Good Luck, Yukikaze

by Chohei Kambayashi

  From the apron near the SAF underground hangar entrance, the shrill scream of high-output turbofan engines revving up pierced their ears. Yukikaze spun around. She was prepared for takeoff.

  “Llanfabon! Lieutenant Bruys, do you hear me?” shouted Major Booker. “Mission accomplished! RTB! The meeting’s over. Contact HQ! Cut in on the emergency line! That’s an order! Confirm receipt of orders by blinking your landing lights three times! When you contact HQ, blink them once!”

  Llanfabon confirmed with its lights. Bruys could hear the major’s words.

  “Yukikaze’s moving out,” Rei said coolly. “Aren’t you going to stop her, Jack?”

  “We have no way to contact her, and there’s no time for us to get back to HQ and contact her.”

  “You could do it from Llanfabon.”

  “Do you want me to, Rei?”

  “No, let her go. Yukikaze wants to shoot down some JAM.”

  “I’m a little worried, since she’s only loaded with enough fuel for ten minutes of air combat,” the major replied. “But I’m interested in seeing what she’ll do on her own. I don’t want to interfere.”

  “She’d still be doing this even if I were aboard. Yukikaze’s decided that there’s no time to take refuge. The enemy’s close. Close. They’re almost here.”

  Yukikaze was protecting herself. If an aerial recon plane had spotted the enemy earlier and Yukikaze received that intel, she’d have probably sprung into action the moment it reached her. She would have taken refuge if there’d been time, thought Rei. If she was choosing to intercept them rather than run, it meant that she thought the situation was dangerous.

  “Jack, we’d better get out of here too.”

  Before he’d even finished speaking, two high-speed objects and their accompanying shock waves tore through the skies right above them. A pair of high-velocity missiles. Rei didn’t bother looking where they were headed; he was gazing in the direction they’d come from. Directly behind, flying so low that it was cutting a swath through the forest, a pitch-black JAM hit-and-away strike fighter had appeared. With the kinetic vision Rei had been trained to have, he saw what followed as though in slow motion.

  From behind the JAM fighter flew a missile, driving its way toward the enemy plane. It had been fired by an FAF Faery Base defense air corps fighter flying a combat air patrol in the area. The JAM began jinking wildly to shake it off, but it was too late. The missile looked like it was going to score a direct hit, but its proximity fuse activated before it could. The sound of the explosions came in quick succession, echoing into the sky.

  Rei immediately threw himself on top of Captain Foss to shield her. The exploding missile rained shrapnel down in every direction, with some of it striking the ground so hard that Rei himself could feel it. As the series of explosions resounded over their heads, the JAM fighter began a climbing turn, black smoke pouring from its fuselage. There was a flash, followed by another explosion. The JAM self-destructed. Fragments of the plane fell toward the forest.

  Two interceptors from the Tactical Combat Air Corps that had been on scramble standby managed to evade the JAM missile attack and had taken off in formation. On the side of the runway, two planes were on fire.

  Rei searched for Yukikaze.

  Yukikaze…was accelerating in the opposite direction from the two fighters. She then lit her afterburners and began a practically vertical climb at maximum thrust. There were still JAM to fight.

  Rei helped Captain Foss to her feet. Major Booker and Gallé Murullé had fallen to the ground. The guests were nowhere to be seen. They must have managed to get to shelter.

  “Jack, you okay?” Rei asked.

  Shaking his head, Major Booker took Rei’s outstretched hand and got to his feet.

  “Shit, I can’t believe I nearly bought it from one of our own missiles. I can barely hear anything.”

  “Edith, how’s the chef?”

  Captain Foss rushed over to Murullé’s side, then shook her head. His chef’s whites were stained deep red. He raised his right hand and pointed into the sky. Looking up, Rei saw four vapor trails stretching out, high in the clear skies. It could only be one thing: Yukikaze had fired her short-range missiles.

  “Jack, get Edith to shelter, then send a rescue team.”

  “What are you talking about? You’re coming with us!”

  Rei took Captain Foss’s place and knelt at Murullé’s side, taking hold of his hand. Rei had wanted to see how Yukikaze would fight. Maybe this chef did as well, he thought.

  “Were the JAM targeting this meeting, Major?”

  “I don’t know,” Major Booker answered. He ordered Captain Foss to call for a rescue team and then stayed behind as well. “The planes we had on scramble standby were watching us. I’ll bet they were having some fun and chatting about it on the comm lines. The JAM may have shown up by coincidence; perhaps they thought something interesting was happening out here. Llanfabon and Yukikaze both must have recorded the data on them. We’ll know for sure once it’s analyzed.”

  “I think this may have been the first time the JAM have specifically targeted human beings.”

  The major paused. “I feel like running back home,” he said.

  “That’s the first time I’ve ever heard you complain about anything,” Rei replied.

  “There’s no place we can run to. All we can do is rise and accept the challenge, like you said, Rei.”

  The skies had suddenly grown quiet. Yukikaze’s fuel had probably run out, Rei figured. This was confirmed a moment later when she silently swooped down, now visible to his naked eye. She executed a wide turn and then got on approach for a glide-in landing.

  Yukikaze touched down safely onto the ground. As though that was a signal, the strength left Gallé Murullé’s hand.

  “Jack, did you hold this meeting because you figured the JAM might come and wanted to find out if somebody was leaking the information?”

  Major Booker didn’t reply.

  “Well, Major Booker?”

  “And what if I did, Rei?”

  “Because Murullé lost his life because of it. It should have been me. It should have been…”

  “Tough luck. He had a bad break.”

  “Is that all you’re going to say?”

  “Rei, we aren’t the only ones here who risk our lives,” Major Booker said. “He was a soldier too. He was one of us. Do you think I don’t feel anything for him?”

  Rei couldn’t think of an answer to that. He tightly held the dead chef’s hand as an SAF spotting dolly moved in to tow Yukikaze. As the dolly approached, Yukikaze flashed her landing lights three times.

  “The mission accomplished sign,” Major Booker muttered to himself. “The one Llanfabon used to confirm that they understood what I was saying. Holy shit…Yukikaze’s conscious of us. Of you.”

  Yeah, she probably was. But she didn’t mourn Murullé’s death. Not at all. And she wouldn’t. Yukikaze was different from him.

  “I am…” Rei said. “I am…human.”

  “And never forget that,” Major Booker replied quietly. “Don’t let Galleé Murullé’s death be in vain, Rei. Human lives can’t be replaced once they’re lost.”

  V

  STRATEGIC RECONNAISSANCE—PHASE 1

  1

  THE REAR SEAT, where the flight officer would be in charge of electronic warfare duty, had been empty ever since the old Yukikaze was shot down.

  Naturally, Major Booker planned to rectify the situation. Now that Rei was fully recovered and ready for combat, a new flight officer had to be chosen, and fast. But at the moment, he was so shorthanded that he could find nobody qualified for the position.

  The job of the flight officer riding in the fighter’s rear seat was to conduct tactical reconnaissance and electronic warfare duty while in the combat airspace, and it was a job even more exhausting than the pilot’s. Once they were in the combat zone, he would be so busy confirming the plane’s position and safety while giving guidance instructi
ons to the pilot, selecting and operating a variety of radar systems for tactical recon, and confirming in real time the transmission sources of the massive amounts of comm traffic being collected in the background that he had no time to even look out past the cockpit bubble. And all the while he was locked inside of this insular environment, he’d have to endure violent maneuvers as well.

  The SAF currently had eleven electronic warfare specialists. As they had twelve fighter planes in use, not counting the unmanned Rafe, in the event that they conducted an operation requiring all their planes, the mission would be a man short. The SAF normally would never send all of their planes out at once, but now, even if such a deployment ever became necessary, it would be impossible because Yukikaze was missing essential personnel.

  As a general rule, you try to pair up a pilot and a flight officer who’ll be able to work together as a good team, thought Major Booker. However, with Rei back in combat, the major was having to assign him a different flight officer for each individual mission, which was only increasing the burden on the electronic warfare operator. That was something he wanted to avoid.

  He needed a new man assigned to the squadron immediately. If he worked well with Rei, then all of his problems would go away. And even if he didn’t, another man in the talent pool meant he wouldn’t have to increase the burden on his EWOs. If Booker couldn’t get a good team formed and had to keep assigning a flight officer for each mission, he could still have Captain Foss, the doctor charged with their psychological care, do something about the mental strain it was causing. In any case, he wanted a new man, and had gone to plead with General Cooley for one.

  “It can be anyone,” he said as he stood in front of her desk. He’d come to her office to make a direct appeal. “Just please, get me somebody to use.”

  “You know perfectly well it can’t be just anyone, Major,” she replied.

  “Okay, yeah. Yeah, you’re right. If they can’t be used immediately, then there’s no point in even discussing it. Our unit doesn’t have time to carefully train anyone. One person, though. All I’m asking for is one person. Please, transfer someone in from somewhere, from some other unit. Anyone, as long as they’re not a JAM duplicate. You know, I wouldn’t even mind one of them at this point. We’d probably be able to learn about their strategy.”

  “You don’t know what you’re saying anymore, do you? We don’t have an EWO we can throw into battle immediately, and it’s suddenly all you can think about. You wouldn’t mind having a JAM? What kind of nonsense is that? If you want the numbers to balance out, I could do it for you easily. Back when Captain Fukai was still a lieutenant, if he hadn’t made it back and had been killed by the JAM along with his flight officer, Lieutenant Burgadish, we wouldn’t have this problem now. If that had happened, you would have complained about losing two men and a plane, but you’d have said you would deal with it somehow.”

  Major Booker couldn’t speak for a moment.

  “General,” he said at last. “I can’t just let something like that pass. Are you saying you think it would have been better if Rei— if Captain Fukai hadn’t made it back, because if you are—”

  “No, that’s not what I’m saying at all. This whole matter is giving me a headache too. Personnel selection is my responsibility. I’m just saying that this isn’t simply a matter of throwing a warm body into the unit. Major, take a moment and calm down a little. This isn’t like you.”

  General Cooley rose from her desk and motioned to Major Booker to take a seat on the sofa in her lounge suite.

  “I don’t have much time, and there’s something I’d like to consult you about,” General Cooley said, her tone changing slightly, becoming a bit friendlier.

  “Yes, General.”

  Although she’d said she didn’t have much time, she rang her secretary on the intercom and ordered tea and cocoa for them.

  “We both do this so often that I know what you like, don’t I? It’ll be here soon.”

  The general usually drinks tea with lemon. The cocoa must be for me, Major Booker thought as he sat down, preparing himself for the worst. Whenever she does this, it means the general has a little problem for me to deal with.

  “How are things with Captain Fukai?” she asked.

  “Like I reported to you a few days ago, he’s recovered about 85 percent of his physical strength, so no problems there.”

  “His mental state still seems unstable. I’ve heard he has some anxiety about his plane, Yukikaze.”

  “I put down in my report that his relationship with the plane would better be described as psychological growth for him. Captain Foss agrees with me. In my judgment, he should have no problem in combat.”

  “You’re saying he’s developing a pleasant personality?” Cooley asked.

  “Personality doesn’t change. He’s not an obedient soldier and never will be. Considering the duty the SAF has to carry out, that’s for the best.”

  “In other words, we can still use him, right?”

  “Exactly.”

  “You still haven’t submitted a report on the conclusions of the investigation into Yukikaze’s unmanned sortie. How is that proceeding?”

  “The investigation’s tentatively complete, but we’re going to need to keep a constant eye on how our combat intelligences behave,” Major Booker said. “I’m not sure if they’re going to be willing to accept it. We can’t use the computer network to distribute the report, since the CIs will be able to read it. Of course, I can’t say for certain they won’t overhear us talking about it like this either.”

  “You’re studying what to do if that happens, aren’t you?”

  “Yeah, although, on my part… At first glance, I think taking a hostile stance toward the CIs will just backfire on us. It’s the JAM, not humanity, that’s the enemy. We know that clearly enough. All we have to be on guard for is whether they’ve been contaminated by the JAM or are being manipulated by them. Of course, the final decision in this matter will be yours, General.”

  “The SAF depends on its computers. If we can’t rely on them, we can’t fight the JAM. Are you saying, for now at least, that their reliability hasn’t been compromised?”

  “Yes, in my judgment.”

  “I trust you, Major, so I’m leaving this matter in your hands. I’m sure you’ll handle this without getting our own computers pissed off at us.”

  “Thank you, General.”

  “It seems strange to me to be asking you not to piss off some computers. Do you think so as well, Major?”

  “You have a point there,” the major said. “You know, if we hadn’t been paying attention to the relationship between Rei and Yukikaze, we probably never would have thought to pay attention to the combat awareness of the computers as well. I doubt it ever would have occurred to me. Yukikaze has changed radically. Or, rather than changed, I think—”

  “You think that she’s revealing her true nature?”

  “I think she’s grown as a combat intelligence, and we humans are seeing that manifested in her behavior. It’s possible that we’ll see more incidents similar to the one that just occurred, and Captain Fukai is the only one who can control her. We have to make sure that he doesn’t fail at that task. If they can build a relationship of mutual trust, then through Yukikaze we can build a similar relationship with our computers. Whether we try to curry favor with the computers or not, we’re still at war with the JAM. But there’s no doubt in my mind that doing so will be much easier if we can establish mutual trust with each other. The only hitch is that we’re trying to build trust with things that aren’t human. These are autonomous ultra-high speed computers. You can express reliability with a number, but you can’t do the same for a concept like mutual trust.”

  Even as he was speaking, Major Booker thought that Rei and Yukikaze wouldn’t have been able to fight the JAM unless they already had a perfect level of mutual trust beyond that which could be expressed through numbers. That trust was immediately reflected in the way she man
euvered in combat. There was no time to wonder what would happen if a maneuver didn’t work. Rei fussed and worried over his relationship with his beloved plane so much that it made other people laugh, but that was because his very existence depended on her. Nobody could laugh at that, any more than they could help. It was a question that operated on a different level than just being satisfied with the SAF maintenance staff putting enthusiasm into maintaining Yukikaze’s airframe and electronic hardware perfectly.

  “You’re right,” replied General Cooley, nodding. “I’ll try not to forget that.”

  The usual tea and cocoa arrived, the cocoa with lots of whipped cream and moderate sugar. The general’s secretary, a young man who looked quite dashing in his uniform, set the drinks down, saluted, and then left the office. After he did, General Cooley’s tone changed again.

  “We are getting replacement personnel, but we can’t wait for a new flight officer to be assigned to us. I had a list drawn up of several candidates from other units that might be ready for duty with the SAF and tried to grab one of them for us.”

  This conversation we’ve been having was just to kill time. The main topic was about to come, Major Booker thought as he picked up his cup and waited for what she’d say next.

  “Our forces are shorthanded everywhere. Nobody wants to lose a good pilot if they have one. Besides that, even someone with superior skills may not be suited for duty in the SAF. I put out the word that we’ll take anyone, no matter how disliked they are, but when I checked into the candidates, none of them had the skills we need. After this went on for a while, my list was whittled down to nothing.”

  “So, I guess I’ll just have to wait a little longer then,” Major Booker said.

  “We can’t just wait for new talent to arrive. I hate not knowing exactly when we’ll get someone as much as you do. Besides that, in two months the SAF is going to lose an excellent EWO, Captain N’mudo, when he retires. He’s already extended his military service out to nearly six years. I want to let him go, and he wants to go. Same thing for Captain Kozlov in seven months. We know which people we’ll be losing, but no replacements are scheduled to come. Sitting around waiting for them isn’t an option.”