by Peter Wood
‘Why isn’t anything happening? I thought we’d see all sorts of construction robots and other things.’
‘It is happening, Calen, and so fast it’s hard to believe. Those tubes are carrying picobots and energy sources to the asteroid.’
‘Tubes? You mean the cables?’
‘They’re nothing like cables. They eat their way into the asteroid and the picobots transform the ore into proper hull material and move it into place. Look over there. There’s a new one growing out from Attunga.’
Thom knew all this because when he’d learnt he was going to Earth he’d spent hours finding out everything he could about the new ship. Not far away, Wirrin saw the tube Thom was talking about, its free end an indistinct glowing red cloud. Was it really growing?
Yes, a new section of tubing came into view while they watched.
‘What’s the glowing part at the end of the tube?’
‘It’s millions and millions of picobots. There’s an electromagnetic field that holds them in place while they do their work. As soon as the tube reaches the asteroid new picobots will start doing a host of different things.’
It was all amazing, and as they watched, more and more tubes extended towards the asteroid. Thom fiddled with his controls and they slowly started moving.
‘Where are we going now?’
‘Just to the end … Yes, look at that. The frame is beginning to take shape.’
Wirrin could see five of the tubes extending from one end of the asteroid then, while he watched, three more started.
‘The Comet’s bigger than the asteroid so they build it from the inside out.’
‘Inside out?’
‘Calen, it’s obvious isn’t it? It’s solid nickel-iron so they hollow it out and most of that material becomes the hull and the framework.’
Fascinated, they watched for over an hour as more and more of the picobot tubes extruded from the main asteroid. A feathery-looking framework joined the ends of the tubes and the final outline, a strange ellipsoid shape with a flattened bottom area, started to take shape. Thom explained it all. Since the Comet was landing on Earth’s surface at Monkey Mia, the flat area was needed to match a huge temporary anti-grav landing field, which would be built there.
The current flimsiness was purely temporary as over the next six to seven days it would steadily solidify and build to a 2 metre thick hull, with huge 10 metre reinforcing girders extending internally through the length and breadth of the ship.
‘Did you say 2 metres, Thom? How thick is the hull on this transporter we’re in now?’
It only took a couple of seconds to find out.
‘It’s 3 centimetres. Why?’
‘Well, if 3 centimetres is enough for here, why do they need 2 metres? Wouldn’t 20 to 30 centimetres be enough? That hull material is incredibly strong.’
Materials technology had gone through two major stages since the pre-habitat days. During the first stage traditional steel and concrete were replaced by construction materials of ten times the strength and hardness, which accelerated the building of the great population centres to shift most of the Earth’s population underground.
The second major breakthrough, in conjunction with the development of practical gravity control some eighty years ago, was the great enabler for space habitats, with materials half an order of magnitude stronger again and relatively light. The limited spin-cities had been quickly modified.
‘I wondered about that myself,’ said Thom, ‘when I saw the hull material has a rating of 61.5 SS. That’s 61.5 times as strong as standard steel, and 2 metres of it is like having 120 metres of the old steel. It’s because the Comet might have to go through all sorts of things like radiation belts and solar winds and they’re putting special layers in the hull to shield against them. They’ve got a crazy safety factor too.’
The equivalent of 120 metres! Wirrin liked steel. There was a sculpted piece on display in one of his EdCom workshops and he loved its silvery sheen. In his mind he added 120 metres to the Comet and pictured the resulting shiny steel monster. It would look great, but it would be too heavy to move.
‘Are you zapping the Comet or are you thinking?’
‘Both. I was imagining what the Comet would look like if it was made of steel.’
***
‘They’re bombarding us with questions. They’re all curious about what wild dolphins will be like and Sonic and Puck are out visiting all the pods to keep them up to date with what’s going on.’
After a call from Burilda, the trio had gathered at the dolphinarium to do some catching up of their own. Wirrin was curious as to why Sonic and Puck had to do the visiting.
‘Why aren’t the rangers connected with each pod explaining things?’
‘They are, but apparently the dolphins need to hear it from Sonic and Puck.’
Calen nodded as Burilda continued.
‘The whole community’s excited and they need to interact with each other when major things happen. Puck goes because she’s the leader and Sonic does all the talking.’
‘What is he telling them?’
‘Depending on numbers, they might have to share their reaches with several hundred Earth dolphins if the Warrakan reach hasn’t developed enough. The nutrients and stimulation have caused an explosion in the number of micro-organisms, but it takes time for the effect to work its way up the food chain.’
‘Sharing? That’s new.’
‘Yes, we have to consider it because early indications from Earth are telling us we might be catering for more dolphins than we expected.’
‘What’s happened?’
‘All sorts of things, Calen. In the last few days a campaign against ‘unnatural creatures’ has started in the semi-directed societies on Earth and it’s made many of the marine stations so worried they’re transporting their dolphins to the protection of Monkey Mia.’
The trio stared at Burilda in shock.
‘Unnatural! Are they crazy?’ Calen’s angry outburst made everyone jump.
‘No, Calen. They’re not crazy. It’s a very calculated campaign by K74 and like-minded habitats to counter the strong negative reaction from the rest of the solar system against the earlier killings.’
‘But it is crazy. Earth dolphins are more natural than humans. Humans have all got health-bots in their bodies.’
‘And most people agree with you, but according to Turaku it’s a kind of social engineering to turn the populations in the directed habitats against dolphins. He predicts the next stage in their campaign will likely include reports of modified dolphins losing their senses and attacking people at famous beaches.’
‘That’s stupid. No-one will ever believe that.’
‘They will in the directed habitats. A continuous stream of bad reports will eventually create negative associations with dolphins in people’s minds.’
‘As soon as they go on the InterWeb they’ll know it’s not true.’
‘No they won’t. If it comes from their leaders they’ll believe it. The same as we would.’
‘No we wouldn’t.’
‘Of course we would. When Witnesses tell us things we believe them.’
‘That’s different. Witnesses don’t tell lies … They can’t tell lies.’
Calen was shaking his head but he understood what Burilda was saying. He was just resisting the idea that anyone could see dolphins in a bad light.
‘Are we still sure it’s mainly K74 behind all this?’
Burilda gave Wirrin a curious look.
‘Your program hasn’t stopped running, Wirrin. We’re more sure than ever. It’s traced the people who made the reports and linked them all with K74. It also uncovered the identities of the Cadre of five men who control the K74 habitat.’
A small group like that controlling fifteen billion people? Wirrin started to think about it. Calen was more interested in the dolphins.
‘So how does that mean more dolphins?’
‘Remember how Monkey Mia wor
ks closely with twenty-seven dolphins? They’re also associated with many more, and it’s these they’re worried about. Monkey Mia has eleven in particular and it’s a similar story at most of the other centres. The whole thing is very complicated because we can’t separate individuals from their pods.’
Wirrin did some quick figuring. He knew the official group from Monkey Mia were all in the one pod, but the non-official dolphins must come from a range of pods and most pods had at least ten or fifteen members and usually over twenty. If they had to transport even one extra pod from each centre the numbers would increase enormously.
‘Wouldn’t that be too many to transport?’
‘No, there’s room for nearly six thousand. They’d be very crowded but that wouldn’t worry them just for the trip. It’s when they arrive here that the problems start. Five thousand dolphins in a reach designed for five hundred will quickly destroy the viability of that environment.’
‘Five thousand? That’s impossible. They’d eat everything in the first week.’
‘Less than that, Calen, but we’ve come up with solutions. We’ll be bringing a week’s supply of live food from Earth – that’s all been organised at Monkey Mia – and Sonic is going to teach them to eat fish-substitute. They won’t like it but there’s no alternative. Construction of a specialised protein factory is already underway on Warrakan.’
Thom suddenly laughed and everyone gawked at him.
‘Salmon-sub! I’m thinking of Sonic eating it and telling all the other dolphins to do the same when he said it was disgusting.’
The mood lightened and Calen actually smiled. ‘They’ll all hate it.’
‘They’ll hate not having to hunt for it, but they’ll love the taste. It will be designed especially for them.’ Thom was right. The food scientists would make sure of that.
‘How long before the reaches are developed enough so they can catch their own? I suppose having extra dolphins will mean it’ll take longer?’
‘No, Calen, it will still take just on five months. The four extra reaches on Warrakan will all be ready then, and two months later twenty more. In another year every pod will be able to have their own reach if that’s what they want.’
Wirrin worked it out. Five thousand dolphins would be an awful lot of pods.
‘That’s over two hundred and fifty reaches … They’ve speeded up the plans on Warrakan again?’
‘Yes they have, but we won’t need that many. Turaku has been working with Uranus and Freedom habitats and they’re hoping many of the dolphins will move there as soon as they’ve developed working reaches.’
The trio shared a look. Burilda had been right about lots of things happening.
‘Uranus? They don’t even have dolphins.’
‘They’ve suddenly become extremely interested.’
Burilda pointed a finger at Calen and smiled.
‘Someone persuaded them.’
‘Me?’
‘Of course. You and Sonic. After they saw the pair of you on Sonic’s Meeting Day they quickly committed themselves, and they’ve been in contact with Turaku ever since.’
Wirrin felt a surge of excitement and pride for Calen and Sonic. Thom must have felt the same because he grabbed Calen’s arm and gave it a shake.
‘You’ve made history. You and Sonic.’
‘They certainly have, and the effects of Sonic’s meeting day will be far ranging. All four habitats who’ve seen it so far have been inspired, and Turaku is certain that will continue with other habitats.’
Four habitats? Oh, Warrakan of course. It was easy to think of Attunga and Warrakan as one.
Calen started making his usual self-deprecating excuses, giving Sonic all the credit, but Burilda interrupted him.
‘You’re wrong, Calen. The biggest factor behind the wish for humans and dolphins to work together was your interaction with Sonic.’
‘What are they doing on Titania?’
Everyone smiled at Calen’s blatant change of subject.
‘They’ve already had three changes of plan in the eight days since Sonic formally met Attunga and Warrakan. At first they were going to follow our set-up, though with significantly larger reaches, and gradually build a population of enhanced dolphins.
‘Two days after Sonic made his rescue proposal they asked to share in the project by taking five hundred Earth dolphins, and now with the news just ten hours ago about the increased numbers, they’ve increased that to two thousand.’
‘Two thousand? Are you serious? That’s enormous, especially since they haven’t had any dolphins before.’
‘Enormous is a very good word. Our entire database of knowledge relating to enhanced dolphins is being transmitted, along with our specifications for picofactories to build infrastructure, and environmental data to keep the reaches in optimum condition. We’ll have to send Attunga rangers and bio-scientists as well, as they don’t have the human expertise they need. Our dolphinarium is going to be a hive of activity till all the new facilities are ready to be used.’
‘The Warrakan dolphinarium is ready to use now?’
‘Yes, but even that will be tripled in size to cope with all the dolphin associates from Earth, and since our own dolphins won’t be able to move there for an extra five months, all the enhanced training work will have to stay here.’
‘It will take ages to build an enhanced dolphin population on Titania when they’re starting from scratch.’
‘Decades, Thom. But with the knowledge we’ve developed on Attunga they’ll do it much faster than we did. Our own enhanced project started right back when Attunga was built.’
Thom was right. The Attunga dolphins weren’t just ordinary dolphins with implants. The ova and sperm of mating parents was gene-engineered, then gestated by the female and nurtured after live birth in the ways of the dolphin community. This limited dolphin numbers to their natural breeding cycle and it would be at least eight years before a second generation was born.
Attunga dolphins had been refined over six generations.
‘In a perverse way K74 is doing us a favour by forcing this influx of dolphins. In the long run it will put all our programs years ahead … by at least twenty years in Titania’s case.’
‘What about the Uranus moons, Burilda? Are they involved in this?’
‘It would be strange if they weren’t. They work together in much the same way as Attunga and Warrakan.’
‘And why are they having bigger reaches than us?’
‘There’s no reason for them not to, Calen. They’ve got as much space as they like and more water than they can ever use.’
‘Water? Way out there?’
‘The mantle of every moon is mostly ice if I remember rightly.’
Calen looked to Wirrin to find out.
‘Titania, diameter 1578 kilometres – composition half ice, half rock – mantle thickness 270 kilometres. Burilda is right. The mantle is nearly all ice.’
‘I suppose the other moons are the same? I don’t know much about them.’
Wirrin didn’t either. He knew there were five inhabited moons plus the Titania habitat, but that was only from the recent talk with Gulara and Turaku.
‘I suggest you organise a module with EdCom to familiarise yourself, especially about Titania, since Sonic will want you with him when he travels there.’
‘Titania?’
‘Get ready for it. It’s practically a certainty.’
Yesterday Wirrin and Calen were adjusting to the idea of a 4000 kilometre trip from Attunga, and now they were being informed of a journey that made even the trip to Earth look small.
They both turned to Thom. His excitement would now jump to a new level and seeing their looks of anticipation, he said nothing and pretended to be calm. Wirrin knew that couldn’t last. If he kept holding it in he’d explode.
‘Anything else to tell us? You said there were all sorts of things.’
Burilda, understanding the byplay, gave a chuckle.
‘
Well, Thom, they’ve started building the grav-field so the Comet can land on Earth.
‘Over four hundred dolphins have already arrived at Monkey Mia.
‘Sonic wants another trip to Warrakan.
‘In another ten days the Comet will be safe for humans, and three days after that we leave for Earth with Akama and Gulara.
‘We’ve had 75,000 enquiries from people wanting to be rangers.
‘Turaku and Sonic want you to become expert at flying the Comet.
‘And a new AI called Yajala has taken the equivalent position to Turaku on Warrakan.
‘Is that enough for a start?’
***
Thom had very excitedly piloted the big security ship for the first time, and as far as Wirrin could tell he’d handled it as if it had been the little transporter they’d used to visit the asteroid convoy. Even the fact that he’d been closely scrutinised by four different AIs plus Gulara hadn’t appeared to make him at all nervous.
He’d spent days in a Comet simulator of course, plus a surprise real-time session yesterday under the supervision of the security ship’s usual pilot because it was the closest thing to the Comet.
Sonic was most impressed, well they all were, when Gulara had asked if Thom knew enough to navigate the Comet to Earth without using the automated pilot, and his answer, with qualifications that were gobbledygook to Wirrin and Calen, had been yes. He’d be piloting again on the return trip to Attunga but right now they were exploring a seagrass bed.
After a warm welcome and introduction to Yajala, Warrakan’s new dolphin AI, they discussed the current status of different reaches, and the priority they’d been given since the news from Monkey Mia. Yajala showed holos of the additions being made to the new Warrakan dolphinarium to cater for the influx of dolphin associates, and spoke with Sonic about plans for a section in one of the new reaches where dolphins would be able to experience waves like those in the oceans on Earth, then disappeared when the group reached the water.
They’d entered the Warrakan reach at a new access point not far from where the barrier to the extension used to be, and had only travelled a few hundred metres when Sonic stopped. His echolocation was telling him there were schools of fish everywhere, he explained, and they had to have a closer look. Wirrin could hardly believe what he was seeing.
