The Ctenophorian

Author's Note:

Normally, I prefer posting stories as long as this one into several parts, but this story really should be read in one session. So, I decided to post the whole story.

Many of my stories contain plenty of explicit sex in them, but this one not as much and much later in the story. I put this story in the same category as 'Musa, the Spy Who Became Queen' and 'Ekdikisi'. In these stories, sex plays a secondary role to the story line. So, if you're only interested in the sex part, this story is probably not for you.

However, if you're a fan of science-fiction spiced with erotism, which I am, and/or you enjoy tentacle stories, which I do, then you might appreciate my modest contribution to this genre. I believe I wrote a story with a unique twist, but I'll let you, the readers, to be the judge of that.

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1 The Ocean Aliens

They looked like semi-transparent, semi-solid blobs. The sentient species on this oceanic world looked nothing like what a most humans would conceive as an intelligent being. Most humans wouldn't even know how to relate it to some creature on Earth because homologous-looking species on Earth were rare. If anyone, other than a biologist, were ever to see one, he or she wouldn't know what to call it and might think it was some weird type of jellyfish.'

If you were a knowledgeable human, specifically a marine biologist, they would see a superficial resemblance between these alien beings and Earth's comb jellies, also known as ctenophores. Having evolved on an entirely different planet, however, these were of course, not true comb jellies. They were actually totally different, but convergent evolution had made them look superficially similar to Earth's comb jellies with a little bit of cuttlefish thrown in.

The sentient beings on this planet were about 3.5 meters (11 feet) long and about two meters (about six feet) wide. Although they had an overall light-greenish appearance, it was translucent enough to make the internal organs visible to any creature that might be looking. They were also able to make themselves almost transparent, the remnants of a defence system that helped creatures' evolutionary progenitors to hide themselves from predators. or being looking at them. Excluding its appendages, the creature had a body shape of giant oblong pale-green grape.

Most of the sensory organs, as well as the mouth were at the front of the creature. Two rows of specialized cilia shaped like paddles ran along on both sides of the creature's length extending from behind its two very large eyes all the way to its rump. It had a tail whose flukes somewhat resembled those of a cetacean on Earth. The evolution of sentience in this species reduced the need for and therefore the size of its flukes and made them look small in relation to its body size. Unlike the tail of a whale or a dolphin, they were no longer useful for propulsion although they were still useful to help to stabilize their orientation in turbulent water.

They had one important feature that they shared with Earth's comb jellies (Ctenophora) and jellyfish (Cnidaria). They had no circulatory system. They extracted oxygen from the water through the surface of their bodies which was passed cell to cell to keep the entire body properly oxygenated.

If Earth's scientists knew about these sentient beings, they would probably be comfortable calling them Ctenophorians because of their superficial resemblance to comb jellies. In addition to their size (when compared to Earth's Ctenophora), they had other features that radically distinguished them from Earth's comb jellies. Four lateral tentacles, two on each side, extended from just behind the head. They were slightly less than half the length of the body. These tentacles had no suction cups like those that could be found on an octopus. Rather, the ends of the tentacles spit into six smaller appendages that looked like and functioned as fingers.

The Ctenophorians had two unique characteristics that separated them from all other life forms on the planet: intelligence and telepathy.

Of course, their most remarkable feature of this oceanic species was its intelligence. They could think, reason, remember, communicate complex information and record. They could solve problems and alter their environment to suit their needs. They had discovered, developed and applied scientific knowledge that allowed them to build and utilize advanced technology. In fact, their technology was far more advanced than the technology on Earth.

This intelligent species made one of its biggest breakthroughs in the area of genetic engineering. When their geneticists found a way to alter genes in the female egg to produce Ctenophorians who could extract oxygen from air in a similar way that they extracted oxygen from water, it enabled to explore inner space, the ten percent of their planet that lay above the surface of the planetary ocean. It also set the stage for the exploration of outer space, of world beyond their own.

From these small bits of dry land, the Ctenophorians discovered that they actually had air-breathers on their planet, but they were all small creatures. From their perch on dry land, they discovered the stars and whole new science was founded, based on the exploration of both inner and outer space. Their astronomers found that their planet was part of a solar system which was a tiny speck in a galaxy which was just one among countless millions of others. They met the technological challenges presented by inner and outer space. They even developed space travel to the point where they could visit the other planets of their system, although they were barren and totally inhospitable to aquatic beings. They had even developed a warp drive that would enable them to visit nearby stars but never tried because of the risks and the costs.

Besides their intelligence, the Ctenophorians other most outstanding characteristic was their ability to communicate telepathically. They had no ears and no larynx. Although they had the ability to 'hear' sound because they could feel the vibrations that sound makes, they never developed the physical capacity to project sound as speech. They 'spoke' mind-to-mind to each other although the clarity of the thought depended on how close they were to each other.

Every Ctenophorian learned how to keep their thoughts private from everyone else. When a group of Ctenophorians wanted to share their thoughts only within their group, they would link their tentacles together in a manner that somewhat resembled what high-technology engineers on Earth would call a local area network, or LAN, and collectively would talk to each while shutting out all others.

Being able to communicate through linked tentacles worked very well for Ctenophorian parents as they could project their thoughts by touching. When their children were young, the parents knew exactly what was on their mind. However, by the time their children became juveniles, they had learned the same techniques to hide their thoughts and were able to exchange and enjoy naughty juvenile thoughts with each other while excluding their parents. If a parent felt the need to punish juvenile behaviour, they would prohibit their child from touching tentacles with other juveniles.

2 The Planetary Crisis

The Ctenophorians had a world-wide problem. Their planet was suffering a massive ecological crisis caused by a supernova, a mere 100 light-years away from the star of his own planet. It had irradiated their planet.

In fact, their research showed that, had the planet been a few light years closer, all life on the planet could have been wiped out, but they were still close enough to suffer the impact of a slow-rolling calamity on the ability of planet's life forms to reproduce.

Although the impact on oceanic planet was not immediately obvious, over time, the planet's scientists discovered that there had been a marked increase in the extinction rate, especially of the larger life forms, and a gradual yet clearly discernible decline in the numbers of other life forms.

Research done by scientists of the planet's only sentient species traced the phenomenon to disruptions to the transfer RNA (tRNA) in female eggs caused by the planet's irradiation from this supernova. As a result, female tRNA in eggs malfunctioned, causing the eggs to become effectively sterile. The geneticists also discovered that even females who were fertile carried copies of the defective tRNA which they could then pass on to the next generation of female children.

The most immediate impact of the supernova's irradiation had been the sudden, initial drop in numbers of the smaller life forms which served as the base of the planet's food chain. Inevitably a planetary ecological crisis ensued that inevitably impacted all life on the planet. The largest life forms were not immediately impact by irradiation, but their dependence on the smaller life forms, which had suffered a massive drop in numbers, led their extinction through starvation. By the time the smallest life forms recovered, it was too late to save the largest creatures. The planet's underwater giants, whose numbers were already quite precarious, went extinct.

Moreover, the larger the creature, and the longer it lived, and the fewer offspring they bore, the greater was the danger to their longer-term viability as a species. Several medium-sized species whose number were already small went extinct, partly due to the lack of food but also due to the spread of irradiation-induced infertility, a phenomenon that seemed to impact creatures of medium-sized mass most of all. The scientists gathered evidence that, after taking into account deaths due to deprivation, medium-sized creatures were showing slow yet noticeable decline in their population.

What particularly alarmed the planet's scientists was that their own species, the planet's only sentient, but also dominant species, was one of those affected species. Starvation had not been an issue, because there were enough reserves to satisfy the immediate needs of its population until the life forms which they used as food were able to recover. As the years went by, the scientists could not help but notice a slow but steady decline in their own population. Their studies confirmed that the genetic issues that caused sterility in other medium-sized creatures also had affected them.

As conscious, intelligent, scientifically driven beings, the Ctenophorians had discovered that the supernova's irradiation had had a deleterious effect on the genetic makeup of life on their planet. Their existence as a species, as was the case for other medium-sized species on the planet, was in mortal danger of long-term extinction.

Even now, the current Ctenophorian population was already declining in absolute numbers because reproduction had fallen to a rate that was well below the rate needed to sustain a steady population. The Ctenophorian scientists declared that, if the population trends continued as they were, it would only take a few more generations for the population to crash to the point where their species' demise would become almost inevitable.

This realization induced the Ctenophorians to bring their best minds together and pool their resources in search of a solution. Research into the planet's smaller life forms had revealed that, despite the initial devastation, a number of them had ultimately survived because they had mutations in their genetic structure that were resistant to the supernova's irradiation. They discovered that the irradiation had impacted the ova of the female but seemed to have had no, effect on the sperm of the male. Research indicated that, on average, about 60 percent of the ova in a Ctenophorian female were effectively sterile.

This knowledge gave them at least a clue, and possibly the key, to finding the means to reverse the decline of the planet's higher life forms. It was a matter of finding a specific transfer RNA (tRNA) that could physically link the messenger RNA (mRNA) and the amino acid sequence of proteins, a biological process that enabled the translation of new proteins in accordance with the genetic code.

The scientists focussed their research on the non-sentient medium-sized species as many, although not all, were also experiencing a population decline. The research had two major aspects to it: finding tRNA molecules that could be used in large creatures to replace the defective tRNA molecules, and developing the means to insert and then activate the replacement molecule in creatures negatively impacted by irradiation so that they became a permanent part of the creature's genetic structure. The scientists hoped the success in 'curing' the planet's non-sentient, medium-sized creatures would lead to a genetic cure that could be used on Ctenophorians.

In fact, the scientific genius of Ctenophorians led to great successes. They found tRNA molecules in the smaller life forms that survived the supernova, developed a serum that could target ova, and successfully injected into the medium-sized creatures. Once in the body, the serum targeted the ova where the new tRNA and permanently merged with creature's genome. These molecules were subsequently successfully in her inherited by their offspring.

While the populations of the medium-sized creatures gradually recovered, thanks to the extraordinary efforts of Ctenophojrians to save the other endangered species, the Ctenophorian population continued its slow decline. The problem for the scientists was that they knew what to do and how to do it, but they could not find the tRNA molecule they needed to save their own kind.

Many years went by. The Ctenophorian scientists discovered, to their dismay and despair, that what worked for other medium-sized life forms did not work for them. Most of the medium-sized creatures had smaller relatives which had representatives who survived irradiation. The tRNA molecules, were used to save the larger biological cousins. Evolutionarily speaking, the Ctenophorians had diverged too far from the other life forms on the planet. If they had been able to find even a remotely related species, they might have had a fighting chance to survive, but such did not exist on this planet. They were alone and, apparently, doomed.

3 The Planetary Conference

A planetary-wide council consisting the planet's top scientists across a wide range spectrum of the sciences was established and convened to pool their collective knowledge and resources in search of a solution. Hours went by, then days, then weeks, and finally months. The seemingly endless hours of exchanging information, studies, debating, and deliberations proved fruitless and brought them no closer in their quest to overcome the slow-rolling fertility crisis in the female population. In fact, they became so desperate that they started to entertain even some outlandish ideas. The threat of extinction in just a few generations was enough to open any questioning mind to any possibility.

One of the astronomers, reported that his telescope had discovered a planet whose surface area 71 percent covered in water. Spectrographic images of this planet showed that its chemical composition was very similar to their own ocean world. The same astronomer had accumulated evidence that this planet was inhabited and dominated by sentient, probably land-dwelling, species.

The astronomer, who would later become known as Grape, was one of only a very small group of Ctenophorians who was able to breath in air. The DNA of one his mother's ova had been altered so that Ctenophorians could explore the ten percent of their planet that lay above the surface of their oceanic civilization. His destiny was, in a sense, pre-determined and driven by the Ctenophoria thirst for knowledge about the world beyond the ocean. With this induced mutation, he was expected to train for and devote his scientific career to the study of inner and outer space. So, he specialized in astronomy and ectobiology, the study of life in inner space. When he had discovered life on a planet in another solar system, he had become instantly famous. Among his fellows, he became the unofficial dean of xenobiology, the study of alien life.

Without being specific, Grape advanced the idea that maybe, just maybe, the solution to the problem could be found on this planet.

He didn't have much chance to elaborate on his ideas because other scientists jumped into the debate and ran with Grape's initial thoughts.

One scientist mentioned migrating the entire sentient population to this apparently habitable planet. As wild and outlandish the idea was, the council was so desperate for a solution that it allowed debate on this idea. However, more logical heads soon prevailed. The vast amounts of resources needed to transfer an entire population through interstellar space was logistically far beyond the planet's capability.

Another scientist argued against a mass transfer to another planet had to do with whether or not it was habitable. "Just because this planet has life doesn't mean it can sustain our life. Even if this planet is superficially similar to ours, it could be poisonous to us or populated by dangerous beasts against which we may have no effective defence. Our best technology," he elucidated, "hasn't given us enough knowledge to determine whether or not we can survive on this planet. Sending our people to such a planet on a large scale could turn into a suicide mission. We might actually speed up our own demise and at great expense. I, too, think we should focus our resources on a solution here on at home. We found a way to help other life forms survive the irradiation. Surely, we should be able to find a way to save ourselves!"

"There's another issue that we have to consider," said yet another speaker raising an ethical. "Even if we could go live on this planet, we just don't have the resources, to move even a small fraction of our world's current population to another planet. Who is going to make the choices but who goes and who stays?" he asked.

The attendees' cilia shivered at the thought of the ethical dilemma that such a decision would entail. It was not their way.

Another scientist observed that moving to another planet would not, by itself, help defuse the genetic time bomb ticking away in the ovaries of their females. "We'd only be taking the problem with us,' he pointed out succinctly. "The likelihood of finding the tRNA we need is surely infinitesimal. We should use our resources to double-down on looking for a solution here at home."

At a few more similar speeches, Grape was able to recapture the floor. "We also have another ethical dilemma," he pointed out. "What right have we to displace an indigenous sentient population living on its own world? But there's more," he said.

His audience waited for him to continue.

"There is a growing body of evidence that the dominant sentient species on this planet has reached the point where it has begun to explore its own solar system. There is also convincing evidence that it is a violent species which commits acts of violence against each other and occasionally war against each other. We are a peaceful species. We have not warred in millennia. In fact, I am convinced that, if we came in numbers, out arrival would be construed as a hostile invasion. We would be attacked and it would cost many of us our lives."

His listeners sat in stunned silence for several moments trying to grasp the implications. In their peaceful, scientifically advanced water world, most of them had not even thought about the possibility of life on what little land their own planet had, let alone on other planets around other star systems. They thought that sentient beings capable of mass killings were products of ancient history or the vivid imagination of writers of science-fiction and thrillers.