Chapter 7

[Reality Check - Sunday Jul. 12 2009, 0438 hours, Storage Area 5d] 

"Wait now, you can't be called Izi", Thallin said, sounding desperate as what had just happened filtered through to his brain, "You're Christina..." His spiel wound down into silence as he realised the implications of 'Christina' suddenly coming back to life <Ooohh.. not pretty.> He carried on, "Well, maybe not 'Christina', but not 'Izi', for crying out loud!" 

"Why?" 

"Because no-one has a name like 'Izi', that's why!" 

"Irrelevant." 

"Folks will laugh." 

"Immaterial." 

"I don't like it." 

"..." For the first time since she had woken, expressions played over Izi's face. "But you gave me that callsi-... name. You say things you do not like?" 

"Sometimes." 

"You do things you do not like?" 

"Sometimes." <More often than I like to think about, but it keeps me out of trouble.>"You did me. You did not like doing me?" 

<groan> Thallin shook his head in frustration. He knew better than to argue with a woman, even one who was only a few minutes old. He would have to attend to her grammar though, whatever her name was going to be. Pacing the room, he realised that she was still waiting for his answer. She had moved and was sitting on the edge of the tub, closer than he remembered. <Funny how breasts never look quite as full when a woman is laying down.> He took a deep breath and began. "Izi, you're a very special person. And I've enjoyed doin..." Pause. "Working on..." <groan> "When people find out how special you are, they are going to be jealous and then they are going to be nasty, mostly to me. It's just the way that people are. If we can let them believe that you aren't special, then we can stop them being nasty. If I name you Izi, they are going to know that you're special right away because it is such an unusual name... Am I getting through?" 

"But if Izi is not Izi then what is Izi called?" 

Thallin thought for a moment, snapped his fingers and said "I've got it: 'Izabelle'." 

The young woman frowned at this. "I liked Izi better." 

[Reality Check - Saturday Jul. 18 2009, 1044 hours, Meeting Room 6] 

Thallin sat in one of the innumerable meeting rooms with the committee of scientists directed to fix the conduits. The cat's cradle entwining his fingers gave evidence to his attention span. The scientists were all trying to speak over each other, trying to get their ideas heard. Thallin focused his eyes on the cradle, and let his mind roam. 

He was younger, much younger, and running through the grass. It was soft on his feet, and just the right colour green. He was running into the sunset, into the wind, and he thought his heart would burst for the shear joy of being alive. But his feet began to hurt, and they felt wet. Looking down he saw they were the wrong colour; red - blood then, green blood, transparent blood. The grass had changed too; ivory, sharp and splintered, bones. He continued to run and on the outside nothing appeared to change. Time stood still. But on the inside he was old, dying, helpless, a killer, screaming. And while he screamed the wind changed, blowing North by North-West. 

Thallin looked up from the string between his fingers and pushed his seat back away from the table, the feet of the chair screeching against the metal of the decking. He walked around the table towards the giant screen at the end of the room, not realising that all present had gone quiet at his unusual behaviour. Thallin studied the diagrams for a moment, measured the distance between the two conduit ends using the cat's cradle as a guide and compared this to the scale at the bottom of the screen. 

"You know," he murmured into the expecting silence, "there just might be a way to bridge that gap without any new conduits." All faces turned towards him and waited for him while he thought the matter through. "If you look at the diagram carefully and visualise the way the Macross is constructed, the answer becomes painfully obvious." Again, a pause. "All we need to do," said Thallin, breaking into a satisfied grin, "is have twenty-five Veritech holding hands to conduct the power through." Thallin pondered for a second. "Of course, we might then need twenty-five new pilots..." 

He tapped at the screen pensively. 

"Look. I'm telling you I feel perfectly fine. It'll work. OK, I'll admit that the Veritech idea was flawed." Thallin struggled against the two orderlies as they carried him out of the conference room. Some of the committee members shook their head as his voice sounded from the corridor. "Trust me. Women's hair-pins have been used since time immemorial. All we need is thirty-thousand of them. Easy." His voice faded as the orderlies dragged him away. "How about bras? It worked for the pink submarine!" 

Thallin paced around his quarters - a hard thing to do when the room you are in is only slightly more than two meters in length. He had been placed in confinement ever since his break-down in the conference room. Thallin reflexively rubbed his left shoulder at the spot used by the doctor to inject him with half a dozen different tranquillisers - the poor man was not quite certain from Thallin's dossier which might actually work on him, if any at all. So far, Thallin felt no different. 

His pacing getting him nowhere, literally and figuratively, Thallin sat down at his console and tapped a number on the com-vid's panel. The screen flashed to life after a few seconds, showing him an internal view of his workroom. 

"Izabelle? You there?" 

Izabelle's lithe body walked into the com-vid's pickup. "Present and fully functional." 

<I'm not even going to respond to that one.> "How are things going down there?" 

"As per instructions, I have started reading the Encyclopaedia Mundia and am almost finished. Direct download from the ship's library has made the task much faster than anticipated." 

"Good. Did anyone notice the download?" 

"No. I have taken great cares to erase all records of my request." 

"Good, good. Listen, Izi... Izabelle, I have a small task for you. Call up the VX-001's schematics from my files and study them. When you are done, I'd like you to go to bay 5B and catalogue the damage done to the VX and make a list of parts that will be required to repair it. Got that?" 

"Memorise schematics, move to bay 5B, catalogue damage, estimate repair needs. Understood." Izabelle gave the screen a little salute. 

<Oh great, now she's picking up my mannerisms.> "I'm currently, er.., detained by other matters, so I'll have to join you later when I can get away. Oh, and Izabelle... Make sure you're not seen." 

"Affirmative." Izabelle suddenly dropped out of sight as Thallin heard her scramble away from the com-vid's screen. 

<I have got to get her to stop taking everything so literally.> 

Two days later, Thallin was finally released from his confinement, with orders to report to the infirmary for daily check-ups. Still fuming from having lost so much time, Thallin entered a nearby lift and pushed his destination without thinking. The control panel gave a sickening crunch as his finger broke through the plastic. <Oh great. Another repair bill.> The lift gave a lurch and started its downward movement. 

Bay 5B was littered with various components as Thallin entered. On the left wall, the VX was resting on supports, most of its access panels opened to reveal missing circuitry. On the far wall, next to the giant airlock, was another Veritech Thallin had not noticed before. Maybe Izabelle had requisitioned it for spare parts. Looking about, he noticed her sitting at the console, a cyber-plug inserted in the access port behind her left ear. 

"Izabelle!" Thallin called out. 

Hearing her name, Izabelle unplugged herself from the deck and turned around to great him. "Hello Thallin. I have made progress since I talked to you yesterday." She got up from the seat, her red hair falling around her bare shoulders. Thallin looked appreciatively at her legs as she approached him with a computer listing in her hands. "I have finished the list of materials required to bring the VX back to operational status." 

Thallin accepted the pages she was offering and started to scan the list of parts. After a few moments, he looked up with a quizzical look on his face. "The list of parts on page three... What are they for?" 

Izabelle paused for a fraction of a second, recalling the information. "The list reflects the parts required to rebuild the VX's combat computer and automatic targeting system." 

"We can use a stock-standard set, can't we?" asked Thallin. 

"Yes. There are only minimal differences between the units we require and the units used in a standard Veritech fighter." 

"Oh, good." Thallin pointed to the Veritech on the far wall. "In that case, we can salvage the units from the spare VF over there." 

Izabelle and Thallin were busy re-aligning the controls of the deck's console with the new targeting unit in the VX when the lights flashed red for a few seconds. Lighting quickly returned to normal, but a warning klaxon sounded at regular intervals. Thallin looked up in surprise. 

"An attack? How did they ever find us here?" 

In the console's seat, Izabelle looked up from the diagrams she was holding. "Is this something we should worry about?" 

"Not really. There's not really much we can do until the VX is back to normal. I'm not even back to active duty until the doctors say so." He leant across her to grab the electronic probe from the console when the door to the corridor outside the bay opened and someone rushed in, then stopped abruptly. 

Thallin looked up in surprise at the interruption. "Kay, what are you doing here?" 

"There's a full alert on, or hadn't you noticed?" she replied with a grin. The grin faded as Izabelle rose from the console's seat. "And exactly who is that?" she asked abruptly. 

Thallin stammered, trying to think as he replied. "Oh, her... Well, that's... er..." 

Izabelle stepped forward, hand extended to her brow in a small salute. "Hello. I'm Izi." 

"I'll bet you are." Kay said in an icy tone. She turned around and walked towards the Veritech at the far end of the bay muttering something under her breath. 

"Er... Kay?" exclaimed Thallin. "What are you doing?" 

"I'm taking my Veritech out as ordered!" she shouted back without turning around. She opened the cockpit and jumped into the seat, switching the reactors on in the same motion. 

"I don't think this is such a good idea," continued Thallin. "We've just..." The rest of his sentence was lost in the whine of the engines as the Veritech taxied to the giant airlock. The inner doors closed, bringing silence back to the bay. Thallin scratched his head in wonder. "Hope she'll be okay without her combat computer. Still, I wonder what got the wind up her tail." He reflected. 

Thallin turned around and his gaze fell upon Izabelle's still-naked form. "Oh boy." 

Forward to Chapter 8.
Back to Chapter 6. 

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