biting embrace—but then it becomes part of me, as if it always had been.I let my form shift: limbs elongate, skin thickens into translucent scales, my eyelids split into membranes, and my lungs cease their search for air.I breathe water.I breathe silence.
The water wraps around me like a second skin. At first, it’s a cold,
The light from the cave fades into twilight, then into liquid darkness. Currents brush my altered skin with icy fingers, and every sound is muffled, distorted.Beneath me, the seabed plunges like a yawning mouth. A fissure in the rock opens into an abyss that reeks of rusted metal and rotting algae.I push deeper.
The mental sonar—there’s no better word for it—detects a distortion. It’s not just a shift in pressure or flow. It’s something… present.A pulse, slow and steady, not my own.Something lives down here. Something that shouldn’t exist.
I descend further, weaving through blackened rocks and twisted coral formations. Then, I see the remains.A broken fin. A diver’s glove wedged between two stones.And farther still—the crumpled carcass of a reconnaissance drone, crushed as if in a giant’s grip.
A sound.A high-pitched hiss—too close.I spin around. The water vibrates.Shadows dance at the edge of my vision. Fast, unnatural trails.
And then I see them.
They’re not fish. And they’re no longer human—if they ever were.Sinuous bodies. Pale, sightless eyes. Jaws unhinged and lined with jagged teeth. Skin like the slick hide of a dead frog.And they move—graceful and grotesque—as if dancing to the rhythm of a poisoned tide.
One locks onto me. Lunges.I dart aside, shifting again.Arms become membranes. My tail extends.I swim like a creature born to the depths.This form was one of my first.Back then, I knew nothing but water and the feral struggle for survival. In hindsight, it was horrifying.But I was too young, too few lives passed, to understand.
I camouflage. My skin adapts to the green-blue shimmer of the seabed.Every movement stills.
The first one glides past.The second… pauses. Sniffs, maybe.The third stares directly at me.Then it begins to emit a sound—low, pulsing.Not a call.An alarm.
I drift slowly, invisible as a memory one tries to forget. My skin mirrors the light like the seabed. My heartbeat vanishes. My pupils expand until they can see the unseen.
They swim in circles, cautious. Guarding something.
I edge closer.And then—I see them.
Floating a few meters from the bottom, wedged between rocks like discarded puppets:the bodies of the researchers.Two still in their diving suits, shredded open.The third has only half a face left.The blood is long gone, but horror lingers. One hand still clutches an extinguished torch.
I recognize the Truesight logo on a chestplate.
Their secret missions.Their experiments.What the hell were they searching for down here?
Another hiss slices through the water. One of the mutants turns—It’s not looking at me. It’s looking at them.
It swims toward the nearest corpse, extending a forked tongue—tasting.
I move.Slow. Calculated.
But something snaps within me.An old, instinctive impulse.I can’t just watch.
I drop the camouflage—My form shifts again: arms shorten, hands broaden into webbed claws, and energy gathers beneath my skin like a caged roar.
One of the creatures sees me.Too late.
Electricity bursts from me in a blinding surge.The water quakes—space flares with light. It strikes the first creature square on—It convulses in a cloud of bubbles and spasms.The water around it turns faintly black.
A second charges.But I’m already in motion.I twist like an enormous eel, slip past it, and release another precise jolt.
A shriek—if you can call it that—vibrates through the water.Not a sound, but I feel it in my bones.
Two down.Three more close in.
I pull back into the dark, beyond the reach of reflections.I let my body go still—let my skin vanish into the surroundings.I wait.I breathe water.
I feel them draw near.And then, when they’re close enough—I strike.
A radial burst of electricity slams into them, hurling their bodies against stone. One goes limp.The others twitch, stunned.
I retreat. Fast.I don’t want to kill them all.Not yet.First, I want to know what they were.Who made them.And why the researchers ended up in their jaws.
I rise in silence, letting the water slide from my altered skin.The cave seems still. But I am not. My pulse is loud in my ears, echoing the memory of those mutants—of torn flesh and blind stares.
I climb onto the boat’s deck.Let my limbs return, little by little, to human shape.I’ve done it countless times, but there’s always that moment:How much of me is still me?
Best not to dwell on it. My clothes are gone, so I grab a pair of khaki trousers with thigh pockets.They’ll do for now.
I kneel by the main console and begin to examine everything with new eyes.This isn’t just a research vessel.Truesight hid something here.
Looking closer, I spot the excess wiring.Some of the cables run behind the paneling.The radio that was left on—it wasn’t the real comms system.Just a decoy.
With a blade crafted from my own armor, I pry open a side panel beneath the controls.A click.Then a hiss.
A plate slides away, revealing a narrow chamber.Inside, suspended in a bath of conductive gel, is a compact data core—A system known as Aletheia: a real-time data module designed to analyze biological mutations in extreme environments.Fitting, I suppose—Aletheia means “truth” in Greek.
Invisible to standard scanners.Encrypted on two levels.Powered by a plasma battery volatile enough to vaporize us if mishandled.
«Bingo.»
I start disconnecting the conduits, careful and deliberate.The internal memory might tell us what they were looking for—and what they found.
A sound behind me.Footsteps.
I turn.
Lilia is the first to enter the cave, followed by Calipso, Savannah, Yaku, and Hermes.
Their eyes scan the scene.The boat. Me, kneeling beside an open panel, gloves smeared with clear gel, wires strewn about.
«What are you doing?» Lilia asks, watching me intently.But there’s something beneath her voice.Concern.
«Retrieving the central memory. This boat was Truesight’s—but it’s not what it seems. There’s an Aletheia module hidden beneath the console. Advanced tech. I’ve only seen these in classified centers. It monitors mutations… in real time.»
«Mutations?» Savannah frowns.
«Did you find the researchers?» Yaku asks, bracing for an answer he won’t like.
I meet their eyes, one by one.Then fix my gaze on Lilia.
«Yes. But they were dead. And they weren’t alone down there.»
Calipso leans on the boat. «What do you mean?»
«I mean I found aquatic mutants. Abominations. Not animals. Not human. Something made them. Something turned them into what they are. And this…» — I gesture to the module still half-embedded — «…might tell us how. Or why.»
Hermes kneels beside me, eyeing the core with keen interest.«Want a hand, or are you planning to play the hero solo?»
«If you’re okay with possibly blowing us all to hell, be my guest.»
He grins. «I do love those odds.»
Lilia steps closer in silence.With a slow gesture, I lift the module.Just a few cables left.
«Cross your fingers,» I murmur.
Then I plunge the pliers into the final socket.
A pulse. Sharp. Invisible.
A sudden vibration hums through the boat—As if an electromagnetic wave slammed into the hull and rippled outward.Faint, but unmistakable.
Hermes stiffens.«Did you feel that?»
Lilia frowns. «Feel what?»
«Security pulse,» he murmurs. His tone is low, controlled.But I know him too well not to sense the tension.«They registered the deactivation. Or they triggered it.»
The module in my hands lets out a faint beep—then goes silent.But the echo of that sound lingers. As if something out there… was listening.
«Is there anyone who could’ve received the signal?» Savannah asks.
Hermes shrugs. His face—more serious than I’ve ever seen it.
«I don’t know. But if there is…They know where we are now.»
«Shit,» I mutter under my breath. «I’m sorry.»
Lilia shakes her head.«Doesn’t matter. With gear like this, it would’ve been hard for anyone. We’ve got the memory—and a way off this island. We’ll deal with the rest later.»
«All right. I’ll cut power to everything—nothing traceable without a current to feed it.»I wipe sweat from my brow.«In theory.»
«Do it.»Lilia turns to the others.«I hope you’ve grabbed everything, because we’re not staying here a minute longer.»
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