Page 30 of Interstellar Love Song (Villains in Space #3)
“Bron said the same thing.” I chuckled before sobering. “We’ll have to head back to the archives to get the names of all the first gen species, since The Knowledge’s records were incomplete. It might get dicey, though… with the Planet Eater lurking in the collective well.”
Leeloo’s hood snapped to face me. “You can access the collective well, My-kuh?”
I smiled proudly and pointed at my husband. “Only because Ziggy can. Apparently, all Stellarians who connect with their stellar collisions can access the well… That’s why we—why all bonded pairs still hiding on Apotelesma—have been warned to not share the existence of this phenomenon.”
Or else…
I must have visibly braced for the ground of Nuclei City to start shaking, because Leeloo huffed.
“You can speak freely here. The shield we have created around the city is similar to what these Earthling twins accomplished inside the Hydrassians’ heads.
No direct psychic communications may be transmitted, in or out—although those inside the shield can still telepathically connect with each other. ”
“Cool,” Gabe and Dre murmured in unison.
I snapped my fingers. “That reminds me! Zig had the idea to get the Hydrassians to help us infiltrate the collective well.”
“Uhh…” Gabe raised his hand. “Last I checked, the Hydrassians were pissed we’d stopped them from using their powers. How do you plan to get them to cooperate?”
“They’ll cooperate if it’s the only way to get their powers back.” Dre smirked, effortlessly picking up what I was putting down. “And if they refuse, we’ll fry their brains. ”
Such a demon.
“Exactly.” I grinned, since there was no love lost between me and those psychic snakes. “So maybe you two could come with us to Dionaea to negotiate?—”
“Absolutely not,” Theo snapped, bringing everyone’s attention to him.
“Ex-fucking-scuse you?” Dre barked, reminding his brat who was actually in charge in that relationship.
“I’m sorry, Demon,” the older man quietly replied, genuinely upset. “I cannot allow you two to put yourselves in danger like that. It’s clear the collective well is the Planet Eater’s turf, so infiltrating it is like playing with fire.”
Hold up…
Dre opened his mouth for more brat-taming but I shushed him, Dom-vibes be damned.
This is my mission after all.
“Theo, you genius!” I yelped, leaping to my feet. “All this time I’ve been wracking my brain trying to figure out why the Planet Eater was so opposed to stellar collisions when the bond makes Stellarians stronger. But it’s not about the bond…”
“It is about what the bond awakens,” Honnor finished my thought for me before sighing. “I have to agree with Theo. Purposefully invading what the Planet Eater considers their realm could have disastrous consequences.”
“And I disagree, Honnor,” Ziggy stated, defying both his makers. “We need to do this. I need to. ”
“Why do you need to, son?” Honnor argued, growing agitated. “You have offspring to think about now ? —”
“When has that ever stopped a Stellarian?” Ziggy clapped back.
Ice cold.
As much as my man deserved this mic drop, we needed to stay on track. “Zig encountered a Planet Eater during one of his first missions,” I quickly cut in. When a collective gasp went up among the rabble, I clarified, “But after some initial tension, the Planet Eater peacefully moved on.”
“It was as if I passed some sort of test,” Ziggy reiterated. “Now I wonder if it was simply that I hadn’t formed my stellar collision bond yet. For all we know, it was the same creature now devouring planets. There may be only one Planet Eater left?—”
“There are two.” An unfamiliar voice called out from the back of the room.
Twisting in my chair, I found it was our rescued Star Unit soldier, still leaning against the others for support.
Maybe they should go to the infirmary too…
After they spill the tea.
“How do you know that?” I stepped closer, lowering my voice so they wouldn’t get more freaked out than they already were.
The soldier wrung their gloved hands together, clearly nervous, and I got the impression they were young by Stellarian standards.
What if this was their first mission?
To their credit, they took a deep breath and powered on.
“When my line was pulled into the… black hole, I thought I was dreaming. My armor was weightless and it was as if I had gained endless knowledge previously unknown to me. All I could see were stars… and the places where stars should be but were not.”
“Do you think it was the Planet Eater you were seeing in those moments?” I gently asked, hoping I wasn’t leading the witness.
The soldier nodded decisively. “Yes, but it was two distinct presences—one threatening, one benign. However, I have only remembered any of this by listening to your discussion. At the time, all memory of that in-between place was erased the instant I was ejected back out to the Salus-Fides galaxy.”
“Where we were,” I concluded.
“No.” The soldier flipped open the visor on their helmet, as if to show me the sincerity in their swirling depths. “The galaxy where the others were. The other missing Star Unit soldiers.”