Three stimulants roused her sufficiently for the fourth installation, and she had to sneak one into her mouth as she set the crystal in its brackets. She was doing her high priestess routine by reflex, only peripherally aware of the blur of faces that followed her every movement and the thrilled sigh as the crystals pure note sounded in the communications room.
One thing she could say for the Trundimoux, when they found an efficient structure, they kept repeating it. All the communications rooms were of the same design. Blind, she could have found her way to the crystal mounting. Walking back, she kept tripping on the skirt hem she'd not had time to alter. Then Tallaf put one arm under hers. She concentrated on smiling serenely at the assembled until she had reached the cutter. She collapsed with relief into her seat.
“You're all right, Killashandra?” Tallaf was asking.
“Just tired. You've no idea how difficult it is to surrender crystal you've cut yourself. They cry when you leave them. Let me sleep.”
But for that chance remark to Tallaf, Killashandra might have been forced to endure the ministrations of Chasurt, for her alternate periods of intense vivacity and somnolence had not gone unremarked. Nor were the opponents of the crystal communications purchase impressed by small unscintillating blocks received in exchange for massive drone loads of high-quality metals.
The moment he had seen Killashandra safely to her cabin, Tallaf had a word with Pendel. Pendel spoke quickly to others, and Chasurt was summoned to deal with a minor epidemic of food poisoning, investigate two other illnesses that required lengthy tests, and then was required to consult, at ordinary space-message exchange pauses, on a serious space-burn casualty.
Killashandra was roused for the longer shuttle flight to the planet's surface for the final installation. The extended sleep had been beneficial, and although she ran nervous fingers over the short length of stimulant tabs remaining, Killashandra thought she could defer their use. She accepted the fruit and glucose drink Pendel offered her, though she would dearly have loved water, even the stale recycled water the cruiser supplied.
She felt equal to this final scene until she saw the crystal container. Abruptly, she realized that this largest piece would be the hardest to surrender. She didn't dare have it on her lap all during the journey to the planet's surface.
“Bring the container on board. The king crystal will be safer that way,” she said, curtly gesturing. She entered the shuttle before anyone could countermand her instruction.
Pendel and Tallaf hastily motioned the guard to comply, and the container was already aboard the shuttle, webbed tight, before Captain Francu arrived. He stopped abruptly, stared with rage and shock at the carton, then at Killashandra who smiled pleasantly at him.
"You carried the other crystals, Guild Member – "
“Ah, but this is a longer journey, captain, and unless that crystal is safely installed in your main communications room, all the others are useless and this voyage of your cruiser an exercise in futility.”
"Captain, the time factors – " Tallaf stepped forward, his expression one of cautious concern.
Francu set his jaw, edged past the crystal to the stern of the cutter. She could hear the crack of metal tabs as he webbed himself in. She supposed that she was lucky that, in his current frame of mind, Francu wasn't the pilot.
The shuttle disengaged itself from the cruiser, seemed to hang suspended as the cruiser moved obliquely away from it. Actually, before the view ports were closed, Killashandra realized that the shuttle had done all the moving: the cruiser was inexorably set in its direction, and nothing would deter it.
She had meant to stay awake, but the scream and heat of entry into the planet's atmosphere roused her from another irresistible snooze. She stared about, momentarily startled by the unfamiliar surroundings. Hastily, she swallowed two stimutabs, smiling serenely around as if she had only been conserving her energy.
The shuttle had been brought to a complete halt before the medicine took effect, and she debated taking a third as the hatch was being opened.
A landing platform appeared at once, and from her seat, she could see the vast crowd assembled on both sides of a wide aisle leading to the huge communications building with its roof clusters of dish antennas, tilted like caps to the sky, caps raised to salute their own obsolescence.
“The crystal, Guild Member!” Francu's acid voice reminded her, too, of this final surrender.
She flipped open the carton and removed the king crystal, took a deep breath, and walked down the landing ramp, holding the crystal before her. She always played best to a full house, she reminded herself. The other installations were only rehearsals for this one.
The fresh air of the planet was naturally scented and crisp. She breathed in deeply and would not be hurried in this ceremonial walk.
Francu appeared at one side, Tallaf at her other, both muttering about walking faster,
“It's so good to breathe uncontaminated air. My lungs have been stifled. I must breathe.”
“You must walk faster,” Francu said, a smile jiggling his checks as he responded nervously to the presence of a large crowd of people in an open space greater than his huge new cruiser.
“If you can, Killashandra. We've a time boggle,” said Tallaf, his voice anxious.
“They're all here to see the crystal,” Killashandra noted, but she lengthened her stride, holding the cocoon above her head, hearing the surprise wave of exclamations, seeing the nearest drawing back. Was the crowd here to see crystal succeed, she wondered, or fail? This was not a receptive audience. She'd faced enough to sense the animosity and fear.
She strode on to the building's entrance, slightly outdistancing the two spacemen.
“We will have to hurry this, Guild Member,” a man said, taking her arm as she passed the doorway.
“Yes, we will, or we can't be responsible for your safety.”
She heard heavy metal doors thud shut behind her and a muffled noise emanating from outside and becoming louder.
“I've been given to understand that this project is not universally favored, gentlemen. But one message sent and received will disperse that . . .” and she indicated the crowd which had pressed in about the building.
“This way, Guild Member.”
They were all almost running now, and she was annoyed that the urgency of the situation was going to ruin her performance. Ridiculous! How absurd to be put in such a position! Especially when she was possessed of an overwhelming desire to go to sleep again. She shoved the crystal into the crook of one arm – there was no one to impress with her theatrics in this hurry – and managed to stuff two more tabs into her mouth.
Then she was whirled into the main chamber of the immense building, where nervous technicians were more interested in the outward-facing security scanners than the printouts and displays common to their business.
“Do hurry with this one, Killashandra,” Tallaf urged as she took the last few steps to the raised level and the empty niche where the king crystal would be mounted.
She stripped the plastic away with nervous fingers and suddenly found serenity and surcease as the bared crystal caressed her skin.
"Hurry!" Francu exhorted her. "If that thing won't give us a message from Copper – "
Killashandra withered him with a glance, but her dislike of him broke the tenuous enchantment she had been hoping to enjoy. Now she heard the noise of the crowd, the increasing pitch of its excitement and frustration. She dare not delay the mounting. Nor did she want to relinquish her black crystal to this system of ignorant savages, this society of metal-mongers, this —