Then again, marriage is a big step. We could always get married again down the line if we even work out. We still want to strangle each other half the time.
There’s also the annoying fact that when I think about Zhang marrying someone instead of me, I want to go on an Atlanta-style murder spree. Because Atlanta was right when he pointed out that the king might not have allowed this any other way. If I let Zhang go now, the king might be all too quick to hitch him to someone else.
“Look, maybe ask about everything just in case, but I want to talk things over with my man here.”
Zhang relaxes.
“Alright, we’ll do that.”
Nothing is ever this easy. “What’s the catch?”
“Our price.”
There it is.
Nulaxy signals to the man at her feet. He races up the steps and a woman hands him a golden chest. He sets it at Nulaxy’s feet and returns to his perfect kneeling position.
Nulaxy kneels her Goddess-like form in front of the chest. Itclicksand then the lid lifts off the top. It’s filled with …
“Stardust.” I breathe. My heart beats in my throat. Where did all that stardust come from?
She dips her hands into the remains of my dead kin, cupping the shimmery dust in her hands and letting it fall back to the chest. A dreadful shiver crawls up my spine.
“Someone is killing stars,” she says. “What’s one of the most valuable things we make with stardust, Treyu?”
“Humans.”
She nods. “Someone’s making them—new species of them—and using earth as a breeding ground.”
That’s exactly what they did with the first humans. Created them from stardust. Spliced Pleiadian DNA with whatever else they needed. They left them on earth to breed and evolve. Once something has been brought into creation, especially on a planet like earth, it takes on a life of its own.
“We freed the humans once,” she says. “We might have to free these ones too … or exterminate them.”
“Exterminate?” I’ve never heard a servant of the Goddesses talk about exterminating humans. It’s sacrilegious.
“Unfortunately. The Goddesses will be fair, they’re merciful, but some species of humans are not meant to exist. They warp the balance. What would happen if the acidic pH of a bog was greatly shifted to an alkaline one?” she asks.
“Whatever couldn’t survive at the new pH would die. It wouldn’t be a bog anymore,” I answer. “But these are humans you’re talking about. We can’t just kill them.”
“Nor is that our goal. Only in extreme cases. We’re most interested in preventing a takeover from groups with malintent.”
Not all Gods do well in Earth’s atmosphere. They can hack it, but they’re weaker. Gods like being all powerful. To reclaim Earth, they’d need to build a race there and operate through them.
“It could have catastrophic consequences, or it could be harmless. We don’t know, and that’s why we need a special team of stars to help us figure it out,” Nulaxy explains.
Stars do just fine on Earth. Some of the hawthors are stars and they could do this themselves, but I imagine they’ve got enough on their plate. “And it doesn’t hurt that I am whatever I am.”
“Precisely.” She smiles, standing, and dusting off her hands. What she has in that chest is more valuable than worlds. Humans aren’t the only thing created from stardust.
I sigh. What have I got to lose at this point? “Alright, lay it on me. What’s your offer?”
“We don’t believe in enslaving anyone. We’d rather have volunteers. We’ll only require fifty years of your service as mandatory, after that, you could stay on if you wanted to, but you’d be free to go. It would have to be all four of you.”
All four? Fuck. Okay, Atlanta’s gig is up, but they don’t seem mad about it. “So, we’re space detectives or something?
She nods. “Or hunters. We want you to help us investigate the matter and obliterate them if needed. It might require a few other smaller missions along the way.”
“That’s what I did as a Guardian.”
