Two days later, I received a series of Morse code pulses that just said, “email.” I checked my email, and there was a draft consultant agreement for me to review. I read it once, then read it again. Then, I headed down to the beach to let it percolate in my brain while I was “Sensory Testing.”

I grabbed my towel and jandals and headed down. I only bothered with clothes if I was going into town or on some colder evenings. Occasionally, there were other people on the beach, but they kept their distance, and nobody was worried. Well, I wasn’t worried, and I didn’t care if they were.

I had discovered that I was not a jellyfish, and I was limited to normal depths a human can go without needing decompression stops. Decompression stops were no problem for me as I would not run out of air, but the diving information the navy taught me was relevant. According to my diver’s watch, 9m deep was a good general maximum for me to observe.

After the last few days, my nose and ears were more in synch, both in and out of the water. I was well familiar with the bush around the cabin and knew when the sparrow was catching insects and when the Kererū wood pigeon was nearby. It was similar in the water near the beach. I had been moving in a wider arch, diving deeper, testing, and listening. I knew there were a couple of stingrays that hung close to the sandy part of the seabed. The sound of the Snapper chasing its breakfast, the smell of it catching the same breakfast etc.

This break was not just relaxing but very useful for understanding and working with my mutations. I headed back with a fresh snapper for lunch. I am getting better at preparing the fish without mutilating it.

After lunch, I prep an email with questions and potential amendments to the contract and send it off, letting Carla know it is there. The lawyers are already copied in. The clauses around publicity were extensive. I assume that Soph’s lawyers added them to protect her when this came to light. She and Carla’s mutations would be hard to hide.

I check the news. The government has released information that some of their military had been affected by the Anomaly, and six people had died from it. However, there were survivors that had potentially useful mutations, and they were undergoing extensive medical testing. More information would be released as it became available.

That had to come out. Too many people had mutations or had seen Carla’s mutations. There was nothing about it being an intentional human experimentation, though. Lewis’ head would roll if that came out, even if the decision was made above him.

This was causing huge speculation, and I am sure the government would be choosing a publicly acceptable mutation and person to be the face of this. Ensign Jeong would probably be a good choice. Not my problem.

I get dressed and head to town for supplies. It is going to be a long while before Waiheke recovers from this. I support the local economy by eating fancy food for dinner. The Navy consultant fee offer was well above what I expected. I guess I have Soph to thank for that. There is no harm in spending some of it.

I got back to an email with a contract to sign. Soph added that it is urgent, so maybe another anomaly has been found. I made sure to read it to check for changes. If anything, it was even tighter than the last and had good protections and a generous fee. I signed it and sent it back.

The next day dawned overcast, but that made no difference underwater. Today, I was going to try something different. I have been fascinated with Carla using Essence to change form. This tells me Essence can be used in conjunction with physical mutations. This is going to be critical to understanding how to help Carla change, but I also think the essence is used actively in my poison.

I had not poisoned much recently as I was keeping it as a hidden ace. I am now out here alone, so now is my time to test things. Poison first, as this is my only active mutation, but I also want to try to use it on my senses. Can I use essence to improve or make my senses do more?

It is my hearing that triggered this thought. I am better at hearing low sounds than I used to be. What if I could use essence to expand the range of my hearing? What if I could use it to expand the range of my eyesight? Could I see into the infrared range? The answer to these questions might be no, but what if I could?

The senses are delicate, and the last thing I want to do is damage them. That is why I have been spending so long getting used to them. That and they are very useful.

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But first, poison. I think it actively uses essence, but I need to figure out how. The local wildlife is going to take a hit, but it is in the name of science. Actually, no, it isn’t. It is just in my name. I am no scientist. I am going to start small, and I move to the rock pools. I don’t want to pump out a lot of volume; I just want to figure out how it works and how it uses essence. The volume might come later.

I grab a tiny crab and concentrate on what happens when I trigger my poison. The crab dies; that's what happens. I have left a mark and a little needle-like stinger. So, where did that come from? I look at my finger, and I can't see anything. I shift the crab around and try again. It is coming out of my finger, but where and how?

I find another. Maybe I should go back to the cabin and murder some fruit for a while as I try to figure this out. I can’t believe I didn’t think of that before I came down. I head back up and pick up an innocent apple. Just the lightest touch with my finger, and I trigger the skill. I might have seen something, so I tried again and again.

I was definitely using essence. My essence core is so large now it doesn’t go down noticeably for small things like needles and poison. It is the repetition that draws it to my attention. The other thing I noticed was that the forefinger that I have been using does not have half a dozen needles in it. Where are they coming from?

This poison mutation is similar to the jellyfish’s poison but not the same. The jellyfish has to regrow the injection needles. I do not. I have just sent half a dozen from the tip of the same finger.

Question. Is the essence creating the needle and the poison? I am pretty sure it is. Amanda would have told me if I had sacks of stored poison in me. She would have taken samples.

I stop for lunch and then go for a swim to clear my mind.

Essence does speed growth. Massively. Carla said her shark teeth grew. She never said how long it took. Maybe that is a function of how much essence you pour into it. My needles are tiny. My essence, causing the needles and poison to grow super fast as needed, would be consistent with the teeth growing idea.

So, are there two types of mutations? Permanent physical mutations like my senses and mutations that require essence to grow?

What does that mean for Carla? Will her scales fall out and the skin grow back? That sounds logical and painful. No wonder she has no hair. Will her hair grow back in human form? We don’t know.

Carla has permanent physical mutations, such as her robust body and her gills. But other aspects are changeable. Why the difference? Couldn’t gills grow back? Maybe she is wrong, and the gills aren’t permanent? The gills and her robust body would be required for both her fish and shark forms. Is that the difference? Changes become permanent if needed for more than one form. If that is the case, we need to be very cautious about moving to new forms. Or maybe I am totally wrong. This is all speculation. I need to get back to testing what I can for now.

Poison and needles created by essence seem likely. If I pump in more essence, does it create poison faster, more needles or what? Can I make the neurotoxin stronger? Can I make it weaker if I just want to knock someone out? I can test these things.

I might need more fruit and different types of fruit. Can I strengthen the needles to penetrate a coconut shell, for instance? It should penetrate scales, but scales are thin. Would more essence make the needles penetrate further and harder?

Let's try the first ideas about more frequent needles and varying the strength of the poison this afternoon, and we can go down to the shops and get some coconuts and other things later and have a nice dinner down there.

Hey, I am about to have money. I could buy a new bike. I think a trip to Auckland might be happening soon. I could check in on Maple, she is such a sweet old lady.

The afternoon soon went. I didn’t crack the problems, but I did discover the way we controlled the essence in the anomaly sphere was the key. Instead of forming it into a shield against mutation, it needed to be used in a different way. Still working the details there.

I headed down to the town and picked up a couple of coconuts and saw the regular nuts. They could be good to test against. I grabbed some different types and munched some as I looked for a new place to eat dinner.

I got back to the cabin late, so I decided to check if Carla had sent an email update. If there had been anything urgent, she would have pulsed me.

Yes, there was an update. The contract is all signed, and the signing bonus should hit my bank account the next working day.

Bike shopping, here I come.

My bank cards and new Driver's licence have arrived. Great.

She and Sophia have been released from quarantine and have relocated to her parent's house in Shelly Beach, address below. They plan to stay there until the media frenzy dies down a bit.

WHAT

THE

FUCK?!!!!?

What have you done, you crazy bitches.