Eleven
Proteus
Proteus stared down into the pod, horrified at what he had done. He had just been so angry. So lost in his own confusion and hatred that he'd looked at her and suddenly she was everything that had gone wrong. Ellie had become a symbol of all the humans who had destroyed his home, turned the sea to mud, and then continued to battle against the People of Water until all hope of fixing what had been broken had nearly been lost.
He hadn't even seen her. He'd seen the enemy who had turned his life upside down. He would have done the same to any sentient creature in his path.
The loss of his family had him reeling. He wasn't himself. The world felt like it had turned against him, even the sea goddess he had always worshipped. He was alone, scared, angry, all the emotions that he did not know how to deal with at all.
He was ashamed of himself for taking it out on her. That wasn't who he was. It wasn't who he had always intended to be.And yet he was the man who had hurt her. An innocent woman who had no reason to be harmed.
Then she had been the one to comfort him.
"You are not a doll," he murmured, staring down through the clear lid as the machine put her to sleep. "And I am sorry I ever treated you as such."
She looked so peaceful as soon as whatever drug that was injected into her body started to work. He'd never be able to guess what was used, but he was pleased that she looked comfortable. In her sleep, he wondered if she had already entered the simulation. Did her mind ever get to rest? He hoped it wouldn't have put her back in that place when she had earned a long sleep. Her body and mind needed it.
Pilot climbed on top of the pod as well, staring down at the unconscious woman as the pod started to knit her skin back together. There was a strange gel-like substance currently being spread over the massive wound.
"I don't feel like I have the right to ask why," Pilot murmured. "Everything in my programming is telling me to get back to work. But there is a part of me that wants to stay right here and make sure she's put back together correctly."
"Do you have any reason to assume it is not capable?"
Pilot pointed to her arm. "Humans are very fragile, Proteus. That arm is in a worse state than you or I could guess. I think it's likely that the machine will replace it. They might have harvested a limb from another clone if we were back in Tau, but that isn't possible considering where we are."
He didn't want to believe he’d broken her beyond repair. But as they both watched, the machine pulled out what looked like a small saw and started hacking through her flesh.
Pilot tapped a few times on the lid, bringing up her vitals. "Well, at least this machine is very thorough. Her vitals are surprisingly stable for such a massive surgery."
"What does it look like?"
"Blood pressure is low, but that's due to blood loss. Her heart rate is perfectly stable, and it appears even that her oxygen levels haven't been impacted somehow." Pilot leaned down to look and then shook his body like a nod. "Ah, of course. Synthetics are being used to keep her mind believing that her arm is fine. Fascinating. It's using the chemicals in her own brain to convince her that nothing is wrong."
He didn't really know what all of that meant. If anything, it just reminded him of a time when he had watched humans experimenting on each other.
They used to be obsessed with it, at least when he had been alive. Perhaps even then they had known that there would be a time when they would not be able to live on land. The wealthy man had spent countless hours of his time and money to try to splice humans together with other creatures.
It had never worked. Not once. The human DNA that he used simply could not be melded with another creature. They were very different.
He had been focused on trying to steal what the undines came by naturally, just like many of the men and women who had lived in Tau. Proteus had watched those videos, too. He'd seen them trying their best to become the creatures who lived beneath the waves, but they had never succeeded.
The machine under his hands whirred. Even Pilot reacted with surprise as it suddenly seemed to shift. Then he watched as it removed her arm entirely, cauterized the wound, and then placed the arm in a small tray. Her arm sank into the belly of the pod, and then a drawer opened next to them. It hit him on the tail, nearly closing again before he grabbed it.
Now he was staring down at her mangled arm which was no longer attached to her body. It was so much smaller like this. Thetiny fingers curled in on themselves, and her skin speckled with blood.
"What do I do with it?" he asked Pilot.
Proteus feared his eyes were wide with shock. He didn't expect to be given the limb. Should he consume it? He did after all need as much sustenance as he could get.
Pilot hit his legs on the side of the pod so hard that he was forced to look at the droid. "Drop it into the water and let the current have its way with her arm," the droid said sternly. "Do not do what you're thinking of doing. She'd never forgive you."
"Is it not a waste?"
"Other creatures will make use of it. If you are hungry, you can go track down another whale."
He supposed that was the truth. Proteus lifted it delicately and tried not to focus on how stiff it had already become before tossing it out of the hatch. He returned to the surgery that was happening before his eyes, still a little unsure of himself. This all made him feel strange. Guilty. Like he was the problem when he...
Well, he was the problem.
