Changes In Paradise 07: Sharks, Submarines, And Salvage free porn video

Disclaimer: The usual ... if you're underage, stop reading (and how did you get a hold of this in the first place), if you're offended by transgender or transsexual ideas, stop reading, and if you're unlikely to enjoy erotic descriptions of sex, stop reading. Permission granted to re-post on any free site with attribution. You really must read "Changes In Paradise, parts 1 - 6," if you haven't already. This story has grown far beyond what I expected, and now the narrative threads must be held in memory or parts of what follows will not make sense. Thanks for the comments and encouragement. I really appreciate it. Please leave a comment, if you can. There are never enough, sadly, especially when one considers how many readers there are. It makes a big difference to many authors; it is our only "pay." Finally, please remember that it is my universe, which I might open up, but not for now. There is so much stuff going on here, and while I used to feel like I had to make stuff up, you know ... write it ... make it up, now I feel like I'm hanging onto a shark by the tail. It takes a lot of effort to hold on, but it's too dangerous to let go ;-). Changes in Paradise: Part Seven - Sharks, Submarines, and Salvage By Patricia The moonlight filtered down from the chimney hole, high above the pool. It glimmered on the surface of the pool that dominated the medium sized cavern at the bottom of the tall chimney room, sending soft sparkles of moonlight bouncing around the rocks and walls. Pat sat, breathing heavily, on the edge of the pool, finishing off a chuck of dried fish as she admired the flashing moonlight reflected from the gently churning pool from which she had just emerged. She was hungry after her long swim today, the last trek of her two-week trip with John to explore and survey several of the many shipwrecks they had discovered within a few days swim of the island. The two of them had returned only moments ago, and Danni and Phoebe attacked John with a welcome that made it clear that John would be eating later?much later. Pat enjoyed one quick, magnificent, orgasm at John's hip while Danni quivered on John's cock, and Phoebe occupied John's other hip. Now, herself temporarily sated, Pat enjoyed her brief solitude and her late- night meal. Pat smiled with the recent memory of John's feeble protestations that he was hungry as Phoebe pulled herself onto his still stiff cock. He was silenced by her feverish kisses as she pushed herself onto him. Pat looked at the sparkling surface of the pool, and saw that the entire pool was now clouded by wisps of white that swirled in every corner of the pool, and within denser clouds of white, she could see flashes of color and shapes. Danni and Phoebe's passion had ignited the other pods, and everyone was making love. Pat gazed up into the moonlight, feeling the cool light as it played along her delicate features, and watched as the gently roiling water cast shimmering reflections of the moon that darted across the high cavern ceiling. She listened to the sound of the water lapping along the edges of the pool and her own flukes as they trailed in the water. She felt her long red hair as it curled along her shoulders, cascaded down her back, and felt one thick lock that fell gently across her left breast. Her body was still quivering from her reunion orgasm, her breasts still tight with milk. She looked down at her body, feeling her own soft thick hair shift along her gills, shoulders, and breast. She gazed along her feminine shoulders and followed the swell of two large mounds that dramatically sloped away from her once male chest, ending at two small domed areolas at the ends of her large breasts, each tipped with a fat nipple that still leaked her mermaid's milk. Even from this angle she though her breasts were beautiful. She flicked her stray lock of hair back over her shoulder and swung her shoulders in the sheer joy of being female, feeling her heavy breasts sway and tug at her chest. As her breasts slowly came to a rest, she continued her gaze down to where her flat stomach merged with her shimmering green tail, admiring the sweep of her waist inwards down from her breasts and than back out to the generous swell of her hips. She ran her free hand along her tiny waist, down to the joint between her human and mer halves, teasing herself along that line, tracing the slight texture differences that marked the joining. Her abdomen jerked and twitched, echoing her recent orgasm, as she caressed herself across her tummy. Her whole body felt alive with sensation, even her dorsal ridge that was pressed to the cave floor by her own weight quivered in delightful feelings. She continued her gentle trickling of her fingertips down along her hips to her pelvic fins, which were really almost flippers?except that they looked just like her tailfin, shimmering green fins with strong bony ridges that could support her considerable weight, following one of the spines outward to the pink fringe that fluttered along the trailing edge. Her pelvic and mid-tail fins were shaped like traditional dolphin flippers (their pectoral fins), and they sort of felt like little legs. Pat didn't know what they felt like when she compared her feelings now to her past human memories, both male and female memories. They felt like ... very short arms, she decided as she stroked the length of her pelvic fin. For the next several minutes, she savored the swells of pleasure that still pulsed through her feminine body, the muscles that joined her fins to her body/tail twitching and jumping as she continued her self-stimulation. Very pretty fins, she thought to herself as she caressed the dusting of pink along the edges, which was matched with similar pink fringes along her dorsal ridge and at the ends of her flukes. Her fringes were all sensitive, and her fins quivered pleasantly from the sensations her self-caresses caused along the ends of her long, strong fins. She again marveled at her own new anatomy. Not only was she now a female of the species, but also she was a whole new species. Her two sets of fins were incredibly tough for appendages that could still sense touch, temperature, and texture. Many times, she caught herself scrambling over rocks, along the sand on the beach, or over the cave floor, worried that her fins would prove fragile. The salamander gait the mers used on land was not nearly as beautiful as their swimming gaits, and Pat smiled as she thought how John always looked like he would damage himself as he launched himself over rocks, sand, scrub trees, and whatever else was in his way. Their fins weren't fragile, however; pelvic, mid-tail, and flukes were all tough as nails, seemingly impervious to the sharp coral, rough sand, or jagged rocks. As Pat ran her hands back up along her stomach to her breasts, she thought about how all her skin and scales were durable, especially considering how soft they felt. Ah, the miracle of the Lotus Effect, she thought, remembering her (well, then his) college science courses. Millions of tiny nanostructures made her skin, scales, and even her hair hydrophobic, tough, and yet soft and sensitive to touch at the same time. Her breasts were especially sensitive, she thought to herself as she hefted one in her palm, cradling her heavy breast in her hand. She marveled yet again at how soft her breasts were, enjoying the ripple of motion across her chest, her nipple stiff and tight in the evening air. She noticed that the milk that was leaking from her distended nipple was not behaving like water did. Her own milk clung to her breast, sliding down her areola, running through her fingers until small drops of milk fell onto her tail. She reached down to the pool, and dribbled some water across the top of her breasts, where it immediately formed little balls that quickly rolled down her cleavage, falling from the side of her round breasts, rather than from underneath, balling up once again when they hit her tail, and rolled off her body onto the cave floor, where it pooled as water normally did, though she could see a thin line of air between her scales and the water that had fallen off her when she rose from the pool. Her milk, however, slowly slid down her tail, and then oozed into the water, creating a wispy trail of white. Her milk was very different from human milk, she surmised, and had molecular properties that made it different than water, which never stayed on her skin or scales for very long. Even now, just moments after leaving the water, her hair that tumbled down her back was dry. Thank goodness they hadn?t ended up with a dolphin?s fragile skin, she thought to herself. The mix of the original fish goop, Phoebe's rich imagination, and blind luck, apparently, had given them some incredible skills and advantages. She decided to save that puzzle for another time, and finished the last of her fish. Pat twirled her flukes in the water as she caressed her breasts again, collecting the milk that still oozed from her nipple, and brought it up to her lips to cleanse her pallet. She shivered with pleasure as her hand grazed her swollen nipple, and she squirmed with renewed need as she thought of Danni, Phoebe, and John below, still swirling, still entwined together. She rather enjoyed the fact that not only was Danni and Phoebe frantic to see them again, but also that she was frantic to see her sister-wives too. It was good to be loved. She wondered if she or her sister wives would follow Petra in motherhood, but it wasn?t anything she was going to rush into. They had all been having sex nearly constantly, but only Petra had become pregnant thus far. Pat wondered how that was possible. Well, there was only one way to find out. Pat grabbed another chuck of dried fish, and slipped back into the water. John would get his meal, but he would have to eat and work at the same time. Pat didn't think that he would mind. ***** The next morning, everyone gathered in the lagoon on the beach after breakfast to hear Pat and John's report. "We found lots of useful things," Pat began, "most notably a relatively new Russian submarine down at about 300 meters that looks like it sunk recently. We think it is a two-day swim to reach the site, a little over 350 nautical miles to the wreck. There was a crack along the starboard side, which is probably why it sunk. We opened the hatch, and there was neutral pressure. We didn't explore much, but it looked like things were intact. The crack along the hull looked like metal fatigue, so we think the reactor is still safe, for now. Wait ... wait ... I know you're all excited, just keep quiet for a sec, and let me finish." She looked around as everyone settled back down. Although Angara had stopped translating for Agba in the last two months as his skills in English improved, they were now speaking excitedly in Spanish. Angara's white hair and tail sparkled in the morning sun, flashing as she gestured to Agba, her former lesbian lover now merman/pod mate. Agba had grown more and more comfortable in his role as a pod leader, and now matched MuSu in fighting skill. (MuSu had been teaching everyone a version of shaolin kungfu that he had adapting for mer-self-defense.) Agba's silver and black stripes served as the visual transition from Angara's nearly pure white to Liga's nearly pure black. Liga, who had gained some enhancement of her English as she went through her transformation from a male gang member into their newest mermaid, gave her pod mate a poke to get his attention. Agba turned, arched an eyebrow at Liga who jerked her head towards Pat. Agba smiled a small apology to Pat. Pat's gaze then turned to MuSu as she noted that both he and Xing had also improved their English skills quickly, so much that they were now practically native speakers. However, like Agba's pod, when excited MuSu and Xing broke into Chinese, but that wasn't a problem because everyone was learning Spanish and Chinese. And in the process, the mers had learned a great deal more about their own capabilities. All the Mers had discovered that their enhanced mer-senses?their ability to sense the environment and the living organisms around them, their ability to recognize the electrical charges/identities not only of one another but also of all living things, their enhanced hearing and sight both on land and underwater?also seemed to help them learn from one another?new languages, swimming skills, martial arts, etc. Pod mates learned more quickly from one another, which explained why John and Agba's pod could not speak Chinese as fluently as MuSu?s and Gabriel?s pods (Xing being a native Chinese speaker too), and why all the pods except Agba?s could only speak passable Spanish. Pat had nevertheless encouraged everyone to learn all their languages because they could never be sure who among them might make contact with the outside world, though they had all agreed to try and avoid any such contact until they were better prepared. "I know we have discussed this many times," Pat continued, "but I want to say again that I am against harvesting any kind of weapons." "And we will repeat," Gabriel said evenly, his violet eyes flashing, "that we must have something to fall back on if we are threatened by humans. We cannot defend ourselves by hiding forever." "Pat just needed to say that," John interjected. "I know how you feel, Gabriel, and frankly I agree with you." He shot Pat a loving smile, and continued. "When we worked for Greenpeace, we never carried weapons. But, we were just a pain in someone's butt, not a challenge to their entire world view." "Right," Gabriel said firmly. "I hate to know this the way that I know this ... " Everyone nodded, understanding that he was referring to his former life as a female missionary for a fundamentalist Christian religion. "But ... some people will make it their mission to destroy us, even though we don't threaten them in any way." "Other than forcing them to re-think everything they thought they knew about the world," Pat said with resignation. "I don't disagree with you, I just can't bring myself to have a weapon, other than the potentially non-lethal one in my tail." It didn't need saying, but everyone was acutely aware that among them all, only John and Pat could claim to never having killed anyone. "I won't make a big deal about it," she continued, "but I hope we can find some peaceful way to make our debut into the rest of the world." "Well, we're not likely to be discovered soon," Rikki offered. "You two were here for ages before any of us came along." "Actually, that's why we are pretty sure that someone else will be along shortly, because some of our friends know where John and I went, and that we had only planned on spending a year here ... maximum. It's getting close to that now, and so some one will show up," Pat finished. "If it is a friend," John explained, "we should be o.k. Though I am sure our changes will surprise them," he said with a smile to Pat. "Not only is Pat a girl now, but also we?re mers! However, if our first visitor isn't a friend, like say Alberto's boss?what's his name ... " he looked at Emma. "Malaki," she answered. Emma and her sisters had discovered where Alberto had hidden all his papers on the now destroyed yachts that lay at the bottom of their lagoon. With MuSu's help, they had recovered not only extensive records of his operations but also a large stash of cash that they had carefully dried out in the various caves that riddled the western side of their island. They, with Agba's pod helping translate some of the documents, had only finished going through all the papers just before Pat and John left on their expedition. In fact, the scope and reach of Alberto's crime empire was a major factor that caused Pat and John to seek additional resources that they could use to protect themselves. "Probably not his real name," Agba offered. "Malaki means "big," and it could be his gang name, not his real one." "Whatever his name, Alberto owed him some big money, which thanks to the triplets, we now have most of. He won't let those millions vanish without a search," John concluded. "MuSu helped too," Cleo chimed in, snuggling next to her pod mate on the sand. "Yes, but you girls discovered where the safe was, and it's a good thing Emma is on our side. She would have made an excellent criminal," Pat teased. "Between our enhanced hearing and our mer-senses, that safe didn't stand a chance," Emma said dismissively. "It still takes a keen mind to puzzle it out," Phoebe praised her fellow young scientist. She and Emma were Pat's best students, though Agba was also showing surprising aptitudes despite having been raised a female Filipino with little training and background in science. "So, what is the plan?" Phoebe asked, turning to Pat, her own sister-wife. "Well, we think we should make an expedition to bring back as much of the equipment and supplies that we found as we can," Pat said. "All four pods?" asked Gabriel, looking at the still not yet visibly pregnant Petra. "Everyone," John said. "First, it means that we can carry back more stuff, and second, we will probably be safer that way. With just Pat and I, many larger sharks got curious, more curious than I was comfortable with. Lastly, we can go at different paces, to test our limits and capabilities long before visitors force us to do things we cannot." ***** It was because they were the youngest. As part of the experiments that Pat, Phoebe, and now even their own Emma were always creating and doing, MuSu's pod had been "volunteered" to test the limits of their mer-physiology on this trip. Emma herself had volunteered them in "the name of science." Only Cleo was really complaining. MuSu was always ready for anything, especially physical challenges, and Rikki would do anything if it were a dare. Cleo, however, was content to simply be a mermaid, and to not trouble herself with any of the details. "But Emma," she whined, "I don't like to sweat." "We're mers," Emma chided. "We don't sweat underwater. We use our dorsal ridge to radiate heat generated from within our bodies into the water." "Yea, whatever," she continued. "But why ever must you always be poking at me?" "Because you?re just like me, being my exact twin," Emma patiently explained. "I am just trying to understand who we are and what we mers can do. Besides, if you don?t complain, I promise to let you have first dibs on MuSu after we get there." "It?s my turn anyway," Cleo said with a shy smile at their pod-mate. "No, it?s Emma?s" Rikki interjected. MuSu gathered Cleo into his arms and gave her a kiss that curled both their tails. "Alright," she said breathlessly, "I'll stop complaining." ***** Emma was taking mental notes even as she watched the beauty of her sisters and MuSu as they sliced through the water. In return for not having to carry any supplies on the way to the sub, her pod was given the task of swimming as fast as possible for as long as they could. Everyone else would catch up once they were within sight of the Russian sub. After some experimentation, they discovered that if they swam in a diamond formation with MuSu at the front, two sisters with their heads just behind the tips of his outstretched pelvic fins, and the third sister at the rear of the diamond formation slightly below MuSu?s direct wake, the girls could all draft off of MuSu?s powerful strokes. Emma was currently at the back of the diamond, and they were all swimming hard, but she was not expending nearly as much effort as the rest of her pod, because she was drafting off of three vortexes. They also discovered that if they stretched their arms forward, they could leverage their entire bodies into each stroke and that their elbow fins helped stabilize and steer themselves with only the slightest adjustments. Further, if they cupped their hands, they created a bulb of sorts that improved their bodies' hydrodynamic properties, similar to how the big knob at the bow of big ships improves their speed and stability. For the girls, stretching their arms forward had the added benefit of lifting their breasts closer to their chests, making them somewhat more hydrodynamic. It was still thrilling for Emma to feel the water powerfully rushing past her freely swinging breasts. Their pelvic fins were extended nearly ninety degrees out from their bodies, creating a large flat surface from which their powerful flukes leveraged each up and down stroke of their tails, which allowed their upper bodies to be more relaxed. The short, strong, frequent strokes that created and sustained this high speed were more difficult to keep up than the long, full body strokes they had been used to, but they had been swimming at top speed for over two hours, and while the effort was taking its toll, Emma didn?t feel like she needed to slow down yet. Emma compared her view of MuSu?s flashing yellow and black tail with her sisters? blue and white tails. She was surprised by the clear differences between the male and the female stroke. MuSu?s shoulders were square to water, his arms forming a powerful V shaped bow. His strong back was visible to her on each down stroke, his dorsal fin fully extended upward, but his head and shoulders stayed at a constant attitude. His tail stroke began in his pelvis and undulated down his tail to his flukes in a single waveform, each stroke a shallow parabola. The girls, however, had much greater movement in their smaller bodies, only their outstretched fists stayed at a constant attitude while their head and shoulders moved as part of each stroke. Their tail strokes started high in their chests, undulating down their bodies in a double waveform, each stroke a sine curve. Emma decided that it was sexy, and while she didn't know it yet, all the Mers had spent many a moment while swimming simply observing their mermaids swim because it was sexy. Emma imagined that at slower speeds, she could make her body appear even sexier, much like female gaits on dry land could be varied. For now, however, she would simply try to keep swimming fast, and later she could talk with her sisters about how they might drive MuSu to complete distraction. She admired the way that even these unconscious strokes of Rikki's and Cleo's showed off each part of the female mer-anatomy: first the breasts and waist, then the hips and upper tail, then finally the delicate base of their tails and their dramatically decorated flukes. Oh, yes, they could work on making their slow swimming sexy. Yes indeed. Emma watched as Cleo?s dark brown hair fluttered along her back, admiring her sister?s beauty and grace, knowing that it was mirrored exactly in her own recently feminized body. As she watched Cleo?s body undulate only a few feet from her, she noted that if she wanted to, she could touch each of her pod mates easily, but she would lose some her hydrodynamic properties and they would have to stop this particular experiment?their "as hard and as fast and as long as we can go test." Instead, she let MuSu?s wake wash over her and felt herself buoyed by the draft of her powerful pod-mate. She heard the signal from Rikki, a slight vocal pulse in their high, female register, and Emma shifted her stroke in a brief burst of energy to replace Rikki on MuSu?s flank while Rikki dropped back to the bottom of the formation. Stealing a glance at MuSu as she fell into place with her outthrust hands just behind the outermost tip of his extended pelvic fins and her head about even with his mid-tail fins, Emma could tell that her pod- mate was enjoying the power and exertion, seeking the outer limits of their endurance, and he barely looked winded. He was beautiful, his striped tail flashing, his shorter, darker hair pressed back along his upper shoulders, protecting his upper gills from the sunlight that caressed their bodies as they sped through the water a few meters below the surface. Emma watched the many muscles that rippled in graceful, powerful coordination down MuSu's strong, thick tail, only a few decimeters away from her own fins, and she felt herself become aroused. She wondered if MuSu knew how sexy his muscles were, how much his shining, flashing tail with its dramatic yellow and black stripes, and his lightening yellow highlights along his elbow fins, his dorsal ridge, and his fins and flukes, all turned her on. It was a good thing they were supposed to be doing this experiment, she thought to herself, otherwise they might be the last pod to reach the submarine. God, she just wanted to eat MuSu up, slide her body against his, press her breasts into his washboard stomach, and suck at his tiny male nipples. Aaaarrrgggghhhh. Just swim! She yelled at herself silently. Four hours later, MuSu finally slowed down, his body shaking with fatigue. They surfaced, gulping in the air even as their gills stayed stiff in the water, drinking in the oxygen they craved from both the air and the water. Emma knew that MuSu had expended the most energy, maintaining his lead of the pod, but even so, she herself was glad to stop and rest. After only a few minutes of heavy breathing, their pulses returned to normal, and they began to look around. Emma could see a small atoll a few kilometers further along which she recognized as the half waypoint to the sub from the map Pat had shown her that morning. Emma had a photographic memory, which is why she was the head navigator in her pod. "MuSu," she said, tapping him on the shoulder as they all relaxed, bobbing in the light surf with their heads above the surface. "There is the atoll that marks the half way point," she pointed ahead of them. MuSu rose on his tail, his pelvic fins above the water, his rippling muscles along his tail and abdomen flexing as he kept his head nearly two meters above the surface of the water. His athletic display reignited a wave of desire that washed through Emma and the other girls like wildfire. As he sank back down, he noticed the lidded eyes of his pod-mates and smiled, enjoying his own sexual power reflected in they eyes of his beautiful trio of identical mermaids. "How about we stop there for lunch and a bit of fun?" he said with a wink and a leer at the girls. Just as Emma reached for him, he twisted away and headed towards the small island. The girls, giggling, gave chase. This was one of their favorite games, and MuSu easily kept himself just out of reach of the girls. Within minutes, they were all swimming at top speed again, but this time they were leaping and twisting in the water, and if anyone had been looking, they would have sworn that dolphins were at play, except for the visible human parts and the brilliant blue and white patterns on the smaller creatures, off set by the dramatic tiger strips on the larger one. Only when they got to the island did MuSu allow himself to be caught. ***** Pat glanced over at Gabriel?s pod, the three of them swimming steadily off to her right. They were probably making about 15 knots per hour, which was respectable, but she didn?t want to tire Petra or risk any complications with her now three-month-old pregnancy. Petra sensed Pat's look, and flashed her a thumbs up. Pat again marveled at how even Petra, with her extraordinary large breasts and her pregnancy, could still slip through the water with such ease and grace. Pat turned her attention to her own pod, and felt the comforting presence of everyone?s electrical signatures, no one signaling any distress. She could tell the mood and health of her pod mates, she had discovered, but she could only sense strong emotions in the other mers. She extended her senses further to her left and found Agba?s pod swimming easily. Everyone was doing well, even though they had been swimming steadily for several hours. They hadn?t caught up to MuSu?s pod, and she didn?t know how far or how fast they had been able to swim. They looked fast when they left, but she wasn?t sure how long they could keep up such a furious pace. She concentrated on her pod mates, sensing Danni and Phoebe?s languid strokes, each of them focusing on John?s lead. John?s powerful tail set their pace, and Pat warmed at the memory of their frenzied reunion last night. Poor John had been forced to make love to each of them twice, and Pat had sensed a driving need in their efforts that seemed different. She remembered back to the strange tug she felt on her second coupling with John. She was looking into John?s eyes as he stroked in and out of her, and she wondered what color eyes any child of theirs would have as she gazed into his steel grey eyes. Would she have green eyes, like her own, or blue or grey or something else? She knew, both intuitively and scientifically, that all their children would be female, and a select few would transition to males. So focused was she on that image, on her daughter's eyes, that a strange tug, deep within her tail, surprised her. Pat had never felt that muscle before. It was a pleasurable tug, deep and strong, almost like a cramp, but it triggered an even more intense orgasm that kept her impaled, quivering and twitching, on John?s pumping cock for several minutes. Her internal muscles had rippled along his cock, ripping his own orgasm from him, and then kept them together in a suction so strong that John couldn?t separate himself from her even after he had finished coming. Pat had lost consciousness during the orgasm, and it took several minutes before she recovered. When Danni had asked what she was doing to have such a tremendous orgasm, Pat explained that she was thinking about Petra and wondered what color the eyes of any child she and John might have would be. Evidently, both Danni and Phoebe were able to think similar thoughts and achieve similarly strong orgasms. As with Pat, both girls had lost consciousness during their orgasms. John, exhausted, was barely able to finish the fish Pat had brought for him before he fell asleep. As she looked at her pod, she could still sense the glow from both Danni and Phoebe. She knew she was glowing too. No ... wait ... it was more than a glow. Pat closed her eyes, and focused on each of her sister wives with her mer-senses, and then herself, and then Petra. She nearly stopped swimming in shock, but instead, she savored a new kind of warmth that spread through her body. Well, how about that, Pat thought to herself. She had discovered the secret to mermaid fertility. They had to "will it" ... and so they had. She and her pod mates were pregnant; their electrical signatures had each changed, just like Petra?s. She would share the news with the others that evening when they reached the atoll. For now, she savored her secret all by her self. ***** Emma thought that the morning marathon would have tired everyone out, but she wasn?t going to complain. Cleo had managed to tackle MuSu in the shallow water of the lagoon, and the two of them were pounding into each other in the surf. It was Cleo's reward for not complaining, after all. Now Emma watched as Cleo and MuSu rolled and swam in the one meter of water, laughing and moaning, switching positions and rhythms without ever uncoupling. Emma was on the beach and Rikki was braiding her hair, their flukes resting in a several centimeters of water as the gentle surf washed along their tails barely reaching their pelvic fins. "I can hardly believe our lives," Rikki mused as she ran her fingers through Emma?s soft, lush hair. "We live in a beautiful tropical paradise, and all we do is eat, swim, and have sex." "I can hardly believe I?m finally your sister," Emma said as she closed her eyes to concentrate on the feelings of Rikki?s fingers in her hair. "You?re more than my sister," Rikki said, shifting her stroking to include Emma?s softly sloping shoulders and dramatically thin waist. "You?re my sister-wife, my best friend, and my lover," she whispered into Emma?s ear, brushing aside her long brown hair, licking her ear lobe. Emma shivered with desire, and leaned back into Rikki?s caresses. "We are the only ones among all the pods who are truly ?sister-wives," Emma observed. "I love you, Emma," Rikki whispered as she nuzzled Emma?s neck. "I always loved Martin, but I love you more than I thought possible." Emma tilted her head back and found Rikki?s soft full lips with her own, and nibbled at her lips. She teased with her tongue along Rikki?s white teeth and ruby lips. Emma gasped as Rikki held her face firmly and kissed her with increasing passion, her tongue pushing into Emma?s mouth, searching, caressing, exploring. They kissed passionately for several moments before Rikki turned her body and lowered both of their shoulders to the damp sand. They faced each other, on their sides, their breasts pressed into one another?s as they ran their hands along each other?s flanks. Emma watched as her now delicate, feminine hand traced the bulge of Rikki?s breast out from her rib cage, and let it fall along the dramatic indentation of her waist, accentuated by their posture on the beach. She watched as her hand rose along the swell of Rikki?s hips, and noted the barely perceptible change in texture from skin to scales as tanned skin merged with blue and white spots. One set of their pelvic fins was pressed to the sand, while the other flapped and teased at each other?s in the air. Emma grabbed Rikki?s fin and stroked along the yellow fringe that decorated the trailing edge. She gasped with pleasure as Rikki mimicked her actions on her own fin. She was so happy that her tail was such a source of pleasure. As they held each other?s face with one hand and kissed, their other hands found each other?s vent, their labia now swollen with blood and passion. The nub of their clitorises were hard and wet, not with water but with their own fluids. Emma gasped into Rikki?s unceasing kisses as she felt two fingers ease into her vagina while Rikki?s thumb flicked across her clit. She eased two of her own fingers into Rikki?s molten vent and ran her thumb across her sister-wife?s clit, which caused her to moan too. Emma backed away from Rikki's frantic kisses to look at her beautiful identical twin. Emma looked into Rikki's large, oval blue eyes that sparkled with passion. Their noses were only centimeters apart, their lips open, their breath hot upon each other's faces. Emma stroked her sister's lush, chocolate brown hair, feeling its softness and texture, even as her other hand continued to push in and out of her sister-wife's dripping vagina. She closed her eyes briefly, savoring the wonderful sensations caused by Rikki's fingers as they pumped in and out of her own sopping wet hole. Emma loved the way her new body responded to sex, the rippling of her body outward from her womb, resonating in her breasts that swelled with milk, her nipples extending, hardening. She opened her eyes with a gasp as Rikki pushed their breasts together, rubbing her leaking nipples on Emma's own satisfyingly stiff and equally leaky nipples. She twisted her flukes across Rikki?s and doubled her efforts to bring her sister-wife to orgasm, but gasped herself as Rikki added another finger to her efforts. She too added a third finger and sought the hard knob of Rikki?s G-spot that was just at the tip of her fingers inside her vagina. As their breasts continued to slide and push against one another's, Emma could feel her own orgasm beginning to build, and she fought to hold it off until Rikki began to twitch. Suddenly both girls were drenched in breast milk as their orgasms ripped through their bodies and cum flooded their fingers as they jerked on the beach, their hands buried within each other?s pulsing vaginas. Their flukes were at full extension, quivering in the noon sun, spraying light, color, and water in all directions, the sound of their fluttering flukes nearly overwhelmed by their screaming orgasms. After a few moments, when they finally stopped shaking, two pairs of hands grabbed their flukes and pulled them into the surf. Laughing, Emma turned to MuSu as Rikki turned to Cleo. "See, I told you that you could have first dibs," Emma laughed. "Depends on whom I wanted first dibs with," Cleo teased as she pulled Rikki into a deep kiss. A few strong strokes later, Emma was moaning into MuSu?s shoulder as he rolled with her in the surf, feeling herself shudder around his stiff and unflagging penis. As she convulsed in yet another orgasm, she faintly heard her sister-wives each crying out in their own. ***** There were hundreds of small atolls scattered throughout the South Pacific, some of the larger ones could even support human life, if it was carefully husbanded. One such atoll had two humans who were precariously clinging to life. Their experimental, secret submarine had suffered a catastrophic failure of the hull about eight weeks ago. No one knew why the hull had failed, but only ten crewmembers managed to escape. There had been no time?the water flooded the sub within seconds?and only those crewmembers in the scientific module at the bow had managed to make it out. There had been six scientists and about 60 crewmembers on the vessel, but only the scientists had escaped along with four other crewmembers. They discovered that they escape pod they were able to launch as the sub plummeted to the ocean floor lacked adequate food and water, and the emergency beacon would not work. Some of the standard survival equipment was missing, and they had no means of fishing. They had drifted for two days before they managed to land the pod/raft on this very small island, and were pleased to discover that the atoll had a small, natural spring and a few palm trees. They set up a camp, scavenging the escape pod for materials, and they hoped against hope that they would be found. The ranking crewman, who was not an officer, explained that there was little chance of rescue. The sub was at the beginning of a two-month, clandestine, special ops tour for surveillance and reconnaissance. Their superiors wouldn?t even know to look for them until long after they had run out of food. They struggled on the small island, growing weaker and hungrier as time passed. Several crewmembers were lost to sharks while they were attempting to hunt fish, and the other two had simply gone mad and swam out to sea. It hadn?t helped when they learned that their guns were nearly useless to hunt fish. Bullets never reached their targets, and so they were forced to go into the water to try to collect food with knives and crudely made spears. As more time passed, and hunger drove them further out to sea to search for food, the remaining scientists had became food themselves, as the sharks were particularly aggressive. Now, there were only two left. Alexander and Grisha had been part of a "secret" team doing research on deep-sea biological and genetic experiments, but now they were quickly shrinking shells of themselves, nearly mad with hunger and thirst, surviving on what shellfish and seaweed they could collect. It wasn?t enough. They were slowly starving themselves to death. But the deeper water was too dangerous, a difficult lesson they learned as they watched their friends and crewmates disappear with a sharp tug beneath the waves. So, they had given up on trying to get larger fish, and now they were too weak to do anything other than wait for the end to come. ***** As they finished their lunch, MuSu and the girls decided to keep going. They felt a bit stretched, but they knew that hadn?t reached "their limits," which was part of what they needed to know. How far and how fast could they push themselves? The answer might be the difference between life and death in the future. "Let?s try something different," Emma said as she finished un-braiding Cleo?s hair. All the girls loved to play with one another?s hair, but Emma knew that if they left their gills exposed to the sun, it would be dangerous. "How so," asked MuSu? "One of the things that seemed strange to me was how quickly we recovered from our fatigue when we surfaced," Emma explained. "We were all pretty tired, but after only a few minutes of breathing the air, we all recovered enough to have some pretty awesome sex." "So, what ... we should swim on our backs," asked Rikki? "No," Emma explained. "I think we should develop a rhythm, sort of like the dolphins do." "But they have to breath the air," Cleo observed, "They don?t have gills." "Right," Emma agreed, "but I think that we are still mammal enough that if we regularly breath the air, we will be much faster and last longer." "But we risk being seen," MuSu observed. "True," Emma agreed. "But this is the south Pacific, and that isn?t very likely. If we are spotted, we are likely to have enough warning to get below and stay there. From far away I bet we look more like a large fish than we think we do. After all, we?re mostly tail." "I think you're right," MuSu agreed, looking down his nearly three meters of strong, shimmering, mer-tail. "We are about the same size as large dolphins or sailfish." "We look like sailfish," Emma corrected. "You look like a dolphin. Sailfish rarely reach your length, and we must weigh at least as half as much as you do." "So, what should we try, before we get into an argument about who weighs what?" Rikki asked. "Let?s follow MuSu?s lead, since he does most of the work," Emma explained. "We can draft just like we did this morning; we will just know that every minute or two or whatever, we will all breach and take a big breath of regular air." "I?ll expel whatever air is left in my lungs right before I head for the surface, so that can be a signal," MuSu suggested. "Remember, build up our speed slowly, because we will reach our top speed before you do," Cleo worried. "Don?t you worry," MuSu with a kiss, "I can sense each of you clearly, and I know the exact point when you all have reached your top speed. I know I could go faster, but I suppose that?s why you draft my wake." "We were all doing about 30 knots this morning," Emma observed, "if my calculations are reasonable. It took us about six hours to go almost 200 nautical miles. That is faster than most boats go," she finished impressed with their own speed. "That is faster than dolphins can go without drafting on boats," MuSu added. "I?ve been listening to Pat, miss smarty pants," he finished as Emma raised her eyebrows in surprise. "They usually swim at about 10 knots and can only go 25 knots for short periods of time." "Well, let?s see if we can go faster than that!" Emma urged. They all wiggled their way off the beach and into the water. Emma made a few more observations and indicated a direction for MuSu. They all nodded, sensing directions in the same way they sensed the shape of the sea floor or the presence of sharks several hundred meters north of their current location. MuSu built up speed slowly, as Cleo had asked, and soon they had reached their previous top speed. Now, rather than swimming several meters below the surface, they were within a meter of the surface, swimming in tight formation. With a burst of air and a flick of his tail, MuSu was headed for the surface and the girls stayed glued to their formation. Their hydrophobic skin, scales, and hair caused the water to fall off them as they launched into the air, all four creatures arcing gracefully above the water. They traveled for about two meters through the air before MuSu curved back into the water. He remembered watching dolphins draft the boats as he (well, back then he was a she) traveled from Hong Kong to Macau, and so he took only a few quick strokes and headed back for the surface. The speed was exhilarating, Emma thought! They were swimming with enormous energy, cresting the surface every few strokes, keeping their bodies parallel to the water, stretching out each leap in shallow arcs above the water, feeling the cool water enfold them as they sliced back into its embrace; then leaping forward into the air, the water falling away from their bodies, their hair staying plastered to their backs as they leapt from wave to wave to wave. They were all breathing easily, effortlessly, as they sliced through the air and water, laughing and swimming, winking at each other as they cruised through and above the water. Duh, she thought to herself. The air was much less dense than the water, and therefore it was even easier to maintain their high speed, because they were spending as much time as possible in the air. Four hours later, they had reached the location of the submarine, and they hardly seemed winded. They had discovered how extraordinary a marine mammal that mers actually were, and they were so energized by their discovery, that they decided to keep swimming past the location of the sub. They had made a 370 nautical mile trip in about ten hours, and they were exhilarated. Emma estimated that their top speed was about 40 knots, and that MuSu and the other mermen could probably reach 50 knots or more on their own. ***** "Yes, they were here earlier today," Phoebe said, pointing to the distinctive trail left by a mermaid salamandering across the sand, disappearing suddenly where the waves had smoothed over the sand. "High tide was earlier today, sometime in the early afternoon, so they were here before then. I would say a little after noon." "Which means that they were swimming incredibly fast for a very long time," Pat concluded. "What time do you think it is now?" "I would guess early evening, say 8 PM," Phoebe said, looking at the sun hovering a few degrees above the horizon. "Which meant that we swam ... " asked Pat. "Geesh, don?t you ever stop being a scientist," teased Danni as she snuggled up to Pat and gave her a quick kiss. "I like it," Phoebe said. "Brown-noser," Danni teased. "Blonde," Phoebe taunted. "Look who?s talking," Danni said smiling. "Girls," Pat warned, "we are in the middle of something?" "Oh, right, sorry," Phoebe said. "Um, that means that we were doing just over 15 knots to go 188 nautical miles in about 12 hours." "Right," Pat agreed. "And that didn?t seem to tire us out." "You mean didn?t tire Petra out," Phoebe said indicating the now resting Petra, her former uncle who was now several months pregnant. "I feel great," Petra said from her lounging spot on the sandy beach, finishing up some squid that Gabriel had brought for her. Xing was playing with Petra?s hair while Gabriel and Agba had gone fishing, Angara and Liga lounged nearby. John was the only male mer present. "No, I mean that it didn?t tire US out," Pat repeated. "What do you mean us?" Phoebe teased, "I?m younger than either of you old ladies." "She means tire you out because all three of you are pregnant," Xing said blithely as she braided Petra?s hair. "What!" John sputtered, rising from the sand on the other side of Pat. "Yes, dear," Pat smiled. "last night ... all three of us." "But how ... why ... when?" he continued. "I thought you guys were different this morning," Liga said, "but I thought it was because I am still learning how to be a mermaid." "You?re doing great," Pat said. "I noticed it this morning too, and I think I?ve put together some important clues." "Oh my GOD! You?re right!" Danni squealed, opening her eyes, "I can feel it ... I?m different inside!" She rolled over Pat and tackled John, kissing him soundly. "I?m going to be a mother!" "What important clues?" demanded Phoebe, who sounded both excited and frightened at the same time? "Petra," Pat asked, "do you remember anything different when you were making love to Michael?" "What do you mean, different?" asked Petra. "Did you have a particularly memorable orgasm a few days before he died?" Pat asked gently. "Yes, I did!" Petra answered, remembering. "Did you feel anything strange in your tail just before you orgasmed?" Pat continued. "Yes, I think I did," Petra answered, thinking. "I felt some sort of muscle cramp in my tail, but I thought it was just the passion I was feeling and I was being too rough." "And were you thinking about having a child?" Pat asked. "I was always thinking about that," Petra answered, "but that time, I was thinking about Michael?s eyes, and what would happen if we did have a child, you know, what color the baby?s eyes would be." "Oh, my god," Phoebe breathed. "That IS how it worked! We really are pregnant." She fell into Pat?s embrace. "What are we going to do?" "Have a baby," Pat answered calmly, stroking her sister-wife's nearly white blond hair. "But at least we will know what to expect, thanks to Petra." "That?s it?" asked Xing, incredulous. "You have to think of the eyes? I?ve been wanting a child with Gabriel for months, but I never think of eyes, I always think of tail," she finished, running her hands along her own forest green and lavender tail. "Oh, Xing, you must have first go with Gabriel tonight," Petra gushed. "Between your hazel and his violet eyes I can only imagine a wonderful, beautiful playmate for Michelle that you might have," she finished as she caressed her own belly, even though there was no outward sign that she was pregnant. "Well, now we finally know what constitutes mermaid birth control," John concluded. "That must be why no one got pregnant despite all the sex we were having." "Are you sure," asked Phoebe? "I think he?s right," Pat agreed. "Right? Of course I'm right," John concluded. "I knew something was different last night, and now I?m never opening my eyes during sex again." "Ah, don?t you dare," Danni demanded as she began tickling her pod mate. "Those two are the scientists, and they are good at it. I?m going to be the mom, and I?m going to be great at it." "You can?t make me," John gasped as he writhed on the sand under her merciless attack. "Maybe she can?t, but WE can," Pat said, lifting herself away from Phoebe and joining Danni in the attack. "I think I could live with that," Phoebe mused. "I want to be a scientist," she concluded as she winked at Petra and Xing and joined her sister-wives in tickling the now nearly helpless John. "Stop ... top ... uh ... please," he pleaded as the three mermaids squirmed and rubbed themselves all over him as they ground him into the sand. "I?m getting sand in places I shouldn?t," he complained. "No problem," Danni said with a wink to Pat and Phoebe. The girls clasped hands and rolled all four of them into the water. They disappeared beneath the surface laughing and giggling. "I can?t wait until our men get back," Xing said with passion and purpose in her voice. "Me too," said Liga as Angara lifted a surprised eyebrow at her. "Well, I think it must be why I got changed, to give you and Agba children." "Qui?n dice que yo no desean a ni?a?" Angara asked with a smile and a kiss for Liga. "Looks like everyone will be pregnant shortly," Petra mused. "Perhaps we ought not to tell the triplets, and maybe they won?t get pregnant. Someone has to get food for the rest of us." ***** It was near sunset when the remaining Russians concluded that they had finally gone completely mad. Grisha had stretched out his increasingly thinning body on the beach, his head propped up against one of the few palm trees on the atoll. He had stumbled down to the water earlier in the day, searching for food of any kind, hoping for a half-eaten fish to wash ashore. After several hours of nearly fruitless searching, he had retreated to the scant shelter he and Alexander occupied. Grisha had been a big man, nearly 6' 4'' (193 cm), almost too big to fit onto the submarine, but at 50 years old, he was the leading scientist in his field, and he had insisted that he be allowed to carry out the experiments he had designed. When he first squeezed his bulk into his submarine berth, he weighed nearly 300 pounds (136 kg). Now, he was lucky if he weighed 200 lb (90 kg). He looked over at the sleeping Alexander, who was nearly a foot shorter (173 cm), and weighed about half as much as he did. Grisha didn't think Alexander would make it through the night, and he didn't relish the thought of spending his last few days on earth next to a rotting scientist, even if he had always respected Alexander's work. He was about to close his eyes when he saw a school of large fish approaching from the south. They were swimming like dolphins, leaping and skimming along the surface of the water, headed directly for the island. They weren?t dolphins, however, the colors were all wrong, and it looked like the creatures had brown skin at their noses, pale skin along their mid-flanks, and brightly mottled blue and white skin along their longish tails. The largest one had black and yellow tiger strips. How could that be? They were large, perhaps three or four meters long. He was a geneticist, not a biologist, like his surviving crewmate. "Alexander, my friend," Grisha whispered, his voice dry and strained, "do those look like dolphins to you?" With a supreme effort, Alexander lifted his head from the sand and gazed out at the sea. He could see the flashes of color and light as a small pod of brightly colored sea creatures burst from the sea, and he swore he could hear laughter, female laughter. "We have gone mad, Grisha," he whispered back, "those are rusalka." "Either we are mad, or we are saved," Grisha said as he struggled to his feet. "Here, here!" he croaked. "We are here, save us," he shouted in Russian. The effort cost him is consciousness, and he fell to the ground in a heap. Alexander saw that the strange creatures had seen them as he felt his own consciousness slipping away, but not before he could make out the faces of three beautiful women who gazed at him in shock and surprise. He smiled as he succumbed to the darkness, unsure if he would ever wake again. ***** "Well, is it working?" Cleo asked impatiently. "I don?t know," Emma answered calmly. "I have no idea how long we were unconscious the first time we were fed." MuSu looked over at the two girls who each cradled the head of a nearly dead Russian sailor in their laps. He and Rikki had scoured the small island, hidden the one handgun they found, and now Rikki was filling one of their canteens with her milk, massaging her young breast so that streams of mermaid milk shot into the plastic bottle. "You?ve done all you can for the moment," MuSu advised. "We will leave them the canteen and we should return after we meet up with everyone else; this is not something for us to try on our own." "But will it be enough to save them?" Cleo asked, her mothering instincts coming to the fore. "It only took us two hours to reach this island," Emma argued. "We can stay overnight, to see if they regain consciousness, and at least to force them to drink a little more of our milk. We can easily swim back long before the other's will reach the submarine." "They will die if we don?t save them," Cleo added. "They may die anyway," MuSu said. "Alright, we can?t sleep in the water around this island, there are too many sharks along that reef, which is probably where the rest of the crew ended up." "Why didn?t they bother us?" asked Rikki, replacing the top on the now filled canteen. "Because we are as fast as they are," Emma surmised, "and they?ve never seen a mer before." "They might attack us if they are hungry enough," MuSu thought, "but let?s not give them the chance. First, finish the food I brought for all you nursemaids." After they finished eating, they arranged themselves on the beach, well above the high tide mark, in a star formation. They found that when in strange places it was a good idea to have their tails (and thus their mer senses) pointing in multiple directions. While their mer-senses didn?t work as well out of water as in, they could still sense when someone or something approached. When they were in the water, sleeping entwined around MuSu, there was a dorsal ridge facing each direction of the compass. On land, their fringes along their flukes and fins would have to suffice. They also knew that their maximum air time was about eight hours, and then they would begin to feel too dry and that would wake up to seek the water. The day?s efforts and excitement had worn them out, and the nooner had taken the edge off their sexual drives. So, with only kisses all around, they quickly fell asleep. ***** By the next afternoon, the Russians had not yet regained consciousness, but neither had they died. Emma half sensed and half hoped that their milk was having the desired effect. Her mer-senses seemed to suggest that their health was improving, but with anyone other than her pod mates, it was tough to tell. They had dribbled more milk onto their lips, and both men seemed to respond, enough so the contents of the canteen slowly disappeared into their bodies. The girls refilled two canteens in case the men awoke while they were gone, and returned to the water. As MuSu and his girls began the swim back to the sub, Emma began to construct her justification and argument for Pat and John, their de facto leaders. After all, two pods were short of the optimal ratio, and she was sure she could convince anyone of the benefits of becoming both a female and a mermaid. MuSu kept a slightly slower pace, probably about 25 knots, but with the new technique of flying along the surface of the water, even that speed seemed effortless. ***** They had been waiting for several hours, floating about five meters below the surface, several hundred meters above the submarine, before the rest of the pods arrived. Emma wasted no time not only making a full report of their findings concerning mer-physiology, stamina, swimming techniques, and top speeds but also the news about the Russian sailors they had found, probably the only ones surviving from the sub below. Pat advised the triplets of her own discovery concerning children, and the relief in their eyes gratified her. They couldn?t stop having sex, but they could exercise some control over when they had children. Pat giggled as MuSu recoiled in horror as Cleo playfully batted her eyes at him. It was the first time she could recall him losing his cool. All three girls were adamant, however, about not starting a family yet, especially with everyone else getting pregnant. The triplets reluctantly agreed to wait until the next morning before returning to the atoll. Throughout the night, each pod took up guard duty, but the night passed without incident, and in the morning, they all headed for the atoll and the Russians. ***** Thirty-five was too young an age to die, Alexander thought to himself, as he sensed a bright light filling his consciousness. But he could also feel warmth emanating from that bright light. He could also feel something on his chest, and the sand beneath his head, and ... yes, the sound of the waves as they caressed the beach. He realized that he was feeling the sun as it rose in the east. He didn?t think he would ever see another, and yet here he was, slowly awakening to beautiful sunrise. He had an odd taste in his mouth, but he felt better than he had in a long time. He was ravenously hungry, but as his eyes blinked open in the morning light, he felt truly alive for the first time in several weeks. He sat up, marveling at his own returning strength, and felt the canteen that had been placed on his chest slide down to his lap. How had that canteen gotten there, he wondered. And how did Grisha manage to get to the spring a hundred meters behind them? He saw a second canteen perched on Grisha?s chest, and saw that his fellow scientist was still asleep. He carefully opened his canteen and smelled the sweet smell of ambrosia. He wasn?t sure what it was; it smelled faintly of flowers and salt, perhaps milk, but that was impossible. He carefully raised the canteen to his lips, and as the warm, sweet liquid poured down his throat, he swore that he could feel energy and life returning to his body with each small sip. He pulled the plastic bottle from his lips, shocked at how he was feeling, and then turned to the ocean, where he could see more than a dozen heads bobbing in the water a few meters from shore. They were the most beautiful creatures he had ever seen, four men, and nearly a dozen women, each more beautiful than the next. The one with flaming red hair waved at him, and he waved back, shoving his now working foot into the side of Grisha?s still sleeping form. "Wake up, Grisha," he urged. "We have company!" ***** It was fortunate that Grisha spoke Chinese; otherwise, they would have been days in explaining everything to the Russians. Alexander could ask for beer and the bathroom in English, and Grisha was not much better. But Grisha's Chinese was good. Both men had gained strength and mobility throughout the morning as they listened to Pat and John while they slowly finished their canteens. Pat explained the history of the mers, and how they came to be, corrected only occasionally by Xing when Pat?s still fledgling Chinese failed her. Grisha had no problem understanding the story of the mers and what was already happening to him and his fellow countryman, whether they liked it or not. There was a tense moment, however, when Alexander finally understood that the milk he was drinking was a change agent, one that was likely to take him down a path of femininity. A frantic conversation in Russian between the two men erupted, occasionally interrupted by angry questions directed at the mers, suggesting that perhaps Agba or Gabriel switch back to female. Even Petra was surprised by the strength of Gabriel?s refusal. After another ten minutes of heated conversation, there were several moments of tense silence, while Alexander glowered at Agba, Gabriel, and then Grisha, again and again. He finally smiled at Emma, said something in Russian, and drank again from the canteen. "You saved my life," Grisha translated in Chinese. "We're sorry that you have to become girls," Emma said in her own halting Chinese. "I used to be a boy, and this is much better." "We shall see," Grisha returned with little emotion. The two men talked again in Russian for a few minutes, and then Alexander nodded at Agba, lifted his canteen in salute, and then downed the contents. Agba nodded with respect, while Angara and Liga looked approvingly at their new pod mate. Everyone sighed in relief for several reasons. First, because the Russians seemed reconciled to their situation, second because Grisha and Alexander had come to an agreement about who would go to which pod, and finally (but not the least factor for relief) was because an important new knowledge base would be added to their growing community. The mers returned to the sea to look for a protected area in which the transformations might occur, and after several hours of searching the land shelf of the atoll and several other smaller islands, they found a small underwater cave that although shallow, offered some protection from the surrounding sea. It was in about five meters of water, and if the Russians followed the "standard" patterns of transition, as had the other recent mers, they would have proto gills by the next morning. ***** Grisha waited on the beach for the return of the mers. As predicted, the next morning both men had immature gills on their backs, and Alexander had insisted that he go first. He had apparently been thinking about his decision all night, and if any of the tales the mers had told were true, then he would be able to communicate with his new family and community right after his transition, and he was tired of waiting for Grisha?s slow and cumbersome translations. He wanted to speak to these fascinating and beautiful new people,