Rocket Girls: The Last Planet

by Housuke Nojiri

  She grabbed hold of the harness with one hand and beckoned Akane over. The girl stepped up beside her, cardboard box under one arm and her other hand holding down her skirt.

  Yukari passed the harness beneath Akane’s armpits and attached the v-ring to the hook at the base. Then she took the cardboard box out from beneath the other girl’s arm and gave it to her to hold with both hands.

  “All you have to do is hang there. The people on the helicopter will do the rest. Got it?”

  Akane nodded, a nervous look on her face.

  Yukari gave the pilot a thumbs-up and Akane began to rise until she was close enough to the helicopter for one of the soldiers to grab her arm and pull her inside. Next, they plucked Matsuri off the top of the hatch. Meanwhile, Yukari waded through the tiny whitecaps rippling across the pond to scramble up one side of the orbiter.

  “Okay,” Yukari said through her transceiver, “next up is the orbiter. It’s taken on some water, so it should be a good four to five tons!”

  “No problem. Lowering the freight hook.”

  “I’m ready for you.”

  A large hook used for carrying minesweeping equipment extended from directly beneath the main rotor.

  “Just one meter more, that’s it. Come forward, keep it slow.”

  The helicopter pilot made some minute adjustments, expertly compensating for the inertia of the hook. Yukari braced herself against the wind and shouted into her transceiver.

  “Steady, steady, steady—all right.”

  Grabbing the heavy hook with both hands, she passed the hook through the carabiner on the parachute harness.

  “She’s all hooked up. My turn!”

  Yukari jumped back into the pond and grabbed the harness that came swinging down. She pulled it around behind her back, attached the hook, and gave the thumbs-up. Matsuri and Akane were already buckled into seats along one wall when Yukari arrived. Akane sat rigid, cradling the cardboard box in her arms like a child holds a stuffed animal.

  “You okay, Akane? We’re safe now.”

  “Y-yeah.”

  The pilot turned and shouted back to Yukari. “Okay to take her up?”

  “Go for it! The water will spill out, so take it slow.”

  “Roger.”

  The pilot’s bronzed left hand tensed and the whine of the turbine engine grew noticeably louder.

  Yukari peeked out from the helicopter to take a look at the scene below. The seven blades of the main rotor had created a dust storm in the courtyard the likes of which Yukari had never seen. It looked like the gardening club’s greenhouse had collapsed. Every tulip in the planters lay flat, and one or two of the older planters had completely disintegrated. Oops.

  The cable connecting them to the orbiter went taut and the orbiter began to move, sloshing water from inside.

  “Your craft’s at a bit of an angle,” the soldier manning the winch shouted. “That okay?”

  “No problem. That’s how it’s supposed to lift!”

  The soldier shouted something into an intercom, giving directions to the pilot.

  The helicopter slowly began to rise.

  The wind from the rotor blades turned the water spilling from the orbiter into a fine white mist spraying every which way across the courtyard. Every window in the school buildings and even the rooftops were filled with students waving and cheering.

  Yukari waved back.

  Goodbye, Nellis Academy. She didn’t imagine she would ever be coming back there.

  One of the soldiers closed the sliding door. At last, it was quiet enough inside the helicopter to talk normally. Once they leveled out, Yukari went up to the cockpit and greeted the pilot. “That went really well. I’m Yukari Morita, captain of the orbiter you’re carrying.”

  “Commander Kimura with the Fifteenth Minesweeper Company,” the middle-aged pilot announced brightly, turning his tanned face to look back at his passenger. “I have to admit I was surprised. I’ve seen your ship on television a number of times, but I never expected it to come down here.”

  “We were just as surprised as you. I didn’t expect the SDF to come pick us up, either.”

  “The Coast Guard sent us. They’ve never retrieved an orbiter, and they wanted to make sure they had enough horsepower to do the job—speaking of which, Petty Officer Kuwabara!”

  “Sir!” One of the soldiers answered from the back.

  “Get up here and take a picture of us!”

  “Yes, sir!”

  “Here, I’ll turn around and look back so he can get both our faces.”

  “Huh?”

  Petty Officer Kuwabara motioned to the other two girls. “Why don’t you get in too?”

  “Hoi! I love pictures! Let’s go, Akane!”

  “What? Me?”

  “Yeah. Don’t you want to remember the moment?”

  Grinning like a madwoman, Matsuri undid Akane’s harness. Akane gently set down her cardboard box and came up to the front.

  “Commander, I’d like to get in the shot as well, if I could,” another of the soldiers called out. “Me too!” said another.

  “Maybe I could get one with just Yukari first—”

  “I want one with Matsuri!”

  “I’ll take one with the girl in the Nellis uniform.”

  They took pictures in various combinations as the helicopter swiftly made its way toward Sagamihara airspace. They were almost at their destination when the helicopter from the Kanagawa Police Department caught up to them.

  “Someone told the Space Lab we were coming, right?” Yukari asked.

  “Affirmative,” the pilot told her.

  Yukari peered out the front window. “That straight line right there is the Yokohama Train Line, which means…is that it?”

  “That’s the place.”

  Several perfectly square buildings formed a small compound below. There was a green in the very middle and a thin rocket on a display stage off to one side.

  The helicopter hovered over the green until someone from the lab came running out to direct them. Slowly, the copter began to descend, the orbiter drawing closer to its own shadow cast on the grass until the two met. The orbiter toppled on its side and the helicopter gently set down a short distance away. The sliding door flew open, and the crew jumped out to secure the landing zone.

  “Time to go.” Yukari motioned to Akane.

  Shrinking away from the idling rotor above her head, Akane left the chopper, led by the two astronauts. One of the helicopter crew was busily unhooking the orbiter.

  A man in his mid-fifties wearing a suit and necktie came running from the main building.

  It’s Miyamoto, thought Yukari. Professor Miyamoto was head researcher in charge of the goldfish experiment—or more accurately, the vestibular adaptation experiment. She remembered him from his visits a month before to the Solomon base for a practice run. He had been running around then too. He was a likable man, with short legs, a chubby belly, and bushy eyebrows.

  Miyamoto wiped the sweat from his forehead with a handkerchief and greeted them. “Hello there! Welcome, welcome! I’d arrgh—” The professor’s voice was lost in the sound of the helicopter taking off.

  Yukari turned and saluted the crew. In a matter of moments, the helicopter receded into the distance and relative silence returned to the complex. Yukari turned back around to face the professor.

  “Well, we’re back. We landed in Yokohama, of all places.”

  “So I heard, so I heard. I certainly wasn’t expecting you to get here so soon, that’s for certain. Well, how are they? Still living?”

  “They’re right here.”

  Yukari pointed at the cardboard box in Akane’s hands.

  Akane offered up her box, and Professor Miyamoto thrust his face inside. He was a bit nearsighted.

  “Hey! They are still alive! Doing quite well, as a matter of fact! All right!” His head popped back out. “Well, this is really something! Thank you! Thank you so much!” One by one, he grabbed each of thei
r hands in turn and gave them a vigorous shake. Yukari half expected him to shed a joyful tear or two. She smiled.

  “Akane threw that transport container together all by herself!”

  “You don’t say? Very nice, very, very nice!” Hefting the box in his left arm, Miyamoto gripped Akane’s hand and pumped it vigorously.

  “Sorry—I know it doesn’t look like much.”

  “Not at all, not at all. Now, quickly, to the lab!” The professor scurried off, muttering happily to himself as he left.

  Akane shook her head, watching him leave.

  “He seems happy,” Yukari said. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d say he was going to start skipping any moment now.”

  “No kidding,” Akane said, allowing herself a little chuckle.

  Far ahead of them already, the professor turned and shouted, “What are you waiting for? Come on, come on. You have to tell me about everything!”

  [ACT 6]

  EVERY SCREEN IN the control room was off. The only thing moving was the countdown clock in one corner. T PLUS 1 DAY 2 HR 17 MIN 5 SEC. At the rearmost terminal in the central row, chief controller Kazuya Kinoshita was on the phone.

  “I see… So the goldfish were okay? …Right. Good job. …No, OECF Operations should take care of that. What about today? Sure, just keep it under control. Right. Take it easy.”

  Quietly, he set down the receiver and raised his voice. “Everyone, listen up. Our astronauts are at the Space Lab. This wraps up control operations for this mission. It may not have been pretty, but we did it. Good job, everyone.”

  There was no clapping. Everyone seated at the terminals stood up as one, stretched, and began collecting their papers.

  Kinoshita jotted something down in his logbook and went into the guest room to report to Nasuda. “The orbiter and its crew have arrived at the Space Lab. The craft took a little damage, but the goldfish are fine. Our astronauts are giving their report to Professor Miyamoto now. The girls plan on staying at Yukari’s house tonight.”

  “I see. Well then, the mission was a success.”

  “A partial success, maybe.”

  “Success is success. All’s well that ends well, right?”

  Nasuda turned to Director Holden and spoke in English. “As you can see, our mission was a complete success. We accomplished a second test flight with a multiple-seat orbiter, broadcast video of a spacewalk, and completed our vestibular adaptation experiment using goldfish.”

  “A complete success?” The director raised an eyebrow. “I seem to recall a malfunction in your test equipment, aberrant departure from orbit, lost position, and emergency splashdown. These matters don’t concern you at all?”

  “I admit there were some events that we failed to predict,” Nasuda said, “yet our crew and test subjects have returned unharmed. Their actions in orbit and our response on the ground kept it together.”

  “To me it seems like there was a fair bit of luck involved,” the director said with a shake of his head. “Thank you for inviting me here. It was certainly a fascinating experience, I’ll give you that. The SSA’s work is worthy of attention. After all, this is the third manned space program after the U.S. and Russia, and you’ve shown impressive results while managing to maintain a far-smaller-scale operation.”

  “That we have.” Nasuda was practically beaming.

  “But let me be frank. I’m afraid that, all things considered, it would be premature for your program to participate in the construction of an international space station.”

  “But, Director—”

  Holden raised a hand, cutting off Nasuda mid-objection. “Don’t get me wrong. We’re not trying to hold you back or make you toe the line. Our shuttle fleet is overworked. We need all the help we can get. And we know you are the only ones with the skintight space suit technology and hybrid engines.” Holden stood. “But your results are still weak. I look forward to more progress from you in the future.”

  [ACT 7]

  MIYAMOTO’S LABORATORY ROOM was utter chaos.

  Desks, computers, bookshelves, and storage racks were packed along the walls, surrounding a single workstation desk the size of an automobile in the very center of the room. Other than the narrow corridor on all sides of the workstation, every flat surface in the room was covered with piles of stuff.

  Professor Miyamoto cleared a space on top of the desk and set down the cardboard box. Mumbling to himself, he removed the fish container. A similar device was already sitting on top of the workstation with all of its wiring and tubing exposed—a prototype, Yukari assumed.

  “It does look like the QD is plugged with…poop? Yes, that’s poop all right.”

  He took off the lid and began to clean the area around the QD with a paintbrush and a syringe. When he had finished, he placed the container in the prototype device and flicked on the switch. The water began to circulate.

  “There, that should do it. Too bad you can’t do that up in space.”

  “You’d get water all over the place.”

  “No doubt. Sorry it had to break down right before reentry.”

  “Actually, it was more like during our reentry. It was a little hard to do the experiment and pilot at the same time,” Yukari said.

  “If the orbiter was a little larger, that might be possible.”

  “I hear they’re working on an orbiter that seats three,” Matsuri said.

  “You don’t say?” The professor pulled up some chairs to his own desk and sat the girls down. He was examining the cardboard box they had brought.

  “You did a fine job with this. Something of a genius at makeshift repairs, are you?”

  “No, nothing like that,” Akane stammered, blushing.

  “It took us fifteen years to get this device to its current level,” the professor said. “No one had ever built an aquarium for space before. I went around asking everyone for help. That oxygen regulator came from an artificial lung the medical department was working on.”

  Akane nodded, eyes wide.

  “The filter was a tough nut to crack too. We had to consider all the possibilities, like what would happen if they laid eggs on top of it, and what kind of material to use, and whether or not to use zeolite to get rid of the ammonia. We tested everything.

  “But if someone told me to repair this thing on the spot, I’m not sure what I would have done. You have some experience with animals in a laboratory setting?”

  “I’m in charge of the aquarium and the terrarium in our biology class. Though I don’t really do much—just take care of them and make observations.”

  “That’s plenty! I’m sure you come away with quite a lot from that.”

  “I do,” Akane said, visibly pleased. “Actually, I was wondering if I could ask you something.”

  “Anything.”

  “What exactly were you testing with these goldfish?”

  “Whether or not vestibular adaptability can be learned,” the professor said, his voice rising. He was clearly happy she had asked. “We wanted to see how quickly goldfish that had already been in space would relearn on their second flight. If there was an observable learning effect, then we might be able to find out exactly where the goldfish are keeping that information—that was our goal.”

  “Fascinating!”

  “Vestibular functions are thought to be related to space sickness. And space sickness gets in the way of spaceflight, as you know.”

  “Sure. It’s like seasickness that lasts for the first few days of a flight, right?” Akane asked.

  “That’s correct. Of course, there are a lot of other challenges out there waiting for an astronaut. Things like calcium deficiencies due to radiation and the redistribution of body fluids. But humanity must move into space sooner or later. You agree?”

  “Of course.”

  “We’re constantly fighting about this religion or that ideology or some territory or another down here. Well, my thinking is: why not just move away from all that? If the earth gets too cramped, we c
an settle space. It starts with the station. Next the moon. Then Mars. Some scientists have even proposed moving to comets. Imagine that, comets! That’s why we have to overcome all of the hurdles between us and these, er, ‘lofty’ goals. This experiment is one small part of that, a fragment of the answer, if you will. You agree?”

  “Of course!”

  “If one experiment fails, we can’t move on to the next. That’s why I needed you to bring those goldfish back alive. Here I thought all was lost, but then you came to the rescue.” Miyamoto beamed and clapped Akane on the shoulder. “It’s that kind of quick thinking that makes you an astronaut, I guess! Splendid, splendid!”

  Akane blinked. “Er, actually, sir, I’m not—”

  “She’s a civilian,” Yukari cut in. “She just happened to be there at the school where we landed.”

  “What? Is that so? Why, I was sure the SSA had sent you!”

  “No, actually. See, we landed at Nellis Academy—”

  Yukari went on to tell the entire story of their emergency splashdown and subsequent efforts to keep the goldfish alive. Miyamoto listened attentively, scratching his head throughout.

  “I see, I see! Well, I suppose I can be forgiven the misunderstanding. After all, she’s the right age, and the girl does have considerable talent.”

  Apparently, he hadn’t noticed that Akane was wearing her school uniform.

  The professor chuckled. “I swear, I can’t look at a short schoolgirl these days without wondering if she’s an astronaut.”

  “A short schoolgirl…” Yukari glanced over at Akane. The girl was roughly the same height as she was, maybe even a little slighter in build. Perfect height, perfect weight. She wished someone like Akane had been there when everything started going haywire. Someone to watch the experiments while she and Matsuri focused on piloting. That would have made everything so much easier. Matsuri was clearly giving Akane the once-over as well.

  Well, it can’t hurt to ask.

  “Say, Akane. Want a job?”

  “What kind of job?”