Thond was the quicker thinker this time. “Tell your Pillager commanders to look for mines again, and our own driver needs to check under our command post. That would be under your own bottom.”
He mused, “I wonder if we need to evacuate? He shivered his shoulders, with a soft hoot and head bob, to indicate a carefully considered negation, thus essentially answering his own question.
“If they have mines already in place, and they intended to detonate them, they wouldn’t warn us. It’s part of their offer to show trust. I’ll feel more trusting when we know if they’re attached, and we’ve removed any we find. Give the order to halt movement and check.”
The results were chilling. Virtually every combat unit had one mine attached, and the driver of the mobile command post found four. They were tightly adhered, apparently by a powerful magnetic field, which would have easily been detected before the prow of the sensor-laden chassis had passed over them if they were active then. Nor was the clang of their attachments heard, as some would have been if they had been snatched up from the ground to the bottoms. An advantage of using fusion-powered electric motors was how silent the Pillagers were, when they weren’t blowing things up. Gravel crunching and soft surfaced malleable treads scraping on pavements, were the greatest sources of noise when the tanks were moving along the city streets.
Shortly after the inspections were conducted, a process that was obviously observed by the humans responsible for placing the mines, the magnetic fields were simultaneously switched off remotely. That put a momentary scare into the troops close to them under the Pillagers, when they suddenly dropped to the ground. The Ragoons cross-trained as technicians and demolitions experts had been considering what to do to remove or destroy them without triggering a detonation by a tamper resistant circuit.
Most commanders didn’t wait for an order; they rolled their tanks forward to get clear of the small deadly objects. That order did come quickly from Hitok to do that for every unit, and nervous crews were relieved their leaders had somehow known of the threat, and had neutralized it. Thond, Hitok, their driver, two subordinates, and the two Hoth pilots knew better.
“They could have destroyed the entire column,” Hitok said, in shocked awareness of the threat just avoided.
Thond was less fatalistic concerning the risk posed. “The penetrating shafts of molten metal couldn’t have ruptured the fusion generator casings, which would be explosively fatal. Those are located too far above the bottoms, and the molten shafts would start to spread after exiting the base armor plates. Although, they probably were placed to destroy the electric drive motors on either side, just as they did with the first mines they used. We have spares for drive motors in our supply ships, but not in the quantity needed had they used all of the mines. We’d have needed to salvage undamaged units from disabled units, while under fire.
“They were deliberately placed where they might kill a gunner or a driver sitting near the drive motors, but the motors themselves were the true targets. They could have killed all of us here inside this command post, with the four mines they had placed. There is no doubt they could have stopped the last of our armor. Moreover, we still don’t know how they put them in place so precisely. From their design and small size, they don’t remotely resemble the larger tank destroying mines we’ve developed, or the more complicated automatically launched, pop-up roadside penetrators. I wouldn’t be surprised if these lightweight devices were originally designed for some other use. These are inventive people, who use what they have available in unexpected ways. They must have had long experience with war and conflict in order to find so many new ways to be destructive.”
“What now, Force Commander?” Hitok brought him back to the present. “They made their point, so perhaps we should hear what else they told our two pilots. Just in case there are other unpleasant surprises they haven’t told us about.”
Thond looked at the two flight Lieutenants. “They must have had more to say. What else did they tell you?”
Kranfa glanced at the junior Lieutenant, who hooted his joint approval to speak for him. “Sire, they said we should listen for an unencrypted transmission on our flight emergency frequency. They want to speak directly to you, Sire. To set up a direct meeting.”
Thond was skeptical. “How would they know what that frequency is? We don’t conduct normal radio communications on that channel.”
Lieutenant Derkat had the temerity to speak up about the day’s activities in the sky, of panicked transmissions he’d heard from other flights. “We heard four emergency calls earlier today, when other flights reported they were under attack and were making forced landings. The first female that spoke to us said they had heard those encrypted calls. They couldn’t understand what we said, but they know about that frequency.”
“Female? And you say there was a second female that spoke to you? I wonder if they have a matriarchal society.” Thond was amused. “If they do, the Thandol certainly wouldn’t enjoy negotiating with them.”
“I don't think so, Sire.” Kranfa told him. “They have a male they said is named Tetsuo Mirikami, who is the mate of the second female that spoke with us, and he is their equivalent to a Force Commander. The mate’s name is Margret Fisher, but her companion used the sound Maggi when she spoke to her.” The odd sounds of the names were at least pronounceable for a Ragnar, unlike any Thandol’s name. We recorded their words and names in our memory assistants.”
Hitok asked, “When will they call us on that emergency radio channel? Were there any preconditions before we talk? I will not stop our progress towards that spaceport. However, if they do not fire at us, I will not fire at them.”
Kranfa did the Ragnar wrist flip as a shrug. “The Fisher creature said they would allow us to depart this world from the spaceport of this city. She said she could not promise to withhold all fire on our Pillagers and troops, but she said she would ask the defenders of this planet to stop shooting if we do not shoot at them, and if we do not destroy their buildings.”
Thond caught that implication immediately. “She is defending this world, but isn’t one of the native defenders of the planet? I think the fleet that arrived here, and the space planes belong to the humans we fought previously in space at the new colony world, and she is a representative of those humans with greater fighting ability. This world is not their home, and they do not rule or give orders to the humans that live here. Interesting. They have separate rulers, and yet they cooperate.”
Kranfa suddenly remembered how the pilot, who had brought his flight down alone, referred to herself and her people. He blurted, “The pilot that shot me down called her people the Kobani. She said they weren’t from here, and that her people drove away our fleet. I hadn’t understood what she meant, since I thought she looked like the other humans here. She said her people are a different kind of humans. The second female also said the Kobani are from the Galactic Federation, and they have other species as equal members of their government. This world of humans must not be part of the Federation.”
Hitok consider the Lieutenant’s words, and his insight. “They are obviously not structured like the Empire. Their phonetic script message to Group 3’s Commander, Faldor Culpa, told us they know we don’t like the Thandol, and invited us to join them to fight against the Empire. Then, when he destroyed the message board and moved ahead with his attack, his group was trapped in that canyon and eventually destroyed.”
Thond pondered this new information. “There must be two separate governing systems, both of which contain humans, but the Federation humans are different from those humans that live here, and they have non-human allies.”
The realization struck him. “We have not invaded a Federation planet. This world belongs to a different political division, about which we know nothing. How many of these berserker humans and their governments are there?”
Hitok’s subordinate, Vice Group Leader Gimlak, reluctantly interrupted. “Sires, there is a radio message on the reserved Hot
h emergency channel. The voice isn’t a Ragnar’s, but it is speaking Fotrol. It sounds like an AI’s voice using a translator program. It asked to speak to Force Commander Thond.”
****
After an initial set of conversational protocols were established by assistants, over the course of thirty minutes, it was agreed that because only the humans had the software to translate between the human language, which they called Standard, and the Ragnar language of Fotrol, that a human AI would be the computer intermediary used for their initial discussions. The humans offered to share the database they had compiled as a basis for their translations, which would include a Thandol database for comparison, but not an actual AI system of the type they used to implement the translation process.
The Ragnar realized they could eventually complete their own translation program, but not here and now. It lent credence that there was a possibility they might yet return home. With the trivia out of the way, the two leaders approached their respective microphones. It was decided that the party offering an invitation for truce talks should speak first to describe what was being offered.
“Force Commander Thond, my name is Tetsuo Mirikami. I’m pleased you have chosen to speak with me on this unencrypted system. For greater communications security, I offer to meet with you personally, and with a number to be determined of your fellow officers or troopers, to be present at a meeting. For the Federation and for the local government of this world, we will combine our people to match your number of representatives. If you wish to arrive armed and in body armor, then we humans will meet with you in the same manner, although not all of our party will arrive armed. The Federation is comprised of other species and they are willing to meet with you, but they do not possess body armor. How many we bring will depend on the number of your people you wish to have participate. We are all willing to meet with you unarmed.”
A discussion between Thond and Hitok had taken place in the background as the first protocols were hashed out, and the Ragnar officers considered the reports that had arrived of the more advanced armor worn by the Kobani. The local planetary defense forces wore armor that was equivalent to that worn by the Ragnar. Considering that the Kobani human attendees would have weapons built into a type of armor that could make them invisible to the Ragnar suits, body armor was ruled out.
Eventually, bringing any sort of weapons was rejected, with Thond describing guns as the artificial equalizers. As Hitok pointed out to Thond, “Bone Crusher, you and I, nor any of our officers will require weapons to defend ourselves against unarmed humans, should they foolishly become aggressive.”
“Agreed, my Head Bashing friend. I’ll propose that a Legion of us meet with twenty of their representatives, all unarmed and without armor. I want to include at least two female officers in our party, because they will have females present. This isn’t the falgrat sucking patriarchal Thandol we’re about to meet, so our female warriors deserve to participate.”
When they learned that nonhumans from the Federation wanted to be included, it caused some consternation and discussion, but because there were no subservient species in the empire that could intimidate the Ragnar, it was decided this would leave the Ragnar party all the stronger with fewer humans present. Besides, it was a perfect opportunity to learn more about the composition of the mysterious Federation.
The last consideration was where to hold the meeting. Thond made the bold and clever proposal to hold the meeting on the wide-open area of the nearest spaceport, if it was first evacuated. Since that had been their objective all along, he expected that offer to be rejected. However, a surprising counter proposal called for the Ragnar group to arrive in a Pounder, which could pick up their participants at the northern edge of the city and fly the short distance to the east side spaceport. The humans said they would all arrive on a single ship of their own, landing on the tarmac within a comfortable walking distance from the Pounder, perhaps three lengths of a Pounder apart.
The humans had not mentioned anything about disabling the weapons aboard the Pounder, something not quickly done, nor easily verified. Thond assumed the human ship would be one of the warship types that had fought so effectively against their Ravagers. He was wrong.
The Pounder was sitting alone, near the center of the mile-wide circular tarmac, with no activity detected around the structures of the hangars, cargo storage buildings, and passenger terminal on one side. Of course, there could be any number of humans hidden inside the buildings, but they would be a half mile away, with the Pounder shielding the Ragnar from view. Considering that the undetected mines had not been used wipe out their armor, the treachery of an ambush seemed unlikely now.
A received radio message was brief, and it was claimed to be from Mirikami, although the AI could have spoken for anyone. “Our ship is leaving orbit now.”
They hadn’t asked where he was located earlier, and assumed he was planet side. This was probably why the spaceport had been an acceptable place for them to meet.
Instead of the long minutes of waiting for an atmospheric entry, there was an audible POP sound, and suddenly a large elongated white object, with both ends rounded, appeared a hundred feet above the tarmac, and quickly settled to the surface. The craft was slightly longer and bigger around than the Pounder, which was also larger than Ravagers were.
Nearly simultaneously, sensors aboard the Pounder detected a small burst of gamma rays above them at the edge of the atmosphere, as if a very low mass object had entered Normal Space there, and an alert was sounded.
The Federation ship settled with its long axis horizontal to the ground, and parallel to the Pounder. The only human ships the Ragnar had seen previously, the captured Krall clanships, always landed tail first and sat on massive jacks. This was a new class of enemy ship to them, and its instant appearance suggested deception was involved. That was troubling, in a situation that required a fragile trust to be extended, between opponents meeting to establish talks, which might not lead to a truce.
Thond pounced on what he saw as a violation of the protocol they both had agreed to follow. He radioed his complaint to them. “You were to arrive after we landed, but your ship was hovering there all along, using its Normal Space drive and in stealth mode, well before we arrived.”
As he transmitted, a ramp smoothly extended, and a large hatch irised open in the center of the side of the craft towards the Pounder. The motion of the ramp and hatch opening looked odd. It was as if the surface of the spacecraft had flowed to form the ramp and the hull surface pulled back to make an opening.
A lone figure, clearly a bipedal human in some sort of lightweight clothing, had its arms and hands exposed, displaying their unhealthy looking and nearly hairless skin. The head was also bare, but at least the ridiculously small thing had short black hair on the top.
The alien walked out onto the top of the ramp and waved with its right arm and hand, just as the radio speaker relayed the translator AI’s voice. “Hello. I’m the person you see waving. I’m Captain Mirikami. Captain is my title, as the captain of this spacecraft, which is named the Mark of the Federation.
“Before you saw us appear, we were not hovering here in stealth mode, although we do have that capability. We did indeed just arrive directly from orbit, and we did so by use of our Jump Drive, to appear above the field at a safe distance, before settling to the ground. We followed the agreed upon protocol to the letter, and we arrived after you.”
Thond challenged this new lie, now questioning his decision to meet with them here. “Ships cannot Jump into thick atmospheres. The air density is too great, and would severely damage systems, and of course kill everyone aboard when the gas molecules intersected with the tissues of your bodies. Why lie about this and start a meeting that requires trust, with such an obvious deception?”
“We didn’t lie, but we wanted to demonstrate a technology of ours that you have not seen previously. This was not a violation of the agreed to protocol, which I point out was proposed by us, for this
very purpose. Although it may appear to you to be a deception, it was done to demonstrate that we have applications of technologies the Thandol, and you, do not possess.
“In one sense, we did not Jump into a volume of atmosphere where you saw us appear, because that volume was empty of air when we arrived. That air was Jumped an instant earlier, to a point many miles above us, to avoid wasting the gases this mode of arrival would otherwise cost the planet over many millions of such arrivals. You may have detected the small burst of gamma radiation its exit caused above us. We used level one of Tachyon Space to move the small mass such a short distance. It isn’t worth the trouble to suppress the exit radiation.”
Not that they had figured out how to do that with the gravity projectors yet. Nevertheless, you don’t reveal weak cards to other poker players.
Mirikami continued the explanation. “In effect, we arrived in a precisely defined bubble of vacuum slightly larger than the shape of our hull. A small atmospheric collapse against our hull is what caused the soft sound when we made our exit here, when the remaining small void in the atmosphere closed around us. This technology makes arrivals and departures to and from planetary surfaces faster, so long as we are careful where we shift the material we displace, and ensure the place where we arrive is clear of solid objects. Otherwise, objects sitting where we appear might be very seriously damaged.”
The inference was intended to be obvious. Mirikami was suggesting that the new Mark could have as easily transferred a ship-sized chunk of the Pounder into space as it arrived. This was technically inaccurate, as far as the Mark Jumping into a void made within a solid object was concerned, which would be suicidally dangerous if there was even a minor miscalculation. Again, why admit you didn’t have all four aces in your hand?
This technique was a recently developed use of the gravitational projector and control units mounted in the ends of this first of the new Mark II class of Federation ships. Tachyon energy was most often used with Jump Drives, to create an event horizon around a ship when it rotated into tachyon space.
Koban 6: Conflict and Empire Page 31