by Mark Wandrey
“How’s Pōkole?” he suddenly asked. As Dr. Jaehnig had said, the calf had been without his care for months.
The doctor paused the video. “He’s fine. The other high school-aged kids pitched in, helping feed him after you were...after you were hurt.” He unpaused the video.
Terry watched the orcas turn and swim into the darkness. After a moment, he spun around and swam back toward Templemer, moving slowly toward the bottom of the camera view. Then a flash of movement as a huge, sleek shape intercepted him, and he was out of frame. That was the hit I felt, Terry thought.
The Tri-V replay switched to inside the moon pool room, and Terry watched his mom scream and point. Instantly Doc burst into motion, running and stripping off his jacket as he went. The man’s long frame translated into incredible strides as he leaped the last three meters into the water. Amazingly, he snatched the rebreather Terry had left while donning his helmet as he was jumping into the water.
The view shifted again, this time to his own point of view just after he was attacked. The view was dizzying as he was dragged through the water. The rest played out in only a few seconds as he saw his hand appear with the dive knife and plunge it into the huge dual-iris eye.
“Incredible,” he heard Dr. Jaehnig say.
“I don’t remember doing it,” Terry said.
“Well, I couldn’t have done it. Not as injured as you were.”
“How bad was it?” Terry asked.
“Just wait a second,” the doctor said and pointed at the replay.
The monster let go and flashed away in a swirl of purple liquid. The view moved around, and eventually down to show his leg. It looked like a filleted fish with massive flaps of flesh, rubber from the ravaged drysuit, and jets of dark red blood. Oh my god, he thought. Then the view looked up to show the entirety of the creature attacking him. It was longer than an adult orca, but not as thick. Three sets of long flippers along its sides propelled it through the water. It had an incredibly long set of jaws, like an alligator, only thinner, and lined with shark-like teeth.
“The closest analogue we can find to it on Earth was a dinosaur named Liopleurodon. It’s one of the Selroth transplants, an Oohobo. They’re a natural predator from their homeworld the Selroth now keep as some kind of right of adulthood?” The doctor shrugged. “We hadn’t seen one yet, and with as much sea life as is around here, and the bottlenoses venturing kilometers in all directions, we were pretty certain there weren’t any here. I’m sorry to say, we were wrong.”
“With all the fish and stuff, why did it attack me?” Terry asked. The freeze-frame of the Oohobo sent a little shudder up his back despite the slight numbing of the drugs they had him on.
“Doc thinks it’s because of your suit lights. The lights on the dome were installed by the Selroth, and likely a spectrum that doesn’t attract the Oohobo. Our suit lights are a different frequency, and that must have been what caused it.” He unfroze the image, and the Oohobo instantly noticed Terry with its remaining eye. He froze it again.
“Notice how it spotted you right away when you looked up?” Terry nodded. “Anyway,” he let the replay continue, “we didn’t have much left to work with.”
The Oohobo shot toward the camera. Terry felt himself cringe. A split second later, two huge black and white shapes rocketed past him, jaws snapping; the orcas tore into the alien predator. Even from the horribly slewing images, Terry recognized Kray and Ki’i, the two dominant males from the super pod. He wanted to see more of the fight, but the fight began to fall out of frame, drifting lazily.
The last image was of an arc of bright white teeth above and below, closing slowly in on him, then the recording stopped. It started again a second later, showing Doc swimming through the moon pool lock with Terry in tow. His mother was screaming over and over as Doctors Orsage and Jaehnig leaned over the pool to pull the limp boy out. As his ravaged leg cleared the edge of the pool, he left a wash of bright red blood. His mother fainted, and the recording stopped for good.
“Did an orca bring me back?”
“Yes,” the doctor replied. “Moloko brought you back. We got a couple of pieces of the Oohobo, but like I said, there wasn’t much left. They tore it apart.” He chuckled. “They were pissed.”
“I’ll say they were.” Doc had come in at some point. Terry glanced at the old merc, who was in turn watching him carefully. “How you doing, kiddo?”
“Surprisingly alive,” he admitted. “You came out for me without a suit. Are you nuts?”
“Do you remember what you did?”
“No,” Terry said. “I just saw the movie, though.”
“It’s a blockbuster. The Oohobo was basically eating you alive, and you stabbed it in the freaking eye!” He laughed and shook his head. “God damn, kiddo, what you did was the most badass thing I’ve seen in my entire life.”
Terry looked away, unwilling to meet his eyes. Mostly because he felt tears beginning to flow. “I didn’t do anything.”
“The hell you didn’t.” The man had walked up next to Terry when he wasn’t looking. He felt the older man doing something and looked down. He was pinning something on the pajama top. It was an anchor with a trident through it, and an eagle. “You deserve it more than I ever did.”
“Where’s Mom?”
“She’s sleeping right now,” Doc said. “When you suddenly woke up after they turned off the life support, she kinda lost it. They gave her a sedative.”
“How messed up am I?” Terry asked.
“We’ll wait until his mother’s here to explain,” Dr. Jaehnig said.
“I don’t think so,” Doc countered. The doctor gave him a stern look. “This kid took on a dinosaur with a damn knife. The orcas risked their own lives to save him. I think he can handle the truth right now.” Dr. Jaehnig frowned. “You tell him, or I will.”
“Very well,” the doctor said. He reached over and removed the strap holding Terry’s arms down. They still felt like they had lead weight on them, but he could move.
“Thank you,” he said.
The doctor nodded and pulled the sheet down the rest of the way. The left leg of his pajama bottoms was empty from mid-thigh down. “We weren’t set up for this level of trauma when you were injured,” Dr. Jaehnig said. “We had to use a tourniquet to save your life. By the time we could get a surgery set up, the leg was lost.”
Terry nodded. He’d known from the minute he saw the injury recorded in his own helmet camera, and the better image of them pulling him from the water. It was more than a movie, this was real life. Despite telling himself he wouldn’t, he was quietly crying. Doc sat on the chair next to him and held his hand.
“It’s okay, kiddo, the hard part’s over. You survived. We’ll get through the rest together.”
When his mom came in an hour later, he was out of tears. He got to hold her while she cried and tell her it was okay, not her fault, and he was going to be fine.
I survived, he thought. If I can kick a monster’s ass, maybe I can do anything.
* * * * *
Chapter 5
Templemer, planet Hoarfrost, Lupasha System, Coro Region, Tolo Arm
April 5th, 2038
Of course, committing to doing something wasn’t the same as actually doing it. Terry found out his injuries were more than just most of his left leg. His pelvis had been punctured by several of the 10-centimeter Oohobo teeth. Luckily, they’d missed his groin, which he was incredibly grateful for. However his pelvic bone had two hairline cracks. In addition, a tendon had been severed in his lower left arm, so his ring finger didn’t work.
When taken as a whole with his lost leg, it all added up to several surgeries being necessary before they could deal with his missing leg. Because their medical staff was minimal, and Dr. Jaehnig wasn’t a normal Human surgeon, the operations took two weeks.
As he recovered, several of the staff he’d come to know visited, as well as the other four high school age kids. They told him how Pōkole was doing. It was
meant to make him feel better, but instead it made him feel sad, because he missed the baby orca.
“Quit feeling sorry for yourself,” Doc said when he heard Terry say as much.
Terry gawked for a second, then frowned. “I wasn’t.”
“Yes, you were. Pōkole misses you, everyone knows, but the adults are keeping him safe, and he’ll be waiting for you. Concentrate your energy on getting better and not worrying about feeling sorry for yourself.”
Terry was mad at Doc’s attitude for a while, then realized the man was right, and worked hard to stop pitying himself. He could be dead. A lot of the questions Dr. Jaehnig had for him revolved around the fact that he had been dead for 22 minutes.
“Do you have any memory from the time?”
“Something about a voice talking to me,” Terry said.
“Talking to you? How?”
“I could hear someone speaking to me. That was why I came back, the voices made me.” The more he tried to remember exactly what had happened, the hazier his memory became.
The cetacean physician wasn’t impressed by his answer and gently pushed Terry for more details every chance he got. Eventually Terry confronted him about why the man kept pushing for more details if he didn’t believe it.
“Because there simply must be another explanation,” Dr. Jaehnig said. “Our equipment isn’t the best. I’m leaning toward a sensor failure. You never did flat line. Damned good thing you woke up on your own, too, considering we’d terminated life support.”
Terry didn’t care what the doctor thought; he knew what he’d felt. The voices had been there. He was sure of it as if they were next to him, even though he couldn’t remember what they’d said. He remembered the voice clearer than he remembered Yui’s face. The thought threatened to drag him down again, so he dropped the entire idea.
After the last surgery on his hip to fix a lingering issue of the pain he’d been suffering, he was rewarded with a souvenir—one of the Oohobo’s knife-like teeth. It was only a small one, 5.2 centimeters long; it had been embedded in his left hip socket where the scans hadn’t discerned it from his own dense bone structure. Despite the pain from the incision, after waking from the anesthesia, the persistent pain was gone.
“Little something to remember the dead dinosaur by,” Doc said and handed him the tooth. They’d drilled a hole in it and put a metallic necklace through the thick point.
“I think it’s morbid,” Terry’s mom said. She’d continued to be morose at her son’s injuries, though she was getting less so as he made continuous improvement.
“It’s embracing the power that almost took your life,” Doc explained. He pulled a necklace out of the neckline of his shirt and showed them a deformed bullet.
His mother shuddered. “I still think it’s morbid.”
Terry took the gift and immediately put it on.
In the last surgery, Dr. Jaehnig had also fitted his stump with a port. In the months since his injury, the colony had made great strides in getting on its feet. One of those strides was reactivating the abandoned ancient Selroth manufactory, a highly advanced automated 3D printing machine capable of producing all manner of parts and equipment, albeit slowly. They had also made the first trips to explore the mines responsible for Templemer being on Hoarfrost in the first place.
Dr. Jaehnig split his time working with the cetaceans, monitoring their progress in adapting to Hoarfrost’s oceans, and studying the vast database of medical knowledge they’d brought with them to aid in Terry’s treatment.
For his own part, Terry spent his time continuing his studies of programming and Union pinplant technology, which in turn led him down avenues of studies including biology, neurology, and physics. He didn’t even notice how his studies seemed to be going so much better, even with picking up basic high school classes as well.
On the morning of the 5th, he was finally well enough to join class for the first time. His friends applauded when he rolled up in the motorized wheelchair Doc’s people had put together for him. It was painted in gray and blue with shark’s teeth, in honor of his battle with the Oohobo, and they all thought it was super cool.
The teacher, one of the institute’s old educational team members who now handled most of the school programs, allowed everyone a few minutes to ask Terry questions. She carefully reminded them he wasn’t a curiosity for their amusement, which Terry actually found funny. The questions weren’t bad, mostly about how he’d been brave enough to stab it in the eye, and how much they’d enjoyed helping take care of Pōkole. He told them he hadn’t been brave; he’d just done what he thought was right. He also agreed Pōkole was awesome, and he couldn’t wait to see the calf again.
He only got caught off guard once. Katrina Long was a new member of the high school group. She was from a mainlander family and had long blonde hair, like many on Hawaii. He’d seen her before, of course; their population was quite small. She’d kept to the back of the class and asked her question last. The teacher pointed to her. “Can you go with us to see Pōkole after class?”
He was surprised, not only because he hadn’t expected the question, but also because she was particularly pretty. “Sure,” he eventually said. Then they went back to work.
Despite being out for two months, he found he wasn’t behind. They’d continued the self-paced learning, and the teacher gave Terry a couple of quick quizzes on math and English. Satisfied, he was once again turned loose with the recommended lessons and reading list, which suited Terry just fine.
With the mobility his chair gave him, after classes he met with Katrina and three others; Colin, Dan, and Taiki. Together they went down to the moon pool. He sent a message to his mom through Templemer’s new comms network, something they’d finished while he was out, and let her know where he was going. When he rolled into the CC building, she was waiting.
“Are you sure you’re ready for this?” she asked.
“Oh, sure,” he said. “Why?”
“Well, you know,” she said and gestured vaguely toward the moon pool room.
“I’m fine, Mom.”
The other four stood back quietly and waited. His mom glanced at them curiously, her gaze lingering for a second on Katrina, the only girl among them. “Okay,” she said, and they went inside.
It was one of the assigned feeding times. Moloko and Pōkole were outside the dome swimming back and forth. Terry stared in amazement. Pōkole was at least a meter longer, and much thicker as well!
“He’s gotten so big,” Terry said.
“Yeah,” Katrina said. “He eats like a horse.”
“He’s up to forty liters a day,” Colin said.
“It takes all four of us,” Dan agreed, and Taiki nodded.
Terry frowned slightly as he watched the four go into the changing rooms and come out in drysuits, wishing he could join in. His unhappiness was decreased slightly by the sight of Katrina in her drysuit. It fit her quite well. She grinned at him, and he caught himself grinning back.
The four each took a 10-liter bottle and slipped into the water. At the same time, Terry’s mom activated the moon pool door control. Terry felt his ears pop as the pressure pushed the moon pool up a few centimeters before equalizing.
Both Pōkole and Moloko swam in, the calf quickly, and his mother more carefully. The door opening wasn’t much larger than she was, and her mass took up at least half the volume of the moon pool. Her bulk entering the pool caused further water displacement, some running over the lipped sides into the runoff channels.
“Terry!” Moloko said. “Pleased I am seeing Warden calf well.”
“Hi, Moloko. I’m still healing, but better.” He was interrupted by Pōkole doing a pretty good spyhop, standing on his tail briefly to see out of the water better. A series of snapping clicks were caught by Terry’s translator.
“Tear, Tear!” It wasn’t his name, but it was unmistakably the first syllable.
“Holy crap, he can talk?” Terry gasped.
“Sort of,” hi
s mom said. “I was saving it as a surprise. Dr. Orsage’s beside himself. They’re more like the vocalizations of a young child, but it’s way ahead of when a Human baby would be forming more than baby talk. We’re having to rethink how their brains develop.”
“You did the surgery, too,” he said, noting the telltale waterproof plug on the side of the calf’s head in the white region called the eyepatch, which was, of course, located behind their eyes.
“Yeah, it went well. He’s not using it yet, though. Dr. Jaehnig does downloads once a week to check how everything’s going. He asked if you could look at the data when you felt up to it.”
“I’ve felt up to it for days,” Terry said. He wheeled his chair closer to the moon pool. “How you doing, little guy?”
“Tear, Tear, good, good!”
“A real word,” his mom said, and pulled her slate from its bag around her waist. She quickly began making notes.
“Attaboy,” Terry said.
Katrina offered her bottle to the calf. Pōkole instantly came over, and she activated the feed. Liters of thick milk substitute flowed, and he quickly emptied the bottle.
Wow, Terry thought, he’s a chow hound! The little guy would probably be drinking milk for more than another year, though he was also likely eating some fish by now. Katrina’s bottle empty, Dan took over, and the milk flowed. He finished it and rolled onto his side to look at Terry.
“Pōkole want you feed,” Moloko said.
“I can’t yet,” Terry said.
Then Pōkole slid up the angled side of the pool and made a grab for Terry’s motorized chair. He might well have grabbed it and pulled him into the water, chair and all, if Moloko hadn’t in turn grabbed Pōkole by the fluke and gently pulled him back.
She issued a sonar beam at Pōkole. It was strong enough to disturb the water, and Dan yelped in surprise. Pōkole jumped and dove back into the moon pool, swimming down to the bottom and staying there.