Author's Notes: Hey, amazing . . . People are actually reading this! Hi, people! ::Moonbeam waves manically:: S'okay, Kiddo, yes this chapter has more of seaQuest's human crew. Mmselle, thanks for the reassurance about the characterisations. There's at least one good thing about nobody having a clue about the Free Willy characters -- no one can tell me I'm writing them wrong. ::snerk:: But, FishFace12, you're probably gonna have to wait awhile for the next chapter. It won't be written as quickly as this one.
And oh, yeah . . . I'm still looking for a decent title. You guys got any ideas?
Still Untitled
By Moonbeam
"I'm still not convinced this is a good idea, Nathan," Dr. Kristin Westphalen said quietly as she stood on the bridge with the Captain and Executive Officer.
"It's not like we have a choice, Doctor. The UEO supports the McNamara Institute's studies into biogenetic research. seaQuest's outer skin was developed at McNamara, as were dozens of other valuable technologies. If terrorists are attempting to breach McNamara's security, then it's imperative that we protect the Institute."
Dr. Westphalen rolled her eyes at Commander Ford's recital. "Yes, Commander," she agreed mildly, "but it's not the Institute I'm worried about so much as ourselves -- and the bio-skin is the very reason for my concern. The medical staff on McNamara has reported elevating radiation levels. No one yet seems to know why, either. It's entirely possible that it was indeed terrorist activity that's threatening the Institute, and I'm almost hoping it is. Because if it isn't, if it's something natural causing this, then it means there is an even greater potential for the radiation levels to continue rising. Unfortunately, seaQuest's bio-skin is just organic enough to be affected by heightened radiation." She fixed her eyes on her audience, enforcing the seriousness of her words. "If the radiation levels get too high around McNamara, then we'll risk making the boat sick, gentlemen. Not too mention what it'll do us."
Captain Nathan Bridger grimaced, but nodded in assent. "Duly noted, Doctor. Please ensure that the crew takes whatever medical precautions you deem worthy."
"I will, Captain. But at this point there isn't much we can do."
"Very well. Hopefully this situation won't be--"
"Captain?" Lieutenant Tim O'Neill called from his station at Comms. "I'm sorry to interrupt, sir, but Dr. Westphalen is needed on C-deck. It seems Darwin brought a friend back who could use your help, doc."
"Darwin?" Bridger asked, glancing involuntarily at the sealed hatch to the bridge's swimtube. Kristin took her leave with a murmured goodbye. Human or animal, it made no difference to her. She would do what she could to help.
"Yes, sir. He came in a few minutes ago with another dolphin. Ensign Graves is asking for the Doc as it seems this other dolphin is having trouble breathing. He says it was all tangled up in a net." The bespectacled communications officer turned in his chair to catch his captain's eye. "Darwin is really agitated, Captain. He's talking too fast for the vocorder to translate and won't move from the other dolphin's side."
Nathan nodded. "He's worried. I would be, too." The Captain hesitated for a moment, torn by indecision.
His XO sensed his dilemma. "It's okay, sir. You go on, I can handle things here."
Bridger smiled gratefully, already moving toward the exit. "Thank you, Commander. You have the bridge. And Tim?" he called at the hatchway. "Could you have Lucas meet me at the moonpool? I'll need his help to calm Darwin down and figure out what happened."
"Yes, sir," the lieutenant affirmed, but the Captain was gone.
~*~*~*~*~*~
The doctor strode onto C-deck and into a scene of controlled chaos. Two members of her medical staff were kneeling in several inches of cold water, instruments pressed against the thick skin of a small bottle-nosed dolphin. Several of seaQuest's crewmembers, as well as one security officer, were submerged in the moonpool and busily trying to hold back their determined marine crewmate.
"What's the situation, Frank?" she asked the head veterinarian, a balding middle-aged man with a ribald sense of humour but a truly gifted touch at treating injured animals. Darwin loved him.
The vet listened to the dolphin's raspy breaths, specialised stethoscope pressed against the calf's blowhole. "It's not good, Kristin. He's breathed in a lot of water, I can hear it sloshing in his lungs. He's struggling just to get enough oxygen to stay conscious." He looked at her with shuttered emotion in his eyes. "We're going to have to drain some of the fluid out of his lungs if this little guy is going to survive. There's still too much of a chance he might drown."
Dr. Westphalen looked down at the grey dolphin draped limply on the platform. His expressive black eyes were glazed and weak, and even his permanent dolphin-smile seemed to droop. Her heart lurched at the thought of this poor animal dying from some human folly. She glanced up, catching Dr. Frank Theriault watching her. "Let's do it," she nodded, and the team sprang into action.
While the medical team was assembling the tools they'd need to clear the water from the dolphin's lungs, another team set about organising a harness to lift and hold the small mammal in. Darwin, however, took one look at the dark blue contraption they always used to take him away from the water with and panicked. "No!" he screeched, and this time even the vocorder picked up his cry. He slipped his body in between the harness and his young charge. "Leave him!"
"Darwin, buddy, it... okay!" a familiar voice cut through his fear, the phrase brokenly transmitted by Lucas's machine. "Let them do their jobs."
Darwin stopped, rolling in the water to look at the new arrivals. His huge dark eyes sought reassurance from the two humans he trusted most in the world. "Help dolphin?" he asked, just barely remembering to slow and simplify his speech enough for the machine to understand.
His friend Bridger wobbled his head up and down in the human's gesture of agreement. "Yes, pal. Give . . . room. Doc . . . help . . . make better." Bridger leaned over the moonpool, tapping his palm against the glass. "Come here," the vocorder translated.
Reluctantly, the dolphin did as asked and drifted over to Bridger. Lucas, his favourite playmate, was already slipping into the removable skin he used when he swam with Darwin. The boy jumped into the water just as the humans manoeuvred the calf into the harness. Darwin twitched nervously.
A hand stroked along his melon and down his back. "It be okay, Darwin," the machine translated for the human boy. "Kristin help . . . friend." The hand paused, then swept back up to begin its journey anew. "What happen?" Lucas asked and even through the mechanical translator Darwin could hear the curiosity and concern mixed in his voice.
The dolphin drew comfort from his podmate's presence, pushing his head up into the hand petting him. "Not know," he answered slowly and carefully, unwilling to let the machine misunderstand him this time. "Found. Trapped. Sinking." He glanced back at the activity surrounding the motionless figure and clicked in sorrow. "Young," he told them. "Calf. Alone."
"Shit," Lucas hissed, the vocorder decoding the profanity as the boy had recently programmed it to. Darwin still didn't understand all of Lucas's new words which didn't always mean what they were supposed to, but he knew this one. And agreed with the sentiment.
But maybe Bridger didn't, because he took his eyes off the chaotic scene to glare at the young human. "Lucas . . . " he growled, but whatever else he was going to stay was pre-empted by a high-pitched squeal of fear and pain.
Darwin was over at the calf's side instantly. "Easy, little brother," he whistled soothingly, rubbing his snout along the youngster's. "You're safe now. It's alright, calm down. You're safe. My friend's are helping you, you're going to be okay."
A dulled, frightened and painfilled eye flickered open to lock with his own. Darwin chirped encouragingly, trying to reassure the calf that everything was going to be okay. Around them, several of the humans began to pack up their instruments and move away. Dr. Frank, Darwin's personal veterinarian, leaned forward to place his flat round listening device against the calf's blowhole. He smiled, pleased, and Darwin relaxed muscles he hadn't known he'd tensed at the sight of the human's teeth.
Trust a human to have an expression of pleasure that meant danger in every other creature Darwin knew. Humans were strange creatures indeed, but that they'd been able to save the calf where he had not just went to prove that they were handy to have around.
"Thank you," he clicked softly at the vet, bestowing a grateful dolphin-smile on the hairless man.
Dr. Frank showed his teeth again. "You're welcome, Darwin. He be fine . . . need rest," the doc told him and waved to have the harness lowered back into the water so they could release their patient.
Darwin hovered anxiously as the calf was dropped back into the water, though the harness wasn't removed. "Keep float, help breathe," Lucas informed him when he pecked at it with his nose, and Darwin took him at his word. The little dolphin was fast asleep after its brush with death, neither side of its brain sparing the energy to keep alert. Darwin settled in beside the small calf, positioning himself to monitor his charge until the young dolphin was better. He closed his own eyes and prepared to sleep himself, one half of his brain shutting down for rest while the other stayed active to guard the pod and remember to breathe.
~*~*~*~*~*~
Noon had long since come and gone, and for three friends drifting along the surface, mild concern had morphed into worried alarm.
"He's not coming back, is he?" Lucille asked weakly, her voice wavering with dread. "Something's happened to him. He got eaten by a shark," she hypothesised hysterically. "He's dead. And we're all gonna die because nobody knows where we are and we don't know where we are or how to get home and I'm gonna drown in my sleep and--"
"Lucille!" Willy rebuked her sharply. "Get control of yourself. We're not going to die. And we don't know what happened to Einstein. Maybe he just went too far and it's taking him longer than he thought to get back. Panicking isn't going to get us anywhere, so don't start."
"Easy for you to say, you big lug!" her fear subsumed as her temper was stoked. "You're a whale! You can survive just fine in the ocean, you don't need land. Jesse and I do... we're gonna drown!" she wailed.
"No we're not, Luce," Jesse said tiredly, his body slumped in an awkward sprawl over his best friend's back. "Willy's with us, he'll keep us safe. Look, it's almost nightfall. I'm cold, I'm tired, and I'm hungry," he said, ignoring Lucille's hasty 'me too'. "We'll give it until morning. If Einstein isn't back by then, we'll have to try and find help ourselves."
"Why couldn't we have done that already?" Lucille groused. "Why'd we have to stay with the boat?"
"Because we aren't familiar with this part of the ocean as is. And after getting thrown who-knows-how badly off-course by the storm, we were completely lost. If we'd gone off half-cocked, we might have headed farther out to sea and away from help. What good would that have done us?" Jesse reasoned. "At least by staying near the wreckage we've got a marker for any Search & Rescue team. They might spot the debris from the air or something."
"Look, Lucille, there's a small shoal of fish a little ways off. I've been tracking them for the past few minutes. We don't you go see if you can't catch something for dinner. I'll wait here with Jesse," Willy offered.
Jesse suddenly slid off Willy's back and plopped into the water with a *sploosh*. "You go on too, Willy," he suggested when the orca turned to him questioningly. "I'll be fine for awhile. My leg stopped bleeding hours ago, and we've haven't seen any sign of sharks. There's no reason why we should all starve," he added in exasperation when his friends just stared at him.
"Yeah, all right," Lucille sighed unenthusiastically. "C'mon, big guy, show me where the fish are."
Willy hesitated, but began to move off at a pat from the boy. "We won't be long, Jesse," he assured.
"I'll be fine, guys. Enjoy your chocolate!" he called after them. As the unlikely pair, sea lion and killer whale, headed off to hunt together, Jesse sighed and took a look around. He'd already investigated every piece of flotsam still floating, so he knew there was nothing useful to be found. But he was bored, there was nothing better to do, and hell... he needed to stretch his legs anyway.
He started swimming another circuit of the wreckage. "Once more around the block, James," he murmured to himself, "and don't spare the horses."
~*~*~*~*~*~
The pain was the first thing Einstein noticed as he awoke. That he could breathe was the second, and his eyes shot open with a startled yelp.
"Whoa! Easy, little one," a voice calmed him, and Einstein started to turn to look at its source.
"Don't try to move yet," the voice continued, getting closer until another dolphin moved into his field of vision. "My name is Darwin. I brought you back to my pod, you're safe here," the stranger added.
Einstein shuddered as he was reminded of the horrible fate he'd almost suffered. His whole body still ached, his blowhole worst of all, but he welcomed the sensations. He owed his life to the bigger dolphin and he knew it. "I'm Einstein. Thank you for saving my life," he whistled softly, taking a shallow breath to ease the ache in his lungs.
Darwin clicked comfortingly at him. "You're welcome, Einstein," he said. "You had me really worried for a while there, little one. I'm just so glad my friends were able to help you. I'd feared I was too late to save you, it took me so long to get to you after your distress call."
"Thank you for helping me," Einstein repeated sincerely. "I didn't really think there was anybody out there." He squirmed uncomfortably, feeling something putting pressure on his flippers. "What the . . ?" He wriggled his aching body, trying to move but found that he couldn't.
The other dolphin seemed to realise what was wrong. "Oh," he said, "it's okay. My friends put you in a harness to help you stay up at the surface because you were too tired to do it yourself."
"Harness?" Einstein questioned uncomprehendingly.
"Yes, my friends are humans," Darwin added, somewhat cautiously. It had been because of humans that the little dolphin had been hurt after all, he might not be too happy at being surrounded by them now. "But they're good humans," Darwin hurried to add, "they helped you breathe again."
"Well, now, Darwin... is our little friend awake?" a strange sounding voice suddenly posed before Einstein could say anything else.
The four-year old froze as he heard it, as the odd voice seemed to come from all around him. He looked around as much as he could from his restrained position and was only mildly surprised to find himself in a tank inside a human building of some sort. He could see no source for the voice though. "Where are we?" he asked Darwin, "and what was that?"
Darwin clicked at him at him again. "We're in a big boat," he said. "These human's are my pod, this is our home. This is seaQuest. What you just heard was Dr. Frank, the human who helped you breathe, talking to us through a machine. The machine changes our speech into words the humans can understand, and translates human speech into sounds we can understand."
"You mean you can talk to humans?" Einstein asked in amazement. "Any human?"
"Yes," smiled Darwin, pleased to see that the calf's natural curiosity was superimposing his fear. "It's not perfect," he elucidated. "The machine isn't all that smart. You have to speak very slowly and very clearly, and it only understands the most basic of sounds -- so it can't understand anything we're saying now, for instance -- but it's enough that we can communicate. My friend Lucas built it," Darwin added proudly. "He's almost as smart as a dolphin."
"Wow!" Einstein exclaimed. He was so impressed and so excited that he almost missed the feel of the cold metal object being pressed against his melon. If it hadn't been for the older male's carefully enunciated question of "Einstein okay?" he would have ignored the familiar feel of a veterinary exam. He was quite used to Dr. Kate Haley giving him check-ups, and thought nothing of the other dolphin's human friend poking at him. Until he realised that unlike Dr. Kate, he didn't need Jesse to speak for him. He could do like Darwin; he could talk to this human himself.
What a marvellous machine!
"So, your name Einstein?" the human asked, the machine's stilted speech patterns making him sound funny. "Nice to meet you, friend. You safe, get all better now."
Einstein was elated. "I can understand you! This is so cool!" he whistled excitedly. Darwin tapped their snouts together, reminding him to go slower. He tried again. "Hello, Doctor," he said clearly, "thank you for saving me." And he dissolved into happy chitters when the human smiled and patted his head in acknowledgement.
"You feeling better, Einstein? I . . . you want go free?" the human asked. Einstein turned to his new friend in confusion.
"What did he say?"
Darwin grinned. "I told you the machine wasn't perfect. Sometimes you have to guess what they're trying to tell you. I think he wants to know if you want out of the harness."
"Oh . . . yes, that'd be good," Einstein agreed and painstakingly told the machine. The human bared his teeth again and stood up to press some buttons. The next thing Einstein knew, he was tipped over on his side as the harness was slid out from under him. He rolled back upright and broke the surface again, gasping to make sure he could still breathe fine on his own. "Whoa!" he said. "Give a guy some warning, would you?"
Darwin laughed at him.
~*~*~*~*~*~
"I see our visitor is doing well," Captain Bridger said as he approached the moonpool and saw the young dolphin frolicking with Darwin.
"Yes, Captain," Dr. Theriault, the vet, said with a smile. "And his name is Einstein. Darwin must have been telling him about the vocorder, because he seemed quite excited that he could talk to me." He looked over at the Captain with a pleased grin. "He thanked me for saving him."
Nathan smiled back. "That's good. He's polite, I like that," he joked. Then he looked over at the moonpool where the two dolphins were playing with the sub's teenaged computer analyst. "They look like they're having fun."
"Yes, sir. Lucas showed up a few minutes before you did and Darwin and Einstein had him in the water before he'd even gotten the chance to say hello." They both watched the 'kids' play. "I'm not sure which one of them is having the most fun."
Nathan chuckled. "All of them, I'm sure." He turned back to the doctor. "Is Einstein back to health then?"
The doctor nodded, suddenly serious. "Mostly, sir. His lungs are still a little weak, and will be for quite some time. But it shouldn't slow him down too much and the exercise is good for him. He was in remarkable health prior to this incident, and just judging from his reactions to me over the last little while, I'd say he's no stranger to human intervention."
"He isn't," Lucas added from his place draped over the moonpool wall. The two dolphins, happily chasing and splashing one another, were clicking and whistling in conversation faster than the vocorder could translate. "Einstein was just telling me that he was raised by humans, and he still lives with them today. I haven't found out yet what he was doing out in the middle of the ocean by himself though." The genius looked back as the younger dolphin suddenly leapt out the water, performed a flawless backflip, and slipped smoothly back under with barely a splash. It must have been a challenge of some sort because Darwin was right behind him -- only the older, stronger dolphin jumped higher and added a twisting spin to his backflip. The competition was on.
"See, sir?" Lucas continued with grin. "They've both been so excited to have a dolphin playmate, neither one of them has calmed down enough for the vocorder to understand them. I'm just waiting for them to wear themselves out before asking Einstein his story."
Bridger leant over the rail beside the teen. "I'm glad he's okay," he said. "But I am curious about where he comes from. Our WSKRs reported back no presence of a dolphin pod anywhere in the area."
"Not dolphin pod," the vocorder interjected. The dolphins, having noticed their visitor, had ceased their game to pay attention. They bobbed at the surface on either side of the human pair, and the one who spoke was obviously the seaQuest's newest guest.
"Not dolphin pod," Einstein repeated when he saw he had their attention. "Pod human, orca, sea lion. Jesse, Willy, Lucille. Need help. Bad storm. Boat sink, Jesse hurt. Lost. Darwin pod save?" he asked hopefully.
Nathan and Lucas traded glances. "You were caught in a storm? With a person, a killer whale, and a sea lion?" Lucas asked incredulously. "If it weren't for the fact that I know dolphins don't know how to lie, I'd think you made that up."
But Einstein thrashed angrily in the water. "No lie. Einstein pod need help. Einstein look for help. Einstein get trapped in net, drown. Darwin save, bring to pod, bring to seaQuest. Now seaQuest save Einstein pod," he demanded, slapping his fluke against the water.
Darwin chirped at him, and for a few moments he and his dolphin brethren conversed too quickly for the inter-species linguistical computer program to register. Then Darwin rolled to look his oldest friend in the eye and flatly announced, "Bridger send launch. Follow Darwin and Einstein. Save Truth-Talker," and he and his new friend disappeared to go wait at the closed modified torpedo doors that let the boat's cetacean crewmember in and out.
The Captain sighed, looked at the boy smirking by his side, sighed again and then nodded in resignation. He drew his PAL, patched in a line to the bridge, and ordered the submarine raised to 200 meters so that Darwin and their guest could be released sans-airpack. Then he ordered Lt. Ben Krieg to ready a shuttle for launch, outfitted for a Search & Rescue mission.
Bridger disconnected the PAL and stared at the ripples in the water. "I'm not getting paid enough," he decided, refusing to look at Lucas, "to be taking orders from a fish."
And he walked out to the sound of one teenager's laughter.
~*~*~*~*~*~
To Be Continued . . .
Author's Notes: Next chapter Jesse and the 'pod' actually get rescued, the plot thickens, and the humans get more screen time! But don't worry, life from the animals' perspective shall continue. I'm actually finding it easier to write about them than the people in this story. Go figure. (Yes, I'm still insane.)