Flash Master 004: "The Turn On"

Verder recognized the song. It was old and he couldn’t remember the words but with
three hundred years of digital technology behind humanity, more for some races, there
were a lot more old songs than there were new ones.

He Bobbed his head and tried to swing to the beat a little as he sidled up to the bar. The
place wasn’t smokey like some Urtin bars were but it smelled very strange. Someone,
probably a Wikit walker was outgassing through its skin making the whole bar smell
like a cross between a bakery and an ammonia factory.

He put his elbows on the high end of the sloping bar and asked for a drink. You didn’t
usually find many humans in multi-species bars. Between the smells, spores and species
that killed each other during mating, humans tended to stick to their own. Not Verder.
He considered himself a romantic adventurer. It was his opinion that most, not all,
warm blooded life forms were fun to rub up against. It was a constant adventure; what
psudopod did they have, how likely were they to leave red sucker marks on your face.
There were enough life forms from other races with a like mind set that he seldom went
home alone.

The bar was looking likely that night. A pair of Gree Grasis were blowing puffs of
green smoke out there noses at each other and giggling. There were also some lightly
furred Pughs playing pool in the corner. He couldn’t tell whether they were male or
female. It didn’t really matter. In the inter species mating game, you had to be sort of
open minded. Lifflies could change gender during intercourse, always a surprising turn
of events.

He took his drink and sidled over to see who was plugged into the scanner-games.
There was a new species there. It looked like a female something or other. It had a
basically humanoid body with long folds of skin down its sides; wings maybe.
He punched the call button on creature’s console and waited to see if it would respond.
A minute or so later, the creature lifted up the head piece on the scanner and looked up
Verder. It had a short oval head with wide eyes on either side of a small, lipped mouth.
Verder took the lips as a good sign. He liked lips.

“Hey.” He said. “What’s a beautiful creature like you doing in a dingy space port like
this?” He smiled. He found parodying himself was as successful as trying to think of a
good line.

“I’m playing a scanner game.” The creature said. Actually, it chortled in its throat and
the translator around its neck said, “I’m playing a scanner game.” in a pleasant,
woman’s voice.

“Right.” This bird didn’t understand human mating rituals. He cut to the chase. “I like
to mate with different species. Would you like to mate?” Most species didn’t fool
around with courtship or anything.

“The creature blinked its big eyes slowly. “You want to mate with me?”

Verder nodded and smiled a big smile full of polished, white teeth.

“Great.” The creature rose. “I’m Vii. I would love to mate with you.”

“Pleased to meet you Vii. I’m Verder. We can go back to my place.”

Vii was naked and, apparently, genitalia free but it grabbed a small bag by stretching
out one of the long folds. The bag stuck to the fold. “This is going to rock.” Thought
Verder.

As they left the bar, Vii put her pseudopod on Verder’s shoulder and put her head
against his. She smelled vaguely like citrus. “I’m so glad you came by. I’ve been
having a terrible time mating here.”

“Why? You don’t do anything freaky do you?”

Vii giggled. “Well, nothing that’s freaky for me.”

“I know what you mean.” Verder had a hard time sitting in the air car. He was already
excited.

Back in his apartment, Vii wanted to hold him in her pseudopod and kiss the top of his
head. He had to push her off so he could get undressed. After a few minutes he was
naked and they were standing face to face. She had stretched her body length, skin
folds completely around him from top to bottom. They were kissing and Verder thought
he was in heaven. It was like being wrapped in a warm washrag. A little slimier maybe
but slimy could be a good thing.

“This is great.” He said breaking the kiss. “Is this how you mate on your planet?”
Vii just nodded and wrapped him up tighter.

“What do you do next?” Verder was panting.

“I need to extract the reproductive fluids.” Vii said, blushing slightly.

“Great. Let’s do that.”

Verder howled in pain as hundreds of tiny needles unfolded out of Vii’s folds, drove
themselves into his skin and began sucking his blood. She held him as he screamed,
drinking blood from the top of his head to his feet until her wings were stained pink.
She didn’t kill him, but it hurt like hell.

On the other hand, it was one hell of a turn-on.