Chapter ten
Emergency Surgery
Each person in the small group walking toward the sailboat anchorage was wrapped in their own thoughts. Much had been squeezed into a short time and they respectfully allowed each other some quiet to sort things out. Though each had reason to hope for a better tomorrow, none doubted that great perils lay ahead. It was cool in the shade of the tropical forest and their footsteps were quiet as they padded over the soft earthen trail.
A strong and growing hum interrupted the silence as they came in sight of the shaded river water, the sailboat itself could be seen through a tunnel of trees.
"What's that! Leslie cried, flinching involuntarily.
"The pilots must be parking our ship," Will said with a smile, taking her hand in his. "You kids sure did paint a good camouflage job on that sailboat," he complimented. "I can barely see it from here and I know what I'm looking at."
"Thanks, Dad," Grace and Kevin both responded.
"Look, there's the new spaceship," Rima pointed excitedly.
Liz had suggested they show the ship to the Admiral when she and Eddy lifted off the ground to park in a better position. Eddy knowing she was itching for a longer flight agreed that a quick flyby was probably a good idea. They streaked over the sailboat and made a long swooping turn which carried them out over the ocean and then back to the river anchorage, where they hovered briefly before returning to the old fort to park. Everyone heard Admiral Castro hoot with excitement.
"He sounds like a surfer riding a hot wave," Grace said with a laugh.
Leslie smiled with the thought of Inocente shouting with glee at the sight of the spacecraft overhead. "What was that music we all heard in our heads when Eddy touched Liz's forehead?" she asked turning to Rima.
"You'll no doubt hear more about it from my grandfather," Rima answered. "We were in a terrible war with a horrible force we called Doom Cloud, it totally destroyed the delfinians home planet before we met them. Delfinians have huge spaceships which are somehow powered by gravity, they call their power 'gravitonic', at least I think that's the way it translates into our language. I flew one of their ships, briefly."
"If you are a pilot, why aren't you Eddy's copilot?" Will interrupted. "Gravitonic power sounds fascinating," he mused.
"I was copilot, now I work with grandpa. I'm good with computers and the Admiral needs me more as his assistant. I'm sure you will be interested by delfinian space ships. Flying one is like riding on the front of a water stream coming out of a hose, you try to stay in the middle and can turn the volume up or down."
"Yes, I can picture that," Will said. "What about the war?"
"We would have lost the war and Planet Pacifica would have been destroyed by Doom Cloud if the Melodians had not been there to help. Melodians sing with the stars and one of them, Star Song, taught Eddy to speak in the melodian way, with telepathic music instead of words."
"But what about the war?" Kevin asked.
Rima's lip quivered, then her voice cracked, "It was the most terrifying time of my life. Star Song showed Eddy how to travel all the way here almost instantly, we haven't even had a full night's sleep since then." She put her hands over her face and was suddenly wracked with sobs of terror and grief. "All I want to do is live normally and here I am in another war with people shooting and trying to kill us. I thought we were coming home to plain old hard work at Nation Pacifica."
Leslie quickly put her arms around Rima and held her close. She patted Rima's back with one hand and brushed her tears from her eyes with the other. "Don't worry, Child. Everything will be okay. You're not alone. We're here to help." Leslie kissed Rima's forehead and held her tight. "We won't let anyone hurt you. You just need some rest," she cooed. "Really, everything will be fine. Be patient. You'll see." She sent a quick nod to Will, who reached out to Rima with one hand.
"C'mon," he said. "Let's go see what your Grandfather is up to. Maybe there's a quiet place on the boat where you can get some sleep."
Rima smiled through her passing tears and straightened her back. She reached out and took Will's hand and they all walked together the last little way to the sailboat mooring. "I'm sorry. It really is beautiful here," Rima said as they reached the boat.
The Admiral instantly noticed Rima's puffy eyes and rose from where he'd been sitting in conversation with a group of delfinians. Grace saw the concern on his face. "Rima needs rest," she said. I'm going to show her to a bunk down below."
Rima's grandfather patted her on the shoulder and smiled as he spoke, "This hasn't been easy, we all need some sleep." He watched Grace lead Rima below deck and turned to Will and Leslie. "What a welcome addition you two are," he greeted them with a hand shake and a hug.
"It's been a long time," Leslie responded.
"You just love us for our ship," Will quipped, and then laughed.
"I won't deny it, your ship changes things, a lot." The Admiral responded.
"We heard you hooting when you saw it fly over," Will said accusingly.
Inocente was beaming. Everyone could see he was happy to be with his friends. He turned to the delfinians and introduced them in order. "Sudor, Cecric, and Dawn, please meet my long time friends, Leslie and Will."
The delfinians nodded their heads in greeting as the Admiral handed Leslie and Will translation collars. Leslie walked to the ship railing and leaned forward with her hands on her knees. "It is so nice to meet you and see that our first contact with life from another planet is so beautiful." She bent over the railing and reached to touch hands with the delfinians, who moved forward and touched her hand in greeting.
"Where are the others?" Will asked. "I was told there are five of you."
Sudor nodded. "We heard a cry of pain from some whales as we swam into the river with the Admiral. Perko and Landra have gone to investigate, perhaps we can help, we should know something soon." He turned his head sideways and leaned it against the water surface, holding one hand up for silence as he listened, his eyes assumed the far away look of someone talking on the telephone. Cecric and Dawn followed suit and placed the side of their heads in the water so they could hear what was happening. There eyes widened, and then they frowned.
Sudor lifted his head from the water. "Perko and Landra have found a young sperm whale swimming around it's unconscious mother. Both of them have been badly burned. They must have been close to the joy beam demonstration you gave to the submarine commander."
Cecric lifted her head out of the water next. "Perko and Landra are helping the young whale hold its mother up so she doesn't drown. They are moving her slowly toward shore and need our help."
"Leslie. are you a medical doctor as well as a medical scientist?" Sudor asked.
"Yes." Leslie responded, biting her lip nervously.
"You should prepare for a traumatic burn patient in shock," he said, nodding to the other delfinians, who instantly dove and started swimming down river toward the sea. "We will need some sort of floating device for an operating table," he said over his shoulder, before diving to follow the others.
Sudor had barely disappeared under water when the roar of a low flying plane burst from behind the island mountain. Everyone ducked for cover as a large black navy search plane blasted by directly overhead.
"I wonder if they saw us?" Kevin said, more to himself than anyone else.
"I don't think so," Leona responded. "They never have before."
"You've seen planes like that before?" the Admiral asked.
"Use has been searching for us ever since we escaped on the boat," Leona said. "That's why we painted the sailboat to match the forest background. It was standard white with blue trim, before we painted it different shades of black, green, and brown."
"We should see where the plane goes," Kevin said, reaching for Leona's hand.
They both ran along the trail to a vantage point where they could still be under the cover of trees and stone outcroppings yet watch the flight of the search patrol as it went out over the ocean. The big black plane flew around the surfing bay once and then headed out to sea, away from the direction the delfinians had gone. Leona and Kevin then ran to where the spaceships were parked inside the ruins of the old fort. Eddy and Liz were coming out from underneath the larger ship when they arrived.
"Do you think it spotted the submarine?" Leona asked, a little out of breath from running.
"It didn't see the sub as far as we could tell," Eddy responded.
"I don't think so either," Kevin said. "The search patrol would have made more passes over the submarine if it had detected anything. We have a worse problem right now though."
Eddy and Liz both looked at Kevin questioningly, neither spoke waiting to hear about the problem.
"The delfinians think a mother whale and its child were hurt when you shot the joy beam into the water. They're helping the young whale hold the mother up and are bringing her in for medical treatment, if it's possible."
"Oh," Eddy sighed, "this is terrible."
"My mom is going to do what she can." Kevin said. "Do you have some kind of floats or cargo netting we can rig up a floating operating table with?"
"Yep. Let's get the stuff together now."
"Eddy," Liz said. "The United States of Earth may be a little primitive because it put so much into military spending, but I don't think it's safe to assume the search plane didn't become aware of the submarine."
"What do you mean?" Eddy asked.
"I might have seen its wings waggle just a little, almost like it started to turn back and then didn't."
"Hmm. Okay. Let's take everything we can carry to and talk this over with the Admiral. I might have to start you on flight training right away, in case we're forced to fight."
Liz looked down at the ground and shuffled her shoes around in the dirt, when she looked up her eyes flashed defiantly. "Look, Eddy, switching sides is one thing, but blasting my friends out of the sky is another. See what I mean?"
"I feel the same way," he said walking up the ramp and into the ship cargo bay. "Here, let's take everything from these two storage lockers and go talk this over with the others."
"What if a warship shows up in the middle of the medical emergency?" Leona asked.
"I'll fight," Eddy answered grimly. "They'll wish they were somewhere else."
"Let's worry about whether or not we were spotted and fighting later," Kevin said. "The most important thing now is carting this stuff over to the sailboat and making an operating table big enough for a whale."
As they loaded up with as much equipment as possible the delfinians were laboring mightily to move the sperm whale into the river mouth. The young whale had at first been frightened but soon realize help was at hand. The delfinians had tried to speak with the young whale but it was too agitated and in too much pain of its own to concentrate fully. They left their translation collars on and adjusted them as close to the whale's language as they could. Though obviously confused the young whale cooperated fully and helped hold its mother on the surface so she wouldn't drown. Cecric inspected the mother's wound. A long straight burn peeled back the skin on the widest part of her body, starting just behind her head and stretching along the upper back. She noticed that the young whale had a smaller burn that ran vertically up its side close to the tail. "The underwater concussion must have knocked the mother unconscious and the little one was protected by her body except for its tail." She spoke with quiet, measured tones that she hoped would not frighten the young whale, who listened to her every word but made no sound.
The effort to move the mother whale became considerably easier when Sudor, Cecric, and Dawn joined in. Cecric was able to occasionally let go, inspect for other wounds, and then check heartbeat and other vital signs. Her own whale-like sonar gave her the ability to sense organ functioning. The other delfinians completely shared the impressions she was gathering by listening in on her internal sonar probes directly. Discussion between them about heart beat and other vital signs was completely unnecessary because the sound images contained much more information than a visual image, they were aware three dimensionally, like cetaceans.
Cecric spread her arms wide, placed her hands on either side of the wound, and slowly pulled the undamaged skin closed. "I think she is going to require some skin grafting in the middle area," she mused.
The young whale then sang a brief low note, it was a question, rich with nuance and filled with fear and doubt. Cecric responded with a melodic description of its mother's basic good health and strength. The young whale swam to Cecric and nuzzled her, she stroked its head and sang of confidence and medical help, though she knew the young whale wouldn't fully understand. It then copied the delfinians and held its mother's weight upward while pushing forward with what would be shoulders if it had them. They entered the river moving quite rapidly despite the mother whale's complete unconsciousness. Her body was limp but floated on its own, all they had to do was keep her from rolling her air passage below water, it was actually much easier to keep her moving than it had been to start out.
Perko and Sudor were in front holding her head, they pushed to one side and the mother whale's long body bent enough to glide with ease around the bend in the river leading up to the sail boat mooring. The river seemed much smaller with an adult whale in it. Dawn rose to the surface for a breath and saw Kevin and Leslie standing in a small rowboat waving them forward, she dove and gave the others direction. They moved the mother whale's limp body into position, the human team tightened a large supporting net made of lashed together cargo nets that had been hastily tied to trees on both sides of the river cove. It was more like a hammock than the original float idea.
The delfinians swam out of the net to discuss the medical situation and catch their breath. Cecric hooked the young whale's flipper with her arm and pulled it along with the others, her gentle version of whale song provided all the reassurance it needed. After one backward glance it readily joined the delfinians, who surrounded the rowboat discussing medical needs with Leslie, who had transformed herself into a somewhat nervous but mentally prepared surgeon.
Kevin rowed his mother to the mother whale's side, she stepped out of the rowboat and onto the whale after inspecting the length of the wound and making rapid surgical decisions. "Please bring me the knives, disinfectant, and sail repair needles," she said without looking up from the task ahead.
"Are you okay, Mom?" Kevin asked looking at her pale face. "This is pretty gruesome."
"I'm fine," she replied, stifling a queasy feeling in her stomach. "Ask the delfinians to take the young whale out of sight so it doesn't panic when I start operating on this awful burn."
"Is she going to live?"
"I think so. Have them bring the young whale by here so I can get a quick look at its injury, also. This wound is too big for me alone. Are you okay to help me?"
Kevin gulped. "I guess so." Then he rowed off to bring the surgical materials. He relayed his mother's instructions to the delfinians as he rowed by them. They and the young whale were gone when he returned with the surgical tools and materials. "How is the young whale?" he asked.
"It will survive. We can treat its wound later."
"So what are we going to do?"
"You watch until you see exactly what I'm doing and then do the same thing. I'm going to start by trimming away the damaged skin and blubber."
Leslie then took a sharp knife and began cutting a smooth line in healthy skin on both sides of the wound, she started at one end and worked toward the center. Then she cut away the damaged surface blubber and removed a small amount just beneath the healthy skin. Kevin soon learned what to do and the two worked silently at cleaning away damaged tissue. After they had cleaned a little more than twice the length of the rowboat Leslie showed Kevin how to draw the undamaged skin edges together while she stitched the wound closed with the sail repairing needle. They then move to the far end of the long wound and repeated the procedure of removing damaged tissue, then stitching toward the center. Kevin was surprised at how strong the skin was, he had expected it to tear when he let go and only the stitches held the skin together.
"The wound is wider in the center." he commented, still worrying the skin would tear.
"I know," Leslie grunted as she set another chunk of damaged tissue in the bottom of the boat. "We are going to remove a wedge of blubber from the center of the next stitch length so there is room for it to compress and relieve tension on the skin. signal your sister to bring the canoe and start hauling away this blubber and burnt skin so we have room to work. Then watch me cut out a wedge of blubber. We have to be careful not to cut the healthy muscle below."
Kevin waved to Grace, who was waiting close by in the canoe. He had laughed at her for bringing it, now he was grateful she had insisted a canoe might come in handy. He handed her armloads of damaged tissue and watched his mother remove a neat wedge of healthy blubber from the center of the wound. "How do you know how to do that?" He asked holding the wound together and watching her knots as she stitched.
"I don't," she responded. "Have you ever wondered why a doctor's work is referred to as a practice?"
"I have, as a matter of fact."
"Well, now you know. Your mom is flying by the seat of her pants here, I'm practicing."
"You mean you don't know what your doing?" He looked at the deep wedge cut in the mother whale's blubber and could see a ruler straight line of red muscle at the bottom. Not one drop of blood came from the muscle tissue, his mother had cut right to the muscle and no further. She obviously knew exactly what she was doing, and doing it with supreme skill.
"No, I know we have to do something," she said, "even if it's wrong. I'm practicing for my next whale surgery on this one." She looked up at Kevin and smiled. "We can do it," she continued. "It's going to work, but she will need a skin graft for the very center. Do you think you can show your sister what to do while I take the canoe and remove some healthy skin?"
"Yep," he answered smiling back. "I've had plenty of practice at this."
They both laughed somewhat nervously as they began on the last area before the graft. Leslie explained what they were going to do next as Kevin piled another load of damaged tissue in the canoe. When Grace returned to exchange places with her mother, Leslie slipped in the greasy canoe bottom and almost fell. Kevin steadied her while Grace passed her the knife and other tools she would need from the rowboat. Leslie called for an exact length measurement when she reached a good spot on the other side of the whale to remove skin for the graft.
"I wonder how she knows the width it should be," Grace said as she tentatively followed Kevin's example and began cutting away damaged tissue.
"She says she's practicing," Kevin responded dipping a paint brush in a can of disinfectant and brushing it on newly cut healthy skin.
"I hope she doesn't wake up before we're done," Grace said while working on the mother whale with growing confidence.
"No joke," Kevin answered. "She'd probably throw us all the way to the shore with one flip of her tail. We've got anesthetic to knock her back out if she starts to wake up, but mom is worried about doing that before she knows why the whale has been unconscious so long." He looked at what Grace was doing and made a low whistle. "You're already as good at this as mom. You should be studying medicine to become a doctor, it's in your blood."
"I was thinking about it before all this started," Grace said. "But the way things look now, I'll probably never even finish my environmental and science studies."
Kevin frowned. "The United States really has turned into a problem. If it doesn't adopt real democracy and environmental accounting soon, I'm thinking not much will survive."
"You've already become a world renowned doctor for sick societies," Grace said with an angry edge to her voice, "and look at you; you are a hunted man hiding out on a pacific island." She sighed and bent over her work. "And look at this poor whale caught in the middle of us trying to be good guys and a nuclear submarine that can destroy the entire planet twice. That stupid sub cost more than it would take to educate half the world's poor and starving people. I hope Inocente and the delfinians can do something to stop this madness."
"The delfinians seem almost mysteriously committed to our problems here on Earth," Kevin said.
"They want humans to stop abusing cetaceans and polluting their homewater."
"I get the feeling there's more to it than that," Kevin answered looking up from his work as their mother returned with a long length of healthy skin rolled up inside a sterile plastic sheet.
"Kevin!" She called. "Do you think you could stitch up the area where I removed the skin while I work with Grace? I've already started the stitches. Everything is set up and ready."
Kevin exchanged places with his mother in the canoe and agreed he could do it, he shuddered but didn't mention he was reluctant to work alone. Leslie patted his shoulder in passing and told him he needed a little practice on his own. She smiled encouragingly and without a second glance began explaining to Grace what they were going to do next. Kevin had to admire his mom's way of getting things done in a medical emergency, though he had to concentrate hard to hold down rising panic. He felt very alone as he paddled the canoe toward stitching up a living being. When he arrived at his appointed task he was once again impressed by the extraordinarily neat incisions his mother was capable of, it gave him the boost of courage he needed to go on even though his stomach felt woozy.
He was just finishing the last stitch and thinking about sewing up torn sails when the whale's skin twitched. Kevin didn't take time to think, he immediately pushed the canoe along the mother whale's length until he was clear of the area he had just sewn. Then he grabbed the canoe linter rope with one hand and climbed up onto the whale. Three quick steps and he was looking down at his mother and sister finishing the skin graft. "I felt the whale move," he said urgently.
"So did we," Grace cried.
"Throw him that bag with the anesthetic and a cloth in it," Leslie ordered without turning from her work. "Put some anesthetic on the cloth and hold it near her blow hole for at least four breaths, then get ready to do it again if I say so. Don't spill any anesthetic on her skin near her nostril, but be sure the cloth is throughly saturated. And wear the rubber gloves I put in the bag!"
Kevin caught the bag his sister threw to him and ran forward to the whale's breathing hole. He put on the gloves, saturated the cloth, and held it open so that the vapors would be taken in with each breath. The breaths were so slow it was difficult to count them, he felt a slight shudder on what he thought was the fourth breath and removed the cloth. Then he ran back to tell his mom.
"I felt her relax," she said before he had a chance to say anything. "If you're finished on the other side, take the canoe and go find the delfinians so they can help her back to sea."
Kevin had tied the rope to the canoe to a belt loop so it was quick and simple to climb down the whale's side and step back into the canoe. He paddled full-speed to find the delfinians, who he hoped were waiting close to the river mouth. He let out a breath of relief when he saw that they were there. The delfinians and the young whale quickly gathered around to hear the news. He explained that the operation was finished and their help was needed to carry the mother whale back to the sea and keep her safe until she regained consciousness. The delfinians took a moment to sing a brief song to the young whale, who appeared to understand completely. They all then headed full speed for the mother whale, with Kevin following.
By the time Kevin reached the river cove he could see that all the people were standing on the sailboat. The delfinians had turned the mother whale around and were already moving her limp form toward the sea. The young whale nervously swam around its mother and appeared to be directing the unfolding drama, its antics made Kevin smile with satisfaction. "Job well done," he said to himself, patting his own back. He moved to the bank to give plenty of room to the procession. Landra waved for him to follow. "I'll go get my sister first," he said. "She won't want to miss this."