Attunga

by Peter Wood

  That worked well because the people certainly wanted to look at him. The transport module was unusual enough in itself to draw attention but the sight of a dolphin made it irresistible, and when Sonic stopped near the fountain people drifted close. Three children rushed over and stared, goggle-eyed and smiling.

  ‘It’s beautiful. I wish I had a dolphin. Will we frighten it if we get close?’

  ‘Why don’t you ask him?’

  The little girl looked at her two companions then back at Calen.

  ‘You can’t talk to dolphins.’

  ‘Yes you can.’

  The children turned towards two adults who’d moved behind them and when the man shook his head to tell them ‘no’, Calen spoke again, this time in dolphin talk and Sonic answered.

  The hum of conversation stopped.

  ‘Sonic says you can come as close as you like.’

  The little girl was still dubious, but one of the boys darted forward and put his hand on the clear panel of the transport module. Sonic touched his beak to the same place on his side and asked their names. The hush from the growing assembly of people was absolute.

  ‘Sonic wants to know your names.’

  ‘Kania.’

  The little girl came close, pulling her younger brother with her. ‘I am Nerida. And this is Baradine. But he’s shy.’

  She put her hand on the panel and lit up with delight when Sonic touched it again. Sonic made the dolphin greeting and spoke.

  ‘Sonic likes your names and he wonders what they mean.’

  Once again the children looked to their parents and the mother answered, putting her hand on each child’s head in turn.

  ‘Kania means a rock. Nerida means a flower and Baradine is a wallaby.’

  Three bursts of sound came from Sonic and Calen interpreted.

  ‘Sonic said your names in dolphin talk.’

  The children stared big eyed at Sonic and someone called from the crowd, ‘Can it say the names again?’

  Calen looked towards the man and nodded as three bursts of sound came from Sonic. The sceptical look changed.

  ‘It answered by itself? Did you give it a signal?’

  Hearing Sonic referred to as an ‘it’ really grated with Wirrin. Sonic’s whistles and clicks sounded out clearly.

  ‘Sonic doesn’t need signals. He understands you and wishes he had translator machines fitted to his transport module.’

  It took twenty minutes to get away, and as the module moved slowly through the crowd Wirrin took in the smiles and looks of wonderment and marvelled at how Sonic had affected everyone. He’d taken over really, with Calen as his mouthpiece, as he interacted with the children but, somehow, also with everyone else. There were two more big transfer stations on the way but their schedule meant they had to forego any similar stops.

  ***

  ‘That was an eye opener … inviting the children to visit the dolphinarium made them very excited.’

  ‘You know about that already?’

  Burilda was at the zero-grav pool to make sure everything ran smoothly.

  ‘Turaku let me know you might be turning up late so I watched. It sounds like we’ve got to modify the transport module yet again.’

  ‘Yes, he wants panels he can open and a translator built in.’

  The group moved to a reception room and Burilda introduced the pool staff. Sonic greeted them and, through Calen, asked some questions before everyone moved to one of the viewing galleries around the pool.

  Wirrin watched the same change from interest to amazement they’d seen with the people in the transfer hall as understanding blossomed that Sonic was much more than their idea of a dolphin.

  The sight of the pool gave Wirrin his own dose of amazement and he echoed the exclamations from Calen and Thom as they took in the transparent sphere of water apparently hanging in mid-air, glowing slightly and 50 metres across.

  ‘This is incredible!’

  The holo images they’d watched with Sonic the night before had been exciting in their own right, but no match for the impact of the real thing. Wirrin counted nine people moving in the watery globe, and while they watched, one of them broke surface almost directly in front with a great confusion of water, drifted through the 10 metre air gap, then after a stylish turn, pushed powerfully against the transparent wall and arrowed back. The scattered blobs of water, quivering and weirdly transforming, gradually assumed roughly spherical shapes and settled towards the main water body.

  They’d learnt last night that although it was called zero-grav there was really a fractional field, focused to give the water mass just enough of an effective centre of gravity to hold its shape.

  There was a burst of speech from Sonic who was eager to get into the pool and everyone moved to the entry area and put on breathing masks. This was routine for Burilda and the trio but quite an event for Sonic as he’d only trialled the specially designed device that fitted over his blowhole in the last couple of days. Next, his transport module had to be moved into the pool itself as he couldn’t launch himself through the air gap like the humans.

  It only took a minute and he was floating motionless, with the trio and Burilda ready to help if the lack of gravity was too disorienting for him. He’d been okay in trials at the dolphinarium, but this was a confluence of different conditions. The freshwater had a slightly different density to his normal salt water. Zero-G meant there was no sense of up and down, and the water was so clear it might affect his sense of distance.

  ‘Very strange.’

  ‘Are you feeling dizzy?’ asked Calen.

  He wasn’t, and quickly deciding he’d sorted out this new environment, swam slowly towards the centre of the sphere. Everyone relaxed and moved with him.

  Whoosh! He powered off in a rapid loop then nudged Calen with the signal to try and catch him. Of course they couldn’t, not in water, unless he let them, but then he made the mistake of following Calen in his first transition through the shimmering water surface into the air gap. Calen, used to zero-G movement in air, let himself glide to the outer barrier then, with a practised body twist, pushed off and headed back to the water. Wirrin, following, watched in dismay as Sonic’s glistening grey form, fins and flukes flailing helplessly, bounced against the outer barrier then drifted slowly back to the liquid interface.

  There was a great burst of dolphin sound – dolphin laughter, but louder than Wirrin had ever heard it. Well he mustn’t have been hurt.

  ‘Do it again.’

  Was Sonic really going to try again? He manoeuvred himself so his head was poking through the surface and watched Calen erupt next to him, drift to the outer panels and execute the turn and push to send him zooming back. With one careful flick of his tail Sonic left the water, much more slowly this time, and drifted head-first towards the solid panels. Oh no, his beak was going to take the full impact. At the last instant he twisted his head sideways and managed a relatively gentle bump and rebound. Wirrin was impressed. There’d been none of the pointless flexing of his fins and tail on this second attempt.

  ‘Slower.’

  What did Calen mean? Sonic would drift in the air, helpless. He did … and once again his dolphin laughter sounded.

  ‘Trickster.’

  Calen shot from the water then pushed off from the panels in just the right direction to collide with Sonic. As their bodies met he grabbed tight in the classic move of combined momentum to help someone marooned in a no-grav situation. They re-entered the water and Wirrin stared in amazement as the two bodies followed a graceful curve, spiralling and looping in perfect and effortless harmony.

  ‘Again.’

  Sonic launched himself once more, drifting ever so slowly till Calen rescued him with the rebound from the outer panels.

  The rest of the time at the zero-G pool was mostly spent with Sonic exploring and mastering techniques of movement and control in the air layer. It shouldn’t have been a surprise that he was more interested in this than the pool itself because ne
w experiences were so important to him.

  ***

  ‘How much did you zap?’

  Zapping was Thom and Calen’s term for memory recording.

  ‘Not much. There were too many things going on to concentrate properly.’

  ‘It must have been a fair amount. I remember seeing you do it at least three times.’

  ‘Me too. I saw you a couple of times,’ said Thom.

  ‘I kept trying but when you see Sonic barging straight at you, you forget everything else, and zero-G is hard enough by itself. I managed nearly twenty minutes but they’re all short bursts. Have a look at this one. It’s when he learned to flip himself off the wall with his tail.’

  Wirrin’s prolonged recording time had stretched to over ten minutes in the week since he’d seen the doctor, and they were both pleased with the improvement. The current practice regime was for a sustained effort in the morning, another in the evening, and frequent short bursts in between. Wirrin liked the short bursts as he didn’t notice any effect from them. The long bursts were hard work and left him feeling slightly dazed for a while.

  ‘He’s good isn’t he? When we were doing some zero-G trials for him at the dolphinarium he kept saying he was going to be a fish out of water. It’s some old saying he found on the InterWeb that caught his fancy.’

  ‘Hey, Calen, how long have you been doing that new swimming?’

  ‘What new swimming?’

  ‘The spiral thing you did with Sonic the first time you rescued him.’

  ‘We weren’t meant to do that. He started it because he was excited.’

  ‘Why weren’t you meant to?’

  Calen laughed.

  ‘You know why, and I’m not going to talk about it.’

  ‘But how do you do it? You can talk about that because we’ve already seen it.’

  ‘I don’t know how to explain. I kind of caught it from so much swimming with Sonic. It’s hard work.’

  ‘It looked easy.’

  ‘It’s meant to, but it’s really the opposite.’

  ‘Is it what makes you so tired each day?’

  He laughed again. ‘It’s a part of it, but only a part … You’ll see.’

  ***

  ‘It’s only two days away and I’m scared I’ll mess it up.’

  ‘Scared? You mean nervous don’t you? It’s okay to be nervous.’

  ‘I suppose so … No, I’m feeling scared too. Gulara was there today and I found out it’s even more important than I thought.’

  Calen had come in, tired as usual, but instead of coming back to life after his rest, and eagerly attacking his evening meal, he’d stayed very, very quiet and Wirrin and Thom were concerned.

  ‘Akama introducing Sonic to a lot of scientists and going on the InterWeb for all Attunga – more important than that?’

  ‘Way more important. The conference with the scientists is only a part at the end. Every single Witness on Attunga is going to be there.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘I know. I’ve never heard of anything like it, and there’s an invitation to watch being sent to the whole population, and I’ve never heard of that either.’

  For each sector, a Witness, with almost infallible recall and unquestionable integrity, was the final arbiter for any situation or decision, and with over 1200 sectors currently on Attunga that meant at least the equivalent number of Witnesses.

  ‘Calen, they can’t. The viewing gallery isn’t big enough.’

  ‘They’ve taken the seats out so they can all fit in. They’ll be standing up the whole time.’

  ‘Every Witness?’

  The boys were silent as they thought that over, then Thom leaned against Calen. ‘Wow, now we’re scared too and all we have to do is watch.’

  Wirrin provided his own reassuring pressure and Calen smiled. ‘You won’t be scared, Calen. You’ll be with Sonic and people will like you whatever happens.’

  Chapter 11

  Awed and awkward, Wirrin stared at the crowd standing in front of him, over 1200 witnesses gathered to meet Sonic in person.

  Sitting comfortably in front of such an august group made him feel distinctly uncomfortable, but it was Akama’s plan. Akama sat next to him, and on his other side there was an empty seat then Thom and Burilda, all of them on a slightly raised dais. The attention of all those important eyes was disconcerting. Thank goodness for Akama’s quiet comments and friendly assurances. Then everything started happening.

  Turning his head slightly he could see Puck and Flute and a dozen other dolphins swimming behind the giant transparent panel, curiously looking out at the assembled people. Flute swam close and looked at the seated group then moved back to Puck. The lights dimmed briefly then brightened on the dais and as the hum of conversation stopped Akama stood up.

  ‘Welcome everyone. We’re gathered at the invitation of a young dolphin who is eager to meet us and formally declare his place in our society. He has honoured me by asking for my help and I’m honoured as your representative to do what I can.’

  Akama paused a moment.

  ‘Sonic has many accomplishments and soon he will speak to us all, but first I will greet his mother.’

  He turned, and with elaborate care, made the greeting wave. Wirrin had never seen it made with such meaning. Puck, close by and next to the viewing panel, answered with the familiar body movement and head flip. The rest of the dolphins approached and followed suit then hung suspended as if waiting.

  Akama turned to the gathering, raised his arm again and gave a guiding nod. Everyone knew exactly what he meant and Wirrin’s first tingle of awe brought him right out of his awkwardness as he watched the exchange of greeting between Witnesses and dolphins. Akama made an expansive gesture and a giant holo-screen showing Puck, Flute and three other female dolphins filled the front of the gallery. Wirrin stared at the strange image of Puck with a little fluke protruding from her body and goosebumps took over as he realised this was the moment of Sonic’s birth.

  An electric murmur went through the gallery, then an even more electric silence as the drama of birth unfolded, the shocking burst of red when the umbilical cord parted, the little dolphin’s movements as he oriented himself and was guided to the surface for his first breath. The holo faded and Wirrin automatically reached for Thom’s arm. The scene changed to Puck’s presentation of Sonic to the dolphin and human community and Burilda’s following words.

  ‘Ladies and gentlemen, you’ve just become part of history … ’

  Next, Burilda’s voice presented parts of Sonic’s life, suckling from Puck, chasing playfully after Flute, the first meeting with Calen, and the gift of his first fish. Wirrin watched himself with Thom and Calen, wrestling, splashing, speaking and laughing with Sonic in the pool at home, diving as a group to one of the underwater caverns in the new reach at Warrakan, and swimming together at the zero-G pool. The last clip was the formal greeting to Akama and the beautiful arc of dolphins leaping into the air.

  The holo-screen shimmered and faded to show an empty viewing pool. Two forms appeared at the entrance to the middle tunnel, arrowed to the front and greeted the crowd, Sonic with the dolphin version and Calen with the stylised wave.

  Wirrin’s heart leapt. Sonic looked magnificent, but so did Calen, with a form-fitting costume extending from waist to knees and made of some silvery grey material that almost looked like dolphin skin.

  For a few seconds they stayed motionless, Calen’s hand resting on Sonic’s back, then they rose to the surface where Sonic took a breath. Together they dived and Wirrin’s neck hairs tingled in awe as he watched the slow loop of spiralling forms he’d first glimpsed at the zero-G pool.

  He’d been amazed then but this was so much more than a short spontaneous moment. This was Calen and Sonic working with full concentration and effort to present the surprise they’d been working on for the last four weeks. Wirrin became aware of music, a melody that changed in mood and style, sometimes simple, sometimes complex, slow at first
then gradually becoming more lively and joyful. Dolphin and boy moved with the music – no they didn’t, the music moved with them – as they twined and turned in unison and counterpoint, a single unit with two separate parts. Wirrin watched Calen’s impossible actions in disbelief and a strange feeling came over him that maybe he was really a dolphin in human form? Or that maybe Sonic was partly human? A beautiful sound echoed the music – Sonic was singing the melody and for the next few minutes Wirrin was lost.

  Everything stopped. Sonic and Calen were back where they started, motionless in the water, except for Calen’s heaving chest as he dragged air from his breathing mask. Wirrin, looking out, had an eerie feeling that everyone had turned to statues.

  Akama stood up, and when he turned towards Sonic and Calen a murmur of sound washed through the gallery. In seconds it became a great wave, applause and voices building and building in acclamation. Calen gave a watery version of a bow in acknowledgement and when Sonic copied him Wirrin couldn’t help smiling. They must have rehearsed it but it did look spontaneous. The sound muted and a hush of expectancy built as Sonic and Calen faced each other.

  ‘Thank you my brother. You honour me.’

  Amplified for the gallery, Sonic’s translated words sounded out clearly and Wirrin sensed the communal jolt of realisation that he was speaking directly. Calen responded by saying the same thing in dolphin talk. It was a short, slightly formal interchange, and Wirrin thought of all the people watching and seeing for the first time that dolphins and people could really speak to each other.

  A swirl of movement drew everyone’s attention as dolphins poured through the three tunnels, more and more till Wirrin knew that once again every Attunga dolphin was present. Rank upon rank they formed, then watched Sonic and Calen perform one more amazing spiralling arc and disappear into one of the tunnels.

  No! No! They couldn’t be going? Wirrin wanted them back.

  Sonic returned and with a burst of rapid dolphin speech circled past the gathered pods and gracefully breached the surface for a breath. Every dolphin followed, returned to its place, and facing the Witnesses with Sonic, gave the greeting. Wirrin was stunned. Every dolphin had moved at exactly the same instant, as if they formed one composite being. They did move as a group in the reaches, it was part of their nature, but this was done with a degree of precision he’d never seen before.