"Give me an approach to Ida then, and let's take her in."Give me an approach to Ida then, and let's take her in." "Approach plotted. How's that?" "Perfect," I said. I rolled back to a planar attitude and pitched forward, firing the engines. "We're going down." Twenty minutes later the counter-gravitics were stirring up the water off the coast of the island of Ida. Outside the window I could see the island itself, a long, sloping hillock of bright green grass, slowing emerging from the ocean. Further up the side of the hill I could see a treeline, and then it seemed to drop out of sight. "Looks like the kind of place I'd like to retire to someday," I joked. "Beautiful country, though." Fawn scanned the horizon carefully, watching for ships, observers on the island, anything. "We're looking for 'the caves off the rocky coast of Ida,'" I said. "That implies it might not actually be on Ida itself." "I know," I growled. "Don't remind me." "I have a geological construction that might be 'The Caves of Ida." "I hear a 'but.'" "You can't reach them without going for a swim." "Break out the SCUBA gear," I chuckled. "That's not too hard." "I'm powering up a drone in case you need help." "I won't need help," I insisted. "What's the water like?" "Seventy-four degrees fahrenheit," she said. "Amazingly warm for this clime." "Would you recommend a wet suit?" "Only the very lightest," Fawn replied. "Soft neoprene would be fine." "Got it," I said, jumping into the back compartment. "Head as well?" "Not important," Fawn replied. "And the visibility underwater seems to be optimal." "Lack of pollution," I said, pulling the jacket closed and zippering up. "How close are we?" "I've moved us to just at the opening of the caves and am about to set us down on the water. |