by Tui Allen
‘Is . . . is someone there?’
‘I’m Cosmo, come to take you home.’
‘Cosmo!’ Flip revived. He was the team-member who’d always been most ready to trust Cosmo. That could save him now.
Cosmo drew Flip to a calmer region away from the smoke and sulphur; a dim clear place on the edge of the Ionian night where it was easier to imagine an ocean below. Flip calmed as Cosmo streamed images of clean water and cool Azuran air into his mind. Cosmo screened his knowledge of the physical danger surrounding their bodies at home.
~~~
Back on Azure, a big shark headed straight for Cosmo. Ripple and Rush charged in from different directions. Ripple’s hit deflected the shark one way but Rush’s pushed it back again. Each hit would have worked better on its own. The blows failed to keep the shark from Cosmo but were just enough to convert a mortal hit into a glancing slash on his right side. The cut began bleeding. Every shark in the area smelled the blood and turned towards it, losing interest in Flip now that blood flowed elsewhere. Cosmo now was in the greatest peril. The young astronomers defending Flip left him in the care of Pollux and moved towards Cosmo.
~~~
A flash of pain from Cosmo’s body on Azure crossed the abyss of space to strike at him.
Shark hit, thought Cosmo. Not serious, but probably bleeding badly.
He hesitated and it took all his self-control to screen this event from the younger dolphin. To save himself and Flip he must ignore it, make sure they stayed calm and trust the dolphins at home to protect them. He managed it with difficulty. Flip recovered rapidly.
Cosmo judged Flip ready for take-off and the two of them departed Io, which shrank to a black speck against the bulk of Jupiter. Jupiter itself spun away into space as they swept towards Azure. They travelled at the fastest speed that allowed Cosmo time to prepare Flip for the scene that awaited.
‘You were recalled because we’re under shark attack,’ he said. ‘But there are fighters on their way and the others will hold the sharks off until they arrive. Just be ready to protect yourself as soon as you’re back.’
~~~
Flip leapt sky high to let them all know he was home safely. From the air he saw groups of sharks closing in on Cosmo. A shark passed by him on its way to the blood-cloud. As Flip re-entered the water he turned and jabbed it in the gills, hard enough to banish its hunger.
Cosmo arrived to stinging pain, the taste of his own blood, and several sharks coming for him. Ripple, Rush and Hadar were nearby, Quin and Givan were racing to join them, hitting and deflecting sharks as they came. Beyond them, Flip was already leaping and fighting. But there were too few dolphins. Further away, he could see shadowy shapes of more sharks arriving.
He breathed and relaxed again.
The first shark lunged. He slipped down out of its path at the last moment.
Others arrived from several directions and entered the blood cloud together. He waited beneath it. A heavy shark swam blindly through the bloodied area with its mouth open. With a carefully judged shove, Cosmo shunted a smaller shark up into the path of the gaping jaws. The shark bit down near the caudal fins of the smaller one and fresh blood bloomed around them. Cosmo moved out of the large blood-cloud though he could not avoid taking some of his own smaller blood-cloud with him. He flashed around and between the sharks, shoving here, pushing there, each move designed to cause one shark to bite another and maximise their confusion. The more blood flowed, the more frenzied the sharks grew until they lost all judgement and ate anything within reach. Jaws snapped, tails thrashed, bodies twisted and lunged. The newly arrived sharks charged into the blood-zone, jaws gaping and grabbing; ripping and crunching, eating and being eaten.
Cosmo swam to the sidelines and joined the others still jabbing at the sharks on the outskirts of the feeding frenzy.
‘No need for that,’ he said quietly. ‘They’ll sort themselves out.’
The dolphins withdrew to a safe distance to observe the sharks’ crazed consumption.
‘Look at Cosmo,’ said Givan. ‘He hasn’t even raised his heart-rate. We should call in a few more shark-packs to give him a decent workout.’
Cosmo read Givan’s undisguised respect and it was not just for the fighting.
‘Yep,’ said Rush as the fighters arrived. ‘Here come the troops, but who needs them? We’ve got Cosmo.’
The fighters joined them and watched the mêlée until the last few sharks had followed the blood trails left by the remains of their companions as they sank into the deep.
Later, Givan asked Cosmo how he’d managed to leave his body.
‘Just a fighter’s trick I learned in the Southern School. I can teach you.’
‘I didn’t know you were a fighter.’
‘I started fighting, very badly, when I was two days old. The Southern School taught me to do it properly.’
‘A trained fighter! Why didn’t you tell us?’
‘Because I came here to learn astronomy.’
‘Today you saved us by using both.’
~~~
A senior dolphin representing the fighter dolphins of the Northern School visited Delph the following day accompanied by a respected school elder.
‘We’ve come to inform you,’ said the elder, ‘that in view of events yesterday, the school has decided to bestow a high rank in our defence hierarchy on the dolphin Cosmo.’
‘He may not be pleased to hear that,’ said Delph.
The sou-westerly whistled and whitecaps hissed through the long pause that followed.
‘This honour is not offered lightly,’ said the senior fighter. ‘It would be a valuable opportunity for the southerner to carve a prestigious position for himself in our school. We came expecting a grateful response. Fighting is obviously the vocation of his choice.’
‘Not so,’ replied Delph. ‘A dolphin of his quality will appreciate this honour. But he is a practicing astronomer and cannot also be on call as a fighter.’
‘With his skills? How could this be?’ asked the elder.
‘This expertise must not be wasted!’ said the senior fighter. ‘He is obviously the cream of the southern school’s fighters. There are plenty of young ones aspiring to astronomy. Why should we miss out so you can have one more trainee?’
‘I admit even the southerners regarded him as their best fighter and they were sorry to lose him,’ Delph explained. ‘But they had no practical astronomy classes available for him. His motivation drove him to swim for days for a chance to learn astronomy. He has demonstrated promise in practical astronomy as far above average as his fighting skills.’
‘That must be considered,’ said the elder.
The white-caps hissed through another pause. Gannets wheeled and cried and the swoosh of their dives indicated nearby fish.
‘We wouldn’t force him to a vocation not of his choosing,’ said the senior fighter, ‘but our trainees could learn much from him. How would it be if all we asked was a little teaching when it suits his commitments with you?’
‘If that was all he may be happy to oblige you,’ said Delph.
Later that evening, Delph went into the sea alone and transmitted the story of the Io mission to Zenith in the Southern School.
~~~
Givan met privately with Flip, Quin and Rush. At Givan’s initiative, the team decided to ask Delph not only to include Cosmo on all missions in future no matter how distant, but also to allow him to travel as their leader.
‘He’s proved he can do it,’ said Givan, ‘and I prefer navigation alone to navigation and leadership.’
Delph agreed and commended Givan for his maturity.
~~~
Read on, or if desired . . .
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Chapter 18: Wonder Athlete
White puffs of cloud cruised on the blue. A gentle easterly barely ruffled the surface where the bodies of Cosmo’s absent team drifted like logs. Hadar and Pollux floated among them.
The rings of
Saturn faded as the five young intellects slid homewards across inner space towards Sol and Azure. Blue and gold light expanded around Cosmo as his body rushed to meet him. The water of his planet encased him in cool silk. Cosmo swirled his flippers and flexed his caudal muscles. He rolled upwards, breathed, shot away underwater, then rocketed into the air three times his length. Rush and Givan were airborne with him. They re-entered the water just as Flip and Quin leapt skywards. The five played until the water boiled and spray hissed across the shattered surface. Cosmo smacked the sea enjoying the strength in his flukes, the foam fizzing on his skin and the blood pumping through his veins.
You appreciate your body so much more when you’ve been without it awhile, he thought. Then the hunger hit him.
Hadar and Pollux laughed at the spectacle of the return of their charges
‘We’ll let you wake Ripple from her work today,’ said Hadar. ‘She’ll need feeding too. Wake her carefully.’
The two minders swam away.
Ripple was dancing nearby, lost in her work.
‘More baby-sitting,’ grumbled Givan.
The boys cruised over until they were close enough to feel her noisy brainwaves thundering around them. Givan snorted his distaste. Cosmo thought of Maram. He shivered and crushed the memory.
‘Ripple. Wake up,’ he called.
She continued working as though she was as far away as he’d recently been.
‘I’m hungry,’ shouted Givan. ‘Wake up, you lunatic.’
‘Is she even on the planet?’ asked Flip.
‘A planet of her own,’ said Givan. ‘Rowdy-Ripple WAKE UP Rowdy-Ripple WAKE UP,’ he chanted.
Flip and Quin joined in, swimming around her in a tight circle. Cosmo was suddenly anxious watching his team-mates teasing the girl. Rush stayed alongside Cosmo.
For Ripple the ocean sang, the wind rushed, the birds called and the music played.
‘Rowdy Ripple WAKE-UP.’
Her music collapsed like a wave on a rock. Cosmo saw that she had returned.
She flew up and out over their heads higher than they’d ever seen or would have believed possible. Had she taken wing? The boys followed her flight, their heads moving from right to left in unison. She re-entered the water, impossibly far from them, and swam away. They were awed into silence by the sheer power of her flight. Yet she had leapt to escape them not to impress them. Rush was the first to react.
‘Well, you woke her.’
‘Good. Now we can hunt,’ said Givan, shaking his head to clear the image.
They set off in search of food, except Cosmo who’d forgotten his hunger for the moment. He followed Ripple, intending to apologise for his team. He swam quickly but the gap between them increased. He didn’t know any dolphin his age who could outpace him, yet she was racing ahead. He accelerated to full speed and was gaining on her until she noticed him and smoothly pulled away. In the end, he turned and retraced his course back to his classmates in the hunt.
‘I couldn’t catch her,’ he admitted.
‘You couldn’t catch up to a girl?’
‘Who is she? What is she?’ asked Rush
‘I don’t know . . . but she’s really something,’ said Cosmo.
‘Something weird,’ muttered Givan, ‘pretending to be so weak and useless but she can sure move when it suits her. You sound like you’re interested Cosmo. She’s cracked, you know.’
‘No wonder, if everyone treats her like we just did. How do we know what’s in her mind?’
‘We’ve heard it. It’s turmoil.’
‘Or maybe beyond our reach, like her swimming and jumping.’
‘You got it bad, Cosmo.’
‘I detest her chaos more than you do. A dolphin with thoughts like hers beached himself in the Southern School.’
‘Why would anyone choose to die that way?’ asked Rush, shivering.
‘I don’t wish to speak of it. He was insane. Ripple can control her chaos. We saw how quickly she snapped out of it just now. So from now on, let’s give her “work” whatever it is, the same respect she gives ours. That’s if she ever comes back.’
‘I wouldn’t care if she didn’t,’ said Givan.
‘What’ve you got against her, Givan?’
‘My dad says it lowers our status having that oddball around.’
‘And my dad says status has to be earned,’ said Rush. ‘How could Ripple prevent us earning it?’
‘Delph sees no problem with her being around us and that’s good enough for me,’ said Cosmo.
‘She should be an astronomer,’ said Flip, ‘She’s strong enough to take her body along. Maybe Givan’s scared she might take his place on our team.’
Givan whacked Flip with his fluke. Flip corkscrewed downwards with closed eyes and open mouth as though dead. Rush mimicked a shark arriving to clean up the carrion. His efforts to swim with the side-to-side shark action were too much for Cosmo and he laughed at last.
‘Stop it you lot, I need food. Let’s hunt.’
~~~
Ripple swam alone.
I'll never work near them again; I'd rather have Erishkigal’s company. And why was Cosmo following me like that? I’m glad I beat him. Astronomers and fighters and gymnasts are all the same. They think the rest of us can’t swim.
~~~
Some hours later, with hunger pangs appeased, the boys met with Delph to make a full report of their mission. Afterwards, Cosmo remained behind and told Delph of the incident involving Ripple.
‘I wanted to apologise, but she swam too fast for me.’
‘This surprises you?’
‘I thought I was faster than all others my age in the school. Why’s she not training to be a gymnast or astronomer?’
‘Because she has chosen neither as her vocation.’
‘Are her skills to be wasted then?’
‘Perhaps, but I must tell you Cosmo, that while you were among Saturn’s rings, I came by to check on you. Ripple worked nearby. She seemed just like an astronomer, observing some chaotic alien culture. She could have been one of you except for one big difference.’
‘What difference?’
‘You astronomers descend into physical torpor on your missions. Ripple does too, but sometimes she keeps moving. Today as she worked, she romped in the air above the sea like a bird. The minders have seen her keeping it up for hours.’
So that’s where the fitness comes from, thought Cosmo.
He saw again the effortless flight of the leap she’d made to escape them; then shivered at the memory of the chaos.
~~~
In the evening, Delph met with Rigel at an arranged location one hour’s swim north-east of the northernmost island. By then the story of the events surrounding the Io mission had already circulated, greatly increasing the boys’ prestige. But Delph was unsurprised to discover that Rigel hadn’t heard it as he had been away in the Tectarius galaxy while the scuttlebutt was rippling through the school. He gave Rigel the full story.
‘I don’t know Cosmo,’ said Rigel, ‘Which family is he from?’
‘He has no family; he was orphaned after birth. Cosmo came to us from the Southern School to receive training in astronomy.’
‘It’s good to know there’s one coming along with such leadership potential. He could be destined for greatness. Rare to hear of one so young, who’s a talented astronomer and a skilled fighter. His fitness must be excellent.’
‘There are no boys in the school who can touch him for physical speed and skill. But he has been shocked to discover there’s a girl who can outpace him and she’s no older than he is.’
‘Who is this female wonder athlete?’
‘She’s your daughter, Ripple, whose sanity has often been questioned.’
Rigel gaped, spluttering slightly. He was speechless for a long moment and then began to laugh. His laughter grew until it infected Delph and they laughed until the sea around them quaked.
~~~
Delph didn’t allow the boys tim
e to enjoy the glow of their newfound fame. They were almost ready to journey beyond the solar system so he stepped up their workload. There was no shortage of destinations of value to explore within the home galaxy and much to do to prepare. So it was a few days before Cosmo finally found the time to speak to Ripple. She was near the southeast edge of the main school when she spotted him swimming in her direction.
Is he coming to speak to me? Yes, he’s looking at me and swimming this way.
She glanced at Echo and saw that she’d seen him. With the safety of the school around her and the security of an older sister, she felt no compulsion to swim away. He swerved alongside giving her his slipstream.
‘Ripple, I’ve been looking for you.’
Why would the famous shark-fighter and star of the Io mission be looking for the biggest misfit in the school?
‘I only chased you the other day because I wanted to apologise. I’m ashamed of how we behaved.’
There was an uncomfortable pause. Echo had melted away.
‘Your work is a mystery to us all, but Delph told me that if you wished to be a practical astronomer or fighter or gymnast, your physical skills are good enough.’
‘I’m not interested in any of those vocations. My father is an astronomer. My mother says I get my speed from him.’
‘Your father is an astronomer? What’s his name?’
‘Rigel.’
‘Stars of Dorado!’ He performed a corkscrew leap. ‘This will shut Givan up. No wonder you swim like the wind. Rigel has the speed of a hurricane.’
Cosmo and Ripple edged away from the school. Many body lengths lay between them and the nearest dolphin. A brisk westerly had blown the sea into a short steep chop that glittered in the sun.
They were swimming downwind, cruising easily on the faces of the waves. She remained in formation with him and they breathed in unison.
‘The day in Cascade Cove,’ he said, ‘I thought you were warning me off, so I left. Then I thought you might be sick so I told your mother.’
They swam for a few moments in silence, Ripple gliding in his slipstream. Gannets worked nearby, whooshing and splashing.
