“Reina, you’re a menace! This is why I don’t let you drive!” Skyler hissed as I dove between the mega buildings and through the traffic layer, heading towards our destination.

  “Relax, I just wanted to push my baby a bit, since it’s been quite a while since I last got to drive her,” I replied calmly.

  “It was only a week ago! I know you like to drive fast, but could you please be just a little less reckless when you do? Can you imagine the headlines if you crashed? Two samurai found dead in a car crash, experts baffled at how this could have happened,” Skyler yelled.

  “Fine, fine. Look, I’m slowing down and obeying the rules of the road,” I exclaimed as I slid into the regular traffic lane. “We’re almost there anyways.”

  “Good,” Skyler huffed as she slowly loosened her grip on the roof-mounted grab handle. “Next time you feel like pushing your car, please tell me ahead of time. I’ll make sure to take another vehicle.”

  “Now you’re exaggerating. My driving isn’t that bad,” I exclaimed lightly.

  “No, it’s not,” Skyler admitted. “You just like to take a lot of chances while driving, and I personally find the close calls terrifying.”

  “And that’s why I usually let you drive when we go out. It’s better for your mental health,” I replied as I dropped out of the traffic layer and headed down towards our destination.

  The Vancouver Aquatic Garden was a squat, three-story, grey stone building that looked more like a bunker than a modern building. It wasn’t exactly a popular tourist attraction, but Skyler and I loved the quiet beauty.

  I quickly found a parking spot right out front, then hurried around to the passenger side door to help Skyler out of the car.

  “Feeling chivalrous today?” Skyler asked, as she took my hand with a smile.

  “Just trying to show my girl a good time,” I replied, beaming.

  As soon as Skyler was out of the car, we locked arms and casually strolled towards the building. Instead of stepping up to the payment kiosk, we slipped over to the pass holder’s entrance. There wasn’t any biometric identification system, so I had to run my hand over the scanner and send our ID from the secure key vault in my implants, but as soon as I did, the door clicked open.

  “I knew they renovated this place, but this is way beyond my wildest expectations,” Skyler gasped as we stepped inside. “Is this what it was originally supposed to look like?”

  “Maybe? I heard this place was originally designed to be an aquarium, but they only managed to transplant the corals and a handful of fish before the old one was overrun. I expected it to be much more lively when they added holographic fish to the tanks, but I didn’t expect it to be so… colorful,” I mumbled in awe.

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  I was so used to coming here and slowly wandering past dozens of tanks full of nothing but different types of colorful coral. It wasn’t that exciting, but Skyler and I loved the quiet beauty. It was like a living art gallery.

  Now, however, the tanks were each filled with dozens, maybe hundreds, of different types of fish. It was a riot of color and motion.

  Skyler wandered up to the nearest exhibit and placed her hand on the glass. “Do you think they recreated real fish species, or are they artist interpretations?”

  “I’d like to believe they’re full recreations, but it looks so surreal.”

  The two of us stood there for a minute the entire time, Skyler’s smile slowly grew wider until she couldn’t contain her excitement anymore.

  “Come on, let’s check the other exhibits,” she exclaimed, grabbing my arm and pulling me further into the complex.

  Each tank was a new experience. One tank might have hundreds of fish swimming in perfect unison, scattering when a predator charged in, while the next had dozens of fish, crabs, and eels living in harmony with the coral.

  “Can you imagine? At one time the ocean was absolutely teeming with life. There were fish as far as the eye could see!” Skyler exclaimed excitedly.

  “And then the antithesis came and slowly exterminated most of it. It’s too bad we didn’t realize what was happening until it was too late,” I replied quietly.

  Skyler’s smile dropped slightly. “That’s true, but it’s not all gone, and from what I’ve heard, the protectors have technology that will allow us to eventually bring them all back.”

  {Athy: It’s true. The protectors keep a DNA scan of all creatures they encounter so they can be restored in the case of emergency. Unfortunately, I wouldn’t recommend investing in the technology any time soon. Since your species still does not have a way to track down and exterminate all the antithesis hiding within the oceans, attempting to reintroduce aquatic fauna would likely only promote future aquatic antithesis growth.}

  “See! One day the seas will teem with life again. It might be sad now, but you and I have the power to make a difference now. All we need to do is grow strong enough to exterminate all the antithesis, then we can reintroduce all these fish species, and the oceans will teem with life again!” Skyler declared.

  “Really, that simple, huh?” I asked with a small smile.

  “I didn’t say it was simple,” Skyer explained. “I’m sure there’ll be a lot of hard work, and there’ll be plenty of steps along the way, but doesn’t that sound like a worthwhile goal? Bringing life back to the barren oceans?”

  “You know, we’ve been so busy the last few days, running from one emergency to the next, that I really haven’t thought about it. I never considered setting a long-term goal because I was focused on the short-term results,” I replied thoughtfully.

  “Well, it’s never too late to start planning for the future. Let’s pencil in ‘Exterminate the antithesis and replenish the oceans’ for now, and if you come up with something better later, you can always change it,” Skyler said semi seriously.

  I slowly reached out, pulled Skyler closer, then leaned in for a quick kiss. “I’m sorry,” I whispered.

  “For what?”

  “This is supposed to be a date, and I almost ruined the mood. We’re surrounded by all this beauty, and all I could think of was how it was gone.”

  Skyler held my hand tighter, then nestled into my side. “Reina, my love, you have nothing to apologize for. You’ve always been a realist, seeing the situation for what it is. I don’t expect you to be an optimist like me; your point of view actually helps keep me grounded sometimes. You never have to apologize for saying what’s in your heart around me, ever.”

  I stared at my girlfriend for a second before throwing my arm around her shoulders and pulling her in for another kiss. “I love you,” I whispered.

  “Love you too,” she replied, blushing slightly before standing up straight. “Now, we’re only about half-way through these exhibits, and I’d like to see everything the garden has to offer before we go. I know we can come back any time we’d like, but I have a feeling we might be busy for a while, so we should take advantage of this situation!”

  “Alright, where to next?” I asked with a smile.

  “I saw a cephalopod exhibit this way, and I’d really like to see what they really looked like. You know, the real octopi and squids, not those cellulose-based replicas, that harassed us most of yesterday. Is that okay with you?”

  “Lead the way,” I chuckled. “I’ll follow wherever you go.”

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