Chapter 3
The Story of the Vocorder -
Lucas woke up the next morning in med bay wondering where he was. He looked around at his surroundings and realized where he was. Just as he had woken up Doctor Westphalen walked over to him and said "how are you feeling today
young man?"
Lucas groaned and said "better then yesterday and I feel a little hungry can
I have something to eat?"
Dr. Westphalen looked at him and said "it's good your feeling better, but I
think you should wait a little bit longer before you have something to eat.
Now is there anything else I can get you?"
Lucas looked up at her and said "only if the Captains not busy right now?"
Just then Captain Bridger walked in the med bay to check on Lucas. He saw
that he was awake and talking to Kristine Westphalen. He walked over to
them and said "I not busy right now why, do you ask?"
Lucas looked up and smiled at him and said "I was just wondering where you were. I wanted to thank you for getting Daniel for me."
The Captain smiled at his youngest crew member. Doctor Westphalen was puzzled and asked "who's Daniel?"
Lucas looked up to her and nodded to his Teddy Bear which he still had next to him. He said "I decided to give him my middle name because I always thought it was kind of stupid to name it something to cute"
Doctor Westphalen smiled at him and said "well to bad that is cute."
Lucas just laughed at that comment. "Some of the girls in college thought so to. He's been with me though my worst and best times. Sometimes he was my only comfort, especially when my parents abandoned me."
He then looked up at Bridger and Dr. Westphalen and said "I never really told you why I was upset, when we all got a holiday because of World Power going online."
They both looked at him and Bridger said "well you did say it was because your father cared more about the project then you."
"It was a little more then that," Lucas began to say "Let me start from the beginning as what I told you then was only part of it. You see my dad was always useless with computers unless I helped him out. Well he was developing the systems for World Power he forced me to help him do it. I basically did much the same thing as I did with UEO command in developing the systems that run the new SeaQuest. However unlike the UEO, my father never gave me credit for anything I did. So basically I was mad at him not for being there but I was mad because he was using programs I invented without giving me credit."
Captain Bridger looked at him and said "ever since I met you I have always wondered why you were so secretive about the Vocorder?"
Lucas smiled at him and said "It's the one thing on this boat that I actually own the exclusive rights to. I started developing it well I was in college at Stanford University; I had always had this bizarre attraction to dolphins for some reason. Anyway one day I came across an article talking about using sign language to communicate with dolphins by some one by the name of Bridger. I tried to find out more on this person but pretty much came up empty handed. I got this idea one time daydreaming well I was doing some research for one of my Artificial Intelligence courses, what if it were possible to create a computer program that could translate the sounds of dolphins into a language that humans could understand. I Began working on it just for fun at first and then one day just as I was finishing my masters I showed it to one of my professors who suggested that I do it as the theses for my PHD. I had never really thought about it much, I mean what good would a doctorate of A.I., get me. I began work on it anyways just as something to do I used money that my Mom had given me to rent an apartment in San Diego and I got myself a Job at Sea World as a dolphin trainer, I told them about what I wanted to do and at first they were thinking 'this kids is crazy, so what he's a genius with an IQ that can't be measured, why should we hire him', eventually they did and at the age of 14 I had my first real job. I started my research as soon as I stated my training. I would often be found at the dolphin tank with my laptop and a very crud version of the Vocorder attached to an underwater speaker. And that's were the Vocorder began."