My Crazy Hot Interstellar Affair

29. "As the Earth Turns" Most Watched Reality Show in Galaxy

"My parents let us go. It is the only explanation for the ease of our escape."

"What just happened back there on the Magnificent was easy? And now you're quoting Star Wars?"

"Excuse me?"

Andie shook her head. "Never mind. Please explain what you mean about potential danger."

"There is a slight chance that my parents could come after us in another ship."

Andie's stomach twisted. "Define 'small.'"

"27.352%."

"I'd rather have something more like .000001%."

"Statistics are not a choice. They are a fact. You are trembling."

"I'm fine. Just ... distract me."

Oliver wiggled his eyebrows.

"Not like that. Tell me what to expect when we get to the Colony. And while you're at it, I'd love to know exactly what is going on with you and your, uh, brethren? I've figured some of it out, but what I don't understand is why? Why do the Amu want to be earth's celebrities? Why is there a whole moon devoted to a reality TV series called As the Earth Turns? Why didn't you stop Sterling's abduction?" Andie's eyes filled with tears. She hadn't realized how angry she was at Oliver's betrayal.

Oliver's shoulders slumped, and he exhaled. "Andromeda. I am truly sorry. Please know that I did everything in my power to stop the abduction. But my mother is stubborn. She has had her sights set on Sterling Champagne for a couple of years now."

"Why?" Andie croaked through an enormous lump forming in her throat. "Why Sterling?" Even as she said it, Andie knew it was a very uncharitable question. If it hadn't been Sterling, it would have been some other unsuspecting human with a life and friends and family who would be equally devastated to lose a loved one.

"Sterling is the most powerful female celebrity on the planet. Cyra is the most powerful female Amu. There was no other who would satisfy her need."

"What need? Is Cyra a drug addict?"

"That is a fitting metaphor, Andromeda. The story of how we came to earth is very long and sad."

"Give me the Reader's Digest version."

"Reader's Digest?"

"It means, give me a summary of your evil alien activities."

"All right, but please do not say my evil alien activities. I have never agreed with any of it. Remember when I told you we came from a solar system in the Andromeda galaxy?"

"How could I forget?"

"True. Well, after years of war and abusing our home planet of Amu, the surface could no longer be inhabited. Each Amu was given a choice—live underground or take to the stars. My parents were part of the Amu royal family, whose ignorance and authority resulted in the demise of our planet. They knew they had lost all respect from their subjects. As they were wealthy, they possessed the most advanced spaceship. For years, we have wandered the galaxy in search of sentient beings to idolize us. All the Amu, except for me, it seems, have a deep need to be revered. When my parents found the earth, they could not believe their good fortune. Earthlings loved to idolize—were experts at the art with so many centuries of practice. We hit the idolization motherlode. You can see that the veneration proclivity, combined with excellent wine and well-established media, posed an unimaginable temptation for a group of very advanced yet insecure space travelers."

"Not really."

Oliver's overly sexy dark eyebrows squished together in a way too adorable fashion. "Why not?"