Project Aquarius - Log 02

When Rylan returned to his room, Nixie knew the moment he'd arrived, flitting over to the window. "I ate like you asked."

"Good girl." He smiled at her, praising her. "But I'm absolutely exhausted. Is it okay if I sleep?"

"Yes. Yes, that's fine. I am also tired," she replied to him. "I wanted to ask you something first, though."

Rylan looked up at her as he removed his uniform slowly, only because he was primarily focused on her and not the action of undressing. Either way, the uniform was more of a challenge to take off than it was to put on. "Sure. Shoot."

"Do you find me attractive enough to breed now?" She asked, her entire body glowing a soft white. She stared at him, blinking, eyes fluttering like she was still getting used to the process of doing so.

"I, uh.." Rylan stared back at her. ".. really throwing the curveballs at me late at night, aren't you, Nix?"

She seemed to be confused at his words, and then she closed her eyes. He felt a light dizziness at that, and suddenly he could hear his own words, as if spoken directly to him, and not by him: "I'm just being honest with you because you deserve that honesty. It's good to share our emotions and feelings." She opened her eyes to look at him, but said nothing else to him.

Rylan sighed lightly. "Look, I just don't want to upset you, Nix."

"Then say no, Rylan." Her white glow began to fade gradually to dark. "Or why not just tear off the bandaid now and tell me you'll never be attracted enough to me to breed me?" He knew that she'd heard him say that in the past on more than a few occasions, to 'tear off the bandaid'. He was impressed she could figure out what it meant purely by the context clues, even if she'd never actually seen a bandaid.

"Hey, whoa, hold on a second," Rylan said, moving up to the window and resting his hands against it. She bumped her forehead lightly against the glass where his right hand was pressing. "I know why you've been changing your body."

"You do?" She seemed surprised, and he watched her begin to turn an embarrassed red.

"Yes. I've suspected it for a while, but you're trying to find something that I'll be attracted to, so we can breed, right?" Rylan asked her with a smile on his face. "You're trying to become humanoid, aren't you?"

He felt a wave of emotion wash over him, a mix of surprise and relief. "You noticed.." She began to glow an even brighter red. ".. Rylan, I want to change for you. Will you breed me when I've changed completely?"

"I can't make any promises, Nixie, but let's cross that bridge when we get to it, okay? And besides that, I like women who are good and nice to people. Remember what I said?"

"To be good." Her body began to flash in a rainbow of colors again, and even followed it up with an awkward nodding motion. "I'll be good for you."

Rylan was relieved. At least things would go smoothly, or so he hoped. "Now, let's get some sleep, we've got a long week ahead of us." He watched her as she slowly laid down on the edge of the window, closed her eyes, and began to doze. He remained there by the window, watching her closely, then slipped into bed. He was out like a light in seconds.

As the weeks slipped by, Rylan kept his experiments and time with Nixie revolving around attempting to instill a sense of empathy in her, his time with Kim under Nixie's control firmly in the back of his mind. It was the best way he could possibly think to reduce the threat she posed to the people around her. As time went on, he was sure that it wasn't him that was in any real danger, but instead, the people around her. Worse, CMI breathed down his neck the entire time, insisting that he also train her psychic powers, and he loudly complained about it each time. They didn't quite care what he had to say. If not for Nixie, he probably would've quit.

One afternoon during a lunch break, in which the other researchers had left Nixie and Rylan alone, he settled onto a newly installed metal platform about waist deep into the water and began to eat. The food was slightly better than what he used to eat at his first position, less focused on liquids or semi-liquids, and more on something solid and tangible to enjoy. It didn't make the taste incredible, since the food was mass produced, but at least bowel movements were far less watery that way.

While feasting on her own food, he watched NIxie pause, her lantern glowing brightly, without the presence of any other colors. Rylan knew immediately that someone else had arrived and encroached on their personal relaxation time. He looked up, hearing the footsteps on the grated metal of the stairs leading up to the top of the tank. He was surprised to see Evelyn, a woman that he hadn't seen in quite some time. Nixie swam to the top of the tank and stuck her head out of the water once Evelyn was too challenging to see otherwise.

"Good afternoon, Mr. Larsen," she smiled at him. "And good afternoon, Nixie."

Nixie said nothing, at least not to him, but Rylan smiled back at Evelyn on Nixie's behalf. "Ms. Quinn. What a pleasant surprise. We were just having lunch. Would you like to join us?" He felt a wave of jealousy crash into him like a tidal wave, and he did his best to ignore it. It wasn't abnormal for her to make her emotions known to him, and it became a little more difficult to differentiate between her emotions and his each time.

Evelyn shook her head slowly. "I was mostly coming to check your progress with Nixie here." She smiled sweetly at the specimen. "But you know, for the life of me, I can't remember what the other reason I came here for was." She seemed contemplative for a moment, then shook her head. "Well, if I can't remember, I suppose it wasn't important." She smiled down at them both. "Beyond that, I need to have a talk with you later on tonight in private, if you don't mind. I know you're a busy man."

"I think I can carve out some time for you this evening. Do you have a specific time in mind?"

She tapped her chin lightly. "I don't want you to miss any beauty sleep, so how does 8 PM sound?"

"Yeah, that's fine. Anywhere in particular? Up in your office in HR?"

"No, no, your room will do just fine. Admittedly, it's for a number of things that need signing off on. Mostly things like a diet for Nixie, so we can order the food we need for her, and any other requests from your research team in terms of equipment and such. I'll bring them to you. Enjoy your downtime with Nixie, Mr. Larsen. And be good, Nixie." She turned around to leave them be.

Soon, the sound of her heels stopped once the door slid back into place behind her, and his attention returned to Nixie, just in time to see the lantern atop her head begin to slowly die down. He watched her for a moment, and she began to glow a light red as he did, like she was blushing in response to his attention. He reached down to give her head a soft stroke, then playfully, he reached down to tug playfully at her lantern. He hadn't dared to do it before when she was smaller, more fragile, but with her being larger now, he was able to do it. He heard her laugh, then watched her dive to avoid getting grabbed again, glowing her rainbow of colors in playful glee.

Evening rolled around, and Rylan left the door to his room open. Most of the researchers had left for the night by that point, and when they did, there was almost no foot traffic on his floor. He didn't make a habit of this of course, only when he was expecting company. In this case, Evelyn, whose rapid clacking of heels alerted him to her arrival on his floor. He didn't bother to look up from his work, typing away rapidly at the keyboard of his PC, where he'd often properly edit and condense any notes at the end of the day. Eventually, he heard the sound of her heels stop, and noted her silhouetted in the doorway out of the corner of his eye.

Nixie was busy resting on the little platform right outside the window he had directly to her tank, and didn't seem to stir even when Evelyn stood at the threshold to Rylan's room. Surprisingly, he found that she wasn't dressed in her usual professional business attire, instead, something more business casual. A button-down, short sleeve shirt, khaki pants, and her usual heels. He noted that her brown hair, usually up in a very professional-looking bun, hung all the way down to the middle of her back. She looked as though she was prepared to go out with friends after a long day at work. In one arm was her tablet, which was with her at all times, and in her free hand, some actual paperwork.

She noted his look at the paperwork and giggled lightly. "We like to keep paper trails for some things so they can't be manipulated electronically."

"I was going to say. I thought the contracts using actual paper were surprising." He chuckled, stood up and stretched a little. ".. anyway, come on in."

She crossed the threshold only when invited, like some kind of beautiful vampire, and the two met halfway. She held up the paperwork for him and he gently took it, not wanting to give her any papercuts by yanking it out of her hands. He used his tablet to turn the lights up a little from the dim setting so he could read, and he moved back to his chair, sitting down to peruse it. First was the order form for things they needed for Nixie, primarily food. He noted that it was largely certain varieties of fish. There was also another order form for nutrients and other things that they used to make her favorite snack, that multi-finned fish-like treat.

He laid the papers on his desk and began to sign the most obvious ones, the ones related to Nixie, but he took some time to read the equipment request forms. Part of his job was also dealing with the budget for Project Aquarius, so anything that wasn't set to be purchased automatically had to go through him, and this was about his third time actually doing it, so he hadn't yet developed an efficient way to look at everything quickly.

Evelyn didn't seem to be impatient, standing there watching him quietly. Then without warning she turned to begin to walk around the room, her heels clacking lightly on the stone floor as she did, looking at the things in his room that didn't come stock as part of CMI's generosity. She stopped near his nightstand, picked up what looked like a small statue of a dog, a golden retriever more specifically, and moved to sit at the edge of his bed. She turned it over in her hands, admiring it, only to stop when she read the plaque on it. "Bear?" She giggled lightly.

He looked up from the paperwork to her. He didn't really mind that she was looking at his things. They were all out in the open for a reason, for him to look at, and for any visitors to enjoy. Though, only Evelyn had ever been in his room, and Nixie enjoyed looking at anything new he brought in, so he kept them where she could also see them if she looked.

"Oh, yeah, that's my old dog. I loved him to death." He looked back down at the paperwork. "He was a purebred too, descended from the first batch of seedship dogs. They were few and far between, purebreds, because the demand for dogs was so high they did very little but breed them with any dog that was available. They're more common now, but back when I was a kid, not so much."

"Amazing how things change in just a few short decades, isn't it?" She smiled at him, setting the statue down carefully. "I hope you don't mind me looking at all your things."

"I'm the one taking forever, it's fine. Least I can do is let you look around a little.."

She crossed her legs, gazing around the room slowly, eyes only stopping when they landed on something interesting, like a model of a starship used in a war long ago. She seemed to recognize it, her eyebrows rising slightly, before she suddenly spoke to him. "Tell me a little about yourself, Rylan. We haven't really had the chance to get to know each other, and what little information CMI has doesn't illuminate who you are very well."

He finished up the paperwork, signing the very last one, and he carefully stacked them so he could straighten them out properly. He left it at the desk and crossed the room to his bed, flopping down comfortably on it next to her. Since he wasn't technically on the clock, there was no reason to wear his uniform, so he'd long since traded that for shorts and a white undershirt. In hindsight, probably not the best thing to wear in front of what was essentially his boss, but it was a bit late for that. Though that was another thing he found interesting in hindsight: she was his boss, and he basically answered to her, even though she was head of human resources.

He wasn't able to dwell on it very long, because she gave him an expectant look and he realized that she was trying to get his attention, pull him out of his reverie. "Ah, well, I was a test tube baby born on Azalkos, the first planet we inhabited when we arrived, but... you probably know that, guess there's no reason for a history lesson."

"Now, when you say test tube baby, you mean..?"

"Sorry. I was grown and born in one of those artificial wombs they use a lot of these days," he explained. "But people still referred to us as test tube babies, since we weren't naturally conceived and grown."

"Ah, yes, so I heard. Sorry, I've lived here all my life, and as you're probably well aware, births are closely controlled and monitored because we just don't quite have the room for exponential growth," she explained, before giving him a sly smile. "But you probably know that, guess there's no reason for a history lesson."

"Cute." He smirked up at her, watching her as she began to slowly lay down in his bed, shifting onto her side, facing him. This was a first for him, since usually she tended to get his signatures, bid him farewell, and leave. He hadn't had any companionship for several long weeks at this point, so having a warm body in bed was more than he could probably ask for. "Anyway, as I grew up, I took to working on submersibles. We had a small yellow one-seater, top of its class, and when I was a teenager, I loved to take it apart and put it together."

She nodded lightly, reaching out to grab a pillow and pull it under her head to get more comfortable, but she didn't interrupt him again.

"Well, one day, my father took out our submersible without my knowing since he was having engine trouble with the other one we had. I guess I hadn't properly sealed it, so at some point during a deep dive to avoid danger, it basically exploded and killed him instantly. My mother hated me for it every day after that, until she eventually disappeared one night when I was about 16," he said.

"Oh my God. I'm so sorry, Mr. Larsen."

"It's fine. It's been a while since then, so I don't really feel anything when I think about it, or tell people. Anyway, you can call me Rylan while we're off the clock, Ms. Quinn." He made a point of emphasizing the 'Miss' part as a way of teasing her.

She giggled lightly at him, her eyes twinkling as she did, and she seemed to relax more.

"So, I wound up roaming the streets of Sea Castle for a few years after that, then qualified for the Cousteau Marine Institute's free onboarding program when I hit 18. I'm sure you know, it's basically indentured servitude while they paid for my room, board, and education. I repaired submersibles for them while studying to be a marine biologist, became one for several years, and now I'm here. I'm still paying off my debt to CMI. I should've asked to have it forgiven in exchange for all my hard work here."

"I'm sure we can arrange to have that debt wiped clean, Rylan. Our CEO is a very generous man and I can put in a good word for you, especially since you've been doing so well with Nixie," she replied, scooting in closer to him. There was a moment where the two of them merely stared into each other's eyes, and he got the sense that she was reluctant to make the first move, same as he was. Then she spoke up.

"Rylan, I've been meaning to ask.." She said, reaching a hand out to lightly trail fingertips along his chest. ".. what is it that you like in a woman?"

He cocked an eyebrow lightly at her, but he certainly didn't seem to mind her touch. "That's quite a personal question, Evelyn."

"Well, we're not on company time, so I guess I'm being a little braver than I might be normally. You don't have to answer that question, of course." She smiled at him. "We've seen you and that young Mei girl on more than a few occasions. I assumed you were just into short Asian girls with pixie haircuts."

He could practically feel the blush on his face as she called him out like that. "It was, uh... complicated," he replied after a moment recovering. "... it was a... relationship of convenience. Or I guess a more casual term was, we were fuck buddies. We never hung out outside of work, though... well, on our off-weeks, anyway. She would disappear, never respond to my messages, but she was always there when I returned. Which is fine, meant she was a diligent employee, I guess, but I always kinda wished I could've pursued more with her."

She nodded in understanding. "There aren't many people I like here at Mesa Verde, Rylan. At least, not many people that I'm not paid to be friendly toward," she admitted to him with a weary smile. "You're the first person I've met in a while that wasn't some huge science nerd, or a business suit wearing yes-man, or with an enormous ego. To be honest, you're the first person that's come here in a long time that's gone against the grain. It hasn't made you a lot of friends in CMI's administration, myself notwithstanding, but if it makes you feel better, the CEO has had nothing but positive things to say about you and your performance."

"I appreciate that, but I know that I'm not the smartest man in the room. Even when I'm alone," he joked, which earned him another giggle from her. "Anyway. Hey." He decided now was the perfect time to take his shot. Her eyebrows rose and she looked at him expectantly once again. "Look, we both clearly like each other, I'm sure it's been a while since we've both had a good partner we can trust. Why don't we spend the night together?"

Her eyes locked with his eyes for several long, quiet moments, then seemed to be reading his face, and he almost thought maybe she was mad at him for suggesting it. Then, she smiled. "Yeah, okay. Why not?" She slipped off the bed as she made her way to a stand, heels clacking on the stone floor as she walked casually to the open door. She slapped the button to shut and lock the door manually, turned to him, and began to disrobe.

She started with her heels, of which she kicked off with relative ease. With her bare feet on the cool, somewhat rough stone floor, she began to cross the room back to him, but incredibly slowly. Each footstep she made, something was removed from her body. First was her shirt, buttoned down slowly on purpose, before it was tossed aside recklessly. Next was her bra, a surprisingly lacey black affair, which she tossed toward him, a seductive smirk on her face as she did.

He caught the bra, and noted that it smelled much as she did. He caught a good whiff of the woman's perfume, something he hadn't been able to appreciate since she rarely got close enough for him to do so, but now it was all there for him to savor. A little cardamom, sandalwood, cedarwood, and leather. He gently set the bra aside so he could continue to watch her little show. His attention went to her breasts, now that they were properly exposed, and he wondered how she kept them hidden, as they were much larger than he'd imagined. Probably not as perky as Kim's, if he had to guess, but certainly larger. Her nipples and areola were also darker than he'd anticipated, which made him ponder if she had Spanish ancestry.

Once he was done with the bra, she undid her khaki pants, pulling them down over her hips just enough for gravity to take over and allow them to fall into a pile at her feet. She stepped out of them as her next two steps, and his gaze went down to her black lace panties. Not quite lingerie, which the bra wasn't quite either, but clearly made to be attractive to someone else and not usually for casual wearing. Unless she just liked the feel of it against her skin, but he didn't consider that for too long because it just wasn't important.