Colonel Ishida knew quite well the value of the electrified fence on Delas. All installations outside of the monitored borders of a city had to be protected from the seyzarrs that stalked the land. All parts of Deladin had them, though there were many subspecies. No other native wildlife had yet made as complete evolution from sea life to land dwellers that the seyzarr had. And unfortunately, they were carnivores. The largest weighed as much as a metric ton, though those were rare. Most were the size of a large Earth boar, with savage claws used for hunting and climbing trees, and a bone-hard outer skeleton. They had yet to be taught to fear humans, and probably never would.
The buildings of the institute were beautifully constructed, with shell-like curves and spirals in their design and decorations. Nearly a dozen young men and women were eating out on picnic tables on the lawn, most likely students by the computers that they all carried with them. Many butterflies of bright colors fluttered around the buildings here. Although there were several Earth creatures that were being introduced to this world, the butterflies were not one of them. They were completely native, with biology so similar to their Earth counterparts, that no scientific distinction was thought necessary. The first surveyors were stunned by their existence, and many of the colonists considered their presence as a sign that humans were meant to be here also.
Toman had been told to look for the “main entrance,” and since there was no sign in sight, he just chose a large set of doors that had a stone sculpture of an ocean wave in front. As he approached, he was rewarded with the sight of his daughter’s face appearing in the glass door.
Just as she opened the door to greet him, his fieldcomm buzzed. Toman groaned at the bad timing. Serina sighed with a knowing smile, and remained silent as Toman answered the call. He did, however, come inside the cool lobby before saying anything.
“What is it, Chains?”
“An event of interest,” said Chains cryptically.
“Quickly.”
“An unscheduled transport has jumped into the star system without any identification beacon, but is following the correct approach pattern.”
“How big is it?”
“About two hundred thousand tons.”
“Could be private. Is Delas attempting communications?”
“Not yet.”
Toman chewed on his lip briefly as he thought about it.
“Well, call me back if they don’t soon.”
“Yes, Commander. Chains out.”
The colonel folded his fieldcomm, and then gave his daughter a brief hug. Serina hugged him back fiercely, then let go and stepped back. Her mother had been of European descent, but even with all the Asian trademarks that he had given her, Serina still looked so much like Maria. Maybe it was the navy blue eyes. Or perhaps how her hair was so straight and long, exactly like her mother had worn hers.
It had been only two years since he had last seen Serina, but he didn’t remember such a resemblance last time.
“You’re looking good, Daddy.”
“I was about to say the same about you, Serina. Is Kaethan around?”
“He should be here in about an hour. I got a reply from him just before I was told you were coming through the gate.”
“Should we wait for him before going on the tour?”
“No. He’s been here before and met Kuro.”
“Ah yes, the killer whale that you wrote to me about . . .”
“Please say `orca’ around Kuro, Daddy. We don’t want to give her a complex.”
“Of course.” He was just playing with Serina, anyway. “Where do you want to start?”
“Not here. I want to save this building for last because Kuro’s in the pool downstairs. We’ll start with the labs.”
“Sounds good.”
Serina was thirty years old now, and he had never asked her whether she was ever getting married. She mentioned boyfriends, off and on, in her letters, but he never asked about them. In some ways he was very curious. In others, he really didn’t want to know. He was happy that she was so selective about men, but hoped that she was still happy. Luckily the colonel never had to worry about what to talk about when he was with his daughter. Serina would decide for him.
It was time to relax and enjoy the ride.
* * *
It has been 10.0449103 minutes since the unidentified transport arrived in the star system and only now is Blackstone Complex beginning to challenge the intruder. This is an entirely unacceptable reaction time to a potential danger. And our threat circuits continue to trip as no response has yet to be received from the transport.
We continue to monitor data supplied about the intruder from the orbital security arrays, but without an alert being triggered, the arrays will not ignite their fusion reactors for a more powerful scan. Instead, the data that we are fed is limited to simple gravitic curvature and energy emissions. With this we are only able to discern that it is a large transport with a simple dynomagnetic fusion drive that is at least two centuries behind current technology. Many such transports continue to operate, however, for private ventures. This fact supports my Commander’s speculation that this may be a poorly maintained merchantman with equipment failure. But this is no excuse for not scheduling their arrival over SWIFT channels beforehand.
We will wait two more minutes for a response from this intruder before we contact our Commander once again. At present approach velocity, we predict entry into Delassian orbit in 39.20 minutes. It is impossible, as of yet, to tell whether the transport may attempt atmospheric insertion.
* * *
The tour of the institute was somewhat whirlwind, as Serina seemed in a hurry to get him back to the main building. Their sea-life tanks were not designed for aesthetic viewing of the creatures therein, though Serina told him that a local zoo was being constructed with a large marine section planned. She’d be heavily involved in the design phase, she told him.
What she really wanted to do was introduce him to Kuro, whom she was telling him about now as they walked back to the building.
“So, anyway,” Serina was saying, “my lawyer friend Barry said that we should take Nautilus Enterprises to court and see what happened. The planetary constitution never specified `Humans’ under its labor laws, and he thought that the judges would rule in the orcas’ favor.”
“So Nautilus had to start paying them.” Toman hurried the conversation along.
“Exactly, though Kuro decided to come here instead.”
“Did they appeal?”
“No. It wasn’t likely that they’d get anywhere. Not on this planet. Besides, the money that they’re paying their two orcas isn’t close to the money that they would have had to pay their lawyers.”
A question occurred to him just then that he had to ask.
“What do they do with their money?”
“Everybody asks me that.” Serina laughed. “They all have their own accounts that they can do with what they want. But I know that almost all their money goes directly into a fund we have for shipping more orcas from Earth. It’s very expensive.”
“Almost all?”
“Well, I do know of one political contribution that Kuro made last year.”
Colonel Ishida didn’t know if he liked that or not. The orcas shouldn’t be allowed to manipulate the process from outside . . .
“Do they pay taxes?” He asked.
“Yep.”
Oh, then it’s okay, he decided.
The two arrived back at the front doors where they had met and went inside the main building of the institute. Although cool, it was noticeably more humid in this building than the others. There was also a stronger scent of salt water here.
They continued their discussion as Serina led her father to the elevator.
“So why did Nautilus wire up these whales?” The colonel asked.
“Well, first of all, Nautilus didn’t do it. Secondly, they aren’t whales, orcas are from the dolphin family. In any case, the reason that they chose orcas was obviously because of their high intelligence and size. The psychotronic core, circuitry, power plant, and various transmitters are all installed within their body with no external couplings. That just couldn’t be done on any creature smaller than an orca.”
“Who did it then?”
“That is the biggest reason why I want you to meet Kuro.” Her inflection made it plain that she was waiting impatiently for him to ask. “Nautilus never said who they got the orcas from, but Kuro is sure that they were Concordiat Army engineers.”
The colonel’s left eyebrow shot up at that. He was shocked that the Concordiat would be experimenting with such seemingly innocuous cybernetics on orcas. But as soon as he thought about it a moment, he knew why.
The elevator took them down three levels before sliding to a halt. When the doors opened, a hot and humid blast of saltwater air hit them both. Ahead of them, down a short corridor, sunlight from outside could be seen reflected on a small corner of a large pool.