Dolphin Island

Now that the island had acquired a killer whale, everyone wanted to see what the Professor would do with her. For the first three days, he left her alone, until she had become used to her new surroundings and had recovered from the excitement of the trip. Since she had already been in captivity for several months, and was quite used to human beings, she quickly settled down and accepted both live and dead fish when they were given to her.

The task of feeding the whale was undertaken by Mick’s family, usually by his father Jo Nauru or his uncle Stephen, skipper of the Flying Fish. Though they took on the job merely to earn some extra money, they soon became quite fond of their charge. She was intelligent, which everyone had expected, but she was also good-natured—which hardly seemed right for a killer whale. Mick grew particularly attached to her, and she showed obvious pleasure when he came near the pool—and disappointment if he left without giving her anything.

When he was quite sure that Snowy had settled down and was taking a healthy interest in life, the Professor began his first tests. He played some simple phrases of Dolphin to her through the underwater hydrophones, and studied her reactions.

At first, they were quite violent. She charged around the pool in all directions, looking for the source of the noise. There was no doubt that she associated dolphin voices with food, and thought that dinner had been served.

It took her only a few minutes to realize that she had been fooled and that there weren’t any dolphins in the pool. After that, she listened attentively to the sounds that were played to her, but refused to go chasing after them. Professor Kazan’s hope that she would reply to some of the Dolphin talk in her own language was not fulfilled; she remained stubbornly dumb.

Nevertheless, he was making a little progress in “Orcan,” using tape recordings of killer-whale sounds. He used OSCAR’s infallible computer memory to hunt through the mass of material for Dolphin words. He found many. The names of several fish, for example, were almost the same in Orcan as in Dolphin. Probably both languages—like English and German, or French and Italian—sprang from some common ancient origin. Professor Kazan hoped so, for it would greatly simplify his work.

He was not too disappointed by Snowy’s lack of cooperation, for he had other plans for her, which could be carried out whether she cooperated or not. After she had been on the island for two weeks, a team of medical technicians arrived from India and began to install electronic equipment at the edge of the pool. When they were ready, the water was drained off, and the indignant whale was stranded helplessly in the shallows.

The next step involved ten men, some strong ropes, and a massive wooden framework that had been designed to hold the whale’s head clamped in a fixed position. She was not at all pleased with this, nor was Mick, who had to assist with the project by playing a hose pipe over Snowy to, prevent her skin from drying in the sun.

“No one’s going to hurt you, old girl,” he said reassuringly. “It’ll all be over in a minute, and you can start swimming around again.”

Then, to Mick’s alarm, one of the technicians approached Snowy with an object that looked like a cross between a hypodermic needle and an electric drill. With great care, he selected a spot on the back of the whale’s head, placed the device against it, and pressed a button. There was a faint, high-pitched whine, and the needle sank deep into Snowy’s brain, going through the thick bone of the skull as effortlessly as a hot knife through butter.

The operation upset Mick much more than it did Snowy, who seemed scarcely aware of the pinprick. This would not have surprised anyone with a knowledge of physiology, but Mick, like most people, did not know the curious fact that the brain has no sense of feeling. It can be cut or pierced without any discomfort to its owner.

Altogether, ten probes were sunk into Snowy’s brain. Wires were connected to them and taken to a flat, streamlined box that was clamped to the top of the whale’s head. The whole operation took less than an hour. When it was over, the pool was flooded again and Snowy, puffing and blowing, started to swim lazily back and forth. She was obviously none the worse for her experience, though it seemed to Mick that she looked at him with the hurt expression of a person who had been let down by a trusted friend.

The next day, Dr. Saha arrived from New Delhi. As a member of the Institute’s Advisory Committee, he was an old friend of Professor Kazan’s. He was also a world authority on that most complex of all organs, the human brain.

“The last time I used this equipment,” said the physiologist, as he watched Snowy swimming back and forth in the pool, “it was on an elephant. Before I’d finished, I could control his trunk accurately enough to type with it.”