The Last Voyage of the Atargatis
By Tom J. Hyde
Based upon “Ocean Breeze Incense” by AkuOreo

“I’m sorry, Miss Wright, but there just isn’t any money right now.”

“I’ve worked for the Center for almost ten years, Benson!” Allison protested. “You can’t just throw me out like this. My research into the coral reefs off Forest Cove-“

“Is held in the highest regard. Please Allison, don’t take this personally. All of us here at the Center are feeling the budget crunch. But the economy just isn’t up to supporting pure research anymore. It’s just not as profitable as other areas of focus.”

“Profitable?” Her voice spiked in volume. “My research could pave the way to amazing breakthroughs in medicine, structural engineering or any number of fields. These reefs are unlike any in the world. There are signs of mutation within the cells that show incredible amounts of promise!”

“And they’ve been there for hundreds of years. A few more years while we wait for the money to start flowing back into the research grants won’t hurt them. I know this is coming at a horrible time, Allison, just a few months after your folks passed. But the money simply isn’t there anymore.”

Allison could barely contain her frustration at the Director. Forcing herself to ignore the comments about her family, she ground her foot into the deck and struggled to remain calm as she glared into the galley’s videophone.

“I don’t understand why there wasn’t some warning about this,” she said, trying a different approach. “If you need to perform cutbacks, I can scale back some of my operational costs.”

The gray haired man shook his head on the screen, safe and secure within the boardroom of the Black Island Oceanographic Center. “The new budget isn’t about small cuts, Allison. It’s forced us to reduce expenses across the board. I already laid off nearly a quarter of our support staff and half the remaining staff will be retrained to play to the tourists.”

“So that’s it. You’re turning the best ocean research institute west of Woods Hole into a tourist attraction!”

Director Benson jerked backwards as if Allison had slapped him. With a wince, she realized she just went too far.

“Director,” she said, switching to a more tactful approach. “I apologize, but please understand my frustration. Without the Center’s funding, I won’t be able to survive.”

“I have no wish to simply throw you overboard, Miss Wright.” His voice now had the emotional charge of a granite cliff. She cursed herself for her loss of temper. “I will endeavor to see if I can find any suitable openings at another facility for one of your expertise and temperament.”

“Director…”

“I’m afraid that’s all I have to say on the matter,” he said brusquely. “You will be required to turn in all Center property by the end of the week. Once you’ve done that, I will issue your final documents.”

She peered at him with a pleading expression, but there was nothing but a stony façade.

“Of course, Director. I’ll see you Friday.” Her head bowed in resignation.

Benson pressed a button on his side and the videophone went dead.

The oceanographer collapsed into the broken leather couch behind her and held her head in her hands. Tears began to fall down her face as she sobbed into her palms. Despite Benson’s promise to see if there were other openings at some other oceanic institute, she knew the state of the world. People didn’t care about the sea anymore. And as the funding for pure research in general dwindled, scientific teams everywhere dwindled with it. She was just another unemployed woman with a degree in Biological Oceanography.

It was a struggle to stand and walk across the cramped galley of the Atargatis. Stepping through the pilothouse door to the foredeck, she wandered to the rail and stared out into the open sea. She tried to focus on the wonderful sensation of the sea air blowing upon her face, catching her long blond hair and making it dance in streamers. Wrapping her well-tanned fingers around the rail of the deck, she did her best to steady her heaving chest and pounding heart.

It wasn’t working. Once, the simple ripple of the water against the bow of the Atargatis would calm her mind. The fifty-foot yacht was the pride and joy of the Wrights. She could still remember the day when she graduated with her doctorate and her father presented the deed to the Atargatis to her as a celebration of her accomplishment. It was one of the proudest moments of her life.

She remembered those early years fondly, working with her brother on deck just as they had when they were children under the watchful eye of her parents. For five years, they worked together, exploring the uncharted reefs off the coast of Forest Cove, discovering amazing things about the local ecology.

Until the storm five years ago when Jack was thrown overboard twenty miles out from Forest Cove. She could still see the look of horror on his face as he slipped from her grasp. The Coast Guard searched for over a month, but they never found any sign of him. It was only six months later when she found his watch on a small sandbar off the coast of Forest Cove when she could accept he was truly gone.

She didn’t have a life outside the Atargatis. There was nothing upon dry land that held the slightest interest for her. With her savings account already depleted from previous budget cutbacks, all of her remaining money would vanish like fog under the beating sun. The enormous maintenance costs of the vessel, once handled by the technicians at the Center, would bankrupt her in a matter of months.

The woman began to sob once more, wet beads running down her tanned cheeks. She would have to sell her beloved ship and find a new work. She could see herself in a few years, working the drive-in of a greasy spoon, losing her mind to boredom and depression.

The salty droplets slipped off her face and splashed into the rolling ocean water below, still lapping at the side of the ship. Allison didn’t notice the second swish of water occurring several moments later.

The oceanographer slid down and sat against the metal railing. As tears continued to drip down upon to her white blouse, she allowed her eyes to close, seeking the oblivion of sleep for a momentary escape from the pain.

Dreams began to play across her mind. She remembered a long conversation with Jack a few years before the accident. He told her that there was magic in the sea. The woman thought it absurd that a man with a doctorate in geological oceanography could say anything so corny, but there was something in his voice that night. He was convinced that there was so much more to the ocean than people could see. His sister had agreed with him at the time, citing numerous scientific discoveries in the past decade, but he claimed she couldn’t see beneath the surface.

“The ocean is the mother of us all, Ally,” he whispered in her dream. “A vast world of life that we can’t possibly explain with all the science at our disposal. Magic lurks in the waters of the ocean, Ally. And one day, I want to touch that magic for myself.”

She couldn’t say it within the memory, but she wished he were still around to help her search for that magic.

It took several minutes for the sounds of an oddly hiccupping motor to penetrate her sleep. After standing, she stared out over the water, only to cock her head in disbelief as a bizarre little trawler puttered up the sound and into the marina.

The first part she noticed was the neon yellow cabin roof, but it wasn’t nearly as strange as the orange polka dots that dotted the main hull. It only appeared to be maybe twenty feet in length, but it made up for its size in ridiculously garish colors. A brilliant flag floated behind it of a massive candle burning away steadily, depicted in bright electric blue against a field of cherry red.

The tiny boat puttered up to the other side of the Atargatis’s pier and stopped, its engine still sputtering tiny clouds of bright purple smoke. Allison’s eyes wandered over the hull, seeking a name for this abomination of color coordination.

“Nowa?” she whispered.

A head poked out of the small pilothouse, wrapped in a brilliant turquoise turban.

“Hasid make good time! Ocean girl still on boat!” he crowed at her.

“Excuse me?” Allison called from the foredeck of the Atargatis, over the pier.

“Hasid not make delivery usually,” he jabbered. “Especially over big wet. Hasid no like big wet. Or small wet. Hasid no like any wet, if Hasid speaks truth.”

“Delivery?” Allison asked, trying to keep up with the little man. “I’m afraid you must be mistaken. There’s no way there would be a delivery for me.”

She didn’t mention the fact that delivery companies traditionally used trucks and vans and not garish trawlers.

“No no no no no no no!” Hasid cried. He bounded to the rail of his little ship. Allison squinted against the glare of his brilliant clothing. “Hasid nice man with message of certainty! The fish told Hasid clearly what Hasid needed to do. Fish spoke well, though Hasid not speak good fishy.”

“A fish told you to come here.” It was more of a rhetorical question than anything else. Her voice was even as she reached into her pocket for her phone, intent on calling the police.

“Yes!” the little man cheered. “Hasid was happy in new shop. But fish came in, asked for special trip to leaf and wet place. Even paid, though money very wet. Hasid no like wet.”

Allison nodded in what she hoped was a soothing, inoffensive manner. This individual was obviously unbalanced. Yet he seemed about as threatening as an overexcited puppy. While her hand left her phone in her pocket, it stayed close, just in case the man proved more dangerous than he appeared.

“So Hasid is here. Here for ocean girl. Here to give ocean girl gift from fishy.”

He reached into the mint green trenchcoat and pulled out an electric lime bag. “All things already inside to make ocean girl happy.”

“Happy?” Allison scoffed. “Unless there’s a very large sum of money in there, I doubt it will bring me any happiness.”

Hasid huffed a little. “Hasid have only the finest of scents! Hasid very good at job. Not as good as Old Man but still very good! Even when given bad wet money.”

Allison could barely comprehend the man’s speech, but he seemed determined to present her with the bag. And there was something very peculiar about his words, as if he knew much more about her than he should. There was a sense of depth to his words that she couldn’t quite grasp.

“Hasid must give gift to ocean girl,” Hasid said stubbornly. He cackled a little. “Or else Hasid in big trouble.”

“From whom?” Allison asked in a distracted manner.

“Oh, ocean girl not worry about woman. But Hasid knows that ocean girl in trouble. Ocean girl get no more ocean time! Hasid offer gift as solution. Gift paid by fishy money.”

“Oh fine,” Allison huffed, her patience spent, and walked down the gangway on the starboard side of the Atargatis, stepping down onto the wooden planks near Hasid’s boat. With a rather astounding display of agility, he leapt directly atop the pier, forcing the oceanographer to take a step back in surprise. He scrambled up to her, holding the bag in front of him like an offering to an ancient sea goddess.

“Ocean girl take!” Hasid chattered. “Hasid promise ocean girl life better after!”

With a shrug, she accepted it and peered inside. She didn’t have a clue what to expect, but what she found was simply unbelievable. She slowly lifted a small transparent box and gaped at the contents.

“Incense?” Her eyes shot to Hasid. “Incense is going to give me a better life?”

His head nodded so rapidly he looked like a bobblehead on speed. “Yes yes yes! Hasid knows it will make ocean girl happy again!”

“How is some incense called,” she looked at the packaging. “‘Ocean Breeze’ going to make me happy again?”

“Fishy told Hasid not to tell ocean girl. And Hasid always keeps promise to customers. Even fishy customers. But will make ocean girl happy. Happy bosom, happy hair, happy tail! Ocean girl very happy soon!”

Allison didn’t need this anymore. She had enough problems without dealing with some crazy candle seller. But she figured the only way she could really get rid of him was simply to take what she was offered.

“Thank you, Hasid,” she said with an obligatory smile. “I appreciate the gift.”

“Ah! Hasid delighted to know ocean girl likes! Ocean breeze for ocean girl. Fishy knew Hasid’s stock well. Now Hasid go away. Hasid no like wet, especially being on big wet.”

He leapt back into his boat and scrambled into the pilothouse. Within a moment, the purple puffs of smoke were belching from the stern as he slowly slid away from the pier. The turbaned man waved wildly as he turned in the middle of the marina and puttered out into the sound.

After he vanished around the bend, she wondered if she had imagined the brief flash of light.


With expertise honed from years behind the wheel of a yacht, Allison Wright gently brought the Atargatis to a relative halt near the sandy little isle about fifteen miles west of Forest Cove. It was barely the size of the Atargatis herself.  Most of the mariners in the area considered it just another annoying sandbar.
“Yet it was still a special place for her. This was where she found Jack’s watch five years ago, waterlogged and encrusted with sand. As a little memorial for him, she built a small wooden platform on the sandbar. When she was overwhelmed with the world, she came here. She didn’t understand why, but this place always made her feel closer to him.

After anchoring the Atargatis, she slipped on her violet one-piece swimsuit and lowered herself into the salty brine, making sure to keep the electric lime bag clear of the rolling water. She didn’t even know why she was bothering, but Jack always loved incense, candles and the sort. Now, she thought burning the incense upon her own private island of memories might settle her mind, if only for the night.

The sun was just beginning to sink on the horizon, casting rays of gold and crimson upon the waves. Allison faced the dying sun and sat upon the worn and waterlogged planks she laid here three years ago, her naked feet digging into the sand. With a sigh, she lifted the transparent box out of Hasid’s bag and opened it. A tiny smile creased her thin lips as she set the seashell-shaped incense burner upon the planks. She tore open another smaller bag and placed the fragrant cone of incense inside the burner. Leaning down to take a brief whiff, her smile grew wider as the concentrated scents of the ocean burst in her nostrils.

Hasid included a small set of waterproof matches in the bag. It took a few tries to light the first one, but when she did, it burned with a vibrant orange flame. She gently touched the fire to the tip of the Ocean Breeze incense cone and a brief glimmer shone from the peak.

The swimsuit-clad woman took a deep breath and allowed the wisps of blue and green smoke flutter around her, playing in the breeze like dolphins in the surf. Allison leaned back and let her legs stretch out in the fading sunlight while her hands supported her arcing back. She let the thick waves of blonde hair cascade down to her hips as she breathed deeply.

With her eyes closed, her other senses became heightened. The sound of the water lapping across the white sand sounded like a wondrous orchestra in her ears. She could taste the spray of the salt air on her lips. The fragrance of the incense didn’t overpower the smells of the ocean, but simply focused it to an incredible degree. Every grain of sand beneath her legs and hands pressed softly into her skin. It felt wonderful.

A burst of cool wind rippled over Allison’s legs and feet. They felt oddly tight and uncomfortable. She wondered if she had fallen asleep, but when she opened her eyes, the red sun had only sunk a quarter of the way into the ocean. She reached up, scratched at her ear and stared into the distant water.

When a brief flicker of gray and blue teased her vision, she glanced down.

An incoherent howl of surprise tore from her lips as she looked at the large fluke where her feet had once been. She closed her eyes tightly, convinced that it was some illusion brought on by the effects of the incense.

Her right eye peeked open, but a strand of green and white hair blocked her vision. She opened her left eye, only to see that scales were quickly forming upon her ankles and moving rapidly up her legs. She winced as she felt the tug of something upon her ears.

“This isn’t possible,” she whimpered as her legs began to fuse together from the ankle upwards. The woman tried to shimmy away from the incense using her hands and rear, but the rapidly changing form of her legs made it difficult to move. Her hair flew in front of her as she gasped as it changed from a sun-worn blond to a pale swirl of green and white, traveling from the very tips of her hair up through the strands.

There was another painful tug at her ears and she reached up to feel a web-like fin. Letting out a cry of alarm, she focused on her legs again, trying to force the change to stop. But her poking and prodding hands did nothing to halt the growth of shining blue-gray scales nor the fusing of her limbs. It reached her knees and she felt a strange twist. The next time she tried to move, her expanding tail curled and shifted in place.

Allison let out a yelp when a tightness in her chest involuntarily arched her back. She glanced down to watch her smallish bosom begin to swell as if they were two balloons filling with water. The sheer unreality washed over her when two fins burst from the sides of her scaled calves.

The tendrils of smoke surrounded her like serpents, twisting and curling around her changing body. She wanted to throw the burner into the water, but couldn’t force herself to pick it up. The material of her swimsuit began to stretch and tear along the bustline as her breasts expanded. She blushed as two thin strips of skin became visible. The woman stared at her chest in disbelief, her newfound tail curving around as her tanned hands held her upright.

Something in the swimsuit gave and it split straight down the middle, leaving the partially transformed woman entirely nude on the rough planks of the sandbar. She let out a low moan of fear as the scales burst into existence upon her waist and hips, fusing her legs entirely together. She could feel the tingling around her scalp and reached around to pull some hair into view. There wasn’t a single hint of blond in the mass of curling green and white.

A final shiver blasted through her body at the precise moment a burst of blue light exploded from the small cone of incense, accompanied by a high-pieced peal of sound.

Silence descended upon the sandbar. Allison shut her eyes, terrified that whatever was happening to her would continue onward, but nothing happened. When her eyes finally opened again, she looked down to see the body of a rather busty mermaid.

“It’s gotta be a dream,” she murmured.

“I told you there was magic in the sea,” a smiling voice said from the water.

Allison shrieked in fear and vainly tried to cover her naked body. Light laughter carried over the water as the new mermaid peered into the fading light to see a vaguely feminine silhouette in the water.

“Who’s there?” she hissed. “Get away from me!”

“Don’t be afraid, Ally.” The voice was that of a woman’s but it sounded very familiar. “I would never hurt you.”

“Come out of the water!” she ordered.

An airy laugh was her only response for a moment. “That’s easier said than done.”

With disbelieving eyes, she saw a blue-gray tail flick out of the water beside the silhouette of the woman.

“Come on, Ally,” the woman said, holding a hand out to her. “It’s time to go.”

“Who are you?”

Other woman lifted a glowing orb of green energy out of the water. The light washed across the face of a woman with green and white hair. Yet the second she saw her eyes, memories stirred within her. She knew those eyes better than every bolt of the Atargatis.

“I go by Jacqueline now,” she whispered. “But a few years back, you called me Jack.”

“No,” Allison cried. “Jack’s dead! He died at sea in the storm!”

The green-haired mermaid shook her head. “Almost, but not quite. They found me after nearly four hours of treading water. I slipped below the waves and simply waited, resigned to my fate. As my vision blurred, they appeared like wraiths in the water. They told me they could save my life, but warned me that their magic had strange effects on outsides.”

She gestured to her well-endowed form, not very different from the one that Allison now wore. “This was a little stranger than I expected, but it’s not all that bad.”

“You can’t be Jack,” Allison said, her eyes full of tears once again. “Jack would have come back to me.”

The mermaid sighed. “It’s not that simple. The merfolk are an ancient race. They have amazing magical abilities. Long ago, they weaved an enchantment into their bodies that made them impossible to see by any normal man or woman, to protect themselves from the violence and intolerance of humanity. That magic can only be dispelled in times of great need.”

“And telling your sister that you’re alive doesn’t count?”

“No. Unless your life was in danger, you would never be able to see me. I’ve swam beside you for years, watching over you as you explored the ocean. Please, Ally, come to me. Come let me show you the true magic of the ocean.”

Allison stared hard at the mermaid in the water. The eyes were identical to Jack’s in every way, except that they appeared even more filled with wonder than before. The impish smile upon the half-woman’s face was the same smile she had seen for years working together with Jack. The voice was simply a softer and higher version of the man she had known.

She slowly began to slip closer to the ocean. It took a few minutes, during which the mermaid called Jacqueline waited and watched patiently. But soon she was in up to her waist. She found movement in the water with her new appendage breathtakingly easy. Allison slowly approached the other mermaid, who held out her hand. The face was so full of kindness that the moment they touched, Allison knew that somehow, the magic of the sea had given her brother back to her, even if he was now her sister.

They embraced tightly and once more tears fell from Allison’s face, but now they were ones of delirious joy.

“I was in the marina when you got the call from Benson. I listened and knew I had to do something. We’ve occasionally had dealings with Hasid the Candlemaster and he was the only one I knew I could reach in a short time. It took some doing, but I sent him a messenger with my request.”

“You sent him the fish.” Allison was dumbfounded.

Jacqueline nodded with a smirk.

“Then he brought the incense to me.”

Jacqueline nodded again. Allison smiled and hugged her again.

“There’s so much for you to see,” the mermaid whispered. “Things that no normal human could ever witness. There’s so much power in the sea that I can’t wait to show it all to you. Are you ready?”

Allison turned toward the lights of Forest Cove as the sun finally slipped over the horizon. The city was bathed in the dim purple glow of twilight. Somewhere in the distance, she heard a foghorn sound. Her eyes wandered to the lights of the Atargatis and a sad expression fell upon her face.

“I’ll miss that ship,” she said.

Jacqueline put an arm around her as she gazed at it with her sister. “She was a good ship. I’m sure she’ll serve her next master just as well as she did for us.”

“I’m glad I got to sail her one last time.”

The stars began to peek out of the darkening sky. It would be a beautiful night.

“It’s only fitting that she would be the one to bring you out here. Her name has a very special meaning to our kind.”

“Her name?” Allison looked at the letters on her stern. “What about it?”

“Grandpa never told you, did he?” Jacqueline laughed.

“No. Why?”

“Atargatis was the first mermaid.”

Allison smiled and giggled along with her sister. Jacqueline held out her hand and Allison took it, all hesitation gone in the joy of the moment.

There was a faint splash and the flick of a tail. Then they were gone, leaving the Atargatis behind, the name across her bow fading in the twilight.