by Biance D'Arc
Davin Kissed Callie, momentarily bringing a stunned silence to the entire Council chamber as every crystal within began to glow. Callie pulled back and laughed when she saw the shocked faces, a becoming flush pinking her cheeks as she looped her arms about Davin’s neck.
“I love you, my heart,” Davin said in a whisper loud enough for all to hear in the silent chamber, lit with the light of their passion.
“Oh, Davin, I love you too!”
Councilor Beyan watched them with interest in her eyes. “Davin.” She spoke softly, but garnered everyone’s attention. She, of all the Council, understood him perhaps the best, since she too had a strong crystal gift. “Is your mate gifted?”
Davin held Callie’s hand, addressing the Councilor’s question with a firm nod. “Yes, she is very gifted. On par with a level eight novitiate, at least, and growing daily.” Murmurs sounded throughout the chamber. Davin knew the idea that a Breed could have one of their most precious—and dangerous—abilities was unsettling to them. Good, he’d rock their boats just a little further. “It is my belief that all Breeds may have some level of the crystal gift. As we produce less and less gifted Alvian children in each generation, but require more and more crystal power, I’ve toyed with the idea of testing some of the Breeds.”
“Outrageous!” Troyan exclaimed again. Davin wasn’t really surprised. Troyan hated throwbacks as much as any modern Alvian could hate.
“Do you really think that’s wise?” Councilor Beyan’s soft voice challenged him.
“I believe it is necessary, Councilor. We need more staff to keep the new grid up and running. I propose testing and training acceptable Breeds to manage the small, day-to-day tasks that level one, two and three novitiates usually handle. Surely they couldn’t do much damage with such simple tasks.” None of the Alvians recognized the snide irony in his tone, but Callie squeezed his hand and when he looked back at her, the devil danced in her eyes. It was all he could do to keep from kissing her again, but this moment was too important.
Davin hadn’t intended to broach this topic until the Council was more comfortable with Callie, but he was glad in a way that it had come up today. Each day they waited was a day longer in captivity for humanity. If Davin could gather just a few humans from the worst of the pens and give them a decent place to live in his engineering facility, it was a start. But he needed the Council’s permission to begin such a daring program.
“It is true we have fewer crystallographers in each generation and we need more.” Councilor Beyan sounded thoughtful. It was a good sign. “May I test your mate, Davin? Her name is Callie, right?” Beyan pasted on a smile, though it wasn’t convincing on a woman who had no feelings. Still, that she would make the effort to put a human at ease meant something extraordinary. Davin tugged Callie forward. She shot him a worried look but he squeezed her hand to reassure her before he let her go, motioning her toward the Councilor who sat behind the high Council table.
Beyan removed a crystal from the pocket of her white robe and placed it on the table. Callie stood about eye level with the crystal, a lovely amethyst with regular edges. She could see the crystal was flawless on the surface, and could feel the resonances Davin had taught her to seek. Although it looked perfect on the outside, something was slightly off inside the crystal matrix that made the resonance a little harsh and jagged, not flowing smoothly as it should be.
“May I touch the amethyst, ma’am?” Callie asked politely, earning raised eyebrows from the Councilors. Apparently they all thought humans were impolite barbarians.
“Before you do,” the Councilor countered, “can you tell me anything about this crystal without touching it?”
Callie nodded. “It looks perfect, but something’s wrong. The resonances aren’t aligned properly. There is a slight disharmony in the matrix and it’s growing worse. If not aligned, I believe it will eventually crack near the center of the stone.”
More raised eyebrows met Callie’s words and the Councilor radiated a faint feeling of surprise mixed with respect. Of course, these Alvians had so little emotion, it was hard to read much, even for an empath as strong as she was.
“Can you do anything about it?” the Councilor challenged.
Callie tilted her head, considering. “I don’t know. I’ve been able to retune smaller crystals with Davin’s guidance, but I’m not certain I can handle as delicate a problem as this one seems to have. I would have to examine it first, by touching it and studying the disharmony.”
Beyan nodded. “A wise answer. Truly, Davin,” the older woman spoke over Callie’s shoulder to Davin, who stood several feet behind her, watching all, “your mate speaks well.”
“Let her try her abilities on your amethyst, Councilor. I believe she is up to the challenge you have placed before her.”
“Truly?” Beyan looked back at Callie. “Then proceed, by all means.”
Callie reached out and took the amethyst into her hand. It was even worse than she’d thought. The disharmony was a cacophony of warring resonances that she imagined she could almost hear, though such frequencies were well out of human hearing range. But the power was strong. If tuned properly, this crystal would be very powerful indeed. A light touch would be called for to do this work, lest it blow up in her face.
Callie concentrated, closing her eyes and focusing on the stone alone. She could feel Davin’s reassuring presence behind her. She knew he had absolute faith she could meet this challenge and that made her stronger. There was no one on Earth who knew crystals the way Davin did. If he thought she could do it, there was no doubt in her mind she could.
She also had some idea of what was riding on this. The fate of many humans rested on convincing the Council that Davin’s idea of testing and training humans had some merit. They needed power and they had few crystallographers to run their power grid. If she could prove humans could step into such an important role, she would be saving at least a few of her brethren from life—or death—in the pens.
Marshalling her strength, Callie tried to think of the quiet stream by the farm. All the currents running together helped her imagine the currents of energy focused in the crystal. Throw a stone in the stream and disrupt the current, much like the unseen flaw in the crystal threw off its harmony. But it could be fixed. Strength of will and suitable application of her psi energy could retune the crystal so its energy flowed freely like the stream.
Thinking peaceful thoughts and seeing that vision of harmony in her mind, Callie applied her power. She felt resistance at first, but then the power of the stone yielded and turned, redirected into a more harmonious flow. With what she knew was a smile of triumph lighting her face, she opened her eyes and placed the retuned amethyst on the table in front of the Councilor.
“It’s done.”
Callie walked back to Davin’s side and reveled in the pride she could feel emanating from him for her. His love and his respect were two things she craved and he gave her both, swamping her empathic senses in what amounted to a body hug as she rejoined him.
Councilor Beyan touched the crystal tentatively at first, then picked it up and stared into its perfect facets. “Remarkable,” she said softly as the other Councilors watched with varying degrees of interest. “She did a very nice job retuning this piece.” Beyan’s gaze rested on Davin. “I agree with your level eight ranking and would put her at seer status.” Callie didn’t know what that meant, but she could feel Davin’s surprise, then the burst of pride that filled him, and the joy. “My friends,” Beyan addressed the other Councilors now, “I believe young Davin has proven the sense of his proposal. If he can find a few well-behaved candidates with a gift even half as good as his mate’s, it should end our grid shortages. I believe we should allow him to try.”
“Are you certain, Beyan?” Orin, as head of the Council, asked for them all.
Beyan nodded. “I believe it is a sound plan.”
Orin sighed and turned to Davin. “You have the Council’s permission to test and appr
opriate such Breeds as you need for a pilot program.”
Davin bowed and Callie followed suit. “It shall be done. You have my thanks.” They left the chamber shortly thereafter and the next supplicant came before the Council.
Mara 12 had arrived at a crucial decision. It was a radical idea indeed, but she had always believed in taking bold steps to further scientific endeavor. She presented her facts to the Council, unsurprised by the barrage of questions she received, but she’d prepared well and had displays ready to answer each of their points.
After several hours of discussion, Mara 12 was granted permission for a very special project of her own. This time, Mara wanted to test volunteers from her own race with a DNA-altering concoction that might—just might—improve on Alvian genetics.
But it also just might have surprising consequences for them all…
One of the benefits of having the blessing of the Council was that Callie could communicate freely with Harry and Caleb, who was being held for study in the northern city. Of course they had to be somewhat circumspect in what they said because all their communications were monitored, but they could at least talk as often as they wished.
Harry was able to communicate telepathically with the family back at the farm, but the Alvians couldn’t know Davin had given them a communication crystal. Callie could use that illicit crystal to access the rest of her family as well and spoke to them often.
It was good for Callie to talk with her family and it made her feel somehow safer, even as she struggled to help Davin set up his training program in the Southern Engineering Facility. It was slow going, but within a few weeks they had nice quarters and equipment ready for the humans Davin was finding and rescuing from the various settlements and cities.
Callie was also learning the Alvian alphabet and how to work their comm systems and other devices. Each day, Davin would show her a little more. She had a hard time wrapping her tongue around their spoken language, but the written form was a little easier. Not much, but a little.
One night, Davin sat her down at a comm console with a very serious look on his face.
“What I’m going to show you now, nobody else knows. Nobody, Callie, but you and me.” He brought up what she recognized as a subroutine on the comm panel. “It’s important that you commit this operation to memory. You can’t write it down anywhere. It’s too dangerous for anyone else to know and I don’t want any spies finding out I’ve created this backdoor, or it will be useless if we ever need it.”
“What is it?” She watched in wonder as he brought up an innocuous display that she knew could be accessed from even the most rudimentary comm panels in the facility. Even the airships could bring up this particular subroutine that had to do with simple system diagnostics.
“It’s something I created in case of emergency. A way to disable communications over a wide area. I thought—” He halted, shaking his head as he turned to look at her. “I thought when I finally went crazy and they were going to put me down, I’d use it to buy enough time to go out my own way. I didn’t want to be at their mercy when I breathed my last. I wanted to die free, by my own choice.”
“Oh, Davin.” She covered his hand with hers, imparting her love with a slight squeeze.
“Well,” he cleared his throat, continuing, “now that insanity is no longer an issue, I still want to keep this little trick for emergencies. We’re not the Council’s favorite people, in case you hadn’t noticed.” He tapped out a string of commands that brought up something she’d never seen before. “This,” he pointed to the sequence, “is a special code that will douse the crystals of every comm panel connected to this one and cause a cascading failure throughout the system. It will cripple the military and Council alike, at least for a few minutes.”
“Wow.”
“Yeah.” He smiled as she leaned in to study the sequence of characters. “I want you to know this, in case something should happen to me, or if you ever need to create a diversion to get away. I don’t know what kind of situations we might face in the future, but I want you to have this insurance against my people, should the worst happen. I don’t want them to ever hurt you, Callie.” He stroked her cheek with one big hand and she relished the caring in his touch.
“I love you too, Davin.”
Rick St. John hadn’t yet found the right time or opportunity to escape the prison that housed him, but he was by no means resigned to his fate. He knew his time would come and when the right chance for freedom came his way, he’d seize it.
But even so, he almost didn’t recognize the opening when it was handed to him.
When the Chief Engineer for the Alvians on planet Earth came to call on the prison beneath the city, Rick was at first as hostile toward the stranger as he was toward all Alvians with whom he didn’t work. He kept up a constant stream of veiled remarks to the soldiers and most of the caretakers of the jail, refraining only when Mara 36 or one of the other scientists who had the power to change how the humans were treated came by.
So when the Chief Engineer peered into his cell, Rick was his usual, impolite self. Not that it mattered to Alvians. They couldn’t appreciate a good insult. They just didn’t have it in them.
“What do you want?” Rick challenged the man who stood outside the forcefield that kept Rick and the other men contained in the large barrack-style cell.
“I’ve come seeking volunteers to be tested for the crystallography program.” The strange alien was tall, but not as massively built as some of the soldiers. He was pale and blond, elven-looking like all the aliens, but this one had something different about him that Rick couldn’t quite place.
“Why would any of us want to cooperate with one of you?” Rick didn’t hide his sneer.
An eyebrow quirked upward on the patrician face. “Acceptance into my pilot program would mean a significant improvement in your circumstances, including a move to the Southern Engineering Facility and accommodations above ground, which I understand is preferable to most humans.”
Rick was immediately struck by this Alvian’s words. “You called us human.”
The Chief Engineer gave him a knowing nod. “I did.” Their gaze met and held, sizing each other up. With a slight nod, the Chief Engineer disabled the forcefield and stepped into the cell. “I’m Davin. What’s your name?” He accompanied the startling words with a very human gesture. Davin held out his hand for a shake.
Rick knew then there was something odd going on. He shook the man’s hand, startled when he felt echoes of feeling—true feeling—from this Alvian. Rick’s weak empathy required him to touch a person, skin to skin, in order to get any kind of read on their emotions.
“No numbers? Just Davin?” Rick asked the most obvious question first.
An amazing smile lit the Chief Engineer’s face. “Just Davin. I’m a throwback. That means, unlike other Alvians, I experience emotion, much like you.”
“I’ve never heard of such a thing.”
“Well, now you have.” Davin ended the business-like handshake and turned to the men standing behind Rick, addressing them all. “I’m starting up a new training program. If accepted, you’ll move to my engineering facility and train to work with our crystal power sources. You’ll have to be tested to see if you have the ability to work with raw crystal before I can invite anyone to join the program, but I’m not forcing the test on anybody. If you want to take the test, step forward now. If not, no harm done.”
“What does the test involve? Is it harmful?” Rick wanted to know. Nobody moved, though Rick could sense some were willing to try almost anything to get out of this damp cell.
“No, not harmful. I just want each of you to hold a raw crystal and concentrate. If you do well with the first, I may ask you to try a harder one, to roughly gauge your level of ability.” Davin turned to Rick with a grin. “And I never did get your name.”
Rick took his words as a challenge and stepped forward. “Rick St. John, at your service,” he said, with his usual sarcasm around
the Alvians. “I’ll take the test first, just so we know you’re telling us the truth.”
“Ah, a leader willing to put himself before his men.” Davin reached into his pocket and pulled out a small crystal point. “I think I like you already, Rick St. John.” Davin dropped the quartz crystal into Rick’s open palm and gave him a friendly smile—such an alien thing to see on an Alvian’s face. “Now I want you to listen to the song of the crystal. Shut your eyes if it helps. Concentrate on the tone.”
Rick shut his eyes, aware of heat coming from the quartz rock in his hand like he’d never felt before. It wasn’t uncomfortable, but it was startling. After a few seconds, he was able to hear a tone—actually a series of tones playing together in harmony—though one note was slightly off.
“I hear a chord, but it’s not quite right,” he said, his eyes still shut. The sound of the crystal in his mind was entrancing.
“Good.” Rick could hear the encouragement in the alien’s voice, but he still didn’t want to open his eyes and possibly lose the beauty of this experience. He heard Davin’s words as if from far away. “You can make the chord true, Rick. Think it and it can be so. Concentrate on the crystal and bring your will to bear on it.”
Rick didn’t quite know what he did, but he felt a touch of his healing power rise to encounter the rough crystal in his palm, healing the rift that made the chord sour and producing a trilling descant above the new, perfect harmony of the stone. The act brought a rush of pleasure that felt almost like sexual completion, but more sacred than any he’d ever experienced. It was as if this tiny piece of the Earth itself sang to him. It was awe-inspiring.
Rick opened his eyes and noted the crystal was now giving off a bright white glow in the palm of his hand. He looked up and saw the pleased smile on Davin’s alien face and the skepticism and surprise on the faces of the men gathered around.
“You have a strong and very peculiar crystal gift, Rick St. John. With that performance, you’ve earned a spot in my program, if you’ll have it. Unlike the other experiments you’ve no doubt been made to participate in, this one is truly voluntary, but I can tell you right now, I’d be pleased if you accepted the position.”
