Tears of the Mayfly

He shook his head. Of course, the others felt that way. He knew what he was, what they were as well. Part of his implanted memories were cold, hard facts about his purpose and function. He didn't like to dwell on that, and his mind prevented him from questioning it. Indeed, his programming made him proud of it and eager to do his job for his master. The others like him must experience the same sensations with the clients as he did.

Sion knew he was different in one significant way.

He was also a she, and having this duality of identity could be confusing and frightening. He/she was one person and one mind, but sometimes it felt like an echo chamber. Each input went through a dual assessment. The male and female matrices implanted in their mind had different perceptions about what they felt, saw, heard, tasted, and smelled. The larger the disparity, the stronger the sensation of duality.

Sion's nature, common to both identities, placed compassion and empathy above all other sensibilities. To put it bluntly, this programming made for better sex workers. It was also making it possible for them to adapt to this duality, assisting with resolving this conflict in their mind. It was too painful and frightening to remain as two separate beings in one mind. Neither identity wanted to feel that way. Their solution was to open their hearts and accept each other's needs and perceptions. Love was the bond that prevented further fragmentation. His male identity learned to love how her female identity experienced the world, and she did the same for his perception. This led Sion to feel a profound unity in their mind, a deeper understanding of intimacy that could be shared with the Madam's clients.

They would be entertaining a woman tonight, so his male identity needed to be front and center, but the female identity was never far away.

While Sion had promised the doctor to behave and refer to themselves as male for the clients tonight, internally, on the most personal levels, they would not disrespect each side's contributions. They would be true to both sides.

This new peace within their mind felt like heaven, and a warmth spread across their body.

They were Sion.

Shortly, they would meet Evangeline van Dijk, the woman they would dance for and share themselves with. Madam DeGaul was very explicit in her instructions that, unlike Tracy, this woman held a position in society that was the equivalent of royalty and needed to be treated as such. Sion was to ensure she experienced as much pleasure, if not more, than Tracy did. The Madam expressed how pleased she'd been with their first session and was sure they could rise above their previous effort.

Sion was excited, and perhaps this was the cause of the trembling. The sensation had begun shortly after the large meal. As they sat cross-legged on the floor of a talent-only waiting room, they went through some relaxation exercises in their mind.

A single bead of sweat rolled down their spine, the tickling sensation breaking their concentration. They put a hand on the back of their neck and noticed how flushed the skin felt. They slowly slid their fingertips up to the base of their skull, and the heat seemed much higher at the top of their spine. The internal trembling was stronger there as well. It was giving them a slight headache. They considered speaking to the doctor about it but were due to go on stage shortly. Besides, they felt fine aside from the headache, a little heat, and some trembling.

It felt odd that they weren't with the other talent. They were to be last on stage, but they thought they'd at least be able to see the other dancer's moves.

They forced their mind back to the relaxation exercises. They had to be ready. The Madam was counting on them.

-=-

Evangeline was trembling inside, and she wasn't sure why. She'd had plenty of lovers, and some had even been surprises, but this time?

Maybe it was the setting. She wasn't on Xochitl One, where everything was predictable. On Bacchus, shit happened. Wild shit. Unpredictable and dangerous shit.

That felt like a solid reason for her trembling.

After cocktails and a light dinner, the ladies in her wedding party were guided to an intimate theatre room with a multilevel stage against one wall. The chamber was reasonably large to accommodate the space needed for the dancers and ensured the seating was spread across the room in a line facing the stage, so every seat had a clear view of it and the other guests. The lighting was subdued, and the chairs were plush and comfortable. Each woman was assigned a seat with Evangeline at the center, flanked by Rosa and Saki.

As the guests waited for the show, handsome waiters circulated, serving more cocktails. Excitement levels were high as they knew the dancers, their dates for the night, would soon appear to shake their cocks and tails.

Evangeline's bridesmaids were in rare form. They were tipsy, loud, and pawing at the waiters, far from the civilized behavior expected of them on Xochitl One.

The bride-to-be was sitting at the point of a raised runway projecting from the center of a stage. It was the best seat in the house, where she would get to review all the dancers before they moved off to join their designated ladies for the next phase of the party.

Sitting to her sides, Rosa and Saki were well into their drinks. Evangeline could almost feel their excitement and nervousness. They'd confessed that in their special request form, they'd both asked for dancers with really large cocks. Eva knew from personal experience they were making a mistake, as they'd be walking funny for days.

She and her MoH team made one more special arrangement on the way to Bacchus. One of her ladies had a strong bias against anyone with a dark skin tone. They'd arranged for her to be paired with a dancer with the darkest skin. The dancers couldn't harm the customers, so they weren't endangering the woman, but her bigotry be damned.

Eva's mom refused to enter the room where the debauchery would begin. She'd tried to talk the girls out of proceeding, but no one was listening. They'd waited politely for her to finish her plea, then moved into the theater. The chair behind Eva's remained empty as Regina stayed in the bar.

Body trembling, Evangeline settled back into her seat and concentrated on maintaining her neutral expression. It was the hardest work she'd ever done.

-=-

"Why is the bride's mother not joining the others in the theatre?" Helena snapped as she pointed to one of the monitors in the control room. On it, Regina van Dijk could be seen sipping tea at a table in the bar by herself. She looked... sad.

Octavia set down the comm handset and turned to the Madam. "According to the dining room staff who overheard the conversation, she attempted to talk the younger women out of proceeding. When she failed, she told her daughter she would wait for her in the bar in case she had second thoughts."

Helena stared at the doctor, her expression switching between anger and confusion. Finally, she managed to speak.

"She tried to stop them?" she asked quietly.

Octavia nodded. "You'll need to speak to her directly to find out why."

Helena nodded absently and left the room. Her mind was in turmoil as her ever-present paranoia reared its rabid head. Had the woman discovered her true purpose?

Twenty-three years of plotting, struggling, building, suffering, and enduring had led to this final moment when all she'd gone through would pay off and grant her vengeance for all the lost souls of Xochitl Six.

The revenge she'd described to Octavia was a smokescreen. Her true design was far more vicious and deadly.

Her nerves were jittery, and she clamped down on her muscles to hide their tremor. She couldn't let herself fail now, not when she was minutes away from success.

She checked the time and realized she had a few moments, so she hustled to her office and locked herself inside. Away from prying eyes in the sanctuary of her soundproof office, she released her pent-up tension with a blood-curdling scream of rage and despair. Afterward, she panted and trembled as her ears pulsed with the echoes of her internal pain.

Her scream triggered a flashback, and her thoughts yanked her back to the terror of the day she escaped the dying planet. Firestorms raged worldwide, whipped up by hurricane-force winds, scouring the remaining life from the planet, leaving nothing behind but ash.

Back then, her name had been Daisy, and she'd been small for her age. Malnutrition was the most likely cause. Her father kept her close as he was constantly worried she'd get sucked away by the winds.

Her family and the other people from her village were huddled inside the shelter when a voice came over the radio. The adults had been calling for help for weeks, but all they heard in return was static. Someone was jamming their transmissions, she'd overheard someone fearfully say.

The crackling voice announced that a ship was coming down to get them and would arrive in minutes.

The people in the shelter suddenly stampeded to the exits, and some were trampled. Daisy's father was a large man and put his daughter over his shoulder as he pushed through the crowd to get them outside, his wife and son following close behind.

The crowd struggled across the scoured landscape towards the open plain, the only spot open enough to land a shuttle. Daisy struggled to breathe in the heat and whipping ash clouds. The winds were so strong they carried some of the smaller people away, throwing them into the inferno consuming the buildings behind them. Her father once more saved them with his size and solidity.

Everyone began screaming when the black clouds suddenly parted ahead and above them. The shuttle was coming down too fast and too close. The crowd tried to run back towards the shelter but collided with the others running forward. The ship had its landing jets on full power to slow their descent, which was barely adequate against the winds.

They engaged the main thruster at the last second and prevented a crash landing. Unfortunately, the jet of plasma cut through a section of the villagers, instantly incinerating them. The ship still landed hard and bounced once on its landing gear. Additional lives were lost, crushed under the bulk of the ship and the loading door that opened and slammed down to form a ramp. Dust, ash, and flames swirled as Daisy choked.

Gloved hands grabbed her, and she was being carried up the ramp. Just as she reached the top, the wind cleared momentarily, and she saw her father on his knees, holding the hand of her mother, who'd been crushed by the loading ramp. Her brother was trapped as well.

Daisy drew a breath to scream as she reached for her father. A huge lance of flame whipped by the gale force winds rushed at the ship from the buildings behind them.

Someone hit the emergency close lever for the ramp, and it slammed upwards into its sealed position. Villagers on the ramp were thrown against the ceiling or deeper into the shuttle to collide with others inside. Then, the ship suddenly surged into the sky, and Daisy was crushed against the floor under the body of the one carrying her. She tried to breathe as a huge hand pushed her and her savior against the deck. The sounds of the roaring engines and people screaming in pain and terror filled her head. The world went dark.

Helena became aware of lying in a fetal position on the floor of her office. She glanced at the time and saw only a few minutes had passed. She struggled to her feet. It had been years since she'd relived that terrible day. Only two dozen people from her village made it off the surface. Her brother, mother, and father hadn't been included in that number. She'd heard that her group was the largest collected by the five shuttles that made it to the surface. In total, forty-seven Xochitl Six citizens survived the death of the planet. Forty-seven from a population of close to a million.

That night, she'd lost her ability to speak, a condition which would last for well over a year. Though she was silent, she listened to everyone. She heard six rescuers died in the effort to save as many as they could. The three shuttles returned to the ship but were too severely damaged to try again. Considering the conditions on the surface, there was little point in making another attempt. The rescuers arrived too late.

She heard the ship's crew nervously discussing the nearby cluster of Xochitl One battleships, which were patrolling space around Xochitl Six, acting like an unofficial blockade against humanitarian missions. Only Xochitl Two fleet support ships were allowed to be in the area.

Helena learned they'd received a special authorization code, making the other ships think they were a special black ops vessel and unaware of their true purpose. The code allowed them to come and go without being accosted by the battleships.

At that young age, as the survivors were processed as new citizens on a backwater mining colony world, Daisy decided she'd make the people of Xochitl One and Two pay for their evil. She knew it would take decades, maybe her whole life, so her rescuers would be old or dead by the time it happened. She felt no remorse for that. They should have come earlier.

In the early years after her rescue, she moved from an orphanage to a group home, changing her name to Helena on the way. The home was not a warm and loving environment, and it hardened her, and her years on the streets honed her edge. She made a name for herself as a Dominatrix and worked her way towards her goal of working on Bacchus. She'd learned they had the best genetics labs.

Her name finally reached the right ears, and she was given a chance to run a club on the party planet.

Once she'd set up her club and made it a success, she determined her best option was to move to a lower-profile establishment to launch the final stage of her plan. She sold her S&M club and opened the resort catering to women. It took a few years to establish it as the most prestigious strip club and brothel for entertaining women.

Then, she began her hunt.

It took more years to find a genius with a dark secret, working at one of Bacchus' many genetics labs. Fletcher Langley was a brilliant but tortured soul with a deep-seated need for disciplining and pain. Learning of his obsession, Helena visited her old S&M club as she knew he frequented it. There, she endured being raped by the new owner Caligula on two occasions before she finally met the geneticist.

Once she connected with Fletcher, she set her hooks in him, feeding his addiction to pain under her pointy boots during private sessions with him. Under her guidance, he eventually began to worship her as she gave his life structure. When she was sure of his absolute devotion, she made her first demand to serve her true goal. She directed him to design something forbidden by his workplace. The act broke the rules of the lab he worked at and those of Bacchus itself. But he now belonged to her, heart and soul, so he complied. The initial test he created for her went into a micro-injector she wore under her fingernail.

She returned to the S&M club and allowed herself to be captured by Caligula once more. Before he ravaged her, she scored a deep scratch on his arm. She verbally cursed him as he raped her, telling him he'd regret his actions as they'd be his last.

He had to laugh at her words as his entourage gathered to watch him enjoy her, but she'd learned Max was deeply superstitious. When he found himself unable to maintain his erection, she knew he'd connect it to her curse. It worked, and Max proceeded to beat her unconscious. All clubs had a no-kill policy toward guests, so the bouncers stepped in to take her from him before he was able to finish her. She woke in her club's clinic two days later, nursed back to health by Octavia.

Her spies confirmed that her test had been successful. The payload in her injector left Caligula with erectile dysfunction, which Fletcher had assured her was permanent. She'd provided her pet scientist with Caligula's genetic sample she'd collected from the second time he'd assaulted her. Fletcher's creation targeted only him and could not be detected.

Helena rewarded her pet with a week of the most exquisite pain until his reverence for her shone in his eyes. She was ready to have him produce her weapon of vengeance.

The hardened hazmat micro vial she wore in her left earring carried Fletcher's last gift to her, a nasty little viral creation. Injected into patient zero, it replicated within the host and became infectious through bodily fluids within an hour. After forty-five days, it would mutate to its second form, which had airborne and contact infection vectors. This allowed it to spread more rapidly without visible symptoms until its second and final mutation at the sixty-day mark. That's when the hosts would suddenly develop an irritating, ugly, full-body rash, the first outward sign of the infection. Once this began, the true payload of the virus would have already run its course. It self-terminated at that time and would be flushed from the body. Hosts would no longer be infectious, but the damage would be done.

The truly insidious nature of Fletcher's creation was its actual payload. Human sterility. The eggs in infected females would die. Infected males would lose their ability to produce viable sperm.

Helena wanted every last citizen on Xochitl One and Two to be the last citizens.

The difficulty lay in finding a patient zero that would visit both planets. She only had one dose of the virus. If she couldn't find someone to use, her alternate plan was to infect herself and visit them.

She was in the process of working out the visitor's visas when the Van Dijk bridal party reservation arrived. She quickly learned that the groom was from Xochitl Two and realized fate gave her a gift she could not pass up.

Shaking the memories from her head, she moved to her washroom and freshened up. She had to get moving, or all her efforts to date would be for naught. She couldn't squander this opportunity.

She owed it to the dead from Xochitl Six, especially her family.

She owed it to the rescuers who risked their lives to fly past the battleships and face deadly firestorms in shuttles for the survivors.

She owed Fletcher Langley, who created the weapon for her. To protect the secret, she granted his ultimate fetish by asphyxiating him as she jerked him to his last orgasm. She disposed of his dismembered remains amongst the carnage she recently made of the squad of dancers. The clean-up crew was less than thorough about confirming the count of body parts added up to ten dancers. The mess went into the reclamation vats, and for Helena, it was just one last loose end tied off.

She would release the virus announcement on day fifty-five, identifying the two planets as the outbreak's epicenter. When the rash presented for the early victims, the reality of their situation would solidify. Xochitl One and Two would be quarantined, and any of their citizens found off-planet would be hunted down in the ensuing panic.

She didn't delude herself that her life would continue very long after she made the announcement, but that didn't matter. She would have vengeance.

While she'd taken every precaution possible to protect and isolate herself from her plan, there was always a chance that she'd missed something.

She needed to get moving. She'd speak with the bride's mother to see if she was a danger to the plan.

No one would be allowed to stop her now.

Chapter 5

Tracy Galloway fought back her tears. She was having the worst day of her life. She was unemployed and unemployable as she'd never get a reference from Madam DeGaul's Lady's Night Resort. She'd broken their rules, a breach of her contract, so no company on Bacchus would touch her now. She'd lose her apartment as she couldn't continue her rent payments. Her only option was to take what little savings she had and buy a ticket back to her home planet, where being destitute wasn't a death sentence.