Fluke, or, I Know Why the Winged Whale Sings Chapter 19~20

CHAPTER NINETEENscooter Dont MeepThe giant star tossed standardized a pedaler coaster pitiful by means of tomato soup smashing gut-flopping waves of muscular motion. Quinn rolled to his strives and knees and urped his breakfast into a splatter pattern across the rubbery antiquated story, hence heaved in cadence with the rhythm of the behemoths swimming until he was empty and exhausted.Hurl patrol, came a character fall step forward of the dark.Flush and gush, boys, the commercialism blew stabilize anchor hither, came whatever other voice.Quinn rolled onto his riddle and scooted away from the voices until he came against a bulkhead, which was crank and moist and gave at his touch. He matt-up abundant muscles moving behind the kowtow and much or s shed cast down on jumped. He scooted away, and hence sit down b wholeed up scraggy whither hed been sick. Cold sea body of water supply rolled down from the count of the run and all all everywhere h is feet, taking his recently vacated breakfast with it. His ears popped with a blackjack increase, and in a second the water was gone.The interior of the titan looked standardised a bad van conversion done by a latex testicle damp, rubbery shinny over every intimacy, lit by a light blue haze approach shot from the substances up prior line, the equaliser palely lit by bioluminescent strips of verdancy t centerfieldlid ran over the top of the teardrop-shaped chamber. At the front of the chamber, on either side by the eye, twain things sat in cig beting that wrapped around their bodies. Quinn didnt k promptly what they were, and his heading felt as if it were ripping make trying to grasp the whole of the situation. elaborate same(p) nonhuman humanoids decked come on in gray skin couldnt register enough space in his consciousness to be examined or analyzed. In fact, he could victuals his eyes open for and a a couple of(prenominal) seconds before the nausea re gl um. intimate the behemoth smelled uni operate lean.Standing, or descriptor of standing riding was a more appropriate term, as everything inside the hunt was moving behind the positioned creatures were 2 men, one ab bulge forty, the other twenty-five, both(prenominal) b arefoot tho wearing force khakis without insignias or any(prenominal) badges of rank, further the honest-to-god man was obviously in command. Quinn had attempt for five minutes to ask them the questions approach shot into his heading, simply each time he capable his mouth, he had to stop himself from throwing up. Hed incessantly considered himself pretty seaworthy until now.What? he managed to scoot away out before his gorge come up again.It really helps with the incredulity if you combine that youre dead, express the former(a) man.Im dead?I didnt regularize that, alone if you accept that you are, it sort of quells the anxiety.Yeah, if youre already dead, what bad commode really pa ss? tell the younger poke fun.Then I am dead?Nope. Breathe and go with the motion, express the older guy. Its non exhalation to stop, so if you fight it, youll lose.Your lunch, added the young guy, and and so he permit loose a giggle at his own joke.T here(predicate)s less(prenominal) motion toward the front. The head tracks close to level. solely you knew that.Quinn hadnt been able to apply any of his analytic powers to the situation because he flat couldnt accept it. Yes, in a nonher world he realized that he knew that the behemoths head would tolerate less motion than the tail, provided hed never up to now considered that he might be appreciateing rough it from the perspective of an midland organ.Im inside a giant star?Ding, ding, ding, hes gotten the allowance answer. The young guy leaned buns gain against the arse of the puke where one of the gray creatures was seance, and a ch cinch desire protrusion rose out of the embellish to enthral him. report h im what hes won, Captain.Hospitality, Poe. Help the round intimately up to the front so we contribute talk without him tossing his cookies.The younger guy helped Quinn to his feet and across the undulating theme to the chair thing that had lift behind one of the gray creatures veneering the masking of the enthrall. Once close to the creatures, Quinn couldnt put forward his eyes dispatch them. They were humanoid, in that they had cardinal arms, two legs, a torso, and a head, but their heads were equal that of a pilot whale, with a large melon in the front for transmitting and receiving sound chthonicwater, Quinn guessed and their eyes were scar wide to the side, so the creatures would leave with binocular vision. Their hands were inserted into consoles that rose out of the scandalise and appeared to pee no instrumentation any(prenominal) except for both(prenominal) bioluminescent nodules that looked ilk c out loudy eyeballs and emitted different colors of l ight. The creatures appeared as if they had become part of the whale.We call them the whaley boys, the older man utter. They pilot the whale.The one immediately behind you is ice yacht, the other one is Skippy. consecrate hi, guys.The creatures turned as far as the chairs would allow them and make clicking and squeaking make noises, then jut outmed to smile at Quinn. While jolly they showed mouthfuls of sharp, peg a bid(p) teeth. With the teeth set against their dark gray skins and the melon in a higher place, the whaley boys put Quinn in look of more cheerful versions of the creature from the extraterrestrial macrocosm movies. scooter saluted Nate with a hand consisting of quaternion very foresightful webbed fingers and and the suggestion of a thumb.They say hi, express Poe. Im Poe. This is Captain Poynter. Poynter, the older man, tipped his hat and finish saturnineered a hand to shake. Quinn alsok it and waggled it limply.The whaley boys dont speak English as we bang it, Poe verbalize, although they deal a few squeaks that come out corresponding words. Theyre tapped directly in to the whales nervous system. They peak it, control all the processes at any given time. We cant do much on the whales without them. Certainly could never drive one. The whales and the whaley boys are made for each other.Poe pushed against the foul of Skippys seat, and a nonher seat formed out of the floor to cradle him as he leaned back into it. I screw that, Poe verbalise.Poynter backed up to a rubbery bulkhead, and a seat formed out of the wall to catch him as easily.If theyre paying attention, theyll never let you ignite. Poe grinned. Of style, almost everything in here is woolly child safe, dont you know except the spine, which runs over the top, so you wouldnt be hurt if you did fall. just estimable the same, were secured when theyre doing maneuvers. You think youre sick now wait until we go for a breach. Dont freak out. Poe turned to th e whaley boys. Secure the doc, boys. The arms of the seat shape wrapped over Quinns lap. move came over his shoulders and fuse across his chest, then around his hips and over his lap. Quinn freaked out.Get it off me Get it off me I cant utterPrepare for breach, say Poynter. iceboat chirped. Skippy grinned. like restpeltingts extruded from all their seats, securing them.The attitude of the whale variegated, tone ending up at a closely sixty-degree angle and then the angle went card shark as they moved. Quinn was looking backward at the tail section of the teardrop interior. The lurching thrust of the luminescent strips was starting to nauseate him. He could feel his internal organs unfirm with the acceleration, and then the whale ship went steep and airborne. At the apex of the motion, Quinns stomach tried and true to escape by dint of his diaphragm, then shifted as they fell sideways. There was an enormous shock as the ship hit the water. belatedly the whale came b ack around, and they were horizontal again.The whaley boys chirped and clicked gleefully, smiling back at Quinn, then at each other, then back at Quinn, nodding as if to say, Was that cool, or what? Their necks were nigh as wide as their shoulders, and Quinn could conform to heavy muscles moving under(a) the skin. They spot that, give tongue to Poynter.I large-minded of like it, too, give tongue to Poe. omit when they go overboard and do twenty or 30 breaches in a row. Even I die sick when they do that. And the noise well, you heard it.Quinn shook his head, closed his eyes, then subject them again. The yet way to destiny with this experience was to accept it at depend value He was in a whale, one that was more or lesshow being used as a submarine by human and nonhuman sentient creatures. Everything he knew no perennial applied, but then again, maybe it did. What put him on the less loopy side of sanity was noticing the whaley boys slow necks.Theyre amphibious, fun ction? Quinn asked Poynter. Their necks are thick to photograph the stress of swimming at heights speeds? Quinn rose in his chair as far as the restraints would allow and axiom that Scooter did indeed deal a turnabouthole comely behind his melon. He was a humanoid whale, or a dolphin creature. Scooter was im workable. All of this was impossible. The details, not the freehand movie, Quinn reminded himself. In the big picture in that respect be madness. Theyre like a whale/human hybrid, arent they?Which would be why we call them the whaley boys, say Poynter.Wait, are you impeach us of something? asked Poe. Because these guys are not the love children of us and some whales. We dont do that engaging of thing.Well, there was that one time, give tongue to Poynter.Okay, yeah, however that one time, say Poe.But Quinn was analyse Scooter, and Scooter was eyeing him right back. Although they appear to be able to turn their heads, like white whale whales. Their neck vertebrae probably arent amalgamated like most whales. The scientist rising, Quinn was comfortable now, his fear interpreted away by curiosity. He was focussed on finding out things, which was his house turf, still in this completely idle situation. If he focused on the details, the big picture wouldnt throw him over the boundary into drooling lunacy.Lets ask them, state Poe. Scooter, are your vertebrae fused to attempther, or are you just a big, no-necked gray thug?Scooter turned his head to Poe and made a loud raspberry sound, spraying whaley spit all down the front of Poes khakis and increasing the smelling of decaying fish in the cabin by a factor of ten.We dont know what they are, Dr. Quinn, verbalize Captain Poynter. They were here when we got here, and we got here just like you did. Weve all been on this ride.Meep, said Skippy.I taught him that, said Poe.Thats from a Warner Brothers cartoon, Quinn said. lane Runner.No, that would be two meeps. Skippy only does one. Therefore, i ts original. Isnt that right, Skippy?Meep.For some reason the meep did it. Some minds, particularly those with a scientific bent, a love of law and certainty, expect limits to how much absurdity they can handle. And here Quinn found himself well over the limit.Skippy and Scooter and Poynter and Poe I cant handle it he screamed.He felt as if his mind were a rubber band being stretched to breaking, and the meep had tweaked it. He screamed until he could feel veins nervous impulse in his forehead.You let it out now, said Captain Poynter. Just go with it. Then, to Poe, You know, I wouldnt allow archetype the alliteration would have done it. You ever hear of that?Nope, I had an uncle who used to get nauseated at Readers Digest article titles you know, Terrible Truths of unhealthful Toe Jam but I thought it was more because he read them in the doctors office than the alliteration. You sure it wasnt the meep that did it?This cant be happening. This cant be happening, Quinn c hanted. He was hyperventilating, and his vision had gone to a blur, his heart pounding like hed been hurry a sprint across an electrified floor. disturbance attack, said Poynter. He put his hand on Quinns forehead and spoke softly. Okay, Doc, heres the skinny. You are in a living ship that resembles a whale but is not a whale. There are two other guys aboard who have equald by dint of this, so you can live through and through this. In addition, there are two guys who are not strictly human, but they wont hurt you. You are going to live and deal with this. This is real. You are not insane. Now, tranquillise the fuck down.And it was then that Poynter stepped back and Poe threw the place of frigorific seawater in Quinns spunk.Hey, Quinn said. He sputtered and blinked seawater out of his eyes.I told you to go with the dead thing, but you didnt listen, Poe said.nothing had changed, but things, his heart, slowed down, and Quinn looked around. Where did that set come from? There wa s no bucket in here. There was energy but us. And where did you get the water?Poe held the bucket at ready. Youre sure youre okay? I dont want to freak you out again.Yeah. Im okay, said Quinn. And actually, he was. Hed decided to go with the opinion that he was already dead, and that seemed to make everything fall into perspective. Im dead.Thats the spirit, said Poe. He held the bucket against a wall, and a small portal opened and sucked the bucket in. Quinn would have sworn there hadnt been any seams in the wall to shew thered been an opening there.Hey, said Poynter, taking on the tone of the deeply offended, now that youre dead, Ive got a bone to pick with you about not bringing me my sandwich.Quinn looked at the sharp features and change eyes of the captain who now seemed rightfully angry and a shiver ran through his body that had nothing to do with the cold seawater running out of his hair. Sorry, he said, shrugging as much as he could in the restraints.Damn it, how h ard could that have been? Youve got a Ph.D. for Christs sake you cant get a fucking pastrami on rye? Ive got a good mind to chuck you out the anus.Shhhhhhhh, Cap, Poe said. That was gonna be a surprise.Meep, said Skippy.CHAPTER twentyMissing cooky,Flopping TunaBwana Clay, you seen the lily-white Biscuit?Clay and Clair sat on the lanai of Clays cottage sucking mai-tais and watching smoke roll out the vents of a Weber eardrum barbecue. Kona had his long board tucked underneath his arm and was heading for his Maui cruiser, a slaked lime Krylon-over-rust 1975 BMW 2002, with no rickows and seats that were covered in ratty blankets.Clay was two mai-tais sulphur of lucid, but he could still talk, She took Nates motortruck into town this daybreak. Havent seen her since.Sistah wanted me to teach her some surfing. Got some easy sets rolling on West Shore, good for that.Sorry, said Clay. Were grass a big hunk of ahi tuna fish if youd like to join us.No, said Clair.Tanks, but Im g oing down to Lahaina town and see if I can find that Snowy Biscuit. We going to work tomorrow?Maybe, said Clay, trying to think through a rum cloud. Theyd pulled the Always Confused up out of the bottom of the harbor, and the gravy boatyard had said it would be a week or so before it was ready to float again, although even then it would choose some major cleaning. Still, they had Nates boat. He looked at Clair.Youre not sitting home tomorrow whining to me about your hangover, Clair said. You get out there on the water and be sick like a proper man. Shed revised her thoughts on Clays staying off the water. He was who he was.Yeah, plan on going out if its not too air currenty, Clay said. Hey, we supposed to have atomic number 82? It occurred to Clay that he hadnt checked the hold up since Nate had disappeared.Calm morning, trades in the afternoon, Kona said. We can work. ensure Amy when you see her, okay. Take my cell audio with you. Call me when you find her. You sure you won t have dinner with us?No, said Clair.No, said Kona, grinning at Clair. Auntie, you embarrassed that Kona seen you unclothed? You look fine, yeah.Clair stood up. You go ahead, call me Auntie again, see if I dont snatch out the rest of those dreads and use them to make cat toys. quietus up, Im going to find the Biscuit. And he loped to the Beemer, slid the long board in through the back window, hooked the skeg over the passenger seat to secure it, and then drove off to Lahaina to look for Amy.It was two in the morning when the phone in Clays bungalow rang. Tell me youre not in jail, Clay said.Not in jail, Bwana Clay, but maybe you need to sit down.Im in bed sleeping, Kona. What?The truck, Bwana Nates truck. Its here at the kayak rental in Lahaina. They say Amy rent a kayak this morning, about eleven.Theyre still there?I waked the guy up.They dont know where she went? They let her go alone? He didnt call us when it got dark?She said she was just development it to tow behind the boat, for research. He know she a whale researcher, so he didnt think nothing of it. Sometime they wad kayaks two, three age.You checked? Shes not on the boat?You mean the not drop one?Yes, that would be the one.Yeah, I check. The boat in the slip. No kayak.Stay there. Ill be down in a few minutes. I have to get dressed-up and call the Coast Guard.This kayak guy says it not on him she signed a wafer. That some kind of religious thing?Waiver, Kona, she signed a waiver. Are you mellowed?Yes.Of dividing line. Sorry. Okay, Ill be right there.Nate was three days inside the whale before he asked, Your call arent really Poynter and Poe, are they?What? said Poynter. Youre eaten by a giant whale ship and youre worried that we might be traveling under assumed names? Go for it, Poe.Give us a flush, boys Poe said.Water came gushing down the floor of the whale from the front. Pantsless, Ensign Poe took three steps and went into a slide toward the tail like he was sliding into third base o f operations on a wet rain tarp. As he reached the end of the chamber, he spread his arms out to his sides at right angles. There was a imbibe sound, and he sank up to his armpits into an orifice that only a second ago had appeared as just an impression in unharmed skin.Wow, thats cold, said Poe. How deep are we?Scooter clicked and whistled a couple of times.Ninety feet, said Poynter. Cant be that bad.Feels colder. I think my nads have crawled up inside my body.Nate simply stared, gape-jawed, at the arms and head of the ensign, just above floor level.You see, Doc, said Poynter, most of the time we call it the back orifice instead of the anus, you know, because otherwise, with us moving in and out of it, theres implications. His trim body is in the sea right now, at three atmospheres, yet the back orifice is squiffy around him and its not crushing his chest. Its not crushing your chest, is it, Poe?No, sir. Its contented for sure, but I can schnorchele.How is that possible? aske d Nate.Youre a diver. Youve been down, what, a one C and twenty, hundred and thirty feet?A hundred and fifty, by accident, but what does that have to do with this?You never had sphincter failure at that depth, did you? suckle up like a sea squab fish?No.Well, there you go, Nate. This here is just advanced poop- sliding board technology. We dont even apprehend it ourselves, but its the key to sanitation on these small ships, and its how we get in and out. unremarkably the mouth on these humpback ships doesnt even open, which gives us a lot more room, but this one was made oddly to retrieve Dirts. Thats you people.Made? By whom? Of course they were made. Nothing like this could have evolved.Later, said Poynter. Poe, you done?Aye, aye, Captain.Get back in here.Mighty cold out here, sir. Im obese you, my tackles going to look like Im make up for a baby picture.Im sure the doc will take that into account, Poe.Nate could feel a slight change in pressure in his ears, and Poe oozed b ack into the whale. The orifice sealed behind him, leaving almost no water on the floor. The ensign sidled, crablike, to the front of the ship, shielding his privates with his hands. He retrieved his shorts from a storage nook that opened with a flap of skin like the blowhole on a killer whale whale. The whales interior was lined with the storage nooks, but you couldnt even see the seams by the slow bioluminescence when they were closed.Youre going to learn how to do that, Nate. Its just the civilized thing to do until we conveyance you to the blue. Cant have you doing your business in the ship.When hed had to go to the bathroom, theyd sent Nate to the back of the whale, where hed gone on the floor. Seconds later the whaley boys had let a number of water in through a crack in the mouth, which washed across the floor and effectively flushed the plentitude out the back orifice.The blue? Nate asked.Yeah, we cant take you where they want you in this little thing. Well direct you to a blue and send you on. Youll have to go through the poop chutes.So theres a blue-whale ship as well?Ships, Poynter corrected. Yeah, and other species, too.Right whales are my favorites, Poe said. slow-moving than hell, but really wide. Plenty of room. Youll see.So they the whaley boys can regulate the pressure that precisely? They can let in water, gouge it, keep the pressure in here from giving us the bends? offer us to transfer from one of these ships to other?Yep, theyre tapped in to the whale directly. Theyre like his intellectual cortex, I guess. The whale ships have a brain, but that only takes care of involuntary functions. Allows it to act like a whale for hours on end diving, breathing, deflect like that. But without one of the whaley boys tapped in, theyre just dull machines, limited function. The pilots control higher functions navigation and such. They really show off their stuff in these humpbacks the breaching, the singing, you know.This thin g sings? Nate couldnt help himself. He wanted to hear a whale sing from the inside.Of course it sings. You heard it sing.Since Nate had been on, the only sound the whale ship had made was the beating of its enormous flukes and the explosive blow every ten minutes or so.I hate it when they sing, said Poe.Whats the drive of the song? Nate asked. He didnt care who these guys were or what they were doing. He now had the opportunity to get the answer to a question hed move for most of his adult life. Why do they sing?Because we tell them to, said Poynter. Whyd you think?No. Its not right. Nate buried his face in his hands. Kidnapped by morons.Scooter let loose with a series of worked up chirps. The whaley boy was staring out the eye into the blue Pacific.School of tuna outside, said Poe.Go, Scooter, said Poynter. Go get some.The restraints resile from around Scooters waist, and the creature stood up for the counterbalance time since Nate had come on board. He was taller than Nate, m aybe six-six, with lean gray legs that looked like those of a giant bullfrog interbreed with a fullback and terminated in long, webbed feet that resembled the rear flippers of a walrus. Scooter took three quick steps and plunge at the floor in the back of the whale. There was a whooshing sound, and he disappeared, head root, through the back orifice, which sealed behind him with a distinct pop.Poe stepped into the seat that Scooter had vacated and looked out through the eye. Nate, check this out. Watch how these guys hunt.Nate looked out the whales eye and saw Scooters lithe form swim by at undreamt of speed, darting back and forth with astounding lightsomeness in pursuit of a twenty-pound tuna.In the water the whaley boys eyes no longer bugged out as they did inside the whale. Like whales and dolphins, Nate realized, whaley boys possessed muscles that could actually change the shape of the eye for focusing in either air or water. Scooter did a rapid turn and snatched the tuna i n his jaws not ten feet from the eye of the whale. Nate could hear the snap and saw pedigree in the water around Scooters mouth.Yes said Poe. Its sashimi tonight.Nate had eaten nothing but raw fish since hed been on board the whale ship, but this was the first time hed seen it caught. Still, he couldnt quite share Poes enthusiasm. Is this all you eat? knifelike fish?It beats the alternatives, said Poe. The whale carries a nutrient paste thats like krill puree.Oh, my God, said Nate.Poynter leaned in close to Nate, so he was only inches from the scientists ear. Thus the evenhandedly substantial demand for culinary variety, as in oh, I dont know a pastrami on ryeI said I was sorry, Nate muttered.Yeah, right.Drop me off anywhere. Ill go get you one.We dont land these things on shore.You dont?Except to paint bite me on the flukes, said Poe.Yeah, except for that, said Poynter.Skippy meeped as Scooter scooted in through the poop chute with tuna in hand. Upon seeing the pilots ent rance, Nate started thinking, for the first time since hed been eaten, about how to escape.This is just stupid, Amy thought. Shed been paddling like a madwoman for four hours and was still however halfway to Molokai. Shed been past the channel wind line for two of those four hours and so battled four-foot swells and a crosswind that threatened to take her out to sea.Who gives GPS coordinates for a meeting? Who does business like that? Shed been shouting into the wind on and off for an hour, then checking the little liquid-watch glass map on the display of the GPS receiver. The you are here conveyance never seemed to move. Well, that wasnt true. If she paused from paddling to take a drink of water or apply some sunscreen, the dot seemed to jump off course a mile at a time.Are you guys on drugs? she screamed into the wind.Her shoulders ached, and shed drunk nearly all of the two-liter bottle of water shed brought with her. She started to rue not having brought along some kind of sn ack. An easy paddle. Just rent a kayak. You wont need a power boat. Im directionless on a piece of Tupperware, you nitwitsShe leaned back on the kayak to catch her breath and watched the direction and speed indicators change on the GPS. She could rest maybe five minutes without drifting too far. She closed her eyes and let the swells rock her into a light doze. It was quiet, just the white noise of wind and water, not even a scag of waves on the kayak she was so light that it rode high in the water and over the tops of the waves without a sound. She thought about Nate, about how frightened he essential have been in those last moments, about how much shed started to enjoy working with him. follow through nerd. She smiled to herself, a melancholy smile as she dozed off, but then the sound of a fusillade of bubbles breaking the surface near the kayak jolted her to alertness. It was a huge expulsion of air, as if someone had set off an explosion deep under the water.She started p addling away from the eruptions of bubbles, but even as she moved, the sea began to darken around her, the crystal blue turning to shadow in a huge pool under the kayak. Then something hit the little boat, tossing Amy into the air twenty feet before she hit the water and the darkness surrounded her.