The Trilisk Supersedure

Chapter 21



Telisa awakened.

Not again! Crap.

She drew in a long breath. In fact, the breath continued flowing in, in, in for a long time, until her chest had expanded like a giant balloon.

Chest? I have lungs. Big lungs.

She moved an arm. An immensely huge, strong arm that extended so very far.

Wait. Wait. This is different, but it’s good different. Human different?

She saw only darkness. Her hearing felt muted. Normal, lame Terran hearing. She felt around in the dark. Was it her own body?

Female. I’m female…

She felt a tiny ridge of a scar on her wrist where a Vovokan nasty had sampled her. And her hair was the right length.

I think I’m me! And my link?

An army of view panes exploded in her mind’s eye. Her link offered her its many services.

“Anyone there?” she asked tentatively through her link.

“Telisa?” The reply was marked as coming from Cilreth.

“Yes! Where in the hell am I?”

“Stay calm. I think you’re…I think you’re in a Trilisk column.”

“Please get me out.” Telisa asked it in a calm way, but the panic was only just below the surface. Her recent experiences had all been too much.

“Then just think it: open. Think you want it open. Pray to it.”

“There’s a prayer device?” she said. Without waiting for an answer, she thought: I want out. Please open!

At first there was only a humming sound. Then a growing sliver of light appeared above her. It widened until she could see that some kind of sheath over the tube was dropping down from the top. In a few seconds she would be free!

“It’s opening!” Telisa said. “Wait. I’m still inside some kind of clear tube.”

“It takes longer,” Cilreth said calmly. Her friend’s voice reassured her. “Telisa, can you hear me?”

“Oh, thank the Five,” Telisa croaked.

“It’s okay now. Let’s get you out of there.”

“Cilreth. You’re not going to believe where I’ve been! Magnus just killed me!”

“Maybe you’d better just rest for a minute and take some deep breaths.”

She think’s I’m delusional. Lack of oxygen?

“It’s a Trilisk body switcher,” Telisa explained.

“That’s not possible.”

“Think about it, Cilreth. This is Trilisk stuff we’re clowning around with.”

“Your brain is trained throughout your infancy to grow and adapt its connections and signals from your own—”

“Yes, I know. Believe me, I know. But sufficiently advanced technology can adapt my personality and thought patterns onto other nervous systems and map my body signals to those of radically different creatures.” Telisa stood up carefully.

“It would be much more complicated than a simple mapping unless the target creature was totally humanoid.” But now her voice carried less conviction. Cilreth was thinking on it.

“I know. I know. Yet it only took a bit of practice. I was one of the slugs. The Konuan were a lot cooler than stupid slugs, by the way. Just ask Magnus when he gets back. He killed me.”

He must think I’m dead. Even if he doesn’t know that was me.

“What?” Cilreth asked.

“I’m going to have to give him a hard time for that.”

“You really believe all that happened? It was probably virtual,” Cilreth said.

Telisa nodded. She didn’t believe it had been imaginary at all, but she didn’t blame Cilreth for thinking it. It was more logical to assume such adventures had occurred in a simulation.

It was just that Telisa knew the Trilisks could do it.

A tremor rumbled through the tunnels. Telisa felt her body shake. Her legs still felt just a bit long. Her head was so far from the ground. She bent her knees to compensate for a sudden lack of confidence in her ability to balance herself.

“Uh oh,” Cilreth summed up. “Are you okay?”

“I’m still adapting to my new body,” she said. Cilreth’s face reflected the oddity of Telisa’s statement. Then she got a link connection from Magnus.

“Telisa?”

“Magnus! Where are you?”

“The building where you got separated from Cilreth,” he said. “I’m coming toward you.”

“Oh! I guess our links are working again then,” she said. “Who is that woman you’re with?” Telisa’s voice sounded a bit more accusatory than she intended. But her demand had a lot of emotional charge to it.

“What? How do you know about her?”

“Long story. Is she an explorer?”

“She’s UED. She took off. I’m not sure we can count her as a friend.”

“What? They’re here?”

“Cilreth didn’t tell you? Are you with her?”

“Yes. She didn’t say anything yet…she hasn’t had a chance, I guess.” Telisa said out loud to Cilreth, “I’m in touch with Magnus.”

“Me too,” Cilreth said.

“I heard an explosion,” Telisa said. “Well, felt one, anyway.”

“It wasn’t the Clacker,” Magnus told them.

“I can’t believe the UED still exists. What can we do?”

“We have to stay in the buildings and tunnels. Anything on the surface is a sitting duck. They can kill us from kilometers away with a standard artillery system and a basic detection grid, which they have to have set up. I saw some combat machines. Nothing frontline, but maybe they have more than I saw. There’s no way you could get out unless you use Cilreth’s stealth suit.”

“We’ll wait for you,” Telisa said.

“Prepare yourself. We may have to surrender. We can’t fight robots. And there may be hundreds of them.”

“I have the breaker claw,” she mentioned.

“What’s its range? I doubt your reflexes can compete with military hardware. Good news is they may want us alive to get them the Clacker. They must wonder what the hell it is.”

“That’s good news? That just means we’re about to be captured and tortured,” said Cilreth.

Telisa looked around the room. Three tunnels led out in different directions. One of the three huge pillars had opened to emit her. The room looked empty otherwise, though she suspected the other pillars and maybe the walls were full of surprises.

“You two could use your stealth to leave and get back to the Clacker,” Telisa said.

“No. What would you do?” Cilreth said.

“I could…hide in the tube again.”

“They would find you eventually. Or you might suffocate in there.”

“I don’t think so,” Telisa said. “Maybe I could even become Konuan again. Fight them that way.”

“Out of the question,” said Magnus. Telisa turned and saw him entering from one of the connecting passageways. She walked over and embraced him.

Thank the Five we’re back together.

Even with the UED moving in, something about his physical presence steadied her.

“These tunnels are long and straight. They’ll be able to overwhelm us easily here. We need to move up into a building and dig in. Those tiny cubic rooms have a lot of vents, but they have a lot of corners, too. We might be able to stand them off for a while. The fact our links operate again means Shiny has been working some magic. Maybe he can rescue us.”

“That scaredy cat? He probably left,” Cilreth said.

“I doubt it,” Telisa said. “He’s got our back.”