At 0800 hours, Talia met her colleagues in the hallway, near the exit door.
Everyone wore clothes of the same pale blue-gray hue. The female junior attorney wore a dress identical to that worn by Talia and Tracy. The men wore short-sleeved shirts and full-length pants. Like the outfits for the women, they were form-fitting. Talia noticed for the first time that all the crew members, despite their age differences, were lean and in good shape. Talia tried to be discreet, but she couldn't help but notice that the shapes and lengths of the men's cocks were revealed under the tight fabric of their pants. Despite her efforts, her eyes swept over her colleagues. Carson Veen's cock, she noticed, pointed straight up. Talia quickly guessed that it was bigger than average, but nothing spectacular. Jod Perry's cock, extending to the right and bulging under the thin fabric, looked fatter and longer than Carson's. She wondered, for a moment, what it would be like to have it inside her.
Talia shook her head slightly. Why was she thinking about cocks, at a time like this? She looked straight ahead, to the door. She had to collect herself. She was aware of a warm tingling at every place where her skin touched the tiny, clingy dress. She didn't know why. She wondered if the mysterious material of the dress affected her in some way.
She had no time to think about it further, because the door ahead of her opened with a sudden "whoosh."
A host of small robots issued from the door and directed them to a shuttle. Talia and her companions entered and sat down on the seats inside. There were no windows. The vehicle started moving. They could not see where they were going.
Ten minutes later, the shuttle stopped. The door they had entered opened. One by one, they exited, and after passing through a short corridor they stepped into their destination -- the lord's chamber.
It looked like a cave, more than anything else. The walls were made of a dark gray-brown rock that Talia did not recognize. She and her crew-mates stood on a rock floor, polished smooth, at one end of a vast cavern, the ceiling of which arched over them and extended at least a hundred feet into the distance. Twenty feet ahead of them, the floor of the cavern disappeared under water. A thick, still, white mist hung over blue-gray water. The air in the chamber was heavy and humid.
A door opened to the left, suddenly, out of the rock wall. A dozen figures emerged from it, walking briskly toward them, and fanning out around them. They were humanoid but not human. They were blue-gray in color, about four and a half feet tall, with two legs and two arms, and faces that resembled human faces, but with less prominent noses, and more prominent eyes. They were hairless. And they were naked. They were male, too; each of them sported a long, skinny penis swinging between his legs. They were Noids. One of them approached the Stenvo crew, and he bowed. He stood up, and he looked over each of them slowly and deliberately before speaking.
"Welcome, friends from Earth. I am Eeziel, ambassador of the Unified Nations of Tentos and representative of the High Lord Odorin. We hope that your travels have been easy. We hope that you are well. We hope that our discussions are fruitful, and that as a result of them humans and Tentacons may prosper and enjoy the benefits of a long and lasting friendship."
He bowed low, as did all the other Noids.
Dars Stenvo stepped forward.
"Thank you, friend Eeziel. We appreciate your hospitality. We are grateful for the opportunity to speak to your high lord. We welcome the opportunity to create lasting bonds of friendship and prosperity between our races."
Eeziel rose from his bow. He looked over the human crew, until he saw Talia, and his gaze settled on her.
"Is this the human that created the code for our communication with you?" he asked.
"Yes, this is she," Stenvo said. "We hope the code has been helpful to you."
"Yes," the Noid said. "Most helpful. We've never seen a more helpful code for translating your planet's languages. It will be most useful for our negotiations.
"And let me say," the Noid continued. "Your translator, Professor Denzer, I believe, is most, most lovely. My Lord will enjoy such beauty coupled with such intelligence."
Talia looked at the floor. The Noid's words troubled her. She'd travelled 10 weeks and 150 light years to put her linguistic skills to work, not to be judged for her looks. But she knew she was dealing with an alien species. She did not know their customs. She closed her lips and stopped herself from saying anything she might regret.
"Now let us begin," the Noid said. "Dear guests, please accept the welcome of the Tentacons and their High Lord." He drew back, facing them and walking backward in small steps.
Another door opened on the opposite side. Before Talia could adjust, she saw a flurry of long, twisty limbs and skinny bodies issue from both open doors and surround her company.
The Tentacons approached Talia's group. They were about human size, but utterly unlike humans. Their bodies were ellipses, and their skin was blue- gray. They moved on thick, swirling tentacles that moved like snakes to propel them across the floor. Other tentacles, numerous and of various lengths, curled around their bodies. Their mouths opened and closed from side to side, rather than up and down. Most unnerving of all, they stared ahead at their human visitors with strangely human eyes, with white corneas, slate-blue irises, and jet-black pupils.
Before long, Talia's group was surrounded by at least 40 of them. Each of them extended two tentacles out and down to the floor. Dars Stenvo, closest to them, reciprocated the gesture, extending his arms out and down with palms open toward his hosts. The rest of his group followed his lead. Talia vaguely recalled that it was a gesture of friendship and openness that was expected upon greeting Tentacons.
The Tentacons stood to either side of the room, leaving a large expanse of the room directly in front of their guests open.
Soon a bubbling came from the surface of the water before them. The bubbles broke and cleared pockets of mist above the water. Blue-gray shafts burst from the water all over, toward the ceiling -- the high lord's tentacles, rising from the water.
The high lord Odorin of the Tentacon governing council emerged from the water and the mist.
He looked like the other Tentacons, but he was much, much larger. His body mass far exceeded that of the largest bear, squat and roundish, with a vertical mouth slit and immense, circular, unblinking eyes looking out from his blue-gray, bare figure. Four large tentacles at the base of his body served as legs, curling and twisting like snakes underneath him, and transporting him out of the water and the mist to the floor near the humans. Tentacles of varying lengths, too numerous to count, burst forth from the rest of his body, in many shapes and sizes, moving constantly, giving him the appearance of being even larger than he was.
When he emerged fully from the water, he reached two tentacles forward, and he extended them out and down -- a gesture of respect to his guests. Dars Stenvo reciprocated the gesture with his arms and hands.
Odorin's mouth opened and words came out in a sibilant rush. Even Talia, who had studied the Tentacon languages, could barely make out his words. Fortunately, a Noid translator stood by to assist the humans.
"My lord welcomes you to Tentos," the Noid said.
"Thank you, my lord," Dars Stenvo said. "We are honored to be in your presence. It is our pleasure to be here to speak with you."
Stenvo and the Noid ambassador exchanged rote pleasantries and ceremonial praise for another ten minutes. Talia's mind started to wander. It snapped back to attention when she heard what the Noid said next.
"We are grateful for your visit," the Noid said. "We believe that our exchange will be mutually beneficial. Before we continue our negotiations, however, our high lord would like to know your colleagues better."
"Certainly," Stenvo said. "What do you want to know? We're happy to provide more information."
"Thank you, Dars Stenvo," the Noid said. "But our high lord wishes to know you in his own way."
With that cryptic statement the Noid moved to the side. Odorin moved forward, tentacles undulating over the floor.
The alien shape of the Tentacon lord was repellant to Earth eyes, Talia thought. The constant undulation of his tentacles conjured up an image of a floor crawling with snakes, and there were more than she could count. As he moved across the floor his blue-gray skin quivered. His vertical mouth moved constantly, too, snapping open and shut even when he wasn't speaking. Yet, at the same time, there was something compelling about him. He moved with obvious power and confidence. And there was another quality to his movements, too -- a sensuality, as though every part of his body kissed the air and ground that it touched. The constant movement of the tentacles was mesmerizing. Odorin drew his body close to Stenvo's, but not far from the water's edge.
One tentacle, longer than the others, stretched forward, snaking slowly through the air. Its tip was a kind of pad, shaped like a leaf. It glistened with wetness.
Its tip touched Stenvo's cheek. Stenvo didn't move. After no more than a few seconds the tentacle pulled away. It waved through the air, until it reached the person at the side opposite Talia, Gadber Hines.
It touched him only briefly, as it did the next three in line -- one of the lawyers, Jod Perry, and Carson Veen. But it slowed when it reached Tracy Partaro.
The tentacle waved in front of her, and then it touched her ankle. The tip moved slowly up her leg, until it lifted off her knee. Then without hesitation the pad at the tip pressed against Tracy's breast. Tracy gasped, but she didn't move. From where Talia sat she could see the pad of the tentacle contract and squeeze Tracy's left breast. It pulled away, and Talia saw it shake. Then it moved on.
The tentacle moved quickly among the male members of the crew, touching each of them only briefly. It lingered a little longer over the young female attorney, touching her legs and her lips and, briefly, one of her breasts.
Then the tentacle came to Talia, who sat at the far end of the line of her companions.
It didn't touch her right away. It waved before her, like kelp in a heavy current, drifting through the heavy air, giving no sign of what it would do.
After a minute, Talia saw the pad tip stretch and expand in front of her face. She didn't know what it meant, or what it was sensing, but it spent at least half a minute in that position. The chamber was utterly silent; no one moved or said anything.
The tip descended to one of her knees, and it caressed it. Talia observed that it didn't feel like human skin. It was slippery and soft, and still wet. Once, on a childhood school field trip, Talia had visited an aquarium, and she had held an octopus. She'd been struck by its slipperiness and malleability. It moved like water: molding and adjusting itself to every contour of its environment yet moving forward inexorably with its own sense of purpose and destination. The Tentacon felt the same way.
The tentacle dropped down, between her legs, and Talia felt it give a gentle push against her left knee. She moved it in response to the pressure, although she was aware that the dress rode high on her legs and she wore no underwear.
Talia felt pressure from the tentacle against her right knee. With reluctance, she let her right knee move in response, too. Talia was aware of her colleagues all around her, watching what was going on. She hadn't flown 150 light years to put on a soft-core porn show for them. But she stifled the urge to resist the Tentacon's pressure. She let her right leg move, and soon both legs were spread wide. She was glad the other crew members weren't seated in front of her, or they'd get quite a view.
The tentacle pulled back from Talia's knee, and the pad settled between both knees. Its tip lay no more than two inches from the hem of Talia's minidress.
The tentacle dipped down, drawing just a bit closer to Talia, between her outspread legs, and she saw it expand and flatten. It heaved, like it was breathing. Talia had the crazy feeling that the Tentacon was soaking up the scent of her, coming from between her legs. She feared it would move forward and try to touch here there, but it didn't.
And then she felt it -- a consciousness. She looked away from the hovering tentacle, to Odorin's face. Huge, unblinking eyes stared at hers. Talia had never believed in telepathy -- had never seen any evidence to believe in it. But she felt something, something coming from the Tentacon lord -- the force of his mind, exploring the boundaries of her own, through some unseen and unknown medium. A door lay in the space between them, she felt, and if she opened it, she could let him in. What would happen? Her mind reached out to open it, but before it did she pulled it back, abruptly. When she did, she felt his presence depart. A ripple visibly shook his body.
After a few more seconds, the tentacle withdrew until it was against Odorin's body again, twisting and twirling, indistinguishable from the others.
The Noid spoke, and for another two hours dialogue, barely intelligible to Talia, took place between the Noid, on behalf of its master, and Stenvo, with regular input from his attorney, Lennard Wolk. The other two junior attorneys furiously input data into their pads. Talia's attention wandered. It was lawyer stuff. It had nothing to do with her. At times she wondered why she was there.
Suddenly, it ended. Odorin withdrew. He backed up and sank beneath the surface of the water. The other Tentacons left the chamber, and the Noids, the last aliens left, bowed and acknowledged the humans and left as well.
Robots emerged from behind the humans to escort them back to their rooms.