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“It’s for finding
something, or harvesting things.”
    “They
could have needed to see something coming. Something dangerous,” Siobhan said.
Everyone chewed on that for a moment.
    “The
smaller house-type buildings remind me of the space habitat,” Caden said. “The
shapes are crazy.”
    “Yes,
all those weird angles,” Siobhan agreed.
    “The
attendants haven’t spotted any Blackvine boxes shuttling around,” Cilreth said.
“And I also checked for a Blackvine network. None are transmitting.”
    Everyone’s
moving rapidly ahead on their own initiative. It’s a great team. If we had
Magnus...
    “So
the similarity struck you, too?” asked Imanol.
    “Yes,”
Cilreth admitted.
    “It’s
not clear,” Telisa said. “If there’s a connection, we’ll find it.”
    “Another
interesting question is, which came first? The big buildings, the tiny houses,
or the tower?” Siobhan asked.
    “Don’t
assume they’re houses,” Telisa said. “Though I agree with that assessment as a
first guess.”
    “Well,
I think the big buildings show more signs of wear, so they may have been
first,” Cilreth said. “I don’t understand why they’re not all together. Three
very different types of structures, isolated from each other. They’re not
really in three different climate zones. So why the separation?”
    “What
are we calling these aliens? The ones who made the ruins,” asked Caden.
    “Blackvines,
if that’s what they are,” Imanol said. “Otherwise, Idricks or Pipers. Or do you
prefer Idrickians?”
    “Celarans,”
Telisa said. “The data from Shiny includes a rough line of colonized worlds
cutting through this area of space. One of the systems is believed to be their
origin. Celara Palnod by the Space Force naming algorithms. No Terran has ever
been this far in this direction, at least, not unless the Space Force sent out
scouts and never told anyone, which is vaguely possible.”
    “So
this race is a complete blank? Shiny must have selected these systems for a
reason,” Jason asked.
    “I
think they are, or were, an advanced race. Shiny doesn’t think there are any
Trilisks there,” Telisa said.
    “He’s
not interested in Trilisk stuff anymore?” asked Imanol.
    Telisa
hesitated.
    “Since
it’s going to be obvious soon, I’ll just announce it. I’m a Trilisk clone body.
Shiny sent a duplicate Telisa to lead this group. The way I see it, it just
means we have a better chance to survive and succeed. The sooner you decide the
same, the better.”
    “Knowing
you’re not the original gives us some trust issues,” Cilreth said. Though her
statement made it sound like she was questioning Telisa’s position, Telisa knew
it was really just to bring out the issues early to get them over with.
    It
will be better if we’re open about this from the beginning.
    Telisa
nodded. “There’s nothing I can say to prove anything. We live in a time when
trust is impossible. We’ve learned about possibilities that are so amazing, yet
they come with a price tag: you can no longer be sure of things you thought you
were sure of before. Like who am I, really? Who can you trust, really? There’s
no answer I can make you accept. Whether or not you trust someone is your own
decision and it’s always going to come with some risk. Even if you do trust
someone, how can you be sure that person next to you really is the one you
decided to trust? How can you be sure they’re not being manipulated?”
    “It’s
nothing new. People have been susceptible to blackmail and other kinds of
coercion for a long time,” Imanol said. “Betrayal is ages old.”
    “But
at least, in the past, they had a choice. Now we have perfect-looking
duplicates, mind control, and who knows what else,” Cilreth said.
    No
one said anything more. Imanol held a deeper frown than usual.
    Is
he wondering why he wasn’t told before he agreed to be part of the new
expedition?
    “Now,
I’ve set up some nightmare scenarios based upon the data we