The lead flyers recovered and both struck their target high, as usual for this prey type. However, there were no flyers to take the legs and the prey kept running. Because their momentum wasn’t applied to a stationary animal, it didn’t fall, despite their biting at its shoulders and upper limbs.
Then the target passed two other prey animals. Without the immediate assistance of the rest of their squadron mates, these prey animals started striking at them and ran along with their target. This was completely different than this prey had behaved in the past.
It wasn’t a serious concern, because they heard the call of their squadron mates as they resumed their pursuit. They would soon have help for this kill and perhaps the two other two animals as well. They simply held on with their claws and snapped viciously at the weaker prey hitting and trying to pull them off.
Then they passed more prey, and these weren’t running away as usual either. The calls of their squadron was growing weaker, and almost cut off as a flyer screamed in pain, a cry that cut off sharply.
The two of them realized they were alone with all seven of the prey they sought. Using their superior speed, they bit and snapped at the limbs that struck them. They rotated their feet to unhook their claws in an attempt to escape by flight.
This was a final but inevitable mistake, because it permitted the animals to throw them to the floor. There they could be kicked and trampled. Where was the squadron?
The Squadron leader looked where he had last heard his flyers. He saw the head of one of them, strangely sticking out of the side of this terrible nest. From that direction, he faintly heard cries of his squadron, raging because they could not help them. He died, thinking something was “wrong” with the world when prey didn’t behave like prey.
“Noreen, can you hear me?” Mirikami repeated for the second time. He had heard sounds of shouting and screams of pain through the Link. He feared the worst when no one answered and all he heard was labored breathing.
“I hear you Tet. Sorry…,” he heard her trying to catch a breath. “We got away…, with some bites..., but we’ll live.”
Then, as proof her last statement was true, he heard her laugh, soon joined by six other voices. It was the sort of nervous release after a narrow escape people sometimes shared.
“I’ll ask what’s so funny later, I guess.” The group laughter finally subsided.
“It isn’t really funny Sir, but Mister Walters just held up a bat’s head when I said that, and it struck us all as funny.”
“How did you cut its head off?”
“We didn’t, the fire door did when it closed on it as it tried to get through the crack.” Her breath was coming back, and she used some of it for another round of laughter with the others.
She then briefly explained what had happened, and said that all of them needed some patching up.
“Are the bats still on the other side of the fire door?” Mirikami intended the question for Noreen, but Jake answered.
“Those wolfbats have departed, Sir, and I have closed the Promenade hatch. However the other seven bats are in the lower corridors above the Drive Room.”
“What?” Mirikami shouted. “Ship wide broadcast.” Not waiting for the acknowledgement, he started talking.
“Seven more wolfbats are in the ship, in lower corridors near the Drive Room. You teams working on engine removal be alert. Don’t open any doorways or enter any corridors until we find exactly where they are. Crew should Link to Jake for details. Mirikami Out.”
In several minutes, he had a Link call.
“Captain,” It was Chief Haveram’s voice. “I’m sorry, Sir, I let those fucking things in. It’s my fault, and they came in the hole I had cut after landing, to get the fumes out. I forgot about it, Sir.”
He sounded less apologetic than sorrowful, to Mirikami’s ear, and tinged with anger. Haveram was normally a crusty individual, but rough language with his Captain was way out of character.
“What’s wrong Chief?”
“Bolinda Carter is dead inside a crew cabin. They must have trapped her there, or she tried to get away by hiding. Jake says all seven of the fucking bats are in there feeding on her.” Now there was outrage in his voice. Carter was a volunteer on his removal team, and she was one of the few Midwife survivors.
“Can you isolate them or lock them in?”
“Yes Sir, I suppose, but it’s risky to go into a corridor to close hatches…. Just a moment Sir. Jake.” Mirikami heard him call the AI.
“Yes Chief?” Haveram had taught him long ago not to “Sir” him.
“You know where that cabin is, can you cut them off so they can’t escape the ship, and also not be able to reach anyone else on the ship?”
“I believe you mean to trap the wolfbats within a small volume. Yes, I can activate fire doors to do that Chief.”
“Do that Jake.” Haveram ordered.
“The three fire doors have been activated and are closing.”
Mirikami asked a question. “Are all of the bats still in the cabin?”
Jake told them one bat had left the cabin when the fire doors were activated, and was flying along the corridor from the direction they had arrived.
Then Jake said something that surprised Mirikami. “The wolfbat found the fire door closed and has called to the others. They have all left the cabin.”
“How do you know he called to the other bats? We haven’t heard anything but snarls from them.”
“I heard him Sir, through my audio pickups in that area. They amplify ultrasonic frequencies in the same range that I adjusted to listen to the Krall. The wolfbats talk between one another quite often, and use even higher frequencies that match descriptions of sound echo location of Earth bats.”
“What are they doing now Jake?”
“The other six wolfbats have separated and appear to be searching for ways to escape Sir. They have been to all three fire doors and are entering open cabins and compartments. They are talking or exchanging many calls. The pattern of sounds they make does not match that of known languages, and is…,”
“Stop.” Mirikami ordered, to keep him from continuing.
“Captain, we have them trapped, but I don’t want to risk anyone’s life trying to kill them. I have a suggestion, Sir.”
“Go Chief.”
“We can use the fire suppression system. On this high oxygen world, a lot of CO2 should be fatal pretty quick, and we can clear it out safely in minutes.”
“OK Chief. Your idea, you give the order. Let me know when it’s done. Mirikami Out.” He thought Haveram should give the order, since he and his team deserved to feel a sense of retribution.
****
In the small nest, Flock Leader was pleased with this kill, but he needed more kills like it to replace jut the mass of the flyers lost today. There was a strong scent of more prey nearby, but his flyers needed food right now. They had spent a lot of energy today, and like him, needed food before making new kills.
Soon he could send sated flyers out to guide in fresh squadrons to continue the nest hunt. Then with whole squadrons with full stomachs, and their store sacs full, the flyers could return to the home nest to feed their mates and pups.
There were already too many flyers missing. Some small pups could die if the mate-less mothers needed to leave the home nest for long periods to hunt. Flock Leader could still end this day without one or more challenges for leadership, particularly if the other larger squadron made kills from the seven certain prey animals they saw enter the nest.
His stomach now full of the high-energy rich fatty flesh, he filled his own store sac, despite having no mate or pups to feed. He could help secure his position by feeding fatherless pups, gaining the loyalty of those mothers.
Their cries of support in answer to his call for that would add more voices for potential challengers to hear in home nest. If loud enough, the challengers would wait for another more favorable day. Just as Flock Leader had once waited to challenge the previou
s Flock Leader for this position.
There were noises heard from elsewhere, and several loud clicks and thuds sounded from outside this small nest. Flock leader, distrustful of how this prey had behaved, went to scout the cause.
He smelled no fresher scents than before, but there was a change in the echo’s that returned from his ranging calls. It was as if there were walls present now that were not there when they entered the hard flyer nest. He flew along the passage that his mind’s map said was the way they had chased the prey to its small nest. However, the echo now said there was a wall where there had been a longer passage.
When his eyes saw the same thing his ears said was there, a wall closing the passage to the outside, he instantly called to the squadron and its leader. He gave the scatter and retreat call used when they hunted in nests of other animals or other flyers. If any of his flyers found a way out, a ranging call from that one could be used to backtrack along the echoes to his location.
However, there were other new walls that the mind maps of other flyers said were not present in the remembered sound image when they entered this large nest. Seek as they might, there were no echo returns that pointed a way to the outside, or even far from where they had just fed.
The prey had trapped them! How could these weak, slow, stupid animals do this? Flock Leader had never hunted live ones inside a nest before, but this particular prey did not behave “right” even when outside the nest. They acted more like the same prey after they lived in the world for a time, and learned to be wary. These were wary now, and many were acting like herd protectors.
Flock Leader called for his flyers to be alert; that the enemy would come soon. He signaled enemy now, because that’s what the prey had become. More like marauding flyers from another nest than like prey. Like other flyers, they were able to plan, and change what they planned while hunting.
An enemy would not trap them without a reason. They would attack from some direction, perhaps by opening one of the new walls they made. His command call was for each flyer to land and be still, to listen for changes in hard echo patterns, then signal to the entire squadron to attack as one at a point where that pattern changed, or where motion was detected.
Instead, what they all heard simultaneously, was a soft hissing sounds well below normal talk or ranging call sounds. More like how the world “talked” when wind or water moved, or leaves rubbed.
A stronger movement of air was also felt, and the air grew whiter near the roof, like when flying just below a cloud. The pale white air drifted down, and Flock Leader remembered with alarm the cloud that had come before a squadron had burned to death in a ball of flame. However, this did not burn, it was cool, and did not hurt at all.
He soon became very tired, and he heard the other flyers talk-calls soften. They all had settled onto the floor or ledges in order to listen quietly, to make no movements that could confuse the echo’s that made pictures in their minds.
Flock Leader knew he should be more alert, that he needed to be more alert. But he was more tired now than before he fed. He was not having trouble breathing in and out, but he didn’t feel like he was breathing enough air. He didn’t know how they could do this, but he had the thought that the prey was stealing the air. It made him more angry and ready to fight at this trickery, but he could barely move his wings. They had beaten him without a fight.
His last thought was that at least there would be no challenge waiting for him at the end of this day.
25. The Other Captives
After two and a quarter hours, all but about eighty passengers were off the ship, plus the three engine removal teams, down now to forty, after one volunteer broke a couple of fingers. Engine removal was behind because of the wolfbat attack and fatality, but they still expected to finish in less than three hours, shortly after the last passengers crossed the tarmac.
Skeeters were still a threat, but simply keeping eyes on them held them at bay. They were just smart enough to know when they were being watched.
The wolfbats had virtually disappeared, slowly leaving in small groups after losing another ten members of the flock in the unproductive raids into the ship.
The humans naturally didn’t know that they had killed their leader, and some flyers waited for a time in hopes that he would reappear. They also waited to see if they could claim the flesh of their dead on the tarmac, having decided the risk of further attacks on this prey was too high.
The Flock itself was weakened by the loss of so many members, and a day of high-energy expenditure with no return. Eventually the last squadron departed for the home nest, or some to hunt elsewhere. Their rate of metabolism required them to hunt every day.
The humans did not reduce the number of armed escorts, though three of the Jazzers had charges for only a single shot, and the four spare power packs had already replaced dead ones. Only a few skeeters had suffered from the recent shots taken. The four fully depleted power packs were charging, but the ship would be evacuated before they had full charges.
The removal crew would get the four highest charged Jazzers and one Sonic before the remaining escorts followed the last of the people into the dome.
Rigson had reported to Mirikami by Link that the Flight of Fancy people were not being well received by the earlier captives. They claimed they weren’t prepared to feed so many new mouths, which was quite plausible.
One man told Rigson that they didn’t have enough sleeping mats and bedding for them all, which also sounded plausible. Until he learned from a woman that they once had housed three thousand six hundred forty nine people here.
That was a rather precise number, but she now said there were “about” twenty seven hundred surviving captives. It sounded as if there should have been a bedding surplus, and a better head count. They essentially had little organization, or inventory of materials.
Until learning what hardships and terrors they had endured in losing so many people, the Captain advised there was no reason to be critical. Besides, they had bedding on the ship if it proved necessary to bring any across. For the one night, the self-named “Koban Committee” decided that some bedding and selected materials would be sent over.
They hoped the entire ship complement could return to the ship the next day, after resting overnight. There was no intent to send other than a skeleton crew back before sunset, after a Krall inspection of the ship. Assuming that was allowed by Parkoda.
Rigson reported most of the captives he saw walked around with holstered pistols or slung rifles of Krall manufacture. Not only did they not offer the Flight of Fancy weapons to defend the people still crossing the tarmac, they claimed new arrivals were not allowed to have them. That didn’t correspond to Telour’s description of how things were supposed to work here.
Leaving Noreen in charge at the ship, Mirikami decided it was time for him to introduce himself, and find out what was what going on over there. He took the liberty of riding with Ricco as he took a load of bedding and thirty of the Smart Fabric tablecloths to the dome.
They picked up an older limping couple as riders along the way. They sat on the edge of the pallet. Mirikami was on the driver’s step-up, holding onto the cage top.
It was only about three hundred feet to the dome, but it had proven a surprisingly long distance for some of the out of shape passengers. In hindsight, the days of increased ship gravity had produced mixed results. Some, particularly the crew and younger passengers found it to have been of value, but older passengers had not handled it as well. They had arrived much more weakened than anyone had expected.
Noreen had sent Dillon and his two volunteers, whom were all now amusingly named the “Fireball Brigade,” over on an earlier hauler trip once it was obvious that the wolfbats had departed. The extra weight of the tanks and lack of bug treats negated their usefulness.
Mirikami asked for a Link to Dillon. “Don’t answer unless you are alone, this is Mirikami. I’m on my way over.”
There was a delay of a couple of mi
nutes then Dillon answered. “I was with my fellow Fireballs Sir. I stepped to one of the garage doors for privacy, what’s up?”
“Rigson isn’t really in shape to help unload the pallet I’m bringing, and I’d like you to pretend to see us coming, and meet us under the overhang with a few of our people to carry stuff inside. I have some bedding, and a bunch of Smart Fabric tablecloths we might use for bedding. We might shelter under them to return to the ship tomorrow.”
“I’ll get some people. I do see you from around that shuttle nose.”
“One more thing while you can talk freely. Did you scout the area and pump for information we can use?”
“Sure did. That’s what I was discussing when you linked. I can fill you in when you get here. Tricky to get privacy guarantees when our friend can’t see us.”
“We’ll fix that later. Any idea where that translator went that I saw running to the dome after landing?”
“The Krall maintain a full level for their private use at the top of the dome. There are thirty two levels here, an even octal number.” Meaning it was the fortieth floor in the Krall number system.
“This place could house perhaps eighty to a hundred thousand people, if it had the right facilities to support them. Humans aren’t allowed on that top level on penalty of death. The best I can tell is that the translator went there. I wonder which one it was?”
“It was Dorkda that went to the dome from the ship.” Jake supplied, as if the question had been directed to him.
“This was Dorkda’s clan home at one time,” mused Dillon, “so that makes sense. If you want to speak to him, perhaps the other captives know of a way.”
“That can wait, I suppose, but I’d like to know what’s happening at that clan meeting, and when Parkoda and Telour will be back. I think we need to find out if there is any semblance of real authority here among the human population. There has to be, if only to control the weapons they won’t give us, and the limited food they can’t share.”
Koban Page 32
