CHAPTER 14
Knee bouncing and partially spinning his chair, Aquarius couldn’t help but grin as he punched in his newest idea for Little Star to analyze. As he waited for the results, his thoughts went to Ishtar and the night they’d spent.
What a woman. He’d always been a bit envious of the warriors who found their perfect someone.
They seemed so happy, so complete. Given how much he immersed himself in work—which didn’t require him leaving Tower often—he’d never expected to find someone he could engage with on a technical and physical level until he met Ishtar.
Usually when he spoke about coding, eyes glazed over.
Not with Ishtar. She could follow along and contribute, her intelligence so damned sexy.
As for their chemistry? Just thinking about her got him hard.
When they’d first met, he’d gotten the impression she hated him—make that everyone.
Turned out her prickly exterior hid a woman who cared too deeply with a sense of honor and duty greater even than a warrior’s.
Was it any wonder he wanted to not only solve the problem with the alien on Earth but find a solution that would fix Mars?
She might have told him to forget about it.
However, he knew, deep down, her one desire was to see her world restored.
How cute she wanted to spare his life, but if his theory was correct, he might not actually be in any danger.
The clue lay within the prophecy and how it could be interpreted.
However, testing his hypothesis would have to wait until he’d dealt with the Kukakk.
Every day it lived and spouted its bullshit was another day humans died.
It bothered him to no end to see people turning on each other and falling for its lies.
Add in the fact it fed on souls and this thing had to go ASAP.
The many assassinations and their counter messaging would hopefully slow it down—or make it worse.
Pisces had been doing his best with his new Satan-themed group trying to refute everything Alien Jesus said.
He’d been encouraging those new followers to not kill but rather convert.
Kind of oxymoronic when you thought about it, the roles of good and evil being flipped, but desperate times and all that.
Ping. Little Star had processed his latest idea.
A click of the button brought up a simulation that, once more, showed devastating consequences to the planet.
Bummer. It had occurred to him that Antarctica with its isolation from the continents might mitigate some of the aftereffects of the energy blast. Wrong.
One of the possibilities had the entire South pole melting, raising the sea levels, unleashing catastrophic storms, and causing flooding on the level of that which inspired Noah’s ark.
Another dead end, but he wouldn’t give up. Before Aquarius dove back in to play with the data, he took a moment to peek in on the news. No surprise. Alien Jesus, wearing his fourth, or was it fifth, face, appeared front and center on pretty much every channel.
Currently, the fucker stood in a wide-open field covered in lush green grass. A few paces from the body-snatcher, a crowd of people wearing religious robes and dripping in crosses, swayed and chanted. Holy cult behavior. It appeared the disciples arrayed at the alien’s back waited for something.
The reporter on the scene flipped her hair before offering a fake smile over her microphone.
“If you’re just tuning in, good news. I have it from a reliable source that the thief who stole the messiah’s God-given stone has agreed to turn it over.
The meeting is expected to take place any moment.
As you can see, Jesus is currently awaiting its arrival. ”
“What?” Aquarius sat straighter and leaned forward as if he could crawl through the screen.
It must be someone with a fake trying to stem the deaths.
Had to be because Aries wouldn’t have ordered Ishtar to hand it over, and Ishtar wasn’t about to give the Kukakk a power source that would cause mayhem.
Or would she?
He couldn’t help but recall her expression as he left, the hint of sadness in her gaze.
He’d assumed she wanted to spend more time in bed before dealing with reality, but what if he’d misinterpreted?
Ishtar claimed she had to do something before joining him.
What exactly? A sudden sense of foreboding tightened his gut.
The news channel flipped to a commercial, and Aquarius bounced out of his chair to dash across the hall to Aries’ office. He barged in without knocking and found his boss watching, much too intently, a toothpaste commercial with a dancing toothbrush.
The knot in his belly grew. “What’s going on?” Aquarius exclaimed. “The news is claiming someone is handing over the kyawthuite gemstone to that alien bastard. Tell me it’s not true.”
Aries opened his mouth and shut it, hesitating.
Fear flooded Aquarius as he whispered, “Where is Ishtar?”
“Gone—”
He cut off his boss. “What do you mean gone? Gone where?”
Aries glanced at the screen, where the commercials had ended and the news once more featured Alien Jesus. “To meet with it.”
“No.” Aquarius shook his head. “Tell me you’re lying. You said we weren’t handing the kyawthuite stone over to that fucker.”
“I had no intention of doing so until Ishtar came to me with a plan.”
“What plan?” Aquarius asked through numb lips. Blame the ice creeping through his veins.
“She thinks she can rid Earth of the Kukakk.”
“How?” Everything he’d studied thus far about it indicated only a strong enough blast would shred its energy signature apart. However, the fallout would destroy Earth, plus, “We don’t have a bomb capable of exploding it.”
“Mars does.” Aries dropped his head.
“I don’t understand.” Not entirely true. Aquarius began to catch a glimmer of Ishtar’s plan—and didn’t like it one bit. Especially the part where she kept it secret from him.
“Given the Kukakk’s greed, Ishtar is going to try and convince it to head to Mars where there’s plenty of those gemstones. Once it arrives, she is going to detonate the remaining bomb because, as she noted, Mars is already ruined, so what would one more explosion do?”
A good idea but for one thing. Make that two. One, she’d not breathed one word to him, likely knowing he would have done anything to prevent her going, and two, “How is she getting the Kukakk there? And don’t tell me the plan is to bring that alien fucker inside Tower to use the portal to Mars.”
“I would have never agreed to that,” Aries huffed. “She’s going to transport it on her ship.”
“Alone? Are you fucking insane? That thing kills people for fun.”
“She might not have to go with it. She said the ship has an autopilot that wouldn’t require her being on board at all.”
Which made the situation only slightly better.
“According to Ishtar, the trip to Mars will take at least three days,” Aries continued. “Giving us time to retrieve Ishtar, return to Tower—”
“Pop through the portal and get the bomb ready for its arrival.”
A decent plan actually, so why hadn’t she mentioned it to Aquarius? Probably because he would have insisted on going with her. But of course, her damned independent ass thought it better she do it alone. Fuck’s sake.
“I think that’s her arriving.” Aries turned to face the screen, and Aquarius couldn’t help but step closer, tight with tension as he noted the spacecraft hovering over the field before descending, its propulsion incredible in that it didn’t even ruffle the blades of grass.
It landed, and a ramp extended. Down came Ishtar, wearing a gown that reminded him of what she wore in her memories of Mars.
She’d done her hair in an intricate style that piled it atop her head and left some coils of it loose and curling. She held her head high as she strode toward the Kukakk.
“That must be the fake queen,” exclaimed the reporter on the scene as she tried to get close enough to relay the meeting. However, the Kukakk’s minions blocked the way.
The camera footage flipped to a drone overhead, which dipped down within listening distance just as Ishtar got within a few paces of the fucker.
Alien Jesus smiled smugly. “If it isn’t the queen of nowhere. I didn’t expect you to cave so quickly. Then again, fleshly beings are weak and emotional.”
“Caring about others isn’t a weakness. You knew I couldn’t stand by while you killed innocents.”
“I have shed no blood.”
“Semantics. Your hands might not have struck the deadly blows, but your followers are acting on your command,” Ishtar spat.
“They are quite eager to please, aren’t they? And it worked. Here you are.” Alien Jesus smirked.
“You left me no choice. Now that I’ve brought what you want, tell them to stop the killing.”
“Why would I do that? They’re having so much fun and doing this planet a favor. So many people sucking at the teat, depleting the resources. A culling is long overdue.”
“That wasn’t the deal.”
“Speaking of which, I’ve yet to even see proof you brought the gemstone. Hand it over.” The fucker held out its hand, obviously expecting Ishtar to drop the stone into its palm.
Ishtar instead pointed to the ship. “It’s here, but I’ll need a moment to yank it from the engine.”
“Why would you need such a power source unless… Your vessel is capable of space flight.” Alien Jesus’ eyes began to glow.
“Not once I remove the luughal.”
Its gaze narrowed. “I seek the stone known as kyawthuite.”
“Same thing, different name.” Ishtar waved a hand as if it were of no importance; however, it brought a cunning expression to the stolen alien’s face.
“One has to wonder where this singular stone came from and where one can find more,” it mused aloud.
“Nowhere,” Ishtar’s quick reply, which lifted the thing’s brows.
Aquarius tensed as he saw Ishtar leading the alien into a trap while also antagonizing it.
“You are too quick to lie. You know where to find more.” It glanced at the ship. “But not on this planet.”
“Don’t even think of going to Mars. Your kind have already caused enough destruction to my home world.”
“Marsssss.” It rolled the name as it tasting it. “A barren planet in this solar system, rejected by the scouts, as it lacked life. But that wasn’t always the case, was it, Your Highness?” The title emerged mocking.
“If you know of its past, then you’re aware we wiped out the last Kukakk that invaded this solar system. Four of them, poof, gone!” She exploded her hands.
“Gone at the cost of your world.” The Kukakk grinned so wide its human face risked splitting.
“Yes, it destroyed Mars, but it was worth it to rid ourselves of your kind,” she spat.
“Will you destroy this world as well?”
Her head hung. “No. Unlike the last time, we have no other planet to escape to.”
The alien glanced past her once more to her spaceship. “Without the kyawthuite, your vessel will lose its ability to fly, correct?”
Her lips pinched. “Only until I replace the energy source.”
“I thought there was nothing comparable.”
“There isn’t, but it will still work even with inferior materials. Travel will simply take longer.”
“Which begs the question, why have a spaceship if there is nowhere to go?”
“Because I like to explore. Now, do you want the stone or not?”
“Why would I want a single puny rock when I can have many?” it countered.
“There are no more.”
“Here. But I’m thinking Mars might not be as useless as expected.”
“You’d be wrong. I’m going to hand over the kyawthuite, and as bargained, you will tell your followers to leave the non-believers alone.” She pivoted and began heading for the ship, but the Kukakk barked, “You will leave the stone where it is and transport me to Mars.”
“Like hell I am.” Ishtar went to dart up the ramp for her vessel, but a gesture from the Kukakk brought forward a man with a gun.
Who didn’t hesitate to shoot her in the back!
Ishtar face planted and didn’t move. Blood blossomed, spreading and staining her pale robes.
Shock muted Aquarius. She’s dead. She’d gambled and failed. The fucker killed his queen.