by Regine Abel
That struck me hard, and my steps faltered as it sank in at last, the finality, the irreversibility of it all.
“I’m never going back to my old life, am I?” I asked, already knowing the answer. “I’m never going home.”
My throat tightened, and tears pricked my eyes. I blinked to keep myself from crying and looked away. Sensing the depth of my distress, Zayek carefully drew me into his arms and embraced me when I didn’t resist. I buried my face in his neck and let go. He held me close, his firm body wrapped around me, his hand softly caressing my hair. I was mourning far more than the loss of the life I had known, my family, my friends, and my job as a marine veterinarian. I was mourning Malaika Jones, the single woman I had been, with big dreams of finding Mr. Right, of having that big house with the white picket fence, of the two-and-a-half kids that my parents would be too busy to play grand-parents to, and of that cabin in the mountains we’d buy to get away from the stress of everyday life. I was mourning being human and no longer belonging to the society that had seen me grow into womanhood.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered when my tears ebbed at last, mortified to have blubbered all over his bare chest.
On instinct, I wiped my eyes with my forearms. The texture of the scales against my eyelids startled me. For a second, I feared they’d tear my skin off, but they felt rather soft.
Zayek cupped my face in his hands and wiped my tears with his thumbs. “Do not apologize, Malaika. This is exactly what I’m here for. Use me however you see fit to help you through this difficult time of transition. I love salt water, so you’ll have to do way more than that if your goal was to drown me. And even then, it won’t suffice.”
He winked, kissed my forehead, and then led me by the hand after him. I should have bristled at the familiarity of it all, but instead, he’d achieved the goal he’d certainly been after; comforting me. We stopped next to a stone bench by a pond where fish—as strange-looking as the rest of the vegetation surrounding us—swam lazily within. Zayek gestured for me to sit. I complied, eyeing him with curiosity.
“What I’m about to say will probably sound fantastical to you, but please keep an open mind,” Zayek said, sobering. “No matter how unpleasant the truth, I will never lie to you. The sooner you understand the nature of the changes taking place within you and what the future entails, the better we can get you ready for it. The next couple of weeks are critical to get you properly adapted to your new body. Delaying will leave you irreversibly deficient in certain important areas to ensure a good quality of life.”
Far from reassuring me, that opening set my teeth on edge. I squirmed in my seat, waiting for him to continue.
“You are correct in that you will not be able to return to your old life. Not only because of your appearance, but mainly because your needs will be different. The most common issue is the high concentration of oxygen in the air which would eventually lead to oxygen poisoning. The oxygen in this entire facility is regulated to prevent such an occurrence,” Zayek said. He gestured with his head in the direction of the entrance to the common room. “All those people you saw there are in the final days of their third phase. Next week, they will leave to start their new life on our home world; the planet Sikaria.”
My brain froze, and I gaped at him, speechless. Surely, my hearing was playing tricks on me. Right?
“Come again?” I asked.
“You heard me right, Malaika.” He gestured at his body. “I didn’t transform into this, but was born this way, from Thalan parents on Sikaria.”
I shook my head in denial. “No way. I was born here from human parents. So were the others. I look just like my mom! Why would we be turning into you?”
“Like Linda explained, dormant genes reawakened. This is what Earth looked like millions of years ago,” Zayek said, waving at the garden surrounding us. “And a lot like what Sikaria still looks like today. Back then, our ancestors came with the intent of colonizing Earth. The meteor that took out Earth’s dinosaurs also killed hundreds of thousands of settlers from each of the main Sikarian breeds. It was the biggest disaster in our history… and yours. It would take close to sixty million years before we returned.”
I stared numbly at him as he came to sit next to me.
“To our shock, we discovered some of the descendants of the original settlers had survived. Mainly Thalans like you and me, since we can thrive underwater,” Zayek said, gesturing between the two of us. “They were greatly changed from both adaptation and inbreeding. Sikarians have few children, so it is a miracle they survived at all for so long under such harsh conditions. Over the following centuries, we observed them from a distance as they began to interact with the Homo sapiens, eventually merging with the human species. Throughout history, some humans were born with obvious Sikarian traits, which had them labeled all kinds of things from angels, dragons, demons, and gods. But, with time, those occurrences became less and less frequent.”
There had been plenty of speculation about aliens meddling with human evolution, but he was saying that we were all partially alien, too.
“But… Why didn’t you take them home back then, when you realized they’d survived? Why let them breed with early humans?” I asked, utterly confused.
“They were no longer like us. They’d become something different that wouldn’t thrive on Sikaria. The rare ones who proved close enough to us, we took back home. But there had never been an epidemic like the one that has been occurring for the past year due to global warming.”
I nodded slowly, still reeling from these revelations. “How many?” I asked.
“A little over one hundred thousand people so far, but the numbers are growing exponentially as the virus spread and their concentration increases. We estimate that approximately one tenth of a percent of humans will go through the mutation. That still represents close to eight million individuals, worldwide. We couldn’t abandon you to be ostracized and experimented on.”
“Good God,” I whispered. “But I don’t understand. Why is the government helping you take us away? Surely, they would want to study us.”
“They didn’t have a choice,” Zayek said, his eyes taking on a hard glint. “A war with humans would be over before it even started. Your technology is not even remotely able to make a dent in ours.”
“They’re doing this for free?” I asked, highly dubious.
Zayek chuckled. “Of course not. They are getting something, but not as much as they’d like, and definitely not the type of technology they’d want.”
“No weapons,” I said.
He nodded. “The virus that triggered your transformation is not the only one being released by the permafrost melting. Without our help—and even with it—humanity may not survive the epidemics that will occur.”
“Why didn’t Linda just tell us all of that at the briefing?” I asked, still trying to wrap my head around all of this.
“Because most of the others that came with you have already gone home. Only a handful needed some minor cosmetic surgery to remove the partial mutations they’d sustained. They had a flare up that will never reoccur. There is no point letting them know all of this and risk further spreading rumors. Each time formerly quarantined people return home cured, it reduces the likelihood of the rest of the population giving in to panic.”
“So, what does that mean for the rest of us? For me?” I asked.
“It means that you will be spending the foreseeable future with me working you to death.”
My eyes bulged. “Excuse me?”
Zayek smiled. I loved how it softened the sharp angles of his square jaw and made his silver eyes sparkle.
“In many ways, you are a newborn, with muscles that need to be trained before they set permanently and become unusable. You are a Thalan, like me. We are water creatures.” He reached out and touched the side of my neck. “These scales hide your gills. Today, I’m going to teach you how to breathe and see underwater.”
“I’m a mermaid?” I asked, flabbe
rgasted and then looked at my legs, horrified.
Zayek burst out laughing. “In a way, yes you are, but you will not grow a tail. Not exactly. In a minute, I will show you.” He winked, stood up, and took my hand. “Come. We have the pool all to ourselves today. Let’s not waste it.”
With him leading me by the hand, we re-entered the building through a different door on the opposite side of the garden from the common room.
The absence of any kind of guard station or other personnel surprised me as we walked past the entrance hall and down a wide corridor. We arrived at a room marked with a water symbol, but didn’t approach the sliding doors ahead. Their frosted windows prevented me from seeing what lay beyond. Instead, Zayek pointed me to another small door on the left side with a woman’s sign on it.
“You can go change there. I’ve left a bathing suit on one of the benches for you. Join me inside when you’re done.”
I nodded, grateful for his foresight, and then went inside the changing room. It looked like your standard gym locker room, although it contained no actual lockers, only a few hooks and shelves. Two wide benches stood one meter away from the sections of walls with hooks. The other end of the room opened on a communal shower. On top of a large counter at the entrance of the showers, an assortment of neatly folded fluffy towels, bottles of shampoo and conditioner, and other care products had been put at our disposal.
On the bench, I picked up the itsy-bitsy black bikini Zayek had left there. The top turned out to be the perfect cup size for me. For a moment, I wondered if someone else had acquired it for me, or if he had. And if so, how had he so accurately guessed what to pick? Then again, the shape and size of my breasts had changed with the transformation. While a little smaller than before, they were perkier and rounder now. I certainly didn’t mind. Looking at the bottom piece, although decent, I thanked God for my recent wax job.
Despite having just showered, I still did a quick rinse before rejoining Zayek, stopping just long enough to gaze at myself in the mirror. I looked smoking hot, my waist having become slightly narrower, giving a sexier slant to the curve of my hips. The scales on my arms and neck reminded me of the detailing on the typical sequined ballroom dance gowns. I debated whether or not to keep my long hair tied in a tail but then decided to let it down. The water would curl it up anyway.
When I stepped out of the changing room, Zayek audibly breathed in. I stopped a few meters away from him, unnerved by the intensity of his eyes. Darkened by obvious desire, they slowly undressed me, taking in every inch of my body. He swallowed hard and then closed the distance between us. My breath caught in my throat as he stood before me, cupped my cheek with his palm, and ran his thumb over my lips.
“You mesmerize me,” he whispered, looking like he was fighting the urge to kiss me.
My lips parted, and my stomach fluttered in anticipation. For a moment, I truly believed he would and then, to my utter disappointment, he swallowed hard again and pulled away.
“Let’s go make a mermaid out of you,” he said, taking my hand.
Upon our approach, the sliding doors parted.
“Oh. My. God,” I whispered as the Garden of Eden was revealed before me.
This pool looked like a natural pond carved directly into the rocks with some prehistoric plants surrounding the path around it. A two-story high glass ceiling allowed sufficient light in for the plants and small trees. Movement at the bottom of the pool caught my eyes: fish leisurely swimming around.
“This is what our home looks like,” Zayek said, happiness sparkling in his eyes. “There’s so much I want to show you. I can’t wait.”
Our home.
His enthusiasm was contagious. He looked at the water then back at me with a glimmer of mischief. Suspicious, I narrowed my eyes at him.
“Now’s the time when the pants do need to come off.” He burst out laughing at my jaw dropping. “Don’t worry. Your sensibilities will not be offended. All the naughty parts are naturally covered.”
“Why not wear swimming trunks?” I asked to hide how curious I really felt about seeing him naked.
“They interfere with the tail!”
“Wait, what? I thought you said we didn’t have tails?”
“Turn around, woman. All will be clear in a moment,” he said, taking me by the shoulders to turn my back to him.
The bristling sound of his pants had my stomach fluttering again, and my pulse racing. I fought the urge to look over my shoulder as his footsteps moved away from me, probably to go lay his pants down on a rock or something.
“It’s safe to look, now,” Zayek said, a blatant taunt in his voice.
I turned around faster than intended, betraying my eagerness. His smile broadened, but I paid it no attention, too busy drooling over the perfection of his body. He stood, completely naked, his legs slightly parted. I had already seen his muscular chest, but somehow, removing the pants made his chiseled abs, broad shoulders, and bulging arms stand out more. Scales from his hipbones made a V down to his groin, like a low-hanging belt with a protector cup. The scales tapered off mid-thigh but seemed to continue in a narrow-band along his inner thighs.
Bringing his feet together, he closed his legs. “Here’s my tail,” he said.
As if drawn by a magnet, the narrow strip of scales on his inner-thigh appeared to lift from his leg to fuse with the strip from the opposing leg, binding them together in one continuous line from his hip, over his groin, and down to his feet, also similarly connected.
“Wicked!” I whispered, amazed.
“It makes it impossible to walk, though, and feels almost like being in a sack race. So you either get good at hopping, or learn how to bind and unbind them quickly. You’ll get to practice that next week after you’ve completed the second stage.”
Zayek jumped and spun around, giving me a full view of his perfect, round behind, the seam similarly covered by a scaled membrane running from the small of his back, the length of his legs, and down to his heels. With a slight swishing sound, the membranes separated again, each side folding into his inner thighs right below his buttocks. With the scales tapering off to his thighs again, it almost looked like he was wearing shorts or a roman skirt.
“Now, stop staring at my behind, woman! You’re making me feel like an object,” Zayek said, turning around and frowning with fake outrage.
I gasped. “You showed me your behind!” I exclaimed, disbelieving.
“I merely turned around to see where I had put my pants. How was I to know you would so blatantly ogle me?”
Fighting the urge to laugh, my mouth opened and closed a few times, looking for some smart and sassy reply. Beaming at me, Zayek took my hand and tugged me after him.
“This section of the pool is shallow,” he explained. “We’ll start your training here to keep you safe. Careful of the steps.”
A short staircase had been carved directly in the stone along the edges of the pool. Although my brain knew the water should be cold, it felt lukewarm on my skin. Once at the bottom of the stairs, we walked forward until the water almost reached my shoulders.
“Okay, I’m going to show you how it works. Look at my neck,” Zayek said.
Easy enough considering it was at my eye-level. Four flaps of scales lifted on each side of his neck, before gently settling back down. Zayek exhaled by his mouth and then repeated the process, showing me how he was inhaling through his gills.
“You don’t actually want to do that too often,” Zayek explained. “Breathing through your gills outside of water burns like hell. But for now, we just need to make sure you know how to open them. Try to feel the gill muscles in your neck and order them open.”
It took me a few seconds to feel them, but I couldn’t get them open. Every time I tried to inhale, air came in through my nose.
“Cover your mouth and nose, and then try to breathe in.”
After successfully popping my ears a few times, I eventually figured out how to draw air through my gills. Zayek hadn’t
been kidding. It burned like a son of a bitch. Still, my sadistic mentor made me repeat it a couple more times, before taking pity on me.
“Now, crouch until you have water up to your chin, and try to breathe through your gills.
That, too, took a minute. It didn’t work at all unless I covered my mouth and nose. But even when I did that, my gills simply refused to open. Or rather, I was afraid to let them. Breathing in water had never been a fun experience, and my subconscious feared the same burn through my gills. After much coaxing and encouragement, it finally happened. While odd, the sensation wasn’t unpleasant. The real challenge began when he had us both submerge and try to breathe then. Without pinching my nostrils, I kept breathing in through my nose. An eternity later, I finally got the hang of it. My nose hurt from all the water I sniffed in, but it was its own fault for butting in during the gills’ turn.
We emerged from the pool to find a table had been setup along the edge of the pool with a couple of covered plates sitting on top. I realized then how famished I’d been and gladly let Zayek lead me to it.
“Wow, they sure give us the royal treatment here,” I whispered, climbing the stairs out of the pool.
“Of course,” Zayek said, matter-of-fact. “We demand the best for our people. The change puts you through enough physical and mental trauma. The least we can do is provide you with every creature comfort we can.” He smiled and caressed my cheek with his knuckles.
I no longer doubted that he felt a similar attraction to me that I did to him. He never missed an occasion to touch me or hold my hand, although always respectfully. His flirty sense of humor tickled me the right way, and I loved his laidback, easy going personality.
The meal, once again delicious, looked familiar and yet alien. Zayek explained they were indeed feeding us Sikarian food, which contained the right nutrients for us, essential to ensure a healthy transition into our new form.
“So how long have you been here, at this center?” I asked.
“Since the beginning,” Zayek said, swallowing a mouthful. “I’m an exobiologist, with a specialization in human anatomy. I’ve always been fascinated with alien lifeforms. When the opportunity to come work with humans in transition presented itself, I jumped at the chance. It has been an extremely rewarding experience.”