Parker Interstellar Travels 6: The Celaran Ruins by Michael McCloskey Read Free Book Online Page A

drawled. He stepped out onto
the fine ash. It covered the ground fairly deep, judging from how his boots
sunk into the ground.
    What
kind of crazy mission are we on this time? Damn death machine breathing down
our necks.
    The
Vovokan battle sphere moved around the ship in an arc as if on patrol. It moved
in eerie silence. Somehow the spherical machine was clearly alien, but Imanol
could not figure out what gave it away. The machine even looked Terran to his
link, identifying itself with a serial number and a local name, “Escort 1”. It
offered no services, but Imanol had seen specialized corporate or military
robots that did not publicize civilian services. If he had seen that on a
Terran world before all this, would he have even noticed? Perhaps it was those
strange green patterns that sometimes played lazily across its surface. A
Terran machine would have had his link display an advertisement on its surface
or camouflaged itself, depending on whether it was civilian or military.
    “That
thing has too much nervous energy,” Siobhan said.
    “What’s
DM-109 got to be nervous about?” Imanol asked.
    “It’s
not a death machine,” Siobhan said.
    “True.
This thing is probably even more powerful than 109.”
    “I
meant death machines seek to destroy all life,” Siobhan said.
    Imanol
knew she was right. Only a vengeful madman would deploy such a device. DM-109
had been such a machine in a series of entertainment VRs experienced by the
masses. Imanol had never been in the VR himself, but he had heard of it. In the
virtual world, the machine always started by destroying the very city in which
it was constructed.
    “It’s
concerned about aliens in the forest?” asked Caden.
    “Maybe.
Or maybe it’s a display of power,” Imanol said. “Our friend Shiny wants to make
it impossible for us to forget we’re on a short leash.”
    Imanol
felt a vague fear in his gut looking at the machine. The sphere stopped and
emitted a new low frequency noise. Imanol felt it in his feet.
    “Blood
and souls, what’s that damn thing doing now?” asked Imanol. His fear came
through as grumpiness.
    “Seismic
analysis of the area,” Cilreth said. “Looking for tunnels.”
    “Wow.
It’s thorough,” he said.
    “Well,
given that Vovokans are subterranean, I think it’s second nature for them,”
Telisa pointed out. Jason twitched as if he wanted to say “subvovokan” again.
    “Just
like stabbing us in the back is second nature for Shiny,” Imanol said.
    No
one answered him. The group spread out and tested the ground. Siobhan seemed
bubbly; he recalled she was from a low grav space habitat. Imanol tested his
vertical jump. His attendant reported the results: 76 centimeters.
    Not
bad for a ripe old man of 45 years. If it was in Earth gravity.
    “It’s
pretty close. Feels like just a bit of a boost,” Cilreth said. She did a test
jump of her own.
    Caden
knocked on one of the round spires that supported the ship. He tried to climb
it, but it was too wide and too smooth, even with a good jump and the inwards
lean.
    “What
are those made of?” Telisa asked.
    “Carbon,
mostly. The structural pattern is amazing. I don’t see how it grows, though,”
Cilreth said.
    “They
don’t grow,” Siobhan said. “They were manufactured at that size.” Imanol looked
at her. She was looking at some gadget and pointing it at the spire. Her
attendant flew an orbit around the curved base of it.
    “What?!”
asked Telisa.
    “Well,
it’s obvious,” she said. “They’re all the same size. All over the planet.”
    That
never even occurred to me ,
Imanol thought. Wow, I’m such a newb at this planetary exploration thing.
She’s right. I never saw any half-grown ones.
    “So
how did they get here?” asked Caden.
    “Nanomachines,”
Siobhan said. “Judging from their microscopic structure here just under the
surface, they were manufactured in place.” She folded up her device and put it
in her pack.
    “Well
don’t you have all the