“We had six hours of sleep, so I want us to spread out and stagger our higher-level jumps a bit, but still get there faster. I’ll speed up first, and I expect you to arrive within an hour or so of the Mark. We need to meet them.”
The Hothor were a two star species, with two planets settled in their original home system, much like the Earth-Mars planetary duo, and one colony world at a nearby star only five light years away. They had colonized the second world twenty-eight thousand years ago, and would have explored and colonized farther by now, except the Thandol wouldn’t permit them to do so after they made contact. They engaged in trade with neighboring empire species, and with the Thandol of course, the latter expecting them to buy more from them than anyone else.
Per the Dismantler’s database, the race was bipedal and omnivorous, eating fruits, nuts, roots, insects, and insect and animal byproducts. They rarely ate animals, according to old Olt’kitapi records. They had been tree dwellers in their remote past, and although they were ground dwellers now, they built homes within forested areas, retained much shortened, curved gray front claws, which they had once used for climbing. Their toe claws had atrophied to little more than gray human-like toenails, and they walked upright with a slight side-to-side waddle.
Comparing things to an image of Sarge was now apparently “Polo’s” standard for scale factor, so the Hothor appeared to stand between five and five and a half feet tall as adults. They had gray and white fur down their backs, with thick looking hair of a few inches in length, and thinning at the sides and on their upper limbs, and nearly gone on the front. Their arms were nearly hairless below their elbows, and the skin of the arms and hands appeared almost black with fine sparse gray hair there.
They had a round head with short hair on a long neck, the skull slightly smaller than a human’s head, with a circular, nearly flat and hairless face, with a small pointed muzzle and fine little teeth. Their wideset small eyes were dark, and looked rather sad, in a face that was as black as the skin of their arms. There appeared to be two slits between their eyes that served as nostrils, rather than being placed at the end of their small muzzle.
They all wore various sorts of footgear, and because their front torso was nearly hairless and they had external genitalia, they chose to wear various styles of differently colored smocks, on the front of their torsos only, looped around their necks and tied around their plump waists, or sometime clipped to their long fur on their sides. The smocks usually extended to just above the knees of their legs, concealing their genitals, and the clothes were equipped with multiple pockets of a variety of sizes, which often bulged with objects in them.
They vaguely reminded Maggi of large upright sloths. However, when Pholowela articulated them in her image, they didn’t move slow or sloth-like at all, and seemed to exhibit a quick, nervous seeming quality when they moved.
Their home world, which they called Canji Mot, had gravity in the mid-range of many of the habitable worlds humans had found. It was seventy-two percent of Earth normal, and it had a warm yellow sun similar to Earth’s Sun, rather than the more common cooler and red tinged suns. They were farther out from their star, roughly at a temperate spot equivalent to being between Earth and Mars in the Sol system. They had a slightly cooler climate than Earth, with larger polar caps.
Following his own advice, Mirikami Jumped the Mark, or perhaps the proper term was rotated to a higher dimension in Tachyon Space, directly into the T-squared level without doing a White Out to Normal Space first. Doing this from level one prevented a White Out gamma burst and a brief gravity anomaly in Normal Space. They were doing their best to stay unnoticed.
The Mark reached Canji Mot in eighteen hours, and did a White Out at roughly a thousand miles and descended slowly to enter a hundred mile orbit. This was considered a polite slow approach, allowing the Hothor an opportunity to observe them, and ascertain they were an unknown ship type, and therefore most likely controlled by an alien species.
It was surprising then, when multiple radar systems all around the planet and one on a small inner moon locked onto them, and a more powerful set of signals from an outer moon came alive, with characteristics similar to weapons systems because they had a high pulse rate for more accurate tracking and targeting.
Mirikami, using the translation packet given them by Pholowela, promptly broadcast to them, having Jakob translate into Thandol, specifically avoiding the use of the imperative grammar mode.
“I speak to all of Canji Mot, to tell you that the Hothor people are not enemies of my people, and you have nothing to fear from us. My name is Tetsuo Mirikami, and we are here on a peaceful visit to become acquainted with you. This ship is largely crewed by one species, called human, and we are representatives from a Galactic Federation of multiple species, located in a nearby small stream of stars attached to this great arm of the galaxy. All of our member species are equal and full citizens within our government. We wish to have a peaceful discussion, and to visit with your leaders. We are using the Thandol language only because we do not know yours yet, but we are not affiliated with the Thandol Empire.”
The clearly skeptical and surprising reply came quickly, also in the Thandol language. “You are in a Krall clanship. We are prepared to defend ourselves, and that which we shelter. Leave now or you will be fired upon.”
Holding his curiosity at bay, wondering how they recognized a Krall clanship, and who or what they sheltered, Mirikami said, “We have defeated the Krall, and we now use many of the ships we captured from them. We have begun to occupy worlds within the territory the Krall previously conquered. As examples of three species that are now members of the Federation, we have Prada, Torki, and Raspani citizens, who were formerly subject to harsh Krall domination. We also have two other member races besides humans, one of which is with us aboard this ship. To avoid alarm and panic, I want you to be aware that this ship did not come alone, so please do not attack us when the four other ships arrive here soon, as part of our peaceful mission. We approached you cautiously and spread out, to avoid detection by the Thandol. The Empire has made at least two attacks on Federation citizens. We came here to learn more about them from a people we have reason to believe are not their friends.”
A snappish answer came back, using the Thandol imperative mode of grammar. “Your trickery will not induce us to speak poorly of our glorious Emperor Farlol, the eighty fourth. We know you lied to us just now. You could not operate a Krall clanship without their assistance, and the Raspani are no longer a sentient species since the Krall made them food animals. Leave here. We will show you no further patience.”
Mirikami hurried to convince them before they acted rashly. “Humans and Torki helped restore Raspani sentience from a single mind enhancer, which had been hidden from the Krall, and which contained millions of stored minds. They are steadily increasing the number of individual sentient minds as bodies of wild and empty minded Raspani meat animals are rescued, and new mind enhancers are embedded in them.
“My own people, who are a single race of the base species of humanity, now bear the same ancient Olt’kitapi tattoo as did the Krall. That tattoo permitted us to use the quantum key locked equipment of the Krall, and we acquired the means to deny the Krall use of this same equipment by listing them as an untrusted species, locking them out. This was what the Olt’kitapi tried and failed to do when the Krall revolted against them. Do your people even remember meeting the Olt’kitapi? We were told they visited you long ago, just before their society was destroyed by the Krall. In fact, that could be when you learned of the Krall. Before the Raspani lost their sentience.”
There was no immediate reply, but there was no indication that the weapons guidance systems were doing anything other than continuing to track them. Mirikami had entered Normal Space unstealthed, not using the improved system the Torki had added for them, which Jakob had just said would render them invisible to the detection systems presently locked onto them. He was prepared to go stealth and do a micro-J
ump at a moment’s notice.
While waiting the few seconds for them to assimilate what he’d said, he Comtapped with the other captains, making certain they avoided making an exit too close to Canji Mot, perhaps alarming the fingers, or claws, resting on the triggers here.
Thad said, “How about if I come in close to give you some cover, but stay ghosted? Your link will show me what’s happening, and I’ll be close enough to help.”
“OK. Thad. The rest of you should exit with stealth off, fifty miles above me. Noreen, do the reflecting thing you did over Denver. I want them to see all of you. Let me know just before you pop out.”
The Hothor completed whatever consultation had been going on in the background, and returned sounding less threatening, but still with unanswered questions. “How can a people that could beat the Krall in this era, have known the Olt’kitapi in the long past era when the Krall betrayed them? If you needed the Krall ships to travel here undetected, you apparently do not have many advanced ships of your own. That suggests a people that should have been too weak to defeat the Krall, even if you denied them access to most of their best weapons. Your technology doesn’t appear to match your improbable claim, yet you do have a clanship, and surprising knowledge of the quantum key system and how it worked.”
Mirikami wanted to establish some level of rapport with the speaker. “I don’t know your name, but you too have a surprising knowledge of that quantum key system, because you didn’t ask me what I meant about our listing the Krall as an untrusted species and locking them out. You know what that means; therefore, you once had contact with the Olt’kitapi to learn that. This is something we only recently learned, from a source that was once very close to that vanquished species.
“That source was involved in planning a vast construction project, when the Olt’kitapi came to invite the Thandol to join with them in building an enormous new multispecies home around a star. They wanted to invite other species in the Empire. It’s the reason we came to talk to you, to learn what you discussed with them back then, and what you told them about the Thandol. We believe you and we have a mutual adversary in the Thandol Empire, and you have been under their rule a very long time. I assume you are tired of that.”
Unable to conceal a sense of wonder and hope, the questioner asked, “Are you inviting us to join you in a finished habitat?”
Wow, that was a charged question, which Mirikami knew he didn’t have an answer to match that sense of hope. He’d only wanted to establish that he knew of their past link to the Olt’kitapi, and the discussions they presumably had. He didn’t have a means of escape from the Empire for them.
He felt Noreen’s mind via Comtap. “Tet, we’ve arrived, and except for the Ripper, we’re ghosting and ready to exit, directly above you.”
He replied only through the link. “Hold on, Noreen. Exit on my cue. Listen to what I say to the Hothor on when to do it.”
To the Hothor he asked, “Who do I have the honor of addressing? I furnished you my name.”
“Forgive my lapse in manners Tetsuo Mirikami. I am Yida Gof Hanbi, and my title is Third Minister to our Chief Counselor, Firl Jaf Semal.”
“Yida Gof Hanbi, I must advise you that my companions have just arrived, and their three ships are about to White Out. By that, I mean they will make an exit from Tachyon Space directly above my ship, in a very reflective mode so you can see them. Please, do not be alarmed. They also are operating captured clanships of the Krall. Team, please White Out now.”
Simultaneously, three ships appeared in bursts of gamma rays, gleaming silver in reflected sun light, even in a daytime sky.
“Yegleth!” Was the startled exclamation heard from the Hothor third minister, as he apparently watched the sky. That meant he was positioned on this side of the planet.
He explained the real source of his surprise. “You can communicate with spacecraft when they are in the alternate travel universe and you are on this side. Not even the Thandol can do that.”
Mirikami was sorely tempted to tell the minister that he could do it instantaneously at any distance, but thought better of revealing that. At least he had just learned of a limitation to Thandol communications. Assuming this wasn’t a technology the Empire kept secret from their minions.
“Tetsuo Mirikami, I have just been instructed by our Chief Counselor, our highest leader, to invite you to land your ships near his winter residence for additional discussions. I will be seeking transport to join you there, accompanied by the first and second ministers, and a number of our scientists. I hope you are not offended, but meeting a new species is always a rare cause for excitement.”
“We are not offended, and we share your excitement. However, you will be meeting two new species today. One of the other member species of our Federation is with us, and some of them are traveling on each of our ships.”
“You said you are called a human. What is your general physical description?”
“We have some images of the Hothor, and we are bipedal, like you, with a similar arrangement and number of limbs, with our head on the top, as do you, with eyes and mouth not arranged greatly different than you have. We have external fleshy growths on each side of our heads, protruding from our hair for hearing sound, but we did not see this feature for your people. We have much less hair on our bodies than you, but sometimes we have much longer hair on our heads. Like you, we wear clothing on our bodies, and on average we are taller than you, but not greatly so.”
The minister responded, “We have sound receptors under our fur, also on the sides of our heads. Of the subservient species within the Empire, most are bipedal like you and we are. We enjoy meeting those that are greatly different in body design, because they often provide us a different and refreshing perspective on the Universe than we have. They also sometimes help us to understand the Thandol better.” He sounded a bit disappointed that humans were not very different form Hothor.
“Then you are fortunate. Traveling with us is a species called the rippers, and they walk on four legs, having no hands, trunks, or tentacles at all. I suggest you meet them without a longer description, to increase your wonder at seeing their large and impressive powerful body pattern for the first time. They look fierce, and sometimes they are. However, be assured they are very intelligent and civilized, although they are a non-technological species. I think you will enjoy their perspective on the balance of life. Eventually, perhaps you will meet the Torki and Raspani, who have greatly different body plans that our two species have. The Prada are more like us humans and you Hothor, being bipedal, but I think they more resemble your people.” He didn’t describe the Krall’tapi, for obvious reasons. It wouldn’t be very reassuring to tell them the original version of the Krall might become a Federation member.
Then the third minister, of a species not permitted to explore or colonize by the Thandol, a low gravity sedate people that were said not to be very adventurous anyway, made a slip. An odd admission. “Yes, we will of course be happy to meet those three species you named as members now of your Galactic Federation. However, we were hoping to meet species that we did not already know so much about, such as their shapes and sizes. Therefore, the rippers may be the more intriguing species for us to meet.”
He and Maggi looked at each other, eyebrows raised.
“Yegleth!” The Hothor’s exclamation of surprise came from Sarge, proving he’d caught the significance of that comment as well.
Thad, just as curious, made a proposal. “I’ll go behind their big moon or another planet, White Out, and come back stealthed, to sensor scan this planet and their other colony here. They sure have odd bits of knowledge that are inconsistent with the homebodies they’re supposed to have been for the last twenty thousand years. The Torki weren’t even a space-going people yet when the Olt’kitapi died out, and the crabs have the weirdest body pattern I think we’ve seen. They, the Raspani and Prada already seem to be known to the Hothor. It’s not impossible that the Olt’kitapi described them to t
he Hothor so long ago, but peculiar if they did so. Pholowela implied it was a limited contact. The memory of these unmet species has lasted a long time.”
The third minister provided a coordinate system used by the Thandol to describe where they should land. There was a sizable snow covered city in the area, with a moderate sized spaceport.
Four of their five ships started down for their approach. It would be an interesting two-way first contact. The rippers were excited.
****
Maggi and Mirikami were the first down the ramp of the Mark to meet their hosts, but several Kobani in stealthed armor were not far behind, just as a precaution. On the other ships, they each opened a hold portal but didn’t extend their ramps. The openings held the presumably curious new alien onlookers, but they were there as much to provide open exit hatches for additional stealthed armored Kobani, who stood well back. They didn’t expect trouble, but they certainly were inside the borders of a hostile empire.
There were visible rippers at every portal, sniffing the strange scents, taking in the new sights, right along with the enhanced noses and eyes of their Kobani friends. The snow had been removed from the landing area, and had been pushed to the edge of the paved area, forming a lumpy white berm as high as a Hothor. There was a faint musty odor, which arrived on a breeze blowing from a group of the aliens walking towards the Mark of Koban from a large building. It wasn’t an unpleasant odor, merely different.
There were seven members of the greeting party, approaching almost in a line across, one individual centered and slightly ahead, wearing a solid colored dark brown smock, their warm moist breath drifting away in the cool air. They stopped advancing roughly twenty feet from Maggi and Tet, and all executed a combination half bow, with the right arm extended, hand cupped up in front of their faces. It clearly was a greeting, so Maggi and Tet, adlibbing and coordinating via Comtap, also stopped and each made a simple bow, but didn’t try to copy the arm and hand gesture.
Koban 5: A Federation Forged in Fire Page 52
