Fanfic Name / Nombre del Fanfic: can a second chance change it all

Chapter / Capitulo: 11

Author / Autor: Jo

Rating / Clasificacion: AP15 (For Teenagers = Para Adolescentes)

Alternate Universe / Universo Alterno

Fanfic: Chapter 10 
“survival instincts” 
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!!!!! and to Carla. 
 
Can a second chance change it all? 
chapter11 
Survival instincts 
 
The impression of seeing the entire enemy fleet left Lisa and the others frozen for a couple of seconds and as much as they tried to count the number of ships, they just couldn’t. It was like trying to count the stars in the sky. 
 
“Do they had a chance against a fleet like this? Against an enemy so powerful that could defeat the most powerful defence arm that they had with their own hands?” Lisa thought, but stop immediately. She wasn’t here to lucubrate, she was here for a reason, to be the SDF-1 eyes and that was precisely what she will be. 
 
So she took the small camera that she had in her suit and started taking pictures of what was going on around them. 
 
“What are you doing?” Rick asked when he noticed she had something in her hands and was moving around. 
 
“I’m collecting data for the SDF-1. these pictures will be of incalculable tactical value when we get back.” 
 
“Do you realize that we need to get out of here first?” Rick said. He could not believe the way this woman’s brain worked. How could she think about going back to the SDF-1 when they hadn’t even found a way to get out of this super-advanced zoo cage where they were held? 
 
“I do, but until we find a way I will accomplish my mission, Lieutenant,” Lisa said with a renewed spirit, having a mission to accomplish somehow injected her with life. 
 
“Wow, that’s really a camera?” asked Ben, surprised when Lisa stopped taking pictures and started to view them in the camera. 
 
“Yes it is. It’s the newest toy from the Robotechnology guys and it can also make videos.” She said still checking the pics. 
 
“As wonderful as it is to have such a small camera, don’t you think it would have been better to pack something that could help us to get out of here?” Rick said a little annoyed. 
 
“Yeah Commander don’t you have some cool gadget over there?” Ben asked excitedly. 
 
“Sorry to disappoint you two but I’m not James Bond, we’ll have to figure out a way to get out here by ourselves.” She said and suddenly the air they were breathing changed. 
 
“What happened?” Rick asked and they all got together. 
 
“The field disappeared,” said Ben. 
 
“This might be our chance,” Rick added when two Zentraedi soldiers suddenly entered the room. Their hard and guttural voices, in a language that none of them understood, somehow indicated them to move from where they were to a new platform. And so they did, there was no chance they could escape at the moment. 
 
 
 
They were transported across the enemy ship in some sort of wagon, too high to attempt to jump out of and run away. Besides, the hallways of the ship were too plain and well lit to hide at some corner even if they managed not to get turned into soup on the floor if they jumped.  
So all they could do was to observe their surroundings and study how their enemy lived. And so far it was intriguing, the air was weird, somehow saturated with a mixture of smells. The oxygen was too pure but at the same time it felt like an abandoned house that had been closed for too long. The lights were too bright, too artificial, and the corridors where too plain, and even when they all were used to living in military installations, this was different: it didn’t have the home feeling that the SDF-1 had. 
 
Finally they arrived at a new room and were instructed to walk towards a new platform as big as a football field. The lights were dimmer but a couple of lamps were focused on them.  
 
“Where are we?” Ben asked. 
 
“In our new hamster cage?” Rick said sarcastically. 
 
“We’re going to be interrogated.” Lisa said crossing her arms across her chest. 
 
“Are you sure?” Rick asked concerned. 
 
“Not completely, but this place looks like an interrogation room.” Lisa said and the three of them started to look around. 
 
Suddenly a sound was heard and the doors of the room opened. Five gigantic figures came into the room and stood arround the platform where they were. 
Lisa couldn’t avoid feeling her heart beating faster and her breath was caught in her throat; she was nervous, a little scared to be honest, but she didn’t have the luxury of experiencing those emotions, not right now. She needed to be strong not only for herself, but for the men under her command. They were going to be interrogated by the enemy, and not just a regular enemy; this one was not only extraterrestrial, but also was as tall as building. Their presence alone was enough to break someone, but she wouldn’t let that happen, not to her and not to her men.  
 
She tightened her jaw and convinced herself that as long as it depended on her the Zentraedi wouldn’t find out a thing about the SDF-1 or Earth, and she would try to find out as much as she could about them. That was her mission and her purpose and failure was not an option, not to her. 
 
So when the main figure entered the room, probably the one who would conduct the interrogation, she was ready for it. She activate her camera to record a video of the process and couldn’t avoid saying to herself, “Here we go Hayes.” 
 
After the tallest Zentraedi introduced himself as the Commander in Chief of the Zentraedi in English and asked them if they understood him, they couldn't believe what they were hearing, except for Lisa; she had already heard the enemy speak in English before but she wasn’t expecting them to speak in English now so she looked at Rick in the eyes and nodded.  
 
After Lisa’s nod Rick decided to answer Dolza’s question. “We understand you. What do you want from us?” 
 
“Congratulations, Exedore, you have done well in teaching me their primitive language.” Dolza said, turning to the smallest Zentraedi. 
 
“Why do you continue to resist us, Micronians?” Dolza gestured to the male on his right. “Surely Breetai has already demonstrated our superiority.” 
 
Rick pointed his finger to the one called Breetai. “You launched the attack on us! We’ve only been trying to defend ourselves for the past year.” 
 
“Immaterial!” Breetai interrupted. “Return to us what is rightfully ours, Zor’s ship.” He said.  
 
Lisa took a step closer to Rick, “What’s rightfully ours?” she thought. So they wanted the ship, that’s why they haven’t destroy it yet. That might be the reason why they kept attacking us and retreating at the last minute when the battle was practically won by them. But “Why?” 
 
“Zor’s ship? If you mean the SDF-1, that’s our property. It crashed on our planet, and we rebuilt it. You...” 
 
Dolza cut Rick off. “It is as I feared,” he said to Exedore. 
 
“Tell us what you know about protoculture. You the fat one.”  
 
“Proto..what?” Lisa thought.So that’s the reason they wanted the ship, but what was this proto...thing? She turned to look at Ben; she didn’t like the fact that he was the one answering questions, as hard as it sounded he was the weakest of the three of them. Maybe that’s why Dolza chose him to answer this apparently important question. 
 
“Me? Forget it, high rise. I don’t know anything about it.” 
 
“Tell us what you know about Protoculture.” Dolza demanded. 
 
“You deny that you’ve developed a new weapons system utilizing Protoculture?” Exedore wanted to know. 
 
“Could the strange reaction that the Fold Drives caused when they disappeared be this protoculture thing they were so eager to know if we knew how to operate?” Lisa asked to herself. She then realized that Rick was looking at her, trying to know what to do next, while Dolza asked again about Protoculture.  
 
She moved forward boldly. She had enough of their questioning and now it was her turn to pull up some information from their gigantic enemies.  
“That’s enough!” she said fiercely and held her arms up. “I will no longer submit my men to your questioning.” 
 
“So the female is in charge here.” Dolza said surprised, and then sat back in his chair. “You underestimate the seriousness of your predicament, Micronian.” He added and Lisa just crossed her arms across her chest defiantly. Rick and Ben looked at her for a minute, and Rick had to hold in a grin. He was amazed by the fact that Lisa, even when she was as insignificant to the Zentraedi as an ant was to them, she still found a way to intimidate them. 
 
But suddenly the room changed, and instead of walls they were looking at Space and the same enormous enemy fleet that they had seen before, and it seemed to be pointing at a small planet, not too different from Earth. 
 
“We are in possession of sufficient power to destroy your world in the blink of an eye.” Dolza was saying. “And if you need proof of that, behold...” 
 
And right then the enemy fleet fired their weapons at the planet and destroyed it. In a couple of seconds they extinguished the life of an entire planet just to make a point. 
Lisa’s mind was running way too fast, she needed to say something, to do something and she needed to do it now. “Why would someone with so much power want a single ship? Why?” So she decided to go with a bluff. 
 
“You don’t have enough power to destroy the SDF-1.” She said with a neutral tone. 
 
“Are you insane?” Rick whispered in disbelief near to her ear. 
 
“Maybe, but you’ll have to trust me on this one.” She whispered back while Dolza yelled she was an impertinent. 
 
But Dolza’s screams didn’t intimidate her; she even moved forward. “The SDF-1 has much more power than all these pieces of junk.” She said. She knew she was pushing too far, but no way in hell she would let them know that the humans didn’t have a chance against such a powerful enemy. After all they already thought they were developing new weapons with this protoculture. So maybe they’d believe what she said. 
 
Dolza brought his fist down on the table, throwing the three of them off their feet. He then reached out and grabbed her in his right hand. Rick tried to reach for her, but there was nothing he could do. 
 
Lisa shook her head softly ordering him to stay put, trying to assure him that she was ok and that he didn’t need to protect her. The truth was that she was quite scared. She was being held buy a gigantic hand, but the gentle robotic grip of Rick’s VT was completely different from Dolza’s. This wasn’t gentle at all, and even when he wasn’t hurting her, she knew that any moment now he could squeeze her to death to make the others confess something. After all he had destroyed a planet just to make point, what could her life possibly mean to him? 
 
“Now my feisty female, I want to know by what process you become Micronian.” He said and proceeded to tighten his grip around Lisa, just as she has feared, demanding an immediate answer. 
 
“Stop squeezing her!” Rick said with concern. “We’re born this way. We’re born ... Micronian.” 
 
“Born from what is the question.” said Exedore. 
 
“Huh? Well... from our mothers. What else?”  
 
“What is this thing you call “mother”?” One of the Zentraedi behind Rick asked. 
Ben swung around to face the red-uniformed trio. 
 
“Mother. You know, like the parent that’s female.” Ben said and turned to Rick confused. 
 
“You mean that you’re actually born from the females of your kind?” Exedore asked incredulously. 
 
“Hey,” Ben continued. “It happens, you know. You put a man and a woman together and...well, it just happens.” He laughed. “It’s love.” 
 
Breetai looked over at Dolza, then fixed his gaze on Ben. “I’ve heard that word mentioned in some of your transmissions. But what is it? How do you express it?” 
Ben looked at Rick and shrugged his shoulder. Rick could not believe what was actually going on, of all the things the Zentraedi should be interested in, why did they want to know about love? He would have laughed but the seriousness of the situation stopped him from it. 
 
“It can start with a kiss, I guess.” Rick said. 
 
Dolza stopped paying attention to Lisa, and looked closer to Rick and Ben. He did not believe what he had said; a micronian could not be produced by a single act. It was just not possible, not when they physiologically speaking were so similar. And if that was the case, that could mean that the female was right, maybe they had revealed the secrets of Zor’s ship. No, it just couldn't be, they were lying and if that wasn’t the case then he wanted living proof of it. 
 
“You two,” He said pointing at Rick and Ben. “Demonstrate this kissing or I will crush all of you!” Dolza ordered. 
 
Rick tried to explain to him that he just couldn’t kiss Ben, that that wasn’t how things worked but Dolza was so adamant that Rick was seriously considering kissing Ben. 
 
“I’ll be the one who will prove it.” Lisa said hardly, doing her best to hide the pain she was feeling from Dolza’s grip. 
 
When he put her on the ground, she took a minute before moving. Her legs where weak and her ribs hurt her when she breathed now that Dolza wasn’t squeezing her. 
 
Rick instictively moved closer to her and grabbed her elbow to help her walk. She looked so fragile when Dolza released her.  
 
She took his arm and stood straight, finally raised her head and looked at him. He could see her strength bright in her eyes but he could also see a vulnerability there that he hadn’t seen before. 
 
“So Lieutenant, I order you to kiss me,” She said. 
 
“Ahh?” he said and stepped back, her words taking him by surprise. 
 
“I just want to record his reaction on my video-camera.” She explained. 
 
“Then why don’t you do it with Ben?” He said nervously. 
 
“Because...because...” She couldn't find a reason why she wanted him instead of Dixon so she immediately added, “look it’s just a kiss, it’s not such a big deal.” She said annoyed; it wasn’t like she was dying to kiss him. 
 
“Proceed at once!” Dolza ordered again. 
 
Lisa noticed the Zentraedi was starting to lose his patience, and since Rick wasn’t moving at all she decided there was only one thing left to do “Fine, I’ll do it with Dixon.” she said shaking her head in disbelief and started walking towards Dixon. 
 
“Wait,” Rick said and grabbed her by the elbow. “I’ll do it.” 
 
“I’ll spare you the agony Hunter, I’m sure Dixon will do it.” She said stubbornly. 
 
“I said I’ll do it, ok!” He said, now angry too. “Now what’s the best angle for you to shoot them?” Rick asked avoiding her gaze. 
 
“A little to the left.” She said and put both of her hands on his shoulders. “I’ll have to grab you by your waist in order not to block the camera.” she added. 
 
“Fine,” He said a little nervously. He felt uncomfortable because she was just too close and just to think about kissing her it made his stomach crumble. She kept saying instructions about what he should do for the kiss very fast, because Dolza had ordered them to kiss again, but he couldn’t hear a single word of what she was saying with such determination as if the kiss was a choreographed battle. Well actually that’s what it was, there was no romance involved in it but yet he could not avoid looking at her mouth, at her full, soft and pink lips and he could feel his knees tremble. 
 
“Are you ready?” Lisa mumbled between her teeth angrily. 
 
“Huh?.. yeah, yeah I’m ready, ” He finally said and she only looked at him eyes wide open ordering him to proceed. 
 
“Great! So I’m the one who has to make the first move,” he couldn’t help thinking. 
 
“Forgive me Karl,” Lisa thought when Rick started to move closer to her. 
 
Lisa had said to herself that she’d keep her eyes open during the kiss in order to see the Zentraedi’s reaction, but when their lips touched, softly and tenderly in an innocent kiss all her determination faded away and she closed her eyes and let herself go into the kiss. And before any of them noticed, the chaste and innocent kiss was no longer so innocent. They weren’t just touching lips they were really kissing each other and it felt good, probably too good considering their surroundings, but it wasn’t like they were conscious of what was going on around them. That is until the sounds of the Zentraedi brought them back to reality. 
 
Rick looked at Lisa with dreamy eyes when they broke the kiss and she looked at him with the same expression while she tried to catch some air. It was then, when they both caught their breath that reallity hit them. They jumped apart from each other as if they had been electrocuted. 
 
“This results from Protoculture?” Dolza asked. 
 
“It is their weapons system at work.” Exedore said. 
 
“Take them out of here at once! Get these Micronians out of my sight!” Dolza commanded and stood in front of them. 
 
By the time Lisa reacted completely to what had just happened, they were carried away in the gigantic wagon again. She wanted to slap herself. How on Earth could she let herself get carried away by a stupid kiss with Hunter? She had no idea. How was it possible that she could lose awareness of what was going on in the room because he had kissed her? She only hoped the recording of the kiss was good enough to have an idea of the reaction of the Zentraedi since she hadn’t been able to watch it. 
 
So by the time when they were put in a “Normal Zentraedi cell” the first thing she did was to sit in a corner and start watching the recording she made with her microcamera. She watched the video several times, trying to make some sense of what had just happened, but she couldn’t. She just couldn’t understand the Zentraedi. Now she had more questions than before. 
 
“What do you think Commander?” Ben asked. 
 
“About?” Lisa said, still trying to put her mind in order. She had so many questions and conclusions running together at the same time. 
 
“About the fact that they have enough power to atomize Earth and yet you two kissed and they freaked out?” 
 
“Do you realize that we haven’t seen any female Zentraedi? No children, no civilians, only soldiers.” She said. 
 
“We haven’t exactly been given the grand tour.” Rick said. 
 
“I realize that, Lieutenant.” She said, annoyed “But maybe there aren’t female Zentraedi that’s why they had such a weird reaction when we.. we.. kissed.” 
 
“I don’t think so; they knew you were a female.” Rick said. 
 
“Maybe they don’t live together,” Ben said and scratched his head. “Can you imagine that boss... living apart from women?” 
 
“No I can’t.” Rick said frowning as he imagined a life with no women. 
 
“We must get out of here.” Ben said almost with desperation. 
 
“Yes.” Lisa said more to herself than for the others. She had collected enough interesting material for the SDF-1, data that needed to be processed by intelligence. 
 
“I’ve been thinking about it, and maybe we could use our new weapon.” Rick said softly, unsure of what he was about to propose. 
 
“What new weapon?” Ben asked. 
 
“The ehh.. the kiss.” Rick said and looked far away from Lisa. 
 
“Are you joking?” She said finally coming out of her thoughts. “Are you really suggesting that we kiss the next time we see a Zentraedi?” 
 
“It could work, he’ll be confused and we could find a way to get out of here.” 
 
“Did you hit your head with something Lieutenant? I’m not going to kiss you just because you want to. I have heard lame excuses before, but that one beats them all.” She said unable to hold in a grin. 
 
“What? You really think I want to kiss you? You were the one who ordered me to kiss you!” 
 
“Because we were about to be crushed. I’m not going to kiss you because you think it might buy us our ticket out of here.” 
 
“That should be enough don’t you think? We might be able to get out of here and all you have to do is kiss me. You’re not the only one making a sacrifice here for your knowledge.” Rick said tightening his fist. 
 
“I’m willing to sacri...” Ben was saying but he was cut off. 
 
“Shut up, Ben.” Rick said. 
 
“Poor Lieutenant who made the sacrifice to kiss his superior officer,” Lisa said sarcastically. “Do I need to remind you that you were the one who grabbed me and said yes? I was going to kiss Dixon.” 
 
“I’m still available if you want...” Ben was saying. 
 
“Shut up Dixon” Lisa said this time. 
 
“The Zentraedi was about to turn us into thick soup! That’s why I did it.” Rick said. He was starting to get angry, she had ordered him to kiss her and now she was leaning on him! As if she hadn’t answered the kiss back, in fact he still felt his lower lip swollen because of her kiss. 
 
“Well then you’ll have to wait until the next time the enemy wants to turn us into thick soup to try this “new weapon”.” Lisa said and crossed her arms in front of her chest. 
 
“I think I prefer to be turned into thick soup than trying the “new weapon”.” Rick said and crossed his own arms across his chest. 
 
“Fine by me.” 
 
“Fine.”  
 
“I think that...” Ben said but both Lisa and Rick gave him a cold look. “I’ll just sit in that corner and shut up.” He finally said and sat away from Lisa and Rick, who gave their back to each other and finally sat at opposite sides of the cell. 
 
Suddenly a strange noise was heard. There was something going on outside their cell and before anyone could say anything the three of them were in front of the cell’s door, looking at it anxiously. 
 
Rick looked at Lisa. Something definitely was going on; maybe this was their chance to escape. All he knew for sure was that they had to do something. 
 
Lisa looked back at Rick and she could practically hear what he was thinking and for some weird reason now his idea didn’t sound as bad as it had minutes ago. Maybe they should give it a try, after all they needed to escape because if they didn’t everything she had taped was worthless. 
 
So she swallowed hard and cleared her throat; there was only one thing to do and that was to give their “new weapon” a try. All she hoped was that it didn’t backfire on them. 
 
“Dixon, move close to the door and wait” she said in her cold air controller voice. “Hunter, we should stand in the middle of the floor, but not to close so the zentraedi can see us.” 
 
“Ok” Rick said, still surprised by her sudden change of opinion. 
 
“The moment the door opens we kiss, and you run away Dixon and you don’t look back.” She turned to Rick and added, “The moment we break the kiss we start running behind Dixon.” 
 
“Run to the left Ben, we’ll follow you. And hide in the first dark hollow or corridor you find, we’ll catch up with...” Rick was saying but a sound coming from the door interrupted him. 
 
“Take your positions NOW!” said Lisa. 
 
“Aye aye Ma’am” Rick and Ben answered instinctively. 
 
They were in the middle of the cell, and they both knew what they had to do, but neither of them was ready to take the first step. After all, the “new weapon” not only had a paralyzing effect on the Zentraedi it also had it on both of them.  
 
“Don’t think, just do it” Lisa said to herself and grabbed Rick’s face with her hands and kissed him deeply. 
 
Rick was so surprised by Lisa’s move that he stood there frozen and it was only when he saw the door open completely and the bright light of the corridor illuminate Lisa’s features that he finally reacted. 
 
He put one of his hands in her hip and with the other he grabbed the back of Lisa’s head and kissed her back, as deeply as she was kissing him. The moment he did it he knew he had made a big mistake, because he lost all consciousness of his surroundings, the only thing that existed in that minute for him was her... 
 
TBC 

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Author email / email del autor: jo_anderson19ATyahoo.com