The Trilisk Ruins (3 page)

“
Did you see action in the
Torn rebellion?” she asked suddenly, then bit her tongue for being
so brash.

“
Yes. The 137th. I was an
ECM engineer in infantry units.”

“
Didn’t the UNSF use the
robotic units for most of the fighting there?” she asked,
emboldened by the response. Magnus seemed stolid,
unaffected.

“
The robotic units were
first in, first out. The human units were used to garrison the
conquests and rebuild the areas retaken by the UNSF. But the UED
was fighting a hit-and-run battle, so the garrisons got hit all the
time.”

“
Well, if you survived all
that you must be good.”

“
Not really,” Magnus
replied. “It just means I was lucky. We were just sitting ducks.
There wasn’t a lot we could do about it, so skill didn’t enter into
the equation very often.”

“
Why were you sitting ducks?
I take it you mean you never knew when an attack was coming,
right?”

“
The UED used precision
laser strikes from high orbit. I served in garrisons on three moons
with thin atmospheres. They could take us out a man at a time with
ship-mounted weapons until one of our own ships could drive them
back. They played at hit and run the whole time, since they
couldn’t afford a direct confrontation in space without risking
losing it all.”

“
A spaceship weapon used
against individuals? Was there any way to defend against that from
the ground?”

Magnus shook his head. “Only by getting
into a bunker, or staying hidden by scrambling their scans. The
UNSF didn’t provide our units with sufficient countermeasures. The
robotics are the heavy hitters; when it comes right down to it, the
infantry is cheap and expendable.”

Telisa had been following along with an
encyclopedia link as Magnus related his story. She was trying to
brush up on the Torn conflict without looking ignorant. What Magnus
had said so far was checking out. She decided to learn more and
have another conversation about it later.

Thomas snorted. “Don’t believe all
those war stories of his. That’s just stuff he uses to impress
women,” he said. He said it with a semi-scorn in his voice so that
Telisa couldn’t tell if he was joking or not.

“
Well, Thomas, what is it
that
you
tell
women to impress them?”

“
I tell them that I fly a
spaceship, make a five-digit salary, and vacation in Brazil,” he
paused, then added, “Someone once said if you have to tell a lie,
sandwich it between two truths.”

Telisa chuckled. “Sounds like a good
strategy to me.”

The door opened and Jack arrived
hurriedly. “Sorry I’m late,” he said, “it couldn’t be
helped.”

Jack joined them at the table and
looked at everyone momentarily. “I trust you have all had a chance
to get to know one another a little?”

“
Yes, a little,” Telisa
said, trying to sound positive. She wanted Jack to know that there
were no personality problems emerging, at least not on her
end.

The meeting started quickly, as Jack
ran over the government forms required to prepare a mock expedition
that would cover for their real activities. Telisa would have to
spend some time putting information into the company computer so
that Jack could get her employment squared away. Jack assigned
Thomas to help Telisa outfit for the trip, and he would get her in
touch with their usual equipment suppliers so that she could buy
everything she needed quickly. He gave her an access code to a
financial account to purchase her gear.

During the meeting Telisa could see
that Jack and Thomas were both very involved with the business side
of things, while Magnus seemed uninterested in those aspects,
almost withdrawn.

“
Let’s get down to the real
stuff,” Jack said, and looked at Thomas. Thomas accessed the home
computer.

“
Link in, if you please,” he
said. Everyone at the table linked into the computer just by
thinking about it. Telisa received the images to which Thomas
referred. Telisa closed her eyes to make it easier to view the
mental star chart.

“
This is the target planet,”
Thomas began. “No real name, just the second major orbiting body in
the Thespera Narres System. Just call it T2. The UNSF just started
laying into it two weeks ago. We know there are many sites on
planet and the ruins are definitely Trilisk in origin.”

Telisa thought that this information
was amazing to have if the UNSF only started two weeks ago. She
wondered if the group spied on the UNSF or if they knew people on
the inside. She also hoped that they had friends in the government,
because it was surely dangerous to eavesdrop on the space force.
Anyone caught at such an activity could be put away for a long
time. Once again she found herself pushing back a tinge of fear at
what she was doing.

“
Since operations have just
started up here, and because it’s on the fringe of explored space,
we know there is a good chance we can get in and out
undetected.”

Telisa decided to be bold and ask
questions at this stage. “Isn’t it true that the exploration
vessels have better detection equipment than most? Won’t they have
a good chance of noticing our ship?”

“
Yes, they might notice us,
if they’re there at all,” Magnus answered.

Thomas nodded. “There is that risk, but
I believe the initial survey vessel will have already left the
system. It will have left a lot of probes behind, but usually those
probes are highly specialized to gather different types of
planetary data and we can deal with them.”

Thomas changed the display to a
generated image of a planet with two landing sites marked on it in
blinking white letters.

“
Our information is too
sketchy at this point to plan a landing site ahead of time,” Thomas
explained. “We’ll have to pick a spot, obviously avoiding these
known UNSF bases, when we arrive in system.”

“
We’ll have plenty of time
to form some goals on the way there,” Jack put in, “since we’ll be
in transit for two weeks at least. We should come up with a plan
for what to look for in a landing site and what to go after once
we’re there. So everyone try and put some thought into that the
next few days, and we’ll get back to it on the ship.”

“
What kind of ship are we
taking?” Telisa asked.

“
That’s a good question, I
tell you what, I’m going to have Thomas fill you in on the ship
after you get your stuff.” Jack looked at Thomas and said, “Why
don’t you go over to the
Iridar
with her tomorrow afternoon?”

“
Sure thing,” Thomas said.
He seemed genuinely pleased to get the assignment.

“
Just for a brief curiosity
dampener,” Jack told her, “It’s an ex-UED scoutship. A little old
in some ways, but we keep it updated as best we can. Magnus has
some contacts that we make use of, just to make sure we have some
tricks up our sleeve,” he said. “So we can be hard to detect if we
work at it, but of course our cargo space is very
limited.”

“
What about robots?” Telisa
asked.

“
For now, we do things the
old-fashioned way,” Thomas said.

“
Robots are nice, but
they’re a big overhead on this kind of mission,” Jack added. “The
government has tough requirements that are expensive to circumvent,
both in terms of time and money. The law requires frequent
inspection of any robotic units we own. Unlike the privacy we enjoy
for our links, robot logs are property of the
government.”

Telisa thought about what that would
mean to the smugglers. If they used robots, the automatic logs that
recorded everything the robot sensed would have to be carefully
doctored to eliminate all evidence of illegal activity.

“
I guess they left our
rights to bear robotics out of the constitution,” Telisa grumbled.
“What about the ship logs?”

“
Takes a lot of work, but
we’re getting pretty good at it,” Thomas said.

“
Actually, we have an idea
for using a robot that I can tell you about on the trip. But it
won’t be this mission,” Magnus told her.

“
Okay,” she said. Telisa
knew the government feared robots in the hands of civilians,
because of their tremendous potential for misuse. Only the most
fragile of household robots were commonly owned by
individuals.

Jack broke up the meeting and left the
room with Magnus. Telisa got up with Thomas, assuming that they
would be buying equipment.

“
So what kind of stuff
should I purchase?”

“
I can tell you the things
that we all carry, but obviously I’m not qualified to advise you on
any gear that you might want regarding the analysis of artifacts or
their value.”

“
He gave me more money than
I would need, I think,” she said in a worried voice.

“
I wouldn’t sweat it if you
have money left over,” Thomas said. “Just make sure that you have
everything you need.”

Thomas presented her with a wide array
of items to purchase, including an assortment of survival gear for
all types of environments. They placed a large order with
directions to deposit the items at the business the next day. The
equipment ranged from medical supplies to climbing gear. Telisa was
not an experienced climber, but Jack said that it was “just in
case”.

“
You may want to get a
stunner too,” Thomas suggested.

“
A stunner?” she asked, and
then felt foolish. “Well, what make do you recommend?”

“
I would get a good PSG
stunner, with a large energy reserve,” he said. “I have only had to
use mine once, just to avoid being mugged in a scummy backport
alley, but if you need it once your whole life that’s enough to
warrant getting one.”

He was talking about a nonlethal sonic
weapon. Telisa had heard of Personal Security Gear, and she knew
that they were top of the line.

“
Okay, I’ll pick one up,”
she said.

“
Then that should do it.
I’ll see you tomorrow afternoon, and we’ll leave the day after
that.”

Chapter
Two

Magnus walked steadily towards the next
checkpoint at Grenadin Spaceport. He noticed the looks he got from
other people. He figured everyone saw the skinsuit and marked him
as military or ex-military. Magnus knew a few other types who’d
wear the Veer skinsuits: bounty hunters, frontier planet types, and
big-time pretenders trying to pick up women.

He came up to an automated counter and
linked up. He watched a document fill out in his mind’s eye,
identifying himself and his incoming packages. After he verified
the information as correct, he stood and waited while the requests
were processed. He ignored the complimentary drink that had been
dispensed at the counter for him. Neither did he change his
preferences with the customs computer to prevent the drink from
being dispensed next time—anything to spite them.

“
Magnus Garrison?” a voice
said.

Magnus turned and saw an old
acquaintance of his. The man looked like hell, ragged and ill
dressed. The man’s face held heavy lines and circles under the
eyes. No attempt had been made to hide a burgeoning waistline that
pushed forward under the spaceport uniform. Magnus
tensed.

“
Yes, that’s me.” Magnus
picked up a secure connection through his link.

Cracker. What’s
up?

“
I’m afraid there are a few
issues I need to speak with you about, regarding your luggage,”
Cracker said.

Magnus felt a spike of anger. If this
snake had—

Relax. I have to bring you
in here with an arsenal like that, or it’d look bad,
Cracker said back through the link.

“
Okay,” Magnus said
neutrally. He remained tense. Cracker led him away from the
autocounter and through a security door. They walked past two other
clear glass rooms, which held other people who’d been delayed at
customs. Magnus saw one of them, an old lady, being interrogated by
two men in dark suits. He cursed to himself silently. He hated this
part.

“
Okay, come in here,
please,” Cracker said loudly.

Magnus walked into the glass
interrogation room and found a seat. Cracker sat across from him
and got a distant look as he brought up paperwork through his
link.

Relax, Mag, this is just
procedure I gotta do
, Cracker sent him
through his link.

“
I see that you’ve requested
clearance for an assault weapon,” Cracker said aloud. “Wow, this
thing’s an antique.”

“
It serves me well enough,”
Magnus said.

“
Why do you need such a
device?” Cracker said, and then sent through the link:

It’s gonna be hard to clear
through. It’s gotta link lock, but it won’t log your shots.
Government wants to know these things.

“
It’s required for my work.
I’m a guide. We have several contracts for accompanying clients on
very new, undeveloped worlds. Many of these places have dangerous
predators.”