The Trilisk AI (18 page)

“They
were just Vovokans. Maybe they just decided we’re aliens and so we must be with
the destroyers.”

“They
were dead! Did you see that one? Half its legs had been blown off, and the
other one had a gaping hole in its side!”

“Calm
down. Just calm down. They aren’t zombies, okay? We don’t know that much about
Vovokan physiology. They may be under the control of the destroyers. They may
have some way of taking over the populace. It may have been part of the attack.”

“But
they were dead,” she repeated with less certainty.

“Probably
they just injure differently than we do. I think they’ve probably evolved to
lose limbs without dying. Hell, they have so many. And we don’t know where
their vital organs are. Besides, if they were turned into the invaders’
puppets, maybe they’re a sort of automaton. Could be controlled by nanomachines
or something. Don’t read anything extra-scary into it. They were easy to kill.
And if it’s a contagion, we’re not going to get it, we’re too different.”

Telisa
nodded as Magnus spoke, drinking in his logic. She sighed. “Yes. Yes, I agree,”
she said, struggling to stand. “If the invaders did this, it was probably to
terrify the populace. It sure as hell worked on me. We should find an exit now.”

“They’re
dead or gone. Take your time, catch your breath,” he said.

“Telisa,
Magnus. Shiny initiates communication,” Shiny’s voice interrupted.

“Shiny?
I didn’t think we would be in contact, though I’m glad to hear from you.”
Telisa tried to wipe the sand-filled fluids off her suit. It didn’t work well
but she kept trying.

“Destroyer
machines not in close proximity. Query about search: proceeding, developing,
shaping up?”

“It’s
very difficult. I’m sorry, but your homeworld is a mess. There are a bunch of
creatures like you here. But they’re injured, or sick, or...dead. They attacked
us.”

“Those
are not like me. They are duplicates, replicas, facsimiles. They are
artificial. Likely under invader control.”

“Well,
they fooled us. That explains a bit, though. Some of them looked like they
ought to be dead.”

“Shiny
studying destroyers further. Learned detection mechanisms. Identified signals
used by destroyers to detect, mark, share presence of enemies.”

“Well,
that’s something. Can we jam it?”

“Possibly.
Distraction easier. Hiding difficult.”

“Ah.
You can mimic the signals?”

“Can
cause emissions, radiation, noise, that will attract the machines, mark a
target as Vovokan.”

“Great
work! That should be very useful when it’s time to take the seed out. That, and
anything else I can find. So far I only have some dead floating spheres. Oh.
Are you controlling these colorful spheres that have been guiding us?”

“Negative.
But they can be trusted.”

“Okay,
but who controls them?”

“Some
devices, machines, computers, still working. I may repair further.”

Magnus
finally spoke up. “Shiny. Please share control of the drones. It will increase
our chances of success.”

“They
perform automatically, autonomously, self-controlled.”

“Just
in case. Look, we’re the ones down here risking our lives, so grant us this,
okay? Emergency-only control.”

“Acceptable.
Done.”

“One
more thing,” Magnus added. “Telisa and I have placed data packages that will go
out in the event of our deaths. We made sure our deaths are suboptimal for you.
If we die, the UNSF gets information about you, your technology, your methods,
everything. Your optimal course is to keep us alive and keep working with us.
We’re very beneficial to you alive. Even after we get you the seed.”

“Acknowledged,
understood, accepted.”

“Which
is exactly what you’d say if you were planning to betray us.”

“True,
correct, accurate.”

“Terrans
prefer cooperative mode,” Telisa said. “We can continue to be of use to you for
a long time.”

“Acknowledged,
understood, accepted.”

Chapter 14

“So
I hate to be blunt, but is our employment about to terminate?” asked Cilreth.
“I won’t be able to find Telisa as long as she’s hiding behind the F-clave. And
we’re not going to get in there, not without a small army. Even your stealth
suit would only get you so far, I suspect.”

I
didn’t get to be a captain in the force by giving up.
“Let’s consider it a bit further before
throwing in the towel,” Relachik said. “What do we have? Some inside info about
a deadly compound on Halthia Hyri that may have an expiration date on it. A
stealth suit. A spacecraft. A couple of grunts and a savvy investigator.”

“We
could hit the F-clave with a meteorite,” Arlin suggested.

“To
what end?” asked Cilreth.

“If
we destroy the F-clave’s complex, it might shut them down for a while. It might
flush Telisa out.”

“That’s
good thinking,” Relachik said. “What else can we come up with?”

“We
could bribe someone else with access. They are, after all, greedy criminals,”
Cilreth said.

“Criminals?
Kind of. Here on the frontier, just call them entrepreneurs,” Arlin said.

“That
may work. It would be hard, though,” Relachik said. “We’re complete strangers
and haven’t worked with them before. And the F-clave is notoriously brutal with
traitors. Kill your whole family, that kind of shit.”

“Then
we can finger someone who’s worked with them before. Get them to purchase the
information we want.”

Relachik
sighed. “I don’t want to go spending months hanging out with lowlifes and
building up a criminal record of our own just so we can find the right guy and
buy our way in. Besides, I have a large sum of money, but it’s finite.”

“I
get the feeling you have an alternative of your own.”

“I
may,” Relachik said. “I just wanted to feel out some other ideas. Keep thinking
on it, send me other approaches if you have them. I’m going to work on my idea
and see if I can get it to work. If not, then we’re back to meteorites and
lowlifes.”

Relachik
walked back to his quarters. He knew he was going to contact someone in the
Space Force, but the question was who and how. He thought of his secret
contact, Nick. He might be able to get something done that way, but he didn’t
want to burn that particular bridge. This was going to require deception. Once
they found out he had lied, whoever he chose might not listen again. Nick could
remain a source of information, as long as he handled the relationship
correctly.

“No,
I think I’ll go aboveboard with this one,” he told himself. Even an ex-captain
dropped for incompetence would be able to get more attention than a random
citizen.

After
all,
he thought,
the
days of my open credit with the force are over. I should burn the remainder of
that up first, and keep my surreptitious connections alive.

 Relachik
finished making his decision. He used his link to contact Commander Gaines. The
other side accepted the connection immediately.

“Relachik.
Wow. I wasn’t expecting to hear from you.”

“Hello
to you too, Gaines. I have a tip for you.”

“What?
You working for the Space Force from a private eye’s desk now?” Gaines said.

“Funny.
You want the tip or not?”

“Not.
If anyone finds out—”

“I’m
not begging for a handout, either from you or the force. The info is free and
you can use me as the source or fabricate your own.”

“Then
go.”

“There’s
a group on Halthia Hyri Three. Commonly called the F-clave by the locals. I
happen to know they’re a danger to the Earth and the Space Force.”

Moments
ticked by with no answer.

Then
Gaines replied. “A known issue. But they’re low priority. You
did
hear
the news about the
Seeker
, right?”

“Of
course I fucking heard. What kind of dumbass question is that?” Relachik
snapped.
Keep that up, Leonard, and you won’t get anywhere with him.

“The
Space Force knows about them. Those guys are smart enough to stay off the
radar.”

“Well
maybe they oughta be put on the radar. They have their hands into more than you
realize.”

“We
know they front corporations out on the frontier. That’s okay. It helps grow
the frontier without as much red tape, gets it prepped for steady colonist
migrations.”

Relachik
knew the migrations were an important part of the stability of the core
systems. With fully automated industry in place, the idle billions had little
to do but cause trouble for the government when they couldn’t afford to stay
ensconced in virtual realities all day every day. The UN’s solution to this
upheaval was to ship people out of the central systems to the frontier, where
they would have real-world work to occupy their attention. At least they
wouldn’t be the core worlds’ problem any longer.

“Then
I guess you’re okay with the alien weapons they’ve figured out? The next step
is manufacturing, you know.”

Gaines
perked up.

“What
the—?”

“Yeah,
you heard me. They have their hands on some of the heavy stuff. And it’s gone
to their heads. Another few weeks and they’re going to be ready to step out of
the shadows and carve out a small empire for themselves. This is more than a
handful of local marshals can handle.”

“We’ll
see. Heavy stuff is for aliens now, not shitty little gangs.”

“Whatever.
It’s out of our hands. But it’s more than a gang. They’re well organized and
well equipped.”

“And
their storage?”

“On
site. I think they’ll wipe it before you get there if you send a human team.
But you have a shot at it.”

“Okay,
thanks for the tip. Take care of yourself.”

“I
intend to.”

***

“As
soon as we notice anything amiss we’ll have to make our move,” Relachik said,
face to face with Arlin and Cilreth in their ship’s galley.

“I
don’t see how it could be safe to go in there during an attack,” Arlin said.

“It’s
safer than busting down the blast door ourselves,” Relachik said. “Trust me, I
know the navy. They’re concerned with collateral damage. It’ll be as safe as
taking a stroll back on Malgur-Thame. We just don’t want to attract attention
before the attack happens. We were talking about AIs earlier? If they send in
what I think they will—an Avatar-class battle module—then the attack will be
AI-controlled.”

“Okay
so we’re more or less safe. How do we just walk in there and get what we need?
Won’t they want it?”

“They
do, but the pick-up team will come in to get prisoners and storage modules
after the job’s finished. We have a window. A slender window.”

“I
might ask why their hackers don’t come in with the soldiers, if the navy is so
squeaky-clean with their surgical strikes,” Arlin said. “But I’m in as long as
you’re footing the bill.”

Seeing
Arlin was shored up, Relachik turned to Cilreth.

“I
wouldn’t ask you to go in there...”

“I
know. I’m your computer expert. I’ll follow your lead.”

Relachik
smiled. “Good. The suit’s yours. For this one, anyway.”

“What?
The stealth suit?”

“Of
course.”

“Will
it even fit me?”

“Yes.
It will.”

“Well
if I’m going to be invisible, then why aren’t I going in there alone? You two
will be visible enough.”

“I
can’t ask you to go in there alone.”

“Dammit.
Five Entities, just stay here then.”

“Are
you sure?”

“Shit.
I’m a twitch addict, remember? I’m not looking forward to old age.”

Relachik
nodded.
As
I thought. She’s tough.
“We might not be
able to back you up. If the criminals won’t be jamming civilian link
frequencies, the Space Force will. Once you get into the compound you should be
able to get anything.”

“Just
make sure the suit has the juice. I’ll do it.”

No
harder than leading a bunch of green recruits into an alien ruin.

His
own internal monologue answered him.
And you know what happened that time.

“I
think they’ll use the battle module. It just depends on what resources are
within range. There’s a chance—call it five percent—that they’ll send in
infantry instead. If that happens, the suit will need some software
modifications,” Relachik said. “It’s designed to be used either solo or as part
of a team. There may be a team of operatives in the strike wearing stealth
suits just like this one, which means there will be a handler coordinating with
them. And it’s going to notice your suit.”