Stonington, Ct.

Slowly, Dave Richardson pulled himself out of his deep sleep. As his body fought to regain consciousness, his last sleeping thoughts, the deep thoughts that dreams are made of, were of whales. The stimulus that had awakened him was the low roar of the diesel engine on the boat next to his. He rolled over and glanced at his watch. Focusing wasn't easy immediately after being prematurely awakened, but as his eyes began to work, he realized it was only 5:30 AM. "Jesus Christ!," he thought to himself, "what the hell is going on?" The engine noise was then followed by the sound of voices. "Aw shit...," he said, as if anyone could hear in his empty boat. Dave slowly pulled himself out of his bunk and lifted his reluctant body up the narrow companionway.

As Dave emerged, Jim Stohl, standing on the neighboring boat, glanced over, raised his cup of coffee in acknowledgment and said, "Good morning, I hope we didn't wake you, but we are leaving on vacation and wanted to catch the morning tide."

Hesitantly, rubbing his uncombed hair, Dave replied, "No, I was getting up anyway."

Just then Nancy Stohl emerged from below decks of their boat, jumped onto the dock, walked over and handed Dave a cup of coffee. "Just a little way of saying we are sorry for the noise," she said. "But we're so excited to be leaving on vacation, we just couldn't wait any longer. Just imagine, four whole weeks exploring the New England coastline. Ever since we bought Dream Chaser we have planned this vacation, and finally it's here."

Dave accepted the coffee, nodding his head while again running a hand through his still uncombed hair, he told them not to worry because he had to get up to do some more research.

"How is it going?," Jim asked.

"Very frustrating," Dave answered. "There are some days I think I'm really close, only to realize five minutes later that I've gone down another dead end. I sometimes wish I had become a real estate agent, or maybe a stockbroker. Trying to decipher the language of marine mammals is like trying to do brain surgery blindfolded."

As Jim laughed, Dave's mind flashed through the developments of the last three months. He fell into such deep thought that he did not immediately hear Jim's response. It became obvious Jim was repeating himself when he raised his voice saying, "I know exactly what you mean. But at least you are doing what you want. Unfortunately Nancy and I are too embedded in our careers to change to something we might like better. We are, however, lucky that we're both reasonably satisfied and able to spend considerable time on our boat."

Having snapped out of his momentary daydream, Dave asked in return, "Put together your itinerary?"

"Yes," Nancy replied. "We are going to spend the entire time circumnavigating Cape Cod. We intend on starting at Woods Hole, where I want to stop and visit the Oceanographic Institute because I'm interested in finding out more about the research they are doing on ocean pollution. I thought it might be a good topic to assign one of my classes this fall. And then we are going to continue to the islands."

Dave knew when Nancy said the "islands" she was talking about Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard.

"Once we leave the islands we will proceed to the tip of Cape Cod. I am extremely anxious to take our boat whale watching," Nancy continued. "I have the coordinates you gave me."

Jim interjected, "Yup, 41° 10' 12 by 69° 52' 13," he mumbled, "got them memorized."

Dave cautioned, "Make sure you don’t give those coordinates to those God-Dammed tourist boats or they will be all over the area disturbing the whales and ruining my study area. Once those money-hungry tour boats discover an area where the whales congregate, they are all over them disturbing their normal behavior."

Suddenly Dave became aware of his unnecessary outburst, and, in an apologetic manner mumbled, "I'm sorry, it's just that those tour boats really disturb the whales. I don't know yet what they're saying," Dave explained, "but I do know there are distinct differences in their sound patterns when those boats are around."

"Do you think we will ever really understand the language of the whales?" Nancy asked.

"Well, there are enough of us working on it," Dave explained. "One of us has to make a breakthrough soon. If not, I can only imagine that those leviathans have been fooling us all along. Who knows, maybe those giant brains are empty and all that noise we hear is nothing more than gas pains."

That was a stupid comment, Dave thought to himself. Again, he really wanted to tell them he thought he was on to something. Dave was bursting to confide in someone, but knew that it was better not to say a word until he was sure. Premature disclosure was career suicide, so he remained silent.

Seeing that Jim and Nancy were ready to leave, Dave reached down and uncleated the bow line. He then moved to the back of the boat, uncleated the stern line and guided the vessel as Jim backed Dream Chaser out of the slip. As his neighbors pulled away, Dave shouted, "Have a good time."

The two waved and Dave watched as Dream Chaser slowly maneuvered out of the harbor. Part of him envied them, but the other part of him wanted no part of the stable life that Nancy and Jim had. Nancy, a high school science teacher, and Jim, a Wall Street Broker. Both successful in their careers and dedicated to each other. "What the hell is wrong with me, Dave thought. Why can't I be normal? Why the hell can't I be satisfied with a conventional career? Why am I out chasing this rainbow of talking to marine mammals?"

As Dream Chaser fell out of view, Dave turned and walked below. Slowly, ever so slowly, he slid into his work position behind his chart table and carefully adjusted his earphones. Then he cautiously turned on the recording that was made only last week, and listened intently to the sound of the whales. He concentrated on the 4th & 5th element of every sound chain.

Dave had discovered last year, while cruising in the Sea of Cortez, that whale communications contain a chain of sounds, but the bulk of these sounds are only carriers. To his amazement, these appear to serve the sole purpose of setting up the 4th & 5th sound element, which was the actual communication being transmitted. Although Dave did not know the exact purpose of these lead-in sounds, he now believed that in order to basically understand the language of the whales, one only had to decipher the 4th & 5th element of every sound chain.

The real problem Dave was facing was understanding the subsequent sound chain because he was not always certain when one ended and a new message began. If only he could decipher this, he would break the code.

Having studied these 4th & 5th elements for about a year now, he had concluded that all whales communicated in a similar fashion. He was now usually able to determine when the whales were content, hungry, signaling a dive, warning of danger, or forming to hunt. Unfortunately, because of the time it took, Dave was unable to do this fast enough to actually communicate. It was always after he had listened to the signals a second or third time that he was able to decipher the message.

Sitting and listening to the sounds over and over, he would whisper to himself the translated message he believed he was hearing. The more he listened, the more frustrated he became. He just couldn't process the information in his brain fast enough. It was clear that a marine mammal's four section, convoluted brain was clearly better suited for this. He turned the recorder off and slid out from behind the chart table. As he looked around the interior of the boat, he couldn't believe that one thirty-five foot boat could contain so much junk. On the port side, over the dinette, there were all of his notes and books, piled up from bulkhead to bulkhead. The dinette table still contained the pizza box from last night's dinner. As Dave opened it, he found breakfast; two slices of onion and mushroom pizza. Taking the first bite, he glanced to the starboard side. There he scanned the poor attempt he had made at decorating his floating home. Not the work of an interior decorator, but on the other hand not badly done. While savoring his second bite, Dave walked into the forward cabin where he stored his clothes, tools, scuba gear, and paraphernalia that comprises a 30-year-old's life. Dave threw the remaining slice of pizza back into the box and closed the lid. He turned and went into the head, combed his hair and brushed his teeth.

Changing into a fresh pair of shorts and a clean T-shirt, Dave picked up the pizza box and went up on deck. Climbing onto the dock, he slowly walked to the end and made his way up the ramp to the parking lot. After discarding the pizza box and its contents, Dave climbed into his jeep and mentally planned his day's itinerary. He would first stop at the Boston Library to do some research and then continue on to Claire's. As he started the jeep and drove out of the boat yard, he wondered if Claire's computer program would work. If her program was all she made it out to be, he might be able to decipher the 4th & 5th element of the sound chain in real time, bringing him closer to communicating with the whales.

He had really hated to confide in Claire, but it was clear the human brain, particularly his, could not process the audible whale sound information fast enough, he had to turn to someone who could help him write a computer program to process this information. He had met Claire Snyder in college. They had never been good friends, although they had known each other through mutual friends. It was coincidental how they ran into each other again. It was at Professor Clarke's retirement dinner in March. At the time Dave didn't even know that Claire knew the Professor. After all, the Professor taught biology and Claire studied computer science. It was only when they were having dinner a few nights later, an invitation Dave was surprised she had accepted, did he learn that Professor Clarke had helped Claire pay her way through school by giving her odd computer programming jobs for the biology department.

As Dave pulled up the rise leading to Interstate 95, he glanced to his right and saw Dream Chaser under full sail heading east to the entrance of Long Island Sound, on her way to Cape Cod. How he wished he was sailing rather than driving. He stepped on the accelerator and mentally figured that in the next two hours he would travel about 120 miles, while Dream Chaser in that same time would be lucky to travel 14 miles, assuming a fair wind and favorable tide. Dave then tried to picture what Jim and Nancy were doing on the boat. He could imagine Jim at the helm, while Nancy sketched the passing scenery. Or maybe Jim was below navigating while Nancy piloted the boat. A small smile appeared on Dave's face as he suddenly pictured the boat on autopilot while Jim and Nancy made passionate love in the cockpit. His smile deepened.

Leaving the Boston Library, Dave realized that his research had taken longer than expected. Knowing he was late, he ran to the jeep and drove like a madman, which in Boston was the way everyone drove. Dave finally saw 56 Chestnut St., circled the block twice, and eventually found a parking spot. As he climbed the stairs to Claire's brownstone, he began to get nervous. He was really hoping her computer expertise could solve his problem. Her phone call to him the day before had been vague but intuition told him that she was on to something. If not, he was unsure what his next step would be. Secrecy was extremely important. His grant money had run out two months ago, but in order to get more money he would have to disclose the status of his work, and that would make his findings available to every researcher in the world, a thought that turned his stomach.

Before he could ring the bell, Claire was at the door. She had been glancing out her window when she saw him climbing the stairs. As Dave said hello, he noticed she had changed her hair style. It was pulled back and pinned up into a bun. This was the first time he had ever seen her long red hair in any style other then hanging to her shoulders. Dave realized it accentuated her tall, slender body. He must have been staring because Claire suddenly asked "Is anything wrong?"

"Uh, no, no," Dave said, "it's just your hair it, well..., it looks different."

Claire blushed and asked, "Well, do you like it ?"

"Yeah, I mean yes I do."

"Well good!" she said, "in that case I'll let you in."

Claire offered him a cup of coffee. He accepted and followed her down a narrow hallway into the kitchen. Looking around he saw that it was spartanly decorated, with an almost floor-to-ceiling narrow window at the far end. After she poured them both a cup, he asked if she had been able to figure a solution to his problem. Claire hesitated and then with a smile she said, "Why yes I have, as a matter of fact sound recognition is quite simple for a computer."

Surprised at her cavalier answer Dave asked, "Exactly how is that done?"

"All sounds are simply a matter of frequency signals. A computer can analyze a sound and then break it into its frequency components."

Dave thought for a moment and then added, "But you know I'm only interested in a select series of sounds in a complex sound chain. Can it really discriminate those sounds fast enough for us to respond?"

"Us...well that's the first time Dave that you have ever included anyone else in your research. I guess I should be flattered," she said.

Dave looked at Claire quite bewildered. He really wasn't sure if her comment was supposed to be witty or sarcastic. A long, silent pause permeated the room. Claire finally spoke first. "Would you like to see the results of my work?" she asked.

"Of course, of course I would. But where do we have to go?"

"Well, how about the other room," she replied.

Surprised at her comment, Dave got up and explained, "I expected we would have to go to the university."

"Why should we," she replied, "when we have all the necessary equipment right here."

As they walked into what might have been a large bedroom, Dave was shocked to see a computer terminal and several tables of what appeared to be complex electronic equipment. But other than the equipment, the room was pure white without any decoration. Claire turned to Dave and explained, "This is my lab and my office. One of the advantages of my field is that with a small computer system in your home you can do all your work through telephone lines. No transportation costs, no traffic jams, I simply roll out of bed, put on the coffee and I'm at work. Why, I don't even have to spend money on a wardrobe."

"How about that," Dave exclaimed, "Just like me except my office is a boat."

"Let’s get down to business," Claire said as she reached for a desk chair and rolled it to Dave. "Have a seat and fasten your seat-belt. We are going to talk to a whale." Claire holding the tape of whale sounds Dave had given her two weeks earlier explained, "I took these tapes and played them into the sound recognition computer at the university. I identified for the computer the sounds that you had classified as carriers and those that you labeled communication. Following that I generated a program of sound variables, in which I intermixed the carrier and the communication signals at random. The only rules I programmed in were:

communication sounds are always the fourth and fifth sounds in a sound chain

sound chains can vary at random, but once a communication sound is identified that sound is always a communication sound

communication sounds are always generated in pairs.



"Any problems so far?"

"No, no keep going," Dave answered.

"Let's see what we have then," she said with a smile. "Did you bring a sound tape as I asked?"

"Yes, here it is," Dave said as he handed the tape to her.

"Now I'm assuming you have studied this series of sounds sufficiently enough that you know what they mean, at least theoretically that is," and laughed as she turned on the recorder. As the sounds began, the computer generated a display concurrently with the sounds as they were played on the tape. As the computer displayed the meaning of the sounds, Dave compared them to his notes. His face burst with excitement. Claire just stood there and grinned. Dave began to smile. He could not contain his excitement. Dave was ecstatic. He reached over grabbed Claire by the waist and spun her around. At last! Here was a real time method to translate the sounds into meaning. What took him many minutes and in some cases hours, the computer was doing in mere fractions of a second.

"How did you do that?" he asked. But before she could answer he continued, "I thought computers might be capable of sound recognition, but I didn't think you could accomplish it that quickly."

Claire explained that major advances have been made in frequency selection and detection devices in the last several years, and all she had done was take his information and program, or condition the computer, as we call it today, to separate the signal.

"You really did all the hard work," she explained. "I just merely told the machine what sounds to listen for and what they meant."

"Do you know what this means?" Dave asked. "I mean,..... do you really know what this means?"

"Yes, I think I do. But before you get all excited let me ask you Dave, once you know what they're saying, how are you planning to respond? Or are you even planning on responding at this point?"

"Yes I am going to respond. What I had thought of doing was to record each of the key phrases and then play them back in answer to the message received. I have a friend that works for a recording studio and he said that he could put the sounds I wanted on a laser disk, assign them a number and then I could select each sound and play it through an amplifier and under water transmitter."

Claire hesitated,......not sure how to broach the next subject without insulting Dave, but then asked, "Would you be open to other suggestions?"

Dave looked at her, not sure where she was coming from, hesitated for a second and while looking at Claire it suddenly dawned on him; "Yes, yes I am," he said, "and I think I know what it is! If the computer can detect and then select the different sounds, it can also generate those sounds on command."

"Exactly," Claire responded. "I guess all that salt air hasn't totally corroded your brain." They both laughed.

Claire then took Dave through a simulation she had programmed into the computer. First she played a prerecorded sound chain. The computer instantly identified the proper sounds and on the screen wrote the message "swim," the definition Dave had given to that communication pair. Claire then typed in the word "swim" and the computer generated a random sound chain with the 4th & 5th sounds, the communication pair, for "swim".

"That's it, that's it", Dave said, "exactly how I envisioned it to be."

"Only easier," added Claire. Dave smiled.

For the next two hours they played with the system. Dave agreed to supply Claire with all the communication pairs he had identified for each of the whale species he had studied, and preceded to bore her with all the sounds from a portable tape recorder he had brought along. Claire very carefully reviewed the differences between the various whale sounds, noting that each species truly had a unique sound pattern. It was almost like comparing French and Spanish to English. However, none of the variances were beyond the scope of the program she had already written or the capability of the artificial sound generator.

They then prepared to test the system. Claire showed Dave the equipment, explained how it worked, and how it could be hooked up on a sailboat. Dave discussed the modifications he would make to the boat while Claire discussed the programming additions she would have to incorporate into the computer.

They decided that the transducer would be mounted through a hole drilled in the bottom of the boat. This would serve two advantages: the first, firmly holding it in place to assure that it wouldn't flop around distorting the sound; and the second, by being firmly attached to the hull, the generated sound would be more resonant, making it more authentic to the whales.

Claire decided the whole program could be run from one of the new powerful fourth generation laptop computers, using a 12-volt adapter power supply. Of course she would have to max out the RAM and assure it was at least 500 megahertz processor. She had just the unit in mind, it belong to the school, and she was certain she could borrow it. However, Dave would have to guarantee the unit was totally protected from moisture. "These computers are marvels of technology," Claire explained, "but they need to be dry," she emphasized.

Dave assured her it would be kept dry! "I'll set it up in the cabin."

"Good," she replied, "I would have a hard time explaining to my boss why I took his computer swimming. These things are not exactly cheap you know."

"Yeah, Yeah," Dave replied, but he really wasn't listening. He was so excited that all he could think about was getting out there and trying the system.

"Well, are you taking me to dinner?" Claire asked.

"Huh? Dinner?" asked Dave.

"Maybe I need a computer to talk to you. It's after six, we have been at this for four hours I'm hungry and…., well, I think you owe me dinner, Mr. Richardson."

"After six! Wow, time really has gone by fast. Yeah,....I'm hungry too, but Claire, I really am not dressed up for a fancy restaurant and, well, quite honestly I don't have an abundance of funds right now."

"Are you telling me, Mr. Richardson, that after all this work you are not going to take me to dinner?"

"No, no I really want to take you but look at me, I’m in shorts, and a T-shirt."

"Yes," Claire added, "and a T-shirt with a hole in it." Dave looked down and sure enough there was a hole on his left side.

"But that's OK because my favorite restaurant is just around the corner, and quite frankly they cater to clientele just like you. C'mon, let's go," she said as she got up and pulling Dave by the arm, they went out the door.

Neither spoke as they walked up the block towards Main Street. Dave was trying to figure in his mind how much money he had in his wallet. He couldn't remember if he had much more than ten dollars, including the change in his pockets. Claire kept walking and chattering, but each step was making Dave more nervous. How was he going to pay for dinner? Clearly Claire didn't have her purse. Then she exclaimed, "There it is! My favorite restaurant. I sure hope we can get a table. Oh!, but that shouldn't be a problem. Just slip the Maitre D' a little money and I'm sure he'll squeeze us in."

Dave looked really puzzled. There were no restaurants, only a small hot dog cart near the corner of the park they were approaching. Just then Claire stopped at the cart said, "Hello Hank."

Hank smiled returned her greeting and asked "What will it be tonight Claire."

"I’ll have a hot dog with onions, mustard and a root beer please." She then turned to Dave and added, "Hank has the best hot dogs in town, what would you like?"

"Dave, surprised at the choice for dinner, looked at Hank and ordered a hot dog with kraut, mustard and a diet coke."

Sitting on a bench at the edge of the park, with their less than $5.00 dinner, Dave looked at Claire and said, "You know you really had me worried. I don't carry a lot of money on me and when you started talking about buying dinner, I really started to get nervous."

"I believe it's a woman's job to keep a man on his toes and well..... I was just doing my job." Again she smiled as she took a bite of her hot dog. Dave stared at her. There was something he liked about Claire, she wasn't like other women he had known.

As they walked back to Claire's apartment, Dave was formulating a plan to try the new equipment. The best place to do a first run would be off of Cape Cod, a place where he had done numerous studies before, and quite frankly a place where he was familiar with the whale population and could even identify certain whales by sight or sound. Last year he had even named a couple of them.

Claire listened intently as Dave spoke. She seemed to sense that this was no time to interrupt. She let him continue to plan his trip and explain to her how, using the new equipment, he was going to communicate with the whales. Finally she had to grab his arm to remind him that they were at her apartment. Dave sheepishly looked at Claire and apologized for carrying on like that. "It's not like me to act like this," he said, "but I am just so excited! You have no idea how important this is," he explained.

Claire nodded her understanding, and then added, "Well when do we leave?"

"We leave?" Dave said. "I,….I, well I didn't know you wanted to go."

"Why of course," she responded, "it's summer break, I have the next six weeks off and I want to be part of this. After all, what are you going to do when you get there and the equipment doesn't work? Or suppose there's a glitch in the program. Are you going to sail back and call me. You'd better be prepared for some problems, and if you want to save time, the best way to handle them would be on the spot. "Besides," she said, "I always wanted to learn how to sail."

This was a circumstance Dave hadn't expected. He had always done his research alone. He wasn't quite sure how to handle this situation. He replied with an, "I'm-not-sure-I'll-have-to-let-you-know."

"Great," replied Claire. "Now, do you want to spend the night on my couch or are you planning on driving back tonight?"

Dave looked at his watch, it was almost 8:30. "I think I will drive back, I have a lot to do and the sooner I get started the better." As he thought to himself, I need time to think.

"OK, but call me in the morning so I can begin making plans. I have a lot of equipment to prepare and programming still to do," she said.

With that Claire reached over and gave Dave a kiss on his cheek, turned, and ran up the stairs to her apartment. Dave waved, turned, and walked back to his jeep.