2022 AMBY AWARD WINNER - Cassandra prepares to face her true nature as something other than human while avoiding relentless hunters bent on her capture...
Unfortunate, Webb thought. The change had come over her as a result of their attack. Otherwise, she had been a pretty lady.
"Look at her eyes," Armando commanded. "Completely dilated, no whites showing. Adapted for sight in deep water where sunlight is filtered out." He removed a piece of her skull running from jawline to temple.
Webb started to feel queasy.
The doctor tilted Mya's head in such a way they could get a closer look. "Notice the expanded ear canal and oversized ear drum for enhanced hearing, also an underwater adaptation." He pointed to her salamander-like tail trailing from the base of her back, over the table and onto the floor. "It can whip its tail through the water to propel itself at great speeds. The row of fins aligned with the creature's scalp and spine act as very effective rudders allowing it to turn on a dime. In the water, it's highly mobile and agile."
They had seen it all before when Doctor Armando had given them the same lecture while cutting up his first so-called specimen. The doctor's performance now was gratuitous and self-aggrandizing.
He used a chest clamp to crank open her ribcage. "Check out its liver. See how it's half again as large as a human liver? In a human, blood is manufactured in bone marrow. We suspect the hemoglobin-rich blood allowing these creatures to hold their breath underwater up to ten minutes has something to do with the extra liver lobe."
He added, "But we don't know. We need to find out. Think of the repercussions to human medicine if we unlock just that one secret, how to replicate the creature's blood."
The doctor lit up with excitement. "Lookie here." He reached into Mya's throat, removed her thyroid gland, and held it under the lamp. "This extra lobe is how the magic happens. It secretes a hormone that causes the transformation."
Webb still had nightmares over what he had seen previously. Doctor Armando had strapped his live specimen—Webb was ashamed he had never taken the opportunity to learn her name—to the table and stuck electrodes through her neck into her thyroid. He had passed electrical current through the electrodes forcing the transformation.
Using a hypodermic needle, he had pulled fluid from her thyroid during the process.
The poor woman had suffered excruciating pain. At the time, Webb had taken no pleasure in her suffering but thought it necessary to understand her species.
The only reason he hadn't resigned from Tipstaff Security afterwards was to make sure nothing like it ever happened again. He had no problem with studying these special ladies, but never again would he stand idly by while they were tortured. Mya Drakos lying on the table like a slab of meat proved he had failed in that regard. Their approach to her should have been completely different. If they had simply knocked on her door and asked if she would be a willing participant with a promise to treat her humanely, she and Leo Grant might still be alive.
He was kidding himself. Nobody would willingly agree to be violated in such a way. He certainly wouldn't. His mind reeled over the contradictions.
"There is so much we still don't understand," Doctor Armando droned on. "For instance, why do these creatures only bear female offspring? We know they require human males to procreate. I suspect it has to do with their XXX chromosome instead of a human woman's XX configuration, but again, we don't know for sure. Also, what about metamorphosis? What triggers a teen-female into a fully actualized, adult Homo sirenas? What's that process like? What can we learn from it and how can we exploit it?"
The doctor tapped a scalpel against the steel table which grated on Webb's nerves. "That's why it's so vital to capture the girl-thing. We need to control her growth, study the changes to her body fluids, keep her in an MRI machine as she undergoes metamorphosis. Maybe then, we'll finally be able to understand these monsters."
Webb glared at the man. "Armando, the monster isn't these creatures. It's you."
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Things will not go well for Cassie if Doctor Armando ever gets his hands on her. If you are enjoying the story, please consider voting.
