Free The Trilisk Supersedure by Michael McCloskey

Vovokan attendant
spheres knew it was a peaceful transfer, so they didn’t move to intercept.
    Those
things are amazing, Cilreth thought. I need to figure out more
about how they tick. Sigh. Later.
    “Thanks,”
Magnus said, slipping the sphere away in his pack. He headed off toward the
center of the city. Telisa looked after him.
    She’s
dependent on him. But I should cut her some slack; she just lost her father.
Who else does she have? I think that was it.
    Telisa
hadn’t mentioned a mother or other family, nor had Leonard.
    “Well,
at least it will go faster setting up the camp with two of us,” Cilreth said.
Telisa returned her attention to the campsite.
    “The
camp looks sleepable,” Telisa said. “Let’s go take a peek in those big
buildings over there before nightfall. I promise I’ll help with the camp more
later.”
    “Without
Magnus?”
    “We’re
both armed,” Telisa said. “And we have the scouts, at least the ones close by
that can still hear us.”
    “When
he gets back, if he finds us missing…”
    “I’ll
leave a message here with the cargo containers. They can transfer it to his
link when he gets within range. Besides, I bet Shiny’s all over this jamming
problem.”
    “He’s
certainly very capable. I’m still wrapping my head around having a giant
centipede monster on my team.”
    “He’s
not a monster. Remember that,” Telisa said.
    Oops.
Did I say that out loud? Cilreth frowned. The comment would have
slid by with Magnus, but Telisa was avidly behind Shiny and trusted him
completely.
    Cilreth
checked the scouts. “Magnus took one scout with him. Let’s leave one to watch
the camp and take three with us?”
    “Sounds
great,” Telisa said. “I’ll tell them not to wander far off. No use in losing
more. We might gain one or two as we move.”
    They
both drew their stunners as they moved out. Telisa caught sight of Cilreth’s
stunner and stopped.
    “Hrm.
Where are the weapons cases?” Telisa asked herself aloud.
    Funny
how people can be perfectly comfortable in a link conversation; then they speak
to themselves out loud. Cilreth did the same thing sometimes. She
thought maybe the habit formed when people were alone. They wanted to hear a
voice, so they chatted to themselves aloud. So now she sometimes talked to
herself inside her head, sometimes through her link, and sometimes out loud.
    Telisa
turned back. Cilreth didn’t answer the question because she knew Telisa could
use her link to ask the cases for anything she wanted.
    Or has
the jamming gotten worse?
    As a
test, Cilreth queried the inventory service of a nearby case. It sent queries
out to the other cases and found the weapons containers for her. Telisa was
already opening one of them. Cilreth scanned the nearby stalks for any signs of
danger.
    Telisa
came back with a smart pistol in her hand. Cilreth had familiarized herself
with the projectile weapons, though she preferred the stunner as a safer
alternative. The weapon had a few smart rounds in it, capable of locking onto
any target the user specified. The smart rounds could turn away or
self-destruct in flight if they neared something that didn’t fit the target
profile. However, on an alien planet, one would likely forego any target
profiles since it was impossible to tell exactly what kind of dangerous animal
you might come across.
    Cilreth’s
link told her Telisa had put negative signatures into the weapon for the three
Terrans, so it would be difficult (though not impossible) to accidentally shoot
a friend.
    “Better
if we have radically different weapons by default,” Telisa said. “In case
something we find is immune to either one.”
    Cilreth
nodded. She figured as much. Between the two of them and the scouts, they had a
variety of weapons. She noticed the pistol had a new accessory attached to its
underside.
    “What’s
the new device?”
    Telisa’s
eyebrows rose in a question; then she deduced what Cilreth was asking about.
    “Oh.
Under the barrel?