Koban 4: Shattered Worlds (59 page)

This was exactly the reason why Mirikami and Maggi had arranged for the seating at the table as it was, to place the three alien races where they would be the last to speak. The Raspani in particular had a viewpoint that most closely mirrored Mirikami’s and Maggi’s own.

Humanity needed Kobani help desperately, so now was the most favorable time to reveal what they had done genetically, to be able to fight the Krall so effectively. By revealing their secret before it was discovered, it would avoid the Hub leaders presenting a demand for an explanation of their secrecy, which would foster greater suspicion.

Rising to his feet, Mirikami gave a short summary, taken from the group’s overall comments. “My friends, the majority of you have supported a viewpoint that Maggi and I also support.” He looked down. “If I may be so bold as to dare speak for my wife?”

“Just this one time, my dear.” She looked up with a real smile, not the Tiger Lady grin.

He smiled back, and continued. “With General Nabarone’s cooperation, I’ll ask to meet with Admiral Bledso, Chairfem of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and brief her on our physical enhancements. Henry’s status as a Kobani will have to stay a secret, but I’ll send Chief Haveram ahead to Poldark, to ask Henry to relay the request by fast courier for the meeting. If Bledso is too busy with planning for the K1 strike to take a week off for the Jump to Poldark and back, I’ll visit Earth, and meet with her there.”

There were multiple objections and concerns raised when his friends heard that proposal. Dillon voiced the general concerns best. “Tet, if Bledso doesn’t like what you tell her about our genetics, and she chooses to have you arrested or held on Earth, you’re going to be right in the heart of the Hub. How would we get you out of there without causing a serious rift, which a raid would generate?”

“Everyone, please relax. Remember, I was in Mind Tap contact with the Chairfem when she experienced Kartok’s thoughts during his demonstration interrogation a couple of weeks ago. I detected the depths of her intense desire to win this war. There was a strong sense of how far she might be willing to go to prevent the death and destruction emanating from that Krall’s mind.

“I believe that she’ll want to work with us, and the political side of the Chairfem will recognize that our secret is best kept from the PU government for now, both for the overall military advantage, and to give her beloved navy every benefit of our assistance against the Krall at K1 this time around. She really wants to deliver a heavy blow if possible.”

After this, there were only a couple of mundane items to discuss before the assembly broke up, and most of the attendees left the meeting chamber. Mirikami asked Max Born to stay a moment.

“Doctor, I’ve not spent much time talking with you previously, and I apologize. It’s partly because you talk about subjects that are well outside my area of knowledge and over my head. I’m a simple Spacer at heart, and I love being a captain of a ship most of all. However, the fight against the Krall has pushed me well beyond my original comfort zone.”

“Captain, I’ve followed your progress in leading us the last twenty three years, and I have to say you are far more than a simple Spacer. I find myself personally and scientifically in your debt, because without the introduction of the Koban genes that you supported, and the escape from Koban your plans and preparations made possible, I wouldn’t have found such a rich source of new science and technology from the alien allies you met and rescued. The ability to learn what they know, to truly to
understand
what Torki and Raspani scientists mean when they explain new physics, and to retain all of that so well, is largely due to the wolfbat and ripper genes your guidance has made possible. Thank you.” He offered his hand.

Accepting Born’s handshake, Mirikami spread the gratitude where he thought it was more deserved. “I accept your thanks on behalf of others more responsible for our progress than I. It’s true I backed our geneticists and explorations, but others did the work that made our progress possible.”

Laughing, Born rebutted. “Tet, it is another of your hallmarks that you always give credit to others. I’ll have to concede that it’s difficult to give you congratulations on what you have accomplished, because you always pass them on. I presume you asked me to remain for some other reason?”

Mirikami smiled in return. “Yes I did, Max. You apparently think that additional sensitivity of the Comtap circuitry might lead to the same instant long-range communications in Normal Space. How far in the future might that be?”

“Oh, my assistants and I have already produced a test version of the new circuits, with the level of sensitivity needed. However, we don't have it scaled down to fit on a chip the size of the Comtaps. Not even the slightly larger new chips, which the Torki have started producing for our use inside Tachyon Space. Yesterday, I had my original Comtap chip replaced with the new long-range version the Torki are producing. I was able to receive instantaneous data from our test circuit yesterday, while both the transmitter circuit and I were in Normal Space, but light years apart.

“I asked Captain Lebeau of the Pride of Gaul to transport my assistants and equipment, and they Jumped at least ten light years from Koban for the test. Standing right here on Haven I received their messages clearly on my new Comtap, but I couldn’t send them a reply, of course.”

“Max, How long before you have the technology scaled down to fit on an implantable chip?”

“That will be a design task for the Torki, or possibly the Raspani to complete. They have the only production equipment for the embeddable chips at the present. If the shift to using the Philodor technology is any guide, perhaps a month to produce the first version.”

“I’d like to have this capability before we join forces with the navy for the raid on K1, although I don't have their time line yet. They were in a hurry, so the attack may come within less than a month. How transportable is your prototype, and could you reproduce that so I could take it with me? If I could send data from Normal Space to ships in or out of a Jump Hole to the new Comtap chips, at least our people could receive coordinating messages from me.”

“That’s no problem because we built three of the test circuits, which we used for testing before we got the first of the new Comtaps yesterday. I went first, to receive the replacement chip when Coldar brought it to us, so I could see how well it worked. You can have one of the test setups for Normal Space transmission if the next implant version isn’t produced before you go to K1. You can have the latest Comtap chip like the one I have for receiving Normal Space transmissions today, if you have time for the implantation. I had my old one replaced and the new one installed in roughly five minutes. It’s as fast as a transducer being embedded behind your ear, although the brain integration takes another few minutes.”

“Who do I see?”

“Coldar or someone in his department. If you have time now, you can follow me to the Torki lab area.”

Mirikami was followed by Dillon, Thad and Sarge, who were each planning to be Kobani representatives aboard PU navy ships. None of the latter men felt experienced enough to command a clanship in a fleet fight, using human style tactics. That they were leaving to experienced Spacers. The Kobani now had captured just under a hundred clanships, stolen whenever any were observed parked unattended by a clan dome on isolated Krall worlds they scouted. Only about a third of the stolen ships had been modified for human comfort, and none had AIs, but with Mind Tap instruction, any Kobani could operate them better than a Krall pilot could, because the built-in acceleration limits were eliminated for the greater Kobani capability, with human common sense applied.

After the combined half hour session for the implants, the four men experimented communicating with the devices, noting how their use differed from the somewhat richer sensations of direct hand-to-hand contacts, which were more familiar. They didn’t opt to test the devices for the electromagnetic signal range, but they were assured by Coldar and Born that in Normal Space their effective link capability was not only global, but would extend out to at least twenty thousand miles, which did not involve tachyon quantum entanglement and modulation.

Naturally, the most interesting distance would be in Tachyon Space, which should be effectively unlimited continuous communication at any range. That would be tested before they offered their services to the PU navy, but it could wait until the hundred or so other Kobani volunteers were equipped, and a mass test conducted.

Mirikami also went away with the small briefcase sized prototype device, which Born told him would connect to their latest Comtaps while they were in Normal Space, anywhere. Since all of the Kobani with the new Comtaps were in the Koban system right now, it wasn’t much of a test. However, he used it to talk to Cal Branson who was visiting friends on Koban.

Because the prototype wasn’t embedded the Mind Tap ability wasn’t available yet, making it an audio only link. There currently was over seventy two million miles between Haven and Koban, but Cal’s surprised reply to Mirikami’s connection to the other man’s Comtap was instant.

“Hi Tet, you surprised me. I didn’t know you had a chip yet. Where on Koban are you?”

“That’s the real surprise Cal. I’m on Haven, in Xenos, trying out Max Born’s prototype of the next Comtap version. It’ll work at any distance, using a stronger quantum entanglement with low energy tachyons, even when both users are in Normal Space. It’s not yet reduced to implantable size, so I’m carrying the various components in a small case for now. That’s why there are no mental images or emotions to this link. Believe me I’m happy to be able talk to you this way.

“When I head back into Human Space this month, I’ll still have this case with me to make an audio call home to anyone with a Comtap, an Olt, or a mind enhancer. The production versions will be reduced to about half the size of a pea, I’m told. Yours and Mel’s will be two versions out of date before they’re a month old.”

“Oh man! Are Mel and I stuck with the original type? That’ll teach me not to volunteer too fast.” He sounded extremely disappointed.

Mirikami smiled at the other man’s complaint. “Not at all. Max just had his own original Comtap replaced with the same type I just received, having greater local range, and Mind Tap ability when in Tachyon Space. He and I, and anyone with the older versions can have them replaced with the next upgrade when it’s ready.”

“That’s a relief.”

“You’ll hear about our next big mission against the Krall soon, but I won’t go into detail now. I only wanted to test this gadget. Talk to you later.”

Satisfied with their expanding communications capability, he looked at his closest friends. “We can really help the navy coordinate this attack on K1, but I want to be in command of my own ship when the fight starts.”

He laughed. “I’d love to hear Telour’s snarls when his clanships start to drop like flies.”

Telour snorted in amusement. “I would like to watch the look of fear spread between the mass of humans, when our ships descend like flies on their Hub world.”

Speaking only to his staff, he felt it necessary to put a positive spin on the day, after being selected as the new Tor Gatrol, and then promptly handed a setback. Something needed to be said to counter the disappointment he and his Graka clan mates felt at the postponement of the plan he’d proposed. It was that idea which had actually clinched his promotion. The delay of initiating that plan felt too much like a defeat for the ambitious and aggressive new war leader.

Earlier that day, standing alone on the central platform of the great dome, he’d been surrounded by the full combined Joint Council. The leaders of the Great and Major clans stood close to hear his words, but his strong voice reached even the many Minor clan leaders in the highest, most remote tiers of the large chamber, who had just arrived for the vote.

He’d announced what was afterwards described as a clever plan even by the opposing Tanga clan (Telour had naturally thought it was brilliant). He proposed a method that he promised would lead to the destruction of multiple human worlds, teaching them finally to do as the Krall commanded. The brilliance was that it would entail the use of but a single Olt’kitapi living ship, selected from the remaining four that would still respond to soft Krall instructions.

He described to that assembly how his plan would inflict a huge number of punitive human deaths; yet the deaths would occur days to weeks after the triggering event. That was a delay long enough for additional solar system destructions to be initiated by use of only
one
of the fast traveling ancient Olt’kitapi ships. As in the past, the AI mind that controlled the ship would surely somehow learn that its actions had eventually resulted in massive deaths on inhabited worlds. However, the Krall goal of forcing their worthy enemy into proper submission would be achieved, well before the AI went catatonic, vanished into Tachyon Space, or quit responding and returned to its base.

Telour’s rebuff came when the Joint Council had decided that by establishing the third invasion force first, they could release most of the clanships for support duties after the initial delivery of the new force from Telda Ka was completed. This had been the original plan of Tor Gatrol Kanpardi, before his death, and respect for his planning still exerted considerable influence. Telour was being haunted by the decisions made by the superior he’d arranged to be killed.

The council thinking on this subject was that the same clanships from the invasions would be used for supporting forces already on Poldark and New Dublin, as well as those on the next target, the older Hub world colony that humans called New Glasgow. They would be quickly available for repelling attacks if humans tried a desperate response after the destruction of the selected worlds.

The worlds Telour suggested to be killed were located in the compact volume of space humans called the Hub of their civilization. This attack was now to swiftly follow the third invasion, and serve to divert human resources from effectively resisting the new invasions, or from trying to rescue people from the systems about to die. This was considered an efficient use of the excessive number of worlds the humans already occupied, and their loss would dissuade further attacks on Krall production worlds. A recording of Telour’s voice would announce why this happened before the final solar system was destroyed.

It was for this reason, to hurry along his plan’s implementation, that Telour had called for the rapid return of the ships at New Dublin to Telda Ka, to load material and warriors for the next invasion. All of the supplies and warriors for the force at New Dublin were now unloaded and on the ground, and they had finally broken out of the marshy base area that Gatlek Pendor had foolishly chosen for his landing site.

The prepositioned PU army reserve forces, caught by surprise by an invasion well away from the Rim region of Poldark, were just now reaching New Dublin, and had to fight their way through a clanship screen even to land. They arrived “A day late and a credit short” as General Nabarone had announced on Tri-Vid, pissing off his army superiors again with his accurate but tactless and blunt public remarks.

It was only the orders given to the Krall pilots, to preserve their clanships, which made the navy troop transport landings possible without greater losses. The planetary defense system was far less capable than the one around Poldark, but it was adequate above the major cities. Five navy battleships and ten squadrons of heavy cruisers, sent as escorts, helped keep the milling clanships away from the troop ships. The landings went easier than expected, because only one day earlier, a thousand other clanships had unexpectedly Jumped out of the system.

General Ellen Masterfem, the commander of the ground defense forces arriving at New Dublin, assumed that a third of the clanships had left to load up more supplies at K1, anticipating they would be brought back here. She was grateful for their leaving and she increased the rate of her troop landings before they could return. Naturally, she reported the enemy’s massed Jumps, unaware yet of the expectation of navy high command, that there would be another invasion force formed.

Masterfem would continue to operate under pressure, as if those ships would return before her forces were all down, the ships unloaded and troops deployed. Bledso, not wanting the Krall to suspect that their next invasion plans were known, the commander at New Dublin would continue to scramble in ignorance to land her forces recklessly, without the knowledge that the large groups of clanships leaving New Dublin were not returning. She lost troop ships that could have made safer landings a week later.

The Krall Joint Council believed the third invasion, hitting far from New Dublin, would leave the enemy military commanders reeling, with their relief forces spread too thin. Humans were about to learn that sheer numbers, in a population of nearly a trillion, didn’t automatically translate into enough trained fighters, or their being placed where they were most needed.

Every Krall was a warrior, and each could participate in the fighting. However, less than one percent of all humans were even being trained as soldiers. Over half of the trained and experienced fighters were presently deployed on Poldark or on Rim worlds relatively close to Poldark, which had seemed the most threatened region. The less experienced and fresh troops were being held in reserve on New Colonies in Human Space, just inside the Rim region on the same side where all of the Krall’s major attacks had occurred. Until now.

The majority of those inexperienced reserves were now headed for New Dublin.

Current PU planning was for an eventual build up to a ten billion strong human army, pitted against at least the billion Krall warriors now estimated to be inside Human Space. To the Krall, even this number was not a serious force, although they only had another two billion mature warriors distributed among their hundreds of clan ruled planets. Even the Joint Council didn’t know their actual strength in total warriors was that low. No reason to care either, when they could double the number of novices old enough to fight in half a breeding cycle if they reduced culling.

However, Telour knew the number of human fighters was increasing by two hundred thousand or more every month, and a very small number of the newest human warriors were proving to be remarkably efficient and highly capable. It was those humans that had hit Krall planets, having an impact far greater than their low numbers implied should have been possible. Nevertheless, under the aggressive leadership of Telour as Tor Gatrol, they would teach humanity that there was no basis for their ridiculous belief that there could be noncombatants in their society. Their present rate of military training was far too low for what this Tor had planned for them.

Telour, listening to a report from a courier returning from New Dublin, heard that Gatlek Pendor had ordered a third of the fleet of clanships there to prepare to Jump to Telda Ka in two hands of days after the courier left. The clanships were currently opposing the arrival of the human troop transports and navy escorts, and when the majority of clanships left, more of those human troops would reach the ground safely. Good, more human forces on the ground there meant Pendor would have a good fight, and even fewer would be available to rush to the more vital world of New Glasgow.

The travel time for the courier to Telda Ka was two hands of days, so the first of the clanships were already on their way back here. Another one thousand or so should leave New Dublin four days later, and half of the last thousand would follow in yet another four days, leaving Gatlek Pendor five hundred clanships for his use, the same as the new Gatlek, Fistok of  Mordo clan on Poldark, had been allowed to retain for his support.

Telour’s mind was busy with plans. The earliest the invasion fleet could be loaded and ready to launch again, he estimated to be perhaps forty days in octal numbers, just over a month in human time measure. After launch, that force should reach the surface of the next target world and have a strong foothold established in about that same amount of time. That was a hundred octal days in all, or a bit over two months before humanity knew what they faced next.

He’d need to give thought to which human worlds he would target for punitive destruction after that. No doubt, the Great clans would insist on having some input on his decision. That could be tiresome, but he would demand the ultimate decision to be his own, to assure the last world in the string of destruction fit his plan’s timetable.

The Olt’kitapi ship would have to come directly here to him first, of course. There was no possibility Telour was going to miss stepping onto the control deck of one of the ancient ships, knowing that he would command its actions. The future histories would detail that event, and contain the words he said that day. His role in advancing the Krall along the Great Path would be far more important than Kanpardi’s had been.

However, he had no intention to travel
with
the ship on its mission of destruction. It was impossible to predict what it would do when it eventually learned that it was tricked into killing intelligent life, or exactly when those first deaths would happen. There was no reason for the new Tor Gatrol to risk being stranded inside the ship if it simply quit responding to commands. It might return to where the other ships were kept, but some of them had simply vanished, probable suicides in Tachyon Space.

He calculated the time needed to summon an Olt’kitapi ship, which should arrive
after
the invasion forces had landed on New Glasgow. There would be a two-week courier trip to the planet where they held the soft Krall. His emissaries would need time to choose a qualified operator, gather that pilot’s family members to hold as hostages, then travel two days to reach the huge moon where the living ships were hidden. The return trip, with the dedicated guardians of the ships closely watching the soft Krall, would require but a single day for that ancient ship to reach Telda Ka, even from that great distance.

He would send the courier to fetch one of the ancient ships just before the invasion fleet lifted from Telda Ka. In human terms, this gave the solar systems that Telour would select a mere two months of continued peaceful existence.

****

Mirikami shared some news. “Chief Haveram reached Poldark with Joe Longstreet, and he also took Corporal Eddie Condor. All three had the new chip. Nabarone not only agreed with our plan to reveal our Kobani genes for speed and strength, he told Joe it was about damned time.” He grinned.

“After Joe Mind Tapped him about the chip’s long-rage ability, Henry promptly agreed to send a courier to Earth to contact Chairfem Bledso. His next sentence was a typical one for Henry.” He laughed and repeated Joe’s quote.
“Where the hell is MY goddamned chip?”

“He’s right. We need to get one to him, even though he seldom even gets his butt off planet, let alone enters a Jump Hole.”

Thad offered an amusing warning. “When he gets one that works long-range while in Normal Space, you’ll be hearing a lot more remarks like that one.”

“Probably. However, he did make an obvious change to my plan to contact Bledso that should have occurred to me. I was too focused on Henry using his influence to get her to agree to meet with me on Earth. Instead, he sent Joe and Big Bird in the courier as my messengers, using his authorization codes. That’s where Joe was when he made his report, while in transit.

“Now there’s no need to wait for a reply from Bledso any longer than it takes Joe to contact her. The Comtap is going to revolutionize communications, when muddled headed people like me remember to use it properly. Joe and Big Bird can demonstrate our communications ability directly for her. A meeting that might have taken a month just to arrange should produce an agreement within two weeks, assuming she goes along with us. We’ll have near instant communications in the future, if some of our people are allowed to stay with the navy.”

Sarge nodded. “That’s comforting. Now
you
don't have to enter the lion’s den on Earth, just to get her agreement to put us on their ships.”

“I may not have needed to go, but Joe and Eddie went, and all of you that are offering to do liaison still have to get aboard navy ships, which is a bit like putting you in a bunch of small lion’s dens. I think you’ll all be fine, because they are going to want what we offer.