he saw as frankly ridiculous – and he wasn't on his own – as what use was having the power and knowledge they did as Ascended Beings if they didn't use it to help those less fortunate or less evolved than themselves. But such was the way of things. He supposed he should be grateful that they hadn't done anything to try and stop him intervening – even if only in small ways – here though it helped that he wasn't doing anything he couldn't have really done had he still been mortal.

Movement in the viewing pool drew his attention and he shrugged off his thoughts and regrets. Instead, he watched as Dr Lang and a newly arrived posse of soldiers, scientists and technicians began moving into the previously hidden section of his old flagship. It would not be long before the found the first of the biosphere sections and from their discovered his greatest creation – and arguably his greatest mistake given all the pain and heartache it had unleashed on the universe – in the form of the protoculture matrix. He just hoped that he was doing the right thing in revealing its existence – in the form of telepathically planting the information on how to deactivate the phase displacement field and open the security doors into Lang's subconscious mind a few nights back – to the Terrans.

"They've almost found it then," a familiar voice said from behind him making him yelp and jump. To see Janus standing there grinning.

"Damn it Janus don't do that," he complained, "what are you trying to do? Give me a heart attack?"

"We're made of energy Zor we cannot get heart attacks," Janus pointed out as he approached, a familiar somewhat cheeky grin on his face.

Zor rolled his eyes. "Whatever," he replied before looking back at the pool. "And yes, they will find the matrix soon they just have to pass through one of the biosphere storage areas first. What are you smiling about?"

"Nothing."

"Janus."

"Alright sheesh. I just cannot wait to see the looks on their faces when they discover the Flowers of Life and realize just what they are," Janus admitted his smile turning both a bit more cheeky and somewhat sheepish. "I mean you've told us all about the Flowers of Life, taught us a great deal about them and protoculture and I still have trouble believing it. A plant that can be a source of vacuum energy? Granted it doesn't yield as much as a portentia module would but still it is incredible to think about."

"They are incredible," Zor agreed, "I just…"

"What?"

"I just hope I am doing the right thing giving them access to both the Flowers of Life and the protoculture matrix," Zor admitted, "yes, I know they could use it, especially given that they will soon be threatened by the likes of the Goa'uld now that they've reopened the Stargate. Not to mention eventually my former people are sure to come after the matrix themselves as you can bet that Nimuul, and the others know by now that the Zentraedi failed and that Dolza is dead. But…"

"You fear that by giving them access they could become as bad, if not worse, than the Masters," Janus finished for him. "It is understandable, but I do not believe that they will let you down."

"You seem pretty certain of that," Zor pointed out.

"I am," Janus replied recalling an incident that had happened ten thousand years ago, during the last days of Atlantis long after his people had submerged the great cityship beneath the waters of Lantea's oceans to protect it from the seemingly endless hoards of the Wraith. Something that had given him hope for the future and for the eventual final ending of the Wraith.

"Alright I'll trust you for now Janus. Not that there is anything I could do to stop them anyway even if I were really inclined to, not without overtly using my powers and the Others would certainly stop me."

"That they would the frightful old bores. But enough about that why don't we just see what they do looks like they're about to find the matrix."

Zor nodded in agreement and turned to look back into the viewing pool.

Hidden Section

SDF-1, A Few Minutes Earlier

Emil Lang forced himself to walk calmly and carefully as, accompanied by a gaggle of fellow scientists and technicians and escorted by a contingent of marines from Fokker Base, he led the way deeper into the previously unknown section of the SDF-1. He knew, somehow, that what was waiting for them at the end of this corridor – which honestly seemed to go on forever though in reality they probably hadn't walked more than ten or twenty meters – was some momentous discovery. It was the same feeling from the dreams that had led him here, and shown him how to get into this section, in the first place.

He had to wonder why he was suddenly having such dreams and where such knowledge came from. It was strange and if he didn't know any better, he would have assumed that someone had somehow planted the information in his subconscious, and it was using the dreams to bubble up to the surface similar to how bubbles rose in carbonated water. But that was, as far as he knew, impossible even by robotechnology standards, when he was working, he always had security nearby and his home security system was also top of the line so nobody could possibly have gotten near him to implant information in his head - presumably through a device similar to a neuro-somatic imprinter – without being seen.

"Doctor Lang there is a door up ahead," one of the marines – who had taken point – reported.

"Understood," Emil replied, putting aside his thoughts of where the strange knowledge he now had had come from. There would be time enough to think about that later well unless the answers were waiting up ahead of them. "See if you can get it open lieutenant."

"Yes sir."

Taking a breath and letting it out slowly to calm his nerves, he had heard a few horror stories about what the first people who had boarded the SDF-1 after it first crashed on Macross Island back in ninety-nine had encountered, Lieutenant Peter Costas moved forward and carefully examined the control panel next to the large hexagonal door. It seemed fairly basic just two rectangular controls with strange alien glyphs on them, glyphs that he naturally couldn't understand. Okay here goes nothing, he thought as he reached out a gloved hand – while wishing not for the first time that regular marine grunts like him would get issued that Tristan armour the STORM commandoes used, he would feel a lot safer with that on – and touched one of the controls which glowed under his touch.

For a second nothing seemed to happen. Then a faint humming sound filled the air and the door split apart in the middle and opened revealing another, shorter corridor that looked almost like an airlock or decontamination chamber, beyond. "Doors open doc looks like it leads to a decontamination chamber of some kind, there's another door on the other side," he reported. "Should we proceed?"

"Yes, lieutenant we'll proceed but leave one of your men here as a rear guard just in case," Emil instructed.

"Understood sir. Turner your rear guard."

"Yes sir," the marine in question acknowledged.

"The rest of you let's move on."

Without waiting for a reply Peter led the way into the chamber beyond, Doctor Lang and the rest of the investigation party following along behind him. As soon as the last of them passed through the door behind them closed and a shimmering bluish energy field appeared at one end of the chamber and began moving towards them. In seconds it passed over them producing an odd tingle all over their bodies, before sweeping back the other way and disappearing. The door at the other end of the chamber opening seconds later.

Without needing to be prompted by the eager German robotechnologist Peter led the way through to find that beyond the door was a large toroidal room. Everywhere they could see globes sitting on pedestals inside of which were strange alien plants of all things, plants that looked like some weird fusion of a vine and a small rose bush like those that had been his mother's pride and joy, with odd pink trumpet-like flowers. Flowers that bizarrely seemed to grow exclusively in groups of three. Every so often one of the flowers would contract, shiver for a second or two as though it was a cannon being primed, then open again releasing a burst of some odd glowing pollen. Pollen that was then drawn upwards by some force into a clear pipe that led from the top of the globe to the ceiling where it joined another pipe and disappeared somewhere beyond this chamber.

"Whoa what the hell are these things?" he asked.

"I have no idea," Emil replied as he approached one and took a small scanner out of his pocket and ran it over the globe. "Incredible the pollen or spores coming out of these flowers is packed with energy. The signature is very similar to the energy signature you get from protoculture but considerably less intense."

"Could these plants be the source of protoculture," one of the other scientists asked, "or at least the source of the raw material to make it. We know after all that protoculture is at the end of the day an incredibly potent biofuel."

"Possible," Emil replied. "In fact, I am certain that that is what these plants are."

"Doctor there's another passage over here," Peter called out from the other side of the room where he'd wandered over to while the doctor scanned the flowers. "It seems to lead into the next chamber."

"Alright then Mitchell, Johnson, Bjornson remain here and run some more scans of these plants," Emil instructed, "the rest of you let's see what else there is down this particular rabbit hole."

Without waiting for a reply, he walked over to join the lieutenant. The sound of footsteps indicating that almost everyone – bar the three indicated scientists, who immediately moved to carry out more scans – were following along behind him. As soon as they reached the other side of the room Peter led them through the door which automatically opened at their approach revealing another decontamination chamber beyond.

After passing through it they all found themselves on a balcony looking out upon a huge silo-like space. Directly in front of them was a huge transparent pipe bigger than a man was tall filled with softly glowing green fluid that every single one of the team recognised as being protoculture. It descended, below the balcony to a device at the bottom of the chamber that seemed to split it off into separate streams that ran elsewhere. It was also obvious that there was some sort of damage down there as every now and again a small bit of protoculture would spirt out of the device and falling into a steadily growing pool of the liquid. Following the pipe upwards they could see it led to a huge, complex looking device that appeared to be made of a series of metal spheres and pipes. At the top of the device they could see all the golden pollen or spores entering the outer ring of spheres. The sheer number of pipes carrying the pollen/spores indicating that the room they had just been in was one of many such rooms with the plants in.

Smaller versions of the main pipe jutted out at right angles from the central sphere – which glowed with a strange light that was quite ethereal in appearance – carrying protoculture though in a number of different colours indicating that they were different grades of the material. Something that Emil and the other scientists were not surprised to see as they were already well aware that there were a few different grades of protoculture all of which had different properties with the purple coloured version for example being used for bioengineering and cloning while the yellow version when dried was the base material used in adaptive circuitry. Around the perimeter of the huge room and leading up to the device they could see a looping staircase and numerous other balconies indicating other rooms or decontamination chambers beyond the one they had just emerged from.

"What the hell is this thing," Peter asked gazing at it in awe and confusion.

"It is the protoculture matrix," a strangely accented female voice said from behind them making them all spin around. To see a statuesque blond woman wearing a tight blue jumpsuit with a white toga-like garment over the top and white boots standing there. She was also translucent indicating that she was actually a hologram.

"What the? Who the hell are you," Peter asked. "What are you?"

"You may call me Eve or Evie if you prefer," the female, Eve, answered them. "As for what I am I am the synthetic intelligence created by Zor to safeguard and oversee operation of the protoculture matrix and the other devices in this section of the ship."

"Your name is familiar," Emil commented.

"I have some limited access to the rest of the battlefortresses systems," Eve explained, "it allowed me to help you to a limited degree during your flight across this solar system. Mostly I was able to help with making the denizens of Macross City more comfortable as I have no access to any of the primary or tactical systems."

Emil's eyes widened. "The enhanced video emulation," he exclaimed in realization, "you created and maintained the holographic sky in the city compartments."

"Yes."

"Why didn't you reveal yourself before now," Emil asked.

"I was not able to. The systems that would have allowed me to openly interact with you via the primary systems were damaged during this vessel crash landing onto your planet and were not repaired correctly. It was also why I could not stop you folding space while inside the gravity well or abort the firing sequence of the main cannon when the Zentraedi were first detected by the security subprograms.

"I can only interact with you now fully because the systems in this section of the ship were isolated and largely protected by the phase displacement field that kept this section isolated," Eve answered. "It is actually good to meet and interact with you properly. It is also just as well that you were able to access this section when you did, I need your help."

"Our help with what?" Emil asked.

"As you have noticed there is a sizeable leak in the main diverter node at the base of this chamber. It is allowing refined energy-grade protoculture to escape and form into a pool that is already three feet deep and climbing at a rate of five milometers every two days. I cannot clean up the spillage or repair the diverter while the matrix is active and generating protoculture."

"Can you not shut it down?" Peter asked.

"Unfortunately, I cannot. My connection to the matrix is a read-only connection my creator could not provide me full access without someone asking too many questions that he would not wish to answer. The matrix will have to be manually shut down. I can guide you through the process and once repairs and clean up is completed guide you in restarting the matrix."

"What happens if we do not stop the leak?" Emil asked.

"Then protoculture will continue to leak out until it reaches the ventilation and maintenance ducts. Once that happens the pressure will let it force its way through to one or more of the Flower of Life storage bays. When that happens, it is only a matter of time before the pressure of the fluid breaches the permaglass covering of the sustenance globes."

"What happens then?"

"The flowers would grow wild feeding on the energy and biomass of the protoculture until a critical density is reached at which point there would be a mass spore generation event that would breach all containment measures resulting in an uncontrolled release of the Flower of Life spores onto the surface of the planet. This would, inevitably, be detected by the Invid who would come to take the flowers and would destroy anyone and anything in their way."

"That sounds… bad."

"It would be the Invid would not hesitate to enslave your people or, if you proved too resistive, exterminate you. They have done such things before."

"And all we need to do to prevent that is switch the matrix off so you can clean up the spillage and repair the diverter?"

"Yes."

"So, what do we need to do?"

"Follow me I will take you to the matrix control room and guide you through the shutdown procedure."

Emil nodded in agreement and acceptance, and they began slowly ascending the spiral stairwell around the chamber following the avatar of the alien artificial intelligence. None of them yet truly comprehending the enormity of what they had just discovered or the potential catastrophe they would be averting.

Authors Note: Well another chapter bites the dust. I hope you all enjoyed it and liked my adaptation and inclusion of Eve from Robotech: The Movie though I have no plans for other characters from the movie to make any appearances. Next chapter I am hoping to get back to both the aftermath of the events of the Linkotis arc and the introduction of the Tok'ra to the mix. Until next time.