If Balem did fail, surely he could pretend it was what he meant to do all along? Or maybe that was just for cats.

"Well, what does she like? Maybe you could start off with that, too." What did stars like? Hy...drogen? Not getting sucked into black holes? Maybe a nice, steamy solar flare every once in a while? An immense gravity well?

Sadly, it looked like Balem was out of luck on that last count, but...