Alcyone’s memories of his parents became Cosmo’s weapon against loneliness. He spent many hours running over them, observing the way his parents had lived.
Sometimes he created new scenes to weave through the memories; scenes where he spoke to Mimosa or Kismet and they responded exactly the way he saw live parents speaking to their children every day in the school around him.
‘What’s it like out there in the stars?’ he asked his father one day.
‘Beautiful,’ whispered the memory of Kismet. ‘Mysterious . . . but dangerous. Take care Cosmo. Don’t follow us too soon . . . too soon,’ and the whisper faded back into the sky.
~~~
Though he charged ahead in the fighting-related subjects, Cosmo’s favourite class was astronomy. He absorbed all available knowledge including the names of every constellation and every star whose magnitude or significance had earned it a name.
One night after his astronomy lesson, Cosmo spoke to his teacher, Zenith.
‘How can I defeat gravity and reach the stars?’
The ocean jostled around them, its small waves slapping at their fins in the westerly. The waves were sharply black, but flickering with spears of light reflected from moon and stars.
‘I wondered when you’d ask that,’ replied Zenith.
He dived and re-surfaced with a small squid, which he swallowed neatly.
‘It can be done using the power of the mind. But here we have no teachers skilled in the techniques. We call it Practical Astronomy because it involves actual travel in space among distant worlds. We had a practical astronomer here in the Southern School once. He departed Azure well before his time, about a year before your birth.’
‘What killed him?’
‘A blackfin took him while he worked. It’s not safe to separate mind from body. But that’s exactly how the practical astronomers work.’
Cosmo recalled the warning from the memory of his father.
‘Is that why so few pursue it?’
‘Yes. But there are other schools of dolphins, elsewhere in our ocean, with many specialists in the art. They’ve developed methods of protecting their astronomers from most of the dangers of the vocation.’
‘I wish there were practical astronomers in our school, but perhaps they serve no useful purpose since we survive without them.’
Both dolphins paused to forage among a tempting array of sweet transparent creatures that welled up around them. The deep water had released its spoils.
‘It’s not true, Cosmo, to think practical astronomers serve no useful purpose. Most schools could survive without poetry, mathematics and history but it doesn’t make those vocations worthless.’
‘Our history teacher told us of the spiritual Hereafter. Has that knowledge come from the practical astronomers?’
‘No, our spiritual knowledge comes from the whales. They have past life memory and have shared their knowledge of the Hereafter with us to alleviate our natural Azuran fear of death. But astronomers have returned from space with other knowledge of much value.’
‘What kinds?’
‘Some has been of purely intellectual interest. Some is of such practical use that those who discover it make sure to share it widely. It’s truly an honoured vocation.’
Cosmo stared at the blazing stars riding the misty veil of the galactic arm. He tried to imagine communicating with a creature from a world out there.
Zenith continued. ‘They have also brought back thoughts, ideas and information about arts on distant worlds which we cetaceans of Azure can barely comprehend. We have our own arts of course. But have you heard of visual art, Cosmo?’
‘No. What is it?’
‘It’s when artists manipulate materials in their environment to create representations of their world in order to express creative ideas.’
While trying to work it out, Cosmo did two forward somersaults and three backward ones.
Zenith laughed.
‘Imagine I took a block of rock and somehow gave it the shape of an octopus in pain, because I wanted to show how intensely octopuses feel pain. That idea could remain there for centuries, permanent in the rock, long after the artist was dead. That’s visual art.’
‘Impossible! I might be able to break a soft rock with my tail or teeth, but how could anyone change a rock to an octopus shape?’
‘We on Azure do not create visual art, since we cannot manipulate materials in this way. But because of the practical astronomers there are historians in some schools whose entire vocations consist of memorising images of art from other worlds.’
‘Do the astronomers give anything in exchange for what they receive from those worlds?’
‘Certainly, though not always to those they received from. They may receive from one world and give back to another. Azurans have shared much of their own culture with others in the universe. Some of the arts of war, developed right here in our own Southern School, are admired and copied by aliens. They too must sometimes defend themselves from attack by other species.’
‘Practical astronomy is the greatest vocation on Azure! Surely it must be!’
‘However, it’s not available to you here in this school. It’s far too risky and likely to kill you before you get beyond our own moon.’
Cosmo glanced at the moon. It commanded him to soar beyond it. The wave he rode at that moment lifted him bodily. He shot upwards from its peak and rocketed towards the moon. But as always, gravity defeated him.
‘I must find a way!’ he cried and crashed back into the sea.
The westerly strengthened; a squall whipped the crests into flying spray.
‘To do that, you’ll need to leave this school and find a teacher who provides better for your educational needs.’
As though in agreement with the squall, a chill current from the deep arose and surrounded them.
‘I could never leave friends like Maram and Alcyone to go among strangers.’
‘You’ve chosen no easy calling Cosmo.’
~~~
A group of about forty dolphins hunted south-east of the main school. Three tiger sharks swam in the area but it was safe for the dolphins because the sharks viewed a large group as more trouble than it was worth. However, some of the dolphins, having eaten their fill, peeled away, singly or in small groups, to head back to the main school. The remaining dolphins, still feeding hungrily, failed to notice how quickly their group was diminishing.
The sharks now took an interest.
The dolphin group included some youngsters, who would certainly be the sharks’ first targets. The eldest male dolphin recognised the danger and immediately thought-streamed the main school for help. Then he and the other adults herded the youngsters into the centre and circled them closely and rapidly. A shark glided closer. A fast male dolphin left the circling group, for just long enough to dive deep, rise swiftly, and strike the predator hard from below. It bought time. The sharks withdrew temporarily but did not depart. The dolphins continued circling their young ones.
~~~
Back in the main school, Cosmo accepted his first call to action.
He controlled the flow of adrenaline that charged into his bloodstream; then raced into position at the tail of the squad of fourteen picked fighters. Maram swam nearer the front.
Other dolphins called out as they passed.
‘There go the fighters!’
‘Bring back our friends.’
‘Bring back my son!’
‘Stay alive out there.’
If I stay alive, we’ll win, thought Cosmo. If I’m killed, I’ll go to the stars. I can’t lose.
They swam out at top speed in V formation, regularly exchanging the lead for energy-economy. On arrival, they darted deftly between, above or below the sharks, out-manoeuvring them to join the circling dolphins. Moments later more sharks arrived. The enemy now outnumbered the fighter dolphins and most of the predators were larger than the biggest of the dolphins.
But time had run out; the sharks were ready to feed.
The fighters began their work calmly, with most remaining on guard in the defensive circle. Two or three at a time darted from the circle to attack where they could. They struck at the enemy in short bursts, returning to the circle to let others take a turn. Cosmo glanced inwards at the frightened young dolphins – friends he swam with daily. He looked outwards to the shadowy monsters who cared nothing for the warm hearts and clever minds among them, seeing them only as sweet, warm flesh to rip apart and gorge upon.
Unspeakable memories stirred within Cosmo and his scars glowed red. The red mist of his anger drew in from the edges of his mind. He recognised that mist, welcoming it as a familiar weapon.
He relaxed every muscle in his body, using techniques and patterns Alcyone had taught him. He breathed just once, swiftly, efficiently. He focused on his heart and lungs, relaxing even those deeper areas of his body, allowing all tension to exit like vapour through his skin. A deadly calm deepened over him. But still his anger grew, inside the calm. He let it build, but fluidly, dangerously, as pliable as his own muscles, fins, and flukes. As he watched the predators threatening his friends, he honed the weapon he had created within himself from the red mist.
He cruised the circle watching and waiting while the enemy circled closer. He saw Maram take his turn in attack, deflecting a shark with a heavy blow just as it lunged, open-jawed, at the old dolphin who’d called for help. Cosmo’s flame intensified into a bolt of physical and spiritual energy, poised for the strike.
A group of sharks charged straight at Cosmo’s section of the protective circle.
He took another breath and turned to meet them. In a split second, he calculated the speed and direction of each approaching shark.
He waited until he could count the teeth in their jaws; rows of white triangles with red throats yawning behind. He saw their eyes roll back, blank and evil, as their vertical tails lashed behind them, driving towards him.
Cosmo struck. His body flashed and flickered among them, diving below them and thrusting upwards, plunging his hard rostrum into their gills and the ribless flesh of their bodies. He moved with such speed it was as though he had split into several of himself. He stunned three sharks in rapid succession and they began sinking. He bit two of the stunned sharks while whipping between their bodies. They bled. The blood attracted other sharks who attacked the bleeding ones. Soon the water around him was a bedlam of teeth, blood and dying sharks. The placement of Cosmo’s continuing bites and blows encouraged the bloodshed to escalate.
He had indeed developed into a useful warrior. And every now and then Cosmo surfaced and breathed. Each breath was a sip of freedom; freedom bought dear by the discipline of his training.
In the first throes of Cosmo’s battle, the other fighters instinctively kept away from his zone, giving him more space and scope. Besides, no living thing could be safe to swim among the blood-soaked mayhem produced by such a fighter. His calm ferocity amazed the dolphins.
Leaving one or two to watch the group of non-fighters, the others now joined Cosmo’s fray, working at the outer edges of his zone, with even the seasoned ones raising their game in affinity with him. As it became clear that the enemy was routed, the team co-operated in shepherding the remaining ‘feeding frenzy’ of sharks to a safer distance from those they had threatened.
The sharks were beaten, baffled, vanquished. Many of them were dead. No shark who survived that skirmish ever bothered with dolphins thereafter. Not a single dolphin was lost that day. As the dolphins moved away from the fight zone, the sharks fed on their own dead and injured. Cosmo spotted one big shark gorging on its own entrails, until a trio of smaller ones stopped its hunger forever. The victors escorted their vulnerable charges home.
The story of Cosmo’s battle flashed around the school and many younger dolphins looked at him with reverence. The fighters now viewed him with new respect. Maram himself took special pride in Cosmo, knowing his own part in his development.
Even the true veterans wished to honour Cosmo’s achievement. One of them approached him later as they were hunting in the darkness.
‘You’re young, but you’ve already found the vocation that suits you.’
Strangely, these words did not please Cosmo.
Fighting, he thought? Is it to be my only calling?
He looked up at the stars and wished for the hundredth time that he could get closer to them.
~~~
Fighting aside, it gave me great satisfaction to conclude that life for the dolphins of Azure in that era was more about fun than survival, no matter what Sterne’s concerns may have been. As an example, let us follow Cosmo on one such exhilarating occasion. Here, as he so often did, Cosmo followed the lead of his older friend, the fighter Maram.
~~~
Cosmo was happily anticipating an uninterrupted night of stargazing with clear skies and no predators for miles. Then Maram corkscrewed in with a hubbub of young dolphins fizzing in his slipstream.
‘Come on, Cosmo! Forget your stars and have some fun.’
‘I’m watching meteors tonight.’
‘You can do that any night. Tonight’s for surfing.’
‘But it’s perfect for stargazing. Antares rises soon.’
‘Antares schmarees! Feel that easterly? And that westerly storm-swell? It’s been building for days. That means great surf on the west coasts. If we arrive at half-tide we’ll have three hours of good waves before the tide turns.’
A reluctant Cosmo turned his flukes to Antares, promised himself some stargazing later and hoped it wouldn’t cloud over by then. But like the other dolphins he forgot all else as they rounded the northern cape of the island and felt the first vibrations of those waves.
‘Feel the thunder?’ someone whispered.
Maram had rounded up a good crowd. Four teams of five or six. Even Cosmo was now ignoring the blaze of the galaxy sweeping overhead and leaping up to look over the tumult of water that roared between the dolphins and the black shape of the land beyond. In the touch of the water, every dolphin recognised the whisper of energy that had travelled the width of an ocean and was now driving the waves to destruction on the sand. They itched to harness that energy.
Cosmo was in Maram’s bunch as usual. Out beyond the break they waited for Maram to signal his chosen wave so the ride could begin. Maram picked a huge wave, and they joined it on its journey to its death. The vast power lifted them, pushing them effortlessly shore-wards until the wave felt the bottom and it towered higher. When it reached full height, they leapt exulting from its crest. Cosmo leapt highest. He saw the five other dolphins of his team flying below him on the charging wall of water. He saw the full length of the wave they were riding. It was breaking on their left where the weight of the water curled forward onto itself in a perfect curve, which collapsed into a pandemonium of boiling foam and spray. They headed right, towards purity, and let the white thunder chase them along the wave.
Beyond their own wave, the lines of the surf stretched the length of the beach, lit ghostly white in the starlight. To the south Cosmo could dimly make out another team just finishing their ride and heading back out to sea again.
The roaring of the ocean deafened him and time slowed as he rode its thunder; leap, glide; leap, glide. How close could they dare approach the terrors of dry land?
The team bailed at the last possible moment when the wave reached dangerous shallows. They flicked out behind it, darting away, leaping and spinning back to the safety of the deep.
Maram was laughing in Cosmo’s mind, ‘I knew you’d forget your precious stars once you got into that surf. Ready for round two?’
‘Yes, I’ll admit it now; these waves are too good to miss.’
~~~
Read on, or if desired . . .