"And sometimes they return with golden fire, a Silent Flame that lights the way."

  The Myth of the Duu'ra

  STEP 7: Turn enemies into patients.

  RG Doctrine

  Healing ends what bullets cannot.

  Feebee’s ‘manual’

  Everything seemed quiet, too quiet, when they flew into the base near the crystal plantation. A few people were visible, on the edge of the landing area. The ramp lowered and the three of them walked out. A corporal walked across and saluted.

  “Welcome Captain Jones. I’m Corporal Rockson, people call me Pebbles. I’ll be your guide.”

  “Oh. Ok. Good. Thankyou.”

  He stopped and turned back to Feebee, “I was told three people. Your group is four.”

  “Yes. Three plus me. Four.”

  “But he’s…”

  Before he could finish, Feebee spoke, “Yes, he’s with me.” Feebee turned and walked back into the scout ship. The corporal followed them up the ramp, un-phased."

  River was smiling, Alpha-2 elbowed him in the side, and whispered, “Stop smiling. Game faces on. This is serious.”

  River nodded and imitated the stern looks of the Alphas.

  The corporal was standing near Feebee and pointed out from the ship towards the base, “I have an itinerary planned. First I was going to show you around. Had a dinner planned after. Then drinks with the officers.”

  “Not necessary, but thanks. That can continue without me. We’re here to observe. And we want to observe a crystal farm. All we’ve seen up north are small fields. We want to see something real. A plantation.”

  Alpha-2 called back, “Belt in. Ready for take-off.”

  The corporal looked panicked. “We can't just... We don’t have clearance. The plantation's a… a…”

  “A what?” asked Feebee they took off.

  He calmed down. "Can I use your comms?” He asked and sighed.

  “Of course. This way.” Feebee guided him to the flight deck and pointed to the vacant chair next to Alpha-2.

  Rockson looked nervous, “It’s Ok. I’m not going to ask you to take over and fly us there.”

  He sat down and belted in; Feebee gave him some headphones.

  “What channel?” she nodded towards the comms switches in front of him.

  He reached across, set a dial and flicked the comms on. He'd done that before.

  Crackling came over the speaker. He reached across to turn it off, Feebee stopped him, “That’s Ok. Leave it on Corporal.” It wasn’t a suggestion.

  “Yes Ma’am.”

  Then the crackling stopped, “This is base.”

  “Corporal Rockson here. With Capt Jones on their scout ship. The …. Anyway. We are seeking permission to land at the Royal crystal plantation.” He looked at Feebee, she nodded.

  “Please repeat.”

  “We are seeking permission to land at the Royal crystal plantation.”

  Feebee then spoke so only Rockson could hear, “To observe operations.”

  Rockson then continued, “They want to observe operations.”

  “Stand by.”

  The channel remained open, there was lots of crackling.

  There was a clunk, “I spoke with the Captain. You can continue.”

  Feebee leaned in close to Rockson and whispered, “Ask if there’s any dissident activity?”

  “Any enemy activity in the area?”

  “Nothing reported, but there's always a risk,” came the response. "How long for you arrive?"

  "Thirty minutes, maybe more."

  “Ack. Base out.”

  ’Hello Feebee’, the QI made her jump. It let out a scratchy laugh, ‘Gotchya.’

  ‘Not nice. What?’

  ‘Ships have started leaving. From the plantation.’

  ‘So? Routine?’ Feebee asked.

  ‘No. More than usual.’

  The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

  ‘Private or company owned?’

  ‘Good question.’ The QI went quiet, then pushed a message into Feebee’s overlays. ‘Three, all Royal Company. That’s a week’s worth.’

  ‘Backlog?’

  ‘Hard to tell, my guess,’ the QI paused, ‘Clearing the decks for when we arrive.’

  ‘Hhmm. Not very subtle. And since when do you guess?’

  'Ok. There's an 84% chance they...'

  'I get it. Thanks.'

  They laughed.

  ‘Can you ask Chen whether he has any news for us on the distribution channels and what the crystals are used for?’

  The QI sent a needle-comm.

  AWAITING UPDATE ON END USE OF CRYSTAL.

  IS CRYSTAL VALUABLE OR DECORATIVE?

  In true Chen fashion, the answer was short and not what she expected.

  INVESTIGATE SUPPLY CHAIN

  But he had given her quite a bit to go on. He didn’t know the end-use, but it had to have value if it supported a supply chain. He wanted her to track the buyers.

  Feebee then came to decision. Enough inaction. She needed to force a change in the status quo.

  ‘Which ship contain crystals? Best guess.’

  ‘The second one. It’s an outbound trader and the largest.’ Responded the QI.

  ‘Post an intercept course.’ Feebee then turned and spoke to Alpha-2 who was piloting them into the base by the plantation. “Forget the base. Rockson, out of my chair.”

  Rockson jumped up and Feebee was belted in the copilots seat within seconds.

  “Everyone. Seats. Belt up, tight. This may get rough.” She then turned to Alpha-3. “I’ll be relieved when this is over and we’re both still alive.”

  Alpha-3 laughed as he scrambled to a spare seat. Rockson helped River belt up then went looking for some seats.

  Feebee swung the Scout Ship in a tight arc, towards the plantation and up after the trader. As they crossed the plantation Feebee’s overlay lit up with a message from the QI.

  ‘Orbital space above the farm is showing micro-fluctuations.’

  ‘Explain.’

  ‘Hard to explain. There is imbalance… in space. Between matter and void. They seem to be in conflict.’

  ‘Show me.’

  ‘Not now. Concentrate on flying.’

  “Alpha-2. Take the controls. Follow the logged intercept.”

  Rockson, was trying to speak. He was pointing to something on the console he carried. Feebee closed him down, “Sorry, not now.”

  Who carries a console anyway, doesn't everyone have at least an AI?

  'No. Most people don't,' The QI butted in.

  'What did we say about you listening to my thoughts. And those people must be lucky 'cause it would be VERY QUIET.' She added deliberately.

  Rockson tried to speak up, “But…”

  “NOT… NOW.” She shouted at him.

  He sat back and studied his console, clearly upset. Then looked at Alpha-3, who hearing Feebee shout had opened his eyes.

  The big man shrugged and gave the corporal a tight grin. Then closed his eyes, his white-knuckled grip on the arm rest still as tight as it could be.

  ‘Now. SHOW ME this view!’ Feebee insisted, urging the QI.

  It opened an overlay that Feebee had never seen before. It was reticulated and looked down at the base. The scene shifted, showing a wider view of the whole area.

  They looked down on a stretch of mature crystal forest; it was purring and resonated deep within Feebee.

  She became calm and started humming along to the tune, then caught herself.

  Off to the side was young growth, its felt sickly and flickered. There was no harmony, no balance. It wasn’t poisoned, it was damaged and strained as if struggling against a foul sickness. She felt it’s pain.

  Old memories opened and a phrase floated forward, ‘The land has forgotten how to sing.’

  Feebee had reached a level of deep, inner calm and felt old memories unlock, not just one or two but them all. She was overcome as the whole archive became known in one moment of extreme awareness. SolDiri faces looked back at her from across time. Through time, through her neural net and in that moment she felt the essence of her QI. It was a tsunami of experience that bent and warped her senses.

  And in that moment, the bridge of the Scout ship lit up as hundreds of motes blinked into existence around her. And at the centre of a spiral galaxy of light, a single green mote sat.

  River was struggling to process what he was seeing, “How is she doing this?”

  The whole jungle below, not just the plantation, started to pulse in time with Feebee’s heart. Lub-dub. Lub-dub. The mature sections held steady as they responded to her call. To her internal music. The young immature sections struggled against the crystals desire to fracture. But then, the young crystal trees stabilised, supported by the harmonics Feebee introduced. The jungle was pulling together, trying to remembered how to sing and in so doing was expelling the sickness that threatened it.

  As the jungle pulsed it gained harmony and in that moment coalesced within one tune and achieved balance within the same cadence. The cadence of Feebee's heart, her tune.

  “Ma’am. There’s a …” Rockson was anxious, pleading with Feebee. Pointing at his console.

  She surfaced and held up a single finger to her lips. "Shhhh."

  "No!" he blurted out, before continuing, “There’s an exclusion zone ahead. Standard perimeter defence. It’s mined.”

  "Oh. Ok. Not good."

  As she said that their comms lit up, “You are entering a restricted extraction boundary. Turn around immediately.”

  Rockson went looking for a seat, ideally a few together. Things did indeed look like they might get rough.

  Alpha-2 looked to Feebee. She rolled the dice and pointed at the trader just leaving the atmosphere. If it got further away, they’d never track it.

  Alpha-2 was fighting the ship, trying to get it to stand on its tail before they entered the extraction boundary. He opened the throttles. They lurched upwards, towards the black void of space.

  Alpha-3 was quietly muttering something. River wasn't sure if this was normal but he was not enjoying his first ride in a Scout ship.

  Alpha-2 was trying to close on the transport when there was a detonation that shook the ship. Systems failed but there wasn't a breach.

  “Mines,” shouted Rockson, seemingly unphased, from the back of the ship. He looked at the console he'd been carrying. "Yeh, proximity mines. The shockwave has damaged the ship."

  'That was close. We've lost engine function,' reported the QI whose focus had returned to here and now.

  She was cross with herself, 'I should have listened to Rockson.'

  'Too late. Must have been a disabling shot,' the QI continued. 'Wasn't intended to kill, else we'd be dead.'

  'Comforting,' was all Feebee said.

  River was shaking. He looked for support, what was I thinking?

  Alpha-2 was directing a bot to put the fire out in the port engine.

  Alpha-3 was no help, his eyes were clamped shit and he was reciting what sounded like a funeral chant.

  Feebee shouted back at Alpha-3, "SHUT UP!" Then gentle, "Please. That's not helping. We'll be Ok. One engine is partially out."

  Rockson was watching sensor bleed register on his console, "That wasn't ordnance instability. That was a crystal failure; the signature was lattice sheer. Dangerous but different." He was shaking his head, cursing, "Makes no sense. Who'd use unstable lattice in weapons?"

  The big man saw the terrified look on River's face who suddenly looked like a scared child. The world he loved and lived in had suddenly turned on him, become hostile. It not longer accepted him.

  Alpha-3 reached across and took one of River's hands, "He's one of the best pilots I know, and she's even better. We'll be Ok."

  The boy smiled and squeezed his hand, "Thanks."

  Alpha-3 nodded then closed his eyes and silently continued reciting his dirge.

  Rockson sat on his own in the back corner of the Scout ship, beneath a major structural joist, near the rear hatch. He'd extended the belts on either side of his seat so as to be triple cross-belted in; he was calm and accepting. More interested in the data he was collecting and what his console was telling him.

  As the ship lost height and closed on the plantation, the roots and veins of the crystal trees surrounding it flared bright. Golden fingers of lightening reached up into the sky towards them. Harmonic waves pulsed to Feebee's beat and concentrated around the plantation. The Farm at the epicentre.

  Echoes of a myth filled Feebee's mind. Something came from the sky that wasn't from here. A husk or fragment of something that fell into the land's heart from someone else's war. And as the Duu'ra walked, trees drank it's Silent footfalls up into their roots and things changed.

  The closer the ship to the got the plantation, and its mature crystal, the more the sky fractured into the geometry of a lattice.

  Space itself began to fall apart. Not through sickness but catalysis.