A Far Too Distant Future

Michael exited the elevator into the low-lit circular walkway. The music of the surrounding nightclubs and their bass-driven music combined into a pounding electronic beat that made it hard to focus on anything else. He already had a headache, and the overpowering pheremones they always pumped into these places wasn’t helping.
Michael sighed. He had promised himself that tonight, no matter what happened, he would finally be done with pining over Marin. Aeridith was one of the largest tourist ports in the quadrant, and he was bound to find someone in planetary transit who was desperate for company. Once he had done a few nervous laps of the red carpeted walkway, he picked the least daunting night club and pushed through the thick-curtained door.
As his eyes adjusted to the soft blue and red swirling lights, he made a mental note of the surroundings and made his way towards the roud bar in the centre of the room, taking a seat in front of a large man with three muscular arms; two hands cleaning a cup while the third was wiping down one of the taps.

“What will it be for you?”

Michael looked at the drink menu for a moment in silence as the bartender finished wiping the tap and leant down on the table. As Michael lifted his head to order, he caught a familiar sight at the far side of the room. His stomach dropped as he saw Marin at a table sipping the last of her cocktail through a straw. It defied all logic, but it was definitely her.

The bartender put down the glass and now all three palms were flat against the wood of the table.
“If you're not going to order, could you please sit at one of the tables?”

“Of course, sorry. I’ll take an Aeridith whiskey, and also whatever she’s having.”
The bartender turned around to follow where Michael was pointing.
“Who?”
“Her, the one with the long blonde hair at the table against the wall.”
The bartender enunciated slowly to make sure he was heard.“That’s our most expensive cocktail. Is that still OK?”
Michael nodded, not taking his eyes away from Marin, even when the bartender handed him his drinks; one shot of clear, almost glowing whiskey, and a large, garish cocktail with a pink straw hanging over the edge of the glass.
As he took them in his hands and walked toward her table, he made a promise to himself.
The plan hadn’t changed, he would get over her tonight, but first, he needed to see her.

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Marin’s heart fluttered in her chest. She couldn't believe he was here. It had been a long time since her upper classes, but she had never forgotten about him. They had always been close friends. Whenever he had a girlfriend, it was her he went to for advice. She had never really had a boyfriend in those days; she had been not-so-secretly infatuated with him. But she knew they could never be. Biologically, they were too different. She was from Upper Earth, and he was from Leo. Even though only a few hundred years separated their species, the unique conditions on Leo had changed them physically. They were far taller and stronger than Earth humans, and rumour had it there were other differences as well.
Reminiscing had calmed her nerves, but they returned in full force as he arrived back at her table.
Tauren smiled. “Finished your drink already? Care for another?”
She looked over the digital menu embedded in their table, “I don’t know, what do you think I should try?”
He brushed his fingers over the screen, inverting the menu so he could look at it.
“What about this, it has two shots of Aeridith victus in it. We should get you nice and drunk so you open up about all your lovers since I last talked to you!”
She blushed and pretended to shove him, “You’ve got some nerve making out like I’m the one who wants to talks about those things.”
He smiled. “You know how I told you before that I’m here on business? Well the companie's covered everything. I’m staying at the Verlon Grand. I’ve got better alcohol back there if you want to go somewhere quieter.”
She looked up at him, momentarily lost for words, before regaining her composure.
“Sure.”

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Michael watched as the tall, muscular man, finished his drink and then took her by the hand out of the nightclub. He knew him instantly and his heart sank. It was Tauren. Abandoning both drinks to a table, he quickly followed behind them, abandoning whatever promise he had made that night.

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Marin looked out of the glistening space elevator at all the ships entering and departing the port in the dark blue haze of lights and stars. They were nearing the top of the hotel now, and she wondered just how much his company was paying him. The doors opened at the top floor and he escorted her by hand out of the elevator, with several other visitors flowing in and out around them.
He took out a keycard and slid it through the key-pass by the door. “Just in here.”
The lights came on and she saw the room was massive beyond anything she had ever seen.
A window spanned the entirety of each wall, looking out upon the stars and planets in the surrounding system. Hard to ignore was the large pool in the middle of the room, fed by a stone water feature in the wall. Cushions were spread out everywhere on the lush white carpet. She took her shoes off as he did and followed him down onto the soft floor by the pool. A small hover-bar floated towards them; mechanically, it made no noise, but the expensive looking bottles lightly rattled against each other as they slowly halted in front of Tauren.
"What did I tell you, much better alcohol."
He pulled the cork out of an expensive crystal wine bottle covered in gold leaf and poured two glasses he had collected from the trolley.
She took the glass from his hand and sipped the gold liquid, closing her eyes and savouring the taste.
Marin opened her eyes again, "This wine is... It must have cost a fortune."
He laughed, "It's a new age of infinite resources. Let's just say I'm not quite limited in earning potential."
A smile flitted across her face, quickly morphing into a playful frown.
"Well, now I feel foolish. What tales could I possibly interest you in? It was hard enough when you were an up and coming playboy, now you're supposedly rich as well."
Tauren sipped his glass through a smile, "Anything, I want to hear about Marin. Everyday I talk to wealthy aristocrats and government officials and it is absurdly boring, even the most prolific travellers. The amount of times I have to hear how beautiful Mars is and how they've turned the whole planet's image around since its days as an ore mine... I always just find myself thinking of us and how we'd spend hours talking to each other about the silliest things. Like... Like Evelyn and her pathetic cat fixation."
Marin laughed. "Oh, Evelyn, I haven't thought of her in forever. She was onto eight last time I saw her."
"Eight, that's absurd. You'd think they'd mutiny with enough numbers, though I suppose they'd wonder where their food went when she's gone."
They laughed together.

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Michael had followed them out of the elevator and was shocked to realise where they were.
The Grand was renowned for its opulence. It was somewhere Federation officials would stay.
He kicked himself for not keeping his promise to himself and was about to head back to the elevator when he realised the pair were about to turn around and see him.
Panicking, he ducked into the nearest door and sat in anxious and frustrated silence, hoping they didn't see him.
There was a click behind him as the door shut and he was thrust into total darkness.
Green and red lights flashed on and off intermittently on some kind of control panel.
Sure that he wasn't seen, he walked over to the panel to see where he had walked into.
A number of screens separated the flashing buttons, each showing a different angle of what seemed to be the same lavish hotel room.
The lights in the room were off and it was hard to discern whether they were images of the same room or several.
It became obvious when all rooms lit up at once and a couple walked in.
Marin and Tauren.

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Two hours had passed and they were onto their third bottle of wine.
Marin was lying on her back on a large bed at the far end of the room with her head draped over the side, her long, blonde hair cascading messily to the floor.
She laughed again, "I can't believe he would do that!"
Tauren set his glass down, accidentally tipping it over, but hardly noticing.
"I know, there were days where I wondered whether he was in his right mind, but apparently the leader of a small planet can do whatever he wants. Wish I had that freedom."
She sighed, but retained her smile. Tauren tilted his head, pretending to get a better look at her from his more standard viewing angle of being perfectly upright.

"Can I ask you something, Marin?"
A moment of silence passed between them, but he never moved his eyes from her.
"Did you love me back then?"

Her nerves had long left since at least her third glass of wine, "I did love you, Tauren. It's just, I don't know, you always had someone, and... and we're... different."
He moved closer to her. “I missed you.”
Her heartbeat was racing again, but she was not the nervous wreck she was as a teenager.
With her head still hanging off the side of the bed, he lent in and kissed her lips deeply.
All her feelings and memories from those days flooded over her.
After some time had passed, she moved back onto her stomach and stared at him, the man she had always loved.
But then she cast her eyes to the floor, “but I thought we couldn't because of…”
"I know. There is a way, but it would have to be your decision."
She turned her gaze back towards him, "Show me."
He turned and retrieved a small, blue vial from the bar and showed her.
"If you want, and only if you want, this will allow us to be together."
Marin took the vial from his hand and looked over the gold label.
Tauren continued, "It's Floria Villi, a type of aphrodisiac, but one which alters your body to be more, I guess, receptive, to someone like me."
Reading over bottle, she looked up at him.
"I want to be with you."
The blue liquid tasted better than the wine.

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It had been at least two hours since Michael realised he had locked himself in, and he had fluctuated between sitting on the floor like a petulant child and pathetically watching the woman of his dreams being courted by the worst man he could imagine courting her. For what seemed the 100th time since he had entered the room, he watched the two on the screen, but something had changed.

Michael couldn’t tear his eyes away. So this was what he would never experience.
There they were, the woman he had always loved, and a man he could never be.
She was down to her lingerie, her long, black dress discarded on the floor.
And they were playing. It was so foreign to Michael. For him, sex was something earned through months of waiting, trying to impress unimpressable women, saying the same stories over and over hoping someone would find him interesting. Yet these two were having fun together.
Tauren was almost twice the size of Marin, and when he removed his pants, Michael felt a hot rush of shame as he caught sight of the incredible silhouette made by the outline of Tauren's groin.
The rumours had to be true. The Tauren men were always said to have two large, thick cocks limited in size only by the state of their arousal.
She had been on the bed for a long while, which annoyed him to no end, but she had gotten up to let him slowly undress her as they had kissed. Michael had become erect at the sight of her chest, as she had always tried to hide how well endowed she was. He had long dreamed to see what he was seeing now, but not like this.
Now she was back on the bed, lying on her stomach, and he was approaching her.
She kissed him down the line of his abs, because of course he had abs, and slowly slid her fingers down the front of his silk briefs, sliding them off.
For Michael, the moment seemed to last forever.
It was clear there were two shafts, but as Marin slowly slid his briefs down, he realised that the shafts continued seemingly forever, or at least until just below halfway down his massive thighs. Marin's eyes had lit up and she had bit her lip almost instinctively. They were enhanced as well by the huge manhood that hung beneath them, pushing them up and making them seem even more impressive.
And he was not even hard yet.
Michael looked down at his now erect manhood and questioned whether he could even call it that anymore.

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TO BE CONTINUED: