Koban 4: Shattered Worlds

by Stephen W Bennett

  Frakod, with intimate knowledge of the plans details, suggested a favorable compromise. “My Tor, the first system you selected from my list has the largest planet of all those that you intend to use. The death ship told the soft one it would require almost two days to build the energy required for full disruption. Why not send the death ship to the first system in two days even before the last four clanships reach the Earth system. They will already be in place near Earth before the death ship finishes its visits to the first three stars. That way you need wait only the next two days to send the death ship to start your revenge.”

  That was something Telour wanted to hear. Frakod had studied the list of star systems carefully, with the goal of pleasing the Tor Gatrol and using the good fortune of the chance meeting with the war leader to his own best advantage. His advice was always devised to give Telour something he wanted, or liked to hear. Without any knowledge of Telour’s relationship with former Tor Gatrol Kanpardi, Frakod’s mannerisms meshed with Telour’s because they harbored the same degree of self-serving ambition, and both instinctively understood the need to serve the ambitions of the leaders that could reward them.

  “You say things you know I want to hear, and offer me valid reasons for doing what you propose. Make the announcement in the great hall, Frakod. The departure will happen in two days, not one week. The earlier departure time will also serve me better. The vote for new Joint Council representatives could happen in four days, and with the early launch I will have more influence on the selection of which high status candidates from the Great and Major clans are chosen. I will offer my support for those candidates that will in turn support my actions before the new Joint Council. With my revenge on humanity already started, I will have greater influence on each clan’s voting.”

  Just like that, another two days from the ticking clock for humanity’s future was skipped.

  ****

  Mirikami turned to the others on the Mark’s Bridge, describing what he’d just received by Comtap. “Another patrol boat report. This is the second set of four clanships that have performed a White Out at a colony world, in a Kuiper belt region. Both exits were well beyond the outer planets. If we allow for the hours of delay for the gamma rays to reach the inner system, and we promptly hear about them as we just did, Jakob says the Jump time from K1 matches perfectly with the time of departure of sixteen clanships that left there together a few days ago. It looks like they sent four ships to each of these two stars. We may be seeing this happen two more times for the last eight clanships. I don’t know what they’re up to, stopping so far out, and so few of them.

  “At Meadow, they are about 32 AUs out, well past the two outer gas giants. They were almost ten AU’s beyond the outermost super Jovian, named Thor, which could have shielded their gamma ray burst from the inner system if they had done their exit close to that. Thor is about seven times the mass of Jupiter, so if they had been interested in hiding their arrival they sure could have done that.”

  He paused to talk to the AI. “Jakob, show a hologram from K1, where we are, out to those two stars, and show possible points beyond them for where the other two sets of clanships might reach inhabited star systems, allow for just another week of travel.”

  A translucent three-dimensional image appeared above the control console, with K1 glowing red at the center, where the Kobani presently were located, and the two stars where the patrol boats had reported the Krall clanships arriving were displayed in glowing white.

  Thad had finally become involved again in the war, after his wife Marlyn had died fighting a month ago here at K1. He noticed something immediately. “They went pretty far. Both of the stars are well into the Hub region. I didn’t hear what systems they were.”

  Mirikami reached into the image with a finger to identify one point. “The system closest to K1 is Meadow, a G7 main sequence star. If you haven’t been there, it’s not such a pastoral world as its name suggests. I made a few runs there for Interworld Transport in my former life. It once was a major food producer when the Old Colonies only reached out to about a hundred light years from Earth, about four hundred fifty years ago. Meadow is almost 93 light years from Earth, and is much deeper into the Hub sphere than either New Glasgow or Alders, which were just hit by those big raids. These clanships could be scouts for future raids, but why send four of them when one would do? That seems inefficient for the Krall, and they’re much too far out from Meadow to observe details of its defenses.” He shrugged.

  “Meadow is a bustling metropolitan world now, with major manufacturing located in orbital factories, and it has very restricted mining operations that are not permitted to permanently scar the landscape. There are still a lot of fields, meadows, and uncut forests, just not so many methane producing sheep and cattle now. The farms gave way to urban development, but environment still has a very high priority there.

  “The population numbers I just pulled from Jakob has it at an uncrowded and closely regulated two point four billion at the last census. They have orbital defense platforms, rail guns, and the usual raider defenses around each of the major cities. They have the typical hundred thousand strong planetary defense forces, equipped with heavy weapons according to Jakob, and have shuttles for rapid deployment. The navy normally posts several heavy cruisers in the system, since they buy supplies and technology from Meadow and it’s supposed to be a good shore leave planet. After so much fighting elsewhere recently, there probably aren’t any navy ships there right now. Even so, four clanships are not much of a threat.”

  He paused a moment to get a quick data dump from the AI. “The second system is Tau Boötis A, and Bootstrap is the only habitable planet around the primary and it was nicknamed that by the freelance private explorers that found it. The name stuck despite renaming efforts later. This system is one of the handfuls of binary stars we’ve colonized. There’s a red dwarf orbiting at about 240 Astronomical Units, well out of the way. A large planet was detected close to the primary star way before we even had Jump travel, and Bootstrap was only found when we visited there later. It’s the third planet out in an orbit well outside the gas giant, and sandwiched between another small Mars sized rocky world with a CO2 atmosphere, and a Neptune sized planet that’s just outside an asteroid belt.

  “I’ve never been there, but the system has a thriving gas mining operation from the atmosphere of the inner hot gas giant, which is about five times the mass of Jupiter, located close to the star. That one takes only a bit over three days to complete an orbit.

  “The star itself is hotter, larger, and much younger than Sol, and the primitive life on Bootstrap required a lot of terraforming before the planet became comfortable for people. That must have worked out well, because even though it was settled a hundred years later than Meadow was, it has a population of three point six billion. It has better defenses than Meadow, and the navy, and everyone else I guess, buys the heavy hydrogen they mine from the gas giant for use in fusion bottles. This system is only 51 light years from Earth.” He mentally checked with Jakob for some facts.

  “The Krall raided there only once, with a clanship that dropped off sixteen single ships early in the war, but they have not been back there since Poldark was invaded. I don't know why the Krall would need to scout this system now; they know its layout already, and they won’t get fresher details on defenses way out where they are.”

  “Perhaps they plan raids at Meadow and Bootstrap in the future?” Maggi suggested, and then asked, “What colonies come after Bootstrap along that same general route?” The AI heard the question and highlighted stars from Meadow, past Bootstrap, and stars beyond them.

  Mirikami was about to say that the last Krall raids had proven too costly in clanships, and they would likely consolidate their forces at Poldark and New Dublin until more ships were built. Then he saw the next white dot of a colony star along that irregular line Maggi had caused to be lit. Having the display centered on K1 had disoriented him for a moment. There were other stars
highlighted farther away in the same direction in Human Space, but one just after Bootstrap drew his attention.

  Leaning forward to look at the pinpoints, he suddenly grew more serious. He asked aloud rather than via Comtap, “Jakob, the next closest star along that route after Bootstrap, is that Eta Boötis A?”

  The AI answered on speaker, for the benefit of everyone on the Bridge. “Yes Sir. It is also called Murphrid A.”

  Mirikami, being the only Spacer presently on the Bridge, while Noreen was below having lunch with other captains, had the advantage over the bio scientists and military men that were looking on in curiosity. He had started his military career in the PU navy, thus required to learn the star names of significance in Human Space, particularly those for colonies in the Hub area, who perhaps justifiably believed that they were the center of everything that was of greatest importance to humanity.

  Sarge, an educated civil engineer, and former ground pounder from the once Rim world Poldark, admitted his interstellar ignorance. “I’ll bite. From your tone of voice what do you find so important about Eat a Boot, eh?”

  His pun drew the usual groans, but Mirikami answered in a grave tone of voice. “I guess all of you know it by the name of its most important habitable planet. Pittsburg II.”

  “Oh, sure.” Sarge answered. “The industrial giant of the PU. Where much of the Hub’s metals are mined and shipped out. Probably eighty percent of the navy’s ships started life as ingots made there.”

  Mirikami nodded. “It’s what Maggi would say was called a blue collar world when it was founded. Now the system has the second highest population in Human Space. It’s second only to the Earth-Mars combined populations. There are at least eight billion people on Pittsburg II and probably a quarter billion people on orbital stations, moons, and one other rocky planet named Hematite, where the miners and their families live in large domed habitats. The system’s only 37 light years from Earth.”

  Maggi and Dillon had grown up on Rhama, a New Colony, and had a better education concerning the Hub worlds of Human Space than did Rimmers. Maggi asked again, “Do you think the Krall are planning to work their way into the Hub by raiding these commercially important and heavily populated planets after all?”

  Dillon had accepted Mirikami’s reasons for doubting the sixteen clanships were doing any scouting for more raids, which the Krall couldn’t afford to conduct right now. “It isn’t for raids. I see you pulling at your lip again, Tet. What have you got on your mind that’s bothering you? The Dismantler ship?”

  Mirikami looked at the star display and nodded. “None of you see the Sol system highlighted do you? However, it’s there just past Pittsburg II. It isn’t lit in white, because Maggi asked Jacob to highlight colonies. Earth isn’t a colony. Let me reverse things a bit, taking K1 out of the center of the display.

  “Jakob, place a green dot for Earth at the center of the same scale display, and highlight just the three Hub colonies we’ve been talking about.”

  The perspective shifted and a green dot appeared at the center of a spherical star field, with three bright white specks off to one side.

  “Jacob, now put the end tip of a gray toned transparent cone at Earth, and set its dimensions only wide enough to contain all three Hub world systems that were lit up in white, and place those stars along the average of the central axis of the cone.”

  When it appeared, the cone was remarkably slender because it only needed to be wide enough to contain the three other white dots of stellar systems that Mirikami had designated, and the cone angled away from the green dot at the pointed tip.

  Maggi was quicker than the others were. “Holy crap, the cone leads right to Earth!”

  “Now you see what worries me.” He said. “I need to send this information to Bledso, and ask her if she has war ships to post at each of these systems, and perhaps to others within that cone. However, they might travel too slowly to do any good if this is where that Olt’kitapi ship will go. These could be candidate systems for it, and maybe only one will be selected.” Not knowing Telour’s proposal, he was thinking on too small a scale, one star only.

  “I think we need to start traveling ourselves in that direction, and divert any other Kobani ships near them if they are closer, although I can’t think of any that aren’t with the navy or at Koban, and thus farther away. I’ll only leave two ships here to watch K1, and six each of us can head for the three closer stars to us. The navy does have ships at Luna Base to use in Sol system. I want to get a look at these clanships and the area around where they did their White Outs at Meadow.”

  For convenience, the twenty Kobani ships had been physically docked together to facilitate face-to-face discussions. It was time for the captains to return to their individual ships, and conduct Jumps to where the Krall might be preparing to cause a disaster, on a truly astronomical scale.

  ****

  Telour made a spectacle of the launch of the Olt’kitapi ship, making certain his reference to it being a death ship rather than a living ship was used by his aides. He had been aboard the ship when it had made its previous departure here, for the scouting trip into Human Space, so he was perfectly aware that it could safely Jump directly from the tarmac where it sat. Two of his K’Tals had described it’s vanishing from where it was parked with a boom, and that they had investigated the surface of the pavement and had detected no damage from when it formed the Jump Hole.

  The old stories in the histories about planetary surface departures had proven to be accurate. However, they hadn’t described the boom adequately enough to preserve his dignity in another moment. In a show (of bravery?) for those watching from the dome or via live images, he stood alone, only three leaps from the craft as its main hatch irised shut. He had the foresight to retract his external ultrasonic ears, but he should have considered why there was a boom at all when it departed. Then it was gone!

  The instant rush of atmosphere to fill the sudden vacuum swept him forward, and as the crash of thunderous colliding air rebounded, he was first shoved forward by the blast of hurricane force wind, arms windmilling and talons scraping on the tarmac to keep his balance. Then on the explosive rebound, he was lifted up and tossed a leap backwards, landing on his rump. He leaped instantly upright and turned around, partly deafened, and swiftly went to the nearby dome entrance. It was with relief when he watched the recorded replay that the dust raised by the implosion and rebound had completely concealed his landing on his cloaca. He retained most of his public dignity, but he seethed internally.

  The two K’Tals that had described the previous departure as merely a “boom” were quickly sent on vital missions into human space, to gather samples of the new stealth coatings used on the hulls of navy ships. It was unlikely they would forget to tell him anything he needed to hear for making a smart and informed decision, ever again.

  This unnoticed loss of his regal bearing didn’t detract from the pleasure he felt at having initiated his personal revenge on all of humanity. He’d had to arrange for Kanpardi’s death to gain the authority to start this process, and the satisfaction had been too long in coming.

  He’d suffered the status loss of the disastrous attack on K1 and the necessary postponement of the invasion of New Glasgow. Then his apparently vanished trackers could not find the where human fleet had fled. Because of that, he’d sent two punitive raids against Alders and New Glasgow. Those fleets were instead found by the missing navy task forces, and sent back to K1, licking their wounds.

  Finally, after this week was over and the death ship had done its work, all he’d have to do is wait for the return of his observers, one hand of clanships at a time, with the news and recordings of the staggering destruction unleashed by his orders. Then he would wait for the human government leaders to crawl to him, to submit to his will as the magnitude of their losses became clear to them.

  ****

  Pildon Fetra disliked what he was being made to do. However, he was hardly opposed to killing, particularly o
f creatures he didn’t even know. After all, he was a forerunner of the evolved Krall alive today, even if they declined to acknowledge their beginnings from his people’s warlike original genetic stock.

  Aside from the millennia of forced evolution that separated Krall and Krall’tapi now, a single small but key genetic change was all that had initiated the divergence, which had a major cultural impact. His people did not experience the rages and desire to kill they once felt, and didn’t experience the rewards of extreme pleasure from the act of killing. The Olt’kitapi, with an original ancient Krall clan’s approval, had genetically modified them to alter the function of a single gland that produced the brain stimulant that had pushed warriors, male and female, to react with violence when slightly provoked or challenged, and drawing pleasurable feelings from the process of acting on the impulses.

  With their advanced understanding of minds and mental processes, the Olt’kitapi had convinced a small clan that their future, measured against the larger clans, would lead to their eventual destruction no matter how well they fought. They forecast that without a change, none of the Krall of that era would ever progress enough to leave their home planet, and would soon destroy themselves in endless wars. They offered a way out of their evolutionary dead end.

  The foundations of the feral Krall problem had already been created, as every clan had bred to produce as many eggs as possible, for selecting ever more and better warriors. This artificial imperative, to breed without limits, required them to cull the excess young. There was no mate-to-mate bonding or early infant care, and thus no urge to restrict breeding, or form emotional bonds between mates, or with their young.

  The Krall’tapi, as they became after the glandular change, recovered a former ability to learn to bond with a mate. They were able to form family units again, which stayed together without the inflamed emotions to kill one’s mate when you didn’t agree. To no longer watch coldly, as offspring that displeased you died in savage fights with other hatchlings. The family bonding restored the means and motivation to restrict reproduction, something that had also been lost from Krall early origins. Even back when the racial split happened, females did not produce as many eggs as the modern Krall did now, and bonded Krall’tapi females became fertile less frequently, and seldom culled any of their two or three offspring if they appeared healthy.