“But many Lumbuans are of a more skeptical bent,” Tuvok said. “Belief in spirits is not universal. Might not our presence shift the balance toward a revival in animist belief?”

“Maybe. But if we leave without tangible evidence, it will just be a few dozen people’s testimony added to a whole world’s ongoing philosophical dialogue. And Mawson and her nurses will probably help confuse the issue. These are a people who relish debate and are slow to come to a consensus.” She smirked. “I wouldn’t be surprised if many of the eyewitnesses ended up getting persuaded that they imagined what they saw.”

“That may be more difficult than you think, Counselor,” Tuvok said.

“Well, anyway, they’ve got more immediate concerns, with the future of their nation at stake. This will probably fade from public attention before long.”

Ree said to Tuvok, “Commander, if we can get to a suitably private place, I can remotely shut down the jamming field and have us beamed to the Horne. We can then beam your team back to your shuttle and depart together.”

“An excellent suggestion, Doctor. However, we have one more loose end to resolve. The locals have photographic documentation of our presence.”

Tuvok and his team began discussing how to track down the photographs and retrieve or destroy them without detection. Deanna tuned them out, trusting them to get the job done. Right now, the baby in her arms was her entire universe.

CHAPTER S

IXTEEN

DROPLET

Once she was sure Riker could manage without her, Aili swam back out to the squales, determined to extract some answers about the status of her crewmates. She realized now that she hadn’t pressed the issue hard enough before, perhaps because she’d been enjoying the escape too much. It was an error she was determined to remedy.

It took a while, but Aili finally managed to ask the right questions. “Are my people still in the ocean?” had initially brought the same answer from the members of the contact pod: “Not for Aili.”Alos and Gasa had accompanied the answer with chorused assurances that they were here for her now. Once her song had been transposed, they sang, she could join their choir.

“It’s not like that for us,” she told them. “We don’t change pods as easily as you. We want our old pod back.”

“That’s clear enough,”Cham sang in harmony with Gasa’s refrain of comfort. “But they are silent to the found lings’ ears. We cannot change their ways; for that, we need to comprehend.”

“Change their ways?” Aili pressed the issue. Did that mean they were still on Droplet after all?

With further questioning, she confirmed the impression Cham had given. Once she understood, she rushed to the surface to give the news to Riker. A little hope would do wonders for him right now.

“We’ve been assuming they were holding us prisoner,” she said. “That if Titanwas still here, the squales were unwilling to return us to them.”

Riker nodded. “Hostages,” he said weakly. “Or guinea pigs.”

“At first, that was probably true. They didn’t know what to make of us and were being cautious. But they’ve come to trust us now. A lot of other squales still blame us for the crisis, but the contact pod understands we meant no harm. But when they wouldn’t reunite us with the others, I was afraid that maybe Titanhad been destroyed by the asteroid, or had written us off for dead and abandoned us.”

“I know Deanna’s alive,” he said, more to himself than to her.

“Yes, sir. And Titan’s still here. The squales confirmed it.”

“So why wouldn’t they tell us before, if we weren’t their prisoners?”

“The thing is,” she said, “the squales are always in touch with each other. The deep sound channel lets them communicate with squales thousands of kilometers away—or relay messages through other squales to communicate with any other squale, anywhere on Droplet. They’re as con nected as we are with our combadges. It’s slower, but they can hear about anything happening anywhere on the planet within six hours.

“So they just take it for granted that keeping track of every member of your species is a natural ability of intelligent beings. And so they assumed we had the same ability.

“So when Titandidn’t come to retrieve us, it never occurred to the squales that they didn’t know where we were. They assumed that, for some alien reason, our people had abandoned us.”

“Wait a minute,” Riker said. “They knew we didn’t know where the others were. Wasn’t that a clue?”

“They pretty much assumed it took mutual cooperation. If you call out to someone and they don’t answer, you can’t tell where they are.”

“But wouldn’t they have heard you if you gave out any such calls?”

“I’m an alien,” she said with a shrug. “They don’t know what strange ways we may have for staying in contact with our people. But it just never occurred to them to consider that we couldn’t. They take the ability as much for granted as—well, as water. This is their first alien contact,” she said in their defense. “They don’t know what assumptions they need to unlearn.”