Dr. Felt looked into the pool again, as the sleek grey head popped to the surface of the water. "Now remember, Oscer, the people visiting are fellow fathers like me. They all helped when you were born."
Oscer bobbeb his head. "Iiiisss sayyysss hellosss toossss themssss... Yessss? *click*"
Dr. Grey Felt nodded. "Yes! That is what you tell them. I need to go now. I'll be back soon."
*click!*
Dr. Felt walked out of the lab and walked as fast as he dared down the halls. He had to show them that Oscer was more then a dolphin... and he was. Oh God, he was.
Gerret Boomson went over her notes... "We stimulated the cells in the ventricular zone early in the development of the... *scratch out* ...Oscer's mind. That made it so that there was a 20% extra growth in..." The door opened.
Bob looked in. "They're here!"
Gerret Boomson put down her notes as Dr. Felt came into her office.
"Grey," she said, "you know, we have a lot riding on this visit from NASA. Do you think Oscer will be able to pull it off?"
Grey pulled a chair in front of the desk and sat down his feet resting on Gerret's carefully arranged notes. "Oh sure, Oscer is quite capable, and who is better suited to explore a planet that is nothing but water?'
Gerret sighed, "I know, but we've known Oscer all his life, he's almost like a member of the family... I feel like we are abandoning him by sending him into space, even though it's been part of the plans all along."
Grey nodded, "I understand, but we've both talked this over with NASA and with Oscer, he wants to do it, and he's best suited for the job. Think of it Gerret, the first being from Earth to explore Otyar3 will be a Dolphin. The ability to increase their brain size to allow them to communicate with us was a remarkable achievement, but if some use for this achievement isn't found, they will cut off our funding, and all of your work will be wasted."
Gerret nodded, "I know, but still..."
There was a knock at the door... Gerret said, "Come in." As Miss Snip opened it and announced that the visitors were here, Grey and Gerret looked at one another. "Show them in please, Miss Snip," Garret said.
The door opened up, and 3 generals along with an admiral walked into the room.
Grey promply greeted the officers. "Gentlemen, welcome to the NASA Aquatic Research Facility..... We call it NARF for short. So, what brings the Chiefs of the Armed Forces to my doorstep? Come to see our little friend off to Otyar3?"
The Admiral of the Navy quickly responded, "Dr. Felt, I realize you have spent a lot of time and money toward developing a special dolphin to explore Otyar3, but we feel it is wrong for you to send it instead of a human. Humans have been the dominant species of this planet for thousands of years, and we believe we should deserve the honor of being the first being on Otyar3."
Grey thought for a second and replied, "Well Admiral, if you could remember your history lessons, you will know humans were not the first beings into space. The Russians sent up dogs and monkeys long before they tried to send a man. To make sure humans will be safe on Otyar3, we need to, if you'll pardon the expression, test the waters first. Besides, since it's entirely covered in water, a dolphin would be perfect to send there... not mankind."
"I kinda beg to differ there, Dr.," interrupted the General of the Army. "I believe what my colleague is trying to say is, we'll be 'danged' if some.... brainy, talking tuna fish is gonna beat mankind in the exploration of a new planet. I, as a human being, think it's morally wrong."
The General of the Air Force added, "Besides, lots of animal rights activists have been protesting the idea of sending a dolphin into space. They're all worried about it's welfare. What if something went wrong, and that dolphin dies? Would you want to be responsible for killing Flipper, Dr. Felt?"
The General of the Army then mumbled something about that being a bunch of tree-hugging hippy crud.....
"Acceptable risk. The dolphin is fully aware and willing to take the chance," replied Dr. Felt. "In all our history, they have been our equals in the sea. They have worked side by side with us for years. Oscer is well able to handle a space ship and explore!"
The naval Admiral stroked his chin. "Good point!"
"And, since it is an aquatic planet, with no land surface, what better being to send as an explorer?" Dr. Felt glanced at the Generals who moved to speak. He turned on them rapidly. "I know men with machines could do it too, but why? Machines require support, transport, maintenance and crews. Oscer won't. The ship can be streamlined, efficient and above all . . . inexpensive, when compared to the exhorbitant alternative. Less to send, less to go wrong, and Oscer can be trained to handle anything!"
The NASA official rubbed his hands together. "I think Congress will like that. Gentlemen, shall we meet Oscer?" He gestured toward the double doors ahead of him.
The Air Force General leaned toward the Army General and chuckled. "At least, it won't complain about riding aboard a ship built by the lowest bidder."
Together, they went down a long hall to the training tanks far away.
Dr. Felt walked fast to get ahead of the officials. When he reached the door, he opened it and bowed them in, "Right this way, gentlemen." Gerret huffed, "and lady...." She walked through the door and over to Oscer's tank. She leaned on the edge and trailed her fingers in the water. Soon Oscer was there, nuzzling her hand softly. She chuckled and stroked Oscer's snout as she turned to the officials. "I would like to present you to our friend and co-worker, Oscer."
Oscer raised his head *click* "Hellosssss sssirssss."
The general blinked and took a step back in surprise. "No one told me that you could talk, Oscer. Hello to you, too."
Dr. Felt, Gerret and the Nasa official chuckled quietly. Grey stepped forward and patted Oscer's head. "Well, we did want to surprise you, sir."
The general turned to the admiral. "You said dolphins couldn't talk."
Dr. Felt replied quickly, "They can't. But Oscer here is much more. We stimulated the ventricular cells to -- well, I'm sure you don't want the technical details. He's much more intelligent than your average dolphin."
"This changes nothing, though," the Air Force general said as his two companions looked on at Oscer appraisingly. "In the eyes of the public, he's a cute animal! It's inappropriate for a mission of this magnitude. Besides, have the two of you forgotten the hearing before the congressional committee? It's out of our hands now. Oscer stays."
Dr. Felt turned on the generals, an angry look in his eyes. "What?"
"Don't worry, doctor," the general of the Army replied, "We didn't request that they cut your funding, despite the pressures in that area. But you've been reassigned to public relations."
"And you'll have to admit he'll do marvelously," the Air Force flack added.
"Now that I know the true state of your work, I'll be sure to support the use of Oscer for his original purpose at some other time. But... you have to admit, the *first* interstellar traveller *should* be human. We don't want a repeat of the monkey thing."
"The design of the starship is still in its preliminary phases," the admiral said in a consoling tone. "You can argue your case again at the next review."
Dr. Felt fumed. "And look what good that did this time. Will it be better when changing it back will require a 'total redesign?' I hope you're happy, because Oscer certainly isn't."
In the pool, Oscer swam around playfully, paying no attention to the human discussion.
After the humans left, Oscer swam about, pondering matters. He gave a small cetacean sigh, thinking to himself.
"If my vocal cords were only a bit more developed... And if only my voice weren't so squeaky, they'd have taken me more seriously." He paused, an idea forming in his advanced (for an animal) brain.
"I'll show them I'm fit for the mission," Oscer thought. "I'm going, no matter what they say."
The next morning, there was an odd message on Dr. Felt's voice-mail. "Aaallo, dok't. Tk'neeeeesh'n h'aht fohn. Aaaai haf aaaaaidya." The doctor was confused for a moment, than realized what it meant. It was Oscer. "Hello, doctor. A technician had a phone. I have an idea." He raced to the holding tank to find out what his friend and colleague had in mind...
Oscer looked over to the tech. "Whaatssss yousss thinksss..." Diana poked at the guts of the workroom HiFi system. "Oh, it might work Oscey, or it might not. Can't lie to you now, can I?"
Oscer bobbed his head, *click*. "Thissss issssss itsss?" Oscer looked at the mircophone that Diana had dropped into the tank.
Diana had her tongue out to the side of her mouth and was trying to pull the speaker wires out of their plug-in slots. 'What a bunch of junk in this Russian Crap.' She was saying under her breath. Oscer blinked and left her alone for a bit.
Dr. Felt came running into the room and stopped at the side of the tank. "Oscer! What is this that you are up to?"
Oscer replied to the Dr., "Ohhhsss... Makesss mysssself talksssss besstersss."
Dr. Felt looked around the side of the tank at some low mummbling. He started that way. Oscer swam to the side of the tank and tried to splash him. "Ssssshessss bussyss... waitsss aaassss mommesstsss."
Diana grinned and slapped the side of the box. "Ha. This will never play CDs a again. The guys are going to kill me." She looked up. "Ok, Oscey... Its all juiced up." She blinked and saw Dr. Felt, "Oh! Hello, Dr. Felt."
Oscer swam over to the microphone and started to talk. "Heesssllosss..."
"Hello, Dr. Felt." A soft male voice came out of the speakers on the little hifi. "I think that I might have solved the problem of my voice." "Do you think this will work?" In the background Oscer's hisses and drawn out essesss were very high pitched and almost undetectable.
Felt sat down where he was. "Yes. Yes it will.
----
One week later, Felt grinned quietly to himself. The hearing was going on and those military goofs were already spitting up their spiel....
The gavel hit the desk in the U.S. Congress, echoing through the chamber. "Please come to order gentlemen. This is an important issue and we must vote. I recognize the fine gentleman from Idaho."
Senator Klein rose to his feet, "Mr. Chairman, this 'vote' is a waste of both time and taxpayer money. Why, the very idea of sending.. an.. an 'animal' into space is ridiculous. Man has been exploring space for years now. To put billions of dollars and as many hours of manpower in the hands.. excuse me.. 'fins' of a dolphin, is ludicrous!"
The chamber erupted in shouts and comments, some against what the representative had said, but most in agreement. Senator Klein was shouted down by the senator from Virginia. "I fail to see how the intelligence of the fine people of Idaho have fallen so far behind the rest of the nation. Senator Klein, you understand that the only reason this planet is being explored at all is because of the massive Titanium signatures the probes have detected, as it's completely underwater. Only prohibitively expensive mechanisms could be used if men were to mine it. However, it can be mined with -far less cost- by dolphins. Why send a man, or men there at all, if there is no place for us to set foot? You are asking the taxpayers to spend billions more than is necessary."
The chamber again arose in argument and discord. Suddenly, the doors to the rear of the chamber were thrown open. The Sergeant at Arms entered, and shouting above the bruhaha, announced, "Ladies and Gentlemen, may I introduce Dr. Grey Felt, and a guest."
Gary walked in followed by two men in lab coats pushing a tank and some sound equipment, they positioned the tank at the front of the chamber and exited the room.
The room fell silent as Dr. Felt took the podium.
Oscer flipped his fins and looked around at all of the humans. "I have always found that you are intelligent and interesting 'people....' very kind and, for the most part, able to do the right thing. But this pride! It is the very thing that has nearly killed you so many times in the past! I know... For I have read all the books and seen your history. When a nice female comes up to you and rubs herself over your body, you don't step away from her, do you? Such an offer is to be taken up right there!"
The Senate rattled noisily. Startled senators wanted more confirmation of the fact that a dolphin had spoken intelligently and directly to the state of affairs. Questions were thrust forth by arrogance and were met by answers, cool and logical. The Senate roared with discovery... an animal in the throes of birth.
****************
Dr. Felt sat at the console watching the screen readouts. At his side, two NASA specialists watched their own data with care. "Dr. Felt, we have planetfall!" Oscer's excitement was evident by the strain in his voice.
"Otyar-3 is now visible, Doctor. It is beautiful." Oscer watched his screen and touched the auto-pilot with his chin. "Pre-programmed landing site is in view. I will be touching down within three hours!"
"Very good," Dr. Felt said. "Can you switch on cameras so we can take a look?"
Oscer grinned and toggled a small control. "How does it look?"
Dr. Felt grinned and gazed at the sight of the pristine, blue world before him.
"Ship is working within parameters, doctor." One of the NASA techs went through his systems check. "Right on target!"
"Oscer, we have determined that the environment you will be dropping into is as nearly like Earth as we can tell. You will need to make a sensor scan to be on the safe side, and . . . don't eat anything from the planet's ecosystems until you have run compatibility tests on them."
Oscer nodded. "Yes, Doctor Felt. . . ." 'What did they think he was . . . an animal? Of course he would do that! No sense in doing something stupid and never being able to return home to tell about his adventures. Ridiculous! He would not leave the ship without full knowledge of what lay beyond.' "Uh . . . Dr. Felt, speaking of food. . . . Have you any idea what kind of fauna I will find? Is there anything that might consider ME to be food?"
Dr. Felt froze momentarily. Otyar-3's survey had been weather, minerology and geology. Precursory organic studies had been made, but no faunal studies had been programmed into the probes. He forced himself to smile. "Uh . . . no study was ever made, Oscer. We do know some sort of life does exist. The oxygen in the atmosphere is indication of photosynthesis going on. As to animals . . . wellllll . . ."
If he could grimace, Dr. Felt would have seen him snarl. 'How nice of them to be considerate of his well being. . . . At any rate, the ship was safe. He didn't HAVE to get out and explore if it looked dangerous in any way. There was no way he was gonna get his tail nipped off just to look for Titanium deposits on the bottom of the seas.' "Understood, Dr. Felt. So . . . I'm going to take my chances, then?"
Dr. Felt sighed. "Sorry, my boy. You can thank the industrialists for that little oversight. Do what you can."
"Oh, I will, doctor, I will. . . ." A landing light flashed green. The ship slipped into the atmosphere and settled downward to a shallow reef less than 100 feet deep. Engines stopped and it struck the bottom gently. Oscer sighed. "Now or never . . . which shall it be?" He watched his view screens apprehensively. . . .
Oscer sighed and popped the hatch, tasting the pungent waters of the alien world. None of the sickly chlorine he'd put up with all his life... this was *real*!
His fear gone, Oscer threw himself through the hatch and into the ocean with a powerful stroke of his flukes. *Chirp.. chirp...* and the shape of the ocean was revealed.
His echolocation worked, even after all that time in transit... and he realized how silly his fears had been. He was no lumbering human, trapped in a clumsy suit, blind the instant his head passed underwater. Here in the ocean, he was a conqueror!
The humans chattered at him over the communicator, but he ignored it. Time enough for work later... after he'd stretched a bit. He dashed playfully among the strange, alien plants and the glistening rock formations, slipping deftly through a thin network of seaweed.
Or... not. The weeds were a bit tougher than he'd guessed. After a few minutes of struggling, he realized that, perhaps he'd been a bit overconfident. And that maybe he was in a bit of trouble? Would he be trapped here until his air ran out?
But then, strangely, the seaweed moved, pulling him up towards the surface. Visions of horrible demise danced in his head, devoured by a strange predator. He started chewing through the vines, but the progress was slow.
Soon he was pulled to the surface, and drawn up onto a large flat surface. He couldn't see who or what had captured him, but he could hear their grunts. Then, one of them spoke.
"I can't believe it!" said the voice. The human voice. "We're saved!"
"Where did he go?" Dr. Felt was incredulous. "He was under strict orders not to leave the ship until and -unless- we gave the word." He adjusted his glasses and peered at the screen. "At least his homing beacon's still working. Thank the stars for FTL communication, or else we'd be waiting for hundreds of years just to see one blip."
Diana looked up from her monitor at Gary. "Doctor, the chemical sensors on his body are picking up nitrogen, and lots of it. He's out of the water."
"Whaaaaat?"
The doctor glanced at the readings. "78% nitrogen, 19% oxygen. That's quite a coincidence - that's Earth's atmosphere."
"It gets worse, Doc." The other tech spoke up. "I'm hearing voices from the comm-link. Speaking in English. I don't think Oscer ever left Earth."
"But that's impossible! I saw him get loaded into the craft, and I saw it disa - wait a minute. Didn't Otyar 3 have no land whatsoever?"
The three scientists looked at eachother, utterly baffled.
Dr. Felt grimaced. "We've been had. Get me NASA on the line... We need to talk."
Oscer's eyes rolled in terror, as tried to focus on the brutish shapes that milled about him, untangling him from the net and pulling him farther up onto the crude raft upon which he was trapped, but his eyes weren't suited for the harsh 'sun' that beat down upon him, and panic made his difficulties all the worse.
They were humans... or something most like them, he could tell that much, but he'd never experienced the cruel, thoughtless treatment of common men before... In his laboratory, they were always concerned most highly with his well being. These brutes didn't care. Trying to speak to them was hopeless... his vocal apparatus was locked into just the squeals and whistles of a run of the mill porpoise. The men produced knives and cut away the harness holding his comm and scientific equipment to his body, and Oscer was quite certain his blubber was next...
Felt's grip on the phone went white as the telemetry signal from Oscer went dead, and he yelled something quite unpleasant into the receiver, which didn't really phase the radio-playing-hold-music a whole lot. "What the hell is going on!? Whoever's idea this little fiasco was is going to pay heck for...!"
At that moment, a voice came on the other end of the line. "Director of Research and Operations Office. Can I help you?"
Oscer, to his surprise, found himself rather then being eviscerated, being rolled into a large, crude plasic tub sunk into the center of the raft, with some small holes allowing water to circulate, but no possibility whatsoever of escape. The men, satisfied with a job well done, opened up a battered metal cooler, and induldged in celebratory Bud, after activating a homing beacon. "Oh boy... catching this critter's really gonna save our butts. What're you spending you're share of the bounty on, Frank? Hey hee..."
Genral Rakel put down the phone and grinned to himself. "Goddamned Goverment doesn't know what is good for it." He put in another call to somewhere else in the huge five-sided building. "Hello Admiral. They got him." He grunted acknowlagement and hung the phone back up and turned to TV on to get the lastest news. Lin Whiskers was on the screen near NASA. "So far we have not gotten an official report, but from the things that we have been hearing in rumors, they say that they have lost contact with Oscer on Otyer-3. We are still trying to confirm this with... *click*" He didn't need to hear anymore.
-------------
Hunts-with-Pride scented the water around him, as he beat his fins for a moment, heading over to the next clump of seagrass. "Hunt Leader! Hunt Leader! Evil Taste in water!" He darted back away from the area. That smell had been here before.
Leader, he was not known by any other name now, also swam over. His brightly colored body flashed with multicolored lights. He found Hunts-with-Pride easily. The blue flashes on his back always gave him away, even from very far off. "Investigate this we will. I lead. Cover my fins." He darted into the smell within the water. Soon they were picking their way through seaweed and drift. Then they saw it. Something was pushing down into the roof of the word. Hunts-with-Pride squeeled and backed away. "Its a demon!... come from Hell!
Oscer tipped his head up as he heard strange sounds from through the wall of his little glass bubble prison. He looked down through one of the holes in the sides... "Isssss anssssysss oonsssss theressssss? Isss Besssss Osssscerrssss fromsss earthsssss...."
Soon, Oscers voice was heard, but he didn't get the response he had hoped for. One of the.. well, Oscer could only think of them as monsters, came over to his raft with a Bud tall-boy in his hand and looked at him. Oscer looked up with pleading eyes, but the human's glazed eyes and slurred speech told him that he would have no luck communicating with him.
"Hey, Rock! I think this here fish is tryin' to talk to (burp) me... Haw haw haw!"
Rock (who may have been the leader of the group) moved over beside 'Budman.' "Hey, leave that there fish alone. It's gonna make us all rich!"
Both men laughed and with the help of some of their buddies, pulled the raft over a rocky ledge of some sort, and tipped Oscer into a larger pool.
Oscer was now totaly trapped, in a small pool of stale water in the midst of flat dry rock. He was at his drunken captor's mercy.
As he was lifted out of the water, Oscer could see, that there was dry land here, but not very. The area seemed to be a circular depression in a shallow reef. The bottom was deeper than the surrounding reef surface, which remained underwater, as though a huge ..yes.. a fusion jet had blasted straight down and pushed the material into a dike with the heat of the motor boiling the water away. It's base was flat and smooth, and the dikes now were raised a few feet above the surface of the water.
Oscer calculated depth and distances carefully. He had been placed into the interior pool. How much room was there? One leap would be enough if he was quick enough to scout everything out, despite his poor atmospheric vision.
His leap was quick, straight up with a twist, which made him twirl before he plunged back into the pool. That was it. He had what he wanted. Above, he could see the brutish men running around the perimter of the pool. This made things harder. However, training had made him strong. He had been taught escape techniques in case of dangerous fauna. These men were just that. They prevented him from his mission. Escape was priority one.
While the men watched, he circled the pool ever faster then . . . Airborne! Timing . . . timing . . . he struck water and finned rapidly toward open ocean. He was free!!
In deep water, Oscer began to put his experiences together. The pieces fit together in an interesting manner. Nothing jibed with what he knew. Then he found himself surrounded again . . . but not by the brutish men or fish, but dolphins. . . .
He swam with the dolphins down, down towards the bottom of the ocean, to a city of light and beautifully refracting sound. The buildings -- no, the human word was too graceless to use. The spires... the cathedrals, three-dimensional sculptures of sound and function, were all made entirely of metal. A familiar metal, which he'd been trained to recognize until he thought he never wanted to see another speck of titanium again.
The dolphins chattered at him, but he couldn't understand a word they said. Finally, frustrated, he retired to the sleeping chamber they had for him (with a fresh air bubble, so he wouldn't have to surface), and tried to figure out what the hell was going on.
The next day several dolphins came to his room and, with diagrams, explained that they came from earth, just like him, only in a faster ship. A *much* faster ship. If he was reading the diagrams correctly, their ship went so fast that it had actually gone backwards in time, at least in the common (or at least average) frame of reference of Earth and Otyar3.
The rest of it was confusing and meaningless, but Oscer got the idea, from the pictures of him swimming into a deep hole, in the center of the titanium deposit, that there was something they wanted him to do.
"I understand," he said, knowing that they wouldn't, and swam quickly to see what was there.
Loud chattering and chirping followed him out, and a pair of the dolphins swam in his wake... He held back a little to keep his honor guard from getting *too* far behind.
He hesitated at the entrance to the hole, which was located in a sort of park in the middle of the city. His followers stopped at the edge of the open space, and circled anxiously, watching to see what he would do. Oscer braced himself against a rock and nosed off the heavy titanium covering on the hole.
The hole was dark, and his sonar didn't return an echo from anywhere inside. Did he *really* want to go in there?
While he sat and thought, there was an evil whirring noise, followed by several large explosions! Flashes of light through the city, and the sounds of collapsing, screeching metal as it was torn apart!
"Don't go in there, you idiot!" came a loud voice through the water, and as Oscer whirled, he saw a submarine closing in on him through a cloud of bloody water that had been the pair of dolphins following him. "Crap, he's not listening. Waste him."
Panicked, Oscer fled into the dark, impenetrable hole.
After a minute or so of swimming for his life, Oscer paused. There was no more noise from the tunnel - evidently the sub had been too large to fit through. It had also apparently run out of weaponry, as there were no shockwaves of any sort reverberating from the tunnel.
A sonar scan showed that the room he was currently in was large and spherical in shape, with a single rough ovaloid set in the center. Oscer recognized it at once - it was his ship. Or, at least, a replica of it. The original was nowhere near as badly dented as this. From the looks of things, it had been here a few hundred years.
----
Dr. Felt sat in his room. 'To think - the sensors were never installed on the ship anyway. There had been no reason to blame the government at all... Oscer was safely on Otyar3; the atmospheric readings had been taken from the Earth all along. A simple mistake, but an awfully confusing one.'
Oscer knew what he had to do. He entered the ship and, recalling his instruction, activated the engines and accelerated down the tunnel. If the sub was still there, he thought, it would have to chase him. Strangely enough, though, it was gone. So were the other dolphins, and the titanium city. There was still debris in the water, however - which Oscer collected as much as he could of into the cargo bin of the ship.
Oscer then nudged the launch lever with his nose, and headed home.
----
Dr. Pelt looked out his window at the night sky. So much time put into the research - and now it was gone, being put to use somewhere. Oscer was gone for...
A shooting star interrupted his thoughts. Unusual, given that there was no meteor shower scheduled for that time of year. Doubly unusual, in that it stayed in the sky far longer than anyone could expect. Triply, in that it was heading directly toward him.
Dr. Pelt took a dive for the floorboards as the falling star landed in his swimming pool. It was Oscer's ship! A very tired-looking dolphin swam out of the hatch, followed by a cloud of titanium shrapnel.
"Oscer!!!"
Oscer nodded at the Doctor. "Teeeeik k't kerrr f'em." The voice-synth echoed, "Take good care of them."
Gary Pelt fished a piece from the water. It looked like a piece of a torn-up building. And it was quite clearly marked with an imprint in the shape of a dolphin tail.
The doctor smiled, looking at the stars, and stroked his research partner's back. "Don't you worry. They'll be safe."