Illuminance

The digging call reverberated throughout the network of tunnels. Kitsi filled his lamp with the pieces of illuminance he had placed next to his resting pad and a dull red light emanated from it. It felt warm and comforting as he briefly held it against him. He carefully crawled out of the hole leading from his living quarters. Further into the tunnel, he saw the dim glow of the other lamps as they emerged from their holes. He skittered over to meet them as they began funneling to the assignment room. They flowed like a river of red down the tunnel to a large cavern where they all congregated.

The sound of small chirps filled the vast space as more and more of them gathered, awaiting their dig assignments. The hum of the room and the eagerness of the others made Kitsi feel more alert and active. He joined in a conversation with a couple of others discussing the likelihood of discovering an illuminance mine beneath their dig sites. Kitsi didn’t think it was possible. Finally, a vibration that almost seemed to originate from the very center of Kitsi’s mind denoted where he would be digging. All of them received their assignments this way, and instantly the lights of the lamps dispersed down different tunnels, and the cavern was left dark and hollow again. Kitsi raced down to his dig site, and he soon arrived at a long and narrow passage. He slipped into it and allowed gravity to pull him into its depths. He landed at the bottom with the slightest sound and continued down another passage that gradually opened to the mine. A couple of the others had already started digging and Kitsi promptly joined them.

Something about the feel of rock falling away under his appendages was soothing to him. His lamp tapped gently at his side as he dug deeper and deeper into the rock. From the day he gained consciousness, digging was all he could remember. That was all any of them could remember. His predecessors had created a labyrinth of tunnels spanning an unfathomable amount of surface area. He and his cohort had discovered new mining sites, adding to the expanse of tunnels, but their main objective was to search for the precious metal that was used for manufacturing illuminance. Suddenly, his claw struck something that didn’t crumble away like the rest of the rock. He tapped it gently and it rang with a sweet metallic tone. The sound and feel of it imbued Kitsi with a fervor that he only experienced when uncovering metal. He vibrated with excitement alerting the others around him and they began digging in his area. They unearthed a huge piece of metal, probably the biggest one Kitsi had ever beheld. He knew they would receive extra illuminance for this.

Kitsi hoisted the hunk of metal onto his back and one of the others helped him secure it. They collectively hurried down one of the shafts and maneuvered their way through the maze of tunnels leading to the Machine, which was located at the heart of the colony. Eventually, they came out of a chute that landed them on a precipice overlooking an expansive room. This room was different from all the others in the colony. The walls had been carved and there were designs engraved into the floor and walls. Kitsi didn’t understand carving into rock if it wasn’t to find metal or make tunnels.

The Machine stood imposingly at the center of the room, and its sleek form clashed with its rugged surroundings. Kitsi and the others followed a path hewn into the rock that wound its way down the wall to the floor of the room. They approached the Machine with reverence and expectation. Kitsi fed it the hunk of metal and he felt a low rumble. The others placed some smaller pieces of metal into it and the rumbling continued. They stepped back into a line and started swaying rhythmically with the pulsing hum of the Machine. A steady glow began to radiate from it, and they began to thrum with anticipation. With a twang, several pieces of illuminance were issued from one of the compartments. They dashed forward to retrieve their share and then withdrew. The others chirped appreciatively at Kitsi and then departed to their quarters.

Kitsi remained in the presence of the Machine, now silent and dim. He wondered how it made the exquisite illuminance from metal, and why it needed that specific metal. The Machine was a relic from a bygone era, perhaps made by the light-dwellers themselves. How it ended up down here was unbeknownst to Kitsi, but it was pivotal to the lives of everyone who resided in the tunnels. Their very existence revolved around the Machine and the illuminance it provided. Some had wondered what would happen if the Machine stopped producing illuminance. Kitsi didn’t like thinking about such unpleasant things, but he couldn’t deny that the thought had crossed his mind once or twice. There were a few who considered exploring the area above their tunnels, the high regions, for stray pieces of illuminance but were quickly dismissed by the rest. Kitsi had heard stories of others before him who were more adventurous and curious about the high regions and had turned their excavations upwards. However, they froze mid-dig- even their tough hides and illuminance lamps weren’t enough to withstand the unimaginable cold of the high regions.

In an age beyond Kitsi’s concept of time, the light-dwellers purportedly lived in the high regions, where it was filled with endless light and warmth. A massive ball of light, the Great Illuminance, had loomed on the border between the ground and the ceiling, casting its radiance onto all that lived there. Some of the others imagined it as billions of illuminances put into one but with a different timbre. Relating it to what they knew, they described it as having a higher frequency than the illuminance, although they had never experienced it for themselves. The stories portrayed the light-dwellers as a sophisticated race with Machines that could do more than just turn metal into illuminance. However, what became of them and their Machines was lost to time. Most believed their ancestors were the light-dwellers who delved into the lower regions when they lost the Great Illuminance and couldn’t remain above. Then there were a few who believed them to be nothing more than a myth. Kitsi didn’t believe they were a myth though.

After a long while, Kitsi departed for his quarters, his pieces of illuminance clutched tightly at his side. He climbed into his hole and took the pieces of illuminance out of his lamp. He settled onto his resting pad and held each of the pieces in one of his appendages. Their combined warmth delighted him, and he trilled softly. Slowly, he brought them together, trying to create one large illuminance. Looking at them all at once was almost painful. He imagined a ball of light, made of billions of pieces of illuminance. He separated one of the pieces from the others and brought it to his mouth. He swallowed it whole and felt it absorb into him, the warmth spreading slowly throughout his entire body. Just as he had every time he consumed a piece of illuminance, he thought he could glimpse an image of an immense, seemingly infinite red ceiling high above him and at its very edge an impossibly bright sphere of light that touched a landscape of luminescent shapes. Then as the internal warmth faded, it was gone.