Trust Machines - Betta Test

Janine sighed as she levered herself into the wheelchair and settled her diaphanous fins around her purple tail.  “This was a stupid idea, Ronnie.”

Her black-haired friend shook her head as she helped Janine get comfortable.  “No it wasn’t.  You were the prettiest one out there by far.  Especially in the water.  There’s already videos of you online, and some of the comments are really nice.”

“And the other comments?  The ones that laugh at me being the slowest mermaid in Unlimited?”

“Ignore them.  They’re just jealous.”

Janine sighed again, and shook out her short purple hair.  Ronnie had changed it to match her scales.  “Let’s just see if we can catch a shuttle back to the mall, so I can be human again and forget this day ever happened.”

While they were waiting, a well-dressed man approached them.  “Miss Silverton?  Do you have a minute?”

Janine looked up in surprise.  “For what?”

“I’m from Aquariums Unlimited, and I’d like to talk to you about representing us at some upcoming trade shows.”

Janine blinked in confusion, and Ronnie was first to answer.  “You’re offering her a sponsorship?”

“Well, it’s more of a presenter contract.  We’d cover travel costs, lodging, and a more than respectable fee for her to appear in our display tank at the show.”

“So you want her to be a booth babe at a ... wait, at an aquarium show?” Ronnie asked, incredulously.

The man smiled.  “I know, it’s not really something we’ve gone for in the past.  But having a mermaid on display in one of our top-of-the-line tanks, especially one that represents such a popular species among aquaria enthusiasts...  We’d like to give it a try.”

“I think we can work something out,” said Ronnie with a smile.  “Don’t you, Janine?”

Janine nodded slowly.  “I guess.”

* * *

Three days later they were standing in front of a Venn Machine half the country from home.  “Are you going to be OK as a mermaid for the whole show?  The contract says you have to be there the full four days, so I’m going to have to set it for a month.”

Janine shivered.  “I...  Is this a good idea, Ronnie?”

“Bit late to be asking that now, hon.  The penalty clauses on the contract would more than wipe us out.”

Janine nodded.  “Right.  On the plus side, the accommodations seem pretty nice.  Pity I won’t get to use the hotel room.”

Ronnie chuckled.  “On the other hand, you’re getting paid over a month’s waitressing wages to hang out in a tank for four days.  I’m just getting 10% plus room and board.  And travel expenses.  I’ve never flown business class before.  That was nice.”

“Yeah, it was.”  Janine smiled.  “Still...”

“ I’ll visit you after hours, and they promised to put movies up on the video wall in their display, too.”

“Will you stay with me for the first day?  Being stared at by everyone’s going to be weird if I’m alone.”

“Of course!”  Ronnie hugged her friend until her shivering stopped.  “OK, let’s get you changed.”

The trip to the convention center in the back of a wheelchair-enabled cab was not the highlight of the trip, and Janine was still complaining about it when the attendees started to filter out onto the floor.

“Just remember, smile and wave.  You don’t need to do anything else.”

“Then why’d I memorize all the sales material on the flight here?” asked Janine, swishing her fins nervously.  “I should talk to them, too.”

By the end of the first day, Janine had to admit she’d actually had fun.  The customers she’d talked to had all been nice, with many being complimentary about her looks and her knowledge of UA’s products.

Staying all night in the tank did get kind of boring, even with the movies.  She was just glad that the tank had a really good filtration system, UA’s top of the line model, the Aqua-Scan 3000.

Janine’s popularity only grew as the show continued, and there was always a crowd around the booth wanting to see the betta-girl.  She was so popular, that Bruno came to her afterward and said that he was exercising the extension clause in the contract.

“When we talked about that, you reassured me the next trade show wasn’t for months. So I could go home, have a job...”

“The next trade show isn’t for months, yes.  But we also go on a circuit of the State Fairs, with a display of various exotic fish that also serves to show off our gear.  We get a lot of sales to first-time aquarium buyers at the fairs, when little girls win goldfish in a bag.”

Janine shuddered.  “They still do that?  Those fish never last more than a few days after that kind of treatment.”

“That’s where we come in, we put up informational displays near the booths using fish as prizes, and do what we can to provide equipment to make sure the fish are healthy before they’re won.  Plus we sell cheap starter kits, all that stuff.  We get more loyal customers out of the fairs than anywhere else.  So we want to bring you along, attract even more attention.”

“Do I have to?” asked Janine plaintively.

“Unless you want to exercise the penalty clause, yes.  It won’t be so bad, there’s lots of kids in the crowds at fairs, they’ll love you.”

Janine grinned.  “Well, that might be fun after all.  Can we do fish-back rides for the little ones?”

“I’ll see what I can do.”

Janine found the next few days very frustrating ones.  The contract’s ‘all transportation paid’ clause didn’t specify mode of transportation, and she’d been unceremoniously dumped into a transport tank, with a web of nylon straps to keep her in place.  She’d spent two days in the back of a transport truck, and the only saving grace was that it had really good suspension, so the ride had been smooth as silk.

The first day at the fair had brightened her up considerably.  All the kids loved her, and she’d play catch with some of them, or just talk to them and their parents about what it was like to be a mermaid.  She didn’t even notice how small her tank was, because she was always busy talking to people.

Then she got the bright idea of going in the dunk tank, and lost her bikini top the second time she’d fallen into the water.  That ended that, to her dismay, and Bruno wasn’t happy about the complaints they’d received.

“Look, we can’t have this happening again.  And... well, some of the parents have complained about you defecating in the tank, too.  They think it unseemly.”

“What am I supposed to do?  It’s not like there’s a bathroom attached to the tank.  I mean, I’d love it if that was the case but...”  She noticed Bruno’s smile.  “What do you have in mind?” she asked warily.

“Just some minor tweaks to your form.  There’s a Venn Machine not far from here, we’ll take you there and get you fixed up.”

“Yay.  Well, at least I get to see Ronnie again...”

“Ah...  She didn’t come along.  Sorry.  Don’t worry, my daughter knows all about Venn Machines, and she’s very creative.”

“I don’t like the sound of this.”  She saw Bruno about to speak and interrupted with, “Let me guess, the contract again.”

“It specifies that we get to determine your form.  It’ll only be a little change, really.”

An uncomfortable half-hour ride in a pickup truck later, Janine found herself inside a Venn Machine set for three months, looking over at a twentyish girl who was making no effort to hide her dislike for the mermaid.

“Crap.  What did I do to piss you off?” asked Janine, worriedly.

Katie just kept poking at bubbles.  “Hm...  That should do it.”  With a tap, Janine’s body changed.  The scales now went up to just above her now much smaller breasts, hiding them in the piscine curves of her body.  Worse, her arms had become huge, billowy fins.

“What have you done?” wailed Janine as she was being loaded back into the truck.  “I’m a fish!”  

“Oh, everything daddy wanted, and more.  I saw the way my boyfriend was looking at you, and... well, that’s not going to happen any more, is it?”  She grinned, and stomped the boots she’d carefully not taken into the Venn Machine.  “You’re both going to regret that.”

Janine tried to make the best of it for the rest of the fair.  Her scales weren’t as pretty as before, and more than a few kids commented that she looked more like a cartoon of a fish than a real person.  On the plus side, that made her even more popular with the girls, and there were lots of kids wanting to hang out with her and have their pictures taken with the fish-girl.

What started to really grind Janine down was the less visible change.  She was no longer anatomically correct down below, which felt odd.  Seeing cute guys no longer gave her a tingle, as there was nothing to tingle.  She never had to poop, which was a plus... but that also meant she didn’t have to eat.  Or, it turned out, breathe.  She slowly started to realize that what the kids were saying was true.  She pretty much was a cartoon of a fish brought to life.  When she looked at her face in the glass of her tank, it even looked a bit artificial, as if it were made of plastic, not flesh.

She supposed she should be thankful that she could still speak.

More fairs followed, though she never got into the dunk tank again.  Nor did she get a chance to give fish-back rides.  Bruno’s promise had never materialized, and whenever she asked he put her off with concerns about safety.

Then one day, instead of arriving at a fair, the truck unloaded at a loading bay of a large building instead.  As her tank was being dollied into place, Janine recognized some of the booths she passed.  She was back at a trade show.  She smiled, wanly, at the reminder of her contract once again.  State fairs had paid less than a third of what the trade show had, due to yet another clause she’d not considered important.  Still, there’d been so many more days, she should have built up a sizeable nest egg by now.

When the show opened, Janine was puzzled.  People came by to talk to her, but she was in no way the focus of attention like last time.  She did her best to pitch the products she was swimming in, but people rarely talked to her for long.  Eventually she overheard comments about the ‘cute tank babes’ elsewhere, and realized what had happened.  Other companies had found their own mermaids.  And it wouldn’t be at all hard to be more attractive than she was...

Janine sunk into her tank and stayed there, barely reacting to the passers by.  Bruno yelled at her once to actually do her job, but his threats to fire her were obviously hollow.  If he broke the contract, she’d not have to pay out the penalty clause, after all, and she’d finally be free.

Late that evening, someone tapped on the glass.  Janine looked up, and smiled to see a familiar face.  She burst out of the water, splashing some of it on Ronnie.  “You’re here!  They said you’d quit.  What happened?”

“Quit?  The bastards fired me the second day of the show.  I had to pay for my own hotel room for two days before my flight home.”

“Lucky you.  At least you don’t have a penalty clause to deal with.”  Janine slapped one of her arm-fins on the surface of the water, but the soft, billowy fin barely made a sound.  “Have I saved up enough to pay it out?”

“Ah... about that.  They’ve been mailing your cheques to the apartment, but I can’t deposit them.  They’re in your name, and written up so they can’t be deposited by anyone else.  And they expire after two weeks.  You’re still broke.”

“WHAT?  Fuck, Ronnie.  You have to get me out of here.  And out of this crappy half-assed body, too.  I’m beginning to think I’m just a fish, I haven’t had hands in... I don’t remember how long.”

“I was going to ask.  What the hell did they do to you?”

“Made me less sexy so as not to fuss people at the state fairs I was dragged to.  I want curves damn it!  I can’t compete with the other mermaids here like this...”

Ronnie looked away guiltily.  “About that...  I wanted to get to the next trade show to see how you were doing, and the only way to do that was to offer my design services.  After all, I’m a proven quantity thanks to you...”

“So you made some of the tank babes, here?”

“I, uh... made all of them.  They’re on 16 hour shifts, so I’ve got steady work every day, too.”

Janine whimpered softly, and slid back into the water where nobody could see her cry.  Not that her cartoony body did that, either.

To Janine’s surprise, the next morning a transport dolly showed up at the booth.  Ronnie met her at the Venn Machine.  “Hey sweetie.  I’ve talked Bruno into letting me change you into something nicer.  It’s not much, but it’s something, right?”

Janine sighed mournfully as she was loaded into the Venn Machine like so much cargo.  She didn’t even look at the time it was set for.  “I guess.  Can’t you get them to pay off my penalty clause with my back pay?”

“Bruno was a dick about that.  If you can’t give him a cashier’s cheque for the total, he’s not letting you go.”

“Can he do that?” whimpered Janine.

“I don’t think so.  If you just leave he can send the bill to a collector, though.  You’ll be hounded forever, and the interest will be brutal.”

Janine wept.  “Just change me into a fucking fish then, for all I care.  That’s all I am to them anyway.”

Ronnie hung her head.  “I’m sorry.”

“Sorry’s not going to get me out of this mess.  I’m screwed, and it’s all your fault.”

“My fault?” Ronnie exclaimed in shock.  “You’re the pre-law student, you’ve taken contract law.  Why didn’t you spot these problems?”

Janine curled up in a ball. “The money.  I saw the dollar signs, and didn’t look.  And now I don’t have money, or my body, or a career or friends.”

“Fine.  Be like that.  Enjoy your life as a fish.”  Ronnie tapped the green button, and when the doors opened, she stormed off.

Janine limply let the handlers dump her back in the tank.  Feeling the water flow through her gills revived her slightly, but not enough to take interest in the trip.

Back at the show, she swam in slow circles in her tank.  She didn’t even remember what being hungry was, so it caught her by surprise when her belly started to ache.  Her attempts to get attention from the booth attendant with fin-charades didn’t go anywhere, and the unfamiliar pain of an empty belly made her frantic.

So she stuck her head out of the water and yelled at Bruno.  The fact that she could speak shocked both of them.  Once she’d convinced him to feed her and had eaten her fill of granola bars, she looked around and noticed she’d drawn something of a crowd.

The novelty of a talking fish kindled people’s interests, and Janine fell back into her familiar role as spokesperson.  Nobody seemed to be paying much attention to what she said, though, they were just marvelling that a fish could talk.  Janine tried not to show her frustration, but eventually she gave up on playing trained fish, and went back to swimming in lazy circles.

Then she heard words that shocked her.  “I want her.  Is she for sale?”

A well dressed man was staring at her with a possessive look.  She stared back at him, wonderingly, and essayed a little wave with her forefin.  He waved back, and smiled.  His smile widened when she returned it.  She hadn’t realized her face could do that, until she saw it reflected in the tank’s glass.

Bruno bustled over.  “She’s a presenter.  A person.  She’s not for sale.”

Janine burst out of the water.  “Yes I am!  If you can pay off the penalty clause in my contract, I’ll go anywhere you like.”

The well-dressed man turned his gaze on Bruno, and his look was distinctly frosty.  Bruno flinched back from it.  “What is she talking about,” he asked slowly, dangerously.

“Mr. Winters!  I assure you the contract is entirely in order.”

“Except they’ve screwed me on the payments,” yelled Janine.  “They gave me checks I’m physically unable to cash so I can’t ever pay out the penalty clause!”

If Mr. Winters’ voice had been dangerous before, it was now downright deadly.  “Give me the contract.  I want to see with my own eyes what you’ve done to this beautiful fish.”

“You think I’m beautiful?” whispered Janine, wonderingly.

The expression Mr. Winters turned on her was gentle.  “Yes.  I’ve never seen lovelier.”  

Janine favoured him with a huge smile, which he returned.  “Thank you.  I’m Janine.”  She proffered a fin, which he took and shook without hesitation.

“I’m Dirk.  And I’m looking forward to getting to know you much better.”

Just then, Bruno returned with the contract.  Dirk’s face hardened once again, and became even stormier as he read through it.  “Are you an idiot?”

Janine whimpered. “I’m sorry.”

“No, not you.  Him.  This is utterly unenforceable, and what he has done to you is unlawful confinement, practically kidnapping.”  He turned to face Bruno once more.  “Pay her what you owe her, here and now, and end the contract.”

“But...”

“Or my legal team will tear your company apart and feed it to the fish like it so richly deserves.”

Bruno’s eyes widened, then his posture collapsed.  “Fine.”  He signed off on the contract, and handed it to Mr. Winters.  “She’s all yours.”

“And the cheque.”

Bruno grumbled, but dealt with that as well.  Half an hour later, Janine was out of the tank, and swimming freely in the pool of the convention center’s hotel.  Dirk had just returned from making sure her cheque had been handled properly.  He was wearing a bathing suit, and dangling his feet in the water.  He grinned as he watched the giant betta’s antics, flipping out of the water and splashing back into it, racing this way and that just for the sheer joy of movement.

After a time, she settled beside him, her belly resting on the stairs with her head above water so she could speak.  “Thank you.  This has been the most wonderful day of my life.”

“Just seeing you out there makes it all worthwhile.  But... I meant what I said earlier.”

“Which bit?”

“About wanting you.  You are literally the most beautiful thing I have ever set eyes on, and I want you to live with me.  I have a private pool fully as large as this one, you’d be able to spend as much time as you like in it.  We can adjust the chemicals to best suit your needs.”

Janine shrugged her fins.  “I’m chlorine-proof, so... really, all I need is somewhere to, um... relieve myself.  But... what would the terms be?”

“I’d pay you a salary, and room and board.  All you would have to do is swim around and be pretty.  I’ll draw up a contract.”

Janine twitched so violently that a wave of water crashed over Dirk’s lap.  She looked mortified, but he just laughed.  “Make sure you review this one carefully.  I think you’ll find it more to your liking.”

Janine slept in the pool, revelling in the freedom.  In the morning, there were some kids that came down to play, and they found her enthralling.  She splashed and swam with them until they had to go.  Only then did Dirk approach her.

“Oh!  I didn’t see you there.”

“You were having fun, I didn’t want to disturb you.  I’ve got a waterproof copy of the contract here, if you’d like to review it.”

Janine read through it, eyes widening comically at various parts.  “The termination clause...  I can just leave, whenever I want?”

“Yes.  Say the word, I’ll have a team get you to the nearest Venn Machine, and I’ll pay your way to any destination in the country.  Not necessarily first-class, just whatever’s available.  But I hope to make the offer sweet enough you won’t want to.  Have you seen the part about the water park?”

Janine used her fin to turn the pages until she saw it.  “You’re going to put a Venn Machine in the water?”

“I already have.  I bought the mall eight months ago.  The water park is about half complete, and the tank around the Venn Machine is already full.  Another one popped up just outside the tank shortly after the water went in.  So you can swim in to the Venn Machine for extensions, or tweaks if you really must mess with perfection.”

“Will Ronnie be there?”

Dirk nodded.  “I offered her a job and she accepted.  She’ll be lead Venn Designer, on duty so that people who want to spend time in the water park as a mermaid have an amazingly talented person handling the change.”

Janine grinned hugely.  “I accept!”  She took a pen in her mouth, and signed.

She was moved to the incomplete water park the next day, still in a tank but this time travelling by air in Dirk’s private jet.  Ronnie was already there, swimming in the three foot deep water around the Venn Machine.  She hugged her friend tight when they met, then chased her friend through the rivers and slides that were already complete.

Janine supervised the addition of privacy pools, small lockable rooms with strong suction to take care of the bathroom needs of aquatic forms.  Once those were working, she felt much better.

While construction was ongoing for the rest of the extension to enclose the park, Dirk added an office area that overlooked the pools. That way he could watch Janine swim while he worked.  In the evenings, he’d come and dangle his feet in the pool, and she would float nearby.  They’d talk about the day, about the plans.  Janine even offered to help read contracts and the like.

One night while doing so, she came upon a clause that shocked her badly enough to do a spit-take, one that blew the contract clear out of the pool, shredding it in the process.  Dirk just laughed, and brought out another copy.  When he saw the clause that had drawn Janine’s ire, he shook his head.  To her amusement, he tore the contract up on the spot, and lit it on fire.  Afterward, he always had her read his contracts.

Then the grand opening came.  Kids and parents flooded the space swimming and laughing, playing with Janine.  She even got to give fish-back rides, finally.

Ronnie was kept busy with Venn requests, and most days saw many mermaids cavorting in the pool, along with a few full fish just like Janine.  None took up offers to stay full-time.

One day, Ronnie got surprised by her client, and ended up spending an hour as an inflatable pool toy before Janine rescued her.  After that, security around the Venn Machines was subtly increased.  Ronnie had had so much fun, though, that she got Janine to turn her into a pool toy the next evening, and Janine spent hours playing with her.

The only thing that made the situation less than perfect was that Dirk never actually entered the pool.  Ironically, considering the project and his love of fishes, he couldn’t swim.

Night after night, Janine would ask him to come swim with her, and night after night he would refuse.  Until one night, Ronnie got involved as well, and offered to change him into a fish.  “That way you’ll know how to swim, and won’t be able to drown.”

Dirk laughed, and accepted.  “Since this means so much to you...  I suppose I can deal with my fears for once.”  So he waded into the Venn Machine, and Ronnie worked her magic.

What emerged was a betta fully as gorgeous as Janine herself.  The two of them cavorted through the pools for the full eight hours of Dirk’s transformation.  The next day was rough on Dirk due to the lack of sleep, but he couldn’t regret the cause.

Every night after that was much the same.  As soon as the park closed down, Ronnie would change him back into a fish, and he’d spend hours with his sweetie.  He even spent the weekend changed, playing and working with her as children filled the pools.

Then, about a month later, Janine called him down to the pool first thing in the morning.  She pointed worriedly to a small pile of grapefruit-sized orbs, with tiny black forms twitching inside them.

“You... you laid eggs?”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t know... I guess Ronnie made us really anatomically correct.”

Dirk chuckled softly.  “You weren’t complaining about that earlier.  Nor was I.  We’ll sort this out somehow...”

Janine let out a huge sigh of relief.  “I was worried you might be mad.”

“No!  Far from it.  I guess we need to get married, though.  Before the kids arrive...  I mean, hatch.”  He looked over the pile with a paternal smile.  “Mom always wanted dozens of grandkids.  I don’t think she was expecting them to be fish, but...”

“Yes.”

“Hm?”

“Yes, I’ll marry you.”

Dirk grinned, and waded into the water beside the love of his life.  “Wonderful.  Shall we have the ceremony here, in the water?”

“That sounds absolutely perfect.”