“There have been strides made here at home, in a very short time using this new technology, the nanites and modern med labs. To more effectively and more widely employ the genetic enhancements that make our defeating the Krall possible. Not a guaranteed victory by any means, but now possible in principle.”
More applause.
“Aldry and Rafe will speak with you individually about the marvelous steps recently taken in genetics. I’m certain you who have returned home today have heard rumors that the procedures used to create our TGs and TG1’s, and now some TG2’s, will function with more subjects than Koban-born children of Second Generation parents. Thanks to the war driven new nanites and med labs from Human Space, our gene mods also can be applied to their parents, who were not born with the organic superconducting nervous system. This means that any human, whether living on Koban or not, can be enhanced to become a member of the Kobani race of man.”
That drew a loud round of applause, and Mirikami assumed that a triumphant and physically enhanced Maggi Fisher was about to come through the prominently exposed rear doors. Not yet, as it turned out.
Maggi addressed the ten newer men. “Your trip to K1 had the fallout of acquiring two more clanships to convert to our use. One of those, the Beagle, went exploring locally and found a second home for some of our own people and for the expected influx of Krall slaves, as we raid their production worlds. As you know, it was given the name Haven, and was found to already have a small population of left-behind races the Krall probably considered expendable, or replaceable.”
Now Mirikami expected Maggi, and some aliens, to walk dramatically through those rear doors. Only partly right.
“Ladies, and Gentle Men, we have the privilege of presenting representatives of each race, the Prada and the Torki. We ask that you refrain from crowding them until they are more familiar with our customs, and we with theirs. Some of you here have met with them previously, or have seen them in Tri-Vid recordings. Our wanderers and new citizens have not. I present to you Ambassador Wister, of the Prada on Haven, and Ambassador Coldar, of the Torki on Haven.”
The rear doors opened slowly, and side-by-side stood the diminutive Wister, and Coldar. The eight-foot wide crab was standing offset to the side, to accommodate Wister’s smaller frame in the doorway.
Wister’s head darted forward once, as he walked into the room, seeing humans that he knew and had gradually learned to tell apart. As he cleared the doorway, Coldar sidled to the left and then was able to fit through the wide set of doors.
Trakenburg was intrigued by the aliens, but still had to whisper a nitpicking comment on the presentation to Mirikami. “This doesn’t resemble any diplomatic function I ever attended, between the PU and colony worlds.”
“Well, Frank, we aren’t a colony world, and we don’t have anyone still alive with us that was ever an actual diplomat. The same is true for these former Krall subjects, I presume. We can ad lib diplomacy as we go, just as we have done on the military side of things.”
The last was a little dig at Trakenburg’s gripe that the Kobani didn’t choose to follow even a loose, let alone his preferred strict military rules of conduct. The closest they came to looking uniform was when they all wore their new Chameleon Skin flex armor.
This lack of military structure had its roots in the past of its two leaders with any military background at all. Tet had been in the PU Navy in his early Spacer career (not a satisfactory union), and Thad had been in a provincial militia on (the then Rim World) of Poldark, which had operated more like an adult Boy Scout troop with big guns. They had no desire to impose too rigid a structure on what was essentially an all-volunteer force of young and spirited, free-willed personalities, all with super human ability.
Mirikami still saw no sign of Maggi. He had grown fond of the sometimes irritating, older little woman. Over a private dinner tonight, he wanted to share with her the things he was planning, and to hear her tell of what she was learning from the aliens. The few months away from Koban had made him appreciate her counsel, advice, and company. They had been in near daily contact for over twenty years. He missed having someone he could confide in, on matters where he was uncertain.
He realized that Deanna was leading both aliens towards him, as the people in the center of the room gave the imposing looking Torki more room than they might have the smaller Prada. A four-foot long heavy right claw, and a smaller left one of three feet, tended to generate feelings of caution from soft bodied creatures.
Deanna made the personal introduction. “Ambassador Wister, Ambassador Coldar, this man is Captain Mirikami, our foremost citizen, who bears the greatest responsibility for our surviving our interactions with the Krall when they were here, and leading us as we sought to find ways to survive on Koban.”
Wister responded first, in very well enunciated low Krall, if higher pitched than when spoken by a Krall. “Ambassador Fisher has spoken of you often, and provided me with mental images of you, and of things you have accomplished. I am honored to greet you.” He bobbed his head vertically twice on his long neck, which Mirikami took as equivalent to a human bow.
Replying in low Krall, he said, “I am pleased to meet you as well, Ambassador Wister. I look forward to our future discussions.” He bowed deeply, certain he could not match the head bobbing motion on a shorter human neck. Besides, coming from him it might mean something completely inappropriate. He thought, out of context, it might mean you look sexy for hairy squirrel.
He suppressed a chuckle, not certain what provoked the random thought. Alien gestures would have to be studied, and human one’s explained, before used or imitated. Simply looking into a Krall eyes could get you killed when we first met them.
Tet next was surprised to hear the Torki ambassador speak Standard, with no foreign inflection or accent at all. It was like hearing a high level AI speaking. “Captain Mirikami, your exploits and wisdom have been described to us by our mutual friend, Maggi. Her mind images are tinted with colors of fondness and admiration for you. I will be eager to mind share with you, after you achieve the genetic gift of what you call Mind Tap.”
“Ambassador Coldar, I admire our friend Maggi greatly. I am eagerly looking forward to the next series of genetic enhancements, one of which will enable me to mind share, as you said.” He repeated the bow, which Coldar emulated by lowering the front of his carapace, with a rustling and scraping sound as the hard surfaces rubbed together.
“I had not expected to hear you speaking Standard, Ambassador Coldar. That is quite impressive in such a short time after meeting us.”
Coldar was humbly dismissive. “That was only a translation of low Krall into Standard, from a software program I downloaded from an artificial intelligence machine on your clanship named the Beagle. I speak to you using a sound replicator, because the Torki natural speech would be outside of your physical ability to replicate.” The crab lifted its front to reveal a black six-inch oval device adhered to his shell.
“I also have an internal device of Olt’kitapi design, which has storage capacity for many things. One of those new things was a translation program from your intelligent computer, between low Krall and Standard. I already have a translator from Torki speech to low Krall and back. It seemed redundant for me to speak in the language imposed by my former masters. I was introduced as an ambassador in your language, although that is not a title among my species. I wish to be addressed in conversation as simply Coldar, a builder of quantum key devices.”
“Coldar it is then. I prefer to be known to friends as Tet, which is a portion of my first name, and Mirikami is my more formal second name. Please call me Tet.”
“The inference is that you wish to be a friend. I wish that as well. However, because the Prada do not know any language but low Krall, we should switch to that to be polite.”
Mirikami nodded before he could catch himself. No telling what that could mean to an alien. He responded verbally in low Krall. “Coldar, I do ask that you call me Tet as a
friend. Ambassador Wister, I have invited Coldar to be a friend, and I extend that invitation to you as well. Will you accept my offer of friendly informality?”
A forward head dart, and he said, “This is the arrangement I have with Maggi, and she addresses me as Wister. Tet, I believe we can act as friends as well. I have started to learn words of Standard, however, Coldar has said a smaller modified sound replicator disk can be made by his people, which will use the same program for translation that I believe he used with you now. My words in low Krall will be repeated in Standard to you, and I will hear low Krall from those that speak Standard.”
“Excellent. We will have spoken words that we can share, and with my people, soon most of us will have the Mind Tap ability we gained from the rippers of Koban.”
Wister shivered noticeably. “This is the first good thing anyone has ever received from those eaters of Prada and Rulers.”
“Wister, at one time the wild rippers ate humans. Those that live near us no longer do that. We live with members of that species in our homes, and our children play together. We only use caution when we meet wild rippers, far from the domes where we now live. One day I think we will have a treaty with all ripper prides. You must also have had attacks from wolfbats when you built the domes here.”
“Yes,” his head darted forward, “but they were not as terrifying, because we could frighten them away with guns that the Rulers let us have.”
“Humans have a truce with the wolfbats as well. They often work for us, in return for pay in food. We will make peace with any intelligent species when we can, and fight only when we cannot. We cannot make peace with the Krall, and so we must fight them. Not only for ourselves, but also for the Torki, the Raspani, and for the Prada.”
“I have come to believe that your fight with the Rulers is what you must do. I even see that their claim to status as our Rulers is probably in question. That is only my own view, now that I have seen the mind pictures of what they do.”
He explained how he had seen those images. “Maggi brought sixteen of your newest people, who arrived as Krall prisoners from the worlds where most humans live. I saw their memories of what the Krall have done to your worlds and your people. They did not know of my people until you brought them to visit Haven. They were frightened of us, and yet wanted to know about us, and to live on Haven because they cannot return home. They want to learn from us, as if we were the elder race. It was rewarding to feel that way, to have someone to teach. The other villagers are willing to help them make homes on Haven, if they do not live too close to us.”
“Your world is mostly empty of villages and Torki lodges, Wister, so there is room right now for everyone. That will not last forever, as we bring more of your people and mine to live there. Can you learn to work with my people more closely?”
“When you say “you” I believe you mean the other Prada, and not only me. Yes?”
“I do.”
It will be slower for some of my people, but with mind pictures to help, they can all learn to accept you as neighbors. I don’t know how many can turn away from the Krall as our rightful Rulers, as the elder race in the galaxy. That is a difficult thing for us.”
“Wister, you know more of the galaxy than do we humans, but even so the Krall, and the Olt’kitapi before them, occupied a very small part of the galaxy. There must be older races still to be found.”
“If you find them, and we believe they are senior to us all, then we will reconsider. However, the practical problem remains that the Olt’kitapi were once senior, and now they are gone. Even the Raspani were senior to the Krall, but their minds have been lost. The Krall, in their drive to rule the galaxy will attack and defeat any race they find, even if my people accept another species as the rightful and wisest new Rulers. Your people’s problem will not change, even if ours does. The Krall will win with or without the Prada”
“If the people of Koban, and any allies we can find, are able to protect other races from the Krall, then when you find an elder race you will be free to accept their rule. Will you build things we need, in exchange for payment?”
“For now, to help the Raspani, whom we know to be older than ourselves, we will build for them and for you, only if you protect them. That is a payment you can make to us.”
“Good. We were doing that anyway, and your help is appreciated. Can we ask you to make major weapons and clanships for us?”
“No more powerful weapons than we feel are needed to protect the Raspani from Haven predators. That would be small arms, transport vehicles, and shuttle craft.”
“Thank you for that. We need more but those things are helpful, and will ease the strain on our own supplies of similar items.”
Coldar had been listening patiently, curious as to what the Prada would propose to do for the human leader. Now it was his turn to tell him what he had discussed with Maggi in the many days since they had first met. The Torki were not constrained by the notion the Krall deserved to rule anyone.
He began the presentation Maggi had discussed with him previously. “Our designers and engineers have reexamined older storage areas of our Olts, the quantum memory and data devices the Olt’kitapi gave us long ago, to help us become sentient. We saved scientific and technological information learned from species that the Krall defeated. Only those parts of their science that Krall clan leaders saw as useful were ordered into production.
“The Krall prefer weapons that permit individuals to attack alone, or even when part of a mass invasion assault, they normally want to fight and risk death based on a warrior’s own capability. A warrior will often refuse cooperation with other individuals in a battle, or of offering support for warriors of other clans that are struggling with numerically superior forces. They are concerned mainly with their own status and breeding rights.
“Despite the stealth capability of clanships and single ships, most warriors would prefer to openly charge in and fight an enemy. Their stealth ability is actually an outgrowth of the overlaid skin material on their ships to absorb, deflect, or withstand various types of radiant energy in combat. When the outer skin is activated, the ships naturally become stealthy, but that is a side effect. It is not the Krall’s desire to be sneaky because they are facing a superior foe. They will not accept that a superior foe is possible, and for many thousands of years that has proven true.
“Krall personal body armor uses visible and infrared background camouflage only because it is based on a design created by the Botolians, a former worthy enemy who preferred to fight at night. The Krall liked the armor because it made their interclan wars more interesting. They had selectively bred for infrared vision, and then found an enemy that could hide from them at night. They wanted to practice fighting an enemy they could not see in those frequencies in darkness.
“That armor could be more effective at other electromagnetic frequencies if they incorporated the stealth technology of the skins of the ships. It could be improved other ways. That quantum level of surface reflectivity control was created by the Olt’kitapi, and adapted and changed slightly by the Raspani. The Raspani version is what is used on single ships we build for the Krall and the original Olt’kitapi design skin is on the clanships. The skin on a clanship is tougher, and on the single ships, the skin has a wider range of radiation response and a faster reaction to multiple frequency energy weapons.
“There are built-in energy weapons available for body armor that the Krall have never requested, and which we did not volunteer to them as possible. Infrared beams, microwaves, multi-frequency lasers, and plasma pulse emitters.”
Mirikami assumed Coldar was being more than merely informative, that he was approaching some sort of point in this discussion. “Are you saying it is possible to make body armor that is significantly better than what the Krall use now?”
This question had all of the men with Mirikami riveted to the conversation. The best hard suits were a better defense against projectiles and heavy plasma and lasers than the Chameleo
n Skins, but they were much more visible, particularly when moving, as when infiltrating behind enemy lines.
“Yes. I would not waste time explaining the possibility if we could not do this.” It waved both large claws in a wide gesture.
“There are different energy weapons and communications capability for body armor, which the Krall have ignored because they did not need them. They decided to kill the Olt’kitapi because they were on the verge of making fighting too safe for the early Krall warriors to evolve on their ancient Great Path. They have moved far along that path now for many thousands of orbits. Yet, you humans have found a way to move ahead of them in a short time.”
Mirikami looked directly into those jet black eyes on their slender stalks. “Humans will not take their path, because we intend only to stop the Krall from walking over the dead bodies of other species to achieve their selfish goals. I ask you and your people to create body armor like you described, so that we can test it against our common enemy.”
“Your friend, Maggi, was convinced you would ask us to do that. She does understand you well, and I believe her explanation and description of this armor would have taken less time than mine did.”
Mirikami looked around the room again. “I had expected Maggi to be here. She is the closest we have to a diplomat for this occasion, and she’s good at logically laying out facts. She could easily have explained your proposal to me.”
“She already is here.” Coldar insisted. “It was her wish to demonstrate the new armor, for you and for the three other friends that she said will be fighting the Krall. She left the medical facility on this ship only after your ship landed a short time ago. After twelve of your number of days in the medical machine, she said she needed a short time to learn to use the armor we made for her.”
Koban: Rise of the Kobani Page 56