Moving double time, Max managed to get all the way through the
sliding doors to the bridge before the usual electronic voice finished
announcing his presence. "All right, let's hear the details," he
prompted as he took his seat.
Sally and her usual partner in crime, Miho Miho, turned to look
back at him. If Sally still seemed apprehensive and nervous, Miho's
expression indicated barely repressed joyous excitement; her ribboned
hair almost quivered. "Sir! We were scanning the usual information
channels of the Galaxy Network when I noticed a very strange pattern of
static on some of the lower frequencies -- too regular to be a `normal'
problem with the reception or transmission."
"At first I thought it might be a new contact, so I authorized Miho
to do a more complete analysis," Sally interjected.
Miho's smile seemed to be on the edge of becoming a fiendish grin,
and Max reflected that a truly effective communications officer had to
have a lot of the old "hacker" tendencies. "I'd never seen anything
like this frequency -- it almost reminds me of some of the old
Zentraedi military ciphers that we still can't decode. Yet."
Reflexively, Max stole a glimpse at the empty shaft beside his
station. Reminders of the loss of certain ciphers peculiar to Bodolza's
central command unit in the destruction of the Bodol Fleet had been
known to irritate Exedor, but since he was on a "much-deserved"
vacation at the moment, it probably couldn't hurt.
Miho continued without noticiing his brief distraction. "But it
finally all came together ten minutes ago! Voice transmission on a very
strange hyperluminal band, like nothing we've ever used, nothing
*anyone's* ever used. And it's live, Captain!"
"You're sure about that?"
"The analysis finished right after you were called in, Captain,"
Sally replied. "There are too many irregularities in the speech for it
to be a recording. The transmission is made for exactly one hour, then
silenced for two hours --" She cut short her explanation, touching her
ear piece. "It's on now, sir."
"Let's hear it," he replied quickly, almost snapping in his sudden
tension.
"--peat, this vessel is non-belligerent. We will not engage unless
engaged." A breath. "This is the United Nations Government vessel
Megaload-Zero-One, Captain Misa Ichijyo commanding. We are
non-belligerent. Repeat, this vessel is non-belligerent. We will not
engage unless engaged."
It was her.
A hundred memories flooded Max's mind in the moment that he
realized it, from the first time he'd overheard Hikaru arguing with her
over the tactical net to the last recorded communication he'd ever
received from either of them. In all that time, her voice hadn't
changed that much: calm, almost fanatically controlled, with sharp
edges just barely hidden and --
Abruptly, he realized that something was terribly wrong.
"Can we return this communication?" he asked suddenly.
"I think so, sir," Miho replied just as quickly. "It'll require
some modifications to one of Battle 7's transmitters, but it shouldn't
take more that about twenty minutes to rig."
"Do it. And if you're not already recording this, start."
"Yes sir," Miho and Sally chorused, and then fell to work. In easy
synchronization, they set his orders in motion. The necessary
modifications to the communications array took much less than twenty
minutes; privately, Max suspected that the two of them had pre-arranged
most of the work, leaving only the final, critical details for his
approval.
No surprises there. He had the best crew in the fleet.
"Sir?" Sally interrupted his thoughts. "We can broadcast at
anytime."
He nodded. "Good. Patch me through."
Miho made a small adjustment to her controls. "Go ahead, sir."
"Megaload, this is the Seventh Macross Colonization Fleet, Captain
Maximillian Jenius commanding. We are receiving your transmission and
are prepared to render you any assistance necessary. Do you copy?"
"-- Ichijyo commanding. We ... are ... non-" Misa's voice trailed
off, faded.
"Captain Ichijyo?" Max called. "Do you copy?"
"Max?" the voice whispered across the light years.
"Yes, Misa, it's me. We're ready to give you any assistance --"
"Oh god," she said, without passion. "Oh god, oh god, oh god ..."
"Captain, get a hold of --"
A very strange noise began to accompany Misa's quiet invocations of
deity, and it took Max a moment to recognize it as a sob.
Then, a second voice -- male, younger -- intruded on the other end
of the communication. "Enough. Secure."
"Wait!" Max called out.
And then there was nothing but static.
For a few moments, Max simply sat and stared at nothing. Then he
turned to look down at Miho. "Do we have a location for the origin of
that transmission?" he asked.
Subdued, Miho examined her board -- and Max saw her tense. "Captain
... if these readings are right, that signal originated from more than
a hundred thousand light years distance."
He absorbed that, sinking back into the cushions of his seat. "Two
mysteries. Already, two mysteries."
"Two, sir?" Sally asked.
"How did the Megaload get that far out into space? And why," he
asked quietly, "does her commanding officer sound like a woman in her
early thirties ... when she should be over fifty years old?"
To Be Continued
Next: Objectives and objections
"Superdimensional Fortress Macross" and "Macross 7" were created by ...
let's not kid ourselves, it was a team effort. This story,
incorporating characters held under copyright by others, is copyright
2000 by Chris Davies.
Nobody Sue Me Okay?
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