Chapter 15: Stability

The kittens’ first ride in a mag-lev train had been an eventful one. At two years old, the children were nearing the size where they couldn’t be carried around in their pouches anymore, but there was still a little time left before Jamie and Liz would be chasing them around on public transportation. Their little eyes had been wide with wonder as they watched the towering glass spires of the city flash past beyond the windows, the mile-high edifices joined by a network of walkways hundreds of feet above street level, the magnetic rails that carried the trains back and forth weaving between them like vines through a steel jungle.

When they arrived at their stop, they took an elevator down to the ground floor, emerging into the crumbling brickwork of the Old Town. This area of the city had been abandoned to the ocean hundreds of years prior, when an environmental calamity had caused the sea level to rise, submerging much of what had once been a thriving metropolis.

Ahead of them was the jagged shoreline, the ruins of old buildings jutting from the water like broken teeth, the vast expanse of the ocean visible beyond. The tide was low enough that he could make out the colonies of seaweeds and barnacles that carpeted their weather-worn facades, bringing to mind images of shipwrecked hulks. Steel beams rusted in the salty air, exposed like the bones of a carcass, making excellent perches for seagulls. The glass that had once covered their windows was long gone, leaving empty holes where more seabirds made their nests. Many of the buildings were listing, their foundations long since eroded by the tides, but enough of them remained standing to serve as a reminder of what had once been.

Despite the ominous backdrop, the seafront was now a tourist hot spot. The once-abandoned buildings that lined the street had been renovated, turned into beachside coffee houses and restaurants, colorful awnings picking out the many gift shops and arcades.

Their destination lay at the end of the boardwalk, a jarringly modern structure of glass and steel that protruded from the surrounding ruins.

“They’re going to love this,” Liz chuckled, a group of tourists gazing up at her in wonder as they moved to let her pass. “Remember their faces when they saw the fish tanks at the pet store?”

“You always used to love the aquarium when you were a kid,” Jamie replied.

“Hey, I still love the aquarium,” she added, giving him a toothy grin. “I still have that dumb clownfish toy you bought me on our first date after I came back to Earth, remember?”

“Yeah,” he chuckled, remembering the baffled look on the cashier’s face.

“I wonder if they’ve changed any of the exhibits since we last visited?” Liz wondered.

They made their way to the entrance, a few of the other visitors glancing up at Liz as she entered the lobby.

“We should start charging,” she whispered, Jamie stifling a laugh.

After paying the entry fee at the front desk, they began to make their way through the building, following the route that was mapped out for them. One of the first exhibits they came across was a giant, wall-length tank that must have held thousands of gallons of water, tuna almost as long as Jamie was tall gliding past the glass lazily. There were shoals of smaller fish that flitted about, hundreds of them moving as a single entity, their silvery scales reflecting the sunlight that bled in from above. The kittens’ heads were on a swivel as they tracked them, unsure of where to focus their attention.

“Daddy, the fish!” Toza said as he pointed at the tank. The kittens were starting to form more complete sentences now, and they had much larger vocabularies. They were becoming tiny people, as Liz affectionately referred to them.

“I never saw a fish that big,” Hazel whispered.

“That’s a tuna,” Jamie explained.

“We had tuna sandwiches at playgroup!” Toza added, the revelation making Hazel gasp dramatically.

“That’s right,” Jamie chuckled. “Tuna comes from that big, blue fish.”

“You could make a lotta sandwiches outta him,” Toza chimed.

As they ventured deeper, the lights began to dim, the only illumination coming from the glowing strips that outlined their path. This part of the aquarium was where the deep sea exhibits were housed. As they rounded a bend, they came upon a cylindrical tank full of bioluminescent jellyfish, the animals emitting an eerie, blue light. They floated around lazily, their innumerable tendrils trailing behind them. The slow pulsating of their swimming was mesmerizing. Jamie glanced over at Liz, seeing that the three kittens on her vest were transfixed, their feline eyes reflecting the light.

“Those are jellyfish,” Jamie explained to the kittens. “They float around on the currents, and whatever passes through their tendrils, they eat up.”

The next exhibit was a mockup of a rocky seabed, creeping crabs moving slowly across the uneven terrain on their spindly legs. From the gloom, a monster emerged. It was a Japanese spider crab. Its carapace was covered in sharp spines, its comparatively small claws moving through the water sluggishly as it caught morsels of floating food. It was enormous, the span of its legs at least a meter, probably more.

“I don’t like it,” Hazel grumbled, turning her head away from the crustacean.

“It’s alright,” Jamie said, reaching down to give her a reassuring pat. “He’s behind the glass. He can’t get you.”

“Another!” Toza exclaimed, pointing into the murky water. Jamie squinted, but he couldn’t make anything out in such low light.

“Where?” he asked. “I don’t see it.”

“He’s right there, Daddy!” the boy repeated. “Daddy, you got bad eyes.”

Of course, the kittens had Borealan visual acuity. Their feline eyes could see far better in low light than his could.

“I’ll take your word for it,” he said. “Come on, let’s give Hazel some reprieve from the sea monsters.”

They continued on, emerging into a well-lit area once again. This exhibit sported a giant artificial reef that encircled the room almost entirely, a whole ecosystem of sea life swarming the colorful corals. Everywhere Jamie looked, there were shoals of beautiful tropical fish, their scales decorated with vibrant patterns. He could see yellow, arrow-shaped fish with stripes in streaks of brilliant azure, groups of them flitting between the rocks. There were fish with tiger stripes, fish with silvery scales, guppies with flared tails that were patterned with red spots. He could even make out the orange gleam of a couple of clownfish as they darted in and out of a sea anemone’s protective tentacles.

Deeper inside the reef were the conger eels. They hid in their hollowed-out tunnels, their mouths opening and closing slowly as they filtered water through their gills, exposing rows of sharp teeth. There were seahorses, crabs, sharks. It was a feast for the eyes, like a painting brought to life.

There weren’t many people here, only a few tourists watching a nurse shark on the far side of the room, so Jamie proposed letting the kids stretch their legs. After a few minutes of wrangling the restless kittens, they were set free to roam, their parents keeping a watchful eye on them. There wasn’t much mischief for them to get up to in here.

Bren pressed his pink nose up against the glass, his breath misting it, the boy waddling along in pursuit of a shark as it weaved its way through the reef. Jamie and Liz took a load off, sitting down on a couch that was situated in the center of the room, Liz perching on the human-sized seating as best she could. The kids wandered around of their own accord, their claws squeaking against the glass as they leaned on it to get a closer look.

“They’re so small. It must look like a whole new world to them,” Liz sighed as she watched the kittens hurry back and forth. “Brings me right back to the first time I came here, do you remember? I wanted a human birthday party, so you blew your entire allowance on the trip.”

“You were so happy,” he chuckled, leaning back into the padded seat. “That trip was worth my allowance if you still remember it after all this time.”

“This place is ... weirdly important to us,” she added as she glanced out at the corals. “We always seem to find our way back here, don’t we?”

“I considered a few different places, but this one ended up at the top of my list,” Jamie said as he watched a shoal of tropical fish float by.

“Considered for what?” Liz asked, cocking her head at him.

Jamie fished in his pocket, then slid out of his seat, dropping to a knee. Liz had figured out what was happening before he had even raised the little jewelry box, her tail standing up as stiff as a board, her claws sinking into the plush material on the edge of the couch. Her face flushed a deep shade of red, the feline pupils in her emerald eyes dilating into dark circles as he popped open the lid to reveal a gleaming ring. It was made from sterling silver, the band engraved with flowing patterns in the traditional Elysian style, an alien jungle depicted with an almost medieval flair that made the ring look far older than it actually was.

“W-where did you ... how did...”

Liz stumbled over her words as she watched him struggle to put on a serious face and fail, her furry ears locked onto him. He had taken her completely off-guard. She didn’t know what to do with herself.

“You wouldn’t believe how hard it was to get a measurement of your finger,” he began. “They don’t exactly list Borealan sizes at the jeweler. I had to sneak in with a tape measure while you were asleep.”

“Jamie...”

“So, will you marry me?” he asked.

She covered her burning face with her hands, overwhelmed for a moment, the fur on her tail puffing up to twice its normal size. When she removed them again, Jamie was greeted with a nervous smile, Liz extending a trembling hand. For just a moment, he had seen a glimpse of that same blend of nervousness and excitement that had preceded their first kiss all those years ago.

“As if I’d say ‘no’,” she replied, wiping the tears from her eyes.

Jamie lifted the ring from the velvet cushion in the box, sliding it over her outstretched finger. It was almost large enough to serve as a bracelet for an average-sized woman.

“You engraved it,” she gasped, her eyes glittering in the light from the fish tanks as she turned her hand over to admire it. “Jamie, can we afford this?”

“I started putting my overtime bonuses aside a couple of months before we took the trip to Jarilo,” he replied. “No need to worry.”

“I love it,” she choked, rising from her seat to snatch him up in her arms. She squeezed him against her chest, his feet leaving the carpeted floor as she trapped him in a tight hug, her leather jacket creaking. The tourists on the other side of the room were watching them curiously, but she paid them no mind, burying her nose in his hair.

As she set him down on the floor, the kittens came waddling back over to them, wondering what was going on.