“You’re quite popular, aren’t you?”

“And whose fault is that, may I ask?”

A week after the incident with the station, two weeks after the event, Rhia and I were eating breakfast in front of the screen, catching up on world events that had happened overnight. Well, our simulated overnight. Days worked differently on the moon. We kept a 24 hour schedule anyway, just to stay synced up with Earth. Almost 400,000 miles away and I’m still on central time.

On the screen was, for the fifth day in a row, a news report showing cell phone footage of Rhia dropping the astronauts off at Johns Hopkins Hospital. Sadly, the men were long dead, having suffocated in their suits days before, but that’s not what everyone was talking about. The whole world was in an uproar because of the winged woman who had so publicly dropped them off. There were plenty of people that had called it a tasteless stunt, with anti-religious groups screaming the loudest. Screaming equally as loud were the Pro Christian groups, calling it a sign that God was real and had shown favor to the United States by delivering only the US crewmembers home. The fact that the remaining four astronauts from Russia and Japan were vaporized with the rest of the station was something we hadn’t found a way to communicate to the world yet.

Rhia herself seemed to have developed a cult following. A literal cult following. The Raven Angel Society seems to have sprung up virtually overnight and its newly baptized adherents were seen converging on Baltimore from all over the country. Their leader, Walter Lester Jones, was currently arguing with a priest, imam, and a rabbi on a major news network’s morning show. The sound was muted so Rhia and I could talk about our schedule for the day, but you could tell she was still a little disgusted by what she saw.

“I’ve been here for 600 years, and this is the first time I’ve felt so humiliated. I managed to go for so long without being noticed for what I was, and now it’s being blown all out of proportion. And what the hell is he wearing?!” She gestured angrily at the screen, part of her omelet flying off her fork towards the screen. Ryo quickly chased after it, cleaning up the mess before Rhia had even realized what she’d done.

I chuckled. “Well, you did cut a striking figure. When one imagines angels, they generally see white wings, white robe or toga, blonde hair, and either barefoot or in sandals. You flew in wearing a sharp women’s business suit, complete with pencil skirt and panty hose. Combine that with your heels, dark hair and wings… you definitely captured many hearts that day.”

She looked at me scornfully. “I’m well aware of the effect my race has on humans and their libidos. It’s not like I haven’t noticed you staring at me with such intensity while training. I’m referring to what that guy is wearing! Are those supposed to be wings?”

Sure enough, Mr. Jones was wearing a cheap, dark business suit, and on his back were what looked like homemade black wings. At least, I assume that’s what they were supposed to be. To me they just looked like black feather boas hot glued on to cardboard and attached to his back with string looped under each armpit. As cosplay accessories go, he’d probably get a “thanks for at least trying” pat on the back from even the most casual of fans.

I really didn’t expect his movement to last long. He and his followers couldn’t seem to decide what they wanted Rhia to be for them. An angel? A savior? It was clear they wanted to worship her, and had united together for that purpose, but since they only knew her for dropping off a couple dead astronauts and taking off again, they had nothing to work with. Of course, the actual religions didn’t have any explanation for her either, but that didn’t stop them from forming a united front on this morning news show to humiliate the newcomer on the block as they declared that their religions were best suited to determine what she really was in the grand scheme of all things holy. It would really burst their bubbles to find out they were all wrong, and that she was actually an alien.

The other day when I asked about it, she told me that her species also calls the Milky Way home. Obviously, they call it something different, but when she pronounced it in her native tongue, I knew there was no way that I could hope to repeat it. Not because I was physically incapable of doing so, but because I didn’t want to butcher it. The sounds that came out when she spoke in her native tongue were so heart wrenchingly beautiful, I knew my tone deaf ass would just sound moronic in comparison. Like a master pianist sitting at a Steinway next to a toddler banging on a Fisher Price toy. Her race, the Agneles, occupy a region of space roughly 40,000 light years from ours and spans 14 different star systems. Incidentally, a mistranslation centuries ago is what led to the creation of the “Angel” mythos we have today.

When I asked how they managed space travel over such long distances, she told me I wasn’t permitted to know that just yet. My focus for now was to learn to control my power and be the god this planet needed to reach the stars. A tall order, considering everything we saw on the news every day. She assured me that while it may take some time, it can be done. Her race wasn’t so different from ours once upon a time. Religious strife, war, poverty, class struggles, the works. It’s something every race goes through. She said it was something the oldest deities planned for in every world they seeded. They wanted everyone to appreciate how far they’d come before uniting and stepping out into the universe together.

“Anyway,” she said, turning away from the screen and looking at me. “We need to discuss our next course of action. You’ve pretty much got the basics down. You’ve got a better understanding of what you’re capable of, and you’ve got more control. At least, you haven’t spontaneously summoned anymore living room furniture.”

“You love that massage chair I accidently created,” I pointed out.

“I’ve certainly needed it after dealing with you day after day,” she replied with a smile. Over the last week we’ve gotten to know each other fair bit, spending almost all of my waking moments together. I still didn’t know if she slept, or even where she was residing in this surprisingly large complex that I’ve finally gotten around to exploring, but she always left my area around nine at night and showed up again the next day at nine in the morning. Even then she still had to drag me out of bed, more often than not. I’ve never been a morning person, even when the morning is an abstract concept like here on the moon. Waking up sucks.

We spend our days going over history, practicing my control, and, surprisingly, working on my public image. When I asked her what the need for that was, since gods aren’t exactly known for slumming it with the masses, she reminded me that what I knew was all made up. “God” on this planet was mysterious and only worked behind the scenes because he literally didn’t exist. “He” was a construct created by humans as a means to control the population and explain the unexplainable. Things like miracles were simply extraordinary coincidences, and the light at the end of the tunnel was merely a physiological reaction to blood and/or oxygen loss to the brain. She did admit that she had no idea what happened after one died, but everything she’s heard from her race’s research, and that of the thousands of other races spread throughout the nearby galaxies, points to nothing at all. Just as you have no concept of being alive before you’re born, you’ll feel nothing after you’re gone. Man, the world is NOT going to like hearing that.

*

Rhia watched John for a minute. He tended to get lost in thought at the most random times. She knew he was processing everything she’d taught him in the last week. It was a shocking amount of information that she had dumped on him, and any normal person would’ve had a meltdown early in the process, but without realizing it, John had easily accepted all the information, his divine heritage overriding his human limitations. For a guy who was perfectly content to be fat and lazy two weeks ago, he was surprisingly industrious. She sensed he was one of those that secretly enjoyed being pushed to be greater than he was. He liked being challenged and hadn’t found anything to stir his interest. Then he’s told that he’s been placed in charge of overseeing the development of an entire planet, and he suddenly steps up to the plate. To be able to do that with so few reservations required either a certain level of megalomania, or a truly compassionate heart. She hadn’t sensed any delusions of grandeur in him so far, so she’d felt at ease opening up to him a little more and relaxed her guard a bit. They were going to be working together for a long time, so the sooner they got comfortable with each other, the better.

Oh! She thought, suddenly remembering she had something to give him. Mentally she asked Su to get it for her, receiving a quick acknowledgement in return. She hadn’t lied to John during the space station incident about not being able to communicate mentally. She just hadn’t taught him how to receive her thoughts yet. She was still reluctant to, honestly. Learning too much too fast may go to his head, and besides, she enjoyed their normal conversations. Plus, she could talk to Ryo mentally as much as she wanted when she felt the urge. Dogs were naturally empathic to their owners’ needs, and Ryo more than most. She absolutely adored John, and while she couldn’t converse like a higher intelligent species, she could share her emotions just fine. She always gave Rhia what John called “warm fuzzies.” She didn’t know what the exact expression meant, but it was about as accurate a description as she could give the feeling.

Su walked up to Rhia and handed her the package she’d asked for. John looked over at the movement and nearly jumped out of his skin.

“Jesus Christ! You scared the shit out of me Su! How the hell are you so quiet?”

“Centuries of practice, My Lord,” she deadpanned. Then a glimmer appeared in her eye along with a slightly mischievous smile. “But I can be louder when I need to be.” Wink.

“Su…” Rhia said in a warning tone, despite secretly being amused at John’s blushing face and hanging jaw. Having seen inside his head, she knew of his history with women, and it was kind of cute to see someone with his experience so easily outclassed by the immortal maid. Compared to her, he was just a child with a department store catalog open to the underwear section. Stealth wasn’t the only thing she’d had centuries of practice at. One day she’d let Su loose on him, but for now she needed him focused on what she was teaching him. While he’d enjoy Su’s lessons more, Rhia’s lessons were vital to the survival of his species.

“I’ll be taking my leave then,” Su said, bowing briefly to each in turn, then she slowly started sauntering out of the room.

“Su!” Rhia barked. Su stiffened briefly, then quickly exited the room. Rhia held a hand to her forehead, muttering “what am I going to do with that women? Can’t she wait just a little bit longer?”

Taking his eyes off the closed door, John looked at Rhia. “Wait a little longer for what?”

“Don’t worry about it. It’s not important. Here, I got you something. Think of it as a reward for all your hard work this week.” She held out the small brown paper bag. “I know you like this stuff, and this should be the newest one just released the other day.”

John took the bag, stunned. “Wow, uh… thanks. I wasn’t expecting thiiihoooly shit!” He jumped up when he opened the bag, stringing his thanks into an exclamation as he pulled his favorite manga out. Despite everything that had happened to him in the last couple weeks, he was still a hopeless fanboy for all things otaku. The world around him disappeared as he suddenly curled up on the couch and started reading, his plate and what was left of his breakfast lying forgotten on the floor where it landed when he jumped up. Ryo trotted over to make sure nothing went to waste, and Rhia stifled a giggle at seeing him turn into a big kid so quickly. I wonder how long it’ll take for him to notice, she thought, watching him.

He was about halfway through the book when his eyebrows suddenly scrunched together. Narrowing his eyes, he flipped back a couple pages. Then a couple more. He looked at the front and back covers again. He opened the book again to where he’d left off. He read a bit more, then looked up at Rhia, who was still sitting on the other end of the couch watching him enjoy his manga.

“This is Japanese,” he said.

“Well, that’s a given,” she said with a knowing smile.

“No, I mean it’s Japanese. Like actual Japanese! This is written in Japanese! I can’t read Japanese! How am I reading this?”

Smiling, Rhia stood up and held her hand out to him.

“Come on. Let’s take a trip.”

*

Rhia led me over to the window. We both looked up at the Earth, which was mostly obscured by darkness as we were on the far side of it away from the sun. I could see the lights of all the cities twinkling on her surface, the Pacific rim clearly visible in the halo of artificial light that surrounded it.

“Pick a destination,” Rhia said. “Anywhere you want to go. Oh, I’d avoid the Southern United States though. And Baltimore.” She grimaced as she said the last. I could understand why and merely nodded.

“Well, it may not come as a surprise, but I’ve always wanted to visit Japan. It’s been at the top of my bucket list for years. I could just never afford to go.”

“You’re right. It comes as no surprise.” She chuckled lightly.

“So, are we going to do the flying thing again? I didn’t really get a chance to appreciate it as much last time.”

“You were knocked unconscious immediately, actually, but no. We’re going to try something different. You’re a fast learner, so I don’t think this will be a problem for you. The technique is simple: just imagine yourself there.”

I looked at her doubtfully. “Just imagine myself there? I’ve been doing that for years and it’s never gotten me anywhere.”

“But you weren’t aware of your abilities then. You are now. I’ll bet things will work out differently this time.”

A soft clicking noise approached from behind, which I recognized as Ryo trotting up to us on the title floor. I looked back and saw a leash dangling from her mouth, just like she used to do back at the apartment when she wanted to go out. A pair of softly glowing eyes could be seen at the second door to the room just before it closed. I still have no idea who that is, I thought. It’s been a week since I woke up here, yet she eludes me any time I try to approach her. Shaking that thought out of my head, I knelt down and took the leash from Ryo.

“Did you want to go out, hun? Are you getting sick of being stuck up here too?” Her tail wagged happily, and she bounced on her front paws excitedly. I glanced up at Rhia. “Is it possible?”

Watching Ryo with a smile, she nodded. “Absolutely. I would never dream of leaving our energetic friend here behind. Since this is your first time moving like this, though, let me hold her leash. Should anything go wrong, I’ll be better suited to protect her than you would.” Made sense to me, so I attached the leash to Ryo’s new collar and handed the loop to Rhia. Ryo promptly sat at Rhia’s feet and stared at me expectantly.

“Alright, alright. Give me a second,” I said to her. I closed my eyes and pictured what I knew of Tokyo, which was much less than I thought it was. Apparently watching a ton of anime doesn’t make you an expert on the country it’s from. Who knew? About the only thing I could remember seeing with any kind of frequency was Tokyo Tower and Mount Fuji. Fuji was a bit far off the mark for my taste, so I imagined standing at the Tokyo Tower.

Humidity. It had been a while since I’d felt anything but the comfortable air in our moon home that I’d almost forgotten how much I hated humidity. Yet here I was, instantly wallowing in it. And holy shit was it windy. I opened my eyes and my breath caught. I was looking out over a city, the lights nearly blinding me. Is this Tokyo? I thought.

“Yes, it is,” Rhia answered. I had gotten used to her answering my thoughts, but that didn’t mean it didn’t irritate me a little. If I thought it and didn’t say it, that would imply that I didn’t want to share it with anyone, right? “However,” she continued, ignoring my irritation, “you seem to have slightly missed the mark. Not bad for your first try, but Ryo’s not too comfortable with it.”

I looked at my surroundings. I could see why Ryo might be upset. She’s never been too comfortable with heights, and I had landed us on the roof of the Top Deck, over 800 feet above ground. Being the smaller of the two observation decks on the tower, there wasn’t a lot of room for us. I did want to take in the sights from up here more, but Ryo’s needs came before my own.

“Sorry, girl! Hang on, let me try again.” This time I didn’t close my eyes but looked over the edge and focused on a spot on the ground. Without any sense of movement, we were suddenly standing right where I was looking. If the suddenness of our shift had surprised me, then the poor guy driving the van that almost hit us must have suffered one hell of a shock. I’d landed us right in the middle of the road that ran past the tower, right in front of van. I quickly tossed off an apology, gave the guy half a bow, grabbed Rhia’s hand and left the street. He sat there, dazed for a few more seconds before driving off, shaking his head as he left.

Rhia looked at me, then down at the hand I was still holding, then at my face again. Sheepishly I let it go. “Reflex,” I said. “Sorry.”

“I understand, but why did you bow to him? You’re a god. You’re THE god for this planet. You should bow to no one.”

I looked at her confused. “But I was in the wrong there. I got in his way. I wasn’t showing submission, but respect. I made a mistake and apologized for it. Besides, it’s not like he knows I’m a god. THE god. Since it’s not exactly common knowledge, me acting like it is just makes me seem like a dick, doesn’t it?”

Ryo chose that moment to bark at us and started pulling on her leash. She clearly wanted to explore a little. Rhia smiled fondly at her, then turned to me. “John, you mind asking that gentleman over there where might be a good place to take Ryo?”

Shrugging, I walked over to indicated gentlemen. We chatted for a couple minutes before I trotted back over to where Rhia and Ryo were standing.

“He gave me a few suggestions. The nearest is about a 20 minute walk that way,” I said, indicating the direction he had told me. Rhia nodded and we started walking, Ryo bouncing on the end of her leash as she tried to smell everything and everyone we passed. It was a pleasant evening, not counting the humidity. I glanced over at Rhia. She was looking at her hand but put it down quickly when she saw I was looking.

“Aren’t you going to ask?” she questioned.

I shook my head. “I don’t really need to know how it works, right? Just know that it does. I’m not sure if I was speaking Japanese or English, but we both understood each other perfectly. It’s actually kind of a dream come true for me,” I laughed. “Whenever anyone asked me what kind of power I’d want if I became a superhero, I’d tell them that I wanted the power to understand any language created on Earth. Now, apparently, I’ve got it.”

“Yes and no, actually. What you spoke and what you heard weren’t English or Japanese. In fact, it’s a language that no living person has ever heard in their life, yet they all know it.”

I stared at her in confusion. The best response I could muster was “huh?”

“You were speaking the language of Earth. The one language that all intelligent species are born knowing. The one language that could break down walls around the world if they only had the divinity to access it. You were speaking Gaian.”

“Gaian? Ok, I get that I was able to use it, since I’ve kind of gotten used to the idea that I can do just about anything I imagine, being a god and all, but what about that dude back there? He’s not divine or anything.”

“Were you listening to me? I said everyone on the planet knows it. It takes divinity to access that knowledge. He was talking to a god. As far as he was concerned, however, he was speaking Japanese, and so were you. Fluently, I might add. For all he knew, you were a local. How did he sound to you?”

I smirked at the memory. “Southern. I half expected him to tell me to head ‘over yonder.’ I’m just glad I was able to keep a straight face. But what about written languages? Vocal, sure, I guess I get, but written languages can be completely different with little or no commonalities. From Russian to Japanese to Korean to English to even ancient cuneiform and hieroglyphics, are you telling me I can understand them all thanks to whatever divine babel fish is at work in my head?”

“Yes, and to answer the unasked questions, computer languages, made up languages like Tolkien’s Elvish, and Klingon, even babies, as they are still a part of the intelligent species on this planet. Don’t expect much meaningful conversations with them though. It’s mostly stuff about being hungry and tired and that they’ve just messed themselves.”

“I speak baby?”

She sighed. “Yes. Are you sure you understand what I’m telling you? You do realize that, aside from when we first met in Texas, we’ve been speaking Gaian literally the entire time, right?”

I shook my head. I actually hadn’t noticed it at all. “This almost seems like cheating. That’s way too convenient a power to have.”

She looked at me in surprise. “Would you rather learn every language the old fashioned way?”

“Oh hell no! I barely speak proper English, and that’s my native tongue!”

“Then quit complaining and start enjoying some of the perks of being a god. Whether you realize it or not, you rule supreme over everything on this tiny blue planet. You answer to no one but yourself where the Earth is concerned. Your power will increase as your followers do, and when they finally reach for the stars, your influence will spread with them. My own goddess rules over the fourteen systems we’ve colonized with trillions of followers. You’ll have some work ahead of you if you hope to meet her one day.”

Ryo looked back at us and barked at us, clearly wanting to explore more. I smirked, then glanced over at Rhia. “I answer to no one but myself, eh?”

We continued on, wandering around the city until early morning and chatting with the locals.