Macross Fan Fiction ❯ The Future ❯ Believe ( Chapter 1 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

By: LisaV

The Future

Chapter One:

Dreams,

Which are the children of an idle brain,

Begot of nothing but vain fantasy,

Which is as thin of substance as the air

And more inconstant than the wind. --- Shakespeare

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----- On Board Breetai's Battlecruiser in Hyperspace -----

"No!" she screamed and came out of the nightmare with a force that had her sitting up, disorientated and empty. She was drenched in sweat and tears. Remembering the dream, a fear so intense seized hold of her heart and she found it hard to breathe, let alone move.

Awake now, Lisa couldn't stop crying. The harder she tried, the more the tears came. A part of her tried to brush it aside but deep down she knew this was no ordinary dream. She had felt this way only twice in her life and both times she had watched them come to pass.

The first time, she had been too young and didn't understand it. The second time, she had been in denial but this time, she would not--could not make the same mistake again.

Not this time! I have to stop it!

Ever so slowly she reached for her personal intercom and called Rick Hunter's private line. After what seemed like a long time, she heard his groggy voice.

“Look, Captain Hayes, its 0400 hours in the morning...”

She winced at his harsh tone but forced herself to speak to him. “Rick, Rick... I'm...,” and she stopped for tears and grief had choked her speechless. She couldn't tell him anything but cry harder than before and she doubled over, dropping her personal intercom.

“Lisa? Lisa, what's wrong?!”

Rick quickly sat up in bed when he heard the click, signaling the end of the transmission. Awake now, he ran a hand through his dark hair and hastily got out of bed. He ordered the lights in his sleeping quarter on and found his uniform on the floor.

In less than five minutes, he was out the door and running toward Lisa's quarters. Thoughts of concern and apprehension raced across this mind. He wondered what had happened.

He knew it couldn't be an attack for there was no siren ordering him to scramble. More importantly, they were on their way back to Earth. The mission to secure the Robotech Factory Satellite was a success. Commander Reno's forces had surrendered without firing a single shot at them.

Pressing the button on Lisa's door he became impatient and began banging on it.

“Captain Hayes! Lisa! Open up! It's me, Rick.”

Nothing.

“If you don't open this door right now, I'm going to call security... ”

The Lisa who finally opened the door for him was someone he had never seen before. She was a mess. Her hair was tangled, limped and covering most of her face; her eyes were puffy and so lifeless, they scared him.

Her face was ashen and she had her arms around herself as if she was in pain. He automatically reached for her, but she shrank from him as if afraid of him. She moved back into her living quarter and he followed her as the door closed behind him.

Worried now, he asked her again what happened but she remained silent and continued to stare at him as if not seeing him. He saw her swaying then and as if in slow motion, he saw her falling.

No! Lisa!

He reacted on instinct and caught her before she hit the floor. Not knowing what else to do, he carried her to her sleeping quarter and laid her on the bed. He went into her bathroom then and quickly wet a cloth in cold water.

“Come on, Lisa, wake up!”

Opening her eyes, she saw Rick looking down at her with concern and worried in his blue eyes. She almost smiled for she had never seen him looking like that at her before. Then she remembered how he had looked at her yesterday when she ordered him to kiss her as a diversionary tactic.

The image made her sick and groaned silently to herself. She felt him laying a wet cloth on her forehead.

“I'm going to call Claudia,” Rick said off handedly as if muttering to himself.

“No!” she cried and quickly sat up, trying to stop him.

The sudden movement made her light headed and she grabbed onto his arm for support. Acting on reflex, he reached for her too and steadies her. At that moment their eyes met and he saw something in her green eyes that made his stomach flip-flop.

Longing?

He couldn't tell for it had disappeared as fast as it had appeared.

Lisa took a deep breath. She would not fall into a melancholy nor would she panic. She blinked hard. At last, when the fog of grief, misery and self-pity receded a little she straightened.

“Will you give me a glass of water, Rick?”

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Twenty-five minutes later and sitting on her sofa across from Rick, Captain Lisa Hayes knew she was being silly. As she leaned back and took a long drink, letting the warm coffee slide down her throat and warm her all the way to her toes she wondered if she should tell him the truth.

Now that she was calm and in control of her emotions again she realized it was stupid of her to call Rick. She wished she didn't love him or feel this tightness in her throat, lightness in her head and a tingling thrill through her body whenever he looked at her; but she did and he was in love with Minmei.

She and Rick have gone out a couple of times as friends and colleagues since Dolza's “rain of death” but have never dated. There were even a couple of times when they found themselves staring into each other's eyes and wondered what it would be like to kiss each other as lovers but had never acted upon it. For neither of them was quite sure what the bond between them meant or where their companionship was going, but she did have a key to his place, and he to hers.

“I'm sorry to have bothered you, Rick, but I need your help.” She took a breath as though she'd thought a great deal about her next words. “I'm asking you, not as your Superior Officer but as a friend. You don't have to believe me. I just want you to keep an eye on things and remind me if I forget. I just had a dream...”

“It must have been some dream to get you this riffled,” he cut in looking up from his coffee.

“Just listen to me and don't interrupt until I finish or I may never have the courage to tell you again.” Her eyes blazed in anger.

“I don't know when, all I know is that we-- Claudia, Admiral Gloval, me and the Trio were on the bridge of the SDF-1. What we were doing there was beyond me for I know the SDF-1 is finished. She's never going to fly again that's why the SDF-2 was built.”

Distracted, she continued anxiously. “Anyway the SDF-1 didn't have any power left to activate the main gun again and... and a damaged Zentraedi battlecruiser was heading strait for us. It plans to ram us, head-on, with the bridge being the direct hit. There was no helm, secondary weapons or navigational control at all on the bridge.”

Holding his gaze now, she continued. “All of the ejection modules were damaged, only module C was still operational. They... Claudia and the Admiral, they dragged me to it and I lived but they died. They all died...”

A wave of hysteria was mounting inside her. “I know you think I'm crazy. I know it's only a dream but I've had dreams like this before and they came true. Both times, I ignored it, denied it and brushed it off like it was nothing but it was something!

Her words came fast, running over one another as her eyes lost focus. “It's going to happen, Rick. I know it. I can feel it. It's going to happen and I won't be able to stop it. I have to stop it. I can't loose them. They're like... like my family. They're all I got!”

Rick wasn't sure what he expected but Lisa having a premonition of the future hadn't crossed his mind. Yet hearing the desperation and fear in her voice had sent chills down his spine however he was not going to let her know that.

“Lisa, I don't mean to patronize you but it was only a dream,” he said politely. “I mean it's more like a nightmare than a dream but you can't seriously believe that you've seen the future. Things like that just don't happen.”

She tensed. “Forget it! Just forget everything I've said to you, okay,” she retorted. “I knew you wouldn't believe me. I want you to leave, Hunter, now!”

Rick's brows drew together. “Excuse me,” he said in a soft voice that made her flesh crawl, “but you were the one who called me up at 0400 hours in the morning; crying like someone just died.”

Lisa's face set. `Okay, so he didn't believe her. She couldn't blame him. But he was not going to think her unstable and crazy!'

“Well, excuse me Hunter, for thinking you might have compassion and kindness.” Her words came out in a scrambled rush. “Believe me I will not make that mistake again. Now, get out!”

Rick frowned. “Okay, you got me, Lisa. I apologize if I offended you but come on Captain, if it was me telling you all this, wouldn't you feel the same way I do?”

“No,” she answered tightly. “I would have listened and offered you my support.”

He shrugged. “Alright, you win. Let's say I believe you. What do you want me to do?”

“I told you, I want you to help me keep an eye on things and... and remind me if I forget!” she snapped hotly. "That isn't too much for you to remember, is it?"

He glanced at her, eyes flickering and was going to say something mean back to her but changed his mind.

“It's not every day that I go around telling people I have dreams of the future," Lisa said with all the cool dignity with which she had armed herself for most of her life. "But in this case, it's true. The first time was my mother's death. I had a dream about it six months before it happened. The second time was Riber's, I... I saw it two weeks before I officially received the telegram telling me he'd been killed in action. I'm not crazy, Rick."

“I never said you were, Lisa. I just think that you're overreacting a bit. Maybe it's the stress that we've been under lately or maybe you just need to relax and not take everything so seriously. I'm sure in a couple of days, you'll look back at this and laugh,” he murmured and leaned in closer to read her facial expression.

“Oh... just forget it!” Lisa said, her tone clipped and hashed. “Talking to you is like talking to a brick wall!”

His stubbornness was making her angry and breathless. While his nearness was doing strange things to her and she knew she had to get him out of her quarters.

“Hey, what's that supposed to mean? Just because I don't believe you does not make me the bad guy. I said I'll help and I'll help, okay. Geese Lisa, what do you want from me?” he gritted and for a moment there was a tension so strong it was palpable between them. Then the ringing of her personal pager when off and she gave Rick a rather brittle smile.

“I have to go now and get dressed. I'd left orders before leaving my shift last night for them to wake me when we jumped from hyperspace into Earth's orbit. Please, see yourself out, Commander.”

As graciously as she could, Lisa excused herself and fled to her sleeping quarter. She let out a frustrating scream when she heard her front door closed not three minutes after she had fled to her sleeping quarter.

What did you expect, Lisa? Peace? Simplicity? Did you expect him to hold you in his arms and tell you that you're not alone, that he cared? Keep dreaming!