The Intellect

Chapter 5

Year 354

"Renna?"

"What?"

I draw a connecting line on the wall-pad that covers one entire wall of the workroom we're using on the Analyst floor.

"I found another dialect," Orrick announces.

I groan and lean my forehead against the screen. Not again. We have been tasked with analyzing Underlang, the language of the Underlings. The Underlings, outcasts of the Civilization, live in the bowels of the Civilization Center in dirt tunnels we haven't even charted. The Underlings have lived underneath us for as long as anyone cares to remember, but we really don't know much about this secret community. The Civilizers like to pretend they don't exist, but they remain and grow as they have for decades.

I know the Underlings have grown because their language has expanded into fifteen, now sixteen, different dialects; though Underlang has some characteristics of Ameratic, it's grown into its own distinct language because they've had so little contact with the Civilization for at least a century.

"What are the differences? Phonological? Syntactic?" I ask Orrick, trying to discern where the dialects diverge.

"Both. Here," Orrick says, showing me a chart demonstrating all the differences between this new dialect he's discovered and its nearest relative.

"Yep, that's a new dialect alright."

I sigh and grind my fist against my temple. Orrick and I have been commissioned with developing a software that can transcribe and translate recordings of spoken Underlang. My more rebellious side questions how they obtained recordings of Underlings speaking and why they want them translated, but I know better than to speak my mind any more. But even though I stay quiet, I still have questions, I just find my own answers--or try to.

"Why the shell are they making us do this?" I exclaim, tossing the wall-pad pen onto the floor and collapsing into a rolling chair nearby.

"Ren, why don't we take a break?" Orrick asks. "I know what today is."

4th Quarter, day 85. The day Ryke and I were released from our imprisonment. The date will always be imprinted in my memory. It's been two years since I was interrogated and tortured for Jayse's betrayal, but I still haven't forgotten the punishment I received for his crime. Electricity. Water. Electricity. Water. The psychological torture hasn't faded away despite two years passing. The Civilization betrayed me, and that interrogation marked a divergence in my identity. I'm no longer the civilian I used to be.

"Orr, you remembered?"

"Nah, Elz reminded me," Orrick says with a laugh.

I shouldn't be surprised. Elz sent me a message on my telemessenger this morning. All it said was, "Two years. Stay strong." I know she couldn't stay anything else thanks to Civilization surveillance, but that was enough. Stay strong. If anything, I'm stronger than I ever was. Jayse leaving has inspired me to question everything I see and hear, and although I still haven't figured out what Jayse did or why he decided to leave, I haven't given up. I know Jayse wouldn't have left the Civilization without a reason, so I need to find out why.

"Do you miss him?" Orrick asks, knowing what I'm thinking about.

"Not for a minute."

Jayse and I may have been matched, but it was obviously nothing more than a pairing of convenience. We got along well enough, but he never trusted me, only Ryke. And even though two years have passed, I still don't know what Ryke is hiding. Two years, and I've made almost no progress except by stepping out of Jayse's shadow and making a name for myself as an Intellect.