I can still fly, he imagined Rei would answer.
“Yeah, you can still fly,” the major responded. “When you wake up, we’ll have you back in the air in no time.”
The major had seen that, if left alone, Rei’s body would have become as immobile as a plant, and Booker didn’t want that to happen. First of all, it would have been awful to see that happen to a friend, but as the personnel supervisor of the SAF, he didn’t want to lose a good pilot either.
There weren’t many people who could handle SAF duties. It wasn’t just a matter of training or experience but also the need for pilots with the right personality, men who could carry out their missions with a callous intensity.
The new guy who’d been assigned to 5th Squadron, Second Lieutenant Yagashira, seemed a little weak in that respect. That is to say, the major thought coldly, he’s a little too human. Lieutenant Yagashira had asked who Rei was and such, unlike the other pilots in the SAF, who were indifferent toward him. Lieutenant Yagashira might have been a first-rate pilot, but he might also have been unsuited for duty in the SAF. Rei wasn’t like that. He seemed to have been born to serve. If he awakened, he’d want to be sent back into combat as soon as possible.
To prevent Rei’s body from atrophying, it was forcibly manipulated for quite a long time every day. At the rehabilitation center, he’d be loaded into a machine similar to a powered suit to exercise while his muscles were given electrical stimulus. Seeing what looked like a corpse being made to dance made the major want to shut his eyes the one time he went to observe the procedure. However, he gritted his teeth and toughed it out, because he’d been the one who had asked that it be done in the first place.
“You should be grateful for all the trouble we’re taking over you, Rei. Still, even if I wasn’t around, they’d probably be doing it for you anyway. You’re a very important man, after all. What really happened to you? Did you meet the JAM? The actual, physical JAM? What were they like? Please, answer me. You’re my best friend and I’m tired of talking to you like this. There’s nothing wrong with your head. Those quacks in medical told me so, and just this once, I’m willing to believe them. Rei, say something to me—”
A knock at the door interrupted him. “Come in,” answered Major Booker, who proceeded to gulp down the last of his cocoa. He never would have guessed who was about to step through the door.
“General Cooley…” It was Brigadier General Lydia Cooley, boss of the SAF. Major Booker stood up from his perch on the desk and saluted, then offered her the chair behind his desk. His office lacked a decent sofa for visitors to use.
The general pushed her glasses up higher on her nose, then looked at Rei.
“Is Rei in the way, ma’am?” the major asked. “I was about to call the nurse for him, so…”
“No, it’s fine,” the general answered. “Leave Fukai where he is.”
“Did you come to see him about something?”
“Yeah, you could say that. The Intelligence Forces were asking me how long you intend to keep Fukai like this.”
“Hm,” the major replied. “They’re at it again, are they?” This is one superior who always brings tough problems for us, huh, Rei, he thought. “I’m not handing Rei over to them, General. He’s a vital member of the SAF.”
“As a pilot.”
“A pilot who will fly again.”
“When?”
“We’re working on that.”
Her demeanor softened. “I know, Major,” she replied and then sat down in his chair. “You’ve been putting a great deal of work into this. I don’t want to lose a good pilot either.”
So why don’t you handle the FAF Intelligence Forces’ demands that we hand over Rei to them on your end, General? Major Booker wanted to say, but just barely managed to hold his tongue.
“So what’s the problem then?” he said instead. “If we hand Rei over to Intelligence, he’ll end up a human vegetable. They won’t exercise him, just concentrate on treatments to extract the knowledge in his brain, if you can call that sort of stuff ‘treatment.’”
“I think your method is the correct one,” she replied. “However, Intelligence doesn’t agree. It’s very irritating. How long has the lieutenant been like this?”
The major paused. “About three months,” he answered. “Today is day ninety-two, General.”
“Fukai’s term is nearly up, then.”
“What do you mean? Oh, of course. You mean his term of service. But Rei was going to reenlist.”
“Unless he makes that intention known himself, he’ll be discharged and become a regular civilian again. If that happened, then there’d be nothing the SAF could do to stop Intelligence.”
“Can they do that?”
“There are big shots in the FAF who are on board with the idea. They’ll make it happen, Major. If there’s something those people want to do, they’ll do it. And we don’t have any big shots of our own among them who can stop it from happening. I certainly don’t have that power. I am essentially the commander of the SAF, but officially the SAF falls under the direct command of the commander of Faery base’s Tactical Combat Air Corps. At the moment, that’s Lieutenant General Laitume. I’m just the deputy commander.”
“Even though we have our own autonomous headquarters.”
“Despite my rank, I have the responsibilities of a lieutenant general, and the work you do certainly wouldn’t normally be a major’s responsibility. That’s not saying they look down on the SAF. As the war’s tactical situation has changed, our duties have grown in importance, but the internal organization of the FAF just hasn’t kept pace. Still, there’s no use complaining about it. That fact is that, in one month, we’re going to have to give up Fukai.”
The general kept her eyes locked in a sidelong glance on Rei as she said this. “Therefore—” she continued.
“Therefore, you’re ordering me to get Rei to sign his reenlistment papers, is that it?” the major replied, cutting her off.
“Yes,” she answered. “Is that possible?”
“A month, huh… I can’t say for sure, but if Intelligence takes him as he is now, Rei’s probably going to end up an invalid.”
“So long as my SAF has the power of a corps-level organization, that won’t matter.”
As if we, with our thirteen tactical recon fighters, were on the same level as a corps that controls hundreds of planes, the major thought. Still, that was what they said. The data that the SAF gathered affected the entire Faery Air Force, and that was especially true of the data in Rei’s head—if he had seen the JAM’s true form. That could affect the fate of the FAF, if not the whole of Earth. General Cooley was determined to hand over that information herself, to present it as having come from the SAF. In short, she wanted a feather in her professional cap. And it was with an irritated tone that he told her this.
“That may be,” the general answered, nodding coolly. “Still, Lieutenant Fukai is a member of the SAF, and if he wasn’t in our unit, there would have been a lot of valuable information we never would have gotten. By that argument, I already have a feather in my cap, Major. And he may have information that’s just as important. I don’t want all your hard work to be in vain. You’re using the tactical computer in SAF headquarters for Fukai’s treatment. I was the one who authorized that. If I let Intelligence take him at this point, I’ll have no authority left.”