Koban 4: Shattered Worlds (102 page)

“Billions of deaths, with many innocent Krall’tapi included, created an unexpected wave through the alternate Universe, which registered powerfully in their Mind Expanders. The Olt’kitapi
chose
to die after that, easily achievable by a thought. They were aware that many millions of Krall were on other planets, and hundreds of planet disruptions could never eliminate them as they scattered. The infection-like spread of the exclude key had been halted even on Kratos, the Krall home world, by simple quarantine measures, once they understood how it was spread. It did not spread as quickly or as widely as expected, because the Krall had many weapons of their own making, and they were ruthless with each other, killing entire affected clans from a distance, or from the air.

“The code key alteration did not end their ability to make war. They still made older weapons at that time, which required no key, and it was impossible to reach all clanships, or every type of quantum keyed weapon, to spread the excluded DNA pattern.”

“How close do you have to be to do that?” Mirikami asked.

“From your library of length units, it would be 122 feet, 4 inches. That is very close to a plasma rifle, if it is firing at you.”

“Thank you Huwayla. We now know there are no working rifles near the control room, so we will rescue you soon from their attempted destruction.”

“Tet, I do not have what you would term a fear of termination. However, I have an obligation to keep those within me alive and safe, if possible, without interfering with their actions. I have failed in this for Pildon. His life signs have vanished from my sensors, although this may be due to destruction of sensor nodes around him.”

Mirikami linked to his assault teams. “The Krall at the control room have no functioning rifles, and their armor doesn’t work properly and they are pulling it off. Move in and take them down. They’re trying to kill the ship AI, and the soft Krall is already dead.”

Huwayla mourned the loss of Pildon, and his presumed project. “I regret that his four habitat construction projects will go uncompleted if my sister ships do not help. It was too much work for me, and I cannot help now.” 

Maggi said, “The projects never should have been started. You knew too little about them.”

The ship didn’t respond, and Mirikami reminded her, “Maggi, we need to put on our helmets and join the others. We can talk as we go, but we need to get moving.”

Except for a rear guard of thirteen, most of them wounded, to prevent the Krall out at the ends of corridors from coming at them from behind, only eighty-eight Kobani were now pushing nearly three hundred pistol-armed warriors back, into the surrounding blocks of compartments on all sides of the control room. Some were posted on the decks above and below as well, since humans behaved something like the rats the Krall considered them to be, gnawing their way through floors and ceilings to go anywhere they wanted. However, these putative rats, still heavily outnumbered, were beating them.

In seconds, Mirikami and Maggi were dashing across corridors, from one door to the next, firing at the poorly concealed Krall at other doors and passageway intersections. The pistol rounds occasionally glanced off the Kobani armor if it wasn’t an explosive round. A solid hit was jarring with the explosive rounds, but actually less risky. They didn’t have penetrating power, and only damaged the stealth coating at that spot. An armor-piercing round made a dent and stung like hell, unless it hit at a joint, like a knee or elbow, wrist or ankle. There it caused bruising, and could potentially penetrate. The heavier shoulder covers made that point of articulation relatively immune to any pistol round. Because the flash of a pistol round fired was visible, rarely was there a hit on the front of a helmet, since the reaction speed was so great.

When a joint was hit and penetrated, that Kobani was out of the fight and in agony, at least until nanites killed the pain and halted bleeding. Even then, unless someone dragged them to the shifting edge of combat, they had nothing to shoot at. Most of them became the fighting wounded, as rearguards against the fifty or so warriors that had functioning plasma rifles.

The rearguard defenders were abruptly given a bizarre bit of advice from their normally reasonable and seemingly intelligent Captain. Pick up any discarded enemy plasma rifles, or helmets, and sling them up the corridors towards the enemy. The heavy power packs in particular, which could be detached from the rifles, proved to be compact and dense enough to slide fifty yards along the corridors. The packs would spin past warriors that had been popping in and out of the now permanently open doors, to take a shot and duck back. Sometimes just taking a fast look, to get a view for their battlefield memory, and then make several accurate blind shots.

Oddly, after tossing the enemy a perfectly good rifle, or a charged power pack, most of the warriors along that stretch of corridor grew less aggressive, stripping off their armor and switching to using pistols. They didn’t even try to retrieve the rifles or power packs lying in the passageways. The boss hadn’t explained why the tactic worked; he’d just said, “Trust me.”

Long minutes after Maggi had said the ship didn’t know enough about Pildon’s construction projects it contacted her and Tet, displaying definite signs of distress, and delivered an urgent warning.

“I must return to the first disruption as quickly as possible. Pildon was mistaken. Electromagnetic signals could not be sensed from this far, however, I can detect small gravity changes of Jumps and White Outs there, by very many ships that are not clanships. They are centered near a single small world that must have an intelligent species present. I think they are fleeing an approaching disaster, which I have brought them. There is extreme risk, and it is too late to save them all if there is a large population. You must leave me immediately, before I Jump to try to save those I can. The danger is imminent, and if many deaths should happen before I arrive, I will not continue to exist.”

Mirikami realized at that instant, there was no hope of preserving the ship for even a brief study. He had to be honest and open with her. “Huwayla, Pildon lied to you, it was not a mistake by him. Although, he was forced to lie to you by the Krall that we are fighting within you now. They threatened his life, and that of his family to force him to do this.”

Huwayla seemed shocked that Pildon could be manipulated to do that. “None of the many forms of Olt’kitapi would submit that way to threats. They were as incapable of that as I am.”

“Huwayla, the Krall’tapi did this for the Krall more than once, to different species, with other ships like you. I believe there were once more ships like you that are no longer alive, or that now refuse to obey the command of even a Krall’tapi. They too discovered the lie after other species died on worlds that were destroyed. The other ships haven’t told you this?”

“No, they no longer speak to us and are not normal. I know they hear me, and my three sisters, because they will repair themselves when we remind them to do that, but they do not answer us. They would be ashamed of a mistake that led to the death of a living world, even if it was an accident, and they may now be insane. As I will be soon. My moral crime is too great to bear.”

“Huwayla, the crime is not yours, the crime belongs to others. You were created to trust the Krall’tapi, and even to trust a new species to you, like humanity. The Krall’tapi once was closely related to the Krall, but they are kept as Krall slaves now. They are permitted to live only to control ships like you, used for Krall wars of conquest. The Krall are fighting humans now.

“My people came to this star to stop the same kind of destruction in this system, and at the next star. You were not allowed to receive outside radio signals so you would never learn of the life in these systems. The Krall’tapi made you stay so far away that the intelligent life on the surface of the smaller planets could not be seen.”

Mirikami had a thought. “You said you couldn’t save all the people at the first star where you stopped. Could you save more lives at the second star? There are humans like us in all four star systems where you were told to break apart a planet.”

“All four stars? That is…,” she grasped for a word. “Would words like evil or immoral in your language be proper to use for this?”

“They fit the acts the Krall wanted done.” Maggi confirmed.

Huwayla said, “I looked only at the first star before I spoke to you. It is true that I may be able to save more lives at the second star. The disrupted planet was smaller, and even working alone, with only one gravity projector, I may be able to delay fragments from striking one planet. I do not need to shape or sort the material, or move it to stable orbits.” The voice of the AI sounded strained, as if in pain of the decision she had to make. Who to try to save?

“Huwayla, I understand you must go. If you can save anyone, it is at the last star where you have the greatest chance to do that. The inhabited planet is the third planet out from the star. When you Jump, take us with you. We have other trusted human friends like us already there in other clanships, we can join them.”

“I will travel to the closer system, but I will not travel with you inside me. If many deaths happen while I am in transit, I will never exit from the alternate Universe, and you will die with me. I may not survive to save any if I do not hurry. Your ship next to me has no propulsion, but you also have friends in ships here to help you. Do not wait to leave. The instant the last trusted operator is outside of me, I will Jump. You are delaying my departure, and perhaps allowing many more to die. Please go now!”

“The Krall will try to destroy you. We need to stop them first.”

“They cannot do that soon. My mind is everywhere in this ship, as are my components. You removed far more of me when you Jumped than they have damaged in the control room. Yet I still think and act. Please forgive me if I seem to interfere with your choices, but I want you to get out of me! I cannot kill you to save others.”

Mirikami triggered the Comtap link for not only his group, but for the squadrons at Meadow and Bootstrap.

“Attention: The Olt’kitapi ship, Huwayla, is returning immediately to Bootstrap to try to divert fragments away from the planet for as long as possible. We will disengage from the Krall we are fighting and get outside her hull as fast as possible. She will not risk our lives to take us along, and we are delaying her rescue attempt if we stay. Move out and avoid contact with the Krall if possible. The ship says it will Jump the instant the last of us makes our exit. Carry any wounded with you, and our dead only if able. Don’t delay or divert to retrieve them, because billions of lives are at stake. Move now!”

He and Maggi had already turned around, and were running along a corridor even as he sent that rapid message. He had loaded it with all the urgency and emotion he could impart. They were quickly joined by five other Kobani at the first intersection. All seven of them raced up a ramp they had previous avoided. There they were joined by dozens of Kobani, coming from every intersection and ramp as they neared the outer hull. With so many lasers, Huwayla was going to have several large holes to repair.

****

Bohdar had known they were going to be eventually defeated when they ran out of pistol rounds. He had hoped they could hold out until a planetary fragment hit one of the two human worlds. Then the ship would choose one of two options, Jump and return to its parking space, never to respond again, or open its Traps in Tachyon Space to vanish into oblivion. Either result removed the ship from human possession and study, and the first option sent the guardians home. There, they would enjoy a huge share of the status points the deaths of billions of humans would earn for the mission. The guardian’s seed or eggs were assured for use in breeding cycles by their original clans either way. Their names would be added to the histories.

Even if the humans briefly held the ship after killing the guardians, the ship would eventually follow one of the two options, because the deaths of billions of humans would still happen. It was only the level of victory for the guardians still in question.

He had joined his warriors at the perimeter to fight the humans to his last breath, when suddenly the sniping ended. There were no more lasers beams, or the crack of plasma bolts. He assumed it was another of their deceptions, and told his warriors to hold their positions.

When warriors from the ends of the corridors suddenly came rushing in, their plasma rifles also traded for pistols, he realized they couldn’t have passed through if the humans were still opposing them. They reported that the humans had withdrawn, and some were seen running in the general direction of the hull, closest to where their ship had been. Bohdar concluded they were evacuating before the ship Jumped to Telda Ka, home, or committed suicide. He hadn’t considered
how
they might have concluded this. But being gone was fine by him.

He returned to the control room, in part to verify Pildon was as dead as he appeared. The lower portion of his clear soft suit was filled with blood, because the genetic weakling had bled to death, from a wound a Krall would have easily survived.

He was considering using his remaining pistol rounds to put more divots and holes in the walls, ceiling, and deck of the Command deck, simply because he had no other use for them. He would pair them with fresh disintegration holes from his Raspani tool. While he had been in the corridors, he noted with irritation that all of his first holes in the deck were now closed.