Titan 5 - Over a Torrent Sea (8 page)

“So I think I’m entitled,” she went on, “to want to stay within my own comfort zone for now. I’m enjoying the sense of being…cocooned with our baby. Being together with her, and with you, in a place of safety, surrounded by friends. Where I am right now, that’s enough for me. Visiting new worlds on the holodeck is all the adventure I need.” She gave him a lopsided grin. “After all, we’re both in for plenty of adventures after What’s-Her-Name here comes out in a few weeks.”

He studied her for a moment, and she felt his concern giving way to mischief. “So, you’re saying you’re not interested in excitement of any kind?”

Her grin reflected the mischief she felt in him, and his own soon matched it. “Well, now, I didn’t exactly say that. It
is
getting awfully humid here.” She began to pull off her maternity dress. “I, for one, could use a swim.”

“You seem bittersweet,” Ra-Havreii said, stroking Melora’s cheek as they strolled down the corridor from the holodeck toward her quarters. They always made love in her quarters rather than his, since he could adjust to her gravity far more easily than the reverse. “Aren’t you happy we were able to assist our commanding couple with their love life?”

“Hey, Xin, that’s none of our business. Certainly not for public dissemination,” she hissed, glancing around at the passersby.

He chuckled. “An ironic choice of words, etymologically speaking. But I was asking about
your
business, my dear. Which I believe I am entitled to consider mine, wouldn’t you say?”

The corridor was empty now, so she sighed and answered. “It’s just…seeing the captain and Counselor Troi so happy together…it just reminded me that I can’t have kids as long as I remain in Starfleet. An Elaysian fetus couldn’t survive the gravity. And I couldn’t wear this antigrav suit for eight months straight.”

She realized that Xin had stopped walking two sentences back. She paused and waited for him to catch up, though he wasn’t as close as before. “Ahh, why would you be thinking about…conception, Melora? I thought that what we had was mutually understood to be…well, more than recreational, of course, but not…I mean, you know
that Efrosian males don’t participate in the rearing of our biological…”

She let him squirm on the hook of her gaze for a few more moments, then relented and laughed. “Don’t worry, Xin. I’m not overwhelmed with an urge to return home to spawn. I’m just…contemplating future possibilities.”

He didn’t seem reassured. “Including the possibility that your long-term future might not include me?”

“Why should that bother you? If you Efrosian males never involve yourselves in family, I mean?” There was still amusement in her tone, but there were barbs beneath it.

“My dear, I thought we were both in agreement about the loose nature of our association. I thought you were satisfied with that.”

“I didn’t say I wasn’t. Don’t overreact to this. Like I said, I’m just considering future possibilities.” She stared at him. “And if you’re so determined to keep our ‘association’ so loose, why are you acting so threatened by the idea that it might not be permanent?”

Efrosians were a highly verbal people, their mastery of speech and language exceptional among humanoids. But right now, Xin Ra-Havreii was at a complete loss for words.

DROPLET

“O
hh, this is nice.” Commander Pazlar had finally followed Lavena’s lead, stripping out of her antigrav suit and allowing the buoyancy of Droplet’s ocean to shore her up against its gravity. She’d needed Aili’s support to reach the water once she deactivated and removed the suit, and Aili knew how reluctant she was to let anyone see her as weak. The pilot was touched that her superior had trusted her enough to let her help. Perhaps it was because they were kindred spirits of a sort, both dependent on all-encasing technological aids to survive aboard
Titan
, always set slightly apart from the rest.

Now the two women, Selkie and Elaysian, floated together in their undergarments a few meters offshore from the floater island that housed their base camp. Pazlar had ordered the rest of the team to stay in the camp or on the far side of the island for the duration of her swim, although
Commander Keru had insisted on standing by within shouting distance in case some large sea creature found them appetizing. Pazlar had acceded, perhaps in part because Keru would
not
find two scantily clad women appetizing.

For a while, they just floated there, gazing up at Droplet’s night sky. The persistent cloud bands that obscured much of the view during the day tended to dissipate somewhat at night, so they could see a wide swath of stars as well as two of the planet’s four captured asteroidal moons, while colorful auroras wafted and flickered to the south. Aili had always loved staring up at the stars in her youth. But unlike then, she now had the comfort of knowing she would be back out among them in a week or two. Still, she had greatly missed the sensation of being in the sea, and this sea was far more comfortable than her own, for there was no family, no peer group to look on her with disapproval for failing to live up to her culture’s expectations.

“So what progress are you making with the squales?” Pazlar finally asked. Her tone made it sound more like casual conversation than a command to deliver a report.

Aili responded in the same spirit. “Well, they’ve been getting closer, and letting me get a little closer to them. I think they’re acclimating a bit. But they still retreat every time I switch on my tricorder.”

“Incredible hearing.”

“Not for a sea creature.”

“I’ll take your word for it.”

“Without my tricorder active, they’ve let me get close enough to see them relatively clearly. They have four large tentacles at the front, but they can fold them back along the
body and flatten them out for speed. The mouth is beaked, and has two large eyes behind and above it. They have some vents that I’ve seen them expelling bubbles from; I think they can function like a cetacean blowhole but also as a kind of jet thruster for maneuvering.”

“But not for propulsion?”

“No, they’re too massive for that. They have strong tails with four flukes. They can oscillate them in either direction, using one set of flukes or the other for thrust. I think it lets them switch from one set of muscles to the other, giving them more endurance.”

“I don’t suppose they’ve let you observe much of their behavior.”

“Not visually, but I can hear them talking to each other.”

“Talking? Don’t jump to conclusions, Aili.”

The use of her given name instead of her rank softened the chastisement. Still, she knew better than to respond in kind. “That’s the feeling I get, Commander. They’re constantly exchanging elaborate vocal signals through the…the deep sound channel, like my people do back home, or like the humpback whales on Earth.” She’d almost called the deep sound channel by its Selkie name, the
ri’Hoyalina
, before remembering to use its Standard name. The channel was a region of the ocean, about eight hundred meters deep here, where temperature, pressure, and salinity conspired to produce the lowest speed of sound. Since any wave passing between two media was refracted toward the one where its speed was lower, the DSC tended to confine sound waves inside it as solitons, much as light was trapped within the opti-cable inside
Titan
’s consoles and computers. Since the
waves propagated in only two dimensions instead of three, it took their energy longer to disperse, so sounds emitted in the DSC could travel thousands of kilometers if loud enough. “We’ve recorded hundreds of distinct sounds being used.”

“Sounds the translator hasn’t been able to find any definite meaning in.”

“That could just be because they’re so alien. The translator couldn’t handle star-jelly communication either. And we know
they’re
highly intelligent.”

Pazlar nodded at the reminder of their encounter last year with the vast, jellyfish-like spacegoing organisms. “True, but we can’t jump to conclusions. For one thing, if the squales were intelligent, wouldn’t they be more curious about us? Their avoidance suggests an instinctive fear reaction, one that isn’t being overcome by intellect.”

“Maybe.” Aili sighed. “And they won’t let Chamish get close enough to get an empathic reading.”

“That wouldn’t really prove anything, though. If he couldn’t commune with them, it could be because they’re intelligent.” For some reason, Kazarite psi abilities only worked with subsapient animals; higher cognition interfered with them in some way Aili couldn’t understand. “Or it could be because of some other factor, like the way Betazoids can’t read Ferengi brains.”

“Too bad our most powerful empath is too pregnant to come down and get a read on them.”

Pazlar’s silence gave agreement. They stared at the stars a bit longer. “And if you’re right,” the Elaysian went on in time, “if the squales are sapient, then we’ve got a Prime Directive problem. We’d have to avoid further contact. In
fact, I have to wonder if we should be erring on the side of caution—looking for ways to study them that don’t let them see or hear us.”

“Oh, that would be a shame. They’re so beautiful. The way their song resonates through me…I’d hate to have to observe them only from a distance, through a probe or something. Besides, with the sensor troubles we have down here, how could we study them remotely?”

“Well, Xin’s been talking about his mobile holoemitters. Maybe we could disguise some probes as holographic sea creatures.”

“And control them how?”

“Let them function autonomously and then return to base.”

“That’s so limited.”

“It might be all we can get.”

Aili let her head sink beneath the water for a moment, letting the immersion refresh her, then lifted it again so she could hear Pazlar’s speech clearly. “Doesn’t it frustrate you sometimes? Coming out here to meet new life forms, but having all these rules limiting how much contact we can make?”

“And how much damage would we do without those rules? Or how much damage might be done to us? Making contacts…connecting with other beings…you can’t be careless about it. Can’t let yourself get too close too fast…not until you’re sure it won’t hurt…somebody.”

Aili frowned. “Are you still talking about the Prime Directive? Or are you trying to give me some kind of relationship advice?”

“What?” Pazlar let out a brief, breathy laugh. “No,
I’m sorry. Believe me, I’m the last person who’d have any meaningful insights about relationships.”

That drew a sympathetic look. “Did you and Xin have a fight? Ma’am?”

“I’m not even sure of that, really. And I don’t think I want to talk about it. Not unless you managed to glean the secret to understanding Xin Ra-Havreii during your past liaisons with him.”

“Umm, sorry. The main things I learned about him were physical and…logistical. He’s very creative, but I assume you know that.” Aili smiled. It actually wasn’t as hard for her to make love with an air-breathing partner as most people assumed; her quarters did have about sixty centimeters of air at the top, and she could function with her head—or other body parts—out of the water for a fair amount of time so long as most of her gills remained wet. Some of the maneuvering to keep her partner’s head above water could be strenuous, but the principle was straightforward. But she enjoyed playing up the sense of mystery involved, in order to make herself seem more impressive and intriguing to the rest of the crew—and to pique the curiosity of those who might like to try it for themselves. “That, and we talked a lot about language and music. We enjoyed connecting in body and mind, but the heart never came into it.”

Pazlar frowned. “I’m not sure if that makes me feel better or worse.”

“Because you’re worried he can’t love you?”

“No…because I’m worried he can. I’m not sure how I feel about being that…unique to him.”

Aili thought it over. “I don’t know if it’s my place to offer advice…”

“Go ahead. What the hell.”

“You’re better off letting him go. Letting him get back to being the man he is. He’s a theorist—he indulges his curiosity, but he doesn’t want to move out of his ivory tower. Maybe the right woman could make him into something more…but if you’re not sure you’re happy with the idea of him loving you, then it’s probably more trouble than it’s worth. There’s got to be someone better out there, if commitment is what you want. And if you’re just interested in having fun, well, sometimes it’s best to move on before things get stale and complicated.”

“Uh-
huh
,” Pazlar said at length. “Thanks for the input. I’ll give it the thought it deserves.”

Aili looked at her, but the Elaysian’s face gave nothing back. “Well, you asked.”

“I did.” After a moment, she smiled. “It’s okay. I appreciate the effort. It’s not your fault that I don’t have any answers yet.”

“Thank you.”

“Sure.”

They floated together in silence, gazing out at the stars. But soon Aili noticed something impinging on that silence, just barely at the edge of her awareness. “Wha…?” She ducked down beneath the roof of the sea, flipping upside-down, and listened for a moment. Soon she felt a tap on her ankle and looked up to see Pazlar looking down at her quizzically. She started to speak, but remembered the sound wouldn’t pass through the water-air interface well, so she surfaced. “I thought I heard something. Just a moment, please.” Pazlar nodded, and she dove back down, listening intently. Sure enough, there in the distance was
a shrill sound—no, several overlapping sounds, piercing, rising in pitch, growing in loudness. She breached the surface once more and described what she’d heard. “It’s the squales, I think! It sounds like it might be a distress call. And they’re heading this way, a whole pod.”

Pazlar hit her combadge. “Pazlar to
Gillespie
. Lavena says she hears a pod of squales approaching. Anything on sensors?”

“We have a sonar reading,”
came Torvig’s voice.
“Too much interference for other sensors to clarify, but there are multiple four-meter bodies heading in your direction, emitting sounds consistent with squale calls. ETA two minutes at this speed.”