The mountainside was chilly, but that was to be expected.
The bright sun glared off the snow and nearly blinded the two lone figures on the slopes. Fortunately, they both were wearing sunglasses. Lisa looked down at her map and frowned. “You said the matrix site was here, Erin.”
Erin frowned even harder. “It is, Admiral. The entrance is just around the next bend.”
“Good, I was beginning to think that we got lost or something.”
The mouth of the cave was surrounded by a green glow, and Lisa stopped short of the energy field. “Is it safe to pass through?”
“I haven't the faintest idea.”
Lisa hefted a snowball and threw it at the strange portal; it went through without a problem. She inched cautiously towards the door, then, swiftly, hurled her body through the green energy portal, just in case there was a laser security system involved. Erin did the same, landing beside her in a heap.
When they hit the wall and landed, Lisa scanned the room and saw the computer console of the matrix interface light up. She scanned the controls visually, looking for anything out of the ordinary. Nothing presented itself, so she typed in the command for verbal interface. “Computer, bring energy output up to half level. Authorization password, ‘Peekaboo'.”
The lights went up, and the heat came on. Lisa took a look around the room, her hot breath leaving clouds of white mist every time she exhaled. The room temperature had increased, but not by much; it'd take time for the heating system to get up to full strength. But, at least, the lights would show what the room looked like, and that appearance took Lisa's breath away.
The room was just like the engine room onboard the SDF-1; Lisa had to fight off ghosts just by looking around the room. Apparently, the SDF-1 engine room had ejected before impact with whatever had destroyed it, and sent the room down to Earth. It went into shutdown mode before it entered the atmosphere, but the room's occupants were not able to escape before the separation. There were several crewmembers strewn across the floor, and some bent over their consoles. Dr. Lang, himself, was found immobile at his computer; Lisa timidly felt for a pulse and confirmed he was dead.
She glided over towards the chief engineer's booth, guiding Lang respectfully and gently out of his chair, and started scrolling through the display screen. The matrix was, undoubtedly, very active, and processing the energy for use to power up the room she was in. The generator was still capable of powering a large base, like the SDF-1, or a similarly sized, earthbound base.
Erin exhaled slowly. “This place gives me the chills, Admiral.”
“The heat will be online shortly,” Lisa noted distractedly, trying to fight the chills as well.
“I'll take a peek around, see what else this place has to offer,” Erin said.
“Go ahead,” Lisa said, returning her full attention to the screen in front of her. The startup sequence was proceeding without any problems, but something in the room made her hair stand up on end, like her funny bone was hit all over her body. A familiar footstep came up from behind her, and a familiar voice echoed in her ears before the void claimed her.
“Lisa, thank God it's you! Are you alright?”
When she finally came to, she was staring up into the baby-blue eyes of none other than Rick Hunter. She held her forehead, hoping that whatever concussion she had sustained would go away and make the room stop spinning. Rick, or the apparition of Rick, was offering her a swig from a canteen, and she reached out gingerly to accept a sip. It was real, after all, she decided, and took a long pull at the water within. The cold liquid sank to the pit of her stomach and seemed to revitalize her. “Is…is that really…you, Rick,” she stammered out, caressing his cheek.
“Yes, Lisa, it's me,” he replied.
“But, but I saw you die! Your fighter crashed into Dolza's ship! Max said you were dead,” she started crying, hysterically.
Rick tried to soothe her, embracing her tightly and drying her tears on his shoulder. “I can only tell you what I saw happening, Lisa; I can't offer any explanation of what happened other than that.”
Lisa leaned against the wall, stifling a few errant sobs, and nodded for him to begin his story.
“Well, it was bad, Lisa, very bad. I'm sure that you knew the odds, because you probably had all the monitors you could ever stand to watch keeping an eye on the battle. I was leading a flying wedge charge through a group of Zentraedi battlecruisers when the call came in that a hole had been exposed in Dolza's ship. I was reorienting myself towards it when a large laser blast knocked me in all directions at once. It also destroyed the guard fighters in my immediate area. I looked at my diagnostics; all systems were down, and the power plant was reaching critical mass, so I gave command to Max, targeted the cruiser, and set for full velocity ram. I guess the acceleration hit me; I blacked out and don't remember anything after that.”
Lisa sat, wide-eyed, through his story, and then shook her head. “So you don't remember how you got here?”
“No, I don't. I try to, and it gives me these episodes of vertigo and nausea.”
She looked at his face and head; there were scratches and cuts, which she assumed was from broken glass, and he had a huge shiner under his left eye. “Oh, my God, Rick, you're injured! How'd this happen?”
“Again, Lisa, I don't remember. At least, not the nice little shiner I have. The cuts, I believe, are from the busted cockpit; right before I blacked out, I remember hitting something on Dolza's ship. Other than that, I'm the picture of health.”
Something in the back of Lisa's mind didn't exactly trust everything she was seeing, but exhaustion overcame her, and she didn't mind, for she was back in the arms of the man she loved.