The black crystal was mounted, turning matte black as it responded to the heat of the room.
“Hurry!” “Has something gone wrong?” “It won't work!”
“Of course, crystal will sing,” said Killashandra, raising the little hammer and striking the king block.
The rich full A of the king crystal rang through the large room, silencing the irreverent babble. Killashandra was transfixed. The A became the louder note of the five-crystal chord, the two F and two E crystals singing back to her through the king. The human voice cannot produce chords. With the pitch of the A dominant in her head, that was the note that burst from Killashandra as the shock of establishing the link between the five crystals enveloped her. Sound like a shock wave, herself the sound and the sounding board, vision over vision, a fire in her bones, thunder in her veins, a heart-contracting experience of pain and pleasure so intense and so total that every nerve in her body and every convolution of her brain echoed. The chord held Killashandra in a thrall more absolute than her first experience of crystal. Sustaining the note despite the agony of the physical mechanics of breath, Killashandra was simultaneously in the communications rooms of the two mining stations and the two moons. She splintered in sound from one crystal block to the next, apart and indissoluble, a fragment of the first message sent and instantly received and forever divorced from it.
“Copper to home. Copper to home base!” She knew the message, for it passed through her as well as the crystal. She heard the exultant reply and the incredulous response to its simultaneity. She had cut the crystals for this purpose, she had borne them to their various sites, and she had condemned them to sing for others. No one had told her they would cause her to sing through them in a space crossing chord!
“Killashandra?” Someone touched her, and she cried out. Flesh upon flesh broke her awesome communion with the crystal link. She fell to her knees, too bereft to cry, too stunned to resist.
“Killashandra!” Someone raised her to her feet.
She could feel crystal power singing behind her through the king block, but she was forever excluded from its thrall.
“Get her back to the shuttle.”
“Is it safe?”
“Of course, it's safe. The link works! The whole system knows that now!”
“Through this door, lieutenant. You'll have to detour. The crowd is blocking your way to the shuttle.”
“We don't have time to detour.”
“We'll break through the crowd. Carry her first. That'll make them give way!”
“They can't be afraid of a woman!”
“She's not a woman. She's a Crystal Singer!”
Killashandra was aware of being carried through a dense crowd. She heard a rapid clattering, and loud but jubilant cries and, somewhere in the section of her brain that recorded impressions, she correlated sound and cheers with applause. So many people in such proximity was an unexpected torture.
“Get me out of here,” she whispered hoarsely, clutching the man who carried her with desperate hands.
He said nothing but quickened his pace, his breathing ragged with effort. He could barely disentangle himself from her when a second man came to his assistance.
“This delay may abort the whole intercept.”
“Captain, we'd no idea how feelings ran here. No warning that there'd be such a crowd. We're almost there now.”
"If we've lost the window – "
"We'll have a frigate standing by ready to catch up – "
“Do shut up and let me sleep. Stop joggling me so.”
"Sleep?" The indignation in Francu's voice roused her briefly from her torpor. "Sleep she wants when – "
“Just settle yourself in this seat, Killashandra. I'll do the webbing.”
“Drink. Need a drink. Anything. Water.”
“Not now. Not now.”
“Yes, now! I thirst.”
“Captain, you fly. Here's water, Killashandra.”
She drank deeply, aware that the substance was water, real water, crisp, clear, cool water, used only this once, for her consumption. Some of it spilled when she was jolted about, and she protested the loss, licking it from her hands. She was shoved away from the water by a tremendous force and pleaded to be given more to drink.
She was soothed, and then finally the weight was lifted, and she was given as much as she wanted to drink.
“Are you all right now, Killashandra?” She rather thought it was Tallaf asking.
“Yes. Now all I need is sleep. Just let me sleep until I wake.”
CHAPTER 13
Waking up was a gradual and remarkably languorous process. Killashandra felt that she was unfolding in sections, starting with her mind, which sent out sleepy messages to her extremities that movement was possible again. She went through a long series of stretchings and yawnings, interspersed with rather wild and vivid flashes. At first, she thought them picodreams but then realized that all were from one viewpoint: hers! And she was overwhelmed by faces and applause and light flashing from the blackening crystal. An orgasmic sensation in her loins completed her unfolding and brought her to sharp consciousness and regret.
Those half dreams had been lovely echoes of the linkage with black crystal.
Crystal! She sat up in bed and nearly caught her head on the bedside shelf. She was on the wretched cruiser! She glanced at her wrist-unit, confirming it with the cabin time display.
'Three days! I've been asleep three days!" Antona had warned her.
Killashandra lay back, easing shoulder and tightening back muscles. She must have slept all three days in one position to have such cramps.
A soft scratching at her door panel caught her attention.
“Yes?”
“Are you awake, Guild Member?”
There were several answers she would have given if she hadn't recognized Chasurt's voice.
“You may enter.”
“Are you awake?”
"I certainly wouldn't be answering you in my sleep. Come in!'' As the door panel slid open, she added, "And would you ask Pendel if he can supply me with something decent to eat?"
“I will ascertain if food is advisable,” the man said, holding in her direction a diagnostic tool similar to Antona's.
"Not the stodge that's served in the cruiser's mess but liquid and fruit – "
"If you'll just be cooperative – "
"I am!" Killashandra felt that attitude rapidly changing. "This sort of sleep phase is perfectly normal – "
"We haven't been able to contact Ballybran for specific instructions – "
“For what?”
"Proper treatment of your prolonged coma – "
“I wasn't in a coma. Did you not check the printout in your own medical library? I want something to drink. And eat.”
"I am the cruisers meditech – "
“Who has never met a Crystal Singer before and knows nothing of my occupational hazards.” Killashandra had pulled on the nearest piece of clothing, her Guild coverall. Now she swung herself off the bunk and lurched past Chasurt, who made a vain attempt to grab her. “Pendell” Killashandra started down the corridor. She surprised herself that she could maneuver so readily after the exhaustion that had over taken her. The symbiont might take, but it also gave.
“Guild Member!” Chasurt was in pursuit, but she had the head start and longer legs.
She turned again, into the super's corridor, and saw Tic at Pendel's door, and then his head was visible.
"Pendel" I'm perishing for a glass of Yarran beer!" Please say you have some fruit left? And possibly a cup of that excellent soup you served me some time a hundred years ago?"