The Celaran Solution (Parker Interstellar Travels Book 9)

by Michael McCloskey

  Telisa9’s feet met softer resistance underfoot.

  Even the floor is made of vines here.

  “How’s your hand?” Caden asked Siobhan.

  “I’m fine. Stay focused,” she replied.

  Stay focused. Exactly.

  Telisa9 started to review her attendant feeds and the tactical in her off-retina visual space. She divided her attention between what her own eyes were sending her and what the feeds brought in through her link.

  “Here’s a bug? See that? A big yellow one,” Arakaki said. She pointed. Telisa9 caught sight of it, a long yellow thing with four strong-looking jumping legs.

  “I wonder what’s special about it,” Telisa9 said.

  “Maybe the... owners allow some symbiotic species to come in here to keep the vines healthy,” suggested Siobhan.

  “I’m surprised the vines don’t need Celarans to survive,” Caden said.

  “I’m sure that Trilisk technology can get around any problems maintaining the health of the vines,” Telisa9 pointed out.

  Their surroundings dimmed as they walked into a set of three oval rooms connected by a round tunnel of vine runners. There were no openings for viewing the outside, but Telisa9 saw four alcoves in each room. It gave her the uneasy feeling that guardians had stood there, waiting to attack trespassers.

  Caden shined a light into one of the alcoves. It was empty. He lowered the light toward the floor and stopped there.

  “The vines are darker at the bottom of the alcoves,” he pointed out.

  “Lack of light?” suggested Siobhan.

  Arakaki knelt down to examine the darker sections of vine.

  “Something has hardened the vine integument there. My guess would be that something had been placed there for a long time, but now it’s gone.”

  “Placed there or standing there?” Siobhan asked.

  I guess Siobhan finds this place as disturbing as I do.

  The last oval room had three exits heading into the vine building in different directions and angles of descent.

  “Which way?” Siobhan asked.

  “Lower,” Telisa9 said. “Assuming we’re right about the Trilisk signs, the complex will be below us.”

  Arakaki took the lead again, choosing the middle tunnel which descended at the sharpest angle. Telisa9 followed her. The light dropped significantly. The vines were twisted very closely together to block out the light, and they were several layers of vine walls into the temple.

  Arakaki activated her weapon’s light. The tight beam revealed a long tunnel ahead. Arakaki stopped.

  “See this? More of the dark spots.”

  Her light swept downward, revealing the runner-covered floor. Telisa9 saw the spots. The darker areas were almost brown and ridged like the bark on a Terran tree.

  “Those are like callouses on our skin. The vine casing is thicker there,” Siobhan said.

  “They’re the same distance apart,” Arakaki pointed out.

  “So...” Siobhan prompted.

  “It’s a path?” Caden asked.

  “What?” Telisa9 asked.

  “I think it is,” Arakaki said. “Something walks here. And its feet always fall on the same spots.”

  “Interesting theory, but what gave you that?”

  “Call it a hunch,” Arakaki said. Telisa9 suspected she was being disingenuous, but she could not think of any reason why.

  They resumed their descent. By the time they reached the end of the tunnel, everyone had activated their lights. The team had a fair idea of the layout in this area; Telisa9’s scouting attendant had flown ahead to map a large part of the temple. She saw a centrally located line of four large rooms with at least ten smaller rooms placed around the perimeter.

  Everyone emerged from the tunnel at peak alertness. Caden turned and swept his light back up the tunnel the way they had come and Siobhan illuminated the ceiling with her own.

  Telisa9 looked at the map and matched it to the room. Two small archways led to the left, and the largest archway lay straight ahead. The sweep of their lights revealed the next large room beyond.

  “Which way now?” Arakaki asked.

  Telisa9 pointed straight ahead. Her scouting attendant had observed an interesting pattern on the floor there. Arakaki and Telisa9 marched through the opening side by side, sweeping their lights in all directions.

  The center of the room had a real floor clear of the vines. It was a smooth, round surface of at least 10 meters in diameter. The outside edge was white, but it had a maroon middle with a black symbol in the exact center. The symbol had a thick center band with smaller lines radiating from the edges.

  “It’s a Celaran. Very stylized, but these small lines are the fingers, see? Three on each end.”

  Telisa9 saw it. She agreed with the assessment: though the body of the symbol was shorter and thicker than a Celaran, with longer fingers at each end, it was still the basic shape of a Celaran, like a thick backslash with three spiky arms at each end.

  “Here,” Telisa9 said. “This massive capstone covers the entrance.”

  “That center part is a separate piece? How can you be so sure?”

  “I don’t think Celarans are very keen to decorate the ground. They think of it as a dirty place to be avoided. But where there’s an entrance to an underground lair, the Trilisks would have been sure to make it special to impress the primitive Celarans.”

  “There’s something dense below it. A hollow cylinder,” Arakaki said. “A tunnel.” She shared her attendant’s analysis with the team.

  Telisa9 closed her eyes and concentrated.

  Open.

  “How will we—” Arakaki started. A grinding noise cut her off. The capstone lifted out of its recess in the floor and floated off to one side, revealing a set of stairs.

  “Trilisks,” Caden said by way of explanation.

  Telisa9 felt awe yet again for a race that could create portals which read and interpret the thoughts of any sentient creature.

  Caden led the way down. The bottom of the stairs met a large portal of smooth black material. Telisa9 recognized it as the entrance to a Trilisk tunnel.

  “Will the battle sphere fit in there?” Telisa9 asked.

  “Yes,” Caden answered.

  “Then let’s send it on in. Sure, we could leave it out here to cover our retreat, but now I’d rather have it ahead of us than behind us.”

  Arakaki and Caden nodded. Siobhan looked relieved.

  Why do I care so much if they approve? I’m supposed to be the leader now, Telisa9 reminded herself. I wish Shiny had programmed me to become bolder if we lost our leader.

  Telisa9 linked through an attendant sphere outside the temple to the Iridar.

  “Achaius?”

  “Yes?”

  “We want the battle sphere to lead us in here,” Telisa9 said.

  “I’ll send it to you,” Achaius said. “If there’s real Trilisk resistance...”

  “I know. Even the battle sphere will be outmatched. We’d still prefer it be there.”

  “Three minutes,” Achaius said.

  “Wait here,” Telisa9 said aloud. She checked the stairs for dust. A fine layer covered the steps, except for regular marks that had been disturbed.

  “Something climbed these stairs, maybe recently. There are clear spots... not every step, though.”

  The others started to examine the stairway.

  “It’s a pattern,” Caden said. “Two marks on a step, then one mark over on this side, and every third step is untouched.”

  “Weird. But three feet... guess what that means?” Siobhan said.

  “If there’s a Trilisk in here, wouldn’t it be in a Celaran’s body? There wouldn’t be any footsteps at all,” Arakaki pointed out.

  Telisa9 thought she had a point. What had used the steps?

  “Wait. If we see a Celaran, should we shoot?” Siobhan asked.

  “Absolutely not. Check for Trilisk activity first,” Telisa9 said.

  “Dow
n in the complex, the detectors will be going bonkers, though, right?” Arakaki asked.

  “Uhm, guys, some of my attendants just disappeared,” Caden announced. “I have one left here with me.”

  Telisa9 noticed the same with a shock. All of hers had gone.

  “Everyone’s,” she said.

  “I still have one here, too,” Siobhan said.

  Arakaki looked all around. She had none left.

  “Achaius?” Telisa9 sent. There was no reply. Without the attendant outside the temple, she could not reach the Iridar.

  “Hang tight,” Telisa9 told them. They waited by the stairs for the battle sphere, but two more minutes came and went without any sign of reinforcements.

  “The battle sphere would have been here by now,” Telisa9 said.

  “It’s not coming. I’m sure it got teleported away from here like our attendants,” Siobhan said.

  “Keep those ones we have left close for now,” Telisa9 said. “Tell them to stop orbiting and stay closer to your body.”

  Caden and Siobhan complied. Siobhan kept hers near the equipment at her waist, and Caden told his attendant to hover behind his head, nestled near his backpack. The attendants looked out of place once they had stopped orbiting. Telisa9 supposed she had just grown used to their typical behavior. She remembered how strange Marcant’s attendant bodies for Achaius and Adair looked when they held position.

  “Okay, here’s where we go stealth,” she said.

  Caden and Siobhan had their own stealth devices. Telisa9 had a Terran stealth suit, and Arakaki had borrowed Marcant’s device. Telisa9 knew her suit was the weak link in the group, but against Trilisk technology, it probably did not matter. Could they really hope to hide from the ancient rulers of the Orion Arm of their galaxy?

  “And if we see a Celaran?”

  “You can’t shoot unless it shoots first,” Telisa9 said. “We can’t assume it’s an enemy.”

  Is that order going to get someone killed today?

  “The Celarans are already crazy fast in the air... a Trilisk host body would be even faster,” Arakaki said.

  Do I give up all hope of finding benevolent Trilisks?

  “Okay. If we see a Celaran exhibiting any super-Celaran abilities, we’d better shoot first,” Telisa9 said and activated her suit.

  The rest of her team faded away. They stood in darkness.

  “Hrm, with all of us stealthed, we have no lights,” Caden said.

  Telisa9 added infrared and ultraviolet spectrums to her visual input using her suit visor. Her surroundings remained dim, but she could at least make out the portal.

  “Okay, expanding spectrums works well enough to get us inside. As I recall, the tunnels have an impossible kind of background illumination,” Telisa9 said. She looked back at the others. Her link placed dim green echoforms over her vision at their positions.

  Okay, this is a different problem.

  “I can barely see your echoforms, even right next to me,” Telisa9 noted. “Remember, if you move too far away I won’t be able to see you.”

  Lee had warned her that the cues the Celaran devices used to keep track of each other were directional and extremely weak, designed to look like natural radiation. She had tried to adapt the Terran suit’s method of coordination to the Celaran system, but it would not work completely. It was a good thing, Lee had explained, because if the Celaran cloaking devices told Telisa9’s suit exactly where they were at all times, it would degrade their protection to the level of the Terran technology, which was inferior.

  “On me,” she said, negotiating the last few steps. With her in the lead, at least she knew the others could see her well and she would not have to worry as much about their positions.

  Telisa9 immediately felt uncomfortable without other video feeds. They used the attendants to scout ahead in almost all of their training scenarios. Sometimes in simulated battles, she would lose all her attendants, and that represented the majority of practice she had at operating without them.

  The round portal at the bottom of the stairs led to a blackfield, recessed about five meters into the tube. She reached her finger through and pulled it back, then did the same with her arm. Nothing.

  I hope this isn’t another Trilisk hotel. Or zoo. We don’t need to get stuck in a maze.

  She stepped through.

  The other side was a perfect round tunnel of black ceramic as she had seen in other Trilisk complexes. The ambient light was dim, perfectly even, and seemingly without source. She shook her head at the impossibilities that made up ordinary Trilisk hallways.

  By the Five. Maybe the tunnel isn’t really lit at all. Maybe the tunnel just tells me where it is by putting itself into my mind.

  She took an image capture from her retina with her link. She checked the picture and saw the hallway.

  Okay, it’s real light. I think. I’m like an ant trying to figure out the kitchen counter.

  The teams’ echoforms entered behind her. She started to walk. Within 50 meters, a fork in the tunnel became visible. Telisa9 chose the left tunnel.

  They walked in single file. No noise escaped their dampening fields, leaving the hallway in dim silence. Telisa9 glanced back. Three transparent green ghosts followed behind her.

  We’re playing Haunted Trilisk Ruins. Fun and games, she thought drily.

  The tunnel changed ahead. Her eyes slowly made sense of it as she approached. It was an opening with a wider room beyond. Telisa9 walked in cautiously. Bluish cylinders ran from floor to ceiling, each over a meter in radius. Telisa9 counted four of them in the hexagonal room, placed near corners with two on her left and two on her right.

  No surprise. More Trilisk columns.

  “I just had an awful thought,” she sent to her team. “What if the column on our ship is already in contact with these?”

  “Hopefully Shiny told it to keep quiet. I doubt he really wants Trilisk attention,” Arakaki offered.

  Caden and Siobhan kept their weapons leveled and their mouths shut, physically and electronically.

  If there are Trilisks there, do they see us? Do they care?

  The columns were clean and smooth. Their outer casings were shut. It made her think of the first time she had seen them on Thespera. Her excitement from that first time had soured into nervousness; the Trilisks were dangerous, and their columns were unpredictable.

  Telisa9 imagined foes hiding behind the columns as she led the way in. So many hours of training and dealing with scenario-surprise generators had left her this way. Caden and Siobhan had the exact same thoughts, she was sure, as they fanned out, one to the left and one to the right.

  “Clear on the far right,” Caden said.

  “I can’t see behind these two yet,” Siobhan said from the left.

  Their voices were quiet, almost whispers in Telisa9’s head. She thought about the chain: they whispered in their minds because they were sneaking around, the words transmitted by their links, passed along with emotional metadata to a nebulous Celaran communication system, to be converted to the UNSF inter-stealth-suit protocols so her link could get it from her suit and play it into her brain as whispers.

  “No one behind them on your side,” Caden said, looking across from his position on the right where he could see behind the columns on the left.

  “Same,” Siobhan said, copying his check from her side.

  “Wait! That’s not part of the column, is it?” Arakaki said.

  A spot appeared on the tactical. Telisa9 took two steps forward and saw a tall, skinny ovoid that nestled against the back of the column to their right. It was only about a fourth of a meter wide at its equator, but over a meter tall. Telisa9 walked sideways to get a better look at it. The gray ovoid had a protruding ring around the top at about chest level. She saw some panels set into the tip above the ring.

  Trilisk robot?

  “I’ve never seen anything like it,” Telisa9 said. “You guys?”

  “No,” Siobhan said. She walked forward to
take a look. “This ring has a seam around it. It either turns or comes out, I think.”

  “Don’t pull it,” Caden said. “It could be anything at all.”

  “There’s no way to know without trying,” Siobhan said.

  “We can check the rest of the complex and come back to it,” Caden said.

  Siobhan’s echoform lifted an arm but did not touch the ring. Her ghostly hand ran along the edge of one of the panels.

  Suddenly Siobhan dropped to the floor. Caden dropped to help her almost as quickly. Arakaki actually turned her back on the two and raised her weapon, as if expecting an ambush timed to the distraction. Telisa9 would have been impressed if she had not been gripped by the fear that Siobhan might be dead.

  Siobhan’s echoform twitched unnaturally. Caden hesitated for a half second, then he turned her onto her side to ensure she could breathe. Telisa9 swung the pack off her back and set it down. She dropped to one knee and brought out her medical kit.

  “Open a port!” she ordered.

  This is the second time Siobhan’s gotten into trouble on this planet.

  “I can’t see anything!” Caden said, though his echoform searched the side of her suit. Caden left one hand supporting her head, and put his other hand where her Veer shoulder port should be.

  “Okay, I can feel it,” he said.

  Telisa9 told it to unlock with her link. With Caden’s help, they connected a narrow hose from the medikit to Siobhan’s suit port.

  “Her vitals are strong. Heart rate and blood pressure elevated,” Telisa9 said.

  Siobhan’s upper body rose. She emitted a whimpering sound of distress. Telisa9 noted her own heart rate accelerating from all the excitement.

  “Siobhan. What’s wrong?” Caden asked Siobhan.

  “No injuries,” Telisa9 interjected.

  “I saw something. I mean, I lived something!” Siobhan said.

  “Tell us,” Telisa9 ordered, keeping part of her attention on the medikit feed.

  Arakaki had remained on guard the entire time. Telisa9 let her teammate continue to watch for trouble and attended to Siobhan with Caden.

  “It was awful! Like an alien nightmare. I know, that sounds dumb, even impossible...”