The Neptune Project

by Polly Holyoke

  Lena’s eye makeup is smeared from crying, and her long hair is in a wild tangle.

  “What is she doing here?” I ask Gillian while Lena crosses her arms and glares at us.

  “Her parents brought her because they know she’ll die, just like you will, if the Western Collective moves her inland.”

  “So whatever you did to us, you did to her, too?” Now I’m furious for Lena’s sake. “What Robry said is true?”

  My mother nods and tries to speak, but I cut her off.

  “So you’re the reason why I’m a freak!” I shout at her. “We’re all experiments. How could you do this to us?”

  “Because we thought this was your only chance—humankind’s only chance—to survive. The earth’s atmosphere is continuing to heat up at an alarming rate.”

  “You’re wrong. The climate scientists keep saying the earth is finally cooling again.”

  “They’re all lying. So far, none of the carbon dioxide removal programs have made any difference. Severe droughts and blistering temperatures mean more famines lie ahead; famines on a scale that will lead to even more catastrophic wars. Our own government will only grow more repressive and cruel. That’s why we agreed to join the Neptune Project. Your father and I wanted you to have a chance to live free of the Western Collective.”

  “You think we can actually live in the sea? You know how dangerous it is down there. We’ll probably get eaten in the first twenty-four hours.”

  “No, you won’t, because the dolphins will protect you. You can defend yourself with your spearguns. Your father and I have been preparing you for this moment all your life.”

  The idea that my father has been a part of this is like a slug in my gut. My mother turns to Lena.

  “Lena, I have to give you your shot now. The soldiers could find us anytime, and it takes several hours for the virus to trigger the final changes in your lungs that will allow you to breathe water.”

  “I’d rather die than become some kind of fish mutate,” Lena says defiantly.

  “Are you very sure about that?” my mother asks her in a level tone. “Because that’s exactly what will happen. The next time you have a lung attack, the doctors inland will take a sample of your blood, and then they’ll realize just how different you are from most humans. I expect they’ll put you in some sort of prison, and without the right meds, you will eventually die, gasping for air, and they’ll let you.”

  Lena pales. After a long moment she jerks up the sleeve on her shirt.

  “I will never forgive my father, my mother, or you, for doing this to me,” she says coldly.

  For the first time in a long time, Lena and I see eye to eye.

  AFTER LENA GETS HER SHOT, my mother moves us out of the lab and down the passageway that leads to the sea caves beneath our cottage. The air here is damp with mist thrown up by the waves smashing against the black rock walls below us. It’s dark, too, with just a little daylight filtering in from outside.

  My mother stops in a small chamber above the first of the caves. She switches on an electric lantern and opens up the seapacks. Over the echoing rush of the waves, she explains the equipment she’s put together for us. I’m still too shocked to concentrate as she points out the navigational tools and charts, spearguns and knives, food, hammocks, and some small gold discn coins she says we’ll need.

  Robry, though, listens carefully to everything she says. Lena huddles off to the side with her arms wrapped around her knees, not even pretending to listen. I might feel sorrier for her if I weren’t so busy fighting my own fear.

  I stare at the black waves plunging and frothing against the glistening sides of the cave below our chamber. I love the sea, but the idea of living in it terrifies me. My mother was right about one thing: she and my father have packed my brain full of information about the ocean. The world beneath the waves can be beautiful, but it’s also a dangerous place, where larger predators constantly devour smaller ones.

  I don’t want to be devoured. I don’t want Robry to be devoured, either. I wouldn’t even wish that on Lena.

  I look at Robry’s determined face as he listens to Gillian’s equipment lecture, and anger burns through me again. “I can’t believe you did this to Robry. How could Alicia have let you mess with his genes?”

  My mother stops talking and sighs. “Let me? Nere, she begged me. One day I was careless and she found her way down into the lab. She’d read enough about the Project on a computer to grasp what we were trying to do. That night Alicia told me she believed the Western Collective would take her sons from her one day, and she desperately wanted at least one of her children to have a chance to be free.” Gillian’s gaze turns distant and sad. “Alicia is my only friend here. In the end, I had to do what she asked.”

  Robry reaches a hand out and touches her arm. “It’s all right,” he says simply. “I don’t want to move inland. Somehow I’ve always known I was going to live in the sea.”

  “Well, I’ve never known anything like that,” I fling at her. I draw in a breath to deliver another retort, but I can’t get enough air. I cough and wheeze helplessly, but this is different from a lung attack. This feels like my lungs are stiffening inside my chest.

  “What’s happening to me?” I manage to gasp.

  My mother is by my side in a flash. “Your gill filaments are starting to swell. We have to get you on oxygen.”

  Quickly, she places a mask over my mouth and nose and dials up the flow from a nearby oxygen tank. Then she holds my hands and anxiously watches my face.

  I suck in three deep breaths. When I don’t feel like I’m suffocating anymore, my panic eases a little. I let go of her hands and snatch the mask off long enough to ask, “What do you mean, my gill filaments are starting to swell?”

  “Your lungs are full of dormant gill filaments. That’s why you’ve always had problems breathing when you exert yourself.”

  “You mean, we’re already half fish?” Lena looks revolted.

  “I mean we gave you the same respiratory tissues fish have so that someday you could breathe underwater.”

  I stare at my mother in disbelief. “Are we really about to breathe water? Have you ever done this to someone before?”

  “This transformation has been completed successfully hundreds of times,” she says, avoiding my eyes.

  There’s something she’s not telling me, and then I get it. I jerk the mask off. “You mean you’ve never done it!”

  “You’re not helping Robry or Lena here,” she says sternly. “You’ve got to be the brave one.”

  No one asked me if I wanted to be brave. No one asked me if I wanted any of this.

  My gaze falls on Robry. He’s starting to look frightened. I can tell from the way his chest is rising and falling that he’s having problems breathing, too. As I put my mask back on, I decide I can try to be brave, for his sake.

  My mother hurries around, slipping oxygen masks over Robry’s and Lena’s faces and turning on their tanks. Then she places clips over our fingers that are linked to monitors.

  “I’m reading the oxygen levels in your bloodstream,” she explains to us. “Even with this rich oxygen, that level is going to start falling eventually. When it gets low enough, we’ll know it’s time.”

  I take the mask off for a second. “Time for what?”

  “Time for you to jump into the water and start breathing it instead,” she says coolly.

  My mother is trying to make it sound like it’s no big deal, but I almost drowned once, and taking water into your lungs is not something your body wants to do. Ever.

  A shudder goes through me, and then I realize something else. My skin is starting to prickle with heat. That doesn’t make any sense, because the caves are always cool. I kick off my shoes and roll up my shirt sleeves. I glance across the chamber and see Lena is doing the same thing.

  “Your metabolism is changing, too,” Gillian explains to us in her detached, scientist voice. “The three of you have never liked hot weather
because your bodies are designed to conserve heat in the colder waters of the sea. Right now your sweat glands are shutting down permanently. Your vision is changing, too. You will be more comfortable if you put your dark glasses back on. We altered your eyes so that you could see better in an underwater environment, where much of the surface light is lost.”

  Stop talking about how you designed and altered us. You’re making me feel like an experiment, I want to shout at her.

  Suddenly, my mother’s voice is in my mind. :Of course you are more than an experiment to me, sweetling.:

  I look at her in astonishment. My parents have always forbidden me to use my telepathy to communicate with people. They told me again and again that the secret police would take me away if they found out I was telepathic.

  :Telepathy between humans is no longer forbidden for you, Nere,: she assures me. :In fact, all of you should start exploring your telepathy because you are going to use it to communicate in the water. The virus should have switched on Lena’s and Robry’s latent telepathic capabilities by now.:

  Robry and Lena exchange startled glances.

  :I think you’ll find you can send or broadcast thoughts you want to communicate as easily as talking. If you want to talk privately with a single person, you will direct your thoughts to that individual only. Instinctively, your mind will shield itself from ‘hearing’ the surface thoughts of others and keep from broadcasting your own private thoughts. All three of you should have path ratings of five or higher, which means you should have no problems understanding one another, even across two or three miles of ocean.:

  Lena and I look at each other. Without using telepathy, I know we’re thinking the same thing. Of course Lena and I will have problems understanding each other.

  Robry, on the other hand, has always understood me and my moods almost as well as Cam does, without using any telepathy.

  :Robry?: I reach out carefully with my mind.

  :I can ‘hear’ you fine,: he replies quickly.

  Robry’s mental voice is cheerful and sweet, but I can feel the fear he’s trying to hide.

  :Lena?: I reach out to her.

  :Stay out of my brain, Fish Girl!:

  :You’re one to talk. Your lungs are changing just as fast as mine.:

  :I’m not talking, if you haven’t noticed, thanks to the highly illegal gene splicing your parents must have performed on me before I was even born, and I haven’t spent most of my life swimming around with a bunch of dolphins.:

  :No, but you used to swim with them all the time. Mariah still misses you.:

  I feel Lena’s sudden confusion and sadness, and instinctively she closes her mind to me. I sense I could push deeper into her thoughts, but I don’t really want to know what Lena’s thinking right now.

  :Very good, Nere.: My mother breaks in on my thoughts. :You’re right. You could reach deeper into Lena’s mind. You were born such a strong telepath, you can push past others’ natural shields the way I just did with your own. But you must never invade another person’s privacy unless you absolutely have to. It’s wrong, and trust me, you’ll be happier if you don’t know too much about what the people around you are thinking.:

  :So, what happens next?: I ask. As strange as it feels to talk to her with my mind, I decide to keep using telepathy. I need that oxygen flowing through my mask.

  :We wait for your oxygen levels to drop, and then we send you into the water.:

  :I mean, if this crazy experiment of yours actually works and we start breathing water, what happens to us after that?:

  :We head out to the Channel Islands. You’ll swim there with the dolphins, and I’ll come by boat when I can. There I’ll help you with your transition to your new life in the sea, and then you’ll travel north to join your father. He’s been building an undersea colony for you called Safety Harbor in the Queen Charlotte Strait.:

  She doesn’t say that she’s going to come as well, but I’m too furious with her right now to ask what she’s planning to do.

  Then her words sink in. He’s building a colony? :You mean there are others of us?:

  :She did say that hundreds had gone through this transformation before us,: Robry points out.

  My mother sits where she can read our monitors. I notice the solar pistol is never far from her hands.

  :Twenty years ago, as our planet continued to heat, and people fought devastating wars over scarce resources like water and food, a group of geneticists devised the Neptune Project. All life came from the sea. In our darkest hour, they hoped the sea would save our species. So they set about altering their own unborn children in an effort to create humans who could survive in the ocean.:

  I look into my mother’s eyes and I see a light in them that frightens me. I realize this has been her dream all along.

  :So I’m just a specimen you grew and operated on in a petri dish to make your dream come true.:

  :That isn’t true.: Her mental tone sounds much more like a mother suddenly, and her eyes soften. :I never knew how much I’d grow to love you and James. Your father and I risked everything to give you both a better life.:

  :James! You altered his genes, too?:

  I can tell she’s choosing carefully which thoughts to send me next.

  :We made a mistake with some of the genes we altered in James’s case.:

  :What do you mean, you made a mistake?:

  :That’s between James, your father, and me.: Her mental voice is tinged with a deep sadness.

  I wonder if she’ll feel that sad if she finds out she’s made a mistake with me, too—like maybe those gill filaments in my lungs aren’t going to work underwater and I’m going to drown in a few hours.

  She gets to her feet and brings me a cup full of dark blue fluid. When I hesitate to take it, she says aloud, “There’s no turning back now.”

  I snatch the cup from her, take off my oxygen mask, and drink it down. It tastes bitter and sour—nastier than any medicine she’s ever given me before. Then she takes cups to the others.

  “To our dear, darling parents, who stole our future before we were ever born,” Lena says, her eyes glittering as she raises her cup in an angry toast. Then she downs its contents.

  I wish I’d thought up that toast.

  Almost right away, I start yawning. :What exactly did you give us?: I ask my mother.

  :A chemical to hasten your transformation and a med that will make you sleep. The next phase is painful. It’s better if you sleep through it.:

  Normally I’m in favor of avoiding pain, but the trust factor is now at an all-time low between us. I fight to keep my eyes open.

  What if the soldiers come, and Lena, Robry, and I are unconscious? They’ll probably kill us as soon as they realize what mutates we are. My mother’s drug feels like cold seawater creeping through my veins. My muscles relax, and I slump over on the stone bench.

  :If we all die from what you’ve done to us, I hope you feel guilty for the rest of your life,: Lena says to Gillian, and sends her a venomous glance.

  My mother looks stricken by her words. As my heavy eyelids sink shut, I can’t help wondering if I’ll ever wake up again.

  THE SECRET POLICE are chasing me down the dusty road to Santero. I can’t run fast enough because my lungs are burning—I can’t suck enough air into them. Suddenly, I’m in my school classroom, and everyone is laughing as I gasp and flop around on the floor because I have no legs. I’ve become a monster that is half fish, half human.

  Somehow I have legs and feet again, and I run from school and dive into the sea. I see the Sandpiper in the distance. I wave desperately. Cam is at the helm. He raises a hand and steers the Sandpiper my way. When the boat comes near, he smiles and reaches down to help me aboard. He grabs my wrist, and finally I’m safe. But then his eyes fill with horror at what I’ve become, and he lets go of my hand. I fall back into the cold water, and Cam sails away, leaving me to cry my tears into the empty sea.

  The dream changes again. I’m four and I hate the
life vest my parents make me wear whenever we go out on the zode. I wiggle out of the vest while they aren’t watching. I see a pretty orange fish deep beneath us. I reach for it and fall over the side.

  I sink quickly through the cold, dark water. I open my mouth to cry, and the burning seawater comes rushing into my mouth and throat.

  I sit up, instantly wide awake. This part of the dream is true. I’m drowning now, trying to breathe air! Gasping and panting, I rip off the oxygen mask. This is worse than my worst lung attack.

  Dimly, I realize I’m sitting right next to the water, and the larger waves are actually slapping and pushing at me.

  “Nere, it’s time for you; you must go into the water and breathe!” my mother shouts.

  I don’t have enough air left in my chest to speak.

  :I’m too scared!: I cry mentally instead. :I don’t want to drown. You almost let me drown before.:

  “I know, sweetling, but you have no choice now.”

  She kneels and smiles at me tenderly, and the next moment she shoves me into the water. I scrabble at the slippery rock, trying to find a handhold, trying to climb out. I have to get my face out of the black water. I have to breathe oxygen now!

  Her relentless hands grab my head and force it under the water. I hit at her with all my strength, but she’s too strong for me. I try to rear back and swim away, but somehow she tied me to the rock while I was unconscious.

  :You’ll be all right, sweetling.: I hear my mother’s words in my mind. :I promise you. Just relax and breathe in.:

  My lungs are pure fire now. I have to breathe. I have no strength left to fight her.

  I open my mouth and the water rushes in, and I’m dying. Black spots dance across my eyelids. Then I cough and choke, and I’m not dying anymore. I can breathe. I inhale and exhale, trying to get used to the incredible sensation of cold water rushing in and out of my chest.

  I open my eyes underwater. Instantly, I realize my vision is different, too. I can see a carpet of purple and gray anemones growing on the rock floor far below me, small crabs scuttling about between them. Dozens of fish dart above the anemones, and clusters of starfish grow like strange orange flowers along the sides of the cave. I can see in the dark waters here better than I could before, even with a bright dive torch.