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  “Did she tell you that?”

  “Not exactly,” Yukari admitted.

  “I didn’t think so. So there’s no need to rush things. What do you say?”

  “When my astronaut job is done, you’ll come back to Japan? You promise?”

  “I promise.”

  “You’ll have to clean yourself up. Get a job, help Mom with the bills.”

  “Naturally.”

  “And you have to get me and Mom presents on our birthdays.”

  “Gladly.”

  “Remember, you promised.”

  “Cross my heart and hope to die.”

  “Break that promise and you just might.”

  Yukari returned her gun to its holster.

  The chief stretched. “It’s been a while since I had a nice long conversation like that. Really works up the appetite.” His eyes moved to the animals Matsuri had brought back from her hunt. “What say we roast up some grub?”

  “Okay.” Matsuri stood up with her catch and turned to Yukari. “You should stay and eat with us, Sis.”

  [ACT 7]

  YUKARI AND A group of villagers sat in a circle around the bonfire. Matsuri turned the mystery meat roasting on the spit as juices began to drip down into the fire. “All done,” she said.

  Yukari sat on a flat stone, watching Matsuri—her half sister. The chief had a couple dozen wives, which meant Yukari probably had dozens of half brothers and sisters in the village. But Matsuri was special.

  Aside from Yukari herself, Matsuri was the chief’s oldest child. They didn’t keep precise records, but she had been born only one or two months after Yukari. They were practically the same age.

  “Looks good, doesn’t it, Yukari?” Matsuri took a slice of meat from the shoulder and handed it to her.

  “Yeah, I’m starved—Ow! It’s hot!”

  Yukari continued to study Matsuri as she chewed the strange-smelling meat. She was interested in more than her age.

  “Hoi? What is it, Yukari?”

  “How much do you weigh, Matsuri?”

  “Not much. I’m light.”

  Of course there wouldn’t be any scales in a place like this.

  Yukari got up off the rock and stood in front of Matsuri.

  “Hoi?”

  “Stand up,” said Yukari. “Nice and straight.”

  “Okay.”

  Yukari had to tilt her head upward ever so slightly to look Matsuri in the eye—she must have been one, maybe two centimeters taller. Close enough. Her eyes continued down to her chest. Mother nature had been generous to Matsuri. Yukari furrowed her brow. From the chest down, Matsuri narrowed considerably—enough to offset the extra weight she carried above. Her hips were well-rounded, and her legs were long and thin. There wasn’t any fat on her body.

  Her proportions may have been a little off, but overall, her height and weight were almost an exact match. There was no question that she was fit, and she had spent her entire life in the jungle, so she could probably teach survival training. She even spoke Japanese and English. If Yukari was qualified to be an astronaut, there was no question Matsuri would be.

  So long as she fulfilled her responsibilities to the space program, she could quit without breaking the terms of the deal with her father. Then they could go back to Japan together. An under-handed scheme, but if anyone could handle training hell, it was Matsuri. It would be a happy ending for everyone.

  “Dad?” Yukari said.

  “Yes?”

  “I need to head back to the base. Do you mind if Matsuri shows me the way?”

  “Not at all.”

  “I thought I might give her a little tour of the place once we’re there. Let her see what kind of technology they have.”

  “That’s a great idea. You’d like that, wouldn’t you, Matsuri?”

  “Hoi!”

  “So you don’t mind if she’s gone a little while? It’ll be nice to have someone my own age to talk to for a change.”

  “She can stay as long as she likes.”

  “Thanks, this should be fun.”

  “You ready to go?”

  “Ready,” said Matsuri.

  “Don’t forget your promise, Dad.”

  “How could I? You two be careful.”

  The chief saw them off and returned to his hut. He walked over to a basket of woven bamboo near the wall and lifted the lid. A mobile phone rested at the bottom. He took it out and pressed the speed dial button.

  “Hello, Solomon Space Center? This is the chief of the Taliho tribe. Director Nasuda, please.” There was a short pause while the operator put him through. “Ah, Isao. How are you? You were right about Yukari—she just left. Had some interesting things to say. No, no, thank you. We’ll be expecting the medicine and cigarettes. We still have plenty of penicillin, but we’re almost out of mosquito repellent. The Boonikay? They’re not the forgive-and-forget type, and you did bulldoze their land to build your runway. We’ll send in a raiding party next week. That should keep them quiet for a while. No, no trouble. Oh, and my daughter is escorting Yukari back to the base. They should be there by tomorrow. Right. Goodbye.”

  [ACT 8]

  MATSURI SAID THE base was close, but it was still a good fifteen kilometers as the crow flies. And the girls weren’t flying. Winding their way through the jungle, they had only managed to cover five kilometers in the first day and a half, but the going was much easier once they reached the shore. By the morning of the second day, they could see the base on the far side of the cape. Yukari’s spirits soared. Soon she would be through training, and she would be going home with her father in tow. A productive summer vacation by any measure.

  Yukari walked happily along the beach, wearing a wreath of flowers Matsuri had made for her during breakfast. Even her space suit felt more comfortable.

  When they reached the gates of the base, a group had assembled to welcome her. They must have been monitoring her approach through a telescope. She was greeted with cheers and applause.

  “I’m back! Did you miss me?”

  Director Nasuda walked up to Yukari. “I see there was no need to worry. Only two days, and back already.”

  “I have my guide to thank for that.” Yukari pulled Matsuri to her side. “This is my sister, Matsuri. I met her in the jungle.”

  “Nice to meet you,” said Matsuri.

  “It’s sort of a long story, but you can see the similarity, can’t you? We’re the same height, the same weight—”

  The director’s eyes went wide. “Satsuki, get over here.” He waved impatiently at the doctor. “How much would you say this girl weighs?”

  Satsuki’s eyes sparkled. “I’d say 38.5 kilograms, give or take.”

  “Good. And her measurements?”

  “Height, about 157 centimeters, 85 centimeters through the chest, 53 at the waist, 84 at the hips.” She smiled. “The very picture of health.”

  “I don’t believe our luck.” Director Nasuda’s face flushed with joy. “I don’t think we even need to wait for the tests. We’ve found out backup crew!”

  “Backup?” Yukari’s eyebrows shot upward. “What do you mean, ‘backup’?”

  “We can’t let the fate of the entire program rest on a single person. There has to be a contingency plan,” said Director Nasuda. “Now everything is in place. We can even use the same capsule. Between the two of you, there’s no mission we won’t be able to handle.”

  “It couldn’t have worked out better,” Satsuki said, her smile wide.

  “So, you still need me?” Yukari asked.

  “Absolutely. You’re our senior astronaut. The honor of the maiden flight is entirely yours. I daresay we may need to extend your tour from six months to a full three years.”

  “I’m not so sure that will work.”

  “Nonsense. Your mother won’t have any objections. Knowing her, she won’t let you come home a day sooner.” Director Nasuda chuckled.

  Yukari’s face twitched.

  “What do you say, Mats
uri? Want to become an astronaut with your sister?”

  “Woo! Do I ever!”

  Yukari slumped to the white pavement as it shimmered in the tropical heat.

  CHAPTER IV

  THE FEAR DIET

  [ACT 1]

  “RISE AND SHINE, Yukari.”

  Yukari groaned.

  “Come on, time to get up.”

  Yukari forced her eyes open. “Ugh.” Matsuri’s grinning face filled her view.

  “Satsuki won’t be happy if we’re late.” Matsuri grabbed Yukari by the cheek and dragged her out of bed.

  “Ow! I’m up! I’m up!” Yukari was barely out of bed, and the day was already off to a horrible start. She glanced at the clock. “Whoa, 6:50 already?”

  Yukari jumped out of her bunk and went into the bathroom. She raced quickly through her morning routine: wash face, brush teeth, change into gym wear. The same thought went through her head each and every time. How can Matsuri be in such a good mood so early in the morning?

  Her half sister Matsuri had been her official backup for one month. In the space program, a backup did more than sit around waiting to take the primary astronaut’s place if something happened. Having undergone identical training, there was no one who could better understand the needs of their colleagues, so the backup crew supported the flight crew from the ground for the duration of their mission.

  The girls shared a room in an attempt to foster a sense of camaraderie. Yukari didn’t mind being around Matsuri, but despite sharing a good portion of her DNA, the cheerful girl’s behavior often left Yukari scratching her head.

  Their training began each morning at seven o’clock. They started with stretching exercises in the gym before swimming four hundred meters in a pool filled with seawater. Matsuri didn’t seem to have any trouble with the regimen, but Yukari’s low blood pressure made it difficult for her.

  Breakfast followed at eight, by which point Yukari felt closer to starvation than hunger. It didn’t help that their diet was fine-tuned for their training—fruit, coconut milk, and one slice of toast didn’t come close to filling Yukari up.

  At eight thirty there was a briefing with their guidance counselor, followed by actual training at nine. They spent mornings in the classroom educating their minds and afternoons in endurance training battering their bodies. For the most part, endurance training consisted of riding the centrifuge, multi-axis trainer, or motion-based trainer and getting spun, flipped, and bounced until their bodies went numb.

  Training ended at six, followed by a shower and dinner, which usually lasted until around eight. The rest of the evening was spent with Yukari keeping an eye on Matsuri while doing homework and studying. Then it was lights-out at midnight. Yukari and Matsuri were essentially together twenty-four hours a day.

  Today there was going to be a fire test of the main booster in the morning. The test would mark an important milestone for the project, so both Yukari and Matsuri were invited to attend.

  There were more than ten flight controllers in the control room, along with Chief Engineer Hiroyuki Mukai and Fuel Specialist Motoko Mihara. Most of them had worked through the previous night, and a dull malaise hung over the room.

  “Good morning,” said Yukari.

  “Morning, you two. We’re just about to get this show on the road.” Mukai pointed out the window. “That booster is going to put you in orbit. Let’s see what she can do.” Thick stubble covered his face.

  Two kilometers away on the coast, the test pad was visible through the thick bulletproof glass of the control room. The pad was a sturdy-looking structure of exposed concrete that loosely resembled the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. The first stage of the rocket was fixed to the top of the arch, which was ringed with four stories of scaffolding. Thick concrete covered the area beneath the arch to protect against the thrust of the rocket.

  “All personnel have cleared the test area,” said one of the controllers.

  “All right, let’s restart the countdown,” said Mukai. A large digital clock in the middle of the room began to tick off the seconds.

  “T-minus twenty seconds. Activating data recorders.”

  Racks of recorders began printing out feeds of data.

  “Continuing countdown.”

  “LOX pressure nominal.”

  “Four…three…two…one…ignition.”

  Columns of milk-white smoke shot out laterally from the platform. In seconds, the cloud had spread hundreds of meters, billowing up like an angry thunderhead.

  An explosion rattled the glass of the control room.

  “T-plus fifteen…sixteen…seventeen…”

  The booster still roared.

  An alarm sounded as a red light winked on on the control panel.

  “The LOX injector’s overheating.”

  “Cut the LOX!” Mukai shouted.

  “The valve is stuck.”

  “Shut everything down!”

  “Controls unresponsive. Temperature still rising. Reaching critical.”

  “Dammit!” Mukai wheeled on Motoko. “What did you add to the fuel mix?”

  “Just a little accelerant. It burns so fast…Didn’t I mention it?”

  “No, you did not mention it.”

  A ball of orange flame enveloped the test pad.

  The shock wave slammed into the control room, sending papers flying off desks. Yukari fell over backward with a yelp. Outside, a crimson mushroom cloud rose into the sky. The upper half of the test pad had been completely destroyed. The control room fell silent.

  “Wow, did you see that, Yukari?” said Matsuri. “That was awesome!” She bounced up and down with excitement.

  “You do realize, don’t you?” said Yukari, her voice low and deliberate. “We’re going to be riding in one of those.”

  “Don’t worry. I’m sure it will be just fine.”

  Yukari sighed. Maybe Matsuri didn’t quite understand, but Yukari wasn’t going to wait around to be strapped on top of a glorified bottle rocket while they stood back and lit the fuse. If they lost an astronaut in flight, the program would be dead—trouble was, so would Yukari.

  [ACT 2]

  YUKARI WAITED UNTIL she was alone with Satsuki before popping the question.

  “Why are you suddenly so interested in our evaluation techniques?” Satsuki asked.

  “I was just wondering. I know I’m the primary astronaut right now, but it’s possible Matsuri and me could end up changing places, right?”

  Satsuki put her hand on her chin. “It’s possible.”

  “It’s just…we’ve been training together, so I couldn’t help noticing that she seems better at all this than me. She’s got more stamina. Her reflexes are good.”

  “Physically she’s performing slightly better overall, that’s true. Her studies are another matter.”

  “Yeah, but she’s lived in a jungle her whole life. She can already do fractions, and her memory is great.”

  “Maybe so, but she’s hardly up to Japanese high school standards. Kinoshita said he won’t be satisfied until she’s at least mastered calculus.”

  “But I don’t even know calculus.”

  “Are you worried, Yukari?”

  “Worried?”

  “Worried Matsuri is going to pass you by?”

  “What? That’s crazy.”

  Yukari had set out to get Matsuri moved up, not defend her own position.

  “Good. Don’t be.” Satsuki laughed. “Besides, you still weigh a kilogram and a half less. That alone is enough to secure you the first slot.”

  “Is our weight really that important?”

  “The rocket is stretched to the edge of its performance envelope as it is. If it doesn’t make one full orbit, we can’t really call it a success, and if the capsule comes down early, that raises a host of safety concerns. So long as you both meet the bare physical and educational requirements, it all comes down to weight.”

  “You don’t say…”

  Satsuki checked her watch. “Lunchtime.
One word of advice, Yukari. Don’t try skipping meals to lose weight.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  Matsuri was already eating when Yukari got to the cafeteria. The special of the day: pork chops and broccoli. As usual, their meal had already been decided for them.

  “Isn’t mayonnaise the best, Yukari?”

  Yukari watched as Matsuri inhaled one stalk of broccoli after another. She was still mulling over what Satsuki had told her.

  She could try slacking off in class and training in hopes of being moved to the backup position. But they had a habit of making her repeat something until she got it right, which meant she would probably end up doing the same thing day in, day out. She would rather end up drifting dead through space.

  But there was another problem. If Yukari intentionally tried to sabotage her own chances, her father might hear about it. And the last thing she wanted to do was give him an excuse, any excuse, to back out of his deal to go to Japan.

  That left only one option: her weight.

  If she could gain one and a half kilograms, she would be in a dead heat with Matsuri. Gain three kilograms, and it wouldn’t even be a contest. “Diet time…”

  “You say something?” Matsuri looked up at Yukari from across the table.

  “Nothing. Forget it. So, uh, Matsuri. Are you happy with the food here?”

  “It’s delicious.”

  “Not the taste, the amount.”

  “I’d eat way more if they gave it to us.”

  “Same here.”

  Obviously Yukari wasn’t the only one going hungry. She could always reach over and say, “Mind if I eat that?” but she was supposed to be the civilized one. And if she wasn’t prepared to leech food off Matsuri, that meant finding another source.

  Their caloric intake was strictly limited to 2,750 calories per day, and of that only a paltry eighty-five grams was protein. Satsuki monitored their diets like a hawk, and everyone on the base knew they weren’t allowed to go over by so much as a calorie.

  Snacks were out of the question. There was nowhere to buy candy and no one she could ask to smuggle some in for her. On their days off they were allowed off the base, but everywhere they went they were accompanied by a security escort. Their weight would determine the success of the entire space program—the lives of everyone on the base depended on it.