"Robotech - To The Stars: Aftermath - The First Year"
Chapter 12

February 5th, 2015

A week had past with not very much action on any front, which was rather a welcome blessing for the weary citizens and soldiers of the post-Dolza apocalyptic world, still trying to even barely begin the long road to 'normal.'
Claudia Grant sat in her office, waiting for her baby brother, Vince, to show up so they could take a stroll into town and have a nice, quiet lunch.
Claudia was glad to be back at work, even though she was plagued with headaches and other aches and pains several times throughout the day.
After another 10 minutes, Vince poked his head through the door and smiled at his sister. Claudia gathered her purse and then the Grants were on their way into town.
"So, how's that little friend of yours?" asked Vince.
Claudia smiled and replied, "He's doing good I suppose. I talked to the counselor at the orphanage and she says that there's not much that's really changed except that now he draws a lot of pictures, and they all have me in them."
Vince raised his eyebrows in amusement, "I see. My sister has a fan eh?"
The siblings walked a few more blocks and then Claudia stopped in front of a brick building, miraculously standing after all the planet had been through. There was a high chain link fence off to the right of the building and they could see a playground behind the fence.
"Is this the place?" asked Vince as he watched his sister scan the crowd of children that were playing.
Claudia nodded and said quietly, "I stop by here everyday, I just can't seem to keep away."
Vince looked at his sister and saw the sorrowful expression on her face. He had always looked up to her, she was a hero to him. After Roy died he noticed, as did everyone, that the spark that she used to have was dampened by sadness and lonliness. She had always made a valiant effort to put on a strong front, especially around the holidays, but no one could miss that hollow look that she wore when she thought no one was looking.
Vince and his wife Jean had worked extra hard to make sure that they kept Claudia super busy during the holidays so that she wouldn't have time to think about Roy. When James arrived on the scene, Vince immediately noticed remnants of Claudia's old spark shining through everytime she talked about James.
Vince's thoughts were interrupted by the sound of pattering feet heading towards them. He turned to look at Claudia and could see her beaming smile. He knew that meant only one thing. He looked towards the sound of the pattering feet and saw a little boy running towards them. When the boy got to the fence, he looked up at Vince.
Claudia chuckled at James' wide-eyed look and said gently, "James, this very tall man is my brother. His name if Vince."
Vince smiled at the boy and James continue to stare at Vince.
Claudia tried to put James at ease by saying, "Vince is tall and looks very serious but he's actually a clown."
Vince squatted down so that his height wouldn't seem so imposing to James and then smiled at him again.
"Vince has a little boy who's a little bit younger than you James. His name is Bowie," continued Claudia.
Vince could think of nothing else to do but smile and Claudia smiled as well, and it occured to James that it looked like they both had the exact same smile. James dug his hand into his jacket pocket and then pulled out a small bag of gummi bears and held them out towards Vince.
Claudia grinned and told Vince, "He wants you to have them Vince."
Vince poked two fingers through the fence and pulled the bag through the hole and then said cheerfully, "Thank you very much James, I sure do love gummi bears."
James looked at him but said nothing, then dug into his other pocket and pulled out a folded piece of paper and held it out towards Claudia. She reached through the fence and took it and unfolded it to reveal a crayon drawing of James and herself on a sail boat. Vince watched as his sister smiled when looking at the drawing and knew that there was no debating what needed to be done.
A whistle blew and James turned around and ran back towards the direction of the other children. Claudia watched him until he was out of view and then turned the piece of paper over to see if there was anything on the back. She saw two words, one of them was 'James', which was written in the spot where James' figure appeared on the other side of the page, and where Claudia's figure was drawn, there was written the word, 'Mama.' Claudia audibly sucked in her breath and could not keep the sobs from escaping. Vince looked at her and she held out the paper so he could see.
Vince, a gentle giant, put his arms around his sister and hugged her tightly. After a few moments, he looked at her and said, "Adopt him Claudia. Jean and I will help you take care of him."
Claudia gave him a confused look. She had been struggling with herself over the question of adoption for the past week now. She had so many things to consider, all the pros and cons to weigh. But she knew what everyone else knew and Vince said it out loud for her.
"He needs you, and you need him. Now I know that this is a huge responsibility, and I admit, when you first mentioned to me that you were considering it, I thought it was a bad idea. But when I saw the two of you today, and saw the way you look at him, any doubts I had dissolved instantly. Claudia, when you're with him and when you talk about him I see that old sparkle in your eyes that I hadn't seen for the past 3 years. Claudia, I want you to be happy again, and this little boy makes you happy. Not only do you need him, but he needs you too. You can be a loving parent to him, and from the recount of his history, that's something this little boy hasn't had. You two can make each other happy, I know it, I can see it, anyone can see it."
Claudia sniffled and dried her eyes as she and Vince started heading back towards the base. She cleared her throat and announced, "I am going to speak to the adoption counselor tommorrow, will you come with me?"
Vince put a strong arm around Claudia's shoulders and hugged her to him and said, "Of course, anything for my sister."
Claudia hugged him back and the two quickened their pace back to the base.

* * * * * * *

Captain Sammie Porter stood in front of an observation window in the command center in New Portland, daydreaming about the upcoming Valentine's Day party and praying that she and Rick would be back at Monument City in time. She told Rick she would cry her eyes out if she missed the party.
She sighed and reflected on the rather monotonous atmosphere of her latest assignment. They had been having some success at containing the Malcontents in the area to a point where the daily disturbances had become a routine mop up and negotiating operation. The man that was suppose to be in charge was cleared by his physician to return to work in about two days, but there would still be a couple days of transition meetings after that which would push Sammie's and Rick's return to Monument extremely close to just before Valentine's Day.
Her alarm clock sounded and she smiled; it was time for lunch.
Sammie ended up at her favorite lunch spot, the Japanese restaurant that she and Rick had visited when they first arrived in New Portland. She had wanted to eat lunch with Rick, but he was busy with some contingency planning so she had to eat lunch by herself, something she absolutely hated doing.
Sammie peered through the door and then took a few steps inside, the waitress, the same elderly lady that had greeted her on the day they first arrived, got up from her seat and picked up a menu and beckoned Sammie to sit at a nearby booth. Sammie smiled and did a little bow to show her appreciation and then took her seat and eagerly scanned through the menu.
"You want somesing to drink?" asked the waitress with a smile.
"Green tea, kudasai," replied Sammie, eyes glued to the menu.
The elderly lady was surprised, "Ahh, you learn Japanese! You speak good!"
Sammie smiled proudly. She had picked up a few words while observing other patrons whenever she came to the restaurant and she even went out and bought a Japanese dictionary because she liked the sound of the language.
Sammie noticed that the lady wore a name tag but wasn't too sure how to pronounce it since she had just barely started learning Japanese phonics. The tag said, 'Fumi', but Sammie didn't want to mispronounce the name so she pointed to the nametag and asked the lady, "That is your name?"
The old lady shook her head and said, "Hai! Yes, my name. Pronounce, foo-mee."
Sammie shook her head, "Ahh, ok, Foo-mee, I see. Hai, Fumi-san!"
The lady was still in amazement over Sammie's conversing with her in her native language and laughed with amusement.
"Fumi-san, Beef Teriyaki kudasai," said Sammie proudly.
The little old lady laughed again and saluted Sammie, then collected the menu and went on her way to the kitchen.
Sammie finished her lunch quickly, and got ready to pay her bill when the elderly waitress said, "You come for dinner? Tonight, we have jumbo shrimp Tempura."
Sammie's eyes widened and she shook her head adamantly. The old woman gave another little laugh at the obvious robustness of Sammie's appetite.

* * * * * * *

Captain Vanessa Leeds had spent most of the week pouring over her Radar investigation reports, filling in for Sammie, carefully observing Antell, and waiting for Reinhardt to get back to her with news on the investigation into Rick's VT malfunction. With all these things going on at the same time, she often suffered insomnia at night, and was edgy and jumpy during the day.
Several days ago, she had tried to access the personel records on Lt. Antell, but was greeted with a security block. She had mentioned it to Lisa and Lisa tried to access the file as well and was also given a security block message. They had pondered over the idea of whether to ask Reinhardt if he could access the file but then they'd have to explain their, up-to-now, unproven suspicions about Antell, so they decided to give up for the time being and turn their attention to keeping an eye on her.
Vanessa had gotten up the courage to tell Lisa about the VT incident and was relieved that Lisa didn't throw a fit. Since then the two women had tried to follow the investigation as closely as possible but were up against a wall, since Reinhardt wasn't divulging any information to them.
Vanessa, extremely fed up with being stonewalled, being given the runaround, and not making any progress in any of her assignments, had decided to continue her investigations, with or without any help.
Today she was ready to find and speak to Lt. Montgomery and got up from her desk when Lt. Antell came into her office, without knocking, and said haughtily, "General Maistroff wishes to see you in his office in two hours," then left the room.
Vanessa was angry. Antell's tone was commanding, as if Antell were her superior. But of course, it was most likely that Antell did think of herself as superior to just about everyone else anyways. It wasn't so much the fact that Vanessa was Antell's superior, it was more about just simply being polite. Vanessa had seen it many times while covering for Sammie the past week. She had observed the many times when Antell would sit at her station, as quiet as a mouse, for an extended period of time, then, when other people were talking amongst themselves, Antell would jump into the conversation. It wasn't so bad that she was butting it, but it was worse that she was butting in to purposely argue the opposite point or to point out that someone had been wrong, according to Antell's reasoning.
Vanessa remembered one particular day when two air coordinators were discussing the color schemes of various VTs and VT squadrons. One coordinator was talking about the crimson trim of one VT and Antell jumped into the conversation and corrected him, claiming that it was 'bright red' and not 'crimson.' Antell then went into a half hour analysis of the difference between the different shades of red, and when the controller wouldn't call it 'bright red', Antell got defensive and said that she knew she was right and the air controller was wrong and didn't know how to distinguish between colors. But, according to the official listing, the trim was listed as crimson. Antell went throughout the day in a huff, steamed that, according to her, everyone was inept at color differentiation and had the gaul to try and correct her.
Vanessa shuddered at the memory and was glad that she adopted the hands-off approach towards Antell. Vanessa looked at her watch and decided that she had enough time to try and find Lt. Montgomery to ask her a few questions. She picked up the phone and called over to Montgomery's department but the person at the desk told her that Lt. Montgomery had been transferred two days prior. Vanessa asked where to and why and the person didn't know. Vanessa checked her computer but was met with the same security restriction that she received when looking up information on Antell.
Vanessa became very suspicious that Montgomery's transfer was the handywork of Maistroff. She wanted to know where Montgomery was transferred to because it was important that she talk to Montgomery in the hopes that the Lieutenant had some information that might pertain to her investigation. "Maybe that's why she got transferred..." mused Vanessa.
Vanessa let out a growl. She was tired of being thwarted, especially by Maistroff, and these roadblocks that kept springing up were convincing her that Maistroff was hiding something. Vanessa looked at the phone and decided to call back the person she had just talked to and inquire about Montgomery's friends. She described Montogmery's friends to the person at the desk and was told that they were transferred also. Vanessa put down the phone then slammed her fist down on her desk.
She was now in a very bad mood and her impending meeting with Maistroff only made her more irritated. She decided to go find Kim and grab lunch.

"I'm telling you, he's hiding something," said Vanessa in a hushed voice.
Kim looked around her to make sure no one was listening then said in a vidicated tone, "See, I told you that guy was a bastard! But how are we going to pin anything on him? Even Lisa can't access any files he's restricted."
Vanessa sighed loudly and took off her glasses before saying, "Dammit, this is driving me crazy, everywhere I turn, I run up against a brick wall. I'm spinning my wheels, stuck in mud."
Kim leaned back in her chair and folded her arms, "You need a drink. See, I told you that we should've gone into town for lunch instead of coming to the cafeteria."
Vanessa returned, "I don't need a drink, well, yeah I do, but I can't do anything that would give Maistroff more ammunition against me, and you know that guy can probably smell liquor a mile away."
Kim laughed then grew serious as she thought up a gossip topic that would hopefuly distract Vanessa from her troubles. Kim mused, "I wonder how on earth Lisa got away with it those many times."
Vanessa showed a puzzled look then suggested, "Well, you know how good Lisa is at her job, I guess they decided that they didn't want to risk not having her around if they disciplined her for 'problem.'"
Kim shuddered, "It scares me everytime I think about what might have happened to her if Rick had decided to marry Minmei."
Vanessa put her glasses back on, "Well, thank goodness Rick didn't marry Minmei. I'm sure that after he thought about it throughly, he realized just how scary the prospect was."
The two women laughed and finished their lunch so that each could get back to their office.

* * * * * * *

The rest of the day went without incident and Sammie had stopped by Rick's office so that they could head downtown for dinner.
"Hey Sammie, I'm afraid you're gonna have to eat without me," said Rick as he watched Sammie come through the door.
Sammie pouted, "But you missed lunch today too."
"I know, but I need to finish up these contingency reports before whats-his-name comes back on duty. If I can get them done now then we can leave on schedule," explained Rick.
"Alright," said Sammie lazily. Then she let out a giggle and walked over to Rick's desk and giggled again before saying, "You really want to hurry up and get back to Lisa huh?"
Rick blushed a bit as he looked down at his paperwork and Sammie took that as permission to be nosey.
"So...I haven't had a chance to really ask yet, how are you two doing?? Are you getting close?? Hmm??" persisted Sammie.
Rick cleared his throat and tried to think of an answer. He looked at Sammie and found that she was serious about her question and was waiting for an answer.
"Uh...well..." Rick stammered, "I...we...yea...we are getting to know each other."
Sammie frowned, "But you two already know each other."
Rick replied, "Yes, I know but you know, I mean know each other as a significant other type of things."
Sammie grinned, "Ahh, I see. Seems like you two had started that right away. Remember the day Khyron attacked and I walked in on you two at the hospital. I told everyone I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes."
Rick echoed, "You told everyone..."
Sammie chuckled, "Well, you know, like V and Kim and Claudia, and a few other people."
Rick shook his head slowly but he wasn't angry, "I see."
Sammie put her hands on her hips and ordered, "Just make sure you don't get her pregnant if she's not ready to have kids yet! You gotta ask first. You guys get off easy, you just watch us grow fat when we are pregnant, but you men should try carrying around a watermelon in your stomach for nine months!"
Rick laughed in surprise and amusement, "Don't worry Sammie. There's no way Lisa will be having a baby anytime soon."
Sammie's demeanor changed and she asked dissapointedly, "Why not? I think you two would look so cute with a baby."
Rick chuckled at obvious contradiction of Sammie's statements. "Sammie, I thought you said Lisa shouldn't get pregnant, now you tell me you want her to have a baby?"
Sammie laughed nervously, "Oh, I did say that huh? Opposite huh?"
Rick tried to help her off the hook by saying nonchalantly, "Don't worry about it. Whatever arises, whenever anything arises, we will handle it. And I promise, if Lisa ever does become pregnant, we'll make sure you're the first to know, and you can be one of the baby's godmothers."
Sammie clasped her hands together, "Really?! I can be a godmother?!"
Rick grinned at her, "Of course. But don't expect that to happen overnight or any time in near future ok?"
Sammie saw this as her opportunity to try and get an idea of which of the Trio might win the bet they had going on Rick and Lisa so she thought carefully over her questions. "So..." she started slowly, "so there's no chance that Lisa is pregnant right now?"
Rick shook his head, "Oh definitely not."
Sammie thought of another question, "So what do you have planned for Valentine's Day, besides the party at the base?"
Rick scratched his head and thought a moment, then said, "Oh, I dunno, I guess maybe just stop off somewhere and have coffee and talk for a bit then go home."
"Her place or yours?" asked Sammie with a snicker.
Before Rick could answer, Sammie spoke up again, "Hey Rick, do you need any help picking out, maybe, some lingerie for Lisa?"
Rick reacted as if he'd been zapped with a stun gun. Finally after several minutes of simply staring at Sammie, he managed to mumble, "Uh, no no, that's fine. I don't think she'll be needing anything like that. I'll most likely just drop her off at her place and go home. Most likely it would be very late by then, and I have early duty in the morning."
"What?!" exclaimed Sammie. "That's it? You're just gonna dump her off at home and go home and go to sleep?! Valentine's Day is the most romantic day of the year, especially for new couples like you and Lisa. You mean you aren't going to do anything special at all?"
Rick began to realize Sammie's ulterior question and asked one himself, "Sammie, what are you getting at?"
Sammie, realizing that she had been caught, tried to squirm her way out of her own trap, "Uh, well, oh hey look at the time, I'm starving, I'm going to go eat at that Japanese restaurant before the jumbo shrimp is all gone, see you later!"
Sammie hurried out the door and Rick shook his head in amazement as he turned his attention back to his work, but after a few minutes, the recent conversation with Sammie got Rick's mind thinking about what they'd talked about and what Sammie had implied.

Sammie managed to find a good parking spot right in front of the restaurant and as she climbed out of the car she thought to herself, "Aha! Looks like I will win the bet. Note to self: remember to collect $100 each from Kim and Vanessa on February 15th."
Sammie walked up to the door and saw the CLOSED sign and pouted. She turned around to walk back to the car when she heard a door open and a voice call, "Sammie-san! Irrasshaimase!"
Sammie looked back and saw the elderly waitress, a toddler in her arms, standing in the doorway. Sammie walked back to the restaurant and the old lady made a shushing noise and motioned for Sammie to follow her into the restaurant. Once inside, Sammie asked, "Aren't you closed?"
The old woman replied, "Yes, we closed. My grandson, sick. But you, special customer, you have dinner like promised. Jumbo shrimp."
Sammie smiled broadly, appreciative of the woman's hospitality. Sammie was about to sit down but the woman told her, "You go see, learn how to cook. My son show you how to cook jumbo shrimp."
Sammie was pleased with the idea and followed the woman back to the kitchen, where she introduced Sammie to her son and then went back to the seating area with her grandson.
After half an hour of careful instruction and preparation, Sammie was ready to place the finished dinner on a plate and then dig in.

"Captain Hunter, sir!" said a panicked voice. "Incoming battlepods from the east sir, heading towards the downtown section it appears."
"What's their ETA?" askd Rick anxiously.
"Ten minutes sir," returned the radar tech.
"We didn't pick them up before so they must not be from out of town, they must've powered up somewhere in the city. Send two teams, one to the location of what you can best estimate where they originated from and then another one to take care of those pods," ordered Rick.
Rick could see on the radar boards that there was at least two dozen pods headed towards downtown. Suddenly he remembered that Sammie had gone downtown to have dinner. Rick tried to call her but was getting sent to her voicemail. He left a message and marked it as urgent and hoped that she would reply very soon.
After 7 minutes the teams had been already deployed and were racing on their way to counter the incoming pods. Rick was struck with an idea and ordered that several more VT teams be sent to both destinations, the downtown sector and the supposed origin point of the pods. He wanted to make sure that things were stopped in their tracks as much as possible and didn't want to take any chances that any enemy pods would make their way to the command center and surrounding base.
"Has Captain Porter answered yet?" he asked worriedly.
"No sir, we've tried several times, several forms, but cannot contact her," replied a female logistics tech.
Rick paced a couple of steps and muttered under his breath, "Sammie, I hope you will be alright out there, wherever you are."
Rick turned to a communications tech and ordered, "How is that hailing transmission coming?"
"They're not responding sir," replied the tech.
Rick muttered a curse as he studied the monitors. He had had the comm tech trying repeated to contact the incoming Zentraedi pods, hoping that they would be negotiated with and that there wouldn't have to be a skirmish. But as the transmissions remained unanswered and the Zentraedi kept advancing, Rick knew that there was no other choice but to go on the defensive.

Sammie ran out of the restaurant as soon as she heard the air raid sirens. On her way to her jeep she was furiously punching numbers on her phone but was not able to connect any calls. She looked over her shoulder to see if the waitress and her family were evacuating the restaurant but she didn't see any sign of them, and she also hadn't noticed the incoming pod in front of her.
Sammie soon heard a rumble and then looked forward and saw a laser bolt strike the front of her jeep, throwing her out of the car. She landed on her left shoulder and immediately felt a stinging pain shoot through her shoulder and arm. She lay on the ground perfectly still, hoping that the Zentraedi pod would pass her by and choose another target.
When she felt the coast was clear, she rolled onto her back and groaned loudly. It felt as if her whole left upper body had been crushed under a truck. She'd been injured before but it never felt like this latest injury. She didn't have time to dwell on it because as she looked up at the darkening sky, she heard a laser bolt fire off then heard several explosions and a few more lasers followed by more explosions. She then saw a flaming piece of timber falling towards her and managed to roll away just in time to avoid being crushed by it. The roll caused her more pain and she was on the verge of tears. She looked over towards the sidewalk and noticed the restaurant was heavily damaged then she heard the faint sound of a child crying. Her eyes widened and she got herself back on her feet, despite the intense agony in her shoulder, and carefully made her way to the restaurant.
All around her she could smell smoke and felt the heat from various fires that had been sparked. There were dazed and injured people moving about the street at the moment, since the Zentraedi pod had left, and Sammie could hear the distant sound of approaching VTs.
Sammie made it to the demolished door and saw Fumi's son hurry out of the building with the baby in his arms. The baby seemed to have been injured; there was blood on his blanket and his father was in a panic.
Sammie then heard the loud, but welcome noise of several Battloids. One of them spotted her and said through the loudspeaker, "Captain Porter is that you?? Captain Hunter needs you back at the base ASAP ma'am."
The baby was now crying uncontrollably and Fumi's son was trying in vain to calm the baby down. Sammie shouted towards the battloid, "You need to get all these people to the hospital!! Where are the medical teams?! There's a lot of injured people on this block. Get me some rescue teams now!"
Fumi's son turned to look at the restaurant and went into an even greater fit of panic. That, coupled with the baby crying, made the scene pandemonium and the only thing Sammie could think of doing at the moment was to push Fumi's son toward the battloid and order the VT pilot to take them to the hospital, while reassuring Fumi's son that she would go back and look for Fumi.
"Captain Porter, Captain Hunter needs you back at base," protested the pilot.
"Tell Captain Hunter I'll be there as soon as I can, now get these people and whoever else you can manage to carry with you, over to the hospital, and get the medical teams here NOW!" ordered Sammie.
"Yes ma'am!" saluted the pilot.
The pilot picked up Fumi's son and grandson and glanced back one more time to see Sammie run into the flaming remnants of the restaurant.
"FUMI-SAN!!" shouted Sammie, as her eyes scanned through the fallen timber and black smoke. She walked over to another part of the room, grimacing and wincing from the pain in her left torso. "FUMI-SAN!!!" she shouted again.
Her heart raced and she was starting to let panic overtake her when she heard a muffled cough coming from back in the kitchen area. She ran towards the direction of where she heard the cough, stumbling over fallen timbers and overturned tables and chairs.
"FUMI-SAN!!!" Sammie shouted from the kitchen doorway.
"Sammie-san," said a weak voice.
Sammie ran deeper into the kitchen and saw that a large cabinet had fallen and trapped Fumi against a counter. Sammie dashed to Fumi and looked over the situation. She thought that she would be able to push the cabinet off of Fumi without too much trouble. She patted Fumi on the arm and told her, "Fumi-san, daijobu!" (trans: "Fumi, it will be ok"). Fumi shook her head and Sammie looked at the cabinet one more time, then positioned herself to try and push the cabinet off of Fumi.
Sammie tried with all the strength in her right arm to push the cabinet but it budged only slightly. She tried again and realized that there was no way she could move it without having to use her left side.
Sammie looked at Fumi, who seemed to be on the verge of unconsciousness, and then breathed a silent prayer and then gingerly began moving her left arm into position. She managed to bring both arms into position and was biting her tongue hard to keep from crying out in pain. She took a deep breath then used all the strength she could muster and pushed the cabinet away from Fumi.
"FUMI-SAN GO!!" she shouted.
Fumi managed to move out of range of the cabinet but didn't get very far and dropped to the ground.
Sammie let go of the cabinet and got out of the way just in time before it came crashing back down onto the counter. She winced as she kneeled down by Fumi. Fumi heard Sammie's wince and said, "Daijobu." Sammie gave a small sigh of relief and hurriedly tried to help Fumi to her feet. It was obvious that Fumi needed help walking, so Sammie, thankful that they were nearly the same height, managed to pull Fumi alongside her.
They heard more deafening explosions and Sammie knew getting herself and Fumi to any type of safety was going to be difficult.

* * * * * * *

Vanessa stood outside Maistroff's door and took a deep breath before entering. After Maistroff's aide led Vanessa to another room, Maistoff soon entered and didn't even acknowledge her as he walked through the room and sat down behind his desk.
"Captain Leeds," Maistroff said gruffly, "I hope you know how to swim."
Vanessa wore a confused look and Maistroff smirked, "I do hope you are a good swimmer because you are being re-assigned...to submarine duty."
The shocked look on Vanessa's face filled Maistroff with satisfaction and he continued, "You will begin your crash course in submarine training tommorrow. You are already familiar with various radar telemetry systems, and so I don't think it will be very difficult for you to quickly master oceanographic instrumentation, and the submarine command is in desperate need of good radar officers such as yourself."
Vanessa still did not say a word, but she thought that Maistroff was actually paying her a small compliment to her intelligence in his last sentence.
Maistoff triumphed at having floored Vanessa and was eager to deliver the final stomp, "Like I said, you will begin land-based training tommorrow. The instructors will then determine when you are to be sent for sea training, in which case you will be sent to New San Francisco, then from there you will receive your commission as a Chief Sonar Technician on a sub that we cannot mention at this time. In the meantime I want you to train Lieutenant Antell, she will be your replacement."
Vanessa gasped and when the shock began to wear off, she forced herself to hide her look of disgust. Antell was going to replace Vanessa. Now she knew that Antell was definitely working for Maistroff. And Vanessa also knew that this new submarine assignment had nothing to do with her mastery of radar systems. This had to do with shutting her up and keeping her from continuing her investigation because there was something to hide and Maistoff didn't want her find out anything she wasn't suppose to.
"That will be all Captain. You'll receive directions as to where to report, in the morning," finished Maistroff as he lighted a cigarette.
Vanessa stood up and walked out the door as if she were a zombie. She couldn't believe what she had just heard. She was being taken off the radar investigation and assigned to a submarine at the bottom of some ocean, and Antell was going to be her replacement. She couldn't wait to see the look on Kim and Sammie's face when she told them the news. Sammie would absolutely explode and Kim would cuss to high heaven. Vanessa was angry and couldn't think clearly at the moment. She looked at her watch and realized that it was almost the end of her shift so she decided to go into town and pick up something for dinner then find Kim and Lisa and vent all her frustration. She knew they would listen to her and give her the proper advice.

* * * * * * *

"What the hell do you mean she is still downtown??!" said Rick with complete disbelief.
"Sir, she told me she would get back to the base as soon as she could," replied the pilot.
"But you didn't go back to check on her?!" said Rick, not able to keep his voice down.
"Sir, I will go back now sir!" said the pilot nervously.
Rick turned around to ask a tech, "Is the situation under control now?"
"Yes sir, we are just mopping up now," said the tech.
Rick rubbed his weary eyes and tried to calm himself to think things through. He knew he couldn't leave his post too soon, incase things flaired out of control again, but as he looked at the monitors, it seemed like things were calm enough that he could head out to find Sammie.
"Lieutenant Gill. Do you think you can handle the rest of the mop up?"
"It won't be a problem Captain Hunter," said Lieutenant Gill confidently.

Rick got out of his his VT and stared at the restaurant, which was now utterly destroyed. He saw Sammie's jeep across the street, flipped over on its side. He ran over to the jeep and could see part of what looked like the strap of her purse buried by debris. He tossed the bits of wood and pavement aside and pulled out Sammie's purse. Luckily it seemed that no one had noticed it and that her wallet was untouched. He wound the strap around the purse and went back to the VT and placed it in the co-pilot's seat.
Rick then treaded through the restaurant and when he headed into the kitchen he spied a cellphone on the floor. He picked it up and realized it was Sammie's.
"Dammit Sammie, where are you?" Rick said aloud.
He looked around and then called out, "SAMMIE?!!"
He got no answer and decided to check around the back of the building. He didn't see any trace of her and checked the block across the seat and found nothing. Any civilians that had been in this sector had already been removed from the scene. The sector looked like it had been mopped up already and there was no one in sight.
Prior to coming to this location, Rick had checked 3 hospitals and couldn't find anyone who knew of or had seen Sammie. Rick was somewhat angry that the VT pilot that had first seen Sammie hadn't followed up and checked back with her.
Rick sighed and stared at the destruction around him. He looked up at the stars and then got back into his VT. He sat there for a few moments and then looked back at the co-pilots seat and saw Sammie's purse. He smiled nostalgically as he remembered the purse fiasco on the day they arrived in New Portland. He got on the radio and asked the tech back at the command center if they had heard from Sammie yet. No one hadn't and Rick switched off the radio and stared out the canopy.

* * * * * * *

After hearing Vanessa's recount, Kim fumed and cussed for a good 10 minutes, then calmed down and poured herself and Vanessa a glass of Scotch. "Damn idiots," she mumbled as she took a sip of her drink. She nearly slammed the glass down as she said, "This is insane! How can they get away with this!? You know if Admiral Gloval and General Borstall were still alive then Maistroff wouldn't be having free reign."
Vanessa sloshed her drink around then asked, "But what about Lisa and Reinhardt? Why can't they do anything? Especially Reinhardt, since he has the seniority that Lisa doesn't."
Kim shook her head, "You need to see it to believe how bad it is, Lisa's hands are always being tied by Maistroff. It's as if she were still a Captain. Then you got Reinhardt who has her working on stuff for the SDF-3. Reinhardt himself has his hands tied too because Maistroff gets the other remaining Generals to gang up on Reinhardt and rule against him because Maistroff knows that Reinhardt is a good guy and is liked by everyone. At least when Admiral Gloval were alive, he was above Maistroff and the other generals were afraid of him and Borstall, now that both of them are gone..."
Vanessa finished her drink then dropped the glass on the table and said bitterly, "Maistroff should've gone to the bottom of the lake instead of Gloval and Borstall !!"
Kim lifted her glass and said, "I second that idea." She had a brief flashback of Gloval and stared at her glass long enough for Vanessa to inquire if she were alright. Kim shook her head and took a deep breath.
"Speaking of Lisa, where is she, isn't she coming?" asked Vanessa.
Kim looked at the clock, "She said she'd be here, I don't know what's keeping her."
As if on cue, there was a knock at the door and Vanessa got up to answer it. When she opened the door Lisa stood there, pale as a ghost and wearing a troubled look on her face. She walked quickly into the room as Vanessa closed the door, then turned around and faced both of them, remaining silent.
"Lisa, what is it?" asked Kim worriedly.
Lisa looked at her two friends and saw the concerned looks on their faces and tried to figure out the best way to tell them the news. She took a deep breath then said, "Sammie is...missing. There was another uprising in New Portland and Sammie happened to be in the downtown sector that was attacked, and a few of the VT's had spotted her once but she ran back to try and find someone in one of the buildings and the VT's were drawn away from that location and by the time they had come back that location was leveled. Rick is still out there looking for her. If anyone can find her, Rick can."
Kim looked down at the floor and said nothing, but Vanessa seemed to snap. She turned and looked at Kim and yelled at her, "Don't just stand there like a moron!! Come on!!! Let's go!!! We have to go find her!!!"
Kim stared at her and Vanessa looked at Lisa and found that Lisa was also staring at her. After the day she had had, topped off by the troubling news about Sammie, Vanessa was emotionally and mentally at her wits end and completely lost it. "WHAT THE F--K IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE?? Did everyone suddenly go stupid or something?? Why the hell are you just standing there??!!! We HAVE TO GO TO NEW PORTLAND AND FIND SAMMIE DAMMIT!!!" Vanessa was in tears now and started to sob as she sank to the floor, "I can't lose another friend, not again, I just can't..."
Kim sat down on the floor next to Vanessa and hugged her. She looked up at Lisa and explained, "She's had a very bad day. Maistroff is reassigning her to submarine duty and named Antell as her replacement."
Lisa said nothing but kneeled down next to Vanessa and put her arm around her shoulder and said quietly, "Vanessa, listen to me. We are NOT going to lose Sammie. Rick is over there and he will do everything he can to find her and bring her back home safely."
Vanessa sniffled and nodded, "I know he will, I trust him. You guys I'm sorry I yelled at you. Kim, I'm sorry I called you a moron."
Kim tried to lighten the mood, "Well, you've called me worst things in the past, so 'moron' is rather tame of you. Don't worry about it b---h."
This brought a smile to Vanessa's face and she countered, "Don't worry b---h, I won't."
Lisa chuckled and became thoughtful as she remembered the time that all three of the Terrible Trio were mad at each other. They spent a whole week walking around the bridge calling each other by every name in the book. One time, Lisa rang Sammie's station to ask her a question, and Sammie, thinking that it was Vanessa calling, answered with, "What do you want slut?" Sammie didn't hear an answer so she had looked up at the monitor and realized that it was Lisa who was calling and not Vanessa. Sammie turned red and then burst into tears and ran up to Lisa's station and practically grovelled at Lisa's feet for forgiveness.
"I thought it was Vanessa calling," explained Sammie.
Vanessa, at her station near Lisa's, laughed at Sammie and that set off a cuss-out battle between the two until Lisa had heard enough and sent them both to the lounge to finish their discussion and leave her with some peace and quiet.

Vanessa got up and announced that she was going to the bathroom to splash some water on her face. Lisa, remembering that Kim was also recovering from a fragile state of mind, quietly asked her, "What about you Kim? Are you ok? Rick will find her, I know he will."
Kim had tears in her eyes as she nodded and Lisa patted Kim on the back, reiterating once again, "Rick will find her. He won't come back without her, you know him. He'll travel the ends of the earth, or get down on his hands and knees and scour every square inch until he finds her. You know that our Sam may act ditzy at times, but she's got a lot of common sense and is much more capable of looking after herself than many people give her credit for."
Kim nodded and dried her eyes as Vanessa came back to the room. Kim and Vanessa hugged each other and Lisa announced, "I'm going to New Portland first thing in the morning."
Vanessa asked, "What about Maistroff?"
"Damn that a--hole, I'm going over there whether he likes it or not. I don't think he can do anything to me anyways, as long as I have Reinhardt's backing," said Lisa.
"Do you want me to come too?" asked Kim hopefully.
"No, I need you to take care of things here while I'm gone. Hopefully I'll be back with Sammie in a day or two," said Lisa confidently.
"You'll let us know right away alright?" said Vanessa.
"Of course. I better get going, I need to pack," Lisa said.
Before heading out the door she looked at both Kim and Vanessa and they could see the determination on Lisa's face as she said, "We'll bring her back, safe and sound, you'll see." Then she closed the door behind her and stood in the hallway for a few seconds and whispered, "...Because... I can't bare losing another friend either..."

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chapter notes here: http:// www.geocities.com / sphersian /chapnotes6.html