The Trilisk Ruins (23 page)

Joe had never seen a UNSF scout ship in
real life. The ship looked the same as it had in VR sims, but
knowing it was real had some impact. He found it hard to believe he
would be going aboard. He had been ordered to report directly to
Captain Relachik.

Information came cheap, and terabytes
of data traveled between here and Earth every day, but exploration
ships were another matter. He had studied the latest specs on the
ships last night. He could clearly see the two turrets mounted 180
degrees apart at the bow of the ship. Unlike an old Earth navy
ship, no barrels projected from the turrets.

Joe knew the
Seeker
’s main armament
consisted of its sublight transport mechanism, a long tube running
through the center of the entire length of the vessel. The
accelerator could eject charged mass at relativistic velocities
either forward or backward to provide thrust to move the ship. As a
weapon, the tube could be used essentially as a railgun that was
aimed by pointing the entire vessel. Joe had also learned that a
spread could be given to the salvo, calculated to arrive with
different concentrations depending on the range and nature of the
target. The two lasers mounted in the front turrets provided a more
flexible secondary weapons system.

The ship could not produce
enough power to use these weapons continuously. The lasers
discharged from superconducting storage banks under the turrets,
and the fusion reactors that powered the
Seeker
could fire them at their
designed maximum intensity three times an hour if the accelerator
remained quiescent. The railgun could operate continuously although
its power could also be augmented with stored energy to produce
higher velocities of its particles.

The ship rolled away from
Joe’s view as his shuttle spun to match the
Seeker
’s rotation. The ship
maintained a spin around the central accelerator tube to simulate
gravity for the crew when the gravity spinner wasn’t running. He
knew that the matching maneuver meant the trip neared its end: soon
he would be aboard the
Seeker
.

He regained his seat and strapped back
in. Only one other passenger shared the shuttle ride up from the
surface of the planet. A taciturn officer whose name Joe couldn’t
recall. The other man hadn’t left his seat the whole flight and
seemed lost in a mental interface, so Joe hadn’t attempted
conversation.

The shuttle computer
indicated that the docking had completed. Joe tried to use his link
to access the ship’s services to find out what time it was on
board, but the
Seeker
computers denied him. He didn’t possess clearance for even the
most basic services yet.

A small acceleration made itself felt
in the shuttle. A distant clunk occurred, more felt than heard. Joe
took a deep breath and waited.

“
Clear for disembarkment,”
came the pilot’s voice in his head. Joe rose and stepped towards
the exit. The other officer moved more slowly, so Joe left him
behind. He didn’t have any patience—he wanted to get on board the
starship as soon as he could. He stepped through the hatch and came
to a ladder. He would climb “up” towards the hollow spine of
the
Seeker
,
through her hull.

Joe started up the ladder. He glanced
up and saw the cold black sphere of a security monitor looking down
at him from the top of the tunnel. He wondered if a robotic weapon
had locked onto him with an infrared laser sight. No point in
dwelling on it, he decided. He came to the top and found himself in
a small receiving room. There were three doors and a flat black
plate in one wall before him. Two of the steel doors were closed,
the third headed past a check station manned by two soldiers. Joe
stood uncertainly.

The other officer who shared his flight
walked straight forward to enter the body of the ship. Joe started
to follow, but one of the enlisted men stepped into his
way.

“
This way, sir. I’m afraid
you’re not cleared for a straight boarding.”

“
Very well,” Joe said,
altering his course.

“
I’ll have to request that
you turn your link off, sir. For just a few minutes.”

Joe didn’t like that. But he obeyed.
The man led Joe through one of the side doors and into a scanning
room. He pointed to a seat underneath some heavy equipment, and Joe
sat down.

“
This only takes a second.
Sit very still, please.”

Joe waited while the soldier walked
behind a screen and stood staring at the wall. Joe recognized the
absent look as that of a person accessing a virtual interface in
their mind’s eye. Joe didn’t move. He couldn’t detect any activity,
but the man nodded and opened his eyes again.

“
Okay. I need to ask you a
few questions, sir. They are required if you are to be allowed on
board, captain’s orders, sir.”

“
Okay, I’m ready,” Joe
said.

“
I’m sorry sir, I’m not
ready. Please wait a moment,” he said. The man stared off into
space for long moments.

The man focused his eyes back at
Joe.

“
You joined an organization
when you were a young boy, age of seven,” the crewman said. “Please
relate the details of that.”

Joe’s eyebrow rose. “When I was seven?
Is this a joke?”

“
Answer the question,
please. When you were seven, what organization did you
join?”

Joe took a deep breath.

“
I joined a junior chess
club,” Joe said.

“
And how many people were in
it?”

Joe thought for a moment. If he got the
answer wrong, what would they do?

“
There were over ten
people... we had six games going sometimes... so about twelve
people, maybe a few more.”

“
And who had the highest
rating that year?”

Joe thought again. He could remember
that.

“
It was Cory
Russell.”

The man nodded. “That’s acceptable
Lieutenant Hartlet. You may proceed through the lock on your
right.”

Joe stood carefully, leaning to avoid
striking his head on the machinery near the chair. He went to the
door and opened it. The man wasn’t following him, but he kept his
blank look.

Joe stepped through and found himself
in a tubular hallway with a flat metal grate placed as a walking
surface. He saw tubes and wiring arranged in neat rows under the
grating. He wondered how he would find his way and automatically
asked his link to provide directions before he remembered that it
had been deactivated. The link connected. A map of the ship came up
in his mind’s eye.

Joe grunted. His access had been
granted. He requested a route to the captain’s office and saw it
light up in green. Then he set off.

The interior of the ship felt
comfortable. The air smelled fresh and the temperature was perfect.
Wide, smooth glow mats on the ceiling provided a generic
illumination that remained constant as he moved along.

The passage branched, and Joe ended up
in a busy corridor running the length of the ship. He received a
few curious glances but no one spoke to him. He thought the crew
probably knew one another well enough that a newcomer stood out. He
wondered how much they knew about what had happened to
him.

After a minute he arrived in a small
waiting room and the computer gave him a message to wait. He
regarded the uncomfortable-looking seats and had resigned himself
to selecting one when his link gave him the signal to
enter.

Joe stepped into a small, Spartan
office. The captain sat back in a chair in one corner, looking off
into space. Joe could see he was one of those men that looked as
fit after forty as they had at twenty. The captain had short grey
hair cut close to his skull. His face looked rough, his nose
slightly bent to one side. Joe figured some sparring partner had
probably gotten a good shot in on it years ago.

“
Lieutenant Joe Hartlet,
reporting for duty.”

The captain absorbed this silently and
regarded Joe. He looked to the side for a moment. Joe thought the
captain must be accessing files. Then the captain stood and
acknowledged Joe’s existence.

“
At ease. I’m glad you were
able to make it here so quickly. Tell me about the alien,
lieutenant. I’ve read your report, but I want your gut feeling
about the creature. Did it feel threatening to you?
Dangerous?”

Joe wavered for a moment, caught off
guard by the question. “Um, I didn’t feel any... malignance, but I
believe that it could have killed me at any time.”

“
But it did use you for some
sort of scheme to escape the complex. It may have had other reasons
for leaving you unharmed than compassion or respect for
life.”

“
Maybe, sir.” Joe tried to
sound skeptical.

The captain smiled. “You think you
understand its basic drives. I could sense that in the report. It’s
a common mistake, lieutenant. People look at someone else and they
make assumptions. It happens between people, and with aliens. But
if there’s one thing we’ve learned about the Trilisks, it’s that
aliens don’t think like people. And so maybe this Shiny doesn’t
either.”

Joe nodded. “May I ask a question,
sir?”

“
Go.”

“
When I boarded, I went
through an extensive decontamination procedure, and they asked me
some odd questions. What was that all about?”

“
The report states that
you’ve been exposed to Trilisk technology. Precautions have to be
taken. We don’t fully understand the capabilities of the Trilisks,
and very troubling incidents have occurred in connection with
artifacts of that race.”

“
I understand, sir.” Joe
wanted to ask about the “incidents” but he knew that he wouldn’t be
cleared for it.

“
In fact, it’s so bad that
the request to pick you up was almost denied. I managed to convince
my superiors that your personal viewpoint would be valuable enough
to warrant this risk. While we’re on the subject, I should tell
you. The computers are going to be monitoring you very closely. If
you do anything that you shouldn’t, you may meet with lethal
resistance. That’s because of the possibility you have been
suborned by an external power.”

The captain pointed to a small black
module in the center of the glow pad on the ceiling. Joe hadn’t
seen it when he came in. He wondered what array of weapons was
pointed at him.

“
I’ll try to move carefully,
sir.”

“
That would be
wise.”

The captain stared off into space for a
moment. Joe knew he was accessing a mental interface. He imagined
talking to the captain often included such pauses, as the business
of running the ship interfered with conversation.

“
Your link got erased by the
smugglers, but I’ve reviewed the profiles you’ve created since
then,” the captain continued.

Joe’s link indicated that the captain
had sent him a pointer. He accessed the information and saw a
picture in his mind’s eye. It was the female smuggler from the
planet. She looked younger in the pic, but it was definitely
her.

“
That’s one of them,
alright,” Joe said. “How did you nail that one so
quickly?”

“
News from Earth,” the
captain said slowly. “Someone important went missing... they failed
to attend a funeral where they were expected.”

Joe thought the captain’s voice sounded
odd. He looked almost crestfallen. Joe was impressed at the
intelligence network of the space force. One girl went missing from
a funeral and they linked it to this smuggler already?

“
I’m ordering you to clear
that pic from your link,” the captain said. Another pause came.
“That girl is the brat of a high-up in the world cabinet. You are
not to mention this conversation to anyone. You understand? It will
be handled quietly.”

That explained it, Joe thought. His
eyebrows rose.

“
Yes, sir, I understand. Not
a word.”

“
Good. Don’t be surprised if
the DNA snoopers down at the installation turn up empty, either. At
least officially. And don’t ask about it if you like your career in
the force.”

Joe nodded.

“
I assume that you’re here
to ensure that no more smugglers get to the planet,” Joe said. “Now
that we have discovered a site with active Trilisk technology, will
the government be stepping up its presence on the
planet?”

“
No. We’re leaving the
planet immediately to pursue the two smugglers you met and the
alien that you called Shiny.”

Joe stared for a moment,
shocked.

“
How can we do that,
sir?”

“
That, lieutenant, is need
to know. But it should be obvious to you that the UNSF doesn’t
share all of its capabilities with everyone,” Captain Relachik
said. “We’ll have a decent chance at recovering the
alien.”

“
That’s fantastic, sir! I
hope I can be of some assistance. If nothing else, they know me and
I might be able to keep the trespassers and the alien calm when we
close in.”