Hours slipped inexorably into days while the Iridar traveled through the void. Telisa puzzled over her artifact collection while Magnus prodded the computer system, trying to learn what limits Shiny had placed on their controls.
Telisa found herself daydreaming about Magnus again, despite her attempts to remain focused. Since their encounter in the crash pod, they had grown much closer. She relived their experiences off-retina, pleased to know that even though their situation remained dire, she had him to share it with. The uncertainty of their future made the relationship all that more intense. Everything that had seemed important in her past life suddenly seemed so trivial, so silly.
An odd twitch in her chest brought her out of her reverie. The artifact she held had done something she could feel. It looked like two horseshoes welded together side by side and felt like dense plastic. Her notes from earlier said that the passive scan had revealed an ultradense block and a single gray panel on one side, presumably some kind of visual feedback mechanism that worked in the wavelengths usually associated with Trilisk artifacts.
The lights in the bay flickered.
“Desist. Refrain,” Shiny buzzed.
“What was that? The artifact did it.”
“Energy emission. Disruptive.”
She looked at the latest scanner buffer in her mind’s eye to see if it had recorded anything unusual. In the data she saw an electromagnetic spike, an event that had induced a current through her body. It had lightly shocked her. In fact, it had almost been enough to reset her link.
“Now how did that happen?” she asked herself.
She carefully set the object back down into its holding container. If the thing could shock her, it might be potentially lethal, even though the current she had experienced had been small.
The scanner didn’t reveal any recognizable power signatures from the device. Either it didn’t have any power cells, or its surface blocked her scanner from detecting them.
“I’m sorry, Shiny, did that hurt you?”
“Disruptive,” Shiny said.
Telisa looked at the alien again. She had actually started getting used to Shiny—even the eerie front end of his body that had struck her at first as being a faceless head. She realized that she still didn’t understand very much about how his body worked.
“Shiny, did you look up anything about our bodies in the computer?”
The backside of the alien flinched again. Nerve damage, the alien had said. She wondered how severe it was.
“Cache contains rudimentary data,” Shiny said.
“Ah, yes. I’m used to a cache that can retrieve more from the outside system. But we’re isolated here on the ship. I guess you don’t know quite as much about us as you’d like. And I’d like to learn more about your physiology, as well. Do you see things?”
“Yes. Collect visual data.”
“Where… where are your eyes?”
Shiny’s front leg indicated the tiny fibers under his wide head at the opposite end of his body from the hook Telisa now thought of as his mouth.
“Oh, wow, those little things? Hrm. Do they allow you to see through walls?”
“No. No human analog of mass sense.”
“Mass sense? You can detect mass?”
Shiny swung his head side to side in a now familiar motion.
“Yes. Relative motion required.”
“Amazing… I envy you that one, I must say.”
“Hearing, smell, these inputs are advantageous as well. I do not possess them by nature.”
“Then how do you know what I say?”
“Artificial detection. My attendants. Just as I speak with them.”
“Those tiny spheres that float around you and attach to the silvery part of your back?”
“Correct.”
“Hrm, so you can’t hear or smell. Interesting. Magnus had guessed that you had some kind of ability to sense things through walls.” Telisa became nervous as she thought of the attack on Thomas and Jack. Would Shiny do something bad if she told him they believed he had killed their friends?
“Collected data, created theory to explain Shiny actions?”
“Yes… it was when we were attacked. The attack seemed very much like you or another of your race was behind it.” Telisa winced, hoping she hadn’t said something dangerous.
Would the alien deny it?
“Memory. Recall. Encounter before alliance. Competitive status and resulting conflict.”
“Competitive? Why did you assume that we were in competition, Shiny?” Telisa asked in a quiet, shaking voice.
“Preventative measure. Avoid attack.”
“Then why did you assume we’d attack you?”
“Your race. Attacked Shiny before. Projectile barrage. With war machines.”
“Oh. I’m sorry we had the… misunderstanding then. My race… we don’t all share the same goals. Magnus and I would never attack you. Do you understand?”
“Alliance. Cooperative relationship. Optimal at this time.”