Skylar Mars and the Crystal Claw

by Drew Seren

  “Hey, Skylar.” A hologram of Melody waved from the desk next to the table Del had been at.

  “Hey, Melody.” Skylar waved back. “So why aren’t you two in the tech lab banging away on this?”

  “All the lab time was booked for the next two days. I was lucky to get a slot on the MTUs about two hours before Phil is supposed to be here for you guys.” Del closed his eyes and rubbed his forehead. “I’ve got no idea why this happens, but it seems like right before breaks, everyone wants to get projects done.”

  “It’s so they can take things home and show their parents,” Melody chimed in. “Trust me. I know all about trying to impress your mother and father. Unfortunately, mine don’t impress easily.”

  “Right,” Del agreed. “So we’re stuck working on this remotely. We just can’t get past the thermal transfer problem. So far everything we’ve come up with either makes the simulations too warm, or not warm enough.” He glanced over at Filzbalm. “We really don’t want you to end up being a roasted Solar Drake.”

  “I don’t think I could be roasted.” Filzbalm flew over to Del’s desk and landed above the tablet. “My kind have evolved for the rigors of heat.”

  Skylar laughed as he looked over Del’s shoulder at the circuitry schematic on the tablet. “He doesn’t think he can be roasted,” Skylar relayed between the two of them. Filzbalm could only telepathically speak with fairly high-level readers, although sometimes he could make Solaria hear him if he shouted loud enough to give her a minor headache.

  “No?” Del picked up the stylus and tapped a couple of things on the tablet. A video simulation played out. A Solar Drake who looked a lot like Filzbalm had a small gold ring on his foreleg. A tendril of smoke started and the simulation frantically pulled at it, trying to slip it over its claws as its golden skin turned red, then blistered.

  “What in the world?” Skylar frowned as he leaned closer to the tablet. “Why is it doing that?” The image of the drake got the ring off, dropped it on the floor and held out its arm, showing the damage.

  “I created the simulation of Filzbalm with all the information I could get from him. Remember, we even managed to get Mrs. Knightingale to run him through the medical scanners last week. I put all that into the system so I could make sure I didn’t design something that would kill him by accident.”

  “It’s not been pretty.” Melody looked down at her hands. “We’re trying everything we can think of. With the micro-tech I can program into the MTU, we shouldn’t have a problem making the thing small enough; we just have to stop the overheating reaction.”

  Skylar didn’t know a whole lot about the station’s Matter Transformation Units, other than they had a set amount of programming for the basic things the students needed, and not much more. He’d never heard of people actually going in and programming them for special items, but it made sense considering how limited storage space was on the station. Almost everything that wasn’t in use was recycled down to its base atoms and reconstituted through the MTUs. Each student had so many MTU credits they could use to generate things, but they had to either work or recycle things to get the credits.

  Even though their time working in the farm area was punishment, they were still getting extra MTU credits. They’d decided they were going to all go in for the parts needed for Filzbalm’s protective device, whatever it ended up being. Skylar just hadn’t realized they were actually going to program it into the unit, and not get parts and then put everything together. He was leaving all the techie end of things to Del and Melody.

  “I just don’t know how to overcome the reaction.” Del huffed. “There’s got to be a way to put something like a circuit breaker into the design. That would stop it from overheating.”

  The hologram of Melody perked up. “Hey, that might be the answer. We haven’t tried adding any kind of breaker into the system after we added the amplifier.” She picked up a tablet and made some notes. The changes showed up on Del’s tablet almost instantly.

  Skylar looked at the new schematics over Del’s shoulder.

  Del hummed. “This might work. We’ve been trying a more complex regulator. Haven’t gone simpler.” He transferred the new information into the simulator.

  Again, the digital duplicate had the ring on its arm. Del zoomed in on the arm with the ring. There wasn’t any smoke rolling off it like there had been in the last simulation. The replica drake wasn’t acting like it was in pain. Del tapped the screen and a thermometer displayed an easy comfortable temperature around the ring and the Solar Drake’s arm.

  Pursing his lips, Del nodded. “Looks like this might be the answer.” He tapped his chin. “I just wish we could get MTU time with more than just a couple of hours to try it out. Filzbalm’s life might rest on this thing we’ve whipped up working correctly.”

  “I bet I can get it generated at home, then have it shipped over to us tomorrow,” Melody offered, then glanced down at something. “Looks like I’ve got just enough time to make it out on the mail ship heading this way and get it tomorrow evening at dinner.”

  “That should give us enough time to test things out, shouldn’t it?” Skylar asked. He liked the idea of getting the ring tested out before they left for Pantheria. He and Solaria had discussed the idea that if Del and Melody didn’t come up with something, then Filzbalm could spend the whole time they were there with Solaria’s folks inside Skylar’s clothes, but they agreed that might get uncomfortable for both of them. Solaria was also fairly sure they could heat at least one room of their house to something around Sol Three norm which would be warm enough for Filzbalm without any kind of augmentation. But he didn’t want to be separated from Filzbalm when he went on the adventures it sounded like Solaria was planning for them. He wanted the Solar Drake with him all the time. Since they’d finished bonding on Armstong’s Rings they hadn’t been more than a few feet apart.

  SKYLAR DID his best to hide his enthusiasm as he walked out of the cow barn with his three friends. Ms. Grissom and Professor Aduncus had decided they could have the last two days before break to themselves, to prepare for their final evaluations to wrap up the semester. They got to the main hall when Melody’s com beeped. She tapped it, and a message informed her that she had a package waiting for her in the.

  She grinned. “That’s got to be the ring.”

  “I thought it was supposed to be here yesterday,” Del grumbled as he shifted his bag to his other shoulder.

  “I guess the house’s replicator didn’t get it made in time to make the mail,” Melody said, then looked down at her shoes. “Or I might’ve miscalculated what time it was at home and it might have been too late to get here yesterday.”

  Skylar didn’t care. They had two more days before break started and he wanted to make sure the ring was going to work the way Del and Melody thought it would. “It doesn’t matter—let’s go get it and try it.”

  “Have you figured out how we’re going to test it?” Solaria asked as they all changed course and headed toward the mailroom.

  “We could put it on Filzbalm and let him go with you to your room,” Del said. “There’s enough of a temperature difference that the ring should become active.”

  “But the difference isn’t as much as it’s going to be if he gets caught out in a spring storm.” Solaria opened the door to the mailroom and held it for all of them.

  “Then what do you want to do?” Del snapped. He’d been really grumpy the past few days. At first Skylar had thought it was because he and Melody were having problems finding out how to protect Filzbalm from the cold, but he had quickly decided it was something else. He wanted to find out what was wrong before they left on break, in case it was something he’d done without realizing it.

  Solaria shrugged. “We could take him into the freezers in the kitchen. That should tell us for sure.”

  “As long as it doesn’t cause me to smoke like the simulation did, I don’t really care,” Filzbalm said.

  “I agree,” Skylar said, stopping r
ight behind Melody as she approached the mail lady, a large woman of a race he couldn’t immediately identify. Her skin was a dark green and her hair was a vivid, verdant hue he’d never seen before.

  “You think it would be a good idea to take him to the freezer?” Del shot Skylar an indignant glance.

  Skylar rolled his eyes. “Filzbalm just said he doesn’t care what we do as long as he doesn’t start smoking. We don’t need him getting burned by this ring.”

  “I don’t think he will,” Melody said as she turned back to them with a small plastic mail carton in her hands. “Now, let’s go open this and see if it works. Since I’m a girl, I can go with him and Solaria to her room and see what happens. You two will have to wait out in the hall.”

  “Sounds good.” Skylar was used to the security measures Stars’ End had in place to make it difficult for students to have much time alone in non-public places. Girls and boys were not allowed in each other’s rooms. A biometric force field stopped people with the wrong genes from entering.

  “Okay.” Melody stopped at the MRU just inside the mailroom to drop the mailing carton in so it could be recycled. She handed the smaller box to Skylar. It was black and hinged.

  Skylar opened the box and saw a small platinum ring lying inside. He picked it up and inspected it. There was a series of extremely tiny lines of circuitry across its surface that sparkled slightly in the light.

  “Looks right to me,” Del said, peering over his shoulder. “But I’d need to look at it under magnification to make sure everything is correct.”

  “Do you want to do that before we try it out?” Skylar handed him the ring.

  Solaria took it before Del could. “Do you have your tablet with the schematics?”

  “Duh.” Del glared as he pulled his tablet out of his shoulder bag. He pulled up the diagram of the ring that Melody had sent to have printed and showed it to her.

  She wrinkled her brow, causing one of her rosettes on her forehead to nearly close as she looked at the tablet, then at the ring. After a minute of glancing back and forth between the two, she handed the ring to Del. “You can check it if you like, but from what I know of the electronics, it appears to be the same.”

  “And you can tell that with the unaided eye?” Skylar asked.

  “I’m a predator. I’ve got excellent eyesight.” She turned and headed out of the mailroom.

  Skylar hurried to keep up with her. “That’s your answer to just about everything, isn’t it?”

  She shrugged. “Sometimes. But it’s the truth.”

  He couldn’t doubt her a bit. He’d seen her in action more than once, and she could be downright scary when she wanted to be.

  “Yeah, but this is still Filzbalm we’re talking about,” Del said, stopping in the mail hall. “If it’s okay with you, I’d like to check it out with my own eyes.”

  “Mine too,” Melody said. “It should be fine, but I agree with Del.”

  Solaria kept walking toward the cafeteria. “You two do that. I’m going to get something to eat. You know where to find me when we’re ready to test this thing out.”

  “I’d like to eat now too,” Filzbalm said from Skylar’s shoulder. “If it’s going to be a few minutes before we’re ready to test the ring.”

  “Okay.” Skylar glanced at Del. “We’ll go with her—take your time and make sure everything’s good. I’m with you—I don’t want anything to happen to him.” Skylar had learned from the researchers on Armstrong’s Rings that a bonded Solar Drake died when the person they were bonded with did, but they hadn’t said what would happen to him if something befell Filzbalm. For both their sakes, he wanted to make sure everything was as close to perfect as possible before they tried something new.

  “We’ll be back in a few minutes. We should be able to borrow a magnifier without upsetting anyone currently using the lab, as long as we’re quick.” Del glanced at Melody, who nodded, then they took off down the hall. By the time Skylar looked back toward Solaria, she was stalking through the door to the cafeteria and he had to dash to catch up with her. Like he normally did when Skylar broke from a walk, Filzbalm took to wing and quickly caught up to Solaria.

  “You’re okay with them double checking things, aren’t you?” Skylar asked as he caught up with her at the tray pickup.

  “Sure. I’m used to folks not taking everything I see for granted.” She started down the line.

  There was something in her tone that made Skylar worried she was a little irritated with Del and Melody for doubting her. One of the first things he’d learned about Pantherians in general, and particularly Solaria, was that cat people were moody. He decided to keep quiet until they reached the table.

  Since they were the only two at the table, he put his tray across from hers. “You know, we’ve spent all this time getting Filzbalm ready for the climate, but you haven’t said anything about what I’m going to need.”

  “How cold tolerant are you?” She didn’t look at him as she cut into her food.

  He set Filzbalm’s food off to the side before answering. “Hummassa was a tropical world, so not very.”

  “Then after we test the ring, we need to spend some of your MTU credits and get you a coat, gloves, hat, heavy pants, boots…unless they happen to have a thermal suit programmed in and you’ve got enough for it. Then we’ll just get you one of those to wear under your regular clothes and you should be fine.” She shook her head, then looked up. “Things aren’t as bad as everyone claims. Just because all the inhabitants of Pantheria have fur, everyone thinks the climate is really awful. Trust me. Things won’t be as miserable as they would if we went in winter. You do realize there are worlds that even we find too cold to deal with.”

  “And most of them are fairly small with extremely thin atmospheres.” Although Skylar wasn’t great at Universal Cartography, he had done a bit of research on Pantheria and similar planets. Pantheria was one of the larger cold worlds that could still support life. Most of the other large cold worlds were too far from their sun to sustain life, while many of the other cold worlds were small and had little to no atmosphere.

  “And we’re lucky we aren’t going to any of them,” Solaria said as she cut another piece of her meat, then slowly chewed.

  For a couple of minutes, silence settled over the table until Del and Melody came back, looking very happy.

  Del held the ring out to Filzbalm. “Looks just like what we sent over. Should work just like the simulation did.”

  Filzbalm took the ring. It looked almost boulder-like in his tiny talons. “It doesn’t feel dangerous.”

  Skylar chuckled as he finished his last bite of salad. “He said it doesn’t feel dangerous.”

  “It isn’t.” Del stood there for a moment as Filzbalm slid the ring on. It was so large that he had to push it up to his upper leg for it to stay on. On his lower leg, it kept sliding down and hitting the top of his claws.

  “Are you going to get something to eat?” Solaria asked.

  “Can we go test it first?” Del countered. “I’m too nervous right now to eat.”

  Solaria looked at her empty plate. “I guess so.”

  “Good,” Melody said. “‘Cause I’m with Del. I can’t eat until we know if this is going to work.”

  Skylar and Solaria rose, and as a group, they hurried out of the cafeteria to Solaria’s room.

  “How long are we going to need to be in there before we know something?” Solaria asked as Filzbalm lighted on her shoulder and wrapped his tail around her neck.

  “Not long,” Melody replied, holding up her tablet. “I’m going in with you and can monitor the ring. I figure it should kick in right after you cross the threshold.”

  Del nodded. “I agree. We should know something fairly quickly.

  A needle of fear lanced through Skylar. He didn’t like the unknown, and not having any other way to test the ring beyond Filzbalm going in to try and get it to turn on made him nervous. “If anything goes wrong, you get him out here as f
ast as you can.”

  Solaria reached up and stroked Filzbalm’s head. “I will.”

  “I can get myself out if someone leaves the door open,” Filzbalm added as he nuzzled Solaria’s hand so she’d scratch him behind the tiny orange horns he was growing.

  That made Skylar feel a little better. “Yeah, good point. Leave the door open.”

  “As long as the others don’t object,” Solaria said, taking a couple of steps toward the door. “Don’t forget that I live with three other people, just like you do. They might be in the middle of something they don’t want you looking in on.”

  Skylar sighed and rolled his eyes. Drawing things out like this made it worse. “Okay. Fine. Get in there and let’s see if this is going to work.”

  “Just relax, Skylar,” Solaria said. “Everything’s going to be all right.” She opened the door and put her hand across it so it wouldn’t close on Melody before stepping through herself.

  The biometric shield flashed, knocking Filzbalm backward as Solaria shrieked and an alarm sounded in the halls.

  “What just happened?” Skylar offered his arm to Filzbalm so he could land.

  Solaria turned toward them, her hand going to her shoulder where Filzbalm had left several long scratches, so deep that blood was oozing out and discoloring her gray fur.

  “This room is for girls only,” an electronic voice rang out in the hall. “Boys are not allowed past the doorway.”

  “Interesting.” Del cocked his head and looked from the door to Filzbalm. “I guess Ms. Grissom updated the biometrics to identify Filzbalm as male. Since he’s officially a student here, that makes sense. I wasn’t expecting the shield to keep him out of Solaria’s room.”

  “I wasn’t either,” Solaria said as Melody appeared from the bathroom with a towel for her to press over the scratches. “Little guy, you’ve got some sharp claws. Your predator came out.” She didn’t sound mad, which made Skylar happy.