The Space Spoon novel Chapter 17

Billions of years ago, a life-supporting planet imploded from its very core. The civilization that used to inhabit it developed weapon technology way above their intellect levels. I say this because technological advancement should be as high as their level of understanding of how to preserve their planet, especially before the process of colonizing other worlds.

The debris left after the destruction of that planet, its name lost in time, scattered in multiple directions as the explosion threw them in a perpetual motion. Without friction forces, they kept moving through space. Some were simple masses formed from frozen water from the seas and oceans of the destroyed planet. One of these crashed on Nubilonia.

It contained marine diatoms, carbon-based organisms, more specifically microalgae. When the ice melted under the perpetual sun of Nubilonia on the side where it was forever shining, those diatoms extracted silica from the sand in that desert and incorporated it into their cell walls.

The silicate minerals replicated their crystal structures, interacted with the carbon compounds, and created a silicate skeletal structure. This took the shape of a bone, flat at one end and with a pointed sharp tip at the other end. Its extraordinary physical properties, such as hardness and fracture toughness, were due to the microstructural order of the crystal.

As the structure was still developing, some lead from the planet's crust was tossed into the mix. When the neural network ignited, the final shape of the enormous bone had a silvery appearance with blue hues. It represented the skeletal structure as well as the central nervous system.

The diatom’s carbon part evolved naturally as well. After a billion years since the asteroid hit Nubilonia, Tejeda’s species was sentient and fully developed. The Nubilae could change their organic structure according to any DNA they got in contact with, becoming seemingly immortals.

Having memories since the formation of their primordial silicon core drove their race to the brink of destruction. Only their self-preservation instinct and a dangerous level of insanity remained to push them forward.

All this knowledge was deeply embedded inside Tejeda’s core, which was sparkling with blue notes from node to node in E00’s robotic hands. The shuttle’s door opened right when he approached it since Shayla watched him through the computer screen.

Seeing the weird silvery object, she raised an eyebrow. “What is that?”

“Tejeda Hajar,” answered the cold artificial voice.

The way Shayla looked at that thing clearly showed her mistrust. E00 would have been more interested in her reaction if there weren’t more pressing matters to attend to. He put the object on the ground and his purple eyes fixated on Shayla.

Sighing from lungs as heavy as lead, she reached inside her cleavage and brought out the vial of Kalden Deltak’s blood. Shayla took a close look at the crimson liquid before speaking. “Do you know that he gave me just this one? If you are wrong, he won’t have the captain’s body ever again.”

“If you are worried about that, you can simply give him your DNA instead,” E00 replied, his cold purple eyes still pressing her to act.

Shayla pouted. “I am not giving him my body again. Whatever happens, happens!”