Koban 4: Shattered Worlds

by Stephen W Bennett

  ****

  Mauss was waiting at the airlock of the battleship Lancer as her guest arrived. “Captain Mirikami, I’m pleased to meet you, and intrigued, to say the least. I’ve heard some curious things about you.” She shook the hand he offered in lieu of a salute. Something Bledso and Chatsworth had cautioned her to expect.

  “Admiral Mauss, I can say much the same of what I’ve heard of you, and I’m honored to have you as our navy liaison. Having read your book, and Marshal Freidka’s history of your tactics and the strategy that went into the first two strikes on K1, I’m hopeful you have some interesting proposals for taking advantage of our unique capabilities. We can’t continue to allow the Krall to have the war fought their way.” He was watching her with intensity and obvious curiosity as they shook hands.

  “Yes. I suppose you were too young when those actions took place to remember them first hand, but they have been covered extensively over the years. It’s unusual to encounter a reader of history, versus the media’s docudramas of typically shallow Tri-Vid snapshots of complex military actions.”

  Her response was designed to draw him out, and confirm if he was as young as he appeared to be. She saw a strong resemblance to an old picture of a middle-aged man she had found in Interworld Transport records, of their presumed dead Captain Mirikami. However, this man was clearly much younger than even that old hologram. However, she was distracted and surprised that he’d read two of the most accurate depictions of what had happened at K1, rather than watching the popular media versions that inevitably focused on the drama and tragedy of the near destruction of Rhama, and the political downfall of President Stanford.

  The true detrimental impact of Rhama’s devastation and the fall of the president had never been from their military value for the enemy. It was in the reaction of the public and the politicians to the Krall’s ultimatum, which clearly shifted the war in a direction that would help the enemy gradually to destroy human society in the manner they preferred. She also wasn’t expecting the smile and chuckle from the smallish, young looking man.

  “I wasn’t even aware of the progress of the war for twenty years, although I knew it was about to start before anyone in Human Space did. As you already suspect, I’m older than our cosmetic procedures might lead you to believe. I was certain then that the initial response of the PU government would be to underestimate this new enemy, and misunderstand the Krall’s real motivation and goals. I believed our leaders would seek to avoid conflict, and try to negotiate their way out of a war with a clearly barbaric and implacable race of pure warriors that only live to fight.”

  Mauss nodded, confirming her impression from the first moments of meeting Mirikami that his bearing wasn’t that of a young man. He wasn’t physically imposing, but conveyed a confidence and sense of strength, and had the odd graceful movements that she was told all of these secretive Rimmers displayed.

  “Captain, your comments imply that you were somehow out of touch with what was happening on the Rim worlds after the war started, which is where you say you and your people are from. I’m sure some news must have reached you, because Hub contact existed with every Rim world.”

  “I suppose there was news available on Rim world colonies, Admiral. We wouldn’t know.” He grinned, and then said, cryptically, “I don’t know how that sort of news could spread that far beyond the Rim.”

  She pounced on that statement. “You’re implying your people are from farther out than the Rim colonies. How could that be? How could any group colonize such remote and unannounced planet discoveries without major assistance from the Hub worlds, or at least from other well established colonies?”

  “Admiral, I prefer not to say, because if somehow the Krall received enough hints of where we are located, we don’t have the resources or population to defend ourselves. We know they are aware of our existence from our raids, and they have experienced our capabilities, but they think we are a small exceptional unit of the PU Army using perhaps an experimental type of armor that makes us seem stronger and faster. Not unlike the impression we’ve conveyed to the PU itself.”

  Mauss was blunt. “Captain, you have concealed yourselves from the PU just as you have from the Krall. Do you consider us to be a potential enemy, a friend now only of convenience?”

  Mirikami looked at her askance, and asked. “Admiral, are you being coy with me concerning PU laws? Both the Krall we fight and the PU we defend are potentially a threat to our existence, and oddly enough, for the same reason. The Krall would wipe us out at any cost if they knew we were their physical superiors, that we have bypassed them on their twenty-five thousand year selective breeding program of their Great Path. The Hub government may someday come after us, due to how we achieved that superiority. Also because of our genetic modifications.

  “Nevertheless, I think our actions prove we are on the same side as the Planetary Union, which puts us squarely on humanity’s side, because we are human. We don’t just happen to appear to be human. We can marry and have children with unmodified humans, and we have the offspring at home to prove that claim. We are not a different species; we are another race of Homo sapiens, as you appear to be a member of the Caucasian race.”

  Mauss smiled at this. “I’m more of a racial mix than I appear, just as you must be. You for example look somewhat Asiatic, specifically part Japanese and Caucasian, yet due to your modifications you claim you are also now a member of a new race.”

  Mirikami returned her smile. “True. I was a mixture of Japanese and one-quarter Earth born Caucasian even before my gene mods. There isn’t such a thing as a purebred member of our new race, just as there is no purebred human of any race of human anymore. All of us of the older generation naturally carried whatever genetics we possessed at birth on our home worlds in Human Space.

  “Which, incidentally includes the same long ago gene mods that you, me, and everyone alive carried from well before the Clone Wars. The children many of my people have borne since our changes have the typical mix of genes all humans carry, plus the new ones that our scientists were meticulously careful to make compatible with human reproduction.”

  There was a hint Mauss wanted to follow. “You say you are of an older generation than you seem, and were born on a world in Human Space. How would we verify that claim, of your origin on a human world?”

  “You’ve already done that I think. You just identified me as part Japanese and Caucasian, when most people couldn’t be that specific if they hadn’t done some research. Nevertheless, look up the records of the Flight of Fancy, a former passenger ship of Interworld Transport, serving Rim worlds and New Colonies. I understand the company still serves many of the same routes. I was captain of the Fancy when she vanished, and her passenger list will surely provide you a huge clue as to how we made our genetic advances.

  “One of the people serving as a captain of a ship I brought with me today was my first officer on the Fancy, Noreen Renaldo. Other captains with us were serving on over thirty-five other ships that should be vessels suspected of capture by the Krall, taken some months after mine was captured. It’s certain that you would learn of these connections anyway, therefore it isn’t a secret we could keep. I won’t go into details of how we all came to be held together, where we were, or how we survived, because that could cause slips that might lead the Krall to us. They think we’re dead, and we want them to keep thinking that.”

  His hand was no longer in contact with Mauss, but he saw the easy acceptance of his mention of the Flight of Fancy in her expression. That told him she had already suspected who he was, and was seeking verification. From the moment of the handshake, he’d seen her mental comparison of his current face to that of a hologram photo from his old Interworld company ID that she’d found. He also sensed her determination to make this new navy attack on the Krall more damaging and lasting than the last. She wanted his help.

  Despite her relegation to a smaller role in the planning of this mission, she saw potential in the unconven
tional force she was asked to find a means of using effectively.

  “Captain Mirikami, I think there is a way for us to use your small force, but I need to know more of what your ships and people can do. Like how you managed to conduct your scouting mission right on the surface of K1.”

  “We will be happy to demonstrate this for you. However, in keeping with our distinctly non-navy traditions, my volunteers and I prefer more informality that you are accustomed to using. Please call me Tet, which as I’m sure you know is short for Tetsuo. When we gather in your conference room shortly, after the introductions I ask that you at least attempt to use the first names of the officers you will meet. We seldom salute, or stand at attention. Nevertheless, I doubt you will find a more disciplined or deadly a group in a fight.”

  “Tet, I accept your suggestion, and in exchange please call me Golda. If any of my people on the Lancer appear to be scandalized by this informality, I’ll have a word with them.” She grinned at that inevitability.

  The giant Lancer, one of the last battleships ever built, had come alone to the rendezvous star, the system given the code name of Rimfire, to meet the hundred and ten “Rimmer” crewed clanships. This was a massive, heavily armed and armored ship, intended to awe the newcomers to space warfare, flying their far smaller stolen clanships. This attitude prevailed despite the fact that the navy had never captured a single Krall operational clanship intact, not in twenty-three years of war. They couldn’t even repair and fly the wrecks they had recovered.

  Just as the personal informality requested by Mirikami had suggested was the case, the number of ships that arrived with him had unexpectedly increased by another three from the promised hundred ten. The explanation was that the roundabout and disbursed route to this system had allowed two of the ships to pass a target world of opportunity, and they had stolen three more ships parked next to a small Krall clan dome (which they had destroyed). Mauss wondered how useful the new ships could be in this exercise, considering they must have untrained new captains and personnel as prize crews.

  Mirikami acknowledged that he knew of these additions even before they had arrived in the system, because all of his captains had the new embedded Comtap chips. He told Mauss not to worry about the capability of the three new ships and their crews, that they could match the performance of any of the other crews.

  He also explained that because his people were physically stronger than the Krall, their stolen clanships had modifications, taught to them by the former alien slaves, which removed some built-in performance restrictions the Krall had. He said the new ships and their operators were as ready to fight as his other ships.

  As Mirikami predicted, the three new craft and crews were easily integrated into the flotilla. Mind Taps are a wonderful thing.

  Apparently, Mauss thought, there are spare trained people he brought along to replace expected losses.

  A week later, Mauss had a plan devised with Mirikami to use his ships as a separate small strike force, and she wished the navy had a thousand more of these “ragtag” crews and ships to fight alongside the fleet. Any tactic she proposed they try, the first time through the coordination wasn’t perfect but was extremely well done, and the second pass was always better than the first, because the crews modified and improved on her initial advice.

  They displayed an astounding ability to learn quickly, and to apply even bizarre ideas that a navy ship and crew could never have pulled off, such as rapid micro Jumps without a computer to help. She didn’t realize part of that was due to the brilliant simplified navigation system the Olt’kitapi had devised for their near-barbarian Krall helpers.

  Not only would a navy crew be unable to absorb the training in so short a time, they physically couldn’t have survived what Mauss observed these ships do. She was looking forward to seeing their collaboration put into practice. The Krall were not going to like it one bit.

  Chapter 13: Operation Forestall

  Sarge scratched his head in pretend confusion. “Maggi, why’d you call it four stalls? Is that some old timey outhouse reference of yours? Appropriate I suppose, since we’d be in the crapper if things went wrong.”

  “The name is Forestall, you lunk-headed semi-literate hick.” She jabbed back, without seeing his wink to Dillon.

  Dillon chimed in, “It sure sounds like four of something. Shower stalls?”

  She looked up from the screen of text, which she’d been reading, with a dangerous sweet smile. “It means the stalls where they’ll keep you four jackasses penned up, so your asinine braying can’t warn the Krall who we are when we arrive.” She had included Carson and Ethan as two of the jackasses, because she could see their big grins when she looked around the Bridge.

  Just reaching the Bridge of the Avenger, and hearing only the last comment, Noreen innocently asked, “What kind of stalls?”

  The four men laughed at Maggi’s pained expression.

  “Never mind them dear. These four equally adolescent turds are pestering me over the lame name the navy gave to the K1 mission. It’s to prevent another invasion, so it’s being called Operation Forestall.”

  “Oh… That’s not very valiant sounding is it?”

  “Hardly. They tried names like Deep Lance and New Lance for the last attacks on K1, with mixed results afterwards. I just hope Forbearance isn’t the name of their next action when the Krall respond after this attack.” That erased the grins of the four men.

  In a more serious vein, Sarge reminded them. “We know from Kartok’s Mind Taps that the Krall will react violently to a raid like this. Telour is probably the new Tor Gatrol, and he’s pushing for a planetary destruction even without a raid on K1. If the PU government simply sits back and licks their wounds this time, they may never scale up for a fight to the death. The Krall will continue to take us down one planet at a time until we can’t marshal enough force to resist them. A lot of people on Hub worlds, like that Clayborn woman, think humans have lost the ability to fight after the Collapse.”

  He was referring to a story that had been making the rounds in the press in Human Space recently, proposed by a noted woman psychologist Janet Clayborn, whom also had a medical degree, and most significantly had a new book out she wanted to promote. It was titled, The Decline of Men.

  Clayborn gained press notice only because she was from a prominent Earth family, and had successfully treated some of the rich and famous women of Hub society, who shared her resentment of the newly resurgent male ego, as more men received military training. Soldiers no longer accepted the subservient status granted to males over the last three hundred years of society’s recovery.

  One of her arguments was that when the Krall increased their pressure on human worlds, despite the great effort the PU had put forth thus far, that the men doing the fighting had not been able to stop the enemy. She speculated that after the loss of so many men in the Gene War, that those that survived to procreate the race had replaced the original genes of the Y chromosome with a weaker version. Claiming that the men who survived the synthetic disease were only the inherently unaggressive representatives. Her point was that the less combative and less virulent males alive today were being forced to shoulder the responsibility of fighting a war, something they were less competent at than their warlike male predecessors would be.

  Maggi pounced. “Not even you could be so addled brained to think that was true.”

  Sarge shook his head. “Of course not. However, if enough people on Hub worlds accept that idea, they may not push for building more and larger armies, largely filled with males. If we don’t beat the Krall on the ground, we can’t hold onto any of our worlds. If we lose a planet or two to some Krall super weapon, I don't know if the PU politicians will have the guts to rally the soft Hub worlds to make the deep sacrifices needed to hold them back until we have enough Kobani to win the war. We will need many decades to achieve the number of Kobani to resist the inevitable Krall population explosion if we start to push them back. Our own side is opposed t
o our gene mods just on principle.”

  Maggi was conciliatory to him, in her own unique manner, naturally. “I’m glad to see you came to the right conclusion. Surprising to me, as addled brained as you are.”

  Noreen deflected the banter by bringing up the assignments Mirikami had just delegated to his people.

  “I was in Comtap link with Tet before I came up here. At least a half link, since he could send to his squadron commanders while we all are in Normal Space. Naturally, each of us would have to enter a Jump Hole to set up a full two-way conversation. I hope Professor Born’s group finishes their miniaturization of the circuit Tet has in that little case soon.

  “He and Mauss have studied the reports they have of over a thousand clanship arrivals at K1, via a Comtap report from Captain Lebeau of the Pride of Gaul. He was sitting stealthed in the system, and entered a Jump Hole to communicate before the last of the arrivals did their White Out. This tells us that the Krall are preparing to load them with equipment stored around the various domes. Lebeau returned to observe the domes where they land, and will relay that.

  “Another of our ships, the Dagger, under Bob Danker, is in the New Dublin system. He just reported that another thousand twenty-four clanships just Jumped out of that system in the last hour. The navy there, using the tachyon wave gadget the Krall used on our fleet movements at K1, says the direction of departure was dead on for K1. That gives them almost nine days before White Out at K1. They either don’t think we learned how to sense that wave front, or don’t care enough to conceal where they went.

  “Danker told Tet that there are another thousand clanships still at New Dublin, but about half of them have suddenly taken on a more passive role, not participating in supporting ground actions against the eleventh Army. He thinks they are simply passing time until they can Jump for K1, eager to join the next big invasion. The Krall are learning about traffic jams and seem to be trying to spread out their fleet movements, to avoid the collision risks they ran into during the mass launches off of Poldark.”