Even as she pinched some off of his fingers, he could feel the weird tingle. But this time it ran through his fingers, down his hand, and partway up his arm.

“You feel that?” he asked. “Like little prickles in your fingers?”

She was rubbing the slimy stuff between her thumb and first two fingers. “It tickles. You sure this stuff is algae?”

“It’s the same thing I caught out in the ocean. Mother called it algae. So . . . you calling her a liar?” Felix gave Sheena that look that said she’d better not or else.

“No.” Sheena gave him a look of utter defeat. “Okay. We better go. We’ve been here too long as it is.”

“Look.” Felix pointed. “There’s little bits of algae all along the pool edge. See where it’s sticking at the water line?” It looked like splotches here and there.

“We’re leaving now!” Sheena told him in a huff as she got to her feet and scampered off for the latch. “If you don’t keep up, I’m leaving you behind!”

Felix, shaking his arm to stop the tingle, leaped up and ran full tilt to catch her.

10

Kalico enjoyed the view as her A-7 shuttled circled the Maritime Unit’s Pod. In her imagination the research base looked like an elongated white bubble that floated above the crystalline shoal waters. From this altitude, the reef could be seen extending to the north and south as far as the horizons. The shallows marked the eastern boundaries of the Gulf—the body of water created by the great Donovanian crater. From this altitude the crater’s edge appeared as submerged, elongated ridges. Over millennia the rim had been scrubbed away by wave action and tides to leave shoal waters. Occasional white lines of breakers were visible in the distance where more-resistant rock shallowed. Seen through the transparent water, the underlying geology made a patchwork of light and dark where strata had been thrust up. In the distance, where lava once had welled and cooled, vulcanism created a chain of islands that stretched away to the north before curving back toward the mainland.

Looking down, Kalico could see the seabed drop away to either side of the reef; the colors changed from the mottled browns, greens, and tans to darker shades and then faded into the gemlike royal blue of deep water.

In the pilot’s seat, Ensign Juri Makarov banked the shuttle wide, descending to approach the Pod from downwind. From her portside seat next to the window, it seemed to Kalico that the ocean rose up to meet them.