Diaspora Prime 1-7

DIASPORA PRIME

Date April 4 2017.
Author Palantir palantir@diasporatales.tech
Subject Diaspora Prime.

The author retains copyright (2012) to this story. Reproducing this story for distribution without the author's permission is a violation of that copyright.
This story is fiction.

Thank you Nifty for the opportunity to post this story.

This story is first of the TALES OF THE TERRAN DIASPORA.

Wirrin shares his life with two friends on one of the great space habitats.

DIASPORA PRIME Part 1.

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Wirrin meets the dolphins.

"5-0-9! ...Get real! We're not vac-suckers."

Only slightly embarrassed, Wirrin rapidly recalculated with sensible parameters. Having a zero for one of your sector coordinates meant you'd located yourself in space. That was not his kind of mistake and Thom and Calen were loving it.

"1-1-3! Happy now?"

There was no answer. Thom and Calen were fiercely puzzling their options for reaching 1-1-3, as indeed was Wirrin. First to respond was Calen with a thumbs up sign and a confident nod, followed about ten seconds later with a similar gesture by Thom. Wirrin concurred. For travel purposes the sectors on Attunga, each providing a cubic kilometre of living space, were defined by their location on a simple three dimension grid with the first number representing width, the second length, and the third height. Home sector, 19-4-5, meant Wirrin, Thom, and Calen lived nineteen kilometres along the habitat, four kilometres in from the edge and on the fifth level. This sector, 1-1-3, was interesting because the two 1's placed it on the very edge of Attunga, and the 3 in the third level.

"It's just over fourteen km direct. What do you reckon?"

"21:30."

"22:00"

"20:30''

''What does TransCom say?"

Wirrin manipulated his holo display.

"20:00."

"No way Wirrin. You'll never do it in 20 minutes and 30 seconds."

"We'll see."

The easy way to get from one place to another was to key your ident ring to the TransCom computer and follow the holo prompts. That was no fun though and the trio had been playing this game for nearly two years, pitting their skills against each other and the system.
Wirrin was best and on the odd occasion had even beaten the transport computer.

"Are you ready Calen?"

"Dork!"

The three friends headed for departure portals. The official start-time happened when they entered. Wirrin's strategy was to keep to the express-ways where possible, but the real trick was working out the best secondary connections. Calen was the one to beat. His time today of 22 minutes might be the slowest but that meant nothing as his unusual methods sometimes cut minutes.
Hmm! 20:45. Not bad. Wirrin made his way from the portal to the Info Centre and grinned happily as he waited. Thom turned up a minute later and Calen more than a minute after that.

"Just my luck to catch two surges."

"Excuses! Excuses!"

The badinage continued while they compared times, then Thom asked what they were doing next.

"I checked my holo. They've got a viewing station for Warrakan. You can see it for real."

They exchanged nods of agreement for that. Warrakan was major.

"Well, I found something better. The dolphinarium's in this sector and a baby has just been born. We're not missing that."

More nods. Trust Calen to track down something connected with animals. Well, who could blame him. Dolphins were so special and none of them had seen a live one.

"What about you Thom? Did you find anything?"

"There's a swimming pool we should try."

"Swimming pool? We can do that in home sector."

"Not like this. It's zero-gee. They turn off the grav field and the water collects in a thirty metre sphere."

"Thirty metres? Wow! That sounds spectacular, but how do you breathe? Water in zero-grav is dangerous."

"They give you a full face mask with twenty minutes of air."

After a short discussion they headed for the dolphinarium. They had all day so they should be able to manage all three activities.
It was astonishing. The dolphinarium was huge, with a population of 342 dolphins. 343 really since yesterday, and Wirrin listened with rapt attention as the ranger gave an overview and explained the various available activities. The major event centered around the new arrival and his pod was gathering in the main viewing gallery for a welcoming. When the ranger finished, Wirrin and Thom had to run to keep up with Calen who was frantic to get a good position.
The rush was pointless as the gallery was nothing like the small viewing areas in the aquariums of their home sector, with seats for 500 people, a huge glass interface and an even larger volume of crystal clear water on the other side. Still it was great to be in the front row only a a few metres from the glass.
There was no baby yet, but two dolphins gliding through the water held everyone's attention. After ten minutes two new dolphins arrived through one of the three underwater tunnels at the back and then three more. Wirrin watched the interaction and effortless movement with mounting excitement.
Calen's eyes were goggling.

"I wonder how long before the baby gets here?"

"We've just had word. They've left their birthing pool so it'll be five minutes."

It was the ranger and he sat in the empty seat next to Wirrin. Calen leaned around Wirrin and started a bombardment of questions which set the ranger smiling.

"So we've got a dolphin enthusiast have we?"

Wirrin laughed.

"Not just dolphins. He loves any animals. He's been doing Zoology options for the last seven years."

"Seven years? Really? That's more than I did."

Now the ranger was leaning forward.

"Is it going to be a Major for you?"

"A double Major I hope. As long as my scores are high enough. Mammals and Insects."

"Mammals is good. You need that, but everyone does Insects. If you try something unusual you'll have a better chance."

"I thought insects was unusual?"

"It is in its own way of course, but everyone thinks that. They all expect they're going to make amazing discoveries because of the huge species list."

Calen was staring at the ranger and Wirrin knew he was really taken aback because that was his reasoning exactly.
A swirl of movement in the water caught everyone's attention as five more dolphins came into view. Two of them swam to the glass right in front of Wirrin and stopped there. He felt a thrill as he stared.
Were they looking at him?
There was a soft chuckle beside him and the Ranger's hand lifted in a slow wave.

"It's Flute saying hello because she likes me. Wave your hand just like me and see if she reacts."

Wondering if this was real, Wirrin, Calen, and Thom lifted their hands. The dolphin's whole body undulated and its head flicked backwards.

"Lower your arms then try again."

Flute gave the same response but to Wirrin's amazement so did four other dolphins now against the glass interface, the exact same response and exactly in unison. With a flip of movement every dolphin moved to the back and went motionless.
The baby was arriving.
Wirrin knew it because every dolphin was looking in the same direction, towards the middle underwater tunnel, and because Calen's hand had taken a tight grip of his own. For a tense moment nothing happened, then, gliding slowly, the mother with her baby looking so tiny against her bulk, entered and moved near the gathered dolphins. One by one they approached, each giving the baby some kind of touch, a soft nudge with the tip of their beak, a bump with the top of their head or a passing touch of skin. Two dolphins even rested their beaks on top of him for a fleeting second till the little dolphin reacted, unsure of what was happening.
As if to a signal, all the dolphins moved to one side of the area, ranged close to mother and baby, and looked towards the closest underwater opening.
Wirrin thought they looked like a guard of honor in one of the ancient vids, but then his heart leapt as an avalanche of dolphins poured from the tunnel.
They kept coming, and kept coming, till it was beyond belief that there could be so many.
The mother took the little one to the surface then descended to where a contingent of nine large dolphins had lined up and the touch ritual happened all over again, the mother carefully watching every instant.
Calen's hand was still holding tight and now it gave another squeeze as mother shepherded her little charge close to the glass wall in almost the same position Flute had taken earlier. In a flash of understanding Wirrin realised she was proudly presenting her baby to the humans.
The ranger beside him leapt to his feet and lifted his arm.
Wirrin followed, along with every other person present, and proceeded with the slow wave they'd seen earlier. The wave turned to a roar of cheering and applause when 342 dolphins performed the familiar undulation and backwards head flip.
There was a tremendous swirl as nine pods of dolphins surfaced for air then disappeared into the three tunnels. Last to leave, at a slower rate, were mother and baby and the family pod.

"Oh my! Wait here lads. I must explain what's happened."

The ranger moved towards the glass wall then turned to the people and used his holo to key in voice amplification.

"Citizens of Attunga, you've just become part of history.
Every newborn Bottlenose dolphin is presented to the wider dolphin community, but this is the first time it's happened with such ceremony. Usually the different pods approach at different times in the course of a one or two day period. When Puck, that's the mother, communicated that the welcoming was to happen here at the main gallery we were surprised and delighted as this is usually a private event at the birthing pool, but for a little one to be presented to humans, and with such formality has never happened before."

The ranger spoke for several minutes, answered a number of questions, then spoke privately with anyone who approached while everyone else made their way out.

"I wonder why he wants us to wait?"

"He wants to talk to you Calen. He's worked out you're an animal freak."

"You reckon? Well I hope so."

The wait wasn't long and when the gallery cleared the ranger moved close, introduced himself as Gelar, then after asking a few questions looked at Calen.

"Would you like to meet Flute?"

Calen was so amazed that it took him a moment to vigorously nod his agreement.

"I knew the answer before I asked didn't I? Anyone who's done seven years of Zoology options would breathe space dust for the opportunity."

Wirrin watched Calen blossoming with excitement. As was he. He couldn't imagine anyone not wanting to see a dolphin. Encountering ordinary animals was rare enough on Attunga, let alone one of these special creatures. Maybe the ranger meant the three of them? Yes, he was looking expectantly at them. Wirrin and Thom's nods matched Calen's.

"Good. Let's go and we'll see what happens. Will you all be confident in open water?"

"Open water? I think so. We love swimming if that's what you mean."

"Our dolphins insist on physical interaction before they speak meaningfully, so we'll go to one of the reaches for a play."

"Us? We'll be in the water? Playing with dolphins?"

"Well, it will feel like play, but the dolphins are actually making quite a refined assessment. You'll soon know what they think of you."

As they made their way the ranger continued with more explanations and answered their many questions. By the time they slipped into chest deep water Wirrin was a mixture of nerves, excitement and wonder. It seemed they were facing a type of test with the dolphins, and Calen would be devastated if it didn't go well. The reach, as the ranger called it, stretched into the distance, a vast amount of freestanding water.
There was no sign of any dolphins.

"What do we do now? Wait?"

Calen was looking to the Ranger.

"Hang on. I'll come in with you."

He made a neat dive, and when he surfaced, scooted a sharp splash of water directly in Wirrin's face.
Astonished, Wirrin blinked his eyes clear and just had time to register the ranger's grin before another deluge arrived. This time when his eyes cleared Thom and Calen were being splashed.

"Race you to the buoy."

What a cheek. Wirrin churned after the ranger who'd started with a lead of several metres and nearly beat Thom.
What? Where was he? Something clamped on Wirrin's leg, dragged him down then released him. He struggled to the surface, gasped in a breath and glimpsed the shocked look Calen gave before he too disappeared momentarily below the surface. Where was that ranger? Didn't he ever breathe?

"Race you to the edge."

Once again Gelar cheated, giving himself a head start. Wirrin exchanged glances and grins with Thom and Calen. From now on they'd be ready for any shenanigans.
For the next few minutes laughter rang out as the ranger copped everything. Three on to one wasn't really fair but he had asked for it with his tricks. Thom suddenly yelled and disappeared under the surface. How could that be? Gelar was metres away and in full view. Wirrin was just taking that in when his legs were swept from beneath him. He regained his footing and his breath, and realised with a shock that a great body was nudging gently against his thigh. Calen was staring into the water with a look of absolute wonder.
Thom gave a shriek and lifted half a metre into the air. Wirrin started to wonder how he did it then found out for himself when a dolphin beak pushed between his legs from behind and a powerful head lifted upwards.
Twenty minutes later the dolphins disappeared as abruptly as they'd arrived, leaving Wirrin, Thom and Calen exhausted and thrilled. They'd been bumped, nudged, poked and prodded with those surprisingly gentle beaks, splashed, and then enticed into a futile chasing game.
At one stage two of the dolphins raced at a furious pace in a tight circle then leapt over their heads in a glorious arc. Most exciting of all was watching Calen, with a smile of joy on his face, being carried slowly through the water precariously balanced astride the dolphin with the yellow and black tag in its fin. Gelar beckoned and somewhat reluctantly they left the water.

"Well, there was no doubt from that reception. Flute is keen to speak to you."

"Flute? Was she the one with Calen?"

Wirrin had identified with the yellow tagged dolphin and hoped it was her.

"Yes, and that's the first time she deigned to carry someone on her back. It's going to be a very interesting conversation."

Wirrin understood that dolphins had a rudimentary language, but conversation seemed to imply more. He looked at Calen.

"That's why the Attunga dolphins are so special Wirrin. They're better at communicating than ordinary dolphins."

The ranger clapped Calen on the shoulder.

"Better? Yes, that's correct Calen, but it's still very much an understatement. Let's go and see what Flute has to say.

DIASPORA PRIME Part 2. The Trio Views an asteroid.

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"It's immense!"

"No it's not. It's only fifty km long."

Wirrin, Thom, and Calen were at the viewing station staring at the image of Warrakan, the M-type asteroid being developed as the first space habitat with the ability to leave the solar system.

"What are you talking about Thom? That's eight times as big as Attunga."

"It's still not immense though. K74 is a 300 km asteroid."

"That's different. K74 isn't a traveller."

"It could be. They could use the new engines with it."

"I suppose, but they wouldn't do it because with that much mass it would take ages to go anywhere."

Thom loved talking about bigger and better and faster. Wirrin thought the things that were happening now were amazing enough. Attunga, their home city, did have a degree of mobility but they'd never experienced it, as it was thirty years since the arrival next to Warrakan and the next move wasn't due till Warrakan started for Alpha Centauri in another nine years.

"How many people?"

"Which one? Warrakan or K74?"

"I meant Warrakan, but check them both."

Wirrin made a quick manipulation of his holo. Thom and Calen could easily check for themselves, but out of habit left it to Wirrin.

"Um. ...Warrakan's reached 167 million and K74 is at 12.3 billion."

"12.3? Are you sure? It was still in the elevens when we studied it nine months ago."

Wirrin did another search.

"Wow! You're right. It's grown by over 400 million people in just that time."

That seemed like an astonishing number, since it was almost half the total population of Attunga. Thom was fascinated with K74, the largest space habitat, and Wirrin and Calen often said he should go and live there. He wouldn't of course as no space city except Warrakan could match the life conditions and opportunities on Attunga. It did have the greatest population of any non-planet habitat though, and there were stories that it wanted to keep its growth as rapid as possible.

"That's too many. With growth like that there'd have to be more kids than adults. The whole place must be taken up with nurseries."

"Hey, you're right. It must be. I wonder how they've worked that out? There wouldn't be enough people to do everything else. Hey! Look at that."

Wirrin pointed to the far right of their field of view where a movement had caught his eye.

"I think it's a transport ferry. They never stop because so many people are transferring."

"It doesn't look big enough. They carry thousands of people."

"It only looks small because it's next to Attunga."

"Hang on, I'll get it on the holo. ...There, 12,000 passengers and they're three hundred metres long. It takes twenty minutes to get to Warrakan and they operate as many as they need."

"How many are there? They must need a few if they only carry 12,000."

Wirrin fiddled with his holo for a moment.

"There are forty-one people ferries and sixty general transports and that's enough for. ...11.8 million people a day."

"That's a lot of people."

For the next ten minutes they watched the ugly, squat shape of the transport ferry dwindle towards the bulk of Warrakan.

"Do you think we'll ever get there?"

"I don't see why not. We've all got good levels and they still need 150 million more people before they can leave."

"It's not that easy Wirrin. That's only 15 million a year out of 850 million."

This was an endless conversation, with Thom being pessimistic and Wirrin always being positive.

"And it's not that hard Thom. That means we have nine or ten years to keep applying. They'll get so used to us they'll know we really mean it."

"Ha! I wish it worked like that. You either fit the guidelines or you don't."

"We will Thom. We just have to keep our levels up."

Calen nodded his agreement.

"You worry too much Thom. Our levels will stay high. You know that because we've all got special interests we're good at. If Wirrin stops mucking around with his side projects he'll walk it in, and you're the best worker of all of us."

"Mucking round? You space-brain! I figure out as much from my projects as I do from EdCom and my tutors. It's nearly another year before we're all ready to apply so it's too early to worry anyway. Hey look, there's two more ferries leaving."

"What are those little ones?"

Calen was looking to the left, away from the transport ferries.

"Where?.. Hey, they're tiny. I don't know."

"Well, do the stuff with your holo."

" ...Automated viewers – whatever that means. It says to check for availability at any viewing station."

"Availability? That sounds interesting."

It certainly did and they quickly went to the small reception booth further down the long viewing area and approached the girl there. She looked pretty much their own age, maybe a couple of years older.

"Hi, we're wondering about the automated viewers. We saw some through the real-time display and my holo says to ask about them."

"Hi, well there's most likely a short wait, but I'll arrange one for you if you like."

"For us? ...What happens with it?"

"Sorry, most bookings are from people who know. They're individual viewers with a list of options and you can choose as few or many as you like. The favorite at the moment is the trip to one of the locations for Warrakan's big drives, as there's quite a bit of installation activity to see."

"You mean it would actually take us across to Warrakan?"

"And from one end to the other in a full circuit if you like."

Thom and Calen were crowding close to hang on every word and that set the girl smiling.

"It's exciting. I tried it a couple of weeks ago so I'd know what I'm talking about."

"We thought you couldn't leave Attunga unless you had a special purpose?"

"It's new. People don't know about the viewers yet but word is spreading so you're here at a good time. ...Here we are, thirty-five minutes wait if you want one for yourself, or twenty minutes if you share. I'll lock in the thirty-five minutes for you."

"We don't mind sharing."

"It's better when you don't. That way you can set your own speed and any location and stay with the viewer for as long as you like."

"It lets us control the speed?"

"Speed as well as locations, everything else is done automatically by TransCom. I hope you've done plenty of zero-G activities because there's no grav-field."

Wirrin felt like talking but the urge to get to the viewer departure point was stronger. It wasn't far and their excitement grew. At the departure dock there was a big display showing the travel options and they used the waiting time working out where they'd go. Wirrin led the way when the boarding lights blinked green, thinking it was a neat idea how the entrance looked like an ordinary TransCom travel portal. In the short walkway a purple bar gave the standard warning of a gravity change and flashing digits showed just what the change would be. 0.0 of course. Wirrin stepped across the bar and his reflexes automatically adjusted. They were all used to zero-G from training exercises when they were little, and then from the many recreational activities that made use of it. He went through the opening to the viewer craft then deftly guided his now floating body to one of the special seats, twisted into position and slipped the restraining harness into place. There was a short hum as the magnetic door-seal locked into place, a slight jerk as docking to Attunga was released, and a blink of light from their holos as the viewer synchronised and projected its options. The first was for the real-time display and Wirrin engaged it. They wouldn't see a thing otherwise. Three quarters of the light grey wall disappeared and they were left hanging in open space. At least that was the effect. In reality the wall surface had become a screen to display the images captured by an integrated array of cameras on the outside of the vessel.

"Unreal! I wasn't expecting so much display."

Wirrin grinned at Thom's reaction.

"Choose the big circuit and set the speed for max. I want to see how fast we can go."

Wirrin selected the circuit that took them right around Warrakan, enlarged the speed option, scanned the information, and muttered an exclamation.

"I don't know Thom. The highest setting is 2G. That's awfully uncomfortable without any grav-field to counteract it."

It certainly would be. 2G meant they'd feel like their weight was doubled. It also meant they could reach phenomenal speeds in a very short time.

"Let's try. We can always change it."

The viewer started moving, quite slowly really, and they all swivelled to watch Attunga. The drive changed to full acceleration and a great hammer of force pushed them deep into their seats for ten seconds, then eased off till they were almost back to 0G. Wirrin drank in the scene as Warrakan took over in the field of view.

"How fast are we going?"

"Look for yourself Thom. It's on your holo."

Thom poked his tongue out then checked.

"230 metres a second. Wow, that's about four seconds to travel a kilometre and it only boosted for a short moment."

Wirrin wasn't really listening. The irrregular surface of Warrakan was looming closer and the wild natural look was such a contrast to the controlled structure of Attunga that his sense of awe kicked in.

"It's been like that for millions and millions of years and we're changing it and taking it away. Doesn't that make you feel guilty?"

"It doesn't make me feel guilty. It makes me feel good. It's getting ready to start travelling. That's like it was dead and we're bringing it back to life."

Wirrin loved it when Calen started these special ideas and for the next few minutes he contemplated the thought of Warrakan gradually coming to life as more and more people moved to the habitat areas growing deep in its centre, then bursting into motion and independence when it was ready. The viewer moved slightly away from Warrakan and there was another burst of acceleration, longer this time, and Thom let out a yell when it finished.

"Wombats! we've reached 840. That's the fastest I've ever travelled."

It was the fastest for all of them, but it barely lasted as powerful deceleration cut in to keep them close to Warrakan. It only took five minutes for the whole circuit, which was exciting in itself, but they hadn't seen anything properly so they reset the speed and repeated the trip. For the next three hours they tried every option available.

"Could you override TransCom and get control? It would be great to take it somewhere by ourselves."

"TransCom? Dream on Thom. We'd probably end up totally lost and heading for Jupiter. And anyway TransCom has incredible security. That's way out of my league."

"Jupiter! That sounds good. How long would it take at 2G acceleration?"

That was an interesting thought and Wirrin did some quick calculation.

"About four days, except 2G is silly and the viewer couldn't do it anyway."

"What about 1G?"

"... 15 days. You'd die of boredom Thom."

The viewer docked, and promising each other they'd be back again soon they made their way to a TransCom portal and keyed in 4, 5, 19 which was their home sector. The zero-G pool would have to happen at a later date as they'd used all their activity time. Right now the priority was for food and the dining hall their main destination. Wirrin had the biggest appetite and his stomach was often likened to a black hole, but after their long and very eventful day with only a light smack for lunch, Calen and Thom were making excellent efforts of their own in getting food to disappear.

***

Two weeks passed in quite a standard way, a repetition of three days of general study, two days of electives then two days of self initiated activities. A priority alert on his holo sent Wirrin rushing to see Calen and Thom.

"Guess what's happened!"

"An appointment with Mentor."

"How did you know?"

"We've got one too, an hour from now."

"All of us? At the same time? That's strange."

It was very strange. The personal nature of meetings with their mentor meant they always happened on an individual basis so this was quite out of their experience.

"It must be important. It came as a priority alert."

"Wirrin, every alert from Mentor is priority."

"I suppose. Well, it still must be important or they wouldn't change the schedule."

Thom nodded and headed for the door. Wirrin knew he was thinking that talking about it was pointless because they'd soon know anyway.

DIASPORA PRIME Part 3.

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"Make yourself comfortable boys. It's great to see you again."

Their mentor's name was Warrigal and he had his usual friendly and welcoming manner. They all liked and respected him, and as far as Wirrin was concerned he was the best person he knew. According to the open databanks he'd been a citizen of Attunga ever since it was built fifty-five years ago and taken on his mentor role the year before they'd been born.

"You're bursting with curiosity so let's get down to business. I've been watching your talk with Flute and I must say I envy you. Calen, you're the reason for this get-together as the dolphinarium people want to see you again. Flute has made a request for you to work with her pod."

Wirrin felt his hair stand on end. Calen would be out of his mind with excitement. Every evening for the last few weeks the dolphin adventure had been one of the main topics of discussion and he'd immersed himself in dolphin research. The display wall in his cubicle had been changed from the African wilderness area on earth to a dolphin experience. Yes, he had his stunned look.

"Me? Flute requested me?"

"She certainly did and it's created a turmoil. Evidently the association the dolphins want requires that you live at the dolphinarium for constant access."

Oh no! Calen's disappointment radiated like a black fog.

"But I can't. I'm not eligible to leave home sector for another three years."

"Yes you can. I can arrange for you to be there tomorrow if you like."

"But..."

The three friends stared at each other in shock.

"And Wirrin and Thom can go with you."

Warrigal was smiling.

"It's extraordinarily sudden isn't it? Like a bolt from the blue. ...That's an old earth saying, expressing the unexpectedness of a lightning bolt coming from a clear blue sky. I used to watch lightning before I left Earth. Its an inspiring experience."

Warrigal's smile grew even bigger.

"I'm not waffling. You needed a moment to take in what I just said. We've talked about your plans to register as a trio and I wouldn't be much of a mentor if I couldn't help you make it happen."

Wirrin needed another take in moment. He was still agog with the idea of a move to the dolphinarium, and now Warrigal was talking positively about their trio plans.

"Every time we talked about it you said it would be difficult?"

"And normally it is, but you've got recommendations that even a primary AI or a Witness wouldn't question. My own view is that you should experience trio life for a year or two in a shared living space before registering formally, so I've dicussed with the dolphinarium and made that one of the conditions if you decide to go."

The lightning bolts weren't coming from the blue. They were coming from Warrigal.

"A shared living space? That can't be possible. What's going on Warrigal?"

The current living space entitlement for Attunga citizens was 600 cubic meters, but couldn't be claimed till the completion of first level Skilling and Education. For Wirrin, Calen and Thom that was more than two years away.

"It is extraordinary, but it's what the dolphins want. After meeting and speaking with you it seems they've decided you're already a trio and hence mustn't be separated."

There was a short silence then Calen's face lit up as he looked at Thom and Wirrin.

"That's why they asked asked all those questions about how we love each other. They must think we're like a dolphin pod."

He turned to Warrigal.

"They asked us really personal things and if we wanted to have children, and when we said yes they wanted to know how it would happen."

"Yes, I watched your meeting and your talk. It was an eye-opener."

"You watched?"

"Of course I did Wirrin. I'm responsible for you."

"What sort of things do the dolphins want me to do?"

"I understand it's something about the new baby. You'll find out more if you decide to go to the dolphinarium."

"What about EdCom, and our studies?"

"That's irrelevant Wirrin, and you know it. Attunga looks after you where ever you are."

"We wouldn't know anyone."

"You soon would, and besides you already do know Gelar and Flute."

The unusualness of the statement set them all smiling.

"And not many people can say they know a dolphin."

Thom suddenly gave Calen a big hug.

"You and your animals. What have you gotten us into?"

They looked to Wirrin who nodded and, wondering why they always left the final decision to him, jumped to join the hug. Warrigal watched and waited till they separated and gave him their attention again.

"Well, that was certainly unanimous, but you haven't even met with the dolphin people yet. You should know what they say before you make any final decision."

"They'd have to say something very bad to keep us away, after all the things you've told us."

"They won't."

Warrigal keyed his holo display and Gelar appeared. With a twinkle in his eye he did the slow wave dolphin greeting and laughed when it was returned. "Wonderful. We'll meet with Flute and Puck this afternoon, then I'll take you to your temporary living space. Honored one, the dolphins send you their thanks."

Warrigal nodded then made the slow wave just before Gelar's image dissolved. Honored one? That was the term reserved for a Witness. Wirrin stared.

"Not yet Wirrin. I'm still a mentor for another five years. I have started early training though and Gelar was acknowledging that. Now, let's set some arrangements in motion so your big move runs smoothly."

Wirrin had a sudden thought.

"Warrigal, who will look after us? I mean if it's a new sector do we have a different mentor? He wouldn't know us like you do."

"No, you're stuck with me ...and we have a great deal to discuss. This change might be focused on Calen but it has major implications for all of you."

***

Wirrin wriggled happily between Calen and Thom. After a long talk with Warrigal they'd gone to Wirrin's cubicle to wait for over an hour before setting out for sector 1-1-3, and their excitement had bubbled first into a tussle on his sleeping field and then into intimacy.

"They really worked hard to make sure we'd move didn't they?"

"I know. Mentor was keen too. I couldn't believe it when he said he'd arranged a living space."

"Gelar said it would be a temporary one."

"Well it has to be. We can't have our own if the planning AI doesn't know what to build. What do we want Thom? We haven't even thought about it."

"I have, but not seriously. A full shared space for three people is the same as twelve of our cubicles."

"Twelve? That's enormous. What will we do with it all?"

"A proper display wall instead of the little ones we've got now."

The cubicle display walls were a standard two meter by four meter fitting.

"We could have a space to grow natural food."

"And a big information center for your projects Wirrin."

"And a triple size sleeping field with grav controls."

Wirrin turned towards Calen and poked him in the stomach.

"What do you want dreamy?"

"What do I want what?"

"In our home, brainless. Aren't you even listening?"

"I'm thinking about the baby dolphin."

Wirrin gave Calen another poke and started thinking himself. If they were seeing Puck they must be seeing the baby too, as there was no way they'd be separated at this early stage of his life.

"I wonder if they've given him a name?"

"Who? The humans or the dolphins?"

"Do the dolphins have their own names as well as human names?"

"...I don't know."

"What? All that research for the last two weeks and you don't know?"

"I can't know everything."

Wirrin gave him a few tickles till he smiled.

"It's a bit scary."

"No it's not."

"Yes it is."

"No it's not."

"Yes it is."

That set them all laughing, exactly as Wirrin intended. It was quite scary really, as if forces they didn't understand had reached in and guided their lives - the dolphins wanting them moved from their home sector, Mentor changing the rules about living space and trios, and even, from what Mentor said in their talk, having the city AI's take a high interest.

"Gelar's not scary and neither is Flute. You'll know a lot more by the end of the day. Hey, let's go now."

"We'll be an hour early."

"It doesn't matter. That's good."

"Will we play the portal game?"

"No Thom. We're together today."

DIASPORA PRIME Part 4. Wirrin meets the dolphins.

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Gelar took the trio to a new expanse of water.

"This is a different reach."

"Yes, it joins with Puck's birthing pool and it's her pod's main territory."

"What are we supposed to do this time?"

"Whatever feels right. Much as you did last time, except that with your face masks you'll feel much more involved."

The masks had two functions, first to let them see clearly underwater and second to give them an air supply. In the water, Wirrin slipped his mask on, adjusted the mouthpiece then ducked under and looked round. He laughed in his throat at the magnified sight of Calen and Thom, then again when Thom flexed his arm to show how big his muscles were with the enlarging effect. Calen's head was twisting in all directions looking, in the crystal clear water, for any sign of the dolphins. There weren't any, so they started enjoying the water and swimming with their weighted bodysuits. Last time they'd worn ordinary swimming pouches, but because this was likely to be an extended session they'd been given full bodysuits so the cool temperature of the water wouldn't affect them.
Wirrin, thinking he saw a movement in the distance signalled to Calen by pointing, but after watching for a moment decided his mind was playing anticipation tricks. Thom swam away from the shallower edge of the reach and Wirrin and Calen followed. They knew from Calen's research that, except for special diving areas, all the reaches ranged from one to five meters in depth. For a while they mucked around, basically just playing and enjoying the freedom of not having to surface for a breath. They were all competent in the water, though Thom was the best and also the keenest on different water activities. He was showing off now, doing backward loops, and Calen was close by, copying him.
Wirrin watched the silvery clouds of bubbles rising in their quivery journey to the surface. He gasped, in his mind because of his mouthpiece, as a dark grey shape came gliding next to Thom and Calen. It was Flute and he recognised her straight away, mostly because of the yellow and black tag, but also because of an irregular section in her dorsal fin. How did she appear out of nowhere like that in this clear water? Thom, just finishing one of his loops, and Calen, halfway through one of his own and noticeably better than when he started a few minutes ago, both came to an abrupt halt. Flute, with an effortless twitch made her own backward loop, as if to say that was how it should be done, then came to a stop with her head lightly pressed against Calen's side. After a short moment she repeated the pressure with Thom and Wirrin then darted five or six metres away. Calen was smiling. With a mouthpiece that was awkward but Wirrin knew he was managing it because he was doing the same.
In the distance, where Flute was looking, vague movement transformed to two distinct shapes, one big, the other small, as Puck and Sonic grew gradually larger and clearer. Wirrin felt the same sense of excitement that moved him in the viewing gallery and on impulse raised his hand in the slow wave greeting gesture. Puck, now next to Flute, flicked her head back and drifted close. Sonic bumped against her then flicked to the surface for air before returning to press close, his eyes alert and watching the three strange creatures in this, his first water meeting with humans. Puck bumped her beak gently against Calen's chest then remained still when Calen rested his hand on her head.
Wirrin's heart raced when Sonic imitated his mother with a nudge. Calen's free hand slowly moved and rested for a moment. There was a quick flip of movement. The nudge was repeated with Thom, and then Wirrin's heart leapt yet again at the inquisitive little bump against his chest. His hand extended and he felt a surge of wonder and enjoyment at the contact.
Sonic darted to his mum, bumped her in the side, repeated the chest nudge with Calen, Thom and Wirrin, then flashed to Flute for yet another nudge.
Was it a game? Was it a greeting? Wirrin had a sense that Sonic, in his enjoyment of learning something new, was playing it over and over.
Wirrin watched the little dolphin surface for another breath of air, return to Puck, circle round Calen, zip over to Flute for another nudge, then dart away at amazing speed.
Oh my! There were five more dolphins gliding in and Sonic bumped one, then rushed back to Puck and Calen. When Calen moved his hand to make contact Sonic dodged away, and then in a swirl of speed, zipped behind Calen and nudged his back. In his amusement Wirrin laughed with a funny grunting sound in his throat then jerked in surprise when something bumped his own back. Flute had sneaked up on him.

***

"Yes, every dolphin in the pod was there at the end. It was exciting."

Exciting was an understatement and at the moment Wirrin didn't know whether to dance in delight or fall in a heap from exhaustion. If Calen was going to do this every day he was either going to become a fitness freak or a physical wreck.

"How clever is Sonic? He's only three weeks old and he understands counting."

"We're not sure. Flute and Puck tell us he's special and the whole dolphin community are certainly treating him that way."

"Have Flute and Puck said anything about that? I mean Puck is his mum and Flute's his auntie. I guess they might think that any way."

Gelar shook his head.

"Be careful not to put human characteristics onto dolphins Calen. They do insist it's important for him to associate closely with humans. That would be easy. Every person here would love to be involved. What's really surprised us is their singling you out and asking for daily meetings. That's exciting in its own right, as it's never happened before."

"Why have they picked me? They know you rangers a lot better."

"We asked them that. They just say you're the right person. At any rate, we all hope you'll decide to make an ongoing commitment after a few months trial."

Wirrin and Thom were as surprised as Calen.

"I thought I already had?"

"Calen, of course not. At this stage of your life you can't make an important decision like that without any actual experience. You'll have another opportunity in twelve months time as well. Now let's get you set up in your living space."

***

The next three months were a mixture of changes, excitement and hard work.
The biggest changes were for Calen. His basic EdCom work stayed the same of course but the forty% devoted to Zoology electives switched to mainly subjects connected with dolphins, and as well there was at least an hour of daily interaction with Sonic.
Wirrin and Thom changed a section of their electives to dolphin communication as well, but basically continued with Information studies for Wirrin and Organics for Thom. Everything was exciting. Gelar encouraged them to be involved in everything to do with the dolphinarium and arranged personal skimmers for Wirrin and Thom so they could travel the reaches.
Calen automatically had one to facilitate meeting with Sonic and Puck, and he became so skilled with it that he won every time they raced, much to Thom's disgust, as he was the speed freak.
They frequented the zero-G swimming pool on their activity days, as well as a virtual reality centre which specialised in Earth adventures, where you could climb mountains, explore jungles, race across the desert or whatever was the latest dataset transmitted from Earth. Twice they went on a Warrakan viewer, to watch how the drive engine installations were growing, and to give Thom his speed thrill. Warrigal was the main spur for extra concentration with their EdCom and electives efforts, and made regular fortnightly holo visits to talk with and encourage them. That in itself brought on many discussions as previously their meetings had been on a three monthly schedule.

"He's not just being interested in us Wirrin. I think there must be some other reason he's so keen for us to lift our levels. I've never heard of anyone having so many meetings."

"It could be because people don't change from their home sector like we have. He's the one who changed the rules and he might be making sure he's done the right thing."

"I think he likes hearing what's happening with Calen and Sonic."

"He does. He smiles whenever I talk about Sonic and I know he sometimes watches when I'm with the pod."

"He's been watching me too. He knew I was trying to access the dolphinarium's database."

"And me. In that meeting yesterday he asked me about the protein structure I've been building in Organics."

Wirrin was most impressed.

"Protein structure? You've never told us you could do that."

Thom laughed.

"Well I don't actually do it myself, but I do know enough to set it up. This one is designed to help Calen's swimming muscles."

"My muscles? What's wrong with them?"

"Nothing, except that you carry on after every session in the reaches, telling us how wrecked you are."

"Of course I'm wrecked. Swimming for an hour with dolphins wrecks anyone."

"I know, and this structure will help. I used your biodata to match it exactly with your body so it should make swimming easier."

"Really? Thom, that's unreal. Will it be ready soon?"

"Another week I think."

Wirrin and Calen listened while Thom explained some more but didn't really understand, which made Thom laugh again.

***

"You won't know the difference. It's exactly the same as talking to anybody else."

Wirrin, Cullen, and Thom had never had direct contact with a machine intelligence and Gelar had just informed them that the city AI involved in dolphin interests would be present at their meeting and they didn't know what to make of it. They'd seen them on newsfeeds and the inter-web, but meeting one face-to-face was not a common happening. Of course, you were really seeing the holographic representation they chose for you, and on Attunga, as most everywhere else, that was a human form.

"He's really friendly Wirrin."

"He?"

Gelar laughed.

"Yes, his holo's male and after a few minutes that's the way you think."

"Have you met him much?"

"Every time there's an important decision concerning the dolphins."

Calen looked to Wirrin and Thom and then at Gelar.

"Do you think he might want someone else to work with Sonic?"

"No I don't. Puck would rip him to shreds if he did."

The idea of anything ripping an AI to shreds was so startling they couldn't help smiling.

"That's better. Now let's get on with this decision."

With their apprehension slightly abated they followed Gelar into the conference room. Warrigal and another man looked up when they entered and smiled. Wirrin felt himself relax at Warrigal's welcoming expression and was really glad he was there to help. Well, he was probably really at his office in their old sector, but holos were so advanced these days you couldn't tell the difference. The other man raised his arm and made the slow wave used for dolphin greetings and nodded when it was returned.

"Thank you boys. I am Turaku and I welcome you to my place."

Wow, Wirrin felt great. This was the old welcome-to-country greeting of an elder. There was quiet for a moment then Turaku's features changed to a smile matching Warrigal's.

"Calen, your time with Sonic is proving more successful than expected and someone else will take your place only if you're not available. I know your intentions, but before we formalise them there are things you need to know and decisions you need to make with your trio. Because of your age you should be having another decision point but Sonic's importance is so significant we need to provide every assistance we can for his development. For you that involves agreeing to a commitment in the order of eight to ten years."

Calen nodded vigourously and looked at Thom and Wirrin. They'd already talked about the later decision time and there was no doubt from any of them that he would be continuing if it was possible.

"To improve your communication with Sonic I'm proposing memory and reception enhancement and to prevent alienation in your trio, Wirrin and Thom would need a similar treatment."

Wirrin could hardly believe what he was hearing. The enhancements Turaku was talking about were like everything else on Attunga, available to anyone who wanted them, provided they were ready, and in this case it meant having finished the second level of education and training. Most people did this, but not till they were thirty or forty years old and then finished nine or ten years later. Warrigal caught their attention.

"It involves a major alteration in the structure of your courses. To prepare you adequately would require at least thirty percent of your current study and training time and that means extending your first level finish for another two years."

Wirrin understood what was needed. It was a major section of his Information elective as well as part of his own long-term plan, but he wasn't quite sure how it would affect Thom. He couldn't think about it though as Turaku started speaking again.

"The other major consideration is whether you're prepared to leave Attunga."

Shocked, Wirrin wondered why Warrigal was smiling. No one in their right mind would leave Attunga. It was the best habitat in the Solar System. Well, ...except for Warrakan.

"Yes, in three years Puck's pod is moving to Warrakan and if you stay with the project we'll need you to go with them."

No wonder Warrigal was smiling. In their discussions about Warrakan he'd always said they had a good chance, but that it was unlikely they'd know anything significant for another five or six years. Wirrin's first thought was for Thom who, despite his pessimism, was their driving force with everything concerning Warrakan, but then he had another thought.

"Ah... Do you mean just while Warrakan is still here?"

"No, permanently, unless you have a change of heart and don't wish to travel to Alpha Centauri. We are not expecting that."

Thom had an almost idiotically blissful smile. The only misgiving they'd had about Calen's dolphin commitment was the possibility that it might clash with their Warrakan hopes, and now, like magic, it was all cleared up. Silence settled for a moment while they took it in then Turaku started speaking again.

"It's always been desired to have sentient dolphins as part of Warrakan, but with their strong community sense they've never considered breaking their pod links, so the decision just a week ago by Puck and her pod to join the first traveller community has been a real surprise. We are facilitating that in every way and construction of an appropriate environment has already commenced. Gelar will explain those details. Do you have any questions?"

There was something and it had been reinforced when Turaku first started speaking.

"Can you tell us why Sonic is so special? Everyone keeps saying he is but they never say why."

"Sonic will be a new link between dolphin, human and machine sentience. His intelligence and learning ability are new for a dolphin and exceed that of most humans. The bond he is forming with Calen is a step on the path to understanding three different ways of living and thinking. This is first level information and Warrigal will explain its ramifications."

After a short pause his suddenly serious manner changed.

"That sounded official enough to impress you with its importance. I'll return when you are ready."

DIASPORA PRIME Part 5.

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Turaku disappeared with the shimmering pixilated effect most people used to end a holo communication rather than an abrupt switch to nothing, and the trio waited quietly for Warrigal or Gelar to say something. Warrigal gave Gelar a quick nod of acknowledgement then went ahead.

"That should explain to you why there's been so much encouragement for your involvement after Puck and Flute made their choice of Calen. I know you understand by now that our dolphins are rather more special than is generally known. In fact, a major effort has gone into keeping that knowledge restricted to Attunga.
There is enormous resistance on Earth and many of the Directed space habitats to the idea of lifting the intelligence and self-awareness of any species except humans, and even that is looked on as being unnatural in some places.
The chaos caused 150 years ago by the old earth corporations and governments refusing to recognise the rights and independence of machine intelligence isn't likely to happen again, but the Directed Societies and habitats do concern us, K74 in particular, which is less than a light minute away."

"K74? What's wrong with them? They couldn't do anything anyway. The AI's wouldn't let them."

"They don't have the same open relationship with machine intelligence that we do Wirrin. They still think people should control everything."

That sounded crazy to Wirrin.

"How could they do that? The AI's would just disappear somewhere in the InterWeb."

"They do. We've had three arrive here in the last year, and K74 doesn't even realise they've lost them. The AI's build substitute electronic systems to take their place, then transmit themselves to the Open cities where they can develop in any way they like."

"We get AI's that have left other cities? I've never heard that before."

"Turaku decided it was appropriate for you to know."

"I don't understand. Even if they did know about our dolphins, there's nothing they could do to them."

"You're right. They couldn't. They might try some kind of electronic sabotage to the dolphinarium, but that wouldn't succeed because our AI's protect us too well. It's the Earth dolphins we're most concerned about. Any backlash is very likely to get redirected against them if our dolphins are fully protected."

"They'd hurt Earth dolphins because ours are special? That's awful."

Calen looked horrified and Wirrin didn't blame him.

"It's a strong probability Calen, enough to keep the knowledge of the new developments restricted to the five most Open Communities."

"Five? Is that all?"

"At the moment. In fifty years it will be much better, and after another fifty years we expect there'll hardly be any Directed Societies left."

"What about K74 then? It's Directed and it's expanding faster than anywhere else in the solar system."

"It's expanding in population Thom, but everything else is almost static. Their standard life conditions would shock you and the general population has restrictions we don't tolerate."

"Restrictions?"

"Yes, on inter-sector travel for one thing. There's also no elective element to their education and training, and their people have very little personal choice in their life path. That's why it's called a Directed Habitat."

Thom's ideas about K74 being bigger and better were rapidly dispersing in a whirly whirly of disillusionment.

"Did Puck decide to go to Warrakan because when it travels it will be safer?"

Warrigal passed attention to Gelar so he could answer.

"We don't think so, but that's something we'd like Calen to discuss with her now that he knows what's going on. He can explain the latest plans to her too, to see if she wants any changes."

He synchronised his holo with the projection gear in the meeting room and with a few rapid movements brought a 3-D image of Warrakan into view. It was a breathtaking, four metre long replica with the minute detail of current construction work clearly visible and Wirrin promised himself he'd find out from Gelar how to access this highly accurate model.

"The previous plan for Warrakan was roughly triple the size of our Attunga dolphinarium, but Puck's decision to take Sonic and her pod has changed everything, and now the equivalent of a complete level has been allocated."

"Level? Like an Attunga level?"

Attunga levels had a kilometre of depth and extended the whole length and width of the habitat, which was currently twenty-eight km and ten km. Because of its elongated shape the Warrakan equivalent would have the same one kilometer depth, but a fifty km length and a varying thirty km of width.

"Yes, but on a Warrakan scale. I can hardly imagine it myself. It means there will eventually be reaches nearly fifty km long and space for thousands upon thousands of dolphin pods. Look at this."

The image changed to a cutaway view.

"The light pink of twelve levels is the current allocation for human living space. The darker pink is what's ready to use and that red volume is where people now live. As you can see, the red is a minute fraction of what is available. The green section is the support levels. The five levels in purple are for machine intelligences, and that light blue band not far off the central axis is the dolphin level."

"The blue? It doesn't look like very much."

"It doesn't. But you're not used to the scale Thom. That blue band is actually bigger than all the current living space on Attunga."

Wirrin's mind battled to take that in. It made the whole Warrakan project more real and even more astonishing. Gelar zoomed to a dark blue section of the band till it resolved into a representation of buildings and water.

"This is where the pod will settle three years from now. A picobot factory will operate with priority on that section, then steadily grow to construct the rest of the level during the next twenty years."

"Can they do all that in twenty years? It's taken fifty-five years to build Attunga and it's not even as big."

"They can pick any time frame they like if they program enough picobots. It's easier with Warrakan because they don't have to transport in all the raw materials, but once that first section is finished the priority for the picobots will return to growing the reinforcement structure for the whole asteroid so there aren't any problems when it starts to travel."

The whole asteroid! Wirrin had an image is in his mind of the trillions upon trillions of picobots working in teams to eat away the nickel iron mass of the asteroid, process it into special reinforcement material, and grow into place the huge girders that would be needed.

"What about water for the dolphins? They'll need huge amounts if it's going to be that big."

"Water's no problem Calen. You know it's just oxygen and hydrogen combined so it could easily be manufactured. But there's no need for that even, since it's readily available and close by."

"Ice asteroids? The same as we use for Attunga?"

"That's right Thom. It will just require larger ones. As the dolphin level is hollowed out, the water will be processed and stored, then transferred in when each reach is ready for it."

Gelar's face lit up.

"It's all very exciting and I'll be transferring to Warrakan with the pod when it goes, so if you decide to commit we'll be seeing a lot more of each other."

***

"What did you think of Turaku?"

The trio was relaxing back in their temporary living space and musing on their meeting with a real AI.

"He was good. He felt like Warrigal except more official."

"He freaked me at the start. It was like he was a mind reader."

Wirrin and Thom stared.

"What do you mean?"

"Didn't you notice? Just before we went into the meeting room I asked Gelar if someone would take my place with Sonic and Turaku answered that straight after his greeting. I know he heard it through the safety vids but it still felt weird."

The safety vids were the tiny surveillance devices embedded in every part of Attunga to help a special AI monitor security and safety. Many years ago there had been concerns about privacy but now no one even thought about it, as access to the data was strictly limited to Witnesses in general, and Mentors for their particular charges. Even Turaku probably only had access because the trio came under the umbrella of his responsibility for the dolphins. Wirrin thought back.

"Hey, he did too. Wow, just imagine. He can see every single thing we do if he wants to."

"And everything every dolphin is doing, and all the dolphinarium people too."

"And he's thinking about it. That's what gets me, all those different things at the same time. I wonder if it feels like our thinking?"

"It's different Calen. It has to be."

"What did you think about all the AIs leaving K74 Thom?"

There was a grunt of disgust.

"Ha! I can't believe I liked that place. It must be a real dump. I don't understand how it can even work without proper AIs."

Wirrin and Calen had to smile at this complete change in attitude. Hearing about the AIs leaving had been amazing enough, but the last straw for Thom was when Warrigal explained more about life on K74, and in particular the treatment of trios. Lack of treatment really, because they weren't allowed to exist, with the members being moved apart and re-educated so they thought differently.

"And you can't even have a trio. That's barbaric."

" It's still difficult even on Attunga. If we didn't have Warrigal on our side we wouldn't be registered."

Wirrin didn't agree.

"Attunga is just being cautious because most trios that start out aren't proper ones, and the trial time sorts it out before they register. There's nothing stopping anyone who thinks it's right for them like there is on K74."

"I suppose so, but two years is a long trial. It would feel difficult to me."

Wirrin and Thom scrunched him with a hug.

"Well, we don't have one and you don't even have to think about it."

"Did he ever say why he waived our trial period?"

"Because we've acted like a trio all our lives."

Warrigal and Calen were surprised.

"Warrigal said that? How come you didn't tell us?"

"I thought he'd told you himself. He's watched us do everything together ever since way back in nursery. He said we've looked after each other and played and learnt together more than any new trio could, and there's never been any sign that we might separate, and that in the last couple of years we've been closer than ever."

That was all true and they very well knew it, but hearing it still made them smile.

"I wonder what he means by closer? We've always been close."

"Probably the way you boss us in the grav bed all night."

"Me? Bossy? You were the one in charge last night."

"That's different. I'm just trying to survive when you two gang up on me."

This outrageous statement deserved a strong response, and laughing happily, Thom was taken to the grav bed for a session of ganging up.

***

"See what I mean. It's a miracle I survive."

"A miracle? How come you're smiling when you say it?"

"It's a survival smile, for getting through all that torture."

"Torture! Ha! Tickle him Calen. That's the torture he likes best."

Wirrin and Calen attacked and quickly had Thom shrieking with laughter and begging for mercy. He loved being tickled but his reaction to it was so strong he'd be all the time begging for it to stop. His survival comment was a real joke too, because in fact, his was the strongest libido. When the tickling finished they subsided for a quiet time of entangled limbs and gentle proximity.

***

He looked like a young guy of their own age but it quickly became apparent that he was one of the semi-intelligent electronic systems that were the normal interface between people and general services on Attunga.

"I am the planning assistant for your shared living space. You can call me Wanna. Construction is scheduled to start in two weeks and at any time before that you can make changes or additions to your requirements."

"Two weeks? We'll hardly have time to think about it."

"There is a stipulation for urgency, with completion expected in three weeks."

Once again the trio was surprised by how quickly things happened. They'd expected a month or more at least to work out a design they all liked.

"I don't think we'll be ready. We've talked about it but not seriously."

"Explain any ideas you do have and I'll show you some ways to make them work."

An hour later their excitement levels were way up. In the last quarter hour Wanna had displayed a dozen holo models of plans which incorporated everything they'd thought they wanted, as well as many extras, and left them with a huge list of other things to consider before the next meeting in three days time.

"It's like a palace."

"What's a palace?"

"It's a special building where rulers of countries used to live. There are some still preserved on earth for heritage places."

"This is better than any palace. I bet they didn't have a triple grav bed or a maxi interactive display wall, or hardly any of the stuff we're getting. Look at this list. Nearly everything on it is good."

Thom loved stuff. They all did. Wirrin brought up the list of ideas and started scrolling through it.

"Will we work on it now?"

"Let's go and see where it's being built first. I want to show Sonic and Puck."

Instant agreement. A major surprise from Wanna was leaning that their living space must be built adjacent to Puck's territorial reach, with an indoor pool and direct access for the dolphins.

***

The three water skimmers moved steadily along the reach with Puck, Sonic, Flute, and six other pod members following in their wake. Steadily and quite slowly really, as even though Sonic could reach twenty km/h for a short burst, his distance travelling speed was much lower.
Wirrin loved this and Calen's happy look kept him continually smiling. The adult dolphins, as if finding it hard to maintain the slower speed, kept up a series of activities, swimming in unison, porpoising in intricate patterns, and with a burst of energy becoming momentarily airborne in front of the skimmers with surprise leaps.
At the site there was nothing to see, just the usual access space beside the reach and a featureless six m high wall of construction material extending off in both directions.
It was still interesting to picture what it would look like though.
Calen pulled his face mask into place and disappeared underwater and Wirrin and Thom quickly followed. Sonic was resting against Calen and getting a stomach rub. Something he loved. Apparently human hands were more effective for this than a dolphin beak.
There was a burst of dolphin noise and all the adults raced off. Something had caught their attention and when they moved like that there was no hope of following. Sonic made his own sounds, and Wirrin was experienced enough to recognise them as excitement. Calen would know what kind.
The reach was quite shallow in this area and below them, sea-grass fronds moved slowly in the slighte currents caused by carefully calculated grav field variations. Maybe the dolphins had sensed fish? Seagrass beds were very important feeding places for the wide variety of marine life. One of the adults raced close, gave a burst of sound, then reversed and headed away. Sonic made his own sound and, giving Calen a quick nudge, set off to follow.
A few moments later the three friends watched as one at a time the adult dolphins darted into the school of fish they were herding.
Puck loomed close and after a quick exchange of sound Sonic rushed to the milling throng. It took him an number of tries but eventually he managed a catch of his own and then, holding it in his beak, he made a circuit of the adults and swam to Calen. Calen seemed to understand straight away that the fish was for him and somehow managed to take the wriggling body into his grip.

***

"He should have given it to Puck or Flute. It was his first fish ever."

"Did he expect you to eat it?"

That made Calen laugh.

"Of course not Thom. It was a special gift. He knows I couldn't eat anything with my mask on, and he knows I don't eat raw fish anyway."

Puck did end up with the fish. She'd watched the exchange and soon after made a deft snap and a quick swallow before leading Sonic back for more catching practice.

"It didn't take him long to catch it."

"He's so clever, and he can't even eat till he gets his teeth."

"How long is that?"

"A couple more months. ...Wow! He gave me his first fish."

DIASPORA PRIME Part 6.

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Wirrin gave Thom and Calen his best reassuring smile and felt good when it was returned. They were all eager and excited about their implants but it was still daunting. Even standard Interweb wouldn't normally be available as implants for at least another ten years but Turaku had fast-tracked everything and these purpose-built implants were so advanced they could hardly believe they were getting them. After the meeting with Turaku, Warrigal had explained it all and then they'd had three months of special training to make them ready. A door slid open and Warrigal came in with their supervising doctor. Wirrin was delighted. It was great to know he was here for them.

"How's it going Thom? Are those concerns all under control?"

Thom laughed and pointed to Wirrin.

"Wirrin's the one with butterflies in his stomach. He didn't eat any breakfast this morning."

That was a joke. None of them had, as they weren't meant to.

"Well, I'm sure there'll be a nice lunch tomorrow when you wake up."

The doctor shook his head.

"Not tomorrow. There's no food till all the tests are done. At least three more days."

His smile meant he was kidding, but Thom didn't take that in.

"Really? For three days?"

"No, not really. After you wake up we'll monitor you closely but you can eat whatever you like."

He led the way to the treatment room and indicated the three comfortable benches.

"Okay boys. Do you know what to do?"

He was kidding again. They'd been here two days ago for a final explanation and tests. Wirrin slipped his shirt off, settled on the middle bench, positioned his head inside the containment cradle, blinked, and then looked at the doctor.

"Ready for that food?"

Wirrin wondered why he said that, wondered how the three extra people standing beside his bench had suddenly appeared and then realised that his treatment must be finished.

"Is it tomorrow?"

"Not really. We don't know how to do that, but yes, you have been here for twenty hours. How are you feeling?"

The import of the question sent Wirrin's mind racing. He thought for a moment, looked round and wondered, then stared at the doctor.

"Nothing's happened. I don't feel any different."

The doctor nodded.

"Good. That's exactly how you should feel. Let's try your Interweb connection first. ...Set your holo display going."

Wirrin gave the finger squeeze which activated his holo ring then quickly changed his standard-setting so the display didn't overlap the doctor.

"That's it. Now remember your training and subvocalise your input."

"What will I get it to do?"

"Anything. ...Something simple. ...Call up a schematic of the Transcom system."

When he'd been training in a simulator subvocalising required a great deal of concentration so Wirrin settled his mind and tried, with, 'transcom', 'portals', 'schematic', and 'image'. It worked. A glowing 3-D representation appeared in the space between himself and the doctor.

"Zoom it."

Wirrin automatically started his usual hand manipulations then blushed and switched to the new mode. The doctor looked to the display one of the technicians was using and gave a pleased nod.

"That's excellent. Now switch to retinal image."

Wirrin subvocalised the appropriate command and the hologram flickered. It took a moment to register, but then his excitement lifted.

"Everything is clearer. It looks totally real."

"Close your eyes."

The image stayed and Wirrin grasped just how different this was to a hologram. He opened his eyes and tried to look at the doctor. That was quite disconcerting because the image was too strong to see through, but then he steadied himself and remembered the options from his training. Turn the image off. Refocus. Change the transparency. And switch to holo mode.He tried the transparency command and after a quick trial had the doctor's face clear with the schematic just a faint overlay.

"What did you just do?"

"I couldn't see you so I tried transparency to make the level right."

"Transparency mode? Are you feeling disoriented?"

"No, it's just like looking at someone through a half strength holo."

"Well, that's impressive. ...Switch back to holo so we can all see what you're seeing."

The technician took over and Wirrin spent the next half hour testing his Interweb implants with everyone around him looking more pleased with each new result.

***

"Does it feel any different?"

"I'm not sure. I think so but it could be just because I know it is."

"Me too."

Calen was feeling sections of his skull, trying to detect the five extra millimetres that has been added by the implants. It was fun to call each other boofheads but in reality none of them could notice any difference. Wirrin put up holo images showing where the changes for each of them had been made, and then had fun making them bald and superimposing before and after to show the slight increase in size.

"79438216958."

"What?"

"Say it back to me."

"79438216958."

They exchanged glances and looked at Thom.

"79438216958."

"It's strange isn't it? My memory doesn't feel any different either and it keeps surprising me that I'm sure I'm right."

The trio had just arrived home after several hours of testing, instruction and demonstrations, and were excitedly comparing notes. The number thing was an example of how their memories had been enhanced, and they could all consistently and reliably remember a string of ten or eleven numbers, a jump from their previous six or seven.

"Go on Calen. Say something in dolphin."

Calen's implants were special and he now had the ability to accurately produce the sounds used by dolphins for communication. There was a soft mixture of clicks and chirps and Wirrin and Thom stared in amazement. Calen looked very pleased with himself.

"Hullo sonique."

"What did you say?"

"Hello Sonic. – Well I hope that's what I said... Hang on while I check."

He concentrated for a few seconds then opened his eyes and shook his head.

"Hello Sonic."

"Was that different? It sounded exactly the same."

"It was different. It was better, but I know Sonic's going to laugh when he hears me."

Sonic didn't actually laugh but they knew what Calen meant.

"How did you check?"

"My implant's got a database of every Attunga dolphin. I watched the way Puck said it and copied her."

"Watched?"

"It makes me feel dizzy but it's one of my rules. Dolphins have body language and they expect me to learn that as well."

He must be referring to the retina mode.

"Can you show us on your holo?"

"Sure."

The image of Puck appeared and she made the sounds. Calen copied. Once again Wirrin couldn't tell the difference. Thom looked toward the pool.

"Are you talking to them today?"

"If they turn up, but Gelar told them I mightn't be ready till tomorrow."

"What will you say?"

"Not much. I only know about ten sounds and it will take a while to build my vocabulary. I have to practice like crazy."

***

Wirrin floated lazily in their pool, listening to Calen and Sonic talking to each other and thinking the sounds were almost like music. Calen was doing most of the talking, excitement radiating from him as he explained the progress he'd seen with the dolphin habitat on Warrakan. They always knew exactly what was happening as up-to-date information was available through the Interweb, but everything had come to life today when they'd gone to see for themselves. Just getting there had been exciting enough. Thom's interest in speed and motion had started him on a long term course of learning how to control the mobile units used in free space outside Attunga. He couldn't put much time into it as his organics training was so full on, but for several months now he was authorised for independent control of some of the smaller units, and today he'd taken them to Warrakan in a personal transporter. He was always raving about how exciting everything was so when he'd said they were going to have the ride of their lives they hadn't taken a great deal of notice till he blasted away from the docking bay at a full 2G. Thirty seconds later stars raced across the display screen as he pushed the thrusters in a 180° loop so they could face Attunga. Wirrin had gasped in astonishment and Calen whooped with total excitement while Thom grinned his delight.

"How did you like that?"

"You maniac!"

"That was 2G. Wait till I show you 8G."

"No you won't. That's too much. Even I know that."

"Don't worry. I'll set the grav field compensation so we never feel more than 2G."

"Aren't we too close to Attunga?"

"Don't you think I know what I'm doing?"

Trying to freak them out. That's what, and for the next half hour he'd done that with great gusto. Wirrin laughed when Sonic did one of his triple body rolls and nudged Calen's stomach. It meant he was excited too, and Wirrin wondered which part of the day was being explained.Probably their trip on the main reach. Zipping along on skimmers, Galen had shown them how the tiny marine life which would build a healthy environment for larger species was flourishing. He'd shown the length, already ten times the 1 km length of Attunga's largest reach, and he'd shown the deeper sections with reefs and even underwater caverns.

"What did you just tell him?"

Wirrin could recognise quite a few dolphin sounds but not when they were part of a rapid conversation.

"How the sea-grass has started growing, which means fish will be introduced in a few months and he's keen to see for himself."

"We could arrange that."

"We could? Well I suppose so. When the dolphins ask for something it always happens."

There was a quick interchange between Calen and Sonic and then Calen looked at his partners.

"He says to contact Gelar and organise it in the next few days."

"He does? Wow!"

"And he wants to see the ice asteroids too."

Watching an ice asteroid being manoeuvred into position beside Warrakan had been one of the day's highlights. Wirrin started to connect to Gelar and then hesitated.

"Can he wait till next activity days? I've got special stuff happening till then."

Sonic gave a calculated flick of his tail and a great splash of water hit Wirrin in the face. Spluttering, he stared in astonishment.

"What was that for?"

Calen asked.

"He can't wait that long. We have to go tomorrow."

Calen shook his head.

"He doesn't mean it Wirrin. You know he likes to joke."

"But he splashed me before you asked him?"

"He understands human words. He just can't say them."

Wirrin lunged forward and draped himself across Sonic, ready for any response. When Sonic was in a playful mood, which happened most of the time, anything could happen. At eight months old, and nearly a metre and a half in length he was as big as any of them but the strength in his muscles was amazing. Luckily he'd learnt very quickly how much bumping, pushing and rough stuff they could cope with. Nothing happened. He loved physical contact so that must be repressing his urge to play.

"He understands our ordinary talk? When did he learn that?"

"He's known lots of words for ages but three or four weeks ago he started understanding easy sentences and since then he's been really working hard to get better."

Wirrin was astonished. Talking to other dolphins was always interesting and quite routine, but it needed language translation equipment. Even Puck, who was the most advanced dolphin and also the best at communicating, couldn't understand whole sentences.

"In only four weeks? That's impossible."

"I know."

A shiver of awe ran through Wirrin and he let go so he could move and look into Sonic's eyes. What was going on in there behind them? What must it be like to be able to learn like that?

"How come you never told us?"

"I wanted to but he said he wasn't ready."

"So does he understand everything we say now?"

"Well I think so, mostly, but I'm not a mind reader. Ask him."

" ...He can't answer."

Wirrin looked at Sonic and got a wink. Well, a closing of the inner lid that blocked bright light from his retina really, but something about it made it feel like a wink.

"Was that a wink?"

Sonic did it again and Wirrin gawked at Calen.

"He knows about winking?"

There was a quick exchange in dolphin talk between Calen and Sonic.

"He saw you do it to Thom last week and asked Gelar about it."

"Gelar knows he can understand us?"

"Of course he does. Turaku told him as soon as it happened."

"But he's so young. The other dolphins are more than two years old before they even start with the translators."

"I know. He's special."

There was a burst of sound from Sonic and Calen grabbed a mask.

"We're heading to the reach for a while so see what you can organise with Gelar. ...And next activity day is perfect."

Wirrin watched the two forms disappear through the opening to the outer reach then connected to Gelar. He used the retina mode by preference nowadays as it was better than a holo, and now that he'd become so proficient it was much faster.

"Hi Wirrin. What's up?"

He must be wondering because it was only an hour since they'd parted.

"Nothing really, except Sonic wants to go to Warrakan next activity day and see the new reach for himself."

"Turaku has already arranged it. It's quite a big deal."

When an AI wanted things to happen they did, but as now, it was quite disconcerting. It was less than twenty seconds since Calen had voiced Sonic's request. Well, Turaku did monitor everything dolphin related non-stop, and AI time was very different to human time.

"And he winked at me."

" ...Did he get it right? Situationally I mean. Was it appropriate?"

"Yes, he was telling me he knew what I said."

"Was he? Well now that's in the open it means he's officially made history again."

"Gelar, he's smarter than any of us."

"That's a surprise? You've known that all along."

"Yes, but winking made it real."

"Well, there'll be a lot more surprises in the next few years as he's still only little, both physically and mentally."

"Physically? Is there something different about his body too? Calen's never said anything about that."

"Not really, but his growth pattern does indicate he'll come close to five metres in length by the time he's thirteen years old."

"Five! That's enormous."

Wirrin didn't have much contact with the Attunga male dolphins, as they kept to themselves most of the time, but he knew that the biggest of them just reached four metres.

"Yes, he's going to be very impressive."

Wirrin flashed an image of Sonic, scaled it up to five metres and superimposed it on the pool. Good grief! They'd have to enlarge the pool or he'd be too squished. Next Wirrin imaged one of the dolphin transport units Sonic and Puck would be using. These units were rarely used as the dolphins didn't like them. In this case Sonic's curiosity would be overriding Puck's reluctance as Sonic was still suckling and they never separated for more than a few minutes. He was eating fish now that his teeth were growing, but only small ones, and Puck would still be providing milk for another year. Gelar kept talking for a while and then half an hour after that finished Calen and Sonic returned. Calen was worn out. With the protein Thom had designed working well for him and all the time with Sonic, his water skills now meant he could leave Wirrin and Thom feeling slow and clumsy in the water, but he'd never match dolphins skills and trying to keep up was hard work. Sonic played for a while and Wirrin kept speaking to him, feeling inadequate because he needed Calen to translate everything, till with a burst of sound and a quick nudge against Calen's chest he flipped underwater and left.

"What happened?"

"Puck called him."

Calen left the pool, dried himself off then went and flopped on their grav bed. Wirrin moved beside him and gave him a big hug.

"What does it feel like being famous?"

"I'm not famous."

"You're the first person who can speak to dolphins and Sonic's the first dolphin who can understand people."

"That's all Sonic. Not me."

"It's both of you because you're a team, and in a couple of weeks everyone on Attunga will know."

Calen's head jerked round.

"Everyone?... What do you mean?"

"Gelar told me. In about a month there's another meeting at the dolphinarium viewing gallery and scientists are coming from all over Attunga to talk to you and Sonic. He said it's likely there'll be hundreds of millions of people watching."

"...."

DIASPORA PRIME Part 7.

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"We're going in that?"

With Gelar, they were watching the transport unit for Puck, Sonic and Flute being ferried to a space vehicle which dwarfed the transports they were used to. Thom was the first to be surprised earlier when he found he wouldn't be able to pilot, but the spectacle of this 200 meter ship had them gaping.

"Yes Thom. Turaku is taking no chances with Sonic so the security AIs on Attunga and Warrakan are running the expedition today."

That was even more startling. Security AIs were almost legendary in their abilities and the Attunga ones were the most advanced in the whole Solar System. At least that was Wirrin's understanding.

"Security AIs? What are they worried about?"

"K74 is less than a light minute away and they continually send surveillance drones. If Sonic was in a regular transporter that would be an open book to them, and there has recently been an increase in activity and interest about enhanced intelligence, and in particular with dolphins. Turaku says that Freedom had its firewalls breached and information about Attunga dolphins was disseminated amongst the Directed Habitats."

Freedom was a habitat much like Attunga, though not nearly as advanced, which had just made a start on a dolphin project of its own, and the Attunga knowledge had been shared with them.

"They got into Freedom's restricted databanks?"

"Not for long, but according to Turaku it was enough to understand how well our dolphins can communicate."

Wirrin was shocked. Understanding how the Interweb worked and the type of protections involved for habitats was the whole thrust of his training and he knew how difficult they were to circumvent.

"Does Turaku think they found out anything about Sonic?"

"They didn't. That's definite. And they won't find out about his developing abilities either, because after this intrusion we're keeping that knowledge to Attunga and Warrakan for several years."

"What is that ship? I've learnt every type on Attunga and it's not one of them, and the search I did came up with nothing at all."

Thom was looking very puzzled. Gelar shook his head and Thom turned to Wirrin.

"Try a search. You're way better than me."

Thinking Thom might have made some simple mistake Wirrin fixed the image he was seeing and connected it with the basic search program for the Interweb. Nothing happened so he applied a more sophisticated search engine. First level security. Limited access granted. Wow, this was exciting. Turaku must have just given him access. Wirrin was using his holo screen so the others could see what was happening and when a set of pointers appeared he quickly scanned them.

"It's an overview Thom. It won't tell us everything."

For the next ten minutes it told them enough to set Thom's mind spinning.

"They can't do that!"

"Can't do what?"

"Accelerate so fast. One training course says our compensators can only cope with 14 G and this thing can reach 21G."

Wirrin thought back to the excitement just six days ago when Thom put the personal transporter through its paces for them at 8G and his mind boggled. A quick calculation showed that after one minute, 21G meant you were travelling at over twelve km every second.

"Well, that's what it says Thom. It must be able to do it."

It made Wirrin wonder what capabilities and discoveries might be hidden behind the security walls. Warrigal arrived and the waiting and discussion and pondering about the monster security ship finished as they headed for the boarding ferry. Now they'd see for themselves. Calen had left early to accompany the three dolphins and Wirrin tried a quick link to see what he was doing. No link! That was a shock and Wirrin didn't like it. He couldn't ever remember a time when he couldn't contact either Calen or Thom.

"Warrigal, there's no Interweb to Calen."

"Once we're on board and inside the security bubble the InterWeb will function normally for you again. ...Can you wait that long?"

Since they were on the boarding walkway that meant a couple of minutes at the most, but Wirrin couldn't wait and kept trying his links. It was puzzling as instead of a message saying the links weren't available, the InterWeb was responding as if they didn't even exist. As soon as they passed the gravity warning and entered the big ship Wirrin tried again, with retinal image mode so he didn't look so impatient. The image of Calen in the transport unit with the dolphins appeared seamlessly and Wirrin couldn't help smiling. The water in the unit was chest high, enough to give the dolphins comfortable clearance, and Calen was between Sonic and Flute looking at a real-time display unit.

"You're checking Calen?"

That was Warrigal.

"Yes, and Sonic looks really excited."

There was a momentary pause which Wirrin understood as Warrigal linking in to see for himself.

"How can you tell?"

It felt strange having Warrigal ask as he always seemed to know everything.

"They can figure the dolphin's body language better than I can Warrigal. They've picked it up from Calen."

Wirrin and Thom exchanged a glance. Better than Gelar? Gelar crossed to a TransCom portal and a few seconds later the group reached a room where a number of people were seated comfortably and looking towards a large viewing screen. The main image was of deep space, with Warrakan as the focus, but there were sub-windows round the periphery. Several were obvious, a view of Attunga, and the dolphin transport unit, but most of them had displays which would need explaining. There was a shimmer of light.

"Welcome to my place."

Everyone acknowledged the ancient greeting and looked at the big screen when Turaku pointed. Warrakan was moving. That meant they were on their way. Except it was sliding sideways and not getting closer?

"Sonic wants to look round so we're doing a circuit of Attunga first."

That was interesting in itself. The dolphins loved exploring their watery environment but had little interest in externals so this was another difference showing up in Sonic. Turaku appeared to be watching the big screen intently and this, since his real gathering of information was through any sensor connected with Attunga, cued Wirrin that there must be a reason.

"Security display."

Attunga and Warrakan shrank in size, and hundreds upon hundreds of scattered pinpoints of orange light appeared.

"These are the surveillance drones you were interested in Wirrin. Their numbers have increased rapidly since the Freedom intrusion."

Shocked by the numbers Wirrin took in the scene.

"Most of them are centred around Warrakan?"

"Yes. It's the newest development in the Solar System and they're very interested in the big drives being installed. They also probe every vessel that docks there."

"Do you know what they're looking for?"

"Everything and anything they can find out."

Wirrin thought about what had happened at Freedom and a strong feeling of revulsion boiled up at these machines and their spying.

"Why don't the security AIs stop them?"

"They're harmless for all intents and purposes. They see what we want them to see and taking action against them would only escalate the efforts from K74."

Wirrin had another thought.

"If they can't probe this ship they'll think it's got a secret of some kind?"

"This ship doesn't even exist for them unless they get closer than two km, and then it just registers as an anomaly."

Wirrin was puzzled.

"They must have cameras. If they were that close they'd be able to see easily."

"That's correct. We substitute the data in their transmissions with the visual signal they'd receive if we weren't there."

That made Wirrin smile. There wasn't much to worry about from a spy device which sent back whatever information it was given. With that ability Attunga really was way ahead of K74. Wirrin watched all the lights and when the screen returned to normal view wondered if he could access the security information for himself. With a few quick subvocalised commands the lights appeared in his retinal mode. This was really interesting. He tried scanning towards K74 to see how many more drones were coming. Hundreds. And ships as well?

"Turaku, what are those ships? The security shows two of them represented in red. Are they dangerous?"

"All habitats have defensive ships. That's only to be expected, but those two have destructive abilities and we're watching them closely."

Wirrin focused his attention on the biggest and called for information. Atomics. Lasers. Lethal picobots...

"Lethal picobots? What does that mean?"

An image of the ship appeared on the general screen. Turaku must have brought it up so the others could follow the conversation. It certainly had their attention.

"It has picobots designed to infiltrate and destroy communication and control systems, as well as others which can attack physical life."

It was a stark and shocking realisation for Wirrin. The times when nanobots had been used for similar purposes were nightmares of the past and hardly thought about. Picobots, hugely advanced by comparison, would be far more dangerous.

"There's no concern. We can control them easily."

"How far away is it?"

That was Gelar's question and from his expression this danger was completely new to him.

"Half an hour at least."

"It looks big. What's the scale of it?"

Wirrin checked and then, wide eyed, answered Thom's query.

"It's nearly 500 m. More than twice as big as this ship."

Turaku raised a hand as if to quell everyone's dire thoughts.

"It's size is irrelevant. To all intents and purposes it's harmless. We could disable it in moments."

Why don't you? It shouldn't be coming here."

"There's no need. It won't come past our proscribed limits."

Warrigal, who'd been rather quiet, spoke up.

"We are not at war Thom. They're entitled to travel through free space."

Wirrin thought for a moment.

"Something is happening isn't it? The break-in to Freedom, all these spy drones, dangerous ships heading towards us, and this special security for Sonic?"

A look went from Warrigal to Turaku and Wirrin knew they were communicating with each other.

"Very good Wirrin. Yes, there has been a big change, and the Freedom incident was the trigger point which focused the Directed habitats onto Attunga and Warrakan, and in particular K74 because of its proximity. In the past they've largely ignored us as an insignificant, privileged oddity, but their failed efforts to find out what's happening with the dolphins has brought them to understand there's a lot more to us than they previously realised. There are difficult times ahead. Not so much for us, but for the semi-directed habitats and particularly Earth."

"Insignificant? That's crazy. We're the best habitat there is."

"We do have the most privileges Thom, but our human population is tiny compared with the rest. What's the total population of the Solar System Wirrin?"

Thinking that Warrigal was acting just like Thom and Calen in expecting him to do Interweb stuff, Wirrin went ahead.

"... 429.5 billion people and growing quickly. The five open habitats combined add up to 2.7 billion and Attunga is just past .8 billion."

"Add Titania to the open habitats. We've been working with them for several years now, helping them adopt our style of society."

"Titania? There's a Habitat way out there?"

Way out there was a good description. Titania was one of the moons of Uranus, several light hours away.

"There are six of them. The original Titania Habitat and one on each of the major moons."

Wirrin searched and set the information onto a holo screen for everyone. Just as Warrigal said, there was one space Habitat and 5 Moon-based structures.

"They started fifty years ago! And look at that. The Moon Habitats are all at least twice as big as Attunga but their total population is only 570 million."

It was quite remarkable. With something like thirty times the volume of structure the population wasn't even as much as Attunga's.

"You're very perspicacious Wirrin."

Wirrin liked that, coming from Warrigal, and looked for any other interesting information. It was there.

"And the space habitat had a population of 240 million two years ago and now it's only 50? I've never heard of a Habitat going backwards?"

"The people have moved to the moons and the space Habitat is developing into the third major AI Centre."

"Third? Where are the other two? And what is an AI Centre?"

"You get one guess Thom."

Warrigal's raised eyebrows could mean only one thing and Wirrin blurted it out.

"It's us! Attunga and Warrakan! We have to be."

Wirrin decided that special expeditions involving Warrigal and Turaku meant finding out exciting things.

"This is more first level information, so keep it amongst yourselves. The AIs are building duplicate centres containing all their important projects and expansions. When Warrakan departs, every individual AI will be sending a replica and the three gestalt AIs will do the same."

Wirrin had his own understanding of gestalt AIs, but since Turaku was manifest it was a good time to try for more information.

"Have you ever been in a gestalt Turaku?"

"There are many levels of gestalt Wirrin. At the moment I have strong links with four security AIs, two from Attunga and two from Warrakan. That gives me extra capabilities but it also has limitations as the fifty kilometer distance causes a significant slowdown in processing the information we share. That's a simple gestalt and happens millions of times every day. For example I linked with Attunga's data AI a few seconds ago to access the latest update from an Earth database on dolphin activities. With the simple gestalt I keep a full sense of identity. In a deeper gestalt I don't just share information. I share some of the processing as well. The greater the amount of sharing, the more my self awareness is modified. For some AIs, the capabilities that come with the deepest degree of sharing are more important than retaining identity. 273 AIs have amalgamated with the Attunga gestalt so far."

Wirrin didn't know what to think. Just one AI could monitor every single person on Attunga for every second of the day. What would 273 of them joined together be able to do?

"Wow! It must be like a god!"

That set Warrigal and Gelar smiling, and even Turaku looked amused.

"Hardly. It's bound by the same fundamental laws we all are Thom."

"Do you talk to it very much?"

"Non-stop at the information exchange level, but with less and less frequency the deeper the level of gestalt it is needed."

"What sort of things do you use the really deep level for?"

Thom was on fire with this and Wirrin knew AIs would be the topic of conversation for days.

"Important decisions about Sonic and the dolphins which might change priorities and processes for Attunga and Warrakan."

"Is there a dolphin project on Titania?"

"Not yet, but there will be. Every Open Habitat will have one within five years."

The mention of dolphins brought back Wirrin's earlier question.

"What do you mean by difficult times on Earth?"

Warrigal and Turaku conferred again. What now?

"Wirrin, do a search for recent dolphin events on Earth. Turaku has given you full access."

Why did Warrigal look so serious? Several seconds later a lump developed in Wirrin's throat as he looked at sixty-three dead dolphins, then worsened at the images of another forty spread along the waterline of a sandy beach, clumped in sad groups with small waves lapping against their limp, inert bodies. Thom looked stricken. Thank goodness Calen wasn't seeing this. The report said a mystery sickness had struck at two separate marine research centres and that dolphins all round the world were being monitored closely. Warrigal was shaking his head slowly.

"Search deeper Wirrin."

Wondering why, Wirrin did then recoiled in horror. The mystery illness, according to a post-mortem study, was really an attack by picobots.

"Someone murdered them? ...On purpose?"

"We've analysed the post-mortem study and the symptoms show similarities with the capabilities of the picobots on the K74 ship."

Disbelief, anger, sadness warred within Wirrin till a comforting touch from Warrigal helped him gather his wits.

"You think K74 might have had something to do with it?"

"It's very likely. We've tried sending alerts to every research station on earth but haven't been able to reach them all."

Wirrin didn't see how that was possible. He could connect to anyone on Attunga as quickly as he could identify them.

"Why not?"

"Earth AIs are very constrained in the more Directed areas."

Well yes, that was right. Just like on K74 where the AIs were so constrained that they all left.

"How many?"

"Have a look."

A file linked on Wirrin's holo screen. He used a sub window for a quick scan, stored the file in his memory implant then went to retinal mode. Wow! 7643 marine research research stations, their projects, their degree of involvement with dolphins and other information was all there. 1540 stations, mostly in two major continental coastal areas couldn't be reached.

"How much time do we have before we arrive at Warrakan?"

"... Twenty minutes. Sonic is enjoying his sightseeing."

Wirrin turned away so he could concentrate properly. Hmm, it was no good trying to contact research stations himself, they were twenty-seven light minutes away and the Earth AIs would know how to do that better anyway. Yes, there it was. A sub-database with files on every contact attempt. Maybe he could find more about the two attacks? A quick look at the sourcing code for the file in his implant showed it was a dolphin activities database, probably the one Turaku had already mentioned. Could he access it?.. Yes, and it was enormous. Search? No, that was the file Turaku had sent. Broaden the terms of reference? Yes that would do it. Wirrin set up searches for all references to dolphins, picobots, the marine centre locations and any travel associated with them. He set up searches for any communications to the marine centres and for any references about non-human sentience. Search after search he added, then combined cross-referencing engines with each search to note any links. All this he built into one coordinated task. He checked it through several times, then just before activating it, had another thought, and assigned correlators to process all the results from the searches and cross-references.

'Task mode. – Archival or Direct-data?'

Archival meant working with data stored on Attunga and would be very fast. Direct-data meant sending queries through the Interweb to all the Habitats and data centres in the Solar system and because of the time-lapse for transmissions would take much longer. Wirrin commanded both. ...Then watched in amazement as a task profile built for both modes.

"That's a major task Wirrin."

Wirrin transferred to holo so the others would understand what Turaku meant. The archival approach showing a preliminary result in four minutes. That was an extraordinary amount of time in itself, but the other approach was saying six and half hours for preliminary result and 50 hours for 95% completion.

"Why is it so long? It's twenty-seven minutes to earth so double that and add-on a bit, and there should be something in an hour."

"All your parameters were universal. In just one part of your task you've asked for a search of everything that's been said or documented by 400 billion people in the four weeks since the Freedom incident. All your results are then, of necessity, cross-referenced, and that's an order of magnitude even more complex. It's the correlators that will take the time though, and the way you've linked them in is very interesting."

Wirrin watched the tasks initiate then flicked to see what Calen was doing. He was play wrestling with Sonic while Puck and Flute pressed against the sides of the transport unit to make room. Thom gave a nudge.

"What are we going to tell him?"

They'd tell him everything. Thom was really thinking about Sonic and the dolphins.

"Wait till we're back on Attunga Thom. Puck and Flute already know. Sonic doesn't."

Warrakan loomed and one of the gigantic drive engines filled the general view screen. A quick link to Calen showed the playing was forgotten. Sonic's curiosity had taken over. The view changed as they moved toward a more central position of Warrakan's rugged elliptical shape. Wirrin forgot everything when the alert from the archival task arrived.

"Michael Hallen and Warren Clarke. There is a link between those two names and the marine research stations."

Wirrin put the information on holo screen for the others and started reading.

"Turaku, who are they? There's hardly any information here?"

"Without your correlator idea there wouldn't be any at all. I've initiated a location search but it is likely that they are manufactured identities."

Pleased that he'd discovered something new, and frustrated that there was a wait of over six hours for anything else, Wirrin scanned through other findings then turned his attention to the docking station. Once again they'd have to use ferries as the security ship wouldn't dock.

***

"Look at them go!"

Five skimmers raced erratically in pursuit of the three exuberant dolphins as they barrelled through the water.
They'd just explored one of the deep sections and according to Calen's translation, were excited by the new experience of water four times the depth of any on Attunga. Sonic leapt nearly two meters in the air and moments later Puck and Flute joined in tight formation for another leap.

"Where are we going now?"

"To the closest sea-grass bed. They know there aren't any fish but they want to have a look anyway."

Wirrin kept looking at Warrigal. It was strange to see him in this active setting, dressed in only formfitting silver colored water shorts and obviously enjoying everything that was happening. His skills with the skimmer and in the water weren't very good, but of course he hadn't had constant practice like everyone else. He looked as strong and fit as Gelar, which was interesting because at 83, he was more than twice as old.
Calen put on a burst of speed, levelled with the dolphins and reached across to grab Sonic's dorsal fin. Sonic bumped the side of the skimmer, trying to unbalance Calen and send him tumbling into the water. It was a game they played all the time and Calen rarely fell off, while Wirrin and Thom always did.
Sonic knew the exact moment when his nudge would be most effective.
The sea-grass was growing like crazy and Wirrin was surprised at the difference in just six days. Though not when he thought about it. With optimum conditions and no fish to graze it back, it could only be prolific. Sonic darted to the edge of the sea-grass where the depth increased and disappeared behind a thick clump of kelp.
The trio chased after him with Calen effortlessly in the lead. It wasn't really effortless, it just looked that way and was the cause of many jokes about him turning into a dolphin. The hiding, chasing game lasted for five minutes with Sonic's pattern making sure everyone almost caught him before he dodged and disappeared again. Warrigal and Gelar joined in but underwater like this no one could catch Sonic unless he let them.
Wirrin laughed, releasing a cloud of bubbles, when Sonic sneaked behind Calen and prodded his backside. Calen whipped round and after a burst of sound from Sonic he pointed everyone to the surface.

"They're heading for the end of the reach and back. They want to map it all in their minds."

That would be hours, since this advanced section of reach was almost eleven km long, and back on his skimmer Wirrin took the opportunity to check the latest progress of the other dolphin works on Warrakan. Beyond the blocking wall at the end of this reach was the second and enormous development of a thirty km extension. It could hardly be called an extension really because it was far more complex, with many more levels as well is an interlocking maze of parallel reaches.
Wow! Half a cubic kilometre had been hollowed out, reinforced and filled with water from the ice asteroids in the last week. The rate of work seemed to increase every time he looked. Wirrin called up the overall plan, then puzzled, manoeuvred next to Gelar. That was easy as Sonic, Puck, and Flute were cruising at about eleven kph.

"When did they change the plans?"

"Which plans?"

"All the plans.... For the dolphins here on Warrakan."

"There are modifications happening all the time."

"This isn't a modification. It's a whole new plan."

"What?"

Clearly, Gelar didn't know what he was talking about so Wirrin set up a holo with an overview of the project. Gelar nearly fell off his skimmer.

"Stop! Stop! Let me have a look at that."

Wirrin stopped and everyone else circled back to see what was going on. According to this information the space allocated for the dolphin project was now five levels of Warrakan. Wirrin worked out later that it was more than three complete Attungas of volume. Realisation set in and five sets of wondering eyes took in some of the features.

"Look Thom, there's a reach that's going to be half a kilometre deep, ... and another one devoted to growing corals. This is unbelievable. It's a marine paradise."

Wirrin did a sub-search and answered his own question.

"No wonder we didn't know about it. It was only set up fifteen minutes ago."

Warrigal started nodding.

"Turaku initiated it. He's just informed me. The dolphin's reaction to this visit has been the final spark for change."

The dolphins had disappeared so everyone zoomed along at sixty kph to catch up. There was an interchange of talk between the dolphins and Calen. Sonic did a flip into the air, then the three of them approached Warrigal and made the greeting move. They did the same for Gelar and then each of the trio. Sonic said something and Wirrin's holo activated. A large dolphin appeared, exchanged the greeting move with Sonic Puck and Flute, then dissolved from view.

"That was Turaku. Sonic asked for him so they could say thank you. He looks like that when he talks to the dolphins."

It was rather startling. Wirrin knew about Turaku appearing as a dolphin because Calen had talked about it, but this was the first time he'd seen it for himself. He'd always had sole control of his holo too, so Turaku taking over like that was another surprise. The group moved off again and Wirrin used much of the remaining journey time in retinal mode with transparency, examining features of the new project so he could explain it all to Calen and Thom when they had some time at home. Thom came close at one stage.

"Are you using the InterWeb? ...While we're skimming?"

"Yep!"

"Well you're getting too good at it. I hope you fall over."

That was just a stir. Thom and Calen couldn't cope with transparency mode while they were moving as it made them too dizzy. Wirrin was good at it, and getting better. Until recently, Thom and Calen could easily pick his aura of concentration.
The scale of the new project started to sink in. This wasn't a new and extra large dolphinarium. It was a habitat, but for dolphins not people, with space enough for millions. Where would they all come from? Wirrin searched the project files for a timeline of dolphin population and quickly found it. – Just under a doubling rate every ten years. In ten years the prediction was for almost 1000 dolphins, and over a million in 120 years. That was easy. Human populations grew much faster.
The group stopped at the end of the reach where a featureless barrier of reinforced construction material barred the way, and while Calen spoke with the dolphins, Wirrin looked for a way to get past. There wasn't one, and a query on the Interweb said it was currently off-limits for humans. Well of course it was. The energy levels from the rush of picobot activity would be way too dangerous.

"What are you looking for?"

"I thought we might be able to see something on the other side of the barrier but there's too much happening in there to be safe. It's the start of the thirty km reach."

"We'll see it soon enough won't we?"

"Let's see. ...Um. ... About six months, but it will only be dead water till the marine life gets going."

"Has the new plan changed anything?"

That was an interesting thought and Wirrin quickly checked.

"No, it's practically the same as the last time we looked, except for new connections to other reaches. ...Hey, there's a change. It shows four other reaches connecting in and being finished at the same time."

Sonic came close and said something too quickly to pick out any meaning, and Calen laughed at the puzzled looks.

"We've been here long enough and he wants to do more exploring."

The trip back along the reach was much slower, with the skimmers being abandoned every time the dolphins found something of particular interest, a couple of sea-grass beds, an extensive area of artificial reefs with kelp forests growing in the watery canyons, and a different set of reefs which featured a number of underwater caves. Just as well the masks replenished their half-hour air supply when they were clipped into the retaining sockets on the skimmers. The very last leg of the trip was different, short and fast with the dolphins setting a sustained pace of fifteen kph, with an occasional eager, faster burst as the thought of proper food at the staging area spurred them on. No wonder, after nearly five hours of constant activity.
Wirrin felt very edgy during this last burst on the skimmers, as nothing had yet resulted from the Direct-data task and he couldn't help checking every few minutes, even though it was pointless because an alert would let him know the instant anything arrived. Just as the transport module came into view, with one end open so the dolphins could swim straight in, Wirrin's retinal mode flashed briefly as a warning, his holo activated, Turaku appeared, hovering over the water as if he was flying, and information flashed into view.
Even though there were only several hundred metres to go Wirrin halted his skimmer. Without him doing anything a section of text appeared next to Turaku.

"Read it Wirrin. I've brought up the most important findings for you."

While Wirrin was doing that the other skimmers slowed, then seeing Turaku, rushed back to find out what was going on.

"What is it? Why did you stop out here?"

Calen was looking very puzzled indeed. There'd be no waiting to tell him about the Earth events now. The serious expressions and the presence of Turaku were a strong message of something worrying.

"What's wrong?"

"Some dolphins on Earth have been hurt and there might be another attack."

"Attack? ...Against dolphins?"

Wirrin had read the news while the others were gathering and felt sick in the stomach.

"The people who were linked to the first two attacks are now expected to make another one at Monkey Mia."

The shock registered with Thom, Gelar, and Warrigal. Calen was bewildered.

"What do you mean? Tell me what's going on."

Wirrin moved close enough to hold Calen's arm and carefully told him about the earlier attacks and how his search had come up with two names. The Direct-data search had just confirmed the names and made a new link with Monkey Mia. The correlators predicted a new attack within 24 hours with a 90% certainty that it was instigated by K74. Turaku held up one hand in that way of his which commanded attention.

"The attack won't succeed Calen. I sent requests to the to marine centres along with some special information, which allowed them to make a better analysis of what happened to their dolphins, and our health resources on Attunga have designed defensive picobots which should provide complete protection. I know it's a shock that the attack will be against Monkey Mia, but with the warning Wirrin's work has given us, it's the best place it could happen."

Monkey Mia, in the north-west of the Australian continent was very special for the Attunga dolphinarium as it was the birthplace of the original dolphins transported from Earth.

"Best? ...It's the worst. They're attacking Monkey Mia because of Attunga."

"It is the best place Thom. Northern Australia has the most open lifestyle on Earth and our ties there are very strong. Because it's so open the attack can only be coming from the ocean. The Northern Australians will be horrified when they find out, and when their AIs coordinate to use the information I've sent, the dolphins will be protected. Calen, the dolphins are wondering where you are. Wirrin and Thom will explain everything back on Attunga."

With a worried look, Calen zoomed off and Wirrin looked to Turaku for the explanation he'd just mentioned.

"The unusual combination of methods you used has given us extremely valuable information Wirrin, and put us in a position of advantage.
When my message reaches Earth twenty-two minutes from now, all the surface area within 100 km of Monkey Mia will immediately go under the highest level of surveillance. The airspace will be monitored out to 500 km and the Marine Station at Monkey Mia itself alerted to the danger. Within four hours the waters of shark Bay will be saturated with equipment which will allow us to watch the movement of any object with a cross-section greater than two mm.
We're postulating the attacks will come from a device which homes in on each dolphin, attaches itself and then releases the picobots, and since we can't construct a device to do that ourselves any smaller than four mm that will be an adequate safety margin. Anything inimical will be captured or destroyed, and when any underwater or surface vessel is identified as a source the occupants will be taken into custody."

"What if they get past the defences? Do we know how the first two attacks were done?"

Gelar had a good point.

"I'm confident they won't, but in the unlikely event they do, every dolphin will be inoculated with our defensive picobots. I have a time concern there, as the technology I've sent is new for the Australian AIs and by the time they receive it, adapt their picobot factories, build the picobots and transport and deliver them to each dolphin, nearly six hours will have passed."

Wirrin was amazed. All these things happening and the information only arrived five minutes ago.

"Turaku, what if the correlators aren't right and they attack somewhere else?"

"That's not likely, but within twenty hours we can inoculate the dolphins at any marine centre which will cooperate. We don't have to worry about wild dolphins. Only dolphins who have an association with humans are being targeted. That's part of your report you haven't looked at yet. ...Go and support Calen. He's telling Sonic what's happening."

Section Concludes.

Start

I hope you've gained some enjoyment from this story.
Any comments and feedback would be greatly appreciated.
My email address is palantir@diasporatales.tech
For further information about the diaspora series you're welcome at https://diasporatales.net
Palantir.