Previous chapters are at http://templar.anifics.com/

Disclaimer: The characters within belong to Pioneer and Harmony Gold.
No profit was made from this work of fiction

No Need For Protoculture
by Andrew Wilson

Chapter 18: Ever Forward, Ever Onward

"So where do we go from here?"

Fokker's question struck everyone at the conference table.  Admiral 
Gloval sat back at the head of the table with his unlit pipe clenched in 
his teeth.  Captain Hayes and Commander Grant exchange worried looks 
beside him.  Fokker himself and Rolf Emerson sat opposite the Admiral. 
Along the remaining side of the table sat Doctor Lang and Franklin 
Stephenson, the newly elected president of the United Earth Government.

Stephenson cleared his throat. "Well, I think that the recent attacks 
are an indication that the military is still needed at most levels."

"Needed, yes," Lisa countered. "But we're not going to allow Earth to 
become a military dictatorship."

"Of course," Stephenson replied. "At the same time, I have to ask what 
has become of the Pioneer Project, especially given last week's 
destruction of the SDF-2."

Lang shrugged. "We could have another SDF-class ship built in three 
years.  Though now I have to question the wisdom of such a move."

Gloval cleared his throat. "Explain, please, Doctor."

Lang ran his strange eyes over everyone at the table. "The SDF-2 was 
designed and hoped to be a bridge of peace between Earth and the 
Robotech Masters.  Given continued reports of trouble from that area of 
space, and the remaining Zentradi fleets scattered throughout the 
galaxy, I doubt a negotiated peace is possible."

"What are you suggesting, Doctor?" Claudia asked. "Building a giant 
fortress to keep aliens out?"

"I will assume you made the suggestion in jest, Commander," Lang replied 
levelly. "I would not suggest anything so foolish.  Rather, I propose 
dusting off the Ark Project."

"Ark Project?" Stephenson asked. "I don't remember being briefed on that 
one.  Keeping secrets, Admiral?"

Gloval shrugged. "No, Mr. President.  This was simply a project that was 
abandoned in favor of the SDF-2 and rebuilding our industrial 
infrastructure."

"The basic plan," Lisa continued, "is to begin colonizing other worlds 
in nearby star systems.  Our star charts are constantly being updated by 
survey missions we've dispatched over the past two years."

"Colonies?" Stephenson scoffed. "Captain, in case you haven't noticed, 
we're stretched for personnel as it is.  And you're suggesting taking 
the most productive strata of our society and shipping them off to other 
worlds?"

"I understand your hesitation, Mr. President." Lang leaned forward and 
locked gazes with Stephenson. "But bear in mind something.  At the 
moment, the human race is a little under two billion people on a single 
ball of rock.  If we do not expand, we will die.  From alien attack, 
from some stellar disaster, or from us blowing ourselves into oblivion."

Stephenson shrank from the gaze. "What would be needed?"

"With the factory satellite," Claudia explained, "our shipbuilding 
capacity has increased a hundred fold.  We can build one colony ship a 
month once the plans are finalized.  Each ship would have industrial 
supplies, terra forming equipment, and space for a hundred thousand 
people each."

Roy snorted. "Plus a couple squadrons of Veritechs and a Destroid 
regiment for defense."

Stephenson nodded. "You're right.  I'll talk to my cabinet and assembly. 
  I think we should be able to get this passed within a month or two."

"Of course, Mr. President," Gloval rumbled.

"Now then," Stephenson continued. "Next on the agenda.  I understand the 
RDF is planning on transferring its headquarters to the factory 
satellite, given the destruction here in Macross...."

*******

Tenchi Masaki was contemplating the scorched wrecks two kilometers away 
when someone pressed a glass into his hand.

"Hard to see the old girl like that, isn't it?" Rick Hunter observed as 
he sipped from his own glass.

Tenchi nodded, and was pleasantly surprised to find that the drink in 
his hand was a juice cocktail, not hard liquor that some veterans of the 
SDF-1 had been indulging in over the past month. "They can't salvage 
anything?"

Rick shook his head. "Nope.  And given the radiation from that last 
blast, they're not sure that anything worth salvaging will be useful. 
Looks like it'll take about ten years for the site to fully cool down, 
so they're just going to burry the wrecks."

Tenchi nodded. "How'd you find this out?"

Rick sighed and dropped to a chair beside Tenchi's. "Because I'm about 
to get ripped out of the cockpit and stuck behind a desk.  Roy figured 
that I should be in the know."

Tenchi's head snapped around toward Rick. "What?"

Rick smiled bitterly. "Yeah.  They're bumping me to Rear Admiral. 
Lisa's getting a similar promotion, he says.  You, my friend, will be 
'Captain Masaki' before the end of the week."

"Why you?" Tenchi asked. "I mean, I thought Fokker was-"

"Yeah," Rick interrupted. "Roy wants me to replace him as Aerospace 
Commander.  He's thinking of retiring, or more likely relocating."

"To where?" Tenchi asked, mystified.

Rick smiled. "Well, it seems the President was able to get the 
bureaucrats and politicians to agree on something quickly for the first 
time in history.  They're going to be laying the frame for the first 
colony ship in another week or two.  Roy says that he and Claudia are 
going to be on it."

Tenchi nodded.  It made an odd kind of sense for the two of them to 
depart like that. "So who gets Skull?  Max?"

"Got it in one." Rick chugged his drink and set the glass down. 
"Hurricane's staying how it is.  With the departing colonies, the need 
for competent officers is going up.  You're not going to be able to hold 
onto them as long, this time.  I figure two months each, max."

"That's barely enough to get them used to their Veritechs," Tenchi retorted.

"You think I don't know that?" Rick half-shouted, then immediately 
deflated. "Sorry about that.  Look, I'm not setting policy yet, but if 
you've got another idea I'd be glad to hear it."

"Branch out," Tenchi said.  At Rick's quizzical look, he continued. 
"Montoya and Zaria are ready for promotions.  Zaria is ready for her own 
squadron, and Ernie isn't that far behind.  Pair him with at least one 
mustang for a subordinate, and he'll do fine."

Rick nodded. "Two more training squadrons.  Assuming we stagger things 
right, that'll get you six to eight months with each class."

"Which I can do," Tenchi replied. "Just get me a pair of good officers. 
  Preferably people I've worked with before."

Rick nodded again. "Done.  Heck, I might give you Archer."

Tenchi sputtered and wasted the last of his drink in a spray of red 
liquid. "You're letting *him* back into the cockpit?"

Rick gave Tenchi a nasty grin. "Sure.  Just needs a little more 
recuperation before he can get his flight rating back.  If the Var'quon 
hadn't de-folded near Saturn on its way in-system, he probably would 
have died."

"He's crazier than you," Tenchi said.

"No doubt," Rick drawled. "You going to see the opening?"

Tenchi nodded and stood. "That's right, it's today, isn't it?"

"Can't miss it, can we?" Rick said sadly. "Time to say goodbye."

*******

It was a simple memorial, at the edge of the blast crater where the 
SDF-1 and SDF-2 rested.  On the polished stone and metal slab were 
names.  Many thousands of names.  Each name was of one who had died 
during the two year crusade of the SDF-1.  Military and civilian were 
intermixed.  The smaller slab was inscribed with the names of those that 
were actually aboard the SDF-1.  Behind that were several rows of larger 
walls with the names of all the allies, Zentradi and Galactic alike, who 
had given their lives to stop Dolza's grand fleet.

People were milling around the monument by the time Rick and Tenchi 
arrived at the site.  Most of the crowd was clustered around the SDF 
stone.  Family and friends of the dead would occasionally run their 
hands over a particular name, then move away to let others in.  Rick 
looked over at Tenchi and shrugged.

"Ben would understand."

Tenchi nodded. "Lets look at the other section."

Rick nodded.  The spaces set aside for Earth's allies was largely empty 
of crowds.  A few visiting GP officers from the outpost in the outer 
system strolled through the lists of names, as did a number of Zentradi.

"A strange custom, you humans have," came a voice from Tenchi's elbows. 
"Putting so much effort into a task with no practical purpose."

Rick grinned. "Sure, Exedore, and what are you doing here?"

The dwarfish Zentradi shrugged and 'harumph'ed. "I said strange, Captain 
Hunter, I did not say there was anything wrong with it.  So long as 
these names are remembered, their sacrifices will also be remembered."

"And so long as they are remembered," another voice cut in, "they will 
not be in vain."

Rick and Tenchi snapped to attention as a woman in the uniform of a GP 
Admiral stepped up. "Oh relax you two.  No one is on-duty here."

"Yes, Admiral," Tenchi replied.

"Sure," Rick added as both relaxed.  Kiyone strolled past them and 
stopped at the head of the GP lines.

"You'd be happy to hear, Mr. Masaki, that Mihoshi was promoted again two 
Terran months ago.  She's now the patrol commander at the Rim Outpost."

"Really?" Tenchi replied. "That's great."

"Indeed," Kiyone agreed.  There was some history between those two 
officers, yet Tenchi had never been able to get the whole story.  Any 
animosity Kiyone felt toward's Mihoshi had vanished two years before, 
when Mihoshi sacrificed her own ship to save Kiyone's flagship. 
Justicar had lost all shields along one flank, and Mihoshi had 
interposed Yukanojo between the GP ship and a Zentradi dreadnaught's 
fire.  Yukanojo had been destroyed in the barrage, but it had bought 
Justicar enough time to bring its shields back up and pound the 
dreadnaught into scrap.

"Wait, that spaced-out blonde?" Rick asked.

"Yep," Tenchi grinned in reply. "She's calmed down a bit since then."

Kiyone nodded. "Having your ship ripped apart around you and spending 
six hours in a dark wreck praying for a salvage team to find you will do 
that."

"Interesting word choice," Exedore commented. "'Praying'.  Are you a 
religious individual, Admiral?"

Kiyone raised an eyebrow. "Is it so hard to believe?  All sentients 
strive to find meaning in life.  The idea that there is more to 
existence than what can be scientifically proven is hardly a concept 
limited to Earth, or other 'primitive societies', as some in the 
Galactic Union would call it."

Exedore nodded. "I find the different beliefs fascinating.  Just on this 
single planet, you have almost as many different social and moral belief 
structures as you do people."

Rick smiled. "All part of our charm, Exedore."

"Indeed," the Zentradi replied. "I found that main text of one of your 
more prominent belief systems to be fascinating reading.  Highly 
inaccurate, those parts that weren't purely symbolic, but there is a 
passage that has remained with me for quite a while now."

Tenchi turned and saw Admiral Gloval slowly approaching the memorial 
with a wreath of flowers.  Behind him walked several dignitaries of the 
UEG and RDF.  Kiyone had bowed out of the ceremony, saying that the 
walls of names were enough, and that it was a service purely for the 
Terrans.  She was still in attendance, though, to show the commitment 
both sides had to each other.

"What passage is that, Exedore?" Rick asked softly.

"I believe it begins 'to everything there is a season, and a time for 
every purpose under Heaven'," Exedore replied, "and then it lists 
different actions.  I find it a brilliant summary of human history, 
don't you?"

Tenchi nodded. "A time to kill and a time to heal.  A time to destroy 
and a time to build.  A time to fight and a time to embrace."

"Exactly," Exedore said. "It--who is that?"

Tenchi followed Exedore's extended fighter and saw a man forcing himself 
through the crowd towards Gloval.  He looked innocent enough, but there 
was a sense of purpose in his stride that Tenchi couldn't ignore.

And in a flash, Tenchi saw the gun in his hand.

He didn't waste any time with explanation, and instead raced forward. 
The familiar weight of the Master Key was in his hand before he realized 
he had summoned it, and it began to crackle with energy.

"For the Rodina!" the man shouted.  Gloval turned to the noise, and 
froze for just an instant as he saw the gun.  Old but well-trained 
reflexes kicked in and Gloval dodged to the side, but the gunman was 
quicker.  A single shot rang out amid the screaming people in the crowd. 
  Tenchi brought his sword up to strike as Gloval's body fell back 
against the speaker of the UEG assembly.  The sword of Jurai sliced the 
gunman into two pieces, directly down the body's centerline.  Tenchi 
looked up and tried to find the Admiral.

His eyes did not have far to search.  Gloval's body had come to rest at 
the foot of the memorial.  A single bullet had driven into his left eye 
and exploded out the back of his head, taking much of his brain with it. 
  A medic was rushing toward the scene, but skidded to a halt when he 
saw the state of the body.  There was no need to hurry, and Tenchi knew 
that not even Washu's technology at its peek would have been unable to 
save the Admiral.

End Chapter 18

Wheee!  And to think I was going to skip all this and have the next 
chapter just explain what happened passively.  Anyway, we're about to 
time-warp again, with the consequences of this chapter being felt for a 
while.  The next few chapters will probably be the last in the Macross 
arc.  From there, the story will move to Sentinels, then to Southern 
Cross.  The fate of New Generation/Invid Invasion has yet to be 
determined.  Two warnings to those who might yet ask: 1) the third OVA 
Tenchi Arc that is now being released in Japan has no bearing on the 
story (and I don't want any spoilers, either, I'm waiting for the DVD 
release here in the states); 2) changes to the Robotech storyline will 
be progressively more pronounced as the story continues, so don't be 
surprised at what might happen.


             .---Anime/Manga Fanfiction Mailing List----.
             | Administrators - ffml-admins@anifics.com |
             | Unsubscribing - ffml-request@anifics.com |
             |     Put 'unsubscribe' in the subject     |
             `---- http://ffml.anifics.com/faq.txt -----'