This is a short story (2825 words) reprinted from Book of Dreams Second Edition: Science Fiction and Speculative Fiction Short Stories (C) 2012 by Victor D. López and Mindscapes: Ten Science Fiction and Speculative Fiction Short Stories (C) 2014 by Victor D. López.
Human beings are not the only intelligent life forms on Earth and possibly not the most intelligent. Efforts at communicating with marine mammals such as whales and dolphins whose brains are larger than our own have had very limited success to date, less so than the success we've enjoyed in teaching some gorillas and chimpanzees to communicate using sign language despite the fact that their brains have less capacity than our own. This short story explores the possible consequences of bridging the language barrier with dolphins whose larger brains may well provide them with intelligence that exceeds our own. When a dedicated marine biologist/linguist makes the breakthrough in the near future that allows true communication to take place, what rewards may we expect from her research, and what might our aquatic cousins learn about us and teach us about ourselves?