were to stay here a little while longer. Rick agrees with it.

" Tears now flowed

openly on Michele's face. "alit
why? Why?" Max stood there, not knowing what to say. Miriya stepped forward, sat on
the edge of the bed and placed
her arm around Michele's shoulders. "I know what you feel. It is the way I felt
when I gave birth to Dana. It is hard
to spend your time in bed when you feel you should be up there with your wingmates.
All you can do is grit your teeth
and wait for your time." Michele gave a sob and buried her head in Miriya's
shoulder to weep in anger. "I'm sorry
Dr. Lang, I just can't seem to be able to do it right." Lang looked at the remnants
of the egg, a shapeless mass of
clear and yellow goo. "It's okay Michele." Ile placed a new egg on the ground. "We
have plenty of spares. Let's
try again, shall we?" lie stepped back out of the way. A Mecha's hand extended
itself from the Guardian and moved
towards the egg. Fingers the size of telegraph poles surrounded the egg and moved
in to pick it up. The shell gave
way and splattered its yolk and white. "<DAMN!>" A metal-shod fist whined through
the air and impacted with
the w?11 in frustration, threatening to bring down the building. "Why can't I do
this right?" Lang came back
into view, followed by several other technicians and scientists. "It's all right my
dear - after all, you just
came through a traumatic experience. Let's forget about the eggs and concentrate on
your memory for a while."
The Veritech in front of the scientists mechamorphed from Guardian to eattloid and
sat on the floor with its
back again?t the w?ll. "What do you want to know?" One of the personnel behind Lang
opened a notebook. "Well,
how about your name for a start?" "Easy. My name is Michele Cequor. Any more
trivial questions?" The Veritech
shifted slightly to a better sitting position. "What happened just prior to and
after the explosion?" "Well,
I remember being chased by the missile. I didn't want both of us to blow up in the
middle of the city, SO I lured it
as far out as I could. I'd just cleared the city when the explosion occurred. The
next thing I know, Michael is
screaming in my ears, wanting to know what had happened and what my status was. I
told him the bad news and we got
sent off to New Macross ASAP. When we got there I managed to land. I was surrounded
by hundreds of medics and firemen
- all these people, and do you think they'd do anything for me? They just left me
there to rot on the runway Until
I complained and you came along Dr. Lang." The person with the notebook was writing
frantically. A woman close
to him was next with the questions. "What about during the explosion? What were
your thoughts?" Once again,
the Mecha shifted uneasily. "I remember panicking, thinking I was going to die and
trying to fight it. I could
feel the computer reaching out in despair as its sub- systems were dying out one by
one. I remember mentally grabbing
hold of that part of the computer which was still functioning and crying in
helplessness. That's when I blacked
out." The eattloid's hand wiped its 'eyes' and grabbed hold of its other shoulder,
in a gesture of defenselessness.
"And what about your present condition?" asked the man with the notebook. "What do
you make of it?" The Veritech
grabbed its knees and pulled them in, like a child searching for protection. "I
don't know. I really don't. Maybe
I got merged with the Veritech during the blast. Maybe I replaced the computer when
it died. All I know is that
I am Michele - <I am alive!> So why am I being kept inside this hangar? Where is my
body Dr. Lang?" Lang looked up
past the pulled-in knees to the faceplate of the eattloid and stared long and deep
into it. "You are being kept
in surveillance because of the shock you have suffered. The reason you are kept in
this hangar is because there
is no hospital bed, or in fact hospital, big enough to fit you. As for your
body..." Lang paused. "We are still
running some tests 01 it to find out what happened." The Veritech sat there
silently. When it finally spoke its
voice contained a tremor that had not been there before. "I'm sorry Dr. Lang. If
only you knew what it was like.
I wake up every day and wonder why my eyes are over fifty feet from the ground. I
try to eat bUt have to remember to
plug myself in for a recharge instead. I just can't take it anymore!" The
Veritech's head lowered itself onto
its knees and the eattloid emitted strange short sounds, its shoulders raked by
spasms. It took Lang a good four
seconds to realise the Veritech was crying. A head protruded at right angle from
the door frame. "Are they gone?"
it asked. Michele finished drying her tears and threw away the paper handkerchief
she had been using. "Yeah,
come in Victor." Victor squeezed his body through the door's frame and made his way
to her bed. "If you feel like
you look, I wouldn't want to be in your shoes - you look terrible!" Michele
sniffed. "1 feel even worse. Not only
did I stuff- up on my first sortie, not only did I make a fool of myself in front
of my commanding officer, not only
have I been ordered to bed duties for an indefinite amount of time, but thanks to
this little accident I'll miss
my first outing in space." her clenched fists relaxed slowly. "It's nice to see you
again." she admitted. victor
made embarrassed little noises and overly shuffled his feet. "Aw, shucks! 'Twas
nothin' really." Testing
a chair for robustness he opted to sit on the floor next to the bed, his head still
at eye-level with hers. "I just
couldn't leave my little sister alone in a big hospital, now could I?" victor had
been the one who had rescued
Michele from the wreckage of Macross City two years ago in the SDF-7. Ever since,
he had looked after the orphan