by Peter Wood
‘Is there some kind of hold up?’
‘We’re wondering about these dolphins. They don’t usually come to this reach.’
Burilda pointed to a section of the display, then to another and then again to a third.
‘There are dolphins everywhere.’
Turaku appeared.
‘Honoured One, Sonic is ready to greet you.’
Akama nodded calmly.
‘Where do I go?’
Wirrin wondered the same thing and half expected Sonic to come darting to the surface somewhere close. Instead, a large skimmer sped towards them from the dolphinarium and settled against the small house deck.
Turaku led Akama to the skimmer, which then moved out into the reach.
Burilda exclaimed, ‘I think every single dolphin must be out there.’
Wirrin thought so too. The scattered groups had now coalesced in one area and when Akama’s skimmer came to a halt, a familiar shape leapt high into the air then approached. Someone moved the display wall view closer.
Sonic was now right in front of Akama, upright with approximately one third of his body out of the water. It was a difficult position for a dolphin to maintain but it also made it easier for him to see Akama clearly. Behind him, rank upon rank of dolphins suddenly burst out of the water and balanced on their tails together, making the dolphin greeting.
Akama knelt at the edge of the skimmer, extended his arm and held it there. Sonic moved close, touched the hand with his beak and disappeared under the water.
Puck appeared and did the same. Akama stood up and a moment later Sonic erupted from the water with a mighty leap. Wirrin watched with a feeling of awe as every other dolphin followed, so close it looked like a living arc. Akama stood still till the reach quietened and then the skimmer turned and headed for the deck.
Three dolphins accompanied it.
Chapter 9
Akama left the skimmer and spoke quietly with Gulara, but then Sonic surfaced and invited everyone to join him. It was quite strange to hear the electronic voice of the translator, as the trio rarely used it. Calen didn’t need it at all and Wirrin and Thom had discovered early on that they learnt dolphin words best from working with Sonic and Calen.
Akama looked delighted and dived straight in. Thom took Burilda and Gulara to look for more water costumes and Wirrin and Calen changed on the spot. They always kept shorts near the pool for convenience. For the next twenty minutes Sonic spent most of his time talking with Akama, breaking off only to engage in his usual bumping and splashing with the trio. The pool was very busy with six people and Sonic, and when Puck appeared for a short visit her bulk made it really crowded.
Wirrin felt wonderful. Being with Thom, Calen, and Sonic was always good but having Burilda, Gulara and Akama as well made it extra good.
Burilda was so much a part of their lives she was like one of the family. Gulara was still their mentor but she felt like a friend. For the last few months she’d drawn closer and seemed more relaxed. And now Akama, the legendary figure who’d been the driving force behind the development of Attunga and its open culture, was laughing and talking in the pool and obviously enjoying every moment.
Sonic liked him – that was obvious – and Wirrin heard them arranging to meet again.
***
‘What do you think of Akama, Thom?’ Wirrin asked later when they’d retired to bed.
‘Amazing. As soon as he smiled I stopped being nervous of him, and he was normal, but when he met the dolphins he seemed so important I could hardly believe it was the same person. Then when he got back and was talking to Gulara I saw him wipe his eyes and he was different again.’
It had been amazing. Seeing every single dolphin make the formal greeting had been special.
‘I got a lump in my throat when I saw how much it meant to Akama,’ Calen said, ‘and it made me feel he was the right person to get a greeting like that.’
‘I wanted to rush over and hug him,’ Wirrin said. He knew they all felt much the same but he wondered if they’d noticed anything else. ‘Notice anything strange?’
‘You mean how he looked like you?’ Thom said. ‘That freaked us out at the start. You must come from the same gene bank or something.’
‘Did they have gene banks way back then?’
‘Calen, they had gene banks way before that.’
‘They must have I suppose … What strange things?’
‘Lots of them. Why did he put his hand on my head? He didn’t do it to anyone else. And remember what he said after Gulara introduced us? I can’t figure it out.’
‘Which bit?’ Calen said.
‘“I finally meet our notorious trio, our catalyst for change.” Why did he say “finally”? That sounds like he’s been waiting to meet us for a while. And “notorious”? Not to mention “catalyst for change”!’
‘Hey, you’re right, Wirrin. I didn’t notice that at the time. Maybe something Gulara said got him interested in us.’
‘When he said we’re notorious, even though we’re not, I just thought that he was being friendly. You know, to make us relax.’
‘And our trio isn’t a catalyst. You and Sonic are.’
‘That’s being too technical, Wirrin. We’re all in it together.’
‘Okay, but here’s the strangest thing. Why did he call me his brother?’
‘It was part of his formal greeting. I thought it was a heritage thing.’
‘Well, it’s not. I did a search and I couldn’t find it in any of the old greetings.’
‘When did you do that?’
‘On the way here from the dolphinarium, while we were on TransCom.’
‘You were already puzzling about it then? With everything else going on?’
Calen grew thoughtful. ‘If it wasn’t a greeting then it is a puzzle. When I play it back in my mind it feels like it was important to him … And he did know a lot about us.’
Thom chimed in. ‘That doesn’t mean anything. Gulara told him things and he probably looked us up on the InterWeb when he was travelling to the dolphinarium, and Witnesses remember everything.’
‘I guess someone as old as Akama, and in such an important position, would know how to impress people and influence them,’ Wirrin said, ‘but it felt like more than that to me, it felt like he really did know us.’
They discussed it further, but in the end they were all convinced there was something going on they didn’t understand.
After the trip to Warrakan, hours of travel on the new reach and all the other excitement, it wasn’t long before everyone was asleep.
***
Wirrin dragged his mind to consciousness to the sound of the insistent warning pulse and a surge of adrenaline sat him bolt upright as he activated his holo. An even bigger surge cleared all the cobwebs away. The Shark Bay overview, which he’d set for instant viewing, showed a massive barrage of red markers extending along the western boundary. He shoved Calen and Thom. Usually a quick shake would waken them, though Calen was such a deep sleeper he often needed an extra shake. At the same time Wirrin tried to glean meaning from what he was seeing.
So much red, with a big concentration to the north of Dirk Hartog Island. That was to be expected as it was the main entrance to the bay … eighty-seven inimical markers altogether.
‘What? What?’
‘It’s happening, Thom. The attack. It’s started. Wake Calen. I tried once … There’s eighty-seven of them but I don’t know how to find out exactly what they are.’
Thom stared at the images, shook his head to clear it, then thumped Calen on the chest. They laughed about that later when the bruise started to show.
Wirrin looked for the blue markers closest to any red. Down at the southern end of Dirk Hartog Island a group of five dolphins looked very close, and he wondered how long it would take for the gap to close.
‘Oh no! Look at them all!’
Calen was awake now and staring fixedly at the holo.
‘Watch those dolp
hins at the bottom of the island. They’re closest and we’ll soon see how well the guardians work,’ said Wirrin.
‘I hope they’re as good as we think they are. They’re way outnumbered and that’s when Turaku said they mightn’t cope.’
Calen was right to worry. All the southern red markers were closely clustered in the relatively small entrance to the bay and moving rapidly.
‘There are twenty-seven of them coming through that passage.’
‘Twenty-seven against five. That sounds bad.’
‘And they’re moving at 72 kilometres per hour. They’ll meet in a couple of minutes.’
Wirrin looked back at the northern group, dispersed across the entrance. At the rate they were travelling it would be another hour before they reached Monkey Mia and another hour after that for the rest of the bay.
‘Seventy-two? That’s way faster than dolphins. They couldn’t get away even if you warned them.’
‘You couldn’t warn them, Thom. Earth dolphins wouldn’t understand.’
‘Some of the home dolphins might if they’ve taught them any communication skills.’
No-one answered. Five blue markers were about to be enveloped by twenty-seven red. Wirrin zoomed the view. At least he had that much control. The red mass separated enough to define individual points, and the change of scale made their movement obvious.
They were all going to hit the dolphins at the same time.
The red and blue merged. Something happened and Wirrin yelled when he realised that some of the red lights had gone out.
The red configuration kept moving and more red markers blinked off. The boys cheered as the remaining red markers moved away, but then three of the dolphin markers winked to yellow.
‘Yellow? What does that mean?’
They all knew it meant that something had happened to three of the dolphins, and realised what that must be.
‘It means that three dolphins have been infected, and we’ll find out very quickly just how effective our protective measures are.’
Everyone jumped as Turaku appeared without the usual warning shimmer of the holo. They looked to see what expression he was wearing, even though they knew the emotions he showed were all programs. He was so expert at applying what was appropriate that it was difficult to tell him apart from a person.
‘How quickly? Those picobots don’t take long to work.’
Calen was remembering part of a report on the earlier attacks.
‘Watch … There we are. All clear.’
And indeed, the three yellow markers had all returned to blue.
Wirrin started to grin. Even if any attackers got past the guardians it looked like it wouldn’t matter.
‘The imagery from the first encounter has come through and our protective drones are performing as we expected.’
Wirrin’s holo changed to an underwater view and everyone watched a live re-run. It only lasted a few seconds. The stubby shapes came barrelling in, releasing smaller units that sought the rapidly moving and highly alarmed dolphins, then coasted to a stop. A guardian stayed close to one of the drifting shapes and Wirrin was impressed by the difference in size.
‘They look dangerous, Turaku. Why are they so big? They’re three times as long as the guardians.’
‘Partly because of storage space for the picobot units, but it’s most likely a design limitation. We’ll know more after we’ve fully analysed them.’
‘The dolphins have gone off by themselves. Shouldn’t the guardians be protecting them?’
‘Those dolphins are safe now, and the guardians, as you call them, need to stay close to the attacking drones to keep them disabled with a directed control pulse. It’s highly unlikely, but if there’s any renewed local threat those drones will be destroyed and the dolphins rejoined. That’s not going to happen though, as countermeasures are underway.’
The overview returned with a striking new feature, a mass of purple markers blocking access to the inner and southern sections of Shark Bay.
‘What are they?’
‘Sixty unattached guardians. Once the attack logistics were known they were flown to the best position for interception and dispersed in the water. Judging from the effectiveness of the first encounter they will quickly eliminate the remaining threat.’
It would happen quickly too, because the opposing forces were racing towards each other with a relative speed of almost 180 kilometres per hour.
A contingent veered south to intersect with the seventeen remaining attackers near the southern end of Dirk Hartog Island, while the remaining forty-five forged ahead, fanning out to match the spread of the approaching red markers. Wirrin leaned first against Calen, and then Thom, with a thrill of excitement.
‘K74 hasn’t got a hope. There are forty-five guardians against sixty of the big drones and the first five guardians stopped two each, and these guardians don’t have any dolphins to protect.’
‘I wish they’d blow them all up!’ Thom muttered.
Wirrin and Calen felt the same but they all knew that wasn’t going to happen. The main groups approached and merged. Red lights started blinking off, and in just under a minute there were none left.
‘Wow! Just like that! Those other ones are space dust.’
And they were. Ten minutes later the last red markers, a group of three heading south from the first encounter, disappeared from the screen.
‘K74 won’t try that again. The guardians are far too good.’ said Thom. ‘The dolphins will be safe from now on.’
‘They’ll be safe for a while, Thom, but the directed communities have demonstrated their intent and we can’t rest on our laurels. Their determination means they’ll eventually try some new strategy.’
After this sobering warning Turaku explained a few things and showed Wirrin how to access all the related information streaming in from Earth.
Chapter 10
‘What’s going on?’
‘I’m wrecked … Totally!’
‘We know that. But why?’
‘Sonic’s a slave driver. I can’t keep up with him.’
Wirrin was astonished. He’d never heard Calen say one word against Sonic, ever, and his surprise must have shown because Calen laughed as he collapsed onto the grav-sofa.
‘He’s not really a slave driver. He’s just got too much energy and he’s so excited about every new thing that he keeps going till he gets it right. I think I’ll start taking a double dose of protein structure for a while.’
The protein structure was already working one hundred per cent according to Thom, so taking more wouldn’t have any effect and Calen was really just complaining about being worn out.
‘Calen, you’ve been wrecked every evening for the last two weeks.’
‘And it’ll be the same for the next two as well.’
‘Two weeks? So it’s something to do with Sonic’s big day?’
Calen grinned at Wirrin. ‘Smart Alec. It might be.’
That meant it definitely was. ‘So what makes you so tired?’
‘Swimming. It’s hard work.’
‘What sort of swimming?’
‘You know … you move through the water from one place to another.’
‘Very funny … Why don’t you tell us?’
‘I just did. Water swimming.’
‘We’ll make you talk.’
‘No you won’t … How?’
‘We’ll pound it out of you. We’ll get you on your grav-bed and keep going till you beg to confess.’
Calen laughed and shook his head.
‘I still won’t tell you.’
He probably would if they were persistent.
‘You’d have to. You couldn’t help it.’
‘You won’t do it. It wouldn’t be fair.’
Wirrin and Thom exchanged a wondering look. ‘It’s a secret and you’re keeping it from us?’
That was pushing hard as they had a pact about secrets. Calen didn’t say anything for a moment.
‘I can tell you if you think you really have to know, but it’s Sonic’s idea and he wants it to be a surprise.’
‘A surprise? For us?’
‘For everyone really … well, except for Burilda and Turaku of course. They see everything that goes on. I suppose I can tell Sonic you couldn’t wait.’ Calen’s satisfied grin said he knew very well that he’d outmanoeuvred them. There was no way they’d go against what Sonic wanted. The intrigue level had just risen by five notches.
‘You dirty dingo. Well, you’re still getting pounded.’
‘Not now. I haven’t got enough energy.’
Calen closed his eyes and Wirrin and Thom left him. It would be at least an hour before he woke and demanded food.
‘It must be something big, Thom.’
‘Why?’
‘They’re spending four weeks on it and that’s a long time for Sonic.’
‘That’s for sure. Do you think he knows how tired Calen is?’
‘Probably, but he must be all right or his health monitors would be giving warnings.’
‘Yes, I guess … What’s happening tomorrow with the doctor?’
‘I’m not sure. It must be some sort of routine check for my implants.’
‘It can’t be routine, Wirrin. You’re not meant to see him for another month.’
Today’s request to go to the implant facility was a bit of a puzzle. As far as Wirrin could tell everything was working perfectly and the self-diagnostics said exactly that.
‘Well it can’t be too big a deal because it was only a request, and if it didn’t fit with EdCom I could go some other time.’
‘They’re going to turn your implants down. You’ve been overloading too many data banks.’
‘As if.’
‘I told them you sneaked into TransCom through an electronic back door and they’re going to set a tracer to watch everything you do.’
‘Sure, and if they do I’ll put a governor program on you so nothing you fly will go over half a G.’
Later, when they were preparing food, Thom wanted to know if Wirrin really could make a governor program.
