Genesis

bore.

Two pods stationed on the cliffs at the edge of town poured intense fire at the Veritech as it climbed directly at them. Rick heard Minmei echo his own moan of fear.

Roy stayed dead on course, releasing more missiles when the time was exactly right. The pods went up like a pair of Roman candles, and Roy zoomed into the clear, headed for SDF-1.

The dimensional fortress, its protecting fighters deployed all around it, had achieved a low orbit.

'Shifting to horizontal propulsion,' Lisa's voice rang through the fleet, and the enigmatic main engines sent a river of force through the primary thrusters at the ship's stern. Blue infernos raved, and the SDF-1 gathered speed, moving for a higher orbit.

'Stand by for fighter retrieval,' Lisa went on. 'All planes return to carrier bays. Over.'

'This is Sepia Three. Roger, Control, returning for retrieval.'

On the flight decks, the crews prepared for the feverish, dangerous work ahead. The fleet was still on combat alert, subject to attack at any time. Every attempted landing must be a 'trap'-successful-because there was no time to waste on «bolters» that would have to be repeated.

The teams swarmed to their mother ship; everyone from Gloval on down sweated each second of the retrieval. 'Lisa, please report whether we have all fighters safely aboard,' Gloval said after an eternity.

'Yes, sir.' The answer came quickly. 'Those were the last two, sir. All others are accounted for except for Commander Fokker and VT one-zero-two.'

'Good. I don't think we have to worry about Commander Fokker.' Gloval rose. 'Vanessa, show me the current orbital data for Armor One and Armor Ten.'

Vanessa punched up the information. 'Yes, sir. They're both approaching Rendezvous Point Charlie right on schedule. We should be making contact with them in about two-niner minutes.'

'Very good. Claudia, any sign of enemy craft?'

'No, Captain. It's all clear.'

'Excuse me, Captain, but isn't that strange?' Lisa asked. 'After launching a massive attack from orbit, why isn't the enemy continuing their attack? It doesn't make sense, does it?'

Gloval usually kept his own counsel but admitted now, 'That's bothering me too. There has to be a reason they're just playing with us. They have the advantage, but they don't attack. But why?'

The bridge crew exchanged troubled looks with one another.

Roy's fighter climbed smoothly out of the atmosphere, making for the dimensional fortress. Inside, though, things were a little stormier.

'She doesn't want to go to the ship, Roy!' Rick insisted. 'She wants to go back to Macross Island!'

Roy, lips pulled back in anger, snarled at Rick's image on his screen. 'Are you crazy? Macross is crawling with aliens! It'd be suicide for her to go back there! Did she give you any reason?'

Minmei butted in, 'I'm worried about my aunt and uncle back in the shelter, with all those invaders around them!'

'They're perfectly safe there,' Roy insisted. 'The shelters are impregnable; this is what they were built for.'

Minmei looked winsome even when she was being stubborn. 'But I still want to go back to Macross. It's my home!'

Roy shook his head slowly. 'I promise, as soon as this trouble's over, I'll take you back there personally.'

'What d'you mean you'll take her?' Rick blurted. 'I will!' He heard Minmei make a little shocked sound and realized how possessive he'd sounded. 'Uh, that is…'

'Hold on a second, Rick,' Roy said, and switched his attention to the mammoth ship looming before him. 'This is Skull Leader to SDF-1, over.'

Lisa's tone was vexed. 'Did you find him?'

Roy answered wryly, 'He was annoying a young lady. I had to rescue her as well.'

'You rat!' Rick snapped.

Lisa had both screens up on her board, looking Rick Hunter over and not missing Minmei, who was leaning in over his shoulder. Hunter was obviously a wet-behind-the-ears kid and a discipline problem to boot, she saw. As for the girl-well, she was pretty in a way, Lisa supposed, if you liked that type.

'So that's our civilian pilot,' Lisa said. 'I wondered why he didn't know how to fly his aircraft.'

Rick recognized those as fighting words. 'Who's that old sourpuss, Roy?'

Lisa drew back as if he'd thrown ice water in her face. Old sourpuss? The rest of the bridge gang was very discreet about swapping startled but amused looks.

Roy couldn't help laughing out loud. 'That old sourpuss is our Control and the ship's First Officer, Lisa Hayes. And if she looks old to you, you're not as grown up as I thought, kid.'

Lisa grimaced and cut in, 'Now, listen up, Commander Fokker! You'd better have a good explanation for turning a Veritech fighter over to an amateur civilian pilot! You could face a court-martial for this, or hadn't you thought about that?'

Luckily for all concerned, she didn't notice that Gloval was stifling his laughter off to one side. He hastily resumed a straight face.

'Ooo, she's mad,' Roy said blithely.

'As for you, Rick Hunter,' Lisa bore on, 'you're in a lot of trouble, whether you know it or not!'

Somehow, gallantry seemed to melt away now that there was no danger and people were talking about legal proceedings. He gestured to Minmei helplessly. 'This whole thing's because of her, you see…'

Minmei didn't seem offended, but she confided, 'I think you'd better apologize, Rick. Women her age can get awful mean, you know.'

Lisa Hayes silently counted to ten, trying to keep from putting her fist through the screen.

'Bridge Control, this is Skull Leader requesting landing instructions,' Roy reminded her. 'Give us a bay number you old sourpuss.'

This time there was no controlling it, and the rest of Lisa's bridge gang broke up in giggles. She clenched her fists but somehow kept her rage contained.

'Roger. Bring your plane into bay zero-niner.' And I hope it's the last I see of you, Rick Hunter!

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

It is no exaggeration to say that we found the inhabitants of the planet surprising. Quite tenacious and determined in battle, and yet not as suicidal-not as mindlessly ferocious-as, for example, the Invid.

But if they surprised me, surely, I thought, we would awe them by an overwhelming application of force. The thing upon which I did not count was how very much like us they were.

Exedore, from his Military Intelligence Analysis Report

The beaches of Macross Island were now a staging area for the Zentraedi withdrawal. Immense saucershaped landing craft pulled themselves along the shoreline, their huge access hatches lowered over the breaking waves.

With the SDF-1 gone, the pods had no further reason to be on the island; the shelters were of no interest to them, and no serious effort had been made to breach the human fortifications. Ironically, the Zentraedi's iron warrior code kept them from realizing the value of hostages; hostages were of no significance at all to them, and