First Flyght – Chapter 21

I’m angry enough to return to my room and stew for hours, but I got up to make breakfast, and I’m still hungry. Fuck Marcelo and his judgmental attitude. Yes, I’m all alone. Yes, I’m a loser. No need to point that out to me.

The chicken coops are at the back of the cargo bay, so I slip past the pigpen and sleeping ducks, and find the chickens waking up with the ship’s lights. Being onboard is strange for them, so we try to keep a regular night and day schedule so they can figure out what’s going on.

My anger subsides as the ladies cluck around my feet. There are two I love, Norma and Tori, and they rub their little, fluffy bodies against my legs like cats. I pick them up, one under each arm and hold them to my chest, planting a kiss on each of their heads.

“How are you ladies doing?” I ask them. Their little heads jerk about, eyeing me this way and that. “Did you know that I’m a horrible loser with no friends? Seems it’s going to put me in an early grave.”

The stairway above me creaks, and I look up expecting Lia, but it’s Marcelo, peering down at me. His hands clutch the railing, and he leans forward to watch me. I don’t want to talk to him, so I turn my back to him and sit down on the nearby bench with the girls on my lap.

As I stroke my hands down their feathery backs and wings, the anger fades and sorrow takes its place. Sadness sits heavy in my soul, mourning everything I’ve lost, all of my dreams gone. I’m worried about the crack forming in my heart and mind. What will happen when it blows wide open?

Though I’m grateful for this second chance at a life, bitterness coats every cell of my body. I wish I could just flip a switch and be okay with this change. That’s what everyone wants from me. If I keep fighting every decision, before long, everyone will think I’m selfish.

I need to shake this and stop feeling sorry for myself. I’ve had a solid four days to move on, and I’m sure that’s more than enough, right?

I wouldn’t know.

The sound of nails clicking on metal and the jingle of Frogger’s collar breaks me out of the long-distance stare I had slipped into.

“Morning, Captain. Come to sit with the girls?” Lia asks, her smile bright and sunny, like a clear day on Ossun. I remember her back on the farm, always running around as a kid, happy and healthy. She wanted to come along on the ship, but maybe she misses the sun and the fresh air.

Frogger trots up and noses my arm, ignoring the hens. This is why he’s allowed out in the ship and why I left my cat, Pepper, with my parents. Pepper is lazy, but I don’t doubt she’d terrorize a hen if given a chance.

“Yeah, and to get some eggs for breakfast too.” I let the hens hop from my lap as I stand up.

“Let me see if there are some.” Lia bounds forward, but I put my hand out.

“That’s okay. I wanted to do it. I don’t want to bother you.”

“Captain,” she says, tilting her head to the side and smiling. “This is my job. You’re not bothering me.”

My heart squeezes as she slides past me to stick her head in the chicken coop. How do I tell her that her job is over? I have to be the bigger person and break it to her sooner rather than later.

She returns with five eggs, still warm after having been sat on all night. Without a rooster on board, none of these hens will have chicks, but they do their duty, no matter what.

“Lia, I’m afraid I have some bad news. Will you sit down with me?”

Her face falls and pales. “Is it my parents? Are they okay?”

I blink a few times. “Oh, I’m sure your parents are fine. I’m sorry,” I say, clutching her upper arms as she blows out a relieved breath. “I didn’t mean to frighten you. Everyone back home is fine, I believe. It’s just that, I think we’ll be returning home for good soon. I’m afraid none of the deals I’ve tried to make have panned out.” I almost collapse to the bench, and Lia sits down next to me, her eyes wide. Frogger lies down beside us, laying his head across my feet. “We won’t be able to afford fuel or air reserves or water or any of the other things we need, including paying your salary.”

“Really? So soon? We’ve barely left Ossun!” Her stare is unbelieving.

“I’m so sorry. I wish things had gone better for us. I really do. It’s time to throw in the towel.”

“Wait,” she says, grabbing my hand. “Wait. Then don’t pay me. I don’t need a salary. Just… let’s not go back to Ossun.”

“Why not? I’m sure your parents would love to have you back. You’re their only daughter.” My unspoken words hang between us. Lia is as much the future of her family as I am of mine.

She squeezes my hand while dipping her head. “Please. I’m happy here with you, and Skylar, and Carlos, and the animals. Back home, it’s all about boys… which boys I’m going to meet next, which ones I can marry. The ones who would make good fathers or family members.”

My face cools, all the blood leeching out of it. Lia’s family is not as well-off as mine. I never considered how this might make them more eager to marry her earlier than was socially acceptable.

“I took jujitsu to keep the boys away. Men were always… touching me.” She shivers, and I swallow to stop from vomiting. Sexual assault is one of my biggest fears in life, more than anything. “I broke fingers, and I’m not proud of it.”

“How… How did you convince your parents to let you come with us?”

She laughs and squeezes my hand again before letting go. “I threatened to run away and never come back unless they let me go, let me have a real job, on my own, for a while.” She sniffs up and drags her hand over her cheek. She was crying with her head down, but her voice had been steady the whole time. This is one strong young woman. Stronger than me. “I think the time away will give me a chance to be me, without being something to be sold off, you know? I don’t really like boys right now, anyway.”

I place my hand on her shoulder. “You’re only sixteen. You have time.”

“Yeah, we’ll see,” she says, rolling her eyes.

I sigh. “I had no idea you were going through so much.” I open my arm to the side and wave her into it. She scoots her shoulder into my embrace, and I rest my head on top of hers. “Thanks for telling me. Don’t worry. I’ll keep you around as much as I can, okay? I’ll figure something out.”

Another person who’s counting on me. Another person who took the time to confide in me. Another person who needs me, needs me to help them. Another person who has no idea what I’m struggling with.

Somehow, I don’t mind so much when it’s someone I care about.

—-

I’m scrambling eggs, toasting up bread, and frying printed bacon in the galley when pounding footsteps from the front of the ship echo through the dining area. Carlos comes screaming into the dining room at full speed, pulling up short of crashing into Lia sitting at the communal table. Lia blinks away from whatever she was reading on her datapad.

“Captain! Captain…” He doubles over, panting and trying to draw in air.

My stomach drops. “What?” I flip off the heat on the stove and cancel the toaster.

“You… Now… News!” He points behind him to his den of technology down the hall. Me, now, news? I grab a towel and run after him. Lia follows me.

As I enter his den, I hear my voice, plain as day, coming from one of his monitors, but I can’t place it. I sound, maybe, sleepy?

Carlos jabs his finger at the keyboard, stopping the monitor, then rewinds back.

“What is it? What’s going on?” Skylar asks, joining us. Marcelo is right behind her.

“Watch.” Carlos types into his keyboard and scrolls through something in his own field of view before the monitor comes back on.

Oh crap. I recognize this woman. Cenobia Senna Snow is the head of Ossun’s major gossip show, OEN, Ossun’s Entertainment News. With her white hair and cherry blossom pink lips, she looks into the camera like she’s talking to her best friend.

“I have it on good authority that we’re about to see a major shakeup in the land holdings of one of Ossun’s finest farming establishments. The Kawabata Holding Company was recently liquidated at the behest of The First National Bank of Ossun, and neighbors to the Kawabatas say bank officials have been clearing out the main house for the past two days.”

As video of my house being cleared out takes over the screen, I curse the paparazzi who fly drones over other people’s tragedies to get juicy stories. How in the hell did this secret leak so quickly?

I reach out to grab something, anything, so I don’t fall over, and my clawed fingers make contact with Skylar’s shoulder.

A photo of Tomu fills the screen. “Tomu Kawabata, the elder son of Mayumi and Nuno Kawabata, was last seen fleeing Ossun on a shuttle to Orbital Station One. His whereabouts are unknown at this time. Public record bank documents show him as the designated account holder on everything having to do with the land and the company. This change was put into effect about six months ago.”

The scene dissolves to a recent photo of me before I had the Marcelo day spa treatment. I’m smiling and standing next to a greenhouse we built on the farm. It was the last big project I completed before I went into my finals at school, about two months ago.

“Vivian Kawabata, heir apparent to the Kawabata Holding Company fortunes, graduated summa cum laude from Ossun Agriculture University recently, but she’s far from picking up the family riches and attending the betrothal balls held on Ossun this time of year. In fact, her life has become a seedy wasteland by all appropriate standards. According to my undercover reporters, she was last seen entering a run-down cargo ship in space dock above Palo Alto. A search of public records shows her status as ‘captain’ of this ship, and further digging has also unearthed a denied Flyght permit filed under her name.”

“I’m going to be sick,” I mumble out through numb lips. My knees shake, and my heart pounds listening to all of my secrets become the fodder of gossip mongers.

“But that’s not all,” Cenobia says, leaning into the camera and smiling. I want to reach through the screen and strangle her. “I was able to obtain exclusive footage only an hour ago that shows Vivian Kawabata in a clandestine rendezvous with her ex-boyfriend, Ken Mata, CEO of Flyght.”

My whole body numbs, and my vision recedes. When I turn my head to look at Marcelo, the room tips. Marcelo’s face is grim. If he hadn’t already fired me after the way I yelled at him this morning, he certainly will now.

The video that fills the screen makes me gasp. Whoever took it knew what they were doing. The angle is perfect, just peeking over the edge of the balcony railing, and both Ken and I are in frame, sitting in the chairs and talking. I never saw the camera there, but it’s not like I would. They’re so small nowadays, and it was dark. I stupidly thought we were in a private space.

I won’t make that mistake again.

“Tomu took the money and ran.”

“What?… Sorry.” He grabbed my wine glass from me then.

“Can you please not scare the shit out of me? I’ve already had a really, really hard day.”

“What did you just say?”

“Exactly what you heard. My mother, in her infinite wisdom, gave Tomu control of the family assets. He then mortgaged the house and all the land, sent us into debt, and ran. I have almost nothing left.”

I cover my lips with my hand as I realize just how awful I sounded about my mother. She’ll never forgive me for this.

“Oh, Vivian, I’m so sorry.” Ken goes to the bar. I remember that he refilled my wine glass at this point. No wonder I sound sleepy. I was a lot more drunk than I thought. “You don’t know where he is?”

“If I knew where he was, he’d be dead. Trust me. I’ve been imagining all the different ways I can kill him. I went to school for six fucking years, turned down a marriage proposal, and graduated summa cum laude to come home to nothing.”

I wince and drop my head. I can’t look at the screen. I can’t look at Skylar, Carlos, Lia, or Marcelo. I didn’t think I could fuck up any more than I had.

I was wrong.

Cenobia’s voice starts up again. “That marriage proposal Ms. Kawabata is speaking about? It turns out that Ken Mata himself proposed to her three years ago. They had been dating for about two and a half years and living together when he asked her to marry him. Friends of Mr. Mata tell my reporting team that Vivian turned him down at the behest of her family. I’m sure she regrets that decision now.”

I can hear the smirk in her voice even if I’m not looking at the screen anymore.

“We’ll be sure to update you all again if we have any further developments in this story. Reporting in from Ossun’s number one celebrity gossip show, OEN, I’m Cenobia Senna Snow.”

Silence. Only the hum of the den of technology and Skylar’s ragged breathing reach my ears.

This is it. This is the end of my anonymity. Everyone now knows my family is ruined, and I’m not only a washed-up captain of a cargo ship, but I’ve also defamed my mother and dragged Ken Mata into a world of shit too.

My wristlet buzzes, and on instinct, I check it to see who’s calling. Oh, about twenty people at once — family, old acquaintances from school, and Ken Mata. He’s probably calling to yell at me, tell me he wishes he’d never known me. I’ve done nothing but ruin his life.

I let my arm drop down, ignoring everything.

“I can’t believe that bitch called the Amagi ‘run down,’” Skylar growls. “I swear if I ever see her, I’m going to punch her in the throat.”

“Skylar,” Lia hisses. “Are you okay?” she asks me.

“I am… very far from okay. Light years from okay.” My voice shakes.

“Well, the word is out now,” Skylar says, shrugging. I wish I had her ability to brush off events like this. “I think it’s time to cut our losses with Flyght and start looking at independent shipping brokers.” She sighs, flipping her hair from one shoulder to the other. “It wasn’t what we wanted, but it’s what we get.” She places a hand on my shoulder. “I’m sorry, Viv. This is a shit thing to happen.”

I’m about to say I’m sorry back and lean in for a hug when she adds, “I never trusted Ken Mata. He turned you down yesterday morning, Viv. Only hours before. Remember?” Her voice is harsh. “I can’t believe you confided in him after everything that happened between the two of you.”

My upper lip begins to sweat.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if he sold that video footage himself.” She huffs a disgruntled breath.

“Why would he do that?” I ask, barely able to form words.

She waves to the darkened screen. “Just look at how vulnerable and sympathetic he is now. Oh, poor guy. Turned down by the ruined land heiress from Ossun. Women will be falling all over him in the coming weeks. You’ll see.” She looks straight at me. “Don’t talk to him again.”

I open my mouth, and nothing comes out as she walks away.

Carlos and Lia slink out of the den, heading back to the galley.

Marcelo stares into space for a long time before blinking. “I have… a lot of work to do.” He leaves after giving me a sympathetic look, his lips set in a frown and his eyes full of regret. Work? He’ll probably be thinking of ways he can back out of his contract and leave me behind, especially after the way I treated him.

“That did not go so well for you, sweetheart,” Ai pipes up. I’m too numb to be surprised by her this time. “Want me to ruin this Senna Snow woman? I have my ways.” She purrs like a cat.

“Um, uh, no. No thanks. At least, not right now.”

“Anytime you need me, darling. I’m right here.”

The room hums with no one left to talk to.

Alone again, Vivian, and this time I have no one to blame but myself.