The Trilisk Supersedure (Parker Interstellar Travels #3)

by Michael McCloskey

  Holtzclaw told his Guardian to patrol the vicinity of the buildings on the surface. It would never fit into the tight Konuan warrens. He configured it to fire low, at the feet of any Terrans it did not recognize. Its projectiles were so powerful, even striking the rocks below a running person would likely cause pieces of the sharp red rock to fly up and wound the target.

  His squad had just reached the building and sent in a couple of grenades when combat broke out at one of the other buildings. Holtzclaw heard distant shots fired.

  “We’re taking fire! Light so far. We definitely have some of them holed up in here,” came the message from his second squad leader.

  Holtzclaw’s squad looked to him. He checked the tunnel map. As expected, the two buildings linked up.

  “Pressure them from topside,” Holtzclaw told the second squad leader. “We’ll come in from below in the tunnel from the west. If we hurry we might trap them in there.”

  Then to his own squad: “Double-time it! Through the building! Find the well room and get into that tunnel!”

  Chapter 21

  Telisa awakened.

  Not again! Crap.

  She drew in a long breath. In fact, the breath continued flowing in, in, in for a long time, until her chest had expanded like a giant balloon.

  Chest? I have lungs. Big lungs.

  She moved an arm. An immensely huge, strong arm that extended so very far.

  Wait. Wait. This is different, but it’s good different. Human different?

  She saw only darkness. Her hearing felt muted. Normal, lame Terran hearing. She felt around in the dark. Was it her own body?

  Female. I’m female…

  She felt a tiny ridge of a scar on her wrist where a Vovokan nasty had sampled her. And her hair was the right length.

  I think I’m me! And my link?

  An army of view panes exploded in her mind’s eye. Her link offered her its many services.

  “Anyone there?” she asked tentatively through her link.

  “Telisa?” The reply was marked as coming from Cilreth.

  “Yes! Where in the hell am I?”

  “Stay calm. I think you’re…I think you’re in a Trilisk column.”

  “Please get me out.” Telisa asked it in a calm way, but the panic was only just below the surface. Her recent experiences had all been too much.

  “Then just think it: open. Think you want it open. Pray to it.”

  “There’s a prayer device?” she said. Without waiting for an answer, she thought: I want out. Please open!

  At first there was only a humming sound. Then a growing sliver of light appeared above her. It widened until she could see that some kind of sheath over the tube was dropping down from the top. In a few seconds she would be free!

  “It’s opening!” Telisa said. “Wait. I’m still inside some kind of clear tube.”

  “It takes longer,” Cilreth said calmly. Her friend’s voice reassured her. “Telisa, can you hear me?”

  “Oh, thank the Five,” Telisa croaked.

  “It’s okay now. Let’s get you out of there.”

  “Cilreth. You’re not going to believe where I’ve been! Magnus just killed me!”

  “Maybe you’d better just rest for a minute and take some deep breaths.”

  She think’s I’m delusional. Lack of oxygen?

  “It’s a Trilisk body switcher,” Telisa explained.

  “That’s not possible.”

  “Think about it, Cilreth. This is Trilisk stuff we’re clowning around with.”

  “Your brain is trained throughout your infancy to grow and adapt its connections and signals from your own—”

  “Yes, I know. Believe me, I know. But sufficiently advanced technology can adapt my personality and thought patterns onto other nervous systems and map my body signals to those of radically different creatures.” Telisa stood up carefully.

  “It would be much more complicated than a simple mapping unless the target creature was totally humanoid.” But now her voice carried less conviction. Cilreth was thinking on it.

  “I know. I know. Yet it only took a bit of practice. I was one of the slugs. The Konuan were a lot cooler than stupid slugs, by the way. Just ask Magnus when he gets back. He killed me.”

  He must think I’m dead. Even if he doesn’t know that was me.

  “What?” Cilreth asked.

  “I’m going to have to give him a hard time for that.”

  “You really believe all that happened? It was probably virtual,” Cilreth said.

  Telisa nodded. She didn’t believe it had been imaginary at all, but she didn’t blame Cilreth for thinking it. It was more logical to assume such adventures had occurred in a simulation.

  It was just that Telisa knew the Trilisks could do it.

  A tremor rumbled through the tunnels. Telisa felt her body shake. Her legs still felt just a bit long. Her head was so far from the ground. She bent her knees to compensate for a sudden lack of confidence in her ability to balance herself.

  “Uh oh,” Cilreth summed up. “Are you okay?”

  “I’m still adapting to my new body,” she said. Cilreth’s face reflected the oddity of Telisa’s statement. Then she got a link connection from Magnus.

  “Telisa?”

  “Magnus! Where are you?”

  “The building where you got separated from Cilreth,” he said. “I’m coming toward you.”

  “Oh! I guess our links are working again then,” she said. “Who is that woman you’re with?” Telisa’s voice sounded a bit more accusatory than she intended. But her demand had a lot of emotional charge to it.

  “What? How do you know about her?”

  “Long story. Is she an explorer?”

  “She’s UED. She took off. I’m not sure we can count her as a friend.”

  “What? They’re here?”

  “Cilreth didn’t tell you? Are you with her?”

  “Yes. She didn’t say anything yet…she hasn’t had a chance, I guess.” Telisa said out loud to Cilreth, “I’m in touch with Magnus.”

  “Me too,” Cilreth said.

  “I heard an explosion,” Telisa said. “Well, felt one, anyway.”

  “It wasn’t the Clacker,” Magnus told them.

  “I can’t believe the UED still exists. What can we do?”

  “We have to stay in the buildings and tunnels. Anything on the surface is a sitting duck. They can kill us from kilometers away with a standard artillery system and a basic detection grid, which they have to have set up. I saw some combat machines. Nothing frontline, but maybe they have more than I saw. There’s no way you could get out unless you use Cilreth’s stealth suit.”

  “We’ll wait for you,” Telisa said.

  “Prepare yourself. We may have to surrender. We can’t fight robots. And there may be hundreds of them.”

  “I have the breaker claw,” she mentioned.

  “What’s its range? I doubt your reflexes can compete with military hardware. Good news is they may want us alive to get them the Clacker. They must wonder what the hell it is.”

  “That’s good news? That just means we’re about to be captured and tortured,” said Cilreth.

  Telisa looked around the room. Three tunnels led out in different directions. One of the three huge pillars had opened to emit her. The room looked empty otherwise, though she suspected the other pillars and maybe the walls were full of surprises.

  “You two could use your stealth to leave and get back to the Clacker,” Telisa said.

  “No. What would you do?” Cilreth said.

  “I could…hide in the tube again.”

  “They would find you eventually. Or you might suffocate in there.”

  “I don’t think so,” Telisa said. “Maybe I could even become Konuan again. Fight them that way.”

  “Out of the question,” said Magnus. Telisa turned and saw him entering from one of the connecting passageways. She walked over and embraced him.

  Thank the Five we�
��re back together.

  Even with the UED moving in, something about his physical presence steadied her.

  “These tunnels are long and straight. They’ll be able to overwhelm us easily here. We need to move up into a building and dig in. Those tiny cubic rooms have a lot of vents, but they have a lot of corners, too. We might be able to stand them off for a while. The fact our links operate again means Shiny has been working some magic. Maybe he can rescue us.”

  “That scaredy cat? He probably left,” Cilreth said.

  “I doubt it,” Telisa said. “He’s got our back.”

  Chapter 22

  Within the Gorgalan ship far above Chigran Callnir Four, a golden creature with forty legs burst into a room. It sent a signal to a large walking machine, causing a cockpit atop the machine to open. Kirizzo marched inside and curled up within the tight confines. He didn’t hesitate. His planning phase had finished while aboard the spaceship high above the planet. He activated the walker. The shining metal machine lifted on its eight slender legs and walked into another spacious chamber. A bay door slid open to accept the machine. Anchor tentacles slid out to secure the machine within the small bay.

  Then the part of the starship holding the walker detached and dropped toward the planet, taking Kirizzo with it. He watched the events piped into his long, thin brain from sensors outside the drop module. The planet’s surface below expanded to take over more of his field of vision. The drop module descended unerringly toward the ruined Konuan city.

  An invisible beam of concentrated energy lanced out of the sky. Kirizzo saw it only with the help of his drop module’s sensor array. His vision magnified the target far below. A black cloud of smoke rose up as he descended on the ruins. Kirizzo took note of the hit. The Terran artillery machine had been destroyed by fire from his ship. In all likelihood the other artillery robots would quickly share the same fate.

  Kirizzo watched many sources of data, among them a video feed from the Clacker. It showed an object in the sky growing from a distant silver dot to the size of a small house as it dropped onto the surface. A battle walker burst from the belly of the drop module, hitting the ground running.

  From his position nestled inside the walker, Kirizzo issued a series of rapid commands with mental impulses. Tiny spherical drones dropped out of the machine and flew in all directions. The drones would be able to block incoming fire from the Terrans.

  Kirizzo’s scan told him dozens of Terrans had advanced across the ruins toward the Clacker. No doubt the alien ship was their primary objective.

  The spider-legged walking machine clambered over the sharp red rocks toward the UED base. The Terran soldiers were deployed directly in his path. To get even more details about their disposition, he contacted the Clacker and told the ship to launch two reconnaissance drones to scan the landscape from low altitude. Between those drones, the ship in orbit, and the Clacker, Kirizzo should have total information about the battlefield. It was also enough to give his information net some redundancy should some of his machines be destroyed.

  Projectiles started to strike the walker. Portions of the power reserve were expended to hold the outer surface in place as the kinetic energy of the rounds slammed into it. The walker hunkered down on its legs, making itself harder to spot.

  Six attack drones shot from the belly of the walker. They hurtled away, gaining altitude as they left. Meanwhile more large projectiles rained toward the swerving walker. One struck the outer surface of the machine in a vulnerable spot. The energy reserve wasn’t sufficient to defend against the round, so it damaged the outer skin of Kirizzo’s machine. The walker rotated, carrying the damaged area away from the line of fire until it could be repaired.

  The attack drones arrived at the Terran line and selected the large robots that fired upon the walker. The flying spheres each split into six pieces and accelerated further. Within the next second, several of the attack machines and a dozen of the Terran soldiers were obliterated.

  The other nearby Terran squads had taken cover. The walker shot ten seeker bullets into the sky. The guided projectiles started to patrol. One by one, they spotted enemies below and dove down, going supersonic as they accelerated toward their targets. Each one killed a Terran, easily punching through the light battle suits then exploding. Terran body parts started to rain across the landscape.

  But Kirizzo was not paying much attention to the devastation he visited upon the faction of Terrans in competition with him. He could have disabled that force from orbit if it had been his only goal. He was focused on the anomalous life form he had tracked across the surface.

  He suspected it might be a Trilisk.

  The creature of interest had disappeared underground within a minute of his arrival on the surface. Kirizzo decided to enlist the aid of his allies to track the anomaly.

  “Team. Enemy not pursuing.”

  “Not pursuing you or me?” Telisa replied.

  “However, target of intense interest spotted in ruins,” Kirizzo said. “Prepare to assist with capture of possible Trilisk in lower tunnel system.”

  There was a delay.

  “It’s good to hear you, Shiny,” Telisa replied. “We’re fighting for our lives, will assist if you get us out of this.”

  Kirizzo reviewed his status information of the Terrans on his side. He located their signals within a building. Several clues indicated they had been engaged. Kirizzo altered the course of his walker toward the building. The machine made good time, walking over the uneven rocks gracefully, dodging around patches of vegetation and even clambering right over the lowest Konuan buildings.

  Occasional Terran small-arms fire zinged by the walker or bounced off its surface. Kirizzo ignored it until larger, more significant projectiles clanged against his machine, affecting the energy reserves. Another Terran fighting machine had acquired him. His drones accelerated to intervene. Automated systems returned fire, sending out four seeker rounds to counter the attacker.

  The rounds slammed into the machine and detonated. The flimsy machine exploded. Metal parts flew in all directions. His drones veered away, seeking other targets.

  “Battle machine outside shelter neutralized,” Kirizzo reported. His walker showed him the attacking Terrans within the building. They were split into groups to surround his allies. “Enemies moving in to flank, trap, surprise you from below.”

  “Below us? Which direction are you? Should we make a run for it?”

  Shiny analyzed the disposition of enemies in the alien construct.

  “Proceed south. Will cover retreat, withdrawal, emergence from building.”

  Chapter 23

  A round smacked against the floor next to Magnus. He felt the sting of a tiny fragment of hot metal impacting his cheek. His attendant spheres had stopped orbiting. Now they darted back and forth in front of the grille he faced prone.

  If that round had another meter to arc toward me, I’d be very dead.

  But it meant his position was about right. He had taken a position just far enough to the side of the fire corridor through the grille opening that the incoming projectiles couldn’t alter their course sharply enough to hit him. Though he had cut it a bit closer than intended. In fact, the attendant drones seemed to be oblivious to the limitation of the incoming rounds, and they tended to intercept them anyway, which sent shrapnel flying. He considered overriding them but decided he was not that confident a round would not hit him.

  “We’re going to be split by this grille corridor as soon as they make it in here, and if they get to either side we’ll be pinned. Then the grenades will come,” Telisa said.

  Magnus smiled. She knows a hell of a lot more than when I met her. “Don’t forget you and Cilreth have stealth options. You can cross over these grill corridors if you time it right. You have your attendants? I don’t think their assault robots will fit in here.”

  Though they might be able to just blow through the walls. I wonder if they’re low on supplies.

  “I lost one
sphere in the tunnels,” Telisa said. That made Magnus frown. Shiny had given them each two for good reason. The alien himself had five or six at all times since he resupplied upon returning from Thespera.

  The grille corridors created long fire lanes by the way the grilles lined up in each direction through the building: roughly east/west, north/south, and to a lesser degree, even up/down. Magnus armed his last grenade and sent it out toward the entrance they had used. Most likely the UED forces would open all the outer grilles.

  “I could go find a tube and try to become Konuan again,” Telisa transmitted. “I bet I would be able to take some of them out, maybe do some hit and run. And if they mistake me for the one that’s been hunting here for a long time, they might break and leave.”

  “I don’t want to be separated again,” Cilreth said. She activated her stealth suit. “I’ll scout another way out. Pull a grille or two if I have to.”

  “No. You’re better off dug in here with us,” Magnus said. “I have an edge. I have still access to a UED sensor module. I can see most of them.”

  He didn’t mention that he could see they were very outnumbered. But they had the defender’s advantage, good cover, and a few high-tech tricks to pull.

  Telisa seemed to accept his opinion.

  We just survived one close call, and now we’re about to die all over again. We were supposed to be better prepared this time.

  His grenade detonated on an enemy grenade in an empty room before them.

  “They’re coming,” Magnus said. He watched the enemy in his link along with the views from his team and the attendant spheres. “One squad is covering them, and another has moved forward, just three chambers ahead of us.”

  Cilreth and Telisa exchanged looks. Telisa put her smart pistol back at her belt and took out the prize weapon from Shiny’s vault: her chain lightning gun.

  “Don’t move,” she sent Cilreth and Magnus. She moved to the side of the advancing enemy, into an adjacent room. Magnus saw the UED forces were already moving to flank them on both sides of the building.