would be willing to take the risk for that.”
“You’re saying you want me to fly with you?”
“Right,” Rei answered. “I’ll take you up in Yukikaze with me.”
Captain Foss stared straight at Rei, not saying a word. Then she answered, her tone firm.
“If General Cooley authorizes it, I’ll do what you want. But that’s —”
“You’ll get the authorization, Captain Foss. You’ll be the one who’ll convince General Cooley and Major Booker. If you can’t do it, there’ll only be one thing for you to do — apply for a transfer out of the SAF.”
“You’d really go that far... Suppose I still find you unfit to fly, even while we’re in the air?”
“You won’t be making that call. The JAM will just shoot us down.”
“You’re saying we’ll be flying in a combat zone?”
“There’s no absolutely safe place in the FAF, Captain Foss. You can’t escape that, no matter where you go. Get me my flight authorization. Then Major Booker will stop ignoring you. I think it’s a good proposal.”
“I’d like some time to think it over.”
“This isn’t practice. It’s real combat. I need your answer now, Captain Foss. You won’t get a chance like this again.”
“Fine,” she replied, standing up. “I’ll accept your proposal. The truth is, I’ve always wanted a ride in one of our state-of-the-art fighters.”
“Oh, is that what you were really after? You certainly took a roundabout way to get it,” Rei said, his expression deadly serious. “I wish you’d just been upfront about that from the beginning. Then nobody would have ignored you. Though had you just been honest, you absolutely never would have been given a chance to ride in Yukikaze. Well played. How do you feel?”
“Like I went for wool and ended up getting fleeced,” replied Captain Foss, holding out her hand. Rei shook it and said, “Which one of us is getting fleeced here? I don’t think either of us has yet. I think this is going to settle the problems between us, but your battle is just beginning. I’m praying we aren’t your enemy.”
“Are you saying that the SAF sees people who don’t accept the reality of the JAM as their enemies?”
“Not in that sense. I’m saying that there’s no guarantee that you aren’t a JAM.”
“Me? A JAM?”
“That’s the sort of battle we’re fighting here now. More than any other unit in the FAF, we know that in our bones, not our brains,” Rei said.
“So, admitting that... are you taking me out into a combat zone as some sort of a test?”
“Major Booker will make that call. He’s a tough one. All I’m looking for is to fly Yukikaze. Anything beyond that is your own problem. You risk your life by choosing to fly in her. Be prepared for whatever happens.”
CONTRARY TO REI’S expectations, Major Booker received his news calmly and then, after considering it for a moment, told him “Good work. That was probably the best way to handle it.” The major didn’t smile when Rei told him that Captain Foss might be a JAM. He instead nodded and replied that anyone whose history was unknown to them had to be suspected. Considering that, taking her out into an actual combat zone was a good idea, the major said.
If she were a JAM, she was extremely dangerous, but only the SAF could deal with it. And even though she likely wasn’t a JAM, having her spreading the idea that they weren’t real was going to cause chaos in the FAF. It wouldn’t affect those in the SAF, but it might affect people in other units. For that reason, they couldn’t just expel her. And if she simply had an interest in advanced fighter planes and the abilities of the people who flew them, then she needed to get it through her head that reality wasn’t as simple as she thought it was, or else she’d never be of any use to the SAF as a military doctor.
“I’ll draw up a plan to get Captain Edith Foss into combat,” Major Booker said. “If she’s a JAM, she’ll show her true colors.”
“She may not and just come back here to stay,” Rei replied.
“I’ll keep my eye on her,” the major said. “Let’s hope this turns Captain Foss around.”
“She’s got a fighting streak in her, the same as we do. She won’t be an easy nut to crack.”
“ ‘We,’ huh? You really have changed. I just hope that hasn’t made you less effective in battle.”
TWELVE DAYS LATER, wearing flight suits and with helmets in hand, Rei and Captain Foss were back in the sortie briefing room. Their mission briefing had already been completed. They’d been told that their mission was to reconnoiter the environs of one of the JAM’s main bases, code-named Richwar, which the FAF had hit recently. Major Booker had decided to commit two SAF planes to the task. He hadn’t been able to determine if the FAF strike had knocked it out completely, and he was sure that there were survivors still there. They’d probably made contact with the other bases and summoned support. Naturally, the SAF had already conducted recon of the area, but hadn’t been able to tell for certain what was going on. The human pilots didn’t know how the JAM communicated with each other or how they organized support lines. Because of that, a JAM base that had been struck could one day spring back into action without any warning. The only way they’d ever learn how the JAM regenerated so quickly was to keep an apparently dead base under surveillance. These chances didn’t come very often, and they had one now. Major Booker was just barely managing to send out continuous surveillance missions while balancing them with the squadron’s other duties. They’d also dropped a recon pod in the area, and part of this mission was to collect the data it had gathered.
Captain Foss participated in the briefing as well, and Major Booker gave her specific instructions to keep careful watch on Rei’s condition and report on it as the mission’s medical specialist. These were orders from General Cooley, he added.
Their preflight briefing had covered the details of their flight plan, weather conditions, flight route, navigation support environment, fuel stores, and weapons loadout... All simple stuff, but it wasn’t simple to Captain Foss. Her job of observing Rei had already begun, but the task at hand was first and foremost to deal with her fear of entering a combat zone for the first time. Worse for her, there wasn’t anyone else on the sortie team with whom she could share the fear she felt. Rei was the subject of her observations, so she naturally couldn’t confide in him, but the other plane teamed up for this mission with Yukikaze was an unmanned drone fighter. It was nicknamed the Rafe, a name Major Booker had chosen. This truly unmanned fighter, newly supplementing the squadron as its thirteenth plane, was the Maeve prototype: the FRX99.
Major Booker never sent out an unmanned plane to operate alone. There was much to learn about their performance, and that data was vital. Even so, he’d wanted at least one of the new drones sent out as the backup plane for this mission. If the SAF judged that this mission was too dangerous for Yukikaze to fly alone, they could use the drone. He was aware of the possibility that the drone could become a danger to Yukikaze’s crew as well, and acknowledged that part of the SAF’s job was to monitor just such a situation.
As she settled into Yukikaze’s rear seat, Captain Foss also felt some trepidation at the sound of the engines starting up on the black-skinned Unit 13, although her fear was different from Major Booker’s. She wondered if the unmanned plane charged with escorting Yukikaze and providing backup could be trusted not to abandon them if things got rough. After all, wasn’t that how SAF planes normally operated? Even their manned planes would do that. In that respect, the humans in the SAF were much like their machines. She’d never really realized that before. Rei had said as much during their exchanges, but only now, in this situation, did the reality of Rei’s words sink in.
Yukikaze’s engines spun to life with power supplied by a support truck outside.
“Contact,” Rei declared.
Fire screamed inside of Yukikaze’s Super Phoenix engines. Captain Foss tensed up as the plane changed its posture, the front tire shock absorber compressing as it bore the enormous thrust from the engines. Yukikaze was roaring like a wild animal preparing to leap onto its prey.
Rei looked back. Captain Foss realized that he wasn’t checking on her. His helmet visor was raised, and she
