Not-Ed in Doctor's Orders

[steorra]

I've been reading some of Diane Duane's Star Trek books. I'm currently reading Doctor's Orders (1990). There are occasional points of contact between her Star Trek books and the Young Wizards books (for example, the Sulamids appear in both.)

There's a shark mentioned in passing in Doctor's Orders whose description sounds a lot like Ed.

I never did get to go down by the water, McCoy thought. Usually that's such a priority for me. Joanna got me hooked on the water, all those times ago when we used to go out to Montauk Point and try to see across to England. He found himself smiling a bit as he looked around the night Bridge crew. A long time ago, he thought.

"Ensign Devlin," he said, "you lived on the East Coast once. Ever go out to Montauk Point?"

"Oh, yes, sir," she said, looking up from the Engineering console. "My sister and I used to go out there and watch for sharks. Sharks were a hobby of hers."

"You see any?"

"Yes, we did! One was the biggest one we ever saw. It was a real Great White, the Point biologist said. At least eighty feet long, but I think it was more like a hundred."

McCoy visualized that "That could have eaten a shuttlecraft," he said. "Or at least it could've taken a good bite out of it."
(Doctor's Orders, by Diane Duane. Chapter 8.)

That's much larger than a real great white shark - they only get up to about 20 feet long, according to Wikipedia.


It's about the size of Ed, though.

Inside the cloud of blood, which the current over the shoals was taking away, something moved. Impossible, was Nita's first reaction as the circling shape was revealed. It broke out of its circling and began to soar slowly toward her and Kit and S'reee. Sonar had warned her of its size, but she was still astonished. No mere fish could be that big.

This one could. Nita didn't move. With slow, calm, deadly grace the huge form came curving toward them. Nita could see why S'reee had said that this creature was a good candidate for the title Master Shark, even if the original had lived ten thousand years ago, when everything was bigger. The shark was nearly as long as Kit—from its blunt nose to the end of its tail's top fin, no less than ninety feet. Its eyes were that same dull, expressionless black that had horrified Nita when she'd watched Jaws. But seeing those eyes on a TV screen was one thing. Having them dwell on you, calm and hungry even after a feeding frenzy—that was much worse.

The pale shape glided closer. Nita felt Kit drift so close that his skin brushed hers, and she felt the thudding of his huge heart. In shape, the shark looked like a great white, as well as Nita could remember from Jaws. There, though, the resemblance ended. Great white sharks were actually a pale blue on their upper bodies and only white below. This one was white all over, an ivory white so pale that great age might have bleached it in that color. And as for size, this one could have eaten the Jaws shark for lunch and looked capable of working Nita in, in no more than a bite or two, for dessert.
(Deep Wizardry, by Diane Duane. Chapter 6: Ed's Song.)

This happens just off Montauk Point, which is mentioned a couple pages or so earlier.


But Ed dies at the end of Deep Wizardry, and Doctor's Orders must be set a couple hundred years later, so they can't actually be the same shark. Unless they're in different timelines, or Ed is somehow resurrected or reincarnated or something.

Also the shark in Doctor's Orders isn't mentioned as having the same odd coloration as Ed.

Still, it's striking that both books have a Great White of a similar impossibly large size living off the coast of Montauk Point.

Comments

[threeringedmoon]

And now I will have to read Doctor's Orders because it has been on my shelf for years without me getting a round tuit.

[steorra]

:-)

I liked it, though it took me a long time to get through it because I kept not being in the right frame of mind for it.

[unfavorableinstigation]

Perhaps the Song of the Twelve went differently, in the Star Trek 'verse...

Though that also kind of boarders on a sad thought, doesn't it? .-.

[steorra]

Yeah, or even on several depending on how it went differently.

The relevant divergence point could be earlier, though. Maybe that singing of the Song of the Twelve wasn't needed in the Star Trek 'verse. Or maybe a whale was found to sing the Silent Lord's part, and it was a typical successful singing of the Song.

[melannen]

The Song of the Twelve actually gets a mention in one of her, iirc, ST: TNG books! So it does happen there, in some way or another. (That particular one probably did go differently, though, and much worse, if humpbacks were extinct in their timeline by the beginning of the 21st century, per The One With The Whales - in ours they're back to Species of Least Concern, at least numbers-wise! \o/ )

[unfavorableinstigation]

I do remember reading about that, yes! =D

Never got to read DD's ST:TNG books, though. >.>

(Huzzah for that!)

[independence1776]

Ooh, neat!

[melannen]

I would not count on Ed's timeline being linear, though! I always figured it was Ed, or some version of Ed.

(It's established in Wounded Sky that Earth in her Star-Trek-verse has active de-extinction programs going on - I can't remember if that's canon via movie 4, or just her - so it's also possible there were larger recensions of Great Whites around. And Ed.)

[aoftheis]

This is kind of awesome. :D

Diane Duane seems to have a penchant for crossover-ish stuff, too -- for instance, the random zany man in the terminal who helps Dairine run/hide at the beginning of High Wizardry is apparently the Fifth Doctor from Doctor Who?! I learned this years later, not sure if it's been confirmed by Duane ever but lots of folks have noticed it.