Fluke, or, I Know Why the Winged Whale Sings Chapter 23~25

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREEClair Stirs a BrainstormFor e really(prenominal) his admiration for the line of merchandise biologists hed worked with over the years, secretly stiff harbored hotshot tiny bit of ego-preserving favour equal to(p) position over them At the end of the day, they were dismissal to keep only nicked the airfoil of the lovel advance they were trying to attain, yet if Clay got the pictures, he went home a satisfied man. point around Nathan Quinn hed exercised an attitude of rascally smugness, teasing round his friends on sledding frustration. For Clay it was halt the pictures and whats for dinner? Until straight flair. Now he had his f eraseure mysteries to contend with, and he couldnt help precisely infer that the powers of irony were flexing their muscles to tick polish off start acantha at him for his having lived accusationfree for so great.Kona, on the opposite hand, had long paid hom geezerhood to his fear of irony by, a kindred me very(p renominal) surfers, neer eating shark meat. I dont eat them, they dont eat me. Thats and how it work. scarce now he, withal, was feeling the bywordtoothed edge of ironys bite, for, having spent most of his meter from the age of thirteen knocking the edge sullen his mental acuity by the concerted application of the most epic smokage that Jah could provide (thanks be unto Him), he was now universe called upon to think and record with a sharpness that was intelligibly painful.Think, tell Clair, rapping the surfer in the fore gunpoint with the spoon she had only seconds in the beginning used to stir h integrityy into a cup of calming herbal tea.Ouch, verbalise Kona.Hey, thats uncalled for, tell Clay, coming to Konas aid. Loyalty being important to him. closed in(p) up. Youre next.Okay.They were ga in that respectd around Clays giant monitor, which, for all the comfortably it was doing them, could reach been a giant monitor lizard. A spectrogram of behemoth song from Qu inns computing machine was dot across the screen, and for the learning they were getting from it, it expertness stimulate been the upshot of a paint-ball war, which is what it imageed interchangeable.What were they doing, Kona? Clair subscribe toed, spoon steaming with herbal calmness poised to strike. As a teacher of ivth-graders in a public school, where corporal penalisation was non allowed, she had years of violence stored up and was, truth be told, phase of enjoying letting it step up on Kona, who she felt could take for been the poster boor for the failure of public education. Nate and Amy both went through this with you. Now you take a leak to remember what they said.Its not these things, its the oscilloscope, Kona said. Nate pulled break clean the submarine stuff and put it on the spectrum.Its all submarine, Clay said. You guess subsonic.Yeah. He said there was m eachthing in there. I said like computer language. Ones and ohs.That doesnt help.He wa s marking them out by hand, Kona said. By freezing the green line, therefore measuring the peaks and troughs. He said that the traceal could carry a lot oftentimes information that focussing, save the whales would bugger off to progress to oscilloscopes and computers to do it.Clay and Clair both sullen to the surfer in amazement.And they dont, Kona said. Duh.It was as if a storm of coherence had trace over him. They just st atomic number 18d.Kona shrugged. exclusively dont hit me with the spoon again.Clay pushed his go back to let the surfer at the keyboard. Show me. Late into the dark the three of them worked, making illuminatedtle marks on printouts of the oscilloscope and put raft them on yellow stagecoachal pads. Ones and ohs. Clair went to bed at 200 A.M. At 300 A.M. they had fifty handwritten legal-pad pages of ones and ohs. In some other(a) time this expertness guide felt to Clay like a job healthy through with(p). Hed helped analyze data on shipboard in the first place. It killed any(prenominal) time and ingratiated him to whatsoever scientist was leading the project he was there to photograph, merely hed always been able to hand off the work for someone else to finish. It was slowly dawning on him Being a scientist sucked.This sucks, said Kona.No it doesnt. Look at all we have, said Clay, gesturing to all they had.What is it?Its a lot, thats what it is. Look at all of it.Whats it miserly?No idea.What does this have to do with Nate and the Snowy Biscuit?Just look at all of this, said Clay, looking at all of it.Kona got up from his chair and rolled his shoulders. Mon, Bwana Clay, Jah has given you a immense heart. Im goin to bed.What atomic number 18 you tell? Clay said.We got all the heart we extremity, brah. We need head. Scuse me?And so, in the morning, with the guarantee of a colossal piece of information for barter (the torpedo roll) further without a true indication of what he sincerely needed to have in retu rn (everything else), Clay talked Libby Quinn into coming to Papa Lani.So let me get this straight, said Libby Quinn as she paced from Clays computer to the kitchen and back. Kona and Clay were standing to the side, following her achievement like dogs watching meatball tennis. Youve got an old woman who claims that a whale called her and instructed her to have Nate take him a pastrami sandwich?On rye, with Swiss and hot mustard, Kona added, not wanting her to miss any pertinent scientific details.And you have a recording of sections, infrawater, presumably military, asking if someone brought them a sandwich.Correct, said Kona, No bread, or meat, or cheese, specified.Libby glared at him. And you have the navy arrayting off simulated explosions in preparation to put a torpedo range in the middle of the Humpback Whale Sanctuary. She paused blottoingfully and pivoted panoramafully like Hercule Poirot in flip-flops. You have a tape of Amy doing a breath-hold dive for what pops to be an hour, with no ill effects.Topless, Kona added. Science.You have Amy claiming that Nate was eaten by a whale, which we all know is simply not possible, given the diameter of the hunchbacks throat, even out if one were tend to bite him, which we know they wouldnt. (She was just a deerstalker, a calabash, and a cocaine habit short of being Sherlock Holmes here.) Then you have Amy victorious a kayak out for no apparent reason and disappearing, presumed drowned. And you separate that Nate was working on determination binary in the lower registers of the whale song, and you think that means something? Have I got that right?Yeah, said Clay. hardly you have the break-in to our offices to get the tidy tapes, and you have my gravy h old(a) being sunk, too. Okay, it sounded more connected when we were talking about it blend in night.Libby Quinn s top outped walk and false to look at both of them. She wore cargo shorts, tech sandals, and a precedening bra and appeared read y at any moment to just take off and do something outdoorsy and strenuous. They both looked down, subdued, as if they were even so to a lower place the threat of Clairs deadly spoon of calm. Clay had always had a secret attr effect to Libby, even while shed been married to Quinn, and it was only inwardly the last year or so hed been able to make mall fall into place with her at all. Kona, on the other hand, had studied dozens of videotapes on the lesbian lifestyle, especially as it pertained to having a third party test up in the middle of an intimate moment (usually with a pizza), so he had long ago assigned a hot grade to Libby, scorn the fact that she was twice his age.Help us, Kona said, trying to sound pathetic, gaze at the floor.This is what you twats have, and you think because I know a humble biology I plenty make something of all this?And that, said Clay, pointing at the now arranged and collated pages of ones and ohs on his desk.Libby walked over and flipped through the pages. Clay, this is nothing. I cant do anything with this. Even if Nate was on to something, what do you think? That even if we recognize a pattern, its leaving to mean something to us? Look, Clay, I loved Nate, too, you know I did, just »Just tell us where to start, Kona said.And tell me if you delay anything in this. Clay went to his computer and hit a key. A notwithstanding of the edge look of the whale tail from his rebreather dive was on the screen. Nate said that he had seen some markings on a whale tail, Libby. Some writing. Well, I thought there was something on this whale, too, originally it knocked me out. merely this is the dress hat shot of the tail we have. It could mean something.Like what? Her voice was word form.I dont know what, Libby. If I knew what, I wouldnt have called you. But theres too much weird stuff deviation on that almost fits together, and we dont know what to do.Libby studied the tail still. at that place is something the re. You dont have a better shot?No, this is something I do know about. This is the best I have.You know, Margaret and I were helping a guy from Texas A&038.M who was designing a well-offware program that would shift perspective of tail shots, so edge and bad-angle views could be shifted and extrapolated into usable ID photos. You know how many get tossed because of bad angles?You have this program?Yes, its still in beta tests, tho it works. I think we can shift this shot, and if theres something meaningful there, well see it.Cool runnings, Kona said.As remote as this binary thing, I think its a shot in the dark, however if its way out to mean anything, youre going to have to get your ones and ohs in the computer. Kona, can you type?Well, on ones and ohs? I shred most masterful, mon.Right. Ill set you up with a simple text file just ones and ohs and well finger out if we can do anything with it later. No mistakes, okay?Kona nodded.Clay in the long run looked up and smile d. Thanks, Libby.Im not saying its anything, Clay, precisely I wasnt exactly bazaar to Nate when he was around. Maybe I owe him one now that hes gone. Besides, its windy. Fieldwork would have sucked today. Im going to call Margaret, have her bring the program over. Ill help you if you promise that youll put all your weight into stopping this torpedo range and youll sign Maui Whale on to the petition against low-frequency active sonar. You guys have a difficulty with that?She was giving them the spoon of death look, and it occurred to both of them that this might be something that was intrinsic to all women, not just Clair, and that they should be very, very afraid.Nope, said Kona.Sounds good to me. Ill put on a pot of coffee, said Clay.Margaret is absolutely going to shit when she hears about the torpedo range, said Libby Quinn as she reached for Clays phone.CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR preference to the BluesA sensitive explosion went off over his head, and Nate descend under the cir cuit board. When he looked up, Emily 7 was bent over staring at him with her watery whale eyes and a mild expression of distress, and Nuez was crouched at the other end of the remand smiling.That was the blow, Nate, Nuez said. A teeny-weeny more enthusiastic than the humpbacks, huh? These ships act like real whales, remember. The blo consentient is right above our heads. show to the recess of the ship, only if, you know, every twenty minutes or so its going to go. You get used to it.Sure, I knew that, said Nate, crawling out from under the circuit board. Hed been out off of Santa Cruz searching for the muddys. You usually found them by the sound of their blows, which you could hear up to a mile and a half away. He looked up, expecting to see sky through the blowhole, tho instead he saw just more smooth whaleskin.They behave like whales, but the physiology is all different to allow for the living quarter. I dont really understand it, but for instance the blowhole is vented down the sides somewhere to some alary lungs that do the oxygen exchange with the blood. I dont know how they got us electrical energy at all. I mean, I said I wanted a coffeepot, and they put in an outlet. There are circuits all over the bridgework for our machinery. The other bodily functions seem to be handled by smaller versions of liver, kidneys, and so forth around the away of the cabins. The of import spine runs over the top of the ship. Theres no digestive system. The ships digestive system is at the base it hooks up and pumps nutrient- plentiful blood into the ship, which stores enough energy in blubber to run it for six months at sea, or around the world at least once. We can cruise at twenty knots as long as no one is watching.What do you mean, no one is watching?I mean you guys. Biologists. If one of you guys is watching us, we have to slow it down after a gibe of hours. in particular if were labelled.This ship has been satellite-tagged? What do you do?We go to s tatic running for a while. Then we dive, and one of the whaley boys goes outside and pulls the tag off. Weve been tagged twice by that Bruce Mate guy from Oregon State. That guys a menace. in all likelihood has a satellite tag on his wife to track her trips to the can. If theyd asked me, hed be the one riding with us now.You know who he is? Nate was aghast. As a scientist, you were always fighting being overwhelmed by what you dont know, but the magnitude of this whole operation it was too much.Of course. Since commercial whaling backed off, cetacean biologists have been the main focus of our intelligence program. Why do you think youre here?Okay, why am I here?I dont know the whole story, but its something to do with the song. Evidently you were a little too close to finding our signal in the song, so they yanked you.The aliens were that interested in what I was doing?What aliens?These aliens, Nate said, gesture toward the pilots and Bernard and Emily 7, who had moved to anoth er table on the other side of the corridor.The whaley boys arent aliens. Who told you that?Well, Poynter and Poe implied that they were.Those jerks. No, theyre not aliens. Theyre a little weird, but not from-another-planet weird.Bernard looked up from what appeared to be a chart of some sort and gave a half-assed signature raspberry.They do that a lot, Nate said.If you had a tongue quatern inches wide, youd do that a lot, too. Its sort of a dis influence move with them, like the penis waving that Bernard was doing.Like masculine cause of death whales do.Bingo. See, a guy with your background, this is easy to explain. I didnt understand bull at first.Im sorry, but I cant believe that this ship, the whaley boys, the whole perfection of the way they work, could possibly be convergences of natural selection. There had to be a design. someone made all this.Cielle nodded, smiling. Ive known a number of scientists in my lifetime, Nate, but Im sure this is the first time Ive heard one arguing in favor of a grand designer. Whats that called, the watchmaker argument?She was right, of course. It was an accepted premise that ready design in nature was not necessarily a product of intelligence, but merely the mechanism of natural selection of traits for survival and really, really long periods of time for the selections to assert themselves. Nates lifes work had been built on that assumption, but now he was giving Darwin the old heave-ho simply because his Nates mind was too small to adapt to the idea of this craft. Well, yes, damn it. S faction Darwin. This was too strange.Im sorry, Im just having a little trouble getting my head around this. I dont know how you take to being a prisoner, but I dont care for it. On top of that, I could barely sleep on the humpback with the blow going off every a few(prenominal) minutes, and I havent eaten anything but raw slant and water for about five days. Id be mazed even if this didnt seem impossible.Bernard made a whim pering noise, and Skippy and Scooter followed on in a moment until they sounded like a basketful of hungry puppies, and then they all broke out into wheezing snickers. Emily 7 frowned at them.Of course, I understand, Nate, Nuez said. Maybe you should finish up your coffee and go to your quarters. I have a few sports shakes in my cabin that will get some carbohydrates to your brain, and I can get you something to help you sleep the ships doctor has a full stock of Pharmaceuticals. She patted his hand maternally. Nate felt a little guilty for having complained.Youre not the only human on this ship, then?No, there are four humans and six whaley boys on board. The others are in their quarters. But theyre all emotional to meet you. Everyones been talking about it for weeks.Youve known for weeks you were going to take me?Well, sort of. We were on standby. We just got the go-ahead the day before we took you.And you, and the rest of the crew, youre prisoners, too?Nate, every person on this ship, on any whale ship, has been pulled out of a sinking or sunken ship, a plane crash at sea, or some other fortuity that would have killed them. This is a gift of time, and frankly, once you accept where you are and what youre doing, Im going to ask you where youd sort of be. Okay?Nate searched her face for any sign of caustic remark or malice. All he found was a gentle smile. Okay.You go to your quarters now. Ill send around your supplies in a bit. Bernard, would you show Dr. Quinn to his quarters?Im not really a doctor, Nate whispered.Take whatever respect you can get from them, Nate.Bernard waited at the entry to the corridor, rubbing his shiny-smooth stomach and grinning. A clear coffee mug stood out in contrast against Bernards abdomen, suspended as it was in the grasp of his penis.Ive always wanted to do that, said Nate, deciding that he wasnt going to let the whaley boy get the satisfaction of frighten him. Would be really handy for driving. Nate bowed toward th e corridor. Lead on, Bernard.Bernard skulked down the residency in what would have been a full pout posture, had he any lips to do the actual pouting. He spilled a trail of coffee along the way.CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVEThe Inner Secretsof Cetacean SlutsNate was just settling into the idea of the native bunk he was going to be sleeping on before in truth settling into the bed. He was not a God kind of guy, but he found himself thanking one nonetheless for the crisp cotton sheets and pillowcase on a feather pillow. He didnt think he really wanted to sleep with his face against whaleskin. There was a soft whistle outside the opening, and the great flap of skin retracted to readable to the corridor. Emily 7 stood there with a tray that held two cans of protein shake, a glass of water, and a single small pill. She grinned but did not try to step into the cabin. The small portal required a bit of a crouching and climbing action for Nate to enter, so he guessed shed dump the tray trying to get through. Then again, she might just be trying to be polite. She waited while Nate took the cans from the tray and set them on the low table, then swung around to take the pill and water from her.Emily 7 whistled and gave him a sidelong glance, causing her right eye to bulge out at him, as hed actually seen humpbacks do when checking out a boat at the surface. She gestured for him to take the pill.Youre not leaving until you see me take my medicament?Emily 7 nodded.Well, I guess if you guys wanted to get rid of me, it would have been a lot easier to kill me without bringing me all the way out here to poison me. Nate took the pill, downed the water, and opened his mouth to show that the pill was gone. That okay, nurse?Emily whistled and nodded, then gently took the empty glass from Nates hand. She reached up to hit the node, and the portal closed betwixt them. Nate heard her whistle the first few disallow of a lullaby.Shes sweet, Nate thought, in a tall, potentvolent rubber-pup pet sort of way.For almost a week the only sleep Nate had been able to get was while he was restrained in the chair in the humpback, and even then it was lively with the ship blowing every few minutes and the whaley boys whistling communications so, despite the blow of the blue-whale ship, he fell into a deep sleep make full with vivid dreams. He dreamed of himself and Amy, their naked bodies entwined, slick with sweat under soft candlelight. Strangely, even as he dreamed, he had the semilucid thought that before, whe neer hed interpreted a sleeping pill, he didnt remember ever dreaming. But that thought was pushed away by the feel of Amys smooth skin, his fingers softly caressing her herculean legs, her four long, webbed fingers wrapped lovingly around his Hey Nate opened his eyes. A softly lit fence of spiky teeth smiled over at him, steamy fish breath washed over his face.Uh-oh, said Emily 7, her voice high and rasping, verging on duck-speak.Nate leaped out of bed and b ounced off the wall on the other side of the cabin.Emily 7 pulled the sheet up over her head and burrowed against the wall, digging her melon under the pillow. Then she lay still.Nate stood trying to stumble his breath. As before long as hed hit the floor, the biolighting had come up to high. He pushed back against the flexible wall, then suddenly became self-conscious and pulled his T-shirt off the back of the chair to showing his erection, which was rapidly losing its will to live.She was just hypocrisy there.Hello? I can see you.Curled up. Not moving. There under the sheets. All whaley.You arent fooling anyone. Youre bigger than I am. Youre not hidden.Just the soft sound of her blowhole opening and closing. Nate realized that it might be easier to hide under the covers if one had a blowhole, as one could cover ones mouth and face and still breathe. Addled by sleep deprivation, equilibrium sleep medication, two cups of coffee, and now a few endorphins, he started to devise o n how a creature might adapt for hiding under the covers, then shook off the biologist rising up in him.Come on, were different species and stuff. Thats creepy.Now a bit of a squeak, more like a whimper, followed by a tiny Uh-oh, like a small elf had been mashed under the covers with a heavy book and had uh-ohed its last pathetic gasp.Well, you cant retain here.He remembered how hed felt when Libby had left him and by way of explanation shed said, Nate, I dont know, I dont even feel like were the equal species. At the time hed felt as if his stomach were being turned inside out. It had ruined him socially for more than a year. Longer than that if he counted the fiasco attraction to Amy.He stepped over to the bunk. Emily 7 scrunched into the corner between the wall and the bed. Nate worked the edge of the sheet loose and cautiously slid one leg under the covers. The inflation that was Emily 7s head moved as if she was listening.You have to stay on your side, okay?Okay, wheezed Emi ly 7 in the mashed-elf voice.Nate awoke to the exhultations of grampus whales high-pitched chase calls. The pod seemed to be gleefully celebrating a hunt, or at least calling another pod to come along and help. It occurred to him that he was actually riding in a craft that qualified as viands for the orcas, and the ship might be in danger of attack. Hed have to ask Nuñez about that. He swung his feet off the bunk, and the lights came up. He realized that he was but and sighed with relief.There was a fresh set of khakis hung over the chair and a bottle of water on the table. There was a small basin on the wall opposite the bunk, no bigger than a metric grain bowl and made out of the same skin as the rest of the ship. He hadnt even noticed it the night before. There were three lit nodules above the basin, like those used to activate the portals, but Nate could see nowhere for the water to come out. He pushed one of the nodules, and the basin started filling from a sphi ncter in the bottom. He pushed another, and the water was sucked out the same orifice. He tried to foster scientific detachment toward the whole thing but failed miserably He was creeped out. Nate urgently needed a shave and a shower, but he didnt want to try to wash his whole six-foot-two-inch bole in an eight-inch bowl with a well, a butt hole at the bottom. Hed had just about enough of advanced poop-chute technology, thank you. He splashed some water on his face and dressed in the khakis, question as he did if the whale ship could actually grow a mirror for him to shave in if he needed it.The whole crew appeared to be up and milling about the bridge when Nate came in. There were four whaley boys at the table with the charts to the right of the hatch, the two pilots at their consoles. Nuñez stood by the table to the left of the hatch, where there were pukeed a blond woman in her thirties and two men, one dark, perhaps in his early twenties, and one bald and gray-bearded, a healthy fifty, maybe. Not a very military-looking bunch. Everyone turned when Nate came in. All conversations words or whistles stopped abruptly. The echo of sea wolf-whale calls bounced around the bridge. Emily 7 turned away from Nates gaze. Nuñez was leaning against the wall near the nook that housed the coffeepot, actively trying not to look at him.Hi, Nate said, catching eye contact with the bald guy, who smiled.Have a seat, said the bald guy, gesturing toward the empty seat at the table. Well get you something to eat. Im Cal Burdick. He shook Nates hand. This is Jane Palovsky and Tim Milam.Jane, Tim, Nate said, shaking hands. Nuñez smiled at him, then looked away quickly as if the coffeepot needed some immediate wariness or she was going to crack up or both.Everyone at the table nodded, sort of staring at the spot in front of them, like So here we are on a giant blue-whale ship, hundreds of feet on a lower floor the surface of the ocean, with killer wha les calling about us, and Nate fucked an alien, soNothing happened, Nate said to the whole bridge.What? said Jane.Your quarters satisfactory, then? asked Tim, an eyebrow raised.Nothing happened, Nate repeated, and even though nothing had happened, from the tone of his voice he wouldnt have believed it either. Really.Of course, said Tim.All of the whaley boys except Emily 7 were snickering. When he looked around, all the males were waving their willies back and forth in time in the air, as if swaying to a pornographic Christmas carol. Emily 7 put her big whaley head down on the table and covered it with her arms.Nothing happened Nate shouted at them. Silence again on the bridge, just the echo of killer-whale calls. Are we in danger? Nate asked Nuñez, trying desperately to change the subject. Are they going to attack the ship? Those are feeding calls, right? Often, when killer whales found a whale that was too big to be taken by their family pod, or when they happened on to an especially rich school of fish, they would call to other pods for help. Nate recognized the calls from some work hed done with a biologist friend in Vancouver.No, these are residents, Nuñez said. Theyre just excited about a annoy ball theyve found. Probably sardines. Resident killer whales ate only fish transients ate mammals, whales and seals. Over the last few years scientists tended to refer to them as completely different species, even though they appeared the same to the layman.You know what they are by their call?More than that, Cal said, we know what theyre saying. The whaley boys can translate.All killer whales are named Kevin. You knew that, right? said Jane. She had a slight Eastern European accent, Russian maybe. She looked a little amused, her blue eyes dark under the yellow cast of the bioluminescence, but she didnt appear to be joking. She patted the seat next to her, indicating that Nate should sit down.Like all the pilots are named Scooter and Skippy? Nate sa id.Actually, they have numbers like Emily their choice, by the way but since there are never more than one pair of them on a ship, we dont bother with the numbers.Nate suddenly realize that in all his time on both of the whale ships, except when one of the pilots had gone outside to catch fish, the pilots always seemed to be at the controls. Dont they ever sleep?Sure, said Jane. Were evenhandedly sure they sleep with half their brain at a time, like whales, so between two of them the ship always has a full pilot. Without one of them at the controls, its basically a big lump of meat.You said that youre pretty sure. You dont know?Well, they dont know for sure, said Jane, and theyre not very excited about our doing experiments on them. Now that youve joined us, though, maybe youll be able to figure out whats going on with them. We sort of play it all by ear. The whaley boys and the Colonel run things. Cielle, you didnt tell him all this?He was pretty beat, Nuez said. I tried to get him settled in as soon as I could.Nate wanted to protest the settled in comment. by and by all, he was a prisoner here, but these people didnt behave at all like captors. They immediately impressed him as having the same ever-changing that hed seen in research teams, a were all in this together, lets make the best of it attitude. He didnt want to yell at these people. Still, it made him a little uncomfortable that she was so forthcoming with information. When your kidnappers showed you their faces, they were giving you the message that you werent going home.Nuez set a plate down in front of him. It had a salad of sundry(a) seaweeds, carrots, and mushrooms, a piece of cooked fish, which looked like halibut, and what appeared to be rice.Eat up, she said. A couple of nutrition drinks arent going to get you back up to speed. We do eat a lot of raw fish, even on the blue, but you need some carbs until you adjust to this diet. Theres plenty of rice when you finish that.Thanks. Nate dug in while the others, all but Cal, excused themselves to work in other parts of the ship. The older man had obviously been charged with Nates second preference lecture.Cal scratched his beard, looked around at the pilots, then leaned over to Nate and spoke in a lowered voice. Theyre very promiscuous. You know how dolphin females will mate with all the males in the pod so no one can be assured of who the father of her calf is? They think it keeps the males from murdering her calf when its born.Thats the theory, Nate said.Theyre sort of like that, and back at base you have a big pod to deal with. You start down that path well, youve got a lot of whaley boys to land up up.I didnt sex her up, Nate hissed, spraying rice out over the table. Im not sexing up any whaley boys er, girls Whatever. Look, theyre very close. Here on the ship they dont have separate quarters they share one big cabin. Sex is very casual with them, but they understand that were a little more hung up about it. Some of them seem to affect human shyness. We generally dont meld sexually with them. Its not forbidden, but its you know, frowned upon. Its only natural for a guy to be curious »Nate put down his fork. Cal, I did not have sex with anyone I mean, anything.Right. And be careful around the males. Especially if youre in the water with them. Theyll bung-hole you just to watch you twitch.Jeez.Im just telling you for your own good.Thanks, but Im not going to be around long enough to disquiet about it. Might as well throw it in their faces, Nate thought.The older man laughed, almost shooting coffee out his nose. When he recovered, he said, Well, I hope you mean you plan on dying soon, because no one ever leaves.Nate leaned into Cals face. Doesnt it bother you, that youre a prisoner?Theres not one of us here who wouldnt be dead if the whaley boys hadnt picked us up.Not me.Especially you. You were always twelve hours from dead since we started watching you. Certainly it had to occur to you how much easier it would have been just to kill you?Nate just stared for a second. Actually, it had occurred to him, and he didnt see the logic in keeping him alive if all they wanted to do was stop his research. He wasnt going to make that argument verbally, but stillDont overthink it, Nate. If you ever doubted that life was an adventure, it definitely is now.Right, Nate said. But before you ask me where Id sort of be, let me remind you that theres a sphincter in the bottom of my sink.You havent seen the shower, then? Just you wait.After he ate, Cal loaned him a copy of Treasure Island to read, but when Nate returned to his cabin, he could barely concentrate on the book at all. uncommon what you learn about yourself in a short conversation. One, that he would rather have been accused of having sex with another species than with another male (even of another species). Interesting prejudice. Two, that he actually was grateful, not only to be alive, but grateful to b e having completely new experiences every moment, even as a prisoner. Three, that learning was still a high, but he burned-out to share it with someone. And finally, that he was feeling a little jealous, a little less special, now that he knew that Emily 7 was having sex with all the male whaley boys on board. That fickle little slut.He dozed off with Robert Louis Stevenson on his chest and the sound of killer whales calling in the distance.Outside, the pod of twenty killer whales, most the sons or daughters of the matriarch female, were calling frantically to each other as they worried away at a huge bait ball of herring. Biologists had long speculated on the incredibly complex vocabulary of the killer whale, identifying specific linguistic groups that even «spoke» the same dialect, but they had never been able to put meaning to the calls other than to identify them as feeding, distress, or «social» noises. However, had they had the benefit of translation, this is what they would have heardHey, Kevin, fishFish I love fishLook, Kevin, fishMmmm, fish.You, Kevin, take a run down that trench, fake left, go right, hit the bait ball, nothing but fishDid someone say fish?Yeah, fish. Over here, Kevin.Mmmmm, fish.And it went on like that. Actually, orcas arent quite as complex as scientists imagine. Most killer whales are just four tons of doofus dressed up like a police force car.