Dolphin Island - Arthur C. Clarke [60]
"That's fine," answered the Professor, a little absently. It was obvious to Johnny that he had something on his mind, and presently he brought it out.
"Now, Johnny," he said, "I've had time to do a lot of thinking these last few days while I've been lying here. And I've come to a good many decisions."
That sounded faintly ominous, and Johnny wondered what was coming next.
"In particular," continued the Professor, "I've been worrying about your future. You're seventeen now, and it's time you looked ahead."
"You know that I want to stay here, Professor," said Johnny in some alarm. "All my friends are on the island."
"Yes, I know that. But there's the important matter of your education; OSCAR can take you only part of the way. If you want to do anything useful, you'll have to specialize and develop whatever talents you have. Don't you agree?"
"I suppose so," Johnny answered, without enthusiasm. Where was all this leading? he wondered.
"What I'm suggesting," said the Professor, "is that we get you into the University of Queensland next semester. Don't look so upset—it's not the other side of the world.
Brisbane's only an hour from here, and you can get back any week end. But you can't spend all your life skin-diving around the reef!"
Johnny decided that he would be quite willing to try, but in his heart he knew that the Professor was right.
"You have skills and enthusiasms we need badly," said Professor Kazan. "What you still lack is discipline and knowledge—and you'll get both at the University. Then you'll be able to play a big part in the plans I have for the future."
"What plans?" asked Johnny, a little more hopefully.
"I think you know most of them. They all add up to this—mutual aid between men and dolphins, to the advantage of both. In the last few months we've found some of the things we can do together, but that's only a feeble beginning. Fish-herding, pearl-diving, rescue operations, beach patrols, wreck surveys, water sports—oh, there are hundreds of ways that dolphins can help us! And there are much bigger things…"
For a moment, he was tempted to mention that sunken spaceship, lost back in the Stone Age. But he and Keith had decided to say nothing about that until they had more definite information; it was the Professor's ace in the hole, not to be played until the right moment. One day, when he felt that it was time to increase his budget, he was going to try that piece of dolphin mythology on the Space Administration and wait for the dollars to roll in…
Johnny's voice interrupted his reverie.
"What about the killer whales, Professor?"
"That's a long-term problem, and there's no simple answer to it at the moment. Electrical conditioning is only one of the tools we'll have to use, when we've decided on the best policy. But I think I know the final solution."
He pointed to the low table at the other side of the room.
"Bring over that globe, Johnny."
Johnny carried across the twelve-inch globe of the Earth, and the Professor spun it on its axis.
"Look here," he said. "I've been thinking about Reservations—Dolphins Only, Out of Bounds to Killer Whales. The Mediterranean and the Red Sea are the obvious places to start. It would take only about a hundred miles of fencing to seal them off from the oceans and to make them quite safe."
"Fencing?" asked Johnny incredulously.
The Professor was enjoying himself. Despite Nurse's warning, he looked quite capable of going on for hours.
"Oh, I don't mean wire-netting or any solid barrier. But when we know enough Orcan to talk to killer whales, we can use underwater sound projectors to shepherd them around and keep them out of places where we don't want them to go. A few speakers in the Straits of Gibraltar, a few in the Gulf of Aden—that will make two seas safe for dolphins. And later, perhaps we can fence off the Pacific from the Atlantic, and give one ocean to the dolphins and the other to the killer whales. See, it's not far from Cape Horn to the Antarctic, the Bering Strait's easy, and only the gap