The Trilisk AI by Michael McCloskey Page A

perhaps
she would take the software angle first.
    Relachik
walked in circles through the tiny ship. His resolve to find his daughter
remained firm, though now he saw a larger chance of failure. What if he led the
Force to her? What if the force planned to catch and arrest them both? Dammit,
Tel, you put us in a tight spot. I hope it was worth it.
    He
thought of Telisa’s mother, a principled scientist, a woman who made great
advances in understanding the first alien devices recovered by the Force, until
her untimely death. He knew he was doing right by her memory to sacrifice
everything to protect their daughter.
    After
a while, he decided to pester Cilreth. He knew she wouldn’t have made much
progress yet, but he wanted to know if she would still participate in their
training routines.
    “Cilreth.
Are you checking out that suit?”
    “Of
course. You think I could resist slavering over this treat?”
    “Can
we use it?”
    “Too
early to say. I’m still marveling over its design. Well, actually, I’m trying
to figure out if it’s one-hundred percent genuine Terran know-how, or modified
alien tech, or reverse-engineered from alien tech. I may never know, though;
some of these components have been shielded against probing.”
    “Of
course. A lot of Space Force stuff is hardened against prying eyes.”
    “Well,
I’m gonna keep prying.”
    “Good.
Keep me informed. Shall we run a few more scenarios at fourteen hundred hours?”
    “How
about eighteen hundred? I prefer to work in longer spurts.”
    “Eighteen
hundred it is.”

Chapter 8
     
    “What’s
up?” Telisa called from the entrance to the cargo bay.
    “We’ve
arrived,” Magnus said.
    “Where
exactly?”
    Magnus
shrugged. “Shiny says it’s his home.”
    Telisa
accessed the Iridar ’s sensor data. She saw a light brown planet zoom
into her mind’s eye. It was roughly Earth-size. The atmosphere was thin. It
wasn’t a gorgeous blue and green planet filled with life. It looked rocky and
dead.
    “Shiny,
has your planet always looked like that? Or was it the destroyers?”
    “Planet
appears normal from here,” Shiny said. “Massive damage internally. Shiny
civilization hidden, subterranean, submerged.”
    Telisa
sifted through some of the details of the planetary data. There were indeed a
few signs of life tucked away, even on the surface. Nothing big. In fact much
of what they had detected among the rocks were sessile creatures deriving
sustenance from the star, creatures half plant, half animal. Hints of vast underground
tunnels were there, as expected. Minimal volcanic activity. The air at the
surface could sustain humans.
    “What
is it called? I don’t think I should be calling you a Shinarian anymore.”
    Shiny
stomped several of his feet in a quick pattern.
    “Ah,
right,” Telisa said. “Say it again please?”
    Shiny
stomped the pattern again. There seemed to be a duplicated preamble and a
louder clack at the end.
    “Sounds
like...Vovok,” Telisa said.
    “Vovok
it is, then,” Magnus said.
    “What
algorithm provides translation?” Shiny asked.
    “A
whimsical one. No worries. The name doesn’t translate. So I’m calling it Vovok.
Which makes you a Vovokan. Be glad I didn’t call it Klack Klack.”
    Before
Shiny could inquire further, Telisa asked more questions.
    “Where
should we drop? What can we expect to find? Besides your target industrial
seed, I mean. And you have to give us the specs of what that seed looks like.”
    Shiny
downloaded an information module to Iridar ’s storage. Telisa immediately
became aware of it when she received a pointer.
    “Study.
Prepare,” Shiny said.
    Telisa
saw a series of low pillars, hourglass-shaped, lined up in the cargo bay.
    “And
these?” Telisa asked, pointing at the objects.
    “Gift.
Offer. Mutual benefit,” Shiny said.
    “Those
are what you made on the way here, right? You said before they are remote
drones.”
    “These
gather information. They warn Telisa and Magnus of