Koban 4: Shattered Worlds

by Stephen W Bennett

  Mirikami, who had first figured out the use of his own Krall tattoo as a key to clanships, suggested the advanced ships would not respond to tattoos on a Krall, with its unique quantum key. Perhaps the Krall’tapi had a different key. It wasn’t clear how, if they were Krall prisoners, they could pass on a quantum key to one another that the Krall couldn’t also use. Twenty three thousand years ago, the Krall’tapi and warrior Krall were the same species, even if they were not now.

  Pulling on his lip, Mirikami said, “It probably isn’t a different tattoo, but rather the ship recognizing who is wearing or carrying the key code. We repeatedly hear the Krall describe these ships as intelligent, even as alive. That suggests a more advanced form of artificial intelligence than our own AIs, which isn’t surprising, given the other technological and quantum advances that ancient race made. I’m afraid we aren’t going to solve the problem of how these ships are used until the Krall use one. By all indications, it’s a one shot use for each, because the ships stop obeying instructions later.”

  Maggi took comments from a few others that offered opinions, but without concrete information to guide them, they eventually decided they would be forced to wait and see what happened. The conference ended, and everyone went back to normal routines.

  Mauss, who had been quiet and observant at the meeting, talked with her hosts, Maggi and Mirikami, returning with them to their residential quarters when staying in Xenos.

  “Tet, I see you let the aliens have an equal say in your meetings. They don’t provide fighters, so do they have an equal say in your combat decisions?”

  “Golda, the navy and army fight, but they certainly don’t have an equal say in our Kobani combat decisions. Our alien allies have contributed greatly to the technological edge we’re gaining on the Krall, and the PU military is benefiting from that as well, but they are not good fighters. There are some advances a Normal can’t take advantage of because they don’t have a superconducting nervous system, or other genetic advances. We know our capabilities, certainly better than planners that think of ways to fight like a Normal does. We consider other viewpoints, but are not bound by them when they differ from our own.”

  She nodded and changed subjects. “I suppose I’ll find out soon. Perhaps when we go to Koban tomorrow.”

  Maggi grinned. “The change won’t happen that fast, but it’s the day they’ll start. When you contacted us so soon to get the mods I was surprised. I expected you to spend a few weeks to several months in transitioning the fleet to the next Fleet Admiral.”

  “There’s not going to be a new Fleet Admiral. President Medford kept the two intact Task Forces under their present commanders, and promoted them. She combined the three remnant forces into a single Task Force and assigned some new ships to flesh out their ranks, and gave that to the navy’s first male admiral. A Jonathan Willfem, a son of a retired admiral who sits in on Medford’s staff meetings when navy affairs are discussed. Political connections help.

  “The three fleet elements will use several of your Comtap people in each, to tell them if, or I should say when, the Krall fleet raids a planet in force. The enemy has no idea we can react to attacks so quickly now, so we may catch them by surprise.”

  She had a question. “Tet, I understand that Bledso has asked you to furnish about another seven hundred Comtap people, to work on patrol boats in each of the populated systems, Hub worlds, New Colonies, and Rim worlds. Will she get them?”

  He nodded. “Yes. We have no shortage of volunteers. However, I’ll bet the volunteers will be surprised at how little contact they’ll have with the Hub worlds they watch over. Bledso probably isn’t going to give them much shore time unless they happen to be spec ops troopers, and Hub worlds are old hat to them. Some of them will report when part or all of the Krall fleet arrives to attack some system, and that information will pass to the navy and to us instantly. We’re making sure the volunteers have the most recent Comtap chip, like Maggi’s and mine for faster and continuous reports. After you get your mods, you can have one if you wish.”

  “I can’t wait.”

  Maggi pressed for an answer to an earlier question again. “Golda, you didn’t stick around long after you returned from K1 with the navy. You could have commanded the rebuilt task force I would think.”

  “Nope. I wasn’t even considered. I was a supernumerary to the president, and tied again to a third navy victory that came at too high a price. Everyone knows we won decisively this time, despite our losses, but if I stayed on as commander of a Task Force, the comparisons in the media to New Lance would linger, and I’d be a liability to the president.

  “Besides, I was ready to retire anyway before Chatsworth and Bledso came to me with their offer to go to K1. I want to do something new; the navy has been my entire adult life. There’s nothing newer than becoming a super woman with a long life.” She smiled.

  Maggi accepted her reasons. “We’ll Jump over to Koban in the morning. I’ll make sure Aldry and Rafe treat you right. By the way, I’ll bet you knew Admiral Jean Anderfem, both when she was active duty and as President Stafford’s military advisor. Aldry is her younger sister.”

  Mauss looked surprised. “No kidding? I still see Jean from time to time. I put her name up as a candidate for replacing me as Superintendent of the Luna Base Academy. I can tell her little sister more news of her family because I met some of them on Alders world, when I went there to talk Jean into considering taking my old job.”

  “I know she would like that. Chief Haveram’s brought back family records for all of our people formerly from Human Space, but those are not very personal. I guess I should call Haveram a Captain, even if he objects.”

  “I came out here on the Falcon you know. He told me his story, and considers Chief to be his real first name, not Mike.”

  “I know. It’s all that his friends use, so that now includes you.”

  Switching subject, Mauss nudged Mirikami’s arm as they entered the apartment. “How do you know how many of these Dismantler ships are left? None of the aliens mentioned that tonight.”

  “I’ve told them, but I should have mentioned it myself. Parkoda’s mind implied that perhaps a hand of those ships was active, but he didn’t know which of those he looked at were usable. Another Krall sub leader, whose mind I tapped when we scouted K1, said the Joint Council was worried about the dwindling number of operational ships they had left.

  “Telour, a Krall we told you we have history with, was vying for the position of Tor Gatrol by proposing a new strategy of using them against humanity. We don’t know if his proposal won him the promotion, or if what he proposed was really so new. He may not have survived the destruction of the council dome. Regardless, if he explained his plan to the council, that will have survived his death, and whoever is in charge could surely use one of the ships by whatever plan he proposed.

  “I can’t say for certain, but I don't think the Joint Council of the Krall would permit more than a single ship to be used against us at this time, since they take the long view of their future, and might need them in future wars. None of the other Krall I have tapped knew anything about them outside their use appearing in their histories, particularly in their early wars. However, after each use, the particular ship involved apparently went dormant or vanished.

  “The supposition of the Raspani is that the minds of the ships are modeled after the Olt’kitapi minds, and they somehow imbued them with morality and a sort of conscious, making them unwilling to take lives, particularly on a large scale. Our own AIs certainly don’t have that built into them, perhaps saying something unpleasant about our own minds, which they are modeled after. We only block them from knowingly killing humans, and if that happens by accident, they don’t go home feeling guilt and shut down. In any case, very little of what we did at K1 would have worked if our AIs objected to killing.”

  “So if only one ship is called to action, you think only one planet will be attacked?”

  “Golda, you were
there. We couldn’t learn how they work, nor from what range. Why the ships stop working, we don’t know. If they won’t kill planets they know have people living on them, I don’t know how they get them to do anything destructive to them in the first place. It would seem we might have only one planet at risk, which is terrible enough, but humanity can survive that if we don’t give in to their demands, and let them defeat us at their leisure.”

  Maggi voiced her own worry. “I wish we knew what that Telour’s plan had been. What if he wanted to use all of the functional ships to attack that many of our worlds? You said previously you thought there were four left, and we hurt them badly at K1 this time. The council might change their mind on limiting their use. Berserker’s rage might rule now.”

  Mirikami revealed another worry he’d been concealing. “If they do, the PU government itself might not survive planet losses of that magnitude. The voters would put them all on the street. Although, it might matter which planets were hit, particularly if it’s only one. Forgive a cynic Golda, when it comes to Hub worlds. They were barely motivated to rebuild the military when the first few dozen Rim worlds were raided. Even the first two invasions didn’t spark high motivation for those old world populations to make sacrifices. That didn’t come until heavily populated Poldark was invaded after becoming a New Colony, and several other New Colonies received raids.”

  He offered his opinion of the PU’s probable reaction. “If only a single Rim World bites the dust, I think the Hub will say the right things, but won’t feel the Rimmers pain. They’ll back off attacking the Krall worlds and avoid provoking them again. Except the Kobani won’t let that happen. We will not back off, because the Krall absolutely will never do that. This is win or die for us.”

  ****

  “Many billions will die with this weapon!” Telour was giddy with blood lust as the living ship settled to the ground on Telda Ka. At least as much as a Krall could be giddy, and who had already participated in, or had relayed orders from Kanpardi that had resulted in the deaths of a hundred million humans. Only this time, the prey animals would die because of his orders, from his planning and decisions. The histories would name him as responsible for this retribution.

  Tor Gatrol Telour’s name would be among the most remembered, of the thousands elevated to heroic status in the Histories. The Great Path would carry many of his progeny.

  The specific hatchlings and novices that derived from his seed would not be known for a certainty, although he was now a valuable contributor to Graka clan’s bloodlines, and for trading eggs with other clans for status points. He had mated with the highest status females of his own clan, and with females whose clans had bartered with his clan leader, for submitting their best female warriors for a mating, provided they had a small share of the eggs from the same nesting cycle.

  Any future warriors, from breeding cycles to which Telour had contributed, and that later showed promise as a good fighter and displayed exceptional leadership skills, would be considered a potential offspring of this generation’s finest (living) war leader. True or not, better warriors and leaders of the near future would be assumed to have some of Telour’s genes. Just as Telour was presumed to have had some of Kanpardi’s genes, from one of that leader’s many breeding cycle contributions.

  Kanpardi’s frozen seed still ranked high in status value, even after his death. However, when Telour completed his revenge, his status point shares of the estimated billions of prey deaths would eclipse that of any Krall leader of the last ten thousand years. Telour was about to exceed his greatest expectations, although he had not yet reached what he considered would be his greatest accomplishment in the histories.

  He believed the reluctant and forced compliance of humans, the most Worthy Enemy the Krall had encountered in their long history, would be his greatest legacy. This most clever and devious of enemies would be made to bend to Telour’s will, to cease all space warfare and provide only the ground forces needed for the culling of lesser warriors from the bloodlines of every clan. Future warriors on the Great Path would be more flexible in their thinking, smarter, and innovative enough to match future opponents similar to humanity, which they might face. Strength, speed, and powerful bodies would now be supplemented with improved minds, as they still sought to derive superconducting nerves. Minds that thought like his own, Telour thought. There was no ego like a bold aggressive Krall ego.

  The largest Graka clan dome, out of their cluster of four, was being used temporarily as the focal point for reforming the Joint Council. Telour had used his influence and control to delay that process, by sending many of the higher status members of the Great and Major clans out with the fleet, to seek and destroy elements of the human navy, to attack whatever world where they were found. The trackers of the retreating navy ships had not reported back, so either the human’s had hidden their trail too well, or by some trick, they had destroyed their pursuers.

  Telour didn’t want to wait longer, because that left too many high status warriors from other clans to be elected as members of the new Joint Council, which then might try to reign in Telour’s ambitions.

  He didn’t need to be overly concerned with defending Telda Ka. The invasion of New Glasgow was delayed indefinitely now, something the human navy knew, and there was little else humans could do here to help them protect their worlds. They would know punishing attacks were coming for some of their planets. Defending their worlds, something the humans always did, would prevent another and pointless mass attack on Telda Ka. No human or Krall would be in a position to interfere with Telour’s own plans.

  When the living ship appeared, barely a hundred miles above the planet, there was some confusion and a scramble to intercept it by orbiting clanships. There was no burst of gamma rays to announce its arrival, as it was claimed happened with these ships, and it was at the upper fringes of tenuous atmosphere. That appeared to be a slightly risky distance for a ship to perform a White Out, and inside the limits of how close a clanship could be targeted. He didn’t know how this ship could arrive so close.

  There should be significant intersection with tenuous gasses that could cause serious damage to the surface of the hull, and internally as well. With a living crew, the tissue damage might be fatal even for a Krall if it was concentrated in the brain. To White Out deep in the atmosphere would destroy a clanship, causing damage to the surface directly below. That was why all clanships had built-in navigation interlocks, which prevented a careless pilot from Jumping and intersecting with a planet or its atmosphere. That included any object of greater mass than an asteroid or comet of roughly a mile or so in diameter. Objects of low mass didn’t register on the clanship’s mass detector, so a Jump to intersect low mass objects that you could see was possible.

  Ironically, human ships, if built a mile in length and of heavy steel, would have been immune to the intersect mode of Jump attacks. However, they would still fall prey to a nearby forming Jump Hole that sheared away segments of their hulls.

  Thinking of the living ship and clanship limits, Telour wasn’t sure if the stolen clanships had such intersect limitations anymore. The clanships under human control had clearly been able to exceed the accelerations a Krall pilot was limited to using. Because a human could not survive the internal stress, it seemed to prove they must have had an AI system controlling them. The quantum lock bypass was a mystery that Telour believed was solved if humans had discovered the key, delivered by a Katusha in the form of a tattoo. However, a nonliving AI could not receive a quantum key tattoo. It seemed a new mystery replaced the old. He didn’t have an answer and he was not going to request input from other clans.

  That not even a Krall could have survived some of the maneuvers that were observed by the human controlled ships was restricted knowledge. Telour had managed to keep this from becoming widely known outside his staff so far, but the witnesses of the actions of enemy controlled clanships would share stories and opinions. Stories of humans that could outperform a Krall was t
oo alien a concept, to a species that had spent nearly twenty five thousand years of selective breeding to become the physically superior masters of every race.

  By a com set communication from one of his aides aboard the ship, Telour had ordered the large Olt’kitapi craft, five times the volume of a clanship, to land near the dome entrance with its unopened side hatch facing the dome, so he could make a highly visible approach to the ship, all alone. Unlike Kanpardi before him, Telour understood the value of self-promotion. Perhaps he thought this was needed because he was less well respected than had been Kanpardi, who had acted for the good of his race more than he had for himself or his clan. Telour’s image would be sent to every dome and repeated to any clanship commander or pilot that chose to watch. Other than some resentful surviving Tanga clanships, nearly all would be watching. It was a great day for him.

  Having this moment recorded also would prevent, or at least delay, the alteration of the histories over the millennia. Graka clan was in ascendency now, Tanga clan had once been, and others had been highest in different eras. The histories gradually “evolved” with the passages of time, to shift credit, or blame, for events that a rising clan wanted to display as their own exaggerated contributions in the distant past, perhaps diminish their failures or exaggerate failures of other clans. The events themselves were seldom altered, but who had been most responsible for a good or bad outcome could be. Telour wanted his role to be well documented, to make historical alteration difficult for later clans.

  As he neared the center of the side of the ship, moving at a more deliberate pace than the typical Krall run, a tall portal irised open and a low ramp was extruded from the hull material below the opening. It was not a metallic slab extending out and dropping to the ground as with a clanship, it was slower and silent.