Page 14 of Interstellar Love Song (Villains in Space #3)

MICAH

My nerdy heart was full as we walked down the Lodger’s ramp and headed toward the Kingdom of Knowledge—mostly because of the way my Eki robes were swishing around me, glittering in the Kaalanesean sun.

I’m a motherfucking SPACE WIZARD, y’all!

I was also feeling schmoopy because Ziggy fessed up to only adding the robe to his collection after our first adventure on Ekistron. When I continued to push, he admitted his plan had been to give it to me as a wedding present.

Squee!!!

Besides making me feel like the baddest bitch in all the galaxies, the main benefit of the Space Wizard Robe (?) was that it concealed everything about my identity—except my hands.

The obvious solution for that was to use my powers to mimic the Ekis’ glittering, void-black skin with a layer of the phyllosilicate mineral known as Stilpnomelane.

Being a geology ho has finally come in handy .

“Hey, Zig.” I poked the “Villains in Space” insignia on his Stellarian armor with my mineral-dusted handiwork. “I just realized the organic-looking shells Eki form around their core must actually be made from in organic material. Pretty wild, huh?”

Ziggy stopped dead in his tracks. “I… hadn’t considered that.”

I grinned wildly, even though he couldn’t see it. “That’s what you have me for! I’m always ready to drop some useless knowledge.”

My biggest cheerleader scoffed, just as I knew he would. “Nothing you do or say is useless, Micah. The way your beautiful mind works is one of the things I love most about you.”

Say it again.

I would never, ever get tired of hearing Zig drop that L-bomb on me, just like I would never get tired of loving him in return. From the first moment our eyes met across my family’s library, I knew this hot-bod bodysnatcher was destined to be mine.

All mine.

“The way your mind works isn’t so bad either, Space Daddy,” I teased. “For the record, I think you would’ve made a fantastic Head Commander for Astrum Force.”

Ziggy rolled his eyes, displaying his signature loving exasperation, and I was thankful he’d skipped his helmet, so I could see him emoting.

“No, thank you. I had no interest in heading Astrum Force Command. Even this foolish title of Interstellar Ambassador has been an adjustment for me, as you know.”

Roger that .

“And, for the record,” he added, playfully poking me with his gloved hand. “You would’ve made a formidable clan leader.”

No fucking thank you.

I snorted. “Too bad! Looks like we’ll just have to continue on as the rebels we are, refusing to be pigeonholed because we’re too busy combining our awesomeness to be the baddest mercenary team in all the galaxies.”

Maybe we should get a certificate while we’re here…

“Ahhh, an Eki!” a familiar voice called out as we approached the shimmering facade of The Knowledge. “We haven’t seen one of your kind on Kaalanesea in many moons. Welcome!”

My heart ached to see it was Nultek—the former royal advisor of Ferjun and Chooku—dressed in an opalescent robe and greeting us like a pair of old friends.

Of course, I was pretending to meet the interim ruler for the first time today, so I simply dipped my hooded head in a polite greeting, knowing most Eki avoided idle chit chat.

And the True Eki “only wanted to be free.”

I wonder what they meant by that…

A less resplendent Kaala was standing next to Nultek, and I vaguely recognized them as one of the librarians I’d protected from that infamous attack.

When The Knowledge was almost destroyed by…

“You are traveling with a Stellarian, I see, and not just any Stellarian.” Nultek bowed with flair. “Ziggy Andromeda, Interstellar Ambassador for Astrum Force, Stellaria’s savior?— ”

“Just Ziggy is fine!” my anti-hero interrupted, furiously blushing beneath his murder freckles. “And, this is… Sulah. We are here on official business for both Stellaria and Ekistron—to research our shared heritage.”

“Oh. Well, that makes sense…” The librarian glanced between us warily. “Given the circumstances.”

“You are in excellent hands.” Nultek cut in, smiling a little too wide. “And we appreciate you utilizing our distinguished facility of truth and knowledge to make things right.”

Ugh.

I could feel Ziggy’s shame through our bond, because while the new Astrum Force had since sent Star Units to rebuild what their hateful attack had destroyed, an intergalactic incident of that magnitude left invisible scars for generations.

“We will do our best,” Zig replied, like the media-trained Ambassador he was. “I swear on the moons of Stellaria.”

That was the right answer, as Nultek bowed low before saying their goodbyes and gliding away.

After a moment of awkward silence, the librarian spun on their heel, indicating we should follow them through the glass doors and into the climate-controlled interior of The Knowledge.

As we followed, I checked in with my man through our bond.

“Are you okay with this, Zig? The last time we were here was kind of… stressful.”

When we first visited Kaalanesea, it was to figure out if Astrum Force Command was keeping secrets from its own kind. What we didn’t expect to discover was that thousands of refugees had been living on Stellaria’s moons for centuries, fighting for the truth about their purpose to come to light.

Ziggy sent me a soft smile before replying.

“I’ve been here since then, remember? When Honnor formally introduced me as Intergalactic Ambassador to our allies…”

A twinge of old hurt reared its ugly head as I remembered yet another time I was left behind, even if it was completely understandable why I couldn’t come to this stop on the tour.

The last time I was on this planet was as the kings’ champion and consort, and when we left the twins’ bodies behind for proper burial rites, the Kaalas naturally thought I’d been killed in the fray as well.

But now I have my fancy disguise!

To be honest, the Eki robe didn’t feel like a disguise at all. It felt right— like another piece of my DNA clicking into place—not to mention, it was cozy AF.

Glittery Snuggie for the win.

Sedo’s revelation about my heritage was still lingering in the back of my mind, and I figured I should embrace the news instead of fighting against it.

I wonder if my Stellarian-adjacent powers are really my own, like they said?

As we trailed after the librarian, I couldn’t help internally oohing and ahhing at the techy artifacts we passed along the way.

My powers gave me the ability to create almost anything I could dream up, but that was the catch.

Earth’s technology was light-years behind most of what was out here in space, and I made a mental note to return when we had time to fully appreciate all the gadgets.

Wait.

“Is that a freakin’ lightsaber?!”

Ziggy glanced at the display case we were passing, but before he could confirm or deny, our guide was making an announcement.

“Here we are!” the librarian grandly announced before clearing their throat and gesturing awkwardly at what appeared to be an enormous, and incredibly chaotic, mobile hanging from the vaulted ceiling. “The Caelestis lineage.”

Uhhh…

I got the sense Ziggy was equally surprised to see not just the full scope of his kingdom, but to realize The Knowledge had been casually displaying this intel all along.

The More You Know, I guess.

“Are these all different branches of the Caelestis family tree?” I whispered to my man as the librarian scuttled away. “How did Stellarians not know they had so many cousins?”

Ziggy sighed and squinted at an opaque card dangling in front of his face. “To acknowledge others like us would have meant we were not the superior species we believed we were.”

That sounds familiar.

We spent a few minutes wandering beneath the mobile—and finally found both Stellarians and Eki—but there didn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason to how everything was displayed.

I was about to go track down our runaway librarian when a beam of sunlight refracted through the concave panels of the exterior walls, illuminating a nearby digital archives access station.

Tech is always the answer.

Angling my body to disguise what I was doing, I plugged in a mechanical tendril and began rapidly sorting through data, searching for anything that remotely resembled the taxonomy we used to categorize life-forms on Earth.

“It’s a heliocentric model…” Ziggy murmured after a few minutes, and I glanced over to find him gazing up at the center of the model from below. “Species branch off, but there’s a central connection—like planets orbiting the sun.”

“Look at you, being aware of one of the greatest scientific discoveries of all time!” I praised, refocusing on flattening the model on screen, determined to find the center.

My judgy stellar collision huffed. “So great that your Inquisitors burned these supposed heretics at the stake.”

I smiled, loving that this alien who supposedly had no interest in Earthling drama knew all about a historic incident that occurred well before he was even created.

“Only one philosopher was burned at the stake for the heliocentric theory,” I calmly corrected. “Giodarno Bruno. He was also a big believer in the infinite universe and cosmic pluralism, soooo… ol’ Gio understood the assignment. ”

Ziggy adorably scrunched his nose, just like he always did when I busted out slang too young for his Boomer ass.

I bet he still has an opinion, though…

“It is fundamentally unintelligent to assume one’s planet is the center of the universe,” he sniffed, gravely offended. “Or that Earth is the only planet in the unending vastness of space capable of sustaining life. Ridiculous.”

I love this big, Boomer brainiac.

“Gio left no crumbs too,” I continued, squinting at the screen, wondering why this highly advanced technology didn’t have a goddamn zoom function.

“Right before his death he supposedly told his accusers, ‘Perhaps you pronounce this sentence against me with greater fear than I receive it.’ Queen energy, amiri— Zig! What the hell are you doing?!”

I should have known better than to take my eyes off my man. Ziggy was currently levitating in the middle of the freakin’ mobile, tendrils out and aimed for the card in front of him.

If he cuts a string, he’s on his own.

“Markarians…” he murmured, immune to my scolding, as usual. “That’s the species at the very center of this entire model.”

“Got it.” I nodded, already inputting the name to see what came up. “So everything else branches out from there?”

“In a way,” Zig replied, landing next to me and peering over my shoulder at the screen. “Each branch has its own gravitational center.”

I snapped my gaze to him as something tickled my awareness. “What do you mean, gravitational center? ”

He shrugged, seeming embarrassed by the attention. “Only in structure. Referencing a heliocentric model seemed like the easiest way to describe the layout of the display…”

Gio stan in the house!

“Okay,” I rubbed my hands together and returned to my data scan. “First, we need to find which planet these Markarians live on. Then, we’ll convince them to tell us which of their offspring on the Eki line might have had beef with the faction on Kanrienus.”

Ziggy nodded, although I could feel him subtly closing off our conscious connection.

So he does think the Eki themselves had something to do with it!

Rude.

As big mad as I wanted to be, I also understood why he wouldn’t be eager to share this hypothesis with me. Luckily for him, my pride over his show of empathy eclipsed any instinctive anger I might have felt.

Gold stars, Space Daddy.

I frowned as I brought up the stats on Markarians only to be given a :NO DATA AVAILABLE: alert on an otherwise black screen.

Rude!

“It looks like we need to head down to the reference desk,” I sighed, copying the entire Caelestis family tree into my internal hard drive before disconnecting from The Knowledge’s server. “See if that skittish librarian will spill the tea… ”

Ziggy nodded once before wrapping an arm around my waist and star hopping us to the lobby.

The librarian nearly passed out when we abruptly appeared but quickly recovered. “H-how may I assist you?”

“We ran into a dead end with our research,” I leaned my elbows on the counter, noticing how they shrank backwards, as if nervous I might touch them with my magic Eki hands. “A search for Markarians brought up an error message and?—”

“There is no data available on Markarians.” The librarian straightened and lifted their chin, suddenly confident.

“Okay…” I paused, wondering if we’d stumbled upon Area 51-level classification. “Was that a glitch or does The Knowledge really not have any data on the earliest known ancestor of the Caelestis lineage?”

“No data exists,” they curtly replied.

I was about to go behind the desk and see for myself when Ziggy stepped forward with tendrils unleashed, his Space Daddy armor shining in the Kaalanesean sun.

He’s so effortlessly sexy…

The librarian realized this meant they’d better start talking. “What I m-meant was… The Knowledge has no data because this facility—our species… most species—didn’t exist when the data existed.” They looked between us desperately. “The Markarians have been extinct for millions of years.”