Can a second chance change it all?
Chapter 1
Mars Survivors

Author: Jo
Disclaimer: I don’t own any of the characters of Robotech or Robotech, I’m just doing this for fun. Well, maybe the personality of Riber is mine (he is my ideal manJ)
To: Sphersian (I told you that English version of this will be for you), as always thanks to Carla and especially to K71 that will be my beta now, oh and for all the members of the forum.
Author’s note: Well I have always like the character of Karl Riber and had always wonder how his relationship with Lisa was, so I decided to bring him back to life and see what would happen.

SDF-1
Lisa had been stuck to the window all morning looking at the red planet, as the memories passed over and over again in her head and the only thing that filled it was Karl Riber.
She remembered all the happy moments that she had lived with this man that with no doubt was the love of her life and when he died he also took her life with him.
She was daydreaming about how her life with Karl would be; she thought of her marriage, she could even imagine herself walking in the park caring a baby’s carriage. She imagined a happy life, just as it has been her life by his side, until a shake from Claudia took her out of her dreams
“Lisa are you ok?” asked Claudia looking at her with concern.
“Ah? What?” asked Lisa still lost in thought.
“I asked you if you are ok? I’m asking you for like 10 minutes if you also are receiving a strange signal on your screen.”
“Yes I’m fine, sorry I didn’t listen to you,” said Lisa shaking her head, as if doing that all her thoughts would go away so she could concentrate again on her work. “I’ll check my screen immediately,” said Lisa as she checked her screen.
“I see an incoming signal from some sector on the planet, but I’m not sure if the signal comes from Earth and repeats there or if it comes from the planet,” said Vanessa.
“I also saw the signal on my screen,” said Lisa and walked to Vanessa’s station, “amplify the signal Vanessa.”
“Immediately Lisa,” answered Vanessa and the signal appeared amplified on the screen.
“I can’t assure the origin of the signal, but the codes are antique codes used by the RDF,” said Lisa doubtfully, watching the screen carefully as her heart started to beat faster. Maybe somebody has survived on Mars, she thought. But she put that thought away quickly and concentrated again on her work. “Sammie, localize the Captain and tell him that we need him on the bridge ASAP. Vanessa, keep watching that signal and at the minimum change you let me know immediately. Claudia, try to get the ship as close to the signal as you can without taking her off course,” said Lisa finally cool and professional as always. Then she walked to her post of command and ordered the take off of one Cat’s-eye, a ship to try to intercept the signal and broadcast to the SDF.
The Captain arrived a few moments later after the Cat’s-eye had intercepted the signal and it was broadcasting the data to the ship.
“What’s going on?” asked the captain as he arrived into the bridge.
“We intercepted an abnormal signal Sir, and it seems to come from Mars,” said Vanessa.
“I took the freedom to send a Cat’s-eye to intercept the signal Sir” said Lisa.
“Well done,” said the captain and sat in his chair, “What have we intercepted?”
“I’ll put the data on the speaker,” said Kim.
“It’s an old RDF code, but I’m not able to understand it’s meaning,” said Lisa.
The captain stayed in silence for a few moments and then took his hat off and scratched his head, “I understand perfectly well the code, but its meaning is senseless.”
“What does it say, Sir?” asked Claudia.
“It’s a song, a child’s song,” said the captain and put his hat on again, “Vanessa did you localize the origin of the signal?” asked Gloval.
“Just a few more seconds Sir,” said Vanessa and after processing the new data she added “it comes from Sara Base on Mars.”
“What?” asked Lisa leaving her post and walking to Vanessa’s station to see for her own eyes the origin of the signal “Are you sure?”
“It’s impossible, the base is uninhabited,” said Gloval.
“Lisa,” said Claudia softly, trying not to let her friend get too much high expectations.
“But there could be survivors, right Captain?” asked Lisa anxiously.
“It’s not likely, but the base was pretty big, I guess anything is possible,” said Gloval.
“I have the confirmation of the coordinates Sir, it definitely is Sara Base,” said Vanessa.
“Sir maybe we should investigate, after all the enemy has diverted us pretty much from our course,” said Claudia as she looked from the corner of her eyes to Lisa, who had returned to her station. Claudia saw immediately the brightness in Lisa’s eyes, waiting for the captain’s answer, she could see how her friend’s eyes were full of hope.
“What is our status?” asked Gloval.
“Astro-navigation and engineering report minimum damage Sir” said Vanessa.
“Ok, so let’s change our course, we are going to Mars,” said Gloval.
As soon as he finished the words, Claudia was giving the necessary instructions from her station. Lisa was doing the same, but she couldn’t avoid the feeling of how her heart was beating faster. Finally she will be on Martian soil.

The Ship had landed on Martian soil and several Cat’s-eyes had flown over the base searching for any kind of life, but they had found nothing. Finally the captain had decided to move the ship closer to the base and made a security perimeter around the SDF-1; maybe there was something in the base that could be used to supply the ship.
Lisa was standing in her station with her eyes fixed on the base; it was just like she had imagined it will be, just how Karl had described to her. Lisa could not resist anymore. She had been calm and fit for her duties as best as she could, but now she couldn’t pull herself together anymore. She needed to get out and search the base herself, see for her own eyes if the were survivors or not. She needed to know if Karl was alive. And now the right time to make her request had come, the bridge was in silence and the Captain was standing next to her watching the base.
“Requesting permission to abandon the ship Sir and investigate the interior of the base,” said Lisa with a firm and decided voice.
“But Lisa..” the Captain was saying, but Lisa interrupted him.
“I would like to research the source of all the data that we are receiving Sir,” said Lisa. She waited for the Captain to answer, but spoke again when she realized that she was about to be denied her request.
“Please Sir! It’s important to me,” she said almost begging.
“I could cover her post Sir,” added Claudia, trying to help her friend.
Gloval doubted for a while. It was highly improbable that there were survivors, but he knew something about Lisa’s history, he knew that her fiancé had been assigned to that base. He only needed to look again into Lisa’s eyes to see all the illusion that they had and to say yes, “Ok, but I want you take two security officers with you,” said Gloval and before he finished talking Lisa was already at the door of the bridge.
“Thank you Sir,” said Lisa and disappeared running.

Lisa was waiting on the platform for her transport to arrive; it was a Jeep design specially to work on the Earth, Moon and Mars. As she waited she checked her equipment; she had her spacesuit, her radio, her emergency location system, her laser rifle and her portable hand computer that allowed her to localized in the base. When her transport arrived, she immediately abandoned the ship, ignoring Gloval’s suggestion of taking with her some security personnel. Driving the Jeep remains her, her training on the moon, but that wasn’t what was taking her mind. The only thing that she could think of was Karl, in that she was accomplishing her promise. Finally she had arrived to Mars and she hoped that he had accomplished his promise too, of waiting for her. Lisa wished with all her heart that he was alive.

Rick was talking with Roy when all of a sudden he heard a voice reproaching them.
“This is not a channel for that kind of conversation,” said the voice. Rick couldn’t help make a grimace, “ Will Commander Hayes ever get tired of bogging me?” he thought, but then he realized that the voice wasn’t the voice of Commander Hayes.
“Hey sweetie, nice to see you,” said Roy making a grin to Claudia.
“Watch your mouth flyboy,” said Claudia seriously, but then she winked at Roy.
“Hey, so what happen with the old-sourpuss?” said Rick and later he regretted his words when he remembered that Roy’s girlfriend was a friend of Commander Hayes.
“More respect Corporal, and for your information Commander Hayes is right now travelling under your heads,” said Claudia and Rick couldn’t help but look down. Then he saw a Jeep that was probably driven by a woman, because of the contexture of the driver. He couldn’t avoid admitting that if it was commander Hayes, then she really knew how to drive one of those campaign Jeeps, because she passed trough the VTs and the rest of the securities of the ship located in the security perimeter at high speed and with very much ability.
“What’s Lisa doing down there?” ask Roy a little worried.
“She went down to find out if there are any survivors,” said Claudia.
“But for that job we have the Cat’s-eyes, besides…” was saying Roy but something stopped him and then he continued, “she went down to find out if Ri..”
“Roy” said Claudia interrupting him.
“Sorry” said Roy and then he added, “Were coming back from our patrol, bridge.”
“Roger that,” said Claudia and her image disappeared from the screen.
Rick stayed thoughtful. What could it be that Commander Hayes has to go to search in the base, that Roy knows but Claudia hadn’t allowed him to say on the open channel?

Lisa had parked her Jeep and entered the base. She used her hand computer that was in her right arm to move in the base. After walking for several minutes she hadn’t found a thing, not a single sign of survivors. The base was in complete disorder. There still were some spots of blood that could be seen. It was as if the people that lived in the base had escaped running, tearing apart everything that they found in their way. Finally, she entered the place where the computers were, but there weren’t signals of life there either- there were no survivors.
The computer had turned on alone and for some reason it was transferring all its information to the SDF-1. The heart of Lisa shrank and all her hopes started to disappear. There was nobody alive, nobody. Karl wasn’t there anymore; he hadn’t stayed there waiting for her. He hadn’t accomplished his promise, Lisa thinks and the tears fill her eyes. After staying in the computer room for several moments, she started to look for the exit of the base - guided again by her computer, but this time for a different path, she would explore the base a little more, she needed to do it.

Claudia was worried for Lisa, she hadn’t reported herself for the last 40 minutes and now everybody knew that she had left the ship without security personnel and that the data that was coming from the base had stopped. But suddenly all her worries left her friend. Vanessa had captured some kind of perturbation near the mountains and when they sent a Cat’s-eye, the worst fears of the captain had been confirmed, the mountains around the ship were full of enemy pods.
“Order that all the vehicles of the transport come back and scramble all the VTs squadrons,” said the captain.
“But Sir, Lisa is still in the base, she will never come back to ship on time,” said Claudia worried.
“Well she insisted on going to the base, now she has to find a way to come back in one of the VTs,” said the captain angrily.
Claudia hid the look of fear from the captain and accomplished the orders that he had given to her. But something was wrong; the ship was not taking off from the ground. The gravity controls were working as they should, but the ship wasn’t lifting from the floor.
“Captain, the sensors read an intense gravitational field under the ship,” said Vanessa. The Captain stood up and walked to her screen.
“Gravitational mines, so this was the enemies plan, caught us like flies,” said Gloval and moments later Claudia gave the alarm, enemy pods where starting their attack.
After a few moments of battle, the inequality of the fight was visible from the bridge. From there it could be clearly seen the massacre that the SDF-1 troops were suffering.
“There has to be a way to get out of this,” said Gloval and after making a pause he added, “Show me again the blue prints of the base.”
Vanessa put the image immediately on her screen. Gloval, after studying them again for a few seconds, finally said, “it’s just like I thought, there is a reflex system located underneath Sara. If we overload the system, the explosion will be enough to destroy the gravitational mines of the enemy,” and after some moments he added, “Claudia put Lisa on line.”

Lisa was still walking through the base hallways, in the sub terrain sectors, so she hadn’t noticed the battle that was taking place outside the base. Then the broadcast from the bridge came to her.
“What? You want me to blow the base?” said Lisa. She couldn’t believe what she was ordered to do. If she blows the base all her illusion would be finally destroyed.
“Yes Lisa we need you to overload the reflex system of the base so we can be liberated from the gravitational mines,” said Gloval.
“But Sir…” Lisa was saying, but Gloval interrupt her. “Claudia put me on line with Fokker, if Lisa is not capable of doing it then we have to ask him for a suicidal mission.”
“No, wait Sir, I’ll do it,” said Lisa finally, “I’ll blow the base up,” she added with a lost voice.
“Good Lisa, keep your radio open so we can give you the instructions,” said Gloval.

Lisa started to run guides from the prints of her computer. If she wanted to arrive to the place where the computers that control the reflex system of the base were, she had two options. One was crossing the intricate hallways of the base and the other one was giving a short ride outside of the base, right in the middle of the battle. For what Lisa could hear from the open channel of her radio the obvious option, if she wanted to secure the life of the inhabitants of the ships and her troops, was the second one. So she ran through the hallways to the exit of the base and made her way from there to the personnel barracks, there were about 400 meters, which should not be a problem in any other occasion but fire was pretty heavy. Finally, Lisa held herself in the door’s frame, as if she wanted to take impulse from there and run faster. She took a deep breath and started to run, she ran as fast as she could avoiding the explosions and the enemy fire and she finally arrived to the barracks in one piece. Only there an explosion takes her down onto the ground, but she stood up quickly and started to run again. There, it was necessary for her to take an elevator that brought her to the deepest sector of the base, about 20 floors underground. As she descended the shaking of the battle start to be less perceptible, until it disappeared completely. The only problem was that the communication with the bridge was more difficult at every level that she went down. She was losing the signal.
Finally she arrived to the reflex system computer section and started to examine them so she could start to activate the necessary mechanism to overload the system. She was breaking the security system when suddenly she heard a voice.
“Stop, freeze,” said a hard voice and the mind of Lisa was frozen and blank, but not her instinct because her right hand searched immediately her laser rifle. “Don’t even try. I’ll blow your head off before you can even reach the gun,” said again the voice, a little closer this time. “Raise your hands up slowly,” added the voice somehow intimidating. Lisa raised her hands slowly, just as she has been ask to, but she couldn’t avoid asking herself if she was dreaming, if the voice belongs to one survivor or if she would be the first person to be in touch with the enemy.
“Throw your laser rifle away carefully,” said the voice and Lisa moved slowly and threw her laser rifle.
“Now turn, slowly,” said the voice.
Lisa started to turn into the man’s direction, but as she did it she said, “Listen, I’m Lieutenant Lisa Hayes.”
“Quiet,” said the voice and by that time Lisa had turned completely and was in front of the voice.
Then she realized that it wasn’t the enemy, or just one person. There were five men and two of them were pointing at her with some old laser rifles. One of the men came closer to Lisa, to check if she had any other kind of weapon.
“Who are you and what are you doing here?” asked the man as he checked her.
“I’m Lieutenant Commander Elizabeth Hayes, first officer of the SDF-1, I’m an RDF officer,” said Lisa.
“Look at this,” said the first man and took Lisa’s radio in his hands and threw it to the floor.
“No wait,” said Lisa moving closer to the man but it was too late, he had already destroyed the radio.
“Don’t move,” said the man and pointed his gun straight at Lisa’s head, making her stop and stay unmovable.
On the bridge they all had listen to Lisa’s conversation, but suddenly the communication was gone, and there was only static.
“Lisa, Lisa answer me,” said Claudia, but nothing, there was no answer.
“Do we have the location of the commander?” asked the captain.
“It’s imprecise Sir, she is somewhere in sublevel 20,” said Vanessa.
“Claudia keep trying to reach her, Lisa is our only hope to get out of here alive,” said the captain. He was worried for the life of Lisa, as for the life of the inhabitants of the ship, as for his crew.
“Yes Sir,” said Claudia and she kept trying to communicate with her friend. She prayed that it wasn’t the enemy that Lisa had found, because if it that was the case, she and all the rest were lost.

Lisa was still there standing, with her hands behind her head, looking attentively at how the minutes went by and looking also at the men. None of them looked like a familiar face, they were survivors of the base, she could affirm that because of the discolor and scraped uniforms they wore, but non of them were familiar to her, non of them were Karl.
“Please listen to me. I’m from the RDF. I’m on your side,” said Lisa impatiently.
“You are the enemy, from here we could listen to the explosions, you are destroying what you left of the base,” said the same man that had spoken first.
“No, my ship is under attack and I need to overload the reflex system to let my ship free from the gravitational mines that have her captive,” said Lisa.
“Yeah right,” the man that had searched her said sarcastically.
“Bring the rest here Douglas,” said the first man and the man that had searched Lisa left the room by a lateral door.
“You must believe me, if I don’t overload the system soon we all are going to be dead, I could take you out of here in time I just…” Lisa was saying but the first man interrupted her.
“Quiet,” said the man. Lisa stayed quiet squeezing her jaw with strength; she had to figure out a way to convince these men soon. Just in that moment five more people entered into the computer room, two men and three women.
“I told you that they have come to destroy what was left of the base, I told you Riber, peace is only an hallucination,” said the same man.
The heart of Lisa just stopped the same moment that she heard the words of the man. Riber, he had said Riber. It took Lisa several seconds to finally react and then she looked at the men that just came into the room and her eyes were fixed on one. He had long hair, almost beyond his shoulders, a mustache and a beard. But his eyes hadn’t change, they were Karl’s eyes, it was Karl.
“And you believe that with only one woman they will destroy the base. You are paranoid Huges.”
“She came to destroy the reflex system, she was about to blow all the base, at least that was what she wanted, but we stopped her in time,” said Huges.
“She said that she is RDF and her ship is trapped in some sort of gravitational mines,” said Douglas.
“What’s your name?” asked Riber coming closer to her.
It took Lisa a few seconds to answer; she was charmed looking to Karl’s eyes, “I’m Lieutenant Commander Lisa Hayes,” said Lisa almost in a whisper.
The eyes of Riber where wide open and he felt like his heart was going to leave his rib cage. Then he looked better at the woman. She was tall, slim, with blond-brown hair, a little pale and with emerald green eyes, her beautiful emerald green eyes. It was her, she had finally arrived, finally she had accomplished her promise.
“Li…Lizie,” said Riber fearfully, coming a little closer to her. He couldn’t believe it, he could not believe how much his little girl had grown, his love. Lisa only nodded with her head, looking at him in the eyes.
“What happen Riber?” asked Huges.
“Drop your weapons right now you idiots, she is RDF, she is Admiral Hayes’ daughter,” said Riber and stopped just in front of her, a few inches away from her.
“How can you be so sure?”
“Because I know her, because she was my fiancé,” said Riber and looked again into Lisa’s eyes, they both looked at each other’s eyes. Just like they did years ago and everything that was around them disappeared; there was just the two of them, nobody else, nothing else.
“What are you saying Riber? Are you sure?” asked Huges, but Karl ignored him completely. “Riber I’m talking to you,” Huges said again, but this time he grabbed Karl by the arm, forcing Karl to look at him.
“Of course I’m sure Huges, it’s her, she is RDF,” said Karl a little upset.
“I think that you are hallucinating Riber,” said Douglas.
“Listen to me, I’m RDF and I am Admiral Hayes’ daughter and if you don’t pay attention to what I’m about to tell you then we all are going to die. And you,” said Lisa looking at Huges “you will be the one responsible for the death of the 50,000 civilians that are on board my ship.”
“Maybe we should listen to her,” said one of the women.
“Of course we should listen to her,” said Karl and softly took one of Lisa’s arms, “What’s going on Lisa?”
“My ship is trapped under the gravitational mines that the enemy put here, and the only hope is to blow the reflex system of the base and destroy the gravitational mines.”
“What will happen to us?” asked again the woman.
“I can ask for a rescue team, they will be here in seconds,” said Lisa.
“Then we need to communicate with your ship,” said Karl.
“Wait Riber, you can’t make a decision like that,” said Huges.
“Of course I can, it’s the only chance that we have to get out of here,” said Riber and came closer to one of the computers. After pushing some keys he turned to Lisa’s direction, “How do we communicate with your ship?”
Lisa only smiled and walked next to him. After a few deceived attempts they finally could communicate with the ship. The signal was weak and was broken at some moments, but Lisa could finally inform them that she had found survivors and that she needed a rescue team. The captain gave them the extraction point coordinates, a place that the survivors had to reach on their own, because there weren’t enough VTs to make a secure perimeter.
Lisa also informed them that she would start the sequence to overload the reflex system and the captain told her again that everybody’s destiny was on her hands.
The survivors started to leave to the extraction point and Lisa stayed with Karl, activating the necessary controls to overload the reflex system.
“Karl leave with the survivors, go to the extraction point, I’ll reach you later.”
“Forget it, I’ll not leave you alone, besides I know the base like the palm of my hand and I could take the both of us to the extraction point faster.”
“But is not your obligation, besides I could do it alone,” said Lisa, and she was fighting with some controls that didn’t allow her start the overload sequence.
“You’re as stubborn as I remembered,” said Karl smiling and coming closer to her and activating the overload sequence. It only took him a few seconds, “I think I can help don’t you?”
“It’s just that I don’t want you to risk your life,” said Lisa looking at him in the eyes.
“I’m with you, that’s all that matters,” said Karl looking her in the eyes too.
“Alert, alert, reflex system overload, ten minutes to the detonation of the base, alert, alert..” said the synthetic voice of the computer taking Lisa and Karl out of their stupor.
“I think we better run if we want to get out of here,” said Karl.
“ I think so too,” said Lisa smiling.
“Wait for me a moment, I need to put on my space suit.”
“You better hurry,” said Lisa and Karl ran through a door next to one of the corners of the room. He took from there a space suit and put it on quickly, over the clothes that he had on.
“Let’s go,” he said when he was ready and took Lisa’s hand and started to run.
They ran through several hallways, the base was truly a labyrinth and Lisa was now sure that if she wasn’t with Karl, not even her computer would have been able to guide her. Finally they arrived to the door of the barracks, the same one from where Lisa had come in. They needed to cross again in the middle of the battle to get to the extraction point
“Ready to run?” asked Karl.
“Sure, how about you?”
“Me too,” said Karl and held Lisa’s hand tighter, “Then here we go” he said and they started to run. The fire was heavier than when Lisa had crossed the first time. They started to run in a zigzag to avoid the detonations and the gunshot from the enemy, but the fire was so heavy that at one point there was no way to get away from it. Karl jump over Lisa when he saw that one gunshot came in their direction.
Lisa fell to the ground and Karl fell over her, protecting her. She was intact, but Karl didn’t have the same luck, the gunshot had hit his shoulder.
“Oh God, Karl are you ok?” asked Lisa when she saw the pained expression on Karl’s face.
“I think so,” said Karl and immediately he put one of his hands into his shoulder, “Are you ok?”
“Yes, but we’ve got to move from here,” said Lisa as she stood up quickly and then helped Karl to stand up.
“Let’s go,” he said and started to move.
“No, we are to far away from the extraction point, we’ll never make it, not hurt like you are.”
“Lisa we have to move.”
“Let’s get back to the barracks, come,” said Lisa and took Karl by the arm that wasn’t hurt and they started to run in the barracks direction. On the way, Lisa activated her location signal, the one that she only had to turn on in case of an emergency.
They arrived to the barracks and Lisa entered one room, curiously it was Karl’s room. The wound that he had suffered went through his left shoulder and had caused a lot of bleeding to the point that when they enter the room Karl fell into the floor.
“Karl,” said Lisa and got down on her knees by his side.
“I’m a little dizzy,” said Karl softly.
“What?” asked Lisa, the noise of the battle making it difficult to hear the soft voice of Karl.
“I’m a little dizzy.”
“Don’t worry, they’ll take us out of here, I already activated my emergency signal,” said Lisa taking Karl’s head in her arms to help him to sit down.

On the bridge, Claudia started to receive the emergency signal from Lisa and saw that it was steady in some sector of the barracks.
“Sir, I’m receiving Lisa’s emergency signal.”
“The emergency signal?” asked Gloval.
“Yes Sir, the signal is steady in one sector of the barracks and there are only four minutes to the detonation of the base,” said Claudia without being able to hide the fear from her voice.
“You think she is hurt?” ask Sammie.
“I think so, she wouldn’t activated the signal for any other reason,” said Gloval a little worried. He was sure that Lisa was in big trouble to activate the emergency signal, especially knowing Lisa, and how stubborn she was and then he added “send a pilot from Fokker squadron to rescue her.”
“Immediately Sir,” said Claudia and gave the order.

“Hey Rick, brother I have a special mission for you,” said Fokker.
“What is it?” asked Rick as he fixed one enemy pod in the direction of his missiles.
“Well since you like to rescue ladies in danger I think that you might like this,” said Roy funny.
“Make your point brother,” said Rick a little bit worried.
“You’ll see, we have a lady trapped in the base and you are the knight that has to rescue her.”
“And who are we talking about?”
“Well she is nothing more and nothing less than Commander Hayes,” said Roy making a wink.
“Her?” said Rick with no enthusiasm.
“I thought that you liked to rescue ladies in danger, but now I believe that I was mistaken.”
“But it has to be that lady?” said Rick protesting.
“Don’t protest any more and plug into the bridge so you can receive Lisa’s location signal and I should remind you that you are about to rescue the woman that probably saved us all, is that clear?” said Roy now serious.
“Roger, I’m plugged into the bridge,” said Rick now more professional as he logged into the bridge and started to go into the direction of the base from were the commander’s signal came.

“Lisa you should go, if you stay you’ll die,” said Karl taking one of Lisa’s hands that were now cover with his blood.
“I’m not leaving, I won’t leave you here. I don’t want to lose you again,” said Lisa with her eyes full of tears, holding Karl’s hand tight. With her other hand she put some pressure on Karl’s wound.
“Lisa,” he tried to say but she interrupted him.
“I won’t leave you Karl, I won’t,” said Lisa trying to sound hard as a way to hide her sobs, “we’re going to get out of here I’ll promise you that, I have dreamed of this for too long to leave you now.”

Karl only looked her in the eyes- they were still those beautiful green eyes that he had fallen completely in love with and that he still loved so much. He also had dreamed many a night like this, of seeing her again, of holding her in his arms again. He also would not let this opportunity get away from his hands; he would fight like he had never done before.
“Wait a second ok?” said Lisa and she stopped the pressure on Karl’s wound and laid his head on the floor. Lisa ran to the bed and took the sheet from it quickly. She tore the sheets in several pieces and then she went back to Karl’s side with some of them. “Now you will be better,” said Lisa and put one of the pieces of the sheet behind Karl’s head. Then with other piece she made a tourniquet that made Karl scream in pain.
“I’m sorry but that was necessary,” said Lisa, pressing hard again on the wound, harder than before. She was sure that the hit had broken some artery and if she didn’t stop the bleeding Karl would probably die.
“Do what’s necessary,” said Karl softly and Lisa pressed with more strength the tourniquet and the wound. She was very concentrated on trying to stop the bleeding when she heard a voice from the outside.
“Stay away from the window I’m coming in.”
Lisa didn’t react at the beginning and only when she saw the tight hand of the VT in guardian mode, did she react and jump over Karl to protect him with her body. A few seconds later thousands of pieces of glass flew across the room and the sound of the battle became louder.
When she was completely sure that Karl hadn’t been hurt by the glass pieces Lisa turned to the direction of the windows.
“Do not worry, Commander, I’ll take you out of there,” said again the voice and this time Lisa recognized the voice immediately. It was Corporal Hunter.
“What do you think you are doing?” asked Lisa upset, “you almost killed us.”
“Commander we don’t have time for discussions, the base is about to blow,” said Rick upset too.
“I know perfectly well that the base is about to blow and you do not tell me what I have to do,” answered Lisa.
“Commander there is one minute and thirty seconds to the detonation, is it really necessary that we start to fight?” said Rick and now he had opened his VT canopy.
“Lisa we have to get out of here,” said Karl who had found a way to stand up.
“You’re right,” said Lisa and ran to his side and helped him to walk to Rick’s VT.
“He goes first,” said Lisa when they were at Rick’s VT.
“But my orders were to rescue you.”
“You can come for me later, you take him now.”
“But it just…” was saying Rick but Lisa already had Karl seated in the co-pilot’s seat.
“Can you just obey me for one time in your life Hunter and take him out of here?”
“But what about you?” said Karl who already was pale from the loss of blood and spoke with difficulty.
“They can come for me later,” said Lisa with a smile as she moved away from the canopy, “don’t worry.”
Rick was standing without knowing what to do. His orders have been pretty clear -he had to get Lisa out of there and leave. But now she had ordered him to leave with this guy that he had no clue who he was and there was no time. The base would blow in less than one minute and he couldn’t come back to rescue her.
“Corporal what are you waiting for? Get out of here.” grunted Lisa.
“But commander, what about you?”
“Just go, I’ll find a way to get out of here,” answered Lisa almost screaming to Rick.
Rick looked at her. He knew that there was no time and that he had to go, and that he would have to leave her there.
After all, she had ordered him to do that and it was more than clear that she knew what she was doing, so Rick sat again in his seat and closed the canopy of his VT.
The wind that the engines of the VT produce when they turn on made Lisa turn her back to the VT to avoid been hurt from the glass pieces that start to fly. When the VT was farther away Lisa came closer to the window and saw Rick’s VT, with an almost unconscious Karl, going away and sadness and joy mixed in her heart. She knew perfectly well that nobody would come back to rescue her, that there was no time and that she would die, but she had seen Karl again, she had seen into his eyes again, and saved his life.
But suddenly Lisa’s blood froze. Rick’s VT had started to descend and she heard through the speakers that there were only 30 seconds left before the detonation.
“What the hell do you think you are doing?” screamed Lisa furious and scared.
“I’m going to take you out of here,” answered the voice of Rick.
“I order you to leave.”
“Well, I am disobeying you again,” answered Rick, for some reason that not even he understood. As he saw the seconds go by, he punished himself. He had decided to come back and rescue Lisa, even when she had ordered him to leave. But when did he listen to her? And certainly he wouldn’t start right now and neither would he let her die there, even if he didn’t like the commander at all, he couldn’t let her die.
So he had come back, even knowing that the time was against him. So he had to be quick, and before Lisa could answer him he, with audacity and just like he had done with Minmei, took Lisa with the hand of his VT.
“Let me go, what are you doing?” protested Lisa as the hand, rough in his movements but somehow gentle, lifted her up from the ground and took her out of the room of the base.
Rick looked again the clock. There were only 10 seconds left for the detonation. If he wanted to remain alive he had to be even faster, so he sped off his VT to its full power. With the free hand of his VT he covered Lisa, because he knew that they will be in the range of the explosion when the base blew up.
And that was what happened. A fireball covered the VT as he quickly abandoned the base, but fortunately Lisa was unharmed as Rick found out when they where in outerspace.
“Are you ok commander?” asked Rick a little bit scared when he noticed that Lisa did not move.
“I think so,” answered Lisa a little bit confused from the violent runaway from the base.
They landed in a few seconds and the paramedics ran over Lisa immediately, but she pushed them away and immediately ran in the direction of Rick’s VT canopy.
“What the hell did you think you were doing?” screamed Lisa to Rick when she was by his side, “you almost killed us all out there.”
“What are you talking about?” answered Rick who had been taken by surprise by Lisa, and who now was taking his helmet off.
“For playing the hero you almost got the three of us killed, that’s what I’m talking about,” answered Lisa pissed off.
“But we are all here alive, aren’t we?” answered Rick.
“Just because you have luck this time Hunter, but some day that luck will be over and I’ll be right there to remind you that,” answered Lisa and after that she turned her back on Rick and went to check on Karl, who was being attended by the paramedics.
“Don’t you think that you should be thanking me for saving your life?” said Rick to Lisa, raising his voice because of his madness.
“Listen to me Hunter, you are a soldier and you were doing what you have been order to do so don’t wait for my gratitude. Besides, right now I don’t have time for your sulkiness. But this conversation is not over yet, is that clear?” said Lisa as she came back in her step to answer Rick. She did it looking him in the eyes with one hand on her waist and the other pointing at him.
After that Lisa turned again and started to run in the paramedic’s direction that had been taking Karl in a stretcher.
“How is he?” asked Lisa when she arrived to Karl’s side and saw that he was extremely pale.
“He has lost to much blood, probably one of his arteries is broken, we’ll take him to the OR to prep him for surgery,” said one of the paramedics.
“I’ll go with you,” said Lisa and took one of Karl’s hands and started to run by the stretcher, which was being moved at high speed by the paramedics.
“But ma’am you need attention too, your suit is cover by blood,” said the paramedic again.
“Is his blood,” said Lisa and looked at Karl and her eyes start to fill with tears. She couldn’t lose him, not now that she had recovered him. “Have the best team of surgeons waiting for him in the OR, you must save him at all costs.”
“Yes ma’am,” said the paramedic and they started to put the stretcher in the ambulance. “Are you coming with us Ma’am?”
“Of course I’m coming,” said Lisa and she climbed into the ambulance as it left the runway deck at full speed.
Rick remained standing next to his VT, as if he was paralyzed. For one reason, he didn’t understand how he was charmed by the image of the commander. For one side, he had noticed for the first time how gorgeous the commander was. He saw her there in her tight space suit and saw her hair floating because of the minimum gravity of the runway deck. It had made him notice that the commander was a beautiful woman.
For the other side, he was intrigued. He needed to know who was that man that the commander was willing to give her life for, who was this man and why was he so important for the commander.
Why he needed to know this, he had no clue. Probably just for curiosity or maybe the fact that he had discovered that the ice queen apparently had a heart; he wasn’t sure.
And also he was furious. Who the hell did she think she was to treat him that way? God, he had saved her and that guy’s life and the only thing that he had gotten in return was the scream and grunts of the commander. “Jesus, Who could understand that woman?” thought Rick as he started to walk to the interior of the runway deck.

Lisa had waited outside of the OR, with her space suit still all covered with blood until Karl had been taken out of the OR. The doctors immediately told her that the surgery had been a complete success. Only then and with pressure from Claudia she had run to her house, took a quick shower and changed her clothes. She had decided to put on some jeans and a sweater, something comfortable. Then she had come back to the hospital and waited in the waiting room until they let her get into Karl’s room.
Finally they gave her permission to get in the room and she had stayed there all night sitting in a chair next to Karl’s bed, with Karl’s hand that wasn’t hurt between her hands. She was falling asleep when she felt a soft squeeze on her hand and she immediately opened her eyes and saw that Karl had his eyes slightly open.
“Hi,” said Lisa softly.
“Hi,” he answered still a little bit sleepy.
“How do you feel?”
“A little dizzy and sleepy.”
“Then you better rest,” said Lisa smiling and resting her face on Karl’s bed banister.
“Is it really you Lizie? This is not a dream right?”
“Yes Karl it’s me and if this is a dream then we both are having the same dream,” said Lisa and Karl only smiled and then he closed his eyes.
“I’ve missed you so much,” said Karl with a sleepy, soft voice.
“Me too Karl, me too,” said Lisa and she stayed there watching Karl fall asleep and after a few moments she fell asleep too in the chair.

To be continued…