GeneSys

By Roger Carter

The year is 2040, and in the Solomon Islands a programme to breed genetically-modified dolphins with near-human brains is underway. Dawn, a girl from England on a visit to the Solomons, suffers strange hallucinations when she encounters the dolphins, in which she is transported by means of a spirit journey into a parallel universe. It transpires that she too has been genetically modified, not by humans but by benign aliens from this parallel universe, so that her brain, as it reaches maturity, becomes like theirs.
An unintended consequence of the dolphins’ neural modifications is that they are telepathic and are able to journey into this parallel universe. The intention of the aliens is that Dawn should play a key role in the development of dolphin culture. However, other malign aliens from the parallel universe have made contact with a sinister religious cult bent on world domination. The battle that ensues between Dawn’s dolphins and these malign forces takes place in both this and the parallel universe. Set against this backdrop is the romantic attachment that grows between the leader of the dolphin community and one of the humans caught up in the conflict.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Roger Carter
• Release date: Jun 28, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301866601

Roger Carter

Roger Carter has had a varied career, including working as a studio manager at the BBC, working for the British Overseas Civil Service in the Solomon Islands, and running his own business. From 1975 to 2000 he was a lecturer at what is now the Buckinghamshire New University, and during this time he wrote 20 student textbooks, including Quantitative Methods for Business Students, and Business Administration for the Computer Age (both published by Heinemann) as well as books on information technology and computer software (various publishers).He is now retired and lives with his wife Sandra in Buckinghamshire, England. They have two children and five grandchildren.In 2018 he helped set up the Bourne End & District U3A and became its first Chair, and in 2021 was appointed its Honorary President..

Book preview

Part 1: Origins

One

Guadalcanal, The Solomon Islands, 2040 AD

It was the mother of all hot flushes. Dawn gripped the handrail at the side of the pool, the sweat dripping from her brow, and prayed that she wouldn’t expire. When she had arrived at the dolphinarium entrance ten minutes ago she’d felt perfectly OK, apart from some jet lag, yet now her head was pounding, her pulse was racing, and her cheeks were on fire. On top of that she was starting to feel giddy. She had been looking forward to this visit for ages, but now that she was finally here, with the two dolphins circling the pool and eyeing her curiously, all she could think about was the heat engulfing her body. That, and the earth-shattering event that had set her on fire.

The tropical sun was beating down out of a cloudless sky, but it wasn’t this that was raising her temperature. Her jet lag wasn’t to blame either, nor was she suffering from a bout of tropical fever. The real culprit was standing just a couple of feet away. His name was Rick, and she had instantly fallen for him. It was as though someone had cast a spell on her, for it was red-hot head-over-heels love at first sight.

Rick was the member of staff who had been assigned to look after her. When they had met at the entrance a spark of interest had lit up his eyes, but now he seemed more interested in the two dolphins swimming languorously below them. Clearly unaware of the fire that he had ignited in her, he was watching them and virtually ignoring her. But Dawn couldn’t ignore him. Whenever she glanced his way her heart beat faster and her young body reacted like that of a menopausal woman, engulfing her in such a hot flush that her head throbbed, her cheeks turned bright red, and sweat broke out all over her slender body. Never before had she experienced such a rush of hormones, and it was most embarrassing. She pulled her sunhat lower over her eyes, adjusted her sunglasses, and hoped he wouldn’t notice.

Below her, the cool water lapped temptingly against the concrete side of the pool, and she gazed down longingly at it. If only she could forget her manners and slide under the rail and join the dolphins for their swim! Such unseemly behaviour was out of the question of course, especially in front of the yummiest man she had ever met.

If her body wasn’t swimming, her head certainly was. The ground beneath her feet had started to pitch and roll, and the buildings on the opposite side of the dolphinarium were swaying unsteadily as if they were drunk. What on earth could be happening to her? Was falling in love always like this? She shut her eyes, hoping to stop the mad gyrations, but the drunken lurching only got worse, and she began to feel sick. Suddenly her legs crumpled beneath her. Panicking now, she clung on to the handrail for dear life and slumped forward against it, so saving herself from collapsing into a heap at Rick’s feet.

She gasped and opened her eyes, and, as if in a dream, found herself gazing down at the pattern of ripples criss-crossing the water below. They sparkled in the bright sunlight, like a multitude of glittering jewels, and a long-forgotten childhood memory popped into her mind: it was of the magic she’d felt when, on a visit to her granny’s house, she’d played with an old-fashioned kaleidoscope. Each shake of the device had produced a wonderful new pattern from the multi-coloured shapes within it, and now it seemed to her that these ripples were equally magical.

She watched entranced as the sparkling patterns played themselves out, and as she lost herself in the wonder and magic of the vision, the heat and the jet lag and the giddiness and the passionate desire for Rick all faded away. It was as though she was floating on clouds, and the unbearable heat engulfing her body were replaced by a delicious sense of coolness and serenity, and she lost herself in the pattern of dancing lights in the water below.

Something prompted her to look up, and her peace was abruptly shattered. There, in front of her, was her body – her own body! – slumped over the rail. It was as though she was looking at herself through a camera suspended above the water. She blinked and looked again, unable to believe her eyes. But there was no mistaking what she was seeing: she was gazing at her own body from a point in space several metres away. It was as though she’d become a disembodied spirit. And if that wasn’t spooky enough, she could at the same time feel, very faintly, the rail pressing against her stomach. She wasn’t actually disembodied, rather she was both outside her body and in it.

She must have died, that was the only explanation for what she was experiencing. That strange hot flush had raised her body temperature so much that she had expired. Though even that was ridiculous: she was conscious and able to feel her body and therefore she had to be alive. Dawn decided that she must be hallucinating. She wasn’t actually outside her body, rather this was some kind of waking dream brought on by her jet lag and the tropical sun and all those hormones racing through her body. There’s no need to be scared, she told herself, ‘cos I’ll soon wake up. In any case, it’s much nicer being in this weird dream than being back in my body tortured by hot flushes and giddiness and passionate desire.

And now that she had escaped from those torments, she was feeling unusually alert. It was most curious: she was feeling more alert than at any time since boarding the plane in London two days ago. How could that be, she wondered? How could she be both hallucinating and alert? Perhaps the hormones and the jet lag had affected only the right-hand hemisphere of her brain, where dreaming mainly occurred, leaving the left-hand analytical part of her brain untouched and able to function normally. She’d read somewhere that was how waking dreams worked: the right brain was asleep while the left brain remained awake.

As she gazed at her schoolgirl body slumped over the rail, Dawn became acutely aware of the pressure of the rail against her stomach. It was the most peculiar sensation, seemingly both outside her body and in it. This has to be one of those out-of-body experiences, she told herself. She had read quite a lot about OBE’s, for she wanted to study psychology, and she’d always wondered what it would be like to have one. Well, now she knew. With growing interest, she decided she would make the most of this unique opportunity and find out everything she could about this most unusual state of mind.

She set about trying to analyse her feelings and impressions. The weirdest thing of all was feeling that rail pressed against her stomach while at the same time seeing herself from a point in space several metres away. What else could she feel, she wondered? Concentrating hard, she found that she was aware of her feet and toes inside her shoes. She tried wriggling her toes, and, discovering that she could, automatically glanced down at her feet. To her great surprise she saw that she had a spirit ‘body’ that looked exactly like her real body. She was even wearing the same clothes, a white T-shirt and red skirt.

Dawn examined her spirit body closely, half-expecting it to have a diaphanous, ghostly appearance, but in fact it was bright and colourful and rock solid. There was nothing that was in the least other-worldly about it. Glancing up at her real body, slumped against the rail several metres away, she was startled to note that it was quite drab in comparison. Indeed, it looked distinctly wraithlike. It was then that it dawned on her that everything else in the real world looked grey and wraithlike too: Rick, the pool, the various buildings round about, and even the tropical sun overhead. Without exception everything, apart from her own spirit body, was tenuous, fuzzy at the edges, and drained of colour.

Dawn felt completely baffled as she gazed around at her ghostly surroundings. This was totally the wrong way round. She was the ghost, not the rest of the world. And then she thought, to my spirit eyes this is actually the right way round, ‘cos ghosts can walk through walls and buildings and other people, so to a spirit like me the physical world is bound to look tenuous and unreal. Even to escape from my brain I had to pass through the solid bone of my skull, so that will be ghostly as well.

And now instead of feeling baffled she felt very pleased with herself. She had managed to apply logic to this bizarre situation and so had made sense of it. It seemed odd that a spirit could feel an emotion like pleasure, but that was certainly what she was feeling. But then, she wasn’t actually a spirit, this was all a dream. A waking dream, admittedly, but nevertheless a dream. Then she thought, how weird it is that logic can be applied to something as irrational as a dream that’s conjured up by the sleeping part of my brain.

And then she had a seriously good idea. Her analysis of this bizarre disembodied state would make a brilliant topic for the presentation she had to give in a few weeks’ time at the start of the new term. It would beat the pants off doing something mundane like showing her holiday pictures. I ought to earn an ‘A’ for originality if for nothing else, she told herself. Imagine the teacher’s face when I announce that I’ve been exploring the spirit world! Smiling inwardly to herself, she gazed around with more critical eyes, determined to discover everything she could.

It was then that she realised that her spirit body was actually quite small. It was tiny, in fact. Glancing down at her feet and comparing her apparent height with the size of everything else round about, she estimated that she was less than ten centimetres tall. That was about as small as the fairies and goblins and leprechauns of her childhood stories. Presumably those early memories were influencing this hallucination – at least, she would certainly suggest that in her presentation.

Encouraged by this discovery, Dawn turned her attention to her ability to float effortlessly in the air, several metres above the pool. That would certainly be good for another screenful of bulleted points. She would point out that since gravity apparently had no effect on her spirit body, the inference was that spirits have no mass. That too was entirely logical, for they have no physical reality and therefore no physical properties. She decided that in her presentation she would speculate on the possibility that she had entered a parallel universe in which mass, electrical conductivity, litmus tests and all the familiar laws and properties of nature no longer applied.

Her gaze returned to the faintly gleaming ripples swirling across the misty water, and as she watched the pattern unfold, her curiosity slowly drifted away to be replaced by a dreamy tranquillity, and she lost herself in the peacefulness of the moment.

Suddenly her legs collapsed, and she was catapulted back into her physical body. Her instincts saved her from falling, and she found herself gripping the handrail tightly with both hands, somehow managing to remain on her feet. She hastily straightened her body and, still holding onto the rail, followed the circling dolphins with her eyes as though nothing had happened.

Happily, her head was no longer pounding and her giddiness had gone, and she didn’t feel unbearably hot either. She breathed a sigh of relief. Her weird waking dream had obviously done her some good. Checking her watch, she saw to her surprise that it had lasted hardly any time at all, only two or three minutes at the most.

Unfortunately her relief didn’t last long either. Because she couldn’t help wondering if Rick had noticed her strange behaviour, she foolishly cast a surreptitious glance in his direction. In fact he was still watching the two dolphins, who were evidently far more fascinating than the drab schoolgirl at his side. However, that one glance at his gorgeous profile was enough to set her on fire again. Her heart leapt, her pulse raced, and her cheeks turned a violent shade of red. Sweat burst out all over, and she felt that she would die of embarrassment. She hastily jerked her gaze away, back to the dolphins.

Thankfully the giddiness didn’t return and her mind remained clear, though it was another mother of all hot flushes. She’d never experienced anything like this before. Indeed, she’d always understood that only middle-aged women suffered from such flushes, never teenage girls. It occurred to her that these strange bodily symptoms were in fact just as bizarre – and just as intriguing – as her weird out-of-body experience. She had managed to apply logic to that, so why not to this oppressive internal heat also?

She tried to work out what could be going on inside her body. For some reason the heat appeared to be concentrated in the pit of her stomach. It sat heavily inside her, like a ball of molten lava. It was as if she’d just swallowed a huge mug of very hot coffee – though in fact she’d had nothing apart from fruit and cereal and a cup of tea for breakfast, which had been a couple of hours ago, and only a few sips of cold water since. It was most mysterious. Could what she was feeling be another hallucination?

Slowly and deliberately, she glanced at Rick again, to test her reactions. Immediately the ball of red-hot lava expanded, filling her stomach and pushing up her throat. It was as though she was a living volcano, and she glanced down at herself in alarm, half expecting smoke to be pouring forth from her nether regions. But there was nothing amiss, at least nothing that she could see.

Then, suddenly, the fire was in her mouth, and an involuntary gasp erupted out of her. Fortunately Rick appeared not to have noticed, though she had obviously sicked up something horrible. With some trepidation she licked her lips, wondering what it was that she’d spewed up. To her relief, she couldn’t taste anything at all. There couldn’t be anything seriously wrong with her, she decided, as apart from feeling unpleasantly hot she wasn’t actually in any pain.

But then her stomach started gurgling. Her embarrassment at this was quickly overwhelmed by the feeling of being horribly bloated. She gingerly felt her stomach with her fingers, expecting it to be ballooning out beneath her T-shirt. It wasn’t, but she was in no doubt that whatever was afflicting her had to be more than a mere illusion.

Perhaps she should ask Rick to call a doctor. Even if she had drunk a mug of very hot coffee – which she hadn’t – it couldn’t account for this. A moment ago, molten lava might have adequately described what she was feeling, but now even that didn’t do it justice. Nuclear meltdown was nearer the mark.

Then a dreadful thought hit her. What if she sicked up whatever ghastly brew was inside her in front of Rick? She would rather die than suffer that embarrassment. It was bad enough that he must be able to hear those rumblings from her nether regions. She glanced furtively up at him.

And that was a big mistake. For at that very moment he looked away from the dolphins and down at her, and their eyes met. Immediately the volcano inside her erupted with overwhelming force, thrusting a jet of incandescent lava up her throat. At the same moment a wave of dizziness swept over her and her legs gave way. Panic-stricken, she grabbed the handrail and twisted her head towards the water, expecting a steaming gob of sulphurous vomit to explode out of her mouth. But incredibly there was nothing, not even a few wisps of smoke – though she was panting like an overworked steam engine.

To her immense relief the inferno in her belly quickly died down, and with it went the giddiness and the ridiculous panting. She relaxed her grip on the railings and concentrated her gaze on the dolphins circling lazily below. She was still perspiring profusely, so that the sweat trickled down her forehead and into her eyes, her armpits felt like a swamp, and the back of her T-shirt was sodden. It was the height of embarrassment for this to be happening in the presence of the most desirable man on the planet, but at least she wasn’t about to explode.

But then an even more alarming thought struck her. She remembered reading somewhere about people spontaneously combusting. It was an extremely rare phenomenon, but it was well documented, and there could be little doubt that this must be what was happening to her – in which case she really ought to jump into the water with the dolphins to cool down. But when she pushed her hand beneath her T-shirt, to test the temperature of her stomach with the tips of her fingers, it didn’t feel at all hot, in fact all that sweating made it feel quite cool!

She almost laughed with relief. Clearly she wasn’t about to set off any fire alarms. The furnace within her was just another hallucination. No doubt the excitement of being here and falling for Rick had been too much for her, and if she calmed herself down these strange sensations would quickly go away. What she needed to do to return her state of mind to normality was concentrate her full attention away from Rick and onto something innocuous, like those buildings opposite, beyond the dolphinarium.

She stared at the tallest of them, the administration block. The name GeneSys was emblazoned across it in large red letters, and beneath it, in smaller letters, the motto Biotechnology for a Sustainable Future. She let her gaze drift across the other buildings on the GeneSys site, and tried to imagine what miracles of genetic engineering might be gestating in them. New plant or animal species yielding life-saving pharmaceutical products perhaps, or new crop strains able to withstand rising global temperatures and novel diseases.

Her father was in one of those buildings now, being shown around some project or other. That thought reminded her that this site – GeneSys Honiara – specialised in marine biology, and that those buildings housed tanks of genetically modified fish and seaweed and other marine organisms. GeneSys was a global corporation, with biotech laboratories all over the world, each with its own specialisms, and this site was the centre for marine bio research.

The fires within her had died down to a mere flicker, she noted with some satisfaction. To keep her mind safely off Rick and the risk of more pyrotechnics, she tried to picture what lay beyond the perimeter walls of GeneSys Honiara. First there was the tropical bush, then a mile or so further along the coast the dusty outskirts of Honiara itself, the capital of the Solomons. She thought too about the company house where she and her family were staying. It was set on one of the ridges above the coastal plain, to catch the sea breeze. And, as she contemplated all those mundane things, all feelings of unworldly heat and fire dissipated and normality returned – just as she’d hoped.

Her mouth and her throat were still unpleasantly hot and dry, and she pulled a water bottle from her pouch and raised it to her lips. The water splashed shockingly cold against her tongue, and when it hit her throat it seemed to spit and boil, sending her into a spasm of coughing and spluttering. It was another embarrassment, worse even than her sweatiness, and she sensed Rick’s eyes on her. Even the dolphins paused in their lazy circling of the pool to glance up at her.

However, the water had quenched her thirst and cooled her throat, and giving a couple of more ladylike coughs she tapped her water bottle and explained: It went down the wrong way.

Rick chuckled and said teasingly, Tell me another – there’s vodka in there!

His New Zealand accent was very appealing, and Dawn giggled shyly. Unlike many of the girls at school, who would have called her a snot and done their best to make her feel gross, he had brushed her spluttering aside with his little joke.

She felt completely normal now, and almost at ease in Rick’s presence. She managed to smile up at him. Please don’t tell my dad. If he found out about my drinking habit he’d kill me.

Rick laughed. Not very broad-minded, eh? Don’t worry, it’ll be our little secret.

Dawn’s heart missed a couple of beats. She had never shared secrets with boys, or anything else with them for that matter. She had always been too bookish to bother. She was also a late-developer physically, having reached puberty a couple of years later than most of her friends. In any case, few of the boys she knew – mostly her brother’s friends – had been particularly appealing. But the idea of sharing a secret with Rick, the new-found love of her life, was most exciting. Not this silly jokey secret, of course, but, she hoped, a much more momentous and intimate secret.

As she contemplated that enticing prospect, her imagination took over. Dawn had always had a vivid imagination, and the picture arose in her mind of them sitting together on the beach in the moonlight, the waves lapping at their feet and the cicadas chirruping in the bush behind. They hadn’t yet kissed or held hands, but now he placed a tentative arm around her shoulder, and she responded by touching his fingers. Then he started stroking her tenderly with one hand, while the other lifted up her face to his. Their lips met in a long, passionate kiss, and suddenly she was pushing her body against his and her pulse was racing and she was overwhelmed with youthful passion.

At once the dormant fires in her belly roared into life, a jet of red-hot lava exploded up her throat, and her cheeks turned incandescent. The buildings opposite began swaying drunkenly again, and she found herself gasping once more and gripping the handrail tightly to stop herself collapsing.

Astonished at herself, she desperately tried to thrust the erotic imagery from her mind and fixed her attention on the circling dolphins in the pool below. In spite of the overwhelming heat and the dizziness, she managed to focus her mind on the task of recalling all she knew about these creatures – anything to escape the seething cauldron of desire that threatened to overwhelm her.

Although these particular dolphins had been genetically modified, they were derived from and were outwardly identical to the bottlenose species, so-called because they had large bottle-like snouts, or beaks. She had been told that bottlenose dolphins had the largest brains for their body mass of all the sea mammals, being roughly equivalent to the brains of humans. She had also learned that dolphins were related to ungulates, and that DNA studies had shown that their closest land-dwelling relative was the hippopotamus. Another notable feature was their echo-location organ, which enabled them to ‘see’ a long way through the water. As she concentrated her mind on recalling these and other facts about the creatures, her passion abated, her internal fires fizzled out, and soon the dizziness went too.

She couldn’t completely relax, however. She would have to be vigilant and not allow herself any further glances in Rick’s direction or any more of those delicious fantasies. Her thoughts must remain firmly focussed on those dolphins. They were the reason for her visit, after all.

She pulled out her water bottle and took a few more swigs, this time restricting the flow so that the ice-cold liquid only trickled across her burning tongue. It made her mouth and her throat tingle, but there was no more spluttering. She permitted herself a small cough and reflected that something very strange indeed must be happening to her. She’d never had much interest in boys, and here she was imagining a torrid affair with a man that she’d only known for a few minutes and who, after her brief vacation in the Solomon Islands, would disappear from her life. And even if she did manage to see him again, what would be the point? He was too old for her, a mere schoolgirl, indeed he might even be married. In any case he hadn’t shown the slightest desire for her, apart from that initial glimmer of interest – and even that had probably been a figment of her over-active imagination.

It was crazy. Everything that had happened in the short time that she’d been at the dolphinarium was crazy. It was almost as if she’d suddenly come under the control of a supernatural force that was driving her at breakneck speed towards some destiny of its own choosing. Certainly she could think of no rational explanation for what was happening to her body.

She coughed again, then asked diffidently: Could we sit down in the shade, please? I only arrived in the Solomons yesterday, and the heat’s killing me.

She avoided looking directly at him, but out of the corner of her eye she saw him smile down at her. Let’s go to my office. It’s got aircon, and it’s very cosy.

She couldn’t help a look of disapproval crossing her face. Back in Europe, power-hungry appliances like air-conditioners were subject to strict laws.

Don’t worry, he corrected himself hastily, misinterpreting her disapproval. I’m not going to cosy up to you. Actually, my office isn’t very cosy at all.

She saw that he was blushing slightly, and she giggled. Perhaps he wasn’t as mature as she had thought. I was worried about the aircon, she explained.

His face cleared. Oh. That. No worries there, either. We don’t use fossil fuels here, GeneSys has its own wave-energy plant, just a few hundred metres out to sea, plus solar panels. The environmental impact is zero.

She should have guessed that. GeneSys was the wealthiest corporation on the planet, easily able to afford renewable energy plants at all its sites.

She gestured at the imposing buildings surrounding the dolphinarium. I guess all biotech companies can afford stuff like that.

He shrugged and started down the deserted poolside walkway towards his office. You should know. Your dad’s a top GeneSys exec.

She didn’t reply. She was, she knew, very privileged. It was her father’s position that had enabled them to fly from England all the way to the South Pacific. Few people nowadays were allowed – or could afford – to travel by plane. And it was why she, a mere slip of a girl, had been granted VIP access to the dolphin project at GeneSys Honiara.

She hurried along the walkway beside him. You’d better tell the dolphins. Why we’re leaving them, I mean.

Don’t worry, they’ve got brilliant hearing. They’ll have picked up everything we said. He stopped and turned to them. Did you get all that, guys?

The two dolphins twisted round in the water and wagged their beaks vigorously up and down at them, throwing water droplets high into the air. Rick glanced down at her with barely-suppressed amusement. You see?

Dawn had stopped in her tracks, stunned by this display of animal intelligence. It seemed impossible that the genetic modifications to these creatures could have been so successful. That’s amazing!

He nodded, then without another word turned and continued briskly along the walkway towards a low white building about halfway along it. Hurrying along behind, she couldn’t fail to notice his broad shoulders. She was quite tall but he was taller, and his curly dark hair was almost the same colour as hers. They made a good match, she thought, then promptly cut short that train of thought. It was stupid – and dangerous – to indulge herself in such girlishly romantic ideas.

She glanced back at the dolphins. They were floating motionlessly in the water, staring up at her, and she got the impression that they were quite disappointed to see her go. It made her feel guilty, as this was a Sunday and there was no one else around to entertain them, just a skeleton staff busy with other duties.

She gave them a wave, and they flicked their tails at her. She could sense their eyes following her as she walked with Rick towards the low building, and as she entered it the sensation of being watched grew stronger and she felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end. It was probably her imagination playing tricks on her again, but when she glanced back something more than intelligence seemed to gleam in their eyes.

Two

Rick hadn’t been kidding when he’d said that his office wasn’t cosy. Apart from a couple of small easy chairs for visitors, it was the most sparsely-furnished office she could imagine. There was a desk, an office chair, and a small bookcase, and no carpet on the floor. There were a few papers scattered alongside the computer on his desk, but no pictures and no photos of a wife or girlfriend.

The absence of any sign of a romantic attachment was something of a morale-booster for Dawn, as was the air-conditioning. This happy combination made her feel so much better that she even forgot her jet lag. Confident that she was safe from any internal eruptions of molten lava or any feelings of dizziness in this cool and austere environment, she took off her sunglasses and threw Rick an experimental glance. Their eyes met, and instead of a volcanic eruption there was just a flicker of heat in the pit of her stomach, and even that died down almost immediately. She smiled at him, and again there was only a hint of warmth down below and a slight burning of her cheeks. She let out a small sigh of relief. The strange force that had come upon her when she entered the dolphinarium was loosening its grip.

You’re right, Rick, she declared, throwing her sunhat onto the desk with a sudden abandon, to reveal a mop of untidy black hair. Bouncing into one of the easy chairs, she continued: This place isn’t very cosy. What it needs is a woman’s touch.

She was immediately embarrassed at herself for making such a naff remark, and her cheeks turned bright red again. Hastily pulling out her water bottle, she took another swig, coughing as the cold liquid hit the back of her throat. But it stopped her blushing.

He was eyeing her with some amusement. You really ought to lay off that stuff, he murmured. At your tender age.

I’m 17! she retorted. Actually, she had only just turned 17, but there was no need to tell him that. Her father had arranged this visit as a birthday treat.

He looked even more amused. I’m sorry I underestimated your age. Anyway, you’d better explain why you’ve come to see our dolphins. Your father said you’re interested in psychology.

I’d like to study it at uni.

So why our dolphins?

I’ve wanted to meet them ever since Dad first told me about them. They’ve got human minds.

Ah. He told you that, did he?

Well? Haven’t they?

He hesitated. A sizeable chunk of their brain is human, that’s true. As you’ve seen, they’re very smart.

They certainly seemed to understand what we were saying. But what about other things? I’m longing to know how good they are at maths and stuff like that.

Maths, science, history, they cope OK with all of it. You saw the large computer screen on the other side of the pool?

You use that for teaching? I saw the row of letters and numbers beneath it, below the water. I suppose the dolphins use those to communicate with their teachers.

He nodded. We’re putting them through a comprehensive educational programme. They’re doing very well, considering they’re only ten years old.

She stared at him in wonder. The strange force within her responded by growing decidedly warm, but she was too intrigued by his words to let that bother her. That’s amazing! Is GeneSys trying to put human intelligence into other animals besides dolphins?

He shook his head. Only bottlenose dolphins have big enough brains. It might be possible to shoe-horn our brain-power into chimps and a few other species, but what would be the economic benefit?

Her father had told her a little of GeneSys’ vision, that the seas would one day be managed and harvested in a sustainable and carbon-neutral way using dolphin farmers. It would help feed a hungry world – and, no doubt, swell GeneSys’ bank account.

You must be really pleased with the way things are going.

I only joined the project a few months ago – when I left uni – but the other guys are certainly pretty upbeat about things.

I bet they are, she murmured absently, her thoughts elsewhere. If he had only just graduated, then he could only be 21 or 22, not much older in fact than her brother. Not too old for her after all – and certainly not married yet. To her alarm her insides started to heat up again, and she felt her stomach rumble, and she hastily pushed such romanticising aside and concentrated on what Rick was telling her.

Apparently it was really difficult engineering these creatures, he continued. As you probably know, the bioengineers had to splice parts of the human genome controlling brain development into the dolphin genome, then incubate the result. There were hundreds of trials, and all the embryos were either misformed or they died. It took several years before they had any successes, and in the end only these two dolphins survived. They’re a couple of years off maturity, but there have been no serious problems so far. They’re a male and a female, and we hope they’ll be able to breed.

Breed? she asked in surprise. Is that important? Can’t you produce offspring in the lab?

Of course we can. We can extract their DNA to produce artificial embryos and put them in artificial wombs and all the rest of it, but the aim is to create a self-sustaining dolphin population. We want them to be able to procreate in the sea.

That made sense, she thought. Millions of dolphins would be needed to manage the oceans, and GeneSys couldn’t possibly act as mother and father to a population of that size. "And if they are able to breed, will you then go ahead and release them into the sea?"

I’m afraid it’s not as straightforward as that. First we’ll need to produce a starter population of perhaps a thousand more offspring in the lab, and then we’ll need to educate and train them. It’s a huge project, and it’ll take years.

That size of population is bound to be viable, she murmured thoughtfully. So then you’ll release them into the sea? He didn’t respond immediately, and she raised her eyebrows. Won’t you?

He smiled back at her, but it wasn’t the same amused smile as before. There was something in his eyes that she’d seen before in people that she’d talked to, including some of her teachers. It was a look of respect for a teenager who was so articulate and informed. She had enjoyed a very privileged upbringing, and both her parents were academics.

There’s one big problem, I’m afraid. Because they have human-like brains, they sleep like us – they go into an unconscious state. Unmodified dolphins sleep differently, half a brain at a time. They’re never unconscious, one hemisphere is always awake.

How weird! Why on earth would they sleep like that?

It’s because their breathing is entirely under voluntary control. If they fell unconscious they’d stop breathing and die.

She thought about that. If your GM dolphins sleep like us, they must be able to breathe like us too.

He nodded. Not that that’s any advantage to them, it’s just a side-effect of their human brains. It means that if they fell asleep in the open sea with waves crashing over them and everything, they’d drown.

Oh. I see. The project’s a failure, then.

No, not a failure. We’ll come up with some kind of fix. Floating sleeping platforms, perhaps, or underwater air chambers. Some of the guys reckon it’s a good thing our dolphins are like that, ‘cos they’ll always be dependent on us for survival.

Dawn gazed through his office window at the blue sky beyond and wondered what was going on in the minds of those two dolphins. Certainly there had been something more than mere intelligence in their eyes when she’d glanced back at them as she’d left the dolphinarium a few moments ago, and she’d felt that unnerving prickling on the back of her neck. It was almost as if they were looking right into her soul.

It was at that moment that the first hint of the explanation suddenly hit her. It was a thrilling idea, and it seemed to make a lot of sense, though she doubted if Rick would see it that way. But she just had to discuss it with him. She would choose her words carefully.

It must be fascinating to work with them, she observed, approaching the subject in a round-about way. Human brains in dolphin bodies. It must be so difficult for them in so many ways. For instance, they’re able to understand what humans are saying, but they can’t answer back.

They can. They use their beaks to type out anything they want to say on those underwater letters. It’s quite fast – we’ve taught them the text message language used on early mobile phones.

"But that’s not the same as talking, she pointed out. It’s not the same at all. In any case, not being able to talk is only part of their problem. Our brains have evolved with our hands, so we’re able to make tools and manipulate our environment and do lots of other things. They can’t do any of those things. So what’s happening in the areas of their brains used for hand control? Perhaps they’re using all those redundant neurons for something else."

She threw him a cautious glance. Now she would spring her idea on him. Probably they’ve developed strange talents that we don’t know anything about. Has anyone tried to find out? Has anyone even asked them?

Wow. That’s a pretty cool idea! Instead of scoffing he gave her an admiring glance. I don’t think it’s occurred to anyone to ask a question like that. We need a few people like you here, people who can think out of the box.

That compliment was so unexpected that it completely threw her. Another bout of pyrotechnics erupted in her stomach, and the unearthly heat spread up her throat to her face. She couldn’t bear the thought of more scarlet cheeks and perspiring forehead, and she hastily pulled out her water bottle. Once more the water slid icily over her tongue and into her throat, making her cough, and the conviction returned that some supernatural force must be behind these bizarre sensations. Surely those dolphins must have something to do with it.

I’m wondering if… The outlandish explanation that had come to her a few moments ago was now fully worked out in her mind, but she was unsure how to express it. "I’m wondering if those dolphins have developed mental hands, imaginary hands that they can use to reach into our minds."

Rick looked at her sceptically. Some kind of mental control, you mean? Telepathy?

She nodded, and his expression told her that, just as she’d feared, he didn’t think much of her brilliant idea. It was just a silly schoolgirl fantasy. The warmth that had filled her a few moments ago abruptly vanished.

Lots of things sound impossible, but they’re true, she protested. Like the magnetic instinct. I’ve been learning about that at school. Homing pigeons and lots of other birds can sense magnetic north, that’s how they manage to get home. Even humans have the same instinct, but it’s so weak in us that it can only be detected with statistical tests. Well, I think telepathy’s like that. It’s weak and it’s hard to detect, but it’s there.

He smiled, and there was the same hint of amusement in his eyes that she’d seen earlier. How many respectable scientists believe in telepathy? he chided. Hardly any, I bet. And you’re seriously suggesting that our dolphins are the homing pigeons of the telepathic world? How potty is that?

She threw him a reproachful glance. "It must be possible, you have to admit that. What else are they using those unused parts of their human brains for if it’s not telepathy?"

And you have to admit that it’s a pretty far-fetched notion. There’s not a shred of evidence to support it. No one working with the dolphins has reported any strange mental effects. No telepathy, no mental control, nothing.

Oh? Well, I’ve been having some very weird feelings since I arrived here. I definitely feel as though someone’s trying to control me!

He laughed at that. You should lay off that bottle of yours. It’s all that vodka you’ve been drinking!

She giggled, and decided it was best to drop the subject of dolphin telepathy. You’re probably right. In any case, I feel much better now. Can we go back outside, to the dolphins?

OK, but we’d better give ourselves some shade. Your dad would be really mad at me if you passed out.

She retrieved her sunhat and sunglasses from his desk and they left the air-conditioning for a world of heat and bright sunlight. It was stickily oppressive after the cool of his office, and although she put on her sunglasses the glare from the concrete walkway hurt her eyes. The sun was higher in the sky now, and as she followed Rick silently back to the railed area where they had stood before, she was on tenterhooks in case she had another of those hot flushes and dizzy spells. Rick had talked about getting some shade, but there was no shade to be seen anywhere.

Without saying a word he went over to a control panel set in the wall behind them and fiddled with some controls. Machinery hummed, and an enormous awning started to unfurl above them. She watched as it extended over the walkway and part of the pool, cutting out the sun.

That’s much better, she said gratefully, removing her sunhat. Why don’t you have it up all the time?

We retract it if there’s a storm. There was a big one a couple of days ago.

The dolphins had moved into the shade and were now eyeing her expectantly. That’s the male, Rick told her, pointing to the larger of the two. He’s called Adam. The female’s called Eve.

Good names – for the first farmers of the seas.

He nodded. You’d better introduce yourself.

She leaned forward and called out: Hi Adam. Hi Eve. I’m Dawn.

The larger dolphin turned, flicked his tail, and sped through the water to the row of underwater characters at the opposite side of the pool, beneath the giant screen, and quickly tapped out a message. She couldn’t see what he was typing because the water was being churned up, but the letters appeared on the screen above him. They also appeared on a second underwater screen which she hadn’t noticed before, but which he could obviously see. The message read:

HI_DAWN

The underscore represents a space, Rick explained.

He spelled my name correctly, she observed with some surprise.

I told them you were coming, he confessed. And how to spell your name.

Well, I’m still impressed. Well done, Adam!

Adam responded by rolling over in the water, throwing a shower of spray into the air. Then he tapped out a second message, which again appeared on the two screens.

U_R_HOT

Rick burst out laughing. "You’re hot! he translated. I think he fancies you!"

Dawn’s cheeks turned crimson. He didn’t mean it like that! He means … he means what I’ve been feeling inside, ever since I got here. He’s telling me he knows how I feel!

Rick nodded sagely. Ah. Telepathy.

Exactly, she told him firmly. Telepathy.

He gave her a sly glance. Perhaps you should think of a number and ask him what it is.

Her embarrassment turned to irritation, and she glared at him. "It’s my feelings he’s able to detect. Dogs are sensitive to human emotions, well he is too. Except that he’s able to do it telepathically. Like I said, those dolphins have developed mental hands."

You seem very sure. You’ve only just met him.

"Of course I’m not sure. It’s just that his message is so … right." She didn’t add that telepathy might also explain that prickly feeling she’d had when the dolphins had stared at her earlier.

Adam was watching them intently, and no doubt listening as well – though she wondered whether he understood the word telepathy. Now he turned back to the row of letters and tapped out another quick message.

WL_U_B_N_CHARGE_F_US?

She stared at the message in disbelief, and then at Adam. What? In charge of you? Of course not, Adam, I’m just a visitor. Why do you ask that?

COS_U_R_SPECIAL

Special? What on earth do you mean?

The dolphin stared back at her, clearly at a loss to know how to respond. Then Eve, who had been floating nearby and watching everything, darted forward and tapped out:

U_R_POWERFUL

Dawn couldn’t help laughing. Powerful? I’m not at all powerful, Eve. I’m just a schoolgirl!

The dolphins floated motionlessly, staring up at her with their big eyes, then Adam returned to the row of underwater letters and repeated his first message.

U_R_HOT.

By now Rick was looking quite flabbergasted, and she could understand why. What those dolphins were saying didn’t make any sense at all.

I really don’t understand what feeling hot has to do with being powerful, she called out. Can’t you explain in some other way?

Adam flicked his tail and started swimming quickly backwards and forwards, so that the water became quite agitated.

He’s frustrated that you don’t understand, Rick whispered.

Have you got any idea what they’re on about? she whispered back.

He shook his head.

Suddenly Adam turned and sped back to the letters.

WD_U_LIKE_2_RIDE_ME?

Rick gasped. You can’t ride him, you’d probably crack his ribs. Dolphins’ bones are quite fragile, and he’s only young.

Adam responded by tapping out another message: RIDE_IN_ME.

"Ride in him? Rick exclaimed. What on earth is he talking about now?"

I think he wants me to leave my body and go inside him, telepathically, she whispered. This must be what Eve meant when she said I’m powerful. Somehow I’m able to do things like that.

She was becoming convinced that just as Adam and Eve had sensed the weird hot flushes that she’d experienced, so they had sensed her strange out-of-body experience. The flushes and the OBE’s were connected in some way, she was sure of that, and now she was certain that they were more than mere delusions.

"Leave your body and go inside him telepathically? Rick scoffed. Adam can’t possibly mean that!"

Dawn hardly heard him, for her mind was racing. The full import of those messages on the computer screen had just struck her. She had assumed that the dolphins had somehow been responsible for her bizarre experiences, but that wasn’t what they were telling her at all. What they seemed to be saying was that some special power within her was responsible, and now Adam was asking her to use that power to come into him.

And that raised a host of questions. Why did Adam think that such a thing might be possible? Had someone else gone into him in the past, or had he had an out-of-body experience of his own and travelled into another mind? And if that were the case, what else might these dolphins be capable of?

But the really big, puzzling question was this: If she really did have this special power, why had it only manifested itself now, in the presence of the dolphins? No, she corrected herself, it was not their presence that triggered it, but Rick’s. In fact, it wasn’t even Rick, it was her reaction to Rick. She had been powerfully attracted to him the moment they’d met, and the hormones that had flooded through her body had awakened a strange ability lying dormant within her. It was not unknown for love and desire to awaken unexpected artistic or poetic abilities in people, so why not this ability too?

The reason why not, of course, was that the ability to leave one’s body and travel into another mind lay outside the bounds of what was scientifically possible. Rick clearly didn’t believe in the supernatural, and she didn’t either – at least she hadn’t believed in it until now. She stared thoughtfully at the two dolphins floating a short distance away in the pool, their eyes glued on her and obviously waiting for some reaction from her. She didn’t know what to say, for the notion of travelling into another mind seemed so crazy. Probably she was getting carried away, and their messages meant something far more prosaic. Well, it would be easy to find out.

Do you really want me to go inside you with my mind, Adam? she called out. The larger dolphin immediately shot forward and nodded his beak vigorously, throwing large drops of water all over her.

She was far too delighted to care about getting a bit wet, and not just because her hunch had proved spot on. The fact was, she couldn’t imagine anything more thrilling than going inside the mind of such a marvellous creature. It would be fantastic to swim in a body like his!

Rick was looking utterly dumbfounded. Go inside him? How does Adam expect you to do that?

Dawn hesitated before answering. She didn’t want him to think her mad, but there was no escaping what was on her mind. Um, I suppose I’ve got to have some kind of, well, out-of-body experience.

This is ridiculous, he muttered, half to himself. Adam actually expects you to somehow leave your body and go into his mind. It’s barmy. He clenched his fists around the handrail and glared down at the two dolphins. Tell him it’s impossible!

No, it’s not! she retorted. She was brimming with excitement, because she’d suddenly had another brainwave. I think I can do it. It’s something about being hot. I need to heat up!

Rick gave an exasperated laugh. Heat up? Good grief, woman! What d’you think you’re going to do? Wave a magic wand and burst into flames and disappear in a puff of smoke? That would be an out-of-body experience, all right!

Dawn was too elated to be cowed by his irritated scoffing. "Now you’re being ridiculous, she retorted. I don’t need magic wands or spells or drugs or anything silly like that, I just need you to hold me tight in case I fall."

What?

Go on, put your arms round me. Before he had a chance to argue she had grabbed his arms and dragged them round her, turning so that her slender body was leaning backwards against him and facing the dolphins. In her younger days she had often played boisterous games with her brother and his friends, and that easy familiarity with boys coupled with her excitement and elation stopped her feeling too embarrassed by what she was doing. As for Rick, he was too startled to resist.

That wasn’t too difficult, was it? she murmured, pulling his arms more firmly about her waist.

He glanced around, clearly extremely ill-at-ease. It’s a good job this place is deserted, he muttered. I’d probably get the sack if anyone saw us.

Dawn didn’t reply. She was wondering what the teacher who would be assessing her presentation would make of her account of this. She attended an expensive girls-only Roman Catholic school, and most of her teachers were pretty strait-laced.

Rick’s warm body and strong arms had exactly the effect she’d hoped for. Her insides became a sizzling inferno, her head went into a spin, and her legs turned to jelly. As she slumped dizzily forward she felt Rick tighten his grip on her, and moments later she had left her body, just as she had before, and entered the disembodied state, floating above the pool with its faint pattern of ripples. This time there were no sparkling lights, as the awning had cut out the sun, but everything else was the same as before: her mind was alert, her spirit body was bright and solid, and everything else – the pool, the buildings round about, even what she could see of the sky – had that ghostly, washed-out appearance.

Dawn twisted her head round to see what was happening to her physical body. It was slumped in Rick’s arms, and she could feel, very dimly, their pressure about her waist. It was all very spooky, and the thought crossed her mind that perhaps she might not be able to return to her body but would be forced to wander forever as a disembodied spirit in this dismal parallel universe.

Hastily pushing that frightening prospect aside, she turned towards the large computer screen on the opposite side of the pool and scanned the tenuous surface for Adam. At first she couldn’t see him, but she discovered that by kicking her legs with a swimming motion she was able to propel herself forward above the water, and after a little while she spotted his grey shape. He was floating motionlessly below the screen, evidently waiting for her to enter him.

Three

Dawn was mystified. She hovered over the ghostly form of the dolphin, wondering how on earth she was going to get into his mind. Simply gliding into his head had proved singularly unsuccessful: she’d found herself floundering in a black treacly tenuousness which she supposed was his brain, and after some frantic swimming had emerged into the daylight without making any mental contact at all. There hadn’t been even a fleeting sense of his presence.

Evidently it was not enough merely to position herself at the same physical location in space as his brain. She should have guessed that, for whatever the mind was, it clearly transcended the brain. The fact that she was here, outside her physical body, proved that. The only way to get into Adam’s mind was to somehow think herself into it. Just as she had managed to slip out of her own brain by putting herself into a certain state of mind, so she had to do something similar to slip into his. It was, she reasoned, an out-of-body experience in reverse, and she decided she would call it an into-body-experience in that presentation of hers.

She kicked her legs and dived down a second time towards his grey body. As before, she headed for a point between his eyes, and as before, he seemed to grow larger and larger as she approached, until, when she landed on him, his skull appeared to be several metres across. He would look huge, of course, to someone only ten centimetres tall.

Adam’s skin had a ghostly, cobwebby feel, like a threadbare garment that was about to disintegrate into a thousand tiny pieces. One push and she would pass through it. She concentrated on that thought, and as she did so the greyness of his body darkened, and then everything went black and gooey. She had entered Adam’s skull and was now inside his brain.

That was the easy bit. Now she had to somehow put herself in the right mental state to penetrate his mind. Perhaps the thing to do was to picture what it would be like to inhabit his body. She tried to