The Celaran Solution (Parker Interstellar Travels Book 9) Page 10

  “[Nothing underleaf] We may send a relief fleet here,” Strongjumper said through Nalus. “There will be Thrasar ships with them so that you may be at ease on the vine. We hope to assure you that not all aliens are a threat.”

  “[Thump the vine] We will send the news to our friends in space,” Athet flashed.

  “[Time to fly] Shall we return? This is a huge glide forward. I’d like to see how the other team fared,” said Strongjumper.

  “[What plans on a bright day] And you, Sarfal?” asked Strongjumper.

  “[Fly on a bright day] We’re off together!”

  Sarfal flew freely, looping and folding as if all worries had evaporated. Perhaps their homeworld could be saved.

  Chapter 13

  The sapphire monstrosity’s legs pumped unnaturally, bringing it toward them, though by a route Arakaki could not figure through the maze of transparent walls. She accessed the tactical. Fortunately, the attendants had been able to make sense of what they saw through the reflections and refractions to create a map of the passageways at least forty meters around them.

  A bluish light flickered through the area. Laser-sharp lines danced across the clear walls where it passed through. The light settled on Siobhan.

  “What is that?” she asked, crouching low.

  Arakaki traced the alien machine’s course and projected it forward.

  That will bring it in direct line of sight in just a couple of seconds...

  Arakaki turned to bring the machine into her weapon’s firing arc, but the thing had already turned the corner.

  Hisssss... Crack!

  The world flashed brightly, then Siobhan no longer stood next to her.

  “Siobhan!” yelled Caden.

  To Arakaki, it was as if they had been training in a VR sim and Siobhan had simply pulled out of the exercise.

  Arakaki activated her weapon.

  BlamBlamBlam!

  The rounds seemed to have no effect. The blue light shot out again, searching for her. She rolled aside, around a glassy corner, found her feet, and kept moving.

  “Don’t let it find you! I’ll stall it!” Telisa9 told them.

  How is she going to do that?

  Arakaki did not waste time wondering. In the next instant, she had a plan.

  I need to get around behind it. Maybe if it’s focused on them, I can hurt it.

  Arakaki only half-believed in her own plan. She knew anything as advanced as a Trilisk machine would likely be aware of everything on the battlefield in all directions for kilometers. But it had proved invulnerable thus far, and she had no better choices.

  Arakaki ran around another corner, trying to use the attendant-provided tac map to find a good flanking course. Caden’s echoform remained in place. The blue light swept over his position, but he had found a hiding spot behind a large opaque cube.

  “Get it together!” Arakaki sent him.

  “I’m going to kill that thing and whoever built it!” he vowed.

  “Use your breaker claw. I’m not sure Siobhan got a chance to activate hers,” Arakaki told him.

  Caden’s echoform started to move again. Arakaki’s first instinct was to remain separated, but then she had another idea. If they could not destroy that machine, maybe one of them could at least get out alive to warn the others.

  She used the tactical to find a route to take her closer. She ran down one mostly glass-walled hall and through a room filled with oval pods secured atop thick black stands. The pods were opaque and provided her some cover from the sweeping blue lines. She moved to the far side of the room and looked out the exit.

  Just ahead was a smooth ten-degree ramp. Arakaki noticed it was not transparent like most of the nearby walls and floor; it looked like a series of flat copper plates resembling the underside of a brightly colored snake.

  Here’s to hoping that coloration doesn’t mean something bad.

  Arakaki charged up the ramp. Caden ran in from a corridor on her left and met her at the top.

  “I’ll hold it here. Go back to the entrance!” Caden said.

  “No you won’t,” Telisa9 said. The tactical showed her only 30 meters away and closing. “It’s coming behind me, when it gets to this intersection, we hit it from three sides. I’ll use my laser, Caden breaker claw, Arakaki projectiles. Double check your target blacklists and make sure everyone’s on them.”

  Arakaki nodded and checked. Since the two crews had recently joined forces, it would have been easy for someone to overlook adding the other team members to their weapons’ friendly lists. Her weapon was correctly configured.

  She looked at the intersection Telisa9 had mentioned. The sapphire machine advanced rapidly. Arakaki saw she had only seconds to sprint into position.

  She ran for it. It took her four seconds to get to the corner and another four to set herself. The tactical showed the enemy continued fearlessly on the expected course.

  The machine walked forward into the line of fire. Arakaki and Caden were opposite each other, but their weapons’ smart targeting would probably be enough to prevent them from hitting each other. The team opened fire.

  BlamBlamBlam!

  Arakaki’s three round burst reported direct hits, but she did not see any damage on the machine. The Trilisk robot emitted another bright flash.

  Hisssss... Crack!

  Arakaki took a breath.

  I’m still here.

  Quickly checking the tactical, she discovered Telisa9 had vaporized. Arakaki abandoned her position and ran deeper into the complex.

  “Caden, move out of there. Go back the way we came.”

  The thing had to know where their fire came from. The only choice was to move after every salvo.

  Caden moved, but he headed deeper into the complex, parallel to her own course. The two attendants had made themselves scarce; Arakaki could tell where they were, but they had found cover.

  That machine doesn’t care about them. All the better for me.

  She told an attendant to trail the Trilisk combatant and broadcast its location.

  “It’s ignoring the attendants. Rely on them,” she sent.

  “Okay, but can we even hurt it?”

  “Just because a tank can take a hit doesn’t mean it can take a hundred,” she replied, though she sounded more confident than she was. “Remember the juggernaut?”

  The juggernaut had been a large war machine in one of their simulations. It had been too powerful to face directly, but they eventually learned the way to defeat the scenario was to draw it after one person, allowing another team member to hit it from behind. When it turned to face its new attacker, the strategy called for the roles to switch. Caden would know it.

  “Yes. I’m up first,” he said. Arakaki had planned to say exactly that, but Caden was already maneuvering to fire on the robot. Arakaki would have to hold her fire and wait to move in.

  Caden’s avatar on the tactical went to the end of a corridor, opening into a large room, where he set up. Arakaki calculated that the machine would be in line of sight within a few seconds. She had her link show her some options for following the robot assuming it would charge at Caden.

  What if it just flashes its light again and he disappears?

  Boom.

  Caden fired his sniper rifle this time. Her suit detected his laser’s follow-up to his shot, a common kill move for defeating armor.

  The Trilisk machine still did not appear damaged. The blue light swept across the corridor Caden had fired from. Arakaki caught sight of his echoform through the clear walls as he lunged aside and went prone behind an opaque pipe.

  He’s good. What was it, the Blood Glades? Too bad this is no simulation.

  The sapphire robot advanced. Caden scrabbled away from the pipe and fled. Arakaki sprinted after them. She ran down one clear-walled lane and over a long section of see-through floor. She ignored the dizzying view—a fall of at least three stories yawned under her—and took a tight left turn.

  Caden was trapped in a corner
. Arakaki charged on, oblivious to her own safety. Her link showed her the fastest way to get a good shot from half a level above, so she bolted up ten shallow steps and practically ran into the copper-colored opaque section of a balcony. She told her weapon to activate as soon as it had an unobstructed target.

  Riiiip!

  Arakaki unleashed ten rounds on full auto. Then she ducked and tossed her grenade over the edge of the balcony.

  The Trilisk machine changed course and headed for her. Arakaki pulled her laser pistol out from her belt fastener and pointed it at the fast-approaching machine, hoping she could take a shot through a clear wall. She had no idea how much of the energy the material might absorb. Then she realized it would probably bend the beam. Her laser was not configured to compensate for that.

  Arakaki had lost track of Caden. The Trilisk machine was five seconds away from her. It would turn and come up the same steps she had taken moments before. She looked straight down through the floor. She saw more of the transparent maze of rooms, but they were not close. It was hard to gauge how far the drop might be, but it looked to be over 50 meters.

  I’ll have to jump over this balcony and hope I can find something to land on closer than that.

  She gave herself one second to spot another balcony within a survivable drop range below. She saw none. Then she sprung up and pulled herself over the edge anyway.

  Boom.

  The shot echoed just as she leaped. For some reason her mind searched for the feeling of a sharp impact, as if she was the target. Then she focused on the nearest balcony she could see. It was too far away; she would not make it.

  As if in a dream, time seemed to slow, and Arakaki saw the balcony below stretch out to meet her. She reached out and grabbed the edge as it raced up to her. Impact. She grunted, even through the Veer suit. She ignored the crazy occurrence and tried to orient herself. Was the machine leaping after her or trying to find Caden?

  She spotted the enemy across a gap from her, moving away, searching for Caden. Arakaki started to set up where she could attack it on the tactical, but she had no time. The bluish light settled on Caden’s echoform.

  It’s going to get him if I don’t do something right now.

  Arakaki charged out of cover with a weapon in each hand. She focused her projectile weapon on the floor below Caden and fired. Her rounds struck the crystalline material and shattered it, causing him to fall through to the level below.

  Light flashed. Arakaki checked her tactical and saw him.

  It worked! Caden is still alive!

  “Hang in there, I’m closing on it,” Arakaki said.

  “No... I won’t let you sacrifice yourself again!” Caden said.

  “What?!”

  “Siobhan is gone... this time it’s going to be me!” Caden said. “Get out of here!”

  “What are you doing?” she sent. She did not receive confirmation of the transmission.

  Caden appeared on the tactical around the corner. Arakaki sent one of the attendants to the area ahead.

  Caden’s bluish echoform leaned against the wall. He started to run—toward the machine.

  Hisssss... Crack!

  Caden disappeared from the tactical.

  What the hell... was he talking about something that happened with a different Arakaki?

  Already the blue lines were scanning through the complex again, looking for another victim.

  Just let it get you.

  Arakaki chomped down hard on the sliver of synthetic armor in her teeth. Something inside her was just too stubborn to give up without a fight.

  She moved away from the blue robot, once again heading deeper into the clear maze.

  The machine no longer moved straight for her. Arakaki wondered if it had somehow lost her. How could that be? It had been able to flush them out to this point.

  Arakaki thought she knew the answer.

  It’s toying with me. Like the Konuan.

  Arakaki expected that at any moment the mysterious blue light would lock onto her, revealing her position, then she would die like the rest. But it continued to probe in other directions. An attendant had dropped off the tactical.

  Arakaki got a glimpse of the blue robot through several of the transparent walls. It moved more deliberately now. Its bluish beams continued to search.

  Of course! It’s having a harder time finding me because I’m not transmitting to anyone.

  The Celarans used tight directional signals to communicate from within the stealthing spheres. Somehow, the Trilisks could sense it. Arakaki switched her comm system into a passive mode to stop routing signals through to the surviving attendant. It would give her a chance to survive. She could still see the position of her enemy since the attendant trailing it was broadcasting its location in all directions.

  Arakaki walked slowly down another clear corridor. She paused behind a skinny metal tower because it was one of the few opaque things nearby. The half-meter wide tower had rows of vents on its side that emitted small puffs of white gas. Whether it was steam or something else, she had no guess. A glassy wall separated her from the tower, so she did not worry about breathing whatever the mist was. After a pause, she continued.

  Lights moved through a large room ahead. Her first instinct was to avoid it, but she saw the light was not like the blue scanner. Red and green hues glowed in varying intensities, but they were not coherent like the sapphire robot’s apparatus.

  There was no direct route through. Arakaki looked carefully, trying to choose a path that might lead her in. Without the attendants to make sense of it all, it was slow going. She got caught in a corridor that veered away, so she turned back. She saw the blue lines in the distance, cutting across several levels ahead and above: the robot was not far.

  Arakaki found her way in through an almost invisible side opening in another clear corridor. The glowing red and green light came from a sphere floating in the center of another half-transparent room. She stopped to stare.

  The sphere revolved slowly. Thin hexagonal rods lazily extended and withdrew from its surface. Some of the rods were longer than the radius of the sphere; Arakaki stopped trying to make sense of it. The thing could have no mechanical explanation, at least not in three dimensions.

  If I don’t make it out alive, that alien might remake me, but I won’t remember this.

  There were still an attendant on the tactical. It sent its position to Arakaki, but she did not return the favor. She noted that it was closer to the entrance of the maze. Perhaps the Trilisk robot would be distracted for another couple of minutes...

  Arakaki sent a short burst to the attendant, noting the presence of the AI and ordering it to return to the Iridar with its information at all costs.

  Suddenly the Trilisk machine came up an opaque ramp right in front of Arakaki. Already the blue beam neared her position.

  What?!

  Arakaki realized it must have understood that its position was being broadcast and had somehow jammed or destroyed the real signal and replaced it with its own. She had completely fallen for it.

  Please just let me die for good this time.

  The sapphire machine rounded the corner.

  Hisssss...

  Chapter 14

  The small crew was in a good mood as they entered the Terran Iridar and closed the hatch behind them. Magnus stayed near Telisa in a cargo bay while Lee moved deeper into the ship. Cynan had chosen to stay behind with the others like himself.

  A mission completed without bloodshed, Magnus thought. We could use more of these.

  “Marcant. Report,” Telisa said over the team channel.

  “The ship is secure. None of you are Trilisks,” Marcant summarized happily.

  “Good to know,” Magnus commented.

  “Any news from the other team?” Telisa asked.

  “No.”

  “Can you find their Iridar?”

  “It hasn’t moved,” Marcant said.

  “And the attendants that went with them?”


  “Most of them were kicked out, except two. We lost contact with them as soon as they entered the vine temple.”

  Except two. Those may have been destroyed. The team could be in trouble.

  “Well, the blocked comms is to be expected from a Trilisk facility,” Telisa said. “Did the attendants show up at new spots like before?”

  “Yes. Also, the team called for a battle sphere, but it was teleported out. Before you ask, they were calm when they asked for it. It wasn’t an emergency situation.”

  Telisa was silent for a second, then she nodded.

  “No reason to panic,” she said. “They’re just taking longer than we did. Still, that call for the sphere means they were concerned about something. Bring us up out of here and closer to the other ship. I’ll ask Maxsym if he’s noticed anything.”

  “Will do. What happened with the cyborgs?” asked Marcant. “Did Cynan decide to stay with them?”

  “He did. They said there are many more of them who escaped the attack. I think this will be critical. They possess amazing technology and they’re ready to fight.”

  “Doesn’t sound like Celarans to me,” Marcant said.

  “I think these cyborgs are colder, more logical. They realize they have to fight to survive this,” Magnus said. He wondered why more Terrans had not given up their natural bodies yet. He knew of a few that had, but it was not popular. He decided it was because, in VRs, they could already be anything they wanted to be—heroes, dragons, superstars. Artificial realities had become as important, if not more important, than real life in the Core Worlds decades ago.

  “That’s interesting. Could they have purposely submerged parts of their primitive brains?” Marcant wondered.

  “That sounds like a good joint project for you and Maxsym to investigate... when things have calmed down,” Telisa said.

  Magnus felt the ship lift off. It was subtle. The new ship was superior in many ways to the first ships Magnus had served on. Shiny had accelerated progress in many technological areas that had previously leveled out.

  Telisa expanded the team channel to include Maxsym over on the other ship.