Elevators Through Time - Book 1

Part 40: The Aquarium

Part 40: The Aquarium

Year: 2038

Time: 9:44am

Location: Food Court, Stratostation, Upper Atmosphere, Earth-Space

Level: Level 2

Kate kept thinking about what I said to her and about how the group of people in the food court all hugged Beverly.

Kate and I went to the Aquarium that she wanted to go to since we first arrived on the station.

"Space fish," Kate said at one point to which laughed and said the same in return.

"Yes, space-fish."

The aquarium area consisted of three large sections of a circle, for the smaller fishes, and a large central area that was large enough to house longer and larger sea creatures.

We heard an artificial voice that welcomed us in, but it seemed it was only a recording.

"I wonder how Sierra is doing," I said to Kate.

"Don't worry, G2 said he would take care of her," she replied.

Section 1 of the outer tank had many small fish, all of which Kate and I enjoyed adding he word 'space-' to.

"Space-goldfish here,"

"Wow, that's a space sardine, and a space-pilotfish,"

"Space-guppy,"

"Space-panaque."

We pointed to the fishes going about their business while we were stared at by some idle fish while we went about ours. I felt happy seeing Kate still acting like a girl. Her cheery smile and her simple giggle calmed my soul. I too enjoyed joking with her in the manner of the age I was in. The definition of being 'OLD' after all is when you stop having fun. My colleges back at the lab still do that trick with a water and bucket on the top of the door. No one truly gets old.

Kate noticed a rather large fish swimming around behind us in the central tank.

"Ah! What kind of fish is that?!" she called out pointing at a large disk shape fish with a short tail and long wide side fins.

"I don't know."

I asked the AI guide who went by the name Ron.

"Ron, excuse me, is that what is called a moon-fish or a sun-fish? I get it mixed up."

"That is a sun-fish. There is no catalogued aquatic creature that has a similar name to it," came a rather mechanical but succinct reply.

"Space-sun-fish," Kate added.

Ron thought that this was an enquiry and said, "There is no aquatic with that designated name."

We did not feel like asking more. Partly because the male AI voice here was not as welcoming as Sierra was, and partly because there were several school kids that were already asking questions about different fish to Ron at the same time.

AI Q&E systems were designed to handle heavy query traffic but it was still good manners to wait your turn.

A maintenance diver went inside the tank to take care of something that was blocking one of the many water filters hidden between some rocks.

Kate asked me about the strange mouthpiece he was using. It looked like he was chewing on an octopus with its tentacles around his face. It frightened the kids a little when they first saw him.