Interstellar: Exploring The Cosmos With My Anomaly System
Chapter 72: Play God

Chapter 72: Play God

The firearm in Veira’s hand was unlike anything her people had forged. Light as bone, cold as forgotten tombs. It hummed faintly in her grasp—alive.

The metal was smooth, almost organic, as if grown rather than hammered into shape. Strange runes glowed faintly along the barrel, pulsing like a slow heartbeat. It didn’t belong in this world.

Neither, perhaps, did Astra. Veira set it back down gently on the worn table between them, her fingers lingering for a moment as if reluctant to part with its alien weight. Her eyes never left Astra’s, searching for deceit, for the flicker of a lie.

The dim light of the chamber cast long shadows across Astra’s face, highlighting the sharp angles of her cheekbones, the calculating gleam in her gaze.

"So," Veira said, her voice low, measured.

"You prove your point. You have the power to erase us. Why offer alliance instead of conquest?" Her fingers twitched, betraying the tension coiled beneath her calm exterior. The air between them was thick, heavy with unspoken threats and the weight of histories neither had fully revealed.

Astra leaned back in her seat, the creak of the chair loud in the silence. She folded her arms, a deliberate motion, a front for the adversaries before her. "Like I said before, we want an alliance, an unnecessary war isn’t beneficial for any of us"

Belk, standing just behind Astra, noticed the slight, rhythmic tapping of her fingers against her forearm—nervous? Impatient? His eyes narrowed slightly before flicking up to Veira, who gave no indication she had seen it.

"You keep saying you’re interested in an alliance, but what are you after exactly...what could one of the celestial beings possibly need our help with..."She urged.

Astra looked taken aback for a brief moment, her mask slipping just enough to reveal something beneath—surprise? Amusement? Then, just as quickly, it was gone, replaced by that same inscrutable calm. She smiled, a small, knowing thing, and straightened her posture, rolling her shoulders as if preparing for a performance. Then she pointed upward, a single finger aimed at the ceiling, at the sky beyond.

"To get up there," she said simply.

Veira’s eyes widened slightly, before narrowing in intrigue to her bold words. "Go on..."

"There’s multiple worlds beyond just this one," Astra continued, her arms wide apart as if emphasising the grand scale. "There are empires out there. Whole cities carved from starstone, fleets that blot out suns. And here we are, squabbling in the mud. If we unify—truly unify—we can rise. Not just as survivors, but as challengers to the throne above."

"I plan to make a civilization to rival them, forcing those, celestials, as you call it? To look at us like we’re equal." Astra continued, her voice low with reverence.

Godrick’s eyes narrowed further as she spoke, his fingers itching the metal rod of his weapon, though his restraint remained strong, suspicion still lingers on her folly, yet he reminds himself of what Veira said to him before, long before.

"What are you doing this for..." He remembered saying, watching as the scientist toiled away at her lonesome, surrounded by wooden blanks and stone tools. She glanced up, a striking green gaze lingering on the warrior’s form even amongst the trees.

"Have you come to finish me?" She pondered, her words showing no signs of fear, rather acceptance. Her gaze lingered on him without wavering, the man questioning her current thoughts. "The kingdom is already in ruins, I am alone..."

"I’m here on my own orders," He announced. Walking closer to her and taking in the area around him. "Is it true, that the king—"

"Yes," She answered immediately, continuing to focus on her work.

"You should join us, surely it would be better than this," He quoted, looking over the mess she had made, trying to recreate the inventions that carried her army’s legacy. Torn down by superficial spat. It sickens her to even think of it.

"I’ll be fine on my own," She reassured,

"Why’re you doing this to yourself..." He questioned, his words showing more care than he lets on, his eyes down casted to the floor.

"Why do you care," She quipped back, causing him to raise his head in realization, he didn’t have a clear answer, his words stuck to his throat as though they were trying to strangle him.

"Do you know why...?" She pondered, seemingly out of nowhere.

"Why what?"

"Why did the nations of this land go to war for so long...?" Her question lingered in his mind, before he spoke, certain of his answer.

"For peace," He responded. Awaiting her words, but the scientist...

Laughed?

He had expected rage upon arriving, rage for her broken kingdom, her fallen king. Resistance. Even begging. But not this— her laughter carved into him more deeply than any blade. It echoed in his mind even to current, long after the trees had swallowed her camp and the tools had rusted to nothing.

Her laugh, it was mocking, sudden. Her laugh was genuine, tears streaking from the corners of her eyes as she roared and howled, even though he could, even though he knew he could kill her in an instant, right now if he wanted to...

He felt helpless...

Small. Insignificant

"Is that what you think?!" She roared, wiping the tears from her eyes. "Really?! Peace?!"

"Maybe your weak willed nation did!" Her words sober out, a smile still plastered on her face as she continued her work, sawing away at the planks to make it just the right size. "The other nations only fought for one thing...and that’s to become ruler of this land, to be a god in their own right—"

"That goes against the rules..." he said. Veira’s eyes turned to him.

"Yet the god’s have done nothing," She murmured. "This is nothing but a game to them, the war, the anarchy... those are all the rules are—"

"We’re all just playing king of the hill in their sandbox..."