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aid me, I can find out… at which point I’ll tell you everything I can. Meanwhile, Mr. Data’s reputation as a researcher is a matter of fame. I would hope that with his help in analysis, and possibly Mr. La Forge’s to help me tune and install my detection equipment, we can quickly produce some answers for you.”
    “Well,” Picard said, “clearly there’s no point in considering any change in our patrol schedule just now. And at this distance, pausing long enough to notify Starfleet and get a response would be a waste of time. We’ll continue as planned. Commander, I will expect some news from you at the earliest possible moment as to how
your
former baseline data match present conditions in these spaces. Meanwhile, please see Commander Riker about any technical assistance you need.”
    “Yes, sir,” Hwiii said. “And thank you much for your welcome.”
    “Are you sure you don’t want some more caviar?” Picard said gently.
    The dolphin glanced at him, that mischievous look in his eye again. “Another pound or so would be nice.”
    They went about their business for the next few days in an unremarkable fashion. Picard noticed with amusementhow quickly the crew stopped giving second glances to the dolphin swimming down the corridor. Hwiii seemed to spend most of his time in engineering anyway, surprising amounts of time. Picard sometimes began to wonder when he slept, and Geordi began to complain about it.
    Picard caught Geordi in Ten-Forward one evening, looking rather haggard and smelling slightly of fish. “The problem is that he’s so concentrated,” Geordi said. “He’s—don’t misunderstand me, Captain, he’s absolutely amiable, he’s a pleasure to work with, competent, knows his subject inside out—but he’s just—” Geordi shook his head. “He’s collimated, like a phaser beam. When he’s in the middle of his work, you couldn’t distract him for a second. He can’t
be
distracted—he just
goes
straight for the throat of the problem, whatever it is.”
    “I should think that would be more of an advantage than anything else,” Picard said, sipping his tea.
    Geordi smiled wanly. “It might seem that way at first. But if there’s one thing human beings do when they’re working, it’s that they
stop
working. They do something to break the tension or the concentration every now and then: a joke, an aside. Hwiii doesn’t do that. It’s like he’s on rails, running right at the question in hand. Or fin.”
    “Perseverance,” Picard said. “I take it the work you’re doing is going well.”
    “We’ve got most of his equipment hooked up now. We’re getting good readings, he says. I’m still getting an idea of what he means by ‘good’—half the time it seems to mean blank files.” Geordi chuckled. “But we’re in a situation here where lack of data can be as diagnostic as solids full of it. In between times, he’s been helping Commander Riker with his subparticle hunting—seems that the technology that the Lalairu are using with hyperstrings is somewhat similar and can be altered to our purposes. He’s made some changes in the sensors for us.”
    “Well, I’m glad he’s making himself useful.”
    “It’s getting him to stop, Captain, that’s the problem. He’s having a sleep cycle now, otherwise I wouldn’t be here. I must admit, he
is
a fount of information: it’s an education just listening to him while he talks. Or sings—you can’t help hearing the notes, they resonate through his waterjacket. The engineering crew like it.” Geordi smiled. “I can’t say I mind it myself. The funny thing is, some of the song turns out to be some kind of delphine opera. He says he doesn’t have a great voice, but the singing runs in the family.”
    “An opera buff. You’d better keep him away from Worf. But I didn’t know there was any opera back on Triton.”
    “Something like it, apparently. Or I may have misunderstood him: it was hard to tell whether Hwiii was