“Or say something like, ‘Well I can ask about that later’ if you want the feed to stop. You won’t hurt his feelings.” Rigson was grinning again as Dillon blushed at having the obvious explained.
Maggi, who had just abruptly cut off Jake’s independent briefing on her own com protocols, said, “Are you finished looking dumbfounded Dillon? I know you had an ear bud phone you constantly used to woo admiring young Ladies at University. It isn’t as if you were raised on a Rim world using drums to communicate.”
“I know, I know,” he answered defensively, flushing. “But I wasn’t trying to hide those calls.” He smiled down at the feisty little tyrant.
“You should have,” she rebutted. “I overheard enough of that seductive old fashioned tripe you fed them. You were supposed to let them take the lead and proposition you first, as any well-bred respectable young woman is expected to do.” She grinned back for a moment, and then grew serious.
“I think the Krall are going to force another reversal in culture on us. Men are more naturally aggressive, and obviously stronger than are most women, so they will have to do more of the fighting and dying. I don’t think a lot of our pampered males will be all that grateful for their increased leadership roles, not if it means putting a gun in their hand and facing the Krall."
“Let me test my connection and question asking,” Dillon offered, like a big kid. “All of us in this room would like to know what the current oxygen and gravity levels are on the ship at the moment, approximately only, and when they will stabilize at their final settings.”
Everyone heard as Jake informed them “Oxygen content is at twenty four percent, increasing two percent every four hours, and gravity is at 1.22 of Earth standard, and increasing by a tenth of a g every four hours. Oxygen will stabilize at thirty one percent in about twelve hours, gravity at 1.5 times Earth Standard in about eleven hours, which corresponds to an estimate of conditions on Koban.”
“I knew I was feeling heavier, and not just from my big lunch,” Dillon joked.
Maggi, never one to miss an opportunity said, “I’m sure it’s just your swelled head now that you are on the Board. Nevertheless, in those tight suits you like to wear you’d better watch out for a potbelly dear. I’d hate to see you lose sight of that impressive package you’re so proud of.” Maggi patted him on the aforementioned item, provoking laughs from the others, and another flushed face from Dillon.
“Now his face matches the accent color,” Rigson added, referring to the fashionable hand shaped deep pink passion patch, located at the crotch of his light gray dressy body suit. More laughs.
Crap! Dillon thought. I need to switch to my plain work suits, or find new friends.
Anderfem interrupted the fun at Dillon’s expense. “Gentle People, Captain Mirikami is holding down the fort in the conference room, keeping our nosey Krall leader occupied while we get equipped to be sneaky. Shouldn’t we go join in the charade?”
“Aldry, Gracious Lady, please lead the way to the show,” Dillon answered, with a flourish of his arm, determined to hide his embarrassment. “Let us go publicly gather the Intel we are expected to get, while we secretly plan out how we will use it.”
The four of them left the dispensary for the conference room, a short distance away. When they stepped through the doorway, they saw that it was nearly full, the chairs folded into the floor, and that tables now extruded from the walls, holding snacks and refreshments. Both passengers and members of the crew mingled, sharing stories they had gleaned from asking the Krall translators about their history.
Dillon promptly heard Jake’s voice, warning him that Parkoda was monitoring the meeting from the bridge, with audio and video. He could tell from his companion’s brief pause as they entered that they had received the same information.
Mirikami, expecting them, motioned them to stop where they were, and came over to greet them at the doorway, accompanied by Noreen. “I’ve been collecting a lot of the details our people have garnered from their questions over the last day and a half. I assume you are equipped to process these and think on them as we go?” The emphasis he place on “equipped” was obvious.
They all nodded, and Rigson said “Yes, Sir. I think we have the best people present, and well equipped to consider whatever information everyone has gathered.”
“Excellent, Mister Rigson.” He spoke overly loud, for Telour’s benefit. “Noreen and I will brief these Board Members on a summary of what I’ve heard so far, if you would be so good as to take charge and collect the people that have yet to pass on their information on the other side of the room. I’m sure you can arrange to pass along any vital new information if encountered.” He was trying to create a bit of separation from the rest of the grouping.
“Yes Sir.” Rigson turned to face the rest of the room and in a loud voice called for the people who still had information to share to meet with him at a podium on the other side of the room.
As he proceeded to the opposite side, a couple of dozen people headed the same way. The Captain added in a loud voice, “For those of you who have already given me, Commander Renaldo, or any of the Board Members the information you collected from your questions of the Krall, please discuss and share it among yourselves while I brief our late arrivals. Think of ways to organize ourselves to fight the Krall warriors.”
This reminder of the purpose of the gathering drew frightened looks on the faces of some, and grim determination on others. There would be some useful ideas from them, for sure, but the main purpose was to keep the room full of noisy discussion while the primary decision makers were able to talk in semi isolation, yet in plain sight.
Bulling her way through the throng, using her bulky body to force her way, Ana Cahill was making beeline towards them, determined to be part of the circle of power that she could clearly see forming near the room’s entrance. As soon as she reached them, she tried to assert herself in her usual forceful manner.
“Captain, I have been gathering the information you need all day, even before this meeting convened, which started over an hour ago I might add.” She shot a withering glance at Fisher, the Board Chairfem. The implication was clear that while some Board members were late arrivals, she was focused on the task at hand, well ahead of the game.
“I’m sure I can brief them on everything they missed by being tardy, releasing you for more important duties.” She thought she would like nothing more than to force Fisher and her two new groupies on the Board to have to stand and listen to her talk. She thought wrong.
Quickly, before Fisher could begin what would surely be a blistering reply, which might draw other Board members and unwanted attention, Mirikami boomed out an uncharacteristically loud and enthusiastic welcome.
“Doctor Cahill, I’m so happy to find you, just the Great Lady I was about to seek. There actually are vital things that need doing right now, which call for the organizational and social expertise of an experienced and accomplished Lady such as you. These are poorly suited talents for males such as me, a ship’s Captain yet only a Spacer by training. I know space craft operation and navigation, while you know people management, something we need right now.” She faltered, her mouth open, yet glowing in the unexpected praise.
Mirikami, still beaming a big smile towards Cahill, noticed with amusement that the Chairfem was caught with her mouth also open, her still formulating retort frozen on her tongue for the moment, as she looked dumbfounded at the Captain.
Grasping that delightful moment, Mirikami continued. “Doctor Cahill, while I perform the lessor task of briefing your fellow Board members on mere details you clearly have already grasped, I would like you to organize the people that are not with Mister Rigson, and gather them into the center of the room to form committees. You should explore various proposals to defend ourselves from, and to fight against the Krall warriors. We can always alter the committees later, once we know what ideas we have available to consider. I think this is a vital step for humanity’s effort to resist t
he Krall, early organization, a task which you are uniquely well suited to manage, don’t you think?”
As he expected, the flattery and seemingly important task was exactly the bait needed to hook her.
“Why thank you Captain. I will proudly step forward to do my part to help the human race take its historic first steps to oppose this horrible invasion. Do you have any committee names and members in mind?”
“Not at this time Doctor Cahill, but I’m sure there are a few people present with some military background that you can consult, some of my crew certainly, and you can use anyone’s input to devise exploratory committees. This is an area where I know you will excel. I’ll leave the first steps entirely to your discretion, so please start as soon as you can, while I brief our late arrivals.”
“You can count on me Captain.” As she turned away, a second withering look raked over the other three Board members, with a final smirk reserved in particular for Fisher. Raising her voice, she began calling the milling people to meet her in the center of the room, the force of rightful authority driving her once again.
In an undertone only the group of five by the door could hear, Fisher rendered her opinion.
“Captain, I’m damned delighted I didn’t have to fight someone like you for the Chair position on the Midwife Project. That was frigging brilliant!”
“I have my moments,” and he chuckled with the group, before looking to his First Officer.
“Noreen, since we are all directly under the overhead camera where I wanted us…, please don’t anyone look up to check,” he added hastily. “Will you tell them what has been arranged with our quiet friend?”
“Yes Sir. The cameras in this room have a switchable lens system, and the only one in use now is over our heads, using a sort of fisheye type lens that catches all of the room in a single view. However, there is distortion particularly at the viewing edges like where we are standing, because it is aimed at the center of the room and not down at us. We can be seen but only in a stretched sort of way at the rim, a highly distorted image but we are obviously inside the room.”
“Uh...,” Aldry began uncertainly, “we can still be heard by audio pickups Commander, right?” She wasn’t sure this was a safe question.
“Please, call me Noreen within our friendly group here, and no, we can’t be heard in isolation. The only mike pickup active is the one on the podium near where Mister Rigson is standing, and the mike overhead is off. I have manually confirmed that. Our friend will tell us if that changes.” As was their new custom, an unnamed friend was obviously Jake.
She continued. “Because the camera fisheye view is basically from the tops of our heads, our lip movements are not visible, and can’t be correlated with what we are saying, or even show if we are talking at all. The Captain had originally intended only to have Mister Rigson gather the information Telour expects us to gather, standing closest to the open mike. Now, in the center of the room is Lady Cahill, loudly organizing another impromptu aspect of our so-called ‘secret’ resistance plan Telour has ordered us to produce. I am confident that where we are standing is out of mike range, and covered by the background noise in any event.
“We know the Krall have much more sensitive hearing than we do, and over a much wider range. To counter this, our friend has modified ship mike sensitivity to enhance the upper ranges he is able to record, confirming they use audio ranges well above what humans can hear when they deploy those folding ear arrays. He can also adjust sensitivity to remove some frequencies or introduce distortion. He will do that for us if necessary, to cover our discussions where we are standing. We don’t know what the Krall are saying yet, of course, but a rudimentary translation table is under construction.”
Dillon asked, “You mean that so long as we stay below the camera, speak normally without looking up, Telour can’t hear what we say or even know for sure if we are talking?”
“That’s correct,” Noreen replied, and looked at the Captain, to indicate her explanation had concluded.
Mirikami started his briefing. “I’ve gathered a lot of the information from crew and passengers first hand, had some of it relayed to me from overheard exchanges during the day, and unlike our friend, I can discriminate between trivia and what I believe is important. I think I can provide a reasonable summary. Because I don’t know exactly how long we will have, please try to hold your comments and questions for now.” Then he simply dove into the story.
“The Krall have been in space an astonishing twenty five thousand Earth years. They overthrew and wiped out their early benefactors, the Olt’kitapi, within roughly two thousand years of that first contact. Krall records from that era were lost since their home world was destroyed in the revolt.
“The Olt’kitapi themselves had been spacefaring for at least twice that length of time before encountering the Krall. They are, or rather they were the most technologically advanced race the Krall have met so far. However, they obviously were also far too trusting and benevolent.
“The majority of the technologies we have seen the Krall use apparently derive from that race and little seems to have been independently developed or improved on by the Krall themselves.
“The space settled by the Olt’kitapi is now Krall controlled, and is about four thousand light years across and a thousand thick. This is over twenty times the volume we have explored!”
“My God, that large?” Aldry gasped. “But why only a thousand thick and not a four thousand light year sphere?” she asked.
“That’s because the galactic disk is roughly one thousand light years thick. They wouldn’t have been able to expand above or below the disk. We have yet to reach that limit.”
“But still, that much volume was added to what the Krall already had?”
“I doubt that it was added to what they already had. The Krall don’t appear to know much about what they were doing before the Olt’kitapi came. The earliest history they speak of came from oral stories passed down, that were recorded only after first contact. I don’t think they had even progressed off their planet of origin. That might explain why it took them so long to become inserted into a peaceful Olt’kitapi society, learning what they needed to know in order to take over.”
“In any case…” he paused. “Where did I leave off?” He tilted his head as Jake’s voice reminded him, and Aldry apologized for the interruption, promising to hold her questions. He picked up the narrative.
“It does get worse. They have increased that original volume in subsequent wars with other races. Except that they seem to live on and use only a fraction of habitable planets that humans find acceptable.
“Of the sixteen races they say they conquered after the Olt’kitapi, only two had apparently colonized as far from their origin as humanity has, yet both were spacefaring for thousands of years longer than we have been. They say a third much less expansive race had a civilization even older than the Olt’kitapi’s, but it also fell easily.
“Figuring out how much space the Krall actually control will be hard, because our friend suggests a number of these lost races were possibly included within the sphere of influence of the Olt’kitapi. Some were friendly with the Olt’kitapi, and were probably neighbors that were conquered by the Krall as they consolidated their hold.
“The total volume is complicated because the Krall shifted direction to grab whatever space any new race they found occupied. It would probably be lumpy looking if we could see it on a galactic map of the Orion Spur. An interesting trivial fact I learned from our friend is that an early space telescope, named after Johnannes Kepler, did a planet search in the Krall’s general direction.
“We presently are hundreds of light years off to the side of that old search area, towards the gap by the Sagittarius Arm and the much more distant core. Newborn was fairly close to an area where one of the now extinct races lived thousands of years ago. That side of our Rim world settlements would have expanded to touch on that space eventually, in a hundred years or so, so
we were destined to meet.
“It doesn’t sound like the Krall do any serious exploring and expansion of their own volition; it’s more driven by their predatory instincts when they detect fresh prey in new territory.
“They don’t even use all of the subjugated planets, partly because the majority of habitable rocky worlds have lower gravity than the Krall like. They simply depopulate worlds they don’t need and move on.
“Individually, a few races made specific scientific advances that were new to the Krall, and which even the Olt’kitapi had not surpassed or discovered. Nevertheless, collectively none of their opponents was as advanced as the original contact race. The Krall take the better parts of the technology of defeated races, provided it has a military use.
“They employ part of two surviving populations, the Torki and the Prada, as slave labor to supply individual Krall clans with replacement war material, or to grow food or build domes. They did not care to describe them for us.
“A third surviving race is called the Raspani, and were defeated many thousands of years ago. They had been peaceful space faring herbivores with only a few dozen colonized worlds, occupying a relatively small volume of space. Their description sounds like a cross between a centaur and a hippo.
“That they described them at all was unique, since they didn’t do so for any other race. However, that race still survives because they taste extremely good to our big red devils. They are described as meat animals, raised on many of their worlds in herds. Part of the food stores they brought aboard are from that source, and herds are grazing now in a protected compound on Koban.
“There has been no experience with a ‘feral’ alien species for many generations of Krall. They don’t yet appreciate how tricky and deceitful humans can be. I think they are out of practice dealing with aliens, and will have to check their historical records.
“The Krall all seem surprised at how backward we are in technology, yet we have managed to settle many hundreds of star systems within a radius of about five hundred light years of our home planet. This is apparently a lot higher colony density than any of the other races achieved, in a smaller radius. It suggests to me that humans are perhaps more adaptable that the other prey races the Krall met.
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