The Alboran Codex

by J C Ryan

  “That has to be it. Wow. Can we do an experiment tomorrow? Can you run from one end of the poolside to another, and let us record any vocalizations they make?” Mackenzie asked. Mentally, she noted they weren’t using the word “noises” anymore. The sounds the dolphins were making were words, if not sentences. Vocalizations was a much better word than noises. And in fact, they should be calling the dolphins people, because it was beyond doubt that they were sentient. Tomorrow’s experiment would also determine whether they could identify their emotions. She almost hated to do it, because she was certain some of the emotions they would evoke weren’t pleasant.

  Each of the planned experiments and the added one Mackenzie had requested went exactly as she thought they would. When Gerry ran from one end of the pool to the other, the dolphins made the same sounds of distress that they did when shown a picture of a dead orca on a beach.

  That idea had come from one of the stories Mackenzie had collected during her research. It seemed a pod of orcas had been caught by low tide, and while people did their best to keep the beautiful creatures alive until high tide could lift them, the orcas were too distressed and confused to swim in the right direction by then. To the amazement of the onlookers, a pod of dolphins had swum in, nudging the orcas and then leading them out into the deeper water at considerable risk to themselves.

  Mackenzie wondered two things. Were these captive dolphins as compassionate as those wild ones had been, and did the younger ones know what an orca was? The answer was a resounding yes to both questions. And the latter one proved that Nola had indeed been teaching the younger ones, because they had never seen an orca in their lives, despite a pod of them living in a different pool on the same base.

  How did she do it?

  Chapter 53 -

  Sir, I need a boat

  Back at Freydís, everyone worked together to translate what they could of the random conversations the dolphins had had among themselves, as well as to upload both the sounds and the images of the sound waves to the main database. They made sure to indicate the dolphins’ unique sound to identify everyone, and programmed the database with the individuals’ names associated with their unique sound. When they could string a few words together, they got snippets that sounded like broken English from a foreign speaker: Human . . . play. Give food . . . fish. Sad . . . give food. Happy/funny Nola play . . . ball. Sad . . . human fear.

  Strangest was they didn’t seem to differentiate between humans and dolphins when they said “human”. After an intense brainstorming session, the Freydís group substituted “person” for human in the database — and it meant an individual, whether dolphin or human. Mackenzie’s thought had been validated.

  Carter was choked with emotion when he made the pronouncement they all knew to be true. “We are no longer alone as intelligent beings on this planet. My God, what can they teach us?”

  Clearly, this news had to be conveyed to the President immediately. Because they had no code that could contain the enormity of what they’d discovered, Carter and Mackenzie left the others to continue the work while Carter flew the two of them to DC. James and Irene met them at the private airport, with some idea of what they had to say but curious as to the extent of it.

  “You’re not going to believe it,” was all Mackenzie would say. No amount of cajoling on the way to the White House would move Carter, either. They had to wait until they heard it along with the President. To Carter’s delight, the President had taken it on himself to invite Bill, to hear the news as well.

  With the entire group expressing surprise in every way from “you’ve got to be kidding me” to “shit, no way”, Carter and Mackenzie told what they’d discovered. The President managed to keep his remarks politically correct when he asked what the next experiment would be.

  “Well, we can stop calling them experiments. That’s insulting, when we’re talking about intelligent beings with a sophisticated language we’ve only just begun to understand. I’d rather call it interspecies diplomatic relations.” Mackenzie beamed.

  “All right, call it that. In that case, I should name one of you ambassador to the dolphins. Or should it be ‘Dolphins,’ with a capital D?” he asked, making air quotes with his hands.

  “I think that’s all got to be worked out, and we don’t even know enough about them to know if they have a worldwide organization, or only work in their relatively small pods. First things first, though. We must discover if we can reproduce some of their ultrasonic sounds well enough for them to understand us. So, the next encounter will be us trying to speak to them,” Carter said.

  “This I’ve got to see,” said the President. “Keep me posted. I’ll meet you in San Diego any time. Just give me a couple of days to clear my calendar.”

  “Yes, sir, of course,” Carter agreed.

  A week later, the same group, with the addition of the President and his Secret Service entourage, met again with a nervous and overwhelmed Lieutenant Gerry Hooper — so nervous he didn’t know whether to salute or offer to shake hands. The President helped him by saluting first, against protocol, but the President was a compassionate and informal man. He didn’t mind.

  “Let’s see these remarkable marine people you work with,” he said, after a flustered Gerry returned his salute. “I can’t wait to meet them.”

  “Marine people, sir?” Gerry repeated.

  “Hasn’t Carter filled you in? The Dolphins call themselves people with the same word they use for humans.”

  “You’re kidding!” Gerry exclaimed. And then flushed. “Sir.”

  “That’s what they tell me. Carter, why haven’t you filled this young man in?”

  “Classified, sir, and no way to code it. This is the first time we’ve been back. Same reason we told you in person.”

  “Oh, well, that makes sense. Anyway, I’d like to meet them.”

  This time, Carter carried a modified version of the device. If it worked correctly, he could speak into a microphone, and the device would translate and broadcast dolphinese to the pod. Furthermore, its programming now included the AI routines that would allow it to learn and refine the translations on the fly.

  Before he spoke to them, though, Gerry went through the same introductions of the seven dolphins to the President as he’d given Carter’s group before. The dolphins had gathered as before at the side of the pool. This time, Gerry had told them an important person was coming to visit them. Unbeknownst to the humans, the dolphins understood quite a few English words, including the gist of what Gerry said to them. All the dolphins identified the different person right away. They were silent, waiting for whatever the humans intended to do.

  Carter was more nervous than he’d thought he would be when he prepared to speak to them. What if it was all a fluke? What if the dolphins didn’t respond to his speech at all? Mackenzie gave him an encouraging pat on the hand. “Go for it, Carter. You’ll do great.”

  Carter cleared his throat and then spoke into the mic. “Hello. We humans hope you can understand us. We want to talk to you, and we want to be friends.”

  At first, the Dolphins thrust their upper bodies out of the water and twisted their heads, looking for all the world like curious dogs do when they hear a sound they don’t recognize. Then they all raced to the underwater speaker where the translated dolphinese broadcast Carter’s words. Nola gently bumped the speaker, and then lifted above water, looked at the humans, and chittered. Carter interpreted it to mean “play it again, Sam”, and directed her to do so. Sam fiddled with the file for a moment, adding “Nola” to “hello,” and played it back.

  They all saw Nola’s mouth open as if in astonishment, and Sam yanked the earphones away. “Wow, that excited her.” She turned a knob and a cacophony of high-pitched vocalizations emerged from the speakers, prompting some of the listeners to clap their hands over their ears.

  “What in God’s name?” cried the President. Sam turned the knob back and the speakers fell silent.

  “We’ve assigne
d some high-pitched sounds we can hear to their supersonic sounds,” she said, a bit sheepishly. “Sorry about your ears, sir. It seems they’re excited.”

  Indeed, the Dolphins were swimming in circles, and when Sam again made the sounds audible, this time at a lower volume, the device was attempting to translate but getting the words all jumbled. The only thing they could make out was “happy, happy, happy”, along with the names of the Dolphins.

  Mackenzie grabbed the mic. “Please. One at a time. We can’t understand.”

  This time, Nola spoke to her pod. “Silence. Nola talk.” Everyone’s mouth was wide open as they heard, for the first time in real time, a Dolphin talking to another Dolphin. They continued to stare in awe as Nola swam toward them while the rest hung back. “So, that’s what she was saying in the first recording,” Sam muttered. No one else heard her. They were too busy being astonished by what they heard from the speakers.”

  “Nola. Nola. Talk. Friends. Talk more. You . . . name. Sun head.”

  “Uh, oh,” said Carter. “We’ve jumped the gun. I don’t have a clue—”

  “She’s asking my name,” said Mackenzie in awe. “My hair. She’s talking about my red hair. But they don’t really understand hair, I think.” She said, “My name is Mackenzie.”

  Nola gave an unidentified whistle and then said, “Sun head. [whistle]”

  Sam quickly looked at the sine wave for the whistle after “sun head” and compared it to the first one. “She’s named you in their language. That whistle means Mackenzie.”

  Nola identified each person as well as she could, asking for each name. Some of her remarks were less than flattering, they noticed, as she used “You. Ball head. Name” while noticeably staring at the bald, somewhat rotund President. His reply translated as “Leader”, they discovered, when she laughed.

  “Leader, ball head. Sun head female. Mackenzie beautiful. Mackenzie leader sun head.”

  “Well, I guess I’ve been put in my place,” said the President, laughing. “I have to agree. Mackenzie’s much better looking than I am. I’m lucky that isn’t how they decide the vote.”

  Mackenzie blushed. “I’m sorry, sir.”

  “No need. These are obviously highly intelligent creatures. What did she mean by ‘Talk. Friends. Talk more’ when you first spoke to her, Carter?”

  “I haven’t a clue.”

  Nola, who had followed the conversation, turning her head back and forth as each man spoke, whistled again. This time the translation was, “I said, ‘It’s good to talk to you again, our friends.’”

  Now it was the humans’ turn to be dumbfounded. “How the hell?” the President asked.

  “The translation device has artificial intelligence. Obviously, it’s been hearing both the Dolphins and us and working in the background. But where it got the syntax routine, I have no idea.” In his own mind, Carter stumbled over the “again” part. They’d never spoken to the Dolphins, not directly. Maybe the device wasn’t translating correctly.

  Sam spoke up. “My fault, I’m afraid. After the broken snippets, we got back at Freydís, I wrote up a routine to fill in the most likely meanings based on English syntax. It doesn’t do it in the other direction. You’re probably still speaking pidgin English to them. I’d have to know a lot more about their language and how it’s structured before I can make it sound smooth to them.”

  “Have I ever mentioned to you that you’re a genius, Sam?”

  “Once or twice, maybe.” She grinned.

  While they were having this conversation, the others were taking turns with the mic, excitedly talking to the Dolphins. Still stung though amused by Nola’s pronouncement that Mackenzie should be the leader, the President asked about Dolphin politics. Nola responded, “I don’t understand.”

  The President then explained at length about the political process in America, and about people voting. Diplomacy obviously not being her strong suit, Nola responded that it was the stupidest idea she’d ever heard. “Do land-people have a death wish? How can you survive if you aren’t led by the strongest and cleverest female?”

  Nonplussed, the President handed the mic back to Mackenzie. “I’m glad I didn’t have to debate her in an election.”

  By then, Carter understood what Sam’s initiative had done for them but was still trying to figure out what Nola meant by “again”. He gestured for Mackenzie to hand him the mic. “Nola, what did you mean when you said it was nice to talk to us again? When did we talk to you?”

  “Before I was born. Land-people and water-people used to talk to each other all the time. Then we didn’t. Many generations.”

  Carter thought carefully before he spoke again. “How do you know this if it was before you were born?”

  “I learned from my mother and she from her mother. Many generations.”

  Carter thought some more. Of course, the Dolphins wouldn’t have the same concept or measurements of time. None of them would be able to tell him how many years, centuries, or millennia it had been. “Many generations” was all she could tell him. How could he verify that she meant the giants? Did Dolphins even recall that humans used to be much bigger?

  “Nola, do you know if your people and mine talked with each other using a machine before you were born?” He held up the mic to let her know what he meant by machine.

  “Yes, many, many, many generations.”

  Nola’s answer confirmed that land-people had used a translator, but Carter wondered if there was a difference between knowledge in Dolphins on this side of the world from those on the Atlantic Ocean side — if the Dolphins here had spoken with a different group of land-people than the giants. He decided that to learn any more, they’d have to communicate with Dolphins closer to where they believed the ancient nukes were to see if they too had any knowledge of speaking with land-people in the past before they began their expedition in the Alboran Sea.

  Carter told Nola they would talk again soon and signaled the others that they were through for the day.

  After leaving the area, he turned to the President, bypassing the chain of command. “Sir, I need a boat.”

  Chapter 54 -

  I will teach you

  With the President’s help, Carter had his “boat” within days. In fact, he had a fully-equipped marine research vessel and crew along with a Coast Guard escort. Everyone essential to the Dolphin language research was along for the first short expedition from the Hampton Roads Coast Guard base into the mouth of Chesapeake Bay, where Dolphins had been observed for centuries. The mission was to contact wild Dolphins and attempt to talk to them.

  No one knew whether the language they’d learned from the San Diego captive Dolphins would be recognizable to Dolphins on the other side of the continent who only had incidental contact with humans. Carter, Liu, and Professor Wasserman, as the foremost experts on language within the team, had discussed it at length, concluding that they couldn’t even guess at the outcome. The only thing to do was broadcast a greeting underwater and see if any Dolphins accepted the invitation.

  For this expedition, Rick joined them. He and Sam greeted each other professionally, but Mackenzie’s matchmaker eye detected that there was more to the relationship than professional congeniality. No wonder Sam hadn’t responded to any overtures from the Executive Advantage trainees or staff! Mackenzie didn’t mention it to Carter, but determined to the best of her ability to give the young couple every opportunity to be alone. What better way to advance a relationship than on a romantic cruise!

  Of course, the research vessel lacked any amenities one might find on a cruise ship. Quarters were cramped, and single members of the expedition were assigned bunks in shared two-man cabins by gender. There was no spa, no swimming pool on the vessel, and no round-the-clock gourmet buffets with fancifully-carved fruit and too much dessert. Nevertheless, every member of the team was excited to cast off and find Dolphins as quickly as they could.

  Mackenzie had continued her research into everything known about Dolphi
ns, and did have a project she wanted Carter to talk to Rick about. While the others set up the device and began broadcasting as soon as the boat reached a point midway between the mouth of Back River and Fisherman Island on the east side of the mouth of Chesapeake Bay, Rick, Carter, and Mackenzie met briefly.

  “Rick, Mackie has turned up something interesting in her research, and we’re hoping to piggyback an experiment on this expedition. Since Sam has the translation algorithms working so well, we were wondering, if we captured the sonar recordings from any Dolphins we encounter, could you work on something different?”

  “Sure, if that’s what you need from me. I guess you didn’t invite me along only for my good looks and the pleasure of my company.”

  “Of course, we did,” Mackenzie answered, smiling in a way that Carter recognized as meaning she had ulterior motives. What could that be about? he wondered. But she was already continuing, so Carter pushed it aside and listened.

  “But we do need your expertise, too. You see, some scientists think that Dolphins can interpret sonar communications as images. In other words, they think Dolphins can send pictures to each other as a more efficient way of communicating than words. We’d like you to work on the sonar recordings and see if they can be translated as images.”

  “Wow, now that’s a challenge,” Rick answered. “But hey, I’m game. Can’t let Sam have all the glory, now, can I?” He winked at Mackenzie, who winked back.

  What’s going on here? Carter wondered.

  Leaving Rick to think about how he’d go about his assignment, Carter took Mackenzie’s elbow and steered her to a sheltered area on the deck. “What are you scheming with Rick?” he asked.

  “Oh, nothing, or at least not in the sense you’re thinking. Have you seen how Sam acts when Rick’s around?”