Crash Land on Kurai – Chapter 18

“I’m afraid I have troubling news.” Tamura’s voice is steady despite his distraught demeanor. “We’ve received word that several of your fellow travelers are being held by Aoi Uma here on Kurai.”

My stomach drops right before my heart rate increases. I lean forward, wishing I had my tablet with me. This is news that should be delivered to everyone, not just Kazuo and me.

“Why is this troubling?” I ask without waiting for my turn. “Aoi Uma is another corporation like yours, right?”

Rin, sitting in seiza on his heels off to my right, winces, but Tamura pops a grin.

“I see you’ve been paying attention. Aoi Uma is my direct competitor, yes, but they are on a strict leash, constraining them from doing more than they’re allowed.”

Hmmm, this sounds like the making of bad blood to me.

“What are they allowed to do?”

“That is irrelevant.” Tamura opens his mouth to proceed, but I raise my hand.

“I decide what’s relevant or not when it comes to my people.”

Rin’s eyes widen and become three times their normal size, his face flattening even more in surprise.

Kazuo clears his throat. “Yumi has a good point. How can you expect us to help if we don’t have all the information?”

“I saw the transcripts and video of your test, Minamoto.” I’m taken aback by his harsh use of my last name. Almost everyone calls me Yumi. “You’re a journalist? Is that right?” I nod. “You’ll find that occupation is absent from Hikari, and you will not talk out of line around me or any of the board or supervisors. Kachō, sachō, or senmu deserve your respect and your silence.” He huffs, his face gaining a slight tint of pink. I wonder how hard I can push him. “You have not paid your dues, and you’ll be expected to, as will your companions. And until then, you get no demands.”

I sit back on my heels and press my mouth closed. Kachō, sachō, and senmu — all ranks in business. Dues. Rin’s talk of how expensive things are on Hikari. Is their world run by these corporations? By Tamura’s Aka Matsuba?

My arms prickle with goosebumps. I expected an elected government, not a corporatocracy.

Tamura relaxes again, his owl-like eyes blinking behind his glasses.

“I’m unsure of what Aoi Uma wants to do with your shipmates. The vid-call was short and abrupt, merely stating these men and women were in custody. But I must assume that the contact was for negotiation purposes. It could be they want payment or concessions. I’m hesitant to give them either considering you have no credit with us.” He sighs, and I grind my teeth. Whatever happened to the common human decency of helping someone in need?

We came here hoping to find our long-lost brothers and sisters. Instead, we’ve accumulated a life debt.

“Maybe they’ll talk to me? If we could all be allies —”

“I told you not to speak!” Tamura’s face is redder than a sunset.

Rin’s hand hovers over his sword, and Kazuo matches by reaching for his knife. Who is ready to fight whom? I’m caught in the middle.

I hold out my hands in surrender, calming the men in the room. I can’t remember the last time I felt so intimidated. Men don’t usually scare me, but with the unfamiliar position I’m in, I’m forced to back down.

“Do these people really mean that much to you? Are you willing to go into debt for all their lives?” Tamura stares me down, and I wait a full three seconds to make sure he actually wants me to respond.

“Yes, of course. Rin tells me life on Hikari is precious and expensive. Are their lives not worth anything?”

Tamura looks sideways at Rin. Rin sits tall.

“They aren’t worth anything yet. Sayaka!” He calls towards the door, and a moment later, a young woman dressed in black and white enters and bows. “My tablet, please.” He called it shitekina-kioku, ‘personal memory,’ but she gives him the same kind of device Rin had. I’ll call it a tablet in my head from now on.

His fingers dance over the screen, often pausing for him to think, scratch his upper lip, or drum his fingers on his leg.

“Your birth payment is 5,000 credits a piece. An hour of your time and the data we accumulated during the time you spoke to Rin Hara earns you an extra thirty credits. Aka Matsuba law states that a deficit of 10,000 credits without an active contract is punishable by jail time. 100,000 credits of debt without a contract requires termination.”

My body begins to sweat, every last pore giving up precious water, as I calculate my net worth in my head. If this were the system we had at home, I’d probably be dead by now.

“What is your occupation?” Tamura aims his eyes at Kazuo.

“Security,” Kazuo replies, looking to me. Sure, one of his duties is keeping me safe, but that’s only one of many things he does. He cooks, he cleans, he’s a regular domestic maestro.

If he could hear my thoughts, he’d drown me next time we go swimming.

I try to remain positive, but it’s difficult as I see more and more of this society through the spare words of its CEO. A slow, throbbing pain creeps up the left side of my head, but I ignore it. This is no time for my body to fall to pieces.

“Is that so? Personal security?” Tamura’s finger hovers over his tablet.

“Yes. For the last twenty years, that’s been my job.”

Tamura taps away at his screen. “I’m giving you one year’s worth of salary for your caste and base level, 80,000 credits. If you want more credits after this, you’ll have to find a paying customer. I believe Kiiroi Yama would be a good fit for you. Should they want your services, I’m willing to sell them your contract.”

“What about me?” I shut my eyes against both his glare and the light of the room. I wasn’t supposed to talk, but I did anyway. Call it self-preservation if you like, but I won’t get anywhere without money.

“What about you? You have no legitimate job. We have no journalists and no free press. Most people don’t even know what that means. You get nothing. But I own your contract now too. When we return to Hikari, you’ll be entered into the Aka Matsuba system, and a position will be given to you based on any skills you may have.” His lips flick into a wry smile. “I’m sure we have opportunities in janitorial or maintenance that will suit you.” Tamura sets his tablet aside, and all my hopes for starting off on the right foot in this society go with it. “As we find more of your people, we’ll give them new lives on Hikari. There are plenty of jobs to go around, and I could always use talented people in my workforce.”

What about waiting for our rescue from Orihimé to show up? He’s just going to take us and use us, isn’t he? These people shot down our spaceship in orbit, without giving a thought to how many people they were killing. Now he’s claiming everyone still alive for his own. I clench my fist hard enough for my jagged nails to draw blood.

“Sayaka!” He calls again. This time the door opens and the same woman enters with two tablets. He takes them from her and doesn’t say thank you. Why am I not surprised that he demands patience and respect from everybody around him but doesn’t give it back?

“Here are your tablets. They’re provided free of charge to every person on Hikari, though if you lose or damage them, you must replace them. You’ll be chipped, and then you’ll be able to use them.”

I stare down at the thing, wondering what this means for us. I’ve been assigned a new life, and my old one is over.

I refuse to accept this. We can’t just take what they give us and walk away. I remember the moment on the bridge as Jonathan at Ops yelled out how many life pods had jettisoned. Twenty life pods. And then we saw eight when we first landed. My people are out there. My brother could be out there.

I suppose I have nothing left to lose.

“My brother is missing and could’ve been on one of the life pods. I want to bring him back.”

“You?” Tamura snorts a short laugh.

“Yes. Kazuo and me. Let us go find my brother, and when we come back, we’ll talk more about working together.”

“Child, I’m getting tired of this. You don’t have a choice. We will not be working together. You will be working for me. We have some of our best men out in the field, and if you’re lucky, they’ll bring your brother back in one piece.”

Child? Rage causes the migraine that’s been lurking in the shadows to come swiftly, a galloping race horse through my head. My stomach turns over, nauseous with pain.

I glance at Rin, but he doesn’t make eye contact with me. I have no friends but Kazuo here.

“What is your brother’s occupation?” Tamura checks his fingernails and looks out the window.

“My brother is a geneticist. I always called him the genius geneticist because I like alliteration,” I say, wanting myself to shut up. My tongue loosens when I have a migraine. “He’s been working the last eight years on new animal breeds for our planet.”

Tamura’s eyes widen. “A geneticist? I… I didn’t realize your team had such a wide variety of occupations. What would you need with a geneticist?”

“We thought it was possible that if your colonization ship had made it here, you might not still be alive but any terraforming would need study.” I jerk my lips in a sad smile. If no one was left, we would’ve claimed the planet for ourselves. “The entire mission was populated with people from all occupations we thought necessary for this trip. Scientists, educators, administrators, the press like me, and an ambassador from the empress —”

Tamura holds up his hand. “That is the second time you’ve mentioned an empress, and I will not hear it again. The concept of royalty is not tolerated on Hikari. Only business and profit matters. We will not do business with a monarchy.”

Not that he would have much of a choice had we shown up here with our larger fleet and empress in tow. But this was supposed to be a scouting mission. Three hundred people in one ship with one major job — find out if the other Japanese colonization ship made it to Hikoboshi, and what happened if they did.

We completely underestimated our mission.

Tamura rises from his seated position, glaring down his nose at me. “Maybe your people will be worth more to me than I originally thought. I’ll look into how much I’m willing to pay for your people and how much you all can afford, but I’m not scouring the moon for them. That’s too expensive.”

“Please…” I lurch forward, holding out my hand. My brain rattles around in my head, and the light from the window pierces through my skull. “Let Kazuo and me go so we can find our people.”

He doesn’t even break his stride. “No. And I’m docking you five credits for speaking out of turn.” The door slides shut behind him.

I lay down right on the straw mat and curl into a ball, moaning to get the pain out.

“What’s wrong, Yumi?” Rin asks, kneeling down beside me. It’s the first thing he’s said since we came into the room.

“Migraine,” Kazuo responds. His voice booms through the room.

I keep my eyes closed and squeeze them tight. I wish I could put my head in a clamp.

“How can you tell? Maybe her infection is back. I should get a doctor.” I’m grateful Rin sounds concerned, but he wasn’t helping in the meeting. A checkmark in the wrong column.

“I’ve known her her whole life, that’s how. She gets them in stressful situations, and when we transition from zero gravity to planetside and back again.” Kazuo’s strong hand warms my neck, and I shiver, my body reverting to being freezing cold. His other arm cradles my legs. “Help me get her back to her room. And if we could find painkillers for her, that would be good.”

“Painkillers are expensive.” Rin’s voice wavers, and I wonder if he hears how repetitive he is. Everything is expensive. “But the monks here are generous and sympathetic. I’ll see what I can do.”