A história é O Homem no Terno das Armas Cinzentas por Paul J. Nahin. / p>
O piloto (nós nunca aprendemos o nome dele, ele é apenas chamado de o guerreiro ) decola de alguma forma de porta-aviões em uma missão de patrulha em seu avião Red Striker Five. Muito é feito da eficiência mortal de sua aeronave - a linguagem usada faz fronteira com o erótico por razões que se tornarão aparentes.
Ele detecta e envolve várias aeronaves inimigas. Ele destrói onze deles, mas é pego por trás por um décimo segundo e seriamente ferido:
As he realized his peril, the right wing took two hits: one on the tip and one on the trailing edge near the wing root. Red-hot, searing metal fragments tore through Red Striker Five’s body, and one, the size of a man’s thumb, ripped into the warrior’s right leg, just below the knee. Muscle tissue, bone, and arterial fragments, mixed with shreds of flight-suit fabric, splattered the cockpit, and blood gushed from the wound.
E ele muda para o controle remoto para permitir que o avião o faça voar de volta:
he warrior knew, just before he passed out, that his survival was out of his control. He retained enough strength to slap the emergency combat palm switch at the side of his seat, and then he rapidly slid into unconsciousness. It was up to Red Striker Five to get them both home.
O avião então o leva para casa, destruindo a décima segunda aeronave inimiga no processo:
When the enemy was only 700 meters behind, Red Striker Five popped her air brakes and lost 300 knots almost immediately. Simultaneously she pulled into a climb and did a full inside loop, coming down behind and on the tail of the snookered enemy aircraft. The defeated foe had a few milliseconds to realize his fatal error, and then Red Striker Five ripped him apart with two dozen strikes from her dual 20mm cannons. The flaming enemy debris flared out along a ten-mile track, but by then Red Striker Five, bearing her dying warrior home, was gone.
Descobrimos no final que o piloto está tão emocionalmente conectado ao seu avião que ele chegou a amá-lo como se fosse outro humano. Enquanto ele está sendo esparramado, a história nos diz:
The warrior smiled weakly through a pale white face lined with pain and shock. He looked up at Red Striker Five and saw not a technological marvel of electronics, armament, metallurgy, and computer programs. He saw both a warm and loving creature, and a being that had killed to save him. Killed with savagery and intelligence. His body filled with emotion, a feeling of passion that only later he would just barely begin to understand.
He looked at the battle-ravaged Red Striker Five, and just before he slipped into darkness again, he knew. He knew she’d be there when he came back. She’d wait for him, and he loved her.
And he knew she loved him too
Como você diz na pergunta, o AI não é o SF tradicional como o HAL 9000. Ele não fala com o piloto ou mostra sinais de emoção. No entanto, não há implicação de que o piloto esteja segurando o AI. A implicação é que eles são uma equipe perfeitamente combinada.