Focus – Xindi

Xindi fascinate me.

A focus (unlike a spotlight) is an in-depth look at a Star Trek fanfiction canon item and my twist(s) on it.

In this post, the focus will be on the canon species (or, rather, set of species) from the Enterprise series, called the Xindi.

This species was introduced during the third season of ENT as being the villain species. There were brief sightings in the fourth season, but that’s it. They were new for ENT so of course they weren’t in the earlier series and films, but they didn’t make it into the 2009 film, either.

Canon

In canon, there are five separate species, with a sixth that had gone extinct. The humanoid and sloth (also known as arboreals) were generally the easiest to relate to. The aquatics were interesting and ultimately they were sympathetic. The insectoids were scary but did have some redeeming qualities. The reptilians were nasty but it was eventually just on one person. As a set of species, they were eventually had a rather neat redemption.

Aquatics

I mention this species very briefly, during the course of Concord.

Xindi Aquatic

There is a Xindi Aquatic, working with Section 31, who tells Makan Sinthasomphone and Monisha Padir that there is a corpse on the Genesis planet. But that person only shows up briefly and I didn’t give them a name.

Avians

This species is extinct in canon

Skull of a Xindi Avian

and I don’t mess with that. However, it’s entirely possible that I will eventually write a time travel story where  they are extant.

Humanoids/Primates

Probably the most fully-realized Xindi Humanoids I write are Dayah,

Xindi Primate (Degra)

from Together, and Rellie, from Temper. Perhaps just as oddly is the fact that I have written more fully realized female characters for this species, whereas the best-known canon characters are male.

Dayah is an older woman, who steps up during the confinement in Together. Rellie is a Mirror Universe native and works, in the first alternate timeline, as the manager of the Empress‘s mess.

Insectoids

The most fully-realized characters I have written so far are

Xindi Insectoid

She Who Almost Didn’t Breed In Time, The One Who Fires A Weapon Very Fast and She Who Listens Well.

She Who Almost Didn’t Breed In Time (a wry observation about Lili) is killed by Lili when the NX-01 is boarded. The One Who Fires a Weapon Very Fast is stuck in a lift with Keith Paris in Alien Encounter. She Who Listens Well is a bartender in the nascent Barnstorming series.

Reptilians

My most fully-realized Reptilian

Xindi Reptilian (Dolim)

characters are the chatty teenaged girl Tr’Dorna and the hybrid troubled teenaged boy (he’s also part-human), D’Storlin. Plus there is an unnamed younger male in Achieving Peace, who works in Communications.

I suppose I like my Reptilians as adolescents.

Sloth/Arboreals

I get my best inspiration from this subspecies.

Xindi Arboreal (Jannar)

My first sloth character was Aranda Chara, in The Puzzle, A Tale Told in Pieces. She is a very young child, but the reader still learns that her name contains a matronymic. Furthermore, she has an ill brother and her parents aren’t getting along well. Her mother, the diplomat, Chara Sika, shows up in Achieving Peace.

But the most detailed character is the hybrid (he’s also part-Klingon and part-human), Dr. Boris Yarin. His Russian background also dovetails with the previously mentioned traditional matronymic.

Mirror Universe

As Doug explains in Reversal, the Empress committed genocide on the Xindi, so there are few left of any species. Therefore, the abovementioned Rellie is fortunate indeed to have the position that she does. In Temper, Lili witnesses the death of a Xindi sloth when that woman is examined with a radiation band tester and the examiners find she is from our universe, a condition punishable by instant execution.

Upshot

It went beyond the novelty value of several different kinds of sentient and civilized species from one planet. Hence the idea of bringing these species into time periods they were never originally in, well, that idea proved irresistible. I do hope they are in the next film, as I would hate for this concept to cease. I hope to do a little justice, and continue to keep it alive.