Bum nodded. “That’s a good question. The reason the Earth people didn’t kick them out is that the star people knew more than they did. True, the Earth had originally been settled by the star people, but that had been millions of years before all this went on. By the time the star people returned and brought their troubles, people on Earth were way behind them. The star people had machines and devices that would have taken Earth people thousands of years to invent. I guess you could say the star people bribed the Earth people. “If you do this for us,” they would say to our leaders, “we will give you this secret.”

“But what does all this have to do with the Cryo Creatures?” Sally asked.

“I’m just getting to that part. I had to explain these other things first.” Again Bum paused to clear his throat. Actually, he sounded hoarse. Adam wondered if he had a cold. Adam imagined that living outside all the time was not easy.

“I have to make clear that not all the star people were evil,” Bum went on. “You know in any war there are good guys and bad guys. But I don’t think in this war all the good guys were on one side. I think it was mixed. Many of the star people who helped Atlantis really thought they were doing the right thing. I’m sure many of the star people who helped Mu thought they were doing the right thing, too. But I do know the star scientists on the Mu side made the Mu leaders a really evil offer. An offer so tempting that the Mu leaders could not resist.”

“If it was an evil offer,” Cindy said, “why was it so tempting?”

“Evil is always more tempting than good,” Sally said. “That’s life. All the fun things get you into trouble.”

Bum paused and smiled, although he remained serious. “Sally might be right, I’m not sure. But I do know that one secret group from the Pleiades told the leaders of Mu that if they would completely wipe out Atlantis, they would be given a chance to live for tens of thousands of years.”

Adam was impressed. “Did the star people live that long?”

Bum scratched his head. “They lived a very long time, much longer than Earth people. The leaders of Mu could see that. Each time the star people visited—every few years—they would hardly have aged at all, while the leaders would be getting old and wrinkled. These evil star people convinced the Mu leaders that they didn’t have to die, which was a lie. Even the star people died, eventually. It was just another bribe, a false bribe. Yet there was truth in it as well. Let me explain.