The Trilisk Ruins

by Michael McCloskey

  ***

  Kirizzo moved slower than he had in recent memory. He estimated that the others were in their positions and now he walked away from the last observation pod, concentrating on all the ones he had set out. Only a fraction of his attention focused on the passage he moved through. Kirizzo felt his way forward almost as much as he used his vision.

  He came to an obstruction of some kind. He waited for a moment, watching his monitors and waiting for a chance to glance forward. Kirizzo set up a rhythm of checking everything in order and inserted a peek at his current surroundings into the sequence.

  The center of the passage ahead was blocked by a gray matrix of hexagonal cells. Kirizzo sensed that this backing substance was vacuous, with little more mass than air. He reached out and tore away a piece of the material in a single claw. For something so light, it showed great structural strength.

  Kirizzo suspected the inert substance backed the entire complex. It filled out the volume of the installation when nothing could sense it. He took a risk and skipped looking at one of his modules. After a few seconds he peeked at its data again. Nothing had changed.

  Everything had stabilized.

  Kirizzo abandoned his observer modules altogether, ignoring their input. He savagely tore into the gray matrix with six or seven of his arms. His race had primitive roots as a burrowing culture, and he now returned to his origins with a vengeance. He cut through cell after cell, discarding the ragged fragments behind him as he dug forward.

  Up ahead a large mass loomed. Kirizzo could feel it, a massive wall of dense material. He cut his way through. It looked like a smooth wall of strong metal. Kirizzo cleared away the base matrix from the surface, digging along the barrier.

  There had to be an exit.