Dream Called Time (18 page)

“Oh, they’re going to do that, too,” I assured her. “Their creation of the black crystal almost wipes out their species. The few survivors become shape-shifting criminals and killers who forget about all the nasty things their ancestors did.”

She sighed. “And this is all the information you have?”

“This is what is happening in my time,” I corrected. “What you told me was my reason for being. In the future, you created me to be immortal so that I would live long enough to find a cure for the black crystal. But there is no cure, Maggie. It can’t be destroyed, or reasoned with, or sent someplace where it can’t do any harm. It’s infected nearly every inhabited world in my time. It’s caused billions of species to suffer and become diseased or insane and die terrible deaths, and that’s just while it’s been napping. Someday it’s going to wake up and start eating worlds, and no matter how long I live, I won’t be able to stop it.”

“You are immortal?” She inspected me from my head to my footgear and back again. “How did I make you so?”

“I don’t care,” I snapped. “Didn’t you hear a word of what I just said? Billions of beings are going to die unless you stop the Odnallak from trying to follow in your footsteps. You have to keep them from creating the black crystal.”

“But you are here,” she said. “I created you, you said, to cure this black crystal. Thus, the black crystal cannot be destroyed or averted by me as I am now.”

“You can still do something now,” I insisted. “You can change the future.”

“Obviously I cannot,” she said. “If I had tried and were successful, you would never have come here, Cherijo. You would not exist.”

Eleven

As much as I hated to admit it, Maggie was right. If there were some way for her to prevent the black crystal from being created, I would never have come to Jxinok. I’d have winked out of existence the moment the events that led to my timeline were altered. No black crystal, no reason for her to create me in the future.

I wandered back into the interior chamber, absently admiring the crystal version of the valley of the waterfalls. They really were beautiful, especially the tiny, interlocking specimens she’d used to form the flowing water; the play of light over them made them look just like real liquid. Then I frowned and bent closer.

The water crystals were three-sided.

So were the green crystals she’d used to form the flora around the falls, and the golden brown crystal she’d shaped into the rocky ledges.

I didn’t let myself get excited until I inspected a dozen more sculptures and confirmed my suspicions.

Maggie joined me in front of a wall installation where one of the cluster dwellings had been reproduced in opaque white and gold crystal. “What are you doing?”

“All of these crystals you’ve used for your artwork have three sides.” I turned to her. “Do all the crystals on this planet grow in the same formation?” She nodded. “Do any of them generate power?”

“All of them are alive,” she said, “until we harvest them. The process strips the organics from them. Do you wish me to escort you back to your ship?”

“How do you harvest them?” I pressed. “By hand?”

She frowned. “Why would we do that? What does it matter?”

“Tell me how you do it and I’ll leave,” I promised.

“We use the collectors.” Bored now, she walked over to one of the empty recesses I’d noticed before. “We think of the colors and sizes we need, and the collector gathers the crystals and deposits them here.”

“Show me.”

“You said you would leave if I told you. I have.” When I didn’t budge, she exhaled heavily and turned to the alcove, bracing both hands on either side. She closed her eyes, and a moment later a small heap of dark purple crystals appeared in the bottom of the alcove.

I stared at the crystals. “What if they’re not suitable? Can you send them back?”

“Of course.” She repeated the process, and the dark purple pile disappeared.

“Does the collector work only for you, or can others use it?”

“It is keyed to read the thoughts of any who activate it,” she said.

“Thanks.” I ran to the nearest exit cylinder.

Shon stood waiting just outside the dwelling. As I emerged from the lowest level, I cleared my thoughts. I didn’t know if he could read my mind, or even if what I had planned would work, but I had to try.

I waved at him. “Healer Valtas, I need you in here.”

He slowly walked toward me. “What is it?”

“Something wonderful,” I said. “A cure.”

He stopped and shook his head. “No cure.”

“They’ve just discovered it,” I said. “It will change everything for us. Please, hurry.”

He fell for it, and followed me into the dwelling. I stopped in front of one of the collectors and turned to him, smiling.

“You see?” I gestured to the interior of the alcove. “It’s all right there.”

He peered inside. “I see nothing.”

“I know. I’m lying.” I shoved him inside. “Sorry.”

I braced my hands in the same places Maggie had, closed my eyes, and focused. I didn’t know how to tell the collector to do as I wanted, so I just imagined it: the protocrystal being pulled out of his body and sent back where it belonged, back in space. Then I imagined Shon alive and well again.

I heard Shon make a strange sound as something bright shone against my eyelids. Then the entire dwelling began to shake, and just as abruptly stopped.

“Cherijo?”

I opened my eyes to see Shon standing inside the recess. He looked bewildered.

“Where are we?” He glanced around him. “Why am I in here?”

“It worked.” Exhausted but satisfied, I dropped my hands. “Too bad I can’t fit the
Sunlace
in one of these things.”

Maggie joined us and looked from the oKiaf to me and back again. “What have you done?”

“I removed the crystal infecting my friend’s body,” I told her, “and now we’re leaving. It’s not really been fun. Bye.”

“Wait,” Maggie called after us as I led Shon out of the dwelling.

“All she’s wanted me to do is get out of here,” I said to Shon, “but the minute I go, she wants me to stay. It’s really sad, how these higher-evolved life-forms can never make up their mind. How are you feeling?”

“Tired.” He flexed his paws. “You said I was infected with another crystal.”

“Yeah, whatever is all over the
Sunlace
got inside you. I think it was an accident, but it decided to spring me from the ship and bring us down here.” I glanced to the side as Maggie caught up with us. “What do you want now?”

“You are more interesting than I thought,” she said. “I wish to speak to you now.”

“You had your chance.” Treating her like
she
was the stupid primitive was probably unwise, given how much power she and her people had, but I wanted a little payback. And then something clicked. “There is nothing for us here. We’re going back to our ship.”

“Wait.” When we didn’t, she added, “Please.”

I stopped and turned around. “Say
pretty please with sugar on top
.”

“Why would I . . . ?” She saw my expression and quickly added, “Pretty please with sugar on top.”

I was starting to enjoy myself. “Now apologize to my friend.”

Maggie eyed Shon. “I have done nothing to him.”

“He was in trouble, and you did nothing to help him.” I folded my arms. “Well?”

“I apologize to you for my inaction,” Maggie said to Shon.

The oKiaf glanced at me. “This is unnecessary.”

“No, pal, this is what we call fun.” I regarded Maggie. “You know, you may be an omnipotent life-form on the brink of attaining evolutionary perfection, but you’re also rude, inconsiderate, and selfish. We’re not interested in you anymore. Have a nice ascension.”

Maggie followed us all the way back to the launch. Shon looked over his shoulder a few times, but I acted as if she weren’t there. I had the feeling that Maggie had never been ignored or dismissed in her life, especially by two primitives who should have been worshipping at her feet. I was gambling that the novelty might work in our favor.

“You cannot leave now,” I heard her say as Shon and I started up the ramp. “I wish to know more about you. Why did you decide to put the male in the collector? How were you able to operate it? Your mind is too—”

“Primitive?” I gave her a snide smile. “Maybe it is and maybe it isn’t. Guess you’ll just have to wonder about that forever.” To Shon, I said, “Come on, we’re done here.”

“I will go with you,” Maggie said. When she saw my expression, she added, “If I may. Pretty please? With the sugar on top?”

“I don’t know,” I said, tapping my footgear on the ramp. “You’re useless and nasty, and those are your
redeeming
qualities. We have a lot of work to do to repair our ship and return to our own time. You’ll probably only get in the way.”

“I will help you with this work,” she offered.

Bingo.

On the jaunt back to the
Sunlace
, Shon took my lead and treated Maggie almost as brusquely as I did. By the time we were on final approach to the launch bay, Maggie had asked us a dozen questions that we hadn’t answered, a situation that dumbfounded her as much as when I told her to shut up while Shon attempted to signal the ship.

“There is too much interference,” he said, and changed the external viewer to display the transceiver array. Like the rest of the ship, it was encased in protocrystal. “That may be why our relays are jammed.”

“Jxin crystal absorbs all forms of differentiated energy,” Maggie put in. “You must align your devices to transmit at the same frequency for it to pass. As you did on the larger ship when you came here.”

“We didn’t change the frequency of our signals when we came out of the rift.” I scanned the protocrystal and used the readings to calibrate our transmitter.

“Someone did,” Shon murmured back to me.

“
Sunlace
Command, this is Healer Cherijo Torin,” I signaled, using the new frequency. “Respond and confirm.”

“Lieutenant Fasonea Torin confirming your signal,” I heard one of the helm officers reply over the clear relay. He sounded relieved. “It is good to hear your voice, Healer. Are you in distress?”

“No, Lieutenant.” We might be if what I planned didn’t work. “Stand by, please.” To Shon and Maggie, I said, “We have to get into envirosuits. Right now.”

Shon didn’t question my order, but Maggie began to argue at once. “My body is inviolate. I do not need this outerwear. Why are you doing this? You have breathable air in this vessel. These suits are badly designed.”

I ended up shoving her into the envirosuit like an impatient mother dressing a fussy child. When she tried to struggle, I grabbed her chin. “Enough. You’re wearing the suit, or I’m going to save myself a lifetime of grief and toss you out of the air lock.”

“That will not harm me,” she said.

“No, but it will give me a great deal of pleasure to see you encased in ice and floating around out there.” I jammed the helmet over her head and sealed it to the collar of the suit.

Once we were all in protective gear, I went back to the console and signaled Fasonea again. “Lieutenant, please notify launch bay that we’re on approach.”

“Launch bay remains inoperable, Healer,” Fasonea said quickly. “Do not attempt to dock. You will collide with the ship.”

“It’s all right, Lieutenant,” I replied. “We’ve taken some safety precautions.”

“Healer, do not approach, I repeat—”

I shut down the relay and turned to Shon. “Fly straight at the access doors,” I said over my suitcom. “Slow and steady.”

He brought the launch around into docking position. “What if they do not open?”

I watched the ship as we drew closer. “Then we’re going to make a great big dent in the hull.”

The launch’s com panel lit up as we drew closer. I kept my eye on the doors, and the glittering crystal filling the seams.

“Come on,” I muttered. “You took us off, you can let us back on.”

Collision was imminent, and while I knew it wouldn’t completely destroy the launch, slamming into the
Sunlace
wasn’t going to do great things for it, either.

Slowly the crystal oozed out of the seams, and a gap appeared in the center of the doors. Someone on the other side had wisely engaged the air lock, so this time nothing was blown out into space. Then we were flying into the ship, hovering for a moment in the massive air lock as the doors closed behind us, then moving forward and landing on the docking pad.

“How did you know it would allow us access?” Shon asked me.

“I didn’t,” I admitted. “But if we had hit the ship, its orbit would have towed our wreck alongside it for a couple of hours, which would have given the crew enough time to come out on tethers and rescue us.”

“Assuming we survived the collision,” he amended.

“It was a risk.” I saw half the engineering crew running toward the launch, led by the captain. “But you and I can survive pretty much anything, and as loudmouth back there has so often reminded us, she’s inviolate.”

“I want to take this suit off now,” Maggie complained from the passenger compartment.

We removed our envirosuits while the launch went through biodecon, and then lowered the ramp. Xonea was the first one on board.

“Are you injured?” he demanded, eyeing Shon with a less-than-friendly glower.

“We’re okay. Before you declare anything, I Shield Healer Valtas. Shon was not responsible for what happened.” I gestured vaguely at Maggie. “She was.”

“You blame me?” She looked astonished. “I did nothing to bring you primitives here, Cherijo.”

“No,”I agreed, “but someday you will.”

While Maggie wandered around the launch bay to examine its equipment, Shon and I quickly briefed Xonea on what had happened on the planet and the complete lack of interest the Jxin had taken in us.

“I’m positive they didn’t have anything to do with bringing us here,” I added. “We’re nothing more than a nuisance to them.”

“If they are not concerned about our presence, then why has she come to the ship?” he asked.

“I lured her here. She’s young, and for a Jxin, she’s fairly stupid. But the protocrystal wanted me to see her people as well as talk to them. It seems to be the real reason we were brought here.” I watched her inspect one of the security guards as if he were nothing more than an exotic bug. “I have to find out more about the Jxin of this time.”

“It would be better to send her back to the surface,” Xonea said. “If her people are as powerful as you say, then she could do a great deal of harm to the ship or the crew.”

“That would require her to actually give a damn about us,” I told him. “Which she doesn’t. Generally speaking, we barely register on her radar.”

“We might convince her to help us return to our time,” Shon said. “If we can hold her interest for that long.”