Chrystal Bones (Finding Home Book 1) Read online

  I am surrounded by crazy people, Jayden thought shaking his head. "Did you just apologize to the engine?" he asked.

  "Of course not,” Jos denied then hurried on. "I have not had a lot of time to familiarize myself with the new engines so it is taking a bit longer than I thought it would. I should have them up and running in about six hours and then another four hours or so for the hyper drive. That is the best I can do unless you have more chrystals hidden somewhere on this ship.”

  “All right, I will leave you to it. I need to talk to Idris for a minute then I will come down and do what I can to help,” Jayden said to him. "Keep me informed of any changes,” he told Sparks before he turned to Idris and nodded towards his office.

  Chrystal Bones Billie Jo Hanlin

  Chapter 3

  Jayden leaned back in his chair and demanded, "Explain why you think your dead sister is alive and close because your necklace is glowing?"

  “This is going to sound crazy I know, but it is not,” Idris said with a frown on his face as he paced the room. "This chrystal is tied to my sister’s life force. It has been dormant for twenty two years but it has never gone completely cold like it would if she were dead. No one has ever paid too much attention to it but I always wondered if there might be a chance she was alive. I have carried it with me every since she was lost.

  Look, I need to give you a little background information so you understand why this is so important and why we have to follow it." Idris took a deep breath and let it out before he started speaking again.

  "What I am about to tell you is highly classified, not many people know all of this even on Shillidon. Those that do know, do not speak of it to outsiders. It would be considered treason. Some of this my father is getting ready to tell the Alliance Council at the next full meeting.”

  "Quit stalling Idris and get to the point,” Jayden said.

  "I'm not stalling, well maybe I am. This is hard to talk about. I am about to break a few thousand years of silence. Everyone knows that the chrystals that power this ship and others come from Shillidon and that some chrystals are better than others. Most chrystals have special properties that make them better for some things than others.

  Pink chrystals work better for communications, yellow for light and heat. Our whole society relies on the crystals. All of that is common knowledge. What is not, is that the chrystals are dying. When they die so does Shillidon." Idris paused to gather his thoughts.

  Jayden’s jaw dropped at that revelation but he did not interrupt him.

  Idris continued, "Legend has it that every thousand years or so a woman is born who can renew the chrystals so life can continue. None of us really believed the legend anymore since it has been over two thousands years since the last recorded Chrystal Woman was born and it did not seem as if the chrystals were dying. Then about two hundred years ago our scientists noticed the chrystals were not as strong as they used to be. It was taking two or three chrystals to do something it had only taken one to do before. The chrystals we sell to other planets are dying even faster and no new chrystals are growing to replace them. The way things are right now we expect the chrystals to die completely in fifty to a hundred years. When they do, Shillidon will die." He looked into Jayden’s eyes as he told him that.

  "There is nothing you guys can do to stop it?" Jayden asked stunned.

  “Nothing,” Idris replied then continued, "The shields around my planet are weakening because they are connected to the ice blue chrystals that are the core of the planet and that core is dying faster than the other crystals. The Ragillians will figure this out soon if they have not already. When they do, they will bombard Shillidon until the shields fail. We are trying to come up with new shields but nothing has worked as well as the chrystals and once the core dies there will not be any need for a planetary shield. We still need shields for the ships and another power source for the hyper drives."

  "I understand that this is a bad thing for all of us, not just Shillidon, but what does that have to do with our current situation, and that?" Jayden said pointing at the glowing chrystal.

  "I am getting to that,” Idris rubbed the bridge of his nose as if it was giving him a headache. "My parents did not expect to have any more children after I was born because she had such a hard time carrying me and the birth was difficult. The doctors did not think she would ever get pregnant again. But when I was fifty five she did. Everyone was shocked not just the doctors. My dad did not want her to have the baby, but mom insisted. We were all worried about her but we need not have been. She sailed through the pregnancy and birth easily, and suddenly I had a beautiful little sister."

  Idris paused again for a moment before continuing, "A beautiful little sister with an ice blue chrystal embedded at the base of her throat. That is when we realized the legend was not just a legend. The first Chrystal Woman born in over two thousand years was my baby sister. She gave all of us such hope and joy. I was so much older than her but that did not matter. She was the joy of my life. She was always so happy to see me when I would get back from my trips. She could have been a brat with the way she was spoiled by everyone. Instead she was so sweet and lovable.”

  The memories overwhelmed him for a moment and when he continued Jayden heard the pain in his voice. “When she was nine we lost her when the ship she was on was attacked and destroyed by the Ragillians and it was all my fault,” Idris said very quietly lowering himself to the chair as if his legs could no longer hold him up.

  The two men sat quietly together. Each caught up in their own thoughts. Jayden was thinking of Shillidon and the ramifications of the chrystals dying. Even

  with the new technology it would be a disaster. The Ragillians had been trying to brake up the Alliance for longer than he had been alive. So far it had not escalated to a full scale war mostly because the Shillidon shields were so good that it took three ships firing at it continuously to break it down. If he remembered right that was what had happened to the ship Idris's sister had been on. Even if you had the frequency codes it still was not easy to destroy an Alliance ship.

  If Shillidon was dying then the Alliance really was in trouble. Shillidon’s chrystals came in all different sizes, shapes and colors but it was the ice blue chrystals found in deep caverns that were highly sought out by everyone. The smallest of the blue chrystals were the size of a baby's fist and were worth millions of credits. A small blue could power a space ship for years. The bigger blues were what powered the Alliance shields that were on all of the core planets and ships. Yes, they had other shields but they just were not as good. If the chrystals died it would leave many planets vulnerable to attack by not just the Ragillians but many others looking for power. How Idris's sister could prevent the chrystals from dying he had no idea. If she was alive then finding her just became more important than anything else, and his primary mission.

  Idris was also thinking of Aaliyah. He was the one who had convinced their parents to let her come with him to visit a neighboring planet with him for her ninth birthday. She was so sweet and good natured, and she was fascinated with space travel. It was all she talked about and she peppered him with questions for days after he got back from a trip. What were the people like? What was the planet like? What do the stars look like? How fast did the ship go?

  Tell me everything she would say throwing her arms up to the sky then twirling around and around making him dizzy just watching. He always laughed and did what she wanted. He swore that at nine she knew more about the different ships than he did and she had never been on one. She knew the specifications of every ship in their navy. She could make computers do anything she wanted and she could probably have built a hyper drive from scratch.

  He had felt so sorry for her, knowing that all she wanted to do was explore space and knowing too that once she grew into her chrystal powers she would not be allowed off Shillidon. She was too important, she was all that stood between life and death for their planet. As the only chrystal woman born in thousands of yea
rs she had to be kept safe at all costs and he knew that meant she would never be allowed to follow her dreams.

  So he had convinced their parents to let her come with him to the neighboring planet Kaya. It was sparsely populated with peaceful cat like people, the tallest of them only four and a half feet. He knew she would enjoy meeting them and be ecstatic to be able to go into space and explore the ship to her heart’s content.

  All had gone well on the trip except for a few minor problems when she had dismantled a couple of systems on board the ship to make them better. His little sister had charmed the Kayans.

  Just as they were about to board the shuttle back to the ship he had been called back to answer a couple more questions. He told the guards to take Aaliyah up to the ship and send the shuttle back for him. When he arrived back at the Kayans head quarters, the leader of the

  colony, Fendark, did not know what he was talking about. There was no message and he had not sent for Idris.

  He thought now, he had not even been concerned at that point just irritated. It would take the shuttle over an hour to get back. Idris passed the time visiting with Fendark.

  When two hours had gone by and the shuttle still had not come back for him, he had tried raising the ship on the com. When he could not get through that is when he started to get worried. He had borrowed one of the few shuttles on planet and went to see what was going on with his ship. But his ship had disappeared from orbit. That was the beginning of his nightmare.

  They had found pieces of the ship weeks later, hundreds of light years away and hope had died for Shillidon. No one blamed him but he blamed himself. He should have known something was wrong. There had been a traitor on his ship that time too and he had not even suspected.

  Because he had wanted to give Aaliyah an adventure before she was stuck on Shillidon for the rest of her life, she was lost to them all. He had lost his precious baby sister. The one person he had loved above all others.

  He looked at the glowing chrystal he held in his hand with a mixture of hope and dread. The chrystal had only glowed when Aaliyah was close and he just did not see how that was possible. They were in the middle of nowhere, there was nothing around them at all for as far as the sensors could detect.

  The com interrupted his thoughts and Sparks said in a very calm, very serious voice, "Jayden you better get out here. I know where we are and you are not going to like it." Jayden and Idris looked at each other in alarm. Sparks only got that calm when things were bad. They stood and hurried into the control room.

  "We are in an area of space called appropriately the Dead Zone,” Sparks began. "It was discovered hundreds of years ago. Several ships have disappeared from this area over the years but only one has ever come back that we know of. About seven hundred and fifty years ago a Captain Jabrel claims his ship got pulled through an anomaly to uncharted space. He stayed in the same general area where he was spit out and was able to return through the same anomaly when it reappeared seven days later. His was an older ship and did not have very sophisticated equipment so there is not much information on the anomaly or what’s on the other side. He was able to do a survey while he was stuck waiting. He discovere nine planets revolving around a single sun. Only one of these planets was inhabited at the time, though there was evidence of dead civilizations on a couple of the other planets. The inhabited planet was pretty primitive. According to Jabrel’s instruments no evidence of any type of technology was found. That is all we know other than some bits and pieces on the types of planets and moons.

  There is no information at all on the anomaly. He claimed that something had pulled his ship towards it. All of his instruments went dead as soon as he entered the anomaly. They did however come back on when he exited on the other side.There is no other information on this part of the universe.

  Smart captains avoid it seeing how the few ships that came here to explore never came back. The thing that bothers me, well one of them, is there is no way we should be here. Even traveling at hyper speed it should have taken at least two months to get here from our last position. Yet we did it in just over an hour and that is not possible,” Sparks finished.

  As the rest of them digested what he had told them Jayden asked, "Any sign of the anomaly?"

  "No, still not a damn thing out there. I have never seen such a huge dead space. It is giving me the jitters."

  "Can you tell what direction we are being pulled in?”

  "Straight ahead,” Sparks replied.

  "Stay here and watch for it, Idris and I will go see if we can help Jos with getting the engines online. Maybe we can break free." Jayden asked Vihan, "What is the status on the stealth system?"

  "It is fixed. Someone loosened a couple of the wires. If Idris had not been here I would have had to take the whole thing apart to find them and that might have taken me days. Instead it only took a couple of hours to find and fix. I put a shield around it keyed only to you, me and Idris." The men’s faces turned grim at the reminder of the traitor they still had to find.

  Jayden said to Idris, "We will have to finish our discussion later, right now let’s see what we can do to help Jos." Idris nodded and followed him to the engine room.

  Chrystal Bones Billie Jo Hanlin

  Chapter 4

  When Blue opened her eyes three hours after they had closed, the sun was just peeking over the horizon. She was surprised that she had slept without dreaming. She hadn’t had much sleep this last week and she was going to need more than three hours before she felt normal.

  Leo's head was still in her lap and hers was resting on his back. They were curled around each other as they had done many times. She sat up and gently nudged his head off her thighs. She stood and stretched her cramped muscles, before heading to the kitchen to make a fresh pot of coffee.

  Blue was about to go shower when Riley bounced into the room. "I'm making breakfast this morning what do you feel like?" she asked. When she got a good look at Blue she stopped abruptly. "Wow, you look like crap, beautiful crap, but still crap. Were you out in the storm last night? You do know normal people need more than two to three hours sleep a night to function right? How come your chrystal is glowing? It's never done that before."

  When she paused to take a breath Blue held up a finger, “One, just coffee and it is already made. Two,” another finger went up. “Though it wasn't a question, yes I know I look like crap as you sooo elegantly put it. Three.” Another finger joined the others. “Yes, I was out enjoying the storm last night. Four,” another finger. “Yes, I know normal people need more than three hours sleep but I'm not exactly normal and neither are you. And last but not least,” she covered the chrystal at her throat with her hand. “I have no idea why it's glowing, it started during the storm. Any other questions before I go shower?" she asked sarcastically, then immediately felt bad. "Sorry, I'm a little on edge right now."

  "Yeah, I imagine you are,” Riley said quietly.

  Blue stared intently into her friend’s eyes. "Do you feel it to?" she asked.

  Riley stared back and simply said, "Yes."

  The two women continued to look into each other’s eyes for a long moment. They had been watching each other’s backs for nineteen years. They both knew their lives were about to change drastically very soon.

  "Whatever happens it will be okay, I feel it,” Riley finally said. They both knew Riley's feelings were worth their weight in gold. Just then Leo gave a big yawn and stretched, grumbling loudly at them as he stalked out the door. The women burst out laughing, breaking the tension.

  Leo was not a morning cat and hated being woken up. Blue took a deep breath, "Well whatever is coming we can’t change it so we will just deal with it when it happens. Now I'm going to get another cup of coffee and get in the shower. Then we can discuss what I found on the new case."

  Twenty minutes later she stood in front of the mirror studying herself. What she saw was a slender woman, five foot six inches tall with a small waist and long legs. High firm breasts, n
ot too big, not too small. There was nothing remarkable about her body. Her face was a different story.

  She had the requisite two eyes, nose and mouth. There was something just a bit off about them. Her eyes were the first thing that anyone noticed and the one thing that told everyone that she was not from this world.

  They were big and surrounded by a forest of long, thick lashes that needed no mascara to enhance them. The irises were a brilliant blue dotted with bits of icy blues and pinks. If that was all it would not be that big of a deal but the pupils, they were a mass of swirling clouds of pink.

  Those clouds were constantly moving, giving the illusion of looking into a storm. Riley thought they were beautiful but to Blue they were just one more thing she had to hide. She always made sure to wear a pair of sunglasses from her large collection whenever she had to leave her home. She had tried contacts but they bothered her too much to wear them for long.

  She had a nice wide forehead and her nose was long and slender with a slight upward tilt and high sharp cheekbones. Her lips were nice and full nothing wrong there except instead of pink they were a light sky blue. It was easy to pass the color off as lipstick. Thank goodness the punk look was in she thought. All of this was framed by a mane of thick dark chestnut hair with highlights of so many colors that when the light hit just right it looked like a rainbow.

  There was not an inch of fat on her body. It was honed to pure muscle from years of running and a brutal workout routine she forced herself through every day. She was long and lean and despite everything she had a delicate look about her.

  She finally let her eyes focus on the chrystal embedded at the base of her throat. It was small and smooth about the size of a dime but oval in shape. It was a clear icy blue, and for the first time in her life that she remembered it was glowing softly.