Hanging Seven

© 2023 Chloe Tzang. All rights reserved. The author asserts a moral right to be identified as the author of this story, although she's really not sure she wants to admit to that. The following is a work of fiction. All characters are fictional. So far. Any resemblance to actual human or Heptapod persons, living or dead, is coincidental. This work is and remains the property of the author. This story or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the author. If you see this story on any website other than Literotica, it's been stolen by someone whose social credit rating will tank, and the security robots will be coming for them. So don't. Just, don't.

And that little note from Chloe at the start: This story's written for the Literotica 2023 "Surfing with the Alien" story event. A beautiful girl. Her Space Marine. Their little boy. A little downtime on an alien planet....and surfing. As well as a little sports fishing. It's more or less a sequel to "I Married a Heptapod", but it stands on its own. That said, if you enjoy this, you'll likely enjoy "I Married a Heptapod" too.

And now, read on and enjoy, and I hope you find my little story as entertaining to read as I did to write... Hugs to you all, and stay safe...Chloe

And now the time is growin', now you're movin' down the wall

As steady as she goes, you got your toes upon the nose

And now you're hangin' five, hangin' five

Hangin' five toe-oes, upon the Malibu....."

"Hanging Five", by the Delltones

"Thank you for flying with New Beijing Shuttle Lines. We are now on final approach to Pen-Nee Wong International Airport," the pilot announced on the intercom. "We're currently passing over Xīnxīlán at approximately eighty miles altitude. Please ensure your restraints are securely fastened as deorbiting burn will be initiated shortly, following a final warning. We will descend steeply over the Tasman Sea, landing in approximately thirty minutes. There may be a little turbulence as we descend."

"I check, Stardust," Ziggy said, his tentacles flickering over me and little Danny, who was sitting between us. My harness tightened abruptly, but I left it to Ziggy. He was a Space Marine. He did this sort of thing all the time, and I'd only ever been in a Shuttle once, back when I was seventeen and we were moving up to New Beijing.

"Thank you, Ziggy," I said, one of my hands giving one of his tentacles a little squeeze. Okay, I was nervous. This would be the first time I'd been down dirtside since I moved to New Beijing, up on the moon, with my mom and dad, almost six years ago now, and we weren't on the shuttle down to New Shanghai, which at least I knew.

"Wow, is that the sea, Mommy?" Little Danny was looking out the viewport. "It's really blue. Is that all water? Wow! It's ginormous."

Little Danny was so excited. His first trip down dirtside from Luna, and his first vacation with daddy, as well as mommy. His tentacles had been wriggling with excitement all the way down as he held mommy's hand in one of his own little hands, and one of daddy's tentacles in the other.

Ziggy's skin rippled the patterns of amusement. I was glad his vocoder didn't laugh. They still didn't have them sounding normal when they translated for laughter. Right now they were using a recorded laugh and coming from Ziggy, that just didn't sound right, so he'd toggled laughter off. I could read the patterns and colors on his skin though.

"Wow, I can't wait to go swimming, mommy."

"You've been swimming at home, Danny," I said, smiling.

"This will be real swimming, mommy," he said. "It's much better than a swimming pool when you swim in the sea, isn't it daddy?"

"It is, Danny," Ziggy said, another tentacle curling around my shoulders. "We'll go swimming together tomorrow."

"Yaaaayyyyyyy," little Danny just about jumped out of his restraints, colors flickering across his skin almost too fast for me to read.

"Initiating deorbital burn shortly. Counting down. Five four three two one zero," an automated voice said, and the pressure cut in.

"Don't be scared, mommy," little Danny said confidently, his hand gripping mine tighter as his skin rippled the soothing colors of a warm summer sky, and Ziggy's rippled back. "Daddy says this is a civilian version of the Xian Y-20 shuttle, it's perfectly safe. Daddy says it's nothing like a combat drop."

Ziggy rippled amusement, but another of his tentacles slid across and curled around me comfortingly. "He is correct, Stardust," he said. "This shuttle is very good design."

I smiled. I was sure it was. My mom had helped design it, back when I was in high school, well before I'd met Ziggy.

"This is so cool, mommy," little Danny said as we began to burn down through the upper atmosphere, incandescence surrounding us.

"We're banking now, mommy," little Danny said excitedly, as we turned, the pilot taking us down in a long series of sweeping S-curves, the sounds of our reentry penetrating through the hull and the thick layers of insulation. "It helps us slow down. Wow, I can't wait for us to land on Earth."

"Welcome to Xī-ní, Beak Commander Yai!lith, Comrade Citizen-Major Wong-Yai!lith." The tall blonde Security-Captain with that weird Aodaliyan drawl snapped out a salute, nodding to Security-Major Chu, as our security team fanned out around us, moving off the shuttle ramp and into the terminal. Me, I felt like kneeling down and kissing the ground. "Security-Captain Han-Smythe, commanding your local security detachment. There's an official greeting party and the press waiting for you, if you'd like to come this way please."

Red rope barriers kept the exit path clear for us and held back the traveling masses as we walked through arrivals. The red and gold carpet made it clear where we were going. It would've been hard for us to get lost, even without our official guide. Ziggy flowed beside me, one tentacle curled around my waist, the tip in my hand, the others mostly on the carpet, although every now and then the odd one would curl into the air at random. Walking beside Ziggy, smiling and occasionally waving for the mobiles that were flashing, I could make out the occasional voices.

"Who are they mommy? Are they important?"

"Of course they are, Sheila. It's that lady from the moon that's married to an alien, they had something about them on Xinhua yesterday. They're here for a vacation."

"Hey, look! That's one of those Heptapods...you know, those aliens..."

"That's Stardust Wong, you know, the one that married that alien..."

"That must be him..."

"He's one of those Heptapod Spider Killers, you know, like our Space Dragons..."

"She's so beautiful....do you remember her wedding on the news...the old Chairman himself was there."

I heard the comments about Ziggy's tentacles too, but I ignored them of course. Honestly, I'd heard that Aodalyians could be a little crass and blunt sometimes, but I mean, goodness! I did smile though, thinking of tonight...vacation...our own holiday, and Jenny was with us to look after little Danny, so it'd just be me and Ziggy. He was always so eager to fertilize my eggs and I was really looking forward to this evening. Ziggy could fertilize my eggs for hours with all those tentacles, and maybe we should try for another little one while we were down here dirtside.

"Look at their little boy, isn't he sooooo cute..."

I smiled when I heard that one, because little Danfeng was cute, all the way from his toes to the tips of his cute little fingers and his darling little tentacles, which made manners so hard to teach. We still weren't sure if little Danny's tentacles had the same autonomous brains that Ziggy's tentacles had, but the way they did things at random, it seemed like it. The experts said it was still too early to determine that for sure, but the experts weren't trying to teach him to use chopsticks. It could be quite dangerous when they got excited. Sushi days were really bad, and I don't ever want to talk about the goldfish tank.

Those goldfish had been a wedding gift from the Mayor of New Shanghai, where I'd grown up, and some of them had been dreadfully rare. I'd almost died when I'd seen little Danny in there with them. Well, what was left of them by then. They were even rarer on Luna, considering they'd been lifted up to New Beijing from Gold Mountain Province. People used to come to our tunnel to see them all the time, and my dad had had a real job getting replacements sent up in time for that official visit.

"This way, Beak Commander Yai!lith, Comrade Citizen-Major Wong-Yai!lith." The tall blonde Security-Captain gestured, our security escort moving in a ring around us.

After just over four years of being married to Ziggy, I was used to our security. The arrangements had been made well before our trip down, because I was still getting those horrible xenophobic death threats, and someone had actually tried to attack me and little Danny back on Luna, on that shopping trip to Novy Hong Kong, just before Ziggy returned from that last mission. It'd been awful, but Security-Major Chu's team had been there, and they'd dealt with it before that horrible crazed xenophobe had gotten anywhere near us. Still, it'd been scary, and I was so happy Ziggy was back.

No-one but no-one was getting past Ziggy's tentacles to attack me or little Danny. The press were nowhere near as bad as they'd been four years ago either, back when we'd married, thank goodness. I was used to them now, and dad had been a great coach to start with. He still was. My personal assistant, Karmen, was almost as good, and she was right beside us.

"I have your speech loaded in your implant, Stardust," she said, adjusting my dress whites as we walked, checking out Ziggy's black and silver harness. "The Embassy loaded yours for you, Beak Commander Yai!lith. Jenny will take Danny straight to the house down at Bondi from here. The speeches are short but there's a small reception afterwards. Two hours max, and then we'll move to the hotel. Time to settle in, a formal banquet with the Governor of Aodaliya and other dignitaries this evening, and then you're mostly free for your vacation. Just the occasional press conference and some casual meet the press moments for those one-on--one interviews."

"Thank you, Karmen," Ziggy said, his tentacles curling and twisting.

"She's so beautiful, mommy, she's like a fairy Princess..."

"Wow, daddy, that alien's really a Spider Killer. My news feed says so. Look at those swords he's wearing. Can I be a spider killer when I grow up, daddy?"

"Jeez Snowy, look at those tits...I'd tit-fuck that bitch in a second."

"Shut 'ya face, Bruce, you drongo. Look at her fuckin' security...it's youse'd be fucked if you even look at her wrong...she's one of them fuerdai, you dickhead."

I heard that alright. So did Security Captain Han-Smythe, he was already speaking into his headset. On the security channel, and I switched across.

"...two blonde surfers by the rope barrier. Charges: Insulting comments about..."

I did see the blonde young Aodalyian who'd said that myself, and my eyes met his. Bruce, I guess. I smiled as he paled, remembering what my dad had said about Aodalyians.

"There's still a big non-Chinese minority in Aodalyia, Stardust, even with all the inter-marriage and encouraged emigration to the colony worlds that's been going on over the last hundred years to get rid of any holdouts, and the Zhōngguó Gòngchǎndǎng Zhōngyāng Jūnshì Wěiyuánhuì is hoping that we can use your vacation in Aodalyia to promote ongoing assimilation. The old Aodalyian culture, it's pretty strong and a lot of them are only half-heartedly assimilated, even after a hundred years, so whatever you can do, Stardust. Probably not much, but every little helps."

He'd chuckled. "They're strange people, the native Aodaliyans, but if you get on their right side, they're what they themselves call 'good blokes,' and you know their military units, those Aodaliyan militia units are some of our best. Their old army, back before we liberated them, gave us one helluva fight back a hundred years ago."

Yeah, I looked Bruce over, and the guy with him, and it was a split second decision before we walked past them, because I could see Security closing in through the crowd. Surfing shorts. Ratty old tees, and was that a couple of surfboards on the luggage trolley behind them? Reminded me a bit of the Joeboys I used to run with back when I was a rebellious teenager and just arrived in New Beijing myself. I knew how I'd felt about security back then, and I knew how Security used to deal with the Joeboys that annoyed them or made too much trouble.

That'd almost been me, but for Ziggy and Chewy. Well, and my mom and dad, because my dad had been New Beijing Party Secretary. He still was, of course.

"Wait one," I said into my headset, cutting into the security channel with my override, my eyes holding Bruce's. "Leave this to me, please, Captain. No detaining them unless it's really necessary. Public Relations."

"Yes Ma'am," Captain Han-Smythe said, and I could hear him canceling that order as I cut back to my own channel.

"PR time, Karmen, make sure you're recording. If there's any press nearby, get them on us."

"Yes, Stardust," Karmen said.

"Ziggy, follow my lead, this is public relations for the media," I said, because Ziggy knew this was an important public relations gig, just as well as I did. Sometimes he clued in, sometimes he didn't. It was always better to be clear with him, and he did enjoy interacting with humans.

Our security team paused, forming an outside perimeter as I turned towards the rope barrier, Ziggy beside me, his skin mottling with that pattern that said confused but happy to go along?

Bruce didn't look confused at all, and neither did his buddy. They were glancing around, a little scared now as they took in all the security eyeing them, and other travelers edging away from them.

"You've really landed us in it now, Bruce, 'ya dickhead," the other one, Snowy, said.

We walked towards them, only a few steps, but enough that they knew who we were heading towards, and so did everyone around them.

"Hi," I said, hoping they understood Chinese. The briefing had said most of the white minority did, although there were still a few holdouts. They'd probably be shipped out to one of the colonies over the next couple of decades. "Are you two going surfing? Are those surfboards?"

"Uh, yes, ma'am," Bruce said. "We are, going surfing that is, down at Bondi."

"You're not from Xī-ní?" I asked.

"Uh, no ma'am," he said nervously. Sweating. "We're from Ài-lí sī-quán."

"Wow," I said. "That's in the middle of Aodalyia isn't it? Out in the desert. How long are you here in Xī-ní for?"

"A week, ma'am," the other one said.

"So are we," I said, smiling at the way his eyes kept dropping, then jerking back up. "I'm being so rude. Forgive me. I'm Stardust Wong-Yai!lith and this is my husband, Space Marine Beak Commander Ziggy Yai!lith from the Waterpaths of the Heptapods Space Navy. And you are?"

"Uh, I'm Bruce, ma'am. Bruce O'Day, and this is me mate, Snowy O'Donoghue."

"Are you good surfing?" Ziggy interjected.

"Uh, not bad, Sir," Snowy said after a second. "Come here for a few weeks every year." He actually managed to grin, which wasn't bad with Security eyeballing him and an alien talking to him. I could tell Captain Han-Smythe wasn't happy.

"Are you staying at Bondi?" I asked before Ziggy could say anything more.

"Uh, well, we're surfing at Bondi," Bruce said. "Haven't sorted out a place to stay yet, ma'am. We'll do that after we get there. Around Bondi's way too expensive for us."

"We are staying at Bondi," Ziggy said. "Is that not correct, Stardust?" One of his tentacles curled around my arm, another curled around my neck and caressed my face affectionately. I gave his tentacle a little kiss, enjoying that little shiver I felt under my fingertips.

"Press is present and now recording, Stardust, Beak-Commander." Karmen's voice cut in.

"No threats identified. Security is moving to low profile," Security-Captain Han-Smythe followed, before switching back to the Security channel, our security team moving back out of range of the press cams.

"Yes, Ziggy," I said. "We're staying right across the road from the beach."

Ziggy loved the sea, and he'd never been dirtside before, not on Terra anyhow. Dad had arranged the house out at Bondi specially. It was for the Party high-ups like my dad, not for someone like me, but dad had a lot more guanxi these days, and his connections with the Heptapods, thanks to him being Ziggy's father-in-law, had really helped. Dad was one of the go-to's now for anything Heptapod, and guess who was always being pulled in to assist.

Guess who'd used his guanxi to pull a few favors and book that house for us. I sure didn't have enough of my own yet to pull that one. Not yet.

"I would like to learn to surf," Ziggy said. "Can you teach to surf?"

"Us?" Snowy said, looking like he'd been smacked in the face by a wet fish.

"Yes," Ziggy said. "You. We do not know any humans who surf. Stardust, can you arrange?"

I kind of felt like I'd been slapped in the face by a wet fish myself. I hadn't expected this, but okay, I'd had four years of being surprised and the press was on us. Karmen had actually put together a short list of surfing instructors, but we'd left it until we arrived and could meet them. Still, press. This was going to be on the news. Milk it, Stardust.

I smiled, and I knew what that smile did to guys.

Bruce and Snowy looked a bit stunned.

"Would you like to?" I asked. "Ziggy really would like to learn to surf, if you think you can help teach him, it'd be wonderful."

Not to mention what it would do to have a couple of the Aodaliyan native minority teaching Ziggy. The Party would love it, and I could think of half a dozen ways we could play this to the media. Karmen could probably think of a dozen more.

"Genius move, Stardust," Karmen cut in. "Aodaliyan Broadcasting Corporation has already switched to live coverage. They just showed clips from your wedding. The house has servants quarters, invite them to stay, we can find rooms for them."

"Security assessment complete," Security-Major Chu cut in. "No threat. Typical Aodalyian minority, no political record."

"What we call Bogans here," Captain Han-Smythe added.

"More or less a Joeboy equivalent, Stardust." Chewy grinned. He knew all about me and Joeboys. From before I met Ziggy, of course, when he'd been my Security liaison and I'd dated all those Second Republic fascists passing through New Beijing on their way to the frontlines, and of course I'd been a patriotic citizen of the Hegemony even if I did enjoy dating them. I'd passed on everything they mentioned to Chewy.

"Uh, yeah, sure," Bruce said, eying Ziggy. "We'll need a bloody big Malibu board for your husband though, ma'am."

"Please call me Stardust," I said warmly. "This is wonderful. And you said you needed to find somewhere to stay?"

"Uh, yes, ma'am...I mean, uh, yes, Stardust." Snowy blushed.

"You don't mind being on the news?" I asked. "Uh, Ziggy and I are used to it, but perhaps..."

"Don't mind at all, ma'am," Bruce said. "Me mates back in Ài-lí are never gonna believe this unless they see us."