THE JONAH KIT is about the science of communication. Paul Hammond, a crazed Nobel Prize scientist conducting research in Mexico, is trying to communicate with the Universe. Nilin, a six-year-old Russian boy who has the partial mind of a dead Russian astronaut, is trying to communicate as the child he really is and as a man with important knowledge. Their efforts become one in the mind of a giant whale who is physically free to swim the oceans but whose intelligence has been computerized by the Russians in an attempt to use the whale population to locate and report foreign submarine maneuvers. The realities of scientific inquiry become confused, and destroyed, by the personalities of the scientists. Hammond, who wants another Nobel Prize; Richard Kimble, cynical and angry with the manner in which Hammond announces his discoveries; Katya Tarsky who is working on the Russian experiment because of her love for the now imbecilic musician Pavel; Nilin, merely a tool in the hands of the experimenters. And at the center, the giant whales who ultimately do have the power to remain free.