Chapter 10

Chapter 10

A s there was no way of knowing what sort of minerals had come into the ship, I wore a protective suit that would protect me against most anything. The lesson on the suit’s usage, which enabled traveling in space without the benefit of a ship, consumed two hours. Taesinn kept me company the entire time, and he got to wear a suit, too. The young Veloc’s excitement intrigued me.

Like me, it was his first time wearing one — or at least wearing one while with his clan.

I wasn’t sure which, and I once again wondered at his past.

I also wondered at his future — and mine.

Once I’d convinced Lashanni I wouldn’t destroy the expensive suit, she sent me into the cargo bay with a bucket of tools.

“All right, Kithya. Taesinn will be around to help you lift heavier pieces, but as we don’t have planet buster tools, nor would we ever carry them on our vessels, you will have to extract the shiftgems by hand. This will be therapeutic for you, I’m sure. You enjoy working with your hands. And no need to worry about Persistence, Stupid, and Sweetheart. They are having a good time. We are teaching your ghost bird how to better hunt in the other cargo bay, and your bounders are enjoying time running about and being fed treats.”

As I had a tendency to worry about my bird and bounders, I smiled. “Thank you. How do I do this?”

“You see the little hammer with a spike on the end?”

“I see it.” I sat on an open part of the floor near a stone half the size of my body. “This looked a lot smaller from the command room.”

“Yes. I was quite surprised at your visual acuity. You saw the gleams before the rest of us. But things like that happen. Shiftgems can be rather… aware.”

“They’re sentient?” I blurted.

“Some are. Some aren’t. The stones decide as they will. Take the pointed end and tap at the stone to see how hard it is. Some stones will crumble and reveal the shiftgems beneath. Some are harder and will require a chisel and the other end of your hammer to break free. When you need to move the larger stones, Taesinn can help you — and if he can’t, he can lift you so you can sit on top of the stone and work on it from the top. Some of them are more boulders than stones. I can also lower gravity if needed, but that can be dangerous with the amount of material in here. In good news, I am not detecting much in the way of radiation. It’s within acceptable parameters, although your suit is protecting you from any exposure.”

“All I need to do is hit the rocks with the pointy end?”

“Don’t hit the parts that glitter,” she instructed. “Feel free to put everything you’ve got into it. Therapy comes in all forms, and sometimes, a little violence is good for the soul. And if you damage the suit, well, that’s my fault for arming you and setting you loose. And if you do damage the suit, Taesinn will drag you out into the hall and remove your helmet so breathing does not become an issue. Just try not to break his suit. His is a great deal more expensive than yours, and we just got it in. His had to be custom made due to his size.”

Ah. That explained the excitement. “I won’t break his suit, but I make no promises about mine.”

“Perfect. Take all the time you need. Someone will be by to feed you at the appropriate intervals, and if you tire yourself out, I’m sure Taesinn can get you back to your quarters. He’ll be tracking the oxygen supply to your tank, and he’ll handle the refills as needed. Have fun!”

Well, if Lashinna wanted me to get violent with the rocks, I would have zero problems doing as told. It wouldn’t change anything, but at least I’d tire myself out and discover what the reddish stones hid beneath the surface.

***

I questioned how the rocks had held their shape in the void of space without the assistance of gravity. The reddish stones flaked away at the lightest touch, and a harder whack with my hammer sent a shower of powder falling to the floor, leaving behind the shining crystals hidden within the rocks. “Is this normal, Lashinna?”

“Not particularly. Shiftgems are, in some cases, sentient. The red flakes are oxidized iron. There is a great deal of steam when a planet is busted. The iron would have oxidized. Did you know shiftgems are also called evolvulite? It has transitive properties. Perhaps it helped to accelerate the oxidation process to give itself a place to hide from the planet busters.”

I pulled out a dark stone from the stone, which reminded me of rotting wood giving way at the lightest touch. I held up my prize, which glittered in the cargo bay’s light. I couldn’t tell if the stone was a dark brown or a black, but here and there, I caught shimmers of rainbow colors. “What is this?”

“That variety is called rainbow black. It’s a very potent shiftgem, and rainbow blacks are notorious for sentience. Taesinn, get a padded basket from the hallway for her so she can sort them.” The communication line went dead, which I’d learned was the Veloc talking to someone else about something. A few moments later, a crackle informed me that she had returned. “Do you see any flaws on the surface? Cracks and so on?”

I turned to the brightest light in the cargo bay, holding the gem this way and that. “I don’t see any.”

“Stones like that one are why the planet busters destroyed your world. That single gem can operate a long-ranged interstellar spaceship. The clarity and color of the stones matter, and a stone of that size can run the engine of a small ship by itself.”

Oh. I stared at the stone with wide eyes, marveling at how something so beautiful could have led to my world’s destruction. “This little stone can do all that?”

“It can. We work to prevent worlds like yours from facing this fate. We did not succeed here, but we acquired justice for your people. That you looked out the window and saw the stones without any search at all says one thing: they wanted to be found. By you. I did not see them sparkle, nor did anyone else — not until you saw them. There is a great deal of activity in the asteroid field, so once you have cleaned out all the stones in the bay, I’ll have you come back up here and see what there is to see. And we’ll package your iron oxide and put it in the other storage bay. We’ve space enough for it.”

“The red stuff is useful?” I asked.

“It can be used to make paint and create other things of great use, yes. Nothing we do can revive your world, but that red stuff, as you say, is a building block of life. We can use it to give life to an entire new world.”

The thought of a new world being born stole my breath. “This can be used to create an entire planet ?”

“Yes. It’s a necessary part of planet building. And one day, perhaps Galeize will rise from her ashes, rebuilt from the asteroid field she has become. We would have to bring water, as the busting process expended the planet’s supply, but there are water worlds out there — worlds without any life at all. We can purify those waters to build an entire new world. It would be a small world. The ones we build are always small, but one day, life might thrive again here.”

“And it begins with this iron oxide.”

“It can begin with iron oxide,” she confirmed.

Taesinn returned with a basket filled with cloth, and I placed the shiftgem inside before plucking out more stones, all of them dark with a heart of rainbow, reminding me of his feathers. One by one, I placed them within the basket. Within the center of the stone, I found a gem the length of my arm, each end forming a perfect point, with shimmering bands of rainbow throughout its dark heart. “Oh, look at this one, Taesinn. It’s just like your feathers.”

The Veloc came closer to investigate the stone, and he made a thoughtful sound. “I suppose it is similar. But I am more white than black. But clear or white rainbow shiftgems are even rarer than rainbow blacks.”

“What are the clear or white ones used for?”

“Medical equipment,” he replied, and he went to the basket, carefully picking up one of the smaller spears. “A clear rainbow shiftgem of this size can save thousands of lives. If there was one the size you have in your hand? It could run an entire hospital and do everything the hospital needed. And it would be a massive hospital. It could run an entire space station.”

“Do you think we might find one of those? That would be a legacy worthy of an entire world.”

“In space, stranger things have happened. You will not know until you try.”

***

Every stone we found in the first batch was a rainbow black, something that defied all probability and gave evidence that the shiftgems were sentient. We couldn’t claim the occurrence was a possibility because the cargo bay held the stones, and they all shone with a light of their own.

The stones would give me any future I wanted, allowing me to travel to any star I wished. If I sold even one of the larger stones, I would be able to afford an entire ship, one I could use to chase after dreams, stardust, and missing Veloc. According to several of the Veloc, I could sell a set of matched stones to hunters of planet busters, doing my part to make certain such death and devastation never happened to another world.

The hunters wouldn’t accept the stones for free, not from someone in my position.

In their eyes, I was the reason they fought, the reason they chased the most dangerous beings in the universe, and the reason they would not quit until every planet was safe from destruction.

“Do you see any glimmers?” Lashinna asked.

The entire asteroid field glimmered, as though a million stars had begun to glow in the ruins of my home. Every stone carried some spark. One, in particular, drew my eye, for it sparked with the rainbows that might save worlds as well as enable travel between them. I pointed at the brightest of those gleaming stones. “Everything glimmers, but that one is the brightest.”

“Let’s see what we get. This is the last batch we’ll be able to pull on this trip, but we can return to gather more and make sure the stones find a purpose, safe from the clutches of scavenging planet busters. It’ll take time — there isn’t a gate here, but we can one day return.”

They’d taken me through three gates, and the memory of the stones shining brightly in the darkness of space would linger. I’d loved everything about the jumping process, and I suspected I would chase excuses to go hurtling through the stars to see what existed in the great beyond.

This time, the Veloc loaded up an image of the cargo bay so I could observe the rocks enter the ship and settle before I got suited back up and went in for another round retrieving stones so they could be packaged for the voyage to the clan’s home, where they would safeguard the treasures until I figured out what to do with them all.

Before Lashinna had a chance to activate the magnets, the stones drifted closer to the ship, headed in the direction of the open bay door.

“Well, that’s different,” Pearrilla stated, and her crest rose. “How is it moving?”

“I have no idea. I’m not registering anything thermal, nor am I seeing any evidence of magnetic pulses.” Lashinna pressed a few buttons on her console. “There’s nothing in our sensors picking up the source of propulsion.”

“Maybe it’s like that gate near Melody,” Taesinn said, and he pointed at a farther cluster of stones. “There’s movement over there, and it’s not coming our way.”

Sure enough, rocks merged, and they collided. Clouds of red particles swirled through space, and something sent them away from the ship and deeper into the asteroid field, leaving behind crystals of all sizes and colors behind. “You’re right. The crystals are breaking away the red stuff. What’s it doing?”

“I think it’s building a gate,” one of the older Veloc, one of the many who insisted on remaining nameless for reasons I failed to understand.

I suspected the blood on his pale hands had something to do with his hesitancies, although I was wise enough not to say that to his face.

“A gate? Here?” I asked, my eyes widening.

I’d paid attention to the lectures; gates made traveling the stars quick and efficient, allowing everyone to travel millions of light years in the blink of an eye.

With a gate, I’d be able to return to my broken home often, assuming I acquired a ship, learned to pilot it, or otherwise acquired transportation.

If I could visit at any time, it didn’t matter which bits of stardust my parents had become.

Galeize would be there waiting, the gate serving as a permanent anchor and memorial to what had once been.

The clan of Veloc gathered, filling every available space, to watch the shiftgems break themselves free of the red rock containing them, clustering together until it formed a glowing archway any ship could pass beneath. I’d marveled at the size of the gates upon seeing them, but the others had somehow seemed smaller and less vibrant.

At first, something whispered, too soft for me to make out. The sound strengthened, and a faint melody, gentle and soothing, filled the air. I held my breath, listening to the beauty of it, wondering if there was meaning behind each note.

Lashinna’s crest flattened, and she eyed her consoles. She hit a button and barked, “Get to gate positions!”

The Veloc scattered. As I lacked appropriate training, my gate position was one of the chairs in the command area capable of handling a human. Taesinn secured the buckles, which I struggled with and he could manipulate with practiced ease. At Lashinna’s order, he took a nearby seat.

“You think the gate is going to activate?” The shiftgems began to pulse, and I recognized the visual cue the gate was preparing to interact with the ship’s engine.

“I know it’s going to activate. There are sensors in the engine that trigger when activation begins.” She pressed another button. “Captain, you’re needed on deck. We do not have a charted position for this gate.”

Not knowing where the gate would end up would be a problem, even I understood that much. Rather than stress over what I couldn’t change, I stared at the monitor with the cargo bay to discover the crystals had shed their coating of red stuff of their own accord, revealing a blanketing of clear and pale stones, many of them with the shifting colors of the rainbow within their hearts.

“Lashinna?” Torn between the gate and the cargo bay, I worried that the precious cargo wouldn’t survive through the lurch of jumping through space.

“Closing cargo bay doors,” she announced, pressing a variety of buttons.

A pure white Veloc stepped into the room, paused by my seat, and ruffled my hair before heading to his station. “Brief me, Lashinna.”

“We discussed the medicinal uses of white and clear crystals, and the shiftgems decided we were getting a bay full of them. She has a large stash of rainbow blacks and clear rainbows now. I suspect there are bonding stones in the lot, so we’ll need to evaluate them for psychic activity. Once the crystals were on route to our cargo bay, the gate began to form. We are in phase one of jump initiation.”

The captain sat, buckled in, and asked, “Baelran, what’s our preparation status?”

“Approximately half of quarters are secured. All live pets are secure.” The green and blue Veloc glanced my way. “Your animals are confirmed to be in your quarters; they were among the first to be secured.”

I would need to find out who had taken care of Persistence, Stupid, and Sweetheart and thank them. “I really appreciate that.”

“I’ll make sure everyone knows.” The Veloc’s attention returned to his station. “Captain, the hallways are empty and everyone is in their post, but not everyone has green lights. We’re close, though.”

“Starting engines, quarter thrust in holding position,” the captain announced.

The ship rumbled.

The gate’s glow brightened, and patterns of color appeared, something I’d been told was normal gate activity before a ship jumped.

“All sectors are green for jump,” Baelran reported.

“The cargo bay doors are sealed and gravity has been enabled for the jump.” Lashinna’s crest rose. “The engine is ready.”

“Let’s go find out what this gate wants us to see.” The captain moved a control lever on his seat before announcing, “Commencing jump.”

Taesinn’s crest flattened, and he shrank in his chair. I wondered at that, but before I had a chance to ask if the Veloc was all right, the captain sent the ship hurtling forward. The instant the nose entered the gate, colorful lights erupted around us and the disconcerting lurch of the jump hit with the force of a fist to the gut.

***

Alarms squeaked, but the captain paid them no mind, hooting his laughter at something he saw through the window. A planet, a mass of blue broken with the browns and greens of continents, loomed before us. The light of a shiftgem gate enveloped the ship and held it in place.

I recognized the one alarm for such a thing, as one of the other gates had been of a mind to hang onto the ship more than anyone had appreciated. The fuss hadn’t bothered me, but I’d been in the lounge with Taesinn, and we’d been armed with a pair of handheld gaming consoles to keep us amused.

We’d battled each other for gaming supremacy while everyone else on the ship had worried.

One by one, the alarms quieted, and the captain silenced the one indicating the gate held us hostage.

“How are our systems looking, Lashinna?”

“Everything is stable, Captain. There was some minor shifting of the goods in the cargo bay, but not enough to damage anything. We’ll want to adjust for the weight of the iron oxide and shiftgems for landing.”

“Baelran, confirm our position.”

“This is a new shiftgem gate, and it’s on the opposite side of the planet as our current gate. I am seeing the ping for the other gate, which is currently inactive. We are currently over Crimson, Turquoise, Teal, and Emerald territory. The Crimson Feet have a settlement with a pad we can access. We can offer one of the carcasses as landing payment.”

“Contact the controller on the surface and get us authorization to land. Is the gate locked?”

“It is locked,” Baelran reported. “The gate has registered a passcode with our system.”

“Well, that’s different. Hasn’t anyone told that gate it’s supposed to be the other way around?” the captain quipped. “I suppose this is as good a time as any to welcome you to Veloci Minor. Should you wish it, this can be your home. The choice is yours.”

I stared at the bright planet in front of us, considered the shiftgems and the gate that had formed to bring me here, and the mysteries of what might come in the years to come. Allowing myself a smile, one free from the burden of pain and loss, I replied, “I would like that.”

One day, I would find a way to repay the Veloc. Until then, I would do my best to find my place in the universe.

THE END