Read Online Dolphin Island by Arthur C. Clarke - Free Book Online Page B

His aunt had been only too eager to agree and had gladly forwarded the few belongings
     he valued. Now that he was on the other side of the world and could look back at his
     past life with more detachment, Johnny wondered if some of the fault might have been
     his. Had he really tried to fit into the household that had adopted him? He knew that
     his widowed aunt had not had an easy time. When he was older, he might understand
     her problems better, and perhaps they could be friends. But whatever happened, he
     did not for one moment regret that he had run away.
    It was as if a new chapter had opened in his life—one that had no connection with
     anything that had gone before. He realized that until now he had merely existed; he
     had not really
lived
. Having lost those he loved while he was so young, he had been scared of making fresh
     attachments; worse than that, he had become suspicious and self-centered. But now
     he was changing as the warm communal life of the island swept away the barriers of
     his reserve.
    The fisherfolk were friendly, good-natured, and not too hard-working. There was no
     need for hard work, in a place where it was never cold and one had only to reach into
     the sea to draw out food. Every night, it seemed, there would be a dance or a movie
     show or a barbecue on the beach. And when it rained—as it sometimes did, at the rate
     of several inches an hour—there was always television. Thanks to the relay satellites,
     Dolphin Island was less than half a second from any city on Earth. The islanders could
     see everything that the rest of the world had to offer, while still being comfortably
     detached from it. They had most of the advantages of civilization and few of its defects.
    But it was not all play for Johnny by any means. Like every other islander under twenty
     (and many of them over that age), he had to spend several hours a day at school.
    Professor Kazan was keen on education, and the island had twelve teachers—two human,
     ten electronic. This was about the usual proportion, since the invention of teaching
     machines in the middle of the twentieth century had at last put education on a scientific
     basis.
    All the machines were coupled to OSCAR, the big computer which did the Professor’s
     translating, handled most of the island’s administration and bookkeeping, and could
     play championship chess on demand. Soon after Johnny’s arrival, OSCAR had given him
     a thorough quiz to discover his level of education, then had prepared suitable instruction
     tapes and printed a training program for him. Now he spent at least three hours a
     day at the keyboard of a teaching machine, typing out his responses to the information
     and questions flashed on the screen. He could choose his own time for his classes,
     but he knew better than to skip them. If he did so, OSCAR reported it at once to the
     Professor—or, worse still, to Dr. Keith.
    At the moment, the two scientists had much more important matters to bother about.
     After twenty-four hours of continuous work, Professor Kazan had translated the message
     that Einar had brought back—and it had placed him fairly and squarely on the horns
     of a dilemma. The Professor was a man of peace. If there was one phrase that summed
     him up, it was “kindhearted.” And now, to his great distress, he was being asked to
     take sides in a war.
    He glared at the message that OSCAR had typed out, as if hoping that it would go away.
     But he had only himself to blame; after all,
he
was the one who had insisted on going after it.
    “Well, Professor,” asked Dr. Keith who, tired and unshaven, was slumped over the tape-control
     desk, “now what are we going to do?”
    “I haven’t the faintest idea,” said Professor Kazan. Like most good scientists, and
     very few bad ones, he was never ashamed to admit when he was baffled. “What would
you
suggest?”
    “It seems to me that this is where our Advisory Committee would be useful. Why