Delphine checks the electric motors she was installing in her prototype hydrofoil/submersible craft. She designed the Stingray from the ground up while she was still in the Navy. She had gotten a lot of grief because of her looks from the sailors and instructors, but she just sucked it up and ignored them.

She wasn’t what you called a manly man type of person. She still had the slim youthful build of a teenager and she had inherited her great grandmother’s looks and curly hair. If she didn’t keep her hair short, people would mistaken her as a girl. So, during her time in the Navy, she kept it extremely short.

While she was in, she had gotten a double master’s degree in Oceanography, Marine Geology while in the Navy. She also got her degree in mechanical engineering and engineering at the same time. She was an underwater demolition explosive (UDT) Technician.

She had joined when she was still a male and was taking hormones while in the service. After putting ten years in and keeping her crossdressing quiet. Her doctor gave her the okay to receive gender reassignment surgery. She left the service and had work done to her body at the same time.

Once she gets the electric motors installed and hooked up to the waterjets. She connects the battery cables from a series of 12-volt batteries for now. She flicks the switch and watches as the water shoots out the back nozzle.

“Looks like your work is coming along, Delphine.” Bobby had come down to check on his sister.

She has been spending every hour of the day down in her workshop working on her project. He had to get used to the fact he didn’t have a brother anymore, but a sister. Sure, he knew she uses to cross-dress and go out when she was in the Navy, but he and the family hadn’t counted on the fact that she was considering the surgery as well. Everyone just thought she was gay.

Delphine looks up at her brother’s voice. He was the manly man type, where she wasn’t. You could tell the difference in them. Where he got all their father’s genes, like the rest of her brothers. The strong muscular build, the dark hair, strong jaw, and the piercing dark eyes. Her father side of the family had the football player type of build.

As a matter of fact, all her brothers played football and baseball all their life. One of her brothers is a fullback for the Los Angeles Rams. Her older brother is a Marine Sergeant. She, on the other hand, got all her great grandmothers looks on her mother’s side of the family.

The slender build, small slender fingers, the strawberry blond color curly hair, hazel eyes, and wide hips. When you look at her and pictures of her great grandmother, she was a splitting image.

“I just wanted to finish this up, Bobby.” She brushes a stray strand of her strawberry blond hair out of her eyes.

“You’re as bad as the rest of us when it comes to working on projects. Mom sent me down to remind you, that you were helping her with dinner tonight.”

“Alright, I’m coming.” Delphine shuts everything down and follows her younger brother out of her workshop.

She makes sure her workshop is locked before heading up towards the main house. She missed her mother’s home cooking when she was in the service. She also missed being home. She’s done a lot traveling and visited a lot of different places.

“It’s nice having you home, sis.” Bobby still found it hard calling his younger brother, sis.

Bobby knew all about his younger brother cross-dressing. When they were little, he uses to like wearing their mother’s clothes and playing with dolls and such. Where most people thought he was gay, he knew differently. It was good his baby brother waited till he finished his time in the service before transitioning.

“You never did tell us what you're building down in your workshop.”

“A special project. How is the business at the boatyard?” Delphine knew Bobby ran the family business, which was selling, repairing and customizing boats.

“It’s doing good. Dad said our profits are up and we sold a lot of jet ski’s this quarter. Have you decided what you are going to be doing yet?”

“Nope, I was thinking about taking it easy for a while and work on my project.”

“Talk about being lazy.”

“Hey, I’ve earned the right to be lazy for a little while. Do you know how many bombs and explosives I’ve had to disarm?”

“I forgot about that. You like to blow things up, don’t you?” Bobby forgot that his sister played with explosives.

“Trust me, little brother. It’s not all fun and games when you’re the one trying to disarm the device.”

The two of them walk in through the back door. Just as they entered the kitchen “alright you two, wash your hands and start peeling those potatoes for me.”

“Yes, ma’am.” Both Bobby and Delphine reply at the same time.

Delphine grabs a peeling knife and starts peeling some potatoes. She watches as Bobby grabs a peeler and sits next to her and peel potatoes.

“Did you ever have KP duty when you were in the military or boot camp?”

“Nope, I did what I was told. There was one guy in boot camp that ended up with KP several times.”

“I bet the rest of the recruits gave him a hard time.”

“They mostly threaten him. They had talked about a blanket party if he didn’t straighten up.”

“Did he ever straighten up?” Bobby looks at his sister.

“Yes, he finally got his act together,” Delphine remember the guy and what everyone threatened to do with him.

Delphine rubbed the spices for the roast on and inject them inside the meat under her mother’s watchful eyes. She was finding domestic life to be rewarding. She was happy now that how she felt inside, matched how she should have been born.

Once the roast was spiced and wrapped up. She puts it in the oven to cook and prepare side dishes to go with dinner. She wasn’t going to start cooking them until the roast was almost ready.

Delphine’s mother looks over towards her “how are you feeling, sweetie?”

Nicole knew her daughter had gender reassignment surgery the week she got out of the Navy. Since then, its been about two and a half months. She knew her daughter wasn’t the type of person to just lay around and do nothing.

“I’m doing alright mom. Occasionally, I need to stop when I feel a sharp pain in my abdomen area. I’m still getting used to having my own breasts.” Delphine was amazed at how big her chest got, once she started taking estrogen pills. It was like her body got kicked started when
she took the pills.

When she had her blood tested, to see what level they should start her off on. They discovered she was already producing some of her own, but at half the level a normal woman would. Her testosterone levels were low in the first place. It was why she still looks like she was a teenager. Even at the age of twenty-eight years old, she still gets carded if she buys beer or goes to a bar. She just has that youthful appearance about her.

“Well, take as long as you need, sweetie. Have you been doing those exercise your doctor wanted you to do?” Nicole knew Delphine had to use her dilators if she was going to keep the length she wanted and her vagina opened.

She had gone with her daughter to the doctor’s office that had done her surgery. She learned everything her daughter needed to do in order to keep her neovagina healthy. She also made sure that Delphine acted like a woman and corrected her when she did something mannish.

Nicole didn’t mind that her youngest child, felt like he should have been borne a girl, instead of a boy. At first, she and her husband thought he was gay. They later learned that wasn’t the case. When Delphine came home from deployment, she would go out dressed up as a girl. She had to be careful, because most of the neighbors around her, were military or had a relative in the military.

Once the roast was almost done. Delphine put the vegetables on and make homemade mashed potatoes. Once the food was cooked and ready. Delphine and her mother set the table for the rest of the family.

Only her and Bobby lived with their parents. Bobby was running the family shipyard with their father and she hasn’t found anything yet. She kept busy working on her project. She was using one of the original dry docks that her family had from when her grandfather started the business.

He use to build custom yachts and sailboats in the dry dock. She turned it into her private workshop. Every time she came home on leave, she would work on her project. By the time she got out fo the service, three quarters of her project was done. She was just finishing up on the last quarter of the vessel and would be taking it out soon for testing.

Delphine cleans the kitchen up, while her brother and father watched television. Her mother was reading a book. She didn’t mind cleaning the kitchen, since she cleaned behind her, while she cooked.

“Mom, Dad, I’m heading back down to my workshop.”

“Alright sweetie. Don’t stay up all night working on your project.” Nicole knew how her daughter was when she was working on a project.

Delphine goes back down to the dry dock and goes back to work. She wanted to finish up working on her project. She only had a few more things left to do, before she was finish and could charge the new batteries. The fuel cells she had were ready to be placed into Stingray. The new system she was using, should provide the oxygen and hydrogen she needed to power the Stingray.

By the time she finishes the last thing she needed to do to Stingray, it was three in the morning. Delphine yawns and stretch, as she shuts everything down in her work area and head back to the house. She grabs a bottle water, before heading to bed. She strips out of her work clothes and slip her nightgown on. She loved the feel of the fabric as it caress her skin.

She lays down in her bed and instantly fall asleep. She dreams of swimming with the fishes and exploring the ocean bottom. She loved the ocean and always enjoyed being in the water.

“Delphine, its time to wake-up, baby.” Nicole gently shakes her daughters shoulder.

“I don’t want to get up.” Delphine pulls her blanket over her head.

“Come on sweetie. It’s time to get up. You need to do your stretching exercises and go shopping with me.” Nicole removes the blanket off her daughter’s body.

“Mom!” Delphine gets out of bed and head towards her bathroom to pee.

“I laid out a nice sun dress for you to wear today.” Nicole had gone through her daughter’s clothes and found a nice sundress that would look
nice for her to wear. She also the perfect pair of sandals that matched the dress.

While Delphine is in the bathroom, she does her exercise using her dilators. She takes a shower afterwards and walks back into her bedroom and notices her mother laid out what she wanted her to wear. She gets dressed and put on a necklace she bought in Italy and a set of earrings she bought in Spain. She loved how they looked the minute she spotted them. They cost her two months pay, but they were worth it.

The necklace was another one of those purchases, that costed her a lot of money as well. The dress she bought the necklace to go with, hugged her curves. It was a nice dress she bought while in Italy. She checks herself one more time, before heading out to go shopping with her mother.

They go and look at a few dresses and hit a shoe store. If there ws one thing Delphine had in common with her mother, were shoes. Her mother was a shoe hoard and so was Delphine. They go by a dive store, so Delphine could pickup some new air tanks and wetsuit. She needs a new one, because of how big her breasts got, once she started taking a stronger estrogen pill.

Delphine buys a couple of new swimsuits as well. She loved showing off her new body. She buys a few modest ones and a few exotic ones.

“Those are nothing but dental floss, sweetie.” Nicole couldn’t believe her daughter was buying a few thong style swimsuits. They barely provided any cover.

“I know mom and I promise not to wear them around the yard. I thought I would show my body off now, since I don’t have to worry about people talking about me, since I’m out of the Navy now.” Delphine was always careful when she was still in the service, but the day she got out. She said the hell with it. She was going to be herself now.

Delphine treats her mother to lunch at a nice restaurant. A cute waiter took care of them.

“He’s half your age, Delphine.” Nicole had noticed the waiter looking at Delphine.

“I know, but I would like to give my new plumbing a work out.” Delphine looked at her mother.

“Didn’t me and your father catch you and Kevin Jerkins going at it in your room, wearing one of my negligee?” Nicole remember hearing noises
coming from Delphine’s bedroom and looked in.

She saw Delphine on all fours letting a boy she didn’t know taking Delphine in the ass. Delphine was wearing her favorite baby blue negilgee.

“That’s was a one time thing, mom. Since then I ahven’t been to bed with any one or done any sexual thing. I have been chaste since then.” Delphine knew she didn’t have too, but she figure she would, till she got her plumbing straightened out.

They finally make it home. Delphine take her things and put them away in her room. She takes her new tanks and wetsuit down to her workshop. She puts them aboard the Stingray.

“Tomorrow, is the big day to see if you work or not.” As she runs her fingertips against the bottom of the ship.

She heads back to the house to help fix dinner for tonight. She was going to take one day off and go to bed early. She does do her exercise and after dinner, spend time with the family.

The next day, she goes down to her workshop and put her new wetsuit on. She makes sure everything is out of the dry dock and flood it with water. Her ship floats as the dry dock floods. Once it was off it supports, she boards the boat and switches on the power. Everything powers on.

“Alright, lets see if your jets are working.” Delphine throws the power switch and pull back on the yoak.

Stingray starts moving backwards as water is forced forward. The force of the water propels Stingray backwards into the channel that leads to the ocean. Once she was clear and in the middle of the channel, she turns the wheel right, forcing the side thrusters, to turn Stingray.

She’s practice several times with Stingray’s controls, but the actual thing was different. Once she was facing forward, she pulls back on the power, to switch from going backwards, to forward. She gives him only a little bit of power as she starts going forward towards the entrance of the channel. She kept the speed at the posted speed limit as she guides Stingray out of the channel and into the ocean.

Once she was out on the ocean, she increases speed. Delphine couldn’t believe how well Stingray was responding to her. She increases speed more and feel his hydrofoil lift his body up out of the water, like she designed him too. She watches the gauges as she speeds on the ocean.

Primary power was at 100% and back-up power was at 100%. Oxygen and hydrogen generation were at 30% and raising. Navigation, speed, radar, sonar, radio and GPS systems were working at 100%. She gives Stingray full power and watch as his speed increases drastically.

She watches as the knots speed surpasses 228 knots. Stingray was still increasing speed. When Stingray got close to 260 knots, Delphine powers back some. If she had left it at the power level it was at, it would had hit 300+.

“Alright, let’s see how deep you can go.” Delphine flicks some switches and listens as Stingray switches from hydrofoil mode, to sub mode.

Stingray starts lowering into the water as she cuts back on the power to its thrusters. She slowly goes beneath the surface. She keeps going down as she watches her oxygen levels and gauges for any inducation of the seals on Stingray leaking. She should had tested them more, but she hadn’t thought about.

She looks at her depth and it was reading 400 feet. Delphine watches her depth as Stingray goes deeper and deeper. She was nearing a thousand feet as she continued to go deeper. She reaches a depth of 1,000 feet and decides to head back up.

She could had gone deeper, but wanted to play it safe on her first time out. She heads back towards the surface and enjoys the ride. The sonar on board gave her a good reading of everything around her. The front part of the Stingray was reinforce clear glass , so she could see everything with help from the lights.

She was currently 30 miles from shore. She still had plenty of power and oxygen. Delphine plots a course back to her home. She does try one more item she installed on the Stingray. She activiates the reflective skin covering the Stingray was covered in.

Delphine decides to stay on top of the water as she heads back home. She grabs a sandwich she brought with her and take a bite, while the autopilot takes them home. Everything was working as it should. She had to avoid a few fishing boats.

Delphine arrives back at her family’s place late in the afternoon. She pulls the Stingray up to the pier, where her family docks their private vessels. She powers down everything and secure the Stingray to the docks.

She walks up to the family house proud of what she accomplished with stingray. Her brother was still at work, but her mother was in the kitchen when she walked. She was still giddy that Stringray performed well on its first time out.

Nicole looks towards her daughter when she comes walking in “how did your project perform?”

“For it’s first time out, it did really good. I went down to a 1,000 feet. The oxygen units and power units worked out great. I was able to generate everything I needed. The hydrofoil mode worked out even better. I had it up to 228 knots and it was still climbing, before I dialed it back.” Delphine grabs an apple to munch on.

“Why did you build that thing?” Nicole knew her daughter had her own money tied up into her project. Ever dime she had and saved went into building her ship.

“To research the ocean and such. It will give me an advantage most researchers wouldn’t have.” Delphine loved the ocean.

“Well, it’s your money, sweetie.” Nicole hopes her daughter knew what she was doing.

“Mom, I’m not worried about the money. I still have twelve Spanish coins and a gold bar I found from that sunken Spanish galleon, while diving off the coast of Florida. Before me and my friends gave the rest of the treasure and location to the Spanish government, even though it was discovered in international waters.” Delphine couldn’t believe her luck when her and several friends went out diving.

They were thirty miles off the Florida coast when they came across the Spanish Galleon. She had come across a sunken ship no one knew anything about. She shared the discovery with her friends and they took a small amount of the teasure, before contacting the Spanish Government.

“Well, you have a lot of money tide up in that project of yours, sweety. You should think about selling it or mass producing the craft. It would make a fine addition to the custom ships your father and brother build for clients.” Nicole glances towards her daughter.

“Mom, it is still experimental and I didn’t design it, to be sold off. I built it to study the ocean. After all, that’s why I went to school and got my degrees while I was in the Navy.” Delphine walks over and places a kiss on her mother’s cheek.

Afterwards, she turns around and head back to her bedroom to change clothes. She performs her exercise with the dilators, before hopping into the shower and taking a nice long hot shower. She was still amazed that the surgery had gone so well to give her, her neovagina. As she washes between her legs.

Once Delphine was done washing her body and dress again. She grabs her purse and head downstairs.

“Mom, I’m going out for awhile.” As Delphine grab her car keys.

“Alright, be safe and be careful, sweetheart.” Nicole hopes her daughter will stay out of trouble.

Delphine’s head was hurting her. She felt an arm around her waist and a strong chest pressed against her back. She also felt a huge hardon resting against her butt cheeks. She looks at the hand resting against her sheet covered body. It was weathered, like someone who worked outside a lot. She felt soreness and wetness between her legs. The soreness was a new experience for her and the wetness felt kind of sticky.

Her breasts felt sore as well. She lifts the soft white bed sheet covering her body and looks at her body. She was totally nude and laying in a wet spot. There were teeth marks on her full breasts. She loved the fact that the estrogen pills had given her full-size breasts. She knew most transgirls had smaller breasts. Most of the women she knew from her support group had smaller breasts than she did.

Her head was still fuzzy of the events that took place last night. She had gone out first to her favorite gay bar and had a few drinks with some of her old friends. Then she and a few crossdressers and drag queens went to another bar and had a few more drinks.

Afterward, she went to another club and met a wonderful, tall muscular bald head fella. The man drawfed her by at least a foot and a half. She was the same height as her mother, who happened to be 5’ 4” tall. She turns around in his arm and looks at his face.

He had a strong jaw and weather skin like he spent a lot of time outside in the sun. She presses her breasts up against his smooth tanned tone chest. As she was examining his face, his eyes opened. She looked into his light gray color eyes.

“Good morning.” Tom places a kiss on her lips.

Delphine returns the kiss. She loved feeling his strong lips pressed against hers. She felt his manhood press against her body.

“Make love to me, again.” She wiggles under him.

“Are you sure? You were feeling a little sore last night before we finally fell asleep.” He was tracing Delphine lips with his finger.

“Yes, I’m sure.” As she reaches down and guides his huge penis into her body.

She stiffens as he pushes up inside her body. It felt like someone was shoving a thick tree limb up inside of her. He was wider and longer than her biggest dilator. She moans as he begins to pump in out of her. She was loving it and took all of him inside her. He flips her onto her back and she wraps her legs around his waist.

“Go deeper and harder.” Delphine was enjoying the feeling she was getting from him.

As she got closer to climax, she arches her back up off the bed and dug her fingernails into his skin. Whatever experiences she had back in the past, never felt like what she was feeling now. Lust filled her head, as she tightens her muscles. She came at the same time as her male partner.

Tom couldn’t believe how this strawberry curly hair woman took all of him. He has only met three women capable of taking all of his penis. He erupts deep inside her as he watches her eyes closed and spasms under his body. He was getting ready to pull out of her.

Delphine tightens her legs around his waist “don’t!”

Tom stops and just kiss Delphine on the lips. He felt her milk him and her legs stayed tight around his waist.

“God! This is so wonderful.” Delphine was on cloud nine.

She was enjoying the orgasm that rocked her body. Nothing could ever prepare her for how she felt. She opened her eyes and stared into the man’s eyes. She gives him a kiss as she releases her legs from around his waist.

“God! This felt so amazing.” Delphine was looking through blurry eyes at the man.

Tom pulls out of Delphine’s body and lay next to her. He feels her curl up against his body. He also feels her small slender fingers trace a tattoo on his chest.

Delphine loved the feeling she was still feeling. She starts kissing his chest and playing with his nipple, as she moved down his naked body. He had tattoo’s on his right arm and on his chest. She keeps going down, till she was between his legs and took his penis in her mouth. She could taste her sweat and his juices as she took him all the way into her mouth. She really had to stretch her mouth to accommodate all of him. She started to choke as he hit the back of her throat.

She has never taken someone so big and long into her mouth. She gives him the best head job she has ever given to any men she dated before her gender reassignment surgery. When Tom erupts into Delphine’s mouth. She swallows all of it.

She looks up at Tom’s head “that was yummy.”

She crawls up his body and lays her head on his chest. She has been dreaming of doing something like this for a long time. She feels Tom wrap his arms around her slender body.

Tom looks down towards Delphine’s face as she laid on his chest. He has never seen a woman so beautiful before in his life. He spotted the dolphin and octopus tattoos she had on her back and the USN anchor on her right shoulder.

“Are we going to spend all day in bed, making love?” As Tom pulls her body further up his body.

“Mmmm, do you want to spend all day in bed?” Delphine kisses the small of his neck.

She sent a text message to her mother’s cellphone telling her she was getting laid and might not be home. She was feeling extremely sore from their latest lovemaking.

“I don’t mind, but I have to get up and use the bathroom.” Tom lifts Delphine off his chest and lay her next to him.

“All you had to do was ask me to move.” Delphine watches as Tom gets out of bed and head towards the bathroom.

Tom walks into the bathroom and relieves himself. He enjoyed the blow job Delphine gave him. He also enjoyed making love to her. Once he was done, he walks back into the bedroom.

While Tom was in the bathroom, Delphine checked her email and text messages. Most of the text messages were from her mother. She informs her mother, that she was fine and loved being a woman. She also informs her, that she found a substitute to her dilators.

A smile appears on her face, as Tom comes walking out of the bathroom. She loved how Tom looked “yummy.”

“I take it, your hungry.” Tom loved how Delphine said yummy.

“Yes, I could use some food.” Delphine gets up slowly.

She was feeling very tender, but she was glad she did. She walks over to Tom kind of bow-legged and gives him a kiss. She would love to just stay in his bedroom but knew she couldn’t.

“Why don’t I go and use the bathroom and take a shower. Do you think you’ll have breakfast ready by the time I’m done showering?” She looks into his gray eyes.

A smirk appears on his face “I think I can accomplish that.” He places a kiss on her lips and sends her towards the bathroom.

While in the shower, Delphine had to be careful when she cleaned between her legs. She was extremely sore and was stretched more then she had ever been. Her biggest dilator was not even close to how wide and long Tom’s penis was. When he shoved himself up inside her, it felt wonderful. It made her feel like she did when the packing after her surgery was inside her.

She fingers the teeth marks Tom left on her breasts. They had been a real turn on for her when he bit into her flesh, as they made love last night. Her head still hurt from drinking last night.

Once she was done taking a shower, she searches Tom’s medicine cabinet for some aspirin and pops two in her mouth. She heads back into the bedroom and rummages through his drawers, till she finds a t-shirt to slip on. She wasn’t going to bother with wearing her panties or a pair of his boxers. His boxers were way too big for her small waist and hips.

When she walks into the kitchen, she noticed Tom had slipped on a pair of boxers and a muscle shirt. She walks up behind him and gives him a hug. Her hand slips past his waistband and into his pants. She feels his penis already hard. She squeezes and stroke it some.

Tom stops Delphine from playing with his penis. He pulls her slender hand out of his boxers “you keep that up, darling and we’ll never get to breakfast.” As he kisses her fingers.

“Your no fun.” Delphine was pouting a little.

“I promise, after breakfast, we’ll have as much sex as you want to.” Tom was looking forward to making love to Delphine again.

Once breakfast was ready, they sit down and eat. Afterward, they clean the kitchen up and spend most of the day having sex.

Tom was sore from all the sex he had with the little strawberry blonde hair woman he had over during the weekend. They had so much sex, that if she had been a natural girl, she would be pregnant by now. He knew she uses to be a man and just recently had gender reassignment surgery. He didn’t care about that matter. After seeing her naked and making love to her the whole weekend. He didn’t care what she used to be.

“Hey Tom, are you going to stand there all day or help me load this container onto this truck?” Franklin had spotted his buddy just standing around daydreaming.

“Sorry Franklin, I was thinking about a strawberry blonde hair girl I had over this weekend.”

“Oh? What did the two of you do all weekend?” Franklin could imagine.

“We had sex all weekend long. I am so sore right now, from having sex with her. That it hurts to pee.” Tom found that out when he got up to pee.

“I have to meet this woman. Was she able to take all of you?” Franklin knew that every woman who Tom has dated, couldn’t accommodate his massive firehose.

“I’ll see what I can arrange and yes, she managed to take all of me.” Tom wouldn’t mind showing off his new girlfriend.

“I’ll see you do that.” Franklin guides the next container down to be loaded onto the truck.

50 miles Off the Coast of California:
Delphine couldn’t believe how deep she just went. She slowly surfaces to the surface. Once Stingray breaks the surface. She opens the hatch and climbs out onto Stingray’s outer hull. She inhales the fresh sea air and looks around her. There wasn’t anyone around for miles.

“You did it, boy. I am so proud of you.” Delphine pats Stingrays artificial skin covering.

Everything about him was based on a stingray. She put a lot of research and design into him. Some of the things she put into him were still experimental. Especially, how she pulled oxygen from seawater and stored it. The hydrogen left over, she used as fuel for the hydrogen fuel cells and for running Sting Ray. Once Stingray’s hydrogen motor was running. She didn’t need power from the cells anymore. The motor powered the electrical generator that ran Stingray.

Delphine just sits out on top of the hull for a while. The government would love to get their hands-on Stingray. She spots some fish that would be good for dinner. She gets her fishing net and toss it out and snag a few fish for dinner. She puts them in a cooler she brought with her, to
collect a few items off the sea floor.

She found some interesting things, while she was on the ocean floor. Most of them she left alone, but she did pick up a few that spark her curiosity. Delphine glances at her divers watch to see what time it was. If she left now, she could be back home in time to have lunch with her mother.

Delphine climbs back inside Stingray and plots a course back to her family’s private dock. Instead of being on top of the surface and in hydrofoil mode, she dives back underwater. She loved the ocean and was glad she wasn’t in the Navy anymore. She got out just in time when the moron in the White House said transgender soldiers and sailors couldn’t serve anymore.

She was about to come out being transgender when she heard what the prick in the White House said about transgender people. She had a few people aboard the ship she had been assigned too, that knew she was transgender. Some of them she had sex with when they were in port.

There was one Marine Sergeant that she really missed. He was into the whole leather fetish and motorcycle thing. He joined a motorcycle group composed of people into the leather culture.

Tom had told her where he worked, she could surprise him with Stingray. She thinks about it as she gets closer to shore. Once she was ten miles offshore, she surfaces and let Stingray run on the surface as it heads into the channel to their dock.

She gets as close to the dock as possible. Because of Stingrays wingspan, she couldn’t just pull alongside the dock. Instead, she must dock nose first. Delphine steps out on the nose and secure Stingray to the dock. Once he is secure, she shuts Stingrays systems down and removes her magnetic key. She had constructed the key from a small meteorite she found while diving.

Delphine picks the cooler up that had the fish she caught and other items she recovered from the ocean floor. She heads up to the house. There was nothing like fresh fish that you have caught yourself.

“Mom, I’m home,” Delphine calls out to her mother, as she enters from the back door.

“I’m in the living room, sweetie.” Nicole was dusting the living room. She stops and look at some of the pictures of her family on the mantle top and hanging up. She was proud of them.

Especially, Delphine. She followed in her great grandfather’s footsteps. He had been a gunner on a river patrol boat during the Vietnam War. His father before him had been in World War II and killed at Pearl Harbor during the Japanese attack. He had been stationed on the Arizona when it came under attack. Her grandfather had been on the Arizona as well when it had been attacked.

Delphine gets an apron from the pantry to cover her wet suit. She starts cleaning the fish she caught and prepare them. She wraps them up in brown meat packing paper and put them in the deep freezer.

The spices and the way she prepared them was the same way her mother and grandmother use to preserve them. She saves the guts and heads for the local cats that lived near her grandfather’s old office. There was one stray that was her favorite. She named him Tiger and was the biggest tomcat she has ever seen.

Nicole walks into the kitchen and spotted Delphine prepping some fish. She was curious if her daughter caught the fish or bought them.

“Where did you get the fish?” Nicole walks over to look at them.

“I caught them. There was a school of them swimming near Stingray and I tossed my small net out and caught a few.” As she packages the fish she just got finish cleaning.

“So, how far down did you go today?” Nicole was worried when Delphine told her she was going out to test how deep Stingray could go.

“10,000 feet, mom. That’s as deep as he can go. If I want to go deeper, I’ll have to build a stronger submarine or buy one. I would rather build one to my specs.” Delphine wasn’t ready to go exploring in Challenger Deep yet.

It was considered the deepest part of the ocean and it was completely dark. Stingray wasn’t built for those types of pressure. She would have to totally redesign him for those pressures or come up with a new design.

Nicole peeks into the cooler to see what else her daughter brought back. She notices an assortment of items.

“Where did you find these items?” Nicole knew better to pick things up that had been in sea water and laying on the ocean floor.

“I found them littered on the ocean floor. Some of them look like they are of Polynesian design and a few looks like they might be of Spanish design. There are some items that I have never seen before. I’m going to check my books and see what they might be.” Delphine had found a few coins and such laying on the ocean floor but didn’t recognize the design of them.

“Oh, that reminds me. Your father wants you to come down to the boatyard. He has a customer that wants a unique boat built. He could use your expertise in building it.”

“Mom, I don’t design or build boats for people. That’s dad’s and Bobby’s expertise.”

“Delphine, your father doesn’t ask much from you. At least you can go and see what he needs or wants.” Nicole looks sternly at her daughter.

Delphine sighs. She knew it was useless to argue with her mother. Her mother was right that her father never asks much from her. The least she could do is see what he and Bobby needed her for.

“Alright, I’ll go and see dad after I’m done cleaning these fish and fixing us some lunch.”

A smile appears on Nicole’s face. She knew she could get Delphine to see things her way.

Delphine loved the Herring she caught and cleaned before leaving the house. She was lucky she came across a school of them near the surface. She rides her motorcycle over to the family boatyard and parks her motorcycle in an empty parking spot.

She glances around the parking lot of Sea-Land Marine and couldn’t believe they had several different models of jet skis and Jet boats out on display. There were all sorts of boats and a few cigar boats on display. She walks inside the main building. Several of the salesmen and a few women were busy with clients. Delphine continues towards the back-workshop area where her brother and father worked.

She spots her brother in his office with her father and two other gentlemen. They both had black hair and stood taller than her father and brother. She knocks on the door to the office before she enters.

Delphine watches as her father turns around to see who it was. A smile appears on her face “hi, daddy.” She walks over and gives her father a hug.

The two men turn towards Delphine as well She notices that they were identical twins. Both had short black hair and were of Arabic or Middle-eastern origins. Even the custom suits they were wearing were the same color and style.

“Delphine, let me introduce you to Nour Kanaan and his twin brother Ehsan Kanaan. Mr. Kanaan’s this is my lovely daughter Delphine Waters. She knows a lot about ships and ship design. If there is anyone around that can help design your custom yacht, it's my daughter.” Ross was proud of his daughter and wouldn’t mind her coming and working at the boatyard.

Delphine watches the reaction of the men. She noticed that it didn’t seem to bother them that a woman was standing in front of them. She encountered a few men when they went to a foreign country that hated women or thought less of them.

“It’s nice to meet you, Mrs. Waters. I hope you can help us come up with a design we are looking for.” Nour shakes Delphine’s hand.

“I hope so. Why don’t I get a legal pad and you can tell me what you would like in this vessel and how you would like for it to look.” Delphine grabs a legal pad and pen off her brother’s desk.

She sits down in a chair in his office and looks at the two men.

“Now, go ahead and give me some basic items on the yacht you want us to build and how you would like it to look.”

Nour starts giving Delphine some basic information. When she starts asking some question about dimensions, how fast, rooms and such. His brother Ehsan answer the question for him. The next fours hours, Delphine ask very specific question. She sketches out a few concepts on paper and shows them to the Kanaan’s brothers.

By the time the shop was starting to shut down. They end the meeting. Delphine watches as her father escorts the Kanaan brothers out of the office. Delphine looks at her brother while her father was gone.

“You know, the two of you could have done this, without me.”

“Not really sis. You asked questions we didn’t or wouldn’t have thought of. Can you draw up a 3D image of what they want with the information
you have there?” Bobby nods his head towards the legal pad.

“I think I can come up with some concept for you. You know I won't to be available tomorrow?” She looks at her brother.

“Where are you going to be?” Bobby was hoping his sister would stick around.

“I’ll be out at sea tomorrow, all day.” Delphine was planning on spending all day and maybe all night out at sea tomorrow.

“Well, if you could postpone your trip for a day. It would be nice. I know dad would love for you to come down here and help out.” Bobby knew their father wanted Delphine to work at the shop.

“I’ll think about it. Let’s start locking up and head home.” Delphine follows her brother and helps him lock up the place.

She mounts her motorcycle and heads home. Before going inside to help her mother with dinner, when she gets home. She goes down to the dock and checks on Stingray. Making sure he was secure and was tied up. She arms the security system, just in case someone tries to tow him away from the dock.

When she walks back into the kitchen through the back door. She hears her father ask where the fish came from.

“I caught them earlier today while I was out checking the depth on my project.”

“What did you use to catch them?” Ross was impressed with his daughter.

“A net. A school of them were near the surface and I couldn’t resist.” Delphine couldn’t believe how lucky she was.

“Well, you did a good job, sweetie.”

“It’s all mom’s doing.” Delphine smiles at her mother.

She walks over and starts helping her mother fix dinner. Delphine didn’t mind fixing dinner with her mother. She learns how to properly cook
the fish she caught.

After dinner, her brother gets recruited to clean the kitchen and take care of the dishes. She goes upstairs and sits down at her computer and bring her AutoCAD program up and start constructing an image of the ship the Kanaan’s want built. The construction of the yacht itself was going to take between 3 to 6yrs. She builds several different design concepts and takes a bubble bath afterward.

Before Delphine turns in for the night. She emails the designs to her brother, informing him she is going to be busy tomorrow conducting more test on Stingray. She doubles checks the email, before sending it off.

Once Delphine was finished, she walks over to her bed and set the alarm for 0500hrs. She has a hard time falling asleep, but she manages to finally drift off to sleep. She sleeps throughout the night in a peaceful rest.

Her alarm goes off at 0500 hrs. in the morning. She shuts it off and gets up and does her morning business, including her morning exercises of stretching her opening. Afterwards she slips her wetsuit on and head downstairs to grab a cup of coffee to take with her.

By the time six o’clock rolls around, she is out the door and heading towards the ocean.

Delphine looks around her as she swims in the ocean. She wasn’t too far or too deep from Stingray, just in case she needed help. She loved being free and swimming in the ocean. She spots some fish, she hasn’t seen before in her studies or at the aquarium.

She keeps an eye out for sharks. The last thing she wanted to do is become their lunch. She continues to swim until her air tanks become to low to support her. She heads back to Stingray to recharge her air tanks. The air she pulled from the water, to provide air for Stingray and to store was enough to fill her tanks.

She swims up to Stingrays underwater airlock and enters her code for the hatch to open. Once it opens, she climbs up and closes it behind her. Once the water is pumped out and air fills the chamber. She takes her mask off and breathing regulator off as she exits from the chamber.

Delphine takes her tank over to the air hook-up and starts recharging her tank. She loved the fact she didn’t need to carry a bunch of tanks with her. She had her main tank and a back-up one. Once the tank was hooked up and being refilled, she heads up towards the cockpit. She opens the protective shutters of Stingray, so she can see if anyone discovered her.

So, far no one has managed to penetrate the cloaked that hides Stingray. She loved the fact that the technology is so simple to use. She knows the military would love to get their hands on that technology. They could sneak right up to their target enemy and no one would be no wiser.

Delphine checks the time and notices she has been underwater for a while. She looks up in the sky to see if any storm clouds were moving and were thankful there wasn’t any. She grabs the container that her salad is in and sit back in her seat to enjoy a small lunch. She was planning on going back into the water after she eats.

The marine radar aboard stingray, lets her know something is heading her way. She brings the cameras online and lookout in the direction the object was coming from. It was a fishing boat and it looked like they were out fishing for Mackerels or Tuna. She watches the boat as it comes to a stop and the four guys onboard drink and fish at the same time.

Delphine waits at least thirty minutes, before grabbing her diving tank and slip back into the water. She makes sure to avoid where the boat was fishing. She spots a few more fishes she hasn’t seen before and take pictures of them. As she was still swimming around, she notices a few sharks moving into the area. She swims back to Stingray and enters back in through the diving chamber.

Once she is inside. She hooks her tank back up and heads towards the cockpit. She opens the shutters and train the cameras on the boat and notice they were pouring fish guts and such into the water.

“Pricks! You morons are calling the sharks to this area.” She starts Stingray up and slowly moves, so as not to disrupt the cloaking effect.

Once she is a good distance away, she increases Stingray’s speed and lifts up out of the water. She loves when Stingray goes into hydrofoil mode. She saw another boat that could hold eight people and could go from hydrofoil to submarine. The problem with it, it couldn’t go as deep as Stingray or as fast as he is capable of.

Delphine finds another spot to do some diving and leaves Stingray for a while to do some more exploring. She continues diving till the air in her tanks run out again and head back to Stingray. She noticed while she was underwater that it was getting dark.

Once she was in Stingray, she sits up front in the cockpit and enjoys the sunset. She so misses watching the sunset, when she was stationed aboard a ship and out at sea. Delphine pulls out a package of trail mix and sit and enjoy them. During the night, Delphine climbs out on Stingray and watch the stars overhead. She so loved the ocean with all the things it does.

A little after one in the morning, she goes back inside Stingray, where it was nice and cool. She leans her seat all the way back and falls asleep. Delphine missed the rocking of the waves when she slept. She drifts off to sleep. As she drifts off, she dreams of bringing Tom with her next time and make out under the stars while out at sea.

Delphine is woken up by rough seas. She lifts her seat back into its upright position and opens the shutter that protects the front glass. She couldn’t believe how nasty it was outside of Stingray.

She was getting bounced around by huge waves. Just as she was about to leave, she was picking up an SOS coming in over the radio. Delphine tunes into the frequency “this is Delphine aboard the Stingray. What is your emergency?”

Delphine waits a few minutes, letting the person reply back.

“I repeat, what is your emergency?”

“This is Ted aboard the Flying Marlin. My engines are out and I and my family are being bounced around in this storm.”

Delphine locks onto the emergency signal coming from the Flying Marlin. They weren’t that far from her and according to her radar, she was the closest ship to them.

“Alright Ted, I’m on my way to you.” Delphine programs the course in her navigation computer and dives underwater to avoid the rough waves.

She increases Stingrays speed and tries to get to them as fast as she can. The navigation computer lets her know she has arrived. She surfaces nearby and spots the small cabin cruiser, bouncing up and down in the ocean.

Ted was out looking for the person he spoke too and spots a strange shape submarine surface near his boat. He couldn’t believe the design of it. He figures it must be military.

Delphine grabs some rope and leaves Stingray through his diving chamber. She swims down under him and towards his tail section. She attaches one end of her rope to one of his concealed connection. She was glad Stingray used water jet technology, instead of a propeller.

Once the rope was hooked to Stingray, she swims over to the cruiser and climbs up out of the water with the tow line. She spots the guy standing under the canopy. She could see his family watching him from inside the cabin.

“Hi, I’m Delphine. I need to tie this off to the front of your boat. I’ll tow you and your family back to shore.”

“Okay, do you need any help?” Ted looked at the woman. She was short and cute, even with her hair plastered against her head.

“I’ll be okay. I’m used to this.” Delphine walks forward towards the front of the boat.

The waves didn’t bother her. She works her way to the front and hooks the line on.

“Alright, get ready to be pulled and let me know if any problems develop.” Delphine dives off the front of the boat and swims back to Stingray. She reenters through the same way she exited.

She turns the rear view cameras on and swings around to get in front of the boat. She picks up the mike “get ready to accelerate.”

“Roger.” Ted braces himself.

Delphine increases power to Stingrays thrusters and starts moving forward. She keeps the power study as she pulls the boat. She plots a course back to shore.

Ted couldn’t believe what he was seeing as him and his family was being pulled. The line was tight and the strange-looking submarine was sitting low in the water. It was riding the waves like its namesake. It takes them a while to arrive back to shore and to the nearest dock. It was still stormy when Delphine comes out and unhook the line from the boat.

“Well, your safe and sound now. Good luck on getting your boat back up and running.”

“Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.” Delphine spots Ted’s family waving to her, as she heads back to Stingray.

She heads back to her families private pier and secure Stingray, after shutting him down. She heads up to the house, where her mother was waiting for her.

“Is everything okay with Stingray?” Nicole was worried about her daughter. She should have been home earlier.

“Everything is fine with Stingray, mom. I had to tow a family back to shore. The motor on their boat had gone out on them and they put out an SOS. Since I was close, I towed them back.”

“I am so proud of you.” Nicole hugs Delphine.

Delphine returns the hug “thanks, mom.”

Delphine received a phone call from an old friend of hers from the Navy that knew she had transitioned. She invited Delphine out for lunch, since the two of them haven't seen each other.

“Mom, I’m going to be gone a while.”

“Alright dear, have fun.” Nicole was happy her daughter was going out.

Delphine hops onto her motorcycle and head to the restaurant they had agreed to meet at. She pulls into the parking lot and parks her motorcycle. She takes her helmet with her as she heads inside the restaurant. The restaurant itself specialized in southwestern cuisine.
When Delphine walks in, she is stopped by the hostess “can I help you, ma’am?”

“Yes, I’m with the Coleman party.”

Jenny checks the reservation and noticed that there was a Coleman one and that they were already here, “if you’ll follow me, please?”
Jenny escorts Delphine to a nearby booth. When they get closer, Delphine spots her friend Coleman sitting at the table.

A smile appears on Kinsley's face when Delphine sits down across from her. She had to admit that Delphine looks just as she thought she would.

“Here you go, ladies. Your server will be with you in a minute.” Jenny hands both ladies a menu.

“Thank you.”

Delphine looks through the selections. They had a nice selection of dishes. Once she makes her selection, she closes the menu and looks at her old friend. They both served on the same ship when they were in the Navy.

“You look nice, Delphine. I always thought you would make a beautiful woman.” Kinsley was smiling at Delphine.

“Thanks, Kinsley. I’m happier now that I can be, who I’m truly am.” Delphine found it hard living two lives when she was in the military.

“So, what have you been up too, since you have been out?”

“Not much, I’ve been doing some diving and sailing and helping my father and brother with the family boat business.”

“That must be fun. Have you decided what you are going to do, now that you are out?”

“Not really. I’ve been thinking lately about traveling the world ocean’s and seeing how things are.” Delphine figures it would give Stingray a
good test of all his systems.

“How would you like to do that and get paid for it?”

“That would be nice. What do you have in mind?” Delphine curiosity peeked now.

“Well, I’m working for NOAA now and I remembered you have degree’s in Oceanography and Marine Geology. I also know how good of a swimmer you are. How would you like to travel the oceans and put the education you have to work?”

“What exactly would you have me do?” Delphine wouldn’t mind working for NOAA.

“Well, we would send you out to gather data along the coast and check underwater earthquakes and such. Things that you have already been
trained for.”

“Will I be working with a team or by myself?”

“With a team and you’ll have a boat assigned to you.”

“I won’t need a boat. I already have one, it’s submersible.”

“Oh? What type of vessel is it?” Kinsley was curious.

“It’s a submersible hydrofoil. I started building it when I was in the service and finished it up when I got out. It’s designed for exploration.”
Delphine was proud of Stingray.

“I would love to see it. How deep can you go?”

“About 6,000 feet. Stingray is fast in his hydrofoil mode. He can reach speeds up too, 200 knots.”

“How many people can you carry?”

“He’s set up to carry four. He has a dive chamber and can remain underwater for a long time.”

“What does he look like?” Kinsley was curious.

“Like a giant Stingray.”

“Would you mind if I inspect the vessel before I give the okay for you to use it?” Kinsley would like to see it.

“Sure, if you have nothing planned for the rest of the day. I can take you out. I have a spare wetsuit you can wear and tanks.” Delphine was
proud of Stingray.

“Cool, how about after lunch?”

“Deal.”

Their waitress comes over and takes their drink order. She also takes Kinsley and Delphine’s lunch order. After their waitress leaves.

“So, where will I be working out of?”

“Here in San Francisco, California. At the old coast guard station. That is when you’re in port. How long can you last out on the sea, before you
need refueling?”

“A long time. I really don’t need to pull into port. I pull my power from the ocean to power Stingray. I use a fuel cell to start the converter to power Stingray. Stingray is all-electric, but he does have battery backup. The converter uses hydrogen and provides breathable oxygen to breathe.”

“Wow! How long did it take you to design that technology?”

“Not long. We already have the technology, I just had to modify it to work for Stingray.” Delphine finishes her lunch.

Kinsley pays for their lunch and follows Delphine back to her place. Once they arrive, Delphine takes her down to the private pier that Delphine’s family owns.

“You keep it tied up here?”

“Yep, I keep it tied up here. The security system on it is pretty good.” Delphine steps onboard the hull.

She helps Kinsley down to the hull. It was a little slippery.

“The hull feels weird.”

“It’s a special skin covering. It acts just like a normal stingray and manta ray skin does.”

Delphine opens the hatch and walks inside. The lights automatically turn on when she steps inside.

“Wow!” Kinsley follows behind Delphine.

Kinsley looks around at the controls and the way Stingray is setup. The controls she noticed were laid out so the pilot and co-pilot could control everything without a problem.

“You don’t have any weapons on here, do you?”

“Stingray doesn’t have any weapons. He has defensive capability, just in case a giant squad or something grabs us. I can electrify the hull like
an electric eel.”

“Cool, so are you going to show me what he can do?” Kinsley looks at Delphine.

“Take a seat. I have to go out and release the lines.” Delphine goes back out and unties Stingray.

“Okay.” Kinsley watches as Delphine unties the lines.

Delphine unties Stingray and heads back inside. She sits down in the pilot’s seat and glances over towards Kinsley.

“Let’s go and have some fun.” Delphine backs Stingray away from the pier and turns him around, so he was facing outward.

They leave where she normally docked and head out into the ocean.

The Sea Goose:
“Well, it's official. The engines are beyond repair. We’re going to need to replace them.” Maanushi looks towards her husband as he stood nearby.

She had grease on her right cheek and her hands were covered in grease as well. Sweat was sliding down into her eyes from her forehead.

“There’s nothing that can be done for them?” Kupe looks at his wife as she looked up at him.

“Nope, the ship is going to need new engines, propeller shaft, and propeller. The engines are completely gone, and they don’t make these engines anymore. So, we would need to either shop around and hope we can find them or try and have new engines installed. Either way, we’re stuck on land.” Maanushi has done all she could for the engines on their old boat.

It was going to take time to raise the money they would need to build new engines. Even if they had the money, it would be a year or two before they could head back out to sea and keep exploring for the sunken Spanish vessel, they have spent the last four years looking for.

Maanushi looks around for their adopted daughter. She was concern for Leinani because she loved living on the boat and traveling the oceans. She was extremely smart as well.

“Where’s Leinani?”

She’s down at the beach collecting seashells. You know how she is when she is collecting shells and driftwood.” Kupe knew how their adopted daughter is. She was extremely smart and loved making art from seashells and driftwood.

“Hello, is anyone back there?” Kinsley comes walking into the backyard and spots Kupe and Maanushi on their old shrimping boat.

She knew they used the boat to do ocean research and search for sunken vessels. She walks down the pier towards the vessel and climbs on board. She had fun the other day with her old friend Delphine. She loved what Delphine showed her about what Stingray was capable of. She loved going underwater, after skimming along on the surface at high speeds. Delphine even let here pilot Stingray for a while.

“What brings you to us, today Kinsley?” Maanushi was curious.

“I came to see how the repairs were coming along and when you will be available?” Kinsley had another reason why she wanted to see
Maanushi and her husband.

“Well, we’re beached for now. The engines need to be replaced and we currently don’t have the money to replace them.” Kupe found it a disappointment.

“That’s too bad to hear. What would you say, if I told you that I know someone who could use a crew?”

“Oh? How much are they willing to pay?” Maanushi figures she and her family could work for them and save the money for new engines.

“Actually, you’ll still be working for NOAA, but I think you’ll love the vessel you’ll be working on. It’s one of a kind and opens up a lot of possibilities for your research.”

Kupe and Maanushi were both curious and wondering who Kinsley was talking about? Kinsley has been their friend for the past few years and was who they answered to when a job needed to be done for NOAA.

“Okay, we’re game. When do you need us?”

“Why don’t you come down to the old Coast Guard station tomorrow and meet your new crew member and boat.”

“What skills does our benefactor have?” Kupe was curious.

“She’s former Navy and was an underwater demolition expert. She also has degrees in Engineering and Mechanical engineering. Along with degrees in Oceanography and Marine Geology.”

“So, the person is a she and former Navy?” A smile appears on Kupe’s face.

“Yes, and her family builds and sells custom boats and yachts to the public.”

“Maybe, they can help us with our boat?” Maanushi wonders if she knew where they could get engines like the ones they had.

“Maybe, just be down at the coast guard station tomorrow by 10:00 A.M.”

“We will.” Kupe wanted to meet this other person and what was so unique about her vessel.

Sea-Land Marine:
Delphine looks over a custom-built boat her father bought at a police auction. The boat had been seized during a drug bust. The person who originally owned and constructed it had used it to run drugs and money from South America. Most of the gauges and engines had been removed from the vessel.

“So, what do you think, sis? Do you think you can do something with this?” Bobby looks at his sister as she looks at the boat.

“I think I can do something with it.” Delphine was thinking about some of the technology she put into Stingray and applying it to the boat.

She already knows, what modifications she was going to have to make to it. She’ll work on it where she built Stingray.

“Will it float?”

“Yeah, the hull is in tack. You're going to have to tow it over to your workshop or work on it here.” Bobby figures their father wouldn’t mind if
Delphine worked on it at the shop.

“I’ll take it back to my workshop. Oh, I have a new job.” Delphine had a big smile on her face.

“Oh? Where are you working?” Bobby was surprised his little sister got a job.

“I’m working for NOAA. A friend of mine contacted me yesterday and asked if I wanted to come and put my degree to use. So, I took her up on
the offer.”

Delphine knew Kinsley was impressed with Stingray yesterday. She liked what Stingray could do and couldn’t wait to have Delphine working for her. They didn’t have any subs and had to rely on others.

“So, when do you start?” Bobby wonders how often his sister was going to be gone.

“Tomorrow. I’m supposed to meet the others who will be working with me.”

“Well, congratulations.”

“Thanks. Go ahead and place the boat in the water, and I’ll come back to pick it up.”

“Okay.”

Delphine heads towards her motorcycle and heads back home.

Delphine adjust how she was sitting. She was still sore from last night and early this morning. After she got the boat back to the dry dock, she used to construct Stingray. She got together with Tom and some of his friends. They went out to dinner and dancing. She spent the night with
Tom and one thing lead to another. Even when she was getting ready to head back home, to pick Stingray up, she gave him a quickie.

Before she arrives at the pier at the Coast Guard station. She dives beneath the surface, to surprise the crew that had been assigned to Stingray. According to her friend Kinsley, all three crew members had degree’s that dealt with the Ocean and Atmosphere. They were a family unit. Their only child was a child prodigy and graduated high school when she was just sixteen years old. She was also an artist that used things she finds on beaches and such.

She has sold four art pieces already and had a waiting list. She was working on her Bachelor's degree.

“Well, I hope you guys like Stingray.” As Delphine starts to surface.

At The Coast Guard Station:
Maanushi, Kupe, their daughter Leinani and Kinsley were standing on the pier waiting for Delphine to show up. Maanushi was wondering where their mysterious person was.

“We’ll look like your friend is late, Kinsley.” Maanushi looks at Kinsley.

“You might want to look again.” Kinsley spotted Delphine coming up out of the water.

Maanushi looks again and spots a giant Stingray coming towards them. She has never seen a submersible shaped like that before. It stops at the end of the pier.

Delphine pulls Stingray up to the end of the pier and kills the jet propulsion. She glides to a stop. She opens the hatch and carefully walk out to secure Stingray.

Kupe looks at the vessel that just pulls up. He wonders how deep it can go. He watches as a woman dressed in a wetsuit and had strawberry color hair comes walking up to them.

“Maanushi, Kupe, Leinani I would like you to meet the owner and builder of Stingray. Delphine, I would like to introduce your new crew.” Kinsley saw the expression on everyone's faces when Delphine approached them.

Maanushi looks at Stingray and then at Delphine “you built that?”

“Yes, it took me ten years to build and outfit it as I wanted it.”

“What type of fuel does it use?” Maanushi was curious.

“He uses hydrogen from sea water. The engine separates hydrogen and oxygen from the water. The oxygen is used so the occupants can breathe, while were underwater.”

“It submersible? How deep can you go?” Kupe was curious.

“6,000 ft.”

“Wow!” Leinani was impressed. She has never been in a submersible before.

“Well, why don’t the four of you go and have some fun and let me know when you are ready to work.” Kinsley figures their first assignment could be checking on the coral reefs forming on the bottom structure of the oil platforms left out in the ocean.

“Well, I’m ready when you guys are.” Delphine had a smile on her face.

“Okay.” Maanushi starts walking towards Stingray.

“Be careful getting in. The skin surface can be a little slippery.” Delphine follows behind everyone as they walk towards Stingray.

“What type of coverage is this?” Maanushi was curious. She kneels to feel it.

“It’s similar to the type of skin a stingray and manta ray has.” Delphine studied the bone structure of stingrays and manta rays.

The British government was thinking about coming up with a new sub design, based on the manta ray. They already had a drone in the shape of a manta ray. It took her a while to decide on a design.

Maanushi, Kupe, and Leinani enter Stingray and look around. Delphine stands behind them “as you can see, Stingray is capable of carrying four people. I have a dive chamber for those of you who know how to dive. Stingray is set-up to be able to replenish the air in your tanks. There’s also an outside air connection so, we can walk around outside of the vessel without our tanks.”

“How do you access your engines and power plants?” Maanushi was curious.

“Most of Stingrays engines are in here. He uses water jet propulsion technology.” Delphine shows Maanushi the engines and the hydrogen system.

“Are those hydrogen fusion cells?” Maanushi looked at them.

“Yes, Stingray only needs them to start up. After that, the hydrogen he gets from separating it out of the water powers him. If you put him on land, you would need to use hydrogen gas to power him. We can stay underwater indefinitely and travel the globe.”

“Can we go now, please? I want to see what it's like underwater.” Leinani was excited.

“We sure can. Just go ahead and take a seat.” Delphine closes the hatch and heads towards the pilot’s seat.

Maanushi sits next to Delphine. Her husband and daughter sit behind them. She watches as Delphine starts Stingray up and move him back into the bay. She had to admit that the controls were easy to use. Once they were under the Golden Gate bridge, Delphine starts going under the water.

“Okay, I’m impressed.” They could see the water covering the hull of Stingray as they kept going lower.

“Wow!” Everyone, besides Delphine, was enjoying the view as they kept going deeper and deeper.

Delphine takes them out into the Pacific Ocean. She looks over towards Maanushi “would you like to take the controls for a while?”

“Would I, you bet.” Maanushi grabs the controls.

Delphine instructs Maanushi on how to pilot Stingray. After a while, she does pretty well.

“Hey Kupe, do you want to try piloting Stingray?” Delphine looks behind her seat.

“Sure.”

Maanushi trades seats with Delphine and Kupe takes the co-pilot space. Once he was settled, Maanushi lets him take the controls for a while. Delphine watches as Kupe handles the controls.

“How do you know where you are?” Leinani looks towards Delphine since she was sitting next to her.

“Navigation maps and a GPS system. Stingray has all the latest maps and when we are near the surface, we have GPS. You can plot a course and engage his autopilot systems and he’ll follow it.”

“Cool. Do you mind if I take him down deeper?” Kupe looks over towards Delphine.

“Feel free too. Just remember our depth is 6,000 feet.” Delphine knew Stingray can go deeper if she wanted too.

“Okay.” Kupe takes them further out into the ocean and deeper.

Leinani was looking over her father’s shoulder at the instruments and how he piloted the vessel. She wanted to try, but she was still too young to touch the controls.

“So, Delphine, what made you want to build something like Stingray?” Maanushi was curious about Delphine.

“Well, I use to be in the Navy and I have always liked the ocean. I love exploring it whenever I got a chance. So, I decided to build my own vessel.”

“It must have taken you a long time to build this vessel and a lot of money as well.”

“It took me ten years to build him and some money from a sunken Spanish ship off the coast of Florida.”

“That was you?” Maanushi looks at Delphine with a curious look on her face.

“Yeah, that was me. The Spanish government allowed me to keep ten percent of what I found.”

Delphine, Maanushi, Kupe, and Leinani were all swimming around examining the coral development. They had formed on the supports from an oil rig that used to stand where they were. Kinsley had sent them out to check how much bigger the coral reef was growing. Stingray was floating nearby, just in case someone needed to get back inside.

Kupe takes pictures with the underwater camera he brought along. He was documenting coral. Delphine liked how the supports the oil rig used, were now being used to establish a new coral reef. She swims around checking all four supports. She spots Leinani collecting some shells and such. She was surprised to learn that Leinani was scuba qualified.

Delphine checks her air supply and motions to the others, she needed to go back to Stingray. Maanushi and Kupe give her the thumbs up.

“Leinani, how is your air supply?” Kupe was looking at his daughter, as he spoke to her through their mask radio.

“I’m okay, dad. I can probably last a little longer than you and mom.” Leinani looks at her mother and father.

“Head back to Stingray, Leinani.” Maanushi wanted her daughter inside before the two of them went back.

“Yes, ma’am.” Leinani swims over to the hatch and enters her code.

She enters the chamber and watches as the water is pumped out. She removes her mask and turns her tank off. She gets out, so her parents could enter. She spots Delphine hooking her tank up to replenish the tanks' air supply.

“Can I hook my tank up?” Leinani looks at Delphine.

“Sure, there’s enough connections for everyone’s tank.” Delphine made sure she could connect multiple tanks to be recharged.

Maanushi and Kupe enter a few seconds later. They exit from the chamber and hook their tanks up.

“Man, the growth on those supports is unbelievable.” Kupe had the camera in his hands.

“I agree.” Maanushi was standing next to her husband.

“It looks like using those supports after the rigs are taken down is working out.” Delphine just read about the work some of the oil companies were doing to help the environment grow.

Delphine checks the time “there’s one more spot that Kinsley wants us to check out.”

“Where’s that?” Kupe was curious.

“It’s the resting place of one of the ships from World War II. She wants us to see how the wreck is doing.” Delphine had been given the coordinates where the wreckage was located.

“How long are we going to be out?” Maanushi was curious.

“If we leave now, we can get there before it gets dark. The high-power lights on Stingray will let us see the wreckage better, so that’s not a problem. We’ll end up spending the night out at sea, tonight.”

“So, that means MRE’s for dinner.” Leinani didn't like MRE's.

“Yes, but I stocked up on some really nice Gourmet MRE’s to eat.”

“Yuck!” Leinani didn’t like MRE’s that much.

“They aren’t that bad, Leinani. These are better then I had in the military.” Delphine recalls the ones she tried while in the military.

“They will be fine.” Maanushi knew how picky her daughter was when it came to meals.

“It’s fine, there’s also some lettuce and such if you want to make a salad. I didn’t know what you guys like to eat.” Delphine made sure to bring some fresh food and such with her.

Delphine sits down in the pilot’s seat and programs the coordinates into the navigation system. She feels Stingray start moving as the
autopilot system engages. It took a lot of debugging to get the system right. She watches the navigation screen to make sure it was heading in the right direction.

Maanushi picks a sweet and sour chicken MRE. She follows the direction in how to prepare it. Once it was done, she takes a bite of it and realizes that it wasn’t half bad. She looks over towards Delphine “your right, this sweet and sour chicken isn’t half bad.”

“Told you.” Delphine was eating a Beef Stroganoff MRE.

She keeps an eye on the navigation screen. She wasn’t worried about the autopilot system. She glances over towards Leinani and noticed she made herself a salad from the supplies in the cooler. They were traveling underwater, instead on the surface.

“Delphine, how long would it take you to travel from San Francisco to Hawaii at your top speed?” Kupe was curious.

“Eight hours at my top speed on the surface.”

“Damn, that’s fast. Can other submarines and surface ships pick us up?”

“Yes, but the acoustics from the jet systems sound like whales singing. Their computer system will mistake us for a biological.” Delphine had
been surprised that the sound the jets generated were high enough to be mistaken for whales.

Several hours later they arrive at the wreckage. Delphine turns the cameras on and starts recording.

“Is that one of our ships from World War II?” Leinani was curious.

“Yep, its one of our ships that got sunk by the Japanese. The problem with them now is the fuel they were carrying is starting to leak out of them.”

“That’s going to be a problem for the ecosystem around here.” Maanushi looks at Delphine with a concerned look on her face.

“That’s what Kinsley and the higher-ups at NOAA are worried about.” Delphine had been informed by Kinsley about their concerns.

“So, are we going to be investigating the site for leakage?” Kupe wonders where they were going to be going.

“Yep, plus we will be investigating the increase of temperature along the coast as well.” Delphine sends some small probes out to get a more detail scan of the wreckage.

Kupe and Maanushi watched the scans coming back from the small round probes as they moved about the wreckage. They went inside and scan the interior.

“Did you design these probes?” Kupe glances towards Delphine.

“Yep, they are cheap and easy to build. I can leave them where ever we go and monitor that area or use them like communication relays.”

“Can you recall them to you as well?” Maanushi was curious.

“Yeah, but it depends on how much battery life they have left.” Delphine knew the onboard battery only gave the probes a short life span.

They stay at the site for a while. Kupe and Maanushi watch as the scans appear on the monitor. The information could be constructed into a three-dimensional design on the monitor.

Once everything was done and the probes were back on Stingray. Delphine checks what the surface was like before surfacing. Once they were on the surface “if you guys want to see the stars, go ahead.”

The next two weeks Delphine, Kupe, Maanushi, and Leinani spend out at sea surveying and testing the ocean currents. The temperatures and ocean chemistry. Delphine and Maanushi were using every sensor and probes Stingray is equipped with.

By the time the two weeks were over, all four were ready to be back on dry land. Delphine drops Maanushi, Kupe, and Leinani back at the old Coast Guard station NOAA had taken over.

“How long are we in port for?” Kupe and Maanushi had a few things they needed to take care of.

“Don’t know yet. Kinsley is supposed to send us a schedule of things NOAA wants us to do.” Delphine stretches, before heading back into Stingray.

“Alright, I’ll call Kinsley and find out what we are doing. I have to get these samples and information to her.” Maanushi knew Kinsley would want what they have gathered so far.

“Okay, call me if you need anything.” Delphine shuts the hatch and heads back to her family pier. She has been thinking it might be nice to add onto it, so she can dock Stingray, properly.

Delphine shuts Stingray down as she glides to a stop. She was happy to be home. Now, she could get started on her new project. She already figured she’ll use some of the same technology she put into Stingray, into the boat she bought.

Delphine heads up to the house once she gets Stingray docks and shut down. She didn’t have much laundry to do from her trip. She drops her laundry off in the laundry room and gets it going. Afterward, she heads towards her father’s office and calls the contractor they use for fixing and maintaining the dock. She gives him the dimensions she needs the new addition to be added on. Delphine knew it was going to be huge, compared to the dimensions of Stingray. Most of the space was because of his wings. They were big enough to maintain his design and for him to glide underwater.

Once, that was taken care of, she heads into the kitchen to grab some lunch. She heads down to her father’s and grandfather’s boat dock to get to work on the new boat. She spends the rest of the day working on the boat.

“Delphine, dinner is ready.” Nicole’s voice comes over the intercom mounted in the workshop.

Delphine looks up from the water jet system she had managed to install in the engine bay of the boat. It was a tight fit, but she managed to install it. The problem was, the water system she uses to power the Stingray, won’t work in the boat. So, she was planning on using a biofuel she heard of. She would prefer to use a hydrogen cell, but the biofuel would work.

Delphine closes the work area down and heads up towards the house. She has missed her mother’s cooking while she was out at sea. The MRE’s were alright, but nothing beat a home-cooked meal.

Delphine walks into the house and notices her father and brother were home as well. She waves at them as she heads into the bathroom to clean up and back out to join them.

“So, what are you building out in the workshop now?” Bobby looks at his little sister.

“I’m working on that boat I bought from you guys. Oh! I also called Dusty at Marine Engineering to come and add on an addition to the pier for Stingray.”

“You should have clear that with me first, Delphine.” Ross looks at his daughter.

“Don’t worry father. I’m paying for the cost of the pier. I still have some money set aside and were still in our allotted zone for our permit.”
Delphine knew what their permit allowed them to do.

Ross shakes his head as he takes a bite of his food. He was okay with his daughter making an addition to the dock, but he would have liked her to talk with him first.

“So, what are you planning on doing with this new boat, your designing?” Nicole looks over towards her daughter.

“I haven’t decided yet. It might be used for racing or patrolling. I just can’t get the idea of how I want to build it, out of my head.” All Delphine could think about was what she wanted to do with the boat.

“How long do you think it is going to take you to build this new boat?”

“At least a month to build it and a few weeks afterward to test it properly.”

“Are you going to be around that long to work on it?” Bobby wonders what his sister's schedule was going to be now.

“Don’t know, Kinsley hasn’t given us our new orders yet. I’m hoping whatever she gives me, will keep me around some.” Delphine wanted to work on the new boat for a while.

“You’re the one that loves being out at sea. Also, aren’t you planning on spending some time with your boyfriend?” Bobby smirks at his sister.

“Yes, I’m planning on spending some time with my boyfriend.” Delphine almost forgot about Tom.

“Yeah, right.” Bobby noticed the look on his sister’s face when he reminded her.

“Hey, this dating stuff is still new to me. I never dated when I was in the service.” Delphine only hung with a few friends off her ship when she went ashore.

After dinner, Delphine goes to the laundry room to move her wet clean clothes to the drier to be dried. She had no privacy on Stingray, with three other people there. Luckily, no one figured out she had to use her dilators.

Once the drier was going, she heads towards her bedroom and sits down at her computer. She needed to locate two jet engines for the new boat. She had a list of people she could get the engines from. She couldn’t find one that would meet her measurements, which meant she would have to build one from scratch.

She pulls up the jet thruster designs of Stingray and makes a few changes to them. Once the changes were done, she runs the simulator program to see how it plays out. The simulations play out well. She saves the plans to take to the company that constructed the engines for Stingray.

Tom looks down at Delphine as she slept next to him. Her short strawberry blonde hair rested against her shoulder. He saw the tattoo's she had on her body. He places a kiss on her neck.

He could feel her naked body resting against his. He has missed her for the last few weeks. He knew she was working for NOAA now and was in the process of building a new boat. He had gone over to her parents house and found her bent over a high tech looking boat.

The thing had two top mounted jet engines mounted on the back of the boat. She had been bent over working on a strange looking engine inside the boat itself. The engine inside the boat looked like it came out of a formula racing car.

He just stood and watched her ass as she leaned further and further into the engine compartment. Once she stood up, he walked over and wrapped his arm around her body and gave her a kiss. He had asked her about the strange looking boat, and she informed him it was her new project.

Afterwards, she gave him a tour of Stingray and he couldn't believe that she built him herself. After the tour of Stingray, she went inside the house to change and went to dinner. They ended up back at his place, where they made love most of the night.

Delphine wakes up and turn around so she could look into Tom's eyes. She so, loved what he did to her last night.

“Morning, handsome.” A smile appears on her face.

“Morning beautiful.” Tom leans down and kisses Delphine on her plump lips.

Delphine wraps her arms around Tom and returns the kiss. She could feel his tongue probing the inside of her mouth. She spreads her legs open, so he could slide inside of her.

She arches her back off the bed, as he buries himself deep inside her artificial vagina. He was filling up every inch that the doctor had given her. They continue making love for awhile, before stopping and cuddling against each other.

“So, what are your plans for today?” Delphine looks up into Tom's face?

“Staying here in bed with you, unless you have something else planned?” Tom holds Delphine close to his body.

“I have nothing planned for today. I can't do any more work on the new boat, until some items I ordered come in.” Delphine loved being held by Tom.

She has always wonder what it would be like to be held by someone she loved. All the times while she was serving in the military, she missed having someone special to come home too. As it stood now, the climate in Washington D.C. was toxic for equal rights and protection for transgenders.

It was a little better when she was in the service, but you still didn't want to come out and tell the people you were serving with, that you were trans. Hell, most of her crew mates thought she was a woman, because of her looks. Some of the sailors she met, were surprised she was a guy.

Tom noticed Delphine was thinking about something. He has come to learn her little twitches and facial expression.

“What are you thinking about, sweetie?” He caress her face.

“My life before I met you.” Delphine kisses Tom's hand.

She really is in love with Tom. He understood her and didn't hold her past against her.

“Do you regret what we have now?” Tom had to admit that he was lucky to find such a beautiful, smart woman like Delphine.

He has never met a woman like her. He wouldn't mind spending the rest of his life with her.

“Are you kidding? I'm a lucky woman to find such a kind, gentle, loving man, like you.” Delphine was looking up at Tom.

A smile appears on his face after hearing those words from Delphine. He leans down and kisses her. He could feel her return the kiss as passionate as he was giving.

Afterwards, Delphine gets up out of bed head towards the bathroom. She does her business and comes walking back into the bedroom. She notices Tom was watching her every movement. She puts a little extra wiggle, sass and seduction into her walk.

Delphine spots her panties and slip them on. She walks over to Tom's dresser and pull out one of his t-shirts. Because of her small frame, it hung down to about mid calf on her.

Tom smiles as he gets out of bed and walk over towards Delphine. He wraps his arms around her waist and just holds her against his body.

“What are you doing?”

“I thought I would go and make us some food, unless you want to order out?” Delphine turns around in his arms.

“Let's order out today.” He sweeps her off her feet and carry her back to the bed.

Delphine squeaks, when Tom drops her on the mattress. She was loving the attention she was getting from him. She hopes she never falls out of love with him.

The food arrives fifteen minutes later. Delphine and Tom takes bites from each other's lunches. Afterwards, they snuggle on the bed and watch a few movies. Delphine was enjoying the bonding building between the two of them. She has never experience any thing like this before. It was new to her and she was loving it.

Tom watches as Delphine surfaces along with another person. She was helping a friend of hers name John Smith. They were scraping the bottom of a scallop boat and removing algae growth from inside the cooling intakes. Normally, John did the job himself, but he has developed some health issues and needed some assistant to complete the job.

He knew Delphine was available and asked her if she wouldn’t mind helping him. He knew she was dive certified.

“How much more do you two have to finish?” Tom had tagged along to keep an eye on the two of them while they worked.

Delphine removes the mouthpiece from her mouth and looks up at Tom “we need another hour or so. However, I need to change my tank out. I’m out of air.”

Delphine climbs out of the water, followed by John. John looks at Delphine, as she takes her tank off “did you bring a spare tank with you?”

“Yep, I brought two extra tanks. You’re welcome to use the second spare.” Delphine was having problems removing her tank.

“Here, let me help you, sweetie.” Tom walks over and helps Delphine with her air tank.

“Thanks.” Delphine stands still, as Tom takes her empty air tank off her back.

She watches as John takes his tank off and sits on the tailgate of his pickup truck. She sits down on the tailgate of her older brother’s pickup truck.

“How can the two of you see while your underwater?” Tom has never been scuba diving before.

“With our hands and these flashlights.” Delphine points towards the flashlights attached to her shoulder straps.

“I don’t see how you are able to do this.”

“It’s easier than removing explosives from ships or disarming them.” Delphine sort of missed being in the navy.

She missed the jazz whenever she had to disarm an explosive. She still tries to keep her skill level up removing explosives and building them.

“We need to finish this job, Delphine.” John had an appointment later that day.

“Okay.” Delphine stands up off the tailgate and stand still as Tom helps her put the new tank on.

“There, your ready now.” Tom smiles at Delphine and watches as she tests the connections.

“Thanks.” Delphine walks back over to the pier and jump into the water.

A few seconds later, John jumps in as well. He goes back to the area of the ship he was working on before he got out to change tanks. He watches as Delphine swims over to the area she was working.

Tom waits up by the truck while Delphine is underwater. The company they were at had a fleet of fishing vessels. They had at least five other vessels. One was named the Navigator, and another was named the Sea Queen. He smiles when he spots a boat traveling up the waterways named the Smelly Vagina.

Occasionally, the security guard on duty would stop by to check on and talk with him. The security officer was a small woman and was unarmed. She had short black hair and looked like she had some Mexican ancestry in her looks. When she spoke, she had a slight accent to her speech.

Selma looks over towards the two pickup trucks and the man out on the pier. She knew John because he comes out to the fishing company to do work on the boats for the company she worked for. The man and the other woman that had shown up with John were new to her.

The woman had arrived with the man in the black pickup truck. She noticed it had three air tanks in the bed of the truck. Along with some tools and other items. She observed, that when the woman was in the water with John. The man stood near the pier watching where they went down. He had a rope and a life preserver on the pier near him. She figured that he was the woman’s safety person.

She walks over towards him “how are they doing?”

Tom turns around when he hears the female security officers' voice “they just changed tanks and went back to work.”

“They have more nerve then I do. I don’t think I could do what they do.” Selma knew she was a poor swimmer.

“It takes a lot of nerve and skill to do what they are doing. But my girlfriend is used to doing this type of work.” Tom knew Delphine had a lot of
dive experience from her time in the navy.

“Oh? Why is that?” Selma was curios about the strawberry blonde woman.

“She’s a former Navy diver. Its what she did for them.”

“What does she do now?” Selma watches Tom.

“She works for NOAA as an oceanographer and builds ships.” Tom didn’t think it mattered too much as he talked with the security guard.

“So, she goes diving all the time?” Selma didn’t know what an oceanographer did.

“You could say that. When she isn’t out at sea doing research for NOAA.” Tom knew Delphine had an assignment coming up soon.

Her boss and a few others at NOAA want to send her and the other people she is working with, to investigate the huge heat blob that has formed and is killing birds and other sea life. It is also causing the growth of harmful algae to form.

“I wish I knew how to scuba.” Selma wouldn’t mind being the one in the water and getting paid to do it.

“Trust me, what she is doing is dangerous. The ship could press down on her and pin her under the keel. So, she must be aware of everything
going on around her. Also, she must worry about the current and other sea life that could harm her.” Tom knew Delphine had a lot she had to
look out for.

“Still, it must be nice. Does she make good money doing what she is doing?’ Selma figures if she could improve her swimming, then she could learn how to scuba.

“She does okay.” Tom didn’t know how much money Delphine was making at NOAA or with John.

He knew she had some items she recovered from shipwrecks she has helped find. He knew they were worth a lot of money. He saw her collection when he visited her at her parents’ house.

Selma glances at her watch “time for me to get back to work.”

“Be careful.” Tom watches as Selma walks off.

John and Delphine resurface after an hour. Both looked tired from being underwater and working. Tom helps Delphine up when she comes up the ladder.

“Thanks.” Delphine unbuckles her vest and lets it down on the tailgate of the truck.

Tom helps Delphine with the rest of her gear. He puts her stuff in the back of the pickup and secures it. She had her swimsuit on underneath her wetsuit.

She looks over towards John and could see he was a little pale. She knew he had a mild heart attack a few months ago.

“Are you okay, John?” Delphine was concerned about him.

“I’ll be fine, Delphine.” John finishes stripping out of his wetsuit.

“Are you sure, John?” Delphine wasn’t convinced.

“Yes, I’m sure.” John just smiles and finishes changing

Once Delphine had all her gear stored and secure. She looks over at John and hopes her instincts are wrong.

“See you later, John.” She and Tom drive off and head towards their favorite restaurant.

Delphine looks at her naked form in the mirror. She went and had a Brazilian wax yesterday. She also bought a brand-new bikini to wear at the boat show. She was looking for the scars from her surgery but couldn’t see any.

Tom walks up behind Delphine and wraps his arms around her naked body. He leans down and places a kiss on her right cheek.

“What are you looking for, sweetie?” Tom liked the fresh naked look of Delphine’s bottom area.

“My vaginal area. I’ve never seen it so naked before.” Delphine couldn’t believe how nice it looked.

“Well, it does look nice.” Tom presses himself closer against Delphine.

He starts kissing her and letting his hands roam over her body. Delphine turns around in his arms and returns the kisses. She jumps up and wraps her small legs around Tom’s waist.

Tom carries Delphine back to his bed and worships her body for a while. He loved the fact that Delphine was a lovely woman and that she had chosen him. There was a lot about her he wishes he had met earlier in life. At first, he questioned himself when she told him she uses to be a male but had always felt like she had been born in the wrong body. It took a lot of souls searching before he realized how he felt about her.

He was smitten with her and has been thinking about maybe one day asking her to marry him. He knows she loved him as well. He gives her a deep passionate kiss.

The two of them finally finish their loving making and take a shower afterward. They were supposed to meet up with Delphine’s parents later. After the shower, Delphine and Tom get dress and take his car to the restaurant they were going to meet Delphine’s parents.

Around six o’clock Delphine and Tom arrive at her parent’s favorite restaurant. They notice Delphine’s parents were already there. Delphine’s father waves them over.

“Sorry for being late, daddy.” Delphine sits down next to her mother.

“Sorry, Mr. Waters.” Tom sits down across from Delphine.

“It’s alright.” Ross noticed his daughter was happy.

The waitress comes over and takes their order. When she leaves “the reason I invited you two to dinner, is I need your help moving a few boats.”

“No problem Mr. Waters. I’ll be more than happy to help out.” Tom didn’t mind helping Delphine’s father out.

“Thank you, Tom.” Ross turns to look at his daughter “can I still count on you to act as our model during the boat show, sweetie?”

“Yes, sir. I have already picked out what bikini I’m going to wear.” A teasing smile appears on Delphine’s face.

“Please tell me you’re not going to act like an airhead as most of those models do?” Nicole looks at her daughter.

“I don’t think she’s capable of acting dumb, Mrs. Waters.” Tom looks at Delphine.

If there was one thing, he has learned about Delphine is that she couldn’t help to correct a person. Especially, if it had to do with the military, sea life and boats. Delphine was knowledgeable about boats and scuba diving.

“Hey, not all the models there are bimbos. Some of them are just using what mother nature gave them to make money.” Delphine knew a few
of the models from when she was growing up.

“True, not all of them are bimbos, I’ll admit that.” Nicole never could understand why teenage girls and women her own age and Delphine’s age wear so little clothing.

Nicole knew Delphine has started to wear skimpier clothing, it still covered what she needed to be covered. However, what was wrong to leaving somethings to the imagination? She picks up her drink and takes a sip. She wonders what Delphine’s swimsuit was going to look like.

“So, which boats are we taking daddy?” Delphine was curious.

“We got four slips for the boat show, so I was thinking the two cigarette boats, the cruiser and the Yacht we just got done remodeling.” Ross wanted to show off the yacht.

The remodeling work they did to it was amazing. It increased the value of the yacht several times over. Right now, the value of the yacht was over half a million dollars.

“So, are we trailer them to the boat show, or running them there?” Delphine wonders which path her father wanted to take.

“I was thinking you and Tom could take the cigarette boats, your brother will pilot the cruiser. I and your mom will take the yacht.” Ross knew Tom could handle the speed boats and he knew his daughter could handle them with no problem.

Once dinner arrives, the discussion turns to what Delphine and Tom’s future was or going to be. If Tom and Delphine end up getting married, he might offer Tom a job at the boat dealership. He was grooming Bobby to take the place over. He knew Delphine had no interest in running the place. She enjoyed the ocean too much.

Nicole gives her daughter a look. She wonders how serious the relationship was between Delphine and Tom. It was too bad Delphine wasn’t born a true girl, because she would love grandchildren.

After dinner, Tom and Delphine join her mother and father at the movies. When they arrive at the movie theater, Delphine spots a few guys she uses to date when she came home. She holds Tom’s hand as they wait to buy tickets.

Ralph, Dan, Stephen, and Joe were standing in line to buy tickets when Stephen spots a familiar strawberry blonde color hair, young woman. She was walking and holding hands with a rather tall, muscular person. She also looked to be with an older couple.

“Hey Dan, does that person look familiar to you?” Stephen points towards the strawberry blonde-haired woman.

Dan looks over towards the person Stephen was pointing to “yeah, that’s Delphine. I thought she was still in the military.”

“The way she is standing next to that hunk of a guy, I don’t think so. I almost didn’t recognize her.” Stephen figures Delphine must have some plastic surgery done recently.

“I wonder who that older couple is that she is with?” Ralph spotted Delphine standing with an outdoor type of person. He was bald-headed and stood a good foot and a half above her.

Ralph and Joe make their way over to Delphine “hey, Delphine. Long time, no see.”

Delphine was leaning against Tom when she hears a familiar voice. She looks over her shoulder and spots Ralph and Joe. Behind them were Stephen and Dan.

“Hey, guys, it's nice to see you again. I would like for you to meet my parents Ross and Nicole Waters. Also, I would like you to meet my boyfriend, Tom. Tom, mom and dad, I would like you to meet my friends Ralph, Stephen, Dan, and Joe.”

“It’s nice to met you guys.” Tom shakes hands with all four men.

“It's nice to meet some of my daughters’ friends.” Nicole smiles at the four gentlemen.

Ross shakes hands with them as well. He never knew who his daughter’s friends were or if she had any. He knew she uses to have a lot of female friends. He was hoping at one time that maybe it was just a phase she was going through, but it was more serious then he thought.

“It’s nice to meet you as well, ma’am. So, which movie are you going to see?” Stephen was curious.

“Casablanca. It's one of my all-time favorites.” Delphine answered for her mother.

Delphine really did enjoy Casablanca. There were a few older movies she enjoyed as well, like Yankee Doodle Dandy and a few others that Humphrey Bogar and James Cagney made.

“What movie are you four seeing?” Delphine knew there were a lot of movies playing where they were.

“The latest Star Wars movie.” Stephen and the rest of the guys were big Star Wars fans.

“We’ll have to get together sometime.” Delphine saw her father buy their tickets.

“Yeah. It’s been nice seeing you again and meeting your boyfriend.” Stephen smiles at Tom.

Delphine just smiles as she steps closer to Tom as they follow her parents into the movie theater.

Delphine couldn’t believe how warm it was out as she looks at all the people looking at the boats. She couldn’t believe the turnout of people or manufacturers. Every berth and dock at the marina were full of all sorts of yachts, boats, jet ski, and water jets. She couldn’t believe she was out wearing a skimpy bikini. She has always wanted to wear something so skimpy all her life and now she was.

Her mother didn’t approve of it but accepted the fact her daughter wanted to show off her beautiful body. She knew Tom loved it because they had sex before they left the house this morning. She looks over at Tom as he stood by the boat he brought to the marina.

Her father had given him everything he needed to answer questions and explained the specs. If Tom needed help with a customer, he knew she would help him out. Delphine does get a few requests to take pictures with some of the patrons. She didn’t mind, it was kind of fun to pose with the patrons.

Around one in the afternoon, a young dark brown hair teenage girl comes walking up to the boat Delphine was at. Delphine watches her as she examines the engine and gauges. The girl was wearing a pair of daisy dukes shorts and a matching lace camisole that went with her denim daisy dukes.

Delphine notices a few bruises on her upper arms and her legs. They weren’t bad, but she does wonder what caused them. The girl turns towards her.

“How fast is this boat?” Kathy was curious about it.

“Well, it’s a custom-built cigarette 560 and its top speed is 200 mph but handles better at 150 mph.” Delphine took it for a little spin before bring it from her father’s boat place.

“How come?” Kathy was curious. She figures if it could go 200 mph, that the handling shouldn’t be that bad for it.

“Because the faster you go, the easier it is for things to go wrong. Also, because of the way the hull is design, it takes a lot of skill and talent to handle a boat at higher speeds.”

“Oh, I’ve never been in one before or handled one either.” Kathy would love to take it out to see what it felt like.

“Trust me, you should work yourself up to being able to handle something this fast. You can easily kill yourself if you don’t know what you are doing.” Delphine has seen a lot of people who didn’t know what they were doing with a boat this fast kill themselves.

Kathy glances at Delphine every so often, when she isn’t looking towards her. She reminds her a lot of her mother. She was beautiful and curvy like Delphine. That is before the accident that took her mother and father’s life. Kathy feels tears starting to leak from her eyes. She wipes them away and heads down the pier to the next display to look at their boats.

Delphine watches the young girl. Something about her was bugging her. She watches as she walks off.

As for the rest of the day, she has several people inquiring about the boat and several orders. She spots Tom and walks over to him “so, how did you do today?”

“I think I did pretty well. I had several people placing orders for the boat. How did you do?” Tom enjoyed himself. He also had a couple of good-looking women hitting on him as well.

“So, how many women wanted to give you their numbers?” Delphine wanted to have a little fun with her boyfriend.

Tom looks at Delphine with a shocked look on his face “how did you know?”

“Because I had a lot of men trying to give me theirs silly.” Delphine places a kiss on Tom’s cheek.

“Let’s go and grab some dinner.”

“But you're still dressed in your bikini.” Tom looks at his sexy girlfriend.

“I’ll change on the yacht. My mom brought some spare clothes for me to change into.” Delphine leads Tom over to the yacht and heads to one of the rooms to change.

She changes into a nice dress and a pair of heels. She knew her mother picked the dress out from what little clothes she had in her closet.

“Alright, let's go and grab a bite to eat.” Delphine leaves the yacht.

“Where are your parents?” Tom thought they would be on the yacht.

“They are having dinner with some old friends at Capt. Pete’s. I thought we could go to Neptune. It’s a nice little restaurant that overlooks the ocean.” Delphine heard it was a nice restaurant.

“Sounds good to me.”

Delphine and Tom walk hand in hand to the front of the marina and catch a cab to Neptune. She sits close to Tom and leans her head on his shoulder. She has never felt the way she has before. All the time she was in the service, she had to hide who she was. Now, she can let her feelings out and enjoy being a woman.

They spend at least two and a half hours at the restaurant. Afterward, they head back to the marina. As they are walking the piers, Delphine spots the girl she saw earlier. She was stretched out on a bench that faced the ocean and she looked like she was asleep.

“That poor girl, I saw her earlier. I wonder if she is homeless?” Delphine and Tom stop to look at her. She had a light jacket covering her.

“Kathy isn’t homeless. She just doesn’t like going home.” Security Officer Strong spotted the young couple walking the pier and stopping near Kathy.

“What do you mean she’s not homeless? Why is she here sleeping on a bench?” Delphine was curious why she was here like she was.

“Because she doesn’t like going home to an empty house. It seems that her relatives don’t care about her. They took her in after her parents died in a boating accident. They found her floating on a life preserver. The thing is, she does everything she can to make them proud of her.
But they don’t even acknowledge her achievements or the fact she is alive.” Security Officer Strong had spoken with Kathy about why she hung around the marina as she did.

“But isn’t it dangerous for her to be out here sleeping?” Delphine was a little unease with Kathy sleeping out on the pier.

“I keep an eye on her during my rounds. Sometimes, she sleeps in a boat she has been living part-time.”

“Where’s the boat?”

“Its been moved so we could use the berth it was docked in.” Security Officer Strong didn’t want to move it, but the manager said it had to be done.

Delphine and Tom look at the young girl. The yacht Delphine’s father brought was nearby.

“I think she should come and sleep on the yacht. What do you think Tom?” Delphine looks towards Tom.

“I think your right. She shouldn’t be out here by herself.” Tom had a cousin around Kathy’s age.

“Let me wake her.” Security Officer Strong walks up to Kathy and gently shake her.

Kathy feels someone shaking her shoulder and open her eyes. She spots security officer Strong standing near her.

“Sorry, officer Strong.” Kathy sits up and looks at security officer Strong and a young couple standing nearby.

“No, it’s okay, Kathy. This young couple is offering to let you sleep aboard their yacht.” Security Officer Strong knew who the yacht was registered too.

Kathy looks at the young couple and felt she could trust them. She had spoken with the young woman earlier during the day and liked her.

“Okay.” Kathy gather’s her coat.

Delphine and Tom escort Kathy to the yacht. The girl looked so tired and bruised, from what they could see. Delphine escorts the young girl to one of the cabins across from her and Tom.

“You can sleep in here.” Delphine holds the door open for Kathy.

“Thank you.” Kathy walks in and lays down on the bed.

“Sweet dreams.” Delphine just watches the young woman as she lays down in bed.

“She must be tired.” Delphine walks over to Kathy and removes her shoes.

Tom just watches Delphine as she removes the young woman’s shoes and tucks her in. A smile appears on his face. He thought what she was doing was cute.

“Come on, let’s go to bed.” He takes Delphine’s hand and leads her out of the room.

Delphine feels Tom’s strong chest pressed against her back. His arm was draped over her naked body. She felt sore and tired. She just lays there next to Tom thinking about what she learned about Kathy. She wonders why Kathy’s aunt and uncle ignore her like they do, after taking her in.

Delphine couldn’t sleep any longer, so she manages to slide out of bed, without waking Tom. She grabs her house robe to cover her naked body. She glances towards Tom’s sleeping form and smiles. He was like a stiff ramrod when he was inside her body. He stretched her opening and filled every inch of the cavity the doctor gave her.

She slips out of the bedroom and heads down towards the room Kathy was sleeping in. She hears Kathy tossing and turning. Then she hears Kathy screaming.

Delphine runs into the bedroom and spots Kathy sitting up in bed crying and shaking. She runs over to Kathy and wrap her arms around her and hold her. She rubs Kathy’s back as the poor girl cries her eyes out against her shoulder. Kathy’s body would shiver occasionally against
Delphine’s. After an hour or so, she feels Kathy fall asleep against her shoulder.

She lays Kathy down gently, trying not to wake her and tuck her in. She places a kiss on her forehead like her mother uses to do when she was younger. She slips out of the bedroom and head out onto the deck and enjoy the night air. She’s been stationed on submarines and a variety of surface vessels.

Delphine looks up at the sky and watches as the clouds drift across. Occasionally, an opening would appear in the clouds and you could see the moon.

“Watch you thinking about?” Tom had woken up when he didn’t feel Delphine next to him.

He noticed her robe was missing and with how much she enjoyed the open seas. He guesses she might be upon the top deck. When he went up to the top deck, he spotted Delphine in her robe and looking up at the clouds. She looked so beautiful just standing near the railing and watching the night sky.

He walks over to her and wraps his arms around her body. He places a kiss on her cheek.

“Just thinking and watching the clouds as they drift by. I also went to check on Kathy and I guess she had a nightmare or something.” Delphine figures Kathy was reliving the death of her parents.

Tom turns Delphine around in his arms, so he was looking into her eyes “I was going to wait a little longer, before asking you this, but I feel this is a perfect time. Will you marry me, Delphine?”

Delphine stands there stunned. She hadn’t counted on this. She and Tom have only been dating since she left the military. She did love him and enjoyed the mind-blowing sex the two of them had together.

“Well?” As Tom looks into Delphine’s eyes.

“Yes, god yes.” As she jumps up and wraps her legs around his waist and kisses him.

Tom returns the kiss and slides into Delphine’s vaginal opening. They make out upon the deck, under the cloudy skies, before heading back below deck to their bedroom. They make love for a few hours, before drifting off to sleep.

When morning comes around, Delphine hears her cellphone go off and reaches over to hit the snooze function. She was in a good mood and didn’t want to leave the safety of om’s arms. If she was sore before, she was stiff now. Tom must have made her ten orgasms last night.

Her alarm clock goes off after ten minutes. She turns it off and slips out from under Tom’s strong, loving arms. She winces as she moves. She grabs her nightgown from where it was laying and put it own. She slips her cellphone into her robe pocket and head to Kathy’s room to check on her. She knocks gently on the door, before opening it and notices Kathy still asleep.

Delphine closes the door and head back to her room to see if Tom was awake yet. When she walks in, she notices him digging through their clothes.

“What are you looking for?” Delphine kept watching him.

“This.” As he walks over to her.

He stops in front of her “I got your engagement ring a few days ago. I hope you like it.”

He pulls the ring out and slips it onto Delphine’s fingers. Tom hopes Delphine likes it because it wasn’t your traditional type of engagement
ring. It had a blue diamond, set in a platinum ring.

Delphine couldn't believe the ring, Tom placed on her finger. He just proposed to her last night.

“I love it.” Delphine kisses Tom.

The two of them get dress and head towards the galley to grab some breakfast. Delphine stops “I want to check on Kathy before we eat.”

“Alright. I’ll go tell your parents.” Tom kisses Delphine before he heads towards to meet her parents.

Delphine walks to Kathy’s room again to make sure she was still asleep. She quietly opens the bedroom door and peeks in. She notices Kathy hadn’t moved since the last time she checked on her. She closes the door and head to the galley to enjoy some breakfast with Tom and her family.

“I smell something good cooking.” Delphine saw her mother making waffles for everyone.

“How is Kathy?” Tom looks at Delphine as she walks in.

“Still asleep.” Delphine sits down next to Tom.

She puts her hand on the table and wonders if her mother will notice her engagement ring. A playful smile appears on her face as her mother turns around and notices her hand.

“Looks like we’ll be getting a new son-in-law.” Nicole looks at Delphine’s hand.

“What do you mean?” Ross looks at his wife.

“Tom proposed to me last night, daddy.” Delphine shows her father the ring on her finger.

Ross looks at Delphine’s hand and then at Tom. He wonders if he knew everything about Delphine. He felt that there should be no secrets
between Delphine and Tom if they are going to be man and wife.

“Congratulations, sweetie and welcome to the family, Tom.”

“Thank you, sir.” Tom holds Delphine’s hand.

Kathy’s Room:
Kathy wakes up and looks around the room she was in. She recognized it from last night. The woman who looked so much like her mother had brought her here. She gets up and walks out of the room. She knew if she went left, she could go back out to the pier they were berth up too.

She decides to go right and after a while, she starts smelling cinnamon apples. She follows the scent to the galley and spots four people in there. The woman who resembled her mother, a bald fellow she met last night and an older couple. Neither one of them reminded her of any of her relatives.

Delphine was fixing a plate when she spotted Kathy standing in the doorway of the galley. A smile appears on her face “well, good morning sleepy head. Why don’t you come in and join us for breakfast.” Delphine motions Kathy to an empty seat near her mother.

“Thank you.” Kathy walks in and over to the seat.

Ross observes her and something about her features reminds him of someone. An old family descendant. He can’t put his finger on it, but there is something so familiar about her features.

“Would you like apple or strawberries, Kathy?” Delphine places a plate with two full waffles, sausage links on it in front of her.

“Apples, please.” Kathy looks up at Delphine.

Delphine so resembled her mother. She has the same facial features as her mother. She also had the same statured as her mother.

Delphine scoops some apples onto the waffles “let me know when to stop.”

Kathy watches as Delphine put three scoops on the waffles “stop.”

“Kathy, would you like some juice?” Nicole smiles at the teenage girl.

“Yes, ma’am.” Kathy loved fresh-squeezed orange juice and such.

“I got it, mom.” Delphine pours a glass of orange juice for Kathy.

She sets it in front of Kathy’s plate.

“Thank you.” Kathy watches as Delphine sits down next to her.

“You’re welcome.” Delphine sits down next to Kathy.

Tom was driving as Delphine and Kathy watches as he followed Kathy’s direction towards her house. They were in Calabasas, CA and the homes they were passing were high dollar homes. Tom pulls up to a set of huge gray color gates. There was a horse image cut out with the address just above it.

“This is where you live?” Delphine turns around to look at Kathy.

“My father designed the property and the house.”

Kathy gets out of the SUV and walk up to a side gate and walk inside. The huge solid gates start to open.

“Come on in.”

“Okay.” Tom starts driving up the long winding driveway.

When Tom comes to the front of the house, neither he nor Delphine could believe how unique the house looked. It was suited for a millionaire or a movie star.

“This is a nice place, Kathy. How many rooms does it have?” Delphine was curious.

“Ten bedrooms, and six-n-half baths. Plus, seven additional rooms.” Delphine walks up to the front door and opens it.

“Okay, I wonder what your father had in mind when he designed this place?” Delphine follows behind Kathy and Tom brings up the rear.

“My mother liked to entertain, along with my father. They threw parties all the time. So, my father designed this house for that purpose.”

They walk into a large space and look around. To the left of them was a huge living room and to the right of them was a set of closed double doors. They looked to be at least eight feet tall or more.

“Kathy, what is this room?” Delphine points toward the closed double doors.

“That’s the library and music room.” Kathy heads towards the flight of stairs that lead upstairs.

Delphine and Tom could see through the open doorway in front of them, that it led to another room. The flight of stairs they were going up had
an identical set across from them. They follow Kathy up the stairs. There was another doorway that was in the middle.

“Where does that lead to, Kathy?” Delphine stopped and pointed at the open doorway.

“That leads to the second-floor landing for the sunroom.” Kathy turns left to go down the hallway.

She stops at the third door on the right-hand side of the hallway and opens it. As she walks in, the lights automatically come on. She walks over to the curtains that darken the bedroom and open them. The room is flooded by natural light as it comes in through the glass walls.

When Kathy and Tom walk into the room. They noticed how big the room is and that it was set up for a teenage girl.

“So, this is your bedroom?” Delphine looks over towards Kathy for an answer.

“Yep.” Kathy turns around to look at Delphine and Tom.

“I thought you were staying with your aunt and uncle?” Tom was curious.

“I did for the first few weeks after the burial of my parents. After that, my aunt and uncle left to go overseas for vacation. They said I could stay
at their place, but I didn’t feel right staying there. So, I came back home. At times, I don’t feel comfortable here either. It’s too quiet and too big for me. I don’t feel comfortable in my bedroom.” Kathy shivers thinking about how lonely she felt without her parents being in the big house.

Delphine walks over and holds Kathy She could understand why she felt the way she did. The house from what she has seen of it was big. Even Kathy’s bedroom was huge.

Kathy just holds onto Delphine, while tears leak from her eyes. She feels delphine rub her back as she held her close to her body. After a while, Kathy stops crying and wipes her eyes.

Delphine looks down at Kathy “why don’t you go and shower and change clothes. You can come home with me, so you’re not so lonely.”
Kathy holds back a sniffle “okay.”

Kathy heads into her bathroom and starts the shower. She undresses and steps into the shower and start washing her body.

“She is right about this place, it’s huge.” Tom couldn’t believe how big the place was.

“I agree, but I disagree with what her aunt and uncle did after the burial. They shouldn’t have abandoned her as they did. Don’t they realize she needs their support?” Delphine looks at Tom.

“I agree with you, Delphine. You just don’t abandon a child or any person who has gone through the trauma she has.” Tom walks over to the sliding glass door and unlocks them.

He steps out onto the balcony and looks at the backyard. He lets out a whistle as he looks around from the balcony. There was a man made waterfall in one corner of the yard that flowed into a huge pool. A huge outdoor kitchen area, with a pit fire setup.

He could have his friends over and throw a nice barbecue. The outdoor kitchen was set up nicely for cooking and entertaining. He loved the waterfall and swimming pool.

Delphine was walking around in Kathy’s bedroom, looking at some of the posters she had up, her collection of barbie dolls, and such. Pictures of her parents and places they had been. There was a picture of the sailboat Kathy’s parents owned. It was named Lucky Queen.

Delphine looks out at Tom standing on the balcony and walks outside to join him. She stops near the railing and lets out a low whistle “man, I love this backyard.”

“It must cost a fortune to keep this place cleaned and running.” Tom wonders what their electric bill was.

“I guess Kathy’s parents set up a trust fund to care for this place.” Tom looks at Delphine.

“I know I would. I just don’t understand why her aunt and uncle are so cold towards her?” Delphine knew some people aren’t the maternal type.
She also knew Kathy was seventeen years old and her birthday was coming up soon.

Delphine walks over towards the bathroom door and knock on it, before opening and stick her head inside “hey Kathy, do you mind if Tom and I explore your house?”

Kathy heard Delphine’s voice and her request “go ahead. I’ll come downstairs after I’m done.”

“Okay, thanks.” Delphine closes the bathroom door.

Delphine and Tom explore the house and couldn’t believe how expensive the place looked. The place was almost as expensive as Stingray himself.

“Man, for the cost of building Stingray, I could build and furnish a house and yard like this.”

“Well, Kathy did say her father designed the place and was an investment adviser and designer.” Tom loved the parlor room they had gone in.
The room had a nice custom-made pool table and pool sticks.

They find the entertainment/private movie viewing room. Tom was impressed with the setup of it.

“I wonder what Kathy’s childhood was like?” Tom figured she must have been popular with the kids at school with the way the house was laid out.

“Delphine, Tom, where are you guys?” Kathy’s voice comes over the intercom in the room.

Delphine walks over towards it and presses the talk button “we’re in the private movie theater room.”

“Okay, why don’t you meet me at the staircase.”

“Alright.”

Tom and Delphine head towards the staircase, where they spot Kathy. She had changed into a nice pair of shorts, a matching top, and slipped on a pair of tennis shoes that went with the outfit.

“You look better.” Tom was amazed at how well Kathy cleaned up.

“Thanks.” Kathy blushes.

“So, where would you like to go now?” Delphine had a few things she needed to do.

“Could we go back to the boat show, please?” Kathy wanted to check on her boat.

A smile appears on Delphine’s face “yes, we can go back to the boat show.”

“Before we leave, Kathy. Who takes care of your house?” Tom was curious.

“My father set up a separate account to pay for the maids, gardener, and pool company to come by and take care of the place. If anything, else needs to be fixed and such. Dad has an account with a maintenance company I can call.” Kathy has a list of numbers to call to maintain the house.

“Your father was a good planner.” Tom had to admit that Kathy’s father was smart planning like he did.

“He wanted to make sure I and my mom were taken care of.”

Delphine could see that Kathy was a little upset after mentioning that statement. She pulls Kathy to her and just holds her.

“Everything is going to be okay. Instead of going back to the boat show right away. I got something to show you, that you might find cool.” Delphine figures Kathy might like to see Stingray.

The three of them head back to the SUV after Kathy locks everything. She sets the alarm system and hops into the SUV. Once Kathy was secure, Tom starts heading towards Delphine’s house, where Stingray was stored.

The ride to Delphine’s parent's house was a little shorter than it would have been if they had gone back to the boat show. Kathy was amazed as they pulled up into the driveway and down towards a private pier. She noticed some construction was going on at the end of the pier.

She also noticed something big and black docked at the pier. She feels the SUV comes to a complete stop.

“Okay, we’re here.” Delphine gets out of the SUV on the passenger side.

“Where are we?” Kathy was wondering what this place was.

“This Kathy is my family property and that big black sub down there is Stingray.” Delphine starts walking towards the pier.

Kathy was curious and follows behind Delphine. Tom was following behind her. As she got closer to the pier, she notices that Stingray was in the shape of a giant stingray.

She stops and looks at Stingray and was amazed by it. She wonders where Delphine got it “where did you buy this?”

Delphine stops and turns to look at Kathy “I built it myself.”

“You built that, all by yourself?” Kathy had a puzzled look on her face.

“Yep, my great grandfather had a dry dock built over there.” As Delphine points towards the dry dock.

“It must have taken you a long time.” Kathy follows delphine down to the pier.

“It did. I was in the military and whenever I took vocation I came home and worked on it.” Delphine stops on the pier and waits for Tom and
Kathy. She looks down at Stingray and smiles. He was her pride and joy.

“How were you able to afford to build it.”

“I put most of my pay towards it and the Spanish treasure I found off the coast of Florida helped pay for it.”

“You found sunken treasure?”

“Yep! I found and recovered some. The Spanish government let me claim ten percent of it.”

Tom looks at Delphine with a smile. He was learning more and more about her.

“What did you do in the navy?” Kathy was curious.

“I disarmed mines and explosives.” Delphine steps carefully onto Stingrays hull.

Kathy carefully steps onto the hull of Stingray. She saw Delphine’s hand reaching out for her.

“Be careful, Kathy. His deck can be slippery.”

Kathy reaches out and grabs hold of Delphine’s hand. She walks carefully across Stingray’s hull. She stands next to Delphine.

Tom walks across the hull, being careful of Stingrays hull. He has ridden inside of Stingray before. He stands close to Delphine.

Delphine walks over to the entrance hatch and opens it. She waves Kathy over first and Tom follows behind her. They enter into Stingray “go ahead and take a seat. I’ll go out and release the lines.”

Delphine walks out and unties the mooring lines. Once they were untied, she heads back into Stingray and sits down in the pilot’s seat.

“Get ready to enjoy the ride, Kathy.” Delphine backs Stingray out of his berth slowly.

Once she was cleared, she turns Stingray around and starts heading out of the channel. They start heading out to the open seas. Delphine
increases Stingrays speed.

“How fast can Stingray, go?” Kathy was curious.

“Two hundred and sixty knots.”

“Cool.” Kathy watches as Delphine increases speed.

She could feel Stingray lift out of the water and goes to hydrofoil mode. She was watching on the main monitor as they speed along the
surface of the water.

“Do you want to see something neat, Kathy?”

“Sure.”

“Switching to camo mood.” Delphine presses a few buttons.

She slows down, so Kathy could see what the surface of Stingray looked like. Delphine looks over towards Tom “can you take over, while I show Kathy something?”

“Sure.” Tom takes hold of the controls when Delphine moves from the pilot’s seat.

“Come on Kathy. Let me show you something neat.” Delphine leads Kathy over towards the top underwater hatch.

Kathy was curios about what Delphine wanted to show her. She follows Delphine over and climbs up the ladder.

“Alright, I’m going to open the hatch and I want you to look out and tell me what you see.” Delphine taps in the access code for the hatch to open.

Kathy watches as the hatch opens. She sticks her head outside of Stingray and notices his skin has changed and it looked like he was part of the ocean. A smile appears on her face ‘this is some James Bond type of stuff.”

She liked what she was seeing. She has never seen anything like it before, except in movies. She climbs back down into Stingray and makes sure the hatch is closed.

“That is so cool. Is that something you took from the Navy?” Kathy looks towards Delphine.

“Nope, it is of my own, design. Well, I did get the idea from some guys that deal in that type of technology.” Delphine walks back over to the pilot seat.

She checks the hatch to make sure it was closed, before diving under the water. She watches as Kathy watches as they go under. She loved the expression that appeared on Kathy’s face.

They spend some time traveling around out in the ocean. Delphine saw Tom’s expression as well and he was enjoying their underwater
adventure. It still amazes him when he sees the creatures that live in the ocean.

After goofing off for a few hours, Delphine heads towards the boat show. She parks Stingray behind the yacht her parents came on.

Tom looks at Delphine “is Stingray, going to be okay docked here?”

“He’ll be fine. His security will be armed and if someone tries to come aboard or break into him, they will get a nasty surprised.”

Kathy looks at Delphine “what type of surprised?”

“Stingray has a self-defense mechanism. He acts more like an electric eel, then he does a normal Stingray.”

“Ouch! I wouldn’t want to experience that.” Kathy could only imagine what they would feel like.

Before Delphine leaves Stingray, she sets the security system. All three of them go and check on Kathy’s cabin cruiser.

Delphine wipes the sweat from her eyes as she finishes making the modifications to Kathy’s cabin cruiser. She changed the motor over to the same setup Stingray used. The cabin cruiser no longer used a propeller, but a water jet system like Stingray. It was a difficult conversion, but she managed to build a custom system for the cruiser.

“Okay, try the system now, Kathy.” Delphine steps back to watch the system.

Kathy turns the power on and the indicators on the panel show everything was running. She couldn’t believe it as the cruiser powered up.

“It’s working.” Kathy was excited.

Since the boat show, Delphine has been helping her rebuild and repair her cabin cruiser. Kathy knew that Delphine had gotten a lot of offers for Stingray. The people she spoke with, she informed them that Stingray wasn’t for sale and that it was leased to NOAA. Which in a sense, it was? They paid her for the mileage she puts on him for the jobs she does.

Delphine heads up to the pilothouse where Kathy was. They had moved the cabin cruiser to her family’s private boatyard. They took the boat out of the water to clean the hull and to make the modifications for the water jet system.

Once the hull had been modified and fiberglass. They costumed painted the hull to what Kathy wanted. The boat looked a little different then it did before.

“Well, do you want to take it out for a test cruise?” Delphine looks at Kathy to see what she thought.

“Can we?” Kathy was looking excited. She’s been wanting to take the boat out for a while.

“Yes.”

Delphine gets one of the guys from the shop to put the cabin cruiser into the water. She disconnects the belts from the crane they use to lift the boats. Once everything was clear and they checked out all the new instruments and navigation equipment.

“Okay, Kathy. Let’s see what you can do.” Delphine steps back, away from the controls of the boat.

Kathy steps up to the controls and starts piloting them out and up the channel. She was a little nervous because she has never piloted a boat before. However, under Delphine’s watchful eyes, she takes them out into the ocean.

A smile appears on Kathy’s face as she increases speed on the cabin cruiser. The water jet system Delphine installed reacted better than the propeller system, it used to have. She increases the speed until it tops out.

She felt the front of the boat life upon the special hydrofoils they installed on the boat. Delphine watches as the speed increase and hits fifty-five miles per hour.

“Okay, Kathy, bring her back down to normal cruising speeds.”

“Yes ma’am.” Kathy decreases her speed to twenty miles per hour.

Delphine looks at Kathy “did you feel the bow lift out of the water, once the hydrofoil skies extend?”

“Yes ma’am. Is that something I need to worry about?”

“No! The engine management computer we installed. It is a program to automatically extend the foils, once you reach the speed, we programmed it for.” Delphine had to do the programming of it.

“Can you reprogram it, if something happens.”

“Yes, I can reprogram it or build a new unit for you.” Delphine had everything she needed at her parents’ house.

“Cool!” Kathy enjoys testing her refurbish boat.

She liked all the new instruments they installed. They had radar, a sonar unit, fish finder, GPS, satellite communications, a new navigation system, and an autopilot. After a few hours, Kathy takes the boat to a marina near Delphine’s family shipyard.

She buttons up the boat and removes the hydrogen fuel cell. Delphine gave her a group of fuel cells for her cruiser. She keeps them in a secret compartment, under the sofa.

“Tom has invited you out to dinner with us. Would you like to come?” Delphine watches Kathy as she thinks about it.

“I think I’ll stay home and spend time on my boat.” Kathy wanted to stay on her boat and get used to all the modifications they did to it.

“I can understand that. I spent a lot of time in Stingray when I finish skinning him.” Delphine remembers the first night she spent inside of Stingray.

“Thanks for everything, Delphine.” Kathy hugs Delphine.

“You’re welcome, kiddo. Call me if you have any problems.”

“I will.” Kathy watches as delphine leaves. She was thankful for everything Delphine did for her.

Delphine drives towards the restaurant she and Tom visited the most. The food was good, and the view was even better. It was out on the beach and the place was decorated with pieces from pirate ships.

She spots Tom’s car as soon as she pulls into the parking lot. Luckily for her, there was a parking space two cars down from his. She parks her truck in the spot.

She grabs her small purse and heads inside the restaurant. She spots Tom at their favorite table. She heads towards their favorite table. As she gets closer “have you been waiting long?”

“Nope, how did things go with Kathy’s boat?” Tom knew Delphine has been spending a lot of time with her.

“Good, the boat hit fifty miles per hour and the hydrofoil skies extended at the right time. The water jet system worked extremely well.”
Delphine was happy everything was working as it should.

“That’s good. I’m glad everything worked as it should. So, have you thought about some of those offers people made for Stingray or building
something like him for them?” Tom had seen how many offers Delphine had gotten to buy Stingray or build duplicates of him.

“I know I can make a lot of money building more versions of Stingray, but he’s one of a kind. I didn’t build him for profit. I built him for research.” Delphine knew she could make a lot of money with his design and technology.

The next hour Tom and Delphine eat dinner. Later, after dinner, they take a walk on the bench. While they are walking, Delphine was thinking about Kathy and how in a few months she’ll be having her eighteenth birthday. On her eighteenth birthday, she had joined the Navy.

Late in the evening, she heads back to Tom’s place with him to spend the night. She’s been keeping some clothes at his place. They make love for a while.

While Delphine is sleeping and being held by Tom. Her cellphone starts blaring In The Navy song. She reaches for her cellphone on the nightstand next to Tom’s bed “Hello?”

“Delphine, the shipyard has been broken into.”

“Why, what was stolen, dad?” Delphine sits up exposing her naked body.

“Someone broke into our shipyard and stole several of our high speed, cigarette boats, and the one you have been working on as well.”

“How? His fuel tanks are empty, and he was tied up.” Delphine was concerned because he was extremely fast.

“They towed him, sweetie.” Ross was at the shipyard along with four police officers, including Marine police.

“Who could have done such a thing, dad?” Delphine was concerned. She was worried they might come after Stingray, next.

“Don’t know baby, girl. Whoever broke into the shipyard, disabled all the security cameras.” Ross was surprised at the damage they found.

“Do you need me to come down there, dad?” Delphine was about to get out of bed.

“No, you go ahead and stay where you are. Your brother and I have everything under control. We’ll talk more in the morning.”

“Alright, daddy.”

“Bye, sweetie.” Ross ends the phone call.

Tom had woken-up when he felt Delphine sit up in bed. He had listened to the conversation.

“Is everything okay, Delphine?” He saw a concerned look on her face.

“No, the shipyard was broken into and several of our top cigarette boats were stolen, along with the one I have been working on.”

“How?” Tom sits up in bed and looks at Delphine.

“Don’t know. Whoever it was, took the security cameras out and got away with our boats.”

“Did they get Stingray?” Tom knew he meant the most to Delphine.

“Dad said no, but I might want to check.” Delphine takes her cellphone and uses the security app she has for Stingray to activate his onboard
cameras and external cameras as well.

He was still safe and secure back at her folk’s private dock.

“I wonder who stole the other boats?” Tom was curious as well.

“We won’t know for a few days.”

“Well, come back to bed. There’s nothing you can do right now.” Tom tries to get Delphine to lay down.

Delphine lays back down and snuggles against Tom. There was one thing she could do, but she needed Stingray to do it. She closes her eyes and tries to relax enough to fall back asleep.

Bobby looks over towards his sister. She was piloting Stingray as they went down the coast looking for their missing boats.

“It’s a good thing dad tagged all the boats.” Delphine was watching and listening for their signal.

The frequency scanner in Stingray was programmed with the frequency they operated on. She was hoping that whoever took them, doesn’t find them. She had Stingray in camo mode, so she blended in with her surroundings.

“It’s not the first time, we have had boats stolen from us,” Bobby remembered when Delphine was serving in the military that they had several boats stolen. If their father hadn’t placed tracking devices in them, they would have never recovered them.

Delphine avoid some personal watercraft and a few fishing vessels. Since Stingray was in stealth mode, she had to be more alert. After three and a half hours, she finally starts getting a beeping sound.

Delphine pilots a course towards the location. She follows the beeping sound to a fish house.

“Bobby, take over and try to avoid any ships and jet skis.” Delphine puts Stingray on autopilot.

“Where are you going?” Bobby looks at his little sister.

“I’m going to scout the place out.” Delphine grabs an air tank and a speargun. She also drops a personal sea scooter from Stingray. She also takes a camera as well.

Bobby watches as Delphine steps into her dive chamber. He watches as it fills up with water and she drops down and out of Stingray. He heads back up to the cockpit and keeps Stingray where he is.

Delphine grabs the sea scooter and heads towards the old fish house. She notices that the bottom of the pilings of the old fish house had netting on it. She takes out her old diving knife and cuts the netting. She secures her sea scooter and swims through the opening she made.

She spots the boats that belong to her father, including the one she was building. There were a bunch of people near it. She surfaces and hides among the stolen boats. There had to be about nine boats like the ones they took from her father.

She tries to get as close as she could. She heard the guys talking about the boat she had been working on.

“Can’t you get this thing going?” An older Latino man was talking to a younger man.

“I’m trying everything I know. That woman has installed some sort of security feature I have never seen. The steering wheel won’t unlock, and
the ignition system is wired weirdly, that it will take me time to by-pass.” The younger guy looks up and over towards the older guy.

Delphine knew right away who it was. His name was Hector Santoro and was one of her father’s part-time workers. He had been caught stealing equipment from the boatyard and from the boats they had in storage.

The older guy, she didn’t know, and she didn’t know the other three standing around watching. She couldn’t tell if they were armed or not. She notices that the boats from her father’s boatyard were tied together. Which meant they must have towed them from the boatyard.

There was no way she was going to be able to disable all of them without being seen. She looks around to see how they got them into the old crab shack. The building had been gutted to act as hidden boat storage.

She spots two submarines they had stored in the shack. They looked to be constructed very well and she figures they could go deep to avoid detection. They weren’t in Stingray’s class, but they were good enough to avoid most helicopters and such.

She looks around for anything she could use to slow them down. The only thing she had on hand was her speargun and her diving knife. She moves closer to one of the other boats that had been taken, to see if they had anything she could use, but there was nothing.

An idea pops into Delphine’s head. She could use the thrust from Stingrays engine to knock the door down. She ducks back underwater and swims back to the hole she created. She swims back towards where she left Stingray.

Bob looks at the time readout on the console. Delphine has been gone for at least twenty minutes so far. He figures if she isn’t back in twenty minutes, he’ll call the Coast Guard.

Five minutes past, and just as he was about to call the Coast Guard, the dive chamber starts filling with water. He watches as Delphine surfaces. Once she was inside the chamber, the water starts pumping out of the chamber.

“Thank god, you’re back. Did you find the boats?” Bob moves aside as Delphine exists from the dive chamber.

“Yes, and it was Hector Santoro who helped steal them.” Delphine puts her tank back to be recharged and secures the speargun.

“So, what is your plan?” Bobby looks at his sister.

“First, we call the police. Secondly, we call the Coast Guard. Thirdly, I go and politely knock on their door.” An evil smile appears on Delphine’s face.

“What do you mean, knock on their door?” Bobby was curious about what his sister means.

“I mean, using Stingray’s powerful water jet thrusters and aim the water at the door of the shack. I designed him, so he could also help put fires out onshore and onboard ships.” Delphine walks over and sits down in the pilot’s seat.

Bobby switches the frequency to the emergency frequency and calls the police and Coast Guard. He notices that Delphine was maneuvering Stingray to shoot water from the front of him.

“Here goes nothing.” Delphine powers up the rear thrusters and starts sucking water towards the front of him.

The rear section of Stingray sinks, while the front lifts out of the water Delphine makes a few adjustments to get the right angle. She presses a button on the console and water starts shooting out at a high speed.

Hector and his friends were still trying to figure out how to start the boat when there was a loud crash. The door that allowed the boats to come and go from the crab shack was shaking violently.

“What the hell is hitting us?”

“I don’t know. I’ll go and see it.” One of the younger men walks away from the group towards the door.

Bobby looks at the huge spray coming from the front of Stingray. Stingray was channeling a lot of water from the ocean.

“Can you increase power? The door is still standing.” Bobby looks at his sister.

“No problem.” Delphine increases the power and feels Stingray vibrate slightly, as more water is pumped through his thrusters.

The young man that went to investigate hears the thundering sound of more water hitting the door. The craves and flies forward off the frame. He’s hit by a huge wave of water and sent flying backward.

The other four guys are hit by a powerful wave of water. They are knocked backward off their feet.

“I think you broke the door, Delphine.” Bobby had watched as the water that was shooting towards the shack door, went flying into the shack.

Delphine decreases the power to the thrusters and lower the front of Stingray back down into the water. A smile appears on her face, as she uses the cameras to look inside the place.

“I would say they are all washed up.” She notices the door on the other side of the building.

All the boats the group sold had some water in them. Delphine starts counting the bodies but couldn’t locate two of them.

“I’m going to pull up closer.” Delphine inches Stingray closer to the entrance.

A black and grey cigarette boat shoots out from the side of the shack. Delphine was inching closer to the shack. It goes right by Stingray and heads out towards the ocean.

“What the hell was that?” Bobby saw it as it shot pass Stingray.

“Someone getting away.” Delphine whips Stingray around and starts chasing after the boat.

Francisco looks behind him to see if anyone is chasing him. He spots something but can’t tell what it is. He does notice it was catching up to him, fast. He increases speed to try and outrun it.

“You’ll never catch him, sis. There’s no way your submarine here can go as fast as he can.” Bobby watches as the cigarette boat increases the distance between them.

“You’ll be surprised how fast Stingray can go.” Delphine increases speed.

Stingray starts raising out of the water on his foils. Delphine continues to increase the power to his jet thrusters.

“Holy shit! What did you put in this vessel?” Bobby looks at Delphine.

“Specially designed water jet thrusters.” Delphine keeps her eyes on the boat they were chasing.

“How fast can Stingray go?”

“260+ knots. I haven’t taken him up to his full potential.”

Francisco looks behind him again and the thing that was following him was gaining. He had no idea what it was, but he would be in international waters soon. He increases the speed of his boat to the maximum.

“He’s trying to outrun you.” Bobby thought it was kind of fun.

“It’s not going to happen.” Delphine increases Stingray to three-quarters of what he’s capable of.

Bobby felt the increase of speed and the distance between them and the boat was only a few feet of distance away. Delphine was trying to think of some way to stop him.

“So, what is your plan?”

“I don’t know. Stingray isn’t equipped with any weapons. However, let's see how he likes this.” Delphine closes a few intake ports and increases pressure.

“Hang on. I’ve never done this before.” Delphine increases to full power and launches right over the cigarette boat and lands directly in front of it.

She opens all the intake ports and dips the front of Stingray down. A large wave of water shots out from Stingray’s rear thrusters and sends the cigarette boat flipping up into the air. Delphine turns Stingray around to watch the cigarette boat crash into the ocean.

“I wished I had a camera to record what you did.” Bobby looks proudly at his sister.

“Thanks. I just hope I haven’t damaged anything.” Delphine hopes she didn’t damage her baby.

Delphine moves slowly under Stingray as he hung above her. The construction company had finished building the addition to the family pier for Stingray and replaced some of the damaged sections. She was checking for any cracks and damage from her jumping Stingray over the speed boat and landing. She had never done anything like that before and she didn’t know if it would do any damage to Stingrays hull.

Stingray was suspended a good foot or two above her head, as she sat on the jet ski under him. She runs her fingers on his specialized skin. So, far Stingray has performed better than she had ever imagined.

Bobby was wondering where his sister went. The police have returned all the boats that had been stolen from them, including his sister’s project. The boat itself was back at the boatyard and secured. He spots Stingray suspend up in the air by his cables.

He spots his sister underneath him on one of the family-owned jet skis. The one she was on, was the one her and their mother used.

“Watch you doing, Delp?” He stops to look down at his sister.

“Examining Stingray’s underbelly. I’ve never jumped him out of the water before.”

“Have you found any cracks or leaks?” Bobby knew Stingray mean a lot to his sister.

“None yet, but I’m going to double, and triple check him.” Delphine looks up at her brother standing on the pier.

Bobby watches as his sister checks her beloved submarine. He wonders what posse her to build Stingray.

“How is everything?”

“He’s in good condition. So, what brings you down here?” Delphine wonder what brought her brother down to her.

“You have a letter from Vosper, Limited.” Bobby has never heard of them before.

“I don’t know who they are.” Delphine moves the Jet ski over to the ladder mounted on the pier and secure the jet ski,

Delphine climbs up the ladder and stand before her brother. She had her wetsuit on, instead of the bikini she normally wore.

“Let me see the letter.” Delphine was curious.

Bobby pulls the letter along with several other addresses to Delphine. He hands them to her “there are several others that were sent to you.”

Delphine opens the first one and saw that it was an invitation for her to come to Portsmouth Naval Base, England. They heard about Stingray and would like to know more about him. The other letters were from companies inviting her to their companies as well.

Bobby watches his sister’s facial expression “so, what are they?”

“They are invitations to visit them. They want to know more about Stingray.” Delphine didn’t know if she wanted to accept them or not.

“Are you going to accept?” Bobby knew Delphine built Stingray for research, not war.

“I don’t know.” Delphine hands the letters back to Bobby.

“What do you want me to do with these?” Bobby accepts them.

“Put them on my desk in my bedroom. I’ll decide what to do about them, later.” Delphine turns around and starts climbing back down to the jet ski.

“Alright.” Bobby turns around and heads back to the house with the letters.

He wonders why his sister is so against turning something like Stingray into a weapon. She could make a lot of money with his design. He walks back up to the main house.

Delphine starts the jet ski and head over to the pier where they keep the jet skis. She parks it, next to the one belonging to her father. Once she is done securing it, she heads towards the house.

Delphine heads up to her bedroom to strip out of her wetsuit. She had a lunch date with Tom. She knew Kathy has been enjoying her boat since they modify it. Right now, Kathy was out at sea with a few friends.

Delphine hops into the shower and think about improvements she could add to Stingray. She could add high-pressure water cannons and feed them from Stingrays jet intake. That should produce enough water to ship or damage most ships and fire.

They could be mounted in pop-up turrets near the main hull. She thinks more about the idea, as she washes her hair. As for all the invitations that have been sent to her, she wonders what she should do.

After her shower, Delphine heads to her bedroom and starts getting dressed. She couldn’t wait to join Tom at Harry’s tonight. Once she is dressed and made up, she grabs her purse and heads downstairs. Just before she leaves “Mom, I’m heading out.”

Nicole sticks her head out of the kitchen “are you coming home tonight?”

“Maybe, that all depends on Tom.” A smile appears on Delphine’s face.

Nicole just shakes her head “be careful, sweetie.”

“I will mom.” Delphine waves goodbye as she heads out of the house and towards her small pick-up truck.

When Delphine arrives at Harry’s, she notices several of Tom’s friends and some of the ones she recently made were already there and drinking. She just shakes her head as she figures out who is doing the driving tonight as she heads inside and joins them.

Delphine adjust how she was sitting as she pilot’s Stingray. She was off the coast of Hawaii checking out an underwater volcano that was slowly building. The past few days she has been taking water temperatures, water samples, and recording the activity of the trimmers.

“How are things going, Maanushi?”

“Everything is fine. I’ve almost collected all the samples I needed.” Maanushi looks at the samples she has collected so far.

“How about you, Leinani? Is everything alright?” Delphine looks back towards Maanushi and Kupe’s only child.

“I’m fine. I have enough water samples.” Leinani writes down the last sample she took.

“Okay.”

Delphine looks over towards Kupe, who sat beside her “I managed to locate an engine for your boat. It’s on the east coast and from a scallop boat that is being scrapped.”

“How much is the engine?” Kupe was happy Delphine was able to locate the motor.

“Don’t worry about the price. My father is buying it through the boat company. So, we can arrange payments and such.” Delphine figures she could help them out with getting their boat back up and going.

“Thanks for helping us out, Delphine.”

“You’re welcome.” Delphine goes back to piloting.

“Man, the outside water temperature is extremely hot.” Leinani was watching the outside water temperature surrounding Stingray.

“Don’t worry, Stingray can withstand the temperatures.” Delphine hopes he can. She never did test his temperature tolerance.

In the next two hours, Delphine keeps circling the underwater volcano. The passive sonar on Stingray starts to ping.

“I wonder who that is?” Delphine runs the signal through the computer system.

Delphine watches as the results show up on the screen. She couldn’t believe what she was seeing.

“So, what did the computer say it is?” Kupe was curious.

“It’s a Russian SSN. Which one, I don’t know, but I do know its Russian and it shouldn’t be this close to Hawaii.” Delphine knew that from her
time in the service.

“Could it be following us?” Maanushi was curious.

“I doubt it, but let's see.” Delphine changes course and moves closer to the volcano.

Delphine watches as the Russian sub skirts the outside of their location. She figures they were trying to identify what was making the whale sounds that Stingrays engines make. A funny idea pops into Delphine’s mind.

“Maanushi, can you take one of those probes we have and reprogram it to emit the clock sound from Peter Pan?” Delphine glances towards Maanushi.

A smile appears on Maanushi’s face. She liked the idea and starts taking one of their probes to make the adjustments. Once the probe is ready, Maanushi puts the probe in the dive chamber.

“Alright, it's ready.” Maanushi looks towards Delphine.

“Dropping probe.” Delphine fills the dive chamber remotely and open the door.

The probe drops into the ocean and the motor kicks in. Kupe programs it to follow the sub. They could hear the tick, tocking sound as it heads
towards the Russian sub. They watch as the Russian sub investigates the probe.

While the sub is investigating the tick-tocking sound. She heads in the opposite direction. Delphine watches as the sub goes in the opposite direction. She makes sure, it leaves US territorial waters.

“Okay, they have finally left.” Delphine punches in the coordinates for the old Coast Guard base.

It takes them three days to get home. Delphine wasn’t in a hurry and neither were her co-workers. She pulls up to the pier of the NOAA station and dock.

Delphine goes about shutting everything down. She spotted Tom up on the pier waiting for her. It was late in the evening when they docked.
She steps out onto Stingray’s hull and tosses the lines to Tom.

Tom has been waiting for at least an hour, when he spots Stingray’s running lights, as he surfaced near the pier. Delphine has been gone for a week with her crew doing scientific research. He watches as the hatch opens and Delphine steps out onto the hull.

A smile appears on his face as he looks at Delphine. She looked nice in the skin-tight suit she was wearing. The suit had the picture of the Stingray from the movie Down Periscope on a patch.

“Hey sweetie, catch.” Delphine tosses a line to Tom.

Tom catches the line and secures it. He catches the second and third lines as Delphine tosses them. Once Stingray was secured, Maanushi, Kube, and Leinani start unloading all the samples they collected.

Tom helps them, while Delphine secures Stingray. It takes them about an hour to get everything out of Stingray. Once they were done, Delphine locks Stingray and arms his security system.

Maanushi notices Delphine walking away form Stingray ‘are you leaving Stingray, here?”

“Yeah. I’m too tired to navigate him back home.” Delphine covers up a yawn.

“It should be safe here. There is a security guard on duty.” Maanushi has docked their boat at the Coast Guard station without any problems.

“I’m not worried. Stingray can’t be started without his security key.” Delphine walks to the parking lot with Maanushi and her family.

Tom opens the passenger door for Delphine. She gets in and fastens her seat belt. Tom walks around and sits down on the driver's side.

“Where to sweetie?” Tom looks at Delphine.

“Your place. I need a shower and you.” Delphine was tired.

A smile appears on Tom’s face.

Delphine snuggles closer to Tom as she slept. They had come back to his place and took a shower together. They made out several times in the shower and when they laid down. She crashed hard. Once her head hit the pillow and she closed her eyes. She fell asleep right away.

Tom looks down at Delphine's sleeping form. He was happy that she was back. He knew she loved the sea and that she loved Stingray as well. The other project she was working on was almost finished.

He holds her close to his body, while he traces the curve of her breast. She wiggles when he touches a ticklish spot on the side of her body. A sly smile forms on his face. He tickles her again in the same spot.

Delphine wiggles from Tom tickling her. She opens her eyes and tickles Tom in one of his spots. She rolls over and straddles his waist, letting the covers pool behind her butt. She looks down into Tom’s eyes, as he laid on his back.

“Good morning to you.” She leans down and kisses Tom.

She couldn’t believe how hard she has fallen for Tom. She could feel his manhood trying to enter into her body. She lifts and guides him into her opening. She could feel every inch of her artificial vagina taken up by his thick member.

The next hour or so, she and Tom make love. Tom uses her body and pleases her in ways that she has only read about in romance novels.
She was worn out after making love for Tom. She loved feeling his cum inside of her. She knew sooner or later it was going to leak out.

As she lays next to Tom, her cellphone starts ringing. She wonders who could be calling her. Since her cellphone was on Tom’s side of the bed, she rolls onto his body and reaches for it.

She looks at the caller Id to see who was calling her and notices it was her friend Kinsley. She presses the accept button “hello Kinsley. What can I do for you?”

“I would like for you to meet someone. They are interested in you and Stingray.” Kinsley had been contacted by Edith Summers about getting in touch with the builder of Stingray.

Delphine felt Tom getting hard again. She lifts and guides him in where he belonged. She looks up and smiles at him.

“Who is it that you would like me to meet?” Delphine squeeze’s Tom’s manhood.

“Her name is Elizabeth Conners and she’s the director of a privately run marine research facility. I got to talking to her about you and she would like to add you to her staff.” Kinsley knew Elizabeth would be interested in adding Delphine and Stingray to their research team.

“But I’m working for you, now Kinsley.” Delphine wonders why Kinsley was passing her off.

“I know, and we do joint work with Elizabeth’s company. Will you at least meet with her and see what she is offering?” Kinsley figures Delphine would like Elizabeth and what she was trying to do.

“Alright, I’ll meet with her. Let me know what day, time, and where.” Delphine didn’t see any reason she shouldn’t.

“Thanks, Delphine. I promise you’ll like what she has to say” Kinsley ends the call.

Delphine puts her cellphone back on the nightstand and looks at tom “now where were we.”

The next hour-n-half, Delphine and Ton spend exploring each other's bodies some more. Afterward, Delphine snuggles against Tom and falls asleep. She was exhausted from their sexual activities.

Tom just smiles as he watches Delphine fall asleep. He slides out of bed and slips some boxers on. He liked the fact that she loved him and enjoyed the sex the two they have. He walks into the kitchen and starts making some brunch for them. He knew she was going to be hungry when she woke-up.

He makes a Philly cheesesteak sandwich for both of them. He knew Delphine loved his Philly cheesesteak. He adds some mushrooms and spicy peppers to both halves.

“Mmm, something smells good.” Delphine wraps her arms around Tom’s waist and kisses his neck.

She had fallen asleep after all the lovemaking she and Tom did. When she woke up, he wasn’t laying in bed with her. She smelled the steak cooking and figured out he was cooking them some food. She had one of his t-shirts.

“I hope you’re hungry because I made a lot.” Tom scoops some meat out of the pan and places it in the buns he prepared.

“After all those calories we burned a few hours ago. I can eat a horse.” Delphine was feeling energized and hungry.

“So, how was your trip?” As Tom prepares both plates.

Delphine snags a potato chip off one of the plates. Before she munches on it “ran into a Russian sub while gathering samples to study.”

“You ran into a Russian sub?” Tom didn’t see any damage to Stingray.

“Well, I didn’t run into him. It was more like I encountered them. We took one of our probes we were using and reprogramed it to do the tick-tock clock sound from Peter Pan movie.” A smile had appeared on Delphine’s face.

Tom smirks at what Delphine just told him. He could see it now with the Russians being puzzled by the clock sound.

“What were they doing so deep in our territory?” That was puzzling Tom.

“I guess they wanted to see why the sounds of whales were near a volcano.” Delphine couldn’t think of any other reasons.

“Why whales?” Tom was puzzled.

“When Stingray’s engines are running, he sounds like whales singing.” Delphine hadn’t expected that when she designed his engines.

“Ah! So, they picked up the sound and they wonder why a whale or whales were near an underwater volcano.”

“That’s what I think. Still, it bothers me that a Russian sub was that far into our territory.”

“Is there anyone you can call and informed them?” Tom knew Delphine was a former sailor.

“I could call the Coast guard, but the sub might not be in the area anymore.” Delphine walks into the living room and sit down on the sofa with her plate.

Tom walks into the living room and sits down next to Delphine. He places his plate on the coffee table and pick the remote up and select a movie for them to watch, while they eat.

Delphine and Tom walk into the Velvet Turtle. The place was a high-end restaurant that specialized in high quality aged steaks.

“Okay, I’m impressed.” Delphine looks around the place as they stood in line and waited to speak with the hostess on duty.

Barbara couldn’t believe how busy they were today. Their normal lunch traffic was light. However, they were busier than normal. She watches as a young couple steps up to her podium.

“Welcome to Velvet Turtle, how can I help you?”

“We’re supposed to be joining someone. Their name is Elizabeth Conners.” Tom was speaking for him and Delphine.

“Conners???” Barbara runs her finger down the list of names on the reservation list and spots it.

According to her records, two members of their party were already at the restaurant. She looks back up at Tom as she grabs two menus “if you would follow me, please.”

“Okay.” Tom follows the young woman. He knew Delphine was right behind him.

They are taken to a nice area of the restaurants. As they approach the table, they notice Delphine’s friend Kinsley and she was sitting with an older woman with salt and pepper hair. She had on a nice business suit and was wearing gold rim glasses.

“Here you go.” Barbara hands them their menu’s after they sit down.

“Thank you.” Delphine looks at Kinsley and the other woman.

Elizabeth had watched as the hostess that they met earlier, escorted a young couple over to the table she was sitting at. The young woman, she already knew from the file she had on her. The gentleman, she didn’t know.

“Delphine, I am so glad you and Tom can join us. This is Elizabeth Conners. She’s the woman I told you that would like to talk to you.” Kinsley takes a sip of her tea.

“It’s nice to meet you, Mrs.Waters.”

“And you, as well Mrs. Conners.” Delphine wonders who the woman was.

“Let me get straight to the reason I have invited you to this restaurant. First, I have heard a lot fo nice things about from Kinsley here.
Secondly, I’m impressed that you have built a unique submarine that is in the shape of a stingray. Also, Kinsley tells me you used some unique technology in it. Something similar to what the research station my company built and uses.”

Delphine looks at Kinsley and back at Mrs. Conners “what type of research does your company do, Mrs. Conners?”

“The same type that NOAA does. We conduct oceanic and geographic research, along with testing new technology that will allow us to live and build on the ocean floor.”

“And you are saying, that your new research facilities use the same technology that my sub uses to power it?” Delphine would like to see it, herself.

“It uses similar technology that powers your sub.” Conners thought her team was the only one that uses the technology that powered Delphine’s sub.

“That I would like to see.” Delphine was extremely curious now.

“I think that can be arranged. How about you and your companion come out and visit the research facilities for a few days? That way you can see what we do and make your decision then?”

Delphine looks at Tom “what do you think?”

“I think it would be nice. “ Tom would love to see what this research facility was about.

A lot of the things Delphine and Conners were talking about, was above his head. He never studies the technology she used or has never
been interested in what occurred in the ocean before.

“I think so too. So, when would you like for us to come out?”

“Would next week be too inconvenient for you?”

“No, not at all. Would you like for me to bring Stingray with us?” Delphine was curious if she wanted to see him.

“How about, you see if you like the place first and if you do. Then you can bring Stingray.” Professor Conners would love to see this submarine, Mrs. Waters built.

“Sounds good to me.”

Their waitress comes over and takes their orders. Afterward, Professor Conners and Delphine make small talk. Kinsley asks a few questions, while Tom listens and learns things from them. Every once in a while, he does ask a question about some technical items that either Delphine mentions or that Dr. Conners mentions.

After about two hours, Delphine and Tom are walking out fo the restaurant. Delphine kisses Tom. She knew it must have been weird for him to sit there and listen to her, Professor Conner and Kinsley.

Tom looks at Delphine “what’s that for?”

“For being so understanding.”

“I learned a lot listening to the three of you. I can also tell you have a passion for the ocean as well.”

“The sea has always called me. It's in my blood.”

“I know. Let's go and visit your father.”

“Sounds like a plan.”