Echo-1 The Whale

10: Dixon

"I'm Dixon. Jonas told me he was sending his new Hands to meet me. He's all excited about you. Told me the story of how you got out. I'm impressed. And they say no one makes it out alive?"

Widening her eyes, she gave me a Cheshire cat smile.

"Way to beat the system. You know you're the first to do that. Let's go upstairs, you'll feel a lot warmer."

She looked back toward the Narwhal and opening her mouth wide let out a piercing call, similar to the chirping whales. Then she tossed the last of the fish to them. She looked pretty much like me, except for the breasts, which were more decorative than functional. She had the same skin, clothing, and spiky black hair. I understood that we were designed to be completely humanoid, that we could have sex for pleasure, but that we couldn't reproduce. We have half cloned biologic material after all. 

It was nice to know there were females. And she was once a human too, sort of.

Dixon had been a Harvard professor, a breakthrough leading feminist scientist, and a Radcliffe girl with a life spanning all of the twentieth century. Her Echo-1 life and career were impressive. Unlike me, she lived out her entire life. Jonas tagged her for extraction upon her death.

We passed through a pressure chamber and climbed a spiral staircase to a room with a glass wall that looked into the frigid sea. The whales were all playfully swimming about outside. Dixon went over to a counter and blended a hot smoothie type beverage. We stood at the window drinking and watching the whales.

"It's energy-packed, you won't need to ingest anything for several days. We don't really eat much." 

I sipped and nodded, I wasn't really hungry but it tasted good.

"Jonas brought me here fifteen years ago to grow mollusks and structure an ecosystem for these two pods. I ended up recreating Earth's polar shallows. These may be the last of these whales. Removed from Earth thousands of years ago but failed as navigators; they were dumped on a water world in the 5th system. They had trouble adapting to the new environment. There was a good size group of each but they were dying.

"Jonas selected this group to breed future generations. We're taking them with us to a water world very similar to Earth. Jonas negotiated the rights to an outer rim planet with pretty stellar natural resources in exchange for doing two runs on the Banga. The planet is mostly a frozen ball. The equator is warmer and I'm told the central landmass is comparable to Canada with a short spring and summer season. The southern continent has a huge pristine pine forest with massive trees that defy the long winters. I'm going to stay there, live with these whales, and see if I can help them make it. 

"I've been altering my vocal processor through a series of surgeries. I understand both whale languages and am nearly able to speak them. My range is still off a bit."

She coughed to clear her throat. 

"The Belugas are songbirds. I'm sure you heard them coming in."

I had indeed.

"The two species are closely related even though they look different. They shared the same environment on Earth, often traveling and feeding together. They're social butterflies with complex relationships. They call me 'Mother D' in their language. I think they're making fun of me half the time?

"Anyway, these whales don't like technology. If we try and attach a transmitter they freak out. They'll talk to us for about ten minutes, mostly a bunch of swearing, then they break off the device. We tried surgically implanting one and the Narwhals stabbed at the whale with the implant until it came out. Needless to say, that whale died. The funny thing was, the whole time he kept asking them to do it. Don't get me wrong, they're intelligent, sophisticated mammals. They just have a primitive, more simplistic nature."