The Trilisk Supersedure - By Michael McCloskey Page 0,57

and wound the target.

His squad had just reached the building and sent in a couple of grenades when combat broke out at one of the other buildings. Holtzclaw heard distant shots fired.

“We’re taking fire! Light so far. We definitely have some of them holed up in here,” came the message from his second squad leader.

Holtzclaw’s squad looked to him. He checked the tunnel map. As expected, the two buildings linked up.

“Pressure them from topside,” Holtzclaw told the second squad leader. “We’ll come in from below in the tunnel from the west. If we hurry we might trap them in there.”

Then to his own squad: “Double-time it! Through the building! Find the well room and get into that tunnel!”

Chapter 21

Telisa awakened.

Not again! Crap.

She drew in a long breath. In fact, the breath continued flowing in, in, in for a long time, until her chest had expanded like a giant balloon.

Chest? I have lungs. Big lungs.

She moved an arm. An immensely huge, strong arm that extended so very far.

Wait. Wait. This is different, but it’s good different. Human different?

She saw only darkness. Her hearing felt muted. Normal, lame Terran hearing. She felt around in the dark. Was it her own body?

Female. I’m female…

She felt a tiny ridge of a scar on her wrist where a Vovokan nasty had sampled her. And her hair was the right length.

I think I’m me! And my link?

An army of view panes exploded in her mind’s eye. Her link offered her its many services.

“Anyone there?” she asked tentatively through her link.

“Telisa?” The reply was marked as coming from Cilreth.

“Yes! Where in the hell am I?”

“Stay calm. I think you’re…I think you’re in a Trilisk column.”

“Please get me out.” Telisa asked it in a calm way, but the panic was only just below the surface. Her recent experiences had all been too much.

“Then just think it: open. Think you want it open. Pray to it.”

“There’s a prayer device?” she said. Without waiting for an answer, she thought: I want out. Please open!

At first there was only a humming sound. Then a growing sliver of light appeared above her. It widened until she could see that some kind of sheath over the tube was dropping down from the top. In a few seconds she would be free!

“It’s opening!” Telisa said. “Wait. I’m still inside some kind of clear tube.”

“It takes longer,” Cilreth said calmly. Her friend’s voice reassured her. “Telisa, can you hear me?”

“Oh, thank the Five,” Telisa croaked.

“It’s okay now. Let’s get you out of there.”

“Cilreth. You’re not going to believe where I’ve been! Magnus just killed me!”

“Maybe you’d better just rest for a minute and take some deep breaths.”

She think’s I’m delusional. Lack of oxygen?

“It’s a Trilisk body switcher,” Telisa explained.

“That’s not possible.”

“Think about it, Cilreth. This is Trilisk stuff we’re clowning around with.”

“Your brain is trained throughout your infancy to grow and adapt its connections and signals from your own—”

“Yes, I know. Believe me, I know. But sufficiently advanced technology can adapt my personality and thought patterns onto other nervous systems and map my body signals to those of radically different creatures.” Telisa stood up carefully.

“It would be much more complicated than a simple mapping unless the target creature was totally humanoid.” But now her voice carried less conviction. Cilreth was thinking on it.

“I know. I know. Yet it only took a bit of practice. I was one of the slugs. The Konuan were a lot cooler than stupid slugs, by the way. Just ask Magnus when he gets back. He killed me.”

He must think I’m dead. Even if he doesn’t know that was me.

“What?” Cilreth asked.

“I’m going to have to give him a hard time for that.”

“You really believe all that happened? It was probably virtual,” Cilreth said.

Telisa nodded. She didn’t believe it had been imaginary at all, but she didn’t blame Cilreth for thinking it. It was more logical to assume such adventures had occurred in a simulation.

It was just that Telisa knew the Trilisks could do it.

A tremor rumbled through the tunnels. Telisa felt her body shake. Her legs still felt just a bit long. Her head was so far from the ground. She bent her knees to compensate for a sudden lack of confidence in her ability to balance herself.

“Uh oh,” Cilreth summed up. “Are you okay?”

“I’m still adapting to my new body,” she said. Cilreth’s face reflected the oddity of Telisa’s statement. Then she got a link connection from Magnus.

“Telisa?”

“Magnus! Where are you?”

“The building where you got separated from Cilreth,” he