"I sense a man!" Dalinda thought to herself. "I sense a real man!" This was, of course, impossible. On the space colony Iberium, that orbited Titan in the cold darkness of space, there were no men, only Vampires like Dalinda. You see, Iberium is a safe haven for Vampires. No human has ever set foot here. Only one thing could explain her feelings: they were, once again, her imagination. Dalinda sensed a man because she needed a man.
She looked into the mirror gazing at her image (yes, Vampires do reflect light and appear in mirrors quite readily) and inspected herself. To the eye, she looked about twenty years old, with piercing brown eyes and very long straight brown hair. Even before she had been "reborn" a Vampire, men had considered her quite sexy, extremely desirable.
However, none had ever known her. Dalinda had never surrendered herself to the passions she had felt within her, never felt the touch of a man, a passionate kiss. 200 years later, she still remembered the desire she once felt, the fire and curiosity. But now that she is a Vampire, all of that was just a memory, much like an erotic dream.
Dalinda dressed in one of her usual outfits - a long dark purple dress that showed off her tall, thin figure to best advantage. Not that anyone would take advantage of her in a space colony full of Vampires. But she still liked to look sexy, in a gothic sort of way. Perhaps that was why she had been chosen for the "gift" of immortality; she had already looked the part when she as a mortal.
Deep down inside, Dalinda knew why she had these hallucinations of a virile man loose aboard the space colony; it aroused within her some of her lost humanity. Dalinda supposed that all of the Vampires in the space colony tried to keep their humanness alive, in one way or another. They likened themselves to a leper colony; they all had the same vile disease that kept them separate from the rest of humanity. The difference was that Vampires didn't die from their affliction. It was forever a part of them and it would keep kept them close to each other forever as well, Dalinda thought. Like a bad marriage between an old couple, for better or worse, till death do they part.
After she finished putting on her makeup, a little red rouge to the cheeks for color (ha!), she stepped out of her small artist's loft apartment and descended to the streets below. One thing that she had to get used to in a space colony was that streets curved "up," and just a short walk around the circumference would take you right back to where you had started.
Since the space colony orbited Titan, Vampires didn't have to worry about dying from excessive sunlight - the sun being just another star in the sky, only a little brighter. They lived in a world surrounded by perpetual night, sleeping only if they felt the need for it, and living almost "normal" lives. Or as Dalinda liked to say, almost "human" lives.
Dalinda enjoyed the way shadows fell across the building faces, making it appear as though the sun had just set and left behind a slight rosy glow to the horizon. Twilight had always been her favorite time of day as a Vampire on Earth, for it signaled it was time to come out and play, that she was once again safe from the sun's harmful rays.
It was obvious that the other Vampires thought the same way that she did, for aboard this space colony it was always twilight. She supposed that the other space colonies inhabited by mortals are bathed in the glow of perpetual noontime, an artificial sun always ablaze in the sky above. Dalinda had after wondered if this artificial sunlight could harm her.
After a short walk, she arrived at her destination. She was having lunch (dinner?) with some friends at Mime's Cafe. Mime's was a quaint little French Cafe modeled after the ones that were popular in Paris in the early twentieth century. She settled into her usual seat in the booth that was always reserved for her and her friends and waited for them to arrive.
"The usual?" the waiter asked, as he arrived to take her order.
"Yes, please." she replied as she surveyed the room, looking for anyone she might know. Her eyes locked on that of a handsome man's face, who was sitting at the far end of the bar. He had an almost "mortal" look in his eyes, as if he burned from a fire deep within. His face, although pale like the other patrons, had a glow to it that she felt more than saw.
"Your Bloody Mary." the waiter said, sliding a drink in front of her. She shifted her attention back to the waiter and said,
"Thanks" as she handed him her credchit. She then glanced back in the direction of her new found interest only to realize that he was gone.
"Hello, Dalinda!" Jack said and settled down in the seat next to her. Jack had been much older than Dalinda when he had become immortal and was forever locked into looking like he was forty.
"Always the vamp, dressing ghoulish and drinking a Bloody Mary. Has anyone bothered to tell you that the "Goth" look went out of style over 100 years ago?"
She looked squarely into Jack's handsome face, her eyes narrowing just a bit. "This may come as a bit of a shock to you, Jack, but perhaps I dress like a Vampire because I am a Vampire. At least I'm not a Vampire running around disguised as a mountain climber!" she replied.
Jack looked at her, a bit of anger flickering in his eyes, and said, "It wasn't my choice to become immortal. I loved mountain climbing before the "accident" and I always will. Someday, I'll build a mountain in space, a mountain just for the Vampires to climb. That's why I truly exist! For that momentous event!"
She peered at Jack, and for a brief moment wondered what it would have been like to sleep with him before he had become a Vampire, to feel him deep inside her.
"Jack, the truth is that you have had this dream of yours for over 100 years; when are you going to act on it? We could sit here for weeks, literally, and talk about our dreams, our chance to regain some of our lost humanity. Some of us act on them while others just let time drift by, forever. Why don't you at least go to some of the colony worlds that the more adventurous Vampires call home? On one of those you could climb mountains all night long - you could almost lead a human life."
Jack looked at her in surprise and replied: "Not a bad idea, really. I could head for one of the colony worlds like Tirine for example, an incredibly rugged planet waiting for someone like myself to conquer it."
