If Yukikaze was still intact, Major Booker thought, and she was simply keeping her contact with the JAM a secret from the FAF, then that was fine. She was just hiding it from everybody. But what if that wasn’t the case?
The tactical computer sent the Rafe to search for Yukikaze on Cookie’s perimeter for as long as the Rafe’s fuel allowed, but by that time there was no sign of her. All it spotted were the surviving JAM fighters in combat with the FAF.
The Rafe was temporarily landed at TAB-8 to be hot fueled, with its engines still running. Despite that, it still took more time than it should have. The arrangements for the refueling had been properly made, but the humans at the base had never seen an unmanned Rafe before, so they didn’t know where the fuel ports were or even how many of them it had. The SAF sent the data, but until it was sent to the scene, the Rafe was kept waiting. There it sat, engines running with its nose sunk down in a kneeling position. To the humans who stood watching it nearby, it seemed just like a JAM.
“C-could Yukikaze have been shot down?” Unable to stand it anymore, Captain Foss asked the question nobody else wanted to. “She isn’t anywhere. She’s not flying.”
“There’s no trace of her having crashed,” replied General Cooley. “We’re not picking up any mayday signals either.”
Major Booker had thought that she’d perhaps landed at Cookie, but the video the Rafe had sent back gave lie to that possibility. There was no Cookie base left to land on. It had been transformed into an enormous crater. Even had Yukikaze landed there, it would be difficult to even discern her wreckage.
I anticipate that Yukikaze is making contact with the JAM, the tactical computer said. I cannot detect that ourselves. All we can do is wait for her return to base.
“Have the Rafe continue its investigation,” said Major Booker. “I’m declaring an emergency. Have the other fighters join in.”
While a search is necessary, putting more search planes in the airspace over Cookie at this time won’t increase the probability of locating Yukikaze, the computer said. I theorize that she has entered the mysterious battle zone.
“Where’s this mysterious battle zone?” Captain Foss asked.
“An unknown airspace Yukikaze was caught in once before. It happened during a sightseeing flight with a visitor from Earth aboard her. Yukikaze was flying without a full crew, and the JAM caught her in a strange interdimensional zone, like a butterfly in a net.”
Even as he explained, Major Booker wondered why the tactical computer had mentioned that little detail, then realized why. There was no doubt in his mind that the computers had already had some sort of discussion with the JAM and foreseen this circumstance. The SAF’s combat intelligences had acted on their own initiative. They were now seizing control.
Major Booker bit his lip as he realized that he’d been naive. It had been them, not the JAM, who’d gotten the jump on him. Rei had told him that Yukikaze was conscious, that she was alive, but he’d never really taken him seriously. Apparently, he should have.
“But why Yukikaze?” Major Booker murmuerd, almost to himself. “Why did the JAM choose her specifically?”
“Because the JAM consider Yukikaze a unique being,” said Captain Foss. “Major, you’re so immersed in the SAF that you can’t see how unusual Yukikaze is. The fact that you can’t realize something so simple says to me that—”
“Captain Foss, you don’t need to be here,” said General Cooley, cutting her off. “I want you to organize the results of your profacting of the JAM and submit a report to me at once.”
“General, I’m not finished yet. I need the data Yukikaze is gathering right now.”
“Major Booker, please inform Captain Foss as to her duty. There’s no need for you to be here either. I’m taking command. Analyze Captain Foss’s profacting report and then inform me immediately if you find anything useful in it. That is all. Now go to it.”
“Y-yes, General.” Major Booker saluted and abided by her order. He’d never felt so utterly defeated as he did at that moment.
He understood, though. If Yukikaze didn’t make it back, the general was going to urgently need the results of Captain Foss’s behavioral analysis of the JAM. The major appreciated that, given the circumstances, it was an entirely appropriate decision to make. So far as she was concerned, Rei’s life or death was merely a strategic question. It was a matter of war.
But Major Booker couldn’t neatly compartmentalize Rei like that. Please, make it back, he prayed. I don’t want to lose you, pal. You can’t lose, not to the JAM, to Yukikaze, or to this war. Winning the battle doesn’t matter. What counts most is making it back alive.
Yeah, Major Booker thought as he reconsidered. Rei would be the first to agree with me there.
Rei didn’t need prayers right now. He’d trust in his own strength and do what he thought needed to be done. All the major could do was hope that his friend made it back. If Yukikaze did return with knowledge of what the JAM truly were, then his feelings of defeat would be assuaged. If Booker was to pull himself together to go after the enemy once more, Yukikaze, Rei, and Lieutenant Katsuragi were going to have to make it back.
3
AS SOON AS Rei declared RTB, Yukikaze reacted immediately.
Switch to AUTOMANEUVER…Capt.
She was requesting that Rei switch to auto mode and turn over combat maneuvering operations to her. He understood and flipped the automaneuver switch to ON.
Yukikaze began to accelerate, pulling right alongside the JAM duplicate of the old Yukikaze. It wasn’t actively scanning them or interfering with Yukikaze’s electronic systems, but it was probably observing her actions and gathering combat intelligence via passive means. If she attempted to make contact with SAF headquarters, the JAM would know it and would probably be able to decrypt the contents of the communication. Even now, Yukikaze remained a mystery to the JAM.
The ghost plane was a copy of a Super Sylph, meaning it couldn’t compete with the Maeve where speed was concerned. They began to pull away. The ghost plane didn’t attempt to interfere electronically with Yukikaze. She simply made a slight course correction and continued to accelerate, making for the thin belt of blue sky that lay in between the sea of ashen clouds that stretched above and below them. It’s like a blue signal light, showing the way out, Rei thought.
The problem was that they couldn’t determine how far away it was. It felt practically infinite.
“Abnormality to our rear,” Lieutenant Katsuragi said in a low voice. “It looks like the exit’s closing up.”
Even Rei looked up from the radar display to check. The gap in the sea of clouds behind them was disappearing. The wall that stretched above and below their sides was now coming together behind them, and the tangent it formed was getting closer. It felt, Rei decided, like they were inside an enormous bivalve shell closing around them. What he couldn’t confirm was whether the pivot point for the walls lay behind them.
This was just like the last time he’d been trapped in the mysterious battle zone, when Lander had lost his left hand. Yukikaze had been surrounded by an invisible arcing wall. He’d headed for what looked like the way out, but the wall had joined into a circle that had surrounded them. The circle had then contracted into a point, squeezing them into the zone. Last time, the wall hadn’t shown up on regular radar. Now, it was the exact reverse. The situation was upside down.