07:37 03/02/2588 –(8734/796/23/87)

Gabriel's conversation with Hetwa had done him a lot of good, and he would visit Nish and tell her how he felt. Not now though, he had a holiday to finish, and he was going to make the most of it.

Right now, he was aboard a ship, and there were three activities he would participate in over the coming three days; firstly, he would drive along the vast reef network that ran around the Bostri’s island chain.

The day after that, he would descend into a cage and get an up close and personal view of the shoals of Salot’s Ewort, shark-like predators from a planet called Niopret.

And on the last day, he would climb into a deep sea submersible and descend into the darkness of the ocean abyss.

Over the last couple of days, Gabriel had been taking a diving course. He was not ready to dive by himself, but he had the certification to take a long dive with a professional.

Checking his scuba gear, Gabriel found everything was fine. Oxygen was full, CO² scrubbers and oxygen extractors were functional. All contained in a pack thirty centimetres long, Gabriel could stay underwater for almost twenty-four hours if need be.

Gabriel’s chaperone for today, Polo, was swimming around the boat as he spoke. He needed no equipment for the dive; he was a member of a fully aquatic species, complete with gills, called Demsotilne. Polo had four eyes with highly developed nostrils and a pressure-sensing organ on his snout. His mouth was filled with large flat teeth, perfect for picking shelled creatures of rock and crushing them.

Polo lacked any hands or feet but instead had six flippers running along his flank. Their body was also counter-shaded, much like a dolphin.

Demsotline had not reached the stars by themselves; being bound to the water had made the creation of a highly complex civilization impossible. No matter how smart you are, no stone age species is starting a fire underwater.

Instead, they had been uplifted and provided with the technology to create their own, which was why a pair of mechanical limbs were attached to Polo’s sides.

Gabriel was now fully kitted up, with an additional mask on top of the one he already wore. “All ready on my end Polo,” Gabriel spoke into a receiver.

“Take the plunge when you are ready,” a voice rich in trembles and clicks replied.

Gabriel took one last moment to shake his legs and loosen up his muscles. It was not made easy by the flippers attached to his feet. Then he jumped.

The bubbles quickly vanished, and he was surrounded by the bright colours and innumerable animals of the reef. It was indeed a sight to behold, and it brought a tear to his eye.

“Quite a sight isn’t it,” Polo said, swimming beside Gabriel, “and no description or photograph can prepare you for the real thing.”

A school of bright blue squid-like animals swam passed them; a couple reached out their tentacles to inspect Gabriel’s mask.

“Those are Chiko, inquisitive little devils; they like shiny things, so keep an eye on your tank,” Polo said, chasing the animals away. “Not very brave, though,” Polo added as the Chiko disappeared into a large coral formation.

“Now come on, the crater's this way,” Polo said, swimming ahead, and Gabriel followed. Ob's impact crater was a fifty-kilometre-wide indentation in the planet, made by an asteroid strike that happened long before Minagerad was terraformed.

The ancient crater, while still present, was heavily eroded and covered in reefs. On a clear day, you could see it from orbit.

As the pair crested a rise, Gabriel saw a flat fish analogue, similar to a ray, glided along the bottom of the ocean to rest on one of the few rocks not covered in corals. As it did, hundreds of animals from dozens of species began to swarm over it. The ray-like animal was unperturbed and opened its mouth, and Gabriel realised they were at a cleaning station. The service animals picked off dead skin and removed bits of food from between the pseudo-ray's teeth.

Once the patron was satisfied with their service, it moved on. “Sorry Gabriel, but I’ve got to do this; it’s been years since I had a traditional clean,” Polo sat, resting on the rock; though perhaps precariously perched would have been a better descriptor, Polo was much too large for the station.

The cleaner creatures did not mind, though; they were just as eager to groom Polo as any other animal. “Pity about the suit, Gabriel or I’d recommend you get in on this,” Polo said as his eyes closed, and he shuddered with delight.

Gabriel looked Polo over and replied, “is this a sex thing for you? Because the way your acting, it looks like a sex thing.”

Stolen novel; please report.

“Is it a human thing to think about sex all the time, or is it just you?” retorted Polo.

Gabriel shrugged and said, “bit of both.”

***

Once Polo had finished both the grooming session and his moaning, they finally reached the crater's edge. Not that Gabriel could tell from where he was, the only evidence from the ocean was a decline in the seabed stretching into the distance.

“Just one-gill closer after another down here, isn’t it?” Polo said, swimming beside Gabriel. While he could not disagree, Gabriel knew the true show-stopper would be found at the centre.

There was a series of large rocky outcrops, called Ubrex’s teeth, left over from the impact and grown, over thousands of years of construction, by the reef.

It would take roughly five hours of swimming to reach the centre, and such a time would only be possible as Polo would pull Gabriel most of the way.

Once the reins were attached, Polo to the time to look directly into Gabriel’s face, all four eyes staring intently at him and said, “you say mush, swim on, or make any clicking noises, and I’m abandoning you here.”

Polo turned way before quickly turning back and asking, “does your native tongue use any clicks?”

“Some human languages do, but mine doesn’t,” Gabriel explained.

“Good, the final part of my previous sentence still applies,” Polo added and started to pull Gabriel.

Polo was most impressive; despite lugging Gabriel along, he was still moving at 9 knots. Gabriel assisted when he could, pumping his feet up and down, but he doubted it was making any real difference and, if anything, was disrupting Polo’s balance.

“If you below, you’ll see a colony of phantom quills; these worms use their long, crystal clear, weedy antenna to filter edible bits from the ocean currents,” Polo explained. Polo descended, pulling Gabriel along with him, and they swam past the quills; once their shadows hit the worms, they immediately vanished into their tubes.

“They do that to keep themselves safe from predators, the tubing is tough, fibrous, and the worms themselves are not very nutritious, so most animals don’t bother with them,” Polo added before rising again. Gabriel looked behind to see the phantom quills emerging steadily from their hiding spots.

Polo began scanning the area for another point of interest, and he found it. “If you look out into the distance, on your right, you’ll see a herd of Noso,” Polo said.

It took a little while for Gabriel to discern the shapes, his eyes were not as attuned to being underwater as Polos, and even the crystal clear water of the reef created some distortion.

He could make out a group of six to seven animals, about two metres or so in length and about as wide as a human. They looked a little like sea slugs, only with more defined body parts and a strong tail making them far better swimmers.

They were also not as colourful, though, by no means dull; their body marking were there to help them blend in, not warn potential predators of the poison in their flesh.

“They are a keystone species of the reefs, one of the few animals capable of feeding on the corals. Without them clearing patches of the seabed, new coral would not be able to grow, and the reef would not have a fifth of the diversity it has,” Polo explained, pulling Gabriel closer.

“They also crap out sand which is rather funny,” he added, making a high-pitched squeak.

The pair alternated between Polo pulling Gabriel, occasionally aided by the bow wave of a passing boat, which gave the people onboard quite the surprise. With Gabriel's free swimming about a quarter of the way, Polo was a decent athlete, but his stamina only went so far.

Six hours after they had started, they finally reached the pillars. The trip had been worth it; if you had told Gabriel that this natural wonder had been built by a sophont mind, he would have believed them.

While Polo dealt with his hunger, Gabriel was given a few minutes to explore. Gabriel was impressed; the man had gone the entire trip without a single meal. They would have stopped twice for a snack if he had been with Nish, Pista and Risoti.

Not that Nish or Pista would be down here.

Gabriel watched a small eel analogue poke its head from a crevice, but he was not paying much attention; once his mind had drifted back to Nish and Pista, he began wondering just how he should go about it.

Should he simply turn up on their doorstep, be a surprise or let them know in advance? Pista would be delighted no matter what he did, but Gabriel did not want to inconvenience Nish in any way; he knew she was a busy woman with an important job. The last thing Gabriel wanted to do was drop in on her when something important came up.

On the other hand, if the roles were reversed, Gabriel could honestly say he would not be bothered in the slightest if Nish and Pista dropped by, no matter what he had going on. Then again, Gabriel never had anything going on, so maybe that was not the aptest line of thinking.

He still had time and could always ask Hetwa for her opinion; she wasn’t going anywhere.

***

Gabriel had not seen the sun in over three hours or any light apart from that produced by his submersible. Yet Gabriel knew that a bright sunny day was taking place nearly a mile above his head.

He would be in awe of the seemingly endless blackness, but his dive had been soured by an email. Howard had contacted him again, and Gabriel was getting sick of it; it seemed he would have one extra thing to do back on Earth before he travelled to Yursu.

The email had said what the dozen others had, that he wanted the two of them to meet to discuss things. Gabriel was beginning to think that maybe Howard had a point; Gabriel was trying to have a more emotionally rich life, and there was plenty of emotion there.

Gabriel noticed a shape move past the dome, and his eyes strained to find what had come to inspect the submersible. He knew nothing out there could damage his vehicle and that it was designed to handle pressure twice as great as Minagerad’s oceans could produce. Even so, Gabriel did feel vulnerable and isolated in this cold dark place.

He also felt bad for teasing Nish so much; perhaps the landlubber had had a point.

“We are now dimming the lights,” his automated ride explained and shortly after, the only illumination in the abyss was gone. Not that there had been anything to illuminate, the only thing he had been able to see had been the beam itself and the marine snow falling from the surface.

The darkness was interrupted by a faint blue flash, almost as though a star as burst into being and vanished just as quickly. It had happened so quickly that Gabriel believed he had imagined it, but as his eyes adjusted to the dark, he saw another, then another, until the ocean was alive with lights.

Gabriel knew what this was; he remembered the tour operators explaining it, thousands upon thousands of small animals using bioluminescence to communicate with one another.

Gabriel smiled; it was beautiful.