The Index -|-

Kpleeb stepped out onto the silent surface an hour after the barrage. Dust swirled viciously around his ankles, with gusts reaching his waist. A faint, chemical scent tickled his nose and he sneezed violently. As the remaining Hkkli warriors trotted out to make a wide circle, He looked around him.

The Greki had landed in a clear space that was around ten times larger than the ship. Fine dust and other, fist sized chunks of debris covered the flat ground and crunched under his feet. The debris had a metallic shine in the star’s hazy and indirect light, and the occasional spiral of white dust accented the silvery grey.

In the near distance several structures had once stood. Now, broken shards at least three times taller than Kpleeb pierced the haze like razer-tipped fingers clawing from under the dirt. Kpleeb adjusted his goggles carefully as dust sifted down onto his cheek.

“Follow me,” he said waving at the Hkkli warriors.

They approached the nearest structure. It was three-sided and silvery while being adorned with torn and charred edges. He stepped through a gap in the wall, careful to not potentially cause a collapse. Inside he looked up. The roof had been disintegrated or perhaps shredded and blown away.

[These huts aren’t very strong. Perhaps the Xi are never attacked.]

Through another gap he went. This space was smaller and the roof had caved in partially. Several outcroppings were built into the walls, their top surfaces very smooth and shiny under the settled dust. A white spot caught his eye and he bent to look under the outcropping in the corner and saw a pile of riaat.

[Silica dust, a Xi died here.]

Kpleeb poked at the pile with the butt of his lightning spear before turning to leave.

Outside, the Hkkli stood in a semi-circle around the gap that Kpleeb had entered. He looked further away from the Greki and saw much larger structure.

“We are going that way,” he said pointing with his knuckle. “Stay alert. It is possible that Xi warriors will attack us.”

His protective circle moved slowly forward passing many structures that appeared to be similar to the one he had already examined. The larger structure slowly increased in size as they got closer, and after quite a long walk it towered over the group. Kpleeb looked to the right and then to the left and marveled at the sheer bulk of this object.

[Is this a Xi hut? I’ve never seen anything so huge! It seems like the white spirals are more common here as well.]

Kpleeb stirred the grey and white swirled dust with his moccasin and then chose a direction. He turned left and looked for any gap or entrance in the hut’s wall. After another five minutes, a large gap appeared. He noticed that the prevalence of white dust increased significantly around the gap.

It was dark inside, and Kpleeb enabled the light on his spear before stepping in. A wide corridor that stretched forward, and the further inward he moved, the less dusty the air became. The walls became more colored, fading from dusty silvery to pastel hues that reminded him of the blues and greens of the river water back home. Riaat was there, dozens or hundreds of small dust piles flattened and mixed together by the stirring air.

Finally, he approached a cavernous space where his light seemed to fade into nothingness. The ceiling above was vastly distant and pocked with faint sections of open sky. Numerous piles of riaat were scattered nearby, and when the quiet tiptoeing of the Hkkli came to a stop, the silence was overwhelming.

When Kpleeb reached down and adjusted his spear’s light to the maximum setting, he gasped in shock.

Stretching as far as he could see, small humps of riaat peppered every surface. There were thousands, perhaps millions, of piles. His mind reeled with the vast number and the fact that there was no visual indication that the interior of this structure ended.

[They must have congregated here for safety. How many Xi died here?]

Kpleeb turned to address the nearest Hkkli warrior. “How many riaat piles do you think there are?”

The warrior’s ears flattened slightly and he squeaked a hasty response which was translated by Zara’s device.

“May all the Xi rot. However many dead, I care not enough to count. The builder brings vengeance.”

Kpleeb grunted vaguely and squeezed his eyes shut. [Not the answer I expected… There are so many dead! What have we done. What have I done?]

“I build,” he muttered quietly.

“You build mighty weapons,” came the reply.

He glanced at the warrior and then, with a sigh, he turned to leave the thought behind.

[This will hurt Zara if I tell her.]

###

Kpleeb and his team spent the entire day surveying the damage and searching for survivors. Ultimately, he was unable to find any surviving Xi. The destruction of Juma’s city was total. In the final scan, on the shores of the large body of water he found countless remnants of Xi water craft and the carcasses of many thousands of fish and other native animals.

A layer of dust mixed with riaat covered all surfaces and dead things. Some of the technology he found was new, and he instructed the Hkkli warriors to load several interesting devices into the ship.

When the Greki lifted off from the orb’s surface to rejoin his fleet, Kpleeb silently retreated to the solitude of his room with those words echoing in his memory.

[‘The builder brings vengeance.’ Am I merely a destroyer? Yes, I build weapons, but also machines and villages. Should I just lay down as the Xi perpetrate genocide, kidnappings, and experiments on the innocent people of the universe?]

He wrestled a tumultuous burden.

[What is a just fight? Have the Xi not killed and ruined everything I knew and loved?]

He remembered Thoka and many other Ganix who had died. He remembered his Mam and the tribe in the river canyon. Then he remembered the Xi riaat. their endless dead that seemingly numbered far above his own loss.

The remote speaking device called him. “Da,” said Zara’s voice. “What did you find?”

After a long pause, Kpleeb replied.

“The Xi on Juma are conquered. They will threaten us no more.”