fanfic_name = Time of Our Lives

chapter = Chapter 1

author = lisav

Rating = AP15

Type = Angst

fanfic = This fan fiction was written for entertainment purposes only. No infringement is intended. I do not own any of the characters-- real or imaginary!

Lost Love

INTRO...

Lisa stared blindly at the planet Mars as it came into view through the forward bays. Her pale face showed no expression what so ever, but inside she was a bundle of nerves and heartache.

How many times had she dreamed of coming here? How many ways had she pictured herself standing here? Too many to remember; too many to count yet here she is-- eight years too late!

Karl...

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Lisa Hayes had met Karl Riber when she was barley fourteen.

At nineteen, Riber had been the youngest and newest member of her father's aids. Her father, a high-ranking admiral had four aids already but one of them had snagged a promotion and was leaving to the front line. Experienced officers were always in demand now that the Global Civil War was in full swing.

So Ensign Karl Riber had been brought on board but as the rookie, he had been giving little to do except run errands and deliver messages.

From an early age, Lisa had learned not to trust people for she knew they would not hesitate to use her to gain the Admiral's favor therefore she had developed a cold, distant and dull persona to present to the world.

Especially after her mother's death five years ago, she had learned to tone down her natural beauty as she grew to blend into the background instead of standing out.

Conservative clothes, long bangs, and having all of her hair as closed to her face as possible worked well in covering her delicate features. Especially her fiery green eyes-- 'the windows to her soul' her mother had always said and one which Lisa could not control no matter how hard she tried. For it was always changing in the clarity, depth and brightness of color depending on her emotions and moods.

Most people thinking to charm or used her quickly ran into this cold, boring persona and left never giving her a second look again which suited her just fine until Riber.

Right from the beginning he was different not only because he was young and handsome but he seemed to be out of place. He didn't belong in a uniform anymore than she winning the Miss Universe pageant. She could tell that he was lonely and miserable yet he always managed to make her smile.

At first, she had been weary of him; for she couldn't believe that someone as handsome and sophisticated as he could be interested in her. His persistency won and as the weeks and months passed, their friendship bloomed and evolved into something more-- love.

It had sneaked up on her so gradually that when she had realized it, it was already too late. She was deeply head-over-heels in love with Karl Riber.

The more they spent time together, shared experiences and talked about the future, the more she came to depend on him. For she could not image him not being around when she opened her eyes in the morning and closed them at night to go to sleep.

She could listen to him talk for hours.

He had such grand and wonderful ideas about how life should be. Karl was a true pacifist. He didn’t believe in violence and hated all things associated with it. He had joined the service only to make his father happy. But slowly, she knew, he was dying inside and he feared the day he would have to leave for the front line; for it meant, he would have to kill.

All most every night, Lisa and he would meet down by the pond on the Admiral's estate. They would lay side by side, their hands intertwined and dreamed away, staring into the night sky. He had taught her all the names of the constellation and told her how each one had gotten their names.

He loved to tell stories and she loved to listen.

He told her about his mother, who had always encouraged his dream to be a writer until her death three years ago in a car accident. She in turn shared with him the pain of her mother's death, and her confusion at her father's cold attitude towards her after the funeral.

Soon Lisa began to fantasize about living a quiet life with him in the country; where he could write to his heart's content and she, play the piano and grow roses like her mother.

She knew the Admiral did not approve of Karl so they had to keep their friendship and especially their love a secret. In fact, they had gone as far as hating each other in public, and in the presence of the Admiral just so that he would never suspect their true feelings for each other.

Two days shy of her fifteenth birthday, he asked her to be his girl. She had said 'yes' and promised him that she would forever be his girl. That night he had carved their initials into the trunk of an old live oak tree that had stood next to the pond.

--- KJR & EGH 4 Ever ---

He had also confessed his love for her.

It was the most wonderful and romantic night of her life. She couldn't believe it that she had found someone to love and be with for the rest of her life. She didn't think there would be anything else that Karl could give her that would top that night. But he did, when he gave her her first kiss two nights later.

Karl had never pressed her for anything that she was not willing to give, and as the long hot summer days gave way to chilly windy nights; so did their light kisses of discovery and exploration to heavy petting and necking. Each night they found it harder and harder to let each other go alone to their separate rooms.

She lived each day just to see him smiled, feel his arms wrapped around her and taste his touch on her lips. She lost track of the world around her-- the war, her father and her mother's goal for her to be a world class pianist.

In a little more than a year, Karl Riber had become the most important person in her life. She would gladly die for him if he asked her.

Then the impossible happened.

They were separated not by her father but by the Global Civil War. As much as they both tried to ignore it and lived in their new found happiness it was only a matter of time before Karl would have to go to the front line. She knew how much he hated the war, she knew how the thought of taking another life sickens him therefore she could not blame him for leaving the war, Earth and her behind for Mars.

The night of their last secret meeting by the pond was bittersweet and painful. She had wanted him to hold her in his arms and kiss her until she forgot that he was leaving. But he told her that if he did, he would never be able to walk away so they had remained apart, not touching each other at all physically.

It was here in their secret place that they decided she would join the Defense Force when she turned sixteen which was only a month away. Once she graduated, she would apply for an assignment to the Sara Base on Mars-- where he would be waiting and where they could wait out the war together.

After they had said their goodbyes, she had come back to her room lost, angry and sad. She didn't know whether to cry or to curse for life was so unfair and cruel. Instead she had curled up on her bed and stared hotly into the ceiling of her room trying to calm herself down.

It was then that she felt her door opened and saw Karl.

He stood with his back towards the door and stared at her, waiting for her to turn him out. She could see the planes and lines of his face in the moonlight. She could read the seriousness and longing in his dark blue eyes and her heart began beating in excitement and fear.

She quickly shot up in bed as he came to her and stopped at the side of her bed. He stared down at her as if burning her image into memory for a later time.

Her decision made she reached out her hand to him and he came into her arms kneeling before her with his breath hot on her belly, his chest warmed against her thighs.

Her hands automatically went to his head, her fingers sliding through his dark hair as he reached for her. His caresses were bold, slightly rough and his breathing was as ragged as hers. His mouth found hers and he kissed her passionately.

She questioned nothing he did, everything was happening so quickly, and she was so caught up in the passion; she wouldn't have cared at all if the world came to an end tomorrow. For she and Karl had tonight.

His last words to her before he left her bedroom in the early morning had been that they'll be together again someday, for love could never be extinguished by war. Then he had given her an engagement ring before turning to leave.

She had been too shocked to say anything but stared at the tiny diamond solitaire and prayed he wouldn't see the tears in her eyes. At the door he had stopped, walked back to her, pulled her up from her bed to him again and kissed her once more before leaving.

That was the last time she had seen him alive in person.

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"My love, I'm here," Lisa said quietly to herself as she sat at his desk. She opened the top drawer and saw a photo of them. It was the same one she had in her quarters back on board the SDF-1.

Tears blurred her vision as she traced her gloved fingers over his face.

"I'm finally here, Karl just like we planned. Now we shall never part again. I've missed you so much. There hasn't been a day that I haven't thought of you, needed you and loved you..."

Closing her eyes, her shoulders dropped and mentally as well as emotionally she shut everything else out-- the battle going on outside, Claudia's voice calling her through her personal radio and the annoying computer's voice counting down the base's destruction.

She shut out everything but her memories of Karl Riber, the man she loved, the man she had promised to wed and shared rest of her life with.

"Commander! Commander Hayes!"

A voice called out to her but he sounded so foreign and far away that she thought she had dreamed him up until he said he was going to crash his way in. That statement abruptly brought her out of the past and stopped her from taking off her space helmet.

"What?"

Lisa quickly switched the volume of her radio back on. "No! Whoever you are, return to the ship. That's an order!"

"Stand back! Don't worry I'll have you out of there in no time at all, ma’am. Rescuing damsel in distress is a specialty of mine, didn’t anyone tell you that?"

Before she could protest again, the Guardian's huge hand smashed through the window and a pilot with untamed dark brown hair and glowing cobalt blue eyes was staring at her from the cockpit.

"Commander! Commander Hayes! Hello? We don't have much time left! Ma’am, what are you waiting for?"

Stunned Lisa could only stare at him and then became angrier by the minute when she realized he had once again disobeyed a direct order from her.

Him! Why him? Of all the annoying-idiot pilots Claudia could have sent, she had to send him-- the loud mouth pilot!

"I told you, I am not leaving, Hunter! Go away!" she screamed back at him, not caring whether he believed her or not. "I don't want you here, do you hear me?"

"Look, Commander, we don't have time to be arguing. I was ordered to take you back with me and I plan to do exactly that with or without your cooperation." He retorted back without even acknowledging her protest as he looked at his watch.

Dammed! What was her problem? Does she want to die or what?

"I don't care! Save yourself!" she yelled back, and stubbornly refused to move an inch toward him.

Staring at her in confusion, Rick felt like committing murder. "If you haven't noticed, Commander, there is a battle going on even as we speak and the damn base is about to blow any minute. So come on!"

Nothing. She remained where she was.

'Alright, that's it! Enough is enough!' he silently screamed at himself and knew he was going to have to take things into his own hand if he wanted to live and see Minmei, the girl of his dream again.

As she turned from him and was about to sit again, he reached into the room and picked her up with the Guardian's big hand.

'No! This can't be happening!' Lisa thought, refusing to believe that she was leaving Karl.

"Stop! No! Do you hear me, let me go!" she cried out. But no matter how hard she struggled to be free from the Guardian’s hand, she remained tightly held. Worse they had already taken off from the base.

"K A R L!" Lisa screamed but no one heard her.

She watched as the base blew up not two minutes after they took off. Tears were streaming down her face but she continued to watch the fire and smoke as it became fainter and fainter until she couldn’t see anything anymore.

'I'll never forgive you Rick Hunter! Never!' she vowed.

State = Continuará/To Be Continue