Chapter 4: Former Goddess

“You ... you are an alien!” Raavi replied as he tried to make sense of what he was looking at.

“No! No, I am not!” Opet reacted as she waved her hands at him.

“Then ... then what am I looking at? This isn’t some trick? Trying to throw some fast one at me. You are in some suit or using light projection to fool me.”

“I promise you, Raavi, that I am what you see before you. I was a goddess.”

He displayed nothing but confusion. His shock and surprise were still apparent, but he was getting used to looking at what was Oniya. He was trying to make sense of the event.

“Goddess? You are saying that you are a deity?”

“I ... I was. I was one. I am a New Olympian.”

He seemed to try to put it together. Her looks were seemingly innocent. She didn’t look like some terrifying monster to him. Her eyes alone gave a calm and relaxed look. She had eyebrows and blue eyes, almost similar to a human being.

“I don’t understand. You say that you are a New Olympian. The New Olympians are human. You don’t appear to be one.”

“I assure you that I am. I am the person you have been talking to online. I use Oniya as my fake name. My real name is Opet.”

“If you are what you say you are, then you know what happened a month ago when we were talking to each other on our online date.”

She seemed to think for a second. Then she smiled at Raavi. “You were talking about how beautiful my hair was. You and I were discussing about having children and living a pleasant life together. We watched each other eat and then ... I remember you telling me that you wanted to make love to me. Since we were separated lightyears apart, I wanted you to remember me, and I took my top off. It was the first time that you saw me topless.”

Raavi realized that she was right. His memories flashed to those events. He remembered the excitement he felt that day. It even caused him to look at her chest as he thought about it. Opet’s larger size meant that she had bigger breasts than the human form he saw before. The uniform, however, lowered down her aesthetic appeal. Regardless, her human hippo-like eyes seemed to catch him in the act before he looked away.

“Raavi, you know it is me. I know that you lost your virginity at the age of nineteen to a woman from Cipra. You wanted more in the relationship, but she told you that she didn’t want to have a family. I remember a tear that ran down your face when you explained to me that she was the perfect woman for you. It was the first time you were truly heartbroken.”

He seemed to get the point, but a part of him still wondered if this was a trick. Opet emitted light from her body. For him, it could be some holographic projection, but why would she choose such an appearance as this?

“I ... I believe that you know my past enough. I am skeptical, though,” he said. “For all, I know you are dressed up as something else. You are using light to fool me. I feel like you are just pulling a trick. I get convinced, and then you drop the disguise. You get a big laugh and gawk about it to your crew.”

“Raavi, come to me,” Opet said. “Take a knee beside me. Please”

He did as she suggested as he walked back up next to her. He kneeled by the couch as she extended her hand to his.

“Feel my hand, my love,” she said.

He reached out and touched her hand. The gray skin was smooth and delicate to the touch. He could feel the warmth as if blood was pumping through her veins.

“If this were a projection, your hand would go right through it. What do you feel?”

He felt a sense of belonging to her. His skepticism seemed to wane more and more as his fingers caressed hers. It was very similar to human skin and felt just as lovely to touch. It brought pleasant memories of his past relationships.

“Real ... so real,” he commented to her. “I ... I guess it is true.”

She put her other hand to his face. “I assure you that I am telling you the truth. This is my true form. I am not an alien being.”

He was starting to get more and more convinced of her. “It ... I don’t understand it. You look like something I saw from the museums. Earth had plenty of wildlife, but it all faded away when humanity made it the way it is now. I don’t know what is going on.”

“Raavi. I never was human,” she explained. “I use the human shape as a disguise. It is the only way that I can fit in properly. Otherwise ... people may get the wrong impression about me.”

“This is the real you?” he asked as if he was trying to convince himself.

“Yes, my love.”

“Why hold out on this? How can you not be human and not be an alien?”

“Because I am. I was a goddess ... an Egyptian goddess.”

“That can’t be. The gods don’t exist.”

Her head looked down. “It is good that you feel that way. We did our best to make sure that you think the way that you want to believe. Long ago, I lived on Earth. I am the daughter of a goddess by the name of Taweret. My mother is a goddess of fertility. Her job was to safeguard the mothers that were pregnant. Before ... magic was the only true way to help heal people. You, humans, found the medicine to help one another. Pregnancy was a dangerous thing. I still remember the deaths of women that were in childbirth. In Egypt, people wore pendants and had statues of my mother. Some of it was also for me since I looked very much like my mother.”

“What are you, though?”

“The word is an ancient earth animal known as a hippopotamus. My tail is that of a crocodile. My mother was a guardian that the people worshipped.”

“But how is that possible? How can you exist? I might not be an expert on history, but I would be sure that people such as yourself would have been all over the textbooks.”

“We are, but we are not. We exist, and yet we did our best to take up human form. I was among a large group of gods that ruled Egypt and its beliefs. Humankind worshipped many types of deities all over the world. Slowly during the thousands of years, we began to do our best to stay out of human affairs. We made agreements to let the humans do what they want to do ... believe what they want to do. To be involved caused you to ... hurt one another.”

He felt that she was sincere. He thought about his history and considered what she said. Perhaps she might have been correct if the stories were the truth.

“Humanity has a long history of its crusades,” she continued. “Those that didn’t believe in them could be harmed by the next group that didn’t believe the others in return, and wars would be conducted,” she closed her eyes. “I missed out on so much ... yet I agree with the idea.”

“Yet you made the efforts to fool me ... fool everyone. Is everyone on this ship like you?”

“No,” she shook her head. “Everyone is different. We made it our goal to hide ourselves. A powerful crystal was given to us that would allow us to take up human form at will. While it isn’t perfect, it is enough to convince the humans of what we are.”

“How did everyone not know that you existed?”

“Magic.”

“Magic,” he started to laugh. “There is no such thing.”

She held up her hands as a small glowing light erupted from herself. It was not as bright as her original transformation but enough that Raavi flinched slightly with his eyes. The light was focused on her clothing as it began to transform. When he reopened his eyes, she lowered her hands as the light quickly faded.

What Raavi beheld was Opet dressed in different clothing. She no longer wore the UHN uniform but something that seemed more comfortable. She had a white Egyptian dress with a little orange and brown flair that ran down her arms’ sleeves. She still wore the signature headband as before. The clothing itself was somewhat revealing. The cloth was very thin and almost enough for Raavi to see through clearly.

It was here that the uniform no longer confided her chest. Her bust was no longer pushed back as her breasts protruded and pushed on the cloth. Raavi could see the signature outlines of nipples that pressed against the dress. In reality, her larger frame simply made her chest size much larger now than ever. He could even see more of her stomach as the dress didn’t fully cover all of it. He could see more of the gray skin of her legs and belly. Her chubbiness was more revealed, but she was not overly fat either.

“Umm...” Raavi commented. He couldn’t explain what he saw again as his mind tried to make sense of it. At the same time, his eyes seemed to want to look at her body over and over again.

“You are right and wrong, my love,” she said. “In New Olympia, this ship, myself and the others, you live where magic and science have become one. Our bodies push the envelope of the laws of physics. You have your reasons to believe in such a thing. You were raised in an environment where you never saw it. It was our goal to keep it that way.”

“If you don’t believe me, then I can show you around the ship some more. You can get a chance to meet the true faces of my crew. Now that I have revealed myself to you, they wouldn’t have to keep up with their disguises as well.”

“I ... I believe you,” he started to cave in. “Even if this were a trick, then you wouldn’t go this far just to trick me. I can’t seem to see the point of it. It is just ... a lot to take in.”

“I understand completely on how you feel. Raavi, my deepest fear is that I have scared you. I fear that I will lose you. You see me as I truly am ... my feelings for you are the same.”

He looked down and then back to her. “I ... I see you as something else. I wished that I had seen your true face instead of the fake image I saw before. I ... haven’t lost those feelings. It is only staggered me a little bit. That is all.”

“You mean that?” she looked up at him with a grin on her face. “You are still attracted to me?”

His eyes began to really evaluate her. Despite seeing her as some extinct animal on Earth, she was aesthetically pleasing to look at. She had the feminine features that still seemed to radiate about her. The looks, fidgeting that she made, and the way that she spoke was all the same. There was no malice in her actions, and she was seemingly innocent. He couldn’t ignore it. This was Oniya. This was the real Oniya.

“I ... I don’t feel so nervous being around you. You seem friendly. You are her ... you are the woman that I was falling in love with. I feel the desire to be with you. I came to this ship for a reason, and it was to be with you. Trust is an important part of a relationship.”

“It is why I am telling all of this now,” she put her hand to her chest. “I want you to see the true side of who I am. Only my physical appearance is different. If I had it my way, then I would have told you exactly what I was.”

“Then what about the rules? I still don’t understand. You are saying that you were some sort of goddess. You take up human form and disguise yourself to be among humans. Is New Olympia filled with others that are ... not human?”

“Hmmm ... not ‘mortal’ would be closer to what we are.”

“What about those kids? I remember seeing them just recently. Who were they?”

“Their true names are Taiwo and Kehinde. They are African twin deities known as the Ibeji Twins.”

“Just as they mentioned to me. But they are just children...”

“They are twin child deities,” she commented. “They are both engineers and work on this ship and under my command. They are children because they never grow up. They are ageless just like me.”

“You live forever?”

“As far as I know, I never age. I grew up to become an adult but haven’t aged past what you see before you. I have lived for thousands of years. The same goes with the Ibeji Twins and everyone else on New Olympia and on this ship.”

“I need to understand the history of your people. The more I know, the more you have convinced me. Right now, I am still on the sidelines.”

“I understand,” she turned her head and looked at the kitchen. “Would you like something to eat? We can have a good talk, and I promise to talk to you till my shift starts. Then you can follow me to my watch, and I will keep talking.”

“Sure,” he replied.

They both stood up, and it was here that Raavi could see her proper size. She towered over him as her tail swung freely. She looked like she could be a person that could quickly put him to the ground if she wanted. She was careful as she turned around. Her tail was thick and robust and could quickly slam into him. She walked around the couch and past the large counter that led to the kitchen itself.

The room was incredibly cozy. There was nothing that Raavi could argue against it. If anything, seeing Opet as she was and the fact that she was seemingly caring for his wellbeing was thoughtful. He could already feel some sort of hunger kick in his stomach. It had been almost lunchtime, and he wondered what precisely non-human hybrid people like herself would eat.

Her tail seemed to wag and sway a little bit as she walked. Her dress seemed to have a nice small hole where it stuck out. He could even tell that it was almost a clasp-like dress that could easily be undone. Was this the only thing that was covering her body? The gray skin of hers seems to be relatively easy to spot on her.

“Make yourself comfortable, my love,” Opet told him as she put her hands and leaned on the counter.

He couldn’t argue with that. He went ahead and took his shoes off. The soulless footwear came off as he put them by the sliding door. He was barefoot now as he put his hands on his pants. A part of him felt too comfortable. He almost felt inclined to take his pants off. A portion of him wondered how much he felt at peace with Opet. Even her clothing alone seemed to suggest a level of comfort and laid back atmosphere the place was.

“What would you like to eat?” she asked. “Wait ... I know what it is that you want. You always wanted samosa with peas, carrots, and a little bit of kale mixed together.”

He smiled. “Yeah, I would like that. You managed to get a hold of some?”

She gave the biggest smile. “Watch this,” she commented as she walked up to her refrigerator. She pressed her large hand to the fridge. With curiosity, he watched as she repeated the words, “Samosa ... adult serving ... with carrots, peas, and kale in it.”

There was a brief flash of light from the refrigerator. The light quickly faded as she opened up the door to reveal a plate that consisted of the tasty pastries. He watched as she put her hand into the box-like device to pull it out. He could watch a little bit of steam rise from it before it began to cool down quickly.

“What is that?” he asked as she put the plate down on the counter. She closed the door again before she repeated the process.

“Apples and strawberries, my serving size,” she commanded as she put her hand to the door. Within a few seconds, the light emerged from the box before it quickly faded again. When she opened the door again, there was a large plate of apples and strawberries on it. Raavi could clearly tell that this was an empty refrigerator but had some sort of ability to create food out of thin air.

“What is that?” he asked.

“My refrigerator,” she replied as she went and used her other hand to pick up his plate. He displayed nothing but amazement on his face.

“What? You never seen a refrigerator before?” she asked almost with a laugh.

“How did you make food like that? That is incredible.”

“Alright, you got me. I guess you can call it a refrigerator, but it is really a replicator. Anything you ask, and it is yours.”

“Wow!” he remarked as Opet went and handed the plate to him. He looked at the food and admired the aroma of food. “This is incredible. The replication technology in the UWA is only designed to recreate different basic metals, and that is if you have the energy and basic silicates to do it. You have the ability to make food out of thin air.”

“And a little bit of energy, yes.”

He could only display shock and amazement. “Incredible,” he replied as he took a look at his meal. The samosa consisted of four pastries with mixed ingredients inside of it. They were shaped like cones that pointed up.

“Come on, come on, let’s sit down,” she said as she took the plate and walked around to the living room bed. “I will answer all of your questions.”

He could feel his appetite rise as he looked at his plate. He followed behind her as they walked back into the living room and looked at the bed. She moved her tail as she went and had a seat on the bed. She took one of the apples, opened up her mouth, and tossed it in before she began to munch on it. Raavi felt inclined to do the same as he went to the other side of the bed and had a seat.

“See?” she commented as she chewed and swallowed the fruit. “Just like we were discussing before. You always wanted to have a date like this.”

“A romantic date in which we were in bed together,” he added as he got comfortable on the bed. The sheets themselves felt like silk. They were incredibly delicate and soft as his free hand touched the fabric. He could see that the bed’s large size was paramount to house her tall frame.

He felt happier and more at home the more he was there. He went and brought one of the pastries and took a big bite of it.

“Mmmm ... oh wow,” he commented as he chewed and spoke. “This is good! Mmm...”

She began to start tossing some of the strawberries into her mouth as she watched him dive into his meal. For a while, she just seemed to show an enamored look at him as she watched him eat up close.

“This is incredible,” he continued. “He licked his fingers. It tastes just like the ones that my mother made for me. You have this technology ... it is beyond amazing.”

“Technically, I never need food, but I always prefer to have some food here and there. We still need to have it, though, in case we end up having a husband or wife with a human mortal. I admit ... I love it too.”

“You don’t need to eat?”

“I don’t need to breathe either, actually. I just breathe because I feel like it.”

“Wow,” he said as he took another bite from the samosa.

“We live outside of the things that mortals need to keep themselves alive. I could teleport myself into space, and it wouldn’t hurt me. The cold vacuum does nothing to us New Olympians.”

“Then why eat?”

“Because I get to miss out on the fun things that make you human. You, mortals, spend so much time with food that you turn it into an art form. Besides ... you already know that I like strawberries and apples mixed together. I just can’t get enough of them.”

“I would like to get a chance to meet all of the crew ... what they really are.”

“You will. You have already seen the Ibeji Twins. They are human deities. The rest of them are using human disguises. I need to let everyone know that they can drop the disguises. I know Nebina hates having to be in human form.”

“The woman you will be relieving. What is her true form?”

“Hmm ... maybe it is better that I just let you discover that for yourself. I need to contact the ship and let them know. Keep eating.”

She put her plate down as she went and snapped her fingers. A small white light appeared before her that Raavi observed.

“Attention everyone on the ship,” she said. “You don’t need to keep your human disguises anymore. Opet out.”

She snapped her fingers again as the light faded away. It was apparent that she was addressing all of the crew on the ship, but it was done so quickly and in such an unusual way that it took him by surprise. All through the ship, her voice echoed through the passageways and rooms.

“Why do you have the name of the ship named after you?” Raavi asked her.

“That is because most of the ships we have are named after deities. That includes myself so...”

“Ah,” he said as he took another bite of samosa. He admired the taste of the meal.

“So ... you have your questions...” she said as she threw a couple of strawberries into her mouth.

“Yes. How did New Olympia become like this? How did you end up getting all of this?”

“Well... , “ she swallowed. “A long time ago, we ended up learning about our existence. For most of us mythical creatures and characters, we were sometimes born with the help of human mortals, but for the other deities ... it is a combination of reasons for their existence that we are still trying to figure out. To make a story short, we called ourselves the ‘mythics.’ We made an agreement never to reveal our true identities and try to stay in human form when we were with the mortals. We created the Coalition of Deities as a unity of those mythics. Our goal was to keep out of human affairs while ensuring other mythics didn’t carry out harmful deeds against mortals. There are many stories about us ... each of us has their own tale to tell. It was not easy, but our numbers were never that high as it was. I still remember when I was awoken that the human population had exploded in numbers and the number of mythics was reduced to the hundreds...” she paused as she shook her head. “We agreed that it was best to stay out. We wanted to live normal lives, but at the same time, we had to keep an eye out for each other.”

“I imagine that is easier said than done,” he commented.

“Yeah ... it was. Mortals did things to each other. Mythics did things to each other. Not everyone always agreed on the same ideas as the other. Our small numbers kept us together, but we were still invigorated by human affairs ... including myself. Even the mythics are not perfect. Having the ability to manipulate your environment and do things that the mortals normally couldn’t were things that we safely guarded. Our goal was to make sure that nobody misused their powers. We created a system of balance and order. The wicked and good all were one.”

“It sounds like you managed to stay together, though.”

“We had our moments ... we had to worry about rogue mythics that turned on us. Politics are politics, after all. Not everyone was a part of it. That includes me. I was part of the Non-Aligned Movement.”

“The Non-Aligned...”

“Mythics that stayed out of the Coalition,” she interrupted him. “I didn’t want to be a part of it for some time. The movement was all about peace and love, and ... well ... the Coalition did things that it had to do to keep itself going and enforce the rules. I agreed with the idea, but ... I wanted to help them without having to commit to acts of violence.”

“Violence?”

“As I said, having to deal with the occasional mortals and rogue mythics sometimes required the act of violence to stop it. I didn’t want to become a part of that cycle. The Coalition meant well, but I wanted to do other things.”

“Like what?”

“At the time I was reawakened so long ago, I was pregnant at the time. My mortal husband was long dead.”

“You can have children with humans?”

“Yes. I meant everything that I told you. I want to become a mother just as much as you want to become a father.”

There was a sense of relief that Raavi displayed that Opet could see in his face. She knew that he was starting to come around more and more with her appearance.

“It was my goal to find another human that could be the father of my child. I ... didn’t want to be a single parent even if we New Olympians outlive our mortal spouses. That, however, is a story that I will tell you a little bit later, though. Perhaps it is best that I tell you of the more recent history. You wish to know about the New Olympians.”

“Yes.”

“It would make sense,” she said. “The history of us of about two hundred to three hundred years ago is far more relevant than that of four hundred to upon thousands of years.” She paused for a couple of seconds as she seemed to think for a little while. “I admit living forever does wear down your memory. Things can get lost after a while. Then may I ask, how much do you know about the Yuki family?”

“They are or were a powerful, rich family. I don’t know much more than that. All I know is that I often hear the name spoken a lot.”

“Hmmm...” she nodded. “How much do you know about the history of former Earth?”

“Not much. I do know that it became uninhabitable in the 22^nd century. It is the planet where the human race originated.”

“You should know more about your history, but the history that I am going to tell you is more of the New Olympians’ point of view rather than necessarily yours. Regardless ... I remember it all, I admit. I remember the days of the human race. I remember the times when the human race was progressing faster than it could counter its own instincts. Your population just got bigger and bigger. The people seemed to never care about it either. Less and less resources ... then the diseases began to hit. I still remember seeing the world’s population when it reached ten billion. People on Earth called it a victory of human achievement ... it was a giant lie. The ice caps melted, and the coastlines were slowly consumed. Less and less land was available to take care of the ever-growing population. Forests were being wiped out. The beauty of Earth was slowly disappearing.”

A tear began to run down her face as she quickly wiped it away. Raavi put his hand to hers to comfort her, but she simply patted it.

“I love nature ... I love it so much. I remember the times that everything was so green. I loved the deserts, but the deserts wouldn’t be so great if the forests didn’t exist either. Everything was just gorgeous when it came to Earth ... but it wasn’t meant to be. I watched as humanity struggled with its own politics. By 2100, the world’s coastlines were gone. The people had to move and relocate to new areas over time as they would repeat the process of clearing out the forests. The planet just got hotter and hotter. Areas were just covered in pollution. Even with new technologies that made things cleaner, the damage was done. Nothing could be done to restore the melted ice, and the climate had been severely altered. Governments were threatening to fall apart, and new nations were coming and going. By then, the mythics population was increasing, and we debated how long we should remain in hiding. Had the mortals moved past the point of rejecting religion, gods, or putting us behind? ... No. If anything, we saw that you humans did nothing to radically improve yourselves. If we revealed our true selves, you would have worshipped and begged us to restore the planet to what it was.”

“Why didn’t you?” he asked her.

“Imagine the day that we do that. We go to the sky and proclaim that the gods still exist. We pronounce a new set of commandments onto you. Your free will is forever gone as we tell you what you have to do. Then ... not everyone in the Coalition of Mythics as they called themselves by then, that we had to agree with the same ideas. Divisions would start to appear. The Coalition of Mythics would fall apart. One deity would believe that they were doing the right thing while the others didn’t. Then civil war would break out. The human race would be thrown into chaos and crusades that would burn the deteriorating Earth into nothing. We couldn’t do that. We had our human forms ... the benefit with us was that the destruction of your own environments couldn’t hurt us. You humans could wipe yourselves, and then the world would be the sole owners of it. It was not an easy decision. Families like the Yuki family happily live with mortals as their population slowly grew. They contribute to most of our numbers on New Olympia as it is. Of course, a new problem began to arise in ... I think 2120 ... around that time. There were so few places to live on. I started to watch the oceans turn to orange.”

“The Orange Muck...” Raavi commented as he seemed to remember.

“You would know it enough even if you don’t know your history,” Opet continued. “Yes ... it was so ... disgusting. Frozen bacteria was released from the melted ice caps. It fed off the pollution and had nothing but food all around it. The same waters I used to swim in hundreds of years before its arrival began to turn orange. I still remember when some of it was on my tail. It stank and was everywhere. Then I saw people die as it poisoned their bodies. The air was so toxic to the mortals as it was. I still remember the meetings we had at the Coalition of Mythics. Some of us wanted to get involved. They knew that if nothing were done, the human race would start to slip away. Then Yellowstone erupted ... ugh ... I just remember the arguments. It got fierce at times. The most powerful deities proclaimed that we must stay out of human affairs. If it was the mortals’ choice to wipe themselves out, then so be it.”

“What about you?”

“I had no relationship. My husband had long since passed away by that time period. I wanted the world to be back to what it was when I was reawakened. I wanted to dance around the forest again and play in the deserts. I loved nature and ... well, anything we did would only be an act of god. My hands were tied just like the rest of them. I remembered my husband’s words, and he told me that if things happened the way it was then let it. Eventually, nature will, one way or another, restore itself back to what it was. The Yuki family was already trying to do some things of their own such as introducing little improvements to technology here and there without making it too obvious. I did feel happy that humanity was getting some things completed, such as colonizing Luna. It was a sign that you mortals were trying at least ... even if Luna had started to turn into a battleground for the superpowers of the time period. The Yuki family, at least for some of us, felt like a way that we could help humanity without getting too involved. I did what I could, but it was never enough. Finally, it happened.”