“Not kidnapped? Medical evacuation.”
“Yes. Right. Medical evacuation.” His right hand was rubbing the side of his left hand in a nervous gesture. “Since then, have you seen many news reports?”
“No. I was knocked out for a couple days and weak for several more days, sleeping a lot. I’ve just been cleared to move around some, but I can’t leave Aberforth Hills for another month.”
“So-o-o-o, you haven’t seen my news?”
She shook her head, curious. “Tell me.”
Jake leaned back on his hands and stared up at the ceiling of the natatorium. With his head back, she saw red whelp on his neck, and almost asked about it. But he pulled his knees to his chest and hugged them.
He’s embarrassed. What could be so hard to tell me? she wondered.
Still without looking at her, Jake said, “You know how I said I couldn’t swim? That’s not exactly true.” Now, he did glance over at her.
It struck her! “You’re Phoke! So am I! My mom is a mermaid, although my father was Japanese-American.”
Jake leaned forward with his legs crossed, and frowned. Why hadn’t Dr. Mangot told him this important information? She’d deliberately withheld it.
“You’re half-Phoke?” he said. “Oh. That’s why you’re here in Aberforth Hills.”
“A quarter-Phoke,” Em corrected. Then, she hesitated, quivering. In her excitement, had she misread what he was saying? “And you’re Phoke, too, right?”
“How do you know you’re Phoke? Who are your parents?”
“Bobbie Fleming, the biologist. She’s half Phoke. Obviously, that’s why she’s a marine biologist.”
Jake nodded. “Makes sense. I thought I saw her twice in Edinburgh. She must have done some shopping before coming down to Aberforth Hills. And your father?”
“A Japanese-American. He died in a diving accident. In any case, Bobbie had already put me up for adoption.” Her eyes narrowed and she repeated, “And you’re Phoke, too, right?”
Jake’s eyes were big with worry, and he lifted his chest and held himself rigid. His voice was low, but defiant. “I’m Risonian. My mom is Dayexi Quad-de, the Risonian Ambassador.”
“Oh.” Em was stunned. Alien. From Rison. Oh.
One of those.
Then, angrily, she demanded. “Show me.”
He lifted his arms, and instead of a hairy armpit, there were parallel lines of a gill. She started up, standing to get away from him. He shoved up heavily and followed her.
They were at the edge of the pool, but she backed away again, shaking her head in denial. “No.”
Jake kept his arm up, as if he had to prove his words. He needed her to understand that they had so much in common.
“No,” she yelled at him. “NO!”
“Yes,” Jake said and stepped closer.
She shoved him into the water, angry that he’d lied to her all those months, and angry that—oh, she didn’t know—angry that he could probably out swim her, even though she was a quarter-Phoke. Angry at all the time wasted by both of them denying who they were. Her head whirled in sudden dizziness.
Jake bobbed back up to the surface, and his eyes locked on hers. They were dark eyes, full of sadness and hope and—oh, she didn’t know. She might have resisted him, but he reached up to her, his hands stretched in a wordless appeal.
They were worlds apart and yet that yearning look on his face—her breath caught and her heart hammered. She sat on the pool’s side and leaned over to let him take her hands, to let him gently pull her into the warm pool, to let him draw her down to the observation glass. For long minutes they hovered, admiring the beauty of Earth’s cold sea depths, his warm hand refusing to turn loose of hers. A sand eel squirmed through the seaweed. Behind a rock, a crab scuttled. A flat fish that she didn’t recognize squirmed to hide in the sediment of the sea floor. There was a kinship, something that connected them, even though they were from opposite sides of the galaxy. Here, under the water, they were almost the same sort of creature. Almost.
Finally, Em pointed upward: she had to breathe.
He caught her around the waist, holding her lightly; facing each other, they slowly rose. Em’s heart pounded at his touch, his nearness. When they broke the surface, she breathed easily a couple times, shocked that she didn’t have to gasp for air after being submerged for so long. Her dark hair clung to her face and neck and shoulder, and it tickled her face. Jake’s hand reached gently to push the hair behind her ears. Then, he leaned closer.
This was it. They had almost kissed at her parent’s mountain cabin near Mt. Rainier when the volcano threatened to erupt. But her sister and her boyfriend had interrupted them. This time, no one else was around.
Jake’s arm tightened on her waist, pulling her closer.
A door banged.
Em’s head jerked around, and she pushed away from Jake, disappointed, aching to be back in his arms.
David and Jillian strode into the room calling, “Em! Jake!”
Em raised a hand and called, “I’m here.”
David and Jillian trotted along the side of the pool till they neared her. Suddenly weak, Em allowed Jake to help her to the pool’s side, and allowed David and Jillian to pull her out.
Then, the door slammed again, and a blond guy appeared.
Quickly, Em introduced him. “Jake, this is Shelby Bulmer. Shelby, do you know Jake Rose?”
“The Risonian ambassador’s son,” Shelby said flatly. “Everyone on the planet knows him.”
“Are you Commander Bulmer’s son?” Jake asked, in an equally noncommittal voice.
“Yes.”
“He’s the officer who kidnapped my mother and me.”
“He does his duty.” Shelby spread his stance to balance on the balls of his feet, ready—just in case.
Afraid they’d start fighting, Em introduced Jillian and David as Jake’s friends.
Em pushed herself up to stand, awkward and uncertain. She stumbled to a poolside lounge chair and dropped onto it. She lay back and closed her eyes.
Instantly, Shelby and Jake were beside her.
Shelby said, “I told you not to over do it!”
Jake said, “Em, what do you need? What can I get for you?”
Em smiled, flattered that two boys were fussing over her. “I’m fine. I just need to rest a while. Find chairs and sit, and we’ll just talk for a while.”
32
Rison v. Phoke Anatomy
December 27
Em stretched out wearily on the lounge chair. Still tired from the jellyfish poisoning, Jake lay back on his own lounge chair. Shelby, though, pulled up a short chair and sat upright near the foot of Em’s chair where he had a good view of her face.
David and Jillian, though were fascinated by the observation wall.
“Can we take a quick look?” asked Jillian.
“You’re not dressed for it,” Jake said.
Shelby said, “There are always spare swim suits in the dressing rooms. They can use whatever they find.”
“It’ll have to a be a quick look,” Jake said. “After all, humans can’t stay underwater as long as Risonians or Phoke.”
Jillian rolled her eyes, but went to the women’s dressing room, while David pushed through the door to the men’s dressing room. They were back out shortly and dove into the water together.
In a reasonable voice, Jake said, “You know, Shelby, we should try to be friends. Risonians and Phoke should be allies because we’re both aquatic.” It was hard for him to extend an offer of friendship, but Jake was trying hard to be more diplomatic like his mother.
Shelby shook his head, his blond hair so different from Jake’s dark curly hair. “The Phoke may wind up friends with Risonians. But I’ll always remember that I’m an Earthling first, a water creature second.”
“Do you think the world is going to just let the Phoke come out and actually have a say in anything?” Jake asked scornfully. He was skeptical about any politician giving up po
wer. “Wouldn’t it be better to ally with the other water creature who will inhabit your oceans?”
Shelby said scornfully, “Risonians aren’t even mammals! They’re half-fish.”
“Are Phoke mammals?” Jake asked. He hadn’t thought about this biological distinction before. Risonians wouldn’t fall under Earth’s definition of mammal or fish. They were a different class of creature.
“Yes!” Shelby said. “Mammals breathe air, give birth live, give milk to their babies, and have hair. We are kin to whales and dolphins. We don’t have gills.”
Jake thought about the Mer anatomy. They weren’t truly water creatures. They were air breathers with an anatomical adaptation that let them stay under water for long periods. But they weren’t like Risonians who could breathe either water or air and stay under as long as they wanted or needed.
He remembered going to his grandparents’ house in Sobey, a city in the Chi-Chi Sea, just south of Tizzalura’s shores. His grandmother, Grace Quad-de usually had long, plaited hair, but at night, she loosed her hair, and he remembered her hands, spotted with age, combing through her hair and scratching her head. Laughing, she said, “When it’s braided, it pulls so tight that it itches. I have to let it down at night.”
Their home was open to the ocean currents, so her long white curls floated around her head giving her an ethereal look, delicate and ageless.
Jake loved his bedroom there—Swann’s bedroom as a child—where fresh water coursed over him all night long. It was the best sleep.
But the Phoke didn’t have the anatomical structures to be true water creatures. He almost pitied them. They could just dive for an hour, maybe two. Those who were only half-Phoke, maybe even a shorter time. They’d never know the comfort of an ocean breeze rocking you to sleep.
“Kin to whales. Fascinating,” Jake said. “How can you live under water then?”
Em spoke up. “I think I know part of that answer. Dr. Mangot told me that the Phoke have a different anatomy. Our ribs hinge at the spine, which lets the chest walls collapse at the high water pressure, like at this depth. If I exited a building while at this depth—” She waved at the observation wall and the sea beyond. “—I could do it, but moving suddenly into that level of pressure would mean the immediate collapse of my ribs, which could hurt.” She signed and closed her eyes.
Shelby continued, “In the early days of Aberforth Hills, that was the only way to go from building to building. But we quickly invested in a tunnel system, so you don’t have to go outside to move to a different building. We can do it; we just don’t like doing it at this depth.”
“I didn’t know you had hinged ribs!” Jake said. “What other anatomical differences are there?”
Em kept her eyes shut and waved at Shelby to explain.
Shelby said, “When the rib cage collapses, the air is compressed into the upper part of the trachea, and into special air chambers where it can’t be absorbed into the lungs. That way we don’t absorb oxygen, but we also don’t absorb nitrogen, which causes the bends. Our muscles use less oxygen, too, and some peripheral systems are shut down. When we’re diving, we don’t digest food, for example.”
“Interesting,” Jake said. “Our bodies are also extremely efficient at lower water depths. Must be a similar adaptation.”
“If we stay down long,” Shelby said, “Our heart rate slows.”
“Now there we’re different. Risonian heartbeats get faster at depths, keeping us warm. What we call the magma-sapiens response.”
Shelby nodded. “Named for the volcanoes.”
Jake nodded. He sat up to take a quick look at Em’s face which was too pale, frowned and leaned back again. At least she was resting now. But it wasn’t good that she tired so easily. He wondered what would’ve happened if David and Jillian hadn’t interrupted them.
“Yes, the volcanoes. The reason the Risonians must come to Earth—or die,” he answered Shelby. “Does it bother you at all that a whole planet may be destroyed, along with and every living thing on it?”
“Of course, we care. But the cost is extremely high. If Risonians contaminate our oceans with foreign organisms, it could kill the Phoke. Doesn’t it bother you that your very presence threatens a race of people on Earth?”
“Of course—” Jake started.
But Em interrupted, “Those organisms made me very sick. And Dr. Mangot warns me that I could relapse at any time. They don’t know the real course of the disease.”
Jake said nothing, for what could he say? She was right. It was the Risonian’s fault that she was sick and the Phoke were threatened. Em was sick from an organism from his home world of Rison that his father had accidentally released into the ocean. Guilt struck him hard in the gut. But what could he do? Rison was going to implode. And soon.
Em sighed softly.
Looking over, Jake saw her breathing had slowed, and her mouth was slightly open. She’d gone to sleep. With her eyes closed, her dark lashes looked longer than ever. He wasn’t really surprised that she was a mermaid, for she’d always been his siren. He couldn’t imagine a world where she didn’t exist.
Suddenly, a fierce emotion gripped him, and a terrible resolve built within him. Dr. Mangot said the only way to find a cure was to go to Rison. He had to be on that medical mission team. “I promise, Em,” he vowed silently. “I’ll find you a cure.”
There was no answer. He looked closer at Em. No, she wasn’t asleep, she had passed out.
33
Anemic
December 27
“Em, we’re talking to you,” Jake reached over to shake her slightly. Her head lolled to the side.
Shelby stepped forward threateningly. “Leave her alone.”
Jake shook his head. “You don’t understand. Em’s not asleep.” He sat up now and gently shook her shoulders. “She’s passed out.”
Shelby’s eyes widened in shock. Anxiously, he knelt on Em’s other side and patted her hand. “Em. Wake up.”
“How sick is she?” Jake asked grimly.
“Don’t know.” Shelby sat back on his heels. His forehead furrowed with worry. “Dr. Mangot said she could relapse at any time.”
Jake pulled out his phone, glad once again that it was waterproof. He dialed Mom’s number and quickly explained that Em was sick. Mom passed her phone to Dr. Mangot.
“She’s unconscious?” Dr. Mangot’s voice was calm, almost cold.
“Yes,” Jake said.
“I need you to check if she’s anemic. Here’s what you do. Gently pull down the bottom eyelid. It will look pale at first, but then it should pink up.”
“She’s half-Japanese and half-Phoke. Will it still work for her?”
“Yes. Hurry.”
By now, Jillian and David were kneeling beside Em’s lounge chair. Jake knelt beside Em and handed the phone to Jillian. “Talk to her while I do this.”
With great care, like he was handling a breakable porcelain doll, Jake pulled down her eyelid. It was pale, as expected. And it stayed pale.
Jake took back the phone. “Anemic.”
Dr. Mangot said, “Probably severely anemic. The umjaadi is interfering with her body making blood. She needs a transfusion. Immediately. What’s your blood type?”
“Um, half Risonian.”
“Oh, yeah. Who else is there?”
Jake glanced at Jillian and David with a frown. He held a hand over the phone and said, “She wants to know your blood types.”
Jillian stared blankly, but David stepped in smoothly, “We’re both A negative.”
Jake raised an eyebrow, but said into the phone. “Jillian and David are A negative.”
“That won’t work,” Dr. Mangot said. “Em is type B.”
“We need B blood type,” Jake repeated to the others.
Shelby stepped forward, “My blood is B.”
Jake reported that to Dr. Mangot, who asked, “Did he get those vaccinations this morning like he was scheduled for?”
Jake relayed the
question.
“Yes,” Shelby said. “Does that matter?”
Dr. Mangot was adamant: “That would be like giving a sick person a vaccination. You’d force her immune system to respond to the vaccinations, which could overload her system. We need someone else.”
“Who?” asked Jake.
Angrily, Dr. Mangot said, “I used my blood for her three days, so I can’t do it again.”
Jake realized there was only one logical person. Em would be furious, but she had to have compatible blood and she needed it now. “Try Em’s mother, Bobbie Fleming.”
Dr. Mangot said, “Oh, of course. She’s in the safe room under the school. It’s hard to reach them there. A lot of the attack is centered around the Gunby clock because it’s such a tall landmark. OK. Look, I’ll try to get hold of her and get her over there. I’m on my way.”
Jake hung up, worried. With the city under attack, would Ms. Fleming be able to make it to the natatorium?
Shelby growled (as much as you can growl with Tri-Mix), “Em doesn’t want to see her birth mother. She won’t like this.”
Jake understood why Em didn’t want anything to do with Bobbie Fleming. It made sense to dislike the person who gave you away to strangers. Rejection like that deserved rejection in return. But Em had to have blood, and blood relatives were the most likely matches. Em was in no position to refuse.
34
The Enemy in the Natatorium
December 27
The natatorium was too quiet, too calm. The hum of the swimming pool’s pump was a white noise that made Jake groggy. He lay in a lounge chair next to Em’s and stretched out his hand toward hers, but she was still passed out. He closed his eyes. The past few hours had been so full, along with his jellyfish injuries, that he was exhausted. He hoped Dr. Mangot would get here fast, but till then, he could do nothing more.
Apparently, Shelby was restless. Jake heard the blare of music and peeked at what was happening. Jillian, David and Shelby were hunched over Shelby’s phone.
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