“If you’d met them, you wouldn’t have called them human. They were only slightly more evolved than animals.” She showed no sign of remorse at the admission. “And we were in a population decline. A common problem among the advanced and long-lived.”
“Wait, how old are you?”
She ignored him to head right for the alcove, where she snatched a plate holding several slices of pizza. Since the kitchen usually gave what a person most craved, he could only imagine she’d not enjoyed cheese, sauce, and pepperoni pies often while living in her cave.
“Not as old as you’re thinking, but old,” she stated, carrying her meal to a table.
Aquarius snatched the second plate of pizza, which also came with a much-needed beer, and joined her.
“This queen thing, is it an inherited or elected role?”
“Inherited.” A short answer.
“At least you were expecting it to happen then. The day I got chosen by the Astraeus to be a warrior I had like five seconds to decide if I wanted to be a guardian of the world.” Then again, there’d been no real choice. Die or serve. He couldn’t imagine many chose the former.
“At least you serve a purpose,” she stated in between bites. “Me, I am a queen without a throne, without a people, without any true role. At times I wonder, what’s the point?”
“Because you can still do good. If it weren’t for your help with that nanobot, Earth would be in serious shit right now because the asteroid would have hit and we’d likely have several Kukakk to deal with.”
“One is bad enough.” She grimaced.
“I really am sorry I accidentally led that monster to you, and I am serious about helping you rebuild your workshop.”
“It’s not entirely your fault.” She sighed. “If I am to be honest, it would only have been a matter of time before the Kukakk discovered my location, as it would have detected the elements it needed for building its machines.”
“Is anywhere on Earth safe from them?”
She eyed the remaining slice on her plate. “The Tower of Babel was built to protect.”
“And yet the Martians still left it for Atlantis.”
“Not all of them. As far as I know some remain here to this day. However, Nimrod has added to the collection of strays without a home. It takes it job as sanctuary quite seriously.”
His eyes just about fell out of his head. “You speak as if you can communicate with Tower?”
“Yes, but not in the way you and I are talking right now. Nimrod can convey images and feelings, which is why, when most Martians fled, it asked about using its body to provide a base of operation for an elite group of warriors. You see, Nimrod lost its home in the stars because of the Kukakk, and the other Astraeus became anxious, for they never saw the threat.”
“Because they’re blind to these aliens.”
“An oddity I never quite understood,” she confirmed. “That fear led to them wanting a way to watch over the solar systemand Earth. Not to mention, watching living things thrive gives them pleasure.”
“Because we’re like a reality television show to them,” he murmured. It was the best analogy he could think of for why the star gods even bothered.
“I guess that is one way of explaining it,” she said with a laugh. “While Nimrod imbued this tower with its essence, the others had a different idea. They chose to enhance humans instead, making them guardian avatars.”
“How many Martians still exist today?” he asked.
“Outside this tower, there are few that carry the pure blood of our ancestors. Even those that remained with Nimrod likely retained little of our ancestral genes.” She offered a sad smile. “As was to be expected, my people mingled, married, procreated. Fun fact, there is probably not a single human on Earth that doesn’t have a drop of Martian blood.”
“If that’s true, how can you be a pureblood?”
“Because I was made, not born,” she stated as if it were common knowledge. “Even now, the incubators have my next form waiting.”
His mouth rounded. “You’re a test tube baby?”
“Actually, the term clone might be more apt.”
“Cool.” Some might have recoiled, but Aquarius honestly found this fascinating.
