Parasite║LGBT+ Romance 🏳️‍🌈

9: Daiyu

19:11, Fourthsol 15th M5, 2226

Jaya leads me through a cluster of densely-arranged pods near the edge of the dome, higher-rising and more cramped than my spacious doctor's pod complex in the centre of Eris-1. A screen in the little foyer flits between hov sales ads, city shuttle timetables and 'keep warm' posters of a smiling Megumi Kida.

My stomach muscles churn emptiness. Hydrochloric acid froths inside me. I'm dangerously hungry. Jaya's secret partner is sick and all I can think about is whether she'll be weak enough that I can discreetly feed on her.

As I scramble after Jaya into the pod, I can't help turning over Shiro's diatribe on the corruption of Eris. Surely an ore smuggler relies on corruption and exploitation to live. And yet he'd seemed so vehement that Earth's poorest had left the planet only to be exploited worse than ever on the Edge — out of sight, out of mind. Shiro's hatred of Eris's indignities may just be criminal bluster, though I suspect that it's from the heart. Doubtless he was driven to smuggling by the kind of abject poverty he wouldn't wish on his enemies.

Jaya leads me into a bright little bedroom. Ornately framed certificates and photographs crowd the walls, most of a stately warden with a chest gleaming with medals. Such a decorated warden must be at least a superintendent. A woman in her forties is curled on the bed in the tiny pod. Her likeness stands to attention in the images lining the walls, though her smile is only a dimming ember of the proud grin of the warden in the photographs.

Jaya's secrecy about their partner becomes clear to me. The conflict of interest for a superintendent examiner in a secret romance with their trainee warden would be scandalous, ending both of their careers. But it hasn't stopped them. Their love is the most beautiful kind of corruption I can imagine.

The woman's deathly pale tone and wisps of laser-straight hair are a stark contrast to Jaya's darkness and frizz as they kiss. They fall into urgent whispers and I'm left hovering next to the bed, an interloper on a secret conversation between secret partners. It's not long before Jaya sheds tears, brushing at their partner's hair. 

I wonder what it must be like to feel so loved, and to love so much.

Though her symptoms aren't so noticeable, my trained eyes can see the signs of radiation sickness eating away at her. Her meatware is dying, letting her slowly succumb to the killer radiation of the solar wind as it batters Eris. I've lost count of how many citizens have accumulated in Eris-1's hospital in the past month, undergrounders now shielded from radiation by four metres of rock, still with no guarantee that they'll recover.

A flustered Jaya leaves the room with apologies to their partner, their lenses seemingly piling up with messages about the governor's imminent visit from Earth to plan meatware trials on Pluto, and the other Dwarfs. The very thought makes me taste acid.

The lady uncurls under her blankets. "What's your name?"

"Doctor Singh."

"What do your friends call you?"

Friends? Years ago Ying had been my friend. Now she hates me. Perhaps Shiro will let me be a friend to him one day. A smile appears on my lips, unbidden. "My friends call me Heems."

"My name is Daiyu."

I'd been half-expecting her to introduce herself as Superintendent Li, just as on the captions under her mounted photos. She seems so distant from my vision of wardens as crazed sadists beating rioters into a pulp and pulsing criminals away with glee. In fact, Daiyu's easy friendliness moves me. I find myself feeling happy for Jaya.

"When did your metabolic implant stop working properly?"

Daiyu fiddles with her blankets. "It hasn't stopped working. I'll be back at the Warden Station soon. The governor's visit, and the rioting, and the ore smuggling... So much work to do. I need to get better."