The galley was already packed by the time Henry showed up for breakfast. A line had formed at the canteen that stretched all the way out into the nearby hallway, and Henry joined it at the end with his stomach rumbling. Mercifully, it moved along quickly, and before long he found himself holding a tray loaded down with an “American” style breakfast: synthmeat sausage and buttermilk biscuits, with a thick, gray gravy poured over both along with a few cinnamon apple slices on the side.

Why’s it called American? Is American a city on Mars? Or Europa, maybe?

Rich breakfast smells greeted him as he walked into the dining area adjacent to the canteen. Dozens of tables were spread across it, all already stuffed elbow to elbow with people and their trays. Henry scanned the room, searching for any available seats, then spotted one in the far corner across from someone who looked familiar.

Kaya was utterly focused on her meal and thus didn’t notice Henry as he approached her table. She looked up with startled surprise when he plopped himself down across from her.

“Hey, aren’t you from Mars?” he asked.

She blinked at him several times. “...Sure. You can sit there. Thanks for asking.”

“Yeah, so you’re from Mars, right? Why’s this stuff called American style?”

“Why would I know that?” she asked, frowning.

“Isn’t American a city on Mars?”

“I’m not an expert on Martian cities just because I’m a Martian.”

“What do you mean?”

“...What do you mean? Do you know everything about where you’re from?”

Henry speared a gravy covered sausage with his fork and popped it into his mouth, then chewed it slowly, thinking.

“No, I guess not,” he said through a mouthful of food.

Kaya rolled her eyes and began to poke at her food with her fork. “I don’t think American is a city in the first place. I’m fairly sure it was a country on Earth.”

“Oh, okay.”

She looked up. “Since we’re asking questions…why don’t you tell me what’s really going on? Do you honestly expect us to believe none of you knew?”

“And by you, you mean…?”

“You, Ioane and Zhu.”

Henry shrugged. “I can’t speak for them, but I didn’t have a single fucking clue about any of this before going into hibernation. I’m just as surprised as you are.”

“Hmm. Well, that’s pretty convenient. The captain dies and Zhu suddenly takes control of the ship. Then the news about the planets. And the message from Sol.”

“You think he had it all planned?”

“I don’t know.” She paused, staring at him intently. “Do you?”

“You were the one in charge of the hibernation creches, right? Did you notice anything wrong with them before you put us to sleep? Or with the captain?”

“...No,” she admitted.

“Well, there you go.”

“But why did he seem so indifferent?” she blurted out. “Zhu didn’t care at all about our casualties.”

For some reason, Henry instantly thought of the ribbons he’d seen on Zhu’s uniform when they first met.

“I think he’s just used to it,” he said. “Taking casualties. I don’t know him that well, but I do know he’s seen a lot of action. And he’s in charge, y’know. Demonstrating bravery is part of that.”

Kaya stared at him in silence for a few moments before her attention returned to her food.

“Maybe you’re right. It’s just….”

She shook her head. “It’s a lot to take in at once. I thought I’d be delivering babies and giving shots for the next fifteen years. Instead I had four deaths within the first five minutes.”

Henry fell silent, not quite sure how to respond. He cut a slice out of the gravy-covered biscuit on his tray and took a bite. It was certainly delicious, but he felt somewhat guilty to be eating something so indulgent before lunch. When he looked at Kaya again she seemed to be lost in thought, staring motionlessly at her tray.

“If you could be any kind of tree, what kind would you be?”

She blinked, then looked up at him with complete bafflement. “...What? What did you just ask me?”

“I’d be a Sequoia. You know what that is? They went extinct back on Earth, but they used to be massive. They were like...a kilometer tall. Man…just imagine the three pointers you could sink with that much height. You’d be an instant basketball star, any pro team would sign you.”

“Ugh,” Kaya groaned. “Please, spare me the sports talk. I hear enough of it at home.”

Henry laughed. “Alright. So answer the question.”

“Why is it you know so much about extinct trees but don’t know anything at all about extinct countries?”

“Because countries are boring, now answer me!”

“And trees aren’t? Oh, whatever. What kind of tree would I be…?”

She stared up at the ceiling for a few moments, thinking it over.

“When I was a kid there were these big willow trees in the park,” she said, half-smiling. “With these really long, thin branches and thick green leaves that hung down all around like—like one of those ancient hoop skirts. Whenever mom was late coming home from work I would go to the park with my phone and wait underneath one of those willows. It was really…comfortable, laying there in the grass beneath that dome of leaves. Like being in my own little world. If I had to be a tree I’d want to be one of them.”

“Willow,” Henry said solemnly, nodding. “That’s a solid choice.”

A frustrated sigh suddenly left her. She began to eat again, this time at a quickened pace, as though she wanted to escape before Henry could ask any more questions.

“Did you see that there’s a lounge right across from where our hibernation creches are?” he asked.

“Mhm.”

“I was going to check it out after our shift is over. Do you want to come along? There’s usually a bunch of fun stuff to do there. Movies, games, foosball…if we’re lucky it might even have alcohol.”

She raised an eyebrow. “...I’m not sure my wife would like it if I ran off to have fun without her.”

He blinked. “What’s her name?”

“Sam.”

“So bring Sam along. Three’s company, too.”

A small frown crossed her face as she studied him, but after a few moments she gave him a light shrug.

“Sure. Why not? When should we meet up?”

“How does an hour after work sound?”

“That should be fine. Just please don’t ask any more stupid questions about trees.”

“Okay, but I’m full of stupid questions. For example, would you rather own a phone the size of an elephant, or an elephant the size of a phone?”

“An elephant the size of a phone,” she replied instantly. “That sounds adorable. How is that even a question? Who would ever need a phone that big?”

“Probably a person three times the size of an elephant.”

Her eyes rolled as she got to her feet.

“I’ll see you at the bridge, Forger.”

“Later,” he grinned.

----------------------------------------

The strong smell of freshly brewed coffee wafted down the hallway from the bridge as Henry approached. He wrinkled his nose at it.

God, that stuff smells bad.

Loud chatter filled the room as he walked inside, and he immediately noticed that every station in the crew pit now had at least one person sitting by it. There didn’t seem to be much going on at the moment, however—most people were simply talking with one another, paying little attention to their terminals. Kaya and Genevieve were seated together at one of the stations in the middle of the crew pit, though in their particular case Genevieve seemed to be the one doing most of the talking. Sevchenko was also present at the communications station, chatting with the two people sitting beside him at a nearby station.

Ioane stood alone at the captain’s station, sipping from an overly large black mug. The source of the smell sat on the desk right next to him—a bulky brewing machine, positioned beside one of the captain’s terminals, containing a single large pot of coffee. Several mugs also sat in a neat row closeby.

He turned towards the hallway door when he heard Henry approaching and nodded to him in greeting.

“Hey, Red,” Ioane said. “How was breakfast?”

Red?

“Good, sir.”

“Want some coffee? It’s Zhu’s own brew. He won’t mind.”

“No thanks, I’m not really a coffee person.”

“Heh. I wasn’t either until I made it onto Zhu’s staff. Now I don’t feel awake in the morning until I’ve had two cups.”

He paused to take a sip, then nodded towards Sevchenko. “You should send him to get breakfast. He replaced Becker so she could go eat.”

“Sevchenko,” Henry called out, waving him over.

Sevchenko looked up after hearing his name, then stood up and walked over towards the captain’s station.

“Sir?”

“Go get something to eat,” Henry said. “I’ll keep an eye on the terminal.”

“Hey, thanks, sir!” he grinned.

Ioane and Henry both watched as he walked off the bridge.

“What do you think?” Ioane asked.

“About him? He’s alright. But my other commo geek, Becker, seems a little…cranky?”

“Nah,” Ioane said. “She does give off that impression, but she’s really not. She’s just got that look.”

Henry raised an eyebrow at him.

“She’s the daughter of an old business partner of mine. I got her this job for his sake. That ain’t to say she’s not good, though, she’s fully qualified. Just needed the right connections to get onboard the Vanuatu.”

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

“Oh.”

“Yeah. In fact, knowing Zhu is how I got onboard myself. I resigned from the service five years ago and went right into the crystal wine exporting business. Made quite a bit of money, too, for a few years, then Zhu called me up and asked me to be his XO for this thing. I said sure, so long as I can also take a crack at the business end of the operation.”

This guy likes to hear himself talk.

“Oh, nice,” Henry said. “Where is Admiral Zhu, by the way?”

“Down at the shuttle bay. He’s supervising the installation of the aquatic landing kits. My guess is we’re gonna end up seeing the surface of this planet here within the next hour or so.”

“Really? Who’s going down?”

“Kotel, Agarwa and a few of the other nerds. Action is coming, as the saying goes.”

Henry barely managed to keep his eyes from rolling. “...Yep.”

Ioane took another sip. “Zhu was telling me you’re a former aerospace jock.”

“That’s right, sir.”

“See any action?”

Henry nodded. “At Titania.”

“Heh,” Ioane smirked. “Well that’s not too surprising. Zhu and I were there fifteen years ago as part of the occupation forces.”

“You mean ninety-five years ago.”

“Ugh, don’t remind me. Anyways, that whole place has always been a dumpster fire. Probably always will be, too.”

Just like Luna, right?

“Maybe you’re right.”

“I’m always right, Red, I outrank you.”

“Yeah, roger, sir.”

“You know Zhu’s been talking you up quite a bit?”

Henry reacted with surprise. “...No. What’d he say?”

“Well he thinks you’re pretty high-speed. Personally I already have my doubts, but I suppose we’ll see. He’s always had the eye when it comes to people who are destined for further advancement.”

“Am I destined for further advancement?” Henry asked wryly.

Ioane scoffed. “Red, take it from me. Being Zhu’s protégé is fucking exhausting. But he’s the best there is. There’s no better way to advance your career, so long as you got the stuffing.”

The door to the hallway opened behind them, and Ioane and Henry both turned to look. Zhu stepped onto the bridge and briefly scanned it in silence, then made a beeline for the coffee machine.

“Speak of the devil,” Ioane muttered under his breath.

Zhu grabbed a mug and began to pour himself some coffee.

“What a joy it is to be comprehended,” he said.

Ioane laughed. “You’re welcome.”

“Do you want some?” Zhu asked Henry.

“Uh…,” Henry waffled, looking between Ioane and Zhu. “...Yeah. Sure. Thank you, sir.”

Ioane looked quite amused as Henry accepted a mug from Zhu, but said nothing. Henry sipped from it, doing his best not to cringe from the temperature and overwhelming flavor.

Tastes like burnt dirt.

“Kotel should be leaving any moment, now,” said Zhu.

“Any problems?” Ioane asked.

“No, not with her. I just wonder if the scientists are up for this.”

“Hm. Suppose they’re gonna have to be.”

Zhu took a sip from his mug, then raised his voice to be heard over the chatter in the crew pit.

“Quiet down! Miss Minh, open the traffic controller’s frequency. Let’s listen in as they head out. And Mister Chukwu, give us a camera angle on the shuttle for when it leaves. Cast it to the center viewscreen.”

The chatter from the crew pit died down, and people began to turn towards the windows in anticipation. The center window that had been providing a view of the stars turned opaque in the blink of an eye, then displayed an external video feed of the shuttle bay's closed doors.

Kotel’s voice suddenly erupted from the speaker boxes installed within each station, and Henry leaned forward a bit to listen.

“—this is shuttle one, we’re ready for departure.”

“Roger shuttle one, standby.”

The video feed on screen showed the shuttle bay’s doors slowly crawling open. Ioane and Zhu spoke over the ensuing radio chatter.

“Where’d you end up sending them?” Ioane asked.

“There’s a spot in the lower hemisphere where the ocean floor is only thirty or forty meters down. Seemed like the best place for them to gather their samples.”

They quieted down again when it became clear that Kotel was about to take off.

“—Roger, Vanuatu.”

Moments later the shuttle sailed past the opened shuttle bay doors. Henry was surprised to see the shuttle now had several smooth lumps spread evenly across its fuselage.

“What’s all that?” he asked, nodding to the screen.

“Flotation pods,” said Zhu. “Once they’re down on the water she’ll hit the switch and they’ll fill up with air. They should keep the shuttle afloat for thirty minutes or so.”

The camera tracked the shuttle as it began to accelerate in a straight line away from the Vanuatu. Then, without warning, it suddenly turned about and zoomed back towards the ship, disappearing from sight well beneath it. The camera feed then switched to a new angle, viewing the shuttle from behind as it gradually disappeared into the haze of blue and white within the planet below.

“Vanuatu, this is shuttle one. Entering the atmosphere now.”

“Roger, shuttle one. See you in five minutes.”

“And now we wait,” said Ioane.

The bridge fell into an anxious silence. Humanity had been a spaceborne species for almost a thousand years, and yet atmospheric entry was still known to be one of the most dangerous aspects of spaceflight. While accidents were quite rare, they weren’t unheard of.

Zhu and Ioane quietly sipped their coffee while watching the viewscreen. Henry did as well, and found that the second sip wasn’t quite so bad as the first.

Eventually, after what felt like much longer than five minutes, the radio crackled to life once again.

“Vanuatu, this is shuttle one, radio check.”

“Shuttle one, Vanuatu. We hear you loud and clear. Congratulations on being the first human beings to enter an alien atmosphere.”

The radio was silent for a few seconds before Kotel responded. It sounded like she might’ve been chuckling just before keying her radio.

“...Yeah. Thanks, Vanuatu.”

“I think a commendation is in order for her,” said Zhu. “If everything else goes well.”

“You want me to write it?” Ioane asked.

Zhu turned to Henry. “No, Forger can do it.”

Henry responded with a nod. “Understood, sir.”

“Mister Chukwu, do you have Kotel’s suit camera?” Zhu asked, raising his voice.

In response, the viewscreen abruptly changed from the camera angle on the Vanuatu’s hull to the shuttle’s pilot seat. The shuttle was visibly rattling and bouncing about, clearly undergoing severe turbulence, but Henry deemed Kotel’s descent to be fully under control.

She’s handling it well. Calm and collected.

Through the shuttle’s cockpit glass it looked as though they were descending through a thick bank of white, swirling clouds. Streaks of water and condensation were rapidly forming and then evaporating on the glass.

The turbulence suddenly became much more violent for several seconds, then dropped away completely as the shuttle broke free from the clouds. It emerged high above the water, perhaps half a kilometer or so, within the shadow of the cloud bank. The water below was a heaving mass of dark blue and white wave caps. In the near distance, heavenly shafts of light beamed down onto the ocean's surface from gaps in the cloud cover.

Awed gasps escaped from many of the people sitting in the crew pit. Henry shuddered involuntarily.

Thank fucking god I don’t have to be down there for this.

“That’s quite a sight,” said Ioane.

Just by how she angled the shuttle, Henry picked up on Kotel’s desire to land in one of the sunlit areas before she actually put words to it.

“Think we’ll put down in one of those nice sunny patches, Vanuatu.”

Quiet chatter filled the bridge as the shuttle gracefully descended towards the ocean’s surface. The closer it came, the more Henry wanted to look away.

“Vanuatu, shuttle one, making contact with the water in three…two…one—”

Water splashed in a huge arc all across the shuttle’s bow, and Kotel jerked forward with the impact. She recovered quickly, and began to flip switches on the panel before her.

“Deploying floats!”

After a few tense moments of silence an indicator light on the panel ahead of her turned from yellow to green, and she hailed the Vanuatu once again.

“Vanuatu, this is shuttle one. We are down safely. The floats are deployed and we’re ready to get to work.”

“Roger, shuttle one. Proceed with caution.”

Zhu took a few steps towards the captain’s terminal and depressed one of the keys on the keyboard.

“Shuttle one, this is Admiral Zhu. You have twenty minutes to collect your samples. Do you hear me, Miss Agarwa?”

Aahana’s soft voice suddenly blared through the speaker box. “Y-yes, I heard you. We’ll try to be quick.”

“Twenty minutes,” Zhu said. “Not a single second more.”

With that, Zhu released the button on the keyboard and looked towards Art.

“Mister Chukwu, show us Miss Agarwa’s camera feed.”

The viewscreen changed perspectives once again, this time to the shuttle’s passenger compartment. Aahana was kneeling over what looked to be a case of empty plastic vials and containers, working to pull them out of the soft shells which protected them. Two other suited people knelt closeby, the external film of their helmets set to maximum opacity, assembling what looked to be the rod of a long antenna. The ocean’s motion was now having a visible effect on the shuttle, causing Aahana and the others to sway backwards and forwards as they worked.

“Switch us to their internal comms,” said Zhu.

The radio blared to life once again moments later.

“—is just under a thousand millibars,” a masculine voice said.

“That’s very close to Earth’s old value,” Aahana replied.

Henry turned to Zhu. “Who’s down there with Agarwa?”

“Wenda and Carvalho. Volunteers from the science department.”

“Oh. Who’s who?”

“The guy is Wenda,” said Ioane. “Carvalho’s the chick.”

There was a brief silence on the bridge and in the shuttle as Aahana and the others worked on readying their equipment. After a minute or so one of the suits pointed over Aahana’s shoulder towards the rear end of the shuttle.

“It’s set. We’re ready for atmospheric readings,” Carvalho said.

Aahana looked up towards the pilot’s seat where Kotel sat. Her bulky suit looked a bit comical and out of place in comparison to the slender seat.

“Can you lower the ramp, Kotel?”

“Yup, sure can.”

Kotel flipped a switch, and Aahana and the others turned to watch the ramp descend. It continued to open downwards until it breached the surface of the water, then stopped once it was roughly halfway submerged.

With the ramp deployed, the ocean was now visible. It seemed much calmer than it had from the sky, and somehow it was even bluer up close. In the far distance the ocean seemed almost like a living landscape, swelling to surprising heights and then suddenly falling, as if it had a mind of it's own.

Oh, fuck me, Henry thought, scowling.

The suit holding the antenna gestured with it to Aahana.

“Do you wanna…?” asked Wenda.

“Yes, um….”

Aahana accepted the antenna and took a few cautious steps out onto the ramp. She held it aloft, though her suit made it impossible to raise above her shoulders. She made a twisting motion on the rod, and it suddenly extended out towards the clouded sky, well above the shuttle.

“So what happens if one of them falls in?” Ioane asked.

His question drew a few alarmed looks from the crew pit.

“They should be fine,” said Zhu, loud enough for everyone to hear. “So long as they don’t seriously damage their suits on their way down. They’re rated to withstand up to two thousand and fifty-eight kilopascals, far more than enough to reach the bottom safely in that area. We’ll drop the winch down for them and haul them back up if they do end up falling.”

Before what he’d said could settle in, an urgent shout rang out from the speaker boxes.

“Aahana! Aahana!!!”

“What—”

Aahana looked down towards the water, and a choked gasp left her. A massive, lidless eye, perhaps the size of a human head, was staring directly at her from just below the water’s surface only a few meters away. The eye’s iris was yellow-white, its pupil pure black, stretched wide and very thin. It darted left and right, up and down.

Henry froze up with shock, staring slack-jawed at the viewscreen. Parts of the creature’s fleshy carapace surrounding the eye were visible as well—a splotchy patchwork of gray and light blue, almost resembling the camouflaged fatigues the old soldiers on Earth used to wear. Beyond the glimpses at its skin, though, the rest of it was just a dark blur in the water.

At some point, Henry realized that Aahana had frozen up as well, still holding the antenna with her arms extended.

Zhu’s voice abruptly broke the shocked silence that had formed on both the bridge and the shuttle.

“Listen to me, Miss Agarwa. I want you to do exactly what I say. Go ahead and lower your arms. Do it slowly.”

Her voice in reply was shaky.

“U-uh…!”

“Everything’s going to be fine. No—don’t move your legs! Just your arms. Yes, that’s it.”

Her arms lowered haltingly. The tip of the antenna was now only a few meters above the water, not terribly far at all from the eye. Its pupil briefly danced across the rod before returning to Aahana.

“Alright, now—”

A gray-blue tentacle suddenly rose from the water. Henry held his breath as it slowly approached Aahana. When it was only a few meters away from her, the tentacle stopped, and its tip spread apart into three triangular sections. They wiggled about, revealing a brownish pad on the bottom side of each section.

Everyone watched in absolute silence as the sections continued to wiggle. After what felt like ages, Ioane was the first to speak up.

“What the actual fuck is it doing?”

“I have no idea,” said Zhu. “Miss Agarwa, I want you to—”

Aahana released her left hand from the antenna. She began to raise her left arm, and once it was fully raised she slowly wiggled her fingers. In response, the tentacle stopped moving, and the eye in the water focused on Aahana’s finger movement.

The tentacle began to reach towards her fingers, and Henry’s mouth fell open once again as Aahana stretched her hand out to meet it.

Her fingers made contact with the tentacle’s tip. It opened once again, and the sections began to gently explore Aahana’s outstretched hand.

The simple words that she then spoke instantly felt like some of the most important ever spoken.

“...Hahaha! Wow!”