Taken By The Shark

Chapter 7

Mark and Chelsea returned to the island so they could be found, and Paribdus instructed Sirenia—as Jill, of course—to rescue them using one of the boats. To the eyes of everyone else on the team, all that had transpired was an accident and probably some hanky-panky. Of course they had no idea what had really happened.

The last two weeks of training flew by in a flash. Despite heavy reservations concerning him, Mark elected to include Erik Stotz as part of the team for the Oceanica Facility. After all, if his goal was to teach humans to better themselves, why not start with the one who needed the most help? Chelsea thought it was a crazy idea, personally, but she didn’t fault him for the faulty logic.

Of course he picked her in addition to Erik, as well as Ross, Dan, Nancy, Angel, and a few others from the other group. In all, there were eight male recruits and four females, not counting Jill, who was already a member of the team. The other trainees had the potential to get posted at other sites owned by Explore, or they could simply return to their normal lives. Chelsea couldn’t imagine returning to a normal life after the training they’d received here, but to each their own.

Jill, or Sirenia as she was more properly called, had already begun telling her a few things in private that she might need to know, like how to call forth the glowing light and direct it where it was wanted, and what other types of abilities she was likely to discover over the coming weeks as they began to explore her powers. She really couldn’t understand why the king and Mark believed this woman was evil, based on what she’d seen of her so far.

“You will have a chance to visit with your families for two weeks before we depart to the facility,” Mark was informing his crew. “We will remain below in three month intervals, and then return to the surface for an additional three months during which you’ll be working on other assigned tasks as the company sees fit. If you form relationships that result in a pregnancy, the current policy is for the woman to continue working up top but no longer be able to work in the facility since the children cannot be brought below. That is a policy we are working to change as the safety of the facility itself is further assessed. Much like the idea of having children in space, we’re hoping to be able to raise families and build cities along the ocean floor.”

“Do you really think that’s possible, sir?” asked Ross curiously.

“Given a large enough structure complete with the needed inner seals preventing younger members from entering the more dangerous areas, we can foresee a future in which that might happen based on current technologies,” Mark replied. “The biggest variables are what to do with our waste, which is very important and one of our main topics of research right now, and ways to keep the people at only one atmosphere of pressure as much as possible. Of course it’s not possible to do this at all times at the depths we’ll be attempting to explore, but the habitat itself is fairly good at maintaining two. In fact, we have put in a request within the last year to allow a pregnant woman to birth and nurture a child in the structure so we can study those effects as well.”

“Is that what you want Chelsea for?” Angel smirked.

“You can be replaced, woman,” Mark reminded her sternly.

“No, no, I’m good,” she replied, laughing instead.

“And no, it isn’t what I wanted Chelsea for,” he added. “I will, of course, be more than willing to oblige if she is, but as it stands now there’s no permission. So you can bet your life I’m not going to impregnate my most valuable asset anytime during this stint.”

“So you’re bringing a large supply of birth control then, sir?” Nancy inquired. “Just in case, of course. Enough for all us girls.”

Laughing now, Mark said, “Fine, I’ll put you all on the pill, is that what you’re wanting to hear? There’s no pharmacy down there to offer discretion, you know. Whatever you ingest, Jill and I, and the company rep who keeps track of us, is going to know about it. So if you’re all okay with that, there should be no problems.”

“But what if we don’t want it?” asked Melissa. “I can’t take that stuff at all.”

“Then don’t have s*x,” Ross smirked from somewhere behind her. It was obvious from the way he said it that he was hoping to convince her otherwise at his first available opportunity, and from the blush his words caused, Chelsea wondered if he’d been trying a bit of convincing already.

“There are alternative measures, of course,” Jill added. “We can supplement the food supply if you prefer. This mission and those after it are as much about your lives as they are about the oceanic life that we’re studying. You are about to become living, breathing aquanauts, taking on the tribulations of colonization in a world other than your own so others can learn from your mistakes.”

“The food supplements are still experimental,” Mark told them. “They are ingested by the men as well as the ladies, and they do their job very well. No one using them so far has had any side effects, and none of the participants in those studies became pregnant. Furthermore, they were able to get pregnant within six months once they stopped eating them, so they don’t appear to have a lasting effect either. But again, it’s entirely up to you.”

“The food idea makes a lot more sense,” Melissa said then.

“Oh, so you do want to have s*x then?” Dan chuckled, and Ross punched him in the arm. “Who’s the lucky guy?” he persisted, getting hit yet again.

“Knock it off, guys, this is serious, grown-up time here,” Mark scolded them.

“Sorry, sir,” they said, quieting down again.

“Don’t get me wrong, there will be plenty of play time available in the drink, but right now you need to be paying attention while I go over the rules,” he said. “We don’t want any issues with safety, right?”