Koban: When Empires Collide

by Stephen W Bennett

  Mirikami considered the alternatives. “Scouting their systems more thoroughly is one. There are nearly a hundred Thandol settled worlds we’ve not investigated. We can also learn more about the other subservient species we haven’t met. Some of you might be interested in that. Others of you might want to participate in tests on stars in various sterile systems in our region, using the gravity projectors of our newest Mark II class ships. What Athena’s Scouts accomplished in the Delos binary system might be possible with differing types of single stars, using the larger gravity projectors.

  “Even the Mark II’s don’t have a quarter of the gravitational power a Dismantler can focus, and we know they can reach into the cores of super Jovians. Our Scouts, ten of them working together, only tugged at magnetic field lines above two slightly unstable small stars. We may encounter a situation where we could trigger a more massive single star to send a solar flare at a planet, like a weapon. We can try that to force the Empire to back off if they refuse to leave us alone. We could learn if that’s even possible, to use a star as a last-ditch mass destruction weapon.”

  The eagerness of the younger Kobani to participate in this study was dampened, when Maggi unexpectedly squelched their enthusiasm for the experiments, casting a pall on the previously good mood in the Great Hall.

  “Employing this capability, if we could do it, might lead to the extermination of all the higher lifeforms on an entire planet. We all thought the Krall were abhorrent because they used the Dismantlers to do that. They killed trillions of intelligent beings over the course of their long rampage in the Orion Spur. They held that terrible weapon over the heads of enemies, to force them to fight a conventional war which let the Krall win gradually.

  “Having the capability, and then finding an excuse to use it are easily combined. We want a means to stop an enemy that threatens our survival, but if doing that gives us the means to destroy life on a planetary scale, we must decide if developing that ability for our survival is justified. That knowledge will eventually spread, and we will encounter other enemies that may wage the same type of war on us. Look at what the Thack Delos did, with weapons we banned a hundred years before we left our home system.”

  Carson looked chagrined, but resolute. “I think we Kobani, with the empathy gained from Mind Taps, can be trusted to not indiscriminately wipe out entire inhabited planets.”

  “I believe that, for us.” Maggie submitted. “However, we’re only part of humanity, and humans have done terrible things in the past. The Gene War was terrible, nearly on the level of killing our own species. As evidence that I too experience fear for our survival, I perhaps have deluded myself into believing that we Kobani will act with reasonable restraint.

  “Because of that, I agreed with Tet, that we should at least find out what we can do with gravity control on larger, single stars. But once we demonstrate and use such technology, it will inevitably be duplicated by nonhumans, and without the benefit of our Kobani Mind Tap empathy for others.

  “Having said that, we have learned today that it is possible that we might not be allowed to proceed in that direction. There could be a higher power that can stop us, to prevent us from gaining the level of technology required to destroy other species on such a grand scale.”

  Dillon, knowing Maggi’s skeptical scientific mind, knew she didn’t idly speculate about a higher power judging humanity. “Who would stop us? And How?”

  She nodded his way, “That’s exactly what I asked Gith Prola when she Comtapped me this morning, within a few hours of Tet discussing with me that we might conduct such testing. Prola called within minutes after Tet Comtapped President MacDougal on Haven for approval, and received his permission.”

  “The Olt’kitapi named Gith Prola is who called you?” he asked.

  “Of course, knucklehead. Have you heard of anyone else with that odd name?”

  “Good point. How did she know what Tet proposed? Was that just coincidence?”

  “I doubted it could be coincidental, but I assumed it had to be because of the distance, and our having held no discussions with the Olt’kitapi. Except Prola left me with no doubt when she explained why she linked. She informed me that someone contacted her and Frithda via mind enhancers, to say it was coming for a return visit. It said it wished to meet with them, and with Tet and his mate, then it identified us by our full names, and was fully aware that Prola and Frithda knew us. It also claimed it wanted to finally see the system where the newly restored Olt’kitapi intended to build their Excelsior multi species habitat. It spoke the Olt’kitapi language fluently with them, and knew the name selected for that future habitat.

  “Prola said it told them it wanted to experience Tet or me in person. The word experience was used deliberately by Prola, and not simply that it wanted to meet us. She thought that was the most accurate translation from her language to Standard. This mystery visitor wants to determine if humans are to be permitted to do what Tet proposed.” She saw Dillon’s mouth about to open.

  “Before you ask the next obvious questions, I too wanted to know who the visitor was, where it was from, how it knew about Tet and myself, and what we planned to do.”

  “And?”

  “Prola said the visitor called itself The Silha. She emphasized that it definitively was not spoken as ‘I am Silha,’ as a personal name, or ‘I am a Silha,” as one example of a population. In the very precise Olt’kitapi language, it was as if it said I am The Olt’kitapi, or I am All Humanity, as if it is one thing for an entire people.

  “It managed to both intrigue and impress Prola and Frithda immensely, but not for what it called itself or knew about them or about us. It was in how it contacted them without first possessing what we always call the address, or the quantum code pattern needed to connect to a specific Comtap, Olt, or memory enhancer. There are effectively an infinite number of those code pattern addresses, most of which have no use, such as for a communications device, a front door code, or your eighty billion-digit lucky lottery number.

  “As Max Born explained to us one time, the available number of codes create a stupendous quantity of wrong numbers to hit if you try linking to them randomly, just to find one that is in use for tachyon communications anywhere in the Universe. Even then, you need the format of modulation used for the signal, and it might also be encrypted, as Comtap links can be now. Prola and Frithda obtained Tet’s and my address patterns once, by detecting two unknown repeating patterns at the start of modulated tachyon signals, when we thought we were speaking confidentially prior to meeting them for the first time. We had elected to avoid Comtap via radio, to avoid signal detection via tachyon communications. They only knew it had to be us communicating together because of our proximity and visibility to them, and the repetitive nature of our responsive exchanges. They admitted they didn’t know which prefixed address pattern was his and which was mine, so they surprised us and linked to both patterns simultaneously, listening to what we said in our unencrypted discussions.

  “We were impressed, and concerned that they had that capability, and could identify and intercept meaningful tachyon signals between us, and isolate the address codes used. The Silha is so far away, it has now truly impressed them!”

  “Maggi, I don’t want you to insult me for asking this again, but where is it from?”

  “Don’t be silly. Impatient morons don’t understand insults.” She smiled sweetly, as the old Maggi he knew and loved shined through the deceptively youthful curls and dimples.

  “The Silha said it first visited this region just after the time of the deaths of the original Olt’kitapi. It congratulated Prola and Frithda on the Olt’kitapi survivors having recovered their history by installing old mind enhancers, and it welcomed the renewal of their briefly postponed multi species habitat construction.”

  “Briefly postponed? Twenty-three thousand years is brief? Were they in stasis with the Differentiators?”

  “Smart conclusion Dillon, but no. Prola asked the same questio
n. The visitor said it had never visited or monitored in this galaxy prior to the assumed extinction of the Olt’kitapi. It said it arrived from a different galaxy to investigate the event, at the request of the previous species that had monitored the Olt’kitapi and this galaxy.”

  “The visitor is extra galactic? Holy shit!”

  “Our grandson is listening grandpa,” came Noreen’s stern warning to Dillon.

  A knowing smirk on the four-year-old’s face proved he’d heard, and the lack of interest proved it wasn’t a new word to him. In addition to a careless speaking grandfather, he had a lot of “uncles.”

  However, he had heard a new term that wasn’t part of his growing memory matrix, and didn’t appear in the files he was permitted to access in his age restricted Comtap. “What’s extra gatic mean, Grandpa?”

  “The second word is galactic, Calvin, and the term extra galactic means that the visitor says it comes from outside the Milky Way galaxy, which is where we all live.”

  Sarge, displaying his own curiosity, and a lack of a real astronomy background asked, “Where would that be? The Madge Atlantic Clouds?”

  Quick to grab the correct word from an allowed astronomy Comtap file, Calvin proudly redeemed his previous misstep, so his grandpa could hear him use a big word. “They’re called the Magellanic Clouds, Uncle Sarge.”

  There were appreciative chuckles, but Noreen patted the boy on the head, kissed his cheek, and sent him off to a nearby play area, by describing an irresistible attraction. “Kim brought her four new cubs to play with the kids today. If you hurry over to daycare you can let them frill you before the other kids finish eating.”

  Snatching up his half-eaten sandwich, he did his best impression of a Blue Streak antelope, running between tables, and athletically dodging around unaware people standing in the way of the excited little boy.

  Mirikami quickly turned to his friend, seated across from him. “Stay put Sarge. Noreen will let you go play with the ripper cubs later. You asked a perinate question. One that I spent a little time exploring with Jake, after Maggi told me about Prola’s communication.”

  Unperturbed at the mild dig, he asked, “How could your AI figure out where the alien came from?”

  “It didn’t, but The Silha informed Prola that it would appear in time for the agreed meeting at Excelsior. That’s in four days. Maggi and I leave here in two days, and will arrive a half day early, so it couldn’t be more than four days away at T-cubed travel.”

  Hopeful his mispronounced earlier guess was right, Sarge repeated, “The Magellanic Clouds after all, huh?”

  “Nope. Still a bad guess. At close to 160,000 lightyears distance, the large one is about twenty-five travel days away, and the small one is over a month away. There are a few closer and smaller dwarf galaxies, but even those are eleven or twelve days from the galactic center, and days more than that from Excelsior, which is on the opposite side of galactic center from them.”

  Mirikami shrugged. “I don’t know where The Silha will be coming from, but since it implied it had never been to Excelsior, that isn’t where it meant by its return. It must be returning to the Milky Way itself, but it can’t be more than four days away, which is barely outside the disk. Jake couldn’t find anything special above or below the galaxy’s disk, such as a globular cluster that is within four days of travel from Excelsior.”

  Thad expressed his worry at the new player, suddenly thrusting itself into an already complex mix. “What if it takes the Thandol’s side? That’s possible if it won’t approve our use of a new means of deterring the Empire from its attacks on us. We didn’t start the war, and we’re the weaker side militarily, even with the PU counted as a full ally. We don’t need another enemy.”

  Maggi disagreed with that assumption. “I don’t think The Silha will do that. Take a side, I mean. Aside from our not knowing how much power their assertion implies they can apply. It knew about the Olt’kitapi in the past. It was apparently pleased at the revival of their species, and accepts that they are prepared to renew their multi species habitat. If they approve of them, and their use of Dismantlers to break apart planets, and we are helping and protecting the Olt’kitapi, why wouldn’t they accept that our intentions are honorable?”

  Mirikami rubbed his lip. “Perhaps it’s because I didn’t propose to use gravity control to build or move anything for peaceful purposes. I’m looking for ways to use our new gravity projectors to damage an enemy. The Silha seems to act rather aloof. If it really was around, and monitoring the galaxy right after the Krall revolt, it didn’t apparently show any interest in stopping what the Krall did, and Thandol Empire did and are doing now. This so-called monitor left them alone.

  “It may be our use of gravity projectors that has drawn their interest. I intend to meet them and find out.”

  ****

  It had been two years since Mirikami had seen the super Jovian, which he’d learned the Olt’kitapi now called Egg Mother, in consideration of their intent to use its core for the bulk of the building material of the eventual thousands of planet sized habitat shells, or eggs, that would be constructed in this system. The Olt’kitapi’s initial living quarters had been established using multiple inflatable habitats placed on the moony, a terrestrial sized habitable planet that orbited the ten Jupiter mass gas giant.

  That smaller world would also eventually be dismantled for use in constructing three or four habitat shells. For now, as one of the lumps of matter that would give birth to Excelsior, it was simply and temporarily named Egg, and it provided a base of operations for the makers and builders of the Olt’kitapi.

  The former Krall dome, which once housed the the Guardians of the Dismantler ships, was nowhere to be seen. The circular landing tarmac that had surrounded the Krall structure was now two-thirds covered by a large translucent dome, with dozens of airlocks positioned around the base, there only to maintain internal inflation pressure, since the moony’s atmosphere was breathable. It was made with the material the Olt’kitapi had once used to cover and mask their hidden presence on Canji Dol, the second world in the Hothor home system.

  Mirikami was seated in the Pilot’s chair on the Mark’s central Bridge, Maggi was at the Communications station, Carson and Alyson sat at the Navigation and Weapons consoles respectively, the latter being inactive today.

  Kobalt and Kit were laying on cushioned acceleration couches nearby, morphed from chairs into flattened lounges for their use, but straining the observer’s seating designed for a human’s or Prada’s weight. Kobalt had threaded his tail through the opening used for the Prada’s prehensile tail, while Kit was twitching hers at the tip, where it curved around her flank. Both were eager to meet what was a new species to them, and they had implored “Uncle Tet,” to be included on the trip. At least the Olt’kitapi was a new species for them to meet. It wasn’t determined yet exactly what The Silha was, or represented, or if they would meet it.

  Carson and Alyson came along to be the “spare thumbs” if the rippers needed human hands for anything, while Tet and Maggi were meeting with the Olt’kitapi and The Silha.

  The elongated bean shape of the Mark emulated the shape of the larger Dismantlers, with the Bridge also placed at the center of a middle deck. For ships with Normal Space drives, able to fly in any spherical direction the pilot desired, and that could micro Jump from orbit directly to a landing area, neither end was truly a bow or stern. It required no specialized aerodynamic streamlining for high velocity air flow while making a fiery reentry. The curved hull made a form following event horizon possible, and easier to project without including more than a molecule thick layer of atmosphere to carry along, should it Jump from inside an atmosphere.

  Two gravity projectors, one installed in each of the rounded ends, operated together to achieve precise control and focus of the strong gravitational fields they produced, either close to the ship or at considerable distances. Mirikami was relatively confident that it was this capability that was at the heart of Th
e Silha’s sudden interest in humanity.

  After coordination with Frithda, Mirikami instructed Jake to Jump the Mark to a point above the tarmac, on the side of the habitat that was in line with the super Jovian, which filled the horizon with its cloud striped beauty in that direction. Egg was tidally locked, with one face always towards Egg Mother, and the ancient shield volcano crater where the habitat rested was half way around Egg from a point where Egg Mother would be directly overhead.

  After the ship emerged with the usual soft pop sound, it settled gently to the tarmac, where one of the habitat pressure locks was less than fifty feet away. Outside the lock were two Olt’kitapi figures, one tall and a light shade of purple, one shorter and green, with brown and tan markings on its abdomen. Prola and Frithda stood on their spindly legs, triangular heads looking at the Mark, their large compound eyes sparkling as they refracted the rays from the red dwarf sun, off to the side of Egg Mother and higher in the pinkish sky of the habitat.

  Egg had been exposed to the increased warming radiation of that small, but nearby reddish tinted sun for two hours. Although the moony had been kept warm enough to avoid freezing temperatures on this face, by infrared radiation from Egg Mother for the time the giant planet had eclipsed the sun, during that part of Eggs orbit. The moment of the Mark’s arrival had been specifically selected so that the added heat of the small sun would produce a warm breeze for the humans. Their hosts knew that Koban was a planet of seasonal extremes, but humans liked their moderate springtime weather best. At this portion of Eggs orbit, the outside air came closest to that temperature. The Olt’kitapi were considerate hosts, applying their considerable knowledge of such trivial details to accommodate their guests.

  When the hatch on the side facing the habitat irised open, the white colored hull’s surface tinged by the red sun, the four Koban and two rippers walked smoothly down the extruded ramp to the red tinted grass, which was the most common foliage on this Egg Mother side of the moony. The graceful sinuous gait of the humans matched that of the teal colored big cats, and the three quarters standard gravity of Egg made them very light on their feet, at what was to them half their normal gravity.