Koban: The Mark of Koban (42 page)

Fifteen seconds later, a hundred Clanships
winked out and did instant White Outs, but only half were within the loose
globe of fast moving human ships, which had suddenly shifted their vector. A
Clanship managed to emerge in part of the space occupied by the battlecruiser
Mauler. The Krall were probably not bent on a suicide mission, but to the
former crew of Mauler, now a brilliant ball of tens of thousands of tons of vaporized
metal and traces of organics, the intent was irrelevant.

The firefight was fierce and conducted at much
closer range than had been the case earlier. Single ships, launched from some
of the Clanships, charged at the outer destroyer screen, a few of the similar
looking black hole generating ships hidden in their numbers.

The release of fire control to the AI’s, with
no restrictions for friendly fire risks, made rapid concentrated and coordinated
fire from the human ships very effective, despite the heavier plasma and laser
beams of the Clanships. Five Clanships quickly flared out of existence, sandwiched
as they were between large capitol ships, but two battlecruisers took
considerable damage and casualties as they received poundings by a happenstance
concentration of nine Clanships around them.

A destroyer suddenly crumpled and vanished with
a dying flash, as a small black hole pulled it into the maw of ultimate
darkness. Its death accompanied by small jets of escaping plasma, which visibly
squirted thousands of miles at relativistic velocities.

Then a Clanship dove towards the dreadnaught
Indomitable, as if trying to ram the huge ship. Mauss watched on screen as it
received help from two other Clanships, taking out laser pods and plasma ports
that fired on the inbound Krall ship.

The invincible was only ten miles away, and
fired laser and plasma beams to help defend Indomitable. The Krall pilot was
distributing the energy input by rapid spinning. The closing velocity was small
compared to that of an Eight Ball, and the Indomitable out-massed the Clanship
by a factor of five or six. A collision would certainly destroy the Clanship,
but would not inflict severe enough damage to disable the heavily armored
thick-hulled dreadnaught.

It finally turned as if to skim past the
larger ship. However, it did something completely unexpected as it drew within
a quarter mile. It Jumped, forming a monstrous sized event horizon. It took an
enormous semicircular bite out of the Indomitable at midship, nearly three
quarters through the ship. It had captured a tachyon of immense energy, and
used it to form a far larger Jump Hole event horizon than it needed for its own
size, and when the volume it enclosed rotated into Tachyon Space, everything
within the radius of the overlarge sphere went along.

The cut was precise, down to the atomic level,
sheering open the interior of the dreadnaught, spilling atmosphere, fluids, and
people into vacuum. One and a half of her four fusion bottles went with the
missing mass. The suddenly released plasma in the opened half bottle could not
vent through the now missing failsafe system, and instead vaporized the
remaining doomed Drive Room crew and the equipment that regulated the other two
intact bottles. The ship went dark.

In a reversal of fate, the Bridge was intact,
but the “safe” backup command center and personnel were gone, dumped into
Tachyon Space. In an instant, a mundane seeming Jump revealed itself as a
potential close-up weapon of terrible destructive power.

Mauss had instantly directed other fleet
elements to come to the aid of survivors of Indomitable. She didn’t have much
time to rescue them because her decision was firm. They were withdrawing as
soon as they had picked up the crew. She couldn’t pull in fleet elements for
long without making them better targets, and the rescue force would be
stationary targets if there were suicide prone Krall that saw them.

If she ordered the fleet to Jump now, the many
hundreds of survivors from Indomitable would be lost. She had never forgotten
the image of single ships boarding disabled destroyers as she left K1 at the
end of the last battle. The decision to delay retreat this time saved several
hundred from Indomitable in the next thirty minutes of maximum fire from the
entire fleet, blasting away with missiles and beams at any Krall that came
near. However, that delay was punished, when it resulted in the trade of sixty
lives on a destroyer, as another Jumping Clanship cleaved it in half, with
single ships attacking the stern section that remained behind.

There was no time to search individual
compartments for possible trapped crew on Indomitable, but as far as they knew,
there was no one left alive. On Mauss’ command, the AI’s coordinated the
simultaneous Jumps of the fleet.

The ships of New Lance winked out of Normal
Space, leaving the milling Krall ships behind. They now had five days of travel
back to Rhama. There was time to care for the wounded, and repair some of the
internal damage to their ships. They could also reflect on the first
significant damage humanity had inflicted on the Krall. The Navy would be
riding high in the public’s and the Administration’s eyes after this strategic
success.

****

Jastek asked Kanpardi the inevitable question.
“Is your plan being followed Gatrol? There was little time to inform the hammer
balls, and they have poor equipment inside for your pilots to use, and nothing
but air for supplies.”

“My second in command, Telour, was in a
Clanship watching as the Humans departed. His wave detector points the
direction. He gave commands to three of my hammer pilots that were able to Jump
the direction where he instructed. Telour Jumped with them and will tell them
when he senses the time to end their travel.”

Hardrol was critical. “The hammer pilots have
no supplies, and limited air. They will not survive a long flight. You have
thrown away three of our strongest weapons when the pilots die. They will stay
in a Jump Hole to die, or emerge in the space between the stars and die there.”

Kanpardi gave a snort. “I plan better than
Tanga clan does, Hardrol. That is why Telour flies the Clanship with them. He
can speak to them in the Hole, even if talk goes slowly, to tell them when to
exit. He knows how long they can live and will command that all of them exit
together if the travel is too long. He can give them supplies if they must stop
before they reach the human ship’s destination, and then Jump again for the
final location.”

With a snort of derision, Hardrol offered
rebuttal for that claim. “If they must stop before the place the Humans ran to
for shelter, the waves Telour’s detector follows will spread too wide and will
be gone. We still risk the hammers for little chance of success.”

“If Telour was replaced by your aid, Parkoda,
the risk truly would be too great.” Kanpardi offered the insult in return. “However,
just as Telour was smarter than Parkoda on Koban, his ability will help him
succeed this time as well. It is a simple matter to look along the line of the
Jump from here to where they exit if forced to do so early. Telour will use the
ship’s navigation system to see what settled Human world lies on that same long
straight line. Or the Humans may have gone to a place close enough for Telour
to reach them before hammer air is gone.”

Hardrol persisted in trying to find fault with
Kanpardi’s leadership and planning. “The hammers keep their Normal Space speed.
They will leave Telour’s Clanship behind when they exit the Jump together.”

Sniping was all Hardrol had left to do,
because it was probable that he would not remain as Tanga clan’s representative
on the council. His decisions had lost them more than material, which wasn’t
considered serious when slaves could make more. Tanga had lost the eggs of
combat survivors in the new war.  The historical record of the conquest of the
Humans would tell this. That Tanga had stumbled on this first new step along
the Great Path. That would be a small setback in the fullness of time for long-term
Krall racial goals, but not easily forgiven in Krall culture.

Kapdol, although from a minor clan, spoke up to explain to
Hardrol something he expected even a novice to grasp. “The hammer pilots can
loop back, as they did with the human fleet, and slow until Telour’s Clanship
can match velocity to supply them. Even if they die first, he can speed up and
dock with them to place new pilots aboard.” He looked to Kanpardi, “There are
additional warrior pilots with the Clanship for this purpose?”

“Yes, of course.” Kanpardi accepted the support, thinking how
he would reward Kapdol’s Dolbrin clan for that help, perhaps a larger role in
some future raid.

Jastek had one final question. “When will we know if Telour
found where the Human fleet has gone?”

“When he returns, we will know.”
If he returns,
Kanpardi
thought. The three hammers were hard to kill, but were to be destroyed if
unable to return. The Clanship that furnished them with guidance information might
reveal itself by transmitting to the balls, even if stealthed. It was not as
hard to kill. In addition, Telour had a message to give to the humans, if the
hammers did their intended work.

****

Mauss breathed a sigh of relief five days
later, when the fleet emerged in the outer Rhama system. The brief spatter of
White Outs was not as tightly clustered in time as they were on reaching K1,
but the globular formation was intact, minus the ships that had not survived
the battle.

The Indomitable was a hard loss to take, as were
a battleship, two battle cruisers, a heavy cruiser, and eight destroyers.
Thirteen ships was nearly twelve percent of Mauss’ total force, but the ships
and lives lost were considerably less than the thirty eight percent of ships
killed in the first attack on K1. This raid was a success, and the fleet could probably
return to K1 soon, with a month or two of repairs here at Rhama. If they had
similar results the next time, the Navy could seriously curtail the Krall’s ground
attacks.

 Mauss spoke to the orbital transfer station
to send Gauntlet and other ships with wounded there. Gauntlet was carrying the
largest number of survivors and injured from the Mace and DS-42, but there was
ample space for a dozen other ships to dock there as well. She sent damaged
ships to the two large orbital repair docks, to await repair crews. Invincible
would lead most of the fleet elements into orbit around Rhama. There, shuttles
would meet them in the coming days. The first would pick up wounded, and then
the crews would go to debriefing sessions before receiving leave.

As Invincible approached Rhama, Mauss was
sitting in the wardroom with Captain Codry and her First Officer, Lieutenant
Commander Dawkins, enjoying real Earth coffee. They were chatting about what
they would do for leave over the next few weeks, before starting plans for the
next attack on K1.

The idea of leave was instantly forgotten when
an alarm sounded and all three women heard a chilling Link from Josie.

“Attention. Four White Outs with enemy
signatures have been detected. Three are consistent with the mass of an Eight
Ball, one with that of a Clanship.”

Mauss and the other two officers leaped to
their feet. Mauss ordered, “Emergency alert all ships, sound Battle Stations,
weapons hot now under AI control. Tell us where they are and what course for
the Eight Balls?” They were running for their respective command posts. Mauss’ post
was in the bowels of the ship, close to the battle center, the other two officers
headed for the Bridge.

How did they know where we went?
Mauss asked herself. It was obvious these came from K1, so they either
guessed right, or had a way to follow them. She would bet heavily on the
latter, probably something similar to the advance warning waves in Tachyon
Space.

How many will be arriving after them?
Was her next thought.

Josie had the data she had requested. “They
emerged close to the fleet’s own exit region. The Clanship has low velocity
relative to the system primary; perhaps twenty miles per second closing with
the star, just less than two AU’s out. The Eight Balls each have velocities in
Normal Space approximately the same as all of the balls had when we last saw
them, close to eight hundred miles per second. One ball is traveling towards
local system north at a distance of two point two AU’s, two have velocities
roughly towards system center at two AU’s away.”

“How many of the heavy ships have plasma
chambers hot?” The lasers were nearly instantly ready, but heating plasma
chambers took time, and the ceramic tubes of the cannons had to be preheated to
avoid cracking.

“No plasma chambers are hot, but all are
heating under emergency protocols. Some may possibly fail. However they have
not proven effective against the Eight Balls.”

“Determine the targets of the balls, and if
any of the four enemy craft make a Jump.”

“Mam, the two balls inbound towards system
center could alter course to target any of the fleet ships. The ball moving at
right angles could Jump to system south, below the planetary plane to target
them as well…” The AI’s voice paused briefly, something they didn’t do often.
“The Clanship just entered stealth mode, right after it transmitted on a
standard Krall frequency. The north bound ball has Jumped, destination
unknown.”