Chapter 17 Section 17

"Everyone on the island thinks," said Mick, "that the professor is completely insane. It's unbelievable!" "You know, that's total bullshit," Johnny retorted immediately, trying to defend himself as a hero. "What is he doing now?" "He used brain wave equipment to control Xuemei's emotions. He asked me to feed Xuemei a kind of fish, and then Dr. Saha refused to let her eat it. This repeatedly stimulated its appetite several times, and it no longer wanted to eat. The professor called this "conditioned reflex". Now, there are four or five big pike swimming around in the pond, Xuemei doesn't even look at them, but it still eats other fish."

"How can that make the professor go crazy with joy?" "Well, it goes without saying, that's exactly what he's trying to achieve. If he can keep a killer whale from eating pike, he can certainly keep it from eating dolphins. But what's the use of that? Killer whales in the ocean Thousands, how can he conditioned all the killer whales?" "Whatever the professor does," insisted Johnny, "is always going to make sense. We'll see!" "But no matter what, I don't want them to trouble Xuemei all the time. One day, it will be furious!"

Johnny thought, it's a bit strange for Mick to say that, orcas don't have a good temper. Johnny said, "I don't think it matters." Mick smiled embarrassedly and rubbed his feet against the ground. "You promise me not to tell anyone what I say, okay?" he asked. "of course not!" "Yes, I have been swimming with Xuemei for a long time, and I think she is more interesting than your two dolphins." Johnny was dumbfounded by Mick's words, and completely ignored Mick's bad words about his two dolphin friends. "And you say the professor is crazy!" Johnny finally caught his breath and shouted loudly. "I think you're crazy! You're not lying to me, are you?" he added, unable to believe Mick's words.Having been with Mick for so long, he has been able to distinguish when Mick is joking and talking big, and when he is telling the truth seriously.But this time Mick looked very serious.

Mick shook his head. "If you don't believe me, you can go into the water and try it yourself. Oh, I know, it's unbelievable to say. But there is really no danger with Xuemei. It happened by accident. One day, I was feeding Xuemei The fish accidentally slipped from the edge of the pool into the pool." "Whoa!" Johnny hissed. "I'm sure you must think your end is here!" "Yes, but when I came up out of the water, I took a good look at Snow Girl's mouth." Mick paused. "You know, I'm so nervous, I can't remember the scene now. All I think about is its teeth. I wonder if it will bite me in half or swallow me in one bite."

"How did it turn out?" Johnny asked, breathless with tension. "In the end, instead of biting me in half, he nudged me gently with his nose, as if saying to me, 'Let's make friends!' From then on, we really became friends. If One day I don't go swimming with it, it will be very sad. Sometimes I have to sneak there to swim, and if someone sees it and tells the professor, it's all over!" Johnny was surprised but dismissive, which made Mick laugh out loud. "It's much safer than lion taming, and humans have been taming lions for hundreds of years. I've had a lot of fun with killer whales. Maybe, one day, I'll play with big whales, the 150-ton whales. Heavy blue whale."

"Yeah, at least one whale won't swallow you," Johnny said. He had learned a great deal about whales since he had come to the island. "Its throat is so small - they only eat small creatures like shrimp." "Even if you're right, what about the sperm whale? It can swallow a 30-foot squid in one gulp!" Mick spoke more and more vigorously, and Johnny slowly realized later that he was envious of Johnny making good friends with Susie and Sputnik.These two dolphins have never shown the same enthusiasm and friendliness to Mick as they have to Johnny, and knowledge has just tolerated him.Mick finally found a whale friend, and Johnny was happy for him.

But Johnny never saw Mick and Snow Sister swimming together.At this time, Professor Kazan's experiment was ready to enter a new stage.He worked for days, editing and splicing the tapes into long sentences in the dolphin language.But so far, the professor is not sure whether he can express his meaning exactly.He hoped that even if his translation was not exact enough for some parts, the smart dolphin could guess roughly. The professor often wondered what the dolphins would think of his conversation.His sentences often come from the sounds made by different dolphins.Each sentence placed underwater through a loudspeaker seems to be composed of more than a dozen dolphins, each of which speaks several phrases in turn, and then spliced ​​into a large sentence. The accent of each phrase in the sentence is different.To the dolphins who heard this kind of talk, it must have been confusing, because it was impossible for them to think about technical problems such as recording and editing.However, the dolphins were able to understand the words, which is certainly due to their ingenuity and patience.

Professor Kazan was particularly nervous when the "Flying Fish" left the anchorage. "You know how I feel?" he asked Dr. Keith as they stood on the bow together. "I seem to invite a friend to dinner, but put a man-eating tiger among the guests." "It's not that bad." Dr. Keith laughed. "You gave them enough forewarning, and you can control that tiger!" "I hope so," said the professor. A voice sounded from the loudspeaker on the ship: "They have opened the water gate, Xuemei doesn't seem to be in a hurry to leave."

Professor Kazan looked back at the island with binoculars. "I want Dr. Saha to control Xuemei, unless we have to control it ourselves," the professor said. "Ah, here it comes." Xuemei came swimming along the passage without haste.As it swam to the end of the channel and into the sea, it seemed disorientated.Several times it swam back and seemed to lose its way.Any animal, even a human being, who is released after being locked up for a long period of time, seems to be overwhelmed and disoriented for a while. "Call it over," said the professor.Then utter the dolphin language of "come" underwater.Even though this dolphin phrase is not the same as the language of the killer whale, such a phrase Xuemei must understand.It started to swim towards the Flying Fish, and followed it away from the island, to the sea beyond the coral reef.

"I want to choose a large area where I can move freely," Professor Kazan said. "I think Ena and Peggy and their mates like that too. Escape if need be." "If they really will come, they may be more fully prepared than us." Professor Keith replied, feeling a little puzzled in his heart. "Soon to be seen. The underwater loudspeaker has been on the air all morning, and the dolphins must have heard it for miles around." "Look!" Dr. Keith suddenly called out, pointing to the West.There, half a mile away, a small pod of dolphins was swimming parallel to the Exocet's course. "They're your volunteers. They don't seem eager to swim close."

"That's the interesting thing about this experiment," muttered the professor under his breath. "Let's go to the bridge to see Dr. Saha!" The radio equipment that sends signals to the radio transmitter on Xuemei's head and receives brain waves is installed next to the steering wheel on the ship.This made the small bridge of the "Flying Fish" extremely crowded.But captain Stephen Nouru must maintain direct contact with Dr Saha.Both men were well aware of their responsibilities, so Professor Kazan was not prepared to interfere with their work unless the situation warranted it. "Snow Sister found the dolphins." Keith said softly. This is obviously beyond doubt.The hesitation and doubts that the killer whale had felt when it was first released disappeared instantly.At this time, it was like a speedboat, swimming straight to the dolphin, leaving a white foam behind. The dolphins scatter, which is certainly understandable.The professor felt quite guilty. He didn't know what the dolphins would think of him at this moment—of course, if they didn't only think about how to deal with Xuemei's work at this moment. About 30 feet away from a chubby, oily dolphin, Xuemei jumped out of the water suddenly, landed in the water with a "pop", and lay there motionless, shaking her head. people. "Two volts, center penalty zone," Dr. Saha said, lifting his finger from the button. "I don't know if it will try again." The dolphins were astonished to see this scene.This made a deep impression on them; they regrouped a few hundred yards away.They too lie in the water, motionless, watching their old enemy with rapt attention. Xuemei recovered from the shock and started swimming again.This time he swam very slowly and did not swim directly in the direction of the dolphin.After a while, the people on board understood its trick. Centered on the dolphin lying in the water, it swam one big circle after another.Only when you look closely will you find that the circle is getting smaller and smaller. "It thinks it can fool us, doesn't it?" said Professor Kazan, admiringly. "I think it will gradually approach the dolphin, but pretend to ignore it, and then suddenly pounce on it." This is exactly Xuemei's trick.The fact that the dolphins did not flee speaks volumes about their trust in their human friends, and it also shows how quickly they learn, which is admirable. Xuemei swam round and round, the circle getting smaller and smaller, like the needle on an old record player, turning inward round and round when the record was spinning.Then the atmosphere became more and more tense.When she was only 40 feet away from the closest and bravest dolphin, Xuemei made her move. Killer whales can speed up all of a sudden, and the quickness of their movements makes people feel caught off guard.But Dr. Saha was ready, and his finger was on the button.Almost at the same time as Xuemei moved, Dr. Saha's finger pressed down. Xuemei is also quite smart-maybe not as smart as the dolphin it is going to devour, but at least it is not far behind.It knows that it cannot defy.When he had recovered from the second shock, he turned away from the dolphin.At this moment, Dr. Saha pressed another button. "Hey, what are you doing?" the captain of the "Flying Fish" called out.He has been watching Dr. Saha's actions closely, feeling very disgusted in his heart.Like his little nephew, he didn't want to see Xuemei being manipulated. "Isn't that exactly what you want to achieve?" "I'm not punishing it—I'm rewarding it," Dr. Saha explained. "As long as I press this button, it will feel very comfortable. Because I input a small amount of voltage to the pleasure center of its brain." "That's all for today," Professor Kazan said. "Bring it back to the sink, it's time for lunch." "We'll start again tomorrow, won't you, professor?" the captain asked the professor during the voyage of the "Flying Fish". "Yeah, Steve—do it every day, but not for a week, I think." In fact, it took only three days for Xuemei to learn enough lessons.Later, there is no need to punish it at all, just stimulate the pleasure zone in its brain with a small amount of volts.The dolphins also quickly dispelled their fear of killer whales.By the end of the week, they were able to live in peace with Xuemei.They swim together among the coral reefs for food, sometimes even cooperate with each other to drive fish schools, and sometimes they go alone.A few young dolphins even played noisy and frolicking around Xuemei as usual. When they collided with Xuemei, it was not angry or wanted to devour them. On the seventh day, after Xuemei played with the dolphins, she stopped sending it back to the pool. "We did what we could," the professor said. "I'm going to put it back in the ocean." "Isn't it too risky to do that?" Dr. Keith demurred. "Yes, it's a bit risky, but it's a risk you have to take sooner or later. Only by putting it in the sea can we know how long the conditioned reflex it has formed can last." "And what if it does eat dolphins again?" "The other dolphins will tell us right away. We can catch Xuemei again. She has a radio transmitter on her head, so she can be found in no time." Captain Stephen Nowru stood at the wheel and listened to the conversation.He turned around and asked a question.When this question was raised, everyone became worried. "Even if you turn Xuemei into a vegetarian orca, the other orcas will still eat meat, and there are thousands of them!" "We have to be patient, Steve," replied the professor. "I'm just collecting information now. Everything we have done so far, whether it is for humans or dolphins, may not be useful at all, but one thing I can be sure of - dolphins are talking animals. So far, all The dolphins must know about our experiment. They will also understand that we did our best. It will be of great benefit to you fishermen." "Well, I didn't think of that." "However, if we succeed with Xuemei, my idea is to conduct experiments on a small number of killer whales in each area to form a conditioned reflex. Only female killer whales need to be selected. They will tell If my husband and children want to eat dolphins, their heads will hurt like hell." It was hard for Steve to believe this.Perhaps he would have been convinced if he had known the effect of the powerful electric current on the stimulation of the mind. "I can't imagine that a vegetarian savage can stop a cannibal tribe from eating people," Nooru said. "You have a point, too," replied the professor. "I'm doing all this to see what the end result is, and even if it works, it's not necessarily worth doing; and even if it's worth doing, it will take generations. But we should be optimistic, you remember 20th century history?" "Which part?" Steve asked. "In the history of the 20th century, there are many things!" "There is only one thing that matters. Fifty years ago, people did not believe that the peoples of the world could live in peace. Now, we all know that they were wrong. If they were right, neither would you and I Here it is. So, you don't have to be too pessimistic about our research project." Steve suddenly looked up and laughed. "What's so funny?" asked the professor. "It just occurred to me," said Steve, "that it's been 30 years since the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded, and if your project works, you too can get the honor!"