The Trilisk Revolution (Parker Interstellar Travels) (13 page)

“This
liquid disperses into a gas that kills Trilisk hosts quickly,” Telisa said. “I
brought it in case there were a lot of them here.”

Telisa3
shook her head. “Why wouldn’t he give some to me?”

“The
Five curse me,” Telisa said again, shaking her head.

“Is
Magnus nearby?”

Telisa
controlled herself. Barely.

“He’s
on another mission,” she managed to say. “We need to check the rest of the
base, and if there aren’t any Trilisks at all, we need to leave. Somehow.”

Telisa3
nodded. “Should be easy enough, with two of us. I have a stealth suit. I
suppose you have the cloaking sphere?”

“Yes.
But they detected me at the entrance gate.”

“Really?
Me, too, but I figured it was just that this suit stealth system was inferior.”

“They
may have detected my weight on the conveyor, or maybe smelled me with chemical
sniffers,” Telisa said.

“We
can target the sensors,” Telisa3 said. “Sniffers aren’t good enough to target
shots, usually,” she added.

“You
keep saying everything I’m thinking.”

“Well
duh.”

They
exchanged smiles. Until Telisa thought of Magnus.

I
wish he was here so much.

Telisa3
misunderstood her look. “Right, back to business. We should get these people
out of here. If there’s a Trilisk we missed, that should get its attention.”

I’ve
changed.

Telisa
nodded. “Okay. We’ll pick an exit gate, preferably one with some
passenger-ready ships outside. Then hit the sensors, take out the guards and
get some people out.”

“Attendants
can find the sensors I hope,” Telisa3 said.

“Hrm.
Maybe another layer of disguise is in order,” Telisa said thoughtfully.

Chapter 16

As
Imanol stared down the tunnel hidden inside the old root cellar, he considered
simply launching a missile down the tunnel and calling it good. He knew
shooting blindly was not a great strategy. He might collapse the tunnel and
never find more Trilisks hiding inside. Then they could emerge a year from now
and take over again.

Imanol
wiped sweat from his forehead and cursed under his breath. It had been a lot of
work getting through the wall built over the entrance. The root cellar was old,
filled with the remains of barrels and rotting wood shelves. He hid the rocket
launcher in the cellar under a rotting wooden shelf. A scenario flitted through
his mind where he never came back to get the launcher and some kid found it in
the cellar years after. Imanol checked the weapons lock: only the PIT team
could use it.

He
reviewed his weapons. Besides the laser pistol in his hand, he had a projectile
pistol at his belt, a stunner in his pack, and two grenades in a special pocket
of his Veer armor. He looked nervously at the tunnel entrance. It looked long
unused, with roots hanging down that obscured his view.

Imanol
told his laser pistol’s light to activate. It complied. The light ran on the
same power source as the laser, so light would not be a problem. He crouched to
get a better look. The tunnel went at least twenty meters. He could not see
farther than ten meters ahead.

“Are
we having fun yet?” he muttered. Imanol advanced in a crouch. He sent an
attendant forward to scout.

As
Imanol scraped through the old tunnel, his attendant showed him the terminus in
his PV: a circular cavern. The stone walls had been smoothed. Writing had been
engraved onto the wall. Imanol could not read it, but his link provided a
translation: “Pilgrims bound for the Temple of Hades, hold your key and implore
the master of the underworld for entrance.”

You’ve
got to be kidding me. The Trilisks have been here a long time.

There,
in the center of the room’s floor, was a huge circular portal. It was made of
some rust-free metal or ceramic. Though dirty, it was clearly made to last.

End
of the line. With those Trilisks up there dead, how could I possibly get
through this?

Imanol
kept going to see for himself. He reached the end two minutes later. The room
at the end had enough space for him to stand straight. He brushed himself off
even though his shiny black Veer suit had an electrostatically clean surface.
He swept his laser’s illumination over the ancient room. The air was cool and
dry. He scanned the rocky floor. No footprints.

It
doesn’t seem like those ones in the house were visiting this much. But they had
to know about it?

Imanol
walked around the sealed door. His link showed no services.

Trilisks
probably just opened it with a thought… Open!

The
door did not respond. Imanol pondered the obstacle.

What
can I do? Search the house. Look for anything that could be the key this
writing mentions.

Imanol
sent two of his four attendants back up to the burned house. He instructed them
to find anything interesting that survived the fire. While he waited, he
cleared some of the sandy dirt from around the base. Imanol could not tell what
it was made of. He thought about testing it with his laser, or even the rocket
launcher.

If
it’s Trilisk, I’m not blasting through it.

An
attendant above ground found an item in the house’s ashes made of the same
material. Imanol told it to bring the item back. Imanol guessed it would be the
key. Yet there was no place for a key anywhere on the surface of the portal.
His attendants returned with the device.

Imanol
held it in his hand. It was flat, cold, formed in a flat diamond shape. His
link still showed no services. Imanol shook his head. It was not a Terran door,
it was Trilisk.

Open!
Open!

The
remaining dirt on the portal’s surface flew away in an instant. Now the portal
looked brand new. Then the door made a loud grinding noise. The circular seal
turned and slid away, revealing an enormous black opening. Warm, moist air
belched upwards. It had an odor Imanol could not place.

Great.
Just great.

Imanol
checked his other light sources. He had a mini lantern, no larger than his
thumb, which could light a small room. His stunner and the attendants also had
small light sources. He told three attendants to slip down into the room below
and help light the flanks.

At
this point, if something is waiting for me, it’ll be an easy shot if it’s
waiting in the dark.

Imanol
tossed the mini lantern down for good measure. It fell about four meters to a
smooth black surface below.

I
need Telisa’s eye
, he
thought. He knew her artificial eye could probably see very well in low light.
I
wonder if she’s still alive.

Imanol
finally decided to follow his attendants down. He considered the key. Leaving
it here would help anyone else who showed up. But if there was an enemy
survivor somewhere on the island, they could seal him in with it. He decided to
bring the key with him and put it in his pack.

I
hope it’s tough. If I take a tumble and break it, that could suck… I’ll leave
the door open. When I leave, I’ll have to stack something to climb on or throw
a smart rope up there.

Imanol
checked his pack and verified he had the rope. Then he looked down through the
opening. The tunnel wall was perfectly smooth and utterly black. His attendants
had not found any danger waiting for him.

If
I were an ancient Greek, I’d believe this was the underworld, too.

Imanol
decided to drop without his smart rope. It was not far to the floor below. He
climbed to the edge, hung down by his hands as if doing a chin up, then
released. He hit the ground and knelt to keep from falling backwards.

There
was room for Imanol to stand inside the circular tunnel. The portal above dropped
down into a tunnel running roughly north and south under the island. Two
attendants flew away down the tunnel in opposite directions. As the attendants
flew away, Imanol started to see that the tunnels extended farther than the
island.

One
of the attendants found a room. It was as large as a floor of the house above,
filled with dark columns extending from floor to ceiling, though they did not
seem structural. The other attendant had gone down a long descending tube. It
saw a glow ahead. Imanol watched as the attendant flew closer. The tunnel above
and beneath glowed a dull reddish light.

Imanol
asked the attendant to do a radiation analysis, but it reported only slight
visual red and infrared emissions.

What’s
causing that? Is there magma outside that tunnel?

Imanol
recalled reading a report on his target island, which included notes of
volcanic activity nearby. He shook his head.

To
the Trilisks, even the scariest forces of nature are just a light show.

The
attendants flew past several branchings, reporting more rooms and tunnels. They
had not seen anything alive, or for that matter, any robots or active machines.

This
is a major Trilisk complex!

Imanol
decided he should report his ‘success’ and the Trilisk base. He was not
supposed to contact any of the others directly. They had agreed to route
communications through Cilreth to prevent any kind of tracking or interference
by the Space Force.

“Cilreth?
I suppose you can’t tie me through to Telisa?”

There
was nothing.

“Cilreth?”

Imanol
felt a sense of dread. He was not supposed to contact anyone for at least
twenty hours if Cilreth did not respond. By that time, the others would have
succeeded or failed.

Someone
said that Earth used to have a Trilisk base. Who was that? They said its AI
wasn’t working, like that meant something special. I guess that means the base
is somehow without power or disabled in some way?

Imanol
kept moving through the tunnel. He thought better of having two attendants
exploring, so he sent for one to come back and instead stay about a hundred
meters ahead of his route.

If
it sees something bad, I guess I should shoot first and ask questions never.

Imanol
headed toward what he suspected might be the center of the complex based upon
the map his attendants had accumulated. He started to jog through the tunnel.
It started to angle downwards. Imanol made good time. The optimum simultaneous
strike time of the PIT mission had come and gone when he killed the Trilisks
above. Any Trilisk left on Earth now had to know it was an endangered species.

The
others must be well along now. If there’s a Trilisk, it’s probably heard the
news. And I’m probably a dead man.

His
lead attendant found something. A huge chamber. Imanol watched the video feed.
There was a building inside the Trilisk base! The structure had the style of an
ancient Greek temple. The attendant reported several life signs inside. Imanol
recalled it back to his position to avoid notice. He arranged for the remaining
scout to return to him as well. Imanol wanted all the protection he could get.

I
can’t believe how long this thing has been down here. The Trilisks made a
temple down here for the natives? I thought they just observed other races from
these complexes. Or used them as hosts for fun, or something secret. But looks
like they played the deity card on the poor bastards.

Imanol
readied his weapons. Before he made it to the end of the last tunnel leading to
the temple building, all four attendants orbited him, ready to help. He had to
run through the glowing tunnel his attendant had found. Imanol ignored the glow
and what it probably meant.

If
I’m going to go deep into this complex hunting Trilisks, I can’t let a little
magma get to me.

He
could not tell if the tunnel was hotter or if it was just his imagination. His
suit was a good insulator, too. The reddish glow faded behind him to be
replaced by a yellowish one ahead. He could see in his PV he was almost to the
large temple chamber.

Finally
Imanol emerged from the tunnel and got his first look with his own eyes. The
room was big and black. The building looked like it had been built on the
surface of an asteroid hurling through deep space. It was lit from inside.
Imanol wondered how long that light had been on.

This
is utterly insane.

Imanol
stared. He traced the distinctive lines of ancient architecture. The materials
were wrong. The temple was not built from stone. It was made of the same dark,
almost indestructible material as the Trilisk walls which towered overhead.
There were lines in its surface, as if it had been put together from separate
pieces, but Imanol suspected they were fake. But the lines of the temple were
Greek.

They
built this to impress the locals. I bet it worked, too.

Imanol
caught sight of something at the base of the structure. He walked carefully
forward to get a look.

There,
sitting at the bottom of the wide stair leading up to the temple, a man in
leather tunic and sandals sat with a circular shield and a spear beside him.
Piles of bones sat around him. They looked ancient.

“Blood
and souls,” Imanol whispered in awe.

Chapter 17

A
Vovokan shuttle hurtled through space toward Earth.

Inside,
Cilreth2 took a deep breath and tried to center herself. Her insides roiled
like a tornado of knives. She wanted to scream.

She
needed twitch. Fast.

When
she had come out of the Trilisk column she had felt better than ever before.
And she had assumed the benefits of an immortal body would include an immunity
from the slow damage of twitch. When she tried some, the twitch had affected
her more than when she was human. To Cilreth2, twitch was like a rocket ride, a
combination of cerebral nitro and opium-like euphoria. She had been taken by
surprise from the beginning, and two days later she was addicted ten times
harder than Cilreth. She didn’t share this terrible development with her
original. Cilreth2 was supposed to be super strong, super smart, and
bulletproof. She had wondered what it said about her personality that she would
not share this problem with herself.