Kirizzo picked his way painstakingly, always watching the streams from his observer modules and slowly moving forward to place another. Kirizzo was placing his fourth module when he noticed that an alien had wandered into one of the rooms monitored by a sensor station. He watched it through the sensor cl.u.s.ter, concerned that they might recognize the equipment and damage it.
As the Gorgala monitored the intrusion, he considered extermination of the aliens. This sounded promising on the surface, but might be shortsighted. If Kirizzo couldn"t overcome the base on his own, they might be needed. Like any living creature, they stabilized areas of the installation, drawing on the facility"s power supply. In essence they made Kirizzo"s task easier. He decided to risk leaving them alive. He hoped that they would stay away now that he had shown his ability to defend himself with lethal force if necessary on two separate occasions. If the things were truly intelligent, surely they would now give him a wide berth.
After a few moments the aliens moved on, apparently oblivious to his devices. To the slow, spa.r.s.ely limbed creatures, his modules were probably almost indistinguishable from the other items in the caverns. Kirizzo returned to his task of placing and monitoring the sensors.
As Kirizzo placed the seventh module, he began to feel the mental strain of monitoring so many different places at once. He placed an eighth and hesitated, seeing that the cavern wall around his fourth had wavered and changed shape when he neglected to watch it for a few seconds. His consciousness arose as an amalgam of all the processes of the nerve cl.u.s.ters along his central nervous cord. As they became loaded with other work, his concentration suffered, which caused the sub-tasks to become forgotten as his primitive mind took over, seizing control of the nerve bundles to re-establish itself.
He crawled away. If he could distance himself from the eighth module, then the volume of stable s.p.a.ce 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 un.o.bserved 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 a.n.a.log 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 ent.i.ties 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 pa.s.sage.
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 a.s.sociate 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.
"s.h.i.t," 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 k.n.o.b 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 k.n.o.bby 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 k.n.o.bs 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 k.n.o.bs 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 a.s.sumptions about that or not. Instead she just attached her stunner to her belt and held out her hand.
"h.e.l.lo. 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 k.n.o.b where its head should be was bobbing back and forth in a smooth and repet.i.tive 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 k.n.o.b 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 a.s.suming 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.
"This is the largest cavern by far," Magnus said.
Telisa stared at the objects in the center. Stacked on the floor, they rose as high as her head. For the first time, Telisa noticed some warmth emanating from the glowing ones.
Magnus was also examining the cl.u.s.ters in the center. "There"s some other metal in here too. See the silver parts?"
Telisa nodded. She examined the pile closely and realized that many of the cl.u.s.ters were arranged in repeating patterns. "Look, there are several identical cl.u.s.ters here. Actually it looks like most of this stack is the same thing replicated over and over."
"That warmth... we may be in trouble," Magnus said. "If there is radiant heat, there might be radiation in other wavelengths too. It could be dangerous. Friggin" radioactive alien project blox."
Telisa looked at the pile and stepped back. The alien was waiting nearby.
"I guess that might be true. If this creature is more resistant to radiation than we are, it could be dangerous here."
Magnus and Telisa backed off to the outer wall of the cavern. The golden creature didn"t move after them, but after a moment it moved up to the stack and manipulated one of the cl.u.s.ters.
"What could it be doing?" Telisa asked.
"Look at the cl.u.s.ter it"s holding," Magnus said. "It"s glowing brighter than the others."
Telisa saw that the object did get brighter, but then it dimmed to the level of the rest of the cube cl.u.s.ters. Then the alien set it back down with the others.
"This is gonna drive me nuts if we don"t figure out how to communicate," Telisa said. "Whatever those things are, they aren"t Trilisk artifacts. The fact that this thinga"Shiny or whatever we should call ita"is using them makes me suspect that they are devices of its race. So this probably isn"t a Trilisk."
Magnus shrugged. "It"s too hard to say. It could be using these things just like we use some alien artifacts. Maybe it has figured out how to use them."
The creature came back towards them and stopped about two meters away. It moved its legs rapidly in place in complex patterns.