“Partly us, but mostly the Mogadorians.”

“What about the Great Wall of China?”

“Humans.”

“Roswell, New Mexico?”

“You know, I’ve asked Katarina that once and she had no idea. So I don’t know either.”

“Wait, how long have the Mogadorians been coming here?”

“Almost as long as we have,” she says.

“So, like, this war between you two, is it new?”

“Not necessarily. What I know is that both sides have traveled to Earth for thousands of years; sometimes we were here at the same time, and from what I understand, much of it was spent on friendly terms. But then something happened that ruined the relationship, and the Mogadorians left for a very long time. Beyond that I don’t know much, and I have no idea when they started coming back.”

I cross the living room and plop the Chest in the middle of the dining-room floor. Sam and Six glance up. Six grins, again giving me strange flutters. I smile back, but it feels insincere.

“I figure we might as well open this thing together.”

Sam begins rubbing his hands with a crazy look in his eyes.

“Jeez, Sam,” I say. “You look like you’re about to murder somebody.”

“Oh, come on,” he says. “You’ve been teasing me with this Chest for almost a month now and I’ve been patient and I’ve kept my mouth shut out of respect for Henri and everything, but how often do I get to see the treasures from an alien planet? I just think about how the guys at NASA would die to be sitting where I am right now. You can’t blame me for being so into this.”

“Would you be mad if this whole time it’s been full of nothing but dirty laundry?”

“Alien dirty laundry?” Sam asks sarcastically.

I laugh, then reach down and grab hold of the lock. My hand instantly glows when touching the cold metal, and the lock again warms, shaking and twisting in my grip, protesting the ancient powers that keep it closed. When it clicks open I remove the lock, set it aside, and place my hand on the Chest’s top. Six and Sam both lean forward in anticipation.

I lift the lid. The Chest is yet again ablaze with light that hurts my eyes. The first thing I do is remove the velvet bag holding the seven orbs that make up Lorien’s solar system. I think of Henri and how we watched the light glow and pulsate at Lorien’s core, showing that the planet is still alive, albeit hibernating. I place the bag in Sam’s hand. All three of us peer down into the Chest. Something else is lit up.

“What is that glowing?” Six asks.

“No idea. It never did that before.”