Koban 5: A Federation Forged in Fire

by Stephen W Bennett

  They had reached the cluster of their four ships, where they were pausing before splitting up to enter their own ships. A day of meeting with new aliens had been exciting for all of them, but it was exhilarating for the rippers. They were eager to keep talking of the new experience.

  Kally, perhaps because she was young and physically smaller than the other three rippers who had visited the Hothor this first day, had actually had the only opportunity to frill two of them. They had finally worked up the courage to touch her neck, just before they were leaving for the day. Kally had invited the contact, explaining the area was sensitive. It was true, so she didn’t speak falsely, something rippers never did anyway. Except, the sensitivity she meant was for frilling, and not the pleasure of the tentative and gentle touches they made.

  “I asked if they had ever had contact with a Thandol, or if I was the first four legged alien they had met and touched. I could see in their mental images, they had never touched a Thandol, although they have seen them in person often. It seems the Thandol don’t like other species to touch them. There was recognition, from each of them, that I was the first alien with four legs they personally had ever met. Then, there was a fleeting thought from just one of them, of knowing people with six limbs.

  “I couldn’t reveal I had caught a stray thought, of course, but I immediately asked if they had ever met a species like the Raspani, with six limbs. They both quickly said no, but both of them actually have, and I think often. Because the topic was about limbs, from one of them I saw a brief image of long slender limbs, which were definitely not the chubby legs and arms of a Raspani. They were also purple colored. I was reluctant to ask again about different aliens with six legs because they had been secretive by their denial. I do not have the skill of someone like Maggi, to guide them into thinking the thoughts I want them to have.”

  Maggi touched her frill, and asked if she would recall the image of the limbs. It had indeed been a brief thought by the Hothor, but something about the angular surfaces of the limbs seemed somehow familiar to her.

  “I’ve seen something like that, but I can’t remember where or when. I don’t think it was a firsthand memory of something I saw, or I’d know immediately. I think it was an image like this one, which was shared from someone else.” She shook her head, as if that would jog the memory loose. “I’ll remember it eventually, when I’m not trying.”

  They spoke their parting words for the day, and would resume their dialogue with the Hothor tomorrow. They hadn’t pressed to pump them for too much information on the military ability of the Thandol or Ragnar, focusing first on developing a basis for trust and understanding. From their eagerness, it was obvious that the Hothor were sincere in their desire to meet and share their cultural and social differences, as well as similarities, with humans and rippers. It was no surprise that the rippers, with a simple, direct, completely open attitude, was the most appealing to them.

  Showing he still had a spring in his step after a long day, Mirikami leaped over the extended ramp without touching it, landing in the open portal facing out. The snow-covered peaks around them were ablaze with the light of the setting red tinted sun.

  He was waiting for Maggi and Kally to join him, so they could eat the meal someone had made for them, after the daylong meeting broke up and they’d admitted they were all famished. Then, a link from Thad made him forget about food.

  “Tet! The Hothor are hiding something on this colony, and it isn’t T-cubed ships. They’ve been hiding something in the rainforests over here at Canji Dol, surely for a hell of a long time. If it wasn’t for bill Saber’s interest in alien wildlife, and the particular suite of automated sensors our ships have, I don’t think we would have seen it.”

  “Seen what?”

  “They have something other than Hothor living and hiding under those trees. There’s a type of artificial camouflage covering a huge swath of forest, which presents an appearance identical to the normal thick jungle crown, and it’s a high tech active camouflage material. There must be quite a few examples of what’s living under there, because we measured perhaps a hundred thousand square miles of that covering. There are real local birds living in the fake treetops, or rather bird analogues that are nesting and flying around. Bill Saber noticed that all of the birds living in a sizable area of rainforest were different types than he saw elsewhere, with different colors from those living in the trees of other areas we scanned.”

  It sounded like Thad had stumbled onto something to Mirikami, but it could have a prosaic explanation. “OK, they are hiding some sort of secret. You said high-tech cover material. What do you mean?”

  “When Bill asked me to look closer, I saw that it presents an IR spectrum that is like the real forests areas, but it’s too perfect for such a large area. There should be some random irregularities, as you see when a cliff face causes a break in the trees. Perhaps where a stream cuts through, or lightening caused a fire that caused a patch of regrowth. There was only bland uniformity.

  “I also couldn’t detect a single animal moving on the ground anywhere in the IR spectrum, as we could for the other forest areas. It also doesn’t provide a realistically variable radar reflection. I didn’t even try the active radar scan at first, which gives our presence away, not until I was convinced they were hiding something like a secret Hothor military complex. It’s certainly not that. I think it might be another alien race, or at least something alive that’s not native to this star system.”

  “How did you arrive at their hiding other aliens or living creatures as being their secret?”

  “When even the radar returns seemed too uniform, because the reflections looked as homogenous as had the passive IR scans, I told, Buford, my AI, to use the full range of sensors built into these former clanships. I asked him to try to penetrate the camouflage to the real surface, using different frequencies of various types of radiation. Sort of like how the Krall finally learned how to use long wave radio frequencies see our ships through the improved stealth the Torki gave us.”

  “And?”

  “First, link Maggi in, and anyone else that might have a clue as to what I found from the images. Maggi once shared an image that almost matches these, but I didn’t pay careful attention at the time.”

  In a second, Maggi and several others were waiting to learn what Thad found.

  “What is it you think I might recognize Thad?” Her curiosity was aroused.

  “Maggi, these images were obtained using a microwave frequency, which apparently had the exact short wavelength needed to pass through some small weave gaps in the material of a camouflage covering that looks like a forest top. No other frequencies we tried worked, and even then, only this single wavelength passed through. The short wavelength made detailed images possible, if slightly blurred by our orbital motion. The undulations of the covering effects the images where it drapes from the trees. They may not all be real trees anyway, since a falling dead tree would pull down the canopy.” He sent them mental images of what he’d observed on the zoomed-in sensor screen. It was of objects on the ground under the trees. The pictures lacked color, of course, and they were all in shades of black to gray. There were structures visible, with wide roadways between them. In some of the open areas, were those living creatures? The term creatures seemed to fit better than the word animals.

  Maggi sucked in her breath. “Except for a lack of color in these images, the limbs on those things look very similar to a brief image a Hothor inadvertently flashed to Kally today. However, the body shapes and postures just triggered a memory for me I’d tried to recall earlier. That memory was of an image of creatures shaped like these, standing close to a large structure that Pholowela once shared with me.”

  “So, do you think they’re creatures the Hothor have to raise in hiding, perhaps because they’re some sort of valuable, but illegal biological specimens?” Thad asked her.

  She shook her head. “No. They’re the Olt’kitapi.”

  Chapter 15
: Snug as a Bug in a Rug

  Mirikami called for the questions and discussion to pause. The room and their Comtap links had been abuzz with speculation. They had called back to Haven, to notify President Stewart, the Raspani, Torki and the Prada of their discovery.

  When it became obvious that the Olt’kitapi issue was overshadowing the reports of their initial contact with the Hothor, Mirikami reminded them why they were even here.

  “We are on the verge of a new conflict with a huge empire with unknown military capability. We know little more other than they want all of the former Olt’kitapi territory, as well as what the Krall conquered. If we confront the Hothor, about what we know about their colony world, we may lose them as a useful source of information, and a potential sympathetic ally. I’m sure the Thandol have no idea any of their former competitors have survived inside their own borders.” He quickly warned them to hold the questions they’d been letting fly.

  “We can’t answer the question of how any of the Olt’kitapi survived and made it here, so let’s hold the speculations for now. The apparent racial suicide, when they destroyed the Krall world of Kronos, obviously wasn’t total. Our impression from the Dismantler ships was that the wave of deaths they sensed through Tachyon Space, via their mind enhancers, overwhelmed them. Much as it did Dismantlers, after they learned their actions caused massed deaths. They choose to either die, or couldn’t prevent their own deaths.”

  “The question I see, which we have to ask ourselves now, is do we let the Hothor know what we discovered, or not? We can’t be sure how they’ll react to our snooping.”

  “We can explain our suspicions as our excuse for the scans,” Sarge proposed. “Now we know how they knew so much about what the Torki, Prada, and Raspani looked like. Their guests told them. We’ll certainly keep their secret.”

  Maggi said, “That might appease them, but we don’t know much about their psychology yet. It could turn them obstinate. I think we need to find a way, through the Hothor, to make contact with their guests. The Olt’kitapi may have been knocked low, but they were a great civilization once, and there are technological advances of theirs we might be able to use.”

  Mirikami supported that view. “We need all the allies we can get, even if they aren’t strong now. The Planetary Union is probably going to blame us for any threatening new neighbor on their borders, like the Empire, but they can’t ignore them. We’ll eventually have to get them to ally with us, again.”

  “We basically beat the Krall on our own.” Ethan boasted.

  “Not exactly. We disarmed them, setting them up for defeat. The PU military is still beating them, on the ground on K1, Poldark, Bollovstic, and have already wiped out their newest invasion force on New Dublin. We could have eventually finished the job ourselves, but we don’t have the number of fighters needed for that, and because of Mind Tap ability, we don’t really have the mental disposition needed for that sort of extended repetitive slaughter.

  “Don’t misunderstand me. I don’t think we’re morally better than Normals are, but humans in the PU military have never experienced the minds of aliens, or even of each other. It’s easier to kill when you’ve never known the other side’s viewpoint, experienced the thoughts and pains of those that die. Although, a typical Krall’s mind is no picnic to Tap, and they felt justified in anything they did to other species. We have found commonality with other species, making us more accepting of external differences. Nevertheless, I found it disturbingly easy to want to kill the Krall, and that forced me to think about how doing that would change me for the worse. Would change all of us.”

  Thad, using his slower Normal Space drive to return to Canji Mot, reminded them why they needed the PU’s help again. “The Federation’s population, particularly we Kobani and rippers, who are the ones that can fight the most effectively, is limited. I don't know if we can fight the Empire off alone, so we need all the bodies we can get on our side, which means the PU. We have a powerful leverage to apply to them. I doubt that the Thandol, if they take over the Federation’s new territory, will accept the far smaller volume of Human Space right next door to remain independent.”

  “Thad’s point is one I was leading up to. That we can’t afford to alienate potential allies, the PU, or disaffected factions within the Empire. The Hothor have shielded the remnants of the Olt’kitapi, so they and those remnants represent the sort of loyalty we need with us in the face of the Empire’s aggression. I know we haven’t encountered every military technological development the Empire has.”

  Jakob interrupted the discussions and opinion offerings after another few minutes. “Attention, there are several vehicles approaching us from the building you recently visited. The Hothor tracking radars have activated again, and are scanning the space between Canji Mot and Canji Dol.”

  Mirikami knew the cat was out of the bag. “Thad, they must be looking for you, and they’re coming to demand an explanation. Clearly, they know where you have been. No casual walk over this time to meet us. That’s pretty damned brave of them, in my opinion. How do you figure they spotted you?”

  “Buford reported radar and laser scans almost as soon as Jakob did, and because we’re still several light minutes out, we also picked up some from behind us, originating from Canji Dol that hasn’t reached you yet. My guess is that my brief microwave sweep of that forest camouflage was noticed by the Hothor or Olt’kitapi.”

  Maggi sighed. “Oh well. We needed to broch this delicate subject with them in some way. I hate to say Sarge was right, but his explanation of why we went looking over there is not only plausible, it’s true. That’s a deviation from his normal pattern of lie until you’re caught method. We’re already caught, so we won’t lie.”

  Mirikami was decided. “We’ll finish our meal later. Let’s meet them at the door so to speak. After seeing what we and rippers are capable of, I don’t expect trouble from them, but I want twenty people per ship in armor, stealthed and out on the ramp around the ships, just in case. Heat up plasma chambers and the cannon barrels. Thad, I know you will anyway, but keep sensors watching for anything launching from here or their moon.”

  He ordered only a single portal opened, with no ramp extended, and went down to wait for their arrival.

  As they pulled up to the Mark of Koban, Mirikami had each ship’s external coating set to emit a soft silvery glow, to illuminate the surroundings. That eliminated any shadows from the direction of any ship, because the Kobani already outside in armor cast no shadows. This would appear reassuring to the Hothor, who were behaving a bit less timid than they had at the first meeting this morning anyway.

  The Chief Counselor, recognizable by his brown front smock, and his shading of grayer fur around his face, stepped from the lead vehicle, followed by his three ministers. No one exited the other two truck-like transports.

  Jorl Breaker, in charge of the Kobani in armor cautioned them. “IR shows there are perhaps twenty Hothor total, with rifles of some type, in the two trucks.”

  Mirikami acknowledged the report. “They’re braver than I expected of them. Let’s not jump the gun and force any of them to die bravely, OK?”

  Maggi, by agreement, spoke to the Hothor first. “Chief Counselor, we know why you have returned to talk with us so soon, and we understand that this could not wait until morning. I assure you that we will protect your secret, for you and for the Olt’kitapi’s sake. We came here seeking a sympathetic listener and a confidant. We may have found two allies instead.”

  The widening of the eyes, and his mouth dropping open, appeared to be evidence she had caught the Hothor completely by surprise, before he could make his accusation or a demand, whichever tactic had been planned.

  “You took advantage of our trust.” He complained, not bothering to deny anything.

  “Chief Counselor, it was your prior knowledge of what some members of our Federation looked like, when you said you had never met any of them. That drew our own suspicions. We are the outnumbered visitors d
eep inside the Empire’s borders, visiting one of their potentially loyal member races. We have already been attacked twice by the Empire, and in the first meeting, they killed all but one human member of a new colony. We couldn’t afford you the luxury of complete trust, and then you revealed that you knew something of the members of our recently formed Galactic Federation. If you knew nothing about us, how did you know anything about how some of our members looked?”

  That shifted the Counselor from the outrage he had arrived with, to a posture of defense. “We have never left the Empire’s boundaries since we were absorbed by them, long before we even met the Olt’kitapi. Our knowledge of those other species has come from descriptions of them, due to long association with the Olt’kitapi refugees, who arrived here as adolescents.

  “Ambassador, I believe you are overestimating how strong an ally we, or they, can be to you. We cannot help you fight the Empire. The Olt’kitapi living on Canji Dol no longer possesses the advanced civilization they once had. Their ancestors arrived here as pre-adults, without mind enhancers or availability of adult education. Although they are more intelligent that we are, they could offer no significant resistance to any of the forces the Thandol might send against us. Certainly not the Olt’kitapi, and probably not even we Hothor, would be permitted to survive a revelation to the Empire that we’ve sheltered their former adversaries.”

  “I assure you, with complete truthfulness, we are not going to let the Empire discover your kindness to the Olt’kitapi. We will depart here with the same degree of stealth as used for our arrival. Our other ship, the one that visited Canji Dol, is using a form of stealth that is more advanced than what the Olt’kitapi built into the Krall clanships. It is returning here now. It was our space borne protection, in the event the Thandol suddenly appeared at your call, to capture or attack us.”