“That we love each other?”
“Yes! I—I never expected that to happen. I don’t know how to deal with it. I’m not ready for…for that.”
She frowned. “For what, Xin? I thought Efrosian men didn’t form commitments.”
“Well, no, it’s—Just because we don’t pair-bond for child-rearing doesn’t mean we don’t form emotional bonds. We just consider them something separate from parenting. An Efrosian female has the support of her entire community in raising her children. That can include male lovers, although generally not the seed donor.” He shrugged. “Our society evolved in difficult conditions, with a limited population. That made it necessary for males to father each child with a different mate, to maximize gene pool diversity. It’s a matter of necessity. It doesn’t mean we’re incapable of emotional commitment.”
Melora was silent for a time. “So are you saying…you want to commit with me?”
“No! I mean…I don’t know. Don’t you?”
“Is that what you think?”
“You said you love me.”
“I do.”
“And your people…you docommit.”
“Usually,” she confirmed.
He tried to think of something clever to say, but all that came out was, “I’m afraid to. I don’t think I’m ready.”
Melora took his hand and smiled. “What makes you think I am?”
His eyes widened. “But…what we said…”
She nodded. “I love you. You love me. Isn’t that enough?” She moved closer. “We’ve been fighting because we’ve both been afraid of the same thing: that being in love meant having to escalate things, to make a commitment. But why mess with a good thing? If we’re both happy just…being together, having good times together, then why can’t that be what love means to us?” She kissed him. “This ship is all about embracing different ways of living and being. So why force ourselves to conform to some set of expectations about what being in love requires? Let’s make it what wewant it to be.”
He thought it over for a few moments, then nodded. “All right. Let’s do that.” He felt relief wash over him. They were comfortable together again, and that was what he wanted most of all.
“Great.” She smiled. “I love you, Xin.”
He kissed her, taking his time. “I love you, Melora.”
After a moment, he let her go, fidgeting a bit. “I…suppose we should get back to work on those probes.”
She blinked a few times and cleared her throat. “Uhh, right. Right behind you.”
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.