Crash Land on Kurai – Chapter 26

“You paid how much for her?”

Kazuo paces in my room at the temple. It’s good to see him again, but not good to see him in such an awful mood. He was brought back to the temple the same night Rin turned me over to Aoi Uma. Then he spent the intervening days convincing Tamura to come after me. He was worried sick.

“Two point two million credits. My budget was three hundred thousand credits per person, bringing back as many as I could. I could’ve purchased seven people for what I paid for her. Tamura is less than pleased.” Rin’s upper lip twitches. “I have completely wiped out my savings.”

“You had almost two million credits in savings?” Kazuo’s face is wide with surprise.

“I have never taken a vacation.” Rin’s voice is dead, buried under a meter of dirt and stone. The man has never taken a vacation, and now he owns me? I feel bad for him.

Kazuo throws his hands up in the air. “You didn’t tell me this would end with her in debt. Two million credits? We’ll never be able to pay that back to you.”

Rin crosses his arms and keeps his face peaceful. I’ve seen this gesture. This is how he deals with people he disagrees with.

“I didn’t know until I got there that Narumi Ogawa was trying to sell her off as a prostitute. That’s in a whole other league than an open contract in foreclosure. I had to improvise.” Kazuo walks away from him, running his hands through his hair. “Would you have wanted me to leave her? I knew the last bidder, and he —” Rin shakes his head. “He’s not someone who should get his hands on her.”

I curl up into a smaller ball on the bed, hoping the stress of the last day doesn’t leave me in agony with a migraine. I’m hooked up to another IV, and my empty bowl of stew sits on the floor next to the bed. All I need is a few days worth of sleep, and I’ll be back in business.

But the business of what?

“No. I wouldn’t have wanted you to leave her,” Kazuo says, relaxing against the wall and sliding down to sit on the floor. “I just don’t know how we’re going to pay you back.”

“Let’s not worry about that now.” Rin sits in the chair at the desk and faces us both. “What you need to worry about is how you’re going to persuade Aka Matsuba to rescue the rest of your shipmates. My corporation, Kiiroi Yama, wants nothing to do with this. You won’t convince them to come to your aid. I’m with Tamura for only a few more days, and then my job is done, and I’ll have to take Yumi back to Hikari with me. My corporation’s code of conduct is to put the well-being of all Hikari above anything else, so I have to return to work. In the meantime, I believe it’s imperative to find your people and integrate them into our society as quickly as possible before the money runs out.”

I lift my head from the bed. “Our people will come for us someday, hopefully soon.”

Rin bobs his head from side to side. “Yes, I’m sure your people will come for you. But you can’t live on this moon. It’s too dangerous here. The direct sunlight is harsh, and the environment is still recovering from an ecological disaster that occurred here a few decades ago. Plus, Shiroi Nami cannot be trusted to leave you be. You have a better chance of survival on Hikari.”

Kazuo thinks for a couple of moments, his eyes directed at the window, the bright filtered light from the sunshades cutting deep shadows across his jaw. It’s time the two of us had a serious talk about our options going forward.

“Rin, can I have some time alone with Kazuo, please?”

He stiffens briefly, and I wonder how ingrained this concept of owning one another is in their society. No matter what, I will never be owned by another person. Their permanent records may state that I belong to Rin, but that’s far from the truth.

And I think he knows that too.

“Of course. I’ll be in my room if you need to speak with me.” He turns to leave but pauses at the door. “You don’t know where my room is,” he says with a laugh. “Kazuo does though.”

He leaves, shutting the door quietly behind him.

“Well, you could’ve done a lot worse,” Kazuo says, his voice light with sarcasm. “For what it’s worth, he’s a good man. I don’t believe he’s ever owned anyone or anything. He even told me he wanted to buy a cat once but couldn’t stomach the idea of actually owning one.”

I imagine the two of them sitting down at a bar, drinking and chatting. It’s not a thought I hate.

“I didn’t have much of a choice. Most of the bidders fought over me, many of them looking for revenge. I don’t know what our ancestors did here, but whatever it is, they’re all unhappy about it.” I pull the covers closer to myself, trying to bring warmth to where there couldn’t possibly be any for a long time. “And whoever they were, they worked for Shiroi Nami, the corporation in exile.”

“Really?” He rubs his chin, his hand scratching over the stubble. “That’s not good news. No one seems to like them.”

Kazuo crosses the room to the closet, takes a spare blanket from the shelf inside, and covers me. I shiver.

“What do you want to talk about?” he asks, gingerly sitting next to me.

“The data device Chieko gave me.” I reach under the covers and pull the data device out from the warm spot in the bed next to my stomach. I wouldn’t let it out of my sight. “Gen must have stolen it after we crash landed. I found it in the Aoi Uma compound while I was there.”

Kazuo’s eyes widen as I place the device in his hand. He flips it over, examining all sides. “It looks undamaged. Wow. We got lucky.”

“They make ‘em sturdy back home.” I smile weakly, unable to stop the joke before it leaves my mouth. I used to try to destroy my tablet when I wanted a new one. I would ‘accidentally’ drop it from high heights or submerge it in water for long periods of time. The damned things never broke. The Terrans brought sturdy technology with them, and we all benefited unless you desired the latest and greatest.

Kazuo grabs his tablet from the desk in my room. “It’s time to see what’s on this thing.”

I wait while he accesses the data. His eyes follow words on the screen I can’t see, and his lips move as he reads through dozens of files. Finally, he relaxes with a small smile.

“Chieko wasn’t lying when she said this would save your life. It’s possible this will save all of our lives.” He turns off the tablet and looks at me. “While you were gone, I had time to get to know these people and how their society works.”

That image of Kazuo and Rin drinking and gushing secrets is becoming even clearer now. I hold my breath, excited to hear what he’s learned.

He sighs and shakes his head. “Yumi, they’re in a lot of trouble.”

“How do you mean?” I ask, trying to sit up, but Kazuo rests his hand on my shoulder.

“There was a war, about a hundred or so years ago, and in the time after that, they had a generation where the population exploded. The fertility rate was three or four. Maybe even higher.”

“So, three or four kids for every couple? That’s a lot.” Our current fertility rate on Orihimé is a steady 2.03 kids per couple. We would run out of room if the rate was any higher.

“It is. And then industry boomed. Animal cloning became popular, and all of these businesses and smaller corporations bloomed up around it. Aoi Uma lost the war, so they focused on android development. They’ve grown too fast, though. Made a lot of mistakes.”

I think back on my dinner with Rin. “Rin said they needed the androids.”

“They do. Along with the growth of the corporations, the birth rate and fertility rate declined. Now they’re at 0.4. Zero point four, Yumi. It’s like twenty-first century Earth.”

“History repeats itself.” I prop my head on my hand. “But it’s worse this time, right?”

“They’re at each other’s throats, and Aoi Uma androids are unstable. Most of the population is too old and has too many memories of war. The younger generation works too much and wants change. Some people are calling for a return to the old ways.”

The image of the dying Shiroi Nami man flashes through my thoughts. “You took our world from us after we made it for you. Kurai is ours.” Whatever happened here was enough to fracture their society and create far-flung enemies. Now, we’re caught in the middle.

“You always manage to get people to spill their guts to you.”

He squeezes my leg under the covers. “So do you. That’s why we make a good team. Did you find out anything more while you were gone?”

I lick my lips, wishing I felt one hundred percent better. “Narumi, the woman who runs Aoi Uma, is a class A psychopathic bitch, and her henchman, Akikazé, will want to kill me someday. I tried to choke him, but I didn’t get very far.”

Kazuo barks a short laugh. “Sounds like my Yumi.” He reaches over and tucks the blanket around me tight.

“I think Shiroi Nami were in charge of terraforming, but somehow they slipped out of favor. Or they were ousted during the war? Maybe, if you believe our Minamoto ancestors here did something unethical or monstrous, it got them kicked off of Hikari.”

“Possibly,” he says, sighing and rubbing his face. “Did you learn anything else?”

“Not really. I saw more androids, but I was too busy preventing Gen from punching Ryoko. I hope she’s okay.”

Kazuo grimaces. This is the first real time we’ve had together to talk. “I told you I thought he was a sadist. Anyway, you’re right about Shiroi Nami. Rin said that when their colonization ship first arrived here, and the planet needed to be terraformed, the first corporation ever formed was the White Wave, Shiroi Nami. They stayed in power for several generations while Hikari was molded in the shape of Earth. They built the main city at the same time they fashioned the atmosphere and terrain.”

I wonder what it’s like down there, and I’m dying to know. This wasn’t what I thought would happen on this trip. I figured I’d be stuck on the ship with everyone else, head home with some vital information, and maybe come back a year later to accompany the real dignitaries and ambassadors.

“But they learned quickly that things would get done faster if they had a more robust workforce. So the Aoi Uma Corporation was formed to build androids to do the work. Rin told me they got so good, so advanced, that the androids are almost indistinguishable from real people. Now they use them to enhance the workforce, care for the elderly, do risky jobs. And Aoi Uma rushes them into production to meet needs. They don’t always do a great job of testing them which is why Rin’s position exists.”

“That’s… not good.” I imagine Rin dying at a young age, killed by some crazy android, and I don’t like the idea. What’s wrong with me? Why am I showing sympathy for these foreigners? I should check myself into a psych ward because I have lost my mind.

“Aka Matsuba was formed by a society of scientists who worked on natural terraforming methods and genetically engineered animals to survive there too. They became so popular they ousted the Aoi Uma corporation only about seventy years ago during their war.”

“What about Kiiroi Yama?”

“Kiiroi Yama are the police force, military, and weapons manufacturers all in one. Rin told me all about them, from the top down. He thinks I should work for them.” Kazuo shrugs his shoulders. “I was surprised I got as much information out of him as I did, but he’s talkative when he’s drunk.”

I imagine him drunk, toasting a glass of saké across the table, laughing and talking all night long. Another idea I don’t dislike, despite how he yelled at me when he took me from the Aoi Uma compound.

See? I’ve lost my mind.

“But I get the feeling they want us to come to Hikari first, make our observations of their world firsthand before we make any assumptions.”

My brain catalogs this new information, putting each corporation in their natural spot. I only saw the one Shiroi Nami person while out in the field, and they’re in exile, so they’re probably no longer in business. Aoi Uma and Aka Matsuba appear to be the strongest corporations, with Aka Matsuba in current power. If I’m going to keep anyone on my side, it should be owl-eyed Tamura, even though he thinks I’m useless.

“But we can’t go anywhere without the rest of our people,” I say, yawning. I’m bone tired. “Shintaro is out there somewhere. Ayamé is out there somewhere. And I won’t be able to live with myself if we don’t get them now. Do you think I can buy their freedom with what’s on the data device?”

Kazuo nods his head slowly. “Aka Matsuba’s main business is animal cloning. What do we do best on Orihimé?”

I draw a quick breath. Animals.

“When you feel better, go talk about this with Rin and see if he’ll help us. He knows enough about Aka Matsuba to figure out if our technology is valuable to them.”

Excitement flutters in my chest though my eyes droop with oncoming sleep. We can turn things around. I hope it’s enough to buy all our freedom.