Previous chapters are at http://templar.anifics.com/

Disclaimer: The characters within belong to Pioneer, Harmony Gold, and a
couple to Palladium books.  No profit was made from this work of fiction

Need For Protoculture: The Sentinels
by Andrew Wilson

Chapter 4: Heirs to Strife

While the man that entered the SDF-3 briefing room was aged, he was 
broad shouldered and physically fit.  The younger man behind him looked 
incredibly uneasy, which actually sparked a touch of sympathy in 
Tenchi.  Something about the blue-haired boy was familiar...

"Is that you?" Doctor Lang breathed.  He had entered a few moments 
before the Tiroleans and only now got a look at them.  He also seemed 
intent on the young man. "Zor?"

"Definitely not," the elder insisted.  Behind him, the doors again slid 
open and Exodore entered, followed a moment later by Breetai. "There is 
a little resemblance about the nose and chin, but Zor has been dead for 
centuries.  This is my assistant, Rem."

"You always were a bad liar, Cabel." Exodore took his seat at the table 
with his customary dignity. "But that is beside the point."

Cabel's eyes were on the verge of popping from their sockets as he 
beheld the short Zentradi.  The Tirolean's mouth flapped open and closed 
several times before he was brought back to reality by a huge hand 
slapping his shoulder.

"It is good to see that at least one colleague of Zor still lives," 
Breetai rumbled.

Tenchi hoped that there weren't going to be any more shocks.  It didn't 
look like the old man could take much more.  Luckily Lisa - whose 
command of Zentradi was strongest in the room (besides Exodore and 
Breetai, of course) - took hold of the situation and quickly made 
introductions.

"Earth, you say?" Cabel said. "That could be most unfortunate.  Ten 
years ago the Masters took the last five motherships and departed.  They 
took a sampling of the greatest of the population."

"Meaning the most easily controllable of their breeding program," Rem 
added darkly.

"Ten years?" Lisa asked. "Then why was there no sign of them before we 
departed?"

Cabel shook his head. "Protoculture reserves have been dwindling for 
decades.  They would not have used fold drives, but slower superlumina 
drives.  It will take them another ten years to reach your home.  More, 
if the Invid catch up to them."

Breetai stiffened. "The Invid know of Zor's ship and the location of Earth?"

"No," Cabel quickly replied. "Definitely not.  They will be following 
the motherships and their support vessels."

"Admiral-" Breetai began.

"I know," Lisa quickly replied. "We have to get back as soon as 
possible.  We can't give either group a shot at Earth."

"You cannot hope to defeat the Invid," Cabel said. "Even Dolza's Grand 
Fleet was only able to hold them back."

"They defeated the Grand Fleet," Breetai noted.

Cabel brightened. "Then you have the Protoculture Matrix!"

"No," Exodore said through the confusion encompassing the rest of the 
table. "The Matrix does not exist.  We conducted a thorough search."

Cabel rubbed his chin and finally shook his head. "I believe you are 
mistaken, but it had been to long for me to remember immediately."

"You are sure the Robotech Masters are on their way to Earth?" Lisa 
asked in an attempt to get the conversation back on track.  At Cabel's 
sad nod, she turned to Lang. "How long before we can fold back?"

Lang calmly tapped his stylus on the electronic pad in front of him. "I 
am not completely sure.  After this meeting I will be meeting with my 
engineers to determine the precise protoculture drain from the fold.  
 From there we will begin calculations for the return fold based on-"

"How long?" Rick asked amid several glares directed at the scientist.

"Two to six weeks," Lang replied. "We also have a firm estimation of the 
current date.  November nineteenth, twenty-twenty."

Lisa nodded with a smirk. "That will help log entries."

"You're leaving already?" Rem asked incredulously.

"Settle down," Cabel advised. "This isn't their war.  Enough of their 
people died chasing the Invid out of the system, we can't ask them to do 
more."

"That's about the size of it," Lisa explained. "We came here 
to...discuss things with the Robotech Masters-"

Cabel's sudden eruption of laughter cut of Lisa's statement. "Admiral, I 
saw your ships.  Rem and I witnessed the explosions in space that 
heralded your arrival.  I know exactly what you wanted to do, and I can 
hardly blame you."

"Thank you," Lisa said.

"Question," Tenchi ventured. "How adept are the Invid at tracking folds?"

Cabel shrugged. "If they witness your fold, they can track you easily to 
your destination.  They have a unique understanding of hyperspace, which 
even the most advanced navigational systems cannot match."

"So they could follow us to Earth." Tenchi leaned back in his seat and 
quickly ran through ways to phrase his arguments.  He could already see 
what needed to be done, but convincing the others was a different story.

"The Invid are an unknown factor in the grand scheme of things.  The 
last time Breetai fought them was almost two hundred years ago, and he 
did not recognize some of the mecha we encountered today.  We have to 
assume that they have numbers comparable to Dolza's fleet, as well."

Tenchi paused, took a breath, and locked gazes with Lisa across the 
table. "We can't let them know about Earth, Lisa.  We can't allow a 
second Rain of Death."

That brought the others around, he could see.  Not totally, though.

"What about the Masters?" Rick asked.

"The motherships will be weak," Cabel said, "and their mecha depleted.  
 From what I've seen today, your people should be able to hold."

"Ten years," Rick mused. "We can give it a shot.  Maybe give the Invid a 
bloody enough nose to leave us alone before we fold back to Earth."

Tenchi saw Cabel and Rem stiffen at Rick's statement.  Neither Tirolean 
said anything, but Tenchi knew what they were thinking.  He was thinking 
the same thing, and it sickened him. *They were like insects.  We either 
have to find a way to make peace...or we'll have to kill every last one 
of them.  Earth is doomed if we don't.*

Lisa nodded again. "Doctor Lang, I'm sure you have work to do.  Breetai, 
if you could take care of our guests, please see that they are shown 
every courtesy."

The dismissal was clear, as was the unspoken order for Rick and Tenchi 
to stay.  When the others had left, Lisa fixed Tenchi with one of her 
most blistering look. "As for you, mister, where did you learn to play 
people so well?"

Tenchi smiled. "From a person that spent several centuries suckering the 
Jesuits.  For fun."

Lisa shook her head. "I'll buy that.  While you two were wrapped up with 
the battle dirt-side, I received a message from Heinlin."

"The lifepod?" Rick asked.

Lisa said one word that managed to inflame Tenchi's anger at the same 
time it caused the room's temperature to drop. "Minmei."

*******

During the fight with Kagato over a decade before, Tenchi had been given 
a suit of Juraian battle armor.  He still used it instead of standard 
REF vacuum suits because it provided mobility and protection that Doctor 
Lang had not (yet) been able to match.  The armor was stored in a 
sub-space pocket until Tenchi activated it, but his non-Juraian biology 
meant that the triggers were sometime's a little twitchy.  This was 
usually a good thing, as it meant his armor would appear before he could 
consciously summon it.  It also meant that in times of great anger or 
stress, it would appear without prompting.

Ayeka was very familiar with this trend, having witnessed the triggers.  
So it came as little surprise when internal sensors registered a power 
surge in the command tower's main briefing room.  She gave it no mind 
except to request a maintenance team to check for damage after the 
Admirals had finished.  That done, she returned to supervising the 
salvage teams gathering scraps of the Invid vessels for analysis.

*******

Lisa showed no reaction to Tenchi's sudden outburst save a single raised 
eyebrow.  Rick glanced around the room to both confirm that the hull was 
not breached and to avoid looking directly at Tenchi.  Tenchi himself 
was seething, unsuccessfully trying to bring his temper back under 
control.  He had years of practice staying calm in the most stressful 
circumstances, yet something about Minmei turned what others described 
as a block of ice into a raging inferno.

"That was a little more dramatic that I expected," Lisa calmly observed.

"I guess we can't space her," Tenchi ground out.

"No," Lisa replied. "Not that it wasn't tempting.  But I think we can 
use her."

"Morale," Rick mused. "We need a boost, with the losses in combat and 
the fiasco with Edwards."

Tenchi nodded, and forced his armor back into its storage pocket.  That 
was certainly true, no matter how hard he tried to deny it.  He already 
had two wing commanders and seven squadron leaders ready to ignore the 
JAG and the council and take 'justice' into their own hands.  He had his 
work cut out for him, in addition to filling the new holes in his 
roster. "If there's nothing else, I'd better see to my people."

"One more thing," Rick said before Tenchi could leave. "Those two that 
found the natives, I noticed they were assigned to Spitfire by you, 
instead of the normal selection process."

Tenchi nodded. "Penn is a good pilot, and a great tactician.  But she 
tends to get lost in the problems and loses her situation awareness.  I 
figure Baker would be able to keep her alive, and maybe calm him down at 
the same time.  Putting them under Miriya keeps them close without 
appearing to favor them, as a position in Hurricane and Skull would."

Lisa raised an eyebrow at Tenchi's explanation. "And why would you be 
favoring them."

"Penn is the daughter of Lang's number two man, but she's a byproduct," 
Tenchi said simply.

"Baker?" Rick asked incredulously. "Penn I can understand, she'll make a 
hell of a commander when she gets straightened out, but *him*?"

Tenchi smiled sadly. "His mother's maiden name was Dixon."

Rick blinked a couple of times as the information sank in, then nodded 
slowly. "Good call, Tenchi.  You always were better with people than me."

Tenchi smiled sadly. "Had to do something with you and Max flying 
circles around me."

*******

[December 5, 2020*]

Rem glanced again at the handwritten directions in his hand and up at 
the featureless door in front of him.  The directions were rather 
specific, and the codes he had used so far worked perfectly.  But this 
was the end of the directions Dotor Lang had given him, which meant that 
whatever the Earth scientist wished Rem - and only Rem - to see was 
behind that door.  Rem entered the last code on the list and waited.  A 
moment later the door slid open to reveal a tall woman with a decidedly 
unpleasant expression on her face.

Rem twitched under her gaze, but held his ground. "I must have the wrong 
lab, excuse-"

"You're expected," the woman said in a cold voice.

 From further inside the lab, a second voice called out. "Zaria, show 
the kid in before you destroy what little good humor is left."

Rem was quickly ushered into the lab.  He paused a moment in the 
entryway to admire the work space.  Some might label it as 'cluttered' 
due to the diagrams, models, and equipment.  Rem, on the other hand, 
immediately saw the method and organization below the clutter.  His 
attention was drawn to a woman sitting on a cushion that floated above 
the deck.  She looked up from the holographic display and studied him 
for a few seconds.

"So what do you know of mecha design?" she asked sweetly.

Rem shrugged. "I know a bit of Zentradi designs and bioroids-"

"Perfect!" The slim redhead exclaimed. "You're just what we're looking for."

"Washu," Zaria said in a low voice, "when I suggested outside opinions 
for the current impasse, I didn't mean someone outside the REF entirely."

Washu waved the other woman off and turned to Rem.  Her face was 
dominated by a smile that Made Rem nervous for a reason he couldn't put 
a finger on.

"So, Mr. Rem, would you like to help me with some experiments?"

*******

"Are you alright Commodore?"

Tenchi nodded as the shiver finished its path through his body. "Yeah, 
just a chill."

"As I was saying," Tom Forsyth continued, "we could easily modify the 
Tokugawa-class to hold up to four squadrons of Veritechs."

"Split the fleet?" Lisa asked.

"Given Invid tactics," Rick noted, "it is the best solution.  I doubt 
we'd do much heavy fighting, so a lot of the anti-ship weapons on our 
battle cruisers are going to waste."

"Keep the spine-mounted lasers," Forsyth added. "And half of the heavy 
missile launchers.  Strip the heavy cannons from the broadsides, and you 
have instant hanger space."

Lisa nodded slowly. "Like you said, those guns are wasted against Invid 
tactics.  Looks like we could form up to six strike groups.  But I want 
to keep the SDF-3 here at Tirol."

"The shipyards," Breetai rumbled.

Lisa nodded. "Precisely.  They're not as efficient as a factory 
satellite, but unless we can figure out a way to recall one of the 
remaining ones, we're stuck with the old Fantoma yards.  So we will keep 
SDF-3, Merrimack, and Monitor on-station while the other groups scout 
the local systems."

"Still pretty exposed," Tenchi commented. "On the other hand, a lot of 
the natives are expressing interest in joining.  I say let them test and 
train."

Rick nodded. "No command positions yet, but we will be strapped for 
people before too long."

"Agreed," Lisa said. "If there is nothing else we'll meet again next week."

*******

"Commodore Masaki?" came a deep voice in the hall way.

Tenchi twitched slightly and turned toward the voice. "Yes, Ms. Em?"

Janice Em slid to a halt in front of Tenchi and stood in what could pass 
for a parade rest. "I understand you're accepting applicants for 
Veritech training."

"Yes," Tenchi said cautiously as he eyed the singer.

"I wish to sign up, sir."

"I figured that, Ms. Em.  What does your partner think of this?"

Janice snorted. "Lynn is too busy getting drunk to care about what I 
do.  One of your wing commanders has seen her more than I have since the 
fold."

*That would be Jon,* Tenchi noted.  He gave Janice a measuring look. 
"Alright, lets go."

Janice blinked in surprise. "Where?"

"Simulators.  I have an hour free.  Let's see if you're worth training."

*******

Anna Mitchels looked up from her desk as Tenchi staggered into the 
office.  Judging from the sweat patches, the Commodore had been through 
a frantic sim session.  A single data chip was dropped onto Mitchels' desk.

"Process this when you get a chance.  Put the applicant in the 
accelerated program."

Mitchels raised an eyebrow. "I sent the singer to talk to you.  Was she 
that good?"

"Better," Tenchi replied as he turned and exited.

*******

[December 31, 2020*]

It was a dance.

It was a dance in the grandest of the repaired buildings on Tirol.  
Topping the attendance list, besides as many REF personnel as could fit, 
were many of the remaining Tirolean leaders that the Hunters were trying 
to turn into allies.  That task was largely successful, especially 
considering the REF's role as saviors.  Relieved tension combined with 
military personnel in need of leave led to the largest party in Tirolean 
history (what little they could glean from half-destroyed data banks and 
libraries).

The hall was dominated by the dance floor.  Music was provided by an 
impressive synth system that a communications tech worked like a concert 
pianist.  Over in one corner, a poker tournament was underway with an 
intensity usually reserved for combat.  A bar had been set up, with a 
pair of Tyrolean women were drinking half the marines under the table.  
On the plains outside the city, Wildcard and Wolf Pack squadrons were on 
hovercycles and playing a game of their own devising that was a 
combination of American football, polo, paintball, and a demolition derby.

Tenchi paused and looked over at the two 'tirolean women'.  Something 
about them was not right.  As he approached, their true identities 
became obvious.  As another marine was dragged off, Tenchi sat across 
from the pair.  One had short, purple hair done up in a bun, while the 
other's face was framed by a mass of midnight-blue curls.  The hair and 
different clothing was just enough to keep most observers from noticing 
that the two women had the same face.

"So where's number three?" he asked. "The one you're shunting all the 
alcohol to?"

"Three, four, and five, actually," Ryoko replied through her disguise. 
The other Ryoko belched quietly and continued. "These guys can toss it 
back.  Must be the bio-enhancements.  Lang went overboard with the marines."

"You might want to create another," Tenchi suggested. "It's starting to 
leak back."

"Nonsense," Ryoko #1 insisted.
 
"It's just an act," Ryoko #2 continued.

Tenchi laughed. "How about you pull yourself together and I take you 
somewhere you can crash?"

The Ryokos smiled in unison and leaned forward. "Just crash?"

"You and your one-track mind," Tenchi sighed. "Come on."

*******

Sue Graham smiled to herself as Commodore Masaki practically dragged a 
pair of women out of the hall.  The fact that the women were pawing at 
him made the pictures even better.  The CAG was the most drooled-worthy 
of the unattached officers on the command staff, especially after 
Hunter's marriage.  Possibly the entire fleet, but Graham did not want 
to make that assessment quite yet.  She was a journalist, after all, and 
had a responsibility to gather facts.

And this was almost too juicy a story to pass up.  Graham knew something 
was up with Commodore Masaki.  Rumors bounced all around the fleet about 
him, but Graham had never been able to acquire anything substantial.  It 
stank, really, that the stories she had hoped to gather as the sole 
'attached' journalist in the REF were turning out to be for nothing.  
The fleet personnel were the most boring military force in history.  
Where were the scandals, the corruption, the drama?  Instead of finding 
the twenty-first century's version of Douglas MacArthur, she got Chester 
Nimitz.  The closest to any action was the scuffle over T.R. Edwards.  
Graham had made sure to get all the details of that.  Imagine the gall 
of the Hunters, wanting to kill such a fine officer over an equipment 
failure.

Speaking of the happy couple, Graham spotted the pair on the other side 
of the hall and directed one of her small remotes there.  The little 
robots were hard to spot, contained the best recording equipment that 
could fit on the frame, and cost her half the profits from her last 
book.  She had given up on trying to get one close to Masaki, but the 
Hunters were never able to spot them.  Graham maintained an air of 
observation as the rest of her mind focused on the conversation.

She sighed a moment later and directed the remote elsewhere.  Mixing 
military business and newlywed innuendo.  That took some effort.  Then 
again, Graham would not be surprised if war was a turn-on for those 
two.  She was pretty sure it was for the wife, but the husband always 
struck Graham as being more sensible than that.

This was getting her nowhere.  Sure, the story could be sold as a series 
of fluff pieces, or some kind of war chronicle.  But to really make the 
sale, to put her name on top of everything, she needed a controversy. 
She needed scandal, incompetence, conflict in the ranks.  She needed 
something to happen!

With a synchronization that could not have been coincidence, every 
military individual in the hall froze.  Graham knew she had a story as 
she flipped her earpiece over to the security channel (getting that 
frequency and the codes had taken some doing).

"-Repeat, all personnel report to battle stations.  Unidentified contact 
in the outer system.  Repeat, all-"

Graham switched the earpiece off and smiled.  Obviously not Invid 
trouble - that would not have been 'unidentified'.  But it was something 
interesting, and a nice distraction from the latest rebuffed attempts to 
get the real story on the REF.

*******

"What are we looking at?" Lisa asked.

"Still unknown," Ayeka replied. "Nothing in the computer matches these 
readings."

"And what about the computers we recovered from the Masters' old 
hangouts?" asked Rick.

Ayeka shook her head. "Those are stranger still.  Depending on what we 
look at, the ship could be one of a number of origins.  I can say that 
it is not an Invid vessel."

Exodore studied the reading for several seconds as the bogey crawled 
across the plot. "Several readings seem familiar.  The main emissions 
seem to be from a Carbonarite heavy transport, but the supra-light drive 
seems to be Spherian."

"And those are?" Lisa prompted.

"Two separate races in the local group.  They had approximately the same 
technology of pre-protocultue Tiroleans.  Zor's original explorations 
met up with them." Exodore paused. "They became subjects of the Empire, 
and were later overrun by the Invid."

"Would the Invid use their ships?" Rick asked. "As a kind of Trojan horse?"

Exodore laughed. "Admiral, you utterly destroyed the Invid fleet.  At 
best, they know that the system was taken.  The strategic and cultural 
information required for such a deception-"

"So they don't know enough about us to try this," Rick interrupted. 
"Communications?"

A communications rating handed Lisa a memo board and departed without 
comment.  Lisa studied the flat screen for a few moments and nodded. 
"We're getting something, but our translators can't make heads or tails 
of it.  We're checking it against the Tirolean linguistic databases now."

Rick nodded and turned back to the display.  Lisa looked to Rick and 
jerked a thumb in the general direction of Rick's command station. "Get 
Tenchi out there.  He's to take one squadron and guide the ship in.  I 
want close-in readings and hull shots while he's at it."

Rick nodded and set to work.  He knew Lisa's line of reasoning as well 
as his own.  The contact was still ten light-minutes out, and they 
needed more information.  Having Tenchi out there was like having 
themselves.

*******

Tenchi clicked the com. "Hurricane form on me.  All other squadrons 
maintain formation.  Command wants us to take a look."

Acknowledgments came from the other squadron leaders.  The entire 
fighter group had been scrambled with the alert, and it looked as though 
they were not being recalled anytime soon.

Hurricane squadron formed around Tenchi's fighter as he locked in an 
intercept course.  The ship was moving slow for a starship, barely ten 
percent of light.  The capital ships of the REF were capable of half 
again that speed.

"Match my course," Tenchi instructed. "Maximum speed.  Boost on my 
mark." The squadron quickly did as directed while Tenchi's Beta crew 
confirmed his course calculations. "Boost."

The oversized Beta engines flared as one and rapidly accelerated the 
squadron to fifty percent of light speed.  While the inertialess drive 
thumbed its nose at theories on time dilation at such speed, the Doppler 
effect was quite real and produced an amazing view for the pilots.  The 
stars ahead intensified as the blue-shifted and many vanished as they 
crawled up into the ultra-violet range, while the further from 
center-line the effect lessened.  Behind them, Tenchi knew, the reverse 
was happening, as stars shifted down through the spectrum to infrared.  
Tenchi turned his eyes away from the stars and studied his instruments.  
At these speeds, a fraction of a second or a fraction of degree and the 
squadron would be horribly off course.  Even if this was not a 
first-contact situation, he would not be happy if the squadron messed 
up, especially since it was *his* squadron.

But the course was correct.  Hurricane squadron overshot the bogie by 
several thousand kilometers before cutting their engines.  They quickly 
hauled their Legios units around and approached it from behind.  Sensors 
located in the Beta units reached out and tickled the oddly-shaped 
craft.  It appeared to match Exodore original assessment.  The ship was 
a hodge-podge of different designs.  Total mass was comparable to a 
Tokugawa-class battle cruiser, though this ship was not a warship.  The 
few weapon turrets mounted on the ship seemed to have been bolted on 
with little thought for effectiveness.

"Unidentified vessel," Tenchi hailed in Zentradi, "you are in restricted 
space.  Identify and state your intentions."

There was a burst of static from the radio, but nothing more.  Tenchi 
repeated his hail as the ship traveled closer to Fantoma.  Tenchi sighed 
in his cockpit and painted the ship with his targetting radar.  The 
others in the squadron followed his lead within a matter of seconds.  
Unless the unknown ship was completely blind, they knew they were in 
trouble.

"Unidentified ship," Tenchi broadcast, "respond immediately or you will 
be considered hostile and fired upon."

The channel hissed with static again and a cultured voice began speaking 
in Tenchi's ear. "Apologies.  We were having technical and linguistic 
problems.  This is Farrago, and we seek assistance."

"What kind of assistance?" Tenchi asked warily.

"Assistance in destroying the Invid conquers," a second, harsher voice 
growled. "What else would be worth doing?"

End Chapter 4

Notes:
Those familiar with the Sentinels story can probably guess what the * 
next to dates is for.  For everyone else, all will be explained in time.

On a creative note, I hate writing filler.  This entire chapter 
accomplishes little, but like many similar chapters in this saga, it 
does establish how the story goes from point A to point B.

And when I outlined the story, everything from the defold until now was 
1 chapter.  Just goes to show how effective those are.

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