“Commander, come quick!” It was Ensign Evesh, calling from the sensor shed. “You need to hear this!” she cried.

Vale jogged over to the waving Tellarite, while Ra-Havreii remained at his equipment, trying to keep the SIF from burning out just a while longer. Keru stayed on guard, watching the icebreakers closely, phaser at the ready in case defensive measures failed. The islet shuddered and heaved beneath her feet; the inertial damper field had been cut to minimum to boost the SIF. She was getting seasick.

But music was coming from Evesh’s console—a chorus of squalesong combined with Selkie, the translator rendering the latter for her ears and filtering out the echoes. “Diffraction leakage from the deep sound channel,” the sensor tech explained. Vale listened for a while and was moved; even after serving with Aili Lavena for a year and a half, she had never learned this much about her.

“But did it work?” Vale asked as the islet shuddered again. “Are they listening?”

“They must be,” Evesh said. “They’re relaying the sound forward.”

“Okay, but the sound I want to hear is the one that calls off the damn icebreakers!”

Evesh stared. “Would you recognize that if you heard it?”

Vale glared back. “Context is everything, Ensign.” The ground shuddered again. “Case in point.”

“Understood, ma’am.”

“Oh, no,” Ra-Havreii called.

“Oh, no?” Vale called back. “That’s nota sound I want to hear, Doctor!”

“Oh, no.”

“Doctor!”

“The field’s going. I can’t stop it.”

The ground heaved, knocking them both over. Keru somehow managed to keep his footing, though just barely. “Oww…don’t tell me, the dampers too?”

“The whole field assembly! I told you this would happen.”

“Then that means…” She looked up and saw the Cerenkov sparkle as the deflector dome around the base decohered and died.

“It means I should’ve stayed in my nice safe lab at Utopia Planitia. That it should come to this…dying out here in this desolate waste…”

“Hold it together, Doctor.”

“I should’ve known I’d be killed by nature!”

She grabbed him by the front of his uniform. “Would you rather be killed by a pissed-off Izarian?”

He cleared his throat. “Ah. Apologies, Commander. What are your orders?”

She clambered to her feet. “Vale to Marsalis. What’s your ETA?”

The response was barely audible through the static. “Ano…lve minutes, Co…der…. ld on.”

The ground jerked forward three meters and left her behind, landing her on her behind. “Easy for you to say,” she groaned.

Rising only into a crouch this time, she drew her phaser. Keru caught her gaze and nodded, raising his weapon as well. Ra-Havreii’s eyes widened. “It’s come to that, then?”

“I’m afraid so, Doc.”

“Do you think they’ll even penetrate those shells?”

“It’s what we’ve got.”

He nodded. “I understand.” He drew his own phaser and waited.

And waited.

It took a few moments for Vale to realize the ringing in her ears was from the sudden silence. She scanned her surroundings. The icebreakers were veering off, wending their way through the detached floater segments as they retreated from the remnant of the islet.

Evesh staggered out of the sensor shed, breathing hard. “They’re singing a new sound pattern. Part of it is a single Selkie word. ‘Yes.’”

Vale closed her eyes and lowered her phaser. Yes. Thank you, Aili Lavena. Thank you for everything.

CHAPTER S

EVENTEEN

TITAN

Riker climbed out of bed as Christine Vale entered, despite the attempts of Doctor Onnta and Nurse Kershul to keep him down. He was still weak, but he was tired of being off his feet, even if they would only support him for a few moments. “Any word on Deanna?”

Vale shook her head. “Not yet, sir.” His heart fell. “But the news from the surface is good.”

“The probes are being deployed?”

“Yes, sir. Lavena did an amazing job getting them past their fears. They’re letting us drop the probes—in fact, they’re even helping. It’s amazing—they’ve already figured out the deployment pattern we’re using, and they’re offering ways to improve it, based on their knowledge of the deep-sea currents. They may mythologize it, but I think they probably have a better scientific understanding of Droplet’s depths than we do. And Cethente’s actually beenthere.”