Crystalline Coil: Anima Rising
Meeting the Matrix Focus of the Crystalline Coil
The XO spent the third watch in negotiation with Lapiz Lazuli. She left the hologram guarding the egg in Rissan's quarters; he preferred to address her in her true form, wondering if she was in fact, the hard polished facade she appeared to be. The XO reported further communications with the planet; Rissan received an invitation to meet the Matrix Focus, Opal Cinnabar herself.
"Don't do it, Captain," the XO said as Rissan stepped into the TQT pod. His EVA suit fortified the armor plate with energy collection devices and organics recycling systems. Rissan looked formidable, but no one could know what the rocks would or should see. “You’re already under their spell. There’s no life down there—no water, no air, nothing.”
“You’ve spent many hours with me in deep space and on hostile planets; you know I can handle it.” Rissan cuffed him lightly on his dorsal ridge. “And I know you can handle things from here. From here on, if necessary. Think about the damage they could do with a little help from some of our adversaries.”
“I’m just concerned about the damage to a friend.”
“Me, too, XO. I’m taking them some of our gemstones as a gift. The usual plants and trinkets seem inappropriate.”
“Just be careful, Captain.”
“Always.”
***
The TQT pod landed in an aperture apparently designed just for him. Structures of intricately shaped stones—multicolored, transparent and opaque, glittering and matte—soared in three-dimensional patterns of arches, naves, buttresses and walls. Lines of obsidian led his eyes to a sparkling tower dozens of meters across and tall. A walkway of marble led up a ramp to a huge cabochon of cinnabar, red stone with fiery opal inclusions; it was half a meter in diameter and nearly a meter tall, supported by a phalanx of sturdy quartz crystal pillars. The Matrix Focus sent a greeting through his comm system.
"Welcome, Captain Rissan Rissan, of the Slithy Sibling Society of Thre'threth. Approach. Receive greeting from Opal Cinnabar, Matrix Focus of the Crystalline Coil."
Rissan walked up the ramp. Beings with no moving parts had little use for body language, but he strode just as he would towards his own racial leader. He gave the proper salute for the Emperor of Emperors, hoping that the Matrix would read his intentions and not too many of his thoughts.
"Greetings from the Slithy Sibling Society of Thre'threth, O Matrix Focus Opal Cinnabar, of the Crystalline Coil. As a token of our gratitude for your exquisite gift, we have brought you gems of our world, so that we may understand each other better on a common ground."
A projection appeared before him of a small male, prepubescent, who received the stones. These were the largest diamonds known to the Sibling Society before meeting with the Coil, all cut from the same stone, perfectly matched and flawless. The projected male took the case without a glance and carried them to the cubic prominence that rose silently before the Matrix. When he opened the case to display its contents, he screamed, collapsed, and dissipated.
A sound arose from the structure, like the sound of claws on slate at 100 decibels. Rissan knew the vibrations could not carry across the airless space, but he heard and felt it in his bones.
The red cabochon glowed with deadly light; the electromagnetic energy from her anger struck sparks from his dress armor plate. He thought of gamma rays and other deadly energies. A scarlet laser beam drew a spiral around the gems, spinning them and drawing them together into a tight mass. With a lightning flash that nearly blinded him, the gems disappeared.
"Captain Krotch Rissan, leave this planet. We accept that you do not understand us, but we restrain ourselves from evaporating you with great difficulty."
Rissan strode back into the pod, which skylifted immediately, pinning him to his comm pad with more G-force than the TQT was capable of producing. They were pushing him away. Another projection appeared on his comm screen, a coruscating red, scaly matriarch thousands of stardates old.
"Your gift," it said, "was to us like a necklace given to a mother, fashioned of the polished skulls of her aborted children. We shall attempt to regenerate them, and I shall attempt to prevent my platoons from attacking your race."
The image of her words hung in Rissan's mind like the odor of a warthog breaking wind long after the hog has moved on. "Matrix Focus, forgive us. I did not understand. Perhaps plant life or some other..."
"Speak to Lapiz Lazuli if you would make amends." The comm panel crackled and went dead. He had another Crystalline Coil to face on his return.