They both took a moment to gather themselves, then came back out into engineering, totally professional, their eyes daring the crew to be anything else. But then Melora moved close and spoke softly. “You know…if most of the crew’s going to be down on Droplet, covering the planet’s surface systematically…maybe we’ll find the captain and Aili while we’re at it.”

He nodded. “I’m sure we’ll all be looking.”

After all, there was more than one kind of loving relationship. And Captain Riker and Counselor Troi deserved to have theirs restored.

DROPLET

By now, Aili herself was starting to feel the effects of malnutrition. She was weakening, unable to swim as far without needing rest. She knew matters must be far worse for Riker at this point—and would get far worse for her before long.

We can’t rely onTitan finding us,she thought. The life-pod transformation may be our only hope.If anything, she was starting to look forward to the prospect of beginning a new life with the squales. She felt she had grown close to Alos, Gasa, Melo, and others in the contact pod, and knew she would be safe with them. And she enjoyed their company—enjoyed communing with aquatic beings who didn’t judge her (at least not by the same standards she used in judging herself). The squales were a beautiful people, and even their most idle conversation was a symphony. She would gladly spend the rest of her life mastering the intricacies of their song.

As for her more carnal needs, the squales were rather casual about sex play, not unlike aquatic Selkies, and she was sure she could engage in some interesting experimentation with them. But she would be better off having another humanoid to keep her company.

The thought made her feel guilty, but a part of her countered, It’s a matter of cruel necessity. The change would take weeks; even ifTitan is still up there looking for us, we’d be out of their reach long enough for them to give up. And there’d be no going back anyway. The only way to save Will’s life might be to let the others think we’re dead. And then we’dhave to learn to…live together. We’d need each other…like it or not. He’d hate me for a while, but he’d have to come around.

But she didn’t want him to wake up and find that this had been done to him. That would make it far harder for him to adjust—or to forgive her. Better if she could persuade him to accept the change willingly. She quailed at the thought, knowing how he would react. Oh, how I wish he spoke better Selkie. Then the squales could be the ones to convince him.

She had no choice, though. As much as she would have preferred to avoid it, Aili had to be the one to convince Riker to stay here—to abandon his family and spend the rest of his life here with her. So much for not making him think I’m a homewrecker.

Aili put it off as long as she could, rehearsing what she could say, trying to figure out how to cast the argument in the most convincing, unselfish terms possible. Eventually, though, her own fatigue and nausea convinced her that Riker couldn’t afford to wait much longer. So she went to his islet, still having no idea what to say.

When she reached the islet, though, Riker failed to respond to her calls. Bracing herself, she climbed out onto the solid surface and jogged to Riker’s cave.

She gasped when she saw him. He lay sprawled, unmoving save for tremors, his breathing shallow. “Captain!” she cried, running to his side. At her touch, he moaned, but that was all. He was burning with fever. She registered an unpleasant smell; gingerly pulling his leaf-blankets aside, she saw that he was lying in his own filth, unable to move enough to tend to his basic needs. Two of the squales’ helper creatures were nearby, but they were agitated, keeping their distance. Aili realized the disruption in the Song was throwing them off, preventing them from fulfilling their duties. The others must have wandered off or perhaps been taken by predators.

Aili winced in sympathy at the sight of Riker, and though her kind did not shed tears, she keened for him. She cradled his head in her lap, stroking his hair. “Sir, can you hear me?” she said softly. “There’s a way to save you. Please, I need to tell you about it.”

But he gave no response beyond another feeble groan. Aili’s first thought was to take him to the squales. She pulled at him, trying to lift him up enough to lead him to the water. He was practically a dead weight, but swimming kept her strong and he’d lost several kilos, so she was able to pull him mostly upright and drag him forward, his weight on her shoulders.

When she reached the shore, however, she didn’t summon the squales. Instead, she simply lowered Riker into the water to cool his fever and cleanse his skin of sweat and other things. She hurried back inland to get some fresh water from the small pond, soaking it up in a spongy leaf. ( Idiot! You could have brought him here!she thought, before responding to herself, Idiot! And foul his drinking water?) Returning to Riker, she dribbled it into his mouth. Once he’d been rehydrated, she used the leaf to clean him. It was embarrassing to do this with her captain, but it was nothing she hadn’t dealt with many times with her eight children. Though at the time, she had retreated from such duties whenever she could finagle a relative into taking them over for her.

But not now. At first, she wasn’t sure why she was tending to Riker in this way instead of letting the squales remake him and remove the need. But the more she tended to him, the more she understood. “I’m sorry, Captain,” she told him as she wrapped him in new leaf-blankets, this time near the shore so she could stay close. “Sorry I left you to go through this alone. I was selfish, and childish.” The truth was, she couldn’tsimply fob him off onto others as she had so often done with her own children. She’d been the one to let him deteriorate into this state. And so it was her responsibility to help him through it.

And so she took care of him. Over the next several hours, she kept him hydrated, fed him what he could keep down, wiped away what he could not, kept him wrapped in leaves to stay warm, changed his leaves, and cleaned him when the need arose. When he awoke halfway, he ranted in delirium about being locked in a pit in the darkness. He screamed curses at “Kinchawn,” and Aili realized he was flashing back to an ordeal on Tezwa before his promotion to captain. The curses soon gave way to pleas; he begged to be allowed to see his wife and his baby girl. “My girl,” he sobbed. “Deanna! I’m with you! Please, tell me you know I’m with you. I should be there, I should…hold…hand…be there to…see her…come out…help you…I’m sorry!” He broke down sobbing, and Aili held him and stroked his hair. She eased him closer to the water, lay with her back to it, her gills trailing in the shallows, so she could continue to comfort him.