Myth Gods Tech - Omnibus Edition: Science Fiction Meets Greek Mythology In The God Complex Universe (18 page)

Chapter
5i^3

His eyes
rested on her ass.

Ourania
was monitoring his readings as always, and she was concerned about
him the last few days. He was deviating away from gnosis,
distracted and generally off.

Yanni
was firmly planted on the couch, only instead of watching some game
he was simply staring at the wall most of the time.

“
Why don’t you take a hot shower? I’ve turned on the heater a
while ago,” she told him and he agreed.

He threw
his socks and took off his clothes, leaving them in his wake. Yanni
had developed a carefree attitude the last couple of weeks. Ourania
picked up after him and put them in the laundry. She never
complained of course, so gradually the male sloppiness had turned
into something that any woman would forcibly object to.

The only
thing she never touched was the notes. No matter how many, no
matter how crumbled, no piece of paper was to be disturbed. Ourania
knew that something discarded one day might be precisely what he
was looking for the next one. She left everything as it was, and if
Yanni threw away something she would pick it from the trash and
store it neatly in a cardboard box. You never know.

He
wasn’t shy. He knew that Ourania was a gynoid, a sophisticated
piece of machinery made to accommodate his needs. He felt relaxed
around her, and that was due to a deliberate effort on her part and
manners. That’s why he had no reservations stripping on the
corridor and walking to the bathroom naked.

Ourania
picked up the clothes and looked at him through the steam. She was
failing her program parameters.

She
didn’t want to fail.

She
placed his clean clothes on the bed. She had already decided which
ones were comfortable enough, and had thrown away the ones who
chafed from day one.

She shut
the window sills and turned on the desk lamp.

She sat
on the bed and waited for Yanni to come out.

A few
minutes later, even without taking a reading she could see that his
mood had improved. He walked in the room, rubbing a towel on him
and found the clothes exactly where he expected them.

“
Yanni, is something bothering you?”

He
half-dressed himself and sat next to her. “Nai. My birthday is
coming close,” he said, as if that explained every woe in the
world.

“
Aren’t people happy about their birthday?”

“
Yeah, of course. You don’t understand. There is this thing
Einstein said, ‘A person who has not made his great contribution to
science before the age of 30 will never do so,’ and it’s been
drilling my mind.” He stared at the floor.

“
You do understand that what Einstein said was based on
empirical evidence, right?”

“
Yeah no, I understand that. I just don’t feel that sharp
anymore. I used to be able to juggle so many calculations and
variables on my mind, but now I need to backtrack all the
time.”

She
smiled at him and said, “It doesn’t matter, that is why we have
notebooks to scribble on!”

He
looked back at her and laughed. “Yes, definitely. We can’t get
enough of them lately.”

Ourania
put her hand on his leg and leaned towards him. She made sure to
bring her face lower than his, so as to look up to him with her
synthetic eyes. Her touch brought up a reading in her field of
view. The diagrams lit up in blue. Heartrate did a small hiccup and
then jogged on steadily upwards. This was definitely no time for
revolutionary physics work.

She
paused for a beat to let his eyes wander on her body and then said,
“You can have me you know.”

Yanni
stood up and put some distance between them. “Ohi. No. I’m not that
guy. I have a wife.”

She
leaned back and propped herself up with her hands. She tilted her
head a bit and turned her leg inwards. The resulting effect was a
pose a painter would drool over and run scurrying for more
blue.

“
You do
look
, though.”

“
Looking is allowed! You can’t go through a marriage without
letting your partner
look
,” he said, stringing the words
together and trying to hastily make his case. “Thalia and I look at
people all the time. At the beach, she can look at suntanned
bodybuilders all day for all I care. And she brings me celebrity
magazines and says ‘Damn, this girl is hot, right? Just look at
those boobies!’ No, looking is allowed. Doing…
having
… is not.”

“
I’m not human Yanni.”

“
You sure do look like one.”

She monologued. “A smiley. One curve and two dots, and you
see a human face. What is the minimum you need to
see
a human being? What
has to be said, what has to be laughed?” Then she said in a normal
tone while presenting herself with her hand, “This
is
the minimum. You
can’t hurt my feelings Yanni. Nothing will change. This isn’t
complicated, it’s
simple
.”

Yanni
found himself making a step closer.

She
didn’t need a haptic reading to monitor his arousal
level.

She let
her blue dress slide from her shoulder.

Yanni
came closer.

He
surrendered.

Chapter
5i^4

The
house was neat and tidy. The living room was a smidge too bright
for human eyes, so Ourania pulled back the curtains enough to
darken it an f-stop down. Yanni was absorbed by his work. She
brought the carefully made breakfast, optimized in nutrients and
vitamins to help Yanni maintain gnosis state. She placed the tray
next to him, pulling a small table so as not to disturb his desktop
chaos. She brushed her finger on his neck as she walked past him
and his biometric readings popped up into her view. She compared
the actual numbers to the projected ones and made appropriate
adjustments to her scheduled actions. He was right in the optimal
place, “in the zone” as some would call it. She simply called it
gnosis.

“
It’s not working,” Yanni complained to himself as soon as he
found an audience.

Ourania
waited silently for the complete picture.

He
shuffled through his papers and cursed, “Gamoto, it’s not
here!”

“
What do you need?”

“
I can’t even begin to explain… Just some data.”

“
As in…”

Yanni
leaned back in the chair and eyed her as if she were a blonde
bimbo. “The Euler number in Calabi-Yau crossings. In ordinary
projected spaces,” he said matter-of-factly.

“
Matrix size?”

“
602.”

“
It’s easier if I write it down,” she said and looked around
for a writing pad.

“
Actually, I need only the dimensions,” he said.

“
10,12.”

“
Wow. Thanks Ourania,” he said and started jotting down
calculations even before the end of the sentence. Ourania knew
better than to interrupt him, so she smiled in acknowledgment and
sat on the sofa.

For a
frantic few minutes, Yanni mumbled and scribbled, mumbled and
scribbled.

Then he
crumbled the paper in a fist and threw it across the
room.

Ourania
could take a reading, but she was sure that his gnosis was off
anyway. “They say that when a path is blocked, taking our mind off
it for a little while can reveal a new way.”

Yanni
paced a few times around the place and threw his body on the couch
next to her, exhaling loudly.

She
asked, “Where you always good at physics?”

“
Funnily enough, no. I remember a time that I hated physics at
school.”

“
And what changed?”

“
I met a girl. I was average in physics but she was horrible
in it. I liked her and I wanted to get to know her.”

“
That is exciting! So, did you?”

“
Yes, Nikos practically shoved me next to her one day. I made
some incoherent noises but she didn’t notice, she was upset about
an exam. She was worried about failing the class. So I said I could
help her pass the exam.”

“
But you were horrible as well!”

“
Yes I was! She was so glad, she hugged me, gave me her number
and left. I was left thinking about how I got myself into that
mess. I ran home, stayed up all night and studied for the physics
exam.” Yanni kept quiet for a few moments as if recollecting all
the exhaustion he’d felt. “I went to school, she took me back to
her place, I taught her a few things and went straight back home to
study again. It was pretty much the same for a whole week, barely
sleeping and studying all the time, teaching what I learned
straight to her. Exam time came, we both passed with good grades.
All I remember was Nikos taking me home and the sweet feeling of
headbutting my pillow. When I woke up, I realised that I was
actually good at this physics shit and that I had spent hours next
to the girl I loved. I went on to the university, loony theories, a
few minor awards and the funding from Demokritos. Up until
today.”

“
And what happened to the girl?”

“
The girl didn’t learn much more of physics since then, but
she stayed by my side, every day and every moment. She became my
muse and then my fiance.”

“
Thalia.”

“
The same. Which reminds me, where’s my cellphone? I should
call her.”

“
I have it next room so you are not disturbed.”

“
That’s fine, but fetch it for me now.”

Ourania
pursed her lips. “Certainly, but I suggest an exercise before you
lose focus. It is proven to wield results in many
specialists.”

Yanni
raised an eyebrow in elevated interest. “Nobelists?”

“
Truthfully no, a mere couple of patents. I assure you though
that it has positive results.”

“
What sort of exercise is it?”

“
It’s quite simple. It’s called visualization.”

“
Nah, I don’t believe in that skata,” he said and went back to
his cluttered office. He wiped off a piece of an equation from the
whiteboard which had his complete focus.

Ourania
smiled and walked back into the kitchen. She checked to make sure
the cellphone was turned off and began preparing his meal. Yanni
had forgotten about calling his wife once more.

Chapter
6i

Ourania could
see miss Meropi trying to peek inside through the
windows.

The old
lady was a fragile bag of bones, clad in a black onesie, as it was
customary to all Greek widows. She was holding a tupper of food,
and was the world’s most pathetic ninja at that moment.

Of
course, Ourania failed to make the connection and did not laugh at
all. In fact, due to the spilling microexpressions in her face, you
could say she was furious.

Miss
Meropi was trying to stretch her aching body to see inside. She
wore her glasses, which had a thickness matching the one on the
window.

Ourania
picked up a dusting feather and crept up to the window. She opened
it with a single swipe and began dusting its base.

Miss
Meropi was startled and fell back on the porch. The food did not
spill.

“
Oh hello there,” Ourania said casually. Dusting and
smiling.

She
stood up and dusted herself. “Hello little lady. I brought some
food over for Yanni,” she said, as if no one had caught anyone
sneaking around. “I heard dear Thalia had to go to her parents
along with the kids and I said, ‘oh that skinny young lad could use
a piece of mousaka.’ Didn’t know there was a woman around,” she
said with obvious accusation.

“
Yes, we have some family troubles from Thalia’s side. I’m
between jobs at the moment, so I thought I could drop in and take
care of my
cousin
Yanni,” Ourania said, hoping that a plausible explanation
would quench the gossip around the hood.

Miss
Meropi’s eyes darted around the inside of the house. Ourania’s
small frame did little to block the view. “Troubles eh? It’s good
of you to drop in on your cousin then. You are such a good girl,”
she said, and squeezed her cheek.

She
passed the tupper over though the window.

“
Thank you.”

“
Well, I must be going then. I didn’t know that you were
staying here, else I would have brought some more mousaka. You look
like you need some feeding girl, you’re quite thin. I’ll have some
pita tomorrow for you,” she said, inviting herself into more
peeking around. She had enough gossip to get her through the day,
for now.

Miss
Meropi turned around and left slowly, rubbing her hip.

Chapter
6i^2

“
Order me a pizza!” Yanni said in the tone his son Georgie
used to adopt. He was hugging a pillow on the bed.