With a red flash of light Marco and Kathryn appeared back at the crystal. The sky was pitch black now, the moon hanging in the sky. They could see the glow of the city not far from them. Exchanging glances they let their armor drop. The pair of them looked at the Celestial and sighed.
“The smell of burned alien insect is in my mind. And I hate it,” Kathryn said waving her hand back and forth. She looked at Marco and he gave her a sympathetic sigh. “Ley. What the heck is a Zarg. And why does he keep sending goons here.”
They looked at the celestial who floated just a few inches off the ground now. They tilted their head to the side, “Zarg? That is not a name that I’m aware of. Contrary to your belief I do not know everything in this galaxy.”
“Right. My bad,” Kathryn smiled sheepishly.
“It’s alright. However, it is very interesting that two who work for this being have come here. I can only assume it is related to the crystal. “
“Which is why we’ve been working on the magic box,” Kathryn said glancing down at it. It was still in the same situation that they’d left it before leaving. “Though we haven’t gotten any further with this thing than the two weeks since before you left.”
“I’ve been thinking that we were going to break it the more we work on it,” Marco walked over to the box and lifted it up turning it in his hands.
“That I can help you with,” Ley replied looking it over. Their fingers glowed as they took the box from their hands. Reaching into it they touched circuits that the pair were already working on. But instead of the tools they had, little beams of light darted forward and seemed to merge the wires to the glass pieces they’d installed.
“Wait so instead of connecting them with the wires you’re connecting them with the glass itself?” Kathryn asked. ”I knew we were missing something here.”
“Yes. You have the ability to do this using your abilities,” Ley held their hand out to Kathryn and she blinked and reached out to them. They touched their fingers against her own and she gasped seeing blue light spark between her fingers. “Touch here and here, try and branch the light.”
She looked into the circuits of the box as well and reached in. She picked up one of the wires and then brought it to a socket. But before she connected it a branch of light shot from the tip and connected them like a string. Her eyes widened and she stared at her hands then looked at the blue connecting string that hovered with the white ones from Ley.
But as she saw this connection she started to see where the next connection would go as if it were obvious. Soon there were more blue than white and she knew what to do. Everything fell into place and Marco watched her impressed. Ley had stepped away entirely as she started to work.
“Kathryn is very talented with this,” Ley said chuckling.
“Yeah she is,” Marco breathed. “Maybe we should find her a job doing alien technology repairs.”
“Should we?”
Marco looked at Ley and met the celestials gaze and then the celestial chuckled, “That was a joke Marco. I’m aware that you all predominantly enjoy your lives here.”
Staring at them he broke into a laugh as well. He leaned back and looked over his shoulder back toward the crystal proper. “What is this thing Ley? Really.”
“The crystal?”
“Yes.”
Ley floated to the crystal and passed their hand over it. The crystal pulsed in response to their attention and Marco felt it in his chest. He held a hand over his heart and Ley nodded. Marco was sure that the celestial was smiling at him. “This crystal is a conduit of psykik energy. Much more powerful than amps that are commonly used. A well trained psykik could move mountains one of this size. Maybe more.”
“Psykik? What is that?”
“Well for starters Marco you are,” Ley motioned toward him.
“Because of the whole Celestial Knight thing?”
“No. I believe you were latently psykik. One of the few on this planet alive. Though I imagine that will change over the next few centuries.”
“Centuries?” Marco’s eyes widened and then stared at his fingers. “Wait what does being a psykik mean?”
“Who’s to say? You’re not like the well-developed psykiks in the galaxy at large. Though your connection to the crystal is evidence to that there is more than meets the eye with you.”
Ley floated away and Marco watched them go and reached out to them but heard Kathryn shout. Kathryn cheered holding out the box. She looked at them with her hands glowing. “I did it. Pretty sure at least. Check it out.”
Marco walked over to her and now resting within all of the circuitry there were webs of light interlaced thickly like a web. But floating in the center of it was a small ball of blue light keeping it all together. “Not exactly elegant but I’m pretty sure I have it working.”
“Is it on yet?”
Shaking her head, she flipped through it and found a switch on the inside she installed. “Wanted to get Ley’s approval for it first.”
Speaking of the celestial, they floated over and looked at it. “Well done Kathryn. I knew you just needed a little nudge.”
“It was a pretty big nudge. But with this we can finally get a break from the aliens.”
Marco looked up quickly as the crystal pulsed. He turned to face it and rushed over to it, pressing his hand against it. The power of the crystal flowed through him like a current. His eyes glowed red and he saw it. Suddenly he was on the other side of the world. Somewhere in Paris, he could see the real Eiffel tower.
But it was the ground. The ground was shaking and plumes of smoke erupting into the sky. Buildings were sinking, cars were crashing and worse than that they could see people freaking out. “Two in one day?” he mumbled watching the chaos.
“What is it?” Kathryn asked.
“There’s an earthquake going on in France. Really bad. And I don’t think it’s natural.”
“Is disaster prevention in our wheel house?”
“It might be now. We were the Terran Knights first. Protecting the whole planet was a part of the name, right? But this time we’re going to need all us. Let’s go to work.”
The Harlequin Library 