Mulder took himself in hand, touching his finger tips gently over his own dry shaft, as the voice told him how Ben was collecting objects to decorate his bower. He watched in rapt fascination, even though he’d seen this tape many times, as Ben politely rebuffed the attentions of potential suitors.
As a male who had done his reproductive duty with the females, and who was obviously searching for a mate, he was driving the rest of the pod wild with desire. Mulder started to spread his own precum over the shaft, in lieu of astroglide, enjoying the buildup of sexual tension, imagining himself as one of the suitors, admiring the big red merman, although mentally exchanging red fins for beautiful aquamarine.
As Mulder’s fingers increased their pressure, Ben started to display, his fins unfolding in a splendour of scarlet, vermilion, and crimson.
You can see the magnificent display in progress, as Ben twists and turns, displaying his fins and fitness. You can see the display is being watched by a number of single males, but they will not approach. Much to our surprise, and apparently to that of the rest of the pod, Ben is directing his display at Ray, the one we considered to be rather plain. You can see Ray’s behaviour is rather tentative, nothing more than a slight swaying...
Mulder increased the speed of his touch, his fingers rubbing his own testicles.
Ray’s behaviour is rather like the female bird of paradise, swaying while mesmerised by a male’s performance. If he accepts Ben’s overtures, he will start his own display…
Mulder held back a gasp as the thin brown Ray spread out his own dorsals, displaying the most wondrous spread of chocolate browns, shimmering greens, and a fabulous threading of gold throughout. He’d seen that many times, but it always had the power to take his breath away.
As the mermen synchronised their display, closer and closer, twining their bodies and long sinuous tails around each other, Mulder increased the speed of his rubbing, feeling the bubbles of precum burn their way through his cock. He imagined himself under the water, feeling the ebb and swell as his fins created a small whirlpool around their entwined bodies, staring into the expressionless face of his mate, his flesh pressed against cool flesh, his aching cock taken into a warm receptacle, scales pressed against his own tail, his fins entwined with Krycek’s...
"Shit", Mulder wiped the cream up with a tissue as the mermen on the screen separated with a last contented wriggle. "What the hell are you doing, Mulder?" he chastised himself. He was thinking those kind of thoughts about... an animal. No matter that Krycek looked almost human, Mulder could not allow himself to start thinking like that. That way be madness! Too many late nights watching porn videos and reading books on merpeople, or watching videos on merpeople while reading porno mags. It was all getting confused in his head. He grasped at straws to explain his behaviour.
But what did it matter really? Who would know? Since his little sister had been returned to him by a pair of strangely clawed hands when she’d fallen off that boat... she would have drowned if not for the creature that stared back at the boy Mulder through strange eyes and flipped a huge tail as it swam away... he’d been obsessed with the merpeople. No one need know he had these thoughts of bestiality, and it would ensure he looked after Krycek well. Probably for the best all round.
Mulder collected all the things he thought he’d need. He could move into the office that directly adjoined the new display tank. A window into the tank would let him watch Krycek while he wrote up his Nobel prize winning treatise, and he could sleep under the desk if need be.
-oo0oo-
"I’m not taking all the samples listed here, he’ll bleed to death."
"You’re exaggerating, Mulder," Scully sighed impatiently. "We have had requests for DNA samples from all the major institutions in America, and many from overseas as well."
"I’ll take spit samples then, there’s enough DNA in spit, and that will have to be enough. I’ve taken blood and tissue samples already. He doesn’t need to be cut any more."
"Can’t you take bits from the fins?"
"How would you feel if I kept cutting bits off your fingers and toes? He has feeling in his fins, you know."
"And he told you this, did he?"
"I can tell, Scully. He does not like being cut up with scalpels: perfectly understandable. Anyway, I’ve got skin, scales, spit, blood, tissue, stool and urine, hair membrane, and a variety of mucus. He’s had enough."
"Semen."
"Oh, we don’t need that do we?"
"If we ever have the chance to get a mated pair, it would be nice to know its fertile."
"They mate male-to-male anyway, and how many hundreds of years have humans been searching for just one live specimen? I don’t think we need to do that."
"It allows us another way of testing its health, but why am I telling you this? You know how many diseases can be detected that way, unknown animal or not. Why are you so bothered? You’ve had to do this with dolphins?"
Mulder gave her a rueful look, "Yeah well, he looks like a guy... I don’t wanna do this to something that looks like a guy," he hedged unconvincingly.
"Nooo," she tapped a pen against her teeth thoughtfully, "that can’t be the problem..."
Mulder squished his face at her teasing, "Okay, clear the room, this requires some privacy..."
"It’s a fish, Mulder. A fish doesn’t care!"
"I care. I’m not fiddling a fish in public."
"You diddle dolphins!" Scully wasn’t going to be out done on that one. "You interfere with ichthyoids! You..."
"That’s enough, Scully," he laughed, holding his hands out in surrender. "But honestly, I’d rather do it in private. God forbid anyone should see this, I’ll never hear the end of it."
Scully sniggered, "Can I set up a vid cam?"
"No! If anyone’s going to film this, it’ll be me!"
He shooed her out the door, locked it behind her, and made sure all the security cameras were off.
"Okay, it’s just you and me big guy, should I dim the lights?" He rolled Krycek over onto his back, the tank water shallow enough that his face and belly were out of the water. Knowing the merman hated being on his back, he waited, one hand in the small of Krycek’s back until the merman relaxed in the new position, "Well, is the water warm enough? Can I offer you a drink? Are you going to claw me to death as soon as I start this?"
It was never a problem to get sperm samples from dolphins, in fact, as soon as a dolphin learned what was on the cards, they generally tried to initiate the sampling process as often as possible. Dolphins are such sluts.
"Okay, you’re an animal, you’re not hung up on things like this are you? You’re not going to bite me, are you, you’re a good boy, aren’t you?" Mulder kept up the chat, rubbing Krycek’s hip, not just diving in and surprising the merman. "Just let me put on a glove here, make sure my hands aren’t too cold. You don’t mind if I touch you here, do you?" Mulder rubbed his fingers gently over outer lips of the genital area. An almost identical structure to a speckled dolphin, he rubbed the soft fleshy outer lips of the genital pouch. Superficially like a male dolphin, or human girl-child, just before puberty... he could feel Krycek stop fighting the discomfort of being on his back, distracted by Mulder’s explorations. Again Krycek made that curious rattling noise, not from distress, but from curiosity.
Mulder’s fingers gently explored the soft skin, but didn’t force inside. He waited until Krycek was relaxed enough with the touching before he started to slip his fingers inside the pouch, very gently easing in and out, making sure there was no pulling or tearing. "Just like making love to a woman, hey, Krycek? Or do you guys do it that way? Are you just wham bam for a full ten seconds like the blue whale, or do you screw around for fun like dolphins?"
Krycek was staring at him with a look of even less comprehension than usual: mouth open, eyes huge, but he’d started to wiggle slightly under Mulder’s attentions.
Mulder’s fingers slid in deeper, until he could feel the shape of the almost human penis and the bulge of hidden testicles. The whole genital apparatus was so close to being human, but hidden away for safety, and to provide a more streamlined effect in the water.
Krycek was becoming slowly tumescent, and certainly more interested in whatever Mulder was doing. Strong muscles in his abdomen flexed as he tried to raise his head to see what was happening. Mulder started manipulate the penis as it extended beyond the pouch opening, talking again to keep Krycek relaxed. "I can’t exactly ask you what you’d like, like I would a human guy, can I? So, we’ll just assume that you’d like a hand job? Most guys like that... lemme see... If I hold you like this, and rub my thumb here, just at the base of the crown... you have no foreskin whatsoever... I guess that would be redundant for mermen... oh yeah, that’s nice isn’t it?"
Mulder’s fingers started a firmer rhythm on the smooth skin, his thumb tracing a line from the base to the tip, then circling over the head. He wished he’d had the foresight to put on another glove, to use the other hand to stimulate the hidden testicles, but the merman’s hips and tail were pushing him up, stronger now and healing well, thrusting into Mulder’s hand. Mulder rubbed Krycek’s chest and arms, pushing him down a little when the merman started to splash about too much in the water, his hand pulling a strong and steady reaction from the heated organ until a shot of white semen burst forth. He caught it in the sample cup, along with the few that followed, before expertly capping the cup and putting it aside.
"Good boy!" he held Krycek’s penis while the merman relaxed, and kept up rubbing the merman’s stomach, "Good boy." As the contractions faded, he turned the merman over onto his front again and rubbed his back until the animal was totally calm and quiet.
Mulder popped the semen sample into a storage unit, where it would be split into several smaller samples for various institutions and a few millilitres would be put aside for chryo-store. He would call in the other scientists and enjoy their knowing titters later.
He looked down into the tank, where the merman was looking sideways at him, calm but apparently slightly puzzled. It was the most expression he’d ever seen on the placid face.
"So, now you want a cigarette? A snack?" Mulder dangled a bit of lobster flesh in front of the merman’s face until it was taken, pausing while the merman sucked his fingers, licking for any lingering taste of food, one bony hand clasped around Mulder’s wrist.
-oo0oo-
The whole team had been working 15 hours a day, 7 days a week, for the past month, and now the main tank was ready, with a huge rocky display in the middle, full of interesting caverns and crevices for a large-brained animal to explore, lots of plants, smaller fishes and crustaceans. The tank was designed to be attractive both to occupant and viewer, and to be modified later when Krycek was ready to return to the ocean.
Mulder had his hopes set that, like the dolphins, the merman would be content to have the option to leave for the wide open wet spaces, but stay where the eating was good. A portal would allow Krycek to come and go – responding to the signal from the subcutaneous implant already under the skin at the back of Krycek’s neck – but would keep out any undesirables.
Of course, the budget makers and promoters of the aquarium didn’t like that provision, but it was the only way to keep the animal activists off their back. Mulder didn’t like it either, but he also knew he didn’t want to keep the creature prisoner – or so he told himself.
He tossed the bits of coloured rock and other things that Krycek had played with in the therapy tank into the larger display area, watching the crane slowly lower the smaller tank out over the water. It was lowered in slowly, letting the water temperatures match so that Krycek would suffer no trauma. The waters would eventually mingle, and Krycek would be allowed to leave the smaller tank at his own speed.
Mulder pulled on swim fins and a re-breather, the small mask fitting over his nose and mouth, fastening by suction to his face. The latest whiz-bang technology, it would convert the oxygen content in the water into something he could breath, yet weighed no more than a few ounces, less than a clear face mask and without all the pipes and tanks of the traditional scuba diving equipment.
As soon as the waters mingled he dropped himself from the examination platform set up by the side of the pool into the waters below the partially airborne therapy tank. The occasional thump came from inside, as Krycek’s nearly healed tail hit the side.
As the therapy tank sank below the level of the water, Krycek’s face appeared above, peering out into the new area. He was in no obvious hurry to get out and explore his new environment, but apparently curious enough to start looking around. Mulder decided to try to encourage the merman to come out into the larger display tank.
"Hey, Krycek," he made a few kissy noises. Well, it worked with dogs. "Hey, you, come on there, big guy." He could hear the excited noises of the crowd who had paid to see the merman’s first arrival in the display area. They’d each paid a small fortune to be the first members of the public to see a living example, but Mulder wished it could have been left for a few days, to lessen any potential trauma. These people didn’t realise this was an animal more special than their common-or-garden dolphins, selkies, and walruses. They’d been told to be quiet, but he could understand their excitement.
"Come on, come out and explore." Mulder kept up a variety of interesting tones and noises, swimming around to demonstrate how safe and comfortable the new tank was. "Come on, coooome on..."
Krycek suddenly twisted his tail, launching himself over the side and into the main tank, swimming up to Mulder. "Good boy!"
There was a loud and long chorus of oohs and aahs from the audience as all 9 foot of glorious merman slid into their view. Mulder couldn’t help beaming like a new parent at their admiration and amazement. He ducked underwater, still talking through the mask, "Come on, there’s a good boy, come explore!" He started down towards the tank bottom, making sure he didn’t come between Krycek and the audience, letting them have a good view of his beautiful merman.
"Look, a cave, and lots of shiny things." He handed Krycek a few bits and pieces from the rocks, letting them be inspected and returned. "We’ve put some live fish in here, you can eat them if you want. But if you don’t, I’ll bring you more lobster…" Mulder looked around, just in case Skinner was listening, "…and all sorts of expensive treats."
