Rocket Girls: The Last Planet

by Housuke Nojiri

  “Oh, I don’t know. Like, maybe being an astronaut for the SSA?”

  Akane burst out laughing. “You’re pulling my leg!”

  “Nope. No leg-pulling.”

  “Hoi! What a great idea.” Matsuri joined in. “Boy, with Akane on the team, we’d be golden!”

  “We haven’t made any public announcements, but truth be told, we really need someone. This could be your big chance, Akane. Really.”

  “But, but I couldn’t be an astronaut. Don’t you have to be in great physical condition?”

  “A little training would take care of that, no problem.”

  “But…”

  “Boy, if it was me, I’d be there in a heartbeat,” Miyamoto said. “Surely you must have your share of applicants? You’re quite popular these days.”

  “Actually, we do,” Yukari said. While it was true that they had made no public announcement, every month, one or two hopefuls made their way to the Solomon Space Center—on a tiny island at the edge of civilization, a place devoid of any entertainment or anything to do at all if one wasn’t in the SSA already. Most people who wanted to be the next Yukari or Matsuri despaired the moment they set foot in the place.

  There were a few whose passion to go into space overcame any such concerns, but every one of them had been physically unsuited for the job. Even though they never put it into words, the SSA wasn’t in the position to even consider anyone who wasn’t under 155 centimeters tall and weighed less than thirty-eight kilograms. Also, though it wasn’t an absolute requirement, they really preferred a girl. The lack of a toilet onboard the orbiter would make things complicated were males integrated into the crew.

  Which was why the best people gave up on the SSA and instead went for the Space Development Agency back in Japan. A successful career there could get you on the space shuttle and even get you a chance for a stay on the ISS.

  There were other reasons holding some applicants back. Even though the space shuttle wasn’t really all that safe, and the SSA wasn’t as dangerous as it seemed, people thought twice about actually stepping into Yukari’s shoes when it came down to it. Not even the lure of overnight fame was sufficient temptation.

  “I should think all you’d need is your health. I mean, if the shoe fits wear it, right? And I think you’d fit just right, Akane.”

  Akane frowned, unconvinced.

  Miyamoto stared at her. “You seem more the research type than a member of a flight crew. You like biology?”

  “Yes,” she replied. Then, more enthusiastically, “Ever since I was in elementary school!” Now Akane began to talk faster than Yukari had ever heard her talk. “We had to observe morning glories for a summer project in third grade, and I got to wondering why it was that some of them had vines that twisted to the right and others had vines twisting to the left. I couldn’t figure it out just by looking at the ones we had on our patio, so I ended up examining every morning glory on my block, then I went to the next block and the next until I had examined one hundred plants in all. When I averaged them out, right-twisting vines came out to fifty-three percent.”

  Miyamoto laughed out loud. “So no statistically significant difference, then.”

  “Well, I didn’t know about statistical analysis back then, so my conclusion was that right-twisting morning glories were more common. My teacher was really impressed, and I guess I let it go to my head. Oh, that’s right, I even did a sort of fake space experiment when I was in junior high.”

  “You don’t say?”

  “I couldn’t pull off a zero-gravity experiment, but I could make a high-G experiment right here on Earth. I modified an old record player into a centrifuge. Then I put a tulip bulb in some dirt at the edge and spun it around at 2 G to see what would happen.”

  “Very interesting!” Miyamoto exclaimed. “They’ve raised chickens using that same method in America, and the Germans similarly observed jellyfish in space, you know. It must’ve taken quite some time for you to get any results.”

  “Well, that’s the thing. I put the centrifuge out on the patio and let it spin all night and day. My mom wanted me to stop—she was afraid the record player was going to burst into flames or something—so I promised her I would keep my eye on it, and I ended up sitting there for three whole days. In the end, on the eighth day, the record player broke, so I never did get any results. But my science teacher was still impressed and told me that if I really wanted to become a scientist when I grew up, I would also need to study math and English and take tests so I could get into good schools. I think that’s around when I started to really like studying.”

  “You mean you can grow into liking studying?” Yukari asked. “I always thought it was something you were born either liking or hating.”

  “No, I really think you can learn to like it. It’s like getting this new tool to think with, and the more you study, the more you understand—like how you can use a single guideline to solve geometry problems, or how great it feels to figure out a proof, or the fun in using simple English vocabulary to say complicated things, or the fun in reading the newspaper after you learn about something in social studies, and because every class has tests, you get immediate results—it’s so satisfying! And then —” Akane shook her head. “What am I saying? I’m sorry. I get carried away sometimes.” She blushed and covered her face with her hands.

  “Not at all, not at all.” Miyamoto smiled. “It was a fascinating story. Why, it’s people like you that give me hope for the future of the sciences in this country. Have you already picked a university?”

  “I want to go to Tokyo University and study molecular biology under Professor Niuchi.”

  “Ah yes, Dr. Niuchi. That’s a good school. And molecular biology is fascinating.”

  Akane’s face shone. “I mean, I know life is sacred, but you can’t just call it sacred and leave it at that. You have to get to the bottom of things to really understand them, and I figured that molecular biology would be the place to start.”

  “Quite right. I began with physics myself, but your approach is sound.”

  “You really think so?”

  “So this is what it’s like to be a star student,” Yukari said with disbelief. “You know exactly what you’re going to do after you graduate already?”

  “Well, I’m already a junior!”

  “Oh yeah, right…” Yukari scratched her head. Yukari had never made it to her junior year. Still, she wondered if she would have been quite so certain about her own future as Akane seemed to be.

  “Still,” Yukari said, trying to steer the conversation back, “they have adult tests you can take for credits, and you can always study. You don’t have to be in school to do that. It wasn’t me who first said this, but if you really want to study something, space is the place.”

  “Yes,” Akane said, a faraway look in her eyes, “I suppose you’re right.”

  There’s that look, thought Yukari—the look someone got when they first pictured themselves actually being in space. Yukari had seen it a number of times since starting her current job. She had already been on four orbital flights. She was used to zero gravity, the stress of takeoff and reentry, and dealing with the media. But the one thing she was sure she would never grow tired of was the view from space.

  It was impossible to put into words or images. They always asked her about it in interviews, and all she could say was her set response: if you really want to know, you have to come see for yourself.

  How would she answer Akane if she asked? She didn’t want to give her usual cookie-cutter response, and yet…

  “I guess it’s the kind of thing that you can’t know without going to see for yourself,” Akane said suddenly.

  Yukari gaped, her eyes going to the other girl’s face. Akane’s eyes were clear as water, staring straight at her.

  That was a funny coincidence.

  “You want to come with me?” Yukari found herself saying.

  Akane said nothing for a moment. Then her eyes drifted
downward. “No. No, I think I’m more the study-at-my-desk type.”

  “Oh…” Yukari gave a little sigh. Maybe I was getting ahead of myself.

  “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to pressure you or anything.”

  “No, not at all.”

  When she thought about it, it had been a crazy thing to ask. Hey, you, want to become an astronaut? Still, Akane looked a little sad now that Yukari had effectively rescinded the offer.

  “Hey,” Yukari said, “if you change your mind, give me a call, will you? You can just phone the Solomon Islands and ask the operator to connect you to the SSA.”

  “Okay.”

  “Right, time for the debriefing. Tell me everything that happened after liftoff,” Miyamoto said.

  “Right.” Yukari shook her head. “Well—”

  Immediately following a spaceflight, astronauts were subjected to a slew of questions. The goal was to get all the details of everything that had happened while their memories were still fresh, so that what they learned could benefit future missions. This was called debriefing.

  Yukari glanced at her notes. “So around 0130, they started looping a lot and rolling.”

  “They were swimming all over the place,” Matsuri added.

  “Yeah, it was almost hard to watch them. They looked really tired.”

  The professor found the time stamp on the telemetry graph. “It looks like they were panicking because of a drop in the concentration of diffused oxygen. The goldfish were too active. Did you notice anything different inside the aquarium?”

  “I saw one or two scales sparkling at the bottom,” Matsuri said.

  “Those were scales?” Yukari asked. “You have better eyes for the natural world than I do, Matsuri.”

  “Um…” Akane said. “I should probably get going.”

  Yukari had completely forgotten. “Oops! That’s right. We kind of took her out of school in the middle of classes.”

  “Oh, is that so? Sorry to keep you so long,” the professor said.

  “No, it’s been great, really. I’d love to be able to stay longer if I could—but if I leave now I might make it in time for afternoon classes.”

  “Well, you’re welcome back anytime. I’ve got plenty of things I’d love to show you here.”

  “Thank you so much!”

  The professor smiled and handed her his card. “I’ll call a taxi for you. Don’t worry, it’s on us.” He picked up the phone.

  “No, I can walk.”

  “It’s farther away than you think. Don’t worry, we owe you at least this much.”

  While they were standing at the front gate waiting for the taxi to arrive, Yukari spoke with Akane. “Sorry about all this. I know Nellis is really hard on people skipping class.”

  “I think they’ll understand,” the other girl replied. “After all, it was for a good cause.”

  “Well, I hope so.”

  “And I had a really great time.”

  “Just think, if you were an astronaut, every day would be like this.”

  Akane chuckled nervously. Yukari joined her.

  “Sorry, I didn’t mean to be pushy.”

  “No, I really appreciate it. Thanks for inviting me.”

  The taxi arrived.

  Yukari, Matsuri, and Miyamoto stood at the curb and waved goodbye.

  [ACT 8]

  IT WAS ALREADY evening when debriefing was over. After a simple press conference, the two astronauts left the Space Lab by taxi.

  “Hey, are you those two astronauts? Yukari and Matsuri, was it?” the driver asked.

  They both nodded.

  “Neat! Those your space suits? Do you always wear those?”

  “No. Today is kind of…special.” Yukari explained what had happened. The driver’s face in the rearview mirror looked surprised.

  “Well, it must be tough flying around up there so fast!”

  “Yeah, and it’s too cramped to bring a change of clothes. That’s where we’re going now—to get new things to wear.”

  “Downtown, right?”

  “Yeah. If you could head into the shopping district from one of the side streets. We kind of stick out in these.”

  “No problem. Leave it to me.”

  “Oh, I should ask, can we use American Express for this?”

  “No problem.”

  The survival kit they were supplied with held a roll of U.S. ten-dollar bills and an American Express card. It wasn’t perfect, but it worked well enough in emergencies. This, Yukari had already decided, was an emergency—and buying civilian clothes in the department store counted as survival in the broadest sense of the word.

  The taxi was entering the streets of downtown Yokohama. Matsuri was glued to the window, staring at the unfamiliar sights outside.

  “What a busy place!”

  Matsuri was practically leaning out of the car as they waited for a light to change. Yukari dragged her back inside.

  “C’mon, we stand out bad enough as it is.”

  “But they love us!”

  Matsuri waved her hands vigorously at people on the street. A group of high school students stopped, their mouths hanging open.

  “Will you knock that off?”

  They were in the shopping district now.

  “How’s this?” the driver asked.

  “One more block. There. Right behind that building.”

  They got out of the taxi, crossed over one wide street, and went straight into a boutique on the other side of the intersection. Yukari had been going there since she was in junior high. She used to stop by on her way to school.

  “Hiya!”

  “Hello…hey! Yukari! Long time no see! How are you?” The owner, a tall man with a touch of hair on his chin, came out. He checked the girls out from head to toe.

  “I like the threads! Takes a little bit of courage to wear those in broad daylight, but I approve!”

  “Well, I don’t,” Yukari said. “We basically came here straight from the Space Lab up in Sagamihara. You think you can find something for us to wear?”

  “Can I ever! What are you in the mood for?”

  “I was thinking maybe a simple dress with something on top—or is that not cool these days?”

  “Honey, it’s all in the coordination. Just you watch and see.”

  “Great, well, whatever works.”

  “Leave it to me! What about shoes? I think I might have some sandals in here somewhere.”

  “Great, thanks!”

  The owner flitted about picking out items until Yukari was holding a miniskirt dress and a short-sleeved cardigan. For her feet, she had platinum white sandals.

  “And your name is Matsuri, right? What sort of look are we aiming for here?”

  “Hoi! I want something like that!” Matsuri said, pointing at the mannequin in the shop window.

  “Showing a bit of skin in the middle, then? Perfect! That will look great on you.”

  While he was gathering Matsuri’s outfit, Yukari went into the dressing room to change.

  First, she had to take off the adapter ring around her neck. Between the adapter ring and her neck was a thin rubber membrane, which served to keep the air in her helmet separate from the air inside her suit. A special adhesive was used between the membrane and the skin of her neck, which made taking it off a little like peeling back a Band-Aid—painful.

  The space suit was one solid piece, and in order to remove it, she had to undo the airtight fasteners from her throat all the way down to her crotch. She peeled the suit off her arms and legs like a rubber glove, leaving the outfit inside out.

  The suit was made out of a miracle fabric that was airtight, pressurized, and insulated, yet it also wicked away sweat, allowing the skin to maintain its own temperature.

  In a sense, the skintight space suits were like a second skin, specially adapted for space. There was no room underneath them even for underwear. The owner of the shop was right. It did take a bit of courage to wear the suits outdoors.

&
nbsp; Yukari finished changing and left the dressing room.

  The owner took a look at the space suit hanging from her arm limply like a deflated doll. “Say, you don’t think you could sell me one of those? I’d love to put it up in my shop window.”

  “Well, they’re seventeen million yen a pop.”

  “Yikes! For real?”

  “These are actual flight models, yep. Apparently, even that is pretty cheap as far as space suits go. But I’m afraid I can’t sell it anyway—the design is top-secret. We’re discouraged from even taking them off when we’re not on base.”

  “I see, I see,” the owner said, clearly giving up. “Well, do you think I could at least advertise that you came here? It’s not every shop in Yokohama that gets visits from astronauts. I could put up a picture of you two.”

  “Sure, no problem,” Yukari said, smiling. “I could even sign the picture for you if you like.”

  “Ooh, that’d be great! Thanks!”

  A few moments later, Matsuri came out of the other dressing room. “Hoi! What do you think?”

  Matsuri was wearing a bikini top with a sleeveless shirt over it and skimpy bikini bottoms under a pair of hip huggers.

  “It’s practically a swimsuit—though you look completely natural in that, I’ll admit.”

  “A perfect fit, if you ask me,” the owner beamed. “Now for the final touch.” He picked out a pair of sunglasses and propped them up on Matsuri’s head. “There! Splendid! Quick, let’s take a photo!”

  The owner brought out a camera, had the two girls stand in one corner of the shop, and started clicking away.

  They paid with the emergency credit card, and shoving their space suits in the bottom of a shopping bag, emerged onto the busy streets.

  “Hey!”

  “Hoi?”

  Yukari was staring at a sign for a beauty parlor across the street. Her head started itching. “Let’s go in there.”

  “A beauty salon? What do they do there?”

  “We can get our hair washed and even put on a little makeup.”

  “Sounds like fun!”

  The two dashed into the store.

  “Can I get a wash and a cut, just even the sides up. Oh, and a little foundation.”

  “Absolutely,” the beautician crisply replied.