Koban: The Mark of Koban (85 page)

“At least that’s what the Krall translators
told us.”

“I believe them.” Mirikami stated. “I’ve seen
no sign that the Krall make
anything
but warriors, which in turn only
make war. However, if we destroy the war material factories, do we kill their
slaves, or leave them to the tender mercies of the race that would have
exterminated them if they hadn’t found a use for them? I don’t want to complete
that genocide for the Krall, to exterminate, or cause the death of the last of
those intelligent species. Not if I can save some of them. What are your
feelings about that?”

The consensus was a forgone conclusion,
naturally, as Mirikami knew it would be. Genocide was abhorrent to them all,
and they had already done their best for the Raspani herd at Hub City, a people
the Krall had bred back to semi sentient creatures.

“I know that
you
knew, before I even asked
that loaded question, what your answers would be, so I’ve given this some thought
for quite a long time. Even a single extra ship, this early in our campaign,
might make finding and preparing a refuge for those aliens possible. One ship might
help us find a haven for them, and have it available before needed. If those
races can build domes and equipment for the Krall, and yet still produce their
own food and shelter on the various slave worlds, they can do it for themselves
if left alone. However, where might there be a place so secluded that the Krall
won’t look there for centuries?” That was
almost
enough of a clue, he
thought.

“You seem to be thinking of Koban,” supplied
Marlyn.

“Close, but not exactly. Do any of you think
dangerous, savage, heavy gravity Koban is suitable for nonviolent races that
live on light to moderate gravity worlds? We know they originally settled the
abundant habitable lower gravity worlds. Earth itself is a higher gravity
planet than ninety eight percent of our own colony worlds.
Vince Naguma
and Sarah Bradley have told us that the Raspani lifespan here, even when protected
from predators and Krall, fed well, and given medical treatment, is well less
than half of what their DNA suggests would be expected in less stressful lower
gravity. This gravity is far harder on them than it is for us, and humans had
gene modifications for resisting aging hundreds of years before we arrived
here. Koban would only be a last ditch and temporary shelter at best for the
Krall’s slave races.”

Marlyn was growing exasperated. Mirikami always had these
things thought out, and he noticed seemingly trivial details, available to
anyone, and encouraged others to think of solutions on their own by asking
questions, and guiding them. It seemed to be his variation of the Socratic
method of teaching them how to think. That meant when he said she was “close”
he might literally have meant
close
.

“The Morning Star?” She asked. In Koban’s sky, it was similar
to Venus as seen from Earth. The inner terrestrial planet in this system
appeared at various times of the year. It was often the brightest spot in a sky
too lightened to see many stars, clearest just before the sun rose.

“Yes! Very good, Marlyn. Tell the others what you learned about
it, besides the fact no one ever gave it an actual name?”  She hadn’t noticed his
apparent assumption that she knew anything about that world.

“A long time ago, I played Jake’s recordings from the day the
Fancy reached this system. My own Captain never thought to do a pre-landing survey,
none of them did that came in that huge influx, with no idea of where they were.
Jake described the inner world as a terrestrial sized planet in the habitable
zone, slightly smaller than Earth, and he detected signs of a biosphere. It
piqued my interest, but that’s all Jake’s first day recording had about the
planet.

“Some years later, after Thad I had married, Ethan asked me
about that bright Morning Star. To give a better answer, I asked Jake to look
with his telescopes, but from the ground, in our dense turbulent atmosphere, it
wasn’t a sharp image using his small aperture instruments. I asked him to use long-range
lasers and sensors, and his radar to check the planet. It appears to have a breathable
atmosphere, suggesting that just like most planets with life, the feedback and
chemistry of early primitive cells, working over billions of years, produces an
Oxygen rich atmosphere. Jake provided me with multiple exoplanet studies that claimed
that such biofeedback adapts organisms to self-regulate the mix of gases that
life uses for energy production. The most energy is obtained from metabolizing
Oxygen, and that makes high-level organisms possible. Like those on Earth and
Koban.”

“Like those on Earth and Koban,” Mirikami repeated. “You
asked Jake for that information nearly eleven years ago.”

“How did you know that?” She asked, surprised.

“Jake required permission to do the active radar and laser scans
you requested, and I granted that. Curious myself, I checked back as to what he
might find for you. Just now, for example, you forgot to mention the smaller but
much closer moon, and that the world has a higher density than Earth, just as
Koban does, so despite being only eighty one percent the size of earth, it has
ninety percent of its surface gravity.”

Marlyn nodded her amazed agreement. “It sounded like a good habitable
candidate to look at, and it has twenty six percent Oxygen in its atmosphere,
compared to our thirty percent. I had forgotten about it, because I never
expected we’d have a chance in our lifetimes to visit.”

“I did more than look at the
data
you requested. I also
looked at the background of a friend, who showed a surprising interest in, and
an ability to comprehend a complex subject like detailed exoplanet studies. I
discovered that you, like myself, was in the Navy before you left to work on
civil transports. You, also like me, spent some time on a Navy Scout Ship.
Unlike me, you had applied for missions to actually explore and find new
habitable planets, but the Hub Navy wasn’t looking for new worlds for humanity to
colonize. I had merely wanted to rise in the ranks of the Navy. Neither of us
could do what we wanted, so we both left the Navy.”

“You never said anything to me, Tet.”

“I didn’t want to look like the nosy butt I was actually
being at the time, and I didn’t see a use for the information without a ship to
go there. Now I may have a chance to let you follow an early dream of yours, so
my nosiness has found a way to apologize. I’d like you to take one of the ships
we plan to steal, then at some point return to Koban to lift that one load up
to the Raven, and next organize an exploration trip to the inner world. Take
some TGs, there are Spacer crews that I’m sure will want to get back into space
to help, so call for volunteers. Back home you will have the honor of giving
that planet a name, you can explore and survey a new world, and discover if it
will be habitable for future alien guests, and possibly for our unmodified Hub
City citizens, if they want relief from 1.52 g’s.”

Marlyn looked dazed. “Wow, Tet. I didn’t think you had a
ghost of a chance of making me actually
want
to head back to Koban so
soon. That was a neat trick, you wonderful nosy butt. Thank you, I accept.”

Noreen, careful not to reveal her own relief
at
not
getting that assignment, hugged her friend, and the others joined
her in congratulations.

Thad, facing a separation from his wife for an
indefinite time, tempered his disappointment with the knowledge she would be
safe from the risk of traveling into Krall Space, while doing something useful,
and that she really wanted to do. Mom would also be back with their other two
teen agers. At least she
would
be safer back there, after they faced the
upcoming big risk to obtain those two other ships.

The remainder of the meeting was discussing
training schedules and practice exercises, logistics of what to take with them,
and studies of unused systems they could use around K1, and potential Poldark
landing sites.

Dillon asked if the old armor they had from
Testing Days could be of use.

“They’re worthless against plasma rifles,”
Reynolds told him, “or even against the slugs the Krall have in their pistols. That
old armor is crap. The military haven’t used that style for two hundred years
or more.”

Thad had a better reason. “It’s an ultra-light
alien ceramic material, which would identify it as Krall-built, made
specifically for humans on Koban. The clans would come here to find out how it
got off-world.”

Reynolds was comfortable speaking out now,
after Mirikami had assured him he
was not
going to be asked to lead any
forces or made an organizer. He would only Link in as an advisor to the TGs
entering the Clanships.

He offered a suggestion. “As a disguise, Krall
armor would let you move across a ramp unidentified as human, but the suit’s short
legs and long arms will make it hard for them to walk, let alone run and use a
gun. I don’t know if the Krall ever wear armor on the surface of K1, because
it’s their secure base. However, if there were watchers, or an accidental
sighting of humans headed for two ships, they might never get aboard. The suits
may not be necessary, but I think you should use them anyway to avoid
suspicion.

“We have the six suits aboard the Krall brought
along, and they, along with two dozen plasma rifles are now powered and ready
for use. Three TGs could hustle over to each of the target ships and be inside
within five or ten minutes. Provided they don’t fall on their faces trying to
run as fast as a bow legged Krall does. A plasma rifle slung over a shoulder is
normal to see. After they cross the ramp, they discard the suits behind a
landing jack for freedom of movement. They can then hold the portals open for
the rest of each team.”

Thad liked that idea, and made a mental note
to train six of his TGs wearing Krall armor, and to practice running. Once the
first three with Krall armor were inside a Clanship, two could strip off the
suits and start up towards the command deck, while the other ensured the portal
remained open. The remainder of the fifty TGs for each boarding party would then
rapidly escort Noreen and Dillon to one ship, and Marlyn and Thad to the other.
The other hundred TGs would stay in reserve on the Mark of Koban.

After only four days of practice by the TGs, all
two hundred could run competently and quickly in Krall armor. It proved to be the
same with the practices of a take-over of a Clanship. As soon as Thad and
Reynolds had passed any one of the kids as having met their expectations for
precision, knowledge, and speed on any task, every test run of each following
candidate after them also passed.

Thad had observed that every test run up the
internal stairwells involved a leap up to hit the ceiling at each deck, and a
flip down to the floor to check for any Krall, then a leap up the stairs again
if the deck was clear of targets. All of it done so silently that almost all he
heard was the rustle of air. Carson had said they picked this trick up by
watching recordings of the Krall raiders that captured the Flight of Fancy. It
was more impressive to him here, because they were doing it in fifty percent
higher gravity, and passing through fifteen more decks on their way up than the
Fancy had.

Thad and Sarge played “bad guys” and pretended
to take aim at the TGs on various random decks during the days of practice. The
speed of the kids as they “dry fired” proved they always beat the two SG men,
who were perpetually too late to swing around to cover whichever stairwell they
used.

Once the TGs reported the “occupied decks” as cleared
(Thad, Sarge, and sometimes others played dead), the later kids went up twice
as fast, not bothering with the flip between decks. He and Reynolds accepted
this as merely examples of the physical superiority the Koban mods furnished.

 However, it was when he and Sarge pretended
to stage an ambush at deck twenty-eight, from behind some cargo bins, that he
observed the first kid on that morning’s practice run use a flashy full twist with
his flip, for no apparent reason other than to show off. Mike Calderon “killed”
the two ambushers as usual, but they told him not to report the deck as
“clear,” so they could ambush each of the kids the same way.

The ambushers were again “killed” by the next
TG while he was in mid-full twist of his flip, because they were already
standing exposed. They hid themselves again, only head and weapons exposed
behind the cargo bins for the next TG, Chen Yin-Lee. He did a flip and full
twist and “killed” Thad on the way to the deck and Sarge as he landed. With seeing
this third full twist, there was clearly a bit of intended razzle-dazzle
involved. Both men suspected the kids were cheating, and knew where the “enemy”
was waiting for them. That spoiled the random nature of the training they were
conducting.

“Chen, come over here please.” Thad knew his
father, John Yin-Lee, a former Motorman and Drive Rat from the Fancy.

He was over in a swift two leaps. “Yes Sir?”

“No one is in trouble Chen, but having all of
you know where we are waiting to ambush you is preventing us from assessing how
prepared you each are for the mission, There will be real Krall trying to kill
you then. Please inform whoever spread the word that after we move this time,
they
will
be in trouble if they tell what deck we are on again.”

“Colonel, no one told
me
that you were
on deck 28. I don’t know if anyone else was told.”