Oh hi, fellow, ho! / Where the mistbellows blow! / Beware the betrayer who stoops so far low! / Hi, fellow, ho! / Now the stars are aglow! / Velumar grants us our safe passage home.
-“The Apostatical Sailor”, chorus.
Mercury braced its limb, wishing to have some level of give to be able to move, but woefully attached tight to the Heart. The propagation process was nearly complete… but according to Tintin’s scans, the deposition was only 90% finished. Fortunately, even with only approximately half of the gem intact, Tintin indicated there was still enough propagite to form a new Silicarite.
Mercury didn’t dare attempt to move the remains of the Heart until after propagation had completed, at risk of damaging its own core. It and the Heart were essentially immobile for the time being.
“LIAR,” Pentagonal Prism repeated, the vessel firing another crystal blade that barely swept past Mercury and the Heart. “DECEIVER. FALSIFIER,” Each of Penta’s words were accentuated with another razor missing Mercury’s structure and the Heart by fractions of a unit. The discs tore through the overgrowth just past the split Heart, carving new paths through the jungle.
“This guy just can’t take a hint, huh?” Battus’ facial bones were bared, but this time, the translator noted his vicious intent.
“Pentagonal Prism is exasperatingly persistent. It must have-”
The Killer Quartz dropped almost fifteen units from its ship, landing on the sand with a noticeable impact tremor. After recovering from the collision with the planet’s surface, it began its advance up towards Mercury and the Heart, marching deliberately. The vessel’s autopilot maintained its altitude to hover above the surface of the water for a moment, before flying over the jungle to land in the canopy several hundred units away.
“Did you think I wouldn’t be able to track the propagation signal straight to the Heart? Your lying only served to delay me!”
“Battus… flee!” Mercury ordered. Penta was here for the Crystalline Heart, and likely to destroy Mercury as well. There was no logic for Battus to sacrifice himself.
“I’ll hold him off until you can finish!” Battus began to move away from the Heart, scooping up chunks of the crystals that had fragmented when the Heart was split. He began tossing them at the blue Silicarite.
“Hey! Asshole! Over here!” The projectiles had hardly any effect against Penta’s outer structure, but it was enough to garner its attention for a moment.
“Stay out of this, pet. This is between us Silicarites,” Penta’s upper limbs shifted into razor-sharp curved blades, turning back towards Mercury. An enormous section of the boulder’s remains collided with it, nearly knocking it over, an impressively large burden for the human to launch with significant force.
“Very well. If you insist,” Pentagonal Prism recovered its stance, and began shifting towards Battus. “I will not deny your death wish.”
“Aw, [EXPLETIVE CENSORED],” Battus dropped the rest of the geode fragments and accelerated into a patch of the remaining foliage in the clearing. He disappeared through the underbrush, and Penta followed in close pursuit, slashing and clearing away the organic growths.
“PROPAGATION DEPOSITION. NINETY. SIX. PERCENT,” Tintin flashed to Mercury, wheeling around at the Silicarite’s base columns. It almost seemed to be standing guard in Battus’ stead.
Mercury focused, wishing the process to occur at a quicker pace. It could not perceive Battus nor Pentagonal Prism from this vantage point, and it was eager to not be attached to the Heart any longer. There was little it could assist with until deposition had finished.
“NINETY. NINE. PERCENT.”
Mercury’s core deposition began to slow, the dark structures reforming and retracting back to its center of mass in Mercury’s central spire. The sensations of propagation were certainly foreign, but there were more pressing matters on the Silicarite’s mind at the moment.
“PROPAGATION DEPOSITION COMPLETE,” Tintin flashed. “MAR-U ASSUMING GUARD PROTOCOL.”
Mercury wasted no time in detaching its limb from the remainder of the Heart, taking care to let the unbalanced geode rest gently onto the terrain. The Silicarite forming within the structure would emerge in due time, on average 1.85 rotational cycles of this planet.
“Battus!” Mercury reshaped its upper limbs, forming crystal blades. It followed the trail of destruction left behind by the Killer Quartz.
Mercury shifted along the path, thick biological growths on either side. It could not perceive anything ahead, however-
BAM!
Mercury was disoriented for a moment as it crashed perpendicularly to the jungle path, tumbling sideways into the clearing near the dark chasm that it had fallen into previously.
Pentagonal Prism shifted out of the foliage, the impact it made that had knocked Mercury to the ground leaving a noticeable chip in both Silicarite’s structures.
“You were foolish to propagate with the Crystalline Heart,” Penta swung a sharp upper limb towards Mercury, the latter only barely blocking the blow with its own limbs.
“What have you done with Battus!” Mercury shoved away Penta’s limb, rolling out and returning to its full height.
“You actually care for the little flesh-pile more than the propagite! How amusing. Go find him then, and I will take the Heart, propagated or not,” Pentagonal Prism turned, shifting in the direction of the broken geode. Mercury responded with a swing of its own, although Penta easily accelerated out of its trajectory, shifting to have weapons pointed towards Mercury without adjusting its base columns.
“I will not allow this outcome,” Mercury advanced, preparing further assault.
“Oh ho ho! I actually considered letting you live for a moment,” Penta parried Mercury’s relentless advancing swings, backpedaling as they both shifted towards the Heart.
Tintin flashed rapid official warnings not to interfere with the propagated mineral structure, a violation of Silicarite galactic law. Mercury knew that the threat of repercussion would not deter the Killer Quartz.
Mercury’s fleeting distraction of focusing on Tintin proved to be a mistake. Penta knocked it off its base columns again, shifting above it and preparing a two-limbed strike to thrust into Mercury’s core.
“Get out of my WAY!” The Killer Quartz plunged, Mercury barely catching the deadly blades by the sides with its own, less than one one-hundredth of a unit away from its red mineral surface.
It needed to neutralize Penta, to defend the Heart and find Battus, wherever he was. If only they had propagated sooner, or if Crystal were still here, perhaps-
Crack. Crack! CRACK!
“What?!” Penta turned towards the Heart, a loud breaking sound like the cracking of a boulder catching its attention. It only had barely adjusted its perception before a large red crystalline limb accelerated itself into Penta’s upper structures, propelling the blue Silicarite across the clearing.
“Mercury! Are you okay?” A message from something, or someone, familiar. But, it was emanating from the newly formed red Silicarite assisting Mercury to its base columns. Shards of the geode that had housed the remaining half of the Heart were split apart, as if opened from the inside.
“Crystal? Is that you?”
“Um… yeah! I guess so!” Crystal’s communications were now triplicate, simultaneously flashing Silicarish, vibrating in Battus’ language, and transmitting her usual telepathy.
She was fully translucent and red, flashing a soft pink, a glow unusual to Silicarites or their Silicarish. She stood at about two units tall, a bit shorter than Mercury. Her structure resembled the propagated half of the Heart, split open to form her limbs. She had an opening in her upper regions, similar to the orifice which contained Battus’ facial bones, which also moved in a similar manner to the human’s whenever she communicated. Tintin, as usual, rolled over to scan the new source of data.
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“Your propagation incubation period was much shorter than expected.”
“I think I was ready. And I could vaguely sense what was happening… I felt the Heart split, but… I’m here now, both mind and body together. I’ll go look for Battus, I can sense he’s panicked and lost. You need to deal with Pentagonal Prism.”
The blue Silicarite resumed an upright position across the clearing, a visible crack in its structure where Crystal’s limb had collided with it.
“The new Silicarite, already? What, do you think it will help you in a two-on-one, Mercury?”
“She,” Crystal corrected. “And she already knows that Mercury doesn’t need any help in kicking your rocky ass.”
Penta began to advance once more. Crystal shifted quickly towards the jungle, losing balance and falling forward for a moment before catching herself.
“Whoa… sorry. Still getting used to having a physical form like this,” Crystal resumed her acceleration onto the path, disappearing from perception.
Mercury prepared to clash with Pentagonal Prism once more, lowering its sharpened limbs. The probability of Penta allowing any of them to leave alive was minimal. The equation of one life over another was unbalanced, but the math problem was simple.
Eliminate the remainder.
Mercury accelerated forward with renewed vigor, its attacks blocked at every angle by Penta’s limbs, only for Mercury to unleash another milli-cycles later. The Killer Quartz was on the retreat. Mercury pressed forward, taking the advantage of the distance, the two Silicarites drawing closer to the edge of the chasm, away from the other half of the Heart.
Suddenly, the growths nearby parted, from the opposite direction that Crystal had departed from.
“Mercury!” Battus vibrated intensely.
“Battus, you’re alive, excellent!”
“You finished propagation! I’m gonna go guard the Heart!” He emerged from the growths fully, stepping around and towards the Heart’s shards and the beach.
“I don’t have time for your pathetic reunion. Die!” Penta struck with reckless abandon, but Mercury deftly parried the wayward strike. Mercury followed it up with a riposte, thrusting its limb deep into Pentagonal Prism’s middle.
Its core was visibly split. A lethal conclusion to the battle.
The blue Silicarite’s light flickered.
“I… no…! You can’t have killed me…” Penta’s limbs shifted rapidly, attempting to form anything, but unable to maintain its structure. “I… HATE you… Mercury….”
“You will no longer be a threat to innocent people. Good riddance, Pentagonal Prism,” Mercury used a base column to propel Penta into the open cavern entrance, removing its bladed limb from the incision point simultaneously.
“Noooo!” Penta fell, tumbling backwards into the opening. But as it did, its limb shifted one last time, into deadly shards. It propelled them, launching several projectiles of its own body towards the red Silicarite standing at the edge. The crystal shards barely scratched Mercury’s structure.
“A pitiful final attempt, but I commend you for fighting until the last, Penta,” Mercury perceived Penta colliding with the bottom of the chasm, its light slowly fading to nothing in the darkness below.
Mercury paused, re-shifting its limbs into a neutral position. It waited a moment to confirm that Pentagonal Prism had indeed been defeated. Once it was confident that its rival was no longer a problem, Mercury allowed itself to consider what must be accomplished next.
“Now that one issue has been resolved, we need to-” Mercury began to shift away from the edge of the cave to address Battus, when it halted in place.
“Mercury… I…” Battus’ cranial structure was facing down towards himself. One of the larger shards that Penta had launched had pierced his middle.
“Battus…?”
Battus stumbled backwards, falling onto the beach.
“Battus!” Mercury accelerated to his side, followed closely by Tintin.
“Ah… crap…” Battus clutched the blue crystal shard, laying in the silicate particles of the shore. “This… this is fine probably. Right?”
Battus sputtered like a combustion engine, crimson life-fluids staining his clothing. “Heh… maybe not.”
“Battus… I will assist you. You will be fine,” Mercury assured him.
“If you [TRANSLATION ERROR] communicate so.”
“You keep telling me ‘if you communicate so’. Is this a local expression my translator is incapable of deciphering?”
Crystal emerged from the overgrowth, interrupting them.
“Battus! Mercury!”
“Crystal…! You’re alive, how…?”
“I am! I don’t know. But I guess I always was the Heart, no matter what form it took. But that doesn’t matter right now, you’ve been injured…!” Crystal the Silicarite drew closer, assessing Battus’ physical condition.
“It’s not as bad as it looks, right? I can't die, guys… my boss is going to kill me if I don't clock out,” Battus expunged air rapidly and bared his facial bones, quickly followed by more sputtering.
“...sorry for the delay. The jungle looks really different when I’m not flying. What happened to Pentagonal Prism? I can’t sense its thoughts any more.”
“Deceased. It won’t be bothering us or anyone else any longer,” Mercury decided to omit the macabre details for the time being.
“Oh, don’t worry about me. I’ll just be here… dying….” Battus trailed off, only expunging air in irregular patterns.
Crystal and Mercury paused, and they considered their options for a moment. First aid seemed unhelpful at this stage.
“...Mercury. Grab the other half of the Heart, and bring it here. I have an idea, I don't know if it will work, but we have to try something.” Crystal adjusted her base columns, kneeling in the sand adjacent to Battus’ right side.
Mercury shifted away and returned momentarily with the other half, setting the geode onto the beach next to Battus, across from Crystal. What had formerly been the center line of symmetry on the Heart was now jagged crystal, but swirling deposits from Mercury’s core were still present in the larger region of the remaining gemstone.
“Look! When the Heart split, it was still in the process of propagation.”
Tintin scanned the half-Heart, confirming that its deposition was indeed over 95% complete.
“Mercury. If you finish the process on the other half, I think I might be able to… well, save him. Maybe. It’s a long shot, but we have to try.”
“I will do whatever is required,” Mercury affirmed, attaching itself to the broken fraction of the gem, this time on its upper right edge. Tintin stayed nearby, scanning the Heart and Battus as much as possible.
The process was completed much faster, with a smaller mineral structure and only a fraction of deposition remaining.
“PROPAGATION DEPOSITION COMPLETE,” Tintin repeated the same message from earlier. “MAR-U ASSUMING GUARD PROTOCOL.”
“Excellent. However…” Mercury detached its limb from the mineral structure, perceiving the fading light of the planet’s star on the horizon. “We will need to find an auxiliary light source.”
“What about Tintin’s light?” Crystal suggested.
“Yes. Excellent idea,” Mercury didn’t even need to relay the command to the MAR-U before it returned a response.
“WARNING! MAR-U BATTERY LEVEL CRITICAL. CARRYING OUT COMMAND MAY RESULT IN LOSS OF UNIT POWER, CAUSING DAMAGE AND/OR DISABLING UNIT PERMANENTLY. CONFIRM COMMAND?”
Mercury paused to assess the situation. Tintin’s utility could not be underestimated in a situation like this. Without the Shard, it could be a long time until its companion could be recharged. Even if Mercury stooped to recovering Penta’s ship to escape later, the Silicarite had known the Killer Quartz to never have even installed a MAR-U station on its vessel.
“CONFIRM? CONFIRM?” Tintin rolled into Mercury’s base columns repeatedly.
“Mercury… I think it wants this. Tintin wants to help Battus.”
“Very well…” Mercury hesitated for a moment, and considered the assisting robot that had been by its side for everything up to this point. “...confirm command.”
Tintin rolled over to the Heart, its display lighting up and beaming a bright light into the center of the crystal. The display flickered for a moment, before the light disappeared.
“SUFFICIENT LIGHT LEVEL ACHIEV- WARNING! BATTERY LEVEL… CRitical….” Tintin powered down, its display going dark.
“No… Tintin…” Battus reached out his limb, before succumbing to the weakness brought about by his injury.
“Stay put, Battus. Tintin will be okay, I hope.... Please stay very still…” Crystal’s limbs begin to light up with pink energy, a strange field of glowing light pulling in from the forest.
She moved her limbs over the Heart shard, and over Battus. The field flowed like liquid light, covering both in a loose net of glowing pink water.
“Everything is going dark….” Battus’ vibrations were the weakest they had ever been.
“Battus… I need you to stay with me!” Crystal drew in more magic, binding both gem and human together tightly. The faint light of the stars was massively outshined by the blinding pastel glow.
And on the beach of Crystal’s island, Battus, the Human, died.