The Trilisk Ruins

The Trilisk Ruins

Michael McCloskey

Published by Michael McCloskey at
Smashwords

Copyright 2012 Michael McCloskey

ISBN: 978-0983843009

Cover art by Howard Lyon

Prologue

Kirizzo fought while curled around
himself inside the round control module. In this position he looked
like a mottled ball of gold wrapped in dozens of thin legs. At his
mental command, a salvo of antimissile drones shot out of the belly
of his metal walking machine. The drones circled as they ascended,
forming a defensive perimeter in the spiny alien trees. It wouldn’t
be long until the enemy war machines returned from the last
diversionary trail and found his real escape route.

The spider-legged walking machine shot
forward through another group of trees and came to a halt in a
slight depression in the landscape. A warning in his mental
interface informed Kirizzo the walker’s stored power waned. And
those had been the last of his drones. A thin layer of cells
covering his analog of a spinal cord pondered his next move. The
decision arrived with a cool clarity: Abandon the walker and try to
lose the robotic hunting machines in the alien forest.

Kirizzo felt immensely lonely. There
were no others of his race to help him now. He was undoubtedly the
only Gorgala within many light years. Nevertheless he did not waste
time lamenting the situation. Kirizzo’s electronically augmented
mind gave a command that caused his walker to open, allowing
egress. Uncoiling his flexuous body from the control nest, he
flowed out of the walker on a quick stream of thin legs.

Kirizzo took stock of the
alien forest. His world was utterly silent, as he lacked any sense
of hearing
.
He
felt resistance where his spiked legs met the surface. Dead plant
spines covered the ground, causing it to give slightly as his sharp
legs sank in.

Bundles of fibers under a flat, wide
protuberance rising from his body fed Kirizzo signals from light
that impinged upon them. These organs allowed him to see the native
canopy of frills and spines above that shaded out most of the
sunlight. The smooth hulls of trees rising upwards surrounded
him.

Kirizzo moved his upper protuberance
side to side rhythmically, collecting information about the mass
densities in all directions out to his sensory range. From this,
Kirizzo constructed a mental mass-map of his surroundings in three
dimensions. The tree roots, trunks, and limbs formed a dark web in
Kirizzo’s mind. There weren’t any threats within his sensory
limits, but that was little comfort. Most Bel Klaven weapons could
strike from great distances.

He deployed a personal screen, a group
of floating metal defense modules that followed his every move.
Four of his forty limbs held guided projectile launchers. He used
these to shoot four seeker bullets into the sky, where they
patrolled for the Bel Klaven machines that hunted him. Then he
burst into the forest, his legs a blur, mapping his route well
ahead using his mass sense.

Kirizzo topped the next rise and was
deep into the forest when the first of the hunting machines
penetrated the drone defense to assault his abandoned walker. The
ground shook and the sky flashed momentarily as one of them blasted
the walking machine. The robotic Bel Klaven constructs were not
very smart, but they made up for that drawback with firepower and
numbers.

Kirizzo hoped the machines would stop
to investigate the wreckage and leave him to slip away in the
cover. He moved on tirelessly, churning through dense foliage. He
descended another ridge and up its far side.

Suddenly masses whirled around Kirizzo
rapidly. His personal defense modules intercepted three
hunter-seeker projectiles and destroyed them before they could
embed themselves in his exoskeleton and explode. Smoke filled the
area and debris flew about, ricocheting against nearby trees. The
close miss caused a chemical release of stimulants in Kirizzo’s
body. For Kirizzo, this was fear: his legs twitched, his vision
became sharper, and his mind raced.

He launched four more seeker rounds
into the sky and continued on course. Back in the walker he had
detected a power emanation in this direction. A power source meant
some kind of civilization, which presented a chance for
escape.

Long seconds passed until Kirizzo
sensed something in the forest ahead. An artificial construct. He
perceived it as a large uniform shell of mass covered with natural
growth. He didn’t have time to hesitate. He ran forward to get a
view of the site.

An opening beckoned beyond a thick
covering of vegetation. Only his mass sense allowed Kirizzo to
detect the flaw in the shell of the building. Kirizzo pushed aside
the plant growth and entered the breach. The building interior
contained complex machinery that had begun to degrade once exposed
to the elements. Mud covered most of the floor. A layer of dust
clung to the old machines. A few light-starved plants struggled to
exist amidst the wreckage. In the center of the chamber a huge
circular tube rose from the floor.

Kirizzo determined that the large white
tube descended in a spiral, leading deeper under the surface. The
tube was empty as far as he could detect. There was no other way to
go except down or back out into the forest. Kirizzo’s race had its
origins in subterranean lairs, and so the choice was perhaps as
instinctual as intellectual.

Still quite aware of the looming
pursuit, Kirizzo scuttled into the tube. He made his way rapidly
down, searching for the end of the passageway.

After five or six complete revolutions,
the smooth white walls came to a terminus at a circular portal that
seemed to be the barrier of a blackfield. No detectable radiation
came from inside the circle, and he guessed that it was a security
gate.

Kirizzo was familiar with technology
mastered by his race for a field that would allow passage of EM
radiation in one direction only. These were often used for
controlling entrances to important facilities. From beyond the
blackfield, the defenders of the complex could remain hidden but
still detect intruders approaching.

But this time, more than his sight
remained blocked. Kirizzo could not feel any mass behind the
portal. This would not be indicative of an active defense in a
security checkpoint of his own race since it was important in
Gorgalan warfare to have many points of constantly moving mass to
confuse the mass sense of attackers. With many masses in motion, it
became difficult to mark enemy positions and attack
them.

Kirizzo became aware of the threat of
possible attack from beyond the portal but continued toward the
circular blackness anyway. As he neared the flat plane of the
blackfield, he still couldn’t detect any mass beyond. This was a
very eerie feeling. It reminded him of the first time he had
approached the outer shell of a space cruiser and felt the
emptiness beyond the bulkhead, reaching out as far as he could
feel, cold and unchanging.

There were other situations in which
the mass detectors of a Gorgala could fail. Massive physical
trauma, the effects of certain sonic weapons employed by his race
in more primitive times, and certain illnesses were known to
deprive his kind of the mass sense. As far as Kirizzo knew,
however, it could never happen selectively like it did beyond the
strange inky blackness in the circle. Still it was consistent with
the blackness. Whatever had created the portal didn’t want any
information about what was beyond to come out.

Kirizzo wrapped up into a ball to
consider his options. Usually the ball position made him feel
safer, but it was quite inadequate this time. By now it was quite
probable that the enemy had detected the building. He could run out
now and hope that the Bel Klaven servitors thought that he had gone
deeper inside. On the other hand, it might be safer on the other
side of the field. It certainly didn’t seem to be safe out in the
forest. His exoskeleton could withstand a vacuum for a short time
if it turned out that the area beyond really was completely
empty.

Kirizzo uncoiled his long body and
approached the gate on forty nervous legs. He flicked a slender
limb through the blackness and then retracted it. The leg was
unharmed. Certainly a good sign.

Suddenly a small mass came clambering
down the tunnel behind him. Kirizzo sensed its dense outer shell
filled with some lighter material.

Probably an explosive drone.

Kirizzo bolted into the blackness and
was swallowed by the portal.

Chapter
O
ne

Telisa Relachik stood in front of the
mirror in the transport station bathroom. The reflection showed a
fit woman in her early twenties with straight black hair and a
clear complexion. She wore a black business suit, a one-piece
garment with a fake button-up front that showed off the contrast
between her slender waist and athletic shoulders. Her link picked
up a service for an appearance evaluation from a microcomputer
embedded in the mirror, and she considered running it. She had to
look right for her interview, but she decided against running the
service. She could keep her own counsel on her looks.

Still, she felt anxious. Her interview
would be in person, instead of the virtual link interviews she’d
already had. It shouldn’t make any difference, but some trace of
instinct in her felt more nervous about a real face to
face.

It’s not that
unusual
, she told herself. With the
government ever encroaching on communications, probing the data
streams with snooper programs designed to flag suspicious messages,
more and more businesses were starting to protect themselves by
conducting important meetings incarnate. It was an odd reversal
back to old traditions, the rejuvenation of the real
office.

One of the nightmares of the real
office was the commute. Having to appear physically for a meeting
proved time consuming and expensive. Already Telisa had spent a
good fraction of an Earth Standard Credit, all charged through her
link for public transportation.

Telisa found her way out of the
station, buffeted by bodies moving in all directions. She inhaled
the Colorado air. It smelled the same to her as on the coast,
although it felt colder. She ordered an electric cab through her
link and walked up to the curb. She looked over the sprawling
buildings across the way. They looked pristine with an expanse of
perfect grass. A cat sauntered out from behind a tree and dared to
approach the concrete.

“
Don’t do it,” Telisa warned
playfully. The cat looked at her, then darted across the
street.

Telisa raised an eyebrow. If the cat
had a link, it would have been turned away from the street, but
apparently it was feral.

“
Never mind,” she called
after the receding feline in a singsong voice. A low hum announced
the arrival of her cab. Impatient, she walked toward it as it
slowed and moved to the curb. She slipped into the compact
one-person contrivance and sent it a map pointer from her link. The
engine whirred back to life and accelerated her back onto the
street. Telisa thumped her foot and fidgeted during the ride. The
streets seemed a little rougher here than in California. Perhaps a
byproduct of the weather, she thought.

Finally the cab deposited her at Parker
Interstellar Travels and charged her account. She dismissed it and
walked up to a metal gate. Evergreens lined the road, hiding a low
wall.