The Trilisk AI (13 page)

A
light wind came up in the tunnel. The light from the opening above altered.
Magnus caught a humming sound.

“What
the hell?”

The
humming noise became louder as the wind picked up. Grains of sand whipped their
legs and feet.

Shit,
Telisa said, switching
to link communication.
Either Shiny’s right or we’re dead.

Magnus
felt his heart accelerate. He breathed in quick, short bursts to avoid the sand
in the air. He wished he had made his mask more accessible. But the wind
abated. The light returned to normal.

That’s
encouraging,
Magnus
sent.

They
waited a few more moments. Magnus monitored the red dot. It moved away rapidly.

“Actually,
it simply serves to remind me how dumb it is to go poking around on alien
planets,” Telisa said.

“We’re
okay. Shiny was right.”

They
came to an intact hatch at the end of the passageway. The hatch was circular,
though it had thick bars of reinforcing metal or ceramic crisscrossing its
surface.

“I
know how to open this, though the sand may get in the way. I think the sand is
from a side system. This is supposed to be clean. We aren’t in the
natural-looking tunnels yet, where they lived.”

“And
died,” Magnus added.

Telisa
grabbed two struts along the surface of the hatch. The struts clicks and moved
slightly, then the hatch clanged loudly. Telisa scraped the hatch open. A thick
fog roiled out just a bit at the edges.

“Great,
just like a house of horrors,” Telisa said.

Magnus
just shrugged.

“Masks?”
Telisa asked.

Magnus
sent Scout in.

“Just
watch,” Magnus said.

Scout
scampered through on its long legs. There was only a slight crunch of sand with
each footfall. Magnus saw another dim passage filled with sand.

A
message came from Scout. It showed an analysis of the air inside.

“Looks
fine,” Magnus said.

“It
kind of smells,” Telisa noted.

“There’s
most likely dead things in there.”

Magnus
heard a slight rustling noise through Scout’s senses. The machine peered down a
tunnel. The entire inner surface of the tunnel spun clockwise. The noise came
from a bit of sand Scout had knocked into the spinning tunnel, but it quickly
abated.

“We
have to go in there?” Telisa asked.

“You
tell me. Isn’t this Shiny’s route?”

“Yes,”
Telisa said.

Magnus
told Scout to wait until they got there to look at the tunnel themselves. They
slipped through the hatch. Magnus swept the room beyond with his own light,
covering the illuminated areas with his weapon. Telisa seemed content to rely
upon Scout’s initial sweep. The room wasn’t large. The walls became irregular,
with a low ceiling. Magnus had to stoop just a bit.

The
two stood in front of the tube. Their lights revealed a long spinning tube, but
they couldn’t see the end of it. The tunnel was round, with a spiral depression
winding down its length like a reverse screw.

“It
carries things forward,” Magnus surmised.

Telisa
put out her hand. She touched the surface. “It’s pretty slippery.”

Magnus
squatted to scoop up some sand. He tossed it in the tube.

The
sand scattered into the depression then moved away as the spiral carried it
down the tunnel.

“It’s
a transport tube,” Magnus said. “The ridges carry you along like an inside-out
screw.”

“This
thing is still working somehow... shouldn’t it have stopped? Everything else
seems destroyed or dead from lack of power.”

“It
is strange,” Magnus agreed, staring down the tunnel.

“It’s
probably just great for Vovokans, but looks uncomfortable to me. Or dangerous.
We’ll be moving forward out of our control. Can we even walk in it? What if it
dumps into...? Never mind, let me look at the map.”

Magnus
nodded. He gave the rest of the chamber a look while Telisa consulted the data
from Shiny. The walls sloped like natural caverns, though they had a smooth
surface, just like the ones he remembered from Thespera. These were the real
thing, though, not the creation of a Trilisk machine emulating the preferred
environment of its inhabitant. They glistened in the light with tiny pinpricks
of reflective material. Other than sand, the only things on the floor were two
ceramic columns about a foot tall.

“I
think those ceramic things are Shiny chairs,” he said. “Vovokan, I mean.”

“Okay,
this tube is about a quarter of a kilometer long. It should be okay to get
into, I guess,” Telisa said.

“We’ll
send Scout first, of course,” Magnus reassured her. “We’ll see any danger
through him.”

“Okay,”
she said. Magnus sent Scout scuttling into the spiraling tunnel.

The
robot appeared confused. The spinning tube slid it up the right hand side,
until it balanced the friction against the gravity. A couple of its legs caught
against the depression, then it started sliding forward. At the same time, it
took steps forward.

“It’s
not quite that smart,” Magnus said. “I bet with the Vovokan walker’s brain...”

Telisa
laughed. “You can’t let go of that, can you? We’ll use the improved one soon
enough. I think it’s easier for Scout to get through than it will be for us. It
has more legs to catch in the depression. I bet that’s exactly how Shiny would
move through there.”

Scout
emerged on the far side. Its feed showed more sandy ruin. The area looked more
open. Magnus saw a much larger tunnel perpendicular to the transport tube, with
dozens of doors or windows opening into it.

“I
think I’m going on my stomach,” Telisa said. “I don’t trust myself to run or
walk through it.”

“Yeah,
stomach sounds fine. You want to attach a line or just go for it?”

“Worked
for Scout,” Telisa said. She knelt forward, feeling the moving surface with her
hands.

She’s
not afraid to go first, even after the close call with that destroyer-thing. A
natural-born explorer.

Telisa
hopped in. She moved slowly at first, then picked up speed as her boot tips
fell into the depression and pushed her forward.

“Piece
of cake,” she said aloud.

Magnus
pointed his rifle behind him and followed her. The ride was novel but
uneventful. They emerged from the spiral tube in a minute or two.

On
the other side, he became nervous. They couldn’t see well. Telisa must have
felt the same way, because she switched to link communication. She preferred
her link when she felt threatened.

“It’s
dark,” Telisa said over her link.

“Scout
to the rescue,” Magnus answered. The spider-legged machine returned to their
location, flooding the area with light. The reflected illumination scattered
through the space below, bringing it into view.

The
scene revealed looked like a subway disaster. A long cylinder of metal ran
overhead down the center of the tunnel, with no discernible supports. The
ceiling was easily ten meters overhead. The light showed several openings in
the walls of the tunnel, hinting of rooms beyond. Before them a huge hulk of a
machine or vehicle lay partially covered by sand.

Magnus
immediately got the feeling that, whatever it was, it had fallen from the metal
rail above. He swept his own light down the tunnel in both directions. It was a
big wide open space, filled with sand. The openings in the wall continued as
far as his light could reach.

Shiny’s
drone flew quickly from one side of the room to the other. It jerked about a
bit, hovering around the debris in a corner.

“What’s
it doing?” Telisa transmitted.

The
drone settled down near the floor. Then it started to change. Its shape started
to divide into two bulky parts separated by a thinner span.

“I
have no idea,” Magnus said.

The
drone dropped onto the floor. One of its ends had flattened into a base. Its
middle thinned smoothly then expanded again, forming a flat top like a little
table.

“Wait.
It looks exactly like all those other things. Like the chair-things.”

“So…it’s
playing chair?”

“Wait
a second…one of those red dots is getting closer.”

“Those
are the destroyer machines. Something attracted one of them,” Telisa said.
“Now, the machine is coming so the drone is hiding. What about us?”

“Stay
calm. Let’s hide.”

“Over
here,” Telisa said. “By that ruined...whatever it is. Train car, maybe.”

They
scrambled over toward the ruined husk. There was an opening under it, but it
was too small to hide in. Once they were up against its surface, nestled beside
the base, Magnus grabbed a large plate of metal debris and dragged it over. He
leaned it against the hulk, forming a small space for them to crawl into.

“Scout?
There’s no room for him in here,” Telisa sent over her link.

“I’ll
leave him out there. To distract this thing, just in case.”

The
humming noise became louder. Magnus just crouched and waited.
We can’t hope
to fight these things... so just play rat and hope it goes away.

White
light washed over the room. Magnus shut his eyes. The machine moved to the far
side of the room by Scout. The light moved. There was only a steady hiss of
moving air pushing sand around. Something moved to the far side of his cover,
but the plate didn’t move. Neither did Magnus.

Magnus
watched the view from Scout carefully. The destroyer machine was an ovoid,
emitting bright white light. The illumination made it difficult to see details
of the machine. It floated in the center of the wide open passageway, moving
slowly toward the wreck they hid against. As it paused above Scout, Magnus saw
several bulbous protrusions of equipment, including ominous-looking holes he
imagined could emit projectiles or energy attacks of some kind.

Then
it had moved over Scout and the wreck. It continued down the tunnel, picking up
speed as it left them behind. After another minute, Magnus opened his eyes and
pushed away the plate. They stood up and looked down the tunnel after the
receding white light.

“I
must have come up on Vovokans just like that, then killed them,” she said.

Magnus
noticed Telisa stood still with her arms wrapped around herself.

“Are
you okay?” he asked. “It’s gone. More evidence the destroyers don’t really care
about us.”

“I’d
forgotten,” she said. “Now I’ve been reminded twice.”

He
puzzled through her statement for a moment. “What it was like to be in danger?”

“Yeah.
To think I was about to die. How could I forget that feeling?”

“It’s
good you forgot. Some people can’t shake it. Even when they go home and they’re
safe, they can’t shake it. It’s good you can handle it and get over it.”

Telisa
stared at the drone camouflaged as a chair. “It had to shut down. I wonder how
it will wake back up?” she said.

“It
could be a timer. Or the other drones might send it a signal when they see the
hunter go away.”

“Hunter.
That’s exactly what it was. Just think, those things came here after Shiny’s
kind. And they killed millions, he said.”

“It
sounds horrible, and yet—” Magnus said.

“What?”

“And
yet, I wonder if they deserved it.”

“We
sure are willing to trust him, despite the fact that we don’t trust him,” she
said nonsensically.

“I
know what you mean. But he saved us before. And he’s offering us a lot now,
even though he’s after something himself. An industrial seed. I think he must
plan to restore his civilization, but on his own terms.”

“Yes.
‘In absence of heavy competition.’”

“So,
what’s this wide open road? And why the cylinder above us? It doesn’t seem to
attach to anything.”

“It’s
a rail. A transport rail,” she said.

Magnus
nodded. “I agree. But why the open windows? Did it carry something worth
seeing? Because in a human city—”

“In
a human city they have to keep the noise out,” Telisa finished for him.

“Oh.
Of course. Yes, Vovokans might have a lot less trouble with the noise, since
they’re deaf. A bomb could have blown the windows out. But I meant, was
something on this rail worth seeing?”

“Maybe.
Scout is moving ahead. I see the next room.”

They
left behind the wreck and followed Scout. Shiny’s odd probe revived and floated
after them. The robot took a right, disappearing into one of the dozens of
passageways that opened onto the underground thoroughfare.

The
machine sent back images of a big room with a low, irregular ceiling. One side
of the room had caved in. Rows of familiar golden creatures were arranged on
small platforms of machinery.