Parker Interstellar Travels 6: The Celaran Ruins

by Michael McCloskey

  Siobhan stood unsteadily, already breathing hard. Two more armored creatures walked around stalks and trunks into sight. Siobhan felt something on her ankle. She looked down. The remains of the thing attached to her leg was still trying to bite her. She noted with horror that even the first creature, which she assumed dead, had started to wriggle anew.

  “Hard to kill huh? Oh I will kill you,” she rasped. Another creature came into sight, bringing her total unharmed enemy count to three. She breathed heavily and wiped the gore off her shock baton. This time two of them would arrive at the same time from opposite directions. To avoid this, Siobhan stepped toward one, dragging her right foot with effort. Her left foot fell through the undergrowth, bringing her face to face with the thing coming.

  “Arrrgh!” she yelled in disgust. The creature came into range, clacking. Its limbs and hairs were disgusting. A rich scent assailed her. Siobhan attacked all out, afraid the other would arrive from behind too soon. She thrust the baton into its maw. That stopped its forward march. Then she anticipated its angry charge and met it with an even stronger thrust. The baton cracked against its hard exterior and caused purple mush to ooze out.

  Siobhan heard the other one close behind her and panicked. She pressed the baton down onto the bug before her, supporting herself, and climbed right over it. She almost screamed in frustration at the one clinging to her ankle.

  One free second and I swear I’m gonna smash that jammer off my leg so damn hard!

  Some part of her realized she was making gasping mewing sounds that did not at all sound as ferocious as she would like. She pivoted on the last foe and brought the baton down savagely on the one that had threatened to get her from behind. This time the wet crack was expected. It was spectacular, sending purple goo flying. She smashed it again and again.

  Another two pig-things came forward. They had to run the gauntlet of corpses surrounding her, but she knew they would make it to her. She pried most of the body off the pair of mandibles that stubbornly clung to her leg. That one still struggled despite the mess of its body, but without a pair of jaws, she counted it out of action.

  Her last grenade was ready to blow up if it looked unwinnable. Siobhan struggled for breath. The smell felt like it was suffocating her now.

  I can take one more with me. Always one more. Just kill the next one then I can die.

  Siobhan heard a rattling sound like an angry snake.

  What now? Another creature come to fight for a meal?

  The scavenger pig before her started to thrash in anger or distress. Then it slowed and froze. Siobhan looked over her shoulder at the new danger.

  It was Vincent.

  “Vincent?” she said uncertainly. “Are you helping me?”

  The Blackvine did not answer. It shuffled over. Siobhan’s link picked up noise. Ironically, Siobhan suddenly felt creeped out by the alien. She told herself it was crazy. It had just saved her from monsters trying to eat her.

  Why does the quiet plant freak me out? Because I’m a mess. Fragged.

  Siobhan pried herself up. She was tired, very tired. She did not think she could climb back up into the vines. Besides, what if there were still more of the shooter ants or pigs around?

  “What now?” she asked.

  Vincent’s link sent her a nonverbal command.

  “Prepare.”

  Siobhan rose unsteadily. She looked around.

  “Repair.”

  Vincent held out her laser pistol. Siobhan took it.

  “It’s fine, according it its diagnostics,” she said. She re-armed it and kept it in her hand, searching for enemies.

  Vincent sent more of the nonverbal codes. “Repair. Return.”

  “What?” She sent the nonverbal command for lack of understanding.

  Vincent sent a tendril out. The alien wrapped the tendril around her pistol.

  “Return.”

  “You want it?” Siobhan felt torn. Vincent had just saved her life. Now it wanted something very useful back.

  Vincent pulled the pistol from her hand, but held it between them.

  “Authorize.”

  Oh. It won’t listen to his link. That’s why he asked me to ‘repair’ it.

  Siobhan felt nervous. She decided to help, since she still had her baton. Some paranoid part of her prepared to duck and swing the baton at Vincent if for some inexplicable reason the alien decided to shoot her with her own pistol after saving her. As soon as the thought crossed her brain she realized she could easily prevent that from happening.

  Siobhan accessed the pistol through its link interface. She verified the pistol had her on its no-target lists, then authorized Vincent to use the weapon, while keeping herself as the owner. Vincent would not be able to convince the pistol to shoot her. She gave him permission to inquire status, arm, fire, and add new target profiles.

  That should do it. Unless he’s as good a hacker as Shiny is.

  Apparently, Vincent saw the new services appear in his link. He targeted one of the dead bodies before them and fired. Smoke rose from the disgusting purple mass.

  “Satisfied?” Siobhan asked.

  “Follow.”

  Vincent headed west toward the New Iridar. Siobhan shrugged to herself and followed.

  Chapter 17

  Jason ran across the hardtop toward Telisa. He had not given it a moment’s thought; it was his instant reaction to seeing her drop. Caden was at his side, then outpacing him.

  “Wait for cover fire!” Imanol yelled. Jason’s tactical showed two grenades rolling away from Imanol’s position.

  Blam, blam. Blam, blam.

  “No, cease fire!” Cilreth said. “Let them think the enemy was the battle sphere. Otherwise that ship will destroy us next.”

  Jason did not see or hear the grenades explode. He assumed that Imanol had disarmed them as Cilreth suggested. Jason focused on reaching Telisa quickly. Caden reached Telisa and grabbed one of her arms. Jason grabbed Telisa’s other arm and dragged her with Caden. They seemed to move so very slowly while the reports of projectile fire echoed around the field.

  We can make it out, Jason said to himself, though he feared otherwise.

  Jason looked at Telisa. There was blood on her face. He could not see any holes in her Veer suit, but he knew if it had been penetrated it might reseal and staunch her bleeding. His link checked with her suit. The suit said its occupant was still alive.

  “She’s only stunned,” Jason said hopefully.

  “Who? Where is everybody?”

  Jason was confused for a full second. That female voice... his link identified the speaker as Siobhan.

  “Siobhan!” exclaimed Caden. “Where are you? My tactical shows you approaching the New Iridar from the forest!”

  “Yep, I’m here,” Siobhan said. “I see smoke. The ship isn’t hit is it? Who are we fighting?”

  “The ship? Ask how many times I’ve been hit!” Caden said, holding his head low and pulling Telisa toward the forest.

  “I’m there in a couple minutes!” Siobhan said.

  “Meet us at the New Iridar or beyond. The battle sphere is gone,” Imanol told her.

  The PIT team ran into the vines of the forest. The battle died down behind them. No projectiles or energy beams cut into the forest from the compound.

  If that Celaran ship goes for the New Iridar, we’ll be stuck here forever, or close to forever.

  Caden and Jason stopped to rest about fifteen meters outside the fence. They placed Telisa with her back to a huge vine spire.

  “That was a disaster,” Imanol said.

  “We got rid of the battle sphere,” Telisa mumbled.

  “You’re back! Take it easy,” Jason said.

  “Temporary brain scramble,” Telisa said. “Luckily I’m only a copy,” she said, managing a slight smile.

  “Siobhan is back,” Caden told her, already loping off toward the New Iridar.

  “Follow him,” Telisa ordered, though she did not move.

  Jason sta
rted to prop her up. “No hurry, I think,” he said. “The Celarans aren’t pursuing us.”

  “I think they’re smarter than we give them credit for,” Cilreth said. “They know we’re not violent.”

  “Well, at least they’re peaceful,” Telisa said. “They only defend themselves if attacked.”

  Telisa stood. Jason hovered nearby, ready to help.

  She’s probably recovered. And once again, several times stronger than me, Jason thought.

  “Catch up with Caden,” she said, moving forward. Jason could tell she was not one hundred percent because she did not use her amazing strength to leap up to a wider vine above.

  “Tall order. Wunderkind wants his girlfriend back,” Imanol said. But he ran up the vine and tried to catch Caden.

  By the time Jason and Telisa arrived, Caden stood below the New Iridar.

  Jason checked the map. It showed Siobhan and Vincent were almost there.

  “Be careful,” Jason said. “This could be a deception.”

  “Hey! The green recruit is paranoid!” Imanol said proudly.

  “He’s not green anymore,” Telisa said, readying her weapon. “Like he says. Stay sharp.”

  Jason walked over and took partial cover at the base of a vine. There were no attendants for him to command, but a Terran scout machine lingered near the New Iridar. He added its video feed to his attention cycle. The view flipped into his PV rotation periodically.

  Siobhan emerged from the forest with Vincent beside her.

  Caden loped forward and embraced her.

  “I thought you were a goner for sure,” Caden mumbled against her. Siobhan simply clung to him tighter.

  Jason glanced at Imanol, but his acerbic companion did not say anything. He looked pleased.

  “Vincent found me at a critical moment. Maybe saved my life.”

  “I take back everything I said about him,” Imanol said.

  Maybe Imanol is human after all.

  “Is the New Iridar in danger? Are we in danger?” Jason asked.

  “Let’s move the ship back,” Imanol suggested.

  “What few eyes we have left are showing me everything is over,” Telisa said. “The ship is gone. The guardians are out, but not shooting at anything.”

  “The ship left?”

  “No, New Iridar says it’s back in the building,” Cilreth said.

  “Everyone in,” Telisa ordered. “I’ll get patched up. You guys size up the damage to the Celarans. We need to find out if we’re enemies now.”

  “Where did Vincent rescue you from?” Jason asked as he entered the ship.

  “The Celarans gave me the look over,” Siobhan said. “Though I saw only robots. Then they dropped me off in the forest with my stuff. My suit is damaged and out of power.”

  “By the Five,” Telisa said. “I’ve screwed this up eight ways from extinction. We started this battle to try and get you back, but you were probably already released. Now we’ve made enemies of them.”

  “Maybe,” Siobhan said. “The battle sphere is gone?”

  Telisa did not answer. Jason could tell she was angry with herself.

  Everyone rested for an hour and waited to see what would happen. Jason sat alone in his quarters and thought about his life.

  Am I a core worlder or a frontiersman? Is this life better? Am I going to die too soon out here?

  It seemed to Jason that one felt truly alive when danger threatened, yet that danger would eventually end his life. How could anyone balance that?

  The core worlders had come to find that when they lived their virtual adventures in artificial worlds, their fun was muted by a lack of danger. Slowly new replacements to physical danger had been introduced, such as monetary penalties and bursts of pain used to provide meaning to failure in virtual reality. Some extremists actually suppressed or replaced their memories so that they did not know they were in a simulation until they died and woke up. A fraction of those maintained that their current life was also a simulation, and that they would awaken to a new reality when they died.

  Jason saw now how those replacements paled compared to the incentives provided by real life on the frontier. An urgent message interrupted his thoughts.

  “Interesting advance in the cargo bay,” Cilreth announced. Jason left for the work area set up there.

  “What?” Telisa asked on the channel.

  “This is important. I think. Maybe. Look at these items. The all purpose laser, the unknown baton here, and this plain rod with all the complicated sub-sections of different materials... they are all the same mass. Just over three kilograms.”

  “That’s all?” Imanol asked. “Some of us are hurt, you know.”

  “Interesting,” Telisa said.

  “It’s important,” Cilreth said, though she sounded like she might be convincing herself too. “I mean they are all exactly the same mass.”

  “That is important, it must be,” Caden said.

  “They were made from this,” Siobhan asserted, picking up the plain rod. “These other two things started out like this thing.”

  “Ah, wow. Some kind of generic base material rod? But don’t these two things require different materials?” asked Caden.

  “They do. Kind of. Terrans would have used different materials. But these aliens—they like to be flexible, you know? They would have the same attitude about their materials. They have the variety they need here in this base rod. They would use materials that have a wide range of different uses. Like structural insulator, and a flexible conductor, vice-versa, each material selected for more than one possible function. Then through some advanced manufacturing process, maybe nanomachines, I don’t know, they transformed it into what they needed.”

  “But we don’t use different materials just for fun,” Imanol said. “We do it because for any particular function, we choose the best material, well, tempered by its price anyway.”

  “These things have more than one function.”

  “But their components each do one thing... wouldn’t they?”

  “Imagine how much cheaper it would be to equip a new colony if you just manufactured these generic rods and could make a hundred different tools from the same thing?”

  “It might even be programmable,” Cilreth said. “Reconfigurable!”

  “Amazing, if you’re right,” Caden said.

  “The end result is inferior or we’d do this too,” Imanol maintained.

  “We prefer our way. They prefer theirs. They have different goals and ways of weighing success and failure,” Telisa said. “You would have five tools Imanol. Each one may do its job very well. A Celaran only has to carry one tool instead of five. It might not be quite as good as each of your tools, but it was cheaper.”

  “And lighter! They are probably flyers, remember? One light multifunction rod would be important,” Jason said.

  Telisa nodded. “Exactly! See, it probably makes sense for them.”

  “That weight, or a multiple of it, is probably at an upper limit of what they would to carry with them on a flight,” Caden said.

  “That reminds me. I found out something about the laser,” Telisa said. Telisa looked at the device, then she held it before her, level with the ground. Then she took her hand away. It floated in place.

  “Whoa,” Caden said.

  “Wowsa, it hovers?” Cilreth said.

  “As Jason says, perfect for a flyer. Or a glider,” Telisa said. “They’re all light. And this can hover. I bet the other one can, too.”

  “I’m working on verifying that these two different rods used the same material somewhere inside for two different reasons. Like something used as an insulator in one device that was used structurally in the other, something like that,” Cilreth said.

  “Okay, your theories sound good. I’d like to know what the other fully formed rod does,” Imanol said. “That one’s a laser. What’s this?” Imanol pointed to the other tool.

  “I can’t figure it out yet,” Cilreth said. “But the b
attery is smaller and it’s much more mechanically complex.”

  “I’ll have a crack at it,” Telisa said.

  “What’s the plan, then? Just leave with what we have? Maybe take some parts from the houses?” Jason said.

  “No, we have to neutralize the rest of the guard machines,” Telisa said. “Or convince them to ignore us like they ignore Vincent.”

  “Then we would have access to all the toys,” Caden said.

  “I believe that’s a spacecraft in there,” Telisa said. “The thing that defeated the battle sphere. That’s our objective. I think we could trade a Celaran spacecraft for Magnus.”

  “That’s great! I agree. Surely Shiny would go for that,” Siobhan said. “What’s Magnus compared to an alien spaceship? I mean, to Shiny. Of course he’s worth it to us.”

  “That’s the plan. I hate to destroy more of the Celaran’s stuff, but, first of all, I don’t think any of them are here. Our need is great. Secondly, well, we already blew a bunch of stuff apart starting that fight with Shiny’s battle sphere. As far as the Celarans are concerned, whether there are any of them or their AIs here, we are enemies. I’m skeptical they appreciate the distinction between the Vovokan battle sphere and us. If there is one. I mean, I decided to initiate that battle.”

  “Also, we have the attendants around us, also Vovokan,” Imanol pointed out. “If an alien or an AI has watched us carefully, then they would probably conclude we are allies with the Vovokans. And we were at one time.”

  “We’re going to set up an ambush,” Telisa said. “The towers in our direction are destroyed. I’ll go out onto the concrete or whatever it is, and when they come to get me, you’ll be ready to snipe the security machines. Everyone, long range weapons. A mix of lasers and projectiles, please. Be ready in five minutes.”

  “No, that’s not the way to go about it!” Siobhan said.

  “Really?”

  “They let me go. I was rudely examined, sure, but they let me go and even let me keep my equipment!”

  “But we just had a major battle with them. They might not be so friendly now!”