Su Li leaned against the rail, reeling in his fishing line. This was the fourth one today. They were all the same kind of silvery-white flatfish, their flesh rather tough.
"Another one of these." He flung the fish into the wooden bucket, where three were already piled up.
Elonore sat at the bow, adjusting the compass. "It's been fifteen days."
"What?"
"You've cooked fish for fifteen days straight."
Su Li looked at the fish in the bucket, then at the empty expanse of sea around them. No islands, no reefs—not even a seabird in sight.
"...I'm starting to understand why Saina insisted on growing vegetables on the deck."
Elonore said nothing. But her hand paused for a beat as she set down the compass.
The next day, Su Li dug out a set of old tools from his Space Ring. A saw, a plane, nails, copper sheets. There were also several packets of salt-tolerant vegetable seeds, crammed away for who knew how long. Dates were written on the outside of the packets, but the ink had run, leaving the numbers unreadable.
He built four planter boxes along the starboard side of the deck. Planks fitted together, holes drilled through the bottoms, gravel laid down for drainage. His technique was exactly the same as when he had done this aboard the Ginkgo centuries ago.
Elonore crouched beside him. Once the wooden frames took shape, she embedded salt-spray-resistant circuits into them. The copper sheets bent beneath her fingers, every solder point precise, as though she were writing a line of incredibly tiny characters.
The seeds were buried.
Seven days later, four tender shoots emerged from the edges of the planter boxes.
Elonore stood beside them. The sea wind blew through her hair, silver strands clinging to her cheeks. She stared at those