"Mmm, well — I think 'destroy' is a complicated word for it. Words like create and destroy are useful terminology when you're dealing with something destructive like this, but they're also limiting words when it comes to the way energy works; it's all got a cycle, one that still leaves behind some new form. Gamma rays can turn a nucleus into a positron and an electron; a neutron can be created by a proton and electron and neutrino; the Higgs boson breaks down into an entirely new subset of photons and other particles when it smashes into another matter at nearly the speed of light!"

Okay, no, pull it back. Getting all energized. He clears his throat, turning toward her more fully.

"Sorry, uh! My answer is, I would find a way to decay or alter it into another form instead, or break it down to less damaging components. A mutation and evolution of the particles would be a good first step, and it's possible the Ghost Matter was accidentally created by this very thing: that it was something that existed in the atmosphere as an entirely different kind of safe, unassuming matter... before it was subjected to something that mutated it into something else.

"Do you have any samples of your planet's atmosphere from before the Ghost Matter started affecting the powered population? If there were an easy way to compare the before and after... I mean, that's probably a pretty naive thing to ask; you guys have been at this long enough that I'm probably asking the obvious crap you've already addressed."

Is he nerdy enough to earn some lunch?