At some point, Telisa noticed Magnus was no longer in their party. She called for him.
“Hi. Stay there, I’m coming to you.”
Something in his voice caught her attention.
“What’s up? And where’s my father’s room?”
“Stay there. I’m coming right to you.”
Magnus returned. “Sit down,” he said.
“What happened?” she said, sitting on a huge white chair. She became alarmed as she saw the look on his face. He dropped to his knees beside her.
“Telisa, your father died a few minutes ago.”
“No! He was fine! I just—”
A part of Telisa flashed in anger at Magnus. What a sick joke—
Just as quickly she knew it was true. Tears flooded her eyes. The way Magnus looked at her, she could see he knew what he was talking about.
“He was fine,” she repeated.
“His injuries were bad. The kit had to keep him from bleeding out any further. It may have caused a clot, or he may have just taken too much damage. It was some kind of brain trauma. He didn’t make it. I’m very sorry.”
She cried on Magnus’s shoulder for several minutes. She hadn’t cried so much in a decade.
“There is something else you have to know,” Magnus said over his link. “Your father and I were prepared to betray Shiny. I told your father what we know about his race. Your father wanted to kill him, to protect you. I knew that wouldn’t fly with you, so I just pressed for running away.”
“It makes no difference now,” Telisa replied. “He’s dead. How can it hurt so much? I just met him again. I lived without him for years.”
Magnus took a deep breath. “What I’m trying to say is, it may not be a coincidence he died after threatening Shiny. The Iridar has been dismantled. Just like that. I think Shiny did it with the seed. We can’t leave, either. It’s as if Shiny overheard our conversation and made both actions impossible.”
“You think Shiny did it.”
“I don’t know. I know he dismantled the Iridar. He said the seed needed raw materials. He said we would be able to use Vovokan ships soon enough, and they’d be much better.”
“But he should have asked us. By Terran rules, anyway.”
“Obviously. But it’s done. The ship is gone. The Vandivier is gone too. He says our personal effects are in the grand atrium.”
I should be so happy right now. I was just a few minutes ago. Telisa felt fate had arranged to negate her victory as if overeager to enforce karmic justice. “We don’t know anything. My father is dead and we don’t know if Shiny did it. I don’t know what to believe. I’m just confused.”
“You know, he would have died if he’d been there on the Seeker. This way, you two got to square things between you.”
Telisa knew Magnus was just trying to help but his observation failed to console her. She told herself her father had already been out of her life, as if he were already dead, but no matter how she considered it, she felt only loss.
He held her on the soft white furniture while she cried. Telisa just let herself cry it out.
After a while, Magnus stood. “I’m sorry to leave now, but I have to check on things. I’ll be back very soon.”
Telisa just nodded and let him leave. She moved over to the white bed. Her thoughts ran over the memories she had of her father. She tried to convince herself her emotions were overblown. It had counted for more than she realized, knowing he was alive out there somewhere, even though they never spoke.
As she lay in the fairytale bed, something else started to bother her. Magnus thinks Shiny did it. I don’t think so.
She lay there, looking at the ceiling, but the odd feeling stuck with her. Why didn’t Magnus stay here with me? What’s he going to do? He knows my father wanted to kill Shiny. Do I have to worry about that?
As soon as she had the thought, it hooked in her mind and wouldn’t let go. What if I wake up and Shiny or Magnus is dead? I already lost my father.
She used her link to find Magnus. The services of the asteroid functioned and gave her his location. Not bad. I wonder if Shiny made that work, because I don’t know enough about link services to pray them into existence, I bet.
Telisa followed service directions to get back to the atrium. She caught sight of Magnus, Cilreth, and Shiny out on the sand. She walked toward them. They hadn’t spotted her yet, or at least Magnus and Cilreth had not. She noticed Magnus trade looks with Cilreth.
Something passed between them. Magnus held out his hand.
Cilreth detached something from her belt and gave it to him. A long tube.
A sword tube!
“Magnus, what are you—”
Magnus stepped forward. Telisa stepped in front of him.
“No. Stop it, whatever you’re doing, stop it,” Telisa said over her link.
“He will betray us,” Magnus replied over a private channel. “It’s only a matter of time. He doesn’t care about the death of his own race. Those bodies down there? They must have been his slaves. Running his house for him. The destroyers? Is it so hard to imagine what happened? Shiny’s race must have betrayed them, too. Now he’s destroyed the Iridar, the Vandivier, and for all we know, killed your father.”
“I don’t think he did it. You have no proof.”
“Your father was strongly advocating Shiny’s...removal by force.”
“We don’t know any of this. Besides, you can’t murder a sentient being. He’s done nothing but help us. He hasn’t betrayed us.”
“He will,” Magnus transmitted. “He may already have.”
“We’ll make sure it’s not to his advantage to betray us. We’ll get leverage and make sure he knows about it. He didn’t kill my father. My father wasn’t a threat to him anymore. He only shot them when they forced their way onto Iridar.”
“A ship which no longer exists. Once he re-establishes himself here, he’ll be so powerful he won’t care about anything we could threaten him with. He might kill us.”
“We can’t expect to get along smoothly with aliens, but if we can learn to be tolerant of each other, there’s huge benefit in it. Shiny will see that. You will see that.”
Shiny moved back a bit and stared at them.
“He knows something’s wrong.”
“He probably thinks you and I have ended our alliance with each other,” Magnus said.
“If you kill him in cold blood, then we have. I’ll leave you.”
“Your father—”
“Don’t mention my father. I’m not letting you kill Shiny. Or get killed trying.”
Cilreth watched the stare-down without moving. Telisa saw her breathing had sped up, though, obviously in fear of imminent violence.
“What do you think?” Magnus asked Cilreth.
“I think he was just defending himself when he killed Arlin. As for his future plans, I can’t say. But I know he’s damn dangerous. I’m not so sure you should try. See if he gives you a ship, like he says. Why would he have put our personal effects in the atrium if he was just going to flush us?”
Magnus handed the sword case back to Cilreth. She visibly relaxed. Magnus walked away, back toward the human quarters the seed had created.
“My timing is lousy, but I’d like to stay here with you, if you’d have me,” Cilreth said.
“You’re a prisoner here like us, so it doesn’t matter,” Telisa said.
“I meant, I’d like to join your team. Willingly.”
“My father said you’re the one who found us,” Telisa said.
“Ah, yes, that’s true. I hope there are no hard feelings. It was just a job.”
“No hard feelings,” Telisa said. “If you found us, then you have skills we could use. We have a lot of work to do, without government oversight. And it’s dangerous.”
“I’m not exactly a hardened criminal.”
“Neither are we, unless you ask the Earth government. Nevertheless, I intend to carry out my father’s plan to help the Space
Force. It is what he would want, but it’s also my duty to my race.”
Telisa sharply felt his loss again. Once again she berated herself. You hardly knew the man. He was your father, but you hardly knew him.
“What would you have me do?”
“Figure out how we can interface with Shiny’s ship. It’s ten times better than the Iridar and he’s going to make us more.”
“Let me at it.”
“My first order of business is clear,” Telisa said. “It turns out that we have a resident Trilisk expert. Or at least someone who knows more than I do.”
Telisa widened the channel to include the alien. She set her lips in determination.
“Shiny, tell me everything you know about the Trilisks.”
The Trilisk AI (Parker Interstellar Travels #2) Page 22