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PCRI, Molokai, Hawaii, Earth
November 27th, 2036
Terry ate slowly, watching his mother across the table. The turkey had been bought at a local deli, as was the entire meal. She looked tired—more tired than he’d seen her since she’d returned home from the hospital. Doc was sitting next to him, quietly eating, looking out of place.
“Thanks again for inviting me, Terry,” he said. “And you, Mrs. Clark, for having me.”
Terry glanced at his mom when Doc called her Ms. Clark. She glanced up sharply, then nodded and said he was welcome. It wasn’t public knowledge that she’d both refused to put up bail money for Dr. Matthew Clark and also filed for divorce more than a month ago. All anyone in town knew was that Terry’s father was still in Seattle, and still in jail.
Yui though, of course, knew it all. He’d also invited her to Thanksgiving dinner. She had to stay with her family, though she’d wanted to go with Terry. Especially after he’d told her about the divorce.
Later, after dinner, they sat in the living room overlooking the cetaceans’ tanks. Doc and Terry’s mom were drinking wine, and Terry had hot chocolate. Quiet music was playing, and for some reason, Terry felt it was awkward, and he didn’t know why. It turned out he wasn’t the only one, because his mom suddenly said something.
“I never thanked you,” she said to Doc.
“For what?”
“You’ve been a real friend to Terry. He’s had so much fun learning to dive; it’s all he talks about.”
Doc smiled and nodded. “Yui and he are great kids. When I caught them bumming around the docks, I felt like I was rescuing a couple of wayward kittens.”
His mother slowly turned to skewer Terry with a jaundiced stare. Terry smiled and looked down at his hot chocolate. “Bumming around the docks, eh?”
“We were looking around, you know?”
“I’m sure,” his mother said, then smiled. She chuckled, and Terry let his breath out.
“Mrs. Clark?” Doc started.
“Madison is fine,” she said.
Doc smiled and continued, “I don’t want to spoil the mood, but can you tell me how the court case is going?” Her mouth thinned, and she looked at Terry.
“He means the one to take the cetaceans away,” Terry said quickly.
“Oh, right,” she said, casting another glance at her son. “Well, after the gag order was put in place, the press has been hounding us all pretty badly.”
“I’m sure,” Doc said, “I had one show up at school right before the break. Caught him trying to sneak into the cafeteria. Principal Landau wanted to press charges.”
“We’ve moved through several motions, and right now both sides are in a discovery phase. I’m not a lawyer, but it involves a lot of questions. The high court hasn’t tried many cases, and they’re hesitant to create precedent. There are animal rights groups trying to get the cetaceans, all cetaceans, declared sentient beings with full rights under the Earth Republic Bill of Rights. The world FDA body is trying to get involved, suggesting the pinplants are unlicensed medical devices. Luckily the court dismissed their claim, because the cetaceans aren’t ‘people’ by definition.”
“Unless the animal rights groups win,” Doc added.
“Yes, there is that. One of the problems we have now is that the religious nutjobs have gotten involved.”
“The big churches? Like the Pope, and stuff?”
“No, thankfully. The Vatican has stayed out of it so far. There’ve been a couple edicts from the usual middle eastern sources, of course. I never thought I’d be glad Iran wasn’t around anymore.”
Doc grunted and nodded. He knew only too well.
“The problem with the religious types is this Faith of the Abyss,” she said.
“The ones based on the orcas’ god, Shool?” Terry asked.
“Yeah, them. They went from loons to well-funded loons almost overnight.”
Terry remembered the birth of that—the people who’d show up every day to listen to Kray give a sermon on the god of the deep, how it had created the world, starting in the oceans, and gone on from there. “But Kray talks about Shool being a unifier,” Terry complained. “How Shool wants all creatures on Earth to live together in peace.”
“The Faith of the Abyss thinks cracking some skulls might speed things along. They’ve been protesting outside the courthouse in Sau Paulo, and here most days.” She looked outside toward the ocean, almost like she expected to see them rappelling down the side of the institute.
“What about your husband?”
She glanced at Terry again, who was stirring his now-cold hot chocolate into a froth. “He’s still in jail in Seattle. The feds have custody, and those charges are separate.”
Doc looked at her for a long moment, glanced at Terry, then the empty chair where Terry’s father would have sat. After a second, he nodded and finished his glass of wine.
“Well, it’s been great, Madison,” he said.
“You’re welcome to stay,” Madison said. “Plenty of wine.”
“It’s a bit of a drive back to Krispin,” he said. She looked confused. “My boat.”
“Oh,” she said. “You live on it?”
“We’re good friends,” he said and winked. “It looks like it might rain, too.” He got up, and she escorted him to the door. He took her hand and gently shook it. “Thanks for dinner.”
“You’re welcome in our home anytime,” she said.
“See you at school after the break,” he said to Terry.
“No time for a dive?”
“Other work,” he said. “Sorry.” With a wave, he was out of the apartment and heading for the elevator.
Terry turned to his mom as soon as the elevator door closed. “Mom, why couldn’t you at least get dad out of jail?”
“His problems are his own.”
“It’s Thanksgiving, Mom.”
“Yes, I noticed.” She limped back and poured herself another glass of wine.
Terry made a face, but decided not to continue that line of conversation. He was learning, it seemed. “How long do you think before the court rules?”
“The lawyers say it could be as long as a year, or as little as two months. The high court is too new; there’s no real precedent, as I said earlier. Our bigger problem is money.”
“We still have people paying to talk to the bottlenoses and orcas,” he said. She nodded. Terry had been instrumental in getting her to allow the encounters. The interest was many times higher even then when his father had charged for encounters. However, Terry had argued the chances for the cetaceans to meet and talk with people was good for them, and they’d agreed when Madison had asked them.
Eventually Dr. Hernandez and Dr. Patel had also asked her to allow the face-to-face meetings to continue, and for the institute to charge a modest amount for it. She contacted the government representatives though her lawyer and explained it to them. Dr. Taumata herself called and said it was permissible, as long as the time and number of visitors were kept within reason, so they’d begun again. Three days a week—on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday—for 2 hours. There were lines every day, rain or shine.
The bottlenoses were, of course, thrilled. The orcas seemed to enjoy company as well, the Wandering Pod more so than the Shore Pod. Terry decided to look for a chance to find out why. He got a chance the next day.
* * *
The institute was empty the day after Thanksgiving. Most of the staff were at home, so naturally Terry took the chance to feed on all three groups. It was the ideal opportunity to catch some private time with the orcas. There was only a single government intermediary on site, and he stayed in the security office, playing with his computer.
Nobody gave Terry a second look when he slipped back into the orca encounter area and spotted one of them lazily floating on the surface. It was a female named Moloko, whom he’d seldom spoken to. She had bright white markings that were probably the reason for her name, which meant milk in Russian. He gently slapped the surface, and she looked up at him with a huge eye.
“What want?”
“How come your pod is so sad?” Terry asked.
“People want learn Shool.”
“What people?” Terry asked.
“People before.”
“Before all the changes?”
“Yes. Before. Now no come.”
Terry understood now. The attendants who took admission now had digital facial recognition and were instructed to deny entry to a list of people who were members of the Faith of the Abyss, or just FA, as they were often referred to in the press. The group had held a protest outside the institute only the day before Thanksgiving.
“They were bad people,” Terry tried to explain.
“How bad?”
That’s not an easy one to explain, Terry thought.
“Kray say they want learn Shool.” Another orca on the surface nearby was looking at him. It was the male named Byk. “Learn Shool good.”
“They’re hurting people,” Terry said.
Kray surfaced right in front of Terry, making him gasp in surprise. Being only centimeters from a five-ton apex predator was disconcerting, even knowing the orcas had never treated man as prey. “Why they hurt?” Kray asked.
“They’re desperate to get in here,” Terry told him. “To see you.”
The massive orca shook his head and up and down. “They hurt see me?”
“Yes,” Terry said. He’d been warned more than once about being too truthful with the cetaceans, but they weren’t naturally schooled in subterfuge, or even misdirection. He wasn’t entirely certain they didn’t know how to lie. Dr. Orsage was constantly studying that aspect of their personality.
“We no want see them,” Kray said. “Not see is good.”
“We agree,” Terry said.
“Protect moms,” Kray said.
“Moms?” Terry wondered aloud. “My mom isn’t in any danger.”
“Not you mom, our soon mom.”
Terry blinked and looked at the massive orca who slipped part of the way underwater, his pectoral fin slapping the water lazily. Soon mom, he thought. “Do you mean yours is pregnant?”
“I can no be mom,” Kray said, his translated words conveying a sense of amusement.
Terry felt his cheeks grow hot. “I know you can’t get pregnant,” Terry said. “Are one of the girls pregnant?”
“I be mom,” Moloko said.
“Oh, shit,” Terry said. He got up and ran to the elevator.
* * *
“Nobody can know about this,” his mom said. Within minutes of his running into her office with the news, she’d called all the senior staff to tell them. Terry stood aside, surprisingly not chased out of the office, and listened as the adults discussed what to do.
“I think it gives weight to the statement of their natural innocence in this,” Dr. Patel said. “If we told the investigators—”
“If we told them, they might take it the wrong way,” she cut the man off. “We can’t predict what they would say or do.”
More of the doctors nodded, then shook their heads. Terry knew how persuasive his mom could be. She got up and limped over to the window overlooking the orca tanks. Several were swimming in lazy circles around a sunbeam shining in through one of the many skylights.
“Have all the cetaceans tested,” she said, “ASAP.”
“I’ll get right on it,” Dr. Jaehnig said.
“Assuming none of the others are pregnant, I want them all on pregnancy suppressants.”
“Do you think that’s necessary?” Dr. Orsage asked.
“What do you think would be the results of a slew of births with their...altered personalities?”
“You know I have no clue,” the woman replied.
“All the more reason to put the brakes on this,” she replied and then looked at them. “I’d like to know why nobody witnessed the mating, and how long ago it was.”
“I can answer that,” Dr. Hernandez said. She looked a little surprised that the expert on their bottlenose dolphins was the one to talk. She nodded for him to proceed. “When I got your message, I was within earshot of the bottlenoses, who heard your call. They all knew about it.”
“How?” she wondered.
“I don’t know, but they also knew when the pregnancy happened. They gave me a number of days, so on my way down I ran the recordings back.” He handed his slate to her, and she looked at the images. Despite the machine being largely transparent, Terry couldn’t see anything on it. “The date they gave was precise.”
“They’re talking to each other somehow,” she said.
“Not possible,” Dr. Patel said. “They’re never closer than having several meters of concrete between them. The two orca pods, possibly. But the orcas and bottlenoses? Impossible.”
“Regardless,” his mom said, looking down at the display, “this is interesting. Carry out the tests, and we’ll go from there.”
After a minute, they all left the office. Only then did she realize Terry was still there. “You’ve been here the whole time?” He gave a cockeyed smile and she shook her head before smiling herself. “Thank you for bringing me the information.”
“What was I supposed to, keep it quiet?’
“Definitely not,” she said and limped over to him. “You know the world government has been talking about convening a tribunal?” Terry nodded. “That doesn’t mean anything will happen soon, but it does mean they’re going to begin deliberating on what should be done.”
“Are we going to testify, like in court?”
“Only if there’s a trial,” she said. “The meetings we had with Dr. Taumata were our only chance to talk it out. We’re past that now.” She sighed, moving over to a chair and slowly lowering herself into it. “The world court doesn’t know what they’re doing, so this will take time. In the meantime, we’ll just do what we can, and hope.”
That night at dinner, his mom picked up her phone when a message came in. “What’s up?” Terry asked.
“Dr. Jaehnig has the data on the test.” Terry put his fork down and listened. “Only the female Resident, Moloko, is pregnant. None of the other orcas or any of the bottlenoses are.”
“Is that good?”
“Yes,” she said. “They’re going over all the camera footage, though, to see how much loving has been going on.” Terry laughed, and she smiled at him. “Based on the date from our recordings, Moloko is 10 months pregnant. She’ll be due between June and August.”
Terry grinned. A baby orca would be cool. At least it was something to look forward to in the coming months, and would take his mind off of his parents’ impending divorce. They ate the rest of their meal in silence, both wrapped in their own thoughts.
* * * * *
