“What, what is it?!” she cried, looking down to see if she was now wearing part of her breakfast.
He bent down and quickly picked up their things. “We have to go!”
Lee’s old Volkswagen beetle and Frank’s BMW raced into the aquarium’s rear parking lot at the same time, both screeching to a halt next to each other. Lee leapt out and ran in front of the BMW’s silver hood as Frank kissed his wife. “I’ll call you later!” With that he chased after Lee and disappeared into the dark hallway with the large steel door closing behind them. They both sprinted down the hall and arrived to find Alison and Chris standing behind Lee’s desk looking at the screen.
“What have we got?!” Frank asked excitedly.
Alison didn’t reply. She simply smiled and watched their expressions as they reached the desk and saw for themselves.
“Right on!” Lee exclaimed thrusting a clenched fist in the air. “Three words!” He grabbed the mouse and clicked on a button labeled “vocabulary” which brought up a small window with the three words listed within it; Hello, Yes, No.
Everyone shouted in excitement and pressed into a clumsy group hug. Alison took a deep breath and covered her mouth with her hands, trying to keep calm.
Lee looked at the details of each word. “Look at the accuracy, seventy-seven, seventy-eight, eighty-one!” He smiled broadly. “Can you believe it, the damn things actually works!”
“We don’t know that yet,” Alison said. They tried to remain calm but couldn’t seem to wipe the excitement off their faces. “This may very well be an error.” They all turned toward the tank. Dirk and Sally were watching them from the other side of the glass, slowly moving themselves back and forth.
“They’re watching us,” Chris said.
Alison smiled and approached the tank, placing her palm gently on the glass. “They’ve probably never seen us this excited before.”
Lee looked at Alison. “So…what do we do now?”
Everyone turned back to Frank, and he knew why. Part of the project’s planning naturally covered what they would do in the event that the system actually translated something. The protocol they agreed upon called for a series of data checks and careful documentation. Of course those procedures left out one big factor, the sheer excitement and elation of the thing actually working.
Frank looked serious for a moment but was finally unable to suppress the smile. “Let’s at least try to maintain some protocol. Chris, grab a video camera and we’ll document later.”
Chris ran across the room and picked up a small camcorder while Lee slid into his chair. He powered the camcorder on and pointed it at Lee’s monitor.
Lee took a deep breath and typed out the word Hello. He looked at them over his shoulder and clicked the large button labeled “Translate”.
Nothing happened.
Chris began to speak when Lee held up a hand and stopped him. Finally, from the underwater speaker submerged within the dolphin’s tank, a high pitched sound emerged followed by two distinct clicks.
Dirk and Sally suddenly turned and looked at the speaker. They swam over and examined it closely. They looked from the speaker back to the team on the other side of the glass, then back to the speaker again, where Dirk bumped it gently with his nose. Sally swam closer to the side of the tank, briefly opening her mouth and returning the same sound with two clicks.
Suddenly the word Hello appeared again on the monitor just below the word Lee had typed.
11
Alison felt a lump in her throat. She was so overcome with emotion and excitement at the same time that she could barely move. Still grinning, she watched Chris and Lee trying to quickly verify the camera had recorded correctly. Frank was sitting on the edge of a desk behind Lee’s chair, staring at the screen in a daze. She knew what he was thinking. Beneath the initial excitement lay a blanket of doubt. After all they had only exchanged one word. This could still be a fluke, or a computer error, or sheer luck. But Sally had clearly spoken something back to them. Was it an actual exchange or were they simply repeating what they heard?
“No problems with the camera. We’re good.” Chris swung the camera back around to Lee’s monitor.
Lee looked over his shoulder. “What next?”
“Try it again. Let’s make sure we’re not hallucinating here.”
Lee nodded and for the second time typed Hello. This time clicking the translate button without hesitation. Again the sounds were repeated through the underwater speaker. Chris swung the camera to Dirk and Sally.
Sally swam in a tight circle excitedly and came back to the glass. She repeated the same sounds and the word Hello appeared again on the Lee’s screen. He repeated the exchange a third time and again Sally replied.