Frost and Fire
By Jon Sleeper
The light from a full moon glinted off the water as I leaned on the portside rail of an Alaskan cruise ship. The ship had checked out completely. It was as environmentally safe from stem to stern as such a vessel could get, I knew because I'd just finished inspecting it.
I heard what had to be the exhalations of whales just a few hundred yards off the beam. A look into the glint off calm the water from the full moon confirmed it. They were Orcas, otherwise known as Killer Whales, I could tell because I could see the oval white patches above their eyes. A perfect night. I thought. I waved at them.
Reminded by the whales, I pulled the necklace that had a perfect 2" carving of an orca, the most perfect I'd ever found, from beneath my jacket. It was supposedly carved by an Inuit. Even if it wasn't, the carving was still the best I'd ever seen, for all the years I lived in Alaska this one was the best. It also brought back memories.
I was the founder of an environmentalist group known as ORCA, acronym for Outside Resource Conservation Association. The group had originally been around to find other locations for heavily polluting industries to keep Alaska the relatively untouched place that it had been. We did not want ALL industry off, just the ones that did the most damage.
That's why I bought the necklace carving, it reminded me of where I started. I was no longer a member of ORCA, it had started to become too radical for me. Then I'd taken the EPA job inspecting cruise ships for environmental violations. I caught quite a few, and now the ships were so clean they could not put more than a spoonful of piss overboard without my knowing. The cruise ship companies did not like me that much, but they were making more money now then before they cleaned up their act.
But in recent years I'd begun to feel that I'd done everything I'd set out to do. That's really why I'd come back to Alaska. Perhaps here I'd find my next task, whatever that was.
This is the most perfect night I've seen in years! What could possibly go wrong? I thought as I thumbed the Orca carving in my pocket.
*********
One minute left. One minute then these earth-rapists will never foul these waters again.
It had been disappointingly easy to plant the bomb. In order to do so he had a special super-lightweight dinghy equipped with a super-quiet electric outboard motor; the boat and the wetsuit he was wearing would blend in with the water from the angle of the ship's lookout and bridge. He'd be seen from any other angle. He'd simply placed himself in the course of the ship, aimed just at the port side, and after getting up as much speed as he could clamped on a suction cup onto the hull so he could ride along side. Then he inched backward to a certain spot on the hull where he could use the various adhesives on his utility belt to stick the bomb on. The bomb was a special shaped-charge that would punch into the main fuel tank inside the double hull.. He'd studied the designs enough to know that this particular ship had left with such a flaw. Then he released the suction cup and let the ship move on without him. It was the most perfect of nights.
Of course, if the man had stopped and thought a moment, he would have realized that what he was about to do would cause more damage in a few minutes that ten ships would in a decade. But he'd never been one to reconsider a potentially disastrous decision. And none of the others in his slightly radical group would ever approve of what he was doing. But he'd gotten a good omen in the Orcas off his portside, so why wouldn't he go through with it?
*********************
The air was chill, probably only twenty five degrees, and I had only stepped out in a light jacket. So, I decided to go back into my cabin. I did not get a chance to turn around. The bomb exploded outward and upward, tossing me like a burning ragdoll hundreds of feet from the ship. Amazingly, I did not lose consciousness. That saved my life.
I was burning. The explosion had thrown me right through the fireball. Burning, then suddenly plunged into the freezing salt water. It was like frost and fire at the same time. The ship went down in flames, no one else survived the initial blast, and the flames could be seen for miles like an unholy beacon of Hell.
The water was cold, but stung my burning skin so much there was really no difference at first above or below the water. Then blessed numbness spread from my hands inward. Oddly, the skin that was touching the Orca carving on my chest still had feeling in it, it felt warm and unburned in fact. Strange, I thought.
I knew it would take only minutes to die of hypothermia, and had almost resigned myself to my fate. But then I saw what looked like a dinghy in the distance. Had somebody else survived? If nothing else, morbid curiosity motivated me. I awkwardly started to swim with my numb body in the direction of the raft.
As I swam, I did so kicking my legs behind. Then I noticed I had feeling in my torso again, a feeling which spread to my arms, my crotch, and my legs. There was a flash of warmth in my jacket, and suddenly the carving was gone. What the Hell? I thought as I frantically felt for it. It must have slipped out. Damn. I continued swimming, stronger than before.
There was something wrong with my clothes, those that had not been burned off. They felt too hot, and were tight. And the boots I was wearing were now uncomfortable. I struggled with my charred shoes and jeans. When I got them off and felt the skin underneath I found it smooth to the touch. I must have been burned to the muscle! Then I realized what I'd done, and frantically felt for my clothes. But they had sunk already.
::I don't believe this.:: Panic ensued for a moment, but it was soon replaced by a determination to get to the raft I saw. I swam for it, not considering that it'd been almost ten minutes. Any human should have died or at least gone unconscious.
My legs felt strange. They would not move separately, only at the same time, and felt thick. My feet felt distorted and wide. I figured it was some kind of effect from the cold. The dinghy was only a few hundred feet away, and as my swimming got stronger and stronger I closed on the raft.
Because of my strange feeling legs and feet, I had to modify my swim. I now had to swim head parallel to the rest of my body, a position that should have been very uncomfortable, but strangely was not. The feeling of thickness moved leapt from my legs to my chest, spreading to my arms. I suddenly felt as if he was being inflated like a balloon. There was a tingle from my lower back, so I stopped to scratch it.
And found that my arm would no longer move that way. It was too big, and flattening as I watched. "No!" I tried to say, but my mouth and nose were no longer connected, I could only make a clicking noise. The water was cold, but clear. I could see quite a ways into the deep. What I saw where my body should have been was a long white underside pattern, countershaded with black on my back. I recognized it all to well. It was an Orca's skin coloring.
As watched my fingers fuse into one flattening mass, I tried to flex my legs, Maybe that person on the boat can help me. was my irrational thought. My legs no longer moved as such. My legs… no tail now moved like one, flexing it's entire length. I had no time to marvel at it, as the warm, thick feeling moved from my chest to my head.
I blacked out, my brain felt like it was exploding. Before slipping below waves I reflexively took a breath through my new blowhole, and descended into darkness.
As I came to, I feverently hoped it was all a dream. But what I was getting from my nerves confirmed that it wasn't. Then I realized that I was being supported by something. Then it moved, no, someone. It had felt about the same size, streamlined in shape. I felt another presence next to me. <You need to lose some weight, brother.> said a female voice.
<Huh? What?> I unconsciously replied in a language I'd never known before. <I said, you should learn to share your catch with the rest of the pod. Any more and I alone would not have been able to keep you Above. They feed you too much on those ship-things.>
I was floating free now, and felt the differences in my body. It was long, large and streamlined. There was a distinct feeling of having a dorsal fin on my back. I had double vision, and I also realized I was making a clicking noise that I saw. I almost lost it, then I remembered what the clerk had said in the shop. "The Orca is your totem. It will help you when you're in trouble. But if He decides you're worthy of his help, you must accept the help he gives you, whatever the cost, if you want to live." I knew lots of Inuit legends, I think there were a few Orca transformations, but I was not trusting my memory at the moment. I almost panicked, but for some reason this body felt right and natural for me. I asked her a question. <How did you know I came from the ship- thing? And that I was human?> I had been spyhopping, so slipped below the surface so I might hear her better.
<Orca knows.> she replied. <We've been waiting for you for some time. You should have come sooner, but you had Tasks to perform. They are done now, so you are as you should be.> That suddenly made sense.
All at once I had memories of beaching myself, and suddenly a flash, and being found as a human child on a beach in Alaska by some boaters, who took me as their own. I'd been born an Orca, but Orca Himself had had something for me to do. That Task completed, I was now free to rejoin my pod. But there was something I had to do first, I realized. The dinghy- thing that the man was in should not have been there. I flexed my tail flukes and swam towards it.
Spyhopping again, I heard him yelling. "They'll never pollute these waters again!!" I recognized the voice. It was the co-founder of ORCA, one of my oldest friends before he went so radical. I'm sure if he was not around thing would fix themselves. The other one (my sister?) swam up to me. <That one is a sickness on your Work. He is the source of your Work's defilement.> she clicked. <It seems you have one more Task to complete.>
I knew what I had to do. First, I went deep, very deep. Using my newly-familiar echolocation ability, I found the bottom of the boat, and aimed for it. He never knew what hit him.
EPILOGUE
"Where was he found?"
"On a buoy in the harbor. He had some kind of utility belt on that had all kinds of adhesives and suction cups, perfect for adhering a bomb onto that ship's hull. He'd been shivering so hard he could not detach the stuff from the belt."
"Good luck, I suppose. But how did he get here? The boat blew up fifty miles away! And there is no way he could have survived the cold water."
"Some guy who was probably drunk said a Killer Whale put him right on it. I mean, like he'd been dragging him for miles and just shoved him right on it."
"Drunk. Definitely."