"Close your eye, no peaking…" Jumba evilly grinned navigating Pleakley through a forest of eucalyptus trees. Streaks of filtered sunlight hit their backs rather unwelcomely with the heat that surrounded them. "Jumba should have known. My little one is as bad a cheater as my little 626…"

"Oh, really? Well, I have to cheat when we're in some unknown place that looks like scariness and darkness - to ME - and likely has a monster right around the corner and…"

"All is safe, trust me. Be shutting your eye now," Jumba reassured giving his lover a gentle kiss on the lips.

"Why do I have to close my eye in the first place?" Pleakley huffed, still not completely satisfied with the answer. He was obeying Jumba, but they were snaking through the landscape like a maze, up and down, and Jumba was telling him not to step in some places, sometimes big jumps. Pleakley didn't really see the point in all of it.

"Will be seeing soon enough. Surprise. First time little one came collecting samples for experimentation with Jumba."

"It's not the same kind of experimentation, Jumba. You know that? It's not the big kaboom and then the evil laughing and destruction kind. It's not the big kaboom and then the helping people in the hospital kind. It's something… different."

"I be knowing, Pleaks. Still has kaboom." Jumba smiled squeezing Pleakley's hand gently. "You can open your eye now."

"…In all the galaxy, a pink lake?" Pleakley covered his mouth in fascination and ran up to the salt flats along the rim. "How is this even… possible?"

"Microorganisms that have adapted themselves to high salinity lake excrete carotenoids that transmit observed radiation at unknown wavelength. Otherwise, carotenoids absorb…-"

"In words an Earth sociologist can better understand?"

"Things living in the lake produce pink color. We are going to collect sample. Will have to extract and purify later."

"Thank you, Mr. Scientist. And, what a relief! I thought we were out here to suck the evilness out of crocodile!" Pleakley sighed swirling his lab coat through a gust.

"Am scientist, not crazy crocodile hunter!" Jumba laughed hugging Pleakley. "Here, take vial and fill to exactly 5.6 mL."

After many tries using a lousy 0.6 mL syringe, Pleakley was getting clearly frustrated. "I can't do this Jumba! I don't care about your accurate excess yield jargon, here you go!"

"Very smart, my little one. Even more excess yield to guarantee enough. But, you touched inside the cap and let some air in. Not sterile." Jumba put on a pair of gloves to inspect the pink liquid as if he could see the impurities.

"But you said we were going to purify it!"

"Cannot purify that."

"You do it then!"

Jumba took a new vial and new syringe and aliquoted portions from the lake.

"Careful Jumba, don't let that drop get away! Steady now, steady! Don't eject too hard! Careful, careful!"

"No need to worry, my Pleakley. Exactly 6 mL of uncontaminated pink lake water!" Jumba cheered as he held the vial to the sun.

"Good job, sweetie!" Pleakley said with a congratulatory kiss. "What do we need out of it anyway?"

"Just pink carotenoids."

"Just the color?" Pleakley verified trying not to jump to immediate conclusions.

"Yah."

"JUMBA! We could of went to the store to buy some food coloring instead! Plus, we'd get some blue with the pink!"

"Keeping that in mind for next time, little one. Ocean water is not actually blue."