Page 53 of Abalim

“Lumicor crystal?” Abalim stepped closer to the holographic image of the elderly Lumarian wobbling in and out of focus. “What is that?”

JR15 buzzed to his shoulder and settled, folding his wings under his dorsal storage.

“Why, it is the very source of life for the citizens of Aroonshire. Without it, we will cease to exist.” He tilted his head and pursed his lips. “Surely, you, as the caretakers, are aware of this. Are you not?”

Lisa put a lock of her hair behind her ear. “Caretakers?” She glanced at Abalim, who stood with arms crossed and his forefinger tapping his lower lip. “Of what?” she asked.

“Of our glorious selves, my children.” The elderly male chuckled. “After all, you created us to take care of you after we landed on this planet eons ago. Why, without us, everything around you would die in the toxic atmosphere. All the plants and animals would perish, along with the Lumarian people.”

Abalim cocked his head. “And just who is thisusyou’re talking about?”

“My child, do you not know who we are? We are Echovara!”

Chapter Eleven

Abalimstudiedthehologram.Looked like the Lumarians created this machine to produce some type of biosphere for them to live in eons ago. Only now the technology to maintain it was long gone. All that was left were legends and traditions spoken by this image without knowing the full truth.

“Are you telling us your power source is in danger of being depleted without this crystal?”

The male widened his arms as if to include the massive machine behind him. “Yes, yes! We have been waiting for far too long for you to come and provide us with the Lumicor we so desperately need.”

Lisa crossed her arms. “If you need this Lumicor so much—” She thrust her forefinger at the prone Lumarians in their pods against the cave wall. “—why are you killing your people?”

The wispy form of the elder wrung his hands. “What choice do we have? When the caretakers stopped coming to see to our needs, we had the elderly brought here. We asked each one of them to provide us with the crystal, but none knew what we were talking about!” He hung his head. “We admit it got to the point we scared them so much we had no choice but to put them to sleep the minute they arrived. It is to our great sorrow that their life force has kept us going. Even as we speak, that is becoming useless. Especially since they cannot give us enough energy to grow more crystals.” His bright eyes filled as large rolls of clear liquid that rolled down his sunken cheeks. “Our only solace has been the hope that our caretakers didn’t abandon us and would return to correct that which went wrong.”

Abalim narrowed his eyes at the image. Since it wasn’t an organic being, he couldn’t psychically connect with it. Good thing he had his AI companion to help. He glanced at the bot resting on his shoulder. “JR15? Do you think you can interface with the machine and see what you can learn about this crystal and where it needs to go?”

“Yes, of course, Mister Abalim, sir. I have already made a tentative connection. I’ll be right back. I shouldn’t be long.” JR15’s iridescent wings came out, and he fluttered back to the huge contraption.

“You will allow my small bot to examine where your power source is needed.” Abalim stated to the machine. “In the meantime, display an example of what this crystal looks like.”

The image bobbed his head. “Of course, caretaker.” He held out his hand. On it, an oval-shaped clear iridescent crystal appeared, about the size of his fist. Abalim stepped closer to take a better look. If he wasn’t mistaken, inside the rainbow of colors was the silhouette of a massive tree. Like the one that brought them here.

“Oh, wow. That’s gorgeous!” Lisa exclaimed. She reached out as if to touch it, but pulled back with her fingers curling into a fist. “It kind of looks like the pendant Nyvira used to send us here.”

Abalim nodded. “Yes, but that crystal was clear and didn’t have this image in it.” He pointed to the rotating crystal floating in Echovara’s palm.

The hologram of the Lumarians’ god frowned. “No, no, that won’t do. It has to be exactly like this one! The etching of the tree tells us the crystal is at its full maturity.”

“Well, all you gotta do is tell us where to get one, and we’ll bring it back to you. Just point the way!” Lisa threw her hands in the air.

The hologram of the elderly Lumarian straightened and closed his fist, cutting off the spinning gem. “That is the responsibility of the caretakers, not us. You people had one directive, and you have failed at that small task.” He pointed to the prone Lumarians in the stasis pod. “And that is the result of your incompetence.”

“Damn, harsh much?” Lisa groused under her breath.

JR15 flew back and landed on Abalim’s shoulder. “Mister Abalim, sir?” The bot’s tiny voice spoke softly. “After analyzing the power input valve on the machine, I may have detected where we can find the power source the hologram describes.”

Abalim raised an eyebrow as he glanced at the small bot who looked back with his round head tilted. “Really? Is it near?”

JR15 stood and rubbed his back legs together.

That seemed to be a sign he was nervous about what he said next.

“I can sense the same energy signal through that stasis pod.” He pointed a tiny foreleg at the empty coffin-shaped mirror next to Maelani.

“It’s in there?” Lisa’s mouth fell open.

“No, Miss Lisa, ma’am.” JR15 shook his green and silver head. “It is in the room behind it.”

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