Goddess's Saga 1: Touch of the Goddess (4 page)

“How do you do that? Who are you, really, Maria Callaway?”

To Stephan, the woman sitting in his kitchen looked like an untouchable beauty in a painting. He didn
’t really expect her to be honest; no reason she would trust him. Not yet.

She sighed and poured herself some coffee.

“I usually make something up, but you’ve been really sweet, so I think I’ll tell you the truth.”

Her words made him laugh.

“I’m
sweet?
You’ve got to be kidding.”

“
Not at all. You’re sweet.”

She sipped the black brew, added a dash of sugar, and sprinkled some cinnamon over it all. Every movement looked carefully calculated. Did she do it to distract him, or herself?

“
I... I lived in New York for a while with one of my brothers, back in the late 20th century. On Earth, you know. We tried to blend in and needed normal names, so he called us Frank and Maria Callaway. The name stuck with me. I mean, I’ve been Lois, Laura, Anne, Christina, Renee, Aileen, Alexandra, Phoebe, Sapphira, Xylina…”

She counted names on her fingers and frowned.
“I can’t even remember them all anymore. Maria is easy, it’s one of the most common girl names both in Greece and the world. Most people can spell it and say it. I mean, imagine introducing yourself as Hypatia Papaioannou.”

“
You’re Greek?”

She made a dismissive gesture.

“Yes. No. It doesn’t matter. Anyway, in New York, Frank pretended to be the devil. He scared so many people, you wouldn’t believe it.”

If I smile and nod, maybe she
’ll think I’m actually following all this.

“
I’ve had this appearance for a few hundred years now. I borrowed it from a performer I liked and enhanced it a little. She was a singer. I was born just outside old Earth around 2000 years BC. My people don’t really age, but our powers grow with time and usage. I can travel in time. I can create objects with my will and many other things. I’m...”

Wait, your appearance?

He didn’t have time to say anything; she flashed a bright smile.

“
I’m your friendly neighbourhood Goddess.”

She can
’t be serious. Yes, she’s serious. Great... Of course she’s the perfect woman. She’s not even a woman.

He didn
’t know what to do with his hands, and scratched his head to keep them occupied.

“
Do you... Do you read thoughts too?”

Her answer didn
’t soothe his fears; she grinned.

“
Yes, I am both telepathic and empathic.”

Crap. Don
’t think. It’s impossible not to think about sex when her tits poke out like that. Dammit, I did it again. Think of something else. Coffee, coffee, coffee, coffee... Oh lord she’s so beautiful, I wonder what she looks like under the shirt.

Seconds ticked by, and he felt a drip of sweat form on his forehead. Finally
, Maria laughed.

“
Don’t worry, I usually don’t read minds, especially not the people I care for. I think everyone is entitled to at least that much privacy.”

He
wanted to sigh with relief and go knock his head against a wall somewhere. He kissed a Goddess, not on the lips, but anyway. He
flirted
with a Goddess, held her in his arms even, just how big an idiot was he?

I guess it all fits together, but she looks so warm and human and beautiful, so happy and bubbly and gorgeous…

She would be
, of course. No wonder people worshipped them for all times.

I
’m lost. I’ll probably spend the rest of my life building her temples, dreaming of her, and worshipping her. No human will ever be able to compete.

Maria
’s hand on his woke him from his thoughts.

“
Are you okay?”

“
Of course I am.” He kept his eyes away from her.

“
I don’t usually tell people all this, but I like you, and I didn’t want to keep it a secret. I’m tired of secrets.”

Squeezing his e
yes shut, Stephan pulled his free hand over his forehead. The Goddess was holding his hand, saying she liked him and didn’t want to keep secrets. Great, just great, this day only became weirder and weirder.

I should have stayed out of this sector, or stayed drunk. Maybe that
’s it, I might be hallucinating all this. Don’t they say some drugs can come back and mess with you even after many years?

Her hand on his felt pretty real though, and her
touch was so sweet. He would have to look at her eventually, but for now, he kept his attention on the cup.

I wonder what she really looks like.

She cradled his hand in both of hers, making him feel like a clumsy giant who might accidentally break her.

“
Stephan… It’s not as creepy as it sounds... all this seemed to appear out of nowhere, right? But it didn’t really. There’s only a certain amount of matter in the universe, and when I want something, my mind seeks out the molecules I need and create things out of them. Sort of... like teleporting, or a replicator. It’s just that I do it with my head.”

The humour in it all wasn
’t wasted on him, and he finally looked at her with the corners of his mouth twitching.

“
You’re a several thousand year old Goddess with a teleporter in your head.”

She giggled and nodded.

“What am I supposed to do now?”

“
What do you mean? You do whatever you want to do. If you ask me to leave, I will.”

Yeah, that
’s not happening.

“
I have seen a lot of weird shit and been in space for a long time. It’s not every day a deity comes visiting. Do I worship you? Build something in your honour? Start a... cult or something? I mean, I’ve been many things through the years, but religious hasn’t been one of them.”

She opened her mouth and closed it again.

Did I make you uncomfortable, Goddess? Didn
’t see that one coming?

“
Only if that’s what you
really
want to do, but I rather you didn’t.”

Meeting his eyes, she added
with laughter in her voice, “You’re weird.”

What I really want to do? I really want to carry this Goddess off to bed and see if her body is as perfect under the clothes as the parts I can see.

He wasn’t kidding, though. If she wanted a statue, he’d build one or die trying.

“
So, what about you?”

Her words didn
’t make any sense to him; he was too distracted.

“
What about me?”

She
snickered, “Aww silly, Stephan Forks, who are
you
really?”

That was unexpected, and something he
’d rather not talk about.

“
Oh. I’m not interesting.”

“
How do you know?”

He didn
’t say anything and she made a face.

“
Most people’s stories are long, boring and all the same, and now when I really want to know, I find the only human in the universe not into babbling about himself for hours. Figures.”

She squeezed
his fingers a little as she joked and he found himself smiling. There would be no getting out of it; he’d have to talk about himself.

O
nce he started, he was surprised to find it easier than he thought it would be.

“
I’m not four thousand, only around forty.”

Forty had seemed so old just a couple of days earlier, but in this company he was way out of his league. What would it be like to see so many centuries? How many people had she loved and lost? How much had the world changed during her lifetime?

“I’m basically human, nothing as fancy as you. My parents were fans of genetic engineering, so they constructed me to be stronger, faster, and smarter than people who are born.”

“
I’ve never met an engineered man before. And you say you’re not interesting…”

He shrugged.

“I grew up on Palorma III. It wasn’t too bad; it’s a nice planet. When I was 20, I married the girl next door, Tracey Maddox.”

Saying
the name stirred up old emotions in him, and he fell silent for a moment, cherishing the memories. Their parents had constructed them for each other, and it was a good fit. Tracey had been beautiful both in heart and appearance, and at the time, he found her perfect. Even after all these years he hadn’t seen many women with a face and a body like hers, maybe none until this very morning. Comparing a mortal with a deity wasn’t fair.

Why am I telling her this? She doesn
’t care.

Maria squeezed his fingers, as if sensing his thought. He started telling the story, so he might as well keep going.

“We had two daughters and a third on the way when the war broke out. Natural born even. It’s a shame I don’t have a picture to show you, they were beautiful.”

It was a stupid war, but I guess most of them are. There were no winners, only devastation.

“The people on Palorma IV weren’t genetically enhanced. I guess they thought us a threat. There would have been plenty of room for everyone, but instead of settling things in good order, we had a war with few survivors on both sides.”

Her unwavering gaze gave him the courage to continue. It was the first time he told anyone. Would putting words to his nightmares make things better or worse?

“The war raged on for years. I was called out to battle one day, but it turned out to be a diversion. When we got back, the enemy had been in my village and gathered up everyone who remained behind. Women, children, a few old people... They locked everyone in the city hall, barred the windows and doors, and set it on fire.”

H
e glanced over at his hand, still entwined with the Goddess’s, and found the will to go on, even though his voice sounded dead and hollow in his own ears.

“
The ruins were still smoking when I got there, and the smell… I can’t describe it. I searched for a long time and finally found my family in a corner. Tracey tried to protect the small ones with her body, but they were all so charred, I only recognized them from the jewellery that hadn’t melted.”

These images haunted him every day since and he normally felt the stench everywhere, so thick it was almost tangible. He tried to escape it through drugs, alcohol, and women, but nothing helped tune it out for more than a few hours, at best.
He was created with a powerful memory and hadn’t been able to turn it off.

The after-effects of drugs didn
’t appeal to him, even if he didn’t get addicted easily, and that left him with booze and sex. He thought about ending his miserable life many times, but never got around to it, and now he could even
talk
about it without having to see it.

It
had
to have something to do with Maria. Maybe just being close to someone like her could do a thing like this, and he was grateful. She’d disappear eventually and the much too vivid memories might return when she did, but for now, he experienced his first peace for years.

“
I carried them outside, buried them, took this ship, and left. It’s almost seven years ago now, and my little girl was just three years old.”

He could remember feeling so h
elpless, useless, but right now, it was mercifully just a memory of the emotion and not the feeling itself.

She let go of his hand and pressed her palm against his cheek instead.

“You don’t have to see that anymore.”

*****

Hours later, they still sat in the kitchen. Stephan seemed to have forgotten she was an alien, and that suited Maria just fine.

He frowned.

“Are you hungry? You don’t really need to eat, do you?”

“
I don’t
need
to, but I like to…”

He got up and peeked into the large refrigerator.

“I stocked up before I left port yesterday. We have all sorts of things.”

“
Eggs? I haven’t had eggs for a decade.”

“
Omelette?”

She hid the eggs in the pantry and hollered,
“You’ll never catch me!”

Stephan chased her, waving a spatula in the air, until she collapsed on a chair, laughing.
Cooking never seemed like this much fun before.

They stayed in the kitchen the rest of the day, and when it was time for dinner, he admonished her not to help because she made such a mess earlier. He wasn
’t quite able to keep a straight face and she smirked.