Crash Land on Kurai – Chapter 6

“What’s going on?” Kazuo screams over his shoulder as he tries to unbuckle me. The catch is stuck, so he takes out his knife again and cuts me out of my chair.

“The other ships are right on top of us. Kana code demands we stand down and prepare to be boarded.”

“They flashed Kana code at us?” Chieko asks, stopping whatever she was doing at the communications station to face the commander wide-eyed.

“Yeah. Unmistakable. It’s on repeat on the telescope if you want to see it.”

I recall from my studies that Kana code is the Japanese version of Morse code. I had to learn it at one point, but I’m sure I would just blankly stare at the blinking lights and not remember anything but a distress call.

“And we have another problem. The missile they hit us with knocked us farther into the moon’s gravity well. The ship’s going down, and everyone’s getting off but me and a few engineers.”

“No.” Chiéko’s voice is breathy and light. “No. You can’t stay. You have to come too.”

The other surviving crew members on the bridge stop to stare. Chieko, who I’ve never once seen give a shit about anything but a deadline, presses her hand to her heart. Something, a look, a glance, a moment between two people more intimate than I imagined could be, lights them both up. My heart, not used to feeling love or compassion, stutters in my chest.

I laugh inside at the thought of ‘getting a boyfriend’ like Shintaro suggested. It would take a miracle to revive my heart and make me love again. All I’ve ever loved is my job.

Journalism is my only love.

Over the past few months, I recorded plenty of personal accounts with crew members on the ship. Tales of childhood or family, school or training, and why everyone gave up so much to come here. But I never interviewed my own boss, and she handled all the top bridge crew. I’m just the backup staff member here.

The life pod doors hiss open.

“Everyone get in and to the surface. Be sure to stow weapons safely for the ride down. Seek cover and await rescue from either Orihimé or, if we fix this bucket of bolts, us. The jump beacons are away?”

“Yes. I sent them.” Chieko is back to her console and typing, her fingers a blur over the keyboard. “Estimates are a month to reach Orihimé, and then we hope for a quick rescue turnaround. Say two to three more months.”

I’m thinking about the shipyards back home, and the state they were in before we left. I’m giving it six months to a year before we’re rescued. Kazuo peels me from my chair and directs me to the life pod. Inside the door, Shien and Ryoko, both bleeding but mobile, are strapped in.

“Wait! Yumi!” Chieko finishes up typing, grabs a second medkit and launches towards me. “This, take this.” She holds up a small, black memory storage device, one that can hold hundreds of terabytes of data, and slips it into my hand along with the medkit. “Is your tablet working?”

“Huh? Oh.” I had forgotten about it with everything going on around me. I reach into my flight suit and pull my tablet out. The screen powers on, the mobile camera disconnection warning flashing. I have no idea where that went during the attack, but at least the tablet is operable, and it has another built-in camera. Eventually, it’ll lose its charge, but it’s operational.

“Good. Remember our meeting with the empress before we left?”

“The gift? I never found out what it is.” I blink a few times, trying to force the world to make more sense. The empress said she had a gift for the people of Hikoboshi, but she gave it to Chieko for safe keeping. I clench my fingers around the cool piece of metal and composites.

“Yes. What’s on that memory device will save your life someday, so don’t forget it.”

She turns and heads to her life pod.

“What’s on the device?” I call after her. The ship rocks as life pods jettison.

“We have nineteen… twenty life pods away,” Jonathan reports, his station powered on by a battery.

“We should stay,” I whisper at Kazuo. His face tightens. “Hear me out, okay?” He keeps pushing me into the life pod, and I limp along trying not to pay attention to the giant piece of metal jutting out from my leg. “Chieko is leaving too. Who will be here to document the boarding party?”

Kazuo pushes hard. “No, Yumi. Do you have a death wish? You’re reckless and dangerous, and it’s one reason we’ve always gotten along, but no. You’re not staying. We’re not staying. We have work to do.”

“What work is more important than this?” I grab his shirt in my hand and look him in the eye.

He stops for a moment, his face as cold and empty as a vacuum. “We don’t know what happened to your brother. What if he’s lost?” He lowers his voice, eyeing the two people waiting for us in the life pod. “You’re injured, you’ve lost blood, and you’re in shock. We’re heading to the surface, and that’s final. Don’t forget our mission here. Remember? We have more than what you’ve been tasked to do with YNS. We can’t abandon it now.”

I look at him, the bridge, and the life pod. I know we have more to do, but I want to stay. Going down to the moon feels like a huge mistake.

“Get. In. The. Pod,” he growls between clenched teeth. A panel on the bridge shorts out and sends sparks flying everywhere. I startle and wince as I try to get out of the way but manage to knock the metal sticking out of my leg on the life pod entry airlock.

“Miyazawa!” Nagaoka shouts from across the bridge. “Get in the pod with Minamoto now!”

“But sir…” Gen looks between our pod not yet full and the other open one that is full. The commander stares him down, so he tightens his jaw and gets in.

Forget it all, just kill me now.

The communications station across the bridge flickers to life and a voice booms out of the bridge speakers. “Stand down and prepare to be boarded.”

“Go!” Nagaoka yells at us both.

I peek out the door as Kazuo closes it and make eye contact with Chieko.

“Remember what I said!” she yells to me across the chaos.

I raise my hands in prayer position. “May the Emperor protect you.”

A small smile lifts her lips, her gray hair a halo around her head. “And you.”