Relic Worlds - Lancaster James & the Eye of Fire, Part 3

The red light along the spine of the weapon flickered, revealing that Lancaster was making progress on getting the crystal out. It was in there tight, which made sense considering it had resided inside the weapon for hundreds of thousands, or even millions of years. Lancaster had hoped beyond hope that it would have possibly gotten loose over time, but he had no such luck. The Milak Shivar worshipped their weapons, and they crafted them with the intention of keeping them together, even if the heart of this one came from an alien race from whom they had stolen it.

There would be time enough to study the weapon, learn its story, and in what years it was used. But for now they were on their way to the Zeborno planet from where it had been taken, and he needed the crystal to place inside the sleeping god's eyes.

The doorway opened behind Lancaster and he could hear Little Jack stop momentarily, sniffing the air and reeling before stepping further in. Lancaster could tell from his reaction that the smell still clung to him. He had just gotten used to it.

Little Jack leaned over Lancaster's hunched form and saw him working away at the half domed enclosure in which the crystal was placed. It was wrapped up like a baby snuggled into its bed with its blankets pulled around at each side. Lancaster had given up searching for a latch that would open up this container and was trying other means. Those means had apparently included several high tech devices as he had several of them scattered on the floor near him, such as Roboticlaws, a Vibro Loosener, Adhesive Melt, among others. These had evidently been abandoned in favor of more crude tools, such as a screw driver, which he was scraping away at the sides, trying to wedge an opening.

"You're going to scratch that," Little Jack advised.

"I'm being careful!" Lancaster snapped back, frustrated at the crystal and taking it out on his self-proclaimed advisor.

Little Jack took a moment to look over the weapon. Despite the fact that it was an archaic sword, he was impressed by the look of it. He didn't let it show in his voice, however, as he said, "This is what we thrusted all the way out here to find?"

"It's not as primitive as it looks. It creates a force field that protects the wielder and guides him to hit the opponent."

"Why not have that on a projectile weapon?"

"As best as I can surm, this is more useful above and below water. This way they could use it in both locations."

After considering a moment, Little Jack was alarmed. "Don't you register we should keep it if it's that good of a weapon?"

"It's not what we came for."

"But it might be better than what we came for."

"This crystal is supposed to be the eye of a god. This weapon can't be more impressive than that."

"It's not the eye of a god."

"The legend says it is."

"Not a real god."

"It's something! I have to get this thing out so we can at least scry what it is they valued so highly."

Little Jack was silent. He couldn't disagree with Lancaster more. A weapon would be of far greater value than a myth, but if it meant so much for him, so be it. He had his gun Munin anyway. Who needed a sword? His thumb pushed a button and the cartridge under the pistol shifted to the smallest chamber. He then held it over Lancaster and said, "''Scuse me a tick."

Lancaster leaned over and was part way through asking, "What are you d..." when Little Jack fired a thin, tight laser beam into the sword's chamber, right next to the crystal. One of the pieces holding the crystal in began to cut away. "Wait!" Lancaster cried. "You might hit the..." But Little Jack was half way across already. His steady hands made the line almost perfectly straight. His glasses were set to guidance and he was able to trace right along the side of the crystal without damaging it.