In the height of summer, the sea breeze was pleasantly warm. The cruise ship rose and fell with the waves, while Green and Milly lay flat on the deck, embracing each other as they slept.
Two days later.
The sea was eerily calm, unsettling and oppressive.
The boundless surface of the ocean looked like a mirror beneath the sunlight, making one suspect that everything before their eyes was an illusion.
"Yo-ho, who's going first?"
On one side, three women held fishing rods at the edge of the deck, preparing dinner for the evening. On the other, Midi, Tom An, and Green stood around a set of diving equipment, each politely yielding the chance to dive first in search of the so-called point of exchange between the planet Machashi and aliens. As good brothers, naturally none of them wanted his best friend to draw the short straw.
In the end, the opportunity fell to Tom An.
After making a show of refusing, Tom An eagerly put on the black leather diving suit, his face flushed red with excitement. His flippered feet went "slap, slap" across the deck, and with Green and Midi's help, he strapped on the oxygen supply apparatus.
Breathe, breathe, breathe...
After putting on his diving goggles, Tom An greeted Green and Midi, then plunged into the sea with a "splash." The three women glanced in his direction before resuming their fishing on the other side of the deck, while Green and Midi sat down near where Tom An had dived in, cracked open two cans of beer, and drank heartily beneath the blazing sun.
Half an hour later.
With another "splash," Tom An burst from the surface. Green and Midi helped haul him aboard. Once he removed his diving goggles, the excitement on his face had been replaced