by Caney, Mark
‘But I need to know, Muddy! I’ve got to try and see him somehow!’
‘No! You can’t do that! Look, why don’t you ask Rain to help you? He’s had some kind of contact with the Guardians in the past, maybe he still knows how to reach them and can ask for you?’
‘Alright, that’s worth a try. But if he can’t do it I will, and I don’t care about what might happen.’
They caught up with the lone dolphin and put the idea to him. ‘Yes, I do know where they used to be, but I’m not prepared to approach them again. They’ve got some strange, dangerous ideas. They have their own codes about not speaking to outsiders, and the penalties for doing so are harsh.’
‘But I just want to know if my father is still there.’
‘I don’t care. I’m afraid, and I don’t mind admitting it. I wouldn’t put it past those Guardians to kill me if they thought I was a threat.’
Sky wondered if he was exaggerating. ‘Kill another zeta? But that’s against the most basic teachings of the Way! You can’t be serious.’
‘I am. They don’t follow the Way as you and I know it. They have twisted it according to the teachings of Stone Eyes — he’s long dead but they call him “the Seer”. He said that the Way was only meant for Ka-Tse that follow his teachings. According to him all the other zetii are inferior and pretty much expendable if need be. Forget all the traditional stuff about zetii living in harmony with Ocean. They say that Ocean has changed and the Way has changed too. They’re ruthless, and I’ve heard that sometimes they will kill other zetii.’
Sky remembered Born Into Summer, laying helpless on a burning beach; that deadly gull poised beside her.
Muddy broke in to the conversation. ‘Can’t you just try and find out if Sky’s father is still with them, though? If you don’t, I know that Sky is going to want to do it himself, and he’s going to end up exiled or worse.’
‘No, I’ve told you, there’s…wait…something’s coming.’
The other two listened, and soon could all hear it: a number of big creatures coming closer at speed. Sky sent short bursts of sonar in the direction of the sound. They all listened to the reflected echoes.
Sky articulated their thoughts. ‘Fish. Big ones, at least forty. Moving fast. Coming this way.’
A few seconds later a shoal of yellowfin tuna appeared out of the blue. The powerful silvery fish were all large adults, the biggest almost as large as the dolphins themselves. They took station under the dolphins and followed their progress, the darker upper surfaces of their bodies making them harder to see from above, only the occasional flash of silver showing them clearly whenever one fleetingly turned to inspect some passing fragment in the water column.
Rain Ending looked relieved. ‘Well, they can follow us if they want, but we don’t know where the food is either.’
Sky and Muddy stayed with Rain Ending as he continued his swim over the depths, trying to persuade him to change his mind and help but he was adamant. The tuna kept their silent station below them, hoping the keen senses of the dolphins might lead them to food.
The two friends were about to give up and leave when a new sound grew in volume. The distinct thrumming sound of a boat’s engine, and then the sound of a second, smaller but faster boat.
The dolphins leapt from the water to look. The larger boat had protruding structures at the back of it and something was trailing in the water behind it. As they watched, it stopped heading directly for them and turned as though to commence a curve around them. The smaller boat veered away to the opposite side of them, moving fast and bouncing from wave to wave, the roar of its engine like a gigantic, angry insect. It raced loudly occasionally as the boat bounced from the waves.
‘What are they doing?’ Rain Ending asked.
Sky was worried at first; the sounds of engines always reminded him of the awful time his clan had been driven onto the shore by the pulses of sound. But these were different machines, smaller than the giant monsters they had seen that day, and brightly coloured, not all grey as they had been. ‘Maybe they saw us and have turned like that to avoid hitting us?’
Muddy shook his head. ‘I don’t like it. Why would they go with one on each side of us like this? And what’s that stuff coming out of the back of the big one?’
‘You’re right, it’s strange. Well we don’t have to stay here and watch them, let’s just go and leave them to it.’
The dolphins started to swim off in the direction the boats had come from. The larger one continued to circle around behind them. The smaller one abruptly turned around and shot ahead of the dolphins, its engine roaring. They could see the vivid white wake above them as it blasted in front of them. They instinctively turned away from it and swam faster, making frequent leaps to check where the boats were. The speed boat kept cutting across their path, confusing them. Below them, the tuna still followed them but were sharing the dolphins’ growing agitation and darting about nervously.
The dolphins were turned back by the fast boat three more times while the large boat completed its great circle around them, then suddenly the small boat slowed to a halt.
‘Come on,’ Muddy called nervously, ‘they seem to have given up — let’s get out of here!’
They set off away from the boats, the tuna following them, but then Sky saw a line of small floating objects ahead of them in the water. ‘Look out! There’s something up in front of us!’ The net appeared in front of them underwater suddenly, a great wall dropping out of sight to either side and below them.
‘Go back the way we came!’
They turned and sped back towards where the boats were, veering off to one side of the larger one. It was busy lifting something back aboard. Moments later they were faced with another vast net wall. They turned and there it was again. Sky realised with horror that it was all around them: a continuous circle.
‘It’s shrinking!’ Muddy cried. ‘They’re making it smaller!’
‘Go down,’ Rain Ending panted out, ‘let’s go under it!’
They dived down through a confused mass of tuna that were darting in terror in all directions. Twice, Sky was violently bumped by one as he swam downwards. Then he could see the net below him as well. He almost gave up, but then realised that it was moving, closing. ‘This way! Maybe it’s not closed yet!’
He led the other two in the direction that part of the net was moving. The sound of working machinery came clearly through the water as the heavy cable drew the base of the net shut. Then Sky could see clear water through the shrinking opening at the bottom of the net. ‘Come on! We can still get out!’ He darted through, Muddy close behind him. They turned to look at the enormous net above them, the tuna swirling within it in confusion.
‘Where’s Rain Ending?’ Sky asked.
‘He was just behind me — he must still be in that thing…’
‘I’m going to get him.’
‘Sky you can’t — the Walkers will get you!’ But Sky had shot back into the opening of the net calling Rain Ending’s name. Inside, he was immediately confused. The visibility had dropped with the water full of bubbles, scales, and other debris. The mesh walls were getting closer, forcing the fish closed together and he had to fight his way past several panicked tuna as they shot out of the turbid water at him. Then his sonar picked out the subtly different reflection of the body of a dolphin amongst those of the giant tuna. There was Rain Ending, his body racked in a spasm. Sky rushed to the dolphin and began pushing him downwards to where he thought the opening should be. The other dolphin resisted weakly. ‘No, leave me, save yourself; I can’t move now.’
‘Come on, you have to! This way!’
Sky pushed him ahead through the silver madness of the tuna. Soon the floor of the net was in front of them. He swam on but it seemed to go in all directions. The net was closed!
He was ready to give up, and desperate to breath, when he faintly heard Muddy’s voice.
‘Sky, where are you? Sky, quickly, it’s about to close!’
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With a final effort he pushed the other dolphin in the direction he thought Muddy’s voice had come from, and then he could make out the bulk of his friend at the rapidly shrinking opening of the net. He pushed the weakly moving Rain Ending through the opening then forced himself through as the cable constricted the base around his body. For a moment his tail was caught in the net, then with a violent jerk he was free.
They watched from a distance at the surface as the tuna were dragged struggling onto the boat and flopped about in their death throes on the deck. Rain Ending’s spasms had almost passed and he could support himself again at the surface unaided. ‘You saved my life. And you nearly got yourself killed for me. Why?’
‘I didn’t have time to think about it. It just seemed the right thing to do.’
‘I don’t know how to thank you, Touches The Sky.’
Sky paused, then faced him. ‘If you want to thank me, find out what has happened to my father. That’s what I want to know more than anything.’
Rain Ending nodded slowly. ‘I’ll do my best, but it will take a while. Look for me at the Gathering. I’ll find you there and tell you what I’ve learnt.’
‘Thank you. This means a lot to me. But please be careful. Now we must go quickly, tomorrow is the new moon and I have to be back with my clan by dawn!’
Chapter 11
“Honour the teachers: shapers of our future.”
- Second Rainbow (8,127 - 8,159 post Great Alluvion)
Dusk, Muddy and Sky met at the west end of the bay for their lesson. Deneb soon appeared, looking concerned. ‘Do any of you know where Wakes is? I’ve been looking for her since yesterday postnoon and can’t find her anywhere.’
None of them had seen her, so Sky tried to comfort Deneb. ‘She may have just gone off for a night hunt with some friends and gone too far. Or maybe she forgot we have lessons today. She’ll probably turn up soon.’
‘That’s not like her. She’s always on time, you know that.’
‘Yes, that’s true, I guess. Well, if she’s not here by the end of our lessons today, we’ll all go and search for her, alright?’
Cloud Passing then appeared from seaward, and they greeted him deferentially. He paused a moment to be sure he had their full attention. ‘You have a full day today. We will first attempt to further our understanding of the Way by continuing our discussion of the Right to Life and its principle exceptions. Then, you will be teaching some of the young ones until half-postnoon. And please remember that tomorrow morning Green Wave Falling will be guiding you all in the development of your breathing and heartbeat control exercises, so I suggest you get some practice today. Any questions?’ He paused and looked at them quizzically, although it was obvious that he saw them only vaguely. Sky stole a glance at Muddy who was looking uncomfortable. He knew that Muddy hated the lessons with Green Wave Falling, their strictest teacher. And Muddy had never excelled at anything involving control.
Cloud Passing peered at them again. ‘And where is Wakes Softly?’
‘We don’t know, Jeii. We’re going to look for her later.’
‘Hmm. Well, we had better begin. Now, where was I?’
‘Cloud Passing-Jeii,’ Sky ventured, ‘a few days ago Dusk, Deneb, Muddy and I saw something strange, something…bad. Can we discuss it before we start your lesson today?’
‘Well, I cannot see why not. “Accidental lessons are remembered best” as the saying goes.’ He began to swim stiffly to the surface then momentarily froze, a look of pain in his eyes. Sky looked at him in concern but the old dolphin had himself under control again. He carried on up, took a breath and then dropped back to them gently, saying, ‘Swim with me.’
They fell into formation with the elderly dolphin, pacing their movements to exactly mirror his. He led them parallel to the beach, moving slowly and often gliding with his body motionless. Occasionally they rose as one to take a breath at the surface, where their exhalations flashed silver in the clear morning air.
Sky described their experience with the sharks that the Walkers had cut the fins from, trying, in accordance with his training, to be factual in his description, without making assumptions or interpretations. The other Novices remained quiet, only occasionally inclining their heads in agreement. He finished his story, and their teacher swam in silence for some time, his eyes almost closed. Eventually he spoke.
‘Well, that was a lesson I wish you had been spared, but I am afraid that what you saw is not an uncommon event anymore.’
Sky could see that Dusk was clearly desperate to say something. When she did, she was obviously forcing herself to keep her emotions under check. ‘Jeii, how can Ocean ever stay in balance when the Walkers act like this? We Ka-Tse can have all the quotas and rules we like — this makes it all a sad joke!’
‘Well then, Deneb Rising, what do you think we should do about it then?’
‘I don’t see how we can do much more than we already are, Jeii. The Seekers monitor the levels of prey pretty well and try to manage the stocks, but maybe there should be more cooperation with other zetii species. We’re all supposed to be trying to conserve Ocean’s resources but we don’t work together anymore.’
Sky tilted up his chin, indicating he wished to speak. Cloud Passing nodded to him. ‘Jeii, why don’t we invite representatives from other zetii species to the Gathering? If we speak to them we may find that they have just the same problems as us. Maybe we can agree ways to work together to solve them.’
Cloud Passing looked thoughtfully at him and slowly nodded his head slightly. Dusk made a small explosive noise and blew a small burst of bubbles from her blowhole. They rocked lazily towards the surface.
‘Yes Dusk?’ Cloud Passing inquired gently. ‘You have an opinion about this I think?’
‘We don’t really know what the other zetii are doing Jeii! Many of us think that the blue water zetii are flaunting the quotas, taking more than their share. How would we ever know? They spend their lives out above the deep waters moving about in those huge clans: hundreds, even thousands strong. When they move into an area they must take everything! Someone has to stop them!’
‘Dusk, we don’t know that,’ Sky reasoned. ‘You know that there’s no proof that’s true.’
‘And no proof it isn’t! It fits the facts — everywhere there’s a shortage of food, the Ka-Tse are going hungry, but you don’t see any fewer of those Xenthos or Xa-Hana.’
‘But they’re still zetii like us! They’re entitled to hunt just as we are, as long as they’re reasonable in what they take. If we just dominated them because we feel like it, we’d be just like the creatures we despise!’
Cloud Passing interrupted: ‘That is enough you two, this is getting far too emotional. This is not how I would expect to hear two scholars of the Way conducting a debate!’ Sky and Dusk looked suitably contrite as he continued. ‘I am not hearing suggestions as to what should be done. Fades Into Dusk? What are your thoughts?’
‘Jeii, I know the Way has served us well for thousands of years, but it just doesn’t seem to have all the answers anymore. I’m afraid that if we just blindly follow it, the Ka-Tse are going to die out. There’s too much competition for too little food.’
‘Hmm. And Touches The Sky?’
‘I know times are difficult Jeii, but I don’t think we can consider deviating from the Way. It’s what makes us special, what has allowed us to live in harmony with Ocean for so long. I don’t think the problem is the other zetii species, I think it’s the Walkers.’
Cloud Passing looked grave. ‘The Walkers are a strange anomaly on Ocean. All other life forms we have ever known have been constrained by the self limiting workings of the Cycle of Life. Somehow they have moved outside of those boundaries and have apparently somehow acquired great power without great wisdom. They lived in harmony with the Universal well enough for many thousands of years. Then they discovered how to create machines and manipulate their environment to their own ends. Now we simply do not know what may happe
n. Some of us believe the Cycle of Life will somehow correct their actions as it always has in the past with rogue species. Others are afraid that they are already too far outside the reach of the Cycle and that Ocean must suffer a great catastrophe in the next few hundred years; perhaps much sooner.’
‘So what do you think should be done, Jeii?’ asked Deneb.
‘Well, it is not for me to decide alone, but I can assure you that this is a subject that will be debated at length at the Grand Council meeting during the coming Gathering. Which reminds me. We have a vacancy for one of the Voices on our clan’s Council at present. You may know that I have held the post of Voice of the Others for some time — one of four Voices we have represented in our Council at present. I have spent much time meditating on the problems that we have just discussed, and I intend to make a suggestion to the Council, which I think many will find radical. My post demands that I do my best to represent the views of all other species but it seems to me that it is time to let one of the other zeta species actually come along and speak for themselves.’
‘Can we trust what they will say, Jeii?’ Dusk asked.
‘Not speaking to them only increases what mistrust already exists. I think it must be worth trying. Now, I notice that Touches The Sky made a very sensible suggestion along these lines in our little debate just now.’
Sky wondered where this was going, and felt reluctant to accept this credit. ‘Well, Deneb started me on that thought, Jeii.’
‘Be that as it may, it so happens that the current holder of the Voice of Youth has just retired; I am afraid she does not really qualify to hold it any more. So I believe that Sky might enter that position on a trial basis and be able to contribute something useful.’
