“So how is The Invader viewed now?”
“Probably as nothing but fantasy, like the vast number of books, good and bad, that came out about the JAM for a while. They’re not popular anymore. I’m basically seen as a has-been popular writer. I always saw myself as a journalist and not a pop writer, and that hasn’t changed, but the world doesn’t see me that way. With my insistence on still writing about the JAM, I’m seen as a bit of an anachronism.”
“That’s nuts.”
“It’s the result of the FAF’s success at containing the JAM threat,” Lynn said.
“And there’s a whole bunch of other problems that reality has for people to worry about, right?”
“Right. Humanity’s perennial crises are a much more familiar problem to deal with. Economics, politics, religion, cultures, race, gender issues, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.”
Rei remembered what Lynn Jackson had written in The Invader.
Back when the JAM first drove through the hyperspace Passageway linking Earth and Faery and invaded Antarctica, humanity hadn’t united to fight them. In the end, humanity saw the JAM as just another race among many to be confronted. On Earth you could find a race called “humans,” but that group couldn’t be properly considered “Earthers.” Humans are basically animals who fight each other for dominance within and between groups, so if a controlling member of one collective loses even a little power, the group fractures. Joining and splitting, over and over. The relationship of the ruler and the ruled. Struggles for supremacy. Even the presence of the JAM did not change this. This desire for confrontation would persevere in humanity until the species finally fell to ruin.
“Just humans with a different skin color, eh?” Rei said to Lynn Jackson as they climbed into a taxi.
“Hm?”
“That was something you wrote in your book. You basically said that humans wouldn’t face reality until the very end.”
“And what do you think?” she asked.
“I think we eat, we sleep, we grow old, and then one day we vanish from this world. Anything aside from that is an illusion.”
“Spoken like an enlightened old Buddhist.”
“The JAM made me that way,” Rei said. He shut the taxi door.
As the taxi drove along, Rei spotted a newsstand out the window and asked the driver to pull over. He bought four different papers. When he returned, Lynn Jackson laughed and told him he could ask the hotel to buy as many as he wished, or else print out all the news stories he could carry from the MT in his room. Rei, however, had no intention of doing as she said.
“It’s easy to forge newspapers or computer data,” he explained.
“Ah, but a paper bought out in the city from a random location would be a little more reliable, is that it?”
“I guess.”
“Who do you think would be trying to forge them?”
“Someone trying to make me laugh,” Rei said.
Lynn Jackson shrugged her shoulders and kept her mouth shut.
After arriving at the hotel and checking in, Rei went his own way after promising to meet Lynn for dinner later.
Lynn offered to take him out to a nice restaurant where he could have a meal fit for a human and plan what he was going to do, but Rei wasn’t used to just relaxing. Major Booker had given him a one-week grace period. For seven days, his posting in the SAF was still guaranteed. The meaning was clear—if he let it pass he’d never fly Yukikaze again, even if he returned to Faery.
Rei doubted he’d find something new to live for in the next week, but he didn’t want to waste his time. He wanted to perceive the JAM with the senses of an Earther, to find out just what it was that he’d been fighting.
The room Lynn had booked for him was a sumptuous suite. On top of the enormous bed, Rei read the newspapers he’d purchased. There wasn’t a single mention of the JAM. Rei couldn’t believe it, but he read them through completely and couldn’t find one anywhere.
Throwing the papers down, he went over to the multimedia terminal on the writing desk. They hadn’t had these before he’d left for Faery, so he experimentally switched it on.
He first searched the major news sites for any information about the JAM, but there were very few recent hits. Particularly shocking was that a keyword search for “the JAM” yielded hardly any information at all. While the word was there, it was treated merely as a special-purpose term or colloquialism used by some. According to the definition that came up for JAM, “It is not known who first referred to them as the JAM, and the mysterious group that invaded Earth still has no official name.”
Thinking this was ridiculous, Rei next ran a keyword search for Faery Air Force. There was information on it, but again, nothing substantial, not even any official reports on the latest war progress. The reports should have been available, but they hadn’t been uploaded for display on the MT.
It was as though an information blackout was in effect. Perhaps there is, Rei thought. In short, somebody was making it difficult to learn about the JAM. It seemed to be taking him forever to find any information about them. There might have been tons of data about the JAM and the FAF, but if it took you a lifetime to search for and find it, the practical reality was that it might as well not exist.
Lynn would say that there were no articles about the JAM in the papers because writers couldn’t sell them. That was probably why she hadn’t yet found a publisher for the sequel to The Invader she was writing. But Rei sensed that the fundamental reason for the paucity of information was due to social manipulation with the goal of changing the minds of the general public. It would have to be a worldwide effort. Assuming there was some group that wanted to propagandize on the JAM’s behalf, Rei suspected that their agents might delete the word JAM as soon as it was entered anywhere, or possibly change the expression to something else in order to make it difficult to search for.
So who was doing it, then?
The ones who would profit from it. The JAM. The JAM were already in control of the network all MTs were connected to.
It was possible that the JAM had quietly slipped undetected past the FAF and invaded Earth, then carefully bided their time in order to realize their plan. Since the change was so gradual, it wasn’t surprising that only someone like Lynn Jackson would notice it. The other possibility, Rei thought as he stepped back from the terminal and sat down on the bed, is that this is all the fantasy of a returning vet from Faery, one of those psychological scars people talk about.
He’d risked his life fighting the JAM, and yet he’d come home to find that they weren’t considered worth discussing. So then, what was the point of the war? Why had he risked his life? Come on, the JAM are right there! It was natural for him to come to that conclusion.
Suppose the JAM were just a virtual threat created by humans? That would certainly make sense in some ways. If you explained Faery as being some international criminal incarceration system, it’d make a lot of sense.
Still, it was unrealistic to claim that the JAM and planet Faery were artificial virtual creations. If you considered the cost of maintaining such a system, you’d eventually have groups who’d refuse to pay for it and the whole thing would collapse. Rei also doubted that you could keep a system like that running for thirty years.
But even if that were all true, and the JAM were originally virtual creations, they weren’t anymore. The JAM were real. Even if the parties responsible for starting the whole charade declared “game over,” the FAF as it was now wouldn’t obey them.
The JAM weren’t virtual to the FAF. Real or fake, it was still kill or be killed out there. There was no way that the JAM were phantasms, because the FAF itself had made them real. The JAM would eventually invade Earth. Whether they were real JAM or something created by the humans and combat machines of the FAF didn’t matter, they were still JAM.
Wow, Rei thought, these are some pretty powerful post-combat psych aftereffects. He was basically desperate to make the JAM real by any means. Maybe it was d
ue to the notion that they’d already invaded Earth. Well, if that was true, maybe this wasn’t the real Earth. Maybe the JAM weren’t real, and his sensing them here came from his inability to slip free of the illusion. Maybe some psychiatric treatment could cure him. No, there was no way he’d ever be able to forget the JAM threat. Better to live thinking they were real than to try and force himself to believe they weren’t. He didn’t give a damn what other people thought. The JAM were a threat to him. That made them real enough, no matter what their true nature might be. These Earth people who made the JAM into fairy tales would probably be destroyed without ever knowing what really killed them. They wouldn’t even think it was the JAM who were doing it.
That’s not for me, Rei thought.
As far as the JAM were concerned, media infiltration was a good strategy. There’d be no need to produce human duplicates to use as anti-personnel weapons. They could instead use the complex and advanced information management system humans themselves had created in order to control human thoughts. All the JAM had to do was turn their attention away from the true enemy, themselves, and then give a little push to encourage humans to turn back to their ordinary squabbles. Humans are just the sort of life-form to do that anyway, so there was no need for any out-and-out brainwashing. Their own systems and biological nature would lead to their self-destruction.
To people who were satisfied just to eat and sleep, it wasn’t the JAM they were worried about being trampled by. It was other people or groups who had weapons. Actually, Rei had spotted a few articles in the papers about just that sort of thing. This was stuff humans themselves were doing, not the JAM. All the JAM had to do was wait. A hundred years, a thousand, ten thousand, it didn’t matter to them. The JAM might have been trapped into fighting the FAF because their invasion was premature. The only things that might be able to resist the JAM weren’t human at all. The only defense was autonomous combat machine intelligences like Yukikaze.
Rei lay back on the bed, his arms cushioning his head, and wondered if it not might be for the best if humanity destroyed itself. Even if the JAM’s control over Earth’s computer network was just his own fantasy, he hadn’t changed what he was. Human society would never accept him, so it was all basically the same. Nothing had changed. Coming back to Earth had made him see that clearly, and he hadn’t even been here for half a day.
Rei wasn’t really concerned with being a perfect combat machine anymore, and he was now pretty sure he had acknowledged he wasn’t human. Rei was neither human nor weapon. He’d not known what he was until Lynn Jackson had told him with her all too brief answer:
He was a Faerian.
He fought because the JAM were there, not as a weapon, but as a man trying to survive as a resident of the planet Faery.
Even so, how had he come to be what he was? A person whose personality estranged him from normal human society. A person who couldn’t stand to live his life as just another face in the crowd.
Rei wondered if he was some sort of mutant. Nothing more than something inserted by the program of evolution to ensure the survival of the seed of humanity. They existed in every age. He’d just been born by chance into the age when the JAM were here. He had a feeling that the JAM, despite their desire to eliminate humanity, couldn’t simply wait for it to self-destruct because of people like him.
People like him were more a threat to the JAM than the vast majority of humans on Earth. For their part, the people of Earth saw the JAM as being not too different from themselves. They were certainly living that way now. At any rate, if you left humans alone, they’d probably end up destroying themselves.
But he couldn’t stay here on Earth and hope to fight for his life, especially if the JAM were already here. He had no weapons. He had only just arrived, but Rei made up his mind to call Major Booker tomorrow morning.
He’d have to thank Lynn. Since he’d have to wait for Major Booker to tell him which shuttle flight to take back, he could hang around with her. If time permitted, he might do a little sightseeing. Rei would go wherever he wanted. It was so obvious—the only weird thing being human common sense, which was an obstacle. Humans were the only animals that required passports for moving around.
It was a little early, but Rei decided he’d call Lynn anyway and got up from the bed.
There was a knock at the door. Wondering if she’d been thinking along similar lines, Rei looked out the peephole and saw men in the corridor. Three of them, and from their faces he could tell they were Japanese.
“Who are you?” he asked from behind the door. It had been ages since he’d spoken Japanese.
“Fukai Rei-san, we’re here to greet you,” came the answer through the door. “We’re the welcome party for returning soldiers.”
“Don’t need it,” Rei replied.
“If that’s true, I’m afraid we’ll need you to sign a document saying so. If we don’t follow procedure, we could all be accused of neglecting our duties.”
These guys weren’t going to go away. Rei opened the door.
“Nice room,” one of them said.
“Get to the point,” Rei said.
“Allow me to introduce myself,” said the man acting as their representative as he took out a business card. Rei read it.
“Japanese naval development division?”
“We need excellent pilots like you for our naval air forces,” the man explained.
Rei suddenly realized it was all a setup. Pack people off to Faery for minor crimes, then exploit the best of the survivors. It was payback for the enormous national expenditures made to keep the Faery Air Force running. Which meant this was an offer he couldn’t refuse. He was obligated.
“I didn’t fight the JAM for the sake of you people,” Rei said.
“Oh?” answered the man. “Then what were you fighting for?”
“So that I could survive.”
“Then please, keep that talent alive. It’d be a shame to let it go to waste.”
“Which is to say,” said another, “that a man with your personal history won’t be able to get a civilian job.”
“Mind your own damned business,” Rei answered, even as he was thinking that resistance was useless. “I’ll live my life gazing at my own navel. Tell your superiors I refuse. I have that right.”
“Then we’ll take you back to Japan at once—”
“No way,” Rei replied. “I promised a pretty lady that I’d meet her.”
“I don’t believe you’ve had contact with anyone aside from Ms. Jackson, which means we can make things very difficult if you don’t accept our offer. We don’t want another country to make use of your talents. If you’re Japanese, you should use them in the service of your country. Aren’t you a patriot?”
“So, I come home and that’s the only value I have now?” Rei said. “Fly a fighter plane as a Japanese so I can kill people from another country? Humans, like me?”
“To protect our national interests. It’s all grounded in international law.”
“Maybe, but what does any of it matter? Winning or losing against fellow humans…Why would I want to do that? What nations need are public service organizations, not political and military power. But you people still haven’t created them. I don’t feel like risking my life for something so primitive. When I fought the JAM, I did it for my own sake, not so that I could be used by you people when I got home.”
“You’re saying you didn’t do it for your country?”
“Of course not!”
“Then you’re under arrest.”
Rei knew it’d do no good to shout about what right they had to do this. Even if he went to trial, no court would ever rule to allow him to go back to Faery. They’d brainwash him to make him fight for his country. He’d be made to walk down the path of self-destruction as a human. That was the only path for humans to take, after all. Humans enjoyed fighting other humans. Manipulating others, even occasionally sacrificing themselves. Even when they didn’t enjoy it, they couldn’t help bu
t do it. It was all part of being human.
Rei stepped back.
“Resistance would not be to your advantage,” said the man.
“Damaging my abilities isn’t in your national interest,” Rei replied.
“If you don’t come along quietly, then we’ll have no choice. Still, I think you’re being a fool. We can guarantee you a position in society, honor, a good living. I guess you were born a traitor.”
The two men behind him drew out weapons that looked like stun guns. Rei could tell they were designed to paralyze. He’d never be able to win in a hand-to-hand fight, but fighting was the only option he had left, he thought as he backed into the room.
“Fukai, get down! Look away!”
The warning had been delivered in English with a Faery accent. Rei reflexively dropped to the floor, sensing dazzling light even through his sealed-shut eyelids. He thought at first someone had thrown a grenade, then realized it was a flashbang.
“Fukai! Out! Hurry!”
In a second, Rei was on his feet and heading in the direction of the voice. His vision was a little dim, but he could see the three Japanese soldiers rubbing their eyes.
He ran down the corridor, finding Lynn Jackson at the elevator bank, holding the door open on one. He threw himself into the car. Inside was a man he’d never seen before. Lynn quickly pushed a button.
“FAF intel, right?” Rei said to the man. “You got into that room somehow. How’d you do it?”
“Right,” the man replied. “FAF Intelligence Forces, combat division.”
“He got in through my room,” Lynn said. “From next door.”
“Oh, living the high life, huh?” Rei said. “You were keeping an eye on me from Lynn’s room?”
“Right,” replied the FAF intelligence agent. He was fairly young.
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