Hey guys. Been awhile, I know.
So, good news-bad news.
Obviously, some good news - this thread as well as new material. And I know for a fact that some of you have been awaiting this one eagerly.
Bad news - this is actually all old material. It's from the original Brothers Grimm project my brothers and I were working on, but got left by the wayside because of the whole thing with life happening. :p
However, I think that some filling, sanding, finishing, and polishing... it's worthwhile material to reuse.
Now, I know what some people are thinking. "What about Being You is Convalescence?"
Well, for whatever reason I haven't really been feeling that one lately. That and I think that I REALLY need to take a step back and plot that one out more carefully. I will get to it, but it's just been such a drag lately and I honestly feel a lot more up to writing Macross.
Some other things to keep in mind:
1) When I wrote the original material, I did so using the old Harmony Gold Robotech dubs as a reference because I didn't have access to the original Japanese version, Super Dimensional Fortress Macross. Expect to see snippets of dialogue and verbal ticks taken from that context.
2) This is still very much a work in progress, and I'm going to be filling out scenes that I bumrushed through before. However, any thoughts or ideas about how to fill things out will be very much welcome.
3) I have done some initial work - mainly changing the names of characters to reflect their identities from the original version of the source material. Granted, I know that the reconstruction of ASS-1 was a multinational effort, but with the island being so close to Japan, I feel that a strong Asian presence in general was unavoidable. So, as far as I'm concerned, it fits.
4) Please let me know if I got something wrong. The annoying thing about writing fiction is that, unlike real life, it has to make sense. :p
Have you ever landed flat on your ass? It's not like landing on the part where you have all the fat and muscle to pad your fall. Instead, you land right on the bottom side of your of your pelvic bone and you feel your guts slamming against the tissues that hold them in place. Not a pleasant sensation, let me tell you.
I didn't get much time to pity myself, though, because somewhere some idiot had opened a door into a hard vacuum.
"HOLY SHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIT!" I screamed as a grabbed ahold of a pipe. Fortunately, it was firmly attached and I was able to lever myself against the current and hook an arm over it.
Fight-or-flight had already set in, and by God, I had no choice but to fight. I knew that vacuums of any kind were dangerous things. God only knew what I would find if I let myself get carried away, but chances were pretty good that it would be fatal in the extremely short term. I only hoped that this place didn't run out of air or else I'd really be in trouble.
There was a sudden crashing sound, accompanied by whirring motors from some distance...
And like a light gone out the air stopped moving... and I fell onto my ass once more, this time wrenching my arm painfully as I did so.
"...uuuuuuuuugggghh," I managed to vocalize after a few minutes.
Gar-kun! Are you okay!? came Katherine’s voice in my head.
Yeah, just peachy, I replied. Just... gimme a moment here.
I just laid there for a while, blood hammering through my arteries as though being forced through by a huge whizz-bang pump. I could already feel the headache coming on from all that blood pressure and began to hope that maybe somewhere I might find a first aid kit with some aspirin or something.
After a long moment, I finally got back to Katherine.
Okay. Feeling a bit better now. What do you have for me so far?
Well, we’re not home. Sorry gar-kun.
It’s okay. I wasn’t expecting that so soon. Any idea where we’re at?
I can’t tell. The sea of space-time here is all... wonky. It’s like someone just did a cannonball through the fabric of space.
There was a noise in the distance. Something clattering, followed by voices.
With some pain I began to push myself up. Pain is good, I remind myself. Pain reminds you that you're alive. Also, you need to make sure you keep on moving because more often than not it helps keep you from getting stiff.
Wincing and limping, I made my way down the corridor while I kept Katherine in the back of my mind.
What do you think, Sprout?
Two people. Not sure what’s up, but I don’t think it’s dangerous.
I came to the source of the noise. It was some kind of aircraft, suspended upside-down in the over head with some assembly of hooks and chains. Apparently this was some kind of workshop space. The canopy had been opened and in the cockpit were two people. A girl dangling from the arms of the guy still strapped into the seat. Suddenly the two fell into a heap together, then looked at each other and cracked up laughing.
"Hey, you guys okay?" I called out as I began to make my way over to them.
"Hey, who's that?" said the girl in Japanese as she pointed at me. I got my first good look at her then. She was definitely Asian, and most likely Chinese. Here voluminous hair was a bit of a mess, but I could tell that it was supposed to be in an oriental style that was supposed to accentuate her cute-factor. She was also pretty small - most likely because she was only sixteen or seventeen years old.
Small performance plane in the ceiling.
Cute girl in the cockpit with the pilot.
Strange industrial setting where I almost got sucked into God knows what.
Most likely the vacuum of outer space.
Oh boy... Katherine! I think we're in Super Dimensional Fortress Macross!
Alright, accessing your anime archive... Whoooo! This is some fun stuff, Gar-kun! So whatcha gonna do? Huh? Huh~?
Well... I guess I’m gonna start by seeing how well the magic of friendship works here.
Are you gonna keep me a secret?
Just for now, Sprout. These guys might have a bad reaction. You already went through all those episodes, right? You noticed how vile the politicians got before they all got wiped out?
Okay, I see your point. We’ll play it low key then.
All that conversation had gone on in just barely more than a second, so I was able to go on without really missing a beat.
"Just some poor sorry civilian," I said, switching into Japanese with ease as I reached down to help them up. Regular use as a private language between myself, the Royals, and the Main Six had kept it from going rusty. "How about you? Are one or both of you guys actually with those guys in the crazy fighter planes?"
"Ah, kinda," grunted the guy as I pulled him up. He was Asian as well, something of an everyman, with thick dark-brown hair and, oddly enough, blue eyes. Probably had an American parent. He was young, too. Either eighteen or nineteen if I had to guess. "I was flying one but I'm not one of them."
I helped the girl up next, who said, "Yeah, it was all a mistake."
"Do you know how to get out of here?" he asked.
Now, here I faced a major decision point. I could try and convince this guy that I was a dimensional traveler, but I was pretty sure that would go over like a lead balloon, especially once we are discovered later on by a search and rescue party.
Or, I could play it off like I'd been around all along. Besides, if I had a feeling that there was a passport in one of my cargo pockets that would help solidify any and all claims of citizenship.
I shook my head. "Nah. I was taking a tour of this place when I got separated from my group and then everything went to hell. What's been going on out there?"
"It's an alien invasion!" piped up the girl. "These machines came and destroyed our town!"
I played up the clueless, blinking and looking to the boy. "Did she bump her head, or did she just get too much sugar this morning?"
"HEY!" fumed the girl and the boy laughed.
He then sobered up quickly, then said, "It's true. I don't know what they want, but they did come and wreck the town."
"Unreal," I said, playing up the shock a bit. I then sighed and kicked it into business mode. "Well, look. Either way, we're lost and we need to get out of here, maybe find some help. Is your radio working?"
"Hmm. Lemme check." The boy poked his head up inside the cockpit and cursed.
"What's wrong?" asked the girl.
"The radio's broken."
I wasn't gonna be deterred that easily. "Do you got a survival kit in that plane of yours?"
"Yeah, but it's not much. Just some rations for one person for a few days."
"Does it have an emergency beacon?"
The boy blinked. "Yeah, it does! I can't believe I didn't think of that!"
"Well, let's activate it."
"Sure. By the way, what's your name?"
“I'm Garrick Grimm. How about you two?”
"I'm Lyn Minmei," said the girl. "But please just call me Minmei."
"And I'm Ichijyo Hikaru. But you can just call me Hikaru."
"Nice to meet both you guys. Well, Hikaru, it's your plane. I dunno where you got that kit stashed at."
"No problem," said Hikaru as he stuck his head up in the inverted cockpit. Soon enough, the emergency beacon was active, we ate the first three of nine ration tins, and began to figure out what all we had.
Poor Minmei, due to her circumstances, had nothing.
Hikaru was little better off. All his gear was meant for survival in a wilderness setting. He did have a gyrocompass built into his watch, though, so we could at least maintain our orientation. However, he did have a small tool kit that he could use to do emergency repairs to his plane. That would come in handy.
Me, on the other hand...
Katherine, do me a favor?
Sure thing, Gar-kun. Whatcha need?
Drop all my multi-tools into my backpack. And scrounge up my iPhone just in case. I might actually be able to use it a bit. Oh, and the emergency charger, too.
Now, I know that some people wouldn't think that an iPhone could be used as a survival tool, but there these people would be wrong.
The iPhone itself is, in all reality, a microcomputer with more processing power than any desktop machine in the early 90's. It has digital accelerometers. The seventh generation model (which I had) has three cameras - one on the face and two on the backplate. And it was fairly water resistant. If you had a drawing app you can create crude maps and save them to memory. You can record an audio log using the built-in app. And with frugal usage, it can go several days without a charge.
The C-pod was of even more use, but there lie the crux of the matter. I could open a door into my C-Space and we could relax in comfort, but that would blow my cover in an instant. I simply wanted to blend in. Fortunately, Washu had left apps that were very useful, such as a highly accurate inertial navigator and a radio application. Only trouble is, though, that I didn’t know what frequency to use.
Using the tools I had on hand, I gave us even odds on finding a way out back to... well, something resembling civilization.
All done, Gar-kun.
Thanks, Sprout.
I quickly dug into my bag and laid out what I had.
Laptop computer.
Four Leatherman tools.
A 3-AA Cell LED Maglite.
My emergency tie-down kit.
And the iPhone with the emergency crank-charger.
Hikaru whistled. “I guess the laptop won’t be much use, but those multitools sure look like they’ll come in handy... You have an iPhone?”
“Yeah. It could be useful.”
“Maybe. I mean, it’s only a Seven. Nowhere nearly as nice as the iPhone Nine.”
Take notes, Katherine. My stuff is behind the tech curve here.
Roger-dodger, Gar-kun.
We made a plan to take turns between exploring the area and keeping someone behind at what I had dubbed Base-Camp. Minmei was left behind for the first shift, but not without an important job.
"Minmei, do you know the morse code for SOS?"
"No, I don't know any morse code at all."
"That's okay. Pretty much the only thing I know is SOS. Here, let me show you." I got a handy chain link that was lying around and tapped it against the deck.
Tap-tap-tap-tap...tap...tap...tap-tap-tap.
Tap-tap-tap-tap...tap...tap...tap-tap-tap.
Tap-tap-tap-tap...tap...tap...tap-tap-tap.
"You see, it's three short, followed right away by three long, and then three short again. And you keep on repeating that sequence."
"Sure! It's pretty easy to remember."
"Yup. They made it like that on purpose - anyone can at least do SOS if they know what it is."
When we left, Minmei was eagerly tapping out the sequence for SOS. I knew that wouldn't keep up for long. She'd get bored in no time and I knew that a bored Minmei was not a good thing.
Once we were out of earshot I started going over everything with Hikaru.
"We can't leave her by herself for long. She's just a kid still."
"Minmei's just a kid?" said Hikaru suddenly.
I snorted at that. "Relax. I know you're actually barely older than she is. Probably a just a few years at the most."
"How can you tell?"
"I know I don't look like it, but I'm actually thirty-seven."
"What?” cried out Hikaru. “You're pulling my leg here! You don’t look any older than I do!"
I grinned at Hikaru. "Heh. Nah man. It runs in my mother's side of the family. We age VERY gracefully." It was a little white lie. And I do mean ‘little’. The fact of the matter is that I never looked my age at all, even before I made my bond to Katherine.
Hikaru whistled. "Lucky."
"Same to you, you're still young,” I replied with a grin. “Anyhow, here's what you and I are gonna do here. Since this corridor is the only way out of that place, we're gonna look for doors, other corridors, and stuff like that. We also wanna keep an eye out for two very important things: food and water. Without that, we don't survive."
"What about air?" he asked.
"I don't think that's gonna be an issue for a while. With just the three of us in this big space I think our oxygen supply will last a while. Besides, this space was open to vacuum earlier. I think the life support systems in this area are working just fine if the air pressure was maintained. But for Minmei's sake, let's keep this session short and sweet. You or I can stand to be alone for extended periods of time. Or at least I know I can. Minmei... I don't think so."
"Right then."
##
Between Hikaru and myself we chatted amiably, getting to know each other. He asked questions about my family, and I automatically told him a sanitized version - that I was an orphan that had made a huge impression on what used to be a noble house of Japan and they had taken me in, all but adopting me in name. Pretty sure that even here Masaki was the name of a Samurai General at some point in time.
In return, I learned about Hikaru’s family, which operated a flying circus. I knew about the circus, but I just didn't know what all that entailed.
Parachutists, wing walkers, aerobatics, hot air balloons, antique planes... it was basically an airshow on crack. It sounded like a complete blast.
Hey, don't look at me that way. I'm just a big fan of aeronautics.
Anyhow, conversation aside, we moved quickly enough that we soon found the very large chamber that had the Zentreadi-sized airlock in it. Of course, I didn't say it like that to Hikaru.
"This is perfect!" I said excitedly, and I was too, because something obvious had occurred to me.
"Why?" asked Hikaru.
"Think aerospace. As in spaceSHIPS, kid. I know how these things work. Someone up there has to have some sort of computer monitor that tells them when an airlock somewhere is being opened up. It's a safety thing. You want to know exactly who is using your airlocks and when they're using it in order to prevent accidents."
Hikaru blinked as that sunk into him. "So if we keep on cycling the airlock someone is gonna come and investigate!"
"Exactly! Let's go get Minmei and gather up what we can. This place is our new base-camp!"
##
There was a 115 volt outlet nearby that had been jury-rigged by whatever work crew had been in this area, so I plugged in my laptop and plugged my iPhone into the powered USB port. I was so glad for that because I would be able to record every fragging little detail.
In the original timeline, Hikaru had a tool kit, but no multitool. But here and now I had brought all my Leatherman tools with me, so there wasn't a single cargo container in the space that was safe from me.
"Okay guys, all clear down there?"
"Yeah, we're good!"
"Alright then. Bombs away!" With a kick I shoved loose the access panel. It probably weighed a good two-hundred pounds and made an impressive noise once it hit the deck. After the first one, Hikaru, Minmei and myself knew to keep our ears covered for this part.
"Okay, what can you guys see from there?"
"Hmmm," said Minmei. "Looks like more of those giant-size space suits."
"Damn. Okay, let's try the next one." The last two had been something that looked like giant pistols and then the space suits mentioned earlier. Both useless to us because we couldn't even lift the things.
Fortunately, the containers were fairly easy to open. Whoever these people were, they weren't big on internal security. A few quick cuts with the diamond file in one of my Leatherman tools and I could easily push off an access panel.
And pop! Another panel fell away to make a truly thunderous racket down below.
Minmei looked inside and scrunched her face up cutely. "Hey, Garrick? I think you may wanna take a look at this."
"Oh?" I asked as I began to jump from one container to another. I was starting to feel like Arrietty Clock in this place. With a bit of work, though, I got there and saw that the container was full of packages sealed in what looked like white plastic wrappers. Each was, disturbingly, about the size of a body bag.
"Huh. Let's see what's inside one of these," I said as I tugged on one experimentally. It didn't want to give. "Hey Hikaru, give me a hand with this?"
"Sure." Hikaru came over and grabbed ahold of the other end of the wrapper and we both tugged on it to no real effect. "You know what, let's try doing it on three," Hikaru finally said.
"Sounds good," I replied. "One... Two... Three!" We both tugged sharply and the plastic wrapped object came flying out... along with what must have been about half of the rest of the container!
"GYAH!" we both cried out as we tried to avoid getting buried alive. Hikaru got the worst of it and Minmei practically fluttered to his side, helping him get out of the mess. I was able to pull myself out.
"Well... that was interesting," I grumbled sarcastically.
"Let's not try that again," Hikaru said.
With no more to say on the matter, I pulled one of the packages loose and cut it open with my Leatherman.
"Well?" asked Minmei anxiously.
My eyebrows went up as the scent hit my nose. "Smells like a ration bar." Experimentally, I carved a piece loose and tasted it. "Tastes like a ration bar, too."
"Well what do you know," said Hikaru excitedly. "We have food!"
"Alright!" cheered Minmei.
##
With the food issue resolved, all that left was water. I fixed it by carving a small hole in a fresh water pipe in the nearby corridor with my file. That gave us drinking and washing water. We weren't worried about flooding since it all seemed to drain away somewhere. Hopefully it wasn't messing anything up.
We used Hikaru's parachute to pitch a tent. It was my idea to make pitch it against the big window so we could sleep by the stars. The window was a bit cool, but not freezing. By the second day I found a way to control the light level in the room and that really added to the effect.
We passed the time getting to know each other. Minmei sang songs now and then, and I played a few songs from my iPhone. (Minmei really took a shine to Gwen Stefani and Florence and The Machine.) Honestly, hearing Minmei's voice, her real honest-to-God singing voice was a shock to me. It was nothing at all like Robotech dubs. She had the voice of an angel and her lyrics flowed smoothly and sweetly.
Messing with the airlock got the crew’s attention relatively quickly. It was only one week until a maintenance crew came to check on the airlock. Weren't they surprised to find us living there like we owned the place!
The pipe was patched and the space was tagged urgent for reevaluation, because hey! Giant food bar rations! And we were commended on our resourcefulness.
I was given the hairy eyeball. However, once I fed them my story about being separated from my tour group and losing my pass in the mayhem that ensued, I was forgiven. Right away, Katherine got to work creating credentials for me, so I was even able to supply a passport as proof. The electronic paper trail wouldn’t matter much until we reached Earth.
I was issued an ID card, given a ration stipend, and told to make my way in what was quickly becoming Macross City rebuilt.
So, good news-bad news.
Obviously, some good news - this thread as well as new material. And I know for a fact that some of you have been awaiting this one eagerly.
Bad news - this is actually all old material. It's from the original Brothers Grimm project my brothers and I were working on, but got left by the wayside because of the whole thing with life happening. :p
However, I think that some filling, sanding, finishing, and polishing... it's worthwhile material to reuse.
Now, I know what some people are thinking. "What about Being You is Convalescence?"
Well, for whatever reason I haven't really been feeling that one lately. That and I think that I REALLY need to take a step back and plot that one out more carefully. I will get to it, but it's just been such a drag lately and I honestly feel a lot more up to writing Macross.
Some other things to keep in mind:
1) When I wrote the original material, I did so using the old Harmony Gold Robotech dubs as a reference because I didn't have access to the original Japanese version, Super Dimensional Fortress Macross. Expect to see snippets of dialogue and verbal ticks taken from that context.
2) This is still very much a work in progress, and I'm going to be filling out scenes that I bumrushed through before. However, any thoughts or ideas about how to fill things out will be very much welcome.
3) I have done some initial work - mainly changing the names of characters to reflect their identities from the original version of the source material. Granted, I know that the reconstruction of ASS-1 was a multinational effort, but with the island being so close to Japan, I feel that a strong Asian presence in general was unavoidable. So, as far as I'm concerned, it fits.
4) Please let me know if I got something wrong. The annoying thing about writing fiction is that, unlike real life, it has to make sense. :p
Have you ever landed flat on your ass? It's not like landing on the part where you have all the fat and muscle to pad your fall. Instead, you land right on the bottom side of your of your pelvic bone and you feel your guts slamming against the tissues that hold them in place. Not a pleasant sensation, let me tell you.
I didn't get much time to pity myself, though, because somewhere some idiot had opened a door into a hard vacuum.
"HOLY SHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIT!" I screamed as a grabbed ahold of a pipe. Fortunately, it was firmly attached and I was able to lever myself against the current and hook an arm over it.
Fight-or-flight had already set in, and by God, I had no choice but to fight. I knew that vacuums of any kind were dangerous things. God only knew what I would find if I let myself get carried away, but chances were pretty good that it would be fatal in the extremely short term. I only hoped that this place didn't run out of air or else I'd really be in trouble.
There was a sudden crashing sound, accompanied by whirring motors from some distance...
And like a light gone out the air stopped moving... and I fell onto my ass once more, this time wrenching my arm painfully as I did so.
"...uuuuuuuuugggghh," I managed to vocalize after a few minutes.
Gar-kun! Are you okay!? came Katherine’s voice in my head.
Yeah, just peachy, I replied. Just... gimme a moment here.
I just laid there for a while, blood hammering through my arteries as though being forced through by a huge whizz-bang pump. I could already feel the headache coming on from all that blood pressure and began to hope that maybe somewhere I might find a first aid kit with some aspirin or something.
After a long moment, I finally got back to Katherine.
Okay. Feeling a bit better now. What do you have for me so far?
Well, we’re not home. Sorry gar-kun.
It’s okay. I wasn’t expecting that so soon. Any idea where we’re at?
I can’t tell. The sea of space-time here is all... wonky. It’s like someone just did a cannonball through the fabric of space.
There was a noise in the distance. Something clattering, followed by voices.
With some pain I began to push myself up. Pain is good, I remind myself. Pain reminds you that you're alive. Also, you need to make sure you keep on moving because more often than not it helps keep you from getting stiff.
Wincing and limping, I made my way down the corridor while I kept Katherine in the back of my mind.
What do you think, Sprout?
Two people. Not sure what’s up, but I don’t think it’s dangerous.
I came to the source of the noise. It was some kind of aircraft, suspended upside-down in the over head with some assembly of hooks and chains. Apparently this was some kind of workshop space. The canopy had been opened and in the cockpit were two people. A girl dangling from the arms of the guy still strapped into the seat. Suddenly the two fell into a heap together, then looked at each other and cracked up laughing.
"Hey, you guys okay?" I called out as I began to make my way over to them.
"Hey, who's that?" said the girl in Japanese as she pointed at me. I got my first good look at her then. She was definitely Asian, and most likely Chinese. Here voluminous hair was a bit of a mess, but I could tell that it was supposed to be in an oriental style that was supposed to accentuate her cute-factor. She was also pretty small - most likely because she was only sixteen or seventeen years old.
Small performance plane in the ceiling.
Cute girl in the cockpit with the pilot.
Strange industrial setting where I almost got sucked into God knows what.
Most likely the vacuum of outer space.
Oh boy... Katherine! I think we're in Super Dimensional Fortress Macross!
Alright, accessing your anime archive... Whoooo! This is some fun stuff, Gar-kun! So whatcha gonna do? Huh? Huh~?
Well... I guess I’m gonna start by seeing how well the magic of friendship works here.
Are you gonna keep me a secret?
Just for now, Sprout. These guys might have a bad reaction. You already went through all those episodes, right? You noticed how vile the politicians got before they all got wiped out?
Okay, I see your point. We’ll play it low key then.
All that conversation had gone on in just barely more than a second, so I was able to go on without really missing a beat.
"Just some poor sorry civilian," I said, switching into Japanese with ease as I reached down to help them up. Regular use as a private language between myself, the Royals, and the Main Six had kept it from going rusty. "How about you? Are one or both of you guys actually with those guys in the crazy fighter planes?"
"Ah, kinda," grunted the guy as I pulled him up. He was Asian as well, something of an everyman, with thick dark-brown hair and, oddly enough, blue eyes. Probably had an American parent. He was young, too. Either eighteen or nineteen if I had to guess. "I was flying one but I'm not one of them."
I helped the girl up next, who said, "Yeah, it was all a mistake."
"Do you know how to get out of here?" he asked.
Now, here I faced a major decision point. I could try and convince this guy that I was a dimensional traveler, but I was pretty sure that would go over like a lead balloon, especially once we are discovered later on by a search and rescue party.
Or, I could play it off like I'd been around all along. Besides, if I had a feeling that there was a passport in one of my cargo pockets that would help solidify any and all claims of citizenship.
I shook my head. "Nah. I was taking a tour of this place when I got separated from my group and then everything went to hell. What's been going on out there?"
"It's an alien invasion!" piped up the girl. "These machines came and destroyed our town!"
I played up the clueless, blinking and looking to the boy. "Did she bump her head, or did she just get too much sugar this morning?"
"HEY!" fumed the girl and the boy laughed.
He then sobered up quickly, then said, "It's true. I don't know what they want, but they did come and wreck the town."
"Unreal," I said, playing up the shock a bit. I then sighed and kicked it into business mode. "Well, look. Either way, we're lost and we need to get out of here, maybe find some help. Is your radio working?"
"Hmm. Lemme check." The boy poked his head up inside the cockpit and cursed.
"What's wrong?" asked the girl.
"The radio's broken."
I wasn't gonna be deterred that easily. "Do you got a survival kit in that plane of yours?"
"Yeah, but it's not much. Just some rations for one person for a few days."
"Does it have an emergency beacon?"
The boy blinked. "Yeah, it does! I can't believe I didn't think of that!"
"Well, let's activate it."
"Sure. By the way, what's your name?"
“I'm Garrick Grimm. How about you two?”
"I'm Lyn Minmei," said the girl. "But please just call me Minmei."
"And I'm Ichijyo Hikaru. But you can just call me Hikaru."
"Nice to meet both you guys. Well, Hikaru, it's your plane. I dunno where you got that kit stashed at."
"No problem," said Hikaru as he stuck his head up in the inverted cockpit. Soon enough, the emergency beacon was active, we ate the first three of nine ration tins, and began to figure out what all we had.
Poor Minmei, due to her circumstances, had nothing.
Hikaru was little better off. All his gear was meant for survival in a wilderness setting. He did have a gyrocompass built into his watch, though, so we could at least maintain our orientation. However, he did have a small tool kit that he could use to do emergency repairs to his plane. That would come in handy.
Me, on the other hand...
Katherine, do me a favor?
Sure thing, Gar-kun. Whatcha need?
Drop all my multi-tools into my backpack. And scrounge up my iPhone just in case. I might actually be able to use it a bit. Oh, and the emergency charger, too.
Now, I know that some people wouldn't think that an iPhone could be used as a survival tool, but there these people would be wrong.
The iPhone itself is, in all reality, a microcomputer with more processing power than any desktop machine in the early 90's. It has digital accelerometers. The seventh generation model (which I had) has three cameras - one on the face and two on the backplate. And it was fairly water resistant. If you had a drawing app you can create crude maps and save them to memory. You can record an audio log using the built-in app. And with frugal usage, it can go several days without a charge.
The C-pod was of even more use, but there lie the crux of the matter. I could open a door into my C-Space and we could relax in comfort, but that would blow my cover in an instant. I simply wanted to blend in. Fortunately, Washu had left apps that were very useful, such as a highly accurate inertial navigator and a radio application. Only trouble is, though, that I didn’t know what frequency to use.
Using the tools I had on hand, I gave us even odds on finding a way out back to... well, something resembling civilization.
All done, Gar-kun.
Thanks, Sprout.
I quickly dug into my bag and laid out what I had.
Laptop computer.
Four Leatherman tools.
A 3-AA Cell LED Maglite.
My emergency tie-down kit.
And the iPhone with the emergency crank-charger.
Hikaru whistled. “I guess the laptop won’t be much use, but those multitools sure look like they’ll come in handy... You have an iPhone?”
“Yeah. It could be useful.”
“Maybe. I mean, it’s only a Seven. Nowhere nearly as nice as the iPhone Nine.”
Take notes, Katherine. My stuff is behind the tech curve here.
Roger-dodger, Gar-kun.
We made a plan to take turns between exploring the area and keeping someone behind at what I had dubbed Base-Camp. Minmei was left behind for the first shift, but not without an important job.
"Minmei, do you know the morse code for SOS?"
"No, I don't know any morse code at all."
"That's okay. Pretty much the only thing I know is SOS. Here, let me show you." I got a handy chain link that was lying around and tapped it against the deck.
Tap-tap-tap-tap...tap...tap...tap-tap-tap.
Tap-tap-tap-tap...tap...tap...tap-tap-tap.
Tap-tap-tap-tap...tap...tap...tap-tap-tap.
"You see, it's three short, followed right away by three long, and then three short again. And you keep on repeating that sequence."
"Sure! It's pretty easy to remember."
"Yup. They made it like that on purpose - anyone can at least do SOS if they know what it is."
When we left, Minmei was eagerly tapping out the sequence for SOS. I knew that wouldn't keep up for long. She'd get bored in no time and I knew that a bored Minmei was not a good thing.
Once we were out of earshot I started going over everything with Hikaru.
"We can't leave her by herself for long. She's just a kid still."
"Minmei's just a kid?" said Hikaru suddenly.
I snorted at that. "Relax. I know you're actually barely older than she is. Probably a just a few years at the most."
"How can you tell?"
"I know I don't look like it, but I'm actually thirty-seven."
"What?” cried out Hikaru. “You're pulling my leg here! You don’t look any older than I do!"
I grinned at Hikaru. "Heh. Nah man. It runs in my mother's side of the family. We age VERY gracefully." It was a little white lie. And I do mean ‘little’. The fact of the matter is that I never looked my age at all, even before I made my bond to Katherine.
Hikaru whistled. "Lucky."
"Same to you, you're still young,” I replied with a grin. “Anyhow, here's what you and I are gonna do here. Since this corridor is the only way out of that place, we're gonna look for doors, other corridors, and stuff like that. We also wanna keep an eye out for two very important things: food and water. Without that, we don't survive."
"What about air?" he asked.
"I don't think that's gonna be an issue for a while. With just the three of us in this big space I think our oxygen supply will last a while. Besides, this space was open to vacuum earlier. I think the life support systems in this area are working just fine if the air pressure was maintained. But for Minmei's sake, let's keep this session short and sweet. You or I can stand to be alone for extended periods of time. Or at least I know I can. Minmei... I don't think so."
"Right then."
##
Between Hikaru and myself we chatted amiably, getting to know each other. He asked questions about my family, and I automatically told him a sanitized version - that I was an orphan that had made a huge impression on what used to be a noble house of Japan and they had taken me in, all but adopting me in name. Pretty sure that even here Masaki was the name of a Samurai General at some point in time.
In return, I learned about Hikaru’s family, which operated a flying circus. I knew about the circus, but I just didn't know what all that entailed.
Parachutists, wing walkers, aerobatics, hot air balloons, antique planes... it was basically an airshow on crack. It sounded like a complete blast.
Hey, don't look at me that way. I'm just a big fan of aeronautics.
Anyhow, conversation aside, we moved quickly enough that we soon found the very large chamber that had the Zentreadi-sized airlock in it. Of course, I didn't say it like that to Hikaru.
"This is perfect!" I said excitedly, and I was too, because something obvious had occurred to me.
"Why?" asked Hikaru.
"Think aerospace. As in spaceSHIPS, kid. I know how these things work. Someone up there has to have some sort of computer monitor that tells them when an airlock somewhere is being opened up. It's a safety thing. You want to know exactly who is using your airlocks and when they're using it in order to prevent accidents."
Hikaru blinked as that sunk into him. "So if we keep on cycling the airlock someone is gonna come and investigate!"
"Exactly! Let's go get Minmei and gather up what we can. This place is our new base-camp!"
##
There was a 115 volt outlet nearby that had been jury-rigged by whatever work crew had been in this area, so I plugged in my laptop and plugged my iPhone into the powered USB port. I was so glad for that because I would be able to record every fragging little detail.
In the original timeline, Hikaru had a tool kit, but no multitool. But here and now I had brought all my Leatherman tools with me, so there wasn't a single cargo container in the space that was safe from me.
"Okay guys, all clear down there?"
"Yeah, we're good!"
"Alright then. Bombs away!" With a kick I shoved loose the access panel. It probably weighed a good two-hundred pounds and made an impressive noise once it hit the deck. After the first one, Hikaru, Minmei and myself knew to keep our ears covered for this part.
"Okay, what can you guys see from there?"
"Hmmm," said Minmei. "Looks like more of those giant-size space suits."
"Damn. Okay, let's try the next one." The last two had been something that looked like giant pistols and then the space suits mentioned earlier. Both useless to us because we couldn't even lift the things.
Fortunately, the containers were fairly easy to open. Whoever these people were, they weren't big on internal security. A few quick cuts with the diamond file in one of my Leatherman tools and I could easily push off an access panel.
And pop! Another panel fell away to make a truly thunderous racket down below.
Minmei looked inside and scrunched her face up cutely. "Hey, Garrick? I think you may wanna take a look at this."
"Oh?" I asked as I began to jump from one container to another. I was starting to feel like Arrietty Clock in this place. With a bit of work, though, I got there and saw that the container was full of packages sealed in what looked like white plastic wrappers. Each was, disturbingly, about the size of a body bag.
"Huh. Let's see what's inside one of these," I said as I tugged on one experimentally. It didn't want to give. "Hey Hikaru, give me a hand with this?"
"Sure." Hikaru came over and grabbed ahold of the other end of the wrapper and we both tugged on it to no real effect. "You know what, let's try doing it on three," Hikaru finally said.
"Sounds good," I replied. "One... Two... Three!" We both tugged sharply and the plastic wrapped object came flying out... along with what must have been about half of the rest of the container!
"GYAH!" we both cried out as we tried to avoid getting buried alive. Hikaru got the worst of it and Minmei practically fluttered to his side, helping him get out of the mess. I was able to pull myself out.
"Well... that was interesting," I grumbled sarcastically.
"Let's not try that again," Hikaru said.
With no more to say on the matter, I pulled one of the packages loose and cut it open with my Leatherman.
"Well?" asked Minmei anxiously.
My eyebrows went up as the scent hit my nose. "Smells like a ration bar." Experimentally, I carved a piece loose and tasted it. "Tastes like a ration bar, too."
"Well what do you know," said Hikaru excitedly. "We have food!"
"Alright!" cheered Minmei.
##
With the food issue resolved, all that left was water. I fixed it by carving a small hole in a fresh water pipe in the nearby corridor with my file. That gave us drinking and washing water. We weren't worried about flooding since it all seemed to drain away somewhere. Hopefully it wasn't messing anything up.
We used Hikaru's parachute to pitch a tent. It was my idea to make pitch it against the big window so we could sleep by the stars. The window was a bit cool, but not freezing. By the second day I found a way to control the light level in the room and that really added to the effect.
We passed the time getting to know each other. Minmei sang songs now and then, and I played a few songs from my iPhone. (Minmei really took a shine to Gwen Stefani and Florence and The Machine.) Honestly, hearing Minmei's voice, her real honest-to-God singing voice was a shock to me. It was nothing at all like Robotech dubs. She had the voice of an angel and her lyrics flowed smoothly and sweetly.
Messing with the airlock got the crew’s attention relatively quickly. It was only one week until a maintenance crew came to check on the airlock. Weren't they surprised to find us living there like we owned the place!
The pipe was patched and the space was tagged urgent for reevaluation, because hey! Giant food bar rations! And we were commended on our resourcefulness.
I was given the hairy eyeball. However, once I fed them my story about being separated from my tour group and losing my pass in the mayhem that ensued, I was forgiven. Right away, Katherine got to work creating credentials for me, so I was even able to supply a passport as proof. The electronic paper trail wouldn’t matter much until we reached Earth.
I was issued an ID card, given a ration stipend, and told to make my way in what was quickly becoming Macross City rebuilt.