“Hold it a minute Nan, the Captain and Doctor Martin are almost back, and the last escorts are halfway to the dome. The ramp should shield them all, but I’d rather not take a chance.”
Chack, noting his Captain’s sweat and heavy breathing, simply drove up the ramp when he reached the ship, and stopped next to Noreen.
“Welcome back aboard Sir.” Mirikami merely nodded and made a halfhearted salute.
She shouted to the eight people halfway to the dome. “Dropping the last engine parts, watch out for pieces.” Then, “Link to Willfem,” and barely pausing, “Cut ‘em free Nan, we’re all clear.”
After barely thirty seconds wait, the screech and snapping of metal could be heard and felt as the last three sections of the main engines fell the length of the tubes where they had been mounted. The thuds on the chipped tarmac weren’t as heavy this time because the remaining components were less massive than earlier pieces.
His breathing nowhere close to regular yet, Mirikami felt compelled to congratulate the three crews responsible. He requested a ship wide broadcast through Jake.
“Brave Ladies and Men, I sincerely thank and congratulate you on an extremely tough job very well done. You beat the optimistic schedule we set ourselves. If we are able to save this ship, it will be because of your work and great sacrifice. Mirikami Out.”
Every one of the three teams thought of the terrible sacrifice Bolinda Carter had made for this effort. Her ravaged half-eaten body was still where she had died, with the dead wolfbats nearby.
“The shuttle on its way here is probably Parkoda’s, but we don’t know that. We should learn shortly if our plan to use the ship as a base of operations has worked, or not.”
“Sir,” Jake’s voice spoke, “There are Krall warriors leaving the Clanship but they are not moving towards this ship. The arriving shuttle is apparently landing near the Clanship.”
“I’m not sure I like that,” said a still puffing Mirikami, but spoken softly.
“Why’s that Captain?” Chack, sitting right next to him, was the only one to hear.
“Broadcast to entire ship,” he said, instead of answering Chack directly. “People, I want all of you to get down to the cargo hold immediately. The shuttle landed by the Clanship rather than next to us, leaving it in the clear if they decide to fire on us. We may need to get off in a hurry.”
“Damn, do they even know anyone is still here?” It was Chief Haveram’s voice.
Noreen said, “The Clanship must have seen the engine drop we just did, and the Hauler’s return. They know some of us are aboard.”
“Doesn’t mean they care,” said Dillon. “Perhaps we should send someone over to explain that we have completed Telour’s orders.”
“If Parkoda’s in charge,” said Mirikami, “that wouldn’t help matters. However, perhaps I can play them off against each other. We have to try something, so I’ll go over there.”
Then via transducer he heard, “Sir, Eight warriors are running this way, only one is from the shuttle.”
“Any of them in blue uniforms?”
“No Sir,”
“Then we probably can’t talk to them. I wonder if we should put all our guns in the bag?” Mirikami mused.
“We have novice status like the armed people inside, just different guns. Very useless guns against them anyway.”
“You’re right Dillon. Slip of the brain there. I’m tired.” Mirikami sighed. He finally realized the price he was paying for the three doses of Oxy and Pep pills he had popped this day.
The Krall covered the half mile in well under the time the hauler had taken to cross the three hundred feet from the dome. Four of the warriors leaped into the hold, deflecting in from a single jump onto the center of the ramp. The other four took positions facing out and watching the sky on either side of the ramp at its foot.
The humans stood still, watching the four but avoiding direct eye contact as usual. One especially large warrior, in dark gray, stepped forward and in nearly perfect Standard asked, “Is the human clan leader on the ship?”
Mirikami gathered his draining reserves of energy and boldly walked right up to the warrior, who towered nearly two feet over him. “I am Captain Mirikami, clan leader of the humans from this ship.”
A Krall rarely displayed much of an expression that humans could easily recognize, but this unusually large warrior looked down on the smaller than average human with what could only be described as incredulity.
Mirikami noticed that the tattoo he bore was far more filled with colored markings and dots than had been Parkoda’s. It was nearly three quarters full compared to less than half filled for Parkoda or Telour. He took a stab in the dark guess.
“You are a leader of one of the Great Clans,” he stated.
“I am Gatrol Kanpardi of the Graka clan, yes. Telour told me you were different, and understood us better than most humans. You are a new capture, yet you face me correctly without fear, and you smell as if you have come from combat.”
Well, Mirikami was thinking, I fought gravity all day, so the stink comes honestly.
Another thought was that this was a Krall with two names. Parkoda had bragged that Krall warrior names were earned, and not like those first given to their cubs. Mirikami wondered how many names they could earn.
“You also recognized I have considerable status. I have the highest status for Graka clan in this sector, a rank that humans might call ‘General’ if you still had armies.” It could be Krall bragging, but it seemed more like a simple statement of fact.
“Telour has claimed that he can gain status for himself and for our clan if he is allowed to use you to teach humans on Koban how to fight.”
He looked him over again, leaning from side to side for a slightly different perspective. “You do not look like you could fight a cub.”
“In truth, I am not a great warrior.” No need to try a bluff, or to disguise his intentions. “My role will be to organize my people here to find weapons, strategy, and tactics that will help humans find ways to kill your strong but foolish young warriors.”
A head toss and snort proved he had hit another Krall funny bone. Perhaps I should be a Krall standup comic, he thought sardonically.
“In fact we too want this,” the Krall confirmed, “but after years of watching your worlds in secret, and observing and testing many of you animals here, I found only a few that can fight well, and none ready to do this more than once.”
Mirikami needed to counter this idea of human weakness, “You speak our language very well, better perhaps than Telour, yet your long study of us remains incomplete. You still doubt that humans once fought wars and killed millions of our own people?”
“Captives talk of these wars, but you have no armies now and you have not fought any wars in the lifetime of any I questioned. Some clans think you have lost the instinct to fight, and say we should kill you quickly, or make you our slaves. Your primitive race is able to make many things, but we have makers now of all things we use for war.” This repeated the same story they knew.
“We have not had large wars for three hundred of our years, that is true…,” Mirikami paused. “You have two names, and I do not know the proper way to speak to you. Do I use one name or both?”
“Kanpardi is my first earned warrior name, that is acceptable,” he answered.
“Kanpardi, I participated in multiple small fights in space when I was young, and there have been a number of small battles on rebellious colony worlds in my lifetime. However, my race had a great war that nearly killed all of our males, only two or three of each hundred lived.
“We have avoided new wars that could end our race. Now the number of males has almost returned to what was lost three hundred years ago. My people will relearn the skills of war, if given time to do so.”
After a brief moment of consideration, all the time a Krall ever seemed to spend thinking, Kanpardi had a response that seemed to reconcile Mirikami’s statement with the Krall’s own worldv
iew.
“We have found that the Great Path is slow to make us stronger, so to lose the ability to fight wars should also not happen quickly. Our other enemies took many thousands of your years to forget how to fight. They believed their smart machines could fight for them and protect them, and they all lost to us when we used the same machines with better warriors.
“Your people live long compared to us, and only two of your generations have passed since you last made war. You should lose the love of war more slowly than that. It should still be in your hearts.”
“Does that mean you think we can learn to fight well enough to help you on your Great Path?”
Another brief pause by Kanpardi. A deep thinker for a Krall. “Telour was correct. You say the right things to us. And why would you want to help us reach our goal to rule the galaxy?”
“I don’t want to help you, and my race doesn’t. We would prefer to have peaceful relations. But failing in that, we would rather destroy you totally than to be defeated by you.”
Damn! Another snort. So far that was the only way he had been “killing” them. With laughter.
“We are realistic enough to know our possibility of winning a war with you is very low. Nevertheless, as long as we are alive, and can delay your victory, we can hope for a miracle that can save us. So we will fight you, even if poorly at first.”
Proving he really had studied his enemy, Kanpardi rippled his lips at the corners of his muzzle, as Telour had once done, clearly mimicking a human smile. Then he went farther by stiffly nodding his head in another human gesture.
“I once told Telour when I encountered him as an intelligent young novice that we needed a worthy enemy. We fight with ourselves, and make slow progress on the Path, but we fight in ways we all know. We need an enemy that will fight in ways we do not expect, that will fight smart and unpredictable. Telour thinks you will find a way to prove that this is possible with humans. He may be right.”
“We will prove him right.” Mirikami asserted.
“The watchers on the Clanship expected the small Kobani animals to kill many more of you. The first test of captives on this world is for them to reach the dome as the smallest killers teach you why you cannot escape from this compound.
“When enough died, the waiting warriors were to come to protect you. You had many to cross, but you were prepared to defend yourselves. Your small guns we have seen before, but did not expect them to be useful on even the small animals.
“When you used a fire weapon that you built yourself, it surprised more that the flyers. This helped by making the larger flyers cautious, and they have always been the greatest killer of humans on the first day. You even saved all of your injured, and picked up your dead so the flyers would have nothing to eat later, and they left.
“But remember, before you think to leave the compound to hide. This is a protected place on Koban. There are dangerous animals we do not let interfere with our testing of you.
“You are the only captives that have not received or needed warrior protection in your first test. You did not pass the test with glory because some died or were hurt by the smallest killers of this world. However, you did not fail badly. In addition, the wreckage under the ship proves you completed disabling the engines. That too was observed.” This was as close to a compliment from a Krall that Mirikami had heard.
“Will Parkoda return here?” Mirikami’s hopes hung on the reply. He feared Parkoda’s more influential clan would maliciously thwart Telour’s plans, since the ship was actually his prize,
Kanpardi swung around so swiftly that it startled Mirikami into flinching. He was gliding towards the hatch when he tossed the words back casually.
“Parkoda is the leader of the largest of three new raids. He has already left Koban. I know of your agreement with Telour. He will return with warriors from Graka clan so only we will see what happens here.”
Then he leaped from the ship and began running back to his shuttle, followed by the other warriors.
Mirikami watched them run the entire distance, and had a tired idle thought. I’d pay a hundred Hub credits just to watch a damn Krall simply walk somewhere one time. However, tired or not, he felt satisfaction.
Telour had been given his chance, and humanity had been given theirs.
28. Setting up Shop
There was no need to complete the evacuation with the ship safe for now. When the three teams burst into the cargo hold ready to race off the ship, they found the First Officer hugging the Captain, with Chack and Doctor Martin pounding him joyfully on the back.
As soon as they heard the news, the entire forty of them also got in on the congratulations. Mirikami felt like he was likely to die of celebratory backslapping before the Krall even got their chance at him.
“People, please! I’m too damned exhausted to stand up to your misplaced enthusiasm,” he complained with a smile, as he tried pushing them away.
“Misplaced how Sir?” Noreen unwrapped her arms and backed away. “We kept the ship intact; we have a chance to turn our ideas into action. This work wasn’t for nothing.”
“No, not for nothing,” he said tiredly, “but this was merely an opening move in a very dangerous game we are playing. Regardless of how many ideas we have, whatever tricks we play on them, the Krall warriors are going to kill a lot of us in the process, even if we succeed.”
That sobering thought put a damper on the celebration, but not completely. With the ship as a base for operational planning, they could work on weapons and tactics largely out of view of the enemy. Telour and his clan mates could of course come aboard to see what they were doing anytime, but the novice warriors that would face them in combat would not know what to expect.
“Noreen, you have the ship, I’m going up to my quarters to clean up, eat then sleep. Nan, Roni, Mike; excuse me, I mean Chief,” he grinned. Haveram preferred being called by his rank rather than his first name.
“You and your teams worked spectacularly, and I know you must be more exhausted than I am. Everyone will stay aboard the rest of the day and tonight. Button the Fancy up and leave Jake on watch when you’re ready to sleep. I have found my personal limits for Pep pills, and if you haven’t yet, you will. Good afternoon and goodnight, I’ll see you all in the morning.” He stepped back and proudly saluted his crew and volunteers, then headed for the lift.
They watched the exhausted “Old Man” of the Flight of Fancy walk away, and they worried about him. His mind and will power had been their salvation thus far, and they needed him.
Dillon found himself comparing Mirikami and Maggi to the Krall they had met. Smaller and weaker than average, those two humans had thus far matched up well against their enemy’s thinking. They couldn’t physically fight their way out of the proverbial paper bag compared to any Krall, but had proven more than once that they could out think them.
He had been more impressed with “General” Kanpardi’s intelligence. Like humans, Krall intellect probably varied between individuals, though the physical aspect was more their racial focus than mental ability.
From what Kanpardi had told Mirikami, Telour might be sort of his protégé, because he described meeting him when he was a novice and he considered him intelligent. Parkoda didn’t seem especially bright, but Telour might bear closer watching if he were one of the above average specimens. Smart and ruthless would be a bad combination in a Krall.
Dillon had only taken one dose of the Pep/Oxy combination so far, and that was only when he’d been toting around the flamethrower equipment and the weight of the soft suit. After removing the equipment he had stayed active, but wasn’t tired.
Before settling down for the day, he had some planning to do, and some Links to make. Noreen had followed the rest of the crew up for food and showers, after retracting the big cargo ramp. The normal personnel escalator would be used until the bulk of the passengers returned.
He’d heard a number of them say they might stay in the dome rather than run the gauntlet t
o return. The risks were probably less now, since the other captives said the wolfbats and skeeters were drawn to the noise of loud landings or takeoffs. The Krall shuttles were much quieter, and seldom drew attention.
“Link to Doctor Fisher.”
“Done Sir.”
“Maggi, can you talk?” He heard her shortly, obviously still speaking to Colonel Greeves.
“Thank you for your hospitality and information, but I had better see what my crowd is doing downstairs…,” a pause, then “Certainly. I’ll mention it to Tet first thing tomorrow. Goodbye.”
He waited for her to have time to get clear.
“Hi Dillon, you dear boy,” was the first thing she said. Uh oh, she’s done something I won’t like was his first thought.
“I know Noreen told all of the crew the word about the ship being safe for now, and I assume you were Linked in as well?”
“Yes, that was excellent news. I wish the damned beasts would have made that decision before we lost those good people crossing over.”
“Maggi, you know that was part of their testing of new captives, and an object lesson as well. Staying aboard with everyone was never an option.”
“I know, but now we have to make them walk back. I don’t think all of them will want to leave the security of the dome. Perhaps they will after firearms familiarization tomorrow. Anyone that wants one will get a Krall made pistol scaled to human hands. That helpless feeling outside was unpleasant.”
“Possibly. I didn’t think about that, and I want as big and fast firing a gun as they’ll let me have. As many as Thad carries, or even more!” He chuckled.
“You had better learn how to use one first, hot shot. The only pistol you’ve ever fired is between your legs stud boy,” she cracked.
Now that was more like the “normal” Maggi, he thought.
“The ship is locked up until morning, so you will have to stay over there. How are you feeling? It’s been a long day.”
“For an old Lady you mean?” she asked, in a dangerous tone to Dillon’s ear.
Koban Page 36