The Whale Song Translation: A Voyage of Discovery To Neptune and Beyond (25 page)

“Right on, girl!” Melanie raised a clenched fist.

Lila’s and Melanie’s impassioned display roused Dmitri. “Thanks, Lila. In California, we’ve followed the tragic news of more strandings of juvenile humpbacks. I’m sure your superiors admire your ardent advocacy for the whales as much as I do.” He turned to address Gorman. “So, Chris, this is exactly what you’ve always hoped for but never dared to admit: a potential discovery about humpbacks that’ll rattle the foundations of human arrogance. Undeniable proof that the Megapterans are to be respected enough to be saved from destruction.”

“I like it.” Lila smiled at Dmitri. “Your pronunciation of Megapteran rings with the cachet of an advanced species.”

“I believe we’re all on the same page here,” Gorman replied rather stiffly, “so let’s roll up our sleeves and discuss plans to equip the research vessel.” Enthusiastic voices ringed the table. “Since Lila’s in charge of our whale song program, she’ll describe the setup for you.”

“It’s all pretty straightforward.” Lila, still standing, sounded calmer, more businesslike than before. “We have a couple of sets of hydrophones left over from last year’s Alaska recording sessions, and we just received a set of underwater speakers, loaners from our Australian colleagues. All of the equipment is portable so it can be lowered into the water and secured to the deck with plastic tie lines. The electrical cabling is designed for underwater safety and feeds into the control room with standard RCA plug terminations, compatible with any PC’s or laptop’s audio mini-jacks.”

“That’s excellent, Lila!” Dmitri was impressed by the young researcher’s mix of passion and professionalism. “I’d like to thank PICES for setting this up.”

“It’s the least we can do, both for you and for the whales,” replied Gorman in his clipped, matter-of-fact tone. “By the way, Lila, lets pack some dive gear in case things get interesting down below, tangled wires or whatever.”

“Not to mention underwater cameras in the event things really get interesting,” she replied.

After Lila sat down, Gorman addressed Dmitri. “At first I was puzzled by your suggestion to rent a glass-bottom boat. But it actually works out better for us, since we won’t have to interrupt our whale watch schedule. By the way, what’s that all about?”

“Does anybody here know about ‘wall painting?’” Dmitri asked.

“Sure,” answered Lila. “I’ve seen it at raves. Artists use the paintbrush multimedia apps on laptops connected to video projectors to beam the kinetic art against the wall. It’s really cool when it’s done outdoors and at night.”

“So we plan to do something similar with the visual output of the Speakeasy program. Just as Melanie’s students use visual biofeedback to control the pronunciation of phonemes and words, we’d like to observe the Megapterans as they experience the visual dimensions of their own voices.”

“It’s possible that these first-ever cetacean word grams would provide dynamite material for your next publication, Lila.” Melanie grinned.

“Thanks, Mel. This is getting more exciting by the moment.”

“Not being a rave kind of guy,” said Gorman, “I’d be reluctant to expose the humpbacks to gimmicky, light-show-party pyrotechnics.”

“It’s not like that, Chris,” said Greg. “Let me explain. At first, we thought we could connect a giant, flatscreen TV to our Speakeasy computer and secure it on top of the glass, facing down into the water.”

“Sweet!” exclaimed Lila. “Flashing neon lights, like an aquatic Times Square.”

“But we realized that a TV that large would be too expensive for our limited budget and, needless to say, a pretty heavy object to transport.”

Greg continued. “So we Googled some options.”

Dmitri picked up the thread. “And realized we could configure a video projector and a large, rear-projection fabric screen similar to those used in some kinds of theaters. These screens are specially coated so that the projector sits behind the screen. The image is projected onto and passes through the fabric to the viewer’s side.”

Greg walked over to the whiteboard and drew a sketch of the proposed configuration. “So we’ll hang and secure the projector from the cabin ceiling, directly above the glass bottom, and project the image down through the screen and the glass and out into the water.”

“We’d lay the screen on top of the glass,” added Andrew. “It could be as big as the entire size of the window, maybe over a hundred inches.”

“That sounds like a pretty wild idea,” replied Gorman, “but I have to admit it’s an imaginative extension of the primary experiment. However, who knows what to expect? They could be scared away.”

“Or agitated by what humans might characterize as paranormal phenomena and possibly attack the boat out of fear or anger.” Hawkins himself sounded agitated.

“Nevertheless, Peter, I’m intrigued by the chance to study their reactions to the new stimuli.” Gorman faced Dmitri. “But I insist on proceeding cautiously and with safeguards in place.”

“We’ve already planned for this,” Dmitri nodded. “No visuals will be projected until we’ve concluded all phases of the acoustic-only experiment. Andrew’s Speakeasy software includes filters to minimize the occurrence of flickering images.”

“Your proposals are more progressive than I ever imagined.” Gorman seemed satisfied. “In addition to probing their reactions to our acoustically generated symbols, we’ll also be gauging their responses to viewing the display of their own vocalizations.”

“Dr. Dmitri’s mentor likened it to the myth of Prometheus’s gift of fire to the human race,” remarked Seema.

“Except in this case, it’s a gift of light.” Lila smiled.

“It’s the McPinsky Challenge,” said Dmitri. “We’re building a bridge of symbols of light and sound.”

“Cetacean biofeedback,” Andrew chimed in. “An inter-dimensional portal between alien civilizations.” Varying expressions of bemusement and amusement appeared on the faces of the team members.

“Getting back to basics.” said Greg. “We’ve packed a couple of high-performance laptops to support the Speakeasy analysis and plotting functions. Andrew has written a homemade version of Speakeasy to avoid intellectual property conflicts with the original developers.”

“I’ve designed an acoustic synthesizer.” Seema sounded a bit shy. “We can broadcast selectable frequency combinations to reply to the whale’s acoustic symbols.”

“I’d love to hear a demo of that, Seema.” Lila was clearly elated. “Sometimes I compose music that incorporates the sounds from the whale song recordings.”

“Lila is being modest,” said Hawkins. “She’s a highly regarded keyboard artist here on Maui. Tomorrow night, her group is giving a debut performance of her latest compositions. I thought we could all attend as a sort of team ice-breaker event.”

Dmitri heard a polite knock and saw the tanned face of Gorman’s office assistant peeking through the partially opened door. Gorman waved her in, and she tiptoed over to his chair. “Sorry to bother you, Mr. Gorman, but Mr. Padgett phoned again. He wants to speak to you about an urgent matter.”

“Damn it.” Gorman clenched his jaw and sprang up from the chair. “I’d better just get this over with. Why don’t you continue while I take the call in my office?” Gorman followed his assistant through the door.

“Hmmm,” muttered Hawkins. “I haven’t seen Chris lose his composure like that in a long, long time, and Padgett’s behavior is totally out of character. He’s never interfered like this before. The UH funding is administered as a three-year grant cycle, and we’re not required to inform them of any new activities initiated during the cycle.”

“I have a suspicion about who might be pulling Padgett’s strings.” Dmitri nodded at Hawkins.

“Well, there’s nothing to be done until Chris returns,” said Hawkins, “so let’s move on to plan the experiment.”

The group engaged in a lively discussion about the technical details of preparing the research vessel. Concluding they could be ready to launch in about five days, Hawkins lifted his glass. As they toasted one another with their soft drink cans and coffee mugs, Gorman burst into the room, crimson-faced. He stalked to a chair and threw himself down in a fury. “There’s trouble brewing in paradise, folks. Our UH funding administrator is threatening to cancel our grant if we taint the reputation of his university by conducting an interspecies communication experiment.”

Expressions of “gloom and doom” transfigured everyone’s faces. Lila’s face, however, seethed with rage. “So what did you say to him?” she fumed.

“Who knows how I might have responded if my eyes hadn’t been opened during our meeting. Thanks again to all of you for challenging me with your passionate ideas. Because of the other disturbing message I received this morning, there’s another reason why I’m mad as hell. I therefore told Padgett in no uncertain terms that our mission here is all about the whales. Nobody is going to stop us until our investigation reveals everything that’s possible to discover about the humpbacks. I told him we’d find other sources of funding, if need be, to maintain the integrity of our program.”

When the cheers died down, Hawkins asked, “What’s the news in the other disturbing message?”

Gorman’s face morphed into a grim expression. “I hate to tell you this, Peter, but the tissue biopsy results of the beached humpbacks are negative for disease or infection.”

Hawkins’s head drooped. “Which means it’s more than likely we’ve confirmed yet another human threat to our local humpback population.”

Gorman reminded Dmitri’s team of the purported sightings of naval research vessels in the vicinity of the Pailolo Channel between Maui and Molokai. “At least we’re finally getting support from the larger eco-groups like Greenpeace and the NRDC.”

“Right,” said Dmitri. “We saw today’s front-page story about the Greenpeace protestors at Pearl Harbor.”

“Navy base protests won’t solve the problem.” Lila bounced out of her chair. “It’s more important than ever to make a significant communication breakthrough to give us the clout to stop those experiments.”

Gorman nodded his agreement.

“So how did Padgett respond to your pushback?” asked Hawkins.

Gorman hesitated. “Well, I think I might have mentioned contacting the media about academic freedom issues if he reneged on our funding. After that, he relented and finally even apologized. Then he asked me very politely to refrain from publishing anything related to the experiment until the data and our conclusions are peer reviewed.”

“That shouldn’t be a problem.” Dmitri felt relieved. “It’s standard procedure, and we agreed to a media and publishing moratorium at last month’s SoCalSci funding meeting. By the way, did he tell you how he knew about the experiment?”

“Nope,” replied Gorman. “He was mum on that issue. I suppose he could have been tipped off by one of your SoCalSci associates.”

“And I think I know who that particular individual might be.”

* * *

After they’d adjourned the meeting, Lila escorted Andrew and Seema to the lab where she analyzed whale song recordings. “It looks like a scaled-down version of SoCalSci’s Signal Processing Lab,” Andrew observed. They were surrounded by a cluster of high-performance computer workstations and laptops for displaying and editing the waveforms.

“Look at this.” Seema pointed to a fancy keyboard synthesizer perched atop a stand.

“I love music.” Lila brushed her fingers across the keys of the instrument. “I think that’s the main reason I joined PICES. It’s the sheer beauty and mystery of the humpback’s songs. I love to jam along with the recordings or sample and integrate the vocalizations into my own compositions. As Peter mentioned, I’m in a New Age jazz combo.”

Andrew’s eyes opened wide. “Lila, did you know that Seema is also a gifted musician?”

“I don’t know about being gifted,” replied Seema. “I’m a classical violinist, but I’ve occasionally jammed with my jazz-aficionado sidekicks.”

“Hey,” said Andrew, “how about you two do a quick duet?”

Lila did not hesitate. “Wait just a sec.” She disappeared into the back room and emerged with a violin case. “This is Hawaii, where work and play go hand in hand. Let’s do it.”

Andrew clapped his hands enthusiastically while Seema removed the violin from its case.

After a few warm-up exercises, they were ready to jam. Lila started the session with an improvisational rendition of a melody from a Norah Jones song. Thirty seconds into Lila’s solo, Seema began to bow a single continuous vibrato chord, like the
shruti
drone of an Indian raga. Once she had synched up to the key of the song, she launched into a riff of rhythmic chord progressions that complemented Lila’s melody. After a while they switched roles, with Seema bowing a lively jazz-rock version of a Jean-Luc Ponty violin solo.

Captivated by the music from the next room, the other team members drifted into the lab. The newcomers reacted instinctively, bouncing to the beat and clapping their hands. While Andrew hand-slapped a syncopated rhythm on a desktop, Greg hooted his approval. When the duo’s harmonizing crescendoed to a scintillating finale, the musicians were rewarded with a rousing ovation.

“No problem here with team chemistry.” Hawkins directed his remarks to Dmitri, still snapping his fingers to the memory of Lila’s up-tempo rhythm. “As I mentioned, Lila’s combo is performing tomorrow night at a local supper club. We insist you be our guests for an evening of dinner and music.”