Part 6 (1/2)
Magnus shrugged. ”That's not exactly what I meant, but still, it's possible he's doing it.”
It's dangerous enough going to the frontier. We need to trust everyone on the team. Of course, I guess I quickly trusted Arlin and Leonard. Easier to trust my own race, I guess, justified or not.
”We can get along without him for now. The jamming could mean an imminent attack, though, down here or up there in orbit,” Telisa said.
”It's worse than just losing touch with s.h.i.+ny. I can only reach five scouts now,” Magnus said.
”What will the others do?”
”They'll try and complete whatever mission each is on, then return to Clacker.”
”Maybe we should return to the Clacker, too,” Cilreth suggested.
”We need more information. I bet s.h.i.+ny will figure out how to get back in touch with us. It's true he's not down here by our side, but he's a valuable a.s.set up there.”
”I'm going to go take a look at our Terran friends,” Magnus said. ”We can't make good decisions in the dark like this.”
”Be careful,” Telisa said.
Magnus looked thoughtful. ”I know you've earned the stealth suit, but in this case it might be of more use to me. Just temporarily, of course,” he said to Cilreth.
”I'd love to share,” Cilreth said sweetly. ”But no way is it going to fit your frame.”
Magnus frowned. Telisa smiled.
”Don't be sad. I'm glad you're a large specimen, dear,” she said playfully. ”I have the stealthing sphere we picked up on Vovok, if you'd like to borrow it. And I do mean borrow! I can't go giving away all my superpowers.”
Cilreth felt a bit of jealousy. On a frontier expedition with your lover. Nice on the surface of it. Unless things go horribly wrong.
Telisa tossed Magnus the tiny sphere from her pack. Somehow the 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 s.h.i.+ny'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 s.h.i.+ny 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? It's a one-shot glue grenade.”
”Nice. I'm not quite used to all the weapons yet. From private investigator to planetary explorer, you know.”
”Isn't it wonderful?” Telisa asked enthusiastically.
Cilreth chuckled. So young and full of energy. ”Which way are we going?”
Telisa was silent for a moment; then a scout robot headed out. ”Follow him,” she said.
They followed the robot out of the clearing. As they came to the first tight group of alien plants, Cilreth automatically reached for her machete.
”Shall I cut a swath through? Or do we want a low-profile trail behind us?”
”If there were no people, I'd say go ahead and cut. Predators will be equipped to find us anyway. But with people we don't know in the ruins, let's leave it.”