Read Online Startide Rising by David Brin - Free Book Online Page B

fear of the wave. He was filled with a fierce battle lust. Adrenalin seared through him like a hot flux. It pleased him to save Keepiru’s life by physically punishing him for weeks of humiliation.
    The dolphin writhed in panic. As the shock rolled past them, Keepiru cried out the basic call for air. Desperately, the fin drove for the surface.
    They breached, and Toshio just missed getting blasted by the spume from Keepiru’s blowhole. Keepiru commenced a series of leaps, gyrating to shake loose of his unwelcome rider.
    Each time they went underwater Toshio tried to call out.
    “You’re sentient,” he gasped. “Damn you, Keepiru … you’re … you’re a starship pilot!”
    He knew he should be doing his coaxing in Trinary, but it was no use even trying, when he could barely hold on for dear life.
    “You pea-brained … phallic symbol!” he screamed as the water slammed against him. “You over-rated fish! You’re killing me, you goddamed … The Eatees own Calafia by now because you fins can’t hold your tongues! We never should have taken you along into space!”
    The words were hateful. Contemptuous. At last Keepiru seemed to have heard. He reared out of the water like an enraged stallion. Toshio felt his grip tear loose, and he was flung away like a rag doll, to hit the sea with a splash.
    Only eighteen cases were known, in the forty generations of dolphin uplift, in which a fin had attacked a human with murderous intent. In each case, every fin related to the perpetrator had been sterilized. Still, Toshio expected to be crushed at any instant. He didn’t care. He had realized, at last, the cause of his depression. It had come to the surface when he was wrestling with Keepiru.
    It hadn’t been his ability to go home that had hurt, these last few weeks. It was another fact that he had not allowed himself to think of even once since the battle off Morgran.
    The ETs … the extraterrestrials … the Galactics of every stripe and philosophy which were chasing Streaker … would not settle for hunting down the dolphin-crewed ship.
    At least one ET race would have seen that the Streak might successfully go into hiding. Or they might imagine, erroneously, that her crew had succeeded in passing the secret of her discovery to Earth. Either way, the logical next step for one of the more amoral or vicious Galactic races would be coercion.
    Earth might be able to defend herself. Probably Omnivarium and Hermes, as well. The Tymbrimi would defend the Caanan colonies.
    But places like Calafia, or Atlast, must be captured by now. They were hostages, his family and everyone he had known. And Toshio realized that he blamed the fins.
    Another aftershock was due any minute now. Toshio didn’t care.
    Pieces of floating debris drifted all about nearby. Not more than a kilometer away Toshio could see the metal-mound. At least it looked like the same one. He couldn’t tell if there were dolphins stranded on the shore or not.
    A large piece of flotsam drifted near him. It took him a moment to realize that it was Keepiru.
    Toshio treaded water as he opened his faceplate.
    “Well,” he asked, “are you proud of yourself?”
    Keepiru turned slightly to one side, and one dark eye looked up at Toshio. The bulge at the top of the cetacean’s head, where human meddling had created a vocal apparatus from the former blowhole, gave out a long, soft, warbling sound.
    Toshio couldn’t be certain it was just a sigh. It might have been an apology in Primal Dolphin. The possibility alone was enough to make him angry.
    “Can that crap! I just want to know one thing. Do I have to send you back to the ship? Or do you think you can stay sentient long enough to help me? Answer in Anglic, and it had better be grammatically correct!”
    Keepiru moaned in pure anguish. After a moment of heavy breathing he finally spoke, quite slowly.
    “Don’t sssend me back. They’re still calling for help! I will do what you ask-k-k!”
    Toshio hesitated.