by Peter Wood
‘They’ll be a lot more puzzled when the rest of them vanish then.’
‘Yes, Thom, but not for long. As soon as the Comet departs, the world in general will be informed that we are moving them to safety on Attunga. There will be an outcry against so many special dolphins leaving Earth, but when the evidence of the attempts against them is disseminated we expect an enormous backlash against the responsible habitats.’
‘What will happen to them?’
‘Nothing, Thom. But we are confident that opinion will be voiced so strongly against such aggression that any action against Earth’s wild dolphins would critically isolate them.’
‘So they’ll get away with it?’ Thom was getting fired up. Wirrin agreed with him but Akama spoke.
‘They’re not getting away with anything, Thom. When the facts are known the standing of the semi-directed habitats will be very badly damaged and they will make great efforts to rebuild it. We expect all of them to openly dissociate from K74.’
‘K74 won’t care. They’ll try something else.’
‘We agree, but not on Earth, and not immediately. Our actions today have very much put them on notice that their belief in their own dominance in the solar system is misguided, and for a while at least they will take stock. They have a great deal to think about.
‘Their best efforts have proved futile and they have just learnt that their technology is inadequate.’
‘Not on Earth? You mean they’ll try something against Attunga and Warrakan?’
‘Yes, but nothing overt while they try to understand our capabilities. Once we announce that the special dolphins will have guaranteed safety on Attunga and Warrakan it will be very clear where the primary resistance to their plans is based. We will become the main focus of their attention.’
Wirrin thought that with the surveillance drones and the giant space vessel, Attunga and Warrakan already were, but before he could ask exactly what Akama meant, the Comet met with a whole new convoy of air transporters from Monkey Mia and started descending to the Denham Sound gathering. Akama pointed to the image of Calen and Sonic.
‘Why don’t you join them? We’ll call you back if we think there is a need.’
Burilda went with them. Sonic and his transport module would be out in the water as soon as possible, so they rushed to intercept them.
Wirrin and Thom dashed past a group of dolphin companions and scrambled quickly into the module where there was only time for a brief hug and greeting before the loading bay doors opened and they were on the move.
***
‘I hope you’re having a good adventure, Thom.’
Trust Sonic to know how to make them all smile. Thom’s appetite for action was certainly being overindulged.
‘Sonic says we’re safe now?’
Wirrin could tell Calen needed some reassurance.
‘Turaku disintegrated one of their spaceships and the other three ran for cover as fast as they could. They haven’t got anything left they can do to us.’
‘Disintegrated? The one that was falling on us?’
Wirrin wasn’t going to say that it was being guided with pinpoint accuracy, so he gave a non-committal nod, and changed the subject by demanding to know what had been happening with Calen and Sonic.
‘Everything you could possibly imagine but I’ll have to tell you later.’
Sonic leapt into the ocean and disappeared while Calen indicated the facemasks.
The trio entered the water and the first thing Wirrin noticed was the myriad voices of dolphin communication. Sound travels four times as fast through water and to human ears gives a false sense of proximity.
So many voices, though not loud, and with nearly five hundred dolphins in this gathering, Wirrin tried to imagine what the main group at Monkey Mia would have been like if they’d all spoken out like this.
Sonic was swimming towards one of the pods and at the same time talking to the rest of the gathering, explaining the procedure for entering the special ferries designed to carry ten dolphins the short distance into the Comet, and constantly giving assurance and telling them their human companions would meet them and stay with them in their living pools once they were aboard.
Calen shot ahead and Wirrin swam like crazy, trying to keep up. Good grief! He made it look so effortless.
The dark silhouette of a ferry settled abruptly on the silvery surface and then another close by, and Wirrin had to smile at the excitement coming from the dolphins as access to the ferries opened and they moved aboard. The ferries lifted and Sonic headed for another pod. Wirrin decided he needed some serious swimming training when, despite a full-on effort, he and Thom were left behind.
The Comet’s picofactory was still producing extra ferries so that the dolphins could quickly board, and by the time they reached the main Monkey Mia gathering there would be fifty-two. Currently there were thirty-six operating from six different loading bays, all under the control of Turaku in liaison with Sonic, and the whole Denham Sound group of 486 dolphins in twenty-five pods was transferred aboard in just over fifteen minutes.
Calen laughed when Wirrin and Thom flopped in the transport module, gasping for breath.
‘Weak! Just as well you weren’t there when we had to dodge the fallout from the sky.’
By the time the module came to rest inside the Comet they’d recovered. They were strong and very fit after all, just not up to Calen’s standard.
Sonic was totally occupied, talking through the links in his module to over 1900 dolphins in their new pod-sized travelling pools.
The Comet raced for the rendezvous south-east of Monkey Mia and near Faure Island. There was so much to see and do that the trio barely had time to talk. More dolphins were loaded, and still more at Monkey Mia, where the much larger number of dolphins took almost an hour to transfer, and left Wirrin and Thom almost worn to a frazzle. Calen insisted they stay on the Comet for the final two pick-ups and Wirrin and Thom, sensing Calen had quite recovered his equilibrium, were keen to get back to the control centre.
***
The Ningaloo Reef marine centre was north of Monkey Mia and Wirrin spent most of the travel time talking with Narn, who performed a personal and rather friendly parting ceremony when the Comet settled offshore. This group of dolphins was the smallest so far and after Sonic spoke to their gathering they boarded very quickly.
Calen came to the control centre because of the delay before the next pick up and the trio finally relaxed together.
Thom was keen to know details about the 3500 kilometre trip to the Great Barrier Reef, wondering if the Comet might have an effect on the terrain below its path with its speed way in excess of the sound barrier, but, because of the urgency, the trip would be at an altitude much too high for any atmospheric effects.
***
‘So what are all these things that happened?’
Wirrin and Thom had been intrigued ever since Calen’s earlier comment about his adventures.
‘Well, I think I must have swum about a 100 kilometres. My muscles all feel like jelly.’
After earlier saying how weak they were this was really a ploy to pique their curiosity by not going ahead, so Wirrin and Thom agreed with him, telling him he was oh so strong, conjecturing how quickly he might recover, and praising his endurance, till he had to laugh. ‘All right! It started with the sharks.’
There was no comeback for a statement like that. He wasn’t joking and after a startled moment Thom asked if he’d really seen some.
‘Lots of them near the second meeting. They’re everywhere in the bay but Faure Island is one of their main hunting grounds and a group of them were attracted by the gathering. A big one charged the group three times – it was chaos. I couldn’t believe it was happening and Sonic made me get into the module each time till it was safe.’
‘Did Sonic go with you?’
‘He doesn’t have to worry. He’s too fast. The sharks are after the babies and young dolphins, which aren’t fast enough to g
et away … and that was me.’
‘How close did it get?’
‘Close enough. I was too busy following Sonic’s warning to get myself somewhere safe.’
‘Were you worried?’
‘Sort of. The first time happened too quickly, and the other times I was thinking about Sonic because he helped chase it away.’
Thom was staring in disbelief.
‘He did?’
‘It’s not really chasing because the sharks aren’t scared. A group of dolphins swim in really close, dodging and turning all the time to confuse the shark so it loses track of the little dolphin it’s after. Then they harass it so much it goes somewhere else.’
‘Harass?’
‘Sonic’s word. He explained what happened because I couldn’t see from the module. He wouldn’t have got hurt, I know, because Turaku would have done something, but I didn’t think of that at the time.’
Wirrin and Thom exchanged glances and Wirrin wondered if Thom had the same image of an energy beam reducing any attacking shark to its constituent atoms.
‘Was it very big?’
‘Let’s have a look … It’s all on the surveillance database.’
Of course it was. Wirrin found the relevant data and played it on his personal holo and they watched a 4.5 metre tiger shark gliding in fierce majesty, lunging at the mass of dolphins, then being enveloped in a frantic cloud of activity till it swam off, looking annoyed.
‘That thing looks evil. They should do something to keep them away from the dolphins.’
‘No they shouldn’t. It’s a marine reserve, Thom, and sharks are as important as everything else.’
Coming from sensitive Calen this was quite startling, but not really, when you thought of his knowledge of animals and their care.
‘They shouldn’t stop them from eating baby dolphins?’
‘Not in general. Sharks are a fixed part of Earth dolphin life and they have to learn to live with them.’
Calen was in explanation mode on a subject they’d discussed before in a theoretical way. It was horrifying to realise that only thirty per cent of baby dolphins in Shark Bay survived to adulthood, and that almost every adult carried scars from their attempts to protect the young. The boys suddenly realised how different life was for wild dolphins.
‘Tiger sharks! And we thought catching a perentie was exciting.’
‘A perentie, Thom? Truly?’
‘Akama took us on a mini walkabout while we were at Gnardune Pool and Narn trapped one in a rock cleft.’
‘Narn? Who’s that?’
‘We met him after you and Sonic raced into the bay when we landed. He’s like an Australian version of a Witness and he was with us all the time. We all like him.’
‘He must be clever with animals if he can catch a perentie. They’re very quick and elusive. Did he hold it? I know their claws are dangerous.’
‘Wirrin’s got it all zapped so we can show you later.’
Calen hung on every word as they talked about the thorny devil, the spoonbill, the big red kangaroos and the other birds and animals that had been part of the walk. He didn’t ask for an immediate replay; that would happen at some stage when he could savour it properly.
Wirrin and Thom switched the conversation back to Calen. They wanted to hear more from him.
‘It was the worst thing I can ever remember. Sonic was talking to the whole group when my implants went berserk. Weird sounds and whistles blasted my ears and echoed in my head like Thom’s sound system playing every bit of music at the same time. My reflexes turned the implants off and then I saw every dolphin twitching and quivering. Sonic was on his side and looking really weird and starting to float towards the surface.
‘When I put my hand on him he didn’t even react and I could tell he was unconscious. I hardly had time to think, except that I might be able to help if he was at the surface and I could keep his blowhole in the air, and then he woke up. They all woke up, and after a whole lot of distress calls from mothers whose babies had sunk and had to be pushed up to breathe, they were all okay.
‘Turaku got through and Sonic explained to everyone that their enemies had done it but it wouldn’t happen again.
‘He was talking and answering all the questions when he suddenly made the imperative distress signal and called every dolphin to come close because something was falling out of the sky which would hurt them if they were spread out too much.
‘It was really bewildering with all the distress calls and not knowing what was going on, and then there was another distress call to get away because poison might fall in the water and the gathering had to follow Sonic as fast as they could, but they wouldn’t swim any faster than the three babies because most dolphins would never leave them behind. Next thing we reached a safe place but it wasn’t, because there was a sudden rush to get everyone into the Comet. By the time you two joined me I was thinking anything could happen.’
Listening quietly while Calen’s thoughts and story tumbled out, Wirrin suddenly saw the image of every dolphin suddenly falling unconscious. He was determined that the trio would stay with Sonic till the Comet was safely on its way to Attunga.
***
‘Altogether 6118 dolphins, Calen. There’s only room for another four hundred without things starting to get crowded. There are 322 separate pods and 297 companions from Earth with them. Turaku says that Attunga-level health checks have started for them all, and 197 are getting priority healthbot treatments for various wounds, mostly shark bites, though one dolphin has lost most of its left fluke in an encounter with an orca and needs tissue replacement.’ Wirrin checked several sections of his display.
‘The dolphins come from 278 different Earth locations and there are seventy-three babies less than one week old.
‘Burilda is moving round, starting to meet the companions, and Sonic is explaining the food situation and telling the dolphins when they’ll next get something to eat.
‘Thom wants to stuff his face with food while the rest of us contemplate the beauty of the Earth’s moon as we pass by.’
***
The Comet, newly escaped from Earth’s gravity well, was on its way home.
Chapter 17
‘We won’t see Sonic for the rest of the trip?’
‘You can watch him, Thom, or go with him, but he’ll be too busy to come to the control centre. I can see that he hasn’t stopped moving around for even a minute yet.’
‘What’s he saying to them?’
A small section of screen showed Sonic in his transport module, communicating with his special InterWeb console. Anticipating Calen’s request, Wirrin brought up the sound.
‘He’s telling them all there’s nothing to worry about … After two or three sleeps they’ll be out of their crowded pools … They’re going to get some food soon and they are all pleased about that.’
‘All? Is he talking to them all?’
‘I think so. He must be from the tone of his voice.’
Wirrin and Thom waited while Calen listened and watched carefully for several minutes.
‘Wow! I’m going to find him. The pools are making them nervous because they’re not used to being so enclosed, and he’s talking non-stop to keep their minds distracted. He might have to keep it up for ages. I hope none of them panic.’
‘Do you think they might? We’ve been travelling for an hour and the early pick-ups have been in their pools for much longer than that.’
Panic would be very bad news as one dolphin’s distress could affect the whole pod. There had been previous discussion about panic because Earth dolphins were much more susceptible to it than Attunga’s more enhanced dolphins. Sonic had said he’d be there to help and they’d be all right, but all this attention he was giving wasn’t what anyone had expected.
‘Not a chance really, Wirrin. I’m just thinking out loud. Turaku’s monitoring them all and he’d stop anything happening.’
‘Will we go with you?’
‘Of co
urse. We probably won’t be able to do anything to help, but Sonic will like us being with him.’
And of course he did. He was too busy talking to say so, but he let them know with body bumps and happy nudges.
For the next hour and a half the trio watched with growing amazement as Sonic stayed in communication with over six thousand dolphins, guiding them through their excitement, stress, and anticipation. Wirrin could only smile with delight when Calen informed them that the last ten minutes of Sonic’s rapid dolphin speech had related the adventures of a young female dolphin separated from her pod and pursued relentlessly through close call after close call by a monstrous tiger shark.
‘Dolphins tell stories?’
‘They do now, Thom. Burilda is going to freak when she finds out about this.’
And Wirrin could only listen in wonder as six thousand dolphins joined in learning a series of dolphin songs, the last of which was particularly beautiful. He started to ask Calen softly about it but stopped abruptly when he realised that Sonic was no longer talking.
‘Dolphins are happy and will sleep now.’
‘What about you? You haven’t stopped since we landed at Monkey Mia.’
‘Yes. This is hard work for a young dolphin and I want a live fish before I sleep.’
The transport module started moving immediately, probably under Turaku’s control, and probably to some location where food would be available for Sonic, and the four friends played a subdued and gentle version of the dolphin games they usually played when they met in the pool at home.
***
‘They’ll sleep now and then probably twice more before the journey ends,’ the ranger said.
‘I hope so, Burilda. I’ve never heard Sonic say anything was hard work before. Even all that work for Meeting Day didn’t worry him.’
‘He’s functioning at an extraordinary level, Calen. Turaku’s monitoring has shown peak after peak of energy output, but none of them are alarming and we’re confident that after his sleep period he’ll be as full of life as he always is.’
‘Energy peaks? What did they match up with?’
‘Just what you’d expect. The first contact with Earth dolphins, leading them through the greeting ceremony, each of the four gatherings, distress calls at the time of the attacks, the six loading activities, and this last extended time settling the dolphins in their travelling pools. Has he given any indication of what was hardest for him?’