The Trilisk Ruins

by Michael McCloskey

  ***

  Joe strode out into the familiar cavern-like area on the far side of the lock. He wore a stiff new Veer skinsuit and had a military-grade scrambler slung over his shoulder, though the weapon was of cheap government issue.

  “Link up,” the squad leader said.

  Joe’s link asked for connect permission from the group’s interface and he gave it. A window opened off-retina, showing him the disposition of the squad. Joe tried to split his attention between the mental display and his natural senses, but had a moment of difficulty.

  “It’s a little awkward at first, but believe me, it’s helpful when you get used to it,” the marine next to him signaled.

  “Second nature after a while, right?”

  “Exactly. Just stick with me, we’ll watch out for ya.”

  “This look familiar?” the squad leader asked Joe.

  “Yes. The cubes are banks of equipment of some kind. The caverns tend to be the same size, seemingly random variations…”

  “Weapons? Defense systems?”

  “I have no idea,” Joe said. “But both of my robots were destroyed quickly and they only managed to get a couple of shots off.”

  The leader nodded and signaled for the group to move out. Joe watched half the time in his mental interface, trying to get used to the added input to his brain without stumbling around. Joe felt immensely nervous as they started into the complex, waiting for all hell to break loose. Presumably if this incursion was unwelcome, a superior technology like Shiny’s could make it very bad for them.

  After a few minutes of moving through the caverns, Joe’s link signaled the presence of another network in range. He checked its source. For a moment he thought the aliens had brought up a network to talk with them. Then a message came through to his link.

  “You lied to us. You said you would let us go.”

  Joe checked the sender and saw that it was unidentified. But he could guess who it was.

  “Tam? I was willing to let you go. But not the alien. I wouldn’t have paid any attention to you if you hadn’t kidnapped the alien.”

  “Kidnapped? Shiny followed us. We had no choice—how could we turn him away after he helped us escape from that place? We don’t even know how the installation worked; for all I know we would have died in there without his help.”

  “Who are you talking with, Lieutenant? Our networks aren’t operating in here; we’re completely scrambled. Is it the renegades?”

  Joe found it difficult to think of Mark, Tam, and Shiny as renegades. But it was an accurate enough term now.

  “It’s them. Tam and the other one.”

  “You’re sure? The link frequencies are all scrambled… how could you be reaching her?”

  “Yes, I’m sure.”

  The comm officer nodded and then retreated back into himself. Probably alerting the entire fleet, Joe thought to himself. The rest of the squad stopped and kneeled against the walls of the room, waiting for information from the Seeker about where the signal was coming from.

  “We’re having trouble with the telemetry,” the officer said. “This place is screwing with all our ECCM. It doesn’t make any sense that they’re coming through to him.”

  “This is Joe. I’m here for the alien, true, but the captain of the Seeker also wants us to bring you back to safety. How is it that you can talk to me? A huge chunk of the EM spectrum is completely trashed in here.”

  “We’re doing just fine. Besides, Shiny isn’t here right now. I don’t know how we can talk to you… Shiny said something about giving us access.”

  “He said? Well, where are you? And where is he?”

  “If you can only get us or the alien, which one are you supposed to bring back? If I were you, I’d be looking for him instead.”

  “We’re getting you both. Look, this could get dangerous. Just come turn yourself in before someone gets hurt. Is the alien with you?”

  “No. Good-bye, Joe.” Telisa cut the link.

  Joe shrugged to the members of the incursion team.

  “She won’t cooperate. Somehow she has the help of the alien, I don’t know how, but apparently he made it so her link still works.”

  The comm officer shook his head. “These links use a limited set of frequencies; you can’t just jam one and leave the others alone—”

  “Well, the alien can,” Joe said. “I don’t know how.”

  “We’ll see how much it can do with bullet holes in its ass,” came a comment from somewhere in the squad.

  “Enough arguing. Back to the old-fashioned way,” the squad leader announced. He pointed to an exit. “Sims on point, that direction.”

  Joe’s nervousness increased again.