Koban: The Mark of Koban (81 page)

“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 there 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.

There was
Krall script around all of the controls, which would require translation and
new labels. Each of the four consoles had a roughly two-foot diameter ring of
rectangles on a sloped panel, with other rectangles in the center and around
them. Mirikami counted those in the ring, and noted that the number matched the
number of outside viewports. He saw no screens for long range viewing, as human
ships had, and followed a hunch. He touched the top rectangle, as he faced the
viewport directly across from him. It instantly became opaque, which startled
the others at the dimming light. He had pressed the bottom part, so next he
tapped the center. Some light returned, but the view was obviously telescopic,
because he was seeing part of a magnified distant mountain range. He knew that
range was in the direction the viewport faced.

 “We had
better be careful what we touch, but the viewports are also view screens, and
the zoom I have on this one came from my tapping the center.”  He touched the
top of the same rectangle and the image, except for intervening atmospheric
haze, showed distant stars. He pressed the center again, and the mountains returned.

Maggi was
close to that port, and walked closer. “Tet, the image is remarkably detailed.
Much sharper than what your ship puts on telescopic shots. At this range and
expansion, the mountains would have a bit of jitter from the camera mount
sensing vibration. This is rock steady.”

“The zoom
has lost some of the view from the flanks of the mountain peak just off center
to the left. I want to try something.” He tapped just to the left of center,
and the image shifted its center of zoom the same way, showing the left flank
of the same peak. However, his fingertip had struck a tiny bit lower that time,
and the zoom was a bit less.

Mirikami
thought he had it figured out. “I think we have rather fat fingers for fine
control of the image. The Krall would be using a talon tip.”

Dillon
stepped to another console, pulled out a data pad stylus, and selected the view
screen to his front with a tap near the bottom that pulled the view way in, the
horizon far distant, as if the focal point were just outside the ship. Then
pushed the stylus up for a bit to watch the image zoom out, and as he went
right, so did the center of the view, in a smooth drift.

Feeling
adventurous despite Mirikami’s warning he tapped a small red dot in the center
of the ring on his console. Miniatures of the scenes at all of the view
screens, including the zoomed view Mirikami had selected on his front screen,
appeared in Dillon’s ring of rectangles. Mirikami noticed the sudden glow of
Dillon’s ring of rectangles on the console next to him, and asked what he had
done.

Dillon was
about to tap the red dot again to show him, when Mirikami’s hand grabbed his.
“Hold off on that cowboy. What if the first tap primed one of the four heavy
lasers, and it is set to fire on the center of your image on the next tap? We
don’t know what these controls mean yet. Look at what is in the center of your
front screen.”

“Oh…” was
all he said. The top level of the dome filled over half of the screen.

“That
probably is
not
how the lasers are fired, but we can’t be sure yet. The
Krall are not big on safety features you know. I probably should not have
activated my own screen.”

Reynolds,
having heard the byplay, had a few questions. “You guys with the markings can
activate things here, but what about your kids? They are going to have to carry
the water, so to speak, when you fight the Krall. They can’t even open doors on
this bus, or use any of the equipment.”

“He has a
point Uncle Tet. Ethan and I have been wondering the same thing.” Carson and
Ethan had talked privately, as the inspection worked its way up the ship’s
levels.

Aldry had
nodded at Mirikami, as Reynolds spoke, letting him know there was still a
solution.

Mirikami
said, “We have four Katusha’s that never found their way back into the Krall’s
hands. Those are the Olt’kitapi devices, which gave us these tattoos. The
control buttons are not very elaborate, so we will experiment on animals first
to learn what to do. Did anyone ever learn how to use them to make tattoos?” He
looked towards Aldry, who had given a Katusha to the physicists for study.

Before she
said anything, Jake took that as a question for him. “Sir, I have video
recordings of the Krall adjusting the Katusha’s when they administered the
tattoos on the Flight of Fancy, and other setting for tattoos administered in
the dome, later.”

When
Mirikami used the now universally understood head tilt, as he listened to his
transducer, everyone waited for what he’d learned from the AI.

“Jake saw
the process multiple times on the Fancy, and again for the combat awards from
Telour, after our final Testing Day victory. Those recordings can guide us.”

Carson had
something to add. “Uncle Tet, I don’t want to sound snobbish, but I’d rather
not have an empty oval like a Krall novice wears.”

Most of
the tattoos the former captives wore were empty ovals, except for those with
points awarded for kills.

Ethan chimed
in. “Me either. Carson and I talked on the way up here, and we think we’re
better than that.”

“You want
one with kill dots inside?” Mirikami would be disappointed if they wanted to
keep score, as the Krall did.

“No way.”
Carson answered. “We think we’re a worthy enemy. We would prefer a solid black mark,
exactly like yours.”

Mirikami
was embarrassed, as well as flattered. “I don’t know if Jake recorded that setting,
we were standing outside on the tarmac when I received that.”

“I have
two clear recordings of that setting Sir,” came the prompt answer from Jake.

Head tilt
again was the cue that Jake had told him something, so they eagerly waited for
his reply. “Jake has the settings recorded. If you
have
to bear some enemy
marking to use this enemy ship, I suppose that one is the least objectionable.”

“I’ll be
proud to wear that mark.” Ethan answered quickly.

He was
echoed by Carson. “It’s not objectionable to me at all. All the people I love
and admire the most have some form or other of a tattoo. It’s been a symbol for
us kids of the people that truly claimed Koban as their home. ”

Mirikami
nodded his assent. “Well, at least now they do serve a useful purpose. No one
should sail on this ship without one.”

“Excuse
me.” Noreen’s voice rang out, having reached a decision. “As we started the
inspection I was offered an opportunity to name this ship. I am considering one
that will be appropriate, and derived from what I just heard these boys say. I
knew I could never get my former Captain to agree to let me put his name on
this ship…, so I won’t try to do that.” She said the last hurriedly, before
Mirikami could object.

She swept
her arms wide and smiled. “I have decided on a name for this ship.” She paused
for effect. “You are on the Bridge of the
Mark of Koban!”

****

“How’s the
arm Sarge?” Speaking around a bite of gazelle meat, Thad had seen him massaging
the new limb again. It had been over four months since he’d accepted the clone
gene mods at the same time he’d regrown his left arm.

“It’s a strange
feeling, Colonel, and itches sometimes. It’s stronger than my right arm now,
and I can use my left better than my right now, even though I’m a born righty.
Doing the clone mods as the new one regrew appears to have rewired my brain for
hand preference, but not for everything else. I can draw a gun faster and shoot
straighter left handed, but I find I tend to shift my head over so I can use my
right eye for sighting if I use the left hand only.”

“We never
had a limb regrowth before, let alone with simultaneous gene mods, so that
might be normal. Did you ask Aldry or Rafe about that?”

“Why? I
ain’t gonna let ‘em cut off the other arm and try again.”

Thad
noticed he slipped into his rural Poldark mode of speech most of the time
lately. It appeared to be almost instinctive rather than deliberate. As soon as
he was in a position where somebody might expect him to assume greater responsibility,
he started sounding uneducated. He was content to train the TGs in guerilla
tactics, as a prelude to Greeves setting up commando style training. Reynolds
was teaching how to improvise booby traps, and methods of drawing Krall forces into
ambushes. He was perfectly willing to work with a squad of youngsters, serving
as their advisor, but he had outright refused to accept a spot on “Colonel”
Greeves new organizational staff.

Thad
appreciated his help in training, although his real value would be when they
infiltrated to land on Poldark. Sarge’s general knowledge of Poldark’s new
planetary defenses, and possible safe areas to hide the Krall made ship would
be useful. However, his recent access to the updated military communications
systems and to his former chain of command was more important. Thad needed to make
contact with his old friend, Major General Nabarone.

With Nabarone’s
help, they hoped they could get material and equipment, and professional instructors
for their TGs. Nabarone might even have some Intel as to where the Krall manufacturing
worlds were located. If the PU Navy would furnish ships, he could go looking
for factory worlds, and start shutting down the Krall war machine from the back
door.

“Thad, I
heard Maggi say some of the former Spacer crews are getting excited, now that
they have all eight OBO liners moved from Kratos to closer orbits.”

OBO was a
reference to Orbital Based Only passenger liners, and the eight large liners
that the Krall had left circling Koban’s moon belonged to that class. The large
moon finally had its own name, voted on from a lengthy list of mythical
creatures the citizens of Prime City and Hub City considered. They named the
moon Kratos, a spirit of strength, power, and sovereign rule, which were
descriptions that appealed to the Kobani.