Crystalline Coil

Can lizards and rocks learn to share their experiences with the meaning of life? Without starting a Galactic war?

First Contact

Captain Krocht Rissan

Captain Krocht Rissan perused the scan results and scratched behind his mandible with a custom-designed claw sheath. His saurian form stretched to relieve the kinks in his neck while peering at the displays.

"It says there's life, but no cities, no farms, not even a toxic waste dump...what kind of sentience is this?" His tail thumped in frustration. "Just a lot of rock formations—are you sure they have achieved local space travel?"

"We'll soon find out," Sholabo Saor, the XO said, "They've sent a floral pod in greeting and, I assume, the obligatory vaudevillian comic. I hope this one's not as perverted as that last one from the Clustermancers. I've never been so disgusted in my life. Why do species try to share comedy?"

"Sharing a sense of humor is the strongest basis for alliance," Rissan shrugged his short arms. "You can't trust someone who doesn't laugh at your jokes."

"You can't trust the ones who always do, either!"

A yeoman trucked in the pod, clutched delicately in her cobalt-studded claw. She opened it expertly to reveal a quadruple helix of glittering gemstones half a meter tall and a tenth across, intricately carved with the script in formal Kumieth calligraphy of a proverb of Thre'threth: "What goes around, comes around."

From the center rose a large sapphire crystal, nearly black in the subdued light of the room, yet transparent. It emitted a deep vibration, like some ante-millennium monkish mantra. The unexpected intonation startled the yeoman who dropped the helix, which toppled and sent diamonds skittering across the floor.

Rissan motioned the yeoman to stand still. Before he could speak, the large sapphire righted itself. It seemed to absorb light from its immediate vicinity, becoming opaque, and drew the scattered gems together through the air, to spiral into the original formation.

In the next second, the sapphire projected a holograph of a large female specimen of the Slithy persuasion.

She was as tall as Rissan himself, but wore much more fetching armor plate. Her scales shimmered iridescently, and she even seemed to breathe and sniff the air like the carnivores she appeared before.

"That doesn't look like a comic to me," the XO said, "Thank goodness."

Females had long ago won the right to fill any post in Thre'threth, but such a female as this was a rare sight. Exotic pheromones exuded from her, proffering friendship. Rissan had to remind himself sternly that she was merely a projection from a rock.

"I am Lapiz Lazuli, O Captain," said the projection, "Please forgive this apparition, but we have learned that the water-based races are more comfortable with life that looks familiar."

"I am Captain Krocht Rissan. Welcome to our vessel. Let me apologize for our clumsy handing of your exquisite gift, Chiliarch Lazuli. Its abilities are unknown to us."

"There is no need for apology," she said, "on your part. Our young ones were not sufficiently trained for this low-light environment. Sardonyx is a hot, dry world of long days, which makes us lazy. Now we shall do better. Try us."

The apparition stepped away from the helix. At a nod from Rissan, the XO tipped it over gently, to no effect, then picked it up by the top layer of stones. It was as if carved from one solid section.

"Drop it," said Lazuli, "It shall not break."

After a nod from Rissan, the XO raised it above his head and let go. The helix not only did not break but also settled down onto the gravity floor like a feather.

"You transmute energy directly? That is what you can teach us?" Rissan asked, his teeth gleaming. Her fragrance disappeared in the images he saw of conquest and commerce.

"I cannot speculate whether water-based intelligence can focus the energy in such a way," she turned her head and tapped a claw on her mandible, "but the silicates you use in your machinery can certainly be taught. We are at your service until then. These young ones are brought here to share in the learning and spread ourselves through your space."

"Did you say that these are your young?" Rissan stared at the helix of crafted gemstones. "We could not allow you to give us your children."

"Nor would we ask that." The blue female smiled, not showing her teeth. "We ask only that we be allowed to learn your ways and the ways of other sentient beings in the consortium you have organized. In return, we will serve you and the consortium with our many talents."

The XO jerked his head away from the projection and slid back towards the far partition. Rissan followed him a few meters away with a mumbled excuse. The XO's face was drawn, his teeth bared, and the skin around his breast armor white with tension.

"I don't know about this," he said, "I don't think we should let them in on our technology, much less into our hardware." He looked at the yeoman, who seemed fascinated by the helix, drawn like a bird to the eyes of a snake. "Diamonds may not be our best friends."

[This was originally written as part of a play-by-mail game.]

Next: Fatal Flaw - Index