Charts were strewn around her bedroom, notes made in runic shorthand she preferred when relic hunting. They marked mineral and crystal deposits that seemed a likely fit for the one that had snapped, though she still hadn't found the mysterious panel. She'd tried every last panel she could, but none of them matched the configuration of the one they'd seen. Tesla's seemed to change in the virtual world as often as he came close to solving it. Three days after her overheating incident and they had narrowed the reaction down to contact with a toxic crystal, but it was that crystal and the power surge that had given her access to Tesla's virtual world. She wasn't calling it toxic at all, no matter what the tower doctor or Valrr said. Unintended side effects seemed more likely than toxic at any rate. Kyra ran her finger along the thin scar left from gripping it too hard and frowned as Valrr paced in front of her as he had every time she'd tried to leave.

Going out there is dangerous. What if you overheat again? She gave him a look as she sprawled across the bed and propped herself up. What if you die this time? I can't stop that and I can't protect you if you don't let me help.

This coming from a Prylarian? Valrr, are you suggesting I quit? If you are, you can get back on the next shuttle and go home. I said I'd get him out, not sit on my bed for the rest of my life. Everything I do is dangerous, everything I've ever done could get me killed. The best part of it is that I've done it . Anyone else can see it just from the exhibits out there, or the papers I've written. If I don't do this- Kyra flicked her fingers at another part of the map with a crystal deposit and sent the data to her database. If I don't do this and I don't help him, I'm no better than that idiot who tried to eat a pidjes. Since when have you been so reluctant to go on any adventure? Because that's what this is.

Since you nearly died. Really died, Valrr shot back. I was awake, I felt it! If we hadn't gotten you into Renewal, you would have been dead, burnt out like a circuit. You're my Voice, my friend, and letting you do this isn't at all prudent. He had his formal voice on, too. She was in trouble, the sort that wasn't going to take two seconds to get out of, either.

This is important. I'm sure you'd see different if you'd been there, but you're not even open to the concept. I'm going out there and I'm doing it now. The storms start in a few days and I refuse to be shut up inside for that long without something to occupy my time that isn't-

I'm not helping you get yourself killed, Valrr growled and cut her off again with an angry retort that needed no real translation. He was beyond upset and they both knew it. She buried her face in her hands and worked her way upright to stare at the Nikola Tesla panel for the millionth time before loading up her pack with the rest of the supplies. Valrr's worries weren't dismissed, but neither could she force herself to be still.

WHAT IF I WEAR GLOVES? she hollered a moment later, but her friend said nothing. "Godsdammit," Kyra hissed and jerked her straps over her shoulders before shifting the weight of the bag. Fine, she was doing this alone. So what if she was going to seethe all the way back to the airfield and onto her ship? Or even through preflight check and start up?

"Tower One, this is Kyra, Prime Archaeologist on The White Pidjes with preflight check done, requesting liftoff for a crystal run, flight plan and manifest on file 002 Delta-Five. Valrr declined the run, going solo." She snapped her restraint in place and did it all again. "Instruments are green. At your discretion, over."

"Received. White Pidjes , we have on our screen, no incoming vehicles, you are clear to proceed to vector 009 for liftoff. Please be advised, day 02 of your flight plan will put you within striking distance of an electromagnetic storm while your are in a crystal heavy region. Your storm shelter is marked on your map. Take refuge when warned," the flight officer responded. "Good hunting, Prime, over."

"Received. Etan, tell Valrr not to mope. It doesn't suit him. And ask him to look into the power surges. He's not listening to me, over." She powered the engines and retracted the landing gear, her ship floating as her impulse engines came online.

"Received. Will do. Don't get torched out there, over." Kyra sighed and headed to lift off, pleased when she was up and skimming high above the forests as she headed toward her first crystal deposit. Electromagnetic storms and crystals, so the data had told her were a magnificent sight, though they could apparently cause illness for those unfamiliar with the vibrations. She grimaced a little and flicked a switch to adjust the polarization of the front windows as she was heading into the sun. Honestly, she should have left earlier. The argument had given her less quality time to spend at the first site than she wanted and she needed to get to the third site before the storm hit. Her ship could hold out just fine in an electromag storm if needed, but powering everything off was the safest of bets no matter how fortified you might think your shielding was. If she could have swung it, which obviously she couldn't, she'd have taken the base's hopper in. It was easier to store, for one thing. You were less likely to get torched, too. From her read up on the planet, getting torched was another word for essentially getting your brain fried from too many frequencies hitting it and pretty much exploding your brain. It sounded about as unpleasant as it was.

The landscape below was beyond colorful and some colors were so exotic she was sure they didn't have any real recorded names. Trees were actually encapsulated, like ice, in full crystal growth, and she'd seen lakes that were simply remnants of what had been as the massive crystalline ranges encroached on the natural world beyond their reaches. It was breathtaking at sunset when the color of the sky above turned to jewel tones and lit the mountains up as they reflected it. Her craft dipped and turned about five hours into her flight, setting her down in a ravine on a ledge. Once, ages before anyone outside the system had ever stepped on the surface of this planet, there had been some sort of mining operation, but that looked like it had been abandoned possibly before Tesla I had met its demise. Her fingers hit several switches as she powered down for the evening. There wasn't the best chance for her to do more than a little harvesting for study before she knew she had to rest, but she'd do what she could. Looking for a specific frequency of crystal resonance was like attempting to find a particular strain of grain when everything looked the gadsdamned same. It was beyond frustrating.

Kyra shrugged her climbing gear on, gauging the sun's descent to the point where the reflection would be too strong for her to work and decided she'd put up in a few hours more to avoid the worst. Once it passed, she could use the lights she'd clipped on the line and to her pack to see by as she worked the ravine. It was the psychic resonance she was looking for at the end of it, not a particular color. Lifting her gloved hand up, she inserted the phase cutter to the back of her hand and strapped it tight. Her armor was sleek and fit snug against her flight suit. Custom built, it protected the wearer against the worst drops and she'd worn it on more than one expedition with success. Pulling her visor down, she anchored her safety tether and lowered herself to the firs ledge below where her ship was and swung herself in to land. Somewhere beyond the mouth of the sheltered cave, she could hear the wind whistling eerily. It was almost like whispering as the sound distorted, the kind that made her shiver involuntarily as she worked to set up her base camp. Shining her torch along the smooth passage, she stepped forward and realized it wasn't smooth at all.

Massive carved birds in incredibly lifelike detail had been chiseled and worked with great skill into the sides of the passage. It had been a little unsettling before with the wind against the crystal, but now, she wondered if she had stumbled onto something more important than just a cave. Whomever had been living on this planet before, they'd never been seen, so this sort of work remained undiscovered, waiting for people like Kyra to blunder into them. She wasn't sure that accounted for the way her skin seemed to crawl. The crystal birds seemed to follow her, their beaks pointing the way forward as night began to fall.

Kyra? She snapped the light around, but it was birds everywhere, their beaks pointing onward. Kyra, Kyra. Hear me, hear me. She was alone with no one to hear what she did. Ahead, she felt the air cool and when she let her breath out, it clouded the air to the sound of rushing water. As she turned the corner, she stopped, her brow furrowed. A figure stood near an outcropping of rocks.

"Hello?" she called softly as she advanced, but the figure just swayed. "Who's there?" She blinked and it was gone as an icy wind buried itself into her with such ferocity, her fingers dug into the rock as it stole her breath for a moment. Nothing about this site said anything about it remotely being an activity spot. Her voice echoed ahead until she clapped her hands over her ears, wincing as she moved forward. Everything but her psychic sense said this cave was incredibly empty, but something wasn't right. Her name kept ringing through her head in low tones until she slid to the floor and pulled her knees to her chest. Right here.

There was someone here.

Kyra? Why would they dare wake me? What did I do, do, do... What have I done? That's your name? Yes?

Who is this? Casting her mind out was incredibly painful. Hello? Somewhere further in where the water came from, something was shifting, the walls were vibrating, thrumming with sound folding over sound. In the roar of crystal echoing against crystal, she heard a voice sigh.

I didn't call you, child. Did I? I think I would have remembered and that means, you're not welcome. Before she could so much as get to her feet, a great shift of crystal heaved itself upward and turned a pair of glittering green eyes on her. My crystal, my cave. It's mine. Black crystalline teeth shone in the light of her torch as an eerie sound slammed into her, pushing her back the way she'd come until there was nothing but that sound tearing into her mind in an attempt to rip it to shreds.

All Kyra could do was scream.