Swimming Without a Net (12 page)

“What the hell is she doing here?” Fred hissed.

“Don’t hit me!” Jonas shrieked, cowering away from her. “Or at least, not the face! I just had a cucumber mask treatment.” He threw his arms across his face and staggered up from the lounge chair in one oddly graceful movement. Fred resisted the urge to hook her feet between his ankles and knock him over. “I didn’t invite her, I swear! I only—”

“Told her where she could find you. Left detailed instructions ‘in case of emergency.’ This is obviously some sort of repellent romantic surprise!”

“You don’t have to make it sound like she brought the plague,” he snapped back, cautiously lowering his arms. Dr. Barb was about ten yards away and gaining; Fred could hear the shorter woman puffing as she lugged the suitcase. They didn’t have much time to finish their fight. “In fact, it’s kind of sweet, her flying all the way out here to surprise me.”

“Oh, it’s very fucking sweet, it’s fabulous, it’s wonderful!”

“Just because you’re threatened by the appearance of anyone’s romantic commitment—”

“Oh, like I give a shit about that right now, and you know it!”

“Wait. What? I know you don’t give a shit, or—”

She roared right over him. “Now not only do I have to watch my ass, all the Undersea Folk in the area have to be careful, too! And guess who’s going to get the blame for this? God
damn
it!” She kicked a lawn chair into the pool.

“Stop your whining for two seconds and try to remember that everything isn’t about
you
. The person who’ll get blamed for this is me, which is fine, because I’m the one who’s got it coming. Now quit with the temper tantrum, force a smile onto your stupid craggy gargoyle head, and make nice with my girlfriend and your boss!” Jonas forced the entire diatribe out in one hissed breath, then his face broke into a beatific smile, and he turned and spread his arms. “Honey pie! Sweetie! Oh my God, you have
no
idea what a surprise your little visit is!”

“Really?” Dr. Barb chirruped, dropping her hope chest—uh, luggage—and rushing into Jonas’s embrace. “Really, you’re not mad? I just got so lonely, and the NEA can take care of itself for a few days, and I thought it’d be fun to fly down and surprise you.” Dr. Barb looked at Fred with anxious dark eyes. “I know your family reunion is private; Jonas and I will of course stay out of your way.”

“Fam—uh, right, right. Yep. My family is…well, they’re just insane about their privacy. Almost pathological. You probably won’t see any of them the whole time you’re here.”
God willing.
“And how long
are
you here?”

“Only ’til the end of the week.”

“Come on, I’ll show you my hut. I’ll help you unpack. Could take hours,” he added over his shoulder, imparting a final “behave!” glare to Fred before they left.

Fred jumped into the pool to retrieve the lawn chair, then gave in to her tantrum and crumpled it up into a rough ball. She watched it sink into the deep end and only wished Jonas’s mangled body was sinking beside it.

“Artur, Artur!” She realized what she was doing,
cursed her stupidity, waded in, ducked her head under, and called,
Artur!

She listened hard, and heard nothing.

Artur! Hello? It’s an emergency! Artur!

Still nothing. Well, shit. She wondered what her range was. King Mekkam’s appeared to be limitless; obviously run-of-the-mill Undersea Folk had to be content with the equivalent of shouting in an empty room. Or maybe that was a hybrid thing. Maybe—

—
ttle Rika.

What? Artur? Are you coming?

Yes, Little Rika.
And she could feel him getting closer, coming into her range. Damn. She was almost getting the hang of this mermaid thing.
What ails you? Have you hurt yourself?

No such luck. My boss is here!

Your…from the aquarium on land? The woman Jonas has taken to mate?

Yes!
She saw him and realized she’d floated out over her head; he was swimming toward her with powerful strokes, strokes that gobbled the distance between them and made it look easy.
She flew out to surprise Jonas! So you’ve got to tell your dad, so he can warn everybody. Jonas will do his best to hole up with her in his hut, but she’s got to eat, and I imagine she’ll want to swim and sunbathe and, I don’t know, work on my annual review.

As you wish, Little Rika.
He reached for her and she let him, actually submitted to a hug, to being held.
Why are you so distressed, dear one? My people are well used to hiding; your Dr. Barb will not know we are there, even if we swim right beside her. This is nothing new.

It’s just…this is private. The Pelagic is private. I made them accept Jonas, and your honor made you accept Thomas. Now Dr. Barb’s here. It’s turning into a mess, and it’s all because of me.

My Rika, you are too strict with yourself, surely.

It’s just hard enough to get people to talk to me after what my dad did; now everybody’s going to know there’s another biped at the Pelagic. Good old Fred: totally dependable for traitorous behavior.

Fredrika, that is not so.
He hugged her again and stroked her back.
You are tired, I think.

And you’re condescending.

But you
are
tired,
he teased.
Only exhaustion would lead you to own problems that are not of your own making. You fret over things you cannot control, or change.

I’ve got a lot to fret over!

So you do. And now you must rest; tomorrow you have much to do.
He clasped her hand and started swimming for shore.
Come. I will take you back.

Be careful of your tail!

He actually rolled his eyes at her.

Fine, next time another stupid biped shows up at
your super secret meeting, I’m not saying a damned thing!

Oh, Little Rika. Do not tease.

One disadvantage swimming in fins had: she couldn’t kick him with her tail.

She’d actually fallen asleep. The last few days with no
sleep—followed by the stress of the Pelagic, not to mention Artur’s proposal, then the arrival of Dr. Barb, and her fight with Jonas—had fixed it so she was snoring by 9:30 p.m.

Which made it all the more annoying when someone started pounding on her door.

“G’way,” she moaned into the pillow.

Whoever it was took that as an invitation, because her door opened and she remembered…

“Why did I give you a key to my room?”

“Because you’ve been in love with me since the third grade,” Jonas promptly answered. “What? You were asleep? It’s not even ten o’clock!”

“Shut up. Go away.” Her air conditioner was clanking and wheezing in the corner, and she finally took pity on it and got up to shut it off. “Never mind; make yourself useful and open the windows.” She yanked one open herself. “What are you doing in here, anyway? Shouldn’t you be having sex?”

“Oh, please, I did it twice already. And may I add, each time with me is more fantastic than the last.”

“I actually threw up a little bit in my mouth just now,” Fred informed him.

“You don’t fool me. You’re just mad because you never got to try a slice of Jonas.”

“There it goes again! At what point does ‘throwing up in your mouth’ become just ‘throwing up’?” She crossed the room and spat in the bathroom sink.

“
Anyway
,” Jonas sighed. “Barb’s wiped from the trip, among other things.” He wiggled his eyebrows. “She’s taking a nap; we probably won’t see her again until breakfast.”

Fred realized: “Hey! I’m not speaking to you. We’re in a fight, remember?”

“Sure, I remember, but the good news is, I’ve forgiven you.”

“You’ve—!”

“I thought I’d dig you up and we’d go grab a few drinks at the bar. But you’re being your usual antisocial self, I see.”

“Mumph.”

“Man, that Tennian gal—blue hair? Blue eyes? She is a
key
-uutie!”

Fred rubbed her eyes. Tennian. Right. Between Artur asking her to live with him in the Black Sea, and Dr. Barb showing up, she’d forgotten all about the blue-haired troublemaker. “Don’t remind me.”

“She and Thomas swam out of the surf a while ago and walked down the beach looking like something out of a travel poster, except she was naked.”

“Shut up.”

“And where’d you disappear to before supper, anyway?”

“You mean before my boss showed up at a secret mermaid meeting? Artur took me out.” Literally.

“Oh ho! So you’ve finally picked!”

“I haven’t picked anything. He took me out and Thomas likes anything with a tail.”

Jonas flopped onto the end of her bed. “Me-ow! If you’re jealous—”

“I’m not jealous! Just disgusted. I could be anybody, you know. Anybody at all. It’s not me Thomas likes. It’s mermaids.”

“Right, that’s why he saved your life last year.”

“He did not! I would have healed up on my own.”

Jonas let that pass; they both knew there was more to it than that. “Well, did you like your dinner with Artur?”

“Yeah, actually. He showed me—he reminded me that there are things on the planet that only he could show me. Or, only one of my father’s people. As much as I may like Thomas—and I absolutely don’t—if I stayed with a biped, I’d be closing down an entire part of my life.”

“Nothing you’re not used to,” Jonas pointed out. “I don’t mean to belittle the sacrifice, but if you stayed with, ahem, a biped, it’s what you’re used to, comfortable with.”

“Yeah, but with Artur, I can have it all. Also, he asked me to marry him and be the princess of the Undersea Folk and, later, the queen.”

Jonas actually froze in ecstasy; she knew that look. He was having a “tilt! overload!” moment, imagining himself in charge of a royal wedding.

“Princess Fred!”

“Shut up, I haven’t said yes.”

“Which means you haven’t said no!” He jumped off her bed and bowed low. “Your Highness, is it your plan to make it a policy that all the women have to look as bedraggled as possible?”

She snorted, and threw a pillow at him. “Nothing official.”

“Oh my God! Princess Fred! I can’t stand it, I absolutely can’t stand it.” He was actually spinning in a circle, clutching his elbows and whinnying in ecstasy.

“You know, there’s a reason most people think you’re gay on casual acquaintance.”

“Stop it. You’ll have to get married on land, of course—no way am I going to a royal wedding in fins, or that tin can Thomas built. Plus, there’s your mom to think of.”

“Will you calm down? I haven’t said yes. I’ve got other things to worry about—like avoiding your girlfriend. And what I’ll say to the Pelagic tomorrow.”

“Yeah, yeah.” He waved her citizen’s responsibilities away. “Who’d pick Thomas over a prince? No offense. He’s a nice guy and all. And rich; that helps. And you guys have the same educational background, the same training. But he writes romance novels. Artur’s the prince of the Black Sea!”

“I’m aware,” she said dryly, “of what they both do.”

“So hurry up and tell him yes, before he changes his mind and decides to pick another mermaid. There’s (literally) plenty of them in the sea, you know. Frankly, I’m amazed he didn’t come to his senses all last year…”

“Will you get out of here? I’d actually like to get some sleep before I try to convince five hundred people who hate me that I know what’s best for them.”

“Hey, Princess Di didn’t have it easy, either,” he said, backing out her door. “But she became an icon! Fred the icon! I can see it now.”

“Great, Jonas.”

You all know our next speaker…or know of her.
Her father was Kortrim, of whom many of us no longer speak. Her mother is the Lady Moon, who loved her and raised her as her own, even though she was a surface dweller.

What a nice backhanded compliment, Fred thought, the snarkiness helping soothe her jangled nerves. I’ll be sure to let my mom know that she managed to not chop me up into sushi despite being a drooling psychopathic biped.

She is a child of both worlds…She has lived among the surface dwellers all her life, but is also of our people.

In other words, neither fish nor fowl.

She has kindly agreed to join us and bring her unique perspective to our Pelagic. Fredrika, if you will come…?

Fred slowly swam toward Mekkam. Unlike a courtroom, there wasn’t a specific place to sit (float?) and give testimony. Instead, she approached Mekkam, knowing he would pick up her thoughts and share them with people all over the world.

She thought, not for the first time, that it was no fucking wonder he was king.

Hello. And thank you for that nice welcome, King Mekkam. Yes, my name is Fred. Dr. Fredrika Bimm, that is, which means I studied marine biology for many years. I…have an affinity for it, you might say.

No one actually laughed out loud, but she could sense an amused rustling. She saw Tennian sitting very close and nodded at her; the young mermaid nodded back and smiled. She probably meant it to be encouraging, and it would have been except for all those scary sharp teeth…

I’ve been thinking a lot about your decision. Our decision, I guess. And I can honestly say I can see both sides of the issue.

That must be why an outlander has been given a chance to speak today, on such an august occasion.

A merman she didn’t know, one about her size, was floating about ten yards to her left. He had hair the color of snow. His eyes were the same color; it was such a startling contrast to his pupils that he looked blind.

You do not wish to hear what she has to say, Dessican?
Artur asked, seeming amiably interested.

It is not a question of what I wish. It is a question of what is right. Her line has not been welcome here for longer than I have been alive.

Must be why you’re so freaking threatened by me, then,
Fred thought to herself, amused. Dessican had a look she well recognized: young punk, biting off more than he knew. And unwilling to back down in front of everyone.

Do you think we are not aware of her line?
Artur asked, still sounding almost bored.
That my father did not know, and take it into account?

If all can be heard at a Pelagic, I can be, too. And I do not think the king—

What?
Now Artur’s tone was almost a lazy purr.
You do not think the king…what?

Dessican seemed to realize that, though others might object to Fred’s presence, none of
them
were speaking up. And it was because all could be heard at a Pelagic that Fred had been invited to speak at all.

Invited by the king.

I am not the only one who thinks this,
Dessican began lamely, looking around the large group.

Indeed. Just the only one ill-mannered enough to question the king’s logic, not to mention his personally invited guest. Are you quite through, Dessican?

There was a long silence, odd in a group of telepaths, and then Dessican lifted his proud white head.
I am finished.

Fredrika,
Artur said, courteously gesturing her forward.

Ah…right. Okay. Glad we got that out of the way. Actually, glad somebody brought it up. I mean, Dessican was right about one thing. It’s on everybody’s mind. What my father did.

She swam in a small circle, thinking. She could feel all the eyes on her and, even more, could feel the
minds
on her, bending in her direction, trying to pick up every word.

So let’s talk about it. Me, I didn’t know a thing about it until I got here.
After the king invited me. But no need to belabor that point.
And I’ll have to admit, I was really, really shocked. Not just because I couldn’t believe somebody who supposedly gave me my smarts would do something so dumb…

An amused rustling; Dessican actually laughed out loud, and Fred watched the stream of bubbles for a moment.

Not just that, but because I know Artur. I had met the king by then, too. I couldn’t believe somebody who knew them would want to hurt them. Kill them.

And I couldn’t believe
my own father
would try to do that. And for what? To try to take over. Try to be the boss of all the Undersea Folk.

We don’t have kings where I come from; everybody votes for the person they want to be the leader. And some people, they’ll run for the job of leader just for the thrill of the title. Just to be
called
the leader, not to be actually doing the job.

I think that’s what my dad wanted. To be called king. To be bowed to and respected, but not to actually look out for you guys.

And what I think about that is, I think he must have been an ungrateful, treacherous bastard. I think if he was here right now I’d gouge out his eyes and show them to him for daring to try to put hands on the king.

So that’s where I stand on the whole “Fred’s dad tried to take over the world” thing.

I just thought we might want to get that cleared up before we went any further.

There was another one of those rustling silences, and a lot of people looked at each other, then at her, then at each other. Finally, someone Fred couldn’t see spoke up.

Fredrika, would you continue your testimony, please?

Someone else:
The question before the Pelagic: should the Undersea Folk claim this planet along with the bipeds, or not?

Fred tried to gather her thoughts. She’d expected the crap about her dad to take up half the day. Boy, once these people made up their minds, that was it. Something to remember.

Right. To come out of the water closet, or not. Okay.

Okay. Well, as I was saying before, there are two sides to this question, and I—due to being raised by a surface dweller—I can see both of them.

On the one hand, why shouldn’t all of us—all of
you—
have the run of the planet? Why should you hide? I can say that as someone who can breathe underwater, I’d sure like to be myself all the time, not just when I’m with a couple of trusted friends, or my mother.

Several of the Air Breather contingent murmured approvingly; she saw at once that many more people were looking at her than had before. Despite Mekkam’s warm welcome, despite Artur’s stated intent, despite Dessican’s scene, many of her father’s people had seemed set on ignoring her.

Not anymore.

But on the other hand, bipeds are treacherous. There’s an excellent chance a lot of you could end up in an aquarium. Or a research lab. Bipeds have a way of thinking anybody different isn’t human, isn’t
real,
and therefore they can do whatever they like. And if you don’t believe me, try to find a Sioux or a Cherokee Indian and ask them. Those are the guys who
used
to think the planet was just as much theirs. As a scientist, I’ve seen first-hand what the bipeds can do to the planet.

So what to do?

I don’t know. I wish I could tell you that if you all chose to show yourselves to the rest of the world, things would work out fine and you’d be able to go wherever you like, unmolested. But I’ve seen too much of the human condition to be dumb enough to make guarantees.

On the other hand, if you stay hidden, you’ve lost nothing.

Of course, you won’t gain anything, either.

I guess I’m saying it’s up to you. All of you. I’ll help you if you decide to show yourselves to my mother’s people. I’ll do whatever I can, even if that means “coming out” myself. Because I can hardly stay in hiding if all of you are brave enough to show yourselves to the world.

I guess…I guess that’s all I have to say.

Fred “stepped down,” or whatever the Pelagic equivalent was. She simply backed off and took her place in the crowd. Mekkam stood stock-still in the currents, his eyes closed, and after a long moment he opened them and said,
Does anyone have any rebuttal to Fredrika’s comments?

I do.
Meerna, the tiny black-haired mermaid, was swimming to Mekkam.
How can we believe anything that comes out of her mouth? She was raised by bipeds, she admits it! And worse, she was fathered by he whose name we no longer speak. She could be leading us to treachery. It would not be the first time for her kin.

I don’t need to be treacherous to fuck you up nine ways to Sunday, Meerna, darling,
Fred thought sweetly.
Anytime I wanted I could pull your head off and use your blood to make the sea that much saltier.

You see? She thinks like a biped; all her reactions are that of a surface dweller. She is unkind, and prone to violence.

She is also “she who would be my wife,”
Artur said, coming up on Mekkam’s left flank.
Do you dare question my judgment?

Meerna opened her mouth—odd, for a telepath—and then closed it. She was silent for a long moment, until…
Highness, I do not.

Well, naturally, Fred realized. What else could she say? Chickenshit. At least have the courage of your convictions.

No, Meerna’s got a point,
Fred added, cursing herself once again for being burdened with a conscience.
Why should you trust me? Not because of what my father did—I never knew the guy, so he’s not likely to influence my actions today. And not because of what I said about what my father did. I could have been lying. Meerna’s right: You don’t know me. Which is why I couldn’t advocate one course of action over another; all I could do was lay out your choices. You shouldn’t trust me, and that’s fine. You need to make up your own minds.

So there.

Who are you to call anyone names, Meerna?
Tennian said, out like a shot from her spot off to the side.
Fredrika took your insult when she could have done much worse. She does not know our ways but she has taken our rudeness without complaint…when she has the ear of the prince himself!

Darn right,
Fred thought.
The ear and pretty much any other part of him I want.

She could have made any of our lives difficult whenever she wished. And what did she do? Stood up in front of everyone and gave her honest opinion!

Take that!

But even that did not satisfy you, and I suspect there are things in
your
family’s past that would explain that. Shall we explore your dark corners, Meerna, or will you remember your manners, remember you are supposed to be superior to the surface dwellers?

I…meant no offense.
This was a rather large lie, but Fred was feeling generous in her victory.

And God
damn
it if she wasn’t getting kind of fond of Tennian. Girl wouldn’t have said shit if she had a mouthful when they’d first met, but now…

That’s all right,
Fred said.
It’s the elephant in the room. We were bound to trip over it sooner or later.
If she’d been speaking out loud, likely none of them would have had the vaguest idea what she was talking about. But they plucked her meaning from her thoughts, and many people were nodding.

Anyway, I guess that’s all I’ve got to say.

Before she could pull away, or scream, Tennian had seized her hand and was pulling her over to a large knot of Undersea Folk, all of whom had much friendlier expressions on their faces than they’d had twenty minutes ago.

Damn, Tennian, remind me to never get on your bad side.

Small-minded, close-minded, tiny-brained fools
, Tennian was muttering, a constant stream of insults that flowed across Fred’s brain.
As if we must be judged by the actions of one we had never met! Foolish, foolish…

All right, calm down. Pay attention. Here comes more testimony.

The daughter of the surface dweller is right!
an obvious Air Breather testified.
It is our land, just as it is theirs. Why should we hide? We have done nothing wrong! Why must we languish in brackish pools and never feel the sun?

The Air Breather—Fred hadn’t caught her name—went on in this vein for some time. Fred was amused to realize that when she’d heard “the daughter of the surface dweller is right!” she’d had no idea what the gal was going to argue until she’d said it. Because Fred hadn’t really advocated either course of action.

This was made clear when several Traditionals spoke, also backing Fred up: we don’t know how the bipeds will react; we can’t trust them; it’s safer to stay hidden as we have for centuries; we risk nothing and we lose nothing.

Oh, nuts.

What?
Tennian sent back.

I don’t think I’ve helped them resolve a damn thing.

Never mind. You did your job, which is all anyone could ask of you.

Then why did she feel like she’d let both parties down?