Mermaid Cyberpunk

Ariadne

I knew not to trust a human. So many of her kind had been tricked, fooled, ruined by them. It was common knowledge, unforgettable for someone like her. And yet, there he was... drowning.. a human man.. and I was seriously considering saving him.

Why this one was different from the others I had watched die, was a mystery, even to me. But somehow he was different. Nothing physically, just a feeling I had.

So, I did the most cliche thing for a Siren to do. I rescued him. Ew.

And then I did something more my style. I abandoned him on a deserted island. I'm not a saint okay? I've lived long enough to know the cruelness of man. I'm sure some of them were *nice*, but from my experience, evil originated in the land of man, not Sirens. My sisters of the Sea were pure love and beauty and kindness and light. Darkness started with man and even though I saved this human, I was happy to watch him waste away to nothing on an island in the South Pacific.

I waited a week to go check on him... Look, I have other things going on. When you've lived as a mythical creature for this long, you've got other things going on. There's this saying we have, Siren sisters, which is hard to translate exactly but goes along to something of the effect of - If yonder human male, is still alive after a week, ye should at the very least go and check on him.. but do NOT make contact.

And so I did. I was a bit surprised, although not at all relieved, to find him still living. In fact, he seemed to be doing surprisingly well, considering the near drowning and mouth to mouth resuscitation required to keep him alive a week ago.

From my view in the shallow lagoon I could see he'd found a way to shelter himself and create a fire to keep warm. Humans, being warm blooded creatures, were always fretting about warmth and heat. Us Sirens can live in the Antarctic if we so choose, and actually, some of us do, mostly the very ancient ones who want to minimize any chance of contact with humans. Us younger ones though, we're more what some might consider reckless. Like me, for example, saving this human. Some would banish me for it. Thus, I decided I would not be telling any of my sisters about the man I had saved and then promptly abandoned.

I was curious how the man started the fire so quickly. I'd not gotten a good look when I'd rescued him, other than to make sure he had all four limbs (gross, no tail). But he had felt heavier than I'd expected, and I'm one of the stronger Sirens. I workout with the Orcas every few months - reckless, remember? (every once in awhile one will sneak a little nibble if you aren't paying attention) It keeps me toned and honed on my escape skills. Humans, especially the world as they've changed it now, would love to capture us. Some have been, captured that is. Every since the age of AI and hyper-tech, even we mythical creatures have come into the light. We can no longer hide on the fringe of human society like we were once able to...

But this one, he was heavy... suspiciously heavy. Maybe I'd rescued a Cyborg. That would be ironic, considering their guild is the one who's overthrown most of mankind's former "Countries" .. At least I think that's what they were called. Being a Siren was easier, in my esteemed opinion. We had Ancients, who were lucky or smart enough to survive into extreme old age (although physically they look the same as the younger ones); and we had everyone else. We all speak the same language, which makes it easier when you're trying to produce sound under water after all, and though we look vastly different, we love everyone - the few thousands of us that remain- as sisters.

Man, or maybe part robot thing, was sitting down, maybe even sleeping so I inched a little closer and scooched behind a large lava rock that was jutting out of the cove to examine him better.

I hadn't been completely exposed to air in about a week, and for a moment the familiar rush of oxygen hit my lung/gill ports with a salty sea breeze so sweet, that another memory from long ago was conjured from the depths of my brain. Another Siren, another human man. A tragedy best left forgotten. But when my tail with it's iridescent green scales twitched involuntarily, it was hard to not remember another's tail who'd looked so similar to mine once. In fact, other than our hair color, hers a blood red and mine an aqua blue, everything about us had once been exactly the same. Well, not quite. But I tried forcing that memory from my brain and coming back to the present. And turned by gaze back to the form on the beach. Which was not where it was supposed to be. Uh-oh.

**********

Dion

It had to be the mermaid. I knew I'd seen her, but I'd been delirious. There's no way I could have survived the bombing AND the ship going down. In fact, I am sure I wasn't meant to survive, and yet here I was, on an island in the South Pacific being stalked, and that's putting it lightly, by a Siren of the sea. Talk about luck. But if she was the one who had saved me, surely she wouldn't try to kill me now... right?

It was time to find out. She had finally emerged from the water, her long, sleek body glinting in the sun and catching my eye as I had started to dose off. Instead, I was wide awake and waiting to figure out what I needed to do now. I wasn't a wait-around-to-find-out-if-someone-was-my-enemy type of guy. Or maybe I was but the machine part of my brain had already calculated the risks and now was the time to strike.

I could barely see her as she'd moved behind a rock jutting from the sea, but I could see enough of the tail to know she was still there. Time for the element of surprise. I used all my training from the guild to slowly but efficiently creep to the other obscured side of the rock. I was almost there when I looked down and saw half of a large seashell with a sharp enough looking side to it - a weapon - and pulled it carefully from the surf.

She had just realized I was gone when I pounced and grabbed her from behind landing hard on her tail and shoving the seashell to her throat. I was about to slice, when some words came out of her mouth that caught me off guard.

"I bloody knew it." she'd cursed a few other very explicit words and then right when I relaxed my grip she whacked me with her insanely powerful tail and knocked me off balance into the water.

I was flailing about trying to locate my seashell weapon when I heard her melodious voice behind me yet again say, "Looking for this?" with a cocky, smug tone to it.

I turned around slowly and decided (calculated) that now would be a not great time for another attack. The sea siren was holding my only weapon, or at least the only one I wanted her to know about, ten feet away in the surf looking quite angry and very beautiful. Of course, Siren's beauty was part of their thing right? That's how they'd lured multiple humans to their deaths over the eons after all..

"Nope, that's not mine." I said with a sheepish grin spreading across my face.

"No S***, it's not yours. It's mine, I put it there as a warning. It's my fan."

"Doesn't work very well, huh?" I could have sworn I saw a little corner of her mouth upturn.

"It does... sometimes.. work... occasionally. Look, it doesn't matter. I saved your worthless human life you know? Why are you trying to attack me? SO Typical. I knew I should have let you die."

Here is where I couldn't disagree with her. "You should have. It would have been better for us both." I could tell the minute the words left my mouth that she'd been expecting something different. Maybe gratitude or indignation.. certainly not me agreeing I should have died. But, it was the truth. My mission had been clear and as far as I knew, I'd accomplished it. But I wasn't supposed to survive. I'd be evidence too. My left eye had automatically recorded the events of the bombing and I was my own witness to the crimes I'd committed. What to do now?

**********

Ariadne

Well, this cyborg is not what I was expecting. Clearly a cyborg, or at least half his brain and right leg had been bionicized... but also suicidal?

And yet... here he was still surviving on this island.. so, maybe not 100% suicidal? What in the world had I gotten myself into with this one?

I glared at him. Remembering the feel of the sharp seashell fan against my neck. He'd no way of knowing that skin is thicker than a sharks. Not much can pierce a Siren's skin. He was going to try though, wasn't he?

"TYPICAL. Just SO Typical! Well, that's what I get for listening to that voice in my head. Please know I now instantly regret saving your life, and should have let you drown like all the others!" I practially am screaming at him/it with my lilting and inhumanly beautiful voice.

"Others?" he asked with a tone of mild curiosity.

"I've been around the seas for awhile. Many have a let sink to the ocean floor. You felt different. Clearly I'm an idiot." I had already started to slowly back away into the deeper surf and away from this dangerous and ungrateful cyborg when he pounced on me for the SECOND time. I must be out of shape, because he wrestled me into the sand and dragged me to his shelter/hut. Fantastic. Just. Great.

*********

Dion

Well, this was a pickle. I normally let my computer side of my brain make the decisions for me these days. It made things so much easier, no emotions involved, no feelings. But it felt like something had short-circuited... maybe from all the salt water? I just couldn't seem to calculate the right thing to do. I was able to safely secure the Siren, although she did manage to bite me once or twice in the process with her sharp teeth, luckily she kept getting my bionic leg.

"Look, you can stop glaring daggers at me, Siren. And know that your call won't work. I have computer generated audio, so don't even try it."

More glaring, murderous glaring. Something about this female, mermaid though she was, excited me. She was fierce, and ready to kill me. Maybe I needed that. I had been trying to think what to do now that I hadn't actually been destroyed in the explosion. And this siren couldn't be released on the off chance she might tell someone, or worse, be working for the enemy (you never knew what was possible these days after all).

I didn't really want to harm her, and I wasn't sure yet if I needed her to harm me. So, captive it was.

************

Ariadne

Two weeks had passed since I had rescued the cyborg, "Dion" was his name but I preferred to call him "cyborg" since he didn't seem to like that.

One week since I'd abandoned him on this little island, then another week since he'd taken me captive, in a plot twist I was not expecting. After the first day though, he'd released me and told me to kill him. Which, of course, being in the habit of not doing what I'm told, I did not do. I did swim away and stayed away for 24 hours. I'd had to hold my pee that entire time and was severely dehydrated but mostly just intrigued by the man-bot who wanted to die.

So, I came back the next day. And while we may not exactly be friends, I don't think he plans to harm me. I've been bringing him fish, because even though pieces of him are machines, he apparently still needs to eat some, although maybe not as often as a human.

"Hey Borg! I yell and I pull myself off the the beach and up to his cozy little hut. I have some fish in my mouth so my voice is mumbled and probably sounds more like "Mrff MERRR!"

He emerges from the hut, his tawny hair dishelleved and his one human eye twinkling. The robot one is metallic so it twinkles all the time.

"I brought your dinner, like a good merMAID. Get it? MAID? As in, like a maid who brings you your dinner? Get it?? Bahahha." I continue laughing at my own human humor as he pulls me to a little wading pool to the side of the hut that we created (dug out and filled with ocean water) a day ago.

"You're a dork." He says but I think I can hear a smile in his voice.

"You're welcome."

***************

Dion

I've been on the island for four weeks now, and things have... changed.. a bit. The Siren (I call her that instead of her name, which is Ariadne) has grown on me, a lot. And continues to keep me alive. I have tried fishing but because of the weight of my bionics, I can't submerge in the water or go too far out into the surf. I'm not as worried about dying. It seems unlikely that the guild would even be looking at this point. So, my brain has calculated my best chance at survival and happiness is to remain right here with my mermaid friend for as long as she finds me interesting..

*************

Ariadne

I wasn't sure like Dion, that the guild had stopped looking for him. In fact, I guessed the opposite was true, after some of the things he'd revealed to me over the last two months. But I had a plan, a crazy one, that much was true but it was better than no plan in my opinion which was how Dion's super smart computer brain had decided to bet... Nope, call me over-prepared but I'd come to value our relationship too much, and my grumpy half-human robot man too much.

So, I disappeared for three days to get everything I needed. I didn't tell Dion, mostly because I figured he'd find my fears baseless and try to talk me out of leaving. I was not expecting his reaction when I returned.

"Hi honey, I'm home!" I shouted at the top of my lungs.

*Oommpphhh* was the sound I made as he tackled me to the ground, harder than I was expecting.

"Where did you go?? What happened?!" Dion's eyes are boring down into mine with a fierceness I've never seen in him. "I just knew something bad had happened to you. Or maybe the guild..." He trails off in an evem more unusual tone for him.. sadness.

"Okay, look, I'm fine. I missed you too, but I had to go take care of somethings and I didn't want you to worry!"

"Oh, so disappearing for three days without a word was your way of keeping me from worrying? Jesus, Ariadne... "

And then he kissed me. And it was perfect. Exactly as I imagined it would feel.

And then the explosions started. Someone was blowing up our island.

*********

Dion

At first I thought the explosions were from kissing Ariadne, she really was like a fairly tale so my human brain must have made that connections. But then I could hear her cursing in that beautiful voice of hers and her tugging me, of all things, towards the ocean. She only turned to look at me when I pulled back. We were almost to the surf.

"What are you doing?!" she was screaming at me, what else was new?

"I can't go in the water remember? Go! Get out of here. It just drones and they likely haven't registered you, they're just tracking my tracer. GO, Ariadne!" I was throwing her over my back and about to fling her into the ocean.

"You IDIOT!" she yelled, but in anger, not hopelessness like I was expecting. "Why do you think I was gone? I told you before, I have other thigns going on. Get in the water and hold your breath!!"

I had one milisecond to decide as another laser torpedo came careening directly at me. It turns out my human brain does still have some executive function, because a half-second later I'm fifty feet underwater being pulled deeper into the depths by a Siren as a huge explosion rocks the island we were seconds ago standing on..

And then I see it. A sub, a pretty high-tech one, probably the latest model, waiting for us below the outer reef of the cove.

Once I'm through the airlock and getting my breathing under control I realize this is no ordinary submarine. It's somehow fitted for Siren and humans and it's already whisking us away and into the abyss.

"How did you do this?" I stared at Ariadne until she looked at me.

"I know people."

"Hmmm. Who are you?"

"Well, let's just say .... I'm well-connected."

"Ariadne..."

"Poseidon... okay? He's... well, my dad." And there's that sheepish smile I've come to both fear and love.

"... Okay. Well, then, only one more question." Her quizzical face finally lifts to meet my gaze directly.

"And what's that, Cyborg?" The challenge in her melodious voice is clear.

"Can I have another kiss?"

************

The END