The Trilisk Ruins

by Michael McCloskey

  Chapter 19

  The Seeker: A sleek gray cylinder with sensor bulbs every few meters along her surface. Joe saw the green circle of the United Nations Space Force emblazoned on the hull. The ship extended almost two hundred meters from end to end. Although not as large as a battle cruiser, the vessel probably embodied the pinnacle of UNSF science. The ship’s complex sensors and analytical capabilities enabled it to catalog new systems and assess them for suitability as colonies or detect traces of alien civilizations.

  Joe had never seen a UNSF scout ship in real life. The ship looked the same as it had in VR sims, but knowing it was real had some impact. He found it hard to believe he would be going aboard. He had been ordered to report directly to Captain Relachik.

  Information came cheap, and terabytes of data traveled between here and Earth every day, but exploration ships were another matter. He had studied the latest specs on the ship last night. He could clearly see the two turrets mounted 180 degrees apart at the bow of the ship. Unlike an old Earth navy ship, no barrels projected from the turrets.

  Joe knew the Seeker’s main armament consisted of its sublight transport mechanism, a long tube running through the center of the entire length of the vessel. The accelerator could eject charged mass at relativistic velocities either forward or backward to provide thrust to move the ship. As a weapon, the tube could be used essentially as a railgun that was aimed by pointing the entire vessel. Joe had also learned that a spread could be given to the salvo, calculated to arrive with different concentrations depending on the range and nature of the target. The two lasers mounted in the front turrets provided a more flexible secondary weapons system.

  The ship could not produce enough power to use these weapons continuously. The lasers discharged from superconducting storage banks under the turrets, and the fusion reactors that powered the Seeker could fire them at their designed maximum intensity three times an hour if the accelerator remained quiescent. The railgun could operate continuously, although its power could also be augmented with stored energy to impart higher velocities to its particles.

  The ship rolled away from Joe’s view as his shuttle spun to match the Seeker’s rotation. The ship maintained a spin around the central accelerator tube to simulate gravity for the crew when the gravity spinner wasn’t running. He knew that the matching maneuver meant the trip neared its end; soon he would be aboard the Seeker.

  He regained his seat and strapped back in. Only one other passenger shared the shuttle ride up from the surface of the planet, a taciturn officer whose name Joe couldn’t recall. The other man hadn’t left his seat the whole flight and seemed lost in a mental interface, so Joe hadn’t attempted conversation.

  The shuttle computer indicated that the docking had completed. Joe tried to use his link to access the ship’s services to find out what time it was on board, but the Seeker computers denied him. He didn’t possess clearance for even the most basic services yet.

  A small acceleration made itself felt in the shuttle. A distant clunk occurred, more felt than heard. Joe took a deep breath and waited.

  “Clear for disembarkment,” came the pilot’s voice in his head.

  Joe rose and stepped toward the exit. The other officer moved more slowly, so Joe left him behind. He didn’t have any patience—he wanted to get on board the starship as soon as he could. Joe stepped through the hatch and came to a ladder. He would climb “up” toward the hollow spine of the Seeker, through her hull.

  Joe started up the ladder. He glanced up and saw the cold black sphere of a security monitor looking down at him from the top of the tunnel. He wondered if a robotic weapon had locked onto him with an infrared laser sight.

  No point in dwelling on it, he decided. He came to the top and found himself in a small receiving room. There were three doors and a flat black plate in one wall before him. Two of the steel doors were closed. The third headed past a check station manned by two soldiers. Joe stood uncertainly.

  The other officer who shared his flight walked straight forward to enter the body of the ship. Joe started to follow, but one of the enlisted men stepped into his path.

  “This way, sir. I’m afraid you’re not cleared for a straight boarding.”

  “Very well,” Joe said, altering his course.

  “I’ll have to request that you turn your link off, sir. For just a few minutes.”

  Joe didn’t like that, but he obeyed. The man led Joe through one of the side doors and into a scanning room. He pointed to a seat underneath some heavy equipment, and Joe sat down.

  “This only takes a second. Sit very still, please.”

  Joe waited while the soldier walked behind a screen and stood staring at the wall. Joe recognized the absent look as that of a person accessing a virtual interface in their off-retina viewspace. Joe didn’t move. He couldn’t detect any activity, but the man nodded and refocused his eyes.

  “Okay. I need to ask you a few questions, sir. They are required if you are to be allowed on board—captain’s orders, sir.”

  “Okay, I’m ready,” Joe said.

  “I’m sorry, sir, I’m not ready. Please wait a moment,” the soldier said.

  He stared off into space for long moments, then focused his eyes back on Joe.

  “You joined an organization when you were a young boy, age of seven,” the crewman said. “Please relate the details of that.”

  Joe’s eyebrow rose. “When I was seven? Is this a joke?”

  “Answer the question, please. When you were seven, what organization did you join?”

  Joe took a deep breath.

  “I joined a junior chess club,” Joe said.

  “And how many people were in it?”

  Joe thought for a moment. If he got the answer wrong, what would they do?

  “There were over ten people… we had six games going sometimes… so about twelve people, maybe a few more.”

  “And who had the highest rating that year?”

  Joe thought again. He could remember that.

  “It was Cory Russell.”

  The man nodded. “That’s acceptable, Lieutenant Hartlet. You may proceed through the lock on your right.”

  Joe stood carefully, leaning to avoid striking his head on the machinery near the chair. He went to the door and opened it. The man wasn’t following him, but he kept his blank look.

  Joe stepped through and found himself in a tubular hallway with a flat metal grate placed as a walking surface. He saw tubes and wiring arranged in neat rows under the grating. He wondered how he would find his way and automatically asked his link to provide directions before he remembered that it had been deactivated. The link connected. A map of the ship came up in his mind’s eye.

  Joe grunted. His access had been granted. He requested a route to the captain’s office and saw it light up in green. Then he set off.

  The interior of the ship felt comfortable. The air smelled fresh and the temperature was perfect. Wide, smooth glow mats on the ceiling provided a generic illumination that remained constant as he moved along.

  The passage branched, and Joe ended up in a busy corridor running the length of the ship. He received a few curious glances, but no one spoke to him. He thought the crew probably knew one another well enough that a newcomer stood out. He wondered how much they knew about what had happened to him.

  After a minute he arrived in a small waiting room and the computer gave him a message to wait. He regarded the uncomfortable-looking seats and had resigned himself to selecting one when his link gave him the signal to enter.

  Joe stepped into a small office. Captain Relachik sat back in a chair in one corner, looking off into space. Joe could see he was one of those men that looked as fit after forty as they had at twenty. The captain had short grey hair cut close to his skull. His face looked rough, his nose slightly bent to one side. Joe figured some sparring partner had probably gotten a good shot in on it years ago.

  “Lieutenant Joe Hartlet, reporting for duty.”

/>   The captain absorbed this silently and regarded Joe. He looked to the side for a moment. Joe thought the captain must be accessing files. Then the captain stood and acknowledged Joe’s existence.

  “At ease. I’m glad you were able to make it here so quickly. Tell me about the alien, lieutenant. I’ve read your report, but I want your gut feeling about the creature. Did it feel threatening to you? Dangerous?”

  Joe wavered for a moment, caught off guard by the question.

  “Um, I didn’t feel any… malignance, but I believe that it could have killed me at any time.”

  “But it did use you for some sort of scheme to escape the complex. It may have had other reasons for leaving you unharmed than compassion or respect for life.”

  “Maybe, sir.” Joe tried to sound skeptical.

  The captain smiled. “You think you understand its basic drives. I could sense that in the report. It’s a common mistake, Lieutenant. People look at someone else and they make assumptions. It happens between people, and with aliens. But if there’s one thing we’ve learned about the Trilisks, it’s that aliens don’t think like people. And so maybe this Shiny doesn’t either.”

  Joe nodded. “May I ask a question, sir?”

  “Go.”

  “When I boarded, I went through an extensive decontamination procedure, and they asked me some odd questions. What was that all about?”

  “The report states that you’ve been exposed to Trilisk technology. Precautions have to be taken. We don’t fully understand the capabilities of the Trilisks, and very troubling incidents have occurred in connection with artifacts of that race.”

  “I understand, sir.”

  Joe wanted to ask about the “incidents”, but he knew that he would not be cleared for it.

  “In fact, it’s so bad that the request to pick you up was almost denied. I managed to convince my superiors that your personal viewpoint would be valuable enough to warrant this risk. While we’re on the subject, I should tell you: The computers are going to be monitoring you very closely. If you do anything that you shouldn’t, you may meet with lethal resistance. That’s because of the possibility you have been suborned by an external power.”

  The captain pointed to a small black module in the center of the glow pad on the ceiling. Joe hadn’t seen it when he came in. He wondered what array of weapons was pointed at him.

  “I’ll try to move carefully, sir.”

  “That would be wise.”

  The captain stared off into space for a moment. Joe knew he was accessing a mental interface. He imagined talking to the captain often included such pauses, as the business of running the ship interfered with conversation.

  “Your link got erased by the smugglers, but I’ve reviewed the profiles you’ve created since then,” the captain continued.

  Joe’s link indicated that the captain had sent him a pointer. He accessed the information and saw a picture in his mind’s eye. It was the female smuggler from the planet. She looked younger in the pic, but it was definitely her.

  “That’s one of them, all right,” Joe said. “How did you nail that one so quickly?”

  “News from Earth,” the captain said slowly. “Someone important went missing… they failed to attend a funeral where they were expected.”

  Joe thought the captain’s voice sounded odd. He looked almost crestfallen. Joe was impressed at the intelligence network of the Space Force. One girl went missing from a funeral and they linked it to this smuggler already?

  “I’m ordering you to clear that pic from your link,” the captain said. Another pause came. “That girl is the brat of a high-up in the world cabinet. You are not to mention this conversation to anyone. You understand? It will be handled quietly.”

  That explained it, Joe thought. His eyebrows rose.

  “Yes, sir, I understand. Not a word.”

  “Good. Don’t be surprised if the DNA snoopers down at the installation turn up empty, either. At least officially. And don’t ask about it if you like your career in the force.”

  Joe nodded.

  “I assume that you’re here to ensure that no more smugglers get to the planet,” Joe said. “Now that we have discovered a site with active Trilisk technology, will the government be stepping up its presence on the planet?”

  “No. We’re leaving the planet immediately to pursue the two smugglers you met and the alien that you called Shiny.”

  Joe stared for a moment, shocked.

  “How can we do that, sir?”

  “That, lieutenant, is need-to-know. But it should be obvious to you that the UNSF doesn’t share all of its capabilities with everyone,” Captain Relachik said. “We’ll have a decent chance at recovering the alien.”

  “That’s fantastic, sir! I hope I can be of some assistance. If nothing else, they know me, and I might be able to keep the trespassers and the alien calm when we close in.”

  “That will be important. We have the Trilisk facility, but it’s clear from your report that the alien you met, who we suspect left with the smugglers, is of a different race. Its civilization may still be active just beyond our frontiers. We need more information, and I intend to get it.”