Koban 4: Shattered Worlds

by Stephen W Bennett

  “Captain, you are a militia leader. Effective, certainly, but there are relatively few people living out on the Rim if a plan of yours results in enemy repercussions. I have to consider the safety of heavily populated worlds. If the Planetary Union Navy attacks K1, as we have done twice before, the Krall will certainly retaliate. We could suffer the complete loss of another world like Rhama. I need to convince the president, and afterwards the public, that if we launch another attack on K1 and suffer retaliation, that it was done to stave off an equally costly invasion of a Hub world.

  “Right now, I only have your personal analysis that an imminent invasion is even planned, and that it will be directed at some unspecified Hub world.” She then turned one of his own arguments against his assertion that another invasion was close to launching.

  “You claim they don’t have any of the giant Torki made transport ships because of your own raids. That the enemy can’t move material to an invasion site as quickly as before using the smaller clanships. It would seem that their making more Dragons, transports, plasma cannons, and defensive systems, and storing them on their base world of K1, does not foretell of a new invasion soon, not if they can’t deliver them while supporting the two invasion forces on the ground now. They simply have to store the accumulation someplace.”

  Next, she threw the words of another high-ranking officer in the room at him. Ironically, they were also his own words, previously shared with the man in question.

  “General Nabarone says the Krall are at least two years away from replacing the number of clanships you’ve knocked out in your raids. They probably would have to recall the ships being used at New Dublin, to load equipment and warriors on K1. Afterwards they would spend considerable effort simply keeping three widely separated invasion forces supplied and supported. This would leave their supply lines stretched thin. Why do you think they would risk that?”

  Damn, Mirikami thought, she’s turning what I told Henry against me as well.

  Bledso was proving to be good at political infighting. He didn’t know why he was surprised. The new Chairfem of the Joint Chiefs of Staff didn’t receive her appointment to that position based on field exploits alone. He was being forced into trying a risky demonstration, just to show her how he knew what the Krall were actually thinking, that it wasn’t simply based on the guesswork analysis of some low ranking Rimmer militia leader. At least he could show her what the new prisoner, Kartok, was thinking and knew. This was going to be tricky to manage.

  “OK, admiral. I’ll demonstrate for you exactly how I know what I know. That Kanpardi fully intended to conduct three major invasions at once, despite the loss of so many clanships and all of their giant transports. He is convinced that Krall aggression, if unleashed without restraint, will be enough to hold human armies at bay for the time required to build enough clanships to solve their temporary transportation problems.”

  He was staying with the fiction that Kanpardi was still alive and in charge. Knowing of an impending change in Krall leadership might cause the Hub, both navy and government, to wait and see what would follow, thus missing this opportunity to act while they could hurt the enemy the most.

  He’d certainly not discussed this move with Nabarone in advance, not knowing that Bledso would react this way, and he could tell by Henry’s puzzled look that the man wasn’t sure what Mirikami was proposing.

  “General could you please have a runner retrieve two sets of the new type of armor I brought here with me after the K1 mission? The spec ops quartermaster will have taken possession of the new deliveries of body armor. I’m only going to borrow them, and I actually only need the helmets. One of those helmets should be extra-large, able to fit over a Krall’s head, the other is for Admiral Bledso. A third helmet will be my own custom adapted helmet from the quarters you provided me, if you’ll also have that third one brought here as well.”

  Even as Nabarone sent orderlies to do as requested, his look of puzzlement increased. He suspected that Mirikami was planning to use a shared Mind Tap, which he believed could never be logically explained away to Bledso. It appeared that a major Kobani advantage was about to be revealed in an effort to win the Chairfem over.

  How the helmets would fit in, he didn’t know. He was about to learn how much of Sergeant Reynolds had rubbed off on Mirikami. It seemed bullshit artistry could be learned by example.

  While they waited, he asked Nabarone to have the guards watching over Kartok wheel him in from the interrogation cell, where he’d been moved after The Mark of Koban had been authorized to land directly on Poldark. The Mark was now inside the same volcanic crater that had hidden it previously. A shuttle trip from there had brought Mirikami to the command bunker, with Kartok.

  Shortly, a heavily reinforced steel framed motorized wheel chair arrived at the meeting room. It was of new construction, specifically designed for holding a Krall seated, so that humans wouldn’t have to look up at the hulking prisoners on a vertical framework. The wrists and ankles were secured, with a locked steel belt around the waist. Kartok’s head was secured upright, with a clamp around the thick neck and under the jaw to keep the head facing up and forward. This allowed his malevolent black and red eyes to rove around, taking in his surroundings. There were no feeding tubes connected today.

  Bledso looked at the Krall, and asked, “Isn’t this the same one you showed me last month?”

  “No Admiral,” Mirikami told her. “This one is male, and a bit larger. He looks smaller because he’s sitting, but he’s about four inches taller and nearly a hundred pounds heavier than Hothdat. That other one was female, and a bit grayer in shade. It takes practice and familiarity to tell them apart. This one is named Kartok.”

  At the use of his name, the Krall’s eyes, filled with fury darted towards Mirikami. Kartok spoke Standard moderately well, but he generally chose to ignore his captors. This one, he now knew, owned the voice he’d heard the day he was so humiliatingly captured. Denied an honorable death in combat, he’d have preferred to be tortured to death, as he’d done to human captives in the past. He’d show them how to be stoical as he died, ignoring their efforts to elicit any cry of pain.

  Kartok assumed they were here to touch him again, asking him pointless questions as if expecting some response. Perhaps from his eye movements, or his breathing, almost the only detectable body control he had. Holding his breath until he lost consciousness never accomplished anything, and seemed a source of amusement to his captor when he recovered. His small captor knew how to mimic the snorts of Krall amusement, which he did each time Kartok attempted to hold his breath to the point of brain death.

  This captor, who introduced himself as Mirikami, often spoke to him in high Krall, using his suit’s sound replicator, apparently just to show that he could use and understand the language. Kartok couldn’t deploy his internal ultrasonic ears, although at close range he could hear well enough through the membrane that concealed and protected them in combat. He wondered why the human bothered to ask him anything at all.

  The Krall had no way of knowing that his mental images and thoughts sometimes were clearer to the Mind Tapping questioner if the original conversation that Kartok had heard was conducted in high Krall, instead of the slower low Krall version of their speech, used with animal species.

  He assumed the repetition of the same questions in both versions of his languages was for the human’s practice. The truth was that Mirikami was fluent in both language versions, although he lacked the ability to pronounce high Krall without an electronic device that shifted the frequency higher. Kartok assumed, incorrectly as it happened, that the human also required an electronic device to downshift the frequency in order to hear the ultrasonic words from an unimpaired Krall. Of course, Kartok was unable to make any speech sounds, because his dual-purpose vocal organ, lips, and tongue, were all outside of his ability to control now. He understood that this paralysis was caused by some drug that was included in his nutrients, and had initially entered his bloodst
ream by some sort of small projectile.

  He decided their interest in keeping him alive was due to their own strange notion of torture. Similar to his enjoyment of causing screams of pain when he removed segments of a human prisoner he questioned for information, or was merely bored for some activity. He had to admit, this form of torture was certainly effective against a true warrior. He wanted nothing more than to end his shame and humiliation by dying, and that action was denied him by their drug. At first, it appeared more of the same sort of humiliation was in store for him today, in front of different humans.

  Then they did something new, which although he was apprehensive, could possibly be something more physically threatening. Something he could hope would lead to his death. He couldn’t see exactly what it was because it was done from behind him, but they lowered an object over his head, and he saw only a trace of light leaking in from below, from near his neck area. However, he could hear what they were saying perfectly, and it came from speakers embedded in the object placed over his head, which were not positioned exactly where his own ears were located. The sound came from higher on the side of his head, closer to where human ears were found, he realized on reflection. He felt despair when he was asked similar questions as before, and there was no threat or physical action taken against him. In the near darkness, he couldn’t help but think of what he was asked about, and he thought frequently of how good it would feel to kill not only these humans but also every human.

  ****

  Mirikami was explaining something difficult for Bledso to believe. It didn’t sound entirely ridiculous to her, because he had previously conditioned her to accept as true his assertion that the new alien design body armor sensed the wearer’s thoughts. That was actually a true statement, if you were a Kobani. When a Kobani was wearing the armor, the suits did react faster than a normal human was capable of doing. He’d implied that this mind-to-suit linkage enabled the armor itself to react faster than was otherwise possible. He’d not mentioned that it was a superconducting nervous system and Koban muscles, which really gave the user that speed. The suits actually slowed the wearer down very slightly.

  Before he donned his own helmet, he winked at Nabarone, providing a hint of the stunt he was about to try.

  The mental link with the suit’s AI was the basis for the plausible portion of his story. He smiled unseen under his own helmet, as it settled into place. Now he would embellish the story with the logically smelly details that made the remainder of the explanation pure bullshit. No need to reveal his Mind Tap ability.

  “Admiral, the helmets I had brought here for you and the Krall are not attuned specifically to your neural systems. Neither of you can properly interface with the alien AI system, to link your mind to it for sending controlling thoughts. I’m sure you appreciate that when we are in combat, we have no way of placing a helmet on the head of a docile Krall warrior and doing this.”

  The implication being that this wasn’t a practical demonstration of a real-time application of a tactically useful technology. A typical Krall would really be shooting at you, not merely thinking about doing it.

  “My own helmet was individually adjusted by the Torki for me, as it is for each suit fitted for my people, to sense individual unique mental patterns. However, it can send you information in a broadband signal that your mind can receive as emotions and mental images.

  “I’ll ask the Krall questions, and you and I will each sense what it is thinking in general. Because I have the helmet that’s properly adjusted, I’ll be able to better sense what thoughts filter through from the Krall, but in tests we know that you should receive them as well, but more attenuated. This isn’t pleasant for any human, but we can catch glimpses of what this sub leader, whom I captured outside their joint clan council dome, knows about another invasion. If you’re ready, take my hand and then touch the back of the Krall’s hand, where you’ll note even the fingers are secured, although it can’t move them.”

  She answered, expressing some apprehension. “I suppose so. I feel rather foolish wearing this contraption, and not particularly happy to be touching a clammy cold hand.” Realizing what she said she quickly amended her words, because she was also holding one of Mirikami’s hands.

  “I meant touching the Krall’s hand of course, Captain.”

  “I understand what you meant admiral.” Of course he did, with hand-to-hand contact with her. He’d explained that his AI was helping improve the linkage between her and the Krall with the physical contact. In reality, it was only his Mind Tap doing that.

  “You can pull away from contact at any time, and I assume you still have a satisfactory visual inside your helmet, of the Krall, of me, and of the room?” It was a perfunctory question for her benefit, because he saw mentally that she did.

  Bledso looked directly at him, glanced over to the Krall, who was helpless to move his hand away from the dual contact, and then she looked around the room. There was Nabarone observing them, and the same two armed men that had guarded the last prisoner she’d seen.

  It was a remarkable vision system. “The outside image on the inside of this completely enclosing helmet is astoundingly vivid, and I hear room noises and your voice perfectly. There’s no visual distortion like at the edges of a faceplate, as there is in any suit I’ve worn previously, nor any false color shifting that I can detect. I can’t even see the blue-lit protrusions that I know are mounted on the outside front of my helmet, right in front of my face, but I can see yours. You said those are the energy beam projectors.”

  “Yes. However, without the rest of the suit’s power system connected, they’re not activated. We’re operating on helmet battery power alone, which will last only a short time. We had best start our interrogation.” Actually, they would have about an hour of external vision, since there was no power drain for weapons or stealth, but he didn’t want to maintain this charade for that length of time.

  “I’ll activate the AI’s link between you and me, and then with the Krall. I’ll warn you just before I let the Krall’s mind link in. It may be intensely hostile.” That was an understatement.

  “Oh. I do sense you, I think.” She said. Mirikami had gently provided an emotional sense of caution to her, to be prepared for an onslaught of hatred and violence. “You want me to be ready for a wave of violent thoughts. This technology is fascinating.”

  “I’ll let the Krall’s thoughts link in now.” He filtered them only slightly, because he didn’t want her to consider this fun, or something anyone would like to try casually.

  “Oh my God!” She gripped Mirikami’s hand tighter. “He wants to cut us up alive and eat the pieces as we watch. I can actually sense the vile taste he thinks he would have to endure to do that.”

  “I told you these links are not easy or pleasant. Do you wish to continue?” He knew she only half heard his words in the onslaught of Krall hatred, but he had to respect her mental toughness as she took rigid control of her emotions, using the same mental frame of mind she’d had when she was the XO on a battleship in the second attack on K1. Mirikami hadn’t known she was part of that fleet action.

  “Let’s get on with it. I don’t like this bastard either.”

  What followed were a number of questions in Standard, which all produced the expected violent mental response for anything said in the human language. Then Mirikami asked a question about the supplies on K1, followed with a similar, slightly differently phrased question in high Krall, which Bledso naturally couldn’t understand.

  The first images were of a mighty fleet leaving K1, gloriously unhampered by human harassment. Not like the flash of savage irritation displayed when he thought of what had occurred when the other fleet had lifted from Poldark. Then he visualized as the new fleet Jumped to some generic image of a heavily populated human world. He didn’t know which world that would be, but the landing warriors slaughtered cities full of human populations, in a torrent of killing, he personally would earn many status points.


  Naturally, this Krall didn’t envision any effective resistance from the stupid animals encountered. He didn’t employ the wider thinking of a strategic planner of some leader like Kanpardi or Telour, or even of most Major clan leaders. He quickly descended into the thoughts of many personal kills, and earning great status. He thought of the tools of war he needed to fight these great battles, and of forcing war production to increase on their own worlds, making the weapons his clan needed to rise to become a Great clan, with him as a great leader.

  Then, at the height of Kartok’s thoughts of personal fervor and ambition, Mirikami made a minor miscalculation, and asked him when the next invasion would happen. One in which his Ditka clan would not play a significant role, and which he now knew that as a captive he would not be present to see or to participate. His life as a warrior was over, his bloodline ending.

  Mirikami had hoped he would receive the same sense of an imminent launch, as he’d received days earlier when he’d asked the same question. He wanted a sense of urgency imparted to motivate Bledso. Except the passage of those days had led Kartok to realize he wasn’t going to escape captivity, and that there would have been a new Tor Gatrol selected by now. He wanted one of the punitive plans of any one of the new war leader candidates to be implemented, to punish humanity severely, even before that next invasion was launched.

  The images of the clan leaders, in a great hall making the selection of a new war leader flashed through their minds, laden with Kartok’s emotions of destruction to come. He was visualizing the total destruction of a human world when Mirikami snatched his hand from the Krall’s, ending the stream of imagined devastation. The final mental picture had been perceived as observed from high orbit, with flames covering the entire surface of a human world, mixed with vast explosions. Mirikami already knew this warrior didn’t know what the Olt’kitapi ships actually did, none having been used for many generations. He was improvising what he’d like to see happen from space.