“You ask questions that have only one answer from me. If they retained their intelligence, they would protect themselves. Say what you really mean.”
“Will the Prada build the fences, and help protect that elder species if we bring them here, and try to restore their intelligence?”
“You Kobani want to give up the responsibility for protecting them?”
He’s becoming a perceptive little devil, she thought.
“We do not have the materials to make a fence large enough, and we believe the other people here should share the responsibility to help this unfortunate elder species.”
“Diplomat Maggi, you have a way to identify what motivates those you negotiate with, and make them do what their beliefs require them to do, as you intended.”
“If that means you will help, then I was a successful diplomat and negotiator.”
“The people of this village will help. However, you told me that there were several thousand Raspani. That will require a great deal of open land for them to browse, and the other two Prada villages should accept part of the work and responsibility. I believe even the Torki would wish to contribute in some way, but not in the same manner as your people and mine do. They do not have open land suitable for Raspani, and building a fence is not the best skill they could offer.”
“What skills can they offer?”
“You were trying to teach them, and wanted to awaken their minds. We were told by the Torki that the Raspani deliberately submerged their minds. If they know this much, they may know how that was done, and how to reverse the process. The Torki may be better teachers than your people.”
“How will I make contact with your other two villages, and with the Torki? I don’t want the next village elder to send his dogs after me. If I’m forced to kill them, I may have a problem becoming friends with them.” She smiled, trying to keep her teeth less exposed. Flashing your teeth was a Prada gesture of anger, since they showed their sharp little teeth when mad. The blunt teeth of humans were less threatening, but it was the gesture that was significant, not the potential bite.
“If you will provide transportation in a shuttle, I will send representatives to the other two villages, to explain who you are, and what we must do for the Raspani. After the way is prepared, you or another of your people can meet with them. I will go with you to meet the Torki at the one place I know they used to live, on the western shore of this land. They will not be very far from there, even if they have moved in the orbits that have passed. They do not regulate their population as we do, and move to avoid late arriving young. The young that the sea creatures did not consume.”
“They expand their population indefinitely?”
“No. They eat many of their young when they return home too early from the sea to molt on land. The adolescents return to the waters where the millions of eggs were released. If they are late to return to the birth beach, after many molts elsewhere, they appear too much like a mature Torki to eat. However, they will never develop the intelligent mind of an adult. Therefore they move their tunnels and caves to avoid that problem.”
“Uh…, OK.” There wasn’t much to say to that.
****
When Maggi parked at the base of the Beagle, Marlyn was waiting to meet her, as Kobalt ran to her to deliver a wet raspy-tongued lick, and a brief frill. “I heard what was said. Were Wister’s thoughts as sincere as he sounded? Will they help watch after the Raspani?”
“Yes. It is an obligation they will meet, partially as a form of retribution for past neglect of a species they have known was senior to theirs. I believe Wister was concealing thoughts he has privately held that the Krall have been ‘less than moral’ in dealings with older species.”
“Gee. Do you think so?” Marlyn responded sarcastically.
“I don’t know how the extreme youthfulness of humanity will play out with the Prada in general. They don’t exactly have ancestor worship, since some of those ‘ancestors’ have avoided accidents and still live with them, like Wister and his older sister, Nawella. But they took the pragmatic view that it was necessary to accept the rule of the Krall because they couldn’t stop them, and the Krall apparently are an older species.”
“I don’t know about you, but human history seems pretty long to me. I’ve read about the fossils that link us back a few million years.”
“Fossil lineage isn’t the measure used for a species maturity, at least not by the Prada, and it appears not by the Torki either, if Wister described their viewpoint accurately. The birth of a mature species seems to be when they achieve space flight, and start to leave their home system. I frankly don’t think I was believed, when I said we launched our first humans into low orbits just barely six hundred years ago, yet we have settled on more than seven hundred planets, in a slightly flattened sphere within a nearly five hundred light-years radius of our birth world, and extensively explored another twenty beyond that.”
“What’s so odd about that? That is far less volume than the older species we’ve heard about has controlled. The Olt’kitapi supposedly had colonized ten times that much in radius, except along the Galactic north-south axis, because of the thinness of the disk. The Raspani held sway over a small volume of space for an advanced species, assuming the Krall translators were accurate on the Flight of Fancy recordings I have heard. They settled only a four hands of worlds, it sounded like. That’s only sixteen worlds.”
“Apparently it isn’t the territory you own that measures your maturity, it’s how long you have owned it, or have been colonizing other stars. The Raspani were originally pastoral in nature, not much different than they are forced to live now. They were thinkers and philosophers, and had no drive to expand or overpopulate. Until the Olt’kitapi helped them advance farther, they were only in two star systems. That expanded to about sixteen before the Krall came along. Even if they were slow to expand, they gained maturity ‘credits,’ which I suppose is a term we could use. I can’t find out exactly how long the Raspani took to get that far, because the Prada themselves don’t know. They suspect it was even longer than they took.” Maggi raised her eyebrows, as if to say you won’t believe this.
“How long was it for the Prada?”
“All they have remaining is anecdotal evidence, since they don’t even know where their home world is any longer. Not since the Krall took them along for the conquering ride. They believe they had been in space perhaps seventy thousand ‘orbits’ of their forgotten home world. The length of time for that mythical orbit is no longer remembered. They suspect they lived in a close planet to a red dwarf star, because of their dim light adapted yellow eyes, and liking for the nighttime. A cooler star with a closer orbit could make for a much shorter year than we measure for Earth. Haven’s gravity is a bit higher than their preference, so that fits with most habitable red dwarf rocky worlds being smaller. The Prada were once sociable with other races. Those races are gone now so they have no other reference.”
“Still, seventy thousand orbits of any star is a long time. Even with a six-month orbit measured in human terms, they have to be very old. How large a volume had they colonized? There are more red dwarf stars with small worlds than there are larger Suns and Earth-like worlds.”
“The Prada did not, and still do not, crave territory, or desire large populations, and defer to the senior members of their society. Their natural predilections play right into Krall hands. We know that the Krall have only been in space for perhaps twenty-five thousand years, and were probably still on their home world when the Olt’kitapi discovered them as barbarians. I have no doubt the race that turned these pricks loose on the galaxy were far older and ‘wiser,’ and yet were taken down.”
“OK, how are the Torki for maturity, in Prada eyes?”
“Brilliant adolescents. If they are speaking without bias for these crabs, the Torki were star traveling for four thousand years when the Krall ran them over, six or seven thousand years ago, making them perhaps eleven thousand years old as
space travelers. They chose mostly watery worlds with ample seashores. They traveled in giant ships, built to accommodate their larger bodies with simulated internal seaside environments. This means a lot of weight and fewer ships, and less flexibility for exploration. They apparently had a six hundred light-year sphere of colonization, with only twenty water worlds. The Prada consider them galactic whiz kids.”
“What the hell do they think of us then?”
“You see the pattern, I think. We have done more, and considerably faster than these other species. Humans don’t pass up very many worlds, and we are driven to explore and settle. At least until an aberration three hundred years ago, when we almost eradicated ourselves, we have always been highly combative.
“Wister doesn’t seem able to accept our own history time line. It simply doesn’t fit the Prada view that intelligent species develop very slowly and spread gradually, becoming gentler and wiser as they mature over a long period of gradual expansion.”
“He thinks the Krall have become more mature and gentle?” Marlyn’s voice held a sour note.
“In Prada eyes they ‘must’ be older because they have been able to rule all others, and their motives are apparently too ‘advanced’ for younger species to understand. It’s rather as if their power makes them ‘right’ sort of thinking. They think only a senior race could accomplish what the Krall have done. It’s an odd blind spot in their philosophy of following the oldest and wisest leaders, which I think they unconsciously accept for the Krall, because there is no other option anyway.”
Marlyn expressed bewilderment. “Damn, I never anticipated a hard sell being needed to convince the slave races to get free of the Krall.”
“I hope it won’t be as difficult to gain cooperation from the Torki. Wister has agreed to help us look for their settlement tomorrow, if you can get away to fly the shuttle.”
“Sure, I can leave Francis in charge here. I’ll bring Bradley and Hakeem. Do you expect to make contact right away if we find them?”
“I’d like to, but I’ll let Wister guide me in that respect, since he has met them before. Apparently, the Torki don’t exactly have a leader as such, and rule themselves by consensus of the population. That’s what I gathered from Wister’s description. I don’t know how they can reach any kind of an agreement quickly, unless their population is held down to the same level as the Prada are. We may have to wait awhile for their decisions if they are spread out.”
****
Wister was curious about the human made shuttle. He had seen non-Krall craft previously, but had never been inside one. He immediately appreciated the passenger windows, because Krall shuttles didn’t have them, and the warriors themselves apparently lacked curiosity in the view, unless they could kill something they saw.
Maggi sat with him as they circled over his home forest once, then flew west at a suborbital altitude to quickly reach the coastline, a distance of over two thousand miles. Shuttle fuel was no longer an issue, with production in full gear on Koban, so they boosted high and fast.
Wister directed them to a large bay where he said the Torki had previously lived. There were numerous openings in the sides of cliffs facing the bay, but no signs of habitation or large crab tracks. Based on current flow along the coast, Wister suggested they fly farther north, where late arriving younglings instinctively returning here would not have drifted. He pointed out crab tracks in the sand from about a hundred feet up, but said these were too small to be adult Torki.
Wister commented, “The Torkada here will be pre-adolescent younglings, with brains too enlarged to become intelligent adult Torki.” He didn’t explain how a brain “too large” could be a handicap to intelligence.
“The younglings at this stage of development are called Torkada. They look similar to the adults, yet are half their size. They never properly mature, and live shortened lives, subject to being eaten by anything that can catch and kill a crab that large. They are less intelligent that a marsh dog,” he told them.
Maggi asked him, “They don’t seem to be very nurturing to their young. Prada and humans take care of their young from birth, and start to teach them at an early age. The Torki act…, uncaring.” She almost said like the Krall, because they too didn’t care for their hatchlings, until after they survived on their own to age five or six-years-old, and were ready to begin novice training.
Wister explained what he had observed. “Their early forms are so different in shape that the adults readily eat them if encountered on the beach or in the sea. It isn’t as if they are unaware of what they are, but they also consume their own dead if the corpse is discovered fresh. They have a compulsion to not waste protein and sustenance in their makeup. However, they are rigid in the belief that to kill one of their own mature members for food is a crime, and they would starve before doing so. It is the similarity of the Torkada to the adult Torki, which places them off limits.
“They will allow them to exist, and die by natural predation, but they will not kill them themselves. Simply moving away is easier when too many of them have arrived. The Torkada are tolerated for a time living near the adults, but at some point, the adults move and leave the mindless ones behind to fend for themselves. The immature ones can even reproduce, but the offspring never develop into Torki, and they keep returning to the beach of their spawning.
“Even a couple of molts earlier, before the young take on the general body shape of adults, they are acceptable as food. It is apparently the first molt to their adult form, before the purple body and amber legs appear after the next two molts, that is the only time they are welcomed home from the years spent at sea, growing. Too early or too late, either is ultimately fatal.”
Bradley called out, just as they were rounding the point of the bay to fly north. “I see several of them, at the water’s edge. They look to be feeding on a carcass of a large fish or dolphin-like creature.”
Hakeem asked Wister for advice. “Is it OK to look at them up close, perhaps get a tissue sample? They would surely have the same DNA as the adults, and we wouldn’t risk offending the Torki by asking later.” The Prada had willingly offered blood samples, after the subject was raised delicately.
Once its purpose was explained, Wister went first, having no objection to their learning more about his people. He requested the same in return, saying they had labs in the underground facilities to analyze the biological samples. He told them that they had not done genetics for thousands of years, but the pure scientific knowledge was of interest to them.
Wister answered Hakeem, with a sideways head motion. “The adult Torki will probably not object to your sample request, and I think they will ask for you to trade samples, as we did. However, approaching the Torkada is risky, and you will have to be prepared to kill some of them if you try. They are aggressive and not very smart, and the claws, although much smaller than an adults, can easily sever an arm. Some of you are extremely fast and strong, and perhaps are not in danger, however I don’t think there is anything to gain from the risk. If there are Torkada roaming the new location where the Torki have moved, you will still need to be very careful to avoid them.”
Maggi looked eagerly at the three to four-foot wide crabs, larger than any she had ever seen on any world. The bodies were a beautiful purple, and the legs on the smaller ones were amber, and on the foot wider version were a pale orange. They waved their larger claw in the air at the shuttle, as it passed over, apparently not frightened by the noise or presence of a large unknown flying object that was a potential predator. Perhaps walking up to them wasn’t such a good idea.
Marlyn, as they flew up the coast was engaged in a radio conversation with an earpiece, interfaced with her transducer. They were far out of range of Kap’s transducer system, but not the Beagle’s radio.
“I just heard. On Koban, they found entrances to the old underground factory below Hub City. The place is a dark, wet, moldy and rusty wreck. It obviously has had no maintenance for a very long time. That close to
the ocean, there may have been pumps at some point to help keep it dry. There is flooding in the lower levels. It seems like a complete loss for ever using it again.”
Wister, hearing the exchange asked what they were talking about from Koban, the one word in the conversation he was sure he understood. Maggi told him of the find in low Krall, with mental images.
His head darted forward, “That factory was built, but little used, even when new. I suggested to the Rulers that the dome was placed too close to the sea to stay dry. My sister was told to build the factory anyway. It required several orbits to make, and much work to keep it dry. We had many accidents with the workers.”
That sounded typical of the Krall, indifferent to an animal’s recommendation, and wasteful of their work, lives, and resources. He had a more optimistic view of at least one other factory complex.
“The smaller factory, under the dome that belonged to Maldo clan, which you say you call Prime City, should be dry and cleaner if the fusion powered air system still works. It was last used to make the walls and electric fences for all of the compounds of the Rulers on Koban, and it made more ground transports and shuttles to move that material to the other domes. It will need much maintenance, but probably could be returned to service if you know how.”
Maggi told Marlyn to have Prime City look for the entrance in the same place Hub City found their own covered over factory elevators and down ramps.
Perhaps a hundred miles north along the coast, an even larger and deeper inset bay, with high ridges on one side came into view. Wister suggested this looked to be an excellent location for the Torki to have moved.
As the shuttle passed over the two hundred-foot ridgeline, where the wide beach could be seen below its shelter, they were amazed and delighted to see thousands of Torki on the sand.
Maggi was the first to comment. “They were all facing and looking up at us as we came over the top of the ridge. They knew we were coming. Look at the size of them. They must be half the length of a truck. Seven or eight feet wide, and five feet across. They are waving the smaller of their claws at us. Wister, is that a threat gesture, like the Torkada made?”
Koban: Rise of the Kobani Page 45