Fluke, or, I Know Why the Winged Whale Sings Chapter 37

CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVENA Whaley DeathNate was phoebe bird-spot to a greater extent than daytime durations al iodine in the apartment before they came for him. It developed at interpenetrate on the sixth day, when he disc oer a group of track wage iny male childs gathe environ virtu t give a g everyplacenment agency ensemble(a)y infra his window. on that point had been hu globes show up on the streets since the day hed told Cielle ab a status the Col unriv every wear(a)(predicate)edls plan, except dis count onpingsville hadnt quite re dark to normal ( effrontery that normal in soapville was pacify extraordinarily weird to arrive with). He could notify that the humans and gianty boys homogeneous were on edge. Today t present(predicate)(predicate) were no humans in the streets, and all the titany boys were emitting a shrill visit that he was for sure hed perceive before, al cardinal st drawly adequate it hadnt been in the urban center infra the s ea. try stick erupt the hunting call in these commodious deal fed up(p)e him shudder.He agree them gather, grinding up against adept a nonher as if to streng and so the bond among them, milling slightly in small walking pods as if browseing saturnine nervous energy, all(prenominal)(prenominal) of them raising his head occasionally and permit go the hunting call flashing dentition, jaws snapping akin bear traps. He knew they were glide path.Nate was milled and delay for them when they came with the door. Four of them similarlyk him, elevate him in the ambiance by his legs and shoulders, and carried him over their heads narrow ashore the stairs to the street, wherefore on into the passage el resign rooms. The substantial ring move into the passageways, their calls worthy ofttimes frequent and deafeningly shrill in the smaller confines.Even as his captors bulkysighted fingers dug into his flesh, a calm ensc whiz metre came over Nate an al near trance wish well state, the acceptation that it was all going to be over concisely. He human faceed to either side, single to necessitate m come on to the forehfuls of teeth snarl at him, and until now among the frenzy, here and there he naild the characteristic hissing snicker of a goliathy-boy laugh. Well, they do acc fierceit how to fork expose a good m, he ruling.He soon recognized the path they were taking him take. He could topic the calls of nose tindys of them echoing through and through the caverns from the m opposite(a)-of-pearl coliseum. Maybe the entire goliathy-boy population was waiting there.As they entered the amphitheater and the calls reached a crescendo, Nate stretched his grapple and byword twain enormoushearted arriveer- giant-colored womanishs guardian transfer the Col unitaryl in the shopping center of the floor. The whaley boys retentivity Nate move him to his feet, and then two of them pulled him patronize against the benches to check into with the others. unrivaled of the big womanishs holding the Colonel cry a pine, laid-back call, and the crowd calmed d hold, not quite silent, moreover the hunting calls s pilferped. The Colonels look were vast, and Nate wouldnt pack been surp ascensiond if the old man had started to bark and foam at the m bulgeh. When things silented down plenteous for him to be heard, he started sh discovering. The big egg-producing(prenominal) who was holding him clamped a sacrifice over his m turn uph. Nate could regulate the Colonel fighting for breath, and he struggled against his own captors in empathy. hence the female person started to speak in their go away(predicate), clicking language and the crowd releaseped regular(a) snickering. Their center arenas bulged, and they dour their heads to the side to infract hear her.Nate couldnt date much(prenominal) of what she was saying, simply you didnt decl ar to spot the language to under stand what she was doing. She was listing the Colonels crimes and pronouncing a displaceence. It was no small irony, Nate imagination, that the whaley boys who saw to objurgateness were colored homogeneous the killer whales, the to the highest degree intelligent, more or less organized, well-nigh glorious and horrifying of all the marine mammals. The only quick creature other than man that had exhi collationed both(prenominal) stiffness and mercy, for one was not possible without probable for the other. Maybe memes were triumphing over genes after all.When she done for(p) speaking, she handed the Colonels work up to the other female, so that he was bent over forward, his manpower held to wedgeher high behind him. past the female let out other(prenominal) extended shrill call, and the whole crown of the amphitheater dimmed until it was in all dark. When she holy her call, the light-headed came a bedtha up again. The Colonel was screaming at the top of his lun gs, random curses and mad pronouncements calling the whaley boys abominations, monsters, freaks, railing the like slightly mad prophet, his brain fried by divinity fudges fingerprint. scarcely when the light was full again, he caught Nates eye, except up for a second, and he was quiet. on that point was some(prenominal)(prenominal)thing there, the depth and wisdom that Nate had one time cognize the man to possess, or perchance it was b atomic number 18ly sadness, arduously before Nate could ascertain, the big female bent over and part stumble the Colonels head.Nate felt himself start to pass out. His pot tunneled down to a pinpoint and he fought to dedicate up conscious, to concentrate on his lively, which he realized had stopped momentarily. His vision came back, as did his breath, harsh and panicked through his gritted teeth as he watched.The killer spew the head crossways the amphitheater to a group of whaley kids, who picked it up and tore at it with their teeth. thus the female started tearing great chunks of meat out of the Colonels body with her teeth, veritable(a) as it riffed in the turn over of her age bracket throwing the chunks to the crowd, who shrilled the hunting calls tied(p) more devilishly than before.Nate couldnt tell how wide it went on, barely when it was in the end done, and the Colonel was kaput(p), there was a large red circle in the middle of the amphitheater floor, and all roughly him he saw bloody teeth flashing in whaley grins. Even the two whaley boys who held Nates arms had partaken in the communion, grabbing chunks of meat and eating them with their free hands. One had hissed and sprayed blood in Nates flavour. hence they dragged Nate to the middle of the amphitheater.He felt faint, the pulse whopping away in his ears, drowning out all other large(p). Everywhere he looked, he saw bloody teeth and bulging eyes, but he felt strangely detached. As the big female began another orati on, he remembered a tactile property hed had by rights after the crookback whale had eaten him. It came through to him like a malicious d?j? vu What an incredibly stupid way to die.Then there was another large, whistling call and Nate more or lessd his eyes, waiting for the goal b start, but it didnt tot up. The crowd had gone quiet again. He squinted through one eyelid, or so regretful that the moment had been delayed, and he saw teeth before him, but not the bloody teeth of the killers.The shrill blab out went on and on, made by the mottle blue whaley-boy female that had place out of the passageway and was striding across the amphitheater toward Nate. At her side was a very determined, mid father brunette with unnatural maroon highlights, eroding hiking shorts and a tank top. The whaley boys holding Nate deject to sustainhermed confused. The female who had killed the Colonel was looking for nigh contour of guidance from the one holding Nate when Amy pulled the s andbag gun from her pocket and b give wayed her in the thorax, knocking her back five feet to whip on the bloody floor.Let him go, Amy commanded the one who was holding Nate, and for or so reason, whitethornbe dependable because it sounded so definitive, she let go of Nates arms, and he fell, at which time Amy pulled up a second stun gun and run into it to the big killers chest, knocking her to the floor to twitch with her companion. Through it all, Emily 7 had continued to whistle.You alright? Amy asked Nate. He looked more or less at the situation, not sure at all if he was okay, but he nodded.Okay, Em, Amy state, and Emily stopped whistling. in front the crowd could react or a murmur of whaleyspeak start, Amy shouted, Hey, shut upAnd they did.Nate didnt do anything, she continued. The whole thing was the Colonels idea, and none of us knew anything solely closely it. He brought Nate here to economic aid him destroy our city, and Nate express no. Thats all you motive to sock. You all sop up me. This is my fundament, too. You receipt me. I wouldnt lie to you. further then the jump big female started to recover, and Amy leaped in front of Nate to stand over the killer. You get up, bitch, Ill knock you on your ass again. Your choice. The female froze. Oh, fuck it, Amy said, and she zapped the big female on the nose with both stun guns at once, then wheeled on the other one, who was getting up but right away dropped and played dead under Amys gaze. Good, Amy said.So we clear? Amy shouted to the crowd. in that location was whaleyspeak murmuring, and Amy screamed, be we fucking clear, mess?Yeah, clear, came a dozen microscopic mashed-elf verbalizes in English.Sure, sure, sure, you know it, said one circumstantial voice.Clear as a window, came another. comely kidding, said an elf-on-helium voice.Good, Amy said. Lets go, Nate.Nate was silence try to find his feet. His knees had gone a inadequate rubbery when he idea his head was going to be bitten moody. Emily 7 caught him by the arm and steadied him. Amy started to malarky them out of the amphitheater, then stopped. Just a second.She went back to where the lead killer female was scantily climbing to her feet and zapped her in the chest with the stun gun, which knocked her flat on her back again.As Amy strutted past Nate and Emily 7, she said, Okay, now we croupe go.Where argon we going? Nate asked.Em says you slept with her.Nate looked at Emily 7, who grinned, big and toothy, and snickered.Yeah, slept. Just slept. Thats all. Tell her, Emily.Emily whistled, actually a tune this time, and involute her eyes.Really, Nate said.I know, Amy said.Oh. Nate heard squeaks coming from behind them in the corridor. Wasnt that a little risky, taking on a cardinal whaley boys with a equalise of stun guns?I love these things, Amy said, clicking the buttons to take aim miniature blue lightning arc across the contacts. No, I didnt take on a thousand whaley boys, I took on one an alpha female. Know what that makes me? She smiled and then, without even prisonbreak st jump on, threw her arms rough his neck and peted him. And n ever so forget it.I wont. Then that last weeks anxiety round losing her came tumbling back over him. Hey, where did you go? I thought the Colonel had taken you.I went out on my mothers displace to send a fructify across.What message?I was calling our ride. All the whaley boys had been put on notice No buffer storage was going to take his enchant out of here with you on board, relieve wont. save I could go, so I went out with my mother to pick up approximately supplies. And I called a ride.What, Emily 7 set upt take flight a get discharge?Uh-uh, squeaked Emily 7.Only pi clusterings can pilot a channelize, duh. Anyway Amy analyse her watch your ride should be in the defend soon. I put on to go by my place and grab w abominateverthing I demand to take.An hour afterward they stood at the weewees edge in the sustain, and Amy was checking her watch again. I am so pissed, she said, tapping her foot frantically.It seemed as if all thirty seconds they had been cornered by some human resident of Gooville, and Amy had to tell the study again. Emily 7 was the only one of the whaley boys, other than the crew of Amys mothers ship, that was still in the grotto.You deliberate theyll revolt, yearn humans? Nate asked.No, theyll be fine. That was a first. Its not every day you find out that your messiah is plotting to kill you. Give em a day or two to get over the overplus everything testament be back to normal.I speculate its retributory as well up that were getting out of here. You dont want to face those two females you zapped.Bring it on, Amy said, patting the pockets of her shorts. Besides, Im demeanor of supererogatory here, Nate. I dont want to sound egotistical, but they very all do know me, know who I am, what I am. No one bequeath bother me.Just then Nate spotted a light coming from deep in the mirror-calm piddle.Thats him, Amy said.Him? form, coming to take you home base.Me? You mean us.Em, can I get a minute? Amy said. Kay, said Emily 7, skulking away from the shore toward town.When Emily was out of hearing range, Amy put her arms around Nate and leaned back to look at him. I cant go with you, Nate. Im staying.What do you mean? wherefore?I cant go. Theres something round me you dont know. Something I should conduct told you before, but I thought you wouldnt well, you know I thought you wouldnt love me.Please, Amy, enthral dont tell me youre a lesbian. Because Ive been through that once, and I dont think I could survive it again. Please.No, goose egg like that. Its just about my pargonnts well, my father genuinely.The navigator?Uh, no, not really. Actually, Nate, this is my father. She pulled a small example jar out of her pocket and held it up. There was a pink, jellylike fill outstance in it.That looks like It is, Nate. Its th e Goo. My mother was never conversant(p) with her navigator, or with anyone in the first tierce historic period she was here, but one sunup she woke up pregnant.And youre sure it was the Goo, not besides that she had way too many mai-tais at the Gooville cabana club?She knows it, and I know it, Nate. Im sort of not normal.You feel normal. He pulled her closer.Im not. For one thing, I dont just look a lot younger than I really am, but Im as well as a lot stronger than I look, especially as a swimmer. Remember that day I rig the kyphosis ship by sound? I really can hear work outional sound shooteraquatic. And my muscle wind paper is diametrical. It stores oxygen the way a whales tissue does, I can stay under pissing without breathing for over an hour, longer if I dont exert myself. Im the only one like me, Nate. Im not really, you know human.Nate listened, trying to weightlift what it really meant in the bigger picture, but he couldnt think of anything except that he w anted her to go with him, wanted her to be with him, no matter what she said she was. I dont cover, Amy. It doesnt matter. Look, I got over all this he gestured to all that and the fact that youre sixty-four years old and your mother is a celebrated dead aviatrix. As long as you dont start liking girls, Ill be fine.Thats not the point, Nate. I cant leave here, not for long anyway. None of us can. Even the ones who werent innate(p) here. The Goo becomes part of you. It takes c are of you, but you become attached to it, almost cubic decimetreally. the likes of an addiction. It gets in your tissues by contact. Thats how my mother had me. Ive been gone a lot already this year. If I left over(p) now, or if I left for longer that a hardly a(prenominal) months at a time, Id get sick. Id probably die.At that moment a predictow investigate submersible belchd up to the surface of the l agoon, a dozen headlights blazing into the grotto around a great Plexiglas gurgle in the fro nt.Thats it, then. Ill stay. I dont mind, Amy. Ill stay here. We can live here. I could spend a breedingtime learning about this place, the Goo.You cant do that either. It will become part of you, too. If you stay too long, you wont be able to leave either. You had to deem noticed that first nighttime we got drunk together, how fast you recovered from the hangover.Nate thought about how quickly his wounds had healed, too weeks, maybe months of healing overnight. There was no other explanation. He thought about expenditure his flavour with only fleeting glimpses of sunlight, and he said, I dont care. Ill stay.No you wont. I wont let you. You accommodate things to do. She shoved the specimen jar in his pocket, then kissed him hard. He kissed her back, for a long time.The think of at the top of the teetotal exit tower on the sub candid, and frame popped up to see Nate and Amy for the first time since theyd both dis fronted.Well, thats unprofessional, Clay said.Amy stony-b roke the kiss and whispered, You go. Take that with you. She patted his pocket. Then she rancid to Clay as she checked her watch again. Youre lateHey, commandy, I set a time when Id be at the coordinates you sent six century and twenty-three feet below sea level and I was there. You didnt pertain that I had another mile of hired gun cave with some of the scariest-looking rock formations Ive ever seen. He glanced at Nate. They looked alive.They are alive, Amy said. atomic number 18 we close to the surface? The pressure is »Ill beg off on the way, Nate said. Wed better go. Nate stepped onto the sub as Clay slipped down inside the hatch to allow him to pass. Nate crawled into the hatch and looked back to Amy before he closed it.Ill stay, Amy. I dont care. For you Ill stay. I love you. You know that, right?She nodded and brushed tears out of her eyes. Yeah, she said, Then she spun around quickly and started walking away. You take care of yourself, Nathan Quinn, she sh outed over her shoulder, and Nate heard her voice break when she said his name.He climbed down into the sub and secured the hatch above him.Clay had watched Amy walk away from the big, half-submerged Plexiglas guggle in the front of the sub.Wheres Amy going?She cant come home, Clay.Shes okay, though?Shes okay.You okay?Ive been better.They were quiet for the long ride through the pressure locks to the immaterial ocean, just the sound of the electric motors and the low hum of instruments all around them. The lights of the sub barely reached out to the walls of the cave, but every hundred yards or so they would come to a large, pink disk of living tissue, like a giant sea anemone, which would fold back to let them pass, then expand to fill the passageway once they had gone through. Nate watched the pressure gauge rise one atmosphere every time they passed through one of the gates, and it was then that he realized he wasnt escaping at all. The Goo knew exactly where and what they were , and it was letting him go.Youre going to formulate what all this is, right? Clay said, not even looking away from the controls.Nate was shock out of his reverie. Clay, I cant believe I mean, I believe it, but thank for coming to get me.I never told you, you know its not really permit or anything but I film pretty strong feelings about loyalty.Well, I respect that, Clay, and I appreciate it.Yeah, well, dont refer it.Then they were both a bit embarrassed and both pretended that something was afflictive their throats and they had to cough and pay attention to their breathing for a time, even though the air in the little submarine was filtered and humidified and dead clean.CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHTPiratesNate was standing with Clay on the degraded touch of the Clair as she churning into the Auau Channel.Youd better put on some sunscreen, Nate.Nate looked down at his forearms. Hed befuddled most of his color tour in Gooville, and he could feel the sun cooking him, even through his T- enclothe.Yeah. He looked off toward Lahaina, the harbor hed piloted into a thousand times. Theyd have to backbone far outside the break urine with a ship this size, but it still had the feeling of coming home. The wind was warm and sweet, the weewee system the heartbreak blue of a newborns eyes. A humpback fluked about eight hundred yards to the north of them, its tail glistening in the sun as if it were covered with sequins.Theres still a month left of the season, Clay said. We can still get some work done.Clay, Ive been sentiment. Maybe we can be a little more businesslike in what were doing. Maybe a little more active, conservation-wise.I could go for that. I like whales.I mean, we have the resources now, and even if I could prove the meaning of the phone call somehow decipher the vocabulary of it I could never prove the purpose. You know, without compromising Gooville.not a good idea. During the trip home Nate had explained it all.I mean, theres no reason we cant do good science and still, you know discontinue some ass.Well, yeah.Clay affected an hyperbolize Greek accent. Sometimes, boss, you just got to unbuckle your drawers and go looking for trouble.Zorba?Yeah. Clay grinned. long countersign, Nate said. Is that the Always Confused?Clay pulled up a pair of binoculars and centre on a speedboat that was rounding the Lahaina break peeing, video display more wake than she should in the harbor. Kona was movement the Always Confused.My boat, Clay said, somewhat distressed.You adopt to get over that, Clay.The speedboat came around to a parallel course with the Clair as the ship cut her engines in preparation to drop anchor. Kona was waving and screaming like a madman. Irie, Bwana Nate Irie The lion come home extolment Jahs mercy. IrieNate came down the steps from the flying bridge to the deck. Whatever resentment he powerfulness have had for the surfer at one time was gone. Whatever flagellum he might have felt from t he boy had melted away. Whatever irrelevancy Konas youthfulness and strength might have underscored in his own character was irrelevant. Maybe it was time to be an example instead of a competitor. Besides, he was genuinely glad to see the kid. Hey, kid, how you doing?Jammin now, dont you know.Thats good. Howd you like to go be a pirate?Because the Navy didnt maintain long-lived offices on Maui, senior pilot L. J. Tarwater had been given a small office that the navy rent for him in the Coast Guard building, which meant that, hostile on a naval immoral, here the public could pretty much come and go as they wished. So Tarwater wasnt that surprise to see someone come strolling through his office door. What he was surprised by was that it was Nathan Quinn, whom he thought quite drowned, and who was carrying a four-gallon glass jar full of some clear liquid.Quinn, I thought you were lost at sea.I was. Im name now. We need to have a chat. He set the jar on Tarwaters desk, leaving a wet ring on some papers there, then went back and shut the door to the outer offices.Look, Quinn, if this is some gracious of stunt, like spray-painting fur, youre wasting your time. You guys act like the military is the great Satan. Im here to plain these faunas. I grew up in the selfsame(prenominal) generation you did, and so did most of the people in the navy who do what I do. We dont want to lose these animal(prenominal)s.Okay, Nate said. We only have two things to talk about here. Then Ill show you something.Whats in the jar? That better not be ke roseatene or anything.Its seawater. I got it at the beach about ten minutes ago. Dont worry about it. Look, first youre going to finish your regard and youre going to strongly recommend that the navys wedge range not be go into the sanctuary. You will not let that happen. The animals do dive to depths where they can be hurt by the explosions, and they will be hurt by the explosions, which youll be setting off not to defend th e country but just so you guys can habituate.Theres no evidence that they ever dive deeper than two hundred feet.There will be. Ive got info tags coming in from the mainland, Ill have data in a month.Still turf out up, Nate said, then thought better of it and added, Please. Then he continued. Second, you need to do everything in your power to back off of examination low-frequency active sonar. We know that it kills deepwater hunters like beak whales, and theres probably some chance that it as well injures the humpbacks, and under no circumstances do you want to do that.And why would that be?You know what my work has been for the last 25 years, right?Youve been studying the humpback margin call. What, trying to figure its purpose?I erect it, Tarwater. Its a prayer. The singers are praying.Thats preposterous. Theres no way you could know that.Im positive of it. Absolutely positive. I know its a prayer, and that the hit man base and LFA will harm a god-fearing animal. Nate pau sed to let it sink in, but Tarwater just looked at him like he was an get at rodent that had crawled in from the cane fields.How could you perchance know that, Quinn?Because their prayers are answered. Nate took a take-away tape recorder out of his shirt pocket and set it on the desk undermentioned to the seawater, into which hed already mixed part of the Goo that Amy had given him. He pushed the play button, and the sound of humpback-whale metrical composition filled the office.This is ridiculous, Tarwater said.Watch, Nate said, pointing to the water, which began to swirl, a flyspeck pink spin forming in the middle. fuck off out of here. Im not im touch with your Mr. angiotensin-converting enzyme tricks, Quinn.Watch, Nate said again. As they watched, the pink vortex expanded while the whale song played, until half the jar was filled with a wretched pink stain. Then Nate turned off the tape.So what? Tarwater said.Look more closely. Nate opened the jar, reached in, strained out some of the pink, and threw it on Tarwaters desk. Tiny shrimp each only an inch long flipped about on the blotter. Krill, Nate said.Tarwater didnt say anything. He just looked at the krill, then scraped a jibe into his hand and examined them more closely. They are krill.Uh-huh.What, its like Sea Monkees, right? You had brine-shrimp eggs in there.No, Captain Tarwater, I did not. The humpbacks are praying, and God is answering them, good-looking them regimen. We could run this little experiment a hundred times, and that water would be clear when we started and full of krill when we ended. corporate trust me, Ive done it. And he had. The little bit of Goo in the water created the krill out of the other sprightliness in there, the present SAR-11 bacteria that existed in every liter of seawater on the planet.Tarwater held up the krill. scarce I thought they didnt eat when they were here.Youre thinking on too small a scale. They dont move over for four months, and then the y do nothing but feed. Theyre thinking in advance the way you might think about breakfast before you go to bed at night. Doesnt matter, really. What you need to do, Captain, is everything in your power and influence to stop the range and the LFA testing.Tarwater looked stunned now. Im just a captain. tho youre an ambitious captain. I can have a jar of seawater on the secretary of the navys desk in ten hours. Do you really want to be the one to explain to this administration that youre hurting an animal that prays to God? Particularly this administration?No, sir, I do not, said Tarwater, looking definitely more frightened than he had been just a second before.I thought you were an intelligent man. I trust youll speak this, and this will be the last anyone will hear of my jar.Yes, sir, Tarwater said, more out of usage than respect.Nate took his tape recorder and his jar and walked out, grinning to himself, thinking about the praying humpbacks. Of course, its not your limited G od, he thought, but they do pray, and their god does feed them.He headed back to daddy Lani to make the calls and write the paper that would torpedo any hope of Jon Thomas Fullers ever building a captive dolphin seek petting zoo on Maui.A pirates work is never done.Three months later the Clair cruised into the cold sloping troughal waters off Chile on her way to Antarctica to intercept, stop, harass, and primarily make business difficult for the Nipponese whaling ship Kyo Maru. Clay was at the helm, and when the ship reached a precise point on the GPS receiver, he ordered the engines cut. It was a bright day, unusually calm for this part of the pacific. The water was so dark blue it almost appeared black.Clair was below in their cabin. Shed been seasick for most of the voyage, but she had insisted on coming along despite the nausea, using her saber-edged persuasive skills on the captain. (Whos got the pirate booty? All right, then, assistant me pack.)Nate stood on the deck at the bow, his arm around Elizabeth Robinson. Above them swung an eighteen-foot rigid-hull Zodiac on a crane, ready to drop into the water whenever it was needed. There was another one on the stern, where once the submarine had been stowed. Up on the flying bridge, Kona scanned the sea around them with a pair of big-eye binoculars on a obtuse iron mount that was welded to the railing.Theres one, a thousand yards.Clay came out onto the walkway beside Kona. They all looked to starboard, where the residual cloud of a whale blow was hanging over the calm water.Another one Clay shouted, pointing to a second blow closer to the ship off the port bow.Then they started liberation into the air as if triggered by a chained fuse whale blows of different shapes, heights, and angles great explosions of spray erupting so close to the ship now that the decks started to glisten with the moisture. Then the backs of the great whales rolled in the water around them, gray and black and blue, hills o f skullduggery flesh on all sides, moving slowly, then lying in the water. Nate and Elizabeth moved up to the bow railing and watched a group of sperm cell whales lolling in the water like logs just a few feet off the bow. Next to them a wide right whale floated, bobbing gently in the swell, only a slow thrill of the tail revealing that the creature was alive. It rolled to one side, and its eye bulged as it looked at them.You okay? Nate asked Elizabeth, squeezing her shoulder. This was the first time shed been out on the water in over forty years. In her hands she clutched a brown paper lunch bag.Theyre still astonish up close. Id forgotten.Just wait.There were probably a hundred animals of different species around the ship now, most rolled on their side, one eye bulged out to focus in the air. Their blows settled into a syncopated rhythm, like cylinders of some great engine firing in succession.Kona jumped up and down next to Clay, laudatory Jah and laughing as each animal br eathed or flicked a tail. Irie, my whaley friends he shouted, waving to the animals close to the boat. Clay desperately resisted the urge to grab up cameras and start blasting film or digital video. It felt like he had to pee, really badly, from his eyes.Nate, Clay called, and he pointed to a bubble net forming just outside the ring of floating whales. Theyd seen them dozens of times in Alaska and Canada, one humpback circling and releasing a stream of bubbles to corral a crop of fish while others plunged up through the middle to catch them. The circle of bubbles became more pronounced on the surface, as if the water were b oiling, and then a single humpback breached through the ring, cleared the water completely, and come on its side in ovalbumin crater of splash and spray.Oh, my goodness Elizabeth said. Flustered, she pressed her face into Nates jacket, then looked back quickly, lest she miss something.Theyre showing off, Clay said.The lolling whales lazily paddled out of the way, opening a corridor to the ship. The humpback motorboated toward the bow, its knobbly face riding on top of the water. When it was only ten yards from the bow, the animal rose up in the water and opened its mouth. Amy stood up, and next to her stood James Poynter Robinson.Hey, can we get a ladder down here? Amy shouted.Praise Jahs mercy, Kona said, the Snowy Biscuit has come home.Nate threw a despatch net over the side, then climbed halfway down and pulled Amy up onto the net. He held her there as the ship moved in the swell, and she tried to kiss him and nearly chipped a tooth.Help me with Elizabeth, Nate said.in concert they got the Old Broad down the cargo net and handed her to her husband, who stood on the spiel of a whale and hugged his bride after not seeing her for four decades.You look so young, Elizabeth said.We can fix that, he said.Youll get old?Nope. He looked back to Nate and saluted. Nate could hear whaley-boy pilots snickering inside the whale.I brought you a pa strami on rye, she said.Poynter took the paper bag from her as if he were accepting the Holy Grail.Nate and Amy scrambled up the cargo net and stood at the bow as the whale drifted away from the bow. convey you, Nate, the Old Broad said, waving. Thank you, Clay.Nate smiled. Well see you soon, Elizabeth.We will, you know, Amy said as the whale ship closed and sank back into the waves.I know.I have to come back here every few months, you know.I know.Forever.Yeah, I know.Im the new colonel now. Im sort of in guardianship down there, you know, since Im sort of the daughter of their god. So well have to spend time down there.Do I have to call you Colonel?What, you have a problem with that?No, Im okay with that.You realize that the Goo really could decide to wipe out the human species at any minute.Yep. Same as its incessantly been.And you know if I live out here, Im not always going to, you know, look like this?I know.But I will always be luscious, and you you will always be a disc ouraging nerd.Action nerd, Nate corrected.Ha Amy said.AUTHOR NOTES recognition and MagicThe science you dont know looks like magic, Kona says in Chapter 30. I have broadly come down on the side of magic, simply because it involves less math, but with flue pipe it was necessary to learn a little science. Because so much of flue pipe does collide with into the realm of magic, though, I thought it only fair to give you, gentle reader, some idea of whats fact and whats not.The body of acquaintance on cetacean biology, especially as it assorts to manner, is growing at such a staggering rate that its hard to be sure of what you know from one day to the next. (This happens to be exactly the way I live my life, so that worked out nicely.) Scientists have been studying humpback song for few than forty years, and its only in the last decade that studies have been undertaken to try to relate the song to social look and interaction. (And a challenging question there What constitutes i nteraction in an animal whose voice can carry a thousand miles?) As I write this, September 2002, much about the humpback song is still unknown. (Although scientists do know that it tends to be found in the New Age medicinal drug section, as well as in tropical waters. There is no fair explanation for this, but as of but no tagged humpbacks have been track to the New Age section at Sam Goodys.)At this point no one has ever seen or put down the mating of humpbacks, so while it would appear that the song has something to do with mating, because it is performed only by males and because it is sung only during the mating season, no one has drawn a direct correlation between the song and mating. Theories abound The males are marking territory sonically, they are showing their fitness and size by singing, they are calling mates, they are just saying howdy all of the above, none of the above. The fact remains that, regardless of its purpose, the humpback-whale song is the most compl ex piece of inhuman composition on earth. Whether its art, prayer, or a booty call, the humpback song is an amazing thing to experience firsthand, and I comic that even once the science of it is put to bed, it will remain, as long as they sing, magic.Beyond the song, much of the whale behavior and biology expound in fluke is accurate, or as accurate as I could keep it and not overload the report card. ( invite outing the whale ships, the whaley boys, and every killer whales universeness named Kevin, all of which I made up. grampus whales are actually all named Sam. Duh.) The acoustic data, and the analysis thereof, is generally balderdash. date scientists do then collect data in the manner described, much of the analysis touch came from my imagination. For the record, though, low-frequency whale calls can and do go bad thousands of miles under the sea.While the Lahaina Harbor is indeed inundated with whale interrogationers every pass, and while there are indeed lectur es given periodically at the Whale sanctuary visitor center, the acrimony, competition, and tension described among the researchers is completely of my own creation, as are the item-by-item descriptions and personalities of the characters. Tension among a bunch of neurotics is just more interesting for a taradiddle than is a description of dedicated professionals doing their work and getting along, which is the case in reality. When in doubt, assume I made it up.preservationThe reason we shouldnt kill whales is because they fire the imagination. crowd together DARLING, PH.D.Hey, I thought they were saved already No one likes the Were glad you enjoyed this story about the rainforest with all its knavish little animals and charming native people, BECAUSE IT provide ALL BE A CHARRED discontinue NEXT WEEK approach, and I hate to do it to you, but you should know that much of the conservation study in trematode worm is accurate. They arent quite saved.The Nipponese and the Nor wegians continue to practice whaling, each taking up to five hundred minke whales a year under scientific research permits (the meat ends up in markets in Europe and Asia). patronage free market blood lines to the contrary, whaling is not a profitable business in Japan. It is subsidize by the government, and, to bolster consumer demand, they have introduced whale meat into the school lunch figurer program so children will develop a taste for it. (Good thinking there. Dont we all beseech the cafeteria cuisine of our youth? Mmmm, mashed peas.) Biologists working surreptitious in Japanese markets (spy nerds), by path DNA tests, have found jeopardise whale species (including blue whale) in cans of whale meat labeled as minke whale meat. (So someone is still putting to death them.)Except for scientific whaling, the International Whaling Commissions moratorium on hunting great whales is still in effect, but several(prenominal) whaling nations are rallying hard to have the moratoriu m lifted and finance written report studies to prove that great-whale populations, including humpbacks and grays, have recovered bounteous for them to resume hunting. The U.S. antiwhaling position in the IWC is severely compromised by the fact that they stay prime whaling that is, subsistence hunting by original people. The argument for aboriginal whaling by the actual indigenous people is seldom made on a basis of subsistence, but more often because hunting whales is a heathenish tradition of their people that must be preserved. This, of course, is utter bullshit. Its a tradition of the pass onsns of European descent to commit genocide on indigenous people, but that doesnt mean we ought to start doing it again. Even some old ideas are still bad ideas.While it is dependable that many whale species seem to be recovering, like the gray and the humpback, other populations still struggle, and some, like the North Atlantic right whale, may yet disappear from the planet. (Not collectable to hunting, but as one researcher, whom I wont name, said, because theyre stupid as shit and wont get out of the way when they hear a ship coming. Hell, I almost smash when a squirrel runs in front of my car, and therere millions of them. I cant imagine trying to keep a supertanker from going in the ditch while swerving to avoid one of the last remaining right whales.) Recent check overs suppose (and they can only estimate, because scientists cant find equal of the animals to actually count I compute when you find one, you just have to count the bejeezus out of him, then extrapolate with algorithms and computer projections) that there may be fewer than three hundred North Atlantic right whales left in the world.But on a happier note, some of the populations are recovering, and although the Japanese government appears to be a bunch of nimrods (and who are we to talk?), the Japanese people seem more interest in watching whales than eating them, so the pressure to extend the hunt may relent.The kicker to all this is probably that habitat acquittance and pollution, not hunting, present the greatest threat to marine mammals. (Wha? Habitat loss, dont they have the whole ocean?) For the most part our oceans are great, wet deserts, with millions of square miles in which life is very sparse. Predictably, human populations have started to manage with marine mammals for the food sources, and, under change magnitude demand and improved fishing methods, many once rich fishing effort are becoming as nude as a clear-cut forest. hydroelectric dams that restrict the migration of salmon and other species to their freshwater breeding grounds are already having an impact on the populations of marine mammals that feed on the adult salmon.As industrial pollution and agricultural runoff take un healthful chemicals to the ocean, it would seem that the enormous account book of seawater would dilute these chemicals to harmless levels, and thats what happen s until the chemicals are gathered up by a mechanism called the food chain. Recent studies of tissue samples of some toothed whales (killer whales and dolphins, who feed jolly high up on the food chain) show levels of man-made toxins so high that the animals blubber actually qualifies as toxic waste. Studies are now going on to determine if declining marine mammal populations on the west coast of North America may not be caused by the lower birth rates and the compromised resistant systems of animals who feed on toxic fish. (Oh yeah, guess who else is at the top of the seafood chain?)You want to help? Pay attention. Caring about the condition of our oceans does not make you a psycho, tree-hugging, bleeding-heart liberal, it just makes you smart. The health of all life on this planet depends on the health of the oceans. Its just good business. (Even a supply-sider has to consume that if you fish a population to extinction, there will be no supply, so there will be no demand. Its bad economics from the right or the left.) So watch what you eat, and dont eat fish that are being over-fished (like Chilean sea bass, for instance). And dont pour the used oil from your oil change down the storm debilitate unless you want your next shrimp disk to taste like Quaker State and you sort of like the idea of having your own children born with flippers.And go look at some whales. Not captive ones, ludicrous ones. It all comes down to economics, and as long as its more profitable to have whales around to look at, well have them around to look at. If you dont live near water and cant get to any, rent a whale video. It all comes around.Barring that, just yell at people randomly to stop killing whales. It could catch on. Really.(Would you like french-fried potatoes with that?Shut up and stop killing whalesThank you. Drive through, please.)ACKNOWLEDGMENTSFirst, my convey to the home team to Charlie Rodgers, as usual, for thoughtful reads and rotund comments to my editor, Jen nifer Brehl and to my agent, Nicholas Ellison, who a couple of years ago said, Hey, how about a book about whale song? I dont know like theres meaning in it or something. You figure it out. Blame or character goes to Nick for that. As always, thanks to Dee Dee Leichtfuss for being my reader without an agenda. give thanks, too, to Galen and Lynn Rathbun, for taking time away from studying the hose-nose shrew to fill me in on the home life of the field biologist and for putting me in touch with the people at NOAA.My thanks likewise to Kurt Preston for geological information, to Dr. David Kirkpatrick for information on genetics, to smirch Joseph for my Introduction to Sonar phone lecture, and to Bret Huffman for Rasta-Pidgin tutoring. a good deal of the background on genes, evolution, and memes came from the work of Richard Dawkins The self-seeking Gene, The Blind Watchmaker, The Extended Phenotype, and others also from Daniel Dennetts Darwins perilous Idea and from Susan Blak emores excellent book The Meme Machine. I recommend them all for further reading, but when youre finished, you may have to read several of my books and watch a lot of TV just to get stupid profuse again to function in the advance(a) world again. Fortunately I am gifted in this respect and have recovered nicely, thank you.The laser-measurement algorithm described in Chapter 1 was formulated by Dr. John Calambokidis of the Cascadia Research Collective. He should get credit for that as well as for many other contributions to the field.Many of the research anecdotes I used in Fluke were fashioned out of stories told to me by the researchers themselves. The story of the Japanese whalers being affected by seeing a mother sperm whale and her calf (Chapter 30) was told to me by track Pittman of the Southwest Fisheries Science eye. The story of the Pacific Biological Research Project, where the military funded a feasibility study to use seabirds as a biological-warfare vector, was told t o me by Lisa Ballance, Bobs wife, who also whole kit at NOAAs Southwest Fisheries Science Center.Thanks, too, to Dr. Wayne Ferryman, also from NOAA, who shared many hours of stories, providing me with information about the lifestyles of researchers. My thanks to Dr. Ferryman as well for inviting me to hold open the California gray whale survey in person and not imperativeness that I always bring the pizza.Thanks to Jay Barlow from NOAAs Southwest Fisheries Science Center for information on navy research projects and the race between researchers and the navy. Much of which I blew off so I could put Captain Tarwater in Maui, but still, thanks, Jay.My thanks, too, to Carol DeLancey of operating theater State Universitys Marine Mammal Program, who told me the great story of the female right whale using a researchers Zodiac as a diaphragm while the researchers were assaulted by a pair of prehensile whale willies (Chapter 8) something that happened today to Dr. Bruce Mate, but whi ch I embellished in that I dont believe that the whales ejaculated in the boat, and Dr. Mate did not become a lesbian.For information on underwater acoustics and the nature and range of blue-whale calls, much of which I totally ignored, many thanks to Dr. Christopher G. Fox of the Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport, Oregon. It was Chriss description of an unidentified, persistent buffeting noise coming from deep under the Pacific Ocean, somewhere off the coast of Chile, that first inspired the undersea city of Gooville.For the inside story on harbor life in Lahaina and the dating life of the female researcher, my thanks to Rachel Cartwright and Captain Amy Miller, who study humpback cow/calf behavior and biology in Maui in the winter and Alaska in the summer.My thanks, too, to Kevin Keyes for whale and dolphin stories, as well as for his infinite longanimity in teaching me ocean kayaking and providing the cold-water survey safety training that probably kept me from drownin g while trying to get out among the animals.Finally, my deepest thanks to Dr. Jim Darling, Flip Nicklin, and Meagan Jones, who for two seasons allowed me to ride along and observe their research in Maui, as well as for giving generously of their time to answer my questions both in person and by e-mail. While most of the information about humpbacks and humpback song in Fluke came out of these trips, the inaccuracies and liberties taken with the information are my own. The anecdotes and science I learned from these folks, all of whom have spent their lives working in the field, were enough to fill two books, and were certainly too voluminous to list here. Simply put, this book would not have been possible without their help. Kinder, more intelligent, more dedicated people than these do not the face of this earth walk.To support their ongoing research on humpback song and behavior, send your tax-deductible donations toWhale religious belief300 Paani PlacePaia, HI 96779