THREE DAYS LATER, it was time to begin. Satsuki brought Yukari to the astronaut training facility, a large building next to the command center.
“This,” said Satsuki, “is your desk. Not that you’ll be seeing much of it.”
Yukari’s desk was conveniently located in the office of Chief Medical Officer Satsuki Asahikawa.
Satsuki pointed at stacks of neatly folded clothing on the desk. “These are your training clothes. Shorts, T-shirts, jumpsuits, swimwear—the same things we’ve been using in your tests. You’ll also find towels, caps, shoes, tampons, maxis. There’s a locker in the dressing room—you can keep all this there. If you run low on anything, put in a requisition with the supply department.”
“Okay.”
“The rest is your textbooks, notebooks, calculator, and so forth.”
“Got it.”
“Well, let’s get started, shall we? Beginning tomorrow you’ll spend time in the pool and gym before breakfast. Part of your endurance training. Today you get to skip that. Let’s put you in the centrifuge to work on your G tolerance.”
Satsuki escorted Yukari to a circular room in the basement of the training facility. In the middle of the room was an odd-looking piece of machinery with two arms—one short, one long. At the end of the long arm was a cage big enough to hold one person. The other arm ended in a large counterweight to ensure the entire device remained level while spinning.
“This is the centrifuge. You might have seen something like it at an amusement park.”
“I rode one at Toshimaen once.”
“This is just an industrial version of the same thing. I’ll give you instructions over the intercom. Just do what I tell you and you’ll be fine.”
“All right.”
“Go on, hop in the cage. I believe the best way to learn is by doing. Don’t worry, I won’t push you too hard.”
The cage loosely resembled the control room of a construction crane. Yukari opened the door and wriggled in. It was a tight fit. She sat facing the middle of the room, toward the centrifuge’s central axis. There was a small window directly in front of her and beneath it a panel with a row of switches. Cables snaked all around her.
Satsuki reached in through the door and fastened Yukari into a sturdy four-point harness. She placed a headset on Yukari’s head and attached a series of sensor wires.
“All set. Just sit tight.” Satsuki closed the door and walked out of the room.
Light shone through the glass separating the control room. Satsuki appeared behind the glass. “Can you hear me?” Her voice crackled through the headphones.
“Yeah.”
“Straighten your back and place your arms on the armrests.”
“Okay.”
“Here we go. You’ll be at 2 G in three seconds.”
Brrrrrm.
Yukari felt a dull thud, and then the centrifuge began to move.
“Whoa.”
Every vehicle Yukari had ever ridden in had started slow and built up speed. This was different. The acceleration was instantaneous, like pushing a toy car across the room. It didn’t follow a curve, it was a straight line—and it was just getting warmed up.
The spinning grew faster. Everything outside the window was a blur. The centrifuge began to creak, and her body sank deep into the seat.
“Okay, 3 G…4 G…” Satsuki’s voice was mechanical.
Yukari felt her stomach contorting. And not just her stomach. Her lungs, her intestines, her brain—it felt as though someone had put them in a vise.
“Now 5 G…Any changes on the panel?”
“Th-the second light from the right came on.”
“Those are illuminated switches. I want you to push any of them that light up.”
“Okay—huh?” She tried to lift her arm, but it remained glued to the armrest. It felt as though it were made of lead.
At 5 G, Yukari’s body would weigh five times as much as normal. So if her arm weighed two kilograms, it felt like ten.
“I can’t lift my arm.”
“This is only 5 G. Just pretend you’re trying to lift a bucket of water.”
“Easy for you to say.”
Her hand trembled as she peeled it off the armrest, but she managed to press the button. The light went off.
As it did, another went on.
“Turn the lights off as quickly as you can.”
“Ugh.”
Straining under the effort, Yukari used both arms to press the button.
“Good. Let’s see how you handle six.”
The centrifuge whined.
“Hey!”
“You’re on a course to crash. If you don’t turn off all the lights within thirty seconds, the centrifuge will automatically accelerate by 1 G.”
“Don’t I get a say in this?!”
“Afraid not.”
Three lights blinked on. It took all of Yukari’s strength to reach the first button. As she did, her arm shook as though it were cramping, and she pressed the adjacent button by mistake. It lit up.
Brrrrrm.
She barely managed to turn off a single light within the time limit. The centrifuge accelerated without mercy.
Yukari’s bones ground against each other. She grimaced in pain.
“Now 7 G.” Satsuki chuckled.
Yukari’s face stretched. She sat powerless as the next thirty seconds expired.
“Now 8 G.”
Yukari was overcome by a terrible headache. Her vision began to dim, her heart raced, and her breath grew shallow.
“Breathe with your stomach or you’ll suffocate.”
She wanted to ask how, but the words wouldn’t come. Her ribs pressed against her back, crushing her lungs. She couldn’t even force air down her throat.
Another thirty seconds passed.
“And 9 G.” Satsuki giggled.
A tunnel closed in around her vision. Her breathing was labored. Her heart was beating two hundred times per minute. A haze clouded her thoughts.
✦ ✦ ✦
The world went black.
✦ ✦ ✦
[ACT 5]
✦ ✦ ✦
YUKARI WOKE UP in her bed. Satsuki was with her, the woman’s back facing the bed. The last moments before Yukari had passed out came back to her.
“You…”
“You’re awake. How do you feel?”
“You tried to kill me.”
“Don’t be silly. You’re alive, aren’t you?” Satsuki’s face was expressionless.
“You enjoyed that.”
“You kept a cool head.” Satsuki wrote something on her clipboard.
“Don’t try to change the subject. I heard you laughing.”
“You were doing so well. The machine kept accelerating, but you didn’t pass out. I was happy for you.”
“That’s not what it sounded like from where I was sitting.”
“You must’ve misunderstood, that’s all.” Satsuki glanced at her watch. “Oh, look at that. It’s time for class. Don’t want to be late on your first day.”
“Just let me rest a little first.”
“No time.”
Satsuki dragged her out of bed.
✦ ✦ ✦
When she reached the classroom, Kazuya Kinoshita was waiting for her. His silver-rimmed glasses sparkled.
“You’re late,” he barked.
“I blacked out.”
“I don’t want excuses. An astronaut has to be able to manage her schedule. Next time you’re late, I’ll keep you for an extra three hours.”
Yukari wondered where they found these people. How did someone so young—Kinoshita couldn’t have been much past forty—get to be such a hard-ass?
“Now let’s try to make an astronaut out of you. Turn to page ninety-two in The Feynman Lectures on Physics, Volume I.”
Yukari flipped to the page he’d asked her to. It was a monster of a book.
“Orbital mechanics are governed by Kepler’s laws. Read them out loud.”
“Let’s see…Kepler’s first law: The orbit of every planet is an ellipse with the sun at one focus.”
“Keep going.”
“Kepler’s second law: A line drawn between the sun and a planet will sweep out equal areas in equal periods of time. Kepler’s third law: The squares of the orbital periods of any two planets are proportional to the cubes of the semimajor axes of their orbits.”
As she read, Kinoshita had written an equation and several numbers on the board.
“This is the equation for a planet’s orbit. Use these initial values and the gravitational constant to integrate the equation.”
“Integrate?”
“You don’t know integral calculus?” His voice had jumped an octave.
“I don’t think we ever learned that.”
“Let’s try this then.” Kinoshita wrote another equation on the board. “You must be able to calculate a binomial expansion.”
This new formula looked more familiar. She just needed to plug in the values for the variables.
“So, what’s the vector after one second?”
“But those are eight-digit numbers.”
“Use your calculator.”
“Oh, right.” Yukari took out the calculator she’d been given that morning. She flipped on the switch, and froze. “Huh?”
“What’s wrong?”
“It doesn’t have an equals button.”
“Of course it doesn’t!” He looked like he might burst a vein. “Haven’t you heard of reverse Polish notation?”
Yukari brought her hand down on her desk with a bang. “Obviously not!”
“Then I’m going to spend the next five minutes drilling it into your head. When I’m finished, you’ll never want to touch a normal calculator again.”
“Tyrant!”
“What did you call me?”
✦ ✦ ✦
The next two hours were a nightmare. Dejected and with a mountain of homework in her hands, Yukari walked out of the classroom.
✦ ✦ ✦
[ACT 6]