The Ctenophorian

'Wow,' Nadine said, 'the only thing on Earth that I can think of that comes closest to your form of mating is a deep-sea species known as the anglerfish. The male is many times smaller than the female. He latches onto her with his mouth near her reproductive organ so that he fertilizes her roe as they emerge. The male remains attached to her and gradually physically merges with her, in effect, becoming her sperm-producing appendage. When she dies, he dies.'

'That sounds awful,' Grape said. 'Your world really is full of some very strange creatures.' He backed into the water. I'm going to my space pod now. I'll be back the day after tomorrow to tell you what I found. Then I will make preparations to return to Ctenophoria.'

Nadine was exhausted but also hungry. She filled herself with fruit and coconuts and then fell asleep. When she woke up it was night. She thought about Grape, his mission and her unbelievably weird experiences to date. She would miss Grape once he was gone. And she would be left alone as the bearer of fantastic knowledge that no one would ever believe. Then she fell asleep again.

11 The Discovery

Grape re-appeared as scheduled. She sensed his excitment but was unsure that she was reading his body language correctly. After all, he was an alien.

Nadine waded into the water until the two friends met about two meters off shore in shallow water.

'I found it! I found it!' Grape chortled in absolute delight. 'Your ovum has the tRNA molecule that we've spent years looking for. Our salvation lies in your ovum, a human one at that!'

Nadine was happy and excited for him but she had to wonder, 'How is he going transport one measly molecule across interstellar space?'

'How is that possible?' she asked in genuine wonderment.

'You gave me the clue, you brilliant female human.'

'Yes, when you pointed out that, as species, we both must have an intelligence gene. As improbable as it was, it's the only molecule that we have in common.' He paused. 'Let me rephrase this more correctly. You share a female variation of the intelligence molecule that is identical to the intelligence molecule of our females. We can replace the defective molecules in our females with your human molecules.'

Then Grape paused again but his time for a longer period.

'What's the problem?' Nadine asked.

'Finding the molecule led to the ovum's destruction.'

'Then get another one from me,' she suggested. 'I don't mind,' she added.

'Especially since I got some wonderful orgasms out of it,' she told herself.

'There's another problem?' she asked.

'Yes, transportation,' he said, 'I don't have the right equipment to ensure the safe passage of a human ovum from Earth to Ctenophoria.'

'Oh,' she thought to herself, 'so near and yet so far.'

To him, she projected, "And there's no solution?'

'There's only one obvious solution.'

'And that is... she began to say uncomfortably.'

'I think you already have an inking what the solution is.' He didn't wait for her to answer. 'You yourself are the only safe way to carry a live ovum from this planet to mine.'

'Does this mean you're going abduct me against my will to save your people?'

'I could abduct you easily by taking control of your mind as well as your body,' Grape said sadly, 'but you are my friend and, in a very real way, you are also my colleague and, potentially, the saviour of my people. On my world, I would have no right to take force a fellow Ctenophorian to act against her will. I will not so here.'

'So, it's pointless for you to take another ovum unless I go and you're not going to abduct. Does that sum it up?' she asked.

'That's correct,' he replied, obviously dejected.

'What makes you think I could even survive such a voyage across interstellar space and I thought you only had room for one.'

'That's true.'

'Then how would you ever be able to transport me even if I agreed to go voluntarily.'

'I would swallow you,' he informed her and keep you inside me until we reach my planet.'

'Swallow me? Alive? You might be able to swallow a female of your own species but what makes you think you could swallow me. What if you swallowed me to your stomach by mistake? And how would I survive inside you if you don't digest me?'

"I have no plans to turn a friend and an intelligent life form into food,' he said emphatically. 'Surely you must believe that by now. I've had many chances to terminate you, yet here you are.'

Nadine was contrite. 'Sorry,' Nadine apologized. 'Just tell me more about how you think it could work.'

'I've explained to you already that we swallow our females because that is what we have to do to mate. During the mating, an actual physical but temporary physical merger takes place between male and female. Physical merger is necessary for the female to survive while she is inside the male. She neither eats or breathes because the mail provides for her as well as himself. When the mating ends, the female is disgorged and resumes breathing and eating on her own.'

'So, that's why males of your species are twice the size of females.'

'Correct,' Grape confirmed. 'Your male sea lions are twice the size of females to fight off other males and dominate a large number of females. Our disproportionate dimorphism has nothing to do with sexual aggression, and everything to do with the way we mate.'

'Are you implying that a similar union between you and me is possible?'

"Yes, I did numerous tests. I actually could have told you about discovering the tRNA molecule in your ovum yesterday but I needed to look into how it could be transported. I also used the genetic material from your ovum to determine if swallowing you was an option.'

'And is it?'

'Yes, it is,' Grape answered.

Nadine was silent for a long time. Then she said, 'And you want me to go with you inside you?'

'I do.' Without waiting for an answer, Grape headed out to sea. 'I'm going to begin preparations for my departure,' he informed her. 'Before I leave, I will ask for your answer. I will accept your answer, no matter what it is'

'When do you think you'll be ready?' she asked.

'About two days.' Then he was gone.

Two days past, then a third day. Nadine had begun to wonder if he had decided to leave without asking her.'

Grape showed up on the third day. 'I'm sorry for being late. It took me longer than I expected to remove any trace of my presence on your planet.'

Without waiting for his question, she asked. 'How will I survive on your planet?'

'Our air is very similar to yours. You will use the lodging that I have at my disposal for my research on land. As we are both carbon-based species, we should be able to convert our food into a form that, if not palatable, will at least meet your nutritional needs. My tests on your body provided me with valuable insights as how this can be done.'

'What about the voyage to your planet. What am I going to do?'

'Nothing really, you and I will mate. We will stay in a merged physical state until we reach my planet. My body will treat as if you were a Ctenophorian female.'

"But I'll get bored,' she objected.

'I thought about that,' he told her. 'If you're willing, I can make the trip both pleasant and seem short.'

'How?'

'When you are conscious, and because we are physically mated, we will enjoy mutually satisfying orgasms. I believe my penis will fit you perfectly and I am in need of sexual satisfaction. But your body and mind also need to rest. So, I would like to have your permission to control your autonomic nervous system so that I can keep you in long periods of sleep while the efficiency of your bodily functions.'

'Are you going to fuck me in my sleep?' she asked in jest.

'No, Nadine, I will not although I may have a very long-lasting erection. But I need to rest and to sleep as well, and to think about the future of what we are going to do when we arrive on Ctenophoria.'

'I trust you, Grape. I will go with you and help save your people.'

'In the case, the next step if for me to swallow you,' Grape told her. 'Once we are fully merged, you will get your oxygen from me. My control of your autonomic response will give you the illusion that you are still breathing although your lungs will stop functioning when your body realizes it doesn't need to use them. That same control will activate your breathing when I disgorge you at our destination.'

'So, what do I do?' she asked.

'Before I tell you, I have to ask if you want to leave a message behind for your friends and colleagues.'

'No,' she said, 'I've been travelling the world too much to have permanent possessions.'

'I suggest you take some clothes with you in case you need some form of protection against our climate's elements, which by the way, is similar to yours,' Grape said. 'Generally, though, you will find little need for them but take them anyway.'

Nadine stuck two changes of clothing in her bag, along with her ID and wallet, 'That's it.'

'Excellent, Grape, said, 'it won't take up much room.

'Now what?' she asked.

'Rinse the sand off your body and then climb in my mouth.'

Nadine did as he asked. She was naked of course because clothes would interfere with their physical merger. She discovered that he had a large tongue although it was disproportionate smaller when compared to a human's tongue. He did use his tongue to talk. She assumed he used it to eat too. She wondered if he used it for sexual foreplay. She had a picture of Grape licking a female's Ctenophorian's rear orifice. Naughtily, she projected the image to Grape.

'Yes, we do that.' He seemed to be laughing.

Nadine waited for further instructions.

'Lie on your belly,' he said.

Nadine found herself slipping on his tongue. He seemed to be sucking on her naked body like a child would suck a lollipop. She managed to stay in position by holding onto the hard calcium-like material around the edge of his mouth. His slurping of her torso with his tongue was turning her on. She aligned herself with his throat.

'That's right,' Grape said in her mind, 'very good. Now let go. Let me do the rest. And let me control your autonomic nervous system!'

'Okay,' she said, here it goes,' and released her hold on his chitinous lips. He lifted his mouth so that she began to slide down his throat. She felt the heat of his body and the moisture in his narrowing passage at the same as she as she was losing sight of the last gimmer of outside light.

As Nadine slid down his throat, she could feel his throat pressing and nudging her deeper into her host's body. Then she had few moments when it seemed that she was holding her breath. Then she realized that Grape was now controlling her autonomic processes in preparation for their imminent physical union once she was fully inside the cavity that was evolutionarily designed to contain a female mate.

Grape's reproductive channel, she couldn't think of a better way to name it, was constantly massaging all parts of her body. It aroused her despite the circumstances she was in. Or maybe because of it. Then she remembered she had basically given Grape permission to do with her mind whatever he needed to do in order to make her comfortable. It was working too because her pussy was soaking wet. She shivered at the thought that, if he had been an actual predator intent on eating her, he would have seduced her into accepting her own demise.

She felt a hot fleshing projection poke at her pussy. It was his penis. It was bigger than those of her past lovers. Even then, it slid easily, if tightly, into her wet pussy initiating the first of what would be the first of many orgasms during her voyage through interstellar space. She felt the walls Grape's reproductive cavity constantly and sensually massaging her at same time. It relaxed her. As she reached her peak, Grape gushed into her as well. She expected him to take his pleasure with her as often as possible. When it came to sex, it seemed that Ctenophorian males were not all that different from human males. Nadine had the happy thought that Ctenophorian males had more staying power.

As these thoughts flashed through her mind, she realized that she was not suffocating at all despite being a dark, very confined space. Their physical merger had taken place quickly. At the same, Grape's control of her mind kept her claustrophobia at bay. When he moved, no doubt heading for his space pod, his penis moved inside her. Shecame

But soon she was asleep. She was unaware that Grape had induced sleep in her. Her orgasmic writhing inside her body had made it difficult for him to concentrate on the task of leaving Earth for home. He did not awaken her until he had set the coordinates for his home planet. Then he too slept.

During the trip home, Grape made sure that he consumed enough nutrition to feed both his body and the female human within. When he woke her up, they talked about each other's world and learned more about them. Other times, they had Ctenophorian-style sex.

Sleep, talk and sex made the months of space travel seem like only days.

12 Epilogue

When Nadine's colleagues came back to pick up Nadine, they could not find her although they did find her encampment. Search parties were sent out to look for her on the island and the surrounding seas although they focussed on the coast near where her encampment was located. They found no trace of her and presumed that she was dead.

On Ctenophoria, the sentient comb jellies marvelled at the strange intelligent creature that their colleague, Grape, had brought back with him. They thought she was one the ugliest and weirdest creatures that they had ever seen. Its biological functions seemed to be distressingly complex. Yet, they were also grateful and joyous. Grape had found the tRNA molecule that would save their species and this alien female's had volunteered herself to help them end their species' fertility crisis.

Grape led the research team. He was considered a genius. He was, by far, the highest authority in four sciences, astronomy, ectobiology, xenobiology and humanology. Grape and his team extracted an egg and obtained the needed tRNA molecule directly from it. They were able to replicate the molecule, made a serum and then injected it in female Ctenophorians who had volunteered for the clinical trials. The serum sent the tRNA molecules straight to the Ctenophorian ova and replaced the defective molecule with the untampered version coming from the human female.

The Ctenophorian scientists learned that the human female usually released only one ovum per Earth month, meaning that only 300 to 400 ova would be released during an average woman's lifetime.

They were amazed that she had almost 50,000 ova in her ovaries, meaning that most of them were redundant and would go to waste. Nadine agreed to allow the Ctenophorians to harvest about 40,000 ova. She wanted to keep the rest just in case she decided to become a mother someday. With that many ova, the Ctenophorians could ramp up production on a massive scale and vaccinate every female on the planet.

Although Grape had kept his presence on Earth a secret, the Ctenophorian High Council decided that the time had come to make contact with Earth despite the aggressive and violent history of this species on its own planet. In Nadine, they saw that the species had another good side to it. Besides, there was so much to learn and so much to discover.

The Ctenophorians contacted Earth, at first by sending messages through their space transmission system, which was far more advanced that what Earth had. They sent signals to Earth's satellites and devised ways to translate their thoughts into signals that could be understood the human's auditory organs.

After three years of negotiations, the two planets reached an agreement. Ctenophoria could send an ambassador to Earth to an Island in the Pacific Ocean whose location would be kept secret to discourage tourists and curiosity seekers. Grape would become Ctenophoria's first Ambassador to Earth.

So Grape and Nadine returned to Earth. A few years later, Nadine found herself a husband who had to agree to one condition. She eventually bore him two children. Grape learned that human children were smaller versions of their parents. In contrast, Ctenophorians children emerged as worms and gradually changed shape as they matured into adults.

And what was Nadine's condition? Any husband of hers had to be willing to share her with the Ambassador. As it turned out, Nadine's husband a voyeuristic streak. He actually enjoyed sharing his wife with the Ambassador. It was an unbelievably wild turn-on to watch Grape swallow his wife whole, and then, thanks to Grape's translucent body, see her enjoying multiple orgasms while she was inside her alien lover's body.

And, yes, Grape became the most famous scientist in the history of Ctenophoria history. And, yes, many women on Earth began to name their daughters after Earth's most eminent scientist. Nadine was now enjoying the same distinction and status on Earth as Grape enjoyed on Ctenophoria.