was possible that Dr. Foss was scrutinizing him at this very moment. She might be using the e-secretary to interview him in order to get background information, Major Booker thought. At the very least, the way he was responding should give her an indication of his character. And his present mental condition.
Was he overthinking this? No, it was possible. Still, there was no denying that if he didn’t show some interest in Captain Foss, then she wouldn’t have noticed him or thought to seek him out.
“Captain Foss,” he added. “There’s something I’d like to discuss. I’d like you to come to my office. Soon, if possible.”
Major Booker disconnected, ignoring a repeated attempt by Captain Foss’s e-secretary to ask him his name. His verbal message had already been automatically recorded. He knew that Captain Foss wouldn’t be hearing it from the e-secretary because the FAF’s internal communications core system program was designed that way. The e-secretary was there strictly for decorative purposes.
An artificial electronic secretary? It was absurd. This was a battlefield, after all. The FAF medical center was a field hospital, not a private hospital that had to cater to its patients’ moods. If Captain Foss was having trouble seeing that, then it was his duty to set her straight.
REI SWAM LAPS Faery base’s Tactical Combat Air Corps training center. The SAF might have been a de facto division with its own headquarters, but they had no training center of their own for when their soldiers wanted to exercise or work out their frustrations.
There were about twenty people from other units in the pool with him, relaxing, chatting with friends, and calmly drifting along as they swam.
Rei swam alone, in silence. Nobody called out to him.
Whenever he set foot into the environs of the training center, entered the locker room, or stood at the side of the pool, it would always be the same. To anyone who met his gaze and tried to engage him in conversation, Rei would simply say, “I’m from the SAF,” and their camaraderie would lapse back into silence. While people in other units knew that SAF members were hard to get along with, they weren’t indifferent to them. Although the SAF were officially assigned to the Tactical Combat Air Corps at Faery Base, SAF members behaved like individuals assigned to an autonomous corps; they had a lot of power. They kept their specific activities secret from people in other units, and that extended to when one of their taciturn soldiers came into a shared area like this — SAF members never spoke about what went on inside of their heads. Their mystery made them objects of curiosity to the others.
No one spoke to Rei directly at the pool, but he could feel their inquisitive glances as he swam, and occasionally he heard “SAF” bubble up from their lively conversations. He couldn’t shake the feeling that he’d become a bit of a spectacle, but he didn’t care what they said about him as long as they didn’t directly interfere with what he was doing. Rei was used to hearing other units bitching about him on the radio whenever he flew missions with Yukikaze anyway. The only reason he was here swimming was because Major Booker had ordered it. He was here to do his duty, not to make friends.
Rei was actually a talented swimmer, but it had been a long time since he’d come to the pool just for the sake of swimming. Forgetting this was being done as a duty, Rei let the sensation of the water carry him away as he swam without a wasted motion. He soon came to relish the feeling of just moving his body.
As always doing his best not to waste a single stroke, he switched between a two-beat crawl when he grew tired and a six-beat sprint when he wanted to push himself. Rei was out of breath after only four or five laps, driving home to him just how out of shape he was. Abandoning his original plan to switch up his swimming style to a butterfly stroke, he cruised along with the easiest crawl he could manage. Rei thought he could keep going for hours doing that, but gradually his arms grew heavy. He looked at the big analog clock that hung on the wall by the pool. Not even twenty minutes had passed. He decided to keep going and get at least thirty minutes of swimming in, but the hands on the clock crawled along at a glacial pace. When he realized that he was obsessing about how long it was taking, Rei finally admitted that he was too weak to keep pushing on and climbed out of the pool.
He chose a deck chair away from the crowd and sat down to catch his breath. The chair was a new one, nice and clean. He suddenly realized that the chair and the facility it sat in were both clean because someone was keeping them clean. Of course the center had a full-time maintenance staff. They never saw the JAM. There must have been lots of civilian contractors who had come to Faery. War was big business. He’d never before thought about all the people who were involved in the war with the JAM, but when he stopped to think about it, only a small fraction of the FAF directly faced the JAM threat on the front lines.
Assuming they considered the humans worthy of their notice in this war, there were all sorts of ways the JAM could kill everyone here if they wanted to. The JAM might have already begun making preparations. The pool maintenance staff might have been noncombatants, but no place on Faery was safe for them. Rei didn’t know if they were conscious of that, but he was grateful that they were here doing their job. Grateful that they kept things clean.
THE CHEERFUL GROUP, apparently having been waiting for Rei to leave the pool, were lined up on the start line. Teams were instantly chosen and it seemed that a mini swim meet was about to begin. After a few humorous on-the-spot introductions of the swimmers, the race began. Some onlookers cheered the swimmers on. Rei was tired, but hearing their cheers felt good to him. The actual participants were probably good swimmers, but their skill range was all over the place. Still, they were giving it their best and taking it seriously, so it didn’t make for a bad show.
The race was a three-course relay, and when the second set of swimmers dove in, the one in the center lane caught Rei’s attention. She was a woman, remarkably fast, and she didn’t waste a single stroke. She was catching up with the man who was in the lead. Rei was intrigued by her excellent performance and wondered if she had ever competed seriously. There was a beauty to the movements of a well-trained human body. He could never tire of watching it.
“Not joining in, Captain Fukai?” said a voice that suddenly came from behind him. Rei didn’t turn to look. He knew it was Captain Foss. He hadn’t even noticed her come in.
“Did I ask to join in? I’m not interested,” Rei said. His eyes stayed on the race.
“I wonder if you don’t want to compete because you’re afraid of losing,” Captain Foss said, as though idly chatting.
“I’m not afraid of losing.” He turned to face Captain Foss. “Losing doesn’t make me feel scared, just irritated.”
“Quite a few people would avoid contests from the start because they don’t like to feel that way. That’s basically what a fear of losing is. They hate the contest itself. Are you sure that isn’t what you’re feeling?”
“What I think,” Rei said, “is that I’d rather avoid losing a contest and feeling irritated about it if it isn’t necessary. That’s how I feel about that race. I didn’t come here to win anything.” He paused for a moment. “So what brings you here?”
Captain Foss was wearing the white doctor’s coat she normally eschewed during her counseling sessions. The coat marked her as a military doctor, which essentially made it her uniform. It meant that she was still on duty and hadn’t come here for fun.
“Major Booker just asked me to do the right thing for you,” she said.
“Oh,” Rei replied. When he followed his one-word answer with silence, Captain Foss asked him if that was all he was going to say.
“What are you getting at?” Rei asked.
“A little while ago, the major contacted me and told me in no uncertain terms that he wanted you released from my care.”
“So what? You’re saying he was lying when he told you to do the right thing for me?”