Crystal Healer

by Viehl, S. L.

  “oKiaf females are not permitted to serve in the defense forces or leave the homeworld,” he said.“Males are not accustomed to dealing with women in official capacities, and your presence here may cause discomfort.”

  I shrugged. “I rarely make anyone feel comfortable.”

  “Know that the males will not address you directly, and they will be offended if you speak to them,” he warned. “They may even ask that you be removed. If that happens, do not object. It is not personal.”

  “An Iisleg female who does not obey a male is usually beaten, often until she dies,” I told him. “I think I will tolerate being sent from the room.”

  After arranging crew escorts for the oKiaf security detachment to take them around the ship, Xonea invited the station supervisors into a nearby conference room.

  Reever sat on my right, and Jylyj on my left. The resident drew almost as much attention as my husband and I did, and was the first person the oKiaf in charge of the boarding party spoke to.

  “I had not expected to meet one of those lost to us,” Colonel Pegreas said to Jylyj. He ducked his nose down and twisted his head to the right and left before raising his eyes. “You are very welcome here, brother.”

  The resident bowed his head in a similar fashion. “This son of Rushan is grateful to have made the journey, Colonel.”

  “We have heard your people have endured much living among the outsiders.” Pegreas spared Reever a dark glance. “It is hoped that you are being treated fairly by these outsiders.”

  “I am.” Jylyj touched the front of his tunic. “They have provided work, shelter, and kinship. I have no complaints, but much praise for their kindness to me.”

  Pegreas seemed to relax a little. “What of your people, Brother?”

  “The faithful were briefly deceived by false prophets, but were saved by allies on K-2,” Jylyj told him. “The sons of Rushan could not remain on the colony there, but the aquatics offered sanctuary on one of their moons.”

  “So it is true. We had heard rumors, of course, but given the nature of that world . . .” Pegreas shook his shaggy head, causing some of the beads woven in his silver mane to clink together. “Is that why you have come to dwell with these strangers? To escape that wet horror?”

  “I have answered my calling,” Jylyj said flatly. “That is all you need know.”

  The colonel seemed a little taken aback by the resident’s tone, and for a moment I thought Jylyj had offended him. But Pegreas recovered quickly and inclined his head.

  “As you speak, Brother, so I hear.” He turned to give Xonea a far less friendly look. “We have had some limited but favorable contact with Jorenians in the past.Your people also broke with the League before the war. Those are the only reasons I permitted you to come here.”

  “We are grateful for your consideration, Colonel,” Xonea said. “Our mission is an important one, and the data we collect here may save many lives on other worlds.”

  Pegreas didn’t seem impressed. “You mission means nothing to the oKiaf. We no longer concern ourselves with what happens outside our borders.”

  “If this black crystal has infected any of the worlds in your system, it will poison your species and possibly cause mass extinction in the future,” Xonea said. “I would think that to be of great concern to the oKiaf.”

  “How do we know you are not attempting to mine the crystal for use by the Allied League as a weapon?” Salanas, one of the other supervisors, demanded. A smaller, darker male, he had sharp teeth and eyes so light and cold they seemed made of alloy.

  Xonea kept his tone calm and reasonable. “Our ship is not equipped as an ore hauler, and we have no treaty with the League.”

  “Your people have served on their ships.” Salanas gestured toward me and Reever. “You even brought two of them with you.”

  “You are mistaken,” Xonea said. “Jarn and Duncan are citizens of Joren, not the League.” He turned to Pegreas. “You have had contact with our people. You must know that we have never been warmongers or invaders. One of our ClanLeaders, Teulon Jado, negotiated the terms of peace that ended the war between the League and the Hsktskt.”

  “After the League massacred his kin and sold him to slavers,” Pegreas replied, evidently unmoved. “While Joren is famous for its neutrality, we know that the Jorenians have never been a particularly forgiving people. How do you explain the Jado’s actions?”

  Salanas sniffed. “They smell to me of cowardice.”

  Xonea’s eyes narrowed, but it was Jylyj who said, “Perhaps you have had your nose buried too long in your own affairs.”

  Salanas’s expression turned to one of astonishment, and again Pegreas gave the resident a startled look.

  “I am Jarn of Akkabarr, and I served the Iisleg as a battlefield surgeon during the rebellion,” I said before the oKiaf could respond or anyone could stop me. “Raktar Teulon was my general.”

  “There,” Salanas said, making a rude gesture toward me. “He favors females. Is that not indicative of his own character?”

  “When our rebels prevailed over the Toskald, Teulon had the means to wipe out their civilization and send thousands of ships against the League and the Hsktskt armies,” I told the supervisor. “He set aside the revenge he wanted—and surely deserved—and sought instead to bring peace to all the worlds involved in the conflict.” I regarded Salanas. “That, Supervisor, took more courage than you could possibly understand.”

  “You see?” Salanas turned to Pegreas. “They use females to speak for them. She even questions my intelligence. Is this not proof enough of their perversions?”

  “I don’t care if females have no voice among your people, Colonel,” I told Pegreas. “I will not hear my general being slandered by your officer and remain silent. His ignorance needs correction.”

  As Jylyj had predicted, the oKiaf colonel didn’t care for me addressing him any more than Salanas had; the pelt around his skinny muzzle drew into a faint snarl. But as he looked into my eyes, his expression eased.

  “The honor and actions of Teulon Jado will not be questioned by the oKiaf.” He said the words while looking at Xonea, but they were meant for me. “Supervisor Salanas will keep his opinions to himself.”

  Salanas opened his mouth as if to argue, saw Pegreas’s cold eyes, and fell silent.

  “What has happened to oKia?” Jylyj asked, sounding impatient now. “The war is over. You have no valid reason to close the borders and repel outsiders now.”

  “We lost more than Skart and your people to the war,” Pegreas said. “When the Hsktskt invaded, they raided our cities and killed thousands. We drove them out, but not before they leveled Hafila, Matuk, and Asani.”

  Jylyj went rigid. “They attacked the Elphi?”

  “Indeed. They murdered the Highest One and every member of his tribe before the eyes of the people, hoping to instill fear and submission to their will.”

  The Skartesh sighed. “Fools.” He glanced at the rest of us. “The Elphi is the elected leader of the oKiaf people. If he is harmed or killed by anyone, his chieftains swear blood vengeance. It is a death vow, and cannot be revoked until vengeance is taken.”

  “Our chieftains summoned the tribes from the valleys and the mountains, from the ice lands and the forests. We surrounded the beasts and we slaughtered them until they ran to their ships and fled oKia.” Pegreas paused as if to savor the memory. “After our world was free of the invaders, the chieftains did not elect a new Elphi. They led the people back into the wilderness, where we could fight on our terms. But the beasts, cowards that they are, never returned, and so it was decided that the people should remain one with the land.”

  “You abandoned all of your cities to live in hiding?” Xonea sounded perplexed.

  “We were not hiding, Jorenian.” Salanas bared his teeth. “We did that in the cities, in the structures built by the League, smothered by their cursed technology. When we returned to the land, we rediscovered the freedom we had sacrificed. We took back w
hat we had lost.”

  “You must not have abandoned everything,” Reever said. “Or you would not be manning these security stations or flying patrols around your system.”

  “My men and I volunteered to live on the stations and maintain constant patrols in order to protect the tribes,” the colonel said. “So we have, since the end of the war.”

  Jylyj gave Pegreas an odd look. “None of you have ever returned to the homeworld? Why?”

  Pegreas pulled up his sleeve and showed a clean-shaven place on his forearm with burn scar tissue that formed a three-sided symbol. To the rest of us, he said, “We are the last of the Elphian guard. As we once dedicated our lives to guarding the Elphi, so we now live here in space to watch over oKia.”

  Xonea glanced at the viewport. “I would think you could do that just as well on the planet.”

  The colonel replaced his sleeve. “When we left the League, they sent spies to our world to infiltrate the people. When we caught them, they claimed they meant to stop our ‘cultural regression’ by persuading our chieftains to return to the cities and take up their ways. But what they truly wished was to convince our young men to again serve in their militia.”

  “It’s said that the oKiaf were some of the best intelligence officers in the League,” Reever said.

  “We were, and our resignation from the League did not sit well with them. They infiltrated our homeworld and made a nuisance of themselves again and again, until it became apparent stronger measures had to be taken,” Pegreas continued. “We Elphian took charge. We had the League spies send for supply vessels with the materials we needed to build the security stations. They gladly gave us all the patrol ships we requested, thinking that we would in turn hand over our men. They were quite surprised when we finished the preparations and sent them to Quadrant command with orders to stay out of our space.”

  “We burned our words into their cringing back hides, so there could be no further misunderstanding.” Salanas uttered a rough sound of sour amusement. “Even so, they still sent more.”

  “They kept coming until we destroyed the three of their ships.” Pegreas didn’t sound especially happy or remorseful, only matter-of-fact. “In the end, that was the only message they understood.”

  “We have no desire to meddle with your people or your politics,” Xonea said. “Our mission is to perform orbital and surface scans to detect the presence or absence of black crystal. Given the tasks at hand, we have no reason to engage in contact with the oKiaf, although my medical staff would appreciate the chance to scan the natives for crystal contamination.”

  “You can scan me if you must,” Salanas snapped.

  “Supervisor, your offer is appreciated,” Reever said, “but by your own admission you have not resided on the planet for some years, and there are no signs of the crystal on board this station.”

  Pegreas seemed to be thinking it over. “How many do you wish to send to the surface?”

  “We can keep the survey team small in number.” Xonea watched the older male’s face. “Colonel, I give you my word, we will respect any restrictions you impose on my ship and crew.”

  “I will allow five to go down to the planet by the end of this day,” the colonel said at last. “You must dress in native garments and take only a small amount of equipment, which will be first inspected by my security officers. You may remain there for three or four days. At the end of that time, you will return to your ship and leave our space.”

  That was not nearly enough time, and I was about to say so when I felt Jylyj touch the back of my hand. I glanced at him, and he shook his head slightly.

  A security officer came in and briefly conferred with Pegreas in a low voice before leaving again.

  “My men have finished inspecting the ship,” the colonel said. “You appear to be everything you say that you are. Nevertheless, the ship will remain here, at the station. You will permit a security detachment to stay on board and monitor your crew’s activities as long as your survey team is on the planet.”

  Xonea stood and made a formal gesture of acceptance. “We thank you, Colonel.”

  I managed to wait until the supervisors left the conference room before I confronted my ClanBrother. “How are we to conduct a thorough planetary survey in just three days, with one team on the planet and the Sunlace kept under guard here?”

  “I would suggest you do it quickly,” Xonea said, his mouth hitching.

  “What they said does not make sense.” I rubbed the back of my neck. “Why prohibit all offworlders from visiting oKia if their dispute is with only members of the League?”

  “The League frequently uses alterforms to infiltrate hostile or dangerous species,” Jylyj said, startling me. “Doubtless they have encountered them in the past.”

  “Pegreas will not let us near oKia unless we accept his conditions,” Reever said. “I suggest we do so. Xonea, scan as much of the surface as you can from here. I’ll take a remote transceiver down to the planet and contact Uorwlan from there. The oKiaf trust her and her crew; perhaps she can help us negotiate for better terms and more time.”

  “Captain, with your permission, I will go and speak alone with Colonel Pegreas,” Jylyj said. “He is sympathetic to my people, and I may be able to ease some of his fears.”

  Xonea nodded. “Do what you can, but do it swiftly. If I have judged the length of their days correctly, the survey team must leave for oKia in four hours.”

  Nine

  I went with Reever to the survey lab to retrieve the equipment we would need on the planet and to check the black crystal. Qonja was waiting for us, and for once had a little good news—or so I thought at first.

  “The growth rate of the matrix has decreased dramatically over the last hour,” the Jorenian told us. “The amount of fluid in the center inclusion has tripled, and the surfaces are showing distinct flaws. It’s almost as if entering oKiaf space has in some way damaged it.”

  I went over to the plas chamber with Reever. The crystal no longer glittered, but looked old and cracked. The hollow space in the center of the shaft had bubbled outward toward the crystal’s surfaces, and the cloudy liquid inside seemed to be moving in a sluggish swirl.

  Reever scanned the container. “The atomic structure is losing cohesion.”

  “Hydrated silicates contain water in channel intersections,” Qonja said. “The fluid is only minimally bound in the crystal matrix and can be leeched from it through interstices. Perhaps it is the same with the black crystal.”

  “Such water inclusions don’t destroy the structure of the crystal when they are expelled or replaced,” Reever said. “The black crystal is not acting like a zeolite molecular sieve.” He gave it a thoughtful look. “It may be cannibalizing itself.”

  “What would make it do that?” As far as I knew, nothing had changed except the position of the ship. “Are we being exposed to some form of radiation unique to this part of space?”

  “None that registered on our sensor arrays,” Qonja answered. “If the deterioration continues, in a few days all that will be in that container is a puddle of black sludge.”

  I saw Reever frown, and asked Qonja if he would go and help Jylyj and Hawk prepare for the jaunt down to the planet. When we were alone, I touched my husband’s arm. “What is it?”

  “I don’t think it’s degenerating,” he said slowly. “This change has all the signs of a thermal disturbance, but there is no heat source; no vibration to cause the rotational motion of the liquid.”

  I thought of the resonant sound I had heard that no one else could detect. “What if the disturbance is a highfrequency signal or sound wave of some sort?”

  “Even if we couldn’t hear it, it would still register on our equipment. I did check when you said you heard that sound, but it was not detected at all by the monitors.” He set aside the scanner and brought me over to the console, where he pulled up a set of scans showing the crystal as it had been. “I made these scans yesterday, when the crystal was stil
l increasing in size. The readings indicated the inclusion fluid was composed of a plasmoid substance that contained no known elements.”

  “A liquid made of nothing?” It didn’t seem possible.

  “Here are the readings from the scan I just made now.” He downloaded the data from the portable scanner and put them up on the display beside the old readings. “The liquid now shows a growing concentration of the black crystal’s atoms. But they are not binding to each other. They’re floating in a suspended state. That’s why the liquid appears clouded.”

  I studied the two images. “So it is as Qonja says, and the crystal is deteriorating from the inside.”

  “We know the crystals can survive extreme pressures, temperatures, and radiation exposures, or they wouldn’t be able to travel through space. What if the crystals are more like the seed pods or spores of a botanical life-form? They may be able to remain dormant for long periods of time—millennia, perhaps—until the conditions are right for them to awaken and germinate. Then the crystal breaks itself down into individual atoms. Atoms that can grow like seeds.”

  “But why now?” I glanced out the viewport at the blackness of space. “Nothing has changed on the ship. You haven’t warmed the container or tried to stimulate the crystal, have you?”

  “No, but we’ve just entered a solar system with an inhabited world.” Reever met my astonished gaze. “Jarn, I don’t think traveling into oKiaf space has damaged the crystal. I think proximity to oKia has caused it to germinate.”

  I shook my head. “If that were true, then bringing the crystal to Joren would have done the same thing. It did not change while you kept it on the Moonfire.”

  “Not if the awakening process takes a significant amount of time. Bringing it to Joren may have only started the process.” He came and looked out at the brown-green planet the ship was approaching. “Or there is something on oKia that is stimulating it that was not present on Joren.”