The Trilisk Supersedure

For my family.

Special thanks to Maarten Hofman and Howard Lyon.

Prologue

Jack
DeVries scanned the alien landscape from the overhang that concealed his tiny
starship. Chigran Callnir Four looked like a combination of a rocky highland
and a jungle. He saw heavy vegetation, or at least things that resembled trees
and plants, though they apparently didn’t shed leaves or branches since they
grew out of gaps in the naked red rocks nearby with no sign of detritus.

DeVries
didn’t know anything about the planet except that it was one of the open
worlds, meaning it could have picked up a settlement or two, provided there
wasn’t some deadly menace hiding among the rocks. DeVries didn’t care much one
way or the other. He just had to hang low for a few Earth Standard Months until
the space force gave up searching for him. And whatever might be out there, he
figured he was probably deadlier.

The
last operation had been a messy one. He’d gotten away with the AI core just as
planned. The only snag had been that he’d had to kill fifty-seven citizens to
do it. Eight of them with his bare hands. DeVries did not look particularly
strong or threatening, but that just added to his effectiveness.

DeVries
slipped a water sensor out of his Veer skinsuit and gave the horizon a quick go
over. He frowned. Nothing special out there, but at least he detected a large
water source within three kilometers. There was also a speckling of water on
the readings in his PV, which could be smaller pools or creatures largely
composed of water. From his experience, they looked like Terran-sized
collections of water, but he could not be sure.

He
pocketed the scanner and made his way down the rocky hillside. A homogenous
batch of plants dotted the way. Each had a thick trunk emerging from the rocks,
which split into three branches, then each of those split again into three more
until finally sprouting out into a flower or complex leaf that looked like a
patch of green hair.

 The
plentiful plant stalks eased his descent, providing him with dozens of ready
handles to steady him as he scrambled down the sharp rocks. Each of the stalks
originated from a deep fissure in the rock along with ten or twenty others. If
he did fall, he felt his suit would protect him as long as he didn’t smash his
head.

I
wonder if the lack of accumulated leaves or branches on the ground is because
something eats it all. But then I’d expect to see a bed of dung.

He
peered into a hole where many stalks emerged. It was too dark to see inside.

Maybe
the rain washes everything down these holes. Oh well. What do I care?

A red
ribbon wrapped around a plant just ahead caught his attention. The strip of
color shifted. DeVries struggled to resolve the image. The creature was half
red and half diaphanous, resembling a snake or eel. Its translucent parts made
it hard to see as it shifted position, fooling the eyes. It was much larger
than it first appeared. DeVries was instantly wary.

He pulled
out a light plastic dagger and altered course.

No
point in messing with it unless it’s coming after me.

The
creature flowed to the top of its plant, then rose up even higher. Its upper
body waved half a meter into the air as DeVries sidetracked it. He couldn’t see
any eyes or a mouth, but obviously it had detected his approach.

Danger
display? Or is it just curious?

He
could not help but compare it to similar creatures he knew about: large snakes
and eels. He thought of constriction and poison. He considered drawing the
stunner, but instead he simply kept moving steadily, climbing to one side.
DeVries knew he had at least one thing going for him: whatever that thing’s
natural prey was, chances were he did not match its appearance or behavior.
That meant the feeding action of the animal most likely would not trigger on
him.

Unless
that thing just eats everything that moves.

The
tense moment passed as he put several stalks between himself and the creature.
It relaxed back into its previous pose, wrapped lazily around a plant or two.
DeVries left the thing behind as he slipped the rest of the way down from the
formation that concealed his ship. Then the ground angled back up again, toward
the side of the next long, rocky hill. A line of vegetation limited his view
down toward the valley he had examined from above. The water source was higher,
between two hills.

He
walked up the draw, remaining wary. He hopped from rock to rock trying to avoid
the plants and thus hopefully the fauna as well. A cliff rose on his right,
starting as a small cleft in the rock then rising meter after meter until it
was a sheer rocky barrier.

DeVries
found a cave entrance in the side of the cliff. When he stopped to examine it,
he quickly noticed the entrance had been carved smooth. A ceramic grating of an
odd design blocked the way. The grating had about a dozen strong vertical bars,
with about eight centimeters of space between each one. The bars were only
about four centimeters wide, but very deep. The openings extended about thirty
centimeters to the far side. He resisted the urge to try and stick his arm
through one. The other side was dark, and he didn’t feel like finding out what
danger might lurk there.

DeVries
grunted. Apparently, the water wasn’t his alone.

Unless
whoever made this is long fallen to dust. Could be a ruin.

He
accessed his scanner over his link. Without taking the device out of his pack,
the scanner had a limited range, but DeVries just wanted to check for nearby
danger. The scanner picked up some anomalies ahead. DeVries carefully cleared a
rise of spiky rock and tried again.

Lifeforms.
Humans. Now he was sure.

Can’t
be the space force. This has to be colonists. Out here in the middle of
nowhere? Oh, of course. They must be here for the water, same as me.

DeVries
took stock of his gear. He had two weapons: a PSG stunner and a Veer Industries
plastic knife. A laughable arsenal by his standards, but of course he had had
to keep a low profile to escape. He squeezed the knife in his iron grip, as if
flexing his need to kill. He felt half inclined to carve on whomever he found
one by one just to pass the time. But he was curious, too, so he decided to
talk it out first.

He put
away his knife but loosened the clasp holding his stunner in place. Then he
climbed a little farther. The wall on his right had a tunnel carved into it.
There was a spot for another of the ceramic grates, but the grate had been
pulled out and set to one side. He would have to crouch a bit, but the tunnel
was clearly passable for Terrans. It had rough red walls with gaps where the
rock had split and cracked. DeVries walked into the tunnel.

He
heard voices. The urgent rhythm of the hissed whispers told him they had
detected him.

“I come
in peace,” he called out. “I am only one man.” His voice echoed ahead. He
estimated there must be many chambers and passageways.

“Please
leave us be. We’re not with the space force,” replied someone.

DeVries’s
heart rate increased.

How
could they possibly know I’m concerned about the space force? They can’t.

He took
a few more steps forward. The outside light filtered in through another of the
large gratings in the ceiling of a small, square room. The far side had a low
wall built around its corner, which made DeVries think of a well. Four men in
robes stood by the wall with blue plastic containers. Two of the men wore
reddish robes, the color of the rocks outside, and two of them wore yellow.
DeVries had to double check that they were men, wondering if two of them might
be women. But they all looked male. Three had short, dark hair. One was bald.
The robes made them appear simple, but he reminded himself they could have any
kind of equipment under the plain coverings.

“What
makes you think I care about the space force?” asked DeVries. His voice was
calm, soothing even. He knew most people found his appearance nonthreatening.

“You’re
their enemy, correct? You’re from the UED?”

“No.
What makes you think the UED would be here? Oh. You’ve been cut off, haven’t
you? United Earth Defiance lost the war.”

“That
does not concern us. But we have seen UED forces here recently.”

“Really?”

“A
squadron of marines. We assumed you were one of them.”

Wow.
Small universe. At least it seems that way when everyone flocks to rocky
planets in the habitable zone.

“I’m a
free agent,” DeVries said carefully. “How about yourselves?”

“We’re
here for an amazing denizen of this world, the Konuan.”

“Never
heard of it. Is it valuable? You’re hunters?”

“The
Konuan. They used to live here by the thousands. Maybe the millions. They
created a city here. The water you must have detected is from one of their
cisterns.”

“What
happened to them?”

The man
shrugged. “It’s another mystery. Like so many other civilizations that fell
into dust, on Earth and elsewhere.”

“If
they’re gone, then what do you care about them?”

The man
smiled. “The Konuan had their secrets,” he said. “Every race has its wisdom.
Our sect seeks to collect these insights across all the intelligences in the
galaxy. By examining the spiritual knowledge of every race, we can deduce the
truths that bind them all together. The truths that are constants in the
universe.”

Oh. He’s
a buckle bulb. Thinks he can glean the meta information of the universe by
studying the religious beliefs of all races everywhere.

 “Their
secrets probably died with them,” DeVries said, careful not to contradict the
fanatic statements.

“There
is one left. We serve it,” another of the men said.

DeVries
looked at the others. Their faces were pinched and weathered. They did not move
to deny the statement.

“We are
its disciples,” echoed another man. He must have seen DeVries looking for
repudiation.

Disciples?

“Whoa.
You serve it? You’ve seen it?”

“Yes.
You can, too, if you wish. It is amazing,” said a bald man, stepping forward
carefully.

“What
does it look like? Do you talk to it?”

“We’re
still learning to communicate. It will be happy to see you, if you would like
to join us. We can learn together.”

“I
really just need some water…” DeVries hesitated; then his curiosity got the
better of him. “What does it look like?” he asked again.

“You
really need to see it for yourself. It can be the size of a man, but it’s thin.
These vents all around,” the man pointed at the ceramic grille above, “are its
doorways. It can easily move through them.”

DeVries
considered the grille again. The spaces were tight. Only his arm could slip
through one of the openings. If the creature could slip through there...

“It’s
like an amoeba? Or is it…rigid? Really that thin?”

“The
Konuan is like a moving carpet,” said the closest man. “Its underside has a
thousand little legs scattered all across it. The top is covered with sensitive
antennae and a fine fur.”

DeVries
nodded. “Are you absolutely sure it’s intelligent? The space force wouldn’t
have made this an open world if they knew there was a sentient creature here.”

“Judge
for yourself,” the bald man said. “Stay and learn with us, if you like.”

DeVries
felt the touch of fear in his gut when he considered the alien monster, the
Konuan. Their description sounded kind of alarming. DeVries didn’t like the
sound of a thin creature with countless legs on one side of a pancake-flat
body. Still, he felt interested in it. He wouldn’t have come out to the edge of
Terran space without a streak of wonder about the universe.