***
Telisa spent a sleepless night in contemplation of her opportunity. She changed her mind several times while trying to rest.
She needed a job. So far she had spent her adult life as a parasite, producing nothing for herself, her family, or society. And now someone had approached her offering the very thing she sought… and in her field.
But Jack had been very straightforward about the fact that what he was doing was not quite on the level. How could he trust her? How could she trust him, knowing that he was into illegal trading of artifacts? Artifacts that she desperately wanted to find and investigate for herself. What did the stupid UNSF think it was doing, anyway, trying to keep her from the legacy left by dead races for the whole universe? She hated the Space Force, despised her father, and did not give a rat’s ass about their oppressive laws. However, her strong feelings would not mean much if she was caught bringing illegal artifacts to Earth.
Telisa’s thoughts bounced back and forth among all the possibilities for a long time. In the end it was the Trilisk artifacts that convinced her, or so she told herself. She would not do something crazy just out of sheer boredom, would she? The lure of adventure was strong to Telisa—who had led a sheltered, purely academic life—but mostly it was the Trilisk artifacts.
The Trilisks were advanced almost beyond Terran understanding, and the few artifacts from that race that were in Terran hands were enigmas of the highest order. If Telisa could get her hands on enough Trilisk items to achieve some kind of critical mass of understanding, she could become the foremost Terran authority on the lost race. Understanding such an advanced race would surely redefine the way future Terrans would live.
She wanted to be a part of that discovery, bringing about those changes by unraveling the mysteries of the Trilisks, or other alien cultures for that matter. What could be more fascinating than the devices left behind by dead races, beings that didn’t share anything with Terrans except intellect and the ability to create tools?
She contacted Jack in the morning and told him she was interested in joining Parker Interstellar Travels. He seemed very pleased and told her that she could come over to the PIT estate and meet the rest of the team after lunch. When she returned the estate, she was greeted at the gate by a tall, dark-haired man in an old jacket.
Real clothes. So frontier! And he’s no poser.
Telisa only owned a few pieces of durable clothing, mostly waterproof gear for outdoor sports. Core Worlders preferred to print whatever designs they wanted for the day and recycled the material when they were done.
“I’m Thomas. Come on in,” he said.
“Oh. Hello, Thomas, I’m Telisa,” she shyly introduced herself.
Telisa had expected to be greeted by Jack inside the building.
“Are you part of the ex—” She stopped mid-sentence, afraid to divulge too much out loud.
“Expedition,” he finished for her through a link connection. He gave her a slight wink. “Don’t worry, kid. Come on in and we’ll talk all we want inside,” he sent her.
He turned and led her inside. As they walked, he continued the link conversation.
“I’m the pilot, and a business partner of Jack’s. We’ve worked together a number of years.”
“So you’ve been on a lot of expeditions?”
“Smaller stuff, here and there.”
Telisa thought that was a suitably elusive answer for a smuggler. For a moment she wondered if she had gotten involved in something she shouldn’t have, until she thought of the Trilisk artifacts again. Telisa was so absorbed by the wonder of superior alien technology that she would take some risks to study it.
Thomas looked better than Jack, she decided. It wasn’t only his height, but his face looked smoother, thinner, and held dark, mysterious eyes. The classic tall, dark, and handsome. Telisa didn’t generally go for older guys, but if she did, then she’d pick one like this, she thought.
The two walked to a meeting room on the first floor of the building. They were met by another man with blond hair and a strong build. He looked handsome despite the roughness of his facial features. His physical presence was intimidating, although his hazel eyes seemed friendly. He wore some kind of armored one-piece garment in black and red.
“Telisa, this is Magnus. He handles our…” Thomas trailed off.
“I’m a military advisor to the team,” Magnus explained calmly.
“A military advisor,” Telisa said neutrally, trying to hide her surprise.
It was as if this group was straight out of the action VRs. Magnus seemed very reserved and calm, and he regarded her openly. She felt her heart beating in her chest under his scrutiny.
“Did you see action in the Torn rebellion?” she asked suddenly, then bit her tongue for being so brash.
“Yes. The 137th. I was an ECM engineer in infantry units.”
“Didn’t the UNSF use the robotic units for most of the fighting there?” she asked, emboldened by the response. Magnus seemed stolid, unaffected.
“The robotic units were first in, first out. Infantry units were used to garrison the conquests and rebuild the areas retaken by the UNSF. But the UED was fighting a hit-and-run battle, so the garrisons got hit all the time.”
“Well, if you survived all that, you must be good.”
“Not really,” Magnus replied. “It just means I was lucky. Skill didn’t enter into the equation very often.”
“Why’s that? Do you mean you never knew when an attack was coming?”
“The UED used precision laser strikes from high orbit. I served in garrisons on three moons with thin atmospheres. They could take us out a man at a time with ship-mounted weapons until one of our own ships could drive them back. They played at hit and run the whole time, since they couldn’t afford a direct confrontation in space without risking losing it all.”
“A spaceship weapon used against individuals? Was there any way to defend against that from the ground?”
Magnus shook his head. “Only by getting into a bunker or staying hidden by scrambling their scans. The UNSF didn’t provide our units with sufficient countermeasures. The robotics are the heavy hitters; when it comes right down to it, the infantry is cheap and expendable.”
Telisa had been following along with an encyclopedia link as Magnus related his story. She was trying to brush up on the Torn conflict without looking ignorant. What Magnus had said so far was checking out. She decided to learn more and have another conversation about it later.
Thomas snorted. “Don’t believe all those war stories of his. That’s just stuff he uses to impress women,” he said. He said it with mild scorn in his voice so that Telisa couldn’t tell if he was joking or not.
“Well, Thomas, what do you tell women to impress them?”
“I tell them that I fly a spaceship, make a five-digit salary, and vacation in Brazil,” he paused, then added, “Someone once said if you have to tell a lie, sandwich it between two truths.”
Telisa chuckled. “Sounds like a good strategy to me.”
The door opened and Jack arrived hurriedly. He wore a new printed suit in a style similar to the one she had seen him wear before.
“Sorry I’m late,” he said, “it couldn’t be helped.”
Jack joined them at the table and looked at everyone momentarily. “I trust you have all had a chance to get to know one another a little?”
“Yes, a little,” Telisa said, trying to sound positive. She wanted Jack to know that there were no personality problems emerging, at least not on her end.
The meeting started. Jack ran over the government forms required to prepare a mock expedition that would cover for their real activities. Telisa would have to spend some time putting information into the company computer so Jack could get her employment squared away. Jack assigned Thomas to help Telisa outfit for the trip; he would get her in touch with their usual equipment suppliers so she could quickly buy everything she needed. He gave her an access code to a financial account
to purchase her gear.
During the meeting Telisa could see that Jack and Thomas were both very involved with the business side of things, while Magnus seemed uninterested in those aspects—almost withdrawn.
“Let’s get down to the interesting details,” Jack said, and looked at Thomas. Thomas nodded.
“Link in, if you please,” he said. Everyone at the table joined a shared channel.
Telisa received the images to which Thomas referred. Telisa closed her eyes to make it easier to concentrate on the off-retina star chart.
“This is the target planet,” Thomas began. “No real name, just the second major orbiting body in the Thespera Narres System. Just call it T2. The UNSF just started laying into it two weeks ago. We know there are a few sites on-planet, and the ruins are definitely Trilisk in origin.”
Telisa thought this information was amazing to have if the UNSF had only started two weeks ago. She wondered if the group spied on the UNSF or if they knew people on the inside. She also hoped they had friends in the government, because it was surely dangerous to eavesdrop on the Space Force. Anyone caught at such an activity could be put away indefinitely. Once again she found herself pushing back a tinge of fear at what she was doing.
“Since operations have just started up here, and because it’s on the fringe of explored space, there’s a good chance we can get in and out undetected.”
Telisa decided to be bold and ask questions at this stage. “Isn’t it true that the exploration vessels have better detection equipment than most? Won’t they have a good chance of noticing our ship?”
“Yes, they might notice us, if they’re there at all,” Magnus answered.
“There is that risk,” Jack agreed. “But I believe the initial survey vessel will have already left the system. It may have left lot of probes behind, but usually those probes are highly specialized to gather different types of planetary data and we can deal with them.”
He nodded to Thomas to continue.
Thomas shared a generated image of a planet on the channel. Two landing sites appeared as blinking white icons.
“Our information is too sketchy at this point to plan a landing site ahead of time,” Thomas explained. “We’ll have to pick a spot, obviously avoiding these known UNSF bases, once we arrive in-system.”
“We’ll have plenty of time to refine priorities on the way there,” Jack put in, “since we’ll be in transit for two weeks at least. We should come up with a plan for what to look for in a landing site and our first target from there. So everyone try and put some thought into that the next few days, and we’ll get back to it on the ship.”
“What kind of ship are we taking?” Telisa asked.
“That’s a good question. I tell you what, I’ll have Thomas fill you in on the ship after you get your equipment.” Jack looked at Thomas and said, “Why don’t you go over to the Iridar with her tomorrow afternoon?”
“Sure thing,” Thomas said. He seemed genuinely pleased to get the assignment.
“Just for a brief curiosity dampener,” Jack told her, “It’s an ex-UED scoutship. A little old in some ways, but we keep it updated as best we can. Magnus has some contacts that we make use of, just to make sure we have some tricks up our sleeve,” he said. “So we can be hard to detect if we work at it, but remember our cargo space is very limited.”
“What about robots?” Telisa asked.
“For now, we do things the old-fashioned way,” Thomas said.
“Robots are nice, but they’re a big overhead on this kind of mission,” Jack added. “The government has tough requirements that are expensive to circumvent, both in terms of time and money. The law requires frequent inspection of any robotic units we own. Unlike the privacy we enjoy for our links, robot logs are property of the government.”
Telisa thought about what that would mean to the smugglers. If they used robots, the automatic logs that recorded everything the robot sensed would have to be carefully doctored to eliminate all evidence of illegal activity.
“I guess they left our rights to bear robotics out of the constitution,” Telisa grumbled. “What about the ship logs?”
“Takes a lot of work, but we’re getting pretty good at it,” Thomas said.
“Actually, we have an idea for using robots that I can tell you about on the trip. But it won’t be this mission,” Magnus told her.
“Okay,” she said.
Telisa knew the government feared robots in the hands of civilians because of their tremendous potential for misuse. Only the most fragile of household robots were commonly owned by individuals.
Jack broke up the meeting and left the room with Magnus. Telisa stood with Thomas, assuming that they would be buying equipment.
“So what kind of stuff should I purchase?”
“I can tell you the things that we all carry, but obviously I’m not qualified to advise you on any gear that you might want regarding the analysis of artifacts or their value.”
“That account has more than I’ll need, I think,” she said in a worried voice.
“I wouldn’t sweat it if you have money left over,” Thomas said. “Just make sure that you have everything you need.”
Thomas presented her with a wide array of items to purchase, including an assortment of survival gear for all types of environments. They placed a large order with directions to deposit the items at the business the next day. The equipment ranged from medical supplies to climbing gear. Telisa was not an experienced climber, but Jack insisted that it was “just in case.”
“You may want to get a stunner too,” Thomas suggested.
“A stunner?” she asked, and then felt foolish. “Well, what make do you recommend?”
“I would get a good PSG stunner, with a large energy reserve,” he said. “I’ve only had to use mine once, just to avoid being mugged in a scummy backport alley, but if you need it once in your whole life, that’s enough to warrant getting one.”
He was talking about a nonlethal sonic weapon. Telisa had heard of Personal Security Gear, and she knew they were top of the line.
“Okay, I’ll pick one up,” she said.
“Then that should do it. I’ll see you tomorrow afternoon, and we’ll leave the day after that.”