Within the gas giant’s atmosphere, gravity is over 2G. To use Terra as an example, she would weigh over 140 kilograms. While that wouldn’t kill her, it would feel extremely unpleasant. For that reason, the pillar boat pit interiors are constructed to fill with breathable biofluid gel, which provides a comfortable buoyancy for the twister and decompa.
There is no need to float around in gel once in orbit. The orbiting base ships, sailing along in zero-g, produce their own 1g force for the residential sectors via rotation. Crews returning from the planet crawl from the gel sopping wet, but don’t go into town like that. Part of the process at the arrival terminal is to change out of flashy deck dresses—strictly fishing-only—into simple casual wear.
Terra had docked her pillar boat with the others at the maintenance pier and entered the arrival terminal in good spirits. Why? Because when fishing ended in the black, it was customarily celebrated with a banquet—though conversely, when the fishing was in the red, it was instead soothed with a consolation party, of which there had been many. Every last one of Terra’s past arranged marriage partners had held the latter. Taking off her deck dress and entering the shower, she pondered over which restaurant she should invite Diode to. Eight minutes later, she emerged and rushed into the lobby with freshly washed hair, wearing an undyed blouse and skirt, and carrying a bag.
“Die-san!”
Terra looked around for the girl. Thinking about it, she realized she hadn't mentioned a banquet to Diode, but got the feeling she would need to hurry even if she had. She couldn’t explain that feeling, but if she really had to say, it was both a matter of intuition and of precedent given Diode's sudden disappearance the day they met.
“Die-san, where are you!”
As she suspected, Diode wasn’t in the terminal’s lobby. After confirming Diode had finished in the showers, she hurriedly winked at the dual-purpose security and payment camera on the ceiling and jumped through the door.
Noisy chaos and a foul stench enveloped her. Their source was Sector-1 of the microgravity harbor ring road circling Idaho's central axis. The walls were covered in scattered graffiti, torn posters and stains from thrown drinks. The floor existed on another plane of filth entirely. Workers of all types came and went: manual labourers, engineers, station manager, airtightness-retention mechanics who maintained the 200-plus-year-old base ship hull, and the water miners and pilots who worked the icy moons.
Where Terra docked was known as the Fisherman's Wharf, but obviously, lacked the typical stench of saltwater fish. Instead, the smell of food wafted from nearby restaurants—an open invitation to the whole crowd of workers headed home from work—and mixed with the aroma of spent biofluid gel seeping from the gutter.
Did she run away? Ah, no—found her. Terra's stature was an advantage in this situation; she was practically a watchtower. A small, silver-haired figure jammed into the moving crowd and began forcing her way through. However, she staggered every time the huge rucksack she’d worn earlier carelessly swung into passers-by.
“Die-san, wait!”
Terra’s loud shouts, coming from a tall person, made everyone turn around to look. Diode also turned in surprise, but—bam—her bag hit smacked the wall and sent her floating into the air with the recoil.
Being close to the rotating ship's central axis, gravity was weak. Diode spun as she ascended, but she reflexively killed the rotation by grabbing the strap of the heavy pack she carried and ripping it off her back. As expected for a twister, the conservation of angular momentum was written into her spinal column.
It had taken longer than expected, but Terra finally caught up to her.
“Please wait!”
She pulled Diode back to the railing on the wall. Self-defense was difficult in a low-gravity setting, but a handrail made it a little easier. Finding herself trapped by Terra's long arm, Diode glued her back to the wall like a small bird reacting to a hand that invaded its nestbox.
“...You changed fast.”
“That’s because I was in a hurry. I came here to tell you about a custom for fishermen, Die-san—did you know we hold a banquet when we turn a profit?”
“Not really...”
“So it was worth the rush! I’m glad.”
“......”
The girl averted her eyes. She too had dressed in inconspicuous casual wear—a comfortable long-sleeved shirt and pants—a far cry from her audacious deck dress. It was clear Diode had left in a rush like Terra suspected, as her hair was far more damp than Terra's.
If Diode had rushed off in disappointment, Terra didn’t want to be forceful with her. That didn’t really seem to be the case, though. People often have a look of fear in their eyes when they’re embarrassed or avoiding something uncomfortable—but Terra had a feeling that wasn’t the look she saw in Diode’s eyes.
“Let’s talk, and let’s do it over a meal.” She held out a hand. “About today, about everything up to now, and about from tomorrow on. What do you say?”
“I... was going to go back and sleep...”
“What? Are you kidding me?” Terra sounded angry, but she was more surprised than anything. “Without even seeing each other off properly?”
“I’m sorry, you have my apologies for that. Good work today,” Diode said, shrinking somewhat. Exchanging pleasantries was totally inappropriate by this point. Terra leaned over yet again.
“Good work today! Now, let’s go.”
“Please forgive me...”
“Forgive you? Forgive you for what?”
“For any other... failures... on my part.”
‘Hm?’ Terra knit her eyebrows. Something wasn’t right.
“Just now... that was another one. I didn’t... meet up with you again. I didn’t observe... the custom of seeing you off.” Hanging her head, Diode’s tone quickly turned sour. “We were cut off from our medical supplies because I arrogantly threw our catch away... I left you going crazy with anxiety because I acted like some hot-shot pilot who told you to leave everything to me... I caused a scene and exposed my real name because because I gave an alias...”
Is she blaming me for that? No... she's blaming herself.
Diode's shoulders began to quake while she hung her head. “And to make it all worse, that trashy officer made fun of your marriage troubles and treated you like you were hopeless because I couldn't hold my own against him. Those were all so c-cruel, Terra-san. I couldn’t face you–”
“Woah woah, nononono!” Terra pulled out a handkerchief in panic and held the girl’s shoulder. “Please don’t cry! Let’s eat, okay?”
Diode nodded.
A half-dozen options for a classy restaurant vanished with Diode’s sobs. Terra knew there was only one restaurant for a time like this—the old, unsophisticated, but discerning family-style beer hall. They descended along the radial axis of the disk-shaped clan ship until they reached World’s End Board.
Terra took Diode to a secluded spot in the shadow of a huge support column. A window there provided an unobstructed view of space, which made it seem as if they really were on a diving board at world’s end, ready to jump. She only ordered drinks for the moment, which were printed and brought out by the waiter in an instant. Instead of sitting across from the girl, Terra pulled up a seat by her side and encouraged her to drink something.
“Here Die-san. We’ve got alcoholic, non-alcoholic, sweet and non-sweet. Are you okay with these? Do you have any allergies?”
“Um, wait please! I can’t, I just can’t!” Pressing the handkerchief to her face, more to hide than wipe it, Diode pushed Terra away. “Now's not a good time to eat and drink, I'm a mess!!”
“You’re right.” Terra quickly calmed herself and backed off. “The thread, did it snap? It’s been three days already.”
“Thread?”
“Your emotional thread. It's been pulled tight since day one, hasn’t it? You joined up with a clan you knew nothing about with just a rucksack to your name, talked your way into your first partnership, did some hardcore piloting to handle an impossible net, and just when you thought it was finally over the government official made all that effort worthless, right? One wrong move and your life's ruined. The thread snapping was inevitable, you know?”
Diode lowered the handkerchief, revealing an open-mouthed stare. Terra smiled.
“From the face you're making, you’re thinking 'How does she know?', aren’t you? I get it, I've been on different ships with strangers a few times myself. It's really lonely, isn’t it?”
She thought of adding an ‘I told you so’ but didn’t.
“Die-san, you’re still 18, aren’t you—you’re way more impressive than I am.”
“Fu…...Uuuuw”
A red tint appeared on Diode’s porcelain face, then her eyes slammed shut as her refined features crumpled. Long eyelashes trembled. Expecting the dam to burst, Terra hugged her shoulder—but just before she began to wail, the girl clenched her jaw and fought it back.
“Nghhhhh…!”
“Oh?”
She firmly held the soaked handkerchief to her face and violently wiped her eyes, stubbornly keeping her voice in. Terra admired the incredible show of willpower.
Shudders ran up her slender back. Diode’s hair was cold, so Terra began to slowly caress her from the top of the head to below the shoulders, again and again. She remembered a time when she had been comforted like that, so she imitated the memory.
“Well, Die-san, a lot might have happened, but today was a success. We caught fish and didn’t have any accidents or fights. You don’t have to run, okay?”
“...Uughn.”
While Terra stroked her back, Diode's small head slid closer and came to a stop right under Terra’s nose. A smoky sweet botanical smell wafted its way into Terra's brain. Without thinking, Terra threw her arms around the girl's shoulders and pulled her into a hug. At ease, Diode responded by sinking into her chest. She took a deep breath, then said, “Phew...”
They sat supporting each other’s weight, as if fused together, for a little more than ten seconds—then, timidly, Diode withdrew and opened some space between the two.
“Ah, uh... Sorry about this, Terra-san.”
“Huh? It’s okay.”
Terra put on a small smile, but her thoughts were kind of a mess. It's convenient how small Diode is, she’d thought before unwittingly leaning over.
Wasn’t that a bit too familiar? She felt like it wasn't good thing to get so close so quickly to people she'd just met. She took a deep breath to clear her mind. What were we doing again—ah, right, our discussion.
About today, and what came before.
“Die-san, have you calmed down? Are you okay?”
“Y-yes...”
Diode nodded awkwardly. A trace of red still clung to her face. She seemed to be embarrassed by what had just happened, too.
“Die-san, if you don’t mind my asking, why are you trying this hard? What was your reason for doing this today?”
“Yes—it’s about time we talk about that. Properly.” Diode finally settled back into her seat, picked a ginger ale-like from the glasses on the table, and brought it to her lips. Terra picked up the wine-like she had ordered from the waiter and also took a drink. Diode took a few sips while she puzzled over her thoughts. Before long, she said, “Let’s start with my clan. So, as you found out a while ago, I'm a Gendo. Women there are forced into D-conversion. Did you know about that? D-conversion, I mean.”
“D-conversion?”
“Ah, so you don’t. It’s the decompa aptitude conversion. Women capable of boarding a vessel are practically non-existent, but they tell us if we do board, it has to be as a decompa. We're banned from becoming pilots.”
“There aren’t any woman twisters here with the Endeavours either, though.”
“Is that so? But is it a requirement to become a decompa before you can fly?”
“That’s... not really a thing here, I think. There’s no requirements. Women can pilot ships, though only classes like planetside comms or vacuum operations. I thought I had mentioned that.”
“So women can board, as long as they’re those types of boats... I’d say that’s still okay. At any rate, the Gendo enforce D-conversion, even if you can’t decomp. The boating system can handle the usual net shapes, and in the worst case, even just knowing how to navigate is good enough...”
“That’s kinda... cruel, isn’t it?”
“Yes.“
“It's cruel in two ways.”
“Two ways?”
Just as Diode’s face lit up with curiosity, cheese-like, salad-like, salmon-like and beef-like were brought out. Offering them all to ‘Die’ while starting her second glass of wine-like, Terra began to reply.
“First, it's cruel to force people to do something they don’t want to do. And second, it’s disrespectful to the people who do it because they want to. I mean, a decompa is someone who transforms the net and boat by decompressing. That's the entire point of having a decompa. People who don't want to be twisters aren't put through the same remediation, are they?“ Finished, she smiled bitterly. “...Well, unless they’re a good-for-nothing decompa like me. So it’s disrespectful to decompas who can make proper, regular nets. Not someone like me.”
“Could you please stop that? Putting yourself down?”
“Ah, I’m sorry...” Prompted by Diode’s annoyed tone, Terra apologized. “Why are the Gendo so strict with women, anyway?”
“‘Women are the irrational gender’, is what they'd say,” Diode responded sullenly. with a sullen expression. “Women are mentally weak, so if they were at the helm and descended into FBB’s sea of clouds, they’d immediately panic and crash. What do you have to say to that, Terra-san?”
“What? Panic?!” Terra’s jaw dropped incredulously. “Gender’s got nothing to do with it, really. I'm being honest when I say your piloting was splendid today, Die-san.”
“Right? I thought so too. The Gendo believe that women are hopeless, though. So that's why 19 years ago, a woman who received the same treatment we do now decided she hated it there so much she needed to escape at any cost. She snuck off with the crew of an independent Tsunami Search ship.”
“19 years ago... Huh?” Terra grew confused for a moment. “Die-san, didn’t you say you were 18?”
“Ah, no, the woman who escaped was my mother. She was already pregnant by then, so I was born on the ship.”
“Ahh, so that’s how it is! The mother who raised you was called Rock-san, right, Die-san?”
“Yes. But that’s just an alias, of course.”
“She’s a great mother, isn’t she? Raising you to be as good a twister as you are.”
Diode reacted a bit strangely to that. Troubled, she knit her eyebrows, but her lips had a pleased, relaxed look in spite of that. “...Mother ran the Tsunami Search almost by herself. She wasn’t a pillar boat's twister, but she had talent when it came to dual-use ships.”
“Oh, um, could she be…?”
“No, you don’t have to worry about that—she’s still living tenaciously.”
“Ahh, I’m glad.” Hand on her chest, Terra let out a sigh of relief. “So, you trained on the ship with her until you were 15...?”
“Uhh, my mother broke it off with her husband when she first left. So–” For a moment, her eyes wandered about in the air for some reason, then she emphatically repeated herself. “SO—I’m not of much use to the Endeavour clan. If for any reason you wanted to pair up with a man with a clean background from somewhere else, Terra-san, you’d definitely receive assistance from the clan. That's not something I’m able to offer. That’s... my only flaw. I’m speaking frankly now.”
“Ahh. Oh, but I’m happy that you’re being frank, Die-san.” She got the feeling that the conversation had jumped tracks a bit, but she grinned. “But well, I see you’re giving that some consideration, since marriage between two women isn’t possible.”
“...Yeah.” Diode slowly nodded in response.
Every time Terra learned something about Diode, a new question came to mind. Terra leveled her stare at her. So.. she lived with her mother in the Tsunami Search... and the name implies she was on a ship sailing around FBB’s atmosphere to observe the weather and study besshu schools. That sounds a lot different from life on a base ship. What was that life like? 9500 hours of cruising time is indeed odd for an 18-year-old, but how did they make their money?
Curious, Terra's scanned the girl's profile. Diode blinked restlessly, as if being needled by it.
Pushing her plate back, she asked, “Terra-san, are you going to eat too?”
“Oh, yes, of course,” Terra replied.
The light orange meat on the plate had been drizzled in olive-like oil and was served to be made into a roll. As she rolled it up and ate, Terra tilted her head to the side and wondered. Hm? Why did she cut our previous conversation short in the middle?
“The truth is,” the girl started again as Terra listened carefully. “I approached the Jack-of-All-Trades and the Pollux during this Bow Awow, too. I was trying to find somewhere that would let me fly as a twister.”
“Really?” Terra’s interest was piqued. “So, how did it go over there?”
“Back at the Trades’ I was arrested on suspicion of fraud. The Pollux diagnosed me with an emaciation disorder and ended up placing me in a pregnancy encouragement program.”
“Arrested?!” That word was astonishing enough to Terra, but the ones that followed caused her to jump out of her chair. “E-emaciation? Program? What are those?”
“The fraud charge was because they suspected my cruise logs were falsified. 9500 hours was too much. It was very difficult to prove my innocence.” Making a pained face, Diode continued, “In the pregnancy encouragement program, they put young women under all-day surveillance and give them as many calories as possible to maintain their health. It’s a public program to make the best bodies for producing children. Anyway, it seems the Pollux have a special interest in animal breeding.”
“Urgh…...” Terra got goosebumps of disgust. “You were like a goose being prepared for foie gras, weren’t you...”
“Fwah bra? Goops? I don’t really know what you're talking about, but well, I guess so.” Diode made a precise stab into a slice of duck-like with her fork but frowned and put it back on the plate. “They decided that my body looks like this because I have a disease, you know? I didn’t even ask to be weighed to begin with.”
“A-are you okay? After that, uh, pregnancy encouragement...”
“Ahh, I escaped by pressing the air leak alarm, that cut off their pursuit. Personally, I felt that they weren’t treating me like a human.”
“I get it, I don’t think that’s the way to treat humans, either!” In strong agreement, Terra then regained her composure. “Ah, sorry... I think saying I get it is an exaggeration.”
“Exaggeration?”
“I haven’t been through anything as cruel as you have, Die-san. Coming back home like this was the price of my own mistakes.”
“Please stop, it wasn’t your fault. By that logic, then paying bribes to the Trades like a criminal as the price of mine.” She shot a glare at Terra, annoyed. Terra’s large frame withered.
“Sorry for every single unnecessary thing I’ve said.”
“I didn’t mean it like...” Diode trailed off mid-sentence, then sighed and shook her head. “Anyway, that’s how things went. Every time I try to become a twister, a hammer nails me back down. Today’s wasted catch was just another one of those things.”
“One of those things?”
“Even if we had a great catch, they’d ask whether women can show any restraint when they make a catch. Well, they haven't said anything like that yet, but they definitely would, wouldn't they? You saw how it went just coming back from fishing as a pair of women.”
“...True.”
“Well, that’s my answer to why I’m trying so hard. My only option is to try too hard.” Having said that, Diode picked up a glass of bubbling golden liquid and drained it in one gulp.
As she did, the top-quality boiled lobster-like finally arrived at the end of its long prep. Terra received it and divided it between them. Diode frowned, and holding the fork and the knife like she was repairing a circuit board, began fiddling with the white meat. She looked like she’d never eaten it before.
Watching her, Terra began to think, Aah, I get it now. This person wanted to become a twister but hadn’t succeeded anywhere else, and ultimately washed up here with nowhere to return to. At several points along the way, she'd been forced to escape her own blunders. Terra was not only sympathetic to Diode’s experiences, but she also honestly admired that tenacity.
That admiration was why she noticed the girl was tenaciously hiding something.
Right, if that’s what it’s like, then this all makes sense. Their earlier conversation felt subtly off, and although Diode stated she was being frank, there was one point she hadn’t touched upon—and that point had to be, beyond any shadow of a doubt, the worst of it. Bad enough for her to avoid even mentioning it.
It wasn't just something like with not receiving support from the clan, or even running afoul of the Trade and Pollux clans. It has to be something much worse, but what? What could be even more dangerous than the arrest she mentioned? Terra’s characteristic imagination finally arrived at a conclusion: It's not just something that involves her, it's something I could get caught up in, too.
“Um, Die-san.”
“Yes?”
“Gendo clan's trackers... are they going to show up and start shooting?” The pale, beautiful girl choked on her lobster and turned blue. “Ah, I’m sorry! I wasn’t trying to startle you that badly. Here, drink some water...”
Terra gave her some water and pounded on her back. Managing to gulp it down one way or another, Diode made a nervous sound and looked at Terra.
“How did you know? Did you look into it?”
“Ah, so there really are trackers?”; Terra asked, surprised. “I just said something I dreamed up...”
“Dreamed up? What did you imagine–”
“Ah, no, Die-san, it just struck me as odd that you were hiding what happened after you turned 15, you know? So, I got the feeling that instead of being on the Tsunami Search, you were actually forced into D-conversion. You made it sound like it was something your mother had gone through, but really, it was you wasn’t it, Die-san?”
Terra looked into the air as she thought. “So, you must have returned to your base ship after you turned 15, I'd say. Then you were forced into D-conversion and marriage once you turned 18, and you hated it so much you jumped ship without permission. So if that’s the case–” She quickly returned her gaze to Diode.
“Your mother isn't the one who's being pursued, it's you. You thought you could use the Bow Awow’s purge to your advantage since the people chasing you would need to split up. But now bona fide trackers are going to show up—that’s what I was imagining. Was I right?”
“Sort of, but how did you know that?!” Diode voice rose to a near-shriek and —Gah!—covered her face. “Tell-Tale Terra... So that’s what they meant...”
Terra didn’t like that nickname, but just this once, she let it pass.
The waiter laid a plate in front of Diode, who was still covering her face. Terra’s guess at the sequence of events caused Diode to abruptly get up from the table, but Terra instantly grabbed her wrist and pulled her back.
“You don’t have to run.”
“What are you saying?!”
“The Endeavour clan’s guards aren’t that useless.” Diode looked up at her, Terra nodded reassuringly. “A recapture squad is illegal because infiltrating another clan is a violation of the clan territorial sovereignty rule. So if Gendo's trackers come, my clan’s guards will stop them. Besides, travelling from one base ship to another uses a huge amount of propellant. They won’t come that often... probably.”
“You’re saying everything's okay, then? Despite everything?”
“Despite what?”
“I’m a fugitive! I’m an illegal ship-jumper!” Diode raised her voice.
"Ssh...!" Terra lifted her index finger. “It’s better if others don’t find out about that.”
“...Ah, yeah.”
“So, let’s decide how things will go starting tomorrow.”
“What, why would you...?”
“What do you think is the worst thing that could happen to the both of us?”
“Huh?”
“It’s that we can't board our boat and go fishing together, right?” She clasped Diode’s squirming hand. Having intentionally forced the conversation forward, Terra backed her large frame away. “Am I wrong? Is there anything worse?”
"Uhh..." Diode caught her breath, then eventually spoke. “That's true, there's no point in pairing up if we can't fly a boat or cast nets, yeah...”
“Yeah! And we’ve already succeeded once. Meaning that–” Terra opened her large hand. “Today absolutely wasn’t the worst it could go. Alright?”
“...Huh?”
“All the other problems are secondary—recapture squads, hiding you, or Bonus charging us insane extra fees. To deal with the last one, we'd better catch lots.”
“We’ll stand out if we catch too much.”
“So let’s keep our catches modestly large.”
“You're being awfully cavalier, aren't you?”
“There are times when it's good to make loose decisions about stuff!” Terra firmly asserted herself with a smile, and thrust a calculated hand towards Diode. “So, your decision please, Die-san. How shall we conclude our ceremony?”
“Ceremony?”
“Regarding our partnership.”
With perfect timing, an order of two generously plated strawberry-like, blueberry-like, mango-like and melon-like four-fruit parfaits were delivered for dessert. Terra had given the signal to bring it out in the pause a moment ago. The soft cream inside the glass, printed with a brand new printerhead, smelled like fresh, unoxidized buttercream.
Diode’s expression grew complicated as she began to speak, hand on her face as if shielding herself from a blinding light right before her eyes.
“What is this? You’re sorely mistaken if you think you can catch me off guard like this.”
“I'm not trying to catch you off guard at all. But do you think passing up this parfait and leaving by yourself will solve anything?”
“...Got it, I’m going to state my conclusion.” Diode raised her face proudly and, pushing the extravagant dessert back to Terra, said, “I don’t want this. All right, I’m looking forward to working with you, starting tomorrow.”
“Likewise! Ahhh, I’m so happy!” Terra cheerfully picked up the long spoon and took one bite of the cold, sweet cream. She looked to her side.
Diode called the waiter. “I’d like a hot coffee-like, please.”
Having made her order, she looked back to Terra and firmly repeated, “I don’t want it, thank you.”