RE: [RFC] Being You is Deculture
04-08-2018, 04:00 AM (This post was last modified: 04-08-2018, 04:06 AM by Black Aeronaut.)
04-08-2018, 04:00 AM (This post was last modified: 04-08-2018, 04:06 AM by Black Aeronaut.)
Okay, just a heads up, this one gets info-dumpy because Garrick pretty much lays out the human race in a nutshell.
Oh, and someone learns that you never provoke the protagonist. It's never very good for your short-term health.
Once again, we were placed into a sack and transported. When we were dumped out, it was in a dark conference room of some kind. I suddenly felt like someone who’d been set up in a police interrogation room straight out of film noir.
Misa was quick to surreptitiously set her camera to record and I set up my C-Pod to do the same.
Breetai and Exedore were already present, along with three other familiar faces.
“Wow!” cried out the leader of the three man intelligence team. “The rumors were true! They really did capture the Micronian Ace!”
“Hey guys!” I called out happily. “Glad to see you’re doing good!”
“What? We can understand him!?”
Exedore nodded. “I have seen to it that a translation matrix is active to ease this interrogation. It seems to be working properly.”
“That’s great!” said the shortest of them. “Now we can finally introduce ourselves!” The then looked down at us, excited like a kid that was getting to meet his hero.
“I’m Group Leader Loli Dosel,” he said.
The larger one with red hair spoke up next. “I’m Senior Squadman Warera Nantes.”
And last was the tallest one with long purple hair. “And I’m Senior Squadman Conda Bromco.”
I stepped forward and said, “I’m Ensign Garrick Grimm. This here is my wingman, Ensign Hikaru Ichijou. These two are mine and Hikaru’s subordinates; Petty-Officer Maxwell Jenius, and Petty-Officer Hayao Kakizaki. The female here is our ranking officer, Lieutenant Junior Grade Misa Hayase.”
“We’re glad to meet you guys,” said Loli. “I uh. Kinda wish we could shake your hand, but you’re all Miclones.”
“That’s okay,” said Hikaru. “So why are you guys all excited to meet us anyhow?”
“You don’t KNOW!?” cried out Warera in shock. “This guy is the ace that was gonna throw down with Sub-Commander Kamjin Kravsha!”
“You mean that guy who’s had it out for Cradle Robber lately?” said Hayao.
“Cradle Robber?” said Exedore in puzzlement. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
We all shot Hayao dirty looks as he tried and utterly failed to look innocent.
Turning back to the Zentradi, I explained, “It’s a nick name based on a very tacky joke involving my personal circumstances. All of us pilots have nicknames like that, and more often than not they can be pretty degrading.”
“What an odd tradition,” said Exedore thoughtfully. “Do you always treat each other in such an informal manner?”
“Mostly just among us pilots, sir. In our culture, us pilots have always had a lot more leeway because of the dangers of our occupation. Though bomber crews are even worse - they’re so bad that it absolutely can’t be discussed in polite company.”
“I see,” said Exedore thoughtfully. “Yes, I can certainly see how personnel in such dangerous work would be so informal or even mocking with each other. One never knows if they’ll even return from a mission alive.”
Breetai nodded knowingly and said, “I myself find it interesting how you have managed to gain such respect among my men, Mr. Grimm. How is it that you came to be so skilled?”
I shrugged. “Sir, we all have varying talents. Ensign Ichijou is actually a much better pilot than I am. I’m just a helluva good marksman who knows how to fight dirty. Petty-Officer Kakizaki is pretty average but keeps up a bold front. Petty-Officer Jenius has incredible spacial awareness that lets him engage multiple opponents at once. And our own Commanding Officer is an outstanding prodigy as a line officer.”
A door at the far end of the room opened and a large, bald-headed Zentradi wearing a cloak entered. Right away, all the other Zentradi stood at attention and saluted. The cloaked Zentradi saluted back.
“Very well, be seated everyone,” he said gruffly. Once they had all settled into their seats, he looked down and addressed us all.
“I am Boldozaa, Supreme Commander of the Zentradi 118th Main Fleet. There are some things I wish to ask you.”
I stepped forward and introduced us. “Greetings Supreme Commander. I am Garrick Grimm, a low ranking officer and Valkyrie fighter pilot of the Super Dimensional Fortress Ship Macross of the United Nations Space Fleet. I have been asked to speak for my colleagues and I will attempt to answer to the best of our abilities.”
“Good. When did your people make contact with the Supervision Army.”
“My apologies, sir. We know nothing of this ‘Supervision Army’ and I suspect there may be a misunderstanding that needs to be cleared up. May I ask why you suspect the involvement of this group?”
Boldoza’s expression darkened. “How can you not understand when you use one of their gun ships?”
“That ship crash landed on our planet some time ago with no crew aboard. When we discovered that the ship was a war ship we reverse-engineered its technology, then rebuilt and refitted the ship so we can protect our world.”
There were surprised expressions all around at that, though Exedore was the first to regain his wits.
“You... You completely repaired a gun ship?” asked the smallest of the Zentradi.
“Yes, sir,” I replied. “It was perfectly within the scope of our industrial capabilities and our people are working towards building a fleet of our own. It’s projected that the first of these ships will be operational in about a year.”
Boldoza’s brow knitted up as he pondered that.
“Breetai,” said the Supreme Commander. “Tell me again what you know of their ship’s capabilities.”
“Yes your Excellency. I am uncertain as to the condition of the ship when it landed on their world, but by our last accounting it was severely damaged. It was thought that it would not survive another space-fold transition.”
Suddenly it all fell into place in my mind. Why there were absolutely no signs of a crew and yet it had appeared on our planet without warning.
“A DECOY!” I cried out.
“Excuse me, Micronian?” said Boldoza in a tone that made it clear that what I had to say had better be good.
“If the people you were after were your enemy, then what they probably did was abandoned the ship, and then programmed the computer to fold someplace else.”
“Your excellency, if I may?” said Exedore. Boldoza nodded to the archivist and he went on, “The Supervision Army has been known to do such things, even going as far as leaving their guship’s computers with instructions to automatically fire on our ships whenever they come into close proximity.”
“We concur, sir,” I added in. “When your ships came within the firing arc of the main gun, the ship’s computer took over and autonomously fired the weapon. We recognized it right away to be a booby trap left by the ship’s previous masters. If you so wish to, I am certain that if you bring this grievance to my people then a prompt formal apology will be issued. Our computer technicians should have been more thorough. It was perfectly within their capability to find the malignant instruction and purged it from the system.”
“You mean to say you have people that were able to reverse engineer the computer system as well?!” said Exedore in shock.
“Yes sir. There are entire industries on our world that are centered around not only computer programming, but also the design and manufacture of computer hardware as well. We are constantly striving to make improvements in these fields.”
“Protoculture!” hissed Boldoza.
“It can’t be!” said Exedore. “They were wiped out millions of years ago!”
“Sir,” I interrupted diffidently. “With due respect, we have no idea what that means.”
They all gave us thoughtful looks at that point.
Breetai spoke up first. “They had no knowledge of the Supervision Army. And little to no records remain of the Protoculture. He could very well be telling the truth.”
“Then how would they know such things as refitting ships and programming computers,” pondered Exedore.
“Tell us Micronian!” Boldoza demanded hotly. “How do your people know these things?”
“Well, we developed the technology on our own over the course of several tens of thousands of years,” I explained.
“Impossible!”
I shrugged. “Improbable. There’s a popular saying among my people: Nothing is impossible. The idea goes that if something seems impossible, then it’s only because no one has figured out how to do it yet.”
“But how can that be!?” said Boldoza, perplexed at such an idea. “What about war!?”
“Oh, there’s been plenty of war on our world,” I said. “And some of those wars were for reasons that might make even you, Supreme Commander, you lose your stomach. There have even been entire family lines on our world devoted to the art of war. But on the other hand, there have also been family lines devoted to logistics, to craftsmanship, and most importantly, family lines whose sole purpose was to rule over their empires.”
“It.... It makes sense, your excellency,” said Exedore, fitting the pieces together in his computer-like mind. “That is the only rational explanation - that they have people who are not warriors, but dedicated instead to studies and building. Not unlike us archivists, really, only with so many more schools and trades to choose from. And If their people really have been slowly developing themselves to the point where they can learn our own technology just by having an example to build from... then it is no wonder they have been confounding us with their reaction missiles - the potency of which we have not seen in thousands of years!”
“Point of fact,” I said, calling attention to myself. “Those missiles were of our own design. We’ve had thermonuclear reaction weapons for most of a century before that ship crashed on our world.”
If they had been surprised before, this had shocked them into total silence.
“So,” said Boldoza slowly. “You have people that are not warriors, then?”
“That is correct, sir. In fact, in this modern day, all people who are soldiers are volunteers - a concept known as the citizen-soldier.”
“Citizen-soldier?” said Breetai, puzzled by the very concept. “Explain.”
“Everyone in our society starts out as a civilian,” I replied. “That is, a non-combatant who is free to decide what role they will play in our society. Some choose to become soldiers and receive the appropriate training. Others choose to learn a trade or a skill that will support our society. Some of those trades and skills directly support our military. Others don’t.”
“Then what do they support if not the military?” asked Boldoza.
I shrugged. “It would be more appropriate to say, ‘What do they -NOT- support?’ We have trades and skills for a veritable cornucopia of of fields. All kinds of things such as food production, manufacturing, services, construction, and even entertainment.”
“We have some idea of those things. Most of those are handled by automated factories. But what is this ‘entertainment’ that you speak of?”
“Oh, ah... If I may answer by asking a question in return?”
“Go on then.”
“Yes sir. What do the Zentradi do for relaxation? Is there anything that your people do to take their mind off of things so they may rest their mental faculties?”
“We have no such things,” said Boldoza like a teacher shutting down a student with foolish ideas. “The only thing to take joy in is war! How can you say that war is not the focus of your existence?”
“We have scholars that debate that topic quite heatedly, actually. As I mentioned before, there have been many, many conflicts on our world. But we did not have automated factories. There had to be people that built the weapons and armor and war machines. There had to be people that managed the logistics of moving food, weapons, munitions, and all the other sundries of war.
“In response to your original query about entertainment, well... simply put, entertainment is activities meant to distract ourselves for a little time.”
“Distract yourselves?” said Boldoza, almost repulsed by the idea. “Why would you ever want that? Distractions get soldiers killed.”
“It’s a different case. For us, Entertainment is typically mutually exclusive from war and has it’s own time and place outside the field of battle.”
“Very well then, but that still does not satisfy my curiosity, Micronian. Why would your people wish to distract themselves in such a way.”
I gave Boldozaa a hard look, then looked to Commander Breetai. “Sir? How many friends have you lost in the time you’ve been alive?”
Breetai looked surprised that I would ask such a thing, but he answered regardless.
“I have lost count,” he said heavily.
“How many times do you wish that your old comrades could be fighting at your side once again?”
“Not a day goes by...” And there in his voice was a sound close to mourning.
“That is why we have our distractions,” I said, barely loud enough for them to hear. “They help take our minds off of these heavy emotions. Sometimes, they can even bring great joy. And I will admit, there are some among us that overuse these distractions. For them the world is a terrible place that they cannot bear and seek only to get themselves drunk off these distractions. Trust me, if you think it is a terrible waste, we think so as well. But there is no avoiding it. Sometimes there are people born among us that simply do not have the stomach to handle life’s rigors.”
“Born?” said Boldoza, looking to shift the topic. “What is this word supposed to mean?”
“Ah,” I said, trying to think fast. Not only would this be a thorny subject to navigate, but I had to do so while being and concise. “Your people do not use sexual reproduction?”
“I have no idea what you even mean, Micronian.”
“Eeeyyyyeee,” I said, wincing. This was going to be really tough to pull off, so I opted to be upfront about my reservations. “Forgive my reticence, sir, but this is going to cover a number of topics that are considered taboo or simply downright rude to discuss openly.”
“You think that matters to us?” replied Boldoza with a raised eyebrow.
“No, I don’t,” I said. “But it will matter quite a bit to my superior officer, especially as she’s of the opposite gender.”
“What does that have to do with it?” said the Surpreme Commander as that flew completely over his head. Naturally.
“Everything,” I replied flatly.
They all blinked at me. They simply had absolutely no idea about where this was going to go.
“Go on, then,” said Boldoza.
“Okay. I’ll start with the very bare-bones technical aspects of this. Sexual reproduction is basically an exchange of genetic material to create a new life from the DNA of two people - a male and a female.”
“Why does it have to be a male and a female?” wondered Exedore.
I shrugged. “That’s simply how the biology works out. Delving into somewhat taboo territory here, Females are the ones who are built to develop and grow a new life inside their bodies and males simply supply them with their own DNA to help start the process.”
“Ah!” said Exedore as the light in the attic came on. “Your excellency, perhaps he is referring to the seemingly superfluous organs that females possess.”
“Impossible!” snapped Boldoza. “Then how does this process take place?”
I grimaced at that and said, “Very VERY Taboo! Okay... The technical term is sexual intercourse. In essence, a male injects his genetic material into the female’s child-bearing orifice and if the timing is correct, there will a special cell waiting inside her child-bearing organ. The male genetic material combines with this cell, and rapid growth begins. Over the course of nine months, an infant is grown within the woman, and through a very laborious process she forces it out through her child bearing orifice. The new born child is completely helpless and is reliant on its mother to survive until it can do so on its own.”
No one said a word as they stared at me in utter horror at what I had just described.
“I’m guessing that you use some kind of cloning process instead?” I asked.
“That is accurate,” said Exedore. “How long are these... newborns helpless for?”
“Well, it’s varying degrees over a period of a couple of decades. Granted, in our second decade of life we’re pretty well autonomous, but we’re still very young and very inexperienced, so some supervision and guidance is still needed. But during the first few months, no degree of neglect can be permitted. Especially during their first two weeks. During those two weeks a newborn absolutely must be fed every two to four hours. And yes, that is every bit as hectic as it sounds - a common theme among new mothers is a lack of sleep.
“Fortunately, food itself isn’t usually a problem, as a newborn child will suckle milk produced by the mother’s mammary glands.”
“Mammary glands?” asked Exedore.
I turned to Misa with an apologetic look. “Ah... Sorry ma’am, I mean no offense. But you see how she has those growths on her chest? Those are mammary glands. If she were to have a child, her body will generate hormones that cause them to create lactose proteins in a liquid form that are easy for a newborn to digest with their still developing bodies.
“And with that we now depart taboo territory.”
There were still somewhat shell shocked, but Exedore was silently mulling this over.
“As a child grows larger and stronger, they will eventually be able to eat food. Generally, it needs to be processed into a fine paste because infants are not born with teeth - they have to grow in from their jaws. (And yes, that is a painful process for the infant.) But as their teeth come in, they’ll be able to eat foods that are progressively more... solid.
“In about six to twelve months, most infants are weened - steadily getting fewer and fewer feedings from the mother’s mammaries, and more and more solid food. By the time they’re two years old, they’re able to eat all the solid foods adults eat, but they’re still fairly helpless as they have not yet learned to control their bladders and a bowels. Unfortunately, this is something that needs to be taught, and most children are expected to have mastered this by the time they’re four years old, with moderate progress having been made at three years of age.
“At two years, basic knowledge is slowly learned. A child’s mind is super-active, making thousands and thousands of neuron connections every day. Over time, they learn language - spoken at first, but at around four years old they’re expected to start learning to read and write. By this time they’re also expected to have learned how to count, basic color and shape recognition, and basic social conduct.
“Formal education typically begins between the ages of four and six years. For the next five years, they learn basic mathematics and proper usage of their native language as well as local geography and political boundaries, and a general summary of our history. After that, they move into secondary education, where for the next five or six years they learn more advanced forms of math, as well as a more detailed summary of our history, basic sciences, human anatomy, and a host of other topics.
“After this, they are considered ‘young adults’ and are free to pursue higher education with the aim of taking up work in a field of their choice or even volunteering for service in the military.
“And that about covers it.”
“So, you are all... born... even smaller than you are, and you grow to your size over the course of two decades?” said Exedore, slowly putting all the pieces together.
“Yes sir.”
“Tell me micronian,” said Boldoza as he recovered his wits. “How is it that two micronians are chosen to... reproduce? Do you use some kind of system to ensure desired genetic traits are present in the... next generation?”
“In most cases, sir, no such system exists. There used to be systems in the past, but these were mainly politically driven. You see, the pairing of a male and female is generally an important part of our society. The ideal is that once paired off, they stay together for the rest of their lives - two separate halves that work cooperatively in raising their offspring.
“As for managed pairing systems, as I said, many of them were politically influenced to build family ties between kingdoms and empires, and pairing off with the common people they ruled over was a serious taboo.
“However, once genetics was understood by our scientists, there were some that desired to create a breeding program in an effort to, as you said, to encourage desirable genetic traits.
“Unfortunately, this also had political influences that eventually resulted in one of the most violent wars in my people’s history.”
“Well, then how do you choose now?”
“It’s simple. Evolution has provided us with a built-in mechanism for this. We call it attraction for the way two members of opposing gender are drawn together. It works based mostly on the physical appearance of the perspective partners.”
“Oh? How so?”
I turned once more to Misa. “Ma’am, if I may use you for an example?”
“You may, pilot,” she replied in mild bemusement.
“Alright. Among my people, my superior officer here is considered very attractive for several reasons. The part that jumps out most frequently for us males is the spacing of her hips - wider hips indicates a female who is far less likely to experience complications in birthing offspring.
“Next is the evenness of her features. Not all of us have precisely symmetrical features. It is hard for us to consciously recognize it as it is a very subtle thing, but our subconscious minds see it clear as day, and it reflects in a negative or positive reaction. For my superior, as you can see her features are excellently balanced, greatly increasing her attractiveness.
“Finally, there is her physical fitness. A female with some degree of softness to her features is highly desirable as it indicates that her body maintains good reserves of energy that will contribute to her ability to grow an offspring within her.
“Additionally, there is one other aspect to physical attraction that only affects smaller segments of our population. You may notice that some of us have slightly different facial features. This is because our peoples developed in different and somewhat isolated regions of our world, leading to differing appearances over the course of many generations. However, there have been times where inbreeding was an issue for smaller enclaves in highly isolated locales. To help ensure a healthy gene pool, evolution permitted a tendency for some of us to prefer a partner that is obviously from a different locale.
“Of course, there are other traits that factor in as well, but these are entirely based on behavior patterns which are observed during an investigative period we call ‘dating’. We call them ‘dates’ because meetings where we investigate each other are important, and so we set time aside for it - a time and date.
“Behavioral patterns are important because it factors into child rearing. Some date simply for the enjoyment of learning about another person. Others do so with the intention of finding a person to pair off with.
“Sometimes the observation can be done at a distance without dating. This is called ‘stalking’ and when it turns into an obsession it is most emphatically not a desirable behavior as it can be indicative of an unhealthy mental state prone to undue monomania.
“In my case, there is a young female who observed my behavior for a short time. She judged me to be attractive in very short order based on my even features and, to her, my foreign appearance. Over a period of a few days, my actions were observed during a time of crisis for which she was present. We had found ourselves isolated in an unmodified section of the gunship and uncertain that we would be able to find our way back into the known areas.
“I demonstrated my ability to keep calm in a bad situation, which is an extremely attractive behavioral trait. She also found my intellect to be highly attractive, as I was able to suss out that we were in a former cargo hold and began a systematic search for containers with useful items. As such I was able to procure a supply of food and water for drinking and bathing.
“My past experience and intellect also provided a means of rescue. I have had past experience with war ships, and thus I knew that opening and closing an important door, such as an air lock, would have been indicated on a status display somewhere, and someone would come to investigate for either a malfunction or an intrusion. After only seven days of being lost, we were discovered by the maintenance team sent to investigate the airlock and were guided back into the known portions of the gun ship.
“Now, generally it’s considered taboo for someone my age to pair off with a female as young as her; She’s only sixteen years of age. Generally, it’s expected that I leave her for someone closer to her own age to pair off with. However, there are some that prefer an older, much more experienced partner to pair off with, and such seems to be the case of this female. Additionally, she has demonstrated a great degree of self sufficiency and capability for her age despite her lack of experience, so she is granted some leeway in how she selects someone to pair off with.
“As a matter of fact, you should have some recordings of entertainment that she created. I myself curated the collection that was sent to you with the men we repatriated. Such is her attraction towards me that she made several of those entertainment recordings dedicated towards me.”
“I do believe I know what he speaks of,” said Exedore. “In one such recording, a female prefaces it by saying she made the recording for this very Micronian, mentioning him by name. And then she mentioned something else. She said that she ‘loves’ him, though I have no idea what that means.”
“It’s the emotional bond we form with other people,” I explained. “There are varying degrees of love - love for a brother or sister. Love of a friend or comrade. There is even love for your own people in general. But most important to us of all is the love of our life-partners. Though not considered to always be the deepest and most selfless form of love, it is a central theme among our people. This emotional bond is what helps keep life-partners together during trying times.
“Though in some cases this emotional bond is not enough or it fades over time. It’s considered a sad thing among my people when it happens. It typically centers around a point of contention that the two partners are unable to resolve. Sometimes the separation is amicable - where the two simply agree that the situation is not as mutually beneficial as they once believed it to be. At other times, the separation is a bitter and acrimonious one. Such was the point of contention that the anger and resentment colors each partner’s view of each other.”
“I’ve heard enough of this prattle,” said Boldoza. “I don’t believe you fully appreciate the situation you’re in. we have enough power to destroy your ship as well as your entire world in and instant. Observe this planet.”
A holographic display all around the conference table resolved, showing a massive Zentradi fleet closing in on a world. It was a mostly white planet - icy and rugged with some small patches of greenery. It reminded me very much of the tundras of Alaska and Siberia. And then all at once, the massive fleet spat a volley of fire from their main guns.
The result was horrifying.
The entire atmosphere churned and boiled as it absorbed the energy from all those blasts. The footage was then accelerated so we could see as the atmosphere simply evaporated away into space.
What had once been rugged snow capped mountains, frozen seas, and cold but lush tundras, only a surface that resembled our moon remained.
While my compatriots were aghast, I slowly turned to Boldoza.
“Was that planet inhabited?”
Boldoza harrumphed. “What does it matter, Micronian. The point is do you wish for the same thing to happen to your world? Now tell me the truth. Was everything you told us just now some kind of fabrication?”
I glared up at him.
Katherine?
Say the word, Garrick. Say it and I will rip him apart.
That won’t be necessary. We need a statement, not a manifesto.
...It’s pretty bad news if you’re quoting Tarkin.
But no less true. Put Star Spark into hot standby.
Right away.
To Boldoza, though, I felt that I should make a point by imparting to him a bit of our own antiquated history.
“On my world, we have a legend about the life-partner, the wife, of a King of a land called Kieven Rus’. We venerate her as Saint Olga of Kiev. The King was slain, you see, as he went out to seek tribute from a tribe common people he ruled over known as the Drevlians.
“The legend goes that afterwards, the Drevlians came to the widowed Olga and offered their own prince to her to be wed to, seeking to boost their status by having their own prince become the ruler of the lands.
“Olga, however, already had a child by her late husband, and knew that if she married this prince that her son would never be King. In fact, the child might even be killed to prevent any rebellions.
“The Drevlians, for their part, sent twenty of their best men to convince her to be wed to their prince. She had them cast into a pit and buried them all while they were still alive.
“But she was not satisfied. They had killed her husband and she would not stop until she had crushed their entire people as revenge. So she sent word back to the offending Drevlians that she would marry their prince, but only if their most distinguished men came to escort her to their land.
“When they arrived, she bade them to bathe in a bathhouse she had her people build especially for them. It was, of course, a trap. The building was sealed and set aflame, burning them all alive.
“She then invited what remained of their upper class to a mourning feast in honor of her husband. The tribe, not knowing what had happened to the previous envoys, responded obligingly. Five thousand nobles and leaders came to the feast, and Saint Olga’s men waited on them, plying them with wine and ale until they were all drunk.
“And then just like that her men put them all to the sword, slaughtering them all like animals before they could even react in their drunken stupor.
“Finally, she declared open war and led her men to lay siege to their city. With the greatest of their leaders all dead they struggled to fend her off. After a time, she sent word to them - that she would be placated if they sent birds from each house in the city to her.
“This was a ruse as well. Birds, as you may know, will always return to their homes to roost. She had bits of sulfur tied to each bird and set them free. When the bits of sulfur came into contact with the phosphorus bearing bird dung, the sulfur ignited and set the entire city ablaze. Not a single building was spared.
“Her army then marched on the city and completely crushed them all, practically annihilating their people.
“So, Supreme Commander, I would caution you in dealing with us so rashly. For my people are very well versed in the art of revenge. And believe me, we will have revenge. Even if there is only one of us left alive, that one would seek you out. Play to your favor. And then when you least expect it, they will slit your throat and leave you to bleed out like an animal in the slaughterhouse.
“Do not tread on us.”
Boldoza suddenly slammed a fist on the table staggering us all. “I’LL TREAD OVER WHOEVER I PLEASE, MICRONIAN!” And before any of us could regain our footing, his other hand swept down to scoop up Misa Hayase and hold her overhead in a tight grip. Misa cried out under the pressure.
“Now tell me the truth, Micronian! Or else I will crush your commanding officer right here in my hand!”
I have a long fuse. It’s practically one of my defining characteristics. Oh, I’ll get angry alright, but it’s always like a slow simmer in a pressure cooker, building pressure until I can let it go through one means or another.
But this?
I didn’t even feel this with Tirek. Back then, it was only a cold certainty and knowing what I had to do.
This was Mount Saint Helens blowing it’s entire summit off.
“you think you have POWER OVER ME!!! I’LL SHOW YOU THE TRUE MEANING OF POWER!!!”
I howled my battlecry, the one that was guaranteed to raise anyone’s hackles and scare the mortal soul out of anything in earshot.
I didn’t see anyone’s faces - only my objective: Boldoza’s wrist. The one that held Misa tight.
There was a blade in my hand. Katherine likely gave it to me - I wasn’t sure which one it was. By the balance it felt like First Cut, but the weight was more like Funaho’s Sliver. But that didn’t really matter. All that did matter was that I make this a quick and clean cut.
It felt so natural. The movement so pure and so sweet. It was like when Chevy Chase exhorted in Caddyshack to be the ball. This was far beyond being the ball. This was seeing everything from a thousand angles. This was the universe itself parting way for me.
This was the most utterly beautiful expression of a cut there ever could possibly be.
There was no resistance at all. For a split second as I hung at the apogee of my leap it seemed that I’d done nothing. But then a fine line appeared in his skin, like a seem in a cabinet being uncovered from the sawdust. Boldoza’s hand slowly began to fall away from his wrist. I reached out to Misa who grabbed my arm, us pulling together to free her from the now-slack hand. Without even calling for it, Katherine activated the Emergency Escape, the hole appearing below mine and Misa’s feet.
Just as we slipped through, bellows of outrage filled the air, but only for a split second as the ‘hatch’ irised shut over our heads. Misa and I drifted gently down to the floor of my C-Space where Hikaru, Max, and Hayao waited for us.
“Garrick, what the hell was that!?” cried out Hikaru as we set down.
“What do you mean? I cut his hand off,” I replied as it should have been obvious.
“Not that, boss!” said Hayao with a look of awe on his face. “You did it with a giant-ass glowing sword!”
“What, you mean my sword, Otouto?” I held up my right arm...
...except my hand was empty.
“What?” I said.
“What’s wrong?”
“Did I leave my sword back there?”
“No, it just... dissipated.”
“Dissipated... as in not just ‘disappear’?”
“Yeah, it was like it turned into a whole bunch of lights like glowing grains of sand and they all faded out.”
“Wait. Glowing? As in the whole sword was glowing?”
“Yeah, that startled us, but it was weird because once we saw what it was I felt like everything was gonna be okay.”
“Yeah, what was that, Robber?” asked Max.
Katherine, did I really just...
Gar-kun... THAT WAS SO FREAKIN’ COOL!!! THAT WAS SO COOL THAT EVEN THE COOLEST GUY IN THE UNIVERSE CAN TAKE A LESSON FROM YOU!!!
I sighed. “You guys remember that I said that Dr. Clay wanted to use me as a weapon because of the latent abilities of my people? Well, that was a small taste of it - an actual sliver of my very own soul.”
“NO WAY,” said Kakizaki, taking a step back. “What was part of your soul!?”
I nodded. “Yeah. That’s what makes me so special. That beyond all the cool shit I got here, I can do that. There’s only one other human being I know of that can do that, and he’s my adoptive brother, Tenchi Masaki.”
Suddenly there was an loud pop on the other side of my door, followed shortly by two more.
“Is that door gonna hold, Garrick?”
“They can toss planet-busters at it and it won’t even scratch the paint. But all the same we shouldn’t linger. Katherine, utilize the sensors and find us a quiet spot in the ship were we won’t be noticed. And keep an eye out for Azonia’s ship. It’s bound to show up sometime soon.
“Roger-Doger Gar-kun!” came Katherine’s voice over the audio system. “Okay, I got one of the garage doors set up for you. You should be safe.”
“Okay guys, this way.” I led them all into the garage space and as I opened the door that had the green indicator over it, they all eyed the space, taking in my smithy, workshop, and tactical range.
“Christ, Garrick. How big is this place?”
“Not as big as you might think. I’m not even pushing a quarter of a square kilometer yet. But I can make this place as big as a full square kilometer if I needed to.”
“You could fit all of Macross City in here!” said Misa in shock.
“It is a contingency Katherine and I had in mind. A sort of break-glass-in-case-of-emergency thing. Oh, before we go we might as well arm up.”
I went to a special alcove and keyed in a few well remembered digits. A door opened and began to present weapons, one at a time, on magnetized mounts. As I removed one, the mount would retract and present another one.
This was the core of my on-demand weapon system - where it was kept inside my C-Space and would quickly deliver weapons through portals into me waiting hands.
“Max, after me you’re the best shot here. Take this. It’s a high-power laser rifle. It will fire a one-tenth second laser pulse at one terawatt per shot. I don’t think I need to explain how much respect this thing demands.”
Max gaped as I handed him Raiden’s Toothpick and I walked him through the features and operations in brief.
The next weapon I went for was End of the Quiet Day.
“Hayao, I got something special just for you. This is pretty much a forty millimeter grenade launcher, only with a ten round magazine. Be very careful with where you aim it - I got these magazines loaded with high explosive hi-frag rounds.” Hayao looked like a kid at Christmas time as I went over the operations and features.
“Hikaru, take this and be careful with it.”
“What is this thing?”
“I call it The Ugly Stick. It’s an 8-Gauge rifle-barrel semi-auto shotgun packing a drum mag with fifty 3.5” magnum shells. Normally those shells would be packing 1700-grain tungsten carbide penetrators, but having anticipated Zentradi these are instead fin-stabilized gyro-jet HE-AP rounds with PDD fuses. They are guaranteed to fuck up any Zentradi with one shot.”
“What am I getting?” asked Misa with a worried look on her face.
“The nastiest one of all. Say hello to Sunspark. It’s a fluorine-chemistry plasma cannon. SUPREMELY NOXIOUS. If you use this thing, ma’am, you better damn well mean it, because the poor sunuvabitch you hit with this thing is gonna have an extremely horrible end. Also, it has only two shots before I’ll need to replace the fuel cells for you. Keep that in mind as well.”
“Hidoi!” she uttered as she accepted the warm death machine.
I nodded. “I’m only giving it to you, ma’am, because no offense to the others, you’re the only one I feel is responsible enough to handle it.”
Max scoffed at that. “No fucking kidding!”
I showed Misa the ins and outs of the weapon and especially cautioned her to lower the flash glasses whenever she made ready to fire.
There was just one last thing I wanted to do before we left.
##
Katherine placed the door precisely inside a vent that fed into Breetai’s ready room. As I expected, he was in there doing paperwork - of which he undoubtedly had a great deal of given recent events. Shutting my door quietly behind me, I dismissed it, and from within the vent I called out.
“Hail Commander Breetai of the Adoclass Expeditionary Fleet. Ensign Garrick Grimm of Skull Squadron of the SDF-1 Macross respectfully wishes to parlay one last time.”
I heard Breetai scoff. “Is that so, Ensign? Very well. Come out wherever you are. I don’t believe any more damage can come of us exchanging words at this point.”
I stepped out of the vent and Breetai gave me a mildly bemused look.
“You are certainly more than you appear, Ensign. What was that back there?”
“Think of it as a special ability. Don’t worry, none of the rest of my compatriots have it. I’m an outlier because I’m actually a traveler from a distant world who wound up at Earth.”
Breetai nodded with a grunt. “Indeed. Given what you did before, I’d be hard pressed to believe it if it was in a formal report.” He then sighed and went on, “I’m not even going to ask about why you did what you did. The Supreme Commander, as much as I respect him, acted rashly. He backed you into a corner, so to speak, and you did what comes naturally in such a situation.
“Now between you and I, Ensign, how much that talk of yours was nonsense?”
“Sir, not one word. I presented my... adoptive people as best as I can. Though I fear that even if the Supreme Commander had accepted that at face value it would bode no good for my world.”
“You assume correctly, Ensign. For the time being, my actions as Commander of the Adoclass Fleet are under review, and Boldoza, after his prosthetic is fitted, will convene a meeting of his command staff to begin laying out plans for the elimination of your world.”
I sighed. “Can you provide a time frame?”
Breetai raised an eyebrow. “Now why would you ask such a thing as fleet movements of me? Surely you know that revealing such information is treasonous, at best.”
“Because I know you’re a good man, Breetai. And that you’ve come to appreciate my people, if for nothing other than our skill as warriors.”
“This I will admit. You micronians seem to have a certain X-factor that I believe has been missing from the Zentradi for many thousands of years. I will say this much: you have, at the very least, four months.”
“Thank you, sir. That might be just enough for us to at least survive and rebuild.”
“Now, how do you plan on getting back to your ship, Ensign?”
“We know that there’s a ship currently taking on supplies from your ship right now and it will be bound for my home system.
“Oh, did those three men volunteer to be spies?”
Breetai gave me a surprised look. “How did you know of that?”
I sighed. “Time is but a window. Space is but a doorway. Would you be so shocked to learn that I was once in another universe that had a window into this one?”
Breetai frowned. “If this is true, Ensign, then you are playing a very dangerous game.”
“Yes sir. The most dangerous possible. But it is one that I must play for the good of my conscience. I’ve saved many lives so far. And I hope to save many many more. Not only the lives of my fellow Terrans, but even Zentradi lives.”
Breetai frowned and gave me a thoughtful look. “What are you playing at, Ensign?”
“Revolution. Change. Hope. And a better tomorrow for both you and me.”
His look changed to one of surprise and shock. “You would have us defect to your side?”
“We may be a vengeful people, Sir, but we are also capable of great levels of forgiveness. We had to otherwise we would never have stopped fighting our myriad wars for even a minute.
“Besides, is it not always better to have a friend at your side than an enemy downfield?”
“Words of wisdom?” he asked.
“If you’d like to take it that way. Though I will offer the wisdom of one of our greatest strategian as a warning, Sir.
“‘If you know yourself and you know your enemy, you need not fear the results of a hundred battles. If you know heaven, and you know earth, then you may make your victory.
“‘If you know yourself, but not of the enemy, then for every victory gained, you will also suffer defeat.
“‘If you know not of yourself, nor of the enemy, then you will succumb in every battle.’”
“Wise words indeed, Ensign. Tell me, do you believe that they apply, though?”
I regarded Commander Breetai placidly. “I know you, Commander, and I know the Zentradi. I know my people and what they can and can’t do. We know our world and our solar system. It is our home.
“On the other hand, the Zentradi hardly know us at all. And, I suspect, you do not truly know yourselves.”
“And how is that so, Ensign?”
I smiled. “This is going to be something that I’ll leave for you to work out yourself, sir. Don’t worry about your men. I’ll make sure that they can gather all the information you want.”
“You mean the information that you want me to have.”
“I told the truth, Commander. Whether you accept that or not is up to you... but I hope that you do. Until next time, sir.”
With that, I stepped back into the vent and into my C-Space.
And so the die is cast. All that we await is the reaction that the UNS has to this news... Although we all know this to be a foregone conclusion.
Coming up next, revelations, celebrations, and even more revelations!
Oh, and someone learns that you never provoke the protagonist. It's never very good for your short-term health.
Once again, we were placed into a sack and transported. When we were dumped out, it was in a dark conference room of some kind. I suddenly felt like someone who’d been set up in a police interrogation room straight out of film noir.
Misa was quick to surreptitiously set her camera to record and I set up my C-Pod to do the same.
Breetai and Exedore were already present, along with three other familiar faces.
“Wow!” cried out the leader of the three man intelligence team. “The rumors were true! They really did capture the Micronian Ace!”
“Hey guys!” I called out happily. “Glad to see you’re doing good!”
“What? We can understand him!?”
Exedore nodded. “I have seen to it that a translation matrix is active to ease this interrogation. It seems to be working properly.”
“That’s great!” said the shortest of them. “Now we can finally introduce ourselves!” The then looked down at us, excited like a kid that was getting to meet his hero.
“I’m Group Leader Loli Dosel,” he said.
The larger one with red hair spoke up next. “I’m Senior Squadman Warera Nantes.”
And last was the tallest one with long purple hair. “And I’m Senior Squadman Conda Bromco.”
I stepped forward and said, “I’m Ensign Garrick Grimm. This here is my wingman, Ensign Hikaru Ichijou. These two are mine and Hikaru’s subordinates; Petty-Officer Maxwell Jenius, and Petty-Officer Hayao Kakizaki. The female here is our ranking officer, Lieutenant Junior Grade Misa Hayase.”
“We’re glad to meet you guys,” said Loli. “I uh. Kinda wish we could shake your hand, but you’re all Miclones.”
“That’s okay,” said Hikaru. “So why are you guys all excited to meet us anyhow?”
“You don’t KNOW!?” cried out Warera in shock. “This guy is the ace that was gonna throw down with Sub-Commander Kamjin Kravsha!”
“You mean that guy who’s had it out for Cradle Robber lately?” said Hayao.
“Cradle Robber?” said Exedore in puzzlement. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
We all shot Hayao dirty looks as he tried and utterly failed to look innocent.
Turning back to the Zentradi, I explained, “It’s a nick name based on a very tacky joke involving my personal circumstances. All of us pilots have nicknames like that, and more often than not they can be pretty degrading.”
“What an odd tradition,” said Exedore thoughtfully. “Do you always treat each other in such an informal manner?”
“Mostly just among us pilots, sir. In our culture, us pilots have always had a lot more leeway because of the dangers of our occupation. Though bomber crews are even worse - they’re so bad that it absolutely can’t be discussed in polite company.”
“I see,” said Exedore thoughtfully. “Yes, I can certainly see how personnel in such dangerous work would be so informal or even mocking with each other. One never knows if they’ll even return from a mission alive.”
Breetai nodded knowingly and said, “I myself find it interesting how you have managed to gain such respect among my men, Mr. Grimm. How is it that you came to be so skilled?”
I shrugged. “Sir, we all have varying talents. Ensign Ichijou is actually a much better pilot than I am. I’m just a helluva good marksman who knows how to fight dirty. Petty-Officer Kakizaki is pretty average but keeps up a bold front. Petty-Officer Jenius has incredible spacial awareness that lets him engage multiple opponents at once. And our own Commanding Officer is an outstanding prodigy as a line officer.”
A door at the far end of the room opened and a large, bald-headed Zentradi wearing a cloak entered. Right away, all the other Zentradi stood at attention and saluted. The cloaked Zentradi saluted back.
“Very well, be seated everyone,” he said gruffly. Once they had all settled into their seats, he looked down and addressed us all.
“I am Boldozaa, Supreme Commander of the Zentradi 118th Main Fleet. There are some things I wish to ask you.”
I stepped forward and introduced us. “Greetings Supreme Commander. I am Garrick Grimm, a low ranking officer and Valkyrie fighter pilot of the Super Dimensional Fortress Ship Macross of the United Nations Space Fleet. I have been asked to speak for my colleagues and I will attempt to answer to the best of our abilities.”
“Good. When did your people make contact with the Supervision Army.”
“My apologies, sir. We know nothing of this ‘Supervision Army’ and I suspect there may be a misunderstanding that needs to be cleared up. May I ask why you suspect the involvement of this group?”
Boldoza’s expression darkened. “How can you not understand when you use one of their gun ships?”
“That ship crash landed on our planet some time ago with no crew aboard. When we discovered that the ship was a war ship we reverse-engineered its technology, then rebuilt and refitted the ship so we can protect our world.”
There were surprised expressions all around at that, though Exedore was the first to regain his wits.
“You... You completely repaired a gun ship?” asked the smallest of the Zentradi.
“Yes, sir,” I replied. “It was perfectly within the scope of our industrial capabilities and our people are working towards building a fleet of our own. It’s projected that the first of these ships will be operational in about a year.”
Boldoza’s brow knitted up as he pondered that.
“Breetai,” said the Supreme Commander. “Tell me again what you know of their ship’s capabilities.”
“Yes your Excellency. I am uncertain as to the condition of the ship when it landed on their world, but by our last accounting it was severely damaged. It was thought that it would not survive another space-fold transition.”
Suddenly it all fell into place in my mind. Why there were absolutely no signs of a crew and yet it had appeared on our planet without warning.
“A DECOY!” I cried out.
“Excuse me, Micronian?” said Boldoza in a tone that made it clear that what I had to say had better be good.
“If the people you were after were your enemy, then what they probably did was abandoned the ship, and then programmed the computer to fold someplace else.”
“Your excellency, if I may?” said Exedore. Boldoza nodded to the archivist and he went on, “The Supervision Army has been known to do such things, even going as far as leaving their guship’s computers with instructions to automatically fire on our ships whenever they come into close proximity.”
“We concur, sir,” I added in. “When your ships came within the firing arc of the main gun, the ship’s computer took over and autonomously fired the weapon. We recognized it right away to be a booby trap left by the ship’s previous masters. If you so wish to, I am certain that if you bring this grievance to my people then a prompt formal apology will be issued. Our computer technicians should have been more thorough. It was perfectly within their capability to find the malignant instruction and purged it from the system.”
“You mean to say you have people that were able to reverse engineer the computer system as well?!” said Exedore in shock.
“Yes sir. There are entire industries on our world that are centered around not only computer programming, but also the design and manufacture of computer hardware as well. We are constantly striving to make improvements in these fields.”
“Protoculture!” hissed Boldoza.
“It can’t be!” said Exedore. “They were wiped out millions of years ago!”
“Sir,” I interrupted diffidently. “With due respect, we have no idea what that means.”
They all gave us thoughtful looks at that point.
Breetai spoke up first. “They had no knowledge of the Supervision Army. And little to no records remain of the Protoculture. He could very well be telling the truth.”
“Then how would they know such things as refitting ships and programming computers,” pondered Exedore.
“Tell us Micronian!” Boldoza demanded hotly. “How do your people know these things?”
“Well, we developed the technology on our own over the course of several tens of thousands of years,” I explained.
“Impossible!”
I shrugged. “Improbable. There’s a popular saying among my people: Nothing is impossible. The idea goes that if something seems impossible, then it’s only because no one has figured out how to do it yet.”
“But how can that be!?” said Boldoza, perplexed at such an idea. “What about war!?”
“Oh, there’s been plenty of war on our world,” I said. “And some of those wars were for reasons that might make even you, Supreme Commander, you lose your stomach. There have even been entire family lines on our world devoted to the art of war. But on the other hand, there have also been family lines devoted to logistics, to craftsmanship, and most importantly, family lines whose sole purpose was to rule over their empires.”
“It.... It makes sense, your excellency,” said Exedore, fitting the pieces together in his computer-like mind. “That is the only rational explanation - that they have people who are not warriors, but dedicated instead to studies and building. Not unlike us archivists, really, only with so many more schools and trades to choose from. And If their people really have been slowly developing themselves to the point where they can learn our own technology just by having an example to build from... then it is no wonder they have been confounding us with their reaction missiles - the potency of which we have not seen in thousands of years!”
“Point of fact,” I said, calling attention to myself. “Those missiles were of our own design. We’ve had thermonuclear reaction weapons for most of a century before that ship crashed on our world.”
If they had been surprised before, this had shocked them into total silence.
“So,” said Boldoza slowly. “You have people that are not warriors, then?”
“That is correct, sir. In fact, in this modern day, all people who are soldiers are volunteers - a concept known as the citizen-soldier.”
“Citizen-soldier?” said Breetai, puzzled by the very concept. “Explain.”
“Everyone in our society starts out as a civilian,” I replied. “That is, a non-combatant who is free to decide what role they will play in our society. Some choose to become soldiers and receive the appropriate training. Others choose to learn a trade or a skill that will support our society. Some of those trades and skills directly support our military. Others don’t.”
“Then what do they support if not the military?” asked Boldoza.
I shrugged. “It would be more appropriate to say, ‘What do they -NOT- support?’ We have trades and skills for a veritable cornucopia of of fields. All kinds of things such as food production, manufacturing, services, construction, and even entertainment.”
“We have some idea of those things. Most of those are handled by automated factories. But what is this ‘entertainment’ that you speak of?”
“Oh, ah... If I may answer by asking a question in return?”
“Go on then.”
“Yes sir. What do the Zentradi do for relaxation? Is there anything that your people do to take their mind off of things so they may rest their mental faculties?”
“We have no such things,” said Boldoza like a teacher shutting down a student with foolish ideas. “The only thing to take joy in is war! How can you say that war is not the focus of your existence?”
“We have scholars that debate that topic quite heatedly, actually. As I mentioned before, there have been many, many conflicts on our world. But we did not have automated factories. There had to be people that built the weapons and armor and war machines. There had to be people that managed the logistics of moving food, weapons, munitions, and all the other sundries of war.
“In response to your original query about entertainment, well... simply put, entertainment is activities meant to distract ourselves for a little time.”
“Distract yourselves?” said Boldoza, almost repulsed by the idea. “Why would you ever want that? Distractions get soldiers killed.”
“It’s a different case. For us, Entertainment is typically mutually exclusive from war and has it’s own time and place outside the field of battle.”
“Very well then, but that still does not satisfy my curiosity, Micronian. Why would your people wish to distract themselves in such a way.”
I gave Boldozaa a hard look, then looked to Commander Breetai. “Sir? How many friends have you lost in the time you’ve been alive?”
Breetai looked surprised that I would ask such a thing, but he answered regardless.
“I have lost count,” he said heavily.
“How many times do you wish that your old comrades could be fighting at your side once again?”
“Not a day goes by...” And there in his voice was a sound close to mourning.
“That is why we have our distractions,” I said, barely loud enough for them to hear. “They help take our minds off of these heavy emotions. Sometimes, they can even bring great joy. And I will admit, there are some among us that overuse these distractions. For them the world is a terrible place that they cannot bear and seek only to get themselves drunk off these distractions. Trust me, if you think it is a terrible waste, we think so as well. But there is no avoiding it. Sometimes there are people born among us that simply do not have the stomach to handle life’s rigors.”
“Born?” said Boldoza, looking to shift the topic. “What is this word supposed to mean?”
“Ah,” I said, trying to think fast. Not only would this be a thorny subject to navigate, but I had to do so while being and concise. “Your people do not use sexual reproduction?”
“I have no idea what you even mean, Micronian.”
“Eeeyyyyeee,” I said, wincing. This was going to be really tough to pull off, so I opted to be upfront about my reservations. “Forgive my reticence, sir, but this is going to cover a number of topics that are considered taboo or simply downright rude to discuss openly.”
“You think that matters to us?” replied Boldoza with a raised eyebrow.
“No, I don’t,” I said. “But it will matter quite a bit to my superior officer, especially as she’s of the opposite gender.”
“What does that have to do with it?” said the Surpreme Commander as that flew completely over his head. Naturally.
“Everything,” I replied flatly.
They all blinked at me. They simply had absolutely no idea about where this was going to go.
“Go on, then,” said Boldoza.
“Okay. I’ll start with the very bare-bones technical aspects of this. Sexual reproduction is basically an exchange of genetic material to create a new life from the DNA of two people - a male and a female.”
“Why does it have to be a male and a female?” wondered Exedore.
I shrugged. “That’s simply how the biology works out. Delving into somewhat taboo territory here, Females are the ones who are built to develop and grow a new life inside their bodies and males simply supply them with their own DNA to help start the process.”
“Ah!” said Exedore as the light in the attic came on. “Your excellency, perhaps he is referring to the seemingly superfluous organs that females possess.”
“Impossible!” snapped Boldoza. “Then how does this process take place?”
I grimaced at that and said, “Very VERY Taboo! Okay... The technical term is sexual intercourse. In essence, a male injects his genetic material into the female’s child-bearing orifice and if the timing is correct, there will a special cell waiting inside her child-bearing organ. The male genetic material combines with this cell, and rapid growth begins. Over the course of nine months, an infant is grown within the woman, and through a very laborious process she forces it out through her child bearing orifice. The new born child is completely helpless and is reliant on its mother to survive until it can do so on its own.”
No one said a word as they stared at me in utter horror at what I had just described.
“I’m guessing that you use some kind of cloning process instead?” I asked.
“That is accurate,” said Exedore. “How long are these... newborns helpless for?”
“Well, it’s varying degrees over a period of a couple of decades. Granted, in our second decade of life we’re pretty well autonomous, but we’re still very young and very inexperienced, so some supervision and guidance is still needed. But during the first few months, no degree of neglect can be permitted. Especially during their first two weeks. During those two weeks a newborn absolutely must be fed every two to four hours. And yes, that is every bit as hectic as it sounds - a common theme among new mothers is a lack of sleep.
“Fortunately, food itself isn’t usually a problem, as a newborn child will suckle milk produced by the mother’s mammary glands.”
“Mammary glands?” asked Exedore.
I turned to Misa with an apologetic look. “Ah... Sorry ma’am, I mean no offense. But you see how she has those growths on her chest? Those are mammary glands. If she were to have a child, her body will generate hormones that cause them to create lactose proteins in a liquid form that are easy for a newborn to digest with their still developing bodies.
“And with that we now depart taboo territory.”
There were still somewhat shell shocked, but Exedore was silently mulling this over.
“As a child grows larger and stronger, they will eventually be able to eat food. Generally, it needs to be processed into a fine paste because infants are not born with teeth - they have to grow in from their jaws. (And yes, that is a painful process for the infant.) But as their teeth come in, they’ll be able to eat foods that are progressively more... solid.
“In about six to twelve months, most infants are weened - steadily getting fewer and fewer feedings from the mother’s mammaries, and more and more solid food. By the time they’re two years old, they’re able to eat all the solid foods adults eat, but they’re still fairly helpless as they have not yet learned to control their bladders and a bowels. Unfortunately, this is something that needs to be taught, and most children are expected to have mastered this by the time they’re four years old, with moderate progress having been made at three years of age.
“At two years, basic knowledge is slowly learned. A child’s mind is super-active, making thousands and thousands of neuron connections every day. Over time, they learn language - spoken at first, but at around four years old they’re expected to start learning to read and write. By this time they’re also expected to have learned how to count, basic color and shape recognition, and basic social conduct.
“Formal education typically begins between the ages of four and six years. For the next five years, they learn basic mathematics and proper usage of their native language as well as local geography and political boundaries, and a general summary of our history. After that, they move into secondary education, where for the next five or six years they learn more advanced forms of math, as well as a more detailed summary of our history, basic sciences, human anatomy, and a host of other topics.
“After this, they are considered ‘young adults’ and are free to pursue higher education with the aim of taking up work in a field of their choice or even volunteering for service in the military.
“And that about covers it.”
“So, you are all... born... even smaller than you are, and you grow to your size over the course of two decades?” said Exedore, slowly putting all the pieces together.
“Yes sir.”
“Tell me micronian,” said Boldoza as he recovered his wits. “How is it that two micronians are chosen to... reproduce? Do you use some kind of system to ensure desired genetic traits are present in the... next generation?”
“In most cases, sir, no such system exists. There used to be systems in the past, but these were mainly politically driven. You see, the pairing of a male and female is generally an important part of our society. The ideal is that once paired off, they stay together for the rest of their lives - two separate halves that work cooperatively in raising their offspring.
“As for managed pairing systems, as I said, many of them were politically influenced to build family ties between kingdoms and empires, and pairing off with the common people they ruled over was a serious taboo.
“However, once genetics was understood by our scientists, there were some that desired to create a breeding program in an effort to, as you said, to encourage desirable genetic traits.
“Unfortunately, this also had political influences that eventually resulted in one of the most violent wars in my people’s history.”
“Well, then how do you choose now?”
“It’s simple. Evolution has provided us with a built-in mechanism for this. We call it attraction for the way two members of opposing gender are drawn together. It works based mostly on the physical appearance of the perspective partners.”
“Oh? How so?”
I turned once more to Misa. “Ma’am, if I may use you for an example?”
“You may, pilot,” she replied in mild bemusement.
“Alright. Among my people, my superior officer here is considered very attractive for several reasons. The part that jumps out most frequently for us males is the spacing of her hips - wider hips indicates a female who is far less likely to experience complications in birthing offspring.
“Next is the evenness of her features. Not all of us have precisely symmetrical features. It is hard for us to consciously recognize it as it is a very subtle thing, but our subconscious minds see it clear as day, and it reflects in a negative or positive reaction. For my superior, as you can see her features are excellently balanced, greatly increasing her attractiveness.
“Finally, there is her physical fitness. A female with some degree of softness to her features is highly desirable as it indicates that her body maintains good reserves of energy that will contribute to her ability to grow an offspring within her.
“Additionally, there is one other aspect to physical attraction that only affects smaller segments of our population. You may notice that some of us have slightly different facial features. This is because our peoples developed in different and somewhat isolated regions of our world, leading to differing appearances over the course of many generations. However, there have been times where inbreeding was an issue for smaller enclaves in highly isolated locales. To help ensure a healthy gene pool, evolution permitted a tendency for some of us to prefer a partner that is obviously from a different locale.
“Of course, there are other traits that factor in as well, but these are entirely based on behavior patterns which are observed during an investigative period we call ‘dating’. We call them ‘dates’ because meetings where we investigate each other are important, and so we set time aside for it - a time and date.
“Behavioral patterns are important because it factors into child rearing. Some date simply for the enjoyment of learning about another person. Others do so with the intention of finding a person to pair off with.
“Sometimes the observation can be done at a distance without dating. This is called ‘stalking’ and when it turns into an obsession it is most emphatically not a desirable behavior as it can be indicative of an unhealthy mental state prone to undue monomania.
“In my case, there is a young female who observed my behavior for a short time. She judged me to be attractive in very short order based on my even features and, to her, my foreign appearance. Over a period of a few days, my actions were observed during a time of crisis for which she was present. We had found ourselves isolated in an unmodified section of the gunship and uncertain that we would be able to find our way back into the known areas.
“I demonstrated my ability to keep calm in a bad situation, which is an extremely attractive behavioral trait. She also found my intellect to be highly attractive, as I was able to suss out that we were in a former cargo hold and began a systematic search for containers with useful items. As such I was able to procure a supply of food and water for drinking and bathing.
“My past experience and intellect also provided a means of rescue. I have had past experience with war ships, and thus I knew that opening and closing an important door, such as an air lock, would have been indicated on a status display somewhere, and someone would come to investigate for either a malfunction or an intrusion. After only seven days of being lost, we were discovered by the maintenance team sent to investigate the airlock and were guided back into the known portions of the gun ship.
“Now, generally it’s considered taboo for someone my age to pair off with a female as young as her; She’s only sixteen years of age. Generally, it’s expected that I leave her for someone closer to her own age to pair off with. However, there are some that prefer an older, much more experienced partner to pair off with, and such seems to be the case of this female. Additionally, she has demonstrated a great degree of self sufficiency and capability for her age despite her lack of experience, so she is granted some leeway in how she selects someone to pair off with.
“As a matter of fact, you should have some recordings of entertainment that she created. I myself curated the collection that was sent to you with the men we repatriated. Such is her attraction towards me that she made several of those entertainment recordings dedicated towards me.”
“I do believe I know what he speaks of,” said Exedore. “In one such recording, a female prefaces it by saying she made the recording for this very Micronian, mentioning him by name. And then she mentioned something else. She said that she ‘loves’ him, though I have no idea what that means.”
“It’s the emotional bond we form with other people,” I explained. “There are varying degrees of love - love for a brother or sister. Love of a friend or comrade. There is even love for your own people in general. But most important to us of all is the love of our life-partners. Though not considered to always be the deepest and most selfless form of love, it is a central theme among our people. This emotional bond is what helps keep life-partners together during trying times.
“Though in some cases this emotional bond is not enough or it fades over time. It’s considered a sad thing among my people when it happens. It typically centers around a point of contention that the two partners are unable to resolve. Sometimes the separation is amicable - where the two simply agree that the situation is not as mutually beneficial as they once believed it to be. At other times, the separation is a bitter and acrimonious one. Such was the point of contention that the anger and resentment colors each partner’s view of each other.”
“I’ve heard enough of this prattle,” said Boldoza. “I don’t believe you fully appreciate the situation you’re in. we have enough power to destroy your ship as well as your entire world in and instant. Observe this planet.”
A holographic display all around the conference table resolved, showing a massive Zentradi fleet closing in on a world. It was a mostly white planet - icy and rugged with some small patches of greenery. It reminded me very much of the tundras of Alaska and Siberia. And then all at once, the massive fleet spat a volley of fire from their main guns.
The result was horrifying.
The entire atmosphere churned and boiled as it absorbed the energy from all those blasts. The footage was then accelerated so we could see as the atmosphere simply evaporated away into space.
What had once been rugged snow capped mountains, frozen seas, and cold but lush tundras, only a surface that resembled our moon remained.
While my compatriots were aghast, I slowly turned to Boldoza.
“Was that planet inhabited?”
Boldoza harrumphed. “What does it matter, Micronian. The point is do you wish for the same thing to happen to your world? Now tell me the truth. Was everything you told us just now some kind of fabrication?”
I glared up at him.
Katherine?
Say the word, Garrick. Say it and I will rip him apart.
That won’t be necessary. We need a statement, not a manifesto.
...It’s pretty bad news if you’re quoting Tarkin.
But no less true. Put Star Spark into hot standby.
Right away.
To Boldoza, though, I felt that I should make a point by imparting to him a bit of our own antiquated history.
“On my world, we have a legend about the life-partner, the wife, of a King of a land called Kieven Rus’. We venerate her as Saint Olga of Kiev. The King was slain, you see, as he went out to seek tribute from a tribe common people he ruled over known as the Drevlians.
“The legend goes that afterwards, the Drevlians came to the widowed Olga and offered their own prince to her to be wed to, seeking to boost their status by having their own prince become the ruler of the lands.
“Olga, however, already had a child by her late husband, and knew that if she married this prince that her son would never be King. In fact, the child might even be killed to prevent any rebellions.
“The Drevlians, for their part, sent twenty of their best men to convince her to be wed to their prince. She had them cast into a pit and buried them all while they were still alive.
“But she was not satisfied. They had killed her husband and she would not stop until she had crushed their entire people as revenge. So she sent word back to the offending Drevlians that she would marry their prince, but only if their most distinguished men came to escort her to their land.
“When they arrived, she bade them to bathe in a bathhouse she had her people build especially for them. It was, of course, a trap. The building was sealed and set aflame, burning them all alive.
“She then invited what remained of their upper class to a mourning feast in honor of her husband. The tribe, not knowing what had happened to the previous envoys, responded obligingly. Five thousand nobles and leaders came to the feast, and Saint Olga’s men waited on them, plying them with wine and ale until they were all drunk.
“And then just like that her men put them all to the sword, slaughtering them all like animals before they could even react in their drunken stupor.
“Finally, she declared open war and led her men to lay siege to their city. With the greatest of their leaders all dead they struggled to fend her off. After a time, she sent word to them - that she would be placated if they sent birds from each house in the city to her.
“This was a ruse as well. Birds, as you may know, will always return to their homes to roost. She had bits of sulfur tied to each bird and set them free. When the bits of sulfur came into contact with the phosphorus bearing bird dung, the sulfur ignited and set the entire city ablaze. Not a single building was spared.
“Her army then marched on the city and completely crushed them all, practically annihilating their people.
“So, Supreme Commander, I would caution you in dealing with us so rashly. For my people are very well versed in the art of revenge. And believe me, we will have revenge. Even if there is only one of us left alive, that one would seek you out. Play to your favor. And then when you least expect it, they will slit your throat and leave you to bleed out like an animal in the slaughterhouse.
“Do not tread on us.”
Boldoza suddenly slammed a fist on the table staggering us all. “I’LL TREAD OVER WHOEVER I PLEASE, MICRONIAN!” And before any of us could regain our footing, his other hand swept down to scoop up Misa Hayase and hold her overhead in a tight grip. Misa cried out under the pressure.
“Now tell me the truth, Micronian! Or else I will crush your commanding officer right here in my hand!”
I have a long fuse. It’s practically one of my defining characteristics. Oh, I’ll get angry alright, but it’s always like a slow simmer in a pressure cooker, building pressure until I can let it go through one means or another.
But this?
I didn’t even feel this with Tirek. Back then, it was only a cold certainty and knowing what I had to do.
This was Mount Saint Helens blowing it’s entire summit off.
“you think you have POWER OVER ME!!! I’LL SHOW YOU THE TRUE MEANING OF POWER!!!”
I howled my battlecry, the one that was guaranteed to raise anyone’s hackles and scare the mortal soul out of anything in earshot.
I didn’t see anyone’s faces - only my objective: Boldoza’s wrist. The one that held Misa tight.
There was a blade in my hand. Katherine likely gave it to me - I wasn’t sure which one it was. By the balance it felt like First Cut, but the weight was more like Funaho’s Sliver. But that didn’t really matter. All that did matter was that I make this a quick and clean cut.
It felt so natural. The movement so pure and so sweet. It was like when Chevy Chase exhorted in Caddyshack to be the ball. This was far beyond being the ball. This was seeing everything from a thousand angles. This was the universe itself parting way for me.
This was the most utterly beautiful expression of a cut there ever could possibly be.
There was no resistance at all. For a split second as I hung at the apogee of my leap it seemed that I’d done nothing. But then a fine line appeared in his skin, like a seem in a cabinet being uncovered from the sawdust. Boldoza’s hand slowly began to fall away from his wrist. I reached out to Misa who grabbed my arm, us pulling together to free her from the now-slack hand. Without even calling for it, Katherine activated the Emergency Escape, the hole appearing below mine and Misa’s feet.
Just as we slipped through, bellows of outrage filled the air, but only for a split second as the ‘hatch’ irised shut over our heads. Misa and I drifted gently down to the floor of my C-Space where Hikaru, Max, and Hayao waited for us.
“Garrick, what the hell was that!?” cried out Hikaru as we set down.
“What do you mean? I cut his hand off,” I replied as it should have been obvious.
“Not that, boss!” said Hayao with a look of awe on his face. “You did it with a giant-ass glowing sword!”
“What, you mean my sword, Otouto?” I held up my right arm...
...except my hand was empty.
“What?” I said.
“What’s wrong?”
“Did I leave my sword back there?”
“No, it just... dissipated.”
“Dissipated... as in not just ‘disappear’?”
“Yeah, it was like it turned into a whole bunch of lights like glowing grains of sand and they all faded out.”
“Wait. Glowing? As in the whole sword was glowing?”
“Yeah, that startled us, but it was weird because once we saw what it was I felt like everything was gonna be okay.”
“Yeah, what was that, Robber?” asked Max.
Katherine, did I really just...
Gar-kun... THAT WAS SO FREAKIN’ COOL!!! THAT WAS SO COOL THAT EVEN THE COOLEST GUY IN THE UNIVERSE CAN TAKE A LESSON FROM YOU!!!
I sighed. “You guys remember that I said that Dr. Clay wanted to use me as a weapon because of the latent abilities of my people? Well, that was a small taste of it - an actual sliver of my very own soul.”
“NO WAY,” said Kakizaki, taking a step back. “What was part of your soul!?”
I nodded. “Yeah. That’s what makes me so special. That beyond all the cool shit I got here, I can do that. There’s only one other human being I know of that can do that, and he’s my adoptive brother, Tenchi Masaki.”
Suddenly there was an loud pop on the other side of my door, followed shortly by two more.
“Is that door gonna hold, Garrick?”
“They can toss planet-busters at it and it won’t even scratch the paint. But all the same we shouldn’t linger. Katherine, utilize the sensors and find us a quiet spot in the ship were we won’t be noticed. And keep an eye out for Azonia’s ship. It’s bound to show up sometime soon.
“Roger-Doger Gar-kun!” came Katherine’s voice over the audio system. “Okay, I got one of the garage doors set up for you. You should be safe.”
“Okay guys, this way.” I led them all into the garage space and as I opened the door that had the green indicator over it, they all eyed the space, taking in my smithy, workshop, and tactical range.
“Christ, Garrick. How big is this place?”
“Not as big as you might think. I’m not even pushing a quarter of a square kilometer yet. But I can make this place as big as a full square kilometer if I needed to.”
“You could fit all of Macross City in here!” said Misa in shock.
“It is a contingency Katherine and I had in mind. A sort of break-glass-in-case-of-emergency thing. Oh, before we go we might as well arm up.”
I went to a special alcove and keyed in a few well remembered digits. A door opened and began to present weapons, one at a time, on magnetized mounts. As I removed one, the mount would retract and present another one.
This was the core of my on-demand weapon system - where it was kept inside my C-Space and would quickly deliver weapons through portals into me waiting hands.
“Max, after me you’re the best shot here. Take this. It’s a high-power laser rifle. It will fire a one-tenth second laser pulse at one terawatt per shot. I don’t think I need to explain how much respect this thing demands.”
Max gaped as I handed him Raiden’s Toothpick and I walked him through the features and operations in brief.
The next weapon I went for was End of the Quiet Day.
“Hayao, I got something special just for you. This is pretty much a forty millimeter grenade launcher, only with a ten round magazine. Be very careful with where you aim it - I got these magazines loaded with high explosive hi-frag rounds.” Hayao looked like a kid at Christmas time as I went over the operations and features.
“Hikaru, take this and be careful with it.”
“What is this thing?”
“I call it The Ugly Stick. It’s an 8-Gauge rifle-barrel semi-auto shotgun packing a drum mag with fifty 3.5” magnum shells. Normally those shells would be packing 1700-grain tungsten carbide penetrators, but having anticipated Zentradi these are instead fin-stabilized gyro-jet HE-AP rounds with PDD fuses. They are guaranteed to fuck up any Zentradi with one shot.”
“What am I getting?” asked Misa with a worried look on her face.
“The nastiest one of all. Say hello to Sunspark. It’s a fluorine-chemistry plasma cannon. SUPREMELY NOXIOUS. If you use this thing, ma’am, you better damn well mean it, because the poor sunuvabitch you hit with this thing is gonna have an extremely horrible end. Also, it has only two shots before I’ll need to replace the fuel cells for you. Keep that in mind as well.”
“Hidoi!” she uttered as she accepted the warm death machine.
I nodded. “I’m only giving it to you, ma’am, because no offense to the others, you’re the only one I feel is responsible enough to handle it.”
Max scoffed at that. “No fucking kidding!”
I showed Misa the ins and outs of the weapon and especially cautioned her to lower the flash glasses whenever she made ready to fire.
There was just one last thing I wanted to do before we left.
##
Katherine placed the door precisely inside a vent that fed into Breetai’s ready room. As I expected, he was in there doing paperwork - of which he undoubtedly had a great deal of given recent events. Shutting my door quietly behind me, I dismissed it, and from within the vent I called out.
“Hail Commander Breetai of the Adoclass Expeditionary Fleet. Ensign Garrick Grimm of Skull Squadron of the SDF-1 Macross respectfully wishes to parlay one last time.”
I heard Breetai scoff. “Is that so, Ensign? Very well. Come out wherever you are. I don’t believe any more damage can come of us exchanging words at this point.”
I stepped out of the vent and Breetai gave me a mildly bemused look.
“You are certainly more than you appear, Ensign. What was that back there?”
“Think of it as a special ability. Don’t worry, none of the rest of my compatriots have it. I’m an outlier because I’m actually a traveler from a distant world who wound up at Earth.”
Breetai nodded with a grunt. “Indeed. Given what you did before, I’d be hard pressed to believe it if it was in a formal report.” He then sighed and went on, “I’m not even going to ask about why you did what you did. The Supreme Commander, as much as I respect him, acted rashly. He backed you into a corner, so to speak, and you did what comes naturally in such a situation.
“Now between you and I, Ensign, how much that talk of yours was nonsense?”
“Sir, not one word. I presented my... adoptive people as best as I can. Though I fear that even if the Supreme Commander had accepted that at face value it would bode no good for my world.”
“You assume correctly, Ensign. For the time being, my actions as Commander of the Adoclass Fleet are under review, and Boldoza, after his prosthetic is fitted, will convene a meeting of his command staff to begin laying out plans for the elimination of your world.”
I sighed. “Can you provide a time frame?”
Breetai raised an eyebrow. “Now why would you ask such a thing as fleet movements of me? Surely you know that revealing such information is treasonous, at best.”
“Because I know you’re a good man, Breetai. And that you’ve come to appreciate my people, if for nothing other than our skill as warriors.”
“This I will admit. You micronians seem to have a certain X-factor that I believe has been missing from the Zentradi for many thousands of years. I will say this much: you have, at the very least, four months.”
“Thank you, sir. That might be just enough for us to at least survive and rebuild.”
“Now, how do you plan on getting back to your ship, Ensign?”
“We know that there’s a ship currently taking on supplies from your ship right now and it will be bound for my home system.
“Oh, did those three men volunteer to be spies?”
Breetai gave me a surprised look. “How did you know of that?”
I sighed. “Time is but a window. Space is but a doorway. Would you be so shocked to learn that I was once in another universe that had a window into this one?”
Breetai frowned. “If this is true, Ensign, then you are playing a very dangerous game.”
“Yes sir. The most dangerous possible. But it is one that I must play for the good of my conscience. I’ve saved many lives so far. And I hope to save many many more. Not only the lives of my fellow Terrans, but even Zentradi lives.”
Breetai frowned and gave me a thoughtful look. “What are you playing at, Ensign?”
“Revolution. Change. Hope. And a better tomorrow for both you and me.”
His look changed to one of surprise and shock. “You would have us defect to your side?”
“We may be a vengeful people, Sir, but we are also capable of great levels of forgiveness. We had to otherwise we would never have stopped fighting our myriad wars for even a minute.
“Besides, is it not always better to have a friend at your side than an enemy downfield?”
“Words of wisdom?” he asked.
“If you’d like to take it that way. Though I will offer the wisdom of one of our greatest strategian as a warning, Sir.
“‘If you know yourself and you know your enemy, you need not fear the results of a hundred battles. If you know heaven, and you know earth, then you may make your victory.
“‘If you know yourself, but not of the enemy, then for every victory gained, you will also suffer defeat.
“‘If you know not of yourself, nor of the enemy, then you will succumb in every battle.’”
“Wise words indeed, Ensign. Tell me, do you believe that they apply, though?”
I regarded Commander Breetai placidly. “I know you, Commander, and I know the Zentradi. I know my people and what they can and can’t do. We know our world and our solar system. It is our home.
“On the other hand, the Zentradi hardly know us at all. And, I suspect, you do not truly know yourselves.”
“And how is that so, Ensign?”
I smiled. “This is going to be something that I’ll leave for you to work out yourself, sir. Don’t worry about your men. I’ll make sure that they can gather all the information you want.”
“You mean the information that you want me to have.”
“I told the truth, Commander. Whether you accept that or not is up to you... but I hope that you do. Until next time, sir.”
With that, I stepped back into the vent and into my C-Space.
And so the die is cast. All that we await is the reaction that the UNS has to this news... Although we all know this to be a foregone conclusion.
Coming up next, revelations, celebrations, and even more revelations!