Chapter Three: Lost Time
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Seven hours later, Jack found himself staring out the window of a V-22, watching the dark blue-gray waters of the Southern Ocean roll by, thinking of Rei Fukai.
The image in his mind was as clear as a video recording: Yukikaze soaring through the hordes of JAM fliers protecting the Passageway, leading the Flipknight bombs into the positions from which their nuclear payload would disrupt the dimensional gateway. As the Banshee had finally passed through the gate, the last thing that Jack – or any of the FAF personnel – had seen of Rei had been a blinding white flash just before the carrier had passed through the gate to safety.
Why? Why are you so calm?!
Please let me go, Jack.
And somehow, even though it made no sense, it had felt exactly right. For three years, Jack had watched Rei develop a bond with Yukikaze that had seemed almost supernatural. At the end, should he really have been surprised that Fukai would want to go down fighting with it?
What did Foss call them? A composite life form? Those last months, I'd worried – that he was obsessed, that he was addicted to the power Yukikaze offered. But in the end, I never understood anything.
How could he possibly have survived? Jack thought for the thousandth time. And if he didn't, then who – or what – did they fish out of the ocean a week ago?
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"You realize, of course, that this entire incident has been classified above top secret," Lieutenant Colonel Takamoto said gravely. "The appearance of this aircraft and its pilot represents a phenomenon we don't yet fully understand."
Jack nodded, their footsteps echoing down the cold, empty corridors of the JDS Hogosha. Far beneath the supercarrier's flight deck, Jack felt as though they were walking through some enormous, abandoned manufacturing plant. Down here, most of the ship's systems functioned automatically – other than Takamoto, he hadn't seen a living soul since they'd stepped off the lift.
"You're here, Major Bukhar, because you knew Lieutenant Fukai – better than anyone else did, it appears. We need you to verify that the man we brought in is, in fact, who he claims to be."
"What you really mean," Jack growled, "is that you want me to make sure he's not a JAM copy."
The colonel flinched at Jack's harsh tone, but then quickly regained his air of smug self-assurance. Jack felt disgust welling up inside him; Lieutenant Colonel Takamoto had "desk jockey" written all over him, from his freshly-shined shoes to his immaculate uniform to the patronizing, officious manner with which he conducted himself. Jack being a civilian, he clearly felt it was his privelige to treat him as a member of some lower, weaker caste. That he had also served in the Fairy Air Force – an outfit that most UN military personnel tended to regard as a joke and a failure – just seemed to fuel Takamoto's sense of superiority.
Takamoto caught Jack's derisive snort. "Something on your mind, Major?"
Jack looked the man squarely in the eye. "Just remembering why I quit this outfit a long time ago."
"Technically, the 'outfit' you resigned from no longer exists. The Fairy Air Force was disbanded right after the evacuation of the bases there."
Jack had to fight down the urge to slug him – or at least remind him in a very loud, hard to ignore manner that a lot of his friends were unemployed and without pensions. And for the ones who had died, there was no monument, no benefits, and often none of the information needed for their families to receive life insurance money.
Just forget the war. Forget the hundreds of men and women who died fighting them while we were all safe at home.
Forget about their families – just get rid of the FAF, redistribute its assets and deny all responsibility, and you won't have to give them a cent.
The two men continued down the empty corridor, Jack still fuming, fists clenched at his sides, Takamoto with a smug smile, as though the younger man's silence was a victory for him.
Nearly to the far end, they approached a heavy steel door, guarded by a pair of rifle-carrying MP's in full combat gear. The men glanced at Takamoto, then at the scruffy-looking American in his outdated FAF uniform, and stood aside, allowing the lieutenant colonel to slide a magstripe card through a reader beside the door. A green light flashed, and the portal slid open with a hiss of hydraulic pressure.
And there, sitting on a bare-bones cot, clad in an orange uniform that made him look like a prison inmate, was a man Jack had never thought he'd see again.
Jack's first thought was, He looks like hell. In the harsh white fluorescent light, the dark bags under Rei's eyes were plain to see. His face, usually long and dour-looking to begin with, now looked like he hadn't been fed for days, his cheeks sunken in. As Jack walked in, the pale man looked up, his slate-gray eyes widening in astonishment. "Jack …?"
For a long moment, both men stood, staring at one another, Rei with an expression of shock – mingled, perhaps, with just the slightest measure of hope – and Jack with a kind of wary alertness. He tried to remember Rei's face as it had been when they'd served together, his mannerisms. Just how the hell am I supposed to tell if this is the real Rei? Jack thought desperately. Images flashed through his mind: Tomahawk, the Native American tech who had seemed so harmless … right up until he had started bleeding brown goo from a gunshot wound. They have all the originals' memories. Hell, Tomahawk even believed he was the original!
And from the look in Rei's eyes, he could tell that Jack was afraid.
The silence went on for nearly a minute. Finally, Jack spoke. "So … you finally made it back," he said, trying to sound casual. "Took you long enough."
Rei shook his head. "So you're in on this too, huh? Are you going to tell me I've been gone for five years?"
"You tell me. The last time I saw you was back on Fairy, at the Passageway. What happened?"
Rei sighed, closing his eyes and leaning his back against the wall. He waved a hand at Takamoto. "I've already told them what happened to me. They won't believe it."
Spotting a nearby plastic folding chair, Jack pulled it over and sat across from Rei. "Well, I'm not Takamoto or his superiors. Hell, I'm not even in the military anymore. And frankly, ever since these guys called me up in the middle of the night, I've been racking my brain to try and figure out how you could have shown up in the Southern ocean a week ago, when the Passageway's been closed for half a deca--"
Without warning, Rei sprang to his feet, glaring fiercely at his former squadron leader. "Cut the crap!" he shouted angrily. "It hasn't been five years, it's been five goddamn days! Yukikaze and I led the drones into position, took out the gateway defenses, then flew through the Passageway right before the nukes went off. We got caught in a storm on the Earth end, and we had to make a water landing. Then, when I woke up, I was stuck in this damn cell, on this damn bed, with one damn chair, UN suits and doctors bleeding me dry, asking the same questions fifty times over. Nobody will tell me anything about Yukikaze's condition, and I'm locked up like some kind of spy!"
Rei turned to glare at Takamoto, the older man visibly stunned by his outburst. "And now," Rei snarled at Jack, "you're here, spouting the same load of bull he's been trying to feed me! Now stop lying to me and let me out of here!"
Having finished his rant, Rei seemed to visibly deflate; he sat down heavily on the cot, pulling his knees up to his chest, wrapping his arms around his legs. "Why are you doing this?" he murmured, and as his eyes looked up to meet Jack's, Bukhar felt a stab of guilt at the expression of utter betrayal in Rei's eyes.
Another silence followed. Then Jack held up his hand, turning a gold ring on his finger. "Rei, do you see this?"
"It's a ring," the pilot answered flatly.
"Do you know how I got it?"
"How?"
"I got this ring, and another one with a diamond in it, three years ago. That was when I married Lynn Jackson."
Rei's head jerked up. "The reporter? The one we met on the carrier?"
"Well, she's an author, actually. She managed to find me after the war, interviewed me, and we just hit it off from there."
Rei just gazed at the ring. It was exactly the right size, matching Jack's meaty finger. The gold looked slightly scratched, the soft metal bearing signs of active wear.
At least three years of it.
Jack watched as Rei's hard, angry, distrustful expression began to crumble. The pale man's eyes widened, his mouth just slightly agape. "It's true …."
Jack nodded. "Now do you understand the frosty reception?"
With a resigned sigh, Rei nodded. "'Course. I've been gone too long. Which means that either I was captured, or …."
"Yeah."
The silence was palpable. Finally, Rei turned to look behind Jack, at the UNN colonel standing by the door. "Have those blood tests come back?" he asked, almost whispering.
Takamoto flinched. "I'm not at liberty to discuss the details in front of--"
"Well, you'd damn well better discuss them with me!" shouted Jack. Before the stocky Japanese man could react, Jack was out of his chair, standing in front of him, his tall, lean, well-muscled form drawn up to its full height. He could tell Takamoto had never seen combat; the former squadron leader's sheer physical presence made the lieutenant colonel's eyes widen in alarm, his breathing quicken, his jaw clench.
"Are you trying to threaten me, Mister Bukhar?" Takamoto asked, clearly trying to sound scornful and superior, but to Jack's ears, he sounded more frightened than disdainful.
"Not at all, Sir," Jack replied calmly. "But there's this little thing called, 'innocent until proven guilty'. You've been holding my friend here under armed guard, running tests and interrogating him for nearly a week. Unless you have some real evidence that he deserves to be stuck in this cell, you've got no option but to release him. And if you try and force the issue, I have some old JAG buddies who would love to explain it to you in court. Now, have the results come back from Lieutenant Fukai's blood tests?"
Takamoto shuffled his feet, glanced nervously behind Jack at Rei. Then he finally met Bukhar's eyes. "The blood tests haven't turned up anything out of the ordinary," he admitted reluctantly.
Jack pressed his advantage. "EEG? Voice stress analysis?"
"Nothing to indicate he's been lying during his interviews," Takamoto muttered through clenched teeth.
"And has he admitted to working for or giving information to the JAM?"
"No."
Jack couldn't help but smile at Takamoto's discomfiture. "Well then," he said, backing off a step and smiling amiably at the smaller man, "I guess that settles it. You want to tell those MP's out there that they can take a break?"
Takamoto glared at Jack, before turning back to the door and stepping out through it opening it. Returning his icy gaze to the other men, he said, "I'll have to clear Lieutenant Fukai's release with my superiors. For now, as long as you agree to have an armed guard accompany you at all times, I suppose I can let you move about the ship."
"That's very big of you, Lieutenant Colonel. Thank you," Jack replied pleasantly, watching Takamoto's cheeks turn maroon at the reference to his stature. What a fragile little ego, he thought, a half-smirk tugging on his lips as Takamoto went fuming down the hallway.
"Thanks, Jack," Rei said quietly, seeming to unfold as he let his arms return to his sides, put his feet on the deck and stood up. Jack had wondered sometimes whether Rei Fukai had Kenyan blood in him; though unlikely given his almost unhealthily pale complexion, Rei had a naturally tall, lanky build. Having seen him in action, Jack could attest to his running speed and agility, not to mention his proficiency in hand-to-hand combat. Even without Yukikaze's advanced sensors, hypersonic speed and arsenal of weapons, First Lieutenant Rei Fukai was a remarkable warrior in or out of a cockpit.
"My pleasure. It's always fun watching a brown-noser squirm." Jack said with a grin. "You want to get something to eat? I know they don't exactly feed you well in solitary."
Rei chuckled softly. "Yeah, you would, huh?" What came next really didn't surprise Jack.
Rei slowly shook his head. "I've been stuck in here for five days," he said.
"I want to see where they're keeping Yukikaze."
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Sorry for the long wait, folks. I hope this chapter was worth it. Now that the semester is wrapping up, I should have a bit more time to write.
As always, reviews, comments and constructive criticism are welcome. Many thanks, also, to those who have continued to read this story, bookmark and comment on it. Your support and encouragement are greatly appreciated!
Thanks again for reading, and stay tuned for Chapter 4!
