High up on Mount Ólympos in his cloaked palace Zeus was sitting on his throne. Turning to his son, Hermes, he ordered. "Intercept the souls of recently dead Jack O'Neill and Jennifer Hailey before they get to Hades. Then put them on this remote planet in this far-away system," a holographic representation of the planet appeared in thin air "have them be born within 3 years at most of each other and then come back."
The messenger of the gods nodded and his winged sandals carried him away, while the main god sank back in satisfaction.
These two were special, special enough to warrant putting them among the living once again. No-one except Zeus knew, but the purpose of this lifetime of theirs had been to just meet and get to know each other, nothing more. This was one of those times when he was able to get the Fates to cooperate on something. They'd namely already decided that these two souls would play a major part in the history of another planet, Earth wasn't their real home and their real life, and, considering the situation they would be thrust into, Zeus had thought it was best if they knew each other from another lifetime already. Much depended on them not only cooperating, but also liking their next life.
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19 YEARS LATER
PLANET P54-5124
18 year old Zan d'Tinqu'cs was nervous. His chocolate brown eyes flitted across the main reception room in his father's chateau. He was about to meet his bethroted for the first time, the woman who'd been decided to be his wife before she'd even been born.
Her father was the king of the other kingdom on the planet and their marriage was supposed to bring peace between the two kingdoms that had been at war for over 350 years.
He was completely oblivious to his father's concerned, stern glances, as much as he was unaware of the looks the rest of the court and others there for the ceremony were sending him.
Just then the page announced the arrival of the other king and his entourage.
Zan's heartbeat picked up drastically and apprehension filled him.
What if he didn't like her? What if she was dumb and obnoxious? Shallow? Or intelligent, but extremely unpleasant, mean? Bitchy? What if she was ugly? It's not as if he could just give her back and request a refund or a replacement or even dump her and look for another... He would be stuck with her for life, whether he wanted to or not.
Quickly he dismissed his thoughts. It didn't really matter if he liked her or found her desirable or not.
Once they'd get married he was supposed to get her pregnant and this way insure peace on the planet. He and she weren't really important as persons in the grand scheme of things, they just had a role to play, important was the peace their people would finally enjoy with the ending of the war, and the children they would have to produce. He and she were just a walking sperm bank and a living incubator, they were nothing more to the planet. And if she was ugly or in any other way undesirable, then he would just order the computer to turn off the room's illumination and picture a gorgeous supermodel while they had the sex to produce an offspring. It's not like he would have to share the bed with her forever or live with her on a daily basis! She would just be his wife, not his life partner, much less soul mate. It had always been like that for the royalty. Each would have their own room and they'd just have to spend a few minutes a week together, only what was required for appearances and to have sex a couple of times to create heirs to the joint throne. This practice for day-to-day life of couples who were wedded into political marriages and even of commoners married into arranged marriages was common across the galaxy. Even some married couples who married each other voluntarily and enthusiastically had their own bedrooms and slept in their own beds.
Before his eyes the 10 ton steel doors parted swiftly with a hiss, powerful engines pulling them apart like they weighed nothing.
Right that second he was infinitely grateful for his planet's highly advanced technological level. His personal heater/cooler was working as efficiently as ever and what little sweat had managed to escape had been eliminated by the zeoxan fibers of his ceremonial uniform.
Then the moment of truth came and Zan let out a relieved exhale.
Well, she passed the first test. Namely the physical one. She maybe wasn't a supermodel, but she was still a beautiful young woman with a great figure and that dress showed it off quite well. She was younger, he could see, files said two years younger, but that didn't matter because they wouldn't be getting married nor have sex until she was 18, the legal age on his planet.
He could see she was checking him out just as intensely and he unconsciously took in a deep breath to puff up.
The world dissolved around him except for the girl across him and he went through the ceremonies, protocol and pleasantries on autopilot.
The person looking back at him was definitely spirited, if the fire in her gaze had anything to say about it and obviously liking this just as much as he was.
She was also clearly very intelligent. Which could be a VERY bad combination in a wife. An intelligent wife with a temper as volatile as his can be a bad thing, because it could mean a lot of fights and disagreement in the future. He hoped not. He hoped they'd get along and have a long, successful and happy marriage (well, as happy as it could be) because he sure as hell didn't want to spend the rest of his life miserable. Having to marry someone he didn't love was bad enough, but to have to spend the rest of his life in an actively unhappy and turbulent marriage would be just too much.
But there was something about her eyes. They were brown, like his, yet they somehow seemed familiar. As if he somehow already knew the person looking back at him and as if she for some equally strange reason already knew him. But he could swear on his pet hcir's grave that he had never before met Kiria d'Vsiur'ke, yet the soul looking back at him still seemed awfully familiar. As if he had known her in another life...
As if they were somehow connected, on a much deeper level than even he, a member of the Staniuq society of exceptionally intelligent people, could understand.
As she put her small hand into his bigger one trustingly, yet confidently, Zan had one of those flashes of undeniable and infallible knowledge. Somehow he knew that they wouldn't need separate bedrooms, nor that making love and creating babies would be a chore they would engage in only unwillingly because he was suddenly quite sure they'd been fated to be together. He also had the feeling that the life to come would no doubt prove to be very interesting and lively.
The two fathers glanced at each other in smug satisfaction, the entranced looks in their children's gazes had not escaped their keen eyes. It seemed as if everything would turn out great.
Invisible to everyone else, Zeus was standing next to Zan and Kiria, nodding to himself, pleased. He had been right. He was the main god, head of a divine patriarchy, after all.
As he left he was already making plans for future lives in which he would stick these two together to accomplish more great and important things. Together, of course.
If they met his expectations he fully intended to use them many more times, because these two had true potential.
They were his prodigal children after all...
THE END
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