ORICHALCUM UNIVERSE Sidebar: Archipelagan Dolphin...

[Johnny1A.2]

LATER.

Even before the Thakarians or the Terrestrians came to Veranis, the native Vertaran inhabitants had noticed that there were several peculiar things about the Archipelagan Dolphin.

To begin with, they rare exceptions they are only found in the Southeastern Archipelago for which Terrestrians would name them. There are other habitats on Veranis that would appear to be eminently suitable for the species to thrive, but they have never colonized any such, and only rare 'loner' individuals of the species are ever found away from the Southeastern Archipelago.

Another oddity the locals became aware of is that they seem to be able to coordinate their actions over remarkable distances. An Archipelagan Dolphin facing a predatory or other attack, even if it comes when the individual is alone, usually is soon joined by dozens of conspecifics, from his or her own pod and other pods as well, converging on the site almost instantly, sometimes from kilometers away.

The natives claimed, and Thakarian and Terrestrian Humans would later confirm, that if one took an Archipelagan Dolphin, sedated it, and transported it across the planet and released it, taking every precaution to keep it ignorant of its location or how it arrived there, it would immediately begin working its way gradually back to its home waters, and almost always arrive safely, though it might need months to get there. They seemed to be able to locate their home waters from anywhere on the planet.

The natives claimed that it was impossible, or at least very difficult, to hold an Archipelagan Dolphin in captivity. The Thakarians and Terrestrians found this to be true as well, though less so for possessors of interstellar level technology. They can be captured and held, but they do have a remarkable talent for finding ways out.

Eventually, both the Thakarian and Terrestrian naturalists would realize that a significant latent psionic potential existed in this species.

It would not be precisely accurate to say that the Archipelagan Dolphins possess psionic 'powers' as such. Their minds, though bright as animals go, are still fundamentally animal minds. As such, they lack the necessary intellectual and cognitive faculties to direct their psionic potentials into specific, definite 'powers' or skills. Their use of their ability is mostly instinctive, with the key word being 'mostly'.

Their strongest psionic potential is sensory. Their minds are not sophont enough to engage in 'remote viewing' or anything of the sort, but they can and so have a psionic 'sense' of their surroundings that merges with their highly refined biosonar faculty. To the Dolphin, both senses are a single sense. Between that combined sensory ability, and their natural alertness, it is close to impossible to 'sneak up' on an Archipelagan Dolphin.

Their combined biosonar and ESP faculty also enables them to spot weak points in containment methods, to recognize concealed exits, and so forth.

They have a Telepathic ability that is very limited by humanoid standards. They can sense living beings that are relatively close to them (adding to the difficulty of surprising them), though the range of this is relatively short, rarely more than ten meters or so. They have greatly extended range with their conspecifics, an Archipelagan Dolphin can 'contact' another one Telepathically as much as ten kilometers away, or occasionally farther.

If at any time an individual Archipelagan Dolphin wants to 'contact' another that it knows is relatively nearby, within ten kilometers or so, it can do so with a roll of 3d, failing only on a critical failure. Past that distance, it works on a simple success on a roll of 3d, but with a -2 penalty for each additional kilometer, or -1 for close genetic relatives (parent, sibling, or offspring).

An Archipelagan Dolphin can also 'broadcast' to any conspecific within those ranges.

Though they can communicate Telepathically, their animal-level minds mean that what they transmit is mostly basic emotional or concrete images or sounds or the like, rather than abstract concepts. They can transmit 'fear' or 'hunger' or 'happy', they could signal 'food here' or 'danger here', but nothing more complicated than that. If they are within echolocation range, they can communicate somewhat more complexly. As with their senses, their Telepathic 'sending' ability merges into the audible communication as a single ability. Even in immediate proximity, though, they are still animals and limited to animal-level communication. (Though they average substantially more intelligent than, say, dogs or cats, they have not been bred for generations to be amenable to understanding words and humanoid communications, either.)

The Archipelagan Dolphin also has a very limited Psychokinetic faculty. As with the other abilities, its use of this is mostly instinctive. It can manipulate small objects, usually in play. It can keep a fish from wriggling out of its 'beak' while feeding. The amount of mass it can manipulate, and the range, are sharply limited.

A typical Archipelagan Dolphin can manipulate objects of up to about one hundred grams, with a range of about ten meters. The effective skill is equal to the IQ of the creature, meaning usually a skill level of 7. A few exceptions exist with somewhat stronger power, or greater skill, but again, mostly used in an instinctive way.

Archipelagan Dolphins can and have used this ability to open doors on containment pools, either by manipulating a simple locking mechanism, or observed how a humanoid controlled the gate. (They are bright enough to figure out that pressing a particular button or pulling a specific lever will open a gate, if they see a humanoid doing it.)

MORE LATER.