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White clouds silently float in the sky while wind gently ruffles the grass. Mizusaki is on her way to the Motion Picture Club’s building when its door swings open and wild-eyed Asakusa stumbles outside. Instantly she jumps to her feet, hectically waving with her phone like it’s a signal light.
“Mizusaki-shi! Code red!”
Two pairs of feet rush across the pearl white floor, the steps echo down the glass corridor. Behind it is only deep dark abyss. Lieutenant Mizusaki is running ahead of Asakusa in her own ridiculous and unique way, fiercely punching air in front of her. The bridge through space ends, the round metallic hatch at the end of the corridor moves apart and Asakusa and Mizusaki enter another part of Shibahama Space station. This cosmic city consists of a bunch of modules and fractions which are connected by “bridges”. With the help of these anchorages Sibahama can rearrange and recombine itself autonomously.
High in the sky the defensive dome is flashing colors, just pulsing all of the colors. Black blocks of buildings press up closely to each other while narrow glassy roads on different levels snake between them. Two small figures glide along them under the flashing lights of neon purple and ultramarine sighs and billboards.
Somewhere from above can be heard mechanic whirring. Asakusa raises her eyes and at the same moment the drone comes around the corner.
“Snitch!” Warns Asakusa, but Mizusaki only answers with short “Leave it to me, Captain!”.
Lieutenant Mizusaki rushes forward, getting a pulse rifle from behind. This massive weapon uses electromagnetic radiation energy. Lieutenant gets the stance and point the rifle at the drone. When the trigger is pulled, there is no visible trace, but the current of such a high voltage is directed to drone that it flashes frantically and then bursts into flames.
“Good, lieutenant! Now, here!”
Asakusa jumps off the edge of the road after signaling to Mizusaki who instantly follows after her. Glints of neon illumination flash before their eyes while they fall. A couple of sharp moves — two parachutes open and both Asakusa and Mizusaki slowly descend to the lowest level of Shibahama. The entering to their secret base is securely hidden, close to the ground platform.
Soothing rumbling of an air conditioner and chaotic strangling of a washing machine are breaking silence of the bathhouse. The street outside is perfectly silent and sleepy. Cold grey floor is flooded with the sunlight that comes through the low entrance. Asakusa intently pushes buttons on an old vending machine and is about to insert a coin when a hand drops to her shoulder and (scares her to death) stops her. Asakusa’s wide eyes meet with the warm brown ones. Mizusaki stares at her as if she wants to burn a hole between her eyes with the intensity of her glare. With lips pursed and fists clenched, she is deadly serious.
“Asakusa-san... Our comrade... risked with her own life for us and now can be on the brink of death! Special circumstances requires special treatment. Kanamori-san relies on us! And now it’s our sacred duty to do our best to help her! And she deserves more than just two pity bottles of milk!”
Asakusa gulps and rapidly nods in earnest.
“Yes, you are right, Mizusaki-shi!..” She squints seriously and faces the automatic while her reflection stares back. “Four bottles! Strawberry flavored!”
“Hmm, what is it, Asakusa-san? An autonomous space shuttle, hah?
“Better, Midzusaki-shi!” Asakusa tilts a camouflage hat over her eyes. “Get ready!”
Two pairs of massive boots step close to a yellow line. Stray beam of sunlight skips a rabbit emblem on a khaki spacesuit. The perfectly white smooth surfaces of Mizusaki’s one shine radiantly in the daylight. She customizes settings on the small neon blue personal computer on her wrist while Asakusa slowly puts on a round hermetic helmet . The rattling of metal foreshadows the arrival of an enormous machine. The moment it flashes past the astronauts are struck with a rogue wave of air. The heavy iron doors slowly slide apart right in front of them. Asakusa bravely steps forward: behind the glass of her helmet she smiles enthusiastically, the black eyes sparkle with anticipation.
“Welcome to Solar Express!” Asakusa announces proudly as soon as they step inside.
“Woah! It’s a...” Mizusaki turns around, glaring in awe: warm brown eyes are wide, open mouth smile blooms on her face, “It’s a space train!”
Everything is shiny chromed metal and smooth angles. All buzzing and clattering of the mechanisms can be clearly heard.
”Solar Express consists of a series of aligned cylinders roughly 50 meters in length. Six of these cylinders - which you can think of as train cars - would link together in a straight line and hurtle through space! Huge solar arrays located along the train’s path could be used to capture solar energy and transfer it by laser to super-capacitors. Water harvested from comets or small moons would be used for humans living on the train and transported to other stations“.
“Come here! We are setting off!” Asakusa runs towards the front windscreen, and Mizusaki follows shortly after her with enthusiasm.
The hum of the Express is steadily grows louder. Suddenly pure white all-consuming light floods every little space around. The whole experience is so overwhelming that astronauts have to squeeze their eyes shut. Mizusaki gasps but her smile becomes only wider.
“We are going into the atmosphere, right?!”
Before Asakusa have chance to answer, everything goes dark. They open their eyes only to be greeted by the striking picture of cosmic depths. Vivid purple and navy are spilled onto the vast of space like ink. Millions — no, even more, so much that it’s impossible to count — of stars are scattered everywhere likewise diamond dust.
“Solar Express is a train that can shuttle passengers and payloads between planets faster than any existing systems! Solar Express travels at roughly one percent the speed of light — about 3,000 kilometers per second — in such a way the travel time between Earth and Mars drops to less than two days,” Asakusa jabbers while far stars drown in the dark of her eyes.
Mizusaki sharply looks away from the view of space and turns to her.
“Really?! But it’s so heavy.”
“Well, take a look! In space, the most expensive portions of travel are the acceleration and deceleration phases. The energy required for those portions is tremendous, especially for something as heavy as a space train. But! Once the train reached its cruising speed, its energy consumption would be minimal! And! To launch Solar Express uses rocket boosters, keeping a small amount of fuel on reserve to adjust course. Then, the train slingshots around celestial bodies to gain speed without needing more fuel!”
Asakusa is ready to tell more, but the train is already starting to launch, just like she described.
“Doors are closing, take care,” says the lady on speaker when girls leave the train.
Side by side, they walk away from the train station, surrounded by warm and fuzzy sunlight.
The sky above the foreign planet is a deep all-consuming abyss. There is a cold grey vast of pits and giant cliffs in front of wandering eyes of two astronauts. The space is perfectly silent. Except... Asakusa studies Kanamori’s location coordinates when a loud exited shout is heard in her headset.
“How cool!”
“Mizusaki-shi! Don’t scare me like this!”
But she doesn’t listen. Instead, Mizusaki intently tries to walk at quite an awkward angle.
“Look how much I have to deviate when walking on this planet! All because walking - this is actually a continuous fall, which is prevented by the legs set forward. Like this!”
Asakusa watches Mizusaki’s movements with interest. To be honest, it may look pretty comical from afar. But she tries herself and is suddenly stricken by the flash of insight.
“I see! Here gravity is 6 times less than in Shibahama, therefore a stronger deviation from the vertical is also required to start the “fall” of walking,” Asakusa rushes after Mizusaki. And to do that she needs to strongly shift the center of gravity - to bend in the direction of travel, otherwise it simply will not work.
All this time her constant laughing can be heard through the electronic communicators. Slowly but surely they are getting closer to Kanamori’s base. Everything goes rather smoothly: no dangerous animals — actually, no animals at all, no enemy interventions. Out the corner of her eye, Asakusa watches Mizusaki: she leans forward with great effort, compensates for the backward center of mass with a shoulder bag with a life support system by tilting, jumps ...and at one point her leap turns into a flight.
“Soldier! Take care!”
Mizusaki is so high and Asakusa’s heart beats rapidly somewhere in her throat, she is ready to rush and catch her, but... Mizusaki “falls” rather slowly.
“It’s OK, Captain!”
When she “lands”, Asakusa helps her to stand up and continue their way.
“As you can see, free jumps while maintaining movement control are possible up to one meter. High jumps often end up in falls, although falls have no unpleasant consequences. The highest jump height, I can say, is two meters even in such a heavy spacesuit!”
And so they go: Mizusaki keeps talking and showing everything by example. When they see it, there is no doubt left. Kanamori’s spaceship. Enormous, smooth, shimmering like silver and standing tall. One by one Asakusa and Mizusaki climb the ladder, up and up and up... Right to the moment when the only thing that separates them from their comrade is a heavy metal hatchway.
“Here we go, Kanamori-san...”
When the door opens, it’s Kanamori’s mum who greats them.
“Oh, hi, girls. Come in.”
Two pairs of socks glide hastily across the floor, glass bottles tinkle inside the packet. Shōji doors slide apart and Asakusa and Mizusaki burst into the room. Kanamori tiredly puts on her glasses and tries to sit up when both of her comrades climb onto her bed, never stopping chattering.
“Kanamori-kun! How are you?”
“We brought you milk!”
“I even warmed it for you!”
“How are you feeling?”
They talk until it gets late. The darkness is a shimmering purple, and windows shine like stars of the far space.