Koban 4: Shattered Worlds

by Stephen W Bennett

  “I’m sorry Admiral, every time I’ve provoked this one with too many questions it causes him to fantasize, mostly about what he wants to happen to all of humanity. He isn’t particularly happy with us, as you might imagine. He now has slipped into a berserker mode of thinking, where all humans die horribly as he watches in pleasure, and he sometimes dies in his own mind in an orgy of glorious killing. When he calms down we can resume.”

  Mirikami vowed to himself to try to stay away from any question that might lead to visions of entire worlds being destroyed. Not that this wasn’t a real possibility, but yielding to Krall demands on the conduct of the war and obeying their terms would lead to the end of human civilization. There were three surviving species serving as living testimonials of the Krall’s eventual goal, and no living trace of the many civilizations the Krall had fully erased.

  He was surprised at Bledso’s reply. “I don’t need to experience that unreasoning hatred again, Captain Mirikami. I had doubted how you could have predicted the Krall’s future actions, based simply on your observations and knowledge of what they have done in the past. I now see how you have been able to see into the darkness of their very soul, if they have one, and understand their fanatical resolve and overwhelming confidence that they can and will fight us to extinction, at any cost. I caught a mental image of their slave workers, being forced to replace the clanships they will need to return to their full aggressive strength. We can’t wait for that to happen. They are at their weakest they have been since they first attacked us, thanks to your surprise raids on their shipyards and Eight Balls.”

  “Admiral, does that mean you can recommend an attack on K1 to the president?”

  “No, not recommend. With your surveillance data in hand, I can insist we attack as soon as we can gather the fleet elements and plan the strike!”

  There was something to be said in favor of properly applied bullshit.

  Chapter 11: Xenos

  The first order of business when the Mark returned to the Koban system was for Mirikami to learn what the Raspani and Torki scientists and technicians had learned about the redesigned Olts made by the Philodor Torki. He requested they try to discover how the chips embedded in a Kobani’s brain were able to communicate with those different Olts continuously, when both users were in Tachyon Space. If they could modify the chips that were intended for Kobani use to work the same way, remotely with one another when in a Jump Hole, it would speed and improve long-range communications tremendously.

  A secondary goal was to redesign the standard Torki Olt to match the Philodor design. That replacement would be a slow process for the crab’s population as a whole, because the original implantation method of an Olt happened when a Torkedia, a young and primitive minded Torki, returned to the parent colony after years of wandering the seas. Following Torki custom, they sometimes consumed a deceased old adult, thus reusing an existing Olt, which migrated to position itself in their developing brains. When they were expanding their populations, they fed them brand new Olt circuit chips in their food, or for the first time they were introducing a new design of Olt. The mature Torki would feed new Olts to the young returning Torkedia.

  The Raspani wanted to start embedding a similar chip technology of their own, when they implanted new mind enhancer chips in the brains of essentially empty-minded individuals. Namely, those Raspani that were recovered as wild herds on abandoned Krall planets.

  Blue Flower Eater, and Coldar were waiting with Maggi, Marlyn, and Noreen as The Mark of Koban landed on Haven.

  Jumping down onto the still steaming tarmac from the open fifteen-foot high portal, Mirikami and several companions literally did a hotfooted run over to meet the others. They needed long high leaps, possible only to a Kobani, to keep their boot soles from transmitting scorching heat to their feet. The remainder of the ship’s complement was willing to wait five minutes for the pavement to cool.

  Maggi planted a hug and kiss on her new husband with a bit more enthusiasm than the socially conservative Mirikami was expecting. She and his friends knew he was embarrassed by public displays of affection when it involved himself.

  Noreen and Dillon, both originally from liberal planetary societies, were entangled in a mutually passionate embrace, pressed tightly together. This elicited a humorous comment from Marlyn. “Should we just turn our backs for a few moments until you two finish?”

  Thinking the remark was directed at him and Maggi, Mirikami flushed and quickly started to pull away. Looking over Tet’s shoulder, noting who Marlyn was actually looking at when she said that, Maggi decided to have fun at her subdued husband’s expense.

  In a lilting voice she said, “Why Tet, the way you braved that hot pavement to race over to sweep me off my feet, I thought you were taking me back to our quarters. I think everyone could wait another hour. We’ve been apart for nearly a month, and we’re still newlyweds after all.” She fluttered her eyelids, and tossed her blonde curls, enjoying the deepening redness of his face.

  It made Marlyn and the others crack up when they heard her, and saw Mirikami red faced and flustered. The two aliens, hearing Maggi’s words and accepting them at face value, politely excused themselves and turned away towards the science lab. It was common knowledge that their three alien allies speculated that the sexual preoccupation of humans went a long way towards explaining their general hyperactivity, and that this was perhaps why this young species kept expanding with so much vigor.

  “No, wait!” Mirikami blurted. “I’m ready to go with you…, right now.”

  The aliens turned back a moment, and Blue said, “Our respective species have waited thousands of years to be free of the Krall. Please, obey your basic instincts if that is necessary. What is a mere additional hour, or even two?”

  That appeared to strike all of the humans, except Mirikami, as hilarious.

  Clearing his throat uncomfortably, Mirikami asked them to give him a moment. Then he introduced the third man that had crossed over the hot pavement with him and Dillon. “Maggi, you of course have heard Marlyn mention Sergeant Bill Crager. He’s no longer running a Kobani spec ops camp on Heavyside, and he was on Poldark helping to screw up the Krall fleet when they lifted off. He was also one third of the team that retrieved that Krall clanship commander drifting in space over Poldark a day later. That source of intelligence helped us get safely down onto K1. Bill, I’d like you to meet my wife, Maggi Fisher, a supposedly bright bio-scientist that has apparently devolved into the role of a humorist.”

  “Gracious Lady, I’m pleased to meet you.” He offered only his hand, in the now common but archaic Kobani gesture. “Joe Longstreet has told me about you and your sense of humor. Perhaps that’s because Joe has also been a target of your jokes. I’m anticipating being one of your lab rats this week, Doctor. I’m visiting for my final gene upgrades for Mind Tap. Although I’d expected to receive them on Koban.” The last part sounded disappointed, as he looked at the tame seeming city starting to grow around Haven’s fledgling spaceport.

  Maggi offered her hand, and grinned. “Don’t worry Bill; you’ll still receive the mod on Koban. It’s only a short in-system Jump. By the way, I want you to call me Maggi, not Doctor. We’re striving to eliminate some of the formality that Hub society ingrained in us for three centuries. We’re too far outside their influence here to pretend we share the same lifestyle and experiences now.

  “When you get to Koban, I’m sure you’ll enjoy seeing the world where the bulk of your new genetics evolved. All except for the Prada longevity gene complex, and the nanite induced age regression, which we got from Human Space. Are you going to opt for the latter? It’ll change your appearance enough that you can’t go back to active duty as Sergeant Crager. You’d look young enough to pass for your own wayward son.”

  “No thanks. I’ll stay looking my present age for a time, Mam. I’m enjoying being back in the field, working with some of the young men I helped train, and find that I’m able to keep up with them.”

/>   He looked at Tet. “I’ll also volunteer to try out the new chip for communicating directly with our alien friends over there, and with other Kobani from inside Tachyon Space, provided that technology will work for us.” He nodded towards the Raspani and Torki, the first friendly aliens he’d seen directly. There had been Mind Taps and Tri-Vids about them of course.

  “I haven’t spent much time in space or in a Jump Hole in my career up to now, but I think with the long life I might have, that this will change. I’d like to be able to phone home, so to speak.”

  Mirikami broke in. “Bill, if you wish, you can come along with me and I’ll introduce you to Blue and Coldar. They’re going to brief me on what they learned about the new communications ability that Cal and Mel experienced.”

  “I’d like that, and to meet some of our allies at last.” He looked at Maggi. “If I have the time that is. When were we going to Koban?”

  “You have plenty of time, because I was going along to the science building with Tet. I want to hear what they learned as well. I can bed my randy Captain later.”

  “Maggi!” Mirikami protested in mild outrage.

  As it happened, all of them on the ramp wanted to hear the briefing, since the subject matter concerned technology that any Kobani might wish to have. The entire group followed along behind Blue and Coldar. The aliens, waddling and skittering respectively, were sharing clicking, scraping, squeals and lip smacking sounds as they engaged in a conversation, walking at the front of the mixed group. The topic appeared to be on the subject of human sexuality, and from behind them, their body language suggested there was frequent alien equivalents to laughter.

  When they reached the large segmented laboratory, divided into human, Torki, and Raspani designed equipment, and various shared areas of research, they were led to an auditorium type room, equipped with multispecies seating, and holographic visual presentation projectors. A number of human scientists joined them from other parts of the lab. One of them was Alex Born, who had been the fourth Kobani recipient of the Raspani designed chips. Coldar went to the front, to speak first.

  Unlike a human, he didn’t make any preliminary remarks or introduce himself, diving directly into the explanation of why the Philodor Torki had improved their Olts, and how it was done. The clicks, scrapes, and chittering of Torki speech was subsumed beneath the amplified sound of Standard, issuing from the sound replicator attached to his carapace and fed from his Olt, which handled the translation.

  The translator program was operating somewhat differently when Coldar was not in normal conversation mode. The change in voice quality oddly seemed to resemble Dillon’s, because Coldar had apparently modeled his lecture mode of speech around that of the human scientist, after hearing one of his presentations on genetics. It brought a smile to all of the humans present except one. Dillon himself appeared oblivious to the obvious mimicry, probably because his own voice sounded differently to him than it did to others. Coming from a large purple and yellow crab, it was incongruous, but easily understood.

  “Because of the previous feral Krall infestation on Philodor, few places were safe for even the seashore dwelling Torki, who were forced to migrate to the smallest of islands for isolation. The sea life on Philodor does not produce the sort of calcium carbonite buildup of microscopic sea life, which could form the small islands your language refers to as coral atolls. In addition, Krall interference with ecology had produced global warming, and rising sea levels had long ago covered many low islands and swamped shallow shores. For safety and dispersion from possible returning Krall visitors, the Torki there spread to widely isolated points in the oceans, well beyond the normal Olt communication range.

  “Here on Haven, and most worlds where Torki have been transplanted, our colonies have remained within one or two thousand miles of one another, with linkage between the most distant outposts made through colonies strung in between. On Philodor, to remain scattered and hidden if a Krall clanship returned to look for them, they found it necessary to spread far apart, as much as to the opposite side of the planet. There were too few in-between colonies to form continuous Olt links between each far-flung population. We have long known that an Olt’s linkage is not blocked by intervening mountains, or by the curvature of the planet, because the range dependency had nothing to do with physical obstacles. There is a form of quantum entanglement used to link the Olts of a colony, and if a colony is moved to a new planet, where other Torki already live, a synchronization of the Olts of the two colonies automatically takes place when the distance involved drops below the designed built-in range limit.

  “The Philodor Torki experimented, and learned that the range limit, and a preset number of quantum entangled particles to use in our Olts apparently was set thousands of years ago by the Olt’kitapi, based on the average colony separation distance that our primitive ancestors maintained on our well-populated original home world. We outgrew that limit as our civilization matured, but we were not hampered by establishing closely spaced breeding colonies on new worlds, so it was never an issue. After the Krall came, we were not permitted to have many breeding colonies, and those we did have were kept close together for Krall manufacturing convenience.

  “On Philodor, they solved their range limit for wider colony dispersal by increasing the number of quantum entangled particles, and using more than one type of entangled particle. The various new quantum entangled systems improved the sensitivity of the links between distant Olts, making the entanglement more stable and provided redundancy. It wasn’t physical objects or distance placed between Olts that caused the original range limit. It was the sensitivity of so few entangled particles, which were subject to disruption by external forces the farther away the Olts were. That ended the links when two Olts were moved too far apart.”

  Coldar stopped talking, as if he’d made his point. All was clear, at least to his mind.

  Seeing frowns and puzzled expressions on the faces of the non-physicists in the audience, Max Born offered a clarification.

  “Gracious Ladies and Gentle Men, what Coldar has implied is that the Philodor Torki made their Olts vastly more sensitive, by increasing the degree of quantum entanglement that had always made them work. They now have a signal level well above the old noise level, which caused a loss of usable signal, a signal that was always present, but which was washed out over longer distances. Blue has an explanation as to how this new sensitivity relates to the effect discovered when the individuals on the Mark and on the Beagle were within Tachyon Space.” He motioned for Blue Flower Eater to address the group.

  The Raspani wrinkled his forehead in the frown looking smile of his race. “I have learned to limit my technical explanation to humans that are non-scientists.” He then reconsidered what he meant by non-scientists.

  “I mean those of you that do not specialize in physics. We have come to realize that humans have learned far more of biology and genetics than Raspani, Torki, and Prada have, even if all of our knowledge of this subject were combined. Other than a small gene change made by the Prada, to lengthen their lives to create older and wiser leaders, none of us ever dared to modify our own genes. In this too, you humans show more adventure than do we.” He squeezed in his elbows in their version of a shrug.

  “You already have learned that your superconducting nervous systems and your Mind Tap ability can entangle and modulate the movement of the lowest energy tachyons, which have effectively infinite velocity. This is the basis for your demonstrated ability to impress your thoughts onto that weak tachyon medium, where it exists as a pattern that persists for days, before the background noise causes it to fade away, yet the range is vast. We determined long ago that the Olts of the Torki and our Raspani mind enhancers communicate in a similar fashion, using quantum entanglement of the weakest particles of Tachyon Space. The range was short in Normal Space due to limited sensitivity of our devices.

  “One of your pre-interstellar era scientists called this ‘spooky action at a distance.’ I
f I understand the non-scientific meaning of spooky in this example, your Albert Einstein argued that the accepted formulation of quantum mechanics was incomplete. For humanity, it was certainly true that your knowledge was incomplete, but it was not wrong about this. Quantum entanglement does exist, and works in our universe and in Tachyon Space. The entangled low energy tachyons with infinite velocity, explains the instantaneous information transfer at any distance.

  “The new Philodor Olts, with the larger number and different types of entangled particles, can also modulate and use the entangled quantum property of infinite velocity low energy tachyons to transport the instantaneous effects observed. When a Kobani enters or exits Tachyon Space, your superconducting nervous system can impose a preformed thought pattern of your targeted thoughts upon a vast number of entangled low energy tachyons, which retains the impression of your thoughts for a time. When the targeted mind that matches that stored mental pattern also enters Tachyon Space, the pattern you left behind passes through their brains and minds many times in an instant, collapsing a number of superimposed states that comprise the thoughts intended only for them.

  “With a Comtap chip embedded, a Kobani will now be able to send modulated patterns continuously through the same low energy tachyons while you are in Tachyon Space. When you tested the first chip design here at Koban, you didn’t have sufficient and redundant enough quantum entanglement circuitry that could detect those continuous patterns. Your minds, without a chip, were able to create and detect the patterns one time, as you entered or exited Tachyon Space, passing between the universes. The new Olts from Philodor were aboard the Beagle, where you wished to communicate thoughts sent from the Mark. The minds of your two human subjects on the Beagle were sent the usual thought pattern, a frozen signal so-to-speak, targeted at the designated minds for the brief moment when the men on the Mark entered Tachyon Space.”