The Professor and the Siren

1. Mariana

Welcome everyone!

This is a short prequel story to Hook, Line & Sinking which is still ongoing right now. I wrote this on the side and I'm uploading several chapters at once, probably the entire short story in two or three batches! :-) That's why there's not going to be many author notes at the beginning or end of each chapter.

Its the story of how Orly and Mariana met and fell in love and takes place a couple of years before Hook, Line & Sinking. I hope you guys like it!

Much love,

Robin

*

Mariana

"Damn it! Not again!" I groaned when it looked like sensors were getting me false readings. The damn things had been glitching all day and it was starting to look like I needed to dive down to attach the winch and pull the unit on deck to check it. That meant a delay and I knew Professor Hybach was going to have issues with that.

Muttering to myself I abandoned the read outs in the small lab aboard the research vessel the Yerseke. As far as research vessels went this was only a small one and most of the students and other scientists that used the vessel were either off work for the summer or in town for supplies.

Hybach would probably be in his small office working himself and I was hesitant to interrupt him. He wasn't the best diver anymore and he'd likely tell me to go by myself even if that was technically against the rule. Divers should always buddy up for safety.

With a deep sigh I bypassed the office and headed for the deck where the winch was and the diving gear. I eyed the water and then the sky, noting that both were clear and then with a shrug pulled out my wet suit and slipped it on over my bathing suit.

It didn't take long to check all my gear to get ready to go but before I took the dive I quickly informed Hybach what I was doing. Predictably he was annoyed at the interruption and the delay and barely acknowledged that I was diving by myself.

Back on deck I strapped on my oxygen tank and checked everything a final time before at last getting into the water. Once under the waves my gear went from bulky and heavy to functional and suddenly I felt free. For a brief moment I swam a circle and enjoyed the freedom, the weightlessness of being in the ocean. Around my respirator I couldn't help but grin in delight. Letting the worries of my research and the struggles with Hybach fall away.

Then I set out to find the malfunctioning sensor so I could pull it up on deck, pulling the winch cable down with me as I swam.

I wasn't even halfway down yet when I saw a flash of something out of the corner of my eye and spun around. The water here was pretty dark and as we were in a fairly shallow trench, measuring the water currents to predict wave patterns. There was no reef, no coral and not a whole lot of fish.

There was nothing to see but I was vigilant anyway, it could have been a shark. There weren't that many here, I should be safe, but you never knew. Without a diving buddy I had no one to watch my back.

My joy in the swim had disappeared at this point and apprehension was crawling across my skin. I wasn't alone down here. Something was in the water with me. Something big.

I almost considered giving up and getting back to the RS Yerseke but I was almost there now, all I needed to do was un-clip the sensor from it's weight and hook it to the winch. It wouldn't take me more than a minute.

As the sensor came into view, a clunky box about the size of my torso, I saw that flash again from the corner of my eye. The water here wasn't that clear, the current at the bottom of the ocean stirred up the sediment. I couldn't see that far but I swear it looked like a white shark was there with me.

Heart pounding, fingers clumsy with worry I attached the winch cable. Scanning the water around me in search of another look. There! I caught another flash of silvery white a good twenty meters away, just on the edge of visibility.

A long silvery tail, white on the underside and fading to a silvery pale blue on top. It was swimming away from me so I caught the silhouette of it's fin shape. Not a shark. The fin was horizontal, not vertical for one, like a dolphin instead.

Only slightly relieved I paused to check I'd correctly attached the winch and released the anchor before starting my swim back up to the ship. If it wasn't a shark I was probably not at risk but I was careful anyway because I hadn't had a good enough look to identify the species. In fact, the fin had looked extremely unusual to me.

Heart racing for different reasons now I wondered if I'd just encountered some kind of anomaly. I paused every few meters as I climbed, scanning around me for another look. Less scared and more excited this time.

Then I saw it. Powerful motions of that silvery tail as a shape darted around me, it was fast. Really fast. But I saw something I couldn't believe, not fins but what appeared like arms at its sides.

I'd frozen in place completely, hand on the winch line to hold myself stationary. Waiting for it to make an another pass, to show itself again. The higher I'd climbed the more visibility I was gaining.

It spun my way from a different side, I only caught the motion but I spun fast and then almost thought I'd run out of oxygen. For surely I was hallucinating. Briefly dark eyes met mine from under a cloud of black hair framing a masculine and entirely human face. They looked at me with this guilty expression and then he dove, disappearing into the dark depths below.

For the longest time I simply hung there, searching the waves around me over and over again. But he didn't show himself again. I gave up in stunned wonder, fairly certain I had imagined things but something niggling at the back of my mind telling me I might have just really seen a merman.

When I climbed aboard the Yerseke no one was on deck, there was no one I could tell what I'd seen. By the time I'd stripped out of my gear and gotten the sensor winched up I'd convinced myself I was mistaken.