The Trilisk Ruins

The Trilisk Ruins

  by Michael McCloskey

  Copyright 2012 Michael McCloskey

  ISBN: 978-0983843009

  Cover art by Howard Lyon

  Edited by Stephen “Shoe” Shoemaker

  Special thanks to Rose Haun and Howard Lyon

  Prologue

  Kirizzo fought while curled around himself inside the round control module. In this position he looked like a mottled ball of gold wrapped in dozens of thin legs. At his mental command, a salvo of antimissile drones shot out of the belly of his metal walking machine. The drones circled as they ascended, forming a defensive perimeter in the spiny alien flora. It would not be long until the enemy war machines returned from the last diversionary trail and found his real escape route.

  The spider-legged walking machine shot forward through another group of trees and came to a halt in a slight depression. A warning in Kirizzo’s mental interface informed him the walker’s stored power waned. He could also see that those had been the last of his drones. A thin layer of cells covering his analog of a spinal cord pondered his next move. The decision arrived with a cool clarity: Abandon the walker and try to lose the robotic hunting machines in the alien forest.

  Kirizzo felt immensely lonely. There were no others of his race to help him now. He was undoubtedly the only Gorgala within many light years. Nevertheless, he did not waste time lamenting the situation. Kirizzo’s electronically augmented mind gave a command that caused his walker to open, allowing egress. Uncoiling his flexuous body from the control nest, he flowed out of the walker on a quick stream of thin legs.

  Kirizzo took stock of the alien forest. His world was utterly silent, as he lacked any sense of hearing. He felt resistance where his spiked legs met the surface. Dead plant spines covered the ground, causing it to give slightly as his sharp legs sank in.

  Bundles of fibers under a flat, wide protuberance rising from his body fed Kirizzo signals from light that impinged upon them. These organs allowed him to see the native canopy of frills and spines above which shaded out most of the sunlight. The smooth hulls of trees rising upward surrounded him.

  Kirizzo moved his upper protuberance side to side rhythmically, collecting information about the mass densities in all directions out to his sensory range. From this, Kirizzo constructed a mental mass-map of his surroundings in three dimensions. The tree roots, trunks, and limbs formed a dark web in Kirizzo’s mind. There were not any threats within his sensory limits, but that was little comfort. Most Bel Klaven weapons could strike from great distances.

  He deployed a personal screen, a group of floating metal defense modules that followed his every move. Four of his forty limbs held guided projectile launchers. He used these to shoot four seeker bullets into the sky, where they patrolled for the Bel Klaven machines that hunted him. Then he burst into the forest, his legs a blur, mapping his route well ahead using his mass sense.

  Kirizzo topped the next rise and was deep into the forest when the first of the hunting machines penetrated the drone defense to assault his abandoned walker. The ground shook and the sky flashed momentarily as one of them blasted the walking machine. The robotic Bel Klaven constructs were not very smart, but they made up for that drawback with firepower and numbers.

  Kirizzo hoped the machines would stop to investigate the wreckage and leave him to slip away in the cover. He moved on tirelessly, churning through dense foliage. He descended another ridge and started up its far side.

  Suddenly masses whirled around Kirizzo rapidly. His personal defense modules intercepted three hunter-seeker projectiles and destroyed them before they could embed themselves in his exoskeleton and explode. Smoke filled the area and debris flew about, ricocheting against nearby trees. The close miss caused a chemical release of stimulants in Kirizzo’s body. For Kirizzo, this was fear: his legs twitched, his vision became sharper, and his mind raced.

  He launched four more seeker rounds into the sky and continued on course. Back in the walker he had detected a power emanation in this direction. A power source meant some kind of civilization, which presented a chance for escape.

  Long seconds passed until Kirizzo sensed something in the forest ahead: an artificial construct. He perceived it as a large uniform shell of mass covered with natural growth. He did not have time to hesitate. He ran forward to get a view of the site.

  An opening beckoned beyond a thick covering of vegetation. Only his mass sense allowed Kirizzo to detect the flaw in the shell of the building. Kirizzo pushed aside the plant growth and entered the breach. The building interior contained complex machinery that had begun to degrade once exposed to the elements. Mud covered most of the floor, a layer of dust clung to the old machines, and a few light-starved plants struggled to exist amidst the wreckage. In the center of the chamber a huge circular tube rose from the floor.

  Kirizzo determined that the large white tube descended in a spiral, leading deeper under the surface. The tube was empty as far as he could detect. There was no other way to go except down or back out into the forest. Kirizzo’s race had its origins in subterranean lairs, and so the choice was perhaps as instinctual as intellectual.

  Still quite aware of the looming pursuit, Kirizzo scuttled into the tube. He made his way rapidly down, searching for the end of the passageway.

  After five or six complete revolutions, the smooth white walls came to a terminus at a circular portal that seemed to be the barrier of a blackfield. No detectable radiation came from inside the circle.

  Kirizzo guessed it was a security gate. His race had mastered enough science to create a field that allowed passage of EM radiation in one direction only. These were often used for controlling entrances to important facilities. From beyond the blackfield, the defenders of the complex could remain hidden but still detect intruders approaching.

  But this time, more than his sight remained blocked. Kirizzo could not feel any mass behind the portal. This would not be indicative of an active defense in a security checkpoint of his own race, since it was important in Gorgalan warfare to have many points of constantly moving mass to confuse the mass sense of attackers. With many masses in motion, it became difficult to mark enemy positions and attack them.

  Kirizzo worried about unseen dangers but continued toward the circular blackness anyway. As he neared the flat plane of the blackfield, he still could not detect any mass beyond. This was a very eerie feeling. It reminded him of the first time he had approached the outer shell of a space cruiser and felt the emptiness beyond the bulkhead, reaching out as far as he could feel, cold and unchanging.

  There were other situations in which the mass detectors of a Gorgala could fail. Massive physical trauma, the effects of certain sonic weapons employed by his race in more primitive times, and certain illnesses were known to deprive his kind of the mass sense. As far as Kirizzo knew, however, it could never happen selectively as it did beyond the strange inky blackness in the circle. Still, it was consistent with the blackness. Whatever had created the portal did not want any information about what was beyond to come out.

  Kirizzo wrapped up into a ball to consider his options. Usually the ball position made him feel safer, but it was inadequate this time. The enemy might have already detected the building. He could run out now and hope the Bel Klaven servitors thought he had gone deeper inside. On the other hand, it might be safer on the other side of the field. It certainly did not seem to be safe out in the forest. His exoskeleton could withstand a vacuum for a short time if it turned out the area beyond really was completely empty.

  Kirizzo uncoiled his long body and approached the gate on forty nervous legs. He flicked a slender limb through the blackness and then retracted it. The leg was unharmed. Certainly a good sign.

  Suddenly a small m
ass came clambering down the tunnel behind him. Kirizzo sensed its dense outer shell filled with some lighter material.

  Probably an explosive drone.

  Kirizzo bolted into the blackness and was swallowed by the portal.