Chapter 3

It had been five years since the great ship had taken Béla and Beth away from her. According to the Praetor, the ship had just left Earth and was finally returning to Deimos for the last time. It would still be almost four more years before it arrived with its load of fresh earth, water, wildlife, grain and the remaining population of Deimos. 'And Father... '

Mikhail, Hank and Melinda's son, was fully-grown now, although he was not quite four years old. He was infatuated with Elaine – mostly because of her unusual blond hair – and was constantly trying to convince her to become his life-mate.

The idea was attractive to Elaine – mostly because, except for his father, Hank, Mikhail was the only male of her species that existed anywhere. But Elaine knew that Mikhail couldn't possibly know what he wanted in a life-mate and probably wouldn't for at least another hundred years. Besides that, he constantly demonstrated his true age with his jealousy regarding her weekly services and the fact that she liked having the attentions of a dozen men at a time.

She had to admit, though, he was an incredible lover. They would fly up and make love high in the air for hours at a time; Elaine in her human form with arms and legs wrapped around him, depending on his powerful wings to hold them aloft.

She loved the strength and feel of his powerful body as he beat his wings to hold them aloft while they fucked. She also knew that she wouldn't get pregnant in her human form, so she always made certain that she stayed human for several hours afterward, until she could clean up, teleporting herself back to her private chambers before she fell to the ground. That was standard hygiene for all the goddesses, unless, of course, one wanted to become pregnant.

Elaine knew that the day would come when she'd make love to someone special in her natural form, but that day was not yet near. And she had no idea who that special person would be.

There were two passions she and Mikhail shared – sex and flying – not enough to base a lifetime relationship on, but enough for a summer or three of mad lovemaking to help pass the warm, summer days.

Elaine stepped out of her water room smiling with satisfaction. She could still feel the warmth of the Southern sun on her skin, even though she'd just spent the last ten minutes in the shower so she's be more presentable for dinner.

The twins would be joining them tonight to celebrate their second birthday. She wished that Béla could see the Bard Geoffrey's children. They were delightful to be around. The best part, of course, was that the children weren't hers. They belonged to Jeff and Terri. So when they misbehaved, of course, 'Auntie' Elaine could flee to her sanctuary on the third floor, where children were not permitted.

Dinner went reasonably well. The twins, Edward and Emma, realizing they were the main attraction, wasted little time demonstrating how spoiled they could be. Within the first half-hour of dinner, Terri was forced to remove them from the dining hall. She returned a few moments later, full of apologies, without the twins.

It was customary for Bard Geoffrey to invite to dinner the students with the most outstanding progress or performance each week. For the students, it wasn't just the prestige of dining with the Great Bard at his table or the excellent food. The real prize, at least for the male students, was a night with the Golden Goddess – Elaine.

There were very few female students, as this was basically an agricultural society. The various roles of family members were, necessarily, very well defined. The few women who succeeded in breaking out of their role models were superior in intelligence and showed aptitude in the more advanced sciences.

Medicine was not particularly addressed at the university, as the goddesses kept everyone healthy. However, Genetics, Bioengineering and Astronomy were high-interest subjects, especially among the female population. Mechanics and Architecture were popular among the men. A small mixed group of men and women had decided to build a telescope at Northern Depot and were studying lens making, robotics and microelectronics.

The university buildings were complete, now, and had been for two years. An additional building was being added this year to house the Bioengineering Department. A separate building was going to be necessary because of all the additional equipment and the unused Martian drones that would be arriving with the great ship, along with their coffin-like storage units.

Elaine smiled as she thought of seeing her father, Sibilius, again. That event was still years away, so she decided to concentrate on who had joined them for dinner, tonight.

This night, there were actually two Elaines at the dining table. Elaine Chiapanni was the first student to successfully duplicate Sibilius' Hybrid project. The very first homegrown hybrid was now growing in a tank in the Bioengineering Department, a major step forward for Project Standby, Elaine's brainchild idea for salvaging members of the old race as they died off by having already grown adult hybrid bodies ready for them to inhabit. Not the clumsy Martian Drone type, but hybrids like the goddesses, with fully functional nervous systems, which meant that sex would now be possible, which she expected the ancient Veragoans would likely enjoy after the last few thousand years with no available females. They would even be able to fly!

The Golden Goddess had promised Miss Chiapanni some alone time with her after dinner – not for sex, surprisingly. The biogenetic student wanted to study the goddess, and had brought a bag full of medical instruments with her for that purpose.

There was one other student at the table. Jacob Madison was a student of mechanical engineering. He was one of the students working on the Telescope Project, and had designed a new gliding mechanism that was capable of much smaller adjustments than the original design. This would help in aiming the telescope, once it was built, at distant stars and galaxies.

The goddess Elaine put the thought into Jacob's head that he would be spending several hours with Bard Geoffrey in his study, talking and enjoying the marvelous wine the Bard had available while the student Elaine examined the Goddess. She promised Jacob that she would visit him in his guest quarters and make up for any disappointment he felt for having to wait.

After dinner, Elaine, the goddess and Elaine, the student, took the student's bag of goodies and went upstairs. A half-hour later, she wished she'd never met the girl.

"Hold still, goddess," Elaine complained, poking yet another flex-cable into her. She ran it through a vein, up the goddess' leg and into her abdomen. From there, she could explore the goddess' liver and blood filtration system. The Golden Goddess had never considered that any kind of penetration could be undesirable, but being probed like this was taxing her magnanimous nature. She sighed, causing the student to sharply clear her throat.

'Your bedside manners are appalling!' the goddess thought at the student.

'I apologize, goddess, ' Elaine, the student, replied mentally. 'If I seem abrupt, it's because I can't believe you're really letting me do this. I fear you'll dismiss me at each request I make of you. In addition, I confess that I am fighting to ignore certain other concerns that I have.'

The student's mind wasn't nearly as trained or professional as she would wish it to be. A brief image leaked out as she separated herself mentally from her goddess. 'She wants to make love to me!' Elaine realized.

The Goddess was actually pleased that, even with all these gross internal observations that the student Elaine was performing, she still found her body desirable. Suddenly, the goddess didn't mind all the probing and examining so much.