Koban 5: A Federation Forged in Fire

by Stephen W Bennett

  “Trevor, I admire your willingness to go back down there after escaping by the skin of your teeth. That was a hell of a trip up here for all of you. I’m willing to stay up here with others, to fly cover if anyone is willing to land. Just give me some of your damn missiles. I don’t want to risk another intersect to get so close they can’t shoot my ass off.”

  “Speaking of your ass Macy, have you picked the pieces of that Thandol ship out of your butt yet? What about the two prisoners your crew pulled alive from the airtight compartments, which sheared off with you when you Jumped away?”

  “I had to smack them around a bit to Mind Tap them. They didn’t think a small person like me should be trying to push them around. The big apes. What is about large bullies anyway and smaller people? They just naturally want to lord it over you. The Ragnar do seem to have more complex and normal thoughts than a Krall has. At least thoughts more complex than; I want to kill you for status points, or I’ll cut off pieces while you watch. They seem a bit smarter too.

  “Assuming those two low ranking crew…” She paused. “Crew what? Not crewmen. Crew apes? They look sort of like Earth’s extinct mountain gorillas, only with longer and straighter legs, no skull crest and less massive jaws. They have some long canines, and both of them tried to bite me and pull my arms off, after thumping their chests and huffing at me. After I thumped my own chest, and demonstrated some of our Kobani capability, they seem to think several of their teeth will grow back, and they know their arms will eventually heal. If they keep trying to bite me, there is a limit to how often they get to try that. They’ll have to learn to suck juice through a straw the next time.

  “Anyway, assuming those two are typical of their race, they’re a cut above the average Krall mentally, but still murderous and probably genocidal. I think we may even be able to learn to speak their language directly. I’ll bet they can make the sounds of our speech. They displayed quite a range of sounds just before trying to attack me, and after that, as they apparently complained about their arms and teeth, licking their busted lips.

  “I easily understood what they were thinking, even without words. I was wrong about that one ship being the fleet’s flagship because it stayed out of the fight, and it was always so protected. I learned it carried some big wig Thandol from the Emperor’s court, sent along to watch what happened here.

  “At least we know what the Ragnar look like now. Per the prisoner’s own thoughts, they believe they’re the strongest, baddest asses in the Empire, and they don’t like the Thandol. It’s only the Thandol’s greatly superior weapons, military power, and other advanced technology that keep them in check, I think.”

  In afterthought she said, “Oh. I almost forgot. There was a dead, but higher-ranking Ragnar in a compartment opened to vacuum, with an embedded communicator in his head. It’s less sophisticated than our Comtaps, or even the Olts and mind enhancers, but it has circuitry that my AI thinks is for Tachyon Space long-range communications. It should contain some stored addresses to devices belonging to VIPs in the Ragnar hierarchy, or possibly to some of the Thandol. We might find a use for those links.”

  “Well, enough of that for now. I need to commune with Tet for a bit, so if anyone wants to go down to any of the four colonies before reinforcements arrive, go ahead. We’ll have help in less than an hour.”

  ****

  Two days later, after an assessment of the attack on Zanzibar, the damages suffered and the losses tallied for both sides, Mirikami was extremely worried.

  “Macy, it was your people’s guts, those seat-of-the-pants space dogfight skills, and our stealth, which made all the difference here. If the enemy knew how deadly that Debilitater beam is against an exposed Kobani, they could have used those projectors against our ships. I don't know what the beam range is in a vacuum, but it would certainly be less attenuated and disbursed than in atmosphere.

  “It could probably be scaled up for use in space. All they need to do is get a small percentage of that radiation onto our exposed skin, or through our clothing, and we’re toast.”

  Dillon didn’t think the risk was so high. “Tet, the hulls of our ships are impervious to nearly any external radiation. I thought that was what the stealth coatings regulated. Any electromagnetic radiation, particularly the high frequencies that beam uses are reflected or absorbed without penetrating.”

  Mirikami shook his head. “Some of that radiation is what entered Greco Pollarie’s ship as it rose from the river. I don’t know for certain how the radiation got inside, perhaps through an open weapons port, but everyone on the Bridge and in one missile reload bay with an open door were dead, with obvious self-induced injuries, like those the Kobani that died on the surface or in the culverts suffered. Only the people in totally sealed metal lined compartments survived, and even they were rendered unconscious for hours from the slight radiation leakage.

  “Our muscles can’t break our own bones, like happened with the Normals, and clone mod folks. But all of our people suffered dislocations, extensive tissue damage from violent flipping and contorting against hard surfaces, and some have actual nerve damage in their brains.”

  Noreen brought up a previous idea. “What about the idea of improving our armor, and wearing the conductive mesh sheathing under that, for the slight electromagnetic leakage at the joints?”

  “Max, and our technical group says that should work, and they’re examining that for us. As fighters, we can always try to enter combat situations protected that way. Except the Thandol already use this weapon as a common tool to enforce compliance on their subservient races. On civilians. We can’t expect our civilian population to live covered up like that all of the time. The beam is serious for a normal nervous system, fatal for ours, and probably for any life from Koban. We can’t easily put conductive mesh clothes on rippers, to take them into combat.

  “The Thandol will soon figure out these super bodies and fast reactions of ours have a previously unrecognized vulnerability, an Achilles Heel if you will. The radiation’s effect is greatly amplified by our superconducting nervous system. If we can’t find a solution, we definitely can’t win this war on our own. Hell we might not even survive this war, unless we prepare to flee again, like we were ready to do from the Krall.”

  Sarge nudged him and added a lighter note. “Best not let Maggi hear you sounding so defeatist. She’ll do more than jangle your nerves.”

  Mirikami smiled. “True. But up until now, I always believed we were physically capable of taking care of ourselves, and our allies. I saw us as the lynch pin of the Federation, not the people that would be its point of failure.”

  He shrugged. “I’ll never give up, even if I have to live in chainmail clothes and underwear for the rest of my expected long life. Max has promised us some new weapons technology, and I’ll be briefing Stewart and the Federation Council next. If the nature and effect of this Thandol weapon is shared widely enough in our own ranks, we have some bright people with wolfbat memory organization. Who knows what we might come up with to defend ourselves from the Thandol Empire?

  ****

  President MacDougal’s announced and impending system wide Comtap broadcast had been discussed for a couple of days on Haven and Koban. Part of the story had become common knowledge. What was known is that there was a new sort of weapon, used by the Thandol Empire to control uprisings among their own restive populations. It generally was not used to cause many fatal results.

  However, it was somehow far more deadly to a Kobani. It disabled them quickly, and killed them in situations where a Normal could survive. The Galactic Federation’s future existence was considered at risk if there was no defense found for the strongest defenders of their freedom.

  The Thandol Empire had its sights on annexing all of Federation Space. Once they learned about the adjacent Planetary Union, they would presumably want to acquire that region as well, adding all of humanity to their list of subservient species in their expanding empire.

  Two of the
people waiting to hear what was to be said were Vince Naguma and Sarah Bradley. They no longer worked as researchers on Raspani health and welfare on Koban, in the abandoned covered compound at Hub City, because their subjects had all moved to Haven. Those Raspani now had mind enhancers embedded, restoring their awareness.

  Vince had been a wolfbat casualty on his first day on Koban, losing his left hand to an attack. He now had a regenerated left hand, and regenerated missing fingers on his right hand. He’d never resumed working in his former field of microbiology, and his work with Sarah on Raspani recovery had drawn the two closer than just friends and coworkers.

  Sarah’s work on alien viral and bacterial life had provided a shared interest for the two scientists, and added to their mutual attraction. Although Vince was considerably older than Sarah was, with Kobani mods, rejuvenation, and indefinite life extension, their age differences became irrelevant. They had formally “Signed the Line,” entering into an open-ended marriage contract. They continued to work together, deciding that the larger and exotic life of Koban needed studying more than its microbes.

  They heard Stewart’s description of how the Thandol weapon was used, and he sent edited recorded images of its terrible effects on its living victims. Then he said it was much more severe for Kobani, easily fatal at intensities survivable by most other races.

  Next, he told everyone how the weapon caused its effects, and why they were so much greater in a Kobani’s organic superconducting nervous system. The human and alien physicists were seeking some technological means to shield not only the fighters, but also the cities and homes where Kobani families lived. The best solution they had for now was to build shelters for their entire population, and wire suits around individuals.

  Vince and Sarah looked at each other, and simultaneously said, “Kuttlefish!”

  *******************************************************************

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  DRAMATIS PERSONAE

  HUMANS

  Former crew from Flight of Fancy

  Tetsuo Mirikami

  Captain of captured Flight of Fancy. From Old Colony of New Honshu, in the Hub area. Became Commander of Prime City after Krall left Koban. Captain of the Mark of Koban, a captured Krall clanship. Leader of the Kobani.

  Noreen Renaldo

  Former First Officer of Flight of Fancy. From Old Colony of Ponce, in the Hub area. Married Dillon Martin. Mother of TGs Carson, Katelyn, and Cory. Captain of the Avenger, a stolen Krall clanship.

  Jake (Artificial Intelligence)

  An old model JK series AI computer, installed on Flight of Fancy. Able to operate many of the ship systems autonomously. Repository of vast human library of documents, books, films, Tri-Vid shows, etc. A common capability on long Jump passenger liners. Later, the software is cloned and named Jakob for reuse. The cloned software is eventually placed in a modern AI system aboard the Mark of Koban, Mirikami’s captured and converted Krall clanship.

  (Chief) Mike Haveram

  Was once Chief of the Drive Room on the Flight of Fancy. Now captain of the Falcon, a former smuggler’s ship purchased on Poldark. He helps supply Koban with goods and weapons from Human Space.

  Macy Gundarfem

  Former Motorfem on Flight of Fancy. One of the “Drive Rats.”

  John Yin-Lee

  Former Motorman on Flight of Fancy. One of the “Drive Rats.”

  Andrew Johnson

  Former Motorman on Flight of Fancy. One of the “Drive Rats.”

  Nory Walters

  Former Chief Steward on Flight of Fancy.

  Mel Rigson

  Former Steward and Medical technician on Flight of Fancy.

  Cal Branson

  Former Steward and Medical technician on Flight of Fancy.

  Other former stewards

  Javier Vazquez

  Alfon Hanson

  Jason Sieko

  Bob Campbell

  Machinist Mate.

  Neri Bar

  Machinist Mate.

  Chack Nauguza

  Cargo Specialist, handy man.

  Passengers from the Fancy, and various other ships, and early captives

  Dillon Martin

  Professor of biological sciences, sent to Midwife to study developing primitive life. Hidden specialty is forbidden genetics research. From Rhama, a New Colony, close to the Hub worlds. Married Noreen Renaldo. Father of TGs Carson, Katelyn, and Cory. Works on Kobani gene mods.

  Maggi Fisher

  Professor of biological sciences, Chairfem of Board of Director’s on Midwife project. From Rhama. Organizing unofficial teams to recover lost genetic knowledge. Later, first Mayor of Prime City. Works in Kobani gene mods. She marries (Signs the Line) with Captain Mirikami.

  Aldry Anderfem

  Professor of biological sciences, granddaughter of Claronce Anderson, a former President of Alders world. Supports secret Genetics research. Administered first human Clone mods in three hundred years, to make Second Generation Kobani. Helps design and implement Kobani mods.

  Rafe Campbell

  Studied human genetic mutations from cosmic rays on Brussels, a New Colony. Wife Isadora killed on ship by a Krall, “exercising.” Dove into Koban genetic studies when given a chance to make humans physically superior to the Krall. Chief designer of Kobani gene mods.

  Other Captives (at Koban Prime, later renamed Prime City)

  Mavray Doushan

  Was Poldark's Deputy Ambassador to Bollovstic's Republican Independency. Both are Rim worlds. Made first warning recording of Krall raiders intentions. Killed as collaborator for trying to negotiate better treatment by the Krall.

  Thaddeus Greeves

  Former Colonel of a Diplomatic Security detail for Poldark Ambassador. Married Marlyn Rodriguez. Father of TGs Ethan, Bradley, and Danner.

  Marlyn Rodriguez

  First Officer of Rimmer’s Dream, arrived in mass capture of human ships. Married Thad Greeves. Mother of TGs Ethan, Bradley, and Danner. Captain of the Beagle, a stolen Krall clanship. Killed in raid on K1.

  Deanna Turner

  Organizer of the first Primes to volunteer to work with the Flight of Fancy personnel. On Mirikami’s combat team.

  Frank Constansi

  Clarice Femfreid

  Juan Wittgenstein

  Early Prime volunteers to work with Mirikami. On Mirikami’s Testing Day combat team.

  Next Generation Kobani

  Carson Martin

  Parents Noreen and Dillon, born an SG, received Koban gene mods to become Third Generation Kobani. Marries Alyson Formby.

  Ethan Greeves

  Parents Marlyn and Thad, born an SG, received Koban gene mods to become Third Generation Kobani.

  Alyson Formby

  Born in Hub City as an SG. At eighteen, left home to request Koban mods, against her parent’s wishes. Became first TG from Hub City, then first to be a TG1 from there. Married Carson Martin.

  Jorl Breaker

  Fred Saber

  Bill Saber

  Their parents were all early Koban captives. At sixteen, they become TGs.

  HUMAN SPACE

  Garland (Sarge) Reynolds

  Sergeant in the PU Army on Poldark. Captured by the Krall, and in a fluke of circumstance is taken to Koban, and is there rescued by the Kobani, twenty years into the war with the Krall. His arrival and rescue from a captured clanship is key the event for the Kobani to travel to Human Space.

  Henry Nabarone

  Major General of the Planetary Union Army, in charge of Poldark’s defense. Formerly in a local militia unit, and second in command after Colonel Thaddeus Greeves of that same unit. Becomes a Kobani.

  Joseph Longstreet

  Captain of a platoon of spec
ops troops, expanded to absorb remnants of units suffering losses from missions behind Krall lines on Poldark. Becomes a Kobani.

  William Crager

  Former “Top” Sargent of spec ops training on Heavyside. Becomes a Kobani.

  Golda Mauss

  Admiral that commanded first two naval raids on K1, participated in a third as ship captain and advisor. Becomes a Kobani.

  Adriana Bledso

  Naval Chief of Staff. Becomes Chairfem of Joint Chiefs of Staff of Planetary Union military.

  Heavyside

  A Rim world planet, not considered suitable for mass human colonization. Located on the anti-spinward side of human exploration, on the far side of Human Space from the Krall invasion. It has 1.41 times Earth’s gravity. Originally, it was named Andropov’s World, after Admiral Elaine Andropov, a long dead war hero from before the Collapse. The nickname for the planet eventually became the accepted name. Heavyside is now home of the Special Operations training program. Site of a second gene lab for converting selected spec ops candidates into Kobani.

  KRALL

  Tot Gatrol Telour

  Originally a Krall translator, of Graka Clan. Second in command of Newborn Raid. Placed in charge of captives at Koban Prime. Became second in command to Tor Gatrol Kanpardi, with the title/rank of Til Gatrol. Became Tor after arranging Kanpardi’s murder.