Free The Trilisk Ruins by Michael McCloskey Page A

everything of course, but our time is limited. And
as you pointed out, we can’t carry this thing.”
    Thomas nodded. “We’re excited too. I’m
glad you can see the bigger picture though. A Trilisk can opener
could net thousands of ESC. We don’t need a big piece of factory
equipment or whatever this is.”
    Telisa scanned the floor for something
smaller. Dirt and dead vegetation lay scattered around on the
floor.
    “ This goes deeper into the
installation,” Magnus said, calling to the others from the mouth of
the giant tube sticking up out of the floor.
    “ And that appears to be the
only other way to go,” Jack said. “So let’s follow him.”
    Magnus extended a hand and helped the
others up into the tube. Telisa took out her flashlight and shone
it farther into the round tunnel. The passageway was empty. It
extended as far as she could see, angling off to the right and
descending deeper into the ground. It gave Telisa a rather eerie
feeling. She didn’t normally suffer from claustrophobia, but being
in a dark, dusty underground tube made her a little nervous. She
realized that their ignorance held great danger. For all she knew,
they could be walking into a giant machine that could turn on and
grind them up at any moment.
    Magnus trudged forward and Telisa
followed. The tube curved in a long circle, leading them deeper
into the planet. Telisa wondered why such a thing had been built.
The answer probably wouldn’t come from guessing without more
information. Understanding aliens could be a tough
business.
    They came around a last curve and the
tube ended with a metal rim around its entire circumference, with a
flat black hole through the center large enough to for a
hippo.
    They walked up to the rim. Both Magnus
and Telisa shined their lights into the hole, trying to see beyond
the low barrier.
    “ It’s not just dark,” Jack
noted. “It’s pitch black. The light’s not going in
there.”
    “ Or no reflected light is
coming out,” Thomas said. “Our ship’s stealth device uses
technology a little like this to shield us from orbital
scanning.”
    Telisa walked forward, pointing her
light at the edge of the zone of blackness. The light just ended at
the border, giving no reflections.
    “ It’s wonderful!” Telisa
exclaimed. “And beyond our current technology. We can’t make a
blackfield of this efficiency, can we?”
    “ That’s not all,” Magnus
said. His eyes had a faraway look. Telisa realized he was accessing
the mental interface of his military scanner. “There aren’t any
gravitons emerging from it either.”
    Thomas whistled. “I wish we had
equipment that could check for neutrinos. Surely it wouldn’t be
that perfect...”
    Telisa looked at Jack. “If we could
bring whatever it is that generates this field back with us, it
would be enough to pay for the whole trip,” she told him. “Enough
to make us all super rich.”
    Jack looked around the circular
perimeter of the opening. “Let’s try. I’m not sure we’ll be able to
find and carry it, but let’s try. The sooner we can grab something
really valuable and get off this planet the better.”
    Magnus shrugged. “Stick your finger
through,” he suggested.
    “ You’re nuts. What if it
takes it clean off? Or instantly kills all the cells in
it?”
    Magnus rolled his eyes. “Then we’ll
grow it back when we get to Earth,” he said exasperatedly. He
walked past Thomas and flicked the end of his little finger through
the blackfield.
    “ It’s fine,” he said,
holding up the finger for all to see. Then he stuck his arm through
the blackness. He pulled it back, moving the arm and testing the
feel of it. “Seems harmless so far,” he said.
    “ Wait a minute and see if it
bruises,” Jack suggested. But Magnus had already walked
through.
    Telisa moved up to the edge of the
field. “Magnus? Can you hear me?”
    There was no answer. She examined the
edge of the opening carefully, looking for any details they may
have