The Owl Goddess

Chapter 1: Prologue

The priestess sat in the smoky depths of the cave staring into the sacred fire. Her attendants waited in the shadows.

The fire spat and crackled, casting a flickering light on the walls, making the men and animals painted there move with spurious life. Despite the heat in the cave, she shivered.

One of her attendants came forward and threw a handful of dried mushrooms on the flames. The priestess closed her eyes and breathed deeply of the fumes. The flame briefly flared, throwing her face into ghastly relief, and she uttered a long, shuddering moan. The attendants waited, holding their breath, waiting for her to speak.

When she did it was in the voice of the Great Mother, deep and powerful, resonating around the cave. "Something is coming."

~*~

There was a hollow click and then complete silence.

Athena sat up suddenly in the dark, her heart knocking hard. What was that? She strained to hear, but there was nothing. She felt a cold trickle of dread run through her.

Daddy? She threw the thought towards him. But there was no reply. Her mind ranged through the ship, but she could not pick him up.

"Light!" she commanded. Nothing happened. "Light!" she said again, her lower lip beginning to tremble. Nothing.

There should be a manual switch, but she'd never had to use it before. She fumbled at the wall and found a button. With a small sob of relief, she pressed it. Nothing.

And then, with a jolt of terror, she realised what was wrong. That was it! There was nothing! There was absolutely nothing ? no sound at all ? not the sound of the air passing through the walls, or water trickling, or the background hum of the engines. None of the myriad sounds that went on all the time on the ship. Nothing.

Daddy?

She thought she caught a thought from him very brief and cut short. It was, Oh, f**k!

The lights came on very dimly for a moment. It was fluctuating, but it was light. And she used it to make her way to the wardrobe and put on her suit. Her father had always said the first thing she should do in an emergency was put her suit on. It had its own light and air. The lights went out again, just as she was closing the fastener, accompanied by another thought from her father. f*****g hell! Can't you do anything? This bugger

The thought faded out, but this time she could tell where it was coming from. He was on the bridge. Well, of course, he would be. If something was going wrong with the ship, of course that's where he'd be.

The light came on again, and this time there was the beep of the address system, and her father's voice his real voice, not just his thoughts came on. "Attention, everyone! Attention! All personnel suit up and make their way to the transport bay. Take all essential items as for abandon ship drill. Attention! Attention "

Athena let his real voice fade out and listened to his thoughts. To her horror, she realised he was afraid.

For a moment her mind went blank. She had never known her father to be afraid of anything. It was his job not to be afraid. He was the captain. He was in charge. If he was afraid, what about the rest of them?

And then she thought, It's my job to back him up and be brave.

She looked around the cabin and tried to decide what was most essential and how much stuff she could carry.

When she reached the transport bay, most of the others were already there, everyone white-faced and clutching various bags and parcels. In the end, she had just brought her clothes, her pad and the oil-tree. It was the only thing she had collected on the expeditions that she thought was really interesting and unusual. "It's only a type of olive," Demeter had said. "They grow at Home."

But Athena had never been to Home. She had been born on the Atlantis. She had never seen an olive before and she loved the shiny fruit that started off green and turned purple-black. It was very bitter, but Demeter said it was one of the most useful of fruits because you could soak the bitterness out and eat it or you could make oil to cook with or light lamps. Athena liked the idea of a tree that gave food and light. So she had collected it anyway, and Demeter had helped her prepare the culture to save the genes and had planted a baby tree to keep in her cabin. She had it now, safe in her backpack in its own sealed bag, the precious seeds in her pocket.

"Athena?"

Ares was standing on the command deck taking a roll call. "Here," Athena said automatically. It didn't feel real. It was exactly like all the other drills she had attended in her life. She turned and followed Artemis obediently into the shuttle.

And a few minutes later they fell into a black night towards a pale blue planet.

"It looks exactly like Home," Demeter murmured.

~*~

Prometheus watched the star fall from the sky. It fell very slowly, far more slowly than any star he had ever seen before. As it came nearer he could see that it was not one light, but a multitude of lights, spinning slowly round as it came. He watched, open-mouthed, amazed by this extraordinary thing falling from the heavens, and he began to feel that he himself was falling upwards towards it. Unable to take his eyes away, he watched until it fell below the mountain and he could see it no longer. He considered walking to the top of the next ridge to see what had happened to it, but it was a long way and by the time he got there it would have sunk anyway. So he turned back the way he had come. He failed to notice the much smaller star which was floating towards the high mountain.