Nina pulled on her blue swimsuit in the privacy of her shelter, tugging the straps into place and adjusting the fit before stepping into her wetsuit. "Okay, moment of truth," she muttered, pulling the suit up to her hips and sliding her arms into the long sleeves. Reaching behind, she pulled on the long string attached to the zipper and blew out her air, waiting for the suit to catch. All that damn Dreen food, should've stuck with human rations. But the zipper slid up her back with less resistance than she expected, and to her relief she was able to fasten the little hook at the back of her neck as well. Turning to the reflective surface of the solar array's panels, which she had insisted on storing in her cabin, Nina inspected the look and spun left and right, taking in how beautifully the suit clung to every inch of her from her throat to her wrists to her ankles. "Oh, perfect." Delighted, she hooked a net bag containing her flippers, airmask and webbed gloves and trotted out into the sunlight. Ardus was nowhere to be seen. Is he changing? What would he be changing into? Don't Dreen swim naked?
She sat and stirred the coals, the breakfast fire slowly dying, until she heard the creak of a shelter door and had to force herself to sit still. Whatever she saw today – the day they would spend almost entirely in the water, collecting samples and counting nests and looking for a specific kind of kelp for Meem's worms – it was still a working day, and Dreenai's waters still held many dangers. "Are you ready?" Ardus asked, his deep voice rolling over her like heavy surf, and Nina let herself turn. "Yep! Ready when you...are." Her voice dropped mid-sentence in mild disappointment. Ardus wore a similar getup to hers, except his was black, and rather than a single piece his was two – a short-sleeved top and knee-length bottoms, both studded with mesh pockets and loops, and he'd added a belt of weights and clips for tools. While clingy, it was made of a matte material that did nothing to accentuate his build and the pockets added bulk in odd places, disrupting his outline. Nina had to remind herself not to frown. Damn it! When are you going to get naked? She stood, however, and noted how after she picked up her gear and turned back Ardus was just looking elsewhere. Mm-hmm, that's what I thought. Temporarily appeased, Nina started off down the beach.
At the edge of the water where the black sand turned the foam grey, Ardus and Nina stood and looked out towards the sea. "This is not the sheltered lagoon at the university," Ardus reminded her, indicating the darker water where the beach dropped off and opened to the deeper ocean. "Stay close to me. Pay attention to your surroundings as well as your instincts – if something feels wrong, I want you to alert me immediately. While it is still relatively safe, there are creatures out there – screamers, predatory drybacks, possibly even starfish – that do sometimes venture into the shallow water looking for an easy meal." He gave her a solemn look. "Do not become that meal."
Nina shook her head. "Believe me, I don't want to." Ardus eyed her face mask, an egg-shaped half-dome with two cross-straps and a valved respiration system attached to the chin. "I will be unable to speak once submerged, so I will be signaling to you with my hands. Watch my behaviors and reactions."
"Got it." Nina pulled the mask on egg-point-down, cinching the straps behind her head and pushing the mask down to press the air out. The mask suctioned onto her face and the clear plastic fogged with her breath. With a hiss, the respirator activated and the fog cleared. "Can you hear me? Say something." Her voice came through in a canned, hollow tone.
Ardus nodded. "I can hear you, Doctor."
"Good, I can hear you too. If my sound cuts out, let me know." Nina bent and slipped her feet into a pair of silicone swimming flippers. Taking a high step over the first short wave, her knee almost up to her chest, she heard a chuckle. Nina turned and caught the Dreen grinning at her. "What?"
Ardus shook his head. "Will you be comfortable in those?"
She looked down at the big, ungainly things made of bright green silicone and shaped like long triangles. They made her feet twice as long and clumsy on land, and if she wanted to walk without falling on her face she had to lift her feet higher and step carefully. Throwing Ardus a haughty look, she said, "Not all of us were born with webbed feet, you know." Turning with as much dignity as she could muster, Nina flapped and slapped through the water until it reached her waist, splashing herself liberally in the process. Ardus followed at a respectful distance, pretending to scratch his nose to hide his smirk.
With the next swell Nina plunged below the surface and her mask began to hiss and churn, pulling oxygen from the water and filling the clear plastic dome. With each exhale, a valve at the top of her mask opened and her breaths escaped in a stream of bubbles, and even though the air she breathed was dry it smelled vaguely briny. As she pulled deeper, kicking her flippered feet and reaching for stones and lumps of coral to pull herself along, the foaming waves retreated farther overhead and her vision cleared. To the side she watched Ardus sink to the bottom on his stomach, likewise pulling himself along the sand and waving to her. He signaled in the direction of the deeper water beyond the first of many humps of coral, and Nina signaled back that she understood. But even as she followed him through a passage in the rocks she realized he was drawing farther and farther ahead and she wasn't able to keep up. "Hey!" she called out, and he turned and tread water while she kicked hard, trying to control her breaths as she caught up so she wouldn't overload the respirator.
"Sorry, but could you slow down?" She watched the nictitating membranes slide over his eyes, turning the dark blue-on-black a hazy grey before retreating back, and he nodded. Then he turned his shoulder to her and pulled at a loop meant for a tool. He tugged on it and Nina understood he wanted her to grab hold of it. "Thanks, I'll try not to slow you down any more." Ardus shook his head, his barbels floating like seaweed. He patted his shoulder again and Nina grabbed on, her knuckles brushing the fabric and bumping against his solid arm. With a roll like a crocodile Ardus turned back to the deep and pulled Nina along, his arm flat against his side, his legs kicking and Nina hanging on at arm's length. It was like swimming alongside a leopard seal, his size and length a near match. His nose sealed against the water and his hands spread, the webbing between his fingers stretched and visible, Nina was suddenly aware of just how vastly different their species were. Beneath the surface waves he moved as though he were weightless, his power and that of the sea evenly matched. His people were of the sea, more at home in the water than land-evolved humans ever would be.
After about five minutes Ardus surfaced for air, blowing a stream of bubbles from his nose and pulling Nina up beside him. They were more than a mile out from shore where the water was over sixty feet deep, and below them a kelp forest began at the edge of the coral reef. Ardus tread water easily, almost leisurely despite the weights clipped to his belt, checking in with Nina before gulping a deep breath and turning back down. Nina regulated her own breaths, pulling steadily against the respirator and watching the filter meter embedded near the corner of her eye in the mask's frame. She could hardly believe how fast he made it to the sea floor, how easily he pulled her along despite her buoyancy – Dreen did not carry body fat and Nina's made her more likely to float towards the surface, but Ardus pulled her down as easily as though she were a stone.
At the bottom, Ardus unclipped the weight belt and handed it to Nina. He gestured for her to wear it, pointing to her mask before pointing to his own nose. "Yeah I got it, you go get a breath." Nina looped the belt around her hips and felt it carry her down. Her ears popped as the pressure changed, and she watched with a slow-simmering anxiety as Ardus floated back to the surface for another breath. He met her again a few feet above the sea floor, producing a drilling tool. Nina watched him select a piece of rusty brown coral and rub away the algae growing on it, set the drill and operate it, removing the sample in its cartridge and readying another. He braced his feet in the sand under the edge of the rocks, leveraging himself against the spin of the drill and boring a hole large enough for Nina to put her little finger in. Nina took over when he surfaced to breathe again, and she finished out the samples while he cleared his ears and shook the salt out of his nose.
While they worked, Ardus would occasionally tap her on the arm and point at a passing fish, crustacean or sea creature, Nina smiling and identifying them to his acknowledging nods. A smaller species of dryback, an animal about four feet long and resembling a seal, came to investigate them and Ardus showed Nina how he could, with his fist curled in to protect his fingers, coax the animals in for a closer look. The dryback, with its oily pelt repelling water and forming a microscopic layer of air around its body, nibbled at his knuckles before floating up to Nina's mask, running its sensitive nose over the plastic dome. She pushed gently at its belly with her closed hands. "Hey now, this mask is very expensive." The dryback, apparently surprised at the tinny sound of her voice underwater, back-paddled and rolled away, disappearing into the kelp forest beyond the reef. "Did I scare it?" she turned to Ardus.
He was smiling, his nictitating membranes drawn back, and in the silvery light pouring in bars down from the surface his sea-blue eyes shimmered. He gestured towards the surface and Nina shed her weight belt before grinning and rocketing upwards, suddenly lighter than air and effervescent from spending so much time with the Dreen. Even when he couldn't speak, his eyes said everything she needed to know.
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Ardus sat in the sand by the fire, waiting for his tablet to finish transferring files from the underwater camera video cards and for a kettle to boil so he could start dinner. Nina had gone for a shower in the third shelter, albeit a cold one, and since he had little else to do he turned over the events of the last two days. The white diving suit was a nice surprise, he thought as he chewed on his lip, casting a sideways glance at the dome that contained the shower and facilities. When he'd first stepped out of his cabin he'd almost missed her against the bone-colored logs but upon a second look he'd realized that he could see curves and shapes that other clothes had previously hidden from him. Nothing left to the imagination, he smirked. Well, perhaps a few things, but I should not be greedy. Watching her swim, the white suit stark against the deep blue water and black volcanic sand, her body undulating smoothly and rippling in the shimmering sunlight, had filled him with a deep longing that burned in his chest as though he were running out of air. While the flippers had made her awkward on land, in the water she was as graceful and beautiful as a streamerfish. She is as comfortable in the water as I am, she could almost be Dreen. Almost. The third cabin door squeaked as Nina stepped out, and Ardus caught her reflection in the glass screen of his tablet as she fluffed out her still-damp hair and ran her fingers through it. He envied those fingers. "Shower's open," she said, shaking her hair out by the fire. "What's for dinner?"
Ardus set his tablet aside. "More dried rations I am afraid, but tomorrow I plan to find something fresh." He paused. "You did well for your first Dreenai field expedition."
Nina looked up, surprised but pleased. "You think so?" Her grey eyes were wide, flickering silver in the firelight and the reddening sunset.
Ardus nodded. "You were knowledgeable and observant, I could see you have been studying. I am satisfied with your conduct and your respect for the local wildlife." He went back to his tablet for the moment, checking the progress of the download. Peering up from under his brows, he added, "I will be sure to say so when it comes time to discuss renewing your contract." She smiled, and Ardus returned the favor. Her smile alone would be reason enough to extend her stay. He set the tablet aside, balancing it on the driftwood behind him. The download would take some time to complete, and staring at it wouldn't make it go any faster. "If you will pass me the kettle, I will start cooking."
"You always cook," Nina twisted her hair into a rope and flipped it over her shoulder. He liked the way she tossed her head, the early evening sun throwing red-gold highlights in her dark hair and bringing out deep copper and bronze. She passed him the kettle, holding it by the long handle away from the hot base. "Are you sure you don't want me to take a turn?"
"We can both make something," he suggested, "the rations are in that case behind the driftwood, find something you like." She nodded and turned, and Ardus noted with pleasure that she was wearing short trousers made from thick blue material, the same pair she'd worn to their picnic the night she'd given him Omi's Necklace. Briefly he wondered if she would do it again tonight. He wasn't sure what he'd do if she did. Sitting on his knees before the fire, Ardus checked the kettle and found the water boiling. He broke open a package of kelp flour and beat it into the water, creating a paste that he formed into round cakes and laid on a flat griddle lying in the coals. While the cakes cooked, he pressed reconstituted fish flakes and vegetables into the tops and sprinkled them with slightly-sweet Dreenai salt. He sat back and watched the cakes bubble and their edges brown, flipping them once.
Nina had pulled together a few packages and was reading the instructions by the mellow evening light. The heat from the fire had turned her cheeks pink. "You shouldn't have to do it all the time. I can cook too, you know."
"I do not mind." Ardus shrugged. "Perhaps I ought to sample a few human meals."
"You'd have to," Nina grinned, "you eat a lot more than I do."
Ardus chuckled, leaning forward and testing the cakes with a claw. They were still too sticky in the center, and he stacked a few more pieces of wood around the griddle. "You have seen what I eat, is there anything you think I would like?"
"You might like Hawaiian, it's sweet." Ardus looked up sharply at her tone, and going by her look she was walking him into one of her word-traps again. Biting the inside of his cheek, Ardus shook the griddle to keep the cakes from sticking. If I were a million years less evolved... "I do like sweet things," he nodded slowly, meeting her eyes over the flames. Nina flipped her braid back over her shoulder again. It wasn't quite Omi's Necklace, but judging by how she'd glanced at him when she did it, she knew what she was doing. As she tore open a package of freeze-dried vegetable slices, Ardus made a decision. "Nina, the other evening, on the beach..." He let his voice carry and waited for her to respond.
She stirred the pot, not looking up. "Hmm? What about it?"
"You asked me about going dark, and I said that I was not comfortable discussing it. I have thought about it, and I have decided that I am comfortable discussing it now."
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