Koban: The Mark of Koban (70 page)

“Are you kidding me? Negotiate a
truce?” Mirikami was astonished. This was not a Krall tactic. Something wasn’t
right.

Mirikami ignored Dillon’s repetition
of Jake’s claim. He called down to Reynolds, who was trying to convince the
other captives to go down the stairs with him. “Sergeant Reynolds, I just
learned the six Krall outside are calling for a negotiation with whoever is the
leader here. Do they ever do that in a fight situation on Poldark? Offer to
negotiate?”

“What? Negotiate with humans? Hell
no, they have never done so at our request, and have never offered to do so on
their own. They never ask for quarter, nor give any. Toltak was an aid to the
head Krall, called a Gatlek by rank, which was in charge of the Poldark invasion.
She earned her status for that job as a charge-ahead-and-kill-them type, and
our spy bots and surveillance bore that out.”

Mirikami nodded his thanks. “Jake, Link
me to both Dillon and Thad.” This wasn’t giving anything away now.

Before he could speak however,
Dillon asked, “Who the hell is Sergeant Reynolds? I only caught part of his
reply through your transducer, but where did he come from?”

Thad hadn’t been in the first Link.
“A human is aboard?”

“Focus gentlemen, he was a Krall
prisoner with sixteen others, and I’ll explain later. Have you spoken back to
the Krall yet?”

“It’s high Krall, we’d have to have
Jake translate, but we weren’t going to talk to them before speaking with you.
Instead, we have let them detect some dummy transmissions sent out over the
savanna, as if to another party. We want to keep them waiting.”

“Wait. I didn’t really catch that
the first time you said it. They are speaking high Krall, which they have no
expectation we can hear, or understand if we could. Why? That’s an odd way to
offer to negotiate with us. It’s like writing notes to a blind man.”

There was deafening silence from
the other two men as they realized they had overlooked that non-trivial detail.

Mirikami had the answer in a flash
of insight. “They haven’t attacked because they think the dome is occupied by
Krall from another clan, and that
is
someone with whom they might
negotiate. They don’t know how many warriors they are up against, and they left
their ship wide open when they departed for the hunt. Something made them
suspicious and they returned, but they didn’t go into the shuttle hanger in
case some other clan is already inside.”

Thad added another observation. “Remember,
the Krall joint clan council wanted Koban untouched and pristine, until they have
bred warriors that can match the animals here and return. That would take fifty
or a hundred breeding cycles, based on what Telour said the day he left us to
die. There are not supposed to be any Krall visiting here for hundreds of years.
I think we have a small group of Krall outlaws out there on the ramp, who think
they are faced with another group of Krall criminals inside the dome.”

Dillon supplied the motive for a
negotiation. “They want to make a deal with the other group. A mutual bond of silence,
live and let live, with no loss of status from their respective clans.”

Mirikami pulled at his lip. “We
need to find a way to turn this to our advantage, but we can’t step out and
talk with them, and they aren’t just going to walk over to us, trusting the
“honor” of another clan. Dead Krall tell no tales.”

He considered and rejected having
Jake speak for them in a fake negotiation. “Jake may be able to translate, but
he isn’t going to fool them for more than a few simple sentences as another
Krall. He doesn’t even fool humans for long in Standard. We need to do something
soon, before they lose patience.”

Dillon had another proposal to
delay for time. “How about Jake saying an octet leader is on a hunt and say no
more. That way they know they are outnumbered eight to six, and it explains why
they have been waiting so long for the leader we appear to be contacting.”

Thad, his military training kicking
in, disagreed with that tactic. “They are holding back an attack because they
suspect they may be outnumbered, but Krall rhinolo hunts involve at least three
or four warriors. An octet would guarantee they have the numerical advantage right
here, at this moment, six against four or five, and they will likely attack a
known weaker force. These six have their shuttle ready to fly, to support them with
lasers and missiles in a fight, so we don’t want that lifting off either. They
would probably pretend they have more crew aboard the Clanship as a bluff. I
would, so I doubt they will act intimidated. I think we need them to be so
confident of a victory in a fight that they all rush over here after us.”

“Thad, you’re touching on the same
idea I have been reluctantly considering. Letting them know whom they really
face inside the dome. They don’t respect or fear humans, but anyone that steps
out to show their face to prove we are here probably won’t survive that
exposure. I might simply address them in Standard, with Jake doing a relay for
me on their frequency.”

“Tet, if the five that are out of
the shuttle run for the Clanship, I doubt we can stop two or three from getting
inside successfully. Destroying the ship would be the surest option right now.
Why don’t you join Alyson and prepare to bail out of the shuttle hatch as Jake
lifts our shuttles to ram.”

“Ah…, that matter I put off
discussing about a prisoner aboard? Sergeant Reynolds was a prisoner, held with
sixteen other Poldark civilians for biological experiments. I have freed them,
but we can’t take them all down that rope where the Krall can see them. Perhaps
out a sally portal at the base, towards the dome. Some of them might make it
with heavy enough cover fire.”

“Tet, if we are about to lose
control of that ship, it has to go, you know that. Whether they can get out or
not.”

In the background, Mirikami could
hear Ethan saying something to his dad about the cats. “What was that about the
cats?”

“Ethan proposes we send the cats out
a side entrance to get behind the Krall, out of sight and under cover. Have them
roar to distract them. That would give you some time to run for the dome. They
would damn well know humans are here after that.”

“OK, send them out. But can Ethan
explain that to them well enough?”

“The cats understand words with
pictures now Tet, particularly from the kids that spent their entire lives with
them. They just don’t think with words as we do. Ethan will go with them, and
Carson will stay here. We need their accuracy and speed in front and behind the
Krall. I wish we could talk to Alyson. We need all three of them against six of
those tough fast bastards.”

“Thad, I’m going back down to get
Alyson. I want her at the base portals with me when we open up to make our run.
She can shoot straight while on the run, and I’m going to share a pistol with
the Sergeant here. He’s fired a Krall pistol before. I still had at least
thirty or forty decks to climb to reach the top, and the Krall don’t seem to
use elevators. At least I don’t see any, and I don’t have time. I’ll plant the
grenades in the main thruster engine room on the way down, on some fuel lines.
I’ll try to set them to blow if the ship tries to lift. That probably would be
repairable damage if they don’t crash, but would give us some time. I have to
move now; I’ll call you when I’m at the bottom portals. Mirikami Out.”

Ethan went into the dome to lead Kit
and Kobalt to a side dome entrance, around the curve and not visible to the
Krall. Mirikami motioned to Reynolds, and then asked the other’s to follow him
down the wide spiral stairs, explaining the plan as he went. Formulating his
ideas as he walked and talked.

Reynolds tore off the left sleeve
on the shirt he wore, revealing the partly healed arm stump. He handed the
sleeve to Mirikami, explaining that with two hands he should be able to tear
strips for tying it to the grenade pins. He’d observed the two old-fashioned
manual release grenades on Mirikami’s belt. They used simple pull-pins, instead
of electronic timers with multiple options, but he didn’t ask where he’d found
such antiques.

The Sergeant’s ill-fitting
too-small shirt was fortunately made of simple Poldark grown cotton. That
former Rim world colony couldn’t produce Smart Fabric clothes. It was a good
thing, because they needed something they could actually cut. Mirikami pulled
his hunting knife from the sheath stuffed inside his boot top, and cut some
strips.

Several decks down, moving faster
because he knew there were no Krall waiting, Mirikami started towards the thruster
engine. Looking back, he realized none of the others, not even the Sergeant had
made it this far. He called up through the overhead opening in the deck, and
heard them answer from a full deck higher.

He’d forgotten how this gravity had
felt to him when he first arrived here. There were no handholds or guardrails
on the Krall stairs, and these people didn’t even have normal human muscle
adaptation for this planet yet, let alone the clone mods he had. They were
sitting down on each step and scooting forward to the next, staying away from
the open stair edge, which Mirikami had so casually trotted down.

He told them to keep going down
while he set his grenades, and he was sure he could quickly catch up to them.
He set his first grenade on the edge of a narrow ledge by two large fuel lines,
so that it should tip over from launch vibrations. A strip of cloth tied off to
a thin control line would yank the pin when the grenade fell two feet. He tied another
two strips together to hold the grenade aloft after only a three-foot drop,
keeping it closer to the fuel lines and off the floor, where it might roll
under something that blocked its fragments.

Now he needed to place the second
grenade so its explosion would happen even before the Clanship lifted. He
spotted a motor driven shift of a circulation fan, probably used to blow fumes
from the area. He’d seen such fans on human ships, and they normally kicked on
when the fuel pumps were activated, pressurizing the lines for feeding the
combustion chambers. Fumes were toxic if there were a leak, and potentially explosive
if there were an oxidizer leak. The fan would most likely switch on if the ship
were preparing to launch. He reached through the fan housing and tied a cloth
strip by slipknot to the fan blade shaft so that it would wind around, and pull
the grenade pin. He set the little bomb on what looked like an electronic
control module, with shielded wires running to engine components near the fan.
He used his last strip of material to tie it in place.

These were crude and simple
measures, but perhaps enough to stop a launch, and if not, the second blast
might spill enough flaming fuel to bring the rising Clanship down. The best
scenario was that the Krall never got back inside. This was a fully functioning
Jump Ship. Keeping it intact for human use would be a tremendous prize.

Outside the ship, Ethan opened a
maintenance access door from the dome, located far enough around the curve of
the building that a view of the Clanship and shuttle was blocked. The problem
was that the tarmac was wide enough that they couldn’t reach the tall grass and
shrubs at its edge without coming into view of the Krall shuttle. They were
sure to be watching in every direction. This was something Ethan hadn’t
considered. He frilled both cats with the minor change in plan, and they
proceeded around the dome away from the Clanship, gradually spiraling out towards
the edge of the wide tarmac. They were almost to the next dome garage entrance
before they could reach the cover of vegetation unseen.

After that, he ran crouched low to
the ground, head held below the grass tops, the heavy .50 caliber rifle carried
loosely in his right hand, nearly matching the pace of the slinking great cats.
This was actually an exercise he and Carson had conducted numerous times with
these cats, and other TGs and their cats in hunts for game. This time the
stakes were more than an empty stomach or loss of bragging rights if they
spooked the prey too soon. Wind direction factored into this stalk, knowing how
keen the Krall sense of smell was. The breeze blew from the outer compound,
directly in line with the Clanship and dome, bringing the warriors only scents
of the grass and distant plains.

Finally, Ethan knew they were as
near to the Krall as they should risk. He was perhaps a hundred yards behind
them. He signaled the cats to come close, after they had halted the instant they
heard his soft steps halt. He frilled them again.

Separate and wait for me to
signal your challenge roars.
He sent an image of his raised fist as the
signal.
Uncle Tet or our fathers will tell me when to signal you.
The
cats knew of the “far talk device” he carried, a portable radio set to vibrate
rather than talk today, and could receive and send a text message that they
understood was a type of mental image of human words, which did not require
frilling.

Both cats passed him the same mental
image question again, that they had asked twice already, and were burning to
have him say “yes.”
Can we slay these killers and wasters of meat if they
fight us, or attack our pride?

Yes, but at the right time for
our pride leaders. We want to capture at least one alive, two if possible, to
read their mind images. We need to know if more red ones will come after them,
and we do not want them to get inside their flying thing.

He gave them one more image, a
signal for a recall to him if needed. Ethan felt their muscles tremble from the
pent up energy when he gave them that conditional yes answer to their question
about killing the Krall. The sharp vivid images coming back from their minds
would have made anyone not raised with them frightened, and possibly horrified.
Ethan was neither.