Page 55 of Abalim

Keeping her grip on Abalim’s solid arm, Lisa peeked inside. The small space had hardly enough room for the still figure on a metal slab. She narrowed her eyes. Was that the crystal man Rerqel showed them before? The last time she saw him, he was out of control and screaming death threats at them. Now he laid on the table with eyes closed. Relaxed in a way that only someone in a deep sleep could be.

“Is that the, what did you call him? A crystal something?” She let go of Abalim’s arm and ventured in. She checked around, but no one else was in the bare room.

“He is called a Krystalii.” Abalim’s forehead crinkled between his dark brows. “I wonder how he got here.” His full mouth thinned as he went still and his eyes unfocused.

“We brought him here while your worked through your trial.”

Lisa jumped when Rerqel the Xeltrian appeared at the head of the table where the Krystalii lay. “Holy crap!” She exclaimed with a hand at her throat. Her heart beat a mile a minute. “Warn a person next time.”

“We have determined that this creature is your key to solving the Lumarian dilemma.” The willowy alien raised his forefinger to point at the prone emerald crystal form of the Krystalii. “End his life by taking his heart That’s a perfect replacement crystal needed to save the Lumarians.”

“What? Are you telling us we’ve got to kill him?” Lisa gasped.

Rerqel opened his arms as if to encompass the room. “We are not telling you to do anything. What you decide to do is up to you.” He disappeared.

“I can’t believe he’d even suggested such a thing!” Lisa crossed her arms and tapped her foot. “We can’t go around killing one person to save another.” She glanced at Abalim. “Right?”

When he didn’t answer, she turned and studied him. Dang, the guy looked like he was zoned out. She tapped a finger on her bottom lip. Maybe she should try to peek into him mentally and see what he was doing. Lisa calmed her mind. It shouldn’t be too hard to psychically connect with him. With a tentative touch, she slid in.

The dimly lit underground chamber was bathed in an eerie green glow as Lisa stood in front of Abalim.

She blinked. What… were they saying? She glanced around and became transfixed at the Krystalii, the enigmatic alien creature lying on a thick rock slab.

The crystalline body pulsed with an otherworldly light, casting intricate patterns of shimmering reflections on the smooth metal walls. When did it start doing that?

Lisa clutched her fists, her heart pounding as she glared at Abalim. “You can’t seriously be considering doing what that crazy Rerqel suggested, can you? How is killing this guy going to help the Lumarians?

Abalim’s dark eyes locked onto the Krystalii. His mouth tightened. “The Lumarians are on the brink of extinction. If we don’t do something to help them, their entire civilization will be wiped out. How can we stand by and let that happen when there’s a way to save them?”

Lisa took in a deep breath to stop from saying something she’d regret. “Are you telling me you think we should kill him? Then what? Hack him up and rip his heart out?”

Abalim’s brow furrowed, his voice tense. “Don’t you see, Lisa? This Krystalii came here to take over our galaxy.” He shuddered. “I know what it’s like to live under the rule of a dictatorial regime. And I swore if I could stop it, I’d never let that happen to anyone else.” He widened his stance with crossed arms. “You don’t have to do anything.” His full lips tightened. “I’ll take care of it.”

Lisa ground her back teeth. How could he stand there and callously say he’d end the life of a sentient being? She had to sniffle back the unexpected tears. He wasn’t listening to anything she said. How could he not take her opinion to heart? “Listen, Abalim.” She placed her hand on his hard-as-steel forearm, fighting to keep the touch light and not shake some sense into him like she dying to do. “We’ve got to think of something else. I’m sure we can find another Lumicor crystal somewhere.” She snapped her fingers. “How ‘bout asking Saphira and her crew? They’ve been around the galaxy a time or two. They might know where we can find one.”

Abalim took a step back, away from her hold. “Lisa, I wish we could, but we don’t have time for that.” He waved a hand around the small room. “Even if we could find a way back toThe Galactic Serpent, we don’t have enough time to leave Qorath and search for one. Didn’t you see how fast Aroonshire is fading? Not only that, Maelani and Dravik are dying as we speak. Their life force is being sucked out of them, and I doubt they’ll last much longer. He tilted his chin high. “I’m telling you, if we don’t act now, it’ll be too late.”

Lisa put more distance between them. “So, that’s it? You’re not willing to try to find another solution? You’ll just go around killing someone ’cause you think you have the right to?”

Abalim stood straight. “I’m not a murderer,” he insisted. “But this creature came here planning on killing everyone in our galaxy. And to do that, he wants to take every human woman hostage and turn them into incubators for their young. That something you want them to do? Are you willing to let these things torture and kill other woman when you have a chance to stop it here and now?” He stomped to her and grabbed her upper arms with a tight grip. “Lisa, it’s about doing what’s right. Not only for us, but think about the innocents throughout the galaxy that will suffer if we don’t act now. It’s our moral duty to try.”

Lisa shook her head, her eyes glistening with unshed tears. “Nothing is ever that black and white. Once we go down that slippery slope, we’ll end up just as bad as those we fight against. There’s got to be another way to do both.”

She wiped a tear leaking out of her eye. She knew what it was like to be the one “sacrificed” for the good of others. When her parents died, her aunt and uncle couldn’t take on her younger brother and her, so they put her in the foster system. She went willingly, thinking it would help her brother so he wouldn’t be torn from their family. And she’d naively thought her family would visit her occasionally to check up on her. But she never saw them again. Which was hard on a ten-year-old. Shoving her deep-seated emotions down the dark well in her mind, she blinked to clear her eyesight and rubbed her sweaty palms down her thighs. “Please tell me that how I feel about this counts for something.”

Abalim recoiled as if she’d slapped him. “Of course, how you feel means everything. But this isn’t about choosing between you and the Lumarians. It’s about trying to save those we can.”

Lisa’s voice cracked, her righteous anger turning into despair. “It’s hard to believe we can’t find a way to work on this together, Abalim. I thought we had something special, something that transcended time and space. But now, you’re willing to throw it all away, believing that stupid Xeltrian. How do you know if we can even trust what he’s telling us?”

Abalim gathered her close, his indrawn breath shaky. “Lisa, I’m not throwing anything away. I’m trying to do something meaningful, something that would make a difference in the universe. I thought you, of all people, would understand that.”

Lisa breathed in his spicy scent, leaning against his firm pecs. “I don’t know, Abalim. Maybe I’m just an oblivious idiot who thinks someone like you would want to build a life with someone like me.”

Abalim slid a palm down at the back of her head, his voice pleading. “Don’t talk like that, Lisa. You and I share something I never thought I’d find to fill my empty life. Please understand, I can’t turn my back on the Lumarians. I would’ve given anything for someone to step in for me and my brothers when we were slaves. The only thing we were good for back then were experiments and death. So if there’s a chance I can help save these people from the same kind of fate, I’m going to do everything in my power to do so.”

Steeling herself, Lisa pushed away to face him. Her heart filled with a mixture of love and heartbreak. “And I can’t stand by and watch you commit murder.” She gave him a tentative smile and rubbed the soft fabric covering the hills and valleys of his muscular chest. “I’d like to think of you as my hero, Abalim. But I can’t support you taking this irreversible path.”

Her words hung heavily in the chamber. The echo created a palpable tension between them. She gripped his forearms and searched the depth of his dark eyes. While his expression softened, his conviction was clear to see.

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