Art and Reading. Art: "Arktalus" (A.Glass 2021). Reading: "Arktalus" from Evenfall of the Helical (A.Glass 2022)

Delante stares at the numbers that are being relayed within its melded digital and analog feedback, as trillions of credits are being passed back and forth between buyers and sellers, slightly hypnotized by its pulsating feed.

“So do we have sale?” She hears a voice on the other line.

“We do. Locked in,” Delante replies, as she taps a button on her keyboard as the string on numbers return to the algorithmic rounded amount of Four Million Credits for one ounce of Palladium, she sets the order. Delante feels her data-sync wristwatch vibrate. “Dammit time for my shot,” she whispers to herself, looking across at her colleague again. “Gotta go to the restroom, you cover.”

Her male colleague nods. “All good,” he replies, whilst watching the screen in front of him, as he buys and sells trades for the asteroid mined diamond market. Delante stands, making her way to the female toilet, walking through the trading floor as various traders are making bids and offers, yelling in the direction of other trading desks, akin to the way markets used to be over three hundred years ago, she enters the toilet area, walking towards the sink. Checking her right wrist, seeing that the viral level count has increased on the visual interface of her data-sync, with her right hand she takes from the pocket of gray pinstripe blazer a metallic pen like instrument. Delante clenches and unclenches her left palm so that a vein is protruding, maintaining her hand in a clenched fist eyeing the visible vein, she aims the tip of the device at the venule, as a self guiding spike pieces the skin not only will it administer anti-virals but also a nano-depressor which will assist in leveling out Delante's serotonin, dopamine and norepinephrine levels while regulating her neural pathways in her brain. The virus which she contracted three years ago, has reworked her hormone levels, causing a hypersexuality, to which she manages with the required dose, that Delante has injected into her arm. Her long haul aftereffect of the virus, despite being able to ward off sickness with antibodies, although rare, has heightened her sexual responses, particularly the nerve endings within her vagina. After giving her self the dose, she checks her data sync, noting that the viral count has decreased and her heart rate is within its steady range. Exhaling, she places the device back into the same pocket. She then checks her appearance in the mirror. Looking over her sheer black cotton shirt, buttoned up to the collar, which is beneath a symmetrically cut blazer, gray, with white pinstripes and two over-hanging pockets on either side. Delante turns to her left, while staring at herself in the mirror and then to her right side, ensuring that the lighter shade gray pants, with their tailored style cargo pockets either side, are evenly contouring her behind. She looks at her neatly cropped short brown hair, staring into her hazel eyes without blinking. With her right index finger, she moves the peaked lapel collar across so that the outline of her left breast is visible. Delante, stares at the shape of her nipple as it stands erect through the sheer black material of the shirt underneath. “Is it such a curse?...” Delante looks into her eyes again. “...This virus, that has changed us all.” Straightening out her blazer, she checks her appearance in the mirror once more, making her way back to the trading floor. Feeling her pulse rate lower and a calm feeling, without feeling drowsy she eyes her desk with her male work colleague sitting on the opposite side, staring at her thin curved monitor.

“The Algos have locked in three buy orders for you.”

Delante sits down, checking the orders on her screen. “Thanks. Alright, lets see what we've got,” Delante replies, as she checks through the various orders.

“You going out tonight,” the man asks in a curious, yet arrogant manner.

“How's your wife Kane?”

“Now, now...Just asking.”

“Maybe...” Delante replies, as she sees two orders remaining, with one that has withdrawn their bid. She looks at the order readout. “Intra-Planetary Exports” which has triggered a memory of a few years ago, as one of the company astronaut's was her lover. She stares at the logo of the company, the astronaut was killed in an off-planetary mining expedition two years ago, a geyser from the Saturn moon Enceladus destroyed the orbiting station he was aboard which was monitoring robotic mining equipment, whilst the ship was in orbit around the ice moon. She remembers seeing footage of these pressure building jets of water and steam, discharge up from beneath the icy tectonic plates of these moons that revolve around the gas giants such as Jupiter and Saturn.

Delante closes her eyes, visualizing his ejaculating penis, with its powerful wards of semen spurting upward into space.

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"Arktalus"  from EVENFALL OF THE HELICAL (A.Glass 2022)