The Trilisk AI (Parker Interstellar Travels #2)

by Michael McCloskey

  Arlin fired the remora. The device was a disc just large enough for a man to stand on. It ate up the distance between the ships until approached the target. Then it slowed and latched onto the skin of the smuggler ship. Relachik thought he could feel it launch, a small vibration through the ship, but it might have been his imagination.

  “The remora is down. Arming it now,” Arlin said. Relachik noted that Arlin also matched the ship’s spinner to the target ship’s drive.

  “Here we go,” Arlin said. The remora discharged into the smuggler ship, causing electronic disruption meant to cripple them. Arlin moved the Vandivier up to dock. Relachik abandoned his probes and headed for the exit.

  Cilreth waited at the lock. She held a stunner.

  Relachik noted a slugthrower strapped to her back. She had a grenade on a utility belt at her waist. Relachik nodded his approval. She handed him his gas mask and a stunner. He checked his pistol, which he already had on him. He felt remarkably calm. He knew it was the result of all the training. He felt their ship come into contact with the other starship.

  “Something’s wrong,” Arlin transmitted.

  There goes the training. “What?” snapped Relachik.

  “The remora hasn’t totally disabled the ship. Somehow it’s still mostly functioning in there.”

  “Can we fire another one?”

  “Not this close. Wait. Maybe I can manage something...”

  Relachik took a deep breath. Waiting at this point was painful. “I’m going to try and force the door,” he said.

  “Okay, but I don’t think it will work yet. I almost have the last remora ready to try again.”

  Relachik prepared to pry the airlock doors. We’re giving them time to prepare for us.

  “You might want to step outside our lock,” he said. “You know, just in case.”

  Cilreth saved her usual wry comments and stepped outside the lock. Relachik opened the Vandivier’s outer lock and commanded their invasion apparatus to move into place. The device started to attack the lock door, but it remained firmly shut.

  “The other remora is in place,” Arlin reported. “Stand out of the lock and I’ll activate it.”

  Relachik stepped back to join Cilreth. They heard a dull crack.

  “There, that’s better,” Arlin said. “No, there’s still something odd. Maybe they have countermeasures against it? It’s not working right.”

  “This is Leonard Relachik,” he sent to all local receivers. “I’m here to speak with my daughter, Telisa.”

  “Telisa. Elsewhere.”

  “What? Where are you? Open up,” Relachik said.

  “Telisa. Travel. Harvest. Return. Planet below.”

  Arlin walked into the lock, holding his rifle and a grenade.

  “Your English sucks. Where are you from?” Relachik demanded.

  “Planet below.”

  Relachik and Arlin exchanged looks.

  “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”

  “Telisa is working with an alien,” Relachik said aloud. “Either that, or they want us to think she is.”

  And that doesn’t surprise me much. I should have told them about it.

  “Open the door. Let us in.”

  “Stop. Halt. Desist.”

  “We’re coming in now, whether you like it or not,” Relachik said. “Open it if you want your outer lock door to remain operational. If I have to cut it, it’ll be destroyed.”

  The lock door opened. The second door beyond opened as well, leading into a perpendicular corridor.

  “Ambush?” Arlin asked Relachik and Cilreth on a private channel.

  “Masks. Grenades,” Relachik answered. They slipped their masks on. Arlin and Relachik rolled their grenades into the airlock. Once activated, the grenades accelerated themselves, rolling along the deck to the corridor. Arlin’s grenade broke left, Relachik’s right.

  “What have you done with my daughter?” Relachik broadcast.

  “Mutually beneficial contract, deal, relationship. Recommendation: await her return.”

  The grenades reported their activation. The gas was invisible but Relachik’s mask told him the grenades had worked a second later when it detected the gas in the air.

  “Cargo should be on our right,” Cilreth said. “I looked up this design. UED scout ship. We probably want the left corridor.”

  Relachik nodded. He and Arlin took the left route.

  A golden thing stood in their way, just ten meters ahead. It had more legs than Relachik could easily count. Its head was at the height of his chest, a featureless knob with tiny tentacles on the underside. Its presence struck him hard. Of course, he had not really doubted their existence after the battle at the space station where he had helped Telisa escape, but seeing one in person was different. He knew he wasn’t looking at a virtual feed.

  Five Entities. The aliens are real. And here.

  They raised their rifles and pointed them at the thing.

  A moment later Arlin exploded across the deck. Relachik staggered, covered in gore.

  Relachik raised his weapon and fired. His round said it acquired the target, but a second later it was clear the shot had no effect.

  Cilreth cowered behind a carbon strut for a second, then she turned and ran down the right corridor.

  She’s going to find Telisa? Even braver woman than I thought.

  A flash of pain erupted in his legs and rose into his gut. He fell to the deck. What—

  Chapter 21

  Magnus sat outside the vault, regarding the battle-torn cavern around them.

  I’m a long way from home. Or am I? Where is home for me, anyway?

  He shrugged to himself. Somewhere along the way, home had become an outmoded concept for Magnus. Telisa came out with some food bars. They started to eat.

  “It’s time to flip our thinking,” Telisa said.

  “We cost them a lot. It’ll never work again.”

  “Exactly. So we turn it on edge. Use the fact it won’t work again to our advantage.”

  “Okay. The destroyer machines do learn, though a bit slowly,” Magnus said.

  “So suppose we put out a huge number of signatures again, ones that they are sure to ignore, and include the seed!”

  “Ah, that might work. They’ve learned to ignore our false signatures, so now they ignore the seed,” Magnus said. “It reminds me of what Shiny said. He figured out how the Trilisk facility worked, then he used it against the destroyers. And they couldn’t keep up with his tricks.”

  “If they manage to discern our false signals somehow, it’ll still be dangerous. Also, they’re not totally ignoring the signals. Just moving much more slowly than before.”

  “I don’t want to give them too much time to figure it out,” he said. “I could toss in a few signals over destroyers again, too.”

  “But we don’t want them to come after it before we start the ruse either. All the fakes and our real one should become visible at the same time.”

  “Agreed. Okay. Let’s just get it up to the vault entrance and then we’ll let loose,” he said.

  Magnus looked at the floating cache of artifacts and frowned.

  “What?” she asked.

  “That weapon you used. It saved us once. It might again. Just in case. I know you can’t take out the whole destroyer fleet with it, but it might make the difference.”

  Telisa nodded. She set the key down and let the shelves deploy the collection. The amazing container unfolded and spread the items out over the shelves. Telisa grabbed the weapon and put it over her shoulder with a makeshift sling she had added. They put all the other artifacts onto the shelves. Then she grabbed the key and it all collapsed again.

  “We need to bring that thing along next time, if there is a next time,” Magnus said. “It’s too useful for carrying stuff.”

  “I hope it can float all the way to the surface. Otherwise, we’re going to have to stop and grab everything again in the middle of all the action.”

&n
bsp; Magnus nodded. He strode back inside, seized the industrial seed, and carried it to the entrance.

  “If you’re almost out of ammunition, you don’t have to carry the rifle, too,” she said.

  Magnus thought about the weapon. It was a bit out of date, but that was exactly what made it valuable to him.

  “It’s hard to replace. The newer weapons have a lot more control restrictions.”

  “I bet our friends on the frontier have ways around that,” Telisa said. “Or we can make our own.”

  “I’ll drop the rifle quickly enough if the need arises,” he said. She seemed satisfied.

  “Ready for take two?” he asked.

  “Yes.”

  “Okay here we go,” Magnus said. “Let’s hope we picked our targets well.”

  The signals activated. He saw them light up on the drone detection network.

  “It’d better work. Scout is running out of power again,” he said.

  “We might be able to find some power source like before.”

  “Let’s just get out of here!”

  “Yeah,” she agreed.

  They double-timed it out of the vault chamber toward the first upward leg. For Magnus, it caused a heavy feeling of déjà vu.

  This time we’ll be successful.

  Scout led the way on the ascent. The spider-like robot flooded the area with its lights, then launched a smart rope and headed up.

  Magnus and Telisa watched their game of cat and mouse with the destroyers through Shiny’s drone network. At first the destroyers did nothing. Then they started to move out sluggishly.

  “They’re going to investigate.”

  “Slowly. We may have time.”

  “I assume the artifact trove thing will float up with us as long as I carry this small leader device.”

  “You may have to drag it. Or we can use another rope. I can get a spare rope ready, just in case.”

  Magnus staggered a bit under the load as he grabbed the line ascender. Telisa steadied him and watched him rise up into the darkness. Scout waited for him at the top. He saw her glance over her shoulder and sweep her light about behind her.

  “Being in back is as scary as being in the lead.”

  “Then get your ass up here!” Magnus said.

  Telisa ascended after them. At her side, the container levitated with her, following the key. Magnus nodded. It made sense for a Vovokan transport device. It had to be able to move anywhere in the tunnels to be useful.

  “We could give Scout the seed and send him on alone,” Magnus said.

  “The idea is logical, yet I don’t want to let the seed out of my sight, or my protection,” Telisa said.

  “I know. Scout could probably make it up a bit faster, though, unless there are new cave-ins or problems ahead.”

  “If Shiny is there to pick it up he might just grab it and leave us here. Let’s just keep going and be flexible.”

  I don’t blame her for wanting to stay close and protect the seed, but what if we get killed because we’re so close to the destroyer’s target?

  They emerged from the top of the first shaft. Things looked pretty much as they had on the way down. The refuse and bodies lay scattered about. Scout had spotted a few of the scavenger creatures, but so far there had not been any signs of large numbers of them.

  The destroyers were slowly finding the false signatures. The machines still moved cautiously.

  “If we have any real Vovokan machines left to distract them, now’s the time,” Telisa said.

  “Okay, I’ll use everything I have,” Magnus agreed.

  They moved out again at a slow run. The adrenaline and their physical conditioning made the pace easy to keep up. If it came to it, their packs held performance enhancers that could drive their bodies closer to the limit at the expense of some excessive wear and tear. Of course, doing that always held slight dangers. Pushing oneself with drugs could result in tendon ruptures, burst blood vessels, or even broken bones.

  We’re beyond slight danger at this point, Magnus told himself as he contemplated it.

  They stopped to re-anchor the ropes. Magnus split his time watching the destroyer display, Scout’s input, and his own sweeps of the area with his light. He saw two small creatures but they did not seem inclined to attack.

  We might make it this time.

  The ascent resumed. Scout had already reached the top. Magnus decided to send it a bit farther ahead than usual and check the coliseum for activity. Telisa continued the ascent at a furious pace.

  “Take a stimulant,” he suggested.

  “Already did, at the bottom of this shaft,” she said.

  He smiled. “Great minds think alike.”

  Magnus took a dose of the stimulant himself.

  “Yes. This is a situation critical enough to warrant a chemical boost. I think we can make it to the top with only one more shot, through that hole over there,” she said, indicating a break in the debris above them.

  As Magnus sent another smart rope up to anchor itself for the next leg, he checked the information from Shiny’s probes. They showed him what he didn’t want to see: a destroyer was coming toward them.

  Magnus responded by setting up two more false signatures between them and the destroyer. The fakes moved slightly away in other directions. The destroyer dispatched smaller machines to investigate.

  “The coliseum-place is wide open,” Telisa said. “There are many connections to it. A destroyer can get there easily.”

  “This distraction may work,” Magnus said.

  They pulled themselves out of the lowest shaft and found the door below the wide open space where they had fought the eerie, suborned Vovokans. Scout didn’t see any threats, though the area was still filled with so much sand and debris an ambush was possible.

  Magnus’s body worked smoothly. He felt strong and his head was clear. He knew this was somewhat the effect of the stimulant, but it also reflected on successful execution thus far. Other than a few minor bumps and scrapes, he remained in peak physical condition.

  “So odd that with all our technology, so much is still riding on our physical capabilities,” Magnus said over his link.

  “That’s the frontier for you, I guess,” she said.

  “As you said, we need more robots for the next expedition.”

  “The next expedition? Ha. But yes. We could even stay up in orbit next time.”

  “That would be no fun.”

  Magnus carried the seed into the sandy interior of the spherical coliseum. Telisa had already shot a smart rope up to one of the exits of the huge chamber. Shiny’s probe hovered nearby, disturbing the sand as it moved. Scout had an anchor rope ready to ascend but Telisa had asked it to wait a moment.

  In case her zombies attack again, Magnus guessed.

  He stared at Telisa’s weapon. It had saved them once.

  “I wish Scout could use that, but I think that weird double-handle is just a bit beyond his manipulation capabilities,” Magnus said.

  “Let’s just get out of here,” Telisa said. “I’ll keep it as our last line of defense.”

  They emerged from the coliseum, out one of the dozens of entrance tunnels with the strange handholds. Magnus noted a grim picture on the probe network display. The nearest destroyer had picked their trail back up. Other destroyers had cleaned up a lot of the real targets. Some of them were returning to the surface, while others still slowly hunted ghost signatures.

  The seed must be a stronger signal than most. I think another one is veering this way from the far side.

  “It’s getting uncomfortably close,” Magnus said about their nearest threat.

  “Then suicide a Shiny drone at it.”

  “No, I think we need Scout to do it. I can paint it with a Vovokan signature. We’re almost out.”

  Magnus didn’t feel any frustration at the prospect of losing Scout. It was a machine, and expendable. That was half the point of its existence. Besides, superior Vovokan-based Scout parts awaited h
im on the Iridar.

  Scout scampered away down a side tunnel toward the destroyer that had been dogging them.

  “Let’s hope that does it,” he said.

  Telisa and Magnus attacked the last major ascent in their return leg. They shot their ropes up and started to climb.

  Suddenly a tremor passed through the entire shaft. A distant rumbling noise came from below. Debris started to rain down. Magnus felt his rope slip. Something struck his shoulder, but he gripped his ascender and made his silhouette as compact as possible. A burst of adrenaline raged through him, spiking his heart rate, but the rope didn’t slip farther.

  “Are you okay?” he asked Telisa, coughing in the aftermath of the sandy rain. He heard Telisa cough in reply. A few seconds later she could speak.

  “Doesn’t the complex usually explode at the last moment just as the heroes pop out?” Telisa asked.

  “It seems to be a bit ahead of schedule,” Magnus said.

  Magnus saw activity flower across his internal display of the house. Many destroyer machines reversed their courses. New signatures appeared and a few disappeared on the display. A couple of destroyers’ red dots winked blue and disappeared.

  “I think Shiny is putting his last resources into the effort,” Magnus said. “Maybe even some real Vovokan weapons out there.”

  “He knows we’ve almost got it.”

  Telisa’s ascender ground to a halt.

  “It says it’s out of juice,” she reported. “We need another power pack.”

  “There are no other packs for that,” Magnus said. “We’ll have to do this ourselves,” Magnus said.

  “I found one right here,” Telisa said, holding up a new power pack. It told his link it was fully charged.

  “There were no other packs,” Magnus said.

  “You must have—”

  “No, Telisa. I’m telling you. There were no other packs. This is another random event like the appearance of our friend Meer there on your back.”

  “What do you want me to do, toss it down the shaft?” she asked, but she quickly installed it. Of course Magnus didn’t stop her. He knew how badly they needed to get out.

  A few meters farther up, Magnus had almost ascended to the top of his current rope position when his own ascender died. Following Telisa’s lead, he checked his backpack.