The Trilisk AI (Parker Interstellar Travels #2)

by Michael McCloskey

  “No such luck for me,” he said.

  Telisa said nothing. She stopped next to him and pulled her own backpack around again so she could look through it. After a few moments, she brought out another one.

  “Okay, you’re right. That definitely wasn’t in there.”

  “Weird, but good,” he said. His voice sounded disturbed.

  She handed it over. Magnus had no choice but to drop the old pack and slap the new one into his ascender. They resumed at the fastest pace possible.

  At the top of the first pit, they checked their entourage. Shiny’s probe and the artifact cabinet were still with them, showing no signs of damage, though a bit of dust and sand had settled atop the cabinet.

  “Remember the screw tunnel? Just ahead,” Telisa told him.

  They didn’t hesitate this time. Telisa jumped right into the tunnel and started crawling forward. The tunnel sensed them and moved them along a bit faster, revolving in the opposite direction this time, to convey them toward the other exit.

  Will this tunnel attract a destroyer? Or is it so mundane even they don’t bother to destroy it?

  Telisa’s thoughts must have mirrored his own. “I hope we haven’t provoked the destroyers to the point of making this tunnel a target. After all, it has some power storage or it wouldn’t be working.”

  Magnus watched as Scout encountered a destroyer machine down below. The destroyer apparently didn’t quite know what to make of the non-Vovokan machine that looked like it was talking on Vovokan frequencies. It hesitated, shining lights down upon the robot it had discovered. Magnus decided to get its attention. He selected the most lethal grenade Scout carried: an incendiary warhead. Scout launched it at the destroyer machine.

  The rest happened faster than Magnus could follow. There was a flash, which Magnus thought was the grenade, until it disappeared a second later. Then the feed from Scout went dead.

  “So much for my first expeditionary helper,” Magnus said.

  “It was a great machine. I’ll remember it fondly if I get out of this place alive,” Telisa said.

  Chapter 22

  The surface of Vovok hadn’t changed in the time they had spent below the rocky surface.

  “It feels good to be above ground again,” Telisa said.

  “Shiny isn’t responding.”

  “Oh, no. Is he going independent again? We’re going to be stranded. With the damn seed!”

  “No. The seed is exactly what he wants,” Magnus said. “In fact, we should make a plan in case he takes it and decides we’re no longer useful.”

  “Then what could be wrong? Destroyer interference? How long can we expect to be here before—”

  “Hold on. The Iridar is coming in to pick us up.”

  “Maybe he’s afraid to talk to us now that we have the destroyers all stirred up,” Telisa said.

  Magnus nodded. “I don’t know. He could reach us with our own Terran comm systems now. Let’s just sit tight.”

  Telisa hugged the stone, trying to make her profile narrower. She realized it was probably a futile action, given the incredible technology the destroyers had to detect things, but it was all she had now. The drones showed some enemy activity. Magnus moved many of the underground decoys deeper, drawing forces away from the surface. He added a large number of false signatures on the surface, many kilometers away, trying to bring destroyers in the atmosphere in the wrong direction.

  “Good. Exactly what we need,” Telisa said.

  “The Iridar is coming down right over there,” Magnus pointed. “Still no response on our channel to Shiny.”

  The ex-scout craft dropped through the atmosphere rapidly. The destroyer capital ships ignored the ship. Telisa didn’t see any destroyer machines moving in on them.

  “He’s not screwing around!” Magnus said. “I’m impressed.”

  “The destroyers are ignoring us now—and the other surface signatures you gave them. They know the Vovokans aren’t surface dwellers.”

  “I wonder if they would have had a chance if they’d surfaced en masse when the invasion came?”

  “I doubt it. The machines would have learned in time. Besides, if you were a destroyer-maker, wouldn’t you have come along to oversee the initial attack? They probably got bored and left by now.”

  The Iridar became visible.

  I can’t believe it. It looks like we’re going to make it!

  They stood clear of the thrusters as its gravity spinner ran down. Telisa noted a few rocks flying around low to the ground. She felt her weight shift in throbbing waves.

  I can feel the Iridar’s spinner. It should be almost completely off by now.

  “Wow! He’s serious about getting in and out in record time,” Magnus said, pointing out the debris. Close to the Iridar’s landing position, a huge boulder shifted and bounced away from the thruster’s airstream like a rubber ball.

  Magnus signaled to her and they ran for it. The artifact cache fell a bit behind but Telisa knew it would take a moment for them to get up the ramp anyway. As they approached, her own weight and the objects nearby returned to normal. Her footsteps became sure as the ramp descended ten meters in front of them.

  They entered the Iridar’s cargo bay. Most of the parts left behind by Magnus and Shiny had been packed up; things looked relatively stable inside. Telisa stood at the top of the ramp to make sure it didn’t retract before her cache floated into the vessel. I’ll be damned if anyone is closing that ramp before my stuff gets in here!

  Magnus let down the industrial seed with a grunt. The sound of takeoff already filtered in from outside. Telisa steadied herself.

  “Mission successful.”

  “I think so,” Magnus said aloud.

  “Stay alert. This is a possible Shiny swing point,” Magnus sent her on a private channel.

  They walked out of the cargo bay. Magnus stopped short and unslung his rifle. Telisa was about to say he was going too far when she took a peek past him and saw a human body on the deck ahead.

  “Five—”

  Magnus clamped a hand over her mouth.

  “They have to know we’re on board,” Telisa responded with her link. She stared at the form on the deck. Whoever it had been, he was obviously dead now.

  “Maybe. Maybe whoever it is doesn’t have control of the ship,” Magnus said.

  “Telisa?”

  Telisa turned. She saw a woman emerging from a crash tube in the other direction. Telisa leveled her weapon and examined her. The stranger was thin in hands and face, with silver and black hair. She stood slightly taller than Telisa.

  She’s older than me. How old, I have no idea. “What’s happened? Why did you attack?”

  “Telisa. Your father is here. I work for him.”

  “Liar! My father is dead!” Telisa snarled. Magnus remained vigilant, covering the corridor in the other direction. Telisa brought her stunner out and pointed it at the woman instead of the Meer. She noted in horror that blood spattered the deck.

  “He lost his captaincy,” the woman said. Then her voice hardened. “Don’t take my word for it, kid. He’s around here somewhere. That is if your damn pet alien didn’t splatter him over the decks like it did to my friend Arlin.”

  Telisa wanted to rejoin the statement but she needed to find her father, or his body. The thought was unbearable.

  “Where is he then?” demanded Telisa. “There’s blood everywhere!”

  “Calm down. We’ll find him. We’ll find him,” Magnus urged. “Try the cargo hold again. Maybe we missed something. I’ll check the storage cabinets down by the spinner, and my quarters, even though it should be locked.”

  Telisa ignored Magnus’s attempt to divert her to safety and ran into the mess instead. There was even blood in there. She opened the food storage area and ordered the interior light on. The large circular rack held a lot of food and the shelves were too tightly packed for anyone to hide inside.

  Her link received a message from Leonard Relachik. Five Entities!


  She crouched on the mess floor and read the message hurriedly.

  If you can forgive me, I think we could work together. I’ve figured out our goals are no longer at odds. You want to learn about the aliens. Especially the Trilisks. It’s no longer my duty to uphold the law, but I’m still a human and I have a duty to help protect humans. The Seeker was destroyed by aliens. We have to give the Space Force all the help we can to help protect humanity. But that doesn’t stand in the way of what you want. You can learn about the aliens. I can pass along what we learn to the Space Force anonymously. Cilreth says it’s possible.

  “Yes, yes, I agree,” Telisa said. “Who is Cilreth?”

  But her link didn’t see her father’s link so she couldn’t respond directly.

  “Yes, I agree!” she yelled. “I agree, where are you?”

  It might be a trap. It’s too good to be true. There’s blood everywhere. Telisa started to cry.

  “I agree, where are you?” she called again. She rose and walked toward the cargo hold.

  “I found him,” came a voice. It was the woman. Telisa came back out to find her, wary. But the woman was still alone in the corridor, on her knees.

  “Where is Shiny?” Telisa sent to Magnus.

  “He’s right here. Wait a moment,” the woman said.

  Telisa looked again. The woman held her arms in an odd way before her.

  “Shiny is here. He’s not trying to kill me, either,” came Magnus’s reply.

  “I don’t know how to get it to turn off. But he’s here,” the woman said.

  “What?” Telisa snapped urgently. She jumped over to where the woman worked. The light wasn’t right. Telisa reached out with her hands.

  She felt something invisible. “This is my father?”

  “Yes. He has a stealth suit on. Obviously the monster got him anyway.”

  “The alien was defending himself against you. You came in here armed and tried to kill him, I’m sure,” Telisa said.

  Magnus, we have him, she transmitted. Magnus, get in here and help us take a stealth suit off him.

  Magnus stepped into the corridor seconds later. Telisa searched for a front release on the stealth suit. Her hands were slippery with blood.

  Chapter 23

  Leonard Relachik slept in a white bed in a small compartment of the Iridar. Telisa sat beside him. She stared blankly at the perfect white sheets. The air smelled sterile.

  His legs were gone above the knees. Telisa was afraid of what he would say when he woke up. But she sat and waited.

  Relachik stirred. He looked around. Then he saw Telisa watching him.

  “Hi,” she said in a small voice.

  “Telisa!” He started to get up. She watched the realization cross his face. His legs were gone above each knee.

  “Oh no. I’m a bit shorter.”

  She tried to laugh at his brave joke, but tears came out instead.

  “I promise, Dad, we’ll get you someplace they can fix you up—”

  “I know you will!” he said dismissively. “I lost an arm a couple years ago. Very inconvenient. Can you imagine what it must have been like when humans had to just accept being maimed? There was a time when almost anything could go wrong and you’d just drop dead, you know.”

  Telisa smiled. “I know. You told me about it when I was a kid.”

  A cloud crossed his face. He took a deep breath. “I came to apologize to you. For being a lousy father. I know I was gone most of the time, and when I wasn’t, I ran the apartment like a ship. I treated you like a recruit.”

  “You came all this way to apologize?”

  “I came this way to make amends. To help you. To start to make it up to you.”

  Telisa smiled and squeezed his hand. She felt tears run down her cheeks, though she still smiled. “I’m so happy. When we heard about the Seeker, I thought you were dead. I realized I wanted to be your daughter again.”

  “Now is our chance,” he said.

  “I got your message. Though honestly, I can barely remember what you said, I was so freaked out. I guess you said we could work together. I appreciate your offer. I’ll take you up on it.”

  Relachik smiled, though Telisa saw a bit of fatigue or perhaps the fog of medication in his expression.

  “Earth needs what you have. It needs all the alien tech it can get. The Space Force has to protect humanity against these hostile aliens, and we’re behind in the technology race.”

  “Then I can find some more,” Telisa said.

  “What?”

  “I can find more technological secrets. We can pass them on to the Space Force and help humanity. But I’m not going back. I’m going to keep looking. Keep learning. Our positions aren’t in conflict. We can be allies instead of competitors, just like you said.”

  “What about the alien?” he asked. “Is he on another side than the ones who attacked Seeker? Is he from a different race? How many alien civilizations does he know?”

  “We’ll find out. He knows of at least one other active civilization. I can fill you in bit by bit. It will take days, though. Right now, rest. Know we’re safe,” she said.

  “Are we? Does the alien still want to kill me?”

  “He should be fine. He shoots first and asks questions later. To survive. His society can be cooperative, or very competitive.”

  “Okay. Good. That, I can understand,” he said. He sighed and coughed weakly.

  “Enough. Rest now. I’ll be back. I’m going to find out what’s happening now, and I’ll report back to you what I learn once you’ve started to recover.”

  “Are you in danger, Telisa?”

  “Rest for now. I’m going to go find out what’s happened and where we stand with Shiny. The alien.”

  “Shiny? I get the name, but not why you’d risk working with it.”

  “It’s a ‘mutually beneficial cooperative relationship,’” she said, parroting Shiny.

  “What?”

  “Never mind. Just rest.”

  Her father closed his eyes and fell asleep. Telisa watched him for a while, trying to absorb the fact he was back into her life.

  After a while, she decided to join the others. Though she hadn’t come to terms with her father’s awful injuries, so much was going on. Her father’s friend was still alive on board somewhere, and Shiny had the amazing artifact.

  Predictably, Shiny was in the cargo bay. Magnus was there, already tinkering with robot parts again.

  Telisa didn’t waste any time. “Shiny. Where are we going?”

  “Asteroid.”

  “Why? To hide?”

  “Shiny requires raw materials to fully utilize artifact. Provides easy access far from destroyer devices.”

  “Shiny. That damn thing you sent us after is a Trilisk artifact, isn’t it? How could you neglect to mention such an important piece of information?”

  “Shiny, Telisa, compete to control one item.”

  “I’m in cooperative mode, Shiny. I won’t take it from you. Tell me about it so we can accomplish more. If I trust you, then I provide more benefit to you, understand? What does it do?”

  “Trilisk mind. Artificial, Trilisk-designed, scientist-constructed.”

  Telisa’s mouth dropped open. Magnus stood in shock as well.

  “Five Holy...let me get this straight: Your giant city-size house—ravaged by alien machines, filled with suborned members of your own race, crawling with hungry scavenger bugs the size of my arm—had a Trilisk AI in it?”

  I can’t believe how much we don’t know about Shiny.

  “Very valuable. Very useful. Saved Shiny many times, provided, secured, aided.”

  “I want to talk to it! I don’t see it in my link! What does it know? What has it taught you?” The questions spilled from Telisa and she only stopped them with an effort of will.

  “Trilisk AI does not speak, communicate, inform. Only listens, examines, deduces.”

  “It has to be able to tell us what happened to the Trilisk
s.”

  “It is designed, prepared, constructed for other purposes. It provides, secures, nurtures.”

  “Then it can provide me with some goddamn answers!”

  Be careful, Telisa, Magnus transmitted. Don’t become a liability to Shiny.

  “Not designed for information. Designed to provide useful food, tools, fulfill material needs. It is an industrial seed.”

  “You’ve enslaved it to work for you? Is that what that Vovokan box is around it? A prison?”

  “Device designed to provide. No enticement, payment, coercion is required.”

  “Is it dangerous? If it’s smart, can’t it compete with you?” asked Magnus.

  “Trilisk AI stays in cooperative mode. Shiny suspects, thinks, hypothesizes this is Trilisk intention.”

  “What is the Vovokan part here? You’ve merged something with it.”

  “Shiny limited competitive interference by filtering input. Interface with Trilisk AI was possible only from within Shiny house. Others screened out.”

  “You can do that? Tell us how,” Telisa said. “How do we interface with it?”

  “We already interfaced with the artifact, didn’t we, Shiny?” Magnus interrupted.

  Telisa looked at Magnus questioningly.

  “Affirmative, correct, accurate statement of fact.”

  “What do you mean?” asked Telisa.

  “We got some weapons and supplies from the artifact. We didn’t even know they came from it. And for all we know, it helped us a dozen other ways.”

  “Shiny, we get what we want simply by needing it?” Telisa asked.

  “Wish, desire, pray,” Shiny said.

  Telisa just stood for a moment. Then her mind raced. She could pray? She could get anything she wanted?

  “Your modifications kept anyone outside your house from praying to it?”

  “Shiny additions prevent AI from receiving prayers from competitors.”

  “Please help me get my father’s legs back,” Telisa said. “Do I have to pray, or can I just want it?”

  “Specific want. Requires high familiarity and detailed prayer. Your request likely too complex for your ability to use this device.”