Koban 5: A Federation Forged in Fire

by Stephen W Bennett

  “No, Hanbi. Merely a similar sound. There is a stage of life for many insects on various worlds, and I suspect here too, that we would describe as caterpillars. The young pre-adult forms look like large multi colored caterpillars to us. How long do they look like that?”

  “The larval, or caterpillar stage, can persist from two, up to at least ten orbits. The gender is fixed at conception but final adult body form and function is decided by the larval form itself, by altering their diet before they enter the pupae stage. The female, Prola, choose a pure builder body form, and her mate, Frithda, has a pure maker body form. If they have offspring, the child can select either one of those pure body forms before pupation, or can become a hybrid, based on their future career selection. After pupation, they have few options if they selected poorly.”

  “Is it acceptable to ask about such decisions?” Mirikami asked.

  “Yes. They may offer to tell you before you ask, if your visit is long enough. The Olt’kitapi are always very open and direct, and they will speak on any subject. Even things they might consider a failing or a mistake of theirs. They do not feel embarrassment, but understand it in other species, and will talk about their own poor past decisions. They believe you cannot learn from errors, or teach others to avoid them, if they are not fully revealed and explored.”

  “When do we meet them?”

  “Now. You will return with me.”

  Their first close up view of them was the two angular limbed creatures waiting between the trees, under the canopy of camouflage. The taller one, the female they had been told, held herself in a semi-upright posture. She was a gleaming light shade of purple, with a triangular head and large compound eyes, with two white antennas. Her head and body resembled the pictures they had called up from archives of multiple worlds. The mantis head architecture had been replicated in insects multiple times on various worlds, but never seen on this scale. Her overall length was probably six feet, but her thick lower abdomen was partly held horizontally, before curving up sharply to her thorax. Her face was perhaps five feet above the ground, with four legs supporting the abdomen two feet off the ground. The flat sections of the angular legs had a considerably sturdier appearance than the spindly stick like legs of a scaled up insect. The back feet were two-toed pads, but the middle limb’s feet appeared to resemble a cross between feet and hands, with a grasping capability. The three jointed front upper limbs were held high, hands together, but were distinctly not made for grasping prey, and were articulated much like a human’s arms. There were multiple finger-like appendages for hands, of three to six inches length, and had several joints on each digit, making them very flexible.

  She rose higher as they approached, and her middle legs left the ground with a slight push, and her head was now over six feet above ground as they drew near. It was clear that the middle limbs could be used to grasp things in her present posture. Her body was divided into three clear segments. Head, thick thorax, and plump abdomen, all in shades of purple. This was what the Hothor described as the more intellectual builder form.

  The male was at least a foot shorter in length, mostly light green, with shades of brown on his lower abdomen. He remained more horizontal than his mate did, although his middle limbs also had basic grasping hands. His front limbs were noticeably sturdier than were those of his mate, and the hands had thicker stronger fingers and looked less flexible. His head shared the same triangular shape and compound eyes, with two shorter brown colored antennae. He continued to look up at them from a level about four and a half feet above the ground. His overall coloration was drabber. Despite his shorter stature, his body looked heavier and sturdier than the female’s. They knew he was called a maker form.

  As they reached roughly the same distance as the Hothor had originally halted when meeting the Kobani for the first time, about twenty feet, Hanbi halted, repeated his ritual bow and arm extension, hand cupped upwards. Mirikami and Maggi halted just behind him, and bowed slightly.

  In clear Thandol, the only language they currently had in common, the female Olt’kitapi told the Hothor, “You were just here, Hanbi. We did not require the first show of ritual respect, and a second display so soon is even less useful.” She looked to the two humans, her head pivoting quickly towards them.

  “I greet you, and as I just explained to the third minister, as we explain to most Hothor visitors, their ritual greeting, with the symbolic offering of a body fluid is unnecessary with us. We do not extrude body fluids as they do, and would certainly not exchange the unsanitary products if we could. By your not offering us a cupped hand of symbolic fluid, I presume you do not share that pointless and less than hygienic gesture.”

  Maggi, sensing the tone of the exchange, and the directness, abandoned the pretense of the formality she had expected by the Hothor’s example. “No, we don’t pee in our hands and offer it to those we meet. In fact, we didn’t know that was the symbolism being replicated by the Hothor, who we met only one day ago. I’m sure we have our own odd mannerisms, but our handshaking gesture we offered, with physical contact with a Hothor’s right hand, will be reconsidered now. Unless they wash their hands first.”

  Hanbi chuffed his breath a few times, and the two humans wondered if he was laughing. At least they did until the Olt’kitapi female spoke to him again. “Hanbi, stop your sounds of emotional distress. They did not speak to embarrass you. It was an honest expression of their opinion, and it informs you of something useful to know about them. You apparently use that hand ritual for everyone you meet, which isn’t appropriate when meeting another species. You now have two examples of this same opinion to consider if you wish to avoid future embarrassment, or of offending those you greet.”

  Proving he was experienced with frank conversations with the Olt’kitapi, Hanbi said, “None of the species we have met want this greeting when they learn its meaning. It is to the Thandol and Ragnar that we most enjoy making this unwelcome gesture, and we wish to conceal the intended disrespect to them. Therefore, we offer it to all. I will propose we limit the arm and hand extension for meetings only with them.”

  “That would be wise,” the male said. “We have suggested it previously, and yet you do not change. You love repetitive rituals.”

  The female, direct as before, said, “I am certain Hanbi told you I am named Gith Prola, and my mate is Gith Frithda. He neglected to describe you other than as a male and female of a species called human, and bipedal as are the Hothor. We would like you to name yourselves for us, and state which of you has which gender.”

  Mirikami nodded to his wife to proceed. Let the self-declared ambassador go first.

  “I am called Maggi Fisher, a female, and I wish to be called Maggi on most occasions. A position I sometimes fill within my society is to serve as an ambassador when we meet other species. I am otherwise a scientist in the fields of biology and genetics.” She looked to her husband. “This is my mate.”

  Mirikami picked it up from there. “I am called Tetsuo Mirikami, a male, and my preferred name when speaking socially with others is Tet. I am a Captain of spacecraft, and I have served as a leader of my people in fighting, and in defeating the Krall.”

  The male and female both twitched the same digit of the same hand, perhaps equivalent to a nod of acknowledgement.

  Prola told them, “The third minister has told us of your impressive physical demonstration with another member of your Federation of species. We have no firsthand knowledge of the Krall, nor do the Hothor, but we have been told of their savage and fierce reputation within the Empire, which has observed them from a distance. They have been concerned that the unsophisticated Krall would come here, in their swarming and murderous fashion, and none of the security forces were considered capable of stopping them.

  “Your defeat of them, if substantiated, would be adequate proof for us that you are capable, therefore we will not expect a demonstration. We are low gravity beings, and I can judge by your smooth, graceful, and ease of movement as you app
roached us that you find this world’s gravity less than what you are accustomed to feeling. What gravity do you consider normal, as measured here on this world?”

  “Nearly two and a half times the pull of gravity here.” Mirikami replied.

  She looked at the two of them analytically. “You must have far greater muscle strength and stronger bones than do the Hothor or the Thandol to live on your world. Yet such habitable worlds are statistically rare compared to this one or Canji Mot. Maggi, you said you were a scientist of biology and genetics. To physically meet or exceed the Krall, have you humans used that science to improve your bodies?”

  This is one sharp mind, and a keen observer, thought Mirikami.

  “Indeed we have.” Maggi conceded. “We have gone farther than what you surmised. We have improved our minds, our hearing, sight, sense of smell, and the speed of our nervous systems. Then we employed a technological tool your ancestors provided to the Raspani and the Torki, who now are two of our allied species in our Galactic Federation. We have a device in our heads we call a Comtap, which is based on the technology of the mind enhancers you gave to them. Although, the Torki have named theirs an Olt, in honor of the people that gave them that gift. Our device, combined with our unique nervous systems, is probably equivalent to what your dead ancestors had in their heads.”

  Frithda corrected her. “Our ancestor’s mind enhancers were not embedded in their thin heads. They were placed in their upper thorax, just behind their heads. More room there.”

  Prola again demonstrated how astute and blunt she could be. “You call your governing body a Galactic Federation. Presumptive name for your government, considering Hanbi says you occupy only the remnant territory our ancestors lost to the Krall. Even if you include that entire small stream of stars, which split from the major arm of the galaxy where the Thandol live, it is only a minute part of this island star system you call a galaxy.”

  Mirikami smiled in acknowledgement, and told her, “Humans are extremely presumptive.” Then he ticked off a number of statistics to back why that was the case.

  “Roughly seven hundred orbits ago of the world where we are standing right now, humans had not yet achieved space flight, we had not left our home world. No altruistic race like you Olt’kitapi came along to help us advance.

  “Today, counting the stars we have just taken away from the Krall and the seven hundred twenty colonies humans had settled before we gained our genetic enhancements, which only came after we met the Krall, we now control four or five thousand habitable star systems. Those are just the planets humans and our allies could live on immediately. We can modify many marginal worlds to suit the needs of my own adaptable species, just as we did for many of the planets we already inhabit.

  “Our alien allies have jokingly called us the hyperactive children of the galaxy, and despite our youth and inexperience, we managed to beat back the Krall in twenty or so orbits after they first attacked us. How long had your ancestors been expanding before they found the Krall? Those barbarians only lived on one world back then, they had not achieved space flight, and after three thousand orbits of your ancestor’s help, they were spread throughout their space, had been handed powerful weapons of war, and then they revolted against you. They took everything away from your great civilization practically overnight.

  “Then, twenty three thousand orbits later, after the Krall had defeated seventeen species, we humans defeated them. Doing it in a small fraction of the time that they had dominated the region where they conquered everyone they encountered. Yes, we had some luck, and received help from the freed slave races, but we mostly created our own luck. We leaped into a desperate fight, in what you and others would call a reckless manner, using any small advantage that came to us, or exploited any enemy weakness we found.”

  He shrugged, “Is that presumption, or is it our explosive and unpredictable capability when we are compared to any other species you have encountered? If we continue to make our own luck, the Thandol will learn the hard way, as did the Krall, to leave us alone or make peace with us.

  “Frankly, it’s only bragging if we fail. I honestly don’t know right now if we can defeat the Empire or not. But I’m human, so I know that we’ll fight them.”

  Prola seemed amused. “I almost sensed a touch of humility as you finished, but that was promptly erased by your assurance that your species would fight and not surrender. If you have made the races you freed from the Krall full participants in your Federation, then you are not as evil as the Krall, or as domineering as the Thandol. That doesn’t mean you are not still dangerous to us all.”

  Maggi responded with, “That’s exactly what we’ve heard from the Torki, Raspani, and Prada. That we may prove to be more dangerous in the long term. Yet they decided to join with us after we freed them, because we didn’t place demands on them in return. We asked for their help, and it was granted freely. The Prada were slow to do that, and until we helped restore the Raspani minds from where they were stored in ancient mind enhancers, they considered the Krall the elder and rightful rulers.”

  Again, the twitch of a digit, indicating acceptance from both aliens. Frithda said, “Our original instructors described the Prada as a people fat too willing to follow the lead of an older species, just as they followed their own elders. Our ancestors avoided extensive contact with them, to prevent the Prada from becoming dependent upon them.”

  Mirikami asked, “Frithda, who were your original instructors? How did any of you survive to reach a Hothor world without adults to guide you?”

  “The newest class of the faster ships the builders and makers had designed, also had new advanced machine intelligences built into them, the first computer minds that were based on patterns copied from their own minds. Two of those ships saved the adolescents aboard them and came here, after a wave of deaths took all of the adult forms. They died from the anguish they experienced via their mind enhancers. This anguish happened after a consensus of our entire population agreed to destroy the densely inhabited Krall home world, to try to prevent the Krall from spreading wider. That plan failed to stop them, and the adult forms either elected to die, or perhaps their minds shut down and they starved. We now believe they were unaware how powerfully the mind enhancers would convey the terrible mass deaths experienced by the billions of Krall that died, as their world was torn apart. We have not attempted to develop mind enhancers again, for fear of the consequences.

  “Even though the new ship minds sensed the same wave of deaths, not all of them ceased to function. The ships were not part of the decision to destroy a world, and they were able to delay their shutdown if they had a reason to continue in service. Some did have reasons to continue, to save the larval forms if they were aboard. Our larval forms live for years and are intelligent, but they are poorly equipped to care for and feed themselves. We believe that a number of ship minds sought a means to save them. Two of those ships came to Canji Mot, where they believed they might find shelter for those young.

  “The two ship minds, named Ranlola and Birnala, became our instructors through the first generation, as the larval forms pupated to emerge in various adult forms. When there were enough adults, with adequate knowledge to guide our Hothor benefactors to help care for a new generation, the two ship minds grew silent. The ships have not responded since the early orbits of our arrival here, but they have automatically maintained themselves, so we know they retain a form of life.”

  Maggi made an admission. “We have encountered other living ships from that same era. Some have retained their active minds, and some are what we describe as catatonic, or asleep. It appears possible those that are asleep can slowly recover, two of them have. Your former instructor ships may also be able to do that if they receive proper help.”

  Frithda grew excited. “Others of our people had survived with those ships?”

  “I’m sorry, but none that we know of did.” Mirikami told him. “We had believed your entire species was extinct. I think the Krall e
fficiently hunted the survivors down and killed them on worlds where you formerly lived. Finding any of you alive was extremely gratifying.”

  Prola made the twitching gesture with one finger digit, then flared two unnoticed small vestigial wings on the back of her lower section, and refolded them.

  She revealed the thought that had sparked that reaction. “We have recently learned through the Hothor that others of our kind must have survived, but instead of people like the Hothor, they fell into the control of the Thandol, or perhaps some species that traded them to the Thandol for some long past favor. The Thandol say those other Olt’kitapi have granted them permission to reclaim our old empire. A governing concept we would never embrace, so we know it is a lie.

  “From Hanbi’s explanation, we understand you have encountered a Thandol Crusher ship at two of your worlds, and that you intend to oppose their announced plan to annex that region. I cannot believe you expect a peaceful people like the Hothor to join you in a fight, and you certainly didn’t know we were here. Not that we will join you either. That would bring destruction onto us and to our friends. What did you seek here?”

  “What they have been giving us and now what you have given.” Mirikami admitted. “Information about the Thandol and the races that provide security for them within the Empire. We don't know if we’ll have to face those security forces, one or all of them, or if the Thandol will also engage us in the fight.”

  Prola twitched one antenna. “We have no combat skills, but we have studied the Empire, and how the Thandol control the species within its boundaries. For intimidation, they will send one or more of their eight Crusher class ships. They have thousands of much smaller, but similar shaped warships, but the giant ships were built to present a dominate appearance, to awe their opponents into submission without a fight. They will use their massive technology advantages if they need to personally confront a rebellion, or annex a combative star traveling new species.