“Thank you. But it’s more to their credit than mine that they picked it up so fast. We had a pretty good pidgin conversation going within an hour. Not enough to get into abstract concepts like space exploration and alien worlds, but enough for your basic ‘we come in peace, we mean you no harm’.”
“And what about their intentions toward you?” Riker asked, still with steel in his voice. “Did they explain why they abducted you by force?”
Lavena paused. “As far as I could decipher it, they just wanted to make sure it wasn’t a trap. That there wasn’t some kind of technology or other aliens lurking nearby waiting to strike at them. They wanted to get me alone, away from all that, so they could feel safe interacting with me.”
“Still, I don’t see taking a member of my crew prisoner as a good way to open diplomatic relations.”
“Look at it from their perspective, though,” Huilan said. “If an alien materialized on Titan’s bridge uninvited and claimed it came in peace, wouldn’t your first move be to summon security to restrain the intruder and escort it to the brig, just in case? Most first contacts begin with a modicum of distrust.”
“I appreciate how you feel, Captain,” Lavena said. “I was terrified when those tentacles held me. I’m still a little mad at them for being so rough and, well, grabby.” Riker wasn’t sure, but it looked like she was rubbing her backside underwater. “But we’re so alien to them…I can’t blame them for being on their guard. And the fact that they let me go proves they mean us no harm. And they’re willing to talk with me some more. After they escorted me most of the way back here, just before they swam away, they gave me a signal to use when I’m ready to contact them again. Or maybe a signal they’ll use when they want me to come back.” She beamed. “So I’d say we’ve successfully opened diplomatic relations.”
Riker gave her a smile. “No, Aili. You have. You showed great courage today, and I’m very proud of you.”
Her gill crests darkened with blood—a Selkie blush. “Thank you, sir.”
He cleared his throat. “Now…I’d appreciate it if you’d put some clothes on.”
He handed down her undergarment and hydration suit, trying not to look at her or to meet Huilan’s contemplative gaze as he did so.
CHAPTER S
EVEN
TITAN
After returning to the ship and seeing that Lavena got a clean bill of health from Ree, Riker turned in for the evening to be with his wife and child (still in one convenient package for another few precious weeks). It was with regret that he left them the next morning, but duty had its demands.
Reaching the bridge, he was met by the new gamma-shift watch commander, Tamen Gibruch. “All systems functioning normally, sir,” he said in his resonant bass-flute voice. “Surveys are proceeding on schedule.”
“Very good, Tamen.” The lieutentant commander was a member of the Chandir, one of the first of his unaligned species to serve in Starfleet, though Chandir civilians were often seen on worlds and stations in the Federation’s rim-ward sectors and in former Cardassian territory. They were hard to miss, with the distinctive muscular trunks that grew from the backs of their heads and the multiple horizontal furrows that transected their wedge-shaped faces in place of the usual nose and mouth. They were often known as “Tailheads,” a nickname that had initially been derogatory but that many of them had claimed as their own, a proud acknowledgment of their unique anatomy. Riker enjoyed listening to Chandir music; the cranial trunks were filled with large sinus cavities, resonating chambers to amplify their voices for long-distance communication and mating calls, and the furrows contained air passages which they could close off with muscular contraction to change the length and shape of the air column within the trunk, making their whole heads into wind instruments. Alas, when Riker had raised this subject in one of his first conversations with Gibruch, the young officer had demurred that he had little talent for or interest in music, having led a life very focused on career advancement. Gibruch reminded Riker of himself at a younger age, so serious and ambitious, so bent on getting ahead that he forgot to stop and appreciate where he was. The Enterprise-D—and Deanna—had cured him of that, and he hoped that Titanand its crew could do the same for young Tamen—not to divert him from a promising career arc, of course, but at least to help him relax and enjoy himself along the way.
For now, though, Gibruch was still focused on his report. Opening the facial furrow that served as his mouth, he said, “One matter for your attention, sir. The asteroid survey has catalogued a significant body that currently has a one-in-six-hundred probability of collision with Droplet at its closest approach in approximately fourteen hours.”
Riker frowned. “That’s cutting it pretty close. Why wasn’t it detected before?”
“It is approaching from somewhat north of the ecliptic, sir. With our survey limited to visual observation, it takes time to catalogue all the asteroids, and our efforts have focused on the main debris disk where the highest probability of threat bodies lies. Also, its albedo is low, making it harder to detect.” Riker nodded, remembering how difficult asteroid detection could be when limited to optical imaging. Earth had still been discovering new asteroids in its own backyard as late as the Third World War. And Riker recalled how Axanar had been struck by an asteroid that destroyed a major city well into their interplanetary era, due to their governments’ failure to invest in adequate detection efforts.