Koban

by Stephen W Bennett

  Mirikami muttered indistinctly then selected voice Link. He used the code phrase that placed the computer in dictation mode. “Jake, take a message.”

  “Ready Sir.”

  “This is Captain Mirikami of the Flight of Fancy, Mizzeran registry. Our drive fields are disabled and we require assistance. We will comply with your demands and will offer no resistance. We have eight hundred ninety nine souls onboard, and light cargo. Please identify yourselves.” He spoke the termination phrase, “Jake, end message.”

  “Routing Sir?” was the automatic response.

  “Broadcast it on the same frequency they are using, between their transmissions, and on all four distress frequencies as well. Advise the Bridge if there is any reply, or a change in their current transmission.”

  To Noreen he said, “Play that incoming recording for the crew only, and let them hear my reply. Get our people on duty in passenger country into a privacy booth. Impress on them that I mean to do exactly as we are told. I'll speak to the passengers myself and prepare them a little more gradually. I don't want a wild-eyed panic, so they won't hear the actual message just yet. To keep them in their seats I'll caution them to expect additional acceleration for a course change. Make sure the crew understands that it’s only a bluff so that they know it's safe to move about. Start a search for the four missing people, and get some medical help to those that need it.”

  “Will do, Sir.”

  Next Mirikami addressed the passenger decks. “Let me have your attention please. This is Captain Mirikami speaking. We are in no immediate danger at present, but we have been pursued and caught by a fleet of small unidentified spacecraft. They have ordered us to cease efforts to escape and to follow their instructions. In order to insure your safety I have agreed to their terms.

  “I regret any injuries or discomfort you may have suffered due to the abrupt accelerations. Your couch monitors will have informed the medical staff of anyone requiring immediate attention. Depress the call button to request a steward only if you require immediate attention. Because we may be required to get underway on a new course without warning, I must ask you to remain seated for your own safety. Please remain calm. If our pursuers intended us harm, they could have already done so. I will keep you informed as I learn their intentions. Thank you.”

  Mirikami waited for his First Officer to complete her crew briefing.

  As soon as she switched off, Mirikami swiveled to face them both. “I want your comments and any observations that seem pertinent. Since you've been witness to all that's happened, Doctor, you're included. Noreen, you go first.”

  “We haven’t any choice but to follow their orders for now. However, they neglected to tell us who they are and they didn't send us video. I think that may be significant. They may be hiding their identity because we still have a chance to escape, or because they may intend to release us if we turn out to be as harmless as we seem to be. Right now we can't tell anyone who they are.”

  Mirikami voiced partial disagreement. “Escape is out. We can’t make a surprise Jump even if we could catch an energetic tachyon in the next few minutes. If we restored the Traps...,” he froze as he realized where the completed thought led. Instantly he was at the com panel and keyed the Drive Room speakers, shouting. “Willfem! Leave the Trap fields alone! Don't try to restore them! Do hear me? Don't do anything to them! Acknowledge!”

  When her face appeared on the screen, it was that of a bewildered woman. “But... Captain, I was about to try to close the secondary Trap field again by shutting down and recycling. There's about a five- percent probability we could catch a minimum Jump particle in time. It's a slim chance, but shouldn't we try?”

  Mirikami explained why they couldn't. “Nan, you heard their message. They'll destroy us if we try to escape. The device used to tamper with our fields from the outside, from kilometers away, must be able to sense the presence of our fields. They know with a closed Trap there's a possibility, however small, that we could catch a Jump particle within a few minutes. Restoring either field might be seen as an escape attempt and provoke a fatal attack. The odds against a Jump before they can hit us again are too great to risk.”

  Willfem conceded reluctantly. “You're probably right Sir. But I wish we had a little more time.”

  “No more than I do Nan, but they are too damned fast, and too close to risk the attempt. Just stand by until we know what they want us to do.”

  Killing the connection, Mirikami released a shuddering sigh. “I nearly missed the point of my own argument against trying to Jump. If she had reset either field we might have been blasted without further warning.”

  The tracking display showed the twenty craft had ceased to fan out and were moving parallel to the path of their prey. The Flight of Fancy was about to be enveloped by an open bottomed hemi-sphere formation of ships. The trailing two craft, now having reversed their course would close the bottom. They were making no assumptions about the apparent helplessness of their victim.

  “Your turn Doctor.” Mirikami invited. “What do you think, and how do you think your people will take this?”

  “I have a theory now that I'm afraid is going to make me sound more paranoid than my last one, Captain. However, I've been examining all this analytically, not emotionally, and we know a few new facts. If what I'm about to suggest is really happening here Captain, we might indeed have a panic if we don't prepare for it. I'd really like you to punch holes in my hunch if you can.” Dillon had the undivided attention of both officers.

  For the last several minutes, he had been collecting bits and pieces of information, fitting them into the framework of a radical idea that had occurred to him a short time ago. It needed more pieces, but what facts he had fit the theory.

  He began to outline his bits of information hurriedly, ticking them off like items on a shopping list. “First, the frightened man that made the recording is probably a prisoner. Perhaps he’s one of the people from Midwife. But, that’s a strange thing don't you think? Our extremely competent aggressors passed on an ultimatum secondhand, via a clearly male voice, rather than from some authoritative female of their own?”

  He moved to his next point. “Next, their message wasn't a specific reply to our own broadcasts to Midwife; we were not called by ship name. The recording must have been prepared in advance, before they even knew who we were. To reach us this quickly those little ships must have started after us as soon as our re-entry gamma ray wave front reached Newborn. If the message was recorded in advance, I wonder why they didn't take time to prepare an ordinary video recording and add more detail.

  “As you observed Captain, we had essentially no chance to escape once they had opened our Trap fields. They certainly knew they had us, and yet sent no images, nor did they identify themselves in any way.” At this point, he realized Jake hadn't said where the message originated. He didn't know if that detail might fit his theory or not. “Noreen, please ask Jake if the transmission came from one of the twenty-two targets he's tracking, or from somewhere else?”

  Noreen relayed the question to Jake, but in rephrasing the request, she asked for the “source and nature” of the signal. The computer proceeded to give every detail of the broadcast.

  Dillon had merely wanted to know if the message came from Newborn, which was too far away to have even known the Flight of Fancy had been successfully disabled. To fit his theory, the signal had to originate from someone close enough to have known the prey had been caught. He got a lot more than he had expected.

  “The transmission,” began the precise, smooth voice, “is radiating on a tight beam from one of the twenty ships that are approaching us from Newborn. The specific source is the ship directly at the center of the enveloping hemisphere. It is a radio signal with a carrier frequency centered on the interstellar hydrogen emission frequency of one thousand four hundred twenty megahertz, using frequency modulation to convey audio information. The …”

  “Terminate, Jake.” Noreen ordered, no
t certain what Dillon had been after. She halted what was sure to be endless and pointless detail from the computer.

  Dillon felt an icy chill crawl up his back, “That was more than I was expecting, but I think that just might clinch it. I'll explain in a moment.”

  He outlined the next point, “These small craft have shown us capabilities that outstrip the most advanced ships known to either of you experienced Spacers. Furthermore, they have a device that seems to violate the laws of physics of our field equations for Tachyon Space.”

  He was nearly finished. “There also has been no indication that any of our messages have been understood. It's as if they can't improvise their communications with us.”

  Now it was time for the final clue that had convinced him he had to be right, but he wasn't sure it would loom as significant to the others.

  “Their transmission itself is the single most revealing detail. I don't mean the content; I'm speaking of the mode of delivery. They used one of the most significant frequencies available. The radio frequency generated by interstellar hydrogen clouds when the atoms in them collide. Every long-range Jump ship automatically records emissions on a number of so called ‘Magic’ frequencies. These are the radio emissions that occur naturally in nature and are important to radio astronomy.

  “There is a very old, often forgotten reason why these frequencies are monitored by Jump ships.” He waited to see if this information would at last lead them to what he now thought was true.

  Mirikami nodded his head slowly, but remained silent. He saw where Dillon was leading and was seeking a flaw in his string of evidence that would prove him wrong.

  Noreen, seeing Mirikami's nod, was still in the dark. “Dillon, what’s so significant about that frequency? The Captain seems to know but I didn't know it was monitored. Why do we do it, and how did you know about it when it apparently isn’t common knowledge to flight crews?”

  “It's done, because we first heard the so-called Corrillians on that same frequency, nearly four hundred years ago by SETI. The frequency is one of a number of naturally generated radio signals that radio astronomers have studied for centuries. Searchers for intelligent extraterrestrial life believe that any culture with a radio level technology, such as the Corrillians had, might try to communicate with beings in other solar systems.

  “I know about it because I'm a volunteer member of an old scientific task force, in the biology unit, that would respond to the discovery of another alien race. The ships that operate out near the Rim have recorders that are checked automatically for non-random patterns by computers at spaceports each time the ship docks. We anticipated discovering another intelligent race someday. One may have found us instead.”

  She wasn't buying it. “Dillon, isn’t it pretty farfetched to extrapolate the few facts we have here, into an attack by the Corrillians? Besides,” she added, “I recall some of the historical facts. It happened even before Jump ships. I believe the signal was picked up for only a few weeks and that it was apparently being aimed at stars randomly, not specifically for us. They didn’t even know we existed.”

  “I'm not saying these are Corrillians.” Dillon responded. “That signal was beamed from a globular cluster over twenty thousand light years from Earth. They were sending in the blind, looking for someone to talk to. After centuries of studying what was in their message, we think their physics and mathematics was on the wrong path to stumble onto Jump travel.”

  “Then you think we've been found by some other species?”

  “It may seem unlikely, but it fits the facts better than anything else I can think of. In any event, we are about to find out, and I want us to be prepared for the shock if I'm right. One of my boyhood dreams was to participate in a First Contact. That wish may have pushed my mind into fitting the facts to a desired conclusion. I earnestly hope that we, here and now, are not in a First Contact situation. Not like this.”

  Noreen appealed to Mirikami for support. “Tet, you don't think this can be the result of an alien intrusion do you? How could a race with Jump capability be living close to us and go undetected?”

  Dillon's argument left Mirikami ample room to suffer the same doubts. “I don't know. Unless they have been aware of us and have been hiding. These people here are certainly hostile, and they might possibly account for a number of ship disappearances recently. But that doesn't uniquely point to an alien presence.”

  Mirikami shook his head, and shrugged. “I don't have a better answer, but I'm not convinced. Hell! I don't want to believe. A species that knows about us but doesn't fear to risk a war with the human race would have to be very powerful, or foolhardy. We haven’t had a war in hundreds of years, but we still have the resources and production of over seven hundred settled planets, and an enormous population. A foe would have to be damned confidant they would win before they challenged us. If these super ships are alien, then...”

  Jake interrupted. “There is a new message.”

  8. The Krall

  The second message, delivered by another hurried voice, identified itself.

  “My name is Mavray Doushan. I am, or rather I was, Poldark's Deputy Ambassador to Bollovstic's Republican Independency. I am making this recording in the hope I might save many lives.”

  “If you are hearing this recording you are fortunate, though it is not likely that you think so at present. The fact that you are alive and able to hear my voice means you have survived the initial contact, or more correctly, an attack. Untold numbers of other victims have not.

  “If your attackers have followed previous patterns, your Jump ship will have been disabled by small single piloted craft of remarkable capability. The danger of continued resistance is impossible to exaggerate. If all that have survived to hear this recording will follow my advice, further loss of life can be reduced. Not eliminated, I fear, but certainly more will live if you listen and follow my advice.

  “As I speak, the Standard Date is 3, June, 2548. I have been held captive for nearly one year, and there are a few others with me that have been held captive for more than two years. If you listen to me, and do as I urgently advise, then more of you might survive to join us. We believe perhaps thousands of people in your present position have died needlessly.”

  Although he knew the date, Dillon automatically glanced at his laminated thumbnail timepiece. The recording was a bit over two and a half years old.

  “Heroics and panic or resistance must be avoided!” Doushan continued emphatically. “Only carefully considered movements and actions can avoid a violent death within the first few minutes of confronting your captors. This will be a terribly frightening time for you, as it was for me, and for many others. However, if you follow my directions and control your fear and emotions, you can survive. The thousands of fellow survivors and I are proof of that. However, the effort of self-control will be great. You have never faced a more unexpected danger.”

  Here he paused dramatically, ensuring total attention. “You are about to be confronted by warriors in-training of a hostile alien race.”

  Noreen threw Dillon a startled look. His stricken expression clearly showed he took no satisfaction from having his hunch confirmed.

  Doushan, pausing again, allowed his unseen audience time to absorb his previous words.

  Then he resumed. “These creatures call themselves Krall, and they have told us little of themselves. They have obviously studied us for some time, and have some knowledge of us, but they do not understand human nature and mannerisms at all. I can tell you they are a bit larger than we are, four limbs, broad chested with a humanoid form, a ruddy coloration, and a fearsome head and face. They have great strength and incredible lightning reflexes. The latter is a primary cause of so many deaths when humans first encounter them. Any move interpreted as threatening or contrary to an order given can trigger one or more of them into an attack. They will strike out almost literally faster than the eye can follow. Once triggered, the defensive reflex is very often fatal to the targe
ted person, and might also injure anyone else close to the person attacked.”

  He place obvious added emphasis on his next words. “A serious injury at this stage of your capture, even if not disabling, is always fatal. I repeat! Always fatal! This is because the Krall never take injured prisoners with them and they never leave anyone alive behind. Prisoners that have an injury that you can’t conceal, or if they can’t move unassisted, are killed. It is vital to avoid injury, and to conceal it if suffered.

  “Speaking to a low rank soldier is probably pointless, and extremely dangerous. You can't reason with them in any way. For one thing, their soldiers on these raids are young novice fighters in training, and do not understand more than a few words of Earth Standard, if any. Even our natural hand and body gestures might seem threatening to them, or seen as a challenge. Don’t dare look them directly in the eyes; that is an invitation to a fight.

  “One or more higher ranking Krall translators go on a raid. They will speak some Standard, and will tell you what they want you to do. They may or may not accept questions. Don't press them too much or defy them, or else they too may kill you without warning. They will permit you slightly more latitude after you have been marked with a sort of oval tattoo, below the throat. This will release that person from instant unrestricted challenges to a fight to the death. This is a cultural thing for them, and there’s no time to explain what this means.

  “I've been permitted to forewarn you, but not out of Krall concern for your well-being. We don't know why yet, but they want a large number of healthy human prisoners. Some of us were able, at great risk, to communicate the idea that obtaining relatively undamaged ships and live prisoners would be more efficient if a warning is sent just prior to the first face-to-face meeting. For this reason, several of my fellow captives and I have been branded as traitors by many of the Ladies that are leaders within the prisoner ranks. Judge us when we meet, if you will, but remember, you have to survive the next few hours to do that.