Okay, let me reiterate:  This is *not* a story.  It's an SI.  Just so
your expectations are in check.

Okay, here we go.  Notes at the end.

---

Ensign Vanessa Leeds dared to take a sip of coffee.  Her eyes, however,
did not leave the large display in front of her.

The aroma filled her nostrils with the promise of wakefulness.  She took
a sip, slightly mortified.  She'd only been on duty for eleven hours.
It was just that the eleven hours had been particularly intense.

The Enemy had found them.

No one was providing a name for them.  They were simply called "The
Enemy".  Vanessa was fairly certain Captain Gloval knew who they were.
All anyone else knew was that they were a race of giants, very
human-looking but forty or more feet tall.

And they wanted the SDF-1.

She looked at the mostly-empty screen, waiting for the Enemy ships to
reappear.  There were thousands of the Enemy capital ships out there
somewhere.  Tens of thousands.  If this were simply a matter of
destroying the SDF-1 and invading the Earth, the war would have been
over the first day the ships appeared just beyond Earth's moon.  It
seemed clear that the Enemy wanted to capture the SDF-1 with as little
damage to the ship as possible.

Ensign Kim Young's voice rang out from off to Vanessa's right.  "Section
Twelve Leader wishes to speak with you, Lisa."

Commander Lisa Hayes spoke smoothly.  "Thank you, Kim."

Vanessa smiled slightly over her mug.  Captain Henry Gloval cultivated a
very informal and familiar atmosphere, even on the bridge.  He called
his subordinates by their first name, and soon they'd started addressing
each other similarly. Lisa had at first resisted, insisting on protocol
whenever possible.  But eventually she'd given in and taken to calling
people by name on the bridge.  Vanessa, however, could still hear the
unspoken "Ensign" that Lisa *wanted* to say.

The Captain stirred in his chair.  "Kim, have you completed the
relocation analysis for the city?"

"Still working, sir."  Kim sounded unhappy, which Vanessa took to mean
that it wasn't going well.  Kim somehow had to figure out how to raze
half the newly-constructed Macross City without further dispiriting the
fifty thousand residents.  They had been caught in a disastrous fold of
the SDF-1's engines and transported with the ship to just outside
Pluto's orbit.  Fortunately, the shelters they'd been hiding in during
the Enemy attack had been designed to survive a nuclear strike.  The
vacuum of space had not killed them outright.  They'd been taken into
the SDF-1 and allowed to rebuild the city in the cavernous, unused
center of the fortress.  The Captain had decided that had been the best
thing for the residents; they would be months inside the ship as it made
its way at sublight speed back to Earth.  They would need something to
focus on, to keep their morale up.  Macross City gave them a sense of
identity to help combat the frightening situation they'd been cast into.

Now, however, it looked as if the city would need to be destroyed.
Chief Engineer Lang almost seemed to delight in conveying bad news.
First had been the revelation that the fold engines had vanished after
being used the first (and only) time.  Now he had explained that the
power conduits that connected the engines to the main guns had been
damaged, and no replacement parts could be manufactured.  The only way
the guns could be fired would be to reconfigure the ship itself so that
the damaged parts of the conduits could be bypassed.  Unfortunately, the
reconfiguration would end up razing much of Macross City.  And no one
wanted that, especially the Captain, who felt personally responsible for
the fact that civilians had been dragged into the conflict.

Vanessa put the mug down with an audible sigh.  Had it only been a month
ago that she'd been so excited?  The launch of the SDF-1, the
culmination of years of training, the chance to be serving aboard the
most advanced space craft known to the human race.  While she had often
wondered - and been troubled by - the obviously alien nature of the
SDF-1, somehow it had never occurred to her that she would be embroiled
in a war, with the lives of thousands depending on her carrying out her
duty.

"I think we just move them."  Lieutenant Commander Claudia Grant was
never shy about expressing her opinion, even to the point of violently
disagreeing with Captain Gloval.  But she never displayed true acrimony;
indeed, she was about the warmest person Vanessa knew.  And once the
Captain had made his decision, she subsided and performed her duty.
"They have to understand that we're only protecting their lives.  These
kind of sacrifices are going to have to be made."

"Yes, I know."  Vanessa winced slightly at the pain in his voice.
Captain Gloval had already proven to the crew that he was capable of
making tough decisions.  But he agonized over them, putting them off as
long as possible if it helped to delay causing people pain.  He was one
of Earth's best commanders whose only flaw was that he felt too much
personal pain for what the various wars had forced him to do.

A shifting of the blips on the screen drove all musings from Vanessa's
mind.  She gaped at them for a second, just to make sure.  "Captain, a
ship has appeared on our radar and is closing in on our position."

The Captain's manner changed in an instant.  He leapt to his feet,
positively bristling with energy.  "How many?"

"One capital ship and many ostriches, sir."  Ostrich was the name given
by the fighter pilots to the odd, two-legged, single-pilot fighter craft
that were the mainstay of the Enemy fleet.  Intelligence had dubbed them
"Battlepods" but it was "ostrich" that everyone used.

"Battle stations.  Launch all fighters."

"Aye, sir."  Lisa began tapping at her controls and a klaxon sounded.
"All hands, Condition One, General Quarters.  All hands at battle
stations.  All pilots to your craft.  All civilians to your shelters.
Attention all hands.  Condition One, General Quarters."

Vanessa felt Captain Gloval loom over her - he was very tall - and
examine the display.  The Enemy force outnumbered them significantly.
Vanessa could almost feel what he was thinking.  Without the main gun,
this would be a hopeless battle.

Vanessa watched as blips detached themselves from the SDF-1 and hurled
themselves toward the approaching fleet, and knew that Captain Gloval
had run out of time.

---

Richard Lawson heard a voice speaking almost in his ear.  "How's that?"

He tapped cautiously at the controls.  "Yes, that did it."  He shook his
head.  "Have I told you how amazing this thing is?"

"Only about a hundred times."  Lieutenant Commander Geordi LaForge
climbed out from the rear seat of the craft and stepped onto the wing.
He turned to face Richard.  "So that's it."

"Yes."  Richard felt the all-too-familiar sensation of his stomach
beginning to tighten.  "Thanks, Geordi."

"My pleasure, Richard."  Geordi offered his hand.

Richard shook it, feeling the melancholy again.  These were good people;
given more time, he could have become friends with them, Geordi
especially.  But it wasn't home, it wasn't where he belonged.

After a moment, they dropped the handshake.  Geordi leapt to the ground,
then turned and waved to indicate he was all clear.

Richard began the start-up procedure, finding it much easier with the
new control console.  After a moment, he looked out across the hangar
deck.  "Take care, Geordi.  I'm going to miss you."

Geordi smiled slightly.  "Take care, Richard.  I hope you find home."

Richard nodded, his throat too tight for speech.  He touched another
control and the canopy slid into place and locked.  Another control and
Jetfire lifted off the deck and drifted towards the magnetic shield.
Once through it, another touch sent the ship shooting off into space.

Richard did one last orbit of the ship.  It was impressive and elegant.
And full of very friendly people.

He wrenched his thoughts away from that.  Time to go.  He sped away from
the ship, then gripped a black handle to his side.  He pulled up on it,
counted to five...

The explosion managed to get through the inertial dampening devices.
Richard cursed and veered away, to almost run into another ship.  He
wheeled the ship around, found a clear bit of space, and scanned his
controls.  He found the control for the sensor display and pressed it.

It took him almost thirty seconds to figure out from the mass of
information what exactly was going on.  He was in the middle of a huge
battle.  The blips darted back and forth, amazingly agile.

Richard looked up and saw two ships locked in a kind of battle dance.
He drifted forward and gasped as one of the ships... transformed.

It was Jetfire.

There was no mistaking the distinctive shape of the plane-turned-robot.
It held a gun very similar to Jetfire's and blasted at the other ship.
That ship imploded under the force of the slugs, and the robot turned
back into a space-capable plan and moved off in search of other
opponents.

Richard recovered from his shock long enough to notice differences,
mostly in the detailing.  These ships had military-looking trim and
English designations.  He tried to fine-tune the sensors, paused, then
spoke tentatively into the air.  "Computer."

"Working."  A pleasant, neutral female voice.  No emotional inflection.
A response to a command, that was all.

Richard touched a blip on his screen.  "Scan this vessel for life
forms."

After a few seconds the computer responded.  "One human male life sign."

Human!  That was a good sign.  "All right, how about this one?"  He
touched another blip.

The computer took a little longer to respond this time.  "One humanoid
male life sign."

"Humanoid?  Explain."

"Life form is human in shape and has essentially the same physiology."

"What makes that life form different from the first form?"

"There are seven hundred twelve differences available from records of
scans.  Detail?"

"Er, no.  Display both life forms on the screen."

Richard looked back and forth at the two figures.  "They both look human
to me.  Computer, draw them to scale."

"Life forms are already presented at scale."

"Oh come on!"  Richard made a face at the console.  "That would make
this guy fifty feet tall."

"Life form two is forty-three feet, six point seven five inches tall."

Richard blinked.  "Wow.  Humanoid indeed."

He followed the battle for a moment.  His eyes drifted to a large vessel
to one side.  "Computer, scan that vessel for life signs."

"Vessel contains many life signs."

"Human or humanoid?"

"There are fifty-eight thousand three hundred sixty-four human life
signs aboard the vessel.  There are no humanoid life signs aboard the
vessel."

"Fifty... *thousand*?"  Richard peered at it again.  "How big is it?"

"Vessel is one thousand two hundred ten point four seven meters long by
four hundred ninety-six meters wide by three hundred twelve point two
zero meters high."

"Wow."  He hadn't guessed it was *that* big.  Blew the doors off the
Enterprise, anyway.  He shook his head in wonderment, feeling a little
thrill run through him.  He'd left friends behind, probably forever, but
now there was something new and exciting to discover.  If there was any
comfort to be found in his lonely, eternal wandering, it was that he had
seen and experienced more than he'd ever dreamed he would.  And that was
enough to keep him from sliding into despair.

Usually.

Humming in an effort to stave off the melancholy, he tapped at his new
control panel and tried to understand what was happening.

---

Lieutenant Commander Roy Fokker juked left, then slid underneath an
ostrich.  He opened fire, and the depleted uranium shells ripped through
the Enemy ship, annihilating it.  Satisfied, he checked his ammo.
Plenty left, but it had to be used judiciously; there were many more
enemy fighters out there.

He spoke into the open comm line.  "Skull Leader to group.  Shout out if
you need help."

"Skull Leader, this is Four.  I've got three ostriches trying to bury
me.  Could use a hand."

"Roger, Four.  On my way."  Damn.  They needed more pilots.  More *good*
pilots.  Roy swore that no matter what, when he got back he would find
Rick Hunter and force him to enlist.  The boy was too good a pilot, and
they needed him too desperately, for him to be sitting on the sidelines
pontificating about not becoming a killer.

Roy brought Skull One around, frowned, then turned it slightly back.

Hovering about a hundred feet away was something that *looked* like a
Veritech.  Right down to the red and white trim.  But it had no markings
at all, nothing to indicate squadron or vessel.  It was sitting
absolutely still.

As Roy watched, an ostrich came up and opened fire.  The energy blasts
were... absorbed.  By some kind of energy field.  The ostrich continued
to pound away, and the ship continued to blissfully absorb the attack.

"All fighters, this is the bridge.  Clear away from the ship.  SDF-1
will fire main guns shortly.  Fall back to flanking positions Lima Four
and Lima Five."

Lisa's voice shook him out of his gawking.  "Roger, SDF-1.  Boys, you
heard the lady.  Fall back.  Four, I'll cover you."

Roy spun his ship around and shot towards his beleaguered squadmate.
While the strange ship was inexplicable, there were concerns that far
outweighed it at the moment.  Right now, simply surviving had to take
priority.

---

Richard continued to try and get his new scanners to map out the alien
craft shooting at him.  It wasn't going so well, because the computer
was getting confused by something Richard was well used to: different
laws of physics.  Several things about the craft didn't make any sense
at all to the computer, which kept trying to run self-diagnostics.
Richard's attempt to do the scans manually wasn't working so well.

Finally he left the computer in its loop of scan-then-diagnostic in the
hope that it would eventually break out of it.  In the meantime he tried
to figure out what he could with his eyes.  Not a lot.  Ball with legs.
Four guns firing energy bursts at him.  A circular window  that the huge
pilot looked out of.  That was all he could tell.

He glanced down at his tactical display, to see that his shields were
holding steadily.  The alien couldn't bring them down faster than his
engines could regenerate them.  He also saw the blips representing the
many ships in nearby space rearranging themselves quickly, with some
purpose he couldn't fathom.  He looked out his cockpit towards the large
ship, and gasped.

It was transforming.

If he knew anything about mile-long ships, it was that they shouldn't be
able to reconfigure themselves on the fly.  But this one was doing
exactly that.  Two large spars lifted away from the body of the ship,
which swung around several pivot points.  When it was done, it looked
very vaguely like a giant man.  Complete with arms, legs, and visored
head.  The only thing spoiling the effect was two long booms rising out
of its back.

The alien craft attacking him seemed just as put out by the display.  It
stopped firing at him and moved off.  Richard frowned, then once again
tapped at his console and followed it.  There was a lot he still didn't
know, and one way to find out was to see if he could make contact with
someone.  May as well start with the giants.

He continued to follow the craft as he wrestled with the scanners,
seeing if they could find out how it communicated.  Surely radio waves
were still used.  He queried the computer and it came back with the fact
that light appeared to move much more slowly than it should, which
prompted another diagnostic of the sensors.

Richard sighed and started over again.

---

Vanessa could hear Kim gasping, and she could guess why.  The
transformation sequence had, indeed, caused widespread damage throughout
Macross City.  Entire blocks had been crushed as floor and ceilings had
sometimes met, sometimes swapped position.  The civilians would be fine
in their protective shelters, but many would have to stay there until
new homes could be constructed.

Vanessa focused on the advancing capital ships.  They continued to fire
missiles, and the pinpoint barrier system was intercepting most, but not
all, of the attacks.  Vanessa felt a slight shudder as another struck
the SDF-1.

Claudia spoke up from her station.  "Power conduits in place.  Power to
the main gun."

"Good.  Target those ships and prepare to fire."

"Aye sir."  Vanessa echoed the response along with Claudia and Lisa.
All three of them would be necessary to execute the command.

Claudia lowered the booms.  Vanessa, seeing the new outline of the
SDF-1, couldn't help but think of guns being lowered over the shoulders
of some armored figure.  Lisa broadcast a final warning to the fighters
to move out of the way.  Vanessa watched her display and saw that all of
them were complying.  Some of the Enemy ships were pursuing, others were
moving in towards the SDF-1.  That would work to the ship's advantage; a
lot of them would be caught in the blast.

Vanessa frowned, tagged a blip, and pulled it up.  An unidentified
vessel was mixed in with the enemy ships.  Its outline, from a distance,
appeared to be that of a Veritech, but it wasn't broadcasting any IFF
signal.  It could possibly be a damaged fighter with a shorted out comm
system - but why was it moving towards the enemy vessels?  Had it been
captured?  That seemed the most likely explanation.

"Vanessa, coordinates."

Vanessa immediately put the matter out of her mind.  She called up the
display of the enemy capital ships and fed their coordinates to Claudia.
Claudia echoed the coordinates back, then announced that the main guns
were locked and ready.

Captain Gloval nodded.  "Fire."

---

Richard continued his dogged pursuit of the alien craft, which
definitely did not like the fact that he was tagging along.  It wove
back and forth in an attempt to elude him.  Richard continued to fight
with the computer in an effort to get some meaningful responses from the
scans.

He looked down at the tactical and noticed that several more craft were
converging on his position.  Evidently the focus of his attention had
called for help.  Richard pondered his situation, wondering whether to
press or back off.

As it was, the decision was made for him.

---

The SDF-1 lowered its booms, energy crackling between them.  A massive
blast of power erupted from the space fortress, leaping across space
towards the attacking vessels.

The blast caught Jetfire from behind.  The computer, in the midst of
another sensor diagnostic, noted the drastic drop in shield integrity
and immediately implemented emergency procedures.

On the console, it displayed what it was doing.

EMERGENCY:  SHIELD FAILURE IMMINENT.

DIVERTING ENGINES TO SHIELDS.

DIVERTING WEAPONS TO SHIELDS.

Those systems added a lot of power.  Just as quickly it was drained.
The blast washed over Jetfire, a continuous stream of energy two hundred
meters wide.  The Battlepod was vaporized instantly, along with many
other nearby vessels.  The computer struggled valiantly to keep Jetfire
from joining them.

DIVERTING AUXILIARY POWER TO SHIELDS.

DIVERTING EMERGENCY POWER TO SHIELDS.

DIVERTING LIFE SUPPORT TO SHIELDS.

WARNING:  SHIELD FAILURE IMMINENT.

The computer then shut itself off as the last of the energy reserves
were shunted to the shields.

Richard, meantime, had just time enough to flinch.

In the end, the blast was simply too powerful.  The shields flickered,
then failed.

Fortunately, the blast passed over Jetfire at just that instant.

---

Richard saw a yellow-orange light engulf Jetfire.  An overwhelming sound
of energy striking energy filled the cockpit.  He flinched, then Jetfire
shuddered and was sent tumbling.

"Good God."  He looked down at his console, to see that it was
completely dead.  He looked out of the cockpit, to see the stars
tumbling madly.  He saw something explode.  He thought a large shape
might be the huge ship he had noticed earlier coming in and out of view.

He also noticed that he was being pressed very lightly into his seat and
to one side by the force of the spin.  Which meant that several systems
had failed.  He tapped at the console, tried to activate the emergency
reserves, all to no avail.  The ship was completely drained of power.

Richard stared at his hand and tried to manifest his gun.  He couldn't.
Panthro, using knowledge gained from the making of the Sword of
Thunderra, had found a way for Jetfire to directly utilize - and
magnify - the power of his gun.  The fact that he couldn't use it now
meant that it had been completely drained away by the ship's systems.
Likely to protect him from whatever that energy had been.

Richard looked around, considering his options.  Precious few.  With no
power he couldn't even activate the collectors, which would absorb
whatever energy they could from the surrounding area.  Although this far
from the sun, there would have been very little for him to absorb
anyway.

He put his hand on the black handle next to him.  He thought over the
consequences.  In a way, he felt guilty for leaving this universe as
soon as he had arrived.  However, he'd do anyone here little good in his
current condition.  Already he could feel the cold beginning to creep
in.  He idly wondered if he would freeze to death or run out of oxygen
first.

No choice.  Maybe in the next universe he'd appear over a planet with a
breathable atmosphere.  That happened more often than not.  Maybe he'd
even survive the crash landing.  Richard pulled up on the handle.  Five,
four, three, two, one...

And nothing.

Richard swore to himself.  He understood very little of how the black
box worked, but now he knew something more: it needed external energy to
activate.  How much energy he didn't know.

He sucked his lip in between his teeth, then turned around in his seat -
hard to do easily with the force of the spin.  He found the emergency
kit and dug through its contents.  Several small devices of various
sorts, a small amount of food and water - and a radio transmitter.

He looked at it, reconsidering his options.  Obviously he could try to
send a distress call.  What made that uncertain was the computer's
complaints about the laws of physics; there was no way to know if anyone
would be able to receive the signal he was sending.  Then again, the
radio transmitter was from another universe than the computer's; perhaps
it *would* work here.

And there was the problem of not knowing who would answer and what they
would do to him.

Richard sighed and hefted the radio transmitter, thinking.  Finally, he
set it on the console and activated it.

---

"Get all ships on board.  Sammy, set course for Saturn."

"Aye aye, Captain."  This time Lisa and Sammy were the ones
acknowledging Captain Gloval's command.  Vanessa continued looking at
her screen, which was considerably less crowded now.  Sammy's course was
projected on to the screen; the SDF-1, now inside Pluto's orbit, would
head towards Saturn and sling itself around the gas giant towards Earth.

"Sir."  Lisa's voice sounded wary and puzzled.  "I'm getting a distress
call.  It's not on any of the standard frequencies."

Vanessa immediately rotated the view on her console and brought up the
battle area.  All ships had left the area, the Enemy survivors to their
fleet, the Veritech back to the SDF-1.  Only one ship remained, moving
slowly away from the battle fortress towards deep space.  She blew it up
on her screen.  As she'd expected, it was the unidentified vessel.  She
wasn't getting a very good outline of it; from what she could gather, it
appeared to be tumbling along its vector.

Captain Gloval settled into his command chair.  "Let's hear it, Lisa."

Vanessa kept her eyes glued on the image of the ship as a slightly
distorted male voice echoed across the bridge.

"-day, mayday.  My name is Richard Lawson.  My ship is Jetfire.  My ship
has lost all power.  My life support is gone, I think I've only got a
few minutes of oxygen.  To any vessel that can hear me, please help.  I
have no power.  I would be indebted to anyone who could help me.  I am
not... affiliated with either side in this conflict.  I am an
independent vessel in need of assistance."

The voice paused for a moment, then spoke again.  "Repeat.  Mayday,
mayday, anyone who can hear me, please respond.  My name is Richard
Lawson.  My ship is Jetfire.  I have lost all power, and my life support
is failing.  Please respond."

"That's enough."  Gloval looked over at Vanessa.  "Can you track the
source of that distress call?"

Vanessa had been doing exactly that during the transmission.  "Yes, sir.
It's coming from an unidentified ship in the battle area."

"Could it be an Enemy vessel?"

"I can't say one way or the other, sir."  She marked the ship, then
called up the sensor logs.  The computer traced the ship's progress for
her.  She followed it back and forth as the Captain looked on patiently.
"As far as I can tell, it just appeared suddenly in the middle of the
battle.  It has the same outward appearance as one of our fighters, sir.
It also appears as if at least one Enemy unit fired on it."

"Hmm."  Gloval sounded thoughtful.  "A trap?"

"I think it's possible, Captain."  Lisa sounded a little tentative, as
she usually did when she suggested something to the Captain.  "It might
be in our best interest to leave it behind."

"It might.  Claudia?"

Claudia took a moment to respond.  "He's not giving us a lot of detail
to go on.  If this is an enemy trick, it's not a very convincing one."

"They may not know enough about us to be convincing," Lisa responded.
"This may be a first attempt at trying to emulate our behavior."

"Maybe.  And maybe this is someone who got his hands on Robotech
technology and built himself a spacecraft, and somehow wandered near our
battle.  Maybe we have an independent force of Veritechs secreted
somewhere onboard the SDF-1."  Claudia was speaking with increasing
certainty.  "We've got too many questions already about this war and
this Enemy.  The only way we're going to get some answers is to take the
bait and bring this ship on board.  I think it's worth the risk.  We're
in trouble enough as it is."

Vanessa turned around in her chair to look at the Captain.  "Besides,
sir, he might really need our help.  We can't just let him die."

Gloval looked at her briefly, then lowered his cap over his eyes.  This
was his way of thinking deeply, and the bridge crew fell silent and
waited for him to make a decision.

After a few seconds that felt like an hour to Vanessa, he lifted up his
hat again.  "Let's hear that distress call again, Lisa."

"Yes, sir."  Lisa pressed a button.

"Mayday, mayday."  The voice was speaking more slowly, and it made
Vanessa's stomach twist to hear the despair.  "My name is Richard
Lawson.  My ship is Jetfire.  Can anyone hear me?  Please."  The voice
stopped for a moment, then spoke again.  "Please, someone help me."

Captain Gloval slowly stood up.  "Lisa, has Commander Fokker landed
yet?"

"No, sir, he's among the last of the fighters still waiting for the deck
to clear."

"Order him to make contact with that ship.  Have him form up with... one
other fighter and see if we can't rescue that ship."

Vanessa turned back to face her screen, sighing in relief.

---

Richard stared at the radio transmitter.  He shivered in the rapidly
cooling cockpit.  Freezing seemed to be winning over suffocating.  He
raged silently at the perversity of life; if he had to die, he'd rather
it had been by any other means than this.  He hated the cold.

He rallied himself and tried again.  "Mayday, mayday.  My name is
Richard Lawson.  My ship is Jetfire.  Can-"

The transmitter crackled to life.  "Jetfire, this is Skull One
acknowledging your mayday.  I've got you on my radar.  What's your
situation?"

Richard felt a kind of calmness wash over him.  "Skull One, thanks for
responding.  I have no power whatsoever.  I don't have a space suit
either.  I have no way to control my spin."

"Well, I'd say you got yourself a problem there."

Richard smiled; there was something about his man's voice that spoke of
friendly reassurance.  It oozed easy confidence and good humor.  "Yeah,
I do.  Any ideas?"

"I was going to ask you for any.  The only thing I can think of is to
grab your wings and pull you along, but I'm not sure I'd just rip them
off in the process."

Richard brightened.  "Try it.  My ship's fairly sturdy.  If it doesn't
work, we can try something else."

"All right, your call.  Hang on."

Richard peered out the canopy, trying to get any kind of coherent
picture of his surroundings.  He could see a ship or two nearby, but
they sped by so fast in his rapid tumbling that it was difficult to make
out any details.  One of the ships appeared to be getting closer.

"This may sting a little."

Something banged on the left wing, and Jetfire shuddered.  The spin
stopped abruptly, flinging Richard into the canopy.  Cursing, he pulled
himself back in his chair and strapped himself him, berating himself for
not having done that sooner.  He'd gotten so used to the reactionless
drive and the constant gravity that he'd grown lax in applying his
restraints.

Once he'd pulled the straps tightly, he looked out at the wing.  His
eyes shot up his forehead.  It was definitely the same kind of ship he'd
seen earlier, but it was in a configuration he'd never seen before.  It
looked like it had transformed halfway to robot mode and stopped.  It
still looked like a plane, complete with cockpit and wings.  It also had
arms and legs.  The hands were gripping the wing.  Richard wondered if
he could transform Jetfire the same way and decided not to try.

He felt a shudder from the right wing.  He turned and saw another one of
the ships, similarly configured, also grabbing onto the wing.  The
usefulness of the configuration became clear as the two ships moved
forward.  Richard usually had to choose between the nimbleness and
utility of his Jetfire mode and the speed of his normal plane/spacecraft
mode.  These ships had found a way to combine the two.

The ships worked in tandem to swing him about until he was facing the
large ship.  It was quite a ways off and appeared to be accelerating
towards Saturn.

Richard rubbed his arms through the gray shirt he usually wore.  The
cockpit was cold and getting colder.  He looked in the emergency kit and
saw tools for making a fire.  Not useful under present circumstances.
Likewise the tent he could evidently construct.  He shuffled through
more of the devices, finding nothing that would warm him.

He pulled a device out of the kit and looked at it.  He turned it over
and over in his hands, examining it.  Something from his original
universe, something he'd stuck into Jetfire while he'd spent hours
stretching into weeks trying to repair it.  A music box.  The device
held somewhere around eighty thousand songs, with room for expansion.
He'd started by playing songs randomly but had found an affinity for
late twentieth/early twenty-first century music.  Richard smiled,
remembering some of the good-natured ribbing he'd taken from the others
at the archaeological dig.  He wondered if they were still alive.  He
hoped so.

With a sigh he decided a distraction was as good as a blanket at this
point.  He put the music box between his legs and set it to play a
random song of at least five minute's length from his preferred genres.
It thought for half a second, then the sounds of Queen's "Bohemian
Rhapsody" filled the cockpit.  Richard's grinned, then paused the song
and put it into karaoke mode so that he could sing along.  He restarted
the song and sang.

The song was long and changed melodies several times.  It was a
depressing and energetic song, and managed to fit his mood even if the
lyrics had very little to do with his situation.

Halfway through the song he looked down at his hands to see that they
were completely white.  He was shuddering uncontrollably at this point,
and hugged himself as best he could.  The air seemed a little thin, too,
but that was quite secondary to the fact that he couldn't feel his face
and his eyeballs felt like they were going to freeze.  He squeezed his
eyelids shut.

Richard tried to ignore all that and continued to sing through teeth
that chattered.  He was fairly certain he would survive this, and any
damage could be repaired by his medical systems if he could get them
back online.  It was merely uncomfortable.  That's what he kept trying
to tell himself, anyway, as the song drifted towards its conclusion.

The sudden return of gravity made him look up.  He was in a large hangar
bay, one best suited for larger vessels than fighter planes.  Either
this was modified from its original purpose or they had diverted him
here.  Likely the latter, he thought, as he could see about fifty
soldiers with ready weapons waiting for him.

Jetfire was set down on the deck with remarkable skill by the two
pilots.  Without landing gear, the ship tilted to one side, the right
wingtip hitting the ground.  Richard ignored that in a desperate attempt
to activate the manual canopy release with hands that felt like dead
lumps of meat.  He managed to open the access panel and pull the handle;
the canopy hissed and slid forward about a millimeter.  Richard pawed at
the glass and managed to slide it open.  Heat flooded into the cockpit,
and Richard exhaled loudly and hung his head and arms over the side of
the cockpit, allowing the warmth to work its way in.

A noise made him look up.  A portable gangway was being rolled up
towards him by three soldiers.  He waited until they had set it in
place, then climbed on to the platform.  He looked around, noticing that
while no one actually had a weapon pointed at him, most of the soldiers
looked ready to shoot him in a heartbeat.

He slowly walked down the steps, keeping his hands in plain view.  A
woman came out of the crowd of soldiers to meet him at the bottom of the
steps.  She was of average height, perhaps a little taller, with brown
hair barely reaching her collar and a plain face adorned by large
glasses.  She was wearing a military uniform, but Richard could not
recognize any of the insignia.

She stopped about five feet away and nodded at him.  "Greetings.
Welcome to the SDF-1.  My name is Ensign Vanessa Leeds."

Richard grinned.  "Vanessa.  A pleasure to meet you.  My name is Richard
Lawson.  Thanks for rescuing me."  He rubbed his hands, trying to gauge
how responsive they were before offering a handshake.

"Glad we could be of service."  She paused, eyeing him curiously.  "Mr.
Lawson, there are some questions that need to be answered.  Captain
Gloval requests your company in one of our briefing rooms."

"Questions I'm used to.  Lead on.  And please call me Richard."

She looked into his face another moment, then stepped back and indicated
a direction with a wave of her arm.  Richard paused and looked over his
shoulder at Jetfire.  "Would it be too much to ask that no one try and
disassemble my ship while I'm gone?"

"That will be up to the Captain."

Richard wasn't exactly happy about that, but decided there was little he
could do.  They had saved his life, after all.  He looked down at his
hand and clenched it, trying to summon his gun.  He could feel a faint
trickle, nothing more.  The power, by whatever means, was regenerating
itself.  He wouldn't be completely helpless for long.  That gave him a
bit of comfort, even if this huge vessel seemed at first blush to be
full of good people.

Richard looked back up at Vanessa.  "Okay.  Lead on."

Vanessa nodded and walked on.  Richard followed, noticing that four
soldiers fell in step behind him.  Well, he couldn't really blame them.

Vanessa led them to where several jeeps were parked.  She and Richard
took one, accompanied by two of the soldiers, while the other two took
another jeep.

The necessity of the jeeps became clear very quickly.  They sped across
the deck, and Richard only now began to appreciate the sheer size of the
vessel.  At one point the passed out from some kind of metal tunnel -
and out into daylight.

Richard gasped and stood up in the jeep as it continued to move.  The
soldier that wasn't driving immediately pointed his gun at him but
didn't make any objections.  Not that Richard would have heard any.

They were driving by a *city*.

Not a large city, not by any means.  More a small town than anything.
And a lot of it looked like it was in freshly-created ruin.  But it was
definitely urban, and definitely alive - Richard could see many people
picking through the rubble.

He looked up at the "sky".  It looked genuine, complete with blue
expanse, clouds, and a sun.  The only real difference was that the sun
wasn't too bright to look at, and there was no wind to account for the
moving of the clouds.  But it was convincing enough.

A city.  Inside a ship.  Richard grinned widely.  Again, he was
experiencing something new, and liking it.  There was certainly a story
here, and he looked forward to becoming a part of it.

The jeep entered another tunnel, and Richard fell back into his seat.
"Wow."

"Indeed."

He looked over his shoulder at the woman behind him in the back seat.
Her eyes behind the glasses seemed intelligent, and also appeared to be
doing a similar appraisal of him.  For no identifiable reason, he found
himself thinking that maybe she was on his side.  That maybe boarding
this ship was what he was supposed to do.  "Vanessa, may I ask why you
have a city full of civilians in the middle of a war zone?"

She paused a moment before answering.  "You may ask, but I cannot answer
right now.  You will need to ask the Captain."

He nodded.  "Fair enough."  He turned forward again, exhilarating in the
curiosity again.

They reached a corridor the jeeps would not fit in; to Richard's eyes,
they appeared to have been a later add-on to the giant ship, an
afterthought of the original design.  Vanessa led him down the corridor
to a door marked by two more guards; Richard could see that no chances
were being taken.  They searched him quickly and efficiently for
weapons.  Richard suppressed a smile that would reveal too much; they
couldn't search the place he hid his gun.  Of course, since he couldn't
even summon it right now, they'd effectively disarmed him when they'd
fired that massive gun of theirs.

The door opened, and Richard followed Vanessa inside.  She quickly made
her way to a seat around the large conference table.  Richard glanced
quickly around, and soon found his eyes settling on a tall man with a
drooping mustache and large white cap.  Richard nodded.  "Greetings,
Captain Gloval.  Permission to come aboard."

The main looked up at him from underneath bushy eyebrows.  "Permission
granted for now," he said in a thick Russian accent.  "Allow me to
introduce the others of my command staff.  Vanessa you've already met."

Richard didn't allow his mild surprise at the informal greeting to show.
He nodded and smiled at Vanessa.

"Claudia here is my second officer."  A tall woman, late twenties or
early thirties, a lively, expressive face.  "Colonel Maistroff, head of
security."  Another man, of a different uniform, fiftiesh, obviously
high-ranking, glaring at Richard in open suspicion.  "Chief Engineer
Lang."  A man whose most distinctive feature was a complete lack of
pupils, age indeterminate.  "And my first office, Lisa."  A pale,
severe-looking woman watching him impassively.  Very young, early
twenties; Richard wondered at the circumstances that would allow people
as young as Claudia and Lisa to obtain such high ranks so quickly.

"A pleasure, everyone."  He bowed slightly.  "My name is Richard
Lawson."

"What's your affiliation?"  The words came out harshly from the security
chief; Richard mentally labeled him "bad cop".

"I have none," he answered smoothly.  "I've got a bit of a story to
tell, if you're of a mind to listen."

Captain Gloval indicated a chair.  "Please."

Richard smiled as he sat; seldom had someone gone to such great lengths
to make him feel comfortable.  Definitely one of the most paternal
commanders he had ever met.  He brought the familiar speech to mind.
"Okay, first of all, are any of you familiar with the theory of
alternate universes?"

"Yes."  This from Dr. Lang with a German accent.  "Although I prefer the
term 'parallel'.  Other universes that lie next to ours but do not
intersect."

Richard smiled.  "Yes, good.  As it happens, I am from such a universe."
He waited for the backlash.

All he got was a snort from Maistroff.  Dr. Lang leaned forward a little
closer to the table, gazing intently at Richard.  No one else reacted
much.  Either they were already familiar with the concept of universe
traveling, or they'd already had so many unusual things happen to them
that this was just the latest in a series.  Richard found himself
leaning towards the latter explanation.

After a few seconds he continued.  "I took part in an archaeological
excavation on a planet in my home universe.  I uncovered an alien device
that greatly resembled a twentieth-century airplane.  It had technology
that should not work but did.  While restoring the vehicle, our camp
came under attack and I tried to use the ship to defend the other
members of the expedition.  In the course of that attack I activated a
device that sent me from that universe to another.  Unfortunately, I did
not learn how to control the device, and cannot control where it takes
me.  Ever since then, I've been trying to get home."

"By jumping from one universe to another?"  Dr. Lang sounded
incredulous.  "There are an infinite number of universes.  Your odds of
finding your own universe would be astronomical."

Richard shrugged, glad someone had provided the right cue this time.
"Perhaps.  I am encouraged by two things.  One, that every time I jump,
I stop and take a look around.  Sometimes I lend a hand to the people I
meet.  Sometimes they help me with my ship.  I hope to eventually find
someone who *can* control my jumps and send me home."

He paused to let that sink in.  This time Claudia gave him his prompt.
"And the second thing?"

"In the course of my leaping about, I came to the home universe of the
ship I had excavated.  The odds against that had to be astronomical,
too.  So if it took the ship to its home, perhaps the device will take
me home as well."

"Preposterous," Maistroff spluttered.  "Why is your ship an exact match
for our Veritechs?"

Richard tried grinning.  "Got me on that one.  Quite frankly, I was
astonished when I got a glimpse of your ships.  My guess is - well, you
see, when I said I had no control, that's technically not true.  I've
been experimenting with sending data samples to the device in order to
try to go to universes that are at least marginally similar to mine.
Mostly it works, in that I meet humans or humanoids almost every time.
This time, I think I've found a universe where not only are there humans
present, but your ships look like my ship."

Richard looked around the table, then made a quick decision.  "I invite
you to look at my ship; I think you'll find that internally it is
nothing like your Veritechs."

A significant pause this time, of at least thirty seconds.  Finally
Claudia broke the silence.  "And what is it you want from us?"

"Want?  Nothing - I mean, you've already done everything for me by
rescuing me."  He grinned.  "I guess all I want is the chance to pay you
back for all you've done for me.  To let me help in whatever way I can."

"And if we don't want your help?"  The voice, while quiet, was
surprisingly forceful, and Richard guessed that Lisa's rank was well
earned.

He kept the smile on his face as he looked at her.  "Then I leave.  I'll
jump to another universe and try my luck there.  I won't force myself on
you."

Lisa looked at him steadily for another moment, then turned deliberately
towards Captain Gloval.  Richard shifted his focus as well, finding that
Gloval had pulled his hat down his forehead and looked for all the world
like a man about to take a nap.

Maistroff wasn't done with him.  "How'd you end up powerless?"

Dr. Lang cocked his head.  "Do your jumps drain you of all power?"

"No.  Actually, they take no noticeable power."  Although they took
some, as he had just discovered.  "This time I got caught in the blast
of yours."

"What?"  Claudia looked at him in surprise.  "You were almost hit by the
main gun?"

"*Was* hit.  Dead on, as far as I can tell."

"Impossible."  Lisa shook her head.  "You would have been destroyed."

"I think it quite likely you only caught an eddy of the blast, perhaps
an errant stream."  Dr. Lang spoke with confidence.  "A direct hit would
have vaporized you."

Richard frowned.  He was positive he'd been hit squarely.  But he
wouldn't know for certain until he got the computer back on line.  And
if these people were so certain, he didn't want to risk alienating them
by disagreeing.  "Perhaps," he said reluctantly.

More silence; everyone seemed to be waiting for Captain Gloval.  Richard
stirred in his chair.  "Again, let me just express my deepest gratitude.
You saved my life.  I'd like to help.  And if that battle I saw was any
indication, you need all the help you can get; I imagine that those
aliens won't stop until they get their ship back."

Maistroff looked at him sharply.  "If you just came from another
universe, what makes you think that this is *their* ship and not ours?"

Richard blinked.  "Oh.  Uh, well, it seems obvious to me that this ship
was built on a scale to accommodate fifty-foot tall aliens rather than
six-foot-tall humans.  All the human-scale componentry looks like
after-market add-ons to me.  It was just a guess, but a logical one to
me."

Finally Gloval stirred.  "Thank you, Richard.  My staff and I have some
things to discuss.  We will take your kind offer under consideration.
In the meantime, Vanessa will show you to our medical facilities where
our doctors can make sure that you have suffered no ill effects from
your ordeal."

Richard smiled and stood.  "Again, thank you.  I realize that all I've
given you is a very broad outline; I'm perfectly willing to discuss in
detail anything you want to know about me."

"That is good to know.  Vanessa."

Vanessa nodded and also stood.  She escorted Richard out of the
conference room.

He turned to look at her as they walked.  "So how do you think it went?"

She looked straight ahead and didn't meet his gaze.  "It is not my place
to say."

Richard winced.  "That bad?"

This got him a look.  "N-no.  Please don't read anything into that.  I'm
just... adjusting to your story."

"Trying to decide whether I'm lying or not?"  Richard chuckled.  "It's
something I'm quite used to.  Usually, though, I've been able to make
*some* display of my extra-universal devices that lends credence to my
outlandish claims.  This time I had to be rescued from deep space
because I got too cocky.  Got an uphill battle to climb because of it."

She raised an eyebrow.  "Are you so... eager to help us?"

That made him think as they walked.  "Hmm.  I've never thought about
that.  I've been to lots of universes, and almost always I have an
adventure or two.  It's come down to the point where the first thing I
do is look for some situation I can help with.  That leads to other
stuff that usually works well for all concerned."  He grinned.  "Except
the bad guys."

"And what if there are no bad guys?"

"There are always bad guys."  Richard gestured overhead.  "I think I saw
quite a lot of them trying to destroy your vessel."

Vanessa frowned slightly.  "There is that.  If only-"  She cut herself
off.

Richard pounced.  "If only what?"

Vanessa shook her head firmly.  "I'm sorry, Richard.  I'm probably
talking too much as it is.  But I can't reveal any information until
Captain Gloval has given me his express permission."

"Okay, I'll back off."  They were approaching a metal door marked
"sickbay" in large letters.  "Thanks for talking to me at least.  It's
nice to know that there are friendly people here."

Vanessa's face flushed slightly.  "You're welcome.  Let me introduce you
to our head surgeon."

Richard nodded and followed Vanessa into sickbay.

---

AUTHOR'S NOTE:  For those of you familiar with the source material,
you'll see that I've taken some liberties.  Most especially with rank.
Frankly, the ranks as used in Robotech are a mess.  Lisa is sometimes
Commander Hayes and sometimes Lieutenant Hayes.  And Sammy, Kim, and
Vanessa are never addressed by rank.  So I made them ensigns.  I tried
to use a ranking system similar to the one in Star Trek, because it's
the only one I'm familiar with.  :)

I'll be taking other liberties as the series progresses, although events
will unfold essentially the same as in the source material.

So, anyway, there's part one.  More will follow at irregular intervals.

Any comments you want to make I will gladly listen to.  :)  I have fun
talking about RL,UT.  Just please don't make fun of me.  ^_^

-Richard
-Just kidding, make all the fun you want.  I likely deserve it.  :)