Interplanetary space 672 light seconds from Xonia, Illudia’s star. 1099 Gilded Age (GA).
Mercury stood perfectly still in front of the sleek white navigation panel, the propagite detection signal light slowly blinking and reflecting back through its crystalline structure. It almost could not believe what it was perceiving. After several hundred cycles of searching, the Crystalline Heart was here? On this planet, full of carbon-based life-forms? This probability was unlikely, but aligned with the Silicarite’s perception of its own fortune.
Mercury finally shifted from its standstill position, its red quartz bipedal body rotating and readjusting with its internal mineral structures, speckled with the quicksilver it was named for. Mercury drew closer to the globe hologram displayed on the raised panel, shifting and reforming its two base columns to reposition itself in front of it. It raised both of its upper limbs to the display, sorting through the interface with rough-hewn digits. Data banks indicated the planet was locally known as “Illudia”, natively inhabited by several species of life-forms and populated by several galactically registered species, as well.
“At least they have a spaceport,” Mercury thought to itself, light almost imperceptibly refracting in regular patterns through the upper regions of its body, “The last planet didn't even have solid surfaces, let alone any civilized regions.”
The quicksilver-veined Silicarite re-shifted over to another nearby panel within the Shard, tapping methodically at the display. After a few moments, the sleek cabinet dispensed a mobile assistant robot unit, or MAR-U. The tiny half meter long construct dropped from its charging station to the floor, quickly righting itself and standing on its four treaded wheels to face Mercury. Its 360 degree light display flashed a series of boot messages in Silicarish.
“UNIT TI-99 INITIATED. USER RECOGNIZED- GREETINGS DESIGNATION MERCURY!” Its rear antenna calibrated itself in a manner that somewhat resembled a carbon-based quadruped's tail wagging. Mercury twinkled slightly, affirming the unit’s greeting with positive refractions.
Mercury originally found the MAR-U to be considerably off-putting, and their refraction pattern responses were always uniform and robotic. With the lack of contact with the rest of its species, however, Mercury slowly adjusted its opinion over time. It now found that the impersonal nature of the constructs made them competent and professional travel companions, as opposed to disconcertingly lifelike tools. This particular unit was affectionately dubbed “Tintin”, owing mostly to its improvised panels fashioned from metals available at the time. Although its exterior was partially oxidized from exposure to the elements, Mercury found Tintin visually appealing, likening the patterns of rust across its small chassis to fur colors commonly found on non-sapient life-forms.
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The vessel’s velocity reduced, preparing its descent into the planetside port. Mercury moved to the pressure sealed exit, interacting with the console to download all relevant data about local species, terrain, and planetary hazards onto an AR unit. The Silicarite attached the gear to the upper part of its brilliantly red and translucent structure, affixing it around its central prismatic spire. The augmented reality tech could feasibly be attached nearly anywhere on its body, but Mercury found that most sapient creatures preferred conversing with this region of its structure. It had surmised that it was because of the usual location of other life-forms’ visual receptors.
The autopilot docked the Shard, making automatic contact with the port’s communications to authorize a landing zone. The sealed exit hissed, re-pressurizing the vessel and allowing Mercury to slowly reacclimate to an atmosphere from the vacuum of space travel. Tintin rolled around excitedly at Mercury’s base columns, zipping ahead and rolling down the extended ramp the moment the door slid upwards far enough. Mercury took extra care to duck its top point underneath the access port, which had a set of telltale vermilion marks on it after several unintentional use cases, and emerged into the brightly lit exterior.
Mercury’s internal refracted light dulled for a moment, readjusting its perception to the brightly lit exterior exposed to the sky. It stepped onto the ground, recoiling for a moment as it realized that the floor here was made of a crude, non-living crystalline structure. Tentatively, Mercury examined the floor closer, and tapped the side of its AR gear, bringing up a display. After analyzing the unusual compound, the display determined that the mineral was composed of several different compounds, including some sort of nanotechnology that Mercury did not recognize. Satisfied with this analysis, it initiated a command to the system.
“Seek local guidance,” Mercury refracted into the unit, and the display lit up with virtual blue arrows lining a dotted path through the spaceport between the other vessels. Mercury was confident in its ability to navigate to its intended destination, but Silicarite protocol dictated that a volunteer native of a local sapient species be utilized during planetary expeditions, when applicable. On top of a guide’s familiarity with planetary terrain and hazards, unknowingly violating local cultural customs or holy sites had the tendency to incite more issues than it was worth.
The crystalline creature shifted its base columns through a large opening in the wall, following the AR unit’s path. The path guided Mercury through a crowded street, filled with a few species that it recognized, but many, many more that it did not. Bipedal life-forms made up the majority of the street’s population, ranging from short green creatures with long ears and bright eyes, to enormous tree-like beings that took long strides across the crowd.
Mercury did not have a traditional hearing organ, but it could perceive sound, and spaceports were always filled with it. In this planet’s case, it seemed most creatures were conversing using sound, which happened to be precise vibration patterns through the air that resonated in the most uncomfortable way in the deepest parts of Mercury’s structure. The immense noise caused it to shudder in an involuntary response. It continued along the street, following the gently flashing blue arrows up to an informational stall adjacent to the blue crystal road, and indicated this was Mercury’s final destination.
Stepping up to the counter, the Silicarite tilted its AR’s viewfinder up and around to examine the structure. Like the road, the building was also constructed of the same crystalline material that ranged in its blue color from cyan to deep indigo. The construction was acceptable, but Mercury found that the compound it was composed of was an affront to Silicarites everywhere, even if it was likely an unintentional coincidence.
“What a perfect planet to house the Crystalline Heart….” Mercury refracted to itself sarcastically, forgetting that its equipped AR unit was programmed to translate its Silicarish into the planet’s most common form of communication.