Free The Trilisk Supersedure by Michael McCloskey Page B

pointed in their direction. Cilreth knew the grenade launcher was
probably being armed to the signature of those clear creatures.
    “You’re
not going to shoot first, are you?” she asked a bit nervously.
    “No
way,” Telisa said. “I’m not looking for trouble. Let’s just skirt around.” But
she did not move.
    “Watch
the plants for the red snake things, too,” Cilreth said. “Where there’s prey…”
    “Good
point,” Telisa agreed. She lowered her pistol.
    Cilreth
spotted one of the creatures pulling a piece of plant along the rock. Then it
fell back into the black hole of the well carrying the debris.
    “They’re
carrying stuff that fell into the plant well,” Cilreth pointed out. “That’s why
there’s no detritus lying around. They carry it in there, and it must be for
food.”
    “Or to
grow food with,” Telisa added.
    “You
don’t think…they couldn’t be intelligent, could they?”
    “I
doubt it,” Telisa said slowly.
    “It’s
just that they could fit through the grilles.”
    Telisa
stopped. She had to be thinking about it. “Yeah, but why are they living in a
hole in the ground when they could live in the buildings?”
    “Hrm.
Yeah. I’m sure they’re not smart. Just trying not to make any assumptions.”
    They
sped up as the clear colony of harvesters was left in the rear. Cilreth kept
placing the trail-marking devices as they went. Within another ten minutes,
their scout leader arrived at a cluster of Konuan buildings.
    Cilreth
pinged their camp through the chain of breadcrumb devices. Everything appeared
to be working. She took stock of the structures. They looked similar to what
they’d already seen, only taller and denser.
    Cilreth
checked her link for Shiny and Magnus. She still couldn’t get any response,
even through the chain back to camp.
    “Any
reason you like these?” she asked Telisa, referring to the buildings.
    “Yes.
They’re situated over a system of underground chambers and tunnels. It kinda
reminds me of what we found on Thespera. I’m hoping the tunnels below were used
or built by Trilisks.”
    Telisa
selected one of the five grilles that dotted their side of the nearest
building. A scout started to pick away at the setting around the grille. Telisa
made a frustrated sound. Cilreth took a look. She thought it might take the
scout about ten minutes to dig into the building.
    “I’m
going to send a scout to our ship. Shiny gave me some kind of digging device; I
still have it around,” Telisa said. “I don’t think it’s at the camp.”
    “Really?
Were the walls made of tough stone on Vovok?” asked Cilreth.
    “I’m
not sure how hard they were. Besides, it was the Trilisk trap. Thespera, not
Vovok. But the item is workable enough.”
    “That
would be cool. These bars are rugged, though. They were built to last.
Impressive for a primitive race, actually.”
    “Well,
even if it doesn’t work on the grilles, the robots get through eventually.”
    “I
assume the walls are usually even stronger.”
    “Maybe.
I could think of a reason why not, though. If the Konuan used them to keep
predators out of their dwellings, then it would be enough to look like this was
the only hole through. The predator might try to dig there. Especially if it
saw or smelled a Konuan flit through there. But the predator might not try to
break through what looks like a rocky mountainside.”
    Cilreth
shrugged. “Fair enough. Whatever works for us to get around. Otherwise, I’m
gonna get a pickaxe and end up with arms like Jaggor.”
    “Who?”
    “Oh.
Never mind. I’m showing my age.”
    Telisa
nodded. If her link hadn’t been jammed, it might have told her about the old VR
called Jaggor the Hunter-Gatherer. The daisy chain reference was
probably in her dictionary cache. The information was most likely available in
the huge data cache of the Clacker orbiting above. Cilreth was just as
happy to leave the reference unexplained.
    Finally
the scout shifted the loosened