The Trilisk AI (3 page)

“I
might be flagged for surveillance. I’m not a criminal. I’m just not Space Force
anymore. I just need to make sure a friend of mine in the force is on board for
a plan, and exchange a few secrets for further communication.”

“Your
link will still show up in the conversation if you join in,” she said. “You
have to know.”

“Well,
you see, I have a way around that. As I said, I used to be in the force. I have
a few tricks.”

“I
see. I agree, but I have conditions.”

“I
already paid well,” Relachik said warily.

“Have
you ever used one of my VR modules?”

“Can’t
say that I have. But I’ve heard they’re great. My friend is a fan of yours. I’m
pretty sure he’ll take your call.”

“If
you had, you’d know one of the reasons I’m so good is that I enjoy it. I take
pride in my art, so I want a chance to win you over. I’ll help you, then we
conclude the deal just as I’d assumed.”

“What?”
Relachik shot out forcefully.
That was a bit sharp,
he told himself. He
softened his voice. “I mean, why would you want that?”

“I
like you. And I know what you’re missing. You don’t. Trust me, you won’t regret
it. And you’ll tell your buddies all about it.”

Relachik
stared for a moment. He allowed himself to look at her again in a new light.
She was attractive, exotic and, apparently, ambitious.

“Okay,
fine. Deal.”

“Of
course we have a deal. Okay, so how do I contact him?”

“Nothing
special. Just give me permission to link into a conversation. My software will
take care of the rest.”

“I
have a lot of friends—”

“I
know. If I hack your link, you have people who will hunt me down and do
terrible things to me.”

“Right.”

“Okay,
just contact Nick Vrolyk. Here’s his ID. Mention you know he’s a fan, but don’t
mention me except as a friend in common. Then sit tight, give us five minutes
or so to talk. Then we’re done.”

“Then
we start phase two, you mean,” she said smiling.

“Right.”

“Oh.
Is it that you want him to listen in on us? That’s no problem.”

“No,
it’s just as I said. By the Five, don’t let him listen in, please!”

She
laughed.

Emerald
tried to establish communication. Her initial message would be accepted or
blocked by Vrolyk. A net authority would vouch for the authenticity of the
caller, but there was always a chance Nick would laugh, disconnect, and put it
down as a hack from a friend.

“Nothing
yet,” she said. “He may be asleep.”

Relachik
nodded. Then Nick answered the query. Relachik tunneled himself through without
letting his link ID appear on the channel.

“Sorry,
Nick, it’s me, Captain—Leonard—Relachik. Emerald is really here, though.”

“You
bastard. Called me to show off did you? That’s great, though. I thought you’d
be crushed but I see you’ve adapted quickly.”

“I
need a contact in the force. Under the table. Can I count on you?”

There
was a moment’s hesitation.

“You
know you can,” the answer came.

Relachik
sent an information module he had prepared which would allow them to
communicate indirectly. It contained several seemingly random message drop
points and shared secrets. They would use any four of five seemingly unrelated
sources of data to combine and use for exchanging messages.

“I
don’t need anything now. Just setting up,” he said.

“I
hope it won’t be often. I’m a busy guy and I don’t need to take more risks. We
have to fight the goddamn aliens now, you know. Looks like my days may be
numbered.”

“Then
this risk just got a lot smaller,” Relachik said, but at the same time he felt
guilty asking his friend to cooperate, especially now that the aliens were on
the scene.

Nick
laughed. “True enough. Watch yourself, then,
Captain
.”

“You
too. Thanks.”

Relachik
closed his tunnel and ran his finger across his throat to tell Emerald to stop
the conversation.

“Thanks
for being a fan, Nick,” she said, then closed the channel. “Good. I’m glad it
worked out. And now...” Emerald ran her hands over her dress.

Maybe
this won’t be so bad after all,
Relachik thought.

Chapter 3

Telisa
looked at the three remaining artifacts from the Thespera expedition. The
failure there still grated on her. She had managed to survive the harrowing
experience and escape with what she thought was a collection of Trilisk
artifacts. As it turned out, none of the artifacts provided the clues she
sought.

Telisa
had pored over each one and done a lot of research. She’d identified two as
items from known, but extinct civilizations. A Talosian water distiller and a
Capacite’s charge core. The distiller was suspected to be a minor pleasure
rather than a critical survival device: a Talosian might have enjoyed a vial of
water the way a Terran might enjoy a cigar. The charge core had probably come
right out of an alien’s body. It was believed to be a cybernetic enhancement to
Capacites’ ability to store electrical energy after which the long-gone race
had been named.

In
the end she was convinced nothing from the collection was of direct Trilisk
origin. Telisa had a few theories. She guessed the items belonged to creatures
who had inhabited the Trilisk facility at other times. Whether as prisoners,
zoo exhibits, or guests, she didn’t know. Even if the items had been created in
the complex itself as part of an environment, then carried out by someone or
something, it meant beings from several different races had been there at one
time or another.

I
should have known immediately they weren’t Trilisk. Simple examination shows
they probably aren’t really Trilisk. But I was shaken up, and I just took it
for granted that anything at the site would be Trilisk.

Even
the mind-recording egg, which apparently held a Trilisk memory, had most likely
been created by some other race. Telisa thought of it as a recording of Trilisk
events by an alien friend (or an ambassador, as she liked to imagine) onto some
other type of storage technology.

At
least the finds generated a lot of money for Telisa and Magnus to live on while
they avoided the UNSF and planned their next move.

Magnus
had taken to studying alien gadgets as well. He had concentrated his effort on
the alien walking machine Shiny had let them take from the space station. He’d
been pulling his hair out over it for some time.

Telisa
walked through the
Iridar
to the cargo bay where Magnus liked to work.
The bay was a mess. Racks of parts and tools stood as tall as Telisa.

“I
hope you’re ready to train,” Telisa called out.

“Well,
I guess I should,” Magnus’s voice replied. It didn’t sound enthusiastic.

“You
never pay attention to me anymore, darling,” Telisa said in a singsong joke.

“Ha!
You’re going to like this though,” Magnus said. Telisa walked over to the robot
standing in the center of the bay. It was a spider-legged machine the size of a
German Shepherd.

“Nice!
It’s great to have a robot to use. Think of all the things he can do for us.”

“It’s
not ready yet. But I think it could scout for us,” Magnus said. “It can back us
up, too. It has a stunner and a grenade launcher.”

“Whoa.
Really? This thing’s not coming back to Earth, that’s for sure. I see some
Shinarian walker parts in here.”

“Shinarian?
Ha. Yes, we’d get in quite a bit of trouble with this. But no reason to ever
bring it back, if we ever do go back to Earth.”

“How
depressing.”

“Well,
we made our choices,” Magnus said.

“Have
you learned how the walker worked?”

“No.
Not really.”

“Too
bad it didn’t come with a manual.”

“It
probably did. For all the good it would do me, if I could even ask the walker
for it.”

Something
asked Telisa’s link for a connection. Her locator told her it was the gutted
remains of the Shinarian walker. She shrugged and accepted it.

“I
didn’t know you had any interface with the walker working at all,” she said.

“I
don’t,” Magnus said.

“Greetings,
hello, howdy,” a buzzing voice announced. It was Shiny’s voice.

“What
the...!”

Telisa
shot a look at Magnus at the same instant he looked suddenly at her. The look
on his face was enough to know he was on the channel.

“Is
this some kind of recording?” Telisa asked.

“Apologies,
regret. How to initiate negotiations?” It was still Shiny’s voice.

“Where
are you? How did you...? Interesting that you can fool our links.”

“Orbiting,
rotating, circling above.”

“I’m
surprised to hear from you,” Telisa responded mentally. She traded looks with
Magnus, then opened a private connection to him.

Should
I be worried it’s a trick?

Would
anyone else know exactly how he sounded? But we may as well see what he wants
, Magnus responded to her privately.

She
nodded. Telisa remembered she had asked Shiny to imitate his original buzzy
voice, generated by rapid vibrations of his attending sphere devices.

“Why
have you sought us out again?” she asked.

“Telisa.
Objective: collect artifacts. Shiny. Objective: collect artifact. Suggest
cooperative mode.”

“I
missed the funny way he talks,” Telisa said.

“Did
you notice he said ‘artifact’ singular?”

“Shiny,
do you have a particular artifact in mind? Which one?”

“Industrial
seed. Very valuable.”

“You
suggested cooperative mode,” Magnus noted. “Shiny, what other modes do you
have?”

“Social
modes: cooperative, competitive, reproductive.”

Magnus
nodded. “What about some kind of independent mode? Where you just ignore the
other guy.”

“Ignoring
peers not optimal, safe, recommended. Never ignore. If not cooperating,
reproducing, default to, prefer, select competitive mode.”

“If
we’re not with you, we’re against you, huh?”

We
sure as hell aren’t going to put him in reproductive mode,
Telisa said to Magnus.
It could be
like those VRs where the aliens lay eggs in your paralyzed body.

Ugh.

“Yes,”
Shiny said.

I’m
afraid to ask about non-social modes.

“Would
you change to competitive mode while we’re out there? Are you going to kill us
if you switch?” Magnus asked.

“When
benefit of conflict outweighs, is greater than, is more beneficial than, Shiny
switches. Could kill you. If optimum, most performant, most efficient solution
to long-term goals. Estimate, guess that probability is low.”

Telisa
and Magnus exchanged looks.

Holy
crap,
Telisa sent to
him.

At
least he’s honest. Kind of
,
Magnus responded.

Yeah,
he’s honest unless he’s lying because that’s optimal.

Okay
look, whenever you fully trust anyone, human or otherwise, you’re taking a
risk.

Yeah.

“Well
that sounds less than optimal to me,” Telisa said. “Why should I work with an
alien who might kill me?”

“Potential
benefit for Telisa,” Shiny said.

“Potential
of dying. How can I keep you from killing me?”

“Remain
useful, desirable, beneficial. Stay alive,” Shiny buzzed. The voice sounded a
bit happy.

“Unbelievable,”
Magnus breathed out loud.

We’ll
have to take out an insurance policy. Something that can damage Shiny if we die
, Telisa sent to Magnus privately.

Right.
Make our deaths suboptimal.

“Shiny,
where do you suggest we go to get these artifacts?”

“Shiny.
Homeworld. Origin.”

“Five
Holy Entities,” Telisa said. “Your home planet! Will it be safe for us?”

“No.
Danger. Peril.”

“You
are so failing to sell me on this,” Telisa said. She watched Magnus.

“Oh,
at least he’s up front about it,” he said out loud.

“Yeah.
I seem to remember him not exactly being fully informative before,” she said.

“Why
do you need us?” Magnus asked.  “Are you an outcast just like us? Hunted by
your government?”

“Shiny
homeworld is ruined, derelict, destroyed.”