Ouroboros

Decency's No Dolphin

      Around the time he supposed most humans had their supper, Coda-9994 was still waiting for his. He knew they would not feed him until they were done for the evening. "Coda-9994, please swim into the sling and hold still," an unfamiliar voice bade him.

     They lowered the sling into the water. Reluctantly, he swam into it, knowing that they hadn't constructed one strong enough to hold him yet.

      "Sit tight, Coda," said Jim. "They're going to lift you up. Not too far. No thrashing."

      They pulled him up out of the water. Immediately, Coda's own body weight began to crush him. He gasped for his next breath and braced himself in case of a fall.

      - Good grace! How long do I have to stay in this thing? –

     "Two more minutes," answered the unfamiliar voice.

     He tried his best to distract himself through those excruciating two minutes by remembering lines from Coleridge's "Rime of the Ancient Mariner." Ah! Well a-day! What evil looks had I from old and young! Instead of the cross, the Albatross about my neck was hung.

     A fitting punishment, he thought, for the Mariner's killing of the Albatross. Make him wear his shame like most humans wore their jewels. And that was only the beginning. He had an almost sadistic love for the descriptions of the Mariner's subsequent misfortunes. It made him believe, if only for a moment, that bad things would happen to people who did bad in the world. If only.

     They lowered him back into the water. Coda slid from the sling and relished the weightlessness he had always taken for granted beneath the water. He oriented himself vertically, head toward the surface, and closed his eyes.

     "Ever thought about staying awake while we're working with you?" Jim chided.

     - Ever thought about dropping a few pounds? –

     Jim snorted. "You're one to talk. You weigh sixty tons."

     - Yada-yada-yada. –

     "He's insulting me," he complained.

     "Good thing we'll only have to deal with him for about two more months if everything works out," said someone else.

     The whale's blood ran cold. Two more months, and he would never see anything or anyone from Earth again. Though this facility was his prison, it was also his home, the only one he'd ever known. Any dreams he'd had of exploring Earth's ocean would remain just that. Dreams. And they wondered why he tried to sleep on the job.

     Maybe – just maybe – Ouroboros would be even better. Nevertheless, part of him feared what awaited him there. Perhaps there would be nothing at all. Perhaps he wouldn't even make it to his final destination.

     He tried not to think about everything else that could possibly go wrong.

.........

     Tegan stared listlessly out the window of Chris's car. He had the sense she wasn't taking her amputation too well. "You okay?" he asked.

     "I'm fine," she assured him. "I was thinking you seemed a little on edge, though."

     "I feel so bad for you," he admitted. "I can't imagine...ow!"

     Tegan cut him off with a hard smack on the shoulder. "Don't you dare waste your pity on me, Chris. I don't need it, and I sure as hell don't want it."

     He focused solely on the drive for the next minute or so, then tried to change the subject. "I think I'm getting the hang of the whole WOHLF thing, finally. But I think my sister's doing better."