"Okay, is everyone here?" the director of the Marine Mammal Unit began. "Yes? Good. I'll keep this short as I can, people. As you all know, Cocoa will be giving birth very soon. This is her first birthing and we want to make damn sure the calf doesn't drown. I know you all remember the Florida fiasco. Cocoa's being born and raised here at Seaworld means she has none of the parenting skills she would have learned living in a pod. I want watch volunteers to stay with her during the off hours until the calf is born and we can be sure she understands how to care for it. The marine biologists are very interested in seeing just how much parenting is biological and how much is learned behavior and this birthing will provide them with further evidence so the cameras will be on and the tapes rolling continuously."

The Director looked around at the two-dozen unit employees gathered before him. He knew he would get more than enough volunteers but wondered if the people he preferred would be among them. He glanced at his notes and continued.

"We have 12 hours every day that we need to cover, so depending on how many of you volunteer, it will be broken down into 4 or 6 hour shifts. I remind you that you will still be responsible for your daily shifts as assigned so don't volunteer unless you really feel you can take on these night hours. Any questions? No? Good. Let's see some hands if you wish to volunteer."

At 19, Jan was one of the youngest and newest in the group. The marine mammal unit had employed her thanks to her 4.0 GPA as a marine biology major at UCSD and her experience working at the Scripps Institute of Oceanography for the past three summers. Jan's hand was the first to go up.

Jan knew she wanted this task, wanted it bad. Not for the experience but for the opportunity to be alone in the Park. Alone to pursue the fantasy she'd had since she was a young teen and had read David Brin's Uplift War series. It was her fantasy that gave her the drive to pursue a PhD in marine biology, still years away.

Carl, the head trainer was picked first and given the first shift. Carl had come to think of Cocoa the same way a parent thinks about their child. Having been attached to the Marine Mammal Unit for ten years, he remembered the day she had been born to one of the dolphins that had spent most of their adult lives performing tricks for the crowds of tourists. Sadly, Cocoa's mother had died within several days of the birthing, a victim of an influenza infection transmitted by an ill employee assigned to feed her as she nursed the young calf.

Carl had taken it upon himself to make sure the calf lived. Spending up to twenty hours a day in the tank feeding it from a bottle, helping the weak newborn surface to breath those first few days. A bond had developed between them that was remarkable for its closeness. Cocoa trusted Carl like she trusted no other human.

Jan was picked second and was assigned to stay that very night from Midnight to 6 A.M. She would be there alone with Cocoa and have the entire Park to herself.

Jan smiled at the announcement of assignments. This would be her chance to find out just what Sparky, Cocoa's mate was up to. Since she had begun working with the marine mammal unit, Sparky had been coming on to her. Each time she entered the dolphin pool, he had appeared rubbing against her, sliding by her so that his pectoral fin would graze across her crotch, even going so far as to gently nip at her breasts before tail walking away with a loud Ka Ka Ka and slipping beneath the water. On more than one occasion he had rubbed his extended penis against her belly.

The cleaning crew left as Jan arrived to relieve Carl. As Carl drove away, she checked on Cocoa in the holding tank. Cocoa appeared to be floating tranquilly in the middle of the tank with her eyes closed, showing no signs of imminent delivery. Knowing there was no one else in the park, she left by a side door and headed for the dolphin pool.

She stood at the edge trying to build up enough courage to go through with her plan. Staring at the dark water, as the moonlight sparkling like gems upon its rippled surface.

Sparky rose silently in front of her and gazed upward with eyes that sparkled with intelligence. Jan looked down at him and knelt at the edge and whispered in a voice fraught with both excitement and fear, "Sparky, just what do you want with me?". As if he understood her, Sparky tossed his head in a "come here" motion so common to humans, but so strange to see in an animal. Jan trembled as she stood and pulled off her SeaWorld employee shirt and pushed her matching shorts down to pool around her feet. She stepped out of them and her sandals and stood in the moonlight for a moment before gathering her courage and stepping down into the water. Sparky floated back several feet watching as she found her footing in the waist deep water.

Carl sat at the bar in the noisy dance club nursing a beer. His mind was not on the many nearly-dressed co-eds at the popular UCSD watering hole but on Cocoa and her impending birthing. As much as Carl enjoyed looking at the girls, for once he just couldn't get into it. There was something that caused an itch in the back of his mind. Carl finally gave up and headed back towards SeaWorld, the itch pulling him onward.

Sparky drifted closer to Jan, eyes intent on her. Jan reached out and stroked his melon and whispered, "I'm here Sparky, show me what you want." The dolphin moved closer and slid his pectoral fin up between Jan's thighs and gently nipped at the shoulder strap of her swimsuit, hooking a tooth in the material. Flipping his head, he pulled it from her shoulder and released it. Jan was amazed by the gently dexterity of the dolphin. She shuddered as she realized that Sparky actually seemed to understand her. As his fin rubbed her crotch, Jan reached to her other shoulder and pulled the suit down to her waist. Her nipples rock hard with excitement. Sparky closed his mouth and rubbed his face up and down her breasts, his hard lips flipping her nipples back and forth bringing a moan of pleasure from her.

Carl pulled his car up to the service door of the Marine Mammal Unit and shut it down. He lit a cigarette and sat in silence and smoked as he tried to think of something to justify his return to the unit to Jan if things were normal inside.

Jan reached out and began to stroke Sparky's belly from between his pecs to his genital slit. The dolphin blew a gush of air across the surface of the water then sank away from her hand. Sparky flipped end for end underwater and thrust his head at Jan's waist, grabbed a mouthful of swimsuit and pulled it down. As it slipped free of her hip and slid down her legs, she lifted her feet and the dolphin wound up with her suit in his mouth. Rising vertically from the water, Sparky flipped her suit over his head. Lofting it to the platform with a splat, it land next to the rest of her clothes.