Crash Land on Kurai – Chapter 17

I set my tablet on the desk in my room and look directly into the camera.

It’s confessional time, as much as I dislike it.

“We’ve now been staying in the Ryuanji Temple for what I can guess is about two or three days, though I was in and out of consciousness while they were fixing my leg. The people of this world seem to be similar to us. I don’t know…” I shake my head, as I think about the way they’ve treated me so far. “They’re hiding a lot of secrets and ferreting out secrets is what I do best. But my life has never hung in the balance before. I’ve always been able to ask questions in relative safety, and here I have none of that.”

I stop and direct my eyes down at the floor, following the grains in the wooden planks until I know what to say next. Many things here are familiar yet alien. Wood is the same, even if it’s grown on a different world.

“But I was injured, and they took care of me. They’ve given me medicine and shelter, and so far, they haven’t asked for anything in return. I feel like they’re letting me store up a debt, and someday soon, they’re going to ask for payment. I’m not sure what it’s going to cost me, but I’m here to do the job you sent me to do. So, I’ll continue to ask questions until I get answers I feel are truthful. It’s the least I can do for everybody at home.

“Kazuo and I have still not seen anyone else from the Hikoboshi mission. I assume forty to fifty percent of the people who escaped the ship and life pods are dead. But that means many more are on this moon and trying to survive. Possibly even my brother. My next task is to get our hosts to let us leave and try to find our shipmates. I will also have to assume it’s possible Kazuo and I are the only ones who’ve made contact with the Hikoboshi natives since none of them have mentioned our shipmates nor brought anyone here to the temple for recuperation. So besides keeping a journal of what I find here, it’s also our job to find anyone else from the mission and keep them from harm. I’ll update you again when I have more information.”

I turn off the tablet, stow it under the mattress, and sit down to rest. My injuries and the foreign medicine I’m on have zapped me of my energy reserves, and I hope that’s not on purpose. Back on Orihimé, I could hike for hours through the woods and not break a sweat. Sure, the few months in zero gravity were going to take its toll, but I exercised every day and took the drugs that were supposed to help keep us in shape until we landed. I figured I’d be better off than I am.

Not wanting to be tied to the bed forever, I grab the desk chair and bring it over to the high window near the ceiling in the room. I step on the chair, being careful not to rock it, and peer over the edge to the world outside. Stretching out and away from the temple to my right is farmland, neat rows of greens swaying in the breeze under the sunshades. To the left, a mountain range is only about two kilometers away and the sunshades end there. What happens to the sunshades when it rains? How much radiation from the sun do they keep out? Have the inhabitants here always needed this shielding? Or is this new? The rest of the moon appears dead, with only a little green growth peeking out through the desiccated ground cover.

I rest my head on my arms and let my eyes blur. The temple and these farmlands appear to be an oasis, a sanctuary for the religious to pray and meditate, and a place for peace and neutrality. There are people on this moon who are in exile. Are they amongst the monks of this temple? Does bug-eyed Tamura know anything about them?

I bet he does. He said he’s CEO of his corporation and Principal of Hikari. Is Hikari the planet? I groan as I rest my forehead on my arms. Too many questions.

A knock at the door startles me, but I take a steadying breath and step down from the chair, putting it away quickly.

“Come in,” I call out, not bothering to ask who it is. It’s not like I could deny anyone entrance anyway.

Kazuo opens the door and smiles when he sees me. “I’m glad you’re up. How’re you feeling?”

“Okay. Tired. Confused.” I sit on the bed again, being careful not to sit on my tablet hidden underneath.

“Sounds about right.” He sits next to me, thankfully also avoiding the tablet. “I bet you have one million questions and more.” He knocks his leg against mine.

“You know me well.” I sigh, raking my fingers through my limp hair. “But my top three questions now are: Can we leave to find the rest of our people? Is it safe to travel on this moon? And what’s next for us?”

Kazuo rubs his unshaven chin. He should grow a beard again like he had when I was little. I was always pulling it, though, so he shaved again when my grubby three-year-old hands wouldn’t stop.

“I’ll wager a guess on all of those. No, no, and I think we’re in for a shock with these people.” He stands up and paces the room. “There are guards posted at every exit, those amazing sunshades are there to keep the plant life and people from frying in the sun, and I’ve heard rumors that Tamura and his corporation, Aka Matsuba, are not to be trifled with.”

I jerk a quick smile. “Have you been eavesdropping?”

“Of course,” he says, waving his hand. “I spent some time outside the door of the head monk and his staff. They’re uncomfortable with Tamura here, but they have no right to deny him access. Supposedly, he owns this land and a fair share of the moon. So does his competitor, Aoi Uma.”

The Blue Horse corporation. Tamura thought we were androids built by them.

“The only reason this temple survives is because of his technology. They can’t afford to maintain it on their own.”

I raise my eyebrows. “Sounds like you listened in on a long conversation.”

“Let’s just say they were upset.” He shrugs his shoulders. “Anyway, it’s been hours since we ate real food, and I hear dinner is ready. Shall we go?”

I said I’d have dinner tonight with Rin, and I forgot to tell Kazuo about it. I hesitate for a moment, remembering how I looked in the camera image on my tablet. Like three-day-old death. If I’m going to meet up with Rin and more people from this world, I should try to look respectable, right?

“Well…” I chew on my bottom lip and taste copper. Kazuo frowns and pulls a handkerchief from his pocket. I’m jealous of how many pieces of clothing he’s kept through this ordeal.

I dab my lip with his handkerchief and sigh. “It appears I’m falling apart at the seams. Believe it or not, I told Rin I’d have dinner with him.”

I hand his handkerchief back to him as I cross the room to the dresser and mirror.

Kazuo crosses his arms. “You can’t be serious. We should keep our distance from them.”

I open the top drawer and find basic toiletries, a bar of soap, some washcloths, towels, and a hair brush. Yes, a hair brush! I brush my hair, wincing at the knots that refuse to unsnarl.

“If they’re going to hold back information from us, we should hold back from them as well.”

He makes a good point, but…

“I disagree.” I grunt as I rip a piece of my hair free that was caked with blood. Gross. “These people hold our lives in their hands. They seem to value humanity, at least that’s what I can discern from taking the test. The more human I am to them, the better off we’ll all be. Don’t you think?”

“How human are you planning to be?”

I shrug my shoulders at him, pushing my hair behind my ears. That’s better.

“Are you planning to seduce him?”

I burst into a laugh before rolling my eyes and returning the brush to the drawer. “I couldn’t seduce a horny man who hadn’t had sex in ten years. What kind of question is that? You know me better than anybody. Since when have I let my feelings get in the way of my job?”

“Never, Yumi. If anything, you don’t have feelings. Or at least that’s what you always tell me.”

I haven’t had feelings since I was sixteen and competing for the same love with my own brother. Shintaro’s talk of me finding my own love has always been a ploy to alleviate his own guilt over the whole situation. Takéji let me know as succinctly as possible that I was undesirable, and that most men my age feared me. When others backed him up, it was time to admit defeat.

I vowed right then and there to lock my feelings into a box, bury it in the yard, and never go looking for them again.

“Spoken like a true believer.”

I take the dry washcloth and scrub my face with it, wiping away the oily splotches and bringing color back to my cheeks. That’ll have to do.

“Let’s go.”

—-

We follow our noses and head in the opposite direction of the front door. I keep my steps light and respectful as we make our way through the halls. The floorboards crack as we glide along. Inside several rooms, I catch sight of men and women either studying or reading tablets or praying. If this temple is a cover for some underground government institution, then they’re doing a superb job of keeping me fooled, but I think they’re the real thing.

The soft murmur of voices and smells of savory food behind a sliding door invite me to open it and peek inside. A series of three long tables in a vast dining room are occupied sparsely with clumps of people eating dinner. Rin sits alone at the end of one table, his attention captured by whatever’s on his tablet.

I’m so curious about the information they access with their devices. Are they connected to a network at all times? Do they use their tablets for both personal and professional purposes? Do they have access to news and correspondence? I’m tempted to snatch it out of his hands since he isn’t paying attention to me.

Or I thought he wasn’t paying attention to me.

“Hello, Yumi. I didn’t realize you would bring a guest.” He looks up from his tablet. In the center of his spot at the table, a small pot of stew and a bowl of rice awaits with two empty bowls beside it. “I’ll get another bowl.”

Kazuo raises his hand. “Please don’t get up. I’ll get one for myself since I invited myself along.” He walks away, his slow, meandering gait giving me time to greet Rin.

I bow to Rin, remembering that I’m the guest here and it would be best if I show proper respect. Admittedly, not something I’m good at, but when my life is on the line, I can say please and thank you. “Thank you for inviting me to dinner. I realize you weren’t expecting more than me, but Kazuo is like a second father to me, so of course, he insisted he come along.”

I sit at the sunken table, slipping my legs into the well underneath. Down the length of the room, a few of the monks, their heads shaven and expressions welcoming, nod and smile. I return the gestures, feeling reassured that I have a chance to live through dinner.

“Like a second father to you? How does that happen?” Rin asks, setting his tablet face down and pushing it to the side. My eyes connect with his, and I remember confessing that I tried to be a lesbian and failed at it.

I could die, and I would still be blushing.

He pours us both glasses of ice water as he waits for my response. So far he understands basic conversational etiquette. He’s able to cover up awkward pauses without being awkward himself. A check mark in the right column.

“The Minamoto family on Orihimé is expansive and influential. My parents are close to the empress, and they concentrated their parental efforts on my older brother and my twin brother. I had a nanny when I was a baby, but Kazuo took over my upbringing once I was eating and talking on my own. He’s a distant cousin of my father and not married. No kids of his own. He seemed like a good choice, I guess.” I shrug my shoulders, never having thought why Kazuo was the perfect match for me. He just is.

“Anyway…” I cover up another awkward pause by sipping my water and looking for Kazuo. I laugh as I see him sit down with a group of monks and join them for dinner. “What a manipulator he is,” I say, chuckling and shaking my head. “First, he insists on having dinner with us, and then he dumps us for better company.”

“The monks are very quiet. I’m sure he’ll be bored in no time.” Rin gestures to the meal in front of us. “Shall we eat?”

I wait while he dishes out stew and rice into the bowls. His movements are practiced and precise, ladling out each portion like he’s a chef in a high-end restaurant. The stew smells rich and peaty, large chunks of vegetables that look like carrots and onions swim in a gravy alongside meat-sized pieces of mushrooms. Before he pushes the bowl over to me, he drops a handful of nuts on top from a separate container.

“The mushrooms and nuts are genetically modified to be non-allergenic and provide more protein. It should be enough for you, being a vegetarian and all that.”

I smile at the reference to one of my answers during the test, then I remember the other things I said. He’s probably lucky to never speak to his test subjects again once he’s done questioning them. This feels irregular though I have no basis for comparison.

“Thanks. It looks delicious. Are all of your people meat eaters?” This is a good place to start with questions. I want to transition into asking about the androids we saw in the city, but I should probably begin with something small first. This is what I call ‘the warm up talk.’

Rin stays silent, only the sound of his spoon hitting the bowl echoes between us. Maybe this is not how polite conversation starts off on their world. Am I already sunk?

“I thought we weren’t going to be strangers,” I say, keeping my voice warm and even. I don’t want to sound threatening.

“You’re right. I’m sorry,” he says, shaking his head. “I have a lot on my mind. The animals on Hikari are extremely expensive. No one has eaten a land animal here ever. It’s forbidden and punishable by death.”

I swallow the stew too quickly, and it scalds my throat on the way down. We love animals on our planet, but many are raised to be food. It’s part of our ecosystem, our culture.

“So,” Rin continues, “your concept of being vegetarian is our way of life. I had never heard the term before.”

I grab for the water to soothe my burnt tongue and throat. “That makes sense, and it also explains why you have that question in the test.”

“A Hikari citizen would be repulsed at seeing a dead animal on their table. Now that I know the situation is different for your people, I’ll have to modify the particular output of that question.” Rin spoons a careful amount of stew into his mouth, chewing and looking past me to the painted scroll on the wall. He’s either avoiding eye contact because he’s nervous or trying not to give anything away or he’s truly uninterested in me.

Disappointment coats me from head to toe, but then I chastise myself. This is not a date, Yumi. I need to press on.

“And Hikari is…?” I raise my eyebrows at him, prompting him to fill in the blank.

“Ah, sorry. The planet where the majority of us live.” He points upward. Good. At least I guessed right on that one.

“How much of your history are you taught?” I ask, bringing him back to talk about his own planet. This conversation might be easier if we stick to a wider subject than a personal one.

“What kind of history?”

“Hmmm.” I motion my hands in a circle. “This system, around this star, is what we call the Hikoboshi system. From our perspective, you are all Hikoboshi people. You came from Earth during the Exodus to this place. Is that what you know?”

Rin crunches on a nut, his jaw slowly moving up and down, side to side. His cheekbones cut a broad path across his face, flattening his features, and his eyes are soft and wide.

“What we’re taught in school is that we came here almost 400 years ago. But Hikari, which was the bigger world for us, needed terraforming before we could live there. This moon, Kurai, was where we settled until Hikari was ready for us. There used to be domes here and small clusters of settlements until it was terraformed as well. But that took over one hundred years, and in that time, we had many setbacks. The animals suffered the most, unable to breed and multiply without our help. Which is why today they’re a precious commodity and very expensive.”

I blink my eyes and start breathing again. I held my breath while I listened to him, imagining the terraforming process, the people confined to cramped living spaces, always looking out at the planet and wanting to live there. This is only the very tip of the story, and a million questions tumble into my head about the terraforming process, moving from the moon to the planet, the androids, and this war they seem to be fighting… or trying not to have. The one we got caught in the middle of.

“Wow. We barely had to terraform our world. We got lucky. It had just enough land for us, plenty of blue skies and water. Supposedly, we seeded it with trees and flora that we were used to on Earth.”

Rin folds his arms on the table, his head tilted. “You said supposedly. You don’t know for sure? We have records going back to our time on the spaceship. Our school textbooks compressed this time for studies, but when I was a boy, I watched the video and read the logs for the fun of it.”

“Really? I would love to see some of those records.” I can only imagine how much information could be at my fingertips.

“Access to records is restricted to samurai caste and up, but maybe Tamura can help you.” He helps himself to more stew, and I’m letting mine grow cold. Caste? The other man he was with, Kengo, mentioned ‘levels’ too. “So, what about your own planet’s history? Are there records you can access?”

“No, actually. We don’t have many records showing the history of Orihimé all the way back to colonization. Our previous ruler kept the planet in the past. No records, no technology, and a loss of equal rights. Everything had to be handed down through different families.”

“Like an oral history?” Rin asks, and I’m surprised at how easily we’re exchanging information now that we’ve warmed up. He seems to be educated and understanding. Maybe I can find some way to make him my guide here.

“Yes,” I say, taking another bite of the stew. If this is the kind of food I’ll have to eat for the rest of my life, I suppose I could get used to it. The rice is good, but I already miss roasted vegetables and seaweed. I wonder what food is like on the planet. “When the Terrans came to Orihimé a generation ago, they brought their history to the natives and the two mixed. My mother’s side of the family is Oda clan. They’re a long-standing family, on Orihimé since planetfall. So I’ve heard plenty of the family history from her and my grandfather. Then my father’s side of the family is Minamoto, and they’re from Earth. I have a mix of both kinds of history, and I’ve also studied the history of Earth too.”

I glance up from pushing my stew around my bowl with my spoon, and Rin has his hands folded and pressed to his chin in thinking mode.

“Am I blowing your mind yet?” I ask, throwing a brief smile at him.

“Significantly.” I find the warmth of his grin to be comforting. What is this stirring in my chest? I push it away. “I got the call this morning that I needed to be on the job and fast. I had just worked three days straight, and I was due two days off. I never expected to be here right now.” He glances around the room, and I wonder if he means here in the temple or on the moon.

“What is it you do exactly?”

“I’m… not sure how much I should tell you. I let Tamura know you passed your test, and that the blood sample we took from you had all the right indicators.”

But? That didn’t answer my question.

“Are you in the military? The police force? You fight like someone trained in the shinobi way, and with your sword and your…” I circle my finger around my head indicating his scar. His hand reaches for his head, and he rubs the short hair in a circular motion.

“Shinobi. I haven’t heard that word in a long time.”

I guess that means the shinobi way, the ninja training we do on Orihimé, is divorced from whatever these guys learn. It doesn’t really matter. They’re obviously trained swordsmen. The nomenclature is just different.

“I am kenryōshi, which is a division of our police force run by Kiiroi Yama.” He returns to his meal, breaking eye contact with me. Kiiroi Yama is ‘yellow mountain.’ Hmmm, another corporation?

But the term kenryōshi fascinates me. I think back on my vocabulary lessons. “That means you fight with the blade, the sword?”

“Yes. Kenryōshi only fight with the blade. We don’t carry any… combustible weapons.”

Words jumble in my head as little differences in our language patterns cause me to pause and translate.

“Guns?”

He nods and points at me, efficient with hand gestures over words.

“The Terrans who came to Orihimé never used guns. They were outlawed on Earth. Natives on Orihimé had explosives and swords, but the ability to make guns was beyond them. The ruling leader before the empress never wanted his people to rise up against him.”

I look down the table at Kazuo, and he’s still talking quietly with the monks. I want to share this information with him, but I’m glad he sat away from us. Rin is relaxed enough with me. I don’t want to screw this up.

“There’s less risk of collateral damage with swords,” Rin continues, snapping my attention back to him, “and since life on Hikari is so expensive, guns would be a bad idea. Only a few have them, the wealthy.”

“Collateral damage,” I say, tapping my fingers on the table. “Other people?”

“Other people, animals, and androids.” Rin helps himself to more stew and peers into my bowl. “Would you like more? You’re not eating much. Are you feeling okay? I noticed your lip is bloody.”

“Still?” I dab at the cut on my lip with my index finger, and it comes away red with blood. The despair I felt earlier returns. I’m not healing fast enough. I cover my mouth with my hand. “I’m sorry. I’ve had a rough few days.”

Rin is silent, his chest rising and falling at a quick clip, and his eyes are wide with pity. Look, buddy, you tried to drown me and then nearly killed me. What did you expect?

Only I can’t say that. My life, my career, everything is on the line. “I’ll be fine, thanks. Why androids? If you don’t mind me asking.”

He unfreezes, shifting his eyes to the table as he tops up his bowl. “I don’t mind. What do you mean, why?”

I close my eyes for a brief moment. The base of my skull is tight, and I fear I wasn’t well enough for all this talk. I press on. “On Earth, the wars that led to the Exodus were directly related to increased AI and the automation of jobs. The population exploded, eroded the environment, and then countries fought due to lack of resources. Eventually, AI and robots were banned unless they were running complicated systems. I’m surprised you have them here.” The thought of them sends shivers down my spine.

“Well…” Rin hesitates. “We need them, even if we don’t want them.”

“Hmmm.”

Rin smiles, and the curve of his lips is charismatic. How did this guy become a police officer? “I think that’s the first time this conversation you haven’t countered with a question.”

That’s because I don’t know where to start. Why do they need androids? Even if they don’t want them?

“Do regular people own androids? Or businesses?”

“Both. They’re expensive, though, so the top corporations own the majority of them.”

I’m suddenly getting a picture of what life is like on the planet. When Tamura introduced himself, he said he was Principal of Hikari and CEO of Aka Matsuba. I wonder…

“What kind of government do you have on Hikari?”

Rin blows out a long breath and shakes his head. “I’m not really sure you’d understand.”

“Try me. I’m a smart woman. Maybe I’ll understand more than you think I will.”

“Excuse me for interrupting,” a strong voice says from over my shoulder. Tamura stands behind me, gesturing to us. Along the table, the monks rise and bow their heads, and so does Rin. Kazuo and I are the only ones to remain sitting.

“I’m afraid that’s the end of your question and answer session for today.”

Ugh. I was getting somewhere, and from the look on Tamura’s face, he’s not interested in letting me go any further. I’m a five-year-old caught sneaking sweets from the kitchen.

“Rin, Miss Minamoto, and your companion, you’re all to come with me.”