5:43 P.M. Zeverian time; Hident system; Hident; Kingal Ocean

Bryan raised the spoon to his lips, wiping the smooth Ruul cream off of it and into his mouth. He closed his eyes as the ice cold substance air-conditioned his tongue to relaxation. Gotta love ice cream, he thought. He knew that, technically, this wasn't ice cream, but it was close enough for his tastes. Soft, mushy, cold, delicious cream—ice cream!

The hoveryacht blew out three short and crisp horn blasts. The Zeverian Captain shouted something else out in his own language. "Last call for passengers!" came the translation on Bryan's UT. He dipped the spoon back into the Ruul cream, and popped another chunk into his mouth. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the last group of passengers rushing towards the boarding ramp, and the two guards at the bottom preparing to take tickets. The group reached the ramp, but it was apparent after only a few seconds that only three people had tickets. With that, the yacht let out a booming horn, signaling the beginning of the tour. The port-side repulsorlifts ignited, gently propelling the craft away from the pier.

As it turned towards the open sea, a tall Pyfrellin man stepped next to Bryan on the deck. Glancing at him, Bryan grinned a hello. "Hey Yurnold."

"Hello," Yurnold Camikai answered, out of breath.

"Just made it in time?"

The Pyfrellin's red eyes glared blasters at him.

Bryan grinned playfully. "Just kiddin', buddy."

"Very funny," he responded in a hoarse voice. He grabbed the guardrail and practically heaved air into his tired lungs.

"Here," Bryan said, reaching down to grab the water bottle he had bought twenty minutes earlier. The hasart(plastic-like substance) bottle was three-fourths filled with refreshing water, the universal need of nearly every different species in the known galaxy. "You can have the rest of it."

Yurnold accepted the bottle, still hunched over. "Thank you." The thin lips of the man parted and he practically stuffed the bottle's opening into his mouth. It sounded like he was sucking the water into his throat instead of letting it flow by itself.

Laughing on the inside at this, Bryan thought to himself, Can't blame him.

The other man finished drinking and tried to hand the bottle back to Bryan, but the human simply shook his head. "Naw, go ahead, keep it. I got this Ruul to keep my tongue cool. I can getcha one if you like?"

"Thank you but no. I'm fine. Plus I can't eat that stuff. I have allergies."

"To ice cream? You mean, like, lactose intolerance?"

"What's that?"

"Human thing. Can't eat dairy things like milk and ice cream or...cheese."

Yurnold shook his head. "No, I can still eat non-cream products. But cream products I can't stand due to just allergies. That's all."

"Oh. Interesting."

Alien language started booming over the yacht-wide comlink. Bryan and Yurnold promptly raised their UT's to their ears. "We are about to move up to cruising speed. Please step back from the guardrails as the sudden jolt will shake the boatdeck."

"Ohp. Time to sit down." Bryan backed up and hunched over onto a bench that he noticed was nailed into the wall along the whole side of the cabin. Thinking nothing more of it though, he sat and enjoyed his Ruul cream some more, as Yurnold took a seat next to him. The hoveryacht lurched forward, exhaust roaring from it's rear thrustors for a brief second. The yacht left the docking pier behind, then started out to sea at an average cruising speed.

"All right, ladies and gentlemen, this is the captain, you are free to move about the boatdeck," came the voice over the loud speaker. "It's nice and sunny out today. The water is almost a crystal blue, so maybe some of you might catch some glimpses of a few of the thousands of unique fish species that inhabit Kingal here. I think I see a rare olplo fish now here." A pause. Some people on the boatdeck rose up to glance over the guardrail, to see if they could see the fish, cameras at the ready. "Oh, there it goes back underwater," the captain announced. "Sorry, folks, maybe next time. We'll be arriving at the Rift in about—"the UT stopped the translation to compute Hident time units to human ones"—twenty-one minutes." At that point, the loudspeaker cut off with a quick static burst.

Just then, a question he had been meaning to ask Maxie for the couple of hours came to him, and he decided to ask Yurnold instead. Turning to him: "Hey, Yurnold? Question, buddy; how did our dear friend Calvin Deravin do in the–Starfighter vs. Starship competition today?"

Yurnold shrugged. "From what I saw, very well. I think he actually destroyed the Star Destroyer, along with all the other ships too."

Bryan smirked, impressed and anxious. "Good, because I know I did, and I want him and I to be at equal odds when we get to the Head-to-Head competition."

The Starfighter vs. Starship event was always the first match to be played at the Tours. It pitted two pilots in every category against each other, in a race to see who could destroy four Imperial starships the fastest. The match was all a simulation; all the matches in the Tours were simulations. The first three ships were chosen at random, but both pilots faced the same ship when it was chosen, and the fourth ship was always the same in each respectable category. Both had two chances to try and eliminate all of the starships. For the novices, the final ship was a strike cruiser; for the experts, the final ship was an Interdictor cruiser; for the masters, the final ship was a Star Destroyer. The pilot who destroyed the most starships in the quickest time was the victor and moved on; the pilot who failed spent the next few weeks watching other people compete. Not everybody could destroy them all. Most, especially the masters, didn't. Even if one didn't, though, the person farthest would be declared the winner.

Bryan had competed this morning in that event, achieving what was called "the miracle": destroying the Star Destroyer. His opponent, a Copper Commander from the Cruiser Kolopong, hadn't gotten past the third ship, a Lancer-class Frigate. Next event in line now was the "sharp-shooter" competition...

And then on with the rest of the events, until the final Head-to-Head match; the looked-forward-to showdown with his rival Calvin Deravin, who had beat him last time in the Head-to-Head, and had beaten him two years before that in the Obstacle Course. Every Valiance Tours Bryan had competed in, he'd been beaten by Calvin. And though his ego was a grain of sand compared to Calvin's, Bryan couldn't help but feel the urge to crush the man the next time they faced off; which he hoped would be in the Head-to-Head because that was always the most exciting competition in the entire Tournament, both to compete in and to watch.

"You know, you might not make it to the Finals. And maybe Commander Deravin will not either."

"Yeah," Bryan said, ready to crack a sarcastic joke, "And maybe this Ruul cream is about to jump out of the cup and eat me alive in revenge for me eating it. Doesn't mean it's gonna happen, does it?"

At first, Yurnold said nothing, trying to make heads or tails of what Bryan had just said. "What? Bryan, you make no sense."

Bryan shrugged. "Okay. I don't...care. Doesn't hurt me in anyway, does it?"

"I don't know. Can anything actually penetrate your skull?"

"Haha, very funny."

"I was being serious."

Bryan swallowed his Ruul and then slapped Yurnold across his right arm. "Hey, if he does, then boo-hoo for him." He took another bite. "But I hope he doesn't. It always fun facing him in the Finals."

"Don't you think you might lose? Maybe in the Obstacle Course, or the preliminary Head-to-Heads? There have been some upsets, you know."

"Yeah, but not on me or Calvin. Our records are almost flawless."

Yurnold chuckled. "His is, you mean."

"Ahahahahahaha," Bryan laughed sarcastically. "Yurnold, where did you ever get your great sense of humor?"

The older man laughed delightfully. "What can I say? You smelly, pink, extra-hairy humans are so simple to tease."

Bryan snickered. "Yes, I guess so, compared to you greasy, skinny, grayish, polish-to-you-glint Pyfrellin...dirtbags."

Yurnold snapped his gaze over to Bryan faster than a baseball swing. "Excuse me?" he asked with a laugh coming on. "'Dirtbag?' What kind of insult is that?"

"A 1990's Earth insult that I decided to use in this case." He shrugged. "Couldn't think of anything else."

"Hmm. How is that an insult though? Dirt and soil are precious commodities on Garra. We don't have much of it; compared to Earth, I mean. You have plenty of it."

"Yeah, and we trade you with it—I mean, we trade with you for it. An—wait...oh, nevermind, you know what I mean—and you get a decent amount, I think, don't you?"

"Yes."

"Cool. How much? Do you know?"

Yurnold froze for a moment, then let out a breath. "Close to 100,000 kilomots per trade."

"I take it that's a lot in Pyfrellin terms?"

He nodded. "Enough to keep our food plenty. We grow a lot of it."

"To feed an entire planet of people? I would think so." Bryan didn't know much about other planets. He had never needed to know much so he never looked into any of them. Earth had been his home, so he didn't see why he should study other planets. True, they were just as rich in culture as Earth and humanity was, and Bryan had respect for that. But for now, he just enjoyed getting to know and fighting alongside people with the same beliefs in him; he didn't need to know about their home worlds, especially since his job was Commander of all Alliance pilots, and that took up tons of time, or so he made himself think. Sometimes the job seemed like nothing at all.

"Can I ask you a question?" Yurnold said.

Bryan suppressed the urge to say, "You just did" and instead said, "Shoot."

"Do you have a grudge with Calvin Deravin?"

"Hmm? No man. No way. I don't hold grudges, remember?"

"Yeah, that's why I'm confused. You seem like you hold a grudge against him for maybe him beating you the last two years in this competition."

Giving him the "crazy-eye," Bryan answered, "What? No I don't. Sure I want to beat him, but if I don't, then it's no big deal. It's not like I brag after I win like he probably does." He paused for a split second. Yurnold tried to respond, but Bryan spoke first. They both knew that Calvin always shook his opponent's hand after every match, no matter who won or lost. It made him look good, but Bryan always suspected that he was forcing himself to do it. "I don't mean directly after he wins, but certainly after a while. I can't count the number of times he boasts, with shit like "yeah, well I still beat you" or "stop actin' tough, Rawling, especially since I've beaten you plenty of times before" and blah, blah, blah. He's full of shit sometimes. I have respect for him, but he's full of shit sometimes."

"Because he knows you're a challenge to him. A chal—"

"Oh, he better...—

"—llenge to his pride and glory:—"

"—he better."

"—being crowned Best Pilot in the Alliance."

"And yet I'm Commander of the Alliance Pilot Corps. Hmmmmm."

"You also stole his job from him."

Bryan shrugged. "He lost that fair and square and he knows it. So he should stop complaining."

"That's why he wants your head on a platter. You stole something that he believes is his."

"Well then he's an asshole; and I didn't steal anything. That job was awarded to me by Admiral Poff and the commission signed by a majority of Congress."

"Sounds pretty funny coming from you. You hate Congress."

"I don't hate them. I just think they've made some bad decisions recently."

"You hate them."

Bryan snickered, biting back laughter. "Shut up. No I don't." He smiled and took the second-to-last-bite of his Ruul. "Anger leads to fear, fear leads to hate, hate leads to suffering. I don't hate anything. Calvin's just an asshole sometimes, and Congress...Congress is just Congress. Can't say much more than that."

"I guess not..."

The conversation pretty much died after that. Yurnold stayed seated for the rest of the trip, while Bryan got up every now and then to gaze the at the beautiful scenery and occasionally munch on the complimentary snack foods in the lounge. But they didn't say another word to each other until...

"Ladies and gentlemen, we are just arriving at the Rift. It should be completely visible off to starboard."

Bryan and Yurnold made their way over to the starboard side of the yacht. Out there, brewing turbulence in the calm water, was the Kingal Rift, which was the heart of the Kingal Ocean and considered the heart of Hident itself. The anomaly sucked in tons of water each week. But what is was famous for was being able to move th entire Kingal Ocean. Bryan didn't know how, he just knew the Ocean moved in some way. It was sword-shaped, with the tip directly in contact with the western beach on the continent Ulani Muns. The water sank into the crust below that beach, traveled through caverns embedded in the crust, being boiled over again and again, until it finally was dumped back into the Ocean of miles away on one of the northern beaches. That way the Ocean never drained completely. And that's all that Bryan knew about it.

"The Kingal Rift was formed nearly 200,000 years ago when a comet smashed into the Pofeore beach of what is now the continent Ulani Muns; what we're looking at right now. The force of the hit was so great that it cracked a small portion of Hident's crust, and the water from the Ocean started draining directly into the crack. The effects of this new change caused the Ocean itself to decrease in size. Scientists say that the Ocean is now one-fourth of the size it used to be because of the drainage. It used to cover all of Forbeeare and Westebno continents. However, the boiling water eventually eroded away enough crust to be dumped back into itself, saving what was left of the Ocean, though that didn't happen until 5,000 years after the comet hit. Now you're probably asking yourself 'Okay, but what makes it move? The Kingal Ocean is called the moving ocean.' Well, what makes it move are the islands that it pulls in. Every few thousand years, an island on the Ocean is detached from the crust by the eroding effects of the water. The island is then slowly pulled into the Rift, and gets jammed into one side of the suction grid. All the water then shifts to dumping into the side that isn't being filled, and the resulting rush pulls the Ocean to one side, thus—moving it. And that is the secret of the amazing 'moving' Kingal Ocean. Now the next island has already broken off; however it won't arrive at the Rift for at least another one hundred years. But today, I'm told, we get to see a good spectacle anyway. What better way to honor the Valiance Tours being with us then by two small islets colliding in the Rift."

Against the wind and the sound of the water, Bryan heard "whoops" and cheers from all over the boat, both outside and inside the cabin.

"It's an event that rarely happens on the Ocean, but is always worth it no matter what. And its scheduled to happen very soon here so pay attention, or you'll miss it. Here we go."

Bryan plucked his camera from a satchel in his belt and gazed out at the Rift in anticipation. He spotted the two islets as they grew closer and closer together in the water, like two gunners getting ready to duel. The rush of the water increased the objects speed. Bryan raised his camera and got the approaching collision in focus. The land masses were about the same size, not big at all. The two were almost identical in their looks. They were both covered in green foliage on their tops, with a tan rock making up the rest of them. Bryan snapped off a quick photo of the two separate but very close.

"Here we go!" The Captain exclaimed.

Nearly everyone raised their cameras. The two islets smacked into each other with the force of bullets, sounding off with a large "snap/crack!"

"Ohhhh! What a hit!"

The yacht crowd roared.

Shards of hard rock sheared off and fell into the unrelenting Rift. Splashes shot up from all sides of the dueling masses, adding on to the swirling rapids. The water separated the two islets again, then forced them into other for a second round. Again, the air and water were stuffed with flying rocks, and they began to swirl faster in the dangerous ocean.

"Looks like the left islet is the loser ladies and gentlemen, by about ten chunks there. Looks like they're almost finished."

The islets started swirling immensely, to the point where they became blurs on the water. They collided once more, then were sucked into the depths of the rift, like food to a hungry monster.

"Whoo! There you go folks, the showdown of the day. Hope you all enjoyed it."

Clapping broke out from the people on the boat.

"Well, for now, we'll be camping here for the next—twenty minutes so you all can get lots of picture of the marvelous Rift. Then we'll be under way again. Enjoy the view, folks."