Today was the day! In a few more minutes, the moment Melissa Harknail had been waiting for over a century was going to arrive. This first full power test of the interdimensional viewer would let her peer into the other dimensions that she had proved existed as her collage thesis. As she sat waiting in her powered wheelchair, she reflected an all the steps leading up to this moment, the initial theory and proof while in college. The search for funding, finally provided by the government based on the possibility of seeing the mistakes other realities had made and avoiding them. And the many years of work developing a way to actually view these other dimensions. Initially she had worked alone, but as time went on and results seemed promising, more financing for assistants was made available.

And now everything was finally ready. Low powered tests had checked out all the components. It had been more two decades ago when she first confirmed contact with another dimension. But today, for the first time, she would be able to see into another dimension.

"Power systems nominal" said her assistant, Peter Callfar, jostling her out of her ruminations. The short presentation for the reporters benefit had just finished, and it was time to get on with the real show.

"Laser array switching according to spec", announced Cathy Samepiece. The rest of her assistants called out status reports from around the large room.

One by one the systems were powered on and tuned. Finally a window to another world began to appear in front of Melissa. She called out the adjustments that were needed to stabilize the viewing portal. She had selected a dimension far from her own in the hopes that differences would be readily visible, in this she succeeded. The lab building itself was missing and the ground was covered with snow even though it was summer. But the most striking difference was that the ocean was missing!

Although she didn't realize it at the time, Melissa had tuned her interdimensional viewer to a world where superpowers could exist. Not just light was coming through the viewer, but the indefinable something that made superpowers possible. Combined with the interdimensional energies of her viewer, it was sufficient to activate Melissa's metagene. Her activating metagene in turn interacted with the energies of the interdimensional viewer, with the result that the last image Melissa had of her own world was the window into another dimension expanding explosively as she passed out.

Melissa was not an old invalid; in fact, at 160 she was a young healthy member of her long-lived race. She used a wheelchair to get around on the ground simply because none of her race had legs. To put it simply, she was a mermaid in a world of merfolk, living on Ocean, an alternate Earth where the sea level is 10,000 feet higher than it is on our world.

Ever since fire had been discovered on a beach in ancient times, islands had been the center of research and technology on Ocean. In the time of Melissa, it was no longer a great burden on those who worked on dry land. Powered wheelchairs of high flexibility transported the merfolk around their work areas, while waldos allowed them to manipulate material that couldn't be conveniently reached from a chair.

Melissa awoke to find that most of the building was gone, along with all other buildings on the island; only the corner of the lab that she was in was left. And the island... As she looked around, she saw the same view she had seen in the interdimensional window. She found that warm summer day had changed to a snow covered winter. And the ocean was gone! As she looked out from the remains of her lab, and saw only dry land sweeping out below.

Melissa was alone in a strange land with no recognizable signs of civilization in sight, nor any sign of liquid water. She didn't feel the cold, but didn't think anything of it since merfolk are very tolerant of cold. Her prospects for survival didn't look good, but Melissa didn't worry about that. Instead she set about confirming her guess as to what had happened.

The remaining instruments in her lab didn't have power of course, but her chair was independently powered, so with a few connections she was able to power a few devices. She had just determined that she and the nearby section of the lab had somehow been physically transported to precise dimension she had been viewing, which shouldn't have been possible at the power levels the equipment was operating at, when she heard a sound like nothing she had ever heard before.

Meanwhile, Melissa's arrival on Ghost Mountain in Hamber Park had been detected by a variety of sensors, and the Canadian Shield had decided to investigate. It's hard to tell who was the most surprised, Melissa with her first sight of a flying machine, or the Canadian heroes finding a mermaid on a mountain top. But Melissa had a second surprise when the heroes emerged from their vehicle. They had legs! And some of them could fly!

The Canadian Shield soon had Melissa and her wheelchair aboard and heading back to base. Melissa was fascinated by the ride, but found it strange that there would be so much wind in what appeared to be a sealed cabin. She was just noticing that no one else's hair was blowing in the wind when the Lark descended below 10,000 feet, and Melissa found her self being dragged through water at a very high speed! Fortunately, the heroes noticed her distress and were willing to slow down to a speed she could tolerate.

Once back in civilization, Melissa spent months studying and being studied, learning about Earth, herself, and to her surprise a bit about Ocean. The differences between her home and this dimension were expected, what surprised her were the similarities. For example, except for the difference in water levels, and that in her world the continental shelves were at the same level as the sea bottom, the geography was almost identical. Likewise the language and calendar were the same, the reason it had seemed like winter when she first arrived was because she had been above the snow line.

The level of technology was very close between Earth and Ocean, though there were many differences. Earth had flying machines, vacuum tubes, television, and more advanced computers. Ocean had fuel cells that ran on cellulose (sea weed), more advanced life sciences, corrosion proof metals, and the technology to build electronics that would function underwater at a depth of 2 miles. Solid-state electronics on Ocean were literally a solid block. However, perhaps due to their shorter lifespan, technology had advanced much faster on Earth than it had on Ocean. Unfortunately, Melissa didn't have much knowledge in any of the fields where Ocean was more advanced than Earth, other than her own field of interdimensional physics. All she could offer the scientist of Earth was material samples of the metals used in her lab, and the fuel cell from her wheelchair. This is when her wheelchair was changed to use an Earthly hydrogen-based fuel cell.

As for Melissa herself, analysis of her genetic structure showed that her race had been genetically modified from humans. It also showed a separate, older modification, which gave her race their long life spans. Ocean archaeologist had found evidence of land dwelling people on the ocean floor, and wondered if they were somehow related. Now Melissa knew that was so, though since her people were artificially created, there was still the mystery of why.

On a more personal note, like humans her race had the potential for the metagene, and Melissa had it. She had developed interdimensional powers, and was recreating her home environment about her. Melissa soon figured out how to turn this off (it was just a matter of relaxing), allowing her to ride in rapid transit without problems. This seemed to be her only ability, which surrounded her with a water filled force field. Strangely, the water inside the force field was always stationary relative to the Earth, appearing and disappearing as she moved. This allowed her to move through the air as easily as she could move through the water. At first she though she was still in contact with her home dimension, but analysis of the water showed that it didn't have any organic components to it.

Between the layer of water, and the interdimensional field itself, her force field provided quite a bit of protection. But when she was underwater, she only had the protection of the dimensional barrier, since any attack was already going through the water. For similar reasons, the same was true above 10,000 feet, where her force field was filled with air. Also she found that she could extend her field in a thick column, although she couldn't maintain it.

Finally the mutual studies were coming to an end, and the question came up of what Melissa was going to do. She was offered a job as a consultant to help the University of Alberta in creating an interdimensional viewer, a job that she accepted. Soon she was a regular sight, both around campus and around Edmonton.

At first it went well. She could relate to the other scientist, and the work kept her busy, busier than she had ever been in her long life! And it wasn't just the physics team. The Oceanography wanted to know how having a planet wide ocean affected things. And Climatologist wanted to know the same things, but for the surface. She helped all to the best of her abilities, learning much in the process. During this year she became a Canadian citizen, affirming Canada as her new home.

Although Melissa didn't go looking for trouble, her habit of exploring all nocks and crannies of the campus and surrounding town occasionally led her to stumble across it. When she did find someone in need of help, she helped by whatever means were needed.

All this hurrying (as she saw it) produced results. The University of Alberta researchers accomplished in a year what it had taken her a decade to do. But the first tests were a disaster, at least for her. It was a simple test, testing a single element to see if interdimensional energies could be created. But as soon as the test was started, Melissa was wracked with intense pains. She had discovered a side effect of her powers; they rendered her susceptible to other sources of interdimensional energy.

While this did not prevent her from continuing help others to recreate her work, she wouldn't be able to participate in the tests themselves. This affected her deeply since for over 100 years this had been her primary goal. Once she had proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that the prototype device was the source of her pain, she went for a swim around campus. With her lifetime ambitions dashed, she was in a receptive mood to notice a recruitment poster for the Canadian Shield. She didn't know why it was there, as far as she knew; she was the only superhuman in Edmonton. But it was the right poster at the right time.

Melissa had never before considered a career in law enforcement, but as she read the poster, she was intrigued. Since her superhuman abilities were no doubt what was preventing her from continuing in her lives work, why not make those same abilities the basis of her new career. She looked at the qualifications. She was way over the required 21 years old. The collage work might be a problem; she had far more than 60 hours of study, but had no proof of it. Still her coworkers here could confirm her knowledge. A driver's license? She could get Rick to teach her to drive his wheelchair accessible van. She read down the list and didn't see any problems with the rest of the requirements. The pay was less than what she was getting now, but money wasn't her primary concern. She smiled when she got to the "Women and Minorities are encouraged to apply." As the only one of her kind on Earth, she was a minority of 1.

So Melissa continued as an adviser for a few more weeks while she learned how to drive, and gathered written statements from her peers that she had a university equivalent education. When she was ready, she applied to become a member of the Canadian Shield.

Melissa is inquisitive and curious. She is stuck in this world, but there is so much to learn about it that she has yet to feel homesick. What interests her more than the differences are the surprising similarities between Earth and Ocean.

Still, Melissa is an outsider. Her strange appearance and the differences in cultures keep her from fitting in other than with heroes or scientists.

Perhaps this is due to their long lives, but Melissa, like all of her race, tends not to be in a great hurry to get things done. The expression "There is always tomorrow" is even more true for the long-lived merfolk than it is for humans. Still, Melissa has caught some sense of urgency from the heroes she has worked with and has come to realize that some problems at least must be dealt with NOW!

"Humans are always in such a hurry."

As a mermaid she can withstand any conditions found in earths oceans (cold, pressure, breath water), and swim as fast as a dolphin. She has sonar, which she has learned to use in the air as well as under water. Her eyes are adapted to low levels of light, allowing her to see at greater depths, and she can pinpoint the direction of sounds. Also her race was engineered for a long life (typically 750 years).

In addition she has the metahuman power to create a shell of water around her body within a force field. The water is stationary relative to the earth (appears and vanishes at the force field as it moves), allowing her to push against it to swim through the air. Besides giving her mobility in the air, this combined force field and water shell gives her self-contained breathing and protection from attacks. She can extend this field to produce a column of water, giving her an attack. Although it appears that it is the water hitting the target, the water is actually stationary and it is the impact of the force field that does the damage.

Her metahuman power is recreating her home environment, and is thus limited to 10,000 feet above sea level. Above that her force field still works, but is filled with air instead of water. Either way, as long as she can move, it allows her to survive in extremes of heat or cold even more extreme than what her marine metabolism could withstand.

When swimming through the air isn't appropriate, she uses the powered wheelchair that came with her from her home dimension. It's the equivalent of the very best of Earthly wheelchairs. It can lower her till she can reach the ground, or raise her up to roughly standing height. It can even navigate stairs. And it's controlled by her tail, leaving her hands free. Of course it's completely waterproof. However, it does limit her mobility while she is in it, making her an easier target.

Melissa above the waist Melissa appears human with green eyes, and long straight reddish brown hair. Her skin is fair, and her torso would fit a human 5 1/2 feet tall. Most of her mass is below the waist in her long muscular fish tail. Her tail is covered in iridescent green scales, and ends with horizontal membranes for flukes (dolphins have horizontal fleshy flukes, fish have vertical membranes). Her tail is very flexible, almost but not quite prehensile.

Melissa's uniform consists of a bikini top using the Mounty colors (red & black).