The Trilisk AI (Parker Interstellar Travels #2)

by Michael McCloskey

  Oh, that’s what he was doing.

  The world went black.

  “Was that what I think it was?”

  “You bought the farm. Smart grenade. Look, you took a risk by running through that fight. You might make it, you might not. This time you didn’t. Remember, you don’t have to be detected to get killed in combat.”

  “Whatever happened to super-accurate smart weapons?”

  “It was super-accurate, and aimed at that industrial robot’s power spine. You also happened to be super-stealthy, and super-in-the-way.”

  Cilreth swore. I wanted to do better than that the very first time.

  “Okay, let’s run it again.”

  Chapter 15

  Magnus awakened with Telisa curled beside him. He checked the feed from Scout. The situation appeared to be good. He accessed Shiny’s probe and saw that none of the destroyers wandered nearby.

  They gathered their things. Their sleep had been light and brief. Scout kept patrolling around them.

  “Thank the Entities for that thing. How could I sleep with those alien monst...creatures around if it weren’t for Scout?” Telisa said.

  “Good. Look, just change your perspective. We’re hunting for those things. Not the other way around. We’re deadlier than they are.”

  Telisa took a deep breath. “True enough, I suppose.”

  “Of course. We do have a growing problem, though. Scout needs power. If only—”

  “I know, I know, if only you could have incorporated the Vovokan walker’s power source, it would have plenty of power left.”

  Magnus smiled. “I have harped on that a bit, haven’t I?”

  “I know most things seem dead around here, but maybe there are some storage cells that we could tap for power. Do you have what you need to charge Scout from various other voltages?”

  “No. However, Scout, being designed to wander about on alien planets, has a wide range of acceptable inputs for charging.”

  “Aha.”

  “Yes.”

  “Well, what about that artifact Scout is looking at now?”

  Magnus paused.

  “Not sure,” he said. Magnus saw Scout had found some piece of equipment that stood out. It was roughly square, taller than Scout but perhaps no taller than Magnus. It emitted greenish light from a panel on the front. Thick ropes or wires hung from both of its flat sides.

  “He’s this way,” Magnus said, checking his rifle and heading out. They walked through the sandy tunnel where they’d taken a nap. It was a cul-de-sac, the result of a cave-in. Telisa grabbed her pack and followed.

  They found Scout two caverns over, waiting near the device. Magnus looked over the machine in person. It looked new. Everything else had been covered in sand.

  He took out a heat charger he’d brought for Scout. He’d hoped they might be able to find a source of heat that could be used to provide energy. It had a multimeter on its side which he used to check the leads.

  Magnus hesitated. How convenient.

  “Do you find it a bit odd that we’ve come this far so quickly?” he asked.

  “No. I don’t follow you.”

  “Well, we were led here by these mysterious colorful objects that float around. After we fought our way through the coliseum, we made it to the door which looked sealed, but it just opened for us, even though two others right next to it were melted shut. Now we’re here, deeper in the house than we have any right to be, and we find this new piece of equipment and it just happens to be great for charging Scout.”

  “Coincidence? Or the reason the spheres led us this way is they knew ahead of time this door still worked. The charger, I don’t know,” Telisa said. “You did just make a big deal about how flexible Scout is.”

  “This source is almost optimal. It looks like it’s been cleaned up and prepared for us. What are we missing?”

  “Maybe Shiny is helping us remotely.”

  “Maybe. But he said he couldn’t risk attracting any attention,” Magnus pointed out.

  “With a Vovokan ship, I bet he couldn’t. Maybe he’s figured out how to influence things down here using only the Iridar.”

  “That I could believe. But how did he keep that door from being melted by the destroyers, however long ago that was? Or how could he have known it still worked?”

  “Some sensors may still work. Minor stuff that doesn’t attract the destroyers. You have a better theory, I can tell,” she said.

  “Maybe some of the Vovokans are still alive, and they need our help.”

  “They’re leading us to them with these floating decorations. Devices so small and harmless, the destroyers don’t or can’t track them.”

  “That seems like a very real possibility,” Magnus said. “What are we going to do if we find them? And what if Shiny thinks of them as more ‘competition’?”

  “We’ll cooperate with them and encourage Shiny to cooperate. Explain that competition isn’t a valid option now that his race has been culled down so severely. They need to work together just to survive. I think if we find survivors, though, they will work together, because this is his house.”

  “His house may have suffered a mutiny in the face of the destroyer attack,” Magnus said. “But you’re right; no need to invent more problems until we know they’re real.”

  “I’ll say.”

  Magnus set up Scout to charge from the odd power station. It didn’t take long to draw the power it needed, so they had a light snack from their supplies and kept close. When Scout was ready to go, they sent it ahead to check out the next few rooms. Magnus watched the feed carefully. He didn’t see any new threats.

  “Where to, navigator?” he asked.

  “We’ll head over to where Scout is now, then it’s farther down.”

  Magnus shook his head. “Always down. This place is crazy.” He hefted his pack and adjusted the light mounted on his rifle. He checked the spare flashlights at his belt.

  “We’re lucky to be comfortable here at all,” Telisa said. “The air isn’t bad. And the passageways are a bit low, but more or less our size. Imagine if the Vovokans had been worm-things that crawled through thin tubes the width of our heads. How hard would it be then?”

  Magnus laughed. “Okay, I’m not complaining any more.”

  Telisa shot him a smile. “Good. Let’s go.”

  They walked down a tunnel toward Scout’s position. They came upon a dead sphere lying on the sand. It had been one of their colorful guides.

  “Another dead one. I hope they can make it.”

  The tunnel ended in a long room filled with debris. There were colored wrappers, shattered pieces of equipment, and Vovokan bodies. Telisa drew her knife and her stunner.

  She’s terrified of the bodies. I guess I can’t blame her, and I’d rather she have her weapons ready than otherwise.

  “Anything here for us to kill?” Magnus said.

  “I know you’re just trying to encourage that change of attitude you mentioned,” Telisa said. “But yeah, if anything threatens us, I’m ready.”

  “All these bodies. If this is Shiny’s house, what are they all doing here?”

  “I don’t know. We don’t have knowledge of his race’s living arrangements.”

  “Were these Vovokans related to him? Were they employees? Slaves?” Magnus asked.

  “He said those others were fake. Or something similar. But I can’t tell. These sure look just like him, only injured or dead.”

  The colorful spheres moved over to a rough hole in the floor. Telisa cautiously approached it and glanced down with her light.

  “We have to go through that?”

  “You’re the navigator. Our little guides seem to think it’s the way to go,” Magnus said. He heard a crackling noise and spun around. His eyes caught movement—something small.

  “What is it?” Telisa demanded.

  “Small critter,” Magnus said. “Probably attracted by all the bodies, or maybe some of this was their food, too.”

>   Telisa knelt by the hole and picked something up.

  “I think this is one of those little guardian spheres that Shiny uses.”

  “Makes sense. I wonder if he needs more.”

  “I’m going to pocket a few of them, of course,” Telisa said. She sifted through some of the wrappers and garbage on the floor. She picked up a few more items.

  Magnus sent Scout down the partially blocked shaft. As usual, the floating spheres stayed with the Terrans. Magnus resisted the urge to bat one aside with the end of his rifle. He released a smart rope and told it to prepare for the descent. It snaked down the shaft after Scout.

  When Telisa was satisfied, she anchored her own rope and they headed down. Magnus watched Scout’s feed. They were headed into a twisting, partially collapsed well that went down a long way. The route was cluttered by fallen beams, boulders, and sand. There were bodies and debris of Vovokan make as well, though Magnus didn’t see anything salvageable.

  Magnus descended about two meters ahead of Telisa. They flicked their lights in all directions, watching the debris and bodies.

  “There’s a critter on my rope!” Telisa called aloud.

  Magnus looked over. Telisa had trained her flashlight on something. He swung himself slightly to the side to get a clear view. A long, many-legged creature scampered down toward her. It was red and gold. The golden parts of its integument sparkled in her light.

  “Don’t shoot the rope,” he said. “We don’t have many extras.”

  “I only have a stunner,” she said.

  “I don’t know, you might damage its controllers with that,” he thought aloud. “I see it. It’s small. Stay calm and use your knife.”

  Telisa drew her knife and waited bravely. Magnus looked around to see if he could get over to help her. A ledge covered with debris was nearby, but he couldn’t tell if it would hold. Whatever supported the ledge wasn’t visible beneath the piles of rock, sand, and fragments of a wall or machine. He ordered his rope to retract a bit, and started himself swinging so he could join her.

  The creature descended within range of Telisa’s knife. It was considerably longer than her twenty-five-centimeter blade. She allowed it to scamper halfway onto the blade then flicked it away forcibly. The creature went flying away into the darkness.

  “Shit!” she said.

  “That was good,” he said.

  “Damn, I swear that thing scares me as much as anything else down here. It’s small, I know, just damn creepy.”

  “It was like a tiny Shiny. Hopefully not actually a young Vovokan,” he said.

  “I don’t think it was. Who knows, though?”

  They resumed their descent. They wove back and forth around obstructions in the shaft. The debris also made it difficult to see very far. Magnus thoroughly scanned each short descent with his lights. Telisa didn’t complain at the lack of progress. He thought she was probably still worried about the ‘zombie’ Vovokans.

  They descended on smart ropes to another level and paused in a small cavern adjoining the shaft. A pile of dead bodies partially covered in sand lay in a corner where an exit had collapsed.

  “Magnus!” Telisa sent the urgent call silently over her link.

  “What’s going on?” Magnus transmitted.

  “Big gold centipede-things scurrying around here. No idea how many. They scare the shit out of me.”

  “Stay calm.”

  Magnus saw three long, golden shapes scampering out of the bodies. Then another. They had red bands like Telisa’s previous visitor.

  “Okay, but one of them is coming—it’s biting me!” Telisa cried out.

  Magnus leaped over. He was ready with his flashlight, but Telisa already had hers on her lower leg.

  “Thank Momma Veer,” she said. “It couldn’t get through.”

  Magnus assumed it had tried to bite her on the leg. He concentrated on finding the critters in the dark space while mentally configuring his rifle. Telisa raised her hand to fire her stunner as Magnus turned to scan for more enemies.

  “The stunner’s no use. I only have a knife,” she said.

  Magnus concentrated on the creatures he could spot. His slugthrower thundered in the closed environment. Once his weapon had collected enough data to form a target signature, he started firing with less accurate aim. The weapon and his smart rounds took care of the rest.

  He was just about to turn around and check how Telisa fared when the sounds of another weapon boomed out. Telisa had a compact assault weapon in her hands. The muzzle flashed as she shot again and again.

  Wow, I didn’t know she had that! Magnus looked away to take more shots. His light scanned left, then right, looking for targets. He could still hear things scampering in the sand, so he turned his light downwards. He felt something land on his back.

  Dammit, should have looked up. He rammed his frame against the irregular cavern wall, hard. He tucked his chin forward to his chest. The Veer skinsuit distributed the impact evenly across his back, even though the wall wasn’t smooth. He felt a wet pop where something died against his back. He stomped his feet, trying to smash anything that might be readying to scamper up his legs.

  Telisa squealed. Magnus was next to her in an instant, searching. One of the creatures dangled from her wrist. Telisa shook her hand violently but it remained affixed to her. Magnus sliced it off with his dagger, leaving only about an inch of the thing on her. He sheathed the blade, dripping with alien gore. He grabbed her wrist to remove the rest of it. “Let me see.”

  “It fell off. It fell off after you cut it,” she said. Her eyes were wide. She breathed in long gasps.

  “Keep shooting!” he urged. His own rifle sounded twice more as his light swept over the golden creatures. There were more of them now. He could hear them crawling in the shaft all around. He told Scout, now fifty meters below them, to climb back up to their position.

  His light swept the floor of the ledge before him. He kicked savagely at two of the things, sending them flopping away down the shaft. His light revealed more crawling across a garbage-encrusted beam toward the ledge. He shot three of them off the beam. Telisa kept shooting as well.

  One of the things made it up Magnus’s leg. He felt it attacking him, but it couldn’t hurt him anywhere the Veer armor protected him. He disarmed his weapon and slammed the rifle butt against his quadricep, smashing the critter.

  “I’m out of ammo,” Telisa said.

  “You still have your knife?”

  “Yes, I got one with it already. But they keep coming!”

  Magnus had noticed that. Every time his light swept across the area he saw more. Another one crawled up his leg. Telisa emitted an angry noise that told him there were creatures on her, too. He swept his light over her.

  Damn, there’s two or three on her back! We’re in trouble.

  Magnus ripped the creatures off her back with his bare hands, tossing them away before they could bite or sting him.

  “I don’t know if I can keep going. So tired,” she said. Her knife descended into two more of the things on the nearest cavern wall.

  Poison? Or just fatigue from the fighting?

  Magnus reactivated his rifle. He fired three more rounds in as many seconds. His ammunition supply was running low. This is exactly why we have lasers and stunners. But you had to stick with old faithful, here.

  “Wait,” Telisa transmitted through her link. “I think we’re stirring them up. Let’s get back on our ropes and be still.”

  Magnus had five rounds left. He was ready to embrace any alternate plan. He contacted his abandoned rope. The free end snaked over toward him so he could grab it. He swung out and asked it to retract a bit, carrying him up away from the ledge.

  “Now just be still. I think those things have mass sensors like Shiny. We move too much, and our bullets move a lot, maybe it attracts them.”

  The creatures did look a little like Shiny, or at least as much as a small monkey resembled a human.

  “It could be o
ur lights attracting them, too. Let’s turn them off.”

  “Shit. I’m afraid. But yes, good idea.”

  They turned off their lights to allow darkness to envelop them. After a few seconds, Magnus’s eyes adjusted enough to see Scout’s lights down below. The robot had almost reached them.

  “I think some of them are chewing on Scout. Let him attract them a bit longer, then I’ll shut him down, too,” Magnus said.

  A swarm of the creatures attacked Scout, but its surface was too hard to be harmed by creatures so small. Magnus brought Scout to a halt ten meters below.

  Telisa flicked a few crawlers off her rope as they came, but otherwise she had frozen. Magnus hung next to her and did the same.

  “I’m leaving Scout’s lights on. He’s still now; we can see if it’s the motion.”

  “I think it is,” Telisa said. “On Earth, so many things are similar. Heck, even a lobster has a head with eyes and a mouth. These creatures may all have the mass sense. And being underground, they may be blind. We know Shiny is deaf. If these things are similar to him, those knobs at the end of their bodies are probably their mass sense organs.”

  “It has to be in relative motion, right?”

  “Yes. And his clearest picture is when he stands still and uses that weaving motion to move his sensor back and forth in a regular pattern. These things don’t do that. I bet their sense is inferior to Shiny’s.”

  The creatures around Magnus and Telisa were already moving away. Whatever they’d done, it was working. Magnus shifted slowly toward Telisa and reached out to grasp her arm. Blood poured out of her wrist. He wrapped his mouth around her wound and sucked blood out. He spat it out. He sucked on it again.

  “You think it was poisonous?” Her rising voice told him she hadn’t yet considered the possibility.

  “It should be okay,” he said. “It’s bleeding, which is good. It’ll wash out the wound.”

  Magnus pulled his pack around from his back and took out their medical kit.

  “Why did you suck the blood out? You think it’s venomous?”

  “I don’t know. I saw some kind of sacs on the side of its head. It reminded me of a poisonous snake. But it’s probably nothing.”