Chapter 10

Race with Time

When Glafco started for the beach he was so excited about riding a whale that his friends had to alternate between speed walking and almost running, to keep up with him. A group of ocean people were already waiting at the beach for Glafco, Kevin, and Mathew. Whales are as curious as they are playful, they had heard conversations behind the tree-line even before fast footsteps in the sand. The cetaceans knew Inocente had gone to the submarine with Pito, several had moved close to shore hoping to pick up some riders and join in the action.

"Looks like ocean people are also wondering what's going to happen next," Kevin observed as he handed Glafco a translation collar he'd picked up off a temporary driftwood plank desk in the new building.

"How does one ride a whale?" Glafco asked as he donned his translation collar. He suddenly turned quite shy and gazed out to sea in dawn's early light. "We beat the sun here, even with all that happened," he said quietly, nodding toward the glowing eastern horizon.

"This is my favorite time of the day," an orca said, matching Glafco's quietude. "My name is Wava. Would you like a ride somewhere?"

"Yes," Glafco replied, reaching out one arm and tentatively wading into the water.

"Your sandals!" Kevin called to Glafco and then laughed. "Hi, Wava.” He then turned to Glafco, “Watch me while you take your wet sandals off."

Though Kevin missed his friendship with Dasaye, who was even now making his way across the mighty Pacific, he had befriended an orca named Burl during Dasaye's absence. Burl was waiting in shallow water for Kevin to hop on his back. Kevin felt the hum of Burl's low-tone greeting buzz in the water around his lower legs. He realized again what a good guy Burl was and thought back to when Burl had told him he was named after the tough root-ball of giant ocean seaweed.

"Burl's are tough," Burl had concluded.

Kevin was as impressed with Burl's great strength as he was that his name meant the same thing among orcas as it did in Nation Pacifica. He was wondering about the translation collar and how it worked with other languages as he reached Burl's side. "Let's go to the submarine," he said to Burl.

Glafco watched as Kevin hopped on Burl's back, landing flat on his stomach, sideways to Burl. Kevin then nimbly stood up like he was on a surfboard and raised his left-hand finger tips lightly against the tip of Burl's head-high dorsal fin. "Yahoo!" He urged quietly and planted his feet like a surfer dropping into a humongous wave.

Burl instantly figured out that Kevin wanted to make a show for Glafco. He obliged by leaping seaward with a kick-off from the shallow sand. Kevin almost fell when Burl turned mid-air toward the submarine but his surfer's toes gripped like glue. Burl, feeling Kevin's fingertips move on his dorsal fin, shifted his body to help. The problem came when Burl went a little too deep at the end of his acrobatic turn seaward, Kevin struggled for his footing but his magic toes were unable to hold on, he was swept off the back of Burl's tail.

"I get the idea, now," Glafco laughed as he hopped on Wava, who was also laughing.

"Let's race them to the sub," said Glafco, touching his fingertips to Wava's dorsal-tip. He looked back over his shoulder and saw both Mathew and Kevin raise their hands to touch an orca dorsal fin.

Wava accelerated carefully but soon realized Glafco was perfectly balanced as well as confident. Glafco stood with his right foot forward, as his toes pressed forward on Wava's back, his right hand fingertips lightly pressed forward on her dorsal fin. Wava leaped into a dash for the submarine. Kevin, Burl, Mathew, and Ranger were in hot pursuit. The race was on.

Wava, Burl, and Ranger had raced and played with each other many times, all three were an even match, each having won races in the past, more than once. Glafco was a slightly better surfer than Kevin but he had not been surfing during the years he'd been on Luna and Planet Pacifica. Mathew was an only occasional surfer, yet his balance and coordination were both excellent. He, like his brother Scott, had a friendly, fun touch with life, Ranger felt it and strove for the lead.

Each racing pair was evenly matched in spirit and size. The surrounding sea became quiet, except for the sound of ripping water. Ocean people turned their attention to the race. Those too far away to see with their eyes watched with their acoustical sonar. So many were watching that the details grew to something akin to an internal hologram complete with spices of life. Suspense and the straining concentration flavored an exciting wide-band catalyst for cetacean fourth-brain acoustical senses enjoying fun as a prime purpose for life.

Word of the race spread through the submarine and the crew hastened on deck to watch. The Admiral and Pito, who had been at the submarine most of the night, also turned to watch. Commander Gray was delighted, he leaned back against the sub control tower with his arms crossed over his chest. The impromptu sporting event had focused everyone and brought them together, even if only for the moment.

Wava and Glafco had a fifteen meter lead at the start. Glafco tucked in behind Wava's dorsal fin and felt the speed as rushing water vibrations coursing through her skin. He felt split seconds of drag and shifted his weight slightly to compensate, hoping it was helpful but not knowing for sure. He marveled at Wava's energy, power, and speed. Wava, in turn, was impressed by Glafco's ability to move her entire top-speed body like a surfboard, the movement was slight yet it more than made up for his added weight. Glafco and Wava were an instant team.

Burl had leaped for the lead relying entirely on Kevin to keep his footing. Kevin stayed on through the starting lunge and he and Burl steadily gained to within a meter. At that point, try as they might, they could not pull ahead. Ranger had accelerated to racing speed more carefully than Burl, none-the-less, she and Mathew had gradually pulled even with Burl and Kevin; though they weren't able to pull ahead either.

Wava and Glafco were in the lead by a nose. The three racing teams were so completely engrossed with each other, they didn't notice a fourth team rapidly closing in from behind. Rima had walked to the beach intending to take a note to her grandfather just as the race began. She hopped on Remo, who, being a playful orca, had joined the race and quickly pulled in close behind. Remo surfed where the water was broken by the leaders and had gained by being where the swimming was actually easier, like geese flying in formation.

Rima was standing steady behind Remo's dorsal fin and could see that the submarine was quite close. "It's now or never," she said breathlessly.

The lead orcas kept low through the top of an incoming ocean swell in an effort to keep their tails in deep enough water for full-power tail strokes, human riders skimmed through the wave top ankle deep. Remo tried something different, he dug his left fin, changed course leftward and leaped from the wave’s crest. He and Rima flew over Mathew's head with only centimeters to spare. Mathew ducked as they passed over him. Rima's left foot was forward, her arms wind-milled twice as she leaned back for balance. She arched her back with her upper body almost horizontal as Remo dropped toward the water ahead of Mathew and Ranger.

Remo, shining wet and airborne then turned back right and took the lead. Rima's feet stayed firm against Remo's back as he passed under her and she rolled with the turn. Her back was still arched but now she was almost horizontal the other way, facing the water, she reached down and touched it. Remo pumped a tail turn as they hit the water and skittered like a skipping stone. He strained mightily to hold the lead, a huge rooster tail of water arced upward and out from their turn.

The Admiral, still sitting cross legged on Pito, was about to be drenched, or washed into the ocean. Remo attempted to pull a second turn and stop before dunking him. Rima kept on going straight and plunged into the water. Wava and Glafco leaped over her and won the race.

Rima came spluttering to the surface with her bathing suit top firmly clasped in her upraised hand instead of the note. The entire submarine crew burst into cheers. Ocean people quickly converged on the submarine and surrounded it with excited vocal celebration.

Rima put her bathing suit top back on and then climbed onto Remo. Her breath came in heaving gasps as they moved next to the Admiral and Pito.

"I saw you look at me as you sailed by with the note in your hand and a goofy expression on your face," the Admiral chuckled. "You disappeared underwater holding the note high to the end. How did you end up with your bathing suit top in your hand instead of the note?"

Rima tried to answer but her breathing was still gasping draughts which left no room for words. She looked at her grandfather and shrugged between breaths.

"What did the note say?" He asked gently, with an amused expression still on his face.

Mathew, Kevin, and Glafco listened for her answer as they too caught their breaths.

"President Bushleeg wants you to call him," Rima said when at last she could speak. "He said Commander Gray is his relative...gasp... and unless he...gasp... the president...gasp... talks with the commander by sundown...gasp... he, the president...gasp...will presume the commander is dead...gasp... and launch an attack on the island...gasp... President Bushleeg says he's figured out where we are."

Eddy, also standing on an orca, arrived just as Rima finished giving the Admiral his message. He had heard what was happening when he reached the river bend meadow camp and had immediately decided that he should also go to the submarine. It was to Eddy to whom the Admiral now turned.

"We need more reinforcements from Planet Pacifica. Can you do it?"

"I'll try," said Eddy, softly pushing the orca dorsal toward the still low early morning sun.

"Deploy as best you can," said the Admiral.

Eddy looked at the Admiral questioningly.

"Deploy the pioneer fleet for defense when you return."

"You want me to bring the entire fleet?"

"As much as Walker will give you."

"Yes Sir," Eddy said as he set a path through the ocean people and toward the Sun.

All eyes were on Eddy as he slowly left the crowd behind.

Eddy was not at all sure he could do what the Admiral was asking him to do. He closed his eyes and watched the bright morning sunlight on the inside of his eyelids. The light fluttered as he visualized the Sun, Moon, and Earth floating in the vast sea of spacetime. He felt his fingertips still gently pressing the orca forward as he visualized the harbor at the pioneer settlement on Planet Pacifica.

Would you like to go with me?" Eddy asked the orca. "What's your name?"

"I am Spring. Yes, I want to go. Will it be dangerous?"

"Sing of beauty, Spring. Sing to the stars. You are safe. I'll leave you for a visit on Planet Pacifica and bring you home later."

"I hear a song from the stars," Spring whispered in awe.

Then Eddy sang his greetings to the suns of Earth and Planet Pacifica.

Both the ocean people and the submarine crew had heard about Eddy's advanced flight training with Star Song. A few of the submarine crew had gathered bits and pieces of cetacean stories, yet they had no idea or way to imagine Melodian technology, or that Ocean People actually knew Star Song from their history.

Everyone watched spellbound as a soft golden light formed around Eddy and Spring. It grew into a perfect sphere as it became more intense. The light flashed as solid gold for a millisecond. Then, astonishing all who were watching, it simply ceased to exist.

"Well," the Admiral sighed, "All we can do now is hope Eddy and Walker figure out a way to bring reinforcements from the pioneer fleet; and that they reach us in time." He spoke to no one in particular but turned to the submarine commander, who was staring at the place where Eddy and Spring had been.

Mathew broke the almost reverent surrounding silence, "Are you and the Admiral in agreement?" He quietly asked Commander Gray.

"What?" The startled commander yanked his eyes from the empty spot to Mathew.

"Will you stick with us without a guard?" Mathew asked.

Commander Gray knew that the pioneers had installed a small joy beam canon inside the trees and out of sight. It could disable his ship if he surfaced to make repairs, and orca patrols kept his divers inside the submarine when it was submerged. It puzzled him that the Admiral seemed worried he might try to escape. “Why are you so insistent that I agree to remain here unguarded?”

Mathew knew why, at least he thought he had a fairly close reason. "Your submarine makes you a major world power," he responded. "If you step out of this stupid war catastrophe, you will do much for Peace on Earth. Your goodwill is important."

"You pioneers obviously have acquired technologies not even dreamed of before your return to Earth," Commander Gray said. "Perhaps I'm on the wrong side but there's not much I can do about it."

"Commander," Glafco. interjected, "If you sit this out and nuclear war is avoided, we have brought tools to help Use change direction. We're not here to take over the place."

Commander Gray turned and looked at his crew, he then slowly turned back to the Admiral, "Sir," said he. "My crew and I have enjoyed a most extraordinary sporting event. It was followed by a display of technology that might as well be magic." He looked at all the expectant cetacean faces and then straightened his back, a momentary grin flickered across his face.

"I suppose it's my duty to talk to President Bushleeg," Commander Gray sighed with resignation. "I don't really want to talk with him but somebody must assure him that we and the boat are alive and well. My crew and I need to digest what we have just seen before I will say much more than that to anyone."

Commander Gray then saluted the Admiral and turned to go below, his intention was to do exactly what he'd said; call President Bushleeg. The Admiral stopped him with a quick hand signal and pulled a phone from his belt.

"We should all hear what you say to President Bushleeg," said the Admiral.

The commander looked first at his crew and then at several thousand cetaceans. He nodded to the Admiral and stood at ease. The look on his face, between surprise and a grin, told everyone far more about Commander Gray than he himself had yet thought out. The Admiral saw it, too. He turned on his radio phone.

"I had this thing turned off so we wouldn't be interrupted," he said, waiting for the light to flash a ready signal. "Connect me with the Use President," he said, when the light turned green.

"I'm here," President Bushleeg's angry voice growled almost immediately.

"He must have been hanging on the phone," the Admiral said with a wink, holding his hand over the phone. Then he became serious.

"President Bushleeg," said the Admiral. "What's this I hear about Commander Gray being a relative of yours? Would you like to speak with him? I'll hand the radiophone to him."

Pito edged toward the submarine but Commander Gray waved him away and showed his own radiophone.

"Greetings Mr. President, this is Commander Gray speaking." the Admiral signaled him to speak louder so more could hear.

The commander nodded agreement and loudly said into the phone, "We've been treated well and the boat is okay."

President Bushleeg began pacing around his office as he spoke, "We're sending a fleet to rescue you."

Commander Gray knew what the pioneer frigate had done to an entire fleet of war ships, he also knew military leaders wouldn't send perfectly good ships to certain destruction. He put two and two together and clearly heard presidential lying.

"I've just witnessed aspects of pioneer technology which are centuries ahead of us," Commander Gray told the president. "I don't think you should put our navy in jeopardy by sending ships here."

"Oh?" President Bushleeg responded testily. "You presume to tell your Commander in Chief what is what? The United States is in dire straights, we need your ship to be placed and ready to go."

"Ready to go means nuclear war," Commander Gray responded. "You want me to back up your nuclear blackmail with an actual threat?"

"Have you switched sides?" President Bushleeg somehow shouted between gritted teeth.

"You didn't see what I just saw."

"Oh? What did you see?"

"A man and an orca surrounded themselves in a twenty meter solid gold ball...."

"Yeah. Sure."

"Then they vanished. Gone. No smoke. No bang. Just gone."

"Where'd they go?"

"How should I know? They're just gone."

The Admiral held a finger to his lips, he was worried the commander might mention reinforcements. He then pointed to himself, indicating he would do the the talking.

"President Bushleeg,"he said. "You have tried to shoot down a perfectly friendly delfinian spaceship. Your disregard for alien life appears equal to how you treat terrestrial life. You should know pioneers have become allies with Melodians, who have very advanced technology. We are not afraid of what you might try against us, our worry is for Earth and all the innocent lives you terrorize with weapons of mass destruction."

President Bushleeg was aghast. "The United States of Earth does not threaten innocent lives," he spluttered. "We are the good guys! We are exceptional! We are the world's main superpower, it's our job to be peacekeepers. That's why we are the good guys."

The radio speakers scratched with static and then Captain Pearl spoke, "The time has come for you to hear from our President, Sudor. He is safely aboard my battle platform, I am putting him on the air, now."

"Greetings President Bushleeg, Admiral Castro, and Commander Gray," Sudor began. "I had not imagined you were so close to the brink of self-destruction. Delfinians feel a great sadness seeing your plight. We are not here to run your daily internal affairs. We will, however, do our best to block any weapons of mass destruction directed anywhere by anybody. As your new neighbors, we extend our hand in peace."

"President Sudor has not yet covered one important point," the Admiral interjected.

"Yeah, and what's that?" President Bushleeg responded, dropping all pretense of cordiality.

"HUNTA is marching on Nation Pacifica. If you don't stop it at your border, we will stop you there.”

"Helpful Unified Nuclear Tactical Advantage is taking position to protect Pacifica, er... Nation Pacifica. It is being deployed to the border and no further," President Bushleeg retorted with his best voice of adamant indignation. "I am shocked that you seem to consider the United States of Earth to be some sort of an aggressor."

Bushleeg turned to his generals and winked. Everyone present was privy to the closest military secret in Use: The latest model of atomic bombs shot from the gigantic HUNTA cannons had wings; designed adjustable, they could vary between falcon attack and buzzard glide. The wings open and add extra lift as the shell slows toward normal maximum height. Native american observers had watched the tests at the secret desert test site in New Mexico. HUNTA could shoot gliding bombs from the top of the Rocky Mountains all the way to the Pacific.

The Admiral noticed the split second of silence which accompanied President Bushleeg's wink to his generals, he felt the hair tingle on the back of his neck. He was about to become angry and tell President Bushleeg exactly what he thought of him when President Sudor's voice returned to the air.

"This has gone far enough," he said. "We understand your system. We know hunger haunts billions who you starve and enslave with austerity while you spend lavishly on terrorizing everyone on Earth with weapons of mass destruction. You have one day to try and get your thick head on straight. We will call to check on you in one day. Over and out."

The Admiral looked Commander Gray in the eyes as he reached to turn off his radiophone. Then a new voice crackled onto the air just before he pushed the off switch.

"Lunar Science Base takes this opportunity to announce its desire for good relations. All friendly Beings are hereby granted landing rights and full access to the facilities at Lunar Spaceport. Over and out."

"Over and out," the Admiral repeated quietly, still facing Commander Gray, who suddenly grinned widely.

"You have no need to guard us for at least the next twenty-four hours," he said. "Now, isn't it time to change shifts and send a new crew to work on Earth Base One?"

Orcas and other whales eagerly crowded to the submarine to carry the fresh work crew to shore. The combo of working with newly invented foam-stone and riding the whales had convinced all but a few of the crew that the pioneers were doing the right thing, and just in the nick of time.

Some of the surfers among the submarine crew had advanced relations with ocean people by learning to surf dolphinback. Dolphins aren't strong enough to start out with a human rider, but a good surfer can jump from a speeding orca to a full-speed dolphin and then ride waves standing on the dolphin. Kevin, Glafco, and Mathew were very excited to learn submariners were surfing with dolphins and decided to try it themselves, before heading back to camp for much needed food and rest.

Rima said she would try dolphin surfing later and stayed with her grandfather, who was still atop Pito, near Commander Gray.

"Danger is looming ever closer," the Commander said to the Admiral. "I'm very happy I don't have your job." Then he turned to Rima and laughed. "I'm glad I don't have your job, either." Waving, he strode to the hatch of his submarine and disappeared from view.

Rima glanced at her grandfather as the submarine itself began to submerge and then disappear under water. He sat quietly on Pito’s broad young whale shoulders, watching the submarine decend in the mid-morning glassy ocean light. A distant hoot of laughter from one of the submarine crew surfing a dolphin made him smile.

“Should we be frightened?” Rima asked. “Am I crazy because I’m not?”

Her Grandfather still did not speak. His face was serious yet smiling as he nodded Pito toward the surfing point and the river beyond.

“No, you are not crazy.” He answered. “People have been made fearful by war propaganda and war over scarce remaining resources could erupt at any moment. You have not been brainwashed by ceasless United States of Earth propaganda and thus are not feeling so frightened and helpless. Delfinian president Sudor has gained us a little time. I find healthy manual labor clears my mind, let’s use the extra time to work on Earth Base One and figure out more of our plan.”

Some of the work crew saw Rima and the Admiral approaching, they decided it was time to stop surfing and walk the cross island trail to work. Whales and dolphins who had been surfing with humans raced toward the Admiral to find out what great fun would come next.

End of Rebel Island Constituent Assemblage is the next book