Page 10 of Music of the Ocean

“That isn’t normal. That’s what that is. Okay, I’m getting the big guns involved.”

“Come again?”

“Sorry, Sax. I’m bringing the holodoctor online, updating him on your case, and having him do an assessment on you,” Vance said.

“Awesome.”

Chapter Four

THE SHUTTLE’S arrival had caused ripples in the waves and drawn its awareness. Voices had caught its attention, but one in particular awoke something restless in the entity.

Landwalkers, and human from the sound of it.

The cold press of stone had given way as it unfurled and propelled itself into open water, moving toward the landmass where the ship rested. A gnawing urge to surface had hummed at the edges of his mind, but it resisted.

It was hard, though, because one of the landwalkers’ voices had blended so well with the music of the ocean.

The voices had grown louder as the humans drew closer to the waves, and that voice, which drew its attention, was more commanding than the rest. It had traced the humans’ progress by the tremors in the sand and the faint warmth their bodies had bled into the air.

Yes, it had the ability to sense that. This was its planet, after all. Its home. It was interconnected to everything here.

Then, the human who’d called to it crouched near the water. The entity had waited, gills still, until the human had dipped his hand into the water. The immediate connection stunned it, and one world echoed through its mind.

Mine.

Chapter Five – Saxby

SAXBY GROANED as the AI projected into Medical. The doctor, dressed in black pants and a gray shirt, wore an impeccable white coat and horn-rimmed glasses. And it had absolutely no bedside manner, which the crew all knew.

“Please confirm your name, rank, date of birth, and service number.”

Saxby gave the information needed.

“Thank you, Lieutenant Saxby Delmar. I have confirmed your identity. Your case is intriguing.”

Saxby squinted at the blue glow of the apparition hovering by the diagnostics console. “Intriguing. Just what I always wanted to be.”

The AI cocked its head, reviewing a series of charts that flicked past too fast for Saxby to read. “You are not dying.”

“Well, gods above,” Saxby snapped. “Nothing like just tossing that out there.”

Vance snorted from his station. “You’ve lost none of your tact, Doc.”

“I was not programmed for tact,” the AI said as it smiled.

Which, in Saxby’s mind, made the whole damned conversation even more unsettling because that smile had a creep factor of at least eight. Damn, AI simulations were eerie things.

“Lieutenant, describe your symptoms, including any subjective experiences.”

Saxby rattled them off—thirst, headache, persistent aches, a cough, tired all the time, the weird way his skin felt like it didn’t fit. “And the taste thing,” he added. “Like I’m missing salt, and the only way to get enough is to drink a saline slushie and drown my food in salt.”

“Environmental exposure could be the culprit,” the AI replied. “But unsure at this point.”

“So, not a head cold?” Saxby asked.

“No. It could also be a human neurological condition. You are exhibiting classic signs of acute osmotic imbalance, but without the expected excretory response. Your cells are holding onto water, not shedding it.”

“Is that bad?” Saxby’s voice wobbled a little.