The Trilisk Supersedure

Chapter 16



Kirizzo lurked within his enormous space fortress and spied on the Terrans thousands of kilometers below. His powerful sensor arrays allowed him to see a good part of the activity, though he couldn’t see into the tunnels below the city, as they somehow blocked his scans. He believed the lower tunnels were most likely built by Trilisks. The Konuan buildings blocked some of his information, but not all. He watched both the small group allied with him and the larger group he had discovered later.

The small group was easy to observe. They had twenty scout robots that he could use to keep tabs on them even inside the surface buildings. Everywhere they went, there were always a few of the scouts nearby. The Telisa-Magnus bond remained unbroken, and in fact, Magnus refused to initiate any pairing rituals with the new Terran female. Kirizzo felt this was likely due to her age, which was at the twilight of Terran fertility.

This group’s loyalty had become almost agonizing. At this point, Kirizzo hadn’t invested as much as he could have in the relationship. Had he known it would last this long, he would have put more into it from the beginning. Yet doing so now seemed to be an investment doomed to fail. In a way, the longer cooperation/competition cycles Terrans used made the inevitable betrayal all the more painful. Kirizzo would have to start all over again once someone turned. And he kept putting off more investment, expecting the break to happen any time now, yet the alliance went on and on.

He had studied Terran alliances. He knew they fragmented and dissolved. Yet this one endured. What was he missing? It was almost out of a masochistic sense of morbid curiosity that he allowed it to continue.

Their initial searches hadn’t uncovered anything of Trilisk origin. Kirizzo had resolved to start looking for clues from orbit. Trilisk equipment would leave clues he might be able to detect from great distances.

But instead he had discovered the large group of Terrans sharing the ruins. Their presence interested him, as the group was obviously interested in masking their presence from orbit. Kirizzo would not have been surprised to see a small settlement, but here was a group that hid by the ruins. Most likely it was another band of smugglers.

A group larger, more organized, and possibly better equipped than his current allies, it was also harder to glean information about.

Oh, the agony. Now he had a real reason to switch modes with the current Terran group. He should make an overture, investigate subtly whether or not these new smugglers might want to join him for mutual benefit.

What were the repercussions of a mistake? He had no homeworld to lose, but Telisa, Magnus, and Cilreth did know about his new base of operations and the Trilisk AI he had left there. What resources could they bring to bear against it? If they told the Terran space force about it, what might their fellow Terrans commit to recovering his treasures?

The larger group below seemed to be set up in a highly defensive posture. They had a perimeter put up, guarded by war machines and mobile sensor units on a high state of alert. This group expected trouble, or they had already experienced it. The first thing that came to mind was that they had assumed this formation upon the arrival of his sister ship holding the Terrans, but close analysis showed that the perimeter had been up for a much longer time.

There was movement in and out of the tunnels. This helped to confirm they were smugglers. That and the lack of any presence of the stagnant Terran government entity, the UNSF. These Terrans sought the same things he did—Trilisk information and technology. Kirizzo modified some search parameters. His scan picked up two interesting objects within the camp. Signatures almost certainly Trilisk. So they had already experienced some measure of success.

Kirizzo thought about other elements that might build a mutually beneficial alliance with the larger group below. In addition to the desire to obtain artifacts, their obvious lack of connections to the UNSF could be useful. Kirizzo had lost a small empire under the surface of his homeworld. His industrial seed promised the possibility of creating a new one. Should he attempt to create that new empire here, among the Terran worlds? In the open? His technological advantage carried a lot of leverage. With allies, might he hope to overthrow the UNSF and rule the Terrans himself?

The idea seemed possible. But it also sounded like a lot of work and danger for modest gain. What did the Terran civilization have that he needed? Resources, planets, yes. But knowledge? No, not really.

Kirizzo found another anomaly. Something moved down below around the group of hidden Terrans. Something with suspiciously Trilisk elements in the signature, yet it wasn’t headed directly to the camp, nor were there any Terrans nearby. Was this simply a Terran carrying and operating a Trilisk trinket? Then Kirizzo considered the readings from another angle.

Could this be the reason for the perimeter?

Suddenly a big shift occurred in the lower-frequency electromagnetic environment below. It suspiciously ended at frequencies of known use to the Terrans. Was the anomaly responsible?

Kirizzo searched for the source. He pinpointed it to machines within the larger Terran perimeter. He quickly linked the electromagnetic disturbance to a new pattern of movement within their camp. Kirizzo realized it was an attack.

The group had suppressed communications likely used by other Terrans using several transmitting devices placed on high ground around the ruins. Then they had organized into armed groups, accompanied by machines of war, and set out on foot. There were many more of them than his three allies and their scout robots, but still, these smugglers were a pathetic force even by Terran military standards. It was almost as if they had scavenged their equipment or perhaps bought old surplus from the last Terran interplanetary war.

Rather than help them, he decided to test their abilities. If they were very capable, then that made them more valuable as allies. If they took losses or did not handle opposition well, it might make them more amenable to negotiation.

Kirizzo considered direct interference. His new ship possessed weapons that could disable the Terrans’ surface equipment, but unfortunately the power plant providing energy for the jamming had been brought underground.

Kirizzo preferred a more indirect approach. He had analyzed and solved the mathematics of the Terran scrambler, despite the fact that it had been designed to be unpredictable by enemies. Given the ability to predict the scrambler and knowledge of the target he wanted to speak with, he could alter his own signal such that the message would get through. One-way communication became possible.

He contacted ten of the scout robots and organized them to oppose the attacking Terrans. They took up sniping positions along likely routes to the east. He left a system running to allow the scouts to coordinate with each other by sending regular messages telling them of the positions and status of all the others.

Then Kirizzo resumed his agonized decision making.

He considered the large group of Terrans again. Perhaps he should negotiate an alliance with them. On the front leg, they were organized into a clear hierarchy, meaning Kirizzo would only have to deal with the leader; he could wield the entire group with a single handle.

On the rear leg, these Terrans were organized for military purposes, meaning they were more likely to use force for their own gain. Kirizzo would have to expend more energy in protective countermeasures working with such a group. Besides, if they sought Trilisk artifacts, and already had some, that put them in competition with Kirizzo, unless they were as easily satiated with baubles as Telisa and Magnus were.

Given their advance against the scouts and his allies, Kirizzo was running out of time to decide.

Kirizzo saw a launch from the surface. Terran ships. His own ship notified him of the event. Kirizzo directed it to gather more information.

He focused in a scan. Military vessels, though out of date for the Terran space force current standards. They were multipurpose assault ships, designed to carry troops from planet to planet. They looked to be more focused on landing missions rather than space superiority weapons.

Not that it would have mattered. Kirizzo had the upper hand here. His computers analyzed the scans and found the weaknesses of the ships. He would be ready if the Terrans decided to attack without provocation. Kirizzo expected they would attempt to negotiate once they saw his ship. He allowed them to find him. Perhaps now he could enter into an agreement with the new group.

The Terran ships reached orbit. Their sluggish systems seemed to have finally located Kirizzo’s vessel. The Terrans were activating weapons systems. That much, he had expected. Then they launched a wave of missiles at him.

Aggression. Kirizzo recognized it immediately, like a scoop of fresh sand in a long-stagnant cave. His decision had been made for him. He would remain allied with his current team. He started a new planning phase for the destruction of the aggressors.