LJ Idol, Season 9, Week 5 - Build a Better Mousetrap
This story is set in the same world as my previous entry, just a tad earlier.
The team of humans gathered together and chatted softly as as a dolphin slowly nosed the barrier. It was hesitant but seemed to want the bait inside, so the humans were hopeful this time. Just as suddenly as it had shown up, though, it turned and swam away, not once looking back at the tasty meal left tantalizingly just out of reach.
“Dammit, I was sure that would work!” Dr. Hiller turned away from the video feed and kicked over pail of squid. He barely even noticed as one slid across the floor and stopped at Kara's feet. He was too busy frowning and sulking away. Kara spun around with her mop and let out a sigh.
“Damn scientists. Can't even see what's right in front of their faces,” she said softly, as she leaned down to pick up the errant squid.
She carefully put her mop out of the main walkway, so no one would trip over that, and walked over to clean up the mess Dr. Hiller had so inconsiderately left behind him. Dumping the squid one by one back into the pail, she moved it out of the way so no one else would kick it over and went back for her mop. Kara mopped the line of slime from where she had been standing all the way to the pail, and then started mopping in a wider path back to her bucket.
As she had reached about the halfway point, the rest of the group started breaking up slowly. Walking away and talking in small groups of two or three they swerved around Kara and her mop, unconsciously noting that she was there enough to miss her, but barely noting her presence otherwise. She stopped mopping as she waited for the majority of the men to pass her, and giggled under her breath as one or two of them lost their footing on the wet and slippery floor. Watching the scientists fail - and sometimes fall - was one of the few perks of this crappy job.
After the scientists left, Kara's dance with her mop took her near the video feed the group had been watching. The video showed nothing but the vast unchanging ocean, no animals in sight. A sigh escaped her lips. She had been hoping to catch a glimpse of a dolphin, those being her favorite animal. She'd never been closer to one than the third row at Sea World as a kid but she swam with them in her dreams.
She began to neaten the stacks of notes and tidy around the desks. These men were slobs. No wonder they never accomplished their goal, if their minds were as cluttered as these freaking desks were! She was looking around the area to see if she missed anything, when she caught a flash of something across the video monitor out of the corner of her eye.
She stood staring at it, thinking she had been seeing things, when it came again. Just the flash of a tail fluke at the edge of the camera's range. A few minutes later, it was there again. Kara thought it might have been closer this time. Another couple of minute later, she was sure. The tail fluke was closer, and speeding up.
She stepped towards the monitor as she saw another flash of tail, and another, and another. Before she knew it she was waiting breathlessly, leaned over the desk, one hand on each side of the video monitor. One final flash of fin swooped through the water barely two feet in front of the camera and then was gone.
Kara let out the breath she had been holding, let go of the monitor and stood, staring at it for a moment as if she could will the dolphin back into the camera's view. A couple of more minutes wouldn't hurt anything: it wasn't like she had anything pressing to do, and might get her a glimpse of more than a tail.
The screen suddenly filled with the up close and personal image of an eye. Kara squealed in surprise and delight. What a trickster this one was! It stayed well within the view of the camera this time as it slowly made its' way away, swimming in a zig-zag fashion, always keeping one eye on the camera. Kara was sure she saw it grin before it disappeared entirely from the feed. It had avoided the scientists booby-trapped maze entirely.
Kara fell into bed that night with an uncharacteristic grin on her face, and dreamt once again of swimming under the ocean. This time, her swimming partner had a gleam in its' eye and a big cheeky grin.
- - -
What Kara had thought would be a one-time thing had turned into a nightly ritual for her. She would always find her way into the observation room just about the time the scientists were leaving, disappointed by the day's work. They always ignored her and left her alone to clean up their messes. But not too long after they left, her new friend arrived. Tantalizing flashes of tail fluke and pectoral fins preceded a wink and cheeky grin before the dolphin swam away. Kara would find herself standing and clapping for the show.
Until the night Dr. Hiller walked in on her, mid-clap, and cleared his throat. “Ahem.”
Kara spun, horrified that someone else might have seen the lovely dolphin's antics. “I just...”
He walked past her, leaning over to peer at the monitor. “What were you watching? And why were you clapping?”
“I just..... love the ocean. I was.... I was clapping for the beauty of it.”
He looked at her out of the corner of his eye. “You're a terrible liar.”
Kara's shoulders slumped. The last thing she wanted was to betray her one joy in this job. “I'd rather not tell you, if that's all right.”
He stood and looked at her. The stern lines of his face were close to destroying any signs of the youth there. “Well, here's the thing... you could tell me. Or you could not tell me, I'd find out anyway, and then have you fired.”
Kara was beaten. This job was the only thing between her and the street, thanks to the recent economy, and if she got fired, she'd never get to see her nightly show again.
“That thing records, right?”
“What? Of course it does. It would be poor scientific practice not to record our experiments. Not that there have been any damn results to record.” His frown deepened.
“No, I mean, it records all the time, not just when you lot are staring at it, right?”
"Yes.”
“Do you ever watch the recordings of when your experiments aren't running?”
“Well... sure. Don's in charge of...” He looked confused. “I mean, Dr. Engler is in charge of looking through them. Why?”
Kara giggled. “I think your Doctor Engler either needs glasses, or he's not watching very well. Have you ever watched them? I mean, really watched them?”
She stood over his shoulder as he sat in front of the screen and pulled up video from the first night she'd seen the dolphin do its' cheeky dance with the camera. “See? There. Just a flash of tail. Now watch...”
Dr. Hiller watched as the fluke came closer and closer. Kara watched and snickered behind her hand as he jumped when the eye suddenly filled the screen. He turned bright red and stared stolidly at the screen while the dolphin swam away in full view.
“It's okay. I jumped too. I probably even squealed a little bit, the first time.” She laid her hand on his shoulder, then pulled back as she realized what she'd done.
As his blush faded, Dr. Hiller turned to look at her. “How long has this been going on?”
“Every night since that first one. That's just the first time that I caught it. It might have been going on for ages though. I don't know.”
“Your name is Kara, right?”
“Yessir,” she replied, surprised to find he knew even that much.
“Kara, you just showed me that one of our crew is not pulling his weight. He will be leaving us as soon as I can arrange it. In the meantime, we'll need someone to watch these videos for us. Someone with an eye for detail, which you have proved that you have. And someone will need to go through the past few months of videos to see what else was missed. I have a feeling that you might be that person. How would you like to become a research assistant?”
Her smile had been growing until he got to the point of giving her a title. She shook her head.
“Research assistants have to be enrolled in college. I'm not a college student. Hell, I barely even made it out of high school with passing marks. Thank you, Dr Hiller, but I guess I don't qualify. I'll see you tomorrow.”
Dr Hiller watched Kara walk away, shaking his head. That girl had a bright mind, and a love of the ocean. Someone needed to do something.
- - -
Kara sat at her cheap little second-hand-store kitchen table in her cheap little apartment and stared at the paper and envelopes in front of her. The creamy thick paper stood out in contrast with the formica it laid on, but all Kara could see were the words. In front of her left hand was an admissions packet for the University, accepting her into the Marine Biology program. In front of her right hand was a letter offering her a position as a research assistant. It had Dr Hiller's signature at the bottom, and a personal note.
I think you would be an excellent addition to our staff, Kara. And the position also pays tuition, in addition to living expenses. I hope you will consider the offer very seriously. JH
Kara had been thinking about all the implications of this for the last two hours as the sun had gone down and the apartment slowly darkened. When she could no longer see well enough to read the words on the paper, she went to the refrigerator, pulled out a beer, popped the top, and downed it in one go.
'Well,' she thought. 'Let's do this!'
She walked over and signed both papers without ever turning the light on, then went to bed and - once again - dreamed of dolphins.
- - -
Kara's first few weeks as a research assistant were relatively boring. She spent a lot of time fast-forwarding through months of video, stopping when something caught her attention and re-watching it at normal speed. Most of the time what caught her attention was just a school of fish flashing by the camera, but occasionally there was something of interest. And, of course, her dolphin.
She had found that the daily show had started less than a month after the maze and floating platform had been put into place. There were occasional gaps, but for the most part, the show had been a nightly thing. She also noticed that she could tell the difference between 'her' dolphin, and the others who nosed around the maze. 'Her' dolphin had only nosed around the maze once before the nightly show began. The others kept coming back and trying for the bait, some almost daily, but they never quite fell for it. She was beginning to share the scientists' disappointment when a dolphin poked around the maze and then swam off.
Dr Hiller stopped by three weeks into her new job, to check on her. “Hi Kara.”
She paused the video. “Dr Hiller.”
“I wanted to stop by and see how you were doing. The team has really been impressed by your reports, but I wanted to make sure you weren't bored stiff. What you've been doing is pretty repetitive work.”
“Actually, I'm fascinated by it, Doctor. It's amazing how quickly you can learn to tell each of these guys apart, by their features and their behavior.”
He sat in the chair next to her. “Show me what you mean.”
She un-paused the video and fast-forwarded to one of the dolphins. “Well, take this guy. I call him “Sleepy” because his mouth is always so wide open, like he's yawning. You can tell it's him by that, and the shape of his left dorsal fin. He really wants that bait. He's the one that comes back most often to check out the maze, but I haven't figured out why he won't go in.”
She fast-forwarded to a couple of other members of the pod and shared her observations on those too. She was reluctant to let him know that the nightly show was the same dolphin every time, or that that one had ignored the maze completely after the first inspection. Dr. Hiller had a lot of questions, and Kara had a lot of answers, but she managed to keep those tidbits to herself. She was drained by the time he got up to go, but had one final thought to share.
“Doc, have you ever thought about going out and showing them that it's safe to go into the maze? I mean, they can obviously sense it's there, somehow, even though it's not a physical trap. Maybe they're scared of it?”
A hastily written note left in her chair the next Monday, and Kara found herself studying for her scuba license on top of work and school. The following weekend, she was donning the gear and taking to the water with an instructor. On Monday, Dr. Hiller showed up in her office again.
“Are you ready to show them the maze is safe?”
“So that's why you had me get my scuba... of course.” She smacked herself in the forehead.
“Now, none of that. Let's go. Your chariot, and gear, await. As do our colleagues.”
The ride out to the maze area was quick and before she knew it, Kara was in her gear and sitting on the edge of the boat. She was surprised to see Dr. Hiller gearing up as well.
“You seem to have really good instincts as far as this pod is concerned Kara, so we're going to let you take the lead. You show us what to do, and we'll follow. Okay?”
Kara took a gulp of air, nodded, put her regulator in her mouth, and leaned back....
The ocean surrounded her, buoyed her up, welcomed her. She was ready for the color change from her lessons, but she hadn't been quite ready for the awe she felt. All the life teeming around her. It was so different from the pool she'd taken her lessons in. She just floated there and took it in, even after she noted the splashes from Dr. Hiller and the other doc whose name she couldn't remember.
After a few moments, she reminded herself why she was here and started swimming towards the maze. The pair-o-docs were close behind. One of them pulled a device off of his belt and pressed a button. A muted sound came through the water. She recognized it from the videos but had no idea what it was. It had a nearly immediate effect though.
In the distance, Kara could see a dolphin swimming towards her, followed by another, and another. As they got closer, she saw Sleepy, Doc, Dopey, and all the other dolphins she'd come to know and name over the past few weeks in the videos. Sleepy nudged his yawning face under her arm and she stroked his skin with awe. She was really here, in the ocean, swimming with dolphins. It was... well, it would have been breathtaking, if the regulator hadn't been feeding her oxygen. As it was, she could barely think.
Dr. Hiller swam closer and tapped her shoulder. He pointed to the maze and she nodded before swimming off in that direction. Sleepy kept up with her. It seemed his curiosity was getting the better of him. Or perhaps he really just wanted the bait inside that maze.
The indicators of the entrance were blinking softly in the under-water light. Kara swam between them and found her way through the maze to the center, where the bait was hanging. Then she took a piece of the bait, and made her way back out. She let go of the fish and Sleepy snapped it up. He swam up and eyed her, then dashed past her into the maze.
Sleepy got lost a couple of times and had to backtrack, but in short order, he'd made it to the center and found his reward. As he was rushing off with his prize, she saw the other doctor re-hang the bait, while Dr. Hiller swam around off to the side. Doc was the next to try the maze. He was a little slower than Sleepy, but didn't make the mistakes Sleepy had made. He made his own mistakes.
Again, the bait was re-hung. Again, another dolphin sped through the maze. None of them repeated the same mistakes and they were getting faster and faster. At last, it was just Dopey and 'her' dolphin - Snow White - she of the nightly show. Kara almost held her breath as they entered the maze together.
It was clear that Dopey needed a little help. Snow was nudging him this way and that, pointing him in the right direction when he would have followed one of the others' mistakes. They were slow, but they got to the center of the maze eventually. Snow just nibbled at the bait, while Dopey gulped down the fish as fast as he could.
As they came out of the maze, Kara met Snow at the exit. She floated there for a moment, eye to mischievous eye with the dolphin who danced in her dreams, Dopey floating at her side. Kara slowly reached out to touch her. The moment had taken on a dreamlike quality. She allowed herself, a tentative pass along the side of Snow's head. Snow grinned at her and nudged her softly. Kara slowly passed her hands over Snow's beautiful face and down to her pectoral fin. She was just about ready to lay a hand on the dorsal fin to see if Snow would take her for a ride when Dr Hiller and that still-nameless other doc swam up and approached. Snow and Dopey looked wary but allowed them to move closer.
The doctors looked at each other over the dolphins' backs, one of them raised a hand, fingers splayed wide. He pulled in his thumb, then his pinky. By the time Kara realized that it was a count-down, both doctors reached out with a device in their hands and pressed it against a dolphin's side. There was a thump that Kara felt through the water, more than heard, and the next thing she knew, Snow and Dopey were swimming away at high speed, squealing and chattering.
No matter how long the humans floated there, no matter how much bait they tossed out around themselves, none of the pod would come near them. Kara climbed out of the water and into the boat, angry that her experience had been taken away from her. She stripped off her equipment and threw it to the bottom of the boat, not caring how expensive it was or whether she might have to pay for it.
She turned on Dr. Hiller. “What the HELL did you do?”
He began to remove his own equipment slowly and calmly. He replied without looking her in the eye. “What we have been trying to do all these months.”
“You hurt them. You scared them. They wouldn't come near us. What. The. Hell. Did. You. Do?”
“We merely implanted a device in their hypodermia.” Doctor nameless to the rescue.
“In their what?”
“The hypodermia is the layer just under the skin, or epidermis, and is commonly called, in layman's terms, 'blubber'.”
“I am not one of your students, thank god, and I will thank you to speak to me as a colleague rather than an idiot. Which I apparently am, because I didn't even think to ask you why you wanted the dolphins to go through your stupid maze. I thought it was like those stupid scientists and their rat mazes. I had no idea you would hurt them!”
Kara stomped off to the front of the boat. The set of her back made it clear that she would not welcome company. It was a long, silent ride back to the shore. Only the sound of the engine broke the stony silence that surrounded Kara. She jumped off before they could even get tied to the dock, and was out of sight before the doctors even stirred themselves off of the boat.
Kara's anger got the best of her for several days. When she finally calmed down enough to go back to work, she found a thick binder sitting on her chair with a note paper-clipped to it. 'The good news,' she thought, 'is that it's not pink.' Seeing that it was in Dr Hiller's handwriting though, she almost crumpled and tossed it. Instead, she sat it to the side, and immersed herself in the previous day's video feed. By the time she got done, she was in tears. Snow hadn't come for her daily show. She checked back all three days - not one show since the betrayal.
She leaned back in her chair, wiping her eyes, and she caught a glimpse of the binder that jerk Hiller had left her. She snatched the note off and read it.
Kara,
I know you're angry with me. We should have warned you. You were never told what our research study is working on, because you never needed to know. That was wrong. So here it is. This binder summarizes what we are working on. I hope you will do me the favor of keeping what you read to yourself, as this represents several years of hard work, not only on my behalf, but the others who work here as well. Please understand, we needed you to help us move forward with our goals. I hope you will forgive us me. JH
Kara sat back, opened the cover, and began to read.