Koban: The Mark of Koban

by Stephen W Bennett

  When her keen nose detected the faint scent of gazelle on the northerly breeze, she quickly moved with maximum stealth to the highest point on her mound of rocks. The direct breeze there sharpened the scent. She couldn’t see them, but the strength and variation in scent told her they were not very far, and there was more than one. Probably the same ones she had pursued into this cursed and enclosed territory. She started down, and moved into the uncropped grass, moving in the direction the breeze told her to go. At least the high grass was better concealment than if vast herds had grazed it all to the shortness found outside.

  She moved cautiously, staying low to scent the air, to ensure she was still moving in the right direction. Luckily, the breeze remained constant, coming off the great ocean to the south. She knew from experience that it would stay that way most of the day. However, it wasn’t long before she found a trail to follow that didn’t depend on the breeze. The small herd had passed this way, moving into the same breeze, using it to detect the smell of threats in front of them. Merki’s nose confirmed they were the same prey she had pursued previously.

  She noticed the freshness of their scent and of their droppings, and observed the small detail that they were nibbling only the tender tops of the seed laden grass tips. This told her the prey was not very far ahead. The gazelles had browsed at their leisure, calm and complacent because there had been no sign or scent of predators for many days. Merki wanted to keep them relaxed that way a little bit longer.

  Confident she knew where they were, Merki diverted to a gentle rise to her right, where she would be high enough to see the prey over the grass and what lay ahead and to the sides. She needed to maximize her chances for a kill, to take advantage of any terrain features.

  From the higher vantage point, she could clearly see the relatively straight course the prey had made through the three-foot high grass. Their backs, heads, and horns were clearly visible above the grass. A darker blue meandering dip in the grass, away from the rise Merki was on, told her that in heavy rain, the runoff from this low hill followed that course, towards a spot the prey would soon cross.

  That was a place to lay in wait. To burst out from the side of the trail they were blazing in the grass. There would be several animals close enough for a good chance to knock one down. Even a pursuit should be easier in the high grass, since it would hinder them more than her, with her mass and strength to force her way through thick grass.

  Dropping to her belly, she crept into the shallow gully and followed it to near where she could hear them rustling in the grass ahead of her. They made contented little bleats and snorts from time to time, as they nibbled the nutritious seed covered tips. She was careful to stay far enough back to prevent small vagaries in the direction of the breeze from bringing them her scent. Once they started crossing the gully, she would crawl until near enough to rush them and pounce.

  They were nearly to the gully when they stopped their rustling of the grass, and made nervous snorting sounds. Something had put them on alert, but she was sure it wasn’t herself. She had not started to move again and the breeze had not changed to bring them her scent. Raising her head slightly, keeping it well below the grass tops, her nose tested the breeze but detected nothing out of the ordinary. However, her ears picked up a faint whine in the far distance, from the other side of the trail the gazelles were making.

  It sounded much like a not-life sound of an airborne carrier for the red ones, or even the slow ones. She knew the concerned gazelles would all be looking that way. Merki risked raising her head a bit higher so she could see farther east, where the sound originated. Low in the sky was a dark shape that was clearly one of the not-life carriers of the slow ones. It was nearly motionless, but it would frighten away a desperately needed kill if it came closer.

  However, it did give her a perfect distraction if she acted now, and the slow ones were less risk to her kind that the red ones. She started crawling along the bottom of the gully, closing the distance, passing between tufts of clumped grass silently, the waving tips masked by the breeze, while the gazelles were watching the not-life noisemaker.

  Suddenly, she saw movement through the grass ahead of her, to the left, the rump of a gazelle, its hooves dancing nervously, facing the wrong threat. She leaped without a sound, she thought, but the skittish animal appeared to have heard or sensed something, but the visible threat in front and “something” heard from behind was enough to confuse and delay its leap. It was still lowering its haunches to spring when it lost the battle for survival. Merki landed on the helpless animal, claws firmly implanted, and powerful jaws clamped on the back of the neck. She snapped its neck with a savage twist and it went limp and collapsed.

  The other six gazelles started a frantic dash through the grass directly away from the now definite threat, towards the unknown object that had not attacked them. Merki started back along the trail the gazelles had made, taking advantage of the tramped down grass to avoid leaving a new swath of waving and crushed grass to reveal her passage. She needed to get closer to her den quickly, where there were areas clear of tall grass, and she could make better time without leaving a visible trail.

  ****

  Marlyn offered an observation as they flew towards the panicked gazelles. “They’re splitting up and turning away now that we’re closing with them, so they were frightened by something besides us. But I thought you said there were seven, Dillon.”

  Unable to see them through the hatch once the shuttle turned towards them, Dillon said “Yes. There were definitely seven. The helmet had an icon for each and numbered them. Why?”

  “Because only six of them branched away from us as we flew near. There are only six trails in the grass leading back to where they started. One of them is missing, so are you thinking what I’m thinking?”

  Thad nodded. “There’s only one predator in the compound that we know of, so it may have come to us after all. Noreen, take us higher and we can look for IR signatures, starting from where the stampede began.”

  From several thousand feet, the IR splotch streaking along the gazelle’s back trail was clear. It suddenly made a left turn onto a rock-strewn outcrop and left the high grass.

  “It’s making for that rock covered hill about a mile ahead, I think. If it has a den, we’d have to go down on foot to root it out. I don’t plan to face a ripper on the ground. I lost my sense of sportsmanship with those raptors on a previous rock pile. A ripper has at least twice the intelligence. Rifles on automatic Dillon, this magnificent beast can’t be allowed to make it home.”

  “Noreen, we’ll both fire out of the left side hatch, where you have the best view from the pilot’s seat. Go down to a few hundred feet and overtake the ripper. Try to keep as steady a pace as possible. Dillon, let’s see if we can make head shoots. We want as intact a carcass as possible.”

  The ripper obviously knew they were there, the noise would be impossible to miss as they drew close. Yet it did not drop the gazelle it had in its jaws, which would have increased its speed and mobility.

  Both men settled on their stomachs at the hatch floor, rifles protruding. The shuttle slowed from roughly sixty knots to about thirty-five, the pace of the ripper. The ripper rolled its eyes in their direction, but maintained a grip on the gazelle. Its reluctance to drop the prey seemed to speak to great hunger, yet it was a beautifully muscled animal, running steadily and powerfully.

  “Dillon, on my mark, we both shoot. Ready, set, fire!”

  Amazingly, the first two carefully aimed shots missed when the big cat braked briefly, and turned away as the muzzle flashes occurred.

  ****

  What Merki couldn’t anticipate was that these heavier weapons were automatics, something the pride’s mind images could not convey based on experiences with the red ones. The volume of stingers that flew from the sticks proved unavoidable. One bullet struck her right shoulder, and passed down through her body, nicking her great heart. Another struck her lower jaw, shattering that. She stumble
d and fell, releasing the gazelle her doomed cubs had needed if she was to insure their survival.

  Merki struggled to regain her feet but her body would not obey. She was bleeding out, and knew she was dying. She thought these slow one’s might have actually been seeking her. She had killed two of them, and had a mind image received from the female before she died, that her “pride” would protect their own. Something Merki could understand.

  She sank and rolled to her left side, pain wracking her chest as each beat of her heart pushed her life’s blood through the opening torn in one chamber. The stingers had stopped flying, but she could do nothing if they had not. She felt something strange happening inside, where she sensed her cubs in distress. They were moving, shifting position in response to hormone changes triggered by the desperate run, and now her injury and blood loss.

  Merki experienced pain and spasms in her rear quarters and internally, not related to her great wound. When placed in context with existing mind pictures, this told her she was experiencing an accelerated delivery of her cubs. Her dying body was attempting to give birth, possibly to permit another lactating female of the pride to suckle her cubs.

  Only she was all alone. At best they would die connected to her umbilical, at worst eaten by those that had killed her. Then oddly, a strong mind picture that could not have come from her pride pushed its way forward into her fading mind. The female she had killed had wanted cubs of her own. Her “pride” of slow ones loved their own cubs, of course, but often loved the cubs of other species. They may not save them, but they would never eat her cubs. She experienced one final lucid moment before expelling her cubs in their membranous sac. She sent them a powerful mental image of their mother’s devotion and love.

  ****

  The shuttle hovered at low altitude, well to the side of the downed ripper, blowing the grasses and dust about violently. All four on board were watching the heaving sides of the great teal colored cat as it took its final breaths, blood pouring from the massive shoulder wound.

  Noreen was the first to notice, because the left side cockpit window was closest. “Oh my God! It’s a pregnant female, she’s aborting.”

  She abruptly set down and shut off the thrusters. Both men kept steady aim on the motionless huge cat, ready to resume a withering fire if the animal so much as twitched. Noreen rushed to the left rear hatch and looked ready to step outside when Dillon reached over to place a gauntlet on her thigh, holding her back.

  “Noreen, don’t go out there, what if it’s waiting for us to do just that?”

  “Dillon, it just gave birth, as it quit breathing. We may be able to keep the cub alive if we act fast. We may never get another chance to see a live one up close.” He heard the urgency in her voice, echoed immediately by Marlyn.

  The two men got to their feet, and motioning the women to draw their weapons and stay behind them, they stepped down into the grass, now blown flat. Keeping their rifles trained on the still cat, they cautiously covered the twenty feet to the beautifully muscled animal. Its teal fur was short and sleek.

  The men were startled by a slight movement near the ripper’s rear. Then shocked when the two women abruptly went around them, and approached the bluish pink translucent sack where the movement was located.

  Noreen reached back with an impatient wave of her right hand to Dillon, who had protectively stepped close behind her. “Give me your knife, quick!”

  He bent down, drew the eighteen-inch blade, and gave it to her handle first.

  She quickly inserted the sharp tip in a lifting motion and cut the wet and bloody looking sack open. She and Marlyn pulled the membrane away and revealed two slimy and wet looking little teal colored cubs. The two umbilical cords, as with mammal analogs of many worlds, passed through the sack and into their dead mother. They were wriggling and mewling, their eyes closed.

  With “ooohs” and “ahhhs,” Noreen gathered the two cords and cut them both, with enough slack left for her to tie them in knots. She and Marlyn then each reached down to gently pick them up with hands hooked under their front legs. Ignoring the mess, they cradled the wet cubs against their shirts, using their sleeves to wipe at their mewling faces.

  Marlyn was the first to place her hand under the chin of her four-pound cub, were there was a fleshy frill under its chin. She instantly froze, with her thumb and forefinger cupped under the cubs chin. None of the others noticed that right away. Then Noreen also placed her bare hand under the second cub’s neck to raise its head, and she promptly ceased moving and cooing to the little ripper.

  Thad noticed Marlyn’s stillness and touched her arm in the process of asking her a question. “Hey, why so…” The words froze in his mouth. Even filtered through the gauntlet’s contact with her arm, the confusing images were startling for their novelty and clarity. He saw flashes of life through the eyes of generations of rippers. Felt a ripper’s delight at the sense of terror experienced from their prey, understood the now dead father’s fateful instructions to his mate. He saw the images of the two humans the ripper had killed in her hunger, experienced the mother’s powerful last message of love to her cubs, and sensed her regret for killing the female human who had wanted cubs of her own.

  Thad cried out and pulled Marlyn’s hand away from the cub as he pulled back. She nearly collapsed, abruptly sitting down, bursting into tears.

  Dillon was now aware that something strange was happening, connected in some way with the cubs; he reached down to pull the cub from Noreen’s arms. As his armored hand made contact with hers, he also touched the cub’s frill. He experienced the same kaleidoscope of images pouring into his mind.

  After several seconds, with an effort of sheer will power, he broke contact by pulling his hand away. However, Noreen remained frozen with her hand on the cub’s neck. He now knew the source of the mesmerizing images, and how to end them. He had to break Noreen’s contact with the frill without his touching her directly with his conductive armor or bare skin. He snatched off his fabric pistol and ammo belt, dropped the end through the gap between her right arm and side, looped it under her wrist and pulled her hand away. He did this gently. He didn’t want her to drop the cub, simply to break the connection.

  Noreen also had tears in her eyes, and looked wobbly on her legs. Dillon helped her sit, as Thad also moved to support Marlyn from behind. The two men, helmet faceplates already open, looked at each other, the look of amazement and wonder mutually apparent, and they each knew the other understood exactly what they had both experienced. Knew what the two women must have felt, only stronger with their bare skin contact, and for a longer time.

  Thad summed it up in his own delicate and expressive manner. “Holy crap! That was intense.”

  Dillon agreed. “I was nearly knocked over by the raw emotions and images. I could sense it was filtered down through secondary contact with Noreen, but I believe my dual nervous system may have fed me the images more strongly than I would have experienced otherwise. I experienced each image twice. Did you?”

  “I absolutely did. I also picked up feelings and images that didn’t come from that cub or its mother. Marlyn, is that how you really feel about me?” He was kneeling beside her, leaning over to look into her eyes.

  Dazed, Marlyn answered, her tears having ended. “I sensed your worry and fear for me, how protective and caring you felt. And you have one wicked fantasy that I think I’ll be happy to fulfill, you randy man!” Her voice grew stronger as she finished, flashing him a sultry smile.

  Looking down at the cub she said, “I also think I’ll keep my bare hand off that little gal’s neck for a bit. I definitely want to be better prepared next time.” She realized she held a little female, and her brother was resting in Noreen’s lap.

  Noreen was also emphatic. “I agree. I will try that again. However, it needs to be under controlled conditions, and I’ll be in a better mentally prepared state. Oh, and Dillon, I accept!”

  “Huh?” he responded, a marvelous reflection on what a brill
iant perceptive scientist he was.

  “That was a marriage proposal I sensed from you, you big dummy. I was going to ask you, just as a proper Lady should. Nevertheless, I’ll ‘sign the line’ and ‘tie the knot.’ That will be shortly after we return to Prime City with this new genetic treasure for Aldry and Rafe. The first example of contact telepathy humanity has ever discovered.”

  Thad agreed with the quick return. “Dillon, grab that cargo net from the shuttle. We need to take the adult ripper back with us, and see if she has any milk we can extract and replicate for these soon to be hungry cubs. I’ll call Tet to tell him what we’ve found, and that we need to get back to Prime City today.”

  Noreen had a better idea. “No, please, let me call him. I hope this news will take his mind off my punching the lights out of Cahill. Besides, I can invite him to the wedding and bribe him with an offer to make him a godfather. Oh, that reminds me. Dillon, like you were thinking, I also want to have a boy first.”

  “Huh?”

  “Close your mouth love, there are flies out here.”

  11. Operation Deep Lance

  The president was tired of excuses from the Planetary Union Navy. Three years of expensive breakneck construction, and the Krall were still raiding Rim and New Colony worlds at will. Her conduit into the inner workings of the Navy was her military advisor, Admiral Anderfem, retired. She was on the carpet right now, and told to sit quiet and hear the President out.

  Stanford had her summary list for reference. “Jean, you passed along the Navy’s requests to me, with your recommendation to support their construction programs and to push for them in Parliament. I did that, and every program requested was approved and budgeted.