The Trilisk Ruins (2 page)

The estate looked sharp. A well-trimmed
lawn bordered the house and the office, which were joined by a
second-story walkway. She wondered if the grass was real. If so, it
was wintergrass, since it had doubtless already snowed a couple of
times up this high.

The gate opened for her and offered her
link a map to her interview. She saw the pathway in her mind,
marked by a red line on a bird’s-eye map. Kind of old fashioned,
she thought. Most location finders these days just superimposed red
arrows over a person’s regular perspective view. Less chance of
getting mixed up that way.

She followed the map through the front
yard and into the building. She stepped through a sparsely
decorated atrium and towards the office that was highlighted in her
mind. A man in a suit met her at the open doorway.

“
Come on in, Ms.
Relachik.”

“
Thanks. I appreciate you
calling me in for this interview, Mr. Parker,” Telisa smiled and
followed the man into the office. He looked about forty, with
short, straight brown hair. She thought his face looked a little
rough and too thick set, but his smile softened it a bit. Telisa
thought she detected a confidence in dealing with
people.

“
Please, call me Jack,” he
said. “Would you like a drink?”

“
No thanks, Jack. Telisa.
Call me Telisa, I mean,” she said nervously.

“
Okay. Just relax,” he told
her. “I can see why one might be a bit nervous for an interview
like this. Hard times, I hear, for xenoarchaeologists,” he said.
“Please don’t take that wrong. I’m not commenting on your current
state, just the way things stand in general.”

“
That’s true enough,” she
replied. “You must be interviewing many people.” Telisa made the
comment to probe about her competition.

“
No, actually you’re the
only one,” he said, smiling widely and leaning back in his
chair.

Telisa raised her eyebrow at him. “The
only one? Why’s that?”

“
I’ve checked you out,” Jack
told her. “I read your stuff. I was impressed by what you had to
say, and I think you’re just what we’re looking for.”

Telisa just looked at him for a moment.
“That’s incredible,” she replied, somewhat stunned. “I didn’t know
that my papers were being read by potential employers, unless I
gave them out myself.”

“
I also know that you were
rejected by the UNSF patrol, and that you’ve been speaking against
their policies rather strongly.” As Telisa bristled, he held up a
hand and continued. “Please don’t take offense at my probing of
your personal business, Telisa. But you must understand my
position. I can’t afford to hire someone with connections to the
space force. As a private collector of alien artifacts, you must
know that I’m sometimes... at odds with the government.”

“
You’re a smuggler.” It was
a statement, not a question. If true, Telisa realized that meant
Jack operated against the tight controls set out by the United
Nations Space Force.

“
I investigate alien
cultures. I collect artifacts. If I do that without the
government’s permission, and you feel that makes me a smuggler,
then you may call me that. But you’re like me, in that you place
your fascination of things alien above all else. That’s why I know
I’m safe in extending an invitation for you to join my team. This
may be your only chance to get your hands on real artifacts, do
real work, without being in the UNSF.”

“
That explains a lot,” she
said. “Like why a guide business is interested in hiring someone in
my line of study. And why the real face-to-face interview.” Telisa
had checked the official disposition of the company before showing
up. Parker Interstellar Travels was supposed to be an agency
providing guides for hunting and tourism expeditions to undeveloped
planets, as well as providing freelance mapping of faraway places
for potential property buyers and planet information
directories.

“
Well, I think the job is a
perfect fit. And I don’t think you’ll find a better opportunity
anytime soon because of the shutdown on harvesting new artifacts,”
Jack said. “Officially, we have a side business of trading
artifacts that were found in past years, all registered and found
to be harmless by UNSF inspectors, of course. On the record, your
expertise is needed to help us avoid the rampant fraud by
identifying real items from fake ones.”

“
Looks like you make a good
living at it,” she said, pointedly taking a look around the room.
The office was lavishly furnished, and there were a few artifacts
in the room sitting on the desk and the bookshelves. “I assume I’m
supposed to point out that this Talosian on your desk is
fake?”

Jack smiled. “I was hoping that you
might notice that, yes. How could you tell, without even picking it
up?”

Telisa grabbed the fake and squeezed it
in her slender hands. “Talosian stuff is always concave. They made
everything thinner in the middle of the piece than at the top,
unless that would make the item functionally useless.”

“
Ah yes, of course. That’s
very observant of you. The job I have to offer, though, is
considerably more exciting than merely identifying fake artifacts
in our offices.”

“
Is the money
good?”

“
The money can be good, if
you know what you’re doing. But I’m not trying to lure you with
money, Telisa. I’m guessing that the chance to get your hands on
real Trilisk artifacts is more of an incentive.”

“
Trilisk artifacts! How
could you—”

“
I can. A lot of them, and
ruins that no one has been to yet. You’d be breaking new ground,
and who knows what we can find? Get back to me and let me know your
decision, but make it quick. I can’t sit on this for long, and the
expedition is going out very soon.”

“
I’m interested. But I’ll
need more details to make my decision,” Telisa said.

Jack nodded. “If you link in, I have an
information package ready for you.”

Telisa activated her link just by
thinking about it. The device in her head connected with the office
computer and received the file that Jack had referenced so that she
could look it over later.

“
The position starts at 4200
ESC per year,” he told her. “And your duties, outlined in here, are
as I’ve already mentioned.”

Jack paused for a second, then
continued.

“
Your real duties, however,
include advising my team on the probable function and value of
artifacts we find, as well as helping us identify and navigate
alien facilities. We have limited cargo space, and so I have to be
choosy about what to bring back. Also included is a small personal
cargo allotment for anything you might want to recover for
yourself.”

“
How shall I contact you?”
Telisa asked, somewhat overwhelmed by the suddenness and enormity
of what he offered.

“
Voice is fine, my numbers
are in the brief,” he said simply. “If you have additional
questions of a mundane nature, just send them along and I’ll answer
them quickly. If you have more delicate questions, about your
actual role, then please just come back in, no appointment
necessary, and I’ll answer them before you give us your final
decision.”

“
Thank you, Jack. I’ll get
back to you tomorrow. I trust that’s not too late?” she smiled,
half joking.

“
That’d be fine, Telisa. If
you decide to come on, we can meet again and discuss our first
expedition.”

“
That sounds great. Thank
you.”

Jack escorted her to the door, and they
shook hands again. Telisa left on a high of new ideas and
possibilities.

***

Jack watched Telisa leave with a hop in
her step. He could tell that she would have to digest this for a
while to absorb all the implications. She would be full of
questions tomorrow.

Thomas was in Jack’s office as he
walked back in. His friend was taller and thinner, wearing a worn
leather jacket in contrast to Jack’s impeccable business
suit.

“
Jesus, Jack, you have
balls. I can’t believe you just told her all that. The daughter of
a UNSF captain.”

“
I know what she thinks
about the patrol already. She never talks to her father, the whole
family has been permanently fragmented. It’s so obvious that it
couldn’t be a trap. The UNSF would never select someone so
obviously connected to the military to be a spy. Besides, I didn’t
admit to doing anything illegal, just alluded to it.”

“
Well, I hope you know what
you’re doing. Don’t let her good looks cloud your
judgment.”

“
I won’t. But she does look
even better incarnate than her pics on the net,” Jack replied.
Telisa had surprised him with her long black hair and slim figure.
She had smooth, almost perfect facial features and a good
smile.

“
Shall we take precautions
anyway?” Thomas asked.

“
Everything looks good, but
let’s stay in practice. Follow her and keep monitoring her
link.”

“
You better pack your bags
in case this all goes wrong.”

“
It won’t come to that.
She’s one of us. I know what I’m doing.”

***

Telisa spent a sleepless night in
contemplation of her opportunity. She needed a job. So far she had
spent her adult life as a parasite, producing nothing for herself,
her family, or society. And now someone had approached her offering
the very thing she sought. And in her field.

But Jack had been very straightforward
about the fact that what he was doing wasn’t quite on the level.
How could he trust her? How could she trust him, knowing that he
was into illegal trading of artifacts?

Artifacts that she desperately wanted
to find and investigate for herself. What did the stupid UNSF think
it was doing, anyway, trying to keep her from the legacy left by
dead races for the whole universe? She hated the space force, hated
her father, and didn’t give a rat’s ass about their oppressive
laws. But she could end up in trouble, handling illegal artifacts,
even helping to bring them to Earth or other developed
planets.

In the end it was the Trilisk artifacts
that convinced her. Or so she told herself. She wouldn’t do
something crazy just out of sheer boredom, would she? The lure of
adventure was strong to Telisa, who had led a sheltered, purely
academic life. But mostly it was the Trilisk artifacts.

The Trilisk were advanced almost beyond
human understanding, and the few artifacts from that race that were
in human hands were enigmas of the highest order. If Telisa could
get her hands on enough Trilisk items to achieve some kind of
critical mass of understanding, she could become the foremost human
authority on the lost race. Understanding such an advanced race
would surely have an impact on the way future humans would
live.

She wanted to be a part of that
discovery, bringing about those changes by unraveling the mysteries
of the Trilisks, or other alien cultures for that matter. What
could be more fascinating than the devices left behind by dead
races, beings that didn’t share anything with humans except
intellect and the ability to create tools?

She contacted Jack in the morning and
told him that she was interested in joining his group. He seemed
very pleased and told her that she could come over to his house and
meet the rest of the team after lunch. When she arrived at the
estate, she was greeted at the gate by a tall, dark-haired man in
an old leather jacket.

“
I’m Thomas. Come on
in.”

“
Are you a part of the
expedition team?”

“
Yes. I’m the pilot, also a
business partner of Jack’s. We’ve been working together for several
years now.”

“
So you’ve been on a lot of
expeditions?”

“
Smaller stuff, here and
there.”

Telisa thought that was a suitably
elusive answer for a smuggler. For a moment she wondered if she had
gotten involved in something she shouldn’t have, until she thought
of the Trilisk artifacts again. Telisa was so absorbed by the
wonder of superior alien technology that she’d take some risks to
study it.

Thomas looked better than Jack, she
decided. It wasn’t only his height, but his face looked smoother,
thinner, and yet his dark eyes were mysterious. The classic tall,
dark, and handsome. Telisa didn’t generally go for older guys, but
if she did then she’d pick one like this, she thought.

The two walked to a meeting room on the
first floor of the large house. They were met there by another man
with blond hair and a strong build. He looked handsome despite a
roughness of his facial features. His physical presence was
intimidating, although his hazel eyes seemed friendly. He wore some
kind of armored one-piece garment in black and red.

“
Telisa, this is Magnus. He
handles our...” Thomas trailed off.

“
I’m a military advisor to
the team,” Magnus explained calmly.

“
A military advisor,” Telisa
said neutrally, trying to hide her surprise. It was as if this
group was straight out of the action VRs. Magnus seemed very
reserved, calm, and he regarded her openly. She felt her heart
beating in her chest under his scrutiny.