The Trilisk AI (16 page)

Within
four minutes, large hunters descended into the remains of Kirizzo’s house. They
in turn dispatched smaller machines, which penetrated the smaller tunnels and
moved in on the machines drawing power. Kirizzo monitored what communications
he could pick up for later analysis. Then he deactivated all the drilling
machines, as the first two were destroyed in the upper levels of the house.

So
what was it, exactly, that the Bel Klaven homed in on? The obvious answers were
moving mass or electromagnetic emissions. He decided to work with these first.

Ironically,
Kirizzo’s house defenses were largely intact. The Bel Klaven had descended from
above, not from the other tunnels where Kirizzo’s old enemies had threatened
attack. Less than ten percent of his automated forces were deployed to protect
from surface incursion. There were famous instances in their history of
Gorgalans attacking other houses unexpectedly from the surface, grand tales of
daring which resulted in amazing success, but such risky attacks were rare.

Kirizzo
still had a lot of assets at his entrance checkpoints deep underground. The Bel
Klaven hadn’t had to move through them. Each of the checkpoints included
moving-mass systems of great complexity, designed to conceal the defenses and
confuse attackers. The systems were also independently powered, because the
broadcast power systems could be blocked or tampered with in an assault. Also,
it hardened the defenses against sabotage of the broadcast power stations.

Kirizzo
was ready for the second test. He picked one and activated it.

The
system turned on. Kirizzo wasn’t able to feel it himself, being so far away,
nor could his probes report the readings to him, since they were limited to
Terran capabilities. Kirizzo calmly noted to himself that any conclusion based
on the results could be flawed, since he had only the station’s
self-diagnostics to rely upon. In all likelihood the obfuscation masses were in
motion; he just had no way to verify it externally.

No
reaction. Given the lack of evidence to support the first theory, he decided to
move on to the next test. He could always return to this one if other avenues
dried up. Besides, it made sense once Kirizzo factored in the fact that the
invaders weren’t Gorgalan. Tracking moving mass was inherently a
Gorgalan-centric method. Neither the Bel Klaven nor the Terrans would employ
such a system.

The
third test began. Kirizzo started with a flurry of communications to one of the
drilling machines. It didn’t move or draw significant power. Its energy storage
had already been filled by the first experiment. He simply exchanged an
artificially high amount of information for a short time. He waited.

This
time, the Bel Klaven reacted. A smaller hunter shot from a nearby patrol
machine. It closed unerringly upon the drilling device. The hunter examined the
driller carefully, then started to search in an expanding spiral pattern.

Kirizzo
wondered why it didn’t destroy the machine. Perhaps the weapons of the enemy
were limited?

The
evidence so far suggested that the Bel Klaven monitored Gorgalan frequencies
for communication and broadcast power. The theory could be flawed. Kirizzo’s
experiments may have resulted in a higher state of vigilance for the last
experiment. Some of his readings could have been in error, especially given the
extensive damage to his house systems, and the primitive abilities of the
probes he’d constructed.

Kirizzo
decided to work for the moment as if the theory was correct. What leverage did
it offer? He knew the Bel Klaven weren’t flexible, at least not their fighting
machines. Kirizzo doubted any Bel Klaven remained to oversee the machines now
that the campaign had mostly been completed. The machines were just left here
to make sure no Gorgalans survived. Or that none who fled could ever come back.

He
had at least one important piece of the puzzle, which might help him learn to
hide things from the Bel Klaven. His house wasn’t what it used to be. His
abilities to block and alter EM transmissions at a distance were mostly
destroyed. Besides, if the Bel Klaven warships were as sophisticated as his own
machines, they could track the tampering to the sources and destroy his
remaining assets.

Another
possible use presented itself: distraction. The signals could be faked more
easily than real ones could be hidden. Which meant he might be able to distract
the Bel Klaven machines when Telisa and Magnus were ready to bring the
industrial seed to the surface. Or perhaps the distraction would best be saved
for when the
Iridar
was ready to leave? Shiny himself would be at risk
at that time. Yet if his new allies were killed, he would have to figure out
how to sneak in himself.

Kirizzo
hadn’t been planning on contacting Telisa and Magnus, but this information was
too valuable to sit on. They would have to be informed. Kirizzo set about planning
how to pull it off without being found.

Chapter 13

Telisa
had pocketed several of the dead spheres when she noticed that a school of the
floating devices had broken away from the room to follow her.

“Hello?”
she said, glancing at them. “Are you following me?”

The
orbs simply coruscated in different colors and floated lazily around as a loose
unit.

Telisa
took the dead orbs out of her pocket and laid them back on the floor. Then she
moved to the side. The school of coruscating devices followed her.

“You
really are following me,” Telisa said, gathering her prizes back up.

“Who
are you talking to?” Magnus asked.

“That
school of things is following me. They’re the only ones that changed behavior.”

“They
may be confused. Or broken.”

“But
when I move away, they follow me, always on that side. And there’s a way out in
that direction.”

“It’s
different from Shiny’s route,” he said. “Scout already moved off in the other
direction.”

“What
do they want? Do you think...could those tiny things be smart?” she asked.

“I
don’t know. They could be smart, or they could be controlled by someone who’s
smart. I say we trust Shiny’s route over some unknown.”

“Yes,
okay, but Scout is having trouble.”

Magnus
didn’t answer immediately but it was clear he saw what she saw in Scout’s feed.
A cave-in had blocked the way forward. The robot moved about, looking for some
tube or crevice that would allow it to continue, but the way was thoroughly
blocked.

“Mysterious
floating spheres it is,” Magnus said. “I hope they don’t attract destroyers. I
hope they aren’t controlled by destroyers, either.”

Magnus
recalled Scout. They took a few lazy steps toward the exit indicated by the
floating devices.

“Could
be Shiny controlling them,” Telisa said.

“That
makes sense.”

Scout
moved on by the scene and scurried out to see what lay beyond.

The
school of glowing spheres drifted in lazy circles out in the wide open space of
the ‘dance club.’ As Telisa watched, one of them went dark and dropped to its
death.

“Oh,
no. We’d better hurry after them. They’re running out of energy.”

“Okay.
Scout is far enough ahead we could risk it.”

They
walked through a natural-looking cavern with a sand floor.

“This
must be the equivalent of putting plants and birds into a building. They could
have made the corridor any shape they wanted, but they preferred a natural
look.”

“I
bet the sand isn’t exactly like their primitive caves. It carries refuse away
and moves things around. At least it did while this place was working.”

“Yes.
Very high-tech sand.”

The
cavern widened into a large chamber. A huge circular pit dominated the center
of the floor. The colorful lit spheres moved over the opening.

“Do
they really think we’re that dumb? They want us to walk out to our death?”

“We
have to head down here,” Telisa summarized.

“Are
you sure?”

“Our
target is over a kilometer below our current depth. We might as well head down
here.”

Scout
went first. It anchored itself to a smooth metal rim at the edge of the pit and
dropped into the darkness. The spheres remained near Telisa.

“That’s
a mild problem. We don’t know where to send Scout, because the spheres stay
here with you,” Magnus said.

“I
think I can guess at the route, given Shiny’s original. Or maybe not. This map
is crazy complicated.”

“Okay.
When Scout gets to the bottom, if it’s safe, we can join it and watch the
spheres or whatever.”

“We’re
not getting to the bottom of that shaft. Nowhere close. It goes down for
kilometers. We’re just going to drop down four or five levels here, I think.”

“If
our links are disabled—”

“Then
we’ll get lost and die down here,” she finished for him.

“We
might find our way to the surface at least.”

“We
could from here. Not for much longer, I think. Not without more food than we
have here.”

“We
could follow the probe.”

“It
follows us.”

“Okay.
Enough grim talk. Scout is down one level. Should he check it out?”

“Just
for a minute. Just to make sure something’s not sitting there waiting to eat
us.”

Scout
sent them images from the level below. Telisa saw an environment similar to
their current surroundings: natural caverns with sandy floors. She tried to
keep an eye on the feed as she removed climbing gear from her pack.
I think
I’m getting better at watching everything simultaneously.

Telisa
attached her smart rope and put her back to the pit. She let the rope twist its
way through her equipment rings at the belt of the Veer skinsuit, then dropped
over the edge. She descended smoothly, controlling the rope’s friction through
her link. As she reached the first level, she pushed away from the inside of the
tunnel just a bit, allowing her to swing into the entrance and land on the lip.

Her
light searched the side passage. She saw only sand and a gaping hole that led
to another layer of the house. Everything was eerily quiet. Between the lack of
link services, the darkness, and the almost total loneliness, there were only
the sounds of Magnus’s descent to interrupt the silence with a few soft foot
impacts as he dropped.

You
think it’s creepy too
,
Magnus said over his link as he dropped beside her.

As
creepy as the Tomb of the Third Entity
,
she said.

They
make that creepy on purpose. This is the real deal.

Telisa
suppressed her discomfort and concentrated on the descent. They repeated the
procedure, sending Scout ahead time and time again, then following on their
smart ropes when the coast was clear. Once Magnus reported another scurrying
“critter” in Scout’s visual feed, but nothing threatened them directly.

They
reached a level that looked special on Shiny’s directions, where they had to
jink over a ways before continuing the descent. Scout moved ahead to check
things out while Telisa and Magnus put their climbing gear away and shared a
snack. The floating spheres still led them, though another had dropped dead.

“I
would go crazy down here by myself,” Telisa said. “When I imagined Shiny’s
homeworld, I didn’t think it would be so...quiet and empty.”

“Everything’s
dead and gone. At least the spheres’ colors brighten it up a bit.”

“Scout
sees something,” she said.

Scout’s
lights illuminated a machine. It was the size of a big truck. The design
confused her. It sat on something akin to treads, though the treads weren’t
segmented, merely one smooth piece of material. There were also treads on the
sides and the top of the thing. Then as Scout walked around it, she saw the
front and it became clear: the front was a giant, multifaceted drill.

The
huge drilling machine dominated the room. Tunnels of the exact size of the
machine joined the room ahead and behind.

“Amazing.
This is their equivalent of a road-paving machine back on Earth,” Telisa said.

“Let’s
go check it out. Maybe we could drive it?”

“Probably
automated,” she said, but they both moved to join Scout. They walked to the end
of a tunnel and slipped down a one-meter drop to another level. Telisa found
the drilling machine in her light. It stood over them, at least four meters
tall.

Suddenly
the machine hummed to life. Running lights came on across its surface. The
entire tunnel lit up. Telisa and Magnus stepped back from the machine.

“What—”

“This
way!” Magnus yelled. Telisa sprinted off toward the tunnel he’d indicated. The
drilling machine made loud noises and lurched forward. Telisa turned to look
where she ran and didn’t look back. The noise behind her rose.