The Farpool (7 page)

“Yeah, a media circus, probably. Also papers
and recognition for us, for the aquarium, for everybody.”

She changed into dry clothes and went back to
the pool deck alongside the medical pool. Both creatures were still
heavily sedated, secured in their float slings, their wounds
heavily bandaged, still connected by wire and tube to life monitors
hanging in a basket overhead.

Holland sat down on the pool deck and pulled
up her knees, resting her chin on them.

Who are you?
she asked herself.
What are
you?
A body similar in proportion to
Tursiops
, a bottlenose dolphin, but
bigger. Fore and rear limbs, tail flukes, two dorsals.

And limbs with fingers. Actual
prehensile digits, eerily similar to human hands. How could
Evolution have developed
that
in a water environment…what did they do with those
hands?

Her musings were interrupted by Dr. Joe
Meier, the Aquarium director, who came into the med pool suite a
short time later. Meier was tall, mostly bald, dorky glasses
forever perched on the end of his nose. He was the picture of
distracted academia, even down to the corduroy jacket with elbow
patches.

Meier just stared at Ralph and Alice for a
minute, shaking his head. “Incredible…just incredible…Josey, how
intelligent do you think these guys might be?”

Holland sucked on the tip of her finger. Her
stomach growled, reminding her she hadn’t eaten anything for
dinner.

“Very, Joe. URI scan showed a brain-to-body
weight ratio greater than any cetacean, greater even than you and
me. We did some PET scans…even severely injured, there was a hell
of lot of glucose uptake going on…oh, they’ve got brains, all
right. They think and act with intention, I’m sure of that. I just
don’t know what their intention is.”

Meier went over to a table in the corner. The
‘suits’ they had removed from Ralph and Alice were laid out on the
table, along with scales and probes from the Lab. He poked at the
‘helmet’ of one suit, using a set of tongs to nudge it along.

“What the hell do you make of these…extra
skin layers?…maybe they shed skin like my German shepherds.”

Holland got up and came over. She put on some
latex gloves and fingered the ‘helmet,’ with its clear, beak-shaped
casing and interior network of fine, almost delicate tubes.

“Look at these tubes, Joe. This isn’t skin.
It’s just what it looks like…some kind of suit. External protection
you put on and take off. Rob and Tracey scanned this thing from one
end to the other…it’s got valves and gears and pumps and some kind
of motors, things we have no idea what they are…it’s a pressure
suit, something designed and worn, like astronauts wear.”

Meier looked sideways at Holland. “Josey,
what are we dealing with here? Nazi frogmen from sunken U-boats?
Extraterrestrials? Survivors from Atlantis?”

Holland shrugged. “I don’t know….I really
don’t know. But Ralph and Alice don’t belong here, I’m sure of
that. They came here, for a reason. I don’t know where they came
from. And I don’t know the reason. But I hope to learn…we’ve been
handed one of the greatest scientific discoveries in history…right
in front of us. We have to move carefully on this, do the science
the right way, document everything….”

Meier nodded. “This
has
to be great for the aquarium. Especially
these suits…what an exhibit that’ll be…I’ll get the curators to
work on it tomorrow, first thing. Just think of it: a whole new
theme for next year. I can see it now—“ he put his hands up to show
an imaginary marquee in the air. “—
Visitors from an Alien Sea
—
Be a Part of History
…all the donors and
benefactors will wet their pants trying to get in on this…Jeez, the
merchandising alone will—“

Holland cut him off. “Joe, the science has to
come first. I don’t want anything to mess up the science.”

“Maybe you don’t, but let me remind you what
I said at last month’s staff meeting: Gulfside is hurting
financially. We need money. We need visitors. We need
everything…hell, you yourself said you need more equipment in the
lab…microscopes, scanners, spectrometers, all those gizmos cost
money and we don’t have it. Look at ‘em, Josey…Ralph and Alice…I
like the names, by the way…we can use that…. They’re a floating
gold mine, better than Sea World, better than Animal Kingdom,
better than Disney World. We play our cards right and we’ll be
swimming in dollars. The blunt truth is we have to do something to
raise our profile and draw more tourists in, or Gulfside will
close.”

Holland waved him away. “Joe, I know all
that. We all know that. I’m just saying we should go at this
carefully, plan things, do the science right from the start. I’d
like to not have a circus just yet…hell, Ralph and Alice may not
even survive the night. I know nothing about where they came from,
what they eat, how they live. All that’s got to be researched and
documented.”

“Yes, yes, of course you’re right…nobody’s
arguing that. But we’d better make use of what’s dropped into our
laps here, and do that right too, or there won’t be an aquarium
here next year for you to do your precious science in.”

So they both waited and watched, both hoping
for good things from Ralph and Alice, each in their own ways
praying that the creatures survived the night, and made a full
recovery.

Josey Holland knew that the days ahead would
be trying ones.

Chapter 4

Scotland Beach, Florida

July 23, 2121

9:00 pm

Word of the newest ‘acquisition’ at
Gulfside Aquarium got around Scotland Beach pretty quickly. There
were different versions of the story going around, but the basics
seemed stable enough: two new marine animals, likely dolphin
variants, had been discovered by police on Shelley Beach and they
had been wearing spacesuits. Chase Meyer first saw the story
on
Beach Bum
, a local web
site covering town news and activities. He practically didn’t
breathe at all, reading the post and looking at the images, then he
read it again twice to make sure he hadn’t
misunderstood.

It was real. The same creatures he and Angie
had seen after that spout churned up the ocean a few weeks ago, a
Saturday it had been.

He texted Angie immediately.
Did you see it…new critters at
aquarium?

All he got back, after a few minutes,
was:
OMG.

They met half an hour later at the end of
Angie’s street, just beyond the circle at Fairwinds Trail. Chase
had ridden his turbo bike up from his Dad’s surf shop.

They kissed for a moment. “Did you see ‘em on
the Net?” Chase asked.

Angie nodded. “You think they’re the same
things we saw Saturday?”

Chase said, “I don’t know. But I intend to
find out. Come on…let’s head down to the aquarium.”

Angie demurred. “I just got home from school.
And I’ve got a four-hour shift at the clinic…plus Mr. Lott’s loaded
me down with homework—I can’t—“

“Come on, Angie…this could be important—“

“Oh, so a job and homework’s not
important—“

Chase had that look. “Angie—“

She held up a hand. “Don’t, okay.
Just,
don’t
….” she fretted
for few seconds, not sure what to do with her hands.
“Chase—honestly, sometimes…here, let me put this bag up—“ she ran
off to the house to drop off her bag, tell her Mom what was up.
Chase occupied himself with his wristpad, scanning the news stories
as they broke:
new dolphins at
Gulfside…captured on the beach…tourists frightened as police
shootout injures animals….

Angie came running back out of the house and
hopped on the back seat of the bike.

“I gotta be back in an hour…no lie. The
Clinic’s short today…Dr. Wright told me—“

“No sweat…I just think we ought to check this
out. I bet those dolphins are the same ones that fired at us.” He
scratched off down Grove Street, fishtailing past the high school
and the Citrus Grove Shopping Center.

“Hey, try not to kill us in the process!” she
yelled over his shoulder.

They made it to the aquarium in five
minutes.

Chase paid both their admissions and they
hustled through front entrance, hurrying past light, late afternoon
crowds at the Dolphin Gallery, past the Penguin Pavilion, the Seal
Stage and Swamptown, until they came to a door leading to staff
offices and labs. The sign said STAFF AND EMPLOYEES ONLY. Chase
tried the door. Locked.

That earned them a scowl from a docent
nearby, dusting off railings around the diorama exhibit that
fronted Swamptown. Angie always shuddered going by this exhibit; it
was filled with creepy, crawling things with eighteen legs. They
were all stuffed—mummified, she liked to say—but she shivered just
the same.

The docent was Mr. Weems, white-haired and
wrinkled more than a shirt left out in the rain, retired from a
million years in the drugstore business. “Can’t go in there, kids.
Can’t you read the sign?”

Chase towered over Mr. Weems. He didn’t mind
using his height to advantage. “We just want to talk with Dr.
Holland. She’s still the vet here, isn’t she?”

Weems shrugged, parked a chin on top of a
broom, glaring up at Chase. “One of them. Why’d you want to see
her?”

Chase made up some story about catching a
fish off Half Moon Cove that he wanted her to identify. Angie just
rolled her eyes and bit her tongue.

Weems thought about that. “I can call her on
this here phone…but it’s late…she’s probably already left for the
day—“Weems rang a number on the departmental phone. He said a few
words, sort of chuckled, but it came out like a bad cough. Then he
hung up. “Got one of her interns. Dr. Holland’s here, but she’s
busy. The intern’s coming out—“

A moment later, Tracey Rook pushed through
the door. She was red-haired, her hair tied back in a pony-tail,
stuck through the back of a Tampa Bay Rays baseball cap. She was
wearing a white lab jacket over faded jeans.

“What’s this about, Roy?”

Weems told her. Chase added a few
things, then Angie spilled the whole story. Tracey looked on
skeptically. “That’s a pretty tall tale, kids.” Tracey was almost a
kid herself. Chase thought she was cute, maybe twenty-five at most.
Calling
them
kids was a bit
much. “Tell you what, I’ll talk with Dr. Holland, see what she
says. Our new guests, Ralph and Alice, are in the recovery pool.
They’re not supposed to have visitors…it could be pretty
distressing, what with them being shot and all.” Tracey disappeared
back inside the staff corridor, then returned less than a minute
later, with a
what can you do?
look on her face.

“Doc says you can watch them from the
door…five minutes max. And don’t say or do anything. We don’t want
to startle them…they’re a bit skittish.”

She led the teenagers down the hall and
through a set of double doors at the end.

The recovery pool was about the size of the
lap pool over at Apalachee High, a place that Chase knew well, from
years on the swim team. Dr. Holland was stooping by the side of the
pool, testing the water chemistry with some kind of gadget. She
looked up, came over.

“I heard from Mr. Weems you may have seen
Ralph and Alice before.”

Chase related the story. Angie studied the
fish circling warily in the water, one after the other. They eyed
the humans with each orbit of the pool. “The creatures we saw had
some kind of armor on, like a suit or something.”

That made Josey Holland turn abruptly. “A
suit? Like a space suit?”

“I guess. It looked like armor, like it was
plated. If these are the same guys, they look a little different,
smaller.” She could also see the med bandages on the sides of both
Ralph and Alice, where Dr. Holland had done the surgical
incisions.

Holland said nothing about the suits she had
cut off. “Come on in…I want you to take a closer look…make sure
these two are who you saw last Saturday. Stop at the railing
there…I’m not sure how they’ll react…you’re somebody new to
them.”

Chase and Angie came in. Immediately, Ralph
stopped circling and poked a beak above the water, eyeing both of
them with careful scrutiny.

Angie felt a chill. She had seen those
eyes before. It was—“Chase…look at him…look at his
eyes---it’s
one
of
them—“

Chase felt it too. He stayed at the
railing, but every muscle was screaming
go
closer
. He watched as both Ralph and Alice paused in
their circling, poked beaks and eyes above the water and studied
the two of them, cocking their heads first one way, then the other.
For a few moments, Chase and Angie stared, nearly eyeball to
eyeball, with Ralph and Alice, as if something unknown, perhaps
unknowable, had passed between them.

Josey Holland had seen the entire exchange.
“You all seem to know each other. Are these the two you saw
before?”

Chase nodded. “I’m sure of it, Dr. Holland.
Just outside the Cove…it was after that waterspout…you know, the
water was real choppy.”

“I didn’t want to go out there,” Angie
admitted. She wrapped her arms around her shoulders, remembering.
“It was rough, scary. But, Chase…well, that’s how he is—“

Chase told them about the enclosure that
Ralph and Alice seemed to be towing.

This intrigued Holland. “Enclosure? What kind
of enclosure…can you describe exactly what you saw?”

They did.

Holland shook her head, looked at Rook.
“Tracey, check back with the police…see if there’s any mention of
an enclosure in their report.”