Melora Pazlar gazed out the forward ports with fascination as Aili Lavena brought the aquashuttle down to a flight trajectory just a few kilometers above the waves. “Astonishing,” she said. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen so much water at one time.” Since the planet was so large, more than half again the radius of a typical M-class world, the horizon was unusually distant, all but lost in atmospheric haze. It was easy to imagine the water stretching to infinity. It couldn’t have been more different from Gemworld, the artificial crystalline planet where her Elaysian species resided. But then, her world was different from any other world in the galaxy, so that wasn’t much of a standard of comparison.

“I know,” Lavena replied. “It’s gorgeous! I’m going for a swim first thing once we land.”

“Hold on there,” Commander Vale said. “Before you do that, I’d like to get a little sense of what the ocean’s like. With the interference, we should double-check our scans of its chemistry, make sure there’s nothing toxic. And there’s no telling what kind of sea monsters might be lurking down there.”

Pazlar threw her an amused look. “Do you suppose that’s what these islands are? Some kind of giant turtles or something?”

Torvig turned to Kekil. “Relatives of yours, perhaps?” The pale green Rigellian Chelon, so called because of his people’s somewhat turtlelike appearance, simply ignored him.

Soon, the cluster of islets was in naked-eye range. The sight left no doubt that they were floating atop the water, rising and falling with its slow swells. The larger clusters flexed and warped somewhat as they rode atop the changing surface, but their saucerlike components remained connected. They were a pale yellowish white around the edges, with darker soil and assorted vegetation covering them farther “inland.” The larger clusters had the most abundant vegetation.

“Set us down by the nearest single islet,” Vale ordered. “Let’s not complicate the variables.”

“By it, ma’am?” Lavena asked. “Not on it?”

“Just to be on the safe side. We’re not sure how buoyant those things are.”

“Aye, Commander,” Lavena said, looking happy to touch down in her native element.

Pazlar, aware of the Selkie pilot’s skill, was expecting a smooth landing. But the Gillespiehit Droplet’s surface with a bit of a jolt, rocking her in her seat. “A little overeager there, Ensign?” she asked.

“What? Oh, no, ma’am. I just eased back the inertial dampers a bit. We’re diving into a new ocean—it seemed right to feel the splash.”

“Just take us in to the nearest lone islet,” Vale ordered.

When the shuttle bumped against a solid surface, Lavena programmed it to keep station with the islet and popped the hatch. Vale led the way out of the shuttle, with Pazlar following. The air was warm and almost stiflingly humid, a shock after the controlled environment of the ship and shuttle; but there was a steady cooling breeze blowing from the west, carrying the fresh, wet tang of ocean air along with other exotic scents.

They waded across a few meters of shallow water—also unexpectedly warm—before climbing out onto the gently rising shoreline. Pazlar sized up the weight she felt, or what fraction of it was filtered through her antigrav suit’s field. She knew it was a few percent below standard, but she couldn’t feel the difference.

Once Torvig had clambered onto the shore, he jumped up and down a couple of times. “Well, it isn’t rocking,” he said with his usual straight face. “Commander Keru, maybe you should try it,” he said, looking up at his burly Trill friend, who outmassed him by about three to one.

Keru just rolled his eyes and bent down to examine the waterline. “No obvious edge. Looks like it extends several meters under the water before dropping off.”

“It looks like an island,” Vale observed. “Soil, plants, some treelike things…and I think I can hear insects, or something like them.”

A fuller survey of the islet revealed nothing particularly striking living here beyond what her eyes and ears had revealed. There was no sign of avian life, though Titan’s optical sensors had sighted flying creatures in Droplet’s skies. Though it seemed reasonably habitable, the islet was simply too small to support much of an ecosystem. Some of the larger clusters visible in the distance bore thicker vegetation, however, and Pazlar thought she could see birds or the local equivalent flying around their treetops.

Meanwhile, Kekil knelt and ran his tricorder over the soil, taking a handful and kneading it with his broad, webbed fingers. “Very rich. It’s mostly organic decay products; minimal silicate content, as you’d expect.”

“Ah,” Keru said. “A connoisseur.”

Everyone (save the solemn Kekil) seemed to be in a playful mood today. Perhaps it was just the enthusiasm at setting foot on an intriguing new planet, particularly a tropical paradise like this. Droplet’s star was of only moderate brightness and more distant than was typical for an M-class world, but that only served to soften the light, letting Pazlar gaze out at the sun reflections dancing on the waves without being blinded by glare, as she had been look ing out across San Francisco Bay in her Academy days. If anything, it made the warm, sunny scene even more inviting. But the oxygen content of the air, she reminded herself, was a little high; she was feeling a bit lightheaded from it. Something to watch out for. Fortunately, the high water vapor content of the air discouraged breathing it too deeply; Vale had tried a moment before, and was now coughing from the aspirated moisture.

“I’ll have to make a more thorough analysis to be sure, of course,” Kekil added as he placed some of the soil in a sample container.

“Dig down some,” Vale ordered. “I want to know what the island’s made of. Torvig can help you. Meanwhile, I want to check out the flora and fauna.”

“I could check out the underside,” Lavena called hopefully from the shuttle door.

“Not yet, Aili. Run a scan first.” The Selkie sulked her way back inside. No doubt she was eager to get out of her hydration suit when there was a whole planetful of water to flow across her gill crests and keep her skin moist. Melora could sympathize; she wouldn’t mind getting out of her tight antigrav suit and letting the water buoy her up. She was slender, but her bones and muscles had low density, so she figured she could float all right in the moderately saline water at these latitudes—though perhaps not nearer the equator, where the constant rainfall diluted the upper ocean with fresh water. But of course Vale was right to exercise caution.