Playing Their Parts

The act went on for some time until Gozeriam announced, “Enough!”

At once, the holo winked out and the camera drone that had been projecting it flew quietly back down to the stage.

“As you could plainly see,” the Slimerian boss remarked. “The three kudza females are adept at pleasuring each other while never forgetting to give their best effort to their contortions. They exhibited excellent teamwork in this segment, for which I commend them.”

Cassie heard a trio of shrill giggles to her left. Looking past Stone, she saw the three kudza girls sitting in a row. They all had their hands over their mouths and they were nodding at Gozeriam while giggling with embarrassed delight.

“Thank you, your Slimefullness!” they all called in unison.

Gozeriam nodded at them.

“You are to be commended.” He looked at the crowd of actors. “And all of you, please do not forget when you are taking part in a scene with three or more participants, to work together as gracefully as the kudzas do. Teamwork is important!”

The crowd clapped politely and Cassie considered how weird it was that she had basically just watched what appeared to be an erotic Cirque du Soleil performance and was now being lectured about teamwork by a huge, slimy, Jabba the Hutt look-alike.

But she didn’t have long to reflect, because another camera drone flew up and the huge silver disk above Gozeriam lit up again. This time it was a scene from the Aqueous Tank. Two creatures that looked like seahorses with long, flowing manes were swimming gracefully around and around each other. Behind them were vividly colored sea plants waving in the currents—a beautiful backdrop for their mating dance.

The two seahorse people—one had a white mane and the other had a long purple-black mane—swooped and dived around and around, always getting closer and closer together but never quite touching.

At last, the seahorse person with the white mane held still and the dark-maned one swooped towards it. Long, silvery filaments began to extrude from under the dark-maned seahorse person’s belly. The filaments penetrated the white-maned seahorse person’s skin, which began to glow a luminescent blue. Then he—or she, Cassie couldn’t tell which—began to puff up until he or she was almost as round as a ball.

“Oh my God,” she whispered to Stone. If he gets much bigger he’s going to explo—”

Before she could finish her thought, the white-maned seahorse person burst into a thousand sparks of light and everyone assembled in the throne-room gasped at once.

“Oh my God—he did it—he exploded. Or she did! Poor thing!” Cassie exclaimed under her breath.

“Don’t worry—that’s just how Horsians procreate,” the Beast said from her other side. “Look…” He pointed at the holo. “See the little sparks? They’re actually brand new Horsians.”

Leaning forward, Cassie saw that he was right. The tiny sparks of glowing light were actually tiny little seahorse people, swimming all around. The black-maned seahorse person trumpeted to them and they all gathered around him and followed him out of the scene.

“Now he’ll care for them and raise them,” The Beast told Cassie. “What was once his lover and mate are now his children.”

At that point the holo ended and everyone applauded again.

“As you all know,” Gozeriam rumbled, “The mating habits of the Horsians of the oceans of Mugar Six are extremely private. No one has ever filmed them before, so we were highly gratified when Abidgee and Hoogart agreed to come here to Bachanalius to allow us to capture their beautiful union. We are hopeful that this vid will bring us new audiences in the oceans of Mugar Six.”

Everyone clapped again and there was a sloshing sound to Cassie’s right. Looking way down at the end of the front row, she saw a large tank, about three meters tall, filled with clear turquoise water. In it was the black-maned seahorse person—or Horsian, she supposed—and about a hundred teeny Horsians all about the size of her pinky finger.

What surprised her the most was the size of the alien seahorse. He was about the same size as Stone—much bigger than any seahorse she’d ever seen in an aquarium back home. He put his muzzle out of the water and bugled happily and the little seahorse babies around him frisked and splashed in the turquoise water.

Well, they all seem happy about it, Cassie thought, watching them. Although it seemed sad to her that having sex ended in one of the partners exploding. Still, at least the other partner got lots of babies out of the deal. And since it was their way, she guessed they found it completely normal.

“And now,” Gozeriam said, interrupting the applause. “We have a most excellent scene from a script we wrote ourselves. Please pay attention to Forbidden One!”

Oh God, here it comes! Cassie squinted her eyes almost shut as she looked up at the silver disk holo stage. It was the same way she watched horror movies she couldn’t bear to look at fully. Beside her, she felt Stone stiffen too.