Arthred surfaced to take another breath. “Well? Do you know what it is?”

Essfer looked up at the bright disk in the midnight sky. “It is another world.”

“Bah! How can that be?”

“I have spoken with the primates. They say their ancestors have even visited it.”

“They tell tales of wonder without any proof.”

Essfer persisted. “They say it once moved through the sky as the stars, lifting the ocean as it passed.”

“Ridiculous. It has never moved through the sky in my lifetime, or in the lifetime of any since our writings began, so it is likely that it has never moved. How could it possibly lift the ocean?”

“You should listen to the primates. They are knowledgeable beyond our comprehension. They build the most wonderful, elegant devices.”

Arthred responded with disdain. “Knowledgeable? They can’t even swim!”

“Why should they? They build machines to do it for them!” The harsh, defensive posture didn’t sit well with Essfer, so she fell back to the gentler role of primate apologist. “Besides, their continent is on the other side of the world where they can not even see it, yet they have so many ancient writings that refer to it. They even know it changes shape throughout the day. How could they know so much about it unless it once passed over their land?”

Arthred dismissed Essfer’s plea. “As you said, they have machines that take them through the ocean. They have long known of its existence.”

Essfer was the first to hear the sound of a skimmer. “I will show you!” She swam feverishly toward the sound and kept pace along side the skimmer with Arthred just behind. She broke the surface and called, “Ahoy, primate! What brings you to the ocean side of the world?”

The skimmer came to a halt on the vast ocean’s surface, and the human on board smiled and extended her hand over the side to greet the two dolphins beckoning her attention. “Well, hello! I didn’t expect to find a friendly face this far from home.”

Arthred immediately got down to business. “I am told you know something about that bright disk in the sky.”

“You mean the moon?” The human looked up and scratched her head. “Sure, what do you want to know?”

Essfer, eager to shield the primate from Arthred’s rude disdain, quickly spoke up. “Please tell us, is it true that it used to travel across the sky, lifting the ocean?”

“So you know about tides? I’m impressed. I didn’t think your writings went back that far.” The human leaned over to gain a more intimate setting with her new friends. “Yes, it’s true. When the moon was closer, it moved through the sky, and the resulting tides once played a fundamental role in maintaining shoreline ecosystems.”

Arthred insisted on his turn to query the primate. “Is it also true that your ancestors once visited it?” It was no accident that Arthred had questioned the most unbelievable aspect of Essfer’s dissertation.

The human smiled broadly. “Oh, I see you’ve been talking to others. Yes, we used to visit the moon regularly. But once we developed the technology to open doorways to other star systems, we left the moon alone. The moon is, well, rather a drab place, really.”

Essfer could see that Arthred was not impressed, so she asked a more general question, hoping the primate would mention something outside the realm of her own second-hand knowledge. “What else can you tell us about it?”

The human sighed before she spoke. “It once illuminated our cities at night, back when the continents were many instead of one. Ancient songs in our culture glorify its place in the heavens. It was once a symbol of both love and horror. Though it’s now quite small, when the day was sixty times shorter than it is now, the moon was so large in the sky it could completely blot out the sun, turning mid-day into the darkest night. There are even legends that our own countenance is reflected in the face of the moon.”

After an ultrasonic exchange with Essfer, Arthred said to the human, “Thank you, primate, for your kind regard. We appreciate your indulgence more than you know.”

Essfer chimed in, adding, “Yes, thank you, very kindly, for your benevolent visit.”

“Whatever I can do to help.” The human waved at the two dolphins as they swam away before engaging her skimmer’s engine and resuming her work.

When the skimmer was out of sonic range, Arthred said, “Do you see now? Many continents? Shorter days? Blotting out the sun? They even sing to it in the same fashion as the large ones.”

Essfer reluctantly agreed. “Yes, I can see now that the primates base their knowledge on romantic notions and primordial instinct rather than on logic and reason. I suppose they really do have a long way to go before they are as intelligent as we are.”