The Mermaid's Trial

The Mermaid's Trial

         Sam Jones was a paranormal researcher for the Cosmos Institute in Berkeley, California. He specialized in researching ancient legendary cities such as Atlantis and Lemuria. He was convinced that both existed and were inhabited by aliens from another planet, and their descendants live underwater as “mermaids and mermen.”

         One day, he discovered an old manuscript in his favorite occult bookstore, Shamballa, off Telegraph Avenue. The owner of the store, Maria Lee, was a mysterious old woman who had a pan-ethnic look that could be almost any nationality. She claimed to be part of an indigenous tribe based in Taiwan, who had ties to the ancient Atlanteans and Lemuria. She sold him a book that she had recently acquired that provided maps to where Atlantis and Lemuria were located.

         Due to recent underwater volcanic activity, Lemuria could be rising. Sam organized a deep-sea expedition using their contacts in intelligence and military special forces. They put together a secret expedition and sailed to the South Pacific, southwest of Hawaii, where they came upon an ancient underwater city that was slowly rising. The city was the home of the legendary Lemurian mermaids and mermen. They took extensive pictures and videos and finally managed to capture a mermaid and bring her back with them.

         She lives underwater but can also live above water, and the mermaids and mermen frequently traveled above ground in ancient days but have been living in their ancient city secluded for centuries. The mermaids decided that they did not want to have anything to do with their surface cousins, as they called human beings, seeing human civilization as inherently evil and corrupt.

         They live in communal harmony. The women are in charge, and the men work as hunters, fishers, and mechanical engineers, while the women concern themselves with running the society and teaching the young people. They live in a communist society with no private property. They have only a few rules, one of which is prohibiting contact with their cousins. Over the centuries, they have retreated further and further into the ocean’s depths to avoid humanity. But due to climate change and volcanic activity, they knew that their time of exile would soon be over. They also knew that they had a lot to teach modern humans and thought that they could save the world from impending destruction. She agreed to go back to the U.S. with the team. They were telepathic, but she quickly learned how to speak English.

         She is a strikingly beautiful woman who has fins and gills and can live both underwater and on land, but preferred living underwater. The Cosmos Institute takes the mermaid to Sea World San Francisco, where she is put on exhibit. She protests and demands that she be given her freedom.

         “I am a representative of the Lemurian civilization. We have existed for ten thousand years and we live deep underwater. We have been avoiding contact with our cousin species after we saw what you did to the Neanderthals, who were also our cousin species. But due to climate change and volcanic activity, our world and yours are on a collision course. I demand that I be released and be appointed as the Lemurian Ambassador to the United Nations and the United States. I am suing Sam Jones, the Cosmos Institute, Sea World, and the U.S. Navy, who abducted me and brought me here against my will.”

         The lawyer sues everyone involved with her for illegal imprisonment and violation of her human rights, arguing that since she can speak English, she is a quasi-human being and has full human rights. The trial is the trial of the century. The mermaid wins the trial and settles with Sea World and the Cosmos Institute. The Cosmos Institute offers her a job, but she turns them down and sets up an office where she will represent her country’s people in their first embassy and applies to join the United Nations.

         She does take them up on their offer to visit her city as their guests and enter into discussions with the mermaids to establish trading relations. The Atlanteans, Lemurians, and the UN eventually sign a peace treaty. An underground hotel is set up, and limited tourism is allowed—1,000 tourists per year are allowed to visit, and 1,000 mermaid tourists are allowed to visit the surface cities. Most of the mermaid cities remain hidden at their insistence. Only the capital city of Lemuria is open to foreign visitors, while Atlantis remains hidden for now.

         The Cosmos Institute enters into a long-term trading relationship with the mermaids and offers the only transportation to and from the mermaid city. She soon becomes an internet and YouTube sensation. Her blog and YouTube channel, “The Mermaid Speaks,” become very popular, with her observations on the foibles of humanity gaining a huge following. She joins the UN and begins discussions with world leaders on combating climate change and healing the planet.

Prompt

On Jan 9th, 1493, Christopher Columbus was sailing off the coast of the Dominican Republic when he spotted a trio of sea manatees -- large, flabby sea mammals. Thinking they were mermaids, he wrote in his journal that they were "not half as beautiful as they are painted."

For tomorrow, write a poem or story about someone encountering mermaids, only to discover that they aren't at all what was expected. Do not use sea manatees though .... Columbus has already got that one covered.

So be creative! E.g.: are they... drowned and reanimated corpses? exiled fae? stranded aliens? reptile people from the secret sub-oceanic civilization? descendants of 18th century castaways? Etc.