Aoko looked up at the green clouds and sighed, letting the cool breeze caress her face. Her toes curled around the springs of grass growing from the ground and dug into the soft ground. Smiling softly, she fell back onto the ground and lay there staring at the brilliant blue of the set as it began to set.
'Why would anyone ever leave beautiful Ama for boring, polluted, Earth? Ama is the last hope for civilization. Ama is all the best points of humanity. Ama is my home.' She thought as the sun sunk lower in the yellow sky, making it take on a greenish hue.
Her spider-silk white dress did little to block the feel of the ground, which was softer than cotton.
"Aoko!" Keiko called from a distant, her own dress hitched up around her upper thighs and three large purple fish hanging by their tails in her hand. "Aoko!"
"I'm coming!" the girl in question said and stood up before darting off towards her friend. Laughing, she jumped the last ten meters to land beside her friend in a cloud of white dust. A blade of orange grass was in her hair and Keiko used her free hand to pull it out.
"Daydreaming again, Aoko?" Keiko asked with a smile.
"Not so much. I was watching the sunset. You think this is enough?" Aoko asked, motioning towards the fish.
"Probably, half the girls in our cabin have invados set up for tonight. Why don't you ever go out, Aoko?" Keiko asked while they were on the topic and Aoko sighed, it was a conversation they had too often.
"I'm not ready yet, Keiko. And I enjoy being a virgo." Aoko said and Keiko gave a long suffering sigh, but dropped the argument.
"Fine then, Aoko. The newest bunch came in today. Refugees, they said. According to the High Counsel, they have excellent genetics, so they're being permitted to stay. But they aren't allowed to be a part of the Counsel or give any opinions on Opinion Day or even talk about Earth at all. That way, they say the pollution won't be able to spread here. I heard, if they speak about Earth at all, then they'll be killed or sent back, which is as good as a death sentence right now." Keiko said and Aoko wrung her hands fretfully.
"Refugees from Earth are here? I can't believe it." Aoko said
"Well it's true. A couple are our age and three or four are in the boys cabin right next to ours. I think Ran and Kazuha have their sights set on two of them. That's good at least, they're as bad as you. Akako had her eyes on the blond one too, which was strange. I'm surprised she hasn't made a move yet." Keiko rambled off and Aoko smiled, nodding when appropriate while her mind raced ahead.
'From Earth. People from Earth here on Ama, being allowed to say on Ama. They will kill the planet with their old ways, they will kill civilization. They will kill humanity. They will kill us.'
Finally, they made it back their cabin and pushed aside the curtain before walking in. They carried the fish past the rows of cots and into the joint section of the boys' and girls' cabins where the kitchen, common room, and pleasure quarters were.
"Ran! We brought back fish!" Keiko called and the girl appeared, a handsome man hanging around her elbow.
"Oh, I'm sorry. Did we interrupt you? I'm sure we could handle the cooking if you're going to be busy." Keiko said immediately upon seeing the man.
"No, no, it's quite alright. This is Shinichi; he's one of the refugees from Earth. He was telling me about the shuttle ride here." Ran said and the man smiled, extending his hand for them to shake. The two girls did so in turn.
"I'm Keiko and this is Aoko. It's very nice to meet you, Shinichi. Are you going to help us cook?" Keiko said and Shinichi smiled.
"Actually, I was already stuck with cooking for the boys' cabin. Apparently, I've got more skill than either Heiji or Kaito and Saguru is, um, otherwise occupied." Shinichi said, the last part accompanied by a blush.
"No reason to be embarrassed, Shinichi. They publicly encourage us to do things like that here." Aoko said.
"Either way, I'll take these and have dinner done in about an hour. I've been helping Shinichi in here also, even if he says he has the most skill, he's got little to one, which makes me wonder about the rest of them. You two should go into the common room, Heiji and Kaito are in there and Kaito is still having fun with our lighter gravity. The other three are wearing anklets. Show them, Shinichi." Ran said, nudging the man and he lifted up the hem of his pants to reveal a heavy lead anklet around each ankle. They anklets had been designed to help Earth tourists (and, more recently, refugees fleeing from the carnage of World War IIX) adjust to the much lighter gravity of Ama.
Okay then, we'll see you later, Ran!" Keiko said and Ran and her friend disappeared into the kitchen. Keiko then turned to Aoko. "Alright, Aoko. Go in there and talk with them, okay? I'll be back before Ran comes back, I'm going to see Shiro for a couple of minutes. Don't tell anyone, okay?"
Aoko nodded and Keiko kissed her cheeks in gratitude before running down the hall toward the pleasure quarters. Aoko sighed and walked into the common room. Sitting on the small couch was a dark skinned man who was only wearing pants and leaning against his stomach from her place on the ground was Kazuha. They were both looking up at the ceiling, where a third man who looked very similar to Ran's Shinichi was crawling around like a spider.
"What in the world?" Aoko said and Kazuha and the dark skinned man looked over.
"Aoko! Did you and Keiko bring back dinner?" Kazuha asked and Aoko nodded.
"Yes, we got some fish, though I'm afraid I wasn't much help. How...?" Aoko trailed off and pointed to the man on the ceiling who was laughing at them now.
"That's Kaito. This is Heiji. They just got here from Earth." Kazuha said.
"Nice to meet'cha." The man on the couch, Heiji, drawled. He pointed up. "He defied the laws of gravity on Earth. With less of them to break here, it's a wonder he has flown away yet."
"You're no fun, Heiji." Kaito said, jumping down off the ceiling to land gracefully as any native Amaite would before her.
"Aoko, right? I'm bored in her with the lovebirds, mind showing me around?" he said, seemingly just as at ease on the ground as he had been on the ceiling.
"Ah, sure." She answered as the other two loudly denied their positions as lovebirds.
He took her hand and she felt a blush unwillingly creep along her cheeks.
The walked off into the oncoming night.