Koban

by Stephen W Bennett

  “Don’t worry about anyone’s acceptance of your ‘magic.’ Today was the first time we ever came close to holding our own with a hunter killer team. Right now, you walk on water for most of them over there. If they know your modifications helped you survive, then they will want them. Beyond a doubt they will.”

  “We didn’t exactly out muscle them, Thad,” Dillon pointed out.

  “No, most of it was outsmarting and tricking them. But if you hadn’t had the energy and endurance you did, the last most important kill couldn’t have happened. How badly do you think the exhausted people in the jungle would have wanted to run longer and faster, to hold out in the heat better?”

  “And continuing to keep what we did a secret?” Maggi repeated.

  “That’s a problem with humans any time, any place. We’ve had collaborators before, and will again. However, even if no one tells the Krall anything, humans doing better physically will eventually be obvious to even an average slow-witted warrior. We won’t be a physical match, so I’d guess this would only enhance our value as better opponents.”

  “We were concerned because the Krall take pride in at least twenty five thousand years of selective breeding to become what they are. If we show we can do this by a shortcut method, they might not take it well.”

  “You seem to overlook they have you trapped here on a distant hostile world where even they can’t survive without domes, walls, and weapons. No matter what you do here, you can’t take that knowledge home with you because you are never going home.

  “The only reason you can even attempt these gene mods is because you are outside the controls within Human Space, and happen to have a collection of scientists that can not only figure out the lost science, but have a place to work in isolation. That isn’t likely to happen anywhere in the Hub, now is it?”

  Aldry, Maggi, and Dillon all agreed there was no other place their work could be done. They didn’t add that this was related to the hidden purpose of the Midwife project, or that they really were not repeating the hundreds of years of genetic research, but were using records they had recovered.

  Mirikami summed it up. “OK, Thad wants in, and to become another guinea pig.”

  “Hold on. What the hell is a guinea pig? I don’t want to become part pig!” He laughed, but there was a concerned look.

  Maggi chuckled. “It’s an old term for a dumb laboratory animal that scientists once used to test drugs on before giving them to people. We didn’t bring any of those with us, so we use dumb males instead.”

  “Oink,” said Tet.

  Maggi pointed at Mirikami. “I told you males are dumb. Guinea pigs don’t oink they squeak, but they are a type of hairy little rodent that might hide in a cave, scaring those of us that care about them. Dillon is a less bright large hairy example.”

  Elbowing Mirikami’s arm, Dillon commented, “She switches fast from tearful hugs and hellos to her normal sarcastic and demeaning mannerism doesn’t she?”

  She smiled brightly across the table at her protégé. “Finally found that cup you were looking for sweetie?”

  Dillon lost his smile and reflexively put his knees together.

  Aldry eased Thad’s mind, “Don’t worry, I do the injections, not Maggi, and I’m gentle.”

  Then she added, “This afternoon I’ll give you the briefing I gave to Tet and Dillon earlier this week. There are other brand new mods, and they will be ready for testing in a couple of weeks.

  “Well, Dillon and I have time now to test the next two gene mods, for strength and endurance. We won’t be pressed for time getting ready for combat.”

  “Yes. Something else I need to bring up before we increase our number of test subjects very much is their dietary needs. We can make all the supplements needed, since that phase lasts only for several days. However, the high quality protein from actual meat or vat growth meat fiber is going to run out quickly. Our normal folks, and I’m arguably ‘normal,’ won’t appreciate going hungry.

  “You see how much Tet and Dillon needed to eat at the start, and they need to keep eating hearty meals with a lot of meat and vegetables. The small Hydroponics section that Jimbo has started can be expanded by a factor of several hundred. What he has growing right now will meet over half of our garden needs for normal metabolisms of several thousand people. We will be OK in that respect even if we used that entire level for hydroponics, or even added another level.

  “How risky is it to hunt for the meat? I’ve heard that rhinolo meat is nutritious, but are extremely dangerous to hunt. Thad is there an alternative to those animals?”

  “We only hunted rhinolo because that’s all that the Krall wanted to hunt. I’ve seen a dozen other species of animals on the plains, most are smaller than rhinolo. There are different herds of grass and leaf eaters. If we can eat one type, we can likely eat them all. However, there are more carnivores than just the rippers. All of them are surely fast and dangerous to us.

  “However, by using your shuttle, we don’t have to stand on the damn ground facing a charging rhinolo to get our meat. We can try hunting this week, unless I feel as bad as Tet and Dillon did for a couple of days.”

  “You’ll feel crappy for at least thirty six hours,” Aldry told him.

  “Not too bad. I could still go along and advise even if I’m not up to hunting…” he was about to elaborate when Jake interrupted, broadcasting to everyone with a transducer.

  “Attention, Attention, a large number of space craft have completed White Outs into equatorial orbits. I have detected three hundred fifty one that are the size and design of a Krall Clanship, and another eight with at least twice the volume of the Flight of Fancy. Another thirty-one range in size between Clanships and the Flight of Fancy.

  “There is a great deal of ship-to-ship and ground communications that I am recording for later translation. Over ninety percent of the spacecraft appear to be Krall designs. However, eight percent of the ships are of human design. I am detecting additional White Outs in the equatorial plane, apparently with more human designed ships in tow. There are…”

  “Stop Jake,” ordered Mirikami.

  “Now we know why the Krall here headed for their main compound. If that fleet towed a bunch of human ships here, they were in transit for a week or more, and faster couriers could have brought news of the captured ships sooner.

  “Jake, answer only for those people at my table, are all of the craft that are larger than a Clanship of human design?”

  “No Sir, two are of Krall design. However, including the most recent White Outs there are thirty-seven ships that appear human in design. The largest eight ships appear to be commercial passenger transports, as do eighteen probable passenger ships approximately the size of the Flight of Fancy. Eleven of the human ships appear to be cargo ships.”

  “This has to be Parkoda’s raid, don’t you think?” Maggi asked.

  “I think it’s more than one set of raiders. There were three raids being sent, and Parkoda had command of one of those. This seems like a lot of ships to call these a single raid group.”

  Noreen was puzzled. “How long were they gone, just three weeks? I don’t see how they could have boarded and captured that many in so short a time, and bring them back.”

  “They obviously made use of the towing method to bring so many here intact. But that’s a lot of boarding, subduing and killing. Like you said Noreen, that’s time consuming. They obviously made it at least to the edge of the Hub worlds. Those largest passenger ships are rarely used outside the inner worlds. The Krall can travel into human space fast, using their Jump technology, but our tow to Koban took a week. I wonder if they found a way to do that quicker?”

  Thad had a question pertinent to their immediate future, “Jake, can you estimate how many humans total are on those passenger ships?”

  “Sir, there are many unknown variables, but using upper and lower passenger estimates for the size and number of ships, the number of people could range from twenty thousand to tw
enty five thousand for a sixty to seventy percent booking rate. If all were filled nearly to capacity, the total could be as high as thirty five thousand, but that would be very unlikely.”

  Thad looked around the room. “Remember how warmly your eight hundred fifty or so bodies were welcomed here? What the hell are we going to do with another twenty thousand? The dome has plenty of room, but not the food, furniture, bedding, kitchens, and the zillion other things they need to live here.”

  “There are eleven cargo transports. Perhaps those just have food and supplies?” Dillon suggested.

  Mirikami shook his head. “I doubt the Krall read cargo manifests to select what thousands of humans might require.

  “Do you realize what will happen to the Testing Days with so many humans to fight? The Krall can hold more and larger hunts. This compound is sizeable, but not large enough for a hunt with dozens of people to conceal. There are a limited number of places with decent positions to defend.” Mirikami was answering his own question.

  Maggi as usual had the political and social aspect in mind. “There is no lottery in place unless some rules change. The humans that are sent to fight have been those with Koban adapted muscles. There are twenty seven hundred Primes adapted, thirty six hundred people when you count the Fancy’s complement.

  “If the numbers the Krall want to use for combat Testing increases to match the new total numbers, the current captives are not going to accept filling increased quotas while the newcomers spend a month and a half getting adapted. Housing and food for the new arrivals will need to be established. Look how our comparatively smaller number was resented when we came. I think there could be some really poorly prepared people sent out to fight, unless we scale up our modification program.”

  Aldry warned, “I won’t treat people that are unaware of what we are doing to them, so that means we have to go public soon. Secrecy will go out the window, and the new arrivals may be highly resistant to the use of genetic mods on humans.”

  Thad was more coldly pragmatic. “That choice will catch on once newcomers start dying in large numbers. I was ready for the idea, after my experiences here, with only minutes to consider it, particularly once I saw the results with Tet and Dillon. I’m certain most of the other dome residents will agree. They’ve seen too much death out in the compound.”

  In a shift of subject Thad added, “By the way, I may be a bit of a loner in the dome but most of the long term captives in Koban Prime don’t care for being called ‘Primes.’ Their calling you ‘Fancies’ hasn’t helped your own image. That’s too separatist a terminology when we need unity. Some of them think you look down on them, and many see your scientists as elitist. We need to find a term for all of us that would be more inclusive.”

  Maggi spoke her approval. “Who says there’s no room for political thoughts in a military mind? That’s very insightful Thad. Any thoughts people? We are about to become a much larger community.”

  Ideas were bandied about, such as to call every one “Captive,” which was shot down as depressing. They could call everyone a “Prime” but that already had poor reception. Using “humans” was too generic and failed to identify their unique separation from the rest of humanity.

  Dillon reminded them that the Krall had promised that humans that survived the testing period would be left alive here, but without the means to leave the planet. Every human on Koban was going to live out his or her life here, one way or another.

  He offered this suggestion, “I think we should refer to ourselves as Kobani from Koban. Just as I was formerly Rhamian from Rhama. It wasn’t a choice to be brought here, but we are here and we will remain here for life. I think we should start to embrace this world as our home rather than as our prison. It’s certainly beautiful and fertile enough to love.”

  “Koban’s deadly enough to fear it as well,” added Noreen.

  “Then we have to become deadly enough to match,” added Aldry. She shared a covert look with Maggi.

  Finally, they favored the introduction of the collective term of “Kobani” for every human on the planet. Rather than announce it as a decision from some obscure committee, they would use the term themselves, and encourage the personnel from the Flight of Fancy to drop the use of Primes as being offensive to their fellow captives.

  The arrival of the next wave of Kobani “immigrants” was soon announced.

  44. Influx

  “Captain,” Jake spoke only to Mirikami. “There is a Krall communication in Standard for you from Parkoda, transmitted from a Clanship in orbit.”

  “Link the transmission to those of us in this room; send audio only from myself but wait fifteen seconds to connect me.” He answered.

  To the others he cautioned. “Parkoda’s calling from a ship in orbit. You can listen, but I’ll do the talking.”

  Jake routed the transmission to their transducers. “Human clan leader of my Prize ship. This is Parkoda. Telour says you are able to hear my signal. I order you to answer.”

  “Parkoda, I await your orders.” Mirikami responded, hoping he hadn’t waited longer than Krall impatience would tolerate.

  Parkoda outlined the problem he needed Mirikami to solve for him, while acting like it was his solution.

  “The three raids were great victories. Two other raid leaders follow my example. They bring many human ships, as I do with me, complete and they still can fly but they cannot Jump. To keep more captives alive, we do not enter the ships. The message I sent to your ship was used for them, and most surrender to our strength. One hand of ships did not.”

  He didn’t specify what happened to those four ships, but it couldn’t have been good.

  “We tow to Koban using bigger tachyon’s our K’Tal say we need to move faster with big ships to bring. I order you to speak to clan leaders on human ships, what you call Captains. They could not talk in Jump Hole, and some I think will run now. We have destroyed the Trap makers on the hulls, but if they do not submit we will enter with novices that do not know you are so weak animals.”

  “I understand you Parkoda. If I am allowed, I can send a message to every ship, all at one time to explain what they should do. I must use a radio to do this, and the signal will go into space. Is that allowed?”

  “Yes, the signal will use many hundred human years to reach other humans. The war will start before then. Send your signal. We will listen.”

  “Yes Sir. I will follow your order. Mirikami Out.”

  “Jake, use the all of the standard emergency frequencies used by the various Hub, New Colony, and Rim worlds.”

  “Ready Sir.”

  Mirikami started by telling them they needed to listen to what he had to tell them about their captors, promising that he would speak with them individually later. He told them who he was, his ship’s name and date of capture, knowing they could check their records to confirm the Flight of Fancy belonged to Interworld, and who her Captain was. They possibly could know of their disappearance, since they were overdue.

  His message was more current than Doushan’s had been, but he spent only five minutes at this, and told them they were part of thirty seven newly captured human ships. That they were surrounded by powerful alien warships that could, and would, destroy them if they failed to follow instructions. He advised them to share this information with their passengers and crew, that his own ship and passengers had survived their capture largely because they were kept informed.

  Then to ensure they knew he wasn’t acting alone in this warning, he had each of the committee members say a few words, and confirm that survival on Koban was possible, and human captives had lived here for years. Nobody thought it was a smart idea to say why the Krall wanted human prisoners. They couldn’t escape anyway, and they might survive on the planet.

  He next advised them he was going to send an interrogation to each ship’s navigation system to gather their identification, and to send his own ship’s identity and registration. He provided coordinates for Koban Prime, and activated a
beacon for them to follow. He proposed to address each ship’s Captain if he was allowed the time and would relay instructions from their captors, and try to mediate any problems they had if they could not comply.

  The largest ships were not designed to land on a planetary surface, and he proposed to Parkoda that the smaller human ships could be used to ferry humans to Koban from orbit, using conventional thrusters. He rebroadcast that entire series of transmission with Parkoda’s reply so the other ships could hear the exchange. He hoped being so open would discourage rash actions or mistakes.

  The warnings worked for captive ships with passengers at risk, but one cargo ship apparently tried to restore a Trap Field using spare emitters, and it started a maximum conventional thrust out of orbit to gain time to catch a tachyon. Mirikami later learned that its Captain had ignored a warning from a Krall translator on the Clanship that had towed them, and an intolerant raid leader ordered it destroyed instead of boarded.

  The explosion wasn’t visible from Koban Prime, but Jake detected the larger debris when the pieces came into view in spreading random orbits. Parkoda informed Mirikami of the ship’s destruction, and that information was promptly passed to the other ships.

  That vessel likely only had five or six crew aboard, unless it had also carried a small number of passengers, a common practice on a Rim run. Jake had received the registration, and said it had a passenger capacity of twenty people.

  There was no way to know how many died or what was lost, but what was gained was an immediate display of cooperation and willingness to follow instructions by the remaining three dozen human ships.

  Parkoda announced that translators were ordering ships with the capability to land near the human compound as their orbits permitted a descent.

  “Five ships are leaving orbit,” announced Jake. “One is a Clanship, three are human transports close to the size of the Flight of Fancy, and one is a cargo ship. They appear to be following tracks that will bring them here within the next ninety minutes. The Clanship should arrive in forty minutes.”