When he awoke, a short time after his halftrack became a do-it-yourself rebuild kit, two warriors were examining the strange Krall suit he’d taken, and the corpse inside. One of the Krall had pulled Reynolds out of his own armor, before the suit’s nanites had fully closed off all of the bleeders on the end of his stump. Fortunately, not before the suit had loaded him with painkillers and a stimulant. With his back against a tree, he tore off the ragged uniform sleeve that dangled below the left stump and used the fabric to cinch off the remaining light bleeding, using his teeth and right hand.
Both Krall were perfectly aware of Reynolds’ movements, but only one turned fully towards him, and surprised him by speaking passable Standard. Typical warriors had little knowledge of human language. This Krall’s helmet was off and he saw a bit of the blue uniform, telling him that this was a translator, and probably his interrogator.
Oh goody, he guessed there would be no delay getting to the Krall “fun” stuff. He was wrong.
“How did you know this was the Gatlek? Of what use is his body to humans?”
“What is a Gatlek?” he asked, the drugs giving him false energy and bravado.
“This was the leader of our invasion force on Poldark. You killed him in one of your devious human traps, and then took his body with you. Why?”
“I needed a snack, and didn’t have a can opener.”
“I did not think humans ate their enemies. Is your human army low on supplies of food? This information about a weakness would be of interest to the new Gatlek, when one is assigned.”
Reynolds laughed. “You eat us when out of food on a raid. Why shouldn’t we return the courtesy?”
“We don’t like the awful taste of human meat, and eat you only if we must. How do we taste to you?”
Huh! Reynolds thought. The prospect isn’t shocking, he’s only curious.
“I’ve not had a chance to try. You caught me before I could start a fire.”
“It is not surprising a human is reluctant to eat raw meat, you are weak. However, we can discuss your eating habits later, if you have a later.” That didn’t sound promising.
“I am Tupord, a translator of Dorbo clan. My two hands of single ships came down from an orbiting Clanship to help recover the Gatlek. We think your ambush was to capture him, but he died fighting you. We followed his transmitter signal, which he left active.”
Shit! I led them right to me with that damned suit!
“The Gatlek’s assistant has ordered me to take you to her in our command bunker. She is in charge until a replacement invasion leader arrives. However, because you targeted the previous invasion leader, and then tried to escape with his dead body, I recommended that your interrogation wait for the new higher status leader to arrive. Your information could be valuable, and might be lost if that clumsy aid, Toltak, questions you. She is of Tanga clan, the same clan as the Gatlek you killed. Their clan has not been efficient in conducting this invasion. I do not think Tanga clan will remain in control.”
“Well, I sure hate to hear that eight million of our dead and taking twenty percent of the planet in a year is slow progress for you nice people.”
Tupord glared at him. “I speak your language, but your beliefs do not match the words you used. You do not think the Krall are nice, and you want our progress to be slow, so you do not care if the war is inefficient for us.”
“You caught me again.”
This time the Krall looked at him oddly. “You didn’t escape us, unless you were a prisoner before.”
Reynolds shook his head at his wasted efforts at humor. “No, this is the first and last time.”
“A new Gatlek will be here in perhaps eight days or less. My clan commander believes sub-leaders from the victory on Bollovstic are near this world, and one of those leaders will have the required status. You have time to think of what you will tell him, human.”
Reynolds had indeed been thinking, for the last week. They had kept him in bleak conditions but fed him well enough, which had countered the blood loss, and provided the reduced number of nanites a chance to do their repair work. The former aid to the dead Gatlek clearly wanted to extract what he “knew” about human plans for the supposed plan to capture the former leader, and she was brutal at times. Obviously, however, there was restraint on her part because he lived through the week with all his pieces.
Furnishing what she wanted from him was going to be hard to provide, since the dead Gatlek was merely the meat contents of the suit of armor he had decided to take. He needed a better explanation if he wanted to extend his life in a relatively pain free condition. His alternative plan had been to insult her, to provoke her into killing him mercifully, in a quick Krall fit of temper. Sometimes you just don’t have any luck at all. She caused him pain but let him live.
Pendor returned his attention to the now seated human. “I have questioned many of you on Bollovstic. Those captives had little knowledge of us. You have shown you know our titles of rank, speak some of our language, understand a little of how we behave. With me, you recognized my display of amusement, and with Toltak, you used insults that could earn you a quicker death from an undisciplined warrior. Your ambush intended to draw a more powerful force after you, led by the highest rank Krall on Poldark. Both Toltak and the Dorbo translator believe you knew he was in the lead tank and you intended to capture Gatlek Gentda in that trap. You removed his body when you fled. How did you know he was in that tank force, and what use was his dead body to your leaders?”
Reynolds was surprised that the Krall had done so much of the work for him. He thought he’d have to bluff his way through more of his bullshit story. They assumed the humans had set the ambush specifically for capturing their leader, and his own chance decision to salvage the technology on his armor seemed to offer proof. He’d just learned the name of the dead Gatlek, so now was a good time to take advantage of a fresh detail.
“We were told that Gentda was less efficient as a leader than other high ranking Krall, and he didn’t even know we had mechanical spies watching him. We decided he was a weaker leader than other high rank Krall, and we wanted him alive, to learn more of your plans for the war.” Tupord, the Dorbo translator, had told him the former Gatlek wasn’t highly respected, and rival clans considered him inefficient. That blended with his concocted story, but still wasn’t an easy sell.
Pendor snorted. “The most inefficient novice will not cooperate with an enemy. We will die to avoid capture, and if wounded and taken alive, you cannot force us speak to you, and we can make ourselves die. Gentda was not the most efficient leader, but he was an experienced warrior, and would never give you information before he made both his hearts stop.”
Not knowing if Pendor knew the gesture, Reynolds nodded. “If he was aware he was a prisoner, he would never help us, but our newest drug has worked on some captured Krall that displayed slight weaknesses. I rushed to Gentda’s damaged Dragon to inject the drug to shut down his mind, while he was too stunned to fight. Then I took him with me. He was not dead then, because your race is very hard to kill. It may be that the missiles that destroyed my halftrack and took my arm actually killed him. His suit was more damaged after that attack than when I removed him from his tank, still alive.”
“It is not possible to do what you say. A Krall’s mind never shuts down. We do not experience the small death humans call sleep. That is why we can fight at any time, and are always alert.”
Well, that confirmed what Reynolds had often heard about the Krall. It was the right time to use that information in his evolving fabrication. “But humans know what causes our own minds to shut down, and our bodies make a chemical that does this, to make us sleep once a day. We learned how to concentrate that chemical into a stronger drug, which can even shut down a powerful Krall mind. Your bodies do not make this chemical, so you never needed a way to deactivate the drug, as our bodies do each morning after we sleep.” A tiny trace of truth can be stretched a long ways.
The Krall
leader took far longer to respond than was customary for a race noted for snap decisions. He was obviously thinking about what he’d just heard. Reynolds hurried to build something from the precarious pile of twigs his fabrication had assembled.
“I learned some of the Krall language from wounded warriors we kept asleep.” Actually, there was a course taught to troops on low Krall, conducted by AI’s that knew a considerable amount of the language. Encrypted transmissions made it of little use to the average soldier.
“We discovered that the warriors often considered the questions asked of their sleeping minds as ridiculous. They would snort in their sleep.” He mimicked the sound and head toss Pendor had made.
This particular Krall had admitted questioning other humans, so perhaps a few more partial-truths would reinforce his story. “Humans sometimes speak in their sleep, saying random things, and will even speak about suggested subjects, proposed to them while asleep.
“Krall, under the influence of our drug, do the same. However, the few low rank warriors we have captured alive didn’t know of your larger plans. One warrior told us in his sleep that a Gatlek, named Gentda, directed the invasion on Poldark. That’s how we found his bunker and we sent our tiny spy robots to enter. They told us when the Gatlek came out, so we could set up an ambush. How else would we have known when to draw him into a trap, and be ready to capture him?” This is pure bullshit! He thought. I hope it works.
“My only mistake was that I didn’t think to turn off his radio when I had him. Our soldiers will have to try again, with another Krall leader.” The inference was obvious. Any Gatlek would do.
Pendor demonstrated he had drawn the same conclusion. “I will not be so foolish as to personally lead an attack on a small decoy force. I will order a sweep of my bunker for more of your spy devices. My sub-leaders will be ordered to search for these devices, and to always suspect human deceptions when you retreat or show us an easy target.”
Reynolds felt his first trace of hope. At least Pendor was buying into part of the story, since the spy gadgets and ambushes were common parts of the human war effort. He’d have to offer to make himself useful, in some continuing capacity that would keep him alive and whole.
“I don’t want to die cut in pieces from interrogation, so I will help you learn more about our sleep drug, and the antidote that reverses its effect. If you let me stay alive and healthy, I may be able to guide in ways that will protect your unconscious warriors from talking to our scientists.” Even acting as a phony traitor left him with a bad taste in his mouth.
“You can make these drugs for us to test?”
“Sir, I am a soldier, not a scientist, or what you would call a K’Tal. I had more of the sleep drug with my armor, but the warriors that captured me removed my suit and left it behind in the woods. My people will have recovered it by now, since it is a secret project.” Teams routinely recovered armor from battlefield casualties for parts, and obtained a download of the solid-state memory log of the suit’s AI. It would be long gone after a week.
“Then of what value are you to me now?”
Oh, Oh. Give him a use! His mind raced.
“I can show your K’Tal’s some of the stimulants that we use to inhibit sleep, and test them for you. Some of the weaker ones are in common human drinks and in some of our foods. We use them to keep us awake longer, and to help make us alert faster in the mornings. We use drinks called coffee, tea, and other energy drinks that have this chemical, and eat a food we call chocolate. The simplest chemical is caffeine, and we sometimes carry it with us in pill form. The drug we must use to reverse sleep in a Krall is much more powerful, because your minds are so much stronger when our sleep drug puts you to sleep. Nevertheless, the drug to wake your warriors works something like caffeine. Ask other humans about Coffee, and what it does for us.”
“Human prisoners have used coffee before, and have asked for it to drink. We did not know that was to block your need to sleep the small death. Why do you not use it all the time in battle?”
“Caffeine will only work for a few hours before our brains feel the need to sleep anyway. If we stay awake too long, we lose our ability to think properly. We discovered how to make the Krall sleep when we studied how to make humans stay awake the way you do. We can’t make our brains as strong as yours, but we can put your brains asleep if we act fast when you are injured in battle.”
“Are there other ways to deliver this sleep chemical to our warriors? Besides introducing it into their bodies directly, as you did to Gentda.”
Sold! Reynolds thought. Now he’s worried we can put his army to sleep.
“I told you, I’m a simple soldier, not one of our scientists. I don’t know that answer. But I will try to help you find the answer if you let me live.”
Pendor considered this only a second or two, nevertheless a deeper reflection that was usual for a Krall. He tapped his shoulder com unit, and deployed one ear on that side. He spoke in the silent lip wriggle they used.
Reynolds wished he had one of the newly developed ultrasonic ear inserts, which could lower high Krall speech frequencies down to human range. Except, he remembered thigh Krall was effectively a different language, and he had little mastery of low Krall as it was. He guessed the topic of conversation partly involved him, with a revealing result coming soon, possibly in some unpleasant manner.
When Toltak entered, along with several warriors of high rank based on their tattoos, Reynolds spirits took a nosedive. Her last request was to make him pay with his life for the insults he’d given her in the last week. He’d wanted a mercifully swift death then, only just now, with Pendor, he’d thought he’d arranged a stay of execution and continued good health.
Her expression when she entered also seemed anticipatory, although murderous anger at him was nearly the only expression Reynolds had seen on her. When it dissolved into clear confusion and then disgust, it was obvious Pendor was exacting a price from her previous disrespect for the new Gatlek. He then deliberately spoke to her in low Krall, so that the human, used as the means of delivering her penance, could understand what Pendor ordered her to do, and to deepen the insult she felt.
“This captive is a valuable source of information on a new weapon that is being developed by humans. Our race has never faced this weapon. He has agreed to help me learn how it works if I permit him to live, and kept safe from injury. This information is important not only to the war here, but against all humans. Return him to his compartment, keep him safe, and provide him with things humans use to sleep, sit, and eat. Send him clean human coverings.”
Without a pause, he returned to speaking high Krall, apparently to the three high rank warriors. As soon as he finished, and Toltak pulled Reynolds (rather gently, for her) towards the doorway, the other warriors started searching the large room’s equipment cabinets, corners, and ceiling. Probably looking for the “bugs” that Reynolds had said warned them when Gentda went out on a raid.
****
Reynolds had been bored for the last week, but more comfortable in his larger, and now furnished twenty foot by thirty foot cubical. The obvious two cameras and audio pickups proved he was under observation. That was something he had assumed even in the smaller bare room he’d occupied the first week. Pendor came to see him the day after Tupord had warriors bring in the bed, table, chair, and ill-fitting clean clothes.
The Gatlek had brought self-heating coffee packs and a pile of chocolate bars, all standard Army issue. Pendor instructed Reynolds to consume the products and see how long he could remain awake and alert. Some unseen translators asked periodic random questions through a hidden speaker, to see if he was awake. The sergeant made a serious effort to remain awake for much longer than normal, and used his thumbnail watch overlay to keep track of time. The room had no window of course, and the light, as was normal for the Krall, never dimmed.
After thirty-six hours, he decided it was enough time, so he pretended to fall asleep on the bed, collapsing face down with
his thumb watch where he could see it, while his eyes were out of view of the two cameras. He did have to fight hard to stay awake for the “show” he wanted to put on for the watchers. After thirty minutes of feigning sleep, while desperately fighting real sleep, he started mumbling and “talking in his sleep.” His barracks buddies all told him he snored loudly, but never had mentioned if he spoke in his sleep. If it were funny and embarrassing, they would have told him and used it in jokes at his expense, and if he talked of inappropriate serious stuff, they likely would not have said a thing.
“I need to warn them…, the Krall know what we did.” He mumbled incoherently some more. The said, “Want to go home…, I need to escape. Wish a spy bot would find me. The Army could come rescue me.” These were all things he thought the listeners might expect a sleep talking prisoner to say.
A loud voice suddenly sounded from a speaker. He nearly jerked in surprise, and practically wet himself, due to lying down with a too full bladder in a bit of poor preplanning on his part.
“How is the sleep drug made?” The Krall’s voice asked, entirely too loud for a normal sleeping person to ignore.
Idiots! He almost laughed. They were testing his autosuggestion technique, to see if he would reveal any secrets, as he said Krall warriors did.
“It’s a secret brain chemical.” Then he mumbled some more.
Koban: The Mark of Koban Page 45
