by ReGi McClain
Maura nodded. Harsha gathered dishes to take to the kitchen.
Kaito grabbed her arm, yanking it part of the way out from under the pile of dishes she held. “Where are you going?”
She shifted to keep a wobbling cup from falling. “To put the dishes in the sink.”
“But we need you. You’re the only representative of this species.”
“Kaito.” Zeeb fixed him with a glower. “Let go of her.”
Kaito lifted his hand. The sudden release of tension caused the cup to start shaking again.
Harsha tried to match the tottering of the cup, hoping to steady it. “Actually, I don’t know much. Try Maura.”
She hurried to the kitchen to avoid another close call. Upon returning, she found Kaito questioning Maura while Seraph, with the help of an app on her phone, translated as needed. Zeeb was bent over a page of notes with a highlighter, oblivious to the conversation going on right next to him. Being the least useful of the group, Harsha went in search of an off-duty crewman to play a high stakes game of Go Fish with her.
After three days of intense research for her friends and intense boredom for Harsha, they all gathered at the workstation to watch Kaito lower the camera into the water. They’d reached the coordinates of the last merfolk sighting. Or rather, the coordinates where a party of wealthy vacationers, who had probably been probably drunk out of their minds, claimed to have seen mermaids in nineteen-twenty-four. Harsha’s heart wavered between hope and despair. Her life depended on what Kaito’s little doodad found, and her enervation was getting worse every day.
While the camera descended, Kaito darted his eyes away from the controls to Maura. “What do I look for?”
“Many fish.”
Kaito blinked. “Aaand?”
“A pearl.”
“A pearl?”
“Tied to one of the fish.”
“Right. Look for a five-millimeter pearl in a school of fish. No problem.” He switched on the camera’s lights when it entered the twilight levels. “Any particular kind of fish?”
Maura responded with a lopsided shrug.
Harsha watched the viewing screen. She felt like jumping in and following the camera down. The waters it traversed welcomed her. Even in the depths, where the camera’s light struggled to penetrate a few feet, the sea seemed to beckon her home. She shook off the feeling, dismissing it as the wanderings of a mind immersed in morbid reflections. “How deep are we?”
“Not deep enough.” Kaito pushed the camera deeper, ogling interesting species on his way down.
A faint glow touched the edge of the lens. Kaito bobbed in his seat. “I think… maybe…” He switched off the lights to pick up the glow. “Bioluminescence. The most I’ve ever seen in one place.” He tilted the camera to face the glow. Harsha gasped when she saw the school of glimmering fish. Kaito chuckled. “Look at that. A whole school of Electrona risso .”
As the day lingered on, Maura, Seraph, and Zeeb lost interest and wandered off. Harsha stayed at the workstation, watching the surface of the water or the viewing screen, waiting for something to happen, and forgetting to eat or drink. When the sun dipped behind the horizon, Kaito shook his head. “I’m done for today.” He offered the controls to Harsha. “Wanna take the night shift?”
Harsha shook her head. “I better not. I don’t want to nod off and lose your machine.”
“Yeah. That’d be bad. How about grabbing a bite to eat before bed? We can talk shop for a while.”
“Not tonight. I think I’ll stay on deck for a while.” In truth, she doubted her ability to get to her cabin alone. She was paying Kaito to find her merfolk, not be her nursemaid, so she resigned herself to an uncomfortable night in the chair. “We’ll try to work out shifts with the others in the morning.”
When he finished bringing up the camera, he tapped the back of her chair. “Good night, Boss.”
“Good night, Kaito.”
He strolled down the deck toward the stairs, leaving Harsha alone with the quiet slosh of water. She watched the moon dance on the waves and let her mind wander. Horrible images of Jason’s mangled body surfaced. Rather than push them away, she let them come, crying over each until it moved aside to allow a new memory to surface.
Footsteps moved in her direction. Zeeb. Loathe to show him how bad she felt, she pulled herself to her feet and leaned on the railing of the boat. Her legs quivered, but she kept herself upright.
Zeeb leaned on the railing with her, watching the moon and fumbling something in his hands. Neither spoke. Whatever he contemplated, she considered it his business, not hers. For her own part, she preferred not to discuss her thoughts. The moon rose higher, climbing the stars like a ladder into the void.
“Nice night.” Zeeb spoke softly, as though he considered the moment too sacred to impugn with a normal speaking voice.
She nodded. “Yes, it is.”
He handed her a small object.
“I carved it when I wasn’t busy throwing up or wallowing in misery. One of the crewmen found a piece of driftwood and brought it to me to work on.”
She rubbed her thumb over the small wolf figurine, feeling the ridges of carved fur. “Is it you?”
“My mom.” He turned to lean backwards against the railing and propped his elbows on it. “I don’t know what I look like as a wolf.”
“She’s beautiful.” She scrutinized it for details to discern it from the wolf she knew. “You are, too, by the way.”
His elbow slipped. He recovered his balance and crossed his arms. “What, uh… What do you mean?”
“Your wolf form. You have the most brilliant pale-gold fur and blue eyes.”
“Thanks.”
She held out the carving to return it.
“It’s for you.”
Remembering the last time he gave her a gift in an attempt to return awkward to normal, she wondered if his seasickness made him feel uncomfortable around her. She accepted the gesture and slipped the carving into her pocket for safekeeping.
“Thank you.” A gust of wind whipped around the deck. She shivered and tucked her hands into her armpits.
Zeeb chuckled. “Seraph told me you had her burn those sweaters I borrowed. Come on. I’ll walk you to your room.”
Frustrated with her body for not being stronger, she confessed, “I won’t make it to my room. I forgot to eat lunch and ”
He looped his arms under her knees and behind her shoulders and lifted her. “And you scolded me for not eating.” He flattened his lips and shook his head, but then smiled. “Allow me to be your knight in shining armor, my lady.”
Harsha scoffed. “You’re asking permission this time? Oh, wait. You didn’t, actually.” She wiggled. “Put me down.”
He pouted but complied. “At least let me help you get back to your cabin.”
“Fine.”
Harsha slept late. She met Kaito and Seraph at the workstation around nine o’clock. Kaito and Seraph leaned over the screen together and talked without arguing. Harsha recognized Seraph’s curious tones interspersed with Kaito’s lecturing ones. Not wishing to interrupt the lesson, she took a seat and fished a candy out of her pocket.
Several minutes elapsed before Kaito noticed her. “Oh, hey, Boss.”
“Hello, Kaito.”
Seraph crossed her arms over her chest and glared. “Why didn’t you tell someone?”
“Huh?”
“Last night. Kaito says you didn’t tell him and Zeeb says he thinks you wanted to hide it from him, too.”
Harsha shrugged and looked out to sea. “It’s hard to explain.”
“Did you eat breakfast?”
“Trail mix.”
“That’s it?”
Kaito stood. “I’ll go get her a couple donuts. You want one, too?”
“No, thanks. I’m a carnivore.”
Kaito headed toward the stairs. Harsha watched, interested. “So, you and Kaito are friends now?”
“Enh.” Seraph wiggled a hand in the air. �
��He’s tolerable when he’s not trying to flirt.”
“Did you guys find anything?”
“Not yet.” Seraph moved Harsha’s chair closer to the screen and knelt beside her. “We’re keeping a close eye on it, though.” The flickering behind her irises dimmed. “Harsha, if this doesn’t work, are you going to be able to make it home?”
Harsha flashed a little smile. “I’m not bedridden yet.”
“Please don’t joke.” Seraph’s brows furrowed and a little puff of steam rose from one cheek.
“If I stay off my feet and remember to eat often, I’ll be okay.” Hopefully .
Harsha spotted Emilio going downstairs as Kaito came up with a plate of donuts piled six inches deep. Harsha accepted the plate. “Kaito, is Maura in the galley?”
“Watching a movie on her tablet, yeah.”
“Thanks for bringing these up, but I think I’ll eat downstairs.”
Seraph jumped up. “I’ll go get Zeeb.”
Harsha thought of stopping Seraph to handle the situation herself, but decided to let Seraph convey her concerns and hope Zeeb took her seriously instead of laughing it off. She scooted her chair closer to the viewing screen and scrutinized the school of glowing fish. Kaito joined her.
The fish swam, as fish are apt to do. The boat rocked. The sailors chatted. Harsha and Kaito stared. The plate of donuts on Harsha’s lap, forgotten, started to slip. She jerked awake in time to catch it.
With an impatient sigh, she leaned away from the workstation to eat a donut.
“Did you see that?” Kaito exclaimed.
Startled, Harsha missed her bite and dropped the donut. “What?” She searched the screen. She saw glittering fish. Nothing else.
He pointed to the screen. “I saw it. I saw a pearl tied to the neck of a fish.”
She squinted and tried to find it in the writhing mass. “Are you sure?”
“Not entirely, but I think so.” At half the speed of a lazy snail, he pressed the camera into the middle of the school of fish. Their dance from within proved more chaotic than it seemed from above, but beautiful chaos, like watching dozens of shimmering butterflies all take off from the same tree at once.
“I don’t think we’ll find more by moving around at this point,” he whispered, as if he believed the strange creatures could hear him through the leagues between them. “So, we’ll do like the children do and sit here until Mommy finds us.”
Agreeing, Harsha held the plate of donuts under her chin and kept her eyes glued to the screen while she ate. The fish rippled and darted. She concentrated to find differences among them. She jumped and dropped the plate when Zeeb’s voice boomed in her ear. “You don’t have to worry about Emilio.”
Together, she and Kaito hissed a commanding “Sh!”
“Eesh. Sorry.”
She looked around. The sun glared near its zenith, a good two and a half hours higher than when she’d sat down to watch the screen. “Oh, sorry, Zeeb. We think we found something.”
“Really?” He fetched his own chair and joined the vigil. “What are we looking for?”
“A fish with a pearl tied to its neck.”
“Oh, is that all?”
“What do you mean about not worrying about Emilio?”
“Let’s just say he, the Captain, and I had a little chat.”
Harsha nodded acknowledgement, cleaned up her spilled donuts, wiped the goo on her pants, and went back to watching the screen. The sun eased toward the horizon. Seraph joined them. Maura sat on the deck between Harsha and Zeeb. When golden rays shot up from the western horizon and pink touched the clouds of the east, Kaito started to pull the sub back up through the school of fish.
“Wait, what are you doing?” Harsha asked, aghast.
“It’ll be dark soon.”
“It’s pitch black down there. It doesn’t matter how much light there is up here.”
“Well, yeah, but there’s the whole dinner and sleep thing.”
Harsha opened her mouth to protest: her life, her money, work in shifts, send Maura to run for food while the rest watched, there are lights on deck, merfolk were more likely to show up during the dark hours when detection is less likely.
“And I need to recharge the camera. The battery only holds a few hours.”
Harsha shut her mouth. She supposed Kaito’s point to be valid. Feeling like a spoiled child being pulled away from her favorite movie, she lifted her rear off her chair, but kept her eyes on the screen. A white sphere flashed on the screen. She squawked and pointed. A split second and it disappeared.
Kaito, awed, said, “Yeah, I saw it too.”
“Me, too,” Maura added.
Zeeb scrutinized the screen. “Did you see it, Seraph?”
“I don’t know. I thought I saw something, but it disappeared so quickly.”
“But the rest of you, you saw it?”
Harsha, Maura, and Kaito all nodded their heads.
Zeeb tapped his fingers on the back of his chair. “Okay. Looks like there’s a colony of merfolk nearby. Now all we need to do is figure out how to get their attention and, once we get it, how to survive it.”
Kaito whooped and scooped up Harsha to twirl her in the air. “We got a lead, Boss! We got a lead.” He put her down and returned to his controls. “I’ll program the computer to look for key identifying factors so we can follow this school. If all goes well, we’ll be able to track it no matter where it goes.”
Harsha put a hand to her head and wavered on her feet. A little warning might have been nice.
While Kaito worked at getting his key factors, Zeeb and Maura went to get dinner. Harsha, leaning on the back of a chair to keep herself upright after the dizzying spin, watched over Kaito’s shoulder.
“Wanna go for a walk?” Seraph asked.
Harsha hesitated.
Kaito waved her away. “The camera’s on its way up.”
The two women took one turn around the deck in silence, Harsha leaning on Seraph’s arm. Her legs ached from sitting. “I admit, a walk isn’t a bad idea.”
“After sitting eight hours? I’d say it’s a good idea. I can’t wait to get back on land so I can change.” Seraph wiggled her shoulders like her clothes didn’t fit. “I’m getting cramped in this body.”
Harsha nodded. She knew what it felt like to be trapped in her own body. Unless they found a cure, her chances of not feeling that way dimmed with each day that passed. “I feel like going for a swim.”
“Are you strong enough? It’s not like there isn’t water around.”
Harsha brightened. “Good point. I’m strong enough. If I can move on my own, I can at least float, but it seems unfair to Maura.”
“No. She’ll understand. If she had her skin, she’d dive in and we’d never see her again. At least she knows you’ll come back.”
Harsha felt a wild impulse to take her advice. Instantly. The excitement of finding a lead, or possibly low blood sugar, unhinged her. Without taking time to analyze it, she acted. She let go of Seraph’s arm to drag a deckchair to the side of the boat and climbed onto it.
“What are you doing?”
“Going swimming.”
“Wait! I didn’t mean ”
Harsha let herself fall into the water.
The frigid waves folded over her. Unlike the piercing chill of the glacial river waters of Alaska, the cold of the sea welcomed her. It worked its way into her, becoming part of her and drawing her in. She undulated deeper into its complete embrace. When her chest ached with the need to breathe, she angled for the ladder near the sub launch station.
Toward the front of the deck, Seraph and three crewmen leaned over the railing, searching the spot where she dove in. Feeling mischievous, she decided to sneak up on them. Pulling herself up the ladder proved to be no easy task, but she managed.
“Behind you.”
Seraph spun, eyes wide. “Harsha! Don’t do that to me!”
“But you said ”
“I meant ‘go for a p
leasant dip with a few of the sailors during the warm part of the day.’ Not, ‘dump yourself in the ocean and stay under for seven minutes.’”
The crewmen, after exchanging meaningful looks, meandered away, asking no awkward questions, as guaranteed.
“I was under for seven minutes?”
“At least! I was afraid I’d have to tell Zeeb and Maura you drowned because I encouraged you to go for a swim. I had to threaten the deckhands to keep them from yelling ‘man overboard.’”
Harsha hunched her shoulders to express apology. “I liked your idea.”
Zeeb came running up the deck. “What happened? One of the sailors told me Harsha went overboard.”
“Oh, she went overboard all right. She dove in and stayed under for seven minutes. Does Maura know?”
“Are you crazy? She’d be frantic.”
“The question of who’s crazy around here is up for debate.”
While they talked, a shiver ran up Harsha’s spine and lodged in her teeth to make them chatter. Her legs, exhausted from the climb up the ladder, wobbled.
Zeeb made to scoop her up, but paused. “Would you like me to carry you back to your cabin?”
“I d-d-d-d ”
He wrinkled his nose. “I don’t like sea water, anyway.” He took off his shirt and handed it to her. “Here, put this on. Please.” He mumbled, “Crazy fish.”
While Harsha wriggled the dry fabric to pull it over her wet shirt, one of the crewmen reappeared with a towel and cup of hot tea. She accepted both with thanks and headed for the nearest chair to sit down for a few minutes. She noticed the crewman glance sidelong at Zeeb’s hairy chest before he left. “I may be a crazy fish, but you are the hairiest man who ever lived.”
Zeeb looked down at himself and shrugged. “I’m a wolf.”
“Thanks for lending me the shirt. I’ll bring it back as soon as it’s clean.”
He grinned. “Get Seraph to do what she did with your sweaters.”
Harsha scowled at Seraph. “You told Zeeb I had you burn my sweaters?”
