One of the intriguing (and unanswered) questions of [the Third Robotech War] is how Ariel/Marlene accomplished her minor miracle in the skies above Reflex Point. Nesterfig (in her controversial study of the social organization of the Invid) advances the theory that Ariel somehow “borrowed” Protoculture energy leaking from the hive barrier shield—the same that so affected the surrounding countryside. But this does not really answer the question. Neither Corg nor Sera was endowed with similar abilities, and most experts agree that they were the most highly evolved of the Regess’ creations. The Lady Ariel herself was never able to shed light on this curious incident.
Zeus Bellow, The Road to Reflex Point
In the cockpit of her command ship, Sera flashed a self-satisfied smile at her display screen. The Human pilots had hoped to get the better of her troops by reconfiguring their craft, but, vastly outnumbered, they were sustaining the same losses in Battloid mode as they had in Guardian. But suddenly her scanners revealed that Lancer’s fighter had been one of those to feel the Invid wrath, and although his ship had not been destroyed, it was plummeting toward Earth, hopelessly out of control. As she watched him fall, memories of his face played across the screen, and when she could bear no more of it, she engaged the thrusters of her ship and fell in to rescue him.
Ariel’s words came back to her now: We have learned nothing Sera, nothing! And she answered back: “You’re wrong, Ariel. I have learned to love at least one of our enemies, enough to betray my own people.”
Lancer caught sight of the rapidly approaching Invid command ship and guessed that it was coming in to finish him off. He had been struggling with the canopy release switches but had since abandoned any idea of freeing up the jammed mechanisms. His teeth were gritted now, and he was resigned to death. But all at once the Invid was actually scooping up his wounded ship in its armored arms, and far from annihilating him, the enemy was pulling him out of his fall. He glanced up and saw through his canopy and the enemy ship’s bubble cover that it was the blond woman pilot. Whether she was XT or Human had yet to be learned; but whoever, she was saving his life.
“Why?” he shouted. “Why?!”
And somehow her voice found its way through the VTs command net to answer him: “Don’t ask me to explain,” she told him. “But in saving your life I have forfeited my own!”
At the same time her ship let go of his, but the Alpha’s systems were revived now, and the foot thrusters were able to maintain it at treetop level. Lancer had the Battloid’s rifle/cannon raised, and it would have been a simple matter to destroy the command ship, but instead he let it escape unharmed, confused by this latest turn of events.
Closer to the hive, Scott was still staring at the flame cloud Marlene inhabited. Several other Battloids were similarly suspended, awed by the sight.
“Marlene … is it you?” Scott asked the thing hesitantly. “Is it really you?”
In response, the flame leapt toward the hive. Cocooned within its radiance, Marlene, like some living filament, stretched out her arms, and sinuous waves of lightning leaked into the sky.
Scott engaged the VTs boosters and shot after her. Lancer was right behind him.
Corg’s ship was not far off; while he watched the two Earth mecha streak off in pursuit of Ariel’s projected image, the voice of the Regess entered his ship, informing him of Sera’s betrayal.
“She did what?” Corg said in disbelief.
“It is true, Corg,” the Regess repeated. “She has saved the life of one of the Robotech rebels.”
“Then she is as tainted as Ariel.” How was it that this Human species could make his sisters abandon their duty? he asked himself.
He vented his rage against two Battloids and three Alphas, destroying all of them with blasts from the forearm cannons of his ship; then he soared after Ariel and her rebel friends.
But if the flame had begun to alter itself, so had the weather. The land had suddenly passed from spring to summer, and now autumn leaves were falling. Rand and Rook were still following Marlene’s form, a flickering sun trailing tendrils of light.
“Marlene,” Rand shouted over the net, hoping she could hear him. “What does all of this mean?! What’s going on?”
If they had any doubts that what they were seeing was truly Marlene, the voice they heard put an end to all of them.
“Can’t you understand?” the flame seemed to ask, oscillating as it moved, its naked filament regarding them over her shoulder, long red hair streaming out behind as though it were a part of the light itself. “We are only trying to find a place where we can live in peace and security.”
“Yeah, but you forgot something,” Rand reminded her angrily. “This planet is our home, not some Invid retirement community.”
“You must believe me, it was never our plan to destroy Humanity.”
Marlene’s flame shot ahead of them, a free-floating electrical disturbance against the crimson and yellow surface of the hive.
“Then what was your plan?”
“I am neither Human nor completely Invid. I am a new form of life that is a blending of the two. I see that now, although my Regess does not. I can see that it was never our destiny to remain in this Human form. But I must somehow make her understand.”
Even though they were scattered, the rest of the team—Scott and Lancer, Lunk and Annie—were monitoring the conversation.
“And this new form of life is planning to replace the old one, I suppose,” said Lancer, still thinking about the humanoid pilot who had saved his life.
“My friends, follow me into the central core, the heart of the Invid civilization. There all your questions will be answered.”
With that the flame dove into the hive, opening a radiant portal in the side of the dome.
“She went in,” Annie said in an amazed voice from the shotgun seat of the APC. “You’re not going to follow her, are you?” she added, tugging on Lunk’s arm.
“You better believe I am,” he told her firmly. “Listen, Mint, if you’re scared, you can hop out. I’ll be back for you.”
“I’m not scared,” she harumphed, turning her back to him. “I don’t think.…”
They were approaching a blinding white hole in the side of the hive now, driving entirely out of their own world, destined perhaps never to return.
It was a little like being underwater or within a living bloodstream, replete with cells and corpuscles. In the distance they could discern a blinding white sphere, bisected by a horizontal ray that spanned the field from one side to the other.
And Marlene’s form was still leading them in.
“I can’t believe it,” Rand said to Rook over the net. “We’re inside Reflex Point. I thought we were supposed to be destroying this place, not taking the grand tour.”
“I think I prefer the view from the outside. Where do you suppose she’s taking us?”
“Over the rainbow,” said Rand.
Almost everyone emerged at the same moment: Rook and Rand, still in Battle Armor mode, Lunk and Annie in the APC, and Lancer and Scott in their fighter mode Alphas. The place was a huge cavernous chamber, filled with light and supported by what seemed to be webwork strands of living neural tissue. Suspended overhead was an enormous globe of pure Protoculture instrumentality, a kind of veined bronze sphere with dark shadows moving and shaping within it, responding to a will that was fearful to contemplate.
They were all shocked to see each other, but where Annie was excited, Scott was angry; he threw off his “thinking cap,” raised the canopy of the alpha, and hopped out, storming over to the two Cycloners.
“I thought I told you two to stay put,” he began. “You’re not soldiers!”
Rand marveled that the man could even be entertaining such thoughts given the circumstances.
“Well, since we’re not soldiers, we don’t have to follow your orders, do we?” Rook threw back at him, raising the faceshield of her helmet.
“Marlene led us to this place,” Annie explained, climbing down from the APC.
Scott looked around uncomfortably. “She led all of us here, I guess.”
Suddenly Rand was pointing up to the sphere; its interior was growing brighter by the second. The glow culminated in a flash of threatening light.
“Foolish Humans,” an omnipresent deep but female voice began, “you have come here seeking to look upon the face of the Invid Regess.… So be it. You shall see her.”
Over the rainbow, indeed! Rand said to himself.
The next thing anyone knew, someone had pulled the plug, plunging the Regess’ inner sanctum into darkness, except for the inner glow of that sphere, directed down on them now like stage light. Then a towering flame formed beneath the base of the sphere. It was similar to the one that had encompassed Marlene earlier, only this one was larger and more menacing. And within it they could discern a hairless humanoid figure, thirty feet high and dressed in a long red robe and strange gloves that dangled a kind of tail.
“Behold, I am the Invid. I am the soul and the spirit. I have guided my people across the measureless cosmos, from a world that was lost to a world that was found. I have led my people in flight from the dark tide of the shadow that engulfed our world, one that threatens to engulf us even now. I am the power and the light. I am the embodiment of the life force, the creator-protector. In the primitive terminology of your species, I am … the Mother!”
While she spoke they had views of nebulae and star systems, the journey the Invid had taken from Optera to Tirol and on to all the worlds that had led them eventually to Earth.
Light returned to the chamber, and they had a full view of the blue-eyed creature, the Invid mother.
“You are surprised.… So were we, when we discovered that the planet to which we were led by the Flower of Life was inhabited by the very species who had destroyed our homeworld.”
“I’d say ‘inhabited,’ ” Rand started to say.
“That is of little consequence.… Your species is nothing when weighed against the survival of my people.… The Invid life force will not be denied.…”
“No, that’s not right!” a small voice rang out to argue with her. Everyone turned and saw Marlene enter the domed chamber from somewhere, just as they remembered her in her yellow jacket and blue denims.
Scott called to her.
“So, Ariel, it is true: you are a traitor. Was it you who led these children of the shadow into the hive?”
“They are not children of the shadow,” Marlene contradicted her. “They have a life force almost as strong as our own.”
“They are the enemies of our race.”
“If they oppose us, it’s because we are trying to do the same thing to them that was done to us so many years ago!” She turned to her friends now. “Scott, listen to me: Perhaps if we could begin again, we might be able to find a way for our two races to share this planet together, in peace.”
Scott closed his eyes to her and shook his head. “I’m sorry,” he told her. “But you must realize that’s impossible.”
“So you’d rather have the death and destruction continue?”
“That’s right, Marlene,” Lunk cut in. “To the bitter end if we have to!”
Marlene made a stunned sound; she had not expected this.
“Lemme tell you something,” Lunk continued. “Maybe you’ve forgotten that your species invaded our world—remember?!”
“I do remember,” she said softly.
At the edge of Earthspace the third attack group was moving into position above Reflex Point, the Shadow Fighters that rode its wake dematerializing as the command was received for activation of the Protoculture cloaking device.
“There are still no signs of the SDF-3,” the controller updated. “All other ships are present and accounted for.”
“Jinxed!” Reinhardt muttered.
“Ground forces report successful penetration of the hive barrier shield, with heaviest losses sustained by the Veritech squadrons. Invid command is either unaware of our presence or unconcerned. My guess is that the cloaking device has been successful.”
“All right,” the commander said, turning to the forward viewports. “Signal the fleet to form up for final attack formation and prepare to engage.” Reinhardt exhaled slowly, exhausted by the weight of his responsibility. His confidence had been bolstered by the controller’s report, but he couldn’t help but dwell on the possible consequences of failure. Hunter had called for the use of Neutron-S missiles, which while sure to annihilate the Invid would also spell doom for much of the Earth’s population.
Over the battlefield Corg was taking out ship after ship in an effort to offset Sera’s betrayal. And now his sensors were indicating the presence of Robotech mecha inside the hive itself. He dealt out death to two more Veritechs and headed through the remnants of the shield into the heart of the hive.
In the inner sanctum, the alien the Humans knew as Marlene was still trying to get over Lunk’s remarks. “But you’ve traveled with me,” she was telling him, the hurt evident in her voice. “I even thought that you liked me, or at least accepted me. I’m no different now than I was then, Lunk. So why have your feelings changed?”
“What d’ ya mean, you haven’t changed?” Lunk’s face was red with rage beneath the lifted faceshield of his helmet. “You’re an alien! You think we woulda taken you along if we knew that? You’re a spy!”
“But the fact that I could travel among you as a friend should tell you something, Lunk. Isn’t it possible that we’re not so different, after all … your people and mine?”
The Regess had been following these exchanges with interest, and she learned more about the Humans in the past few minutes than she had in the past three years. But Ariel still had a lot to learn. “Look at these friends of yours,” she said to Ariel and directly into the minds of the Humans. “Notice how they stare at you in fear and confusion—emotional states that in their species inevitably lead to hatred … and violence!”
“Yes, they’re confused because they feel I betrayed them,” she argued, “but they’re not full of hatred.”
“Your contact with them has blinded you to their true nature, my child. It is their genetic disposition to destroy whatever they cannot understand.”
“Now just wait one damn minute, Dragon Lady!” Rand interrupted her, willing to risk a step forward. “I’ve had about enough of this! How do you know what we’re thinking? I’m willing to take Marlene as she is—and I think Lunk feels the same underneath all that armor of his. I don’t hate her. Especially now, knowing what she stands to lose by coming to our defense like this. But you are another matter. As far—”
No one saw the crimson paralyzing rays until it was too late; they seemed to bubble up out of her blue eyes like dye, and they knocked Rand off his feet—the proverbial look that could kill—but his battle armor saved him.
“It is natural to them,” she explained to Marlene/Ariel, barely missing a beat. “As natural as breathing itself. Their entire history is a catalog of murder, conquest, and enslavement, all directed against others of their own species.”
“That’s not true!” Sera now threw back, suddenly materializing in the chamber. “Ariel’s right, Regess. Forgive me, please, but I too have begun to doubt whether we are any better than they are.” She looked briefly at Lancer before continuing. “You say this species is guilty of murder and enslavement, but how is that any different from what we’re doing to this planet?”
“So, Sera, you and your sister have been turned against us.”
Sera, Lancer thought to himself, watching her.
Ariel was now gesturing toward the Humans. “Look at them, Regess. They’re not … animals or barbarians. They are a brave and noble people trying to protect what is rightfully theirs, just as we tried to do.” She offered Scott an imploring look, hoping he would understand and forgive her. Something in his eye told her he would.
Corg had by now joined them also, not in the flesh like Sera but via the instrumentality sphere, where his image appeared five times life size.
“Have all of you gone mad?” he shouted. “How did these Humans gain entrance to the hive?! Sera, remove them at once!”
Sera thrust out her chin. “I was not aware that I had to obey your orders, Corg.”
He scowled at her. “Your contact with the rebels has made you weak and spineless.”
“And it has made a monster out of you,” she returned. “Consumed by vengeance and evil passions. You are a child of shadow, Corg, not the Humans.”
“What are you saying?” he bellowed. “This pathetic species you’ve become so fond of cannot be allowed to stand in the way of our future. Have you forgotten what we have been called to do?”
“If you keep fighting, there won’t be a future for any of us,” Lancer said from the floor of the chamber.
Corg dismissed the threat without a word. “Enough. I am called to battle—where my duty lies!”
“I’ve got to stop that lunatic!” Scott yelled, ignoring Marlene’s pleas for him to wait and racing for the cockpit of his fighter.
The Alpha gave chase to the alien ship through that same netherworld of moving cells Rand and Rook had navigated earlier. I’ve got you now! Scott thought, training his weapons on Corg even before the two of them had left the hive. But the XT swung his craft around and loosed a stream of discs before Scott could get off his shot, and an instant later they were outside, dogfighting in the skies over those recently altered autumnal forests. Red-tipped heat-seekers and anni discs cut through the air as the two aces put their ships through their paces, dodging and juking, climbing and dropping against each other.
Views of the battle were displayed inside the chamber, where the rest of the freedom fighters were still gathered, along with Ariel and Sera.
“I don’t like just standing around and watching this,” Rand told Rook. “What do you say, do we stay here or go out there and help him?”
“I don’t know anymore, Rand. I’m all confused.…”
All at once the sphere’s images de-rezzed, only to be replaced by space views of the approaching Expeditionary fleet.
The Regess’ lapis eyes narrowed. “No! They have come! The dark tides of the shadow have come to engulf us again!”
“It’s the rest of Hunter’s fleet!”
“Wow! I didn’t expect so many ships!”
“Well, that does it,” Lancer said softly, filled up with a sudden despair. “Any hope of a peaceful settlement has just gone down the drain.”