Koban 6: Conflict and Empire

by Stephen W Bennett

  The similar but smaller gravity projectors that the Krall had stolen, from the extinct Botolians, had been used by the unimaginative barbarians to dump dead bodies and damaged spacecraft into Jump Holes, to evaporate without a trace in Tachyon Space. The Krall had forced an isolated group of Torki slaves to learn how to use the projectors to compress pure carbon, as the Botolians had once done in their war with the Krall, to force the collapsed matter into the tough crystal structure of Hammers, or Eight Balls, as humans called them.

  The dual projector system developed by the Olt’kitapi had considerably greater flexibility and control. With the single projector Mirikami had sheared from the Dismantler ship, Huwayla, available as an example, the Federation now possessed those valuable tools, and potential weapons.

  Remotely Jumping matter through Tachyon Space, to exit in Normal Space at some other nearby point, was a small-scale application that the Olt’kitapi, with their theoretical physics and math wizardry, had never thought of using. Possibly, because they had no need to do this, or, like most slow developing and cautious species, they didn’t consider such risky, potentially explosive measures to be rational or reasonable. Humans were considerably less worried by such concerns, and the idea had been thought of independently by two different technicians, who tested the tachyon powered focused gravity projectors.

  Mirikami had coincidentally been practicing this atmospheric arrival technique for days at Koban and Haven with his new ship. This was well before the Ragnar assault had started on Tanner’s world. It offered an opportunity to use the new technology to impress a people you wanted to recruit as a natural opponent of the Thandol. They wouldn’t know the Mark was currently the only operational ship of this new class.

  It was decided that there wasn’t a practical means to avoid the thunderous bang of a Jump from the surface of a planet to space, because there was no point in shifting a volume of empty vacuum into the spot they had vacated. They decided to save that noisy departure example for a final demonstration for the Ragnar.

  Thond kept Mirikami waiting while he confirmed with the crew of the Pounder that the gamma ray alert was where, and as weak as Mirikami had claimed it was. Radar and visual sensors from other Pounders had detected the burst, but saw nothing where the exit had happened, directly above the spaceport at the edge of the atmosphere.

  The Force Commander conceded the possibility for the human’s clam. “Captain Mirikami, the gamma rays you mentioned were detected overhead. I accept your explanation. My group of twenty will exit one end of our Pounder, and we expect your representatives to do the same. It wasn’t mentioned in the agreement, but how many different species besides humans will be with you? We don't know what to expect.”

  “They are walking out onto the boarding ramp now. There are five other species with us. The sounds for some of their names can’t be translated into Fotrol, so I’ll use the sounds humans use from my language. Like with the Thandol language, some sounds for their species names can’t be spoken by a human, so I’ll use the sounds I can make.

  “The large purple and yellow crab-like representative is a Torki, which you may have seen pictures of from the Thandol. The furry gray and white biped with a long tail is a Prada. The six legged gray Raspani has the upright torso with arms similar to mine. Next is a tall gray hairless species with a body thicker than mine, and…” Thond interrupted him.

  “You brought a Krall? They are a member species of your Federation?” He was incredulous.

  “No, that is a Krall’tapi. They are the original species the Krall evolved from, over many thousands of orbits, using selective breeding. They are not Krall, they are their enemies, and do not want to be compared to them.”

  “Understood. I will inform my officers, but be aware that we are soldiers, not diplomats. There may be words spoken that offend, but are not intended as such.”

  “The same may happen with some of those with me.”

  Thond caught sight of something that seemed distinctly different in mannerism and body functionality from any of the others. “Is that an animal predator you brought? I thought you selected only members of your intelligent species.”

  There was a sound reminiscent of Ragnar huffs of amusement, which the AI appeared to have simply replicated, coming from Mirikami. The human strode over to the huge blue sinuous moving beast, and placed an arm over its thick neck.

  “This isn’t an animal, at least no more so than any of us are. This is a ripper, an intelligent species from the planet I call my home. They have a communications ability that I expect will be vital in convincing you of our sincerity in seeking a truce here, and an understanding concerning our joint futures in regards to the Thandol. His name is Kobalt, and he can speak for himself, in more ways than you would believe if I told you now.”

  “Does it bite?”

  “No worse than my mate does.” There was more untranslatable huffing, and a smaller human, with yellow fur on top of its head, walked up and poked an elbow into the side of Captain Mirikami, who quit making the huffing sound, with a sound indicative of a grunt of pain.

  Thond, recognizing the sort of interplay he once experienced with his now dead mate, thought there might be some commonalities with humans, simply because of convergent evolution of similarly shaped bipeds, and the resultant social developments of those beings.

  He offered a guess. “That was your mate?”

  A different sounding voice answered, more natural sounding than the AI, and said, in oddly accented but nearly fluent Fotrol, “Yes I am, and my mate’s attempts at humor at my expense often result in unforeseen consequences for him. I am Margaret Fisher. Or Maggi as I prefer to be called. I am someone who often passes for a diplomat in the Federation, although my training was in the biological sciences. I’m not always very diplomatic.”

  “I’m a soldier by training,” Thond responded. “I’m not very diplomatic either. Why don’t we get this discussion started?” He started down the ramp from the Pounder, Hitok right behind him, and their entourage following.

  ****

  Blunt talking, by both Thond and Fisher, progressed matters faster than a typical diplomatic meeting would have managed, if conducted by actual diplomats. It also helped that the Federation wanted the Ragnar to get back to the Empire with enough strength to face off against the Thandol, almost as much as Thond wanted out of this disastrous venture.

  One talking point that was difficult to get beyond was presented by President Flacco of Tanner’s World, and Colonel Gaffigan, his PDF commander. They represented the injured parties on the planet, and demanded reparations for damages and lives lost.

  Fortunately, because of the advanced warning that an attack was imminent, if not coming as soon as it occurred, the public had received briefings and had participated in discussions about the fastest methods to evacuate cities. No one knew the attacks would be quickly deflected from orbital attacks, or that the Ragnar would decide to conduct landings as four midsized cities. However, the evacuation plans only required minor adjustments, when the streams of people only had to divert away from the landing sights, located roughly a hundred miles from each city. That meant the loss of life among civilians had been limited, and even the PDF forces had suffered low casualties, by avoiding extensive direct contact with the enemy until they reached Fort Bradford.

  Thond was careful to emphasize that he operated under the belief that the state of war the Emperor had declared, between the Empire and the Federation, was the basis for this assault. The Empire was completely unaware of the existence of the Planetary Union, or of their sphere of influence over what was termed Human Space, which included this planet. Neither he, nor the Emperor knew that the Federation did not govern this planet, or any world in Human Space, because the PU was an entity they were unaware even existed. He apologized, which was something he personally found difficult to do.

  As for reparations, the Ragnar leader admitted that he had no authority or means to compensate the people here for damage suffe
red, because his species had no influence on the decisions of the emperor or the Thandol. He was passing the blame because he had no other course of action. None of those present believed that the Thandol would have flinched from attacking the Planetary Union, but only after their typically lengthy and comprehensive planning and preparation.

  The Federation, with limited resources, refused to acknowledge in front of the Ragnar that they were weaker than they appeared, but they proclaimed that because Tanner’s world was targeted because of a conflict aimed at the Federation, that they would help in recovery here.

  Actually, behind the scenes, Tet and Maggi had told President Flacco that President MacDougal, of the Federation, promised to establish the first non-Federation production facilities here, for the advanced alien technological items that were sold on Rim Worlds, and which they knew would eventually find huge markets in the Hub. Tanner’s could become one of the first Rim planets that could reverse the balance of trade between them and Hub worlds. It wasn’t a perfect solution, but there seldom was when it came to war and its aftermath. There wasn’t as much destruction as there would have been had not the Kobani rushed to their aid.

  This wasn’t a time for keeping score, but the PDF forces knew the Ragnar had suffered over twenty-four thousand killed, and an unknown number of wounded. Of those casualties in orbit, there were few survivors recovered in that unforgiving environment, and of the Pillager forces on the ground, nearly seventy-five percent of those crews were killed in action, for a loss of nearly three thousand five hundred of the four thousand eight hundred that had embarked on this questionable adventure.

  There was more than ample room on the remaining Pillagers for the surviving armor, and all of the foot Ragoons. The space planes would be allowed to travel out to meet the eight Spears, which it was revealed, had actually waited in the outer system for their chicks to return. There was no need for the extra sixty to be carried outside on the Jump home. Those broken birds would never leave Tanner’s World.

  One difficult negotiating point for Thond to concede was that none of the sixty-one Stranglers remaining, of the eighty-three that he started with, would Jump home with them. Their crews could board Pounders, but the ships would stay behind. He pretended that he didn’t know why, and the Kobani didn’t say, but the images he’d seen on their colony world of the effects of a Debilitater on them, was enough of an explanation.

  Had he refused to give in on this, the bluntly frank counter offer from the female called Maggi was to resume fighting, and that there would be no quarter allowed, that the Kobani fleet, which had stayed in orbit, would join with the Shadows in wiping out the armor, the foot Ragoons, Stranglers, and Pounders. Some space planes might evade destruction if they got off planet, but they had no Jump capability, requiring a Spear to carry them home.

  The supply ships that landed had already fallen to Kobani forces, which had invisibly walked up to them and disarmed the guarding Ragoons, and took control. The ships had already been moved to a single spaceport, where the Ragnar could not observe what was done with them. Any remaining supplies they carried were offloaded, and a full Kobani, along with additional non-human Federation members not meeting with the Ragnar, interviewed the captains of each ship, exchanging information with the six completely new species thus met, a seventh being the Hothor. Neither side revealed to the other six species that Hothor and humans had previously met, to ensure they would not be betrayed to the Thandol. The ships were allowed to lift and Jump for their respective homes, with a pair of Prada com sets in their possession, and a promise by the Federation to provide them with information they might find interesting in the future.

  A selling point for the Ragnar in accepting the truce, and conducting a peaceful withdrawal, was compelling on its own merits. A point satisfactorily verified by their mingling with the nonhuman members of the Federation they had met, and in particular the single ripper, the most astonishing lifeform they’d ever encountered. They might have extended that astonishment to the Kobani, tinged with great apprehension had they known they shared the same mental ability.

  The Torki and Raspani, two of each, were intriguing as having less common body types than the majority of the bipedal species, which typified many successful and technological species. Humans and Prada shared the same uninteresting typical body structure, as did the Ragnar themselves. The four footed arrogant Thandol, with their noisy trunks and waving tentacles, had lost their charm with every species within the Empire long ago.

  Many of the Ragnar officers were initially keen to measure themselves against the pair of Krall’tapi, who were roughly their same size, and seemed to find the higher gravity of Tanner’s to be rather mild. This interest was based on the reputation the Krall had held within the empire for so long, and the Krall’tapi looked similar to what for the Ragnar had been the equivalent of humanity’s legendary bogeyman myth.

  Hitok, speaking to the slightly larger male Krall’tapi, Council Representative Deldra Holtor, told him bluntly, “You do not look as powerful and intimidating as we were told the Krall are, before the humans defeated you.”

  Offended, Deldra said, “I’m proud to say that I am not a foul Krall warrior. Although, you should not judge their size and fearsome reputation based on my less violent people. I have half the body mass of a Krall male, none of their self-healing ability, limb regeneration, redundant organs, great speed and strength, or the talons and teeth they bred into themselves after the time of their revolt against the Olt’kitapi. My people are what they were at the start.

  “Nevertheless, I suspect that as the Krall’s prototype ancestor species, I may be stronger than you are, I know we have faster reactions, and we prefer higher gravity than on this world. Except, my people do not measure their worth based on such physical features.”

  Now it was Hitok who was mildly offended, and he wondered if he could engineer some sort of contest, where he could test this braggart’s claims. There wasn’t a species in the Ragnar’s security sector which they couldn’t defeat in unarmed physical combat. Before he could propose some harmless contest of strength, Holtor made it a moot point.

  “It is irrelevant anyway, because in a face to face meeting, no Krall warrior is a match for any Kobani, not even the smallest one you have met, our Ambassador at large, Maggi Fisher. She is half my size, but perhaps ten times faster, and five times stronger. I can’t speak for certain, because I’d never pit myself against one of them.”

  Hitok looked to where Thond was in discussion with the human mentioned, and the Force Commander hulked over the small, frail looking human. He rudely turned away from the Krall’tapi and sauntered towards the pair engrossed in other matters, now that a truce and withdrawal had been arranged. He didn’t see the Krall’tapi display the lip curl, which was his rigid faced equivalent of an amused smile.

  This might be amusing, Deldra thought.

  He’d deliberately redirected the alien. He only wanted to see this offensive Ragnar learn a lesson in humility, without his first considering potential consequences for the Federation and the tentative truce. He wasn’t fearful for Maggi, quite the contrary. He knew she could easily handle the blustering Group Commander. He’d witnessed individual Kobani in action, when they’d freed the Krall’tapi from their cruel Krall wardens.

  Unnoticed, another Federation citizen had been listening, and shot the Krall’tapi a cold glare, which caused Deldra’s heart to skip a beat. The listener anticipated Hitok’s probable action to satisfy his sense of pride. However, a humiliating defeat for the Group commander, administered by the smallest human present, would result in a bruise to the pride of all the Ragnar present. They wanted to believe they could have won this battle on Tanner’s, but had selected a path that might lead to a better future for their species. Crushed egos could reverse that decision in favor of a fight to the end.

  Like a wraith, the listener moved smoothly from behind the Group commander, to brush against the hand swinging at the end of a long muscular and h
airy arm. It touched the back of the knuckles, and sent a powerful thought image that was intended to get Hitok’s attention. It worked better than anticipated.

  Mental transfers like this went fast, even when half of the exchange passed through a nervous system that was not superconducting. Hitok received it in a flash, faster than he could easily comprehend, but minds embedded in complex brains had a storage region for short term memories, and from those they could recall events that had just happened, and this seemed like a recent and personal event to Hitok.

  He recoiled from the unexpected contact as if he’d received an electrical shock, and uttered a loud surprised hoot as a detailed series of images flashed through his mind, as if they were his own memories. The subject matter was compelling, and directly related to what he was interested in learning. He hardly noticed the intimidating presence staring at him, with only the tips of his incisors exposed, a suppressed smile that he had learned from his human family.

  The startled hoot was heard by Thond and Maggi, and they both glanced towards Hitok. Maggi instantly noted Kobalt’s near-smile, and saw the ape’s hand pulling away from the cat’s neck ruff. She instantly knew a frill had just taken place, but was puzzled as to what it had conveyed, and why Hitok seemed in a daze, gazing towards Kobalt, but the lack of pupil movement told her his eyes were not tracking the cat. He appeared to be seeing something not visible to her, which was a hallmark of unexpected image transfers to those who had never experienced one.

  She had been exploring ways to bring up the contact telepathy capability of the rippers, and had started by mentioning the unique contributions the nonhuman citizens were making for governing the Federation. From there she would have to convince the Ragnar to accept ripper telepathy as a legitimate ability and not some trick. She wanted the two leaders to experience the unfiltered thoughts of the other nonhuman citizens of the Federation, using Kobalt as the conduit. Even to let them sense the understandably antagonistic, but authentic thoughts of the two men from Tanner’s world. For some reason Kobalt, who knew of her plan, had jumped the gun.