Chapter 92: Abyss
Water.
It was the basis for life.
It covered more than two-thirds of the Earth’s surface.
And it was the single most tongue-in-cheek name for a planet Derek was aware of.
Because some motherfucker really had looked at how basic a name humanity’s homeworld had been stuck with, then looked at the habitable world of Sigma Draconis, and finally gone ahead and named one of the five naturally habitable planets in the Core “Water.”
And doomed the remaining three Core worlds to be named after the rest of the Ancient Greek elements of Air, Fire, and Aether …
Of course, the subsequent process implemented for approving planetary names hadn’t caught all the idiotic names, considering that Hellhole, you know, existed.
But it wasn’t Venus’ omnicidal cousin they were heading towards. No acid storms, no average temperature near the boiling point, no gale-force winds on an hourly basis.
Water was, well, covered in water. It was as though one had plucked away most of the Earth’s mountains, then raised the water level several hundred meters, creating a world without a single piece of naturally occurring land. The closest thing to be found was the occasional shallows, even the largest of which was only a few hundred square kilometers.