ORIGINAL FICTION: "Free Are The Stars" by Richard Anderson (2010)

when they were eight. They were visiting the Hull's ranch in southern California. It was a beautiful day. and she wanted to go outside to play. She found John in his room building a model.

“What's that?” Natsuki asked

“It's the Enterprise.” he said has he held the model out for Natsuki to look at.

“That does not look like a starship,” Natsuki was puzzled.

“It's an aircraft carrier, silly. I'll show you.” John put the model down and went to a book case to grab a disk he shoved in the player. It started with a brown tinted scene of ancient planes flying over water.

Since they were only eight, neither noticed the irony of a little Japanese girl and a little American boy watching “Midway” together. John was mostly interested in the scenes of the planes and ships and, he really loved when they showed the old cars. Being a girl, Natsuki was more interested in the people and their relationships and emotions.

Natsuki was shocked to learn that Japan had once attacked America! She had thought the had always been friends. Even after eighty years, Japan still glossed over what happened in those dark days. She liked the scenes when the American fighter pilot was talking about how much he loved his Japanese girlfriend. When they showed the pilot at the fence with his girl talking - and then kissing - Natsuki unconsciously took John’s hand. John just smiled. They watch the rest of the movie like that.
Natsuki became upset during the battle scene when the American torpedo planes attacked the Japanese ships.

“Why are the doing that? Why do they keeping going when they know they’re going to die?” said Natsuki with tears in her eyes.

“Because that's what men do when you have to defend the homeland,” said John, with the certainty of an eight year old.

Years Later, Natsuki was in Tokyo taking her final exams for her degree in business administration, so she couldn’t be there when John graduated from the US Naval Academy. On the phone he sounded so proud when he told her he had been accepted for flight training. Natsuki had a vision of doomed torpedo planes going in for their final attack. She told John that she loved him, andran to the Buddhist shrine her father had in all the family homes. She fell to her knees and prayed to every god she could think of to keep John safe.

*****************************

Natsuki and John were having the same argument they’d been having since the morning after their wedding.

“John you should be the chairman,” Natsuki said one more time.

With a sigh Hull replied, “Honey look the board has already accepted you as chairwoman and it's what your father wants and my father wanted.”

“Do we always have to follow their wishes?”

“It's the price the prince and princess have to pay, Natsuki. Anyway you’re better at it than me. I’m a pilot and an engineer, not a CEO.”

“Bullshit! You run Orbital just fine!”

They went back and forth for like this for a few minutes until Hull changed the subject: “Are the contact lenses still bothering you?” As a wedding present, Hull had bought Natsuki one of the new personal computers, with contact lens screens and an ear piece for audio and neural control. The CPU itself was a little larger than a twentieth-century credit card, and fit easily in a pocket or a belt pouch. It could connect with the habitat systems by wireless network.

“A little, and don't change the subject!” said Natsuki; but she knew he was right: she would have to bear the responsibility of what was to come. Over Natsuki's objection, The board had created a subcommittee with full authority to take whatever actions necessary to win independence for the Habitat and the Moon. It was a small subcommittee with only two members: Natsuki Nakamura and John Hull.

#

Daichi Nakamura moved from the family summer home near Mount Fuji to his apartment in Tokyo, where he could more easily lobby the government. He had many friends in the various ministries and many favors he was now calling in. The meeting was informal, in the very formal way only fully understood by the Japanese. Nakamura smiled his thanks at the women dressed as a traditional geisha who poured tea for himself and an old college friend. The friend was now a member of the Diet, and part of the prime ministers’ own faction. After the geishas finished and left the room, the conversation continued.

“Old friend, I am sorry.