“Good,” Xin said. “Because spending the rest of my life with you was noton my agenda.”

Melora glared, hurt and angry that he would hurl such a barb at a time like this. But then she turned back to her instruments, pushing it aside. Maybe he was petty enough to dwell on their personal issues when a disaster was going on, but she was going to focus on what was important.

Damn him.

Ra-Havreii was rather relieved that his suicidal plan had not been technically viable; that way he didn’t have to feel guilty about not wanting to sacrifice his life for a few hundred dexterous calamari. To be sure, he appreciated the intricacies of their language and was impressed with their technical achievements, but it wasn’t as if their civilization was about to be destroyed. Ra-Havreii had seen that happen multiple times in the past year and a half, had just recently had it nearly happen to his civilization; so however insensitive it may have seemed, he couldn’t entirely build up as much horror about this as he saw on Melora’s face.

What troubled him more, though, was the pain on her face at his unthinking words, the tears she blinked away as she forced herself back to work. He’d assumed she felt the same way he did, that she would take the comment in stride as playful banter. Or had he? Either way, he was sorry if he’d caused her genuine pain, but in the long run it was for the best that she cast aside any fantasies of commitment. His words had been inappropriate, but only in the sense that they both had far more important things to concentrate on.

It was an awesome spectacle when the asteroid chunks finally drilled into Droplet’s atmosphere some ten minutes later. Melora had taken the shuttle up into the tenuous outer fringes of atmosphere to avoid the effects of impact, planning to dive back down to retrieve Riker and Lavena. Ra-Havreii’s eyes were glued to the aft sensor display as the first chunk cut a fiery swath through the atmosphere at startling speed and then became a blinding fireball at the bottom of its dive. When the light faded, an enormous cloud of pulverized and vaporized rock and water was expanding into the air, with one long pillar of dust streaming out beyond it, sucked up into the tunnel of vacuum the asteroid had carved into the atmosphere. Spectacularly, the second chunk came in just behind it, colliding with the outcoming chimney of dust and splashing it outward. A string of brilliant flashes strobed through the dispersed pillar, a mix of lightning within the dust and explosions as the force of the impact vaporized parts of the asteroid and detonated its heavy elements. The third, smallest chunk came in close on their heels, vanishing from view before the light of the second impact, and then creating its own smaller blast of light seconds later. Then there were only the turbulent clouds of dust and vapor spreading through the atmosphere at multiple levels, billowing out from the disrupted vacuum chimneys.

It would have been beautiful, Ra-Havreii thought, if he hadn’t been in that exact spot less than half an hour earlier. As always when he had a close brush with death, he found himself dwelling on what might have happened, his keen mind letting him imagine it all in vivid, clinical detail. It would have been quick this time, perhaps taking him be fore he even realized it. His whole brilliant life cut off in its prime, with so many problems unsolved, so many ambitions unrealized, so many regrets…

“Melora?”

“Mmm?”

“I love you.”

It was a moment before he realized she was staring at him, which in turn led him to realize what he’d just said. Had that really come out of his mouth?

“I love you too,” she said, and that confirmed it.

Their hands clasped, and they turned back to monitoring the impact.

DROPLET

The squales remained deaf to Lavena’s desperate pleas until the horizon lit up with a series of bright flashes. “Now do you believe us?” Riker called. Not waiting for the unlikely event of an answer, he decided to take advantage of their confusion, bringing the gig’s motor to full power and running the distracted blockade as soon as she was back in the boat. He had to swerve between two squales’ tentacles, but the creatures were taken by surprise and made only a token effort to snatch at the boat.

“Can we get far enough in time?” Lavena called over the rush of the waves as she pulled her hydration suit back on.

“No way of knowing. But if we’re too close now,” he admitted, “that’s not likely to change. I’m basically trying to gain enough speed to ride the wave.” He threw her a glance, noting her unease. “Wish you could just dive down and swim away?”

“With that shock wave hitting me? I’m safer in the air.”

“Don’t be so sure. There’s going to be a hell of a hot wind blowing our way—and that’s after the atmospheric shock wave hits. Try to cover your ears.”

Lavena looked worried. “Captain…if storm winds can kick up heavy waves…then what…”

“Say no more,” he said, pushing the engine to its limits. So much for riding the tsunami.

The airborne shock wave came first, thunder pounding into them with the force of a phaser barrage. He almost lost control of the boat. He wasn’t even sure when the noise passed, for the ringing in his ears was nearly as deafening (not literally, he prayed, though that was the least of his worries). Within a few minutes, he felt the first surge of hot wind from behind. “Here it comes!” he cried, barely hearing himself. He looked back and saw a turbulent wave racing toward them, spanning nearly half the horizon and looming higher and higher as it drew near. And it would just be the first. “Brace yourself!” he cried. He hoped that at the right time he’d be able to angle the boat sideways, to ride along the swell lengthwise like a surfer.

But he didn’t have a chance. Darkness loomed over the boat, darkness that hauled back and kicked the whole gig into the air, and the next thing he knew, he was in the water, turbulence spinning him, disorienting him. The roaring noise tore into his head, pummeled his body like fists. A cloud of red billowed out from over his eyes. Trying to right himself, he saw the gig well out of reach and being carried farther along the front of the swell. But it was inverted, empty. A moment later he thought he saw Aili’s form flailing in the water, unwieldy in its hydration suit. He thought her hands were clamped to her ears, but he couldn’t be sure. He couldn’t hold on to any perception, any thought, for more than an instant before the roaring washed it away. He couldn’t hold on to…