"What?!" Ethan exclaimed, his eyes wide with disbelief as he stared at the red dot pulsing on the holographic map of Earth. "There are Cellucas eggs here? On Earth?"
Kiaz nodded grimly. "It's a possibility we considered. A small faction might have slipped through the intergalactic defenses during the war, laid their eggs in secret, and then retreated to another planet, believing their progeny would hatch undisturbed."
"So," Ethan said, his mind racing, "we don't just need to worry about Earth. If they managed to do this here, they could have done it anywhere. We need to find and exterminate all the eggs, on every planet they might have spread them to. We have to outpace them before they infest the entire universe!"
"That won't be necessary, at least not for travel," Kiaz reassured him. "If we can pinpoint the exact location of the eggs, our ships can utilize warp technology. We can traverse vast interstellar distances in mere minutes. Getting to other planets won't be the primary obstacle."
"Okay, that makes sense," Ethan conceded, remembering the speed at which their ship had arrived. "Your father's ship traveled all the way from Kepler-897b to Earth in what seemed like no time."
Ziak's expression remained serious. "There is still a significant challenge. We not only need to locate and destroy the eggs, but we also need to deal with any escaped adult Cellucas that might still be out there, potentially guarding their offspring or laying more eggs."
Kiaz added a chilling detail. "Cellucas eggs typically have an incubation period of around fifteen Earth years. However," his gaze was grave, "that doesn't necessarily mean we have fifteen years. We have no way of knowing when these particular eggs were laid."
Ziak elaborated, "Cellucas reproduce only once every twenty-five years. Given that the war lasted approximately sixteen years, and Father disappeared about four years ago, it's unlikely they could have laid many eggs during the conflict while we were actively monitoring them. But these eggs on Earth… they could have been laid anytime in the last few years. We likely have less than five years before they start to hatch."
"Less than five years?!" Ethan exclaimed, the urgency of their mission hitting him with full force. "That's not much time at all!"