Goddesses

part 6: Reunity

Hello. My name is Jessica Hunt. I was born on the planet Earth in the year 1976. This message is for Marla Dennis, or any one else who may have replaced her after we cut communications.

Marla, I've been living in Lemuria for the past century. As you might guess not much has changed here since our nations cut ties; at least not until recently. Lately things have begun to fall apart. The soil is becoming unfit for us to grow any food... The purple life is slowly retaking the land. We don't have the technology or knowledge to prevent this. We're starving.

The little food which we do have is tainted. No goddess, human or animal is able to bear children if they consume it, yet we have no other choice.

Although we wish to live simply we've begun to see the necessity of science. This is Eva, not Earth... the soil is alien and we need certain tools to survive. So we're calling on you, breaking our silence, with this plea for help. We're sure you've found a way to keep the land fertile, and we beg for you to share it with us.

Though our nations have had their differences can we please put them in the past? It will be a long, risky journey crossing the ocean, and it's taking a long time for them to build my ship. But I'll be travelling south, to find you.

If you hear this and are willing to help us please, come for me first. Our time is running out. I'm waiting for you...

"And after there the message repeats. It's just looping, over and over, on all the AM and FM airwaves."

Marla nodded slowly, sitting back in her chair. It had been a long, long time since she'd heard that voice. She'd heard it express laughter and cries of joy and ecstasy, as well as the sorrows and tribulations of the pain of growth. Though the signal was degraded she felt she'd been transported back to the days they'd shared on Earth, two hundred years ago.

She wondered if Jessica had changed much. She wasn't a young goddess any more. At heart was she still the same sweet girl, the most cherished of all the young women she had sired?

"Miss Dennis?"

"Oh, sorry. I... I was caught in the moment."

"Not a problem madame."

"Send me a copy of this message. I need to think this over."

"Sure thing."

Chapter 1

I opened my eyes, which were greeted by the welcome sight of two goddesses gracefully sliding out of my bed, utterly flawless in their nude perfection. There was Rhea, a feisty magenta haired beauty only recently sired, whose spectacularly sculpted pale body had been a pleasure to use. Then there was Jenessa, the dark brunette who had sired her.

I pretended to still be asleep.

I'd run into the two the previous night at Starlight, Shelley and Donna's club. They were celebrating Rhea's new life as an immortal with moonberry, and were already several rounds deep when I met them. Star struck, they had to come home with me. I was glad to oblige them.

The morning after, it was an even more welcome sight to see them leave.

I'd been living on Eva for several weeks, during which I'd quickly settled in to my new life. As a member of the Dennis dynasty I already had the entire wealth of Evita at my disposal, which I used to live very comfortably yet not over extravagantly in a high condo overlooking the city. I had my own vehicle, my own wardrobe, everything.

Unlike my twin sisters Angela and Melissa I didn't become involved in the politics of running Eva Australis. More like our eldest sister Diana, I simply wanted to live in comfort, taking life one day at a time.

It was everything I could have ever wanted. Finally, after all the struggles and disorienting jumps in time I lived in a world where goddesses reigned supreme. It was a world where I would never feel lonely again, for not only was there a great prestige to be had in sharing a night with the legendary Eva Dennis, namesake of the planet of the goddesses; I also had a reputation for being an excellent lover. Especially if moonberry was involved.

"Ooh, she's awake," Rhea said.

Damn. I'd been caught. "Yeah... I'm awake," I murmured, sitting up in my huge bed.

Jenessa turned to look at me, evidently not as enthused to have shared her newly sired lover once the night's euphoria had worn off. She watched Rhea come over and kiss my cheek. "Thank you for last night Eva, it was... something special."

"It was

spectacular

," Rhea gushed.

"Uh, no problem. I had a lot of fun. Maybe we'll do it again sometime," I said.

"Hmm. Maybe," she said neutrally. "Come, Rhea."

Hand in hand they went to my living room to retrieve their clothes.

I didn't leave my bed until I heard the door shut as they left my home. As my feet touched the cool floor there was a faint click and the gentle pour of water - coffee brewing in the kitchen.

I stood in front of my bathroom mirror, feeling contemplative. Was I proud to have had another two goddesses that night? Definitely. Had my life become everything I'd ever hoped it could be, now that I lived two hundred years into the future in a world I helped create? Yes, it had. But was I truly happy...? There was a nagging emptiness in me, a tiny yet persistent voice that insisted not.

Every iteration of what we'd done that night seemed more identical to the previous. It was great, but the monotony of bringing goddesses home was becoming a constant nag. I needed something different. Removing the years I'd spent asleep, I was only twenty one... far too young to just retire to a life of pleasure!

I was beginning to realize that I wanted something real, something meaningful. Most would have said I'd already had that several times over, but my accomplishments until then were really just a fluke. An opportunity cleverly seized at the perfect moment. It wasn't enough.

Later that morning fate would bring me what I needed in the form of a Network call from Marla.

Goodmorning darling.

"Hello, mom. What can I do for you?"

I have a request to make of you, my dear...

"Okay?"

Now I know you decided you don't want to be involved in any of the politics of running our growing little nation but I'm asking you for this favour anyway.

"Go on..."

Something has come up. Something potentially big, in fact. I'm going to be travelling north, to Lemuria. And I want you to come too. This isn't a sight seeing trip, this could potentially be real diplomacy.

"Oh, wow. Diplomacy, huh? And Angela and Mel won't do it?"

Oh, they'll be coming too. But I think we might need you. You're Eva, after all... a living symbol for our planet.

"I see," I said. Was the silence between our nations about to be broken, after a century of isolation? And I was going to be involved? I was beginning to feel the pressure my mother was putting on me, but then I faintly knew that that might have been that meaningful thing, the mission that I was craving.

"I'll do it."

Oh? That was easy. I was sure it'd take a bit more convincing to pull you away from all the fun you've been having...

"I'll have plenty more time for that. I'll do it, mum."

Chapter 2

No more than a day later I found myself stepping into a travel nexus with my mother, Angela, and Melissa. The interior was arranged into a sort of conference room, with a large round table of gleaming purple hardwood at its centre. Human assistants were bustling about with preparations while outside they loaded a second travel nexus with cargo.

"Interesting set up," I said.

"Big things are going to happen in here," Marla replied as she dropped herself into one of the chairs at the table. She leaned back, resting her arms behind her head with a careless air. "Ahh... well, maybe. It's going to be something!"

"Uh huh." I looked at her curiously. She was unusually animated, perhaps even giddy. "So what's going on? Why the trip to Lemuria?"

"

Diplomacy

," Angela said with a sly smile.

"But not just that. We're finally going to meet our birth-mother," Melissa said.

"Really...? You mean, Jessica? She's here?"

"She's there," Marla said. "And she's calling to us. Calling to me."

"Why?"

"Because the Lemurians need technology. Those stubborn northerners are finally ready to admit that there's goodness to be had in modern living."

"Oh. Why the change of heart?"

"The purple life is retaking their soil. They can't grow anything... so they're starving. Now they've got your birth-mother calling to me on all radio waves. She's threatening to take a boat to us, across that nasty equatorial sea."

I seated myself across from Marla. We looked very much alike, sharing the same dark hair and violet eyes, as well as violet streaks in our hair. I'm taller than her though, and my hair is shorter, coming down to just my shoulders. I'm also a good deal bustier. My twin sisters followed suit, and we semi-circled the table with ageless women, our generational differences invisible. My mother wore black business attire over a white blouse. My sisters had much the same look, though Angela had gone with a more youthful pink and Melissa's suit was baby blue. With myself never being involved in any sort of 'business' I wasn't sure what to wear, eventually settling on a black strappy dress and boots.

"We rushed this trip together so we can catch her before she touches water. I don't trust the Lemurians to build a ship to last such a journey. I don't trust them... with her."

I nodded slowly, seeing a trace of wistfulness in my mother's eye. I was starting to realize that our journey would be about more than just saving our difficult neighbours... Marla wanted Jessica back. With my sisters' flowing blonde hair and soft delicate skin I was able to roughly extrapolate what Jessica must have looked like, and in doing so I could guess why Marla would be rushing to her rescue.

After some moments of idle talk our human assistants began to trickle out of the nexus. Two more officially dressed ones took seats at our table. "Everything is going according to schedule, so far."

"That's great. Thank you, Matthew. We'll be falling away soon?"

"Any minute now."

Matthew's counterpart, a waifish brunette, slid a small tablet out of her inner jacket pocket and began to poke at the screen. "All cameras are functional. The events will be filmed for archival purposes."

"Excellent, Ashley."

She nodded professionally and slid the tablet back into her jacket.

The door to our nexus shut, and there were the muffled sounds of metal pieces interlocking, sealing us in to our environment.

A screen at the centre of the table lit up. The image it showed -- the ground beneath us zooming away at a mind-bending rate - was the only indication that we were beginning our trip. There was no sound, and the gravity had been compensated so we wouldn't feel any of the motion of our travel, no matter what the speed or trajectory.

Travel nexuses are amazingly fast. In no more than half an hour Marla was tuning in to a camera view of the Lemurian shore. We had decelerated to a hover with our nexus and its second cargo bearing duplicate hanging above the turbulent green ocean waters at a distance too far for an unaided eye to detect. With advanced imaging technology on our side we could see that the skies over the capitol were cloudy, the air slightly foggy.

Marla touched a corner of her screen. "Follow my lead for our landing," she said.

"Acknowledged."

Our camera view zoomed in to scan the shoreline, and we began to look for a good place to land. We saw an old styled ship with men clambering over its fresh purple wood surface as they worked on it with hand tools. That, we would later learn, was meant to be Jessica's boat, though their immediate need for it would vanish the moment we landed.

Some hundred meters further in from the site of the boat's construction there was an open grassy field. Marla swiped her finger across the screen a few times and at a measured pace we hovered across the ocean toward it, providing an incredible spectacle for any of the humans below once we were over land. They had lived too short to have ever known such advanced technology, and a crowd was beginning to gather, their many heads turned up toward us as we began to descend.

We touched down. Watching through our camera, we saw the crowd had gathered around our nexus, though the heat radiating off of it was keeping them a few feet back. As our camera panned we saw our second nexus, which had touched down seconds after we had.

"Stay inside," Marla commanded to the second nexus. "Matthew, you're up."

"Yes madame." He rose from his chair and walked towards the doorway, where he smoothed out his suit and then cracked his knuckles. He reached for the panel and activated the door.

Matthew was a slightly overweight man with thinned hair. He had a friendly and non-threatening demeanour, making him the perfect representative for our visiting party from the south... first impressions were important, after all. He watched the roiling crowd of Lemurians gather closer to the nexus, leaving the second cargo bearing one as they pressed in, wanting to hear whatever it was he had come to say. They were at his feet, for he stood raised above them on the couple steps that led inside.

"Hello, Lemurian people," he began. He had a deeply resonant chest voice. "We've come from Eva Australis, by request of a goddess who resides amongst you. We come with peaceful intentions."

"Why are you here?"

"Who else is in there?!"

"We mean to speak with that goddess, first and foremost. We request you bring us Jessica Hunt, so talks may begin. I repeat," he said, more slowly and clearly, "we want the goddess Jessica Hunt."

"Did you come to bring us food?"

"Come back!"

Matthew had stepped back inside, and the door was shutting behind him. He returned to the round table, looking as casual as he could after having broken a century's silence between the twin nations. We could all see through his front, that he was actually quite flustered... and we couldn't blame him.

"Thank you Matthew. Now, we play the waiting game..."

Chapter 3

Many a bored hour was spent in that nexus. We'd forgotten how to pass the time without our Network connections, which were far out of range from their source.

Finally our view screen showed the crowd was beginning to part. An entourage of goddesses uniformly dressed in flowing sarongs moved in a square formation, and at their centre was the most Aerotian looking woman I'd yet seen, walking hand in hand with a woman who indeed, must have been our mother. The view was from too far for us to make out much more. They stopped at the stairs to our nexus, and Jessica let go of the Aerotian's hand and climbed up out of the camera's view.

Matthew opened the door and stepped way back, as if he feared physical contact with her. His eyes were wide with disbelief, and the moment Jessica entered our nexus I could see why. She was absolutely stunning, easily the most beautiful woman I'd ever seen... and the Lemurians had spared no effort in showing this off to us.

Her strawberry blonde hair, just like Melissa's, was tied high up on her head, showcasing the slender curve of her neck and delicate shoulders. A faint pixie-like sparkle of some metallic ointment graced her cheekbones, making her seem like a creature of fantasy. Her shoulders were bare, her dress beginning by hanging off of her breasts. They were truly huge, moreso than mine, yet they naturally stayed high on her chest, jostling against her slender torso with her every movement. That same metallic sparkle faintly twinkled in her cleavage, ensuring the eyes of the Lemurians' southern visitors be attracted to the most

influential

parts of their chosen representative. From its wide and forward projecting perch the white and pink-trimmed dress would have hung featurelessly around her if weren't tied close to her figure by a golden rope around her waist, causing it to drape gracefully off of her hips. A slit along one side revealed an elegant pale leg and her high heeled open toe shoes.

Looking upon her, we saw the other piece of the puzzle that led to myself, the twins and Diana. I saw their delicate build in her, their green eyes, my and Diana's well stacked figures.

"Jessica," Marla said, slowly approaching. Her eyes were unblinking, for she was rapt at the sight of her old love. "It's... It's been so long."

"Yes, it has been," she said. Her voice was so soft.

Marla scooped up one of her hands and kissed her dainty knuckle, her other arm coming around to bring her close. Their embrace was brief, hesitant. I'd never seen Marla so unsure before.

"We heard your message." Marla still held her hand.

"We supposed you did. ...I guess this cancels my little boat trip."

"It does. No one's ever tried to cross the ocean... we wouldn't risk having you be the first."

Jessica nodded, beginning to smile, and in doing so she seemed to light the room up. "I wasn't looking forward to it anyway... May I sit?"

"Of course."

Angela was quick to get out of her seat, letting our mothers be close together. Having finally taken my eyes off of them, I realized my sisters and the humans were staring just as intently as I had been.

Jessica and Marla sat down. They were still facing each other, and it was eerily silent.

"...Uh, Jessica, I suppose I should introduce our daughters..."

"Ah yes," she said, glancing at us. "I suspected they might be ours..."

Marla motioned to my sisters, "these are of course the twins, Angela and Melissa."

They smiled, their eyes glittering with admiration. Jessica returned that look and then closed her own, tilting her head downward in a gesture of respect.

"...and here is someone who's been the woman of the hour, lately. Not that you'd have heard about it up here. This... is Eva."

"Oh?" Jessica turned to me, looking genuinely surprised. "Eva...! I'd never known you made it here from Earth!"

"I arrived only recently," I said with a shrug of my shoulders.

"Wow," she said. "

Eva

... You know, they don't think you ever existed here."

"

We know

," my sisters chirped, thoroughly tired of such talk.

Jessica chuckled, "right, okay. Well it's good to see that you're still around. That you're big and healthy now. You look even more like Marla than I thought you would, when you were born..."

"Thank you, Jess-... er, mum?"

She chuckled again, her fingertips daintily shielding her lips.

Marla looked at her view screen, which showed the persisting crowd of humans outside the nexus. "Not a single person has much meat on their bones. I suppose it's true, that there isn't any food for you here."

"It's very true. No one can afford to eat anymore... we are a nation of starving people."

Marla nodded, looking down at the screen thoughtfully. "We can help you, but there will have to be... diplomacy, first."

"Thank you, Marla."

"Can we have that arranged?"

"I will have Genera set something up with The Eldest, and there can be talks."

"Good."

***

We ended up arranging for a proper assembly with The Eldest, which would be held later that night inside our nexus. Until then we were permitted to roam the streets of New Aerotia.

As soon as that meeting had been confirmed we opened up the second nexus, and bundles of cargo were unloaded. There was a roaring cheer of approval from the crowd once the nature of our cargo had been revealed -- we had brought food, and plenty of it. People snacked hungrily on pieces of bread and fruit as yet more crates were carted off to the city square. We'd easily won the approval of the Lemurian citizens, but the favour of their ruling goddesses wouldn't be so easily had.

Beyond that crowded field life carried on as usual in New Aerotia. My sisters and I took to the streets, taking in the fascinating and splendid sights of a kingdom run according to ancient methods.