The Trilisk AI (27 page)

“That
sounds familiar. But what’s the pirate’s option?”

“It
usually doesn’t come up in combat, because our weapons are useful at longer
ranges. But this effect starts about a third of a light second out and becomes
more pronounced as you get closer. By the time you’re close enough to board,
the spinners have to be in perfect balance, or else both ships are torn apart.
The pirate’s option is to choose mutual destruction over capture. You can
violently misalign your spinner and destroy both ships.”

“Oh,”
Cilreth said.

“This
has been a problem for the Space Force from time to time, which is why we use
robotic capture devices that shut the spinner down in the target. The pirate’s
option remains there, but it’s more of a death-instead-of-capture
rather
than
a mutual-destruction thing.”

“So
we’re risking all our lives to do this. Maybe we’d better just follow them to a
planet.”

“If
they spot us, then it’ll get more dangerous. I doubt they’ll even consider the
option. It’s to our advantage that this is obviously not a Space Force
cruiser.”

“Not
the way I see it. At least they know the Space Force would treat them according
to rules. If they think we’re another group of pirates, then they may fear
death.”

“But
they’d have a fighting chance against us, which is better than certain death.”

“Okay,
there is that.”

“If
I do the approach right, and you know I can, they’ll have minimal time to react
before the gas takes effect. And the remora Arlin will deploy will eventually
power down their spinner. Ours will come down with it, then back up. There
might be a few seconds of weightlessness.”

“Yes.
Okay, let’s just get this over with. I hope we get your daughter back safe and
sound.”

“So
do I.”

As
they approached, maintaining stealth got trickier, so Arlin moved in on the
other ship while Relachik managed the probes. The target remained quiescent.

If
we can make it the next few seconds, then it should be disabled,
Relachik thought.

Arlin
fired the remora. The device was a disc just large enough for a man to stand
on. It ate up the distance between the ships until approached the target. Then
it slowed and latched onto the skin of the smuggler ship. Relachik thought he
could feel it launch, a small vibration through the ship, but it might have
been his imagination.

“The
remora is down. Arming it now,” Arlin said. Relachik noted that Arlin also
matched the ship’s spinner to the target ship’s drive.

“Here
we go,” Arlin said. The remora discharged into the smuggler ship, causing
electronic disruption meant to cripple them. Arlin moved the
Vandivier
up to dock. Relachik abandoned his probes and headed for the exit.

Cilreth
waited at the lock. She held a stunner.

Relachik
noted a slugthrower strapped to her back. She had a grenade on a utility belt
at her waist. Relachik nodded his approval. She handed him his gas mask and a
stunner. He checked his pistol, which he already had on him. He felt remarkably
calm. He knew it was the result of all the training. He felt their ship come
into contact with the other starship.

“Something’s
wrong,” Arlin transmitted.

There
goes the training.
“What?” snapped Relachik.

“The
remora hasn’t totally disabled the ship. Somehow it’s still mostly functioning
in there.”

“Can
we fire another one?”

“Not
this close. Wait. Maybe I can manage something...”

Relachik
took a deep breath. Waiting at this point was painful. “I’m going to try and
force the door,” he said.

“Okay,
but I don’t think it will work yet. I almost have the last remora ready to try
again.”

Relachik
prepared to pry the airlock doors.
We’re giving them time to prepare for us.

“You
might want to step outside our lock,” he said. “You know, just in case.”

Cilreth
saved her usual wry comments and stepped outside the lock. Relachik opened the
Vandivier’s outer lock and commanded their invasion apparatus to move into
place. The device started to attack the lock door, but it remained firmly shut.

“The
other remora is in place,” Arlin reported. “Stand out of the lock and I’ll
activate it.”

Relachik
stepped back to join Cilreth. They heard a dull crack.

“There,
that’s better,” Arlin said. “No, there’s still something odd. Maybe they have
countermeasures against it? It’s not working right.”

“This
is Leonard Relachik,” he sent to all local receivers. “I’m here to speak with
my daughter, Telisa.”

“Telisa.
Elsewhere.”

“What?
Where are you? Open up,” Relachik said.

“Telisa.
Travel. Harvest. Return. Planet below.”

Arlin
walked into the lock, holding his rifle and a grenade.

“Your
English sucks. Where are you from?” Relachik demanded.

“Planet
below.”

Relachik
and Arlin exchanged looks.

“Are
you thinking what I’m thinking?”

“Telisa
is working with an alien,” Relachik said aloud. “Either that, or they want us
to think she is.”

And
that doesn’t surprise me much. I should have told them about it.

“Open
the door. Let us in.”

“Stop.
Halt. Desist.”

“We’re
coming in now, whether you like it or not,” Relachik said. “Open it if you want
your outer lock door to remain operational. If I have to cut it, it’ll be
destroyed.”

The
lock door opened. The second door beyond opened as well, leading into a
perpendicular corridor.

“Ambush?”
Arlin asked Relachik and Cilreth on a private channel.

“Masks.
Grenades,” Relachik answered. They slipped their masks on. Arlin and Relachik
rolled their grenades into the airlock. Once activated, the grenades
accelerated themselves, rolling along the deck to the corridor. Arlin’s grenade
broke left, Relachik’s right.

“What
have you done with my daughter?” Relachik broadcast.

“Mutually
beneficial contract, deal, relationship. Recommendation: await her return.”

The
grenades reported their activation. The gas was invisible but Relachik’s mask
told him the grenades had worked a second later when it detected the gas in the
air.

“Cargo
should be on our right,” Cilreth said. “I looked up this design. UED scout
ship. We probably want the left corridor.”

Relachik
nodded. He and Arlin took the left route.

A
golden thing stood in their way, just ten meters ahead. It had more legs than
Relachik could easily count. Its head was at the height of his chest, a
featureless knob with tiny tentacles on the underside. Its presence struck him
hard. Of course, he had not really doubted their existence after the battle at
the space station where he had helped Telisa escape, but seeing one in person
was different. He knew he wasn’t looking at a virtual feed.

Five
Entities. The aliens are real. And here.

They
raised their rifles and pointed them at the thing.

A
moment later Arlin exploded across the deck. Relachik staggered, covered in
gore.

Relachik
raised his weapon and fired. His round said it acquired the target, but a
second later it was clear the shot had no effect.

Cilreth
cowered behind a carbon strut for a second, then she turned and ran down the
right corridor.

She’s
going to find Telisa? Even braver woman than I thought.

A
flash of pain erupted in his legs and rose into his gut. He fell to the deck.
What—

Chapter 21

Magnus
sat outside the vault, regarding the battle-torn cavern around them.

I’m
a long way from home. Or am I? Where is home for me, anyway?

He
shrugged to himself. Somewhere along the way, home had become an outmoded
concept for Magnus. Telisa came out with some food bars. They started to eat.

“It’s
time to flip our thinking,” Telisa said.

“We
cost them a lot. It’ll never work again.”

“Exactly.
So we turn it on edge. Use the fact it won’t work again to our advantage.”

“Okay.
The destroyer machines do learn, though a bit slowly,” Magnus said.

“So
suppose we put out a huge number of signatures again, ones that they are sure
to ignore, and include the seed!”

“Ah,
that might work. They’ve learned to ignore our false signatures, so now they
ignore the seed,” Magnus said. “It reminds me of what Shiny said. He figured
out how the Trilisk facility worked, then he used it against the destroyers.
And they couldn’t keep up with his tricks.”

“If
they manage to discern our false signals somehow, it’ll still be dangerous. Also,
they’re not totally ignoring the signals. Just moving much more slowly than
before.”

“I
don’t want to give them too much time to figure it out,” he said. “I could toss
in a few signals over destroyers again, too.”

“But
we don’t want them to come after it before we start the ruse either. All the
fakes and our real one should become visible at the same time.”

“Agreed.
Okay. Let’s just get it up to the vault entrance and then we’ll let loose,” he
said.

Magnus
looked at the floating cache of artifacts and frowned.

“What?”
she asked.

“That
weapon you used. It saved us once. It might again. Just in case. I know you
can’t take out the whole destroyer fleet with it, but it might make the
difference.”

Telisa
nodded. She set the key down and let the shelves deploy the collection. The
amazing container unfolded and spread the items out over the shelves. Telisa
grabbed the weapon and put it over her shoulder with a makeshift sling she had
added. They put all the other artifacts onto the shelves. Then she grabbed the
key and it all collapsed again.

“We
need to bring that thing along next time, if there is a next time,” Magnus
said. “It’s too useful for carrying stuff.”

“I
hope it can float all the way to the surface. Otherwise, we’re going to have to
stop and grab everything again in the middle of all the action.”

Magnus
nodded. He strode back inside, seized the industrial seed, and carried it to
the entrance.

“If
you’re almost out of ammunition, you don’t have to carry the rifle, too,” she
said.

Magnus
thought about the weapon. It was a bit out of date, but that was exactly what
made it valuable to him.

“It’s
hard to replace. The newer weapons have a lot more control restrictions.”

“I
bet our friends on the frontier have ways around that,” Telisa said. “Or we can
make our own.”

“I’ll
drop the rifle quickly enough if the need arises,” he said. She seemed
satisfied.

“Ready
for take two?” he asked.

“Yes.”

“Okay
here we go,” Magnus said. “Let’s hope we picked our targets well.”

The
signals activated. He saw them light up on the drone detection network.

“It’d
better work. Scout is running out of power again,” he said.

“We
might be able to find some power source like before.”

“Let’s
just get out of here!”

“Yeah,”
she agreed.

They
double-timed it out of the vault chamber toward the first upward leg. For
Magnus, it caused a heavy feeling of déjà vu.

This
time we’ll be successful.

Scout
led the way on the ascent. The spider-like robot flooded the area with its
lights, then launched a smart rope and headed up.

Magnus
and Telisa watched their game of cat and mouse with the destroyers through
Shiny’s drone network. At first the destroyers did nothing. Then they started
to move out sluggishly.

“They’re
going to investigate.”

“Slowly.
We may have time.”

“I
assume the artifact trove thing will float up with us as long as I carry this
small leader device.”

“You
may have to drag it. Or we can use another rope. I can get a spare rope ready,
just in case.”

Magnus
staggered a bit under the load as he grabbed the line ascender. Telisa steadied
him and watched him rise up into the darkness. Scout waited for him at the top.
He saw her glance over her shoulder and sweep her light about behind her.

“Being
in back is as scary as being in the lead.”

“Then
get your ass up here!” Magnus said.

Telisa
ascended after them. At her side, the container levitated with her, following
the key. Magnus nodded. It made sense for a Vovokan transport device. It had to
be able to move anywhere in the tunnels to be useful.