Ripple (Breakthrough Book 4)

by Michael C. Grumley

  “I’m fine, Lee. Now spill it!”

  “Right. Good. Glad to hear it.” He turned back and addressed all three. “I’ve been doing some research. On IMIS. You know, checking errors and stuff. I wanted to go through the translations we imported from the vests. I think there may be some issues with one of the algorithms that measure context, especially given—”

  “Lee!” Alison blurted.

  “Right, right. Sorry.” He stopped and put his hands together. “Okay. Here it is. I was looking through the translations…and found something. Something more than what I was looking for.”

  “Like what?”

  “Like more translations!”

  Alison and Chris looked at each other. “And that was surprising?”

  “Yes, very surprising!”

  “Because…”

  “Because they weren’t supposed to be there. None of them. And they weren’t supposed to be there because we weren’t there!”

  Chris squinted at Lee. “I’m not following.”

  “What do you mean, because we weren’t there?”

  Lee shook his head with a grin. “Sorry, let me back up. I say more translations because IMIS only translates when we’re present. Obviously. But in this case, translations were occurring without any of us being present!”

  Alison frowned. “Okay…now I’m not sure I’m following.”

  “Don’t worry about it, you will in a minute. The point is, none of us were there. But IMIS was still translating.”

  “What would IMIS be translating if we weren’t there?”

  “Exactly! But since the whole purpose of IMIS is to translate languages from and to English, the question isn’t what was it translating, it’s to whom? And that,” Lee exclaimed, “is what I’m about to show you.” With that he turned and hit a button on his keyboard, starting the video. He quickly hit another button, enlarging it.

  The picture was a darkened image of their lab. The hundreds of blinking lights from the IMIS servers could be seen in the background, and part of the giant saltwater tank filled the left side of the frame. Centered in the frame were their work desks, one of which was facing the tank’s glass wall. On the desk was a monitor and keyboard, along with a long-necked microphone standing vertically next to it.

  Standing to the side, Lee watched the video with them. “Here’s the lab,” he said, pointing to the top of the screen. “Notice the time.”

  “1:34 A.M.”

  “Exactly.”

  “What happens at—”

  “Shhh!” Lee said. A moment later, something moved on the screen, triggering the rest of the lights in the room to go on. The form briefly disappeared from the screen before suddenly appearing again. It was small and dark, and when it stepped fully into view, Alison gasped.

  “Dulce!”

  Lee nodded.

  “What is she doing out? How did she—”

  “Wait!” Lee said, raising a finger. “Just watch!”

  The small gorilla stood quietly, examining the room. Her large hazel eyes passed over the camera and continued to the tank, where she appeared to spot the dolphins on the other side. She remained still, studying them for several long seconds before a second figure eventually neared the edge of the tank. It was Sally.

  The dolphin continued gliding in slowly until her rostrum, or snout, reached the glass.

  “That’s incredible,” Chris whispered.

  Lee beamed back at him. “It gets better.”

  On the screen, Dulce tilted her head and slowly unfurled her long dark, lanky arm, touching her finger to the glass. Sally studied the glass curiously before twisting sideways and touching her right fin to the same area.

  Then something amazing happened.

  The monitor on the desk suddenly blinked to life. On the screen, a familiar image appeared: the translation application for IMIS. Visible on the left-hand side was a thin line, and on the right, a window which listed both IMIS’s vocabulary and words translated.

  Alison looked incredulously at Lee. “How did it do that?”

  “I have no idea.”

  It was then that they heard Dulce speak in a low grunt.

  In the hospital room, all three leaned forward to get a closer look at the screen.

  The monitor in the video showed the thin line dancing briefly, indicating it had detected and captured the sound. It was promptly followed by words being listed on the right side, but the video resolution was too tiny to read them.

  A moment later, the translation sounded through the water inside the tank. Sally responded and the computer screen promptly sounded a loud beep, signifying a failed translation. It was there that Lee reached down and paused the video.

  Alison and Chris were both staring at him with open mouths. When Alison began to finally shake her head, her words sounded in disbelief.

  “That…happened?!”

  “Yes!” Lee cried. He looked between them excitedly.

  Chris was just as stunned. The only word he could get out was, “How?”

  “I have absolutely no idea!”

  “Is there more?”

  “Yes! A lot more.”

  Clay’s blue eyes were still fixated on the screen. “Lee, when was this recorded?”

  “That’s the most amazing thing,” he replied, growing even more thrilled. “This happened eight days ago. And it’s happened every night since!”

  Clay peered curiously at Alison, who was still trying to process it all. “How on Earth did Dulce even get out?”

  “She learned the code for the door.”

  “She learned the code?”

  “Yes. Evidently, she’s been watching us.”

  “Holy––” Chris began, searching for the right words but failing. “That is just…so unbelievable.”

  Alison returned her gaze to the screen. “What did they say to each other?”

  Lee reached into his backpack and pulled out several sheets of paper. “I brought the whole transcript.”

  19

  Lee handed out copies and watched them all read through several pages without speaking. By the time they finished, Alison and Chris stared at each other with mouths open.

  “Oh…my…God!”

  Chris dropped the papers on his lap and raised both hands to rub his face. “Is this really happening, or am I hallucinating from my medication?”

  “Oh, it’s real!”

  Chris blinked at Lee. “How do I know?”

  Lee barely paused. “Do you want me to slap you?”

  “Okay. It’s real.”

  Alison immediately turned to Clay, who was grinning at her. “That’s really something.”

  “Something,” she said blankly. “It’s…amazing!”

  “I told you,” Lee said with a wide smile.

  Alison glanced down at the first page. “It’s hard to even comprehend what this means. I mean––” She looked at Lee. “IMIS is short for Inter Mammal Interpretive System, but we never imagined the “Inter Mammal” would actually mean inter mammal! I mean we’re talking about communication between two non-human sentient beings. I can’t even begin to conceive of how profound that is.”

  “Neither can I,” murmured Chris. “Never in our wildest dreams would we have considered this.”

  Alison shook her head before noticing Lee, still grinning. She eyed him suspiciously. “What?”

  “There’s more.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “The communication between Sally and Dulce is incredible. But how it’s happening is just as amazing.”

  “You mean through IMIS.”

  “Not just through IMIS. But how the system is actually doing it. The logic IMIS is using is something I’ve never seen before.” Lee retrieved his own folded-up copy of the transcript from his pocket. “Look at the first page. Dulce says, You Fish. A simple enough translation. But then a few translations later, she says, Me Dulce.”

  Lee looked up at them. “There is no dolphin equivalent of Dulce. But there’
s no error message signifying a bad translation.”

  “Then…what did it translate?”

  “I don’t know,” Lee answered excitedly. “But it said something. In a sound pattern we haven’t seen before. My best guess is that IMIS translated the meaning of Dulce, not the word itself.”

  “Dulce means sweet in Spanish,” Clay said.

  “Exactly! But IMIS doesn’t have a dolphin word for sweet either!” Lee said. “Which means it either made something up, or it actually figured out the word sweet!”

  “Would it actually make something up?”

  Lee shook his head. “IMIS has never made a whole new word up before. It’s gotten words wrong. A lot of words. But it’s never just made one up.”

  Clay considered Lee’s explanation. “So IMIS is getting smarter.”

  “I think so. I think it’s getting a lot smarter. So much so that it’s not just deciphering their languages, it’s beginning to understand them.” Without warning, he pulled off the top piece of paper and showed them his second page, filled with marks he’d made. Then the next sheet and the next. “Look at this. Every page is littered with examples of this.”

  Alison looked back at her own set of papers and noticed something else. “Lee, how long was Dulce in the lab?”

  “That’s another thing. The first time it was about ten minutes. I’m not sure why she left, but the second time it was longer, and the next night longer still.”

  “But…” Alison flipped back and forth between pages. “The translations for each night get shorter and shorter.”

  “That’s right,” Lee affirmed. “And to be honest, that’s where this really gets a little strange. “Dulce is in front of the tank longer and longer, but IMIS is translating less and less!”

  Alison’s eyes grew wider, and she urgently looked at Chris.

  Neither one of them needed to speak. Their eyes said it all.

  20

  Onboard the Pathfinder, the look on Neely Lawton’s face could not have been more different.

  Four small wire cages rested before her on the cold metal table, each with a small mouse inside. Neely studied them closely while each mouse sniffed at the metal wires and ran around inside excitedly.

  But in all four mice, something was notably wrong. They were all twitching uncontrollably, in spite of each one being in perfect biological health.

  Neely’s fears were quickly becoming a reality. She was now sure of it. The Chinese-extracted DNA was flawed. Not because it didn’t work but because it worked too well.

  Each mouse had been subjected to a small contusive jolt, resulting in a bruise to the rodent’s spinal column. A common, nonpermanent injury, resulting in a temporary but significant loss of motor skills.

  After then injecting the mice, Neely observed in fascination as the DNA deposited by the infused bacteria began to take hold. Within hours, it began infiltrating the mouse’s existing genetic code. The changes were extraordinary as the DNA began a systematic repair of the damaged spinal area.

  In less than a day, the hind legs on each mouse recovered their full range of motion. The experiment worked perfectly. All of it.

  That was until the mice stopped sleeping.

  Neely had been afraid that the sample the team had gone to such great lengths to recover might be too good to be true. And early signs indicated that it was.

  The modifications had supercharged the body’s own ability to regenerate, preventing cells from dying while also replicating at an accelerated rate. The problem was that it wasn’t just the damaged cells that were infused, it was all the cells. The rodents’ entire genetic structures were being fixed, which meant every cell was being enhanced. Including brain cells.

  And that was a problem.

  For millions of years, nearly all living things on the planet had evolved with a circadian clock––a deep biological coordination with the Earth’s natural cycles. At the center of this metabolic hourglass was something so deeply ingrained in all Earth’s organisms that without it every mammal, bird, and reptile would die within weeks. It was called sleep.

  One of the most critical and fundamental needs for survival, sleep cycles gave organisms the time needed to regularly repair themselves, both mentally and physically.

  When sleep cycles were interrupted, the entire system began to suffer. Permanent deprivation created serious problems in all animals, including mental functions. If the deprivation continued, the problems quickly spread down the nervous system to the cells that regulated the body and its critical organs.

  But the DNA extracted in Guyana was not just healing the cells in the mice––it was doing so much too quickly. The repair normally achieved during an entire sleep cycle was now happening in a fraction of the time, causing a ripple effect throughout the rest of the body’s cells. The end result was hyperactive neurons that now refused to sleep.

  And the evidence was not just in their motor skills. Clipped hair on the mice now grew back within hours. A pricked ear healed almost fast enough for Neely to watch. All of this was putting their brains into overdrive, since they were now unable to sleep, destroying themselves and the rest of their nervous systems from within.

  The small satellite phone rang on the table behind her, and Neely spun around in her chair. She picked it up and studied the screen, recognizing Alison’s number.

  At Will Borger’s direction, none of their phones had names assigned to the numbers, requiring them to memorize each team member’s satellite phone number. It made her feel like they were back in the 80s.

  Neely picked up the handset and answered it, waiting for the small icon to appear on the screen verifying the encryption was successful. Finally, she held it to her ear. “Hi, Ali.”

  “Hi, Neely. How are things?”

  Neely leaned back in her chair and glanced over her right shoulder at the mice. “That’s debatable. How about with you?”

  “I’m not sure either,” Alison answered. “That might depend on you.”

  Neely raised her eyebrows. “I sense a surprise coming.”

  “You could say that.”

  On the other end, Alison lowered her phone and pushed another button. “You’re on speakerphone now, and I’m here with John, Chris, and Lee.”

  “Hello, gentlemen,” Neely said aloud. “How are you feeling, Chris?”

  “Well, I was feeling—”

  Alison interrupted him by slapping his leg through the thin blanket.

  “Good!” Chris finished. “I’m really good!”

  “Glad to hear it. To what do I owe the honor of a group call?”

  “You might want to sit down for this,” Alison warned.

  The corner of Neely’s mouth curled. “Already taken care of.”

  “Good. We need to talk to you about something. Something Lee discovered with the IMIS system.”

  “Shoot.”

  Alison took a deep breath. “Neely, do you remember how we talked about genetics, when you were here? And how it was possible that two species might be able to communicate?”

  “I do.”

  “Would you mind explaining that theory to the guys here?”

  Neely absently tucked a strand of brown hair behind her ear. “The discussion was based on the fact that much of our genetic code is shared with virtually all other animals on the planet. Even with plants, though to a lesser extent. As I told Alison, this is all covered in genetics 101. So we know that the amount of genetic differences between species can be surprisingly small, making the idea of common abilities more than possible.”

  “Like communication.”

  “Like communication. Assuming that specific DNA still remains common in both. My point was that if there were commonalities that once allowed a different form of communication between humans and dolphins, we may very well have evolved out of it. Or if not, the base pairs responsible for it may have been deactivated through centuries of evolution. We already know that the vast majority of DNA in our systems is inactive. Left over from a tim
e and a world our bodies likely wouldn’t even recognize anymore.”

  In the hospital room, Alison stared at the others, listening intently. She looked straight at Lee as she asked her next question. “Neely, if that were true, if a different ability for communication did exist in us at one time, how likely might it be to exist in another species as well?”

  “Well, how likely would be impossible to say. We’re only talking about plausibility here. But considering how similar primates are to humans, it stands to reason that a fair amount of our junk DNA, that which has been deactivated, could also be in another species too. It would depend on where our evolution split and when.”

  “And whether what was deactivated in us also got deactivated in them.”

  “Exactly. Of course, communication is pretty complex, and includes areas of the brain too.”

  “Meaning?”

  “Meaning that if a common communication method was even possible, the likelihood would be strongest in brains that were most similar.”

  “You mean the tri-brain theory that DeeAnn told us about.”

  “Yes. Although I believe she called it the big brain trio.” This time, Neely smiled. “So, is that enough to let me in on Lee’s big new discovery?”

  Alison almost laughed. “Yes. More than enough.” She paused for a moment before explaining. “We think IMIS has been translating directly between Sally and Dulce. Dolphin to gorilla.”

  “Really?” Neely stood up. She stared absently out the starboard side window. The Valant oil rig could be seen clearly in the distance, towering above the blue water of the Caribbean. “Are you sure?”

  “Lee’s pretty sure.”

  “When did this happen?”

  “It’s been going on for the last week. But it gets better. Dulce has been sneaking into the lab for longer and longer periods, yet the translations from IMIS are happening less and less.”