Chapter 3: CBI

It would take several days at least to get to the sight, so Joe wasn't worried about losing time as Ilia took her deep into the belly of the beast, so to say, looking for the enormous indoor pool. Besides being a scuba training pool, it was apparently the local hangout for the landed merfolk who wanted to relax, put their legs, fins, up, and just go for a swim.

It wasn't unusual for the merfolk to spend most, if not all, of their free time there and even sleep there.

She was also sure that not all of them were on CBI's, changer blood injections, because it wasn't the most common stuff or the cheapest to make. So they probably had no choice but to be there unil the ship reached it's ultimate location.

And since it would take too long a time to swim out to the sight, the ship was loaded with quite a few merfolk.

And when Ilia pushed her into the scuba training room, Joe was sure she had found all of them.

Joe had seen many of the mythic creatures, not all of them, but many. Centaurs had a very elegant beauty, the smooth transition of horse to man was fascinating and watching them move was enchanting. The fea were always beautiful, no matter the fea, and elves had a tranquil ethereal beauty that you were drawn to.

But she had never seen a merperson with their fins on.

Merfolk were glorious.

Their tail fins were longer than their legs would be, almost two times larger. The iridescent scales almost had a golden sheen in the fluorescent lights that would be silvery in the sun. The colors weren't vibrant but pale and delicate. Oranges, purples, blues, and red; beautiful.

The tail fins ended in a split into two that was so delicate and thin you could see right through it. They had gills on their hips where water flowed by easily and two smaller fins on the back of their forearms just as delicate as the end of their tails.

They laughed and swam under the water, playing around and helping out their human counter parts. They were a lot like dolphins, not in the way their fins worked, but in the way they played and jumped in and out of the water.

Ilia walked her forward to the enormous pool's edge, it was probably a few stories deep with a series of small rooms on the bottom both so the merfolk weren't in such a box and so that the scuba divers experienced going in and out of things.

"What do you think?" Ilia asked and Joe knew she wasn't talking about the pool.

"They're amazing." Joe admitted, watching as a pretty mermaid started playing, what appeared to be, tag underwater with a few of her friends. The mermaids were all wearing swim suit tops but the men preferred to go without.

"Sweetie?" Ilia looked at her, smiling a bit.

"Yeah?" Joe looked at her.

"Don't be mad at me for this." Ilia said.

And that was all the warning she got before Ilia pushed her, hard, and Joe fell forward with a cry that was cut short into the water.

She broke the surface with a gasp as the merfolk paused to wonder who had screamed and splashed so loud, the latter of which was more easily heard under water. "Ilia!"

The fea was laughing, "Don't take it personal, sweetie."

"You suck." Joe glowered.

"I'd join you but I'm not much of a swimmer." Ilia winked. "Have fun with, Kai."

"What are you-"

"Joe?"

Joe turned at Kai's voice.

His head had broken the surface and he was swimming up to her. His snow white hair had gone flat around his face and water was flowing off his bare chest.

"Hey." she smiled. "Funny to meet you here."

Kai looked at her oddly. "Why did Ilia push you into the pool?"

"She-" she hesitated, not wanting ot tell him and said instead, "uh, thought I should practice holding my breath."

"Oh?" Kai said, clearly noticing she had lied but not calling her out on it. "Want me to help?"

"Uh..." Joe hesitated again. She was about to make up some excuse and leave, but she couldn't see his body well from above the surface and she was curious. "Sure. I-If you don't mind."

"Of course not." he lifted his hand and held it out for her to take. There were, she noticed, webs between his fingers.

She swallowed and put her hand in his, it was cool to the touch which surprised her a bit.

"Take a breath." he said.

Joe did and dunked her head under the surface.

She felt a tug on her hand and she was pulled deeper into the water.

He pulled her down to the bottom as a few of the other merfolk came over and started circling her, checking her out. There were no divers there at the moment so she was surrounded only by mythics.

She looked over at Kai wondering at how he looked. He was a bit fuzzy because she had on no goggles, but he was very breathtaking, if she had breath to take at the moment.

His fin, unlike the others who all had some kind of coloring, was pure white like his hair. It made the tan of his flesh all the more apparent in contrast. His lean body joined seamlessly with his tail.

And it was incredible on him.

It took a minute for Joe to realize that she was staring at him and that she had been doing so for a while and her lungs were desperately crying for air.

So she put her feet on the ground and pushed up hard. A second later, Kai had taken her hand back in his and pulled her up to the surface.

She broke it and took a deep breath but Kai did not.

He waited below patiently for her to get her wind back.

Joe smiled a bit and took another breath and went under.

Two merfolk had followed her and Kai up. A girl with gray hair and purple fins and a guy who had hair a few shades lighter than hers and orange fins.

The girl circled her a bit as the man swam over to Kai.

Merfolk couldn't speak underwater and had mastered, instead, silent communication. Not signing as their webbed hands prevented that, but speaking volumes with a look or a touch or a gesture. However, Joe hadn't and she couldn't interpret the look they both shared.

When she broke the surface again, the girl followed her.

"You're Kai's new partner, right?" she asked. "Kyma, correct?"

"Joe." she corrected with a small smile. "And you're...?"

"I'm Adara." she held out her hand and Joe shook it under the water. "I'm Kai's elder sister. That's Flavian, my husband."

"Nice to meet you." Joe smiled.

"Want to swim with us?" Adara asked happily. It was, Joe knew because she had studied their culture before she went to board the Haltija, the merfolk equivalent of 'want to hang out?' but more formal, spoken between acquaintances instead of friends.

"Sure." Joe nodded.

She took another breath and plunged under the surface again. Flavian was there, shaking her hand with a smile.

They pulled her deeper into the water.

Swimming with them made Joe wish she had put on scuba gear before Ilia pushed her into the water. She had to keep swimming up and taking a breath or resting before she plunged under the water again.

But they didn't seem to mind. They would help her up when she stayed down long or pulled her under by her ankles.

She did pause long enough to grab a pair of goggles so she could see properly.

She regretted never seeing merfolk swim before. They moved so fluidly, more graceful than any fish. And they could swim languidly or fast and jerky. Flavian did more of the former while Adara was more of the latter.

And Kai swam with a unique way about him. It was controlled, not fast but definitely not languid. It was like each movement he made was made for a purpose, no energy wasted. And watching him was mesmerizing.

Being people of the sea, they swam much faster than her. Joe had to struggle to keep up and still didn't quite manage.

It only took an hour for her to get exhausted and excuse herself.

Kai swam her up to the surface pulling her hard enough that she didn't have to help which was good because she was extremely tired and swimming to it out of her.

She went to the edge and Kai pushed on her feet and helped her out then broke the surface a moment later.

"Have fun?" he asked without any real expression on his face. Not like he was being cold or distant, but as if he rarely showed emotion at all and his face just didn't set into them.

"I did." Joe nodded, finding to her surprise that she was breathing hard. She was also a bit dizzy from holding her breath then breathing then holding her breath so much.

He watched her for a moment, saying nothing, just watching.

And Joe was a bit shocked that she didn't mind. She leaned back on her hands and let him watch as she watched him back, a small on her face. She just knew, despite the fact that he was staring, he wasn't judging.

"I'll see you tomorrow." he said then vanished under the water.

Joe smiled and stood up and left the room, fully intending on finding her room again and collapsing on her bed. Tomorrow was soon enough to worry about underwater lights and how to work the equipment.

That was her plan anyway.

Until she was stopped by a passing sailor who told her she was wanted in the sick bay.

So, with a sigh, she changed directions and went up a few floors, got lost only once, before asking directions and finding the place.

"Ah, Joanne, right?" the doctor asked, looking up from his paperwork.

"You summoned me?" she asked, sitting down on his exam table.

"Yes, yes." the middle aged man said as he stood up and went to his medicine chest. "I've been informed by Jack that you are going to be spending our trip examining something for MCRC."

"That's right." Joe nodded then blinked in surprise when he turned around with a needle filled with a orange-red liquid.

"I'd like to start giving you these injections, if you don't mind." he said, pausing before he uncapped the needle. "They're not painful, I promise. You might experience a few side effects and they're, largely, untested. But, they might be a great help. You only need to take one a week and-"

"Wait, wait." Joe stopped him. "Is that a CBI?"

"Yes." he nodded. "It's been mixed with merman blood along with the changer and all the other things that make it up."

"You want me to take a CBI mixed with a changer and a merperson blood?" Joe looked a bit alarmed.

CBI's were mostly used on mythics who couldn't walk among humans. The changer blood, enhanced and messed with by scientists with much bigger brains than Joe, enabled them to change. Kai's fins and feet were proof of it. They were completely safe.

But she had never heard of them being applied to a human or mixed with other mythic DNA.

"Don't worry." he reassured her with a smile. "They're largely untested but a few have been preformed. You might lose your appetite and have to remind yourself to eat and your urine may change color but that's about it. No other side effects have been recorded so far."

"Am I going to be able to turn into a mermaid?" Joe asked, looking at the vial with a little bit of trepidation.

"Of course not." he laughed a bit. "It will give you a few merfolk characteristics though."

"Like gills?" Joe asked, putting a hand on her hips as if she was afraid the three slashes would have appeared just by being threatened with the CBI.

"No, no, no." he shook his head, chuckling a bit. "Nothing will change that drastically. The changes will be mostly unseen. Like I said, it's largely untested but still very safe. You might develop a desire for fish more often than not, you'll want to swim a bit more than you used to."

"Will I be able to breath water?" Joe asked as he grabbed her arm and disinfected the injection site.

"I said nothing would change that much." he laughed. "But you might not need as much air. All the effects haven't been discovered yet and, we figured, better safe than sorry. We'll just see what happens, shall we?"

"Alright." Joe nodded and watched in amazement as he stuck her arm, she flinched, and pushed down forcing the foreign liquid into her system.

It was a bit cold at first, like a flu shot was a bit cold at first, but it didn't hurt.

"Come talk to me if anything unusual starts happening." the doctor said as he recapped the syringe. "Infection, bleeding where you shouldn't be, anything."

Joe nodded and watched as he put a band-aid on the tiny wound.

"There, all done." he smiled as he patted her shoulder. "Wasn't so bad, huh?"

Joe smiled. He reminded her of her childhood doctor a bit. She half expected him to whip out a sucker.

"See me again in a week, alright." he smiled and shooed her out just like her childhood doctor had done.

She bit her lip, still a bit nervous about the CBI, but she figured it was too late to change it now. So she put it from her mind and went back to her original plan of passing out in her room.