Chapter No. 47 The Bringer of the Vision

Anderson appeared calm, at least on the outside, but he was churning on the inside. Dwelling on the incidents of the last few weeks was so disturbing his whole body was tense.

It didn't show in his voice. "Well, Dr. Talliman, Have you made any progress in understanding the vocalizations of the mermaids?"

"I wish we didn't have to refer to them as mermaids," Stevens said, shaking his head. "It's not very scientific. Why can't we refer to them as Aqua sapiens? I believe that's what Dr. Wang called them."

Anderson's brow wrinkled for an instant. "Whether we like it or not, the public calls them mermaids, and nothing we do or say will stop it. They will never accept Aqua sapiens. It sounds too technical."

Eric grinned at George. "Why don't we call them Sea Woo-men. That's what Margaret taught them."

That earned him a disapproving frown from his better half.

"I wouldn't call them sea women," Dr. Conners said. "There are kooks out there who object to mermaids because they expose their breasts."

Stevens exhaled a loud breath. "Dumb bastards! Don't they realize that these creatures have existed for six million years in a natural state? Why would they wear clothing when they live in the sea? Idiots!"

"That's really funny," Margaret said with the hint of orneriness in her eyes. "They only consider their nakedness above the waist because of its resemblance to human anatomy. What they don't realize is that they are completely naked."

"That's what we get for anthropomorphizing these creatures," Conners said. "They're not like humans. In fact, they are as far from humans as we are from the octopi."

Eric couldn't resist the temptation to continue the banter. "I heard that the religious community is embroiled in a big argument about whether mermaids have souls."

"What are they going to do," Stevens said, "send an evangelist down in a sub to convert them?"

Conners laughed--a rare event for her. "If they thought there was a buck in it, they'd try it."

Anderson smiled briefly before he knocked on the conference table. "Let's not diverge from the subject at hand." He gestured to Talliman. "Go on, Doctor."

Talliman cleared his throat and began in his magnificent baritone: "As Dr. Conners reported, many of the sounds that these creatures make represent a language. Their vocalizations were unintelligible at first, until we realized that they are similar to the sounds made by dolphins. Since dolphins do not possess vocal chords, they create sounds by the use of their blowholes and associated structures. Mermaids, on the other hand, possess a dual set of vocal chords. One set is restricted and thus emits sounds at the high end of the sonic spectrum. The second set is more nearly of human design and produces sounds in the normal sonic range. Mermaids also make sounds with their nasopharyngeal sphincters and associated air sacs to produce the echolocating clicks so familiar to the cetacean order. When they phonate in air, the sounds are as wailing and crying to human ears. At other times, they sound like they are singing a continuous incantation."

"I didn't realize that these creatures have blow holes," Anderson said. "I thought that they could breath under water."

"They can, but they have residual blow holes at the top of their foreheads. They also possess rudimentary gills on the ventral aspects of their necks. That's what's so unique about this species--they have both breathing systems."

Anderson shook his head. "Fascinating. It's as if they were mixed up at one time in their--" He leaned back in his chair. "Sorry, Doctor. I didn't mean to change the subject."

"Have you had any success in translating their phonations?" Eric asked.

"Fortunately, the science of analyzing the phonations of dolphins is well established. Frequency and energy-band analysis results are very fascinating. Mermaids do not communicate verbally using a language as in the human sense. They express a complete-concept analog signal."

"What do you mean?" Dr. Wang asked.

Talliman waved his hand around as if he were drawing something in the air. "Let's say, for example, that you were trying to describe the appearance of a dolphin to another person. You would make sounds that are recognizable as words and the words would follow one upon another until the complete description was conveyed--a series communication. It would be easier to show the person a picture. The image on the picture would be conveyed all at once--a parallel communication. This is the system employed by mermaids to express concepts during vocalization. Their brains perceive the complex analog sound signals all at once, conveying the impression in a real-time mode, much as they are able to visualize objects with their echolocation systems. We've always believed this to be true of dolphins, but their signals are far too alien for our comprehension."

"Sounds like you have a handle on this," Anderson said.

Talliman tilted his head and flashed his famous smile. "We are far from that. We have only succeeded in translating a few of the vocalizations of mermaids, at least in a crude sense. This is possible because of their ability to speak to us and to understand us in turn. Computers have enabled us to analyze their phonations and to convert them into images. This is just the beginning, however. They also communicate abstract ideas and concepts to one another. These are not easily translatable, as you might imagine."

Stevens waved a hand at him. "I don't understand how they can employ the same method of communication as cetaceans and, at the same time, understand our language?"

"The planum temporale in the left hemisphere of their brains is larger. Asymmetry of this type is what allows humans to use language. They also have a fairly large neocerebellum, suggesting expression of rational thought as language. The comparison to human brain structure is quite striking."

"I don't get it. According to Hauptman, here, they have a written language. If they communicate like dolphins, how could they express parallel communication as written words?"

"If you examine one of their tablets, you will find that the impressions are cut at various depths and they are grouped into clusters. We're not certain, but it appears that they can perceive these impressions much the same as they hear them."

Anderson wiped his hand over his face. "I don't understand. If these creatures are a variant of cetaceans, why are they so intelligent? Their brains are the same size and complexity as those of dolphins."

"Consider the hand," Eric said, holding his up and turning it. "A marvelous instrument, the hand: flesh and bones, blood vessels and nerves. Not much as biological things go, but how necessary the hand is to our ascendancy on this planet."

Eric's discourse earned him strange looks.

"Don't you see," he said with a more pleading voice. "That's why we humans are intelligent. We have hands. We can make tools and making tools helped develop the cognitive sections of our brains."

"Hauptman is right," Conners said. "These creatures represent what would have happened if dolphins hadn't evolved flippers for what originally had to have been forelegs. The only fact that doesn't fit is that mermaids don't employ gestural communication."

"You're right," Anderson said. "Some scientists believe that gestures led to language in humans."

Margaret shook her head. "I'm surprised that the government isn't interested in this research. This would be very useful in understanding dolphins and whales."

"The government isn't interested in pure research," Stevens said. "The only interest they have in these creatures is as weapons."

"Isn't that the way it's always been," Eric said. "The government's only justification for any scientific expenditure is if it has relevancy to national defense."

"What I really don't understand," Anderson said, "is how a species like this evolved still maintaining a larval reproductive physiology? It seems impossible."

"We've been down this road before," Conners said. "I believe that it has something to do with the fact that they haven't changed in over two million years."

"Well," Eric said. "I don't know about that, but I think that they've compensated for their primitive reproductive system by being passionate. In fact, they may be more passionate than humans."

"You should know, Hauptman," said Stevens with a sarcastic grin.

"Yeah right, George."

Margaret knew that her husband was right, but she wasn't sure why. She smiled briefly at her husband before she gave her opinion. "These creatures obviously enjoy copulation like humans. However, their sexual fervor is not the result of some estrus cycle, pheromone, or simple instinct. I'm certain that males and females pair off in monogamous relationships. But that's not all that uncommon in the animal kingdom. They also congregate in groups, or pods, like dolphins and some whale species. They're definitely social animals. No, what makes these creatures so bizarre is their internal larval reproductive physiology, as Dr. Anderson said. Most larvae come from oviparous animals. Some species of fish take their larva into their mouths to protect them, but I know of no animal that regurgitates its larva from within, especially through its tongue. There is no doubt that the mouth and its associated structures represent their genitalia, but there is no explanation for how this unique morphology evolved."

Conners held a hand up. "I believe that the Southern Gastric Brooding frog incubates its young in its stomach and gives birth by regurgitating."

"Weren't they killed off by a Chytrid pathogen?" Stevens asked.

"So?" Conners gave him a confused look.

"Well, we wouldn't want that to happen to these creatures. Now, would we?"

"The blood work revealed no pathogens," Anderson reported. He cleared his throat. "But, this has nothing to do with the unconventional reproductive modality of these creatures. It seems strange to me that they evolved with a dolphin caudal anatomy but don't have the dolphin's reproductive physiology."

Eric looked over the faces around the conference table. "Why are we having so much trouble accepting their peculiar physiology?"

Anderson stared at him for several seconds, as if he were searching for a reply. "Because it's inconsistent with anything we've ever seen. It's illogical, contradictory, and it just doesn't fit with our understanding of marine evolution."

Conners blew out a breath as if she were admonishing Anderson. "As if we knew all there is to know about marine evolution. What we don't know would fill thousands of libraries. Let's face it. The seas are still great mysteries to us. We live on the land; these creatures live in the sea. It's not our environment, and it's as simple at that."

"But, this creature appears to be a combination of a mammal and an amphibian, with some very strange characteristics thrown in . . . like hair. Whales and dolphins don't have hair. That's an evolutionary trait of land animals, not aquatic species. It doesn't make sense."

Eric sniggered and everyone stared at him. He looked back at them and tempered his expression to a wry smile. "Oh, I'm sorry. I just remembered this joke."
Everyone waited, but Eric didn't continue.

"Well, Hauptman," Stevens said, "Are you going to tell us the joke?"

Eric smiled. "Well, it came to me because of this thing about the creatures talking. There's this guy walking along the street, and he sees this frog. The frog says: 'Hey, buddy, pick me up and kiss me and I'll turn into a sexy, voluptuous, desirable woman and I'll be yours.' The guy looks around to see if anyone is watching and then he picks up the frog, puts it in his coat pocket, and continues on his way. He hears this muffled voice from his pocket saying: 'Hey, buddy, didn't you hear me? Kiss me and I'll turn into a sexy, voluptuous, desirable woman and I'll be yours.' He looks around again and then says: 'I'd rather have a talking frog.'"

Everybody laughed, his wife smiled at him, and the meeting, as well as the dilemmatic discussion, broke up.

At least for the moment.

###

The young woman's shrill but articulate voice echoed from the hard stonewalls of the museum vestibule with a bright tone. "My name is Karen Valcheck and I'll be your tour guide. If you have any questions, please feel free to interrupt me."

She had a young face, well highlighted with makeup and she was dressed in tour guide standard: a dark suit over a white blouse.

She gestured to a doorway. "Fellow me, please."

The beaming faces of the Japanese tour group expressed a common curiosity as they quietly followed their pert tour guide into the first display room.

"In this room, we have several examples of combs. Most are fashioned from fish bones and shark cartilage, giving them flexibility. Mermaids like to sun themselves and engage in grooming activities.

"Here, we have various musical instruments--flutes and stringed devices. And this, I've been told, is an example of a mermaid song sheet. It's carved in relief on a stone tablet. The scientists claim that they can interpret one of these. It looks like a bunch of scratches to me."

She pressed a button on the wall. Rhythmic high-pitched sounds emerged from two speakers attached to the wall. "This is an example of mermaid music. It sounds quite strange, at least to Western ears. Some experts claim that it resembles classical Japanese Shakuhachi music, typically played on a solo flute-like instrument. Some pieces resemble those of the Samisen, a long-necked lute."

Several of the visitors smiled.

"Over here," Karen said, pointing to a case standing by itself, "We have a mermaid hunting weapon. This device is quite interesting in its use of materials. Stone projectiles are propelled by the use of compressed air. The peculiar-looking pump handle there is used to fill an internal bladder, which is constructed from seal hide. The scientists say that the bladder is sealed with some sort of resin that they've concocted from various undersea sources."

A visitor held his hand up. "Do they know what the composition of the resin is?"

Karen smiled. "Not really. They believe it's made from the glue of muscles and clams--a protein known as DOPA--but they're not quite sure how they managed to make it harden. All they know is that Barnacle glue is the paragon of moisture resistant adhesives. They stick to ship hulls like crazy."

Another visitor joined in. "Quite a bit of this weapon appears to be constructed from shells. Do you know anything about them?"

"They're mollusk shells. Evidently, mermaids realize that this is one of the toughest, lightweight materials known to material science. They're composed of microlaminated layers of aragonite, a crystalline form of calcium carbonate, and a rubbery biopolymer. Modern technologists are just now duplicating the performance of these natural materials."

She pointed back at the case. "What really surprised everyone is the fact that the barrel of this gun, which is constructed from a whale bone, is rifled. The real question is: did they invent this concept of improved accuracy or did they copy it from a human weapon?"

After she allowed her little group to view the gun, Karen led her tour into an adjoining room.

"This room contains examples of free standing sculptures, arranged according to historic age. The earliest pieces date from the mid Miocene epoch, twenty million years ago. Mermaids that are presently living at Marineland of San Diego created the most recent additions. Most of the sculptures are carved from whalebone, ivory, and naturally occurring stone. Some were done in quartz.

"The major subjects are divided equally between expressions of their own forms and those of other aquatic creatures. Scattered among the sculptures from the Pleistocene epoch are representations of land animals.

"There was a movement towards abstraction in the late Pleistocene epoch. The free flow of form and placement of mass show a sophisticated sense of aesthetic awareness.

"Most of the sculptures in this room are small, the largest being only thirty inches in height. No example of monumental sculptures has been found. One explanation for this might be the desire to avoid detection or perhaps the need for easy portability.

"Some surprising pieces are displayed over here. This is an ivory rendition of a Spanish Galleon, and this is a Yankee Clipper."

She pointed to a separate case. "Now, this piece is really amazing; this is a sculpture of an Ohio class nuclear submarine. We've been told by the Navy that it's quite detailed."

###

Eric Hauptman peered into a camera lens and imagined he saw a shark eye, the one that belonged to the shark that nearly bit his head off, and it made him nervous. His wife appeared perfectly calm. He's convinced that she can look into the very jaws of death and not even increase her heart rate. But this was different; he had to face a television interview. He preferred to be out risking his life searching the ocean depths.

The interviewer, a dark-haired man in his early thirties, smiled and looked at the camera with his steely eyes. "Dr. Eric Hauptman and his wife, Dr. Margaret Hauptman, are responsible for discovering mermaids. They're marine biologists at the Pacific Institute of Oceanography."

He looked at Eric. "Dr. Hauptman, when did you first realize that you were on the trail of mermaids?"

Eric lips formed a rye smile. "We prefer not to consider these creatures as mermaids. They're some sort of missing link between the precursors to dolphins and a species that is extinct."

"Why do you believe that?"

Margaret answered. "They have a caudal . . . bottom section that resembles a dolphin, but the top part is unlike any other known species."

"There's very little hominoid . . . human characteristics," Eric said. "Their sculls do not resemble those of humans or apes."

"What do they resemble?"

Eric shrugged. "We don't know. Anthropologists and Paleontologists have never seen sculls like it. Many of the bones in the top part of their anatomy are different--they have a fairly large breastplate instead of a sternum, for example. It's quite unusual."

"But, they look like a human . . . sort of."

"It's an illusion," Margaret said. "People spot the hair and the breasts and they see what they want to see." She smiled. "Their breasts, by the way, have muscle tissue. They're very firm--not at all like a human female's."

"Are these creatures mammals?"

Eric smiled, but thought better of it. "No, they're not. That's what I mean when I say that they're unlike anything we've ever seen."

The interviewer looked confused. "They're not mammals but they have breasts?"

"Yes," Margaret said. "It's weird and . . . but very fascinating."

"Do you have any idea what the extinct species might have looked like?"

"No we don't," Eric said. "All we do know is that a good deal of this creature's DNA is alien."

"Are you inferring that these creatures are not from this planet?"

"Heavens no! What I mean by alien is that we've never seen the DNA sequences before. Of course, some of their DNA sequences resemble those from dolphins."

The interviewer lowered his eyes for a moment, as if he were trying to think without revealing his emotions. He looked back up at Eric and his wife. "Is it possible that these mermaids represent a form of more advanced dolphin, like Homo sapiens' relationship to Homo erectus?"

Margaret stared at the interviewer with a surprised expression.

Eric's eyes widened. "I never thought of it that way. Yes, as a matter of fact, it's a distinct possibility."

###

The man stood ramrod at attention, his jaw and chest thrust out, his gut pulled in. He could have easily crushed the little man that was berating him, but it was not his way. He was a good soldier.

"Look Stanton," the little man said in a harping voice. "We have no other choice, now. We must destroy these creatures to prevent them from falling into our enemy's hands."

"Such an operation would involve casualties," Stanton pointed out. "We risk compromise."

"Compromise!" Stram screeched. "Our operation has already been compromised when my wife was taken prisoner because of your lax security procedures."

"We were not aware of the existence of the Institute's security force."

"Indeed. You also miscalculated in the abduction of the trainer."

Stanton's face took on a more gloomy appearance. "Yes. They killed two of our agents and rescued the young trainer."

"It seems that we have underestimated the Institute's capabilities on several fronts. So much for reliable intelligence data. We've been operating blind and deaf." He turned away from Stanton. "Formulate a plan, but do it soon. If we wait, we will have very little chance at success."

"As you wish," he said before spinning on his heels and leaving.

Stram viciously paced back and forth several times and then stopped, as if his mind were trapped in a temporary lapse of thought. He plopped into a chair and picked up a yellow paper. Seething with anger, he sat there for several minutes with glazed eyes before he pounded his fist on his leg. "Marian, they will pay dearly for their treachery. You have my word on that."

A communiqué fell from his hand and fluttered to the floor like a battered leaf. It contained a terse message: YOUR WIFE HAS BEEN ADMITTED TO A GOVERNMENT HOSPITAL IN A COMA. THEY BELIEVE IT IS AN OVERDOSE OF BARBITURATES. SHE IS NOT EXPECTED TO LIVE.