Hanging Seven
What Does A Heptapod on Earth Do With Downtime?
© 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
"Gonna let them ride and keep it nice and tight
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..."
