STAR III: What We Pass On
The Final Volume of the STAR Trilogy
Preface
It is said that humanity first had writing five thousand years ago.
Before that, we gathered around fire and passed knowledge, danger, and the wisdom for survival to the next generation by word of mouth. Even after the storyteller died, the words lived on in the young, and walked us to where we are now.
Even in the age of interstellar flight, the essence is unchanged.
Only, the fire we gather around has become a "communication signal," and instead of distance, an endless wall called "time" stands in our way.
In Book One, So Kamishiro clutched Martian sand in solitude.
In Book Two, Rin Moriya lived the resolve of those who send others off, designing ships.
And in this book, Book Three, I portray those who receive the "light" they left behind and pass the baton further on.
Those with the gene that only three in a thousand carry, and the 99.7% who watched over them.
I would be grateful if you would witness to the end the journey of those who kept reaching for an invisible star.
Prologue Poem
Three in a thousand
Among them
Those whose genes
catch that timing
are invited
to go beyond
— from the Stars
Prologue: Inheritance
Humanity first had writing five thousand years ago.
Before that, we told.
We gathered before the fire, and the old told the young. Where the beasts were, which plants were poison, which direction the sea lay.
What was told remained even after the teller died.
Even in the age of interstellar flight, it hadn't changed.
Only, instead of fire, there was signal.
Instead of distance, there was time.
What the old handed to the young was not words, but light.
PART ONE: THE HAND THAT PASSES (Mars, 2140-2152)
Chapter 1: Kai at Fifty-Four
Kai Kamishiro was fifty-four.
The communications center on Mars was larger than it had been twenty years ago. More staff. But Kai's desk hadn't changed. The old desk closest to the southwest window. Ever since he heard that Rin Moriya looked southwest every morning, Kai did the same.
Outside the window stretched the Martian desert. Development had progressed, and silhouettes of habitation domes could be seen on the horizon. Still, the color of the sky hadn't changed. Salmon pink. Ever since Kai was born.
It had been eleven years since Sota's ship, Exo-Ark 2, had been sent off.
Twelve more years to its destination, Tau Ceti.
Sota was in cold hibernation now.
Kai had one young subordinate. Her name was Tomo Tanaka. Twenty-two, born on Earth. Three years on Mars. Big eyes, lots of questions.
"Kamishiro-san, how often do signals from Sota-san come?"
"Once a month during hibernation, auto-transmission. Just numerical data. When they wake up, voices will come."
"They wake up two years before arrival, right?"
"Yes. Ten years from now."
Tomo calculated. "When you're sixty-four."
"That's right."
"Will you be able to receive it?"
Kai looked at Tomo. "Why do you ask that?"
"Ah... sorry." Tomo looked down. "That was rude."
"No," Kai said after a pause. "It's an honest question. Whether I can receive it or not, I don't know. But someone will receive it. That's enough."
That night Kai wrote in his diary.
So wrote a diary, Rin wrote a diary, and Kai wrote one too. Not for anyone to see. But he wrote.
"Tomo asked me if I can receive it. At sixty-four, I'll probably be fine. But the reply from Sota will come four years after that. Seventy-four or sixty-eight, I still feel like I'll be around. The problem is what comes after. What Sota finds at Tau Ceti, what he sends. When that signal arrives, will I still be here? If not, I have to pass it on."
Chapter 2: Tomo's Genes
Tomo Tanaka's genetic results arrived in the spring of her fourth year on Mars.
CHRM2 — positive. DRD4 — positive. NOVA1 — positive.
All three.
Tomo stared at the result, unable to move.
An invitation to an interview came from the Foundation. Tomo accepted.
The interviewer was a gentle elderly woman.
"How do you feel?"
"I'm scared," Tomo said honestly. "I have a feeling I'll have to go."
"Do you not want to go?"
"I want to go. But I'm scared. Both at the same time."
The interviewer smiled a little. "That's normal. Rather, that is the characteristic of a Protein Behavior. It's not that there's no fear, it's that fear and excitement come at the same time."
"Was So Kamishiro like that too?"
"According to records, that's what he said. That scary things are interesting."
Tomo reported to Kai.
Kai listened and looked out the window for a while.
"Congratulations," Kai said.
"Kamishiro-san..." Tomo said carefully. "...Do you envy me?"
Kai was silent for a while.
"Twenty years ago, I did a little. But not now. I've been useful by being here. I sent Sota off. I'll send you off too, surely."
"Will you be the one to send me off?"
"Me, or someone after me," Kai looked at Tomo. "But if possible, I'd like it to be me."
That night Tomo went outside.
She felt like she was properly looking at the Martian night sky for the first time.
Countless stars. They didn't twinkle. Quiet.
She didn't know which one was Tau Ceti.
But it is there.
Maybe she would go there.
That feeling was scary, and interesting.
Chapter 3: A Letter from Akea
In the fall of 2142, a signal arrived from Akea.
Kake Kamishiro, eighty-four.
"To Kai. How are you? I'm well here. The Rin Moriya Laboratory is now in its fourteenth year since its founding. There are twelve young researchers. All children born here on Akea.
They don't know Earth or Mars. This blue sky and the two suns of Centaurus are all that's normal to them.
What's interesting is that they are very interested in stories of Earth's night sky. They look at old photos of the blue planet and say 'pretty.' I was the same. I thought photos of the red sky of Mars were pretty. Maybe distant places always look pretty.
One report.
The other day, we discovered organic compounds in a stratum. Carbon chains close to a biological structure. Not confirmed. But similar in nature to the carbon isotope anomaly my great-great-grandfather found on Mars. Perhaps the material for life is more widely scattered across the universe than we thought.
Or perhaps life was born only once and scattered its seeds across the universe.
Either way, we don't know yet. But I think the day we understand will come.
Please stay well.
I'm praying for Sota. By the time this arrives, he may have already arrived."
Kai finished listening to the recording and called Tomo.
"Listen again."
Tomo listened silently.
"Organic compounds," Tomo said. "This is..."
"Yeah," Kai said. "Maybe what lies ahead of what So found on Mars."
Tomo looked into space.
"Is the universe full of life?"
"I don't know. But," Kai looked out the window, "not knowing is a reason to go."
PART TWO: THE VOICE THAT ARRIVES (En Route to Tau Ceti, 2152)
Chapter 4: Sota Awakens
Sota Miyauchi awoke from hibernation at a point with 1.8 light-years remaining to Tau Ceti.
The first thing he thought of the moment his eyes opened was Sensei Rin.
The monitor on the hibernation pod displayed the current date. 2151. Twenty-two years since departure.
Sota was fifty-nine.
It took thirty minutes to sit up. His muscles had stiffened. The medical team stayed with him, moving him little by little. The ship was quiet. Two hundred and ninety-nine were still asleep. Only eight on management duty were awake now.
"How about Sensei's obituary?" Sota asked the medical team leader.
"Rin Moriya-sensei? She passed away in 2101. Seven years after departure."
Sota closed his eyes. He had known. He had calculated it before departure. But knowing it as a number and hearing it spoken aloud were different.
"She was ninety-one. She was designing until the very end, I hear."
"I see," Sota said. "That sounds like her."
Lying in bed, looking at the ceiling, Sota thought.
Outside the hull is a universe flowing at nineteen percent of light speed. Stars look slightly blue-shifted. Stars ahead look slightly bluer, stars behind slightly redder. Doppler effect. The ship Rin designed is running toward light.
He recorded a signal to Mars.
"Kai-kun. It's Sota. I woke up. Everyone's fine. Sensei's design was perfect even after twenty-two years. Nothing broken. Valve A-17 was fine too. I want to report to Sensei. But since I can't reach her, I'm telling you. Sensei's work was the real thing.
Two more years to Tau Ceti. I think I finally truly understand for the first time here the beauty of design that Rin-sensei taught me. What it means to keep moving in space.
Please stay well."
It will take twelve years for the signal to arrive.
It will reach Kai when Sota is seventy-one.
Kai will be sixty-six then.
Chapter 5: The Light of Tau Ceti
In 2153, Exo-Ark 2 entered the Tau Ceti system.
The first thing Sota saw from the window was an orange light.
Tau Ceti is a little smaller and a little cooler than the Sun. Its light was a deeper orange than the Sun's yellow.
Sota couldn't make a sound.
Light that took twenty-four years to come was now shining on his face.
The primary candidate planet had been called Tau Ceti e, as seen from Earth. The plan was to give it another name once here.
Sota called for a vote on the name from all crew. Three hundred proposals came in.
The one that gathered the most votes was the word "Nagi." In Japanese, the state where the sea is becalmed. The quiet surface after a storm.
Sota agreed.
"It's decided as Nagi," Sota said in front of everyone. "On a ship designed by Rin Moriya-sensei, inheriting the spirit of So Kamishiro-san, we came here. A quiet place beyond the storm. I think Nagi is right."
Applause broke out.
On descent day, Sota looked out the window.
Nagi was approaching. It wasn't blue. Greenish gray. Thin atmosphere. Liquid water reaction confirmed underground. The surface was full of rocks, strong winds.
Hard to call it beautiful.
But Sota thought. So-san, Rin-san, Kake-san, there must have been places they wouldn't call beautiful. And yet they were there.
Beauty comes later.
They landed.
Sota put on his spacesuit, opened the hatch, and descended the ramp.
He placed his feet on rocky ground.
Wind could be felt through the suit.
Sota thought of Sensei Rin.
On the ground his feet were stepping on, Sensei's design had arrived. Sensei couldn't come. But it came.
That's what it is, Sota thought.
What is passed on does arrive.
Chapter 6: Discovery on Nagi
Three months after arriving at Nagi, Sota's team began surveying the underground water vein.
When the drill reached forty meters underground, water came out.
Liquid water. Water warmed by geothermal heat, containing many minerals. Undrinkable, but there.
At a point dug deeper, a strange pattern was found in the bedrock.
Regular holes.
Like the burrows of a living thing.
While writing the report, Sota thought of So.
The person who found the carbon isotope anomaly on Mars. Organic compounds found on Akea. And on Nagi, these holes.
They might be unrelated. But they might be connected.
He recorded a signal to Mars.
"Kai-kun, it's Sota. Three months since we arrived at Nagi. I have a report. We discovered an underground water vein. And... there is a regular hole structure in the bedrock. Whether it's of biological origin, we don't know yet. But I feel it's similar to what So found on Mars.
Maybe there is more in this universe than we imagine. Or there was. Or maybe the material for life is everywhere.
All still unknown. But I want to know. That feeling hasn't changed at all even after twenty-four years.
Please look after Tomo-kun. She had good eyes."
This signal will reach Kai in twelve years.
When Sota is seventy-two, Kai is sixty-eight.
If Sota were to receive its reply, he would be eighty-four.
Whether it arrives or not, he doesn't know.
But he sends it.
PART THREE: THE HAND THAT PASSES, THE HAND THAT RECEIVES (Mars, 2152-2165)
Chapter 7: Kai at Sixty-Six
The signal of "I woke up" from Sota arrived in the summer of 2163.
Kai Kamishiro was sixty-six.
When he received the signal at the center, Tomo was beside him. Tomo, now thirty-two, was now the team leader. Kai had handed over most of the actual work to Tomo in the last two years.
"Kamishiro-san," Tomo said. "It's Sota-san's voice."
"I hear it."
Sota's voice hadn't changed.
He should be twenty-two years older, but the emotion in his voice was the same as the Sota in Kai's memory.
At the words "Valve A-17 was fine too," Kai narrowed his eyes.
Sensei Rin. It reached you properly.
He recorded a reply.
"Sota-san, it's Kai. I turned sixty-six. I'm well. You already heard about Sensei's passing, right? I'll tell you her last words. It was written in her diary. 'I built a ship. The ship went. Where it went, another ship will be built. That will be enough.' The fact that you woke up means it became exactly as she said.
Tomo-kun is working hard. She's a Protein Behavior. She will someday board a ship. I don't know if I can send her off, but someone will.
I'm looking forward to the report from Nagi."
After finishing recording, Kai looked at Tomo.
"Were you listening?"
"Yes."
"Let me pass on Sensei's words to you too," Kai said. "I received a signal. You will receive the next signal. That's enough."
Tomo paused a little. "Kamishiro-san, did you really want to go?"
Kai laughed. "I wanted to go. But I liked it here. This red sky. The moment I received Sota-san's signal. That was enough."
Chapter 8: Sota's Signal Arrives
The first report from Sota from Nagi arrived in the fall of 2165.
Discovery of an underground water vein. And regular holes in bedrock.
Kai was sixty-eight.
When he came to the center, Tomo was already waiting.
"It's here. From Sota-san."
"Let's listen."
He heard Sota's voice.
When he heard about the holes in the bedrock, Kai leaned back deeply in his chair.
So's discovery on Mars. Kake's organic compounds on Akea. Sota's holes on Nagi.
Dots may be about to become a line.
"Tomo," Kai said.
"Yes."
"You record the reply."
Tomo looked surprised. "Me?"
"When Sota sends the next signal, I don't know if I'll be here. You should reply with your voice."
"...Understood."
Tomo thought for a moment and then began recording.
"Sota-san, nice to meet you. My name is Tomo Tanaka. I'm Kamishiro-san's subordinate. I'm a Protein Behavior, I think I'll someday go somewhere. I heard about the holes in the bedrock. Kamishiro-san next to me narrowed his eyes. Maybe from So's discovery more than a hundred years ago, dots are about to become a line. Kamishiro-san told me you said to look after Tomo-kun. Thank you. Maybe someday I can go see what you're seeing."
After finishing recording, Tomo looked at Kai.
"Was it okay?"
"It was good," Kai said. "It will reach Sota-san in twelve years. When Sota-san is eighty-four, you'll be forty-four."
"How about Kamishiro-san?"
"Eighty. Probably, I'm still here."
"Then let's listen together," Tomo said.
Kai laughed. "Yes."
Chapter 9: The Night of Passing
In the winter of 2166, Kai Kamishiro decided to retire.
He was sixty-nine.
On his last day at work, Tomo brought flowers. Small white flowers grown in a greenhouse on Mars.
"Flowers grown on Mars somehow have a stronger scent than those on Earth," Tomo said. "Maybe because the atmosphere is thin, they volatilize more easily."
"Sensei Rin said the same thing," Kai said. "It was in the records. That Martian plants are tough."
Kai took a notebook out of his desk drawer.
"It's a diary. I've been writing it. So-san wrote, Sensei Rin wrote, I wrote. You write too."
"About what?"
"Anything. Just write. Someone will read it someday. Even if no one reads it. But write."
Tomo accepted the notebook with both hands.
"Kamishiro-san," Tomo said after hesitating a little, "aren't you scared? Retiring, no longer receiving signals."
"I'm scared," Kai said frankly. "I do think what if I die before Sota-san's reply comes. But—"
Kai looked out the window.
"Sota-san's signal is flying through space even if I don't receive it. You will receive it. That's enough. Words I learned from Sensei Rin."
On his last night, Kai went outside.
The Martian sky was clear tonight as well.
Countless stars.
To the southwest, there is a trace of the sun setting. He looked for three seconds toward Centaurus, where Kake is.
And then for three seconds toward Tau Ceti, where Sota is.
Kake is there, Sota is there, on their respective stars.
He was here. Always here.
And that was okay.
Kai looked up at the sky.
Even after sixty-nine years, he still didn't know which stars were visible and which were invisible.
But all are there. Even if you can't see them, they are there.
And he passed it on.
To Tomo, he passed it on.
He passed on the light.
Epilogue: As Many as the Stars
Tomo Tanaka was forty-five.
The third report from Sota arrived that spring. Sota, eighty-four. His voice was old, but clear.
"Tomo-kun. Are you receiving? About the holes in the bedrock of Nagi, analysis has progressed. Traces of organic molecules containing carbon were attached to the inner walls of the holes. It seems to have been generated through a different pathway from the organic compounds on Akea. That is, similar processes may have occurred in different places. The material for life may be ubiquitous in the universe. Or life itself. No conclusion yet. But we're getting close.
How is Kai-kun? Is he still writing his diary? You write too, Tomo-kun.
You will someday go somewhere, won't you. Before you go, give me a signal. That's all I ask."
Tomo listened to the recording alone at the center.
Kai Kamishiro had died four years earlier. He was seventy-one. Two years after retirement. He passed away before Sota's reply arrived.
Tomo held Kai's diary, the notebook he had handed to her on the day of his retirement.
On the last page, written in Kai's familiar hand, it said:
"When Sota-san's reply comes, Tomo will probably receive it. That's fine. I passed it on. What is passed on does arrive."
Tomo recorded a reply.
"Sota-san. It's Tomo. I received it. Kamishiro-san passed away four years ago. But I have the diary he entrusted to me. It said he knew I would receive Sota-san's reply. I received it.
About the traces of organic molecules — I wanted Kai-san to hear it. But surely he knows. Somewhere.
I will head to Epsilon Eridani on Exo-Ark 3 next year. 10.5 light-years from the Sun. A different system, a direction humanity has never gone.
I will take Kamishiro-san's diary and Sota-san's words with me. And the memory of the red sky of Mars.
I will send a signal. Please wait. I hope I can send something while Sota-san can still receive it.
I will properly take what I was given."
After finishing recording, Tomo went outside.
It was a Martian night.
The air was thin, a spacesuit was necessary.
Stars were incredibly clear.
Southwest, toward Centaurus, where Kake is.
Another direction, Tau Ceti, where Sota is.
And Epsilon Eridani, in the constellation Eridanus—the direction she will go.
She knew that Kai looked southwest for three seconds every morning.
It was in Kai's diary that Sensei Rin did so too.
Tomo looked southwest for three seconds toward Centaurus.
Then she looked for three seconds toward Tau Ceti.
And then for three seconds toward Epsilon Eridani.
All are there.
Even if you can't see them, they are there.
Someone is there, someone is heading there, someone is waiting.
She read the story of the fisherman in Kai's diary.
That So Kamishiro's great-great-grandfather had been a man who took his boat out even on stormy nights.
That he was a man who said scary things are interesting.
That blood does not flow in Tomo.
But those words were passed on.
From diaries, from mouths, from signals, from light.
Words that are passed on live in the next person, just like blood.
Tomo looked up at the sky.
She didn't know which stars were visible and which were still invisible.
But all are there.
As many as there are stars, there are reasons to go.
As many as there are stars, there are reasons to wait.
As many as there are stars, there are things to pass on.
Next year, she will board a ship.
Scary.
Interesting.
That's enough.
THE END
After This Trilogy
In Book One, So departed for Mars, in Book Two Rin and Kai lived the story of those who send off, and in Book Three Tomo heads for the next departure.
The theme of "passing on" is a story about genes and also about words. The NOVA1 variant is inherited by 0.3% of people. But the phrase "scary things are interesting" can be passed to those who don't have the gene. As was the case with Tomo.
The question that runs through this trilogy is one:
Are there invisible stars?
The answer is, there are. Even if you can't see them, they are there. If you go, you can see them. Even if you can't go, someone will go. If someone goes, light will come. If light comes, someone else will want to go again.
That loop carries humanity to the stars.
The 0.3% and the 99.7%, each in their own roles.
As many stories as there are stars.
These three books are just one entrance to them.
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Afterword
I have finally been able to complete this work, the final volume of the STAR trilogy. I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to all readers who have accompanied me this far.
The question that runs through this story has consistently been "Are there invisible stars?"
The universe is too vast, and human lifespan too short. Even if you send a communication at the speed of light, by the time a reply arrives, the person who sent it may no longer be in this world. At first glance, that may seem like a hopeless dystopia.
However, I wanted to depict in it "the most beautiful act of being human."
Kai Kamishiro ended his life under the Martian sky without hearing Sota's definitive analysis with his own ears. But he was not lonely. He was able to reliably hand over his own words, and the diary he received from So and Rin, to the next generation, Tomo.
Even if there is no genetic connection, even if blood does not flow, we can connect our will through words, through light. The reckless and beautiful soul of the pioneer that said "scary things are interesting" transcended time and space in this way.
This real world we live in is also a future at the end of a baton that our predecessors risked their lives to pass to us.
It is my hope that when you close this book and look up at the night sky, the small "tomo-shibi" — the little lamp — that they passed on will light up a little in your chest.
