It must have been trapped down here for hundreds… or thousand of years? How could they survive? They have starved… but even an augmented body would have to eat in this time?
Imanol considered the piles of bones.
Well they didn’t all survive. Maybe the columns provided limited food and water which they had to fight over? Or maybe they figured out how to grow some food. Something down here still works a little bit. It gave me light. Kind of. No wonder they’re all mad as loons though.
“Cilreth? Can you hear me?”
Imanol received no reply. He was on his own.
He considered the situation. The Trilisk base was large; there could be more Trilisks hiding in here. On the other hand, they clearly were not in any shape to threaten Earth. And he had had enough slaughter for one day. He felt the key in his pack.
Maybe I should talk it over with Cilreth?
He felt like he might be second guessing himself. He did not want to continue killing these things. But that was his mission. Was he dodging out on his part of the plan?
No. They aren’t a threat like we thought. I should ask the team what to do about them. Maybe we could take them prisoner and learn from them.
He decided to head back to the surface and check if he could raise Cilreth from there. He sent one attendant ahead to check the entrance and see if anyone or anything had escaped. Then he took a deep breath and walked away from the Temple of Hades.
Chapter 21
Siobhan awakened. She coughed.
I’m dying!
She opened her eyes. Her lungs burned. She coughed again. Looking at the jagged metal sticking out of her, she thought she must be coughing up blood.
Her suit was malfunctioning, but she was able to manually switch to an isolated oxygen supply. She breathed deeply. She could not feel any bubbling in her lung.
The metal had not pierced her lung. She grabbed it and pulled it out. Then she screamed in pain. She rolled over, got her hands and feet under her and stood up. She staggered back into a wall. Blood poured out of the wound in her chest, so she pulled her pack around and grabbed a medical sealant. She wiped the blood clear and sprayed it over quickly. The sealant staunched the flow of blood.
That’s good. The gas… oh. If that was poison, I’m dead anyway.
Siobhan felt ill, but it was not severe. The gas was definitely not pleasant.
I’m just having a psychosomatic reaction to it, she told herself. If it was real poison I would have dropped like a fly in a stunner cone.
Siobhan tried to fight it off. She still found it odd that the substance could nauseate her so thoroughly and yet it was not something deadly meant to kill her.
Maybe just luck. Maybe I only caught a few molecules of something really lethal.
Siobhan’s link told her that her stealth suit had failed. She started to laugh. It was a bit late to the party. She realized she had no weapon. Shiny’s device lay on the floor pitted with debris. She walked over and retrieved it. Her link could not reach it. She saw it had been damaged, but not much.
I suppose it could explode if damaged. I already narrowly lived through one explosion.
Siobhan holstered the Vovokan weapon. She grabbed her shock baton from her belt. The weapon had no range, but it had one overwhelming advantage: it would feel great to brain Spero with it. Siobhan stood up. The gash in the front of her suit was a dangerous weakness: a single projectile in the right spot would kill her.
Siobhan sent her surviving attendant through to the other wing. She staggered after it. She had to find Spero now, because with Shiny’s weapon on the fritz, she would not be able to stop him if he fled.
Should I call the outside ones in, too? No. I need to know if he leaves, track him.
All of her soldier robots were dead. That meant, unless it had been a perfect draw, there were still some Spero security forces somewhere. Siobhan hoped that did not include another of those killer robots. If she ran into one of those, she would soon learn if Shiny’s weapon was disabled, because activating it would be her only hope.
The attendant passed through vast rooms in the center of the compound. These were places for impressing guests: beautiful dining rooms, atriums, and VR parlors. A long balcony overlooking the ocean. Two hallways with a dozen guest bedrooms.
The attendant found a destroyed checkpoint. Blood bespattered the walls. Someone had been killed there.
Spero?
The attendant flew on. Siobhan walked through a wide room with a tiled floor covered in robot parts. More things had died here. There were burn marks but no blood.
She heard a yell from her video feed. A man with silver hair in an exercise suit ran feebly from the attendant. He had some kind of a mask over his face. Something was wrong with his skin.
The attendant identified him as a Trilisk host body.
Spero.
She redoubled her pace, though it hurt, headed toward him. The attendant shadowed him, but then its feed went dead. Siobhan left caution to the wind. She was so close, and out of time. She had to finish him before anything big showed up.
She climbed up stairs and advanced in a crouch toward the room where the attendant had followed Spero. From her position, it looked like an old fashioned office.
Siobhan saw his leg protruding from part of a big desk.
Frackjammers. It would have been nice to have an excuse.
She took a deep breath and entered the room. She felt another rush of adrenaline. Her hand flexed on the handle of the shock baton. Through her link, she told the weapon to discharge its entire energy reserve in the next strike: a lethal dose, even for a superhuman.
Siobhan felt no fear, even though his pistol could inflict lethal damage. She had the shock baton ready. Siobhan charged the desk. She came over the top of it and saw him.
In one instant her brain registered the scene: a man in a gas mask, his face oozing clear liquid and blood from his exposed skin around the mask, struggling to target her with his pistol in a bloodied hand.
The baton arced down onto Spero’s head. Blood sprayed across the wall holding fake books. Siobhan blinked.
“That was for my family,” she said.
Chapter 22
Telisa tipped her head. Telisa3 crouched directly across from her, covering behind a counter. They each wore the green circle jumpsuit of an android. Telisa had her Veer suit underneath, and Telisa3 wore a Shiny-enhanced stealth suit under hers.
You take the left, I have the right.
Apparently she understood herself, since when she charged forward behind the android, Telisa3 went into action. Her faster duplicate vaulted over a counter and tossed two grenades toward the lasers above before Telisa could even catch up to the android she wanted to use for cover.
Telisa got behind the android and fried it with her breaker claw from point blank range.
Krumpf.
The grenades exploded, sending metal parts flying. The android’s body protected Telisa from the shrapnel.
The surviving androids of the checkpoint ran forward to engage them, but the disguises bought them the second they needed.
Blam. Blam, blam, boom.
Telisa3 shot four times before Telisa managed to kill an android with her smart pistol and another with her breaker claw.
Telisa3 started to shoot at spots on the walls and ceiling. Pieces of the base flew through the air in all directions.
Blam, blam, blam.
Sensor stations.
Telisa activated her stealth device. Meanwhile, she heard Telisa3 continue the firefight. Telisa crawled forward out of cover, hoping she was undetectable. Telisa shot a couple targets as they presented themselves, first an android and then a heavier security machine. She noticed something wrong.
The corridor is narrower. It’s closing up!
“They’re closing it up!” Telisa3 transmitted. “Choose a side, quick!”
“Get ourselves out of here,” Telisa said, running for it. “The people here are prisoners, but the
y’re not in any immediate danger.”
“Yes. Let’s focus on the Trilisks and we can free them later if we win.”
The corridor closed behind her. Telisa had not even noticed that aspect of the design earlier; she had assumed the androids and lasers were sufficient obstacles to secure Skyhold.
The Trilisks went to great lengths to make this place secure. Why didn’t they just kill the people? Did the prisoners give them authorizations they needed? Leverage?
She followed Telisa3 toward an exterior docking station.
Clear of the entrance strongpoint, Telisa realized she had no ride home. “How did you get here?” she asked.
“Vovokan shuttle,” Telisa3 said. “I’ve summoned it.”
Telisa saw from the docking station status monitors that a ship was coming in.
“Can it mate with the dock?”
“Not this one. Quick spacewalk!”
Telisa nodded and told her Veer suit to close up. Her faceplate emerged and covered her head, but it had a hole right over her nose.
“Uh, problem.”
“What? Oh,” Telisa3 said.
So that’s what I look like when I’m thinking hard.
“If I could seal it for just ten seconds,” Telisa said.
“Got it,” Telisa3 said. “Glue grenade.”
“Hrm. Ah. Yes, I guess that works.”
“Here, put this over the hole and I’ll use the grenade. I’ll get you free on the other side.” Telisa3 handed her a piece of plastic from a shattered robot panel.
Telisa hesitated.
If you can’t trust yourself, woman, you’ve got issues.
“Okay,” Telisa said. She stood over in a corner of the dock station and held the plastic over her faceplate.
“Here goes,” Telisa3 sent her over the link. She tossed the grenade at Telisa.
Fooosh! Whump.
Telisa stared at fresh foam as it hardened around her faceplate. Her hand was stuck to her face, too.
“You can breathe?”
“Yes. For now,” Telisa said.
“Good, because more androids are here,” Telisa3 said.
Blam. Blam. Krumpf.
By the Five.
“Okay, here we go.” Telisa3 grabbed her free hand and led her toward the lock. Telisa’s link picked up services from the Vovokan shuttle. Her attendants told her it was just outside.
Telisa3 took a minute to get through some safety protocols on the airlock. Telisa’s Veer suit was telling the lock computer its integrity had been compromised, making the lock stubborn. Telisa helped things along by getting her suit to shut up. That did not work, so she just re-cloaked using the stealth sphere.
“That’ll do it,” Telisa3 transmitted. Telisa felt her suit shift subtly as the pressure dropped. Then she was spinning away, but Telisa3 still had a grip on her arm.
Time seemed to pass slowly. Telisa wondered how the other PIT team members had fared, and how many casualties there had been among the Space Force and Earth citizens.
My mission here was an utter failure.
Telisa felt the pull of a gravity-spinner stabilized deck beneath her feet. The shuttle showed itself leaving Skyhold in her PV. Then she smelled solvent. Telisa held her breath and waited.
The dried foam blocking her view melted away. When it looked like most of it had cleared away, she closed her eyes and dropped the plastic panel.
Nasty as the solvent smells, it’s amazing they managed to get it as close to harmless as they did.
Telisa felt fresh air on her face. She told her faceplate to retract. Telisa saw her duplicate and the inside of a Vovokan shuttle cargo area.
“We made it,” Telisa3 said. Telisa saw blood on her arm.
“You got clipped?”
“Yes, my arm. The suit took the brunt of it.”
“Let’s try to raise Cilreth,” Telisa said. She was already trying to open a connection. “Cilreth?”
There was no answer. She tried Jason. The connection went through.
“Telisa! I thought you were dead.”
“Quite the opposite. There’s two of me here. What’s happening?”
“A duplicate? Telisa, I think Shiny’s done way too much damage. The Space Force is reporting an all out attack. They say they’ve taken heavy casualties.”
“Of course they’re saying that. If it’s the Trilisks, they want the populace on their side, hunting for us. If it’s just the Space Force, well, they’ve been expecting an alien attack. Fog of war and all that.”
“I’m sorry, Telisa… I don’t think they could produce a deception on this grand a scale… the web is filling with endless series of images, messages… CWS has been checking it out. They think it’s legitimate. In fact, I’m about five minutes from being arrested here for treason. The only reason they let me talk to you is probably because they’re looking for you.”
Telisa opened her mouth to answer when her PV exploded with warning messages.
“Skyhold is breaking up!” Telisa3 blurted from behind her. “It’s being destroyed!”
“Telisa! What’s that?” Jason asked.
“Skyhold is taking fire. Pieces of it are flying away. I don’t see many surviving this,” Telisa said.
“Can you pick up survivors?” Jason asked.
“I—”
A bright explosion lit the spacescape. Filters snapped on and cut video feeds from outside the shuttle. More alarms went off.
No one survived that.
“The innocent ones on the list are dead,” Telisa said aloud with Jason on the channel. “Plus the Five know how many more.”
There was no answer. Telisa’s PV showed that the explosion had damaged their communications equipment.
“Cilreth, can you hear me?” Telisa’s link routed the request through her attendant sphere.
There was no answer.
“Maintain course and speed,” Shiny’s voice said. “Planning rendezvous.”
“Shiny! By the Five, what’s going on?”
Shiny did not answer.
“Shiny!”
Chapter 23
Cilreth struggled to shore up the Clacker against the cyber-attack.
The rogue elements had expanded to a third of Clacker’s capacity. Cilreth had launched three iterations of a cleaning program, all of which were running on a subset of the ship’s cores. She split her time between writing the next version and managing the ones she had running. The first version had been broken by a counterattack. Thereafter it had made things worse. Cilreth had almost lost control by the time she realized all of the version one programs were pretending to be working but were actually busy doing nothing.
Cilreth kept checking her newer programs. If she spent all her time on the next version, her defense might collapse before she could push it out. She felt a crisis coming on.
I can’t do this. I’m losing.
“Hi! What’s the situation?” Cilreth2 said, appearing behind her.
Cilreth started, then stood up to yell.
“Where the HELL have you been! Cthulhu awakes! Something has been trying to take over! I half thought it was you!”
Cilreth2 lost her smile fast. “I’m on it. Fill me in,” she said, settling into a spare chair. She closed her eyes and brought up her Vovokan work PV.
“A pool of resources keeps going rogue. At first it was small and wasn’t growing. Hiding. I killed off several batches, then it gave up hiding and went open warfare with me.”
“Damn, you’re not kidding. Who could it be? Trilisks?”
“Shiny, I think,” Cilreth said. “Shiny or Trilisks. Can’t be Space Force. Unless it’s an AI and it has good inside information.”
“Maybe one of the PIT team got captured.”
“Work on the next iteration of this,” Cilreth said. She passed herself the task. “I’m going to work with what I already have out there.”
“Got it. Me to the rescue,” Cilreth2 said. Cilreth was too beaten down to appreciate the humorous enthusias
m.
They worked silently for long minutes. Cilreth felt like she held her own at first, then the slide continued. Her only advantage—owning more than half the computing power—was almost gone.
“I found a pattern. The new rogues always appear at the terminus of one of these calls,” Cilreth2 said. “We can turn that system off here. I think it might stop the spread.”
“Those are supposed to… what? That sinks distributed results into an accumulator?”
“No, it’s supposed to prepare to disperse tasks across the work group by updating the work cells with the various infrastructure modules needed for each task. In this case, the enemy is riding on that.”
“So we can stop it, but it will cost us the ability to deploy new jobs across the worker cells.”
“I’ll let this one loose, and solve that problem next. We can still deploy jobs as long as they don’t need different modules than the old ones, which is restrictive but better than nothing.”
Cilreth watched the result. It was slow, but she saw that the enemy stopped growing. Its losses could not be replaced. Cilreth took a huge sigh of relief.
“We have it for now,” Cilreth said.
“You said it. For now. Let’s see what’s going on with our friends,” Cilreth2 said. “Wait, what’s this? Communications are down.”
“The rogues shut them down. I didn’t have time—”
“The Space Force is reporting a massive attack, which is expected, but look at these casualty lists. That’s a lot more than the suppression Shiny was supposed to be doing.”
“Unholy Cthulhu! The Bismarck? Skyhold?”
“No way… they must have counted Bismarck out because we captured it?” asked Cilreth2.
“It doesn’t say missing in action anymore. It says verified destroyed.”
“The bug traitored us!”
“Could the Trilisks be making all this up?” asked Cilreth. “After all, they want to galvanize the Space Force against us.”
“They were already paranoid about alien attack. It wouldn’t take any more galvanization. Also, look at this,” Cilreth2 said. She pointed Cilreth at a feed of the Clacker’s long range scan of the asteroid belt. It showed massive changes in moving objects in the belt. Cilreth looked at the largest differences. Each was a large asteroid where a Space Force base had been located. Those asteroids had been broken into millions of pieces.
The Trilisk Revolution (Parker Interstellar Travels) Page 13