index


Message-ID: <54657asstr$1160273402@assm.asstr-mirror.org>
Reply-To: rivyavtry@myway.com
From: "Riv" <rivyavtry@myway.com>
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Subject: {ASSM} Thphalakia {Riv Yavtry} (sci-fi,nosex)
Lines: 158
Date: Sat, 07 Oct 2006 22:10:02 -0400
Path: assm.asstr-mirror.org!not-for-mail
Approved: <assm@asstr-mirror.org>
Newsgroups: alt.sex.stories.moderated,alt.sex.stories
Followup-To: alt.sex.stories.d


 



_______________________________________________
No banners. No pop-ups. No kidding.
Make My Way  your home on the Web - http://www.myway.com

<1st attachment, "Thphalakia.txt" begin>

The last system on the list to be surveyed, then back to Earth for an
overdue break. The system had five candidate planets; the inner planet
and three outer planets proved barren but the second planet looked very
promising. Its mass was similar to Earth, it had an oxygen-rich
atmosphere and an abundance of water.

Commander Jake Speed manoevred into low orbit around the planet and
activated the survey sensors. The planet showed no indications of being
inclement to human life and no indications of advanced technology, but
there were signs of habitation, including a large city-like
conurbation. Jake collated the information into a preliminary survey
report, then sent it via laserwave to Earth. If everything went well,
he might be away from the planet and back on Earth using the ship's
faster-than-light capabilities, before the report could get there.

As slowly as he possibly could, to avoid alarming the natives, Jake
coaxed the survey ship down to the planet's surface, landing on a flat
plain in clear sight of the city. All the buildings in the city were
single storey, and the natives showed up clearly on infra-red.
Unusually they didn't come out to investigate immediately - they seemed
to hold some sort of meeting in the city centre first. Eventually some
sort of decision must have been made because a single native detached
itself from the group and approached the ship.

The native stopped a short distance away, and sat down. The sensors
detected no malignant organisms in the atmosphere and the native
appeared to be no threat, so Jake lowered the defence shields and left
the ship through the airlock. In the open air he took a deep breath -
it smelled clean and fresh but not particularly fragrant.

The native got to his feet and stood facing Jake. Superficially it was
rather similar to a human - about 6 foot tall, a head with two eyes and
a mouth, a body with two arms and two legs - but also somewhat
dissimilar. The native wore no clothing but had a covering of black
hair or bristles. There was a pair of appendages halfway up the body
with no apparent function. The eyes were round, like an owl, giving an
appearance of both astonishment and wisdom. And on top of the head,
there were two vestigial antennae.

It was time to seed the Universal Translator. Jake pointed at the
survey ship and said "spaceship". He pointed at himself and said "man".
Then he pointed at the native and waited. The native quickly got the
idea and pointed at various objects, saying their names. The native
communicated by emitting sounds very like a lisping human would make.
Jake was confident that a sensible dialogue could begin quickly, and so
it proved.

Over the next few weeks, Jake built up a substantial rapport with the
native. The natives called their planet Thphlakia. They were the
superior life form. They had a sort of democracy. There had never been
a need for someone to represent their species before, so when Jake had
landed the meeting had been to elect an Ambassador. The Ambassador's
name was Erithphalos. The natives looked pretty much identical but
Erithphalos was the only one who spent much time with Jake - the others
were polite and would answer questions then go on their way. They were
a peaceful species, but they understood the concept of war because they
had ant-like colonial insects on the planet. They were an agricultural,
vegetarian species and their food tested as safe so Jake accepted
invitations to eat with them.

The most exciting discovery was a compound the Thphalakians harvested
from a species of tree like humans harvest rubber. It could be rolled
into thin sheets and used like paper, and indeed the Thphalakians had a
building containing a substantial quantity of books - Jake photographed
many of them in the hope that Earth scholars might be able to decipher
the hideously complex ideographic writing. But when poured into moulds
and subject to heat, the substance formed the bricks and tiles with a
strength approaching that of steel which the Thphalakians used to
construct their buildings.

Two things frustrated Jake. Firstly the Thphlakians refused to let him
take biological samples from them. Protocol dictated that he respect
their wishes. Secondly, he could find no clue as to how they
reproduced. Every time he tried to broach the issue the Universal
Translator emitted an error.
"How does your species reproduce?"
"ERROR - unable to translate."
"Where are your offspring?"
"ERROR - unable to translate."
Jake had identified orifices for the excretion of bodily wastes, but
nothing that appeared to have sexual functionality. Jake showed images
of human children but Erithphalos just stared at them with his owl-like
eyes, his expression permanently frozen into conveying wonder. He
showed Erithpalos his own sexual organs, even mastubating in front of
the Thphalakian to demonstrate how they worked. Again the inscrutable
silence. There appeared to be no mammals on Thphalakia that he could
use as an example to prime the Universal Translator

Jake realised that Erithphalos was getting larger. He asked about it.
"Erithphalos, are you putting on weight?"
"Yes Jake. It is nearly time. You should eat more too."
"Time for what?"
The latter question always produced an inscrutable silence, except
once when Erithphalos said something and the Universal Translator
barked out "ERROR - unable to translate." None of the other
Thphalakians seemed to be putting on weight and there was no evidence
of an impending winter season so the mystery remained unsolved.

The time had nearly come for Jake to leave. He had accomplished as much
of a survey as he could and was going to recommend a trade treaty and
embassy on Thphalakia. When he left the spaceship, where he had slept
every night on the planet, Erithphalos was waiting.
"Come Jake, it is time."
"Time for what?"
"Come with me and you will see."
Jake followed the Thphalakian into the city, slow progress because it
was now quite obese. Erithphalos led him into a building he had never
been in before. It was completely empty. Erithphalos grasped him in a
bear-hug and he suddenly felt very warm and drowsy.

Jake woke up with a start. The stench was awful and he was held tight
inside something leathery. Instinctively he lashed out, the leather
yielded and he collapsed, gasping, onto the floor.

Slowly his senses came together and he understood what had happened.
The Thphalakians were a warm-blooded insectoidal race which had lost
the ability to reproduce sexually, hence all were genetic clones. With
no pressure to pass on genes, knowledge had become the key. When a
Thphalakian learned a new skill or made a new discovery, it fattened
itself up in tandem with a colleague. The two then 'melded' inside a
coccoon, producing a fully grown meldling Thphalakian with most of the
knowledge of both melders. Jake looked at his body, only it wasn't
Jake's body. body. Original Jake was dead, shrivelled to virtually a
skeleton, consumed because he hadn't fattened himself up. Original
Erithpalos had survived, barely, almost sacrificing himself to
guarantee the success of the meld.

'He' inspected his new body, an ugly combination of patches of white
skin interspersed with black bristles, vestigial penis and testicles,
probably non-functional. The vestigial middle pair of legs had now
almost completely disappeared, as had the antennae. At least 'his' eyes
worked.

New Jake-Erithphalos carried Erithphalos out of the building in search
of food. There was no question of 'returning' to Earth now, 'his' duty
was to fatten himself up and meld with as many Thphalakians as possible
to spread Jake's knowledge and skills. Earthmen would come again
because of the preliminary survey report - not soon, because laserwave
was a slow way of communicating, but soon enough.  
<1st attachment end>


----- ASSM Moderation System Notice------
Notice: This post has been modified from its original
format.  The post was sent as an email attachment and
has been converted by ASSTR ASSM moderation software.
----- ASSM Moderation System Notice------

-- 
Pursuant to the Berne Convention, this work is copyright with all rights
reserved by its author unless explicitly indicated.
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| alt.sex.stories.moderated ------ send stories to: <ckought69@hotmail.com>|
| FAQ: <http://assm.asstr-mirror.org/faq.html> Moderators: <story-ckought69@hotmail.com> |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|ASSM Archive at <http://assm.asstr-mirror.org>   Hosted by <http://www.asstr-mirror.org> |
|Discuss this story and others in alt.sex.stories.d; look for subject {ASSD}|
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+