EXTINCTION WARRIOR

Chapter 7

We're airborne going so slow, we're practically hovering. Cruising along the Russian coast. Our altitude? A little higher than the birds, only seventy feet. I'm piloting from Mom's seat. Tuk's in the copilot's,Dad's seat. He's got his eyes glued to the water looking for whales.I glance down, spot a WEAPP boat, shudder and burst into tears. When Commander Eetuk called, he said WEAPP was committed to finding their bodies.

"Look,three o'clock," Tuk points, "a critically endangered western north gray whale and her calf. "

Smearing my tears, I point, "And straight ahead, six o'clock, another pod of belugas."

"According to my database they will be extinct by 2183."Tuk nods, expressionless.

"Like all the other cetaceans on the planet that went extinct since Mom and Dad moved here." I say, wiping my nose.

"Indeed,"he says, and starts to list them, "the North Atlantic right whale,the North Pacific right whale, the blue whale, the sei whale, the Atlantic humpback dolphin, the Amazon River dolphin, the South Asian River dolphin, the Indian Ocean humpback dolphin, the Irrawaddy dolphin, Hector's dolphin--"

"Gone.Forever!" I blurt, and instantly feel like crying again.

"Nevertheless,"Tuk holds his finger up, "depending on conditions over many eons,creatures do evolve. New species appear. Who knows? The distant future may well be filled with new, strange cetaceans." He shrugs.

My eyes brim with tears. Not just about the endangereds and the Sixth Extinction....about Mom and Dad. Gone. Forever.

"I guess." I whimper and smear the tears from my eyes.

There's barely any ice floe. It's open water, almost everywhere. Basically one giant polynya with a few birds. Mostly short-tailed albatross and spectacled eiders riding the swells. A seal here and there. We're heading east, cruising around Little Diomede. Birds are starting to nest on the island's eastern slopes.

I reach for binoculars hanging under the dashboard for a better look.

Tuk's head swoops back and forth. He's watching the birds scout nesting sites, and announces their names as if reciting a poem, "there's a black-legged kittiwake...a parakeet auklet pair....and one, two three, four crested auklets, and....last but not least, a least auklet."

"You can actually see what they are so far away?!"

""My optics magnify over two hundred diopters."

Whatever that means.

"I would like my perception system to witness six point seven million birds migrate here, as they did a century ago."

"If you mean your eyes, and seeing that many migrating birds, me too."

We've seen a few pods of belugas, and a family of bowheads. Four of them were clumped together with two swimming behind. We followed the Russian shoreline to see some pinnipeds. The bearded, ringed, ribbon and spotted seals massed along the melting ice that clings to the coast.

"Are you ready?" Tuk asks as we cruise further north above the Chuckchi Sea.

"For what?"

"To head south, of course."

My heart skips a beat. "I need to call Woka first, and Aana." I can hardly breathe. "Wait, what time is it?"

"According to my internal chronograph it is exactly two minutes and thirty nine seconds past three o'clock."

"That means it's....." I add twenty one hours "....two minutes after twelve tomorrow. Woka's having lunch." I nod.

"An ideal time to call." Tuk agrees.