The Trilisk AI (4 page)

Telisa
frowned.

“I’m
sorry. I didn’t know.”

“Telisa,
Magnus retrieve artifacts. Destroyers, invaders, conquerors, less likely to
attack primitive species.”

“How
wonderful. The destroyers of your planet have occupied it?”

“War
machines linger. Hunt. Eradicate.”

“But
they won’t hunt us, right? That’s why you’re sending us down?”

“Likely
you will survive,” Shiny transmitted. “Likely success for both parties.
Benefit, profit, gain to be had for all three.”

“Likely
we’ll survive? Your salesmanship needs some work.”

“Shiny
is not a salesman. Shiny is not a man.”

“We
need to talk about it privately first,” Magnus said.

“The
channel is secure,” Shiny transmitted.

“Telisa
and I need to talk for a moment, so stand by please.”

“Acceptable.
Telisa and Magnus negotiate terms as a sub-alliance?”

“Perhaps,”
Telisa said.

“Sounds
dangerous,” Magnus told her on a private channel.

“It
is. But as he says, we have a lot to gain. And I’m tired of hiding. At least on
an expedition we’ll feel like we’re just out of touch, not fugitives.”

“I’m
up for it, too. But I wonder what we can do about Shiny. I think we’re playing
with fire here.”

“Like
you said. Make ourselves dangerous to lose. We can set up an info drop to the
UNSF in the event of our deaths?”

“Something
like that may work. He mentioned negotiation. We should ask for more.”

“Like
what?”

“What
do you want? His race is older than ours. Or at least more advanced. He
probably has a lot to offer.”

“Like
information about the Trilisks,” Telisa said.

“Perfect.
Yes. Ask for some information. I’m thinking about the robot. I could use his
help. I’m sure he could give me all the pointers I need to incorporate those
walker parts.”

Telisa
shifted her attention back to the shared channel. Magnus must have done the
same. He prompted Shiny first.

“Okay
then. We’re in,” he said.

“We
have some conditions,” Telisa added.

“Shiny
offers benefit. Profit. Gain.”

“Yeah,
I heard that part. The conditions are easy for you. Magnus has some questions
about your walker. The one we took from that base? You just help him out with
it a bit so we can incorporate some of your walker into our new robot.”

“Agreeable.
Possible. Acceptable.”

“And
my condition is...you give me the location of every Trilisk ruin your race ever
encountered.”

“Agreeable.
Possible. Acceptable.”

“When
are you thinking to leave?” Telisa asked.

“We
may leave immediately.”

“Are
you coming down to pick us up? You’ll cause a panic if anyone detects your ship
here. Aliens recently attacked a Space Force ship. Wait. Was that you that
destroyed the
Seeker
?”

“Rendezvous
in space. I will board your
Iridar
. I have not engaged, fought,
combatted any Terran ships.”

“We
have to take the
Iridar
?” Magnus asked. “You have an advanced Shinarian
starship, wouldn’t we be safer in that?”

“Negative.
Unsafe, precarious, risky.”

“Why
is that?”

“Homeworld...unsafe.
Destroyers—”

“Invaders,
conquerors, right. They still have a presence in space around your planet.”

“Correct,
accurate, right on.”

***

Jason
appeared in Magnus’s link pane.

“Jason.
It’s Magnus again.”

Jason
did not react.

Damn
sheltered connections. I am so tired of waiting for stuff to go through the
masking layer.

“Magnus,
are you there? Oh. Hi.”

“How’s
the agency?”

“Calm,”
Jason said. Magnus summed up Jason’s demeanor. He used a program designed to
detect stress. Jason’s reading was fairly low.

Let’s
hope it really is calm.

“I’m
altering our death packages significantly. They’ve also become much more
important. Are our drop locations all still valid?”

“What
the hell, Magnus? You guys really dig into the shit out there on the frontier,
don’t you?”

“Just
a precaution. Do you have the stuff I asked you set up?”

There
was another delay. Magnus gritted his teeth and waited it out.

“Yes.
Jack and Thomas are doing fine. And I’ll still see anything appearing at our
drop spots.”

“Okay.
Go ship shopping, then. Do some research. Get us a good deal. I’ll send the
funds. We’ll put together another crew and send some of these people you have
on the list out to find...who knows what.”

“A
ship? Uhm, okay.”

“That’s
everything then.”

“Hey,
uh, Mag? I’m not going to have to head out to the frontier myself, am I?”

“No,
I need you right there at PIT headquarters.”

“Good.
All right then.”

Magnus
smiled.

Chapter 4

Leonard
Relachik gathered his few belongings and headed for the sole starport on
Malgur-Thame. Most people would have taken the elevator to the top of the
housing building and rented a glider to whisk through the green mist to their
destination. Relachik hoofed it. Even though the ground was spongy, wet, and
eternally green, he had a spaceman’s appreciation for real exercise across a
real distance as opposed to a VR helmet or a link program hooked up to a
treadmill.

When
he arrived at the spaceport, he entered the facility at an automated checkpoint
and headed down to the berths below ground. Squat robots scuttled and rolled
about on errands for their unseen masters. The chemical smell of whatever the
locals used to kill off the tenacious green slime filled the air.

He
looked up the berth number and found the name:
Violet Vandivier
. He
smiled. The vogue for naming civilian vessels was an adjective and a name,
supposedly necessary to sufficiently differentiate vessels for casual
conversation (of course, their unique identifier was simply an obscenely long
number). Relachik knew already the name would be shortened further to the
Vandivier
in shipboard conversation.

Relachik
found the ship in another fifteen minutes. It was a small ship by his
standards, round, and predictably violet in color. The ship rested like a
flying saucer over a dish-shaped depression. He examined the depression for a
few minutes until Arlin arrived. Relachik decided it was thick metal or
ceramic. His link told him it was powered down, but it was capable of drawing a
lot of power from the spaceport reactor.

“What’s
up with this berth?” Relachik asked.

“You
don’t know? Hmm. I guess there would be no reason for you to know if you’re
used to capital ships in deep space. You probably spent all your time
off-planet. Anyway, a lot of the spaceports on the fringe are finally getting
these spinner shields. You can run your gravity spinner up much higher here
above this plate to save yourself some propellant taking off.”

“Oh,”
Relachik said. Typically a modern craft could only use a small fraction of its
gravity spinner capability when taking off, or else people and debris would go
flying for a kilometer.

Cilreth
showed up on Arlin’s heels. She had brought two silver luggage cases.

“What
do you think of the ship?” Arlin asked her.

“How
big is the data cache?” she asked.

Arlin
and Relachik laughed.

“I
actually don’t know,” Arlin said. “But I just gave you both the permissions you
need for all the services.”

A
boarding ramp descended. Cilreth marched on board with her head down. Relachik
imagined her mechanically perusing its network capabilities. He connected to
the ship and performed his own summing up of their new home. He couldn’t help
but do it as a series of comparisons to his old ship, the
Seeker
. The
ship was clean but cramped. It was so much smaller than the
Seeker
.

The
Vandivier
had two levels. The ship was designed to support up to ten
people, though only six could reside inside comfortably. The gravity spinner
was newer, and reasonably efficient for long distance travel. Relachik could
see from the interior layout service that each of them would have their own
tiny quarters. A small mess area and a tiny lounge dominated the center of the
main level. The lower level of the vessel as it now sat held a small cargo
compartment. It wasn’t of much interest to Relachik, who had brought so little
it would all fit in his cramped living space.

The
ship had no bridge. There was simply no need to set aside valuable space for
piloting a ship that was controlled through links. The
Seeker
had
possessed a bridge—though it was simply an armored space designed to protect
the officers from harm. The crews of the Space Force vessels could do their
jobs from anywhere on board through their links.

Notably
missing were laser turrets, a particle accelerator, and a battalion of marines.

Oh
well, it’s a step down. Two steps down.

In
their own way, the tiny ships were as amazing as ships like the
Seeker
—everything
had to be cleverly designed and super-compact in order to pack everything in.

This
damn thing is a tin can. Oh, well. That’s what VR is for.

“We’re
well stocked and ready for a long trip,” Arlin said.

“Looks
newer than I expected,” Relachik noted.

“Only
three years old. The gravity spinner is a monster. Very nice ship. It’s also
not mine. On loan from a relative.”

Relachik’s
eyebrow rose. “None of my business, but sounds like a good way to destroy a
family.”

Arlin
smiled. “He’s a big company man. Doesn’t care about this much. Besides, it was
to pay off an old family debt.”

Then
why isn’t it really yours?
Relachik shrugged. “As long as he’s not going to show up in the middle of the
search and demand it back.”

Arlin
nodded. “Won’t happen.”

Cilreth
was looking around quite a bit, but Relachik didn’t ask her about her plans to
begin the search. Cilreth wasn’t a soldier and wouldn’t tolerate
micromanagement well. She was a professional and he knew she would dive in as
soon as they were underway. Cilreth continued to the second level.

Relachik
stayed in the cargo area as the ramp retracted. He looked around at the many
cargo containers. His link allowed him to rummage through the container
inventories, but he spoke anyway just to get to know Arlin better. “You said we
have enough for a long trip. These are food supplies? Weapons?”

“The
cargo hold has an amazing array of things. Everything on board has multiple
functions, like a collection of a thousand Swiss Army knives. We have plenty of
decent food. As for weapons...”

“Yes?”

“Come
with me.”

Arlin
walked to the end of a tiny walkway on the second level. The mess was directly
behind them, and a reactor room was to Relachik’s left. His link told him Arlin
was headed to an armory. Once again Relachik could have inquired
electronically, but it would be more polite—and more interesting—to let Arlin
show him the contents FTF.

Arlin
opened a sliding metal door, revealing the small room. An array of weaponry lay
on display upon lit racks. “This section is all the usual. Stunners, a laser,
smart glue bombs, and some projectile launchers.”

“Wow,”
Relachik said. His eye caught a glint of metal on the right. Several swords
were secured there. Relachik took one by the handle. It was held in place by a
clamp.

“Careful,
please,” Arlin said. Relachik smiled. “Those are sharper than you might
believe. That thing could cut through a landing strut in one swing. If you drop
it to the floor, I’m going to have to replace a deck plate.”

“They’re
dangerous even to have on board,” Relachik said, withdrawing his hand. He
examined the clever mounting mechanism on the wall. A very strong series of
clamps held the swords by their handles in metal tubes. He found the service in
his link.
Just so I know how to get one, if I need it.

The
left side of the closet held some military skinsuits and two medical robokits.

“What
about the ship herself. Is she armed?”

“Nothing
long range,” Arlin said a bit defensively. “We have some disabler remoras. I
think they’ll come in handy if we find the smugglers in orbit. There are four
probes with some defensive EM capabilities.”

“Thanks
for showing me. I’ll put my stuff in my quarters.”