Nebula Nights: Love Among The Stars

by Melisse Aires

  We sit in silence for a while before Sakai responds to a ping on his tablet.

  “There’s been a change of plans. My contact in Ku 10 has said we can come this afternoon.”

  Oh, how exciting! But, oh no, I don’t want to miss practicing with Jiro though going to Ku 10 is also a big deal. As the Farming Ward, it’s an area of the city you visit if you work there, much like Ku 8 had been. No one lives in Ku 10 — it is industry-only — so getting in and out requires special access. Sakai does know people in the right places.

  “We’ll go pick up Jiro, and we’ll be off.”

  “He’s coming with us?” I say a silent “yay” and do my best to not show my happiness, but Sakai already sees it all over my face.

  “Yes,” he says smiling back at me. “I figured he’d want to come too. He’s been several times but never to just visit the facilities, always on business. Koichi was saying recently that Jiro doesn’t get out enough.” He looks at me steadily. “You’re not falling for him, are you?”

  “What? Me?” I stammer out. Oh shit. Now, I’m sure everyone can tell I’m attracted to Jiro, including Jiro.

  “Well, I saw you two on New Year’s Eve and wondered what would happen when I put you together for sword fighting.”

  “So, did you know you were going to have me work for you that night?” It never occurred to me the first night we met, he already had plans for me.

  He reaches over and puts his hand over mine. “Sanaa-chan, I’ve known for years. New Year’s Eve was a fluke. A chance meeting. I had followed your schooling and training for years but never your personal life. I was surprised on New Year’s Eve to run into you.”

  To think, he’s been watching me and following me all these years. If I didn’t already feel some trust and respect for him, I would say that was downright creepy. But no, instead his interest makes me proud, like a father watching his daughter succeed in life. I take his hand and squeeze it.

  “Now, as for Jiro…” He smiles at me. “Remember he’s to teach you how to sword fight. Anything else is, well, it’s none of my business.”

  If that’s not a blessing, I don’t know what is.

  * * * *

  We go to the dōjō, pick up Jiro, and get back on the train for Ku 10. I purposely sit across from Jiro and do my best to make eye contact with him. I can’t stop thinking about the conversation I’ve just had with Sakai. If he can tell I’m interested in Jiro, who else can? I certainly don’t want Jiro to be uncomfortable with training me if I like him and he has no interest in me, but does he even know? I stopped actively flirting with him weeks ago because of the cameras in the dōjō and took to being friendly. I wish I could read other people’s minds as well as they all can read mine. Sometimes I’m way too analytical and logical for my own good. Math and science are my strengths, not feelings and emotions.

  There. I’ve got Jiro’s attention, and I do my best to smile, but I’m so self-conscious talking to him in front of Sakai now.

  “Have you been to Ku 10, Sanaa-chan?”

  Mmmm, I love when he calls me Sanaa-chan.

  “Nope. Never. Mark says you’ve been?” I’m trying to keep my voice even and barely succeeding.

  “Yes, several times, but never for fun. Usually in and out for meetings.”

  Jiro’s tablet in his bag pings. “Sorry, Sanaa. Hold on a second.”

  These are the times when I hate technology. While Jiro reads whatever was just sent to him and types out his response, I stare out the window and think of Ku 10 instead of him.

  What do I know of Ku 10 already? The Farming Ward is the largest district of Nishikyō covering hundreds of square kilometers. Most of the ward is domed except for the hydroponics towers. In the towers, I expect items like rice, wheat, soy, and corn are being cultivated because, as I said, I’m a science girl. Everything we eat can be derived from these four basic ingredients. In addition, many other additives and ingredients are produced to make up for the fact we humans like variety. Mushrooms, root vegetables, and greens are a part of my normal diet as well.

  I doubt we’ll get much farther than the hydroponics towers today though. Ku 10 is so big and consists of hundreds of factories churning out everything from food to drinks to packaging. Nishikyō recycles ninety-eight percent of what we use, and those materials are also handled in Ku 10. All of our raw fabrics and textiles come from Ku 10 as well, though most of the dyeing and sewing is done in the main parts of the city. Aunt Lomo loves to sew. I’ve often gone to fabric stores with her when she’s in need of something.

  Ping! Now my tablet is alerting me to new mail.

  I’ve managed to ignore Chad for several weeks, and he’s writing me again. What kind of a horrible friend am I?

  “Sanaa, I swear I haven’t seen you in months. I’d like to talk to you soon. Will you please write me back so we can get together? I hope you’re all right. Chad.”

  Sigh. I can’t not respond but I need to be quick. We’re almost at Ku 10.

  “So sorry, Chad. I’m at an off-site assignment, and I’ve been away for weeks. I’ll let you know when I’m back in the office. Sanaa.”

  I quickly turn off my tablet and put it in silent mode. I don’t want Jiro to see what I’m doing, but I needn’t worry about that because Jiro and Sakai are staring at each other and not saying anything at all. They’re strange sometimes.

  We pull into the Ku 10 station, and when we get up to disembark from the train, Jiro puts his hand on my back with a smile and says, “After you.”

  Knees, don’t fail me now.

  “Arigatō,” I say smiling back, and I don’t even blush. I’m getting better at this. I lead both men off and find the entrance to Ku 10 is the exact twin of Ku 8.

  I hesitate at the exit. “Is this going to be like the Extinction Ward?”

  “You mean with the radiation and the suits?” Sakai shakes his head. “No, the farming district is very hardy; practically disease-resistant these days. We have a failed rice crop every so often but usually due to water temperature levels which are exceedingly hard to control.”

  Sakai scans his palm and walks ahead, but Jiro grabs my arm before I can move forward.

  “Radiation and suits? What’s he talking about?”

  “I’ll tell you on the way in,” I say as I pull and push him towards the palm scanner. We walk the long hallway side-by-side, and I recount our trip to the Extinction Ward with descriptions of all the artifacts and animals I saw that day. I’m smiling again thinking of the animals. Maybe I don’t understand people, but I had a connection with those furry faces. The trip to Ku 8 feels like ages ago, though it’s only been a month. Time is flying; the beginning of March is passing in a blur.

  Sakai opens a large metal door that looks suspiciously like an airlock and leads us inside the first Ku 10 chamber. We step onto a metal gangway which spirals up and down the walls of a large cement enclosure. The enclosure has to be at least 100 meters wide in diameter and the brightest area I have ever seen. My eyesight is overcome by the pure white light, and I reach out to grab Sakai’s arm for fear of falling over the edge.

  “Stand and let your eyes adjust before we start walking. This is the first of twenty-five hydroponic towers, and each contains eight levels per chamber. Crops are swapped out and moved every couple of weeks.”

  When I’m used to the light, I move to the railing and look up and down. Each level stretches across the width of the chamber. My hair ruffles with the constant movement of air from giant fans in the ceiling, and the whoosh of water in pipes leading to and from each level is calming. People are pushing past us on either side, so I move back against the wall to let them pass. On the floor in front of us stretches a huge expanse of green grass.

  “It’s a rice paddy,” Jiro says and indeed it is. The same tall grass in water is depicted on Jiro’s shoulders, a symbol of long gone Japan being grown here in the most modern way possible.

  “We’ll only have a chance to walk this tower and the next one today,” S
akai says as he starts down the gangway. “If you want to come back, I’m sure I can arrange another visit. Everything picked here is shipped to the refineries on the outskirts of this ward to be processed.”

  “Mark, will we be growing things like this on Yūsei? I thought we would return to the old ways of cultivating the soil outside again.”

  “It’s possible we could eventually, but, in the meantime, our people will need to eat, so facilities like this will be constructed on Yūsei as well. We don’t know what we’ll find on our new home world. The soil could be unworkable for many years, or there may be native wildlife or microbes we’ll have to contend with. The soil could be devoid of minerals or the sun may not provide enough UV rays to allow the crops to grow. Granted, we have teams of people working on ways to combat all these problems. Contingency plans upon contingency plans.”

  Sakai continues to lead Jiro and me down the spiral. The gangway curves along the outside rim of the enclosure and at every half-turn of the circumference, a new level is available. The best part about this set-up is workers have access to both sides of the hydroponics units, top and bottom. On the next tier down, workers are directing bots in the harvest of rice, and another set of bots are right behind, cleaning and prepping the level for more crops. It’s a complex dance of man and machine I find completely fascinating. Jiro stops and stands to watch with me.

  “This whole building is an amazing feat of engineering, Jiro, and there are twenty-five of them.”

  He smiles at me, and I feel the warmth from him again he only gives when I’m being straight with him.

  “The air in here is so fresh. I kind of expected it to be stifling hot.” The cool breeze created by the fans is soft and rich with oxygen, and I close my eyes and breathe deeply. The air reminds me of when Nishikyō turned on the fans on New Year’s Eve and cooled us all off. I could get used to working in an area like this.

  “Heat exchange is important in hydroponics. All of the lighting creates heat so the water needs to be cooled, constantly recycled, and aerated,” Sakai says.

  “You know a lot about hydroponics, Mark.”

  “I fast-tracked in hydroponics when I was a kid. If I weren’t working for the family now, I would be here.” He walks ahead of us and out to a platform to greet an older Japanese man. This must be someone he’s friends with because they immediately clasp hands and start talking. Jiro and I stay behind, leaning on the railing and watching the workers.

  “I love that you call him Mark.” Jiro laughs at me. “I’ve never seen anyone so informal with my uncle, and he allows it.”

  I can’t help but smile at his laughter. “He told me to call him Mark.”

  “Really? I have never heard anyone except for my parents call him anything but Sakai-san.”

  “How come you don’t call him uncle?”

  “Because he’s the head of my house,” he says matter-of-factly, “and it wouldn’t be respectful. He’s only Sakai or Sakai-san. Never anything else.”

  The thought hadn’t occurred to me until now that Sakai earns and demands a lot of respect from other people. I sometimes forget he’s the head of a family.

  “Hmmm. I wouldn’t want others to think I didn’t respect him. Maybe I shouldn’t call him Mark in front of other people.”

  “Oh no, Sanaa-chan,” he says while giving my arm a little squeeze. “If he told you to, you should definitely do it. I’m sure he has his reasons. It’s just another side of him I’ve never seen before. You’ve softened him a bit.”

  “He seems the same to me.” Actually, he started off fairly cold with me but over the past few weeks we’ve been closer. The way he held my hand on the train today was something he’s never done before. Still… “Perhaps that’s not such a good thing?”

  “No. He’s been too rigid for too long. He doesn’t make enough decisions from the heart, only from the head. Balance between the two is important. We’re all human beings, not machines.”

  I’m sure Jiro’s heart makes the majority of his choices. He is passionate but steady, always answering my questions with, what I believe to be, complete honesty. As he watches his uncle talking, his eyes take in the entire platform, absorbing every detail and putting it away for future use. Quiet and analytical much like me.

  “Osaki ni, Sanaa. Let’s keep walking, and Sakai will catch up to us.” He nods at Sakai who is watching us while continuing his conversation. Do I detect a small smile on Sakai’s face? Whatever it was, it was fleeting.

  We stroll in silence for a few minutes sliding through the controlled chaos churning around us. People of all ages working together, gathering data, or hauling crops from one level to the next. We pass a woman standing off to the side, her tablet interfaced with the nearest terminal monitoring levels in the hydroponics units. Everyday work. I haven’t done anything like this in months now. I used to be a part of the well-oiled machine, clocking in and out each day, turning in reports, and making plans for the colonization. I did my job and never questioned the sanity of my insane workload. It was what everyone did.

  “Why do I not run into you around Ku 6?” Jiro asks, jarring me out of my thoughts.

  “Huh? Ku 6? Oh, I don’t know. I live in Ku 9 so it’s not like Ku 6 is right next door or anything.”

  “But your family grew up in Ku 6. It’s where we live.” Jiro says we as if I’m a part of some over-arching thing, and I immediately feel like an outcast. The only weI’ve ever been a part of is Nishikyō or my family. How is it I’ve gone twenty years without exploring either side of my family? I live with my Japanese aunts, but we don’t do Japanese things besides the basics. My other side of the family wants nothing to do with me.

  “We? Like where the Japanese live?” I’m having trouble keeping the challenging tone out of my voice. He must have heard my agitation because he keeps silent. This is not how I wanted to talk to Jiro about my family. Check your temper, Sanaa. “My aunt didn’t like going back to Ku 6 so we never went.”

  “Something to do with your family?”

  “You could say that. She and her father, my grandfather, didn’t get along. So when he died, she stayed away. Until recently, I had been to Ku 6 only two or three times and certainly not within the last fifteen years.”

  “I can’t imagine being away from all the things that are the center of our culture. So you’ve never attended the kabuki plays or taiko drumming concerts?”

  “No. Never.” Had I really missed out on these things? Sakai told me I had missed out on everything I should have learned growing up in Ku 6, and now Jiro’s questions are hollowing out my stomach.

  “Before I worked for Mark, I was an engineer in the Colonization department, as you know. I fast-tracked in school so I was pretty busy in my own ward.”

  “But you’ve been to Izakaya Tanaka in 7. Many times.”

  This brings me to a halt. I try stop a smile from forming but it’s only making me blush. “Uh, yeah. How do you know that?”

  “I haven’t seen you at the izakaya in the last month, so I asked Miko about you.”

  “You asked… Miko?” Miko. Miko. Why didn’t Miko message me? I’m on the verge of hyperventilating right now.

  He smiles at me. “Only a few days ago.”

  What do I say? Remember, Sanaa, what you told yourself on New Year’s Eve about making your own wishes come true?

  “I could meet you there sometime, if you like.” I start to rush through my thoughts. “I usually go out in the evenings and review my work. I can’t do what I do in front of Helena and Miko, so I’ve avoided the izakaya. But I could come. I mean, if you wanted me to.” Oh gods, shut up, Sanaa, before you say anything stupid.

  “I’d like that. Though I guess you can’t go often.”

  “No. There’s a lot of data to parse, and I tend to work in the evenings.”

  Chewing on the inside of my cheek, I wait for a response from him. I don’t have the best history of relationships so far. I ran after Joshua hard. I was so in love with him, enough to
give him my virginity and withstand his constant mood swings and crazy behavior. I found him incredibly sexy, but he was only attracted to me when he was drunk, and I pretended not to care. Then I went in the total opposite direction with Chad, just sex with someone I don’t even love.

  What the hell am I doing? I’m sick in love again, and I don’t know if dating my teacher is a good idea or not. But this conversation has my hopes up. Finally, Jiro is showing interest in me. Maybe I can make time to go to the izakaya once per week and see everyone. It’s a lofty goal what with all I have in front of me with Sakai, but I’m going to try even though I expect this work will become more intricate and involved. I haven’t even started searching for criminal activities yet, and I’m sure I’ll find plenty.

  I think I’m starting to finally miss my old job less and less.

  “Tomorrow night, Sanaa-chan.”

  “What, Jiro-kun?” I was lost in my own thoughts about work again.

  He laughs and his eyes are bright. They remind me a lot of Sakai. “Jiro-kun. That’s the first time you’ve ever called me that.”

  Really? Maybe I’ve said it in my head a hundred times and never out loud. My face is blushing again. I wish it would stop doing that. When I look away to keep myself from being too embarrassed, I spy Sakai’s feet above us making his way towards our location.

  Jiro clears his throat. “Tomorrow night. Izakaya Tanaka. Seven o’clock.”

  “I’ll be there.” I’m mentally running through my list of prepared lies to tell Aunt Kimie and Lomo about why I will be home and sweaty right after training with Jiro. I would like to show up at the izakaya not looking as if I just came from exercising all afternoon. I wish I had my own place.

  Sakai has reached us now. “Come you two. We’re going up top.”

  He leads us to an elevator that creaks and groans all the way to the top of the next chamber over. It is essentially an open cage on a pulley system, nothing as high-tech as the ones in the living quarters. But, as we ascend, layer upon layer of green cabbage and lettuce stretch out before us. Green, green, green as far as I can see.