Crystalline Coil: Return of the Coil
The Law of Unintended Consequences
A message issued from the sapphire directly into the panel, "Ecava commander, please stop. Unless my planet is returned to normal space, all my people will perish. We who do not know loneliness will separate and die, cold and dark."
"I must fire a kinetic beacon to bring the planet back," Rissan said. "But I must deactivate ECM to do it. If you destroy us, the Crystalline Coil will be irretrievable.”
The primate face continued to scowl. “Proceed. If you lie, you die.”
Rissan turned from the panel, his hand still holding the crystal in the energy beams.
"Deactivate ECM. Stand down weapon systems. Fire a kinetic beacon at planet coordinates. Retrieve planet."
Dead in space, the task force followed his orders under the guns of the Ecava commander. They waited, silent as space.
The continuous energy beams brought more sparkle to Lapiz Lazuli. "Bring the others," she said, "I need them."
Rissan still touched the dark sapphire. He nodded to the yeoman on duty, and she ran to collect the other stones. She placed the diamonds around the sapphire, each diamond facet to facet with Lapiz Lazuli.
The diamonds had lost their fire as well, looking like milky quartz. Just as the diamonds began to clear and sparkle, the planet appeared.
Captain Ihrig Llah appeared again on the view screen. "Take your hostage back to her people."
"Not hostage," Lazulie said, her voice clear and strong, "Ambassador. We shall return to reintegrate my people."
"Agreed. We shall accompany you. If the Crystalline Coil lives, you live.” The simian face frowned deeply. “The Elder races extinguish those who would obliterate our youngling allies."
Rissan searched the log to find the planet's destination, but it was still in E-space. He kept one hand on the sapphire, feeling the energy return to it, his own mental and psychic energy rising as hers did. Had Saor felt this energy, this power?
"Launch Kinetic Beacon," he ordered. The missile tracked to the last known position of the planet and established orbit.
"Retrieve planet." Rissan spoke to Ihrig Llah, "Now we wait for the power-up sequence. In the meantime, I propose to allow Lapiz Lazuli to access our data banks, to share our knowledge as a means of compensation."
"This is acceptable. We shall help them raise their Knowledge Constant to make use of the information," the Ecava replied.
"How do I help you?" Rissan asked Lazuli.
"I can interface from here," she replied. "Just continue to focus the light on the console."
He backed away, watching the now glittering stones begin to arrange themselves again to cover each input pad while Ultra covered the readout.
Rissan went to sickbay.
The egg was in stasis, but the embryo was obviously dead, too mangled to be incubated. Rissan's digits clenched, and his tail twitched as he suppressed his emotions; he had never lost a child.
Its killer, Rissan's friend and first officer, lay in the next space, barely alive, curled into a tight fetal position, much the same as the embryo. His face still showed the shock—his eyes were wide open but fully dilated, unseeing, his arms clung to his lower legs, and his tail was tucked between his legs and under his head.
Rissan had seen Saor fight during space encounters with the strangest kinds of aliens, had gone brain-wired with him into neurotransmitter adventures, and had seen him imbibing with females of many species with no remorse or intention other than pleasure for pleasure.
How could he try to annihilate an entire race, especially one with so much profit potential?
The medical officer joined Rissan. "Sensory overload," he said. "I've seen a few wireheads like this on some of the pleasure planets, but he hasn't got a mark on him, except his brain. The activity is low, but stable. What hit him?"
"The mother of the egg," Rissan said.
"She's probably the only one who can shed any light on his prognosis. But they don't know much about us, either."
"They will now. Could I move him, maybe take him down to the planet?"
"It's risky, but I can't do anything else for him. Maybe they can."