Coral

My teacher told me not to reach out to the Coral unless I was ready, and that I wasn't ready. She was right, of course, but I thought myself ready and so reached out to the Coral in our ships reactor. At first it felt innert, but as I probed it was like I had poked some sleeping creature. It roused itself as my mind touched it through layers of reactor armor that kept it's radiation from leaking out.
When it noticed me, I expected to feel the whole weight of the Coral Network to come bearing down on me, to try and consume my consciousness out of hunger or retribution for waking it. Instead, the response I got was one of... reserved curiosity. It was like the Coral simply wanted to know more, about me and what I knew, but invited me to stay where I was or come deeper, whatever I prefered. It did not call for me, or try to convince. It simply held out a hand, metaphorically of course, and waited to see if I would take it. 
So I did. 
In an instant it was like I could feel the whole of the network, it's infinite breadth, touching a million worlds and trillions of minds all at once and more being added to it every second. All at once I was in the frozen expanse of space, or on an asteroid on a collision course with trinary stars. I could see starlight glittering in the sky of a jungle world with flora so alien that I couldn't descern what was plant and what was animal. I was both partners in the dire game of predator and prey as it played out infinitely between the rabbit and the fox. The fish and the plankton. In the air and in the streets of cities.
All of this and more I was, until I remembered myself. That I was me, and not all that I felt in that moment. When I turned back, to try and orient myself within the network or to simply remind myself of my own existence, I could not find the path back. I had descended fully, and so fast I had lost my way and there was no trace of the way. Or any way. There was only the Coral in all directions, offering, but never directing. I felt fear, and the Coral Network responded. It felt my emotions, and like the mirror that it is, it showed me what I felt, a trillion fold.
Now I was just the rabbit, chased by the fox. The mouse chased by the hawk. The man chased by the knife. From it I fled, losing myself more as I tore through the network, my mind threatening to unravel completely as it tried to flee in every direction at once, never to coalesce again if that came to be, yet I did not care. I could not. I already had forgetten exactly what I was. Much longer and the broad strokes would disseminate among the network as well. Suddenly, I could feel something gripping my mind, so tight I could no longer move. I kicked and screamed and bit, summoning up blasts of power and spears of thought trying to free myself from this snare so I could run once more, towards a safeharbor that didn't exist. The snare held, and pulled with such force I thought it might snap my consciousness in two as the coral resisted in the same mindless way as water does.
I was on the deck of the ship again, staring up at the cieling, my teacher standing over me. Her face was knit together with concern and pain, while blood gushed from her nose and the inner corner of each of her eyes. She had a hand on either side of my face, pressing in with so much force I thought she might crush my skull, but I could not bring myself to care. Such was the pain within my skull. It throbbed like each pulse ruptured cappilaries and everything had grown so hot I could see steam rising around my own face as it spun away towards the ceiling.
We stayed that way, I don't know how long. My preception of time wouldn't recover for weeks still, after my event. Finally, my teacher moved from her position above me, opting to collapse beside me with a grunt. She bayed instructed me to practice my mantras. I did so without comment.
Once I made sure that a piece of me had not been lefft behind in the network, not that it could have been retrieved, even if it had been, I forced myself to sit up. I became aware of two things at once.
First, that I had bled in the same ways that my teacher had, and had even begun to bleed from the ears. I wiped away the blood on my face with my uniform sleeve, and picked out the blood that had already turned into a crust within my ear. As I flicked dried blood away, the klaxon alarm of the ship finally wormed it's way into the perifery of my senses. I looked to my teacher and asked if we should be worried about that. She simply pointed towards the reactor's view port.
The Coral had...grown. It had grown, spontaneously, enough to rach the sides of it's tank and pierce the shielding of the reactor befor growing more, along the outer surface of the casing like the roots of a tree, before it met once again in front of me, gathering itself to grow out, away from the reactor and towards where I stood. It formed a hand, offered to me once again but this time in the real world. So delicately constructed, it looked as if the crystal had simply molded itself around a actual human hand, but no. The small gaps in the entertwining crystal showed that there was nothing within. Nothing but the Coral offering another chance to look within the Network.

Sensory Feedback
The Coral does have a taste and smell to it, despite being a solid crytal. Each changes from person to person, however. They are not necessarily related, even within the same person. 
In high enough concentration, those sensations fill the space around large concentrations of Coral in the same way standing near a pile of cinnimon can stimulate both senses. Space is the proper word, as the existence of scent or taste is not dependent on the existence of air in the surround. Even in a vaccum, the scent of the Coral exists, while the taste remains just as vibrant.

Type

Biomaterial

Color

Varies. Most commonly a deep purple, speckled with silver.

Boiling / Condensation Point

1,800 K