by Peter Wood
‘Turaku’s designing a special Comet uniform so they don’t mistake you for a scruff again. It’s got so many medals it’ll take you half an hour to pin them all on.’
‘Idiot! It’s really about your rep job.’
‘That’s part of it, Thom, but so is the Comet gesture.’
‘Really?’
‘Yes, but not the uniform. You’re already a big enough hero without that.’
Wirrin expected to be called an idiot yet again, but Thom started planning instead. ‘I can still train with the spectrum-beam system on the way there, and then I’ll be able to get a proper look through the Cadre ships. Turaku was going to guide me on the one we brought here but now we’ll have three instead. Hey, as soon as Calen gets in, let’s organise for him to come with us.’
‘He can’t. He’s too busy working with Sonic.’
‘Wirrin, I don’t see why not. We’ve only seen him one night and we’re going again in the morning. Let’s tell Sonic he’s coming too, and they can go back to whatever they’re doing when we get home. Anyway, having Sonic there would be an even bigger gesture if that’s what Akama wants.’
Wirrin liked the idea. ‘Good thinking. We’ll persuade Sonic because if he wants to come no-one will stop him and Calen will automatically go with him. We can all be together then.’
Thom nodded then laughed. ‘I’ll tell Sonic I’ll show him some new tricks about flying the Comet. That’s sure to get him interested.’
Sonic did enjoy flying the Comet and often said he wanted to get better at it. Moving to Warrakan had much reduced the frequent commuting where he often, under Thom’s watchful eye, took control.
‘He’ll probably be so interested you won’t get a chance to do your spectrum-beam training.’
‘If he does come I wouldn’t get a chance anyway because we’d have the full crew that goes on any of his trips away from the habitats.’
That would mean at least fifty or sixty people, very different to the minimal crew of eight, including Wirrin and Thom, who’d been on the emergency trip four days ago.
‘Only on the way there. That will be quick, but there’ll be nearly three days of slow travel while you’re doing the escorting on the way back so you’ll get plenty of chances then.’
***
Thom had his chances to train and managed to do everything he wanted to, but he was so busy that the amount of time available could hardly be described as plenty.
Apart from a quick catch-up just before sleep time Wirrin didn’t see him till the third and last day, as the job of being a representative was way more diverse than he’d expected and involved a whirlwind of activities and welcomes in all parts of Freedom.
Having Sonic and Calen with him most of the time was a bonus and with the astonished reactions to Sonic each new event was an adventure. Wirrin also liked them with him because it meant he wasn’t the main focus of attention.
Everywhere they went it started off with embarrassing thanks for helping Freedom, then as soon as Sonic spoke from his transport module the atmosphere would become electric and all attention would be riveted on him. Calen was used to this but all his months of study with Pirramar and EdCom meant Wirrin had missed out on the regular visits Sonic liked to make to nurseries, EdCom groups and community events, and he was reminded afresh of Sonic’s impact.
One feature, which of course couldn’t be missed, was the new reach system on Freedom, and Sonic decided on the very first visit that this was his home base rather than the pool in the Comet’s command centre. The whole set-up looked shockingly small after the size and diversity of the Warrakan reaches, but Wirrin was still impressed with the development and improvements since the four hundred Earth dolphins had been delivered. Sonic excitedly raced to meet the pod in the original reach, and within half an hour the other eight reaches emptied as the message of his arrival spread. Soon 461 dolphins were milling in the familiar chaos of a meeting with Sonic – familiar for Wirrin that is. The dignitaries and even the Freedom rangers watched in amazement while they listened to Wirrin’s explanation of what was going on.
The highlight for the Comet visitors happened on the final approach to Attunga during a special ceremony based on the Freedom cultural heritage. Wirrin had been looking forward to this. When he’d been informed they were to be part of an official ‘Powhiri’ ceremony performed in the old way, he’d done a scan to get a basic idea of what was involved and it all sounded very interesting.
How interesting he had no idea till, shocked and with his heart pounding, he was surrounded by several dozen giant men dressed in little more than vivid war paint and challenged with threatening gestures, horrid grimaces and frightening battle screams. He heard Thom gasp beside him as the sense of power and vitality conveyed from the massed, synchronised battle chant set his scalp tingling and his stomach churning.
A blast of sound from behind gave Wirrin such a shock he jumped and whirled, along with every other performer. There was a moment of stunned silence, then smiles at the sight of Calen in the transporter with his hands covering his ears, before the warriors redoubled their efforts, enthusiastically answering Sonic’s challenge and continuing the ritual of the ‘haka’ till one of the performers placed something at Wirrin’s feet with an expectant look.
A leaf? He picked it up. There was a huge yell and the savage faces were transformed with beaming smiles.
The ceremony continued with sonorous speeches and beautiful song. Not being able to understand a word of the language didn’t matter one bit, because the intent came through clearly. A number of traditional gifts were given and then the performer who had proffered the leaf approached and took hold of Wirrin’s shoulders.
Wombats! What now? It was obviously part of the ceremony so it must be all right.
Press noses? Startled and struggling to contain a smile, Wirrin returned the gesture then watched Thom take his turn. The rest of the group closed in to follow suit but then Sonic stole the show again when he asked to be included, and the image of him beak to nose with a fierce-looking haka warrior became an icon for the Freedom people watching through their InterWeb.
Several hours later the Comet zipped through the short trip to Warrakan, leaving the Freedom habitat to make its final, precisely controlled approach.
Chapter 27
Wirrin’s representative job with Freedom kept him busy for longer than he’d planned, but not by too much, and other people did start doing a lot of the work, otherwise he wouldn’t have coped.
With almost 300 million people, different processes, good conditions that were nevertheless not up to the standards of Attunga and Warrakan, and quite a large technology gap, Freedom was eager to benefit in every way they could, and Wirrin found himself involved in meetings with science delegations, health delegations and particularly with leaders interested in developing a Witness structure for their habitat.
Why they asked him, instead of real Witnesses who knew far more about the training and ideas involved, was beyond him, but ask they did. Luckily, once the various working groups were established they went ahead efficiently and happily without any need for his presence.
A great stream of advanced information and technology poured into Freedom. The AIs rapidly incorporated Attunga level pico-techniques into the picofactories to raise their construction capabilities.
AIs and medical technicians from all three habitats worked together assessing and upgrading every health centre on Freedom with better diagnostic and healthbot equipment.
The EdCom system on Freedom was run in a different way too and Wirrin used Witness Council authority to organise Attunga administrators into discussions with their Freedom counterparts.
Even their transportation infrastructure was way below the efficiency of TransCom. Luckily, that was overseen by an AI and only required a few meetings to get things happening.
Wirrin’s biggest help through all this was Akama, who had discussions with him every day while also being involved in many of the meetings
, especially with the highest level leaders. He was amazingly encouraging and before a meeting would often give advice about what to say to particular people in situations he seemed to know in advance were going to come up.
The people themselves were very friendly and appreciative, though more opinionated than Wirrin was used to. After a number of occasions where he’d had to put a clamp on his feelings of annoyance he’d talked it over with Akama, who as far as Wirrin could tell, seemed to be unaware of the pressure, and was told it was actually a very positive sign because it demonstrated their passion and intent, and that he was handling it very well.
***
Two weeks after Freedom arrived the giant meeting gallery at the main Warrakan dolphinarium became the venue for the official welcome, and in an enlarged version of the Meeting Day event, Wirrin sat with Akama, Thom, Gulara, the doctor and four Freedom leaders, looking out at the mingled crowd of people from the three habitats. On the other side of Akama was an AI whom Wirrin had never met and was rather in awe of because he represented the gestalt.
In the clear, brightly lit water behind the giant glass wall Puck’s dolphin pod moved in a relaxed and changing formation, occasionally surfacing together for air.
Wirrin remembered the dawning awareness of dolphins at one of his representative meetings when the request to have this all happen at a special ceremonial place on Freedom had to be denied because the dolphins couldn’t be there. Today, with virtually every member of the three habitats watching, that understanding would spread to the population of Freedom.
Akama spoke, the AI spoke, and then with a rush 437 enhanced dolphins filled the waters of the viewing chamber. They lined up, rank upon rank, close to the glass barrier, poised motionless looking steadily at the audience. A murmur ran through the room as people reacted.
Even for Wirrin, who knew these dolphins so well, it was uncanny to feel all those eyes watching.
The murmur died away and for a time the groups watched each other in complete silence.
Suddenly the wall of dolphins parted to reveal two figures. Wirrin’s heart leapt as Sonic and Calen approached in a beautiful, synchronised sweep, Calen moving in that incredible fashion he’d mastered, effortlessly complementing Sonic’s every twist and turn till they stopped and hovered almost motionless.
‘People of Freedom, the dolphins welcome you.’
A beautiful sound burst from the translator speakers in the language Wirrin recognised from the Powhiri on Freedom. He didn’t know what it meant but in the few short minutes it lasted the rapt expressions of the Freedom people showed they clearly did.
Was Sonic singing it rote? Or had he learned the language?
Sonic led the dolphins through a series of events, a kaleidoscope of sound and motion referenced mostly from Freedom’s culture, evoking awe, joy and sometimes laughter.
This time Calen was integral to the whole performance and Wirrin, his heart brimming, watched his movements in disbelief. Indisputably bonded, boy and dolphin sent a clear message that humankind and dolphinkind were now linked.
The dolphins ended by forming the same grey wall behind the glass, watching the people for a moment then making the formal dolphin to human greeting. Wirrin joined with most of the audience to give the slow wave in return then watched the people from Freedom rush to join in.
A space cleared round Sonic and Calen, making them the centre of attention, and silent anticipation filled the hall. Wirrin felt a thrill of excitement. Sonic must be going to say something special. With stunning effect the amplified clicks, whistles and squeaks of dolphin speech cut through the hush in clear, steady tones.
Whoo! That wasn’t Sonic, it was Calen, and when his short speech finished Sonic took over.
‘People of Freedom, join me in repeating the words of my brother.’
Calen started again but this time Sonic’s voice came through the translators as an overlay. It was the old language again which Wirrin didn’t understand. But he didn’t need to. After the first couple of phrases the Freedom leader next to Akama jumped to his feet and joined in, as did everyone from Freedom, in a great swell of sound.
When it finished Akama formally introduced Sonic to the Freedom habitat then turned to the doctor who, Wirrin could tell, was doing his best to hide his nervousness.
Wirrin had wondered why he was with them because, although the health program for the dolphins was important, it was hardly something to talk about on an occasion like this. The doctor thanked Akama, welcomed the Freedom people, then turned and gestured to Sonic.
‘People of Freedom, Attunga and Warrakan, I have a gift. This song was given to my family but our Witness Council agrees it is too precious to keep and asked us to share it with you today.’
He gave a nod and the front of the auditorium filled with a holo screen showing Alisa, the doctor’s daughter, hanging on to Sonic’s tail fluke while the rest of the family splashed and played. The laughter and happiness was completely infectious and smiles filled the auditorium till the moment when Raji received the gentle chest nudge. When Sonic started singing Raji’s song the three habitats listened and wondered.
***
‘Is this your latest design, Thom?’
‘Yes, do you reckon it looks good?’
‘They all look good. What started you on this one? Is it for EdCom, or part of your Comet training?’
‘Neither, I just felt like it.’
Ever since he was little Thom had been a spaceship enthusiast, talking about them, looking at pictures and theories from the old speculative fiction stories, drawing his own designs and representing them as 3D holos. During the last few years he’d become much more sophisticated and started building mockups, which even included the different engineering systems a particular model would need.
‘What’s special about this one? Has it got your faster than light drives in it?’
Thom laughed. ‘Not this time, Wirrin. This one’s real. I haven’t been doing those for ages.’
‘Real? How do you mean?’
‘It would work if it was built because I’ve only used real-tech, like the stuff in the Comet.’
‘It must be fast then?’
‘It is, but not as fast as I want. I can’t get big enough engines to suit its scale.’
‘How big is it?’ The holo image didn’t have any sort of reference to indicate size.
‘Thirty-eight metres.’
‘That’s nothing like the Comet. It’s tiny,’ said Wirrin.
‘That’s the whole point of this design. I’m trying to make it as small as I can and still have it able to do everything.’
Now it was Calen laughing. Wirrin was grinning too.
‘You want small? You must be feeling sick.’
‘Funny! Funny! Funny! Everything doesn’t have to be big and fast, Calen. For your information it’s a much harder challenge to design something small and fast.’
‘Well it looks impressive but how fast is it?’
‘I can get it up to 15G. That seems to be the max for this size.’
‘Wombats! I call that fast. It would feed space dust into a Cadre ship’s mouth.’
Thom shook his head incredulously.
‘Calen, you say make it eat space dust, not feed it into its mouth.’
‘Who cares? It’s not like I’m calling Sonic a lump of fish in front of a billion people.’
Thom grimaced. He’d been copping it from Sonic ever since.
‘How was I expected to know they were going to show our home stuff on the InterWeb? The doctor’s going to get dumped in the pool next time he comes here.’
‘So, how long would it take to build?’
Thom shook his head with feigned disgust and turned to Wirrin. ‘Do you think he’s being deliberately obtuse?’
Two sets of dropped jaws made him laugh.
‘That worked well. Sonic used it on me the other day and I’ve been wanting to pass it on. Calen, I couldn’t get it built. You know that. I’d need help fr
om the AIs for a special design like this and I haven’t worked out the environmental system and a few other things either. And anyway it would take fifty years to get enough energy allowance. I’m just—’ Thom broke off as Turaku’s holo shimmered next to him.
‘The AI community is keen to help you with your project in any way, and energy allocation is not an issue. I will discuss this further with you as part of your Comet training tomorrow.’
The air shimmered again and Wirrin and Calen both laughed at Thom’s stunned expression.
‘Help me? What does that mean? With the environment system?’
‘It means exactly what you think it means. They’re happy to build your spaceship.’
‘But they can’t. No-one has their own spaceship.’
‘Yes they do. Sonic’s got the Comet.’
‘That’s different, Wirrin. He needs it. No-one gets their own spaceship. Not even Witnesses.’
‘Well you will, else why would he say the energy allocation didn’t matter?’
‘Dingoes! That’s right. But why? AIs don’t do things like that.’
‘They just did, and it’s not just Turaku. He said it was the whole AI community.’
‘Dingoes! He did too. That’s even weirder. I wonder how long it will take? But they can’t. I haven’t worked it out properly yet.’ Thom dragged his fingers through his hair. ‘Why are they doing it? I’ll have to work on the environmental system tonight. It’s part of my Comet training, that’s what Turaku said … Dingoes!’
‘Have you got dingoes on your brain? It’s recognition because you helped save Freedom and its AIs.’
‘That was Wirrin, not me. I just did whatever he told me.’
They’d repeated this conversation over and over since the Freedom hijack and Wirrin wasn’t going to take it up again.
‘Calen’s right. Ask Turaku when you talk to him tomorrow. What’s the problem with the environment system?’
It took a while to work out because Thom was too excited to concentrate, but with help from the InfoSystem the problem soon disappeared.
