It wasn’t Aries but rather Sage who intoned in what Aquarius called her creepy voice, “As great evil arises promising destruction, there is but a single, narrow branch to victory. To the dusty red planet, the water bearer must journey to seek audience with the queen who once was. The queen who lost everything fighting the ancient enemy. The queen who will demand the impossible in exchange for saving humanity. Butbeware, for once the water bearer sets upon this path, there is no return and the stars shall weep.”
CHAPTER 7
It wasn’t oftenIshtar 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 theastrolábos—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 theastrolábossank.
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 rebuiltastrolábos,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.”
