I found a story that was in the drafts section of my blog. It was from back in 2005. The story idea was good but I was cringing as I read through it. I figured I would rewrite it and make it a little tighter. I’m not sure if its any better because I’m still working on getting my dialogue down. And still working on getting the right amount of description without making it seem like I’m writing a full bio on every character right when they get introduced. Anyway, here it is.
___
Alexandra hummed to herself as she typed away on the keyboard, busily putting the final touches on the program. She read somewhere that it was a way to engage the higher functions of her brain so that it would solve the problem while her conscious mind handled the humming. She didn’t know if it actually worked but at least it helped the time go faster.
“We gonna test the interface again today, Miss Costa?” Mike asked as he poked his head in the door.
“Mike, you know you can just call me Alex.”
“Yeah but Alex is a boy’s name. If I call you that then I might lose my, whatcha-macall, ability to gender identify.” That brought a smile to Alexandra’s face and she stopped typing to face him directly.
“Mike, I know you get a big kick out of telling your friends your co-worker is someone named Alex and watching their jaws drop when they see me.” Mike grinned. He did enjoy that. “But yes, I plan on testing the interface again in about an hour. You might want to get her ready by then.”
Mike nodded his head, his grin spreading even wider. “Sure thing Miss Costa. We meet you in an hour. Aloha!”
“Aloha Mike.” She turned back to her computer. The program had failed to decipher any readings the last time and a thorough check of the equipment turned up nothing. The problem had to be in the code. Ah, there it is. She stopped humming as she narrowed in on the problem.
An hour later found Alexandra at the dock, with Mike ready at the helm of the Mea A’a, Adventurer in Hawaiian, one of the research boats belonging to the Hawaii Marine Research Center. Lani, her research assistant was loading the last of the equipment on board. She already had a thin sheen of sweat even with just a t-shirt and shorts on. She raised an eyebrow at Alex. “You think it will work this time?” Lani was still a little miffed at the last attempt. The hardware was her responsibility so she was upset when Alex immediately thought the problem was with the equipment instead of the software.
“Well, if it doesn’t we’ll at least get to work on our tans.” Alex hopped on board and stowed the notebook computer away in the crew compartment. She called out to Mike in the pilots cupola. “Are we ready to go Mike?”
“Ready when you are, Miss Costa.” He gave her a shaka sign, right hand closed with the thumb and pinky extended.
“Okay then, cast off moorings.” Lani untied the ropes holding the boat at the bow and stern and then deftly jumped on the boat as Mike started to pull away from the dock. “Okay Miss Alex, here we go.”
Alex was glad she took Lani’s advice and hired Mike as part of the research team. Everyone knew the general areas off of Maui where the whales would congregate. The whale tours for the tourists were based on the most likely spots. But Mike had a knack of knowing where they would be outside of those areas, which was exactly where Alex needed to conduct her research.
She tried explaining it to him during a round of beers one night at the local bar and grill. “The neurosensory equipment is very sensitive Mike. So sensitive it can even pick up the signatures of any nearby humans. So, we have to deploy it away from the boat using buoys. And naturally, we can’t have any tourist whale watchers coming nearby or the equipment would pick them up too.”
Mike took a long swig of his beer. “So, you need me to find you whales that’s not anywhere close to other people? Okay, I can do that. I know some places. But you sure that’s not going to harm the whales?”
“Positive. The equipment is only receiving signals, not transmitting them. Scientists have been trying to understand whale song for years now in the hope they can figure out the language. This equipment is bypassing all that and going straight to the source. The brain.”
“I got it doc. You want to read their minds. You may not like what they have to say though.” He raised his bottle. Alex clinked it with her own. “Maybe. First we have to find them before we can listen to them.”