Transformations   von chelle76
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                      Kapitel 15: It Takes A Little Time
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Transformations…
Chapter 15: It Takes A Little Time


A month or so passes fairly uneventfully. The GoLion team and the Bismarck crew
have been working together on maneuvers and helping with the rebuilding efforts
of Calvary Command. The base is now beginning to resemble how it was before it
was attacked. It has been a hectic schedule, and everyone is taking a well
deserved break. 
“I think we should just lie around and rest while we can.” Lance says to
anyone that will listen.
“Yeah, we have been going at it for a while without much rest. Who knows when
something will happen again,” Hothead agrees. 
“Be mindful of what you say, you don’t want to bring trouble.” Fala says.


The room gets quiet for a while, everyone lost in their own thoughts. Saber
stands up and starts for the door, “I think I’m going to go out for a while.
Call if you need me,” he says as the door closes behind him.
April watches him leaves without a word. Colt looks up as he leaves, but
doesn’t say anything. 
“Do you think he’s all right?” Fala asks aloud.
“I’m sure he’s fine. He has seemed better these past few weeks. Perhaps
this break has been what he needed.” April replies.
“Some break. We’ve worked like slaves.” Colt grumbles.
“It’s better than fighting all of the time, Colt.” Fireball retorts. “I
do think he’s doing a bit better though. He has seemed more like his old self
in the last few weeks.”


Saber takes Steed and heads outside of the base compound. He rides in a random
direction for a while, slowing down when he comes close to a small village. He
rides slower, looking around as he passes through. There are several people out
working in some fields; he notices that here there seems to be no sign of the
struggles and destruction that Calvary Command has faced. He relaxes a bit; glad
to see people living peacefully, wondering as he goes just how long it will
last. He comes closer to what appears to be a schoolyard. A large group of
children are outside playing and they stop when they notice him. Several turn
towards him and he slows down, eventually stopping as the children approach
him.

“Hey Sir, that’s a nice looking horse. I’ve never seen one like that
before,” A tall boy who appeared to be oldest of the group says. 
Saber dismounts, leading Steed over to the children, allowing them to look at
him. “He’s a rather unique horse. He was made for me.” Saber replies as
the children come over and study both of them closer. 
Suddenly a young auburn-haired woman comes rushing over, “Children, come back
here! You know better than to talk to strangers!” she yells, as she approaches
the group. She stops, startled when she sees Saber, noticing his uniform. “Oh,
I didn’t realize you were from Calvary Command, Sir. I apologize; I only
wanted to protect the children.” 
Saber smiles, shaking his head, “It’s quite all right, Miss. I’m glad that
you are so conscientious about the safety of the children.”
The teacher nods. “I am the only teacher in this village, so I know my
students fairly well. I suppose the excitement of seeing you and your horse
brought them over this way.”
Saber nods, “It would appear that we have captured their interest,” he says
with a chuckle. “I’m sure that they have not seen a mecha horse before. I
believe there is only one other horse similar to him, so I can understand their
curiosity.”
The kids are starting to touch Steed and begin walking around them studying both
the horse and the rider. “Are you really from Calvary Command?” A small girl
asks timidly.
Saber kneels down to her level and nods. “Yes I am. I am a captain with the
Calvary Command Star Sheriffs.”
Several of the kids gasp astonished. “Then why are you way out here? Aren’t
you a long way from your base?” the little girl asks curiously.
Saber nods, “I am just out for a ride. There wasn’t much happening, so I
decided to come exploring for a while,” he replies.

“We were about to have some lunch, would you care to join us?” the teacher
asks quietly. The children look up at him, anxiously awaiting a reply.
Saber looks to his watch and nods, “I don’t see why I couldn’t sit with
you for a while. I don’t have other plans for the day.” 
The children race back towards the school grounds, the teacher and Saber
following behind. The children all go and gather under a tree and sit down with
food and begin eating. The teacher goes inside and gets a small bag, then goes
and sits close to the children. Pulling out food from the bag, she begins to
eat. Saber sits down between the teacher and the kids, all of them chatting away
and eating happily. Occasionally, a child looks his direction, but they don’t
say anything to him. 
After a few minutes of watching the kids, the teacher turns and faces him, “My
name is Amanda Kelly, I just realized that I never introduced myself. I
apologize for that.” She says sheepishly.
Saber nods, hiding a smile, “My name is Saber Rider. It’s nice to meet you,
Miss Kelly.”
Amanda smiles back and looks at him thoughtfully, “You are a ways out from
your base, is everything all right there?” she asks, trying to make
conversation. 
Saber turns and faces her nodding slightly, “Things are quite a bit better
than a few weeks ago,” he says quietly. “The base had been badly damaged in
an attack.”
Amanda gasps, “I hope no one was seriously hurt.” she says a bit worried.
“We lost three good soldiers during that attack; although because of their
quick thinking many others were out of harm’s way.” Saber replies solemnly.
“Did you know them?” she asks hesitantly.
Saber shakes his head, “I didn’t know any of the ones that died in this
latest attack.” He looks over towards the children. “Hopefully, the problems
there don’t reach you this far out. Has anyone here lost any family?” he
asks curious.
“One student I think has a brother who is a cadet, but I’ve not heard of him
being injured or killed. News spreads quickly around here, so I’m sure I would
have heard if anything did happen. Otherwise, we are pretty much a
self-contained community. We grow our own food, trade and barter mostly for
goods and services, and take care of each other. It’s one of the reasons I
moved here, I enjoy being away from the chaos.”
Saber nods, listening as she talks, the children are finishing up and they start
coming back towards them. The smallest girl comes over and sits beside Saber,
looking up shyly at him.
“Are you going to come and visit us everyday?” she asks quietly.
Saber smiles at her and shakes his head. “I can’t promise anything, I never
know where I’ll be from one day to the next.”
A short time later, Saber and Amanda stand up as she prepares to take the
children back inside. “I hope you have a chance to visit us again, Captain
Rider. It was nice meeting you,” Amanda says as he mounts Steed.
“I hope to come back this way too, perhaps when this situation is over. It was
nice meeting all of you,” he says as he turns Steed to the road leading back
to the base.
“Bye!” several of the children say after he mounts.
“Good-bye,” he says as he takes off back towards Calvary Command. 

“I hope Saber is all right, he’s been gone for hours,” April says looking
at a clock in the common area.
“I’m sure he’s fine. We would have heard from him otherwise.” Fireball
replies trying to soothe her.
Keith and Fala come in to the room, seeing several of the others just sitting
around. “I suppose all of you have really taken it easy today?” Keith asks
as he and Fala go and sit on one of the couches.
“I don’t see where that’s a problem, Chief. We’ve been busting our asses
trying to rebuild this place the last few weeks. Between that and all of the
practicing scenarios, I’m a bit tired, so I’m sure everyone else is too.”
Lance says a bit harshly.
“I know you’re tired, Lance, so are we. I didn’t mean to sound like I was
angry; I was trying to pick on you.” Keith retorts. 
Lance rolls his eyes, and shakes his head, “I was trying to tease you back,
Chief.” he replies, “I’m sure you two have enjoyed your time off today.”
He adds with a smirk.
Fala looks around the room pointedly ignoring the comment, and notices that
Saber is absent from the group. “Is Saber lying down? I don’t think I’ve
seen him at all today,” Fala asks to no one in particular.
“He left this morning on Steed and we haven’t heard from him since.” April
says, sounding a bit worried.
A knock at the door draws their attention and Fireball gets up to answer it. A
soldier is at the door, looking a bit nervous. “Yes?” Fireball asks.
“Commander Eagle requests that you all come to his office immediately,” the
soldier replies.
Fireball turns to the group, “I guess we’d better see what’s up. Let’s
go.” The others all get up and they follow the soldier to Commander Eagle’s
office.
Commander Eagle greets them as they arrive, “Thank you for coming, please sit
down.” He says and they all take a seat. He scans the room, and turns to
Fireball, “Where’s Saber?”
“I’m not sure, Sir. He left this morning to go riding and to my knowledge,
he hasn’t returned.” Fireball replies.
Commander Eagle looks concerned but tries not to show it, “We’ll have to
deal with that later. I called you here because we have intercepted a distress
signal from one of the PLANTS that are between here and Orb. I think it bears
monitoring, but I’m not sure if we should take action or just wait and try and
get more information.”
“Where is the signal from, Commander?” Fireball inquires.
“It is coming from a PLANT called ‘Sextilis.’ The city is ‘Sextilis
Eight.’ Thus far, we have been unable to make direct contact with them,” the
commander replies.
“It sounds like a trap to me.” Colt says.
“Yeah, I think so too.” Lance adds. “It’s just too fishy. No activity
and suddenly…boom, we get a distress signal. That reeks of a trap to me.”
“Be that as it may,” Keith interjects, “we could be dealing with a
legitimate attack. People could be dying there. We can’t risk not
responding.”
“We can’t risk tipping our hand to that witch Merla either, Captain.”
Fireball replies frustrated. “Like Lance said, this screams ‘trap.’ I
don’t like it. It’s a bit far out anyways, and they are under Orb’s
protection, aren’t they?”
Commander Eagle nods, “I understand both sides of this. That’s why I have
brought you here, so we can discuss how to handle this.”
“We don’t need to talk, we need to act.” Keith says getting a bit
perturbed. “If people are being killed, as soldiers, it is our duty to try and
stop it.” Several people look between Keith and Fireball, not sure what to
say. 
“How long ago was this signal received, Sir?” A voice asks from the doorway.
Everyone turns to see Saber entering the room. “Sorry I’m late. Someone
could have called me.” He goes and sits down in a vacant chair.
“We received the distress signal approximately forty-five minutes ago,”
Commander Eagle replies.
“At this point the argument is whether or not to go and check it out?” Saber
asks, getting a nod in return. “Well, I agree that it very well could be a
trap, but as Keith says, we have a duty to protect people.”
Keith stands up, obviously frustrated. “Look, I can’t just sit here while we
debate what to do any longer. I am going to check it out, be it alone or with
help.” He heads towards the door; the other members of his team get up and
quietly follow him. “We will call once we know something,” he says as they
exit the room, heading to the Lions.

“Damn it!” Fireball says, slamming his fists onto the table. 
“Easy, Fireball, Keith is just doing what he feels is right.” Saber says
trying to calm him down.
“But I know it’s a trap!” he replies exasperated.
“We don’t know that for sure, Shinji.” Saber says harshly, making Fireball
cringe. “There’s no need to get into a fight over it. We are on the same
side; you need to understand that it’s his crew, so he made the decision to
go. We will be here if they need help, otherwise, we should use this time to try
and contact either the PLANT that sent the signal or Orb and see if they know
anything.”
“Where the Hell have you been anyways?” Fireball snaps back at him.
Saber sighs and meets his gaze, “I went out riding to clear my head. You could
have called me if you needed me for anything.”
“For all we knew you went off and did something stupid.” Fireball says,
immediately regretting it. “I’m sorry, Saber, that was low.” he says
quietly.
Saber shakes his head and looks down at the table, trying to control his anger,
“Thank you for caring enough to be worried, but I promise you, I’ve not had
such thoughts for a while now.” he replies barely audible.
Fireball looks at him a bit shocked, then gains his composure, “Saber, I
crossed a line that I shouldn’t have. Even if I had that type of thought about
you, this was not the time or place to bring it up.”
Saber looks up, meeting his gaze, “No, you were out of line, but I know that
you were well intentioned. You are doing your best, I know that. We all are,”
he continues, looking around to the remaining people in the room. “I don’t
know what is going to happen, but you need to understand that in a group like we
are, you have to choose your battles. Getting angry with me or with Keith solves
nothing. He is doing what he feels his team should do, respect that and move on.
We are doing what is probably the best thing for us to do at this point without
further information, we are waiting. We will be available if needed, but if we
all went out for one distress call, it could very well tip our hand and be our
downfall. I am not saying that either one of you is completely right. In a way,
you both are. But do not turn your anger into a personal attack, not to me, or
to anyone else that is allianced with us. You do not want to make an enemy of
Altea, and if you had said something like what you said to me to Keith or even
the Princess, you very well could have cost us a great deal. Part of being a
good Captain is knowing when to keep your mouth shut. Remember that.” 
The room is deathly silent for a long time after that. No one dares to say
anything. Fireball sits there quietly, not sure what to say, he looks to each of
the people in the room, trying to read expressions. Most of what he sees is
shock; April looks between him and Saber, almost as if she’s scared to speak.
Commander Eagle and Colt are both sitting back and waiting to see what will
happen. Finally, Fireball faces Saber again he takes a deep breath before
speaking, “I will remember your advice, Captain Rider. I do hope you will
forgive me, eventually.” He adds quietly.
A beeping is heard and everyone looks towards Commander Eagle, who is pulling up
the com screen. “This is Commander Eagle go ahead.”
“This is Captain Zala of Orb, Sir. We have received a distress call from the
GoLion team. We are on our way to them and will keep you appraised of the
situation once we arrive. I don’t think both of us coming to their aid at this
point would be beneficial, since we’re closer to them, I feel it makes the
most sense for us to see about them.”
Commander Eagle nods, “A good call, Captain Zala. We will wait for news and be
ready to launch if we are needed. Thank you.” The connection terminates and
the commander looks once again to the team before him. “Has the air been
sufficiently cleared?”
All eyes fall to Fireball and Saber. Saber looks to Fireball and places a hand
on his shoulder, “I know you were only trying to do what was right. I
appreciate that you were worried, let’s just move on, all right?” Fireball
meets his gaze and nods, relaxing a bit. “Good. I don’t have many friends,
and I don’t wish to lose any.” Saber says quietly. He then turns and faces
Commander Eagle, “I think we’re fine now, Sir.” 
Commander Eagle relaxes and smiles, “I know things are tense, I just hope this
is the worst we have to deal with. I also hope that all of you have gained
something from this.” Each person nods slightly in reply to his question.
“I’m glad of that. A strong bond like you have forged is hard to come by. It
is why you work well as a team; I don’t want to see that unravel here after
you have been through so much together.”
“I don’t think that will happen, Sir. We may not speak for a while or
something, but I have no doubts that if something were going on, we would come
to each other’s aid, putting our differences aside.” Saber says, the others
nodding in agreement. “The only grudge I bear is for the witch Merla,” he
adds harshly.

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