The Index -|-
The dust at Zara’s feet stirred at the caress of a dancing breeze. To her nose it smelled charred and smoky. Mostly burnt logs rested haphazardly where they were tossed among the rocks and other debris. Everything in the village was wrecked except the walls made of the stone-like kerflk.
Zara sniffed the air again and took a few more steps toward the nearby lutu, an angular, single-Xi vessel, that had crashed nearby. Its hatch was closed, and there was a scorched gash as long as her arm in the side of the ship. Fifty paces away another lutu rested on its belly, this one having the hatch wide open. Next to it was a small pile of silica dust, indicating that the pilot had made its exit before succumbing to its wounds and becoming riaat.
[One of many dead Xi.] Zara grimaced. She was both happy that the Xi had been brought down and also sad that their life had to be taken.
The leader of her new band of warriors appeared at her side. “Ready, chief.”
Zara turned to look at Tiv. He was especially serious for a Ganix warrior. He was also dark and very short, only coming up to the shoulder of most other warriors. Despite his diminutive stature, he was twice as tall as Zara.
“Okay, let’s go look at this other XF ship.” Zara walked toward the broken vessel that resembled the Hsstak. The terrain where the ship had crashed was broken and deeply gouged, and three huts had been crushed. Several dead mountain yaks lay nearby, and clouds of large, black flies feasted on the carcasses. Zara winced at the putrid stench.
Tiv pointed with his forefinger knuckle toward an opening in the side of the vessel, and Zara could see several small piles of silica dust there. The ashes of demolished huts covered the entire area.
She nodded. “Part of the crew had come out the ship only to die in the fire. Maybe they were injured before leaving and the fire finished them off.”
Tiv grunted.
“That is a well-deserved outcome. Fortunately, the fire did not spread beyond the wall. A burning forest would not be best for the other tribes and wildlife.”
On closer examination, the gash in the side of the ship led to a room that Zara recognized as one of the crew quarters with its inner door wide open. “Go look inside. If any Xi are alive, I want to speak to them.”
Tiv barked a short alert at several warriors nearby, and one of the group broke off and quickly approached.
Zara turned and touched her necklace. “Oiitr, can we salvage anything from this XF ship?”
After a long moment, Oiitr’s tinny voice came from the device. “There may be some valuable contents or perhaps some prisoners, but the ship itself is not valuable unless it can be repaired. I have looked for its name and there is no response from the vessel. It is truly dead. There is a nameplate in the command center that will identify the ship if you can get inside.”
Zara waved to the other warriors that had remained outside. “Come, I want to look at the inside. Stay ahead of me.”
The warriors hopped nimbly into the gash and looked through the doorway.
Zara raised a small, stone rod with a light on its tip. “Go right,” she said pointing. “At the end there is a ladder. Go up.” She tuned her perceptions to see the aji, but the area around her was perfectly dark.
The warriors complied swiftly, and the shadows cast by her light writhed strangely in the corridor ahead of them.
[Its useful that these ships share a common layout.] She saw the last feet disappear through the ladderway and followed. With the daylight from outside now a floor below them, the upper corridor was pitch black, and the Ganix warriors crouched, waiting for her. “The door at the end is where I want to go.”
In a moment, Zara stood before the door to the command center. It did not open, and she was not surprised. Normally, it would slide open on its own, but with the aji out of commission, it would only open from inside, and most of the other doors nothing would operate at all. She tapped on the door with a sliding gesture. “Please pry it open, this way.”
Two warriors pushed the door and then another got involved. The door did not budge. After a few minutes, the warriors stood up and looked at her.
“Alright, go stand near the end of the hall,” Zara said. She took three steps back, lifted her ring and focused on the door. The air began to whine in front of her. She turned her head slightly and lifted her other hand in front of her face. The whine ceased and the door crumpled inward with a splintering crack. She could see the inside of the command center through the crumpled edges, and decided to hit the door again. In a few more moments, she stood inside with her light held high.
There were two piles of silica dust and nothing else. Zara looked at the name plate above the primary red-tiered device. “Ikol,” she muttered. “Where do they come up with these names?”
“Oiitr, I had to break the door to the command center. This is the Ikol. Can we do a core purge on this ship?”
“With the gash in the side and the broken door, the ship would not be able to leave Phaedro’s atmosphere, but perhaps a core reset could be completed. If we did repair the core, we would have to disable the emergency beacon as soon as it is complete.”
“That would mean waiting here for another few days.” Zara shook her head. “We will leave this alone for now. We don’t need more attention.”
Zara and her warriors examined the rest of the Ikol, or at least the parts that could be accessed. The prisoner pens and most of the other labs and rooms were closed, and she decided not to break the doors. She did break the door of the room where Iqw Okrat had commanded Hsstak, and found no artifacts or shiny triangles on the floor. When she left the ship, Tiv and Hew stood watching the village around them as if expecting another attack at any moment.
“Did you find any Xi?” asked Zara.
“One dead,” said Tiv.
“Okay, let’s go back to Jorqu.”
###
As the Hsstak rose above Phaedro, the multi-colored triangle in the corner of Zara’s room caught her eye, and she knelt to touch the golden triangle that was closest to her.
[This won’t activate unless Da and I touch the corners. This must be made for a team of at least two.] After a long moment, she had an idea. She sat down with her heel on the corner and stretched her hands to touch the remaining two. The silvery angles fluttered in a wave of movement and the column of light began to glow. [Ah HA!]
In the center of the column of shimmering light was a glowing dot. As she watched, a smaller glowing dot appeared and began to move away from the other. Zara grinned as she realized what these dots may represent.
“Tiiwr, please return to the clouds of Phaedro. I want to see the village from far above.”
After a momentary pause, it answered. “We are returning now.”
The smaller dot began to move back toward the big dot until they merged. Zara touched her red device twice and saw a view of the village from high above. Scattered clouds moved between her and the canyon. “Thank you, Tiiwr. You may proceed to Jorqu now.”
Looking again at the column of light, the smaller dot separated from the larger again.
[That’s it! The Hsstak is the smaller dot and Phaedro is the larger.] With her eye, she followed the direction that the smaller dot was moving and found another, larger dot in its path. [Jorqu. When Da and I saw those other dots, they were the Xi ships coming to destroy the village. I can see other ships and orbs in the void!]
Instantly, she scanned the entire range of the column carefully, but there were some dots but no other movement. With a sigh of relief, she stood, and the column of light disappeared.
Within moments, Zara entered the command center. “Viinox, I have some questions. First, is there some Xi technology that will show you another Xi ship that is nearby?”
Viinox tilted its chin downward slightly. “We can detect certain communication methods out to one kitrond. Based on that, we can tell roughly where a nearby Xi ship is unless it ceases to transmit.”
“Can you show me?”
Viinox prodded its device and a standard Xi hologram appeared. Within the three-dimensional grid of tiny, hovering dots were no obvious objects. “There are no Xi ships nearby, but I will show you this recording.” It tapped again and there appeared a square with small waves coming off two sides. “This is another XF style ship that was nearby.”
“Can we see Phaedro or Jorqu?”
“Planets do not generally produce communication transmissions, unless there is a city with a transmitter located there.” Viinox paused. “As for Jorqu, the planet is too far for the sensors to see from Phaedro.”
Zara nodded. “Jorqu is about five days from Phaedro. Show me the entire Xi empire.”
Viiinox tilted its head upward and tapped. The hologram expanded to three times its size and exploded with dots of all sizes. It tapped again and transparent regions of colored light appeared in what seemed to be random sizes and locations. “This blue area is the Xi primary sector where the predominant rules. It is made up of more than twenty star systems. We are here.” The hologram slowly moved to the side and contracted toward the edge of a large, red area.
“It is difficult for me to understand the scale. What is the distance in travel time between Jorqu and the primary sector?”
With a tap, the hologram expanded again and a grid of solid, red squares appeared. They seemed to be unevenly spaced, especially near the edges of the map. “If we were to use the Hsstak to the see the Predominant it would take roughly 1936 days at our fastest speed.”
[22.8 million yak speed!]
Viinox pointed its chin at the map. “If we use terminals and the slipnet, we could be in the primary sector at First Terminal within fifty days.”
“Where is the closest XI world or ship? I’m surprised that we have not yet encountered a whole fleet of warships.”
The map changed again to show a few icons with labels. “Jorqu is here,” Viinox said, “and Juma is here on the other side of the terminal. It is around 45 days travel from here. The next orb is over here,” the map shifted downward. This one is Liret.”
“Show me the different kinds of Xi vessels, one at a time then.”
