Red Daddy: Ceres Station Pandemic

Suze (short for Susan? I didn't ever know) was kneeling down on the mattress (on the floor) and helping lift me up by my arms. They got me stood up, and my legs felt very odd, wobbly and not quite all there. I could almost walk, I thought, but I didn't quite have the balance.

"Bathroom trip?"

"Yes, please. Rather quickly." I didn't elaborate beyond that, it didn't need saying.

They brought me over and around the corner to the bathroom and were going to sit me down, but I said, "Stop." They held me up while I pulled down my underwear and aimed my boner at the toilet. I missed only a little and got the rest aimed in, a strong stream though it was very dark orange colored, like I was dehydrated.

Relief streamed through me and I let out a deep breath. I was a little embarrassed for missing, but before I could say anything, Pam said, "Wow! You're getting so much stronger! Peeing standing up? You've got most of your weight right now."

"Just happy to make it to the pot."

They both laughed. I think this was entertaining for them, too.

Finishing my urination, I shook a little and said, "I gotta use the toilet part, too. Can you set me down?"

"Sure."

Letting go with two girls watching me was a little odd. I asked if I could only have one watcher, and they both turned around. I farted loudly, and said excuse me, and they said 'no problem' in a way that told me they'd dealt with much worse from me already and I didn't even know it.

After a couple of minutes, I used the bidet function and cleaned up, then flushed and wanted to go wash my hands. They said, "No, let's just do a shower. It's been long enough."

Pam stripped quickly, piling her clothes on the sink, and after various tradeoffs and setup I was getting clean again. The procedure was similar to before except it was only Pam with me. I could sit upright without a problem, so Suze waited outside.

After the bath and a quick dry-off I got fresh clothing and saw I had fresh sheets, too.

Pam propped two pillows behind me and sat down on the bed, cross-legged in front of me. Suze was behind her, not reading a novel, I could see -- her pad dipped and I saw 'ACTION MESSAGE' written at the top.

"So... Pam. Is it time, then?"

She nodded, very serious. "It's time."

I thought about all the worst case scenarios that could be, all the best case ones, too, and what it probably was. But, I suspected the worst.

I was wrong. It was even worse than that.

She started, glancing down to get the gist of what she was supposed to say. "The pandemic is over, mostly, the exceptions being men, like you, who have taken a while to awaken and get lively again. Some had meningitis, so they may or may not ever awaken, we don't know. That's not many, though, about 5% of the survivors."

She took a breath, long and slow, measuring out her words. "Just about all the men you've ever known are dead." She looked at Suze and nodded for her to speak next.

I was confused.

Suze said, reading from her tablet, "Ceres - SHAG Virus Pandemic Mortality Statistics Report, as of this morning. Infection presumed at 100%. Overall female mortality, 32 percent, mortality below age 35, 3 percent, above age 35, 94%. Older women were heavily hit."

Realizing I was about to ask, Pam said, "Red, I checked, and yes, your mother passed on, about two weeks ago."

This was alarming, of course... but, somehow, my mood turned suddenly calm. I almost didn't recognize my own voice as I said, "I understand. Please continue."

Suze nodded. "Overall male mortality, 98.2%. Above age 53 it's 100%, below that it declines. Below age 53, it's 97%, there weren't that many older men here."

"One ... in ... no, 3 in 100? That's it?"

Suze spoke again, "Yes. There are other numbers, those still in a persistent vegetative state, those just starting to emerge from the ravages. Most have pulled through, now, you're on the tail end of the recoveries, I'd say."

Pam said, "There's other effects, among the survivors, you should know about, too."

"Yes?"

"Those males who have survived have continued needing to ejaculate about once every 4 to 6 hours before they experience discomfort. This makes sleep difficult. The doctors don't know if or when the effects might wear off. There are other effects, on you, mostly muscle atrophy from being mostly asleep for 3 weeks. I've noticed that over the time that I've known you, your penis has grown in diameter and length, but not grotesquely. It's a blessing that it's not too much, because not every woman can accommodate a large penis, and this would have caused problems."

I nodded. I was still in shock. This news was coming into the rational part of my brain and my emotional part had shut down. "And, women?"

"Tests are showing mitochondrial DNA has been supercharged and is now operating, in all surviving women, at nearly the same level as a 4-year old. I'm only able to sit here, frankly, because I worked out for over an hour, running super-hard on a treadmill and lifting some weights. Not enough men have been in recovery long enough to determine this, but I've seen a couple of men at the fitness center already and that's amazing given what I know you've gone through."

My mind went back to my ... friends? "Uh... Question. Tipu?"

"He passed about 3 hours after you went to sleep the first time."

I nodded, "Peter, too?"

"Yes."

I worked up to this one. "... My father?"

"I'm so sorry, Red... No."

"Both my mother and father...?"

"Yes. I'm so, so sorry."

"Dafne? My sister?!?!"

"She's fine. We've told her you're awake... Everybody's super-busy, though, we don't know when she can get here, duty shifts..."

"That's fine, as long as she's fine... Oh my God, I can't imagine... So, very, ... wow, she's good? Really?"

"I'll reach out a little later, see if I can get another message to her."

"Thanks soooo much...!"

She nodded.

Thinking of how I got back to my room, I asked, "Evaline?"

"Working hard, she's an engineer and My God we need those. Lots of problems going on, apparently we have systems that require a lot of manual intervention and we didn't know about it."

"Cora?"

"She's fine, working on some big project, too."

"How is it you're here?"

"Volunteered, and I knew you before, so I was a shoe-in. Plus, my major was finance, and I'm not really anywhere close to being in-demand right now. Later, sure, they'll need me; there's a lot of businesses that may or may not be viable anymore, and I can help with that part since I have accounting, too. But, for now, my best and most pressing need is YOU."

I looked over. "Suze? Why are you here?"

"Volunteered. I was in theater arts and education."

"How... did the kids do? You didn't mention them in mortality..."

"Males -- boys, really -- down to 15 or so, same rate as general population. Below that, for some reason, they survived with no needs. We don't know how they will do when they get older, if they will get the virus, or if they had it and are over it, or what."

"I'm a little... it's odd to ask, but... how did the younger... sort of... how did they manage to ....?"

Suze took that one. "Ejaculate? Younger? Yeah, they mentioned that..." she scrolled a little and said, "Males 17 and below experienced a high rate of spontaneous emission even without provocation. The prevalence of this was widespread the younger the person. Before puberty, no effects were observed."

"Egads, that must have been awkward..."

Pam laughed outright, a big laugh, "Red, your concept of awkward needs resetting. Sure, yes, that was awkward, I'm sure it was, and I'm sure those kids had serious problems." She sobered up and said, "Many of the older kids died.... I'm not trying to say bad things about that. OHmygod no."

She just swallowed for a minute. We all just let that sit there. There were tears in my eyes and down my cheeks.

I couldn't imagine watching a child die. There weren't words to deal with that! Fuck!

My mind couldn't wrap that, more than it could wrap the number of people of all ages who died... and the emotions shut down again. This was facts territory. Emotions don't go there. Some part of living in space prepares you for going into an emergency mode like this.

Nothing really prepares you for people you know dying.

Pam continued, "I can't deal with that right now. Awkward is the topic. I guess the biggest awkward factors were... things I saw, and did, not what other people around me were doing."

She seemed to be summarizing something she'd not thought a lot about yet. "If I was in a room, I guess, I'd just do whatever, to help people. That was an 'of course' even if it was beyond the reasonable. Like, no one ever thought, 'Hey, I gotta fuck that guy or he'll die.' That's kind of a literal thing, right? It's one thing to say, 'no way!' when it's an abstract. But, then, I saw you, you three, really, and what could I do?!?"

Her tears were streaming, but she was figuring things out as she talked. I let her talk.

"My God, there wasn't... What can you do? You're looking at someone. You know, I'm like, hey, I like them. But, they're dying. The 'They're dying? How can I help?' went from 'I have to help' to 'can it be anything else?' to 'Can't anyone else do it?'. Finally, it was 'If not me, then who?'"

I could see her point. Pam was looking back at Suze, and they stared at each other for about a minute, not saying anything.

Pam turned back to me, tears still streaming. "The only thing we could do, Suze and I, really, were the simplest things. Things we learned, quickly enough. Blowjobs were fine, but they hurt the jaw after a while. Sex was easier. Handjobs or between the boobs worked sometimes. I talked with some people who tried it up the butt when their vaginas were sore, but that phase didn't last since the ... the... " she inhaled and got businesslike, "Since the men were dying quickly, there were more women available."

Suze piped in, to take over, but said to Pam, "You said awkward... I remember, talking with you and Christine, from across the hall? About, what happens if he dies while... like, in the middle, while we're doing it? Would we be scarred forever? What's the emotional cost of that?"

This whole conversation was intensely surreal, like I was observing someone else having it.

Pam went on after a brief pause. "The fixes we knew, they weren't guaranteed to fix anything. Really, in the end, most of the time they didn't. It prolonged things, certainly -- the ones that had nothing, they died very fast. The men that are alive today, are alive because we helped them. And, the men who didn't make it, they lived longer because we did it. We... Do it, I mean, it's kind of a continuing thing, with you at least."

Pam said, "After Tipu, I kind of shut down for about 2 days. I just stared at the wall most of the time, and tried to wrap my mind around it. My dad died -- and my mom -- about the same time, too. It was too much. Then, in this room and near me, Peter. He passed sometime in that 2 days, too. I remember the screaming. We thought you'd wake up, maybe. Sometimes you stirred, or mumbled. But, no. You kept going."

She turned back to me, facing me. "Just so you know, if Tipu was your friend more than I'm aware of. I tried sitting Shiva, saying the prayers, reciting the Kaddish, but... it didn't help. It didn't help me, at least. I thought it might, but, no. I called my rabbi, I called his home. I didn't want to, but I thought maybe I could get a thought from him that might help. Turns out he'd been sick, too. He was older, so he's passed now, too, I'm sure. I haven't reached out to his wife or any of the cantors or anything, I... have to digest for a while, I think. Everyone has to digest for a while."

Pam looked vaguely Native American or Alaskan Aleut, so I was surprised by her being Jewish, but there was a lot of diversity on Ceres that one wouldn't expect on first seeing it.

I just sat quietly and tried to digest what they were saying.

Suze said, "The awkward times for most people, later at least, were when -- you know, Pam -- when you're having sex, and there's someone else in the room, or several people, and it's all just right there? You hear, from behind you, this conversation about trout or some other goddamn thing, and you're in the middle of having sex, like, feeling kind of horny and passionate, even if the person I'm with is comatose and will never know. The other people? They just keep talking, like it's nothing, most of the time, and sometimes they sit and stare, just watching. It was like, I'd be on you..."

My eyebrows must have gone up, because she nodded.

"... and someone would walk out of the other room eating a burrito or a casserole, and offer me a bite! While I was having sex! It's very, very odd, seriously odd. You? You didn't care. You were oblivious, asleep, passed out, whatever. The only part of you that was functional was your reproductive system. And, that was enough. It reacted the normal way, I presume. It even took the normal amount of time -- we looked it up. It's 5 to 7 minutes, for most adults, from penetration to ejaculation. For you, it was right about that, depending on who was on you, and how much they moved or something, I never did figure a way to speed it up any, and to be frank, it was nice enough I didn't really want it to be faster or slower, it was about right."

I shrugged and half-smiled. I couldn't control what I did while unconscious, so I didn't feel guilty, too much. A little bit guilty, I might guess, but if I'm unconscious, I can't be held to a standard. But, it all was building up, what they were saying. I'd missed out on some hugely important things in their lives, I'd caused them huge hassles, made them do things, just by being alive...

I started to cry. Little bits of me started to shake and move and break, inside, my world was... wrong. It wasn't just the girls. It was -- everything about this. It couldn't all be true. And, yet, I'd seen it. I'd lived through it.

I'd seen Anyu's body.

Anyu was a nice guy. Not the best friend a person could have. He snored, I remember, when he sometimes fell asleep on the couch in the middle of a meal. I'd kick him, he'd start awake, say, 'Oh, sorry,' finish eating, and go to bed. He worked hard, too. I'd seen him do double shifts at his job and school, doing both so he could help out his younger sister... If she was even alive. I had to hope so.

Mom... and Dad... Both gone...

I cried, and cried. Pam held me, just laying there next to me. She traded places with Suze and used the bathroom, then brought back some food for us, oatmeal with granola and some vitamin pills, and the protein cubes she said I had to have at least 5 of every time I awoke. She had some too, but made the same grimace I did when eating them. I wolfed them down with some cranberry juice that seemed both sweet and sour at the same time. I wasn't entirely sure the cranberry juice actually came from cranberries or was fabricated. Our greenhouses were extensive, but cranberry bushes were pretty diffuse and I wasn't sure that was a thing that could be grown in zog or if it needed spingrav to make the bushes do things. Technically, Ceres had gravity, just a tiny amount, so ... I didn't know nearly enough about the way the colony functioned.

I was supposed to be an engineer, a metallurgical engineer... Like My Father. Oh, damn, like my father WAS. I started crying again.

By this time, I had to use the bathroom again, just to pee, and I got some help from Suze to go. This time, the food must have been helping, because I felt stronger than I had before. I managed several steps under mostly my own weight, but it took a lot of effort, like I was lifting a heavy backpack. My legs were shaking, too, which didn't make guidance any easier. I peed and had to do it through a half-hard dick, which isn't easy but It wasn't as painful as through a full-hard one.

Brushing my teeth felt heavenly, like I was getting a brand-new mouth, and took the remaining taste of the protein cubes away.

Back to bed, and sleep. Pam was there, in the bed already, waiting, naked but covered in blankets. She didn't want to force things by turning me on. Her compassionate face didn't inspire hot-sexy to me, it told me I was cared for. So, really, the sleep was being held while I cried.

Then sleep.

I woke, some unknown number of hours later, and felt an urgency, a horniness, and my arms were draped over Pam. She started awake, smiled at me, kissed my forehead, and then my mouth. I shifted over, rubbing her chest from the side, tugging at her boobs in grateful appreciation for their softness. My groping continued, and her hands found my dick, hard, taking and stroking it softly and gently. I liked that, and moved under her fingers.

We kissed for a while, and I felt her other hand move the covers as it did things to her sex, getting herself ready I presumed.

She broke the kiss and pulled me to her, then changed her mind and turned away from me, sticking her butt against my cock. It was an odd position, but with her legs open my cock went between easily enough. Her upper leg came back behind my thighs, pulling me to her in a way. She was open, though, enough for me to reach down and find her clit was in easy reach. I knew enough to make the same small circles I'd seen the girls doing. She was plenty wet already, so I pulled my cock up and pushed in, pressing into her. She moaned and pushed back into me, and we continued.

"From behind... I haven't done this in quite a while..."

"It takes coordination," I said, "I'm not surprised."

I continued to thrust into her, gently but steadily, supporting my weight on my pillow so very little motion was required of me after all. My fingers were busy, though, and very soon I had her gasping and convulsing, then crying out "Ohhhhh OOOhhh OOOOhhh!!! OHhhh!!!" The room lights were off; I wasn't sure where Suze was, but if she was asleep before, she wouldn't be after that noise, I thought.

Her orgasm kept going, though, as did my hand motion, and she just kept peaking and peaking. My cock was getting a throbbing from the inside, pulses just kept going, and my ear was a little sore from the yells, but it was damned sexy, and I shot SPURT right into SPURt that wonderful CUNT SPURT filling her OHH yes Cunt yes so good Spurt.... Wow... I didn't SPURT convulse shudder I SPURT am still coming SPURT oh, my vision is getting thin SPURT wow that's fantastic Uuuuuugggg wow Spurt shudder move, move, twitch, relax, twitch, relax, breathe again SPURT ohmygod great yum oh.... Relax....

We lay there side by side, spooning, and she shifted her hips a little to show me she knew where I was. I knew, too. My cock subsided slightly, and I pulled out very deliberately because I didn't really want to do it again right away and if I just kept it there, I might want to do it again.

Sleep.

== ==

When I awoke, it wasn't Pam, it was Suze. She was where Pam had been, only we were faced the other way, with her behind me.

I had to pee a little, but her boobs were on my back, her arm was over my chest and hugging me, and it was ... nice.

I shifted, and she came awake. I said, "I have to pee, but then, maybe. How long has it been?"

She said, I could tell through a smile, "For me or you, hot stuff?"

I laughed, "For me. How long was I sleeping?"

"Maybe 4 hours, I think. I've been here about that, and I think Pam tapped my shoulder after you finished. She wanted to go check on her sister."

"Oh, I didn't know."

"Yeah, I've met her. Annie. She's a year younger, I think she's just turned 18, a senior in high school. They're quite a ways away, off Northwest of here and up 12 levels, pretty light territory, not as much spingrav, think it's 75 [percent] or so."

"You met her?"

"Briefly. She came here a while back to give Pam the news in person, about their parents. Pam knew already, they were listed on the official roster, but... still, it was nice of her to come. They spent some time walking, off and on, the first week, on stadium level, quarter-grav, it's less crowded up there."