Transition and Restart, book two: The Billion Dollar Empress

Chapter three, 2060, field trip revised, part one

Christina stared in stunned disbelief as business suit after business suit headed for the small reception. A large sign was prominently screwed to the wall. Twin Arc Production, it said. Below it a smaller sign announced workshops for middle management in English and Japanese.

Nakagawa, you bastard! Ulf was in no shape to run any classes for paying customers, and his field of expertise was very, very different from her own.

She ran up the stairs and through the corridor to the room Ulf shared with Ryu and Yukio. When she slid open the doors she could see how daylight gave way to the short dusk offered in Japan. Within a quarter of an hour it would be dark. Nothing like the endless dusks she had grown up with in another world.

Ulf lay sleeping on the tatami mats. He hadn't even bothered with pulling out a futon from the alcove where they lay stacked in wait for the night. Not that anyone would come here to make the beds tonight. They were supposed to be out camping.

Christina threw a guilty look along the corridor before she entered the room. Teenage girls weren't supposed to be this brash in Japan, but it was still long before bedtime and that gave her a bit of leeway should anyone come here.

She sat down beside him and pulled his head onto her lap. Slowly stroking his hair she revelled in the luxury of feeling the man she loved under her hands. Even asleep and riddled by nightmares he was her Ulf, her U-kun. By now she knew he loved two women. Her because she was part of his life, and his wife Maria who was left behind in that other world that was lost to them both.

That knowledge hurt more than she expected. She couldn't compete with a ghost or a memory. In a way she would always remain his second love, because there was no way for him to find closure with his first life. Maria, whoever you are, and whatever you do, I hope you were worth it, because I want him so much to be my own. Christina caressed Ulf's lips with her fingertips. Maria, I'm sorry, but I'll try to take him from you even if you're only a memory to him now.

There were tears in her face. Some of them of her own misery, and some out of concern for him.

I was going to wake you up, but sleep. Just sleep for a while longer. Reluctantly she lowered his head to the tatami mat. She brought a pillow for him and carefully cradled his head to make place for it under him. I can't get enough of you, but I have to take care of the insanity downstairs.

Christina left the room after giving him a long look. Then she made her way down to the entrance floor again. The first person she met was a ridiculously tall, young man, so beautiful she almost started laughing.

If the entrance had called up images of insanity earlier it was nothing compared to the current madness.

"Sir?" she asked a middle aged man standing behind the model. "What's going on?" Why the hell are you here?

"Ah, Ageruman-san, perfect. We'll have the shots by the waterfront tomorrow. Eight sharp fine with you?"

She stared at the producer for her shoots the last week, and then she looked at the crew carrying camera equipment inside the lobby. Nakagawa, I'm going to kick you so hard you have three Adam's apples. Dammit, Ulf's in a walking coma and needs all my help, and now you've dragged the entire set for the Uniclo job here. She wanted to scream. That job wasn't supposed to start until September, but Uniclo was way too big an opportunity for her to decline. It's like he's forcing us to hit the ground running.

But for her situation with Ulf it wouldn't have been a problem. She had managed far worse earlier, but right now. Right now she felt uncertainty and fear building up in her like it had done all those years ago when she was still a teenager trying to make it into the modelling world for the first time.