Parker Interstellar Travels 4: The Trilisk Hunt (15 page)

Crack!

One of the flat discs emitted a
sharp sound. One of Siobhan’s attendants intercepted a projectile. The ricochet
left a hole in the wall across from Siobhan. She did not want to try her luck
with more shots, so she retreated into another room in the direction the
soldier robot had gone.

“They work very well outside,”
Telisa replied. “We’re moving out toward your position. Stay in there. You have…
some big ones outside.”

The new room was as much of a
wreck as the one she had left. But there were no disc machines here.

Thwump. Boom.

Another thud sounded nearby.
Siobhan turned to cover the area. Her heart worked hard. Her mouth felt dry.

Am I going to live through
this?

The area around the thud
emitted scratching noises. Without the soldier machine outside, she could not
tell what it was. Siobhan decided to take a view from outside. In her mind’s
eye, she selected one of the few surviving soldiers. It scouted its own house,
far away. She turned it toward her house.

What she saw made her blood run
cold. A huge machine the size of a land car had attached to the house. Right
above her.

Siobhan abandoned her cover and
jumped toward the other side of the house. The gravity shifted, sending her
left, then forward. She fell toward a wall as if it were straight down.

But her reflexes were sharp
now. Her muscles were strong and wiry. She rolled with the impact and scrabbled
away.

Suddenly a huge rending noise
erupted behind her.

Kraaaaaack Smash!

Aiyooooo getmeouttahere!

Siobhan glanced back. A huge
metal shell had smashed through the outer wall. Red-hot openings glowed at the
edge of its armored top. She felt a wave of heat on her face. A long section of
the wall turned into ash and slag above the huge machine. Siobhan leaped away,
moving as fast as she dared. She started to simply assume the gravity would
smash her into anything and everything. She ran recklessly forward, rebounding
off of walls and piles of trash. Each time she just absorbed the impact and
pushed away in another direction.

Kraaaaaack.

The entire house sounded as if
it were being torn apart. After watching the huge shelled machine smash into
her room, Siobhan believed it
was
being torn apart.

I should jump back toward the
others. Caden is closest.

Siobhan took one deep breath
and a second to orient herself. Caden was
that
way. Siobhan jumped to
her left and looked for a passageway in the direction she needed. Another disc
robot appeared ahead to the right of her new orientation. Siobhan fired her
stunner at it twice. Nothing happened so she tossed the stunner at the thing
and grabbed her shock baton.

I can hit it before those
stubby legs—

Zipfft!

The disc popped like a small-caliber
projectile weapon. One of her attendants darted in front of her, knocking a
projectile off its path.

Frackjammers!

 Siobhan jumped forward with
all the muscle in her new legs and swung the shock baton. It struck the flat
machine and sent sparks flying.
Her hand hurt from the impact.
Siobhan did not stop to assess the damage, if any. She simply charged on and
struck a window. It resisted her assault until she thrust the baton into it,
which popped the transparent pane out and sent it flying from the house.

Siobhan leaped through the
circular hole. Behind her a wave of heat cut through the room. She could feel
it on the bottom of her feet and the back of her calves even through the combat
suit.

On the other side, Siobhan
almost broke free from the building’s exterior attraction. She rolled and came
back into contact with the house. It took her a second to pick Caden’s house.
Smoke roiled out of the window she had just exited. Then Siobhan squatted low
and launched herself at the other building with all her might.

She flew out into the sky. She
quickly saw she was not alone. At least a dozen flying machines were in view.
Most of them were the flat disks, but she saw other shapes as well.

One of her attendant spheres
blurred beside her and exploded.

“What!” she exclaimed.

It must have intercepted a
threat. I’m a sitting duck out here!

Siobhan looked back toward the
house she had left. She caught her breath. An army of floating machines converged
on it. She saw the dark disc-shaped bugs, another torpedo machine, and some
multi-armed things that had attached to the outside. The huge shelled robot was
out of sight. She decided it must still be inside the remains of the building.

Her last attendant machine
darted nervously.

Oh no…

Thwack! Zip.

She heard a loud smack and the
whirr of a ricochet. Her attendant did not explode this time. It seemed to be
functioning.

Hang on! I’m not even half
there yet!

The attendant disappeared, then
she heard another loud
bang
from nearby. She looked around. It
was gone.

What do I need to do?
she
asked herself frantically.
It’s out of my hands; there’s nothing I can do to
ensure my survival this time… I should have another weapon!

Siobhan told the clasps on her pack
to disengage. Her equipment separated from her, flying steadily away.

One more target for those
things, if they can’t tell the difference.

Dread grabbed her as she saw
something coming from ahead. It would arrive in a second.

This is it.

Her heightened reflexes allowed
her to move her shock baton in front of her face. The protection felt
inadequate, but she did not know what else to do. The object resolved into an
attendant sphere that matched her vector.

Another attendant! Someone sent
me another attendant!

The attendant darted to one
side and smacked away a projectile. Siobhan’s eye captured an after-image of a
piece of shrapnel whirring away with a high spin. The attendant was not
destroyed. The building ahead grew rapidly as she approached.

Siobhan connected to the
attendant with her link. It told her it belonged to Caden.

Thanks man… or is he dead?

“Caden?” she transmitted. “You
alive?”

“I am, but you won’t be for
long if you don’t get your ass under cover,” Caden’s voice came through her
link.

“You would have done the same
if a giant jamming turtle machine smashed your house to smithereens.”

The house before Siobhan
started to grow. She was almost there!

“The others are coming for us,”
Caden said. She caught sight of him just inside a door on the face of the house
she was about to land on. Siobhan could not change her course, especially now
that she had lost her pack with the compressed air cannister, but she mentally
prepared to dash for the door.

Siobhan gracefully opened her
arms and let her feet slide toward the front by forming a T-shape. Then she
landed. She was not quite straight in time, but it did not matter. She rolled
and then scampered for the door.

Booom. Booom.

Caden fired a couple of shots
right before she arrived. Then she dove in, and they were inside the building.

“It got dicey for a minute or
two. Are you hit?” Caden sounded hyper.

Siobhan staggered across the
room and took new cover.

“I’m alive,” she croaked. “Not
hurt.”

Siobhan gulped in huge
quantities of air. She put her hands on her hips and took it all in. She had
barely survived! She let off some steam. “Wooooo!”

“You’re crazy woman,” Caden
said, but it sounded like a compliment.

Siobhan kept low, smiled, and
basked in the aftermath of a heavy rush.

“What the…?” Caden started,
looking back into the room.

“What do we have?” Siobhan
said, raising her shock baton. “I used all my grenades! And I had to ditch my
pack.”

“No, it’s just that… I swear,
there was a Blackvine right there a minute ago. It left!”

“I wouldn’t stay here either
with all the crap going down!”

“Where the hell did it go?”

“Someplace not under attack. I
guess Maxsym was right when he said they could move. We’ll catch up to it
later.”

Chapter
17

Cilreth arrived back at her
quarters after her twelve-hour shift. She sighed. Her brain reeled from long
hours of study.

With a shock, she realized
someone was in her quarters. A woman. She stared in disbelief at the perfect
copy of herself.

Cilreth2. Wait. Or am I
Cilreth2?

The copy looked as if she had
just awakened. “What! Am I dreaming?” Cilreth2 asked.

“Shiny!” Cilreth transmitted.
“What’s going on?” There was an awkward delay while she stared at herself.

“Cilreth planned to use
Clacker
,
duplicates her mental configuration, design, structure,” Shiny said. “Supersedure
more efficient.”

“I thought we wouldn’t both be
awake at the same time!” Cilreth replied. From the way her copy just stood
there, she must have been having a simultaneous conversation with Shiny.

“State change late to commit.
Duplicate on schedule.”

Oh crap. I forgot to commit my
mental state when I finished.

Cilreth usually worked in a
private room she had prayed up for the purpose: a dark, cozy area with no
distractions. But today she had felt like real exercise, had taken a run around
the
Clacker
, and ended up in a beautiful, faux-sunny atrium to work. The
change of routine had caused her to skip her habit of backup upon completion of
work.

“Sorry, I’m fried,” she said to
herself.

She walked farther in, allowing
the door to close behind her. Her hand started to unzip her suit, then slowed
as her eyes locked with Cilreth2. The zipper went lower, lower, and finally
stopped at her belly button.

They stared at each other for a
long moment.

“You must be—” they said
simultaneously.

Thinking what I’m thinking.

They approached each other.
Cilreth reached out, testing the contact. It felt surreal be so close to a
perfect copy.

Cilreth2 drew her in closer.
They kissed. Cilreth felt something powerful. Her months of seclusion had seen
to it. Virtual romps were common and helpful, but this was in the flesh. The
two Cilreths orbited each other clumsily then fell into the sleep web,
breathing heavily.

Madness! Oh that feels so good.

***

“We’re being fired upon!”
Siobhan’s voice called out as the swarm neared the perimeter buildings holding
Siobhan and Caden.

“Hold tight,” Magnus said.

“Let’s go back them up,” Telisa
said.

“Hold here. There are soldiers
out there. Let’s see what these things can do. Arakaki and I have long-range
projectile weapons. We’ll try some fire support.”

Telisa realized Magnus was
right. The tactical showed an army of machines coming in to assault. If they
went outside, they would be targets to more than a hundred enemies. Already two
soldier robots were gone. Then three, then four.

“We’ll be pinned in here within
thirty seconds,” Imanol said.

“Just sit tight. Snipe away,”
Magnus urged. “Weapons to robotic target signatures across the board,” he said.
“Shiny and Cilreth are sending the soldiers from the entrance lock.”

Telisa saw Maxsym clutching the
pedestal that held an alien device to the floor. It did not look as if he was
going anywhere.

“Relax,” Telisa sent to Maxsym.
“I’m going to head over to that window. If I can acquire a target through it,
maybe I can take something out.”

Telisa holstered her stunner.
Her hands ran across the strap that held her chain lightning gun to her back,
but she thought better of it. Caden, Siobhan, and a handful of friendly soldier
robots might be out there, and she did not know whether the lightning gun would
hit them. She took out the weapon she called a “breaker claw” she had retrieved
from the vault on Vovok.

“I have something to try as
well,” she sent to the team. Telisa launched herself toward the window. Within
ten seconds she had pried it open, her breaker claw in hand.

An alien machine flew by at
high speed. It looked like a rocket with arms. Telisa could not lock onto it as
it passed, but then it turned back and came toward the house.

Telisa activated the breaker
claw with a link adapter Shiny had given her.

Kaboom!

The enemy machine exploded as
it approached their house.

One down, hundreds to go.

A squad of smaller, disc-shaped
machines flew in. Magnus and Arakaki were targeting more distant machines,
trying to help Siobhan and Caden. Telisa heard the retort of their weapons. She
used the claw on one of the discs. Nothing happened.

“Dammit. The small ones don’t
have superconductors. Or at least the claw isn’t working.”

Smack!

One of her attendants
intercepted some kind of projectile aimed at her. She tried the claw on another
one. There was still no result.

“Don’t expose yourself any
more. The new soldiers will be here in a few minutes,” Magnus urged.

“Caden and Siobhan may not have
that much time,” Telisa said.

That seemed to galvanize
Maxsym. “All right, I have one of these grenades,” he said. “Robotic target
sig. It’s ready. I’ll find another spot near one of the holes.”

Maxsym had the grenade in one
hand and his pistol in the other. One of his two attendant spheres shot away to
scout a route for him.

Good man, Maxsym! He’s back
into it. And ready to act.

Boom, boom, boom.

As Maxsym launched himself “upward”
in the house, Magnus’s rifle thundered three more times. Telisa found herself
thinking about the chain-lightning gun again.

Last resort. Wait. They’re
flanking us.

“I got the back,” Telisa said.
“I can use the big gun in that direction!”

“Hurry. If you wait too long,
you might kill our reinforcements,” Magnus said and kept firing.

Telisa started to move to the
other side of their house. The tactical showed her machines had enveloped the
area. Their soldier machines were fighting and dying all around.

Telisa slipped and smashed into
a bank of equipment as the attractive forces shifted. She managed to keep from
firing the lightning gun simply because it was so unwieldy, with two actuators.
When Telisa got to the window, she saw a flat disc robot prying it open from
the other side.

I can’t shoot it with this
point blank!

Telisa set the weapon aside as
gently as she could manage in one second. With her incredible new reflexes, she
had her smart pistol armed and aimed in the next second. As soon as the window
cleared half the thing’s body, she fired with a link command.

Snap!

The round punched into the
machine and exploded, sending pieces of the thing into the torso of her Veer
suit, her arm, and the walls.

She grabbed the lightning gun
and pointed it out through the circular portal.

No aiming this thing.

She actuated the weapon. She
felt only a light kick as the alien-tech missiles launched.

Foooom.

White-hot trails of some kind
of propellant or thruster system left afterimages on her retina. The enemy
machines started to explode in an ever-expanding sphere of destruction. Telisa
grabbed her breaker claw and prepared to clean up more.

“The gravity in here confuses
the grenades,” Siobhan transmitted. “They still work, though.”

“They work very well outside,”
Telisa sent back. “We’re moving out toward your position. Stay in there, you
have… some big ones outside.” She consulted the tactical record in her PV.
“We’ve killed at least twenty attackers.”

“One of the turtle things is
moving in on Siobhan,” Magnus said. Telisa had already seen it. One of the
armored behemoths was within a couple dozen meters of Siobhan’s position on the
tactical.

We can’t lose her.

“Let’s go,” Arakaki urged. “We
can’t leave her hanging.”

Magnus’s face reflected an
agonizing decision. “The soldiers from the airlock are almost here. We’ll join
them and move toward the rest of our team.”

Telisa wondered if his command
was any easier knowing they were all copies of the original team. She saw the
new soldiers approaching in her internal tactical display.

“Balanced advance only, don’t
jump the building until I say so. If anyone loses their attendant spheres, head
for the nearest building and take cover again.”

“My breaker claw can take out
that turtle machine,” Telisa told them. “Surely something that size will have
energy storage rings. I have to get in there.”

Magnus nodded tightly. She
could tell he wanted to tell her not to risk it. But he knew her weapon could
do it.

He knows I can do it, too.

“If you lose an attendant, hit
the cloaker, please,” he transmitted to her personally.

“I will. I promise,” she
replied privately.

They all came to the side of
their building facing toward the missing two members of the team. Maxsym was
taking deep breaths.

“Stay behind us, and if you
lose an attendant…” Telisa sent to him.

“Find cover. Got it,” he
replied privately.

The soldiers drifted by their
building above and to the left of Telisa’s position. She launched herself
simultaneously with Magnus. The others followed suit a half second later. She
immediately felt vulnerable, flying through the air surrounded by enemies.

Magnus and Arakaki kept
shooting. Arakaki had switched to her laser, making Telisa wonder if she had
run out of rounds for the compact gun she carried. Imanol launched a grenade
and took out a cluster of disc robots.

Smack. Zing!

Then a hail of counterfire
descended upon the group. Telisa’s attendants deflected two incoming shots in
as many seconds.

“I lost one,” Imanol said.

“Me too,” Magnus added. “Get
your compressed air out. You may have to veer off to one of these buildings on
our right.”

“You too, Magnus!” Telisa said,
knowing he would ignore her. “Just get it out in case you lose your second
attendant,” Telisa send to him privately. Then she lost one of her own
attendants. It darted in front of her and then overheated and slagged, spinning
away from her and trailing smoke. Telisa ignored her own advice. She was going
to get to Siobhan and save her.

By the Five. We’re almost
there.

“I can’t see it,” she said.
Then she found it on one of the feeds from one of the few surviving soldiers.
It was just inside the house, slightly to her right. A section of wall ignited.
It was nothing but smoky mist a second later.

Right there. It’s coming out
any second…

Telisa caught a glimpse of the
round shell emerging from the mist. She actuated the breaker claw.

Kaboooom!

A huge explosion ripped through
the side of the building.

Five preserve!

Telisa lifted her arm to
protect her face. Her attendant blurred in rapid motion. Something hit her
right shin hard, but her suit protected her. A shock wave sent her sharply off
course.

“Everyone, report!” Magnus
snapped.

“I’ve lost my second,” Imanol
said. “I’m heading… where? This building is a wreck, and I see robots in
there!”

“Take one of mine, Imanol,”
Maxsym said. The biologist released one of his attendants, and it went to cover
Imanol. Telisa managed to land on a piece of the house, but she had to grab
onto it when she discovered its artificial gravity had failed. Magnus did the
same near her. The team held onto the house like shipwreck survivors clinging
to a floating timber.

Telisa saw some enemies
withdrawing. She spotted a torpedo machine leaving the house, so she used the
breaker claw. It did not explode, but it seemed to spiral out of control.

“Caden, Siobhan?”

“We’re in one piece,” Caden
replied. “I see some of them retreating. Casualties?”

“A bunch of robots, just like
it’s supposed to happen,” Magnus said. “You make fun of my little army again,
and we’ll leave you hung out to dry next time.”

“We’re not making fun of them.
We’re making fun of you,” Telisa said. When Magnus shot her a look, she just
smiled. “Thanks for saving us all.”

“That’s better,” Magnus said.

“Caden saved my ass,” Siobhan
said. “I owe him one.”

“And I owe Maxsym, while we’re
keeping track,” Imanol said.

“Let’s get everyone back
together,” Magnus said. “We need more soldiers from Clacker. And an ammunition
resupply.”

“We need to study the enemy,”
Caden added. “I saw different types of machines. You know what? They weren’t
very deadly. Not like you would expect a robot army inside a space habitat this
size to be.”

“They weren’t military,”
Arakaki said. “It was almost an army of household robots.”

“Or industry machines,” Siobhan
countered.

“I see four types from the
soldier robots on the houses,” Magnus said. “Those big turtles. That was the
tough one that broke into your house, Siobhan. Then there were these rocket
things with pincers, flying laser-cutter machines, and those flat… beetles.”

“Turtles, rockets, cutters and
beetles,” Caden said. “Each one will have weaknesses we can exploit. For
starters, the beetles aren’t armored. Grenades work well on them, and even
melee weapons.”

“I can kill a turtle if I can
get close,” Telisa said.

“Question was, was that attack
directed by the Trilisk, or just some kind of automated attack left behind by
whoever lived here?” asked Siobhan.

“The Trilisk,” Magnus said.

“There was one other thing,”
Caden said. “One of the Blackvines finally moved. It booked it out of this
house when the attack came down. I didn’t see it, but it was gone inside of
thirty seconds.”