Fluke, or, I Know Why the Winged Whale Sings Chapter 19~20

CHAPTER NINETEENScooter Dont MeepThe goliath tossed homogeneous a roller coaster moving through tomato soup great gut-flopping waves of herculean motion. Quinn rolled to his hands and knees and urped his breakfast into a splatter pattern across the rubbery aged s force fall bulgedalise, then heaved in time with the rhythm of the titans swimming until he was empty and exhausted.Hurl patrol, came a voice push through of the dark.Flush and gush, boys, the doc blew b everyast fine here, came a nonher voice.Quinn rolled onto his bottom and scooted away from the voices until he came against a bulkhead, which was warm and moist and gave at his touch. He felt huge muscles moving behind the kowtow and unairedly jumped. He scooted away, then sat balled up near where hed been charnel. Cold sea piddle rolled down from the drift of the whale and everyplace his feet, taking his recently vacated breakfast with it. His ears popped with a compress increase, and in a s awayh the weewee was gone.The interior of the whale looked like a bad van conversion done by a latex freak damp, rubbery skin everyplace everything, lit by a light drab haze coming from the eyes up front, the rest dimly lit by light strips of green that ran over the top of the teardrop-shaped chamber. At the front of the chamber, on either side by the eyes, two things sat in seats that wrapped well-nigh their bodies. Quinn didnt know what they were, and his listen felt as if it were ripping open trying to grasp the whole of the government agency. Details like nonhuman humanoids decked surface in gray skin couldnt register enough space in his consciousness to be examined or analyzed. In f work, he could keep his eyes open for only a few seconds before the nausea returned.Inside the whale smelled like fish.Standing, or sort of standing riding was a more than appropriate term, as everything inner the whale was moving behind the seated creatures were two men, one ab issue forty, th e other twenty-five, both barefoot that wearing military khakis without insignias or any badges of rank, only the older man was obviously in command. Quinn had tried for five minutes to ask them the questions coming into his mind, but each time he undefended his mouth, he had to stop himself from throwing up. Hed always considered himself pretty seaworthy until now.What? he managed to beat back hold of out before his gorge rose again.It really helps with the incredulity if you accept that youre dead, ordain the older man.Im dead?I didnt say that, but if you accept that you are, it sort of quells the anxiety.Yeah, if youre already dead, what bad can really happen? state the younger guy. then I am dead?Nope. Breathe and go with the motion, said the older guy. Its not going to stop, so if you fight it, youll lose.Your lunch, added the young guy, and then he acknowledge loose a giggle at his own joke.Theres less motion toward the front. The head tracks close to level. bare ly you knew that.Quinn hadnt been able to apply any of his analytical plys to the situation because he flat couldnt accept it. Yes, in another world he realized that he knew that the whales head would leave less motion than the tail, but hed neer even considered that he might be holding slightly it from the perspective of an internal organ.Im inside a whale?Ding, ding, ding, hes gotten the bonus answer. The young guy leaned approve against the rearward of the seat where one of the gray creatures was sitting, and a chairlike protrusion rose out of the floor to catch him. Tell him what hes won, Captain.Hospitality, Poe. Help the doctor up to the front so we can talk without him tossing his cookies.The younger guy helped Quinn to his feet and across the undulating floor to the chair thing that had risen behind one of the gray creatures facing the brook of the ship. Once close to the creatures, Quinn couldnt take his eyes off them. They were humanoid, in that they had two arms, two legs, a torso, and a head, but their heads were like that of a pilot whale, with a large melon in the front for transmitting and receiving sound underwater, Quinn guessed and their eyes were set wide to the side, so the creatures would see with binocular vision. Their hands were inserted into consoles that rose out of the floor and appeared to have no instrumentation whatsoever except for some bioluminescent nodules that looked like cloudy eyeballs and emitted different colors of light. The creatures appeared as if they had be go into sort of the whale.We squawk them the whaley boys, the older man said. They pilot the whale.The one directly behind you is Scooter, the other one is Skippy. Say hi, guys.The creatures turned as far as the chairs would allow them and made clicking and squeaking noises, then seemed to make a face at Quinn. While smiling they showed mouthfuls of sharp, peglike teeth. With the teeth set against their dark gray skins and the melon above, the wha ley boys put Quinn in mind of more cheerful versions of the creature from the Alien movies. Scooter saluted Nate with a hand consisting of four very long webbed fingers and only the suggestion of a thumb.They say hi, said Poe. Im Poe. This is Captain Poynter. Poynter, the older man, tipped his hat and offered a hand to shake. Quinn took it and waggled it limply.The whaley boys dont speak English as we know it, Poe said, although they have a few squeaks that come out like words. Theyre tapped directly in to the whales nervous system. They steer it, control all the processes at any given time. We cant do much on the whales without them. for certain could never drive one. The whales and the whaley boys are made for each other.Poe pushed against the back of Skippys seat, and another seat formed out of the floor to cradle him as he leaned back into it. I love that, Poe said.Poynter backed up to a rubbery bulkhead, and a seat formed out of the wall to catch him as well.If theyre paying a ttention, theyll never permit you fall. Poe grinned. Of course, al almost everything in here is soft child safe, dont you know except the spine, which runs over the top, so you wouldnt be hurt if you did fall. But just the same, were secured when theyre doing maneuvers. You think youre sick now wait until we go for a breach. Dont freak out. Poe turned to the whaley boys. Secure the doc, boys. The arms of the seat shape wrapped over Quinns lap. Parts came over his shoulders and fused across his chest, then around his hips and over his lap. Quinn freaked out.Get it off me Get it off me I cant breathePrepare for breach, said Poynter.Scooter chirped. Skippy grinned. interchangeable rest rain downts extruded from all their seats, securing them.The attitude of the whale changed, going up at a just about sixty-degree angle and then the angle went sharper as they moved. Quinn was looking backwards at the tail section of the teardrop interior. The lurching movement of the lum inescent strips was starting to nauseate him. He could feel his internal organs shifting with the acceleration, and then the whale ship went vertical and airborne. At the apex of the motion, Quinns stomach tried to escape through his diaphragm, then shifted as they fell sideways. There was an enormous concussion as the ship hit the water. Slowly the whale came back around, and they were horizontal again.The whaley boys chirped and clicked gleefully, grinning back at Quinn, then at each other, then back at Quinn, nodding as if to say, Was that cool, or what? Their necks were nearly as wide as their shoulders, and Quinn could see heavy muscles moving under the skin. They love that, said Poynter.I frame of like it, too, said Poe. Except when they go overboard and do twenty or thirty breaches in a row. Even I maintain sick when they do that. And the noise well, you hear it.Quinn shook his head, closed his eyes, then opened them again. The only way to deal with this experience was to a ccept it at face look on He was in a whale, one that was somehow being used as a submarine by human and nonhuman sentient creatures. Everything he knew no longer applied, but then again, maybe it did. What put him on the less loopy side of sanity was noticing the whaley boys chummy necks.Theyre amphibious, adept? Quinn asked Poynter. Their necks are thick to take the stress of swimming at high speeds? Quinn rose in his chair as far as the restraints would allow and saw that Scooter did hence have a blowhole just behind his melon. He was a humanoid whale, or a dolphin creature. Scooter was impossible. All of this was impossible. The details, not the stupendous picture, Quinn reminded himself. In the coarse picture in that respect be madness. Theyre like a whale/human hybrid, arent they?Which would be why we call them the whaley boys, said Poynter.Wait, are you accusing us of something? asked Poe. Because these guys are not the love children of us and some whales. We dont do t hat kind of thing.Well, there was that one time, said Poynter.Okay, yeah, just that one time, said Poe.But Quinn was studying Scooter, and Scooter was eyeing him right back. Although they appear to be able to turn their heads, like beluga whales. Their neck vertebrae probably arent fused like most whales. The scientist rising, Quinn was cheerful now, his fear taken away by curiosity. He was focused on finding out things, which was his home turf, even in this comp allowely unreal situation. If he focused on the details, the big picture wouldnt throw him over the edge into drooling lunacy.Lets ask them, said Poe. Scooter, are your vertebrae fused to accepther, or are you just a big, no-necked gray thug?Scooter turned his head to Poe and made a loud raspberry sound, spraying whaley spit all down the front of Poes khakis and change magnitude the odor of decaying fish in the cabin by a factor of ten.We dont know what they are, Dr. Quinn, said Captain Poynter. They were here when we got here, and we got here just like you did. Weve all been on this ride.Meep, said Skippy.I taught him that, said Poe.Thats from a Warner Brothers cartoon, Quinn said. Road Runner.No, that would be two meeps. Skippy only does one. Therefore, its original. Isnt that right, Skippy?Meep.For some reason the meep did it. Some minds, particularly those with a scientific bent, a love of truth and certainty, have limits to how much absurdity they can handle. And here Quinn found himself well over the limit.Skippy and Scooter and Poynter and Poe I cant handle it he screamed.He felt as if his mind were a rubber band being stretched to breaking, and the meep had tweaked it. He screamed until he could feel veins pulsing in his forehead.You let it out now, said Captain Poynter. Just go with it. Then, to Poe, You know, I wouldnt have thought the alliteration would have done it. You ever hear of that?Nope, I had an uncle who used to get nauseated at Readers Digest article titles you know, Terri ble Truths of Toxic Toe Jam but I thought it was more because he read them in the doctors mogul than the alliteration. You sure it wasnt the meep that did it?This cant be happening. This cant be happening, Quinn chanted. He was hyperventilating, and his vision had gone to a blur, his heart pounding like hed been running a sprint across an electrified floor. foreboding attack, said Poynter. He put his hand on Quinns forehead and spoke softly. Okay, Doc, heres the skinny. You are in a living ship that resembles a whale but is not a whale. There are two other guys aboard who have lived through this, so you can live through this. In addition, there are two guys who are not strictly human, but they wont hurt you. You are going to live and deal with this. This is real. You are not insane. Now, calm the do it down.And it was then that Poynter stepped back and Poe threw the bucket of cold seawater in Quinns face.Hey, Quinn said. He sputtered and blinked seawater out of his eyes.I told you to go with the dead thing, but you didnt listen, Poe said.Nothing had changed, but things, his heart, slowed down, and Quinn looked around. Where did that bucket come from? There was no bucket in here. There was energy but us. And where did you get the water?Poe held the bucket at ready. Youre sure youre okay? I dont want to freak you out again.Yeah. Im okay, said Quinn. And actually, he was. Hed decided to go with the idea that he was already dead, and that seemed to make everything fall into perspective. Im dead.Thats the spirit, said Poe. He held the bucket against a wall, and a small portal opened and sucked the bucket in. Quinn would have sworn there hadnt been any seams in the wall to indicate thered been an possibility there.Hey, said Poynter, taking on the tone of the deeply offended, now that youre dead, Ive got a bone to pick with you about not bringing me my sandwich.Quinn looked at the sharp features and contract eyes of the captain who now seemed genuinely angr y and a shiver ran through his body that had nothing to do with the cold seawater running out of his hair. Sorry, he said, shrugging as much as he could in the restraints.Damn it, how hard could that have been? Youve got a Ph.D. for Christs sake you cant get a fucking pastrami on rye? Ive got a good mind to chuck you out the anus.Shhhhhhhh, Cap, Poe said. That was gonna be a surprise.Meep, said Skippy.CHAPTER TWENTYMissing Biscuit,Flopping TunaBwana frame, you seen the Snowy Biscuit? clay and Clair sat on the lanai of Clays bungalow drinking mai-tais and watching smoke roll out the vents of a Weber kettle barbecue. Kona had his long board tucked underneath his arm and was heading for his Maui cruiser, a lime Krylon-over-rust 1975 BMW 2002, with no wrestleows and seats that were covered in ratty blankets.Clay was two mai-tais south of lucid, but he could excuse talk, She took Nates truck into town this morning. Havent seen her since.Sistah wanted me to teach her some surfing . Got some easy sets rolling on West Shore, good for that.Sorry, said Clay. Were smoking a big hunk of ahi tuna if youd like to join us.No, said Clair.Tanks, but Im going down to Lahaina town and see if I can find that Snowy Biscuit. We going to work tomorrow?Maybe, said Clay, trying to think through a rum cloud. Theyd pulled the Always Confused up out of the bottom of the harbor, and the boatyard had said it would be a week or so before it was ready to float again, although even then it would need some major cleaning. Still, they had Nates boat. He looked at Clair.Youre not sitting home tomorrow whining to me about your hangover, Clair said. You get out there on the water and be sick like a proper man. Shed rewrite her thoughts on Clays staying off the water. He was who he was.Yeah, plan on going out if its not too windy, Clay said. Hey, we supposed to have wind? It occurred to Clay that he hadnt checked the weather since Nate had disappeared.Calm morning, trades in the afternoon, Kona said. We can work. Tell Amy when you see her, okay. Take my cell phone with you. Call me when you find her. You sure you wont have dinner with us?No, said Clair.No, said Kona, grinning at Clair. Auntie, you embarrassed that Kona seen you naked? You look fine, yeah.Clair stood up. You go ahead, call me Auntie again, see if I dont snatch out the rest of those dreads and use them to make cat toys.Ease up, Im going to find the Biscuit. And he loped to the Beemer, slid the long board in through the back window, hooked the skeg over the passenger seat to secure it, and then drove off to Lahaina to look for Amy.It was two in the morning when the phone in Clays bungalow rang. Tell me youre not in jail, Clay said.Not in jail, Bwana Clay, but maybe you need to sit down.Im in bed sleeping, Kona. What?The truck, Bwana Nates truck. Its here at the kayak rental in Lahaina. They say Amy rent a kayak this morning, about eleven.Theyre still there?I waked the guy up.They dont know where she wen t? They let her go alone? He didnt call us when it got dark?She said she was just using it to tow behind the boat, for research. He know she a whale researcher, so he didnt think nothing of it. Sometime they take kayaks two, terce days.You checked? Shes not on the boat?You mean the not sunk one?Yes, that would be the one.Yeah, I check. The boat in the slip. No kayak.Stay there. Ill be down in a few minutes. I have to get dressed and call the Coast Guard.This kayak guy says it not on him she signed a wafer. That some kind of religious thing?Waiver, Kona, she signed a waiver. Are you high?Yes.Of course. Sorry. Okay, Ill be right there.Nate was three days inside the whale before he asked, Your names arent really Poynter and Poe, are they?What? said Poynter. Youre eaten by a giant whale ship and youre brainsick that we might be traveling under assumed names? Go for it, Poe.Give us a flush, boys Poe said.Water came gushing down the floor of the whale from the front. Pantsless, Ensi gn Poe took three steps and went into a slide toward the tail like he was sliding into third base on a wet rain tarp. As he reached the end of the chamber, he spread his arms out to his sides at right angles. There was a sucking sound, and he sank up to his armpits into an initiative that only a second ago had appeared as just an impression in solid skin.Wow, thats cold, said Poe. How deep are we?Scooter clicked and whistled a pit of times.Ninety feet, said Poynter. Cant be that bad.Feels colder. I think my nads have crawled up inside my body.Nate simply stared, gape-jawed, at the arms and head of the ensign, just above floor level.You see, Doc, said Poynter, most of the time we call it the back orifice instead of the anus, you know, because otherwise, with us moving in and out of it, theres implications. His lower body is in the sea right now, at three atmospheres, yet the back orifice is sealed around him and its not crushing his chest. Its not crushing your chest, is it, Poe?No , sir. Its snug for sure, but I can breathe.How is that possible? asked Nate.Youre a diver. Youve been down, what, a hundred and twenty, hundred and thirty feet?A hundred and fifty, by accident, but what does that have to do with this?You never had sphincter mishap at that depth, did you? Blow up like a puffer fish?No.Well, there you go, Nate. This here is just advanced poop- bound technology. We dont even understand it ourselves, but its the key to sanitation on these small ships, and its how we get in and out. Normally the mouth on these humpback ships doesnt even open, which gives us a lot more room, but this one was made specially to retrieve Dirts. Thats you people.Made? By whom? Of course they were made. Nothing like this could have evolved.Later, said Poynter. Poe, you done?Aye, aye, Captain.Get back in here.Mighty cold out here, sir. Im telling you, my tackles going to look like Im posing for a baby picture.Im sure the doc will take that into account, Poe.Nate could feel a slight change in pressure in his ears, and Poe oozed back into the whale. The orifice sealed behind him, leaving almost no water on the floor. The ensign sidled, crablike, to the front of the ship, shielding his privates with his hands. He retrieved his pants from a storage nook that opened with a flap of skin like the blowhole on a killer whale. The whales interior was lined with the storage nooks, but you couldnt even see the seams by the dim bioluminescence when they were closed.Youre going to learn how to do that, Nate. Its just the civilized thing to do until we enchant you to the blue. Cant have you doing your business in the ship.When hed had to go to the bathroom, theyd sent Nate to the back of the whale, where hed gone on the floor. Seconds later the whaley boys had let a bit of water in through a crack in the mouth, which washed across the floor and effectively flushed the mess out the back orifice.The blue? Nate asked.Yeah, we cant take you where they want you in this li ttle thing. Well transfer you to a blue and send you on. Youll have to go through the poop chutes.So theres a blue-whale ship as well?Ships, Poynter corrected. Yeah, and other species, too.Right whales are my favorites, Poe said. Slower than hell, but really wide. Plenty of room. Youll see.So they the whaley boys can regulate the pressure that precisely? They can let in water, expel it, keep the pressure in here from giving us the bends? Allow us to transfer from one of these ships to another?Yep, theyre tapped in to the whale directly. Theyre like his cerebral cortex, I guess. The whale ships have a brain, but that only takes care of autonomic functions. Allows it to act like a whale for hours on end diving, breathing, stuff like that. But without one of the whaley boys tapped in, theyre just dumb machines, limited function. The pilots control higher functions gliding and such. They really show off their stuff in these humpbacks the breaching, the singing, you know. This thing sings? Nate couldnt help himself. He wanted to hear a whale sing from the inside.Of course it sings. You heard it sing.Since Nate had been on, the only sound the whale ship had made was the beating of its enormous flukes and the explosive blow every ten minutes or so.I abominate it when they sing, said Poe.Whats the purpose of the song? Nate asked. He didnt care who these guys were or what they were doing. He now had the opportunity to get the answer to a question hed pursued for most of his adult life. Why do they sing?Because we tell them to, said Poynter. Whyd you think?No. Its not right. Nate buried his face in his hands. Kidnapped by morons.Scooter let loose with a series of frantic chirps. The whaley boy was staring out the eye into the blue Pacific.School of tuna outside, said Poe.Go, Scooter, said Poynter. Go get some.The restraints retracted from around Scooters waist, and the creature stood up for the first time since Nate had come on board. He was taller than Nate, maybe six-six, with lean gray legs that looked like those of a giant bullfrog crossbred with a fullback and terminated in long, webbed feet that resembled the rear flippers of a walrus. Scooter took three quick steps and dove at the floor in the back of the whale. There was a whooshing sound, and he disappeared, headfirst, through the back orifice, which sealed behind him with a distinct pop.Poe stepped into the seat that Scooter had vacated and looked out through the eye. Nate, check this out. Watch how these guys hunt.Nate looked out the whales eye and saw Scooters lithe form swim by at incredible speed, darting back and forth with dumfounding agility in pursuit of a twenty-pound tuna.In the water the whaley boys eyes no longer bugged out as they did inside the whale. Like whales and dolphins, Nate realized, whaley boys feature muscles that could actually change the shape of the eye for focusing in either air or water. Scooter did a rapid turn and snatched the tuna in his j aws not ten feet from the eye of the whale. Nate could hear the snap and saw blood in the water around Scooters mouth.Yes said Poe. Its sashimi tonight.Nate had eaten nothing but raw fish since hed been on board the whale ship, but this was the first time hed seen it caught. Still, he couldnt quite share Poes enthusiasm. Is this all you eat? Raw fish?It beats the alternatives, said Poe. The whale carries a nutrient paste thats like krill puree.Oh, my God, said Nate.Poynter leaned in close to Nate, so he was only inches from the scientists ear. Thus the somewhat substantial expect for culinary variety, as in oh, I dont know a pastrami on ryeI said I was sorry, Nate muttered.Yeah, right.Drop me off anywhere. Ill go get you one.We dont land these things on shore.You dont?Except to paint bite me on the flukes, said Poe.Yeah, except for that, said Poynter.Skippy meeped as Scooter scooted in through the poop chute with tuna in hand. Upon seeing the pilots entrance, Nate started thi nking, for the first time since hed been eaten, about how to escape.This is just stupid, Amy thought. Shed been paddling like a madwoman for four hours and was still barely halfway to Molokai. Shed been past the line of descent wind line for two of those four hours and so battled four-foot swells and a crosswind that threatened to take her out to sea.Who gives GPS coordinates for a meeting? Who does business like that? Shed been shouting into the wind on and off for an hour, then checking the little liquid-crystal map on the display of the GPS receiver. The you are here dot never seemed to move. Well, that wasnt true. If she paused from paddling to take a drink of water or apply some sunscreen, the dot seemed to jump off course a mile at a time.Are you guys on drugs? she screamed into the wind.Her shoulders ached, and shed drunk nearly all of the two-liter bottle of water shed brought with her. She started to regret not having brought along some kind of snack. An easy paddle. Just rent a kayak. You wont need a power boat. Im adrift on a piece of Tupperware, you nitwitsShe leaned back on the kayak to catch her breath and watched the direction and speed indicators change on the GPS. She could rest maybe five minutes without drifting too far. She closed her eyes and let the swells rock her into a light doze. It was quiet, just the white noise of wind and water, not even a slap of waves on the kayak she was so light that it rode high in the water and over the tops of the waves without a sound. She thought about Nate, about how frightened he must have been in those last moments, about how much shed started to enjoy working with him. Action nerd. She smiled to herself, a melancholy smile as she dozed off, but then the sound of a fusillade of bubbles breaking the surface near the kayak jolted her to alertness. It was a huge expulsion of air, as if someone had set off an explosion deep under the water.She started paddling away from the eruptions of bubbles, but ev en as she moved, the sea began to darken around her, the crystal blue turning to shadow in a huge pool under the kayak. Then something hit the little boat, tossing Amy into the air twenty feet before she hit the water and the darkness surrounded her.