GENESIS & JANUS
Part 6:
Patricia Killiam & Jimmy Scadden
Prologue
“I will always love you.” I blew at a dandelion and watched its fluff scatter into the clear blue sky. The wind caught the tiny seeds and carried them up and away. “No matter where the winds carry me, I will always find my way back to you.”
“And I you,” said the boy, his face close now, his hot breath on my cheeks.
Sunlight streamed down on us in the field where we lay. I brushed a lock of hair from my eyes and looked down at an ant in the grass struggling with a prize far too large for it to carry.
“Never leave me.”
“I will never leave you,” he promised.
A silence descended, and then a low droning began. The boy looked up, craning his neck to see above the stone pile fence beside us. With a terrible growl, a Luftwaffe squadron roared overhead, skimming the treetops. I screamed and the boy jumped up.
He looked down at me. I nodded, and with a grim look he ran off, glancing just once over his shoulder to me before disappearing through the gate.
“I will never leave you,” I whispered.
1
Identity: Jimmy Scadden
My eyes teared up, straining to look forward into the wind while the airboat tore across the top of the kelp forests. I begged my dad to take me out to work on the water almost every day, which frustrated Mother to no end. Dad was touched that his sweet little boy wanted to be with him, but really, I just wanted to be away from her.
Still, it was beautiful on the water.
“Amazing out here, right Jimmy?” my dad yelled over the roar of the engine. “Look!”
He swerved the airboat and pointed toward something in the water.
Dozens of sea otters had arranged themselves into a raft in the floating kelp, chattering angrily as we passed. A few heads popped up and down in the water around us, and I let myself flitter out into their little bodies, watching myself watching them.
“They hang around near the floating reef systems. They love it out here!”
We slowed as we neared the edge of the forest and the kelp stalks became sparser. I was sitting on my dad’s knee, and he held me tightly against him with both arms, his warm hands on the flesh of my thighs, steering the boat with his phantom hands.
Unlike Mother, as soon as they’d arrived on Atopia my dad had worked hard at stretching his neural plasticity. Early on, he learned the trick of phantom limbs, something my mother never really figured out.
That day, we were fishing with the dolphins, which my dad knew was my favorite. My smile spread as we sped across the kelp, the wind and sun in my face, free as a bird. We didn’t really fish, but mostly directed the dolphins using pssi control, and they did the fish tending. At that early stage in the project, we still needed their help to herd the fish, and for me this was the best part of fishing—speaking with the dolphins.
“There they are.” My dad cut the engine.
Our boat settled into the water, gliding to a stop. The open ocean was gentle, but my dad held me tight. Gulls wheeled high in the air behind us, waiting for signs of any fish we might throw their way.
Off to the side of the boat, fast-moving shapes sped toward us from the depths. With a terrific splash, about a dozen heads broke the surface and the air filled with the sound of dolphins squeaking.
The pssi system instantly translated for us. Wild dolphins had fairly weak skills at what we would call communication, and the system often had to guess what they meant. These, however, were uplifted Terra Novan dolphins and had a good vocabulary.
And they were saying hello.
I smiled and waved. “Hey, Billy! Hi, Samantha!”
They squeaked their hellos back. Dad let go of me, and I rushed to the side and put my hand in the water to pet their snouts. They were like the best dog you ever had, but huge and wet and much, much smarter.
The Terra Novan dolphins weren’t exactly working for us. It was more like they worked with us. They liked the excitement of Atopia and enjoyed privileged access to multiverse worlds only possible here.
My dad laughed. “That’s a lot of love. Come on, we have a lot of work to do.”
The dolphins shifted their attention toward him.
“Today we’re harvesting sardines, so we need you guys to go and corral a few schools into the tanker over there,” he explained, pointing to a ship floating a few hundred feet away. “Could someone go get me a sample?”
Samantha, my favorite, squawked and dove down into the depths.
“All right,” my dad continued, clapping his hands, “let’s get this show on the road!”
The dolphins chattered their good-byes and shot off, except for Samantha, who popped back up with a sardine in her mouth.
“Thank you, Sam.” My dad nodded to her, bending over to take the sardine, and then turned back to his workstation, knife in hand, to begin the examination.
Samantha and I waited, staring at him. He stopped and smiled, shaking his head. “Okay, you two!” he laughed. “Go on and have some fun!”
I detached from my body and snapped into Samantha’s, instantly rocketing off into the ocean, feeling her powerful muscles forcing us through the frigid waters, chasing her brothers and sisters into the depths.