“All homage to you my Lady Tara;
Fearless, invincible and terrible,
Slayer of the demon hordes of Mara.
You vanquish them all with a frown of wrath
Upon your thrice beautiful lotus face.”
The Persimmon Grove had been a popular meeting place in Ereshkigal's affluent 71st district for several years. Above the central bar stood a tall and many-branched holographic persimmon tree; the bar's trademark. The tree had been a feature of the bar for years but recently the management had replaced their old holo-matrix with a new, state-of-the-art, UHL or ultra-hard light matrix. This not only made the tree look real but through sophisticated micro force-field photon compression, it also felt solid and tangible to the touch.
The Persimmon Grove never closed and saw its most fashionable clientele between the hours of 9 pm and 1 am when it was often a challenge to find a table under the bar's iconic stellar dome. The dome was yet another of Ereshkigal's marvels of engineering; towering some sixty meters above the black and white chequerboard patterned marble floor. Intricately constructed of diamond-hard glass bound by fine titanium alloy struts and elegantly curving beams, the dome presented a vista that was unmatched in the entire length and breadth of the vast orbiting city.
Looking up, even the most jaded observer would doubtless have held their breath upon first seeing the intense blue orb of Zeta Ophiuchi; a star nineteen times the size of Earth's sun, framed by the coral pink and crimson clouds of stellar dust from the Cobold nebula, clearly visible around it. The dome was designed to shield the eye from the star's glare and ultraviolet rays while allowing its ethereal blue light to fill the room below.
But the most remarkable sight in the sky above Ereshkigal was the mighty planet Melanchthon, above which the great city of Ereshkigal had floated in stationary orbit for the last hundred and fifty years. Melanchthon was a dark, jewel-like gas giant composed of countless iridescent bands of swirling gasses in myriad hues of purple, turquoise, green and gold. Vast storms would often vex the planet's equatorial zone, creating vortices of dark opalescent colour that would last for many months.
It was to that tempestuous equatorial zone that Emily Tessandier's eyes were now momentarily drawn as she took a sip from her tall, apricot-tinted glass then placed it back upon the table. She glanced around her and recognized several of the bar's regulars. Although she had long been a patron, she rarely socialized or struck up conversations, preferring instead to relax and to observe. It was well after 2 am when Emily's attention was drawn towards a woman sitting alone at a table by the far wall. She had only just arrived and was smiling and talking to a waitress. Emily waited until the waitress had departed to look at her more closely.
She appeared to be no more than thirty, petite and slender with long, straight black hair falling quite low behind bare, well-defined shoulders. She was dressed simply and elegantly, all in black and wore a few discreet items of what, from a distance, appeared to be moonstone jewelry. But it was her face upon which Emily's eye lingered; noble, tranquil and serene with dark piercing eyes that seemed to look beyond the material confines of the room.
Emily continued to watch the woman discreetly until she saw the waitress bring her a bottle of Pelleas et Melissande. The dark orange liqueur, in its distinctive tall sculptured bottle was probably the most costly and exotic drink that the bar served. Emily was rapidly becoming intrigued by this beautiful stranger. She watched as the woman poured herself a small glass and sipped it with almost studied poise and restraint.
“She must be an actor, an opera singer or a dancer,” thought Emily.
Several minutes later, Emily got up and strode to the bar. She quietly asked for a napkin then casually walked up to the woman who looked at her with a mildly surprised smile.
“Excuse me. I just couldn't help noticing that you're drinking Pelleas et Melissande.”
A beautiful, soft and musical voice answered,
“Yes, that's right.”
“I've heard a lot about it and I was wondering if you could tell me, what is it like?”
“Would you like to try some?”
“Yes.”
“Please sit down and join me.”
“Thank you, that's very kind of you.”
The woman asked the waitress for another glass while Emily sat down. Emily then held out her hand.
“I'm Emily.”
“Lovely to meet you, Emily. I'm Haruna.”
Two hours later, after they had finished the bottle of Pelleas et Melisande and sampled several of the fine cocktails for which the bar was renowned, Emily led Haruna to a room on one of the upper floors. The view from the exterior elevator was of the city's towering crystalline spires and the clean, biomorphic lines of its main body; lines that receded elegantly into the far distance. There was also a fair amount of space traffic, but by the time the elevator reached their destination, Haruna and Emily had lost interest in anything but each other.
Emily felt two supple hands grasp her bare shoulders as soon as she had shut the door to the dimly lit room. Up against the wall, Haruna swept back Emily's long auburn hair and kissed her hard. Both women were by now feeling the full effects of the bottle of Pelleas. Like most modern wines, it contained psychotropic nanobots designed and programmed to temporarily affect the drinker in a variety of ways. Pelleas et Melissande was notorious for increasing sexual potency, desire and arousal.
Haruna now felt Emily's fingers deftly pulling down the zipper at the back of her dress. She slipped it off her shoulders revealing pert, apple-sized breasts and she too pulled Emily's loose satin blue top down. Emily had pointed, pale pink, fleshy nipples that perfectly complemented her pale skin and auburn locks. Haruna looked at them and licked her lips.
The next hour saw them alternate between kissing, licking and fingering. Fingers, lips and tongues found sweet communion is an exquisite banquet of nipples, ass and pussy. Haruna spread Emily's clit and lavished such attention on it that Emily found herself bucking and thrusting her hips hard up against her new lover's mouth. She sighed and moaned, creeping ever closer to the sheer ecstasy of release.
In turn, Haruna cried out in several languages as she savoured Emily's excellent oral skills. Passionate, wild and beautiful; both women soon came over and over again and the intensity of their pleasure was increased in no small measure by the effects of the nanobot-infused wine. Finally, around dawn, sated and spent, they fell asleep in each other's arms upon luxurious figured sheets whose design mirrored the dark complexity of the storms upon the perpetually troubled face of Melanchthon.
****
Nude, blonde and beautiful, Lacey lay back with her long legs elegantly parted on her luxurious white leather sofa. It was 8:30 am and she was in particularly good spirits. She listened idly to the thrilling music that now filled the room. Her apartment, like most of the huge orbiting city of Ereshkigal, was so well engineered that if she shut her eyes, she could just imagine that the ancient Earth band Behemoth where, at that very moment, in the room with her, performing just for her.
She shook her cascades of honey-blonde hair to the crushing bass beat until several long locks fell before her eyes. She swept the hair back and her hand brushed against the long string of antique pearls that was the only thing that she wore. Having owned the pearls for a mere two weeks, she remained largely unconscious of their presence. She ran several of them through her fingers for a moment then held them up to the light. Their deep lustre was simply beautiful. The rich, dark music played on and Lacey lay back with eyes shut, to listen. After a moment she drew the string of pearls back and forth across her breasts; rubbing each of her rosebud nipples in turn until the slight roughness of the gems began to make her nipples harden. She began to sing along with the song until she had a sudden thought.
“...Xoannon.”
The music paused.
Xoannon was Ereshkigal's vastly sophisticated, semi-sentient and omnipresent computer system. There was no reasonable task that she could not perform and, providing the user had a high enough security clearance, no data that she could not provide.
“I want to access to my bank account please.”
“Very well Miss Murakami, but I will require authorization.”
Xoannon's voice was feminine, mature, soft and warm, yet not lacking in authority; like the voice of a wise and kindly old aunt.
“Authorization Murakami L118.
“Access granted.”
“What is my account balance?”
“You have a total of 995 thousand denari. A deposit of 75 thousand denari was made this morning at 6am by Zakir Khan Holdings.”
She knew that the name Zakir Khan represented the Planetary Government of Ereshkigal. She turned over and laughed,
“Not fucking bad for a first pay-day!”
“Indeed Miss Murakami,” replied Xoannon.
“...er...ok, thank you Xoannon.”
The music resumed and she casually put the end of the string of pearls in her mouth, lightly rubbing them on her teeth. At the far end of the sparsely furnished room a door then opened and from it emerged a tall, slim young man of about twenty-five with long, damp, chestnut brown hair. He walked up to Lacey slowly as she turned to lay on her side and smile at him. He was about to speak but she held up an arresting hand and flopped back down on the sofa, continuing to nod her head to the music. Of course, she could also feel his eyes running up and down the smooth, faultless skin of her back and along the fine lines of her long, supple legs. Both of these beautiful visual journeys culminated at her deliciously curved ass; as perfectly proportioned as the rest of her.
While continuing to nod her head and move her shoulders to the beat of the music, she now parted her legs; instantly capturing the young man's attention. He knelt on the floor and placed his hands on each of her ass cheeks. He glanced up at her but her face was now totally obscured by the riot of honey-blonde locks. She did not protest but instead, arched her back for an instant and relaxed it. Without needing any further cue, the young man spread her cheeks further, revealing the delicate pink rosebud of her ass. He looked down at it lovingly and licked his lips. An instant later he began to lap at it and tease it with the tip of his tongue, pausing often to stimulate and tickle the rest of her anal cleft while slowly pulling her cheeks further apart.
Lacey reacted immediately; arching her spine and pushing her ass up into his rapidly salivating mouth. She relaxed her ring after a few moments and thrilled to the sensation of his tongue running circuits around it with ever increasing pressure. From time to time he would also plunge his tongue as far as possible into her flesh and rapidly wiggle it, sending waves of pleasure through her sensitive nerve endings.
After several delicious moments, she turned, wide-eyed and grinning,
“Fuck, you're good at that, now sit !”
He flopped down on the couch in front of her and she swiftly dived between his thighs. Grabbing his cock with one hand, she massaged his loose fleshy balls with the other. Seconds later she felt his shaft start to harden and she eagerly locked her lips around it. With his fingers running affectionately through her hair, she began to bob faster and faster; rubbing the head of his cock on her tongue, on the walls of her cheeks and swallowing him as deeply as she could. His shaft was soon hard and curving back in the cozy confines of her mouth. Meanwhile, her hand pumped and squeezed the base of his shaft and teased his fleshy balls. She could feel his growing arousal the entire time and renewed her efforts; feeling his breathing deepen and his shaft twitch.
After a while, she reluctantly broke away and looked down with approval at his thick, glistening cock. She slid off the couch and stood over him. He slowly drank in her body with his eyes and finally made eye contact; seeking her approval. She nodded,
“Fuck my ass.”
Without waiting for any reaction or reply, she straddled his lap and fed his entire shaft into her ass in one stroke. Planting her knees firmly on either side of his hips, she started bucking and thrusting; relishing his width and his rigidity. She massaged his cock with every muscle at her disposal, alternating between slow and sensual pressure at the base, to clenching her ring and rubbing his cock-head with it like she still had it in her mouth.
He groaned and sighed, flinging his head back and rolling his eyes. She noted his wet brow with approval and decided finally to move their lovemaking to the next phase. With his cock buried deep inside her she lassoed his neck with her string of pearls. She then gripped his neck and began to slam her body hard against his lap. Once, twice, three times and he arched his back, gripping her hips with his palms and burying his fingers firmly into her flesh. She grinned and giggled in triumph as she relished the feeling of his shaft reaching the apogee of its hardness in her ass.
He groaned as he shot rope after rope of come into her fiery core, licking his lips as she kissed his mouth and uttered a string of delicious profanities. She clenched and relaxed her muscles again and again; milking every drop of seed out of him and then relaxed with his thick hard cock still buried deep inside her. They tongue kissed tenderly for long moments, still looped together by Lacey's long string of pearls.
She eventually leant back and wiped the saliva from his lips,
“Fuck, that was good,” he whispered.
By way of reply, she smiled slyly and slowly nodded.
Her phone rang and from the coded tone, she knew it was a call she had to take. She reluctantly eased his cock out of her ass, clasping her cheeks together so as not to lose any of his come. She picked up the phone and saw that it was an encrypted line. The caller's identity made her eyes widen with expectation.
-“Hello.”
-”No, I have company.”
- “Yes, of course.”
She swung her golden-crowned head back towards her guest.
“What did you say your name was again?”
“Arram”
-“Right, it's Arram my new neighbor...oh yeah, he's cool. He's a musician.”
- “Yes, I can be there in an hour. Yes, ok, see you then.”
- “Bye.”
“Sorry, I have to go out, but I'll see you tonight.”
****
A little under an hour later, a barefoot Lacey sat in Haruna's elegant living room. The room was simply but comfortably furnished and it was dominated by the antique wooden shrine that contained Haruna's statue of the golden bodhisattva Arya Tara. Lacy had seen the statue on a number of occasions and while she didn't share the deep reverence in which Haruna held the goddess, she always felt a tangible sense of peace and calm in the presence of her shrine. As they sipped green matcha tea, Haruna spoke,
