Crystal Healer (19 page)

"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 still 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."

That could be a hundred thousand different things, from the gravitational field around the planet to the radiant energy emanating from its sun. "If it is . . . germinating, as you say, and all of those atoms will grow and become new crystals, how long can we hope to keep it contained?"

He returned to the console and checked the readings. "The process will be completed in seven days."

"We should destroy it now." I thought of how suspicious the oKiaf had been. "The oKiaf will be monitoring everything we do, won't they?"

My husband nodded. "If we attempt to destroy it here, they may misconstrue our actions, especially if they retrieve the probe before it can fly into their sun."

If Pegreas retrieved the probe, he would surely open it. "We should never have brought it on the ship."

"I promise you," Reever said, "as soon as we leave the system, I will destroy it."

"If you don't, I will." I couldn't stand to look at the deadly thing another moment. "I'll meet you down in launch bay."

On my way to medical, I encountered Herea, whose cheerful face wore an uncharacteristic scowl.

"Healer Jarn," she said, making a quick gesture of greeting. "Is it true that the captain is not permitting any females to go to the surface?"

"No, for I am going," I said. "The oKiaf have only allowed us to send a team of five. Were there room for more, I would have you with us."

"It still does not seem fair that the Skartesh and that crossbreed are permitted to go." She gave me a guilty look. "Your pardon, Healer. I mean no disrespect. It is just that . . . this is my first sojourn away from the homeworld. I am very disappointed."

"Jylyj is the only member of the crew who has already visited this world," I told her. "I would take you and leave Hawk behind, but I need an experienced healer to run things here while we are gone." I put my hand on her shoulder. "Should anything go wrong and the oKiaf patrols attack the
Sunlace
, I am depending on you to keep the crew alive. You have reviewed your trauma protocols, have you not?"

"Five times." She hesitated, and then asked, "Think you they would attack us?"

"They are very suspicious, heavily armed males who already don't like us being here, and they have attacked other vessels in the past." I gave her a grim smile. "Should they try anything, I have no doubt the captain will respond in kind. Such battles often result in many casualties among the crew. You may have your hands full."

"We will see to their needs." She stood a little straighter. "I am honored by your trust in me, Healer."

I accompanied Herea back to medical, and took a few minutes with her to brief the nursing staff. Rather than issue orders, I instructed the nurses to follow Herea's instructions, and turned the briefing over to her.

Before I left, I leaned close to the intern and murmured, "You may do as you wish, but I would advise you have them run trauma drills while we are gone. It will keep them alert and well prepared for any real casualties. That, and it allows you to shout at them now and then, something I've always found helpful in stressful situations."

Herea nodded, her eyes glowing with amusement, and then turned back to continue the briefing.

I went to find Jylyj and Hawk, who were in the supply room. They had packed as many field supplies as could fit in the small cases we were being permitted to carry down to oKia; Qonja was just finishing rigging each case with shoulder straps.

As Qonja and Jylyj left to load the rest of our supplies on the glidecart, I went through one pack, squeezed in a few small hazardous-specimen containers, and then tested the weight of it by slinging it onto my back. "Good. We should be able to carry these without difficulty." I glanced at Hawk's wings. "With the exception of those of us who can fly."

Hawk grinned and showed me the waist and arm straps affixed to his pack. "I told Qonja to use a front sling, but he thinks I will not be able to take off from the ground with it hanging from my neck."

"You didn't have a problem snatching me off the shockball field, and I weigh more than that pack." I reached under my tunic to adjust my blade harness, and then saw Hawk's face. "Forgive me, I'll do this in private."

"No, it's not that." He gave me a searching look. "You remembered."

"Remembered what?"

"The day I took you from the field."

"It was the first time I ever saw you fly." My belly tightened, and then I understood his reaction. "No. Forgive me, I misspoke. It was the first time Cherijo saw you fly. You and I did not meet until some years later."

Hawk didn't let it go. "Jarn, can you see that day in your memory?"

I could, although I didn't want to admit it. Then I seemed to slip into a trance. "It was very bright. There were people, so many people, screaming at me. I stood on strange grass and held a silver sphere, the shockball, between my hands. It had been rigged to kill Duncan." I looked up at him. "By my brother."

He nodded slowly.

"You jumped from the top of the place, and your wings ripped your garment apart, and you flew down to me." I pressed a hand against my head, which now felt as if I were whirling around in a fast circle. "I think I'm going to be sick."

Hawk grabbed me to keep me from falling, and helped me over to the disposal unit. He supported me with one arm and held my hair back as I vomited. When I had emptied my belly, he wiped my face clean. "I will call for Herea."

"No." I took the cloth from him and wiped the tears from my eyes before I blew my nose. "Duncan saw it from the field. He gave me the memory of it. That is how I know." I took a deep breath and forced a smile. "Sometimes it is difficult to think of myself as two people. Forgive me, Hawk."

"Don't apologize." He seemed afraid of me now. "Jarn, are you sure you should go on this jaunt? No one would object if you chose to stay behind and rest."