Chapter 5: Pets Not Permitted

I was there at eleven thirty. Ziggy was already there, sitting by himself at a food court table with a Bubble Tea in front of him, not doing anything with it, and people were looking as they walked by.

“Hi Ziggy,” I said, sitting down opposite him, and I said that a bit shyly, which was strange because I wasn’t shy at all. Not usually. But then, I’d never, like, dated an alien before. Had anyone on Earth ever dated an alien before? Because I knew that’s what it was. A date.

“Stardust,” his vocoder said, and his skin flashed these amazing colors, almost too fast for my eyes to catch, but they were beautiful, and there was a pattern to them that I almost understood, and it was almost ... but then he reached out with two tentacles and took my hands in them, and his tentacles curled around my wrists, and the spiraled up my arms like warm silk, delicate and smooth and gentle, and I could feel his pulse against my skin as my hands curved around the muscles and those beautiful black saucer-eyes looked into mine, and we just looked at each other, for, like, an eon, and I had to remember to breathe.

“I buy you Bubble Tea, Stardust,” he said, and he flashed happy. I knew it was happy, it just felt like those colors and those patterns meant that.

“Thank you,” said, but I didn’t move to pick it up, and his tentacles didn’t let go.

“What do we do on date?” he asked, and those color patterns, I knew he was puzzled. “Study material on humans does not include information on dating.”

“Uh ... we spend time together,” I said, which seemed a pretty inane explanation, and then I had this flash of inspiration. “Do you like swimming, Ziggy?”

“I grew up in water,” he said, and the colors rippled laughter. I was sure it was laughter.

“Cool,” I said. “Let’s go swimming.”

I knew where to go, too. Up on Level Zero, the admin office, and hotels for tourists, and all the surface industrial stuff, but there was an entertainment complex as well, and there was a waterpark. Pool, slides, private pools. I didn’t go there too often, but I’d been, and I’d even taken a fascist or two there, so I knew you could get private pools, and I knew where to go, and I kept one hand on one of Ziggy’s tentacles as we headed for the nearest ramps, and floated up, and I was busy telling him about the pool.

“Pets not permitted in entertainment complex,” the admission robot said, and I kind of looked at it and touched the pad for assistance.

“I don’t know,” the girl said, after she arrived, and I could tell she was a bit freaked by Ziggy. “It might scare the children.”

“How about a private pool,” I said. They were meant for groups, and parties, they weren’t cheap, but the allowance from my parents would cover it.

“Let me check, Comrade Citizen,” she said, and I didn’t push it while she commed her team lead, because she was actually doing pretty good. I mean, big blonde fascists were one thing, and I’d brought a couple here, but Ziggy was a real alien, and I could see she was sort of freaked out by him, and maybe a bit scared by me, coz it was obvious I was a Level Four girl, and I could make trouble if I wanted to. I’d dressed that way today, thinking I might have to push it, because, well, Ziggy was an alien. I could hear her, too.

“Yes, it’s a real alien,” she said. “It looks like a sort of octopus. It would scare the children I think...”

“Yes, she’s one of those fuerdai, you know the sort. She looks like she could make a lot of trouble...”

Well, she was right about that, but I didn’t smile, although I didn’t want to call my Dad. Maybe I could call Chewy. It wouldn’t take him long to sort it out.

“Okay, yes, I understand...” She turned back towards us. “Management override Check-in Three,” she said. “Complimentary Admission for two.” She smiled happily. Someone else had made the decision for her. “Here’s your card for your Private Pool, Comrade Citizen Wong, unlimited time. Please enjoy your swim with your...” She did hesitate, but only for a second. “ ... friend.”

“Thanks,” I said, smiling back, coz it looked like her team lead wasn’t taking any chances, and I slipped her a big tip, and her smile grew when I slipped her a second note. “Please thank your team lead personally for me, Comrade Citizen.” Still cost way less than the admission and the private pool would’ve, so I was ahead, and one should reward the workers for good decision making. To encourage the others, as my Dad said.

“Wow!” Ziggy’s vocoder said, when we were in that private pool room, and hey, it was really nice. I hadn’t been in this one before. Last time, with that big blonde fascist, we’d just got a Jacuzzi, because I hadn’t had swimming in mind, and neither had he, and we hadn’t worried about swimsuits either, although I’d had to explain about not bringing shame down on my family, but when we got down to the alternatives, he was really enthusiastic, but with Ziggy, really all I was thinking about was, he’d probably enjoy swimming, and there wasn’t anywhere else to swim in New Beijing.

Here, we had a pool big enough to swim in, and the décor was actually rather nice, all that lovely old antique Maoist décor from the mid-twentieth century, all retro from before the Hegemony, and I kind of liked it. Heroic workers with bulging muscles, cute working girls admiring the guys, and of course the Peoples Flag, which always made me feel all patriotic and everything, and Ziggy just flowed into the water without even a splash, ignoring all the glorious and heroic peoples décor, and then he was darting around underwater like a torpedo, raising his head now and then as I looked around.

Jacuzzi, showers, a dry area to change in, and I sort of kicked myself, because I hadn’t brought a swimsuit, but then I shrugged. Ziggy didn’t wear clothes, and he was an alien, so why was I worrying, and I started undressing, and I only stopped when I was naked, and then I turned around and slid into the warm water, not at all gracefully, because I’d never really learnt to swim that well, and I’d never, actually, been to a swimming pool to swim, just to look good in a bikini, and Ziggy was right there beside me, streamlined and graceful as he slid up to the surface, his tentacles tucked in tight.

“This is almost as good as being home. Thank you for bringing me here, Stardust.” And he was off again, like an underwater rocket.

I kind of kicked off from the edge of the pool and splashed across, a bit nervously, because the water was deep and my toes could just touch the bottom, watching him as I swam, and he slowed, slowed and turned beneath me, those great black eyes looking up at me, unblinking as he flowed through the water, and he was in his element, I could see that, and one of his tentacles slipped towards me, sliding over my skin, and his skin rippled colors, and now we swam together.

It didn’t take me long before I was tired, and Ziggy flowed up out of the pool in a fluid movement that I almost envied, although one sixth gee made it easy for me too, and his colors rippled so happily I was smiling as my eyes followed him.

“I am enjoying date, Stardust,” his vocoder said, and he was looking down into the Jacuzzi.

“Would you like to sit in the Jacuzzi?” I asked, because I wanted to as well, but I wouldn’t if he’d rather do something else. I did like jacuzzi’s though.

“Yes,” Ziggy said, and he flowed into the Jacuzzi, his tentacles spreading across the surface, and his vocoder made this weird noise.

“This is very wonderful,” he said, and there was that weird noise, and his skin rippled color, and his tentacles flexed, and he almost seemed to shudder as I sat on the side of the Jacuzzi and slipped my feet in, because it was hot.

“Female humans have different body shape from males,” he said, looking at me, and one of his tentacles reached for me, lifting from the water, sliding over my back, around me, curling over my stomach, and the tip rose to slide over one of my breasts, and as it rose, the skin parted, and the tip extended, and the tip was soft and smooth as it touched me, and I watched it lengthen and grow.

“These are female breasts?” he said, caressing mine. “Study guide on humans notes that these are for reproductive purposes and to attract attentions of human males.”

“Yes,” I said, stifling a gasp, and then I didn’t. “They are.”

Mine were, for sure. I hadn’t met many human males who weren’t attracted to them. “And they’re very sensitive, Ziggy, and touching them is part of our human sexual foreplay.” I looked him, looking at me. “Are female heptapods different in appearance to male heptapods?”

“Yes and no,” Ziggy said, that tentacle tip sliding over me, sending tingles and ripples of pleasure through me. “Your skin tastes beautiful, Stardust,” he added. Then, “female heptapods look the same as males on the exterior, but have female reproductive organs beneath tentacles, while heptapod male reproductive organs are at tips of tentacles, extending from within tip in response to sexual stimulation.”

I looked down at that smooth-skinned extension that protruded from the tip of the tentacle caressing my breast, and my heart was beating more than a little faster. “Are you sexually stimulated now, Ziggy?”

Because I was, which was really weird, because he was an alien, but we’d kissed last night. At least, I thought we’d kissed. I wasn’t sure. Maybe it was the heptapod version of the start of a blowjob, and I’d teased him and stopped, and I sort of remembered what that’d been like, his tentacle caressing my lips, and, remembering, my own lips parted.

“Yes, Stardust,” Ziggy said. “It is very strange, because you are an alien with an entirely different and very alien body shape, physiology and outlook on life, yet I find that you appeal to me, and touching you in this way is highly stimulating to my reproductive organs, and I find myself wishing to fertilize your eggs.” He shuddered. “I know this is not possible, Stardust, we are different species, but yet I find myself wishing this.”

“How do male heptapods fertilize females?” I asked, a little breathlessly, and I wasn’t thinking what I was thinking. No I wasn’t. No way. “Human males have a single sexual organ, which is...”

“I am a Space Marine, Stardust,” Ziggy said, and his skin colors rippled those laughter colors. “I was on Hegemony Assault Transport for months, following evacuation from Zhuolu, and one of first Waterpaths Space Marines to use vocoder developed by Hegemony scientists. Some things all Space Marines have in common, human and heptapod.” His skin rippled those colors again.

“What’s that?” I asked, because, really, apart from that recruiter back down dirtside, I’d never actually met a Space Marine. I dated officers, and the ones I dated were usually racist capitalist fascist oppressors of the working class from the Second American Republic Space Navy, because that was kind of exciting, the excitement of the almost-but-not-quite forbidden, and none of them had been from their Marines, even though I knew they existed, because I kind of liked those Navy uniforms.

“Talking about females, sex with females, becoming intoxicated, and fighting non-Marines,” Ziggy said.

“And playing the guitar,” I sort of gasped. “Ziggy, my nipples are really sensitive.” I was looking, and the nipple that one of his suckers was attached to was. Really sensitive. Oh my god sensitive. His sucker. Oh yes. Yes yes yes, what was he... “Ohhhhh ... ohhhhh...”

“You taste delicious, Stardust,” Ziggy’s vocoder said, and I could see that tip of his tentacle that was protruding was swollen and throbbing, and it wasn’t so small now either. It must’ve been eight inches long, and thick, and it seemed to be prehensile, because it was curving and moving, sliding over my skin, caressing me, and a second tentacle slipped up out of the water and slid over my other breast, and the tip of that one extruded, grew, and...

“Ohhhhhh ... ohhhhh Ziggy ... Ziggyyyyyy.” Another sucker latched onto that other nipple, and with every sucking caress, little rockets of sensation thrilled through me to pool at my center, and I’d never met a guy who’d done anything like this to me, just from touching my nipples and my breasts, and my sex was all hot and wet and swollen, and I wanted ... I wanted ... I wanted more.

““How do male heptapods fertilize females?” I gasped, kind of looking down at the tentacle extrusions, and they did actually look like, you know, erect male sexual organs, maybe a bit longer and thicker, but much the same shape, and they had that same little hole at the tip, and a sort of swollen head, with something like a glans, but there were little miniature sucker things on them, and tendrils as well, smaller than the big tendrils above where the extrusion emerged.

“Heptapod females have two reproductive ducts, one on each side of their mantle, Stardust,” Ziggy said.

“Two?” I said, my eyes widening a little. “Human females only have one. How many ... how many of these do you have, Ziggy?”

“Seven,” he said. “One at the tip of each tentacle,” and a third tentacle was sliding around my waist, and there was that same sexual organ extruded. Seven? Wow!

“A male heptapod inserts his tentacle tip in the ducts and the friction of movement there causes sperm to be released into the female, where it fertilizes the female’s eggs, and also gives pleasure to the male. Sperm can also be released onto the female’s skin, and the female will scoop the sperm up with her tentacles and fertilize the eggs herself, and it is the act of fertilizing that gives female heptapods pleasure, not the physical contact.”

“But a male heptapod enjoys the physical contact?” I asked, and I brushed one with my fingers, and Ziggy shivered, colors flashed across his skin, too rapid for me to make out any pattern, but his tentacle tip throbbed under my fingers, and there was this weird noise from his vocoder, and that little hole at the tip of his sexual extension jetted a great spurt of white fluid that burst thickly across my face, and through my parted lips, and into my half-open mouth, and then there was another, another, and another.

“Stardust ... Stardust,” Ziggy said, and his skin flashed crimson and scarlet. “I am sorry, Stardust.”

“Uh, Ziggy,” I said, licking my lips, and he was almost writhing, his tentacles flowing from me, leaving me, and I clutched at the nearest, and I knew he was much stronger than me. Stronger than any human, for that matter, but I knew I was totally safe with him. “Ziggy, what’s wrong? What was that?”

I licked my lips and it tasted, well, salty, and my eyes widened. “Was that your sexual release, Ziggy?”

“Stardust,” he said, and his color patterns said he was embarrassed. I felt that, somehow.

“You did!” I squealed, doing my best to slide close to him, press up against him and look into those big beautiful eyes. “Ziggy! Did you just release your sperm?”

“Yes, Stardust,” he said, his skin still that dull crimson and scarlet. ““I am sorry, Stardust, please excuse me. I did not intend to attempt to fertilize your eggs by placing my semen on your skin.”

“You can’t fertilize my eggs like that, and I don’t think you can fertilize my eggs anyhow, Ziggy,” I said. “We’re totally different species, and besides, for us, the semen has to be inserted into the female reproductive system, and we’re only able to be fertilized for a few days every month, and there’s not very many eggs. It’s a very limited reproductive window for human females.”