The Trilisk Revolution (Parker Interstellar Travels)

by McCloskey, Michael

  The military forces of the race were a dominant minority that operated very differently. Within the Space Force, VR entertainment was rationed and used to reward incarnate performance. That performance was measured largely by computer systems that were resistant (though not foolproof) to corruption. The Terrans preferred to keep a tight rein on their machines.

  Or more accurately, the Trilisks did, Kirizzo thought. How could he separate everything he had learned between the Terrans and the Trilisks? Kirizzo thought on this for a moment and decided it was goal structure that would differentiate the two species.

  The Trilisks wanted to build up the Terran war machine to use it against their enemies. What did Terrans want? From seeing the PIT team work, he saw Terrans who wanted to explore and learn. But that was a tiny segment of the population. Most of the Terrans on Earth wanted only VR time to escape a mundane existence.

  This had happened to Kirizzo’s race as well. When VR was introduced, more and more of the race fled into virtual worlds and competitions. Unfortunately for them, that left the Vovokans in the real world with a huge advantage. The Vovokans who sharply limited their VR time eventually took over Vovok. They enslaved and sterilized the others, sharply correcting this self-limiting behavior in the race. Those who used VR to improve their incarnate lives flourished, and those who sought VR as an ends unto itself disappeared.

  The Terrans had not yet experienced this revolution, most likely because of their hesitance to flip between cooperation and competition. Robotic workers provided the populace with most of what they needed, though the transition to full automation was not complete. There was still a minority with less than 40 percent VR time who had to maintain the factories, improve the VR body support modules, and watch important facilities. These and the military forces were the ones who would eventually take over and do whatever they wanted with those who could currently afford near 100 percent VR time.

  Kirizzo allowed himself to be distracted by the geography of Earth. To him, the amazing part about the Terran homeworld was the lack of crust penetration. Almost everything alive lived at or above ground level. The Terrans refused to seriously dig into the planet, yet they created endless rows of squarish artificial caves above the planet’s surface. If the Bel Klaven came to this planet, the extermination would occur so much faster than it had with Gorgala. Though the fragmentation forced by huge amounts of surface liquid had lessened over time, the footprints of it still remained in flora and fauna populations.

  Kirizzo wondered if living above ground made Terrans so much more vulnerable that they had to extend their alliances across relatively long periods to survive. Could this simple but important environmental difference explain why Terrans lacked the Vovokan quick trigger cooperation-competition switch?

  There was a lot going on in the rest of the system that would affect the PIT mission. Armadas of Terran war vessels were stationed at several points in the system, ready to intercept alien incursion. The ships were relatively small and harmless by Vovokan standards. And yet by sheer weight of numbers they could not be entirely discounted.

  Kirizzo detected thousands of artificial satellites and orbital platforms ready to support the defense fleet. They held a wide array of weapons to deter the alien invasion the Terrans so feared. Kirizzo wondered if their Trilisk overlords expected an invasion to actually happen. He thought they did not, at least not until they struck their enemies first.

  Kirizzo looked for discontinuities in technological levels among the defenses. He saw no such clues. The Terran’s capabilities grew quickly, but they had taken no shortcuts. Had the Trilisks decided not to advance the Terran sciences in unnatural ways?

  Explaining theories competed for Kirizzo’s favor: The Trilisks were happy to let the Terrans advance organically? The Trilisks had hidden their real weapons well? There were no Trilisks left on Earth? The Trilisks were damaged and unable to accomplish more than this?

  Kirizzo stayed rock still for days, sunk deep into a complex risk and reward analysis. When he next moved, it was with a grand plan in mind.

  Chapter 3

  Cilreth sat with Telisa and Jason in Telisa’s lavish quarters. Telisa stared at her in that way she did when she was trying to figure out if she was Cilreth or Cilreth2.

  It feels awkward sometimes, but it’s a small price to pay to have my duplicate, Cilreth thought.

  “I don’t blame them for not taking us seriously,” Jason said. “Don’t be angry, but maybe it’s harder for you to see because you’ve been out on the frontier. On the core worlds, everyone knows about the Seeker. Everyone has been working hard to pay the taxes for the new defense fleet. Now, they’re asked to potentially betray their race on our word? Of course it doesn’t work.”

  “We need to prove it to them without warning the Trilisks,” Telisa said absently.

  “Tall order. If the smoldering remains of the UED was thinking about turning us in…” Cilreth said.

  “We can tell someone important right before we strike. Give them the heads up they would need to fill the power vacuum fast,” Telisa said.

  “A few hours lead would be great, but we still risk alerting the Space Force even with that,” Jason said. “I’m not trying to be the negative one here. I want to remove the aliens from power as much as you do.”

  “The Trilisks. Don’t forget we have Shiny, and he’s on our side,” Telisa said.

  “Of course. I meant the Trilisks,” Jason stumbled.

  Shiny makes him nervous too, Cilreth thought. Maybe they should meet. That would scare him even more at first, but over time… we don’t have time.

  One of Cilreth’s programs sent her an alert. She followed the pointer and saw what had been flagged. It was a news story that gave her an idea.

  “I may have found a unique opportunity,” Cilreth said. “It’s kinda crazy, but we’re about to attempt a coup on the largest, most powerful government Terrans have ever had. So crazy is in line with our current plan.”

  “You intrigue me,” Telisa said, smiling.

  Cilreth brought up the story link for them to look at.

  Core World Delegation to Visit Earth Incarnate.

  Cilreth continued immediately, even though the others were still absorbing it. “These are ministers from other core worlds. And I think they’ve sensed a change in Earth. They’re coming incarnate to discuss policy decisions they don’t like. They may well be walking into a Trilisk grinder.”

  “The battleship Bismarck has been assigned escort duty for the delegation,” Jason said. “But I guess Clacker can handle even the newest of Terran warships?”

  “Yes,” Telisa said. “And it’s even better that Bismarck is there. If we can convince a Space Force fleet officer of what’s going on, he could help stabilize the system during the transition. Our ships are strong, but they’re alien. The continued presence of alien dreadnoughts would generate anxiety and distrust, so we have to leave after the Trilisks are hit. There are some space force admirals on the list of a hundred, but with them out of the way, it might work.”

  “It gets better,” Cilreth said. “There’s an admiral on board the Bismarck. He’s not on the list. We can check him anyway. If he’s not a Trilisk host, then he could be someone that could help keep law and order in the system in the wake of our strike.”

  “Won’t we just warn the Space Force we’re doing this?” Jason said.

  “Our Vovokan ships can jam their communications. Better than jamming, actually, if we want, it wouldn’t even be apparent to either side for a while. And we can disable the ships without harming anyone,” Cilreth said. “Of course, taking prisoners is a terrible way to make friends.”

  “They’ll see our overwhelming superiority. And we won’t board the ships,” Telisa said. “They’ll be super pissed, but when we remove the Trilisks and leave, then they’ll know it was true. We wouldn’t just show up, take out some leaders and leave unless it was real. Once they see that, we can apologize. They’ll know it had to be done.”
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  “We can use the evidence package we gave to the UED representatives,” Cilreth said. “We still have a lot of stuff lying around. They may see it as fabricated, but it’s hard to come up with so many details. If they have an AI, it might be able to tell it’s all real.”

  Jason shrugged. “I wouldn’t believe it. I would just assume the alien AIs are smarter than my AIs.”

  Cilreth suppressed her ‘Diminishing Returns in Intelligence’ speech. Grudgingly, she agreed with him. The evidence could always have been produced by more AIs, with more time to work on it. The element of the unknown, the mysterious source of the information, all this would work against them as it had when trying to convince the UED.

  “There is, of course, the tiny problem of actually defeating the Trilisks as well,” Cilreth said.

  “Either we succeed or fail. We may as well plan for success. There’s no reason to plan for what to do dead or enslaved,” Telisa said.

  “I agree,” Jason said.

  “We need to capture those ships, seal the communications down tight, and keep anyone from getting hurt. Can you do it?” asked Telisa.

  Cilreth bit her lip. She wants me to get Shiny’s help. And by Cthulhu, she’s right.

  “I think I could do it myself. But on something this important, I’d like to coordinate with Shiny on it.”

  Telisa nodded. “Okay. Get things ready. And please figure out how we can find and intercept the delegation. The rest of us will be preparing to hit the Trilisks, so if you can own this, it will really help.”

  ***

  Siobhan ran down the hill at full speed. Her idea of full speed outstripped the average person’s; both her long stride and her fearless abandon sent her down the incline very quickly. She barreled out of control, falling as much as running. The grass on the hillside promised a soft landing but Siobhan knew from experience that crashing at this point would be bone-jarring at best. The tall clumps of grass hid logs and stones.

  Caden was just ahead. His stronger, more compact body negotiated the slope with more skill yet Siobhan started to overtake him. He seemed to feel that some measure of control was needed. Siobhan did not think so.

  Siobhan loped up beside him, feeling the jolt of each landing as she gathered more speed. She knew she could not keep it up much longer, but just ahead, they would run out of hill…

  They ran at full speed right off the cliff.

  They both screamed wildly as they hurtled downwards. To Siobhan’s right, a gigantic waterfall roared down the cliff with them. As Siobhan neared the lake below, she put her legs together and spread her arms to align herself for the feet-first insertion.

  The impact was brutal. Her suit did what it could to spread the impact across her legs. They both sank below the white maelstrom into a shadowy part of the lake below the fall. Siobhan’s long body slid deeper into the water than her partner. Above her, Caden sped off with strong strokes toward the surface. Siobhan followed his course. They took a slight angle away from the falls.

  He remembers the spot.

  Siobhan felt her anticipation rise.

  They broke the surface of the water and pulled in deep breaths of cool air. Caden grinned wildly at her. They swam up to a tiny beach. Caden emerged from the water slowly, stealthily. He always practiced it. Siobhan copied him.

  Just past the beach was a green misty meadow. The air smelled of the electric-fresh spray of the waterfall. The foliage was thick, forming a wall all around them. Caden collapsed onto the fresh grass, still smiling. Siobhan toppled onto him like a falling tower. He let out a mock cry of alarm, then absorbed the impact.

  They laughed. Then she kissed him for a long time. She pulled away and looked at his perfect face.

  “Do you ever worry about what will happen to us?” she asked.

  “The missions? Why worry? I know you. You won’t back down.”

  “It’s just that—maybe we don’t have much time together.”

  He suddenly smiled wide. “If anything happens to you, I’ll be your Ledoux!” He winked.

  Siobhan laughed out loud. Ledoux was a main character of a well known romance-tragedy from the last century. It was set in a time before complete biological regeneration had been mastered. In the book, Ledoux, a famous cyberneticist, falls in love with a smart, beautiful woman. He adores her and always dotes on her as a very caring partner. Then she has a terrible accident, leaving her body and mind heavily damaged. Ledoux resolves to rebuild her, but the first thing he constructs is a lie detector because he wants to know for sure if she is pleased and satisfied with her new parts. He replaces her leg and she is pleased. Then he continues to rebuild her, but slowly, her satisfaction with her new life as a cyborg begins to wane, as her hope gives way to a cold reality. Ledoux monitors this with his device. He sees her becoming less happy, so he strives harder and harder to please her. Finally she is basically complete, but finds herself ostracized by her largely artificial body and troubled by the cold, artificial parts of her new mind. She tells him she is happy, but the device reveals otherwise. Having worked so hard, the obsessed and now unstable Ledoux replaces the natural part of her brain that drives her unhappiness, making her permanently content, though the last trace of the woman he had known is gone.

  “I feel so much better now!” she joked back. They grinned at each other like idiots.

  Siobhan’s link interrupted the tryst. It said Telisa wanted to talk to her. She rolled away and stared into his eyes. Then she sighed.

  “What’s wrong baby?” he said. He reached out to touch her hair.

  “Gotta go,” she said. Siobhan deactivated the VR. The Caden simulacrum, the sun, the grass, and the mist disappeared in an instant.

  Siobhan sighed. She should tell him. She knew that.

  I’m not afraid to jump out of a spacecraft in the middle of a dense planetary ring, but I’m too wimpy to ask Caden if he wants to… get a little closer.

  Siobhan locked up the simulation file and left it on her link. She did not trust PIT to refrain from snooping around her storage on the Clacker, but maybe they would at least respect the privacy of her link. As much as they complained about the UNSF violating privacy, it would be pretty hypocritical of them to go looking at her personal VR setups.

  Siobhan rolled out of her huge bed on the Clacker. Telisa had invited her to a mess though it was not mealtime. Siobhan smiled. She was always hungry and Telisa knew it.

  When Siobhan arrived incarnate, she found Telisa waiting for her. Telisa’s wounded eye had a complex iris and pupil that made it obvious the eye was artificial. The scar above and below her eye remained.

  “You like the scar?” Siobhan asked.

  “No one else told you?”

  “Told me what? I guess I don’t hang out with the others as much as we used to. I mean, off training hours.”

  Maybe she’s checking to see if her scar and eye are on the rumor mill.

  Telisa nodded. “It reminds me of what happened, and what I need to do. I know it sounds dumb. It’s just important to me.”

  “Not dumb,” Siobhan said. “What’s happening?”

  “I have work for you,” Telisa said. “Probably not your favorite but it’s important. Files for you to read. Then some brainstorming and planning.”

  The only thing I like to plan is revenge. No, don’t say that.

  “Have you heard of the Orwell Papers?” asked Telisa.

  “No.”

  “It’s a plan to overthrow the UN government. The important part, we believe, is the analysis of the power structure. Almost all the power is in the hands of a hundred individuals or less. I’m betting those are where the Trilisks are hidden. So we’re going after them with our fingers crossed.”

  “Wow! I’ll read through it,” Siobhan said.

  Damn. That’s crazy. We’re crazy!

  “Dangerous enough for you?” Telisa asked innocently.

  Siobhan laughed. “I think it’ll keep me stimulated.”

  “Okay, good. Absorb thi
s material. We’ll plan more later.”

  Telisa left Siobhan to grab some food. Siobhan dug into the information. She began to think about just how large the task before them was. Yet she knew they could do it. She gained confidence and knowledge as she made her way through it, until she reached the biographies of the top one hundred.

  Siobhan’s blood ran cold. She saw a name she knew. Kagan Spero.

  Kagan was a powerful force in Speronautics Space Fabrication Corporation. The Spero family kept a tight rein on the oligarchical company. This was the family that had enslaved her ancestors on a space habitat.

  It’s probably not actually a series of family members. It’s probably just one immortal Trilisk. A Trilisk responsible for it all.

  Siobhan left the mess and went for a long walk around Clacker, burning off a surge of angry energy.

  That bastard is a Trilisk. Or he works with them. He is so dead.

  Chapter 4

  Admiral Sager looked at his personal VR quota. He had stored up the maximum rollover hours, so if he did not find time today to use some, it would be gone forever.

  I should be able to leave them to my progeny, he thought dryly. I guess I should get some progeny before worrying about that one.

  The acting captain of the Bismarck spent so much time working on real world issues he barely got into personal VR anymore. Of course, that was exactly what the Space Force wanted, except when it came to training. Everyone spent a few hours training in virtual environments day in and day out.

  He sat on the observation deck, even though there was nothing to see. With the gravity spinners spooled up at full power, the ship’s particles were forced into tachyonic state and they had left the normal universe behind. The smooth black tables and chairs of the deck were lit through the observation portal with the cool blue flame of their gravity envelope.