July 20, 2025

The Sirens Call (Part 5) - "The Breaking Point"

The Sirens Call (Part 5) - "The Breaking Point"

Marina dons an atmospheric diving suit to witness the siren hunt as the research vessel Northern Star approaches with forty-seven souls aboard. In the underwater cathedral, Nerida leads her people in a haunting song that compels the ship toward deadly rocks. Desperate to save innocent lives, Marina convinces Kai to use the submersible's sonar to disrupt the siren call, freeing the crew from their supernatural compulsion.

This act of defiance forces a confrontation between ancient traditions and new possibilities. Ultimately, Nerida agrees to try cooperation over conquest, and Marina and Kai commit to building an alliance between their species while exploring their deepening connection.











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WEBVTT

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Caloroga Shark Media.

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Welcome to the Sirens Call a special Romance Weekly and

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Ghost Scary Stories crossover event. This is episode five Breaking Point.

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The atmospheric diving suit feels like a fragile bubble around

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me as I step through the submersible's airlock into the

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alien world of the underwater cathedral. The water here is warm,

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almost tropical, heated by geothermal vents that feed the bioluminescent

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organisms covering every surface. But it's not the temperature that

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makes me shiver. It's the dozens of predatory eyes watching

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my every movement. Through my suit's communication system, I can

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hear Kai's voice, Maria, stay close to the submersible. If

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anything goes wrong, get back inside immediately, But Nerada glides

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between us before I can respond. Her form graceful and

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terrifying in equal measure. In the water, unrestrained by human limitations,

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She's revealed herself as something beyond beautiful, something that makes

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my mind struggle to process what I'm seeing. Welcome to

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our domain, little human, she says, her voice transmitted directly

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through the water to my suit's receivers. Are you ready

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to witness the true power of the depths around us,

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The other sirens have arranged themselves in a complex formation,

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some rising toward the cavern's ceiling, others spreading out along

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the walls, all of them focused on the sonar readings

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that track the northern Star's approach far above. The ship

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will pass directly overhead in twenty minutes. Nearada continues close

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enough to hear our call, close enough to be persuaded

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to join us in the depths. And if I can

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convince you they're worth sparing, I ask, my voice artificially

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steady through the suits speakers. Ne Reada's smile is sharp, predatory.

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Then you'll have accomplished something no human has ever done,

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changed the mind of a hunting pod. Her expression grows serious.

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But understand, doctor Torres, what you're about to witness is

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not cruelty. It's nature. We are what we are, just

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as sharks are sharks, just as storms are storms. Storms

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don't choose their victims, I reply, you do, do we?

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Or do we simply follow currents that have flowed for millennia.

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Before I can answer, the formation of sirens begins to move.

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They rise through the water in perfect synchronization, their voices

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joining together in harmonies that make my suit's systems vibrate.

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Even filtered through my environmental protection, the sound is compelling, beautiful,

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impossible to ignore. We ascend through layers of increasing light.

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As we approach the surface, the water here is different, cleaner,

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charged with energy that seems to come from the sirens themselves.

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Through my suit's cameras, I can see Kai swimming nearby,

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his expression conflicted as he's pulled along by forces both

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social and supernatural. Two hundred feet to surface, narrator announces

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perfect depth for our purposes, deep enough to ensure our

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prey drowns quickly, shallow enough that their final moments aren't prolonged.

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The clinical name of her description makes my stomach turn.

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These aren't anonymous victims to her, They're a food source,

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no different from schools of fish. We level off in

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the dark water, the sirens spreading out in a wide circle,

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with Narida at the center above us, still invisible but

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growing closer. The Northern Star continues its innocent journey across

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the surface. Now you'll see what your species truly faces

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when it ventures into our domain, Nerador says. Around the circle,

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the other sirens begin to sing, the sound that emerges

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from them. Is unlike anything I've ever experienced, not just music,

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but something that bypasses rational thought and speaks directly to

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the deepest parts of consciousness. Even through my suit's protection,

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I feel its pull, a desire to surrender, to let

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go of all resistance and follow the melody wherever it leads. Stop.

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I gasp, recognizing the terrible beauty of what's happening. You

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can't do this, can't. Narida's voice rises above the collective song. Watch,

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little human, watch and understand the futility of resistance. The

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singing intensifies, and suddenly I can see its effect on

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the surface above. Through my suit's instruments, I detect the

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ship beginning to change course, a subtle shift at first,

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then more pronounced as the crew responds to the irresistible

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call from below. The ship is turning. Kai's voice comes

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through my communicator, tight with anguish. Marina, They're going to

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beach it on the rocks near the island standard hunting pattern.

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I watch in horror as the Northern Star alters its heading,

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drawn by the sirens toward the jagged coastline of Blackrock Island.

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Somewhere above forty seven people are walking toward the rails,

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compelled by harmonies that promise peace, understanding, and release from

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all earthly concerns. Please, I say, desperation, making my voice crack.

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These are innocent people, scientists, researchers, crew members with families.

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All humans have families. Nerida interrupts, her voice, never wavering

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from the collective song. All humans believe themselves innocent. Yet

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still they poison our waters, Still they strip our depths.

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Spare not these people. The Northern Star is a research vessel.

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They're studying ocean conservation, trying to understand how to protect

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marine ecosystems. Prove it. The simple challenge cuts through my panic.

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How Neareda's form glides closer, her alien beauty terrible to behold.

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Join your voice to ours. Experience what it means to

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call prey to its fate. If after feeling that power,

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you still believe they should be spared, will listen. The

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suggestion is monstrous, unthinkable. She's asking me to participate in

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mass murder, to become complicit in the very thing I'm

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trying to prevent. I can't, I whisper. Then they die,

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and you return to the surface, knowing you could have

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saved them, but chose your own moral purity instead. Through

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my suit's displays, I can see the ship drawing closer

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to the rocks. Soon it will be too late. The

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crew will beach the vessel and walk into the waiting sea,

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drawn by songs older than human civilization. There has to

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be another way, I say, desperately. Show me Narrador challenges,

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and suddenly I understand. She's not just testing my resolve.

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She's testing my understanding of her people, of the forces

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that drive them. The Sirens song isn't just about hunting.

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It's about communication, about harmony, about the collective consciousness that

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binds these creatures together. Kai, I call through my communicator

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the acoustic research you've been doing. Can you create interference,

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something that would disrupt their song without harming them? His

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response comes immediately, the submersible sonar array. If I recalibrate

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it to the right frequency, I might be able to

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create enough acoustic interference to break their hold. The ship's crew,

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do it, I command, but Nerada has heard our exchange.

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Her eyes flash with anger, and the collective song takes

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on a harsher tone. You would use technology against us,

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turn our own element against us. I would save innocent lives,

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I reply, just as you would protect your people if

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humans threatened them. Around the circle, the other sirens begin

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to close in, their voices, growing more aggressive, more demanding.

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The water itself seems to pulse with their displeasure. Interference initiated,

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Kai reports through my communicator, but Marina, you need to

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get out of there. They're not going to let this

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challenge go unanswered. Through my suit's instruments, I can see

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the effect of Kai's intervention. The ship above has stopped

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its deadly turn toward the rocks, its crew presumably freed

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from the sirens song's compulsion. But I can also see

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the rage building in the creatures around me. You dare

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interfere with a sanctioned hunt Nearroda's voice carries harmonics that

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make my suits hull grown under impossible pressure. You use

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our own brother against us. The other sirens have formed

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a tight circle around me, now, their eyes reflecting bioluminescent fury.

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I realize with growing terror that my atmospheric suit, protective

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as it is, won't save me if they decide to

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tear me apart. Nerida stop. Kay's voice cuts through the

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water and suddenly he's between me and the hostile sirens.

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She acted to save lives, the same thing any of

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us would do to protect our pod. She is not

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pod Nerida snarls. She is prey, clever prey perhaps, but

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still just a human who has forgotten her place in

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the natural order. The natural order is changing, Kai says firmly,

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has been changing for centuries. Humans aren't just pray anymore.

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Some of them are allies, partners in protecting the oceans.

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We both love. Sentiment narrator dismisses you've spent too long

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among them, forgotten what you really are. I know exactly

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what I am. Kai replies, his voice carrying new authority.

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I'm a siren who chooses to use his gifts to

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protect rather than destroy, who understands that the future of

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our people depends on coexistence, not eternal war. The water

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around us falls silent, except for the distant sounds of

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the ocean depths above us. The Northern Star continues its journey,

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its crew unaware of how close they came to disaster.

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You choose them over us, Nareda says, quiet, and for

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the first time, I hear genuine pain in her voice.

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Your own sister your own people. I choose a future

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where both our species can thrive. Chai corrects, where the

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oceans are protected not through fear and death, but through

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understanding and cooperation. Nerida stares at her brother for a

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long moment, emotions too complex for human understanding playing across

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her alien features. Finally, she speaks, you have saved them

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this time, but others of our kind will not be

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so flexible. The humans continue to damage our domain, and

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eventually someone will demand payment. Then we find other ways

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to make them pay. Kai says, ways that don't require

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innocent blood, such as education, pressure, consequences that hurt their

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industries without killing their people. His gaze meets mine through

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my suit's face plate. Doctor Torres has dedicated her life

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to marine conservation. She could be an ally in that effort.

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Neareda considers this her expression thoughtful. The human who can

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resist our songs, she would be useful for communicating with

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her kind without the complications of mental influence. I find

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my voice at last. I want to help the oceans

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are dying. I've seen the data, the pollution, the damage

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being done, but mass murder isn't the answer. Let me

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work with marine conservation groups. With government agencies. Let me

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help them understand what's at stake, and if they don't listen,

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Neareda asks, if they continue to poison our waters despite

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your warnings, then we find other solutions economic pressure, sabotage

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of polluting operations, targeted strikes against the worst offenders. I

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meet her alien Gaye steadily, but we target the guilty,

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not the innocent. Around us, the other sirens have begun

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to disperse, their interest waning as the immediate hunt is abandoned,

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but Neriida remains studying me with an intensity that makes

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my skin crawl. Very well, she says, finally, we will

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try your approach for now, But understand, little human, you

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have made yourself responsible for your species behavior. If they

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continue to destroy our domain despite your efforts. I understand,

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I say, though the weight of that responsibility is almost crushing.

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Nerda nods once, then turns to her brother Kai. You

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are choosing exile from our people for this human if necessary,

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he replies, without hesitation. It may be she looks between

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us one final time, but perhaps perhaps there is wisdom

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in your choice. Time will tell with that She's gone,

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vanishing into the dark water with the fluid grace of

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something born to the depths. The other sirens follow their forms,

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disappearing one by one until only Kai and I remain

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in the glowing water. Is it over, i ask through

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my suit's communicator. For now, Kai confirms, swimming closer. But

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this is just the beginning, Marina. There will be other pods,

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other hunts, and not all of my people will be

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as reasonable as Narda. Then we better get to work,

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I say, surprised by my own determination. I have contacts

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in marine conservation organizations, researchers who've been trying to document

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the ocean's decline. If we can provide them with proof

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of what's really at stake. It won't be easy, Ki

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WARN's My people are secretive by nature. They won't welcome

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human attention, even well intentioned attention. But some of them might,

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I suggest, sirens like you who understand that cooperation is

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the only path forward. Through my suit's face plate, I

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can see him smile, the first genuine smile I've seen

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from him since this nightmare began. Yes, there are others

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who think as I do, others who've grown tired of

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the old ways. We begin our ascent toward the submersible

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leaving the cathedral of the depths behind. As we rise

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through layers of increasingly bright water, I find myself thinking

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about the future, about the impossible alliance we're proposing, about

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the work that lies ahead, Kai, I say, as we

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approach the submersible's airlock. When this is over, when we

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return to the surface, what then do you go back

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to hiding among humans? Do I pretend none of this happened.

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He's quiet for a long moment, swimming alongside my bulky

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suit with effortless grace. I don't know, he admits, I've

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spent so long living between worlds, belonging fully to neither.

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But with you, he pauses, with you, I feel like

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I could find a place to truly belong. The words

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send warmth through me that has nothing to do with

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my suit's environmental systems. Research station will need a permanent

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marine acoustics specialist, I say, carefully, someone with unique expertise

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in ocean phenomena. Are you offering me a job, doctor,

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I'm offering you a future, I reply, one where you

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don't have to choose between your heritage and your conscience.

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As we reach the submersible, Kai helps guide me through

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the airlock. Once I'm safely inside and beginning the process

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of removing the atmospheric suit, he swims up to the viewport,

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his form visible through the reinforced glass. There's something else,

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he says through the communication system, something I need to

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tell you about what happened between us in the caves.

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I pause in removing my helmet. What about it when

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I kissed you, when my voice influenced you. I need

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you to know that what you've felt afterward, the attraction then,

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that was real. My influence can make someone more receptive

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to suggestion, more willing to trust, but it can't create

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emotions that don't already exist. The admission makes my heart race.

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So when I wanted to kiss you again, that was

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entirely your choice, your feeling. His eyes meet mine through

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the glass, as is whatever you choose to feel.

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Now.

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I set down the helmet and move closer to the viewport,

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placing my palm against the glass on the other side.

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Chai mirrors the gesture, his hand aligning with mine with

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only the barrier between us. When we get back to

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the surface, I say quietly, we're going to have a

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lot to figure out how to contact the right people

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in the conservation community, how to document what's happening here

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without exposing your people to danger, to to prevent future

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incidents like tonight and us, He asks, what about us?

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I think about the impossibility of our situation, a human

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marine biologist and a century's old siren trying to build

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something real in the space between two worlds. It should

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be unthinkable, impossible, doomed to failure. Instead, it feels like

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the most natural thing in the world. We figure that out, too,

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I say, simply. Together, his smile is radiant, transforming his

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face from merely handsome to something that takes my breath away. Together,

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he agrees. As we begin our ascent toward the surface,

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toward a world that doesn't know how close it came

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to losing another ship to the depths, I find myself

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thinking about the future with something approaching hope. There will

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be challenges ahead, bureaucratic obstacles, skeptical colleagues, the constant threat

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of discovery. But for the first time since arriving at

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Blackrock Island, I believe we can overcome them. Above us,

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the Northern Star continues its journey, its crew unaware that

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their lives were saved by the cooperation between two species

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that have been enemies for millennia. It's a small victory,

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but it's a beginning, and sometimes a beginning is all

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you need to change the world. As we break the

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surface into the Starlit night, Kai beside me in the

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Submersibles Observation Dome, I realize that my mission to investigate

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the mysterious disappearances has become something far larger, a chance

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to bridge two worlds, to forge an alliance that could

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save both our species. The ocean stretches around us, vast

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and full of mysteries we're only beginning to understand. But

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for the first time, those mysteries don't seem threatening. They

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seem like opportunities, opportunities to learn, to grow, to build

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something beautiful in the space between land and sea, something

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like love.

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A Siren's Call has been a production of Calorogus Shark

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Media Executive producers Mark Francis and John McDermott Ai assistance

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may have been used in the series.