For a while, the only sound was the slow rhythm of their regulators, in and out, steady as the tide. The chain wound through the coral gardens like a living thing. Elias reached out and brushed one of the links. It was cold, unnaturally smooth beneath the growth.
Not ordinary ship metal. Denser. Older. They followed it across the shallow ridge until the coral began to thin. The colors drained away, replaced by gray stone and drifting sand. Then, suddenly, the ground simply ended.