Koban: The Mark of Koban (60 page)

We will
not
use Kit’s newest cubs that
way for at least a year, they’re babies, and they need mom and play time to
become healthy rippers. I want to involve more adult rippers.”

Thad thought he knew what Tet had in mind. “It
sounds like you plan to work out another agreement with the three nearby
prides. Send our kids to them as emissaries, or invite some of them into the
compound? Even if the prides agreed, they don’t have very many members.

“Dillon and I estimated that on average there
are less than a hundred rippers combined in the three prides nearest to us. If
we offered a rhinolo kill, possibly two, in exchange for a week of ten different
kids a day interacting with them, while they lay around digesting, that could
work. However, they are an independent lot, so I wouldn’t count on even half of
them participating. We have almost three hundred kids and not enough time or
rippers.”

“I’m not talking just about Prime City area
prides, Thad. I’m thinking of the two prides that hunt near Hub City. We have a
truce agreement with them, but almost no one from Hub City ever goes out to
meet with them. We only visit those prides ourselves when we send our people
over for some repair work or to trade manufactured goods for Hub City meat or
fish.

“Vince and Sarah are virtual Hub City
residents now, since they made the Raspani retraining school their full time
work. They go out to see both prides once a month, taking them organ meat from
the hunts, making sure they see that humans keep agreements. I’d like to send a
contingent of fifty of our kids to Hub City with you, Dillon, and Kobalt, as
soon as the burning phase ends. If you go out to meet them, taking Kobalt,
Vince, and Sarah, that should provide you a chance to negotiate a temporary
food for frill deal.”

“You think MacDougal will accept a bunch of
our newly enhanced TGs over there for a couple of weeks?”

“He was just reelected, after four years of
stagnation under Cahill’s old pal as mayor. Lady Toledo’s conservative anti
Prime City attitude stalled every progressive thing most of the people there
wanted done, and which needed our help to complete. I believe they only voted
her in for that single term because Stewart had become a fixture, and they
simply wanted a change. Now they want to change back. He has their support, and
we have his.

“I already know he’s willing to let us send
some kids before school restarts. I spoke to him a few days ago. He and the thousands
of parents there with SG kids want to see what our SG1’s, now changed into TGs
can do. I want to show them we didn’t turn them into blue colored Kobani
freaks. Fast and strong perhaps, but they look just like their kids.”

“I heard from Noreen and Marlyn that Carson
and Ethan say they want to attend the first classes of the College Hub City is
setting up for their seniors, which will graduate high school next year. Maggi
hopes we can send more of our kids over there. It will help establish a more
integrated society.”

Tet wasn’t surprised those two rambunctious boys
wanted out from under parental scrutiny. “Let them know that after graduation, I’m
pushing for settlements on the other two continents. With our population
explosion, we’ll need that activity as a challenge for our young people, unless
we solve the problem of getting higher than geosynchronous orbits.”

“I don’t understand. We have two com
satellites up there now, why do we need more?”

“Rafe, I said
above
geosynchronous
orbits, and not to put up com satellites. I want to reach our moon, or rather
orbit the moon, to inspect the eight derelict passenger liners.”

“Oh. I thought the Krall destroyed them.”

“At the time they pulled out, we weren’t sure,
and they obviously had moved them, because we couldn’t see them any more at
night in orbit. I couldn’t let Jake turn on our radar system before they were
gone, since they were positive they left us without power. Jake didn’t spot
them a week or so later when I allowed him to scan near space. I thought they
had taken them to interstellar space or the outer part of the system.

“I guess that was too much of a delay for
them, in their rush to start their war. They put them in close orbits around
the moon to get them out of the way, avoiding the time consumption of towing
them farther away. Remember, we talked them into not blowing them apart with
the people aboard, merely because that would have dirtied the space around the
planet. Jake did an observation when there was a lunar type eclipse, and saw
the dots in the telescope. Radar confirmed all eight are there. That put them
well out of our reach, so there wasn’t anything to talk about really. We knew
they had shot off all of the Trap emitters, so they had no Jump capability.”

“Then why go up and look closer, then?”

“Because, we have other emitters on ships left
here on the ramp, like those on the hull of the Flight of Fancy. There are
spares on all the grounded ships, carried if an emitter suffers a meteoroid
impact. We can take a bunch up with us, and look for their own spares on the
eight in orbit. Those are large ships, and need more emitters than ships like
the Fancy, and the designs and wiring would be different. However, if the Krall
left the fusion bottles shutdown but intact, and we carried up replacement emitters,
we might get one of those ships operational. Chief Haveram is convinced he
could do the work if we get him and his Drive Rats to them. We haven’t had the
shuttle fuel reserves to spend on the attempt, but with the new refinery starting
up at Hub City, we will have more fuel soon. It’s a long shot, and risky, but
it might work. The key is that we need their fusion bottles intact, and we need
to take one of our own up to jumpstart one of those. A lot of if’s, risks, and
work.”

“If we did, are we going to let some people go
home?” There were plenty of homesick people here.

“Well,
this
is my home now. However, should
we be willing to go back there to live? To prove whom we are, to get back our
lives there, they will run a DNA match. You and I are
not
entirely the
same Rafe Campbel and Tetsuo Mirikami that left there. The illegal mods will
show up if they look.”

“True. But couldn’t we sneak in and use a
shuttle to land quietly on some Rim world. DNA scans were never used for
interstellar travel.”

Thad asked a question. “Rafe, do you think we
can sneak into a probable war zone, in a giant passenger liner that went
missing seventeen years ago, and draw no attention? The gamma ray burst will
reveal the ship, and whoever is aboard will be DNA scanned.”

“Perhaps send some of the unmodified people,
with a cover story?” Rafe clearly had never thought about this possibility.

“To do what, exactly?” Thad asked. “Buy some
advanced technology and fly back here? Would you trust your life to allow
Cahill or one of her sympathizers to go back and keep quiet about us manmade
‘freaks of nature’ trapped here on this world in enemy space?”

“How the hell would I know?” Rafe asked in
irritation. “Until two minutes ago, I didn’t even know you were considering
this. I don’t have a solution, so don’t ask me for one.” Thad had clearly annoyed
the genealogist. “If we can’t go back, then why try?”

“Rafe, I apologize,” Mirikami offered. “I let
my mind wander and started a conversation and pulled you and Thad into it, and
didn’t spend time explaining all of the problems first.”

Thad put a hand on the scientist’s shoulder.
“Rafe, I’m sorry too. I heard about this idea a few days ago, and all I’ve done
is think about ways for it to go bad for us. The Krall are obviously the worst
threat, but we can’t be certain that the Hub government isn’t a threat to us
either, despite our intention to help them fight the Krall. I have children to
worry about.”

Tet shrugged his shoulders, and pulled at his
lip. “I don’t know yet how we can make the best use of a Jump ship, but we need
to actually have one first. Personally, I’d rather have one than not have one.
However, you just heard Thad mention a good reason for keeping the knowledge of
that prospect within the Inner Circle. If our people knew that we might be able
to restore a Jump ship, some, and not just those from Hub City, might argue in
favor of going back to Human Space and ignore the risk from our own government.
I’m not sure anyone with children would think that way, but I don’t intend to
take that chance. When we have the capability, if we
get
that
capability, then it’s time to draw up a return plan.”

As the new Gatlek on Poldark, Pendor was compelled to
acknowledge that the humans of this world were matching his expectations of
what a worthy enemy would be. Gatrol Dektrak, Kanpardi’s successor as Gatrol of
the entire human war, had told him that this world would be more of a challenge
to him than the last world where he had fought.

Pendor had earned high status as a Mordo clan large-hand
unit commander, on the planet humans called Bollovstic's Republican Independency.
The three names humans gave that world had incorrectly suggested to him that it
would be a much more difficult conquest than proved to be the case. This world,
with a short single name, sounded to a Krall’s mind like a lessor opponent.

Obviously, humans did not use a logical method to name
things. Recently promoted to Gatlek, Pendor had
earned
his two-part
name. Just as Kanpardi now had earned his promotion to Tor Gatrol, earning a
third name and higher title, because of his success in forcing the enemy to
fight the way the Krall most wanted.

Yet, this place, Poldark, with but a single name had
provided the Krall with a more difficult series of battles than had Bollovstic.
The Gatlek he replaced had discovered how deceptive and difficult the enemy here
could be. Fortunately, for Gentda, the dead Tanga clan commander he had replaced,
that planetary invasion commander had ordered his seed frozen for future use. His
preserved seed could still produce cubs that potentially would grow into
superior warriors and leaders for his clan. However, his command decision to personally
lead a modest force after a smaller human group in panicked retreat, made his
genes seem questionable. He had found a trap waiting, which he did not survive.

Thinking of his predecessor’s mistake, he spoke to his
underling, “Bring the wounded human that killed Gatlek Gentda.”

This was an opportunity to test his skill with Standard here.
The people of the last world spoke that language in a way he had found
difficult to understand. The name of the language implied that it would be
spoken the same by all, but each human world permitted changes to the sounds of
many of the words. On Bollovstic, when he was new there, he had killed a number
of potentially useful information sources when he assumed they were
deliberately speaking nonsense to confuse him. They had
almost
made
sense, as he “encouraged” them to reveal what they knew of enemy force
locations.

After he heard another more experienced translator’s
interrogation of an equally confusing captive, he understood that it was
possible to learn the different sounds of the same words. The other warrior extracted
what he needed from that subject, despite the inarticulate screams between
questions put to the human. Most humans had a low tolerance for minor pain.
Claw, ear, nose, and finger removal was enough to make many humans tell you
anything you wanted to know. As punishment for their weakness, larger removals
always followed for those cowards. After all, once they told you what they knew
they no longer served an information need. It was efficient to study how the
enemy might control themselves after receiving various wounds encountered in
combat. “Not very well” often seemed to be the answer for any limb loss.

His temporary aid, Toltak was her name, brought the human to
him at gunpoint. It was a human warrior based on his coverings, not what they
called a “civilian.” Whatever that peculiar designation was supposed to mean;
all humans fought back or died. The captive’s left arm was missing, and there
was a bloody bandage on the stump, which extended a hand’s width below the
creature’s shoulder. The pathetic human might die soon if he simply removed
that bandage and let him bleed. It was amazing they survived any battle, as
weak and fragile as they were.

Toltak extended her inner ears and used high Krall to
speak.  They knew that many warrior humans understood some low Krall, but they
did not have the capacity to hear the ultrasonic language of high Krall.
“Leader, I claim the right to kill this one. He speaks words of our low speech,
and insulted me and stares into my eyes in challenge. I demand to claim and
earn the point for his death now.”

This was the former invasion commander’s aid, a member of
the same Tanga clan, of course. Pendor would replace her with a member of his
own Mordo clan soon. However, he was in no mood to listen to her complaint of an
insult, not when she had just slighted him by failing to address him by his
title as Gatlek, nor even used his first earned name.

He used low Krall to reply. “You will demand nothing of me.
You forget who I am. I will remember who you are because of that. Holster your
weapon and leave the human with me. Did you need your pistol if a one armed
human with no weapons attacked you?” He traded her insult for insult.

He watched with interest, as her lips wriggled briefly at
the suppressed rage she did not dare speak. Her red eyes flashed away from his,
avoiding a challenge that her lower status could not afford to meet. She whirled
and swiftly left the commander’s post in the buried war bunker.