< several minutes of tense silence >

Bloody Nora… Just look at the size of that thing. And those teeth?! Even standing on your hind legs, they would come up to your thorax. A creature like that could swallow you down without even noticing.

…

Lucky? Hmm… can’t say as I agree. Here… rewind.

There. Look where they were attacking. You see? The two of them were systematically destroying the beast’s breathing apparatus. Ramming itself into the cliff wall might have ended its suffering—and saved the pair a spot of bother—but that beast was doomed, regardless. Luck had very little to do with it.

I can scarcely believe our subjects can already take down an animal like that. This experiment has been running for… what? Three? Four rotation cycles? I dare say, by this time next week, those two are going to be absolute monsters. Within a month? I certainly don’t envy whoever they finally send to recapture them.

…?

Right… Oscar. Well, it’s no wonder he decided not to land at the second pod site with all those carnivores still lurking about. But that doesn’t help us much.

You. Set up a search pattern. I want that drone covering every inch of those two islands until our transport is found. And you. Keep an eye on those scanners. Even with basic heat sensors, we should be able to pick up a signature from the transport’s gravity dispersal thrusters.

In the meantime, get this footage down to editing. I’ll put together some commentary for it by the morning. With any luck, this episode could earn us a spot on the award podium!

*

Naomi floated listlessly on her back in the still waters atop the cavern, savoring the opportunity to refresh her oxygen supply. It was an unusual experience to be so long underwater that your breath goes completely and utterly stale, to have a single lungful of air become such a part of you that to exhale it again feels as though your very soul is escaping through your nostrils. And then to slowly fill yourself with a new one? To have your once sluggish blood rush to your center, greedily sucking up every fresh molecule, then race out to your extremities, tingling as your body comes alive again? Unusual indeed.

However, most of her attention was devoted to how monstrously full she was. She and Mike had absolutely gorged themselves on shark meat… and more than a few of the miscellaneous scavengers which had come to share in their hard-won feast.

The greedy malakas…

She was still a bit salty to discover just how many of them there actually were down here. Why it should be that her attempts at attracting a meal had only managed to pull the biggest, meanest mamzer on the block was beyond her. She would have been perfectly satisfied with a few of the smaller… whatever they had been.

She had not actually gotten a look at any of them. Just their flavor. And the texture had been a delightful contrast to all the shark meat. Kind of crunchy…

Regardless, it just went to show you cannot fish without the right bait. The giant predator had only been dead for a few handfuls of minutes before the scavengers had appeared in droves. At first, she had attempted to shoo them off, but they had been so greedy, they had practically fought one another for the chance to get at her rightfully won prize. One had even attempted to pull a hunk from between her own teeth!

Ha! She had shown that little schmo. And the three that came after. But once they had learned that she was not to be trifled with, they had backed off long enough for her to get her fill. If they had just done that in the first place, she doubted she would have even noticed they were there.

As it was? Just so many appetizers.

“Ear… ear drum… inner ear canal. Uh… brain? Nervous system? Hmm… Then how about… skeleton? Skeletal structure?” The reverberations from Mike’s constant but quiet muttering died away for a moment as he pondered over his selections. Apparently, he was still trying to get his computer interface to communicate in English. Which was good. She was glad he had finally accepted what they were going through well enough to be proactive… even if she would have much preferred that he let her sleep off her meal. “Hey Stripes, do you remember what those three little bones connected to the eardrum are called?”

She grunted, mildly annoyed at having been asked to speak. “I dunno. There was one that kind of looked like a stirrup, right? Uh… the staple, I think.”

“Staple?” Mike hummed doubtfully. “That doesn’t sound right. Are you sure?”

“Eh… it was something like that.”

She tilted her head lazily toward him, just catching his eyes jerk back downward, and a satisfied little grin momentarily quirked at her lips. There may have been a slightly less innocent reason she was floating on her back like this. One having nothing whatever to do with easing digestion… and everything to do with her recent exposure at the hands of the shark’s bioluminescence.

It had not happened on purpose, of course. But she was glad it had. Mike had gotten quite the eyeful before she caught on. She knew it. And he knew she knew it. But had he dared a compliment? A passing flirtation? Had he even so much as acknowledged the incident?

Never! He was far too repressed for that.

But burying his head in the sand—or his menus—would not help him. She had him by the balls! By looking on her naked body, he had trespassed a sacred social prohibition. All she had to do now was keep turning the crank until he finally cracked.

Hence her current ploy: brazenly floating on her back. Oh, he was certainly trying to resist the temptation her exposed chest represented, but she could feel it every time his gaze wandered… and became ensnared.

That said, she was way too full to put any more effort than that into her teasing.

“How can you even think about that stuff right now?” she asked, stifling a yawn. Then she arched her back slightly, pretending to stretch.

The move gave her pause. Her breasts had just shifted over her ribs… way more than they should have. Above and beyond even what her recent growth-spurt could account for. Could they have grown again? When had that happened… and why?

To the latter, she had no idea. But she clearly recalled feeling constricted before her top had ripped off. So it seemed likely the change had happened during their most recent transformation. But that had only been for some additional lung capacity and a few changes to their hands and feet. There was no reason for any of that to affect her breasts.

But she resisted the temptation to look them over. If she were to start pawing at herself right in front of Mike—even if it was only for practical reasons—there would be no way she could play it off. Just letting them naturally jiggle around was provocation enough.

She cleared her throat gently, recalling she was supposed to be in the middle of a conversation. “Mercy me. After that meal, I feel like I’m about to pop.”

Mike gave a start. “Huh? Oh… uh…” He floundered for a moment as though caught out. Evidently, she had not been the only one to notice the kinds of movement her chest was now capable of. “Sorry… what? I was… reading.”

She choked back the automatic snort of disbelief as quickly as she could. The lie had been so obvious; it had almost cracked her composure. “I was just wondering how you can concentrate on things like… reading… after such an enormous meal.”

“I guess I’m used to it,” he said with a shrug, for all the world oblivious to the—to her—overt sexual interplay. “When you have to work, you fit gaming time in wherever you can. I used to enjoy experimenting with Pokémon breeding during my lunch breaks.”

She quirked an eyebrow. If he thought he could just ignore her provocations, he had another thing coming. It was time to turn the crank. “Pokémon… breeding?”

He glanced up quickly, apparently excited to latch onto the topic. But then their eyes met… and she caught that telltale twitch giving away the exact moment his eyes wandered again: the very moment she had ‘innocently’ shifted her shoulders—and thus her chest—inward. An instant later, his face slapped back into the water, but her thermal vision revealed the white-hot shame creeping over his cheeks.

God above… she was absolutely loving this game. She did not know whether she wanted to cackle with glee or run her hands over her body after all… even if only to luxuriate in the thrills racing beneath her skin. But her girls certainly knew which they would have preferred. Their nub ends had instantly twisted up, begging to be touched and suckled the second his face had slammed into the water.

So, on the pretense of feeling a chill, she rolled to her stomach, hiding them from view. “Mike…?” she prodded with completely feigned ignorance. “Are you alright?”

He burbled something into the water. But unless she missed her guess, it was pretty close to, “…doing this on purpose…”

She suppressed a grin and swam just a bit closer, keeping her eyes as widely cherubic as possible. “What’s the matter, Mike? Weren’t you going to tell me about your little… breeding program?”

He tilted his head slightly toward her to see if it was safe to look at yet. When he found her staring at him, he jerked upright guiltily. For a moment, he seemed to be considering whether he wanted to reply or make a run for it. But then he stiffened his shoulders and took a resolved sort of breath.

“Naomi—”

“Yes…?” she interrupted with near gleeful anticipation.

His jaw worked like a goldfish for a handful of seconds, trying to get the words out. But he chickened out. “S-so anyway, I’ve been hoping I could figure out a way to improve my sonar. And this menu here is pointing out some change it can make to our ears. Hopefully, whatever it does will refine our hearing enough that I’ll be able to find an exit and lead us out of here.”

It was difficult not to let the disappointment show on her face. She had allowed herself a moment of hope, but she was well aware he would not be so easy to crack as that. It would take time to break Mike out of his repressed little shell. But that was its own kind of fun.

“Well, at least we know there has to be one,” she reasoned, letting him off the hook. She could play their game of catch and release as long as it took. And with that in mind, she began to idly twirl the webbing between her fingers to gently propel herself toward him. “That shark had to have come from somewhere.”

“Right? No way a big predator like that would just hang out in here all the time,” he gushed, eager to explore the completely neutral topic. Then he must have subconsciously noticed her ever-so-slowly encroaching upon his personal space, and he spun away to rebury his face in his menus. “Uh… have you looked over any of your options yet? I’m sure that shark had plenty of stuff we can use. The bioluminescence, for one.”

“Not yet,” she admitted, trying not to pout. Spoilsport. “But I guess it wouldn’t hurt to look it over.”

In actuality, there were three buttons hovering over his head. Not just the one. But then, their meal had consisted of things other than gigantic alien shark, so that was not unexpected. Obviously, one of the buttons would be from the shark itself, but the other two?

Going from the rules they had worked out, they had to have come from the various scavengers they had eaten. Apparently, there had been more than one species involved in the feeding frenzy, but she had no idea which was which. None of them were labeled.

For a moment, she allowed her eyes to drift farther south to explore the hard planes of Mike’s back. Whatever mechanism was responsible for their changes had wasted no time in sculpting his body into something much more pleasing on the eyes… though admittedly, he was no Adonis.

So far, all he had really gained was a monumental amount of height… and lost quite a bit of fat in the process. Which was plenty for her taste. When the chips were down, he was always there for her, and that was all that ultimately mattered. Still, she could see no signs of him having gained anything beyond what their choices could account for. He still had a bit of a baby face. His whiskers were still growing in curly red patches. He had quite a few acne scars… though there were signs of those beginning to fade.

So why was it her breasts were filling out? Those had nothing to do with survival… beyond feeding infants. And attracting mates.

She pursed her lips slightly at the thought. Obviously, there was no way she could be pregnant, but the attracting mates part? She had certainly been putting in a lot of thought along those lines recently. But did that mean her body was changing to align with her desires… or were her desires changing to align with her body? Or both? She had no way of knowing.

Nor was she sure it ultimately mattered. She had no plans on giving up her new toy. But if her body was changing to become more attractive, there was the distinct possibility more than just her breasts were being affected.

Unfortunately, there was no way for her to make a visual assessment of herself while they were stuck in this reservoir. She could only see a bit of her chest at the moment, and asking Mike for his opinion would only interfere with her games… not that she could ever trust a man to give an honest opinion about her looks. She would just have to wait until they escaped from here and got into some proper light.

Still, that begged the question: if she could become more attractive… why not Mike as well? And if so, how could she trigger it?

Admittedly, she was jumping to some conclusions here, but it was an intriguing notion—not the least of which, because the very idea was making her lady bits tingle like there was an electric current flowing through the water.

With that in mind, she quickly slapped a palm over the right-most button. Its timer seemed to be running quite a bit faster than the others and, setting aside the urgency that represented, she was curious to see if the options it showcased would clue her in as to why that might be.

The button expanded under her palm just as every other one she had been presented with had, however there were a few changes this time. First and foremost, she was only given four choices as opposed to the eight or nine she usually encountered. That would make it easier to actually pick something, but it was a little disappointing to be restricted. But second and more importantly, her options were no longer being presented as a cartoonish still-frame of her recent victim. Instead, they were literal cartoons… of Mike. And animated.

Each of them seemed to be set on a continuous loop, rather like an animated gif, of no more than a few seconds and showcased her companion in a variety of poses and activities, giving a hint as to what its option represented.

“Interesting,” she murmured. She had requested something like this the last time she had been presented with options, but when nothing had changed, she had assumed she was being ignored. Apparently not.

“What is?” Mike asked, curious, but she waved him off.

“Just a few changes to my interface,” she explained briefly. “Nothing important.”

“…wish I could figure out how to change my interface,” he grumbled. “This thing is maddening.”

She ignored him in favor of looking over her options.

The first was just a few frames of Mike’s feet growing into an even more aggressively webbed configuration than they already were. His toes would elongate and thin, then the webbing would grow past them until they were practically flippers. This would freeze for a couple of seconds, then reset to show the process over again.

She scowled. That was hardly tempting. Webbed feet might have been useful in their current environment, but she did eventually plan on returning to land. Giving herself flippers was the opposite of what she wanted to accomplish.

The second was slightly more palatable. It simply showed his teeth and jaw structure morphing into a more predatory configuration. His chin widened and extended outward into a more brutish profile while most of his teeth extended into razor sharp fangs. It was a look she would not mind seeing on him… but on her? There was no way she could tolerate having a chin like that!

The third was just… bizarre. Mike was holding his hand out in front of his face, just watching while his skin turned transparent. But only his skin. His internal organs were still clearly visible.

She blinked slowly, looking at it. Never mind how disgusting the very idea was, she could not fathom what advantage an ability like that might convey. Unless… perhaps it could represent a first step toward invisibility? Something to be built on later? Apparently, that was a thing, given what she had seen from the flipper option. It was something to consider… but only if she could turn it on and off again. Being stuck with transparent skin sounded awful!

She grimaced. These animated gifs were certainly more informative than her previous setup, but they did not necessarily answer all of her questions.

Meanwhile, the last of the gifs seemed simple enough. It was just a closeup of Mike’s eyes, the irises of which started to slowly expand outward until he looked even more like the cartoon character he was already being represented as.

Here again, she could not see how something like that might be useful for survival… but it would certainly be quite the boon when it came to breaking down Mike’s resistance. She could just imagine looking at him through her lashes with those puppies.

Ha! He would be putty in her hands!

And she would not mind a version of Mike with bigger, more expressive eyes. It would only make him easier to read. And potentially sexier!

She almost picked it without a second thought… but then she remembered her promise to involve her companion in these sorts of decisions. The only problem was none of the other options were at all appealing. So she needed to make certain she framed this correctly.

“Hey, Mike…” she began. “What did you think of having bigger eyes?”

He turned slightly toward her, still cautious of her provocations. “Bigger eyes? Like… to see better in the dark or something?”

She nodded in quick agreement, though she had no idea where he had drawn that conclusion from. “Yes. To see better. That.”

“Well… yeah?” he replied, as though confused as to why she was even asking. To her relief. “That’s one of the main things we need right now.”

She smiled brightly. “Okay, good. Then, I’ll just pick that one—”

“Hold on,” he interrupted quickly. “What are the other options?”

She suppressed a frustrated grimace. “Oh… just a bunch of garbage. Like… transparent skin?”

He pulled back slightly. “Transparent… skin? Gross.”

“That’s what I said,” she agreed immediately—perhaps overselling it a tad.

“Well… but what about bioluminescence?” he wondered. “There’s no way that shark didn’t drop that as an option.”

She rolled her eyes in quick dismissal. “Yeah, gimme a minute, dunder-butt. I’m only on the first button.”

“The first—?” He glanced back down and tapped at something. “Oh, that’s what these symbols mean. They’re arrow buttons! Ugh… I was wondering why it kept changing on me. The stupid thing was scrolling through the different species we ate on a periodic timer.”

“Like… some kind of banner ad?”

He just grunted. “Anyway, don’t pick the eye thing until you’ve looked over all the options. It might end up redundant or conflict with something else we get.”

“Or enhance one of them,” she murmured, recalling the flippers.

“Huh?” he replied absently.

She shook her head. “Nothing. Just… give me a second.”

Quickly, she dismissed her current set of options in favor of the next. Mike’s comment had set her head to spinning. She had to remember, each change they made was a permanent alteration to their basic physiology. So, not only was it important to consider redundancies and conflicts, she needed to be careful of the order she chose them in. After all, the options presented were only showing her what would change now—with her current physiology. There was no telling what they might show after she actually selected something.

Unfortunately, the second set was less than helpful. Again, there were only four options and again, varying wildly in their allure.

The first showed Mike growing some kind of exoskeletal armor plates… which, yet again, was not such a terrible look on him, but not something she would ever consider for herself. She was just glad she was in charge of the exterior stuff, so she could filter out this kind of nonsense. She was sure Mike would have chosen this without a second thought and ended up permanently ruining her skin. No, if they were going to get any kind of armor, it would have to be subdermal.

Unnoticed, the light at her wrist gave off a series of flashes.

The second was strange, but not… altogether unattractive. It simply showed Mike clinging to the side of a rock face with nothing but the palm of his hand. But then the gif zoomed in, making it clear there was some kind of suction involved. Almost like a sea barnacle.

She pursed her lips. That seemed a tad… unnatural. But the gif was making a pretty good case for its utility. And it might even have some potential during foreplay. She could only wonder what it might feel like if he were to attach himself to certain… areas.

She worked her bottom lip for a moment… then filed that one under a solid ‘maybe.’

The third was an instant no. It showed one of Mike’s eyes popping out of its socket, then extending via tendril until he was looking behind his own head. Ew. Ew. Triple, ew. More, if she were to pick this one after the other eye enhancement she wanted, they might not even be able to fit their eyes back into their sockets!

Then there was the fourth, which was just a close-up of one of Mike’s hands. She was not altogether certain what she was supposed to be looking at, but then he picked up a rock and crushed it into powder between his thumb and index finger.

She raised her eyebrows. “Well… okay then.”

“What?”

“Uh…” She hesitated. “Would you prefer sucker hands… or insane grip strength?”

He just stared at her. “Why would I want sucker hands?”

“Oh… you know.” She raised her palms out of the water and mimed fondling a particularly large pair of breasts. “Rock climbing.”

His expression froze. And slowly, his head tilted down until he was buried in his menu again.

She grinned. Never mind getting the better of him. She was absolutely curb-stomping Mike today. “Grip strength, then?”

“Sounds good!” he returned in a strangled tone.

Once she tapped the last button, it was immediately obvious this was the one from the shark, if for no other reason than because it featured twice as many choices as the others. That had been their primary meal, after all. More volume meant more gathered genetic material and thus more options.

The first was the bioluminescence Mike had been looking for. It was an obvious choice, and it even let them turn it on or off at will.

The second was another featuring a mouthful of fangs, this time minus the brutish jaw. But she was just as quick to reject it as the previous iteration. Her current set of teeth worked perfectly fine and, unless she were to invest heavily into these jaw adaptations—perhaps by taking the two in conjunction—there was no way a tooth-sharpening adjustment would make her a more successful huntress.

Now, if she could score something that would grant regenerating teeth, that would actually be worthwhile. It was not like there were any dentists around.

She noticed her wrist flashing this time, but it occasionally did that without any rhyme or reason that she had noticed. So she paid it no regard.

The third was another flipper adaptation. However, there were some apparent differences from the previous one. Instead of thinning out the fingers to make way for the webbing, they instead remained thick and strong even as the claws sharpened and elongated. The result looked even more predatory—and thus, useful—but the webbing was still far too pronounced. They would be stuck with what amounted to baseball mitts for their hands… never mind what it would do to their feet. And here again, the opportunity to specialize by combining the two presented itself, making her wonder how the end result might look.

Number four simply involved growing spikes out the ends of their joints. One each at the knees and elbows, then a backward-facing set in a row along the ridge of the spine. She could see this one combining pretty well with the exoskeletal armor. It would be easy to simply ram into a thing, protecting them from harm while the spikes did all the work, and it would even make for a good defensive deterrent in case they ran afoul of those four-legged T-rexs again. But it was simply too monstrous. The only way she would ever consider something like this would be if the spikes were retractable.

Again, her wrist-light went through a series of useless blinks.

The next showed Mike’s knees changing such that they could bend from side to side instead of only the usual back to front—an incomprehensible choice and thus an easy no. Then there was the option to grow gills—another easy no, especially considering their current lung capacity.

Number seven showed Mike swimming through the water at incredible speeds, which… might be okay. The adaptation seemed to grant them the ability to comfortably swim rather like a dolphin or a mermaid, but here again, she would need to see how it affected their ability to get around on land. There was always the possibility with something like this that it might change their hip arrangement or fuse a set of joints together that a fish would not need, but a person absolutely would. But the gif was not forthcoming.

Then there was the last one… another clear improvement to their muscular structure. This one showed Mike growing even larger than he already was, sporting a wide, arrow-shaped chest with clearly defined abs, pulsing biceps, and powerful thighs. The computer then replayed the scene of him tackling and punching away at the shark, but this time, his blows were actually doing some serious damage.

She sucked in a breath through her teeth. What a feast for the eyes… She absolutely wanted to see a real-life version of this. She could just imagine him showing off for her, flexing and posing like some Mr. Olympia contestant. Letting her run her fingers over the hard ridges of his chest…

Not to mention what the change might do to her! She had already gotten a boost to her fitness levels from that giant chipmunk thing. With this on top of it?

She pursed her lips slightly, abruptly second guessing herself. She would not want to get too muscular. But then… she was still a girl. There was no way she would wind up looking like that. Right?

She grimaced. That this stupid computer insisted on showing Mike instead of her was beyond unreasonable. She was a woman! She should not have to filter her choices through the lens of what might look okay on a guy! It was not like he had to make choices based on what it would do to her. All he had to decide on was a bunch of inconsequential internal organs.

Of course, given that this was a survival situation, the wisest choice would have probably been to disregard the aesthetics of the thing and just pick whatever helped them the most. She knew that. Intellectually. But damn it all! Sexual selection was a thing, too! Women certainly did not have breasts because it helped them run faster!

The sad part of it was, Mike had not gained any kind of muscular boost yet, so she was not even seeing the effects of doubling up. That at least would have provided a clue as to what she could expect were she to move forward with the choice. So this represented an obvious risk.

And there was always the bioluminescence.

She tapped her fingers together idly, her eyes shifting in and out of focus, as she pondered the situation. Eventually, her gaze drifted down toward the bottom of the UI, where she discovered a small, animated icon going through its own series of motions—to this point, totally unnoticed.

Whatever it was, it was not selectable. She had to lean forward and squint even to get a proper look at it, and when she did… it seemed to be showing a monstrous-looking woman chasing a terrified man around—presumably her and Mike.

She almost growled at it. What exactly was this thing trying to say? That she was some kind of man-eater?! Ridiculous! She would have been perfectly happy to reverse their roles if she could just get the man to show some initiative.

But as she watched, she noticed an interesting pattern. Every time the little animated version of her was about to catch her prize and he dodged out of the way, she would throw her head back in a scream of frustration, then there would be a bit of a flash… and the animation would restart from the beginning.

What did that mean? What happened next? Was it supposed to be some kind of clue? Or was it just calling her a slut?!

She glanced over at the real Mike for a moment and contemplated whether to interrupt his quiet muttering with this, but hesitated. It was one thing to taunt the man with constant sexual innuendos and the like. That was only her having a bit of fun. But to let on that her computer was offering commentary on the situation? That seemed a bit much. And it risked ruining her games.

Her gaze flicked back to the icon speculatively. Dodge, flash, restart. Dodge, flash, restart. What did that mean? What happened next? Without thinking, her claw drifted up to scratch at a bit of an itch beneath her left breast… and she froze.

Her breasts… had been growing lately—to this point, without apparent explanation. What if that was what happened next? What if Mike running away from her was forcing her to adapt to become better equipped to catch him?

It made a kind of sense. Adaptation was the name of the game, after all.

It was also a complete stab in the dark, but it sounded like just the thing to justify her little flirtations… in case she was to be called out, of course.

“Mike…” she began, eager now to begin their transformations. “Have you got everything you want picked out?”

He sighed. “I guess so. There’s two here that might improve our hearing, but what either of them is supposed to do is a complete toss-up. I’ll just have to pick one at random and see if it gives me something I can use.” He tapped something a couple of times quickly. “And this one here is showing that weird organ underneath the diaphragm again. I’m thinking it might be a swim-bladder.”

She shook her head. “Isn’t that what fish use to control their depth? What good will that do once we get back on land?”

“I don’t know,” he admitted. “It sounds like a neat thing to have, but if you don’t think it’s a good idea… there’s another option here pointing out our bones. Or maybe the bone-marrow? I’m not sure.”

“And… what would that do?” she prompted.

He shrugged with exasperation. “Who knows? Bone-marrow is where blood cells come from. Maybe… it’ll help us recover from injuries faster? Make our bones harder to break?”

“Both of those sound better than a swim-bladder.”

“True.” He sighed again before finally glancing up at her. “What about you? Did you find the options for the shark?”

She nodded. “I’ve got it down to two options. We can glow in the dark… or get super—” She was about to say ‘buff’ but quickly rephrased it to sound more palatable. “—strength.”

“Really? No spikes or anything?” He rubbed at a few of the scabs along his forearms. “I would have thought for sure there would be something for spikes.”

“Nope,” she replied easily. She had already vetoed that one. There was no reason to discuss the matter.

He grimaced. “In that case… hmm. Normally, super strength would be a no-brainer, but as it is… Gee, that’s kind of tough.”

It did not seem so tough a decision to her. But she did not say that. “Maybe… we should take these adaptations one at a time,” she suggested instead. “You’ve got two things for our ears, and I’ve got something for the eyes. One of those might be enough to get us out of here. And we already have a way to see in the dark when we don’t have water to deal with. So we can leave the bioluminescence as a last resort.”

“Sounds like a good idea.” He took a breath. “Alright, then. I guess I’ll start with one of these things for the ears. Ready?”

She nodded, pretending indifference. If he only knew just how ready she actually was. She was practically vibrating for the excuse to lunge at him—and anticipating what might happen were he to try resisting.

He narrowed his eyes suspiciously… and began inching away from her. Damn it! He was catching on! She should have known being so overt would have come back to bite her. She favored him with a cool look—laced with just a trace of disappointment—before turning away slightly.

“You might want to prepare yourself,” she warned. He stopped abruptly, starting to pale, but before he could start hurling accusations, she elaborated, “A change to the inner ear might give us horrible vertigo or even make us sick. So take a deep breath first. You don’t want to suck in a lungful of water.”

“I… suppose,” he conceded after a moment. Though he still looked suspicious. “I did get pretty dizzy when our eyes started changing.”

That was not the only thing he had gotten—she had been about as close as a person could get to his erection without actually pulling the thing loose. But she decided she had forgotten about that part entirely. In fact… maybe she should put on a show of resisting the sheer eroticism of their changes… once or twice. Just to put him at ease. Then after she inevitably pounced…

She kept her face carefully neutral. “Any time you’re ready.”

“Alright… here goes.” He took a deep breath.

*

Blast it all. Where is that boy? He must have landed somewhere.

…?

Underwater? Why would he have landed underwater?

…

Well… yes, I suppose that would be safer than braving the herd of giant flesh-eating reptiles. And the engines would have attracted them.

Drat… that’s going to complicate things immensely. But there’s nothing else for it. We’re just going to have to expand our search protocols.

…?

No, I haven’t. Why? Have they done anything interesting yet?

…

That’s to be expected. After a meal like that, they won’t be getting up to much any time soon.

You have to anticipate lots of downtime while filming a documentary, you know. I could line a mattress with the reams of footage I’ve had to leave discarded over the years. But keep filming anyway. I doubt we’ll get more than a few seconds of usable material until they decide to make a break for the exit, but you never know.

We have scouted the exit already, have we not? We’ll want to know if there’re any surprises waiting for them so as to construct a proper narrative.

…?

Well, I… Hmm. You make a good point. With the second drone devoted to finding Oscar…

Blast. It can’t be helped then. Just keep the camera focused on them. We’ll make it work somehow.