Everglow: The Trials Of Agaron

12 - Mechanics

"Fischer, spanner!" Kori called as he treaded water.

Sifting through the box of strange alien tools, he managed to pull out a strangely normal looking spanner.  

"Hey this looks almost identical to what we have on Earth. How long have these been around?" He called out while inspecting the tool. 

Kori took his attention off of the ekranoplan and looked up at Fischer.

"Uhhhh, hard to tell. I dunno, couple thousand years? I mean it does its job pretty darn well. Don't fix what ain't broken right? No point in re inventing the wheel. Now pass it down to us will ya?" 

Walking down to the very edge of the jetty he tossed the spanner down to Kori who caught it with one hand. Fischer watched with child like curiosity as Kori dove under the water and began tinkering away at the keel of the vessel. 

The water was so clear that if it weren't for the occasional glint of sunlight reflecting off of the crests of the tiny waves it would basically be invisible. He could see almost straight to the bottom and the strange corals that lived under Xarder's oceans. He marvelled at how pretty they were. Some of them almost looked like jellyfish, some were shaped just like plated coral on Earth, others looks like cauliflower plants with different colours. 

Gazing up and off into the distance he could just barely make out the faint outline of the city of Amaryllis Falls and the two main towers that soared high into the air. Other then that, open ocean was all that his eyes could see. But the water almost looked like it was split apart at certain points. Like how from super high up the grass on Earth looks like it is divided into different sections of land, each one a slightly different colour. Except here the water was the same crystal blue colour.

The splash of Kori surfacing drew his attention back to the water. He hurled the spanner up and Fischer managed to catch it fairly easily. 

"Alright, Vicker's torch!" Kori yelled. 

Fischer turned around to the carcan like he'd just spoken a different language.

"What exactly is a Vicker's torch?"

"Uh, it kinda looks like a gun? It's orange and white and has a black tube wrapped around the body of it with a small tank attached," he explained. 

Fischer returned to the box of strange items and began searching for what Kori had described. The cool touch of metal ran across his hands as he sifted through the tools, eventually coming to grasp a small black canister. He pulled on it and a black tube followed, eventually a tool the size of a hand drill emerged. 

The object was surprisingly heavy for its size. He estimated its weight would be roughly the same as two bricks. Making his way down the stairs, he hurled the torch over the side and down to Kori who caught it effortlessly in one hand. 

"Ok I gotta ask, are you. . . like actually able to breath underwater or. . . do you just hold your breath for a really long time?" Fischer sheepishly stood there with his hands behind his back as Kori fiddled with the Vicker's torch. 

"I mean yea, I guess. We don't breath in the same way underwater as we do on land, or like how you guys breath. Underwater we have gills, water passes through our gills when we swim, yadda yadda yadda, oxygen, sciency stuff, we don't die. I don't really know how it works, you'd be better off asking one of the girls about it. They're the smart ones. I'm just glad we can because without it, things like this would be a hell of a lot harder," he exclaimed before diving back down under the ekranoplan. A few seconds later a bright flash emerged for a few second underneath the vessel and flickered momentarily before disappearing then re-appearing as Kori ignited the Vicker's torch.