Even though these things give you about as much legal coverage as a G-string on a stripper, I am going to include it anyways. Most of the characters in this story are the property of Harmony Gold, and a whole lot of other companies who's names escape me at the moment, and are used without their permission. However, since this is a not for profit undertaking, I dont think its neccecary to worry about it. At any rate, I'm so broke suing would be a waste of time. The few original charecters in here are mine, so please ask before using them in a fic of your own. Comments and Criticisms welcome: E-Mail Starrngr@aol.com. Flames will be promptly filed in file 13 and ignored. Previous parts of this story can be found at: Ranger HQ: HTTP://home.talkcity.com/TheSanitarium/Da_Muck/Libr/wndr/ AND at Sofaspud's Couch HTTP://www.sofaspud.org/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Tales of the Wanderer: Book 2: Wandering Ace Episode 3: Repercussions Claudia Grant looked up as Roy Fokker stuck his head in the door. "Hey there, good looking. got a moment?" He asked with that rakish grin of his. "Depends. Is this official or personal?" she countered with a matching grin. "A little of both. I need to track down Minmei." "That had better be the official part," she growled playfully and was rewarded with Roy's patented `Would I do that?' looks. "Yup. I have a friend who could use some cheering up; I need to talk to her." "Easy enough; she's making a movie. You can find her on the set every day. aft end of town, just off the main road. Now, can we get to the personal part, Commander Fokker?" She was rewarded with a leer. "How personal d'ya wanna get?" "Dinner tonight?" `And although you may not know it, breakfast tomorrow', she added to herself. "Make your famous Pineapple salad and not even an enemy attack could keep me away. Anything new with your `special friend'?" She shook her head. "Not yet. Lang is supposed to be up to look him over in about an hour, and he's sending someone to look at the car they found our friend in as well," she noted with a faint expression of exasperation. "Which reminds me. I need to talk to Misters Sterling and Dixon. Apparently, they were the ones who found him." "I'll send them up, and then I've got to run. Your place at about 19?"(1) "You know it, Flyboy." * * * * * * * * * FM2 (2) `Rod' Fowler had a sour look on his face as LS3 Gottschalk finished taping the gap between his gloves and the rest of the radiation suit. "Hey, Milo, did the LT say why we got stuck with this scut detail?" Outside the RCA, (Radiation Containment Area) PS1 Milo Wassermann suppressed a chuckle. "Cause your just to darn Good to be bothered with real work," he replied, before turning to where PS3 `Elvis' Bates manned the phones to engineering control. "Tell Central we're ready to enter." The other PO acknowledged that with a fairly decent impersonation of his namesake, then spoke into his sound powered phone. A minute later Elvis gave Milo the high sign, and Milo nodded to the entry team. Rod scowled and led his three-man team through the hatch. The sound of the hatch sliding open brought FRED out of standby mode. The four people in radiation suits were clearly not `Muck' Thunders, which meant they were probably going to try and take him apart and see what made him tick. Unfortunately, whoever had stuck him in here for safekeeping had stuck him up on blocks, so he didn't have many options for stopping them if they were determined about it. LS2 `Thumper' Chang set to work immediately, taking air samples all around the vehicle as well as randomly through the rest of the space, while EM2 `Shiner' Bowlegg did the same with a radiation detector. "I have a low level count," Shiner reported over his suit comm to Milo. "`Bout as hot as a Veritech plant on standby." He swapped the radiation counter for an infrared unit, or `nifty'. "Same thing for heat. Whatever this thing is, looks like its powered by a pocket fusion plant under the hood." "Air's clean too," reported Thumper. "No contaminants, can't say about bugs though." "Sure looks like a Hummer, a Hard-back model. It's a classic; they stopped making them at the start of the civil war in favor of the more capable soft-top model," PS3 `Stick' Stave noted, walking over to look through the back window. FRED promptly cranked the tint current wide open, and all glass on the car darkened into opacity. "What the hay?" Stick growled as he reached for the tailgate release and FRED locked the doors with a thunk. "Looks like it likes you about as much as I do," Rod snorted, slowly walking around the vehicle. "Milo, are you sure someone's not trying to pull a fast one on us?" "Don't see any reason why they would. Why?" "Cause what I'm seeing doesn't make sense. L.T. said this thing crashed up on one of the hanger decks right?" "Yeah." "Well, except for a couple of broken lights and a missing wheel this thing looks like it drove right off the assembly line. No scratched paint or nothing. And the windows just darkened and the doors locked all on their own." "Maybe it thinks it's a vending machine," quipped Shiner. Rod growled at Shiner, but Milo's voce cut off whatever it was Rod was about to say. "Try and get the hood open then. IF there really is a fusion plant in there, we should be able to tell who made it pretty easy." By this time, FRED had managed to find the frequency the team was using and was silently eavesdropping. Hearing this, FRED figured he had only a couple of tricks left, and doubted either of them would be very effective. He still had to try, though, and switched on his external speakers. Rod tried to reach for the hood release and cursed. "Can't reach the hood release with my suit on. Hand me that crowbar, Stick." As the crowbar smacked into his palm, the intact headlight flashed and the car announced "Alarm ARMED". Rod quirked an eyebrow, and stuck the crowbar into the gap between the hood and the grill. "Intrusion detected," Fred noted, doing his best to impersonate an impersonal car alarm. "You are too close to this vehicle. Please step away." Rod gave a derisive snort and prepared to put his weight on the crowbar. Fred got ready to pump a wailing noise through the speakers at max volume and hoped for a miracle. At that moment, the SDF-1 went to general quarters. FRED would have breathed a sigh of relief if he were human. Rod dropped the crowbar and he and his team sprinted for the door and their battlestations. * * * * * * * * * Micheal Thunders drifted in a warm black void. He wasn't really sure how long he had been this way, but at the moment didn't really care. To be frank, he would have been content to remain like this a while longer, but his other half quietly intruded on his thoughts. <> <> <> <> >>G'way. `m sleep. << <> >>Uh huh. Right. Five more minutes. << All thoughts of sleep suddenly vanished as the impossibility of this conversation impacted on his consciousness. The CPU of the probe he had accidentally merged with three years ago had always been present in a back corner of his mind. but never like this! Responding to something other than the basic command set? Using correct English? It even `felt' different. almost human, and yet not. >>Confirm mode! << <> >>What the deuce???<< Micheal's eyes snapped open, and a wash of gray swamped his vision before resolving into a standard acoustical tile ceiling. He tried to sit up, only to find that he was restrained to the bed. Still, looking down confirmed that he was in his human form. and wearing one of those embarrassing hospital gowns. He also noted he was restrained to the bed at writs and ankle, even as his other `self' continued undaunted. <> >>You mean the crash. << <> >>Great. I get knocked upside the head and now I have Spock living in my head. << <> >>Later. MUCH later. Now, why did you wake me up? << <> >>Oh. << A quick experiment proved that while the restraints were sufficient to hold his normal body, they were not strong enough to contain his Star Ranger form. Unfortunately, neither was the bed, which began to creak ominously under his transformed weight, prompting him to climb off and return to his normal form. He then realized that whatever else was true about this Fica, it adhered to the fact that hospital floors were always linoleum, and cold! The room had a cold sterility about it that was common of all hospitals above a certain tech level, and was obviously a private one, for his was the only bed in the room, and no indication that there were any provisions for another. A quick search revealed a closet by the lavatory, containing a set of hospital greens and a set of house slippers, but no sign of his clothes. The unisex garments fit well enough, but the slippers were a bit large. Micheal didn't mind, though, as at least they were warmer than that accursed floor! The door to the hallway was locked, but no real barrier to his strength as Star Ranger. The outside corridor confirmed his initial theory that he was in some sort of infirmary, but there was no one in sight. so he picked a direction at random and began to walk, looking for someone who could tell him where he should be evacuating too. The floor was empty in this direction except for a slightly built brunette (3) asleep in one of the rooms, so he decided against waking her until he had a better idea of what was going on and proceeded down the hall, which ended in a large solarium. The solarium was occupied, but Micheal didn't notice at first as he recognized the skyline outside the large windows. and realized that he was in very deep trouble. "Macross City." he noted, not really realizing that he spoke aloud. "And no one on the streets. This is not good." "We'll be OK. Big Brother is out there. He'll keep the Zentraedi out of the city proper!" assured a voice from his left, startling Micheal, who recognized the dark haired speaker in similar clothes. "Hikaru Ichijyo." Micheal murmured, his mind still reeling from the realization of where he was. "Huh? I think you have me confused with someone else. The name's Hunter. Rick Hunter," the younger man replied, holding out his hand. Before Micheal could take it, a growling, ripping noise was heard through the large windows. Both men turned to see the mecha of Quadrano ace Miriya drop through the EVA `sky' and land in the street in front of them in a shower of debris. Rick's heart sank at the sight of an enemy mecha in the very heart of the ship, while Micheal used the distraction to quickly organize his thoughts. `Rick Hunter. That places me in either the McKinney or Harmony Gold timelines. Americanized names. Veritechs, not Valkeries. Ben Dixon, Max Sterling, Roy Fokker. SHIT! This is the Pineapple Salad episode!' Micheal realized with another shock as Max Sterling's blue trimmed VT dropped from above and chased the enemy mecha through the streets of Macross. `Tonight, at about 7:30, Roy Fokker, the SDF-1's best pilot is going to die of his wounds. There must be something I can do.' Beside him, Rick Hunter had also recognized the blue trimmed VT and was cheering it on as Micheal's brain tried to figure out a way to warn Claudia Grant that wouldn't get him fitted for a nice coat that closed in the back. Excusing himself, he found as he exited the solarium that convincing Claudia Grant was going to be the least of his problems, as he suddenly ran into two very large and very irate military police types. And the fact that they had the business ends of their weapons pointed in his direction certainly seemed a good indication that he was the one they were looking for. He briefly considered trying to escape, but quickly tossed the idea out the window. He was certain that their weapons wouldn't be able to harm the metallic hide of his Star Ranger persona, but being in a hospital made the chances of endangering an innocent (Such as Rick, still in the solarium) much to great to risk. "Umm, I surrender?" he ventured, cautiously raising his hands over his head, overriding his `probe' side's desire to switch to attack mode and `explain' to these two why pointing a weapon in his general direction was a VERY *BAD* idea. "Wise decision, smartass," growled MP number one, his weapon unwavering as the second circled around behind Micheal. "Just keep your hands right where I can see them." `What the hell?' he thought to himself as MP number two roughly yanked his arms down and handcuffed him. "Um, I don't suppose you two would mind telling me what is going on, would you?" "What's going on is your going back to your room and wait for Commander Grant. Then you can explain to her what you were doing trying to escape, spy," MP#1 snorted in response, grabbing Micheal roughly by the elbow and propelling him down the corridor. `Oh, this is JUST great. They think I'm some sort of micronized Zentraedi,' Micheal mused to himself as the two MP's escorted him back to his room. `I guess breaking the door-lock wasn't such a good idea. But he did say Commander Grant. Its got be Claudia, I doubt there could be two of them even on a ship this size. Maybe I still have a chance here.' As he was lead through the door, he took in the various looks on the hospital staff, which ranged from fear to hatred. `Then again, maybe not.' "Go ahead and cuff him to that chair, Adam," MP number one, Tybalt, according to his nametag, decided. "Then call the bridge and let Commander Grant know he's awake. Then call HQ and have them send a couple more men. We'll keep two in the room and two at the door till the commander decides what to do with him." Micheal opened his mouth, but was cut off before he could speak. "Not a word out of you, brig bait. Save it for the commander." * * * * * * * * * "Right, I'll tell her," Comm Tech first class Vanessa Leeds assured the agitated MP on the other end of the line, before clearing the circuit. `In the morning. From the sound of that pineapple salad comment, Claudia has a date with Commander Fokker tonight. At least one of us should get to have a chance at a decent love life.' * * * * * * * * * Claudia Grant was definitely totally in love. Which, she supposed, was why Roy irritated her so sometimes. Leading the understrength Vermilion squadron into battle today was bad enough, but at least she had known about it before hand. And now, he was just sitting there strumming tunelessly on his guitar. Judging by the look on his face, though, today's mission had been tougher on her beloved than most. Right then and there she decided that Roy was taking the day off tomorrow and rest, even if she had to tie him to her bed to guarantee it. "You know, Lisa admitted today that she likes Lt. Hunter. She even went down and saw him in the Hospital today," she noted. "Mr. Lingerie and the Old Sourpuss? That will be an interesting romance to watch," Roy noted wryly. "Oh, I dunno. I doubt it'll be more tempestuous than ours," Claudia joked lightly, before becoming somber again. "I'm just glad that you told me you were taking over Vermilion this morning. It was bad enough knowing you were going up; I don't know what I would have done if I hadn't known. Sometimes it seems like you pilots treat this like a giant game." "It's never been a game, Claudia. Not for me, not ever," Roy declared shortly. Somehow, he felt cold all over. He tried to turn his attention back to his guitar, but his hands didn't want to listen. `Just a quick nap', he decided, as his eyelids descended of their own volition. He forced himself to open them again as someone called his name from far away. He found himself wrapped in a brilliant white light as Kramer walked up to him and tossed him his flight helmet. There was one mission left to fly. THE mission. The mission that would end war everywhere, and then there wouldn't be anything to take him from her side again. After this he could turn in his flight helmet for good, and Claudia wouldn't have to worry about him anymore. He was sure she would understand. He didn't understand how Pop Hunter had gotten tapped for this mission, but he was glad the old flyer was there as well. He was surrounded by some of the best men he had ever flown with, with the best fighters he had ever seen. far sleeker and even more dazzling than a Veritech. They were climbing now, up and up through the atmosphere, the sky growing strangely brighter instead of the darkness of space; Roy grinned his rakish grin as he led his squadron right into the center of the brilliant white light. * * * * * * * * * Even before Dr. Hassan stepped out of the emergency room, Claudia knew. Even as her head tried to remind her of how many times these doctors had saved someone from certain death, deep in her heart she knew. Roy Fokker, the man she loved more than anything, was dead. Dr. Hassan's expression as he stepped into the waiting room only confirmed what she already knew, even before he spoke the dreaded words. She heard the stilted, formal phrases only faintly; as if the entirety of reality had been pushed far away by the emptiness swirling around her. Then she was left alone, to look on the one face that meant more to her than anything else for the last time. He had already been cleaned up, and lying there with the sheet up to his chest all she could remember was the wonder she had felt that first morning, when she had woken up before him and sat for an hour just looking at his face. As then, he looked so calm and relaxed, a far cry from the focused leader of men he was inside the cockpit of a Veritech. She had laid her hand on his chest feeling the warmth and its slow rise and fall. But now the chest under her hand was still and cold, and the moment of happy memory dissolved into cruel reality, and the emptiness about her crystallized into soul crushing sorrow as she threw herself across his chest and wept. If asked later, Claudia could not have told anyone if that timeless moment of sorrow was a minute, or an hour; checking a watch or clock would only have cheapened her final moments with the man who had meant more to her than life itself. Eventually, it passed, as all moments must regardless of their length, and she stood on unsteady legs. Still the emptiness of her loss swirled about her, and eventually she found herself standing on the roof of Macross General, with no real recollection of how she had gotten there. Above her was a darkness that matched the darkness trying to seep into every corner of her soul; below, a vista of lights like that of their occasional trips up into the hills around Macross Island. It was the occasion of their first trip into those hills that she had made her pineapple salad for him the first time, and he had never failed to show when she made it. Tonight, that had killed him. Suddenly, her sorrow became guilt; had he not been so determined to spend the evening with her he would not have died. It was all her fault that the SDF-1 was without one of its best pilots! For a moment she considered throwing herself off the roof in an attempt to atone for her selfishness when someone below her slid open a window. Drifting through the silent air of the giant hold came the haunting lyrics of one of Roy's favorite tunes; the one he used to calm her fears that she might die before he did. "If you should get there before I do, please kindly wait for me. I'll be with you when my chores are through. It won't be long `til I'm with you. Until then. Love, Me." A warmth enveloped her, as if Roy had stepped out of nowhere and wrapped his strong and loving arms around her. Roy Fokker may have died, but he had died doing what he loved most. He had died defending those who could not defend themselves, and he had kept his promise to always come home to her. A peace settled over her, banishing the guilt. It was as she said when she first met him. he was at his best going Mach 2 with his pants on fire. "Yes, Roy Fokker," she whispered into the silence. "I'll wait till my chores are through. Until I am again with you, love. Me." Claudia stepped out of the elevator and blinked for a moment in confusion. She had intended to ride down to the lobby, but had wound up on the floor Rick Hunter's room was on instead. She considered breaking the news to him, but decided that it could wait until morning. It would probably be better to allow someone else to deliver the news as well. Colonel Maistroff's alleged spy was on this floor as well, and the doctors thought he should be conscious by now, so she turned in that direction instead. The two MP's by the door came to attention as she approached, and she returned their salute. "How is the prisoner, Sergeant Jury?" "Awake, Ma'am. He was making a ruckus about seeing you until about 19:30 ma'am, then he just sort of clamed up." "When did he come to?" "During the attack ma'am." The sergeant flushed, but continued. "He got out of his room for a moment while we were helping the staff evacuate patients, but we found him before he got off this floor. Sergeant Tybalt and Corporal Bailesu (4) are in with him now." Claudia nodded understanding, and the corporal opened the door for her. She couldn't help but note the damage to the doorjamb. apparently; this person was much stronger than anyone had thought. Which explained the two other MP's stationed in the room with the prisoner, who was at present handcuffed to a chair with his back to her, facing the window. She walked around it to face him before speaking, while the MP's moved to stand on either side of her. "I'm Lieutenant Commander Grant. I understand you wanted to speak with me?" "I'm. I'm sorry, Claudia. I tried to warn you." the prisoner murmured softly, looking up from his lap. Claudia noticed that he had a downcast expression on his face, but his confusing words only added to the barely controlled pain in her heart. "What are you talking about?" she demanded. "At 19:30 hours this evening, Commander Roy Fokker was pronounced dead in the ER," Micheal replied softly. Claudia rocked back on her heels, in shock, as that soft pronouncement tore open the scab over her healing hurt. Catching everyone, including herself by surprise, she snatched the weapon from one of the MP's and leveled it at the prisoner. "Who the hell are you and how did you know that?" she demanded. Continued in Part 4: Response ++++ (1) This is a type of slang. Roy is referring to 1900 hours, or 7pm to a civilian. (2) These characters can be found in Jaime Wilde's story "Snipes in Wonderland", and are used by permission. A quick translation guide: EM = Electrician's Mate FM = Fusion Maintenance tech LS = Life Support Systems tech PS = Power Systems Tech (3) Yes, it's Minmei. No, he didn't recognize her. Think about it. He only sees her from behind, and he hasn't been constantly exposed to her presence for the last two years the way everyone aboard has. ? (4) The names of the MP's are, indeed, list moderators for various Mailing Lists I belong too. What can I say? It seemed apropriate.