The Trilisk Supersedure

Chapter 1



Magnus sat comfortably in a swivel throne with his feet propped up on an opulent marble desk. Judging from the size and decor of the office that surrounded him, few would have guessed he sat in a spacecraft. The smart chairs arrayed before him adjusted to their occupants and could even serve drinks or drugs. The ceiling rose to twice his height. A shoji screen framed his chair, with scenes from worlds he had visited flitting across its panels.

Vovokans know how to travel in style. Magnus smiled. Given the size of Shiny’s house, the huge ship must have seemed tiny to the alien. But to Magnus, it was a flying mansion. And they had all had time to pray up a few amenities for the new transport before they left. A marble statue of Magnus occupied one corner; a similarly beautiful sculpture of Telisa stood in the other. The sculpture caught his imagination and memory for the hundredth time. Since they had been able to pray up almost anything since finding the Trilisk AI, Telisa and Magnus had enjoyed many romantic encounters, both real and virtual.

I wonder how Shiny ever survived being cooped up in the Iridar. It must have felt like a concentration camp to him. Yet he said nothing.

He shifted in his seat as a preamble to action. Then he opened an obfuscated channel to Jason Yang. The reply offered Magnus a video and audio feed so he took them both. Jason’s face appeared in his mind’s eye.

“How’s progress?” Magnus asked, getting right to the point.

“I have the three new ships you wanted,” Jason said. “The prices were high. The market has been affected by the industrial load of the space force orders for its new grand fleet. We need pilots and crew.”

“I’m going to find people for it. I have to figure out where we stand with the local government before I can get back there. But you could help by going ahead and collecting a solid pool of candidates. Hundreds if you want. I can cull them down.”

“No sign of anything wrong here,” Jason said. “What do they want you for?”

“Trespassing, basically. It was a misunderstanding,” Magnus lied.

“Well, with the aliens after us, I doubt they care about you anymore.”

“Let’s hope so. What do you mean, ‘with the aliens after us’?”

“You know, the Seeker. The war? You don’t follow the news out there?”

“There was an incident. Not a war.”

“Then why is every colony making a defense network? Why are the core worlds assembling a grand fleet?”

“Because everyone finally realized there are living aliens out there, not just dead civilizations. But I knew that all along. So did Telisa. It stands to reason. The galaxy is just a big place. Of course, the UNSF loves being able to use it as an excuse to build up.”

“You think they made it all up?”

“No…I believe there are live alien civilizations out there.”

“But you don’t think they are getting ready to attack us?”

“I doubt it. But anything’s possible. There’s no war yet though, okay?”

“Fair enough,” Jason admitted. He actually sounded disappointed.

“You know if there is a war, we’ll probably lose, right? We’re pretty new to FTL travel.”

Jason nodded. “Yeah,” he said, getting a bit more serious. “It must be hard, living out there on the frontier,” Jason said. “There must be few amenities out that far. And you’re so removed from everything that’s happening.”

Jason had no video feed of Magnus, so he couldn’t see the interior of the Vovokan ship. Magnus scanned the ultra-luxurious office. He thought of the swimming pool, his workshop, his giant sleep web, and his training center lying just beyond the walls around him.

“Yes, Jason, it’s hard. But someone has to be out here, taking the risks, learning what we can. And, of course, making the big finds that are financing the revival of Parker Interstellar Travels.”

“Yes! Yes, that’s true. You’re not afraid the aliens will find you?”

“The aliens?” Magnus echoed distractedly. Then he seemed to return to focus. “By the Five, we’re out here looking for the aliens!”

Jason nodded. His face showed only idolatry.

“I just need you to hang in there for a while longer until we can return and fire things back up,” Magnus continued. “I’ll contact you again later this month. For now, just continue your studies and hold down the fort.”

“Will do.”

Magnus cut the connection. He leaned back in the throne and wondered.

Am I really interested in ever coming back?



***



Telisa received the signal Cilreth had configured to notify everyone of the close approach to Chigran Callnir Four. But the signal was hardly news. She hadn’t been able to resist monitoring their status very carefully. Their Vovokan ship was one of two moving together toward the target planet. The Terrans traveled in a ship of their own, which was slaved to the other one with Shiny aboard. Its name was a collection of foot stomps and clacks, so Telisa had christened it simply the Clacker. It was an impressive ship, faster, safer, and ten times bigger than Iridar had been. Cilreth had been working hard the whole voyage, trying to set up a suite of interfaces the Terrans could use to interact with the alien ship.

My third major expedition. So amazing. I have to pinch myself every time I set foot on a new planet. Could it ever get boring?

Telisa considered the focus of the mission yet again: to find more Trilisk artifacts. Shiny had finally come clean with a translated download of information about the long-gone race.

Telisa had pored over the trove with such intensity that Magnus had started to complain about her lack of training, even though he was almost as obsessed with his new battalion of scout robots. Telisa knew he was right to push her to continue training, but a virtual dossier filled with everything Shiny had managed to accumulate on the Trilisks was perhaps the most interesting read she’d ever possessed.

Shiny’s race, which she still called Vovokans, since her naming-on-a-whim had stuck, had been aware of the existence of the Trilisks for hundreds of years. In total, they had encountered Trilisk ruins on no fewer than sixty-three worlds across their entire range of exploration, suggesting that the Trilisks were at one time an incredibly successful race spanning a territory larger than that of the Terrans and the Vovokans put together.

The technology found on these planets had been very challenging for the Vovokans to understand, just as had happened for the Terrans. Some breakthroughs had been made in harnessing or influencing Trilisk devices, but fully controlling or replicating the artifacts had eluded the Vovokans, at least as far as Shiny knew. Unfortunately, intense competition between Vovokans did not foster complete exchanges of information, so Shiny wasn’t privy to every advance made in understanding the Trilisks. Like Shiny himself, who had kept the Trilisk AI under wraps and used it to secure his own household, many Vovokans might have had Trilisk items that they utilized in unknown ways to give themselves hidden advantages.

Shiny described Earth’s government as a “stagnant monopoly.” What Telisa had gleaned of the Vovokan state of affairs made that understandable: she saw the now-defunct government of Vovok as a fluid laissez-faire of overlords in transient alliance where might made right. Shiny claimed such an unstable situation ensured continued gains in intelligence among the populace. He stopped short of proclaiming Terra to be on a backward slide in intellect, but Telisa had taken the hint.

According to Shiny’s information, the Trilisks were believed to have mastered problems on the scale of instantaneous travel across great distances, prescience of future events, and immortality. There was evidence they had completely destroyed stars (and thus, their associated planetary systems) in an ancient war with a methane-breathing race of aliens who had become their bitter enemies. That war was the one best answer to the question: Where had the Trilisk civilization gone? If they had won that war, wouldn’t they still be here today? And it begged the next question: What was the fate of their enemies?

And now we’re going to investigate another ruin of their civilization.

Telisa and Magnus had considered the possibility of looking for the suspected Trilisk outpost in Mesopotamia back on Earth, but flying back into the teeth of an unfriendly government did not seem wise. Magnus had argued that it was pretty clear the outpost was dead, since as Shiny mentioned, supplication had stopped working on Earth long ago.

Telisa had agreed with this point, while at the same time having to argue that they should all stay allied with Shiny. At first Cilreth and Magnus were all too eager to abandon the alien after their last expedition, but slowly the lavish rewards of their toils had mellowed them out. The plentiful resources, an ability to produce almost anything you could specify carefully enough, and a vast complex of rooms, tools, and technology at their beck and call had softened their suspicions and paranoias. The Vovokan had made good on his promise of providing a new starship, and it was better than their last one in every way. Except perhaps that it would get too much attention at any Terran spaceport. In the end everyone agreed to stay away from Earth for now, remain with Shiny, and embrace the idea of looking at other ruins on the frontier.

Telisa donned her new Veer suit and prepared a personal collection of useful artifacts. She arrayed her equipment before her in the large shipboard room before a giant mirrored wall. Telisa kept her cautious attitude despite the fact that she felt equipped to face a small army and survive. Shiny had downloaded his knowledge of the vault collection, allowing her to separate the alien artifacts into two groups: those for sale and those for her personal collection. The limitations of the Trilisk AI meant there were still things Telisa could not pray up back at their base, and thus still wanted to buy. Besides, as Magnus kept reminding her, they had to fund their front company back at home since it might prove useful if they dared to return to Earth someday.

After long hours of study and several heated discussions with Magnus, Telisa had selected several items for use on the mission.

Feeling more like a warrior every expedition, she had started out with weapons. She chose a tanto, a stunner, and the powerful alien weapon that had saved her life on Vovok, which she called her “chain lightning gun.” Though it shot sophisticated projectiles and not any kind of electrical energy, the display it had made in the dark shaft on Vovok had resembled nothing more than a multi-pronged lightning bolt. Shiny had prayed her up a reload for the weapon, which could only hold three shots. But what shots they were!

The next artifact she chose was a cloak system from the Vovokan vault. Telisa had taken a liking to the invisible sphere she had found by accident on one of the shelves. She’d learned how to extend the cloak of the sphere to hide herself. The effect was similar to the special suit her father had taken from a spy. Though she couldn’t tell the difference, Shiny assured her the alien stealth sphere was a more complete and durable stealth system than the Terran equivalent. Shiny had easily seen her father in the Terran stealth suit due to his mass signature, but the sphere system was able to block that as well.

Telisa had figured out how to activate the sphere with her link, so she hid it away in her backpack where it could remain safe and serve her as needed.

The next item was another kind of weapon, really, though a highly specialized one. It could be used to deadly effect on large machines. Telisa held the flat piece of metal in her palm. It was shaped like a giant eagle’s claw. Exactly why it was that shape probably had more to do with the details of some unknown alien’s physiology than anything else. She called it her “breaker claw.” It could remotely cause a superconductor to gain resistance. Superconductors were used for many things, including power storage in large robots and machines. When a superconducting storage system suddenly got hit by the breaker, at the very least a lot of power would be wasted, and more likely in many systems was a violent explosion as the stored energy was released in spectacular fashion. Telisa had tested it on one of Magnus’s scout robots. The machine had been completely destroyed because it contained a Vovokan power system Magnus had adapted with Shiny’s help.

The last two items were identical: tiny spheres. Telisa grabbed them in one hand and gave them a solid upward toss. Instead of arcing up, then falling to the floor, the spheres immediately began to orbit her about half a meter away. They were both Vovokan attendant spheres, gifts from Shiny. The gifts were part of the next “mutually beneficial arrangement” for the expedition. The spheres could not only help to protect her, but they could also be used as spies, scouts, computers, and a long list of other miscellaneous services. Cilreth had taken a liking to them immediately, and a day later she had figured out how the Terrans could integrate the spheres with their links.

Telisa regarded herself in the mirror. The spheres lazily drifted by.

I’m like a superhero with a long list of cool devices stowed away on my utility belt, she thought. If I can only remember all my amazing superpowers when I need them!

It was only a half joke. With so many new toys, selecting the right one for her attention under pressure took some getting used to. It was like giving a kickboxer another couple of arms and legs: she would fall back on her originals by instinct but needed to remember the new arsenal. Telisa and Magnus had been training with her new items in VR, trying to integrate them with their combat styles. But it had all been too much, too fast. She still didn’t feel comfortable enough to get everything working by reflex.

Maybe there won’t be any combat this time, she thought. Just some digging around and some mysteries to be solved…



***



Cilreth calmed herself, trying to master feelings of frustration. She struggled with her interface to the ship and demanded a surface scan for the tenth time.

She finally got some unknown parameter correct. Her link filled with data. The next problem presented itself: information overload.

She tried again with a restrictive set of filters. She got a graphical display of the planet and opened it in her personal view.

“Okay, well, what can I see here? No major cities. Good. Progress is progress.”

She saw what looked like forests or jungles. A lot of life was catalogued in her scan.

I don’t have to struggle by myself for hours to make each little insight. I’ll bug Shiny for a minute.

She connected to Shiny aboard his own ship nearby.

“Shiny. I’m trying to understand what I’m seeing from the planet below.” She sent the alien the results she’d received from the ship’s systems.

“Scan parameters suboptimal,” Shiny responded. “Data highly filtered, restricted, limited.”

“That part is on purpose. I’m trying to start small and work my way up.”

“Understandable. Forgivable. Reasonable.”

“Well do you see any threats on the surface?” Oh wait…is he going to take that too literally? “And by the surface I mean…do you see any threats on the planet?”

“Affirmative. Millions of threats, dangers, potential sources of harm. All within expected limits, boundaries, ranges. Recommend team proceed with caution.”

Cilreth rolled her eyes. “Duly noted.”

By next time I’m going to have this thing mastered eight ways from extinction so I can know what the hell I’m getting into.

“Thanks,” she said. “What’s the name of your ship?”

A series of clacks and thumps came back.

Oh right.

“Ah, I’ll call it Thumper,” she said, continuing Telisa’s streak of humor.

Cilreth turned her attention toward the planetary approach. The landing procedure was completely automated, of course. Cilreth had stubbornly looped requirements for her approval into every step, in an effort to become more familiar with the spacecraft. With her approval, the Clacker launched its landing “feet” down toward the surface ahead of its descent.

Detachable feet for a spaceship. I never would have thought in a million years…

The landing feet were small metal platforms that arrived ahead of the ship, scouted the area, secured themselves to the surface in a landing geometry that their scans indicated could support the weight of the ship, and then accepted the ship’s landing struts. The system enabled the massive bulk of the ship to settle on almost any surface.

She watched a feed from one of the remote feet as a huge sphere of black metal and carbon descended from the sky onto the rocky yet richly vegetated world of Chigran Callnir Four.

When the ship made contact, she had it send out a message to the rest of the crew: Magnus and Telisa.

“We’re here. And Shiny says: many dangers, proceed with caution.”

I’d better get into my gear. Those two will be out there in no time. She sniffed the air. It’s still not quite right in here. Sigh. Another problem waiting for me when I get back.



***



A flat metal landing pad detached from the underside of the Clacker and established itself below the ship to receive those embarking onto the surface. It was the size of a small building, more than enough to hold the Terrans and their machines. Once the pad settled, three large tubes extended from the belly of the ship. The tubes started to disgorge six-legged scout robots. Each machine had a roughly spherical body with four sensor bulbs spaced across the equator and a weapon mount on the top. Magnus had given the machines a quick spray of red paint to match the rock of the local terrain. The scouts floated gently down onto the detachable landing pad; then they started to move off in all directions.

Telisa emerged from one of the tubes. Like the scout robots, she floated gently down onto the landing pad. She walked toward the edge of the pad as Magnus descended behind her. She took a careful step out onto the surface of the planet.

Magnus stepped out onto the rocky ground next to Telisa. She had a pair of binoculars in her hands. An attendant sphere picked them up and lifted the optical sensor high above the ground. She closed her eyes to see its input clearly in her personal view. It showed a close-up of the remains of old buildings through the alien vegetation. The buildings looked like collections of cubes glued together and made of a homogenous material of the same color as the reddish rocks. She judged they might be constructed in a manner similar to adobe or brick houses.

“So this is how it’s going to be?” Magnus said. “We come down here and hoof around, taking all the risks, while High Lord Shiny looks down on us from orbit?”

Magnus put on an air of frustration, but Telisa saw through it. He was just complaining for the sake of complaining. She knew he was actually as excited as she was to be back on the ground on a new world.

“Think of him as our rich employer,” Telisa said. Magnus laughed.

A small army of scout machines explored the area around them. Magnus had brought an even twenty of them to map the landscape ahead of any in-person exploration. The Clacker’s vast cargo bays held ten more in reserve. The new scout robots used Vovokan power plants and mass detectors, allowing them to operate for weeks without recharge and giving them the capability to see through walls and other obstacles. Their legs were also much stronger, as Magnus had given them each six legs modeled after those on Shiny’s walking machine.

It almost takes the fun out of it, Telisa thought. If there’s any alien nasties, though, better a scout than me.

“I’m already seeing tunnels under the ground from the scout feeds,” Magnus noted.

“Tunnels? Damn. We barely made it out of the tunnels last time,” Telisa said.

Magnus shrugged. “Underground habitations survive better across long periods of time. I’d get used to it.”

Telisa sighed. She heard a sound behind her. She turned and saw nothing, until Cilreth materialized from thin air.

“Sorry, just testing,” she said. Cilreth wore the stealth suit.

“You better not have been using that thing to get a peek into my shower tube,” Telisa joked.

Cilreth had made it clear during the voyage that she preferred women, though with Telisa already in a monogamous relationship with Magnus it hadn’t impacted the group’s dynamic much if at all.

“Oh, I have spy programs for that,” she said.

Telisa smiled. She noticed Cilreth had a stunner on one hip and a machete sheathed on the other. Our weapons fetish has already spread.

“I guess it’s up to us to find out what we can with the scouts. Shiny didn’t know much except he swears this used to be a Trilisk planet,” Magnus said.

“Well, he said it used to have Trilisks on it,” Telisa corrected.

“So, I did manage to get a scan off from orbit,” Cilreth said. “According to the Clacker, there aren’t any major settlements, at least not at any level of technology we’d notice. The interface still needs some work. I know the ship has to be capable of more thorough searches; I just can’t operate it well enough yet.”

And it’s so damn advanced I can barely find my own location marker in it.

“Any information is better than none,” Telisa said.

“So, anyway, I was kinda rushed with that work and didn’t get a chance to learn about the planet from Terran sources,” Cilreth continued.

“I didn’t find much on this planet anyway except that it’s one of the open worlds,” Telisa said. “It says there was a group of creatures here called the Konuan. Now extinct. Some kind of primitive culture. Shiny, are you sure Trilisks were here?”

Shiny joined the channel they shared, presumably at Telisa’s invitation. “Certain, verified, known. Ruins around you contain traces of Trilisk presence.”

“They may have been here because of the Konuan,” Telisa said. “They may have been studying them. Or conquering them. Or whatever it is the Trilisks did.”

Cilreth could tell from the edge in Telisa’s voice that her companion didn’t like being in the dark about the Trilisk’s modus operandi.

“Let’s get in there and find out what they did,” Magnus said enthusiastically.