49 Converge
Startled, Flash looked up to see an enormous whale coming straight for him. He quickly turned the small ship and avoided impact. A wall of sparking white rolled by, almost within arm’s reach.  The creature seemed unaware of Flash’s presence, until the eye appeared. The huge eye filled the window, and he could see the distorted reflection of the TNI2 in it as it passed. 

Flash strained to see the rider, but he was too close and too low on the whale’s flank. The body looked like a soft, snowy landscape, which tapered and eventually flattened to an enormous horizontal fluke. 

Other than its steady forward momentum, it did not move. Nor would it have stirred any air if it had, hovering here among the dark particles of space. 

The second whale followed closely, but lower than the first. It was a smaller animal, and Flash had the impression that this was a growing calf. 

As it passed, it blew a spout of crystals which did not fall again, but hung there shining, almost glowing, in every color, including some that Flash had never seen before. Tearing his gaze from the glimmering display, he looked down at the second rider.  She looked up at Flash and smiled, waving to him. 

At this, he hastened his descent and plunged into the pale blue bubble of air. Sensors on the pod picked up oxygen, and so he continued on down to the surface of the small planet. It took only a fraction of the time it would have taken entering earth’s atmosphere, and soon he passed quite close over a cobalt plateau. The landscape then dropped away to a crimson plain and the TNI2 continued to fall. 

He turned the ship and hovered a bit in an area where several colors converged, and there he lowered his craft to the ground. 

At least he could analyze several minerals in this location, and then he could see what unfolded from there.