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happily. Instead of looking outside of themselves and
developing gadgets that will help them go somewhere else, they have
focused their growth inwards and into their community, developing
complex language and thinking skills. They can even use their
echo-location to diagnose medical conditions, like we use x-rays,
ultra-sound and angiograms. We should be trying to develop these
skills. I sometimes think that, when we finally meet aliens, they
will find us very slow and simple in our thinking, language and
communication.
    My proposal is that we continue with our
policy of minimal mining and technology, and rather focus on
developing our mental skills and environmental awareness. After
all, we have a school of dolphins to teach us.”
    The others seem less split into two opposing
camps now and there is little animosity. It is agreed that
‘Mariada’s group’ will not do anything rash like make a unilateral
declaration of the independence of Earth 2. But they begin to
compile a list of frustrations that will be sent to the United
Nations. There must be a cure for the Summertime blues.

CHAPTER 7
     
     
    A cetacean linguist at the research station
at Plettenberg Bay plays a recording.
    A male voice says, “The woman is amazing.
Clearly she is not young, maybe like a grandmother. She has a very
active mind as I see many images when I focus on her brain, and her
body is very healthy but she has lost some suppleness and strength
as the muscles have started to atrophy, and she does not ovulate.
She is passionate about sharing and trying to talk with us and
shows good respect. She listens very carefully, with her mind and
her heart, and she shows love. She is close to her male friend. She
calls him something ‘-ex’ and he calls her ‘Ada’, and they are
happy as they talk and play. What do you think about the man,
‘-ex’?”
    A female voice says, “Oh, yes! The same,
mostly. He is about the same age and is fit, healthy and clever. He
seems to know something of our language and is trying to talk with
and understand me. He also shows love and, you know what ! His
testes and so on are still active, especially when he is with her.
But with other people he seems careful of showing much feeling. She
seems to have a painful emptiness in her womb, as though she has
lost people in her life and wants to find the parts of herself she
has lost with them. I think she feels she may find them with
him.”

 
     
     
    PART 4:
    DEEP MESSAGES ( 2045 +)
     
     
    “In ancient Greece it was thought … they
(dolphins) were once men, who had lived in cities, along with
mortals; that they had exchanged the land for the sea; but that
they had retained…human thought.”
    Horace Dobbs. ‘Dance to a Dolphin’s Song.’
1996.
     
    “The Greeks held that killing a dolphin was
tantamount to killing a man, and it was punished with the same
penalty as murder.”
    Brenner and Pilleri. ‘Dolphins in ancient
art and literature’. 1977.

CHAPTER 1
     
     
    In 2045, the International Marine Institute
announces that they have received a report from the special task
group, which comprises the main findings of research into
communication with cetaceans. This information was built up by
researchers in numerous countries and after decades of
collaboration and reviews of theory and practice in the field.
Relevant visuals accompany the text.
    “The following information is a summary of
the main findings of researchers into the messages that whales and
dolphins have been giving us for the past 20 years, but which we
have only recently been able to understand, and also about the
interactions and exchanges we have had with them.
    Scientists had to deal with reluctance by
cetaceans, whales especially, for many years, to trust humans.
After all, they had been hunted inhumanely almost to extinction,
and were not ready to co-operate with ease and to the extent
needed. Humans also had a tendency to try to dominate, to order
cetaceans to do things at their