The Trilisk Ruins (14 page)

He crawled away. If he could distance
himself from the eighth module, then the volume of stable space
would increase further. This would in turn draw more power from the
installation’s power supply, hopefully overloading it.

By the time Kirizzo had made his way
beyond the range of the eighth module, he realized he had lost the
third module altogether. It had gone unobserved for too long, and
the room had been reclaimed. His third observation module was
gone.

The plan of escape was not going to
work.

Kirizzo guessed that he could not watch
enough different locations simultaneously to overload the
generators. This was not too surprising considering the immense
power source that he had detected here. Nevertheless he stood still
for the next couple of hours, watching the data. He might be
draining a reserve even now. He could be seconds away from seeing a
failure, he kept telling himself.

Or this could be futile.

He turned and retrieved the modules one
by one, still watching them constantly so he wouldn’t lose another.
The operation was as slow and tedious as the deployment had been.
Kirizzo did not falter, and he succeeded in retrieving all the
remaining cubic monitor modules.

He had worked so long on this plan of
escape. Kirizzo’s kind did not know depression, but an analog of
impatience was building to almost painful levels in him. How best
to escape the complex?

Kirizzo’s thoughts returned to the
others that he had detected in the mazelike installation.
Presumably they were adding some load to the system. Their senses
seemed inferior to his own, but stable bubbles continued to follow
them through the maze. Unfortunately they tended to group together,
keeping their area of influence overlapped. If they would spread
out, that would also help to consume the installation’s energy. He
wondered if the aliens had deduced the workings of their
surroundings yet. Might they also pursue a plan of escape as he
had? Would their plan be compatible with his own?

How could he get the others to split
up? Kirizzo saw that despite his superior standing, he would need
to seek the aid of the other entities trapped with him. If he could
ally with them, they might not destroy the painstakingly crafted
observation stations, and they could spread out to increase the
load. Kirizzo didn’t know about their sensory capacity, but each of
them might also be able to stabilize several other locations
remotely as he had.

However, given the alien’s reactions to
him thus far, it might be difficult to come to an understanding.
Still, it had to be tried. Kirizzo was running out of
ideas.

His planning stage ended abruptly, and
he bolted into action. Activating one of the modules and leaving it
on next to the others, he detached a single defense orb and ordered
it to guard the cache. Then he moved away, observing his valuable
modules through the single activated one to make sure the
installation did not reclaim it. Kirizzo’s many legs whirred
rapidly, moving him down a twisting rock passage.

It shouldn’t take long to find some of
the others, he decided.

Chapter
Eleven

Magnus and Telisa finished up a snack
while sitting in luxurious overstuffed chairs that they had found
in a lounge or waiting room. They ate from their packs since they
trusted their own food more than anything they might find in the
complex. Some weird form of elevator music played in the
background. Telisa found the notes vaguely familiar but could not
associate them with any particular song.

“
Let’s keep going,” Magnus
said, standing up. “Even if the surroundings change, we might be
able to find an exit that just randomly appears
somewhere.”

“
Okay.”

Telisa organized her pack and rose to
join him. Magnus prepared his slug thrower and opened the door. It
opened into a cave.

“
Shit,” he said. He closed
the door and exchanged looks with Telisa.

“
The cave? We’ve been
surrounded by a cave while we ate?” Telisa’s voice conveyed deep
dismay. The caves with those funny blocks made her nervous as they
forced her to think about the death of Jack and Thomas.

“
Sometimes I think the cave
part is taking over. But we always find more of the regular human
complex,” she said.

“
It makes me think it’s a
trap,” Magnus said. “But there’s no choice. Let’s go.”

They each held weapons ready when
Magnus opened the door again. He hesitated, looking out into the
caves beyond and letting his eyes get used to the light.

“
There’s something there,”
he said.

Telisa moved slowly, stepping to one
side and peering over Magnus’s shoulder. Some kind of shiny thing
stood in the center of the large cave beyond the door. She thought
it was some kind of complicated structure made of metal.

“
Is it a
machine?”

Magnus stood staring straight at it for
a few more seconds. “I think it moved just a little,” he said. He
slowly opened the door all the way so that light from the lounge
came out into the redly luminous cave. Telisa gasped when she saw
that the thing was golden, a complex creature with many legs that
stood as tall as her chest but at least twice as long.

“
Amazing,” she breathed,
almost afraid to make noise. “It’s... amazing.” She committed the
image to her link memory.

Magnus was taut and stiff. He slowly
took a step forward, bending low on his knees and keeping his slug
thrower pointed at the thing.

“
It has some kind of
machinery on its back,” he said. “There are... things floating
around it, hanging in the air.”

Telisa struggled to catch sight of what
Magnus was talking about. After a moment she noticed something, a
small dark sphere, moving lazily near the front of the creature. As
far as Telisa could see, there was nothing attaching it to the
thing’s body.

“
I hope it isn’t dangerous,”
Telisa said, keeping her voice low.

“
If it’s what killed Jack
and Thomas, it could have killed us by now. It’s just sitting there
though.”

As Telisa’s eyes adapted further to the
low red light, she could see more details of the thing before
them.

“
Uhhh. It’s so... well,
alien.”

The creature shined as if covered in
gold plating. It had many long thin legs, at least a dozen on each
side of its body. The thin central trunk tapered to a sharp point
that arced down towards the ground on the far side. It reminded
Telisa of a sharp beak, and she wondered if it could be used as a
weapon. The other end of the flexible body came up into a round
knob a little smaller than a human head. The protrusion was mostly
featureless except for what looked like hundreds of bean sprouts
gathered underneath it. The top knobby part moved back and forth
slowly. One of the many legs in the back twitched a
little.

Telisa saw that the top of the long
trunk had small silver knobs and rods across it, and a silver
coating covered the predominant gold color across parts of the
trunk with holes for the legs to protrude. She suspected the silver
parts might be its clothes or equipment, because their knobs and
rods looked more regular than its smooth curves of its golden
parts. When the body flexed the rods stayed straight. She put
another two images of the creature away to her link in case she
needed them later.

“
I can’t tell anything about
it. Are there eyes, ears, anything? I don’t even see a mouth,”
Telisa said.

“
You got me there,” Magnus
said. “Another important question is: is this a Trilisk? Is it
native to this planet? Does it have anything to do with whoever or
whatever killed Jack and Thomas?”

Telisa took a deep breath and tried to
relax. “Okay, maybe you keep covering it and I’ll try to
communicate.”

“
Okay. Good luck,” Magnus
said neutrally.

Telisa lowered her stunner and took a
slow step forward. The thing was shifting quite often, as if
excited or impatient. Telisa had no way of knowing if she could
make any assumptions about that or not. Instead she just attached
her stunner to her belt and held out her hand.

“
Hello. I am Telisa,” she
said loudly. Telisa felt immensely silly, but the enormity of
facing a living alien kept her focused.

The alien kept its feet planted but it
fidgeted again. Telisa watched it carefully. The knob where its
head should be was bobbing back and forth in a smooth and
repetitive fashion, but there didn’t seem to be a reaction to her
greeting.

Telisa pointed at herself. “Telisa,”
she said.

Suddenly the creature began
rhythmically lifting and dropping its legs in a complex pattern.
Telisa whimpered in fear but quickly regained her composure. She
glanced at Magnus. He lifted his eyebrows and shook his
head.

“
Is that how you talk?” she
said. The alien gave no visible reaction.

She stamped her foot. The creature
stamped its front foot on the opposite side, mimicking
her.

“
We’re doomed. I don’t even
know if it can hear me,” Telisa said.

“
Maybe it isn’t
intelligent,” Magnus said. He was still keeping his slug thrower
aimed at the creature, although he was standing straighter
now.

“
It almost has to be. It was
waiting here for us, and there’s that machinery on its
back.”

“
Dogs can be told to guard
doors. And they can wear collars with electronics or have links in
their brains.”

Telisa looked back at the alien thing
again. “Well, it’s possible. But I get the feeling it’s smart. It
responded to me, a little bit. You know, with no eyes or ears... it
probably can’t hear us.”

“
It senses us somehow,”
Magnus said, strolling to one side. The knob on the front end of
the creature kept waving side to side, although it seemed to center
more on Magnus as he moved. After a moment it pointed back towards
Telisa.

“
So assuming it is
intelligent, should we try and get it to follow us?”

“
You want to go look for
human corridors again?”

“
Well, this place is dark,
and these glowing blocks are creepy.”

“
To us they are. This thing
might live here, in this part of the tunnels. Still, it’s worth a
try. Let’s move away slightly and see if it follows us.”

Telisa faced the thing again. She waved
her hand through the air, motioning for the alien to follow. “Come
this way,” she said slowly.

They took a few tentative steps to
their right, towards an opening in the stone wall.

The creature waved its front right arm,
the thin appendage mimicking Telisa’s arm wave. Then it advanced
slowly.

“
Its arms each have three
stubby fingers or pinchers,” Telisa said.

“
We can examine it more
closely when we find the human corridors again,” Magnus
said.

“
Yes, you’re right,” Telisa
said. She followed Magnus into an adjoining cavern, looking back
frequently to make sure the thing was following them. It kept a
distance of two or three meters but seemed to be content to let
them lead through the caverns.

They moved through several more
caverns, but no human constructs were apparent.

“
Let’s try another
direction. We must be deeper into the caves than last
time.”

“
Remember it all shifts
around,” Telisa said. “The human part could be gone.”

Magnus shook his head as if he didn’t
want to consider that possibility. They shifted directions and
traveled for several more minutes but failed to find any
human-friendly areas.

“
We’re really lost this
time,” Magnus said. “I don’t sense any links in range except
yours.”

Telisa realized that the thing waved
its arm at her. It made the motion twice and then took several
intricate steps away, its many legs working rapidly.

“
Looks like it’s our turn to
follow,” Telisa said. “If we can’t find the human complex anyway, I
suppose we have nothing to lose.”

Magnus nodded. “Okay. Maybe it knows
the way to someplace interesting.” His face brightened. “Actually,
maybe it knows the way out of this place!”

“
I hope you’re right!”
Telisa said.

Magnus and Telisa followed the alien.
They had begun to relax in its presence, gaining confidence that it
meant them no harm.

The creature moved slowly at first and
then darted forward. It stopped to wait but didn’t turn
around.

“
It knows we’re back here,
and it isn’t pointing that thing that looks like its head back
towards us,” Telisa said.

Magnus nodded. “It can sense us, I
don’t know how. I think maybe it wants us to move faster. Should we
try and run?”

“
It might be dangerous...
let’s try moving a little faster since it seems to be urging us
on.”

Telisa and Magnus broke into a light
jog, following the alien. It picked up its pace accordingly, its
legs moving at blinding speed. It still easily outdistanced them
but always waited at intersections in the caverns to guide them.
Finally they jogged into a particularly large cavern, and the thing
was waiting for them in the center next to a tremendous stack of
the beige blocks. Some of them glowed steadily. Most of them had
one or more of the protruding green spikes.