[Author's drivel to follow]

breathing in a vaccum
book 2

 Things had gained a semblance of normalcy onboard the Damocles with the
passage of a week. A busy week to be certain, but nothing
compared to the business that had filled Earth in the wake of the First
Robotech war. And as Joshua Arnold walked the newly repaired halls
of the Q-ship, his mind strolled back in time to those days. Joshua had
been aboard the moon outpost for the actual attack, gazing through
the telescopes that used to be aimed at the outer planets were turned
inward to stare at the armada that virtually encircled the Earth.
 As Joshua took random turns, following whatever subconscious urges
motivated him, he thought back to those days, after he managed to
return to Earth. The killing had been tremendous, and Joshua, in his
more cynical moments, thanked the Zentradi for solving the
overpopulation problem. He worked with Jonah for most of that time,
scouring the lands to find what scattered remmenants had survived.
 "Like termites fixing the hive crushed by a petulant child," he
muttered.
 "Excuse me?" someone asked, dragging Joshua to the present. A petite
woman stared at him from behind the pile of equipment that burdened her.

 "Nothing, Naiomi," Joshua said, recognizing the technician from one of
the prayer sessions commemorating the loss of the ten crew during the
battle around Jupiter. "Just working on some poetry."
 "Have a nice day," she replied, gazing at his back as he nodded a reply
and continued on his wanders. After a few more minutes he found himself
at a dead end, the only one that he had ever seen onboard the Damocles.
 Indeed, Joshua had absolutely no idea where he was, which was
astounding considering he had memorized the schematics that they had
shown during the hasty briefing he attended before departing on this
ship.
 He raised his passkey to the sensor head at the top of the small arch
that the single airlock was nestled into. His Orange clearance gave him
access to anything short of full black status, of which only a small
number of objects would be of any assistance on a mission such as this.
 As the sensor head beeped a negitive sounding tone, Joshua began
reviewing the half pictured list of what those objects were, narrowing
in on something just short of the ultimate in doomsday weapons. And
passing beyond those into the realm of weapons so deadly that they
shocked the mind beyond reasoning.

INTERMISSION:
 Tac Net Message #11097
 Mil Tech Thread C
 RE: Omega Class Weapons-

 For some time now, tactical and strategic doctrines embraced by mankind
included provisions for weapons too dangerous to use. These weapons were
to be held in check by the threat of retaliation in kind. The attack of
any one faction would be neutralized when the effects of the MAD
Principal were fully understood.
 This trend originated in the aftermath of WWI, when the long term
effects of chemical weapons such as mustard gas was fully understood.
Once the horrors of gas warfare were fully appreciated, there was a
tacit understanding that gas weapons were to be restrained, which turned
out to be a great blessing for infantry men on both sides when advances
in chemistry allowed the invention of nerve gas, which exceeds mustard
gas in all respects in killing.
 At the end of WW II another category of weapons was included in the so
called "Omega Class" of weaponry. Its destructive power was so great
that it horrifed the world in a manner much greater than chemical
weapons did. Nuclear warfare brought the world into fifty years of cold
war which erupted into the Global Civil War that plauged humanity with
countless deaths.
 Today Omega class weaponry consists of two distinct families: the beam
category, modeled off the SDF-1's main cannon or quantum gravity weapons
such as the wave cannon, and physical weapons of a more traditional
nature.
 In this second category we find antimatter pumped fusion bombs,
advanced nuclear warheads, neutron bombs, biological measures,
xenobiological weapons, nanotech viruses and chemical warfare.
 In UN Spacy's second filed report, entitled Omega and still classified,
the newly born agency apparently supported the no-use policy previously
held by the nation states of Earth. While the report�s contents are
classified, the experts consulted for the report are known:

 Andrew Coffey, Ph. D. Physics- specializes in antimatter application.

 Gedion Choi, M. D.- pathologist and microbiologist

 Nina Williams, Ph. D. molecular engineering- nanotechnologist

  /INTERLUDE

 An old man stared into space from the window of his office. He glanced
to the report on his desk, as if it was an irritating insect.
 �Jonah you always did like exhaustive reports,� Admiral Nixon Smith
whispered to the stars, in the general direction of Jupiter. He reviewed
the status of the Damocles, which according the report suffered serious
damage in its first encounter with the Zendtradi. Unlike Jonah, or many
of the other high ranking officers in the EDF and Southern Cross,
Admiral Smith knew exactly where the battlepods and ships were coming
from.
 It had been his decision to tacitly ignore the crippled Zendtradi war
cruiser, and his �oversight� that led to the loss of its location in the
files. Better the devil that comes your way then the one you had to
create, at least in terms of plausible denial.
 Smith remembered the meetings with Global Arms, and the representative
they had sent up from down below. From the hellhole that still marked
the corporate headquarters in Mexico City.
 �What do you think will happen when all the rebels are chased down in
the wilds? Do you think the Civilian governments would be able to keep
the military in shape for the arrival of the Purple People Eater?� the
man said, using the EDF Command�s term for the mythical Robotech
Masters. �What we need is a credible threat, something we can use to
keep them spending money until another, more visible threat comes
along.�
 Smith had smiled when he told the slick little man about the Zentradi
warship. And the plans that surrounded the vessel. Smith had made sure
the Zentradi found the warship, and the treasure trove of war materiel
it contained. And even when the Zentradi hard liner Smith had
surrupticiously groomed for command of the vessel had been overthrown by
a young half-breed the plan was still coming along perfectly.
 Smith stared out the window at the Orbital Ring, the high albedo of the
rock making it standout against Earth�s night side, long devoid of city
lights. When the reports of an attack on the Orbital Ring began, Smith
could barely contain his grin. The purple invaders had played as if
according to a script the Smith had long ago filed under �Best Possible
Situation.�
 It was nearly a whole day before Smith learned that Pandora had been
stolen. And one of the Omega staff had been captured. From that minute
onward, the Damocles mission had been his greatest priority. He picked
the staff, starting with Jonah, a capable if washed up captain, on down.
All were great staff with some minor flaw that prevented them from
useful service to the EDF. Because in all likelihood they would come
back carrying Pandora. Like the fighter group leader who didn�t want to
lead or the Chaplin with no faith. And he had finally told Jonah what
the real mission was, who his enemy was and what teeth the Damocles
truly held in its jaws.
 The Damocles Contingency Operation was underway, and Omega�s other
project was onboard. Should the Damocles be destroyed in any proximity
to the Zendtradi warship, there would be no escape for it.
 Smith leaned back and sighed, hand reaching for the scotch that had
been sitting on his desk for nearly half an hour. He would have to sit
down with that greasy representitive again, to cook up another threat.
This time they would have to make the devil.

 Sakura settled herself into the futon in her room, glancing out the
skylight above her bed. She catalogued the stars she would see if it
wasn�t for Tokyo�s lights. She glanced around her room, to the posters
of idol singers she hadn�t taken down yet, to the picture of her flying
her first solo to the small grainy picture she had of herself and Dan.
 �Oh, Dan,� she said quietly as the sobs came. �I�m sorry.�
 The memory of the dinner came unbidden. Mokoto had taken her to the
Italian place again and something in his expression told Sakura that
tonight was not a normal dinner.
 �I realize you think this arranged marriage thing is a bit strange,�
Mokoto said uncomfortably after the normal pleasantries had been
exchanged, �but I�ve been thinking.�
 Sakura heard silent alarms going off in her head. The conversation she
hadn�t wanted was here. And goddamn it, she wasn�t sure where it was
going.
 �I think the two of us are good together,� Mokoto began, �and I would
like to see the two of us go to the next step. Not marriage or
anything,� he added hastily, �but I�m attracted to you and I hope you
feel the same way. I think you feel the same way.�
 �Mokoto-chan,� Sakura said, feeling a little rush when she added the
honorific. �I need to tell you something. Its personal, from my first
combat tour, but I think you�ll understand why.
 �Two years ago I fought a battle around an asteroid called Juno. After
the two squadrons I was with had secured the area around the rock, I was
sent out on a mopping up action around a cluster of rocks we called
Satan�s Ribs.� The image of the long fragments of rocks lined up in just
such a manner as to convey a ribcage was framed in her mind for a
moment, before the rest of the action unfolded in her mind.
 �I ambushed a pair of Zendtradi soldiers on the third rib, strafed them
until they died. There wasn�t any hope for them, they weren�t even
armed.� As she told the last line her voice cracked, and Mokoto looked
up at her to see tears brimming in her soft brown eyes.
 �After I returned to the carrier I locked myself in my room for two
shifts. I finally left to get food when I met a young fighter pilot
named Daniel Fisher. He looked at me and knew somehow what had happened.
It took him two more shifts to get me to some semblance of normalacy. He
even helped me out during the psyche testing.�
 �What you did was right. The Zendtradi were your enemy.�
 �That�s exactly what Dan told me.�
�Why are you telling me this,� Mokoto asked. �Do you love this Fisher?
Do you resent me for even putting you through this?�
 �No! Not at all. I told this story to you because I wanted to. Because
I want�� she took a second to force the words out. She knew they were
true. �To be with you,� she finished.
 They left the resteraunt before a waiter arrived at their table. And
now at three in the morning Sakura let the tears come. The burning
feeling of guilt in her heart would not go away.

��The Pandora particle is composed mostly of calcium, picked up from the
targets of the first seeding.�� Nina read, her heart breaking with each
word. �� Once administered, the Pandora particle will travel through
tissue and verify the genotype of the host in two or more tissues to
prevent accidental misidentification�.�
Nina leaned back from the screen. She had called up the documentation
she had written for the Pandora Project nearly two years before, after
the news had come in. The news about her family. After the tears had
come, but before they had dried.
It amazed her that the plans she had made for revenge had gone so
haywire. She assumed that the EDF would deploy Pandora as soon as it was
ready, but they had kept her busy for nearly another year to make
certain the particles would never interact with human tissue. She tried
to explain to them how there was no chance of Pandora mutating once
deployed. How the rod logic was passed directly by way of the calcium�s
structure, or the adaptive dissemblers would never pass through more
than twenty generations of evolution, but they hadn�t bothered to
listen.
And now, she thought she understood what Alpha wanted. Blackmail,
against everyone. Now that Pandora could affect humans and Zentradi
alike, Alpha held all the cards.
It had shaken her when she saw the computer model of Pandora II go to
work on a simulated Alpha. His mixed DNA had fooled neither strain of
the nanophage. He simply needed to release the �phage somewhere near the
Earth and it would eventually filter down, one nanoid at a time until
the each biological organism that came in contact with a nanoid would be
teeming with waiting bombs. Then at a time decided by the strength of
communication between nearby nanite covens, Pandora would snap open her
box and every contaminated human or Zentradi would die a quick,
extremely painful death as the dissemblers shredded their host�s
skeleton for raw materials. It was the period immediately after this
stage that was the most frightening, at least for Nina. The build up of
nanophages would reach a critical level and they would begin to break
down the water in their host into oxygen and hydrogen. Once enough had
built up in the corpse of the victim the nanophages would trigger an
explosion, spreading the nanophages to the wind.
It was as close as Nina could get to a biblical revenge. She wished to
rain fire and brimstone down on the Earth, to cleanse it of the alien
presence. To take from them what they had taken from her.
And now she had been made accomplice to the betrayal of her species. Her
only hope was to make sure that Alpha didn�t find out she had finished
Pandora II. But deep inside she knew her time was limited, and that his
gaze would tear the secret out of her as soon as she met it.

Author's Drivel-
    Well, I said I'd get back to this as soon as I got back to school,
and here it is. The series should finish in a couple more parts (unless
something very strange happens in my head) though the parts themselves
will take a little while. This part answers most of the secrets I was
hinting at earlier in the series. Anyone who guessed what Pandora was
before this part gets kudos from me.