Flash Meridian bobbed along for a while at the surface of the ocean. He watched the antics of the whales while he gathered his thoughts.  Whales had become significant in his life lately, beginning with the ones that burst out of Olo’s crust, and then in the mysterious caves of the ice age planet. Now here he was again, surrounded by them.

There was something else here that Flash was enjoying. The sunlight was intense, and he longed to open the windows and breathe the warm fresh air.  The waves rolled over the ship in foaming crests and gentle swells, so he absorbed the rays through the glass. The rocking motion of the ship was relaxing, and his mind wandered off. 

His priority remained finding plant material that could be disassembled and used to replenish the table of elements.

His computer scanned the sea floor. He was looking for shallow water where photosynthesis could occur.

The pod of whales moved on and the sea became calm.

When an alarm beeped, he couldn’t be sure whether it had awakened him from sleep or not.  It alerted him to a smooth sea floor below, and Flash dove again beneath the water.

  A sand bar stretched as far as he could see, and he glided along above its barren expanse.

  The water refracted the light, projecting it in ribbons across the sand and through the cockpit.

Then something else came into view. It was the mer creature from the spires, though Flash did not recognize him at first. He looked like a green cloud. As he came closer, he resembled a submerged island, and finally, someone carrying a large quantity of foliage toward him.

He stopped in front of the TNI2, and held the swaying bundle of seaweed out before him like an offering.

Flash was grateful and remotely opened the deck of the rear storage compartment.  The creature placed the stalks into the compartment and swam up to Flash’s window. Flash and the sea person were only inches from each other, and once again looked into one others’ eyes.

How could Flash say thank you?  He longed to communicate, but all he could think to do was to place his palm against the glass. The creature did the same, placing his palm against Flash’s, separated by a pane of invisible glass.  His fingers were much longer than Flash’s, and the suction cups at his fingertips adhered to the window.

  “Thank you,” he said. The creature only stared back with huge, unblinking eyes.

That he understood the request at all was so amazing that Flash could only believe that he understood this message as well.

When the cups eventually released and the creature swam away again, Flash pointed the ship upward and accelerated.

The ship burst out of the sea and rose into the air, climbing higher and higher.

By the time he docked the pod onto the mother ship, most of the seaweed had been digested and incorporated into the life support system. The table of elements was replenished with pure separated molecules of every kind known to man.