The Celaran Probe (Parker Interstellar Travels Book 7)

by Michael McCloskey

  Telisa smiled. “We’re in agreement. I think he may have missed a nuance there, given us too much credit. But Shiny does what Shiny does.”

  “What’s the deal with him? He’s running this game, really, isn’t he?”

  “For now,” Telisa said in a voice loaded with meaning. “He’s doing a good job, it seems.”

  “I don’t know how to probe that subject further,” Marcant said privately to Achaius and Adair.

  “Neither do I,” Adair said. “What about the rest of the team?”

  “Where are the others?” Marcant asked Telisa.

  “What others?” Telisa asked.

  Marcant cleared his throat. “Parker, Haist, Arakaki, Kirilenko... Captain Relachik?”

  “Dead,” Telisa said forcefully in a flat voice.

  Marcant watched her. She did not seem angry at him for asking.

  “Is she going to offer details?” Adair asked Marcant on the private channel with Achaius.

  Telisa decided to continue. “Killed by aliens. Shiny got some of them, and others fell fighting Trilisks. Did Cilreth make clear that being on our team carries such risks?”

  “Downplayed it a bit,” Marcant said.

  “Well we haven’t left Earth yet,” Telisa said, stating the obvious. She piped through an external feed. The dark, curved wall before them flickered to life. It showed a view of Earth from space. The glowing blue orb was huge in the room, as wide as two of the lounges. Marcant stared at it. He had seen such scenes many times before. The difference was, this time, it was real, and he contemplated leaving that huge blue ball.

  “You have a couple of hours to change your mind. After that, I want you all in. We’ll start your training. We won’t put you into a real situation you can’t handle, if we can help it. Of course, unexpected things happen on the frontier, or beyond it, so you have to consider the risk.”

  “Another question?”

  “Yes, ask more.”

  “Why do you do it?”

  “I started out to satisfy my own curiosity about the universe,” she said. Telisa looked off-retina, but Marcant supposed perhaps she was simply thinking this time. “Now, I see more than that. We have a duty to our race. Terrans won’t be just digging around in alien ruins for much longer. There are aliens we need to make friends with, and aliens we need to prepare to fight against. We have to learn as much as we can.”

  “Who gets to keep the artifacts?”

  “Shiny will want the biggest and best. For the most part, he only needs one example of anything though. He has ways of making more. Otherwise, I lean toward letting you keep things. I suppose I would ask for something you found if the whole team could benefit greatly for sharing it.”

  Marcant nodded. “I understand. I’m mostly in it for what I can learn, anyway.”

  Telisa stood. “You’ll be able to learn a lot. We have no shortage of mysteries and alien systems to analyze. Send me any other questions you have. I’m going to make my last preparations.”

  “Thank you... do you have a title if I join?”

  “No. It’s just Telisa, whether you join us or not.” She walked out. Marcant stared at the huge display. He took Adair and Achaius out to stare at them. The silver spheres had a slight blue and red tint, respectively. They each held a mind as powerful as his own, wholly dedicated to his success. They were his family.

  “This is too dangerous,” Adair said. “I can’t protect you out there.”

  “The rewards are huge,” Achaius said. “We’ve learned more about Vovokan technology in the last day than we learned in years previously.”

  “I can grub around, spending months planning attempts to get into Shiny’s networks just to fail over and over, or I can join this team. This is the way forward. At least for now, we need to do this,” Marcant said.

  “For healthy self interest,” Achaius said.

  “That part about keeping Earth safe was compelling,” Adair said, sounding a bit miffed.

  Marcant had already mostly made up his mind; he would not pull out now. Unlike most people, he had no trouble with big decisions. The challenge was making the best of the decisions that had been made.

  “So, about the robotic bodies,” Marcant said.

  “Yes? You have something in mind?”

  “How about those attendants, for starters,” Marcant said. “Cilreth has learned a lot about them. You could each have more than one.”

  “Today the tiny spheres... tomorrow, those big ones in the bay,” Achaius said.

  “For once, we are agreed, Achaius,” Adair said.

  Chapter 26

  Magnus stood next to Telisa in the cargo bay. Cilreth sat on a cargo container across from them, and Imanol paced on his right. Magnus asked for news in bits and pieces, trying to let himself absorb everything slowly.

  “The Space Force ship Midway is going out with us on this one, as well as one of Shiny’s battleships,” Cilreth said.

  Magnus shook his head. It was so much to take in.

  “Give it time, you’ll be up and running with us just like before,” Cilreth said to him.

  Imanol smiled. “She’s right. But don’t listen to Twitch Queen if she says you need a little boost to get through it.”

  Magnus stared at Imanol blankly.

  “He likes to make pet names for us and pretend he’s a grumpy old man,” Cilreth said. “Which is dumb, because I’ve already got grumpy old woman down cold.”

  “What’s his name for me?” Magnus asked Cilreth on the private channel.

  “It varies. Last I heard, he called you ‘The Machine’,” Cilreth said. “He calls Telisa ‘Trilisk Special Forces’. I think he gives the good names to everyone he’s afraid of pissing off.”

  Magnus smiled. It felt good to smile.

  These people are tight. Like family. Imanol is older and wiser than the others. I guess he’s joined the old timers’ council.

  Magnus no longer felt like part of the family. Worse, he had identified an irrational sense of resentment in himself. Telisa had gone on with her life without him. He had been left behind, and now everything had changed.

  Blame Shiny. It’s not her fault!

  Magnus hated it when his emotions refused to toe the line of intellect. He took a deep breath and resolved to give it time as Cilreth had suggested.

  “Siobhan made some advancements on your robot designs,” Telisa said. “Just tweaks here and there. She’s a good engineer, and not half bad at hacking either.”

  “So we use a lot of attendants too? How many robots?”

  “Yes we have a lot of attendants, and those are our primary scouts. As for your robots, that’s up to you and Siobhan. Make lots, is my feeling,” Telisa said.

  “Make the soldier ones, please,” Imanol said. “And the carrier mules. The attendants should always work best for scouting.”

  Magnus nodded. “Soldiers and carriers. Will do.”

  “We can’t pray them up anymore,” Telisa said.

  “That’s okay. I look forward to it, the old fashioned way.”

  No one said anything for a moment, so Magnus decided to learn about the new guy.

  “So Marcant is some kind of genius? He can figure out alien artifacts?”

  “He’s not one of us,” Imanol said. “He doesn’t act like it. He’s self absorbed.”

  “Fast conclusions! He’s been on the team for what, a day now?” Telisa asked.

  “He’s smart and he has smart AIs. His hacker approach is exactly what’s needed. Remember, I’m supposed to be a people finder,” Cilreth said.

  “He’s curious. That’ll hook him once he gets a taste,” Telisa said. Magnus nodded. If Marcant had the bug like Telisa did, it would happen just like she said. She caught his eye and smiled.

  “We’re going to sleep,” Telisa announced. It sounded like a proclamation. Magnus saw Imanol smile. Magnus half expected a crack about their early turn in, but Imanol said nothing.

  Telisa and Magnus left and walked to her quarters.
She lived in a large stateroom, at least 12 meters on a side. The large space held no decorations. To Magnus it felt almost sad. He saw a collection of weapons hanging on the wall next to three Veer suits. Some of them had holes and bloodstains. Deactivated attendants sat on the floor in every nook. A large sleep net had been deployed across a corner.

  Telisa towed Magnus to her sleep net eagerly. She smiled and flung herself across him. Magnus responded to her, yet something was wrong. He tried to aggressively pursue their physical reunion, ignoring some ache in his psyche. Telisa broke away.

  “What’s wrong?” she said.

  “I’m a little weirded out,” he said stiffly. “Everything will be fine once I’ve found my new place, and familiarized myself with everyone again. I need to make up for lost time.”

  “Your new place? Magnus. I worked hard to get you back. Your place here isn’t new. It’s the same as it was when Shiny took you. And I haven’t been close to anyone else since you were taken from me.”

  “I believe you. I just need to catch up.”

  “That’s what we’re doing now,” Telisa said, and kissed him again, more slowly. “Relax. In a week it’ll feel like you were here all along, I promise.”

  Magnus kissed her back and forgot about his worries.

  ***

  “You’re different.”

  Magnus said it gently. They had been in her room sleeping on and off for about six hours.

  “I was afraid you’d say that,” she said.

  “It’s not bad. You have less heart, and your eyes are harder now. You’ve done an amazing job leading the team. The changes are inevitable. You make decisions, take the consequences onto your shoulders... it changes a person.”

  Telisa slid an arm behind his neck and squeezed. Magnus felt the immense strength in her slender arm. He laughed.

  “Yes, and your body’s harder, too.”

  “Trilisk Special Forces. That’s what Imanol called it.”

  Magnus smiled. He felt a spike of jealousy but did not let it show.

  I should have been here too. Damn you Shiny.

  “I’m proud of you. And so glad to be back.”

  “You’ll always be my teacher. My life teacher,” Telisa said. “Shiny gave me the job but I need your help.”

  “You have it, not that you need it.”

  “Let’s roll!”

  Magnus laughed. They dove out of the sleeping web onto the floor. The surface was firm but not hard. Just about right for some Jiu Jitsu.

  A long arm extended from the wall and dropped off a thick top and a pair of rugged pants for Telisa. She slipped into them. Magnus looked around and decided he did not have anything to wear except his Veer suit.

  “It’s okay,” Telisa said. “It’s either that, or some paper clothes.” She laughed. He joined her.

  “I’ll never wear any of that Core World disposable crap.”

  “I know,” she said.

  When he was in his suit, they grasped onto each other, looking for a leverage advantage. They alternately pushed and pulled, trying to out-time the other. Magnus pushed a bit harder, testing her strength again. She matched him.

  Her resistance reversed in an instant. Magnus fell forward despite being ready for her move. Telisa’s leg extended, pulling him the rest of the way forward with inexorable force. Then she used her right arm, hooked under his left, to flip him. He slid forward onto his back while she placed her weight squarely above him.

  She twirled to a new mount and went for his arm, holding it in her hands and sweeping a leg around until she had the arm isolated. Magnus turned, pulling his elbow back through the danger zone. He tried to take advantage of the failed armbar and pass her guard around the back, but she moved too quickly. He found her shin before his chest, blocking him, then in a lightning motion it had slipped over his arm and wrapped around his neck. Her other leg locked it under his right arm. He braced his right hand against his head and grabbed his own collar, but Telisa’s arm ripped it away. The pressure increased until he tapped her side with his left arm.

  “Good one. You’re better!” he said.

  “I wish I could say it was all skill,” she said. “I’ve been training, but obviously it’s my new body, too.”

  Magnus smiled.

  “It’s good for me. I was getting by with you on strength now and then, being lazy. Now that you’re stronger, I’ll be forced to perfect my technique.”

  She smiled. “Your techniques are already perfect,” she said, glancing back at the sleep web.

  “You miss me? To me it seems like it was just yesterday that we—” he shrugged.

  “See, maybe you had it the easiest of the two of us,” Telisa said.

  “So Caden and Siobhan are a thing.”

  “Oh, you noticed that?” Telisa said coyly. “Go ahead... say something about that.”

  Magnus knew what she meant. How could he express any concern about Caden and Siobhan’s arrangement when it was exactly that Magnus and Telisa were doing?

  “Again?” he asked.

  “The web or the roll?”

  “Yes.”

  “You got it.”

  ***

  Magnus faced Marcant on an empty plain of gently waving grass. They circled each other two meters apart, each holding a thin, light sword. They wore modern Veer armor which clashed with the primitive weaponry.

  “Swords? I’m surprised,” Marcant said, raising his light weapon and keeping it between them as they moved. The point of his double-edged sword remained aimed at Magnus’s face.

  “You said you fence. I know these aren’t quite rapiers, but...”

  “Ah, yes, I participate in the occasional virtual fantasy battle,” Marcant said. He thrust at Magnus, who deflected the thrust and riposted. Marcant stopped and resumed his circle. Then he tested Magnus again, this time thrusting several times as Magnus replied. Magnus’s weapon moved a bit more out of line than Marcant’s. Magnus took a step back.

  Marcant changed his sword’s position and thrust low. Magnus moved away, then batted aside the second thrust and counter-attacked. Marcant started to move straight back, then suddenly circled instead. Magnus reacted smoothly.

  Marcant smiled. His breath now came in rapid gasps, but he pressed again. This time he kept thrusting and countering in a long sequence until Magnus’s weapon came too far off line. Finally a thrust made it through, striking Magnus in the collar of his Veer suit, directly into the front of his throat.

  “Aha!” Marcant said. “I got you!”

  “Good job,” Magnus said calmly. Unlike Marcant, he was not breathing hard; the virtual environment took their actual physiques into account.

  Marcant smiled. “This is most unexpected! I know this is only swordplay, not modern weapons, but at least I have one specialty that...” he trailed off. Magnus just stared at him.

  “That’s not your dominant hand, is it?” Marcant asked.

  Magnus shook his head.

  “Of course not,” Marcant said, deflated. “What shall we do now?”

  “Now I’ll take you through a series of modern weapons training,” Magnus said. “Just the basics so that you wouldn’t hurt yourself in real life if you were to pick one up. Then you start training with the team.”

  “Really? So soon? Won’t they... will I slow them down?”

  “Most likely. But you will in real life, too, so they should do virtual training with you so they’re used to picking up your slack. You should also take something to increase your lung capacity and integrate some incarnate physical training.”

  “You’re not happy about this, are you?” Marcant asked.

  Magnus raised a hand as if apologizing for a bad tennis serve.

  “I’m fine with it. All I want is for you to apply that formidable intelligence of yours to the combat studies. Learn and improve. I understand this is not your strong point; combat skill is not why Cilreth and Telisa have added you to the team.”

  Marcant nodded. The sword in his hand becam
e a laser rifle.

  “Here we go,” Magnus said.

  ***

  Two days later, Magnus observed Marcant’s first virtual outing with the rest of the team. Magnus stood in an empty room, doing a light workout as he watched in his PV. The team walked on an alien planet, looking for an artifact.

  “I don’t think this deployment is optimum,” Marcant said. “Our heavy hitters are on point with us trailing behind. Instead, when the attendants find a threat, then Magnus, Caden, and Telisa should deploy against it once we know what and where it is, with the rest of us to protect their flanks, or even flank the enemy.”

  “They’re on point because they have the most experience,” Imanol said.

  “Maybe they have the most experience because they’re always on point,” Marcant said to Imanol.

  “In training, we usually all rotate,” Imanol said. “They have the most real world experience. Right now, we’re doing this to get you used to what will likely happen in the real world, sometime soon.”

  “Imanol’s right,” Siobhan said.

  “Let me demonstrate it to you,” Marcant said. “Caden, you fall back to the middle—”

  “Not this time. When you’re the designated leader show us what you have. Until then, obey your orders,” Jason said.

  “How’s he doing?” Telisa said aloud. Magnus brought his focus back on-retina and turned to regard her. He had not heard her enter.

  “Having trouble integrating. He wants a leadership role before he’s established himself.”

  “I’ll have a talk with him,” she said.

  “For all I know, he may well have good input to provide,” Magnus said, hedging a bit. “But he needs to be sensitive about when his ideas will be accepted by the others.”

  “Got it.”

  Telisa stayed with Magnus to watch the outcome. The team managed to obtain the target artifact and return without losing anyone. Marcant seemed to have decided to stop trying to interact and just get the mission over with.