Chương 13: Ch 10b - Wixam

The only thing that isn't white in the room is the small black cube on the far side of the large square table. Cara blinks, her eyes still adjusting from the unremarkable dull grey tones of the corridors. Joss had halted outside the door. Wyndeer had escorted her to the table. He has taken a position somewhere behind her. Perhaps he is standing next to Draig who had been leaning propped against the wall close to the door. Despite meeting his eyes, he had not offered her any greeting.

He had not offered any emotion at all, giving her a brief impassive glance before looking away. A sense of detachment has descended on her. It might be from the something Gask had placed on her tongue. She suspects it is born from the resignation that she is powerless to stop whatever is to happen next. The absence of the red light in this white room with its white chairs and white table isn't necessarily a reason for her to be optimistic.

She rests her forearms on the table and alternates squeezing one hand in the other then squeezing the tips of each finger. The simple activity gives her eyes something to focus on and an outlet for her nerves. The sound of the door opening behind her startles her. Boots tread heavily into the room, their clumping steps echoing off the hard surfaces. Cara sits frozen in her chair. A man in a smart black uniform strides past her. He takes the seat on the right side of the table with a noisy rattle of the chair.

A green stripe cascades down his right shoulder and over his chest. Two black lines cut across the green stripe, below them is the same Trisec emblem. His jet-black hair is gelled back from his high forehead in thick ridges that channel down to the nape of his neck. He taps the top of the cube with two fingers, staring at it for a moment, his eyes darting between invisible points above it. A white dot glows in the centre of the cube as a cone of light shines up from the top.

Within the cone of light, a woman's head and shoulders appear. She is dressed in white making her body near indistinguishable from the room and creating the illusion she is just a floating head.

"Green Vheece, of the Feilan Bloc Trisec," the man announces with a puffed-up chest. His eyes are solid black with no distinction between pupil and iris; they are framed by thick short black eyelashes.

"Argatta," the woman introduces herself with a smile.

"Co-Founder of the IAAS. Welcome. It's a pleasure to converse with you finally now that quarantine is over. I'm looking forward to learning all about your society and of course teaching you about ours so that you can acclimatise. My team and I are very excited about all the avenues this research is going to take; we have many unexplored hypotheses." Vheece rolls his eyes. Argatta pauses, looking expectantly at Cara, eagerness gleams in her eyes.

The edges of the room start to spin as Argatta's bobbing head triggers a new wave of vertigo. Cara stares down to her lap where her knuckles strain pale against her thin, dry skin. Under her nails raised cracks border the nail growth. She concentrates hard on the thin ridges at the end of her index finger. Reminding herself that her hand is static, fixed in her lap, unmoving on the static chair in the static room.

"Do you understand me?" Argatta asks, her eagerness dulling.

"Is there a problem with the comms?"

"I'm hearing you, Argatta." Vheece says irritably. Argatta's disembodied head swivels from Vheece to Cara.

"Well, as I was saying Cara, it's nice to meet you. I wish it were in person but unfortunately, I was unable to make the trip to the Wixam, but I'm busy preparing for your arrival here on Feilan." She pauses again. Cara presses her thumbnail into the side of her index finger, travelling along its length, leaving a trail of curved imprints in the skin.

"I thought it would be good to establish relations early," Argatta says hesitantly.

"Perhaps you aren't comfortable with this form of communication."

"If she's not going to talk to you then are we done here?" Vheece asks rudely.

"Well, I was expecting to help orientate Cara on how we are going to proceed, but if she doesn't want to discuss anything then I-""I want to go home," she blurts out, looking up at the hovering head in front of her, then quickly at Vheece, whose head is firmly attached to a static body in a static chair.

"Ah, yes." Argatta brightens, "and I do understand that desire. Yes, that is one of the many things we can explore in our sessions together when you get here."

"I just want to go home," Cara states plainly.

"Yes, yes, we understand that," Argatta reassures her, "and we are very interested in exploring how you could travel back to your planet, to your home as you say." Cara's throat constricts. She tries to control the desperation in her voice, "You're not sending me back?"

"Well, no," a broad smile stretches across her bobbing head.

"We can't help you return without you telling us how you came here."

"But I don't know how I came here. You must have brought me," Cara says. The ceiling threatens to flop like a flipped pancake above Argatta's head, she quickly looks back down at her fingers. Static hands in a static lap on a static chair in a static room.

"There are cycles and cycles worth of transcripts on this Argatta," Vheece cuts in grumpily.

"Yes, but she won't remember most of those discussions. We must be patient." Argatta speaks out of the side of her mouth as if it creates a private conversation with Vheece. She gives him a side-long glare to cement her point before turning back to Cara.

"No, you came here. We didn't have anything to do with bringing you. One hypothesis is that you were sent here because of how so very similar our biological make up is. We do seem very similar, you and us. You have appreciated that, correct?" If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it. Cara nods mutely at the woman.

On her lap she squeezes her fingers as hard as possible, burying her fear and frustration and confusion into the bone-penetrating pressure in her index finger.

"And the language adaptation," Argatta continues, "If you didn't learn our language on purpose and it is indeed not your own, if it was infused during the transfer, then that does lead to speculation that there is another party to this." Cara sits forward in her chair with a jolt.

"What are you-? What language?"

"The language that you are speaking. The language adoption you have undergone so that we can understand each other. We are conversing together are we not?" Behind Argatta the room spins. Cara grips the sides of her chair.

"We are speaking in English. I speak English."

"No, we are speaking the simplified language of Hupipsn." Argatta says calmly. Cara frowns, she drops her attention to the cube on the table. Both objects are still, as is she, she reminds herself. She is sitting still on her chair not being flung off it by the spinning room. Argatta is talking nonsense, of course she is speaking in English. Aside from ordering a beer in Spanish there little else she can speak. She is speaking English. Isn't she?

"I'm speaking English," Cara says out loud to herself. Her voice sounds less certain. She cups her hand in front of her mouth, "English," she says again looking down into her palm as if she can capture and verify the word she has spoken.

"Yes, fascinating, isn't it?" Argatta's enthusiasm is bubbling out of her.

"So much to discuss and explore. This is exactly why the Assembly have brought me in this time."

"But…. how…can I speak…?" Cara exclaims, the name of the language already forgotten, "Who sent me here? Why would they send me?"

"MUST we go over this again," Vheece cuts in.

"Argatta, this was covered in every cycle during quarantine. Her lack of intent has been agreed. She doesn't know. They never do. Move it along." Cara's head snaps up.

"They?" Vheece ignores her.

"They? Others like me?" she asks Argatta.

"There have been others like you," Argatta confirms.

"Visitors. They didn't seem to know how they got here either."

"Where are they? Can I talk to them?"

"No. They are no longer with us unfortunately."

"They went back?"

"Are you not listening or are you just too basic?" Vheece snaps at Cara, "There is no going back." He turns back to Argatta.

"This meeting is not intended to repeat those pointless circular discussions from quarantine. Argatta if you don't stop encouraging this, I will disconnect you." Argatta's bodiless head twitches irritably.

"The reason I wanted to meet you today is to reassure you that I have devised a Programme to help you settle, and to help us understand more about you and your people in preparation for any further Visitors." Vheece snorts.

"But where are they, the others?" Cara pleads. Argatta inclines her head in a look of disappointment, "They aren't with us. Such a lost opportunity. But now I am here to help ensure that we can make the most of you." Cara crumples back into the chair.

"I don't understand."

"They died," Vheece announces abruptly.

"They died because they were pathetic and weak." His nostrils flare as he delivers the news. Blood rushes in Cara's ears whipped by the panicked thumping of her heart. She abandons fighting the vertigo as her mind scrambles to make sense of her situation and becomes lost in her spinning thoughts.

"I have never cared for your insistence to welcome her first and this ridiculous, pointless session proves my case." Vheece snaps at Argatta, "You aren't adding any value, you're just confusing her and you are wasting my time." Argatta's shoulders shimmer in and out of the cone of light as she turns to Vheece.

"As you know full well it is the Assembly that has supported my pledge to extend Visitor survival so that we may understand more about them and the Assembly that has put their trust in me and my research into the phenomena. It was my team that uncovered the anomalies that allow us to predict their arrival. And the report we have put forward on the remarkable cultural universals is truly groundbreaking. My hypothesis on the transculturation of Visitors to extend their survival rate has the potential to-""Enough!

You're boring me," he waves a dismissive hand at her face.

"Finish your introduction so we can move on." Argatta bristles as she turns back to Cara.

"When you are transferred to me on Feilan we have much work to do. You'll be in excellent hands; it won't be a matter for Trisec this time." Vheece squares his shoulders, pushing his chest out.

"Once the threat assessment has been completed."

"Excuse me?" Argatta's head bobs erratically.

"A new directive Argatta, have you not been keeping up to date with the intelligence reports?" He grins slowly, "Ah yes, that's right, you don't have Green Trisec clearance. After the events on Xiatt there is an additional stipulation to her release from Trisec facilities. An assessment of the threat to Feilan lives."

"But we've already agreed Visitor threats are low to negligible. The agreement was based on your data."

"Yes, but that was before the incident on Xiatt."

"But that was shard related," Argatta blusters.

"The investigation of the shards falls under our joint responsibilities, as laid out in the Programme."

"That was before a new risk was raised. There was a Trisec injury. Trisec cannot allow an unknown hazard to be released into civilian monitoring."

"We agreed joint responsibility. We can rework the institute protocols with regards to the shards," Argatta protests back.

"No," Vheece corrects in a domineering voice.

"Under the new directive I will first complete an assessment of the shard threat, then she will be released into your study."

"You can't shut me out. The Joint Visitor Programme was designed to ensure the next Visitor was not under your sole authority. I will be taking this up with the Joint Subcommittee." She looks distracted, her bodiless head peers down at the empty table under the cone.

"Take it up with whoever you like, they will find the directive has been approved through the correct channels." Vheece sneers.

"I believe we have finished here Argatta. You've met Cara and told her about your Programme. There is no further need for this session. Or should I report to the Assembly that you disagree with Trisec security assessments?"

"We will be discussing this further." Argatta flusters, "In the meantime my representative will remain. That stipulation was the basis of your ongoing presence." Vheece mutters something under his breath as he reaches towards the table. Argatta's image vanishes as he smacks the top of the little black cube. Cara blinks. The spinning room slows but does not stop. She doesn't dare move, fearing doing so will cause her to fall from the chair and slide off the floor.

"Now that that's out of the way, we can get on with more interesting things, yes, Cara?" he says, giving her a toothy smile that makes her stomach clench. He raises his hand, a motion to someone behind her.

"Take her back to Gask."