The Dream of Planet Bloom Read online

  I, Mother’s Milk, enjoyed participating in ‘Rikes ZED-12’ dream sequence as well. I liked what Commander Rikes did on Bloom. It was a nice move if his intention was to awake Ku-uhala’s romantic interest. Hm … If I evaluate these two individuals in their present state, exposed as they are to various impressions of the dream they just dreamt together, I’d say that this journey has brought them closer. Sometimes, all it takes is to be rationally impeded after making a journey through the dream resonator’s magical tube to lift yourself to a new plateau of understanding the Universe. Their bodies are strained after being connected to the machine, but still they have enough strength to smile at each other. I think Rikes and Ku-uhala will make a fine couple if they decide to get together.

  With a swift taut movement, Ku-uhala stands up from her bed.

  “I think I’d like to go to my quarters now,” she says.

  “Did I bore you so much?” Rikes asks.

  Ku-uhala drops her head and laughs.

  “You didn’t bore me at all, Sy. On the contrary—I’ve had a splendid time.”

  Rikes gets out of his bed.

  “Why do you want to leave then?”

  “Who says I’m leaving you? I just said I’m going to my quarters.”

  “Oh, I see,” Rikes says. “Can I accompany you to your quarters then?”

  “Of course, you can,” Ku-uhala says.

  They walk out of the dream resonator chamber and head towards the jet lift.

  “Computer, Deck 3,” Rikes says.

  Rikes brings Ku-uhala to the door of her quarters. She turns around and looks at him.

  “Is there an invitation for a drink?” he asks.

  Ku-uhala smiles mysteriously. “I think you should listen to your instinct, Commander.”

  “Oh,” he says. “I see. Well then, I think we’ll call it a night.”

  “See you soon, Sy.”

  Sy nods, turns around and leaves Ku-uhala standing in front of her door.

  I decide to stay with Ku-uhala. Judging from my observations, her actions can be unpredictable, in spite of her perfectly reasonable instinct. It might as well be that her instinct makes her actions unpredictable, because at times, instinct defies logic. Instinct doesn’t require thought. Instinct is visceral.

  The sliding door to her quarters opens. She walks straight towards the bathroom and begins taking her clothes off. Her underwear slips down her shins. She turns her back to me. I see that Ku-uhala has five openings along the middle of her back, where humans usually have their spine. These openings are closed like valves and vary in size. The smallest one is at the top of her back, and the biggest one is at the bottom, close to her rear.

  She steps into the ultraviolet shower and begins scrubbing dead cells off her skin. Her fingertips glide in even motions over her face, sliding down to her elongated neck, her chest, stomach, thighs, shins and feet.

  After three minutes of skin cleaning, Ku-uhala steps outside the ultraviolet shower, dry just as she was when she came in, but washed. She touches her skin, feeling how soft it is after the shower. She feels rejuvenated after visiting Bloom. She opens the door to the medical cabinet and takes out a small round box. She rubs her arms, stomach and back with an ointment. When she finishes, she rubs the ointment between her legs. The sugary scent spreads around the bathroom and enters my nostrils, making me feel slightly dizzy.

  Ku-uhala puts her uniform back on and walks outside. I follow her, curious to see where she’s heading to now. Her pace is fast and firm, and just as decisive as it was when she left the dream resonator chamber. She walks down the corridor and stops in front of Commander Rikes’ private quarters.

  She rings the bell.

  “Come in!” Commander Rikes calls from the inside.

  The door opens to a wide darkened room. The light from the corridor casts a pale shadow that falls on Rikes’ face. Ku-uhala finds him sitting on the sofa with a book in his hands. The door behind her slides close.

  “I didn’t expect to see you again tonight,” he says in low voice. “You let me go in front of your doorstep without saying why.”

  “Why would I say anything when I intended to see you again tonight?” Ku-uhala asks.

  “My instinct didn’t inform me that you intended to return.”

  “Your instinct was obviously mistaken. I suggest that you sharpen it for the future. It would be of value to you.”

  “I will keep that in mind,” Rikes says.

  “Your instinct should inform you now that I came here of my own will.”

  “OK,” Rikes mumbles. “My instinct and my eyes are informing me that you’re here out of your own will. So what comes next?”

  “Does your instinct also inform you of my intentions?” Ku-uhala asks.

  “I would rather have you inform me. My instinct is flawed as you know.”

  “I shall inform you then: I want to spend the night with you,” Ku-uhala says.

  “You want to spend the night with me?”

  “That is correct. I want to be with you tonight.”

  Rikes gets up from his couch and throws the book he was reading on a small round coffee table on the side.

  “Can I get you a drink?” he says quietly. “I can replicate a cocktail from Earth called strawberry daiquiri. I think you might like it.”

  “I think you spoiled me enough with food and drink for one evening, Commander. The taste I want to have now is of you.”

  Rikes laughs embarrassingly. “You’re so direct, Ku-uhala. I must say, I like that about you. You cut to the chase—literally.”

  She walks closer to him with the most natural of her movements, until the fine line of separation between them is erased. She presses her body against his and puts her hands on his cheeks.

  “You showed me how humans kiss on Bloom. Now I want to show you how the Hoola kiss,” she whispers.

  She tilts his head and gently presses her forehead against his.

  Rikes hears a soft harmonious tune coming from the distance. The sound startles him. Is it an illusion or is it real, he wonders?

  “What is this sound?” he whispers.

  “Don’t talk,” Ku-uhala says. “Relax, and enjoy.”

  “Is this how you kiss?”

  “It’s one of the ways I kiss.”

  “It’s amazing,” Rikes whispers. “I’ve never experienced anything like it.”

  “The Hoola only share this type of intimacy with people who are special to them. This is one of our most intimate forms of kissing.”

  Rikes closes his eyes. The thoughts in his mind disperse. His head feels wobbly and dizzy, but in a comfortable, soothing way. The sensation Ku-uhala’s kiss creates overwhelms his senses and takes him to a place that is buried deep in him. It’s a place he hasn’t visited in a long time. In this place his deepest emotions are buried. They make him feel vulnerable. Being a man who has had a decent share of suffering in his life, Rikes doesn’t like to feel vulnerable.

  Suddenly, the sheer intimacy of the alien kiss becomes too much to bear.

  He moves his forehead away from hers and opens his eyes.

  “I’m sorry,” he says. “Your kiss and the tune I was hearing in my head were getting too intense. I couldn’t take it anymore. It felt as if my skull was going to burst.”

  “It’s all right,” she says. “It was your first time.”

  “I’d rather that we kiss the way humans kiss, if that is OK with you.”

  Ku-uhala smiles.

  “Of course it’s OK with me.”

  He takes her chin between his fingers and presses his lips gently against hers.

  Ku-uhala feels a heat spreading through her body like a wave. Her instinct tells her to give in. She puts her arms around his back and senses small electric impulses appearing around the openings on her back.

  Rikes releases the lock of his lips. He looks her in the eyes.

  “Let us lie together,” he says.

  He takes her hand and walks with her to his bedro
om. He lies down on his back, and puts her to lie on top of him.

  “Sy,” Ku-uhala whispers, “would you undress me, please?”

  Rikes smiles. “There is something very innocent about your wish,” he says. “Of course, I’ll do it.”

  He reaches for the zipper of her jacket and pulls it slowly down. The plastic stubs clack as they separate. He lays Ku-uhala beside him and slides down the bed onto the floor. He unzips her boots and pulls them off.

  Ku-uhala watches attentively as every piece of the clothing Rikes strips off uncovers one blank patch of her skin. He drops the garments on the floor piece by piece. He seems to be both eager and hesitant to remove them. When he has taken off the last piece of her uniform, Rikes takes a moment to observe her naked body. Her skin is smooth and glossy. It glows in the darkness of Rikes’ quarters. Her nudity has a dreamy appeal.

  He gets up on the bed and lies by her side. He reaches for her hand and wraps his fingers around it.

  “I need to explain a few things to you about the Hoola anatomy,” Ku-uhala says.

  “There’s no need for explanations,” Rikes replies. “I read the file the Doctor has written on the Hoola anatomy, and all the files we have stored in our database. I believe I understand how your body functions from a purely anatomical perspective.”

  “I thought you might have looked up the files,” she says. “It’s so you. You like to know things well ahead of their time.”

  Rikes chuckles. “I like to be informed, Ku-uhala, and I’m not the type who wants to look like a fool in front of an alien woman when he goes out on a date with her.”

  “I don’t assume that your knowledge of the Hoola anatomy also includes the knowledge of how to give Hoola woman pleasure?” Ku-uhala asks. “I’m pretty sure the good Doctor didn’t write a file on that topic.”

  “The good Doctor wouldn’t be able to write a file on how to give a Hoola woman pleasure, or any woman for that matter, even if he wanted to,” Rikes says laughingly.

  “You’ve never seen a Hoola woman naked before, have you?”

  “No, I haven’t. You’ve never seen a human man naked before either?”

  Ku-uhala shakes her head. “No, I haven’t. I want to see you and I want you to see me. I’m going to turn around and show you what my back looks like.”

  Ku-uhala turns her back to Rikes, showing her five openings to him.

  “Wow … ,” Rikes exclaims. “They look … amazing.”

  Ku-uhala turns her head and looks at him. “Human women have only one sexual organ. Hoola women have five.”

  “And you use all five when you make love to a man?”

  “Yes, that’s part of the game.”

  “Wow … ,” Rikes exclaims again.

  “You talk like you had no idea.”

  “I did have an idea, of course I did. I read the files and looked at the photos of Hoola sexual organs.”

  “Male and female?”

  “Of course. I was too curious about the sex life of your kind. I knew what your sexual organs looked like, but it’s still a surprise to see them in reality.”

  Rikes looks at five valves that are aligned vertically along the middle of Ku-uhala’s back. Compared to human anatomy, her sexual organs substitute human vertebrae. And just like vertebrae, the openings of Hoola sexual organs vary in size and shape. The smallest one is on the top of Ku-uhala’s back, and the widest one is at the bottom.

  “Each one of my openings serves a different purpose,” she says. “Stimulating each one of them will give me a different kind of pleasure.”

  Rikes takes a closer look.

  “If I understand this correctly, since your openings haven’t been stimulated, your muscles are contracted. They are keeping the openings firmly closed.”

  He lowers his gaze to study them with care. He knows from the files on the Hoola anatomy that the openings close when they’re not used, and that they open when they are sexually stimulated. He also knows that some of them reach deep into her body.

  “We start making love with you stimulating the first opening at the top of my back. And then you move down, slowly, taking time for each one of the openings until every valve becomes unsealed.”

  Rikes lifts his hand and touches the ridges around the first opening. Ku-uhla sighs.

  “This is incredible,” he stutters. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”

  “The stimulation of the first opening affects my mood. I relax when you touch it. Only when the first one is stimulated well and long enough, will the second valve begin to open.”

  “What’s the second opening for?”

  “The second opening will affect my sexual feelings. I will become aroused.”

  “Fascinating,” Rikes whispers. He glides his fingertips along the second opening, just close enough to feel its edges. He begins caressing it, hearing Ku-uhala sigh with pleasure. The muscles that keep the opening closed relax. The valve opens. He caresses the inside of the opening, noticing that the temperature of her body is rising.

  He slides his fingers out and begins touching her third opening.

  “The third opening controls the function of my sweat glands. When you stimulate it, I will become wet,” she says.

  Rikes touches it gently, feeling it become softer under his fingertips. When it opens, he pushes his finger gently inside. He feels the wetness that has begun to form between its walls.

  “I believe that the forth opening,” Rikes says, “is the gateway to your pleasure. When I touch it, I will make love to you.”

  “Yes,” Ku-uhala sighs. “You got that right.”

  “Are you enjoying my touches?” he asks.

  “I am … I’m enjoying them very much.”

  Rikes takes his finger out of her fourth opening and moves down to her fifth. He begins caressing it.

  “The fifth opening … ,” he says, “The fifth opening I will stimulate if we decide to make a baby.”

  Ku-uhala nods. “The fifth opening is the deepest and the widest opening on my body. It is big and flexible enough to allow a baby to pass through.”

  She turns her head to him.

  “You are still dressed, Sy.”

  Rikes smiles. “You’ve noticed well.”

  “I think it’s about time you get out of your clothes.”

  “I agree.”

  “Can I take them off for you?”

  “Please, do.”

  Ku-uhala reaches for the zipper on Rikes’ jacket and pulls it down.

  “Your body is very different from the body of a Hoola male,” she says as she caresses his chest.

  She pulls his jacket off and drops it on the floor, hearing the blunt sound it makes when it hits the ground. She tugs his undershirt out of his pants and pulls it over his head. Her fingertips glide down and up his chest, feeling the soft hairs on his skin, and admiring the smoothness of the edges on his stomach muscles.

  She observes his upper body, scrutinizing it with her dark round eyes.

  “The body of a human is strong and … fragile at the same time,” she concludes. “Males of human species are more sensitive to pain than their female counterparts.”

  “Who told you that?” Rikes says.

  “Some of the human women I’ve spoken to who were very open to sharing intimate experiences.”

  “That might be true in some cases,” Rikes says. “But I think the level of experienced pain differs from individual to individual.”

  “I wouldn’t argue with you over this topic. But if human body is fragile,” Ku-uhala says and glides her hand down to Rikes’ sex, “the sexual organ of human male is just as fragile as the rest of his body. It is endowed with two reproductive glands and a shaft which gives the man pleasure when it’s stimulated.”

  “I see you’ve done your homework too,” Rikes says.

  Ku-uhala smiles and draws her body closer to his. “My instincts tell me that you’d like me to stroke your sex, and that you’d like me to stroke your body too, and your face.”<
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  “Your instincts are quite accurate.”

  “I have read that the intensity of sexual desire varies from one individual to another.”

  “That is true too,” Rikes says. “Human sexual desires and preferences vary. You have to be intimate with someone to truly discover how he or she ticks sexually.”

  “The way your kind is wired,” Ku-uhala says, “is very different from the way my kind is wired.”

  “That is what makes this experience so unique and … adventurous.”

  Ku-uhala smiles. “The information in my database says that humans enjoy being stimulated by the mouth of their partner.”

  Rikes laughs. “That information is absolutely correct.”

  “I would like to give you pleasure with my mouth.”

  “Go right ahead.”

  She reaches for his shoulder and tenderly places her lips on his skin, imitating the kissing ritual Rikes showed her earlier when he kissed her mouth.

  “How does this feel?” she asks.

  “It’s wonderful,” Rikes answers, feeling his sex harden with every trace her mouth makes on his skin.

  She takes her lips to his neck. “And this?”

  “Yes … ,” Rikes sighs. “That, too, feels wonderful.”

  When her mouth reaches his lips, he turns his head to her and returns her kiss with a passionate embrace. His fingers slide from her head down to her first opening, and begin exploring it.

  Ku-uhala separates her lips from Rikes’.