"Our Empire is a disaster."
Himari glanced nervously from side to side, but no one was nearby. "Sir," she said. "Sir, you can't just say things like that. What if someone was listening?" The local Tokketai officer was a useless drunk, but Himari couldn't afford to be marked down as politically unreliable. She needed this job.
"Absolutely nothing would happen," Captain Daisuke Mononobu told her. "You are an innocent young woman who is being forced to listen to the treasonous proclamations of a senior officer. I am a well-known troublemaker and dissident who has been exiled to the San Juan Islands. Besides, the bugs in the cafeteria malfunctioned after I beat them to death with a hammer."
She flinched, and he smiled at her. "Come, young lady. Aren't you going to ask an old man why he would criticize the glorious Japanese Empire?" Coming from a superior officer, that could almost be taken as an order. And Himari was just curious enough to ask, even though she knew it probably wasn't a good idea.
"Well," Himari said carefully. "Why would you say something like that? Hasn't our Empire brought us wealth and glory?"
Mononobu snorted. "Wealth for the few," he said. "The profits from our empire may enrich Toyota and Mitsubishi, but ordinary subjects won't see a single yen. And they're the ones who are stuck paying for all of this." His wave seemed to encompass the whole of Nagumo Naval Base, the colonists on the Islands, and the Governor-General's administration. "I have a couple of friends in the upper ranks of the Navy, so I get to see the real budget figures. The Japanese public gives us their hard-earned money to come out here and keep the locals down so that the corporations can rob them blind, and the zaibatsu get rich while the government sells war bonds to widows and orphans."
It was treason. It was wrong. It was also the only time that an officer had acknowledged her existence unless they were hitting on her. The right thing to do, the loyal thing to do, would be to get to her feet and walk away. She could eat with Commander Tanaka, who thought she would be easy just because she was a local girl.
Himari stayed in her seat.
Five months later, she was eating every meal with Mononobu, and he had started bringing her seditious history books. The rest of the garrison probably thought they were having an affair, but she didn't care what they believed. Ever since she had joined the Imperial Japanese Navy's Women's Auxiliary, her comrades had made it very clear that she wasn't really one of them.
"We truly weren't stabbed in the back during the Second World War?" It was still hard to believe, but Captain Mononobu was an actual war hero. The Emperor had personally granted him the Order of the Golden Kite, First Class. He was the Liberator of the Spratly Islands, the bold commander who had defeated the Communists and won the first great victory of the Imperial Rebirth.
Mononobu said, "Absolutely not. We decided to fight against a nation with twice our population and ten times our industry, and we lost. The Americans helped us rebuild after the war, and we repaid them by joining the Russians." He shook his head wearily, and for a moment Himari thought she could see shame in his eyes. "I was afraid of China. All of us were afraid of China. I hoped that it would be a defensive war, to protect the Home Islands against the Communists."
"But you were wrong," she said, feeling a forbidden thrill. "We went on to invade South Korea and the Philippines, and we took Hawaii, and then we fought in the California War." Himari had always known that they had won the California War. Japan had triumphed through cunning and skill and warrior spirit, all the qualities the soft Americans lacked, and their Empire would endure because they were the superior people.
Or they had been losing the war until their Russian allies arrived to save them. It would have been easy enough to dismiss the American claims, or even the Russian books, but Captain Mononobu had shown her actual published articles in the classified issues of the Navy Monitor. Whatever they told the Japanese people, the Navy knew that they had not conquered California.
"It was all a lie," Himari whispered, unwilling to speak the words out loud. "We may claim to be the Glorious Empire of the Rising Sun, but the rest of the world just sees us as Russia's junior partner."
Three months after that conversation, Himari was doing her best to get properly drunk. It had been a very long day, and Commander Tanaka kept asking if the Captain was willing to "share". In some ways, it had been easier when she thought that all of this was normal, but now she knew that Japan hadn't always been like this.
Mononobu threw back another shot, and the Captain staggered a little. Himari caught him, and he swayed against her, barely standing. The bartender gently peeled his glass out of his hand before it could fall to the floor, and he helped Himari carry Mononobu to a seat.
"Good," he muttered. "Than' you, ensign. Good woman. Too good for us. Should leave, like I should have left. Was going to, before they sent me here. Can't abandon my post now. Have to protect...protect...."
She turned to Mononobu, but his head dropped down on the table and he started snoring, slow and steady. Himari removed her jacket and put it under the Captain's head, feeling confused. Who was the Captain protecting? He didn't believe in the Empire, and the Navy had thrown him on the shore to rot. What good could he possibly do here?
The bartender put a glass in front of her, and she drank it in a single swallow, feeling the liquor burn as it slid down her throat. "Invaders," she muttered. "Bunch of second-rate imp..imperialists. It's all lies, all lies." The bartender just looked at her impassively, and she could feel her vision start to blur. "All...lies."
Two years later, she was standing on the front porch of her house, tears running down her face. They had been so proud of her. For the first time in her life, her parents had been proud of her, and she had been so happy.
"Himari? Why are you crying?" Daichi had crept up beside her, and he was looking up with concern. "Mother and Father are upset. They don't want you to be sad." He swallowed nervously. "I don't want you to be sad."
She reached down to ruffle his hair. "I'm okay, Daichi," she told him. "Go back inside, and tell Mother and Father that I'm sorry I let them down. Tell them I won't cause them any more problems." He nodded eagerly, and she watched him as he ran back indoors. Then she started walking out into the cold night, eager to be anywhere but here.
Himari was most of the way down the black when Captain Mononobu caught up with her. His face was cold and set, and something about his anger made her less furious. They walked in silence, past the waiting car and onto the long, winding road that led out into the woods. She could not go home to face her parents' disappointed anger, or back to Nagumo Base to the sneers of her "comrades".
Clouds covered the moon, and she wondered if the local Communists would show up to put her out of her misery. That wouldn't be fair to Captain Mononobu, though. He had put so much work into training her and helped her work for her promotion and now, when she was finally a Lieutenant, all of it had been snatched away.
Whore. Her comrades thought she had earned her promotion by sleeping with the Captain, and her own father had joked that she might be pregnant already. Mononobu was older than Father, and he had laughed as he gave the Captain his blessing. Because of course a woman could only serve Japan on her back.
She had worked twelve-hour days to understand the drone algorithms, to do the job that Commander Tanaka was too lazy to bother with. She had stayed up night after night reading textbooks, trying to learn how to be a proper Navy officer. And all of that work had meant less than nothing in the end.
They walked for hours through the night, even as rain began to come down. Mononobu said nothing, and Himari could feel her anger building again, choking her with worthless, futile rage. "Why?," she snapped. "Why are you still here? Who the hell are you protecting?"
The Captain looked at her with a sad smile on his face. "Daichi is a nice boy," he said. "He hasn't done anything wrong. But his parents brought him to America, and now he's a nice young Japanese boy living in a settlement."
Himari stopped walking. Her rage was gone now, and she felt very cold. "We have an evacuation plan," she whispered. "In case of emergencies, the Navy and Army will move civilians to safety..." She stopped talking.
Captain Mononobu said, "I've read the plan, Himari. It's nothing but wishful thinking. If we go to war with California, there won't be time to bring them out. We might save the settlers along the coast, but your family is too far inland." He gazed off into the distance, eyes focused on something only he could see. "I was there during the Rainbow Uprising, when the Whites went after the civilians. Back then, the rebels still had a command structure that could try to halt the worst atrocities."
He shook his head wearily. "If we had another uprising like that today, there would be no one to tell them to stop. We have spent decades terrorizing the people of Cascadia, and if our grip ever weakens they will kill every settler they can reach."
Three weeks later, Mother and Father stopped talking to their "hysterical" daughter. They refused to leave the colonies, or to allow Daichi to go back to his grandparents in the Home Islands.
Now that she knew how to manage the drones, Commander Tanaka left her alone in the command center while he ran off to drink expensive liquor and chase colony girls. Himari used his access to bring up old satellite footage of the Rainbow Uprising. When she was done, she threw up in the bathroom.
Two months later, she went to the bar again, got very drunk, and woke up with a hangover and a piece of paper in her hand.
Three years later, Himari was sitting in the command center when a missile hit the Suzuya. She sat there, frozen with horror, listening to someone calmly giving orders to the enlisted men. They sounded calm and professional, like a true officer of the Imperial Japanese Navy, and after a long moment Himari realized that the voice was her own.
Algorithms shifted, and missiles rained down from the sky. The launch site erupted in fire, and a speedboat racing across the waves disintegrated under a dozen missile strikes. Drones swept over the area, murdering fishing boats and hikers with mechanical speed and dispassion.
Suzuya was taking on water, and she could see smoke rising from the gaping hole in the center of the cruiser. Himari moved the drones into a protective pattern around the ship, cancelling the hunt. Images appeared on her screen, pictures of activity that the drones had flagged as suspicious, but she suspended their authorization for lethal force and forwarded the images to Intelligence. They needed information, not more corpses. Besides, the algorithms were notoriously inaccurate.
When helicopters finally arrived to pick up the survivors, she left the command center and went to the Captain's quarters. Mononobu held her as she cried, patting her on the back and telling her that it was all right, that it wasn't her fault. She said nothing.
Two nights later, men in black clothing stormed into Himari's quarters. She didn't utter a word of protest as they dragged her into the command center, still dressed in her nightgown. The rest of the staff were waiting there, standing stiffly at attention, and Himari did the same.
"Our comrades are dead," a man said. He was wearing full dress uniform, gleaming with gold braid and medals, and Himari watched the sword in his hand with horrified fascination. "They were killed by terrorists with Chinese weapons, weapons that never should have reached the shore. You have failed in your duty and disgraced the Navy."
It would have been better if he had shouted. But his voice was calm and even, and he sounded like Himari's favorite teacher when she had made a very foolish mistake and needed to correct it at once. The commander waved the sword, and his men dragged Commander Tanaka over to him. The commander was whimpering, a low, broken sound, and Himari wanted very badly to look away.
"You deserted your post," the Tokketai commander told him. "When we reviewed the footage, we found that it was not the first time. Your negligence has killed our Emperor's valiant sailors, and there can only be one punishment for such failure."
One of his men pressed a wakizashi into Tanaka's hands, and he stared at it in horror. The commander waited patiently as Tanaka lifted the sword, hands trembling uncontrollably, and Himari flinched as he turned it towards his stomach.
The wakizashi clattered against the ground, and Tanaka stammered, "No, wait, I can explain. It was all Lieutenant Sato's fault, she was the one who..."
Two of the black-clad Tokketai men grabbed his arms, pulling them behind his back, and a third rammed the sword into his stomach. He screamed once, a horrible sound that Himari knew she would never forget, and the commander brought the sword around in a blur. Tanaka's body toppled to the ground.
"Commander Tanaka Hirohito has committed honorable suicide to expiate his shame and apologize to the Emperor." The Tokketai commander considered the rest of them. "A negligent servant may receive a swift death. A treacherous servant, who betrays his nation and his Emperor, cannot expect such mercy."
He snapped his fingers, and his men forced Captain Mononobu to his knees. Himari took a step forward, then froze as the Tokketai officer turned to look at her. "Lieutenant Sato," he said mildly. "Do you have something to tell us?"
Mononobu shook his head. Blood dripped from the edge of the sword, and the commander took a piece of cloth from one of his soldiers and began to clean it carefully. "Captain...Captain Mononobu is a hero," she declared, forcing the words out of her throat. "He fought the Communists in the South China Sea. The Captain would never betray our Emperor."
The commander said, "I reviewed your performance during the crisis, Lieutenant Sato. You upheld the finest traditions of the Imperial Japanese Navy." He tossed the bloodstained cloth atop Tanaka's body. "But your trust and loyalty, admirable as they are, have led you astray. Captain Mononobu was a hero once, before he was corrupted by Communist lies. Now he is a traitor."
She saw Mononobu's eyes widen with terror before the black bag snapped over his head, and the secret police dragged him to his feet. Himari watched as they marched him out, unable to look away. This wasn't happening. This couldn't be happening. The Tokketai officer smiled slightly, and she couldn't stop herself from flinching away from him. "You have the command, Lieutenant. Without an incompetent and a traitor to sabotage your efforts, I think that we can expect great things from you in the future."
Fourteen hours later, she was sitting at the bar. A bottle of whisky sat temptingly on the counter, but Himari did not drink anymore. She had been cold sober for three years, but it would be so much easier to pick up the bottle and drink until she passed out.
The bartender carefully picked the bottle up and placed it beneath the bar, out of sight. He placed a glass of water in front of her, but she ignored it. The bartender looked at her with a pleasant, kindly expression. For an instant, he almost reminded her of Captain Mononobu, and she wanted to vomit. "Is something wrong, Lieutenant?"
"The Tokketai arrested Captain Mononobu," she said tonelessly. His face flickered with concern. "I am in command of Nagumo Naval Base."
The bartender said, "I'm so sorry, Lieutenant." He even sounded regretful. "I know that the Captain was a friend. Is there anything I can do for you?"
Himari said, "You should know that I won't be in here very often. I will be very busy in the weeks and months to come, and I will not have much time for conversation."
"Of course," he said smoothly. "I understand. When you do have the time, though, I would like to see you here again. I always appreciate hearing about your family."
Daichi. The Empire would fall one day, and Cascadia would burn. There was no way to save everyone, but she could protect the person she loved the most.
As if he was reading her mind, the bartender said, "I was happy to learn that your brother Daichi has a job in Seattle. It's a wonderful city, right next to the ocean." Daichi had been overjoyed when he called her. There had been more than a dozen applicants, but the interviewer had told him that he was clearly the most qualified.
He was safer now. That was what mattered. If she closed her eyes, she could still see Suzuya sinking beneath the waves. One hundred and eighty-four sailors had died before the helicopters arrived, and eleven more were in critical condition. No one had bothered to count how many Cascadians had died in the retaliatory drone strikes, and hundreds more would be shipped to labor camps as the Army made an example of the surrounding towns.
Thanks to Captain Mononobu's books, she knew exactly what the Tokketai were doing to him right now. They would rip a confession out of him, and they probably wouldn't care that all of it was a lie. Even if she went to them now, even if she told them the truth, they would never believe her.
After all, everyone knew that a woman could never accomplish anything.
