Humanx - Cachalot Part 54

"n.o.ble. We Do Not Generally Think Of Humans As ... n.o.ble. Are These Questions Thou Wouldst Ask So Vital, Then, To Thee?"

"Not to me. To the endangered, to those who stand to die."

She waited tensely for the catodon to reply. He had

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quieted behind her, as everyone on the foil waited breathlessly for the drama to resolve itself.

Eventually the old whale said, "What, Then, Be A Question In The Scheme of Things? I Waste Time With Thee. Yet The Pod Will Progress, The Pod Still Thinks. Ask What Thou Wilt, Female."

Cora tried to stop shaking. For a moment she mar- veled that the cetaceans would bother to distinguish s.e.xual characteristics among humans. Then she hur- ried on.

"First I have to tell you," she said, feeling like an ant addressing a man, "that we know for a fact that the baleen whales are destroying our towns. We don't know if any of the toothed are involved. If you doubt this, ask your small cousins who travel with us." Si- lence. "Did you know this?" she added.

"We Did Not Know This," the whale replied. "Yea, Why Should We Believe Thee Or The Cousins Who Slave For Thee?"

"They don't slave for us and you know that," she snapped back, affecting an invulnerability she did not possess. "They would never lie to you, and you know that. Certainly not on human account."

"They Indeed Confirm What Thou Sayest. Normally The Doings Of The Baleen Are Of No More Interest To Us Than The Doings Of Mankind ... But... This Is A Most Interesting And Disturbing Thing. Very Difficult It Is To Believe."

"I myself witnessed one of their attacks. So did my close companions." She gestured back toward the now crowded railing of the suprafoil, where Mataroreva and every other member of the crew stood watching in mute fascination. "They acted in unison," she con- tinued, "according to some prearranged, thought-out plan. Blues, fins, humpbacks, rights, probably seis and greenlands and all other plankton-eaters. We saw none of your people among them, as I said."

"Naturally Not!" the old one roared confidently.

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CACHALOT.

"No Catodon Would Partic.i.p.ate In Anything So Fool- ish, To No Philosophical End. And Thou Sayest The Baleens Acted Together? This Is Not Possible. Our Great Cousins Have Not The Intelligence."

"Something has the intelligence," she insisted, "be- cause it happened. Someone is directing them, in- structing them in what to do. We found one who actually partic.i.p.ated in at least one attack. It admitted this, yet could not explain why it did so. Whoever is controlling and directing the great whales in these at- tacks is doing so without their consent."

"That Is Possible." The old whale sounded a touch tired. "But As I Said, The Doings Of The Baleens Are Of No Real Consequence. It Is Interesting, But That Is All." He slid deeper in the water, prepara- tory to submerging.

"Wait! Think a moment, Lumpjaw. Anything that can control the baleens against their will might soon also manage to control your people."

"That Is Not Possible." He spoke with maddening

self-a.s.surance.

"Probably the baleens think the same thing." She slapped the water angrily, a pitiful gesture that none- theless made her feel better. "You pride yourselves on your privacy, your chosen isolation and time to think and philosophize. You've elected for yourselves a spe- cial nomadic, noninstrumental existence and seek to develop your own kind of civilization. Don't you see that whatever's controlling the baleens is a threat to that, even if you're right and it can never control you? Mightn't it turn the baleens against you, as it has turned them against us?"

"I Have Said That We Will Not Concern Ourselves With The Activities Of The Baleens, Nor Do We Fear Any Actions Of Our Large But Harmless Cous- ins."

"Harmless?" She tried one last time. "How do you

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know what they might be capable of under outside control?"

Silence for a long moment, and then a bellow that rang around inside her head.

"PEOPLE!" She forcibly reduced the volume in her headset as the shout reverberated inside her skull like a ball-bearing in a steel globe. "Thou Nearby Have Heard." Answering replies came from at least three dozen cetaceans. Cora had considered the conversa- tion pirvate, but come to think of it, why shouldn't many others of the herd within range have listened in?

Were not the catodons developing a cooperative so- ciety?

"What Think Thou," he finished, "Of This Unprec- edented Anomaly?"

"Yes," she said loudly, "and what are you going to do about it?" She fervently hoped she was not over- stepping her thinly stretched luck.

A great deal of rapid intercetacean communication generated a verbal blur in her ears, too rich and rapid for the translator to handle.

Finally the wrinkled brow turned to her once more.

"We Shall Question The Baleens Ourselves About This Peculiar Matter."

"I told you we already tried that," Cora reminded him. "With a big sulfur-bottom bull. He admitted the attack, admitted being directed, but didn't know how or couldn't say how it was accomplished. Thinking about it gave him a whale-sized headache."

"All Thoughts Upset The Baleens. They Do Not Like To Think. They Only Like To Eat. Feeding Oc- cupies Too Much Of Their Time. But We Will Ques- tion Them." He said it in such as way as to hint that Cora and her friends were guilty of either a wrong approach or collective stupidity. Well, that was fine with her. She had achieved as much as she had dared hope.

But the catodon added something completely unex-

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pected, unhoped for. "Thou And Thy Companions May Come Along If Thou Wish To, Though I Cannot Say When We Might Encounter Any Of The Great Cousins."

"Thank you. We-" But the great head sank like a stone. Then Cora felt herself rising. She was preparing to jump clear when the ascent leveled off. She found herself moving toward the s.h.i.+p. Ahead, crewmembers ran in panic to left and right. The head beneath her dipped slightly. She slid a couple of meters to the deck, landed on her feet, and sat down awkwardly.

The float disc clattered next to her.

Mataroreva was the first one to reach her, lifted her to her feet. A smile told him she was all right. She shook free, moved to the rail in time to see the mas- sive skull slip back into the water. A vast, fathomless eye rolled at her. The old leader issued a high, squeal- ing sound the translator could do nothing with. Then he vanished beneath the waves.

As if directed by a single source, the entire herd began moving northwestward. Their pace increased rapidly. Gigantic backs raced and rolled past the suprafoil, coming withing centimeters of its hull. None actually made contact.

Having also listened in on the conversation, Hwos.h.i.+en had the presence of mind to order, "Slow ahead, helmsman. When they're completely past and a kilometer out, match speed and maintain that dis- tance!" The suprafoil's engines hummed. Soon it was racing in the wake of the herd like a silver water- strider.

Mataroreva stood near Cora, towering over her. Yet he no longer seemed so big. "That was a very stupid thing to do," he said quietly.

"Yes, I know." She ran the absorbent cloth across her legs, began drying her hair. "But we had no choice. We knew that the catodons were our best bet for finding out why the baleens were doing what they

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were. Our toothed friends didn't know, as it turns out, but maybe we're all going to find out together."

"Stupid," he reiterated, but it was muted by the ad- miration in his voice and in his face.

"Why? What would it have mattered to you if something had happened?"

"It would have mattered, vahine."