Rachel sat down at the edge of the nearest tide pool, and Galaxy swam up to her. Putting her head in Rachel's lap, Galaxy looked up at her with sad eyes. Pet me, she seemed to say.

Rachel smiled, and stroked the Coisson's sleek fur. Galaxy was her favorite. She seemed a bit older than the other Coissons, a bit more mature. Sure, the others were fun and all, but Galaxy really seemed to understand her.

Quince sat down beside her. "What's up?" He asked. Rachel shrugged, secretly happy that he had decided to join her. "Not much," she said. "What about you?" It was Quince's turn to shrug. "I came over to see what you were doing. You've seemed a bit sad lately. I just wanted to know why, I guess." Rachel considered that.

"I suppose it's the Coissons," she said. "They're such beautiful, intelligent creatures, and they won't survive much longer." She looked at Quince. "I think we should help them."

Rachel had stopped petting Galaxy. The Coisson nudged her hand, trying to get her to continue. She did, and Quince replied.

"I guess that that's the right thing to do," he observed. "I mean, it's not like we've got anything better to do here, and we'll have to wait until Wayne fixes the radio, so we can call for help. These Coissons, they just seem like we need to help them. Because if we don't, then who will?"

Rachel stood up, and Galaxy swam away again. "I'm going to talk to Jay," she decided. Quince stood, too. "Then I'll come with you."

==*==*==*==*==*==

Jay slid his legs into the tide pool, feeling the warm water on his legs. Cat came over to meet him. She raised her head out of the water, and sniffed at him suspiciously. Then she seemed to decide that he was a friend, and barked playfully. Jay smiled, and put out his hand to pet the Coisson. Cat growled, and swam back a bit.

"I'm not gonna hurt you," said Jay, trying to make the creature feel more at ease. Cat came a few inches closer, and he put out his hand again, but didn't touch her. This time, Cat swam tentatively towards him, and placed her head under his hand. Jay started petting her, and Cat seemed to like that. He stroked her again and again, and she relaxed.

Suddenly, she growled, and swam away again. Jay looked behind him, and saw Rachel and Quince approaching. He stood up.

"What's up?" He asked. Rachel took a deep breath. "JaywewanttosavetheCoissons," she said quickly. Jay blinked. "Okay, say that again, slower, please." "She said that she wants to help the Coissons," Quince said. Jay nodded. "I was thinking that, too. But we should really get the approval of the others. Nobody splits up. I don't want to lose anyone."

==*==*==*==*==*==

"So, what do you think?" Rachel finished.

She had just finished explaining her idea to the rest of the team, about how they could get a bit of Coisson DNA and load it into one of the machines back at the base. Then, they could do a widespread scan for any DNA of the same species, and anywhere that they found a match other than the cave, they could check out.

"I dunno, Rachel," said Liza. "It seems a bit-I don't know, too easy. What if there aren't any other Coissons out there? What then?"

Rachel crossed her arms. "If there are, I'm helping them. And if there aren't, well, it's not like we were going to do anything else."

"We were," Wayne reminded her. "We were going to try and contact home base again. But I agree. We should help the Coissons. Even if we made it back home safely, I'd feel guilty knowing that we basically just left these creatures here to die."

"We'll put it to a vote," Jay decided. "All those in favour of helping the Coissons, raise your hand." Rachel, Quince, Wayne, and Cinnamon raised their hands. Liza shrugged and put up her hand as well. Jay smiled. "That was easy. I guess we're helping."

"Yes!" Rachel jumped up. She looked the happiest they'd seen her in a while. "Let's do this."