Koban Universe 1
By Stephen W Bennett
Koban Universe 1
Text copyright © 2014 Stephen W Bennett
All Rights Reserved
Cover art designed by Misha Coutinho Richet,
[email protected]
www.facebook.com/pages/The-Book-Cover-Realm/559333740763541
These stories take place in the Koban Universe
and are derived from the Koban series of books.
This eBook is licensed for your personal use and enjoyment only. This eBook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please purchase your own copy from a distributor.
Thank you for respecting the months of long and hard work of the author.
This book is written in “American” English, so there may be some differences in spelling and usage than in other countries use of the language.
This is a work of fiction and all characters are fictitious or are portrayed fictitiously. Any resemblance to persons living or dead is purely coincidental.
************************
Contents
The Australian Krall
Bats of a Leather Flock Together
Kobani Kiddie Cappers
The Smuggler and the Crime Lord
The Australian Krall
Maggi Fisher had taken her friends advice, she went exploring on her hundred and twelfth birthday. Not that she looked her age. The latest round of genetic modifications had age regressed her, so that she looked less than a decade older than the two gene modified teenagers she took with her.
Cory Martin and Danner Greeves had received their own gene upgrades five months ago, right after their sixteenth birthday, the legal age of consent for making that decision. They wouldn’t notice the effects of the age limiting modification before age twenty-five. No one (not the adults, anyway) wanted someone around with life-long youthful hormones ruling their passions, exhibiting reckless behavior, and having a know-it-all attitude. That sort of behavior was reserved for powerful politicians.
This mismatched human trio was accompanied by two rippers, the huge tiger-like teal colored carnivores from the largest continent of the planet Koban. Kally and Kopper was an unmated young pair of those sentient predators, along for an adventure.
The sole mature member of the party found she had to cope with more than the normal dangers of exploring a large wild island. The nearly continent sized island was being called New Australia, mainly because it was shaped somewhat like a bent rectangle, and was in the southern hemisphere of the planet.
Standing beside the still yet-to-be-unloaded shuttle, Maggi was already questioning her sanity at agreeing to take on this “adventure.” Both boys and the two cats had immediately vanished into a forest, which surrounded the large clearing where they had landed.
To be fair to the four youngsters, Maggi had asked them to get out and scout the immediate surrounding for threats. However, she hadn’t expected them to disappear into the woods, racing to see who could reach the edge first. The decaying dome at the center of the mile wide clearing was what she had expected them to explore first. With her!
The dilapidated structure was another of the long abandoned habitats of the Krall, the large reptilian aliens that were at war with humanity. They had abandoned this savage heavy gravity world until they could selectively breed, and evolve to live and compete here, many generations in the future. The Krall were conducting a slow war of extinction in far distant Human Space, using their combat deaths to cull poor warriors, as they fought and killed entire human populations, to improve their breed of warriors.
Human combat test subjects, left behind on Koban to die when the Krall left nearly twenty-three years ago, had managed to solve their survival problems here with biotechnology. Specifically, extensive gene modifications. They had selectively employed genes from several Koban predators, to make a new race of the Homo sapiens species, which they called Kobanoid. Fully compatible to intermarry and reproduce with the other races of man.
The Kobani people now had an incredibly fast reacting organic superconducting nervous system, the carbon fiber muscles of the rippers, the night vision and enhanced sense of smell of those cats. Possibly the greatest physical gift from the rippers were the genes for contact telepathy. The cats used physical contact via a fleshy neck frill, to exchange thoughts and images with each other, and to sense the thrill of the kill from their dying prey when touched.
Humans, although a proven violent species, were not interested in sensing the terror a kill experienced as it died. Instead, they used their hands to touch each other to communicate telepathically, sending and receiving, pictures, emotions, and language, the latter only if the being they touched spoke a language. This communication worked between any species.
The Kobani had also borrowed the ultrasonic hearing of an airborne Koban predator, the wolfbat, and had incorporated genes for carbon nanotubes found in whiteraptors, to make their bones stronger, more flexible, and thus far more difficult to break. These traits combined to make them fully capable of competing with the fast, strong, high gravity native life of Koban, and so humans finally flourished here.
This current trip of exploration was one that Maggi’s other scientist friends had suggested she needed (and they secretly needed a break from her complaints of boredom). Everyone would benefit from knowing more about their lightly populated, partially explored world. Since this wasn’t suitable for a one-woman project, she sought other participants, and invited those that had free time to go with her. That proved to be only two boys who were between school sessions, sons of her closest friends. In addition, she found two young-adult rippers that wanted to go along for the exploration and hunting. Sometimes you take what you can get.
Looking at the tall trees, with dark blue leaves and thick black trunks, the sinister looking forest had swallowed up her enthusiastic but reckless young team. She shook her head. “I might as well have come alone.” She often grumbled to herself, when there was no one else to listen.
“I didn’t expect the cats to do much to help make camp, but those two damned boys could save me some back strain.”
She said this as she easily tossed an Earth-weight two hundred pound case of supplies out onto the teal colored grass and watched it slide ten feet, imparted with the force of her annoyance. On Koban, the case weighed the equivalent of three hundred Earth pounds. The pretty and petit woman hadn’t even needed to strain as she lifted the large heavy box. She just liked to gripe, and missed having someone present to listen.
She unloaded several more heavy boxes of camping gear, before she heard the first sounds from the direction of the dome.
There had been bird-like noises coming from the woods as soon as the rear hatch was opened. There also were tantalizing new scents on the breeze, which was blowing from the direction of the trees. She and the two boys were sensitive to the same smells available to the rippers, but their nasal passages didn’t contain as many receptors as did the much larger heads and nostrils of the cats, and thus the aromas were not quite as rich to them.
No sooner had she said, “Go out and scout the area for anything big and dangerous,” than all four of them were shoving to see who would get out of the hatch first.
Now, looking towards the dome more carefully, she saw that some of the armored window glass sections were missing. They had sprung from their frames and fallen to the dirt blown landing area of the old tarmac pavement. The half dozen openings she saw on this side of the structure would let in all manner of birds, and any animal that
could climb that high. There had to be other such chance openings around the curvature of the structure’s sides, which she couldn’t see. There were four major entrances, which also might have been left open. Storms in Koban’s dense, oxygen rich atmosphere pushed with greater force here than on lighter gravity planets. Without periodic maintenance over the last hundred or so years, the support frames of the abandoned dome had gradually shifted and warped slightly. Widows had come loose.
The noise she heard came from the direction of the dome, and she realized it was in the ultrasonic range of her newly adapted wolfbat hearing. She glanced to the sky automatically, to see if there were any wild wolfbat squadrons circling overhead. If any lived on this island, they wouldn’t have a truce agreement with humans, making people simply new prey animals for them.
However, there were none to be seen circling overhead. She could hear their ultrasonic calls, and if they dived on her, their echolocations of the distance to her would be a warning of their approach. She was armed, faster than they were by a significant margin, and considerably stronger. She’d hate to have to kill any of them, since she considered those at home almost pets. Nevertheless, some faint sound in the ultrasonic range had echoed through the empty passages of that dome, making its way to her ears.
She recalled what she heard, her memory organization having been improved by wolfbat sound processing and storage. The sound she’d heard wasn’t grouped like a multipart wolfbat cry. The dog-sized fliers didn’t have a true language, but every flock they had ever encountered had a considerable repertoire of complex calls, which produced cooperative action between squadrons of hunters, and between individuals of the flock.
The sound she had heard just now was less…; articulate was the word that came to her. More like a noisy squawk than communication.
Glancing back at the woods, she didn’t see anything unusual there. Certainly, not her co-explorers returning, who had likely been drawn into some impromptu hunt by the cats. This big island was isolated from the closest continental land mass by hundreds of miles of ocean. The animals isolated here were expected to have evolved to be quite different from those they knew on the three major continents, even if some of those species had managed to drift across the ocean on storm debris, over the long passage of time.
The birds and small flying reptiles they had seen darting about had appeared similar to those found elsewhere. Many of them probably migrated seasonally. They were much the same as those at home, even if sporting different colors and plumage, and had different songs, calls, or squawks. Actually, the large number of small flying creatures spoke against there being a flock of wolfbats in the dome, or even a nest nearby. Those animals preyed on other fliers, and kept the numbers down wherever a flock was found.
She could always use the transducer, embedded behind her right ear, to call to the two boys, so long as they stayed within a roughly twenty-mile transmission range. She wasn’t worried about them being out in the strange woods. Both boys were armed, and had two seriously dangerous predators with them as guardians and companions. That was if they even encountered anything too tough for them to handle on their own. They had returned from an expedition to Jura continent two weeks ago, having traveled with a larger party, and their fast reactions and deadly aim had been demonstrated multiple times on that trip.
There were K-Rex, raptors, huge carnivorous plesiosaurs on Jura, and other dangerous large and fast moving dinosaur analogues. That continent was surely a more dangerous place than this island. Arial surveillance and satellite imaging had not found any huge prey animals, and without those, there would be no need for predators to grow to giant size.
Maggi heard faint ultrasonic echoes again through the openings in the dome sidewalls. She made up her mind. She was here to explore, and that’s what she was going to do!
Talking to herself she muttered, “I’m going to see what lives inside that cavernous old dome right now. The boys will just have to set up camp alone when they get back.”
The two teens had bragged they knew how to do it like pros, after their camping trip and exploration up the Ricco River on Jura continent. If they wanted to sleep off the ground and inside a tent tonight, they’d damn well have to prove their boast. She locked the shuttle hatch and recoded the door with a simple four number code, doing it out of a smidgen of spite. The food was still inside, so it was a case of no-work-no-eat! She left them plenty of bottled water.
As any Kobani did, despite gene mod strength and fast reactions, she checked her two pistols. One was an old Krall made pistol, which fired caseless rocket propelled ammunition. She checked her fanny pack, holding eight magazines of sixteen-rounds each, making sure they were all full, and that she had soft nose slugs (for blunt force stopping power), armor piercing (if some thick skulled, or heavily muscled animal appeared), and one magazine of explosive rounds, just to make her feel complete. Her other hand weapon was a .45 automatic, a human made weapon. She had a spare thirteen round magazine for that, and ammo inside the shuttle.
The Krall pistol had nearly no kick because of the rocket propelled ammunition, and it was ultra-light weight. However, the .45 was a more comfortable fit riding against her hip, because the Krall weapon was bulkier. Maggi was more than strong enough to handle a larger bore weapon than the .45, but strength alone couldn’t keep the kick from jolting her slight built frame back sharply after each shot.
Both boys had carried their .50 semiautomatic rifles with them, as well as two pistols each, and there was a third rifle still here, for her. If the dome doors were locked, she considered the jump and climb she expected to make to reach the lowest opening on this side of the dome, where a third level window had fallen to the ground. At fifty-seven inches, the length of the .50 caliber bolt-action rifle was too close to her five feet two inches. The weight of it wasn’t a consideration for her, but having that length slung across her back could be. She left it in its case.
Besides, she wasn’t going hunting; she wanted to see what sort of birds had taken up residence in the old dome, and were making those high frequency squawks. She patted the hunting knife strapped on her right calf to confirm it was secure, and started to trot towards the dome, only a quarter mile distance.
There was small brush and grass growing in the thin layer of dirt that had blown over the wide circular landing pad pavement surrounding the dome, but no trees. Those had halted their relentless advance at the outer edge of the partly buried landing field. There was a half-mile of light teal colored grass on the open ground around the building, all that the thin soil covering would support.
As she neared the building, even her enhanced vision didn’t reveal a great deal inside the shadows of the missing windows. Dirt and dust had partly covered the intact windows ages ago, and relatively dim light leaked through them now. Out here in the sun, her ripper vision wasn’t adapted for that interior dim light. It would adjust immediately to the lower light levels, once she was inside.
Despite the shadows, she caught sight of something small and gray, which swiftly pulled back into a darker area. It seemed to start out moving on four limbs, and then rose up onto the rear set just as it vanished. It was a bit smaller than a wolfbat, and the brief glimpse showed it had a different body type, because there was no flight membrane stretched between the limbs.
She suddenly pulled up short and muttered. “Huh! They left the doors open.” She had just discovered that several of the ground level doors, under the overhang of the closest garage entrance were standing ajar. No need to jump up to scramble through a broken window. The doors of every other abandoned dome on Koban had been closed against the elements, and most were even locked.
The rifle would have been no encumbrance to carry by this route, but it didn’t seem worth returning for it now. She still wasn’t going hunting.
As she neared the closest door, which was standing open by almost two feet, she drew her .45. As her thumb pressed, and then slid the safety forward, the small power pack in the gun butt als
o chambered the first round with a soft clicking. Fast reactions or not, there was no reason not to be prepared.
In the shade of the overhang, her eyes quickly adapted. In the dust below the doorframe was a jumble of scuffs and marks. The small looking prints were indistinct, but there had been a lot of traffic through this doorway. A dome like this, if left open, made a great den for small animals to hide from their predators. It did occur to her that a den this large might also be home for some large predators.
Looking through the gap, there was only open floor visible, so she used one hand to push the door open wider. It pivoted on the hinges easily, without sticking or making a squeak. Krall construction used a composite form of carbon on door hinges, which appeared to be self-lubricating with a form of graphite. The ease of movement didn’t seem particularly odd. Unless perhaps the dome was old (it was), or if the doors were used far more frequently than expected.
She looked to each side and up, before sticking her head through the opening. Nothing waiting, and even the maintenance shop here appeared more barren that she had encountered at a half dozen other old domes. The Krall were wasteful, and often left behind useful items, such as their computers (rather poor quality anyway), trucks with fusion bottle power (very sturdy), and a small amount of furniture, broken weapons, old body suit uniforms or damaged armor. None of that was evident here.
She walked through what would be a maintenance area for vehicles at most domes, or a storage area for supplies, such as ammunition or small arms. The line of tough window material, which normally lined the next wall inside, had all been smashed, and the large wide swinging doors were torn off the hinges and piled haphazardly near a sidewall. There wasn’t enough undisturbed dirt here to leave identifiable individual tracks on the floor. There clearly was a considerable amount of traffic through the doors at times, but there wasn’t a sign of life at the moment. Not even the insects she expected to see, also unusual for as long as the place had been open to whatever wanted to enter.
Koban Universe 1 Page 1
