Koban: When Empires Collide

by Stephen W Bennett

  Mirikami looked embarrassed. “The mini black holes are compact masses contained within a very small event horizon, thus outside of our Universe in that sense, so I suppose that makes them immaterial. But they’re certainly dangerous, destructive, and unstoppable. Golda, what led you to realize the equivalent to the gunpowder in this case was deadlier and more useful than the slugs? I missed that entirely.”

  “I saw event horizons in action. You were stranded on Koban for the first twenty years of the Krall war. The use of a black hole as a weapon only appeared in combat one time, during Operation New Lance at K1, long before you left Koban. The Krall used portable trap field emitters mounted on a small dish, which could create a gravity field in front of the dish. They placed them in the noses of remotely operated single ships and sent them at my fleet. They didn’t have many, and we managed to destroy the ones they had.

  “Those projectors must have been a forerunner of your gravity projectors. They could focus the trap fields to form a close-in, two hundred food wide event horizon to protect the single ship from a frontal attack. They could extend the range if they formed a smaller event horizon at a greater distance. You can’t reduce the size of a naturally formed event horizon in this Universe, but the projector could partially rotate the hole into Tachyon Space to reduce and concentrate the area of intense gravity, and move its focal point towards a target. I watched ships from the size of destroyers, all the way up to battleships, get swallowed or shredded by them. I had that vivid memory to guide me, and you did not.”

  He shook his head. “I’m not completely off the hook here. What you describe I saw used once, after the Flight of Fancy was boarded, following a day of bloody killing aboard her. The Krall used one of those to dump the dead bodies of my passengers into what I called a Jump Hole at the time. I learned the small device they used was built by the Botolians, who were wiped out by the Krall. They must have obtained those small versions at the same time they captured the larger Botolian projectors. The larger ones they forced the Torki to use, making the collapsed matter for forming Eight Balls. I know you saw those balls in action. I didn’t know they had more of the small dishes, or ever used them as weapons against ships. I suppose they used up the ones they captured by attacking your fleet. We never encountered any of them when we fought them later.”

  Stewart finally grasped what Mauss had revealed to Mirikami. “Instead of smacking a ship with a high velocity dense rod, we can smack them with the event horizon we used to accelerate the rods. No bullets required, nothing that can be blocked or hit with a laser or plasma bolt, and it can be used repeatedly. Neat and deadly.”

  Mirikami asked, “What can a Scout do with them?”

  “That, we know a little about. Scouts were tested here on exploded ship debris still in orbit around K1, and on very small asteroids. On the latter, they could easily rip into the surface of asteroids a few hundred feet wide.”

  “I presume there’s no compromise in hull stealth when they’re used?” He assumed that wouldn’t change. Staying stealthed had been an advantage of firing the gravity guns, which didn’t reveal the location of the ship after the projectile left the gun and was steered on a new course.

  “No,” she answered. “There’s no leakage in the higher ranges of the electromagnetic spectrum, although you know about the weak long wave radio frequency stealth vulnerability. Although, our mass detectors can spot the larger event horizons, and track their movements to some extent at low speeds. By projecting the black hole to form some distance away from the Scout, which can be a hundred miles from the ship, and then move it at high speed, your location would probably remain unknown, especially if you’re in a low mass Scout.”

  Mirikami was pleased. “As you know, we’d already diverted most ship construction to Scouts. These little hellions might change the nature of naval warfare, and give us an edge that sheer size and numbers of enemy craft can’t provide. Little ships can kill big ships. That will deflate the Thandol ego a bit. We’re about to change the nature of space warefare.”

  Impatient to get going, Henry asked, “When the Hell are we lifting off? I’d like to get there the same day the Scouts arrive, so you can officially present them.”

  Maggi gave him an impish grin. “We lifted before you sat your whinny butt down, General, and we Jumped at about eight miles up, to prevent a loud bang on the ground. I’d tell you how far away we were now, if I knew.”

  An old familiar calm voice came from overhead. “Mam, we are over two point four light years from our departure point.” It was Jake. He was still applying the twenty-five-year-old communication protocol implemented by Mirikami, back when the Krall occupied the Flight of Fancy. When he heard a question that could be interpreted as directed to him, he volunteered the answer, and if no Krall was within hearing, answered on speaker.

  She winked. “There you go Henry. Ask, and it shall be given you.”

  Jake’s voice returned. “Mam, is Mathew 7:7 to be added to my communications protocol, along with the remainder of the bible?”

  She looked startled. “No. Of course not, Jake. Don’t apply bible passages to the protocol. We don’t want an ear for an ear to be taken literally.”

  A dry mechanical chuckle was heard from the speakers. “I didn’t think so, Mam, but my new humor module flagged that response as likely to induce some degree of mirth. I was not directed to suppress such responses. However, for future reference, it mentions an eye for an eye, not ears.”

  The people at the table, despite sharing a laugh, displayed expressions that implied misgivings. Mirikami expressed it for them all. “I think I can safely say that AI humor has still not made great strides. Jake, please don’t implement new communications protocols without consulting me.”

  “Yes, Sir.”

  “Fine. Now that we’ve handled the important stuff, Stewart?” He moved to his seat adjacent to President MacDougal, who was seated at the head of the table.

  MacDougal remained seated, maintaining the informality of the meeting. “Thanks Tet.”

  He looked at Mauss and Nabarone, since Tet and Maggi knew what he’d be discussing. “The Federation is already at war with the Empire, and we need to discuss how we can help President Strickland’s presentation to Parliament this week sound compatible with our position, and current activities. Even if Parliament isn’t ready to declare war on the Thandol Empire, they may be willing to conduct secret surveillance within the Empire, using the Scouts we’re providing.

  “Perhaps they may authorize contacts with some of the species inside the Empire that are supportive of the Federation, and are hopeful that they might finally shed the yoke of the Thandol domination.

  “Regardless of the PU’s position after this week, the Federation has ongoing activity inside the Thandol Empire. We hope they will join with us, but we can’t wait for the Emperor to launch attacks. While we’re talking to her, I have authorized Tet to send three teams into the Empire, to establish contact with the Ragnar, Finth, and Thack Delos.

  “There are ten Scouts per team, and they are not diplomatic missions. They’re more in line with soldier-diplomats. They went in heavily armed, for such small craft, and after the discussion I just heard about the best use of our gravity projectors, I sense our teams are a much greater threat to the enemy than I believed when I sent them.

  “Golda, Henry, when we finish our discussion today, I’d like to ask you to Mind Tap the rest of us here on how your Scouts performed, using the gravity projectors without using the rods. Then we can Comtap our three teams, so they might find better ways to impress the three security forces we’d like to subvert to our cause. The overthrow of the Thandol Empire.”

  There was a lot to talk about and to decide, and strategy to revise on the fly. With T-cubed speeds, it didn’t seem like they had enough time to think plans through anymore. It was becoming a smaller galaxy.

  Chapter 2: PU Scouts go Rogue

  “We need to think on the fly, Adriana. The Galaxy isn’t as
vast as it once seemed, back before T-cubed travel.” President Strickland was pleased she had finally surprised her Vice President, by being more aggressive and impulsive than the former Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairfem had expected of her. “Our Scout pilots need the experience, the Thandol have it coming to them, and I’m damned if I’ll sit on my thumbs and wait for an inevitable war to come to us. Not this time, so I sent them after that Rogue 1 base.”

  Shaking her head in delight, not in disagreement, Bledso gave her superior proper credit. “I would have recommended a similar raid, but I didn’t think you would agree. There’s a chance we can take out a nice chunk of the Thandol fleet before they get a chance to strike us, or to hit at the Federation. If we can get in and out as sneaky as Mirikami did at Rogue 2, they won’t even know it was the PU.”

  Strickland agreed. “I don’t see why we can’t do that successfully. We have the same stealth, and it was our experienced pilots that taught the Kobani how to properly fight their new ships.”

  “Uh, Madam President? You should stop saying that.”

  “Saying what?”

  “Always calling the Federation humans Kobani, as if our own Scout crews were not our Kobani.”

  “Oh. You’re right. I’ve been thinking of the term Kobani as a political distinction, the face of the Federation I think of when we negotiate with them. It’s only a genetic racial classification, of course, for the Federation citizens that also happen to be humans.

  “Our own Kobani flew our Scouts, and discovered the best way to use the gravity projectors. I know they’re loyal to the Planetary Union, and using the name Kobani as an alternate word for the Federation isn’t recognizing the fact our pilots are humans with an allegiance to the PU. I’ll make it a point to quit using the term Kobani that way.”

  “Please do, Mam. I don’t doubt our converts feel a level of affinity for Koban, where their new genes originated, but that isn’t their home, and ninety eight percent of their genes are like yours and mine. They have predominately normal human genes, and so do the humans in the Federation. Our converts came from worlds all around Human Space, Rim worlds and Hub worlds. That’s why I’ve trusted the instincts of the Federation humans, with regards to their intentions towards us. The older generation Federation Kobani all originated on worlds in Human Space. Even their children, born on Koban, feel a strong kinship with us. It’s instinctive.”

  “What about the alien citizens of the Federation? Think they have the same instincts?”

  “No, Mam, at least not those that are needed to preserve humanity. They want to preserve their own species. But they were helpless against the Krall, and humanity saved them. They know they wouldn’t have survived indefinitely under Krall rule, and they would be indentured servants under Thandol rule. Even if they harbor some distrust of humanity’s long term effects on their future, and they worry about how powerful we can become, they know who their better friends are.”

  “I hope so. MacDougal told me that the Prada, Raspani, and Torki will have Scouts and some of the Mark II’s, equipped as warships for their use.”

  “And the Krall’tapi will have them too, Mam. They’re also Federation citizens, and they want to fight to retain their freedom. Mirikami says that the Olt’kitapi are moving back to some of their old star systems in Federation space. They may become Federation citizens as well, although it remains to be seen if they can or will fight this time, if threatened.”

  “Adriana, don’t you think Human Space seems provincial by comparison to the Federation, despite our far larger population and so many settled worlds? We need to expand our horizons or be left behind.”

  “Joining the fight against the Empire will put us on that road, Mam. Opening trade with the Federation, and permitting immigrations of aliens to Human Space will help do that too. In few hundred years, I think we’ll have a much more blended interstellar society. No. Not just interstellar, but the start of a galactic civilization.”

  “Looking rather far ahead, aren’t you? Me too. Before this war is over, I believe all our armed forces will be Kobani converts, and when they return home to our worlds, they’ll transform society in the PU. Their experiences out in the galaxy, with the multitude of aliens they will have met, will suffuse through the public, changing their attitudes.”

  “Some of those aliens they will meet will be killed in the process, Mam. I guess that might be an object lesson for our future antagonist’s in the Milky Way.”

  “That will make us a force to be reckoned with. Adriana, the Federation is so large, and the Krall left it nearly unpopulated. We’ve been stalled in our expansion for three centuries after the Collapse. MacDougal and Mirikami have offered us room, and good worlds to expand onto again, and I will encourage acceptance. We’re going to experience a new age of exploration and growth, which will make our first five hundred years in space seem tame.”

  “Well, we do need to win this war first, Mam.”

  “Yes, there is that awkward little detail.”

  ****

  “Fifteen minutes until White Out.” Chief Grant, an old PU navy man, continued to use the outmoded term, instead of the currently popular set of new Jump reentry terms, like Exit, Emergence, or the sloppier slang term Pop-out. There were no bursts of radiation with these Scouts when they entered Normal Space, thus no White Out from a spray of high energy gammas. With their advanced stealth systems and low masses, they were told they’d be undetectable by the Thandol monitors, who watched for tachyon wakes and gamma ray bursts. Assuming there was even a secret naval base near the coordinates they’d been furnished, and the enemy was watching for unexpected arrivals.

  Using his Comtap was quite familiar to Grant now, as it was to most of the four person teams of each Scout. There were a handful of participants, captains of their own Scouts, who had been using Comtaps for years. These were former spec ops from the PU army, who had been the first to receive secret Kobani gene mods. However, this was a navy mission, and the top navy brass had wanted a career naval officer in charge. They had to compromise. Not having any officers with Kobani genes yet, they were forced to seek the highest ranking enlisted personnel with the gene mods, and Chief Petty Officer Albert Grant, of the heavy cruiser Claw, was who they found.

  It was now forgivable to excuse those personnel who had opted to volunteer for the formerly illegal gene mods prior to the forgiveness policy of all branches of the military, which had now been implemented. The new policy also permitted officers to volunteer for the mods once they had been granted approval to rescind their original oaths of service, should they so choose, and then swore anew to uphold the new oaths. The latter did not subject them to the civil legal penalties for genetic modifications, which were still in effect in Planetary Union law, and would take longer to overturn. The war effort couldn’t wait for the civilians.

  Captain Danforth of the Claw, a navy heavy cruiser once under the overall command of Admiral Foxworthy’s old Poldark squadron, regretted the loss of her best NCO, Chief Grant, once a security chief for her. He was put in charge of the Rogue 1 mission, leading two ten ship squadrons of Scouts.

  Serving on the Claw, he’d once met Captain Joe Longstreet, Sergeant First Class Bill Crager, and a Corporal Eddie Condor, when they were on a capture mission to recover a live high-ranking Krall who was falling out of orbit over Poldark.

  Condor was now a sergeant in spec ops, and was Chief Grant’s second in command, leading the second Scout squadron. “Big Bird” Condor was the ranking spec ops of the only two full Kobani on the mission, both with Mind Tap capability.

  Grant selected Condor’s Comtap address. “Hey, Big Bird. You Tapped that crusher captain to learn the location of this Neptune sized rogue planet. Did you get any details about the moon used for the base, or how many moons there are?”

  “Chief, that officer had never been to any of the hidden bases. The eight Crushers were always Jumping to various planets of subservient species, showing off the Empire’s muscles. The two Crushers that
Mirikami found at Rogue 1 had made their first visits there, to join the fleet they intended to send to Tanner’s World. Captain Halder’s thought, when I asked about a hidden base in Security Sector one, was that he’d have to report by radio to the base commander, and then get precise navigation to the proper moon. He thought there were two moons used, one for large ships, one for smaller craft, with specialized facilities for each.”

  “OK. I was going to split your group off early, to start simultaneous attacks if there’s a second moon used. Stay with me until we know if we have two targets or just the one. It shouldn’t take us long to decide if we should split.”

  It didn’t. They should have.

  Fifteen minutes later, staying together proved to be disastrous. Eleven of the closely grouped twenty Scouts were either disintegrated entirely, or partially cleaved, when they emerged in a field of thousands of Decoherence bombs, which promptly projected their two hundred forty-four-foot diameter spherical fields of fifth force, breaking the quantum electromagnetic bonds that maintained the illusion of solid matter.

  The Scouts nearest the center of the cluster of twenty ships suffered the highest number of losses. Kobani reactions immediately scattered the nine untouched Scouts, as if they were shrapnel exploding away from a blast. Most Comtap messages were from the intact ships, but a number were from the crews of the four Scouts that were at the edge of the disintegration range of the Decoherence bombs that vaporized only part of their vessels.

  Or, a part of a crewmember in some cases. The latter were the most difficult messages to receive. The suits had perforation and joint sealing capability in space, but couldn’t seal an opening the diameter of a limb or torso. Those pleas for help ended quickly when the victims died from the sudden decompression.