Attunga - 14. Part 14.

ATTUNGA PART 14.

Wirrin watched the controlled concentration and efficiency of Thom's manner as he expertly took charge of the greatest space ship ever built. That was his description the previous evening, after being informed that he'd have the opportunity to pilot the Comet for the departure from Attunga. No one was going to disagree with him. There might be bigger vessels but their capabilities wouldn't come anywhere near to matching the Comet. Wirrin turned to Turaku. This was extension-Turaku, who'd be part of the Comet for as long as it existed. He looked exactly the same as Attunga-Turaku except for a glowing Comet decal emblazoned on the chest of his clothes.

“Why do we have to travel slowly? The K74 drones can't see us.”

“Until we have two light seconds of separation they're capable of detecting the energy signature of high acceleration, and that mustn't happen.”

“They can detect us? That's a change”

“Only at acceleration greater than 6G, but they have become more capable recently. Their new drones have much improved scanning equipment.”

“New drones?”

“Yes, the first of them arrived six days ago.”

That sounded to Wirrin as if they'd been arriving ever since.

“Are there many of these new ones out there?”

Turaku gestured to the info-station.

“Bring them up on the display for us. It will only take you a moment to find them.”

With Calen and Warrigal standing close behind, Wirrin settled at his info-station. It must be under the Security section. Whoo! So many possibilities. Pleased at how effective his new reading skills were in this situation, he rapidly scanned the broad menu and found what he needed. On the big display a representation of Attunga and Warrakan appeared, surrounded at a distance by hundreds of red lights. They couldn't all be new drones. How to differentiate between the new and the old? ...After a few more seconds of figuring the red lights blinked off and were replaced by a smaller number of purple ones. ..How many? ..73 new drones.

“That took you twenty-three seconds Wirrin. Close down your station and try again.”

So Turaku wanted to see how fast could display information did he? Well, there was no searching this time and he could pull the information straight out.

“2.7 seconds. Much better.”

Wirrin had an idea, set it going, and grinned at Turaku.

“Tell me how long it takes this time.”

“... Point four of a second. Well done, setting a trigger like that is excellent for primary actions but with millions of possible actions it's more efficient to learn the system.”

Millions? Well of course there were, and Wirrin understood exactly what Turaku meant. Learning vast numbers of triggers would take a huge amount of time and any particular trigger in itself might never be needed.

“How many of the new drones are within two light-seconds distance?”

“...All of them.”

“That took three seconds. Given our current rate of acceleration, how long before the last of them is out of our two light-second range?”

The result, 106 minutes, involved new information and fifteen seconds of figuring how to put it all together.

“That's better. Now figure how long before K74 is out of range.”

This was somewhat similar to the last query and Wirrin managed it in seven seconds.

“Excellent. How many other existing threats to the Comet can you find?”

Wirrin instantly thought of the big offensive vessel from K74, but Turaku was asking generally.

“ ...There's a radiation belt two and a half hours away, less if we increase acceleration, but it's a low-level threat. ...And there are three medium level threats near K74.”

“What are they?”

That only took an instant as Wirrin already had his attention on them.

“The offensive K74 ships we saw weeks ago, except there are now three instead of two.”

A scale change with the display showed that two of the ships were moving, but relatively slowly, while the third was moving into deep space at a high velocity. That was interesting. Without being told Wirrin searched and then gasped in surprise.

“It's travelling nearly thirty times as fast as we are.”

“Check its acceleration. That's a better indication of its capability.”

“ ...13G.”

No wonder it was making the Comet look like a snail. Well, that would certainly change when the Comet activated full power. Wirrin wondered if the speeding ship had a destination.

“How do I work out where it's going?”

“Link in the navigation menu.”

Annoyed with himself for not thinking of the obvious, Wirrin went ahead.

“It's not going anywhere!”

“No, this is its maiden voyage and they're testing it. ...See how much you can discover about it while I talk to Akama and Sonic.”

A glance showed Sonic and Akama looking in this direction. They must have something they wanted to discuss.

“Everything? I can't do that in just a few seconds.”

“See what you can manage in twenty minutes.”

Calen and Warrigal, obviously curious about what Sonic and Akama wanted, moved off with Turaku. Within moments Wirrin had detailed schematics and specifications.

...What a monster this new K74 ship was, nearly 600 metres in length. ...Capable of 14G acceleration, so it was close to its maximum at the moment.

Everything about the ship's function was here in minute detail. This was too easy. Turaku must be expecting something else, perhaps its history? Its purpose? Maybe tracing where the Comet got all this information from would turn up something.

... Search for any database about K74.

...Hmm, very interesting. A stream of information coming directly from K74 itself? Wirrin's ideas kept coming, and as he set them in motion he started to realise all over again how powerful this info-station really was.

***

“What have you got to tell us Wirrin?”

“Well for a start that ship is a dud. If they run those engines at over 80% like they are now, they'll eventually collapse.”

“We knew that. What else have you unearthed?”

“It's named after one of that cadre on K74, and so are the other two ships, and it's got special stealth equipment and scanning devices to get close enough to Warrakan to find out about the drive engines. It was only completed twenty hours ago and they've got plans to build two more, each connected by name with one of the cadre.”

Akama was surprised.

“It's designed for surveillance against Warrakan? That wasn't in my security report.”

“The surveillance capabilities were mentioned, but not that they were specifically aimed at Warrakan. That's new information which Wirrin has uncovered, along with the link between the ships and the ruling cadre.”

That was news to Wirrin, and he immediately felt a combination of awkwardness and pleasure at the impressed looks he was receiving. Akama rested his hand on Wirrin's head. Again? What did it mean and why didn't he do it to anyone else?

“Well done Wirrin. You've already shown that my hunch was correct.”

He removed his hand and smiled at Wirrin's puzzled look.

“It was my idea to give you full integration with the Information Station. Will this new K74 ship be effective in its purpose?”

Wirrin looked to Turaku but he said nothing.

“It won't find out anything we don't want it to. It uses the same equipment as the new drones, just on a bigger scale.”

“So you believe it will be completely frustrated in its purpose?”

“I'm certain of it. Attunga and Warrakan have already designed and built new protective facilities to counter anything it can try. We have a huge advantage over K74 because we get information about any of their new developments as soon as they implement them.”

“How can we do that? It seems like we find out whatever we want.”

Calen was asking and Gelar was nodding in agreement with the question.

“Almost everything. Attunga has its own surveillance drones which tell us about the activity around K74. They're like the Guardian drones which protect the dolphins at Monkey Mia, except they're designed for space. They disabled two of the new K74 drones and brought them to Attunga for analysis. Most of the information comes from the AI on K74 though, who's been communicating with our own AIs for nearly two months.”

“That AI is still there? Last I heard he was transferring to Attunga.”

“He agreed to postpone the shift while all this trouble is happening with the dolphins.”

“You discovered all this in fifteen minutes?”

“Um! ...Yes. This info-station is amazing.”

“I'd like you to put a serious effort into learning this system while we're travelling. Turaku, can you oversee a set of exercises and challenges which will help Wirrin become more facile with his station?”

“...Done.”

“Excellent, and I think these early results already warrant installation of a similar system at home on Attunga. Let's see what happens after twelve hours of application.”

Wirrin stared at Akama. An info-station as powerful as this at home? This was like Thom's advancement with his piloting. Excitement welled at the thought, then bubbled even more at the prospect of special tutoring with Turaku. ...Twelve hours? That was more than half his waking time. This was going to be a busy trip.

***

“Are you ready Thom? Here it comes.

...Five..Four..Three..Two..One.

...Turn around!”

Silly question because for Thom this was one of the highlights of the trip. Well, it was for all the trio really, as this was the point where the Comet would reorient itself so the thrust of the engines could slow the ship in a mirror image of the acceleration of the first half of the trip. It was also the point of maximum speed, and though they'd known all along what it was going to be, it was still exciting to experience the moment. Wirrin flashed the number dramatically on the display in large size.

“Whoo! 9726.3 Ksecs. A total record for the trip to earth. The K74 ships couldn't come anywhere near that.”

Nearly 10,000 kilometers in one second. The idea of it was incredible, especially as the panorama of stars gave no indication of movement at all. The only apparent difference was the increased brightness of the Sun. Well, that would all change when they approached earth.

“ ...They could reach almost 7000 Ksecs Thom, but if they tried any faster the engines would conk out.”

“Weak as wombat water!”

“Wombat water wouldn't reach 7000 Ksecs.”

Nothing was as good as the Comet as far as Thom was concerned. He'd been quite disgusted to learn that despite his expectations, the Comet wouldn't be making a Solar System speed record on this trip. That would have to wait. The transporters carrying the initial population to the Titania Habitat had, despite their much lower acceleration capability, been able to reach over 10,000 Ksecs because of the much longer time they could build speed. The record holders on a regular basis though, were the vessels carrying supplies and personnel to the small scientific research habitat way out at Pluto.

“.. 9722.8 km/s. We're slowing down.”

“Come on everyone. Just over thirteen hours till we get to Earth. This is the long stretch with not much change so we need to copy Sonic and have a good rest before everything starts happening.”

Calen was right. A glance showed that Sonic was in the logging state he'd informed them would last for at least ten hours in case he didn't get a chance for a proper rest on earth. The Comet was under control of the security AI, at this velocity human reactions would be too slow for anything immediate, and the number of people in the control centre had reduced to only seven. Everyone else had the same idea as Sonic.

***

Wirrin stared in utter awe at the site on the display. For the last few minutes no one had spoken, held as if spellbound, by the magnificence of planet Earth. Standing shoulder to shoulder with Calen and Thom in an automatic need to share the moment, Wirrin wondered how anything could be so beautiful. He'd seen this before, many times, as holo images or virtual reality presentations, but knowing it was real changed the perception.

There was a call from Sonic who was watching from the water and Calen raced over and dived in with him. Apart from sleep times they'd been together almost the whole trip. Puck and Flute were going to come but Sonic persuaded them to stay and relay information to the Attunga dolphins who were slightly on edge with all the imminent changes. As far as Wirrin could tell Sonic didn't seem to be affected by the separation from his pod but according to Calen that was a case of logic overruling his natural feelings.

“Home of all dolphins and people. So much water.”

“Home for AIs too. They started on earth.”

There was indeed a vast amount of water. With Monkey Mia the destination, the approach aspect at the moment showed a major part of the Pacific Ocean.

“How long before we reach the water?”

Wirrin smiled at Sonic's perspective. People would have asked how long before they would land.

As if a spell had been broken people throughout the command centre stirred from their quiet contemplation and moved to action. Wirrin connected with his info-station and called to Sonic that it would be another twenty-one minutes. Thom moved close to the pilot from the security ship to watch his procedure for the final approach into atmosphere and the gravity well of Earth.

The planetary sphere grew to fill the screen, till the features of the Australian continent took prominence, till the familiar aerial view of Shark Bay took over. Wirrin looked at Akama, standing quiet and staring with rapt attention at the approaching view of his old home country. Yes, there was his river and range, visible for a while as the Comet slowed more and more in its descent. With precision and apparent ease the ship came to rest in the cradle of the grav-field and everyone looked around with a curious sense of anticipation. The pilot swivelled his seat towards Akama.

“All secure and ready for debarkation Honoured One.”

The display switched from landing information to external and everyone took in the buildings of the Marine Centre, the approaching phalanx of vehicles, and most of all the glistening, azure expanse of sky and bay. Just clear of the grav field Akama stopped. Wirrin, walking close behind bumped into him because at that moment he was staring at the sky. Akama smiled then lifted his head and stared. He kept staring. As if he had no intention of moving. Oh, he was stopping to give the Attunga dwellers time to absorb the surroundings. Every single one of them had lifted their head to gaze in wonder at this first step into an environment without walls. The trio exchanged glances. They'd talked about this, wondering what real sky and open air would be like, but Wirrin knew that for all of them this was more powerful than anything they'd envisioned.

Calen laughed and pointed at Wirrin's head.

“What?”

“Your curls are moving. The air's pushing them.”

They were too. Wirrin was suddenly conscious of the light pressure on his hair. The air was moving without any fan or other device.

“It's called wind.”

“Not quite Thom. When it's gentle like this it's called a breeze.”

Another push of air moved Wirrin's hair and he became the centre of attention as the whole group smiled at the novelty of it.

“Earth, Air, and Sea. All around.”

Mention of the sea by Akama set Wirrin looking past the waiting people to the Bay, and with a jolt it came to him just how enormous it really was. Stretching as far as he could see it made the big new reaches on Warrakan almost nothing. Akama started moving again, slowly, and Calen edged close to the transport module, floating silently on its anti-grav field, and murmured something to Sonic. As they approached the welcoming group Wirrin was almost bewildered by the clash between the imperatives telling him to examine everything around and his sense of occasion telling him to focus on the people. A man stepped forward and made a greeting to Akama, welcoming him home and then welcoming the whole group.

“Honoured one. Would you grace us with a short ceremony?”

Akama nodded then pointed to the shoreline.

“Earth, Air and Sea. ...As befits the moment.”

Wirrin forgot, well almost, all the externals vying for his attention. Akama had assumed the mantle of his office. Quiet and dignified, but demanding of attention by the power of his presence, he transferred in an instant from one of a group, to the centre of attention for all.

This was the Akama introducing Sonic to six hundred million people on Attunga, the Akama respecting a glorious arc of tribute from every enhanced dolphin. Something major was about to occur.

With a single inclusive gesture he invited everyone to be part of whatever was to happen at the water's edge.

In the walk to the water the two groups gradually mingled and Wirrin watched attention switching between Akama and the somewhat incongruous spectacle of Sonic guiding his transport module. Calen was smiling and Wirrin wondered what Sonic had just said to him. Sonic's head was tilted in the awkward position which meant he was surveying everything around. He was certainly very active, twisting in every direction. Yes, he was very excited and Calen was reflecting that. With sudden purpose Sonic's module manoeuvred close to Akama and a short conversation took place. Straining to hear, Wirrin made out something about dolphin friends and the ocean then watched in surprise when, after a nod from Akama, Calen climbed in with Sonic and the module raced for the water, now only 50 m away, across the sand into the shallow water then, with a slight lift and a crash of spray, broached a small wave and continued till it came to a dead stop in the deeper water.

What now? With one great leap Sonic sailed directly into the ocean. The leap was impressive in itself, but from the relatively confined stricture of the module it was more so, and worthy of the sudden indrawn breaths and soft exclamations. Calen, standing in the chest deep water of the module, suddenly raised his arm and Sonic erupted from the water in a truly spectacular parabola of power, speed and motion. The whole gathering stopped in its tracks, watched wonderingly for a moment till Akama moved forward, turned, and with a hand gesture now familiar to Wirrin took everyone's attention.

“Sonic, our dolphin friend, has requested a small amount of our time while he invites his Earth relatives to a place in our ceremony.”

Without waiting for a response Akama turned again and started towards the beach. A murmur built, and looking round, Wirrin took in the puzzled looks being exchanged. Well, they had no idea of Sonic's capabilities, and Akama's acquiescence to a request from a dolphin in regard to a traditional ceremony must be quite incomprehensible. Wirrin gave Thom a nudge and spoke softly.

“Akama's just told them how important Sonic is and they don't understand.”

“Well they're in for a shock if he starts speaking.”

They both smiled but were interrupted in their thoughts when the person walking just in front and a little behind Akama turned and gave a curious look.

“Excuse me, your voices carried on the breeze and I couldn't help overhearing. The dolphin is important to Akama in more than a formal sense? ...And you seem to imply it can speak intelligently?”

Oops! Wirrin and Thom exchanged a grimace. Had they said too much? A rush contact with Turaku in retinal mode gave the okay to speak freely and Wirrin gave a nod and friendly smile, wondering who he was talking to. He did have an important air about him.

“That's right. Sonic is so important that Akama came on this trip to help him. ...And he can speak better than any of us.”

“Better?...”

“Believe it my friend. ...And invite anyone still at the Marine Centre to join us. My intuition says they should.”

The breeze was doing a good job of carrying voices. Akama was speaking. He sat on the sand and turned his head to stare at the Bay. Wirrin stared too. First of all at waves. Real ones, building like giant ripples in the distance, then cresting and falling in the shallows with a rush and swirl on the sand. They weren't very big, but there was something fascinating about them.

All the people, taking their cue from Akama, sat on the sand and watched expectantly. A soft questioning buzz rippled back and forth as people looked and wondered. Wirrin noticed Warrigal talking quietly with the man who'd made the welcome.

Several dolphin fins broke the surface near Sonic's transporter then disappeared. Hundreds of metres away more shapes came into view, gliding directly inshore, going under, then reappearing in the classic behaviour of a dolphin pod on the move. Thom's head turned and Wirrin followed his look. A stream of people was leaving the Marine Centre, dozens of them, and not far away from what Wirrin remembered was the access to the underground living areas, an even bigger stream was appearing. A soft gasp of surprise from all around jerked Wirrin's gaze back to the water. His eyes, returning to the area where he'd seen the approaching pod faltered and widened. Dozens of pods were coming in a direct approach from all directions. No, more than that. Scanning the further distance showed the same pod movement.

Thom grabbed Wirrin's arm.

“He's getting them all.”

Not all, but it did look like it. It turned out that Sonic, aware he was causing a delay, had called to dolphins within a radius of four to five km.

“How can he do that? They've never even met him.”

Wirrin was as amazed as Thom at the seemingly instant way the Earth dolphins were responding to Sonic.

“Calen will tell us. His down there with him somewhere.”

“I wish we were.”

Wirrin switched into retinal mode just long enough to query Turaku. He was zapping the external scene at the moment and didn't like interrupting that.

“We'll see it all later Thom. Turaku's watching through the local surveillance units and he's organised a guardian drone for Sonic and Calen.”

“Calen's got his own Guardian? What a dingo!”

The man next to Wirrin, the same one, made a slight head movement as if he wished to speak but wasn't quite sure he should. There was something about it which Wirrin liked so he opened up again.

“I'm Wirrin and this is Thom. We're Sonic's friends.”

“Thank you Wirrin and Thom. My name is Narn. ...Your friend Sonic can control other dolphins as effectively as this?”

Wirrin smiled at Narn's carefully chosen use of the word 'effectively', when he was clearly finding the evidence of his own eyes hard to believe.

“It's not control. He wouldn't like that. He would have spoken to them and they're coming because they agree with what he's saying.”

“He communicates that well? ... I mean it's obvious he can, but you make it sound like human conversation?”

Why was he asking again? Akama had already told him to believe it. Oh! Not really. This question was more perceptive.

“Yes, I'm sorry I was being too general. Your dolphins aren't the same as ours. Sonic understands human speech as well as anyone. He doesn't speak it himself because he produces sounds differently, but the translators do that perfectly for him. He communicates with other dolphins the same way dolphins always do, except his range of ideas and vocabulary is enormous. We talk to him every day so we just think of it as normal speaking.”

“Every day? ...You have such a close association with him?”

“Yes, Calen is closest though. He's out there in the water with him now. We're like his human pod. He comes to our home every night to relax and mess around.”

“Mess around? ... As in youthful companionship?”

Thom and Wirrin both laughed.

“Yes, but you should say dolphin companionship. He does the same messing around with anyone he likes. When Akama was in our pool he got splashed and bumped the same as we do.”

“Akama visits your home?”

The tone wasn't quite disbelief, more like, 'who are these boys to be visited by someone like Akama?'.

“Only once. To meet Sonic.”

“He likes seeing you too Wirrin.”

Thom and Calen had built up a theory that Akama was interested in Wirrin because they looked so identical when they were little children. Wirrin gave Thom a shooshing nudge and glanced at Akama, hoping he hadn't heard. He was gazing at the bay with a slight smile.

“Hey look! It's Calen.”

With one hand holding the side of Sonic's transporter for support, Calen surveyed the people on shore till their eyes caught. He raised his other arm for a quick wave then disappeared underwater again.

“What a wombat! We really should be out there.”

Wirrin felt the same way. Calen's wave had sent a message of excitement he was wanting to share. They couldn't go though. It would feel like they were pushing in when they weren't asked. Wirrin turned to Narn, thinking he liked the sound of that name.

“Calen goes with Sonic because they do nearly everything together and he can speak dolphin properly.”

“Properly?”

“Well, Thom and I know quite a few words, but we don't say them right because we can't make all the sounds. Calen can because he has special implants.”

There was a period of silence.

“Wirrin, I don't quite know what to say. You speak familiarly of a world I didn't know existed. Do many people on Attunga speak to dolphins?”

Narn was experiencing the preliminary wonder at the idea of talking dolphins.

“Not really. Calen's the only one with real dolphin language and there aren't many dolphins. Sonic's the first one who speaks to everybody, and the others like to get to know you first. They mostly speak with their rangers and other dolphinarium people.”

Narn clearly wanted to say more but the happenings in the water now took all attention. Two distinct pods, probably thirty or forty dolphins, were now active near the transporter only twenty meters away. Their immediacy took first focus but couldn't hold it because not far to the left was another pod, and close by another, and another. Everywhere in the close vicinity pods were milling, and in the further view innumerable pods were still approaching. Like a blanket, the silence of wonder settled on the human gathering at the astonishing sight.

Seemingly, the whole ocean was full of dolphins.

***