Koban

by Stephen W Bennett

  At a height of five or six miles, the ten attitude thrusters took over more of the braking, stabilizing the ship, and allowing the main engines to start to throttle back. Within the last mile, the big ship was only partly held up by its three weakening legs, but had ten strong thruster arms reducing the blast directly below the ship.

  At roughly a thousand feet, the six landing jacks extended accompanied by a delicate shift closer to the dome, and a small rotation to align the cargo hatch correctly.

  The Fancy settled towards the tarmac, the main engines throttling farther down as the attitude thrusters surged to take more of the load. The ship set down lightly, the main engines cutting off a bit earlier than usual, as soon as the first jack touched.

  The side thrusters reduced their lesser roar as the ship settled on the jacks, but were not shut off, as they normally would be. The fuel feed had been cut to all thrusters, but the residue in the lines was still being pumped to the smaller thrusters until each flame flared out, draining the lines of liquid fuel and fumes. This screwed up the fuel pumps and collapsed many of the fuel lines. Just as expected.

  The Flight of Fancy had finished its last flight, and Koban was its final home. The sounds of cooling and creaking joints were the only sounds, for nearly a minute. Then there were distant calls heard, coming from different parts of the sky.

  22. Welcome Party

  Parkoda, without a sound, leaped and disappeared down the stairwell.

  “Humph!” Noreen grunted. “Not much for sentimental goodbyes are they?”

  She shut down a number of systems, but kept the main engine and thruster monitors online, watching for fires or other issues as the engines cooled. Willfem, Jorl’sn, and Haveram had all reported their teams were picking up their tools and cautiously looking inside access panes, checking on heat or toxic fumes.

  Mirikami had Stewards watching every stairwell. They needed the stairs for evacuation, but that wasn’t going to happen until the reckless aliens were off the ship, or at least down in the hold.

  He had a side screen observing the cargo hold, and saw the double hatch sliding open. He could see three blue-suited Krall, which from the back he assumed were the three translators, including Telour, a brown suited K’Tal that was likely the shuttle pilot, and about twelve warrior uniforms. This meant Parkoda had brought more than the one with him that Mirikami had seen on deck 8.

  Then sooner than he had expected Parkoda burst into the hold. The other Krall all stiffened in respect, their fragile looking inner ears blooming like ludicrous little gray flowers on those big reddish reptilian heads.

  Moving in their usual swift and graceful feline-like manner, all of the warriors and two of the translators promptly went to the edge of the deck, each glancing skyward first, and leapt the thirty-four feet to the landing pad, despite a g and a half of gravity. The tarmac was still blistering hot from the landing, and the Krall were sporting bare feet and talons as they normally did. Another demonstration of their toughness, but the cautionary glance to the sky by each was noteworthy.

  Parkoda, followed by Telour and the last two Krall in sight entered the open shuttle hatch, which swung down and closed. In only a few seconds, the craft lifted from the deck several inches, backed straight out of the hold, and as it pivoted sideways, darted out of sight.

  Mirikami selected the full array of external cameras for the main screen, and observed in one of the frames the shuttle lifting away to the southwest. Most of the Krall on the wide tarmac were running towards the Clanship, which Mirikami could see had landed a half mile away, with a clear field of fire at them that would not risk the dome. A blue clad Krall was headed for the dome, passing the nose of the other shuttle. He quickly entered the shadowed interior, where several wheeled and tracked vehicles could be seen parked.

  The fact that they were all running could be the normal gung-ho attitude they demonstrated in anything physical. Mirikami hoped that was the reason.

  Checking the sky images, he didn’t see anything other than very ordinary looking clouds, a deeper blue sky than Earth, but about the same color as on New Honshu and some other worlds with G type stars. He thought he saw a few specks in the distance, but wasn’t sure.

  However, it wasn’t time for sightseeing no matter how curious he was. “I wonder if there are any Krall left aboard.”

  “No Sir, they have departed.”

  “Ship wide broadcast.” Without waiting for a reply he started. “Attention! This is Captain Mirikami. All of the Krall have left the ship, stairways are usable for evacuation, but please watch your footing in this gravity.”

  He glanced at a camera image. “The cargo hold ramp has deployed, and has a non-skid surface with small corrugations that can catch your toes. Tripping would cause a nasty fall on a fairly steep slope. Be extremely careful and watch the sky before you step out, look for native animals, and use any weapons or shields you could find for protection if attacked.

  “Hurry at your best pace to the dome. The opening is perhaps three hundred feet straight out from the ramp, with a deep recessed area for cover. A Krall shuttle is parked partly in front of that opening. One of our two cargo haulers is at the bottom of the ramp with a wide pallet in case anyone falls or is injured and needs to be carried. The other hauler has a pallet as well, but it went to the dome, to ensure we have access as we were told. It will return to the ship. Your Stewards will be with you as escorts along the short distance you need to travel. Good luck.”

  He had debated on what to say, and decided his warnings were redundant, because they should have already been spoken by the Stewards. He had other things that needed doing, and they were now sitting at the top of a permanently grounded ship.

  “Noreen, let’s go down to the cargo hold to watch the evacuation, and see who Dillon found for his toys. I hope we don’t need them. Was Mister Walters standing by with our bag of goodies?”

  “He is Sir, and the hauler drivers each have a different type. From the protection of those cages we can find out if they work or not if anything comes after them right away.”

  “Ok. As soon as a lift empties, we’ll call it and ride down.”

  Using a lower priority code, they called a lift as one emptied, and selected the cargo deck when it opened.

  “Link me and Noreen to Chief Haveram, Ms. Willfem and Ms. Jorl’sn.”

  “Done Sir.”

  “People, Commander Renaldo and I are descending to the cargo hold to monitor the evacuation. Ms. Willfem, any problems to report from your team?”

  They heard a grunt, then “No Sir, but it’s going to be damn hot work, even with the suits. Pulling things apart with brute force will be tough in this gravity, but we are on schedule. The Chief already hit a snag though.”

  “Chief?” Mirikami inquired, knowing the four-way let them all hear one another.

  Haveram was breathing heavy as well. “One of the collapsed fuel lines ruptured at a coupling before it was pumped dry, spraying the upper engine compartment. We can’t light a torch or risk a sawing spark until we blow the fumes out. The only airflow path is out the bottom. I have blowers running, but the fumes also pass through the lower work areas. We’re opening compartments and panels at the top to get a side air path out of the ship. That’s close to done, and the portable blowers will send the gases that way.”

  “You need more help?”

  “No Sir, more time. My people that can’t cut on the engine are helping to open the side panels. We already cut the hull open, and will start blowing that way in a few minutes.”

  “OK, I’ll check back. Ms. Jorl’sn?”

  “Making good progress Sir. Dropping small parts out our bottom like crazy.”

  “OK. Mirikami Out.”

  The lift opened on the backs of a crowd of chattering and excited sounding people. They heard Maggi’s surprisingly strong voice over the hubbub.

  “Go through the inner hatches single file, and then link hands with other people to make six single file chains, not a li
ne across! Then walk with your chain to the ramp and support each other as you walk carefully down. Don’t try the horizontal line of six. If one person falls, they can take the whole damned line with them. We don’t need any more broken bones.”

  Oh, Oh, Mirikami thought. My initial idea must not have worked very well. Hope Maggi didn’t break any of my Steward’s bones just to make them change my instructions.

  “Make way,” he shouted,” Captain coming through.” The people near him promptly turned around, recognized him and squeezed aside to give him and Noreen room to pass.

  As they stepped through the hatch nearest the lifts, they saw Maggi, Aldry, Cahill, and three other Board members near the top of the ramp. They were organizing chains of people to walk down single file. If anyone slipped, the person behind could help hold them up.

  Mirikami was too short to see over the heads of people. “Noreen, you giant, can you see Mister Walters or any Steward over by the ramp?”

  “Got Walters, Sir. Left side of the main hatch.” She pointed.

  “Good, stop to thank Maggi and her folks for having the good sense to change a bad plan. Then join me with Walters.”

  They each excused themselves as they cut through the lines of people making their way to the head of the ramp.

  When Walters spotted him coming, he smiled and held up the bag shaking it, showing it was obviously lighter now.

  “Good to see you Sir. I suppose you heard we hit a snag on the fourth line of people to go down. A lady wearing heels tripped and pulled the two on each side down the ramp with her.” He talked in an excited rush, out of character from his usual unflappable nature.

  “Actually Nory, I didn’t hear, but it appears a better way was thought of. Was anyone hurt? Where are our people we were going to have on the top of the ramp?” he asked.

  “When Doctor Fisher arrived, just after the accident, she…,er, sort of took over, and her folks listened to her. She had a pretty good idea, so we changed your plan. Sir.” The added ‘Sir’ sounded like a sheepish sort of apology.

  “Nory, staying with a bad idea would be stupid. Moreover, her folks are doing fine. But where are our guys?”

  He partly answered his own question by simply looking out the open main hatch. Branson and Rigson were bending over the pallet the hauler had on its front fork, tending to three people lying there.

  “We had just started the evacuation when the fall happened, Captain. The screams brought the first people already down back to the ramp to help, despite our insistence they keep going.”

  “How bad are those three hurt?”

  “Scrapes and bruises for two, but the lady in the red dress probably broke her kneecap when she fell. She wouldn’t take off her medium heels because she heard the first ones down say that the ground was pretty hot.”

  Mirikami saw that there were about fifty people now walking steadily away from the ship in a ragged line, with several Stewards along their length. One more Steward was at the bottom of the ramp directing people to keep moving. The air was sweet smelling, mixed with the scorched scent of their landing. The temperature was very warm, and the air heavy and humid. The sun, almost overhead, broke through puffy white clouds. It was a beautiful day on Koban.

  “Heard from Chack Nauguza?” he asked Walters. That was the driver of the second hauler, and he should have gone directly to the dome. In hindsight, again Mirikami thought, he could have carried some passengers on his own pallet to save them the walk in heat and high gravity.

  “Yes Sir, he reported back by transducer a few minutes ago. Under the overhang of that big parking area are eight doorways, four are almost wide enough for three people to pass at once, and four with what seems to be retractable doors must be for large vehicles to pass through. All were closed, and he said there was some sort of control panel at each, and with mechanical looking latches. There was a Krall looking out a window. Chack got one of the smaller doors to open, and went inside. That was two minutes ago.”

  “Link me to Chack Nauguza,”

  “Done Sir.”

  “Chack, how are you doing? Anybody home inside?”

  “Yes Sir. A Krall was looking out a window in one of the large doors when I drove up. A warrior class in black and he didn’t approach me. He’s still looking out the window at the ship. I made sure my tattoo was showing for that guy before I tried to get inside. I had to remove my helmet and open the suit top for that, but I’ll button up when I get back to the hauler.”

  “Smart precaution,” Mirikami complemented. “We don’t know what he was told about the new arrivals. What do you see inside?”

  “There seems to be a large maintenance area in here, probably for the trucks parked under the overhang. There were no humans to see at first, but two have peeked in from windows along a back wall. They dashed off as soon as they saw me.”

  “Do you think you can open the other doors, at least the smaller ones like you went through, and leave them open for our people? Let’s get our folks inside and worry about hellos later.”

  “I left the door in the middle wide open, and I’ll do the same for the other small ones if that Krall lets me. The doors look like they can be electronically locked, but mine had a simple manual lever and latch system that worked smoothly.”

  “If you can get the small doors open, we probably won’t need the big vehicle doors. As soon as you have them open go back to cover the evacuation line. Ricco will be bringing a few injured people on his pallet.”

  “Mister Walters told me. I just unlatched a second door and swung it open. I’ll have to go past the Krall to do the others, so I prefer to walk along the outside to get to them Sir.”

  “Fine,” he appreciated his caution. “Call Mister Walters if you have a problem or if any human shows up to talk to you before you start back. Mirikami Out.”

  So far, it looked like Telour’s prediction was accurate. Their noisy landing had to have been heard, and yet there was no human present to welcome them or to offer help. Just a curious Krall watching animals.

  His thoughts were disrupted when a shout, followed by a scream of pain sounded from out on the tarmac. There were other warning cries from the bottom of the ramp.

  As Mirikami looked out, there were people pointing up in several different directions, and a man in the vanguard of the evacuees was down on the ground writhing in pain about halfway to the dome. A Steward was headed for him from about fifty feet away, but he was also looking up at the sky, his hand shading his eyes from the bright afternoon sun.

  Noreen had joined Mirikami, and she had seen something, grabbed his arm, and pointed at a spot in the sky. He saw several gray and blurry looking objects rapidly shifting position in darting motions. Up down and to the sides, visually hard to make out.

  Then he finally realized the blur was their wings, and the bodies looked long and slender, like an Earth dragonfly or a dartfly from New Honshu. He thought they were close because they looked small, but then they all flashed down towards the injured man. That’s when he realized they had actually been over the dome and must be at least two feet long.

  The three landed on the back of the now weakly moving man, and each stabbed out with a black proboscis five or six inches long. The man jerked, but made no sound. The three people nearest the man were making ridiculous shooing motions at the insects, but stayed ten feet from them. The bugs ignored them.

  About then several more of the insects swooped in from the side of the line of people on the tarmac. They made a low pass over the shouting and screaming people, but many of them had things to swing at them.

  They each curled their long tails forward under their bodies as they swooped, deftly dodging the swats made at them. They were apparently trying to sting anyone they could reach in passing. They were all lightning fast they passed over and weaved through the group. An umbrella suddenly popped open as it looked like one was about to strike a woman holding only a short table knife. That insect instantly darted straight up and away in a blur, apparen
tly startled by the object that had suddenly grown large in its path.

  One of the other two insects managed to strike the arm of a man close to the woman that had popped open the umbrella. He dropped his hammer and clutched his bicep bellowing in pain as he dropped to his knees.

  Mirikami heard Aldry shout that these were the scorpion skeeters. He had learned their sting was reported to be temporarily paralyzing to a human, and caused excruciating pain. They sucked blood from their prey, and if there were a lot of them present and you had no help, you died. Multiple stings could kill too, if your respiratory system shut down.

  A second two insects from another direction came in low towards the crouching people. Many of the terrified people were trying to look everywhere at once, and a lone man was standing with a walking stick raised, but with his back to the oncoming insects.

  They both had their tails curled forward, only ten feet from a double strike, when suddenly there was a buzzing sound, and one dropped instantly to the tarmac amid several panicked people. The other turned aside, in an erratic path, but disappeared around the curve of the ship’s hull. Several people stomped and swatted at the still form of the one on the ground.

  Alfon Hanson was holding a small black Jazzer that he had just used to good effect. There were cheers from those he saved.

  Another buzz was heard farther away, near the man with three of the bloodsuckers on his back. Steward Javier Vazquez had reached the now motionless first victim. He too had a small black Jazzer in his hand, and all three insects had collapsed on the man’s back. He tore them off and threw them down with disgust, stomping on them. Blood splattered from their bodies as he crushed them. They had only been on him perhaps ten seconds.

  Walters shouted out, “Jazzers out, they work!” Rigson pulled another of the short range little nerve scramblers from under his uniform tunic, as did Walters himself. The hauler driver, Ricco, had one as well. There were eight in all.

  Another skeeter dived towards an isolated woman, and a Jazzer buzzed from a Steward. The insect was too far away at twenty feet to be dropped, but it turned aside with less speed than it had started its dive.