Page 52 of Lagoon

“If they… lay eggs in us, then are we… having babies?” said Angela. Some part of her did not exactly object to this possibility, which was frightening, she had to admit. She did not want to have strange, non-human children. On the other hand, she supposed, if they were mentally and emotionally all right, but justlookeddifferent, she wouldn’t care.

“Well, in the animal kingdom, typically speaking, ovipositors aren’t for, er, inserting unfertilized eggs,” said Jonathan.

“Right,” said Riley. “Typically speaking, they’re used by a female to lay their already fertilized eggs somewhere safe for their maturity. Certain insects’ ovipositors are also stingers. Whatever we are, we’re like nothing that’s ever existed.”

“We might not work,” said Jonathan. “There may be eggs, but they may not be fertilizable. We might be able to have sexual intercourse but not to successfully mate. There’s no way to know until we try, I suppose.”

“Right,” said Riley, who was still smiling at him.

“It’s only this is an experiment that could result in children,” said Angela. “Shouldn’t we think about that?”

“I think when people think too hard about that, that’s when the population stops growing,” said Jonathan.

Riley laughed.

Angela looked at Luther, who was shifting on his feet, uncomfortable.

He gestured with his head. “Let’s lock ourselves up, then, Ramirez. Let them experiment. They seem to be ready to face the possible outcomes.”

Angela held his gaze, and she read something in it, something that made her say, “All right, fine.” She walked out of the lab, and Luther followed her. She glanced at him over her shoulder, and some part of her knew he had no intention of letting her go and lock herself away from him, and some part of her didn’t want to either.

But that was crazy.

She needed to keep whatever thread of herself that was still rational in charge.

RILEY BUSIED HERSELFwith setting up the room while Jonathan worked on setting up cameras. They discussed the idea of showing the video to Angela and Luther, just to reassure them, but she didn’t think she really wanted to show anyone what was going to amount to amateur pornography in the end.

They shouldn’t even be filming it, maybe.

Maybe all this was insane.

But acting as if they were doing something that was about science, following various procedures, it helped somehow. It was an illusion, and she knew it. The illusion was that they were still in control.

They were not.

Eventually, all the setup was done and they were both standing in front of the cameras, which were recording. There was a mattress on the floor, with blankets, which were just folded up and piled at the end, not spread out over it. They both looked down at the mattress and then at the cameras and then at each other.

“This is awkward,” she said, finally.

“We should talk ourselves out of it, maybe,” he said.

She nodded. “Sure. You start.”

He drew in a breath, and his gills opened wide at the same time.

Her gaze honed in on that, and for some reason, it made her whole body feel pliant and excited and open.

“You smell really, really good,” he said. “Right then, whatever just happened… I liked it.”

She giggled, a wild, out-of-control sound. “That’s talking us out of it?”

“I’ve been thinking about your pussy pretty much constantly.”

She tilted forward, still giggling and put her forehead against his bare chest.

He sank a hand into her hair.

“I wonder if my hair is going to fall out,” she said.

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