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THEY’RE STILL BREATHING

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The Sun has only memory of flame

And for centuries has watched the

Earth dance like a clown upon one foot.

Someday it will drop and die

Laughing, laughing madly.

– ANNA SUJARTHA MODAYIL - ‘On the Beach at Baga’

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THE FAMILY REMAINED at the bay long after the youngsters were taken by the hunters. After three seasons of cruel ambush, the elders knew full well that the chances of their return were slim at best. And yet despite that knowledge they remained huddled close together and waited hopefully for the familiar calls of their young.

They had tracked the sun as it traversed a familiar arc across the wide expanse of blue water. From its lofty zenith it had watched over the painful scene of their abduction; accusingly illuminating the greedy casting of nets, and bearing silent witness to the confused cries of the infants and the plaintive calls and  wails of their distraught mothers.

The broad swath of shallow water had turned rapidly to foam, the thin zephyr of salt air punctuated by the businesslike yells and calls of the hunters. On and on through the long afternoon it had continued. By the time of the long shadow, three youngsters hung lifeless, trussed painfully in a web of ropes and gaudy yellow plastic floats. Their once sleek beauty now suspended, motionless and mute. Oberon, Ganymede and pretty little Constant, whose mother Opal had desperately hurled herself over the straining nets in a vain attempt to rescue her first-born.  Still a youth herself, Opal now lay entangled and broken, her pectoral fin straining to touch her daughter’s flank. Constant never felt that last reassuring embrace. Even as her mother struggled wide-eyed in her own death throes to reach her; young Constant, already weary from the chase, had slipped away to the greater embrace of All That Is.

The remaining family continued to track the sun until it departed over the hunting grounds, the gathering of the clan all but forgotten and lost after the hunters calculated ambush. For years the hunters had watched the clan and knew their customs and their sacred meeting grounds. Twenty-file miles out to sea, Belaire held her pod in a tight protective formation. She had sensed the impending ambush and had approached the meeting point warily. It was her measured judgement which had saved her family. Focused on scanning the area with her bio-sonar, she sensed rather than saw the reassuring bulk of her partner Columbus, driving steady and constant to starboard of her and the harem of females. The surety of his passage belayed his taut unease.

At twenty-five miles, Belaire and her forty-strong tribe had registered the faint distress calls. The fevered electricity of the younger bulls’ desire to head shoreward and join the fight had momentarily confused her pod. But the wise old matriarch had seen all this before, and saw to it that she quickly re-established order, backed by the sharp whistles of authority from mighty Columbus. She placed the retreat call firmly and authoritatively. Begrudgingly the pod turned away toward deeper water, a testament to the respect and trust which they each placed in Belaire.

The only sign of their reluctance was the looseness with which the ordinarily regimented formation wheeled onto the track which ultimately turned their backs on Shadow’s ill-fated pod. The matriarch issued a sigh and knew that they could do no more. Fly and Spark, two of the younger bulls, lagged dejectedly behind. For once, the wise old matriarch overlooked the deliberately slow execution of her order. She understood the reasons why and she recognized the cause of the pain transmitted through the brine. Spark had sensed the fate of his older sister Opal; his grief carried away in the slipstream of the departing ocean giants. And it was with that they said their last goodbyes.

‘Water is seldom still,’ thought Persia.

In the pitch darkness she bobbed like a cork, her pectoral fins barely able to extend to full spread; making it all the more difficult for her to maintain balance. After what seemed like agonizing minutes of frantic flailing, Persia drew breath, summonsed all her remaining strength and assessed the situation just as her mother had patiently taught her all those suns ago. She had quickly realized that her sonar was useless; the unexpected slap-back echo had added to her initial confusion and had sent her into a paroxysm of fear. Now, with sonar shut down, she could easily sense the imposing bulk of the rough wall mere inches away. The backwash from the slaps of her massive tail fluke similarly told her that the obstacle extended around her completely, effectively sealing her in. Shallow water with the familiar taste of salt, but more lifeless than a slack tide. The energy of the sea was gone from it.

She was floating blind, exhausted but alive. But where was the ocean, and where was the sun? And what had become of the family?

As the initial cloud of blind panic cleared, Persia was slowly regaining her ability to think and assess. She now noticed the shallow slants of muted light breaking the darkened murk from somewhere above. Restricted in her movements as she was, Persia was unable to see the source of the light. It was not enough to be able to read the passage of time. She sounded the identifying call and listened. The returning sounds were muffled and unfamiliar. Persia’s hearing was superior through water, but these noises came from beyond the dark cramped confines of her shallow tank. She persisted, trying to steady herself against the persistent roll and pitch of slopping water.

Semi-submerged as she was, and bereft of natural balance, the sense of dizzying claustrophobia rose afresh. Fighting the rising tide, she exhaled and drew a steady focusing breath; ignoring the wet spray falling back onto her flanks and dorsal fin. Sounding the identifier once more, she hunched low into the water and listened. Through the foreign mechanical rumbling she perceived the faintest squeak; far more narrowed and fine than the brash low surrounding throb. Encouraged she sounded again, and strained to listen and filter the higher frequency. Yes! There it was! Faint and muffled, but it was definitely Tristesse. She must be close.

Tristesse was Aura’s second-born and only a year younger than Persia herself. Persia felt her spirits lift as she recalled the pure joy of weaving through the slow moving pod with Tristesse, climbing like twin bullets to breach and take breath. Tasting salt foam as they leapt under the vibrant blue arc of sky, before flashing all black-and-white torpedo-like down through the pod; dodging the school bus sized elders as they studiously ignored the high spirited duo. Past the matronly Shadow, quietly intent on navigating the broad expanse of sun dappled aquamarine water ahead of her fold.

An orca pod in full formation on an open ocean is a truly imposing sight. Their shiny neoprene black bodies, broken by curved saddle-patches of creamy white strike awe in the hearts of those lucky few whose good fortune it is to witness them.  

A towering triangular dorsal fin surmounts a blocky yet surprisingly sleek body, which tapers down to broad muscular tail flukes. A blunt purposeful snout surmounted by dark, deeply expressive eyes and a wide mouth full of flashing white serrated teeth complete this picture of dominance and masterful power. Like lions in the savannah, they are the pride of the ocean as they slide confident and supreme into a broad bomber formation, rising unhurriedly in a majestic choreography to draw breath together with deft whooshes of expelled air. They remain unchallenged; the masters of their domain. Their sole enemy is an unwelcome intruder into their world; an opportunistic predator who walks on two legs.

A sudden bounce and the resultant sideways slap of water shocked Persia out of her reminiscence. Slowly mastering the quick compensating movements required of her slick glossy body to counteract the sway in the restricted space, she called again to Tristesse. The reply came back immediately, confirming Tristesse’s similar predicament. Whatever, or whoever had them was removing the pair from the family, and they were powerless to resist it. Buoyed up by their new found connection, the pair traded reassuring whistles and squeaks across the waterless void separating them until they tired; letting the heavy dark tombs carry them like a rough surrogate mother.

Persia’s blood lineage traced back to the grand old pod matriarch Shadow and her partner, the imposing alpha male Mars. Persia’s mother Grace was Shadow’s first-born. This completed the matriline; a bloodline forming the core around which the pod was built. This heritage accorded Persia an elevated status within the pod, and she had always been consciously aware of this fact. It had never really sat comfortably with her, and she did her best to studiously ignore the singing of the bloodline that connected her to the mighty ancestral whales now passed Beyond. Tristesse called once more; tired but hopeful. Little Tristesse, looking to her for guidance and answers. Persia secretly despaired that she could offer neither.

Instead, gathering up all of her remaining strength she quietly sang the old songs of family. Of happier times. Of Home.

It was when the coarse background thrum ceased, to be replaced with unfamiliar rough vocalizations that Tristesse became distressed. Fighting back her own fear, Persia again rose to the fore in a desperate attempt to calm her bewildered companion.  The hunters, it seemed, had returned. Warily Persia hunched down into the dark water and listened. Muffled low noises sounded from points in front and behind her. The ‘slap, slap’ of the waters around her, lapping against the walls. A foreign language that she didn’t understand.

There was still not enough light to synchronize her body clock. The noises seemed to draw closer, becoming more defined through the water until they echoed in the brine. Tristesse sounded the warning call almost in the same instant that the staccato crunch of sound reverberated overhead, bringing the sun back with it. Persia was rolled anew with the sudden surge of water, catching her off-guard. The unexpected blaze of sunlight after the near complete darkness assaulted her senses; causing a further giddying disorientation as her body clock struggled to re-harmonize with the sudden anomaly.

The sky had returned; a watercolor pastel blue, its presence instantly reassuring. Automatically Persia sounded the pod call, though more for Tristesse’s benefit, as the magnetics had already told her they had travelled well beyond the meeting grounds. Wishing that she had paid more attention to the words of the elders, she recalled vague tales of the hunters at past clan gatherings. The sun at morning shadow revealed more of Persia’s present predicament and surroundings. The walls around her were foreign and artificial, the water fast becoming stale and lifeless. Its vigor and vibration spent.  Tristesse must be nearby, but still remained unseen. Moving shapes, dark and ominous appeared in the sky above, fussing around her container; disappearing beyond sight above the rim only to reappear, sounding their blunt vocalizations to each other. A stabbing punctuation of strange language sounding in the thin air.  And then, the suddenly faint but distinct smell of nearby water carried on the lightest of breezes. An ocean, perhaps?

‘Woomph-shhh,’ she exhaled in quiet anticipation.

This time the watery blow caught the sunlight and descended slowly around her in a million points of refracted light. A bejeweled crown for a captive princess.

There was a definite keening of the salt breeze and the calls of nearby seabirds sounded, faint through atmosphere. Encouraged, she sounded the pod call once more with a renewed vigor:

‘Shadow, Mars, I need your help’.

Tristesse heard her, and took up the call hopefully:

‘Shadow, Mars, this is Tristesse’.

Gazing down on the holding tanks lashed to the back of the truck, the men set about preparing the slings. To the long-haired hunter the two young orcas presented a beautiful sight, their perfectly streamlined and slick bodies unmarked. He stood entranced, his body language distinctly different from his peers who preferred to lean in slouches against the rusty old flatbed. He seemed expectant, coiled tense somehow, like some wiry whippet. There was a sadness and a conflict about him, Persia decided. Lost in his own private thoughts, he carefully studied the pair. He marveled at their imposing presence – their cool intellect and keen vitality. The fine ivory glint of teeth standing out in perfect contrast to the broad flat pink tongues as they vocalized together. A precise symmetry of broad tail, and squat spade-like pectorals. Those dark eyes, inquisitive and alive with a cool intellect.

They were the last of the season’s catch and the money was as good as in the bank. They were perfect specimens. Awestruck by their symmetry up close, he reached out a tentative hand to them like a fascinated child; his posture betraying a vague uneasiness. Persia felt it; a seeking of answers to questions still forming. An awakening of something as old as Time, and as wise as the Earth Mother.

The brash string of invective shook him from his dreamy reverie and galvanized him into motion. Catching the eye of the impatient crane operator he paused; momentarily chastened. The guilt again rising in him like an accusing finger. He shrugged it off awkwardly and returned to the task at hand, his curt yell of acknowledgement setting the wheels into motion. With a sudden asthmatic wheeze and a billow of oily black diesel smoke, the rough canvas sling was nudged closer until it was aligned over the holding tank.

The body of an orca is perfectly designed to function in water. Fifty million years of evolution have shaped this ocean predator as surely as a thoroughbred is groomed and honed for a single purpose. The only legacy of her primitive land-dwelling ancestry is the clever waterproof blowhole vent through which she draws air into her vast lungs. And that remains her only connection with air and the realm of the earth dwellers.

To live underwater, she must connect with the world of air above; and therein lies the first point of Duality and Balance. Immersed in the natural buoyancy of water, the orca is a finely balanced torpedo, capable of powering its massive bulk with an unexpected muscular grace. But taken from her aquatic kingdom, that power and majesty is very quickly subverted by the more ancient force of Gravity; reducing her to little more than a dark impotent jelly, slowing crushing vital organs under its weighty heel.

Unaccustomed to the overwhelming feeling of her own body weight, Persia thrashed against the coarse damp fabric of the cradle sling which now snugged up taught against her belly and undersides. Her pectoral fins hung limp and useless through the purpose made cut-outs; chafing her rudely as she flailed and flexed in an instinctive attempt to compensate for the crazed yawing of the canvas stretcher. Despite her relatively small size, the sudden crush of gravity as she hove clear of the water unsettled and confused her. Though greatly limited in air, Persia’s eyesight served her well enough to now see her pod-mate Tristesse suffering a similar fate, no more than a few feet away from her; subdued and trussed, staring wide-eyed over the coarse aged canvas.

The naked glare of the sun was already at work, super-heating the bodies of the ebony mammals, adding a further dimension to their discomfort. Foreign ‘smells’ tainted the water – oil and diesel, rust and stale tobacco. An orca has no true sense of smell, though she is able to discriminate fine changes in the water around her. From above, a lone seagull swooped in a messy dive over the dark wetly glistening shapes, trussed and suspended side by side. Emitting a single squawk, loud enough to register to Persia’s straining senses, it headed off towards water in an un-coordinated flurry of feathers; satisfied that the new arrivals had nothing to offer by way of food opportunities.

Allowing the motion of the crane to lead, rather than offering any resistance seemed to reduce the dizzying sway. Persia again became aware of the alluring whisper of salt water; much closer to her now. She vocalized this fact encouragingly to her companion. Relaxing into the thought of impending reunion with Tristesse, she was vaguely aware of the emptiness in her belly insinuating itself for the first time since her capture. The pair desperately needed to eat soon.

No sooner had the thought entered her mind, the mechanical buzz that had filled the surrounding air fell away to a starkly pregnant silence. The sway of the sling slowed until it became no more than a limpid pendulum swing.  Persia sensed the sharp tang of brine rising from below, and she sank slowly toward it. And that was when she saw him. Realized who he was. Long haired, pale and tall; she recoiled from the surprise communion.

She had expected him. But not like this. He looked into her, and she in turn involuntarily looked back into him. But this time she saw nothing but a dark sea, confused and turbulent. Breaching at its surface, she bobbed for a moment, disoriented. The horizon was a thin scribbled line, all but invisible beneath the dense bank of sea fog that had gathered up; a moist air blowing aimlessly across the swell.

Drawing back, she felt her sudden nakedness under his probing gaze, and instantly resented his betrayal. Sinking soundlessly back into the Deep in a neatly executed tail slide, her eyes never leaving his; she withdrew from his questioning stare. She had no answers for him. And even if she voiced them, he seemed little more than a rudderless ship far beyond the range of hearing or understanding.

Suddenly recognizing her intentions, he desperately lunged for her as she sank back, in the same way that a drowning man clutches at a straw. Letting the dark water swallow her she left him flailing, mouth wide open yet soundless; his urgent calls all but snatched away in the maelstrom that blew up ominously in her wake.

Once again the rough tenor and baritone calls of the gathered hunters filled the void. This time she caught sight of at least three of them – primitive upright shapes gathering around the perimeter; their mannerisms, language and aura entirely foreign to her. Low, ugly vibrations. Begrudgingly she endured their brief caress, inwardly recoiling from their oily touch.

Away to one side, Tristesse endured a similar ordeal. A black-clad hunter appeared to be trying to pacify her, repeating the same vocalization in a low monotone. Again the revulsion rose in her. These savage intruders who lived outside of the Harmony, in haughty ignorance of the natural order of things.

‘Some things remain a constant as surely as the moon and the tides; flow with them and yield to them.’ Persia recalled her mother’s gentle yet insistent teachings.

How she wished that she had paid more attention. And how she painfully missed her mother’s reassuring presence; of being tucked in close, riding alongside Grace’s dorsal as it effortlessly cleaved the waters, like a knife through soft butter.

‘Some things cannot be changed and a wise being simply flows with them,’ she had said. ‘Be like water and take the path of least resistance, for this is the way of the Harmony. Know what you can change and accept what you cannot. Be like the water, my child!’

Shaking her mind free, she wriggled momentarily and flared her pectorals in anticipation of the waiting surf; hopeful of regaining some sense of lateral control. And then she met the water abruptly, not in the graceful diving arc which she was so accustomed to describing, but in the ungainly belly flop of a hooked fish. A sudden invigorating swirl of salt water rose around her. Or put more correctly, Persia simply fell into it; submerging herself instinctively in the jade green water; swallowed up as suddenly and surely as a seal swallows the silver streaks of passing salmon.

Heavy droplets of flume leapt in a broad arc as Persia swiftly exercised her strong flukes for the first time since her capture. The sudden wash of spray caused the gathered knot of hunters to jump back in shocked surprise, much to her quiet satisfaction. Tail slapping once more for good measure; she torpedo dived, as much to test the water as to relieve the painful heat build-up over her dark upper surfaces.

The sudden embrace of water felt good and reassuringly familiar as it streamed and curved around her. The faint surging pulse of current was there, yet before she could transmit the pod call, she had reached a sudden and unexpected impasse.

Cautiously scanning with her bio-sonar, Persia mapped the rocky seabed close beneath her. Heading to what appeared as an open bay, she quickly came up against the heavy netting; bringing back painful recollections of the hunters’ trap. Images wheeled in sharp relief – of her mother Grace, of the panicked Aura. Of poor little Constant, spinning in a torrent of confused water and tightening rope as she fought vainly to draw breath.

Persia recoiled, hearing the whoomp of water at the surface nearby. It was Tristesse, bubbling contrails pluming back from her fins as she too dived into the emerald green on the other side of the dividing net. Snugging up against the criss-cross of coarse rope separating them, the pair exchanged greetings, re-energized by the renewed contact after the ordeals of the past few hours.

It is at this point of joyful reunion that I would like to share with you one singular and important fact. It is one which I pray you will keep in the back of your mind throughout this telling of this story. Wired deep into an orca’s DNA is a powerful drive of allegiance to family and extended clan, evidenced by the complex social network that these enigmatic blackfish immerse themselves in. This familial loyalty arguably surpasses even that of human beings. Indeed, it is quite possible that no more powerful unity and social bonding exists on this planet than that demonstrated by the noble orca. It is this recognized truth which makes the deliberate calculated acts of their greedy captors all the more callous and inhumane.

The gentle ebb and flow of water seemed to wash away some of the trauma of the day’s events, and the pair settled into quiet basking in each other’s company. ‘Logging’ at the surface they traded easy whistles and clicks as they re-synchronized with the Harmony. The hunger pangs grew more insistent as the pair relaxed. Food. But where? Shadow’s pod members are popularly described in human terms as transients. Unlike their kindred stable-mates who choose to inhabit a particular coastal region, these pods of nomadic wayfarers will traverse vast distances in their relentless travels; an inbuilt sense of wanderlust driving them onwards through the wild blue. The open ocean to these orca in not unlike the wide open plains that once lured the mighty buffalo. For them there is a place to feed, a place to breed and a place to rejoice in the reunion and meeting of extended family. Neither are they limited by solitary dimension, for they will plumb unfathomable depths as they travel; at times diving deep to where the blue fades gradually to black. To the place where light can no longer penetrate and the world above the surface no longer holds sway. This is the unchallenged domain of the transient orca as they journey far and range deep.

The diet of the transient orca pod differs markedly from that of their regional cousins. Shadow’s kin were nomadic hunters, preferring a rich diet of seals, and other aquatic mammals like porpoises. In point of fact, the porpoises they feed on are closely related to the mighty blackfish and it is for this reason that some humans have dubbed the orca the ‘killer whale’. But in truth, does this fact qualify them as ‘killers’; a human term generally reserved for murderers and those who would take life callously and opportunistically?

There exists a natural order of things referred to as the Harmony. One eats to live. One kills only to eat. One takes no pleasure in the act, except insofar as it provides the benefit of sustenance. So says the Harmony and All That Is. It is only those who fall short of this deeper understanding who seek to call the noble blackfish the ‘killer whale’.

A transient pod, unlike their sloppier and far noisier fish eating cousins, will stalk their prey in silence with the same precision and deft agility as a pride of lions. The calls and click trains that normally bounce back and forth across the waters between the ranging orcas are just as easily detected and recognized by the seals and dolphins that they stalk. Thus, Shadow’s clan approach their prey like a vast bomber formation in strict radio silence. Any necessary information is transmitted only in short, curt bursts. Running silent now. A subtle electricity passes between the dark shapes; as powerful as any language. With the range closing there is an almost imperceptible pulse as the squadron lunges forward as one; fine contrails streaming from their muscular tail flukes. The lumbering giants are deceptively nimble courtesy of their strength and sleek styling. Silent bolts of slick black lightning.

Make no mistake, there is no ragged chatter and free-for-all scrapping as is evidenced by their fish eating relations who call the close coastal waters their home; surging and wheeling around schools of panicked fish like rowdy street fighters. Today though, it was the mighty hunters who had become the hunted.

Shaking herself out of the tiredness that was steadily overtaking her, Persia sensed she was alone in the darkening water. Tristesse was treading water up above at the surface, ‘spy hopping’ with her head raised out of the water. Immersed as they were in the close silence away from their captors’ scrutiny, thoughts of assessing the surface had been temporarily set aside. Now Persia followed her young companion’s lead. Breaking the