The dolphins seemed so distraught, Omar grew anxious by association. When they swam to the surface and launched into a chorus of what sounded like soprano and alto whale songs, he thought his heart would break. He remembered a female short-beak they’d brought in earlier that year whose calf had become entangled in a discarded parasail. Watching them reunite was one of the most emotional things Omar had ever witnessed.
The memory made him wish he could somehow calm these animals—assure them that their missing companions were okay. On impulse, he got up and slipped out of the observation room into the gallery, which was a short walk down a broad, sloping corridor. He hurried, though he knew Lerner and the team would be at their task for at least another half hour.
He went to the center of the dolphins’ aquarium window and looked up at them. The moment they saw him, they swam down. The female who came closest to the window greeted him with a whistle and a series of clicks and pulses. He moved right up to the Plexiglas and pressed a hand to it, willing the creatures to know that the two missing dolphins weren’t lost. That they were simply being examined, and would be back soon, healthy and whole.
The female brought her face level with Omar’s and touched her beak to the Plexiglas. He tried his best to meet her gaze—impossible, really, because of the placement of her eyes—but in a moment, she stopped vocalizing and floated back to her fellows. They seemed calmer now—less agitated.
Omar heard voices at the top of the corridor and bolted back to his lair. Win came in a moment later, trailed by Song, Felix, and Cecily. They were still comparing notes about the results of their imaging session, which had apparently shown that the dolphins’ internal physiology was almost as unusual as the exterior.
“I suspect,” said Cecily, who was Win’s wife and research partner, “that we’re looking at a species that has been separated from the larger populations of dolphins for millennia. In much the same way that Australian species of land mammals became separated from kindred species.”
“Yes,” said Felix, “but we are talking about marine life forms. How does one separate populations of marine life to that extent, given that the world’s oceans are contiguous?”
Win moved to stand behind Omar’s chair. “There are a handful of bodies of salt water in the world that are cut off from the oceans. Is it possible that one of these might have suffered a breach?”
The dialogue suddenly ceased. Omar registered that, but was busy watching the dolphins circling their habitat like anxious fathers-to-be in a maternity ward.
“Omar?” prompted Win.
“Dios mio, Navarro,” said Felix. “Must you always be daydreaming?”
Omar swung away from the displays. “I wasn’t daydreaming. I was observing the dolphins, Berrocal. I’m sorry, doctor, I didn’t realize you were talking to me.”
“You’re the geology expert, yes?” said Felix.
Omar shot a dagger-sharp glance at him, but nodded. “The only body of salt water I can think of that might have the right conditions would be the Black Sea. It’s possible, I suppose, that some widening or deepening or current outflow in the Bosphorus might have allowed them to slip through, but … I mean, wouldn’t they have been noticed before? The Black Sea’s not that large.”
”Yes, but who would expect to find a species of dolphin there?” Song asked quietly.
“Nobody. But last year a geological survey group began mapping the sea floor.”
Song’s eyes lit up. “Perhaps this prompted the dolphins to flee.”
Omar had to admit there was a logic to that. Certainly, the dolphins—which Felix the suck-up had already begun to call “Lerner’s Dolphins”—must have originated somewhere secluded and recently been forced or enticed into leaving. The Black Sea made the most sense.
“I think it would be fascinating,” said Cecily, “to do some sleuthing in the area to see if there are any local legends about large creatures in the Black Sea. I believe I’ll contact that survey team, too. See if they’ve observed these creatures during their mapping project.” She pivoted on one heel and strode briskly from the room.
Her husband shot her retreating form a look of affectionate approval, then turned to peer at the monitors. “Interesting,” Win said. “They seem to be quite placid. I’d have expected them to be agitated over the disappearance of their fellows.”
“Oh, they were,” said Omar. “They were all over the tank searching for them. They started vocalizing.”
“Really? Would you locate that and replay it, please?”
The group in the observation center watched the recording as the dolphins’ agitation reached a fever pitch, then calmed once the Alpha female paid a visit to the viewing gallery.
“Look at that,” murmured Win. “They just calmed right down. I wonder what caused it? What were they looking at through the Plexi-panel? Any ideas, Omar?”
Omar flushed. He knew exactly what they’d been looking at. “Uh, they were looking at me.”
He felt the three pairs of eyes on him and quailed. “I—ah—I could feel how distressed they were. I thought maybe I could calm them down. So, I went out into the gallery and put my hand on the window and … that.” He pointed to the playback, in which the boldest of the dolphins had swum forward to put her beak against the Plexiglas.
“That’s it?” asked Felix. “You just put your hand on the glass and she came and kissed it?”
“I don’t know what she did. I just thought at them that their friends would be back and they’d be okay.”
“You thought at them,” repeated Win. “What made you do that?”
“Yes,” said Felix, slanting a mocking smile at Omar, “are you now Navarro, Dolphin Whisperer?”
Omar ignored the Spaniard and considered the professor’s question. “I just felt like … if I could feel their unease so strongly, maybe they could feel my calm.”
“Extraordinary,” said Win.
“Extraordinary,” echoed Song. The admiration in her eyes made Omar’s heart skip a beat.
“Well,” Win said brusquely. “This bears looking into. I’d like your written observations, if you please, Mr. Navarro. By tomorrow afternoon?”
Omar nodded, not missing the rapier-sharp glance he got from Felix. He’d come up in the world; he was Mr. Navarro now.
Lerner turned and exited the room, waving for Felix to follow. “Felix, let’s go grab a couple of the interns and get the Beta male and female back into the tank, shall we? It will be interesting to see how the others react to having them reintroduced to the habitat.”
The moment they were gone, Song crossed to Omar’s chair, put her hand on his arm and said, “You have a most wonderful gift, Omar. The gift of empathy.”
He felt heat creep up his neck. “Oh, no, I … you know, I probably imagined that whole…” He gestured at the monitors.
“No. The video clearly shows you didn’t imagine it. Something you did calmed those animals down. I think Felix is, perhaps, right. You are a Dolphin Whisperer.” She smiled and squeezed his arm, then turned and disappeared into the corridor.
* * *
The reintroduction of the Beta male and female was interesting. After an initial burst of whistles, the other dolphins gathered around them, silently, and nosed them, giving Omar the sense of eavesdropping on a conversation. Then, instead of going back to their normal routine of eating and swimming and playing, they seemed to enter a high state of agitation again, swimming in tight circles and pausing to confront each other. When a couple of the staff scientists approached the gallery window, all six of the animals disappeared into the kelp.
Felix, Nate, and the Lerners were mildly bemused. Song was frowning. Omar’s stomach tied itself in knots. That same rush of distress he’d felt earlier when the dolphins reacted to the disappearance of their comrades returned. He vaguely registered that the others had left the monitoring room, and contemplated going into the gallery to see if he could do some more dolphin whispering. He almost leapt out of his skin at a gent
le touch on his arm.
“What is it, Omar?” Song asked. “What do you feel?”
He ought to be embarrassed, he told himself, but couldn’t muster the macho for that. “They’re really in distress, Song,” he said. “Just like they were before. I don’t know why. I mean, they got their friends back and Wiyu checked them both over.”
“Wiyu?”
Now he really was embarrassed. “It’s the noise she made when she vocalized earlier. The Alpha female, I mean. I find it hard to think of them as letters of the Greek alphabet.”
Song put her hands over her mouth and sank into the chair next to his. “Do you think they thought their friends were hurt by what we did to them? They must have been terrified. Pulled out of the water, restrained, and tranquilized … I know I would have been terrified if someone did that to me.”
Omar nodded. “I had surgery when I was a kid. My appendix. I remember waking up in the recovery room. I was really scared because I couldn’t remember why I was there and I didn’t know anybody. And these poor guys never had any idea why we brought them here in the first place.”
“Maybe you should tell Dr. Lerner.”
Omar reluctantly agreed. The conversation didn’t go as poorly as he’d feared. Win Lerner seemed to take him seriously, and requested that he be especially attentive to their guests tonight. He also wanted to see Omar attempt to communicate with them again.
To that end, Omar found himself standing in front of the Plexi-panel stretching his senses out toward the dolphins. He brought the one he called Wiyu to mind and tried to think beckoning thoughts at her.
His efforts were met with some measure of success. Wiyu peeked through the curtain of kelp and regarded him steadily for about twenty seconds before disappearing again.
He went up to the exterior surface of the tank and grabbed some of the seaweed treats they fed to other specimens they were studying. He fluttered the water with his hand and floated a couple of the pellets atop the water. He thought friendly, concerned thoughts. Nothing happened for several long minutes, then Wiyu poked her head above the surface. He extended one hand, palm forward, fingers slightly bent.
The dolphin hesitated, then floated toward him until her forehead rested beneath his palm. He heard Song gasp behind him, and heard Dr. Lerner’s bemused hum. What Omar felt, however, was far from bemusement. He felt fear, claustrophobia, and a longing to return to a familiar place—to go home. He had a sudden, vivid impression of water lit by trailing banners of sunlight, of waving kelp, sea ferns, and other aquatic plants. Of cool, azure shadows and silk soft sands.
The dolphin suddenly swam away and sank back into the pool, but not before capturing several of the seaweed treats in her mouth and taking them with her. She didn’t eat them, Omar noticed, but simply held them between her small, sharp teeth.
He rose and wiped his hands on his jeans. He had a vivid imagination, but not that vivid. Somehow, Wiyu had shown him that peaceful place. “They want to go home,” he said. “They want us to let them go. They’re frightened. They don’t understand what’s happening to them.”
“Well, of course,” said Win. “That’s perfectly natural. And we may well let them go once we’ve concluded our study of them. They’re unique, Omar. The length of time they’ve spent secluded from the environment shared by other dolphin species has led to some fascinating adaptations.” The older man, sensing Omar’s unease, put a hand on his shoulder. “They’ll be fine once they’ve acclimated to their new habitat. Maybe we’ll move them to one of the larger tanks. They might be happier there.”
Omar hesitated momentarily before nodded his agreement, but he knew that was wrong. They won’t be happy, he thought, until we let them go home.
* * *
Omar wasn’t, strictly speaking, required to spend every moment in the observation center watching the monitors, but he did tonight. He was worried about Lerner’s Dolphins. They’d been hanging back in the kelp most of the day.
He was worried enough that he considered putting on a wetsuit and venturing into the tank. But if he went in without asking permission, he’d be in a world of trouble, and if he asked permission, he’d have to wake the Doctors Lerner up. In the end, he made a pot of strong coffee and camped out in the most comfortable chair in the room.
Of course, he fell asleep at some point, waking suddenly when he realized the dolphin vocalizing he’d been dreaming about wasn’t a dream. He checked the monitors quickly, one by one. The disturbance was definitely coming from the new animals. They were rowdy, bleating and whistling. The streamers of kelp in the rear of the tank were writhing, and bubbles escaped the thick tangle of vegetation, but there were no dolphins in sight.
As Omar watched, the chaos slowly calmed until there was no noise, no motion among the kelp, and no bubbles.
He waited. When nothing more happened, he breathed a sigh of relief. But his relief didn’t last long. The habitat seemed too quiet. As if …
He got up from his chair and went out into the gallery to peer into the tank through the big Plexi-panel. There was nothing. He leaned against the glass and gazed up through the fronds of kelp toward where the surface lights held vigil around the other habitat pools. Slivers of undisturbed light shone down through the kelp.
A shaft of cold penetrated Omar’s heart and froze his brain. Without thinking about what he was doing, he launched himself up the stairs to the outdoor decks. When he reached the rim of the dolphins’ pool, he peered down through the kelp. If they were so well hidden that they couldn’t be seen from below, then they must be visible from up here. But they weren’t.
He went to the nearest equipment rack and grabbed a long-handled net. He thrust it into the kelp thicket and shifted aside a cluster of bulbs and leaves. That gave him a clear, momentary view of the gallery floor.
There were no dolphins in the habitat. He pulled out his cell phone and called Corwin Lerner’s number. He barely remembered what he said to his boss only moments after he said it, then hung up, heart thumping, eyes seeking some sort of clue. He found one. The decking between this tank and the next was unusually wet.
Omar followed the watery track to the next tank. Had the dolphins somehow crossed the decking to get into the tank next door? If they had, they didn't appear to be there now.
He circled the tank—one that was supposed to hold sea turtles—and found that the deck had been soaked on the other side as well. And on the far side of the sea turtle habitat lay Rosia Harbour.
“Omar!”
He turned to see the Lerners emerge from the stairwell. He beckoned to them, wondering how he could possibly explain this.
* * *
In the end, neither Lerner blamed him for losing track of the dolphins.
“Who would’ve even thought they could escape a tank at the surface level?” Cecily asked as they hurried to retrieve the animals.
They took out both submersibles and followed the pings from the animals’ tracking devices to the canyon where they’d first discovered them.
That puzzled Win Lerner. “Dolphins are intelligent animals. You’d think they'd avoid the place we found them initially.”
They hadn’t, and in the end, a combination of tranquilizer darts and ‘gentle netting’ allowed the scientists to return the dolphins to the institute. This time they were ensconced in the largest tank the facility possessed—one disconnected from the other habitats and linked to Rosia Harbour by a pair of marine locks that had housed submarines in wartime. Omar had always thought of that particular habitat as Solitary Confinement. They dropped the water level four feet below the rim of the tank to ensure the dolphins couldn’t escape again and installed netting over the top.
Omar felt like a torture-monger. When he finally slept in the wee hours of the morning, he dreamed. He dreamed of ocean depths—dark, comforting, and familiar, and of the shallows—sunlit, warm, and colorful. The dream was one of contentment until it changed in the twinkling of an eye to a dream of grand adventure, then just as swi
ftly to a nightmare in which little was familiar, and the familiar was deceptively so.
He remembered the last time he’d been home—over a year ago, now—and realized how many people he’d left behind when he’d come here. Parents, siblings, friends. For all that Gibraltar life was interesting and the society friendly, he was intensely aware of what he had lost. And he might be forever cut off from it.
He woke suddenly, eyes grainy with lack of sleep, head muddled. Forever cut off from his parents? From Jo and Marin? No. He was a plane flight away and FaceTimed them at least once a week.
It dawned on him, then: these losses were not his.
He sat up and swung his feet to the floor. He could feel the anxiety as if it were a tangible mist, and knew it had to be the dolphins. He dressed, grabbed a cup of coffee and a bagel from the institute kitchen, and made his way to the deck surrounding the dolphins’ tank. Two of them bobbed on the surface of the tank four feet below where he stood, as if waiting for him. Wiyu, he recognized immediately by her size and the pattern of gray and charcoal striping around her beak. The other was the one they’d identified as the Alpha male.
“Hey, guys,” he said, downing the last of his coffee.
He knelt at the edge of the tank and extended a hand toward them. Wiyu tried to reach him, but she seemed unable to push herself that high out of the water, even with the other dolphin pushing from below.
Omar was suddenly desperate to touch her, to communicate with her. He leaned further forward, hand outstretched. He was almost touching her beak when he heard a gasp from behind him.
“Omar! What are you doing?”
Song’s voice completely short-circuited him. He tried to pull up, but succeeded only in throwing himself off balance. He toppled headfirst into the tank.
Bridge Across the Stars: A Sci-Fi Bridge Original Anthology Page 36
