Planet of the Tentacons

Talia noticed Stenvo staring intently at her, as if wondering if she would cooperate.

"Sure," she said. "What do you need from me?"

"This way."

The Noid directed her to a door that opened to a smaller chamber to the side. Talia felt nervous about being separated from the other humans, but Carson Veen went with her. She didn't like him, but she was grateful for his presence. The Noid beckoned her to sit in a chair with large armrests, next to an upright, oblong device with blinking lights that she guessed was a Tentacon computer. It was the first time she had seen one.

She sat in the chair and the Noid quickly attached several green metal disks to her forehead, hands, heart, and over her femoral artery. They were cool to the touch, and the one on her thigh nearly made her jump.

"What are those for?" she asked. She couldn't still her nervousness.

"We will be playing recordings of Tentacons speaking in English," the Noid said. "The disks will record your approval/disapproval reaction. It will monitor heart rate, blood pressure, skin temperature, pupil dilation, and brain waves. The translator will process your reactions and help us calibrate the translators so when the Tentacons speak the speech will sound more normal to you. Human languages are very hard for my masters to learn.

"Inflection is a . . . bitch, I think you might say."

Talia had to smile at that, despite her unease. "Very good," she said.

"I got that from one of your vocabulary units," the Noid said, his mouth folding into an unsettling imitation of a grin.

"Let's begin the calibration," he said.

A stream of statements and questions, in a variety of pitches and inflection, played over a small speaker to her side. Most of the questions were simple and odd: do you like furry cats? Do you prefer a white house? She guessed that the content wasn't important; the purpose of the calibration was to register how her body and face reacted to the manner in which the voice spoke.

It lasted two hours. When she was done, Talia was exhausted. She sat quietly in the chair for a minute before rising. She was alone in the side chamber, but for the stooped Noid staring at her. Carson Veen had left without her noticing.

"Let's go back," the Noid said.

Talia expected the lord's chamber to be full, with humans and Tentacons in the midst of negotiations. But the only figures in the chamber were Dars Stenvo and Carson Veen. Veen's expression was wolfish, as usual; Stenvo's was harder to read.

"Where is everyone?" she asked. "Where's Tracy?"

"Professor Partaro and Mr. Hines are meeting with the Tentacon biologists as we speak," Stenvo said. "Near here. We're going to meet the rest of the crew at a separate location. Our geologists are communicating with Tentacon geologists, thanks in part to your translator. Tracy will meet us there later. Let's go."

Stenvo led, and Talia followed. Carson brought up the rear. Talia disliked having her backside exposed to his eyes, but there was nothing she could do. A small robot led the three of them into a shuttle bay, with an enormous window overlooking the city.

"Where's the shuttle?" Talia asked.

"It's on its way," Stenvo answered.

For a few minutes the three of them stood at the window, no one saying anything. Stenvo appeared deep in thought. He broke the silence.

"I've led this company for 30 years," he said. "My father led it before me. He always wanted me to follow him. I didn't want to, when I was young. I wanted to be a physicist. But father wouldn't accept that. He said our company had a great mission, and it was my duty to fulfill it.

"My duty. Hmmm. I didn't believe that for a long time. I didn't know what that word meant. But father became ill when I was 31. On his deathbed I pledged to him that I would do my duty. And I did. I have, to this day."

Stenvo didn't look at her. He looked out the window, straight and unmoving, as he spoke. Talia tried to read his face. Out of the side of her eye she could tell Carson was staring at her, standing close.

"Today is the culmination of that duty, and of our company's mission. We all have to do our duty, Professor Denzer. Me, Carson, you." He turned his face to her. Still inscrutable.

Talia saw a dark point in the sky outside the window grow larger as it drew closer. The shuttle.

"This is the finest moment in our company's history. By securing this deal, we have locked up the greatest reserves of Osnerium in the galaxy. We have the key to Transit, the key to the galactic economy."

Talia was confused.

"Deal? Is it done already?"

"Yes," Stenvo said. "We finished negotiations while you were working on the translator. It wasn't easy. Lots of back and forth. They were very demanding. But, finally, we sealed the deal by offering Odorin the one thing he really wanted."

"What?" she asked.

"You."

Talia's face, shocked and blank at first, filled with understanding.

"You son of a . . . ." Carson's hand suddenly slapped against her triceps, silencing her. He held a needle between his fingers. She felt the prick in her skin. Two moments later her head went cloudy. Her knees buckled. Stenvo took her hand, and he guided her gently to the floor.

"We all have to do our duty, Professor Denzer," he said. "I am sure you will do yours."

Fog encircled her, crowding out the light. Dars Stenvo's face floated away. Talia's eyes fluttered, and blackness took her.

Chapter 6.

She awoke slowly. Her eyes blinked open and she saw a graceful hand on a soft, irregular green surface in front of her. The hand didn't move. It took her half a minute to realize the hand was hers. Her eyes traced the arms connected to it and she realized with relief that it was still connected to her, although she couldn't feel it yet.

The feeling came eventually, and Talia sat up. Her head was heavy, and the room spun. She sat in the lord's chamber, alone, on a platform made of soft, green sponge, about 12 feet square, near the edge of the water. She sat motionless on the platform until her light-headedness passed.

The room was perfectly quiet and still, save for a light mist wafting through the air. Talia stood up. The chamber seemed much larger now that it was empty. She stumbled off the platform, steadying herself on the smooth floor. She walked quickly to the wall, away from the water. The wall curved in a semicircle opposite the water's edge. The outlines of three doors were visible. Talia and her crew had come from the middle one, so she tried it first. All she could see was a thin crack in the wall marking its perimeter. There were no handles to pull it, and pushing against it yielded nothing. She tried the door to her right, and then the door on her left, with the same result.

She found no way to get out. She went back to the middle door and pounded on it again, this time yelling as loudly as she could. The only response she heard was the echo of her voice bouncing off the far walls of the chamber.

The echo faded and Talia stood in silence. The air was warm and humid. Her skin was sticky and moist. Talia didn't know what to do or where to go, but she didn't want to go near the water. She turned away from the wall and leaned against it, looking out over the chamber, which faded into darkness on the far side, through the mist and over the water.

The surface of the water rippled, perhaps 30 feet from the edge. Talia's skin grew colder. Goosebumps covered her arms.

The rippling stopped, and then it started again.

Talia looked in every direction. There was nowhere she could go. She kept her back to the wall, 30 feet or so from the water.

The rippling on the water grew, and in its midst a blue-gray mound rose above the surface and glided toward the water's edge, in Talia's direction. The mound rose out of the water as it neared the floor, and the Tentacon lord rose suddenly out of the pool, water pouring off his body and countless tentacles, waving in very direction, rising with it.

Odorin stopped just beyond the water's edge. His thick bottom tentacles lay partly submerged beneath the shallow water, but the rest of his massive, oblong body and tentacles, which swayed and undulated constantly, were exposed. His eyes focused on Talia. He said nothing to her for a minute. Talia pressed her back against the wall, trying to put whatever distance she could between herself and the Tentacon.

"Talia," he said, "You have nothing to fear."

"Oh!" she cried, surprised. He hadn't spoken before, and she hadn't expected him to speak. Then she noticed, for the first time, the device fixed to the side of his mouth, colored to blend in with his skin. She knew instantly what it was: a translator, programmed in part by her. She heard the low gurgling hiss of the Tentacon's actual voice beneath the English words, but it was the translated voice that struck her. His voice was a soft, comforting baritone, pleasant and unthreatening. It was faintly familiar. Then she knew what they'd done. The exercise that morning hadn't been to help the Tentacons communicate with the crew from Stenvo. It had been to discover the pitch, inflection, and timber of voice that would most appeal to Talia. And it worked. Odorin's translated voice surprised her with its warmth and reassurance.

"Come closer, Talia," Odorin urged.

"What --." She found her voice, and it sounded small and reedy after his. "What do you want?"

"I want to talk to you," he said. "I will not hurt you."

The pull of his voice was powerful. Talia took a step forward before stopping herself. She shook her head. It was more than just her voice. Her skin flushed. As before, the mist affected her. And there was something else, too -- an unseen force emanating from Odorin.

"I'd rather stay here," she said. "I would like to leave. Where is the rest of the crew? Where's Tracy?"

"I think you know where the crew are," Odorin said. "They have left and are on their way back to Earth. Stenvo is not coming back for you. As for Professor Partaro, she is becoming acquainted with one of my cousins."

Talia stifled a scream.

"Come here, Talia," Odorin continued. "Come to the water's edge and lie on this bed, and we will talk."

"No," she said.

The Tentacon's body rippled and his eyes widened with what Talia guessed was displeasure. Two tentacles shot forward, crossed the span of the floor in less than a second, and pounded the back wall to either side of Talia, not more than a foot from her. The wall shook, and flakes of stone fell to the ground from where the tentacles hit the wall. The tentacles ended in diamond-shaped pads with curved barbs at each point.

"I have no wish to force you, Talia," the Tentacon lord said, his voice still low and soft and pleasing. "But I could. Come here and sit on this bed. We will talk. I will not hurt you."

The tentacles on either side of her flexed and pulsed, as though to emphasize her powerlessness against his will if she tried to defy it.

"O.K.," she said. She was disgusted at her meek submission to his words, but she had no idea what else to do.

The tentacles pulled back as quickly as they'd pressed forward. Odorin retracted them and they lay twisting against his body once more.

Talia put one slippered foot forward, and then the next, and she walked to the spongy bed. When she reached it she stood still, the bed between Odorin and herself.

"Come sit on the bed," Odorin said. He said it calmly, with no hint of threat in his tone, but Talia saw the muscles ripple under his skin. She had nowhere else to go. She shook the slippers off and stepped up on the bed and sat down. The spongy surface gave way where it contacted her hands and feet and bottom as she sat in front the Tentacon lord. His eyes, wide and never blinking, stared at her. Talia waited.

The tentacles that had crashed against the wall protruded again from the Tentacon's body, but this time slowly and sinuously. The tentacles were heavy, and the razor-sharp barbs at their tips gleamed in the low chamber light. Talia's heart beat faster. She wanted to jump off the bed and run away, but there was no place to run, and fear paralyzed her and held her fast to the sponge bed.

A heavy tentacle touched her left ankle. Talia thought its weight would crush her leg, but she barely felt it -- she felt nothing more than the whisper of a caress. Its skin against hers was slimy, but pleasantly warm. The tentacle traced the distance from her ankle to her knee, leaving a translucent, blue moist film on her shin. Talia caught her breath. The other tentacle traced the same path on the other leg.

The tentacles moved forward, up her body, over her thin dress. Each moved over and felt a breast at the same time as the other. The fear and anticipation became too much, and Talia closed her eyes and whimpered. When the ends of the tentacles reached the neck of her dress, they stopped. The Tentacon did nothing, once again. Talia opened her eyes and looked at the Tentacon. She had no idea what he was thinking; his thoughts and feelings were hidden from her behind his hideous, alien form.

Suddenly, the barbs closed over the dress at the neck and pulled and sliced, and the dress was torn down the front and pulled back. Talia's front lay naked and exposed to the Tentacon's view. The tentacles grabbed and rent the dress more. They pulled it out from under her and threw it to the floor to the side of the bed.

Talia shivered, nude and frightened in front of Odorin. He pulled his tentacles back, not all the way, but to the edge of the bed. They both sat still and quiet until the Tentacon broke the silence.

"Do you know what happens next?" he said.

"You're going to rape me."

He paused before responding, his body swaying this way and that, languidly. A tentacle scooped water from the pool with a cupped end and poured it over his body.

"Rape," he said. "Rape is an Earth concept. We don't recognize it here on Tentacon. But even if we did, I wouldn't rape you. I want to know you, Talia Denzer, but not that way."

"But you do intend . . . to have me?"

"Sexually? Yes. Very much. I've waited for this for a long time. I want to know you in other ways, too, but I want you in that way. Oh yes. But not by force."

"How then?"

"I'm going to seduce you."

Talia had to stifle a gasp of disbelief.

"Seduce me? With what? No offense, but you are hideous to me."

"No offense taken. I'm not going to seduce you with my good looks or charm, Talia. I'm going to seduce you with the thing you want most."

"And what's that?"

"Knowledge," he said. He let the word settle with her before talking again.

"It's always been the human weak spot," he said. "The search for knowledge. I've read your histories, your myths. Prometheus and fire. Adam and the fruit of the forbidden tree. Why not Talia Denzer, now, and her unquenchable thirst to know us and our languages? You don't even understand what I'm saying. You don't know how unusual your species is. We are not at all like you. Technologically, we're a generation ahead of you. Maybe a few years more than that, maybe a few years less. But we don't seek knowledge, we let it come to us. We knew that Transit was possible before you did. The mathematics of it was obvious to us. We understood the importance of Osnerium, and we found it in abundance on our planet. But we were in no hurry to use it. We didn't seek you out. We let you find us. When you did, we learned everything we needed to know from you.

"You humans look at things differently. You never wait. You plunge forward into the universe, buoyantly, innocently seeking knowledge, heedless of the consequences when you find it. Curiosity hasn't killed you -- not yet -- but it sure has done its work on your kind."

Odorin fell silent. He swayed and rocked in the shallow water and his eyes wandered and looked to either side of her before he refocused his attention on her. Every movement of his was unhurried.

Talia realized that the Tentacons knew humans far, far better than humans knew the Tentacons. She wondered why. He was right. She was 150 light years from home, having traded away everything that made her safe and secure -- all to gain knowledge. It would do her no good now.

"Are you familiar with Ling's Principle?" Odorin asked her.

"The theory of convergent evolution on different planets, yes," she replied.

"Ling's Principle is a lie. Not a mistake, a lie. It was a mistake at first, made by a foolish human scientist. But now, it's a deception, an invention. We've fed it. We created false information and gave it to your people. It is a mathematical impossibility that all the life in the known galaxy would evolve in nearly the same way, yielding life forms that so closely resemble one another. But we didn't want humans to know the truth. Not until it was time. We safeguarded the truth. I'll tell you the truth.

"We were created -- all of us -- by another species a long time ago. We call them the Makers. The Makers seeded planets with life, genetically encoded to evolve on parallel and similar tracks. The only trace they left was in the genetic code. We discovered it shortly before your species arrived. After your arrival we confirmed our theory by obtaining and studying the codes of other species. We don't know where this original species went. They disappeared millions of years ago."

"How do you know this? How do you know this and we don't?"

"Because the Makers left clues in our genetic code, but not in yours. They wanted us to find out. They had a special purpose for the Tentacons, alone among all species."

"What purpose?" Talia asked.

"To combine with another intelligent species from another planet. We had to discover which one. When your species arrived at our planet, we quickly learned from you all we could about all the other species. But we knew, almost from the first, with which species we were destined to join. Yours. Humans."

"That's not . . . possible." Talia's voice sounded weak and thin to her.

"It is possible," Odorin said. "It is destiny."

Talia looked to either side of her. There was nowhere she could go. The Tentacon lord's tentacles hung suspended in the air no more than ten feet away. They could catch her in an instant if she tried to run.

"Don't do this," she pleaded. "Let me go back to my companions."

"Companions?" he asked, mockery in the voice coming through the translator. The translator worked well, and Talia regretted that her own programming skill had enabled Odorin to communicate so forcefully and persuasively with her. "They were not your companions. Dars Stenvo sold you to me for exclusive rights to a mineral. Your 'companions' are millions of miles away, on their way to the wormhole station. I assure you they've forgotten you by now. They have more important things to deal with."

Talia put a hand to her face. She tried to steady herself but couldn't hold back a despairing sob.

"Do not be afraid, Talia Denzer," Odorin said. "We mean no harm. By joining, minds and bodies, our species will share, and benefit. You will have more knowledge than you ever dreamed possible. And you can use it for the benefit of your planet and all your kind."

Talia wanted to believe him, but she was afraid. His voice was calm and reasonable, his words plausible, his tone familiar and persuasive. But she was afraid.

"This will make you feel better, Talia," the Tentacon said, his voice low and soothing.

A slender tendril issued from the Tentacon's side, one she had not seen before, no thicker than her wrist, and ending at an appendage about the width and length of her thumb. Talia began to draw back, but she knew it was futile to do so, so she fought to quiet her fear and sat without moving. The tentacle snaked its way through the air until it stopped a few feet over her.

Blue gel suddenly erupted from the tentacle's tip, spraying and coating her body. Talia cried out with surprise, although the goo did not hurt. It was slimy, but warm and . . . somehow pleasant. It gave off an earthy, spicy scent. A strange feeling came over her entire body, now covered in a thin film of the gel. Her entire body was now painted dull, slate blue.