Dolphin echolocation took place in the water; my contact with the cephaloped was direct and prolonged … and it was a multidirectional healing. I could feel the squid growing stronger … the pulsation of its three hearts cascading within my own bloodstream, its terror dissipating.

WHY?

ABE whispered the one-word inquiry out of the ether and into my consciousness, breaking my train of thought.

My internal response: Why what?

WHY?

I opened my eyes. “ABE, what are you asking me?” I was so annoyed at being disturbed that I failed to realize something important …

ABE IS PROGRAMMED TO RESPOND TO INQUIRIES, NOT TO GENERATE THEM.

“Then stop saying ‘Why?’”

THE INQUIRY IS NOT ORIGINATING FROM ABE.

“What?” I sat up, gazing into the alert yellow eyes staring back at me. It’s coming from the cephaloped?

CORRECT. THE SUBJECT IS COMMUNICATING USING THOUGHT ENERGY. “WHY” IS THE SUBJECT’S EMOTIONAL EXPRESSION OF THOUGHT ENERGY APPROXIMATED INTO ENGLISH.

Can it understand me?

NOT DIRECTLY. ROBERT EISENBRAUN’S THOUGHT ENERGY IS BASED ON CONCEPTS DEFINED BY AN ESTABLISHED VERBAL AND WRITTEN LANGUAGE COMBINED WITH EMPIRICAL KNOWLEDGE. OSCAR’S THOUGHT ENERGY IS BASED ON A VOCABULARY OF EMOTIONS, DESIRES, NEEDS, CURIOSITY, EXPRESSED THROUGH THE LIMITATIONS OF ITS MEMORY FOUNDATION.

What is … wait—did you refer to it as Oscar?

CORRECT. IT HAS ACCEPTED YOUR DESIGNATION OF ITS PHYSICAL PRESENCE.

Just out of curiosity, is Oscar a male?

OSCAR POSSESSES AN ENLARGED HECTOCOTYLUS ARM DESIGNED FOR INSERTION INTO A FEMALE OR MALE MANTLE AND DEPOSITING A SPERMATOPHORE, THEREFORE THE SUBJECT IS A MALE.

Female or male? Are octopi bisexual? Wait … I’m not holding its hectocotylus arm, am I?

REPRODUCTIVE DATA REFLECTS AQUATIC SPECIES OF OCTOPUS; DATA ON EVOLVED TERRESTRIAL SPECIES IS STILL BEING FORMULATED. PRE-GDO STUDIES ON AQUATIC OCTOPUS SEXUALITY INDICATED SUBJECTS, WHEN PAIRED WITH OTHERS, FAILED TO RECOGNIZE WHETHER ANOTHER SUBJECT WAS MALE OR FEMALE UNTIL AFTER THEY BEGAN THE ACT OF COPULATION. MALE-TO-MALE COPULATIONS LASTED LESS THAN THIRTY SECONDS AND DID NOT CULMINATE IN SPERMATOPHORE RELEASE. MALE-TO-FEMALE COPULATIONS LASTED TWO AND A HALF HOURS AND RESULTED IN THE RELEASE OF ONE TO FOUR SPERMATOPHORES. OSCAR RECOGNIZES THAT ROBERT EISENBRAUN IS MALE. IT WAS THIS RECOGNITION THAT LED TO OSCAR RESCUING EISENBRAUN FROM DROWNING.

Now I’m completely confused. Oscar rescued me because it recognized that I’m a male?

CURIOSITY APPEARS TO HAVE BEEN THE MOTIVATING FACTOR.

Has Oscar ever even seen a male human before?

OSCAR HAS NEVER SEEN A MALE HUMAN. OSCAR DESIRES AGAIN TO UNDERSTAND WHY ROBERT EISENBRAUN RESCUED OSCAR.

Why? Because Oscar … Exhausted from the internal dialogue with my biological chip, I squeezed the creature’s fin, looking directly into its stalk eyes. “You rescued me from the ocean, you saved me from the ants. Humans … my species—we too believe in treating others with acts of kindness.”

To my surprise, the creature became agitated. Withdrawing its tentacle, it stretched its reach overhead, snagged the nearest branch of the redwood and disappeared into the canopy.