Mermaid Pirate Dispatch

Doctor John Peters was awake exactly fifteen seconds before his alarm sounded, staring at the ceiling and mentally reviewing his plans for the day. He shut off the alarm before its first blaring calls could echo off the walls of his tiny living quarters aboard the Looking Glass, a private research vessel he’d chartered with his own personal funds.

Sliding out of a bed so thin it was almost just a cot, he went to the head where he showered and brushed his teeth, exiting the shower at precisely six oh eight in the morning. He drank a glass of water and made his way to the room next door where he’d set up his office.

The sea was calm and for a moment he forgot he was on a ship out in the middle of the Pacific ocean. He sat at the desk in his office staring at his laptop screen. Six months of research and he was still very much in the same position he’d been in six months before. No amount of observational data was going to save him from being the laughing stock of the scientific community. He had to get closer. He needed to…

The entire hull of the ship rang out and his heart leaped into his throat. Another sharp clang sent the teeth in his gums rattling. A third rap followed quickly. Three sharp bangs like a giant church bell being used as a door knocker. He sat, frozen, clenching his jaw and looking around blankly. The dull, low tone echoed in his skull while he collected himself. It was just himself, the ship’s captain, and a crewmate onboard. He decided to go upstairs and investigate.

Irritated at the interruption to his routine, he poked his head up into the bridge, looking around as he climbed the steep stairs. The bridge was empty. He furrowed his brow and went out onto the deck. He was met with a blast of cool morning sea air and the distant whisperings of a sunrise boiling up from the horizon. The deck was empty as well.

“Captain Hardin?” he called out. The ship remained peacefully still in the water, but the surface of the sea was not smooth. He stepped toward the starboard deck railing and peered overboard just in time to catch a glimpse of something large splashing away.

A lightning bolt struck his heart. “They’ve never come this close to the boat before,” he muttered, quickly crossing over to the port bow. Sure enough, an elegant, slender shadow slipped silently under the glassy surface of the sea leaving a trail of gently rippling waves in its wake. By the shape of the fluke he narrowed the visitor down to either Megan or Sarah, but in the low light he couldn’t make out the color of the tail so it was impossible to know for sure.

His heart was racing. This was huge. Why were they venturing so close? He had known for some time that they were aware of his presence, but they’d always kept their distance. He rushed below deck again and threw himself back into his chair at the desk. He quickly pulled up the notes from the day before and gazed through the screen. Of course he knew what he’d written, but he felt he could think more clearly if he had the record before him.

“The visitor…” he muttered to himself.

His observation methods were lackluster due to the care his subjects took, and he was convinced that the pod knew exactly what a camera was. Every time they saw a lens of any kind they were gone in a flash. So despite the times during the day he had spotted them teasing him at the surface, the best he could do was categorize the 16 pod members by tail color and fluke shape. With radar he could track their movements underwater though, and yesterday he had recorded some extremely erratic behavior when a 17th, extra blip had appeared on the scope. It gave off a similar signature to the others in the pod, so he classified it as a visitor, but that was all he knew so far.

And now someone had knocked on the hull of the ship!

He dashed out of the office and went straight to the radar scope on the bridge. Sure enough, all 16 of the usual pod members were nearby, and a lone extra body was floating about a hundred yards to the north. He looked around excitedly, hoping to get the crew member’s help launching the remote sub, but the bridge was still empty.

“Where did those guys go?” he wondered aloud. The captain had shown him how to operate the ship’s PA system, so John walked over to it and grabbed the mic. “Captain? Please report to the bridge.” The loudspeakers rattled and crackled throughout the hull, but what followed was a silence that grew more and more eerie with every passing second. He tried again and again, but nobody reported to the bridge.

Doctor John Peters walked back out onto the deck in an excited daze. Sunrise was in full bloom, casting great arcs of dazzling colors across a cloudless sky. Sea salt filled his nostrils and he found himself gazing out at the ocean in the direction of the pod and their visitor. He couldn’t see anything, they were too far away, but he couldn’t help but imagine what they might be up to.

A bubbling trail of small ripples caught his eye as the rising sun glinted off the tiny peaks slowly emanating out from an unseen source. It had the look of an approaching torpedo, but with fewer bubbles in the wake. His heart jumped and he took a step back toward the door to the bridge, but suddenly the trail disappeared. Curious, he leaned toward the railing, looking down into the depths of the vast ocean below. Slowly, a shadow appeared, then it began to take shape. It grew gradually at first, then violently exploded at the surface as a blur of hair and flesh and scales blasted into the sky dragging a spray of cold, foamy water behind it.

“I’m coming aboard!” a girlish voice called out. “Catch me!”

Squinting, John looked up just in time to watch the girl’s body come crashing down on him. The two slammed onto the wooden deck of the ship in a salty puddle, her fish tail slapping wildly around them.

The air was filled with her joyful laughter. John had managed to wrap his arms around most of his head, preventing any serious damage. He rolled over under the girl’s dainty weight and found himself face to face with the most lovely, cherubic woman he’d seen in his entire life.

“Hello,” she cooed, smiling. Her long, wet golden hair hung down around her face like a curtain, shutting them off from the rest of the world. Her breath smelled faintly of seafood and salt, and her nose brushed lightly against his before she pushed away and rolled off him.

He sat up and stared as her fluke twitched playfully and she grinned at him. She gave the impression of being nothing more than a rambunctious teenager, but somehow also had the air of someone ancient and wise.

He shook his head and checked the fluke and tail color. “Sarah,” he exclaimed, taking in as many details as he could about her appearance. He noted the gradual blend between human flesh and fish scales around where the thigh muscles would attach to the hip bones. He observed that despite her youthful face, her upper body had all the development of a fully grown adult woman, though without a hint of shame or even the concept of modesty.

“Sarah?” she repeated, confused.

“Oh,” he stuttered. “I assigned names to keep track of the members of your pod. I’m sorry, I should have asked what your name is.”

“I’m Crystal,” she said, smiling. She turned her hips and reclined on an elbow, stretching out her tail and throwing her hair back.

John was immediately entranced by her beauty. It was no wonder sailors were so easily dragged down to their deaths by these sirens of the deep.

She laughed. “I know I cast a spell on land men, but I didn’t come for that. We need your help!” She looked down at her tail with a hint of frustration and shook it, splashing water off onto the deck. She glanced over her shoulder at the rising sun and sighed impatiently. “I need to dry off,” she muttered.

Overwhelmed with a deep desire to do anything she asked, he closed his open mouth and scrambled to his feet. “Just a moment,” he said, disappearing into the bridge. He rushed below deck and grabbed a couple of towels from the laundry room, sprinting back up the stairs with them. He tossed the towels to Crystal, heaving to catch his breath after the sudden exertion.

She caught the towels and looked at them in confusion for a moment, but a light bulb clicked on and she began rubbing them awkwardly all over her wet tail. She looked over at him approvingly, sporting a huge smile. “This is great! Thanks!”

John watched her work, and he almost didn’t notice that she seemed to be rubbing away the tail. Through some mechanism he simply couldn’t comprehend, the tail faded and revealed human legs. She slowly stood, spreading her arms wide to steady herself, and Doctor Peters gawked stupidly at her completely human body. She didn’t seem to notice as she concentrated on the deck of the ship, like a tightrope walker staring at the rope ahead.

“Excellent,” she declared once she was on her feet. “Now, like I said, we need your help!”

John slowly nodded his head but could not peel his eyes away from her perfect, athletic body. “Uh huh,” he droned, gulping down a mouthful of saliva.

She paused, finally realizing how distracted he was. Draping the towels over her shoulders she clapped loudly and scowled at him.

“What is your name?” she demanded, pursing her lips and narrowing her eyes.

His gaze drifted below the towels. “Uh huh…” he hummed absentmindedly.

She clapped again. Startled, his eyes widened and he stared blankly at her face.

“Your name?” she asked, slowly.

“Oh,” he swallowed. “I’m, uh, Doctor…”

“Doctor?” she asked sharply, watching his eyes sink below her navel. She clapped in frustration and stepped forward aggressively, getting right in his face.

He could smell her breath again, feel her warm air crashing gently into his thin t-shirt as she looked up at him, demanding his undivided attention with big, gorgeous eyes that sparkled like jades.

“John,” he spat. “Doctor John Peters.”

Her nose wrinkled and she looked down, going ever so slightly cross-eyed. “Doctor John… Peters?” Her eyes shot fiercely back up to meet his gaze. “Well, Doctor John Peters,” she began.

“Just John,” he interjected, wincing. “Sorry.” With her body mostly out of sight he could finally think straight, and his mind was racing with a billion questions. How could she speak his language? How often did she shed the tail to go on land? If not often, how could she walk so easily? What were the names of the other pod members?

“Listen John,” she said, her eyebrows slanting into deep worry. Her tone softened. “We really need your help.”

“Yes,” he said, blinking. “Of course. What can I do for you?”

She stepped back and his eyes began exploring her features again. He shook his head violently and looked away.

“I’ll be right back,” he said, rushing below deck again. He went to the laundry once more and got a thick sweatshirt and sweatpants. They’d be too large for her, but the drawstring would at least hold the pants up. He ran back upstairs taking the steps two at a time and presented her with the clothing. “I can’t focus when you’re naked. Put these on.”

She laughed and struggled into the shirt, pulling her long, frizzy hair out to let it keep drying. Then she stepped into the pants and he showed her how to pull the string tight before offering to help tie it for her. To his surprise, she expertly tied a swift bow in the string and stared at him with raised eyebrows and a smirk on her lips.

He smiled. “OK,” he said. “Your pretty face is still going to distract me, but I think I can at least listen to what you have to say now.”

She shook her head disapprovingly but grinned with delight. “Alright, fine.” She took a deep breath, the worry leeching back into her eyes. “We have a problem. A siren has come to claim our pod.”

John furrowed his brow and cocked an eyebrow. “You’re not a siren?” he asked.

“Of course not!” she shot defensively. “I’m a mermaid! There is a huge difference!” She glared at him and his stomach twisted into a knot.

“I’m sorry!” he blurted, holding his hands out. “I had no idea! In some human languages it’s all the same thing,” he winced. “I’m afraid we just don’t know very much about your kind.”

Her posture relaxed. “It’s alright,” she sighed. “I know you’re trying to learn what you can about us. That’s why I convinced my sisters not to hide from you.”

He grinned. “So you’re the one who had the whole group up here teasing me most days?”

She winked at him and smiled for a moment, then shook her head vigorously. “We’ll talk more about that later. I want you to learn a lot more about my kind, but right now we have to deal with this siren!”

“Right. So she is claiming your pod?” he asked innocently.

“Yes!” she cried. “Sirens are predators. They don’t agree with the peaceful way of the mermaid and they see themselves as the superior race. They are powerful, dangerous fighters and they often enslave whole pods of mermaids, forcing us to murder men to feed their insatiable lust for flesh.”

John watched as her eyes darted around in a panic while she explained. She began pacing and her hands became animated and lively. By the time she stopped pacing and looked at him, she was shaking.

“Huh,” he said. “So mermaids don’t drag sailors down to their death?”

“Not normally,” she sighed. “But if they are doing the bidding of a siren, then yes.” She searched John’s eyes. “The siren has already killed your friends,” she said morosely. “And now she is threatening my pod. We need you to help us defeat her. In exchange, I will teach you all about our kind, our culture, and anything you want to know.”

John took a deep breath and looked around the deck of the ship. “The captain…” he breathed, letting out a long sigh. He wondered if he had learned enough to pilot the ship on his own, but then his eyes met Crystal’s again and all of his problems melted away. Something in her eyes had ensnared him. His scientific mind refused to call it magic, but his heart had to admit that she was certainly enchanting and magical. He searched her deep, green eyes while her own pupils danced around erratically inside his. It was as though the tiny black dots of their eyeballs were somehow communicating.

Then Doctor John Peters had a horrifying, sickening realization. He was in love with this woman. Everything about her, from her doe eyes to her wild personality to her petite but powerful frame, had him fully devoted to her service. Of course he was going to risk his life for her. Of course he was going to do anything she asked. His heart didn’t belong to him anymore, it was entirely hers.

He drew in a long, deep breath and held it, working his tight jaw loose. Muttering to himself under his breath, he grumbled, “this is the stupidest thing you’ve ever done John.”

“What?” Crystal asked, surprised.

“Oh,” he sighed, “nothing.”

“Well, will you help us?”

Without hesitation he nodded. “I don’t know how I can help, but I will do anything I can.”

She smiled. “Thank you. I have a plan.”

The two went into the bridge and closed the door, taking seats by the helm. She explained her plan briefly. When she was done, she sat back and waited for him to say something.

After a long moment of thought, John laughed to himself and shook his head. “That plan,” he began, “is extremely dangerous. I could die!” He stood up from his seat. “I mean, all of this depends on a few small things going exactly right. The moment the siren deviates from your expectations, the whole thing falls apart!”

“She won’t though!” Crystal insisted. “She’s an apex predator, she is very predictable and overconfident. You have to trust me!”

His heart absolutely wanted to trust her. He could feel himself falling deeper in love with her by the minute. But the plan was reckless and dangerous. He recalled the way she had launched herself onto the boat, flinging herself at him with no backup plan should he have avoided breaking her fall.

He stared at her in disbelief, holding her eyes steadily in his gaze. His whole life had been built on careful calculations and predictability. This woman was chaotic and…

She blinked and he caught the trembling shimmer of tears welling up in her eyes. His whole body relaxed and he let out a sigh. He walked to her side and took a knee. She held her hands clasped tightly together in her lap and looked down at him with a quivering lip. He put a hand on hers and looked up into her eyes.

“Alright,” he said. “I’m putting my life in your hands. I trust you.”

She smiled and a tear burst out onto her round, soft cheek, meandering down to her jawline and leaving a shimmering trail behind. The low, bright sun reflected off the moisture as her smile broadened. “Thank you John,” she said. She took his face in her hands and leaned down, gently bringing her lips to his. He breathed in sharply through his nose and closed his eyes as she treated him to the most sensual, soft kiss he’d ever experienced.

I will die for her, he thought.

She pulled back slowly, her eyelids fluttering open. They searched each other’s eyes briefly, then she got to her feet. He stood as well and watched her walk out, pulling the sweatshirt off and stepping gracefully out of the sweatpants. She glanced back at him over her shoulder, grinning as he gawked at her, then she swiftly leaped over the rail, diving into the water with grace and confidence.

After a moment John let out a long, heavy sigh and looked around. The captain and his crewmember were gone. He was alone. And now he would wait for his rendezvous with the siren. But first, he had some work to do. He retrieved more dry towels and hid them on the deck where Crystal could find them. Then he threw a rope ladder over the side of the ship, watching as its bottom rung whipped and bounced around just above the surface of the water. Then, he went into the bridge and began pacing.

He wondered how far things would go before Crystal and her pod intervened. Would they intervene? Maybe it was all just a trap. His heart began to quicken, his cheeks burned hot red. He tugged at the neck of his shirt and went back out onto the deck to pace around in the clean, fresh breeze that was picking up outside.

After a few minutes he went below deck to wait in his quarters, as he’d been instructed to do. It turned out he didn’t have to wait long. Soon he heard the soft impacts of someone climbing up the side of the hull.

The siren.

His heart raced and a cold sweat accumulated along his hairline. The hairs on the back of his neck stood on end as the sound ceased.

She was on the deck.

His breathing was shallow and tense. He tried taking longer, slow breaths in through his nose but it was difficult. His mind was turbulent. Why had he agreed to this? He wasn’t even completely sure what he was supposed to do. He hadn’t questioned the details of her plan. Now he had a million questions and no time for answers.

He only knew one thing. He was the bait.

John heard the bridge door open and close, then the metallic steps shivered with low chimes as fleshy feet descended slowly. He was positive his heartbeat was audible now as his heart thrashed around violently in his tight chest. The door to his sleeping quarters had a round porthole window, and through it he could see the shiny black hair of a woman.

The door cracked opened and he froze. His dry eyes burned but he could not blink. His empty lungs burned but he could not breathe.

A slender, curvy woman slipped inside. Draped over her succulent body a glistening fabric held his gaze. It appeared to be as light as sea foam but as graceful and beautiful as a dress made from tiny diamonds. Its thin straps hung over strong, sensual shoulders that invited his eyes to explore everything the dress touched. He was immediately captivated by her shapes, a pang of guilt tugging desperately at his captive heart.

Only from the edges of his peripheral vision could he catch glimpses of her true nature. As he scanned the generous curves of her waist and hips he caught the fleeting sight of her sharp teeth and dark, sunken red eyes. When his looked directly into her face he was seduced by her delightful smile and innocent, longing gaze. His heartrate continued to quicken as she approached, her breath deceptively sweet on his lips as she met his face and backed him down onto the bed.

“W-w-wait,” he sputtered, trying to push her away by the shoulders. She stood back a step and regarded him dispassionately. “I don’t like to lay with nameless women. What can I call you?”

She smirked and opened her mouth. He took in a deep, sudden breath as melodic harmonies spilled from her full lips. His eyes closed softly and his brain quivered with pleasure. John dreamily opened his eyes just in time to watch her slip the shoulder straps of the dress off and move on him again, this time fully disrobed.

He was powerless against her. She was on top of him like a lioness over a bleating goat. He could feel her hot breath on his neck while her hands worked on removing his trousers. His mind was numb, as though under the influence of some drug. He found himself gazing into her eyes as she prepared to consume him like a black widow.

Suddenly her eyes went wide and the illusion faded. Her cheeks sunk in, her skin turned a sickly green, and her viciously sharp teeth were slowly covered by thin, dying lips.

He glanced down and saw the tip of a spear sticking out from her sternum with a thick glob of black blood oozing around the exit wound. The body was pulled away quickly and he lay there, stunned, while Crystal and two of her sisters helped him up from the bed.

He snapped out of it and fixed his clothing, glancing between the sisters sheepishly.

Finally, one of the sisters addressed Crystal. “Nicely done,” she congratulated, nudging her on the shoulder. “I’m really glad that worked.”

Crystal’s eyes were locked onto John’s. Without looking away, she smiled. “It was all John,” she said.

“I still don’t understand,” he admitted. “I know I was the bait, but why couldn’t you just stab her while she slept or something?”

Crystal smiled. “A siren’s skin is normally impenetrable. Only when she is preparing to mate will she let down her guard.”

“Sirens only mate a few times in their lifetime,” the third sister interjected. “Crystal here convinced this siren that you were the only man left alive for a thousand miles. She needed a man’s seed to reproduce since all mermaids and sirens are female.”

“Huh,” John smiled. “I guess Crystal has a lot to teach me.”

Crystal’s steady gaze faltered briefly as her eyes darted to her toes then back to John. “Yes I do,” she said, winking at him.

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