Fanfic Name / Nombre del Fanfic: Choices and Aces

Chapter / Capitulo: Chapter 18

Author / Autor: Anonymoose_Au

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

Romance

Action / Accion

Alternate Universe / Universo Alterno

Fanfic: “O, wonder! 
How many goodly creatures are there here! 
How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world, 
That has such people in't!” 
Shakespeare’s The Tempest Act 1 Sc V 
 
*** 
 
The explosions and shaking seemed to be over and slowly, cautiously, the three spies looked out into the city beyond. 
 
“I think it’s clear,” Bron muttered. 
 
“You mean, the micronians did it? They defeated, Khyron?” Mardul asked, excitedly. “I can’t believe it!” 
 
Cheers rose up among the renegade Zentraedi.” Hooray for the micronians! Hooray!” 
 
Rico turned putting a finger to his lips. “Shut up! We’re not in the clear yet, we still need to find the proper authorities. Let’s go.” 
 
As they stepped out of the deserted service passage and got a clear picture of what had happened to Macross, the mood fell. 
 
“Oh no,” One of them, Benaro whispered, “did we do all this?” 
 
The city looked nothing like Rico, Konda and Bron had described, at least not anymore. 
 
Many of the shop buildings were crushed, the non-combat vehicles overturned and those structures called ‘trees’ upended. 
 
“This is a bad idea,” Karita spoke, shakily, “when they find out who we are...” 
 
They walked through the city streets, looking for someone official. 
 
“Shouldn’t we get some micronian clothes?” Fulul asked from the rear of the group. “We don’t look anything like them!” 
 
Rico heaved as sigh. “That’s the POINT, we –“ 
 
“Look there’s some!” One of the defectors called and with a thundering of footfalls the twenty had rushed over to a broken shopfront. Mannequins in the broken glass windows had been knocked to the floor. 
 
“Hey! Stop that!” Bron chided, but the defectors didn’t heed them, hurrying on inside. 
 
“You have pay for those!” Rico called, but it was useless. 
 
The three spies hurried in to stop them, but it proved impossible. 
 
They had, at least, learned from Bron’s mistake (which Rico and Konda enjoyed telling over and over) and all were pulling on trousers or shorts. 
 
“Wow, these uniforms are so comfortable!” 
 
“What’re they made of?” 
 
“There’s so many kinds to choose from!” 
 
“Ugh!” Konda wracked his hands through his purple hair. 
 
Soon the twenty Zentraedi were all dressed, if somewhat haphazardly, in appropriate male micronian attire. 
 
“All right, let’s go,” Rico ordered them, leading the way out of the shop to continue their search. 
 
In the distance appeared large micronian vehicles, all with yellow flashing lights, once they came to a stop, orange suited micronians climbed out holding an array of tools. 
 
“Oh, wow, are they ‘rebuilding’ all ready?” 
 
“That’s amazing!” 
 
“Ok, then, we can reveal our identities to them,” Konda suggested to Rico and Bron, who nodded in agreement. 
 
Reaching the micronian team, the three spies immediately walked over to the one with the most stripes on his jacket selves, a micronian indicator of rank. 
 
“Excuse us,” Konda, who had been unofficially elected as the group’s speaker, signalled for the man’s attention. 
 
“Huh? Where’d you guys blow in from?” The male cocked an eyebrow at them in their rough blue togas. 
 
“We are Zentraedi,” Konda plunged in, “we come in peace.” 
 
“What the Hell?” The male’s eyes boggled. “Is this some sort of joke ‘cause it ain’t funny.” 
 
“No, we’re serious,” Konda said, to Rico and Bron’s nods, “we need to speak to the head of this vessel immediately.” 
 
“Lemme get this straight,” the male held up a large calloused hand. “You’re aliens and you want to be taken to our leader?” He shook his head. “Get outta here.” 
 
“Twenty-three of us have come,” Konda pressed, “as you can –“ 
 
He broke off as he and his friends turned. Where twenty Zentraedi had been before there was only empty space. 
 
“Whaaa-?” The three aliens gaped. 
 
“Aliens, right,” the male snorted, “why don’t you go over there –“ he pointed to a group of white uniformed micronians – “and tell ‘em aaaalll about it.” 
 
“Uh, OK,” Konda said, still stunned. 
 
The three spies walked over to the white uniformed micronians, hoping against hope that their brethren weren’t causing too much trouble. 
 
*** 
 
Rick climbed out his Veritech feeling completely worn out by the events of the battle and the sight he’d seen of Minmei. 
 
“Rick,” Roy called, jumping out of Skull One and rushing over to him. “You did good, Little Brother,” he slapped him on the back; “Macross owes you.” 
 
Rick gave a grunt. 
 
“Fokker,” a pilot nodded to Roy as he and Rick passed. 
 
“Gibson,” Roy returned the nod, then turned back to Rick. “Did you lose anyone?” He asked, as if trying to pinpoint the reason for his Little Brother’s dour mood. 
 
“No.” 
 
“I’m not looking forward to seeing the city, though,” Roy shook his head. “It’s gonna be a complete nightmare.” 
 
“You bet,” Rick mumbled. 
 
Roy put a hand on his shoulder and the two of them came to a half. “OK, spill the beans, what’s got to you?” 
 
Rick considered shrugging off Roy’s hand, after all his Big Brother would only say what he had before, but… 
 
“It’s Minmei.” 
 
Roy was immediately concerned. “She all right? If she’s at the hospital you have my permission to leave duty. Or we can check for her name on the network and see what shelter she’s in.” 
 
Rick shook his head. “It’s not that, she’s fine, Kyle was slightly injured.” 
 
“Well, I mean the guy might be a jerk,“ Roy shrugged, “but I’m glad he’s gonna be OK.” 
 
“Oh, he will be, Minmei will see to that.” 
 
Roy gave him a look that all but commanded him to explain. 
 
“She’s in love with him,” Rick sighed heavily, “with Kyle.” 
 
“Her cousin?” Roy looked stunned. 
 
“A second cousin,” Rick felt the need to Minmei, “Max and Lena aren’t actually her aunt and uncle, she just calls them that.” 
 
Roy shrugged again. “Well, whatever…but I though you were explaining just the other day about Minmei being too fickle?” 
 
“I guess she’s only that when it comes to me,” Rick shook his head. “I can’t believe it, Roy, I really can’t.” 
 
“Are you sure about this? I mean, there was a battle going on, if they were leaning all over each other, maybe-“ 
 
“They were kissing, Roy,” Rick objected, “and not platonically.” 
 
“Oh…” 
 
“I just feel useless.” 
 
“Hey, none of that!” The strength in Roy’s voice made him jump. “You’re integral to this war effort, Rick, and to the lives of the people around you. I don’t want to hear that kind of talk again, you got that?” 
 
Rick looked up into his Big Brother’s face. “Roger,” he cracked a small smile. 
 
Roy grinned back. “All right then, now let’s go see if we can score a drink before –“ 
 
“Attention Lieutenant Hunter, Rick Hunter report to Bridge Conference Room Level Nine, immediately. Repeat…” 
 
“Huh, what could they want me for?” 
 
“Beats me, but step lively,” Roy gave him a small push forward. 
 
“What about you?” 
 
“They haven’t called me up, I can’t just go bursting into any meeting when I feel like it, this smile will only get me so far.” He gave Rick a cheesy smile. 
 
“Oh, brother,” Rick rolled his eyes. 
 
“I’ll tell you what, though, I’ll walk you to level nine, I got someone on the Bridge I wanna meet anyway.” 
 
*** 
 
Minmei sat in a chair by Kyle’s bedside, nervously fiddling with her handkerchief. 
 
Kyle, a swathe of bandages around his head, lay sedated, although it was sure to wear off soon. 
 
And Minmei worried about what she would say to him when he did. 
 
The shock of him kissing her had sent her reeling and she had been frightened by the way he had all but pinned her arms to her sides. She had freed them though, and pushed him away, saying in no uncertain terms that he wasn’t to do that again. 
 
She and Kyle went back quite a way, their fathers were actually cousins rather than brothers, but that was really just semantics, Minmei had always seen Kyle as…well…not a brother, but a protector. She certainly had never seen him in romantic terms and it was uncomfortable that he would see HER that way. 
 
Minmei was not looking for a boyfriend; while she did still harbour the dream of one day getting married she didn’t see it happening for a very, very long time. 
 
Sighing, she wondered where Kyle’s parents were she hoped they were all right, the phone lines and communication systems were down so she couldn’t even call to find out and tell them Kyle was OK. 
 
Looking down, she realised, suddenly that her handkerchief was bloody and gasping, she dropped it. She didn’t want to think about blood and war, anymore, even if it was all around her. 
 
*** 
 
“Sun, surf, sea,” Roy drawled, “who need it! We’ve got here!” 
 
He and Claudia had met up in the corridors just below the Bridge, meeting in a fierce embrace. 
 
“Oh yes, gunmetal walls and alien walls, what more do we need,” Claudia joined in on the joke, although still a little shaken from the battle. 
 
“So, my darling wife, what should we do now? Dance the night away, visit a spa, help rebuild the shattered city.” 
 
Claudia winked at him. “I know what I want to do, but also know what we should do.” 
 
Roy laced his arm through hers. “To the city.” 
 
It was a short walk to total devastation, Roy hadn’t expected it to be so bad, the Prometheus and military sectors of the SDF-1 excepting the Daedeleus had been relatively unscathed, but Macross City had been nearly destroyed. 
 
“Geeze, I wonder how many we lost this time,” Roy muttered, shaking his head. 
 
“It’s horrible,” Claudia agreed, then set her shoulders back determined. “They definitely need al the help they can get, let’s get to it.” 
 
The two of them headed to one of the many maintenance trucks and identified themselves to the head of the crew though it really wasn’t necessary. 
 
“Commander Fokker, Lieutenant Grant,” the man greeted them with a salute. 
 
“None of that right now,” Roy waved the salute off, “what can we do to help up the pieces of this place.” 
 
The man smiled, looking slightly surprised at the request, but quickly consulted his clipboard. “What we really need is to repair the water pipes, you know anything about welding?” 
 
“Please,” Roy rolled his eyes, “I was a private pilot.” 
 
“My brother’s an engineer,” Claudia added, “he taught me a thing or two.” 
 
“All right then,” the man grinned, “go to Lambert over there and he’ll set you up.” 
 
*** 
 
Walking through the crumbled streets, Miriya decided to make the best out of the micronian’s plight. 
 
Just about every shop in the city had broken windows or blown in doors and there was one shop in particular she was interested in. 
 
Miriya was well versed in what the micronians called ‘shoplifting’, after all she had to get food from somewhere.  
 
She chose not to think too much about that, though. Originally, the taste of the multitude of food types the micronians had made her gag, as the lon passed however, she had to admit, if only subconsciously, that the tastes were becoming more and more appealing to her. 
 
Her destination came into view, 'Li Fung’s Antiquities' front display window was in shards. 
 
She took a quick look around, the street was mostly deserted and the few micronians who did pass by took no notice of her. 
 
Her sharp eyes raked across what remained of the window display, searching, hoping… 
 
“Ah!” She exclaimed, softly to herself, there they were the fighting knives she had so admired. Her hands snaked out almost too fast to see, and the knives and their sheaths were in her possession. 
 
She stuffed them down her boots before turning and walking swiftly, but calmly on. 
 
She now had the weapons; all she needed was to face her adversary. 
 
“…Hit by a stage light!” She picked up a conversation of two females in front of her. “Poor guy! I just want to kiss it all better.” 
 
“Yeah, right! As if Minmei would let you do that.” 
 
“It was only a movie, they were just acting.” 
 
“Suuure.” 
 
The two females burst into high pitched laughter, a popular female micronian past time. 
 
Miriya’s brow furrowed ‘stage light’? She knew what those two words meant separately, but together…? 
 
She visualised the Star Bowl, with the large lights hanging above the platform at the bottom, the ‘stage’. 
 
But that would mean… 
 
It wasn’t possible! She had seen her quarry fighting in space, but from the way the females talked, it seemed that this Lynn Kyle had never left the Star Bowl. 
 
Confusion flooded through her, Miriya prided herself on (among other things) her ability to work things out, especially her enemies. 
 
'Have I been wrong all along?' 
 
*** 
 
Breetai paced the command bubble, hands clenched tightly behind his back and a dark look in his eye. 
 
“Traitors? Zentraedi?” He growled. “How could this be? It’s never happened to us before.” 
 
He turned to Exedore. 
 
“The records are not clear, m’lord, but perhaps this is why the Robotech Masters were so savage in their warnings.” 
 
“We can’t have it, Exedore!” 
 
Exedore swallowed, nervously, knowing his commander would not like what he had to say next at all. 
 
“A count of the 1st Division shows twenty-three of our troops missing-“ 
 
“An acceptable loss,” Breetai grunted, “why bother telling me?” 
 
“Because, m’lord only six pods have been reported missing.” 
 
Breetai’s brow furrowed. 
 
“Thirty-five were destroyed in battle; ten were destroyed by Khyron, but those six, m’lord…” 
 
“What are saying, Exedore?” 
 
“The only way it can be accounted for is if twenty-three of our soldiers micronised themselves and went three or so to a pod.” 
 
“OUR soldiers? You mean to tell me this mutiny has its roots in MY ship?” 
 
“I’m afraid so, m’lord,” Exedore trod as carefully as he could with Breetai towering over him, especially with the next piece of information. “Among the defectors are our three spies, Officers Rico, Konda and Bron.” 
 
Breetai let out a roar of fury and punched his command chair viciously, but evidentially still held back, since the chair did not fall apart. “Damn them!” he cursed, “How could they turn against us like this?” 
 
“I believe it is the micronian lifestyle, m’lord, to some of our weaker brethren it can exert an irresistible pull.” 
 
Breetai turned away from him. “Dolza cannot hear of this.” 
 
“M’lord?” Exedore gasped, what Breetai has said was almost as shocking as Zentraedi defecting. 
 
“He cannot know we have had deserters…yet,” he added, as if this softened the suggestion. "We have to fulfil our mission.” 
 
“I doubt we will be able to pull off the same manoeuvre twice,” Exedore murmured. “How can we capture micronians then?” 
 
“We’ll think of something,” Breetai replied, but with none of his usual firmness, his eye was unfocused, as if his mind were on something else. 
 
Exedore felt an unaccountable warning go through him, sensing that the Zentraedi were heading for a point of no return. 
 
*** 
 
Rick had watched as Roy went off to be with Claudia and cursed, hoping he wasn’t in for some kind of discipline hearing. Had Lisa flipped over his lack of protocol on the tac net? 
 
Well, he’d soon find out, after loitering for a good five minutes outside the conference room, he walked into view of the sensor, signalled his presence and was admitted. 
 
It was a lot brighter in there then in the corridor and it took a moment for his eyes to adjust and when they did, they widened in surprise. 
 
Not only were Captain Gloval and Lisa there, but so was Max and Colonels Maistroff and Caruthers. 
 
And in three chairs facing the officer’s table were three men, all dressed in what appeared to be blue sack cloths. One seemed to have dyed his hair purple, which Rick found bizarre (no disrespect intended to Max), but far more odd was the greyish skin tone of the one seated next to him. Rick could only hope it wasn’t some sort of symptom of a contagious disease. 
 
“Ah, Lieutenant Hunter, you have joined us,” the Captain greeted him. 
 
“Finally,” Rick thought he heard Maistroff mumble; he rendered his salute none the less. 
 
“Reporting, sirs…ma’am…uh, what’s going on her?” 
 
Captain Gloval got to his feet and indicated the three men. “These, Lieutenant, are Zentraedi,” he said without preamble. 
 
“Wha-?! That’s ridiculous!” Rick spluttered. “Uh…sir.” 
 
“No, it’s true,” one of the men, heavy set with thick red hair turned to face him. “We’ve been micronised.” 
 
“Micronised, what the heck is that?” 
 
Lisa cleared the throat. “It’s true, Lieutenant, remember those chambers we saw on the alien’s battle cruiser? There function is to resize Zentraedi depending on the situation.” 
 
“Resize…you mean shrink them, that’s just –“ Rick had been about to say impossible, but then considered everything he’d gone through since arriving on Macross Island all those months ago. 
 
“It’s nice to see you again, Lieutenant,” the purple haired one spoke up. 
 
Rick raised his eyebrows. 
 
“Yes,” the one with the grey skin added, “after all, it was not too long ago you were in this position.” 
 
And suddenly, it clicked. 
 
“Wait! You were part of that interrogation team!” He pointed at them. “What are you doing here? Are you spying on us or what?” 
 
“Oh no,” the grey skinned one shook his head, “at least not anymore.” 
 
“Anymore?” 
 
“You see, Lieutenant,” Gloval spoke, “these gentlemen were previously inserted on our ship as spies to gather information that could be used against us –“ 
 
“But we loved your society so much -” the purple haired one broke in. 
 
“That we just couldn’t help ourselves -” the stocky one interrupted. 
 
“We had to come back,” the grey skinned one finished. 
 
“I see…” Rick was stunned, the enemy had inserted spies aboard and Command had never even suspected it? “So you’re tellin’ me you want to stay here permanently? Why should we let you?” 
 
“Exactly,” Maistroff burst out, thumbing his fist on the table. “The entire notion is ridiculous!” 
 
“Thank you, Colonel,” Captain Gloval’s voice was steely, “you opinion is noted, but we want to hear yours, Lieutenant Hunter.” 
 
“Why mine? I’m not Brass, I’m not even CAG.” 
 
“We want yours because you, Commander Hayes and Lieutenant Sterling are the only ones aboard who have had close contact with the aliens,” Gloval explained. 
 
'And Ben,' Rick added to himself, imagining briefly how Ben would probably find the whole conference hilarious and wouldn’t be afraid to say so 
 
“So, tell us, do you believe the Zentraedi can live peacefully with us?” 
 
Rick looked from face to face, neither Max, nor Lisa gave anything away, Gloval only looked curious, Maistroff and Caruthers, furious and the three Zentraedi… 
 
Rick’s first thought was to say ‘Not on your life! But the three before him, weaponless and human-sized looked almost like any other citizen on the ship, blue sacks notwithstanding. 
 
“Can I ask them something?” He gestured to the three. 
 
Gloval nodded. 
 
“Why do you want to be here? What’s so wonderful about it that you would desert your own race and risk been imprisoned or killed by us?” 
 
“The things you have here are so amazing,” the grey skinned one began. “Shops, ‘entertainment’ –“ 
 
“Movies, dancing-“ 
 
“Males and females together,” the purple haired one’s voice was awestruck. 
 
“Males and females,” the other two echoed. 
 
“There is one of your kind who even speaks out against war!” 
 
Rick couldn’t help a slightly sour look coming to his face. 
 
“And there’s singing of course,” the stocky one nodded to the others. 
 
“We love to hear singing,” the purple haired one confirmed. 
 
“It’s the best!” The grey skinned one enthused, a wide grin on his face, then he looked serious. “And most of all, you micronians know the secrets of Protoculture.” 
 
'There’s that word again,' Rick thought, 'what does it even mean?' 
 
It seemed Colonel Caruthers read his mind because he asked. “ ‘Protoculture’ what is that?” 
 
The aliens, who had turned towards Rick, now whipped around to look at Caruthers. 
 
“You know exactly what Protoculture is,” the purple haired one spoke, sharply. 
 
“Yeah,” the stocky one gave a nod. 
 
“It’s not nice to fool around with us like that,” the grey skinned one actually waggled a finger at the Colonel. 
 
“Ahem,” Gloval broke in, swiftly changing the subject, “so, Lieutenant Hunter, have you formed an opinion on weather we should grant this three men, Rico, Konda and Bron –“ he pointed each one out – “and the twenty others that have also come, asylum?” 
 
Rick was momentarily thrown by the mention of twenty other Zentraedi aboard, but he brushed it aside. “Well, I guess if they wanna stay, let ‘em stay,” he shrugged. 
 
“Hooray!” The three burst into shouts of glee and leapt out of their seats, hugging each other and pumping their fists in the air. 
 
“Now wait just a minute!” Maistroff roared, slamming both hands on the table as he got to his feet. “Have you all lost your minds? Do you know who these…these…things are? What they’ve done?!” 
 
Rick set his jaw and looked Maistroff right in the eye. “I sure as Hell have, I’ve been right in the middle of it…what about you?” 
 
He saw Lisa out the corner of his eye clap a hand to her forehead. 
 
Maistroff turned a bright red, but Gloval put up his hand. “Now just a moment ago, you seemed virulently opposed to the idea, now you are for it, may we have your reasons?” 
 
“Certainly, sir, it’s obvious the aliens have never experienced a life like ours. They were bred for war and on board their cruisers all they’re permitted do is prepare for the next battle. There’s no entertainment, there’s no community, but they’ve seen how we live and they want it, so I think we should let them. If a whole group of them have come here, maybe more will defect to.” 
 
“Good lord, man!” Caruthers had leapt to his feet too. “You’re talking about living with aliens!” 
 
“They may look like us, Lieutenant,” Maistroff said, darkly, “but don’t let them fool you. I wouldn’t be surprised if the entire thing is a ruse, they spied on us before, now they’re doing it again.” 
 
“We’re not!” The three cried, and looked about pleadingly. 
 
“Colonels,” Lisa spoke, “please, Lieutenants Hunter, Sterling and I have seen the alien society, if you could call that. The Zentraedi have no notion of peace, at least not until these three infiltrated. Now, they have spread the word to their fellow aliens and twenty of them have all ready embraced the idea. If we grant them asylum the rest of the fleet might learn the meaning of peace too, this could be the only way to end this war.” 
 
Rick was moved by the passion in Lisa’s voice, but Maistroff clearly wasn’t, he clapped his handers together sarcastically and sneered. “A fine speech, Commander Hayes, sit around the peace pipe and hope all goes well, is that it? Not in the real world.” 
 
Anger bubbled in Rick. 'Who does that jerk think he is, talking to Lisa like this?' He was about to ream out the guy and damn the consequences when the door slid open and a member of the Robotechnology Group hurried in a clipboard of notes in hand. 
 
“Hey, what do you think you’re doing?” Maistroff seemed to want to pick a fight with anyone. “This is a private meeting, you can’t just –“ 
 
Gloval held up a hand. “It’s all right, Colonel, he is merely presenting a report I asked for. Thank you,” he nodded to the scientist taking the clipboard. The scientist hadn’t even left before Gloval began to skim the notes. 
 
Rick, Lisa, Max, the three Zentraedi and two Colonels watched, curious and confused. 
 
“Well, then,” the Captain looked up, then passed the clipboard to Maistroff. “I think you should peruse this, it makes for very interesting reading.”

Continue / Continua: Yes / Si