"There, let's leave it at that tonight, I'm to tired to think straight." Jordan smiled and reached up to run his hand along the dolphin's beak peeking over his shoulder at the computer monitor. The dolphin chittered back softly at the touch, looking over the readouts.

"Yes. You are right. Tired I am, as well," Sellie replied in her high, thin, oddly accented voice. She brushed her beak against the human's cheek. "We have made progress this day, good progress." She looked over the long lists of genetic information again, then turned with a sigh, the ever present hum of the suspension units in her body suit rising as she moved over towards the edge of the lab pool. "Could you help me with this thing, making my skin itch it is. I need real water."

Jordan smiled and eased his lanky form out of the chair and stretched for a long moment, then walked over to the pool as Sellie settled herself into the cool water, unzipping his tan jumpsuit as he went. He slipped out of it, leaving himself in a pair of swimming briefs as he kneeled by the pool, then sat down on the edge, dangling his legs in the water. He smiled to the dolphin as she swam up to him, rolling on her back and brushing her side against his legs.

Jordan traced his hand along Sellie's smooth beak, running his fingers over the fastening strips that held the wetsuit closed around her beak, his touch causing them to release. He moved down to trace his fingers down along her chin and throat, then down her belly along a similar strip, the seam splitting under his touch, ending at the base of her tail. He let his fingers slide outward undoing the two other strips along the underside of her flukes. Sellie rolled back over for him and he unfastened the strip along her dorsal and lifted, pulling the heavy suit up and off the dolphin, laying it out on a shelf beside the pool with the other four suits.

Sellie squeaked happily and swam around the pool, wriggling and splashing a bit happily. Jordan had to laugh watching her. She had one of the most acute perceptions of genetic layout and modification he had ever encountered. Right now, however, there was no way to tell such a brilliant scientist from the unmodified dolphins that had associated with humans for centuries.

The first truly successful genetically engineered species above the single celled level, the new dolphins had to struggle from the very beginning. The lab responsible for their advancement was covert, and unscrupulous. He winced at the thought of some of the things he had gleaned about that place, and the thought of those kinds of experiments done on someone like Sellie. The dolphins there had been considered no more than lab animals, and treated as such, which was how they were able to make such an advance in genetic manipulation. All that information had been lost when the labs were raided by an environmentalist group and destroyed.

For tursiops sapiens, however, things were far from ideal. They now found themselves split up between various new research facilities, and, while they were treated better, they still found themselves considered as not much more than animals again, curiosities. It wasn't until one dolphin orchestrated an escape, her and her mate finally finding their way into the public eye through the media. At that point, the government was forced to take an interest, and after a long debate, the dolphins finally found their way into full citizenship. This was a good thing, as it soon became apparent that the genetic traits engineered into the new species of dolphin bred true and strong between the new dolphins and their wild kin. The modifications themselves were surprisingly few, a slight modification to certain areas of the brain, but most importantly, a modification to the larynx and respiratory system allowing for easier pronunciation of human phonetics.

Sellie was a product of the second generation of new dolphins. All the original batch had been bottlenosed dolphins, one of which was Sellie's father. Her mother, however, had been a spinner dolphin, and as a result, she was slimmer and more petite than a full tursiops. Even though her mother had been completely unmodified, the enhancements were there just as strongly in Sellie as they were in her father. Jordan sighed, yet another mystery to work out. He detested what had been done to the dolphins in that lab, but part of him couldn't help wishing that the information had not been lost. It would have answered a lot of the questions they were working on here.

A jet of water brought him out of his reverie spluttering. He blinked to find Sellie looking up at him. "Enough of that serious expression, work is done for the day!" She laughed, a high, bright chitter, "Come and play!" She splashed a bit of water at him with her beak.

Jordan laughed and reached down to caress the dolphin's mellon, tracing his fingers over the smooth skin. "Dear heart, I can't begin to keep up with you when I'm fully rested, you'd drown me as tired as I am now, but you know that my room pool is always open to you." He lets his hand trace down along the smooth rostrum, then bent down to kiss the tip of her beak.

Sellie gave an exasperated snort, "You are always to tired! I shall have to drag you off one day and have my way with you!" She lifted up more out of the pool to nuzzle at the human and he wrapped his arms around her softly, chuckling quietly. "Promises, promises, silly dolphin. It's just that we seem so close, it feels like the solution is right THERE, just out of reach… You know the SEO has been breathing down Justy's and my neck."

Sellie nodded, "Oh, I know, just giving you a hard time I was. Gallan and Mekkik are randy enough for a whole pod, hurting for sex play I'm not, but it HAS been a while since you and I have played." She lifted up to nuzzle under Jordan's chin.

Jordan smiled and hugged the dolphin tighter, "Oh, I know.. The Space Exploration people will be here tomorrow, and after that, I promise we'll take a break, just you and I." He smiled, "And in the meantime, I think we could arrange something, that is, if something less than underwater gymnastics interests you." He chuckled softly, rubbing under the dolphin's chin.

Sellie laughed, "Oh, you know better than that." She drew back, slipping back into the water, then chirped, "Race you to your room!" She disappeared under the water and dashed off into the network of channels and tunnels that connected every room of the complex, allowing the dolphins free access. Jordan snatched up his jumpsuit and dashed off down the hall towards his room with more energy than he would have thought that he had. He met none of the others, but it was quite late. Everyone was either asleep or otherwise engaged.

Jordan palmed the door to his room, stepping inside as the door slid shut behind him, "Lights, medium, open pool door." At his command the lights came up, revealing his disheveled room, and the Plexiglas door slowly retracted from over the pool that took up almost half of the floor of the room. Sellie was already there waiting for him, laughing, "I beat you!"

Jordan chuckled, "I think the match was a little uneven." He slipped out of his shorts and climbed down into the pool, hugging the sleek dolphin as she slid up against him. She giggled softly, "But, uneven matches are sometimes the best kind." As she pinned him back against the wall, pressing her strong, slick body against him, he really had to agree..

Jordan got up and paced exasperatedly, "Damn it, you just aren't listening, you are pushing this to fast!" He turned and glared at the exectutive sitting calmly across the room. "We just don't have enough information to make a leap like that!" He slumped back down in a chair, beating a fist against the arm.

Erickson adjusted his jacket and leaned forward, "Your collegue here would tend to disagree," he indicated Justin who was trying her best to look reassuring and apologetic at the same time, "You must realise that we are under a time limit here, the Eppen probe is scheduled to launch in two years, Ms. Canston has assured us that you can have a viable product for us by that time." He leaned back and smiled, "We have the utmost faith in your organization."

Jordan gritted his teeth, "But your not listening to…" He was cut off by Justin, "Now wait, we've had some very promising results, I think we are ready to go to the third phase of this project." Jordan started to protest, but she raised her hand, "Full precautions will be taken, and I believe that whatever problems we come up again will only serve to give us insights. Mr. Erickson, we will give the organization a full report as soon as the first stage of the new phase is complete." She layed a hand on Jordan's shoulder to stop his response, though he fumed silently.

Erickson closed his briefcase, smiling, "We look forward to it, Ms. Canston, thank you. Mr. Clark." He nodded to the both of them and left quickly.

Jordan fairly growled, "What the Hell do you…" Justin shook her head, cutting him off, "What the hell do I think I'm doing, I'm saving our grant money is what I'm doing, damn it!" It was her turn to pace the room, "We're behind schedule, " she lifted her eyes to glare at him, "and don't say it, I know it's not your team's fault, but we are going to have to show some results. I KNOW it's early to go to phase three, but you know what I said is true, any set backs in phase three will give us insights into the problems that we have now."

Jordan got up and paced, "Damn it, you sound like that corp, we aren't talking about a product here, we are talking about a living creature, an INTELLIGENT living creature, the first truly new genetically engineered higher life form, and we can't even figure out yet how those creeps at Cragesten managed to stabilize the dolphins without progressive cellular mutation, much less stability across generations!" He slammed his fist against the wall, "You know what kind of failures they had there, you are putting us on the same path."