Chapter 10
Don Greco slumped into his favourite armchair and gave a great sigh. In his hand he held a tumbler of whisky. It was his third one that evening.
They wouldn't be expecting him at the power plant the next day. They never did, the day after the anniversary. He'd come home from an honest day's work and went straight for the bottle.
He rested his forehead in his hand and shut his eyes. Thoughts and images he normally repressed, he would allow himself to have on that one day of the year: the wedding anniversary of he and his wife, Alessia's mother.
Nine years he and Nadia had spent together, happily married, and then one more with a growing distance forming between them. Then, on the day of their tenth anniversary, it all finally came apart.
At least he had his sweet Alessia. He saw so much of Nadia in her, especially now that she was a young woman. She, like her mother, was a twice. Oh, how fortunate Don was to have snagged a twice, even if he wasn't able to keep her for good. Things could have been very different, and he so much happier, if his beautiful, highly coveted wife hadn't been taken from him.
***
"Alright sweetie, have a good day at school."
"I will, daddy."
"Okay. Off you go." Don gave his little Alessia a pat on the shoulder and she zipped off toward her elementary school. He smiled at the adorable sight of her running on her tiny legs, her bushy brown curls trailing behind her and bouncing off her pink backpack.
He rose off his knees and turned toward his vehicle. He had a big day planned. As he walked over to it the proximity sensor detected him and opened the plasti-glass bubble over the passenger area. He clambered inside and buckled himself in.
On the passenger seat: A bouquet of alien flowers, a rare and beautiful genus that he'd picked out on the fringe. Their type only bloomed once a year, and he'd kept them in cryo in anticipation of that day. There was a note tied to them:
Dear Nadia, meet me at The Devonsleigh, 8 pm. Reservation for two.
It was the finest restaurant in town, and he'd been pinching pennies for a month so they could afford that dinner. Alessia would stay at her aunt's that night. He started up his vehicle and lifted away.
His Nadia had been very busy as of late, with her always so occupied being the liaison between Mu's little government and the goddesses of the technologically inclined southern continent, Eva Australis. Diplomacy between them and the human colony had once been rare, for the people of Mu had formed their colony under the mandate that they be removed from the influence of immortals. Nevertheless their recent trade dealings had been very beneficial for Mu, for the goddesses had made several technological advancements since their people had parted.
The trade dealings between the two nations had made her a very important person, though with the cost of her rarely being around for her husband and daughter. For the past year she'd been rising at dawn to make preparations, only to return home just in time for dinner and bed. It must have taken a toll on her mind, for even when she was around Don she seemed distant and distracted. Even, at times toward him, slightly cold.
It was barely the marriage they used to enjoy, and he missed her so. He hoped dinner that night could be a taste of how things once were for them, when their love was young and they had time to just be together.
He was soon nearing the government building, where she'd already been at work for nearly two hours. He set his vehicle down in the guest parking lot and made his way inside the unassuming little brown brick structure. Someday Mu would have to upgrade to something grander -- it must have looked pitiful to their immortal visitors, who were more used to the astounding technological and architectural wonders of their nation. Life in the fledgling colony of Mu was comparatively simple, to the point of nearing 21st century standards of primitivity.
As he walked into the lobby he felt himself shudder. There were surely goddesses nearby. He'd never seen one in the flesh but he'd heard enough about them to know that he didn't like them. The receptionist, whose very job was yet another 21st century throwback, was busy with a network call. After a moment she paused the call and looked up to him:
"Hello Mr. Greco, are you looking for your wife?"
"Yes, ah, if you could just have these brought to her," he said holding out the bouquet.
"Awh," the receptionist said, though her nose seemed to wrinkle as she recognized the odd choice of flowers -- alien blossoms? How dirty, how eccentric! She seemed to recoil slightly. "You could actually do that yourself. You're ah, more than welcome to... you know where her office is."
"Of course I do. I'll do just that."
She gave him a deliberate smile and returned to her call.
As he neared her office he heard her voice coming from the conference room just ahead of it. He'd wanted someone else to bring the flowers to her office because he'd meant it to be a surprise. Not wanting to ruin it he stopped and took a step back, putting himself out of view. From what he could hear it was his wife and another woman in there.
"You're late to our meeting, Miss Dennis," his wife said, though her tone wasn't at all impatient. She sounded quite humoured, in fact.
"Yeah, sorry about that Miss... Greco, was it?"
"Please, call me Nadia."
"Okay. Since we're on a first name basis you can call me Alene."
The door to the conference room was carelessly pushed by one of them, shutting itself to just a little more than a crack. After making sure the coast was clear, Don peered through it.
"So you have a demand for lab equipment here in Mu, you say."
"Yes. I understand you personally specialize in bio engineering, so I reached out to you. If we could just have a sample of your equipment, we could reverse engineer it and make our own."
The woman Nadia spoke to was every bit as beautiful as she, perhaps even more so. "Shit," Don breathed to himself as he looked her over. She was of European ancestry and had dark hair, held in a ponytail, and though she was dressed conservatively as he looked at her in profile view he could see that she had a killer figure beneath. She looked to be no older than her early twenties. She was far too perfect to be human.
"I don't think you'll be able to reverse engineer our equipment, not unless we gave you the factory that makes it as well. The scale of the components is far too small, you see," said the goddess.
"Oh. Maybe we could just purchase a couple units from you then? Anything would help. We have people here that want to do the work, but no facilities."
"I suppose that might be arranged... with your negotiating skills, that is. I've heard you're exceptionally good at that."
Nadia nodded. "That I am. There's a reason they've chosen me for this job. I have a way of showing your kind that, at times, they're very welcome here."
The goddess chuckled. "Oh? Why... why don't you show me, then."
With a demure giggle Nadia stepped back, placing herself more plainly in the goddess' view. She undid her hair, letting her dirty blonde locks spill free, then shrugged out of her jacket and began to unbutton her blouse. Don's jaw dropped. What was his wife, the love of his life, doing?!
