Margaret St. Clair - The Dolphins of Altair

“Then why isn’t the helix melted?” Lawrence asked. “And how can the crystal act as a conduit for the nucleon-producing potential of empty space? How does the crystal make contact with it?”

“The helix isn’t melted because its atoms aren’t excited. I don’t know how the crystal makes its contact. Perhaps the lead pr ism—I’m not sure. It may be that the ahln device warps space. You remember the mirages that formed around the prism when we were testing the ahln.”

“Yes, I remember. Oh, I concede that it works, though I don’t understand why. But as I was saying, will it still work under water?”

“I think so, yes.”

“Would you dolphins be able to swim up close to the sub with the ahln?” Lawrence asked, turning his attention to us in the water.

“I suppose so,” I answered in a laborious whisper. Whispering is difficult for a dolphin, and besides, I felt no enthusiasm for Lawrence’s idea. I was afraid we’d be seen as we swam up with the ahln—the sub must have some sort of underwater sensing device—and almost more afraid that we’d be boiled alive before we could get out of range of the heat. The ahln, even at low power, makes an almost unbelievable amount of heat.

“Good,” Lawrence said. “Then I can set the ahln to low, have Amtor swim in with it, drop it under the sub, and get back here before the water heats up. Perhaps I can adjust it for a time lag in starting. It takes a little time for the ahln to get working, anyhow. We know that.”

“We know how hard it is to shut off once it’s started,” Madelaine answered. “The first time we tried it, we blistered the paint on the Naomi before we could manage to jar the prism out of alignment and reduce the output of heat.

“But leaving that aside, do you think the submarine will just stay there quietly while the water gets hot around it?” Madelaine wanted to know.

“There’s a fan chance of it,” the doctor answered. “They wouldn’t realize at first what was happening.”

Moonlight shook her head. “You’ll accuse me again of being soft-hearted,” she said. “But even if your plan worked, what would happen when the sub stopped making radio contact with headquarters? They’d send out a whole flotilla, and when they found the sub with the men dead inside, they’d plaster all this part of the coast with bombs. Don’t forget, we’re awfully conspicuous riding on the backs of the sea people.” “We could separate and meet later.”

Once more Madelaine shook her head. I could hear water dripping somewhere from the shadowy roof of the cavern. “It’s too risky,” she said. “Besides, they’d probably find the ahln. Do you want it to fall into the hands of our enemies?”

“We could try to retrieve it. I think that platinum helix can be used as a way of making the ahln shut off after a while.”

“It’s too much to risk.”

“Well, what do you suggest?” Lawrence demanded. His underlying irritability, which was in such contrast to what Madelaine called his “therapeutic impassivity,” was coming to the top.

There was a short silence. I heard the slow drip of water from the roof. Then Madelaine said, “Do you remember that I told you Amtor and I had learned something, as a sort of side product, while we were in contact with the minds of the inhabitants of the planet of Altair? It’s a new way of using Udra. We might be able to make the sub commander give orders for the sub to look for us somewhere else. It’s worth trying, anyhow.”

“It sounds like the old way of using Udra to me,” Lawrence said.

“No, it’s not,” Moonlight said, smiling a little. “Only dolphins could use that, and only certain Splits—a very few, really—would respond to it. This new way is more general. A Split could use it toward a Split, and quite a few Splits are capable of responding to it.”

“Go ahead and try it, then,” the doctor said. He still sounded annoyed.

“Amtor,” Sosa called very softly, “do you want to see what we can do?”

“Of course,” I whispered back. “You know that.”

There was no place for her to lie down—she was still perched insecurely on the ledge, with the tide lapping at her ankles—but I was floating in the water and could get into the first part of the Udra-state easily. We were no longer as afraid of the gulfs in each other as we had been, and I thought I could help Sosa with her necessary withdrawal and concentration.

We were all silent. The sound of water dripping seemed to get more and more remote. Madelaine’s mind and mine were beginning to grow coterminous. Something in her mind seemed a little unusual to me, but I did not find it really disturbing.

Ivry was watching me, but Pettrus’ attention was fixed on the two Splits sitting on the rock. He said that Madelaine’s eyes closed gradually and then, without any warning, her head dropped forward on her breast and she started to slide off the rock. If Dr. Lawrence hadn’t caught her, she would have fallen into the water.

It wasn’t the usual Udra-state, nor even an ordinary fainting fit, but a deeper unconsciousness. Dr. Lawrence, even with the help of his medical bag, had to work over her for almost half an hour before she came to herself.

“What happened?” she whispered when she could talk again.

“You know better than I do,” he answered. “What did it feel like?”

“Like being hit on the back of my skull. That didn’t really happen, did it?”

“No.”

“I guess I’m just tired. Trying the new way to use Udra was too much. I’ve been tired ever since Amtor and I found out how to power the ahln. Or—Ted, you weren’t trying to use Udra, too, were you?”

“Not that I know of.”

“Somebody might have been using it. It might have been another human mind that touched me. Anyhow, I’d better not try it again for a while. I expect I’d only pass out once more.”

“Very likely. You know better how you feel than I do. Do you have any ideas about what we should do now?”

“About all we can do just now is wait. The sub may get tired of hunting us and decide we went on up the coast.”

“Um. When we get out of here, Maddy, are you still going to insist that the ahln be used at low power? We could make two or three more of the things, encase them in lightweight metal for protection, and float them to the poles.

“There’d be no difficulty about that—the dolphins have told us they know where to release the devices so the ocean currents would take them straight to the poles. Amtor even located the best places on the map when I showed him a hydrographic chart of the Pacific coast. But if we set the ahln at low power, it will take fifty years to melt the ice. I’m in favor of doing it overnight.”

“What’s the use in discussing that now?” the girl whispered wearily. “We’re prisoners. Wait until we get out.”

“We ought to look ahead,” the doctor insisted. “When we get out, we may not have much time for discussion. Would you still insist on using the ahln at low power?”

“I—yes, I probably would.”

“Are you really serious?” Lawrence asked in an angry whisper. “If we get out of here, you’ll still refuse to use our one weapon for all it’s worth? Or are you putting up your usual high-minded resistance, so I can look like a villain when I finally persuade you to do what has to be done?

“I suppose you’re hesitating because of the loss of human life. Well, in my forty years or so, millions of human beings have died agonizing deaths through the agency of other human beings. They’ve died in concentration camps, in fire raids, of napalm burns or from the direct or delayed effects of nuclear explosives. Drowning’s a relatively painless form of death. It’s a more humane extinction than people usually inflict on each other.”