down onto the console and saluted. He had sunken cheeks, reddish brown skin, and long black hair that was tied back. His physique was slight. Compared to the large woman next to him, he could almost be mistaken for a child. But the impression Rei got from him belied his physical appearance. He was, without a doubt, a soldier. Rei thought that his eyes were like those of a hawk.
“Hi, Tom,” said the major in a friendly tone. “Welcome to the SAF. So, getting to know us?”
The operator coughed and turned back to her console.
“Yep,” answered Tomahawk with a smile. “You’re lucky — the SAF has a lot of pretty girls here.”
“Speaking of, our little tomboy Minx should be back soon. How’s she doing, Hikalatia?”
“Minx is scheduled to return at 2220,” said the operator. “Banshee-IV has no means of attack, and there’s been no unusual activity.”
“Like I said before, Banshee exhausted all of its missiles and gun ammo. But there is the possibility that it could be directed to crash into Faery Base. Anyway, Tom, let me introduce you. This is Lieutenant Rei Fukai, one of our top Sylph drivers.”
“Man, the SAF really does run itself like an independent air force. Everything you guys have is top-shelf. I’m sure your skills are worthy of your plane, Lieutenant. Nice to meet you.”
“I’m good as long as I’ve got Yukikaze.”
Rei expressionlessly held out his hand, and the other man clasped it, accepting the handshake.
“Huh,” said Booker. “I think this is the first time I’ve ever seen a Boomerang pilot shake someone’s hand. Tom, you’re the only one aside from Yukikaze that Rei’s ever extended a hand to. The only things he trusts are high-tech combat machines.”
“Really?” said Tomahawk with a smile. “Then maybe he sees me as a machine.” He laughed lightly, but Rei thought that his smile was strangely sad.
THE NEXT MORNING, Boomerang Squadron Unit 3, Yukikaze, took off into a clear sky.
As they entered a steep climb, the ACLS beacon ran through its self-test. Rei confirmed that the carrier simulator on the ground was giving him an okay. He rechecked the engine gauges and confirmed that all caution lights were clear. Speed was Mach 0.9.
He slid the throttle forward. The airspeed indicator reeled through the numbers, and not even ninety seconds later their speed was Mach 2.3. He leveled off their climb at an altitude of 13,000 meters, cruising at supersonic speed.
“It’ll be winter soon,” said Tomahawk from the backseat. “The autumn colors in the forest are already turning, but the weather’s still a little hot. Around where I’m from back on Earth, they call that ‘Indian summer.’ It’s like the spirits are sending some last warm light to the world as a gift to us.”
“Down there the war seems far away. It’d be the perfect sightseeing spot, if it weren’t for the JAM,” said Rei.
“Faery doesn’t belong to us or to the JAM.”
Rei rechecked their position on his HUD. They were about to cross the Absolute Defense Line. He activated the passive airspace radar.
“I don’t think the Earth itself belongs to us, Tom. The only thing people really own are their own hearts.”
“So there are some people who believe that God didn’t give us the animals and plants and all of nature on Earth to do with as we please. That’s a very Asian way of seeing things.”
“I don’t really consider myself Asian. Maybe it’s the Faery way of seeing things. You live here long enough and you start thinking that way. Earth doesn’t belong to humans. That’s a fact. Or, at the very least, it doesn’t belong to me.”
“I agree,” Tom said, sounding satisfied. “Me, I didn’t come here thinking that I wanted to defend the Earth, but even so I can’t deny that humans control it.”
“‘Control’ doesn’t necessarily equal ‘own.’”
“I feel like I’m about to get a lecture on the evils of the capitalist system.”
“I’d always heard that Native Americans value generosity.”
“I’m not really conscious of myself in that way, the same as how you don’t really think of yourself as Asian. But different races do see things differently. My grandfather had a saying: ‘When everyone eats together, the man who cares only about filling his own belly isn’t your friend.’ What he meant was, the only things that belong to you are what you can eat, what you can’t eat belongs to everyone, and what you haven’t hunted yet belongs to no one.”
“Then by that reasoning, Earth doesn’t belong to humans. It’s too big for anyone to swallow.”
The air collision avoidance alarm sounded. Ahead were four Tactical Air Force fighters, flying at the same altitude and heading. Yukikaze’s escorts. As the Super Sylph approached, the fighters peeled off to the left and right to open a path. Yukikaze flew ahead in a straight line and overtook them in an instant.
“Our TAF backup ends here. From this point on, we’re on our own.”
Rei toggled the master arm switch to ARM.
“You know, I think your grandfather had a point.”
“My father and grandfather spent their entire lives on the reservation. But that life wasn’t for me. I came here because there weren’t any avionics jobs in the air force reserves, either.”
“I heard you helped make a lot of Yukikaze’s electronics systems. She’s a good plane. I respect that.”
“I worked in the sections that developed the basic theory for her high-speed fire control system and the early-warning radar system. But it’d be kind of pushing things to say that I made them. That’s not something anyone can do on their own. So what brought you to Faery, Lieutenant?”
“Why do you ask?”
“Using the word ‘respect’ doesn’t seem like something a Boomerang pilot would do. I was warned that you all were mean, icy-hearted bastards.”
“I am. I don’t think about protecting anything but Yukikaze. Not the Earth or my homeland.” The image of his former girlfriend’s face suddenly floated up in his mind. No, not even her. If he was being honest with himself, he never really knew her at all. All he could remember clearly was the sight of her back as she walked away.
“Speaking of your homeland, Lieutenant, I went there once. I wasn’t allowed in, though.”
“What do you mean?”
“It was because of my heart. It’s mechanical. I guess you could call me a cyborg,” Tomahawk said jokingly.
“A cyborg, huh? But why should that have mattered? An artificial heart’s no different from having a prosthetic arm or corneal implants. Why wouldn’t they let you in?”
“The problem was the energy source. It’s powered by a piece of plutonium 238. The output’s only twenty watts, but even though it’s a low-power mechanism it’s still a nuclear one.”
“And that’s why they denied you entry? That’s ridiculous. Japan has nukes.”
“They’re afraid of uncontrolled nuclear material. It’s not just Japan. People like me have a lot of trouble living on Earth. They don’t use nuclear-powered hearts that much nowadays. The heat they generate makes it hard to control fluctuations in body temperature, and treatment is difficult because it’s nuclear.”
“Is there a danger you could become a human bomb?”
“There’s no way it could ever explode. There’s so little nuclear material that it’s fundamentally impossible for it to cause a detonation. But if the containment capsule breaks, it could contaminate my surroundings with radioactivity. And if that happens, naturally I’d be finished as well. It’s a good heart, though. Without it, I would have died a long time ago. Still... Every so often, I wonder if I’m not actually a machine. When I’m denied entry to a country, it’s like they’re telling me I’m not human.”
“Don’t think that way. You’re alive. That’s enough. Or are you telling me that you’re actually a corpse? Because as far as I know, corpses can’t talk. By the way, you’re in the FAF, right? I just realized I never asked what your rank is.”
“I’m a captain,” answered Tomahawk. “For what it’s worth.”
