Day 1

Rick could feel Lisa trembling every time there was another blast. Her small hands would clutch and unclutch his fight suit as another explosion went off and she hid her face as best she could, turned towards him, to keep from seeing the dizzying pace that Rick was flying to outpace the destruction of Alaska Base. The canopy to the Skull 1 had already been destroyed by an electrical blast and Rick, adreneline pumping, deftly manoevered his fighter to keep him and Lisa safe as best he could.

As Rick flew out of the mouth of the Grand Cannon, he knew without a doubt that had been some of his best flying ever, even though there were no aeriel stunts involved. He could feel Lisa shift her weight in response to his legs movement in controlling the Veritech and could tell that she was trying to weigh as little as possible and inwardly he laughed, he had taken no notice of the extra weight during that last 10 minutes of flying.

Knowing that they weren't yet safe from the coming explosion from the cannon, Rick pushed his fighter east, to try and get as for away from the site as possible. It didn't take long for them to clear the potential blast zone and with the Skull 1 on its last energy reserves, Rick brought the fighter to a halt. He couldn't believe the destruction that faced him, the ground bare and pockmarked by the Zentraedi assault on the Earth.

Lisa relieved that they had finally stopped, stood up as best she could and sitting at the edge of the cockpit, she pulled off the helmet that Rick had put on her to keep her safe from the flight out of the Cannon. It had definitely saved her life, especially when the canopy blew, and she turned to check to make sure that Rick suffered no such injuries. Satisfied that there were no external injuries she could see on him, she ran her hands through her hair as the winds blew it around.

Lisa sighed, "Thank you Rick for saving me back there, I was sure there was no one left but I had to keep trying."

"Anytime Lisa, you know I love to save a damsel in distress. Do you think we're the only ones left?" he asked.

"I hope not, it would be pretty sad, if we were the last two on Earth," she replied gravely, noting the destruction all around them.

"Well at least we wouldn't be alone," said Rick with a softer tone. "Do you think the SDF-1 made it?"

"I don't know Rick, you were the only one I could raise, I hope that they're all right. Maybe you can see if you can raise them on the radio."

Rick fiddled with the controls on the fighter and tried to to contact the SDF-1. Unfortunately, all he got was static. Finally Rick said, "It's no use, there is something wrong with the radio, I'll need to fix it and then try again. It might take a day or two to fix. In the meantime, we should find somewhere to camp."

Bringing up map of the area prior to the destruction, it was Lisa who pointed out a potential camp area 100 miles to the south. "I've been there before, camping with father when I was younger, lots of trees and a small lake, it might be a good place to check out, let's just hope that it didn't take as much damage as this area did. Will the Skull-1 make it there?"

Rick, checking the fighter's power reserves, answered in the affirmative but mentioned that they woukd need to take it slow. The two resumed their previous positions with Lisa sitting on Rick's lap. He could tell that she was a bit uncomfortable with the position, as she blushed slightly when she tried to figure where to place her hands and Rick just thrust the fighter forward causing her to grab onto him, as she did through the escape from the Grand Cannon.

Settling into the ride, she placed her hand over his on the thruster and her other around his neck. Rick didn't know why but he didn't mind, but realized how nice it felt to have Lisa sitting on his lap.

It didn't take them long to reach the area that they had targeted and was pleased to see that the wooded area they selected, was still standing, there were enough trees to could provide them some cover, a small stream and fresh water lake that still had some water in it.

"It's a good thing we got here, this baby needs to rest, " said Rick patting Skull-1 on the nose, "there is still some daylight left, I'm going to get started to trying to fix the radio."

Lisa nodded her head, "I'll take a look through the emergency supplies and see what we have." It was standard for each Veritech to carry at least two weeks of rations for a single person, medical kit and a few extras, but it was a particular something in the medical kit that Lisa knew she had to get to as soon as possible.

While it seemed to Rick that Lisa had been sitting back quietly and enjoying the ride, her mind was actually working the whole time. She had been aware since Rick's rescue of her at Alaska Base that they had both been exposed to some levels of radiation. It was one of the reasons she had tried not to have him attempt a rescue. The radiation guage in the Veritech had not been something that Rick had been looking at when he had been flying, but Lisa had kept her eye on it and the levels it was reporting worried her as they had flown through that hell.

She understood that her exposure had been much higher as the base started to fall apart before her rescue, Rick had been fairly protected from it, until the canopy to the fighter was destroyed, exposing them both to increased levels of radiation.

Lisa knew that if she didn't get to the anti radiation pills as soon as possible, both her and Rick could get seriously ill without medical treatment. Not wanting to worry Rick, especially after all he had done to risk saving her, Lisa opened the supplies hatch under the Veritech and found the medical kit. Each kit contained the same supplies including the pills she was looking for, however, she realized that there weren't enough for the both of them. A treatment consisted of five pills, to be taken once a day. In the bottle she found, it only contained seven pills. The two other pills were extras, in case a pill or two was lost.

Thinking fast, Lisa pulled from her jacket pocket a pill box that she kept a few vitamins in, she placed one of the anti radiation pills in her pill box, and quickly took the other one, knowing that the first dose was the most effective taken immediately after exposure. Hoping it wasn't too late for her and knowing that Rick would be okay if he received a full treatment, she grabbed the other pills and took them to where Rick was starting to dismantle the radio.

"Here Rick, you need to take one of these, I don't know how much radiation we may have been exposed to, but you know, better safe than sorry." Lisa smiled and gave one the pills to Rick and a small bottle of water.

"Oh yeah, good idea, I didn't even think of that. What about you?"

"I've taken one too and the remainder I have in my pill box, here, these are for you." Lisa handed over to Rick a waterproof pill box. " Keep them on you, you never know if you might be away from the plane. Also make sure you take one everyday."

Rick just grinned, "I'm glad you're here wth me Lisa, I don't know if I would have remembered these pills were even there, much less remember to take them."

"Well, that's why I am the Commander and don't you forget it. " Lisa said lightly, trying to keep the concern from her voice. "I'm going to finish sorting out the supplies and see if the water here is still good too."

Lisa quickly sorted through the supplies and knew that if they are careful they could last five days, maybe more if they were lucky to find additional supplies. She hoped that there was still fish in the stream and the lake that they may be able to catch as well to suppliment their small food supply. Not being able to count on the SDF-1 surviving, she would suggest to Rick that they camp where they were for a day or two, and if he could not raise the SDF-1 then they would need to move on in search of other survivors and supplies.

The winds picked up and Lisa shivered, finally realizing that her white officer's uniform was insufficient to keep her warm in the cold Alaska spring. Digging through Rick's supplies, she was pleased to find another flight suit and a maintainence outfit. Feeling that the flight suit would be better protection from the weather and the terrain, she went to ask Rick if she could make use of the additonal flight suit.

Lisa found Rick sitting on the ground with a small tarp laid out holding the radio parts. He didn't even look up as she approached and seeing him concentrating so hard, she sat next to him, with her legs folded underneath her, until he was free and waited for him to acknowledge her. Rick noticed Lisa as she sat next to him and was grateful that she didn't distract him or ask questions about what he had been doing. He had been dealing with a fragile and delicate piece of the radio and it would have been bad if anything had happened to it. Putting the final pieces together, Rick gave a satisfied, "There we go," and turned to Lisa. "Everything OK there Lisa?"

"Well under the circumstances, I suppose, we have enough food for seven days, ten if we are really careful. I'm going to head over to the stream and check if the water is drinkable and also collect any dead branches I can find for firewood. Um, but before I go, would it be OK, if I used your extra fight suit. It's colder than I thought out here and well, I don't think my uniform is going to cut it." Lisa indicated the jacket and skirt that she wore and motioned to the flight suit she carried in her hand and looked at Rick questioningly.

Rick briefly remembered the time that Minmei had borrowed his maintainence shirt for a change of clothing when they had been trapped on the SDF-1. The memory quickly faded as Rick found himself looking directly into Lisa's very green eyes. He had never noticed how pretty her eyes were and how there were flecks of gold and brown in her eyes. She smiled as he stammered, a "yes, of course, anything you need."

Her smile was genuine and for a minute there Rick thought she was going to lean in and kiss him, but Lisa just deftly got to her feet, "Thanks Rick, I'll be back in few." He watched as she ran off to the back of the ship and eyes following, he realized where he was sitting on the ground, he could still see her legs. His jaw dropped as he watched Lisa's white skirt hit the ground and wished the back of the plane didn't cover so much of her. Knowing he shouldn't be peeking, he watched as Lisa stepped into the flight suit and with a shake of his head to clear his thoughts, he returned to the task at hand.

Lisa had finished changing and made a few adjustments to the flight suit as it was much too large on her. She had kept her white shirt on underneath and removing a backpack strap from a field bag, she was able to fashion a belt for herself to keep it up and she tucked and rolled the pants to fit her slime frame. Satisfied, she stowed her skirt away, tying her hair back and grabbing one the guns that was there, she holstered it and went back to let Rick know when she was headed.

Rick almost laughed when he saw Lisa in her outfit. She didn't look bad in it but it made him realize how small she really was. Her no nonsense attitude at work and loud mouth made her seem bigger than she was, at least to him, but seeing her like this, with the poorly fitted flight suit and hair in a ponytail made him see her in different light. This wasn't the first time he had these revelations about Lisa and for the second time in his life, he hoped that he would get to know her better.

As she passed him on the way to the stream, he nodded to her and warned her,"Be careful out there, yell if you need me."

"Don't worry Hunter, I'm a big girl I can take care of myself,"indicting the gun she had holstered. Glad she thought to arm herself, he felt better as she made her way through the trees to the stream. She had been gone almost an hour when Rick getting worried decided to check on her. He made his way through the small copse of trees and could see a pile of dead wood that had been gathered but no sign of Lisa. With an increased concern, he started calling out her name and headed toward the stream. As he got closer to the edge of the stream, he found Lisa sitting on a flat rock with her knees drawn up and her face buried in her hands. He could see her shoulders shaking and panicked, "Lisa, are you OK, are you hurt? Answer me."

Rick rushed over to where she was and Lisa noticing Rick just wiped her tear stained face said, "I'm sorry Rick, I didn't mean to make you worry, I don't know what came over me.I just, all of a sudden couldn't deal with the magnitude of the death and destruction. Why me, Rick, why did I survive and why did all those other people not make it? It's not fair!"

Rick didn't know what to say, helping her up from the rock, he said, "I don't know Lisa, I felt the same when Roy died. He was the better pilot then me, why was it his time to go? You told me then, that the best thing I could do was to honor him by living my life to the fullest and I'm going to tell you the same thing. Don't let those deaths be in vain, make sure their sacrifice does not go unforgotten."

Lisa smiled as she wiped the tears from her face, "When did you get so smart Rick."

Happy to see her feeling better, Rick just shrugged and said, "I guess I'm just getting wiser as I've gotten older. C'mon it's getting dark soon and we need to finish setting up camp."

Rick and Lisa returned to camp carrying arms full of dead wood that Lisa collected. The water in the stream was still good to drink after it was purified and Lisa helped Rick form a tent with the parachute over the wing of the Skull-1 and listened as he retold her the story of the time him and Minmei was trapped on the SDF-1.

As dusk fell and it started to get colder, Lisa started a blazing fire to help keep them warm in the night. She also helped prepare the dehydrated food into a palatable meal, giving Rick a portion of her share. Rick protested but Lisa just told him her stomach was too tied up into knots to eat much and they couldn't keep the food for the next day.

As they lay in the small tent, both Lisa and Rick were silent, re-living the day in their heads, glad that they weren't alone. It didn't take long for them to fall into asleep, wondering what the future days were going to hold.

Author's Note:This is just another fluffy short story. Please take it as it is, especially in regards to the radiation illness. Please assume that medical advances are much better than what we have now, much like they have fighters that turn into giant robots. Thanks!