But most of all, it was singing. And its squale tenders sang back to it. It was an interspecies chorus, liturgy and antiphon, builder and tool conversing in a common tongue. Rich, complex chords, elaborate phrases recurring, being repeated back and forth, sometimes changing from one statement to the next. The mathematical perfection of Bach or T’Lenye meeting the improvisational energy of Riker’s beloved jazz musicians.

Aili took some time to make sense of what she’d seen, seasoning her analysis with the occasional answer from the squales. It was a machine, she reasoned. It took in a living sample and analyzed its genome, probably using enzymes like those that zipped, unzipped, and assembled nucleic acids. Somehow, that information was converted into sound, a melody with the notes A, C, G, and T, the four component bases of the genetic code. What the lifesmiths sang back were instructions, modifications to the genes and protein structures; those changes were probably made through the action of further enzymes. This could be used for healing, and indeed many of the attached oval pods held squales who were being treated for injuries inflicted by the other frenzied species of this world. Eres led her to one pod and sang a tone that caused it to iris open partway, far enough for her to see a squale inside. After a moment, she recognized it as Grabby, the defender squale who had lost a tentacle days before. Now that tentacle was almost fully regrown!

Aili remembered the perception of a womblike environment that both she and Riker had experienced after the asteroid strike, and realized that they must have been placed in these “lifepods” (as she mentally dubbed them) for treatment of their injuries. But as Grabby’s rapid regeneration showed, the lifepods were capable of far more than that. Eres confirmed this, singing that the lifepods could also be used to make more fundamental changes, transforming creatures at the cellular or even genetic level.

Now she understood what the lifesmiths were proposing. Using this remarkable technology, they could modify Aili’s and Riker’s biochemistry to be compatible with Dropletian life, able to survive with fewer minerals in their diet. Even if Titannever found them, they would be able to live out their lives here on this world.

But there was a danger, as Eres explained. A transformation this drastic would alter their bodies on the cellular level. This would include the neurons in their brains. Their memories would be affected as a result—not so much lost as blurred. They would still retain their identities and knowledge, but certain details of their former life would be hazier, as if more distant in time.

But if they underwent the change a second time, Eres warned, the effect on their memories would be exacerbated. They would lose too much memory of their past, their identities. If Aili and Riker underwent this change, they could never go back.

Aili knew that Riker would never accept that. His conviction that he would be reunited with his wife and child was unwavering. And in the wake of their recent argument, given what he thought about her intentions toward him, he would not be receptive to the suggestion coming from her.

But what about me?She found the lifesmiths’ proposal did not instill fright or despair in her. On the contrary, she felt more at home here on Droplet than she ever had anywhere else. And she couldn’t share Riker’s certainty that there would be any rescue from Titan. For that mat ter, after her fight with the captain, she wasn’t sure how welcome she would be aboard Titan—or how willing she would be to continue serving under a commander who didn’t respect her.

Or was it really her own lack of self-respect she was feeling? The argument had dredged up memories she wasn’t proud of. Maybe losing some of those memories wouldn’t be so bad,she thought. It would be like…being reborn. Starting over with a clean slate.

Maybe the song of my life is out of tune,she reflected. And not just biologically. Maybe getting “transposed” is just what I need.

But thinking in terms of the squales’ Song of Life brought her a different perspective. To them, everything that happened in life was a part of the flow and rhythm of the Song. Every event was a note in a greater symphony, progressing from what had come before. True, there could be dissonance, but that was a part of music too, tension leading to an inevitable resolution.

What if everything that’s happened in my life was part of a bigger purpose?she wondered. The way she had rejected her family’s example and become self-indulgent and irresponsible, which had led her to seduce countless visitors from space and alienate her from her own people, which had pushed her to leave Pacifica, which had brought her to Starfleet Academy on a quest to become responsible at last, which had put her aboard Titanand led her here to Droplet…maybe all of these events were notes in the cosmic song, the requirements of harmony arranging the melody of her life, inexorably guiding her to this point. Maybe this is where I’m meant to be.

But what about the captain?she asked herself. He would never believe that for himself.

But the bottom line was, they might very well have no choice. Whether or not Riker could be happy with that, Aili knew that she could.

And if it came to that…maybe she could help bring him around.

CHAPTER F

OURTEEN

LUMBU

By the time Tuvok’s team arrived in the UFC 86659 system, Ree and his captives had been on the surface of Lumbu for nearly twenty-one hours, evidently besieged within a local hospital in the nation-state of Lirht. Once Ellec Krotine had tapped into the signal leakage from the city’s land-line audio communications system to listen in on the local authorities, Tuvok reflected that it was fortunate the Lumbuans were a people predisposed to philosophy and discussion above action. Even now, more than a local day into the crisis, the police commander on the scene, her chief, and their mayor were still locked into an involved debate over the best way to negotiate with an alien monster—with sidebar discussions about whether Ree’s origin was extraplanetary or paranormal, and what either possibility might reveal about the nature of existence. If anything, the mayor seemed more interested in capturing Ree and the women in order to interrogate them on the meaning of life and the truth of the cosmos than in ending the immediate threat Ree posed to the hospital staff. As for the siege commander, she seemed content to try out new negotiation tactics indefinitely so long as no imminent mortal threat to the hostages arose, and if anything seemed to be quite stimulated by the intellectual challenge. Admirable in principle,Tuvok thought, but somewhat paralyzing in a crisis. Luckily, that works in our favor.