Soulwaves: A Future History : Part #8

This is the eighth part of my channeled future history of our planet Earth and humankind. The children of our hero learn how to communicate with whales and dolphins. These particular river dolphins just happened to have teleported back to planet Earth from the other side of the galaxy.

Transcript

This is the eighth part of my channel future history of our planet Earth and humankind.

The children of our hero learn how to communicate with whales and dolphins.

These particular river dolphins just happen to have teleported back to planet Earth from the other side of the galaxy.

At the same time events are accelerating for the terraformation of planet Mars.

But nobody is quite aware there are only 10 years left.

Chapter 71.

Whalesong.

2097.

12 years left.

After only three months or so of training Freya turned out to be a natural tech pilot.

She discovered a new sense of freedom as she could visit the children at Wuhan University anytime she wanted.

She took over as their taxi driver to and from the monastery at the start and end of each semester.

Jia was the only one of them not to take to flying.

She could after all levitate herself should she ever feel the need.

Both Huey and Shen had been gifted tech lights by Lance and used them daily to get around the monastery.

Shen had given Freya the task of working out why Mike's bees made a bee line for her.

She discovered that they were similarly attracted to Eva and Kristen but not the boys.

Mike was amazed at her intuitive prowess.

He had to quiz Shen on this and something else that puzzled him.

So it turned out that there were two modes I could set them up for.

Either getting pollen or delivering it he said.

And you had set them on delivering pollen said Shen proudly.

So they made a bee line for the most attractive female.

Exactly said Mike.

But do you know how come when I speak to Freya there's no time delay?

No but working on that too said Shen.

Shen's intuition told him that these many loose ends were somehow all connected.

While he and Mike were working on the terraformation project he was also keeping a watchful eye over the development of the interplanetary drive and the research into the status of the supernova candidate.

Researching zero time delay with Earth and Moon comms with Freya,

Mia and Mei would have to wait.

Meanwhile at the university Ning Xiangbo was turning out to be the most ideal tutor for the four children.

She knew everyone who was anybody at Wuhan University so could open doors that many didn't know existed and create bespoke courses for the twins.

It helped too that she'd been backed by an unlimited source of funding from Shen.

Eva's project involved creating mini biomes to increase the output from wormeries.

Meat production was virtually phased out across the globe now and 75 percent of protein for humans was coming from wormeries.

They were only around 25 percent efficient and did have an odd taste that took some getting used to.

Over two terms she had learned how to recreate the texture and taste of Wagyu beef.

Her Wormburgers became very popular with fellow students.

She even toyed with the idea of launching a chain of Wormburger restaurants.

Li had been given a large-scale model of a dome-enclosed Valmarinaris built by Huey and was busy creating a breathable atmosphere using nothing more than dry ice and a biome of Eva's.

He and Eva had not yet been told this was less than theoretical.

While on their winter break the children had learned about the spaceport,

Moonport and moonbase from Freya and Shen.

They had been kept in the dark about how advanced the plans were for terraformation at Mars.

June had been seconded by Shen to help the team at Purple Mountain analyze data from other binary pairs in close orbits.

What Shen specifically wanted him to find were candidates with small tertiary bodies in attendance that might destabilize the primaries.

June seemed a natural at big data.

He discovered five potentially unstable binaries within a year,

None of which were nearer than a thousand light years,

And all of which he discovered without actually having to visit Purple Mountain.

It was Kristen's project that became the joint focus for the next summer field trip with Ning Xiangbo.

After her success communicating with the river monkeys,

Ning had set her the almost impossible challenge of setting up a dialogue with whales.

Shen of course had a hand in the inception focus and scope of this line of research.

Unsurprisingly she'd established that whale song had zero correlation with any known human language or dialect.

She had however intuitively worked out its harmonic structure.

It looked as if they used 12 tones which repeated over an incredible frequency range of 12 octaves.

Adjacent tones could be overlaid to produce 12 pseudotones.

It appeared to be rich in depth and spectral range and Kristen suspected in content.

That summer they took Ning's research boat downstream to the heavily nano-walled and now coastal city of Nanking.

At only 15 meters elevation the sea level was now 10 meters above the city on the other side of the wall.

The city was nearly empty though as the walls would not be viable for much longer.

It did still have an operational tubeway connecting it to the island city of Shanghai which itself was also becoming unviable.

The solution being tried for Shanghai was to build a new ground level 70 meters above the old city.

Shanghai had the money still to try that kind of extreme strategy.

At Nanking the dream team,

As dubbed by their fellow and slightly jealous students,

Transferred to a seagoing research vessel owned by the university and set off looking for humpback whales on their migration path north.

The western Pacific in summer was relatively calm but it took a few days for them all to find their sea legs and stop retching.

After a week on board the underwater transducers picked up the unmistakable whale song and Kristen got to test her theory.

She'd composed her own 12-note whale song right in the middle of the 12-octave range and superimposed her own voice on top of it with the words repeated in a loop.

We join you in song to find our common bonds.

We come to learn to do no harm.

We seek understanding of what you know,

Where you are from and where you go.

This unusual and high-level approach to communicating with whales produced an unexpected and unusual response from the whales.

The research vessel had come across a medium-sized pod of 22 humpbacks consisting of 12 females,

Six pups and four males.

Kristen's pseudosong had the immediate effect of stopping all songs from the whales.

At first they thought they had upset or frightened them as they also stopped reaching the surface.

The sonar showed they only dived to 30 meters.

After about 20 minutes one of the females was joined by two males and they started to repeat Kristen's whale song note for note but with complex overtones and undertones across their whole octave range.

It was then that Kristen and Ning realised the combination of notes must hold the key.

That evening they got hold of Shen to relay to him what had happened and he suggested it was time for them to go into the water.

Ning was already an accomplished scuba diver and the four children had learned the basics in a deep training pool in Wuhan.

As this would be their first open ocean dive,

June and Kristen went in first,

Tethered to two experienced divers.

The whales slowed to a stop when the divers entered the water.

Kristen had another song playing from the ship,

This time with no words.

It was just a pleasing melody.

The whole pod of whales turned through 90 degrees and hung motionless underwater with their heads hanging down.

Kristen said to June over the intercom,

Are they meditating?

The divers took Kristen and June over to the largest female and motioned Kristen to touch its head.

As soon as she did,

She got a shock.

Right inside her head the whale started to speak.

We love your music Kristen,

Thanks for helping us relax on our long journey.

Kristen's head was buzzing and she realised straight away the whale must be communicating with her using sonar directed right inside her brain's language centres.

This was completely different from the silent communication she and Eva had shared.

Kristen told June,

She is talking to me.

Ask for her name,

Suggested June.

I am Noma,

The whale said immediately.

This was incredible,

The whales could even tap into June's thoughts.

I am Kristen and I am with June,

Said Kristen,

Forming it as an ocean.

We know,

Said Noma.

Pleased at this development with Noma,

Kristen formed the silent thought form.

Will you teach me about your songs?

Of course,

They are our stories of our journeys over thousands of years,

Memories of our ancestors and the pooling of our wisdom.

We sing them for our children so they can learn and we sing them for all creatures in the sea so they can evolve too,

Said Noma.

Will you teach me your history?

Asked Kristen.

So thrilled she'd intuited how to allow Noma to scan her thoughts.

She couldn't wait to teach Eva how to do it and to tell her father what she'd learned.

Noma's tone changed.

You know it already,

It is in all the recordings you already have.

Listen with new ears when you get back to your lands.

I will send you the decoding instructions now.

Kristen had a zap of kaleidoscopic lights flashing in her brain.

After what seemed like minutes but June said after was seconds,

Kristen came back into consciousness.

What happened next surprised everyone including Noma the whale.

Kristen knocked Kristen said,

Can you tell us where all the dolphins are going and if they're coming back?

Noma not Noma replied,

They have gone home home and some will be back very soon.

The lead diver signalled that they were running out of air so the four of them had to surface.

In all the kerfuffle getting them back on board and out of their wetsuits,

Nobody was monitoring the whales.

By the time Ning got to look at the sonar again,

The traces showed they'd dived deep.

It was then that the captain came over with some bad news.

A violent typhoon was forecast to hit the east coast of China in a week's time.

They had to go back immediately to Nanking.

On their way back to land they relayed the discovery that Kristen could talk to the whales to Shen.

He told them that he would be picking them up personally in a tet when they got back to the port.

Chapter 72 Council Talk.

It was of course no coincidence that the cetacean language spanned a 12 octave range with each octave containing 12 notes.

Early humanoids first used a similar structure for their language but over a reduced octave range.

As epoch 5 humans densified,

The only remnant that remained was the 12 hour clock which distilled out of the Sumerian and Babylonian's use of counting to base 60 using the phalanges on their fingers.

Both languages were of course modelled exactly on how the 12 councillors spoke to each other.

If you could be a fly on the council chamber wall you would think you were teleported into the middle of a pod of whales.

Like humans,

Whales and dolphins had no conscious awareness of the existence and influence of the councillors.

Their songs were full of references to huge benevolent sea beasts who saved them from all kinds of ghastly and off-worldly monsters.

Some of the monsters were described as being so large that they could eat a fully grown male humpback whale.

A language based on 12 notes meant that the councillors could communicate with cetaceans directly but only when they were dreaming,

Which they did when hanging vertically.

So when Kristen had her first whale conversation with Noma,

She had no idea she was communicating directly with councillor 3.

Councillor 3 had been tasked with guiding and mentoring the cetaceans since they first arrived on planet Earth.

She was currently splitting her attention between two planets on different sides of the galaxy while the transition was being effected.

This kept her busy but her task was about to be made more complicated still as the gates of communication were being opened up.

At the same time councillor 3 was busy brokering conversations between two sentient species.

She had no idea that her conversations were being relayed by councillor 7 up to the high council.

Councillor 3 also had no idea that she was a potential candidate for election to higher office.

Chapter 73.

Entanglement.

2097,

Still 12 years left.

Shen had instructed Ning to go directly to Dongting Lake and to stop over in Wuhan just long enough to pack for a long stay.

Even with her new boat it would take her until the end of the year to navigate up the Yangtze through the Three Gorges system to the lake.

Just a day after they arrived at the Seven Immortals the two pairs of twins sensed their time studying was coming to an end before they had even graduated.

Shen taught Eva and Kristen how to access the Q computer so it could help them decode the whale song.

It of course had no problem working in base 12 or base anything else for that matter.

Within days it had come up with one extraordinary possibility and a discovery about how whales encoded time in their language.

Kristen was pleased she could tell Shen something she thought he didn't know.

It thinks home home is another planet and we think some dolphins will be back within a year said Eva.

The Q computer had specifically said an earth year and confirmed the location was inland.

Kristen had discovered with the Q computer's help the octave the whale sang in denoted the time frame.

This meant she could start unraveling the timeline of the whale's history once they knew more of the language.

Like the code breakers of Bletchley Park who decoded the Enigma machine they had a structure and a few words.

It was just a matter of time before they can unravel hours worth of recordings from the last 150 years.

While Kristen and Eva were tasked with decoding whale language Li and Jun were being fast-tracked as tech pilots.

After just a couple of weeks they were dogfighting with the tech lights.

Shen had arranged for them to be trained by Mia and Mei in the new year so they would be making trips to and from the spaceport from Jizhou.

The twins were excited to be involved with their father so directly but Shen and Freya held back from them for now any mention of them moving to the moon base.

Shen knew that Kristen with Eva's help was best placed to decode the whale's history.

Huey and Gia were busy organizing the final preparation of the school for the first intake the following summer.

This all gave Shen the space and time to work on two matters.

Remotely he was working with Lance on the nuances of the interplanetary text navigation system and how it would get from one place in space to another.

He was also considering the overall timing of the first trip to Mars.

He had come to realize that everything can be brought forward by a decade or so.

It was Mike Spence's nano beads propensity to land on Freya's shoulder that gave Shen the idea of using entanglement in navigation.

He first tried it out with a tech light by taking one of Freya's bracelets with him a few kilometers from the monastery.

He put the bracelet inside a small cube coated with nano fans and discovered that the fans pointing towards the monastery did indeed spin faster than those pointing away.

It was then a simple modification to link the nano fans on the cube to the nano fans on the outside of the tech light to automatically steer itself back.

The implications for spaceflight were immense but Shen was going to have to get his hands on some recent bits of Martian rock.

This would require an unmanned return mission which could also be useful as a test for the whole system.

What Shen didn't know but Kristen was about to stumble across was that cetaceans and other sea life had been using entanglement for navigation for millions of years.

The attractive force of entanglement of course rides on sole waves.

This is how turtles would find their way back to the same beach they were born on tens of years later.

It was also how the bargey dolphins navigated across space-time to port from one planet to another.

Chapter 74.

Porting.

Do we really need to go back again said Baku?

We really do.

They need our help said Pata.

They haven't got long left.

It will be the last time we promise said Tamu.

Besides the more you port the less queasy you'll feel.

Baku resigned himself to making the jump once again.

After all it's not like he would miss anything on his new and preferred home planet.

All jumps across light years of space allowed for temporal compensation.

Even as a seven-year-old he knew that you could jump to any time as well as any place.

Pata had told him that it wasn't a good idea to go backwards in time more than a second from the time when you left.

Going forward in time was okay though.

He was yet to learn the finer points of teleportation.

Especially that light years of distance took no time at all to cross.

Pata was the master at that and he promised he would teach Baku one day.

Tamu knew how to make the arrangement too but always left it up to Pata.

Humans who thought it was as simple as depicted on their TV show Star Trek had much to learn too.

For starters teleporting into solids got very messy.

Land-based animals had to make sure they also landed right on the ground.

If you were just a few inches or centimeters above the target surface even a small and sharp fall could result in a broken bone.

Land a little too low and you could get your legs stuck forever.

Re-extraction leaving bits of you behind would upset the balance.

This is why for short hops you should always fully evacuate first.

Space and space-time travel is anything but glamorous.

Of course if you breathe air it's important that air at the same pressure and oxygen-nitrogen mix is present where you are going.

Even experienced epoch 6 teleporters often carried a small aqualung just in case.

For dolphins like Pata,

Baku and Tamu going fluid to fluid made things somewhat easier.

You just have to jump in at roughly the same depth to ensure the pressure is about the same.

Dolphins can get the bends too.

Even if you land upside down or sideways you are taught to stay still for a few seconds and watch which way the bubbles go.

Pata would however take extra care to land them all the right way up.

Where they were going back to was silty.

If a boat had just been passed it would be as dark as night.

Getting the right depth was crucial too to avoid any passing propellers.

He knew just where to go so their re-arrival wouldn't be seen or detected by any humans or fish.

The process wasn't as instantaneous as depicted in science fiction films or tv shows either.

A transfer required about an hour of preparation time.

This was especially so when porting from spiral to spiral from one side of a galaxy to the other.

Even more care and preparation was required if the water was different.

An hour was still a minuscule amount of time compared with the time that light took to get from one spiral to another.

Even if a spaceship could travel at light speed it will take hundreds of years to make the same trip.

The reason Baku preferred it on Aquanine was why it wasn't an instantaneous port.

On Aquanine the water was just more luxurious and altogether nicer to swim in.

He hadn't yet learned it was H6O3,

A polyatomic form of H2O which was most common on planet Earth.

He loved the ability the denser water gave him to jump higher in the air and land with hardly a splash.

It also meant they could stray further away from each other yet still have crystal clear communications.

What he didn't love so much was the light-headedness they experienced while H2O was replacing H6O3.

Coming back the other way was much more comfortable all round.

Although there were no predators to speak of,

Pata and Tamu always kept an eye on their one and only son.

Pata's ability to mate and have progeny had gone.

He suspected from irradiation from too many ports.

So because the water was so different,

Rather like when scuba divers come up from the deep depressurising slowly,

The dolphins had to initiate a reverse port first to acclimatise themselves to their target destination.

To do this both Pata and Tamu floated snout to tail fin with Baku nuzzled between them.

Then molecules of water from the Dongting lake were reverse ported to build an H2O bubble around them.

They took molecules from a large expanse of water,

Tens of kilometres square,

So that minor implosions were created in the lake where they were heading.

The time it took also minimised the weirdness of suddenly floating in and imbibing thin water.

As they were air-breathing creatures,

This was just like a land-based animal jumping from sea level to the top of a high mountain in one hop.

Once the H2O cocoon was in place,

There was another step to take before they could jump.

They had to create a temporary matching void in the lake to jump into.

Pata let Tamu do this because she had a little more attention to detail.

An exact match,

Down to just a few molecules width,

Was needed to avoid any jolts.

We are good to go,

She said,

After what seemed like an eternity.

OK,

Said Pata.

Absolute silence when we arrive.

Pata then initiated the port and within less than a nanosecond they were back on planet Earth for the last time.

They didn't move for 30 Earth minutes to give the borrowed H2O time to merge and dissipate.

As they settled into the new waters,

It took a while to get used to having to use their tail fins a little more to get the same propulsion.

So they all went to the centre of the lake.

Their enforced silence gave them all time to think.

Baku was still a bit grumpy that they had come at all and was having a dolphin equivalent of a teenage sulk.

Pata was wondering if his imagination was going haywire.

He had always wondered where they actually went when porting between here and there.

On this jump,

He had a vague fleeting impression that he saw other bubbles occupied by other dolphins whizzing past in the opposite direction.

He also thought one of them bumped into their bubble.

Tamu was having similar yet subtly different thoughts.

She felt their bubble not only been bumped into,

But penetrated.

She sensed the penetration,

Although fleeting and near instantaneous,

Had not stopped at the bubble.

The counsellors had decided another one of them was needed in the density.

Insemination of Tamu mid-port was one of their most advanced and innovative insertion techniques.

Counsellor 6 would be borne into the density 12 months later,

Which is how long Tamu would need to come full term.

Pata was in for a bit of a shock.

Chapter 75.

Back from extension.

8th April 2098.

11 years left.

I don't believe it.

They're back,

Shrieked Ning.

She had been tracking the unmistakable clicks for an hour before she called Shen with the news.

Exactly the same day and same part of the lake,

Asked Shen,

Who had not yet told her it was his birthday.

Spot on.

We'll fly over straight away.

Can you meet us at your summer house on Junshin Island in an hour,

Said Shen.

See you in 60,

Confirmed Ning.

Shen told the girls to pack their bags,

With enough clothes for a few days,

As they were flying right away to Dongting.

On the flight over to Junshin Island,

He grilled Ning for more detail.

Are you sure there's three of them,

He said.

Have you compared them with the database?

Shen could sense Ning was both excited and puzzled.

On it already,

Said Ning.

Looks like exactly the same pod that disappeared in 2058.

After they boarded the boat,

Shen sent the tetrahedron back on entangled autopilot to the monastery,

As he didn't want anyone chancing across it,

As they might be there a few days.

Ning took them over to the centre of the lake and they could all hear the unmistakable clicks and pops over the sonar.

It was a bright sunny clear spring day and as they got close they could see the tail fins of the surface of the lake.

Definitely the same pod,

Said Shen.

You could see the larger male had a scar from a propeller just behind his dorsal fin.

As the boat slowed to track them at their speed,

They could see the female had a white tip on her left fin and nothing on the right.

What I don't understand is why they haven't aged and why they're even alive,

Said Shen.

It's 40 years since you last saw them.

That's nearly twice as long as their life expectancy.

It's a bit stranger than that,

Shen said Ning,

From the water samples I took this morning.

Along with their urine,

It looks like the female is pregnant.

What's strange about that,

Asked Eva.

Ning replied,

The male's becoming fertile when they're older than 15 and 40 years ago the male was over 20.

It could be the pup has come to maturity and could be the father.

Kristen had been unusually quiet during the whole trip over from the monastery to the centre of the lake.

Why don't we go in the water and ask them,

She suggested.

As the water hadn't yet warmed,

They used the dry suits that were already on the boat from their ocean adventure.

There was no need for aqualungs,

Just snorkels.

Shen said,

Suits on girls,

You are going in when we catch up with them.

Kristen could only have been in the water for a minute when she started hearing a voice right inside her head.

Again it was different in timbre and style from her communications with her sister.

Are they friendly,

She heard from a voice she intuitively knew was the pup.

Yes son,

These are the ones we've come back to help,

A female voice answered.

Baku swam over to the girls and started to play with them.

The visibility wasn't great and he kept surprising them by appearing over the shoulder from which they were looking away from.

Kristen remembered how she spoke with Noma the whale and wondered if it would work with the dolphins.

She just imagined the words,

I'm Kristen and I'm with my sister Eva,

At which point the male and female appeared right in front of her and announced,

I'm Pata and this is Tamu.

We're getting some strange sonar readings I've never heard before Kristen,

Ning interrupted.

Everything okay?

Quiet please,

Said Kristen,

We're talking.

Can I ask where you've been,

Asked Kristen.

Home home,

Said Pata.

Kristen noted this was what Noma the whale has said.

Kristen pushed,

And where's home home?

At this point the three dolphins sped away and Kristen knew that was the end of the conversation for that day.

She could sense that Eva was getting bored and cold.

Eva had already aired her frustration with Kristen,

That she could sense what the whales had been feeling but not yet pick up their thoughts.

On board,

Kristen shared the brief dialogue with Shen,

Ning and Eva.

It was agreed to wait until the next day and then for Kristen to go in alone.

In the meantime,

Ning knew exactly where the pod was but decided to keep the boat at a distance of a kilometre from them.

Overnight,

Kristen had wild dreams about a water world with no land masses,

Where she swam freely with the three dolphins,

Performing all sorts of aerobatic twists and turns.

The next day,

After breakfast,

She suited up and got in the water.

Ning had brought them to within 10 metres of the pod.

Tammy was the first to approach her,

And she felt she could probe a little more with her than with the two males.

How long are you staying for,

She asked.

For just under an earth year,

Tammy replied,

Until I have my next pup.

You're pregnant,

She asked,

Sounding surprised,

Although Ning had already told her as much.

Tammy changed the subject.

Tell me the names of the elders on the boat.

The lady is called Ning,

Answered Kristen.

We like and trust her,

Said Pata,

Appearing from nowhere and cutting in.

And who is the man?

Kristen was a little taken aback by his tone,

Which sounded untrusting.

That's my father.

He's called Shen,

She replied.

Please tell him this,

Pata said.

He doesn't have as long as he thinks.

The three dolphins sped away again,

Just like the day before,

Signalling that today's conversation was over.

For Kristen,

Though,

The conversation for the day was about to begin.

She and Eva had both sensed something bigger and grander than they'd imagined was going on.

After getting out of her suit and showering,

Ning served them all a warming soup.

Pata says you don't have as long as you thought,

Kristen announced.

How long did you think you had?

Shen knew then it was time to let the girls into a few secrets.

He waited until Ning was out of earshot.

There's some things you should both know,

He said.

Wait until we're flying back to the monastery.

That night,

As he dozed off to sleep,

He was working out what next to ask the dolphins.

Chapter 76.

Intraspecies.

Counsellor Six's consciousness was only a few days into the process of crystallising into the density.

At the same time,

Shen,

Of course,

Still had no idea he was the densification of Counsellor Four.

He had even less of an idea that Counsellor Six was currently residing in Tamu's womb.

It was only because they were both oblivious to their true nature and mission that the remaining ten counsellors allowed the two of them to be in such close proximity on the lake.

The presence of both of them was very handy,

As it made communication between Kristen and the dolphins much easier.

The remaining ten counsellors were using the two incarnate counsellors as proxies to bridge the dialogue.

Only at the time of epoch transitions were two counsellors even permitted in the same galaxy.

The reason for this is that there comes a point in a counsellor's incarnation when they start to suspect they are part of a bigger picture.

If two such self-realised counsellors ever met in person,

Even as different species,

Their collective power could become uncontrollable and unstable.

People around them could experience spontaneous combustion.

Rifts and warps in space time could appear,

Allowing the killing or harming of people's ancestors.

Whole families could vanish in an instant as a result.

This was another reason Epoch Three's termination ended up being a little messy.

The incarnations of Counsellor Three and Four into two child oracles,

Who were twins,

Was always risky.

At least the girl had more self-control than the boy,

Who inadvertently triggered the collapse by sharing too many secrets with the elders.

None of the nine remaining counsellors knew that Counsellor Seven's overarching grief was to look out for each of them.

She alone knew that another reason two counsellors should never meet in the density is because it could cause interconnections to arise between two or more multiverses.

While the counsellors looking after this particular universe were busy ensuring no contact between Epoch Five civilisations occurred,

The High Counsellor of the Light had much bigger fish to manage.

Chapter 77.

On the Move.

February 2099.

10 years left.

For several months after the pod was detected,

They wandered no more than a few kilometres away from where they first appeared in the lake.

Ning Sonar could pick them up easily at this sort of distance.

The dialogue between Christian and the pod was not yielding any more information,

So she and Eva had gone back to Seven Immortalists to finish their dissertations.

Shen had told them more about his research,

Linked to variations in the numbers of cetaceans,

And whether it was linked to any cosmic events.

While the pod had hardly moved in the lake,

The global sea level rise had started to accelerate.

As a result,

Shen's attention had been diverted onto a major upgrade to the nanowalls.

A reverse snowball effect had hit the Earth.

The increase in tilt had led to large ice shelves detaching from the Antarctic landmass.

This in turn reduced the albedo over the Antarctic summer.

With less sunlight reflecting back,

The ice sheet melt was accelerating.

The nanowalls were struggling to keep storm surges at bay.

Simon,

Mike Spence's Earthbound assistant,

Who had relocated to Wuhan,

Had come up with a new solution in the form of aquabots.

These aquatic nanobots were programmed to eat kelp and form a net that stretched out about a kilometre into the ocean from the wall.

The net pulsed up and down to create antiphase waves,

Making the sea calm,

And meaning the nanowalls could more easily keep pace with the sea level rise.

The system was developed and tested at Wuhan,

In the largest wave pool on the planet,

And was starting to roll out across the globe.

They targeted cities most at risk,

And within a year had bought themselves more time.

This meant Shen could get back to his real task at hand,

And that was preparing for the next pulse to arrive in March.

At the beginning of February,

He was somewhat interrupted.

The pod had started to move east,

With Ning tracking them.

When they left the lake and entered the river system,

Shen took Eva and Kristin down to meet Ning and get back on the boat.

Shen stayed a few hours to brief Ning,

Before flying back to the seven immortals.

The fast-moving currents meant Kristin had little opportunity to get in the water to re-engage in dialogue.

One evening,

The dolphins stopped in a patch of clear water,

And she managed to catch up with them to find out why they had started moving,

And where they were heading.

They stonewalled her on this,

But she did get one gem of information from Pata.

Over the autumn,

She had been researching the history of the Bajie,

And had learned that Dongting literally means grotto court.

The lake was named for the huge hall or cavern,

Which was believed to exist beneath it.

The cavern was thought to have underground passages open to all parts of the empire.

When she asked Pata if he knew about any grotto,

She was surprised to hear him say,

That's our route in and out.

It's not under the lake though,

But in the lake.

This meant nothing to Kristin,

But had Shen's interest piqued when he heard about it later that day.

By early March,

The pod's speed had increased,

So Kristin couldn't get to join them anymore in the water.

Her last conversation with them was just as they got to the Three Gorges Dam,

And when Pata said,

See you on the other side,

While Kristin was getting out of a wetsuit,

Ning was in horror.

They've gone again!

An hour after the sonar traces disappeared,

Ning was relieved to get a call from an old friend of hers,

Zhan Zhu,

Who ran an inn that she stayed at many times on the other side of the lock system.

You're sure?

Were there three of them?

She asked him.

Yes,

Not seen any for over 50 years,

But definitely three,

Said Zhan.

They even waved their fins at them.

Kristin intuitively knew what must have happened.

They ported again.

Eva piped up,

At least they can't be trying to hide from us if they waved at the innkeeper.

We'll see you sometime tomorrow,

Said Ning,

Knowing getting through the lock system quickly was not that easy for a small boat,

When commercial traffic was prioritised.

Even Shen's influence seemed to fall on deaf ears when it came to the keepers of the locks.

A day later,

And 91 metres lower,

Ning was able to pick up sonar pings.

They are about 30 klicks away,

She told Kristin and Eva.

They spent the rest of March playing catch-up with the pod,

As they all navigated down the Yangtze towards Wuhan,

Which was now a coastal city.

They finally caught up as the pod got close to the University Marine Institute at the east end of the city,

And Kristin was able to get in the water with them again late one evening.

We thought you were trying to lose us,

She said.

If we were,

We could have easily,

Said Pater.

Come back in the water tomorrow at this time,

We've got something to show you.

Kristin obliged the following evening.

Pater and Tamu invited her to snuggle up with them.

They enclosed her in their fins with Baku.

The next thing Kristin felt was her whole body evaporating,

And then the darkness of the silty Yangtze water being replaced by light.

The dolphins released their grip and she surfaced.

It took her a while to recognise where she was,

As she'd only been shown pictures of it by Shen.

It then dawned on her that she was in the wave pool inside the Institute.

I'm glad the wave machine is switched off,

She whispered under her breath.

Chapter 78.

Lucky Day.

March 17th,

2099.

Still 10 years left.

Shen was a fast thinker,

But the events of this day would take him several weeks to assimilate.

He knew he'd have to forget about the dolphins for a day,

And leave the monitoring of the imminent birth to the girls.

Tamu had been moved to a smaller birthing pool for her safety,

With Kristin and Eva in attendance as her doulas.

Pater and Baku were left under Ning's watchful eye in the wave pool,

But she knew she could do nothing to stop them porting.

It had been quite a shock to lose Kristin like that,

Even temporarily.

Shen was annoyed not to be able to be in Wuhan,

But he had bigger fish to fry.

Just like clockwork,

The pulse arrived on the afternoon of the 17th of March.

Unlike the last pulse,

This one was big,

And Silky's team in Australia confirmed its source as the binary in direct line behind the sun.

More concerning for Shen was news from Mike Spence that he had lost comms with Lagrange B.

Lagrange A was still okay.

Luckily the moon base,

And both the orbiting moon and space force,

Were shielded by the masses of the moon and earth respectively.

The loss of Lagrange B was not so worrying,

As there was more than enough time to replace it by the time of the next pulse.

What really concerned Shen was that the team at Purple Mountain also confirmed the optical occlusion of the tertiary object,

And that the dipping brightness was somewhat larger than last time.

A conference call was scheduled for that evening with the moon base,

Where Shen brought them all up to speed.

So do you know how long we've got?

Demanded President Miang.

It is impossible to call,

Said Shen.

It could be 2104,

2109,

Or still a hundred or a thousand years from now.

Shen knew no data set existed big enough to tell them.

He had asked the Q computer and was merely relaying its answer.

He didn't share that the Q computer had weighted its answer by saying 55,

Or 10,

10,

10,

Or a hundred,

A hundred,

Or one thousand.

Do you want some good news,

Propped Mike?

Yes please,

Said Miang.

Well I can confirm that less than 0.

001% of the gamma rays reach the canyon floor,

He said.

Our hardening system works.

Shen's screen flashed and his eyes lit up.

And there's some other good news,

He said.

The Bajie population of earth has just increased in size by 25%.

Nobody on the moon base thought this was of any significance,

So the conference call wandered quickly on to talk of Shen's next visit to celebrate the end of the century.

Shen was unaware that events had taken a whole new direction in Wuhan.

As Ning suspected,

She couldn't prevent Pata and Baku from porting the few hundred meters across the marine research facility.

She was too old to run to join them at the berthing pool,

So it took her a few minutes to catch up.

There was no way Pata wanted to miss the berth,

And he wanted Baku to see it too.

As Ning arrived in the pool,

Tamu was talking to Kristen.

I would like you to give him a name.

I'd like to call him Lucky,

She suggested.

Lucky it is,

Confirmed Pata.

Now could you leave us alone so we can get some sleep?

The two girls offered to take it in turn that night to make sure the pod and Lucky were okay.

They both slept as well as they could in camp beds at the side of the pool.

Ning turned the lights off as she left and was looking forward to her first night in a real bed for many months.

She told the security guards not to let anyone in or to disturb the girls overnight.

They,

Like the rest of the institute,

Had no idea dolphins were inside.

While it was supposed to be Kristen's turn to be awake,

She fell into a hypnagogic half-dream and a conversation with Tamu.

When we were in the lake on the other side of the dam,

We could not speak to the others,

Said Tamu.

Who were the others,

Asked Kristen.

Our sisters and brothers in the oceans,

Replied Tamu.

So what did you want to talk to them about?

We've come back to show them the way.

Home,

Home.

Where's home,

Home?

Asked Kristen again.

Come back tomorrow without your sister and we will show you.

Kristen was awoken with a prod from Eva,

Who'd been disturbed by her snoring.

Time you slept properly sis,

I'll take over.

The next day after breakfast,

Eva conveniently left the pool to take some blood samples,

Taken from Lucky,

Off for analysis.

Just after she left,

Kristen saw the water in the birthing pool bubble and the pod disappeared again.

She ran to the wave pool and as she'd hoped and suspected,

The four dolphins were there.

She got into the pool by herself and saw some strange antics from Pata.

He was at the narrow wall end of the pool and kept scraping himself on the wall and then pushing his head up above the surface.

While this was going on,

Tamu gave her some news that she had been dreading.

We are going home,

Home now.

Kristen surprised herself by asking,

Can I come?

It's not safe or the right time,

Answered Tamu.

As she swam towards Pata,

With Lucky in her grip and followed by Baku.

Please go and get your water lungs,

Suggested Tamu.

Pata said you can watch,

But from the other end of the pool.

Kristen surfaced and quickly put on her aqualung,

Which Tamu affectionately had named as her water lungs.

She also grabbed her underwater camera.

When she got back in the water 10 minutes later,

She could see a shimmering bubble had formed around the family.

She intuitively knew to keep her distance,

But zoomed in as much as she could.

At first she thought her camera must be faulty,

But the pod was fading out of existence.

There was no pop,

Clash or implosion,

But after about an hour they had completely gone.

She didn't even get a goodbye,

But was sure Pata and Tamu waved at her.

She was in floods of underwater tears and had to surface to clear her mask.

She sat on the side and watched the last 10 minutes of playback before she thought to call her father.

So they've gone,

Said Shen.

Did you try and stop them,

Kristen?

I couldn't.

Kristen told him about last night's dream and about the dolphins porting from pool to pool.

Okay,

Get Ning over and make sure the pool is on lockdown.

She'll know what to do.

I'll be with you this evening.

Ning arrived with Eva within 30 minutes and immediately got the security team increased in size.

By the time Shen arrived a few hours later,

Ning had the results of her analysis.

There's definitely traces of aquanine,

She confirmed.

What's aquanine,

Asked Kristen.

Before Ning can answer,

Shen said,

That's not the question.

What I want to know is,

Where is aquanine?

Kristen was about to probe still further,

But Shen was interrupted by a call from my expense.

Eva noticed there was a strange delay in the conversation.

So you are sure?

Yes,

Confirmed Mike.

The nanowall and anti-wave systems are self-repairing and self-reporting.

Any breaches or reductions in the number of bots and I get notified.

Thanks for letting us know,

I'll call you later,

Replied Shen,

Realizing it was about time he told Mike about teleporting dolphins.

Shen decided to stay in Wuhan that night and booked himself,

Ning and his daughters into the presidential suite at the Shangri-La hotel.

After so long on the boat,

Ning was somewhat blown away by the opulence.

What must have been the world's first recording of an actual teleport proved to be somewhat of an anti-climax.

The pod just faded out of existence.

What really got Shen's interest was the recordings of Patter's antics in the wave pool that confirmed Mike's suspicions.

So ladies,

It looks like our friendly dolphins just acquired some nanotechnology,

Said Shen,

As he shared out a bottle of Abyss Blanc de Blancs.

Chapter 79.

Century's End.

2099.

Less than 10 years left.

Shen left Ning with an open brief and an open checkbook.

She was to trawl the world's oceans for traces of Aquanine.

He wanted to know if other cetaceans were coming or going,

But he suspected they would be mostly going.

As they parted just after breakfast,

Eva and Kristen didn't know that would be the last time they would see their teacher and mentor.

They hung around Wuhan that day and Kristen kept bursting into uncontrollable tears.

She was grieving for lost loved ones.

Under the cover of darkness that evening,

Shen flew them back to the seven immortals.

Two days ago,

He'd instructed Jun and Li,

Who were on the spaceport,

To return to Earth and back to the monastery as soon as they got their Earth legs back.

Eva and Kristen were so pleased to see them and spent the whole night swapping stories of their respective adventures.

Shen went straight to bed,

Having convened a family meeting the next day.

As his head hit the pillow,

Freya asked,

Is it time to tell everyone?

Before he slipped into slumber,

He mumbled,

No more secrets.

The next day was a breath of fresh air for Shen.

Even he had been struggling to remember who he told what and who could know what.

With Miang's confirmed blessing that morning,

He started the family meeting by letting them know that they had all been invited to the moon base for New Year's Eve to see the century out.

What he didn't know then was that only Huey and Gia would be making the trip back.

So what we know is the Earth is likely to be hit by a large gamma ray burst within the next thousand years,

Said Shen.

And with a destabilized core and reduced protection from the already damaged magnetosphere,

He continued,

It doesn't look good for life on Earth.

What I still don't understand,

Son,

Is why a permanent moon base and Mars terraformation is easier than creating protected zones on Earth,

Said Huey.

Shen thought he'd covered this with Huey,

But knew the others didn't know.

It would cause pandemonium if people knew.

We also might have much longer than we think,

And the supernova might not wreak as much damage as we think.

So it's best to see the plans for the moon and Mars as backup,

Said Freya,

Coming to his assistance.

It might sound strange,

But it's easier to build a brand new environment from scratch and keep it secret if it's not here on Earth,

Said Shen.

He was able for the first time to show them all live video from the surface of Mars.

The canyon roof was complete and generating electricity.

The accommodation blocks were half built and,

Protected from Martian dust storms,

Were so clean that they looked as if they'd been CGI generated.

Shen revealed a mix of schematics and live pictures from Jijuan of the interplanetary TET.

This is the heart of gold,

He said.

In theory,

It will take less than a month to get to Mars,

Nearly a two-year wait and a month or so to get back to Earth.

So our trip for this new year isn't just a party.

We'll be working,

He announced.

We're going to complete the fit-out in moon orbit,

So you boys will be working with Mike's team.

And us,

Asked Eva and Kristen in unison.

You'll be working with Xing,

President Miang's son,

On the life system,

Said Shen.

Huey will be helping Mike too on the fabrication side.

Freya coughed.

But what I am most intrigued by is what Jia and Freya will be working on.

Will you tell them,

Said Shen?

Freya said,

When I met Mia and Mei,

I noticed that they could communicate with no time delay.

They don't know how they do it,

But Jia and I have a theory on how it's done.

The delay from Moon to Earth is just annoying,

But from Mars to Earth it is impractical,

Especially when Mars and Earth are on opposite sides of the Sun.

So will you be teaching us how to do it,

Asked Jun?

Let's not get ahead of ourselves,

Said Shen.

The first landings are scheduled for 2120 and beyond.

We're just the bridge builders and teachers.

So the plans were made that day for the rest of the year,

Which would culminate with them all being on the Moon for the end-of-century celebrations.

Huey,

Jia and the girls were booked in for training at Yizhuan that autumn.

Shen brought the boys under his wing,

And the three of them got stuck into the detailed design of the inner and outer workings of the Heart of Gold.

Kristin continued to have repetitive dreams of the dolphins on their waterworld.

Everyone was so busy that summer soon came and went.

Shen had switched his attention to the new data coming from Ning.

She had been monitoring global whale migrations,

And the numbers were dropping fast,

With no increase in beached whales.

Ning had a number of researchers sending water samples from all over the globe.

Molecules of aquanine were popping up from everywhere.

Freya had been helping Madame Bienne and her staff take in the first wave of students at the monastery.

None of the new intakes knew,

Of course,

That Mars might be where they were heading.

Early in December,

Mia took the whole family from the monastery straight to the Moon Base,

Bypassing both the Space and Moon ports.

Apart from the secrecy this gave,

It also meant a jump from 1G to 1.

6G with little weightlessness.

This was less onerous for Jia and Huey,

Who were getting on in years.

Mia also used the trip as extended training for Jun and Li.

The population on the Moon Base had tripled since Shen's last visit.

Many of the new residents were working on Mike's team,

Managing the Terra Formation Project.

Xing had both an augmented team working on food production,

And a wife who he had met on the spaceport.

The actual celebrations on New Year's Eve were quite poignant for all on the base,

As they were pointing away from the Earth,

Just into the blackness of space.

The two and a half billion remaining occupants of spaceship Earth partied like there was no tomorrow,

Which most of them had no idea was an impending possibility.

President Miang addressed the planet in his customary end-of-year speech.

He congratulated each resident on the planet for doing their part in curbing excesses and helping get the planet back on track.

Only a few hundred luminaries of the Chinese government had any idea he was living off-planet.

Chapter 80.

Seeding.

As the remaining few billion humans sobered up from a massive collective hangover,

The councillors were in the final throes of Epoch transition.

The home planet for Epoch 6 had begun a transition that would take some hundreds of years to complete.

The nanobots and aquabots that Pata arrived with were put to work straight away.

From small beginnings on the ocean floor,

Landmasses were being grown.

Nanometre by nanometre,

The water world started growing its continents.

When they eventually poked above the waves,

The aquabots would be used to take plant life from the ocean onto the land.

When the cetaceans were ready,

They could take their first steps too.

This process had never been tried before.

Most Epoch transitions to date had been somewhat more random and reliant on chance.

Previously,

The councillors had steered organics from one planet to the next in the same solar system on fragments of the destroyed planet.

This meant consciousness and self-awareness had to be developed from scratch.

This was the first time a sentient-derived technology was used from one planet to give another planet a head start.

By the time Epoch 6 came to its close,

This technique would be increasingly common.

So at this time of transition,

Two planets in the same galaxy harboured self-awareness at the same time.

The seeds were being sown for galaxies to be flooded with sentient life.

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So much to unpack! The story is really gaining momentum 🙏☀️