When The Stars Died

Answers

Skeeter smirked at Pandora. Finally. Answers.

"Where did you come from?" Pandora asked.
"Uh, Supernova. The planet. It's actually very close to Earth."
"How'd ya get t' stars t' die?" Skeeter asked.
"I told you, we harnessed supernovae energy and blasted it into the sleep waves of humans." Joe sighed.
"Yeah, but how?" Pandora urged.
"We have our ways. And it's a national secret."
"So you would say that you're an advanced race?" Pandora pressed.
"Not really. Hence the need for us to raid China in order to obtain weapons. Or, BB guns."
Skeeter snorted. "Losers."
"And what were you called again?"
"The Supernovae."
"What so with all the supernova references?"
"I don't know!" Joe groaned. "We lived on Supernova, right? Which was named after the star supernovae. A supernovae is a star that abruptly brightens a lot more, the cause being an explosion that almost destructs the star itself. Anyway, we lived on the planet Supernova, which makes us Supernovae, and supernovae with a lowercase 's' is the name of the star we used to kill the humans."
Skeeter massaged his temples. "Me head hurts." He mumbled.

"Why weren't the animals killed?" Pandora continued.
"Well, human brains have progressed quite a bit more from, well, you know, dogs, bears, squirrels. The human brain is advanced. And this, this, progression, makes the human brain more sensitive to supernovae paralysis. I don't know about apes, but, otherwise, animal's lesser intelligence allowed them to survive."

Pandora nodded. "Okay. Skeeter? Any questions?"

"Yeah." Skeeter fixed Joe with an emerald glare. "Why?"

Joe looked confused. "Pardon?"

"Why'd ya do this t' us?.

Joe closed his eyes, those huge black orbs disappearing, and he sighed. Pandora glimpsed his needle like fangs, and shuddered.

Joe opened his eyes. "Have you two ever been to space? Seen a drawing, perhaps? A painting?"

Skeeter and Pandora rolled their eyes. "We've seen photos," Pandora offered, "but why does that matter?.

"it looks beautiful, doesn't it? I know how beautiful it looks. I've lived there for thousands of years, you know. But... But it's like a fierce warrior woman, the ones that live in the rainforests? It's on the tip of my tongue... The really tall, attractive ones?"

"Amazonians. Yes?" Pandora informed him.

"That's it. Amazonians. Space is like an Amazonian. Beautiful, fierce. Deadly. Scary. Blackholes. Wormholes. Death Stars. Meteors. Unbelievable danger. Everything up there is dull after a few years. There was a vote." Joe heaved a deep breath. "It was Queen Imerosis against the Rebellion. Anyone who wanted a future, chose the Queen. Anyone with a heart, went with the Rebellion. Many of my family were killed because they Rebelled. After seeing them be publicly executed, I voted for the Queen's plan. I...I was going to be a farmer. Once we cleared the land, we were going to take the place of humans. We would build our own cities, flatten our own mountains, conquer our own countries. Queen Imeroris wanted to harness the star's power and kill you all, and the Rebellion wanted to conquer a new planet, one we could live on happily. They volunteered Mars. If we could contain the atmosphere, make it liveable... But the idea would take ten years to accomplish. To accomodate all of us... Action had to be taken quickly. The Queen proposed her idea, and most of the Supernovae agreed. There was so many reasons to come home to Motherland. We could regain our powers! Exact revenge! Start over. All I wanted was to start over." Joe looked up at Skeeter and Pandora, eyes glistening, voice soft.

Skeeter eyed Joe warily. "So. What yer sayin' is that ya don't 'ave a heart?"

Joe blinked. "No. I do. That's why I'm in a lot of pain right now. I meant a figurative heart. Is that not a human metaphor? Have I gotten that entire concept wrong? Ah, whatever." He threw his long arms into the air tiredly.
"What's that black stuff?" Pandora poked a clump of that black, moss-like stuff clinging to his shoulder that trailed down to his chest and continued down to his knobbly knees.
"Genetically engineered clothes, you idiot. It covers, well, you know, the important stuff. And it just helps spruce up your appearance. And your scent. Sniff my arm." Joe offered his limb.

Pandora awkwardly glanced at Skeeter, who grinned at her, and leaned forward, taking a short sniff.

The scent assaulted her nose. It was a thick, gauzy smell... Like... Like... It was like nothing she'd even smelt. Sort of like the smell of earth, but stronger, and it hit her like a truck.

Pandora's vision blurred and white dots danced across her vision. She gasped and blacked out.

She woke up, and everything was black. Something was resting on her stomach, she was laying flat on the floor, somebody was poking her...

"Skeeter? Joe? Where's... Where's the fire?"

"It went out." Skeeter whispered, thankful she couldn't see his blush. He was angry at himself, how could he not get enough wood?

"Oh." Pandora sighed. "What's on my stomach?"

The something stirred and scurried off.

"It was Nut." Skeeter supplied.

"Why haven't you gone and got more firewood?"

"Uh. We can't move the boulder?" Joe rolled his eyes, but she couldn't see that.

"Well, why didn't you go exploring? You have the map on the wall."

Skeeter sighed exasperatedly. "Yeah Pan, let me just look at t' map... Oh wait. It ain't there! Oh wait. It's DARK, you nitwit."

"Sarcasm levels, exceptional." Pandora giggled. "Are you sure the coast is clear?"

Skeeter groaned. "Yes, dammit."

"And where's the boulder? I can't exactly... See."

Skeeter grabbed her arm and started to guide it towards the boulder's general direction, but Joe sighed.

"What?" Pandora snapped.
"You have telekinesis. Just picture the boulder moving, and it will happen." Joe snorted.
Pandora blushed. "Well, sor-ry." She thought of the boulder. She pictured it rolling to the side.

Light flooded through the cave.

"It's morning?" Pandora whispered as everyone stood up, stretched their legs and headed for the outside world like moths to a lightbulb.

"Congratulations." Joe said wryly. "You survived six hours of our invasion."

Pandora gazed up at the tall brown figure of Joe. "Are you going to go back now?"

Joe sighed. "Well, I've been thinking, and—"

"What's that?" Skeeter whisper-shouted, pointing to a huge jumble of black and silver steel moving through the town below.