Destruction of the Greki (Caveman Chronicles)

The Index -|-

“Zara, the Hsstak is emerging from the reset.” Tiirw’s voice over the intercom was flat and lacked tone.

Zara looked up from where she sat on the floor, legs crossed. The pattern on the floor shimmered slightly until she removed her hand. She stood and stared at the pattern for a long moment.

[This makes no sense.]

She sighed at the unwanted interruption and turned toward the door. In barely a minute she was in the command center. The Hsstak had not come alive, but there were a number of small aji tendrils near one of the red-tiered devices that looked as if they reached into the darkness for their mama. Zara was confused.

“I see a tiny bit of aji, but there is no power within Hsstak.”

“It will be complete any minute,” said Tiirw. “I have seen this before.”

Zara tuned her sense and analyzed the aji closer. It seemed to emit from a device, but only as if reaching blindly, groping toward the unknown. “I’ll take your word for it, Tiirw.”

She turned toward Viinox as it walked in. “Does kerflk grow in the space outside of Hsstak?”

Viinox nodded. “We call this the void, and yes, I have seen it grow there.”

“Good. I have an idea for how to use it. What I need is for you to work with me. I’ll give you the design, and you carry it out while I work on other things.” She looked at Tiirw and opened her mouth to speak. Just then, the Hsstak lit up.

“Well, never mind,” Zara said. “It looks like you were correct.” She analyzed the aji realm and saw that all of the aji lines were back to their full strength and had snapped to their designated connections. She reached out slowly and touched Qon. It had been more than a day since she had felt its silky caress. Qon pulled gently at her senses and for a moment she felt right as rain.

When Zara focused back on the command center, she saw that all of the red-tiered devices began to emit intermittent light in seemingly random patterns, and Tiirw spoke. “A Xih ship is inbound. I estimate that it will be near us in fifteen minutes.”

“We must escape,” said Zara. “Unless you know that we are able fight and prevail.”

Oiitr tilted its chin downward. “The Hsstak is an excellent Xih craft, and we are a fine crew… but we are unfortunately unprepared. We must hide quickly.”

“Make it happen. Whatever it takes. We need time before we encounter any more Xi.” She pointed at Tiirw. “You’re in charge of taking Hsstak wherever we must go.” She was nervous, so she settled into one of the slings and watched the Xi work.

Tiirw and Oiitr folded their legs into slings and their hands glided quickly over controls. It was a complex symphony carried out by supremely skilled conductors. The Hsstak made no obvious moves, and Zara felt nothing shift beneath her feet. She did not want to nag, but she was curious.

“Is the Hsstak moving?”

Viinox answered. “I will show you.” It tapped several protrusions on a device and a large portion of the wall appeared as if a window opened to the exterior of the Hsstak. The space was dark except for nearly half of it that was filled with the broad curvature of a large blue and green orb.

To Zara’s eyes, there did not appear to be any movement.

“The Hsstak has dampeners applied to its interior. This allows the ship to make rapid accelerations and decelerations without injuring its inhabitants. The reason that the image you see does not appear to move is merely because of the vast distances between the Hsstak and Phaedro. The void itself has almost nothing in it, or at least nothing visible that you may use as a frame of reference to recognize movement.

Zara looked at the planet below her. [This is where my Da is. It is huge, but surely there are records on Hsstak that will show me his location.] As she watched, the surface of Phaedro grew and encompassed almost the entirety of her window. The clouds moved very slowly and then sped up as they became closer. In moments, the window was entirely white and then, as if a curtain had been swept aside by a gentle breeze, the land appeared below her.

“If we hide on Phaedro, we must not hide too close to Uuiit’s village because this will endanger my family.”

The view through her window adjusted almost immediately, and then Tiirw spoke. “This did not occur to me, but I have adjusted our angle to bring us farther away from the village. We will attempt to hide Hsstak in the canyon.”

“Viinox, please begin deploying the kerflk on Hsstak’s exterior in the pattern I specified. Start at the top,” said Zara.

Within Zara’s window she saw the trees approaching, and then a huge gash in the terrain appeared. [This must be what the canyon looks like from above.] The view reminded her that her whole life had been spent on Phaedro, and she still did not know where her Mama and Da had come from.

Hsstak slowed, descended, and finally sunk smoothly into the trees. “Enable silent mode,” said Tiirw. “but I fear this may not be enough. That ship is the Greki, commanded by Iko Nkarc, one of the best.”

To Zara’s eyes, Hsstak diminished in almost the same way it had when the core reset was in progress. The aji she could see was muted and almost invisible. The lights dimmed, and all audible noise faded to nothing.

“The Xih ship is coming now,” said Oiitr.

In Zara’s window, she could see a large angular shape approaching from the distance. As it came closer, a low alarm sounded in the command center.

“I’m reading a large energy surge from the Greki. Brace for attack.”

As Zara prepared for the worst, she saw a jagged bolt of ruddy-brown something eject from a tree line below the Xih ship. It connected instantly and the ship careened to the right. In a split-second another bolt connected from the right and rocked the ship to the side. Zara saw the ship rotate and swing around as if in search of a target.

“What is happening?” asked Oiitr.

“I’m not sure. The forest attacks,” Zara smiled. “This works in our favor!”

Just then in her window she saw a flash appear above the Xih ship. The flash was instant and a miniature cloud of debris made an appearance. The bottom of the cloud glowed red around the fringes and what looked like sunlight laced with smoke shone from its underside. The Xih ship buckled and began to plummet. The forest below swallowed it and belched a great mushroom of fire and smoke.

“Wow,” said Zara looking at Oiitr. “Did you see that aji dispersion?”

Oiitr stared at its hovering ball of data points, and after a long moment, it lifted its chin. “I have seen Xih ships destroyed before, but this was a bit different. It was as if Phaedro reached up to punish them.”

“Should we be concerned?” Zara watched as the trees in the distance burned, then all at once the fire was quenched. “We should be concerned. Something powerful is there, and we are in a Xih ship.”

“Perhaps the distance is what saved us? Tiirw’s fingers flew over the controls.

“If that’s true, we may be next. We must flee right now!” Zara watched the window and imagined what evil might be stalking toward them in the trees. It was then she realized who this great evil might be.

[This is the work of my Da! Why didn’t I think of this before?] She chuckled to herself. [It has to be.]

“Tiirw, please get us out of here quickly. We do not want to be caught and killed by this weapon.”

Tirrw did not reply, but Zara could see through her window that the Hsstak slow rose to just above the tree tops and slowly glided through the canyon and away.

After a few moments, Tirrw spoke. “We are safe, at least I believe so.”

“I agree. Thank you.” Zara turned to leave the command center and then paused at the door. “Make sure we do not encounter any other Xih ships. We do not want to be caught unawares.”

When she left, the door closed behind her, and she felt incredibly excited.

[I have to find a way to speak to Da before I return home. Without a warning, he will kill us.]