Chapter 9[] The next couple days passed slowly. I spent most of them in the flight simulators, working myself to the point of exhaustion. I also had dinner a every night with Tom Charter, the technician. He was an absolute fountain of knowledge. He even managed to find out where the VX-001 was being kept... in bay 5B, with my Veritech. The best part was, nobody ever went down there. I chanced a glance down one of the passages that led into bay 5B. <Nobody down there,> I thought as I crept along the wall. When I reached the portal leading into the bay, I was about to poke my head through the door to take a peek, but I thought better of it. Instead, I stood up straight and walked in like I was supposed to be there. Of course, I was supposed to be there, because this bay was where my Veritech was being kept. I walked straight towards my Veritech, glancing casually around at the rest of the bay. Once I was sure no one was around, I let myself breathe easier. Since I was standing by the nose of my plane, I could see the VX-001. It was still in battloid mode, lying on its back, and was in pretty bad shape. In fact, it almost looked as if its repairs had _just_ been started. A few panels had been removed around the damaged areas and there was a tool bin on the chest, still opened. <I think I'll do something legitimate before I start poking around Thallin's little toy...> I opened my cockpit hatch and crawled inside. Muttering to myself, I found one of the data cards that had been mentioned during the flight lectures being given to the recruits. These things were supposed to hold data that would personalise the controls of your mecha, and they would allow standard movements and actions to be customised, altered or even added to the computer's memory. From my practice in the flight simulators, I had noticed a few things I would prefer to be different. <Now I can have that darned channel selector button moved somewhere I can reach it.> I pulled a few cards from the voice command set, one from the control setup, and, after a few moments of thought, several from the actions chip set. <I wonder if I can get them to program Aikido moves into this thing.>Before I got out of my cockpit, I pulled my micro-camera from my pocket and palmed it. Then I climbed down the ladder and moved towards the VX-001. I double-checked to make sure no one was around and snapped a few wide-angle pictures before moving in for close up shots. I crawled onto the shoulder and took several shots of exposed circuits and control mechanisms, then walked over to where the cockpit should have been and took some more. After about thirty shots, I jumped down and walked over to the control seat in the corner of the bay. It was already activated, although the screens weren't showing anything interesting. I did notice a fibre-optic cable laying loose on the seat, however. I picked it up and took a shot of the connector on the end of it, then proceeded to finish off the roll on everything else: screens, controls, helmet, and cables. I didn't venture so far as to remove any access panels, because that would be difficult to explain if someone walked in on me. Which is exactly what happened. A male voice said, "I figured you would be down here, Kay. Don't forget you've got a class scheduled in five minutes." It was my technician, Tom, standing in the door. I closed my hand over the tiny camera and turned around, saying, "Get a load of this, Tom. A cockpit without a fighter. Heh." I checked his facial expression to make sure he didn't suspect anything. He didn't. "That's all nice and good, but it's none of your business and your students won't be happy if you're late on the first day." He gave me a mock angry look and then smiled, "Come on!" "I don't know how you talked me into this, Tom Charter," I said as I reached him at the door. "Hey, who would be better at instructing young pilots on how to guess their way out of bad situations, Hmm?" He asked as he poked me in the ribs.
[] After I finished the class, I headed straight for the simulator rooms. I had had a funny feeling I had seen some of my students before, and I pondered on that as I crawled into one of the sim pits and slid in two of my new data cards. <I wish that tech had been able to finish all my cards, but, like he said, voice commands took time to hardwire and aikido moves were not standard procedure.> The only reason I was going to get them at all was that I was a squadron leader. I was definitely getting better at piloting these things, especially in the hybrid form. It was getting to the point where I could almost find and eliminate targets blind. And I was getting better with control, too: I wasn't overcompensating for inertia and lack of friction, and I had almost got the knack for maneouvering in a zero gravity environment. <Almost,> I thought, as an alien missile sent me spinning out of control, impacting with the hull of the SDF-1 and ending the simulation. <Dead again, damnit.> My time buzzer sounded, and I had to get out to let the next pilot practice. So I opened the hatch, jumped out, and nearly landed on somebody. I recovered my balance and stepped back from him, apologising profusely. "I am so sorry. I didn't see you there, besides you shouldn't.... Hey! You're..." "David Marshall, Ma'am. I'm in your class," he said, saluting. This guy was the one I had picked up back in Macross, from the missile salvo. He looked quite different now, without the soot and in an RDF cadet flight suit, but I was sure it was him. He had brown eyes and sandy hair, and looked like he hadn't shaved yet today. Looked like he had slept in his flight suit, too. As I looked him over, he started shifting his balance from foot to foot. I stood up straighter and said, "Right. Marshall. Well, it looks like you're in a hurry to use this machine, so I'll get out of your way. But I'll want to speak with you later. I'll get in touch with you when I have a spare moment." Then I paused, relaxed, and waved, saying "See ya," as I stepped past him.
[] Today was going to be a long day. I had been unable to reserve a slot in the simulators, my class was being given the day off, and I hadn't been able to contact Thallin at all for the last few days. So I spent the day exploring the ship's computer. It was very user friendly, except when it wasn't supposed to be, like in restricted areas. Being a squadron commander, I had some security clearance, but it wasn't, apparently, enough for where I wanted to go: Thallin Braywater's data records. I was experimenting with three or four different pathways into his records, but all of them led to an annoying clearance block. Every time I thought I was about to get in, I got a prompt for a password. And this last one was giving me special problems... It wouldn't let me not answer the password or even back up. I was stuck. <There's only one way out of this,> I thought as I tried a few words. None of them worked, but I hadn't expected them to. Unfortunately, it kept asking me for the password, even if I got it wrong. Over and over and over again: "Please Enter Password: ". I couldn't get out. I even tried turning my terminal off and on again. No luck. My thoughts were interrupted by a loud klaxon from the hall. <Oh great. Another drill.> I thought as I pushed back my chair. Then the Ops Officer's voice came on: "Enemy Attack! Repeat, Enemy Attack! This is not a drill! Scramble orders to all Veritechs! Scramble orders to all Veritechs!..." There was more, but I wasn't listening. I was grabbing my data cards and rushing to get down to my fighter.
[] <I'm going to have to find a closer bay for my mecha,> I thought as I scrambled down several stairs and passages, not trusting the elevators. I was huffing a bit by the time I reached the main passage leading to bay 5B. I ran in the door and was about to sprint across the bay to my Veritech when I saw Thallin over at his control seat with a woman. I couldn't quite see her, as the seat faced away from me, and she was sitting in it, working. I dug in my heels and skidded to a stop, looking at them. Thallin noticed me and looked up, surprised. He asked, "Kay, what are you doing here?" "There's a full alert on, or hadn't you noticed?" I grinned at him. Then the woman stood up and turned around. She had dark brown hair, green eyes, a pretty face, and a naked body. <Naked, eh Thallin?> I thought, my mood turning sour. "And exactly who is that?" I asked, giving him the coldest glare I could manage. He stammered, "Oh, her... Well, that's... er..." Then she stepped forward, looking as if she hadn't a care in the world. She even had the audacity to salute me as she purred, "Hello, I'm easy." "I'll bet you are," I snapped. I started, once again, towards my Veritech, muttering, "So that's what you've been up to, Thallin... Playing around with a new toy. Heh. Don't you worry yourself, you easy slut. He's all yours now. I'm not so sure I was ever interested in that pig. Heh. Yea... Never." He called after me, "Er... Kay? What are you doing?" "I'm taking my Veritech out as ordered!" I shouted over my shoulder. I pulled the hatch lever and gracefully leaped into my cockpit, flipping the power switches and installing my data cards with a flourish. <What makes her so much better, Thallin? You like brunettes better than redheads?>He started yelling something at me, trying to be heard over my engines. I grimaced, <probably making excuses... 'It's not what you think', 'We were just...' Yeah right, Thallin Braywater. I believe you. HA!> I brought the power up and taxied my plane towards the airlock. I gave the turbines a little more juice than I really should have, hoping to hurt their ears a bit. Thallin just looked at me, an odd look on his face, as I moved into the airlock and closed the lock doors. <I'm not going to go that far,> I thought as the image of those two being sucked into space flashed across my mind. As the outer doors opened for me, all such thoughts left my mind. All that existed right now was the battle. Nothing else.
[] I throttled the turbines and released the wheel locks, shooting into the void. I was about to open a communications channel to my squadron when I realised I didn't have one. <This is not a simulator any more, Kay.> I thought to myself, <This is real. This is now.> By now, the battle was already visible, raging about 30 klicks away, and I sped towards it. Once I was within fifteen kilometres, I started selecting targets for missile lock. There was no response. I didn't even have any register on the heads up display. I tapped a few buttons and double-checked my status grid. Everything was shining green... Except for three lights, which weren't even on! Those three lights were status indicators for my combat computer, targeting systems, and their coordinating programs. "Mother fuck!" I screamed. "How the hell did this happen?" I pulled one of my data cards out of it's socket and was about to look it over when a beam of light flashed across my canopy, reminding me I was in the middle of a battle. I pulled hard on the stick, killed my throttle, and activated the rear verniers, performing a textbook kick turn. As my Veritech turned around, I changed to battloid mode and brought my GU-11 to bear on the battle pod that had fired at me. "No cross hairs? Shit!" I yelled as I realised I had no way to tell where I was aiming my gun pod. I fired a burst anyway, hoping to get lucky. I missed, but someone had loaded tracer rounds into my gun pod, so I quickly adjusted my aim and fired again. I saw the pod jerk and crack, and then it started into a slow spin. <Killed it. Let's just hope the rest are this ea...>My mecha was suddenly struck from behind, and I was interrupted by a loud crunch. The vibration nearly broke my neck, but I managed to spin around, firing my weapon wildly into the green wall I had slammed into. The rounds plunked into the wall with little effect, and I realised I had just bumped into a rather large ship. What's worse: the area I was firing into split open along a straight seam, revealing about fifty battle pods led by one of those fish things that were supposed to be flown by officers. I was dead... and I knew it. <Karl... help me... please?>
Forward to Chapter 10.
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