Ke-ola beckoned Murel's mother toward the next waiting Honu.
The entire volcano cone quaked, and Mum dived into the water.
Change of plans, Ke-ola told the Honus and enough turtles to carry each of the stranded people surfaced close enough to the shore to be boarded.
Ke-ola came last, after a brief argument with Raj Norman. Pet Chan backed Ke ola, however. "The youngster communicates with the turtles, Raj. Both boys do.
They're the logical ones to ride point and to cover our rear."
"One Honu is gonna come with us so we can keep in touch with Murel and the whales," Ke-ola told him.
"Geez, haven't you people ever heard of com units?" Raj grumbled, but belly flopped into the surf and grabbed on to a Honu. Pet did the same right beside him.
Murel and Sky were joined by the smallest Honu, their original turtle friend who had come with Ke-ola when he first came to Petaybee, the one she and Ronan had helped rescue from the "experiments" of the unscrupulous Dr. Marie Mabo.
Mum and the others had only been whaleback for a klick or so when the rumbling behind them overwhelmed the roar of the sea. Looking back, Murel saw the volcano cone crowned with fire. It spewed from the top and then coursed down the sides of the mountain, a broad red swath bleeding into the sea at the spot they'd just left.
SEAN LOCATED THE fishing boats well before he spotted the orcas. When his sonar picked up large swimming objects, he thought he had found his reluctant allies, but the approaching creatures turned out to be the sharks bearing Puna and her family. They passed him, encountering the boats before he did.
So where were the orcas? Perhaps they were more disturbed by his threats than he'd supposed. Maybe they didn't want to risk his wrath again, so after the peace gesture of rescuing Murel and Sinead, they'd deliberately made themselves scarce for a while? Considering the circumstances, he didn't think he'd been overly harsh in the thoughts he'd communicated with them. However, mental communication could be tricky, and orcas were a very intelligent lot, more so than humans, according to some studies.
Perhaps they picked up on his buried desire to harpoon the lot of them for endangering his children? That would be unfortunate, since he would never stoop to such destructive behavior. Still, that was the sort of thought that his reptilian brain-the most primitive section of any human brain, albeit one with some necessary seal modifications-conjured up, whether one liked it or not. The so called reptilian brain was the section most responsible for violence, predation, war, and the cruder and more hostile forms of mating behavior. Whales had their own equivalent. Reptilian was a misnomer, actually, assuming a relationship between all creatures and early saurians on Terra. He wondered if alien races would also have it. What if they were highly evolved races of reptilian origin? Would they have developed more sophisticated mental or emotional organs, processes, or responses to overcome it? Most animals had. Even the most seemingly benign creatures, as many viewed the orcas, could behave in a fairly savage fashion, as they had with Murel. Rabbits could behave savagely, using their claws and teeth to shred each other.
The scientist in him could only hope the orcas would understand that his display of justifiable anger did not mean he would act upon it. He hoped they hadn't left the area over an unintentional and unexpressed impulse. Of course, it could be that among whales, acting on the impulse happened immediately after having it, but he couldn't recall reading any studies on the subject.
The sharks, having delivered their cargo to the fishing boats, escorted the other boats for the remainder of their journey. Their motivation and attitude was less ambivalent than the whales'. They doubtlessly were hoping someone unrelated to them would fall overboard. Sharks, at least this particular variety, were probably the best example he could conceive of of a species that seemed to contain nothing but reptilian brain. And yet, they maintained a mutually protective relationship with Puna's people. The wonderful thing about science for Sean was how much you could discover and how much still remained a great mystery to be explored.
He hoped he could collect his strayed or lost family members, return to land and human form, and get back to his lab soon. The relationships between the Kanakas- as Ke-ola's people preferred to be called-and their totem animals fascinated him.
Perhaps he could infuse the sharks, orcas, and other predators with some sort of inhibitor to prevent them from attacking humans or selkies or even other species that needed time to develop populations, as the sharks themselves did. It would need to be easy to manipulate in future generations, however. The creatures, like all creatures, did need to prey on something, after all.
He dived deep to avoid the sharks and continue his search for the orcas. He hoped that the sharks might attract the larger predators. New underwater chimneys had formed on the outskirts of the volcanic field, closer to the mainland. Were other volcanic chains developing as well? He and Clodagh would need to consult with
Petaybee when they returned. Perhaps the planet could also give them a clue if the alien city or vessel was now hidden elsewhere in the sea.
If so, surely the inhabitants would realize that keeping Ronan would only attract attention they did not want. They would realize that the least troublesome course for them was to simply wipe his memory, as they had Sean's, and release him.
Sean surfaced for air and first heard the rotors, then saw the shape of the helicopter.
Rick had spontaneously dubbed it the Flying Otter in Sky's honor. It was heading back to the volcano. To his dismay he also saw that the sky into which the copter flew was crimson and orange underlying billows of black, gray, and white smoke.
He dived again to escape the surface turbulence and swam faster. Yana! Would the copter make it in time to lift her off the volcano?
Then his sonar picked up a number of bobbing shapes and others moving rapidly toward them, while still others, the sharks, swam equally rapidly away.
The bobbing shapes were the fishing vessels. By the time Sean reached them, they were engaged in the tricky business of transferring passengers from whaleback to boat decks, apparently under the supervision of sea turtles.
Sean spotted Yana as she slid into one of the boats, and he swam alongside her.
She sat down, caught her breath, checked the others, and finally glanced at him.
"Oh, Sean, it's you, thank the cosmos. Now then, if Murel-where is she anyway?"
Sean dived again. Whales, turtles, humans, boats, lots of fish, and other life-forms, but no other seals and no otters of any sort at all. Where was Murel?
CHAPTER 21
MUREL AND SKY swam with the whales until they intercepted the boats. She and Sky hung back as the whales slowed their swimming so as not to swamp the boats, and the people on the boats were able to help Mum and the others board their tiny crafts. Though Murel no longer felt afraid of the whales, Sky was smaller and his survival instincts were stronger since he used them every day, not just when his relatives weren't around.
Murel's mother is safe, Father River Seal is safe, Sky said, spotting Da before she did. Other human people are safe. Only Ronan is not safe. Murel will find him now so he will be safe also?
She considered this for a moment. Mum and Da would want to go look for Ronan too but they had all of these other people to tend. It was their job as governors to look after more than their own family. She could just hear Mum saying, "In a bit, Murel. First we must…" and see Da having to change again to take care of some other aspect of the crisis that was bound to take too long.