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occupation?” He sounded like he was again laughing at her.
    Predictably, Mia felt her hackles rising. “Why, yes, I am. Is that classified information?”
    He threw back his head and burst out laughing. “Only for curious little girls.” Mia stared back at him with a stony expression on her face. Still chuckling, he revealed, “I’m an engineer by profession. My company designed the ships that brought us here.”
    “The ships that brought you here? But I thought the Krinar had been visiting Earth for thousands of years before you formally came here?” That had been one of the most striking revelations about the invaders – the fact that they’d been observing humans and living among them long before K-Day.
    He nodded, still smiling. “That’s true. We’ve been able to visit you for a long time. However, traveling to Earth had always been a dangerous task – as was space travel in general – so only a few intrepid individuals would attempt it at any given time. It’s only in the past few hundred years that we fully perfected the technology for faster-than-light travel, and my company succeeded in building ships that could safely transport thousands of civilians to this part of the universe.”
    That was interesting. She’d never heard this before. Was he telling her something that wasn’t public knowledge? Encouraged and unbearably curious, Mia continued with her questions. “So have you been to Earth before K-Day?” she asked, staring at him in wide-eyed fascination.
    He shrugged – a human gesture that was apparently used by the Ks as well. “A couple of times.”
    “Is it true that all our UFO sightings are based on actual interactions with the Krinar?”
    He grinned. “No, that was mostly weather balloons and your own governments testing classified aircraft. Less than one percent of those sightings could actually be attributed to us.”
    “And the Greek and Roman myths?” Mia had read recent speculation that the Krinar may have been worshipped as deities in antiquity, giving rise to the Greek and Roman polytheistic religions. Of course, even today, some religious groups had embraced the Ks as the true creators of humankind, spawning an entirely new movement dedicated to venerating and emulating the invaders. The Krinarians, as these K-worshippers were known, sought every opportunity to interact with the beings they viewed as real-life gods, believing it increased their odds of reincarnating as a K. The Big Three – Christianity, Islam, and Judaism – had reacted very differently, refusing to accept that Ks were in any way responsible for the origin of life on Earth. Some more extreme religious factions had even declared the Krinar to be demons and claimed that their arrival was part of the end-of-days prophecy. Most people, however, had accepted the aliens for what they were – an ancient, highly advanced species that had sent DNA from Krina to Earth, thus starting life on this planet.
    “Those were based on the Krinar,” confirmed Korum. “A few thousand years ago, a small group of our scientists, sent here to study and observe, became overly involved in human affairs – to the point that they overstayed their mission by a few hundred years. They ultimately had to be forcibly returned to Krina when it became obvious that they were purposefully preying on human ignorance.”
    Before Mia had a chance to digest that information, the oven let out a little beep signifying the food’s readiness.
    “Ah, here we go.” He took out the roasted veggies and dropped them into a marinade he’d managed to whip up during their conversation. Placing a large salad in the middle of the table, he picked up a sizable portion and deposited it on Mia’s plate. “We can start with this while the veggies are marinating.”
    Mia dug into her salad, holding back an inappropriate giggle at the thought that she was literally eating food of the gods – or at least food that had been prepared by someone who