Beyond the noisy airlock was a shockingly spacious area much like the inside of a furnished house or large loft, made out of a combination of steel support structures and hardwood. There was an immediate living room area with comfy couches, a patterned rug, a TV, and a kitchen area visible on the far end with stylish stools and a long, white central countertop table. To the right were stairs leading up to a second level, but it was a level with a visible steel railing balcony overlooking the living area, with the bedroom tucked away in one area and an office/research station in another.

The area was also incredibly humid and definitely at a different pressure altogether, the air thicker and richer, something he recognized as more along the lines of the Earth's surface pressure than what was typical for New Babylon.

Neex was pressed up against the railing on the second story, apparently surprised by his arrival, judging from her gasping face and big splay of head tentacles swaying around actively. Her skin was transitioning from the prevalent white of the walls to her usual rich blue, and she was wearing her 'bathing suit,' a yellow skin-tight one-piece, with oval cuts on the sides, just under where the ribs would be. For her gills, he figured, though there was no sign of them from a distance. She also had on a belt of black material, with a few utility pouches along its length.

"Jaaaack!" she nearly screamed in excitement, hopping up with her hands on the railing. "They told me you were delayed an hour! What?! What?!" She spoke in lightly-accented English. "You're here!"

Jack, laughing, dropped his backpack and flung his arms out as if on display. "They tricked you! Ta-da! I'm here now!"

She hopped up again, laughing giddily. She didn't seem to know what to say, so she repeated, "Jaaaack!"

"Neeeex!"

With another laugh, she vaulted right over the railing and dived head-first.

Jack, immediately thrown into instinctive critical alarm, nearly had a heart attack, but he threw himself forward — sadly, he was way too far to get there in time.

Neex landed fluidly, acrobatically, like she were half-gelatin, doing a forward roll immediately into a sprint right for him, like a little blue cannonball.

Caught between rushing forward and stopping short in uncertainty — in general, rather shocked — Jack was not astoundingly ready when Neex leapt up and glomped him. Jack managed to catch her, began slipping on the hardwood, but just barely kept them from falling. He silently thanked his newfound strength and reflexes as a Non. She felt much lighter than he remembered!

"Ahhh! I am hugging you in fierce friendship, Jack!" she said in a slightly strangled voice, at the back of his neck. "I missed you!"

Jack burst out in surprised laughter, trying to gather himself as he hugged her back. Gingerly, but the truth was, she was probably quite tough. Meanwhile, her head tentacles were making themselves known — flicking through his hair and patting his neck. "I missed you, too, Neex!" One of the tentacles got tangled in his hair. "Urk-"

The head tentacles quickly slipped away from him as Neex twisted back around to be in front of him, her legs and tail also dropping, so he put her down at the same time. Her eyes were wide in consternation, pupils formed into curved lines like frowny faces, apparently focused as upward as possible to 'glare' at her tentacles. Her skin went prickly. "My sorries, Jack. They got carried away." The head tentacles curled themselves as far away from her eyes as possible, peeling toward the back like a reversed crown.

Jack could do nothing more than laugh at the image. He shook his head. "It's perfectly alright. Really." He offered his hand up to 'them,' hovering up over her head. As Neex blinked upward at it and her skin smoothed over, the head tentacles slowly slinked and wriggled back over to wrap around it at multiple points, as a kind of affectionate handshake.

Neex smiled up at him, her eyes shifting around rapidly and independently for a moment, gradually transforming into human-like copies with round pupils and golden irises. "You are now a Muscle Builder, for I can see the improvements in your musculature and frame! Your body fat is receding. Hmm." She made a face, squinting her eyes and putting a finger to her lips as she studied him, somehow too exaggerated, likely because she was imitating a human gesture alien to her. "Hmm! Did you get taller?"

Jack nodded. "A little. Spine straightening out or something like that." After studying her for a moment, he cleared his throat and said, "You seem a bit different, yourself. Your features. They seem more human and… matured. In our way of judgment, anyway."

"Oh! Yes, ah… It's partially instinctual. Even body contouring and female dimorphism. Is that alright?" She cocked her head curiously.

"Ah, sure! Of course. I'm fine with you however you want to be. But I… do like all the different pupil changes from before. It's one of your people's natural forms of expression, isn't it?"

Neex blinked in surprise, but hesitantly nodded, then smiled appreciatively. Her eyes shifted out of the 'human emulation' to form black bars, which then shifted again to make… exclamation points. Meanwhile, her head tentacles all pointed straight up, extending like spikes.

Jack barked a laugh and pointed at her. "Now that was impressive! Though I'm pretty sure it was just for humans."

She wore a big, impish grin as she nodded. "The researchers were kicked as well by it! Er- sorry, they got a kick out of it. Right?"

Jack nodded and gave a thumbs-up. "I've only met Dr. Wilson so far. My quote, 'liaison,' here."

"Oh yes! She is a xenobiologist! And a behaviorist. And one of the leaders of the team. She is very sweet for instructing I am her dream come true." Neex giggled and shrugged. "It is a feeling I understand, to meet skyhumans, though I feel rather greedy as I cannot share the experience yet. But we are confident it is just a process we will work through together."

"Mmn." He looked around. "It's a nice place, though. I'm impressed and glad you have space."

"Oh!" Neex did an excited hop and clap with her hands, as her eyes got big. "Sit in my domicile's lounge area, please, Jack!" She grabbed his hand and pulled him along the short distance to the couches and chairs and 'positioned' him to sit down in a cushy loveseat while she leapt onto the couch in a roll that plopped her down back-first, splayed out like a dead body for a moment.

She sighed contentedly, then dropped her head sideways off the cushion seat, beaming over at him upside down. Her head tentacles swayed as if dancing. "It is so very soft and comfortable! I honestly save dry naps for my lying seat! A brilliant technology!" She began gesturing emphatically with her hands out repeatedly in rhythm to the syllables, with her head tentacles attempting to emulate in tandem. "Deucalians must replicate this material for comfort superiority out of water!"

Grinning, Jack nodded along as he sank into the perhaps overly plush loveseat. "Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, it is indeed great, Neex."

Neex nodded emphatically, then sat up cross-legged and pointed at the TV. "I have standard large screen video screen!" She cleared her throat as she turned toward it. "Ahem. Skyhuman Video Screen: turn on!"

The Skyhuman Video Screen obediently turned on, currently showing a very commonly available, but high-quality dinosaur educational program, with realistic but not exactly perfect computer animation.

Neex pointed emphatically, eyes wide, looking between the screen and Jack. In wonder, she declared, "Dinosaurs."

Jack nodded sagely in agreement. "Dinosaurs. I do love them."

Briefly, they watched a triceratops eat some vegetation as a deep-voiced narrator explained its extensive dietary requirements.

"Triceratops," Neex declared.

"Yes," Jack agreed.

"Three horns… quite fearsome."

"Indeed. And big."

"Exceptionally big. The dinosaurs roamed the primordial Earth upon the land before proper sapience! And some the sea! And then a gigantic meteor exploded the many, and then choked the climate, forcing great changes."

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

"That's right."

Neex nodded sagely. "Oh!" She hopped back up, running over to grab Jack's arm and 'pull' him up (which mostly required his cooperation). "You are a guest who knows nothing about my domicile, and you must see everything else! I have a human kitchen with wooden cabinets! Come and see them, Jack!"

Neex proceeded to excitedly show him the cabinets, the refrigerator, the appliances, the 'cutters,' the sink, and then hurried him upstairs to show the research station's various features (demonstrating the wonders of her possibly over-used post-it-notes), and then the nearby bedroom area, including her bed and 'preferred designer pillows' (a large stuffed bear and squid — she'd put the 'inferior pillows' away in the closet as 'backups'). So on and so on.

Jack endured it all patiently, unable to quench any of her enthusiasm for the 'human stuff' she was showing off, and in fact highly entertained every step of the way. He was smiling and nodding most of the time. She was perpetually fascinating to watch, expressing emphatically with her hands, her head tentacles, and sometimes her tail, emulating in subconscious tandem. When she wasn't grabbing his arm or hand to pull him along, she'd gesture with a 'come this way' finger, and every time, several tentacles did it in perfect sync.

Finally, they came to a kind of indoor pool area reached from a sliding glass door. A dome-like dark canopy retracted from over the water upon Neex's shouted command. It was all very nice, mostly designed to look like a natural setting that just happened to have a vaguely elongated, almost rectangular pond, carved into 'natural' rock, complete with real plants in landscaped dips and such. The spray of pressurized fountains and jets underwater somewhat spoiled the realism, but so did the wooden patio set, lounge, and storage area nearby (with towels ready in an alcove), and who would complain?

"Well!" Neex declared, gesturing around with a grin. "The final spoiling is here! Isn't it beautiful, Jack? And just wait until you see the depth below and the tunnels they made for a natural landscape!"

Jack nodded once more to Neex, bragging about her 'confinement area,' which she seemed to regard as a living anthropological experiment she was a volunteer within. "It is, in fact, quite beautiful." He glanced at the bubbling water and took a deep breath. "Guess this is the end of the road, huh? Time to get to it and breathe water."

Neex's smile turned into a gentler expression as she folded her hands in front of her. "Only if you're ready, Jack Laker, Skyman Warrior, Muscle Builder, and Staff Ball Point Scorer."

Jack laughed. "Are you going to keep adding titles onto my name?"

"If I may?"

"Ah… sure. This is customary?"

She nodded solemnly. "Among my people, we note accomplishments for those we hold in personal esteem, and occasionally give remembrance, particularly when encouraging them, speaking the three that most come to us at the present time that we give the honor." After a pause, she added, "It is very fun and terrific and special to determine and speak the new English titles!"

"That's an awesome tradition, I think. Hmm. For you… Heart Bringer. Cheer Giver. And… Death Defier."

Neex's eyes went wide, her pupils appearing to 'melt' into an indefinite shifting blob. She touched her chest with both hands and said in a whisper, "You gave me title names from memories…" She trailed off. Clearly, she was touched. After a moment, her pupils went solid and fat, but with a 'sunken-in' top. "I am so honored, Jack."

Jack smiled and nodded. "I'm happy to, Neex. You definitely deserve them. You like them, then?"

Her pupils did a wavy 'W'. "Of course I do!"

"Awesome."

"Very awesome!"

"So, I think it's time for breathing lessons, huh? I'm ready. I want to learn."

"Yes! Excellent!" She grinned, then immediately turned and dived into the water precisely, barely making a splash as she disappeared. A moment later, her head popped back out, her head tentacles all doing a 'come here' curl toward him like fingers. "Remove unnecessary clothing and enter the water!"

"Roger that!" Jack popped off his shoes and took off his shirt and the shorts he had on over the inner wetsuit bottom, so he was wearing only this. Once he was ready, he slipped into the water from a set of descending steps and swam over to the waiting Neex, both of them with their heads above the water line.

"Okay," she began, "first of all, you can just hold your breath for anything other than the deep sea. If you want. It is simply more efficient for activity to absorb from the water, or to better adapt to deeper pressure. Now then, I want to prove to you your weight is no big thing to me in water, so you know you are safe within it with me. Okay? Hold your breath and let yourself sink."

"Alright, but I do trust you, Neex."

She smiled but shook her head. "Things within us, primal things, they trust best with example. Evidence. Sink, please, to see trust proven."

Jack nodded, sucked in a breath, then let himself sink slowly downward in the water. Below, he could see the deep hole that was half of the pool, extending down into dimly lit terrain reminiscent of ocean rock. But he couldn't make out much.

He sank down a couple of meters, with Neex doing a slow circle around him, as agile as a cat in the water, moving with whipping full-body ripples. Once he was well-sunk, she grabbed him around the waist from behind and very easily pulled him upward with a whoosh. His head popped back out, and he breathed in air again, mostly by instinct. Hair was in his face, so he pushed it back.

"As you can see, no big problem," Neex said behind him, releasing him once he was swimming with his feet again. "Your biological and conscious self both know it, now."

"Indeed. So, with that out of the way, now what?"

"The easiest way to begin, and let you avoid the great first difficulty of getting over the old biology instinct, is to enter the trance with your Archon. She can facilitate, and you will already be breathing water because you will just do it subconsciously. Then we can evacuate water after a while, and you can more easily breathe in the first gulp consciously."

"That… makes a great deal of sense, yes. And you did the rescue demonstration so that I know I'm safe while effectively unconscious, right?"

"Very right, Jack! Okay, so, you might prefer to sit on the steps first? After the trance, I'll pull you into the water."

Jack nodded slowly, before swimming over to the steps and rising up to sit at the last of them, his legs dangling into the water. Neex climbed up to sit next to him.

This does feel a bit weird. I'm going to meditate so I can get drowned. Heh. Not really, but per human norms, it is. He took a deep breath and nodded to Neex. "Alright. Beginning my meditation."

Neex smiled and gave a thumbs-up. "I'm here and I'm ready!"

Jack closed his eyes and began very slow, even breathing, casting his mind to generic considerations of his Allotment and the branching interface extending from his mind.

It was not long before he hit a void. There was no Memoria this time. She had obviously been prepared, and he needed nothing done to his Allotment. The sense of a void became one in truth as he was simply pulled into unconsciousness.

When he came to with a start, he was in the water, his feet just touching the stony bottom of the 'shallow' side of the pool nearer to the steps, with Neex holding him up somewhat by one arm.

He jerked briefly in a panic, partly from the surprise of being underwater, and partly from the bizarre sense of a substance pressing inside his chest in a way he'd never felt before.

Neex took his hand with her free one and gave it a squeeze. She met his eyes and nodded reassuringly. Her mental voice came soon after. "Jack. It's okay. You're safe. All is well."

Jack nodded in response, fighting down his panic and attempting to chill out. His throat felt a bit raw, and he also felt like something was lodged in it. He had to fight off the urge to hack up or gag. In truth, it felt sealed off. Like he couldn't puke if he wanted to.

No big air pockets allowed, I imagine. It all needs to be water. Good thing for the Mem-link. I've got no chance of talking underwater.

He… deliberately took a breath. It was exceptionally odd, utilizing new musculature actions to cycle water in and out. Inhuman ones, he supposed. It was slower and harder than normal breathing. It felt inefficient. But he didn't need much, after all.

Neex emitted a sound something like a high-pitched whine, and after it came a continual reverberating sound somehow from her throat, slowly causing bubbles to release from her mouth, as well as her now, more visible gills in the sides of her torso.

It was the 'purring' sound. It vibrated the water in a radius, and, despite how alien it was, it was somehow comforting, like a light massage over the skin.

So insistent to comfort him as she was, Jack gave her a return nod and tried a smile.

She returned it. "You are doing great, Jack!" She took her hand from his and gave a thumbs-up. "I think you should swim. Explore! It'll take your mind off the oddities. And we want you to be comfortable before attempting the first gulp consciously."

"That sounds smart," Jack replied. "Lead the way, I suppose."

Neex smiled again, then slid her remaining hand down from his arm to take his again, turning around and swimming toward the deep side of the pool. Jack swam with her, beginning to get a feel for his new movement benefits. It was a combination of emulating her and his own intuition. He moved like a damn fish!

This is so bizarre. Aquatic Adaptation is aptly named. I'm a damn amphibian now. A real shoe-in for the rarest of the rare: Marines. Or should I say 'flipper-in?'

The area underneath the pool was large, likely taking up at least half of the entire 'under-level' of the habitat sphere. The lighting subtly increased in a gradient to show more and more. It was a colorful and beautiful sea-like rocky bottom, part of it akin to a coral reef type area, though he was sure that, at least, was fake. Lots of brightly-colored sea plants were clinging to it, and they were very much alive. Purple, red, orange, green, in a great mix. Seeing it with his own eyes was amazing.

"Memoria went all-out for you, Neex," Jack commented. "This must've been hauled from a preservation chamber. It's not like we're close to the ocean."

Neex glanced back at him; she was solemn in answer. "I understand. I am forever honored and have gratitude to her, and to Skyhumans, for their thoughtful treatment and royal spoiling behavior. It will not be forgotten." She suddenly paused and made something like a gasp. She pointed. "Look!"

Jack looked where she pointed and saw a flash of orange and white movement around a little cave of sorts in the rock. It was brief, but he recognized what they were. "Ah ha! The clownfish. Which one was that?"

"That was Stripey! He has many stripes. Come, Jack! They are curious, and perhaps they will say hi! If not, we will bribe them with food, hehe!"

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