HV-3 Crystal Maiden

Avda looked concerned, "Is that what the Hazards have been—"

She stopped short as Rewan rooted around in her sling and Avda followed her gaze to a dead end of steel now only a few yards ahead.

"We will first investigate, and then we will assess how to proceed, Yeowoman Rewan."

"That's not how the Forebears set out the world." She shook her head, "One. Must. Dare. A door that just opens is no door at all, it's just an... inconvenient hallway."

"Nevertheless." Avda approached the wall or door or inconvenient hallway. It was as solid as it looked from afar with off-colored pads amid its fine grooves and etchings. "It's carved like the Forebears' stonewood, but steel?"

"It's not steel." Rewan had followed behind the captain, her gauntlets at the ready, "Not really. It's more like our laminite, see?" She stroked two fingers against the stone wall, coming away caked in dust and little plumes of the stuff floating on the air. She then did the same with the steel of the door, coming away clean and clinking from where her stonewood fingertips tapped the clean metal. "We have some relics made of the stuff. Harder to use, though. More dangerous, usually, too."

"What is it called?"

Rewan shrugged, "We don't know enough about it, so until we do, it's 'steel-like metal of forebear make'."

"Cumbersome, how long have we been researching it?"

"Not? I mean, no one's researched on it with any focus. There's so many of the good stonewood relics that we haven't assessed, it's only of the effort of the very experienced and the very inexperienced that risk working with the steel-like ones."

"So you have—"

"A little, sure, yeah, but I'm not dumb. I know when to watch myself."

"I see," Avda could not hold back another lopsided grin. "We know little about the material, what might we do with the door then?"

"We try a few things until we can blow it away," Rewan said matter-of-factly, "It doesn't recover like stonewood, so we'll be able to wear it down at least."

Avda sighed, "That's the use the Forebears intended for us?"

"Fine, you can interact much like with stonewood relics." Rewan stripped off a stonewood glove and stepped to the door, "But that's a bad idea, Captain."

Avda raised a hand to stop her, "What is the risk?"

"I can't say, this isn't even on Hutana, it's just some rock out here. We could set off traps or backfire something? We could accidentally lock the door further--and I don't see any lexigraphy to figure out what we did wrong. Shit, this might not even be a door! This could just be some... lure! Maybe that's what a "violet domain" is, some trap set to kill stupid Hutanari!"

Avda considered and asked, "Can we test it from a distance?"

"When have you heard of a relic that didn't need your bare flesh on it to activate?" Rewan gave her ostensible Captain a stupid look.

"Alright, I defer to your experience. Let's go a safe distance back, but I don't want you to try anything that you are not yet familiar with. I want a detailed explanation of what you are about to do before you do anything, understood Yeowoman Rewan?"

As Rewan pulled the heavy gauntlet back on from her fingertips to her upper arm, they walked back a few of the corridor's steel ribs away from the door and she explained, "Gauntlets of living flame. Very well understood. By me. I am going to make a very hot and very dense point and send it down to the door. There I will rapidly expand and fracture it which will cause it to create something we Hazards call an 'explosion' which is very destru—"

"Thank you, Yeowoman Rewan. Proceed"

The Hazard hunched over her hands cupped into two sides of a sphere, above and below. When she drew her hands apart, the air sucked around her and a white hot pinprick between her palms expanded to whirling orb of flames. The whipping tendrils of flame seemed to outline a ghostly face. She drew the orb back in her right hand pulling it far out and back of herself and the fireball expanded to a yards-breadth clearly bearing two wide dead eyes and a grinning, snapping maw. Finally Rewan stepped forward and pitched her whole body into a twisting throw and that sent the fire streaking down the corridor. While her eyes followed it, she brought her hands back together and the orb shrank down growing painfully bright and even overwhelming the universal blue light to give hues of browns to stone and skin. Just as the orb reached the wall, she flung her arms wide jubilantly and outstretched her balled fingers to their fullest extent.

The fireball thundered down the corridor, shaking their teeth as the flame flowed around them and vented out the mineshaft's mouth. Rewan balled up the smoke into little smirking ghosts and sent them whistling away from the far door. They saw it--chunks and dust of rock cascading down around it--but the door itself was clearly untouched.

Rewan was unfazed, "Try, the second." She drew two phials of clear liquid from her sling and explained, "This is red melt water. This is blue melt water." She stopped and looked at the stoppers, "Probably, it may be the other way around. Anyway: one or the other will eat through almost anything. I say almost, because there are certain materials that just seem to ignore it, and of course: stonewood will regrow faster than the melt water can eat at it. I'm going to fling 'em at the door."

"And you expect..."

"I expect... one of them to burn through the door. Or start to. Hopefully."

Two broken phials later, the door remained unharmed, but some stone in front of the threshold was still hissing from a deepening hole.

Hunched over her full gear pack, Rewan finished putting down her notes and fingered from relic to supplies to relic. Some were wrapped in coarse woven laminite cloth, and as she drew a narrow, arm-length one out and began unwrapping it, Avda cut her off before she could explain, "Nothing you don't understand."

"Alright," Rewan wrapped the relic back and stood, dropping it into the pack, "Now we try interaction."

"What about those risks, Yeowoman Rewan?"

"Isn't that what Hazards are for?" Rewan smirked.

"You are not a Hazard on this ship: you are a Yeowoman under my command and we will not take undue risks on so important a journey."

"What? Isn't this whole journey a risk? Calculated out by the Arbitresses of the Ezwen Command? Didn't everyone expect taking risks? 'Cause I'm still alive after being way more reckless as a Hazard, and I'm telling you that I've calculated these risks and I have strong confidence that we--well it won't end the journey." She ended somewhat flatly.

"What is 'strong confidence' for a Hazard?"

Rewan rolled her eyes and crossed her arms across her small, firm breasts, the thin swatches of cloth covering them seeming silly and inconsequential compared to the stonewood of her gauntlets, "The same as for any Hutanari: I'll be right in eight of ten strong predictions."

"Ah, but Hazards don't have Arbitresses to track their predictions."

"Because if a Hazard fails one wrong prediction you die, Captain." She said, raising three fingers, "Three years I've been a Hazard. I know my own confidence. You can stay back to ensure the journey."

Avda thought for a long moment and Rewan interrupted her, "Do you need a turn of the Meditation Glass, Daavi?" She smirked.

"Captain Avda," Avda said sternly, "and no: I have my decision. Make a cautious approach. I will stand clear, but your order is to risk as little as you may. If your confidence drops below strong, I want a report."

Rewan feigned shock, "What if you get me killed, Captain!"

Avda winced at, caught, and mastered the anger and pain this evoked, "Don't make jokes until you've sent someone to their death, Yeowoman Rewan. May you never have to."

"I'm sorry—" Rewan started.

"You have your orders, Yeowoman."

Rewan turned, a bit hangdog, and slowly got the skip back in her step as she made it rib-by-rib down the long corridor to the door. There she thought for a bit. She took off her gauntlets as she called back, "Oft'times these grooves hide secondary functionality." She traced her fingers along the little grooves carved into the steel-like metal, "Disabling traps. Failsafe unlocks."

After some time Avda had allowed herself to begin to pace and Rewan abandoned reaching the highest of the grooves and instead continued. "Otherwise, these pads," she pointed to slight, darkener rectangles outlined with the shallow grooves, "tend to be the interactive components." She reached to one as she said, "They typically don't—"

Each of the steel ribs of the corridor crashed closed with additional doors and a Hutanari voice speaking an inscrutable tongue calmly repeated two words in clear, calm tones at unbearable volume.

Avda raced to the door seperating her from Rewan. She stopped short before touching it and swore colorfully.

Situation, she thought, lights, world-pull still on. Probably the air, too.

She tossed a stone at the far door and she heard it strike and clatter on the stone.

Air too.

Satisfied, she switched off her voidbubble to conserve its energies.

The anomaly is not attempting to kill. What then? Did it fail to kill us? Some broken relic? No, everything has seemed to work. How long did it take the Command's Hazards to get the Hutana Van to hold air and generate world-pull? No, this relic is in working order.

The calm voice repeated her unintelligible message, grating on Avda's ears.

A trap, then? A lure like Rewan implied? Keep us here until someone else can arrive? Who would benefit? The Forebears? No. Their time is done and gone. Other Hutanari from other worlds? Pirates then? Or perhaps this is the property of other Hutanari commands and--useless. In any case of a trap the best route is escape.

Escape: Resources at hand. Laminite sword and hooks.

She drew her sword as she muttered by rote, "With this I would not kill," she tested the blade with a moderate strike on the door. The sword's laminite edge struck and twanged making her arm ring.

Forebear Steel in deed.

She traced the grooves of the door attempting to find purchase with the blade. Neither in the grooves nor at what should have been the edge of the door could she find enough space to get leverage.

Nothing. Resources: Blasting powder. Go through the rocks? If I had enough, could I protect myself? Laminite weave blanket? No. In so tight a space the heat would broil me and the shock turn my guts to jelly. Rewan could control the flames at least. Rewan.

"Rewan!" She tried to shout over the din of that cool voice.

No response. She is likely hale, but trapped just like me. Not a resource. An objective. Resources: lines, laminite and conventional; supplies, food and water for days. At least we both have that. Time is not of—

She thought of Rewan abandoning her heavy pack. She looked back to the far door where Rewan's gear and hooks were pitoned to the floor.

Damn it. Waiting this out is not an option. What if this is why we have been so very alone. No sisters from the stars finding us. Perhaps off the safety of our world, the infinite is a cruel and fickle place that seeks only to--Useless. If these are our last moments we will spend them struggling to survive.

Resources: Two sealed doors. Stone all around. Quill, ink, paper, meditation glass. Realscope, a pile of relics I have no experience with—

A distant staccato thunder was more felt through the stone than heard over the voice.

The trap closes? No: Rewan. What can't be solved with explosive relics? Though she can control the backblow. Perhaps--through the stone! Then she, at least, has a plan. What about me? The Captain of the Van that will lead all Hutanari into the stars, will I wait for rescue? No.

Resources: The doors. Rewan's relics.

She turned and stripped off her laminite glove and bracer.

We two might play the Hazard

*

While she remained active, the rolling thunder by starts and stops eventually drew closer from the center and Captain Avda took shelter behind her laminite blanket against the outward door. With a final blast of chipped stone, raining against the blanket with firm blows distributed through the impermeable weave, the thunder stopped.

Rewan's head was poked through the narrow aperture of the corridor's wall by the door, "Fantastic!" She shouted over the repeated words howled from the corridor, "I didn't kill you! Really great!"

"Can you get us the rest of the way out?" Avda shouted back, "I got the door to talk to me."

"No shit?! She's been 'talking' to us for hours! And yeah--well maybe, but you've got to see this!"

"We have to get out, we've gathered information enough!"

"Get your hooks and hack out this hole to get through! I don't want to blast you! I waited for you, but you're going to want to see this!" Rewan caught sight of her gear bag--its contents laid out in a row for review, "And never mess with a Hazard's stuff? Are you an idiot?"

She disappeared back into the hole and Avda was left again with the shrieking calm of the two words from the island.

Avda carved her way through the blasted hole. Beyond there were two more chambers bracketed by the steel, the floor piled with rubble from Rewan's excavations through the stone alongside each door. At the last one, she saw Rewan perched on another hole peering beyond where the door was sealed shut. From within the blue light was even brighter than the corridor.

"Yeowoman Rewan!" Avda shouted with as much agitation as necessity.

"Come on! Come see, you've come this far!"

"To retrieve a wayward crewwoman!" She said as she stalked toward the girl--catching sight of what lay beyond.

Inside, there was an immense hollow in the island. Every wall of the almost spherical cave was slashed with glinting crystal seeming to radiate against the dark, dull stone. The streaks lead back to the far wall where an angular stalactite of the bright, blue crystal grew out toward the door that should have been an entrance.

"Come on: We've got to take samples at least?" She whispered into Avda's ear.

The wonders of the infinite. These crystals may have been important enough to define the whole sun's domain. Rewan was right.

"Let us do."

They climbed through the hole and Avda pulled her hooks through. Giving one to Rewan she pointed to a nearby streak of crystal. Avda sought out a more distant vein with her hook. She heard the tinkling crunch of Rewan's hook between the words of the distant voice from the corridor outside, and Avda hauled up the hook to bring it down on the vein.

"Please don't!" Came a plaintive voice.

Rewan looked up from the glittering shards in her fingertips and Avda dropped the hook to her side--ready to strike--and they both peered at the Hutanari under the far crystal.

In the soft blue light of the crystals, she was not a great beauty, but she was pleasantly proportioned and pleasingly nude. Narrow, girlish shoulders; high, full breasts; and womanly hips gave her a kind of ageless appeal, at once youthful and mature. Her soft, weighty penis cradled between her thighs seemed to beg for attention.

Her broad, open face relaxed from concern, "Thank you." She sighed with relief in a half chuckle, "It hurts them so. Please, you have your samples."

Hutanari from the infinite! It is true! Avda thought, but contained her hopes, "Who are you, ma'am?"

"Vitrea Kiu, Captain Avda, and I think I have waited for you for a very long time!"

"You shouldn't reveal yourself like that unless you're ready to fuck, lady!" Rewan called out laughing.

The woman gently bit the tip of her tongue between her incisors and winked, "You have me at an advantage, Rew. Maybe you'll put me at ease by joining me in my unfortunate exposure?"

Rewan laughed again and Avda interrupted, "We mean you no harm, Vitrea Kiu, we will leave you and your crystals in peace. We did not intend to harm anyone or anything, but might we take what samples we have already wounded?"

"Of course, Captain; they are lost now, so may they do you good. But," she hesitated, "Please do not leave me here. I think I have been alone for so long."

Rewan and Avda looked at each other incredulously and turned back to see Vitrea approaching with soft steps, taking care to skip over the veins of crystal on the floor.

She was unarmed, friendly--and attractive, Avda knew that was influencing her thoughts. But was she a risk? Perhaps, but to potentially abandon someone here for naught but fear... Avda raised a hand to stay her as she approached and asked, "How do you know our names, Vitrea Kiu?"

She stopped, "I... I do not know, ma'am." She considered--looking away with her brow knotted in confusion, "I must have heard you from the corridor." She looked up to the hole they came in through and the distant voice beyond. She smiled to Rewan, "She's a noisy one! Clear alarm, please." She enunciated clearly and raised her voice to the door and at once the words stopped, leaving an inverse kind of noise in Rewan and Avda's ears.

"You can control relics?" Rewan shouted as she raced up to the naked woman amid the crystals. Vitrea winced as Rewan stepped on one of the crystal veins and Rewan muttered an apology and stepped carefully around the next.

"Nah, Rew, I can control these relics, but I think anyone can. Try this," she laid a hand on Rewan's bare shoulder and leaned down down to whisper in her ear. Vitrea's thick, dark hair brushed along Rewan's neck and collarbone. Avda rolled her eyes as she saw the growing bulge pressed against the fabric of Rewan's shorts.

Rewan turned back to the door and called, "Open the door, please!"

At once the door slid open and they could hear the outer doors slide open each more distantly.

Avda asked, "Is... 'please' the password?"

Vitrea shook her head, "I think not, Captain, but it is polite."

"An inconvenient hallway indeed," she said to Rewan. And they went back through the long corridor of stone and steel.

En route, Avda saw Rewan eyeing their new companion lustily and said in the thick islander dialect of their village, "Try to contain yourself, Rewan. We know less than nothing about this woman."

Rewan looked abashed, then haughty but Vitrea responded first, "Whatever you ask I will answer, Captain." She turned to Rewan with a smile, "And no need to contain yourself on my account, Rew."

"You speak Nchilan?" They both asked in unison, continuing in their mothertongue.

"Of course! I'm from a little island nearby. It's called Mwanamke, Nchi Island is the closest market port."

Their minds raced for scant moments--they hadn't heard of Mwanamke had they? They stopped short when the sun from the mineshaft's mouth splashed across—and through— Vitrea's glassy blue body.

"You're a part of the crystal!" Rewan said and Avda tensed.

Vitrea laughed, but her eyes followed their shocked, cautious gazes to her body, "No," she whispered, "I'm not..."

*

The Hutana Van's garden was ending its day cycle by the time that they had brought Vitrea Kiu back. The beams of glasswood that formed the ceiling were still bright with the light of a cloud-softened Hutana afternoon, venturing toward the comfortable night time cool of a summer evening. The ground was plush with grass and herbs and sprouting vegetables. There were intermittent trunks of trees threaded from rooty floor to the first layers of canopy, every branch heavy with ripening fruit. With the tinkle of the pond's surface disturbed by the fishy duties being done there and the drone of insects, the illusion of being in an expertly maintained garden back on Hutana was nearly perfect as long as you didn't quite look up.