Crystal Healer (40 page)

"Swap knew this. He, too, said it would happen--unless we can stop it before it awakens."

I threw my hands up. "How are we to stop something that we can't destroy?"

"I think that part of the message he meant for you." Reever took my hands in his. "He said you could stop it. By healing it."

I drew back. "Healing a mineral. Daevena Yepa, Duncan, how am I to do that? Rub it down with silica? Feed it iron supplements? It's not alive. It doesn't feel pain. It's barely organic."

"I can't tell you. Even with all his knowledge, Swap didn't know how it could be done, or I think he would have done it. That is why he sent the message to me and Shon; why he risked killing us to do so. He hoped that one of us would live and remember enough to tell you."

"Tell me what? Riddles with no answers? If he did not know how to heal the crystal, then how could he expect that of us? We are only . . ." I trailed off and closed my eyes as I realized the answer to my own question.

"We are immortal," Reever finished. "As he was."

"So if we do not die, we will have the time to acquire knowledge as he did. Then all we must do is formulate a cure. For sick rocks." Bitterness soured my voice. "For the sake of the universe, we must stay forever young and watch our friends, our allies, our daughter grow old and die."

Xonea came into the room. "It is good to see you awake, Duncan." He turned to me. "Jarn, there is something wrong with the Lok-Teel. They have gathered in one spot and have attached themselves to the deck."

"They're probably sleeping," I said. "They prefer to be stationary when they rest."

"They're in the survey lab, and they're not sleeping," my ClanBrother told me. "They appear to be melting."

Reever felt well enough to accompany me down the corridor to the survey lab, which remained sealed off from the rest of the ship.

"How did they get past the buffer seals?" Reever asked Xonea.

"An alarm went off a few minutes ago, indicating that the buffer had been breached, then reset itself. I came down to investigate." Xonea gestured toward the welded door panels to the lab. "That is what I found."

The door panels appeared as if they had been peeled away to form an uneven opening. In the center of the buffer field, a ring of Lok-Teel hung, tightly constricted. Beyond them lay a pile of more mold on the icy deck of the survey lab. Although the airless chamber was open to space, and should have frozen them solid, they seemed to be turning to liquid--melting, exactly as Xonea had described.

"Have you scanned the lab?" I asked, studying the bizarre scene.

"I attempted to," Xonea said. "Whatever is happening in there, it does not register at all on our equipment. My scanner does not even detect the mass of mold."

"They absorbed all of the crystal infecting Shon's body. It must be the reason they're melting instead of freezing." I turned and saw Reever's expression. "What is it?"

He grabbed my wrist and linked with me.
Go back to medical and wait for me there.

I'm not leaving you.
I squinted as a bright light erupted from the interior of the wrecked lab, and put up my hand to block it.

The Lok-Teel had disintegrated into a pool of clear liquid, which began to shrink in on itself as a column of light rose from the pool's center. The light intensified, turning all the alloy around it red with heat. Distantly, I heard alarms ringing and the pounding of running footsteps, but I could not move my eyes away from the light.

The column of light turned to semiliquid crystal, which flowed into the form of a humanoid being. As it solidified, the light dimmed, but the crystal remained transparent. The pool vanished under the feet of the crystal being.

It had no features or gender, only four limbs, a torso, and a head. When it moved toward the buffer, I was able to turn my head. Reever looked frozen. Xonea fell to his knees beside me and began murmuring a prayer to the Mother of All Houses.

I moved closer to the buffer, until there were only a few inches between me and the crystal being. I saw the protocrystal form a mouth on the front of the head, which smiled at me before it opened to speak. I heard its voice inside my head.

Were you able to defeat the mercenaries?
it asked.

"Yes," I said out loud. "Their ship was destroyed by the larval rogur."

The head nodded.
You and your comrades have done well, child.

It felt so familiar to me that I almost tried to reach through the buffer to touch it. "Who are you?"

The regular and periodic arrangement of atoms within a structure is a characteristic not only of crystals but of nearly all solid matter.
It spoke in Reever's voice, repeating his words to me.
In that sense, every inorganic thing you can touch is crystalline in nature.

"I don't understand." Frustration welled up inside me. "Are you alive? Are you the crystal?"

It didn't answer me.
Add something that is not--heat, radiation, a soul--and the structure is transformed or destroyed . . . or becomes something that cannot be named.

It was trying to tell me something important. "You mean that you have no name?"

Before the light was brought from the darkness, they had no name. Before the heavens were lifted above the earth, they had no name. Before the beginning was taken from the end, they had no name. Divided, they chase each other, always apart but forever longing for what was. Needing to be whole. To be healed.

"Are you Maggie?"

Light rayed out from its face, bathing me in a cool blue glow.
You know what you must do, Daughter.

I cried out as the light filled my eyes, my mind, and my soul. I felt Reever's hands pulling me away from the buffer as the crystal being dissolved into pure light. Only when it vanished did I understand what it had said, and what the crystal dreams had meant.

The time for the sacrifice had arrived.

I left the
Sunlace
, and found myself walking along a shore of amber sand. The waves lapped at my bare feet and drew back, leaving small, perfect
t'vessna
blooms on the shore.

Mama.

Marel came running to me, and I knelt and caught her in my arms.
My baby.
I held her tightly, burying my face in her hair.

Mama, don't leave me. Take me with you.

I drew back and looked into her tear-filled eyes.
Do you know how much I love you?

She nodded, sobbing.

Remember that, and I will always be with you.

I picked her up into my arms and carried her across the dunes, where Duncan stood waiting for us.

No.
He was shaking his head.
I waited. I believed. Not this. Not this.

I handed our daughter to him and kissed him.
Xonea was right,
Osepeke.
Nothing that is lost is gone forever. It is my turn to wait now.

He tried to hold me, but I eased away and turned to face the sea. Light from a figure walking out of the water beckoned to me.

I glanced back at the ones I loved, and then I slowly made my way down the sands.

She was beautiful and kind, and held my hand in hers.
You are ready.

That she had given me this time with Duncan and Marel made me strong enough to answer her.
Yes.

Then come, child.

Together we walked into the warm dark sea, and the last thing I heard before the waters closed over my head was Duncan Reever calling my name.

Someone carried me into medical and put me on a berth. I felt the hands of nurses and the cold touch of instruments. I must have sustained a head injury, because it certainly felt as if someone had bludgeoned me repeatedly with a blunt object.

"Her vitals are low but stable," a woman's voice said. "No evident injuries."

"She was exposed to some form of radiation." That voice belonged to Reever. "It had no effect on me or the captain."

I didn't remember any radiation, only pain and cold, and then a terrible explosion of light. I lifted my hand to my face and groaned. "Ouch." I tried to open my eyes and squinted. "Could you turn off that light please?"

"She is conscious and speaking, Linguist Reever," the nurse bending over me said.

I blinked a few times before my eyes focused on Duncan's face."My head hurts, that's all." I didn't like not knowing why, though. "What happened? Did we transition?"

A furry paw passed a scanner over my head. "No indications of radiation poisoning."

I didn't know the male standing over me, so I pushed the instrument away and propped myself up on my elbows. I was in the medical bay on the
Sunlace
--not where I remembered being. "What am I doing here?"

"You lost consciousness after the crystalline being vanished," Reever said. He brushed some hair back from my eyes. "I think she's all right."

I had no idea what he was talking about, but attributed that to trauma-induced amnesia. "Can I get off this berth? I'm sure someone else can put it to better use."

Reever helped me down and pulled me into his arms, hugging me so tightly I squeaked when I tried to breathe. "Forgive me," he said, setting me at arm's length. "I thought I had lost you."

"I'm right here." I didn't like the way everyone was staring at me. "Are there any wounded?"

"No. None." He kissed me.

I enjoyed the embrace, although I felt a little uncomfortable kissing my husband in front of the entire medical staff. Normally, Reever wasn't this demonstrative; I must have scared him pretty badly this time.

"Hey." I drew back and grinned. "I'm not going anywhere. Tell me about this crystalline being. How did it get on the ship?"

"The Lok-Teel liquefied themselves into a pool of protocrystal. The being formed itself out of their remains. I couldn't hear it, but I think it spoke to you." He cradled my face between his hands. "You don't remember any of it, do you?"

"No, but it seems like I'm a little blurry on a lot of things." I rubbed the sore spot just above my right temple. "You're sure I didn't hit my head on something? It feels like someone took a sledgehammer to it."

Reever's face turned to stone. "You know what a sledgehammer is?"

"A large hand tool used to smash holes in very hard things. Like my skull." I probed one temple and grimaced. "Whatever they did hit me with, it worked."

My husband grabbed my shoulders in an iron grip. "What is your name?"

"You've got to be kidding." I laughed, until I saw he wasn't. "Reever, I'm drawing a whole stack of blanks here, but I do remember my name, and yours, and . . ." I looked around me and didn't see a single familiar face. "Okay. Wait a minute."

Reever released me, and his hands fell to his sides.

The tall, furry resident who had been scanning me on the table put one paw on my shoulder. "Don't be afraid, Healer Jarn."

I didn't know who he was, but he was a little too touchy-feely for my liking. "Keep your paws to yourself, pal." So I turned to the one face I did know--my husband's. "Duncan, what the hell is going on? Who are these people? How did I get here?"

He didn't answer me. "Tell me your name."

"What, did
you
forget?" I laughed, but it made my head hurt. "Reever, it's me. Cherijo. Cherijo Torin Reever. Your wife."

He stared at me for a long time. "Jarn." He strode out of the room.

"Right." Utterly mystified now, I turned to the resident. "Who's Jarn?"

About the Author

S. L. Viehl
lives in Florida with her family. A USAF veteran, she has medical experience from both military and civilian trauma centers.