Fanfic Name / Nombre del Fanfic: Choices and Aces

Chapter / Capitulo: Chapter Seven

Author / Autor: Anonymoose_Au

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

Romance

Action / Accion

Alternate Universe / Universo Alterno

Fanfic:

“Her kin, kneeling around, a vigil keep, 
Venting their grief in low sobs unrepressed: — 
Friends, she but slumbers, wherefore do ye weep?” 
'One of the Dead' – Christina Rossetti 
 
 
Captain Gloval was in shock…absolute shock. 
 
In fact he had almost called for the corpsman at one point; certain he was going to become physically ill at his post. 
 
Instead, he had sat in his command chair and hid his face from his Bridge Crew. 
 
When the blinding light of the exploding omni-directional barrier had cleared there had been nothing, but devastation before them. Where once the city of Hamilton stood there were only a few burnt out husks of buildings. 
 
“De-destruction is total, Captain,” Claudia reported from her station, her voice shaking. “There are no survivors on the surface.” 
 
Sammie, Vanessa and Kim all gave gasps of horror and then one by one began to cry. 
 
Lisa was pale and wide-eyed. 
 
“And…the squadrons,” Gloval finally found his voice. 
 
Lisa shook herself out her daze and looked over her console readouts. 
 
“Our casualties…are…are relatively light,” she informed him. 
 
Gloval shook his head; he had always hated that description, as if the loss of even one soldier wasn’t tragedy enough. 
 
“Call them back in.” 
 
Lisa turned to comply, but at that very moment, Claudia announced that a message from Toronto was been received. 
 
“Captain Gloval, this is the Ontario Quadrant Central Command, permission for the offloading of your civilians is denied. Leave the area immediately, repeat, leave the area. If you do not we will be forced to open fire on you.” 
 
“What?” Lisa gasped, the Bridge Bunnies fell silent, shocked. 
 
“Fire on us?” Claudia shook her head in disbelief, “they would FIRE on us?” 
 
“Claudia, take us towards the Artic Circle as quickly as possible.” Gloval ordered, impassively. 
 
Claudia opened her mouth as if to say something, but with a look from Lisa she turned back to her console and began issuing co-ordinates and instructions to the navigation techs. 
 
Lisa meanwhile gave the order for the squadrons to return. 
 
Gloval ran his hand across his tired eyes, wishing that all this was just a horrible nightmare, rather than cruel reality. 
 
*** 
 
Max Sterling sat in his barracks, head in hands. 
 
He couldn’t believe it…Ben was gone… 
 
Max and Ben had been friends since they were kids in a small town in mid-western US. Ben and his parents originally hailed from New York and the small farming town had not really been to boisterous Ben’s tastes. 
 
Max had been born and raised there, and spent most of the holidays and weekends at the local park with most of the other kids. Except Max, with his thick glasses spent most of his time alone, flying model planes through the trees and playground equipment and dodging bullies. 
 
Then one day, a tall kid almost ran into him, pulling a kite behind him. 
 
It was Ben Dixon, whose parents had sent him out to get-to-know the park and fly his new kite, something he’d never done before. Which was quite obvious if the way he dragged it along the ground was any indication. 
 
“Hey sorry,” Ben had said to him, in that good natured way of his. “I’m just tryin’ to get this stupid thing up in the air.” He gave the kite an annoyed tug. “Easy, my butt!” 
 
Max had smiled and pointed out to Ben that the fact there was no wind was probably the reason. 
 
Ben had looked extremely disappointed, at least until Max had offered to give him a go with the remote control plane. 
 
It had taken Ben about two minutes to accidentally nose dive it into the pond. 
 
He had turned to Max with a horrified look upon his round face and Max had just laughed. 
 
From that day they had been pretty inseparable and when Max’s parents had disappeared during a trip, presumed killed by anti-UN forces, Ben’s parents had taken him in. 
 
Eventually they had ended up on Macross Island, Max wasn’t sure about the reasoning behind it, but the years spent watching the SDF-1 been restored and the development (well, what the public had been able to catch glimpses of) of the veritech fighters had been a very exciting time. 
 
Ending up with the SDF-1 in the orbit of Pluto had not been nearly as exciting, more terrifying, but as long as Ben and Ben’s parents were around, Max felt he had a place. 
 
But now, Ben was gone and pall of guilt had settled over him, painful and bleak. 
 
When he and Ben had joined the RDF and been sent to boot camp, Ben’s mother had worried and with good reason. Ben was very headstrong and never looked before he leapt, Mrs. Dixon had been sure some harm would come to him. Max had sworn that he would look after Ben and make sure he always came back safely. 
 
And for nearly a year Max had kept his promise, against all odds. 
 
But he was getting better, Max reminded himself, sure Ben made mistakes, but most of the time lately he managed to get himself out of them. 
 
'Why? Why couldn’t I help him?' Max berated himself, squeezing his eyes shut against the tears. But that was even worse, as Ben’s last words came to his ears and he saw that sickly red glow turning to white evaporating his best friend in its wake. 
 
'How am I going to tell Mr. and Mrs. Dixon…?' 
 
*** 
 
“It’s so awful!” Minmei cried, as the Macross Broadcast News reader revealed the carnage that had accidentally been unleashed upon the people of Hamilton. “Those poor people!” 
 
Ordinarily, Minmei would be working not watching the news, but early that day in her make up trailer on the set, she had collapsed in a faint. Kyle had caught her, so she was unhurt, but Vance had almost had a heart attack and had her rushed to Macross General. 
 
It had been kind of embarrassing, but it was rather a relief to be relaxing, especially since she had been discharged and was back at the hotel. 
 
Kyle was standing behind her, his arms folded and his eyes narrowed. “Those poor people, murdered by our military leaders.” 
 
“What?” Minmei turned to face him. “It was a terrible accident, Kyle!” 
 
“Accident?” Kyle snapped, “Ha! These mistakes always happen around the military and we’re just supposed to accept it because it was an ‘accident’? I can’t believe you’re so naïve.” 
 
Minmei bristled slightly, she hated been called naïve. “The military were just trying to defend us, Kyle,” she objected, “if they hadn’t we’d be dead now.” 
 
“They probably started the whole war themselves,” Kyle continued, not the least daunted, “in fact they did, didn’t they? Didn’t they fire the first shots? What did they expect? And now thousands have died, all for their lust.” 
 
“That’s not what happened at all, Kyle!” 
 
“Minmei, please, you don’t know how these things work,” shaking his head, Kyle strode over to the phone in the hotel room and began punching in numbers. 
 
“What are you doing?” 
 
“I’m going to hold a press conference,” Kyle told her over his shoulder. “The people of this city deserve to know the truth.” 
 
“Oh, please don’t, Kyle,” Minmei said, pleadingly, “I know you don’t like the military, but they’re only doing their best! Don’t make everyone angry at them.” 
 
“Why not, they deserve it,” Kyle snorted in disgust. “Get me Vance Hasslewood,” he said into the phone, then continued speaking to Minmei. “One day you’ll understand.” 
 
Getting to her feet Minmei retreated to the balcony of the room and looked out over the city. 
 
Sometimes she didn’t know what to do with Kyle, they had been close since childhood, but he could be so mean and condescending to her. He rarely took anything she said seriously. 
 
Minmei looked over her shoulder in time to see Kyle striding out of the room without so much as a goodbye. 
 
She couldn’t resist poking her tongue out at the closed door. 
 
Then she turned to the phone, she knew just who she wanted to talk to, picking up the receiver she quickly dialled a number. 
 
“Barracks C,” a distracted voice answered. 
 
“I’d like to speak to Rick Hunter, is he in?” 
 
“Uh, I’ll page him for you Miss…” 
 
“Just say it’s his good friend.” 
 
“Yeah, OK. Just hold, please.” 
 
Minmei waited impatiently, she knew that Rick would always listen to her. 
 
“Hello?” 
 
“Rick, it’s me, Minmei.” 
 
“Oh…” 
 
She frowned; usually Rick was excited to hear from her. “Are you OK, Rick? Is it about the battle? It’s OK…” 
 
“No, it’s not,” Rick replied. “We…I…Ben was killed.” 
 
Minmei was shocked…she wracked her brain, the name sounded familiar but she couldn’t place it. 
 
Rick must have realized this from her silence because he continued. “He was my wingman…he came to your birthday party…” 
 
“Oh no, that nice boy with the blue hair?” 
 
Rick heaved a sigh. “No, the big one…Ben…” 
 
“Oh,” Minmei remembered Ben, who had been rather rude the first time they met, all but shoving his hand at her to be shaken. But, how awful still! “I’m so sorry, Rick.” 
 
“I feel so awful, Minmei,” Rick spoke almost like he hadn’t heard her. “He was a good man…I don’t know what I’m going to tell his parents…they’re here on the ship and – “ 
 
“Rick, it wasn’t your fault, they’ll understand,” Minmei felt distinctly uncomfortable, she had no idea what to say. She decided to change the subject to easier territory. “I’ve been so busy lately, that we’ve hardly talked at all. You may have heard I was in the hospital, but I’m all right, it was just overwork. Um…how…uh…” She was about to ask what he’d been up to, but stopped herself just in time. 
 
“I wish none of this had ever happened,” Rick said. 
 
“Oh, but it’s not all bad, Rick,” Minmei burst out suddenly, “I mean I’ve got my movie coming out and all.” 
 
“What?” 
 
Minmei wanted to kick herself, that was a stupid thing to say, but she couldn’t take it back now, she tried to salvage the situation. “You know, when something sad happens, you should think about the happy things and it doesn’t seem so bad.” 
 
“The happy things,” Rick said, faintly. 
 
“I think about singing,” she told him. 
 
Rick said nothing for almost a minute, then. “I…sorry, Minmei, I have to go now, thanks for calling.” 
 
“But –“ she thought for a moment about asking if she could meet up with him, they always got on better face to face…she knew though that Vance would not approve, and he was sure to find out since he called every night. “Goodbye, Rick…and…uh…cheer up.” 
 
Hanging up, Minmei wondered if maybe Kyle was right and she had no idea how the world worked. 
 
*** 
 
Rick and Max hadn’t stayed around on the decks of the Prometheus once the battle was over, not that Roy could blame them, having lost Dixon. 
 
Roy went over the readouts of the battle, looking for ways to patch up any weakness in the squadrons defence and offence, but his mind really wasn’t on it. He didn’t exactly regret cracking a few jokes at Dixon’s expense, but he felt bad that he had never got a chance to tell the guy how much he appreciated what his friendship had given Rick. 
 
It also hurt that Dixon had been taken out by friendly fire. Those were the worst deaths… 
 
Roy tossed aside the report papers and got to his feet, heading over to the computer in the corner of the Tactical Room, and began to rapidly type on the keys. He really wasn’t allowed to do this, checking up on the roster of non-pilot personnel, but what the guys at the top didn’t know… 
 
“Thank God,” he muttered to himself, seeing that Claudia was off duty. 
 
Heading off the decks of the Prometheus, Roy headed into Macross City with a sense of purpose, although he couldn’t help noticing groups of people stopped in the streets looking up at the various large screens that were scattered on buildings in the city. 
 
On them a press pack surrounded Lynn Kyle. 
 
“Oh great,” Roy muttered to himself, rolling his eyes, “just what we need.” 
 
“Kyle tell us! How is Minmei doing this evening? Will she be able to continue making her movie?” One of the press was asking, shoving a microphone in Kyle’s face. 
 
“I have something to say about the war that’s going on out there,” Kyle began stridently. “I can’t believe you people are here asking about a star who’s simply collapsed from overwork when there’s a vicious war going on out there!” 
 
Roy had to agree with that assessment, but Kyle went on. 
 
“People are dying every day, all in order to feed the egos and generate profits for the military machine that enslaves us all.” 
 
Roy stopped mid-stride almost causing someone to collide into him. “What the-“ 
 
“War achieves nothing! Peace is the only answer! We must lay down our arms and stop this cycle.” 
 
“Doesn’t he realise the other side has to agree as well?” Roy shook his head. “He’ll kill us all, idiot.” 
 
Kyle had more to say, but Roy didn’t want hear it and he continued walking passed three men who looked just as bemused as he did. The rest of the crowd was hanging on Kyle’s every word. 
 
Roy reached Barracks A and headed passed the on-duty watchman with a nod of acknowledgement and headed to the elevator. 
 
And ran into Lisa who was waiting for it, it was taking its time getting to the ground floor. 
 
“Commander,” she greeted him distractedly. 
 
“Hey, Hayes.” 
 
Silence fell. 
 
Roy was a little surprised, usually whenever he ran into Lisa, she talked his ear off, either about regs he broke, or one Rick had broken, or something about the aliens. Now she was just pale. 
 
“Are you OK?” 
 
“Huh?” Lisa seemed to forgotten he was there. “Oh, I’m fine…I…how is Rick?” 
 
“Rick?” Roy was a bit surprised at the question, but then remembered how Lisa had visited his Little Brother in the hospital. “He made it through…Corporal Ben Dixon didn’t.” 
 
“What? Oh…no,” Lisa turned her head away and Roy wondered for a moment if she was crying. 
 
Roy wasn’t quite sure what to do, this was Lisa Hayes after all…he knew she wasn’t a cold hearted as the rumours suggested, Claudia was her best friend after all, but she wasn’t the sort to break down in public either. 
 
At that moment the elevator opened and Lisa hurried in, Roy following. 
 
“You are OK, right, Lisa?” Roy asked again, “Because you seem…really upset.” 
 
“I’m…I’m fine,” she repeated, still not looking at him. 
 
At that moment the elevator doors opened and Lisa all but fled down the hall to her quarters. 
 
For a moment Roy considered following her, but he really didn’t know Lisa well enough to press her on what was wrong. So he turned and headed for Claudia’s quarters. 
 
He signalled outside, but getting no answer, used his key. 
 
He looked about, somewhat amused to see that Claudia hadn’t cleaned up all her clothes yet. 
 
He sat down on the couch and picked up his guitar, hoping to distract himself from thoughts of the mass casualties of the day’s battle, but he couldn’t think of anything to play. 
 
Thankfully, Claudia’s appeared at that moment to take him from his gloomy thoughts. 
 
“Roy, how long have you been waiting here?” She greeted him. 
 
“Too long,” he got to his feet and came over to take her hand. “Claudia, today…well…” 
 
“What?” Claudia put her other hand on top of his. 
 
Roy took a deep breath, and took the plunge. “Let’s not wait any longer, let’s get married now.” 
 
***  
 
The Battle pod was ready to go and Rico, Konda and Bron were preparing themselves for their last nights on Zor’s ship; soon it would be time to return. 
 
“I still can’t believe what that micronian said,” Konda murmured as he went through the micronian objects they had collected during their time. “A life without fighting? How could that be?” 
 
“It’s unbelievable,” Rico confirmed with a nod. 
 
Bron though, seemed to be considering it. “What do you think it would be like?” 
 
Rico and Konda whirled to face him. “What was that?” They demanded in unison. 
 
“A life without war and fighting,” Bron elaborated, “what do you think it would be like.” 
 
“You can’t be serious,” Rico objected, “war is all we know, war is what we were made for, without it…” He trailed off. 
 
“Without it, what?” Bron pressed. “Perhaps it wouldn’t be so bad? We know that most of the micronians aboard this ship do not engage in combat, perhaps before we came they had never fought before!” 
 
“Their lives must have been lacking,” Konda said, but his voice lacked conviction. “After all, without conquest what is there?” 
 
“Making things,” Bron answered immediately, warming up to his argument. “Having ‘fun’, spending time with females.” 
 
Rico and Konda did not respond each of the Zentraedi spies had spent a great deal of time thinking of those micronian females they had ‘danced’ with. 
 
Rico could still remember the intoxicating scent of Sammie, which he had since discovered was due to a micronian substance called ‘perfume’. He found that same scent on a card that another micronian woman had been handing out in one of the many buildings known as ‘stores’. Every night before he went to sleep, Rico would smell that card and think of Sammie… 
 
But he would keep that to himself, certainly Lord Breetai or anyone else could never know. 
 
“Bron, this is ridiculous,” he said instead. “We have our orders, Lord Breetai will return to the fleet and we will return too. Forget the females and forget the talk of peace.” 
 
Bron looked away, then looked over at Konda, who gave a small nod. 
 
“I was just…speculating,” he mumbled, “I didn’t mean it.” 
 
Rico nodded, but he didn’t believe it, after all, he couldn’t stop wanting to remain in the micronian world either. 
 
What was happening to them?

Continue / Continua: Yes / Si