Chapter four
Humans land , Delfinians water
Cecric felt herself falling freely when she jumped from the ship. A ten meter dive was not a frightening height for her, yet it is a far enough drop for time to think. She clutched her translation collar with one hand and used the other to balance and part the water for her head at the moment of impact, when she quickly curled and somersaulted, before straightening out underwater, on her back, looking upward. She felt a satisfying water concussion on her chest and knew her landing had been good. Then she twisted and dove for the bottom, moving seaward. She had been the first to jump and swam slowly so the others could signal the Admiral and then catch up.
She wound her way through large coralheads and schools of brightly colored fish. The water was warm and she felt herself at home. White sandy areas lapped up to dark volcanic ridges where predators lurked in shadows and smaller creatures hid. Beautiful plants waved in gentle currents. She signaled with her underwater sonar voice and heard answering calls of wonder describing newly discovered sights; everyone was safe. They gathered together and rose slowly to the surface where they embraced for the sheer joy of being free in the sea. They held hands in a circle that slowly widened until they were beyond each other's reach. Cecric and Landra swam one way around the island, Perko and Dawn went the opposite direction. Sudor swam in widening loops which extended further and further out to sea. They began a methodical exploration of the island each would share in detail upon return. At times they examined the new ocean with keen scientific perspective; at other times they were simply part of the abundant sea life, which paid them no particular attention and seemed to recognize Delfinians were not a threat.
Cecric swam a zig zag pattern which ranged from the near shore shallows to the beginning of deeper water while Landra stayed further out, occasionally following underwater routes all the way to deep ocean. Cecric was the first to discover less salty water because she was closest to shore. She called to Landra who quickly joined her. Together they swam into the mouth of a small river. Cooler fresh water flowed slowly into the sea. Shade from overhanging trees sheltered deep pools lined with their own roots. Long green water grasses rippled in the gentle current under dappled light.
Two delfinians slowly rose to the surface without making a ripple and surveyed the peaceful beauty. "Let's swim upstream and look around that bend in the river," Landra said quietly. The silence within the forest of ancient trees was something they could almost feel. Landra spoke in a whisper. Cecric winked one eye and nodded. They slipped under water and shot forward with powerful sweeps of their third paddling hand at the end of their tails. The river became deeper and wider as they rounded its bend and they dove to the very bottom. "It's almost cold here," Cecric commented.
"Look at this." Landra picked a green shoot from one of the bottom plants and took a bite. "It's delicious," she said.
They had just settled down to their first meal on Earth when Cecric noticed something shining beneath the waving plants. She reached for it and then handed it to Landra, after a brief inspection. "It is something made by a human; I'd say it's a pulley." Then they heard a dull thudding sound from nearby, up the river. Ever so slowly they raised to the surface until only their eyes and foreheads were above water.
Before them was a much wider river cove, its surface glassy smooth. A sailboat was tied up against the trunk of a huge tree which had fallen into the water. A small house built of driftwood and a palm thatched roof was tucked into the trees a short distance from the water. Two women were working in a sunny garden spot not far from the house. A man was working on the sailboat with a hammer. Cecric and Landra moved stealthily forward without making a ripple and then quietly slipped under water.
"Did you notice anything unusual about the boat?" Landra asked.
"Like what?"
"The paint."
"Yes. The colors are the same as the forest behind. It would look normal in a harbor with other boats, still, it looks to me like camouflage."
They surfaced slowly on the far side of the fallen tree and found themselves face to face with a small dog. It looked them in the eyes as if deciding what to do. They saw it reach a decision. It began barking. They slid under water and swam to the other side of the boat.
"I'm positive that's who the Admiral is looking for," Cecric said.
Landra giggled, "We won't know unless we ask."
"Shall we swim up and introduce ourselves?" Cecric laughed, too.
"You talk first, and don't scare the poor guy to death."
"Wait! I've a better idea. We swim out to the middle and pretend we're dolphins. When he spots us we swim under water to the boat."
"What if it's the wrong person. Some Humans eat dolphins and don't lose any sleep over the idea."
"Okay. We wait to see what he does before we swim to the boat. Hold your arms back and hunch your shoulders so our necks don't show so much."
Both delfinians were laughing when they broke the surface and jumped free of the water. They saw the man look up from his work as they twisted and dove back under water.
"He just watched us. I didn't see him reach for a weapon of any kind," Cecric said.
"I didn't either. This time you go up but only let a small part of your back show. Make a big splash as you go back down and I'll watch from behind it."
Cecric surfaced so that only a little of her back broke the surface. She made a splash with her tail but didn't let her paddling hand show. Landra surfaced behind the splash and slipped back under without being seen, her timing was perfect.
"No weapons," she reported when they met at the bottom. "The other two are running from the garden to the dock."
"Let's go before they have time to get weapons. Turn on your translation collar." Cecric and Landra swam full speed to the boat. They surfaced and held up their hands. "Don't shoot," Landra said.
The three humans stared, flabbergasted. They said nothing.
"Are you Kevin, Grace, and Leona?" Cecric asked. "I'm Cecric."
"And my name is Landra." She lowered her hands and bowed. Cecric followed her example and did the same.
The youngest of the humans suddenly dove over the boat railing, surfacing in the water next to the delfinians. "My name is Grace," she said, holding out her hands in greeting. The delfinians took her hands in theirs. "We have heard about you," Grace continued. "This is the greatest moment of my life. I never thought or dreamed this would happen. Welcome to planet Earth. Why did you think we would shoot you? Where did you come from? How did you....."
"Grace!" Her brother shouted. "Let them answer you." He was grinning from ear to ear. One arm was around Leona's waist. He looked at her. She nodded and they jumped into the water too.
"We are very happy to meet you," Leona said when she came to the surface. "I am Leona." "And I'm Kevin. The dog there is Happy; his name is Happy."
"He saw us first, and barked," Landra said.
"I wondered what he was barking at," Kevin said. "How did you come here?"
"We came on the Admiral's spaceship."
"Who's spaceship?"
"It's Admiral Castro's personal ship, your own father named it Admiral One."
"Inocente is here, too?"
"Yes. He and his crew brought five of us to Earth, partly so we could meet Cetaceans, and perhaps help them resist human attacks."
"Wow... Most people don't attack cetaceans, though."
"We know. There have always been some humans who respected and admired cetaceans. We know such people would not harm one. Yet there were times when whale oil was used for lighting and for the fluid in automobile transmissions, it was referred to as type 2 transmission fluid, in the book I read.
"Many people still use the sperm whale's oil for machine-making tools because it doesn't become thin when hot. Humans who might not hurt a whale with their own hands still use products made from marauding surprise attacks on cetacean families. It's really too gruesome to talk about; I get the shivers thinking how many dolphin children die so human children can have tuna sandwiches in their school lunches."
"I know, it's gross." Kevin replied. "Japanese fleets put radio tags on tuna and keep track of where they are by satellite. When the freezer gets low, they send the fleet out for more. They call it science and don't mention science also knows the tuna is so contaminated with mercury it's unhealthy to eat."
"Why did you think we would shoot you?" Grace was still focused on her first question. "What's happened? Why are you here?"
"Our first greeting on Earth was missiles from the Use air force," Landra answered. "We had a pretty good idea who you were and actually didn't think you would shoot; it just popped out of my mouth."
"Our first plan was to meet up with you in Nation Pacifica. We were told you are interested in the cetaceans, too," Cecric said.
"I was studying them in college," Grace replied. "Then my dear brother and Leona almost set off a revolution that would bring real democracy to the United States. That idea didn't go over well with capitalists so now we're hiding out here."
"We go surfing with dolphins almost every day," said Leona. "You can come with us if you want."
"Do you ever see sperm whales?" Cecric asked.
"Whales go by occasionally but they are usually too far from shore to identify. A killer whale was here one day but the dolphins made it go away."
"Sounds like we're in a good location," Cecric said to Landra before turning back to the Humans. "We should return to the ship and tell them we found you. Our plan was to explore for an hour; we've been away longer than that now."
"Where are they?" Kevin asked. "There's an old fort from the colonial era about a kilometer away from here. It's buried in the trees now but it's centered on a flat lava area. That might be a good place to park the ship. Bananas and sweet potatoes have gone native and are growing nearby."
"The ship is near the beach in a small cove a few kilometers east," Cecric replied.
"Are there any other people on the island?" Landra asked.
"No. This is a nature preserve. We aren't supposed to be here but people were shooting at us, too," Kevin commented with a wry smile at his sister. "Luckily, Grace had the boat ready to go when we needed it and we got away."
"We heard about your adventures from a pilot we captured," Cecric said. Then with a 'let's go' nod to Landra, "We'll come back with the others soon."
"We know where the cove is," Kevin said. "That's where we keep our surfboards, it's the best surfing spot on the island. We have a trail to there; we'll probably be there before you."
"You better hurry, then," Landra said with a wink and slipped under the water. Cecric laughed and dove after her.
"Let's go!" Grace said as she climbed out of the water onto their fallen tree dock.
All four of them, the dog included, ran up the trail toward the cove. They ran past a fork in the trail which turned left and wound around the hill toward the old fort. The main trail turned from the shoulder of the hill and led to the beach; they were soon looking down a gentle hill toward the cove.
Small white clouds drifted lazily by with their shadows following along on the sparkling ocean surface, rain slanted down from some of them. Coconut palms leaned over the white sand. Perfectly formed, head-high waves curled around the point and into the cove. A gentle offshore breeze feathered the wave tops, snow white spray arced seaward from the blue-black wave faces. They were far enough away that the moving ocean was silent.
"It looks like it should be a famous painting," Grace said.
Kevin smiled and gently pinched her ear. "What a goof! You always say exactly the same thing from here. I don't see our new friends yet. You guys run and jump in the water before they arrive. I'll look for Inocente's ship." Leona and Grace immediately left at a full run. "Okay, Happy, help me find the ship," said Kevin.
Happy disappeared into the trees sniffing excitedly, he already knew where the new arrivals were. Kevin followed close behind.
Leona and Grace raced along the path to where their surfboards were stashed in shade underneath the bushes. They took off their shirts, ran to the water with their boards, and paddled as fast as they could out to the waves, dark blue walls of fast water that peeled into the cove. When the deep ocean swells reached the reef, they lifted steeply and hurled their tops shoreward. It wasn't quiet here, the waves roared and were growing larger by the minute. A new swell from a distant pacific storm was just reaching the island.
Grace approached the waves slightly ahead of Leona. She paddled into take-off position and yanked her board around toward shore. With one sure motion she laid down and paddled into the wave, it lifted to vertical as she jumped to her feet and gracefully slid down the face before leaning into her turn and crouching low under the curling lip.
Leona didn't try to catch the next wave, she watched Grace get blown out of the collapsing tube by a misty blast of compressed air caught inside the hollow breaker. Grace arched her back and trailed one arm like a ballarina as she accelerated into her next turn. She leaned into the turn so far that she was almost flat with the water. A spectacular arced spray came from beneath her board as its side rails dug into the wave. The muscles of her legs stood out strong as she pumped the force of the wave into greater speed. She came to the wave shoulder, turned out to sea, raised both arms over her head, and saluted all creation with a hoot of pure joy. It was her turn to watch Leona ride, while paddling back out.
Leona repeated the same moves that Grace had done a moment before. She paddled into position, pulled her board into line, and then laid down with a strong take-off paddle. Grace was expecting to see her jump to her feet, instead, she disappeared into the wave face as it lifted to vertical and then curled over.
Grace paddled outward faster. From down in the wave's trough she couldn't see why Leona had suddenly disappeared. Though her first impulse was to help her friend, she thought of the killer whale they had seen and realized that whatever had pulled Leona under was too big for her to handle. Her heart skipped a beat when a large black shape loomed from behind the wall of water and burst into the air in front of the wave. Then she smiled with relief; It was one of the delfinians.
The delfinian twisted in the air and reached forward with both arms. It landed on one side and curved its back to fit its turning arc at the bottom of the wave. The lower arm dug into the water and pulled through the turn and right back up the wave. The delfinian stalled momentarily at the very top where the wave was folding over, then, with a mighty kick of its tail hand accelerated downward until it was going so fast its entire body was planing as cleanly as a surfboard. When it reached the shoulder at the end of the wave, the delfinian cut back in a long arc, skittering across the wave at tremendous speed, straight back into the collapsing wall of water. At the last possible instant, the delfinian turned and dove through the wave toward open sea. It exploded out the back of the wave going so fast that it walked on water with its tail hand paddling and both arms reaching skyward. It was Cecric, and she was hooting the surfer's familiar song of joy.
Grace rose over the swell and watched Cecric's hips sway as her tail hand paddled her outward, slowly settling, still in a standing position. "She's gorgeous," her realization came as spoken words. Her eyes followed Cecric a moment longer and then turned to watch Landra and Leona takeoff on the next wave together. The surf really was coming up; when Grace retold this day's story, she put the wave's size at more than three meters. When deep ocean swells collide with an island they curl over and hurl themselves at the shore, one does not see a gentle leading lip of water. Pacific island waves are lumbering and heavy masses, with a jagged wind torn lip a half meter thick. Leona and Landra traced perfect twin white arcs as they took off and turned into their very powerful wave.
Leona's style was not as aggressively athletic as Grace's, yet she was equally skillful and had fun on the waves in her own way. Each surfer's style is as unique as their appearance, scent and voice. Leona stood quietly on her board. She did not turn sharply and race to find the best place to ride, rather, she seemed to somehow relax into perfect union and simply be at the maximum most exciting place all the time. Her forward hand traced slow small circles in front of her as if she were measuring a beat, or conducting an orchestra. She rode in and out of where the wave was so steep it was beyond vertical, already curled over. She occasionally traced a line on the wave surface with her trailing hand as she unconsciously reached and touched its face, as if to better feel what was going to happen next. Leona was pure beauty on a wave.
Landra rode about half meter under the water, high up on the wave and silhouetted against the sky behind, right next to Leona. It was a steep and powerful wave, yet two people rode where only one human could fit. Grace had positioned herself in deeper water at the shoulder of the waves, where the rides ended and the waves turned back into swells as they wrapped into the cove. She watched Landra and Leona ride toward her and knew something beautiful and important was happening, right in front of her eyes. A tingling chill spread over her skin, she felt herself witnessing a magic moment and was grateful for life.
They had not ridden such large waves in this cove. As Grace watched, she guessed the wave's height to be almost four meters, more than twice Leona's height. The larger waves broke further out and the shape of the ocean floor was different enough that the waves behaved in unexpected ways. Suddenly, almost at the end of the ride, where the wave hooked around toward shore, a section at least five meters long passed over a coral head or a lava bench, where it reared and broke over all at once. Leona threw her upper body backwards, away from the falling curl as she turned the board down the wave's face.
Her turn was so sharp and sudden that for a brief moment her head was lower than her feet and she was looking straight up at the crashing wave. The board came around under her as she widened her stance, spread her arms for balance, and raced the falling comber to the bottom. The wave began pounding her shoulders and back; she braced against the impact, turned at the bottom, and shot into the safety of deeper water. Landra free fell over the falls right behind her and then dug into a turn. Both of them arced to the safety of deep water side by side, precisely as they had started. They pulled to a stop and sent their wakes splashing over Grace, she heard the water rip as they stopped.
"That's the biggest wave I've ever ridden!" Leona exclaimed with her eyes wide and her chest heaving.
"Same here", Landra said, equally wide-eyed.
"You grabbed me out there, on the wave before this one," Leona said, casting an accusing look at Landra, who looked at her with smiling eyes, raised her arm, and pointed out to sea without answering.
Three delfinians leaped from the face of another wave, which was even larger than the one Landra and Leona had ridden. They playfully traced a zig zag pattern across each other's paths and left a perfect braided wake of white which remained visible as it spiraled up the face and over the falls inside the tubular wave.
Perfectly streamlined delfinian bodies ride wave power close to the speed of a surfboard; at high speed the water becomes hard and almost any shape will skip along on the surface. The delfinians held their swimming power in reserve, it added whatever was necessary to get them through tight spots. If going faster wasn't the answer, they simply dove under the wave and let it go on by. Leona and Grace watched with experienced fascination.
When everyone was together, and those who had not yet met had been introduced, Leona announced that the surf had grown a tad large for her and she was going to return to shore. "Don't let me spoil your fun," she said, "I'll enjoy watching from the beach."
"Your timing is perfect," Perko commented. "Look. Everyone else is there on the beach. Perhaps we should all go in." He glanced at the other delfinians and it was obvious from their expressions they were reluctant to leave the surf behind just yet.
"I've a better idea," Grace said, "Leona and I will go find out what's going on with moving the ship. You guys stay out for awhile. It's almost as much fun to watch as it is to ride, These waves are officially huge and I'm sure we'll learn some new moves from you too."
The delfinians didn't need a second encouragement. They each let out a hoot and immediately began a frolicking race outward to the take-off spot. Leona and Grace paddled slowly in to shore, turning occasionally to watch them ride.