Free The Trilisk AI by Michael McCloskey

Terrans had ritualized their competition and
permanently relegated it to the realm of sports activities and games. This gave
them an outlet for their natural aggression, yet allowed them to remain in
cooperative mode in reality for longer periods of time. If such were the case,
though, it could hardly be a stable configuration. If a few individuals chose
competition in the real world against the others, they would enjoy huge
advantages that would quickly slingshot them past the others. When Kirizzo
considered the elite who controlled most of Terran society on their homeworld,
he thought that perhaps this had already happened.
    A
key difference between the “evil” Terrans and typical Gorgalans was simply that
the Terran betrayers often had never shifted to true alliance at all: they had
pretended alliance all along. Gorgalans usually truly wanted alliance when it
was asked for. They did not generally have any future betrayal in mind as a
secret plan: it was just a given that the alliance would rapidly dissolve at
some unknown time in the future when circumstances changed. A Gorgalan did not
eagerly await or savor any switch to conflict, but when a situation changed, a
Gorgalan changed fluidly with it and switched into competition more freely.
    At
first Kirizzo thought this was favorable for him. Telisa and Magnus would very
likely remain loyal to him until he decided the relationship should shift. That
meant he could spend less time preparing for a harmful shift to competition and
more time trying to get what he needed. But he could not be completely
complacent: what if Telisa and Magnus were of the rarer, but deadly, “evil”
variety? In that case, they might be feigning cooperation, even now secretly
fostering an involved plan to switch to competition and seize a huge advantage.
It was a risk-management situation, just as with his own kind, but the
likelihood of a switch was lower on average.
    He
concluded Gorgalan-alien interactions probably had different optimal switch
points than Gorgalan-Gorgalan relations. It had all gone so wrong with the Bel
Klaven...
    Kirizzo
remembered the beginning of the war. Several powerful Gorgalans, initially in
opposition to each other, had decided to cooperate to forcefully compete with
the Bel Klaven. Working together, the suddenly aggressive Gorgalan alliance
seized several resource-rich Bel Klaven planets.
    The
Bel Klaven had never experienced the rapid switch of behavior inherent in
Gorgalans. Almost overnight, their greatest allies had turned into powerful
aggressors. The Gorgalans had always remained vigilant, hedging against such a
turn in the Bel Klaven, which had never come.
    Instead,
the Bel Klaven shored their defenses and bided their time. When the Gorgalans
came back to offer cooperation again, they were rebuked. When other Gorgalans
unrelated to the attackers offered friendship, they too were rejected. The Bel
Klaven blamed all Gorgalans for the actions of the powerful alliance. In fact,
it had been a round of backstabbing back home by powerful Gorgalans such as
Kirizzo that had ended the offensive against the Bel Klaven and brought the
alliance back home to protect its interests on the homeworld.
    Kirizzo
hadn’t participated in the attack on the Bel Klaven, but he had profited
greatly from it. The distraction had allowed him to gain a lot of ground back
home.
    Those
gains were obliterated when the Bel Klaven revenge fleet arrived and dismantled
the planet by force of arms. If Kirizzo hadn’t been far away, trapped in a
Trilisk ruin, he would have died with millions of other Gorgalans.
    Telisa
shared his interest in the Trilisks and their technology. That was both good
and bad. Though she might assist in procuring new technology, she would also be
a competitor when it came time to split the spoils. Fortunately she’d been
easily satisfied by small items here and there. She didn’t have the grand
designs Kirizzo did.
    That
was almost certainly because she was ignorant