Dolphins' Bell

by Anne McCaffrey

  "Yup, something like the odd-bods fleet we have here," Jim said, squinting at the way the mains'1 was filling with a wind that was more capricious than he'd like for the beginning of this bizarre escort duty. "Long time back now, but one of those bright moments in human history when people rise to an almost impossible challenge."

  "Oh?" Theo never found Jim Tillek boring, especially when he started yarning. She knew that he had sailed every sea on old Earth and some on the newer colony planets as well in between his interstellar voyages as the captain of a drone freighter. Over the past few days she'd had a chance to admire the qualities of a man she'd barely chatted with before: mainly because a ship's captain and a dolphineer didn't come into contact that much, especially with Tillek taking the Cross on so many exploratory voyages. As Peri Cervantes, the apprentice seaman of his crew, was also dolphineer trained, Peri had done what contact was necessary with the pods Jim and the Cross had encountered on their journeys. But she liked listening to Jim Tillek and, though she kept as watchful an eye on their convoy as he did, she paid attention to his yarning.

  "Half an army was pinned down on a beach, strafed by enemy aircraft, and likely all would have been killed there if the small craft skippers of that era hadn't saved 'em. Dunkirk, that was the name of the beach they were trapped on, with safety across a channel a mere thirty-four kilometers away."

  "Thirty four klicks?" Theo said in surprise, the dark thick arcs of her eyebrows rising. "Anyone could swim that."

  Jim grinned at her. "Some athletes did, sort of a rite of passage trail or for the helluvit, but not 300,000 troops in full bat-tie gear. And," he waggled his finger at her, "no dolphins."

  "But dolphins have been around for yonks…"

  "Not as we know them, Theo. Let's see, where was I?"

  Theo scrunched down on the cockpit seat, grinning to be so subtly reprimanded. His face had a lot of sun wrinkles, which made him look older, but his body in the tank top and shorts was lean, fit and tanned. As usual on board, his feet were bare, his toes long and prehensile. Once or twice, she'd seen him hold a line tight with just his toes.

  "Ah, yes, the Germanics had 300,000 British troops pinned down on the sands of Dunkirk which was on the European continent and, since the Brits had no wish to spend the rest of their lives in a prisoner of war camp, they needed to be evacuated across the channel to their homeland, England."

  "How'd they get across the channel in the first place?"

  Jim shrugged. He had broad, bony shoulders, and only a sprinkling of hair on his chest — not a full pelt front and back which she didn't much like. "Troopships convoyed 'em over when the hostilities broke out, but those ports were already in the hands of the Germanics. One crucial problem with Dunkirk was that the beach was very shallow for a good distance before it shelved off into deep water. No proper docking or wharves for the big draught ships to tie up at. Only a long wooden pier which the Germanics strafed with their war planes. Men were so desperate that they waded out, swimming the last part to climb up nets put down the sides of the ships to help 'em 'board. Then, someone had the bright idea of getting all available craft from the island, especially pleasure craft with low draughts so they could sail further in to the beach to pick up troops. Records have it that even sailing dinghies, no more than three meters long, made the passage successfully. And not just once but time and again until the crews succumbed to exhaustion. But the 300,000 men were all evacuated. Quite a feat of seamanship and courage."

  "It's no thirty-four klicks of a channel we have to navigate, Jim Tillek, but the coastline of half a world," Theo said with some acerbity.

  "Yes, but we don't have a war going on around us," Jim said cheerfully.

  "We don't?" Theo asked and gestured over her shoulder to the east, signifying the menace of Thread.

  "You've got a point there," Jim had to admit. "Though it's not a people-shooting war. But I believe in starting every journey with a high heart and in good spirits and would you ever send Dart after that fool sloop with the spotted sail? Where do they think they're going? They're to tack right back into position."

  He finished his remarks to empty air for Theo had dived as neatly as her dolphin could over the safety rail and into the water to be joined by Dart who then towed her partner swiftly toward the miscreant.

  It was amazing what heights the human spirit could rise to, Jim thought as he did a visual check through his binoculars. Theo and Dart reached their destination and he could almost hear the blistering reprimand she was issuing. She had her arms over the rim of the craft, gesticulating to leave no doubt in the young skipper's mind where he had erred. He watched as she tread water, one hand lightly on the dolphin's melon, while the little craft tacked back in line. When he saw her begin to swim back toward the Cross, Dart skipping along side her, he put the binoculars down.

  Squinting to the fore of the flotilla, he could see the pennon on the mast of the nine meter yawl which had been put at Ezra Keroon's disposal as convoy leader. Ezra hadn't much actual sea experience but he was a superb navigator through any medium. Jim had himself done the sea charts on this coastline and knew the waters intimately. There were no reefs or unexpected dangers to cause problems for the inexperienced. As long as no ship ventured too far out so that the Great Eastern Current caught them, sea hazards were minimal. Once they got to Key Largo, there wouldn't be one of them who wouldn't be seasoned enough by then for the open water run across both the Great Currents to the safety of Fort.

  The coast beyond Sadrid to Boca was not that well known to him but he counted on the fishermen at Malay and Sadrid, and on Ju Adjai Benden at Boca to know local problems. The sailors at Key Largo Hold had also done a fair bit of charting in their coastal waters. He wished now that he'd done more of that, but he'd spent more time checking the eastern abysses and the island reef systems. Barring the weather, they should make it, no matter how slowly.

  And the weather… he leaned forward to tap the barometer… could be an acute problem. Volcanic eruptions played havoc with weather conditions, messing up the upper reaches of the atmosphere. There'd already been some freak winds, squalls and higher than normal tides, but Kahrain cove had sheltered them from the worst. They'd probably arrive in the North just in time for the ash fall-out that was already beginning to filter into the upper air currents to be pushed around the planet. He wondered if the volcanic fall-out would have any effect on Threadfall. If one had to find some good out of bad, that would be the option he'd pick — if he had one.

  Two hours later he had to give the orders to land the small craft and for the bigger ships to hove to and anchor in a cove. Winds were picking up, erratic in direction, therefore dangerous to novice sailors, and so full of ash and grit to make visibility poor.

  If he and Ezra were disappointed by the progress they had made that first day out of Kahrain Cove, they sloughed off queries with any number of logical explanations. No reason to deflate the good morale of the expedition. The early day did give them a chance to check all the cargoes and whatever size or shape hull contained them. Most of the forty pleasure boats were constructed of fiberglass with plastic masts and booms so decks and hulls were Thread-proof. Canvas sails, some varieties of sheets and line, were not.

  However, they did have Andi Gomez and Ika Kashima, two of the colony's plastics experts among the passengers. Andi and Ika had spent their first day afloat designing rigid plastic sail covers that were Threadproof.

  "I know the specs on that, Jim, like I know the lines on my hands," Andi had said, her long blonde hair braided down her back. She was a tallish, well built woman, the physical opposite of her work partner, the almost childlike and beautiful Eurasian. They still had to solve the problem of how to protect the people on the smaller craft which did not always have enclosed cabin space in which to take shelter. There were also not sufficient breathers for people to just dive under their hulls and remain there during Threadfall.

  So this early evening, Ezra and Jim had more conferences on tha
t problem while all around them, at camp-fires, the ill-assorted sailors of their convoy cooked the fish they had caught during the day. But it had been a very busy day and by nightfall, there were very few who hadn't rolled up early in their sleeping bags.

  An oily, ashy drizzle and light winds made the next day's sailing longer and certainly dirtier. But they did pull in to Paradise River's wide mouth to anchor before darkness fell.

  Jim and Ezra called a meeting, having first discussed with Desi Artheid, the car-gomaster of the expedition, the possibility of splitting the flotilla into several sections to make better progress. The larger ships were constantly having to reef canvas, even to dragging sea anchors, so as not to outdistance the smaller ones. Of course, the cargoes that were destined to be stored here at Paradise River would be off-loaded and the remainder more evenly distributed. (The rafts were precarious vessels, at best, and were to be entirely abandoned, having served their purpose.) The dolphineers were grateful for their teams had bravely tried to keep their assigned positions in the convoy and the strain was showing in galls and swollen flesh.

  But the decision was made that, as soon as the unloading was done, Ezra would lead the larger craft forward at whatever speed they and two pods of escort dolphins could maintain while Jim followed with the slower, smaller vessels, and the larger number of dolphin escorts. The smallest of the sailing dinghies would be dismantled or towed.

  The bad weather persisted and the seas became too rough for all but the most experienced sailors, so Paradise River continued to host them.

  On the plus side, Andi Gomez and Ika Kashima used the layover to complete manufacture of the sail covers, and doors that could cover open cabin fronts. And Ika came up with an ethnic solution to the problem of protecting the nearly five hundred members of the flotilla from Threadfall. Plastic headgear, in a wide conical shape, made with wide weals and outward sloping sides — wide enough to cover most shoulders — with high crown, to fit on the head, tied under the chin. Once in the water, buoyed by the compulsory life-vests everyone wore, these cone 'coolie hats' would deflect Thread into the water where it was drowned or was consumed by fish which invariably arrived wherever Thread fell into the seas. The dolphins were known to partake of what they considered an unusual food.

  The Paradise River contingent thought Ika's cone hat a definite improvement over the sheets of metal they'd used for protection if they were caught out in Fall. The slender Eurasian had been overcome by praise for a design which she said was by no means original to her.

  "Well, it's a bloody good adaptation of a — what did you call it — coolie hat," Andi said stoutly, "and it'll work. Won't be too hard to turn out once we set the matrix for the design." And she turned back to that task.

  "We're lucky we have people of such differing backgrounds," Jim told Ika kindly when she seemed to him uncomfortable with the success of her suggestion. "You never can tell when something as simple as straw hats from rice paddies on Earth can turn out to be life-saving on Pern. Good thinking, Ika! Cheer up, child. You've just saved our lives!"

  She managed to send him a shy smile before she retreated once again to the safety of Andi's company. But her husband, Ebon Kashima, strutted about the camp as if he had thought of the gear.

  "The next problem will be getting our brave sailors to overcome fear of being out in Threadfall, and having it bang down on their heads," Ezra said a little grimly, "no matter how clever the hat they're wearing."

  "Look, cap'n," said Wade Lorenzo who had fished off Sadrid, "push comes to shove and Thread starts falling on you and water's the only safe place, they'll jump in. I sure as hell did that time we got caught out in one of the first Falls. 'Sides, there're an awful lot of fire-lizards flitting about. Between them and the wild ones that congregate whenever there's Fall, I doubt much Thread'll hit any hat."

  "A little practical psychology," Jim said, "and us as good examples, and they'll take to it. They'll have little alternative."

  "There's that, too," Ezra said bleakly.

  "We'll start some proper chatter where it seems needed," Ben said, nodding to the other dolphineers. They wandered off to start their brain-washing.

  By the time coolie hats were extruded and ready to be passed around, most of the flotilla was willing to accept the measure.

  "I'd rather be in a sled with a flamethrower," one of the barge mates confided to a friend within Jim's hearing.

  "Yeah, but the barge has that slant fore and aft. All we gotta do is hide under that and we'll be safe enough."

  Jim and Ezra issued an order that anyone caught without life-vest and coolie would be subjected to severe discipline and demotion if they held any rank. They also ordered everyone to work a two hour shift helping Andi, Ika and Ebon produce the protective gear.

  As it happened, all the stores were housed and accounted for by Desi and his helpers, and nearly two-thirds of the necessary Thread shields completed before the weather cleared so both sections at least set off again together. But the bigger ships, with more sail, made the most of the following wind and soon outdistanced the slower craft.

  "More like the boat people," Jim remarked to Theo as he tacked back down the strung out line of his charges.

  "Boat people?"

  "Hmmm, yes. War victims in the twentieth century. They tried to leave their country — Asians they were — in the most incredibly unseaworthy craft. Junks and sampans, they were called." He shook his head. "Totally unsuitable. Many died trying to escape. Many arrived at their destinations only to be turned back."

  "Turned back?" Theo was outraged.

  "I don't remember the historical-political situation at the time. It was before Earth was really united by outward-bound goals. I don't think a one of their craft were as good as the worst of these."

  Theo let out a sigh, pointed to starboard where one of the four meter sloops was flying a distress flag, and dove overboard, surfacing to find Dart beside her. She was towed off to the crippled ship. Jim entered the matter in his recorder. Broken sheet, he thought, seeing the way the boom swung. Lordee, would they have enough line to see them through the constant breakages. He'd better hold another splicing lesson tonight.

  "Ah, it was the Heyerdahl expeditions I was trying to remember," he told himself,

  "only he was doing it deliberately in primitive craft he'd built himself. Not the same thing as this at all." He must remember to tell Theo. He grinned. He enjoyed yarning at her because she really listened. Occasionally, she responded with some stories of her days as a pilot. He rather thought she preferred being a dolphineer, or maybe she was just the sort of person who would make the most of what they had.

  Too bad this feat will only be known to us Pernese, he added. Our Second Crossing: in many ways far more remarkable than the journey here. On balance, though, he admitted candidly, thirty-four kilometers in open boats with enemies shooting at you was more impressive than this slow steady progress even if far longer.

  They had two more emergencies that day — a slight brush with the following edge of Threadfall. Ezra spotted the now familiar greyness ahead. They'd made better time than expected and it became a choice of hoving to or giving their emergency gear a trial run. Jim and Ezra conferred with those ships that were on the flotilla comlink and it was unanimously decided to continue and see just how effective the safety gear was. Better now, when they knew they'd only have to endure a half hour or more of Fall, rather than a longer period.

  So the dolphins and dolphineers spread the command. Sails were furled and shields put in place, fire-lizards sent off to collect enough wild ones to help, and the light sea suddenly blossomed with plastic cones.

  Jim, his crew of five and the four dolphineers, though they could have weathered the Edge in the cabin, decided to provide a good example to the timorous. Donning their head protectors and grabbing plastic safety lines, they jumped into the water. That helped a few of the fearful to follow suit. The four dolphins would make rushes out to blow and squee-ee.

&nb
sp; "Much good eating soon," Dart informed them once.

  "Don't overeat, you glutton," Theo told her warningly. "She likes 'em when they're bloated with water."

  Jim could not suppress a shudder which no one could see since his coolie hat touched the water and obscured his face. Once he tipped the hat up so he could see but Theo tugged it back down.

  "You'd lose your looks with a Thread score across that prominent nose of yours," she said, her words muffled under her own hat.

  Jim felt his nose which he had never considered as particularly prominent.

  "All there is to see is coolie hats and Thread."

  "How d'you know?"

  "I've already had a look. Thread bores me on the ground. It was much more fun flying sleds through it." Waves rippled out from her as if she had shrugged.

  "Which do you prefer? I mean,which profession — pilot or dolphineer?"

  "I've done enough flying, though Threadfall was more exciting than the routine stuff I did," she told him in a thoughtful voice as her body drifted towards his in the water. Their legs touched; his were much longer than hers, he noted absently in the clear water around them. They had drifted slightly away from the others, having let their safety lines play out to the full length. "Dolphineering's something else again. Dart's super," and Jim could hear the pride and the depth of her friendship for her sea partner. "Sure beats the hell out of the one-sided arrangement you could have with domestic animals. Though I used to be right fond of an old moggie I had once on ol' Earth. But teaming with Dart's totally superior to that sort of thing."

  "Did you try for a dragon?"