He had done this in a greater scale in the Saviour Island after the Ship collapsed in flames. Farnab and the new Circle had helped him. They had prepared an instruction, an easy reading, simple text that gave a realistic and factual account of the situation and information about the new mutation happening in the babies. The instruction was sent to all the ships and even to other islands. Some women had easily accepted it, especially the ones that had a similar experience or knew someone who had. But most women were scared of the change they could not understand. The ships still put the pregnant women in danger. They needed a safe place on land to give birth in a protected environment and the Saviour Island had provided them this place. The new birth centre on the island has many tanks that women can easily give birth in. If their babies are human, they can go back home to their ships with their babies and if they are semi-dolphins, the babies are taken to a special care unit until they are safely delivered to the white dolphins that roam about the Saviour Island in the past few years. The common reaction to this inevitable change was fear, then denial, resistance and at the end acceptance. The women were more resistant to the idea of giving birth in the tanks but they were forced to do so to stay alive. The Saviour Island keeps records of the number of human and semi-dolphin babies born in the centre, but they still have not found a way to stop the mutation. Tirad asks Farnab about the latest statistics. Farnab shakes his head in a sorry gesture.

“The number of semi-dolphins is increasing. We had one out of ten babies this year while it was one out of fifteen last year and one out of twenty the year before… We still don’t know how to stop it,” Farnab explains. Tirad asks him about the white dolphins. Farnab says they easily accept the semi-dolphin babies and take them in. They have specified a restricted fishing area around the Saviour Island so that the white dolphins wouldn’t have any food problems and don’t leave. The boats are not allowed to path that restricted area where the dolphins dwell. But he says once in a while, the mothers who had a semi-dolphin baby would go there in hope of seeing their own children.

“I never saw it myself but they say some of the semi-dolphins that were born a few years ago are now grown and swim towards the boats in curiosity. One of the women believed she had found her child and they had recognised each other!” Farnab continues. Tirad starts brooding.

“I think it would be for the best if you visited the semi-dolphins. Learn about their behaviours; see how they react to humans and whether they can be trained in some way,” Tirad says after a long pause. Farnab says they have learnt from the reports that the semi-dolphins don’t make any meaningful connections with humans. They even make the same sound as the dolphins and their behaviours are more like a fish than a human. Tirad believes they need to conduct more search and watch them more closely. The semi-dolphins are still infants and they can’t be so sure until they become adults.