The Trilisk Supersedure (7 page)

The
probe on the distant hillside received her safe entrance request. Somewhere up
ahead, a Guardian machine verified her target signature on its no-shoot list.

Arakaki
continued. She was still cautious; a clearglider could have wandered into the
zone, but more importantly, she wasn’t sure enough of the Konuan’s habits to
risk her life by being careless now.

She
came across the Guardian less than a kilometer from the outside of the zone.
The machine didn’t move. It towered above her on metal spider legs, about twice
her height. It had four arms to match its four legs. The arms were weapon
mounts. Each arm of number four, or Scorn as the mechanics called it, held a
long cannon barrel counterbalanced by an ammunition magazine.

“Welcome
back, Captain,” Scorn said.

“Any
kills today, Scorn?” Arakaki asked, though she could just as easily have
checked its fire record directly with her link.

“No
kills today, Captain,” it told her.

“Me
neither,” she said, and continued into the camp.

Chapter 5

Magnus
awakened to an alert in his PV. At first he thought he had misconfigured his
scout leverage analysis to send an important alert when it completed. But it
was not related to his project to enable the scouts to pry open the Konuan
grilles. It was a warning that one of the machines had been disabled or
destroyed.

He
opened his eyes. Everything appeared calm within the tent. Their equipment
boxes formed parallel walls supporting the tough fabric ceiling. Underneath, a
level foam floor protected them from the jagged rocks. Telisa and Cilreth
looked asleep, but Telisa sent him a message with her link.

“Something
wrong?”

“We’ve
lost a scout,” Magnus reported. “It’s not near here. Probably nothing to worry
about. The machine may have just fallen into a hole or gotten itself into a
dumb spot.”

Telisa
opened her eyes and sat up. She dialed up a cold lantern with her link, bathing
the space in more light. “Are we in danger?”

“I don’t
think so,” Magnus said. “The scout we lost was a kilometer out. We still have
several local.”

The
group had discussed sleeping back in the
Clacker
, in the tent amidst
their equipment containers, or in the Konuan buildings. Magnus didn’t trust the
Konuan buildings. Cilreth feared predators and made the case for a trek back to
the
Clacker
. In the end, no one had strong objections to setting up
inside a ring of equipment and cargo cases for some light shelter.

Magnus’s
mention of the local scouts was verified by the sounds of tapping coming from
the nearest Konuan building. They had left two scouts inside to clear more
grilles as they slept. Magnus looked over a few images of the inside.

“Or
maybe something nasty got a hold of it,” Cilreth said, joining the conversation
late.

“Sorry
to wake you. It’s probably nothing.”

“We
lost a scout. I’m on a strange alien planet sleeping in a flimsy tent about a
kilometer from something nasty. It’s not nothing.”

Magnus
shrugged. “We’ll have to investigate at first light. Why don’t you stay here
and expand our camp? Deploy the rest of our equipment.”

Cilreth
gave him an inscrutable look. “Okay,” she said.

It will
be good for her to get used to working out here alone
,
Telisa said to Magnus over a private channel.

Alone?
he
replied.
I thought you would stay with her.

No way.

The
three played with sleep for another hour and a half, but everyone simply tossed
and turned, waiting for daybreak. At the first sign of the Chigran Callnir star
above the horizon, Magnus and Telisa eagerly threw together some equipment.
Magnus told the tent walls to retract with his link. The morning air was cool
but not cold in his Veer skinsuit.

“We’ll
be back. You’ve got half a dozen scouts are in this area; call on them if you
encounter any more of those transparent snakes, or anything else.”

“Got
it,” Cilreth said. “You guys be careful. If something can kill one of those
robots…”

Then it
can kill us.

Magnus
pulled his rifle off his back and checked it manually and electronically. He
loved the old weapon and considered it rock solid. He understood it well enough
to obtain more parts and ammunition back at the base through supplication to
the Trilisk AI.

Telisa
locked on to the destroyed scout herself. She led the way. Magnus followed
along while asking two more scouts to converge with them at the site of the
attack.

She’s
eager. Still very cautious, though. A woman after my own heart.

“When
are you going to give up that old relic and go for some advanced Vovokan
technology?” Telisa asked him over her link.

“I already
have. The attendant spheres.”

One of
his two spheres orbited by on cue.

“Kind
of. I meant more in the way of an offensive weapon like your rifle.”

“I can
work in that direction. I’d prefer to understand it fully. We don’t want to be
any more dependent on Shiny than we already are.” He glanced at the alien
weapon on her back, then added, “And we want to be able to use our weapons
safely.”

“Is
that a stab at my chain lightning gun?”

“Well,
honestly, we don’t know enough about it. Like, how does it target things? You
can’t safely shoot it in the direction of any friendlies because you don’t know
how to select your target signature, if the thing even has that functionality.”

“Yeah.
The gun is a bit crude. But effective.”

“Anyway,
what I was originally saying is, I can make parts myself without Shiny having
to do the prayers for me.”

“You
can ‘make parts yourself’ by praying to an alien god machine? Ha. Priceless. If
Shiny takes off now, can we even get off the planet?”

“Depends
on whether or not he takes the
Clacker
with him.”

“We
need another team member so we can split up and still operate in pairs,” Telisa
said, changing the subject.

“Agreed.
I’m working on it.”

“I want
in. We can’t have you simply hiring a bunch of beautiful young women!” she
joked.

“Can I
have at least one more?”

Telisa
snorted. Magnus smiled.

They
came to the end of an open area of rough rock. Straight ahead, a thick stand of
native plants rose from fractures in the ground. Magnus looked for other living
things but didn’t spot any dangers.

Telisa
slowed. She obviously didn’t like the idea of reducing their line of sight any
more than he did. He remembered the clear snake creature and how hard it had
been to spot.

Magnus
interfaced with a guardian sphere and sent it ahead into the stand of plants.
Telisa noticed it fly by, then did the same with one of her spheres.

“It
looks like bamboo as it comes up from the breaches in the rocks, but those
ridiculous…pom-poms of green stuff are almost comical,” Telisa said.

“Yes,
but I’m getting used to it slowly. And it’s less comical now that I’ve seen the
green worms they’re made of.”

The
guardian spheres reached the robot remains ahead without incident. Telisa and
Magnus recalled the spheres and waded into the stalks. They advanced another
twenty meters.

“We’re
here,” she said, looking every which way. “Ah, there it is.”

The
machine had been smashed. Its legs were splayed at an angle resembling a spider
crushed under a boot. The red rock had been singed black in a couple of spots.

“Looks
like it burned out after taking a big hit,” Telisa said.

“This
took a considerable amount of force. The scouts are made of durable stuff.”

“Something
added a bit of wear and tear,” Telisa said. She looked around nervously. “What’s
that smell?”

Magnus
knelt before the remains of the scout. The smell was strong. “It’s the scout.
Maybe that’s some chemical from the Gorgalan parts.” He retreated. “It could be
toxic.”

“It
could be the smell of whatever killed it,” Telisa pointed out.

“Possible.
None of the other scouts saw anything unusual.”

“Bad
luck.”

“I’m
not so sure. A predator would have had to be very elusive to do this without
being seen by any of the other scouts.”

“Hah,
well think about it. Stealthy predators get more food than clumsy loud ones.”

“True
enough,” Magnus conceded, holding his weapon at the ready.

“Maybe
it was partially transparent, like the red snake thing,” Telisa said. “I think
I’ll call it a ribbon snake. That red part inside reminded me of a long red
ribbon.”

They
walked out of the concealing stalks to a relatively open spot. Magnus sent her
a search spiral.

“Let’s
do a quick patrol and see what we can see. I’d like to get a feel for the
central ruins, anyway.”

They
set off, weapons at the ready. Telisa walked in parallel with Magnus about
three meters to Telisa’s left. A large structure became visible above the
nearby stalks.

“So
much for our spiral. The buildings are in the way,” Telisa observed.

“Shiny,
do you know of anything large enough to kill off one of our scouts?” Magnus
transmitted, including Telisa in the channel.

The
alien responded almost immediately. “Several possibilities. Large predators do
exist on the surface.”

“That
might explain the grilles,” Telisa said. “The natives had to move freely
through their city without being in danger from predators.”

“You
call this moving freely?” Magnus said. “These things are practically part of
the wall.”

“Yes. I
think I understand that now, though. It isn’t freely movable for us. We must be
more like their predators. These creatures most likely moved through the
grilles without opening them. Think about the shape required—wide and flat—they
were pancake-flat creatures and they probably slid through these openings and
moved over the walls and ceiling. Like flat caterpillars.”

“Or
blobs of formless flesh,” Magnus said.

“Oh,
now we’re talking real horror VR material.”

“Other
high probability causes, culprits, explanations,” added Shiny. “More Terrans
detected, noted, found within ten kilometers your location.”

“There
are other people around here?” Telisa blurted.

“If you’re
trying to give us the best chance of success, you need to brief us more
completely,” Magnus growled.

“Yes.
You could have mentioned that earlier, you know!” Telisa said with anger
growing in her voice.

“Previously
not detected, noted, found. Currently not detected, noted, found.”

“Uhm. I
think that means you detected some Terrans briefly? Now they’re below your
radar, so to speak. To figuratively speak,” Telisa said.

“Recent
knowledge, development, discovery. Unable to warn, tell, divulge at younger
temporal stage.”

“Now
that was just obtuse. We like to say that as ‘I just found out about it myself,’”
Telisa said.

“I just
found out about it myself,” Shiny repeated in his buzzy voice. He mimicked her
defensive tone. Telisa couldn’t help but laugh. Even Magnus found his annoyance
evaporating as Shiny copied Telisa’s statement.

“How
many of them? Where?” Magnus asked.

Shiny
offered them a map feed. Magnus saw a map of the ancient Konuan city. He saw
the locations of dozens of Terrans almost directly across the bulk of the city
from his current position.

“That’s
a big expedition or a tiny colony,” Magnus said.

“Uh oh.
If it’s a colony, maybe most of them died off,” Cilreth said.

“What
else can you tell us about them, Shiny?” asked Telisa.

“Armed.
In hiding. Associated by hierarchy of command. Rarely pairing off to mate,
suggesting sexually homogeneous group.”

“You
have a way with words, Shiny,” Telisa said.

“Appreciated,
agreed, accepted.”

Telisa
turned to Magnus and spoke quietly. “Why are there other people here? Could
they be smugglers? UNSF?”

“Could
be. Settlers might be the best guess. It’s an open world. But a hierarchy does
imply a military presence. Yet they haven’t appeared to arrest or kill us.”

“They
may not have seen us yet. Maybe we should run.”

“They
couldn’t have missed the
Clacker.
It’s huge. Cilreth didn’t mention any
Vovokan cloaking.”

“We
didn’t see any cities from orbit. Must only be a few of them, right?”

“I
think so. We could send out a couple of scouts and see what we can see. I’d
rather avoid them and continue our work on this side of the ruins. They may not
be wanting any visitors.”