Seabound- the Beginnin

by Maira Dawn

  Blake sighed and lowered his head. "After my wife died, I was a raging, wounded man with flawed reasoning. I thought if I took it and gave it to the humans it would somehow… I don't know how, but that it would start a war between human and Atlantians. I wanted the humans wiped out, and that is one way I could accomplish it."

  Ian scoffed. "Kind of ironic since the Artifact is for the humans."

  Blake shrugged.

  Ian sat up in his seat, leaning toward Blake. "It actually would take very little for the council to go to war once they were aware the murderers are human. If we were to rise from the ocean and demand their citizens for punishment, what do you think humans would do?"

  "Deny us, fight us."

  Ian leaned back, decisively nodding his head once. "That is why this thing with the humans needs to be handled very carefully. You have family here now. You have a stake in this."

  The men were quiet for a while as they ate, each deep in their own thoughts. Ian shoveled in the food as if feeding a furnace, while Blake picked at his.

  Ian looked at his old friend, noting all the changes in his appearance. “Were you aware you would get old?"

  Blake cleared his throat. "I knew the rumors. I can't say that I cared though, at the time. Death couldn't come soon enough then." Blake gave a half-smile. "Now though, what I wouldn't give for a few more decades with my children and grandchildren."

  "Why do you think it happens?"

  "I don't know for sure. But it's hard on our bodies to live up here. Not enough moisture, too much oxygen. Who knows what else? It took years of battling before I could breathe properly. I still can never drink enough. It wears on an Atlantian."

  Ian agreed. He had felt the pressure, they all did when they were on land. “Perhaps it will slow when you come home."

  "Maybe, but at what cost? Never seeing my family again? I would trade the years to spend the time with them."

  "They might come if the council allows. And I think they would. Your family is part Atlantian. They have just as much right there as here. The idea of living longer may appeal to them."

  Blake brightened, then winced. "But how would they be treated? They would be a hated man’s children. And there have been no mixed people, have there?"

  Ian shook his head. "They would be the first that I know of." He stood. "It is time to retrieve the clothing. On the way there, explain all the customs at a human wedding. And remember we are going only to the ceremony."

  Ian timed their arrival so they had only minutes to spare. They went straight to the family area and sat down. Many quizzical looks came Ian's way, so once seated beside the wall of the small auditorium, he sunk down in his seat. He didn't want his height to make him stand out.

  The music started.

  Ian sensed her before he saw her, the feel of her slamming through him. He swung toward the back of the building. His eyes locked on her face. His breath left him. His heart thundered. The room narrowed. Everyone in it disappeared. Blake could have tripped over him and left, and Ian would never have noticed. There was only her.

  Jatale, his love. Edinara, his heart, Jata Ara, his Intended.

  Sunny stood in the archway, a bouquet of roses in her hands, that matched her rose-colored dress. The gown flowed from the waist, similar to the dresses Atlantian women wore. Ian wondered if it had reminded her of them, of him?

  Her blond hair unbound, it flowed over her shoulders and down her back. Memories of its silkiness between his fingers rushed back to Ian, making him ache to touch it again. His muscles bunched, it was all he could do to stay seated.

  Sunny had a little smiled plastered on her lips, and she mostly focused on the official performing the marriage, though every so often she threw a glance over the crowd. She was nervous.

  Ian realized Blake rattled on in the background. "Oh, there she is, isn't she just the most beautiful little woman? I'm the proudest grandfather!"

  Ian's heart stopped, and he clenched the side of the chair until it protested. "This is your granddaughter?" he hissed at Blake.

  Everything faded from existence as Ian contemplated what this meant. She was Atlantian, part anyway, but also a traitor’s granddaughter.

  Ian’s eyes narrowed as a man come from Sunny's left and held an arm out to her. As she smiled and took it, seeming too comfortable with him. A low growl started at the base of Ian's throat.

  Blake gave Ian a strange look, but continued, "And that young man is my nephew. My granddaughter wanted to have as much family in the wedding as possible."

  "So, these are not the two being mated today?"

  Giggles and chuckles broke out around them, and Blake quickly whispered, "We don't call it that here! It is married. Mar--"

  Ian gripped the armrests of the chair again, his body taut. "I do not care what you call it here! Is it her? Is she the one?"

  "No, Ian." Blake seemed disappointed Ian hadn’t listened to him. "I told you Sierra is getting married. She comes down last. This is Sonora, my other granddaughter. She is a bridesmaid. Bridesmaids—"

  Ian's heart slammed to life again. He slumped with relief while continuing to track Sonora. He hadn't known what he would do, but a wedding for Sunny wouldn’t happen. Not unless he was the one standing beside her. Ian shook his head. That was not what she wanted. But it didn't matter what his mind told him. His heart spoke louder.

  Ian's gaze followed Sonora's every move, her every breath, as the ceremony continued. Occasionally, she would frown and cast a glance to the audience. Did she feel his presence? Now he was aware Sunny was part-Atlantian, he knew it possible. Maybe. Perhaps he had given up too soon.

  He tried to reach out to her. To wrap all his swirling emotions around her. Perhaps she would sense him. Sonora shivered. Then she ran her hand down a thin, silver chain at her neck and played with the charm hanging at the end of it. A small pink conch shell. One that used to sit on the shelves behind his desk.

  Ian chuckled, the sound low and deep as hope, however slim, entered his world again. Seems she took after her grandfather with those sticky fingers. But Ian was not upset, but instead, filled with joy. Sunny did think of him. She had just now. He sensed it.

  Eyes flashing, Ian turned to Blake. "Where is the gathering that happens after the wedding?”

  Secrets

  Chapter Forty-two

  Devon raced from one side to the other of his secret lab. He hated rushing, but Sierra's reception would start soon. He'd hardly been able to sit still during the ceremony. Of all the times for an experiment to show promise, it had to be the day of his niece's wedding. In the little bit of time between the ceremony and the reception, Devon hurried over here. He was glad he had.

  Devon trembled as he leaned over his new microscope, one hand around the eyepiece. Unsure he saw correctly, he moved the slide. It clinked as it slide into place. If only this equipment had been developed years ago.

  He stared at it again. Devon's heart thundered. Would he finally, after all this time, get some answers?

  "Vincent. Vincent, I need you to look at this now!" Devon shouted to his lab assistant.

  Vincent threw his hands up as he stepped out of a back room. He hadn't even finished the last errand for his demanding boss. "Vince," he mumbled to himself. "How many times do I need to tell you? Not Vincent. Vince Hartman.”

  To Devon, he said, "Yeah, boss?"

  Devon sighed before waving him over. "That's Dr. Shade to you."

  Vincent almost rolled his eyes at his boss' high handed manner. The man liked to treat him as an underling. Whatever. It wasn't like he planned on staying here long anyway.

  Vince was on loan from the Natural History Museum, or what posed as the Natural History Museum. He knew never to acknowledge that the museum was anything other than a place for families to learn no matter how insane his assignments became. And they'd been getting crazier by the day.

  A while ago, odd slides began appearing in the selection of standard slides passing through his station every day. When h
e questioned his superior about them, she said to mark and notate them as he did all the others.

  Okay, he'd said, he would do that. No probs.

  When they came more frequently, Vince slyly asked some of his workmates if they had any in their assignments. A couple said they had complained to their supervisor about them as those particular slides did not fall under their job description.

  Vince found that interesting. So they were testing their employees, he thought. Apparently, only he passed. He wondered what would come next.

  If only he'd known, he would have been the first to complain. Maybe.

  His curiosity had gotten him into trouble countless times as a kid. But it was also what pushed him to spend most of his twenties with the massive workload it took to become a geneticist. Vince didn't consider curiosity a drawback until the day he walked into his museum supervisor's lab and saw a man in a cage right beside the other research animals.

  Up until that point, Vince thought the work he did was theoretical, but he'd been fooling himself. Now there was no denying what it was. They were experimenting on humans, not only animals. Vince had stared at the patched up man. And the man began to beg him for help.

  The museum supervisor looked at Vince in that condescending way she had, one eyebrow raised. Despite the horror he felt over his own decision, Vince knew his curiosity would take him to the next level of whatever this was. On top of that, it seemed his own hide may be in danger if he didn't keep quiet.

  "Sorry, dude," He'd said to the caged man. The man turned away and hung his head, and Vince's heart fell.

  "It's just one man," his supervisor said. "One man who can help all others." Then she gave the man an injection to calm him.

  That became Vince's mantra. One man who can help all others. When things got rough for the guy, Vince would remind himself it's just one man. Until it wasn't. Until it was two and five and ten and he didn't count them anymore. Until it didn't bother his heart when he walked into a room and a new one was there. Until, instead, he was eager to learn what he could from each new one.

  They came from the sea, these ocean people. From where exactly, Vince wasn't sure. But his supervisor said they were harvested from a few areas. Vince winced at the word harvested until he remembered what he did to them was far worse than that.

  In many ways, they were different from an average human. They were taller, more muscular, stronger, faster, unable to contract local diseases, including the common cold, didn’t get heart disease or cancer. They could subsist on only ten percent use of most of their organs. Not well, but they could do it. They could survive on almost no oxygen compared to humans. But even though they came from the water, they could drown. Vince knew all this because he was there as they sliced and diced them.

  What Vince had learned was so amazing, so exciting he wanted to share it with everyone but could tell no one. Even his supervisor would only discuss ongoing projects. Vince had all this knowledge, all these secrets, bottled up inside him. They were bursting for release.

  But every day he went home to the condo he shared with his brother, Nick, and held his tongue. That was the hardest part. There'd been a time when the two had shared their scientific exploits right down to the tiniest detail. But no longer. Vince was afraid if he started, he wouldn't be able to stop. So he said very, very little.

  Vince thought his brother believed this separation of work and family was his own fault, but for a different reason. Back when they shared everything, Nick, a physicist, started talking theory as if it were fact. He spouted off about wormholes, cosmic strings, and time machines. Vince had belittled him no matter how often Nick insisted time travel would happen one day soon. By the end of those nights, they'd both been tipsy and argued out, sometimes angry, sometimes laughing. Vince loved those nights.

  Now the brothers never discussed work, and Vince's guilty conscious made him wonder if Nick was hiding something too.

  "Are you just going to stand there? Come over here and look at this." Devon's demanding voice brought Vince back to the present. He sighed. Now he was stuck working with this guy.

  Devon stood in front of their new electron microscope. The science on DNA was new and exploding. Devon had been anxious to get this microscope hoping it would have answers that he'd been searching for all these years.

  He waited for the young man to inspect the specimen he prepared. On the outside, he appeared calm, but Vince knew, on the inside, he must be as taut as a piano wire.

  Vince leaned over the small machine. Not finding the eyepiece to his liking, he adjusted it and leaned in again. He was quiet for a moment, then gasped. He straightened and looked unseeing at the wall in front of him. He leaned down to the microscope again.

  When Vincent rose the third time, he turned to Devon. "Their DNA. It's..."

  "I know. How?"

  Vince shook his head. "You're asking me? You have a lot more years in this than me."

  "I've no idea. I've never seen anything like this. It's not an adaptation. It doesn't seem to have occurred naturally." Devon pushed a hand through his hair.

  "It's like it was shoved in there on purpose. Like someone took a human and made an ocean person out of, like, a lot of different DNA." Amazed, Vincent nearly sang the words. His eyes gleamed as the new findings tumbled through his mind.

  "Well, not exactly shoved. We know these things have been around for generations. This was apparently done centuries ago and has been handed biologically from parent to child."

  "But how? We're just messing around with this now. From what I understand, there are big celebrations because human DNA has been mixed with a pig. A pig! Nothing remotely like this." Vincent waved his hand at the microscope. "Something this sophisticated… This perfect… I barely have the words. Look at their perfection."

  Devon reared back. "They're not perfect! It's just further proof they are abominations. Not natural."

  “But isn't that what we're trying to do here?" Vincent was tired of the hatred Devon spewed at the Atlantians. He couldn't stop from rubbing it in. "You want to take their DNA to make us somehow better. Aren't we doing what they've already done? Wouldn't that make us abominations?"

  Devon caught only one part of what Vincent said. "Have they done this? To themselves? Do they have that capability?" He walked over to the empty man-sized cage and kicked it. "Just when I have the most important questions, I have no one to answer them!”

  The Reception

  Chapter Forty-three

  Ian grunted a sigh of relief as they pulled into the parking lot of the reception hall. Blake had been talking non-stop about the events of the day. While he needed to know what would happen at the celebration, Blake’s chatter was working on his already thin nerves.

  The man prattled on like this was the happiest day of his life. Ian parked the car and shook his head. What was he doing? How would this help anything? Ian shot a glance at Blake. He risked everything for a glimpse of her. He was a foolish, foolish man.

  Ian and Blake stepped into the huge entry of the reception hall. A sign-in table with a book and pen, as well as a seating chart, were straight ahead of them beside the large decorative doors of the dining area. Large bouquets of flowers filled the space, some aligned next to darkened windows looking over the rest of the hall, including the tables and dance floor.

  Ian left the line containing several families. He leaned up against the wall near the window giving him the best view of the area. Ian waved Blake on. “I can see you from here. Remember that.”

  This earned him a few curious stares from other guests and a look of resignation from Blake. He scanned the area. Sonora was not there yet.

  A young boy of about seven made his way over to Ian. He seemed hesitant at first but became bold enough to continue until he stood close enough to line his own foot up with Ian’s.

  Ian smiled as the boy examined his own small foot next to his. Then he stepped back and looked all the up to Ian’s face. He studied Ian, looking up and down him sever
al times.

  “You’re tall,” the boy said.

  “I am.” Ian chuckled at the boy’s serious examination.

  “How did you get so tall?”

  “I eat a lot.”

  The boy stuck his hands into his dress pant pockets and nodded his head as if that is what he’d thought all along. Then he wandered back to his family. His father looked over at Ian. The two men smiled and nodded at each other.

  Ian watched through the window as Blake slowly made his way to his own table, stopping at several others on the way for a chat. It didn’t surprise Ian. Blake had always been extremely social. His father had often called him ‘herring’ as a boy as those fish schooled in humongous groups.

  There was a stir among the guests as they turned to a door he couldn’t see. A new song started, and the bride and groom entered the room, followed by the rest of the bridal party. The sight of Sunny filled Ian’s vision.

  His eyes tracked her as she walked across the room to the table prepared for the wedding party. They stood behind their chairs for a few minutes as announcements and congratulations were given to the happy couple.

  Sunny looked around the room, her brows slightly knitted. Ian’s heart sped up. Did she know he was here? Was she looking for him?

  Ian reached out for her again, as he had at the wedding. She looked startled for a moment and examined the room again. After a moment, she lightly shook her head. Ian smiled.

  The group sat and started eating. Ian’s stomach rumbled, reminding him he hadn’t eaten for a while either. With a bit of a frown, he realized he hadn’t thought this part through. He looked at Sunny and Blake, both happily munching on their dinner. Neither one of them were going anywhere.

  Ian followed the aroma of food to the kitchen. A bit of flirting with a young server earned him a bowl of lobster bisque, a plate of roast beef and potatoes and even a glass of wine. While roast beef was something he rarely ate and didn’t really favor, Ian figured it might help keep him full past his usual two to three-hour eating schedule. With a wink and a nod of thanks to the server, he left before she asked for his number.