At that the two orcas commenced to spiral about a common axis as they continued to parallel the Caribe, as if rifling an unseen gun barrel.

"Ah, she sees wisdomm, this she!" Wenkoseemansa said.

"The wisdom she sees," Latehoht added. "In manyy ways are orca and man truly closerr to each other than orca and porpoise."

Twenty-five minutes went by before the enormous herd of flashing, silver-sided animals pa.s.sed from view to the northeast of the cruising suprafoil.

"I thought porpoises were supposed to be as smart

93.

92 .

as orcas." Rachael was still composing a silent song to

the departed herd.

"They are," her mother told her. "Almost. They

didn't try to talk to us, though."

"Too busy having fun," Sam told her. "You can ar- gue with that kind of lotus-eating existence, as do the orcas, but there's much to be said for it. They love to perform tricks on us poor air-bound humans. Heredi- tary delight of theirs, I'm told. Handed-or finned-

down from their domesticated ancestors.

"I was called outside Mou'anui one day by a har- ried local guide. Seems a small herd of porps had joined his tourist party and wouldn't let any of them out of the water. They were pushing them around like toys, but the tourists didn't know what was going on,

and some of them were panicking.

"Then there's the story of a couple of males who encountered some visiting teachers from . . . from Horseye, I think it was. They put on a display that the helpless guide-he was afraid" to interfere-later de- scribed as 'elegantly obscene.' The porps were just having fun, but the young ladies were a little worried about just what their intent was. Scared them some,

I'm afraid.

"The porps apologized when they learned their

antics weren't taken in the spirit of casual friendliness.

They made amends with a voluntary display of aquatic

acrobatics few visitors ever see."

"Lazy, good-for-nothings!" Latehoht bawled over

the earphones. "Unrepentent calves!"

Cora switched her speaker back on. "Tell me, Latehoht, why shouldn't they spend all their lives play- ing? What purpose is there other than to eat and live and enjoy oneself? Since you don't desire to explore other worlds as mankind does, what do you do with your time when you aren't at play?" She held her breath, remembering what she had been told about cetacean sensitivity to interference in their lives.

But Latehoht replied immediately, without rancor.

"We do explorre the universe. The ends we seekk are closerr to uss than yours to you, yet no less reall to us for thatt. You said we 'don't desirre to explore other worlds as mankind does.' Why should we have to ex- plorre 'as mankind does'? We leavve it to man to look upwardd. We wishh to spend many thousands of years looking inwardd."

The orcas put on a momentary burst of speed, con- tinued cruising several meters ahead of each fore foil, riding the slight bow waves from each side.

Cora slipped free of her headset. "So they're all philosophers?"

"Many see themselves that way," Sam told her, "except for the porpoises and a few others, like the belugas. The orcas are a little confused. They think sometimes like the great whales and sometimes like the porpoises-and sometimes, as Latehoht hinted, like us.

"I don't pretend to be able to make sense of every- thing Latehoht and Wenkoseemansa say, but some of the finest alien psychologists in the Commonwealth have listened to tapes of their conversations and haven't been able to follow their multilevel semantics, either. So I don't feel I'm missing much." He shrugged.

"Who knows? Give them another few thousand years and they might be building s.p.a.ceships of their own, though I can't imagine how. We know a little about how they think. We don't know much about what they're thinking of."

Several days pa.s.sed before Latehoht and her mate raced back to circle the Caribe excitedly. It was early evening, and the sun was bequeathing the world-ocean its last hours of light.

Everyone was finishing the evening meal when the monitors began to squawk with orca cries. Sam led

94 CACHALOT.

the rush for the deck, fumbling with his own headset as he waddled explosively up the stairs.

"What is it, Wenkoseemansa?" he asked the first ma.s.sive black and white head he saw.

"You wish to know of the cauuse of destruction. Of what has caused the deathh and disappearancces, of the absencing of peoplle."

"Of the vanishhment of your friends," Latehoht added, breaking the surface nearby.

Cora found herself nodding, not sure whether the orcas knew what the gesture meant. Surely, as long as they had been around humans like Sam, they would understand so simple a movement.

In any case, Latehoht rambled on. "Those comme who might be best to answwer." There was a slight touch of awe in her voice.

"Thosse come who would be besst to ask," Wenko- seemansa declared somberly, "b.u.t.tUhey will not an- swwer."

"Likely will they nott answer," Latehoht concurred, "but if you wishh it, we will askk them if they will deign to be askked."

"Yes, do so," Sam urged, "and hurry-before they get too far away. We won't intrude on their course, but will wait here if they swerve."

He raised the master control, cut the ship's speed to a crawl, though he did not, Cora noticed, completely shut down the engines.

"Who's coming?" she asked. "Whom were they talk- ing about?"

"Exactly whom they indicated, Cora. Those who would be in the best position to give us information on the destruction of the towns. As I said before, the Cetacea no longer fight among themselves, haven't for a thousand years. They have nothing here on Cachalot like a formal hierarchy or caste system or pecking order as we know it. But there is such a thing as re- spect-we humans occasionally practice it ourselves-

95.

and we're going to meet some of those whom the orcas and their brethren respect most of all."

She was nodding understanding. "I know whom you mean now. This is one of those 'exceptions' you told me we might make."

"Yes." He shifted his stance uncomfortably. "Par- don me if I'm a little nervous. I've never talked to any of them before. Very few humans have."

"Who's he talking about?" Rachael had her headset resting on her forehead.