Chapter Text
Seán was already swimming ahead, seaglide on his hands and he seemed to be looking around intensely, probably looking for the missing fragments they needed for their seamoth. Mark shook his head and looked at the timer on the bottom of the screen of his helmet. A big 68 was dropping down by the second and Mark pushed down the dizziness that started forming on his head.
He was fine, it was just water and he could deal with water. He knew that he also didn’t need to push himself that hard, his hate for the ocean was still very much there. It was just that now it was a matter of life and death if he swam or not.
No biggie.
Mark was just swimming around the lifepod, constantly looking around to see Seán and finding him swimming a little farther from him scavenging stuff from around the seafloor.
“So for the computer chip and the battery I'm pretty sure that we can find everything that we need around here. The battery is just copper and those weird purple mushrooms, and the computer chip is coral, gold, and more copper.” Seán said through his comm “The only thing missing is silver and you said that it was in the red grass so maybe we could make the first two things and then…”
Seán drifted off and Mark knew that they were both uncomfortable swimming back there. However Seán had been right, They needed a more stable place to stay.
“Later then we’ll figure it out” Mark finished Seán’s sentence “It doesn’t have to be right now, let’s just focus on this okay?”
“Yeah… yeah you’re right, let’s just do this”
The number on Mark’s helmet had dropped to 15 seconds and Mark a shiver going down his spine “Seán, air”
Mark didn’t expect an answer from Seán but the moment that he hit the surface and saw Seán coming up for air just a moment later made him feel better. He didn’t want Seán to feel like he didn’t trust him to remember his own oxygen, but Mark did feel better reminding him just in case. Mark just didn’t want an accident to happen.
“I think that since this place is not so deep a 10 second warning from you would be fine?” Seán joked still above the surface, opening his backpack and adding the things that he had grabbed.
“You know, you joke right now, but I know you and you will forget in the next 5 minutes”
“Oh come on, if anything you are worse than me!” Seán laughed “What about all those packages back home that you forgot you bought? Or all the times that you told me in one of our skypes that you forgot you had something on your stove cooking?”
“It happens to the best of us! Besides, I cannot be the best at everything! I have the looks and the intelligence, whoever is in charge knew that if I also had a better attention span I would have everyone swooning for me left and right”
“Oh shut up, Mr Narcissism” Seán said and even if Mark couldn’t see him, he knew that he was smiling.
They both dived again and Mark felt a bit calmer, he was more focused on what he was supposed to be doing now that he and Seán seemed to be in an agreement of how long they were going to be under the water.
Mark looked around again, this time actually trying to find what Seán had told him to look for and it didn’t take him much for him to see the purple mushrooms that he had mentioned.
He swam directly to it and an idea crossed his mind before he grabbed the mushrooms. With his scanner in hand he ended up approaching the mushrooms and scanned the plant.
“A common, spore-bearing fungi species. The flesh contains a highly acidic compound which leaches into the water if the outer skin is penetrated.” Alterra’s AI suddenly spoke on his helmet followed by a ‘what the fuck’ from Seán “It is not clear which predator species necessitated such extreme counter-measures, but the acid mushroom's numbers suggest it has successfully deterred most of them. Assessment: Inedible - Acid has applications in battery fabrication”
“How does it know that!” Mark exclaimed dumbfounded “How does it know is common? Or that it has acid that leaches into water? You cannot tell me that isn’t weird Seán!”
“O-okay, yeah, I guess it’s really weird most of these stuff” Seán mumbled “But you also have to agree that this is fucking big to keep it a secret! There would be too many people with the knowledge of a planet like this for it to be a secret easy to be kept… well, a secret”
“I’m just saying man, there is something else happening here. The Alterra people probably knew about this planet, probably even wanted to create whatever the phase gate thing was, here”
“But do you really think that, Mark? If so, why did we crash? The trip was only supposed to be on the spaceship, we weren’t supposed to land anywhere, how would they have dropped everything on this planet without us noticing it?”
Mark knew that Seán was right on the phase gate topic, there couldn’t have been a way for the Aurora to deploy all of what Ozzy said it was carrying without at least a couple of the passengers noticing. But then what were they planning to do? Act as if they had to change one of their spaceship tires? There was no way for them to do it.
Two beeps sounded on his helmet followed by an “Oxygen” said by the AI.
A quick glance to his oxygen meter, showed Mark that the number was at 10 going down.
He quickly swam to the surface and saw the number go up once again when his tank hit the surface.
“Well this is inefficient” He muttered under his breath looking at the 75 on his helmet.
He forgot for a minute that their comms were connected because after his comment he was surprised to hear Seán laughing.
“Yeah, almost as inefficient to have someone counting to 45 for you to come out of the water or they would start panicking about yourself”
“Oh you asshole!” Mark laughed back and shaked his head “I worry about you, you know!”
“Oh my!” Seán said, instead laughing with mocking tenderness in his voice “Mark you flatter me, you worrying about poor little ol me? This is an honor!”
“I hope you drown fucker” Mark insulted him with a loving tone, trying as plainly as he could to let Seán know that he in fact, didn’t want him to drown.
“Have you at least grabbed something useful? Or have you just been over there swimming around Henry?”
“Well I’ll let you know that I did grab some mushrooms and ALSO scanned them”
“Oh how could I survive without you? My hero” mocked Seán.
Mark laughed harder and he looked down to where he was currently swimming. Seán was right, he had not swam much farther from where they usually swam, but he also noticed that Seán hadn’t gone far. At least not as far as the first time that he had scavenged around and Mark had stood on top of Henry just grabbing what Seán would hand him.
He also noticed at the bottom of the ocean some orange corals that hang on the edge of a little cliff in the shallows.
“I also think I see the coral thingies from here” He added once Mark felt that the laugh resided “If you have what we need and haven’t grabbed them I could take the corals and we could go back into Henry”
“I have the rest myself, we can go inside”
“Cool, give me a second”
Mark swam down and grabbed the corals, tearing them down with both hands and sloppily put them into his backpack.
When he entered the pod from the under hatch, Seán helped him get inside pulling him in. Mark had never liked the feeling that he had after he swam. The reminder that the gravity was there, and the feeling of suddenly having to carry with more weight than before made him feel uncomfortable. So as soon as he was safely inside the pod and Seán had taken his backpack from him, Mark started to get rid of his diving suit.
Being dry again, his clothes dry (without counting his own sweat, and that was a bit berable), made him relax a bit and took both suits to the top of their pod and laid them down for them to dry on the last bit of sun of the day that they were going to have.
The sound of the fabricator called Mark’s attention and he focused on the blue lasers coming out of the machine on the wall. It was amazing to him how a small device like that, with only two lasers that he did not know what exactly they did, could build something only out of raw materials.
The batteries that Seán was making seemed to be finished because he took them and put the rest of the materials on the fabricator. After a couple of seconds 2 computer chips and 2 batteries were in front of him.
Seán didn’t wait for Mark to say anything when he was already grabbing his backpack and taking something that Mark hadn’t seen before.
“Okay, so I grabbed something from the ocean and I didn’t want you to freak out about it, so I didn’t tell you, but I am also going to take it back where I found it I just wanted to scan it without being in danger”
Mark blinked a couple times and he was about to tell Seán about his doubtful choices when Seán took something that seemed a lot like an egg and put it down in front of both of them.
Mark didn’t say anything and let him go on. Knowing that if he opened his mouth some very heavy insults would come out.
“Listen I know that face you’re making, you’re angry”
“You think?”
“But I wanted to scan it”
“What if whatever thing laid that egg comes to find it?!”
“Nothing was guarding it!”
“Then you should have scanned it outside! Not here!”
“I’ll just scan it and leave it where I found it!”
“Why do you need to scan it!”
“I just thought it was cool!”
Mark sighed and let himself close his eyes. He actually wasn’t sure why it still surprised him what Sean sometimes classified as cool or just interesant (he had said the same thing about the whales from before). Still a shiver ran through his back and he found himself curious too.
Alterra knew way too much from this planet to be a coincidence, even completely superior AIs would have a hard time figuring out what composed every single thing on the ocean floor of an extraterrestrial planet without some kind of laboratory to test those things.
“You are a horrible influence to me”
Seán’s eyes seemed to light up before Sean took out his own scanner and pointed it towards the egg “you were the one that wanted to know about what knowledge we had from this planet”
“I already agreed to this don’t make me change my mind”
Sean laughed and the scanner finished doing its job “I think it’s a bit late for that”
Seán turned to grab his PDA and he went around some of the pages before clicking on the screen.
“Evidence suggests that a substantial number, if not all of the local species reproduce through egg-laying. Eggs can be found resting on the seafloor, buried beneath detritus, or even wedged into cracks in the rock.
Different species likely favor different biomes as their nesting grounds. Eggs discovered in the wild are in some form of natural stasis, likely awaiting ideal conditions in which to hatch, or the delivery of some vital enzyme which will kick start the process.
It is impossible to calculate the species of the egg from the exterior, however it may be possible to stimulate a hatching response if an egg is relocated to a suitable alien containment unit.”
“Alien containment unit?”
“Stasis?”
Both of them asked at the same time.
“You cannot be thinking of researching these things do you?” Mark asked not quite sure how to feel with whatever answer Seán was going to give him.
“I mean yes? Looks like Alterra didn’t have every single data from this world, maybe we could… I don’t know, find some kind of weakness in the more dangerous animals?”
Mark looked down at the egg on the floor of the pod. The egg was green, the exterior of the shell making the egg look as if it was reinforced in case some predator wanted to eat it. Looking closely at the egg he could see it was almost palpitating.
“The PDA did mention some kind of stasis for the egg to hatch” He mindlessly added “But we cannot wait until some type of angry shark mom comes barging in here trying to take the egg back”
Seán took the egg in his hands and nodded slowly.
“You need to put it back where you found it. And when we make the containment unit then we’ll talk about grabbing eggs to raise”
Seán nodded and looked at the egg in his hands for a moment with a puzzled look. After blinking a couple of times and looking up to the pod he set the egg down and turned around.
“What are you doing Seán?”
“Well I’m taking off my clothes!”
It had been Mark’s turn to blink a couple of times before turning his face away “Why are you doing that!”
“Well,” Seán’s voice sounded strained “The diving suit is wet and difficult to put, and I am not wetting this clothes again, the first time I got in the water with this on it took a lot for it to dry and it was really uncomfortable, so I am not doing it again.”
“Ok- okay… geez next time just ask and I can turn around” Mark felt heat coming back to his face and thanked whoever was listening that they both were turning away from each other, he wasn’t sure he could have explained his blushing if Seán asked.
“That’s why I turned around” Seán exclaimed “It’s fine, we’re both dudes, pretty sure you have seen naked backs and legs in your time alive”
Mark felt a shock of recognition when Seán so nonchalantly said we’re both dudes. He remembers being used to thinking that. Mostly the few times that they got to share a room in a hotel for a con. About how it wouldn’t matter if he left the bathroom with only just a towel because his clothes were outside and hey they both were dudes, it was okay. Then he realized that it was in fact not okay wanting to see his friend naked, his hands grabbing the towel that he had put around his waist and pulling it away.
Mark shaked his head once more and noticed the sound of Seán going back in the water. He looked around and the egg wasn’t on the pod anymore so he figured Seán had taken it back to where he had found it.
Almost as in instinct he started to count the seconds up to 75.
He needed to stop thinking about Seán that way. He wasn’t ready to explain it to him and he didn’t want Seán to just figure it out one day when he saw Mark rock hard looking intensely at Seán.
Mark needed to get a better hold of himself.
At the 52nd second the hatch from below the pod opened again and Seán’s head poked right from it.
“The egg is right where I found it, everything should be fine now”
Seán pushed himself up into the pod with his arms and for a second Mark got to see Seán’s naked chest dripping water.
He really needed to stop.
Mark found himself entertaining his thoughts on the PDA that he had in front of him and going through the tabs. He saw the list of their inventory and read the blueprints for the habitat builder, they really only needed the silver to finish what they needed.
Mark took a look up from the hatch above them and sighed when the light of the day was slowly fading away “Maybe we should wait until it’s morning again to go to the red grass and get the silver, going at night could be dangerous for us”
He dared a quick look back to Seán and noticed that he had dressed back on. Mark felt his shoulder relax, but he tried to hide it as much as possible.
“Yep, I think that’s a good idea” Seán said, not looking at him and taking 2 different fish from his backpack and putting them on the fabricator “We should eat and drink something before leaving tho”
“Yeah,” Mark nodded, reclining himself to the back of the lifepod “I think we should.”
As usual the food cooked from the fabricator was bland. There was nothing to season the fish and it just tasted boring. Mark had always enjoyed cooking, so now that he couldn’t and had to rely on some machine to cook his food, he was not exactly thrilled. Seán was sitting in front of him at the other side of the pod and he seemed to also be immersed in his thoughts while eating his food.
“Are you okay?” Seán asked, making Mark get out of his thoughts “I hadn’t asked you and fears as big as yours with the ocean are not easily forgotten, but you keep going in the water because I say so, and… How are you?”
Mark blinked for a second before laughing softly, shaking his head “I hate it but I’m working on it” Mark smiled at Seán and quickly looked somewhere else “You were right since the beginning, we need to explore our surroundings if we want to survive long enough for people to rescue us”
“I still don’t feel like you should keep it locked on your chest, Mark” Seán seemed to be growing more concerned and he put down his cooked fish “I… I know you don’t like talking about your feelings a lot, and when you get mad or scared you usually just keep it to yourself until you either calm down or explode. I just don’t want you to feel like you cannot talk to me”
Mark wasn’t sure how to feel, he was making his peace with being on an almost fully ocean planet and having to enter the ocean was a thing that they needed to do for survival alone, but Seán seemed to be actually concerned. And sure, there were a lot of things that he wanted to say, but none would make either of them feel better.
“I promise I am fine” Mark smiled weakly and shrugged “and if I start feeling worse about it I will turn to you for help”
Seán smiled back and nodded slowly, looking down at his cooked fish “Good, good. I just say it because… we were lucky, didn’t we?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean that we don’t know what happened to the other lifepods yet, where Ozzy… where Ozzy landed was certainly not safe, and we haven’t gotten near the Aurora but with what the AI said about the radiation it doesn’t seem safe.” Seán looked back at Mark and gave him a halfhearted smile “We crashed in a place called the safe shallows”
Mark felt his chest grow heavy and even if Seán hadn’t said it out loud he understood the meaning of his tone. Why them? Why was it them that survived the crash and in what seemed to be the safest place to land? There were more important people traveling in the Aurora with them, the staff had probably been trained for if something like this were to happen, maybe they would have been able to reach Ozzy in time.
“We did” Was all Mark could whisper.
The night was already over them and Mark turned his face to the hatch above them. Even with the glass in between him and the sky, the sky was clear. Pollution was not a thing on this planet and there were barely a couple of clouds in the sky. The stars shone brightly and every inch of the dark sky was illuminated by dots of lights.
Mark was fascinated at how much he hated and loved being there at this moment. He always loved watching the night sky, even if back in LA you could barely see a star or two, it made him calm down. He liked knowing that there were so much more than day to day problems, that there were many huge things, that his troubling thoughts seemed tiny in comparison. Almost unimportant.
At his side he felt Seán sitting close to him, their arms close enough for Mark to feel the body heat from the other. He felt a shiver run through his back but he didn’t take his eyes from the stars above them.
“You said you would want this” Seán whispered and Mark breathing hitched.
If there was a program for volunteers to go into space with 100% probability of dying. I would be there so fast.
Mark chuckled “I know”
“Do you regret it?”
And for a moment Mark felt undoubted clarity.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“The red grass is up ahead, do you remember where the fragment was?” Mark asked through the comms. They were submerged in the water. He was surprised at how easy it was becoming, the more he spent time underwater the more he got used to it.
Now he barely even felt the panic in his chest.
“I don’t think there is a way for me not to remember. You think the shark is still around?” Seán’s voice came through Mark’s helmet and turned around.
They were still inside the kelp forest but Mark could see the stone pillars and the red grass in the distance. For a moment he wondered about the color of the grass, if it was what made it turn into red or if, just like the mushrooms from the Safe Shallows, the color was to protect itself from creatures.
His helmet beeped twice and the Alterra AI was calling Oxygen again. Mark swam to the surface and even if he couldn’t really feel the air on his body,the oxygen meter at the bottom of his helmet going up told him that the oxygen tank was filling up without a problem.
Seán smiled at him when Mark turned around looking for him. Mark’s stomach felt like it flipped over and he took a deep breath in before letting it go slowly. He knew that focusing again on his little crush would cause problems in the long run. On the other hand Seán smiling at him was enough to set his heartbeat going.
“Even if it is, the knife and seaglide should give us an advantage over it” Mark added, shifting in the water to feel the survival knife attached to his diving suit.
It had been the latest addition to their tool pack. While there weren’t any actual guns in the fabricator, a knife was good enough to protect them from anything that got closer than necessary.
“Let’s hope so then. I don’t want to be shark meat again” Seán joked.
Mark nodded slowly, not liking the thought of being shark meat or of Seán becoming shark meat. With one last look between each other they dived back in.
Swimming through the kelp forest was easy enough, there were some big fish that swam around the kelps but both him and Seán had swam by them a couple of times now without problems. As most things around the ocean they had decided to not bother them. The fish seemed to have big sharp teeth and a fascination for debris, so they weren’t going to start getting up on their business.
Both him and Seán had been looking at the red grass for a couple of seconds when it clicked on Mark that they were stalling. He knew that it made sense, the last time they had been in there they had been attacked for some alien shark with big sharp teeth.
“Wait Mark. Over there” Seán said, pointing to a crate on the bottom of the forest’s floor. “You think it could be something?”
Mark looked at the white and orange crate that put “CARGO” on its side. Looking around he noticed the fish and their debris again and a sudden wave of fear resurged on his chest. He was not sure he wanted to get closer to them but the crate did seem to be big enough to maybe still be carrying something inside it. With a bit of luck maybe some fragments of the things they needed.
Mark slowly nodded in Seán’s direction “Okay, but it’s further below” Their oxygen was not depleted yet but the 43 green number was going down little by little “Let’s go up and then we can check out the crate with the tank full”
Seán smiled and then they were both swimming up, reaching the surface almost at the same time.
Below them, Mark could see that the fish where not that far from them, so he took his scanner and, in a burst of curiosity, aimed it to the animals.
“A streamlined predator encountered in the kelp forests in wait of prey leaving the safety of the shallows to feed. The stalker likely carved out its evolutionary niche at the sweet spot between speed and size millions of years ago, and may be one of the oldest species on the planet.” The AI stated in his helmet “The stalker appears to be attracted to titanium deposits, which tends to sharpen and put stress on its teeth. As with many predators, it may be possible to temporarily distract hungry stalkers by feeding them.”
“Oh for fuck’s-” Seán muttered at his side before he started to cough, taking Mark’s attention from the fish’s -Stalkers’- information to look at him.
“You okay there?”
“Yeah, yeah” Seán answered trying to reassure Mark “My throat started itching and the info dump didn’t help.”
“The people that named this things were creative weren’t they?” Mark joked trying not to think about the phrase ‘in wait for prey leaving the safety of the shallows’ and putting his scanner away.
Seán of course picked up his mocking tone and played along “What? You don’t think the names Peeper and Boomerang are creative?”
“Oh I didn’t say that” Mark smiled, taking out his survival knife. He didn’t want to fight the Stalkers but again, if one of them got close enough he would be prepared.
“You implied it” Seán smiled back and, with one quick glance to Mark’s knife, he took out his scanner from his back.
Having Seán joking and talking with him, as if they weren’t about to do something stupid,was comforting. He looked at Seán’s face for a couple of seconds, relishing the comfort before shrugging.
“Think what you will, I just know there are way less edgier names than stalker”
Seán laughed, before making a hum in agreement. He then raised his scanner and waved it in front of them “I guess I scan and you keep an eye out?”
“Yep, I’ll stab anything that gets closer than necessary”
“A plan it is”
They didn’t seem to need anything else said because soon they both were swimming directly to the crate.
Mark swam behind Seán. Making sure to keep his eyes out for any stalker getting closer to them. The image of Seán being attacked and his scream thundering on Mark’s comm, had been pretty much imprinted in his memories. He was making sure it didn’t happen again.
The moment Seán was close enough to the crate and Mark saw him swim around he turned and his eyes focused on the stalkers not too far from them. Seeing them like this set his fight or flight reaction off, adrenaline was coursing through his body and Mark tried his best to focus that adrenaline into fight mode.
However the stalkers didn’t quite seem to mind them. There were 4 that he could see, swimming around the Kelp Forest, picking up debris from the ground around and moving it to a pile. The 4 stalkers seemed to almost be working together to make sure their debris pile grew. The AI had said that they had a fascination with titanium because it sharpened their teeth but somehow he had pictured the stalkers biting into it as if they were chewing toys, not as if they were trying to make a deposit of debris.
The stalkers did seem to bite down hard into the debris, Mark got to see how one of them lost a tooth after picking a piece. But other than that, from the distance he was at, they looked (god Seán was rubbing off on him) kind of cool.
A beeping noise called his attention and on the top left corner of his helmet he saw a small message.
Mobile Vehicle Bay Fragment Scan 1/2 (50%)
“Got it” Seán’s voice came in through his comm and Mark turned around to look at him “But I think I saw another crate up ahead. Should we?”
Now Mark knew that even if Seán was asking he would go on his own if he didn’t want to go. He looked around and then followed Seán’s finger to a place not far away. A quick look to his oxygen counter marked that they still had 50 seconds for the oxygen to deplete, Mark thought that they could make it.
“Let’s just be quick then”
With another quick nod from Seán they swam deeper into the forest and took their positions again. Mark went back to look at the stalkers and this time he was surprised at a change in their behavior. The stalkers seemed to be moving their debris pile from where it was to another part of the forest. They weren’t hiding it away, and it didn’t look like they were trying to make any type of nest.
They were just moving the debris. Almost as if they found it entertaining.
Suddenly 2 stalkers grabbed the same one on the pile and started tugging it from each side.
The movement of the 2 stalkers tugging the debris vaguely reminded him of dog behavior and his thoughts shifted instantly to Chica. He had left her with his friend Amy and her dog, Henry, back on earth. Mark trusted Amy to take good care of Chica, even if he never made it back, he knew that she was going to be loved and well taken cared off for the rest of her days.
But he wanted to see her again.
A crash of nostalgia override the adrenaline inside him and he knew that he wanted to go back home if only to just hug Chica again. Even if it was just one more time.
“New blueprint acquired” The AI chimed once again at the same time a picture of a small machine appeared in the corner of his eye.
“Got it!” Seán exclaimed again and swam to stay by Mark’s side.
Mark fought down a shaky breath and smiled at Seán. They were making it home, he told himself, they were at least going to try their hardest to do so.
“Then red grass it is, right?” He felt himself grimace while saying so and Seán mirrored his expression.
“Yeah…”
“This sucks”
They didn’t put it off much longer and, with one last trip to the surface for air, they both swam through the Kelp Forest into the red grass.
The light there was brighter than in the forest, in there, from the surface, Mark could very easily see the bottom easier. He still felt more scared than with the stalkers swimming around them.
He wasn’t sure if he had been the one to move or Seán, but they were closer than before. Even below the water and with their diving suits on, Mark was sure he could feel Seán’s arm brushing along his.
“So…” Seán started, his voice weaker than before “Where did you say the silver was?”
Mark kept his eyes on the ocean’s floor and pointed around, not really aiming to a specific place “I saw some glistening things in between the grass, maybe there?”
“Wait…” Mark turned to Seán and noticed him gaping “Maybe?”
“I- I don’t know where else it could be and I remembered seeing something around there”
Mark felt his chest tighten. He gave Seán a hard time when he did something without researching about it first and now there he was, doing exactly the same thing based on assumptions. A voice in his head told him that he should have at least said that before swimming blindly back into the red grass.
Seán’s eyes darkened in panic “Yeah!” his breath got rushed and deeper “Maybe it was the teeth of the thing that almost bit my head off!”
Mark moved on instinct towards Seán and put his hands on the other’s arms. In a quick motion Seán was again grabbing onto Mark’s diving suit and he saw that Seán was trying as hard as he could to take deep breaths. Mark moved before he could think about what he was doing and raised Seán’s face for him to look at his face.
He put their helmets together and with one hand he moved Seán’s hand towards his chest, starting to take deep breaths and trying to make Seán match it.
They stayed together for a moment. The more he breathed in, the easier it was for Seán to match his pace. Mark wanted to stay like that, make sure that Seán was going to be okay and not leave his side but slowly Seán pulled away. Locking eyes with Mark.
They kept looking at each other, Mark could see Seán’s chest rising and falling and he could feel himself doing the same, both just standing there in synchrony.
After what felt like an eternity and no time at all, Seán lowered his head and let out a half-hearted chuckle.
“God I hate you” His voice sounded disingenuine, almost as if Seán had tried to play it as a joke but wanted to believe it at the same time.
Mark nodded, even if he couldn’t see him, he couldn’t take his eyes off of Seán. The egoistic and self centered part of himself started screaming at him to take him back into his arms. To take him back to Henry and hold him close, not wanting for Seán to feel scared again, that same part of him screaming that Seán would do the same to him.
Another coughing fit took hold of him and he shook it away “Okay then, let’s hope it’s actually silver and not anything else”
Seán turned to look at him and smiled, almost as if he hadn’t had a panic attack 2 minutes ago. With one last thought about how maybe he was not the only one bottling things up, they both started swimming towards the grass.
Mark knew he needed to say something. An apology, where he had seen the glistening, some reassurement, but he could barely even think. The only thing clouding his mind was how he may have never stopped having feelings for Seán.
“I think I see what you meant” Seán said through his comm and swam slowly to the grass. Mark swam faster to catch up to him and stand by his side with his knife out.
On the ground below them there seem to be some white rocks, something that vaguely grabbed Mark’s attention and his head classified as mineral. Before he could do anything Seán reached out for it and took it in his hand. It didn’t last much on his hand before Seán squeezed it in between his fingers and it turned to dust on his hand.
That caught Mark’s attention almost completely, silver was not supposed to do that and by the look of Seán he knew that too. Taking their scanners out the AI told them that it was a salt deposit that was made on the ground of the Grassy Plateaus because of the water current on the place.
A bitter feeling grew on his stomach. He had wanted some seasoning for his goddamn fish, hadn’t he?
“I-” Mark started founding his voice again “I’m sorry”
Seán turned around, looking at Mark again and where Mark had expected anger, sadness, or bitterness, there was a soft understanding in his eyes. He found himself wishing for Seán to be pissed though.
“It’s okay” He whispered in response, shrugging in obvious disappointment “I just-”
He got cut short and his eyes wandered to some place behind Mark, almost as if entrailed by something.
“Wait, let’s… over here” Seán added while swimming to one of the rock pillars in the plateau, his mood almost completely changed.
“Did you see something?” Mark asked swimming to catch up to Seán who now seemed to be very focused on some rock on the pillar.
“Actually I think so!” Seán pointed to the rock and his voice had a very optimistic pitch. With one hand he took his knife and lined up the handle to the rock “Remember the ores I brought to Henry?”
“Copper and Iron? I do” Mark looked at the rock not noticing much from it.
“Well” Seán smiled and hit the rock as fast as he could, breaking it and something falling from inside to the floor.
Seán swam to it, grabbed it and scanned it. This time the AI chimed in, calling it silver. Seán smiled cheekily at Mark and handed him the ore.
Mark felt a whiplash of emotions flood him. Both amaze and happiness being the strongest. He really had thought that he had fucked things up and they would have to go back to Henry with only some salt deposits but now… He moved the ore on his hands and squeezed in on his palm, this time the piece not breaking. Besides him, Seán was hitting a couple more rocks and showing him the result of 2 more silver ores.
“How did you even realize this?” Mark smiled, putting the ores on his backpack.
“I accidentally kicked one back in the shallows and it dropped iron.” Seán swam to the next rock and Mark followed close behind “I tried with others and some also dropped copper. This ones look similar but a slightly lighter color”
“How did you know they were going to have silver?”
“I didn’t, but neither did you bringing us here” Seán smirked and punched another rock, this one dropping a darker colored ore.
Mark chuckled and took out his knife, planning on getting more of whatever they could find. More ores never hurt.
“I really am sorry Seán” Mark said, hitting another ore and this one dropping a more yellow type ore.
“I know” Seán answered in almost a whisper, but Mark could still hear the relief on his voice “I appreciate you apologizing”
“I think maybe we need another rule” Mark joked.
“What ‘Don’t split up’ is not enough for you?”
“#2 Communication is necessary”
Even if his last commentary was matching Mark’s joking tone, this time Seán sounded genuine “Deal”
With no more commentary they kept collecting ores around, trying to be as fast as they could.
Thankfully the ores were usually at the top of the pillars or at the edge of the plateau, along the Kelp Forest, so they got to see the alien shark but not close enough to be a problem.
When they looked around checking that they had enough ores and that it was getting darker they both counted what they had gathered and turned on their seaglides.
“Let’s hurry back. We’ll deal with everything else tomorrow” Seán said, swimming with Mark to the surface, filling their tanks and starting heading off to Henry.
Mark nodded and moved along Seán, falling into idle chatter. With any luck they were going to make it before it got dark.