Svetlana Smirnov relaxed a bit as she moved about Mieni Atoll, as it was one of the relatively few "safe" places out there for her, and those like her. For many of Russian descent, the present war in Ukraine created issues where people mad assumptions without recognizing whether or not the person with a Russian name was a Russian citizen or just one with a Russian name. There were also the various cases of defectors who fled Russia shortly after the invasion began in 2022 and then again when the Russians began conscripting more people into the Russian Army. And for some people, Svetlana knew that was all quite understandable. The "herd mentality" was not limited to just totalitarian governments, and even good people could be pushed into mistakes.
However, the potential for antagonism from those that supported Ukraine wasn't Svetlana's only worry, for unlike many who had left Russia in 2022, Svetlana was not some impoverished conscript trying to avoid being drafted. She was not some young radical who saw Putin's government as dictatorial and didn't want to be part of it. Neither was she one that was truly outside of the system that had allowed the Russian oligarchs to essentially buy offices that then reinforced Putin's power. Her parents actually were relatively minor oligarchs who had connections to computer companies that were essentially trying to copy anything and everything that Western computer companies did, and her former husband was part of the machine that either managed the sale of oil and gas in Russia or outside Russia or worked directly for Putin in seeing to the state's appropriation of supplies for things Putin wanted. In many ways, Svetlana had plenty of connections to the Russian elites...
And for years prior to the war, she had enjoyed many of the perks that came with them. She and her husband had even come to Mieni for a visit once on her parents' yacht. Her husband had even gotten into a bit of a weightlifting competition with a Brown Swiss Bull Animalian that apparently had been there on his honeymoon, though Svetlana had never gotten the bull's name. It was a lot of machismo on her husband's part, and Svetlana wanted to apologize to the Animalian for her husband's behavior. But without a name and the fact that her husband also had a habit of trying to be controlling, she hadn't been able to leave the yacht without her husband. From there, things went downhill, and the invasion of Ukraine was her last straw. Shortly after the war's first day, she filed for divorce, emptied her bank accounts, and then took some cash that technically belonged to her husband, before stealing her parent's yacht and sailing from Vladivostok to Japan, where she offered the yacht to some startled Japanese maritime defense forces that were on routine patrol and weren't even looking for her.
From there, she eventually made her way to Mieni, figured it would be safer there. She'd be far enough from Russia that the local population wouldn't be too suspicious of her, and with Russia's war not going well, she'd avoid the worst of what Russia's intelligence services would demand be done to her for being disloyal to Putin. She'd followed enough of the news to find that plenty of others in her "class" had mysteriously fallen out of windows for less than what Svetlana had done. Though, that didn't entirely ease all her worries and Svetlana took various steps to try and improve her own safety, which had also ultimately included a fairly heavy workout routine. This often brought her "muscle beach," which worked very much like a gym and often had various Animalian residents or even Human guests in their own workouts. On one morning, however, Svetlana found herself in for a surprise.
"You could convert, if you wish," Ran said to her from his spot in supervising the workout sessions that morning, "it may also ease some of your worries about what the Russian government."
Svetlana agreed with the Great White Shark Animalian on that specific point. She could convert, and to a degree that might also be good cover. As while her ex-husband had interest in Animalia and Mieni, Svetlana had the sensation that it was more to see female Animalians running around in skimpy bathing suits, not that he actually wanted to convert. And her parents were old enough that they didn't expect their daughter to give up her Humanity, thus even if they came to Mieni, if she were an Animalian, they may not find her... or at least would only think that she was an Animalian that coincidentally had a similar name to the one they wanted to kill. However, the fact that her first marriage went downhill, and end ended in divorce had also left Svetlana concerned over issues of appearance and respect. She could see some of the suspicious glances that she received and didn't want to do anything that would essentially trigger a more hostile response. Thus, if she were to convert, she wanted it to be for love. To a degree, that felt more romantic and would also provide for a means to avoid unwanted negative attention.
"That may not be a bad thing," Svetlana answered after a moment, "but I wouldn't want to do anything that would cause trouble for someone... as I am not naive enough to think that everyone is entirely comfortable with my presence."
"From the stories that made the papers, and other news reports... when you sold your parent's yacht in Japan, you sold it to a charity that was donating money to Ukrainian relief," Ran answered, "I would think that by now... most of Mieni's full time residents will understand. And besides... most conversions are going to be done by injection with samples that Horizon has on hand."
"You would be surprised at how strong the herd mentality can be in places," Svetlana answered as she continued with the curls with the five-pound dumbbells. "The rest is something of a romantic in me... like what you have with your mate."
Ran could only nod as he thought of Gaz for a moment. Though, things really couldn't go any further when suddenly a voice from one of the other people doing a workout said something that brought all attention up.
"Hey, what's that?!" was the call drawing attention up and out to the ocean.
Moving through the water and near the surface there looked to be something of a swell in the water. It had to be something moving through the water, and which was noted by a tall black fin sticking up through the surface of the water, creating something of a white wave in the water as that fin cut through the water. The black fin, though, wasn't the typical triangular fin of a shark. It was tall and narrow, which to Gan's eye indicated only one animal, an Orca. The fin disappeared for a moment as the Orca rolled in the shallow water, but it kept coming on a sort of beeline for the shore. As it righted itself, its head became clearer and the white patch on the side of the head became more visible. The white underside also became visible as it further came into the shallows and eventually beached itself.
"It's an Orca," Ran said slowly as the Orca slid out of the surf and actually slid out of the water onto the sand. It thrashed in a side-to-side motion in a way that didn't seem natural. Orcas, like all cetaceans swam in an up and down manner while fish swam in a side-to-side manner. This one was thrashing about in a side-to-side manner as if it was trying to scratch itself on the sand. To a small degree, Ran also thought it looked a bit swollen in general and that there also seemed to be cysts in the skin, "and something isn't right..."
"Should we try to get it back in the water?" Svetlana wondered.
"With the cysts it seems to have..." Ran said slowly, "I'm not sure it'd want to be back in the water... despite the fact that prolonged time on land would mean its own weight would be a danger. Something is irritating the skin... and has left it quite swollen."
"What can we do?" Svetlana asked, looking to the marine mammal, laying there in the sand with only the end of its tail actually being touched by the surf from the ocean. She could also see the muscles around one eye twitching and it rolled a little. A part of her really felt sorry for this big male Orca, judging by the tall dorsal fin that didn't limp as it lay there. She found herself taking a few hesitant steps toward it.
"I'm going to get Harold from Horizon as fast as I can," Ran spoke, "I want you and the rest to get some buckets and toss some water onto him. He may have beached himself to a point where he can't easily get out of the sand... and some of those cists indicate that something is bothering this Orca to where being in the water isn't on his mind. We'd need to know what it is."
There then followed a fairly active line of running back and forth from the ocean to fill buckets with water, and buckets that were often there for towels, and yet hadn't been filled. This allowed Svetlana and the other people there to toss the water onto the Orca. As they went through all this, Svetlana also did her best softly rub a section of the Orca's skin, one away from the cysts. After what felt like forever, Ran returned with a male Sea Krait Animalian, Harold. Svetlana looked to the scientist as he approached.
"What's wrong with him?" Svetlana asked.
"I can't be fully certain," Harold spoke, "at least not right now... though from the way he looks. His overall body looking rather swollen, the cysts on portions of his skin, the muscles in his eyelids twitching. I'd actually say this Orca is suffering from Cysticercosis caused Muscle Hypertrophy."
"Huh?" was all that came from Svetlana and some of the other people present.
"Muscle Hypertrophy is essentially the enlargement of the muscle, something that is most often seen with people engaged in a lot of anerobic exercise," Harold answered, "and for those lifting weights, Muscle Hypertrophy isn't a bad thing and can be healthy, provided no one is taking steroids, as the muscle enlargement is actually looked for. However, there can be cases where what has caused the enlargement is something less... beneficial. Something has irritated the muscle..."
"And you sad this was caused by a Sistersis?" Ran asked.
"Cysticercosis," Harold connected, "it's essentially a parasitic infection caused by the young and eggs of the Pork Tapeworm. And with people, it can lead into general muscle swelling, cysts, and irritation around the eyes... along with other effects that could include seizures."
"Is there anything that could be done for him?" Svetlana asked and looked at the Orca, who was now laying fairly still, though he did still seem to be breathing."
"By normal medical treatment..." Harold said slowly, "that would be difficult. The normal testing for Cysticercosis would require a stool sample... and that's only to confirm the diagnosis. The rest is a mystery as there could be other diseases that are unique to cetaceans that have similar effects that I am not familiar with... and even if I'm right there are other questions."
"Other questions?" Ran asked.
"Such as how this Orca came in contact with undercooked pork that would have had the Port Tapeworm eggs in it," Harold answered, "and how long ago did that happen. If it's recent... there could be some treatments that would treat the parasite and ease the swelling caused by it. If it's a long time... the damage to its brain may be such that outside of uplifting it, the only option may be to put it down and end its suffering."
"Uplift him," Svetlana urged, "he's done no one no harm... and he is in pain... he doesn't deserve that..."
Harold raised one hand to calm her down, "To a great degree... that is what was intended. For while this male would be young enough to be healthy in the wild... we do not have the time to conduct the full tests, and if he's been suffering for a while, he may not have the time to wait."
"These people will help you," Svetlana said to the Orca, who's brown eye only twitched a little.
Harold sat by and produced a set of syringes from his lab coat. Svetlana stepped back by Ran while Harold ran an alcohol swab over the Orca's skin above one of its flippers and away from the visible cysts. From there, Harold delivered the two shots and the uplifting process happened quite rapidly. Some of it even started after the first shot was delivered. The Orca seemed to lose a bit of its size and mass, but Svetlana soon noted that this actually led to that mass beginning for form legs a fair bit behind where the dorsal fin was. It took a little while for feet to form, and as such it almost looked like the Orca had simply larger versions of the rear "legs" that were on more primitive whales, like Basilosaurus. However, that didn't last long as clear "ankle" joints appeared and the last bits beneath that seemed to form a set of webbed toes, which in a way looked similar to Ran's legs. Though, Svetlana noted that Ran's toes looked almost like they were clawed with webbing between them while the Orca's toes didn't have that. As its legs finished forming, the Orca actually got to his feet.
"He's getting better," Svetlana spoke as she noted the cysts vanishing from his skin and as his front flippers began to stretch into webbed hands and shoulders and arms pushing out as well.
"More than better," Ran countered as he noted the growing musculature on this Orca as it continued in large. The new calves and thigh muscles looked very well developed. Ran even thought they looked bigger than the Orca Animalians he'd met, Benny and Mariana. "Like... body builder sized strength."
"It could be possible that as the Animalia Virus cures it of the parasites, that material is converted into new energy or new muscle," Harold said slowly as the Orca's head narrowed a bit as an actual neck formed between its head and its broad muscled shoulders, which also looked bigger than the other Orca Animalians. "Which would fit with some of the swelling of its muscle and body before..."
"But he looks good," Svetlana smiled to him, and admiring the muscle the new Orca Animalian had put on, while the Orca Animalian now looked over himself. Her comment drew his attention though.
"Thank you..." the Orca Animalian said slowly, "and thank you for caring for me... while I... while had a tremendous headache. Though... I'm not sure what I am now."
"You're an Animalian, now," Ran spoke, "and like me... uplifted from a mundane animal into an anthropomorphic Animal."
"You were in bad shape," Svetlana said to the Orca Animalian.
"Yes... I remember," the Orca answered, "there were these big islands, often that had lots of people on them... well to the west of here. Though, one farmer on one island owned a bunch of these squealing things... they didn't have as much hair as you..." That comment had been directed to the Human hair that Harold still had a converted Animalian. "...some were pink, some were black, and some were a mix of the two and they didn't like being moved from one island to another."
"A pig farmer," Harold said slowly, "Do you know the island chain... or atoll? You say it was to the west of here. The Philippines? The Marianas? Tawain? One of the other coral atolls?"
"The islands were much bigger than these atolls here," the Orca commented, "though, I never knew the names of the islands. I merely followed fish and squid and other things through the channels between the islands. Though... this "pig farmer" didn't like my cruising the area much and when he took his squealers from one island to another, he often threw rocks at me."
"That's horrid," Svetlana gasped.
"I thought so, and eventually, I had enough," the Orca answered, "it wasn't a big boat, and the man was often trying to herd his squealers into it's middle. So, I just rammed it and flipped it over, sending the farmer and his squealers into the water. I didn't eat the man, but I did take some of his squealers. They tasted... weird. And the hairs on them tickled my tongue. Though, sometime after that, some things began to hurt and drove me crazy as things twitched. The pods fled from me... and some things shook and hurt, and that made me leave, looking for something to alleviate the pain. Fish and other things didn't help, and the pain only got worse... though you all cured me of that."
"It's probable that the pigs you ate were carrying eggs from the Pork Tapeworm... it's a kind of parasite that has the major requirement to COOK pork properly before eating," Harold commented, "particularly based on what you described."
"I don't think I'll eat squealers again, thank you," the Orca answered. "Though, I would like to learn more about Animalia..." and then paused to look over to Svetlana, "and learn more about you."
"Let Horizon carry out their vaccination, and we can go on a date," Svetlana smiled.
"You wouldn't to mate now...?" the Orca answered.
"I'm not that kind of woman," Svetlana answered.
"And Animalia's edicts forbid public mating... and nudity, but given that you were just uplifted, we can make an exception in this case," Ran added.
"Though... I would ask, what would like us to call you?" Svetlana asked the new Orca Animalian.
"Hunter," the Orca Animalian answered as he looked to Svetlana and barely noticing Harold giving him the vaccination shot.