Trent Talbot stood in his office overlooking the Rig. He ignored his doctor, who placed Talbot’s medication on his desk and scurried out as fast as possible. He pinched his brow and collapsed into his chair. Everything seemed to be falling apart.

He pulled a bottle of whisky from his desk and poured a glass, downing his pills, the rancid taste concealed by the burn of alcohol. Hands shaking he put the bottle back. He would not end up like his father. It was why he was doing all this. His father’s madness, he would not suffer the same fate.

He knew the symptoms, which he replayed over and over in his mind. Like a fool his father had embraced it, starting his damned cult that Talbot was forced to run. It was his only link to the power he needed. His only hope. All because of his father and that stupid mermaid.

Talbot knew he was beginning to slip, it was a wonder the curse had been slowed down as it had. Money could buy the best doctors but zealots could go above and beyond. Still, without his mermaid's help, it would all be for naught.

This curse had come from that dinner so many years ago. If her kind had caused it… they had to have the key to curing it. His father had been a fool and he was paying the cost. His grandfather’s journals outlined everything, a boon that was a curse if taken by force.

Talbot had barely been more than a boy, no more aware of his father’s responsibility for his grandfather’s death than the powerful forces his father consorted with. He had watched his father’s mistakes. Yet it seemed the universe had bound him to his father’s footsteps.

He had his team run every possible sample he could get from his mermaid, and they found nothing abnormal. Nothing science couldn't explain from her being both orca and woman. He didn't dare hurt her, the possible consequences terrified him. More time, they just kept asking for more time. Talbot didn't have time.

Then there was Eva Diaz, a fucking wrench in his plans if there ever was one. The entire plan had been for him to befriend the mermaid, and convince her of his worthiness. Killing Eva would upset the mermaid but keeping her alive distracted the mermaid from him. It was an impossible loop.

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Of course, even worse was that the dome was not ready. Eva had forced his hand earlier with her snooping. His men were so incompetent that it took them days to realize she had been taking photos. Assigning her to care for the mermaid had been his second-worst mistake.

To make matters worse was the power failure. It was one thing for the dome to not be fully furnished, it was another for it to not be structurally sound. It relied on power to resist the crushing depths. Raw human innovation could only delay the depts for so long without advanced technology.

He couldn't even connect to cameras, the outage having damaged communications somehow. His plan of convincing Eva to help had gone down the drain since he couldn't even connect to the cameras. His men were scrambling for a way to retrieve the mermaid. The mechanism had been a mess to install and had been of only a single use, Talbot at no point had considered that he would need to take the mermaid out of the perfect habitat. Or if he decided to do it would have been after he got what he wanted.

Talbot stood, walking to his large bookshelf. Three hundred years of journaling. Maybe searching for answers was driving him just as mad. He didn't want to consider the possibility that this had all been a horrible mistake. He had reread that one page hundreds of times which described the mermaid's scales, her pale smooth skin, and her beautiful smile. A mermaid of myth, not the fucking orca hybrid he had found. The mermaid his grandfather wrote of was nothing like the one that had ruined his life.

He ran his good hand over the spines, all the journals in chronological order through the decades. He knew them inside and out. So many tales and yet so incredibly boring. So much of it was just the same day over and over and over. His grandfather was constantly delighted with his fate despite the mundanity. He had enjoyed every day, relished in every meal, grieved and loved with all his heart over and over and over.

What a fucking boring man. No ambition, nothing. He understood why his father had done what he did, he probably would have done it himself. What was the point of immortality if you did not do anything? His father had at least been ambitious even if he had taken down the path of Icarus. It was the only kind thing he could say about the man.

Advanced technology was only able to glimpse the supernatural, let alone remotely find a way to explain it. It was infuriating. After helping a mermaid trapped in a net, his grandfather had wished for eternal youth. Such a short and simple story with the desired results. Yet his father dedicated his whole life to worshiping a creature that had died years ago. Talbot was forced to live with the repercussions, his story so much more complex and difficult with no results. It was so unfair. His grandfather had had it so easy. His father had had it easy despite his fate, he had embraced it. Talbot had to clean up this mess to have his own fucking life. This legacy which tainted him as a child seemed inescapable.

Every angle of his plan was crumbling, the curse, the dome, Eva, his funding. People could only be convinced for so long progress was being made when it wasn't. He had promised immortality and he couldn't even cure himself.

Tapping made him glare at his father in his tank, built into the wall and running through the Rig. The last act of a madman before it was too late. The worst part was that he could offer immortality, just not the kind anyone wanted. His father had gotten what he wanted in a twisted way that only terrified Talbot even more.