“You’re not crazy. What’s going on?”

“The other vatdivers are giving me a really hard time. My girlfriend broke up with me. I’m not a very good vatdiver but I love it. Or I should say, I love being near the vats, the smell of the growth medium... Everyone says it stinks, but I love the way it smells. It makes me feel more alive. Isn’t that weird?”

“I don’t think that’s weird at all.”

“Then you must be pretty weird yourself.”

Night Hag laughed, and nodded her head. “Most people would say so.”

“Well, it was your idea I become a vatdiver.”

“I thought you said you liked it.”

“I do. Well, like I said, I like being near the grow med. Swimming around with these,” she waved her lower arms at Night Hag, “trapped inside a divesuit all day I could do without. I’m saving up for a custom suit, but it’ll be awhile, and in the meantime-”

“You wear a suit?” Night Hag interrupted.

“Of course,” Helix sat up in surprise. “What did you think? That I swam around in there naked? Growth medium is really dangerous. That’s why I can’t figure out why it appeals to me so much. Maybe the vatdivers are right. Maybe I’m suicidal. But I don’t feel suicidal. I feel like I’m fighting for my life. I wish I didn’t have to wear the suit. I could use all of my arms. But I need the suit to protect me from the grow med.”

“Maybe you don’t need to be protected.”

“What? Night Hag, since I’ve let you see me, have you noticed anything different about me?” She waved her lower arms again for emphasis. “This is not a construct. I’m a sport. If anything, I’m even more susceptible to vatsickness than a normal human being.”

Night Hag shrugged. “A sport is what?”

“Someone with a mutation.”

“But a mutation is a change in the genetic code. That can be anything. How do you know that besides your physical attributes you are not also mutated to have an immunity to the growth medium?”

Helix shook her head in disbelief. “You know what? You’re crazier than I am. Look, I’ve got to go, I just borrowed this transceiver from a friend. He wants it back.”

“Wait, where can I reach you?”

“Don’t worry. I’ll call you tomorrow. Bye.” said Helix and hung up. She lay back on the bed, staring at the ceiling. An immunity to the growth medium. Night Hag obviously didn’t know what she was talking about. But wouldn’t it be wonderful if it were true? Then she could swim in the vats without the cumbersome suit, touched and embraced by the beautiful green waters. The thought of it rolled around and around in her mind, lulling her to sleep.

oOo

At work the next day the dream was still with her, making the reality of her situation even more difficult to bear. She floated in the vat, the murky fluid surrounding her, but not touching her. The harsh rasping of her breath was loud in her ears. She propelled herself with a gentle twitch of her flippers, drifting towards a small blot a few feet off.

The coagulant hung suspended in the growth medium; a bundle of replicating cells, pink and blue and fibrous, and already sprouting. They were like weeds. Just one, if allowed to grow, could ruin an entire vat.

Somebody - probably her — had missed this one on the previous sweep. It was nearly the size of her palm, fringed with tendrils that reached outwards, and in at least one case, formed new coagulants. Helix grasped it in one hand, holding it firmly while she gathered tendrils with her other free hand, trying to be careful and not break any. It would be so much easier if she could use all of her arms. She could hold the body still with her uppers, while her lower hands nimbly drew in the tendrils, which sometimes narrowed to a millimeter or less in width.

As it was she simply drew gently on all of them at once, hoping not to feel the sudden jolt of a break, which she did. She examined the coagulant in her hand, turning over the pulpy thing until she found one long tendril, broken off at the end. She stuffed the agule into her bag and examined the area carefully, searching for the dark spot of another coagulant in the milky green of the growth medium. There, to her right and a few feet away. She’d been wrong. The agule she’d found had not sent out tendrils and formed more agules, it was the sprout of an even larger one, as big as her head and bristling with outgrowths. Helix’s lower arms writhed in frustration as she swam towards it. She unfastened the seals of her divesuit and drew the zipper down to free them.

Growth medium rushed in to touch her everywhere with warm, soothing wetness. She began drawing in tendrils, her lower hands grasping their fleshy strands, tracing them, plucking the agules that bulged at their ends and placing them in her bag. She had the whole complex of agules cleaned up in a fraction of the time it would have taken her with two hands.

Helix moved on, relishing the feel of the growth medium on her skin. This was more like it, more like she’d imagined vatdiving would be. She removed her face mask and thrust it heedlessly into her bag with the agules. She dived deeper, searching for more cells with eyes surprisingly unclouded, only returning to the surface of the vat for air after gathering ten more.

“Hey, what are you doing?” she heard someone shout when her head broke the surface. Helix ignored the voice, took a breath, and dived to the bottom of the vat, growth medium swirling about her, hiding her from sight. In the depths she heard the muted clamor of an alarm, and looking up, saw the vague forms of divers approaching. There was nowhere for her to go. She relaxed and let the loosened dive suit slip away, its clinging touch replaced by the soft caress of the growth medium. She plucked a nearby agule, its texture pulpy and slick as she rolled it between her fingers. She ate it. Its juicy crunch and salty flavor were more satisfying than any food she’d ever tasted.

She watched her dive mates come for her, shadowy forms gradually emerging from the surrounding haze. She had every intention of going peaceably, allowing Vonda, Coral, Benny and Val to take her by her arms, and draw her up, towards the surface, but the closer they got the bigger the whole white dry cold world became, and she did not want to leave the emerald green waters she had found. And they wereemerald green, and ever clearer as her eyes lost the habit of air. She could see agules dotting the waters like stars, thousands of them, some no bigger than a pinprick, others over twenty feet away. And all over her skin, a feeling like smell only different, the currents speaking to her about where they had been, and how many agules there were there.

She could be such a good vatdiver now. She could clean this vat faster than any of them, and they were pulling her out, and she’d never get to do it again. The waters lightened as they rose, and above the surface loomed like a rippling sheet of glass.

She pushed out at the divers holding her arms, twisting to free herself of their grasp. She managed to get her lower left arm free, and she used it to pry Vonda off her opposite shoulder. Benny, who still had firm hold of her upper left arm, recaptured the lower limb and pulled them both back against her shoulder. She put her upper right hand on his head and tried to push him off, but Vonda had rallied and was twisting her lower right elbow the wrong way.

As they broke the surface, the air suddenly erupting with shouts and sirens, she thrashed in their clutches, futilely attempting to remain in the vat. It wasn’t until they had dragged her out and pinned her to the diving platform that she remembered to breathe.

She would have jumped up and dived back in, but several strong arms prevented it. “What’s wrong with her?” someone shouted — Coral.

“She’s flipped. Where’s April?” said Vonda.

“Right here.”

Faces loomed above her, but her eyes were still clouded with growth medium. “Let me go!” she screamed, straining against the hands that pinned her.