The Trilisk AI (6 page)

Cilreth
nodded. Her appearance changed instantly as she donned a military skinsuit for
the simulation. Arlin added to his inventory as well. One of the sword tubes
appeared at his belt.

“Should
come in handy getting in,” he said. “It can cut right through most locks.”

Relachik
nodded. “Ready then? You’ll see the target on our maps now. To the north.”

“Got
it,” Cilreth said. She cast a glance around the forest.

She’s
alert. That’s good. I’ll have to take a bit more time and add outside threats
as well, to encourage that. And Arlin is thinking ahead, too, bringing the
sword to cut in.

They
moved out. The alien forest floor was strangely clean, devoid of anything that
resembled dead leaves. Strange tracks of glistening goo crisscrossed the scene,
as if the debris had been cleared by giant slugs. Whatever had done it didn’t
appear to the newcomers.

The
target structure came into view. It was a primitive-looking two-story dwelling,
made of local materials. The huge hulks of cut trees were visible in its walls.
The roof was covered in rough ceramic tiles. What few windows it had emitted
bright white light into the forest around it.

“Wow,
this place is really out there,” Cilreth said over their link channel.

“Yes,
very isolated. We have to get in suddenly and hit them. The grenades won’t
work, the house isn’t airtight and they’ll have breathers on in there.”

“I
can get us through that door,” Arlin said.

“Let’s
see if there’s a side door or a back door,” Cilreth said.

“Out
here, does it really matter? There is not real front.”

“But
there’s a deck. Psychologically, this is the front. Tradition dictates it would
open into a wider common area than the back door.”

“We
don’t know the local traditions, but I see a sensor module there, just above the
entrance,” Arlin said. Relachik couldn’t see anything. He looked over and
noticed Arlin had a scope goggle on.

“Cilreth,
do you know how to disable security systems?” Relachik asked.

“No.
But I can look into it for next time,” she said.

“You’ll
have time to learn the basics, most likely. But we’ll have to work around not
having an expert in that area.”

The
team slipped around the cleared perimeter of the homestead until a side door
became visible. It didn’t have an obvious sensor module, but that didn’t mean
there weren’t others out of sight.

“That
looks good,” Relachik said. “If there were one more of us, I’d say we should
break in at two places simultaneously. But with only three of us, it’s a close
call. Arlin and I will go in that door. Cilreth, see that window? It may open
into the room we’ll hit first. You can go up there and check if it’s empty or
not, and cover us once we’re in.”

“Okay,”
she agreed.

Arlin
grasped the sword tube at his belt and prepared to draw the blade out.

They
took their positions beside the house.

Cilreth
reported immediately. “There’s a woman in there. But it’s not Telisa.”

“Does
she have armor? Weapons? Do you have a shot?” Relachik asked.

“No
armor. She has a stunner, like me. I think I can hit her if I break the window.
But how strong is it?”

“Probably
very strong,” Arlin said. “No one out this far would take any chances.”

“I
agree. Just tell us when she’s facing away from the door.”

“She’s
not looking in that direction,” Cilreth said.

“Okay,
go.”

Arlin
drew his sword and sliced it across the locking mechanism. The sword sliced
completely through the lock and a large bit of the door. Arlin kicked it in. He
tossed the sword aside while Relachik charged in. He saw the woman and shot her
with his stunner.

He
summed up the area and decided it was a kitchen as she dropped. Arlin came in
with a slug pistol in his hands. There was only one way out, a set of swinging
doors.

“Wait
or go?”

“Go.”

Arlin
went through the doors. He didn’t see Cilreth but he figured she would be
coming any second. Relachik followed Arlin.

Relachik
heard the retort of a gun. He saw Arlin still standing in a corridor and
assumed he had shot first. A set of stairs rose to his right, so he swung
around a bannister and headed up. He didn’t see anyone at the top. There was
another hall and two open doors and a closed one. Cilreth appeared at the
bottom. He waved her up.

Relachik
walked as quietly as he could over a carpeted floor. The two open doorways
showed rooms that appeared empty at a glance. Some kind of a bedroom and a den
with an old-fashioned clothing fabricator. The hallway turned ninety degrees
and ended in another closed door.

“We’re
clear downstairs,” Arlin said. “No sign of Telisa.”

He
turned back and saw Cilreth in the hall.

“Either
there’s a basement, or she’s right here ahead of us,” Relachik said.

“Where?”
Cilreth asked.

“In
the center room. There are two ways in. You go in that side at the same time I
come in here. Ready?”

“Wait,
almost...okay, ready.”

“Go!”

Relachik
burst into the room. It was big, maybe a master bedroom. He caught sight of two
men and Telisa. He felt an impact through the armor of his suit. One of the men
had already hit him. His stunner flew from his hands as he fell to one side. He
drew his glue pistol.

A
split second later, Cilreth came through the other door. Her stunner fired.

Relachik
shot again. This time he glued the second kidnapper. He saw the man on
Cilreth’s side drop to his knees. Cilreth kicked him in the face.

I
doubt her shin is hard enough for that in real life,
Relachik thought.
Then again, a shin
bruise would be worth getting Telisa back alive.

“Oh,
crap, that hurt,” Cilreth said, confirming his suspicion. He’d set the pain
thresholds for the sim fairly high. Nevertheless, the two men were neutralized.

The
target raised her hands and stood patiently. The look on her face was passive.
More
passive than she’ll be when she sees me for real
, he thought.

“What
now? Are we done?” asked Cilreth, limping toward him.

“Check
the bathroom there,” he said.

Relachik
stared at the copy of Telisa standing before him. The simulation gave her a
blank smile, indicating she was unharmed. He pretended she was real for a
second. She looked familiar, yet he felt like she was a stranger.
There’s
one more thing I need to practice. What am I going to say to her when I find
her?

“Bathroom
is clear,” Cilreth said.

“Yeah,
that’s enough for now,” Relachik said.
I have more work to do. But there’s
time. I think.

“Has
anyone ever been doing simulations of their ship like this, then they exit, and
forget they’re not in a simulation and blown themselves up, or walked out an
airlock incarnate?” Cilreth asked.

“Not
any more often than the same shit happens on Earth. What age were you linked?”

“Nine.”

“Then
you shouldn’t be getting reality and VR mixed up,” Relachik said. “Just don’t
turn off your link’s exit simulation alert.”

I
wonder if she’s telling the truth about nine years old.

Some
people were linked at birth. Their parents wanted their child to take advantage
of the plasticity of a young brain, for instance, to develop a wider visual
cortex capability while the brain was still forming. Many disadvantages
attacked these children, though, such as a lesser appreciation for what was
real and what wasn’t. Kids linked too early often ended up dead one way or
another. Many said humans would eventually learn how to get infant-linking
working safely. Whole societies had left Earth over the controversy and set up
their own colonies with different rules, ranging from required linking at birth
to no linking at all, ever.

Relachik
himself hadn’t been linked until age ten. He had linked Telisa at age nine,
knowing that was what her mother wanted. It had seemed to work out well for
her.

Not
that I was really around that much to know.

The
practice session disbanded. Relachik assumed Cilreth returned to her search
algorithms. He settled into his tiny cabin. At the first hint of boredom, he
automatically countered it with work. But now he wasn’t the commander of a huge
ship, he was merely a passenger on a small vessel.

The
diagnostics made him feel a bit like he was back on the
Seeker
. He
missed her a lot. He missed his men, the best in the force. He missed the
ship’s artificial personalities, Observer, Mechanic, and Shooter. Leaving them
all behind was painful, like saying goodbye to family.
I already said
goodbye to my real family long ago. And I don’t even really miss them anymore.

Commanding
an advanced ship like the
Seeker
had been the pinnacle of his existence.
If he still had her, he felt sure he could find his daughter quickly. The UNSF
had amazing cyber-specialists, black-ops robots, and alien technology at its
beck and call.

Relachik
satisfied himself by conducting a virtual inspection of the vessel. An anomaly
caught his eye. The ship’s life support system was working for four people.

A
wasteful oversight to set it manually
,
he thought.

Relachik
inspected the settings. It was set to auto detect. He frowned and double-checked
everything. Nothing seemed amiss, yet the scrubbers, oxygen monitors, and
heating requirements were providing for more than Arlin, Cilreth, and himself.

The
conclusion was inescapable.
There are four people on this ship.

Chapter 5

The
alien skittered on board, his golden legs a blur. At the top of the ramp he
paused for a second to wave his mass-sensor bulb back and forth before
continuing. Three huge containers floated along behind him. The airlock closed
behind Shiny and his train of containers.

It’s
shocking to see him again. Almost as if everything before was a dream,
Magnus thought.

Magnus
eyed Shiny’s luggage. “We don’t have much room for all that. I’m using most of
the bay to build a robot from your walker.”

“Shiny
help increase packing efficiency of your cargo bay,” buzzed Shiny.

“What
is all that stuff?” Telisa asked from behind Magnus.

“Useful
materials. Supplies,” Shiny said.

“Food?”

“No.
Construction materials. Remote devices to build, construct, configure. Must
mimic Terran designs.”

“What
are they going to be, Shiny? Why are you using our stuff? Isn’t Terran
technology way behind your own?”

“Destroyers,
invaders, conquerors search for all that is part of Shiny’s race.”

One
of Shiny’s tiny spheres floated lazily by between them.

There’s
more of them than last time
,
Magnus thought.

“I
see you got resupplied,” Magnus said, heading for the bay.

“Achieved
limited inventory gains,” Shiny agreed.

“What
do those spheres that float around do for you?”

“Defend,
sense, scout. Many functions.”

“One
function per sphere? Or are they each capable of everything?” Telisa asked.

“Specialists
and generalists both present. Many choices, possibilities, configurations.”

Telisa
tagged along and smiled when she saw the bay.

Magnus
sighed. “I suppose I need to stow most of this for takeoff, anyway,” he said.
“The
Iridar
isn’t what she used to be. We’re getting a rattle or two in
her when we maneuver.”

“Primitive
Terran vessel unstable in atmospheric acceleration and spaceflight,” Shiny
agreed. “This is optimal time to arrange cargo bay to receive, accommodate,
house new materials.”

I
wonder if he feels a sense of danger, traveling on an alien ship of more
primitive design than his own,
Magnus sent Telisa over his link.

If
he’s like us
, she said,
then
he’s acclimated to a more dangerous life.

Ha
ha. Okay, drone-killer!

Make
fun of me all you want. You know I can handle myself now.

Magnus
shrugged. She was right. The matter-of-fact way she had said it made him
respond with a poke. But she had faced real danger and made it through.

Magnus
cleared a minimal space for Shiny’s cargo. When he finished, he regarded the
alien again. He reminded himself that what looked like a beak was its back end,
and the round front with the growths underneath was the closest thing it had to
a head, since the eyes were there, dozens of little growths, like a garden of
crab eye stalks. Its golden exterior and many legs made it look like a fancy
statue. He waited for the twitch, but it didn’t come.