didn’t use the elevator, and the sound that echoed as they climbed the gray metal ladders seemed awfully loud.
When they reached the bridge they found it brightly lit, with all the electronic equipment still functioning, which made the absence of any people seem even more eerie. The laser compass, course display, and navigation radar display were all operating. The helm control, which looked exactly like a ship’s wheel, was working automatically, making adjustments to Banshee’s flight. Rei pulled at it with one hand. No response. He tried disengaging the auto-control but was locked out. The helm continued moving on its own, completely ignoring his attempts.
“We need to get to the combat information control room,” Rei called out to Tomahawk.
“I’ll head to avionics control.”
“There’ll be strong security. It’s probably protected by three layers of blast doors.”
“There wouldn’t have been any point in coming here if I’d forgotten to bring the key,” Tomahawk said with a grin. “It’s the same access as what the captain and the avionics officer would have. Just leave it to me. I’ll go debug the computer. You’re seeing JAM where there aren’t any, Lieutenant.”
They left the bridge.
“But you brought a pistol too, right?” Rei said doggedly.
Tomahawk raised an eyebrow. “It’s not a good idea to start shooting when you’re surrounded by precision equipment that’s keeping you in the air. Don’t worry. Even if this is the JAM, they can’t do anything to me in the computer room. It’s the safest place on this ship. Just please keep an eye on Banshee’s course. I don’t want us to crash into the ground while we’re not looking.”
“Okay... But something is still making me nervous here.”
“That’s not like a Boomerang pilot.”
“I have a duty to bring you back in one piece.”
“Nothing’s going to happen. If you think about how gigantic and complex this whole system is, it’s no surprise that maintaining quality control is a hard thing. You aim for perfection when you design it, but unfortunately you can’t guarantee that there will absolutely never be any failures. Even if you get the failure rate down to one in ten quadrillion, you still can’t get it to zero. I think that when that JAM attacked, it caused a fault to appear by chance. The situation that would cause the fault to present itself just hadn’t happened until now.”
“You have fifty minutes, Tom. Don’t even think about trying to hunt down the errors. You just need to gather information. We can take our time to analyze it once we’re back. If you see any people, shoot them. They don’t need to threaten you, just shoot to kill.”
The engineer stopped and raised his hands in a “don’t worry” gesture and nodded.
“I’m serious, Tom. Don’t get careless. I’m on your side, but if you don’t get back in time, I’m leaving without you.”
“I doubt you’d really do that. You’re a good man. I’m starting to see why Major Booker relies on you. Rei, you won’t be in Boomerang Squadron forever. Some day, that icy heart of yours is going to melt.”
“Not just an avionics expert, you’re a psychic too?”
Tomahawk clapped Rei on the shoulder, then walked off through the narrow companionway. Rei watched him go, his machine gun lowered, until the diminutive figure rounded a corner and passed out of sight.
Rei made his way to the CIC. Once there, he sat down in the command chair and looked at the display. The now-unmanned Banshee-IV was continuing to be operated by a host of computerized systems.
On the screen he quickly cycled through the long-range search radar, course monitoring radar, warning radar, fire control radar, beacon, IFF transponder, weather monitoring read-outs, flight computer systems, all sorts of sensor data, an onboard command schematic of the ship, a chart showing the operational mode of the ship’s takeoff and landing guidance systems...
He laid the machine gun down on the console and leaned back in the seat, keeping his eyes on the data and occasionally checking his watch. The minutes crawled by. To help pass the time, he messed around with the fire control radar, thinking how he wouldn’t have been able to do a damned thing if he’d been targeted by it. It was a high-output radar, built to overpower JAM ECM, and its EM waves could cook an unprotected human from two klicks away. Yukikaze’s ECM would be no match for it.
Every so often, Rei was seized by a strange uneasiness and glanced around the abandoned CIC. He couldn’t shake the feeling that he was being watched. After thirty minutes had passed, he knew he wasn’t just imagining it. He heard something. Coming from the air vent. His limbs tensed, adrenaline coursing through his system even as he doubted his own ears.
Keeping his gaze forward and posture relaxed, he felt for the machine gun. He secured his grip, snatched up the gun, jumped onto the console, and smashed open the vent grill near the ceiling with the shoulder stock.
There was a faint sound. He ripped the flashlight from his life vest and pointed the beam down the duct.
A rat. A normal Earth rat. Feeling half relieved and half disappointed, Rei jumped down from the console.
He called Tomahawk on the intercom. No answer. Probably completely engrossed with his work. Rei sat down again and waited patiently.
Forty minutes. Forty-one minutes. Forty-two minutes. Fortythree minutes.
Still no word from the other man.
Forty-five minutes. Forty-six.
He couldn’t wait any longer. Yukikaze was more important to him than Banshee was.
Just as he was about to get up, a warning klaxon began to blare throughout the ship. It was so loud and sudden that it caused Rei to literally jump to his feet.
Gripping the machine gun, he checked the display. Condition red. He sprang at the intercom.
“What is it?! What’s happened?!”
No answer.
This didn’t seem like a malfunction. He ran out of the CIC and through the mazelike interior of the ship toward the central avionics room where Tomahawk was. When he saw signs warning “No entry without authorization of AV officer,” “Area off-limits without captain’s permission,” and “Suspicious individuals will be shot on sight,” he knew he was nearing the right place.
A blast door. Another blast door. And still another.
White, brightly lit. A clean room. A frigid redoubt for the avionics equipment.
“Tom! Tomahawk! Tom John, answer me!”
He ran through the room, searching for Tomahawk between the equipment stacks as the klaxon continued to wail. He finally found the engineer lying face down on the floor. Rei ran up and grabbed him, turned him over, then dropped him in instinctive revulsion. Tomahawk’s chest was covered by a wriggling mass of small, black, insectlike creatures.
“Hang on, Tom. We’re getting out of here.”
The engineer’s face looked drained of blood. Rei slapped his cheek and he stirred.
“Rei...” Tom groaned. “You were right. They were looking for the control circuitry for my heart... They’ve screwed it up. Get out of here fast, Lieutenant. Banshee’s going to crash soon... I smashed the cooling system for the avionics control. You have to escape before the other systems break down.” Keeping Banshee’s electronics properly cooled consumed 300 kilowatts of power and a half a ton of coolant every minute. It wouldn’t be long before they started to overheat.
“If it’s going down, we can still get you out on Yukikaze.”
Rei shouldered the machine gun and tried to help Tomahawk to his feet, but the other man refused to cooperate.
“I wanted to take out these guys with my own hands... I’m done, Rei. The JAM have wrecked my heart. Even if you got me aboard Yukikaze, I wouldn’t make it back to base... Get out of here now, Lieutenant. That’s an order.”
“This can’t be happening. If I’d just stayed with you, I — ” Rei stopped, his eyes widening.
The black things that had been scattered on the floor were coming together, coalescing into a single, large,
