Chapter 135

Katya and Vera met with Linda to discuss the legalities of joining the research team and Linda signed a non-disclosure agreement. Dr Denman being involved in mermaid research again felt like things were coming full circle.

Over the next days, Katya, Linda, Lewis and Alan met multiple times to discuss the parameters of the research, the boundaries, no-goes and acceptable information to share. The discussions were shared with the mers as well to consider and edits were made to the planning accordingly. It was decided that anything about mer-metamorphosis would not be included – the mers really did not need interested people checking out the moon pool and causing chaos by becoming mers on full moons. The girls still remembered their 'baby mermaid' days with moon sickness vividly. The research was about proving the existence of mermaids, not the how. Relatedly, they would not include anything about mermaid pods or underwater kingdoms. They would include facts and evidence of the DNA, photographs (faces blurred), and abilities (such as their swimming ability, breath-holding, way of communicating, transition between tail and legs). They decided they would not mention the magic abilities as this might freak the general population out – especially if they were sharing that mermaids could transition to having legs and could be among them when dry.

To reinforce the evidence, when the research was completed, the mer scale sample and autosomal DNA results (anonymised) would be shown to the academics peer reviewing the article and possibly would be shared more widely – depending on the critical response.

With the plan in place, the research began. Anna, Ben, Rikki and Cleo were the main participants, however Bella, Jessie and Emma also joined in for some tasks. Having Ben participate added in another layer to the research – being able to compare and contrast mermen to mermaids.

Anna, Ben, Rikki and Cleo provided scales for the scientists to run tests on and get the genome sequencing.

When comparing the genome results for each scale sample, Katya made an interesting discovery. As expected, the DNA results for each sample matched Katya's earlier findings. The DNA sequences for both 'dry' and 'wet' samples were the same – the mers had 48 chromosomes (two more than humans, four more than dolphins), and 98% of the mer DNA matched human DNA, 1% matched DNA found in dolphins and whales, and 1% did not match any other known creature's DNA. It appeared that this 1% was the unique factor along with the 2 extra chomosomes. The scientists documented the complete change in cell structure between dry and wet. As Katya was examining the additional samples alongside Dr Denman, she noticed a subtle difference in shape of each cell – in both human and mer forms. In Rikki and Anna's samples, their cells appeared narrower. In Jessie and Bella's samples, their cells appeared to have a thin 'film' around the nucleus. In Ben and Emma's samples, their cells were wider. Anna, Ben, Cleo and Jessie had enlarged vacuoles (membrane-bound sacs which function for taking in and disposing waste and storing water and vitamins) within each cell, but Cleo's was by far the largest. While subtle differences, Katya wondered what might be making the cells different between the mers. She discussed it with Linda but she was also unsure what the reason might be.

"Lewis?" Katya called out.

"Yep?" Lewis popped his head in the doorway.

"Linda and I have been looking at the cell differences between all the mers. Since you know them best, is there any obvious reason that we've missed? We've detailed the differences here," Katya pointed to her whiteboard.

"Hmm" Lewis considered. "Oh! Fascinating! These groups you've drawn up are related to the powers they each have access to!"

"Oh wow!" Katya responded a grin spreading across her face.

"Of course!" Linda said.

"Yeah, Rikki and Anna have control over heat –the narrow cells, Emma and Ben control ice – the wider cells, Bella and Jessie turn water into jelly or harden it – the 'film', Cleo controls water, and Ben, Anna and Jessie do too – just with less raw strength than Cleo. The enlarged vacuoles must be related to this access to controlling water. Or maybe the cell differences is just a disposition towards a particular magical skill? I don't think we'll ever know for sure, and there is going to be a largely magical component there too – not just to do with cell shape and structure. But how fascinating! Well done for picking that up Katya!" Lewis commented.

Katya wanted to test whether some of the physical differences remained in human form, so she organised for Anna, Ben, Rikki, Cleo, Bella, Emma and Jessie to do two breath hold tests. They timed how long each of them could comfortably hold their breath for in human form, and then in mer form. In human form, Emma and Ben were able to hold their breaths the longest; they were bursting for air at two minutes, and the others struggled past 40 seconds and could not do longer than a minute. In mer form (also on land for a control variable), all of them were able to hold their breath for over 20 minutes. They were uncomfortable at 30 minutes, but were able to maintain their breath hold well. At 40 minutes, Katya told them to breathe. The next day they organised to see how long they could hold their breath under water. All of them were comfortable for about an hour, but then discomfort came on quickly and they needed to surface at about one hour ten minutes. Over the years, each had been getting better and better and more practiced at holding their breath. They all still remembered when ten minutes was a struggle. Katya noted that their trained breath hold capacity was comparable to whales, and she noted their report that as new ('young' for the research paper) mermaids they could only hold their breath for up to ten minutes – comparable to a dolphin. This test supported the finding that in human form, their cell structure and anatomy was human, but in mer form, their cell structure was completely different, thus changing their anatomy and capabilities.

OoOoO

Katya looked through the microscope yet again at the scale sample as it changed from dry to wet. She would never get over the way it seemed to turn to water for a split second, before changing to scale.

"What are you looking at?" A quiet voice piped up from behind her. Oh wow, was it really that time of day?!

"Jenny," Katya greeted warmly, "You're back from school! I must have lost track of time".

"Hi," Jenny smiled. "So, what are you looking at?"

"Just looking at one of your Mum's scales – did you want to take a look?"

"Yes please," Jenny bounced excitedly on the balls of her feet. Katya stepped back and gestured towards the microsope for Jenny to come closer.

"Whoaaa, it's so close up!" Jenny exclaimed.

"Yeah, all those little circles are the cells in the scale," Katya commented. "It is still wet, but if it was dry you'd be able to see it as skin first, then see it transform up close,"

"I can dry it out!" Jenny smiled. With a flick of her hand, suddenly there was a small ball of water hovering in the air beside the microsope. With another movement, the water ball was flicked outside. Within seconds the scale returned to be a flake of skin. Katya stayed silent, eyes open wide. Such a casual display of power. Katya had to say she was a big fan of the girl.

"There we go," Jenny continued, pleased. "Wow this is crazy,"

"Isn't it amazing that we're made oftrillions of cells?" Katya asked rhetorically. "It gets even cooler. Keep looking through the microscope – I'm going to add some water,"

Katya did so and she chuckled pleasantly as Jenny let out a giggle of delight as she saw the skin change into a scale through the microscope. Without wasting time, Jenny pulled the water away from the scale again, waited for it to change back still holding the water ball, and then splashed the water ball onto the skin piece again.

"Very cool," Jenny said. "That's for letting me see, Katya!"

OoOoO

The team gathered swim speed data. In the past they had evaluated speed with Alan, but for the research project, they would wear devices to track the movement and speed to have solid data. Katya had one high-end speed tracking device so each mer took turns going their regular swim pace and then going at turbo speed. The regular swim speed was between 6 and 20km/h, and their turbo speed was between 120 and 180 km/hr. Katya just shook her head in awe as she took in the turbo speed figures.

Katya, Alan, Lewis and Linda met and discussed the findings at the end of each session or day with the mers. They worked on the draft article and decided how to portray the information. The last thing they would want is people freaking out by the information shared and being scared of mermaids. They needed to present it in an informative way, without it being too much. After the sessions with the mers finished, the marine biologists took another four weeks writing and editing their draft article. Katya and Linda took the lead after the first week when Alan and Lewis had to return to work – the men helped out when they could. The article continued to shape up nicely. They imagined that they would be able to present the final draft to be peer reviewed in the next month.

It was only a matter of time before the truth would be revealed to the world.

A/N: Hello everyone! I live! Sorry for the long wait for this chapter! I've been in love with playing Horizon Forbidden West (finished it on ultra hard mode recently) and so have been very distracted from writing.

I hope you enjoyed reading this chapter, please let me know your thoughts (or really if you're still reading lol).

I am travelling to North America for the first time next week! I will be travelling up the West Coast (LA, San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, Vancouver). I am very excited :D I'll get back to writing again after my trip :)

Thanks so so much to Icy-Petals, Eleanoodle, and kaitoechizen211 for commenting, reviews mean a lot to me :)

See you next time!