Sata noticed the pride in Boro’s posture and smile as he guided her down ramps toward the sound of rushing water.
“The blue triangle means we’re entering one of the wet ramps. We can walk carefully, or just . . .”
Sata had the idea, so she plopped down in the shallow water and found the bottom smooth and slippery. Just then, a high-pitched voice called from higher up the ramp. “Look out!”
Sata turned her head and saw a gray dolphin barreling down the ramp toward her. She quickly pushed with her hands to get moving.
Boro jumped and landed with his legs wide apart.
Sata slid under and was picking up speed, but the marine mammal was a split second behind, wiggling to slow itself, but still going twice Sata’s speed.
“Eeeeek!” it shrieked as it collided with the female monkey mammal who didn’t know that wet ramps were for sliding down, not sitting on.
Boro turned and watched helplessly as Sata and the dolphin tumbled together the rest of the way down to the river, with legs, fluke, arms, and flippers all tangled up.
When they finally splashed into deeper water, Sata quickly grabbed a tree root and coughed out the water she had inhaled. The dolphin began churning the water with its tail to stay in one place while looking at Sata.
Boro arrived at the water’s edge, but remained silent.
As soon as Sata recovered enough to realize what had happened, she
NEBADOR Book Six: Star Station 104
poured out sincere apologies. “I’m so sorry. It’s all my fault. I’m just a stupid
. . .”
The dolphin opened its snout and started laughing.
Sata grew quiet.
“Are you hurt?” the marine mammal asked between rounds of laughter.
“Um . . . no.”
“Me neither. Wanna do it again?”
Boro threw his head back and howled with laughter.
Trekila Spimalo was a fresh-water ecology specialist who traveled all over Nebador, helping star stations and planets to understand and correct imbalances in their water. She sensed the bond between Boro and Sata, who sat close together at the water’s edge. With a gleam in her eyes, she told them about her own handsome lover, currently on a deep-space mission.
“Are there . . . deep-space response ships full of water?” Sata asked with wide eyes.
“Only half-full. We have to breathe, just like you!”
Sata
chuckled.
“And sometimes we need to bring along an avian or a reptile, and once in a while . . .” she paused for dramatic effect, “a silly monkey mammal!”
Boro and Sata both laughed.
“Farewell, new friends! I must go taste the fish, then get some water samples!” Trekila Spimalo danced on her tail, then turned and dove into the tunnel that led to the underwater world of Satamia Star Station.
Sata snuggled close to Boro, and smiled when he put his arm around her.
She looked up at him with sparkling eyes and a glowing smile. Boro felt his heart pounding as their heads moved together and they shared a tender kiss.
“Yeah . . . okay . . . so . . .” Sata began when they parted, as if grabbing something solid after feeling dizzy. “I think I just learned something.”
“About
kissing?”
“No!” she said with a friendly frown. “About what Nebador people do when accidents happen. They laugh. They forgive each other, have fun, and make new friends. Right?”
NEBADOR Book Six: Star Station 105
“Um . . . yeah. Way different from our planet.”
“I know. But we have to learn how to do it. At least . . . all but Rini, who already knows how.”
Boro chuckled. “I think Rini was born smiling.”
“Mati’s gonna need all the smiles he can give her, today and for many days to come.”
Boro nodded thoughtfully.
“Okay. I’m getting hungry. How do we go fishing in this place since we don’t have long rows of sharp teeth like Trekila?”
Boro
grinned.
Sata only hesitated a moment before following Boro into the water tunnel.
He watched from below to make sure she was comfortable with the deep water. For the next hour, they swam from air pocket to air pocket, exploring the underwater world below for as long as each breath would allow.
Sata was almost as strong in the water as Boro, and he enjoyed teaching her the rules about catching fish. With the ursine docking controller Glorm, Boro had made a new friend, another male, quiet and strong like Boro himself. Swimming with Sata, Boro had a different experience, admiring her graceful strength and female curves whenever he was in a position to take a good look.
For that first hour, the fish eluded them, so they discussed tactics at each air pocket. Sata clearly intended to stay as long as it took to catch a fish. Boro was reminded of the many times they had worked together on a navigation problem on the Manessa Kwi, which sometimes took hours, and he smiled with happiness that they could also share other areas of life. Maybe someday, he pondered, they could share . . .
Suddenly a huge surge of water burst into their air pocket, and both of them held their breath while the wave passed. As soon as they could see, they recognized Kibi as she reached for a grab-bar, her dark hair plastered to her head. They had, however, never before seen a turtle with a head the size of a man’s, and a shell more than a meter long. The giant sea turtle nodded a greeting while treading water.
To their surprise, Kibi just breathed deeply, but didn’t try to say much.
NEBADOR Book Six: Star Station 106
“Only get . . . eight seconds. Psychic . . . Development. Bye!”
At that moment, her bracelet chimed, she took one last breath, then slipped down into the water. The turtle followed.
Boro blinked. “Wow. Some kind of serious training.”
“She found out Ilika’s done it,” Sata said, “but she started even before she knew that. Something happened that made her want to, or need to, commit herself to it, but she won’t say what.”
“I wonder if we should do it.”
“First . . . maybe we should see if Kibi survives.”
Boro chuckled. “Ready to try our new plan?”
“Yeah!”
The fish easily avoided Sata, waving her arms, by darting around a large rock. One of them didn’t see Boro hiding in the dim light behind the rock. He proudly carried the yellow fish, three-quarters of a meter long, up to an air pocket.
“Hurray!” Sata cheered when she surfaced.
Boro made sure the fish was dead before stashing it on a ledge near the fresh air outlet.
After breathing deeply for a minute, they went down again. This time Sata crouched behind the rock and Boro herded the next school of fish that came by.
Boro struggled with himself back at the air pocket when he saw the pink and silver beauty Sata held up, easily a full meter long.
Back at the river bank, Boro was even quieter than usual, and Sata could sense that her dear friend was challenged by the situation. “Knife?” she requested.
Without a word, he pulled if from a pocket of his dry clothes and handed it to her.
She eyed the meaty fish before her, judged the halfway point between gills and tail, and hacked the fish into two pieces.
“What are you . . .” Boro started to ask.
Sata handed him half the pink and silver fish, and the knife. “We worked
NEBADOR Book Six: Star Station 107
together, so we share.”
Boro looked at her for another moment, found his smile, and set to work cutting the yellow fish into two equal parts.
Deep Learning Notes
If the “accident” with Sata and the dolphin is embodied in the saying “When life hands you lemons, make lemonade,” what, in Sata’s situation, was the
“sugar”?
Trekila Spimalo’s specialty, fresh-water ecology, is sorely lacking in our human knowledge. For thousands of years, we have been changing the courses of streams and rivers, draining or creating lakes, and filling estuaries (shallow wet-lands). Even though we sometimes gain a little short-term profit from these projects, the results have never been good in the long run, and in many cases result in the complete “death” of the ecosystem. In the USA, for half a century after World War II, we poured vast amounts of money and energy into “straightening” rivers. We now know we were doing the worst possible thing, and have started to spend more money and energy to undo some of that damage.
Boro’s and Sata’s fishing technique was a good example of how much easier it is to gather food as a team, instead of as a lone individual. This fact led to the creation of tribes and larger communities. It is the same thing the wolf experienced in Book Two.
But, as Boro learned, living and working in a community (even of just two people) often requires pride to be set aside in favor of the benefits of sharing.
The creature who cannot master his or her pride must remain alone.