Search Worlds Without End

Set in the recent future, a cargo hovership makes an emergency landing in a rural part of the Midwest. An adventurous teenager, Johnny Clinton, sneaks on board-only to survive a second crash a few hours later, this time into the Pacific Ocean. The crew escapes, but Johnny is left on board-adrift in the wreckage of the ship.

Johnny is rescued by a pod of dolphins-who bring him to a remote island hidden in the heart of Australia's Great Barrier Reef. There, Johnny meets the brilliant and eccentric Professor Kazan, who has dedicated his life to the study of dolphin communication. Johnny's further adventures with dolphins and the sea make this an exciting and fascinating coming-of-age story.

Against the cool, precise backdrop of a government-sponsored laboratory in Florida, the Day of the Dolphin unfolds the drama of a brilliant and charismatic scientist on the brink of a world-shaking discovery. Intent upon his private dream he is unaware that he, his laboratory, and his accomplishments are pawns in a savage game of espionage and nuclear terror.

Before the dawn of man . . . there was a covenant between the land and the sea people--a covenant long forgotten by those who stayed on shore, but indelibly etched in the minds of the others--the dolphins of Altair.

Now the covenant had been broken. Dolphins were being wantonly sacrificed in the name of scientific research, their waters increasingly polluted, their number dangerously diminished. They had to find allies and strike back. Allies willing to sever their own earthly bonds for the sake of their sea brothers--willing, if necessary, to execute the destruction of the whole human race . . . .

Table of Contents:

• The Dolphin and the Deep - (1963) - novella
• The Manor of Roses - (1966) - novella
• The Murex - (1964) - novelette

Contains:

• The Voice of the Dolphin
• My Trial as a War Criminal
• The Mark Gable Foundation
• Calling All Stars
• Report on "Grand Central Terminal"
• Nightmare for Future Reference (poem by Stephen Vincent Benet)

EONS AGO, down in the green depths of warm oceans, man had his basic origin. And although he evolved into a creature entirely of the upper air, he still has much in common with the air-breathing, slat water mammals who are his ancestral brothers.

Except of course that the sea creatures have much greater potential intelligence, are infinitely better adjusted to themselves and thie environment. And have a much longer life span.

The gentle dolphins knew exactly what to do when a small human baby fell into their midst.

But neither they nor anyone else could fortell what whould develop from this remarkable combination...

From the age of two, Sir John Averill had lived in the sea, where kindly dolphins raised him to manhood.

Known to a few humans as Triton, the dolphin man could never become fully accustomed to living on land and fled away to his underwater home whenever the need impelled him.

But here he could not live either, For now that he had known man and the ways of man he needed more than the companionship of dolphins.

Now as las there were two creatures like himself--if only he could keep them alive long enough to grow up!

SIR JOHN AVERILL, sometimes known as Triton, was a unique creature. At leas until a scientific accident produced tow females who. like himself, were able to live in the upperair but whose natural habitat was under water.

All three, Triton, Vinca and Syn, spent their childhood years being raised by dolphins. This was a fierce and onforgiving training but it was easier than was was to follow.

For although Triton did his best to protect his two youung wards, the world of the upperair held dangers and threats he might forsee but could not avoid.

When the first humans came to settle the planet Pern, they did not come alone: intelligence-enhanced dolphins also crossed the stars to colonize Pern's oceans while their human partners settled the vast continents. But then disaster struck. The deadly silver spores called Thread fell like rain from the sky, and as the human colonists' dreams of a new, idyllic life shattered into a desperate struggle for survival, the dolphins were forgotten.

Now, centuries later, as the dragonriders of Pern prepare to complete the momentous task of ridding their world of Thread forever, T'lion, a young bronze rider, and his friend Readis, son of the Lord Holder of Paradise River Hold, make contact with the legendary "shipfish." And as the dragonriders grapple with the end of an era, T'lion, Readis, and the dolphins face the start of a new one: reviving the bond between land- and ocean-dwellers--and resurrecting the dreams of the first colonists of Pern.

When the original colonists find that the Southern Continent is too geologically unstable, they need to find a way to transport the growing colony and its possessions to the Northern Continent.

Working with the intelligent dolphins who helped to colonize Pern with humans is key if they are to be successful...