"All right, here you go." Zouichi handed Rubedo an oar, demonstrating how to use it just in case before he pointed to a shady spot a little farther off, near a grove of trees. "We can head over there first, and if we don't catch anything, we'll move to the next spot."

Something that hadn't changed was how much Zouichi seemed to like nature; there had been so little of it left on Earth, and on the Recreator, none at all. Today, in the warm sunlight, surrounded by the sound of water and the occasional calling bird, that all seemed so far off -- as if he'd been able to put some distance between the past and the present.