The Trilisk AI (5 page)

“Of
course.”

Before
Relachik left, he turned to Arlin again. “I’d like to inquire about takeoff
procedures.”

“Really?”

“As
you said, I’m familiar with much larger Space Force vessels.”

“Ah,
yes. Well, if this were a hot landing zone, the ship would show you to the
nearest crash pod. But as far as taking off on Malgur-Thame, no special
precautions are needed. In fact, we’re just now underway.”

“Excellent.”

“Of
course, exactly where we’re underway to, I don’t know. I’m taking us to the
fringe, as you indicated.”

“Yes,
well, hopefully Cilreth can help us with that soon. But I’d let her do her job
alone for a while. She knows the ball is in her court.”

“Of
course. As you wish.”

Relachik
found his small room and rattled around for a few minutes, placing his things
under a bunk and into a few metal cabinets. He had a sleeping web, a closet,
and a shower tube that also worked as a toilet and a crash tube. It was much
like the
Seeker
, only everything was smaller, and as Arlin had
mentioned, all the gadgets seemed to serve more than one function. Relachik
suppressed a bit of annoyance at the realization he would have to learn to use
a lot of new stuff.

He
checked the outer sensor net and navigation. They were already leaving the
atmosphere. The gravity spinner was amazing. Nothing had disturbed Relachik
through the entire ascent. There wasn’t even any vibration to speak of.

So
amazing. Sometimes I’m actually glad for bureaucracy. It slows things down.

The
ship neared its first in-system checkpoint. Nothing more than a small satellite
that scanned them and verified their credentials. But Relachik noted that many
such checkpoints lay ahead—more than there should be. A network of satellites
appeared in his mind’s eye, embracing the planet. It took him a moment to
realize what they were.

“Defenses,”
he said to himself.

The
destruction of the
Seeker
had no doubt initiated such changes across
most of the colonies. Relachik saw more activity over Malgur-Thame. Several
construction facilities were on the display. He zoomed into the public view of
one of them. A ship’s hull was being formed by a series of robots. Raw
materials were coming in on transports on a regular schedule.

Relachik
made some inquiries. It felt strange to go through the public net for UNSF
information. And, predictably, what he could find out with civilian clearance
was very limited. Apparently every colony with a population greater than one
million people had been tasked with fabricating ships for the cause. The class
varied by the size of the colony. Malgur-Thame, being quite small, had received
plans to fabricate a Space Force corvette.

The
burden on such a small colony was fairly steep. Those resources were needed for
other things. Yet the sentiment was largely positive in light of the news that
humans were no longer alone on the galactic stage.

Relachik’s
pulse quickened a bit as he thought about humanity’s situation.
We’ve
finally encountered others out there, and they don’t like us.

***

For
Relachik, the key to spending time in space was a routine. A daily regimen that
included many glorified habits, all of which were productive, but none too
efficient. If you had the time, you had to draw it out. Many would retreat into
virtual worlds and spend their time there, but Relachik loved working more than
anything. When he did create virtual worlds, he filled them with more
work—training and planning.

It
was all about what was going on in reality. He’d invested too much time and
effort in real life to let it rot by attending imaginary worlds for any length
of time.

This
philosophy had taken a hit when he left service. Now, his reality required
considerably less work.
I have a crew, of sorts. At least one is woefully
under trained to be on a ship. I should try and fix that.

Relachik
staked out the mess and waited. He set up a few VR scenarios to pass the time,
creating some situations he could foresee them encountering. In each case, the
objective was the same: approach various hostiles holding Telisa captive and
rescue her.

Eventually
Cilreth showed up to get something to eat.

“So,
is the network setup here good enough for you?”

“Yes.
It’s adequate,” Cilreth said, smiling slightly.

“I
think we should train a bit while we’re stuck in this tin can. I hope the
smugglers won’t turn out to be a problem, but maybe we should practice a bit
just in case...”

“Yes.”

“...and
I think the exercise—what?”

“I
said yes, silly.”

“Ah.
Good. I guess I expected you would say you’re busy looking for Telisa.”

“I
am, but the computers do most of the work. Though I like to tweak things often.
But I have to take a break now and then, just like anyone.”

“After
lunch then?”

“Yes.
Sure.”

“Spend
a lot of time in VR?”

“Doesn’t
everyone?”

“How
about action?”

“Yes,
I play a lot of action stuff. And I exercise in real life, too.”

“Wow.
You’re a gem among the hacker crowd.”

“I’m
not a hacker. Don’t mistake an investigator for a hacker. I know how to look
for people. That’s my specialty.”

Relachik
nodded. “Got it. Okay, I’ll set some stuff up. See you soon.”

He
got up and went back to his quarters. He contacted Arlin to see if the
mercenary would join their little exercise. Arlin agreed eagerly.

He
needs something to do as well.

When
Arlin and Cilreth showed up a bit later, Relachik was ready. The first
environment he’d created looked just like the
Vandivier
. Arlin and
Cilreth appeared in the simulation. They appeared as perfect copies of their
current selves.

“Okay,
what’s the drill?” Cilreth asked. She sounded genuinely curious and ready to
go.

“We
should practice using the disabler remoras and boarding another ship.”

“Pirates
now, are we?”

“Of
course, he means to practice a boarding in case we find the smugglers on a ship
or a space station,” Arlin said.

“Exactly,”
Relachik said. The ship is on our scanner now. Arlin will deploy the remoras.
Cilreth, you watch my interface. I’ll show you how to use these defensive
probes to mask our approach.”

“They
can do that?”

“Yes.
Their primary mission is, of course, to observe for us, but their EM
capabilities include the ability to create false images of the ship, and to
obscure the real one.”

“Okay,
I’m watching.”

They
worked for the next fifteen minutes to move in on the other ship. Cilreth
watched as Relachik launched two probes and tried to cover their approach.

One
side of his display showed his best guess of what the other side saw. At one
point, a ghost of the
Vandivier
appeared on the other screen.

“I
think I screwed that up,” Relachik said. “Okay, if this happens, move to plan
B. Make them think there’s more than one of us. But let them think we’re
farther out.”

“You
could even say you’re Space Force. Pretend that you’re escorting them to the
nearest planet. So they won’t expect a boarding action.”

“Yes.
Anything to keep them from being ready to defend the lock.”

“The
remora is down. Arming it now,” Arlin said.

The
Vandivier
had launched a remora earlier, a small disc-shaped device that
had attached itself to the other ship. When it discharged, it disrupted the
target’s control systems. The other ship would be temporarily disabled unless
it had military grade safeguards.

“And
what should we do?” Cilreth asked.

“We’ll
need some gas masks, small arms, and a couple of seeker grenades,” Relachik
said.

“Okay,
I’m on it.” Cilreth went over to the virtual weapons locker. “Wow, we have some
interesting stuff in here. Do we have swords for real or are they only here?”

“For
real, too,” Relachik said. “I’m told they’re amazingly, unbelievably,
super-dangerously sharp. Emergency only.”

“Check,”
she said. “Okay, I have the grenades. One for each of us?”

“Yes.
Three masks, right? One for Arlin, of course.”

“Of
course.”

They
met at the lock. Cilreth handed out stunners and soft slug pistols. Relachik
and Arlin had utility belts to hold unused weapons, but Cilreth ended up with
one in each hand.

At
least she’s not pointing either of them in our direction
, Relachik thought.
If her weapon
discipline is lax, she’ll end up shooting us sooner or later. Hopefully in a
simulation.

“There’s
a bit of cover here,” Cilreth said. “But only enough for one of us on each
side.”

“Arlin
and I are Space Force. You’re a search specialist,” Relachik said. “So you
stand beyond, around that bulkhead,” Relachik said.

“You
got it,” Cilreth said. “I wasn’t looking forward to hitting the beach first
anyway.”

She
handed her gas grenade to Arlin. He nodded his thanks and armed the grenade
with his link. Relachik did the same with his.

“Give
yours a low detonation threshold. I’ll set mine higher, let it go farther into
the ship,” Relachik said. Arlin replied with a short digital chirp used by the
Space Force as an efficient acknowledgement. The marines called such transmissions
‘battle yah’ and ‘battle nah’, for a positive and a negative, respectively.

The
lock doors opened. A set of robotic arms folded up from the floor and started
to pry the hatch of the other ship. If it weren’t for the disabler on the other
ship, they would have to cut through. As it was, the arms, designed to open the
hatch of a dead or disabled ship, would work fine.

As
soon as a gap opened, they released their seeker grenades. The devices rolled
through the lock and into the other ship.

“Masks
on,” Relachik reminded Cilreth.

Arlin’s
grenade reported its detonation. The doors had opened wide enough to allow the
team through. Arlin jumped through first while Relachik remained under cover.

“You
can come forward,” Relachik said. He pointed his weapon into the opening to
cover her as she moved into the lock and to the side. Then Relachik went in.

“At
least one of them succumbed,” Arlin said.

The
other side had filled with translucent gas. Battery powered emergency lights
illuminated the interior. A man was down, but it wasn’t Arlin.

Relachik’s
second grenade reported detonation, further into the ship.

“The
main hall is clear, one more appears down,” Arlin reported.

“Okay,
just cover the hall. We’ll go door to door,” Relachik said. He tried the first
portal on his left. Power room.

Then
he walked out into the main corridor. He caught a glimpse on his right of Arlin
covering him. In the middle of the corridor, another smuggler lay unconscious.
The next chamber looked like a common room beside the mess.

“No
one in the mess,” Relachik said. He checked in a food cabinet, but it was an
electric storage belt that could bring food in from a larger store. No room for
anyone to hide.

Relachik
walked back out and checked the other side of the corridor. It was a private
quarters, empty. He checked another room. Telisa was inside, unconscious.

“I
found her. She’s okay.”

“That
was straightforward. We’re a good team,” Cilreth said.

“Don’t
relax until we’re out,” Relachik said. “One of them may have found a gas mask.”

“Okay.
But I’m barely even in yet,” she said. Cilreth backed out while Relachik
carried Telisa out. Arlin was the last to leave.

“So
far so good,” Relachik said. “Of course, the settings will get harder. I’ll
challenge us a bit more next time.”

“Sure,”
Cilreth said. “That was pretty tame.”

“It
went better than I thought. Of course, it gets a lot uglier than that if we
screw up. Now, how about a planetside approach?” Relachik said. He brought up
another of the scenarios he had prepared.

The
three of them stood in an alien woods. Huge, thick trunks of some kind of life
forms rose around them. The trunks were orange, but quickly turned green toward
the top, where fern-like leaves spread in a dense canopy. Whatever star lit
this world was either dim or fading for the evening.

The
team wore surface breathers over their faces.

“Are
we restricted to this?” Cilreth asked, holding up a stunner.

“No.
Outfit yourself from the ship,” Relachik said. “We’re making an approach right
before dark, so there’s a bit of time. This planet rotates slowly.”