No school, thanks to the latest blackout. Citywide outages weren’t so rare, but this time the hydrogrid was down bad enough to send kids home early, curtail market hours, and leave the city eerily silent under the emergency lights. Khrystal was thrilled—a day off was worth any disruption—but Calistya couldn’t help but feel uneasy. So, into the city or out to sea? Their argument was already stewing before the school doors shut behind them.

Khrystal, the material girl, pushed for a downtown hangout. But Cali wanted open waters, somewhere the day’s stress couldn’t reach. ‘Is everything always going to break down? It’s worse than ever,’ she thought, her eyes drifting towards the gates like they always did when things went wrong.

They took their full gear along. Just because they were in the city didn’t mean there weren’t a million ways to be a technoquatic. There were certain sections of the waterways and pools that were, generally speaking, full-gill exclusive, but the majority of the channels and lakes–and the entire midtown aquacenter–were open to everyone.

Sometimes one would swim while the other ran, a popular mix. Since the roadside channels were designed so that a swimmer and a walker could move along together, there was rarely a spot of pavement that wasn’t complimenting a channel, or a park that didn’t boast a meandering moat. Everything in the city was designed to be the best of both worlds.

“Nope, hang on,” Khrystal said, looking at her route scanner, “midtown’s on hiatus already. Damn, I thought they wouldn’t shut it ‘til 3. Stupid. Guess they’re even running low on reserve hydro. Why’d they make us do that stupid conservation initiative crap if it wasn’t even going to keep the boutiques open!”

Calistya sighed. “Well, yeah, but I get it. They can only do so much.” She kept her stronger opinions to herself, those involving her fondness for the initiative Khrystal was insulting, and her hope that it might make things better someday.

Khrystal shrugged. “They can’t even keep the stores open, and you think that’s enough? Maybe I should be running the city.”

“Oh yeah? Maybe I could,” Calistya shot back, laughing.

“Doubt it. I could run the city better than you.”

“Right. You can’t even run your classes, nevermind the city.”

Khrystal frowned, crossing her arms. “Supportive.”

Calistya, feigning the sarcastic bravado of her friend, grinned. “Come on, race you to the central gardens. At least they won’t be closed.”

The pair did a quick rock/seaweed/shard to determine who got which position, and Khrystal suited up as the swimmer. When she was ready and in the channel, Calystya hopped on her back, and they were off.

* * *

The gardens were, as predicted, operational—though ‘barely holding together’ might have been a better way to put it. The crisis was evident at every turn. The waterjets were on intermittently, and parts of the facility were in blackout. They took turns swimming the waterways that flowed well enough, not enough to really stretch their limbs properly, then resorted to walking where the channels ran dry. But it wasn’t as pretty as it used to be, either, because there were bold, official-looking signs posted all around.

Your Energy! Your Future!

Early to Sleep and Early to Risin, No More Blackouts on the Horizin!

Did you reduce your flow today?

“Early to risin?” Khrystal snorted, her voice dripping with distain. She made a stick-finger-down-throat motion, then added, “What kind of idiot wrote this?”

“It’s for little kids, I guess,” Calistya retorted, though she was cringing too.

They were as eco-friendly as the next techno’s, but tired of hearing about all the woes of their city. The situation had deteriorated since the drop in sea-levels had rendered the huge plants useless. Everyone knew that. But there wasn’t much they could do, and besides, their school for orphaned technoquatics was about as eco-friendly as it could be.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

They tried ignoring the signage, but then there were city workers, walkers and swimmers both, coming up to hand over informational pamphlets. The day was becoming a bore, and Cali regretted not speaking up more about the open sea option. There was plenty enough to do out there, and no intrusive-minded park workers to contend with.

“You know what?” Calistya said. “This isn’t working. Let’s head out.”

“Out? To sea? All the way from here? But we came all this way…”

“That’s right, we came all this way to have fun, not to get lectured to,” she said, knowing that her friend would take to that argument. A lump of shame rose in her throat. She hated how easily she’d betrayed her own beliefs—and her friend—in the same breath.

Yet she continued. “We might as well’ve just stayed in school. You’re right, Krys, this whole city’s a joke. Let’s get out of here.”

And then, without giving her friend any say in the matter, Calistya suited up and got ready for a long swim. This required a certain amount of stretching, and a lot of fin-fanning if you did it the right way, which Calistya always did.

Khrystal shrugged and started gearing-up herself, mouthing ‘show off’ under her breath as she watched her friend preen. She didn’t mind a long haul, not really, but she did prefer the city. But she didn’t feel like starting a fight, so she stayed quiet as they got themselves ready.

Properly prepared, they headed for the nearest channel and dipped their fins.

“You want to check the route?” Calistya asked, trying to be nice now that she’d gotten her way.

“No, whatever. We can just detour if we have to.”

“Alright,” Calistya said, slipping into the channel.

The channel outflow, built to streamline commuter traffic, flowed at a steady but throttled-back pace during the day, giving the girls a welcome boost. Although they were stuck with detours three times along the way, all thanks to hydroelectric power outages ‘impossible to avoid’, they got themselves out of the city in less than an hour.

* * *

Adult technos could leave the gates freely, but for youngsters, check-in with the sentries was mandatory. Each pair had to prove they were traveling with a buddy, and provide parental permission.

This proved a hassle for Calistya and Khrystal, being orphans. They had to show their school ID’s, and the school would have to be notified. However, there was one sentry, Marla, who’d grown fond of her frequent adventurers. After checking in with the school a number of times, always with an all clear, she’d taken to registering them without the formalities.

Marla being on duty, they got through to the open sea hassle-free. Past the city limits, there were no more conservation warnings, no more detours. Nothing to stop them from having a good time.

As they swam out, the city’s din gave way to the calming rippling of water—waves rolling above, the faint crackle of distant breakers, and the blubs and bloops of a basin full of sea-stuff, as if the whole of it were breathing in and out.

Although Khrystal had been reluctant, she was as pleased as Calistya to be out in the open, enjoying the currents and overwaves, and seeing all the sealife. They headed out a ways, since they had the whole day, and dared to deep dive perilously close to the dark.

‘The Dark’ marked the boundary between sunlight and the abyss of eternal night—a foreboding, uncharted expanse. Even the strongest swimmers were advised against venturing down there, and for the children, it was strictly forbidden. ‘No plunging into the dark, and no surfacing.’ Those two extremes were disallowed, and for good reason. The girls knew the rules, but skirted the boundaries all the same, reveling in the thrill of defiance.

The sunlight above dimmed as they dove deeper, the edge of The Dark looming like a heavy curtain. Calistya’s pulse intensified, but she indicated nothing, unwilling to break the fragile spell.

They spent hours trading swim-off techniques, practicing underwater calisthenics, and sampling the sparse plants sprouting just below the contamination zone. Most were rubbery and bitter—far from the delicacies they’d imagined. They also spent time relaxing, floating and watching sea creatures, allowing their cares to dissolve into the expanse all around.

Exhausted but satisfied, they began their slow journey back, the rhythmic flick of their fins echoing into the endless ripples. By the time the sentry gate came into view, the dusky hues of twilight had electrified the water in shimmering sparkles. Calistya paused, suspended in the open sea, weightless and free. The constraints of life back home loomed again, the rules, the sentry gates, the endless noise. Out here, it was just easier. She wasn’t ready to go back.

But Khrystal gave her arm a tug, uneasy about being caught out once nightfall came, another of the myriad restrictions they had to live with. It was funny, sometimes she was the one worried about the rules, sometimes her friend. They’d be in trouble if they both decided they didn’t care at the same time.

Following her friend’s lead, she headed back, noticing that Marla’s smiling face was no longer at the checkpoint. Instead, a surly guard with sharp eyes watched their approach. The last flickers of sundown saved them from a reprimand—this time. Calistya glanced at Khrystal, who rolled her eyes. Back to the grind, Cali thought, her mind’s eye lingering on the inky curtain that spoke to her that day.