The Trilisk Supersedure

Chapter 24



Keziph scurried over the landscape rapidly. There were bipeds nearby, running, hiding, or dying. For the moment, Keziph and its broodmates were safe. It crawled into a breach in the rocks and covered under a dense group of native plants. Once safe, Keziph felt less inclined to remain in control.

Keziph prepared to change stances. Deprived of its natural body or a suitable robotic equivalent, the act was no longer effortless. It required a transition delay. And of course, there was no longer any physical component. The body it occupied merely paused for a moment.

Finally Micet came to the fore.

“The test worked perfectly,” Micet told its broodmates. “Though hardly more than this Wehhid body, the newcomer species is capable of receiving us. The test subject was successfully transmitted and reset.”

Micet considered the other, more complex creature that had assaulted the bipeds. Its hardware was somewhat more advanced, but Micet lacked the preparation. Supersedure into that form was more tempting but carried huge risks. Micet prepared a summary for Cayach and changed stance.

Cayach came to the fore in the slow, troubled way of this body.

For the thousandth time, Cayach felt loss. Loss for its own bodies, loss for its god, and loss for its home to the methane breathers.

Cayach heard one of the clumsy bipeds stomping by within the sensitive Wehhid audial sphere. The biped cursed aloud. And Cayach instantly recognized it. The leader of the original biped explorers.

Cayach decided on a final change of plan. Rather than superseding one of the worshipers who had traveled here to serve it, a superior option stood ready: the leader of the primitive soldier beings. Its status would make the seizure of a starship simple, and would allow for a smoother transition into dominance among any others of their kind. The only problem Cayach saw would be the lack of neural shackles: its followers were free to think and act however they chose, and the recent defeat made them likely to choose desertion over obedience.

“That one. We will use that body to escape.”

Micet replied slowly, submerged: “That race can only hold two of us conscious. But those two could be in-stance at once!”

It was a strange compromise. The original Trilisk body allowed all three broodmates to observe and express, though only the in-stance one could control the body, and with such control came temporary dominance. The flat, native creature allowed all three relative equal status, though they retained their accustomed mode of operation: it was second nature to switch stances and operate with one broodmate dominant at any given moment.

The bipeds were another flavor: their minds were split into halves, allowing two in-stance entities at once, a concept half-amusing, half-horrifying to the Trilisk broodmates.

“I leave it to you two, then, to take us to the world of the Holoeum where we can find a new body and a fresh god,” Cayach said. “That is our objective. I will submerge until you have brought it to pass.”

Micet took control and issued the final commands. The process was almost instantaneous: Micet found himself with Keziph, together in the body of a biped.

“Really this creature is—” Micet stopped as one of its limbs moved, though Micet did not command it to do so. “Ah! So disturbing!”

“I see what you mean,” Keziph said. “This could be very bad. If you interfere while I am in combat, our effectiveness will be compromised.”

“We are in combat,” Micet said. “There are enemies about. We should find our servants and organize them for the journey to Holoeum. Forward, Keziph,” it urged. “Destroy any who do not obey.”

Then Micet tried to de-stance, though it was not fully successful. Broodmates often sought to remain in-stance, and the idea that someday it would be unable to de-stance had never occurred.

Keziph felt it, too, but did not complain. It tested the biped’s arms and legs. Then it puzzled over the communication device it found in its head. It was definitely very different, very not-itself. The primitive race had only recently fused themselves to their machines. The results were less than satisfactory.

The device reported a lower-ranking companion nearby. Keziph found the other biped within the minute. It was covering behind some rocks with a few scavenged backpacks and weapons lying about.

Keziph started to communicate, then realized it didn’t have the ability.

“Micet…”

Keziph instinctually tried to change stance, but Micet was already there.

Micet supplied the words. Keziph and Micet spoke them together.

“Take what you can. We’re headed for the ship,” they croaked.

“We’ve lost, Colonel,” the Terran said. “They have an alien on their side. Ships in orbit. And they’ve destroyed all our hardware planetside.”

“We’re taking what we have and getting onto the last assault transport.”

“No, sir. It’s over.”

Keziph raised his Terran weapon and shot the demoralized soldier in the head. The Terran fell back, utterly dead.

“What in the hell are you doing? You brought us to this, and now you’re killing your own men?” came an urgent communication from another Terran. “You bastard!”

Keziph looked around with the Terran body’s binocular vision. The communication device in Keziph’s head identified the speaker: Captain Arakaki.

Keziph brought up the host’s weapon again.

The creature who had challenged him dove for cover. Keziph opened fire. It was as if the primitive device in Keziph’s tiny manipulators had been designed to miss. The projectiles flew almost straight from the barrel. They only angled slightly toward the prey. Once the projectiles had flown past, missing, they did not return to try again.

Keziph tossed the puny weapon away. If only its god could hear it, destroying the attacker would be such a simple thing. But it had been reduced to this.

The creature it had tried to kill was running away. It turned as it ran to point its own simple weapon at him. Keziph grasped a red rock and charged forward.

The Terran’s coherent light weapon lanced out. Keziph interposed the rock. The moisture within the obstacle heated rapidly, causing the rock to crack and pop into several pieces. Keziph turned aside to keep the incoming radiation from hitting him cleanly, but the attack was already over. The Terran weapon didn’t have enough energy to keep it up.

The Terran turned to run. It couldn’t match Keziph’s speed.

Suddenly an explosion threw Keziph high into the air. It tucked and spun, riding the shock wave gracefully.

One of its two large legs was leaking red fluid. A shard of metal was buried inside it. Keziph tried out the leg. It still worked for now, though it was weaker and the fluid continued to erupt.

The device in its skull announced medical attention was necessary. It instructed Keziph to staunch the bleeding. The primitive battle suit it wore seemed to sense the danger, and it tightened around the wounded limb.

“Are we dying?” it asked, feeling Micet was still there.

“No. The link says we can block off the wound and continue. Forget that one,” Micet suggested. “In fact, forget them all. There may be a few aboard the ship eager to flee with us. The ship is this way.”