Oliver: A Wendy Miracle Short Story

By Unashamed Studio

Wendy Miracle, a student at Moroa University, grows attached to one of the university's orca whales after training with him. But when he is found dead and his death is blamed on a "ship strike" with a container ship, she refuses to believe it. Instead, she convinces her blind friend and a local middle schooler to help her unravel the mystery and hunt down the killer.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Unashamed Studio
• Release date: Feb 10, 2016
• ISBN: 9781310556647

Unashamed Studio

Unashamed Studio is the work of Peter Rust and Katie Kindlund, authors devoted to the intersection of speculative fiction (mostly sci-fi & fantasy) and biblical theology.

Book preview

Oliver™

2nd Edition

A Wendy Miracle™ Short Story

by Unashamed Studio

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Dedicated to Lacey Sturm

Oliver is inspired by Lacey’s music (Life Screams) and her story (The Reason).

May these continue to advance the Kingdom of the Most High.

Edited by Amanda June Hagarty

© 2016 Unashamed Studio

(Katie Kindlund & Peter Rust)

http://unashamedstudio.com

Bellingham, WA

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Table of Contents

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

What did you think?

Coming Soon

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Part 1

Wendy leaned closer to her favorite orca whale, Oliver, as they glided under the cool Moroa Bay water. His slick skin was like rubber under her hands, and his soft clicking was constant as he used echolocation to create a sound map.  As they darted through the murky water, Wendy could feel the current rushing against her wetsuit. Bright lights shone through the cloudiness at certain angles, like strobe lights on either side of her.

She had to speed up. It wasn’t a competition; they’d been told that a dozen times. University President, Eli Nachash himself, had addressed the program participants that this was merely an assessment of their individual skills, that there was no need to race.

Still, Wendy couldn’t help but see Maya Carreras a dozen feet ahead, a senior in the Marine Mammal Studies program who had taken the class for fun, as a challenge.

She loved being underwater. It had been the unexpected highlight of her summer, submerging and pushing away her worries about money or grades. It was so quiet, excepting for Oliver’s clicking and the constant sound of her breathing through the mask.

Wendy moved her hands to the handhold furthest forward on Oliver’s harness, which he’d been trained to recognize as a signal to speed up. It was important that they perform all the necessary maneuvers, and they had a few to go. One of the ones Oliver was best at was an abrupt stop; Wendy and Maya would practice by holding red-light-green-light tournaments with their orcas.

All right, buddy, Wendy thought, and pressed the little clicker that rested against Oliver, so that he was tapped gently on top of his head.

He stopped immediately, turning  his head toward Wendy. His slightly frustrated call barely reaching Wendy’s ears through the water and the mask.

Passing this test was so important. Everyone who’d applied for the portal exploration program, and had been selected as a potential candidate, had had to take Undersea Exploration as an elective over the summer, and Wendy knew she had to ace the final exam if she wanted to get involved with portal exploration.

Her brother, Caleb, was the poster child of the Portalnauts, but that wasn’t enough to get her in on its own. He had taken this class last spring, and now he’d be going through a portal in just a couple of days.

She scanned the turbid waters for signs of life. She’d already spotted a rockfish, which she knew she’d get bonus points for, and had logged all the necessary water conditions. Still, they hadn’t yet collected any samples, but they’d only passed one possible collection point of two. She had to remember to drop the probe at the second point, as well, when she could access her pack.

Now I’ve just got to… What is that?

Out of the corner of her eye, Wendy had spotted a strange shadow crossing the sandy floor, larger than an orca, and not the right shape. As soon as she whipped her head to face it, she couldn’t spot a thing.

Wendy refocused her attention on the algae-coated rock formations on her left she was meant to be capturing with the camera attached to Oliver’s harness. She wanted to be careful to follow every instruction of the exam.

All participants should surface and return to the docks. The voice that came through her scuba mask’s radio was Bradley Thame, who had been her instructor all summer, and instructing astronauts at NASA for the past ten years.

The students around her followed orders immediately; May Matthews’s head had breached the surface before Wendy had started to slow down.

Maybe it’s a trick, Wendy thought. Testing our dedication.

She’d never been told to surface in the middle of a practice before—what danger could there possibly be?

Wendy ducked down and urged Oliver forward, in the direction of the second collection point. She’d hate to waste time surfacing if they were only going to send everyone back down in a few minutes, when they’d sorted out whatever was bothering them.

Bradley Thame’s voice again: I repeat, all participants should leave the water. The heart rates of the orcas have exceeded the normal parameters.

That definitely got Wendy’s attention, and she stroked Oliver’s side, his skin slick like rubber. You okay, buddy? He wasn’t showing any signs of abnormalcy, and she knew him well. He nudged her hand with his head and continued to push forward.

Wendy Miracle, please surface immediately.

Fine, we’re going up, she decided, adjusting