Yet the mission to K1 wasn’t completely over.
Mauss had been speaking to the Task Force commanders, indirectly of course, with Mirikami and Comtaps acting as her normal intermediaries. Any of the Kobani on the Mark could use their Comtaps for this purpose when they were all in Tachyon Space, but Tet had wanted to provide this liaison personally. To understand the navy losses as well as to convey his own.
Mauss had been highly impressed with how he had used his much smaller force to achieve greater destruction of Krall assets than had the thousand ships the navy brought to the game, and he had suffered proportionately fewer losses. The navy lost thirty-four percent of their entire force, while the smaller and more deeply involved Kobani flotilla lost two ships, or one point eight percent. Of course, percentages never told the whole story.
Having recently experienced, firsthand so to speak, how intensely the Kobani could share thoughts and emotions, she wasn’t surprised at how personally they all seemed to share in the immediacy of the loss of their comrades. However, she wasn’t aware that their mental sharing was also a part of Comtap communications. She had assumed that link was more like the navy’s transducer communications, except extended out to many light years.
Mirikami told her that only three of his captured clanships had had AI systems, and that the one on the Beagle was gone, so they had virtually no recorded information about how Marlyn’s ship was lost, or what went on as TF 4’s survivors were defended by the Kobani ships. He requested that the navy AIs of TF 4 be queried about what they may have recorded of what happened in the dogfight near them, between the Kobani ships and the Krall.
Marlyn had tried a new space combat tactic of frequent and short distance micro Jumps. Mirikami wanted to know if that method was more effective than the Normal Space high speed maneuvers he and Noreen’s group had mostly used, and also if one of her Jumps had accidently caused an intersect with a clanship.
On review of the navy data, the evidence pointed to it being a clanship, probably intersecting more by accident than actually planned, appearing where the Beagle had just performed a White Out. The Beagle had just fired a salvo of four lasers and one Plasma bolt at the main thruster of a clanship when it suddenly exploded in a massive blast. Based on the observations of the other Kobani ships in her flight, and the average length of time between White Outs and the next Jump, the Beagle should have been on the verge of a Jump when hit. The same explosion also destroyed the clanship she had just shot at and hit.
Overall, the Krall were less precise in their efforts to use rapid Jumps to get behind an enemy, to fire on them from that vantage point, so the intersect explosion was more likely one of those random things that the confusion of combat created.
The micro Jumps, as analyzed by the navy AIs indicated that in the crowded environment, where Marlyn’s ships were using this tactic, revealed that her people had disabled at least twenty percent more of the enemy ships than had either of the other two observed Kobani space dogfights. After conferring with the other captains from Marlyn’s flight, Mirikami learned that they had also suffered fewer hits on their ships on average than had those in his or Noreen’s flights. The Mark had been forced to Jump clear of the close-in combat, when too many attitude thrusters on one side were damaged.
It appeared that spending more time in Normal Space, twisting aside and accelerating faster than a Krall could tolerate, still left them exposed to a higher number of hits as broadsides. The ships of Marlyn’s flight spent more of their time behind an enemy after a Jump, where the clanship couldn’t fire on you, while you were able to hit them in a fragile area. Only a clanship’s neighbor might be able to fire on you before you Jumped again.
In addition, Marlyn found a system for her people to conserve their slow recycling Plasma cannon bolts. She had them fire all four lasers at one side of a clanship’s main thruster nozzle, and then fire a single plasma bolt there, to trigger the vibrating ringing or impact shock, which caused the overheated brittle section to crack. One plasma bolt per pass on a clanship made better use of the plasma regeneration chambers, and lead to a greater number of disabled clanships, which could be more easily killed later.
It wasn’t something to share right now, but it was a legacy from her quick thinking, which could be passed on by Mind Tap for later use. The war had a long life ahead of it.
A half day before the first of the navy ships would reach the Spica system Mirikami received a report from Dagger, under command of Bob Danker. He had Jumped Dagger from observing the New Dublin system, which was closer to Spica than K1, to confirm the status of the erratic binary system. His long-range observations of the dangerous system verified the coordinates for Wait Point 1 were still good.
“Tet, just as you quoted to us, all things come to he who waits. If the Krall followed you, that’s a great place to wait.” He finished with a bad pun. “Just don’t give up the Ghost.”
“Very funny, in a sick sort of way, Bob.” He jabbed back, in better humor after five days to reflect.
He told Mauss and Maggi what Dagger had reported. “Golda, with your approval, I’ll confirm that Ghosting at Wait Point 1 is a go. All paths for our ships lead to Spica. I don’t know if any of our Kobani ships drew followers or not, but we’ll wait there too.”
“I agree. You can pass that word from me. I don’t see a better way of shaking a tail than this one. Of course, they’ll still come searching for us, and they surely know where the orbital shipyards were, at least where they were before the attack.
“Lela and Bledso learned that lesson after my experience with New Lance. This time we had our shipyards in low population mining and industrial systems, almost everything orbital, and on mobile Jump capable orbital stations. It’s too late for the Krall to try to follow those, and they’re split up now anyway, moved to completely uninhabited systems. We’ll recombine factories to start building ships again, after the initial Krall retaliation dies down. They’ll have to go back to supporting their two invasion forces. General Nabarone and General Cadifem are stepping up resistance on the ground at Poldark and New Dublin.
“That was Lela’s suggestion too.” She looked sad at the mention of her former protégés name. Mirikami remembered yet again that the navy had suffered far more losses than his people had. The fact that he didn’t know them didn’t mean Mauss didn’t feel the losses deeply. Her battleship, the Lancer, was now the last of the large capitol ships in the navy. She’d surprised Chatsworth and Bledso by traveling with Mirikami on the Mark. Which she now thought was only part of the ship’s full name.
Mirikami and his people openly referred to themselves as Kobani around her, and she saw a written reference to a “Mark of Koban,” which she deduced was the full name of the ship in which now traveled. Their personal friendship, after Mirikami’s people essentially rescued Operation Forestall from probable failure, wasn’t going to grow weaker, so she decided they had time to talk about the future.
She leaned back in her acceleration chair, morphed back to that from its former couch configuration, and idly picked at a bit of dried jell on an armrest, left behind from her time in the full acceleration suit bolted to the deck next to her.
“Tet, you and Maggi, and the rest of your crew when we eat together and share stories, have relaxed enough around me that all of you use the term Kobani. I think the Mark is actually named the Mark of Koban, and from that, I believe the name of the planet where you all are from is called Koban. Is that correct, or should I pretend I don't know that?”
Maggi smiled at her, and briefly touched her husband’s hand, revealing to a now more knowledgeable Mauss that they had just shared some thoughts. She’d seen them doing that from time to time, before responding to her, or to an inquiry from commanders of any of the task forces.
Mirikami grinned. “Gee, that took you a lot longer than I expected. I lost a bet with my wife days ago, when she assured me you would be slow and cautious about bringing up a subject we told you could mean life or death
for all of our people. That is, if the Krall found out where we lived.”
Grinning back, Mauss said, “So Koban it is, and you’re no longer worried about anyone spilling the beans?”
Mirikami raised an eyebrow and looked accusingly at his wife. “Spilling the beans? Dear Lady, do you spread those archaic sayings everywhere you go, letting them take root in any untarnished mind where they lodge?”
Maggi shot right back. “If that came from me it would be her saying something like spilling their guts, snitching, or ratting us out. You know I switched to watching old gangster movies instead of westerns. Gangsters don’t eat a lot of beans.”
Mauss smiled at this common subject of friendly bickering with Maggi. “I’ll have you know Tet, that my mind became well and properly tarnished years ago, in raunchy navy ports of call all over human Space. I have an amply dirty mind for any number of stray and archaic thoughts to grow roots.”
Mirikami, recognizing when he was outnumbered, retreated. After a fashion. “Fine, twisted minds think alike and I concede you probably thought of the phrase on your own. In answer to you, yes, the name of our home planet is Koban, as we call it, and I don't think you’ll spread that around. Besides, you already know, so pretending you don’t is stupid. To the Krall, that isn’t its name, because they don’t assign names to objects or places, but they do use the names that we give places sometimes, when talking to us or about us. They customarily describe a place by its use, or by the clan using it. That’s partly the reason for their simplified navigation system that can be used as a point and click system, taking advantage of their superb battlefield memory capability. The Nav system has greater sophistication built into it, and we’ve learned to use that.
“Koban is just two words in low Krall, ko ban, which describes a place used as a training ground. There are literally thousands of places that the Krall have used that as a description. However, a few of them know that some presumably dead humans once used it as a name for a place. For only one world. ”
“Tet, I thank you for your trust. I give you my word that it isn’t misplaced, and I will guard your privacy, and anything you reveal to me that you think could compromise your safety.”
Maggi offered her opinion on the subject. “Golda, I’m a good judge of character, and a better judge of friends. You pass muster on both counts, and you shared the same risks as we did, with a lot less assurance that you would survive than for anyone else on board this ship. You have guts, and put your life on the line for the good of humanity. These are good qualities, which we believe we share in common with you. Tet has a proposal to make, which you are free to accept, or not, no repercussions if you say no.”
Mauss looked slightly startled, but quickly reached the correct conclusion. “Tet, am I being invited to join the Kobani?”
“I told you she was a quick study.” He said, looking at Maggi and laughing.
Mauss looked slightly distressed. “Hell Tet. I’m acting Fleet Admiral now, at least until I return to the Hub. I can’t switch allegiance.”
“You probably wouldn’t be someone we’d want if you thought that was needed, and were willing to do so. However, there’s no pressure and no rush for a decision. I might add, I don't think you’ll find that there is any change in allegiance. My people just fought and some of them died, alongside the Planetary Union navy. We have done so even longer and in closer contact with the PU army and spec ops units. We’re not in opposition to the Planetary Union or its people and government. Although, I’m not as certain the PU politicians, and some of the public, might not at some point turn against anyone they know is a Kobani.
“As to your being Fleet Admiral, would that be permanent do you think? Or do you still intend to retire as you had stated, before Chatsworth and Bledso changed your mind?”
“Evil man!” She laughed. “You know perfectly well I’ll not be offered a chance to stay in this temporary position after we return. I did expect, and still intend to retire. As a flag officer, I’m never really retired anyway and subject to recall. Let me get back to you on this.” She almost changed the subject, but suddenly blurted a question that occurred to her.
“Wait! Does it hurt? Damn, I don’t much like pain at my age.”
Maggi reassured her. “I was considerably older than you are now when I underwent the final and complete transformation, and I’ll bet it hurt less than what you went through in that acceleration suit. Look at your bruises.” She pointed to black and blue spots on Mauss’ bare lower arms and neck.
“Besides, we put you asleep for most of it while you lay in a med lab for a couple of weeks. You wake up a new you, with very little residual discomfort.”
“You were older than me?” She looked skeptically at the attractive and slender small woman, who in appearance looked to be in her early to mid-twenties.
Maggi nodded. “Listen to your elders, kid, I’ll be a hundred thirteen in a couple of months.”
“Oh…, you two really are rotten. I can go back to being young looking too? How the hell can I turn that down?”
Maggi shrugged. “Age regression isn’t a gene mod but it’s guided by our knowledge of genetics, and implemented by nanites that we obtained from Human Space. We have older Kobani, mostly NCO and officer recruits from spec ops, who elected to retain their physiological age at the transformation so they could continue in their military career. You have the ability to go younger when you wish. I’m afraid we can’t prevent you from looking stronger and better fit, and from moving more gracefully. I’ve heard you ask if we all trained in yoga or as dancers. That will come naturally.”
Mauss smirked. “I’ll consider your bribes when I’m no longer on active duty. That may be in only a month or two.”
She turned back to their current mission, which was leading potential Krall trackers to Spica. “Enough about my future prospects. How will we know if we were followed, and if they will do what you expect? We can’t peek out of Tachyon Space to see. How will we know if they simply never tried to track us, or they’re playing the same waiting game at Spica?”
“First of all, Jakob, and Noreen’s AI, Karl, saw one or two clanships wink out within a minute of each task force when they Jumped separately. There were nine of those clanships, and they sure seemed timed to follow each task force. We don’t know if any left after the three Kobani formations Jumped or not. Second, the enemy was at times clearly berserk with rage at the damage we inflicted. I understand Krall personality fairly well, and the loss of status for the Great and Major clans, which we hurt the most, and particularly for the leader that was in charge here, honor demands they find the very ships and enemy that made them look ineffective, hunt them down and kill them if they can. To do that most quickly, they have to know where we went, just as they followed your fleet after Operation New Lance.”
Mauss nodded, but voiced a doubt. “They saw what we did at K1 when we went Ghost. When we do it at Spica, why won’t they stay in Tachyon Space and see if we move again?”
“The Krall are conservative, and adopt new methods only after consideration by their Joint Council. They will change, but usually not this quickly. They themselves had not used a maneuver such as Ghosting before, and initially didn’t understand its purpose because they don’t operate that way, waiting around to return to strike an enemy. Unfortunately for Chatsworth, they did figure out that she might be back a third time, and they sacrificed domes and ships to get her to stay in Normal Space long enough for them to set up their ambush.
“It’s one thing to know that you don’t have to perform a rotation out of Tachyon Space after you travel as far as you needed to go. You simply have to come up with a reason to wait. That’s a sneaky aspect of us monkeys. The Krall prefer to charge in and attack, no waiting. We’ll wait in a Jump Hole at Spica, and I predict they won’t. They can’t effectively communicate while in Tachyon Space. They have a cumbersome and slow method of information exchange, which requires the clanships to be traveling close together. Most of these ni
ne were not. Their pilots will act independently, and I believe all of them will act the same way, even if they think they’re being cautious with us tricky bastards. They’re going to take a look.”
“You didn’t say how we’ll know.” Mauss prodded.
“Oh…, that’s right, you weren’t in on the conversation I had with the Dagger. It’s sitting in Normal Space, about a half an Astronomical Unit out from Spica, watching with a spectrometer.”
****
One after another, nine clanships closed in on the narrowing wave crests of the respective clusters of mass they had each followed through Tachyon Space. When the detectors revealed multiple trails had converged, and didn’t continue away from the narrowest points, they looked for the enemy in Normal Space, where they presumably had emerged. That’s all it took to tell them everything they needed to know.
****
Mirikami acknowledged Bob Danker’s report. He passed it on to the others. “Nine heavy element spikes in the plasma fields between the two stars in the last hour. Spectroscopy confirms the spikes came in separate bursts before being diluted with the hydrogen and traces of helium in the swirling magnetic fields. The Krall appear to have found where they think we went. I almost wish we could send one of them back to lead more of them here.”
Mauss still seemed doubtful, “Just like that, we killed nine more of them? None could get away after taking a fast peek?”
“Not possible. The typical plasma density and energy between those two stars would destroy a clanship in five or ten minutes at the mildest of times. The recent trillions of tons of coronal mass ejections, which the local magnetic fields and gravity have fed back here over a period of several weeks, has been observed repeatedly over several centuries by PU astronomers. The plasma field close between the stars is more powerful than all our energy beam weapons focused on a single clanship at once, and has been this way for almost two weeks and will continue for another week or two. The Krall simply vaporized when they did a White Out, leaving detectable winds of heavy trace elements that are characteristic of clanship hulls, decks and bulkheads. I didn’t ask Bob if any organics were detected.”
Koban 4: Shattered Worlds Page 64