Chapter 1
Telisa Relachik stood in front of the mirror in the transport station bathroom. The reflection showed a fit woman in her early twenties with straight black hair and a clear complexion. She wore a black business suit, a one-piece garment with a fake button-up front that showed off the contrast between her slender waist and athletic shoulders. Like most Core Worlder garments it was disposable, printed just for the day.
Her link picked up a service for an appearance evaluation from a microcomputer embedded in the mirror, and she considered running it. She had to look right for her interview, but she decided against running the service. She could keep her own counsel on her looks.
Still, she felt anxious. Her interview would be in person instead of the virtual link interviews she had already had. It should not have made any difference, but some trace of instinct in her felt more nervous about a real face-to-face.
It’s not that unusual, she told herself. With the government ever encroaching on communications—probing the data streams with snooper programs designed to flag suspicious messages—more and more businesses were starting to protect themselves by conducting important meetings incarnate. It was an odd reversal back to old traditions; the rejuvenation of the real office.
One of the nightmares of the real office was the commute. Having to appear physically for a meeting proved time-consuming and expensive. Telisa had already spent a good fraction of an Earth Standard Credit, all charged through her link for public transportation.
Telisa found her way out of the station, buffeted by bodies moving in all directions. She inhaled the Colorado air. It smelled the same to her as on the coast, although it felt colder. She ordered an electric cab through her link and walked up to the curb. She looked over the sprawling buildings across the way. They looked pristine with an expanse of perfect grass. A cat sauntered out from behind a tree and dared to approach the concrete.
“Don’t do it,” Telisa warned playfully.
The cat looked at her, then darted across the street. Telisa raised an eyebrow. If the cat had a link, it would have been turned away from the street, but apparently, it was feral.
“Never mind,” she called after the receding feline in a singsong voice.
A low hum announced the arrival of her cab. Impatient, she walked toward it as it slowed and moved to the curb. She slipped into the compact one-person conveyance and sent it a map pointer from her link. The engine whirred to life and accelerated her back onto the street. Telisa thumped her foot and fidgeted during the ride. The streets seemed a little rougher here than in California.
Perhaps a byproduct of the weather, she thought.
Finally the cab deposited her at Parker Interstellar Travels and charged her account. She dismissed it and walked up to a metal gate. Evergreens lined the road, hiding a low wall.
The estate looked sharp. A well-trimmed lawn bordered the house and the office, which were joined by a second-story walkway. She wondered if the grass was real. If so, it was wintergrass, since it had doubtless already snowed a couple of times up this high.
The gate opened and offered her link a map to the interview. She saw the pathway in her mind, marked by a red line on a bird’s-eye map.
Kind of old fashioned, she thought. Most modern location finders just superimposed red arrows over a person’s regular perspective view since it did not require orienting oneself on an off-retina map.
She followed the map through the front yard and into the building. She stepped through a sparsely decorated atrium and toward the office highlighted in her mind. A man in a suit met her at the open doorway.
“Come on in, Ms. Relachik.”
“Thanks. I appreciate you calling me in for this interview, Mr. Parker,” Telisa smiled and followed the man into the office.
He looked about forty, with short, straight brown hair. She thought his face looked a little rough and too thickset, but his smile softened it a bit. Telisa thought she detected a confidence in dealing with people.
“Please, call me Jack,” he said. “Would you like a drink?”
“No thanks, Jack. Telisa. Call me Telisa, I mean,” she said nervously.
“Okay. Just relax,” he told her. “I can see why one might be a bit nervous for an interview like this. Hard times, I hear, for xenoarchaeologists,” he said. “Please don’t take that wrong. I’m only commenting on the way things stand in general.”
“That’s true enough. You must be interviewing many people,” Telisa probed.
“No, actually you’re the only one,” he said, smiling widely and leaning back in his chair.
Telisa raised her eyebrow at him.
“The only one? Why’s that?”
“I’ve checked you out,” Jack told her. “I read your publications. I was impressed by what you had to say, and I think you’re exactly what we’re looking for.”
Telisa looked at him for a moment.
“That’s incredible,” she replied, somewhat stunned. “I didn’t know my papers were being read by potential employers, unless I gave them out myself.”
“I also know that you were rejected by the UNSF patrol, and that you’ve been speaking against their policies rather strongly.”
As Telisa bristled, he held up a hand and continued.
“Please don’t take offense at my probing into your personal business, Telisa. But you must understand my position. I can’t afford to hire someone with connections to the Space Force. As a private collector of alien artifacts, you must know I’m sometimes… at odds with the government.”
“You’re a smuggler.”
It was a statement, not a question. If true, Telisa realized that meant Jack operated against the tight controls set out by the United Nations Space Force.
“I investigate alien cultures. I collect artifacts. If I do it without the government’s permission, and you feel that makes me a smuggler, then you may call me that. But you’re like me, in that you place your fascination of things alien above all else. That’s why I know I’m safe in extending an invitation for you to join my team. This may be your only chance to get your hands on real artifacts, do real work, without being in the UNSF.”
“That explains a lot,” she said. “Like why a guide business is interested in hiring someone in my line of study. And why the real face-to-face interview.”
Telisa had checked the official disposition of the company before showing up. Parker Interstellar Travels was supposed to be an agency providing guides for hunting and tourism expeditions to undeveloped planets, as well as providing freelance mapping of faraway places for potential property buyers and planet information directories.
“Well, I think the job is a perfect fit. And I don’t think you’ll find a better opportunity anytime soon because of the shutdown on harvesting new artifacts,” Jack said. “Officially, we have a side business of trading artifacts discovered in past years, all registered and found to be harmless by UNSF inspectors, of course. On the record, your expertise is needed to help us avoid the rampant fraud by identifying genuine items from fake ones.”
“Looks like you make a good living at it,” she said, pointedly taking a look around the room.
The office was lavishly furnished, and there were a few artifacts in the room sitting on the desk and the bookshelves.
“I assume I’m supposed to point out that this Talosian on your desk is fake?”
Jack smiled. “I was hoping that you might notice that, yes. How could you tell, without even picking it up?”
Telisa grabbed the fake and squeezed it in her slender hands.
“Talosian stuff is always concave. They made everything thinner in the middle of the piece than at the top, unless that would make the item functionally useless.”
“Ah yes, of course. That’s very observant of you. The job I have to offer, though, is considerably more exciting than merely identifying fake artifacts in our offices.”
“Is the money good?”
“It can be good, if you know what yo
u’re doing. But I’m not trying to lure you with money, Telisa. I’m guessing that the chance to get your hands on real Trilisk artifacts is more of an incentive.”
“Trilisk artifacts! How could you—”
“I can. A lot of them, and ruins that no one has been to yet. You’d be breaking new ground, and who knows what we can find? Get back to me and let me know your decision, but make it quick. I can’t sit on this for long, and the expedition is going out very soon.”
“I’m interested. But I’ll need more details to make my decision,” Telisa said.
Jack nodded. “If you link in, I have an information package ready for you.”
Telisa activated her link just by thinking about it. The device in her head connected with the office computer and received the file that Jack had referenced so that she could look it over later.
“The position starts at 4200 ESC per year,” he told her. “And your duties, outlined in here, are as I’ve already mentioned.”
Jack paused for a second, then continued.
“Your real duties, however, include advising my team on the probable function and value of artifacts we find, as well as helping us identify and navigate alien facilities. We have limited cargo space, and so we have to be choosy about what to bring back. Also included is a small personal cargo allotment for anything you might want to recover for yourself.”
“How shall I contact you?” Telisa asked, somewhat overwhelmed by the suddenness and enormity of what he offered.
“Voice is fine; my numbers are in the brief,” he said simply. “If you have additional questions of a mundane nature, just send them along and I’ll answer them quickly. If you have more delicate questions, about your actual role, then please just come back in, no appointment necessary, and I’ll answer them before you give us your final decision.”
“Thank you, Jack. I’ll get back to you tomorrow. I trust that’s not too late?” she smiled, half joking.
“That’d be fine, Telisa. If you decide to come on, we can meet again and discuss our first expedition.”
“That sounds great. Thank you.”
Jack escorted her to the door, and they shook hands again. Telisa left on a high of new ideas and possibilities.