“Excellent, Gioni. A couple of you help him grab the tablecloths. We can cover the base of the pallet movers, and hang some on the cargo pad hooks on the lift walls, then lay some on the floors. At least the blood will not be as visible. There isn’t a lot to do about our stained suits, unless there are any more ideas?” He looked at them expectantly.
Gioni and Walter spoke nearly at the same time, both stopped and looked at each other for a moment. Walter, as senior Steward, continued. “The crew toilet on this deck has a three man shower, and a hose coupling for washing and rinsing. The warm water and hose might get us clean enough, if we don’t mind the wasted water. We were to refill at…”
Mirikami cut him off. “Let’s do it.”
Ten minutes later they were presentable enough for viewing from across a room, though not close up. The four movers had returned from the cargo hold while they sprayed off their suits in quick shifts.
This time there were fewer dead to collect, perhaps sixteen, the actual count as difficult as before, what with the gore, piled bodies and loose limbs. Mirikami recalled that this was where he had seen Doctor Fisher standing, as the black cloud had enveloped her petit figure, arms held high. She wasn’t here, so she evidently survived. Perhaps her cool and brave example had inspired others to do the same, possibly saving more lives.
They set to their task, more prepared than the first time. Two men went off to search for bodies elsewhere, and found the unfortunate mother and son, who had died during the markings.
Mirikami accompanied his men to the cargo hold, and felt a fresh bout of horror and sickness at two piles of bodies. The first stack, having risen too high for the men to pile them any higher, had become two piles, with bins and plastic tubs holding indescribable things that would not stack. Fresh spots of effluvium marked the places where his men had mimicked Doctor Martin’s earlier visceral reaction.
Mirikami, who had shared the unpleasant task he’d asked of his men, had fouled his just cleaned suit again. This time he was first to use the crew shower at this level, using hot water to clean off as much as possible. When he stepped out, he faced the gathered Stewards.
“Men, I sincerely thank you for performing a dreadful task, with as great an example of discipline and courage as I have ever seen under difficult circumstances. I anticipate that the Krall will have us eject these poor souls out the hatch soon, so perhaps cleaning your suits now would be a waste of time. I cleaned my own because I’m going to visit the Drive Room, and then I assume I’ll be returning to the Bridge to speak to Parkoda, the Krall leader. I’ll find out what we do next, and check on the progress for getting Jump ready.”
He came to attention, and saluted them, and they all returned it with a considerable feeling of respect. He had shared equally in the onerous work, when he could have simply ordered them to do it alone.
“I must ask that you standby here for a time, and a couple of you check on the progress of the cleaning bots. When a bot is free, have it clean the lifts and the floors in front for decks 7 and 8. When those are clean enough, I’ll let the passengers spread back up to them. I imagine decks 5 and 6 are quite crowded.”
Before he could leave, Walter had a question. “Sir, where are they taking us?”
“Gentlemen, all I have heard so far is the planet is named Koban, which is apparently where they have collected many other captives. They said its name means testing ground, testing what is anyone’s guess. I don’t know if that’s a captured planet, but the leader said it would become their home.
“Parkoda is a translator and described it as a camp that we can’t escape, but where they are needed to protect us if we go outside. Aside from that seeming contradiction, I can’t tell you any more about Koban. I hope to learn more, and to pass that information to everyone. As you can guess, probing them for information can be risky.
“From what I can understand, they are pleased to have caught so many humans alive in this raid, and intend to subject all of their captives to some sort of physical testing, once they have enough people. They have been conducting these raids for at least several years, and earlier prisoners were the ones that made the warning recording we heard. We may be in for an extended period of captivity.”
He didn’t see a reason to tell them it would be combat type testing, against their novice warriors. Time enough for that later, when the Krall’s killing efficiency wasn’t stacked where they could see the gory results.
Then he left them and went down the central stairs, not wishing to enter either of the still fouled lifts, passing through two crew country decks to speak with Ms. Willfem and her people.
The Drive Room hatch was open when he arrived, and a warrior was standing by the opening. Mirikami made a deliberate approach to the hatch, under the same intense scrutiny every Krall he’d encountered seemed to conduct of any human in motion. The black, red-pitted eyes were unnerving, but it made no move to stop him.
He looked through the hatch, and saw a second Krall against the far side of the compartment, also watching him. The warrior glanced in turn at Ms. Willfem, Chief Haveram, Gundarfem and Yin-Lee, as they worked at their consoles and instruments. They seemed comfortable holding things that probably would have gotten them killed by the original boarding team of warriors.
The Chief caught site of the Captain and called out to Ms. Willfem.
She looked up from her computer console. “Captain, I’m relieved to see you Sir. Noreen had said you were involved in cleanup, and hadn’t heard from you recently.” She noted his soft suit, and glanced at the warrior with fear in her eyes; she knew what he had been cleaning up. The warrior continued to hold his alert and slightly crouched pose.
“I have been busy with the Stewards, but I really should have tried to call her again. She was supervising a team repairing the eight holes in our hull, and I didn’t know exactly where she was after we crossed paths briefly. Our normal location method is somewhat limited.” He knew she was aware that talking to Jake was risky.
“Noreen is actually back on the Bridge,” she replied, “and has been performing camera shifts and audio pickups for the…” she paused, considering how to say what she meant. Mirikami helper her out, “She’s probably helping Parkoda observe what we are doing to get ready to Jump, I assume.”
Willfem, nodded her agreement, and added “Noreen coordinated to make sure we could actually use our tools and instruments, without fear this would be misunderstood by our guards.” He knew exactly what she meant.
“How are we doing? Have the Trap fields been reset?”
“Yes Sir, but not tuned to capture any tachyons. As best we can tell we have two empty but properly closed Traps. Noreen relayed that we were not to set for a Jump tac until we were told we could do so. The penalty to try that too soon was clearly explained to us.” She looked him in the eye, her fear again showing.
Mirikami nodded that he understood her meaning. “So we could troll for an appropriate Jump tac, once we have their coordinates?”
“All of our instruments seem to agree that we can, Sir. Though we have no idea how they were reversed…, the Trap curvatures I mean. Closing and restarting each one worked the very first time. If I had known...” She trailed off weakly.
“Ms. Willfem, only a miracle could have prevented our capture or destruction. We simply didn’t know how over matched we were at the time.” Laying a hand on her shoulder, he recognized the same guilt feelings he too felt. Comforting might ease that feeling briefly, but it would always be in the background.
“I know.” She accepted with reluctance. “Noreen told me that we will probably Jump soon, after the cleanup is done, and some survivors from Midway arrive.”
“Very well, since Noreen is on the Bridge, let me call her and find out what Parkoda says we do next.” He stepped to a desk com set, and punched the Bridge button.
Noreen answered promptly. “We were following your progress sir, and I was expecting your call.”
This let him know Parkoda had o
bserved him for some time, and probably had listened to his conversations. He didn’t think he had said anything that could cause any trouble, nor had anyone else in his earshot. They’d have to make certain the civilians knew they could be watched and overheard.
“Please ask Parkoda what do we do now with the” he hesitated, “contents of the cargo hold, and when will the Midwife survivors arrive?”
He was surprised when Parkoda answered. “A K’Tal will bring our Jump Hole machine to remove your dead. That will need you to open the large door to space, and if gravity is off, the dead can go out easy. Soon after, a shuttle from our Clanship will bring the other humans.”
Mirikami explained that it was his responsibility to supervise the body disposal, and he would be returning to the cargo hold. He thanked Willfem and her “Drive rats,” as they proudly called themselves, and headed out the hatch and back up the stairs, still avoiding the lifts.
He reached the hold in time to see two warriors setting down a concave hemisphere set on a pedestal with a flared base. The whole thing stood about chest high to a man, waist high to a Krall. In size and shape, it rather resembled a deep birdbath, except that three cone shaped projections were equally spaced along the rim of the bowl. Accompanying them was a blue uniformed Krall, carrying a brown bag that appeared to be cloth of some sort, and another Krall in a brown body suit.
The blue uniformed one was probably another translator, and the brown uniformed Krall must be the K’Tal that Parkoda had mentioned. The latter was probably equivalent to a human technician.
The translator told him who he was. “I am Telour, of Graka clan, second to Parkoda. Before we remove air, all need to wear protection. Are your clothes what you need?” He gestured at Mirikami and then the other ten humans, all in their soft suits.
“Yes Sir,” Mirikami answered, “we are protected from Space if we do not do hard work, for a long time.”
“No,” the Krall replied, “the work will be short, and finished soon.”
He reached into the bag he carried and withdrew four soft transparent items like slightly beige clear plastic bags, and passed one to each of the other Krall, keeping one himself. They all held them out, with a wide opening at the top, and smoothly stepped into what seemed to resemble essentially a large gossamer bag.
They pulled them up by the opening, but deftly slid them under the crossed utility belts, front and back, using their unusually long and flexible arms. This covered their body suits up to their necks, and left their weapons and other devices outside the bag’s floppy looking wide open tops. There was a black oval patch several inches across, visible in the front at waist level. They each tapped the patches, using several claw tips simultaneously.
What happened next was difficult to follow, but the bag like pouches moved and shrank against their bodies, flowing around their torso and limbs, making a fully form fitting garment, with the top now forming a snug circular fit midway up their neck.
Telour picked up the fabric bag again, and removed what seemed to be similarly translucent smaller items, with gray objects on each side. The other three Krall slipped what proved to be smaller gossamer sacks over their heads, and the lumpy side objects appeared to be positioned where their recessed ears were located. Like the other sacks, these were somewhat larger than the heads they covered and were loose, falling below the base of the neck.
When they performed a short complex tap at black patch on the nose region, the head sack melded with the other one at the neck, and this time it seemed to inflate, or balloon slightly, around their skulls, so that the covering formed a slightly larger bubble over their heads.
The humans were amazed at what must be a Krall equivalent of a soft space suit. Mirikami saw no air recycler, such as the two-inch thick flexible backpacks of the suits his people wore. He noted that the Krall’s communicator disks, attached to their utility harness, were outside the suits, and would be in vacuum soon.
Telour gave them their instructions, “You will go to vacuum in this hold. Open the big door, close gravity here, and push the dead out.”
That was clear enough, but Mirikami had a problem. If they could not use the suit radios, coordinating the task would be complicated, and any other orders from the Krall could not be passed to the humans.
In the name of speed and efficiency, of course, he told the Krall about Parkoda’s order to them to not to use suit radios, but the human’s suits only used radio to talk in a vacuum. He explained that his crew would not be able to work as quickly if they could not talk or hear.
He didn’t mention there was a flexible plug-in cable that worked between suits. They were not standard, and kept in a locker where the suits were stored.
Mirikami’s hoped for exemption from the radio restriction in this case was thwarted, when in silent reply, Telour donned and sealed his own soft helmet, leaving Mirikami about to order his men to seal their own suits, and to be prepared to do this job without communicating.
Next, the Krall reached into his bag of tricks and pulled out a handful of flat black disks, with short fibers attached to their centers, He placed one pad, short stem protruding, against the left side muzzle of his own helmet, where it stuck. He then stepped to Mirikami, pushed his faceplate closed, and stuck one of the pads in front of his mouth. Even before the faceplate finished its seal, he could hear Telour’s deep growly voice, asking if he could hear. It was muffled sounding, as if he had pressed his helmet against Mirikami’s own.
“I can hear you Telour. Can each of my crew have one of these communicators?”
Telour responded, by showing Mirikami the remaining three devices. “I brought only these.”
The Captain, taking advantage of the still pressurized hold, loudly told his men to seal their suits; that Telour could talk to him via the black patches he had placed on his faceplate, but there were only three more to share.
As the men sealed their helmets, Telour swiftly stepped forward and pressed the pads on the faceplates of the first three men he reached at random. Mirikami had hoped to pick the men himself, but decided he would rather not test the creature’s patience.
With the patches, they found they could hear the Krall and one another, if slightly buzzy sounding. Mirikami ordered the other seven men to stand near the back bulkhead, and decided the four with audio could do all that was needed.
Telour ordered him, “Remove the air.”
Mirikami told Rigson, one of those with audio, to activate the pumps to remove as much atmosphere as possible, before they vented and lost the remainder to space. This normally took about fifteen minutes, but after several minutes, Telour demonstrated his growing impatience by telling them to go faster.
“Rigson, you heard him, vent the air; we need to get this done.” The Steward tapped several keys to enter the override code to vent the air early. It wasn’t an explosive decompression, because the system wouldn’t allow that, but they could feel their suits expanding much faster as the outer pressure dropped. The Krall suits also expanded a small amount.
Mirikami had his men with audio patches connect safety tethers with automatic retractors, attached to loops at their waist. The other end was clipped to recessed attachments in the deck. He noted with satisfaction that the seven men without audio followed their example. The Krall didn’t take any such precaution.
Mirikami then told Rigson to open the twenty-foot high forty foot wide door. It split down the center as its sticky seals separated, and began to slide sideways into their slots. As that happened, the Captain was disturbed to note the effect the vacuum was having on the human remains.
The bodies were slowly bloating, eyes, tongues, and other tissues swelling as they out gassed, trying to equalize pressure. The bins with assorted parts and intestines were silently bubbling, as the partially coagulated blood, at ship temperature, was warm enough to boil in a vacuum. It was too late to think now about how they could have foreseen this, and tied tablecloths over and around the remains. However, what sane person would
be expected to think of such details?
Mirikami informed Telour that they would next switch off artificial gravity in this compartment, the only place on this passenger ship where they could do that by design. The translator’s stiff lips could be seen wriggling, but nothing came through that the men could hear. He must be using ultrasonic frequencies, talking to the other three Krall.
The other Krall had no black audio patches stuck on their helmets, but quickly moved to grasp reinforcing beams or other bulkhead-attached hardware, so it seemed they could hear each other via those bulges over their ears.
Mirikami warned the men to activate their magnetic boots, and pointed to his boot soles for the benefit of the other seven men out of the communications loop. They all slid the activators on their suits for the battery powered shoe coils. He felt his feet click to the deck with a sticky sort of sensation.
He ordered Rigson to switch off the hold’s gravity. Actually, Jake controlled the gravity but it did not require a direct order if the appropriate code was entered at the touchpad. Every member of the crew knew that code.
Instantly, Mirikami experienced the usual gut twisting as weight was removed from his organs, and the familiar feeling of falling came over him. Virtually every Spacer had to train extensively for zero gravity, and would never graduate from any world’s equivalent to Space Academy, let alone be hired to work in Space if they couldn’t easily handle the experience.
The corpses were lifting and separating, courtesy of the tissue swelling, and the revolting little random biological gas jets.
In a rare departure from the rigid rule of polite public conduct that Mirikami and most citizens chose to live by, he couldn’t restrain himself. “The Goddamned Krall probably see this sort of disgusting scene often enough, but I’m proud that we have become civilized enough to never have seen this.” He didn’t care what the Krall thought about his statement.
It was a sincere and heartfelt sentiment, but it ignored the comparable horrors that the human race had once inflicted on themselves, within the last three hundred or so years.
Koban Page 12
