They'd ended up in a portion of the ship that was completely deserted, unequipped with intercom or other communications gear or any indication as to how to get out. Rick had quickly decided that if he could just get his plane working, he could somehow get the armor patch to move, get back out into space, and reach a landing bay.
Minmei had less faith in the plan, but she'd been silent. Up to now. But she touched his shoulder as he strained against the line.
"Rick, you'll never get it to fly. Why don't we see if we can get some help by using the radio in your plane? It seems like it would be the easiest thing."
He let go of the line tiredly. "The radio got busted up when we landed. There are pieces of it all over the compartment: it'll never work."
"Oh," Minmei said in a small voice.
Rick reconsidered something that had been in the back of his mind. He held up his Heiko aviator's-model watch, switching modes. "But maybe this'll help us get out of here."
She came closer, watching. "What've you got there?"
"An inertial tracker-a kind of a compass."
Minmei looked puzzled. "But I thought a compass had two arms that go back and forth?" She held her forefingers together to show what she meant.
"Huh? Oh!" Rick laughed.
Minmei looked hurt. "Well, the only compass I ever saw was for drawing circles."
They set out at once, Rick showing the way with a flashlight from his emergency equipment. "With this kind of compass we'll be able to make our way back to Mockingbird if we get lost inside this big old tub and can't find a way out."
They quickly found out that they were in a maze, a limitless world of conduits, cables, hull, passageways, ducts, and bulkheads. Their footsteps echoed eerily.
"I wonder what all these pipes are for?" Minmei said, reaching out to touch one.
"Maybe to cool some kind of energy unit." Rick shrugged.
"Oh." Then, "Yow!" yelped Minmei, snatching her hand back, fingertips scalded.
"You okay?"
"Oh, I'm all right. It was just a little hot."
Rick's eyebrows went up. "Well, now, that was pretty dumb."
"Sorry." But as he started off again, Rick put his foot right in a puddle of oil and nearly landed flat on his face, flailing and slipping.
"Um, what was that again?" Minmei asked sweetly. Rick grunted and strode off again.
But they came at last to a big compartment filled with scrap, discarded machine parts. "I think it's a dead end," Rick judged.
"You mean," Minmei said with a tremor in her voice, "we can't get back?"
"You can't go searching for your friend now, Roy!" Claudia shouted at the screen.
"But I know Rick's out there somewhere," the Skull Leader insisted. "I can't just abandon him."
As much as Roy meant to her, Claudia couldn't help wishing she could reach through the screen into his cockpit and throttle him. "Listen, you can't just leave your post any time you feel like it! What if-"
Gloval was clearing his throat meaningfully. "Lieutenant Grant, let me talk to him."
She bit her lower lip but answered, "I'll patch you through on channel eight, sir."
Gloval took up his handset. "Commander Fokker, your request is denied. I'm sorry to hear about your friend, but we have over seventy thousand civilian survivors aboard this ship, and we'll need every hand working full-time to ensure their safety."
Roy's eyes narrowed. "Aye-aye, Captain. I guess friendship's a little more important to some of us than it is to others. Sorry to bother you, sir."
Roy signed off, and Gloval slammed down the handset. "Insolent pup!"
"Hothead," Claudia said under her breath, while Lisa tried to get her mind back on what she was doing, bleary-eyed from lack of sleep. She hoped she never heard Rick Hunter's name again in her life.
"Where are we? What is this place?" Minmei wanted to know.
"I dunno; it's huge," Rick exclaimed. Not that she couldn't see that for herself; the compartment was the size of a hangar, with piles of crates and equipment. But the astonishing thing about it was the cyclopean hatch at the far end.
"Why don't we climb up and get a closer look at it?" Minmei proposed, heading for a nearby hill of boxes. As he helped her make the ascent, she bubbled, "Maybe there's a doorway at the top that's open and leads to a hallway that leads to the outside! Why, I could be home in time for dinner!"
But while she rushed off in one direction, he spotted markings in another. "Hey, that thing is a giant air lock! Built to scale for those giant aliens!" He suddenly felt mouse-size and very vulnerable out there in the open. "I hope they don't come back… Minmei? Minmei! Where are you?"
He dashed off to find her at a viewport, staring out as if hypnotized, into space. The debris and wreckage were much thicker, drifting past the ship.
"Look at that," she said sadly. "What do you think happened?"
"I don't know where all that stuff came from. It looks like a whole city blew up."
Minmei seemed about to burst into tears. "Could… could all that be from home? From Macross?"
The bridge crew was taking its first break in what seemed like years, sipping coffee, while Gloval was off on a personal inspection of the ship's situation.
Lisa was shaking her head. "If the aliens attack us again, we won't have a chance."
Vanessa said, "We should have standard communications working very shortly! Maybe Earth can tell us what's going on."
Lisa was skeptical. "If we use conventional transmissions, we'll be taking a big chance. The aliens might get a fix on us; we could give away our location."
"Commander Hayes," Sammie piped up from her duty station, "resettlement team five leader wishes to speak to you. He says it's urgent."
Lisa put aside the coffee, knowing she wouldn't be finishing it any time soon.
"Well, this one doesn't go anywhere either." Rick frowned, shining his light on the blank bulkhead before him. "How does your leg feel? Any better?"
Minmei rubbed her ankle. "My leg's a lot better; I just twisted it, I guess. But I'm getting kind of thirsty."
Rick considered that. "I've got some emergency rations in my plane, but I haven't got any water."
But suddenly inspiration struck. "There's water all around us! Just wait right here!"
He sprinted away while Minmei murmured. "I wonder what in the world he's talking about?"
He was back in moments with a length of steel bar he'd spotted. "Ta-dum! I believe madam requested some water? Refreshments coming right up!"
He wedged it into the junction of two pipes and began pulling at it to break them apart. "Careful! Don't hurt yourself!" Minmei warned.
"Harder… than I thought," he said through gritted teeth.
Minmei kicked off her shoes. "Let me help you!" Together they threw all their strength into the effort, the pipes creaking. It took everything they had, but at length there was a snapping of metal and the gushing of water.
Luckily, it was tepid rather than superheated. Rick and Minmei fell backward to the deck as it fountained high to fall back on them like a downpour. "We got it! It's a geyser!" Rick shouted jubilantly. Minmei laughed, and he joined in.
After a few moments of it she got up, sopping wet, and went to catch the streaming water in her hands. "Wow, this is wonderful! Well, I think I'll take a shower."
"Huh?" was all Rick could think of to say.