Crystalline Coil: Blood from a Stone
Negotiations after a major diplomatic incident
Sholabo Saor paced his quarters. His commander faced danger below from these energy-focusing rocks. He’d even bred with them to produce some Slithy Crystalline thing. The hologram female laid a solid, viable egg/rock with a living, growing sibling inside, the necessary element necessary for diplomacy among equals.
There had been many such alien crossbreeds, but none had sprung off from a pile of rocks, none brought to life from the body of the commander from a piece of silicon. That the Crystalline Coil had known of the ancient ways chilled his very liver. This most unnatural act could not be excused by the sentience of the rocks; one does not have sex with rocks.
His conscience murmured; he had spent much time in the neural nets. Who was he having sex with at those times except himself? Well, that was natural—all species pleasured themselves. An uncontrollable craving came over him to get the sapphire, to make it fulfil his fantasies, or to crush it before it took over the ship and destroyed them all.
Saor shuddered as he approached the commander's quarters; his digestive system rolled and cramped, cold sweat beaded on his neck, and doubt fled from his mind.
Using his own password, Saor entered the commander's cabin. The helix of stones, sparkling in its column of light, had become a nest. He approached, but the hologram appeared between them in defensive posture, not yet snarling but wary. He could do nothing as long as she guarded the egg.
"Come to the command center and explain the proceedings Chiliarch Lazuli."
"Certainly." She approached him, keeping herself between him and the crystalline nest absorbing the energy beams. He could do nothing but escort her.
She watched, appalled, as the meeting took place. "You stupid waterbags! Can you not even follow your own procedures or at least ask how to meet the simplest protocol?"
"We did follow our procedures. You people are too strange to be our allies." Saor’s tail twitched in irritation.
"No reproduction without exploitation?” Lazuli quoted from their sacred writing. “We have a lot to learn from you. And you from us."
Not answering, Saor patched into the monitor of the TQT pod, filled by the scaly face of a hologram of Opal Cinnabar, both repellent and fascinating in its ugliness. He could feel the power of the Crystalline Coil pushing on the TQT like a force field; they must all be concentrating to create that kind of power. He would cut off the source.
He deployed the kinetic shield pods even as Rissan lifted through the atmosphere. Saor set the shuttle bay doors on automatic recovery, in case the commander wasn't able to navigate; then he prepared to leave orbit, taking the controls himself and full responsibility.
As soon as Rissan was on board, Saor activated the kinetic shield pods. He set no destination, away from normal space. He hoped those rocks below wouldn't understand or know what to do in time to keep their planet from being kicked into the energy-less depths of E-space. If energy was what they lived on, they'd soon learn who the Slithy Sibling Society was and not to trifle with them.
He located the coordinates of the nearest stargate and punched them in to navigation. The ship would be far away from the Coils' influence, and Saor would be able to reason with the Captain before they could try to exploit the Crystalline planet. He cut the energy support to captain's cabin, stripping it almost to vacuum.
Just as the Commander was snagged by the TQT bay, the planet of the Crystalline Coil vanished from normal space. The projection of Lapiz Lazuli registered shock and then dissipated like steam from a hot beverage.