Carissaâs skin tingled. She curled up tightly. Long reddish-brown hair flowed gently behind her before it was sealed in. Darkness. Warmth and a presence. Her arms and legs began to cramp. She stretched her body out as a thin film covering her skin stretched, broke open and a pure warmish liquid rushed over her body as she was directly exposed to the deep, warm depths.
Water.
Survive.
The oceans were bright and transparent and despite being under the surface her body bobbed in a steady position, neither rising to the surface of sinking further but remaining several meters below.
The remains of the once bubble began to stick over her skin and hair turning from luminescent white into Grey as it rapidly enveloped her waking form. Parts of it broke off and attached themselves to her legs, chest and lower back as it shifted and covered.
Carissaâs hair was enclosed as the pale mass of transparent jelly-like matter stuck to her mouth, nose and eyes before moving to cover the rest of her body. A small electrical jolt stimulated her unconscious body as it began to breath in and out and her limbs twitched.
Her face rose up before falling once more, her mind trying to wake her up. Implants once active and genetic alterations failing to activate, shut off and all personal and unconscious control removed.
Empty.
Weak.
Hollow.
A gradual pressure reached forced itself across each inch of her body, her form covered in a skin-tight Grey Suit. Another electrical jolt shook her entire body and Carissaâs eyes opened despite her nictating membrane refusing to emerge in unconscious response.
Liam.
No.
Freedom.
Struggling to awaken another electrical jolt went through Carissa and she immediately forced her eyes open, one hand rising to her mouth and the other to her eyes. Her legs kicking instinctively to drive her to the surface but her body remained in the same position despite her best efforts.
Endless blue in front of her eyes, water clearer even as a girl swimming on her parentsâ boat in the pure oceans of her home world. An artificial filter in front of her eyes enabled her vision underwater, the sunlight from the surface clear enough for her to understand she was only a relatively short distance from the surface.
The darkness shouldnât have been an issue as her eyes would have eventually adapted but given the relative abundance of light it didnât concern her presently.
Her lungs failed to ache, full of air but Carrisa experienced a tightness around her body as though a second skin had been put over her. Similar to her the suit of her own design which she had prepared for use on board the viewing chamber.
The chamber!
Liam!
Having free dived before Carissa was no stranger to finding herself under the surface of the water, there was no weight on her legs or anything holding her in place stopping her movements.
Her nose and mouth had no sensation of liquid on them and she risked it and opened her mouth a fraction. Even if water rushed in, she could easily hold her breath for another twenty minutes if she applied static apnea to herself and restricted all unnecessary movements. Releasing beta blockers into her bloodstream would further increase the time but there was something wrong with her body.
A sensation of sheer emptiness and weakness. Her mouth opened a fraction and she breathed air in, although the process was similar to breaking through a thin piece of fabric. Stifled and difficult but perfectly usable, a new type of water breathing filter.
Not entirely comfortable but enough for her not to have to worry about a threat of drowning in the short-term. Sheâd researched gills but found the concept of them aberrant when they needed to be built into her skin around either her chest, back or neck.
Carissa had wanted her skin to be pure and unmarked, scars would heal and installing a respiratory organ into her body would have taken away resources from other areas. Touching the surface of her mouth and nose found there was a covering over it along with her arms and legs.
Despite not treading water she wasnât sinking but maintained a steady rate of buoyancy. The water was far clearer regarding visibility for her eyes than it should have been. In the near distance there was a vague white shape, large enough to be a threat to her but it stood there unmoving.
Bobbing, similar to a jellyfish, but without tentacles, a shadow form within.
Not a threat.
Not yet.
Below her grey covered feet there was a white sheen reminiscent of the outer layer of a jellyfish skin except on a massive scale, part of it remained attached to her foot and Carissa lowered her hand to touch it.
This water is wrong.
Around her mouth and nose she was breathing perfectly normally and regularly as though she was standing on land. The sensation was one of gently floating while underwater while her body performed regular functions.
The white sheen was near a light pearl colour and when Carissa touched it, her hands were covered by the rest of the material covering her entire body, her hair had been sealed in. Resting across her neck and back, not tight but comfortable enough.
With a mental focus the skin-tight grey material slid itself from her hand allowing the water surrounding her to touch the bare skin on her fingers as she gently played with the remnants of the materials. A slight stinging sensation brushed across her but vanished as the remaining left overs streamed up her body.
Her skin tight suit had the purposeful function of protecting her, enough to stop her from drowning and maintaining a steady rate of buoyancy would stop her sinking further.
She need to test how it would enhance her own natural swimming ability nor how it would fare against predators but she still preferred her own suit. The sensation of the warmish waters on her fingers gave her a tingle when she had made her suit retract.
Carissa considered she had been retracted within the viewing platform, captured and brought to a government or company held facility and examined before being dressed and placed into this situation.
The message on the security device had been from a private group which had identified her as a Candidate for their own experimentation. She had been as cautious as possible when purchasing her own materials and research subjects and had used various shell companies and intermediaries to hide traces of her own tracks but business had never been her strong suit.
Spreading her arms and legs out, Carissa gave a few kicks and pushes and check if she could manually override the controls on the suit. This level of technology didnât exist or was only theoretical, it certainly wouldnât be available for public or private usage.
Carissa had relatively free movement although it was akin to wearing a wetsuit, or one of sufficiently more advanced design.
The entire suit felt like a second layer of skin enveloped her entire body, and it had successfully disabled both her conscious and unconscious control of both her internal implants and physical alterations. Running her tongue across her own teeth, Carissa touched on the sharpness of each one.
Her teeth functioned at least, they hadnât ripped them out of her mouth. Her body was weaker, she would be unable to control the surrounding temperatures of the water if her implants were entirely non-functional but if her teeth werenât removed other genetic alterations had only been suppressed.
Unless they had the technology to clone her original baseline body and switch her consciousness she would need to understand the treatment needed to fix it.
The suit.
The suit is suppressing me.
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Carissa willed the suit to remove itself from her entire body as it had done with her fingers but the best she was able to do was reduce her fingertips. Whoever controlled this either remotely or program wasnât going to give her easy access or quick answers.
The words on the message were stranger to her but it also provided her with an answer for the name of this experiment. Ocean Gateway Protocol. Or someone had finally caught up with her and punish her. There was no way Liam would have agreed to put her in an experiment.
Gently kicking her legs, while floating in the water beneath the surface, Carissa experimented with her range of movement. She was able to move her head and legs as long as she wanted but her body refused to rise up towards the surface or sink deeper.
Twisting her body, she moved around as several more of the vague white shapes filled her field of vision. They were spread out across some distance. Several of them opened and dissipated and she could recognise movement even if gradual.
The same.
The same as me.
The experiment Carissa had been thrown into wasnât an accident if she was called a Candidate. Others alongside her who would also be experiencing the same, but in her case, she was used to being underwater inside specialised isolation tanks to adapt herself to the loneliness of a life in the oceans.
My necklace.
Carissa needed her necklace. The comforting touch of the shark tooth on her bare flesh and the pain she experienced would relieve her. There. It was under the suit, but she couldnât touch it. She focused her mental will on the suit moving away from the area of her upper neck but it refused to obey.
Pain.
I need pain.
Failing other options the floating Carissa considered biting her tongue with her sharpened teeth, the taste of blood and saliva would be her own but it wasnât the type of pain relief she wanted.
The ritual of the shark tooth had been hers since she had been a teenager, a way to express her emotions through digging into the flesh of her arms or by her neck. Even her hands in an emergency.
Liam had been the one who had convinced her to try and express her emotions and switch to more positive channels but with his continued absence from her life Carissa had lapsed back into old behaviours. And here she was, stuck underwater in an experiment by a captor in a body of water she was unfamiliar with.
Carissa flexed her hands, curling them tightly as she struggled to keep her breathing steady and in a steady rhythm. Although, breaking air through the suits covering was possible it wasnât comfortable and the fact she was becoming emotionally distressed was making it worse.
Her lack of control and her constant awareness was becoming an issue.
Focus Carissa.
Adapt. Learn. Survive.
When she had run her own experiments as a scientist and through her own research, she had run variables on her own animal test subjects and finally herself. There was always a series of stages, this would only be stage one. Either the suits or monitors in the water would be checking on the physical and emotional states, they would even be checking on Carissa.
And when this first stage ended, she would move onto the next. And eventually there would be group testing. This depended on the ethical constraints they were following. There was a strict reason Carissa had only experimented on herself and done her own surgery over time, she had her own issues but she wasnât going to torture other sentient beings for the purposes of research.
Kill them if they tried to steal her notes yes, but not torture. She had limits, which she was going to need to break if she wanted to get out of this experiment. Carissa would not be a subject, even an experimental one. She would become. Become more than human.
Beautiful mermaid.
As she continued to flex and open her hands while gently remaining in the same position, neither sinking or floating in spite of her best efforts a voice resonated within Carissaâs head shutting off all other considerations.
Dark coloured words with the appearance of flowing water appeared before her eyes. She was able to make out the text after blinking her eyes several times. To her senses the lenses or covering inside this advanced sea protection suit offered the option of text.
The next stage has opened.
Ocean Gateway Entry System Initiated. Registering Player Candidate: Carissa Acqua. Verifying Health Statusâ¦Present Status: Not Dead. Further messages shortly. Remain calm.
If Carissa had a single regret at being trapped in her underwater suit prison, it would be she was unable to scream out or vent her frustrations. The monitoring control stated her name, and her status asâ¦not dead. This meant the suit acted as a health checker, not her mental state but her physical one.
Ocean Gateway System. The name of the project, group or research team had kidnapped her and brought her here. She was certain she had failed to activate the tether release on the viewing chamber.
She had been rendered unconscious by a nerve agent or toxin from the outside roof as she was going to make her own descent meant she had been watched. Likely through the security device. It hadnât been Liam after all.
Stuck alone without social company Carissa wasnât prepared for the next message to flow into her vision, still in the shape of watery dripping text.
You have been selected by the Ocean Gateway System. You are classified as a Player Candidate. Introduction and Tutorial Removed due to increased difficulty level. Temporary Water Filtration is in place. HTS mode is engaged. Please wait for imminent surfacing. Do not restrict your Grey Suit actions for your own safety.
The pressure of the water finally began to act on her and slowly she was regaining freedom of movement in her limbs despite the suit clinging tightly to her skin surfaces and hair. Counting the seconds it took for her to rise towards the surface and the distance she was from the sunlight, Carissa estimated she had been stuck underneath the water around ten to fifteen metres with twenty metres at most.
She had previously free dived deeper distances when on her boat growing up, without equipment enjoying the pleasure when she pushed her body to its natural limits. Her parents had encouraged her use of the natural gifts they had produced her
In order to maintain a steady presence at this relatively shallow depth was in her mind not realistically feasible only wearing a suit, either the water had been altered somehow or there were other forces she wasnât aware of.
As she rose up, Carissa tucked her limbs in, given her freedom of movement and tightly hugged herself. She had spent enough time underwater previously her first breath when she reached the surface would be an experience.
Like being born again.
The breath of life.
Carissa tried to slowly release breath, an old habit when free diving to avoid damage to her lungs when pressure was decreased. She counted seconds, the warmth of the sun on the surface of the oceans reaching her form.
Soon.
Three.
Two.
Breath.
Carissa surfaced, her body moved by an external force or through the suit.
As her head broke through the top of the water the sealed portion in front of her face and nose peeled backwards and from her eyes allowing her to take a deep breath. The sensation of fresh air on her face was nearly overwhelming to her senses.
ââ¦. Hello? Is anyone there?â she called out.
A stupid thing to say, but if she was being monitored it would be the expected result. Humans would depend upon one another for support, especially in crises. And if she found anyone was a threat to her immediate safety she would react accordingly. Life had taught her this.
She spoke again. This time raising her voice. Her body simply floated on the surface without any need for her to thread water. Her hair remained covered but her face stayed dry despite the splash of the light waves around her.
âHello! Is there anyone there?â called Carissa.
No signs of any wreckage of boats or planes, smoke or rescue services. An endless blue sky above her head with the sun shining and an entire ocean of water.
The burst of words in front of her eyes surprised her given the lenses had covered her eyes underwater had peeled back with the rest of her suit. She read the text several times to memorise it.
Player Candidate you have been provided with randomly chosen Basic Starter Equipment.
-Warning: Due to Illegal Body Modification (Disabled) Basic Starter Equipment removed.
-You are Classless
-First Goal: Survive for 10 hours.
-Bonus Goal: Find other Player Candidates and Survive as a group for 10 hours
-Reward: Basic combat weapon, Fishing Line, Bonus Goal: Harpoon with Leash, additional HTS mode enabled.
Carissa felt disappointed this time it didnât end with her name but a number instead, but this time she had a better clue of her situation.
âA test subject. Iâm being turned into a bloody test subject.â she said muttering to herself.
With full movement and the suit stopping her from sinking into the water, Carissa chose a random direction and began to swim breaststroke.
âA little exercise wonât hurt me at this point. Time to find someone else trapped in this experiment.â said Carissa as she tried to conserve her energy.