The water was calm, its pristine surface only broken by the slow rolling of the waves.
And by the impact of a little red and white sphere, which began to bob up and down in the waves. It was the last of eleven bobbers to hit the water, all carefully spaced out to avoid snagging each other.
I will admit, I was surprised that all of my children had been willing to go fishing with me. I expected Rory and all of my other boys to be onboard with me, but Bianka and her sisters deciding to join us was unexpected. I never really knew a lot of girls who liked to go fishing before I became a Commander, so I just kinda assumed that my daughters wouldn't really be interested in it. For once, it felt nice to be wrong.
That wasn't to say that everyone was focusing on fishing, though - Bianka was busy painting on her birthday canvas, taking advantage of the time of day to provide her with a beautiful image to portray. See, fish don't like to be that active once the sun of is up, so I'd scheduled our fishing trip to be early in the morning. And by early, I meant that the sun was just now beginning to rise into the sky. This resulted in a spectacular display of color across the horizon, where the only clouds in the sky were died with shades whose beauty was truly worth seeing. It was this fantastic image that Bianka was trying to capture, and so far, she seemed to be doing a pretty good job of capturing it.
A quick flash of movement turned my attention to Rory, who had just gotten a bite. Within minutes, all eyes were on him as he reeled in his catch. The fish fought hard to escape, but ultimately, my son proved to be its better, and soon he was holding the cute little fish in his left hand. I recognized it as a bonito, one of the fish I had caught when I had visited Mexico with my family several years ago. I'd made sure to breed and stock them in my hub world's oceans, along with a bunch of other fish that had managed to survive the cataclysm that the Temple Ship had caused when it blew up, so that I would have plenty of fish to catch whenever I felt like fishing.
Back to Rory and his fish - right now, all of his siblings were taking turns holding it, while stealing glances to make sure that they weren't missing any fish biting at their lines. Idly, I noted that taking my children deep sea fishing probably wasn't the best first fishing trip for them, but so far, it was turning out well. Granted, that may have something to do with the fact I had filled the water with chemicals that repelled particularly large fish in a large area around our boat, ensuring that my kids wouldn't catch anything that could take them off the boat, but that was beside the point.
Oh, and apparently Bianka was busy sketching a picture of Rory holding his fish in a notebook she had brought along. How cute.
As the morning slowly dragged on, and more fish were caught (including a red snapper I from the depths below us), others began to join us, be it for fishing, or for other reasons. Species that I had made who were still tribal beings (or had not yet lost all vestiges of their ancestral culture) rowed out to the depths, using spears to fish swimming close to the surface, and nets to snag those which swam in shoals. Joining them from below were sapient aquatic beings I'd dreamed of creating, but never been able to get mods to bring to life fully. I guess Steve had been kind to me there. Far in the distance, giant turbines slowly turned, harnessing the power of the waves to create clean energy, some of which was diverted toward giant platforms going down all the way to the continental shelf, which pulled ore from the depths to be used by my creations in their daily lives. Just about a kilometer east of us, specialized subs were beginning to maneuver around the edge of a huge forest of kelp, cutting away some of the mighty stipes so that the seaweed could be processed for food. Joining them were a pod of orca whales, one of many that I had pulled off of Earth, looking for a chance to snatch any prey animals that might be disturbed by the subs' actions. My sonar even picked up a blue whale some distance away, feasting on a plankton bloom.
While many species had died out following the end of the Second Alien war, it appeared the T'leth had stored genetic scans of some of those majestic beings, which I had used to recreate them, aided in part by the fact T'leth had managed to also save specimens of those fallen species, apparently to research for later usage as food or resource producers. Already, I had returned blue whales to the seas of Earth. Of course I had kept some for myself, for these beings were beautiful to behold.
Still, the great oceans of my hub world felt...empty, as did the plains. All that lived on them now were the beasts I had created and organisms I had obtained from Chiron and Earth. While that may sound like a lot of biodiversity, it still felt empty to me. No giant, fantastical beasts had yet arisen in my oceans, barring the occasional Isle of the Depth that emerged from a Xenofungus cluster existing in the ocean, which Chiron the Elder had convinced me to seed across my hub world's seas and surface. All that dwelled here was but a fraction of the life forms one could find in a normal ocean, and due to my progenitor bullshit-level tech, I was painfully aware of how empty this sea was.
Without even thinking, I began drafting up a list of universes home to creatures that I would have wanted to see living on my hub world. Subnautica, Robinson the Journey, Horizon: Zero Dawn and Riders of Icarus all came to mind. If the Random Number God took pity on me and allowed me to visit those universes, I would take care to gather samples of the native biota and return with them to my hub world. Then, this world may finally resemble a truly living world, and not the facsimile I had made out of the few things I had managed to scrounge together.
All that being said, this world still beautiful, in its own way.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
AN: Read, Review and DISCUSS! This is Flameal15k, signing off!