"What did you say your name was again?" came a soft voice as Ariel looked over to the larger male fish Animalian.
He was easily taller than her as they met at a small restaurant for some food before tending to other errands. Ariel largely had some time off, largely as her singing career was in what was pretty standard for the business, a pause between tours while either writing new songs or coming up with ideas for new places to go and the restaurant had actually been good for that sort of brainstorming. It had then lead to her running into the male Fish Animalian. He was taller than her with largely white scales or potentially a very pale grey. The most striking feature was that his head was quite pointed with a large pair of nostrils right in front of a much smaller set of eyes. He also appeared to have something like whiskers on the underside of his snout.
"Stanly," he said politely with a small smile, "Stanly the sturgeon."
"Sturgeon?" Ariel wondered, "I can't say I remember meeting a sturgeon before..."
"Well... I doubt you would have run into my specific species... as you're a Lake Trout, right?" Stanly asked back and waited for Ariel to nod, "Well... from what I've been told, Lake Trout largely live in lakes and rivers in the northern parts of North America and primarily in lakes. My specific species is Pacific... or White Sturgeon, which largely live in the estuaries and coastal areas from Alaska down toward Mexico and will go up rivers to breed and lay eggs."
"Not to mention that there are so few fish Animalians out there outside of Mieni," Ariel gave a chuckle.
"Yeah... but that could change," Stanly gave a small smile, "that could change."
"So... what lead to your uplifting?" Ariel wondered, "were you in danger?"
"Well... I can't fully remember what brought me to Mieni as part of Project Aquatica... but after that there did seem to be some interest," Stanly began to retell what he could remember...
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Stanly was brought into one of the main lab areas on Mieni that Horizon had for dealing with many of the research into the various experiments and curiosity that was there with regard to what various fish Animalians would look like. Some of it was simple curiosity at the resulting Animalian's take on life and increasing Animalia's "biodiversity," while there were some that more questions on other aspects of things that related to what could be accomplished with the genetic science that the Animalia Virus had opened up. Some things related to deep sea exploration, particularly as most human studies of the sea floor was often limited what their machines could do. An Animalian that was one of those deep diving animals could vastly improve those studies.
However, that wasn't really the purpose for uplifting Stanly as Harold and Kirana came into the lab area where the main water tank was. Stanly's uplifting had more to do with some of the research that would relate any possible future de-extinction projects that would be run based on what some people might wish to become. Now, in pure theory they had some ways that work already, but these were judged to be in relation to various other species of fish and thus might not apply to all the pre-historic fish species that there were, and with the first sturgeon evolving toward the end of the Triassic Period, uplifting this individual White Sturgeon would help with providing some the needed genetic material for other potential de-extinction projects in the future.
"How did he take the journey?" Harold wondered as he looked at the large sturgeon slowly swimming in the tank.
"Fairly well," the human scientist commented as he dropped into the tank. The water only came up to his knees and allowed him to walk while still being deep enough for Stanly to swim. For the moment the sturgeon ignored the human and just swam around. Though, he did find the water in the tank rather warm. "Though... it might be a good idea to do the uplifting quickly while he's calm. We don't want to cause any trouble."
"Do you need any help?" Kirana asked.
"Just someone to hand me the needles for him," the human scientist smiled, "he's calm, but this could be a bit tricky... and I don't know how he'll react to a Sea Krait in the tank with him."
Harold and Kirana both nodded in response. What then followed was a bit of wrestling as the human scientist was able to "catch" Stanly and hold him still long enough to provide the uplifting injections when Harold handed the scientist the needle for it. Harold and Kirana got splashed a little, but the job was done and they were left to watch as Stanly began to change in the tank. He twisted a bit as his pectoral fins lengthened out into arms and gained substantial muscle. His pelvic fins also lengthened and eventually grew into legs, which he hesitantly moved up and down, almost in rhythm with the side to side move movement of his tail. Harold and Kirana could watch and see as the various muscle groups in Stanly's growing arms and legs pulsed and almost spasmed as he progressed from a mundane White Sturgeon to a White Sturgeon Animalian. And as with all other fish Animalians, his hands and feet were fully webbed. They also noted that Stanly's dorsal fin was a bit further back on him than where it was on Gaz, but then the dorsal fin on sturgeon was closer to the tail than it was on other fishes.
After a few moments, Stanly stopped at one edge of the tank and hesitantly and almost shakily climbed up onto his new feet. He was a bit wobbly at fist, but the human scientist managed to steady him and let him gain his balance. From what Harold could see, the biggest shock that Stanly had was actually finding he could breathe air, the result of the lungfish DNA that was added to all variations on the Animalia Virus that would be there for fish.
"This is new..." Stanly said slowly, "I've never breathed out of water before..."
"That's part of the uplifting process," Harold spoke up, "it's included some lungfish DNA which will enable you to interact with other Animalians, both in and out of the water. Though... some, like my wife and I aren't fish and can only speak vocally while out of the water."
"Animalians?" Stanly asked.
"Yes... a community of humanoid animals... living and working together," Kirana nodded, "Some are reptiles, like my husband and I. Some are mammals. Some are birds. And some are fish."
"Fish like me?" Stanly wondered.
"I think you're the first sturgeon we've uplifted," the human scientist commented, "But, Stan, there are other Fish Animalians. Those here on Mieni are based off of oceanic fishes. You'd have to go to Lyre/Animalia in Nevada to meet any of the freshwater fish Animalians."
"Stan?" Stanly asked.
"Your name, Stanly the Sturgeon," the human scientist smiled.
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"So you came all this way to meet me?" Ariel wondered.
"Well... I'd actually thought there were more freshwater fish Animalians," Stanly answered, "not that meeting you was a bad thing or anything."
"I don't think they've gotten that far yet..." Ariel said slowly, "possibly because humans have some fear of drowning... as they don't have gills and can't breathe water."
"I can't blame them, there," Stanly admitted, "I was a bit nervous at first with regard to breathing air."
"Me too," Ariel laughed, "So... what do you plan on doing?"
"Right now... learn all that I can," Stanly commented, "there are a lot of things about human society that I've found interesting... and the science they know... there's a lot to learn... and in a way, even if I end up waiting tables in a restaurant or something like that... it'd be worth if given the time to learn everything."
Ariel chuckled at that again.