by Chloe Garner
“He told me that you’d gotten yourself turned into a giant fish, and I thought it was too good to be true,” Slav said. “Christmas came early.”
“You certainly haven’t become any less of a jerk since I last saw you,” Cassie said.
“Yes, but you’re a lot bluer than you were when I last saw you,” he said.
“Your razorlike sense of observation just blows me away,” Cassie said.
“Are you two done yet?” Troy said. “I’d like to get this started as soon as we can.”
“You trust the staff here?” Jesse asked.
“We’ve cordoned off part of the lab for you,” Troy said. “Told everyone it’s for a new project.”
“Which is true enough,” Slav said.
“Let’s get you inside,” Troy said, waving them around to the side of the building. He unlocked a solid door and let them through in front of him before locking it again. Slav turned the lights on in a small hangar.
“Welcome home,” he said. Jesse rubbed his hands together as Cassie masked disappointment.
“Let’s get started.”
If someone came after her with another scalpel, needle, or cotton swab, Cassie was going to bite them.
She sat on the cot that Jesse had set up for her and glared at them as convincingly as she’d been able to figure out how to, while the three of them muttered to each other over the slides Troy had prepared. The images from the microscope were projected up onto a wall, but the three men were fighting over who got to look through the eyepiece, instead.
“The cell structure is so…” Slav was saying.
“Familiar,” Troy said.
“And foreign,” Slav agreed.
“How do they reproduce?” Troy asked.
“Let me look,” Slav said, giving Troy a slight shove.
“It’s right up there,” Troy said, motioning. Slav pushed Troy harder.
“Let me look.”
“There’s nothing unusual here,” Jesse murmured.
“You just happen to know the cellular structure of every species in the universe?” Slav asked.
“Enough of them,” Jesse said, ignoring him.
“When is the DNA sequencing going to come back?” Slav asked.
“Should be up now,” Troy said, pushing Slav back out of the way as he slid the sliver of Cassie’s fin under the microscope lens. Slav brightened and went over to the machine, pulling the first strip of paper and holding it up.
“Pointless,” Jesse muttered.
“How did the sample already degrade?” Slav asked.
“What?” Troy asked, finally standing.
“We thought the portal was destabilizing foreign terrestrial DNA,” Slav said. “It just doesn’t survive here.” He turned and frowned at Cassie. “How are you still alive?”
Jesse sighed.
“I’m going to teach you a lesson in genetics. I’m going to go fast, and I’m not going to repeat myself, but I am so tired of you people and your ignorance. Keep up.”
Slav and Troy looked at each other and nodded. Jesse sighed again.
“All right. The known universe has many kinds of life, and exceptions are the rule, but given that, there are eight different kinds of nucleobases that comprise normal DNA. You can tell a lot about the origins of a life form from which pairs it uses. You humans use two pairs. I have all four. Adena Lampak use three, two of which are foreign to you, which is why your machines find gaps rather than data, both for me and for her. The more pairs of nucleobases you use, the more complex a lifeform you are considered to be. Two is respectable, a lot of the surviving species in the long term only have two, but if you are invaded by a species with three, you stand a very good chance of being exterminated, and if you are invaded by a species with four, you stand no chance of survival. There is a pecking order among the duo-nucleobase species, but I don’t have time to go into it, and I think it’s mostly mysticism, anyway. There’s no historical evidence to suggest that technological success, reproductive success, or martial success are correlated to which pairs of nucleobases a species carries. Your attempts to understand alien genetics are tragically under-informed, and I’m tired of watching. You don’t even have the rudimentary tools to understand what a genetic sequence is trying to tell you. You got it?”
“I think I can alter the sequencing machine to capture other bases, if I can isolate them,” Slav said to Troy.
“It’s a good project after we get Cassie figured out,” Troy agreed. Jesse smacked his forehead.
“That was not my purpose in telling you that,” he said.
“Yes it was,” Cassie called. He turned to her, curious. She continued. “You knew exactly what they would do, but you had to be patronizing and backhanded about it, because you can’t feel good about just giving away knowledge like that.”
Jesse looked impressed.
“Adena Lampak,” she reminded him. “I find I understand things more clearly than I may have before.”
“Here,” Troy said. Jesse turned, and Troy stood up from the microscope. “That’s human.”
“It is,” Jesse said. All three men converged on the projection, where, amidst a field of same-looking bits of tissue, there was one that was slightly different. Cassie would never have noticed it, if she had been looking for it, herself.
“So that’s me,” she said.
“What’s left of you,” Troy said, standing on his toes.
“Your compassion is astounding,” she said, twisting to lay down on the cot. He waved her off, making quiet comments to Slav about cellular bonding and other things that were less than interesting at that moment. Jesse went back to the microscope to peer through it.
“The question is,” Slav said, “is it mid-transition, or did it get missed somehow?”
“That’s a liver cell,” Jesse said. Troy looked closer.
“You’re right. How did it get to her skin?”
“An important question,” Jesse said. Slav turned.
“Does she have a liver?” he asked.
“Not like that,” Jesse said.
“So where did it go?”
“Right there, apparently,” Troy said. Cassie shook her head.
“I’m hungry.”
“What does she eat?” Slav asked.
“Fish,” Jesse said. Slav boggled.
“Better and better,” he said. “Does she do tricks for them?”
“Shut up,” Cassie called.
“Actually, I think it would be good for her to get into the ocean,” Jesse said. Cassie groaned.
“I’m not a child and I’m not a pet. You can talk to me, not about me.”
The expression Jesse gave her was humorous and merciless.
“You feel like catching your own lunch?”
The beach was rocky and uneven, a cliff in places more than it was a beach. Cassie tottered her way across the stones, looking skeptically at the water.
It looked cold.
“You’re serious?” she asked.
“I think you’re going to be shocked,” Jesse said. “They all talk about how much they miss the water.”
“But their water,” Cassie said. “And them. They’re born in the water. I don’t have any interest in…”
“A nice fresh fish?” Jesse asked. She did her very best to glare. Because she wanted nothing more than a nice fresh fish, when it came down to it. He seemed to know it, too, better than she did. He motioned with his head, and his voice warmed. “Go.”
She took the last few slithering steps to the edge of the rocks and waited a moment to read the waves, then dove.
She’d trained in the water for years. Bare skin, fins, snorkel, scuba, assault gear, jumpers were pushed to be capable in as many circumstances as possible, and she’d aced all of them. She swam like a fish at her prime, competitive with the Navy Seals they’d trained with.
Or so she’d thought.
The moment the saltwater touched her skin, though, she realized that swimming was a whole differen
t language.
It felt as though she could feel the whole ocean, the waves pounding on the beach for miles in either direction, the depth of the Pacific echoing and stretching away from her, and somewhere far, far away… mountains. Great underwater mountains that stretched through the sky.
She discovered she was swimming long after the shore behind her had dimmed. She had to teach herself how to breathe, which took a couple of attempts, but it came to her quickly, and she was away, sliding through the water like flying, tasting the world in color and feeling the size of the planet in her head.
And then there were fish.
Tiny vibrations in the water that rolled over her like smell and she knew where they were. She swam with her eyes closed, feeling out the school of fish, salmon, maybe, somewhere running close to shore. She felt the predators pushing them, a pod of whales, smart, cunning, ruthless, but playful. They wouldn’t threaten her if they didn’t think it would be amusing or profitable. She cut through them, drawing attention but no malice, and dove into the reef of fish, failing miserably in her attempt to grab them.
They were too strong. Even the power of her Adena Lampak fins couldn’t hold them. The school scattered around her as she grew increasingly frustrated, snatching at the silver flashing bodies in the darkness.
And then she saw the orca grab one, just an image and a sensation and she knew what she had to do.
She let her fins stream behind her, rolling and flowing for a moment and then cutting the water like knives as she turned in front of a panicking fish. She was fast. She was strong. It never had a chance.
She caught it with her teeth and held as it kicked and thrashed, flooding her mouth and nose with the sensation of blood. She drifted to the surface and tossed her head free of the water, then rolled onto her back to eat her catch.
Jesse and Troy sat on the back bumper of Cassie’s car, staring out at the ocean.
“Three days,” Troy said without looking at Jesse. There was no sign of her, out there.
“I know,” Jesse answered.
“What happened?” Troy asked.
“I’m going to figure it out,” Jesse told him.
“I believe you,” Troy said. Jesse turned.
“You don’t often surprise me,” he said. Troy smiled, watching the horizon. He’d had some time to think since the trial closed out, and something had clicked at dinner the night Cassie had jumped.
“That’s just what you do, isn’t it? Figure things out? You go find trouble, then you figure your way out of it.”
“You don’t sound as angry as that might justify,” Jesse observed. Troy smiled again.
“I’ll admit she wasn’t as accident-prone before she teamed up with you, but that’s what she’s always wanted. To go be advanced guard and see things before the rest of them showed up to tame them. To be on adventures. And from where I sit, you always come through.”
“Not always,” Jesse said, drawing Troy’s attention.
“Who did this to her?” he asked.
“Her name is Mab,” Jesse said. “She’s Palta.” There was a pause. “Like me.”
“Palta,” Troy said, feeling the shape of the word in his mouth. Jesse shrugged.
“You people never asked what we called ourselves.”
Troy nodded, shifting, trying to find more space on the bumper.
“Never figured we’d bring one home,” he said. Jesse laughed softly, and they continued watching the horizon again.
“You’re sure she’s okay?” Troy asked.
“Out there?” Jesse asked.
“Yeah.”
“Adena Lampak don’t drown,” Jesse said.
“And you’re not worried about salt water compatibility or anything?”
“She isn’t breathing it,” Jesse said dismissively.
“Acidity or anything?”
“You worry too much.”
There was a silence as Troy nodded to himself.
“Maybe that’s why I belong here.”
“People like us need people like you.”
Troy turned to look at Jesse, nearly falling onto the gravel.
“What does that mean?”
“She needs you.”
“I know that,” Troy said, his sense of calm acceptance slipping away. “I’ve always known that.”
“I didn’t mean to rile you,” Jesse said. “You need her, too. It was just an observation.”
“No, I really want to hear this,” Troy pressed. “What do you mean by ‘people like me’?”
Jesse sighed.
“The ones that are always there. Who hold it together when the plan falls apart.”
“The one who puts the pieces back together when you come home shot,” Troy said. He had been over this, he thought, but apparently not.
“I mean it,” Jesse said. “I know she needs you, and so does she. You know that you’re her entire definition of home?”
This placated Troy a bit, and he nodded.
“I’d never thought of it like that.”
“So how are things going with Slav?” Jesse asked.
“Are you in love with her?” Troy asked.
Jesse looked as surprised as Troy was.
“Am I what?”
Troy blinked at him and Jesse scratched his head.
“Are you?” he finally asked.
“What? No,” Troy said. “She’s my best friend.”
“Exactly.”
Troy was stunned to find himself considering it.
“I don’t know. Maybe,” he finally said.
Jesse blew air through his lips and Troy frowned.
“You didn’t answer me,” Troy protested.
“I know.”
Troy played his tongue over the back of his teeth.
“We’re not… alike,” Jesse finally continued.
“From where I sit…”
“I know. You think that we both like to go cliff jumping and that makes us the same, but Palta are different. I’m different. I can’t be in love with her… or anyone.”
“Is there something wrong with you?” Troy asked. Jesse laughed, though the noise wasn’t that convincing.
“No. You know what happened to my people,” Jesse said. “I’m alone now, and I’m supposed to stay this way.”
Troy didn’t know what to say to that.
Jesse apparently didn’t know how to follow it up, either.
“So how are things going with Slav?”
Troy shook himself a bit and looked over his shoulder, as if he could see the lab from there.
“We were staffing up, so no one really asked any questions about him showing up. He’s getting along like he always does.”
“Central to the social structure, then?” Jesse asked. Troy nodded, shifting again. Where had Cassie gone?
“I don’t know why Cassie doesn’t get along with him,” he said absently, watching the water more carefully. “Everyone else does.”
“They both find each other immalleable,” Jesse said. Troy frowned and shaded his eyes against a non-existent sun.
“Where is she?”
“Adena Lampak can swim miles between breaths,” Jesse said.
“What if she gets lost?”
“I wouldn’t worry about that.”
Troy stood and walked to the edge of the eight-foot cliff where Cassie had gone off.
“How does this end?” Troy asked.
“I’ve never known,” Jesse said. “I’m just making it up as I go along.”
“I want her back,” Troy said, his voice soft. Jesse appeared next to him, watching the restless ocean quietly for a while.
“I won’t promise you anything I can’t deliver,” Jesse said, not looking at him. “Not now. But I will fight for her and I will do everything I can to make sure she’s okay.”
Troy nodded, appreciating the honesty of the moment.
Suddenly there was a flash of light, halfway to the horizon, and a form flew up out of the water, spinning and flinging spr
ay in all directions, and Cassie came clear of the ocean, a sparkling blue arc surrounded in white and gold flecks of light, fins and tail coiling around her as she spun. Troy was speechless.
“I’ve only heard descriptions,” Jesse said. “It’s something they don’t do for outsiders.”
“She’s one of them, isn’t she?” Troy finally asked. Jesse’s sigh sounded wistful.
“She really is Adena Lampak.”
Cassie lay on her cot, staring at the ceiling. Her skin was beginning to itch for the ocean. It wasn’t a physical need so much as a mental one. She felt so stuck inside herself, here in the air, with her mouth drying out and the smells of humans everywhere. She wanted the smell of salt and fish. The salmon were still running and it was so easy to grab one it was almost disappointing. She’d put on weight in the last two weeks, though the long, powerful muscles that ran from her shoulders to the base of her tail fins accounted for most of it. She’d never felt so strong.
She had expected Troy to return to Kansas after a few days, leaving her with Slav and Jesse, but he’d stayed, doing experiments on the endless slivers of tissue they took from her and spending long hours talking with Slav or Jesse or both about what might have caused her transformation and how to put her back the way she’d been.
She missed her feet.
More than her feet, she missed her ankles.
Solid joints that flexed under her, transitioning between floor and upright. Her split tail was capable, certainly, but it was neither fast nor nuanced. For all the grace she’d gained underwater, she’d lost it in air, and the oceans, while vast and powerful and mesmerizing, were inescapably lonely after a time.
The only time she’d been this lonely was after her parents died, with that time she’d been stuck with Slav coming in a close second. She quietly wondered about what would happen if they couldn’t figure it out, if she would ask Jesse to take her back to Adena Lampak and leave her with Jeen and Aland.
Then she wondered if they would take her.
And that was as far as she let that train of thought go.
She couldn’t use her computer or most of the lab equipment, so she spent her time listening to music and practicing with her fingers. The muscles were maddeningly difficult to manage individually.