“That was a tricky entrance,” Bobbie Ray agreed. “I would have never seen it.”

Titus finally had his moment of satisfaction. He felt as if he had been trying to catch up to his roommate since they both arrived at the Academy. Except that Bobbie Ray had all the advantages of a childhood on Earth, supported by wealthy parents, while Titus felt like some kind of country bumpkin, unable to tell a sonic haircutter from a steak knife.

“Look up here!” Jayme called, halfway up the gentle slope of the talus incline. “I think the ceiling fell in back here.”

“It looks like the roof sank until it ran into the ground,” Bobbie Ray agreed, swatting at the elusive, fat drops that continually bombed them from above.

They climbed the shifting slope to the point where the ground and ceiling met. The rounded debris constantly moved under their hands and knees. Titus examined some of the bits, and was surprised to see elongated pieces as well as the more traditional “pearls.”

“Why aren’t there any stalactites in this cavern?” Jayme asked, standing in the last possible space at the upper end. A dense curtain of drops speckled the air in front of them.

“This cavern is lower than the others. If there’s too much water, there’s no time for the sediment to form between each drop,” Titus explained. “That’s what makes the cave pearls–the sediment forms as they’re polished and agitated by the water.”

“I think they’re beautiful,” Jayme said, gathering a few in her hand.

Titus squatted down next to her in a relatively dripfree zone. He aimed his tricorder at one of the elongated pearls. “This is bone! Human bone!”

Bobbie Ray immediately dropped his pearls, absently rubbing his hands on his coveralls as he looked at the tricorder readings. “You’re right. They’re ancient!”

Jayme was also hanging over his arm, trying to see. “Give me a second,” he ordered, keying in the commands. “Somewhere between twelve and fifteen thousand years old!”

“That’s when humans first moved onto this continent,” Jayme breathed, gently cupping her pearls in her palms. “They must have used these caves as shelter or storage. Maybe even burial. This is amazing!”

Titus barely had a second to absorb their find before Bobbie Ray muttered, “Uh‑oh! I think we’ve got trouble.”

The Rex was staring back at the hole they had climbed up. Water was welling up and pouring over the low lip that held back the piles of cave pearls. It made a rushing sound as it disappeared into the cave pearls piled on the floor.

“Oh no!” Titus exclaimed, running back down to their only entrance to the cavern. Now it was full of water. Even worse, water continued to pour over the stone lip and began to rise among the cave pearls. Soon, it had flooded the shallow basin and was rising higher, filling the cave.

“What’s happening?” Bobbie Ray cried in true panic. “How are we going to get out?”

Jayme dipped her fingers in the water, sticking them in her mouth. “Salty. That’s what I was afraid of. The tide must be rising.”

They both turned to look at Titus, mutely demanding that he do something. He knew he probably looked as panicked as Bobbie Ray. “The tide?”

“Yes, the tide’s coming in,” Jayme repeated, frantically scrambling through the cave pearls to the wall, searching up it with her handlight. “I don’t see a high‑water mark anywhere. Could it . . . is it possible . . .”

“You mean this whole cave gets filled with water?” Bobbie Ray asked in a high voice.

Titus could only shake his head. “I don’t know! We don’t have oceans on Antaranan!”

“What!” Jayme shrieked. “You brought us in here and you didn’t know what you were doing?”

Bobbie Ray leaned over the hole, digging at the rising water with his hands. When he came up soaked, his fur sticking out in clumps and clinging to his surprisingly skinny neck, Titus had no urge to laugh. The fear in the Rex’s eyes was too real.

“I’m going in,” Titus said, suddenly feeling much calmer, knowing that he had to take control. He got them into this mess.

“You’ll drown!” Jayme cried out. “That tunnel we came down–it’s lower than this cave. It must be filled with water, too!”

Titus swallowed, remembering how long the tunnel was. “We may not have oceans on Antaranan, but that doesn’t mean we didn’t have water. I’m a good swimmer.”

“I’m not!” Bobbie Ray wailed, trying to shake the water from the fur on his hands. He was shivering and wet through.

“Get up to the top,” Titus ordered. “I’ll have you beamed out of here in no time.”

The other two cadets reluctantly retreated as he flung gear from his pouch–water flask, extra rope–leaving only the necessities, with just enough room to spare so he could wedge his jet‑boots in.

Standing hip‑deep in the hole, wincing from the biting cold water, he glanced back up at the cadets. “Hang tight!”

They didn’t look reassured.

Taking a deep breath, he ducked under the water. Immediately he knew it wouldn’t work. The surge of water welling up carried him back to the surface.

As he broke into the air again, he was saying, “All right! It’s all right! I’ve got an idea.”

He quickly removed the jet‑boots and strapped them on. Water was nearing his waist now. He didn’t care if it killed him, he wasn’t going to give up this time.

Diving down headfirst, he got around the jag in the fissure and then turned on the boots. The jets churned the water and almost drove him into the rock wall, but he eased off the power and used his hands to guide him down to the tunnel. Underwater, even with the handlight, he could hardly see, so he groped his way down, feeling the scrape of rocks against his coveralls as the boots propelled him through the water.

He knew he had reached the tunnel by the strong surge of the current pushing him in the direction he wanted to go. But he was running out of oxygen. His jaw clenched as he gunned the boots, squinting his eyes against the pressure of the water as he shot through the murky light cast by the glow of the jets.

Everything was getting dark and hazy, and his chest seemed ready to burst. Titus wasn’t sure he was going to make it to the vertical shaft.

*   *   *

Jayme felt sorry for Bobbie Ray, huddled next to her at the top of the talus slope. “Maybe it won’t reach this far,” she offered.

Bobbie Ray was wiping at his fur with the fleshy palm of one hand, smoothing and smashing it, pressing all the water out. Then he would twitch and shake, making the damp hair stand out again. Then he would pick another patch and begin the whole process over again. It seemed like more a nervous reaction than an effort to dry himself.

“Do you think he drowned yet?” Bobbie Ray asked, unable to meet her eyes.

“Umm,” she murmured, “by now, he either drowned or got out alive.”

“Are you going to try it?” Bobbie Ray asked.

Jayme wasn’t aware that her calculating glances at the hole had been that obvious. “I’ll try it before I drown in here.”

Bobbie Ray went back to stroking his fur, concentrating on every swipe.

“I’ll help you,” she assured him.

“That won’t do any good. I could barely pass the Starfleet swimming requirements. And you don’t know how hard that was for me.”

Jayme silently patted his knee. She wasn’t sure she could make it, but every bit of her mind and body was focused on that hole, ready to dive through the water and turn on her jet‑boots just as Titus had done. Even if it killed her. Because that was better than sitting here until the water rose up around her chin.

“I just wish I knew if he made it,” she murmured.

“Wait a few more minutes. Maybe he’s at a public transporter terminal right now. There was one right outside the access port.”

They both stared at the hole.

*   *   *

The shaft was full of water, too. Titus desperately revved the boots, aiming straight up, his hand clenched on the control so tightly that even if he drowned he knew he would surface.