Niou powered up the sensors and probes on the drones. "Preliminary data incoming for you, Dr Oshitari," he said, waving at a screen in case Oshitari wanted to look at it straight away.

He frowned and moved a drone to follow straight behind Hiyoshi and Ibu, if they were going to move too far away.

"There's some sort of detection of... something in the water?" he said, looking at the faint blip on his monitor. "But it's quite far down and doesn't seem to be moving right now."