Chapter 38

Ariadne woke up as the sun started to rise over the distant hills. The white dwarf star had already risen earlier, racing the brighter sun across the sky.

“Today is the day when the party begins,” Dionysus remarked. “You have never seen anything like this before in your life.”

“How many people are going to die at this party?” Ariadne asked.

“Thousands, over a hundred thousand,” Dionysus replied dismissively. “I'm not going to count the cost. As long as the Systerians (large lizard aliens) are happy.”

“Why do you do it?” Ariadne asked, knowing she might anger her owner.

“It's spectacular!” Dionysus answered. “There is no better party in the whole known part of this galaxy. We have food from all four hundred humanoid planets and various exotic animals and plants. We even played a game showing your asteroid processing facilities. It's a novel twist on exploiting women.”
“Is there any point to this party?” Ariadne replied.

“But of course! It's a morality play!” Dionysus laughed. “It's all about women's sacrifices throughout the ages. It starts with Icarus of Athens, who first introduces wine to the inhabitants of the city. When they started to feel the side effects of the alcohol, they killed him because they thought he had poisoned them. His daughter, Erigone, found his body and was so grief-stricken that she climbed a steep hill with a hangman's tree. She hangs herself as her dog jumps off the cliff.”

“A dog?” Ariadne asked.

“Yes, per your stellar charts, this sun is named after the dog in the Greek study of the stars.” Then Dionysus continues, “At that point, I stand up and declare the insanity upon all unmarried maidens, causing them to want to kill themselves. We start with the ladies of Athens who hang themselves. Then we have the fire dances of India, which perform Jauhar, the Hindu practice of mass self-immolation. The Acolhua of Zultépec, a Mesoamerican group related to the Aztecs, took captives of a caravan of European, Maya, and Cuban people of African and Indigenous descent, cooked, and ate them. The Amazons of Scythia, an area between the Black Sea and Mongolia, are shown next fighting the Greek, Chinese, and Persian armies. They all get wiped out. The Roman gladiator women are next with their swordplay. The Japanese women performing harakiri with the short tanto blades are always a crowd pleaser. The Vikings' bloodthirsty Valkyries, the fighting women of Norse mythology, are shown next. The Bibi Ghar massacre of 1857 is reenacted, where 120 British women were butchered by Indians rebelling against the East India Company. Sacrificial victims by 'incaprettamento', the tying of women's necks to their legs bent behind their back, so they strangled themselves, is shown next. Followed by beheading, arrow target practice, the Iron Maiden, and rack stretching. Of course, we cannot forget the treatment of women in the Asteroid belt. In the end, we will have women exploring the universe, finding all the terrors that exist there. People eating plants, wild beasts, giant cannibals, quicksand, you know the usual stuff.”

“You are executing women as entertainment?” Ariadne couldn't contain herself any longer. “Besides offering over a hundred thousand women as tasty edibles, you are going to have a thousand women kill themselves? Just for the entertainment of a bunch of alien lizards?”

“Don't speak ill of our guests!” Dionysus retorted. “The women have been practicing all year for this! Go and talk to them. You won't find one woman who doesn't want to be enlisted in this celebration of the Systerians. You will find them under and behind the stadium called the 'Palace of Knossos', also wear this, otherwise, the guards will think you are a cup-bearer.” He puts a ring on her hand.

Ariadne had entered the basement of the stadium, the 'Palace of Knossos', after showing her ring to the guards. There she saw various cup-bearers soaking in tubs of melted butter in water. Other than their heads, they had no hair anywhere on their bodies.

“Are you the first cup-bearers?” she asked, already knowing the answer.

“Yes, we won the lottery,” said one. “We are going to be offered to the upper commanders. It's a great honor!”

“And you are soaking in butter water to improve your taste,” Ariadne replied.

They all giggled.

Ariadne continued and saw a very beautiful girl with a dog-like creature. “Are you supposed to represent Erigone?” she asked.

“Why, yes! I'll start the entertainment!” she said proudly. “I'll hang around and watch everything.”

“You mean your body will be hanging by the neck for the entire ten-day affair,” Ariadne remarked. “Doesn't it bother you that you are killing yourself to entertain a bunch of lizards?”

“What a terrible attitude!” the lady playing Erigone laughed. “These lizards have brought peace and prosperity to our planet. You know, without an overlord, we would just be killing ourselves. How many women and children have been killed in wars and conflicts over the years? Isn't it better to have a few thousand women die as opposed to millions or billions of women and children? Get over yourself! Wouldn't you have sacrificed yourself if it meant stopping World War III? This is no different.”

Ariadne was stunned. Not only was she surprised by the willingness of this lady to hang herself, she couldn't argue with the logic.

“Don't you want to have children?” Ariadne finally asked.

“Of course, I would have wanted to have children,” the lady playing Erigone replied. “But even more so, I want the children who are alive to have full lives. So many children were killed in the World Wars, and in the conflicts before the wars, like Ukraine, Israel, Guam, and Taiwan. The Corporation almost killed us all. Yes! I'm from Earth like you. Talk to the women from the other planets, and you see that human existence is the same everywhere. We need caretakers. This is just paying the price for the care.”

“Well, good luck with your performance,” Ariadne replied.

“You mean, break a leg!” the lady playing Erigone answered, laughingly, “I know theater.”

Ariadne started walking past gallows, fire pyres, human-sized barbecue spits, various chains, swords, guns, bows and arrows, hatchets, Iron Maidens, and racks. There was a very hot, working Iron furnace. Finally, she passed cages of wild animals the likes of which she had never imagined. There was a tree with coiled arms that could reach out and grab a person. There were dinosaurs, large cats, a huge eyeball, rhinos, bulls, huge snakes, gorillas, and an actual dragon. This put the spectacles of Rome to shame, Ariadne thought.