Keiki
Story by Chris Sharkson on SoFurry
Imported from SF2 with no description.
New story I decided to write about dolphins, a change from sharks, I have a passion for dolphins as well, decided to give it a shot, worth a try, I hope you all like it. Enjoy!
Keiki
Written by Chris Sharkson
This was almost my dream holiday. Here I was, the middle of nowhere stranded on a deserted island. Well, stranded wasn't really the best word to use. It was true I was stuck here, but I was in contact with the outside world. I turned from looking over the sea and glanced over the island. Glimpses of antennas and satellite dishes greeted me, if I wanted to, I could let the whole world know I was here.
I was located on a very top secret island, classified under the government in the North East of the South Pacific Ocean. Well, secret probably isn't the best term to use either. Most of the elite officials in the world 'cough, billionaires, millionaires, politics and government officials, cough' knew that this island existed, but only a select few knew of its existence.
You see, in this day and age of digital technology and high speed computers there arose the problem of communications, not enough encryptions, not enough data servers not enough fibre optic cables. It became apparent that the entire system was centralized on computers. In the case of a war if one side knocked out the others computers they could almost assure victory. However, this would mean that they would probably take out their own computers as well.
The end result being a no win situation, with both sides going back to the stone-age, say goodbye to your Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, satellite TV and Snapchat. Their solution was to create this island, the infrastructure of enormous data power and server power of computers and satellites combined. It was considered completely neutral territory. It was sufficiently far enough from all targets to survive a nuclear attack on one of them and basically all of the world's communications got routed through it either directly or indirectly, you hear that, this island controls your mobile phone signal, one push of a button and you won't be able to call your boss and tell him he left his bottle of expensive Mascato wine at your house.
There was no record of such a transaction, but deep inside the concrete bunker a small number of bits flipped or flopped to indicate such a change. In fact, that was about all that happened in the bunker. Huge arrays of storage devices collected and recorded the flow of information aka: servers. The general idea being that if the world got wiped out, the entire state of affairs could be recreated from the database stored in the vault, trust me this system is worth billions, yeah you see those dollar signs in your eyes right?
Sounds pretty ridiculous? That's what I said when I was told about it, I mean, it may be find to collect all of this data, but if it was ever needed surely that would mean a nuclear strike had taken out most of the world, so who would care? Anyway, some of my contacts asked me if I would like the job, a million dollar a year salary they said.
“You're fine," they told me. “You can't have an American – too patriotic, the Russians are out at the moment too – their country is in turmoil, let's use an Australian who only has a Bachelors degree in Communications and IT. Anyone who has served in the military is also out – way too patriotic. You're good with computers, so we have been told, the system virtually runs itself."
Well, it sounded like an offer I couldn't refuse. Plus the money was almost obscene. No. Correction, the amount I was being paid was obscene, I could easily buy a Lamborghini Aventador without thinking twice, but I would have no where to put the damn thing, let alone drive it, this bloody island has no roads. So here I am, on a speck of rock, surrounded by vast ocean. I've got enough supplies to last a couple of years, then several decades' worth of army rations, plus a cold fusion plant for power. (Yes, it did work, just the oil industry bought the rights to it) Oh, and more computing power than on anywhere else in the world, I can't recall the processing power, it was like one billion megabytes per second.
My stint was basically a year, “Stay here for a year, we'll pay your salary, don't worry about taxes, we have that covered" they told me. Once a month the supply ship would come in bringing new supplies. Spare parts and anything else I asked for.
At first I was a little hesitant; I was dropped off in the middle of the cyclone season and spent the first month inside with the previous caretaker, learning the ropes of the system. It was pretty simple. Everything ran itself, I just ran around like mad if a red light came on in the control room, red lights could indicate anything from a blown fuse to a warning that a bird was making a nest in the air condition ducts or one of the pumps for the water cooling of the CPU"s has malfunctioned.
The first week by myself I had one red light, a cooling fan had failed on one of the CPU's, damn things run extremely hot if they're not cooled and the remote monitor had triggered the alarm and I came running. About ten minutes later, I had fished a spare out of the parts storage sector and everything was back to normal.
By the end of the second week I think I had exhausted the possibility of finding any reference to this island on the world's web sites – an indication of how good the secrecy of this place had been.
Then one morning on the third week I awoke and looked outside. The insistent cloud had passed and for a change I was greeted by sunshine and not rain, glancing at the weather report I saw that all signs pointed to the end of the monsoon season.
This defiantly made a change. For the first time in about seven weeks I was able to go outside without being drenched. My first duty was to clear up all the outside paths and ensure none of the high tech dishes or antenna was loose, if they break or malfunction, my ass is on the line and those dishes cost three million a pop each. Everything appeared to be fine.
The next day I wandered around the island, it wasn't big – taking me about two hours to walk around it at a slow pace, examining all the flotsam and jetsam. The next day, I decided to go for a swim.
The entire place was surrounded by reefs and just down from the main bunker, the reef formed a natural lagoon. I had my eye on this spot while I was cooped up inside and couldn't wait to get in and examine the coral. Grabbing my snorkelling, I jumped into my bathers and headed into the water, I was SCUBA certified and had three years of experience, but I only used the SCUBA gear for deep water situations, like checking the fibre optic cables that ran to the island from each country.
I had four jet skis and I usually would just go out on one and drive around the island having fun doing quick turns, going at speed.
It was glorious. Warm water, crystal clear and lots of fish, all that was missing was my glass of champagne, oh right, big boss man said no drinking on the job. I'm not sure how long I stayed that first day, but I knew it was a long time. When I finally decided to get out I was swimming back to the shore and I could feel the clicks and whistles of a pod of dolphins outside the reef, resting on the sand I watch their sleek shapes break the surface of the water just beyond the breakers, I gave a sad sigh, knowing if I wanted to try and socialize with those dolphins, they would swim away as fast as they were built to, as they are not used to seeing humans or have never encountered a human before. Lying back on the sand, I closed my eyes and for the first time in a long time I was completely happy.
That became my itinerary for the next week or so. I'd get up in the morning, spend the first half of the day checking the systems, then have lunch and go for an explore or a walk along the beach, then go for a swim in the late afternoon. Often, while swimming in the lagoon, I'd hear, or almost feel, the dolphins as they passed beyond the reef, of course they would ignore me I'm a human being they couldn't care less about.
Then one day I was lying in the water examining a coral head and something grey flashed past me. Survival instincts shifted into gear like the manual transmission of a car and my heart rate went through the roof. However, I forced myself to calm down and look around. Turning slowly in the water, I saw a long grey shape appear out of the darkness. As I was contemplating the best way to walk on water my eyes finally focused and kicked my brain into gear.
It wasn't a shark, it was a dolphin. A bottlenose dolphin and it was looking right at me. Tentatively, breathing deeply, I waved to it. In retrospect, it seemed like a strange thing to do, here I am a unusual creature that the dolphin has never seen or met before waving at it as if it's a member of my own species, but at the time it seemed pretty natural. Much to my surprised, it wiggled one of its pectoral fins back. Surprised, I waved my other hand, to which it responded by waving its other pectoral fin.
Slowly, a smile broke out across my face and I swam towards it. For a moment, it sat in the water, then with a slight twitch of its tail ducked out of my way and sent another sonar ping from just beyond my reach. Grinning like an idiot, I swam towards it, almost anticipating as it dodged beyond my reach and pinged me again. I played tag with it all afternoon, only returning to the beach when it was so dark I couldn't see my hand in front of my mask.
As I walked up the beach, towards the floodlights of the complex I heard it take a breath behind me and I stopped. Turning around, I bowed to my unseen friend in the water, then with a smile from ear to ear made my weary way back to my quarters. That night I had the best night's sleep that I can remember
I awoke late in the morning and lay still, then realizing what time it was and I tried to roll over. A gasp of pain shot from my lips. My neck, back and legs felt as if they were on fire. Painfully standing I eased myself up and looked in the mirror. I was sunburnt; in fact I looked more like a lobster than a human. My face and front was red, but the mirror told me my back was a mass of blisters. (Good work you idiot,) I thought to myself. (One step to skin cancer)
Cursing my stupidity I shuffled my way to the first aid room and fumbled with the books and trying to find a ridicule that was good for sunburn. I eventually, found a spray pack which I used to cover myself. I'm not sure what was in it, but I defiantly felt good afterwards. Slowly I made my way to the veranda and lay on a pile of cushions watching the sea.
Every now and again, the pod of dolphins would swim past, first one way, then about an hour later back the other way. Slowly patrolling their waters as if they were the security guards of the sea. Then, on their third pass I noticed one of them break away from the main pod and weave its way through the narrow channel and into the lagoon. I was just about to get up and when it did a very quick circuit, rose up on its tail, as if to look around, then sunk back into the water and headed out. Sighing to myself I settled back down.
By late in the afternoon I was feeling better. An inspection in the mirror had shown the blisters on my back and legs had gone down, plus most of the redness had gone from my arms. In a rush I donned my best Laurence of Arabia outfit and stood knee deep in the cool waters.
As I expected, the pod rounded the sides of the cove and swam past. Then one broke off and headed for the channel. I watched its wake as it weaved itself past the coral heads, easing itself into the lagoon. It didn't bother with its usual circuit; instead it headed straight for me. Stopping just a few metres away.
It lay on its side, looking at me with one soft eye. I felt rather stupid and waved at it again. It opened its mouth in almost a laugh and waves a fin back at me. Then, it rolled before me, waving its pale belly in the air and with a flick of its tail disappeared towards the channel, only its wake marking its passing.
For a moment I stood still, replaying its actions over in my head. I had seen it had one slit, did that mean it was a female or a male? My dolphin biology was a little rusty, not to mention way beyond my knowledge, but I knew someone who could help me. Walking slowly back to the complex, I contemplated my options.
Once inside I made my way to my favourite computer and loaded a chat program. A short while later I had all the answers I needed, a few suggestions and quite a few requests of where was this dolphin, yeah like hell I was gonna tell them.
I had established that it was female and her actions came down to three things. One, it was an accident, two, she wanted to mate with me – highly unlikely, look at me I'm an IT guy, let alone can't get laid by my own kind, as she had disappeared (someone was quite disappointed to hear this) or three, she was showing me herself. Almost as if she was saying, “I know what you look like from my sonar, this is me."
Some said that the third option was pretty remote, but I liked the formal idea.
I gave myself another coating of the gunk and drifted off to sleep, wondering what I was going to name my unlikely visitor.
I awoke in the morning still thinking of that problem. My sunburn was much improved and barely hurt, but a name for my dolphin friend had me baffled. I refused to go with the obvious “Flipper." Also all human names were out; she defiantly wasn't human, even though she acted like a human at times. I didn't want to go with the corny dolphin sounding names either, ruling out things such as “Dolphy," “Delphina." “Keiko" was nice, but already taken by a male killer whale. Somehow I decided on “Keiki." I'm not sure why, it just seemed to fit.
Anyway, I performed my rounds, then dropped my gear and headed out to sit under a palm tree to see if she would appear again. I didn't have to wait long, the pod swam past and a familiar grey shape darted though the channel. I stood up and walked down to the water.
When I was knee deep she appeared and lay on the surface. For a while I stared at her. Then for some reason I spoke.
“Umm, G'day," I said somewhat hesitantly.
She didn't do much, but look at me with one soft eye.
“I'm Brian," I said, sounding like a bit of a fool. “Ummm, I wasn't sure what you were called, but I decided to name you Keiki. I hope you don't mind."
She opened her mouth to grin at me when I said that, righting herself and nodding her head up and down.
“Kee-kee," she squealed nodding. “Kee-kee."
I just started in dumb founded amazement.
She nodded her head vigorously and trilled at me. I would have sworn she was laughing. Tentatively I reached my hand out. She saw this as an invitation and swam closer, reaching out with her pec, so my fingers brushed against it. Then with a flick of her tail she was gone.
I didn't see her for the rest of the day.
I spent the most of the time wondering exactly what it meant, I wasn't sure at the time and am not sure now, but I think something happened between us, like two unseen souls finally have met and crossed paths, making a connection.
I was up early the next day and wandered down to the beach. Keiki had beaten me to it. I saw her watched me from near the reef. I waded into the water and lightly tapped the surface. I felt a little foolish, but I had seen it done on the TV. To my surprise she slowly swam nearer.
I sank down, so only my head was above the surface of the water and watched her dorsal fin come closer. I could feel her sonar bouncing off me. It tickled somewhat and I giggled a little, partly from the sonar, partly from my current situation. She must have heard me because just then she stuck her head above the water and chatter-giggled back.
Calming myself, I reached out my hand, just below the surface of the water. Tentatively she approached, then very slowly and warily nudged my fingers with her rostrum. My stomach churned, my heart leapt and I wondered what to do next. Almost without thinking I lightly ran my fingers across the tip of her snout.
She visibly relaxed and drifted a little closer in the water so I could gently scratch under her chin. As I ran my hand across her skin I marvelled at the feeling. I hate to use this analogy, but it felt like a smooth, wet, flexible rubber – a little like a car inner tube. She seemed to like this and lay back on her side, lifting her head, enabling me to scratch at more of her neck.
I'm not sure how long this went on for. It could have been two minutes, maybe an hour, timed seemed to stop.
Then she made the next move. I was lightly rubbing at the very tip of her rostrum, just below her mouth, when she suddenly flicked her mouth and grabbed my fingers. Instinctively I pulled my hand back, but was too slow. She had me, tightly and firmly, but not painfully. I gently squirmed my fingers together and she responded by trilling and running her warm tongue against them. Now, it was my turn to squirm and I broke out in a fit of giggles. She seemed to like this and let go of my hand, then ducked her head so I was rubbing at her melon.
That felt strange, I could feel her clicks and whistles of her sonar passing right through my hand, as if my hand was positioned in front of a huge stage speaker pumping music. She seemed to enjoy it though.
Then she ducked in the water and disappeared from view.
A few seconds later she reappeared in a spectacular twisting leap just in front of me. This was followed by numerous somersaults, flips and tail walks. I just sat there in silent amazement.
Then the ocean was still once more. Looking around I could see no sign of her. Not a ripple on the surface, not a trill below. Then, suddenly, slightly off to one side she reappeared and flicked her head, splashing me with water. Like a small child I retaliated and splashed some back.
For the next few minutes there was a full scale water fight. Only stopping when I realized the sea I was spraying was empty. I peered out to sea, looking for her, but again couldn't see any trace. Then there was a quiet splash behind me. Turning around suddenly, I managed to get a glimpse of Keiki's tail before she absolutely drenched me.
Giving up, I ducked below the surface, not sticking my head up again until the ripples had died down.
She had moved back to in front of me, but was not closer than before. I reached out and lightly ran a finger down her sides. I would swear she made a chirring noise and pushed herself harder against me. Soon I found myself vigorously scratching at her skin as she looked at me through half closed eyes.
I was rubbing her back near her dorsal fin when she gave a kick of her tail. Before I knew it, she had towed me a few metres out into deeper water. I let go immediately and stood on my toes on the sand. She stopped and spun back towards me, cooing questioningly.
Then she turned and offered her dorsal fin to me again. Somewhat hesitantly and reluctantly I locked my hands together and reached over her fin. Slowly this time she flexed her tail and I found myself towed around the lagoon.
It was exhilarating. She varied between going flat out where I'd be half drowned, then just when I thought I'd have to let go she'd almost stop and I'd be pushed forward into her backwash. She would then tow me around slowly, then speeding up again without warning.
Finally, she towed me back to the shore and ducked away, leaving me to glide into the shallow water. I turned and sat on a sandbank, looking at her staring back at me. It was late in the day and I knew I had to go, I think she knew it too.
Suddenly feeling like a teenager on a first date and leaned closer to where she lay in the water. Bending my head down, I gave her a soft kiss on her rostrum and stroked her bottom jaw lovingly. She sent a sonar buzz through my head, then slowly backed away, fading into the water.
As I walked up the beach backwards I saw her swim through the channel, leap into the air before disappearing in a cloud of spray.
This became my pattern for the next few weeks. I'd awake early, give the machines a quick look over, then spend the most of the day playing with Keiki. Every time I wandered down to the beach, she was there, waiting for me. Even when I walked around the island, I saw her, paralleling me around the coast. Occasionally I'd wave and she would rise up on her tail and wave a flipper back, or leap into the air. This always brought a smile to my face.
Then one day, things changed.
It was a stifling night. A fully moon, high humidity and temperatures and the dark ranges of a thunderstorm. My room felt like a sweat box. I couldn't sleep and decided to take a wander along the beach, to cool off and clear my thoughts. By the time I got down there a swim sounded awfully good. All I had on was a dressing gown. So I stripped it off and stood naked in the moonlight.
Savouring the feeling of damp sand between my toes I walked into the water. Sighing blissfully to myself I walked in up to my wait, then slowly slipped below the surface. I wasn't planning on swimming anywhere. There was too much coral and unknowns at night, but I knew the shore was clear. So I just lay back, half supported by the water, half resting on the sand, if I only had a ice cold Carlton Draught in my right hand.
Somehow I wasn't surprised to the feeling of the familiar vibrations in my body as Keiki approached. She had a habit of turning up when you least expected her. Lifting my head I scratched between her pectoral fins and lightly kissed her on her rostrum. In return she ran her tail over my foot and I stroked her underside with a toe.
She seemed to like this and slowly pushed me back up the sand so my shoulders were out of the water. She then turned and lay across me, her dorsal fin brushing my leg, my hands still rubbing between her pecs. We stayed like that for a long time. Sometimes I'd murmur something to her and she'd reply with a squeal. I spent a long time looking at the stars, or the open ocean, not really thinking about her, just enjoying her company.
Then I realised my hands were not caressing her smooth flesh anymore. I looked down and saw she had slowly drifted past me, so now I was no longer stroking her pecs. In fact, now I was stroking near her tail flukes.
Even in the poor light of the full moon, I could see her belly was flushed pink and her outer lips were red and swollen. Not sure what to do, I lifted my hands from her. She responded by arching her tail, clearly exposing herself to me. Turning her head slightly she cooed at me questioningly.
Tentatively reaching down I ran a hand over her underside. She seemed to relax at this and moved my hand lower, over her swollen lips. To my surprise, they were very warm, almost hot and they seemed to grab at my fingers. Resisting the temptation, I traced around the edges of the dark red patch, slowly making my way back to where I had started.
Taking a deep breath I slowly pushed one finger in past her lips. Inside she was very hot and moist. Almost akin to a sauna. Her lips grabbed at my finger and gently but firmly pulled it deeper into her awaiting depths.
Gradually, I added another finger, it too was pulled inside. Reaching out with my free hand I stroked at her pink belly, idly tracing patterns from her pecs to her vaginal slit, paying special attention to the darker areas on her belly.
This resulted in her arching her tail and back again, forcing my fingers further into her tight warm orifice. While using my free hand to caress her belly, my other hand explored its surroundings, all the while her inner muscles kneading away at me. One of my spare fingers began to lightly run over the inside of her lips. This caused her to make short trilling sounds and I smiled to myself and moved my head lower to kiss at her belly.
As I licked at her warm skin, I felt her clench hard against my fingers. Then she lay still. Slowly I reached down with my spare hand and supported her limp frame, then I reluctantly pulled my fingers from within her. Her smooth sides gripped me and rippled against my fingers as I removed them.
Lying back in the shallower water, I pivoted her unresisting body, so she was lying against me and gently embraced her. She opened one eye and looked at me, her flippers hugging me in return.
We lay there, nestled in each other's limbs for a long time. Then, again without warning, she wriggled out of my hold and disappeared into the murky darkness.
For a while I sat there and thought over the evenings events. Contemplating my actions. I was ready to head back up to the complex, when I heard a familiar splash from the open sea.
Looking up I watched Keiki return, carrying something in her mouth. Slowing in her swimming, she eased herself up beside me and dropped what she was carrying on my legs. Reaching down into the water I withdrew two armbands.
In the light from the moon, I could just make out a pattern along the edge. It was of a human and dolphin intertwined, swimming through the seas. The metal appeared to be a blue-gold colour and glittered faintly in the light.
Nipping at my arms, Keiki made her intentions clear and I quickly slipped the band on. They easily slid up my arms, stopping near the shoulder. Leaning forward I lovingly kissed my dolphin lover on her rostrum. She just squeaked back and nodded her head. That was when I noticed the arm bands begging to tingle...
When the supply boat arrived, it found the island in perfect working order, with the exception of it was missing the caretaker. A full-scale search failed to produce anything other than a dressing gown left high on the beach. The official report stated that Brian Tursope drowned while taking a swim. The body was never recovered.
One interesting thing that was noted though was as the supply boat was leaving two dolphins were riding on its bow wave. One of them appeared to have a band around each pectoral fin....
Some say that love knows no bounds. I hope they are right....as this is not the end.....