Wendy had set her alarm for 0700, but something woke her before it went off. It was O'Neill's voice in her head, saying, "I have to get power to the radio." At first, she thought she dreamed it. Tim was in Japan, literally on the opposite side of the world. To hear him at this distance would be incredible. She rubbed her eyes and shook her head. It wasn't like the message was odd, at least not odd for Tim. He probably thought about radios twelve times a day, even when he wasn't on duty.

She shrugged it off and snuggled back into her pillow, planning to doze until the alarm went off. But just as she had hit that twilight stage where she couldn't be sure if she'd been asleep or not, she heard Tim again: "The life raft."

"Tim?" she said aloud. It was a bit harder to dismiss a second occurrence, not when life rafts were not a regular fixture to Tim's career or any hobby she knew of. She sat up. Now wide awake, she deliberately closed her eyes to concentrate. He wasn't a Receiver, but she had to at least try to establish contact. Tim, if you can hear me, tell me what's going on.

She held her concentration for several minutes, but the hoped-for response never came. Finally, she opened her eyes and crawled out of bed. It would be untrue to say she wasn't concerned. However, she knew from experience not to cry wolf every time she felt bad vibes. A fried radio and a life raft fit nicely into a past seaQuest legend she'd heard several times before. Miguel was particularly fond of relating how one of his WSKRS saved seaQuest along with a mini-sub full of French school kids. Perhaps Tim was telling his version of the Bermuda Triangle story to a fellow linguistics conferee.

She was able to put it out of her mind until breakfast, when she heard him again. "No way. I've got to be hallucinating." This time, there was no anxiety. She couldn't read emotions like she could with most psychic connections, but she could gather them from his voice. And this time was more like… joy. Wendy was relieved to feel something positive, but still didn't understand how she could be hearing Tim from so far away. She'd been successfully blocking him for weeks now, and that had been while he was still on seaQuest. Now that he was considerably further away, he was suddenly breaking through again? It made no sense.

When she had the time, she'd write some notes in her personal log and ask Tim about it when he got back. Maybe she could discover a trigger mechanism that would help him control his Transmissions. However, today she had to focus on something other than parapsychology. Dr. Morris was in full gusto mode, which was great for him, but it often came off as pushy toward the rest of his team.

The penguin research was going well, as far as Wendy could tell. Darwin took to Caprio's wetsuit and spent up to forty minutes at a time eating and playing with the swimming birds. The video he provided was sharp, extensive, and educational, but it was also clear that it wasn't at the expense of fun. With Morris's permission, Miguel made a copy of the penguin footage, and then edited the best shots together with some WSKRS views that showed the penguins and dolphin together. He added a lively Beach Boys soundtrack. The resulting ten-minute "Catch a Wave" vidlet had already become hugely popular in the crew lounge.

If there was a problem aboard seaQuest, it was among the military complement who were battling boredom. Even the science crews who weren't interested in penguins still had plenty of their own studies to keep them busy. But other than running WSKRS, keeping tabs on life support, and monitoring the hull temperature so they didn't end up in a block of ice, there wasn't a whole lot for the military guys to do. Shipboard pranks were at an all-time high, and Brody and Ford were getting on each other's nerves, turning even the smallest tasks into petty competition. Nothing was anywhere near serious yet, but this was only the second day seaQuest had been parked. Wendy was concerned for how five more days were going to wear on them.

However, other than seeing that Morris's team got a dose of encouragement for every push and ensuring that pranks stayed safely short of damaging relationships, there was not much Wendy could do about the crew's morale. She worried too much and she knew it. The UEO didn't let just anyone aboard their flagship. They were the best of the best. Surely they could withstand a week of boredom. Soon, the captain would be back, seaQuest would be moving again, and everything would return to normal.

After breakfast, Wendy went back to Medbay, but it was just as clean as she left it the night before and just as deserted. She'd already finished all her requisitions and updated all the patient records. She couldn't bring herself to hope Medbay would get busier, but she was beginning to appreciate the way the military crew was feeling without anything important to do.

She took a walk, making the rounds through the workstations on sea deck, making sure everyone had what they needed, both physically and emotionally. Sometimes a pat on the back worked wonders and Wendy was attuned enough to the feelings around her that she could usually tell who needed them.

Tony was in the moon pool, probably just waiting for Darwin to return from his latest eating and playing escapade. Since there was precious little for anyone to do on the bridge, Ford assigned him to downloading the memory on the video camera and making sure the dolphin waited sufficiently between excursions so that he didn't endanger his fins and flippers. The latter part of his duty wasn't always easy because it meant having to compete with the black and white playmates and tasty food Darwin knew were outside.

Wendy waved and Tony waved back. She strolled to the water for no particular reason but to have a place to stand and think. People always got uncomfortable if a telepath stared at the wall or the floor. Oddly, no one thought it strange if she stared into empty water.

"Please be alive, please be alive, please be alive…" Tim's voice was full of distress this time. Wendy swayed with the influx of panic she felt, catching herself on the moon pool edge.

Tony caught her movement. "Doc? You all right?"

Wendy inhaled deeply. Tim's voice kept repeating the same cryptic wish over and over, like a broken record. The anxiety was oppressive. She felt so overwhelmed that she couldn't speak. She repositioned her grip on the moon pool edge and shook her head at Tony.

He swam over and stood in front of her. "You want me to call somebody?"

She swallowed and shook her head. After another breath, she managed to whisper, "No."

Concern drawn in his eyes, he reached out with both wet hands to steady her shoulders. When his hands made contact with her bare upper arms, he startled. "Is that O'Neill?"

Wendy nodded.

"Who's he talkin' to… er, about?"

She shook her head, closed her eyes, and concentrated as hard as she could. Tony's presence steadied her. He seemed to sense it was a bad time to ask questions and fell silent. Then, she felt his mind coming toward hers, concentrating with her, their psychic energies combining and strengthening each other.

Together, they spoke in unison: "Lucas."

As soon as they spoke, the chanting stopped. Wendy wasn't sure if Tim stopped it at the source or whether some sort of psychic self-preservation system kicked in. But either way, she was glad. Someone else's anxiety was never comfortable to feel. She panted a few breaths, then looked at Tony, who eyed her with concern, but didn't seem as drained as she was.

"What was that?" he asked.

"I think Lucas is in trouble and Tim is trying to get to him."

"But I thought Lucas went on R 'n' R wit' the cap'n."

"Something must have gone wrong. I'm going to try to contact them."

Tony let go of her arms, suddenly self-conscious. "Hey, I didn't mean to pry. I was just…"

"It's okay. I needed the support. Besides, it took both of us to figure out who Tim was so worried about. I wasn't getting it by myself." She patted his arm reassuringly.

"You okay now?"

"Yeah. Thanks, Tony."

"No prob, Doc. You gonna find Lucas, right?"

"I'll do my best. Try not to worry. O'Neill was with him and the captain can't be far. You know they'd never let anything happen to him."

"Yeah, sure." He didn't sound very convinced. Too streetwise for his own good.

Unfortunately, she shared his skepticism this time.