The day began as pretty much every other day had begun, lately.
Max woke up and resisted the temptation to pinch himself when he
realized that Millia was, incredibly, with him. Then he resisted the
successive temptations to pinch himself when he realized that they were
in his (or rather, /their/) quarters on the new Battle 7A, and that he
was still her captain.
After the end of the war with the Varauta, Max had honestly
expected to be court-martialled and, at minimum, dishonorably
discharged. Not that he believed that he'd made any mistakes during the
situation, but the same rational grasp of the facts led him to the
inescapable conclusion that the government would use him as a scapegoat
for the loss of Battle 7, not to mention the dozens of other ships lost
in the encounters.
But it hadn't happened that way. Headquarters had had an attack of
intelligence and realized that all the reports combined to indicate
that if the Captain of the Macross 7 fleet hadn't /personally/ saved
the universe, he'd at least been involved up to his neck in said
saving.
So they'd given him (and, he'd made /damn/ sure, his bridge crew)
their highest possible commendations, and sent out a new Macross Battle
Carrier to replace Battle 7. Inevitably, someone had dubbed it Battle
7A, and there was apparently a joke going around beneath decks that by
the time Max lost his hair, he'd be captaining Battle 7D. Max had /not/
been amused.
Sometimes, things worked out well. Sometimes, he mused as he bent
down to begin kissing along his wife's shoulder and up her neck, things
worked out /very/ well.
At the precise moment when he reached her delicately pointed ear,
the communicator beeped. "Priority One Message for Captain Jenius," it
announced.
"I think you'd better answer it," Millia commented sleepily.
"Besides, I have a meeting in two hours, so there isn't really enough
time."
And then, sometimes, things did not work out so well. With a
somewhat irritated expression, he got up out of bed, pulled on a robe,
and went out into the living room to answer the message.
The screen activated as soon as he entered the room, revealing the
face of his bridge officer, Sally S. Ford. But her expression seemed
unfamiliar to him, as though she were under an even greater burden of
strain and fear than they'd all been under during the war.
"Yes, Sally, what is it?" he asked, injecting his tone with calm
confidence and hoping that it would spread to her.
"Captain, I ... I apologize for waking you but ..." She trailed
off.
Uncertainty. That's what he saw on her face. What in the worlds
could be causing that? He reached for a coffee cup, and replied in the
same calming tone. "You didn't. What's going on?"
She took a deep breath and said words he'd never expected to hear.
"Captain, we seem to be receiving a transmission from UEG
Colonization Ship Megaload-1, Captain Misa Ichijyo commanding."
The coffee cup slipped from his fingers, and for a second it seemed
to hang in space, before it began to fall slowly to the floor. It
shattered on impact.
The day, he realized, would be like none other in his entire life.
To Be Continued
Author's Notes
A key plot element of the story to follow was suggested by a thread
started by H. Torrance Griffon. He can probably guess what it is.
Vengeance is mine, Torrance.
I'm ignoring Macross 7 Dynamite. Basically, I haven't seen it (<Yeah,
like you've seen the entirety of Macross 7,> interjected his artistic
conscience.) and from what I've read it seems to be a very downbeat
follow-up to the very upbeat conclusion of the TV series.
Suggestions for a better title are very welcome. :)
"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?
=====
Chris Davies, Advocate for Darkness, Part-time Champion of Light
"One begins to long to come across a female protagonist called,
say, Naomi the Castrator. One could tell her to look up John
Norman for a start." -- Michael Moorcock, "Wizardry and Wild Romance"
Fanfics: http://members.fortunecity.com/c_davies/
Fanfic Revolution: http://come.to/hauthor
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