Tears of the Mayfly

Erik tried to resist her at first, fearing this act would make the death he felt closing in on him that much more painful for her, but he'd never been able to deny his sister anything.

Their mother found them in the morning but didn't have it in her heart to punish them for breaking the taboo. She loved them both so much that she was actually grateful to Eva for allowing Erik to experience the bliss of sex with someone who truly loved him.

With his most recent birthday just past, Erik had doubled his life expectancy. The doctor had been wrong about when, but that was all he was wrong about.

Only days later, she went to Erik's room to find it completely empty. It was as if he'd never been.

Her father entered the room behind her and explained that he'd sent Erik to a special clinic. For Erik's comfort, the entire contents of the room had been sent with him.

The patriarch spoke of a radical and highly illegal technique that might save his son.

As this treatment went against their society's rules, they would be unable to reach the men who took Erik away. If they cured him, he would return. If not, he was gone.

Eva had clung to her father, begging him to send her to Erik's side, but instead, he'd handed her a letter from Erik. Her father left her in the room to read her brother's final words to her.

In the letter, Erik first wrote of his surprise at his father's willingness to attempt such a politically dangerous move to save him. Then, she read how proud he was of his sister and how he knew she was destined for big things. He finished the letter expressing his love for her and his hope that one day he'd return to her arms.

Evangeline surfaced from her memories, feeling the loss once again in her heart. Erik hadn't returned from that secret clinic, so she knew he was gone. Occasionally, she dreamed of encountering him on the sidewalk of a busy shopping district or on the dance floor at a dance club. She always forced those fantasies away.

She wondered if Erik would still be proud of her. She'd reached the pinnacle of Xochitl One's society. Was that enough?

Truthfully, this should have been enough for her. Then her Xochitl Social Index ranking began a slow creep downwards.

Her people determined the cause was her inaccessibility. She looked too unattainable. Their answer was marriage. She didn't have to stay married for life, just the opposite in fact. It had to last no more than a year, followed by a splashy and nasty divorce caused by her infidelity. They guaranteed this would boost her rankings to levels she hadn't seen before.

This plan was known only to her and her team. Their loyalty to her was absolute, so she had no concerns that her soon-to-be-husband would discover he was just a cog in that machine.

What was causing her anxiety was the fact that it had been her father who'd stepped up and surprised her by matching her with Maxwell Krieger of Xochitl Two.

Her team almost went to pieces with excitement as the optics of her match with Maxwell were stellar.

She was tall and svelte with dark eyes, pale skin, and straight jet-black hair to her waist, the epitome of high society grace and style.

Maxwell was a stark contrast to her in many ways. He was the picture-perfect rugged outdoorsman. Tall and tanned with broad shoulders, a narrow waist, and strong arms and legs, his flowing yellow-blond locks fell to his shoulders. He kept his five o'clock shadow perfectly trimmed on his chiseled jawline, and his piercing blue eyes seemed to look into your soul.

Xochitl Two's main industry was raw materials. XAX Industries controlled everything, from mining an asteroid field and the planet's surface to processing chemicals and pharmaceuticals, right down to lumber, farming, and fishing.

The culture on Xochitl Two celebrated their industriousness and willpower, whereas Xochitl One emphasized intellect and sophistication.

Evangeline knew Maxwell's tan came from the same salon that styled his hair, trimmed his nails, and maintained his beard. He likely put as much effort into maintaining his physique as she did hers, but it was in a gym, not chopping trees, lifting hay bales, or hauling in fishing nets. All that heavy labor was automated now.

During one of their initial meetings, she shook his hand. While it was a large hand, his skin was soft, and his manicure was top-notch. Even the clear coat polish on his nails was the highest quality diamond sheen. She realized they had much in common, and subsequent meetings proved he would be a good match.

He was certainly attractive enough, but there was no spark between them... at all. As the marriage was just a tool to halt the decline of her social ranking, the lack of sparks didn't matter.

Her biggest concern was Xochitl Two also celebrated a culture of misogynistic attitudes. During their getting-to-know-one-another talks, Maxwell let slip a few comments that proved he followed those distasteful beliefs. She might have difficulty maintaining the sham marriage for an extended period if he began treating her like property. She was as close to a princess as her world got, and she expected to be treated as such.

The title wasn't official. It was just something the media said because she was so beautiful and lived in Xochitl One's grand palace. She liked it, and no fake lumberjack was going to take that away from her.

They were still in negotiations as to which planet they'd live on. She insisted they spend the first year on her home planet as that fit her plan's timelines. Maxwell said he would consider that but insisted the first month be spent at his resort on Xochitl Two. That didn't sound too bad until he suggested that after four weeks, she wouldn't want to leave. It was the look in his eye as he said it that gave her the impression that she might not be able to escape.

"Eva, seriously, you're going to get wrinkles if you don't stop!" Rosa huffed, bringing Eva out of her funk.

"What's got you so down? This is supposed to be an exciting time for you! Otherwise, why do it?" Saki added in.

Both women were intensely curious about her sudden decision to get married. She wasn't about to tell them the truth, so she blocked them with a cryptic, "I felt it was time. Sorry, so much on my mind!" she sighed dramatically.

Rosa grinned, "That's the main reason for this weekend! To get that stuff out of your mind while you go out of your mind!"

"I can't believe we're going to Bacchus!" Saki exclaimed excitedly.

The other two quickly picked up her excitement, then all three were squealing.

"Did someone smuggle piglets onto the ship?" a crisp voice asked with just a hint of dry humor.

The young women turned their heads to look back at the room's entrance to see Regina van Dijk looking back at them with a perfect raised eyebrow. Eva's mother was the template from which Evangeline's natural beauty originated.

Regina was also tall, if not so slim. The older woman had curves. She wore her straight, jet-black hair to her shoulders. Eva secretly envied her mother for her generous bosom. She'd never admit that, of course.

"Mother, we're just letting off a little steam. There's no harm in doing so here," Eva sighed. She would never live up to her mother's standards. She'd discovered that she was much happier when she didn't try.

Rosa spoke next. "Mrs. Van Dijk, Bacchus has a strict policy of no personal recording devices and no press allowed, so it truly is a paradise for privacy. Anything goes?" she added as she grinned at her friends.

They answered with wicked smiles of their own.

-=-

Regina rolled her eyes as she mourned the loss of any sense of propriety in today's youth.

When she'd heard the wedding party was going to Bacchus, she'd tried to get her husband to intervene and suggest an alternate venue, but, as usual, he'd ignored his partner's better judgment. She'd had no choice but to invoke the chaperone rule. So here she was, on her way to one of the most morally corrupt planets, as the sole sentinel of virtue. Seeing her daughter's choice of skimpy bikini made her uneasy about what might happen in the resort they were going to. She turned her eyes from their envious gaze at her daughter's chest. While artificial, the young woman's breasts were a much more reasonable size. As she turned to leave, she looked down at her own chest and once again wondered what it might be like to have reduction surgery.

She wouldn't do it, of course. She believed nature's rule was absolute. What you were given, you accepted.

She just wished nature had been less generous in this one area as it made her the subject of lustful stares from men, unable to control their primitive instincts.

Bacchus was a planet renowned for activities that practically demanded the guests regress to more primitive behavior.

As she walked towards her wardroom, she contemplated using elastic bandages to bind her bosom down.

-=-

Back in the sunroom, Eva was grinning excitedly as they reviewed the resort's brochure on their tablets. Her device pinged as a new message came in. It was a welcome message from the resort. She quickly read the itinerary and grinned when she got to the part regarding the evening's entertainment. A personal note from the Madam who ran the club stated she had someone special waiting to meet her. A thrill ran through her body.

She was by no means a stranger to sex, but at home, she had to take a great deal of care to hide such intimate activities from public scrutiny as it had such a devastating impact on social rankings. On Bacchus, she had a guarantee of privacy. What she did there stayed there.

"Will the others meet us at the resort?" Saki asked and received a nod from Eva.

By others, she meant the rest of the bridesmaids. Seven more ladies were coming to Bacchus, traveling on a regular tourist passenger cruiser.

Eva's father was picking up the costs for the weekend for the bride's side of the wedding party. Her friends were ecstatic! While all of them were from Xochitl One's wealthier families, this would be a very expensive weekend, and who doesn't appreciate an all-expenses paid vacation.

Now Evangeline had someone special to meet. This weekend was all about her, and she would enjoy it to the fullest.

-=-

Maxwell Krieger was the heir to his father's vast business holdings, XAX Industries. He was also the most eligible bachelor on Xochitl Two. His body was firm and fit, and he was as physically beautiful as science could achieve, or so he was told. There wasn't a woman on Xochitl Two, or One, who wouldn't immediately drop to their knees before him to swallow his cum. He knew this. His team told him this. His social ranking numbers didn't lie.

So why was he so discontented?

He was on a company cruiser with his squad of friends on his way to Bacchus for his bachelor party. The others were celebrating early in the ship's lounge two levels down, but he needed a little quiet time, so he remained in his cabin.

He'd met his bride several times and had to agree with his father, and every man on their two planets for that matter, that she was truly beautiful. He also knew there wasn't a more prestigious match. Her social ranking, combined with his, would set them above all others.

Yet... something was eating at him, turning what should have been excitement into depression. But he could never let anyone know he felt like this.

His future was set, and he had everything he could ever want. He represented not only XAX Industries but also Xochitl Two. They were achievers, creators, conquerors, and, above all, winners. Whining was for losers.

A heavy pounding sounded from his door, and his immediate response was to snap at them to fuck off! He knew he couldn't do that, as much as he desperately wanted to.

Instead, he put a smirk on his lips and pressed the control next to his chair to open the door.

"MMMAAAAXXXX!" Gregor, his best man, bellowed as he stumbled inside. At his back were Rickard and Gherry. All were equally drunk.

"When are you going to join us?" the man growled weakly.

"Why are you such a pain in the ass?" Maxwell fired back with a fake grin.

"I can't help it if my cock's so big! You shoulda brought lube!" Gregor guffawed.

The words were Max's. He'd said them to a housekeeper from his resort after he'd fucked her in the ass. She'd screamed in pain when he surprised her from behind. Later, he'd had to fire her as she wouldn't shut up about his little fun. She'd become a pain in his ass.

He wasn't even sure why he'd fucked her. She wasn't beautiful. She didn't have a great body. If anything, she was a tomboy with short hair, no tits, and a muscular body. Whatever! He pushed the memory away as he leapt from his chair to wrestle Gregor to the carpet, as the man continued to laugh. He grunted with the effort to get his beefy friend into a hold he couldn't escape from. Rickard and Gherry cheered him on from the sidelines.

"Who fucked who in the ass?" Max finally challenged his friend when he had the man well and truly pinned with his face pressed against the carpet's pile. He could feel the man's muscles flexing and bunching in an attempt to free himself, but it was no good, and Gregor slapped the floor in defeat.

Max knew his friend was strong and worked out almost as diligently as he did, so it was exciting to pit himself against such an opponent. The feeling of power it gave him to win made him stiff in his shorts, so he released and stood up to grin down at his friend. He took a step back as Gregor flopped over onto his back, grinning up at the group like a fool.

"You win this time, but let it be known, I'm drunk." Gregor gasped.

Max laughed and reached down to help the man to his feet. He patted the man on the back. "Come on, you can buy me a drink!"

That got a cheer from the group.

As they made their way to the lounge, he realized this was what made him happy! Being surrounded by his squad, Gregor especially. They'd been friends since birth, his mother told him. She liked to recount the story of how the two babies shared a wet nurse, each suckling a breast as the woman cradled them both in her arms. His mother used to tease him that she used to love seeing their tiny naked bodies wiggling together as they fed. She knew her son would grow up big and strong as he was already bigger than his friend. That image stuck in his brain from the first time he heard it.

From their time in the locker room showers, he knew he had grown up bigger than Gregor in a number of ways. Not that he was going to tease his best friend about that. Still, it brought a smile to his face.

A drunken cheer rose when they got to the lounge, and someone pushed a cup of beer into his hand. He raised it and toasted his friends. More cheering, and then they chugged the beer.

He didn't tell his friends that he'd taken a drug earlier that neutralized the alcohol. He couldn't drink without becoming depressed, so the drug was necessary, and he'd just pretend. That was easy enough.

He'd been doing it his entire life.

The group was very excited about going to Club Maximus on Bacchus. They'd been told anything goes, and they were all talking about what they planned to do to the bitches at the club. They all laughed when Rickard boasted he would ask for three of their bustiest girls. He'd oil their big titties and get them to rub them all over his body until he coated them all with his cum. Rickard grinned happily as he thought of it, and they laughed again at his blissful smile.

Gherry teased Gregor that he wanted a Genie that looked like Gregor's mom. That led to some wrestling as the two men fought to pin the other. This went on for some time as both men were drunk and evenly matched.

Maxwell watched with a grin on his face, but what he really wanted was to get in there with them and pin them both. He began to get a little stiff again, so he reached in to pull Gregor off the other and whispered in his ear. "Cool off!" He felt the trembling in his best man's muscles. He took insults against his mother a little too hard. The truth was, Gregor had a bit of a thing for his own mother, but Max had to admit the woman dressed and acted like a slut.

He turned to Gherry and pushed him back with a hand on his firm chest. "Come on, no mother jokes. Besides, you couldn't handle Gregor's mom. She'd chew you up and spit you out."

More laughter, this time at Gherry's expense. Gregor patted Max's back in thanks.

Some of the fantasies the guys wanted to enact at the club would have landed them in jail back home. On Bacchus, especially in Club Maximus, anything was possible and allowable.

Maxwell had already placed a special order. He planned to dominate his bride before they got married. He knew he'd have only four weeks after they got married for him to seal the deal, as his father put it. She needed to be permanently his by the end of her visit to his resort.

His team indicated that the potentials were high that she only entered into this marriage to boost her social ranking. Her points had begun to slide slightly recently. His team theorized a marriage would rekindle her popularity, but a divorce would improve it more. He had to drive all thoughts of divorce from her head. His father took him aside and expressed the importance of the marriage to him and his company. Max wasn't going to disappoint him.

The medic at Maxwell's resort had the required chemical agents prepared to massage his bride's attitude until she was as devoted to him as his mother was to his father. A good little sex toy.

It was just too bad Evangeline didn't excite him. There was no spark.

It didn't matter. He could get his excitement on the side.

His social ranking numbers didn't lie.

Chapter 4

Sion's body was trembling. The reason why was unknown.

As she fed him, Doctor Octavia had a talk with him and said that the Madam needed him to think of himself and refer to himself as male. The guests arriving tonight were expecting all the talent in the resort to be male. So, for tonight, Sion was a he. As long as his masculine side took priority, he was feeling more comfortable referring to himself as he. The term didn't define them. It just identified them at the moment.

Octavia explained that he didn't have to behave any differently. Sion was relieved as he was sure he'd be too self-conscious if he had to constantly monitor his behavior.

He felt pleasantly full as the doctor had given him an extra ration bar with his meal, then let him finish what she'd left on her plate as well. She'd had the sweetest smile when she left him after dinner.

His experience with Tracy this morning replayed in his mind, and he smiled to himself as the Madam had been very pleased with his performance. His smile softened as he realized performance was far too cold a word for the intimacy he'd shared with the woman. The word insinuated he was acting, pretending, or worse, lying. He knew in his heart that the emotions he'd felt when he shared himself with Tracy were real. He'd opened himself to her, and she'd shared her intimate feelings in return.

He didn't know if the other dancers exposed themselves so profoundly, but that was the only way he knew how to connect and share himself with another.

A slight frown passed across his face as he wondered if the other talent felt as he did when they were with one of the Madam's customers. When the intimacy became so intense, he could feel the sensations running through his partner's nerves. He knew what felt good for them, what they craved, and when to give them more. When they reached their peak, he shared that reward with them, and it became an incredible feedback loop between their bodies, almost a perfect synchronization of bliss.