So Enmei and Katsumi went to the broadcasting station together. That was their first mistake. Their interviewer, a large, boisterous man named Matsumoto, had caught on immediately, not in the least because Katsumi insisted on clinging desperately to Enmei’s side. Matsumoto smiled at them mischievously as he walked them over to the remaining two Heaven’s members – a girl Enmei’s age and a boy a couple years younger, who introduced themselves as Sasaki and Yoshino respectively.
He had begun the interview innocently enough, with questions about the selection process, how excited each of them must be to have a chance to study at a corporate station on the moon. Katsumi was nigh catatonic, and hadn’t spoken a word since the studio called them live.
Then Matsumoto asked if any of them knew each other, or had heard of each other before the final members of Heaven had been announced. Yoshino and Sasaki both shook their heads. Matsumoto turned to look directly at Katsumi, and when she stayed mute, he turned to Enmei.
He really should have lied. That would’ve made everything so much easier. Instead he said, “Yes, actually. I’ve been friends with Katsumi since the beginning of middle school.”
Matsumoto responded with, “Really? What a coincidence that two of the nation's brightest minds grew up so close!”
Then he paused, that pearly smile never leaving his face. Enmei knew what was coming from that first, overjoyed really.
Matsumoto framed it as a jest, of course. It would be rude to be too direct. “So many years together and still only friends? You’ve never once thought to ask the other out?”
Laughing filled the studio. Matsumoto, Yoshino too. Sasaki had her hand over her mouth as she giggled. Enmei forced an awkward smile and searched for a deflecting reply. “Well . . .”
“We are dating,” Katsumi said, a little too loudly. Enmei did a double take.
That was certainly direct, he thought, and now the entire country knows too.
Matsumoto feigned a look of wild surprise. “You are? A couple chosen to be part of Heaven. What an incredible turn of events!”
Katsumi didn’t speak again for the rest of the interview.
*****
Their optical interfaces started buzzing before the day was out. Enmei’s social media accounts were bombarded every minute with messages from random people, which he hesitated to call fans, but certainly were endlessly excited for him and Katsumi – two people that had only just entered the sphere of public awareness. He deactivated his accounts immediately. That lasted for about four hours, then Heaven called him directly and told him to turn them back on, make several new accounts, and hand over management of all of them to their digital marketing department. They made Katsumi do the same.
Babylonia was turning them into celebrities by the minute.
But of course they would. They were at the very summit of the corpo hierarchy. Of course they would pull a stunt like this, for popularity if nothing else.
More interviews. Photoshoots. Posts.
By the set departure date, Katsumi and Enmei had gained international renown. They were the only couple of the 32 selected members, and Babylonia played into that with all they could. Enmei was confused to find people following discreetly through the train station during his final commutes to school. It took several days for him to realize he had garnered the attention of actual paparazzi. Shit, he was a minor still. That had to be illegal somehow.
At school, he could hardly get a second of rest without someone running up to him, patting him enthusiastically on the back, pretending like they’ve known each other for years, and mentioning how cute Enmei and Katsumi were together. School friends had been bugging him every chance they got about all the time he spent with her, but it took on a whole different meaning now that their faces were there whenever someone opened a social app. They had literally become the talk of the school. He stopped commuting after a few exhausting days of it, finally breaking his perfect attendance record.
Babylonia had turned their departure day into an actual celebration. The corpo had closed an entire wing of the spaceport, getting the four Heaven’s members to walk down a long corridor filled on either side with cameras, cheering, smiling faces, and It seemed downright ridiculous that so many would take a chunk out of their day just to see four kids they had only heard about two weeks ago walk into a space shuttle. An entire nation fawning over him and Katsumi, just because they were smart and young and in love.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
It was without a doubt the most embarrassing event that had happened to him in his life.
*****
They didn’t take the candidates to the shuttle directly. The festivities had concluded at 4:00, and they were set to board their flight at 6:00. That left them more than enough time to explore the massive first-class lounge, normally reserved for the company executives. It was an eerily silent and formal place. Several important looking people who happened to be in the lounge at that time introduced themselves to Enmei and the others. Enmei had started networking before he realized it, talking about positions he knew he would never fill and internships he would never take. Old habits die hard.
After the execs had grown bored of them or been whisked away on their own flights, the four of them relaxed by the windows, watching as a supply rocket bound for the Martian colonies began its ignition tests. Yoshino and Sasaki opened up to Katsumi and Enmei a touch more, talking eagerly in hushed tones about Heaven, the station, the famous scientists they would meet there. The four began blatantly assessing each other with mentions of obscure mathematical problems and recent publications from scientific journals. Enmei kept up with the mental Chess bouts well enough, but Katsumi proved her brilliance at every possible turn. After thirty minutes of mental jousting, Sasaki and Yoshino were both stunned with her. At one point, Katsumi shut them up for ten whole minutes, explaining her method of deriving the Lorentz Transformation Equations from memory. “Katsumi, you . . . you’re pretty smart, you know?” Sasaki said after she had finished.
Katsumi nodded in agreement. Sasaki laughed. “Funny too. I can see why Enmei likes you.”
Enmei had to stop himself from outright glaring at her.
“Sorry, sorry,” she said quickly, “It’s just that you two have been all over my feed these past weeks. I’m sure you must be more than tired of it by now.”
“It’s more exhausting than I could have dreamed,” Enmei said. “I can’t imagine how real celebrities deal with it.”
Sasaki cocked her head at him. “Enmei, with all the budget Babylonia’s been putting into advertising the program, we practically are real celebrities now. An unforeseen consequence sure, one they certainly didn’t warn us about, but now look at us. Have you seen how the members from other countries are faring? Your relationship is getting a lot of attention because people like drama, sure, but we’ve all been shoved into the spotlight. Don’t think It’ll stop once we get to Heaven, either. I’d bet anything they’ll keep the news feeds going, updating the world on our classy education. In Heaven, we’ll be like angels.”
“What would the point of that be?” Yoshino asked.
Sasaki smiled conspiratorially. “Just think. People will wonder up at us and the moon and think how maybe it’s not just a desolate rock speckled with research stations filled with space nerds. They’re going to think maybe they can start living there too.”
Enmei hadn’t thought of it like that before. “You mean you think Babylonia will start advertising the moon as more than just a tourist attraction?”
Sasaki shrugged. “That’s my guess, anyhow. People need something to feel connected to, up there. Right now it’s just a space rock.”
“Sasaki, you seem pretty smart yourself,” Yoshino said, grinning.
Enmei’s memory ended rather abruptly, then. Maybe it was because he hadn’t been expecting it and had sunk too naturally into the past.
A man in a white lab coat approached them where they sat, polished Oxford dress shoes clicking against the reflective floor of the lounge. Something in Enmei’s mind clicked then, remembering he was only watching a recording of the past, played through into his mind by Aspentas.
The man stood there quietly, watching the thruster exhaust billow in white clouds below the unmanned supply rocket bound for Mars. One at a time they noticed him and looked up, waiting for him to speak. He didn’t.
“Dr. Kulshreshtha,” Katsumi said in English. “Nice to see you again.”
The doctor gave her a warm smile. “Katsumi, my girl. It’s lovely seeing you again, too. And the rest of you, of course. I don’t believe we’ve met. I am Dr. Kulshreshtha, Head Scientist of the Research Board at Babylon Station. People call me Yahweh as a joke, since I’m in charge of everything that goes on in Heaven.”
The four of them laughed respectfully. Enmei studied the doctor. Clearly Indian by race, with an accent that suggested he had been raised in the UK, or at least lived there for some time. His skin was leathery and wrinkled, and he had a short, stark white beard, perfectly manicured. His hair was slicked back and oiled, and his eyes were a strange, milky gray. It looked as if he was blind. His movements hadn’t given off that appearance, but Enmei couldn’t be sure.
“There is one thing that must be done before we fly,” Dr. Kulshreshtha said. “Follow me.”
He led them out of the lounge, down through the wing of the airport that had been closed for them, and through a biometrically locked door marked with the Babylonia International logo. Down a flight of stairs, a hallway, down another flight.
“We’re close now, don’t worry. You won’t be missing your spaceflight.”
Enmei was surprised by the size of the complex around him. The spaceport had been built into Tokyo Bay itself, just off of Yokohama, so he supposed they were below sea level by now. The corporation had an entire complex to themselves, built under the bay.
Dr. Kulshreshtha led them into a side room just like any other. In it were a row of machines, not unlike the obsolete CAT scan machines used for most of the 21st century.
“These machines record your physical and mental information for use in your education at Heaven. I will turn them on. Please – take off your shoes and lay down with your head towards the machine. Any one you choose. Quickly now, the flight boards in half an hour.”
Enmei watched Dr. Kulshreshtha’s calm, smiling face as he punched a series of commands into a data terminal. He took off his shoes, laid himself down.
“See you soon, children.”
Enmei never saw Dr. Kulshreshtha again.
The next moment he was coughing up vomit in the Flesh Artisan’s workshop.