Zilch's Decision

Zilch watched over the temple, eyes never leaving the patch of land around his sister's prison.

He had expanded Brady's lab to do the Twoleg scientist a favor, and was weak after that.

Zilch was worried that without something to replace the missing chunk of his energy, he could flicker and not be able to defend Miroza.

Miroza...

He spotted some of the jewels mined from Mt. Shiveer in the remains of Zios's statue, and used his vision to look down.

Rare jewels still infused with Zios's power lay at the  bottom, covered with dust but still filled with energy.

Energy that could fuel Zilch.

Zilch shook his head.

No, he couldn't bear to do such a thing! Once he siphoned their power, the jewels would become useless husks that would only have value in beauty, and the Jamaasians valued jewels by their energy stores, because every jewel from Jamaa has a certain kind of energy inside them, some more than others. Most jewels had multi-purpose energy inside them at the core, but some had other purposes, and the ones that weren't poisoned already were very useful in mass-killing phantoms.

Zilch stared at the jewels, and at his own body, which was already flickering.

Which was more important: protecting Miroza from roboticization or keeping an emergency store of energy in place?

Zilch went with the personal decision, and sadly sucked out the energy from the topazes. 

He couldn't bear to watch the jewels stop glowing, and had nightmares for a few nights after that.