Koban: The Mark of Koban

by Stephen W Bennett

  “That explains why that super strong young Lady, Alyson, couldn’t open the doors either, unless you were with her.” He looked at some of the people near him that had opened their necklines. “I’ve seen those simple empty ovals on what had to be new novices, and those with a few colored dots, all the way up to some with a whole lot of dots. Like that Krall invasion leader I killed, which had almost two thirds of the oval filled. However, you have the only solid black one I’ve ever seen Tet. What’s that mean?”

  Dillon spoke for their humble leader, when he was slow to reply. “The Krall leader in charge of us captives gave him that, on the last day they were on Koban. Our AI, Jake, overheard him tell the warriors with him, in high Krall, that Tet was a worthy enemy and was being marked as such. He is the only one of us with a tattoo like that.”

  “You do seem to leave a lasting impression on the Krall.” Reynolds said.

  “I don’t do the actual work you know. Today, Carson, Ethan, and our cats did that.”

  “Yeaa…, your cats. I have tried staying out of sight when they show up. Holy shit, how did you ever train them to do what you want? They are some big fast mother’s, and smart as hell.” There were some sympathetic laughs over his fear of Kit and Kobalt.

  “Gar, they are far smarter than you can imagine. Once we were considered as their prey. I promise, after you let any of us introduce you, you are going to be a fan of them for life. We have several dozen rippers living with families, and they are not pets, they think of themselves as part of that family. A few are still cubs, which you will love.”

  “If you want ‘em to get my love, perhaps you oughta try calling ‘em ‘kitties’ instead of rippers. You know what I mean?”

  Mirikami only grinned in reply. “There are also flying wolfbats, another former enemy of humans. They don’t live with us as the cats do, but you will have to try to bond with one and get it to know you. Many of us have. They aren’t as bright as the cats, but are smarter than a dog.”

  “I’ll have to get used to this place and the fierce but ‘friendly’ critters from hell. Now you have two captive Krall. Are you able to tame them too?”

  “No, and we would be content to kill them if we didn’t want information from them.”

  “Not a chance. Our Intel folks have never gotten anything out of one of them, and they die in less than a day most of the time. You seem to have discovered a paralyzing agent to keep ‘em alive, but then they can’t talk. Our people would love to have that drug. You know a lot of stuff they would love to know. I need to help you get that knowledge to them.”

  “We want them to have it as well. As a first step, I want to take you with us on a tour of the ship, if you aren’t too proud to have some kid carry you up the steps. I will certainly ask for that help for myself when I get tired, until we put in some elevators.”

  “Sure. I wasn’t looking forward to the climb when I was asked to wait here for you. Even with a rhinolo steak under the belt to fortify myself. That’s another one of your beasties I want to see.”

  “Not close up you don’t, I assure you. They are the natural prey of rippers, and even they only hunt them in a group, like a pride of Earth lions. Let’s go up shall we?”

  The mechanical engineers, physical scientists, and technicians stayed lower, to study the systems that ran the ship, and were figuring out where to install a lift. Chief Haveram and his Drive Rats, and several of the former ship engineers went up to see the thruster engine. Mirikami visited that level first, to disarm the grenades he’d left.

  By then all of the Inner Circle members were suffering the indignity of letting sixteen, and seventeen, year old kids carry them up to whatever higher level appeared interesting. Reynolds had given in to their help after trying to walk up the bottom ramp and almost falling.

  They gave only a cursory look at the plasma cannons and fusion bottles that powered them. They did the same for the heavy and light laser batteries. All were different looking than human equipment, following simpler and more compact designs, but they were things that operated using known principles of physics.

  They sent a team to look at a tough thin layer of crystals that seemed to coat the outer hull. That was after Reynolds told them it was part of a stealth technology. Human scientists had never figured out how it worked, even when they had wrecked Clanship hulks to study. Single ships had a somewhat different hull type with stealth technology, but that wasn’t understood either. One problem was that humans couldn’t turn them on. There were small hanger bays for single ships discovered inside, but the first eight bays checked on one level were empty. There were three higher decks to search for an example of one of those small ships. They eventually found eight of them, in the highest deck where the small ships could be stored.

  The Jump Drive room, which had been Mirikami’s goal earlier, was about two thirds of the way to the top of the ship, and not in the center, where most human warships had theirs placed.

  Thad opened one of the two doors to the room, stepped through, and before Marlyn could enter, closed the door with her outside. She had no tattoo, being from the last group of captives. She could hear him through the door, which unlike the thruster engine room needed no soundproofing. “Hey Sugar, I thought of a way to have my own inner sanctum, a private space I can fill with just my stuff. I need one of these keypads on a door in our quarters, where I can have some private me time.” He chuckled at this demonstration of his superior doorman ship. He heard the slightly muffled reply clearly enough.

  “There’s about to be a lot of that kind of time in your future big boy. I don’t need a keypad to keep you out of another private little space you like to fill at night.”

  The door whisked open instantly. “Please do come in my love. Explain all the intricacies of a Jump Drive to an ignorant soldier.”

  She gave him a cool look up and down before entering. “You have the ignorant part right.” She winked at Noreen on the opposite side of the room, who had opened her own doorway and heard the exchange.

  Mirikami smiled at the byplay, and looked around at the unfamiliar controls and monitor panels. Having seen several types of Krall fusion bottles, he recognized three of the larger versions placed here, one of which could power the much larger habitat domes alone. Clan ships were certainly not underpowered.

  “If we plan to Jump this bird, we have a lot of learning to do, and figure out what does what. I hope this follows the other efficient designs the Krall use, where minimal manual interaction and tweaking is required. We’ve never seen a training or maintenance manual, and simple user guides only show how to operate the equipment. Everything they use appears to follow a “use it until it breaks and replace” system of logistics. We know they have slave races that build these ships somewhere else, and they brought some slaves to Koban to build the domes for the various clans. They don’t seem to want to do anything but fight, brag, breed, eat, and crap, in that order of preference.”

  Reynolds was looking around at the bewildering array of alien designed equipment. “Kole Grant, A college buddy of mine now in a technical analysis section, says the Krall technology all appears to be idiot proofed, as if created for semi-illiterate users. Guns, tanks, and ships often have highly redundant systems, employ some self-repair capability and some are self-regulating to prevent overdriving an engine, wearing down a plasma cannon barrel, or trying to cold fire one and crack the ceramic or damage the focus coils. Their complex equipment doesn’t need much in the way of maintenance, and some of the Clanships we’ve killed show signs of previous multiple repairs, with several modular sections older or newer than other major parts of the ships. Kole said he thought damaged ships were often salvaged and reused. New ships come online only when needed. They must have slave races do any of that work, because warriors sure as hell won’t or can’t do it themselves.”

  Mirikami listened to Reynolds, and noticed again how educated he sounded at times, and at others sounded like a good old country boy in the military. Yet he jus
t referred to a friend from college. He was more than he seemed, and the bumpkin persona might be how he kept his Army superiors from pushing him into positions of higher responsibility. Perhaps positions he would be uncomfortable holding. Mirikami had encountered the type before. Competent people, possessing officer qualities, but were not officer material because they didn’t want to lead or take charge of anything.

  Mirikami caught Thad’s attention, and nodded his head sideways towards Reynolds, cueing him to feel out the man, as he’d asked him to do earlier. They needed his help, but had to find out where he might stand on gene mods and sneaking into Human Space.

  “Sarge, if I were to return to Poldark, what would be the chances of my getting back into the military? I was a Lieutenant Colonel in the militia you know.”

  Gar chuckled. “I guess it would be pretty damn good, considering you evidently got a posthumous promotion. The Greeves training camp had a bronze plaque in the Admin office that showed you as a full bird.”

  “No kidding? I wonder who thought that much of me?”

  “Probably your replacement to head the militia, Nabarone.”

  “Major Nabarone got the job? Good for him, he’s a good man. How did he get me promoted, even if presumed dead, when all he got was a promotion to my old rank?”

  “Thad, I wasn’t involved in the military at the time, and never heard of you until I joined up and served at the camp named for you. But Nabarone was a Brigadier in the Planetary Union Army by then.”

  “Holy crap, Henry quit the militia for the PU Army? I’d believe he’d sooner hang himself than get under the thumb of the Ladies in charge of the Hub military. And how did a force of the PUA get on Poldark, let alone get Henry to lead them?”

  “I forgot how long you folks have been out here. You wouldn’t know that Poldark voted to join the Union, to get the resources to hold off the Krall. The late Governor, Michael Boldovic, was President at the time, and named Nabarone to lead the first unit of ten thousand troopers. He may initially have also been in charge of TB-85, the PU training base on Poldark, where much later I took my basic training. When I was captured, several weeks ago, he was Major General Nabarone. If he’s your friend, I suspect you have a way back inside if you want. But I’d recommend against that.”

  “Why’s that?”

  “Poldark is going to fall. It’s only a matter of time. Two or three years at most, if the Krall drag it out as they have been doing.” He paused.

  “With your background Colonel, I’d think you’d prefer to lead your own superhuman commando force instead.” The symbolic thud of his words felt almost audible. The other discussions in the room fell silent. Reynolds knew he’d hit the mark with that reaction.

  Mirikami said, “I knew you were sharper than that good old boy language you slip in and out of might suggest. This isn’t a test, and I’m going to tell you some things openly, but I’d like to see what an outsider has gleaned from our activities today, and from the performance of our youngest heroes.”

  Reynolds looked at the expectant faces. “Sure. I first thought your kicking my butt this morning was attributable to the gravity. You were adapted and I wasn’t. But, you are really well adapted Tet, as are all of you here. I met some Special Ops types, which have trained extensively on Heavyside, a practically unsettled world considered unsuitable for colony use. It’s on the anti-spinward side of our Rim. The gravity there is about 1.4 times Earth standard I believe. Those young soldiers could beat the older Ladies here in a climbing race to this level, by just a little, but not you men, and probably not the more fit women.”

  As an offended “older Lady” Maggi cleared her throat as if about to speak, and Mirikami held up his hand. “Maggi, get to know him before you tear him a new asshole, OK? He’s new here, and defenseless against as sharp a tongue as a dainty little Lady like you might wield.” The look Maggi gave him told him he’d damn well be feeling how sharp that tongue could get soon.

  “Go on. Please speak freely,” Mirikami urged Reynolds.

  He shrugged. “You must have something like the drugs the Spec Ops guys carry, to give their gravity bulked muscles a spike in performance when they need that. Only yours lasts longer, and I don’t see a sign of the ‘crash’ effect, when their drugs wear off. The gravity here is a bit higher, and the Oxygen is real high, but none of you present the bulky muscles they have, so I don’t know what you did to get more out of your drugs than they do.”

  “That’s all?”

  He shook his head sharply. “No, and you know perfectly well that isn’t all. I don’t want to offend anyone if I’m wrong, but it’s hard for me to see any other answer. Your teenaged kids are the supermen I meant Greeves should be leading as commandos.

  “Hell, that slender girl Alyson, she could run up the forty or so decks to reach this room, carrying a fully loaded out Spec Ops trooper. Perhaps one wearing his damned armor. Those kids are as strong as a Krall, and I suspect more so. I haven’t had a real chance to see their speed, but two boys took out six top notch warriors today.”

  “Only four of the warriors,” Mirikami interjected, with a grin.

  “Right. A super strong kitty did two. It doesn’t alter my point. No normal human can beat any Krall one on one with only guns and knives. They did. We need that ability desperately. I only hope the fools in the Hub government will accept genetic enhancements.” There, he’d said it! He’d accept the moral outrage and anger if they had found another answer.

  Mirikami looked him right in the eyes. “Sarge, I’m offended you think I would lower myself to taking dangerous performance enhancing drugs. Take them anymore, that is.” He grinned. “We did use some in our first months here,” he admitted. “However, I’m equally offended that you think we would subject our children to untried and untested genetic enhancements.” He paused, as Reynolds, visibly uncomfortable, shifted his weight.

  “Not without first trying the genetic modification techniques on ourselves. Which worked! We don’t use drugs for energy boosts because we don’t need them anymore.” The Drive Room chamber, full of genetically modified people, filled with laughter at Reynolds expense when he blew a huge sigh of relief.

  “You had me going there for a minute, Tet. I couldn’t see any possibility that these youngsters got this way simply by being born here. The Spec Ops troops told us Heavyside couldn’t sustain a real colony population because of the miscarriages. Pregnant women needed to go to full term in the orbital station at lower gravity. You people have been stuck on the ground in even higher gravity. I couldn’t guess how you got around that problem unless these kids were test tube births of modified fetuses. The Hub world populations, and our central government, simply won’t listen to us, but the Rim worlds are asking for clone armies again. At least the worlds on the spinward side have made that suggestion, where the Krall are killing us Rimmers at their leisure.”

  Noreen clarified something for Reynolds, in case he still had a misconception about child conception on Koban. “Carson over there was a normal conception and painful delivery for me, as was Ethan for his mother, Marlyn. No test tubes were involved. That is the case for every single child that has been born here. However, the bio-scientists from the Flight of Fancy, a detail that I don’t believe you know about, had to perform gene modifications on any prospective parents before they could risk conception. All of us in here have the mods; almost everyone you’ve met so far has them.

  “There are unmodified humans on Koban, quite a few of them still, but more of them are recognizing, particularly after today I think, that the gene mods were necessary for our survival. However, the Krall will one day return here in force. A single planetary population full of Alyson’s, Carson’s, and Ethan’s, can’t beat the entire Krall race. It would take hundreds of years to fill a hundred other planets with their like, and the Krall won’t wait around for that to happen.”

  “My Lady, you don’t need to teach an old hound dog how to suck eggs. That was exactly why I suggested the Colonel t
here should run a commando unit. My own superiors thought if we could knock out their war material sources, the war would slow greatly, or come to a grinding halt. The Krall waste everything as if there is an endless supply. We don’t know the source of the supply, and don’t have the quality of troops to take them down if we did, but it is probably our only chance.”

  Thad approved. “There you go Tet. He’s a man after our own hearts and thoughts. Although his corny references are backwoods even for Poldark. Hound dogs and sucking eggs? Really Sarge?”

  Maggi unexpectedly defended her former intended target. “Sarge, I’ll bet you watch old movies.”

  Surprised, he said “Yes Mam. Given my recent conversion to soldier, and in a guerrilla warfare section, I’m partial to old war movies now. It’s often exaggerated action to increase the drama, but I get some great ideas that the Krall are too dumb to expect. Why?”

  “Your hound dog and egg sucking comment are early twentieth century, and I like old movies as well. It’s nice to meet a literate Gentle Man. Have you seen Sands of Iwo Jima?”

  “Sure.” Then a list of old films followed from the two of them.

  Mirikami broke up the mutual admiration of old movies soon after it started. “Socialize on your own time you two. We need to see the command deck. The Krall don’t call it a Bridge, but after this ship is commissioned by us, that’s what it will be called.”

  The upper deck was wide open, down to just four stairs at the side. Four duplicate consoles in the center faced four directions. As typical for the Krall, there were no chairs or stools, but eight posts were close to the consoles, for grasping for stability if needed.

  The big surprise was the real viewports in a complete ring around the deck, at least five feet high. From outside, the covering of the stealth crystal material made them look like the rest of the hull, but from inside, daylight poured in to make the area the brightest encountered so far. The Krall preferred light a bit on the red side, which perhaps was like that of their former home sun.