Operation Malacca (2 page)

'Just this. Three months ago, the Vietnamese built a scientific research station about thirty-five miles off the eastern coast of Sumatra, almost directly opposite and south of Singapore. The station is located in the Riouw Archipelago, and is shielded on the north, west, and south by several islands. It faces directly up the strait. Since it is in international waters, the Indonesians and Malaysians have both been refused entry or inspection. The Vietnamese claim it is purely a scientific research station to investigate currents in the southern end of the straits in preparation for later oil exploration. As you may know, the currents are very tricky.'

Keilty nodded.

'British photo reconnaissance shows an honest-to-God research station there and nothing else.'

'Nuts. Since when have that bunch ever done any scientific research? They wouldn't know what the words mean.'

'Precisely. In addition to photo reconnaissance, the British have also sent two submarines in. The first was warned away; the second, chased out and damaged somewhat by destroyers. It was a nuclear sub.'

Jack whistled. Keilty was looking interested now. The sound of splashing, whistling, and catcalls from the pier went unheeded.

'What about underwater demolition teams?'

`They have sent in three divers to date. None of them have returned. It would appear that it is impossible to find out what they are doing.'

Rawingson paused and regarded Keilty. 'That's why they turned to us and we have come to you.'

'Ho-ho, so that's it,' Keilty exclaimed. 'The light is beginning to dawn.

Ì thought it would,' Rawingson smiled. 'We are well aware of the subsequent work you have been doing with dolphins since leaving our, well ... shall we say – employ.'

`Let's not,' Keilty muttered. 'I take it you are interested in Charlie?'

`Tricky, ain't they?' Jack grinned.

`just a moment, Lieutenant ...' Rawingson sputtered.

Àll right, no internecine quarrels. But I agree with Jack, Admiral.'

Ìf half of what you claim about this dolphin is true, Doctor, he's just what we need,'

Redgrave said seriously.

Keilty stood up. 'Admiral, can I clobber him again, or just refuse him drinks?'

`For God's sake, shut up, Redgrave. One more word out of you and you'll wind up counting gooney birds on Johnson Island for the Interior Department.'

`But I only meant ...'

`Shut up,' the admiral roared. He breathed deeply for several seconds, then turned back to Keilty, a serious, almost pleading look on his face.

`Look, Doctor, we need your help. This is serious.'

`Me, or my dolphin? And besides, you still haven't told me what the problem is. For all I know, it really is a legitimate research station.'

`Yes, you're quite right. Please sit down. Rawingson reached into the brief case and took out a sheaf of papers. 'This,' he said slowly, 'is a series of reports concerning the movement of certain high-ranking military personnel in the Vietnamese armed forces.

`To a last man, they have all been trained in Hanoi and Moscow.'

Rawingson paused before going on. 'Both of you,' he said, looking from Keilty to Weston, 'both of you are to give me your word that you will not repeat a word of this to anyone. Very few people know of it, and that's the way we want it kept.' He selected a slim manuscript with the green top-secret

cover sheet of the U.S. Government and the maroon cover sheet of the British Government.

'As I explained, and as you know, the straits are of extreme strategic and tactical importance to us. Their protection was just one of the reasons we risked a land war in Indo-China. But, we also found, that short of a nuclear war which could never be justified, we could not hold South Vietnam. But the war did achieve one limited objective, we managed to keep the straits open. So, we took our losses and pulled out. As long as noncommunist governments sit astride the straits, Vietnam will never be a major power. And they know it and so do their friends the Russians. We suspect but can't prove that Vietnam is encouraging the rebirth of communist insurgency movements in Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines, but under much tighter control than ever before. Vietnam took their lumps for awhile from Cambodia and Laos when the local communists refused to play their game but it looks like even that problem is being solved. Cambodia knows that the Vietnamese can make a great deal of trouble for her at a very critical time. China is trying to prop her up but ...

Ìt all comes down to control of the straits. Control would not only give Vietnam tremendous leverage but would also allow her to outflank friend and foe alike. And, it would be a huge bulwark against the Chinese. It is beginning to sound as if they have in mind a revival of the old Japanese Sphere of Greater Co-prosperity with themselves playing the Sons of Heaven.

'A greatly entrenched Vietnamese government on the southern flank, just waiting for a funny move and the Russians in the north . . . the possibilities of the situation are enough to make your mouth water if you sit in the Kremlin. So, the first step must be to neutralize the British, Australian, Indonesian and Malaysian fleets in such a way as to neutralize an advantage to the U.S. Seventh Fleet and to destabilize the Malaysian and Indonesian governments and give the local insurgents a hard crack at them. With governments that are at least forced to be friendly, if not in actual sympathy with, the Vietnamese to the south, then Cambodia, Laos and Thailand will have to fall into line.

China will then be caught in a huge pincer, encircled if you will and if it comes to war, she would not stand a chance, even with all her hundreds of millions. If her industrial base is destroyed by Soviet missiles she becomes the agrarian society of the last century and easy prey to all comers.

'The specter of the Soviet Union without the counterbalancing threat of the Red Chinese is something we don't want to have to face in the near future.

Rawingson held up a ticketed folder.

'In this report, gentlemen, is incontrovertible proof that the Vietnamese have succeeded in manufacturing at least one five-megaton nuclear bomb.'

'My, my,' Keilty whistled, 'how dey do spread.

'We have very good reason to believe that bomb is being planted on the floor of the Malacca strait.'

`How good?'

Èxtremely good. The President has directed us to co-operate in every way with the British.'

Keilty and Weston exchanged long, sober looks. Margaritta came running lightly up the gravel path, fastening the top of her bikini. She disappeared into the bungalow, ignored by the four men.

`What good is it going to do them down there?' Keilty asked.

'If that bomb is detonated, it will destroy the British fleet and send billions of tons of radioactive water over the Malay Peninsula. The Vietnamese will have Singapore relatively unharmed. The Malaysian armed forces in combination with the Singapore police will be pushed back into the interior with the loss of eighty-five percent of their bases, munitions and other material. Vietnamese and probably Cambodian troops will occupy the peninsula without much opposition while the Indonesians recover their own losses; Congress, and the Australian and British Parliaments will spend weeks arguing about what it all means by which time, no matter what they decide, we will have been presented with a very effective and clever fait accompli.'

`Looks like I called the wrong parties tricky,' Weston grinned. 'My apologies, Admiral.'

'Not a very pretty picture, Admiral,' Keilty said thoughtfully. 'Allow me to fill in the rest of it. You want me to persuade Charlie to scout out this installation ...'

Ànd find us a way to destroy it,' Rawingson interrupted.

. . and find you a way to destroy it. Quite a task for one silly dolphin.'

`You mean, you don't think he can do it?' Rawingson asked quickly.

Weston laughed and got up and went into the house for another bottle.

'Hell, there's no question but what he can do it,' Keilty continued, 'if

'If

'If I decide he should, and if I can explain it to him.'

'If you decide he should. Good God, man, this is no time for personal considerations. We need you.'

'Well . . . that's settled. At least now you're saying so openly,' Keilty said, watching narrowly as Jack returned and poured rum into the glasses. He reached out and tipped the bottle, making it run out faster. Jack looked pained as he held it up and measured the level.

'I just wanted to make sure you were asking, not demanding.'

'What did you mean by explaining it to him – who's him?'

'Charlie, for crying out loud, who else. Look, Admiral, maybe this will work and maybe it won't. Explaining things to a dolphin is a little bit different than briefing a bunch of wet-eared naval officers.

`For one thing, dolphins think differently than we do. They have no politics – so they have no concept of good and evil. Evil to them, or what can be translated for evil, is the concept of shark or killer whale – their natural enemies – and then, not all sharks, only those which prey on dolphins.

'In addition, Charlie won't do everything I want him to –only what makes sense to him.

And I am going to have one heck of a time trying to explain this.'

Rawingson took a long pull at the drink Weston had poured him.

Ìt's funny. We had expected a lot of difficulties, even to the dolphin not being able to do the job. But we never expected that the dolphin might altogether refuse.'

`There may be one other difficulty. How extensive will this reconnaissance need to be?'

Keilty asked.

Rawingson sat forward. 'We want a Combined Strike Force of Malaysian, Indonesian and Australian/New Zealand naval units to destroy the research station. The Vietnamese know this but are gambling they can finish before we can move. Naturally, none of the governments involved will act until they have proof . . . or figure the odds are running out. The Malaysians have had a lot of pressure put on them by the Vietnamese lately in the South China Sea and they don't want to worsen the situation if the bomb does not exist.'

'You want a comprehensive survey then. What are you looking for?'

`That we don't know. How would you go about planting a bomb in a couple of hundred feet of water — a very precise bomb, intended to do a precise job. We have specially designed underwater cameras and radiation counters to use for this job. We'll strap them on the fish ...'

`Not fish, Admiral — dolphins are mammals. And he may not take kindly to being loaded up with equipment.'

`Well, in this matter, I'll defer to you — you know best.' `Well, well, will wonders never cease?' Keilty muttered to himself.

`The problem remains — we must have that information. And there seems to be no other way to get it:

Keilty stood up. 'Let's go ask Charlie what he thinks. The most he can do is say no.

The admiral winced, but followed, stumbling over Redgrave, who in his haste to make amends, botched the job of holding the admiral's chair. Rawingson mentally aimed a kick at Red-grave's neatly pressed backside. Keilty led them around the side of the bungalow, past a neat flagstone patio where Margaritta was sunning herself, one slim ankle in the air and sans bikini. Rawingson grabbed the Lieutenant Commander by a lapel and dragged him on.

CHAPTER TWO

On the leeward side of the island, Keilty had constructed a series of three shallow pens –much like Olympic-sized swimming pools – divided by cyclone fencing. The pens were each marked off with colored files of nylon mesh curving to a common opening on the seaward side.

He stopped by the middle pen, while Jack walked over to a small shed that housed the generator. When he opened the metal hatch, the sound of a small diesel motor could be heard faintly.

'Jack helps me with these experiments quite a bit,' Keilty explained. 'Charlie and the rest know him almost as well as me. Jack's a better scuba-diver than I am, so he does most of the underwater work.'

'Our reports did not say that he participated in your work,' Rawingson said thoughtfully. '

There seem to be quite a few holes in our intelligence,' he finished, turning a baleful eye on Redgrave.

'All set,' Jack called, and came trotting back.

Keilty bent down and reached into the water for a switch set flush with the wall of the pens. A high-pitched squeak sounded, muffled by the water.

'That's the call,' Keilty said. 'It's a tape recording of my voice shouting "Hey, Charlie"

over and over again, about four times normal speed. It goes through loudspeakers spaced around the island and out on the reef. If Charlie is anywhere around, he'll hear it and come on in.'

'What happens if he doesn't hear it?'

'It'll keep playing until he does.'

Keilty paused to stare out across the lagoon. A triangular dorsal fin with a thin wake curling up and around was heading towards the pools, about a hundred yards from the opening.

'Better stand back – this is an old trick of his,' Keilty called, stepping back. They could now see a gray torpedo shape shoot unerringly into the mouth of the pool and race up the fifty-meter length between the red and green files of mesh. Ten feet from the edge of the pool, the dolphin slammed around in a flashing broadside that sprayed water over the edge of the pool and the watching men.

'I guess we didn't move back far enough,' Keilty grinned sheepishly. Redgrave surveyed his soaking-wet whites and splotched bucks with dismay.

The dolphin swam leisurely back to the wall and flipped the switch to cut off the underwater call. Then he backed off a few feet and heaved himself half out of the water and onto the sloping edge. Charlie surveyed the four men with his bright eyes, his short, stiff neck twisting from side to side. Keilty sat down next to him with his bare feet dangling in the cool water and thumped the dolphin on the back of his head.

Charlie opened his mouth, revealing four rows of conical, very sharp teeth, and issued a cross between a grunt and a whistle, while Keilty taped a small microphone next to the dolphin's blowhole, clipped an earphone into the dolphin's auditory hole, and fastened another microphone around his own neck. He plugged both microphones into a mixer and tuned it quickly.

'Charlie's microphone feeds through a transphonemator that breaks down his click and whistle speech into the proper pitches for direct translation into English equivalents.

Dolphin speech is composed mostly of broad-band clicks between two kc and four kc per second. In the beginning we taught Charlie to speak English more as a test of his intelligence than anything else. The dolphin language, which is quite similar to that of other Cetacea – whales, et cetera – is also quite difficult to produce without the transphonemator. It's a simply structured language, a straightforward "working" language with a small vocabulary of some three hundred different word symbols, each with a single meaning.

Keilty patted Charlie fondly on the head. 'He's pretty intelligent, he is. He not only learned to use the transphonemator to translate his language symbols – their meaning that is – into human terms, but he invented new dolphin words and added them to his vocabulary at a phenomenal rate.

'We found,' Keilty went on, 'that the whole key to effective and quick communication between man and dolphin lay in the initial use of the transphonemator to come up with enough common symbols to give us a reference ground – a kind of Rosetta Stone affair.

Ònce he had learned to speak to us so that his language made sense to us, we began to teach him to think in word symbols. Charlie describes the thought process as a mixture of English and dolphinese, although neither is particularly suited to the thinking process in this form. His biggest problem, as you might suspect, was in English words that have more than one meaning, such as hear, here. So far, he's not come up with any great earth-shaking philosophies, but then he still isn't clear as to what abstract thinking is. He can reason quite well, but not so well where abstracts are concerned.'

`Then you just reverse the translation process in order for the dolphin to understand you?'

Rawingson asked.

`No, not at all, or at least not any more. Dolphins speak and hear about four times as fast as we do. This also translates to their movements and perceptions. Dolphins are extremely fast, as are all sea creatures. In the water they are extremely quick because they are essentially weightless and actually have three dimensions to move through, while we have only two — except by artificial means. So they have to be very perceptive and fast.

`Now, because they do hear and speak and because he now knows English, my voice is merely recorded and played back instantly, but four times faster than normal. I am gradually teaching him to understand me without the speed-up process, but it is like trying to understand a seventy-eight record at sixteen rpm. About twenty years ago, Dr.

John Lilly down in the Virgin Islands noticed that his dolphins were repeating a series of sounds over and over. When they taped and slowed them down, they found that the dolphins were actually saying words in English, but four times as fast. They also found that these dolphins could understand some words they were saying. But still it is a long way from isolated words to entire sentences and conversations four times as slow as you are used to. In fact, Lilly had a girl live in the same pool with a dolphin for over a year, ten hours a day, five and six days a week. Before the year was up, they understood each other quite well without using any artificial means of communication.

Ènglish is basically a sentence-oriented language — subject, verb, and modifiers for each as needed. On the other hand, a language such as French, where meaning depends on word variation, might be easier to teach a dolphin, as their language is sound-symbol oriented and each sound means a specific thing, and there isn't the logical progression through a sentence as there is in English. Then again, I may be completely wrong. We will have to try it to find out. Chinese, on the other hand, might even be better. It's a tonal language as is dolphinese —with each sound-symbol having essentially one meaning.

Ànyway, Charlie has become so good at using the trans-

phonemator and has developed such a sense of humor that you sometimes forget that it is a dolphin speaking to you. We've installed a TV set and a microfilm reader that he can watch ...'

`You mean he can read?' Rawingson asked, amazed.

'Of course. Why not? From speaking a language, it's not so hard a step to breaking down the relatively simple code we use for writing. Anyway,' Keilty continued, 'he can use both whenever he wants. In two years, Charlie has developed a large vocabulary and a fairly good grasp of abstracts for one who never even dreamed of their existence a short time before. I'd say this his general level of intelligence is about on a par with a twelve-year-old in abstract matters, and level with an intelligent full-grown man in most other things.

Charlie had been fidgeting through Keilty's long dissertation and finally broke into the conversation, interrupting Red-grave who had been about to ask a question.

`What's up, doc?' Charlie's voice was a well-modulated imitation of Keilty's.

Both of the naval officers started and stared at each other. Charlie slid back part way and slapped the surface of the water with his tail.

Keilty looked pained. 'Cut out the funnies, Charlie, this is serious business. These gentlemen are here to ask our help. They have come to us because you are the only one that can do what they want, so quit clowning around.'

'Okay, sorry,' Charlie replied, still in a creditable imitation of Keilty's voice.

jack bent over to pat his head. Keilty then explained briefly what they would need from Charlie and that it would give him a chance to ride in an airplane again. They would even put him by the window for the entire trip this time. Keilty did not explain why they needed the information, as it would only have confused the dolphin, or so he thought. He played up the airplane ride and the chance to see new territory.

The dolphin acquiesced easily enough, then demanded to know why.

Òh brother, you would have to ask that.'

'Darned right. If you want me to go traipsing across the world, then you had better tell me why.'

'Look, Charlie,' Keilty said. 'I've tried to explain to you before about Communism as a political rather than economic system and our own ...'

`Yeah, with that cornball analogy of the dolphins versus the sharks,' Charlie interrupted. '

What it all amounts to is that each of you wants the other of you to think and act the way he does, right?' Charlie finished smugly.

Keilty did a double take. 'Now how the devil did you arrive at that conclusion? I've been trying to pound just that idea into your thick head for nearly a year.'

Ì've been sitting out on the reef thinking about it since last night's newscast. Eric Sevareid gave me the due.'

Èric Sevareid?' Keilty cried.

`Yep, he was talking about religion.'

Ì give up.' Keilty threw up his hands. 'You see,' he said, turning to Rawingson, 'why the scientific method isn't much help here. Our own informal way sometimes works best.

This is what I tried to convince those idiots of, back in Washington. But no – now everything has to be done by the book. Nuts! '

Àll right,' he said, turning back to the dolphin, 'now that you have figured that out, are you convinced that we are right, or do you still maintain ... ?'

`So are they convinced that they are right, apparently,' Charlie interrupted.

`So what? This is the side I live on,' Keilty shouted. `Yeah. But that doesn't alter anything.'

Keilty sat back down beside the dolphin and scratched its leathery-hided head while the dolphin blinked in contentment like a sleek, bullet-shaped cat.

'I should know better than to argue philosophy with you,' he said accusingly. 'And so should you. We still have to build that frame of reference for abstractions, and you know it.'

The dolphin gave an almost human sigh and wriggled into a more comfortable position.

Keilty dipped a bailing can full of water and poured it over the dolphin's exposed back.

`Hey, that feels good.

Keilty continued to dip and pour. 'Still, you haven't explained to me why you want me to do all this for you.'

Keilty paused a moment, marshaling his thoughts. 'Remem ber a few weeks back when I explained to you about explosives?'

The dolphin thought for a moment, then brightened. He fastened his great eyes on Keilty.

'Yes I do. The expanding gases that tear things apart.'

`How about nuclear explosives?'

`What about them?'

'Well that's what my enemies intend to use. At sea, my friend. In the water. Boom. Dead fish all around. Poisoned water, et cetera.'

'The fish don't bother me,' Charlie said, rolling onto his left side for a better look at the two naval officers. 'Who are these cats?'

Keilty motioned the two slightly thunderstruck naval officers to approach.

`This one is Rear Admiral Peter Rawingson and this other is Lieutenant Commander Michael Redgrave. They are the people who need your help.

Charlie regarded them for a moment, his eyes clouding slightly.

'Pardon my not shaking hands, but I'm not equipped for it as you can see.' He eyed Keilty again. 'Let me think about it. I'll let you know.'

Charlie slid back into the water, then poked his snout out. Keilty picked up the microphone lead. 'You said I can look out the window?'

`That's right, Charlie,' Keilty soberly answered him.

Charlie rose half out of the water for a long half a minute. Keilty could almost see the blood churning through his brain as the dolphin decided.

'All right then, I will.' He waited for Keilty to undo the microphone, then submerged.

Charlie dove towards the center of the pool and disappeared out into the lagoon.

Rawingson let out his breath in one short gust. 'That,' he stated, 'is the damnedest thing I have ever seen. That crazy fish sounded and acted human.'

'What's your definition of human, Admiral?' jack asked, peering out towards the lagoon after the dolphin. 'He thinks, he rationalizes, and he is emotional. What else do you need to be human? A soul? What's that?' Jack turned towards the others, standing near the pool in the gathering dusk. The offshore breeze that always sprang up an hour before sunset had died away to nothing and the silence was nearly complete, broken only by the occasional call of an island bird. The sun had slipped beneath the western horizon to their backs and the light was fading fast in the brief tropical twilight. Already, in the east, single stars were glimmering fitfully. Jack shivered slightly and in a faraway voice said, '

You know, gentlemen, Mort here and I have argued for months about this. But I still maintain that Charlie and his race are the first real contact with an alien life form we've ever knowingly had. They are so completely different from us in mental processes that there is very little natural common ground. So don't be fooled by Charlie's apparent humanness. It's all learned.'

The darkness grew and silence held the four, men until Margaritta, padding up quietly behind on bare feet, softly announced dinner.