The Trilisk Supersedure Part 3

"Perhaps best avoided," he said; then the creature attacked.

The red ribbon of color coiled then launched itself at Magnus. It seemed certain to connect with him, yet it fell short and to one side. Its impossible trajectory confused Cilreth for a second.

What? Oh. A Vovokan sphere intercepted it.

Magnus staggered back a step. Telisa didn't hesitate. She was at his side in a flash, her tanto drawn.

"Back slowly," he said. His voice was rock steady.

c.r.a.p, he's calm.

Cilreth had access to his vitals as an expedition member, but she didn't have time to check at the moment. The creature launched itself again. This time three of the orbiting spheres, two from Magnus and one from Telisa, intercepted the line of flight and deflected the sinuous attacker.

Magnus leveled his weapon and fired it once. The creature started to whip wildly back and forth across the rocks. The Terrans backed away, then resumed their previous course. The creature had been injured or at least cowed. Cilreth lost sight of the thing as it struggled.

"I a.s.sume that will be a fatal wound, unless it's a particularly tough creature," Cilreth said.

"How did you spot it?" Telisa asked. "I didn't see anything when I went by."

"I don't know. Just caught sight of the red, just for a moment. Why did you keep looking behind yourself back there?"

Telisa looked surprised by her question. "On Vovok, we encountered a few mostly harmless creepy crawlies. But dealing with a few brought lots more. We kind of stirred up a hornet's nest. I guess I'm paranoid about it happening again. Of course I know, different planet, different dangers."

"Makes a lot of sense. You're learning from your experiences." Or failing to get over your bad experiences, thought Cilreth's cynical side.

"I keep telling myself I'll get used to it like Magnus," Telisa said. Magnus ignored the conversation, as he was checking some input in his link. Cilreth checked his recent biomarkers through her link. She was a little encouraged to see his heart rate had increased 20 percent. Telisa's had increased a bit more, while her own had skyrocketed along with her adrenal spike.

He's human, at least.

"A scout found something interesting," Magnus announced.

Cilreth had access to the many roving eyes of the scouts, but she found it hard to concentrate on her own movements across the rough terrain and watch the scout feeds at the same time. Cilreth loved the machines intellectually, though the way they moved creeped her out. She did not much care for Magnus's PV interface to them either, though that was hardly surprising given that Magnus was not as experienced with software as she was.

Magnus led them toward another ancient building. The structure looked to be in better shape than the outlying ruins. They walked up to an intact reddish wall. One of the scout robots crawled nearby.

The stone wall held a thick ceramic grille or window at the level of Cilreth's stomach. She estimated it to be a little over a meter square. Its color looked slightly more brownish than the red rock surrounding it.

"So what is it?" Cilreth asked. "A vent, I think."

Telisa took out a light and shined it through. "There's a room beyond. Mostly empty from what little I can see. There's another vent like this on the far wall, but that one doesn't look like it could lead directly outside."

"I don't see any other entrances. We can skip it and check another spot."

"But this building is intact," Telisa persisted. "Maybe this is a door. It looks like a vent to us."

"Great door it must have been. It's full of holes."

"Maybe they needed ventilation. Maybe the weather is always good."

Magnus checked the grille for opening mechanisms. His hands went around the perimeter of the vent, pressing and prodding.

"It feels solid," he said. He took out his own light and checked beyond, then grabbed the ceramic lattice and pulled.

"Either wedged or solid as designed," he said. "This wall is old, though. I think we could force our way in."

The scout robot approached. Magnus stood back, so Cilreth backed away, too. The spider robot started to attack the wall with the sharp tips of its front legs. Each time it whipped a leg into the wall, a chunk of material fell away. The little craters acc.u.mulated until a deep, crumbling hole grew at one corner of the grille. Cilreth was impressed at the strength of the Vovokan-designed legs. The scout robot was strong.

"Something odd is happening around the corner here," Magnus said. He held his rifle ready in his hands, though his voice was calm.

"What?" Telisa asked. Cilreth followed them to the corner of the building with Magnus in the lead. When she turned the corner, Cilreth saw the red rocks on the ground were covered with creeping green worms. Hundreds of them.

"Whoa! What are those?"

"They're coming from that tree thing," Telisa observed. Cilreth followed the same visual trail as Telisa. More of the green, caterpillar-like bugs were running down a stalk from the dissolving green blob at the top of the stalk.

"Wait a sec, are they coming from the plant-or maybe they are the plant!" Cilreth said. The creatures were exactly the same color as the green pom-pomalike ma.s.s of the leaves. She looked closer. The entire ma.s.s left at the end of the stalk writhed.

"Well, I guess our a.s.sumptions that these are like Earth plants is off," Magnus said.

"Yes, neither plant nor animal, the distinction may be irrelevant here," said Telisa.

Magnus kicked one away as it neared his foot. The green worm did not appear to have any legs, though it reminded her of a furry caterpillar.

"Dangerous?" asked Cilreth. We walked right by dozens of those green clumps. I walked under several.

"Doesn't look bad," Telisa said.

"Neither do army ants, at first," Magnus said. "Besides, it's alien and we have no idea. Let's head back to the opening."

"What do you think it's doing? Or should I say they?" asked Cilreth.

"Maybe that spot ran out of nutrients," Telisa suggested. "Or maybe it hunts that way. Maybe we should grab a sample?"

"Good idea," Cilreth said. She took a small container from her pack. She put the trap in front of one, encouraging it to slide inside. Just in case, she held the clear plastic so her hand was shielded by the container. Magnus watched the entire operation intently. The capture was uneventful. Cilreth captured another one and then sealed the container.

They turned around and put s.p.a.ce between themselves and the expanding ring of worms. Magnus stared at her captive creatures for a moment.

"Let's leave the container out at camp for a while. Make sure those things can't get out of that."

Cilreth nodded. "Good idea," she said.

"I'll never look at those trees the same again," Telisa said, checking the horizon. "There must be billions of them. What if they all crawl off the stalks at once?"

"Then we're getting the h.e.l.l out of here," Magnus said. "Maybe I need a flamethrower module for the scout robots."

Telisa laughed and Cilreth joined in.

"What? I'm just trying to be prepared," Magnus said.

"Now, where were we?" Telisa said, walking back toward the building's grille.

The scout machine had made good progress on the opening. Magnus ordered the scout back with his link. Then he stepped forward and grabbed the exposed corner. With a huge heave, he ripped the vent from the wall.

"So much for the door. If it ever was one," Cilreth said. "Who's first?"

But Magnus was already crawling through. Telisa followed with Cilreth in the rear again.

Some ambient light already filtered in through another vent from above as well as the open hole behind them. Cilreth took out her own light to get a better look.

A series of metal frames were set into the floor, three of the walls, and the ceiling. The frames held old metal machines with gears and rods, but no wires. The only empty wall lay toward the outside where they had forced their way in.

Cilreth shined her light on one of the metal frames on the floor before her. At first glance they all looked to be the same type of machine. Four metal struts rose from the floor to secure the one she examined.

"Okay. I can't place this thing. But it's simple, primitive," Cilreth thought aloud.

"Yes. Something was being rolled through it, or around it. Paper? Cloth? It could be a place where preaelectronic age books were created, or a clothing factory."

Cilreth looked at Magnus. He shrugged. "As you say. Something rolled or pressed. Could also have made wire or thin metal foils, or could have been used to squeeze water or liquid out of something. This is not very advanced stuff, unless some of the machines have rotted away and we're just looking at the structural skeletons that remain."

"They made good use of the s.p.a.ce," Telisa noted, looking over the same machines hanging from the ceiling.

"Yeah, they're mounted everywhere, even the ceiling," Cilreth agreed.

"Any other first impressions?" Magnus asked. He looked toward Telisa.

"These grilles lead out in all directions," Telisa said. "So unless this is a prison, or mausoleum or something, they must be doorways."

"Then why are they all fused closed?"

"The dimensions of the doorways are considerably smaller than the room. Our own doors are relatively tall. The creatures must be the size of those grilles."

"But the grilles are solidly in place. I'm not so sure they're doors."

"If we can see where that one goes, we might find out," Telisa said. She pointed toward the one opposite their break-in spot.

Magnus knelt before the grille on the far wall and shined his light through the vents. "There's another open s.p.a.ce through it. Large." He set the light down and grasped the grille with his gloved hands. He tensed his bulky frame. "It's not moving either. Could it be electronically locked?"

"I don't think so," Cilreth said. "Hrm. I shouldn't be too quick to judge, though. Maybe." She pulled off her equipment pack and set it on the ground. "We can scan it. Or we could break one into pieces and look for evidence of internal workings. Though if sufficiently advanced, it may not be obvious to the naked eye."

"This place doesn't look very advanced to me," Magnus said.

"You never know. This could be their barn, or something a bit older," Telisa said.

"Perhaps the grille moved directly up or sideways, instead of opening like a basic door," Cilreth suggested. "There could be a hidden latch. It's probably easy to open; we just don't know how to do it."

"The outside one had no cavity to slide into," Magnus said. "So if that theory is correct, it must not hold for the outside ones." They examined the grille for a few minutes. No one could find any trick to spring it open.

Magnus stared at the grille before him. "I think this is a time for a primitive approach. A crowbar might work."

"What's that?" Telisa asked.

Cilreth smiled. "An old mechanic's trick from simpler times. Nothing more than a bar of metal to use as a lever. You packed one?"

"No," Magnus admitted. He stood and remained still for a moment. Then a scout robot clambered in, presumably summoned by Magnus. The machine took his place by the grille and started to chip away at the wall. It came away in chunks.

Cilreth walked back around the room while they waited for the machine to dig. The place smelled musty. She tried to imagine what it had looked like new. The grilles made it feel like a prison. An outer layer of the wall had fallen away. It must have been very smooth and could have been some color other than the red stone behind.

Magnus pulled the grille away and tucked it between two of the machines. He scoffed, "Once again, the wall is softer than the grille!"

"Just age," Telisa guessed. The scout machine walked through the resulting hole. They crawled through after it.

The next room's basic architecture was identical to the first. Grilles sat in the center of walls, floor, and ceiling. Metal bars with circular holes extended half a meter from the walls in a dozen places. Two oxidized metal tables with six legs sat on the floor. One more identical structure was affixed to the wall to Cilreth's right.

"What's that stuff? There are...mounts or rods or something on the ceiling, too," Magnus said.

"And the walls. I can't guess what this stuff is," Cilreth said.

"Maybe something used to be suspended in this room, like a sleep web. Maybe it rotted," Magnus said.

"I have a different theory," Telisa said. "This reinforces something I was suspecting earlier. Remember, there were grilles leading in all eight directions from a cubical room, including up and down. Now you see all this along all the walls?"

"These creatures used all the walls and ceiling, maybe even equally," Cilreth said.

"Exactly."

Magnus looked up at the ceiling. "You mean, they...stuck to the walls? Hung upside down?"

"I don't know yet. But these things, whatever they were, utilized all six walls of these rooms in a more equal way. Terrans focus on the floor, install cabinets or equipment into the walls, and practically ignore the ceiling. But here, doors lead out in all six directions. They must have clung to the walls and thus made use of the entire room in ways that wouldn't occur to Terrans."

"Great. A race of banana slugs," Cilreth said.

"Well, that is actually one possibility," Telisa said. "They may have been smaller creatures that stuck to the walls like slugs."

Magnus made a face. "But we're here after the Trilisks."

"That doesn't mean I can't learn a thing or two from the Konuan," Telisa said.

"It looks to me that they were primitive. Iron Ageaish, or whatever pa.s.ses for iron around here," Cilreth said. She checked the data on the planet again.

Given the density of this planet, iron is likely quite common.

"Yeah," Telisa agreed. "That does make them less interesting from a standpoint of cool goodies to lift. But we need to rethink this city of theirs. If they use all six walls for stuff, then in a way this city is two or three times denser than an equivalent-sized Terran city, right?"

"Hrm. Could be," Magnus said. "Shiny said the Trilisks were here, so let's keep moving."

"What about the scouts? Aren't they supposed to take the heat for us?" Cilreth asked.

"Right now, they can't get through these grilles," Magnus said. "We're going to have to figure out a good way to get through them ourselves. Then I can try and adapt the method to the scouts."