The woman sat back in her chair, folding her arms across her chest. “Is this some game to you? Working people have things to do besides have their time wasted by rich fools playing jokes on us.”
Tanis finally raised her head and looked at the recruiter.
“No, ma’am. I really want to do this. I…I spent some time playing at being an autonomous servitor recently, and I kinda liked it. We docked here at Europa, and I was looking at places I could apply. The option to work at the Blue Lagoon was there, and I thought it would be a lot of fun.”
“Miss Claire, if you think that working a job like we have listed for the Blue Lagoon is going to be fun, you have no idea what you’re even talking about, and despite your apparent desire to be an automaton, you would not be well-suited for the job.”
<She is totally not buying this,> Darla groaned. <She’s right, she’s…she’s deep in gambling debt!>
<Oh ho!> Tanis exclaimed before stepping around the chair and sitting in it.
“Is this where you try to brow-beat me?” the woman asked.
“No,” Tanis shook her head. “You’re right, I have no idea what it’s like to work at a place like the Blue Lagoon—or anywhere other than my own companies—but I really want to find out. You’re right about the automaton bit…it excites me—which is odd, because I behave like an emotionless machine when I do it.”
“Huh,” the recruiter chuckled. “Honesty…that’s refreshing. I still don’t see how this would work. You don’t have any of the required skills—”
“I have money,” Tanis interrupted. “I’d pay you…two—”
<Ten.>
“Ten times your recruitment finder’s fee.”
The woman’s eyes grew wide as saucers, and her breathing quickened. “Ten?”
Tanis nodded.
The woman pursed her lips and looked down at her displays before glancing back up at Tanis. “That’s quite the…incentive. But I have my reputation to—”
“Fifteen.”
<Damn…Harm better reimburse us; this is getting expensive, even for me.>
“Okay,” the woman drew the word out as though she were convincing herself. “But I don’t think that you’d do well as either of their standard openings. People like to talk to the mermaids and octowomen. Being pleasant and helpful in customer service situations while getting treated like crap by…well…people like you, Miss Claire, is a rare skill.”
“What are you saying?” Tanis asked.
“Well, I’m going to pitch a new idea to them and see what they think.”
* * * * *
When Tanis regained consciousness in the medcenter—one that Darla had carefully selected and then bribed to do the work and hide the fact that Claire was far more augmented than she purported to be, not to mention that she had an AI—the first thing she did was blurt out, “How bad is it?”
<You know…all things considered…I think it turned out pretty well.>
“ ‘Pretty well’ is far from encouraging, Darla.”
Tanis’s hearing seemed off, and her voice sounded strange. She opened her eyes, which also felt odd, as though her eyelids were far too heavy, and saw that she was in a recovery room with the lights dimmed and soft music playing.
<Well, the staff manager at the Blue Lagoon sent up some last-minute alterations after you went under, so things aren’t quite the same as they were going to be.>
“Darla….”
<You kinda look like a giant, silver squid.>
Tanis didn’t wait any longer. She held up her hand—which was a tentacle—and flushed out a passel of nano to get a view of her body.
“Oh wow. I’m like…an automaton silver squid.”
Her body was once again silver, but this time, she could tell it wasn’t a mirrorsheath, but rather a new skin. Her torso was mostly unchanged, but from the hips down, her body was simply a mass of very long tentacles. Twelve, if she counted correctly. Likewise, her arms were gone, and sprouting from each shoulder were four tentacles. Her face was nearly featureless, barring large, round eyes and a thin mouth slit.
Atop her head were another dozen tentacles.
“OK…. One: they cut my arms and legs entirely off, and two: how do I move!? Who could ever manage this many limbs?!”
<Good thing you’ve got me to lend you a hand.>
“Oh yeah, you’re so funny, Darla. This is the last time I let you get me modded while I’m unconscious. Why all these extra changes, anyway?”
<I think the Blue Lagoon’s staff manager has a tentacle fetish, and you were a bit too eager to get the job.>
Tanis switched to the Link. <Next mission we go on, it needs to be one where I just have to shoot stuff. This is getting ridiculous.>
<Considering that you’re about to spend the foreseeable future at the bottom of the ocean, it’s not bad, though. I bet once you master all those limbs, you’re going to be able to swim really quickly.>
Lifting the same ‘arm’ she had the first time, Tanis pushed herself upright, the motion confirming that her hipbone was at least still present, and the two thickset tentacles below her waist were neurally mapped to her legs. She stretched one out to see if she could somehow walk on it, but managing the three-meter length proved difficult.
As she flopped the elongated limb on the floor, trying to curl it up beneath her, the door opened and the private clinic’s lead doctor, a tall, dark-haired woman named Mauve, stepped in.
“Ah, Miss Claire, I saw that you were awake. I hope you and Darla are pleased with my work. You’re quite the masterpiece, if I do say so myself.”
Tanis glared at Mauve, but the woman seemed to be genuinely excited. “Yeah, I suppose this is impressive,” Tanis almost gritted out.
“You have no idea! May I use images and sims of this work to show other clients? I think I may find myself doing a few similar jobs in the future.”
“Umm…I don’t know, Doctor Mauve….”
“I swear, I’ll keep your identity a secret. No one will know you want to be a servant, Claire.”
“One month,” Tanis said, raising a tentacle. “No one knows about this for four weeks. I can’t have someone showing up and ruining my fun.”
“OK!” Mauve nodded rapidly. “I can do that.”
<You think this will take a month?>
<No, I just want to be on the other side of the Sol System before anyone can even guess that this was me.>
IN THE WATER
STELLAR DATE: 03.05.4084 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: Chora Dive Tube, Europa
REGION: Jupiter, Jovian Combine, OuterSol
Tanis had to admit that once she was in the water, everything worked a lot better.
She spun her tail-tentacles in a clockwise rotation, the motion driving her body down through the water, while she used her arm-tentacles for stabilization.
Luckily for her, Darla had picked a good doctor, and Mauve knew her work. She’d connected all the new limbs to Tanis’s existing neural network at the point where her natural body ended and the synthetic began.
Each limb was mapped to a preexisting part of Tanis’s body, so she just had to remember what did what.
Controlling her tail-tentacles was easy because the two largest were mapped to her legs, while the other ten were mapped to her toes. Her arms were trickier because, there, two of her tentacles were mapped to two fingers each.
She hadn’t managed to gain any meaningful control of the ones on her head, and had left those to Darla to deal with.
However, Tanis was barely even considering that as she propelled herself deeper and deeper into Europa’s cool waters.
Granted, the water in the Chora Dive Tube was heated to a balmy twenty degrees, as opposed to the near-freezing water this close to the moon’s ice-shell.
Anchored into the ice above were massive illumination panels that lit the surrounding water for kilometers, as well as the dive tube, which contained hundreds
of people of all shapes and sizes, as well as small, personal submarines.
Outside the tube, larger craft plied the depths, traveling to and from the surface city of Chora’s Station, built atop the moon’s crust.
The lift ride down through twenty kilometers of ice had felt slightly unnerving, as she considered that much mass over her head, but as soon as she slipped into the water, Tanis couldn’t help but feel perfectly at home.
The tube’s first stop was Chora’s Height, a platform city just four kilometers below the surface. The lights of the city filtered up through the water like it was a hazy dream, and Tanis wondered what it would be like to live in such a place, with what must feel like endless darkness below.
She knew there were deeper cities, but it was not possible to swim to such depths without a pressure suit. Even though Europa’s gravitational pull was only one eighth that of Earth’s, the pressure at the distant, hundred-kilometer-deep ocean floor would crush all but the strongest hulls.
A group of women swam by, all with long tails and monofins. Most had an obvious mid-tail bend as they swam, belying legs and knee-joints beneath, but a few swam with their tails swishing sinuously side to side, meaning they’d had their legs altered—or removed.
Despite the fact that some of the women were still bipedal underneath, none wore any breathing apparatuses, as gills were evident on the sides of their necks.
Two turned and stared at Tanis as they drifted past, their wide eyes and smiles showing that they were clearly impressed with her level of modification. She waved, and the pair gave bubbly laughs before returning the gesture and swimming off to rejoin their friends.
Tanis did not have gills, thankfully; instead, her breathing apparatus was her skin, which, for all intents and purposes, functioned as a single lung, drawing oxygen out of the water all around her. In addition, once she’d hit the water, her lungs had filled with a gel to keep them from compressing under the pressure.
Doctor Mauve had said that Tanis had received one of the best diveskins money could buy. It was able to easily supply her with all her oxygen needs, and handle depths to twenty kilometers.
The doctor had gone on to explain that her human eyes were still present beneath her large, ocular coverings, but it had been necessary to remove her ears and nose—as well as fill in her sinuses—to avoid pressure-related issues.
Though it appeared that Tanis had a thin, lipless mouth, it was really a facsimile that no longer connected to her throat, using vibrating chords to provide speech, both in air and under water.
<You seem to be enjoying this a lot,> Darla commented. <Which relieves me to no end.>
<Were you worried I’d hate it and want to tear you out of my head?>
<Well…maybe nothing that extreme, but yeah. I’m riding along with your synthetic nervous system a bit, too. I’ll admit, for all my talk of getting a body, I’ve never really seriously considered it until now. The thought of just walking around in two dimensions seems so limiting after this.>
<I don’t disagree,> Tanis replied as she twisted and twirled through the water.
As she flitted back and forth through the dive tube, starting to master fine motor control, she noticed a pod of bottlenose dolphins swimming along outside it. She spotted seven cows and five pups, plus one bull trailing behind to keep an eye on the pod.
She could see their mouths opening, signaling that they were talking, but she couldn’t hear them. She attempted to sign to them, but couldn’t manage any of the correct shapes with her four tentacles.
<I wish I could go out there, I’d love to talk to them. The vocalization system Doctor Mauve made is preloaded with their full sound library.>
<You sure?> Darla asked with a laugh. <Dolphins eat squids.>
<Seriously, Darla, I’m a bit bigger than a regular squid. Tentacle to tentacle, I’m almost five meters. Plus, I look like I’m made of metal.>
<I see two orcas out there. I bet they’d be up for a good silver squid snack.>
<Most of these dolphins have the Link. Those orcas are probably noted philosophers or something.>
Tanis managed to make the hello symbol with her tentacles, and the dolphins responded with the standard up-side swipe in response.
She was about to signal goodbye and move back into the main flow of the dive tube when someone named ‘Gerald’ reached out to her.
<I’ve not seen you before, Silversquid, are you new to these waters?>
Beyond the dive tube’s clear wall, the bull had swum closer, his eyes peering at her curiously.
<I am, yes. Though I’ve explored the depths of the Melas Chasma with your cousins on Mars before.>
Gerald gave a bob of his head. <I should like to test the sounds of Mars’s waters someday—thick though they may be.>
<The echoes from the deep there are like the world thunder here on Europa,> Tanis replied. <Though their timbre is not so sonorous.>
<You’re well versed for someone new to these waters,> Gerald replied. <You do your people proud. Though with your shimmering skin and many tails, I do wonder if you really are a human. If I could smell you, I’d know.>
<At present, there is not much human flesh in me—though this form is not my preference, it does feel delightful in your light and airy waters. I’m curious, Gerald, what brings you to Chora? I had been led to believe that your people find the dive tubes and areas beneath the surface cities to be too loud.>
Gerald’s lips turned down in the half-grimace of his kind. <You are not wrong about that, but the pups wanted to see the tube, as well as the surface. They dove through the air until they could barely swim.>
<Then you should definitely bring your pod to Mars someday. They could sail through the air for days on end, in open oceans with only the sky above and deep blue below.>
A chuckle from Gerald came across the Link. <They were wary of the hole in the ice, even though the surface was far, far above. I don’t know how well they’d handle sky.>
<Have you seen it?>
<Once. I went to Venus many, many years ago. Though their waters were warm and soothing, I disliked the gravity. Here in Europa, we fly through the deep.>
<I understand,> Tanis said while twirling around, nearly entangling herself in her arm-tentacles.
<Silly Silversquid, you should not have changed your body so much. Though you do look beautiful, those orcas may mistake you for a snack.>
<Told you,> Darla said privately.
<Are they native?> Tanis asked.
Gerald laughed again, his mouth jerking open in a wide smile. <Oh, Silversquid, I’m playing with you. Sylanus and Jusari would never eat a human. You have too much metal in you.> He gave her a slow wink and laughed again.
<You never did say what actually brought you to the surface,> Tanis prompted.
The bull’s eyes narrowed, and his smile disappeared. <I was lodging a protest in person with the SSF office of treaty enforcement. That the oligarch has been able to build his noxious den of foolishness in the midst of our home is unconscionable.>
<I was surprised as well to hear that there was a casino in the Sargasso Mountains,> Tanis replied. <It is to my shame that such is my destination.>
Gerald jerked away from the far side of the dive tube, a suspicious eye narrowed and glaring. <And at first it seemed as though you were a friend of the sea, Silversquid. I have found you on the sky-dweller’s networks. You are quite wealthy; you are going there to hand over your money to the oligarch in exchange for time in his house of decadence.>
For reasons she couldn’t quite identify, Tanis didn’t want Gerald to think ill of her.
<I have a sand-covered reason for going, and I did not expect to travel there until even a few days ago. It saddens me that I must spend time in a place that intrudes on your home’s peace and beauty.>
The dolphin continued t
o eye her for a few long moments before responding. <I wish you calm waters, Silversquid, but I hope you are not surrounding me with your pod’s breath. You are well-spoken for a skydweller, even one who takes on absurd shapes for pleasure.>
<Calm waters and may the rossby waves carry you home safely,> Tanis said in farewell.
Gerald gave her another of his judging gazes, and then nodded. <May they not uproot your pod.>
With that, he swam off, rushing to catch up to his cows and pups, who had moved on ahead.
<You must have researched the Europan dolphins a lot to know their localized salutations,> Darla said as Tanis moved back into the main downward stream, the city below now only a kilometer away.
<It didn’t take that long,> she replied as she increased the rotation of her tail-tentacles and picked up speed. <I’m sure you could tell that most of their phrases are the same as on Mars—albeit with slight twists. Though I’ve never spoken to one over the Link before; it’s always been through signs or their vocalizations. They sound less…foreign this way.>
<Makes sense. He was using your language, not the other way around.>
<I suppose. I do wonder if it’s because his people have the Link, and the dolphins of Mars are natural.>
<Well, natural-ish.>
<You know what I mean.>
* * * * *
Though the city of Chora’s Height was well within the safe pressure range for even unmodified humans, its many sections were still covered in domes that, while not removing water, lowered the pressure to make it less onerous to decompress from.
Unlike the deep cities, which were entirely aired, platform cities like Chora’s Height saw many of their buildings without air at all, the humans who lived within modified to spend their entire lives in water.
From what Tanis had learned, many ocean dwellers in Europa never even ventured to the surface. As much as she tried to appreciate the idea, the thought of spending an entire life never seeing the stars was one that saddened her. The light of the galaxy was a beautiful thing, one she didn’t think she could ever do without.