This thread was requested by Natakkoa and Petra for a side scene.  Anyone else please don't post unless you work out with them in advance how your character enters the story.  This scene begins 8 days after the start of the general Interludes thread.

Scene begins Imp. 473, Day 276

A lovely day on the water-world known as Hyperion IX, on the idland/city/nation run by Emerich Rach...

Open Ocean - Hyperion IX

Petra sat with her feet dangling over the prow of the right pontoon of the anchored catamaran.  She'd gotten the boat for the scientific expedition to the spot, but now that they were anchored, she didn't have much to do.  While she waited for the Professor to do her science-y thang, Petra's toes dangled above the water letting the occasion wave crest against the smooth finish of bow and splash her feet.

Squinting, she studied the horizon for a bit.  They were far enough out that water stretched past the curvature of the planet in every direction.  With the sails tied down and the anchor set, the catamaran simply bobbed up and down over the large sea swells.  Petra could see Hyperion's single moon above the horizon dancing above the waves.  The weather was clear today and water relatively calm.  With any luck, it would stay that way for the duration of the expedition.

Her brain was still working over time, measuring angles and azimuths, approximating distances and wind speeds, and calculating durations and velocities.  Anything to keep her mind occupied, even while she tried to clear her consciousness and take in the stark beauty and open silence that surrounded her.  With the calculations bouncing around in her head, Petra let motion of the ocean trigger her sensory intermixing.  The music started again and the soft, subconscious humming emanated from her lips once more.  Another Bach fugue, the Ricercar this time....  Her fingers tapped, while the colors and textures of the music played upon the water's surface.

Her thoughts drifted, even as the analytical part of her brain churned on.

Though marine craft weren't her forte, Petra knew enough (any decent speed-freak turned pilot would) and wasn't about to let Natakkoa out of her sight (metaphorically speaking).  At this point, they'd seen too much together.  And the lithe pilot had become way too attached to the Professor to let her simply  go.  PJ wasn't clingy necessarily, but she wasn't about catch-and-release, either.