When Nerida woke up, she knew something was wrong.
The last thing she remembered was the boats floating above her head, divers jumping in the water and chasing her down. Since she was home alone, there was no one to stop the wetsuit clad humans from swimming into her home and capturing her. She passed out from the fear, eventually coming to inside of a glass tank about ten feet deep at one end, with a gentle slope leading to the surface.
As odd as her surroundings were, the low-ceilinged room with black paneling and dark windows all around, the tubing all around her and the foam flooring that formed the platform around her watery abode, that wasn't the strangest thing about her new environment.
Her tail was gone, and in its place were two legs.
Initially, she spent her time scared, sitting in the shallowest part of her tank. As she ventured further, realizing she could still swim without her tail, she dove down to peek through the glass walls of her tank to see if there were any neighboring mermaids in captivity. All she could see, however, was her own reflection in the mirrored glass. There were faint splashing noises on the other side, so she kept her hopes up.
It was hard to gauge time in the windowless room, but it felt like an eternity that Nerida swam circles in the tank. She didn't bother to try and get up and look for an exit, as she was utterly hopeless at walking. Besides, where would she go anyway? Maybe look for other mermaids; in all the chaos of her capture, she was sure she has seen the divers dragging others into their boats.
That was a useless plan, however, so she stayed put and waited for something interesting to happen, which came in the form of a human, a man, entering the room from a door that blended seamlessly into the wall. He wore a clean black shirt and matching swim trunks, as formal as swimwear can get.
"Hello," he said, is voice calm and sweet, much more comforting than she envisioned her captor to be. "I'm sure you're very scared right now. Do you speak English?"
Nerida nodded her head at his question.
"Good, then we can talk. Right now, you're in a research facility. We don't want to hurt you. As soon as we have our information, you and all of the other mermaids will be released. Now, what's your name?" The man pulled a pen from his pocket and readied it to write on a clipboard he held.
"It's Nerida. What's yours?" She asked.
"You can call me Lucas. Now, let's get started, shall we?" Lucas. Nerida had once known a sailor by that name, whom one of her close friends had rescued from a shipwreck. She felt comfort in knowing she was safe, that this man was not an antagonist, that she would be taken back home. There was still fear, of course, that he was lying, but his words sounded totally sincere.
"I'm going to hand you a device, Nerida," Lucas explained, pulling on one of the tubes near the wall. He walked over to her as it unrolled, a rectangular piece of metal on the end of the shiny silver hose. His eyes raked over her body, and for the first time she realized he must not be used to seeing women with their chests fully bare. At home, mermaids rarely covered themselves, so she had thought nothing of herself being topless when she had woken up.
Cautiously, she swam to the shallow end of the tank and took it from his hand.
"What do I do with it, sir?" she asked him as she studied the device.
"See that end with the little holes? I want you to place that in between your legs. It may help to lie down on your back, but do whatever is most comfortable." Once he gave the instruction, he walked back to the wall and bent over. he started turning a knob, but confusion filled the mermaid. She did as was told, but nothing was happening.
"What's supposed to - oh!" warm water began to spray her, and to her surprise, it felt very good. Her heart rate quickened when Lucas began to quiz her.
"Do you know what an orgasm is, Nerida?" She shook her head, biting down on her lip.
