[From National Intergalactic, October 2091 issue]
The Cepholadyx is a highly intelligent extra-terrestrial being discovered in recent years as humanity has pressed farther into space than ever before. Much has been publicised about this alien creature, from its size (it can grow up to ten feet long) to its eating habits (thankfully vegetarian) but we have never come close to understanding its breeding habits until recently.
The Cepholadyx is a hermaphroditic species, with all Cepholadyx having the same sexual characteristics, being able to produce both eggs and sperm. As such, instead of impregnating a mate of the same species, the Cepholadyx will seek out a creature from a different species to use as an incubator.
This is almost entirely non-fatal. In fact, Cepholadyx will sometimes become attached to their incubator and keep it as a sort of pet, taking care of it and preferring to lay multiple clutches of eggs in it. This is most often a long-term arrangement.
Here on Earth, we have not yet managed to find suitable incubators for Cepholadyx, preventing us from making a terrestrial home for them - until now. A recent study shows that humans are physiologically extremely similar to the Cepholadyx's preferred incubator. Now, for the first time in history, we are running a highly controlled experiment with a human subject to observe how the female human body reacts to being bred by a Cepholadyx.
[The Asimov Centre for Extra-zoological Research]
Riley's high as a kite. Her head is spinning and her thoughts are slow, and moving at all seems like too much effort. She's lucky she has all these nice people to move her instead. She'd been bathed not very long ago, cleaned thoroughly, inside and out - the enema had been kind of embarrassing, but in a distant sort of way, like she was watching it happen to someone else. They'd shaved her, too, until she was smooth all over. Now she's lying naked on a wheeled stretcher as half a dozen men and women in white coats hurry around the room, stoned half out of her mind.
Two of the white-coats, a woman and a man, wheel Riley out of the room and down a brightly lit corridor to another room, not too far away. This room is bigger and entirely empty. When Riley turns her head she can see that one of the walls is a window into the room full of people in white coats; she turns her head to the other side and sees a huge door.
There's a hissing noise, and the door slides open. Riley realises belatedly that her escorts have left, that she's alone in the room. Only, she's not alone - something huge and terrible is slithering through the door into the room with her.
It towers over her. Its face and torso look eerily human, if it weren't for the pale purple skin and huge black eyes. From the waist down, though, it is a mass of writhing tentacles, so many that they're impossible to count.
Riley's high, but she's not so high that the sight of a tentacle monster crawling towards her doesn't freak her out. She climbs off the stretcher awkwardly, keeping her eyes on the creature, and starts to back away.
A tentacle shoots out whip-fast and wraps tightly around her ankle, and she overbalances and falls back uttering a short, high-pitched scream. The tentacle slithers around her calf firmly, and she finds herself being dragged across the smooth floor as she kicks clumsily at the creature.
[From National Intergalactic, October 2091 issue]
The Cephalodyx restrains its choice in incubator carefully, using its powerful outer tentacles to hold it still. Its inner tentacles, slightly smaller tentacles usually kept hidden, are one of two primary sex organs. Not only do they produce sperm, they also emit a secretion that has heavy aphrodisiac and pain-killing properties among a number of other attributes.
Before beginning the breeding process, the Cephalodyx will insert one of its inner tentacles into the mouth of its incubator. After a short period of time, the incubator will have ingested significant amounts of the aphrodisiac, and the desired effects will begin. The incubator becomes submissive towards the Cephalodyx, and is willing to be mated with.
[The Asimov Centre for Extra-zoological Research]