Goddess's Saga 1: Touch of the Goddess

Maria
Hammarblad

Wrath of the Goddess

Return of the Goddess

Brand New World

High Gravity

Adam and Eve

With Desert Breeze Publishing

Kidnapped

Undercover

Courage and Retribution

Flashback

Operation Earth

Shadow of a Man

Touch of the Goddess

Third edition, April 2013

Copyright © 2010 Maria Hammarblad

ISBN
10: 1-45158-990-5

ISBN
13: 978-1-45158-990-0

Cover art from:

c
anstockphoto.com : csp8511194

istockphoto.com
: frentusha

Back cover from:

istockphoto.com
: yanish83

This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead is entirely coincidental. Characters and places are either a product of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously.

Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, neither this entire publication nor parts of it may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means, without having written permission from the copyright owner.

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www.mariahammarblad.com

Touch of the Goddess

Book one in The Goddess’s Saga

By

Maria
Hammarblad

The man leaned
back in his chair and propped his feet up on a console, trying to pour himself one more drink from an empty bottle.

Nothing came out and
he squinted into it, seeking proof it was really dry.

“Dammit.”

He wasn’t particularly worried over the shards of shattered glass that spread all over the floor when it hit the wall behind him. He
was
worried about being out of whiskey. Drought would be a real problem.

He rose to his feet on unsteady legs and made his way to a cabinet hanging on the wall.

Damn this floor is unsteady. They don’t make them like they used to.

At least he found more booze, and he cradled the bottle.

“Hello sexy.”

Talking to bottles might not be a good habit, but there wasn
’t anyone around to hear him, so who cared.

He started drinking when he left station TL52 earlier in the day. He had been paid well and carried nice new cargo that would pay even better. These were good reasons to celebrate. Especially since bad memories tended to seep into his mind, ruining any good mood. Using alcohol to chase his ghosts away seemed reasonable. The first drink was lonely in his stomach and wanted company by a second one, and so it went.

As soon as he sat down, the proximity alarm blared.

What the hell, space is huge. How can there possibly be someone out there?

He braced himself for the collision, but remembered to protect the fresh bottle, just in case he’d survive.

A moment later, a woman stood in the middle of the room. She crossed her arms and lifted an eyebrow.

“What did you do that for? Space is so
big and you just
had
to run into me?”

She glanced around the room and wrinkled her nose.

“Oh my God, I’ve been rammed by a trash barge. I bet you have rats too.”

It didn
’t seem
that
bad. Sure he had some empty bottles, shards of glass, and plates with mouldy food, but there were worse places.

“
How did you… Where’d you come from?”

Why was speaking so difficult?
He tried again.

“
Oh, I get it, you’re a hallunication. Because I’m hrunk. Right?”

At least the alarms fell silent. Maybe he died in the collision and this was either heaven or hell.

I think I’m alive, but I’m not sure.

“
Oh you’re hrunk alright.”

To his surprise, the unlikely woman giggled.
“A drunk hunk, that makes a hrunk. What’d you do? Bathe in scotch?”

Scotch? Sounds good.

He took a swig and squinted at her. His eyes probably weren’t trustworthy; women always seemed pretty when he was drunk, and they usually turned out to be hideous the next morning. Still, this one appeared to be beautiful for real. She shouted at him again, nothing new there.

Some nonsense about rats.

It made no sense but he shrugged it off.

All women were crazy anyway.

Drawing his gun and pointing it at her was more difficult than it should have been. The weapon swayed from side to side, but it was probably her
moving.

“
Stand still.”

He attempted to rise from the chair to demand information, but doing so turned out to be too much work.

Why is the stupid room spinning? Another drink might help. Maybe that’ll make her go away too, or at least be quiet.

When he put the bottle down again, the woman held a hand out to him.

“I’m Maria Callaway. It’s nice to meet you.”

How is it nice to meet you? I mean me…

He looked at the hand as if it was a peculiar artefact.
Maria Callaway
sounded like a name, but it was wrong. Her name ought to be sexy. The thought made him grin and gave a big enough boost of adrenaline to get to his feet.

He should shake her
hand, but when he looked at his right hand it held the precious bottle. He couldn’t drop
that.
The other held his gun. Why had he drawn his weapon again? Not important. Getting it back into the holster was too much work and he tossed it on a console.

The hand looked like a fragile object he might accidentally break, and he took it carefully.

“I’m Stephan. Stephan Forks. Uh, sorry ‘bout your ship.” 

This time he realized he slurred. What way was that to talk to a beautiful woman? She should be in his bed and not on his bridge. He closed one eye, reasoning
it might be easier to focus on her if he didn’t use both of them, and examined her slender body, pale skin, long black hair, and big green eyes. It was easy to imagine kissing those perfect lips and touching those perfect breasts…

Yeah,
she was probably beautiful for real, and not just because he was drunk.

“
So... what’s a ship like you doing in a woman like this?”

It
didn’t sound right even in his own ears and he grimaced, muttering, “ship, woman, what’s a woman doing in a ship... eh, who cares, too much work.”

Maria
answered dryly, “Yes, I’m starting to wonder that myself.”

“
Meh, you’re not real anyway.”

He returned his attention to his old friend in the bottle. The walking and talking hallucination might go away if he ignored it.
Strange how solid she seemed though.

*****

Maria Callaway crossed her arms and watched the slumping man. First he ruined her ship, and then he thought she was a mirage.
Great.

She pinched the bridge of her nose and ran through her options. She
’d checked the ship out when it became clear he was going to ram her, and there weren’t any other people there. She could either leave, or try to make sense of the person she’d found.

“
I just got my ship because my little sister had one, and rescuing humans in space seemed like fun.”

He turned his back on her and muttered,
“Not there. She’s not there.”

“
I’m just saying, it wasn’t a great loss.”

Maybe I was destined to collide with this nutcase. It could be the beginning of a new adventure. Or not… At least he
’s good looking.

Stephan boasted a muscular body, unruly hair, a good-looking face, and stubbly cheeks. She always had a soft spot for stubble. Those brown eyes of his wouldn
’t be bad either, if they weren’t so watery. He smelled bad though. Still, if he was half as intelligent as he was handsome, he might be good company once he sobered up.

Okay, I guess I
’m staying. For now.

She blinked, and the bottle of whiskey disappeared, together with all the filth spread out over the bridge. Stephan stared at his empty hand, evidently trying to figure out what happened. When he glanced over at her, he seemed surprised she was still there.

“Give that back.”

Spreading out her empty hands, Maria put up an innocent face.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. It does, however, seem as if I’m stuck here with you since you destroyed my ship. Find me a place to sleep.”

He gave a completely blank stare
, and she rolled her eyes. “You crashed into me, five minutes ago, remember?”

“
Oh yeah, that… Sorry ‘bout that, babe.”

He pulled a hand through his hair and looked embarrassed.

She wanted to slap her forehead in exasperation. Then, she realized what he said and nearly snapped at him for calling her
babe.
Instead, she drew a deep breath.

None of
this matters. If he’s not dead from alcohol poisoning by morning, he won’t remember a thing.

Stephan took a step forward and grumbled, barely understandably,
“The ship isn’t supposed to roll like this. I’ve gotta fix the stabilizers, or is it the artificial gravity? Where was I going again? Oh yeah…”

He threw
an arm around her shoulders and gave her a good squeeze.

Good thing I
’m stronger than I look or we would both have fallen over.

She tried to stay away from his breath, waving
a hand in front of her face. Shouldn’t something this wicked be labelled a safety hazard?

Leaning heavily on her, Stephan somehow led the way through a door and into an elevator. By the time they reached the floor below, he seemed to have forgotten where they were going, and
she carried most of his weight.

“
I should leave you here. You’d probably sleep it off just fine on the floor.”

“
Uuuh…”

The groan could mean anything
and she rolled her eyes.

“
I guess I like you since I bother…”

A
nondescript corridor stretched out to both sides. “Where are we going?”

No answer came and she turned left on instinct. Her feet brought her to the third door on the left and she didn
’t even lift an eyebrow in surprise when it turned out to be a well-used bedroom.

It
’s good to always be right.

Stephan already snored and she dropped him on the bed.

“Don’t let this become a habit.”

Lying with his back on the bed and most of his legs on the floor didn
’t look too comfortable, so she pulled him further up and forced his boots off.

“
Why did I do that? Stupid drunk human.”

She
wanted
to bang her head against the wall, chanting, “Stupid, stupid, stupid,” but that would be below her dignity. Instead, she took a seat on the floor with her back leaning against the wall.
Think, Maria.

Thinking did not go well. The room smelled weird and the large man on the bed distracted her. She believed in fate; most of the time she ended up exactly where she needed to be without even trying, and what seemed like coincidences usually made sense in the end. Taking this into consideration, and the size of time and space, it probably wasn
’t an accident they occupied the exact same space at the same time.

The rest of the ship has been pretty neat. Maybe he isn
’t a total pig after all. Should I stick around for a couple of days? Well, I have all the time in the world, and if nothing amusing happens, I can always teleport away… Now what? It’ll be hours before he starts moving again.

She could explore, but the ship probably wasn
’t
that
interesting.

What would normal people do? Go to sleep?

It seemed reasonable. Lacking anything better to do, she curled up next to him. His snoring should be irritating, but soon turned into a soothing lullaby, and she drifted off to sleep within seconds.

“
If you throw up on me, I’ll turn you into a camel.”