IT WAS RIGHT in the middle of second period classes at Nellis Academy when it happened. There was the sound of an explosion from the central courtyard, and rolls of red-and-white fabric came billowing past the windows. The girls ran to the windows to see something like a giant bottle of brandy floating in the pond, steam rising from its surface.
Moments later, a section of that surface popped open, and two figures wearing full-face helmets emerged.
One of them removed her helmet. When her long black hair spilled out, someone shouted, “Yukari! It’s Yukari!”
Immediately there was another explosion—this time of voices—as the students cheered, drowning out the protests of their teachers. Students began boiling out of the classrooms into the hallways and streaming out into the courtyard around the pond. Over a thousand eyes were fixed on Yukari and Matsuri.
“Yukari, Yukari, it’s me!”
“Matsuri!”
“Can I have your autograph?”
“Yukari, remember me? It’s me, Eiko!”
“All students return to your classrooms immediately!”
“Yukari! Can I shake your hand?”
“Cool suits!”
“Miss Morita, remove your spaceship at once!”
“Quiet, Teach! This is a historical event!”
“Hey! She looked at me!”
“All students return to your classrooms immediately!”
“We’ve been rooting for you this whole time, Yukari!”
“Matsuri! Look over here! Let me take your picture!”
“Say something!”
“Somebody tell that principal to shut up!”
“Too bad you didn’t hit him with your spaceship!”
“This is your principal speaking! All students return to your classrooms immediately! Anyone not back in their classroom will receive detention!”
No one left the courtyard.
Yukari stood frozen, her face stretched in an awkward grin.
“Hoi? They all look like you, Yukari,” Matsuri whispered.
Yukari scanned the crowd of faces, all with hair cut to the same length, all wearing the same uniform. “I was right there in that crowd not too long ago.”
Nellis Academy was famously strict, but when the floodgates opened, they opened for good. The courtyard was mass chaos. It was a mutiny, and Yukari had caused it. One of the teachers stepped forward and caught her eye.
Yukari remembered her. Sachiko Yamashina, the Dragon Lady. She taught classics.
“What is the meaning of this, Miss Morita? Class is in session!”
Wow, nothing fazes this woman. Can’t she see that something’s wrong—
“Ack!” Yukari bit her tongue. She’d forgotten about the goldfish. The power in the orbiter was off, which meant the goldfish didn’t have long to live.
“Everyone, I need your help!” Yukari shouted, ignoring her teacher for the moment. The crowd fell silent. “Some goldfish we were using in an experiment are about to die. Anyone know anything about fish?”
“Goldfish?” The girls looked at one another.
Someone in the crowd said, “What about Akane? She’d know what to do!”
“Akane Miura? In 2-A?”
“Yeah, the one with the perfect grades.”
“I’ll go get her!”
Akane Miura… The name rang a bell. Yukari vaguely remembered her being at the top of the list when they posted test results from the first semester. A few moments later, part of the crowd began to whirl with excitement and a short, slender girl emerged, several hands pushing her forward.
Her hair was cut short, with fine bangs hanging down over her forehead. She wasn’t wearing glasses. Less the typical bookworm type and more the aspiring author type, thought Yukari. The crowd pushed Akane right up to the edge of the pond. Despite the startled look on her face, her keen eyes shone as she took in the situation. Eventually, they rested on Yukari, standing on top of the orbiter.
“What’s this about goldfish?” she asked in a soft voice.
Yukari held up the fish tank. “They’re in here.”
Akane leaned forward to get a better look.
Yukari hopped into the pond, and a ripple of excitement ran through the students. Waist deep in water, she waded up to the bank and crawled up onto land, handing the tank to Akane. “We were in orbit when their alarm went off.”
The fish were dimly visible through the thick glass. Akane’s face went pale.
“Oh no, we have to aerate their water right away! Let’s bring them to the biology classroom. Come on!”
Akane led Yukari through the crowd, which quickly parted to let them through. Looking back toward the pond as she ran, Yukari shouted, “Stay there, Matsuri! Don’t let anyone touch the orbiter!”
“Okay!”
“Everyone back to your rooms, NOW!”
✦ ✦ ✦
The biology classroom was quiet. No classes were held there in the morning. Akane ran into the adjoining lab. Pulling an empty aquarium tank off the shelf, she filled it with water and added a packet of powder.
“You can just put them in here.”
“Okay,” Yukari said, then stopped. “Wait. The experiment requirements stipulated that we can’t change the water.”
“Oh.” Akane frowned. “This connector thing here is what you use to cycle the water in their tank, right?”
“That’s right. That’s where the trouble happened. I think the QD might be jammed.”
“The QD?”
“The quick disconnect. It’s so you can pull off the tube without spilling any water.”
Akane examined the port. “Well, can I put some air in, at least?”
“That should be all right.”
“Then I think we might be able to save them.”
“Really?”
Akane pulled a toolbox and some equipment in a cardboard box off another shelf. “Since the QD isn’t working, I’m just going to take off the cover here and extract the water with this water pump. Then I can use this chamber to aerate the water and cycle it back in. We’ll have to put a filter in between the two, though. How does that sound?”
“I’m not sure I follow, but it sounds great. Let’s give it a try!”
“Will do.”
Akane moved quickly. First she cut a length of silicon tubing, connecting one half to a small device and sticking the other inside the fish tank. Then she attached a bottle of oxygen to a regulator. Where the seals didn’t quite fit, she used tape to close up the gaps. She flipped the switch on the bottle, and the water began to circulate.
“Hey, you did it!”
“We’re not out of the woods yet.” Akane took a small sample of water out of the fish tank with a pipette and dripped it onto a strip of test paper.
“I thought so. The ammonia concentration’s way too high.”
“Okay…so what do we do?”
“We could use other chemicals to neutralize it, but maybe that would violate your conditions?”
“Hmm, I wonder.”
“Actually,” Akane said, “now that I think about it, your testing equipment back on the ship must’ve used a similar method to extract the ammonia. Otherwise you’d have trouble keeping them alive.”
“Okay, then. Let’s do it.”
“Right.”
Akane quickly calculated the volume of water from the tank size, measured out an appropriate amount of neutralizing agent, and added it to the water.
“Oh, one other thing,” she said. “We have to keep their water the right temperature. You know what the temperature was on your ship?”
“Erm…” Yukari scratched her head.
“I’m pretty sure this variety prefers 23°C, but if they were trying to breed them, they might’ve made it warmer.”
“I don’t think there was any breeding going on. Yeah, 23°C sounds about right.”
“Good.” Akane briefly stopped the pump and inserted a small heater and thermostat inside the chamber. “It will take a little time to warm up, but thankfully it’s pretty close to the right temperature this time of year already.”
“So that’s it?”
“I think so.”
“Whew!” Yukari gave a long sigh of relief. The goldfish had visibly improved. She looked up and smiled. “Sorry, I’m Yukari Morita. Thank you.”
“Oh, uh, I’m Akane Miura.”
Yukari offered to shake hands and Akane blushed.
“I remember your name,” Yukari said. “You got top grades first semester, right?”
“And you were in Class B first year, right?”
“I’m surprised you remember me.”
“You were really good in track, even though you’re small like me. And then you, uh—”
“Dropped out because I got a job.”
“Oh, I didn’t mean to say—”
Just then, the door to the lab opened and a teacher appeared. “Yukari Morita! Just who is responsible for that rocket ship out there?”
“It’s not a rocket ship, actually. It’s an orbiter. And I’m the captain.”
“Then come to the principal’s office right this minute, ‘Captain’!”
“Okay…” Yukari said, dazed. She turned back to Akane. “Watch the goldfish for me?”
“No problem,” Akane said, a look of concern on her face as she watched the other girl leave.