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PCRI, Molokai, Hawaii, Earth
August 17th, 2036
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Terry looked up from his cart to see Yui standing by the main door. He was excited to see her, but she seemed uncertain and looked like she’d been about to leave. “Yui?”
“Hi, Terry. I just found out you were home,” she said, tears rolling down her cheeks. “Oh, my God, I’m so sorry about your mom.”
“I wanted to see you, but I’ve been spending a lot of time at the hospital.” And I was afraid to call you after the way you were the last time I saw you.
“Is she better?” Yui walked over to him and glanced at the cart full of fish. Since it was Sunday, the institute was essentially empty.
“The doctors say her brain activity is increasing.” He shrugged. After two weeks, he wasn’t feeling the same sense of loss he’d felt when he’d first arrived at the hospital. He was still worried about his mother, of course. It just felt different, and he hated himself a bit because of it. He’d been back there every day, for an hour in the morning, and another hour at night. The staff encouraged family to come and talk to her, saying it helped people in a coma to hear familiar voices. Yesterday, he’d skipped the evening visit.
They talked about nothing as Terry pushed the cart into the orca tank and got the feeding pole ready. An orca surfaced next to the edge of the pool. He immediately knew it was a female by the small, straight dorsal fin, then he saw the tiny, almost nonexistent eye patch, and knew it was Maka.
“Hi, Terry,” Maka said.
“Hi, Maka, hungry?”
“Fish?”
“Yes, sorry.”
She made a snorting-burp sound from her blowhole. “Fine.” Terry fixed a fish to his pole and held it out for her. The orca took it in a less than enthusiastic manner.
“Why doesn’t she like the fish?” Yui asked. “I thought all orcas ate fish.”
“She’s a Transient,” he explained. “One of the Wandering Pod. They’re hunters and specialize in eating seals and other whales.”
“Oh, wow,” Yui said.
“Yeah, the first orcas anyone saw were probably Transients, and that’s the reason they were called killer whales.” Maka tossed her head and opened her mouth above the surface, so Terry gave her another.
“Why don’t you give them meat?” Yui asked. “Lions and tigers get meat.”
“I don’t know,” Terry admitted.
“Want meat, yes.”
Another orca swam over and pushed Maka out of the way. Terry knew it was Uila, the dominant female of the Wandering Pod. “Sorry, Uila,” Terry said. “Fish?”
“Give,” Uila said.
Terry was a little taken aback by her attitude. He’d noticed since coming home that the orcas weren’t as deferential as they’d been before he went to New Orleans. Uila’s attitude toward him was surprising. The female orca’s attitude verged on rude.
Nobody had asked him to do the chores; his father was too busy running the institute by himself. He’d decided to do it because he was bored. Thinking about his mother all the time had kept him from realizing how differently the orcas were acting. School was scheduled to start on Monday, and he was looking forward to it. The distraction from his mother’s condition was welcome.
“Let me,” Yui said, and Terry let her take the pole and give Uila a fish. The dominant female took the fish and disappeared below the surface without a word.
“They’re kinda weird now, aren’t they?”
“Yeah,” Terry said. “Something’s changed.”
None of the other Wandering Pod came out for food, and someone else had already fed the Shore Pod. They stopped in the prep area, and got more fish in the cart, then into the bottlenose habitat. He was greeted by the customary, “Terry, Terry!” cheer from the dolphins. Several leaped from the water in graceful single or even double somersaults. Despite his mother, Terry smiled.
“Hi, Sunrise Pod!” Terry yelled. They responded with more dolphin-quality applause, several riding their tails out of the water and across the habitat. Dr. Hernandez was sitting on a bench tapping away on a computer. He tossed a wave toward Terry and went back to what he was doing.
“Terry!”
He looked toward the voice and saw Ihu. Despite it being months ago, he immediately remembered her asking about Yui and felt his blood run cold. “Hi, Ihu,” he said and swallowed.
“That Yui?”
“You remember me?” Yui asked, obviously delighted.
Oh, sure she does, Terry thought, here we go.
“I remember,” Ihu said. She rolled on her side and looked at Terry, then at Yui, then back to Terry.
Oh, crap.
“Like Terry?” Ihu asked.
“Me? Yeah, I like Terry a lot.”
“Terry like you.”
“Oh, that’s good to know.” Yui glanced at Terry, who was looking decidedly green.
“Terry like lot.”
“Hi, Terry.” Dr. Hernandez had walked over while he was distracted. “Ihu, please leave us alone.”
Ihu threw her head twice, gave a chirp of assent, and left.
“Thanks,” Terry said. “Really, thanks.” Hernandez grinned and gave him a little wink.
“What was that all about?” Yui asked.
“The bottlenoses get out in left field from time to time,” Dr. Hernandez explained. “They don’t entirely understand Human relationships.” Yui looked at Terry and blushed. Hernandez had a hint of a grin on his face as he went back to his tablet.
“Hey, is that a slate?” Terry asked. It was a chance to change the subject, and he was genuinely curious.
“Yeah, sure is,” Hernandez said.
Terry and Yui crowded in closer and looked. The alien-manufactured computer was about the size of an average Human tablet, but that was where the resemblance ended. They were less than five millimeters thick, while looking like they were made of a sheet of plastic, yet still as tough as bulletproof glass. Each possessed the computing power of a modest supercomputer, operated on a power supply nobody quite understood, and could be infinitely networked. They were so expensive, currently only mercenaries, government, and rich people possessed them.
“Can I see?” Terry asked. The doctor smiled and handed it over. The two young people spent a minute examining the machine. Even though it looked transparent, the material could be opaque selectively, depending on what angle you chose to use it.
“It has a built in Tri-V, too,” the doctor explained.
“No way!” Yui exclaimed. Hernandez reached over and tapped the screen, causing a three-dimensional image of a bottlenose dolphin to appear. It swam back and forth a dozen centimeters above the slate, rendered so realistically Terry thought he could touch it.
Three-dimensional images had been around for decades, sort of. The best Earth science had managed was projected into mist, or was done by fooling the eye with slightly offset images in each eye through goggles. The alien Tri-V tech was perfect in every way Terry could see.
“Those a lot more expensive than the regular ones?” Terry asked.
“I don’t think so,” Hernandez said.
“Hey,” Terry said, “where did you get one of these? They’re like a couple hundred credits, right?”
The doctor shrugged. “I think this model was 75 credits each. Your father got a deal on a case of 20.”
“That’s 45 million dollars!” Terry gasped. Dr. Hernandez shrugged. “Dr. Hernandez, where did Dad get the money?”
“You’ve been gone a long time, Terry. Your father’s been doing a lot of, shall we say, publicity work, with the cetaceans?”
“What kind of publicity?”
Dr. Hernandez counted off on his fingers. “There’s a half a dozen advertising campaigns being developed, a TV show, and there’s the Shool thing.”
“What’s Shool?” Yui asked.
“The orca’s god,” Terry said. “Advertising? TV show? I thought Mom was against all that.”
“I don’t know what you mean,” Hernandez said. “Dr. Clark, Matthew, has been working on this for weeks. The money started rolling in right after the accident. Terrible timing, but I bet Madison would be happy to see how well this is going. The institute’s accounts are in great shape, enough to buy us out of NOAA’s control. As of two days ago, the institute is privately funded.”
Terry was too stunned to reply immediately, so Dr. Hernandez went back to what he’d been doing. Finally Terry remembered something. “What did you say about Shool?”
“Some kind of ‘outreach,’ is how your father describes it. I haven’t had time to look into it. If you’ll excuse me now, I need to get some of these notes transcribed.” He didn’t wait for Terry to say anything before walking off.
“Terry?” Yui asked. “What’s wrong?”
“I don’t know,” he said, confused by what Dr. Hernandez had said. It didn’t make any sense. “Can you help me feed the Sunrise Pod?”
“Food, food, food!” the bottlenoses were chanting.
Terry usually took his time, watching the dolphins race after the live fish. This time, with Yui’s help, he rolled the cart over and flipped the dump level. A small waterfall of fish cascaded into the habitat. The dolphins went nuts, thinking it was a new game, and attacked the panicked fish with zeal.
Terry stared into space, not paying any attention. He turned the cart around and quickly rolled it toward the storage area.
“Terry, are you okay?”
“Fine,” he said, remembering she was there. “I have to do something. See you at school Monday?” He gave her a distracted hug, parked the cart, and headed for the elevator, leaving her staring after him in confusion as he went to his father’s office.
“Dad?” Terry pushed the office door open, but found the office empty. He was about to leave when he noticed some of the new things there.
A big easel held a meter-tall poster. The image showed an artist’s rendering of an underwater town where dolphins were swimming next to scuba-suited people. “Atlantis Reborn” was written in an exciting font across the top. Another easel held a poster of orcas in an underwater classroom, a Tri-V image of a spaceship displayed before them. “Killer School,” the poster said.
“You have got to be kidding me,” Terry said. There was a third easel, its poster covered with a black fabric cloth. He walked toward it, hand outstretched.
“Terry.”
He spun around to see his dad standing at the door. Two strangers were with him, a man and a woman; both were laughing at something and wore expensive suits.
“Dad,” Terry said, “what the hell is all this?”
“Son,” his dad said and quickly moved to stop Terry from reaching the covered easel, “what are you doing in my office?”
“Checking out Killer School,” Terry said, filling his words with scorn, “and Atlantis Reborn.”
“See,” the woman said and laughed. She had a drink in one hand and looked like she’d already had several. “The boy recognizes a good idea.”
“Atlantis Reborn?” Terry asked, pointing at the other easel. “What does the Sunrise Pod think of the idea?”
“Who’s that?” the man asked.
Terry gawked at his dad in unabashed confusion.
“Mom was okay with this?”
“Terry,” his father said, “we’ll talk about this later.”
“Dad, I—”
His father put a hand behind his back and began leading him toward the adjoining office door. “Give me five minutes, and we’ll talk.”
“But, Dad...”
His father pushed the door open and none too gently moved Terry though it. “Five minutes, young man.” He closed the door behind him. Terry grabbed the handle and found, to his surprise, his dad had locked him in!
The office was nothing more than a place to have a small private meeting. A few chairs, no desk, and some small tables which could be moved around. He plopped into one of the chairs and glowered. As the minutes slid by, he got angrier and angrier. How could he do this without Mom? She hated the idea of exploiting cetaceans. She’d worked with her father to create the institute the way it was. What would you call those ideas he’d seen except theme parks and stupid TV shows?
It was almost 20 minutes before the door unlocked, and his dad came in. He stopped just inside and put his hands on his hips. “What was that all about?” he demanded.
“Dad, Mom would freak out if she saw this!”
“Who do you think helped design those concepts?”
“What?”
“I said, who do you think helped design those concepts?” Terry gawked. “Terrence, your mother loves cetaceans like nobody I’ve ever known. She also recognizes that what we’re doing is expensive and difficult. These projects are ways to obtain funding.”
“It doesn’t make sense she’d support them,” Terry complained, now questioning his own understanding.
“Some of them were a bit much for her, but more’s going on here than you understand.”
“Then why don’t you explain it to me?”
His dad looked at him for a moment. Terry thought he looked conflicted. Then he sighed and sat in the nearest chair. “Terrence, sorry, Terry, do you know how badly injured your mother is?”
“Pretty bad,” Terry said timidly.
“Yeah, bad. But do you know how expensive her medical care is?”
“Isn’t there insurance?”
“Insurance? Terry, what kind of insurance covers you when you go free diving with 30-ton whales in the arctic?” Terry shook his head. “The answer is none. So I decided to go forward with some of the plans we hadn’t finalized yet.” He gestured back to his office. “Those ideas are just preliminary. People are so excited by the orcas and bottlenoses, they’re practically throwing money at us. We’re going to use it to do the best we can for them.”
“Including buying the institute out from the government?”
“Yeah, including that,” his dad said. “They didn’t want to pay for the humpback expedition, and they certainly weren’t going to pay for your mom’s medical bills. Two people died in the submersible, as well. We couldn’t simply leave their families with nothing.” He sighed. “Do you understand better now?”
“I think so,” Terry said, embarrassed. “I’m sorry, Dad.”
“It’s okay, Son. It looks dodgy, and I should have told you about it last week when much of this went forward. I’ll be sure to talk to you in the future. Okay?”
“Yeah, thanks.”
“Don’t you start middle school on Monday?”
“Yeah, I do,” Terry said.
“I can’t believe how fast you’re growing up,” his father said, and he stood to give Terry a hug. Terry smiled a little. “I need to get back to work. Okay now?”
“Sure. Thanks, Dad.” Terry left through his father’s office. As he was walking down the hall toward the elevator, one of the institute’s staff passed with a cart holding buckets of ice and wine.
* * * * *
