Captain Ferris scratched is ass with one hand and drank his coffee with the other. He’d just implemented his first order. Code, Man In Motion.

With his crew in a state of healthy anxiety, they watched as their scientists ejected from the rib cage of Albatross x. One huge vessel, Whale class, floated like a balloon towards Kraken’s ocean. Zipping ahead were one hundred Pollywog class submarines.

One year. One long, painful, agonizing year Captain Ferris groaned internally. The only way the rest of his crew would be able to physically touch Kraken was in the receiving and studying of samples. Three long months each: Atmosphere, Hydrosphere, Geosphere, Biosphere. They’d all be homesick for a place they’d hadn’t yet inhabited.

Numbers started flowing in. Whale gulped up samples, like boring into a tree, reading the rings of space between Kraken’s stratosphere and it’s solid mass. Land, Ho!

“Sterile Captain!”

A shout rose up from the crew. There would be many more heady moments.

“Pogs, splash down!”