[RFC] Being You is Deculture

[Black Aeronaut]

Ho-kay, not a whole helluva lot happening in this one, but it's worthy of its own little chapter all the same.

More to come after this - I'll be spending some of my free time over the next week making sure it's good to go.

---

I rarely set foot in my C-Space for several reasons.  Mainly the fact that it would be a bad thing if I were missed for some reason.  That could lead to questions that would be difficult, at best, to answer.

But there were times that I had to make use of it.  For one, I wanted to make regular visits with Katherine and perform my regular routine, as well as maintain the rest of my garden.  For another, there was the correspondence with home.  So it was that I sat in front of primary console for Heater and tried to organize the swirling thoughts and notions in my head.  And most primarily among them: Minmei.

I didn’t know where to start, but one of Washu’s admonishments came readily to mind: when faced with any complex issue, start by focusing on a relatively easy part of it, and work your way up from there.
With that, I immediately settled on writing Noboyuki first.

---

Noboyuki-san,

You, sir, are a saint.  Thank you so much for those accounting books - especially all the annotations.  I would have been completely lost without those.  However, if you happen to come across an ‘Investments for Dummies’ or the like, I’m not gonna complain if you send it my way.  (Don’t laugh.  That DOS for Dummies book is just the first in a series that will cover just about any and all topics.)

There’s a lot to cover here, so get ready to take some notes.  The wave that is the start of the Digital Age is cresting and is about to hit the world in full force, and I intend to take full advantage of that.

-

First of all, be on the lookout for two men: Jeff Bezos and Nick Hanauer.  Bezos is going to start up a company called Amazon (though it will be called ‘Cadabra’ at first) and it’s going to start out selling just books.  But over the next decade, they will come to sell just about anything under the sun and become an even bigger retailer than Walmart!

Bezos is the main man behind the operation.  Hanauer is one of his first investors - the very first outside Bezos’s family, in fact.  Hanauer will reap great rewards and will become a bonafide plutocrat.  I intend to do the same.

The moment you hear about Amazon (nee Cadabra) I want you to dump pretty much everything of mine that’s available into that company, and then keep an eye on them.  They’re supposed to start out with books.  Bezos figures that books are pretty much a universally demanded product in every culture, and on top of that they do not typically vary in quality, so a customer looking at a book online will be able to buy with the confidence in knowing that what they see is exactly what they’re gonna get.  And now you see his utter brilliance.

He will later move on to multimedia formats - music, movies, tv shows, all of it available in formats that can be played even as they’re still downloading.  (This becomes known as ‘streaming’.)

Once Amazon’s trustworthiness is all but beyond question, they will move on to selling personal electronics, computers, and soon household goods, apparel, toys... pretty much anything and everything - even food.

Get us in on this and it will make us some of the wealthiest men on Earth.

-

Next will be a revolutionary search engine called Google.  It’s an intentional misspelling of the word ‘googol’ - the number one followed by a hundred zeroes.  This is to imply the wealth of knowledge that Google will make available to people, and it is no stretch by any means.

Google is so wildly successful that the rank and file employees become on-paper millionaires.  They wind up having their hands in just about everything on the Internet and eventually develop a suite of online software based in something that will come to be called ‘cloud computing’ (basically, massively distributed data processing and data storage across server complexes all over the world).  They will even have their own line of portable computers with their own operating system.

Names to look out for will be Larry Page and Sergey Brin at Stanford University.  It’s going to start out as a project in 1996, but it will become the very core of their business later on when they incorporate in 1998 as a privately held company.

Jeff Bezos enters the picture here as an angel investor, providing startup capital in exchange for equity.  I want to see if we can do the same - if our foot is already in the door with Amazon, then getting in on Google shouldn’t be a problem.

One important thing is that I would dearly like to have a controlling interest in the company.  Google will tout a ‘Don’t Be Evil’ corporate culture - and they do strive hard on that front.  However, if I am able to have input I may be able to help them head off some of the controversies that they will run across, and hopefully make them into a stronger company in the long run.

-

I would like more investment into Microsoft.  Reason being?  By this time, they’re getting Project Chicago all ironed out and it’s going to be coming out in 1995 as Windows 95.

Windows 95 will be the first OS for Microsoft that boots straight into a graphical interface - and a very user friendly one, at that.  Once a person gets used to how it works, it becomes incredibly intuitive, and the term ‘right click’ will quickly become part of just about everyone’s lexicon.  (Basically, Microsoft figured out a perfect use for the right mouse button.  Clicking the right button on just about anything will pop up a drop-down menu with items within the specific context of what you just clicked.)

Windows 95 is going to be utterly revolutionary for the world of personal computing, and I want us to be able to capitalize on that.

-

APPLE.

HOLY FREAKIN’ HELL.

Okay, I know this one sounds crazy, but believe it or not, Apple is on the cusp of a comeback the likes of which God has never even seen.  Just nobody realizes it yet.

It’s going to start with a completely new and revolutionary line of personal computers called the iMac.  Steve Jobs will want to call it MacMan at first, but he quickly comes around on it.

The iMacs are special not only because they make personal computing user friendly and easy, but also because of the incredibly colorful and friendly look the machines will have.  Trust me, you’ll see.

Riding on this success, they will eventually debut an even more revolutionary device: a personal digital media player about the size of a palm pilot called the iPod.  The iPod will utilize compressed audio and video codecs to store and play media files, and have it all be on a highly portable device with enough battery life to last through a whole day of even heavy usage.

After a few evolutions of the iPod we get to the really spectacular shit: the iPhone - a cellular phone that is, in all essence, a palm pilot, a cell phone, and an iPod - all in one neat and trim package with a high definition touch-screen interface.

No big rush - the iMac won’t even be announced until some time in 1998 - at this point in time Apple begins a closely held culture of being incredibly tight-lipped about new products until the very moment they’re ready to ship out.

But all the same, keep your ear to the ground.

-

Other warnings: You want to be very cagey about real estate in the coming decades.  In 2008 there is a housing market bubble that pops, and it pops HARD.  How hard?  Let’s just say that Fanny Mae and Freddy Mac wind up getting nationalized for a while to cover all the foreclosures.

Yeah.  You may now freak out.

Please, by all means.  Get it out of your system now so you can stay on top of it later.  Just keep in mind that this is gonna put the US into a recession (some would say that it’s actually a depression and that they’re just calling it a recession to keep everyone from panicking and completely crashing the market) and it will last for years to come.

This recession is not going to be helped in the least by the terrorist attacks that take place on September 11th, 2001 - that kicks off the longest running military conflict America has ever been in.  It was still going on when I got yoinked in the year 2017!  Seriously, if there’s something that can be done to head this off, then it needs to be done.  Otherwise life is gonna suck really bad for the next decade or three.

All of this will also play into the beginnings of class warfare in the USA.  Simply put, when I got yoinked the top 0.1% wealthiest Americans held the same wealth in America as the combined lower 90%.  It is so bad that even the top 1% are starting to become alarmed.

Mostly it has to do with the fact that inheritors of vast dynastic wealth have taken to buying out the system in the form of campaign donations.  They will literally make a donation of some exorbitant amount of money and they call in a favor with their bought-man in the legislature.

The biggest thing will be the Citizens United Supreme Court Ruling.  That ruling, based entirely on a technicality, will open the floodgates for corporate sponsorship of politicians’ careers, and we need to do whatever we can to fix the ‘corporate personhood’ laws in the USA before it gets bad.

Which is pretty much what I’m trying to do here.  By aiming at becoming one of the top 0.1% I’ll have legitimate power to make things happen.  Granted, this will be a sword that cuts both ways as taking away the very tools the uberwealthy would use to make themselves even wealthier could keep me from exerting more of my potential financial power.  But I never once thought this would be an easy battle.

Such is life when you fight the good fight.  And believe me, this is definitely the Good Fight, because the alternative, I worry, is going to make the French Revolution look like a teddy bear picnic in the park.

I’ll write later on with more details, but for now let’s focus on acquiring that wealth to begin with.

Sincerely,
Garrick

---

Washu-sensei,

Attached are the technical publications relevant to this letter.  Of course, I’m not holding any pretenses at all that this counts as a dissertation or anything of the sort.  But as you said, you’re grading my ass on this.  Therefore, you’ll find another attachment containing all the technical details and mathematics involved composed by myself.  This letter shall only serve as an abstract.

Overtechnology is based primarily in warping localized areas of space-time to suit a specific purpose.  One most relevant to myself is in the fusion turbine engines of my VF-1A Valkyrie.  So called ‘Dimension Folders’ around the combustion chambers of the engines warp the space-time within so that the pressure and temperature developed by a conventional turbo-jet compressor are sufficient enough that with the correct hydrogen isotopes, a fusion reaction is easily achieved.

Of course, this is all fine for atmospheric flight, but for vacuum flight it’s a different matter.  There’s no atmosphere to feed these hungry engines with a steady supply of atmospheric gas.

Fortunately, the fusion reaction is one that can be operated on a ‘rich mixture’ where the compressor fans are used only in the startup to achieve the initial heat and pressure needed to start the reaction.  Afterwards, the passage between the compressor and the combustion chamber is sealed and the exit is tightly throttled.  Liquefied atmospheric gas is injected into the combustion chamber along with the hydrogen isotope fuel.  This transition can be performed seamlessly - something that was perfected over the course of the development of the VF-0 Phoenix.

The FTL travel application of this technology is a grand expansion of the utilization in the fusion turbine engines.  It is, in fact, eerily similar to the description of ‘space folding’ given in Frank Herbert’s Dune.  The transition is so complete that no motion at all is required.  The ship, and anything else caught in the ‘fold wake’ are simply transitioned from one portion of the space-time continuum to another.

And yes, I am using that phrasing correctly.  With this system it is entirely possible to punch through space-time entirely.  However, those that have done so have never returned to tell the tale, so the general practice is DON’T.

Unfortunately, as you may know, SDF-1 nearly achieved this by folding from too far within Earth’s gravity well and winding up way the hell out in Pluto’s orbit instead of Earth-Lunar Orbit.  We consider ourselves lucky that worst that happened (other than winding up where we did) was that we lost the space-fold engine.

Now, while that bring us to the shielding technology, I unfortunately have only been able to speculate on that thus far.  The shielding system that Dr. Lang cooked up is highly classified and on a need-to-know basis.  I will not be gaining access to that information anytime soon, however as my endeavors to self-educate continue, I will be also continue to work it out for myself with the intention of using that for my dissertation.

In the use as a weapon, space-time warping is used to contain, amplify, and direct a massive emission of X-rays as a phenomenally destructive X-ray laser.  How destructive are we talking here?  Well, guess what, Sensei.  The anime was actually lowballing a little.  While the most lethal area is directly in the beam-path, there is sufficient enough scatter that within one-thousand kilometers there is a three-degree cone-shaped ‘lethal zone’ all around the beam.

I’ve seen it at work, Sensei.  The Zentradi ship looked like an onion getting its layers peeled away.

Granted, this may not seem like much to the likes of you, Sensei.  But you’re used to dealing with shielded targets.  Here, the idea of shields are something new, even to the Zentradi.

That said, however, I would not be surprised if we could fine-tune this weapon system into something that might even scare the crap out of a First Generation Tree.

Pretty sure that it won’t take much with this tech base.  Not to sound like a sales pitch, but overtechnology is the definition of overpowered.
More to come later, Sensei.

Your faithful student,
Garrick Grimm

--

To my Honorable Father and Mothers,

I apologize for not writing as often as I should, but I know you understand how it is.  It’s not easy to assuage my fiances by written word alone, and then there’s Washu-sensei...

At any rate, I understand from Grandmother that I’ve caused quite the uproar.  While I hope that I haven’t made things terribly difficult for you...

...I’m glad.

While I don’t like ruffling feathers, at the same time I do not want to be taken lightly.  The moment I come home I want to set about making a reputation for myself that I am not a man to be trifled with.

If this means that I hand some people their asses on a silver platter, then I will do so with a smile on my face.

I miss all of you already.  I know, I was only on Tenju for a short time, but during that time you made it clear, and in no uncertain terms, that I am family, full stop.

I don’t know if any of you can possible imagine what it was like for me before - cut off from everything I had known and feeling so alone until the first time Sasami-chan put her arms around me and called me her brother.

I nearly died of heartbreak on the spot and I did not want to let her go - not until I knew for sure I wasn’t dreaming.  Not until I knew for sure that I had not, in truth, run my truck into a ditch and was hallucinating everything as my life faded away.

Sasami-chan may have started this whole thing, but you decided in fairly short order that I was worthwhile and brought me into your family.
You will forever have have my love and gratitude.

Your diligent son,
Garrick

---

Brother,

I’m glad to hear that things are getting better.  I just wish that things hadn’t gone this way.  God is definitely getting a piece of my mind once this is all done and over with.

I gotta tell you, man, once I get back home, NEVER AGAIN.  Any and all omnipotent beings or people that would like to think they’re omnipotent had better not mess with me or let it get back to me that they’re screwing around with shit in my general vicinity because I swear in Tsunami’s name I’m gonna find a way to force them down into a corporal form just so I can kick ‘em in the genitals so hard that all of existence will wince in sympathy.

You can take a turn at it, too, if you like.

At any rate, just do your best, brother.  I’m working hard on my end as well - I’ve been keeping up with my swordplay.  To put the play on words, I’m not just keeping myself from getting rusty, I’m honing my edge.

You better not fall behind or else I might wind up kicking your ass in front of Yosho-sensei when I get back home.

Your brother,
Garrick

---

My Dearest Aeka,

I miss everyone in a special way.  Minagi as a lover and trusted confidant.  Yuki as someone who lifts my spirits and fills me with pride and joy.  Yume who tasks me and challenges me to be better.  And even Achika for being my playmate and co-conspirator.

And you, my dearly beloved sister.

I know you hide it, but deep down inside you’re nearly as much of a tomboy as Achika and every bit as passionate as your mother.

No, I’m not saying that to tease you, sister.  I know you take great pains to be the refined princess that you are, and I love you too much to speak lightly of you that way.

I miss my beautiful, passionate, yet refined sister.  The one who laughs when I whisper what I really think about certain people in her ear.  The one that will return a tight hug when no one is looking.  The one that makes me laugh when she snipes at her best friend.

I wholeheartedly agree, sister.  Once my ladies have had their fill, I am going to hold you for a long time, and I cannot guarantee that I won’t be crying.

I’ll try to remember to bring something for that.

Love,
Garrick

---

My Beloved Sasami-chan,

I can never express how grateful I am to you - both you and Tsunami.

Sasami gave me a new family.

Tsunami gave me Katherine.

They both give me their love.

When I get home, I have every intention of giving you even more nieces and nephews than the ones that are on the way now.  And I know that they’re all going to absolutely adore their Aunt Sasami, if only because they see how much their poppa loves his little sister.

Don’t grow up on me too quickly.  I want to watch as you become the magnificent and loving woman I know you’re going to be.  In return, I’ll try to get home as quickly as I can.  Even if I have to break the laws of physics do do it.

Love,
Garrick

---

Hey buddy.

I’m gonna be looking forward to those sparring sessions.  Don’t worry, I’ll make sure that I’m strong enough to square off with you.

Washu-chan is working the issue.  With any luck, we might have a work around - a sort of ‘Bring the mountain to Mohamed’ kind of thing.  But let’s not count our chickens until they’ve hatched.

Keep working on keeping everyone’s spirits up.  Do that for me and in return, once everyone’s gotten their special time with me, you and me will go get utterly plastered and paint the town red.

Your partner in crime,
Garrick

---

My Ladies,

I’m writing you all as a group because I’ve hit upon a major problem.

Namely, one named Lynn Minmei.

I don’t know if any of you have watched Super Dimension Fortress Macross just yet.  However, you won’t really need to, because this young lady isn’t quite how she was portrayed.  Or rather, seen through the lens of that particular anime, it does Minmei very little justice.
While in SDF Macross she comes across as a typical teenage air head that grew somewhat arrogant with her sudden rise as a pop idol, the real girl is quite different in-person.

For one thing, she is dreadfully smart.

I don’t mean ‘highly educated’ as more like ‘a very quick mind’.  One that has been steeped in music, pop culture... and her father’s native culture of China.

This is where things get awkward.

Minmei wants to marry me, and she sees no issue with my age.

Alright, I know some of you are wondering how the hell it happened.

It started out when I arrived in this world.  I showed up right at Episode 4 where Hikaru and Minmei got stranded inside the bowels of the SDF-1.  Instead of Minmei acting like she was going to wind up spending her remaining days lost in the SDF-1 with Hikaru and giving him the idea that she had a thing for him (which she kinda did, it was just lost in the background noise of everything else going on), I made it clear that we were getting out of there in no uncertain terms.

And apparently I just punched all of the right buttons for Minmei - good looking, foreigner (in her eyes, at least), assertive but kind about it, smart, and able to keep his head in a bad situation.

The fact that I decided to join up with the UN Spacy as a Valkyrie fighter pilot simply sealed the deal.  I’m pretty sure she’s been working on the lyrics for My Boyfriend is a Pilot.

I’ve been doing what I can to fend her off, but she’s been every bit as determined as Yuki was.

Minmei may be a bit naive, but as I said before she is dreadfully smart.  She is very quick to catch on to things and she’s been learning how to punch MY BUTTONS at an alarming pace.  (Yuki, I know you learned pretty quickly yourself, but you had Sasami’s help in that.  Minmei is managing this without any outside assistance!)

And really, it’s no wonder to me.  This is the same girl that manages to take the entire world by storm and become so popular that she inspires generations of singers to come in this world.

That takes more than just a pretty face and a good set of pipes.  Minmei isn’t simply a singer, she is a musician.  I would not be surprised if it turned out she had classical training as well as training in music theory.  Add in a natural talent for singing and a mind that can pen song lyrics on the go...

To put this into perspective, Achika should know about The Beatles and how they were so wildly popular that they even gained fame in the USSR despite the Communist state’s attempts to quash it.  Where the Beatles were popular enough to overcome the Communist propaganda machine though, Minmei dominated the scene not only throughout Earth, but everywhere else Earth-culture went.

This level of popularity won’t be seen again until the likes of Neki Basara and his band, Fire Bomber, more than 25 years later!  (You’ll see this soon when Macross 7 comes out in Japan if it’s not out already.)

Her biggest feat, however, would be the cultural conversion of the Zentradi warriors.  While it was not simply her music alone - the rest of Earth culture had a lot to do with it as well - her music spearheaded the revolution that became known as ‘Deculture’.

(I know, it’s weird sounding.  But it originated from the Zentradi word ‘dekulcha’ which was an exclamation of disgust or dismay.  Of course, Earth culture being what it is, it got turned around pretty damn quickly.  It will continue to persist as a word pertinent to good food, good music, and good times.)

At any rate...

I have not yet revealed anything to her.  As far as she knows now, I’m just another normal human like her.  Albeit a rather gifted one.  (I had to start making up all kinds of excuses when she caught me doing my sword katas - Jyuraian fencing is different enough from traditional Japanese forms that even she saw the difference.  I had to tell her it was my own devising.  I’ll apologize to Yosho-sensei in seperate letter.)

I’m not certain how she will take it.  With all the weird crap going on around here, what’s a slider to her?  But then there’s the fact that if she REALLY wants to go through with this, then there may be no way to be sure we can bring her back when she gets homesick.  And I know Japanese girls - while they enjoy their jaunts on the outside, they will always want to come home to roost.  (Yes, Minmei is ethnically Chinese, but she was raised in Yokohama, so even though there’s a lot of Chinese culture in her upbringing, she’s effectively Japanese.)

I’m not going to ask for your thoughts just yet, but you’re welcome to voice them.  I am simply doing my part in keeping all of you informed.  Like I said, she doesn’t know my secret yet and once she does she might decide to settle for someone else.

But if she doesn’t...

...I have to admit.  She’s good.  I mean, REALLY good.  She’s been working on me every chance she gets, and by Tsunami’s sweet and tender fruits IT’S WORKING.  I can even see it in her eyes - she wants me with every fiber of her being.  And while I won’t discount the idea that it might just be her hormones getting to her (she IS fifteen after all) she’s actually been pretty careful about that.  The physical contact she makes with me is actually pretty chaste despite her acting so familiar with me.

Although she does get pretty damn coy sometimes.

Sweet Tsunami, save me.

Love always,
Garrick

---

Dear Grandmother Seto,

I have already told my fiances about this in a separate letter, but I feel it’s best to inform you as directly as possible: It seems that yet another bird wants to make her nest in my tree.

While I understand that this is cause for great happiness for you, know that I have not yet revealed my nature as a slider to her just yet.  She knows nothing about Jyurai or the Royal Trees, or even my fiances.

As for the girl herself, her name is Lynn Minmei.  She is a Chinese-Japanese girl of fifteen years (sixteen here in a few months).  And yes, she has a very nice figure with good child-bearing hips.  (Yes Grandmother, I have your number.)  But most importantly, she is soon to become an insanely popular pop idol in this world.

If she decides that she still wants to marry me once I reveal everything (especially the fact that she is not going to have me all to herself) then I think she would make a good addition to my family.  She would make an excellent cultural ambassador, spreading the infectious disease that is Earth’s pop music.

I’m not even going to question whether or not I’ll love her enough.  She is a sweet, lovable, and endearing personality with just enough fire in her belly to stand up to both Mother Funaho and Mother Misaki and maintain her composure without even batting an eyelash.  (No.  Really.  Watch the anime she’s in.  She fearlessly faces off with a Zentradi commander in Episode 32 - not that she doesn’t get stymied, but still...)  And she’s been working me over with her charm as well asa good deal of genuine affection.  I hate to admit it, but it’s working.

I know you might be pleased about this, but I really hope that I don’t wind up breaking her heart later on here with the truth.

Anyhow, I’ll keep you in the loop, Grandmother, as long as you promise not to get too carried away with things.

From your Grandson with Love,
Garrick

---

Yosho-sensei,

I must humbly apologize, Sensei.  I was caught practicing my sword kata in the open and the style was recognized to be very unorthodox.  Due to this and the need to keep my true nature secret, I had to falsely claim that I was the originator of the style.

I am sincerely sorry, Sensei.  When I return home, I shall submit myself for disciplinary measures at your convenience.

Sincerely,
Garrick

---

Dear Mihoshi,

Thank you for your letter.  I know a lot of people may not appreciate how detailed your letters are, but I am grateful for it.  I almost feel like I am there watching everyone.  It makes me glad, even if the situations you’re going through aren’t the happiest.

In return, I’ve had Katherine generate an equally detailed report about everything that’s been going on since I last wrote you.

Give everyone a big hug for me.  Yes, even Noboyuki and Yosho.

Love,
Onni-san

##

Things were mostly quiet after Saturn.  With our offensive and defensive capabilities clearly outlined, the Zentradi were more than happy to observe us from afar, it seemed.

During this time, we trained, drilled, and patrolled frequently.  Of course, there were other things as well.

Roy spent as much time as he could get away with at the Nyan-Nyan, keeping an eye on the situation between myself and Minmei.  But apparently that wasn’t enough for him.

You see, Roy Fokker is a sadistic bastard.  Which is why he walked in one night in civilian attire with Claudia LaSalle on his arm while I was having an early board with Minmei (made just for me by her, of course).

“Grimm!  There you are!” said Roy jovially, nearly making me choke on my melon soda.

“Sir!” I gasped while Minmei giggled.

“I don’t believe you’ve met my fiance,” said Roy casually.  “Grimm, this is Lieutenant Junior Grade Claudia LaSalle.  Claudia, this is Perspective Petty-Officer Third-Class Garrick ‘Cradle Robber’ Grimm.”

“Ah, the ever newsworthy Cradle Robber - the only man I’ve ever seen that Misa doesn’t quite know how to handle.  And I believe that this young lady is what makes you such a hot topic during our coffee breaks.”

“That’s me alright!” chirped Minmei.  “I’m Lynn Minmei.  It’s a pleasure to meet you, Mizz LaSalle.”

“Mr. Fokker,” came the voice of Minmei’s uncle.  “Staying for dinner again?”

“Yes.  We’ll be sitting with my subordinate if he’s fine with that.”

I thumped my chest to get the last of the coughing under control and said, “Not a problem, sir.”

“So what’ll it be tonight, Mr. Fokker?” asked Minmei’s Uncle.

“General Tso’s Chicken for me.”

“And I’d like to try that Walnut Chicken.”

One of the nice things about being on the Macross was that were were not hurting for food.  When the ship lifted off, the deep freezers and dry storage were packed with enough food to feed the entire city for six months.  Of course, with us coming up on the four month mark this meant that there was talk of stricter rationing in the future.

“Hah!  One of Gar-kun’s ideas, that!  I’ll get right on it.”

Roy gave me a curious look.  “One of your ideas?”

“I know!” piped up Minmei.  “He kinda surprised us with that one.”

“Hey, it’s not like I came up with the recipe or anything like that,” I said in an effort to defend my modesty.  “It was just a favorite of mine from a restaurant back home.  I just told them about it and they did the rest.”

“But you helped us fine-tune the recipe,” said Minmei, folding her arms and giving me this look like I had better accept recognition for my deed or suffer the consequences.

“Well, that doesn’t make me a master chef or anything!  I just have a layman’s knowledge of seasonings.  I mostly guessed!”

“After smelling and tasting all the spices in our pantry,” countered Minmei.  “I guess you’re gonna have to live with the recognition of being a savant in the kitchen.”

Claudia chuckled at that.  “My, you’re so lucky, Minmei, finding yourself a guy as capable as the Perspective Petty-Officer.”

“I hope he’s respecting your virtue,” said Roy with a wicked grin.

Claudia glared at Roy and elbowed him sharply, which he took with his trademark devil-may-care smile.

“I have no idea what makes everyone here think I’m a loose woman,” said Minmei with mock piety.  “Until there is a wedding band on my finger he is going to have to wait.”

“Maybe something to do with the way you flirt with me out in public?” I grouched.

That got a laugh from both Roy and Claudia because it was no secret that Minmei would practically drape herself over me when given the chance.

“Really though,” said Minmei, “all joking aside, I don’t want to get Gar-kun into any trouble, so I’m gonna be a good girl and be patient.  (But it’s just so much fun to tease him though!)”

“Oh, I’ve noticed,” said Roy with a grin.

“God help me they’re all conspiring against me,” I muttered, which got a laugh from everyone that time.

##

Life in Macross City was a strange thing to be a part of, really.  And make no mistake, I was a part of things here.  Minmei was not FAMOUS-famous yet.  But with her glowing, upbeat, tour de force personality and the Nyan-Nyan quickly gaining a reputation as one of the best restaurants in town, Minmei was quickly becoming a known face in Macross City.

And she made damn sure people knew I was her boyfriend.

Her Aunt and Uncle took the situation better than I thought they would.  I was quietly pulled aside, not in a rude way, and told that even if this was just a phase for Minmei, they didn’t mind one bit - the ones I’d have to worry about, really, were her parents in Yokohama.

Yikes.

After that, though, Roy was officially in on the act of making my life off-duty into a living hell.  He did so mainly by forwarding Minmei our duty rotation schedules so she knew exactly which days I’d be free.  At the very least, though, he did keep an eye on things by visiting the Nyan-Nyan at least twice a week.

That was, in a ways, a relief.  However, he would also take the opportunity to razz me mercilessly for it.  Still, I could take some comfort in the fact that he was still taking the situation seriously enough to keep on eye on it.

Otherwise, life went on at an almost idyllic pace.  However, once we made it past the Asteroid Belt things got hairy once again.

##

All around my craft, the plane crew scrambled to secure the Valkyrie for post-flight checks - silent in the depressurized flight deck save the the noises that traveled through my Valkyrie’s airframe.  But in the cockpit there was a brief moment of tranquility.  I just sat there for a second more, relishing the relative calm inside the little bubble of space.  But I couldn’t stay like that forever, so I sighed as I opened the cockpit at last.

It was another close one for us.  Once again, while the Zentradi battle pods were not that great, they would always beat us down mercilessly with sheer numbers.  And because no target worthy of the Main Gun never appeared, there was nothing to help clear the field except for the point defenses of the SDF-1.

"What’s up?  You boys look tired," said Roy as we trudged towards the airlock leading to the pilots lockers.  I gave Roy a sidelong look through the face bowl of my helmet.

"You saw how it was out there, Mother."

Hikaru looked at me in surprise at my remark, but didn't say anything.

Roy was taken aback, too, but not for long.  "Let's not dwell on that fact, shall we?"

No Roy.  Let's not dwell on it.  Let's not dwell on the fact that I know about these events in advance.  Let's not dwell on the fact that there's not a God damned thing I can do to save my fellow pilots except to kill as many Zentradi as possible...

He does have a point, chimed in Katherine suddenly.  Gar-kun, there’s not much we can do about it.  You need to take your mind off it before it drives you cray-cray.

And right on cue, Roy went on, "What you guys need is to take a bit of time off.  Go into town and relax."

"I guess so," said Hikaru noncommittally.

Inwardly I winced.  That was the last thing I wanted to do because there was a certain girl I knew that would seek me out like an anti-radiation missile on a SAM site.

##

"News from the bridge: we have been attacked by 120 enemy pods, but our first, fourth, and seventh fighter squadrons have succeeded in completely destroying them.  Our casualties are light and our navigational system has not been affected.  That is all."

It was a bunch of bullshit, but I knew it was well intentioned.  The reality would have taken a much harder toll on the civilians.  In all honestly, I'm not sure how badly they would have taken it, but odds are that it wouldn't have been pretty at all.

Though at least the bit about navigation being unaffected was the complete and unvarnished truth.  However, what nobody mentioned in public was how the Captain had the bridge bunnies all brushing up on their celestial navigation and dead reckoning skills.

Just in case.

"Hello!" said a familiar voice.  I turned and just as I had predicted, Minmei had tracked me down.  What's worse was that she was still wearing her high school uniform.  Warily I cast my eyes around to see if anyone was taking any notice.

No one was... just yet, anyhow.

"Minmei... did you have to come and find me right now?  What about your school?"

"School was closed down because of the attack.  So, Garrick, how're you doing?"  This girl was going to be the death of me.  Death by lynching, that is.  I wondered briefly what Breetai would think of my reasons for defecting to his side.

"So-so," I said.

"Well you don't even seem so-so to me.  What's got you down in the dumps?  I would have thought you'd be happy about that battle."

I scoffed at that.  "Walk with me, Minmei."

"Okay, sure!"  And right away she latched onto my arm.  I sighed and bore it as we went to the engineered bluff where we first had it out.  I knew that no one really hung around there.

"That announcement was a lie," I said as I settled down some protruding bit of metal - probably some kind of modular port.

"What do you mean?" asked Minmei in surprise.

"120 pods is about all we destroyed alright.  The enemy force was more like twelve-hundred pods.  And believe me, with numbers like that we took some serious casualties.  Even in my squadron we're down by two men."

Minmei frightened me in some ways.  Contrary to her portrayal, she was not at all naive.  Far from it, in fact.  You don’t get to being a star like her on just good looks and a nice set of pipes.  You had to have a mind that had a keen insight to be able to write the lyrics in her music.  The girl knew how to read between the lines and knew exactly what was going on all around her.  And the scariest thing of all was that she was learning how to read me like a book.  She was learning how I react to everything.

For example, with any other person, Minmei might have brushed this aside with something about nothing being accomplished by being depressed and trying to cheer me up with some diversion.  She's tried that before and it only made me cringe.

Instead, she does this.

She gently takes one of my hands, and says, "I know you’re sad, Garrick.  You’ve lost friends.  People you care about.  But you're still here and that matters.  It matters because as long as you are here, you can change things.  I know it.  I can feel it in you."  She then looks out over the city, and begins to sing, filling the air with her gorgeous voice.  Much to my surprise, it’s Peter Gabriel’s Don’t Give Up.

Direct hit to the heartstrings!  Mayday!  Mayday!

Sweet Tsunami’s fruits, this was such torture!  She was working so hard on me and it was WORKING.  I don't want to fall in love with this little girl, but she was fighting me tooth and nail on the matter, and I was losing the fight.

This is why I had taken to avoiding town the last few days.  I was hurting inside, and Minmei would have - has! - noticed it.  And having noticed I'm hurting, she would do whatever she could to comfort me, which she knew took a gentle, loving touch as well as a reminder of what I must do.  Which was coming up right about...

She finished singing and turned to me with a smile.  "I need you to fight for all of us, Garrick.  Please, do your best."

...Now.

I sighed.  "Alright, alright," giving in for just the moment.  I can’t stay like this forever, and Minmei was, despite everything else, good medicine for me.  "C'mere you little pest and give me a hug."

Minmei giggled gave me a hug fit for a bear.  "Feeling better now?" she asked.

I nodded.  I have to admit I honestly felt better then.  "I take it you have other distractions in mind?"

"Well, there was another dress I saw in the store and-"

"Save it!" I cut her off.  "I'm not going to that store with you alone again.  That is just plain uncomfortable for me.  Besides, I know that whatever it is, you have good taste enough that I'm sure it's going to look spectacular on you."

She sniffed at that.  "Well you're no fun.  I just wish you'd stop fighting me on this."  I may have stopped arguing the point but that doesn't mean I've given up entirely.

"Not until you're old enough."

"How about next week?" she asked coyly as she passed me a card.  Looking down, I saw that it was an invitation for a party to be held on the Tenth of October.

Wait, what? ...Oh no.

~Gar-kun’s in trooouuuu-bllleee!~ sing-songed Katherine gleefully in my head.

Hush you!

Her giggles were the only comeback and I had to resist rolling my eyes.

"Your birthday?" I asked.

"Yup.  I'm turning sixteen," she stated proudly, striking a pose that, fortunately for my sensibilities, was cutesy and not really suggestive.

Sixteen.  The legal age of consent.  Still not an adult, but as far as she was concerned it was another step towards her ultimate goal.  Now, she knew that even if she was of the age of consent, she was still not an adult and between her and I that could lead to trouble.  Except if we were married.  And you can bet as soon as the day after her birthday she was gonna broach the subject with her aunt and uncle.  And if they didn't like it (which was not likely because not only were they still renting me that room, but have also taken to calling me Gar-kun), then chances were pretty good she'd just bide her time and come after me with full burners once she was a legal adult...

...But she will definitely be pressing harder after her birthday.

Grand.

"So, are you coming to the party?" asked Minmei, turning up the coy-factor a notch.  "I've invited all of Skull Squadron."

"Hate to say it, small stuff, but we're all gonna be busy for your birthday."

Hands on hips, Minmei glared at me.  "Doing what?"

"We're on the hook for rapid response."

Minmei immediately deflated.  "Oh.  Well, at least you and I can do something when you're free again."

"As long as it is appropriate for you and I to be doing together."

"Hey, don't make me sound like some sort of loose woman, mister," she said with mock haughtiness.  "I told you before: until you put a wedding band on my finger you are out of luck!"

"Thank God."

Minmei slugged me in the shoulder.  I may have had it coming, but I'll be damned if I'm not gonna give as good as I get.