Koban: Rise of the Kobani

by Stephen W Bennett

  Maggi added to her semi-manufactured complaints. “His sister, Katelyn, will be back for a two week break from school in Hub City next week. The two of them argue constantly. He will play dangerous tricks on her, she will yell at him, and it will drive me crazy.”

  Rafe and Aldry shared an incredulous look. Maggi positively thrived on verbal sparring and practical jokes.

  Aldry pointed out an obvious flaw in the predicted chaos. “Kate is a TG1, her brother is still an SG, and won’t be finished adapting for a month after he gets the mods. She can hold her own with a little brother until she returns to school.”

  Not one to give up a good gripe without just cause, Maggi piled on her laments. “If Noreen or Dillon can’t get home before Cory opts for the Koban mods, I’ll have to go through that with him on my own. The bitchiness and whining when it ‘burns’ or ‘aches’ or he can’t go outside to do something dangerous.”

  Another incredulous look between Rafe and Aldry was noticed by Maggi this time. “OK, OK. I got the damned law passed to allow sixteen-year-olds to make that decision. I didn’t have any kids, so it wasn’t supposed to make my life harder. Dillon had better get his ass home in one month and nine days, or else.”

  Or else Maggi would have to endure what all the parents of teenagers had endured, with Maggi’s manipulations to help make the problem more aggravating. She clearly had been keeping exact track of the time remaining until Cory’s birthday, to the day.

  Rafe repeated an old saying, of the type Maggi herself often employed. “The wheels of justice grind slowly, but exceedingly fine.” He had also considered as ye sow, so shall ye reap.

  She shot him a “Tiger Lady” look, which would be all too familiar to Dillon, if he were here. Rafe was happy to be on the opposite side of the lab bench from the tiny woman, known for her minor acts of physical retribution. Some people actually thought the Krall were more hot tempered and fast.

  Aldry reminded her that she and Rafe had been watching Bradley and Danner while Thad and Marlyn were gone. “Those two boys are the ages of Katelyn and Cory, and are pretty well behaved with each other. We have had the same inconvenience as you.”

  Maggi countered. “Their mother is back now, and Bradley has said he will go with her to explore the Morning Star. Danner wants to explore Jura as soon as he receives the TG1 mods. Cory will be all mopey and a pain in the ass with both of them gone.”

  Aldry arched her left eyebrow. “You are being deliberately pessimistic, Maggi. Cory is friends with Danner, and they are only days apart in age. Find ways to keep them together more now, and Danner’s enthusiasm to explore Jura will infect Cory. They both will be new TG1s by spring, and have a whole continent to explore. Danner says some of the ripper cubs want to go, and even a couple of squadrons of wolfbats want to see the new territory.”

  “Fine! Then I’ll be alone in my quarters every night, rattling around that empty space with no one to speak to me.”

  Now the real reason for her discontent was apparent. Without Dillon and Noreen, Thad and Marlyn, and their families around, she had lost her social center. She loved having someone or something to complain about, to be able to interact with her two adopted families.

  “You need to get off your butt and go exploring.” Rafe told her. “Go on one of the expeditions.”

  “Right. Great idea. I turn a hundred twelve in eight months. Who needs an old lady along?”

  Rafe churned the butter a bit. “Eight months? Then that only makes you a hundred eleven now. You look exactly like I remember you when you organized the Midwife project twenty-two years ago. With clone mods added to our standard genes, you can stay physically active for another twenty or twenty-five years. Go discover something.”

  She considered his proposal a few minutes. “I’ll talk to Marlyn. See if she has room to nursemaid me on her trip. At least it isn’t too far to bring me back if I’m a burden.”

  Aldry and Rafe, pretending to have something else to do, turned away so they could safely roll their eyes.

  ****

  Two months later, the modified Organite brand of nanites had proven to be an unqualified success, by speeding the development of the superconducting nervous system by eighteen percent, and had virtually eliminated the burning sensations as the nerves developed. The neural receptors on the developing Koban muscle tissue were formed sooner, because other nanites delivered nutrients faster to the new muscle tissue growth. Rather than two months changing and adapting, the entire process was reduced to less than one month.

  For the first time, the telepathy mod and all of the other Koban genetic modifications were simultaneously inserted for Cody, Danner, and a girl and a boy that came over from Hub City. The four downed a prodigious number of milkshakes, and ate astonishing amounts of meat. They felt hungry all of the time and even ate vegetables unprompted, a sure sign some sort of miracle was in progress.

  Having TG1s around sped the process of muscle memory training and adaptation for the four new TG2s, because now they were not having to sort out the mental images of how to move properly, based on images from a very physiologically different species, the rippers. Every TG1 that Mind Tapped the new candidates had already benefited from what previous TG1s had learned. Over time, the best way anyone had found to move or do something in a particular situation was incorporated with variations based on differing conditions or circumstances.

  The rate of learning was so enhanced, and retention so complete, that Aldry ran additional brain scans on the new TG2s to see what was happening. The scans clearly showed that the superconducting nerves facilitated reorganization of synapses to make more connections per neuron and provide more storage capacity, which was more quickly accessed than before.

  Some of this improved brain organization proved directly related to the wolfbat hearing modification. Although that did not restructure the existing nervous system, it did naturally provide a template for storing the incoming information from the ears, and mental 3-D sound images were the result.

  Mind Taps on wolfbats revealed the human mental audio based images were not nearly as detailed as the wolfbats formed (people hadn’t wanted pointy long ears), but were organized much better than data collected by the normal human brain. The TG2s also did not have echolocation ability.

  Only the rare savant had selectively displayed unusual gifts of memory, mental calculation, or other abilities, usually just one such trait per person. However, for TG2s the rest of the brain’s data storage also changed, from the more random holographic storage that was typical in a human brain, to a more structured holographic set of memories and data.

  The TG2s had the same number of symbolic mental cabinets and closets of the various brain areas, but now the metaphorical drawers and shelves were organized for faster retrieval and storage, and combinations of disparate data could be brought together quickly, allowing answers to questions that they had never even thought of asking themselves. It was natural, no added effort required, and the superconducting nerves made it happen fast.

  Bradley, when asked what it was like after the mods took effect, described it as similar to his music and video collections in his room. Music and Tri-Vid recordings had been jumbled in a tray, some on his closet shelf, a few shoved under his bed, several had fallen out of sight or been left in other parts of their family compartment. After a week, he realized he knew where they all were, or deduced where the lost ones had to be, and he gathered them up. Now they were ordered logically in the tray that was intended to hold them all. He now preferred orderly over messy, but could operate just fine in a messy situation if he had to do so. His cherished Koban fossil and mineral samples now looked as if they belonged in a university collection, not a trash bin.

  With ripper night vision, he could find his misplaced property in dark corners or under his bed without benefit of additional light. His new ripper scent capability finally found that stale sandwich wrap he had snuck into his room, hidden and forgotten about, when he was sent to bed without suppe
r. The practical joke had not been that dangerous, as he thought back.

  Marlyn was walking around in a daze, unable to believe her “pack rat” slovenly little boy had changed so much in only a month. He had taken to suggesting to her that she should pick up and put away her things and that the kitchen had a strong smell of leftover food residue she should clean away! After years of nagging him, it was only iron-willed discipline, which somehow prevented filicide, the strangulation of her precious second born. His newfound prescience somehow failed to detect the threating glares from his dear mother, each time he made such a comment.

  The new nanites were so efficient, that Rafe and Aldry had combined the number of Koban mods they applied at the same time for all of the upgrades. Many of the existing TG1s were receiving the three final Koban mods, to advance to TG2 status, as they had time and access to keep the new med labs occupied.

  The geneticists reassessed some of the limitations they had placed on procedures that now might be possible with SGs, which they had previously considered too risky before they had the nanites.

  Marlyn had been ready for the Jump to the neighboring planet for weeks, but reluctantly decided to wait for the latest mods some of her volunteers wanted before leaving. She didn’t simply sit on her hands while waiting, however.

  The Beagle now had two elevator systems installed, and technicians and a physicist from Hub City installed the new AI, which she learned was able to interface with the former clanship’s alien operating system. Her new system was a far newer model than was Jake, a twenty-two-year-old JK series and model. Her AI’s K series and P model, suggested its name for her, as was often the case. She called the KP system Kap, proving yet again the odd limits to human imagination sometimes.

  Marlyn and her entire crew of volunteers also had a new longer-range transducer system that was backwards compatible with Jake’s more limited older version. The Mark of Koban was receiving a similar refit on Poldark, and she knew Noreen had taken a new AI with her as well, for the Avenger.

  Jake and Kap exchanged libraries, providing Kap with knowledge of the local system learned over the last twenty years, and the history of the two communities. Kap announced, with a sense of surprise (something that Jake had never managed to display), that the older AI had a far larger Krall vocabulary database, both for low and high Krall speech than Kap had brought from Human Space. The enemy used encrypted communications when near human worlds, something they had not considered necessary on Koban, where no human survivors were anticipated, and the existence of Jake was never suspected.

  Considering the near proximity of the second planet for a Jump ship, and the need to test Kap’s control capability, Marlyn made two orbital visits to study the planet up close, before the expedition was ready to go. The first visit was a mild surprise, aside from the clearly human habitable biosphere she expected. It held abandoned Krall domes on several of its six continents. Like Koban, the planet was lush with plant and animal life, vast forests and jungles, and oceans alive with creatures large and small. There were herds of grazing animals seen on open grasslands. Animals just like that was a frequent evolutionary development on many of the habitable worlds humans had found. They were always accompanied by predators that preyed on the herds.

  With gravity only ninety percent that of Earth, there wasn’t likely to be animals quite as threatening as those on Koban, unless here too they had developed superconducting nerves. That possibility was considered extremely unlikely, considering Koban was the only world humans had found where that had evolved, and the Krall, with a wider sampling of the galaxy had never encountered that trait anywhere else.

  The domes were obviously long abandoned, and the grounds were overgrown with more conventional green colored chlorophyll based vegetation. Shades of green were more common on most habitable planets, at least those with a yellow-white sun similar to Sol. On some of the planets around red dwarfs, many of the plants often favored reds and orange in their leaves. The color of Koban’s sun was a bit bluer and slightly hotter than Sol, and the greater availability of heavier elements on Koban had made some alternate evolutionary choices possible. This lead to shades of teal foliage and organic superconductor nerves, for example.

  The old domes had never been surrounded by walled or fenced compounds, which implied a less dangerous environment than that of Koban. That was relative, of course because the Krall were willing to accept, and even desired, a higher level of danger than would the average human. However, for whatever the reason, the Krall had clearly abandoned the world much longer ago than they had left Koban itself. The most likely reasons were the dislike for the lower gravity, the lack of threats, and the tremendous attraction of the far more deadly neighboring planet.

  Marlyn simply recorded what was below the ship for the three orbits she made, enough for mapping out the six major landmasses, the rivers, large lakes, seacoasts and islands. Only two of the six continents were connected, the rest being separated by larger oceans than Koban featured.

  The most significant discovery was made by one of the other Spacers, former Captain Francis Alaway, selected to be Marlyn’s first officer. She originally commanded one of the cargo ships the Krall had captured and towed to Koban years ago, and who now lived in Hub City, having just ended a marriage contract, with no children. She was an SG looking for an adventure.

  Francis stopped the video playback she was studying, and called out to Marlyn. The large conference room on the Flight of Fancy was filled with volunteers for the exploration mission, examining places where they might choose to land first.

  “Captain, I found other structures besides the domes. They’re located in a tall forest, not very far from one of the domes. They look more recent and well maintained, and I spotted them by what I first thought was fog drifting from the woods, but appears to be smoke.”

  Everyone promptly crowded around her small screen, until Marlyn told Jake to put the image on a larger wall screen. Within the zoomed-in scene Francis had selected, there were walled and roofed structures visible, built not on the ground below the trees, but up in the trees themselves. They were built around the massive trunks of very tall trees and were spread along their larger limbs at the higher levels. At mid tree trunk height, with no limbs present, there were multiple levels, with bridges or walkways strung between trees. Smoke could be seen coming from roof vents of many of them, drifting on the wind between the trees. The area had been recorded at dusk, and it was too dark to see much detail, but a number of indistinct figures were visible on the walkways.

  Marlyn saw what appeared to be several objects together on a walkway. “Jake, can you try to clear up this cluster of figures here?” She touched the screen, knowing Jake was observing her by camera.

  “Yes Mam, but there is little contrast in the gloom of the trees.”

  The image sharpened slightly, but the recording was from nearly overhead, and the forms were still indistinct. It was impossible to tell how tall the creatures were, or what they looked like. In the dusk and tree filtered light, there were no elongated shadows to suggest height. Except for some patches of lighter color on them, which could be clothing, skin, or fur, there were no clues. However, one thing was obvious from the narrow dimensions of the figures as seen looking down on them. These were not bulky, heavy bodied Krall, tiptoeing on fragile-appearing, suspended walkways through the forest.

  The next afternoon the Beagle lifted off with a much larger complement this time, and executed a thirty-second Jump to a hundred fifty mile equatorial orbit. Marlyn still referred to the planet as the Morning Star, reserving her right to choose a name later, based on what they found.

  The forest village, seeming too small to call a city, was in morning daylight this time. There were fewer of the inhabitants on the walkways than there had been closer to sunset, but there wasn’t any doubt as to what species they were. The Krall had left behind members of their slave race of builders, which they had called the Prada.

  Marlyn managed to reco
rd one large one leaping from a branch to land on a walkway, and had a profile view frozen on screen. From head to toes, stretched in mid leap it had brown fur, and was over seven feet long, although that was with legs and long arms extended. Kap said it would be about five feet tall when standing, bipedal, with a triangular face and large side ears that protruded slightly higher than their skull. The Prada in mid leap had a relatively furless long tail that was thicker than that of Earth monkeys. This corresponded to Jake’s records of the Prada having a prehensile tail, as described by a Krall Translator.

  The fur colors on other Prada varied between brown, tan, black, or gray, always with white markings on the face and chest. The hands and feet looked hairless and black, as was the pointed nose. They were furred, shoeless, and unclothed, but all of the adults appeared to wear tool belts or sashes, and some had small pouches strapped around their waists or to their backs. They had narrow shoulders and long arms, and somewhat shorter legs. Their heads appeared a bit large for their bodies, suggesting a high brain to body weight ratio, often indicative of greater intelligence.

  There were quite a few small to medium ones, presumably children, dashing around the heights recklessly, seldom wearing a tool belt. They watched a somewhat blurry video of several smaller ones apparently engaged in a game of chase, and noted that they used hands, feet, and tails to grasp branches and ropes to dash about, without any apparent fear of the couple of hundred feet to the ground if they fell.

  These had to be the builders and assemblers, the slave race the Krall had said were the most human-like to them. The humans themselves didn’t see the resemblance all that much. The closest shaped animals they found in a search of images were certain representatives of the nearly extinct Lemurs on Earth, the New Dublin Howlers, or the much larger Lesser Yeti of New Tibet. The latter was a very large, yellow-furred, black-faced hot climate jungle animal, which did not like cold, despite the name.