Kato's War

by Andrew C Broderick

  Akio and Zara fastened their seatbelts. The sleek suborbital spaceplane began to push back from the terminal. It was about the length of a medium-sized airliner, but with a narrower and much more streamlined fuselage. The nose tapered out to a fine point, like a dart. Short wings began their graceful sweep about halfway back, curved outward, and then ended abruptly at the rear, where the fuselage tailed off in a slender cone. Twin, short rear stabilizers jutted out from the top, angled away from each other. The interior closely resembled that of an airliner. Zara sat back, smiled, and closed her eyes. She was sitting to Akio's left, next to the window. Akio took a swig from a half-liter bottle of water, and then stowed it again in a small compartment in the generously-sized armrest to his right. Businesspeople and tourists alike sat quietly. Conversation, such as it was, was quiet. The craft's jet engines, which would propel it for the atmospheric portion of its flight, whined as it rolled forward slowly and taxied to the runway.

  “Welcome to AsiaTran flight forty to Tokyo,” the pilot's voice said through the cabin’s loudspeakers. “Our flight time today is one hour and forty-three minutes. Our maximum altitude will be two hundred and twenty-two kilometers, with a weightless period of fifty-nine minutes. The local time in Tokyo is currently 1.35 AM, and on arrival it will be 3.18 AM. Our route today is prograde. I'll make another announcement when we're on final approach to Narita Air and Space Port. Until then, please relax and enjoy the flight.”

  Zara turned to Akio. “The jetlag's gonna be a bitch, going that distance so fast,” she half-whispered.

  Akio nodded and smiled. “Spacelag, but yes, you’re right.”

  Zara hadn't slept well the previous night. She looked around the cabin once more, studying the faces. I’m a 300-year-old woman, and nobody knows it. Ha!

  Chapter 14

  The runway lights of Narita Air and Space Port came up to meet them.

  “Are you worried?” Akio asked.

  Zara sighed. “Yes. I only went to Japan a couple of times, when I was a kid. I probably wouldn't even recognize it now, and I haven’t a clue about how life is there.”

  “Are you worried about being with me?”

  Zara's brow furrowed slightly. “It's just that I don't know you that well, yet.”

  “I understand,” Akio said. Zara's right arm was on the armrest between them, and Akio touched her hand in a gesture of reassurance. The girl smiled slightly. As the craft touched down and braked, Zara looked to her right. The lights of Tokyo blazed extravagantly in the distance. They disembarked, and found that Narita was still pretty busy even in the dead of night.

  “Vee-tol?” Zara asked, only partly kidding.

  “I don't feel that rich today,” Akio smiled. “It's the train for us this time. It's just as fast.”

  “Yeah, may as well save the money,” Zara said.

  The inbound train they had boarded accelerated continuously in its clear tube, on the eighty-kilometer trip into the city. Highways and small towns flashed by in the blink of an eye. Within minutes, buildings of increasing height flanked the train tube, whizzing by as a blur. They were still forty kilometers away from the city center. Looking ahead, Zara could now easily see downtown Tokyo. Immense, colorful spires pushed into the sky, to untold heights. The futuristic blaze of color that Zara remembered as a child was nothing compared to this.

  She turned to Akio, who was sitting on her right. “Just how big is this city?”

  “Eighty-two million.”

  “Eighty-two million?”

  “Yep.”

  Zara grew wide-eyed. “Holy crap!”

  The train crossed bridges and went under others. Whole sections of the city passed swiftly above them. Every time the train emerged from underground, the buildings were taller. Twenty kilometers from downtown, they were already enormous. They began to decelerate. Zara looked up through the train's curved, glass top. A luminous grid now rose up into the sky and covered the central portion of the city. Its lattice soared above the tallest buildings. The lines crisscrossed at right angles, forming squares roughly one kilometer across.

  “What the heck is that thing?” Zara asked.

  “It’s a sculpture, the largest in the world,” Akio said. “It's called Tomimuro.”

  “What does that mean?”

  Akio shrugged. “It doesn't have a translation. It's just a name. It was built by the city government forty years ago, as a showcase of Japanese art and technology.”

  “Ah.”

  “The shape is actually that of Mount Fuji.”

  Zara followed the lines, up their sloping, somewhat irregular paths into the sky, to their peak above the city center. She nodded. “I can see that now.” Everything went black outside as the train went underground again. The deceleration continued. At first, the lights on the inside of the tunnel were just a long blur, but soon they had slowed down enough to where each one could be made out individually. The train entered Tokyo Central Station and finally came to a stop. Bleary-eyed passengers disembarked, along with Akio and Zara. Many were business travelers, still wearing their street clothes and dragging their cases, doubtless hoping for a little sleep before the day ahead.

  “Now where?” Zara said.

  “Direct to my building,” Akio said.

  “Let me guess, some sort of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory elevator again?” Zara said.

  “I haven’t seen that, but most likely. Similar deal to New York.”

  “Right.”

  They walked from the platform to an enormous, long, steel and glass concourse. Zara looked left and right but could barely see where it stopped. Escalators went up to multiple levels, above. Akio led the way across the concourse, fifty meters or so. “This place is jam-packed at rush hour.” It was presently nearly empty. They reached the other side, from which light, marble-lined corridors extended at a right angle. They were lined with what looked to Zara like hundreds of narrow elevator doors, most of which stood open. They entered the first one. The brushed metal doors closed. The elevator headed gently down at first and then gradually turned a corner to travel sideways. After two minutes or so, it then turned another corner, and headed up. And up. Zara’s ears popped. She looked quizzically at Akio. “How high are we going?”

  “A hundred and thirty-eight floors.”

  “Ah. Seems kind of modest from what I’ve seen of the buildings.”

  “Yeah. It’s one of the shorter ones.” They disembarked at Akio’s floor. A right turn out of the elevator took them into a lobby. A short walk along it brought them to the intersection of two hallways. They split off at angles from the lobby, forming a Y shape. The hallways glowed with ambient light and had plush, white carpets. Akio led Zara down the left one. There were white apartment doors on both sides. Forty meters or so later, Zara heard a clunk as a lock mechanism turned in a door on their right. The number on the door said 13008.

  Akio opened the door and then stood back to beckon Zara in with a sweep of his hand. She walked into a white, minimalist, open-plan space. A smallish main living area was straight ahead, with a compact small, black-countered kitchen to the left. Eight meters in front of her were floor-to-ceiling windows. Zara walked to them and looked out at the city. Vast skyscrapers stood like stalagmites, rising past Akio’s apartment, and extending almost higher than she could see. Images of beautiful people and expensive products flickered across their kilometers-high exteriors. The people held and demonstrated various items. Some pictures showed exotic travel destinations, including Mars. Japanese characters slid in from the right and left. Every thirty seconds a different commercial began.

  The structure in which they stood had a floor plan similar to an eight-pointed star. Hence, one of the jutting points partially blocked the view to the right. However, its surface, too, was a giant screen, and contributed its own light to the sensory over
load. Some of the gridlines of Tomimuro were visible in the night sky, between the walls of the urban canyon. “Holy cow…” Zara said slowly, her breath almost taken away as the shimmering light from outside played on her face. “The entire city is like a giant version of the Ginza. At least, the way it used to be,” she said, referring to the neon wall of displays that made up Tokyo’s commercial center. Akio smiled. Zara closed her eyes and rubbed her forehead.

  “Do you mind if I go lie down?” she asked.

  “Oh… no, not at all!” Akio said. “I’m being a bad host. Here, let me grab your bag. This is your room, right here.” There were two doors to their right, leading directly from the living area, to the apartment’s two bedrooms. Akio indicated to the door on the right. His was on the left, which was the room with a direct view outside. Akio took Zara’s bag and set it inside the door. “Coffee, food, etc. over there.” He indicated the small kitchen area. “You know what to do.”

  Zara nodded and turned back to the room. “See you in a while.”

  She entered and closed the door. It was bathed in a light, blue-tinged, ambient glow. She laid down on the white covers, not even bothering to get under them, and kicked off her shoes. The bed subtly formed itself to her body, and the pillow raised itself to support her head.

  “Buzz: turn the lights down.” The room became partially dark. Zara thought about the immense city outside. It was beyond anything she could have imagined in her previous life. It was another stop on her almost inconceivable journey. Where would the road take her next? It seemed like she’d been running all her life. Maybe she had. But what from? Herself? She wondered if Kato was still in New York. Maybe she should call him. Or not.

  Chapter 15

  The soft, warm air seemed to welcome Kato's every breath and caress him, while the sun beat down from above. The beach was 200 meters across, from the green, fertile shore to the ocean. It consisted of the finest, most powdery sand imaginable. He was standing on the northwest shore of the Hawaiian island of Kauai, at Polihale State Park. It had taken only three hours to get there from New York by spaceplane. This included a transfer from Honolulu. Kato walked down to where the Pacific surf lapped against the shore, and then headed south along the beach. The ocean was on his right, and the long-extinct volcano, that had formed the island, rose dramatically to his left. It was covered in vivid, green vegetation. The beach stretched as far as Kato could see. He walked in the surf, up to his ankles. There were few people about.

  Kato had come to Kauai because he and Susan had vacationed there once. They were still newlyweds. Zara had not yet been born. Susan had inherited some money from an uncle. Kato had wanted to invest it in his then-fledgling business, but Susan wanted to come to Hawaii. She had won. Kato vividly recalled strolling down that same beach with her. The sun lit up her blonde hair. She looked great in her bikini top, and the green and blue translucent beach wrap that covered her legs. It had a starfish pattern on it. Her skin was just beginning to tan. At the time, Kato had been secretly glad that she had won the toss. Plus, “losing” the argument was always stored capital to help win some future “debate”! That time had been paradise in every possible way. Kato stood still for a minute and surveyed his surroundings. The volcano's sides had formed into great claws, as though they belonged to a giant paw that clamped down onto the island and held it in place. The scenery hadn't changed in 300 years. But, he missed her. God, how he missed her. Pain beyond measure choked Kato once again. Had it really been worth being reborn and returning to civilization? Had he, and Zara, not come back, he wouldn’t have to feel this. They would have simply passed quietly into the afterlife, once the power supply ran out on board the appropriately-named spaceship Eternity, trillions of kilometers away.

  Then, Kato stopped dead. Why hadn’t they just become forgotten relics of humanity, written off as doomed explorers? If their hibernation unit had functioned as designed, they would have emerged after 100 years, lived out the rest of their natural lives, and been long dead by the time IIX reached them. The chances of their surviving being rescued, and actually living in 24th century civilization, were a million to one. Maybe even a billion to one. What if it had all happened for a reason?

  Chapter 16

  The fifty-third annual Movement electronic dance music festival had been a swirling, future wonderland for Zara. Zara and Akio had traveled there on Tokyo’s sky train network, 100 stories up, and met with three of Akio’s friends. More than a million other people had packed into the giant circular outdoor amphitheater called Japanboura, north of the city center, and been lifted into head-pounding euphoria by trance-inducing electronic music like none Zara had ever heard.

  The center of the circle had been taken up by a giant, multicolored orb on thick, silver stilts, in which the DJs spun their tunes (to use a long-outdated analogy.) As they did so, ripples of pure color flowed out from the orb, over the dancers’ heads, and into the city beyond. Lasers, from the sphere and several other points around the edge, split the night sky in multicolored bursts. The outsides of the buildings that ringed the amphitheater had changed from their continuous stream of advertising to being part of the lightshow, as they flashed with swirling patterns in time to the music. Zara had always loved electronic dance music. She almost had to be dragged away at 6 AM the following morning by the boys, despite having danced for ten hours straight. “It was like… nothing I’ve experienced before…” the sweaty, almost delirious, girl had kept repeating, as they headed back to the transit station.

  Wu Chen had landed in Tokyo that morning, along with his second-in-command Yuen Jiang and the other four members of his team. They had headed to the city as soon as they arrived on Earth; following instructions from Yong Lim. Yong had tracked Zara to John F. Kennedy Air and Space Port, and watched as she boarded the flight to Tokyo. The team congregated in Chen's hotel room, near Honmonji Park, away from the downtown area. “We now have a golden opportunity,” Chen said. “We have a strong signal on her, despite how built-up the city is.” Jiang and the others nodded.

  “So, it seems she was partying all night with Mr. Nishimura,” Jiang said. He and the others sat in a circle, in armchairs or on anything else they could find, in the cheap room.

  “Yes,” Chen said. He shifted around in his seat, while leaning forward on his elbows. “No idea what their plans are now, but we're going to keep at least two people tailing them twenty-four-seven from now on. “We will work in shifts of eight hours. Chao, Huan,” he indicated at two other team members, “you will take from 1 PM,, approximately an hour from now, until 9 PM. Yuen and I will take 9 PM until 5 AM, and we will continue rotating that way.” The other team members nodded. “Sooner or later, she’ll be alone in a secluded place,” Chen continued. “Then, whoever is tailing her will take her down and hide her somewhere. They’ll call the others, who will then come and assist with transportation.”

  “Yes, Captain,” the others said, in unison. Chao and Huan then left the hotel, destined for Akio’s neighborhood, grabbing a quick snack on the way.

  Chao and Huan loitered in the shops near Akio’s building, pretending to examine the merchandise. Their contact lenses informed them of Zara's precise whereabouts. “She seems to be spending the day at his place,” Chao said.

  “Probably sleeping off last night,” Huan said. “But, she has to go out at some point.”

  Zara slept the day away and awoke around 6 PM. She left her room, rubbing her eyes, to find Akio and his three friends already up. Because it had been slept in, the living room smelled of sweat. Akio's couch had now morphed into four white recliners. They were joined only by a thin umbilical of smart matter, so that it could reform into another shape. The boys were watching a movie that was playing on the wall opposite the window.

  Akio’s face lit up on seeing Zara. “Hey!”

  “Hey,” she said,
sleepily. “My head’s pounding.”

  “Drink some water. You’re probably very dehydrated.”

  “What are you watching?”

  “The Undoing of Zig Buzby,” Akio said.

  “What's that?”

  “An American comedy,” Akio said. “You can get Buzz to translate it if you want.”

  Zara did so. What an unbelievably stupid movie, she thought, after a few minutes. She guessed the definition of humor must have changed in her time away. At around 8 PM, Akio’s friends said their goodbyes. “They live with their parents,” Akio said, after the front door closed behind them.

  Zara nodded and then grinned. “Is that still considered as loser-y now as it was in my day?”

  Akio smiled. “Yes.” He paused for a few seconds. “Although… rents are very high here. So, there’s at least a partial justification.” His smile turned into a wry grin. He looked at Zara. “Wanna do something rather illicit later?”

  “Umm...”

  Akio chuckled, as he watched doubt cloud her face. “Something... off bounds, shall we say.”

  “Just tell me what it is!” Zara said in irritation.

  Akio nodded, and cleared his throat. “There's a way to get into the Tomimuro grid. You can go right up inside it and look down on the city.”

  “Seriously?”

  “Yes.”

  “And it's something you're not supposed to do?” she asked redundantly.

  “Correct.”

  “Then I'm in!”

  By 9 PM, dusk had settled over Tokyo. Zara's heart was in her mouth, as she looked out of the apartment's window at the towering, shimmering, blaze that was downtown Tokyo. Was she really going to be climbing above all this? Oh well, she’d been going against the grain ever since she was born. No sense in stopping now! Zara and Akio took the elevator down below street level to the building's garage.