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.

The Index -|-

“What do you want, Xir?”

Kpleeb knew that he was being grumpy. He rubbed his eyes and looked up from his workbench. He tried not to scowl, but knew that he was not entirely successful.

Xir stood there on the balls of his feet, at ease but still reminiscent of a tundra-lion ready to pounce.

“Jial say, you eat.” Xir did not flinch or seem awkward at all that a cavewoman had dared to instruct Kpleeb as to what he must do.

Kpleeb leaned back and stared at Xir for a moment while he thought. [These cavewomen should respect me… or at least who I was to Thoka.] He sighed loudly and rolled his eyes.

“I am the husband of the Pale One. Doesn’t that afford me some leeway? I have to find Zara!” The ache in his chest bloomed again as it always did when he remembered how he had failed his little girl.

Xir lifted his chin slightly. “If Jial not care, Jial let die without food.”

Kpleeb blinked and then slowly cracked his knuckles and stood. “I am just a caveman,” he grumbled. “Are the cavewomen in charge of the Ganix?” He eyed Xir for a long moment. ” Never mind. I don’t need an answer. I will eat, only to make her leave me alone.”

Xir did not speak, but Kpleeb thought that he saw a twinkle in his eye.

[Poppycock! The Ganix eye never twinkles and the Ganix mouth never smiles.]

“Lead the way,” Kpleeb said with a sour grunt.

A few moments later, Xir and Kpleeb darkened the door of Jial’s hut, and the smell of roast rat wafted lightly onto Kpleeb’s nosebuds. Though Kpleeb was frustrated, he was mature enough to know that a phrase loaded with sweet-berries would ease Jial’s mind, so he did what he had to do.

“Ahh, Jial, thank you. That smells amazing!” In truth, it did smell amazing.

Jial looked at him while continuing to rotate the turnspit that hung over the small stone fireplace. On the shelf inside the heat tube, was a stone pot of something bubbling. Kpleeb was proud that he had invented the indoor fireplace, and he smiled widely at Jial.

“Hungry now?”

Kpleeb nodded without shame. “I was hungry before; I just didn’t know it. Thank you for reminding me.”

“You eat, maybe bring back Zara.” Jial’s face was stoic, but her eyes told a different story. She had been Zara’s nurse and keeper. “I feed. You build.”

The depth of the tribe’s love for Zara was easy to forget in the midst of their emotionless culture. Nevertheless, Kpleeb was sobered by the fierce look in Jial’s eyes, and he felt as if she could rip his head out through his armpit if she wanted to. She was that strong. He remembered that Jial had tended Zara faithfully and had been like a second mother to her. Though it had not come to mind before, he imagined that her pain at the loss of Zara was as real as his own.

Kpleeb motioned to Xir to sit, and then he nodded at Jial. “I am building what I can. I will get her back, even if I die doing it.”

Jial handed Xir a sizzling rat on a small stick while Kpleeb sank into a cross-legged position on the floor. When she handed Kpleeb a rat, he took it and paused to let the fat stop bubbling.

“As you know, Xir, I have made some amazing weapons.” Kpleeb said. “I have more in mind. The big problem I have not been able to solve yet is… flying.” He looked at Xir, who had been by his side since Zara had disappeared.

Xir slowly tore meat from the small bones.

“Wouldn’t you like to fly, Xir?”

Xir tilted his head but continued chewing. After a few long moments, he lifted his chin. “Yes.”

Kpleeb waited for more, but Xir just ate silently and alternated his gaze between his roasted rat-on-a-stick, the open door, and Kpleeb.

Eventually, Kpleeb nodded. “Well, okay. Good to know. I will figure it out.”

So far, Kpleeb had spent most of his research time focusing on flight. There were many ways to fly, at least so he had thought. The birds flew, some of them awkwardly, some of them gracefully. A few were jerky and sporadic. He thought that there was something to the shape of their wings that made the air push them upward when they should have fallen to the ground. He was perplexed by the Xi lutu though. The ships flew without at all appearing to be shaped like a bird’s wing.

Thoka had described the lutu’s technology when they first saw it in person, and she had compared it to Zara’s floating carriage. It hovered above the ground using the invisible forces. Kpleeb could not see the forces, nor could he control them, yet he knew they were there. The lutu was imbued with that power, and he could not discover how to reproduce it.

The lutu flew. They could rise straight up when they wanted to. Sometimes they also swooped like a bird of prey reaching out to snatch a pika from the tundra. There was no calculation Kpleeb could make that related the two types of movements. He had studied the underside of the lutu and saw the tri-clusters of bumps that Thoka had pointed out to him. She had even said that she believed the lutu could fly higher than the sky. Kiipo had proven Thoka right.

[The Xi are above the sky. They are in the expanse between the orbs. I have to reach them there, where they live. If I cannot, they will always escape]

Kpleeb sighed and gnawed the last bit of meat from his rat-stick. He set the stick on the stone next to the fireplace and rose. “Thank you, Jial.” He nodded at her and smiled generously. “I will continue to work. We must find Zara.”

Jial looked at him sincerely. “How?”

“I do not know for sure. She may have been taken away to a secret place. She may have been taken away in a lutu.” Kpleeb pointed upward. “The Xi are able to fly between orbs.”

Jial looked skeptical but did not speak.

“I can only say for certain that the distance is great, and we must fly in order to find Zara.”

“Weapons needed,” said Xir. He set down his rat-stick.

“You know that I built many weapons. There will be more, but what good are those if we cannot fly?”

“Xi come back.” Xir looked at him with a certainty in his eyes.

“Perhaps. It could be.” Kpleeb shrugged and waved for Xir to follow him.

Together, Kpleeb and Xir walked out of Jial’s hut and past the yellow stone wall that protected the village. They crossed the meadows and reached the tree line where the foothills of the mountain began to slope upward in ever increasing altitudes.

After a short time, they reached the clearing near the entrance of Kpleeb’s cave. There, Kpleeb stopped and turned to face the down slope. With his hand he motioned toward the ridge on their right.

“We will kill many Xi with my weapons… They are nothing without access to the enemy.”

The far ridge was burned and shredded. Its ground was pocked with deep craters. Enormous shards of stone bedrock stuck upward from the soil. The remains of a few blackened trees, devoid of any greenery, clawed at the sky like a dead and dried out carcass. There was no smoke. That had died out days ago. A slight breeze picked up, and when it reached the ridge, it stirred a puff of grey dust that swirled gently over the wreckage of the land.

Xir gazed at the familiar sight and nodded with all of his typical solemnity.

Kpleeb turned and walked toward the cave. “I have to get back to work.”

The Index -|-

There was a time when Zara slept. It was unlike her normal sleeps. It was fitful and angsty. She stirred frequently, but only partially, before slipping again beneath the covers of dusk. Her dreams were odd and vivid, containing flashes of light, the smell of aji and taste of bitter cormorant feather dipped in yak’s blood.

But when she awoke…

The roof of the cave above her was high, very smooth, slightly shiny, and blue-toned. Strands of aji pulsed quickly in all directions behind the surface. It was too much for her senses, and she closed her eyes.

Her ears heard nothing except a faint whisper of the wind, but it was not a strong wind. It was a distant breeze one might encounter around the far corner.

She opened her eyes again and turned her head. There was a hard surface under her. She saw that it was a table and the she was bound to it. Thin straps looped over her wrists and ankles. She tested them one by one and noted that they were soft and yet very much ungiving. She could feel that she was clothed in some kind of barely stretchy fabric. She raised her head slightly to see what the cloth looked like, but her head was allowed only limited movement due to some kind of restraint that was attached to her head.

[Well… I am still a captive.]

The room had sloped walls, and the walls blended with the ceiling very similarly to a cave, but the ceiling was dotted with bright points of light.

[Did they make this room like this in order to make me feel more comfortable? Maybe, but why? If there are as many of them as Kiipo said, that would make no sense.]

On one of the room’s walls there was a thin, red device, that loosely resembled Uuiit’s red-tired device. Much of the aji that flowed through the walls terminated at the red device. There appeared to be no entrance, and no other features.

[Okay, so I am in a featureless room with a Xi machine. I’m strapped to a table. I can feel my clothing and the table. Now what?] She sighed and closed her eyes.

“You ended many of us on Phaedro.”

With a surprised jump, Zara’s eyes opened. On all sides of the table where she rested were Xi. They stood, seven of them, staring at her with their piercing blue eyes. Their necks were shrouded from the ears downward in a silvery mesh that draped lightly below their thin shoulders.

“I was attacked, so I responded.” She looked at each of them with what she hoped was a glare of defiance. “If you want to challenge me, I will do it again, and you will lose more.”

The Xi at the foot of her table made an odd twittering sound through barely moving lips. Its eyes squinted, and Zara could only assume that this reaction was laughter.

“We did not lose any Xi with your attack. Be assured that we have collected the riaat, and they have merely shifted to the next realm.”

“Riaat?” Zara asked.

The same Xi twittered. “This ‘dust’ as you call it. Kiipo is not dead. Uuiit is not dead. We are not like your squishy species.” It paused for a moment before continuing. “Nevertheless, you have your uses, and we will extract the value owed to us.”

“Where am I, and who are you?”

With a wave of its hand, the wall behind Xi at the end of the table began to glow. Zara could see a dark space with a blue and green glowing orb in the midst of it.

“You are with us on the Hsstak, and that,” it said with a slight lift-and-turn of its chin, “is Phaedro. You will never see it again.” The wall instantly ceased its display. “As for who we are, giving this information serves no purpose, and so you will never know.”

Zara looked at the Xi standing around her and tried to memorize their faces, but they were all identical in every way. Even their clothing was the same.

One of the Xi adjusted its head slightly and looked toward the one at the end of the table. There was no sound, but Zara could tell that there was communication, and she wondered how it worked. After a moment, the Xi who spoke for the group continued.

“This one suggests that we simply end your squishy life immediately. It insists that you are dangerous, but I am more than capable of containing your chaotic nature.”

“I-” began Zara before pausing. “I am not chaotic. I am not dangerous.”

The primary Xi twittered again.

“I am just a little girl. You must know this. I only killed Kiipo because it wanted to kill me.” She tried to look scared and had to admit to herself that it was easy. She really was scared.

The Xi lifted its chin. “We will determine exactly what and how dangerous you are. You have no chance of living.”

Zara closed her eyes and swallowed uneasily. After a moment, she began to cry silently.

Her eyes opened and through her watery view, she saw the Xi huddled together at the end of her table. They did not speak.

Then, one of them saw her watching them. It lifted a hood in its thin fingers and draped it over Zara’s head.

Immediately, Zara began to feel lightheaded, and within a few seconds, she lost consciousness.

The Index -|-

Zara woke slowly, her senses awakening in fits and starts to what could only be described as a blur of sensation.

The first thing she noticed was the pain. She probed and found that it was centered on the back of her head and at her wrists and ankles. It was not unbearable. The second thing she noticed was a warm tickling sensation that covered her whole body.

Then she opened her eyes.

The space around her was awash in darkness. There were pinpoints of light or…. something… in an arc running left to right. She sniffed and smelled almost nothing. There was some scent, but it was faint and very foreign to her. When she turned her head, she could sense no movement at all.

In the background, as if on another layer of vision, the forces – what the Xi called the aji – pulsed in their pathways. The pathways led to the pinpoints, and then into the distance from all sides. She turned her head again and nothing changed.

Zara closed her eyes.

There had been a time like this in the past. In fact, everything had been like this at one point, though she found it difficult to know exactly what that time entailed. All she knew was that her eyes truly opened when she was born. Then, the concept of perspective, distance, and space had formed and changed her whole world.

She could now feel her neck move, feel the joints and muscles and weight of her head. Each of her fingers, the sense of her breath leaving her nostril, the filling of her lungs.

[My eyes, ears, and sense of the aji forces are veiled.]

Zara closed her eyes and focused on following the pathways. They were miniscule and she found that they easily faded if they were in her peripheral. Then it hit her.

[There is no Qon! Why? I always see the Qon thread but not now.]

Slowly her bright, young mind began to ponder the implications and possibilities of Qon missing.

[Can Qon be veiled? The other aji forces are not veiled, why Qon?] She checked the pathways and counted at least 14 colors. [If the Xi would veil Qon, wouldn’t they veil all of the other aji forces?]

Though she could not see the golden thread, Zara reached out and felt for Qon. It was not near the pathways, but she finally found it. Its surface, thin and trembling brushed her mind. She felt reassured and smiled slightly.

[Qon is here, but veiled somehow by the Xi. Kiipo was shocked when I severed the lutu’s power, and he called me Ixant. Perhaps they simply don’t see Qon. Maybe the knowledge of Qon is what makes someone an Ixant. If they don’t see Qon, they won’t know to mimic it in this facade.]

With a sigh, Zara recounted her capture… She had returned to the cave to make sure that Kiipo was secure, and he had been.

###

In the distance, Zara could hear the cracks and whines from the attacking lutu. Kiipo’s eyes followed her as she entered the main room of the cave. Zara examined its bonds, and found nothing amiss. The mesh of aji forces were intact, and the physical cords that bound its hands, feet, and knees were still tight.

“I am hungry,” Kiipo said quietly.

“Even now, your friends attack our village.” Zara shook her head slightly. “They want you back. I guess you should feel very valuable.”

Kiipo’s neck slits fluttered quickly, and its eyes closed for a moment. “I would like to go home.”

“I want to live here, in peace, with my Da and my cave-family,” said Zara in a matter-of-fact tone. She sighed. and turned toward the red-tiered device. “I will get you some poda to eat.” She began by pressing the bottom, right, second button three times. She then pushed the center triangle. It was then that she felt the air shift.

Turning, Zara saw Kiipo standing only two paces away. In its hand was a device that wrapped around its forearm and rested snugly in its palm. The device glowed with the aji.

Kiipo’s mouth parted to show rows of razor-sharp teeth. “I told you that they would come back for me.”

Zara shrugged. “I believed you. Why are you still here?”

“You must come with me.”

A chill passed through Zara, and she shook her head. “Why? It’s bad enough that you came here, you killed my Mama, and destroyed half of the Ganix village. You want me to go with you as well?”

“I do not make the rules. As a simple Jariit, I only follow.” Kiipo tilted its head slightly. “You must come with me. Please.”

Zara identified the powerline on the weapon that Kiipo held. Then she smiled. “I don’t think you can make me come with you. I’m Ixant, remember?”

Kiipo’s face remained expressionless, but Zara did notice that its neck slits fluttered more rapidly, and its palm gripped the weapon more tightly. “I have no choice.”

Zara nodded. “A scenario without choice is only for the blind.” Without moving, she severed the powerline, and she could see the aji forces disperse.

Kiipo looked at the inert weapon, and its shoulders slumped slightly before its wrist raised to cast the device in her direction.

Zara blasted Kiipo backward with a powerful swipe. Its body impacted with cave wall with an awkward crunching sound, and Kiipo began to wail at a low volume.

“Be quiet,” said Zara. “You made your decision, and I made mine.”

Kiipo’s wail continued, but it became more and more quiet over the next few moments. Finally, its head dropped to rest on its neck, and the neck slits stopped moving.

Zara stepped closer and carefully prodded Kiipo’s torso with her foot. There was no response, no twitches or reanimation. She was shocked. It had died so easily. Yes, she had thrown its body against the wall quite forcefully, but even in her short lifetime, she had seen cavepeople endure more severe wounds with only marginally lasting effects.

[When will its body turn into silica dust?] She prodded the body again and recalled how her Ma had told her about the death of Uuiit, the Xi overseer of Phaedro. Uuiit’s body did not dissolve immediately, but it had not taken even a tenth of a day.

Zara heard a few large crackle-thumps from the direction of the cave entrance and walked toward the outside so that she could see how the village was faring. The sky was still dark, and in the distance, she could see the purple orbs of the lutu being unleashed against the landscape below. In response, the lightning spears spattered the lutu with smaller bolts.

She shook her head. [Come on Ganix you’ll have to combine forces.]

To her right, she saw a quiet glow began to emanate from underneath the trees on the mountain slope. Her adrenaline edged upward and she turned to investigate.

A dozen thin shapes emerged from the treeline, and Zara crouched. With a twist of her bracelet and a touch on Thoka’s grey amulet that hung around her neck, she activated her shield. The amulet had been given to her by her Mama, and Zara had spent only a little time improving its strength and coverage. [Thank you for the shield, mama.]

Her skin tingled with a light breeze as the Xi raised their hands and released a torrent of purple light in her direction. Tiny shards flooded the air like sideways raindrops and beat against her shield with a quiet fizzling sound that made a mockery of the actual power they imparted. Zara felt the battering as the shield absorbed and deflected the attack.

With a backward flip of her hand, Zara returned their attack with one of her own. The ground at their feet erupted in a shower of dirt and rocks. She knew that it wouldn’t distract them for more than a few moments. She jumped toward the group and broke into an all-out run. By the time the Xi recovered, Zara was among them.

She danced among their knees and ankles, jabbing with her spear. Her Mama had told her about how she had killed her first Xi, a single upward thrust from her knife into its bowels. These Xi received the same fate.

With odd howls, the Xi reacted to her ferocious attack by jumping and stomping with their knees high. One fired a blast of purple shards, and randomly shredded the leg of one of its compatriots. One by one they dropped to the ground to lay on the rubble amongst their dead.

Without a warning, Zara was hit on the side of her head. The world spun, and a sharp pain echoed in her skull. Her knees buckled, and she fell to her hands and knees. Her vision swam, and she saw black legs surrounding her. She was lifted roughly by very strong hands and carried through the trees to a nearby clearing where she was unceremoniously dropped to the ground at a pair of feet.

Zara raised her head slowly, and saw a Xi dressed in a deep brown close-fitting tunic. In its hands it held a staff that stretched upward to twice its height. The Xi’s teeth were sharp and gleamed with perfect order as it smiled down on her.

“You will come with us, Zara.”

Zara gritted her teeth and lashed out in defiance. The air around her shimmered as it drew in nearby moisture. With a cry of exertion, the moisture froze and then shattered. The Xi were mutilated by a shower of icy shards. She bent her head to breathe, and a deep pain immediately pierced her skull.

She couldn’t see. There was nothing around her, only pain. Her muscles rebelled and contorted in any way they could so as to find an escape from their suffering. Something struck Zara in the head, and she blacked out.

###

[And now I’m here. If this is a sense trap, the only way to escape is to see and feel. I must be able to sense my surroundings.]

“Hello?” she called. She could hear her voice, but it sounded strange and muted. There was no response.

“Are you there?” Then, careful to sound like someone her age, frail and helpless, “Da? Mama?”

After some time with no answer, Zara stopped calling. She was tired, and her throat hurt. She drifted into sleep.

Zara blinked and awoke quickly. Her lungs felt as if they were on fire, and she coughed violently for several moments. Nothing had changed. There was no smell, no sight, no sound except for her subsiding cough.

“Hello? If the Xi have captured me, let me see your face.”

For as long as Zara could maintain focus and ask questions. There was no response.

Zara lost complete track of time. She slept, awoke, called out questions, felt nothing, and slept again. It was seemingly endless. Until finally there was a slight shift in the air.

“Now you are ready to speak?

“You are an interesting specimen, and I will relish dissecting you.” The voice that spoke was soft-edged and silvery with too little enunciation of hard sounds.

Zara paused to consider her response, but time seemed to stop… and she slept.