The planet was rich with the trilithium crystals his ship needed.
A terrible mistake led to that civilization adapting
Confederation technology long before they were ready.
The consequences of that encounter couldn't be undone,
Captain John Piker knew. That was the reason for Order 649283.
"Captain, long-range scanners indicate a supply
of trilithium crystals in the northern continent.
Mr. Speck reported. The Captain replied,
"Good job. We shall fly the ship directly over the surface.
The natives are well-aware of us and
even building imitations of our starships.
Mr. Speck, take an out-of-the-way team to get the crystals.
Mr. Crasher, fly us down."
...
Among the clear trilithium crystals,
Mr. Speck found three blue crystals.
He picked them up. They responded to him
by glowing with the brilliance of the daytime sky.
Yet the crystals didn't respond to the other crew members.
"Fascinating.", Mr. Speck said to himself.
...
The figure was ready to destroy the two intruders.
He had destroyed the four-wheeled Sneaker they were driving.
But the figure sensed an imminent threat behind it.
Its torso rotated 174.43 degrees on the titanium axis
that replaced its long-dead backbone.
"Oh no, I'm sensing terrible malice!", Lyta Troy warned.
"Power surge emanating from the entity. Off the scale.", Mr. SQL voiced.
"Raise shields!", Piker yelled.
The figure waited 43.84 milliseconds to build
enough energy to fire a long sustained beam.
The figure held the beam steady for 6.32 milliseconds
to drain the ship's energy shield,
then rotated the beam 30.43 degrees to slice thru
the two huge struts holding the trilithium engines.
The engines twisted off, arcs of pure energy danced along
the hull of the ship, then it was reduced to burning hunks of metal.
Mr. Speck focused his mind and summoned the power of the blue crystals.
The blue magic went racing towards the cyborg.
The figure instantly reacted by sending a red beam.
The two beams met each other in a purple swirling cloud of energy.