Bhakti - A Zavnir Story

Note: Zavnir stories are set in a post-apocalyptic world at a colony called Zavnir - a utopia embedded inside and around a mountain where all its citizens are genetically engineered to perfection and its climate/environment is carefully controlled by advanced, geothermal powered technology. Any story in this series can be read as a stand-alone.

Bhakti: a term in Hinduism referring to love and devotion

Richard climbed up the stuffy maintenance shaft with his rucksack of tools on his back. The atmospheric filter node 3-11 waited for him amidst a grouping of trees and bushes that preferred the controlled byproduct the filter gave out. The plants thinned closer to the edge of the platform where a laughably low fence stood to keep people and plants away from the shimmering blue force field that surrounded the base. Beyond that was a sheer vertical drop twenty stories down to the dry desert floor that surrounded Zavnir mountain.

Setting down his bag of tools, he clipped his safety harness to a nearby anchor point then got to work on the filter node. The front panel was carefully removed; he checked for excessive dust or plant growth that may have crept inside. Richard made note of any parts that may be degrading and need to be swapped out in the near future. The actual filtering component was encased in a canister with the worst of the toxins trapped inside; he changed it out with a new one and then replaced the front panel.

He repeated the same scheduled maintenance for filter nodes 3-12 to 3-15. It earned him a decent amount of money and a bundle of components they needed back at Salve Valley. When he climbed back down the maintenance shaft, he passed the small box that would scan his Personal Device and automatically log the maintenance info, and the AI immediately uploaded his data.

"Wouldn't know where I can get some food, would you?" he jokingly asked the AI who simply ignored him. Only citizens of Zavnir could interact with it beyond scanning their PD.

"I did ask if you needed anything before you went up there," a familiar voice said behind him. Alys had been his assigned Zavnir guide for years now. She stood behind him with hands on her hips and a grin on her face.

Even by Zavnir standards, Alys was beautiful. There was something unearthly about the way she looked, from her too pale hair that looked almost white, to her perfectly symmetrical features and perfect smile. If there were any doubts that Zavnir practiced genetic engineering on their artificially conceived citizenry, looking at Alys would definitely dispel them. Oftentimes, when he found himself tongue tied in her presence, Richard would just tell himself it was all just math. "I didn't need anything then, I'm just hungry now," he said amicably. "Is my own guide going to let me starve?"

Alys rolled her eyes. "So tragic. Next time I am making you bring a granola bar up there."

He was only able to access the cafeteria with Alys since almost all the doors and elevators were accessible only to Zavnirians. She had to order food for him as the AI would only communicate with her. Up until he got to the guest quarters made specially for visitors, she had to do everything for him and go everywhere with him.

"You might as well wipe my ass after I take a dump," Richard muttered when they finally got to sit down and eat in the nearly empty cafeteria.

"It's not that bad," Alys said.

"Honestly you guys can make a paradise in the middle of a toxic desert but you can't get me a guest pass?"

"Hey man, I don't make the rules." Alys opted for a bowl of fruit as she accompanied him with his meal. He tried not to stare as she ate a slice of apple. "I'm pretty sure your folk tried talking to the Overseer about it. If he hasn't done it, he has his reasons."

"Reasons beyond being too busy banging his self-made harem?" Richard snorted before he could stop himself - one of these days he'd be without a job and it would be his own damn fault.

But Alys didn't seem to mind. She almost seemed to perk up at his unfettered insult and smiled like a cat who got into the cream. "For someone who always has something bad to say about the Overseer, you seem to be working a lot in his domain," she said with a laugh, gesturing to his pack of tools. "Working hard to keep his paradise alive so he can keep banging his harem? Or is there a different reason you keep coming back?"

"I do it for the money," Richard said. But he saw the soft curve on Alys' mouth and knew that they both knew he was lying.

--

The first time he was let into Zavnir, he spotted a couple having sex against a tree next to a patch of agricultural land below where he was working. Two perfectly formed humans going at it like rabbits with amazing agility and stamina. Richard was able to hear their moans, the sound going straight to his cock.

He thought he had witnessed something he wasn't supposed to until he went into the communal center during break hours for the first time. He saw another couple going at it in a quiet corner while other Zavnirians either watched or completely ignored them.

"Oh, that's weird for you, huh?" Alys said when she noticed him staring at a woman riding a man right in the middle of a bustling cafeteria. The woman wasn't putting on a show, but it was obvious what they were doing. "We were told to tone it down for Valley people, but I guess they didn't get the memo."

"No, it's fine," he said quickly. "It's not as open as Salve Valley. We know that the culture is different here - "

"If you want, you can sleep with me," Alys said nonchalantly.

Richard forgot the specifics of what he said after that, but he hoped it was a vehement but polite refusal. While sweat sprang at his temples at the embarrassment, Alys simply looked at him with a small smile playing at the corner of her pretty mouth.

"You do know that's why they assign you someone, right?" she asked. "At least, part of the reason. Every one of your guys from Salve Valley gets a guide who gets to show them the infamous 'Zavnir hospitality.'"

At first, Richard was horrified about the whole notion - and no, he did not know about 'Zavnir hospitality.' None of the guys who frequented Zavnir before him had ever mentioned anything of the sort. Sly bastards, every one of them. But then he realized it was no use insisting he had no idea.

"I'm sorry, Alys, but I can't," Richard said. "Please don't be offended but... I cannot sleep with you."

She shot him a surprised look, a slim, pale eyebrow arching up as she studied him. He tried not to squirm under her stare. "Is it a biological issue? Or would you rather a male presenting - "

"Oh, no, I mean, I'm married. A-and monogamous," he added quickly.

"I see," Alys said while still looking completely puzzled. "Does being married inhibit your physical impulses? I don't recall reading about anything like that."

Lord almighty. How did one explain the concept of exclusivity to a person from a city that never practiced it? From what Richard could tell, sex was a casual pastime for the average adult Zavnirian. Even outside of Zavnir, even within his own home of Salve Valley, not many people got married anymore.

"It's more like a religious belief," he said reluctantly. He wasn't religious and neither was his wife Angela. But it was the only thing he could think of to relate to. He went on trying to explain to Alys just what 'marriage' entailed in their dying world, until he found himself flustered at his need to explain. Why was it so important for this incredibly beautiful woman to know why he was refusing to sleep with her?

Was he explaining all of this to her or to himself?

In the evening of his first day, not even two hours after Alys' shockingly casual proposal, Richard looked out the window of the guest house he was assigned. It overlooked a small field lined with an array of squat metal buildings, and at the edge of the field under the dimming dusk light, he spotted his guide's pale hair swaying as she was roughly fucked from behind. The man she was with was a typically beautiful and perfect Zavnirian; he pulled her up while he rammed into her so Richard could see her perfect tits bounce with their movement, her perfect mouth open in ecstasy. He swore he could see Alys looking towards his building as she was being fucked.

If you want, you can sleep with me.

He thought about that evening every time he went into his guest room, even months after the fact. He tried to purge the image from his brain but it was burned into him with a terrifying clarity. It was as if he was right there next to her, a foot away from her swaying body. It was as if he could feel her breath as she exhaled as she came.

If you want, you can sleep with me.

Nearly every night in his guest room, Richard found himself with his cock in his hand, jetting out cum onto his belly as he pictured her smooth flesh next to him, under him.

--

Alys skipped her evening lecture on classical literature to watch porn streamed from her PD to the holoscreens next to her bed. She sprawled out, naked from the waist down and showed Brennan, sitting at the end of her bed, how wet she was.

Zavnir had a gigantic library of porn, almost all of which was created by its citizens. A sizable portion of their income was selling porn outside of their little city of debauchery. A few people she knew considered themselves veritable actresses and religiously put out videos with the expectation that horny outsiders would be eagerly waiting for their next video. Alys always rolled her eyes at the over-sized catalog of fake moaners obviously making faces at the camera.

No, she had more taste than that. Her preferred videos? The rare gems the Overseer himself put out. The man not only had a sizable dick but he knew his way around orifices; he spent most of his time balls or fingers deep in one after all. She picked one where the Overseer was with one of his favorite bed-mates. She watched him on screen enthusiastically pounding his partner anally, grunting in pleasure with the rhythm. Pure. Visceral. Her fingers rubbed her clit faster and Brennan gave a groan.

"You are so horny today," he said, his eyes never leaving her pussy. He loved watching people masturbate, male or female. But recently, he seemed to really like watching her. His erection strained against his boxers as he struggled not to touch himself. "Is your Valley man back?"

"Yeah," Alys said breathlessly, her fingers slipping between the folds.

"He still hasn't made a move, huh? How can he resist such a pretty pussy?" Brennan gave in and leaned forward to taste her. Alys moved her hand so his skillful mouth could take over. She eagerly pushed up, urging him to suck on her clit.

On the holoscreen, the Overseer was working himself into a frenzy as he mated with his bed-mate. Animalistic sounds filled her room as she pushed her cunt at the same rhythm as the Overseer into Brennan's eager face. "Yes, eat my pussy," she gasped. "I'm gonna cum. Fuck, yes - "

The Overseer ejaculated with a shout, copious amounts of cum gushing out from his bed-mate's ass and smearing along the long length of his cock as he withdrew. The image and Brennan's final suckle on her engorged clit made her orgasm sharply with a long moan. Brennan sat back and watched her ride out the rest of her climax, having done this several times already to know better than to touch her now oversensitive clit.

"Seeing all that cum really did it huh," he said with a chuckle. His pants were now shoved down and he was fisting his cock as he stared at her flush slick pussy. "Did you want that in your pussy too?"

"Yes." Alys spread her legs out, ready to accept him. His cock twitched at seeing her lips spread and slick.

"Ask nicely." Brennan smiled none too kindly down at her.

"Please," she said. "Please put your cum in me."

"Beg me like you would the Valley man," he sneered, the head of his cock just kissing the slick lips of her pussy. She shifted her hips,opened her mouth and begged.

Alys stared at the screen with glazed eyes, her hips aching at how hard Brennan pinned her legs open and down. The Overseer was now going for round two in the video, pushing into an ass now slicked with his own cum. Her begging got Brennan going and he exploded deep inside her after a few minutes of relentless pounding. He kept thrusting and she could feel his semen oozing out with their movements.

Brennan let her legs go and they curled naturally around his waist. He sank back into her, continuing to use his own cum as lube. He was still hard and slowly fucked his cum back into her.

"Again," she grunted. The slickness got her aroused again. She replayed the video and this time Brennan had his cock inside her as she watched.

"Does your Valley man know what a whore you are," Brennan murmured in her ear as they worked up a lazy pace. "Watching dirty videos and having a cock in you every night. Does he know how much of my cum you've had inside you?"

He kept lightly taunting her between softly kissing her neck as he fucked her slowly. She could feel his hot breath tickling her neck as he spoke. As the climax built, she tore her gaze from the screen to look pleadingly up at Brennan. His gaze suddenly grew hot and he pinned her down onto the bed to pound her against it harder than before.

"You want your Valley man's dick up your pussy?" Brennan grunted out as he rutted roughly inside her. "Fuck you like a little whore? Fucking take it, take it! Uh!"

"Yes! Yes!" she gasped and came around his cock.

A few minutes after Brennan left her pod, Alys was three doors down in Ray's pod, riding his dick to some educational video on microplastics. But this wasn't before Ray cleaned up the mess Brennan left in and around her. Three, four orgasms later, Alys was able to feel more tired than horny. She resigned herself to go back to the quiet of her own room and collapsed on her bed.

The Valley man was there and that was the only time when she felt like she needed to indulge on two men in one night. When Richard visited, that was the only time when she felt she couldn't bear to be alone.

--

The next day, he had to clean the atmospheric filter nodes 3-16 to 3-20. As he clipped his safety harness at the anchor point next to 3-17, he heard a crinkling sound behind him. When he turned, he saw Alys standing near the maintenance shaft, holding a cloth bag and a granola bar. She had half unwrapped the bar and munched on it as she wandered to where he was.

"Alys, what in Christ's name are you doing up here?" he said, louder than he meant to. He was only a few feet from the edge and the waist-high fence would not save anyone tripping and falling.

"Granola bars," she said, shaking the cloth bag.

Richard felt himself lose a few more years of his life as she went right up to the edge right behind the 'fence' to peer over the edge. A gust of wind blew past, her pale hair catching it and swirled around her head.

She laughed, the sound clear and carefree. "Such a great view here!"

"No, absolutely not," Richard said through gritted teeth. He firmly took Alys' arm and jerked her back. "Do you want to get yourself killed?"

She eyed his hand clamped around her wrist. "I'm not going to get myself killed."

"Go back downstairs before you do something stupid and fall off the mountain."

"I'm not going to fall off the mountai..." Alys rolled her eyes and tried to shake his grip off but he refused to let go until he steered her about five paces away from the node. "And I'm NOT stupid."

Richard snorted and pointed at a patch of grass even further away. He couldn't make her stand there since his harness wasn't long enough for him to reach that spot. She shot him an annoyed look and hunkered down on the grass where he indicated, finishing her granola bar. It took all his willpower not to stare at her mouth.

"First, you complain about being hungry up here," she said. "Then you complain when I bring you food. Does Salve Valley teach you all to be so high maintenance?"

"Thank you for the food, but you didn't need to behave so recklessly to give it to me." Richard went back to the filter node. He kept the Zavnirian in his peripheral just in case she decided to get up and wander around again. Do they genetically engineer a god complex into these people too? "I would prefer it if you give them to me down below. Or send it to my guest room beforehand."

"But I needed to talk to you."

"It can't wait?" he raised his eyebrows at her. "I'm glued to you at dinnertime or else I don't get fed. You could talk to me then."

She gave him a somewhat pinched look. "I was thinking you would appreciate the privacy... when we broach on this specific topic," she said hesitatingly.

"Alys, what is this about?"

"The Overseer - or actually the Assembly - was hoping to get a semen sample from you," she said.

"What?"

"A semen sample," she said, enunciating as if he was slow. "From you."

"Why the fuck do they need semen from a maintenance man that cleans air filters?"

"Because you're not Zavnirian," she said. She then paused and gave him a look. "You do know we get lots of our genetic material from Salve Valley, right?"

He did know, but he thought it was a cheek swab or something. How very naive of him. "Is this why people from the Valley get 'guides'?" he asked, eyes wide. "So you can get your semen sample?"

"Well, yes and no," Alys said. "Guides definitely help. If you're to give us a sample, there's a specific room and machine you have to ejaculate into. What, did you think we had some sort of semen sample receptacle in our orifices?"

Of course she was talking about all this as casually as talking about the weather. "N-no I didn't - "

"We're not robots, you know." Alys sniffed.

"I never thought - "

"And your exact genetic information isn't going to be replicated. It gets examined; traits that are deemed positive will only get used or added to promote variety," she added. "In case you think you'll be the father of hundreds of little Zavnirian babies. You won't be."

"That wasn't... I wasn't concerned about that." Richard fought to stay calm. He turned back to the air filter; what the hell did he have to do next? He'd forgotten all about the filter. He sighed and started the checks from the beginning to make sure he didn't miss anything. "I already told you I have a partner back at Salve Valley. I can't get into that kind of relationship with you."

"Who said anything about a relationship?" Alys looked positively exasperated. She sat back, propping herself up with her arms behind her. Her thin, beige shirt molded against her chest, showing off two perfectly formed breasts. Richard looked away. She must be doing this purposely. "You jack off into a machine. Is that gonna piss off your 'partner' back home?"

"I dunno, maybe," he said. "I'm sure she won't appreciate the fact that the person assigned to have sex with me is suggesting I leave a semen sample. Look, Alys, the culture is different back at Salve."

"Yeah, different and boring," Alys said, her eyes narrowed. "Fine. Your loss. The Overseer usually pays for a sample."

Richard stilled. "How much?"

"At least as much as you make cleaning this stuff," she said, gesturing to the air filters. "He'll pay more for samples from people further away but we're having less visitors lately with the sandstorms and everything."

Richard didn't respond, his hands moving automatically to change the filter on the node. He could use the extra cash. With double the money, they could get another generator running on their block back home, or maybe a better oven for the kitchen. Alys must have seen the cogs turning because when he looked back at her she had a little smile on her face.

"Oh, so your lady love won't mind if you jerked off for money?" she asked, amused.