The next morning the H2OPE anchored off a small outer island. Little more than sandy beaches and a rocky interior, with a few scrub trees clutching rocky outcrops. Thousands of birds flocked on every surface of water and land.

Beckett leaned on his favorite deck railing while birds swooped and flapped above the boat.

Dan stalked up. “Watch your head these look like poopers.” Bird poop splattered the deck beside Beckett’s foot. Dan laughed and called to Jeffrey, “Good news! Beckett’s hands have healed enough, he’ll be able to help swab the decks tonight.”

Jeffrey said, “Good, because this is one big mess already and we’ve only been here for ten minutes.” They all looked down, there was bird poop everywhere.

Rebecca pointed toward shore. “Turtles, see that? Turtles!”

Beckett peered in the direction she pointed. He couldn’t see anything different from seagulls, pelicans, pipers. Rebecca grabbed a net and buckets and raced toward the awaiting Zodiac.

Dan said, “I better hustle to captain their boat.”

Sarah ran by with more buckets, “Dan, hurry, turtles!”

Beckett’s job was to remain on deck and receive the samples and return by pulley the empty buckets to be filled again. The crew fanned out across the sand, bent over, scanning, collecting, digging, dragging bags and nets behind them as they travelled back and forth to the Zodiac.

Dan was sending two buckets of samples up by pulley. “You good up there Army?”

“How come Army is here on a ship while the ship’s crew is on land?”

Dan flicked his wet hair. He didn’t need to leave the Zodiac, but kept jumping out of it to plow waist deep through the water to collect the samples from the beachcombers. To a stranger it would have seemed selfless that he kept everyone else from getting wet, but the crew and Beckett knew Dan did it because he loved the water. Had to be in it.

Dan said, “You’re not in the water though are you? Always looking for any excuse to stay dry on higher ground.”

Higher ground. That was one of the last things Luna said, she was on higher ground. Now it had been hours and hours since their call was cut off…

Beckett unclasped the buckets, lugged them to the lab, poured them into tanks, and sent the empty buckets down the line back to Dan. Beckett said, “Better the high ground than the low, that’s where you have to swim.”

Dan laughed, “”Do you even know how to swim Army? Maybe we could get you some of those inflatable armband floaty things.” He sped the Zodiac in a wide circle to the beach.

_________________

Hours later everyone returned to the ship. The day had been a tremendous success. They had found about ten sea turtle nests, a sure sign that they were thriving, even with the hungry birds overhead. Sarah had some wild theories about how the one could live in harmony with the other, but said, “These are all conjectures though, I’ll need to study this, really study it.” They had taken photographs, notes, and recordings, and with the specimens and samples would have more than enough to catalog and study. For months.

Rebecca said, “We have to celebrate before Sarah and I disappear to start our research, let’s meet in the galley at sunset so we can par-ty!”

Beckett and Jeffrey grabbed mops and began the work of scrubbing the decks while everyone else set about doing the sunset work of the ship.

_________________

After dinner, Dan emerged from the kitchen with a tray of shot glasses and poured drinks and passed them around, but Beckett shook his head. “Nah man, don’t drink.”

“Even to celebrate?”

Beckett said, “Nope.”

Dan paused for a second eyes squinted.

Beckett asked, “What?”

“Never met any army guy that didn’t drink, escapism is the entire point, or didn’t you know?”

“Just not my point.” Beckett looked away.

Dan said, “Sure, of course, no offense meant.” He continued handing drinks to everyone else.

Captain Aria asked, “Sarah, perhaps you’d like to say a few words?”

Sarah stood, raised her glass, and cleared her throat. “Mark your history books people. Rebecca and I have, on this day, found thriving turtle nests. We also spotted an endangered seabird that we thought was long gone. The water quality around the island was excellent. So much flora and fauna there. Fish. Crabs. Shells. It was amazing.”

Everyone cheered their glasses and Dan said, “To baby turtles, and their cute little legs!”

Rebecca said, “We’ll stay tomorrow and then we head back to port, this has been an excellent trip. Nothing but good news.”

Dan said, “Except of course Army’s hands.”

Beckett chuckled. “Hear hear.”

_________________

After dinner as the crew went singing to the upper decks, Beckett attempted to radio Luna.

“Hello Luna, are you there?”

— static —

“Luna?”

— static —

He fiddled the dial back and forth repeating her name. All he heard were the usual voices, conversations, and one faint voice, garbled and masculine. Finally he gave up.

_________________

Beckett leaned on his favorite portion of railing, looking over the darkened ocean. The ship was facing west. The island they were anchored beside was northwest. Beckett faced east, thinking about the distance between where he stood, Luna, and land.

Snippets of the crew’s revelry reached his ears. Jeffrey and Rebecca were singing a drunken song. “With a howeeeeee yo!”

Beckett chuckled, they were seriously out of tune.

Behind him Sarah, usually quiet and sensible, squealed and giggled, “Whoa, Tiger.”

Dan laughed merrily. “I can’t help myself you’re so hot, Baby.”

Rebecca yelled, “Get a room!” and everyone laughed.

The water below where he stood was deep and black as night. The sky above was cloudy and grey and low. Like the up and down were reversed. The sea seemed endless, the sky close. And it was really. They were all moving higher as the sea grew.

Sarah thought this island was nothing but good news. But she had been looking at it from the surface — the water’s edge was thriving. From Beckett’s perspective though, up above, from the boat deck — the same perspective he had from his Outpost, the same as from his mountain home, looking down at what was happening — it was clear.

The sea was rising. Pushing everything (and everybody) up and up to the last available spaces, where they were clawing and clamoring for purchase on the last remaining ground.

Maybe before there were twenty islands with three sea turtle nests on each one. Now there were three islands, with five sea turtle nests. He wanted to be happy, to celebrate with them, but he couldn’t. He could only mourn the loss of all that land.

He usually looked up at night, but tonight’s cloudy, starless sky gave him one less thing to worry about. If it had been a star-filled sky, Beckett would feel very small. He didn’t want to feel small. He wanted to feel in control, able to do this.

Instead he had that anxious, skin crawling, dread, like any news coming his way wasn’t going to be good.

He tried to tell himself that his worries were always wrong. He had worried that the Outpost would collapse below him. It didn’t. That Luna was dead. She wasn’t. That he wouldn’t find her. And guess what, in the entire ocean, he found her.

It would be impossible to lose her now. The fates didn’t have that kind of humor.

His luck would hold.

Or maybe it wouldn’t.

He gripped the railing, took a deep, head-down breath, blew it out and straightened.

He walked over to the others. Jeffrey and Dr Mags were lounging on deckchairs. Rebecca held a bottle, loosely, by its neck, and slurred, “In the expanthe of the univerth I saw a turtle nest and that was awesome,” before she lost track of what she wanted to say and giggled.

Dan’s face was buried in Sarah’s shoulder, whispering in her ear.

Beckett interrupted, “I’m headed to bed.” He tried for an upbeat, merry tone.

The others called, “G’night Beckett!”

And he headed to his bunk to sleep.