I like the way he implied Cilreth killed somebody.
“What are the defenses at Halthia?”
“I never been there myself. Just a friend of mine. Said they have themselves some Space Force hydras.”
Hydras... military robots. Damn.
“What else?”
“What else? That ain’t enough? The whole place is wired from top to bottom. Booby trapped, you know? And when somebody crosses these guys—”
“Yeah, I get it. They’re not afraid to frag someone.”
“They’ll do you, you try to go there.”
“How many men there? How many hydras?”
“Who knows, man? At least three hydras. Gotta be a dozen enforcers there.”
Relachik raised his stunner and shot it into Hadrian’s face. Hadrian was out instantly. His head flopped to the side and his tongue lolled out.
“We’re leaving now,” Relachik announced to the others.
“What’s the summary?” Cilreth asked. Relachik marched out into the front and saw her. Dried blood crusted the side of her head. A lot of it.
“What the hell happened?”
“Some femme came out of the bathroom and smacked me with a bottle,” Cilreth said. “I probably lost a lot of neural connections.”
“Where is she?”
“I stunned her. Well, I had to stab her in the hand with a knife first. Look, I can fill you in later.”
“We don’t want to hurt anyone we don’t have to,” Relachik said.
“Preaching to the choir. Summary?”
“Basically they have an opulent complex on Halthia Hyri Three. Paid for with all their ill-gotten gains, no doubt.”
“And?”
“Everything we need is there. Well protected, of course. We’ll have to think through our options. Let’s just get out of here.”
Chapter 12
All the Bel Klaven capital machines were easy to see. They had nothing to hide from. The huge floating fortresses were interstellar vessels turned into military headquarters. They resupplied smaller hunting units under the ground and lent EM support as needed. Dozens of them hugged the planet, evenly spaced, searching, hunting, and guarding for any Gorgalan activity.
The Bel Klaven themselves were soft, round liquid-dwellers who manipulated their environment electrically and chemically as much as with coarser physical tools. Kirizzo wondered what they thought of the Gorgalans now that they had struck back. Did their behavior call for continued competition or would they be satiated, having brought their revenge full course? They must blame all Gorgalans for the war, since so many uninvolved Gorgalans had been killed.
Kirizzo considered the powerful enemy who had obliterated his homeworld. He had uncovered the story of the fall piece by piece. It had taken the Bel Klaven a few weeks to finish a planet that had endured a millennium of Gorgalan internal strife. First their ships had destroyed or scattered the Gorgalan fleets. Then they had rained down bombs, but the Gorgalans lived deep underground. Some thought they had found respite from the assault, but then the Bel Klaven descended to the planet to hunt the Gorgalans in their subterranean home. There hadn’t been time to develop a coherent strategy or to outsmart the Bel Klaven, as Kirizzo had done with the small force that pursued him. The Gorgalans died, though they had used every robot at their disposal to fight back. They simply hadn’t prepared defenses capable of repelling a huge attack from above. Most of their automated defenses were designed to defend their houses against other Gorgalans.
The Bel Klaven who had come personally had taken a small Gorgalan house and turned it into a on-planet headquarters by filling it with liquid and living inside. Few things disturbed Kirizzo more than the idea of his house becoming a liquid-filled tomb. The water levels in that house had dropped considerably; Kirizzo took this as a clue that the Bel Klaven themselves may have left, leaving behind only their war machines.
Kirizzo focused on the vessel nearest his own home. He formed the hypothesis that the capital ship monitored the Gorgalan power and data frequencies to dispatch hunters whenever something became active. Kirizzo decided to test the theory and watch the enemy in action.
His probes linked into the Gorgalan infrastructure. As he’d suspected, his familial domestics had turned most of the system off near the end to try and hide. In particular, the broadcast power grid had been deactivated once most of the systems had been damaged. Whoever had been in control at the time of the attack had decided to turn off the grid to preserve whatever assets they had left. If Kirizzo could reactivate those assets, he could distract the Bel Klaven, learn more about them, and help the Terrans.
He connected to his house from a couple of the probes. His old access keys were intact. He took stock of the damage. It was extensive. His house was a ruin. For a moment, Kirizzo felt rising frustration at the amount of work blocking him. He shook it off and started.
If he ordered machines back online and started repairs, that would likely attract attack, so he needed something to throw away, a non-critical asset to activate and watch. Kirizzo selected a group of drilling machines scattered throughout the house. He found a power storage facility and broadcast the necessary energy. The drilling machines activated. He sent them on random paths through the house. The machines could cut through debris wherever they found it, making them mobile even in the aftermath. Besides, Telisa and Magnus might find the new tunnels useful for making their way through the damaged regions toward the seed.
Not that they should need any more help. The seed itself would likely take care of them. Kirizzo wondered if he had made a mistake by keeping them completely in the dark. He could have suggested they pray as their ancestors had—hinted to them that they might once again find it useful. Such a shame their race had been cheated of the boon they once enjoyed, then struggled to recover for centuries in its absence.
Within four minutes, large hunters descended into the remains of Kirizzo’s house. They in turn dispatched smaller machines, which penetrated the smaller tunnels and moved in on the machines drawing power. Kirizzo monitored what communications he could pick up for later analysis. Then he deactivated all the drilling machines, as the first two were destroyed in the upper levels of the house.
So what was it, exactly, that the Bel Klaven homed in on? The obvious answers were moving mass or electromagnetic emissions. He decided to work with these first.
Ironically, Kirizzo’s house defenses were largely intact. The Bel Klaven had descended from above, not from the other tunnels where Kirizzo’s old enemies had threatened attack. Less than ten percent of his automated forces were deployed to protect from surface incursion. There were famous instances in their history of Gorgalans attacking other houses unexpectedly from the surface, grand tales of daring which resulted in amazing success, but such risky attacks were rare.
Kirizzo still had a lot of assets at his entrance checkpoints deep underground. The Bel Klaven hadn’t had to move through them. Each of the checkpoints included moving-mass systems of great complexity, designed to conceal the defenses and confuse attackers. The systems were also independently powered, because the broadcast power systems could be blocked or tampered with in an assault. Also, it hardened the defenses against sabotage of the broadcast power stations.
Kirizzo was ready for the second test. He picked one and activated it.
The system turned on. Kirizzo wasn’t able to feel it himself, being so far away, nor could his probes report the readings to him, since they were limited to Terran capabilities. Kirizzo calmly noted to himself that any conclusion based on the results could be flawed, since he had only the station’s self-diagnostics to rely upon. In all likelihood the obfuscation masses were in motion; he just had no way to verify it externally.
No reaction. Given the lack of evidence to support the first theory, he decided to move on to the next test. He could always return to this one if other avenues dried up. Besides, it made sense once Kirizzo factored in the fact that the invaders weren’t Gorgalan. Tracking movin
g mass was inherently a Gorgalan-centric method. Neither the Bel Klaven nor the Terrans would employ such a system.
The third test began. Kirizzo started with a flurry of communications to one of the drilling machines. It didn’t move or draw significant power. Its energy storage had already been filled by the first experiment. He simply exchanged an artificially high amount of information for a short time. He waited.
This time, the Bel Klaven reacted. A smaller hunter shot from a nearby patrol machine. It closed unerringly upon the drilling device. The hunter examined the driller carefully, then started to search in an expanding spiral pattern.
Kirizzo wondered why it didn’t destroy the machine. Perhaps the weapons of the enemy were limited?
The evidence so far suggested that the Bel Klaven monitored Gorgalan frequencies for communication and broadcast power. The theory could be flawed. Kirizzo’s experiments may have resulted in a higher state of vigilance for the last experiment. Some of his readings could have been in error, especially given the extensive damage to his house systems, and the primitive abilities of the probes he’d constructed.
Kirizzo decided to work for the moment as if the theory was correct. What leverage did it offer? He knew the Bel Klaven weren’t flexible, at least not their fighting machines. Kirizzo doubted any Bel Klaven remained to oversee the machines now that the campaign had mostly been completed. The machines were just left here to make sure no Gorgalans survived. Or that none who fled could ever come back.
He had at least one important piece of the puzzle, which might help him learn to hide things from the Bel Klaven. His house wasn’t what it used to be. His abilities to block and alter EM transmissions at a distance were mostly destroyed. Besides, if the Bel Klaven warships were as sophisticated as his own machines, they could track the tampering to the sources and destroy his remaining assets.
Another possible use presented itself: distraction. The signals could be faked more easily than real ones could be hidden. Which meant he might be able to distract the Bel Klaven machines when Telisa and Magnus were ready to bring the industrial seed to the surface. Or perhaps the distraction would best be saved for when the Iridar was ready to leave? Shiny himself would be at risk at that time. Yet if his new allies were killed, he would have to figure out how to sneak in himself.
Kirizzo hadn’t been planning on contacting Telisa and Magnus, but this information was too valuable to sit on. They would have to be informed. Kirizzo set about planning how to pull it off without being found.
Chapter 13
Telisa had pocketed several of the dead spheres when she noticed that a school of the floating devices had broken away from the room to follow her.
“Hello?” she said, glancing at them. “Are you following me?”
The orbs simply coruscated in different colors and floated lazily around as a loose unit.
Telisa took the dead orbs out of her pocket and laid them back on the floor. Then she moved to the side. The school of coruscating devices followed her.
“You really are following me,” Telisa said, gathering her prizes back up.
“Who are you talking to?” Magnus asked.
“That school of things is following me. They’re the only ones that changed behavior.”
“They may be confused. Or broken.”
“But when I move away, they follow me, always on that side. And there’s a way out in that direction.”
“It’s different from Shiny’s route,” he said. “Scout already moved off in the other direction.”
“What do they want? Do you think...could those tiny things be smart?” she asked.
“I don’t know. They could be smart, or they could be controlled by someone who’s smart. I say we trust Shiny’s route over some unknown.”
“Yes, okay, but Scout is having trouble.”
Magnus didn’t answer immediately but it was clear he saw what she saw in Scout’s feed. A cave-in had blocked the way forward. The robot moved about, looking for some tube or crevice that would allow it to continue, but the way was thoroughly blocked.
“Mysterious floating spheres it is,” Magnus said. “I hope they don’t attract destroyers. I hope they aren’t controlled by destroyers, either.”
Magnus recalled Scout. They took a few lazy steps toward the exit indicated by the floating devices.
“Could be Shiny controlling them,” Telisa said.
“That makes sense.”
Scout moved on by the scene and scurried out to see what lay beyond.
The school of glowing spheres drifted in lazy circles out in the wide open space of the ‘dance club.’ As Telisa watched, one of them went dark and dropped to its death.
“Oh, no. We’d better hurry after them. They’re running out of energy.”
“Okay. Scout is far enough ahead we could risk it.”
They walked through a natural-looking cavern with a sand floor.
“This must be the equivalent of putting plants and birds into a building. They could have made the corridor any shape they wanted, but they preferred a natural look.”
“I bet the sand isn’t exactly like their primitive caves. It carries refuse away and moves things around. At least it did while this place was working.”
“Yes. Very high-tech sand.”
The cavern widened into a large chamber. A huge circular pit dominated the center of the floor. The colorful lit spheres moved over the opening.
“Do they really think we’re that dumb? They want us to walk out to our death?”
“We have to head down here,” Telisa summarized.
“Are you sure?”
“Our target is over a kilometer below our current depth. We might as well head down here.”
Scout went first. It anchored itself to a smooth metal rim at the edge of the pit and dropped into the darkness. The spheres remained near Telisa.
“That’s a mild problem. We don’t know where to send Scout, because the spheres stay here with you,” Magnus said.
“I think I can guess at the route, given Shiny’s original. Or maybe not. This map is crazy complicated.”
“Okay. When Scout gets to the bottom, if it’s safe, we can join it and watch the spheres or whatever.”
“We’re not getting to the bottom of that shaft. Nowhere close. It goes down for kilometers. We’re just going to drop down four or five levels here, I think.”
“If our links are disabled—”
“Then we’ll get lost and die down here,” she finished for him.
“We might find our way to the surface at least.”
“We could from here. Not for much longer, I think. Not without more food than we have here.”
“We could follow the probe.”
“It follows us.”
“Okay. Enough grim talk. Scout is down one level. Should he check it out?”
“Just for a minute. Just to make sure something’s not sitting there waiting to eat us.”
Scout sent them images from the level below. Telisa saw an environment similar to their current surroundings: natural caverns with sandy floors. She tried to keep an eye on the feed as she removed climbing gear from her pack. I think I’m getting better at watching everything simultaneously.
Telisa attached her smart rope and put her back to the pit. She let the rope twist its way through her equipment rings at the belt of the Veer skinsuit, then dropped over the edge. She descended smoothly, controlling the rope’s friction through her link. As she reached the first level, she pushed away from the inside of the tunnel just a bit, allowing her to swing into the entrance and land on the lip.
Her light searched the side passage. She saw only sand and a gaping hole that led to another layer of the house. Everything was eerily quiet. Between the lack of link services, the darkness, and the almost total loneliness, there were only the sounds of Magnus’s descent to interrupt the silence with a few soft foot impacts as he dropped.
You think it’s creepy too, Magnus said over his link as he
dropped beside her.
As creepy as the Tomb of the Third Entity, she said.
They make that creepy on purpose. This is the real deal.
Telisa suppressed her discomfort and concentrated on the descent. They repeated the procedure, sending Scout ahead time and time again, then following on their smart ropes when the coast was clear. Once Magnus reported another scurrying “critter” in Scout’s visual feed, but nothing threatened them directly.
They reached a level that looked special on Shiny’s directions, where they had to jink over a ways before continuing the descent. Scout moved ahead to check things out while Telisa and Magnus put their climbing gear away and shared a snack. The floating spheres still led them, though another had dropped dead.
“I would go crazy down here by myself,” Telisa said. “When I imagined Shiny’s homeworld, I didn’t think it would be so...quiet and empty.”
“Everything’s dead and gone. At least the spheres’ colors brighten it up a bit.”
“Scout sees something,” she said.
Scout’s lights illuminated a machine. It was the size of a big truck. The design confused her. It sat on something akin to treads, though the treads weren’t segmented, merely one smooth piece of material. There were also treads on the sides and the top of the thing. Then as Scout walked around it, she saw the front and it became clear: the front was a giant, multifaceted drill.
The huge drilling machine dominated the room. Tunnels of the exact size of the machine joined the room ahead and behind.
“Amazing. This is their equivalent of a road-paving machine back on Earth,” Telisa said.
“Let’s go check it out. Maybe we could drive it?”
“Probably automated,” she said, but they both moved to join Scout. They walked to the end of a tunnel and slipped down a one-meter drop to another level. Telisa found the drilling machine in her light. It stood over them, at least four meters tall.
Suddenly the machine hummed to life. Running lights came on across its surface. The entire tunnel lit up. Telisa and Magnus stepped back from the machine.
The Trilisk AI (Parker Interstellar Travels #2) Page 11