The training center gym, one week later.
While the gym wasn’t strictly off-limits to men, they had to be careful when visiting. The gym was where the astronauts let it all hang out. Right now Yukari and Matsuri were in their space suits. The door opened. “Here she is!” a voice announced.
It was chief chemical engineer Motoko Mihara, leading Akane behind her in a brand-new formfitting space suit.
While Akane lacked the curves of the other two girls, she was very trim and the supporting nature of the suit’s fabric made her look great.
“Hey hey hey! Not bad!”
“You look great, Akane.”
“You’ll have your share of fans in no time, Akane!”
“What? Fans?” Akane’s face turned bright red and she held her hands over her chest and stomach.
“Don’t hide yourself like that,” Yukari said. “It just makes you look like you’re being coy. You gotta walk like you mean it. You’ll get used to it soon.”
“But it’s like…it’s like I’m naked,” Akane said quietly.
Motoko chuckled behind her thick-rimmed glasses. “If so then I did my job right. It’s supposed to fit like a second skin, you know.”
The space suits were Motoko’s pet project. With each revision the fabric and fittings felt better and better. Though they were easiest to wear while seated in the cockpit, their flexibility made them perfectly comfortable while standing and walking also.
There was a knock at the door. “Can I come in?” It was Nasuda.
He was wearing a suit. He stared at Akane for a moment then clapped his hands together. “All right, definitely astronaut material!”
“Please…” Akane said, mortified.
“Stop covering yourself up like that, it makes it worse,” Yukari said.
“Not that they will in that suit, but if anyone ever doubts you’re an astronaut, you’ll always have this,” Nasuda said, offering a small booklet to Akane. “It’s your astronaut’s passport.”
Inside the booklet was a laminated picture of her face, next to text reading ASTRONAUT AKANE MIURA. On the next page a message had been written in ten languages. Japanese was at the top. “The bearer of this document has been recognized by Japan and the Solomon Islands as an astronaut, and the Solomon Space Association hereby requests all whom it may concern to allow the bearer to pass freely and without hindrance and to afford the bearer all necessary assistance and protection.”
“Hold on to this, and no matter where in the world you land, your human rights will be protected.”
“Wow, astronauts really are like citizens of the world.”
“It only helps if you happen to land where there are people, of course.”
Yukari shook her head. “I’ll take the open sea to the Nellis Academy gardening club’s fishpond any day.”