Ripple Read online

  A group of sharks charged straight at Cosmo’s section of the protective circle.

  He took another breath and turned to meet them. In a split second, he calculated the speed and direction of each approaching shark.

  He waited until he could count the teeth in their jaws; rows of white triangles with red throats yawning behind. He saw their eyes roll back, blank and evil, as their vertical tails lashed behind them, driving towards him.

  Cosmo struck. His body flashed and flickered among them, diving below them and thrusting upwards, plunging his hard rostrum into their gills and the ribless flesh of their bodies. He moved with such speed it was as though he had split into several of himself. He stunned three sharks in rapid succession and they began sinking. He bit two of the stunned sharks while whipping between their bodies. They bled. The blood attracted other sharks who attacked the bleeding ones. Soon the water around him was a bedlam of teeth, blood and dying sharks. The placement of Cosmo’s continuing bites and blows encouraged the bloodshed to escalate.

  He had indeed developed into a useful warrior. And every now and then Cosmo surfaced and breathed. Each breath was a sip of freedom; freedom bought dear by the discipline of his training.

  In the first throes of Cosmo’s battle, the other fighters instinctively kept away from his zone, giving him more space and scope. Besides, no living thing could be safe to swim among the blood-soaked mayhem produced by such a fighter. His calm ferocity amazed the dolphins.

  Leaving one or two to watch the group of non-fighters, the others now joined Cosmo’s fray, working at the outer edges of his zone, with even the seasoned ones raising their game in affinity with him. As it became clear that the enemy was routed, the team co-operated in shepherding the remaining ‘feeding frenzy’ of sharks to a safer distance from those they had threatened.

  The sharks were beaten, baffled, vanquished. Many of them were dead. No shark who survived that skirmish ever bothered with dolphins thereafter. Not a single dolphin was lost that day. As the dolphins moved away from the fight zone, the sharks fed on their own dead and injured. Cosmo spotted one big shark gorging on its own entrails, until a trio of smaller ones stopped its hunger forever. The victors escorted their vulnerable charges home.

  The story of Cosmo’s battle flashed around the school and many younger dolphins looked at him with reverence. The fighters now viewed him with new respect. Maram himself took special pride in Cosmo, knowing his own part in his development.

  Even the true veterans wished to honour Cosmo’s achievement. One of them approached him later as they were hunting in the darkness.

  ‘You’re young, but you’ve already found the vocation that suits you.’

  Strangely, these words did not please Cosmo.

  Fighting, he thought? Is it to be my only calling?

  He looked up at the stars and wished for the hundredth time that he could get closer to them.

  ~~~

  Fighting aside, it gave me great satisfaction to conclude that life for the dolphins of Azure in that era was more about fun than survival, no matter what Sterne’s concerns may have been. As an example, let us follow Cosmo on one such exhilarating occasion. Here, as he so often did, Cosmo followed the lead of his older friend, the fighter Maram.

  ~~~

  Cosmo was happily anticipating an uninterrupted night of stargazing with clear skies and no predators for miles. Then Maram corkscrewed in with a hubbub of young dolphins fizzing in his slipstream.

  ‘Come on, Cosmo! Forget your stars and have some fun.’

  ‘I’m watching meteors tonight.’

  ‘You can do that any night. Tonight’s for surfing.’

  ‘But it’s perfect for stargazing. Antares rises soon.’

  ‘Antares schmarees! Feel that easterly? And that westerly storm-swell? It’s been building for days. That means great surf on the west coasts. If we arrive at half-tide we’ll have three hours of good waves before the tide turns.’

  A reluctant Cosmo turned his flukes to Antares, promised himself some stargazing later and hoped it wouldn’t cloud over by then. But like the other dolphins he forgot all else as they rounded the northern cape of the island and felt the first vibrations of those waves.

  ‘Feel the thunder?’ someone whispered.

  Maram had rounded up a good crowd. Four teams of five or six. Even Cosmo was now ignoring the blaze of the galaxy sweeping overhead and leaping up to look over the tumult of water that roared between the dolphins and the black shape of the land beyond. In the touch of the water, every dolphin recognised the whisper of energy that had travelled the width of an ocean and was now driving the waves to destruction on the sand. They itched to harness that energy.

  Cosmo was in Maram’s bunch as usual. Out beyond the break they waited for Maram to signal his chosen wave so the ride could begin. Maram picked a huge wave, and they joined it on its journey to its death. The vast power lifted them, pushing them effortlessly shore-wards until the wave felt the bottom and it towered higher. When it reached full height, they leapt exulting from its crest. Cosmo leapt highest. He saw the five other dolphins of his team flying below him on the charging wall of water. He saw the full length of the wave they were riding. It was breaking on their left where the weight of the water curled forward onto itself in a perfect curve, which collapsed into a pandemonium of boiling foam and spray. They headed right, towards purity, and let the white thunder chase them along the wave.

  Beyond their own wave, the lines of the surf stretched the length of the beach, lit ghostly white in the starlight. To the south Cosmo could dimly make out another team just finishing their ride and heading back out to sea again.

  The roaring of the ocean deafened him and time slowed as he rode its thunder; leap, glide; leap, glide. How close could they dare approach the terrors of dry land?

  The team bailed at the last possible moment when the wave reached dangerous shallows. They flicked out behind it, darting away, leaping and spinning back to the safety of the deep.

  Maram was laughing in Cosmo’s mind, ‘I knew you’d forget your precious stars once you got into that surf. Ready for round two?’

  ‘Yes, I’ll admit it now; these waves are too good to miss.’

  ~~~

  Read on, or if desired . . .

  Return to Table of Contents

  Chapter 9: Universe of Promise

  Clinging to her sister’s slipstream, Ripple followed Echo into Tuatua Bay where they were to meet the rest of the poetry class. Echo’s classmates loomed up through the pre-dawn gloom and assembled in the bay awaiting their teacher, Tercet. They cruised with close friends, some quietly reciting verses to one another in last minute revision. Ripple was intrigued by the snatches of poetry.

  Tercet arrived and they gathered around him.

  ‘Today we welcome Ripple among us,’ he announced. ‘You need only observe today Ripple, but join in as you wish and feel free to ask questions.’

  He led the group out of the bay and headed north, travelling at a gentle pace on the calm sea. The sky glowed like a pearl in anticipation of sunrise. The silver-grey surface hissed around them, cool and sweet as springtime. Tercet asked Echo to present first. Echo moved into the leading position and the others fell into formation around her. She had everyone’s attention but no one attended more closely than Ripple, who was agog to see her sister perform.

  ~~~

  As your divine narrator, I must interrupt to explain why telling this story gets difficult. Dolphin poetry is made of ideas, not words or sounds, but I am forced to use words to describe it to you. Why did I ever let Sterne talk me into relating a story to humans? However, I must do the best I can. . .

  ~~~

  ‘As my model,’ Echo began, ‘I chose ‘The Albatross’ composed 125 years ago by the poet Altair.’ She recited the verse. . .

  The spindrift of the Southern Seas

  He sleeps upon its westerlies.

  As round the globe he glides with ease.

  De
scending from his airy home

  He dips a feather in the foam

  And soars aloft again to roam.

  Ripple imagined sleeping on a bed of wind, softer than the calmest water, low clouds drifting past. Her mind conjured the sound of air rushing over feathers and the swish of a wingtip as it dipped into the sea.

  Echo continued with stage two of her presentation:

  ‘Because my version of the poem is about our pet Squelch, I called it ‘The Octopus’ . . . .’

  The smartest octopus we’ve met

  And he is our beloved pet

  The one I never shall forget

  His colours changing, so bizarre

  His body-shape is like a star

  He makes us carry him afar

  His clever tentacles that dart

  Are individually smart

  I hope we never drift apart’

  The young dolphins applauded Echo’s effort and discussed her work enthusiastically. Ripple broke formation to swim alongside Echo and caress her, eager to show pride in her sister. Tercet commended Echo on using the rhythms and rhymes of the original. One of the boys could not help adding another verse;

  He wriggles like a nest of worms

  Forgetting everything he learns

  Deaf as sand and rocks and dirt

  And everywhere his ink he squirts

  Then it was the next dolphin’s turn. Each student had chosen a verse of famous poetry to memorise and model their own work on, presenting first the original and then their own version. As they worked and swam, the clouds low in the east dazzled silver and swathes of crimson mist stretched and glowed. The sun rose, side-lighting the waves to translucent jade.

  Ripple listened to the poetry and combined the poems with some of her memorised sounds.

  Poetry feels like a clue to my secret, but poetry is ideas - not sounds. Perhaps my secret can combine sounds with ideas.

  She played her sounds across her mind and mingled the poetry in to see what happened. The other dolphins noticed her unusual thoughts.

  ‘What’s the matter with Ripple?’ they whispered.

  ‘Is she sick or something?’

  Tercet asked Ripple to see him after class. He wondered if something had upset her.

  ‘Ripple, have you enjoyed the poems?’ he asked. ‘Do you have any questions?’

  ‘I enjoyed them very much and I have a poem of my own if you’d like to hear it.’

  ‘Go ahead,’ said Tercet.

  ‘It’s called “Unreachable.” I made it up one day when I was chasing rainbows.

  ‘The cool rainbow slides away

  the nearer I approach . . .

  Tercet listened attentively to the end.

  ‘It’s beautiful,’ he said, and he clearly meant it.

  He liked it. It’s wonderful to create something that I can share with others to give them pleasure. Perhaps I shall become a poet.

  She chased out of the bay after her sister so she could share the poem with her.

  ~~~

  Pearl was on her way to meet her youngest class of natural historians when Tercet stopped her to tell her that he’d noticed strange thought patterns from Ripple. Pearl chilled to think that others were noticing something different about her daughter. She thanked Tercet for his concern.

  I must see how Rigel views the problem, she thought. I’ll ask Delph to summon him.

  She hurried off to meet her class. Ripple was among them.

  ‘Species are classed according to their methods of communication,’ explained Pearl to the eager learners. ‘Creatures with little communication of any kind, like sea-slugs and oysters, are classed in the lower levels. Species like ourselves are considered “higher” because we use thoughtstreaming,’

  ‘Which other species do?’

  ‘Whales do. Also many kinds of octopus. I’m sure most of you have enjoyed talking to octopuses from time to time.’

  Everyone wanted to tell a favourite octopus story. Ripple told how Squelch saved Whirly. All knew the story, but enjoyed hearing it again. Pearl allowed each of them to tell one story before she continued the lesson.

  ‘Many land creatures communicate by screeching or making a sound to attract their friends’ attention or to warn of danger. These are the intermediate animals, lower than we thoughtstreamers, but higher than the animals who don’t communicate at all.’

  ‘What if they want to tell someone what their favourite food is?’

  ‘The ones who live on Azure in this era cannot, though who knows how they might evolve in the future. There are some who can, elsewhere in our galaxy. Dolphin astronomers travelling among the stars have found planets with beings that have developed complex “verbal languages” – collections of thousands of different sounds to express different meanings. But sometimes they still can’t understand one another.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘Because they all have different languages. Sounds have different meanings in each different language.’

  ‘Why don’t they just use thoughtstreaming?’

  ‘Some don’t have the intelligence, others have the intelligence but don’t know the techniques, and others just refuse to believe it’s possible.’

  Pearl set the class a practical task: stop all thoughtstreams at their source in the mind and communicate with your partner using only sounds. The children beeped and clicked and squawked until the cacophony brought other dolphins rushing to discover what was wrong. Only then did Pearl stop the task.

  ‘Did you succeed in communicating with your partner?’ she asked.

  ‘No,’ said the youngsters when they’d stopped laughing.

  ‘Perhaps not with your partner,’ said Pearl, ‘but at least with someone.’ And she reassured all the new arrivals and sent them away.

  ‘Are dolphins the highest level of animal on Azure?’

  ‘Of course not. We began using thoughtstreaming for communication a little under a million years ago,’ she explained. ‘We have some catching up to do on whales.’

  The children asked Pearl to teach them more about whales. She promised to take them to visit some.

  The trip took place two days later. They swam northeast for an hour until they reached the deep water where they heard the trumpetings and clicks of the whales resounding through the sea.

  ‘These are sperm whales,’ Pearl explained. ‘They click so loud the babies waiting for them at the surface can still hear their mothers when they are hunting at a depth of fifteen hundred dolphin-lengths below them.’

  Soon they could all see the dark whale shapes looming like islands before them. The pod was waiting for its other members hunting in the depths to finish and return to them at the surface. The young dolphins stared at the great blunt heads, huge flukes and ridged skin. A smaller, younger whale spotted the dolphins and came to greet them. Pearl led her group close to it.

  ‘May we ride your wake?’ she streamed to it.

  ‘Go ahead,’ replied the whale.

  The dolphins followed Pearl towards the head of the young whale. It set off surface-swimming in a great circle around the pod with the dolphins riding the wave formed by its head-wake as they might surf a wave near a beach.

  ‘I see you hunted well today,’ said Pearl to the whale.

  Its reply resonated in their brains, as it described the recent hunt which had taken it to depths unimaginable to young dolphins. Pearl told them to scan the food in its stomach. There was a medium-sized deep-sea shark and several squid that were bigger than the dolphins. One was twice the length of Pearl.

  ‘That squid has eyes as big as my head,’ said Ripple.

  ‘Giant squid swim deep,’ said Pearl, ‘but these whales can catch them.’

  Pearl directed the children to tune in to the thoughtstreams of the adult whales. They listened to the rich streams pouring from mind to mind. However, as Pearl expected, the children could understand even less of it than she could.

  ‘What are they discussing?’ Pearl asked the young whale
.

  ‘They love to compare their past lives on distant worlds.’

  ‘It’s not surprising we can’t understand them then,’ laughed Pearl.

  Ripple became suddenly depressed and wondered why. Only Sterne and I knew the reason.

  ‘But in all my own past lives,’ said the young whale, ‘I don’t remember a home as beautiful as Azure, so for today, I prefer to leave them to their talk of other worlds and other lives. I’d rather speak with beings like yourselves who inhabit the world I live in now.’

  He swam on with the dolphins riding his head-wave, until Pearl called her class to follow her home.

  Ripple swam at the back of the group without her usual bounce. They were almost home before her mood returned to normal.

  ~~~

  As he swam towards them, Delph saw the astronomers performing the acrobatics which signalled the end of a challenging work session. They leapt and cavorted, releasing energy built up during the hours of physical inactivity while their minds had been away in the distant Tectarius galaxy. Among them, he spotted his old friend Rigel, leader of the team.

  Rigel welcomed him, performing an energetic double spiral back-flip.

  ‘How are you surviving with those students?’ asked Rigel. ‘Ever miss exploring galaxies with your old friends, instead of being stuck on Azure teaching beginners, year after year?’

  Delph laughed. It was an old match between them. Rigel could not understand how someone like Delph, capable of the most challenging of inter-galactic exploration, could relinquish the universe in order to set younger ones on their own courses towards it.

  ‘Every new recruit is a universe of promise.’ Delph replied. ‘You astronomers miss much of life on Azure while you’re zooming around out there.’

  ‘Nothing compares with soaring through the universe discovering new worlds.’