Luckily the weather provided them an ideal window with calm seas and blue skies, conditions not uncommon during the Caribbean’s winter months. Alison scanned the horizon behind them and seeing no sign of shore looked at her watch. She would be happy when this whole charade was over. She watched some of the others mill around the ship enjoying the fresh air and smell of the open sea. Almost two dozen passengers were reporters or journalists invited along for the Navy’s photo op. As far as Alison was concerned, they needed all the positive press they could get. One of the reporters below was examining the tank. He stood back and took what seemed like dozens of pictures which made Alison wonder if he got paid by the picture. She also could not help but wonder whether he knew that his hat was on backwards.
Alison tried to shake herself out of her slump. She did not want to be here but it was not going to do any good to piss and moan about it the whole time. She took a deep breath and tried to appreciate the view. No one else seemed worse for the wear.
Clay approached from behind. “Are you alright?”
She turned abruptly. “Yes, yes I’m fine. Thank you.”
“Are you feeling seasick at all? If so, we can give you something for it if we catch it early enough.”
She smirked at the comment but forced herself to turn it into a polite grin. “Sea sickness makes for a short career as a marine biologist.”
He nodded. “Of course. Good point.” He motioned back toward the bridge. “We’ll be there soon. Mr. Kenwood is almost done setting things up.”
She followed Clay back toward the front and climbed the third flight of stairs. She mumbled a thank you as he held the door open to the bridge. Stepping into the air conditioning, she was instantly reminded how warm it was outside.
On the far side of the small room sat Lee adjusting his equipment on a small table the crew had set up for them. Beneath were two large portable computer servers surrounded by a tangle of cables and wires. On top of the table sat Lee’s keyboard, monitor, mouse and a couple other pieces of equipment she did not recognize. Chris stood behind him peering out the window at the outline of Bimini Island and trying to remain calm as a few reporters tried to squeeze by and snap pictures of Lee and his hardware.
“Are we ready?” she asked Lee.
“Almost,” he replied. “I’m just running some test commands to make sure the system is ready.”
“So what kind of a vocabulary will we have?”
He shrugged as he continued typing. “Everything that IMIS had successfully translated until we left. We obviously don’t have the power to translate anything new but,” he motioned to the two servers underneath, “these babies are at least strong enough to handle the words we already have. Next I’ll run some test translations without piping it through the speakers and we should be all set.”
The ship’s engines finally began to wind down as they neared their destination, and Captain Emerson returned to the bridge to verify all was well at the helm. After speaking with his first officer, he turned to Alison and her team.
“Ms. Shaw, is there anything else you need? We should be stopping in just a few minutes.”
“No I think we have everything we need, thank you.”
“My pleasure. As soon as we turn off the engines we will begin readying the sling to get your friends out of the tank. I’m sure they are looking forward to a little elbow room so to speak.”
“Thank you,” she replied. “Chris and I will come down to assist.”
“Very well.” With that the captain nodded at the others and turned to speak quietly with Clay.
As the ship continued to slow, Alison and Chris looked at each other nervously. They shared a worry that they had not spoken to anyone about, except Frank, before leaving. Dirk and Sally were as much of the aquarium as they were, and Alison felt a deep love for the animals. But they were still in captivity which means they were captives to the aquarium. Alison and Chris were worried, terrified in fact, that even though the dolphins demonstrated a strong connection with them too, there was no guarantee that once back in the ocean they would not simply make off for open waters. It had taken almost two weeks to arrange their leave from the aquarium and the construction of the tanks to transport them in, not to mention dozens of other details. During that time their relationship with Dirk and Sally had gotten even stronger with the startling progress that IMIS provided them, and the dolphins seemed as excited to speak to the team as they were to them. But they were still being kept from their natural habitat, from their home. Once out of the tank and back into open water, Alison was scared to death that she would never see them again.