Attunga - 23. Part 23

ATTUNGA Part 23.

“Wirrin! Wake up!”

Wirrin resisted the insistent voice and rolled away in protest. Just a little more sleep, perhaps a few hours, would be heaven.

“He's getting worse than you Calen.”

What? ...What were they talking about? Wirrin cracked one eyelid and peered at Thom kneeling on the grav-bed beside him.

“Go away. It's too early.”

“No it's not. It's half an hour after you told us to wake you up.”

“And Sonic's in the pool waiting for us.”

Wirrin rolled over and now with two eyes open saw Calen watching from beside the grav-bed. Half an hour? ...Sonic? ...What were they talking about? Oh! Wirrin sat up abruptly and was immediately pushed and pulled to the floor. How could he possibly have slept in on moving day?

“Get something on and grab your breakfast. Thom's got it ready and waiting for you.”

After a glance at the time, Wirrin grabbed his clothes and rushed to the living area where a delicious smell filled the air.

'Lazybones! We nearly left you behind and be careful or you'll eat that shirt.'

Sonic's dolphin version of laughter gave an extra little push to Wirrin's wake up process and he couldn't help smiling. He probably did look funny, grabbing a great mouthful of food then donning another article of clothing. Following Calen's look, Wirrin glanced at the wall display and saw dolphins everywhere in the reach close by. Puck and Flute and the whole pod, waiting while he slept. They would all think it funny and he'd hear about it for the rest of the day.

“Come on! Let's go.”

Moments later the excitement started to build as, surrounded by Puck's complete pod, the three skimmers headed for the dolphinarium. The atmosphere there would be even more intense, with every other enhanced dolphin on Attunga waiting to be transported to the Comet and then to their new home on Warrakan.

The reach there was in wonderful condition, with its whole marine ecosystem fully recovered after five months of dolphin free development. Yajala had overseen all that and reported to Puck and Sonic that it was now the healthiest reach on Warrakan. Watching the antics and listening to the excited communications made Wirrin wonder anew at their apparent lack of feeling about leaving the Attunga reaches which had been their lifelong home.

Sonic said dolphins didn't quite think that way, instead enjoying the prospect of everything new the Warrakan reach would provide. Well, they were different. It was as simple as that.

For himself it wasn't the same. Their shared space on Attunga would always be in his mind as the first place with the special feeling of being their own home. Calen felt the same. Thom said he didn't but Wirrin wasn't sure about that.

It wasn't as if they were completely leaving though, because it was there for their use anytime they went to Attunga. Warragul told them he'd organised that because the pool and translators made it a friendly, familiar base for Sonic if he was visiting, and because Wirrin needed a place for the two days a week of EdCom courses he'd be doing on Attunga.

“Whoo! Look at this!”

Thom's call snapped Wirrin from his reverie. There was only a distance of a couple of hundred metres to the dolphinarium and directly ahead a mass of dolphins was racing straight at the skimmers and Puck's pod. Wirrin's heart jumped. They were being charged by an army. The two contingents collided and nearly 400 dolphins miraculously became one unit. Sonic leaped from the water and the pulse of dolphin calls was cut off abruptly as the flying bodies disappeared beneath the surface.

Calen yelled with enjoyment.

“They're crazy!”

They certainly were. It was the same contagious excitement the Earth dolphins had shown, but more intense, and the trio were all laughing as the action approached the dolphinarium landing.

“They might be too worked up to go on the transporters.”

“With Sonic and the rangers telling them what to do? No way. They've got it all over ordinary dolphins. You watch.”

And of course Calen was right. The transfer to transport modules proceeded like clockwork and the move to the Comet followed likewise.

The short trip from Attunga, with Thom piloting of course, was unexpectedly dramatic when all the pod leaders reacted strongly to their first sight of space and the growing image of Warrakan on the great display screen. The surge of calls for information and explanation resounding through the control centre caused the humans present to stare in wonder, then take in the view themselves with a reawakened sense of appreciation..

The arrival at Warrakan home reach was ordered chaos with dolphin pods joining with their rangers in preparation for the move to their varied locations. Puck's pod didn't have far to go, being assigned to close proximity with the giant dolphinarium and Marine Research Centre, and after meeting with Gelar and Warragul they all set off through the crystal clear water.

Wirrin was struck by just how clear it was. So different without the haze caused previously by the huge infusion of nutrients to stimulate faster development. According to Gelar's reports the whole reach was teeming with life, and the dolphins were going to be amazed at the abundance and variety. Stocks of larger fish had been transferred from the surrounding reaches where there were now more than the earth dolphins would ever need.

The dolphinarium loomed and Wirrin scanned further on, where only five hundred metres away their new living space nestled at the edge of the reach. Two hours from now, after exploring with the pod, the trio would enter and officially take over.

***

“Of course they got excited Thom. A reach like this was completely new to them, and it was exuberance more than excitement.”

“Sounds the same to me. ...When is Sonic coming?”

“Tonight, probably at the usual time. He's spending the whole day with his pod while they look around.”

The trio was sitting on the new grav-sofa and looking at the view of the reach on the giant display screen which took up most of the wall fronting the water.

“It's so big. I can't get used to it.”

“The reach? You've seen it so much you should be.”

“Not the reach. The wall screen. The other one looked like a screen, but this one makes you feel like there's not even a wall there.”

“Wirrin, that's the whole idea of it.”

“I know, but it's three times as wide and a bit higher.”

“Well I think it's incredible and I'm glad we followed Wanna's advice.”

Wanna was the Planning Assistant who'd arranged all the design and construction after hearing ideas from the trio.

“Glad! Is that all? Remember when you said you wanted a maxi-screen and he suggested this instead?”

Calen laughed because Thom had carried on for days about how unreal something twice as wide as a maxi would be.

“I know but he was right. All his ideas were the best.”

Looking round at everything Wirrin could only agree. Despite the huge size of the pool and hence the much bigger space to contain it, their actual living area was very similar to the last one. They'd wanted to keep it that way and Wirrin liked the result.

“What are you thinking about now Wirrin?”

“Nothing special, but lots of things. I know I'm going to like it here when I get used to the extra space.”

“You'd better like it. We might still be here in another hundred years.”

Thom and Wirrin both looked at Calen in surprise.

“I suppose so. I've never thought like that. We've always had a change ahead of us.”

“Well I don't want any changes for a while. We've dreamed about Warrakan for years and now we're here.”

“There are always changes. Freedom's arriving in another four months and I know another change that's right now and it will affect you more than me and Thom.”

“What?”

“We won't see Turaku as much because Yajala looks after dolphins here.”

“Yes we will. Well I will, because he and Yajala are working together, and you will Thom, whenever you're controlling the Comet, because Turaku's built into it. I don't know about Wirrin.”

“Calen, I'll probably see him more than either of you. Pirramar and I contact him all the time about the dolphin plans on K74 and what's happening with the reaches at Freedom and Uranus.”

“What's been happening on K74? You haven't told us.”

“There's nothing to tell. They're still building the reach and they won't finish for ages. They're so slow at building things it might take them another year.”

“That's good then, but what slowed them down? I remember you said five months.”

“What do you think? They killed their AI didn't they, without realising how much efficiency they'd lose. Everything's taking longer.”

Calen frowned.

“That means their dolphins will be stuck in tiny aquariums for ages. I hope they'll be all right.”

“Didn't Gelar tell you? They haven't got any. The blockade stopped that and the Earth AIs won't let anyone else send any. They'll have to go to earth and collect them for themselves.”

“No he didn't, but then I didn't ask. We've been so busy getting ready for this move.”

“Hey, Sonic's getting strong isn't he? He nearly kept up with those three big males when they were racing.”

“He'll beat them all soon. He's started a new growth spurt and Yajala thinks it'll be a couple of months before it steadies down. He's already big for his age and he's still got years and years of growing. We think he might be half a metre longer than those males eventually.”

Thom looked impressed and he called up life-size holo images of two of the racing males, then with a bit of fiddling enlarged one an extra half metre for comparison. Wow! Wirrin was impressed now. That would be a very big dolphin.

“He'll make the Earth dolphins look like kids. Why are they smaller?”

“It's partly an effect of the enhancement process but mostly because Monkey Mia dolphins are a larger variant of bottlenose dolphin than the earth norm.”

The original stock of Attunga dolphins all came from the Monkey Mia area.

“Cold water dolphins can grow up to four metres which is the same size as our Attunga males, but some types are fully grown at two a half. That's why we were surprised when we first saw the Earth dolphins.”

Thom was smiling because he'd got Calen started on talking about dolphins, but he was interested too and wanted to know why cold water would make dolphins bigger.

“A smaller body has to use more energy to keep a proper temperature, so bigger dolphins have a survival advantage when it's constantly cold.”

“I'm glad our dolphins like warm water. We wouldn't be able to swim with them without freezing. Did any of the cold water ones come on the Comet?”

“Yes, about seven pods. One of the reaches is set up with the right conditions for them.”

“So how did they cope with the warm water in home reach for five months?”

“Good question. They're used to big variations and it was like summer for them except it went on for ages.”

“What happens if you visit them? You'll freeze.”

“No I won't. I'll use a thermal skin if I need to go right in, but near the interconnects the water's close to home reach temperature.”

“When are you going again? I want to see this.”

“Not for ages. Settling in with our dolphins is the main focus for a while and we'll mostly be out there somewhere.”

Calen gestured to the expanse of the reach and they all did an automatic check to see if any dolphins were in view.

“It's so big. I can't get used to it.”

Thom and Calen exchanged a look and burst out laughing.

“Time-warp attack!”

“Brain malfunction!”

“Stress relief time!”

Under joyful attack from both sides, Wirrin fleetingly wondered if the new grav-sofa would cope as well as the old one.

***

“What did you do to Sonic yesterday? It seems like he's gone crazy about InfoSystems. They installed a whole new one for him on the Comet, and Calen says they're doing the same at the dolphinarium.”

“They've put them in already? Well there'll be one in our pool too, in a few days. He got frustrated when he saw how slow his ordinary InterWeb was compared to how I do things on my system and he asked Yajala what he could do about it.”

“It's his next thing. I can tell.”

“Thing?”

“Like the music, and learning to read. He talked about it all this afternoon while we visited the pods. He'll spend weeks on it till he thinks he's good enough.”

“Wow! We'll have two brainiacs saving the AIs. ...Do you think he's going to be good at it?”

Wirrin thought that was a strange question.

“Of course he will. When he's interested in something he's always brilliant. Look what he did with the Dreamtime Concerto and the Meeting songs.”

“I suppose he'll do it the same way he uses the InterWeb?”

Wirrin nodded.

“Yes, except he's got the option for much more extended input.”

Sonic was completely adept at using the InterWeb. He used sound exclusively of course, since the fine motor control of human fingers wasn't available to him, but according to Pirramar, the incredible range and rapidity of his auditory signals gave him the potential to be far more facile with input than any human. Wirrin, using a combination of speech and touch, was way ahead at the moment but he'd learned yesterday that with a system designed especially for him, Sonic would eventually be faster. As long as he practised.

“What does that mean?”

“He'll be able to run the System faster than I can.”

Thom thought about that for a moment.

“I wonder what it will sound like? If much of it's that high stuff we can't hear it might overload Calen's implants.”

“No it won't. It'll be just like the InterWeb controls he uses now except there'll be more of them.”

“What does Pirramar say about it?”

“He's really keen. He'll help out any time Sonic wants him and so will Yajala and Turaku.”

“All three of them? What happens about his time with Calen?”

Calen laughed.

“That goes back to normal, whatever that is. We'll still be going to Nurseries and EdCom groups and talking to the scientists and visiting Earth dolphins and all the other things. I might actually have a chance to catch up some extra EdCom work.”

“Do you think the EdCom here will be much different?”

Thom and Calen both looked to Wirrin to answer this as his big work commitment meant he'd had the most involvement in planning everything.

“I don't see how, except we'll be meeting a whole new set of people. Warragul says the Intelligence System which runs it all on Attunga is as up-to-date is it can be, so Warrakan can't be better.”

“The labs and tute rooms are bigger.”

“I suppose. But the same things will still happen in them. We'll soon know.”

They'd find out tomorrow in fact, when they were all attending their first EdCom courses on Warrakan.

Warragul had finalised everything and swapped a number of Calen and Thom's times to match with Wirrin's, which were far more complicated.

His EdCom work involved a day each on Attunga and Warrakan with other students, and a day each with the faster and more adaptable personalised electronic instruction courses. His other day involved the K74 work with Pirramar and InfoSystem training with Sonic.

For both Calen and Thom the EdCom work was secondary, after dolphin time and Comet related studies respectively.

Not so for Wirrin. His study from now on would be strongly directed and purposeful, namely to build an understanding of the Rogue Scientist, and very different to the broad educative structure of Basic Training. On top of that, Pirramar was now linked to EdCom and overseeing his progress, a unique situation according to Warragul.

“Hey look, Sonic's out there with Puck and Flute. They're early.”

***

“Hello doctor.”

“Hi Wirrin, what's the news this time?”

“News?”

The doctor grinned.

“Your file has changed to a permanent time priority. You've turned up a week earlier than scheduled, and exciting and interesting news has been part of almost every meeting we've had. I feel a sense of anticipation every time I see your name on the roster.”

Wirrin grinned and nodded in return.

“Yes, I have got some news, and several questions as well.”

“Questions? ...Medical ones? ...Well, let's deal with them first and get your check-up done since it's a bit longer than usual.”

Wirrin wondered why but didn't ask because he'd soon find out.

“Thom and Calen call me a brainiac and I wanted to ask you about it.”

“A brainiac? Meaning you're a genius?”

Wirrin laughed.

“No, they'd never say that. They think there's something unusual about my brain because I work some things out too quickly. Look at this.”

Wirrin called up the incident about AI space on Warrakan and projected it as a holo.

“See what I mean. Thom's good at calculations like that and he took 3.5 times as long to work it out.”

“3.5? Interesting. Let's have a look.”

Having a look meant a number of tests and a half hour later the doctor's conclusion.

“You can tell Thom and Calen there's nothing weird at all going on, just a natural gift being diligently exercised. Your study must involve quite a bit of this sort of calculation?”

That was such an understatement Wirrin couldn't help making a little splutter of laughter.

“It always has. They're part of InfoStudies which I've always loved, but when the AIs started giving me challenges I had to do even more, and now that I'm on my special course it's practically constant calculations and puzzles.”

“You've changed your Basic Training?”

“It's not a change. I don't even do it any more. The Witnesses and AIs exempted me.”

“A complete exemption? You were squeezing your Basic in amongst the other activities last time I saw you.”

“There's just no time now and it might be a couple of years before I can get back to it. My new course is totally full time.”

“Totally? So it's something to do with the priority classification on your file.”

“I don't know what the priority's for but it could be. The AIs asked for me to do this course.”

“Wirrin! No wonder I look forward to your news. Tell me.”

So Wirrin did, the reasons and then the structure of the study. Some of Wirrin's concern must have come through because the doctor seized on the difficulty aspect.

“How are you coping? This looks close to an overload to me.”

“It's okay so far. It's very exciting too, especially working with Pirramar, but it's hard to wake up in the mornings and I've never been like that before.”

“And you're worried you mightn't be able to maintain this rate of output?”

Wirrin acknowledged that.

“What about your sleep pattern? Do you wake up during the night or have any trouble getting to sleep?”

“Never. I close my eyes and then, when I wonder why Calen and Thom are speaking to me, it's the next morning.”

“That's good. Just out of interest I'll program your health bots to log your sleep rhythms for the next few weeks, but I think we'll find you're going through a typical adaptation process. Your health check will tell us what's going on, so, any more questions before we start?”

“Yes, we're wondering why he I have more visits than Thom and Calen. It seems to have gone back to the same pattern as when I was little.”

The doctor raised his eyebrows.

“Your recent extra visits have all been circumstance, mostly due to your unusual implant abilities, but up till age nine you did have a different monitoring schedule. Hasn't that ever been explained to you?”

“Never. I vaguely remember asking if there was something wrong with me when we noticed I had a lot more checkups than Calen and Thom, but they said I was extra healthy and everyone just needed varying numbers of checks. ...something like that at any rate.”

“Hmm, well they wouldn't go into details because of your age, but this is strangely coincidental because it ties in with today's extra procedures. Your genetic background is different to Thom and Calen's and did require extra monitoring because it came from the Legacy source. Ninety per cent of Nursery children originate from the gene pool of our current citizens, but since it is so important to maintain genetic diversity the rest are carefully selected from mostly external sources.”

“What does Legacy source mean?”

“It's the small but significant collection of genetic material which was gathered from Northern Australia as a bio-backup when Attunga was first constructed. It's accessed regularly as a physical affirmation of our heritage.”

This was interesting and it certainly explained the cast of his physical characteristics. Thom and Calen would want to hear about this.

“Do you know how many people come from it?”

“Almost everyone. It's only the external ten percent I mentioned who aren't descended from it as a base, but that's not what you meant.”

He manipulated his holo screen.

“The external 9.6 percent to be exact. According to this the current access rate for Legacy material stands at approximately 0.4 percent, so you're quite a select individual. Calculating an exact number would be very difficult as we'd have to access the records of every single Nursery on the Habitat.”

Not really. Wirrin knew he could do that in moments with his InfoStation. He had a bigger question.

“So why do children from the legacy source need more monitoring? If I was extra healthy that sounds like I'd need less.”

“That's a very good question. Legacy material was all vetted at the time of collection, but we've learned a great deal in the decades since, and a whole range of modifications need to be applied when using that early material to ensure a long and healthy life. Most of the changes are very minor and are only significant in their cumulative effect, but there are also a number of very important ones. For example we fixed a propensity in your body for hearing failure after age eighty, as well as a slight weakness in your liver function.”

Wirrin immediately thought of Peggy, the dolphin in Martin's pod. They had something in common. He'd watch you progress from now on.

“That doesn't sound too healthy.”

“Completely healthy. We all carry a huge range of characteristics in our make up and understanding their relative importance is very difficult. We have to be careful about eliminating any bad traits because they're often linked in some way with more important good ones. Basically no one is perfectly healthy but we're steadily improving.”

“I won't tell Thom and Calen about the hearing thing or they'll be yelling at me as if I can't hear.”

“Tell them how select you are instead. Less than .4 percent of the population is quite impressive.”

“One in every 250. That sounds even better. I'll say it that way. ...What's the coincidence?”

“Today is deposit day for your bio-bank.”

Wirrin stared for a moment.

“Is that what I think it is?”

“Probably. ...If you're thinking stem cells, blood, sperm cells, DNA material, and a microscopic amount of brain matter, then yes.”

That was right but more than expected, especially the last bit.

“You're going to collect a piece of my brain?”

“Yes, and when people complain we leave the machine on till there's nothing left.”

“Typical doctor. Wait till I tell Sonic.”

They were both smiling but Wirrin could tell the doctor was wondering why Sonic was connected. Good.

“On a more serious note Wirrin, do you discuss the idea of having children with Calen and Thom?”

“All the time because the dolphins never stop asking, but we're just too busy and not ready.”

“The dolphins ask? That's interesting. ...Because they're curious?”

“No, because they want us to have children. Puck asked us the very first day we met and they're still asking. They want more Calens for their babies to bond with.”

“They've asked for children from Calen?”

“Well, that's what we thought they meant because of his special way with animals, but we've talked with Sonic about it quite a bit since and he says no. They want trio children.”

“Oh my! I start to ask the standard questions connected with your bio-bank and I'm out of my depth before we've answered the first one. That could be arranged through the Nurseries of course, but all the rules would have to be changed and that's a decision for Witness level.”

“The dolphins don't want that. Gelar told them it was one of the options and Sonic said a straight out no. He says they'll wait till we can bring them up as part of our own pod.”

“You have talked about this extensively. What other options were mentioned?”

“Children or clones of Calen, before we knew they wanted pod children.”

“Pod children? What exactly does that mean?”

“We call them that because trio means us, and pod means Sonic as well. When we have children they'll be part of his pod. Growing up together is very important to dolphins.”

“It's important to all of us Wirrin, but you just said 'when'. You've made a definite decision to have children?”

“It's definite at the moment, but it won't happen for another ten or twelve years. ...The same as most people.”

Children on Attunga are cherished and welcomed by whateverever path they join the society. Most adults form bonds of some type, and most elect to have children at some stage, usually after the free years of their twenties, but not necessarily, and bring them up with the help of a Nursery Assistant. These are assigned according to need, much the same way a Planning Assistant like Wanna was assigned when the trio needed help with their living space. Because of the aim for Attunga's population to grow to something like three times its current 800 million, the majority of children are born and nurtured in a Nursery with specially trained human carers.

Wirrin's nursery family consisted of nineteen children, including Thom and Calen, two Nursery Mothers, two Nursery Fathers and associated Nursery Assistants.

“Why do you think you're not ready? That's not the way I see any of you.”

Warragul had said the same thing even though his advice was to wait.

“Mostly because there are too many other things happening but also because we still feel like kids ourselves in a way.”

“Yes, I understand that. I felt the same when I was your age. ...Well, let's get busy.”

An hour a half later Wirrin and the doctor sat down to enjoy a snack.

“Fire away Wirrin. I'm all ears.”

Wirrin smiled. Sonic would enjoy hearing these figures of speech.

“There's too much. I don't know where to start.”

“Okay, tell me what's so exciting about your work with the AI. You gave me the impression there was something going on there.”

“Pirramar. Everything. Warragul organised for him to link in with EdCom and I've never learnt so many things so fast. He makes it so interesting. We spend a lot of time looking at K74 as well and there's so much going on there we can't keep up.”

“An AI can't keep up? That doesn't sound right.”

“I know, and Pirramar's a composite so it's even more amazing.”

“I don't know what that means.”

“He's one AI but he's based on Warrakan as well as Attunga, so he's got more than twice the normal amount of resources. He'd keep up easily if we could get into all places we'd like but the Rogue knows a lot about AIs and how to block them.”

“I wouldn't have thought it was possible to block an AI?”

“He blocks every electronic pathway so we have to discover things indirectly. Three days ago we checked the Construction Systems and found plans for building a fleet of their big spaceships. They have seven at the moment but we need to know why they want thirty more.”

“I don't know anything about the K74 spaceships. What does big mean?”

“They're not as big as the biggest Earth or Mars transports, but 700 meters makes them nearly twice as long as our Comets.”

“That's enormous. And they must be dangerous or your AI wouldn't be worried about them.”

“Pirramar. Yes, they're very fast and the seven functional ones all carry atomics. The only good thing about the situation is that it will take at least 15 months before any of them can be finished.”

“And you work with Pirramar on things like this every day?”

“Not every day. Warragul made sure that a big block of my course is ordinary EdCom with other students, but I do see him most days.”

“I can't imagine what it must be like. I've never even seen one in real life let alone had a conversation.”

You couldn't see them in real life, just their holo projections, but Wirrin understood what the doctor was getting at.

“It's quite hard to explain. After a while it feels like you're just talking to someone in a holo conference but underneath you know it's an amazing intelligence, or creature, or being or something, who's there with you. I get goosebumps sometimes when I see Pirramar do something, by the time he finishes a sentence, that would take me a million years.”

“Do you have a sense of personality or identity after seeing AIs so much?”

“Completely. Turaku's like a quiet, steady, very firm sort of person. Pirramar's very friendly and encouraging, and Yajala's the easiest to talk to and always smiling and laughing. It's really interesting because everyone has the same reactions to them but it's totally fake.”

“Fake?”

“Fake's not quite right. Controlled is a better word. Calen and Thom and I used to argue about it all the time because I kept telling them it was all a program the AIs were using. They reckoned they could see past that, so we asked Yajala.

He changed right in front of us to different personalities. A real grumpy and irritable sounding person, then a serious person, a bit like Turaku, then someone worried, and then like a child. He kept the same holo image all the time and that made it so strange it was almost creepy. He totally convinced Thom and Calen about the programs but then made everything more confusing by saying that AIs did have personalities and identities, but not in the way humans use the terms.”

“Extraordinary! That sounds very different to being with Sonic. His personality is so real it hits you like a hammer.”

Wirrin smiled. Another interesting saying for Sonic.

“Yajala says humans and dolphins recognise that in each other because the terms of our existence are mostly shared. Our experiences of pain and pleasure, and reactions to input from our senses are almost identical.”

“You live an amazing life Wirrin. Are you pleased with your shift to Warrakan?”

“Definitely, but I have so much to do I don't get time to appreciate it. Last activity days we explored the empty levels and we couldn't believe how big the place is.”

“Why are they empty?”

The doctor saw Wirrin's suppressed humor and surprise and gave a little self-deprecating chuckle.

“I've said something silly have I? Pardon my ignorance but I don't know a great deal about Warrakan.”

“There aren't enough people. Our populated level is bigger than all of Attunga and it's only got 300 million.”

“I see, well let me rephrase my question. Why are they building other levels when it will be decades before they fill the current one? I know we don't do it like that here. We add one sector at a time. Not whole levels.”

That was correct, except for the new dolphin level.

“Sorry. It is different. It's partly because the space and construction material is already there, and partly because building the skeleton levels opens access right through the asteroid. And I know they want to get as many environmental and scientific areas functioning as soon as possible because the longer they're running the better they get.”

Wirrin paused for a moment and thought.

“I think it's because the AIs like doing things too. They accelerated the work on the dolphin levels so much that their reaches will all be functioning in five or six years.”

“Levels? Whole Warrakan levels?”

“Yes, five altogether. People get ten and AIs get six. All the rest are service levels.”

“I should learn more about Warrakan. Is that how you do? ...By exploring on your activity days?”

“Every time we go exploring we say we're going to do it more often, but something else always happens. On the two lots of activity days before the last ones we went with Gelar and Sonic to visit the Earth dolphins. It's nearly seven months since they settled in and they absolutely love their new homes. The rangers and marine scientists are all excited because a huge number of the females are pregnant and there'll be over 400 babies in another six or seven months.

The time before that we went with Thom to see the three new Comets which had just been completed. He's working like crazy to get to know them because they're not the same as the main Comet.”

“We build them in much less than fifteen months then?”

“About five weeks. That's the difference between real AIs and the Intelligent Systems they use on K74.”

“That's astonishing. What section of the Comets is Thom learning? The Navigation System?”

“Everything. He can fly them but he likes our main Comet best. It's faster than the rest.”

“He's given enough control to check out their speed at his age?”

“He gets complete control. He sometimes does training flights with no other people on board, except Turaku of course. He's built-in. Thom was more amazed than anyone that he was given so much responsibility, but we found out Sonic requested it.”

“Sonic has a great deal of influence. He should. But flying spaceships doesn't seem like an area dolphins would be involved with.”

“He is though. He can fly the Comet too. He doesn't know as much as Thom but he often takes over. It was built especially so he could go anywhere, with two permanent AIs, pico factories, science laboratories, and incredible defence abilities.”

The doctor was drinking in every word.

“How does he control it? I've got this ridiculous image in my mind of him pushing levers or pressing touch pads with his dolphin beak.”

“He does it all with sound signals and special pick-ups.”

“Dolphin auditory skills. I should have realised that. ...I see he's grown quite a bit since you invited me over. Has he changed much?”

He must have seen Sonic on the InterWeb. Wirrin grinned. The leading question he'd been waiting for had just presented.

“Come and see for yourself.”

The doctors face lit up with pleasure but then turned to a slight frown.

“I hope you're not going to say tonight, because I can't manage it.”

“No, tonight's no good. It needs to be your next activity day.”

“Needs to be? ...Wirrin, that smile makes you look as if you're implementing some Machiavellian scheme.”

There was a smile, a pause for a retinal scan, and then a nod before Wirrin replied.

“It's not my scheme, and there's nothing sneaky about it. Sonic wants to see you again and he'd like you to bring your partner and children with you. He wants to meet them all.”

“Sonic asked for me himself?”

“Yes. When I mentioned I was due for a health check he said he's been wanting to talk to you. He got Warragul to change things so I'd see you sooner and could ask you in person.”

The doctor thought that over, obviously not knowing what to make of it.

“Wirrin, I expect to hear unexpected news from you but this is more unexpected than I ever expected. ...What does it mean? Does Sonic often ask people to visit him? ...What's that look for?”

“I'm just working out the sentence. ...The expected unexpected one.”

Sonic was going to love hearing it played back that night.

“No he doesn't, but he likes you. You know that and you told him about your family, except he calls it your pod. That's one of the reasons for an activity day since it involves the trip to Warrakan.”

The doctor pounced.

“There are other reasons?”

“I think he wants to talk about health stuff. You talked about it last time and he said it was interesting.”

“Hmm! I have a funny feeling you're not telling me everything.

Wirrin laughed.

“Which day works best for you?”

“That doesn't apply. If Sonic wants to talk to me on an activity day it will be the first one available.”

 

***