Viinox (Caveman Chronicles)

The Index -|-

The whir came again. It was faint, barely a whisper. A hint of pain to come. Slowly the sound accumulated an oversupply of decibels, enough to almost fill the room but without being all encompassing.

Zara squeezed her little hands into fists and steeled herself while noting a difference. [This one has a metallic ring to it. A lighter metal. Well balanced.]

The previous whir had a clear tone that rang with an infinitely high-pitched perfection. She remembered and wondered if that tool had been made entirely of crystal. It was unlikely. To her surprise, the Xi technology largely consisted of common elements. The way things were fashioned seemed to be straightforward. Zara had spent days thinking about the supposed breadth of the Xi empire, and how their technology was understated, it must be very reliable.

[The Xi tech is so elementary.] She grinned to herself. [What a thought. Zara the cavegirl thinking this technology was simple!] She began to chuckle quietly. Her Da was a mere caveman. Her Mama had been a simple, mountain cavegirl. Zara’s lineage was exceedingly poor and dirty. If not for the Xi, none of her family would have been raised out of the dust, and she would not be here. She might instead have been rolling a ten-sided stone next to her Da’s childhood river. [Maybe I wouldn’t even be born at all…]

The whir increased by two decibels, and she knew it was almost time.

[I will not cry. I will not beg.]

The Xi surrounded her table. There were seven of them. Gaunt, pure white faces and steely blue eyes stared impassively at her, and she could see that to her she was nothing but a lab rat that could, and should, be sacrificed for their scientific or cultural betterment.

Zara’s eye twitched, and she tried to jerk her head away from the whining tool that approached from the top of her head. Her neck muscles strained, and she broke into a sweat, but there was no movement permitted.

With a grunt of effort, she tried to kick her feet and flail her arms.

With a shock, a vibrating shard struck her scalp like lightning. A sharp and concentrated sting penetrated her head. Tears flowed unbidden and uncontrollable. Her back arched within the bounds of her bindings, and her throat belched a piercing shriek and continued on and on. Her skin crawled with itching and burned like the surface of the sun.

“pppppPLEAse! Noooooo! NO! NO! stop!!!” She repeated her incessantly begging at the top of her lungs. Her eyes swelled with tears. Finally, after what seemed like a day, her brain succumbed to the torture.

The peace of unconsciousness covered her.

A time passed. There were whispers in the air that swirled in a faint light.

When Zara awoke, there was silence. Her eyes seemed welded shut, but she persisted to slowly open and close and pry them open. Strings and globs of something blocked her sight. She could not move her hands to brush the cobwebs away, but there was still some sight.

The room, her prison was empty again.

She closed her eyes and examined herself. Her body ached, but it was general and not seemingly related to wounds. [From the tension?] What hurt most was her head. There was a warmth on her scalp, but there was no sharp pain. [If they wounded me or broke through the bone into my brain, wouldn’t there be a wound?]

With a sigh, she reached out to examine the aji, and was astounded at what she found. Qon was there, a fat, golden thread that intertwined with the other various colors. She reached out with her senses and touched it. Qon was pliable to her gentle nudge, and she smiled.

A faint rustling echoed in the room, and Zara opened her eyes. There was a single Xi facing the red-tiered device. The Xi rapidly pressed, swiveled, and toggled various protrusions. Pinpoints of light flickered all over its surface. In the space above the device, a cloud of images and information flowed in a circular pattern.

“What is your name?” Zara croaked with her raw throat.

The Xi whirled toward her instantly. Its eyes shone momentarily with what Zara could only describe as surprise. It approached slowly with neck-slits fluttering rapidly and examined her bonds from more than an arm’s length away. After a few seconds, its eyes met hers.

“Viinox.” Its response was very quiet, just above a whisper. The Xi then turned back toward the red-tiered device.

Zara watched as the cloud above the device blinked red and then began to re-form when the Xi resumed its interactions.

“Are you Ja?” Zara asked. She had learned about the three Xi genders from Kiipo. The Ja were utilitarians.

The Xi twitched visibly, and a part of the data cloud above the device blinked red for a moment.

Just then, another Xi appeared in the room. Zara could not see if it came through an opening in the wall or if it had just materialized. This Xi one approached Viinox, and again, the data cloud hesitated and flickered red in several areas. There were no words, but Zara noticed that Viinox was a head shorter and seemed to cower in the other Xi’s presence.

[I never noticed the height difference before.]

After a long, silent moment, Zara spoke again, this time with fear. This Xi was dominant, and she remembered how it had harmed her.

“What’s your name?” She stared at the taller Xi.

The tall Xi smoothly swiveled and approached her. There was no sound of footsteps and no obvious gait. “I am Xi,” it said with a hiss. Its cold eyes gave no quarter. “You will sleep now.”

Zara woke again. When she opened her eyes, her vision was very clear, and there was no crusty eye-goo. Her head was no longer warm. In fact, she felt amazingly well. The room was not empty. Two Xi stood shoulder to shoulder at the red-tiered device.

[How long have I been asleep?]

Zara could sense no passage of time, so she watched the Xi. She analyzed their behavior, their interactions. They were odd and silent, but they clearly worked together, their heads bobbing and eyes focusing on the same bits of light. She already knew that they communicated via some other method, she just did not know how.

[I wonder how far can their silent communication reach?]

Time passed slowly, and though Zara could not see the sun nor measure the days, she knew it was many of the days on Phaedro. As she watched her captors, she picked up patterns of light and aji that flowed to and from the red-tiered device. She came to recognize the chief Xi, the one who would not be named.

The one she feared was arrogant and cruel. It was more powerful. Zara thought that perhaps it was the power of a chief, ceremonial and based on respect and past achievements. It was difficult to know. There were times when it glowered over Viinox or one of the other Xi that attended her. It seemed to revel in making others squirm.

Zara saw many important and useful things. She saw the cracks in the structure of the Xi relations. She saw the pity in Viinox’s eyes when it spoke to her in a whisper each time it entered or left the chamber. She saw the patterns of light on the red-tiered device that seemed to coincide with her thoughts and movements. She saw others that gave her glimpses of the space beyond the chamber.

Most importantly, slowly she came to realize that something was wrong with the Qon in this place.