Way of No Return (Champions of the Crystal Book 8)

Chapter 5.3

There was a lot more clanking echoing through the silent Wayship than Scotty thought was normal, but he passed the time talking quietly to Khediva until Ford reappeared with the crystal matrix from his ship and asked, "Has Khediva said anything?"

"Not much. She's only speaking Wayfarer. That's never a good sign," Scotty said. "I think she wasn't strong enough to calculate coordinates, so she homed in on Sabrina and sent Tirqwin to her."

"That makes sense," Ford said. "You and Sabrina are the ones she's most familiar with, and you were in Control." He hesitated, then carefully handed the matrix to Scotty. "Hang onto that while I remove this one. Don't bump it against anything!"

"Yeah, 'cause I've never handled crystal before," Scotty muttered. But he stepped back from the pedestal, giving himself as much space as possible in the small room.

He watched as Ford swapped the crystal matrices, careful not to comment and break his brother-in-law's concentration. Once the last clamp was in place around the new matrix, one of the darkened control boards lit, and Khediva said, "Thank you, Niavar."

"Khediva! Are you okay?" Scotty demanded.

"Better," she replied. "Thank you both. I do not know how much longer I would have survived. I cannot sense Tirqwin; what is his condition?"

"They took him to Giandrah to see if he could benefit from the resonance there," Ford said.

"What happened? Where's Mara?" Scotty asked.

"On Avestar," Khediva replied. "She was incapacitated almost as badly as we were. We urged her to come with us, but she would not leave them undefended. We waited too long to leave; I am amazed we made it to Praxatillus. Fortunately it is such a common destination for us that I can apparently find it while not entirely conscious."

Scotty couldn't tell whether she was joking and decided not to ask. Ford said, "Do you want to dock for repairs, Khediva? You may be safer there if we're attacked again."

"Yes, I believe I will, at least until we can run diagnostics on my systems," Khediva said. "Thank you. Particularly for the loan of your crystal matrix. I wish I could tell you I would be able to return it to you in the foreseeable future."

Ford said, "I can't go anywhere right now, anyway. You are welcome to it, Khediva. It will be worth it to be able to tell Sabrina you are all right. May I take your matrix to my ship to examine it?"

"Yes." Khediva sighed. "It is just so much inert matter now, I am afraid. Could you arrange for someone to update me on Tirqwin's condition until he is conscious?"

"Certainly. I'll take care of it," Ford said. "Or would you rather talk to Aurora, Scotty?"

"I'll do it," Scotty said. "I need to check in with her anyhow."

"And now, if you'll excuse us, Khediva, Sabrina is not feeling well and I would like to go make sure she is not exerting herself."

"By all means," Khediva said.

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Ford chafed at the necessity to put Khediva's useless matrix aboard the Adventure before returning to the planet, but he was afraid to take it down to the surface before looking closely at it, in case the resonance absorption effect had not completely worn off. He peered at it while Scotty and Stecklan chatted with each other, catching up on mutual friends, until Scotty said, "You got a use in mind for that, Ford?"

"Hm?" Ford looked up. "Maybe. It depends on whether I can isolate what caused this effect."

"I was thinking," Scotty said, "that parasite thing the Kyan use sucks resonance. Do you think they grew a great big one or something?"