Comingling: 750 Word Story

He floated through the warm tidal seas, going with the flow, just enjoying life. His external cilia waved wafting micronutrients to him. Life was easy; life was good. In the warm current, he sensed millions more of his species. Then his awareness lifted as the current brought another bacterium similar to himself within range. His cilia waved more enthusiastically until she noticed. Using her own tail-like flagellum she steered herself closer.

"Hi, how're you," his chemical signals emoted.

"Fine, thanks," she signaled, shaking her body. "You?"

Non-committal. He'd have to up his act if he wanted to reproduce.

"Fancy drifting over to those rocks with me? I hear they've got some really tasty micronutrients over there?" he gestured.

She signaled assent and they made their way over and fed on organic molecules. He found some extra nutrients and his cilia passed some over. He was pleased when she accepted and she absorbed the nutrients into her cell-wall.

He sensed that she was adorable having a perfectly flawless oval-shaped cell in pale gray with a delicate cyan hue that would excite any bacterium, a lovely, long whip-like flagellum extending from her rear for mobility and the sexiest pili tubes he'd ever seen. It made you want to lose your DNA load and reproduce immediately.

"If I said you had a nice cell wall, would you hold it against me?" he commented as she fed. He cringed inside. Did he really come out with that?

She blushed a deeper gray. "Typical. You only want me for my cell body not the contents of my nucleus." Her chemical signals seemed aggravated now. "I'm very intelligent for a bacillus."

"No, your nucleus is admirable. I'd like to get to know it better."

With a gentle swirl of his own flagellum, he allowed the current to bring them together until their cell walls touched. He felt her squirm but she didn't move away. Her body felt warm to the touch, far warmer than the surrounding sea. He felt his generative tubules stiffen. Her cytoplasm within her cell-wall felt so soft and comforting, something to snuggle up to. This was going to be so good.

He caressed her with his flagellum and felt her wriggle with positive stimuli at his touch while her own whip-like flagellum stroked his rigid cell-wall in turn. It felt so good, a gentle coaxing and teasing until urges built up inside him and he started to feel like he might split in two with exhilaration while he felt his tubular reproductive pili grow rigid with excitement until he felt like bursting and spreading his DNA all over the ocean. He swirled his flagellum until his pili was directly over her corresponding opening. A moment of doubt hit him; was his pili tube long enough to reach this beautiful bacterium beside him? Would she find that it was somehow too small or inadequate and break off contact, swimming away into the murky ocean waters never to be seen again? Yet she didn't seem repulsed or upset. Instead, she snuggled up to him.

"You will respect me in the morning?" she sent.

"Of course," he intimated.

Who was she? Once they had separated and the currents drove them apart would he ever encounter her again among all the millions in this bacterial bloom? He doubted it. They were a motile species but the ocean currents were so much stronger than their puny flagella.

Her own opening was pliant, ready and willing to receive his genes. Their pili tubes connected, linking them as one. With a surge, a blast of such orgasmic pleasure and release, he forced his genetic material down through their locked pili and into her cell body. Temporarily spent, his flagellum stopped beating, hanging limply, and together they both hung there in the salt water relaxing in their moment of bliss before they broke apart.

As they floated along, drifting pleasurably together in the current, two older bacteria swam past, their flagella beating furiously as they sought out sustenance.

"What's it all coming to?" one bacterium emitted.

"Sexual reproduction they call it," the second sneered. "I hear it's all the fashion among the younger bacteria these days."

"Disgusting, swapping DNA like that," the first snorted. "Young bacteria these days. Shameless. They should put a stop to it."

The second's cell body nodded. "Nothing wrong with asexual reproduction. It's worked for over a billion years so why change things?"

"It'll never catch on," the first grumbled as they swam past the two young bacteria.