“Alison. Alison, can you hear me?” It was Lee’s voice, clear and alone.
“Lee, yes!” She was still getting jostled around and looked at the dolphins who were still talking. “What’s happening?”
“I had to disable the translation. I’ve turned off your microphone and speaker. Can you get to the surface?”
“I think so.” Alison pushed away hard and pumped her legs, sending her to the surface. When she reached the top, she looked around through the fogged mask and spotted Chris. He was already on the bottom step waiting for her. She reached up and he clasped her hands before pulling her up forcefully, which caused her to stumble and fall into his arms. In one quick motion, Chris reached over her head and pulled the mask from her face.
“Are you okay?”
She had to catch her breath. “Y-e-s.” She looked back to see that many of the dolphins had followed her to the surface and were bobbing above the water. They were still talking excitedly.
Lee came running out of the salon and helped her up the rest of the steps. They quickly removed her mask along with the tanks from her back, freeing her from most of the weight.
“What happened?” she asked, still out of breath.
Lee frowned. “I think IMIS got confused.”
“Confused?”
“Yeah. It was trying to process too many translations from different directions. It got overwhelmed until it couldn’t sync the words correctly. I’m sorry.”
Alison took a deep breath to calm her nerves. “It wasn’t your fault. I guess we should have expected something like that.”
Chris nodded in agreement. “That’s definitely a response we weren’t ready for.”
“Agreed.” Lee knelt down and helped Alison off with her fins. “You sure you’re okay?”
Alison smirked with amusement and glanced back at the dolphins crowding around the stern of the boat, all still trying to talk. “I didn’t expect them to be more excited than I was.”
Lee was studying his screen when Alison approached from behind with a mug of tea. His monitor was filled with graphs and computer logs from the portable IMIS servers below. The window in the middle of the screen displayed a jumble of crisscrossing lines, presenting all of the different conversations that IMIS had been trying to translate through Alison’s vest unit.
“Wow. That’s what it looks like?”
Lee pursed his lips but kept his eyes on the graph. “Most of it. The problem is the vest.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, not the vest per se. It’s because it’s mobile. The camera is too limited. Back at the lab, we have multiple cameras all synched with each other. It provides a complete picture of the tank from almost any angle, which means nothing gets lost. But the vest has only one camera and it’s small, which means a relatively narrow viewing angle. It’s one thing to view a three-dimensional area like the tank, but it’s another to be right in the middle of it.”
“Meaning it’s easier to lose track of moving objects?”
“Exactly.” Lee leaned back in his hard plastic chair and crossed his arms. “The other problem is that with so many dolphins present, IMIS can’t keep track of who is saying what. The camera limitation just compounds the issue. I should have anticipated that.”
Alison took a sip and laid a hand on Lee’s shoulder. “We can’t think of everything.”
He shook his head. “I should have thought of this.”
“So what do we do?”
“Unfortunately, there’s nothing I can do about the camera, at least not here. That’s going to take some design work and a whole lot of testing.” He sighed, still staring at the scrambled lines on the screen. “But I might be able to figure out a workaround. The one thing we haven’t told IMIS to do is to listen for individual tones or pitches. We never had to. We only had two dolphins to worry about. But now it simply can’t differentiate between so many different conversations.”
“Are these servers strong enough to do that?”
Lee nodded. “I think so. I just need to figure out how, and then try to code it.”
“Well, I know this is a long shot, but is there anything I can do to help?”
Lee looked up and smiled. “Nah. Thanks, Ali. It’s just something I need to figure out.”
“I figured as much. What if I at least bring you some dinner?”
“That’s a deal.”
Alison patted him again on the shoulder and stepped through the narrow doorway, heading for the stairs.
Back in the salon, she passed behind Chris at the compact stove. He stood stirring a pot of pasta.
Alison leaned in and sniffed. “Smells good.”
Chris winked. “It’s kind of hard to screw up spaghetti. How’s Lee coming along?”
“He’s trying to find a way to separate the strings of conversation.”
Chris shook his head. “I don’t know how he figures all that stuff out. I pretty much give up when my email doesn’t work.”
“Or when they come from me,” Alison teased.
They both looked at the open sliding glass door as Kelly stepped in from outside. The fading light had turned the sky behind her a dark crimson red. “Okay, the drogue is down, so we shouldn’t drift too far tonight. And we should have pretty good weather for the next couple days.”
“Any sign of Dirk and Sally?”
“Yeah, they’ve come by a couple times to check on us. I think they know we’re having trouble with the translations right now.” She cocked her head for a moment. “At least I think it’s Dirk and Sally.”
Alison laughed. “Oh well, I’m sure they could use the rest.” She reached behind Chris and grabbed some plates. “I’m just hoping Lee can work one of his computer miracles.”
A noise woke Alison up and she rolled over, forcing one eye open in the darkness. It took her a moment to remember where she was and finally recognize the boat’s smooth, white fiberglass walls and ceiling. They were only visible thanks to the soft glow coming through her door.
She cleared her mind and squinted toward the light. She swung her legs over the edge of the bed and stood up in her shorts and tank top. Suspiciously, she walked softly down the tiny hallway, following the light.
She knew what she was going to find, but it didn’t make her any less irritated. She pushed the oval door open and stepped out into the small converted cabin. “What on earth are you still doing up?”
The sarcasm was lost on Lee, who looked at her excitedly. “Good, you’re up!” he said, almost jumping out of his chair. “I need to talk to you.”
Alison glared at him. “You know the sun is going to be up in a couple hours, right?”
He couldn’t hide the brief look of guilt. “Uh… yeah. Sorry, I couldn’t sleep.”
A drowsy Chris came downstairs, nearing the end of his watch. “What’s going on?”
“Someone’s been up all night.”
Chris turned to Lee, who was grinning.
“Okay, that’s true,” Lee confessed. “But I have good news!”
Alison’s eyes opened in anticipation. “Did you fix it?”
“I did.”
“Really?’
He shrugged innocently. “It wasn’t that hard. I identified several segments of Dirk and Sally’s speech and overlaid them onto the speech patterns from the other dolphins. Then I removed the differences, which gave me a tonal signature. I’ve now added it to the translation process, so it should filter Dirk and Sally’s speech from the others. It will help keep IMIS from getting confused. Unfortunately, it also means the other dolphins can’t talk directly to you. They’ll have to talk through Dirk and Sally. It’s the best I can do for now.”
Alison and Chris looked at each other. “Lee, you’re amazing!”
“Tell that to my wife.”