Koban: The Mark of Koban

by Stephen W Bennett

  “Come on, Tet, you are a terrific strategist and leader, but a poor politician.”

  He sat down with a sour grin on his face, shaking his head in dismay. “God, it’s going to be hell trying to rein in reckless teenaged super humans.”

  Dillon came to the defense of those teenagers. “Tet, the risks and threats of this planet made most of the kids more cautious and well behaved when they were younger. Those lessons will carry through with them now.”

  Mirikami thought, he surely means the other people’s kids.

  Quick to demonstrate the fallacy in Dillon’s argument, Tet aimed directly at the two notable exceptions he and Thad would find it hard to ignore. Their oldest sons.

  Mirikami ticked off the list of questionable and risky things those two boys had tried or actually accomplished. “Carson and Ethan live tested saddles to ride rhinolo, in a stampede that they deliberately caused. They tried pulling plows behind wild moosetodon for farming the savanna. Teased a whiteraptor from the walls, just to pluck the forearm feathers when they tried to climb up, giving the feathers to girls. Went out of the compound and caught a desert panther in a hand net so they could check its frill. Went backpacking to the foothills to the north, a hundred ten miles away for three weeks after school ended this past summer, completely unapproved. Without Kobalt along, they’d probably be dead. Do you recall the wolfbat capture when they were only eight or nine? These are just some of the dangerous things that we know they’ve done, with their current physical capabilities. Do you think making them stronger and faster will curtail that sort of risk taking?”

  Maggi offered her opinion. “They were going to do those things anyway, Tet. Hell, they did do them. Being faster and stronger would have made their chances of success, or at least of survival, that much greater each time.”

  It was Mirikami’s turn to snicker. “How fast and strong do you have to be, to not get trampled in a rhinolo stampede when your poorly designed saddles slide down a rhinolo’s humped sloping back and on the ends of their butts? It must have been like steering an avalanche, with those useless ropes on the side nose horns. Without Kobalt and Kit there to save them by splitting up the herd and cutting their rides out of the crowd, they probably would have been trampled into mushy red mud at age fifteen. To what purpose? Who the hell wants or needs to ride a rhinolo? I say those seventeen year old boys are still too immature, and there will be admiring sixteen year olds joining them, following the bad examples.”

  Dillon started to speak in his son’s defense. “I think it would be thrilling to ride a…” he was rudely interrupted by a whack on the head from Maggi.

  Crap! He thought. Sides sure change fast around here.

  “You aren’t helping their case you childish twit,” Maggi told him. “You presumably have the maturity Tet expects them to display before they receive the next Kobani mods. Bad example, knucklehead.”

  Mirikami, normally entertained by the bickering between Maggi and Dillon, was worried about not just his two godsons, but for all of the Second Generation kids. “Let’s get the Circle together and go talk to Rafe.” He Linked with the AI.

  “Jake, locate the rest of the Inner Circle members and invite them to meet with me at Rafe’s lab, and tell Rafe we will be visiting him in about a half hour.”

  “Yes Sir.”

  He was referring to the former Koban Committee members, which had evolved into calling themselves the Inner Circle, which had formulated the early tactics for surviving on Koban. First against the Krall, and later against the hostile native environment. Both challenges had been partly met with genetic technology out of Aldry and Rafe’s labs.

  He saw both Maggi and Dillon roll their eyes, thinking at first they were in disagreement with him to meet, until he listened to their replies. He heard an exasperated Maggi say, “Jake, Dillon and I were standing right next to him when he made the invitation. You can see us all right there on that camera.” She pointed at the lens in irritation.

  Dillon merely sighed and said, “OK Jake, I’ll be there.” Mirikami had asked the literal AI to invite the rest of the members.

  After seventeen years, the same basic group of people made most of the decisions about what direction the gene modifications would take, and which Koban mods would, or would not be used. Rafe’s department decided when they could be used, and to be integrated in what order.

  With time, and general acceptance of some gene mods, the number of people considered part of the “Circle” had grown only slightly, but secrecy about mods was no longer an issue.

  There was SG children and modified humans living in Hub City, as well as Prime City. Not all SG kids had Koban nerve genes, because many conservative Hub City parents would not accept the legal risks of accepting alien genes for themselves, to pass to their children. That was an odd and meaningless legal position to take in some respects. Under Hub law, the clone derived modifications that made their survival here easier, and bearing children possible, already placed all of them at risk of the death penalty back home. Koban genes wouldn’t earn you a “more serious” death penalty.

  ****

  Rafe was well aware of Tet’s concerns, and of his general opposition to implementing the next round of Koban genes with youngsters. The appointed “Commander,” after seventeen years of universal acceptance, had finally insisted on shifting the city to elected civilian leadership, and he had urged Maggi to run for mayor.

  Tet hadn’t realized how strongly five of the eight Inner Circle members had been in favor of making the next steps in gene mods available so soon. Maggi won election, and had promptly circulated a petition to see if there was support for a city law to give sixteen year olds a say in their genetic future. She smartly had the kids pass it around, ensuring full coverage and maximum lobbying at home. It was close to a 50-50 split on the polling, so she put the measure to a vote.

  Tet, Noreen, and Marlyn were the only members of the Inner Circle that had campaigned to wait until the kids were legal adults, at age twenty-one. Slightly less than a majority of the dome’s adult population had agreed with them. The slight majority of those over twenty-one voters, 51%, had said that the teenagers destined to receive the new mods should have some say in when they got them, not merely if they wanted them. Sixteen was old enough most said, since they had carried guns (jazzers first) from the age of six.

  The geneticists in two different labs had reported on the research and testing of the various Koban mods on livestock. The mods were thoroughly studied, and every problem they had identified had been corrected. The work had resulted in a number of “super” goats and pigs that could compete with the native fauna (inside the compound). With wolfbats and rippers now in partnerships with humans, they were no longer the greatest threat. The modified animals had proven adept at surviving outside on the native grasses and shrubs (and human scraps). Their speed, alertness, and reaction times could handle skeeters and small predators just fine. Not even the SG kids could catch them easily, and they did make a game of that.

  However, one facet of the animal gene work had revealed that integration of the Koban mods worked faster, and better, the earlier in the subject’s life they were introduced. When there still was some natural tissue and bone growth ahead for the gene recipient. Otherwise, the changes would cause considerable discomfort for a much longer period if introduced after maturity. Human growth hormones could prolong the rate of growth, to assist the process, but it had its limits when applied to an adult’s body. The expert’s recommendations? An informed decision, made in the teen years, was the optimum time morally, physically, and mentally, for a person to decide.

  With the known opposition in mind, Rafe mentally formulated his planned discussion around Tet’s and the two concerned mother’s objections, even though he didn’t want to appear to direct it to them specifically.

  “OK, here we are again. It’s been years since we last went over a list of new attributes available for various gene mods, deciding what we can use right now, and
in which particular order they should be applied.” Aldry had made the previous presentation, back when it was only human derived modifications under consideration. Rafe had become the Koban gene expert.

  Looking around the room at Marlyn, Thad, Noreen, and finally Tet, he decided to start with basics that the four nonscientists would better grasp. No matter had they heard some, or even most of it previously. “Before I start, are there items or areas you particularly want me to cover or focus on?”

  Marlyn spoke up first. “I’ll have questions about possible side effects on my son, but that can wait until you’ve finished. However…,” she paused as she glanced to her side, “do you have use for waste organics or useless body parts? I’ll be dismantling my dear husband shortly, if he keeps smirking over his side’s ‘victory’ on today’s vote.” She shot Thad a dark threatening look that wiped a smile off the burly military man’s face in an instant.

  Noreen echoed that look at Dillon, who had been more careful to keep the elation out of his expression. Years of ‘playful’ whacks had taught him to use a poker face when the chips were down, and if he was within arm’s reach. Maggi’s influence on his wife’s behavior was disturbing to him. She had never conked him before they were married. It didn’t occur to him that he invited that reaction by his sassy boy’s demeanor around women.

  “Ladies, and Gentle Men,” Rafe said laughing, “please settle your differences in the parking lot, after the presentation.”

  Certain that salient points had been made by the mothers, Rafe continued.

  “As with one of the original human clone mods, we have a Koban derived muscle improvement, where sheet-like filaments of carbon fiber muscle tissue will infiltrate virtually every existing muscle in the body, down to the eyelids, goose bumps, and butt cheeks. Initially we were expecting to use genes from whiteraptors for this purpose, simply because that’s where we first identified that tissue structure and the genes for them. However, it turned out for a couple of reasons, that ripper genes are a better match for our purpose. Rippers use the same carbon fibers in muscles, and pound for pound, the muscles are just as strong. However, they also offer superior neural interface compatibility with the eventual contact telepathy, night vision, and scent mods we will also copy from our ripper friends.

  “The new organic superconducting neuroreceptors and motor axons, which are presently lacking in those born with the parallel Koban nervous system, will grow and link with the existing Koban nervous system in their brains, and also with the new Koban muscle tissue. That will happen as they all grow simultaneously.

  “Conscious control of the new muscles with the faster nervous system will gradually take place. The sense of Déjà vu that we all experienced, when our new super-fast nervous systems grew in, will be rather reversed for the SG children. They never felt that “happened-before” sense, because they were born with the superconducting nerves, and learned from birth what we adults struggled with for months to learn. Ignore the first fast signal that tells our brain we need to swat at a bug, and focus on the slower impulses that actually controls our human muscles.

  “The SGs will be able, with focus and practice, to react to the faster signals and then command those stronger muscles to move sooner, harder, and faster, to obey the swifter processing of their brain. They will think faster and react faster than we can.

  “Animal tests suggested that the ‘echo effect,’ the inverse feeling of Déjà vu, will have them thinking ‘I already did that’ when the older human nervous system finally sends a message to the brain, and it returns back to the old human nerve receptors in their muscles. That will be at least five to ten times to slower, I might add. In later generations, we might switch off growth of the older slower nervous system, depending on the effects on interbreeding with Controls. We will not abandon the principle that our children and grandchildren must be able to marry and bear children with Normals. Not only enhanced Normals as defined on Koban. With Earth Normals.”

  “Next, coupled with Koban muscle strength, are the whiteraptor carbon nano tubes that reinforce raptor bones. Rippers don’t have this feature, nor need it for their smaller size and weight, but we wanted it for ourselves anyway. It makes the weaker thinner human bones far stronger without increasing bone thickness, and much less likely to snap if the new muscles overexert. An interface with the nervous system is less vital here, so raptor genes are OK for bones.”

  Rafe looked around. “Questions so far? We have talked about this for the last few years.”

  Tet had a technical question. “Rafe I know what an SG is, I’ve heard mention of an SG1 and an SG.5 bandied about in conversations, which I’ve overheard between you ‘brain trust’ scientists types. Yesterday, Aldry said something to Maggi about TGs and used some numbers. What are you folks talking about?”

  Rafe nodded. “OK, a simple chart, and I hope a fast explanation.” He paused a moment to order his thoughts, and turned to an electronic drawing board, and wrote with a finger, which a computer turned into print.

  SG

  SG.5

  SG1

  TG

  TG.5

  TG1

  STG

  TTG

  “Second Generation you know, but I bet you haven’t thought about graduations within that group. We commonly call all of the initial clone mod generation, ourselves included, SG’s, but there is a difference between, say Ethan and Carson, and most of the SG kids born over in Hub City.”

  Mirikami nodded. “Since you divided them that way, it’s obvious. Almost none of the Hub City kids have the redundant Koban nervous system. They were born only with the old clone mods, which are entirely derived from human genes. Nearly all of our kids have the Koban superconductor nerves. Is that the reason for the numbers?”

  “Yes, for the SG numbers. The Hub City kids are SGs, ours are really SG1’s, and if the two groups intermarry and have children, their offspring will be SG.5s. Exhibiting some combination of genes from both their parents, meaning about half will inherit Koban nerve genes, half will not.

  TG is Third Generation, which isn’t as straight forward as we envisioned originally. We anticipated we would not see a TG until two SG1’s married and reproduced, and we then incorporated the first of the functional Koban genes in them. That’s the very muscle and bone enhancements that we are discussing today, to give to our SG1’s.

  We are skipping ahead to create TGs earlier, because more years of research and testing have proved we can safely give an SG1 additional Koban genetics. Intermarriage between TGs and SGs or SG1s creates some other numbers.

  A child of an SG1 and TG1 is an STG, Second and Third Gen mixed. A child born as a Third Gen, not simply enhanced from a SG1, is a TG1. A TTG will be a True Third Generation Kobani. One born with every enhancement we envision, and both parents were TG1s.”

  Rafe shrugged. “I said fast explanation, and I lied. Sue me. But the chart’s simple.”

  Mirikami laughed and quipped. “You’ll hear from my lawyer.”

  “Humph. I thought the nasty Krall had all left.”

  “A lawyer joke? Rafe, I thought a serious scientist was above that.”

  Maggi spoke up as Rafe opened his mouth for a comeback. “Next genetic step, please. You two are like listening to Dillon and Thad.” A satisfying four at once putdown.

  “Oh…, right you are Maggi.” Rafe re-gathered his thoughts.

  “I’ll list the additional four Koban derived enhancements we expect to see in TTGs from birth, or perhaps added to TGs, if we have more animal tests to prove we can enhance them again safely. We may add even more Koban genes to our SG1’s that we turning into TGs. I know that this sounds like incest, but we won’t always have to wait for our kids to grow up, marry, and have kids to move along to some intermediate steps. We simply don’t want to take too many steps at once.

  “These next Koban mods I’ll describe are all sensory system genes, with complex brain connections. We aren’t willing to try them with the initial Koban mods,
at least not yet. These will give us ripper night vision, their sense of smell, and most importantly the contact telepathy sense. Ripper night vision isn’t full Infrared, as the Krall have, but it seems superior overall. We will also include ultrasonic hearing from the wolfbats, placing the tiny bones of the additional ear ossicles behind the eardrum, out of sight within the middle ear, and they connect to a new superconducting auditory nerve.”

  He looked around. “So…, that’s our list so far.”

  Thad, speaking finally, said, “I think I got everything, except for the icicles in the ears.” He grinned.

  Rafe, at first puzzled, suddenly made the connection. “Oh..., you mean ossicles. Those are tiny bones that…” Marlyn, with a jab in Thad’s ribs, interrupted. “Excuse him Rafe. My smart assed husband knows exactly what you said. It’s his lame sense of humor.”

  “Ah, Yes. I see the joke now.” Rafe gave a perfunctory chuckle.

  Not to be left out, Dillon added, “We have all the elements for a build-your-own super human kit.”

  “I like our son just as we made him!” Noreen retorted, still upset.

  Aldry, sensitive to Noreen and Marlyn’s objections, felt compelled to offer an observation. “Dear Ladies, we are unlikely to ever see the mothers that bore each of us again. However, think back. Would our own mothers have wanted us to undergo the gene changes we needed simply to survive here? Yet our mothers would surely have wanted us to live. Would your mothers feel different, if they knew that you experienced the joys of having your own children here, made possible only by those changes?

  “I’m positive you want your sons to survive, to marry, and to have your grandchildren. They are now capable of basic survival on Koban, but thriving, expanding, and long term survival is our goal.

  “We know, eventually, the Krall are coming back here. If a solitary Clanship returned in our lifetimes, would any of us survive that meeting as are now? Your two teenaged sons are stronger than most of the adult men in Prime City, but still physically helpless before our greatest enemy. Do you not feel an obligation to see that our descendants are prepared for that inevitable meeting?”