The question she and Chris had always wondered about was just how far a message could be sent, and more importantly, how far it might be relayed from dolphin to dolphin. Given that dolphins and porpoises resided all over the world, could messages reach even those halfway around the Earth through an underwater relay? And if so, did that mean it was technically possible for them to actually communicate globally?
It was a fascinating idea, but for the moment, a concept clearly beyond the scope of the message displayed on IMIS’s computer screen. After all, it was a much shorter distance but still very likely that the message had been relayed to Sally. Yet it didn’t answer the question of how the dolphins knew Tay was alive following the failed rescue attempt before they did.
And if Sally didn’t make the discovery, who did?
105
Despite her anticipation, it took Alison the usual twenty minutes to get her equipment on. Having folded the small bandage on her ear, and tucking it neatly back to give her mask a good seal, she stood up and grabbed both of Chris’s hands to steady herself. He then helped her walk slowly and awkwardly on her fins toward the edge of the ship.
It was strange seeing the whole platform empty. It felt almost roomy, a rare treat on a Navy ship. No equipment was currently in use since everyone was still upstairs talking to Tay. The opportunity provided both of them easy access to the side of the stern deck, typically used for entering and exiting the water.
Alison approached a stanchion and grasped the top with both hands. In the meantime, Chris stood behind her to check the valves and hoses on her rebreather unit.
“I think we’re good.”
She breathed in deeply and nodded inside her mask, holding up a gloved thumb.
“After you’re in, I’ll be upstairs and online in a minute.”
Alison nodded again. She then took a big step forward and extended her right fin out over the water, and with only a slight pause, pushed herself off.
***
“Sally?”
There was no response.
“Sally, are you there?”
Still only silence.
“Dirk? Dirk. Can you hear me?”
I hear Alison. You back.
She grinned and twisted around, looking for him. “Yes, I’m back.”
Dirk emerged from the darkened water below her, causing a large school of fish to scatter, before approaching and circling Alison excitedly.
“Where is Sally, Dirk?”
The dolphin slowed and turned his head, listening. She come.
“Good. I have something I need to ask you both.” Her eyes peered upwards. “You there, Chris?”
“Yep. I hear you loud and clear.”
“Good. You might want to record this.”
“Way ahead of you.”
Moments later, Sally’s familiar shape appeared and circled in concert with Dirk, though noticeably slower.
Alison you back.
“Hello, Sally. Yes, I am.”
You come talk.
“That’s right.”
You make metal now.
“Yes, Dirk. We are going to make the metal for you now. My elders, my heads, say yes.”
Good Alison. We happy.
So was Alison. Relieved actually. The dolphins were now asking every time they talked, and it was becoming increasingly difficult to explain why it was taking so long to get a decision. At least now she could say they were making it. Even though there was technically not much making involved. It was more a matter of procurement. But she wouldn’t bother trying to explain that.
“Sally, did you send a message earlier?”
An error sounded in her headset.
“Did you make talk earlier?”
Yes Alison.
“A message about our friend.”
Yes Alison.
“What did you say?”
I say you friend live.
“What did you mean?”
Sally slowed and peered at Alison.
Me no no.
A short beep sounded, and IMIS corrected the words to me no know. Although the corrected translation sounded the same in her ears, it was a phrase Alison had heard before. Many times. It meant Sally didn’t understand.
“You said our friend was alive.”
Yes Alison.
She kicked closer. “How did you know that?”
There was no answer.
“How did you know our friend was alive?”
The dolphin continued staring at Alison long after the translation emanated from her vest. Finally, Sally responded with a single reply of clicks and whistles. Then silence.
Alison floated in place and waited. Hearing nothing, she became puzzled.
“Chris, did you get that?”
“I heard something,” he replied. “From Sally. But no translation.”
“Any errors?”
“No. No error. But nothing translated on my screen.”
“I wonder what happened.”
“I don’t–oh, wait!” Chris said, studying his monitor. “It still says translating on my screen.”
“Still translating?”
“Yeah. I guess it’s still working on it.”
“Why would it take so long?”
“I think Lee said new translations were going to take longer, now that we’re connected to IMIS over satellite. “He said it could take–”
The translated word sounded without warning over Alison’s earbuds, drowning out Chris. At the same time, the new word appeared on Chris’s screen.
Vize.
106
“Did it say Vize?”
“I think so. That’s what I’m reading on my screen.”
“How is it spelled?”
“V-I-Z-E.”
“Did it mean busy?”
“I don’t know. You think it’s an error?”
“Well, I don’t know of any word spelled like that, do you?”
“No. What about vise?”
“What would that mean?”
“Beats me.”
Alison stared curiously at the dolphin. “Can you say that again, Sally?”
Vize.
This time the translation came quickly. IMIS seemed to believe it was correct.
“What is a vize?”
Alison was surprised to hear Dirk laugh.
He Vize.
“He who?”
He. Vize. He who.
Alison reached down and paused her vest’s microphone. She shook her head and spoke to Chris. “Am I Abbot or Costello here?”
“That’s the second time you’ve mentioned them. Who are they?”
“Forget it.”
Chris was reading the order of translations on the screen. “I think…” he said slowly, “it’s not a description, but maybe a name.”
“Vize is a name?”
“Kinda looks like it.”
Alison turned the mike back on. “Sally, is Vize a dolphin?”
This time Sally laughed. Yes Alison. Vize dolphin.
“I see. Vize is a dolphin.”
Yes.
“And Vize knew our friend was alive?”
Yes.
“How did Vize know he was alive?”
He no. Was her reply, which IMIS quickly changed and repeated as He know.
“How did Vize know?”
He Vize.
She shook her head. This was getting confusing. She tried another tactic. “Can I meet him?”
Just as confused as Alison, Dirk and Sally seemed happier to simply show her. With Alison once again holding onto Dirk, they led her several hundred yards away from the ship.
Alison remained quiet as she was towed along, watching fields of tall swaying plants pass below them. Dozens of other dolphins darted back and forth, zooming out of their way. Some were curious enough to turn and follow.
The three passed through more schools of brightly colored fish before the fields of vegetation promptly disappeared, giving way to a long stretch of sandy bott
om. The sand was higher, resembling a plateau, surrounded on all sides by more bright green plants.
Just above the plateau were hundreds of dolphins. All were swimming, darting back and forth. A crowd of dark swimming bodies, silhouetted against a canvas of blue water.
“You still with me, Chris?”
“Yep.”
They entered the mass of dolphins and began to slow when Alison felt something. The strange buzzing she had felt before had returned.
“I can feel it again, Chris! The buzzing. It’s back.”
Chris suddenly leaned forward. “Do you see the same dolphin you saw before?”
“I’m not sure,” she answered, searching through the tangle of heads and tails as she spoke. They were all moving too fast.
Finally, she spotted something. A slower moving outline in the distance. The oversized melon and shorter body shape gave the dolphin an unmistakable appearance that stood out from the rest. “Yes,” she blurted out, drawing nearer. “It’s him!”
It was the same dolphin. She was sure of it. It had the same darkened skin and stubby shape, plus the buzzing sensation felt the same. Different from the feeling of normal echolocation, it was strangely unique and grew steadily stronger as the two approached each other.
At perhaps fifty feet, the smaller dolphin slowed and turned toward them, hitting Alison with the full brunt of it’s signaling.
“Oh my God,” she whispered to Chris.
“Are you okay?!”
Her voice sounded as though she were struggling. “This is incredible. It’s so strong.”
“Ali, I think you should get out of there!”
“No. It’s not bad. It’s just…powerful. What in the world is it doing?”
“Does it still feel different?”
“Very. Like a different frequency.”
Alison fell silent as she watched the unusual dolphin close the gap before slowing to study her.
Alison, Sally said. Here Vize.
Alison let go of Dirk and pushed off. She watched in fascination as the creature slowly began to circle, moving its head back and forth.
“Wow,” she breathed.
“What?!”
“Oh my gosh, Chris. It’s changing.” Alison twisted faster in an attempt to keep the camera on it. “The frequency feels like it’s changing as it moves around me.”
“Are you still all right?”
“Yes.” Alison spread her arms out, allowing Vize to scan her completely. “It’s…weird. The feeling is changing, almost like it’s moving in waves, from one frequency to another. It’s like…a kaleidoscope. But instead of seeing it, you can feel it.”
She continued spinning, trying to keep it on camera. “Can you see this?”
“Some. But I still think you should get out of there. This is really wigging me out!”
Alison grinned inside her mask. “It would be for me too, but there’s something…oddly comfortable about it. A feeling of…I don’t know…maybe warmth or something.”
“It’s warm?”
“No. Not like temperature warm, like a feeling warm.”
“Those are pretty much the same thing for men.”
She laughed. “Stop it.” She stopped speaking, noticing that the small dolphin had halted the back and forth movement of its head. It then drifted closer, peering at her with large, soft dark eyes.
“Ohhh,” she said. “He’s adorable.”
“Don’t touch it!” Chris exclaimed, a split second before he watched Alison’s arm extend out on camera and pet the dolphin’s head. “Great. Good job. Thank you.”
She chuckled. “It’s okay. He’s friendly.”
“Yeah well, I guess there was only one way to find out.”
“Will you stop? I’m fine!”
“Okay, okay.”
“It’s fading. It feels softer now.” She raised her voice to speak through her vest. “Vize.”
Vize, Sally answered.
“What kind of name is Vize?”
There was a pause before Sally answered.
No name. Vize.
“Vize,” she repeated.
No name Alison. Vize.
“That’s what I’m saying.” She shut off the mike again. “Chris, are you hearing my translations?”
“I am.”
“Are you seeing it on your screen?”
“Yes.”
She stared at the dolphins, wondering. “Then why aren’t they hearing it?”
“I don’t know. But…I’m seeing something on the monitor again. IMIS still says translating.”
“Still?”
“Yes. Even after it just completed Sally’s response.”
“Is it confused?”
“I don’t know. It looks like…it’s still working on something. Or part of something.”
“But it normally beeps if it can’t translate. Even just a single word.”
“Yeah well, it looks like IMIS may still think it’s working on something.”
“Huh.”
“Or maybe it’s stuck. I really don’t know.”
She frowned. “I guess we’re just going to have to ask Lee then.”
“I guess so.”
Alison finished patting the small dolphin’s head. She pulled back and rolled herself forward, bringing her own head closer to it. The melon was even larger than she had thought. Not grotesque, just big. Oversized. And exciting.
Given the size and density of a dolphin’s brain, she had always been sure there was more the creatures could do with it, things she didn’t yet understand. But now there was this!
107
Lee Kenwood was not far away. Having landed in Trinidad, he was aboard a fishing boat now less than twenty miles from the Pathfinder. Surging forward through gray rolling swells with two roaring diesel engines behind him, Lee gripped the rusted metal railing like grim death––behind a dirt-streaked glass window.
Above him at the helm, Tomas Lopez, the boat’s captain, laughed. He wrestled the wheel back and forth, attempting to steer the old boat directly into each oncoming wave. Repeatedly, water crashed up and over the bow in white sheets before falling down upon the foredeck, draining away through wide holes on each side.
“Seńor, Kenwood!” he called in broken English. “Is good day for sail, no?”
Lee did not look up. Instead, he maintained his grimace through a set of clenched teeth. Lopez was their friendly neighborhood smuggler, employed by Captain Emerson and his crew aboard the Pathfinder. There for a variety of tasks, including sneaking supplies out to the ship at night. And occasionally, of course, people. Like Lee Kenwood.
And while he knew Clay and Caesare enjoyed the ripeness of Lopez’s humor, it was a sentiment Lee did not share. Especially not for the last three hours.
“Storm getting better. Waves only tall as me now!”
Lee sneered, to no one in particular. Both of Lopez’s other crewmembers were outside with him. He closed his eyes and tightened his grip, trying desperately to keep a handle on his stomach. He’d been in heavy seas before but not like these, or for this long.
“How much further?!” he called up to Lopez.
The young Venezuelan thought to himself. “Maybe one hour more. If boat does not sink.”
“Good God,” moaned Lee. He closed his eyes, struggling to block out the creaking of the boat and the constant thundering of water against the window in front of him.
At least he could still be thankful for one thing. Well, two. That the boat was still afloat, and that Chris Ramirez couldn’t see him like this.
***
Exactly fifty-one minutes later, Lee stepped precariously from the edge of the fishing boat onto the Pathfinder’s stern deck. The larger ship was rolling but on anchor, providing a more stable footing and greatly alleviating Lee’s nausea.
“Lee!”
Kenwood turned to see Alison and Chris both descending a nearby ladder, before trotting carefully across the slick deck.
Alison reached him firs
t with a hug. “We are so glad to see you!”
Lee shared a relieved smile before stepping back and having a look at Chris. “You look great, man! How are you feeling?”
“Just like new,” Chris grinned. “Well, actually, let’s say slightly used. But pretty good overall.”
“Well, it’s great to have you back.”
“That’s just what Ali and I were saying about you. We have a lot to catch you up on.”
“Yeah?”
Chris nodded. “Starting with your IMIS system.”
“What do you mean?”
Alison and Chris looked at each other sheepishly. “We may have broken it.”
“Broken it?”
“Broken might be a strong word,” Alison winked. “But it’s important that you know Chris was the last to touch it.”
***
Lee Kenwood folded his arms and leaned back. “This is weird. How long has it been like this?”
“A couple hours maybe. The strange thing is that it still translates correctly. But it has this message, which sounded to us like it was still working on something. Is it?”
“I’m not sure,” Lee said. “I can’t tell exactly what the algorithms are working on at the moment. Might just be a hung process though. If so, we can easily stop and restart a couple modules to clear it.”
“See,” Alison bumped Chris. “You didn’t break it.”
Lee grinned. “Well, let’s not rule that out yet.” He reached out a hand for the mouse and scrolled down IMIS’s vocabulary list. “Looks like we have some new words translated.”
“How many?”
“Several. Looks like…eight. Nice.”
“So it’s still working.”
“It’s definitely working. I wasn’t sure if it would have enough throughput over Mr. Borger’s satellite link. But he seemed pretty confident.” Lee stopped on a word and raised his eyebrows. “What does Vize mean?”
“Funny you should ask. That’s part of what we have to tell you.”
Mosaic (Breakthrough Book 5) Page 30