CHAPTER 7
It wasn’t often Ishtar found herself off balance.
Usually, her inherited memories, knowledge, and experience helped guide her decisions.
But too much had happened too quickly. From meeting a Zodiac Warrior to being outed as the useless Queen of Mars to ending up back in the Tower of Babel, she struggled to figure out her next move.
Lifetimes of hiding, of watching the skies, fearful of the Kukakk return.
She’d thought Earth would be safe since they’d stymied the set of scouts sent thousands of years ago.
Only it turned out some disobedient Martians in Atlantis decided to keep some of the scouts for study instead of destroying them.
They used the nanobots to create the astrolábos—later known as the Antikythera mechanism—a tool meant to detect the Kukakk should they return.
A noble idea that she might have agreed to with safeguards.
However, she only learned of the project after the ship carrying the scouts and the astrolábos sank.
Eons passed without incident, and she’d grown lax, assuming the humans, with their far-seeing telescopes and weaponry, would be able to handle the next possible incursion.
Wrong. She’d never been more shocked than to hear about the asteroid on the news. An asteroid that didn’t follow the usual rules of travel through space and headed right for Earth.
The Kukakk were coming, and the humans, despite all their advances in science, couldn’t stop it. Ishtar blamed herself. While she’d been subtly feeding humanity technology for years, starting with computers, apparently, she should have pushed them to develop faster.
Despite the short time frame, Ishtar set to work developing a missile to counter the asteroid, even as she knew she’d never finish in time.
When Lance contacted her, a man with some skill whom she’d been feeding innovations to, he mentioned he had in his possession a nanobot that didn’t seem like it originated on Earth.
Immediately, she’d realized the sunken scout transport must have finally surfaced.
No wonder the Kukakk had found Earth. Lance had gone on to say that someone, an unknown with deep pockets, wanted the nanobot fixed, claiming it was a matter of life or death for Earth.
Could it be this person could actually counter the threat? Hope suddenly bloomed, and Ishtar hurriedly agreed to repair the tiny machine, something only she could do.
The repaired machine got put to use with a rebuilt astrolábos, or so she assumed, given what happened next.
The Astraeus, via their avatars, destroyed the asteroid, a lightshow in space that no one understood but her.
However, despite their success, the proximity to Earth led to chunks of the alien ship landing on the surface.
In a worse stroke of luck, one of the sections contained a Kukakk. Humanity was screwed.
And she told Aries that as she stood from the table. “I’m afraid the best you can do is hope it can’t call others.”
“But you know how to destroy them,” the leader of the Zodiacs insisted.
“There isn’t much point in doing that if you haven’t a planet left afterwards.” With that, she left, her step brisk, her mind whirring, her heart resigned.
“Sorry if Sage and her premonition spooked you.” Aquarius trotted quickly to keep pace with her as she marched up the steps with no idea where to go—or what to do. Most likely he’d been ordered by Aries to extract what information he could.
“Hardly spooked, just confused. Despite what your seer claims, there is nothing I can do.”
“Your planet once faced the same threat and prevailed. You know how to kill the Kukakk.”
“I do, however I won’t be responsible for the destruction of another world.” She shook her head, her failure still a heavy weight despite all this time.
“Maybe there’s a way to modify the method. Make it safer.”
Her lips turned down. “Don’t you think I’ve pondered it? I’ve had more lifetimes than you can imagine replaying what I might have done differently, only to come to the realization there is no other way.”
“How did killing the aliens destroy Mars? Did you have to nuke them?”
He would likely keep pestering until she answered.
“The force it took to eradicate the Kukakk resulted in a blast that caused Mars’ magnetic field to collapse.
With it gone, our atmosphere began to escape.
Solar winds swept the surface, stripping it.
The air became unbreathable, and the temperature plummeted.
All our plants died. Our rivers and oceans dried up.
Before we could find a solution, our world became inhabitable.
The only reason we survived was because we could escape to Earth.
If I tell you how to eradicate the Kukakk, I will be condemning Earth to the same fate.
Only, this time, there is nowhere else to go.
The other planets in this solar system can’t sustain organic life. ”
“So what are you suggesting we do? Become slaves to this thing?” He sounded disapproving.
“While a terrible choice, at least some would survive,” her weak reply. What she left unsaid? The lucky ones would be the ones who died quickly.
“That’s not a life.” He paused on the steps. “The prophecy says I’m supposed to go to Mars.”
“How is that supposed to help?”
“I don’t know. I assume that will become clear if I get there. You have a way of travelling to your old world, I assume?”
She hesitated before nodding. “Yes.”
“Please don’t tell me we need the ship we had to blow up in your lair.”
“It wasn’t destroyed. As part of the wiping sequence, it engaged its auto pilot and fled to orbit. Its circling Earth as we speak.”
“Sweet. We have a ride to Mars.”
“I do,” she pointed out. “I see no reason to bring you.”
“But the prophecy—”
“Is but words.”
“Sage is rarely wrong, and according to what she said, you’ll help me in exchange for a favor.”
She paused on the stairs to look at him. “It also claims you’ll die, or are you willfully ignoring the part about the stars weeping?”
He shrugged. “Can’t live forever, and if my life is the price to save the world, then so be it.”
Courage and more. Ishtar wanted to dislike the Zodiac Warrior, and yet his charming manner, his determination, even his willingness to sacrifice himself kept raising him in her esteem.
At her silence, he finally asked, “How often do you visit?”
“More than I should,” her quiet admission, and each time she left depressed.
“To do what?”
“To weep and wail.” She wasn’t about to admit the real reason; that she kept looking for a way to revive her planet.
“If you could have one thing in the world, what would it be?”
“You not asking any more questions,” she grumbled.
He laughed. “Are all Martians this grouchy?”
“I wouldn’t know. I’m the only one left.”
“Not really. You said it yourself, pretty much everyone on Earth is Martian.”
“With no memories. No connection to their roots. For all intents and purposes, they are human now.” She paused and added, “Nimrod, may I impose upon you for some guest accommodations?”
Rather than reply, Nimrod suddenly encased them in a bubble and rocketed them upwards. As levels flashed past, her stomach tightened for, while she’d not visited the tower in eons, she knew where it took her.
“Guess I should have known the queen who built Tower would end up in the penthouse suite,” Aquarius crowed as Nimrod deposited them on the top floor.
While some of the décor had changed, it matched her early recollections.
Canopied bed. Ornate furniture. A new item was the television mounted to the wall.
The windows offered a view of the world below, and the space above.
“I don’t deserve this,” her soft murmur. Didn’t deserve her title or the perks that came with it. Failure should not be rewarded.
“Tower, I mean, Nimrod, is the one who decides, and it apparently still thinks you’re very important.” Aquarius winked.
Before she could reply, the television turned on, and a newscaster, who looked unusually giddy, was waving his hands. “…most shocking thing you’ll ever see. Churches and religions around the world are in a tizzy at his appearance.”
“What the heck is he going on about?” Aquarius approached the screen with a frown.
The newscaster spoke quickly. “The following footage was captured by our very own videographer, Gary, but I will add that dozens of other people witnessed and recorded it too. What you are about to see is real, folks, and being repeated around the world as we speak. But it started here, in New York’s very own Times Square.
For those just tuning in, prepare for the shock of your life. ”
The anchor’s face disappeared, replaced by a shot aimed at the sky. A sky that glowed, framing the person descending slowly. A man, dressed in pale loose cotton pants and shirt, his feet, bare, his hair long and flowing, his beard trimmed short.
“Is it me or dude looks like Jesus?” Aquarius muttered.
“It’s intentional,” Ishtar muttered, her stomach tightening.
“You know who it is?”
“Take a wild guess,” she drawled
“Fuck me, is that the alien?” Just saying it aloud dropped his jaw and widened his eyes.
“We took away his minions. He has no way of making new scouts to call others therefore he’s decided to conquer Earth via a new method.”
“By preying on the religious.” Aquarius shook his head. “It will never work.”
“Don’t be so sure. Look at the news ticker.”
Jesus has returned.
“It will quickly come out that he’s a charlatan. I mean he can’t heal people or turn water to wine, can he?” He regarded Ishtar with question.
She could only shrug. “Healing? Maybe not, but the rest? Think of everything Nimrod can do. What the warriors can do. Beings of powers aren’t bound by the same laws of science as the flesh based are.”
“I…Uh…” At a loss for words, Aquarius took a moment before exclaiming, “I need to check in with the boss and make sure he knows of this development.”
He ran off, and Ishtar sighed. Talking to Aries wouldn’t help much.
Humanity had always been obsessive about their religions.
Early mankind believed deities controlled everything.
As they evolved and realized science could explain much, some couldn’t let go of their need to believe.
Christianity, and other religions based around the one God and his son, filled that gap.
The bible became an unassailable mantra.
It shouldn’t have surprised the Kukakk had latched onto that and twisted it.
Without an army or more of its brethren to subjugate the population, it had to switch its usual tactic from violence to cajoling.
Brilliant really. People would willingly throw themselves at the Kukakk.
Would give it everything it desired. If it asked for riches, they would shower it with every ounce of wealth they had.
They’d ensconce it in the most luxurious of residences.
When the Kukakk pointed and declared someone a sinner or blasphemer, they would tear them apart with their own hands.
Like sheep, they would follow their cult leader’s every command, never realizing the deaths it would demand would feed the Kukakk.
It wanted their spark of life, their soul, so to speak.
And the worst part, given how easily people became fanatics? They’d do it willingly.