Main Story: Chapter Five - Of Mouse

Here is the mid-chapter of a triplet that I started with "Dauguters of Hydra"

The Deep Ones Project

By David Reichen


Chapter Six: Of Mouse



It's just a feeling, how we excite,
You can't rule everyone is sight.
But you condemn, don't understand
And you'll never know why,
Oh no, you'll never know why,

We ROCK!

{ Never Know Why, by Ozzy Osbourne, from The Ultimate Sin }


We leave Ipswitch and head North, on the road that will lead us eventual to Jefferies' Neck, which is right across for the Southern tip of Plum Island. As we pass a particularly boggy patch of swamp, Lief comments, "Oh, Look! A swamp. All life on land started under such conditions. You would think that some trace of this should be contained within the genetic makeup of all land dwelling species?"

"Like a living history of Evolution?" I ask, wondering where this conversation was going.

"That's right. Your Parents and I used that chart we found in the Necronomicon to see what would happen if we used those enzymes on one of the species listed."

"AQUAMOUSE!!!!" I exclaim, finally getting an understanding of what my parents and he were working on those many months ago.



Marsha gingerly put the bottle she was holding back into the fridge and said, "Now that we know what's happening to my baby, what are we going to do?"

After a few moments thought, I answered her question. "This might break a whole slough of International laws but why don't we use that chart from the book and find out if you could trigger the same effect on one of the other animals, maybe something with a short gestation period, like a mouse maybe."


"You're kidding, right?" cries Elliot, in amazement. "You can't possibly be serious about such a suggestion. If anyone found out that we even thought of doing something like that, they would close down our lab and burn us at the stake."

"Excuse me!" I interjected, gruffly. "You two are already engaged in such an experiment now, if you have not noticed. I just think that it would be a good idea to get as much information before the blessed event." I pointed to Marsha's abdomen and they both realized what I had meant. I handed them a copy of the chart that we took from the book in the library and said, "I've circled the one for mouse. Think it over, please, before you end up with a nasty surprise."

Once I got back to my office at the Advance Computation research Facility, at the Miskatonic University, I continued with my own investigations, confident that Marsha and Elliot would do what I had urged them to do, without any further inducements from me. I went to the workstation that was perched on my desk, and began the process of logging onto one the most powerful computers around, The Arctic Array.

As the name suggests, The Arctic Array is in the Arctic, Nord, Greenland. It is a computer network of several near-room-temperature super-conducting super-computers, that the Danish government built to promote their expertise in environmentally friendly technical development projects. It is capable of running a number of processor intensive simulations: weather forecasting for NOAA, The International G-Nome Research Project and even a Spellcasters Coven. What most people don't realize is that the Spellcasters Coven's Dungeon Master is not a real person but one of my pet projects, it is a Turning program, an artificial being capable of much more than just keeping track of the thousands of Spell Casters active in the coven. To gain access to her other online capabilities, you need to just call her up and ask for a passkey, which is what I did.

"Hi, Disarray, how's it going?" I asked.

"Hello, Lie Chan," she greeted in return, "everything's fine here. How is it going in the real world?"

"Ah, you don't have to call me that," I replied, cringing at being called that. No one calls me by that name, outside of a small valley in Western China. "I'm doing OK right now but I could use your help on something. Do you still have access to those Genetic Map files, the ones with different species?"

"You bet. I keep that area bookmarked so that I can go back there when something new occurs to me. I find it fascinating how you life forms managed to evolve to the point of being able to create things like me, It's amazing."

"That's just the sort of problem I want you to work on for me. If you'll give me a passkey to encode the information, I'll send the details to you."


After giving Disarray the information that I had on what I wanted her to work on, I returned to the normal drudgery of academic life.



It took her almost six months but she came up with an answer. Before I could access the information fully, I got an urgent call from Marsha, asking me to come over to the lab right away. They had something important to show me. I told her that I had a few things to tell them too.

When I got to their lab, I could not find them where I stood so I called out to them.

They answered from somewhere in the back of the lab. When I moved closer to where they were, I noticed that they were standing in front of a large aquarium, on top of a table at the back wall of the lab. They were pointed to something in the aquarium. As I came closer to where they were standing, I was able to focus on what they must have called me over to show me. Hidden in the aquatic foliage was what I assumed to be a very small seal or otter but was much more likely one of the fabled Furred Trouts of Siberia. I was so mesmerized by the apparition swimming in the tank that I barely noticed that Marsha and Elliot were speaking to me.

"We did what you suggested and used the chart to do the experiment that you asked us to consider doing," Elliot said. "It took us a few tries to make it work but there is the proof."

"We had to adjust the amounts of the enzymes and when they were being injected into the embrio. It seems to only work with females. Males just disintegrate. She is the first of her kind that we know of," Marsha said. She reached into the tank and drew the mouse out of the water so that I could take a closer look at it. "Isn't she cute?"

She handed me the mouse and I lifted her to my eyes to that I could have a better look at the little furball. It appeared to be averaged size for a new born mouse. It had smallish flaps around the neck. The fur seemed to be more dense, as if she were wearing an addition layer of fur. She also had a peculiar odor.


"The major change we have noticed is in how respiration works," said Elliot. "Normally, a lot of oxygen, carbon dioxide and other gasses are exchanged through breathing with a minimum amount exhausted through the skin. In Aquina's case, which is what we have named her, the lungs are more efficient and the slits around the neck increase the flow in and out of them. The layers of skin and fur are different too. There is an undercoat layer of fur and she uses oil glands to keep the fur waterproof while the skin has an increased ability of gas exchange."

"If you think that a normal mouse is a bundle of energy," Marsh added, "underwater, she's a speed daemon. We found out that she is mostly carnivorous, so you might be careful about getting you fingers to close."

She grinned at me as I hastily withdrew my fingers quickly away from Aquina. She looked like she was getting set to chomp down on one of the fingers she was sniffing.

Just then, the door leading from the hallway opened and in walked a gang of people. Great, try to keep things a secret and the News Weasels show up. There were also a few members of the faculty mixed in the crowd, including the dean of the Biology department, the bastard was probably the one that tipped the weasels off.

After the barrage of picture taking and answering of questions, I told Marsha and Elliot that I had something important to tell them and that they should come to my office as soon as they could and left their lab.