The Final Expedition

Day Thirty-Seven

I pulled myself through into the Kibo module where Aki was hard at work.

“How is the hydroponics experiment coming on?” I asked her.

“Take a look.” Aki replied, gesturing to the hatch in the ceiling. The hatch led up to Kibo’s Experiment Logistics Module, which was a small storage module. It had been emptied and set up as a hydroponics area three weeks earlier. I pulled myself up towards the hatch and peered inside the short cylindrical compartment. The walls of the cylinder were lined with long tubs of soil while a large lamp was clamped in position at the centre of the module, shining on all the tubs. The heat from the light was considerable, reminding me of the feeling when entering a green house. Each of the long tubs had a series of green shoots protruding from the surface.

“All looking good.” I called back through the hatch at Aki. “We can expect fresh vegetables with our meals next week then?”

“Not quite.” Aki replied with a smile as I pulled myself back down into the main Kibo module. “But it’s definitely promising.” She turned back to the experiment rack she was working on and began quietly singing a song in Japanese. I didn’t recognise it and wondered if it was a J-Pop song.

“I admire your cheerfulness in the face of all that’s happened.” I told her. “You seem to be coping with it all better than anyone.”

“Do I?” She replied thoughtfully. “I think I try to push it all to the back of my mind. Perhaps it’s a bit of your British stiff upper lip that’s rubbed off one me?” She smiled. I nodded and returned her smile. “I sometimes think about my friends in Tokyo who are probably gone and that makes me very sad, but I don’t have any family left to mourn. No brothers or sisters and my mother raised me on her own when I was little. She passed away last year.”

“Sorry.” I replied. “What happened to your father?”

“He died in a traffic accident when I was six.” Aki told me. “I was very close to him. It broke my heart when he died. He was training for the Astronaut programme himself and I think his death spurred me on when I got a bit older to emulate him and finish what he had started.”

“It must have made you very proud to have succeeded.” I replied.

“Yes.” She nodded. “My mother lived long enough to see me accepted for Astronaut training, but I would have given anything to have my father there too.”