<div class="floatright">(https://elliquiy.com/elluiki/images/0/07/Dark_Sakura.jpg)</div><strong>Lucy F.</strong><br/><hr/>Gerlach Station was one of the first major space habitats to be established in orbit above Venus, before the Fall.  An O'Neill-type space colony, it was essentially a massive cylinder in shape, big enough to house an entire city along its inner walls.  The cylinder rotated at a slow, steady pace, using centrifugal force to make a passable simulation of gravity for those living inside of it, and the space along the inside was divided into six even sections.  Three were devoted to living areas and other places for people to walk on and spend their time, and opposite each of those sections was transparent glass, along with a long mirror positioned outside each section of glass, angled to reflect the sun's rays into the innards of the station.  Seen from outside, Gerlach Station was like a classic image, taken from countless works of science fiction (http://gelbooru.com/index.php?page=post&s=view&id=1548220).<br/><br/>As for the inside...  Well, after the Fall, the station had seceded from the Planetary Consortium alongside most of the other habitats on Venus.  With those who ran the station choosing to divorce themselves from the corporate interests that had originally built it, the corporate presence that had once occupied the station all but abandoned it.  And in turn, various factions from the outer part of the solar system that wished to get close to the newly-independent Venus sent representatives to the station en-masse, gaining a strong foothold in what would soon become the main spaceport for the new Venusian nation, the Morningstar Constellation.  These days, Gerlach Station was home to an eclectic mix of people who hailed from all across the solar system, and the inner walls of the habitat itself often reflected that fact, coated with tags for various augmented reality displays, sporting architecture that was occasionally strange and otherworldly, and filled with the sounds of people in a wide range of different bodies speaking a wide range of different languages to one another, when they weren't simply sending one another messages over the station's mesh network.<br/><br/>One member of that eclectic mix of people was currently finding herself quite well-occupied in her apartment in what had once been an upscale corporate housing block.  Still intended as a home for those who were reasonably well-off, it featured a rather spacious main living area that was divided into a living room and a kitchen by an open bar.  Spiral stairs by the kitchen area led upstairs to a second floor in the apartment, which in turn was divided into two bedrooms and a rather luxurious bathroom.  In a society where space was at a premium, such as that found aboard a space station, the wealthy flaunted their wealth and influence by taking up more of it than everyone else, and that was the design philosophy that had gone into building this apartment complex.<br/><br/>The bathroom within that apartment contained a spacious bath, easily large enough to fit two or three people without crowding, and with whirling jets and other fancy, expensive features built into it, but that bath wasn't filled, at the moment.  Instead, the water was running in an adjoining shower stall, and as for who was showering inside...<br/><br/>One of the two women who were occupying the shower was in a Sylph morph, a feminine body designed to be strikingly beautiful, to be alluring and intoxicating and to help a gifted social manipulator bewitch the hearts and minds of those around her.  She was tall and beautiful, with a shapely body and exquisite curves, and her long, straight hair was a delicate shade of pale lavender that had likely taken a little gene therapy to acquire, though it was now the morph's natural hair color.  Warm water cascaded down her body, plastering her hair to her back and dripping enticingly from her bosom, and that made for quite the sight as she worked to wash her companion's back, fingers massaging away as she worked the soap into the other girl's skin.<br/><br/>As for said companion, the other woman was in a Fury morph, a body designed for combat, though not to the point of being immediately obvious to anyone viewing it.  Muscular and athletic, she would cut a powerful figure when standing on her own, which helped to lend an even more intimate air to the proceedings as her friend's hands worked their way gradually down the Fury's back, working to wash away the stresses of the day along with the sweat and grime.  And yet, the Sylph kept going once she reached the end of her companion's back, working even lower down to knead and work away at a rather inappropriate place on her companion's body.<br/><br/>"Ahhh, there we go..."  There was a rather lilting, musical quality to the Sylph's voice as she spoke, her words easily cutting through the noise of the shower running and allowing herself to be heard even in spite of the noise.  "Now you're nice and clean again, my dear, and almost ready to face the world once more.  Be a dear and lean forward for me while I clean off all this soap, won't you?"<br/><br/>And with a light, stinging slap to the Fury's rear to get her moving into position, the Sylph's next move would be to reach up to the shower-head and pull it free from its' mounting on the wall, and assuming her friend was in position, leaning forward and with her hands pressed against the wall to maintain her balance, the Sylph would run the hot water over her companion's body, letting the soap suds wash off of her and drain away at their feet.  She would use her own free hand to help wash away some of the soap, getting another good feel of the Fury's rear in the process.  Once the other woman was clean, however, her hand would still remain in place, keeping the other woman in that same, bent-over position as the Sylph bent over next to her, pressing her lips up close to the other woman's ear so that she could speak in a lower, more sultry tone while still making herself heard.<br/><br/>"You've been a good girl today, so I won't tease you too much about what comes next.  In fact, I'll let you be the one to choose how it goes down today.  Do you want me to use my fingers, or do you want to try out the pressure-jet setting on the shower-head again?"<br/><br/>Fortunately, the bathroom was one of the more soundproof rooms in the apartment.  If it weren't, the neighbors would likely have been rather intrigued by the moans of pleasure that emanated from the place every time the occupants took a shower together.  As it was, the Sylph was only interrupted by a single message that was sent to her while she was busy with her friend, rather than the apartment manager coming by to chide her for her indecency.  That message was a rather important one, though.<br/><br/><em>Sentinel Naiad,<br/><br/>You are to report to Gerlach spacedock and meet a mutual representative aboard the courier ship <strong>Hacienda del Sol</strong> within the next 24 hours.  You and your new recruit will be further briefed from there.  Please acknowledge receipt of these orders within 2 hours.<br/><br/>Proxy Kranz</em><br/><br/>To the various groups of people who lived around the solar system, the woman in the Sylph morph was known as Lucy F.  A gifted digital artist and entrepreneur, the digital landscapes that she had designed had been put to a variety of uses by a variety of interests throughout the solar system.  She had designed levels in simulspace games, had created artificial backgrounds for commercials, had built virtual worlds for hyperelite hedonists and anarchist thrill-seekers alike...  And yet, perhaps unsurprising for someone as well-connected as she, this burgeoning artist had another side to her that society at large didn't know about.<br/><br/>In her case, it was that she was an agent employed by a far-reaching conspiracy of epic proportions.  She worked as a Sentinel for Firewall with the codename of Naiad, and as with all others who signed up for the organization, she was willing to do whatever it took to save what remained of humanity from the very real possibility of extinction that was looming on the horizon.<br/><br/>Still, since she had been given 24 hours to report in and the message had come in at exactly the right time to interrupt her fun, she was sure that Proxy Kranz would understand if she sent in the acknowledgement that she had received her orders, and then took a few hours out for personal enjoyment before heading down to the spacedock...