Lightning crackled above her head and Ya’Cahin tried not to wince as she flew through the clouds. Spinning the ship around she dove underneath the storm even though the wind tried to throw her back in. But she was managing to use gravity to her advantage. She knew a thing or two about flying even if she wasn’t a Zorg built for it.
She glanced up at the radar as it pinged and Tahu’s message repeated on a muted loop. As she got closer to the signal the message got stronger but every lightning bolt scrambled her signal forcing her to realign.
She curved the yoke suddenly to avoid another bolt of lightning. It seared past and her alarms went off at proximity to the heat. Her heard throbbed as she tried to concentrate on flying. “Should have never sent them into this situation.” She mumbled spinning the yoke and sending her ship spiraling through the clouds.
She aimed the nose down again and then hit the thrusters. The wind resisted again like hands to drag her back into their embrace. The clouds were the overbearing helicopter parent to her rebel dreaming of the stars young pilot. She wanted to be on her own.
Hitting the thrusters once more and she shot straight down dangerously fast. Going faster she saw the clouds streak against the windshield and then nothing else. Light flashed, her alarms rang and it was gone.
She shot through the cloud and was flying toward a dead ocean waiting to take her. Hitting that would be like hitting rock. Pulling up sharply, her head slammed against the seat as she flew upward. Skimming across the ocean of puromine she shot upward to get her bearings and slowed.
The storm really didn’t let up in this planet’s atmosphere. She consulted her display and saw she was close. “Ship put the tracker on the windshield.” A red blinking dot appeared on it with how far she was. Her eyes widened, “I’m closer than I thought. Good.”
As she moved she looked around above the ocean but below the clouds she was struck. “Not a single wave and all that chaos up above. Beautiful and dangerous.” The lightning flashes, the savage winds, and eerily calm ocean. On a less life endangering mission she could see herself running flights through it. Ula would not approve.
She slowed down and saw an orb of purple. Something in her tingled and she shuddered at the sensation. She felt it in her core being that that was what she went Tahu here for. Her fingers felt numb for a moment and she was startled as she got a grip on herself.
Forcing air into her lungs she angled the ship down and floated toward the orb. She saw the ship just marooned out there as lightning struck around the ship. The orb was surrounding the ship, flickering in and out of existence. A few struck the orb but wouldn’t pierce it. Floating above the ship she opened the communications channel.
“Tahu. Tahu this is Ya’Cahin. Can you hear me?”
“Yaya is that you?”
She rolled her eyes. “Yes Tahu it’s me.”
“You heard me. Thought I was gonna have to make a home here.”
“Well you’re lucky I made it out here in time. Your ship looks dead.”
“It is. Totally not flying anywhere any time soon.”
“What happened to it?”
“Too much lightning and couldn’t handle being in the puromine for that long.”
“You really know how to over clock your ship don’t you.”
“It’s a gift.”
“And I’m assuming this thing around you is the stone?”
“Yep. Magic. Not my thing. Your thing.”
“It’s not magic.”
“It’s totally magic Yaya.”
She didn’t want to have this argument with them now, especially with another storm brewing just above. If their ship was dead then getting them out of here was going to be that much harder. Making a face she drummed her fingers against console of her ship. Worst case scenario she’d just have them jump aboard with the stone. But they couldn’t afford to lose the ship too.
“I have an idea,” Ya’Cahin said as she found her helmet and put it on. “We’re going to swap ships.”
“What?” Tahu asked arching an eyebrow. “You want me to drive the scout ship-”
“Not happy about that.”
“-And then you have my shitter of a ship and be stranded out here.”
“Maybe I should have left you here.”
“No no, I appreciate you coming to my rescue Yaya. Just not sure how this works.”
“You’re not going to like it.”
The signal went silent for a long time and she frowned, worrying if they had lost connection. “You’re gonna magic my ship aren’t you?”
“It’s not magic.”
“I don’t want you to use magic on my ship.”
“it’s not magic.”
“Please don’t magic my ship.”
“Do you want to get out of here?”
“Yes.”
“Then let my do my thing.”
“I really don’t like this.”
“It’ll be fine. Also leave the stone”
“Just swap ships with me before I change my mind.”
She laughed softly and opened the cockpit. Climbing out and onto the wing she stared down at the ship seeing the orb. She tapped her helmet and the ship began to lower. As she came down their ship opened and they stood up slowly.
As she touched the barrier her spine tingled even more and she jerked sharply. Standing on the ships wings she regarded Tahu and smiled. They smiled back and waved. “Hey Yaya.”
“Hey Tahu.” She hugged them. She was just a hair taller than them. She sometimes forgot that Tahu and Ula were physically identical except for a few small personal touches. She then punched them in the stomach “You worried me.”
Grunting but knowing it was deserved they nodded. “I know. My bad.”
“Sorry I sent you here like this.”
“Don’t get that way about it. I liked it.” They said and grinned. “Except for the whole, crashing and lightning. Could’ve done without that. Though two rotations ago there was no storms and it was so nice down here.”
“We should come back here and fly for a bit.”
“Ula won’t like it.”
“She can come with us.”
They shared a laugh and she turned to her ship. “Alright, can you make it up there or do you need a hand?”
Instead of answering they crouched for a moment then jumped. They had a bit of hang time but light flashed at their feet and they flew the rest of the distance. Climbing into the cockpit they hurriedly closed it behind them.
She got into the open seat now and being this close to stone was making her twitch. But she closed the cockpit and lowered her hand. As her hand got closer, the stone began to spin and pointed directly at her. Spinning like a top her helmet glowed with purple light.
Shuddering at just the raw power that was emanating from it she started to grin. Not in excitement but in anxious anticipation. She’d never felt anything like this. She felt invincible. Her plan was child’s play compared to what she could do with this.
She began to close her eyes but realized she needed them open for concentration. With a sharp breath she put her hands on the yoke and the ships edges glowed blue. She let out another breath and the ship began to rise from the ocean. It was a slow and steady rise as she got a feel for how sensitive the ship was to her influence.
Tahu watched her careful their eyes widened. Even though they didn’t like the psykik stuff watching her do it was still cool. This was just on the edge of scary and they backed the scout ship up slowly as they followed her lead. They still had a storm to get through.
Turning the ship she angled back at the clouds. She hit the thrusters and they both shot into the storm. However surprisingly the storm was parted for them. Specifically by a sphere around the two ships. Just like with the lightning avoiding Tahu’s ship, the storm parted for them.
It was a smooth ride as they bolted through it and straight into space beating out the planets gravity.. Tahu let out a cheer and even Ya’Cahin had a small smile. She looked down at the stone in her chair and shook her head unsure of what to do next with it.
“Hey Ula you reading us?”
“Loud and clear. I am glad you made it out safely.”
“You think a planet could keep me down?” Tahu asked with a laugh.
“Of course not,” Ula shook their head. “The hatch is open and waiting for the both of you.”
“Good because we’ve got something interesting to discuss.” Ya’Cahin said looking down at the stone as it continued to spin and pulse.
They boarded the ship in one piece and after some looking over in the med bay as well Ula’s expert eye. Once they were all taken care of, with fresh clothes andfood, they gathered in the center of the ship around the table.
The stone was on the table inside a clear containment cylinder. Ya’Cahin was picking at her food, a multi colored mixture of dried food that became better when combined with someone’s saliva. Her companions were drinking some weird concoction that she tried once. It had burned her throat so badly she couldn’t taste for a few days.
As she ate she felt the stone pulsing though it wasn’t active. “So this thing,” Tahu said and pointed at the bundle. “Is like steroids for psykiks?”
Ya’Cahin didn’t rise to the bait this time and nodded. “Think an amp but ten fold and near limitless.”
“My scans say that it is giving off excess psykik energy. Many types. It’s make up is unknown to me presently. I have never seen this material before.” Ula said rubbing their chin. “Have your people any sort of record about it?”
“Stories. So I’m not sure how reliable they can be. I think is was called Kint. And it amplified pyskik energy like no bodies business.”
“So what exactly is this thing? Like where’d it come from?” Tahu said sipping from their cup.
She scowled a bit and pushed her plate away. Ula pulled the container back, setting it on one of the empty seats beside them. “If the stories are right they used to be a part of a much bigger stone. That original stone was powerful. Powerful enough to destroy planets even. No one wielded it back then. They were afraid of it.
“The original stone though it was barely bigger than this,” She held up a space about three feet wide. “It’s power was terrifying. We. One of our planets was destroyed by it.”
“What?” Ula interrupted.
“Yes. One of the planets that we had colonized was eradicated by a blast from the stone. Some were saved. Most were not. So much of my people’s history was lost that day. But we gained something else. The continuous exposure to the energy from the stone had gradually began to affect my people. And the discharge from that day energized us all. It is what gave us our abilities.”
“Whoa whoa?” Tahu asked. “Psykik energy isn’t unique to the Xanics. So how did these stones give you yours?”
“There’s a lot of ways for Psykik energy to be developed.” Ula said. “In this case these stones jump started it and triggered it’s manifestation for the Xanics.”
“Essentially. I wish my people were able to have a less tragic way of gaining psykik power but we have definitely benefited from it. But this isn’t about us, this is about the shard.
“It was centuries later that our seers felt the explosion. Unlike the first time he had time to react to it. We were able to prepare for the explosion that we thought was coming. We prepared to lose another planet and tried to create shields but the destruction was internal. The shard’s power was too much even for itself.
“Millions of leagues away we felt it. The shockwave of the implosion. What remained were three large stones that circled around a mass of psychic energy. We sent a few ships to investigate them but they were destroyed by the field. With the creation of this trio of stones was the creation of shards like this. Small pieces of the original stones that function in the same vein. Those shards were scattered through the galaxy but that was millions of years ago. No one had seen the shards. They should have been myths.”
“But what about the stones. Surely your people should have seen those.” Ula suggested.
“Some have. There is a spot of light in the distance that we believe is them. But no one dares go near them.” Ya’Cahin shrugged.
“You’re telling me you’ve never gone near them?” Tahu teased but her face was serious.
“Even I don’t want to risk that.” She said staring at her plate. “I had a friend that did. Went searching for the shards. I hadn’t heard from them and eventually I took up the search to find him. I haven’t found him yet but I was put on the trail of this shard. After everything we went through to get this one it better be worth it.”
“How were you able to locate this shard?” Ula asked.
“Followed the rumors,” Ya’Cahin shrugged. “When you search for these things you start to know what to look forward. And then I met you guys and it all just shaked out well.”
“You make it sound like you didn’t expect this to work out.” Tahu said leaning forward on the table.
“Honestly I didn’t. But here it is. Real,” She put her hands on her head for a moment. “Hopefully chasing these things can put will let me run into my friend.”
“Before we do anything we need a better container,” Ula said raising their arm and scanning the stone again. “The amount of energy it’s putting off is going to cause harm to the ship in the long run.”
Ya’Cahin stared at it and then at her “Ula how well can we contain the energy on this thing?”
“With what I have on the ship now? Adequately. If I were able to get some sort supplies, I could create something better.”
“Where can you get some?” Ya’Cahin asked.
“The slums aren’t bad.” Tahu suggested. “Well depending how deep you want to go.”
“The slums are a satellite off the side of Utopia. Where the people too poor and too bad to get into Utopia live. Ain’t a great place.” frowned shrugs. “They have a lot of good, mostly illegal parts. The deeper you go, the better your prices but also the more dangerous the place gets.”
“And we’re gonna need to go there to dampen the shard properly?”
“Yes. Let’s set a course for the slums.”
The Harlequin Library 