Laura Jo Phillips (8 page)

“I’ll take this one then,” Aisling decided, pulling the desk chair out from behind one desk and sitting down.  Elder Vulpiran picked up a chair near the wall and moved it over beside Aisling for himself.  Once he was seated, he guided Aisling through the procedure for accessing the data they wanted her to translate for them.

“These are not the original files, are they?” Aisling asked.

“No, these are copies,” Elder Vulpiran replied.

“That’s good,” Aisling said.  “I wouldn’t want to risk altering the original data.  So how are we going to do this?”

“The majority of the data we have is in audio format,” Elder Vulpiran said.  “The written data has been run through every program we have, but it is simply too...,” 

“Too what?” Aisling asked.

“Too alien,” Elder Vulpiran said finally.  “I know that sounds odd, but its the best description I can come up with.  The instances of repetition between the characters, or symbols, is such that we have not been able to identify a meaning for any of them.”

“That’s rather astounding, actually,” Aisling replied, mentally calculating the odds of such a thing.  Within a few seconds she realized that the odds were astronomical.  There were several thousand individual languages in use within the Thousand Worlds, not counting dialects.  With that much information, the language programs currently in use were quite sophisticated. 

 “If you’ll walk me through the recording procedure, I can get started.”

Elder Vulpiran showed Aisling the recording device on the terminal and how to use it, as well as the headphones and various controls. 

“Got it,” Aisling said once she was sure she understood how to operate the system.  “Where do you want me to begin?”

“There is one small file near the top.  We thought that might be the best place to begin.”

“All right,” Aisling said agreeably, opening the file Elder Vulpiran indicated.  She selected to play the file through the speakers rather than the headphones, and pressed the Play button.

The sound from the speakers was so high pitched and screechy that it hurt Aisling’s ears, and caused what felt like a painful vibration in her head.  She winced as she reached out to stop playback, missing the button in her haste.  It took a few tries before she was able to stop the noise, and by then she was shaking uncontrollably.

“Great stars, what in the nine hells was that?” Karma demanded as she hurried across the office toward a white-faced and shaking Aisling.

“Aisling, are you all right?” Elder Vulpiran asked, his brows drawn down in concern.

“I’m fine,” Aisling insisted, fighting to regain her composure. 

“You don’t look fine,” Karma said, placing her hands lightly on Aisling’s shoulders.  “You should come over to the sofa and lay down for a few minutes.”

“No, I’m fine, really,” Aisling repeated, reaching up to pat Karma’s hands with her own. 

“What happened?” Elder Vulpiran asked after Aisling had caught her breath and the color returned to her face.

“I’m not sure,” Aisling said.  “There was just something about that voice that hurt my head.  I don’t know if it was the volume, or the pitch, both or neither.  Didn’t it bother either of you?”

“I don’t like the sound of it, but it doesn’t cause me physical pain or discomfort,” Elder Vulpiran replied.  He looked at Karma questioningly.

“Same here,” she said.  “It doesn’t sound like a language at all to me.  It just sounds like a lot of really loud, high pitched shrieking.  But that’s the worst I can say about it.”

“Did you understand it?” Elder Vulpiran asked Aisling.

“Yes, I did,” Aisling replied.  “I’m sure this is not word for word, but essentially the voice said it’s name, which I don’t remember, Zalin, or Salik, something like that.  He said he had just witnessed a
berezi
kill it’s owner and that he was about to take it back to his ship for resale to the Brethren.”

“He referred to a
berezi
as an
it
?” Karma asked in surprise.

“Yes, definitely,” Aisling replied.  “I want to lower the volume and try this again.”

“Very well,” Elder Vulpiran said.  “But let me handle the controls.  The moment you appear distressed, I will stop the play back.”

Aisling agreed and shifted the control board toward Elder Vulpiran.  He lowered the volume, then spent a moment inputting a frequency translation to alter the pitch of the voice. 

“Ready?” he asked Aisling when he was satisfied.

“Yes,” Aisling said, feeling a little tense in spite of herself. 

Elder Vulpiran began the playback, watching Aisling carefully.  After about fifteen seconds, Aisling winced in obvious discomfort.  He immediately stopped the recording.

Aisling breathed a sigh of relief.  “I can understand it,” she said.  “But it’s difficult to listen to.  If we can lower the pitch even more, that might help, but I’m afraid I’m only going to be able to do this a bit at a time.”

“I’m not sure you should do it at all,” Elder Vulpiran said.  “It causes you pain, and that concerns me.  What if it is also causing you damage of some sort?”

“My feelings exactly,” Karma added. 

“If I listen to it at it’s original volume and pitch, I think it will cause damage,” Aisling said.  “But lowering the pitch helped a lot.  Remember, I don’t have to translate all of this.  Just enough for a language program to learn Xanti.  Then it can translate the rest.”

“That’s true,” Elder Vulpiran said.  “But even so, we do not want you harmed by this.”

“I’ll be careful,” Aisling said. 

“How much do you have to translate before the computers can take over?” Karma asked.

“We don’t know,” Elder Vulpiran admitted.  “This language is beyond our experience.  There is nothing about it that adds up with our knowledge of languages.”

“Prince Garen mentioned that this information came from a Xanti suit of some sort,” Aisling said.  “Does that mean that you have a Xanti?”

Elder Vulpiran studied Aisling silently, then turned his gaze on Karma.  It took only a moment for his Water magic to tell him both women could be trusted.  “I must ask that what I am about to tell you be held secret by you both.”

“Of course,” Aisling and Karma replied at once. 

Elder Vulpiran nodded, believing them.  “We have the remains of a Xanti,” he said.  “The Xanti wear bio-mechanical suits.  The one we have is humanoid.  Inside the suit, the Xanti are not remotely as their suits appear.”

“The true form and nature of the Xanti has been a mystery for a very long time,” Aisling said, barely controlling her excitement.  “What do they look like?”

Elder Vulpiran grimaced with distaste.  “Do either of you have an aversion to insects of any sort?”

Aisling was taken aback by that question.  She shook her head, then looked at Karma who was shaking her head as well.  “No, not really,” Aisling replied.

“The Xanti that we have looks like a very large spider,” he said. 

“A spider?” she asked.

“There are major differences, but in general, that’s what it’s appearance is closest too, yes,” Elder Vulpiran said.

“That would explain why it’s voice and language are so alien to us,” Aisling said.  “Can we see it?”

“I’m afraid it’s no longer here,” Elder Vulpiran said.  “It has been moved to the Hidden City for safety.”

“Do you think that the Xanti could transport it out of here?” she asked.

“No,” Elder Vulpiran replied confidently  “This building is very well protected from such things.  However, it is not protected from more simple things, such as explosives.”

“True enough,” Aisling agreed, turning back to the terminal screen with some relief.  A direct attack she could deal with.  Being transported onto a Xanti ship was an entirely different matter. 

 “How will you know when she’s translated enough of this stuff?” Karma asked.

“Each time she translates a section of material, the computer has a larger set of equivalencies to construct a translation matrix for the remaining data,” Elder Vulpiran explained.  “The computer applies the matrix to the data and, essentially, tell us how much is left to be deciphered.  When we get to zero percent, we’ll be done.”

 “Let’s lower the pitch and, if possible, slow it down,” Aisling suggested.  “The speech goes a bit too quickly and I need to be able to record my translation word for word or this is not going to work at all.”

“All right, give me a few minutes,” Elder Vulpiran said.  “I want to get an audio technician in here to make these adjustments so we can get the best quality possible.”

“Okay,” Aisling agreed. 

After Elder Vulpiran was gone, Karma sat down in his chair and studied Aisling’s face carefully.  “You sure about this?” she asked.

“Yes,” Aisling said firmly.  “I can decipher the Xanti language, Karma. I don’t know how, or why, but I can.  I can’t turn my back on this.  It’s too important.”

“Yes, I know,” Karma agreed.  “But I also think you are important, and I don’t want you to risk your life or your health translating a spider’s screeching.”

“I appreciate your concern, Karma, I really do,” Aisling said.  “But there’s nothing to worry about.  Hey, did you make some of that coffee you were so keen on having?”

“Nice try,” Karma said, rolling her eyes as she stood up and headed for the coffee pot.  “I’m going to be keeping a close eye on you, Ash.  The moment I think you’ve had enough, I’m stopping this thing.”

Aisling shrugged.  She didn’t really mind if Karma kept an eye on her, or even if she stopped her.  Temporarily.  However, she meant to crack the Xanti language in both its spoken form and its written form.  This was an opportunity she had never imagined possible, and she was going to do it, no matter the cost.

Chapter
7

Olaf sat at his desk in the Hidden City depository, going over the production reports from the southern gem mines when a strange feeling came over him.  He dropped the documents he was holding and stood up so quickly he knocked his chair over backward. 

Rand and Rudy dropped the reports they were reading onto their desks, their attention instantly focused on their brother.

“What is it?” Rand asked tightly, unable to discern a threat.

“Something is wrong with Aisling,” Olaf said. 

Rand and Rudy both frowned.  “How do you know?” Rand asked.

“I just know,” Olaf replied.  Leaving his chair on the floor where it had fallen, he turned toward the door, Rand and Rudy right behind him. 

“How bad?” Rudy asked, unable to feel anything himself.

“I’m not sure,” Olaf replied.  “Rand, call Elder Vulpiran please.”

“On it,” Rand said, already clipping his vox to his ear.  A moment later he had Elder Vulpiran on the line.

“Olaf senses a problem with Aisling,” he said, not bothering with niceties.  “Is she all right?”

Rand fell silent as Elder Vulpiran spoke into his ear for several moments.  Olaf and Rudy tensed as the silence stretched on.

“Please check on her now,” Rand said.  “We are on our way and will be there in a few minutes.”

“What?” Olaf demanded when Rand ended the call.

“Aisling has experienced some pain while listening to the Xanti recordings,” Rand explained.  “They made some adjustments to the play back and she agreed to listen to it in small increments.  The last time Elder Vulpiran checked on her, she seemed fine, but he’s going to check on her again now.”

By the time he finished speaking, the three of them were almost outside of the depository.  Once they left the building, they could transform and fly out of the Hidden City, something that was not usually done accept in emergency situations.  Olaf considered this to be an emergency situation.

“Neither of you feel anything?” he asked, picking up the pace to just short of a run.

“I do now,” Rudy said.  “Just a sense of her being in pain, nothing more.”

“Same here,” Rand said.  “I can’t tell if its serious or not, or what her emotions are.  Just pain.”

“I am beginning to get a better sense of the pain,” Olaf said.  “It’s bad, but she is not in extreme danger at this moment.”

Olaf pushed through the door and transformed instantly, Rand and Rudy a split second behind him.  They launched themselves into the air, racing toward the exit as fast as they could.

“It appears that the closer we get to her, the stronger our connection to her becomes,”
Olaf sent to his brothers as he led the way to the far end of the Hidden City.

“What I don’t understand is why do we feel her at all?”
Rand asked. 
“She is not our Arima.  We are certain of that.  Aren’t we?”

“
Yes,
that much is certain,”
Olaf replied. 
“In truth, that is the only thing I am certain of right now.”
 

The three gryphons burst through the wide exit carved into the rock wall and into the cold afternoon sunlight.  Olaf pressed himself to fly faster, wishing they had enough strength in Air magic to help them along, but they had only enough to create a thin shield.  Even without it, it was only a few minutes before they reached the Council Complex and landed on the front lawn.  They transformed smoothly from gryphon to human male the moment their feet touched the grass, not even pausing to catch their breath as they hurried toward the door.  As soon as they stepped inside the building Olaf stopped and turned to face his brothers.