The Index -|-

Kpleeb woke two days later, and Zara’s face appeared above him almost immediately, her brown analyzing his own. The lights shone through her curly brown hair and he likened her to an angel that had come to bring him good tidings of great joy.

“Da, how do you feel?” she said with evident concern. Her hands flickered as if to rest on his chest but then rebounded unexpectedly, her fingers twitching with indecision.

Kpleeb took inventory of himself. His mind was vaguely groggy, but underneath he felt mentally sharp and ready to leap to his feet. There were various aches as he scanned downward: dull pain in his right side, arm, and upper leg, and a semi-sharp pain in his left knee. He turned his head and saw Viinox standing with another Xi dressed in red. With his eyes back on Zara’s face, he answered. “It seems I have aches and pains, but I’m alive. The last I remember,we were going to the First Terminal command center. What happened to me?”

Zara gingerly touched his face with the tips of her fingers. “We were attacked. The Xi commander set an ambush, but the issue has been resolved.”

Kpleeb looked around again and saw the Ganix guarding the doorway. “We made it through, obviously. Your shield saved us, right?”

“How did you know, Da?”

Kpleeb grinned knowingly. “The Xi would plan for us and try to overcompensate for our power. They probably could not fail except for the unknown, and your shield was the unknown.” He grasped Zara’s hand, and began to sit up.

Zara pulled and helped him, her slight frame providing only a fraction of the force needed to actually elevate his position. “My shield took the brunt, and because of it, I was injured too. Don’t worry though, I’m fine!” she said quickly.

Kpleeb did notice a few superficial scrapes on her face and arms. With a deep gratitude, he reached out and wrapped his hairy arms around her. “You are my life. I could not stand to lose you. Now tell me how this issue was resolved.” He swung his legs over the side of the table he rested on and faced Viinox and the strange Xi.

Zara turned toward the other Xi. “This medical officer, Olpre-wa, has healed you.”

Kpleeb noticed that Olpre-wa appeared to be calm. He nodded at Olpre-wa. “Thank you.”

Olpre-wa tilted its chin upward slightly. “My training allows for success, but I fear that by healing you I may have doomed many of my own species by allowing one such as yourself to continue his path of destruction. I hope you will consider my efforts an act of peace.”

“I have become more selective in who I destroy. My daughter is to thank for that.” Kpleeb looked back toward Zara. “What of the First Terminal commander?”

Zara hung her head, and after a long moment her damp eyes rose to meet his. “The Xi leadership here has been eliminated and their riiat given back to the Xi. Those in charge were without honor, blaming and hiding behind their underlings. In the last two days, the Ganix have crushed all resistance on the First Terminal. Many Xi warriors were killed. She looked at Viinox. “And- we have almost completed the system alterations that we came here for.”

“Incredible,” said Kpleeb looking at Zara with new eyes. He knew just how sensitive she was and how she wished to save all life, and yet she had acted to destroy enemies that had risen against them. “I’m proud of you,” he said putting his hand on her shoulder, “and I know how hard that must have been.”

Zara shrugged. “I’m not proud of me, but I did what I had to do to protect us. Like you say, Da, we come in peace and only destroy those who resist.”

“Peace at the end of a weapon.” interjected Olpre-wa.

Kpleeb turned toward it with a scowl. “A complaint from the Xi rulers?! We give what the entirely galaxy has already received at the hand of the Xi, yet we also offer real friendship. It seems the Xi only understand displays of strength. Perhaps you wish to resist as well?”

“I do not wish to resist, only to speak openly. Your daughter has also promised to spare me if you lived. For this I am grateful.”

“Maybe you can become an ambassador for the Xi.” Kpleeb turned away dismissively. “Zara, tell me about the progress with the terminal system.”

Zara nodded at Olpre-wa. “You may go.”

The doctor lifted its chin stiffly and exited between the two Ganix warriors.

Zara watched it leave and then answered her Da. “The Xi technicians here claim that the terminal system cannot be altered, but we have a workaround. Instead of accepting only vessels with hu-class systems, which emit a very specific identification code tailored for the individual ship, we have added a special code into the First Terminal database. This code can be transmitted at any time. Actually, any ship with the ability to transmit could use the special code if they were aware of it.”

“That seems easy,” said Kpleeb.”I mean, for someone as smart as you of course.”

Zara smiled. “So very simple. The harder part is that the normal identification code allows the terminal system to adjust its power for the requesting vessel because it is already known. The terminal system needs to know the mass that is being transmitted, and without the mass, the end result could be catastrophic for the vessel. We decided to calculate and transmit the required mass embedded within our special identification code. Now the system will conduct an extra step, parsing the mass, and using that mass to adjust the power.”

“Like I said: smart!” He slipped off the table and stood carefully on unsteady feet. He looked down and noticed that his toes were covered in blood. “I must have been really hurt. I don’t remember any of this. It’s probably time for you and Viinox to go conduct your search for Nidix. Right?”

Zara glanced at Viinox. “What do you think? Can Tiirw finish the terminal adjustments?”

Viinox lifted its chin. “Certainly. The work is almost complete. We have also discovered the mechanism to disable tracking on the Xih ships. The Hsstak and Greki can now successfully hide from the Xi tracking systems.”

“That gives us options we didn’t have before. Thank you, Viinox.” Zara gently tapped Kpleeb’s arm. “You should get cleaned up, make sure the security here is acceptable, and get some rest.”

“How long will you be gone?”

Zara shrugged noncommittally. “Biortl is closest to the region we need to search, but it may be well-guarded. The quickest path is through Biortl. We hope that the Xi are not amassed at the terminal, but we have decided to send through two probes without kerflk shields. They will exit only moments after the Hsstak and then continue toward Biortl to provide information and act as a screen for the Hsstak if the terminal is closely watched. Then we have at around forty days of travel to the region. Then another day or two of scouting.” She paused. “We’ll be gone for around 85 days if we return through the terminal at Biortl, longer if we are attacked or find something interesting.”

###

A few hours later, Zara, Viinox, Kanta, and a handful of Ganix warriors boarded the Hsstak and began the short task of preparing for jump.

Zara reached for the third point of the triangle as the ship approached the terminal followed by the two probes. The air above the silvery triangle began to glow as soon as her hand touched the final point [Despite the danger, this really must be done. If I can finally pinpoint the location of Nidix, a thousand years of Xi lies will begin to unravel. We will finally be within sight of fulfilling Da’s quest for vengeance. Maybe there will be answers about the Xih there as well. I hope so.]

Kanta’s voice from the command center broke through Zara’s mental focus. “We are ready to jump.”

“Let’s go,” said Zara. “Waiting won’t change anything.” The points on the shimmering three-dimensional map in front of her displayed almost two dozen glowing dots that represented Kpleeb’s fleet and the First Terminal.

“Transferring now,” Kanta said in a garbled voice. The effect was silent and invisible, but after a few seconds, the void around the Hsstak warped slightly and then changed.

When the Hsstak coalesced at the Biortl terminal, it immediately began to move away in the direction Zara believed Nidix lay. All of the points of light within Zara’s display blinked out and were replaced by a cluster of new points that were between the terminal and Biortl, close enough to notice incoming vessels, but not close enough to be in immediate danger.

[Our fleet would have been wiped out if we had come here.] “Viinox, I am counting forty-three possible vessels between here and Biortl. Take the Hsstak to her fastest speed.”

“Yes, Zara,” said Viinox. Its fingers tapped rapidly on the console.

The probes arrived just a minute after the Hsstak, appearing on Zara’s display as two small dots that began to move toward Biortl. To expand the distance between itself and the probes, Hsstak accelerated it’s mass in the opposite direction. “The Xi have begun to move toward our position,” Zara said, tapping to direct the Hsstak’s detectors toward the distant orb. After a moment in thought, she shrugged to herself. [We are as fast as they are, so we will at least stay ahead of them… until we have to stop and search for Nidix.]

“Kanta, let me know when the Xi fleet nears the probes. It will be interesting to see how they react.

“I agree, Zara,” came the watery reply. Kanta’s airo-walker helmet sloshed silently and she turned her large eyes on Zara. “I suspect they will analyze the probes and then destroy them.”

“As long as it slows them down, it will make me happy.”

###

40 days later, Zara woke to a blinking indicator on her messaging device. She stretched under her thin blanket and let out an expansive yawn.

Kanta’s voice began to speak as soon as Zara summoned the message. “I didn’t want to wake you, but we have arrived and there is something interesting to observe. We’ll show you in the command center when you are ready.