fanfic_name = can a second chance change it all?

chapter = 10

author = Jo_anderson

Rating = AP15

Type = Alternative Universe

fanfic = Can A Second Chance Change It All?

Chapter 10

“Prisioners”

Author: Jo anderson

Disclaimer: I don’t own any of the characters of Robotech; I’m just doing this for fun. Well, maybe the personality of Riber is mine (he is my ideal man).

To: Thanks to everyone who takes the time to read this and to all the people that had encourage me to keep writing. Special thanks to Dwparsnip for beta this chapter for me, thank you so much!!!!!.

Lisa opened her eyes confused, she saw a huge corridor around her and it took her a few moments to realize that her ship was been dragged inside the enemy ship.

She moved slowly, still not knowing if she was hurt or not, and then she remembered her RIO. She moved ahead to reach him, but she only needed to watch the part of the cabin that was above him to realize that he will not answer.

“Lieutenant” said Lisa but she got no answer, she was about to move even closer to the lieutenant when she saw Rick at her commo screen.

“What happened Commander? Are you Ok?”

“Get back to base Hunter, go. Now!” Lisa said hard.

“I won’t leave you behind, we are coming for you Commander” Rick said and his image disappeared from Lisa’s screen and then she saw his VT next to her.

She reach her copilot, but there was so much blood covering his face that she couldn’t distinguish his features and the cabin was so crashed that she couldn’t reach him to take his pulse, but she knew that if they didn’t get out of there soon, he will not make it.

And then everything happened so fast the Vermillion team arrived to rescue them, Lieutenant Hunter broke the canopy and rescue her and when corporal Sterling was about to rescue her RIO, the enemy appear again and it was all chaos, the VTs rab out of ammo and the laser overheated. And before she could do something everything went blank.

Lisa tried to open her eyes, but everything seemed to spin around her, her head ached and so was her entire body. It was like someone had put her in a bag and punch her, which if her memories were accurate it had been the case. She tried to sit down and to focus her gaze on something. She moved her hands up to her head as if that way she would stop the spinning and the urge to throw up.

“Where am I?” Lisa asked more to herself than to anyone else, actually she hadn’t even noticed that there was someone else next to her until the sarcastic voice of Lieutenant Hunter arrived to her ears and made her headache even worst.

“Right where you put us Commander, in the hands of the enemy” Rick said.

“What?” Lisa asked in disbelief and stood up looking all around her.

“We are prisoners of the enemy and if it wasn’t for your stupid recon mission we wouldn’t be here” Rick said crossing his arms and looking at her with disdain”.

“Do I need to remind you that the objective of the stupid recon mission was to be the eyes of the SDF-1?” Lisa said starting to get angry. The good thing about that was being angry distracted her from the killer headache and the dizziness.

“Well they are blind any way, aren’t they?. Because you crushed your ship against a asteroid”.

“My RIO!” Lisa said worried and look around but she didn’t see him. She didn’t even need Rick to give her the answer, she already knew.

“He’s dead and the SDF-1 is blind, so congratulations on your mission Commander, it went down really well” Rick said with irony.

“Just like your mission to protect me and the ship, that really went well” Lisa said and put her hands on her waist .

“You not only failed to protect me but you also failed to protect your squadron, because if I’m not mistaken Dixon is a POW too”.

“Yeah well what do you want? That I fly your Cat’s eyes too?”

“I don’t need your help I know how to fly a plane perfectly on my own”.

“Yeah you managed to perfectly crush against that rock”.

“Have you ever flown a Cat’s eye?” Lisa asked challenging giving a step towards him.

“No, but that’s not the pro…” Rick was saying but Lisa interrupted him.

“You of all people should now that no plane is the same as other, flying a cat’s eye is like flying an antenna with engines, a piece of cake in an asteroid rain” Lisa said ironically and then added with a sarcastic voice “maybe if I knew how to make circus pirouettes like the ones you did on Saturn, because that turned out really well didn’t it?”

“That was different” Rick stated.

“Not for me, and you know perfectly well that a VT is one of the most manoeuvrable ships that exist and you barely survived that mission so I will not tolerate the fact that you, who have never flown a Cat’s Eye judge my way of flying”.

“Oh forgive me, How can I even imagine that the fact of me flying everyday combat missions would give me the right to judge the way that the commander who hasn’t sat in a cockpit in the last couple of months fly”.

“You are right I might have been outside of a cockpit for the last months but I know perfectly well what to do out there” Lisa said and pointed at the window. “I out rank you for a reason Hunter, because I have more combat experience than you”.

“You might out rank me, but you certainly don’t have more experience than I do, come on Commander you really think that watching from the bridge battle after battle will give you what it takes to be here?” questioned Rick looking at her straight in the eyes and Lisa maintain his gaze with fury.

“It’s not that I believe that Hunter, I know that I have what it takes to be here. But what’s the point, no matter what I do it’s never enough for you?. Hours ago you were saying that I’m always safe on the bridge, well now I’m here, so please tell me what do I need to do? What do I need to do so you can respect me and my job?”

“It’s not that I don’t respect your job, it’s that I don’t feel comfortable with you here, I feel…I don’t know vulnerable with you here”.

“Do you think that I need your protection?” Lisa asked and she tightened her jaw, she was so angry that you could see fire in her eyes. What was everyone’s problem with her? Why did everyone feel that she needed to be protected, that she was just too fragile to handle pressure, that she was still a kid?

“I do” Rick stated and that was it, that was the spark that detonated Lisa, she was furious, too many things had happened to her, she just kept too much emotions to her self and she just exploded.

“I don’t need your protection, or anyone’s protection. I’m a trained military officer I can do anything you can Hunter, anything and probably better”.

“Oh come on Commander!” Rick said pissed off, she was unbelievable. She spent all day on the bridge comfortable, while he spent all day fighting the enemy on his VT and now she has more military experience than him! For Christ sake!

“What?” said Lisa facing him, hands on her waist looking at him straight in the eyes. “You think I can’t?” she almost threatened him “tell me Hunter have you ever fought with someone hand to hand, saw your enemy in the eyes and shoot him and saw the blood spread all over and even cover you?”

“I saw the enemy die right in front of my VT, so yes”.

“Ha! From your VT, believe me it’s not the same. Being in the safety of your cockpit is not the same of being out there looking at your enemy in the eyes and shooting him, and seeing how the life goes away from him, have you ever hear the last breath of "someone"?” she questioned and looked at him even closer “of course not, you can’t hear that in the comfort of your cockpit” she said using the same tone that he had used to say that she was always safe and comfortable in the bridge.

“I might not have killed someone with my own hands like you but that doesn’t mean that you are more prepared than me to be out here, the fact that you are a POW and that you crashed your ship proves my point”.

“Right you are so much better than me, you are the perfect soldier that’s why the enemy not only captured you but smashed your VT, the most advanced combat machine and not even with that you were able to beat the enemy who was fighting you with his bare hands”.

“Did you even see the enemy, did you even see how powerful they were?”

“How could I? I was in the sack, but you probably had that planed, the fact that I was captured was just part of the plan in your mission to protect me”

“That’s not…”

“And tell me what about the rest of your team? Dixon is lying there sleeping as if he was on vacation but what about Sterling, tell me Lieutenant where is he?”

“He…Max was..”

“You don’t have a clue, don’t you?” Lisa said and a cruel smile appeared on her face. “So tell me Hunter, how exactly are you going to protect me now? When you fail protecting your team members while you have a VT” she said and her voice became even more cold and cruel “because so far you are doing a great job protecting people, or do I need to remind you that thanks to your great abilities in combat Dixon is a POW and Sterling is probably dead”.

“You are the one that put us here” said Rick to defend himself

“I order you clearly to leave, you were the one that decided to play the hero and try to rescue me and that decision probably cost Sterling his life”

“If there’s someone responsible for all this, that person is you!” Rick said and get closer to Lisa staring her straight in the eyes, but Lisa doesn’t even blink, she kept looking at him as cold as a stone.

“I didn’t order you to rescue me, this was your choice, your decision” said Lisa and got even closer to Rick, to the point that she could feel him breath.

“I was ordered to protect you” Rick said and the more Lisa talked the more upset he got.

“And since when do you follow orders?”

“None of this would have happened if you have accepted that you couldn’t fly this mission”.

“No Hunter, none of this would have happened if you haven’t decided to play the hero card again”.

“What the hell are you talking about?”

“You know exactly what I’m talking about, this eagerness of yours to be the hero. You want so much to be the hero that you don’t measure consequences, you did it once on Mars and that almost cost commander Riber’s life and mine”.

“I have never wanted to play the hero role”.

“Oh come on Hunter, you want it so badly, so desperately that you will do anything to be the hero. You got lucky on Mars that’s why Riber and I are alive but this time luck wasn’t on your side and it was your desire to be the hero that caused Corporal Sterling to die in the vacuum of space” Lisa said and pointed at the window, smiling on the inside, she knew she had hurt him, she knew that she has won this battle and she was tasting the bittersweet taste of revenge only that Rick wasn’t the person that she truly wanted to hurt.

Rick looked at her with crystal eyes. He could feel the blood boil inside of him, she was accusing him of being the cause of Max’s death. He imagined Max floating out side in the vacuum lifeless and that hurt him. How she could say that he will risk Max’s life to be the hero? But most of all he started to think, what if his decision was the cause that Max was…no! Max couldn’t be dead, he just couldn’t. And then all of his worries became anger, anger towards her, and she was there looking at him with triumphant eyes, as if she had won something.

“The only one responsible for this is you, and you want to know why?” Rick hissed trying to control his anger. Lisa just raised an eyebrow to challenge him “Because you shouldn’t have flown this mission and you knew it! You knew that you weren’t ready and you decided to fly any way, you are the one that put us all at risk, you are the responsible of your RIO’s death and if Max is dead it’s because of you, because you couldn’t focus on the mission, because you were too hung up in the fight that you had with your boyfriend, you let your personal life get in the way and now we are paying for it!”

Rick had just finished saying the words when he felt a sharp pain on his right cheek and then a metallic taste on his mouth. He felt his eyes automatically fill with pain tears and then as if it was in slow motion he felt the sound of Lisa’s hand colliding with his cheek.

“How dare you?” Lisa said clenching her teeth as she slapped him as hard as she could, and in her voice you could hear all the pain and anger that Rick’s words have caused.

“It’s time for dinner?” the voice of Ben sounded as if he was in another world.

Lisa kept looking at Rick with all the anger that she felt and Rick looked at her, pretending as if her slap wouldn’t have cause him pain. They kept looking at each other with coldness and anger.

“Commander, boss where are we?” Ben asked confused.

“We are prisoners of the enemy” Rick stated and looked in Ben’s direction but out of the corner of his eyes he saw Lisa walk away from him.

“What are we going to do?” asked Ben.

“I don’t know” answer Rick honestly and walk to the opposite direction of where commander Hayes was.

He needed to cool off, to let it go. He knew he crossed the line in order to hurt her, he wanted revenge for what she said to him, but why he needed to get revenge he didn’t know. All he knew was that there were so many emotions running through his body right now, he was nervous, exited, worried, impatient but most of all he was scared, because he didn’t know what will happen next. He didn’t know if he will be able to protect her, to take care of her and that was what pissed him off. That’s why he was so upset with her, because she shouldn’t be here, she should be safe on the bridge not here where the enemy could kill her and there was nothing that he could do to protect her. Why did she have to be so stubborn, why did she accept the mission.

But what was making him really angry was the fact that because of her he couldn’t focus on the mission, because of her he was getting emotional, because of this stupid need to protect her. So yes this was the reason of why he wanted revenge, that’s why he was angry with her beyond the fact that she had accused him of being responsible for the possible death of Max, it was because he was having feelings that he should not have, feelings that could cost them both their lives. So yes he was angry with her and in some twisted way he wanted her to pay for that.

Lisa looked trough the window to the open space, trying to focus her gaze in the stars. So that way the tears that were threatening with fall from her eyes will disappear, the anger and helplessness that she felt in that moment reflected in her body making her clench her jaw and fist and filling her eyes with tears. But the more she look out side the more she thought about what Rick had said.

What if he was right? What if she hadn’t been able to switch her mind of and the price to pay had been her RIO’S life, that poor kid who wasn’t old enough or capable enough to be out there. What if her stubbornness and desire to prove herself that she could leave her personal life aside to do her job was the reason they had been trapped here.

No! she said to herself, she has been as professional as anyone, she had stopped thinking of Karl the moment she climbed into that Cat’s Eye. Then why she has let Hunter affect her with his words, why does she even care what he thought about her. She was his CO, she was the one in charge and his opinion was irrelevant. She tried to convince herself and took a deep breath and released her fist only to notice the blood that was covering her hands…her RIO’s blood.

She looked into the space again, no, she couldn’t aloud herself to think right now, to think on what ifs and what should, because if she started to do that right now, that will definitely make her responsible for everybody’s death. She needed to be cold, to be the one in charge, to be Commander Hayes, the ice queen if she wanted to get them all out of there and back safe to the SDF-1.

Ben blinked a couple of times after hearing Rick’s words. They were prisoners in an enemy ship. What does exactly mean? That they will be tortured to find out information about the SDF-1? That the enemy is going to kill them? And why Rick or Commander Hayes weren’t planning their escape?

“Boss we have to get out of here?” Ben said finally when he got up.

“I know” Rick answered coldly, still trying to calm down.

“So what is the plan?”

“I’m working on it” Rick said and looked through the window “what am I supposed to do?” he asked to himself.

“Maybe the commander has a plan too” Ben said looking at Lisa who was on the opposite side.

Rick just made a frown and looked in her direction. “She doesn’t have the experience”.

“But she is the flight…” was Ben saying but he kept his mouth shut, he had never seen Rick giving him such a threatening look. So after a while he said the only thing that came to his mind.

“Do you think that they will give us something to eat?” Ben asked and Rick looked at him as he could not believe what he just hear.

“Ben I don’t….” was Rick saying when the voice of Commander Hayes interrupted him.

“Hunter…Lieutenant” Lisa said at the beginning with a whisper and then with her normal flight operator tone of voice.

“Lieutenant” repeated Lisa and she turned to face them. “The stars” she said and both Rick and Ben look at the stars outside.

Lisa who had been looking outside to try to calm herself down, suddenly noticed the change in the stars. They stopped blinking and began to fade and get blurry.

“Is that..?” asked Rick and a hint of fear appeared in his voice.

“What? What is it? What’s happening with the stars?” Ben asked who had no clue of what was going on.

“They have initiate a Spacefold” Lisa stated and Rick and Ben just froze for a moment.

“But they can’t … I mean where are they taking us?” Ben asked with fear.

“We have to get out of here” Rick said.

“And fast” Lisa said and she and Rick started to look around them, to search every inch of the glass box that contained them, trying to find a way to get out of there. But before they knew it a sweet smell started to fill the air.

“I can’t…” Lisa began to say and rested her weight against the crystal wall.

“Ben!” Rick said and ran towards Ben who had collapsed onto the ground.

“They are sedating us” Lisa said and her knees betrayed her and she fell onto the ground too.

“I hope it’s that and not that they are killing…”Rick couldn’t finish the sentence when everything turned black.

On board the SDF-1

“Sir I detect high levels of energy in the quadrant where we lost communication with Commander Hayes” Vanessa said.

“What do you think it is? An explosion?” Captain Gloval asked and got closer to Vanessa’s station.

“If it’s an explosion then it’s a nuclear one, my screen is also detecting high levels of energy” Kim "added.

“Do you think they attacked Lisa?” asked Sammie with fear.

“Oh my God!” Vanessa said when her screen updated the information.

“What is it Vanessa?” Gloval asked concern.

“It’s a spacefold sir, the enemy has start a spacefold”.

“It can’t be” Claudia said turning her gaze out of her station.

“Claudia try to reach Lisa, now! Use anything we can, but tell her to get out of there NOW!” Gloval said and on the inside he prayed that Lisa was out of there.

“Yes Sir I’m using everything I can but I get no response from her or from Vermillion leader” Claudia said as she tried to think of any way to contact Lisa.

“They’re gone” Vanessa said when the energy levels that her screen was showing disappeared and turned to face Captain Gloval who was behind her.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Sammie asked with concern.

“What about the rest of the enemy?” the Captain asked.

“35% of the enemy fleet remain in position but the main ship has disappeared” Vanessa reported.

“Send the Skull squadron to search the area”.

“Yes sir” Claudia said and gave the order.

It was only a couple of hours later that Roy’s report arrived.

“Are you sure?” Claudia asked in disbelief.

“Yes Claudia, we searched the entire area three times, nothing” The voice of Roy could be heard from the other side of the speaker, and despite the interference the disappointment and sadness in Roy’s voice could be heard.

“Roger that skull leader, return to base” Claudia finally said and turned in the captain’s direction.

“What do we do now?” Claudia asked looking at him in the eyes.

The captain removed his cap from his head and cleared his throat.

“Put Lisa and the Vermillion team in the MIA list” the captain said and replaced his cap on his head

“But Sir…” Kim was saying and she became silent when the captain started to walk towards the exit door looking at the ground with his shoulders slumped

“Claudia you have Command, I have to go to the Situation room to inform them what happened” the captain said softly. He was already outside the bridge when he turned to add “And Claudia since now on you are my first officer” and once he said that the door closed behind him.

“Yes sir” Claudia whispered and her eyes were full of tears as were the eyes of everyone in the bridge…Lisa was gone.

Rick opened his eyes and looked around, there it goes again, the spinning room and the dizziness, only that this time he had to add a sharp pain in his right cheek, which apparently made everything spin even more. He looked around only to find Commander Hayes sitting cross-legged in front of him and Ben still asleep.

“How long since I passed out?” asked Rick.

“In SDF-1 time or ours?” Lisa asked.

“SDF time” Rick said as he scratched his head and noticed how Ben start to wake up.

“Two…” Lisa was saying when Ben interrupted her.

“Wow my head is spinning and so are you Commander” Ben said.

“It’s because of the sedative” Lisa said and put one of her hands on Ben shoulders.

“What sedative?” Ben asked.

“They put us to sleep, I guess as a preventive measure” Rick said.

“Fix your eyes on something, the feeling will go in a few minutes” Lisa said when she noticed that Dixon was getting pale.

“So you were telling me how long since we passed out” Rick said.

“Two weeks in SDF time, twenty ours in our time” Lisa said looking at her watch again.

“That much?” Ben said in disbelief.

“But how?” Rick asked.

“time seams to remain steel during a transposition” Lisa state and look at the face of the two man with her, they looked so surprised.

“Many things have happened in Macross in all this time” Ben said thoughtfully.

“Yes many” echoed Rick and started to think about Minmei, she probably would already had her debut…Did she miss him when she didn’t saw him there?

Lisa also started to think about what have happened in all that time, she thought of the girls, the captain, her work, who would be taking her place…probably Claudia she was the most capable unless Maistroff pulled something, who will be covering her shifts as flight operator? And of course would Karl be missing her…will he still think about her?

But then a sudden movement from the ship took her out of her thoughts, the transposition has stopped.

“It stopped” Rick said and stood up immediately, so did Lisa and they both walked next to the window.

“Where are we?” Ben asked

“Do you recognize any stars? Any constellation systems? Any nebula?” Rick asked to Lisa, as they both look at the space with concentration.

“Nothing, I don’t recognize a single star” Lisa said after a while

“Me neither” Rick said and start to get worried.

“What’s that shimmy thing over there, fireworks?” Ben said and point to his left.

“An explosion maybe?” Rick said after looking into that direction, but he wasn’t sure of what he was seeing.

“It’s looks like a reflex blast…but I’m not sure” Lisa said and get closer to the window.

“Could be, all I know is that we are going right there” Rick said.

“Maybe is some sort of a welcome” Ben said and scratch his head and both Lisa and Rick look at him and roll their eyes.

“Wait a minute, maybe you are right Dixon…”Lisa was saying and she fix her gaze again into the shinning lights.

“What? Do you really believe it’s a welcome committee?” Risk said in disbelieve

“Not a welcome one” Lisa said and suddenly the lights start to disappear to show what they really were.

“Come on commander…”Rick was saying and get closer to the window too, and then he saw “Oh my god!” was all that he could said.

“What? What is it?” ask Ben and start to look to the window too.

“It’s..” was Lisa saying but she couldn’t finished the sentence, she could not believe what she was seeing.

“The enemy fleet” Lisa and Rick said at the same time and then they looked at each other and for the first time Rick could see a hint of fear in Lisa’s eyes and that scared him, scared him very much.

To be continued…

Author’s Note: I hope you liked this chapter and my apologies if I made any mistake about military regulations and all that. I’ll be waiting for the reviews pleaseeee.

State = Continuará/To Be Continue

feedback = Sí/Yes

email = jo_anderson19ATyahoo.com