Koban 4: Shattered Worlds (80 page)

****

Two weeks of waiting was over, and the healing process would continue with this necessary but painful Day of Remembrance, held for those who had made the ultimate sacrifice for them all. The gathering for the service was being held in Xenos, the capital city being built for all of the people, human and alien, living in the Koban system. Aside from the symbolism of the location, three quarters of the citizens of the new two-planet republic couldn’t comfortably tolerate an entire day spent on Koban.

The human population of Koban was temporarily at its lowest level since before the Flight of Fancy had first arrived there. Most Kobani, all but roughly a thousand, accompanied by several hundred rippers, had traveled the relatively short distance to Haven, aboard the finally repaired and updated passenger ship Raven, or on a Torki piloted ship, renamed Home Waters.

The former migration ship was one of the redesigned ships to be converted to T squared Jump capability, and returned to Torki control. Coldar, not intending to be her permanent commander, or even to act as a pilot very often, had offered the huge vessel as transportation for as many as wanted to travel to Haven for the funeral services.

The Raven, even with the T squared upgrade and a more powerful Normal Space drive, still would never land on any planet. It had been built as an Orbital Based Only passenger liner, docking with orbital transfer stations or using multiple shuttles to land or pick up passengers at planets without orbital facilities. Kobani with children wanted the human designed ship to carry them, so their wild young charges could better be contained in staterooms. The decks of Torki craft were nearly wide open internally, and kids could easily stray out of sight. On the Raven, they would have to wait to be ferried down, even if she docked at the industrial orbital factory, now stationed over Haven.

The Torki ship would land in a cove of a sea, located only a few miles from Xenos. The new Normal Space drive would allow it to settle gently in water, but no Torki pilot had experience yet in attempted landings of a converted ship on a hard surface, with the new reactionless drive. They had used thrusters to land the ship for its conversion, and had lifted off from an old tarmac by an abandoned Krall dome. However, using a new drive system for a delicate hard surface landing, for the first time with passengers aboard, wasn’t anything Coldar was willing to try.

At least everyone that wanted to attend, that wasn’t required to take care of farms and livestock, keeping furnaces in foundries hot, or running other vital industrial processes, went to Haven for the Day of Remembrance.

However, a Kobani that couldn’t attend in person would still likely hear, see, or even feel, what was said or thought by the two main speakers, Captain Mirikami, and Maggi Fisher.

The Raspani, Torki, and human scientists and technicians had completed the miniaturization of the identical quantum entanglement technology that Mirikami had taken with him to K1 in a small case. The first few dozen of the new chips had replaced those of Kobani in key positions, who would be traveling to other stellar systems, or would need to communicate with distant Kobani that were registered on the grid, located anywhere, either in or out of Tachyon Space.

Registering a Comtap device was optional, but thus far, all Comtap users had done so, and you could obtain a new unregistered device code by mentally commanding your chip to generate a new one for yourself. The uncomplicated new code was essentially simply a number, usually huge, attached to some identification data about you, with the old code available for recall if you changed your mind. You could always reach anyone still on the grid, assuming that person had already been registered before you had dropped off the grid.

There was effectively a near-zero chance of code duplication, with vastly many more codes possible than there were estimated to be living beings of any type in the Universe, including microbes. There was provision for ten to the hundred twentieth power possibilities, which exceeded even the number of baryons in the Universe by many orders of magnitude.

No quantum device smaller than the Universe could ever hold that many individual registered codes, but how wide a circle of friends, family, and acquaintances, could
anyone
be expected to have? Groups of individuals could be placed in a specific set of codes that could be addressed all at one time, similar to frequencies used for a squad, platoon, company, or larger military units. In an emergency, a large code set could reach entire cities of people, or a planet.

Individuals could opt out of personal group contacts if it was abused or thought to be overly intrusive. Therefore, someone that called a block of a thousand people several times a week to report events in their own lives would soon discover their own mother had blocked their links. The Comtap network was potentially a vastly larger network than phone systems on heavily populated planets, but like those, this one could be self-regulated by the users.

****

Mirikami gazed out at the throng of people before him, and leaned over to his wife and asked, “Ready for this?”

Maggi shook her head slightly. “No, but we can get through it anyway. We have to remember that more than just our friends have died. There were so many thousands of navy personnel that none of us here even knew, and new Kobani that we only saw a few times and addressed only within a group.

“We’ve shared our personal grief with Thad, his children, and our friends for two weeks, and will do so again later today. This time here, with all who came, is for all of our losses, past actions and recent, with a promise to honor and never forget them. This war could outlast the indefinite lives we have granted ourselves. The lives we lost at K1 are certainly not the last we will suffer. I do hope we don’t share Wister’s long life of loss and struggle. After twelve hundred or so years, he and his sister have only begun to think about a better life for the Prada.”

They were sitting on a high stage, on the side of an unfinished large outdoor oval amphitheater that was barely over half-full, despite holding nearly a hundred twenty thousand beings, of four species, spread out in a huge arc around them. They were on the outskirts of Xenos, which was anticipated to grow well past this public stadium in a few years. The day was mild, with puffy white clouds overhead, and a soft breeze. A much brighter day than the somber mood they all felt.

At a signal from Blue Flower eater that only a few stragglers were still walking into the amphitheater, Mirikami stood, felt Maggi’s hand pat his when she passed along an encouraging thought, and he walked to the dais.

There was no microphone with public address system speakers to use today, to cast echoes around the open arena. There were small speaker systems in the seat backs for humans and Prada without Comtaps or transducers, which would be for only a handful of the humans in attendance. The Kobani mostly had Comtaps by now, and only a few still relied on transducers. The Torki could hear him through their Olts, and the Raspani via their mind enhancers. A few Raspani had the newest Comtap style technology, and they would receive the visual images and emotions that Mirikami and Maggi shared with the Kobani.

Mentally, Mirikami selected the Comtap link he’d labeled today as for
All Beings
, which would link to every Kobani, Torki, and Raspani that had chosen to participate, and the speakers for the Prada. His words and thoughts would reach everywhere on Haven, to any Kobani on nearby Koban and throughout Human Space to Poldark, New Dublin, Heavyside, and to the Comtap representatives posted anywhere. He genuinely hoped this sort of link would not be repeated often, or ever again if he had his wish. He remembered at the last moment to tap behind his ear to activate the transducer he seldom used.

He started simply. “Friends, citizens, we have gathered to honor, remember, and reflect on the lives of those that we have lost in this great struggle to save not only humanity, but to preserve and restore the Prada, Torki, and Raspani societies, to return their people to their own worlds if possible. We know that the sacrifices we humans have made thus far pale in comparison to the near eradication that you, our allies, have suffered at the hands of our common enemy, the Krall. Other entire species may have gone extinct because of the Krall, but if we should prevail in this war, we will seek out any survivors that may have fled far enough to escape the genocide. We will offer them a place to live on Haven, and try to help them resettle their own home world if possible.

“However, these are tasks for the future. Today, we are looking at the recent past, particularly to those that fought and died in the effort to damage the Krall war machine at K1. We will honor the humans, both Kobani and Normals, who died there.

However, I also want to remember the Prada, the Torki, and the Raspani that have unavoidably died in the last year, a result of the Kobani fight to slow the Krall advances, to destroy their war making capability. Some of those were forcibly held by the Krall for generations, and died because of our actions to try to free them. We regret their loss, and ask for the forgiveness and understanding of their comrades here that are now free.

“We can no more bring them back than we can restore our own dead. We can however, promise to try to end the oppression and misuse of your peoples by the Krall, and offer you an opportunity to contribute to the fight in any way you are capable.”

He paused a moment, before moving on to more personal tributes. Then he would step aside to allow Maggi, Ambassador Fisher to the aliens, to express her own thoughts and feelings. As the two most recognizable representatives of the Kobani, they had been unanimously chosen to speak for them all.

This would be hard for him, he knew. “I lost dear friends at K1. Some were children that I had watched grow up on Koban, to become fine young adults. They volunteered to risk their lives in that fight. Many were spec ops troopers, who wanted an opportunity to hand a significant defeat to the enemy. One, a mother and great friend…,” His voice faltered a moment, as the image of Marlyn, playing with her entire family on a picnic, poured from his memories in a flash of anguish, which he’d thought had been under control. The Comtap faithfully transmitted his feelings.

Resuming in a shaky voice, he acknowledged the personal connection he’d been unable to suppress, which was known to most anyway, “Her three boys call us
aunt
and
uncle
, and they
are
family to Maggi and I. As are many others that have been part of our struggle to find a way to defeat the Krall.” Seeing flashes of teal in the audience and remembering that image of Marlyn with
all
of her children, he suddenly realized he had omitted mentioning each of the members of Marlyn’s family, and to whom else he was an
uncle
.

New images were sent, “Her beloved non-human child included a ripper, Kit, sister to her boys, and there are now so many grandcubs and great grandcubs living in our community that I have lost count of them. Marlyn has left a loving and lasting legacy. All of those we lost have left a legacy of courage, conviction, and dedication. We will continue that tradition.”

He had tears in his eyes, at briefly overlooking ripper feelings of loss as he addressed everyone else. The omission troubled him deeply. “Our rippers are out there among you, frilling their Kobani friends and families to receive my thoughts. All of us Kobani owe the rippers a tremendous debt, not only for their amazing genes that gave us most of our abilities, but for teaching us their moral codes, for expressing their respect for all life, yet their shared sense of outrage at the wanton slaughter the Krall have perpetrated against every living thing they meet.

“We Kobani would not even exist if we had never met them, had we not saved Kit and Kobalt as cubs, to live among us and to earn their love and respect, as we grew to love them, and respect their species. It is too easy to forget that Kit, Kobalt, and their children, and many other adopted rippers have also lost human family members at K1.”

Unexpectedly, he felt two powerful presences move up from behind, brushing against his legs. He knew who it had to be. He reached down to touch the frills of Kit and Kobalt. With their affection and resolve coursing through his mind, their acceptance that some of the pride members had to die for the survival of the pride, he knew he could say what he needed to say today, and finish strong. The Kobani, with ripper spirit coursing through every fiber and nerve of their being, would never end the hunt to stop the Krall evil.

There were Torki and Prada present, but it was the group of Raspani, headed by Blue Flower Eater, which could probably provide the most complete answers today. Their memories, having spent thousands of years in storage, were less likely to contain divergent stories collected over millennia. Raspani memories would contain no influence from bragging references repeated by the Krall in their biased histories, since the Raspani had never heard the stories.

Maggi, as ambassador-at-large for the Kobani, and thus she held the de facto position for all of humanity with the aliens, was the intermediary for the fact gathering session. Golda Mauss had traveled on the Falcon to reach Haven, and she had no idea where she actually was in relation to Human Space now. Other than it had to be well beyond the farthest Rim worlds and in the general galactic spinward direction of territory controlled by the Krall. That was hardly a secret, and that large volume of space could encompass a million or more stars. Mirikami and a number of his closer advisors were also present to listen and to pose questions.

Maggi spoke after everyone was seated, stating for the record why everyone was here. This was partly said for several of the Prada elders, who had not participated in previous joint species meetings, and didn’t know what was expected of them. It was also partly for Golda Mauss, who had met her first representatives from all three alien species yesterday. She was feeling out of place in such a setting.

“Fellow beings, we have gathered here in Xenos to learn what we can of the great weapon we believe the Krall possess. It is variously described as the Ancient Olt’kitapi ships, as the living ships, as an ultimate weapon, as a mining tool, and today we learned it was once called what translates roughly into a word meaning a Dismantler ship. It was intended for peaceful purposes, but as many tools can be, it can also be used in war.

“The last descriptive name, Dismantler ship, came from an old Raspani dialect that has not been spoken since before the Krall defeated the Raspani, over eighteen thousand years ago. It was found in Raspani language records left to them in a library of old dialects, stored within their mind enhancers. Olts and mind enhancers were originally provided to the Torki and Raspani by the Olt’kitapi, and the vast internal libraries contain some surprises when searched thoroughly. I hope those searches continue.”

She looked at the Raspani in particular, who had the oldest records, but her gaze also passed over Coldar, to urge the Torki to explore obscure library references.

“The old language reference appears to contain a description of a large fast ‘vessel’ of some type with round ends, which might match the images Captain Mirikami and Thad Greeves were able to extract from the mind of a Krall named Parkoda, who had actually seen some of those ships. They will share that image with you shortly. That Krall saw perhaps three hands of those ships, which would be twelve in human decimal numbers. The exact number is not certain because he may not have looked down the entire line of parked ships. They appeared along a caldera wall of an extinct volcano, with a super Jovian planet in the background sky. The world where they are located must be a moon of the nearby gas giant. The red color of reflected and subdued light from cloud tops suggests the primary sun is a red dwarf.

“The planet where the ships were parked is at least marginally habitable, based on Parkoda’s ability to breathe there and the vegetation he saw. This moon-world must surely be tidally locked with the Jovian, with one face always towards it. Plants and oxygen suggests the Jovian is very close to its red dwarf star if the moon receives enough heat for liquid water to exist on the surface. The super Jovian would also radiate heat of its own, perhaps enough to keep the moon comfortably warm when it’s in eclipse from the star. Tet and Thad will show you what the Krall saw.”

Mirikami and Greeves circulated among the audience of aliens and humans, sharing the images, even though there was little chance any of them had ever seen or heard of that star system, or saw ships like those. They explained that the Krall had known that some of the parked ships were effectively dead, others were alive but unresponsive, and four would presumably respond to instructions.

“I will ask Blue to come forward to describe what the Raspani know or have surmised about what a peaceful people like Olt’kitapi had for these seemingly destructive ships.” She gestured to the plump Raspani, straddling a long padded bench seat.

With the usual stretching of the “s” sound he said, “Thank you Ambassssador.” It stood and walked down the length of the bench, and waddled to the front of the room, where it switched on the translator device hanging around his thick neck, which could be linked to his mind enhancer. He spoke low in Raspani, with amplified and perfect sounding Standard coming from the device.

“I will resist the temptation to speak directly in Standard, and so I choose to employ the vocal device the Torki invented, and speak in my own language. I have grown tired of repeating myself, and observing the looks of strain on human faces as they seek meanings from words that contain what you describe as sibilants. As a species sensitive to the term
butchering
, I will avoid its application to how I pronounce words in Standard.”

He then made a deliberate, slow, one-eyed wink, proving he understood the macabre humor in what he had just said, as a former Krall “meat animal.”

“We have more recently awakened Raspani minds that are in new bodies now, able to join the search of huge data bases and histories. Therefore, part of what I will explain is recently discovered knowledge, even to me.

“For some present here that may not know this,” he looked at Mauss, “my people were once a client race of the Olt’kitapi. They helped us achieve an advanced civilization after finding us as a semi-sentient people that were forming our first simple societies, with many languages on our home world. They apparently worked with some of our most intelligent herd members, and developed the first of a number of mind enhancers, as we describe them.

“Finding useful knowledge accessible to our minds, as we progressed to where we were able to apply it, we developed our civilization in a slow but steady manner, with no additional interaction with the Olt’kitapi again before we started colonizing other star systems, so far as we know. We did know of them, because of the libraries they left us in our devices, that told us a little of them and how we came to have the mind enhancers. Those with the first enhancers passed them down to their descendants, somewhat differently than did the Torki. Like the Torki, when a herd member with such a chip died, it was recovered and reused. We would make an incision in the skull of an immature member of the herd, to insert the reused chips, following instructions contained in the library. Over time, some chips were lost or damaged, but many survived.

“Eventually, after a couple of thousand years of recycling, our technology progressed to where we tried to make our own mind enhancers. When we reached that stage, a library suddenly opened to us with directions of how to make them. We never knew where the Olt’kitapi lived, but as we slowly expanded into space and established more colony worlds, they finally made contact again. This time they had no new mind enhancers to offer us, but instead gave us an invitation to join with them in a future that was being planned for many species. They told us they intended to construct gigantic habitats. Please note the use of plural here, because that is what they told us. They would be built around single stars, where different species could live and interact peacefully, without a need to compete for resources or space to live.

“We Raspani were promised a habitat as a gift, and we would be permitted to build new ones of our own if we wished, using their technology. We could keep our original colony worlds, but we could also share life in the star systems where habitats would be built. It was shortly before the first construction was to start, that the Krall revolt happened. Our belief is that the Krall warrior class, learning of the Dismantler ships, desired them as super weapons.

“However, the revolt really started as a way to prevent some of the clans that were cooperating with the Olt’kitapi, from being changed by them, from gaining access to this technology which the warrior class Krall could not have. The war loving Krall intended to stop the Olt’kitapi from turning all of their species soft. Into what most of the beings here would describe as more peaceful and
civilized
.

“My people had not met any of the Krall at that time, and we also had little contact with the Olt’kitapi because our volume of space was adjacent to theirs but did not overlap. The Olt’kitapi were a benevolent people, who helped several species that needed a boost in order to advance if they agreed to accept the help, and then left them entirely alone, developing in their own way.

“We think our peaceful advancement convinced them that we would be good neighbors. After meeting them again, we discovered our mind enhancers had once more opened up to reveal a new library of knowledge, preparing us for the first steps in joining them in the construction of the great habitats. This is much like the Torki have experienced, with libraries of knowledge being opened to them when they are ready.

“Our newest library back then contained descriptions of various huge theoretical constructs that apparently the Olt’kitapi had studied, as ways to convert an entire solar system into a massive artificial habitat. A habitat that could be customized for any species, and would have room for a large number of different habitats. The Olt’kitapi planned to use the building material already in the selected systems, the planets, asteroids, and comets. The ideal star appeared to be one that would have a very long life, such as a red dwarf, which also contained many massive planets for dismantling for building material. We think one tool for doing this was a type of powerful mining ship, which may have been called a Dismantler in one of our old dialects.

“Soon after we were contacted by them again, we were informed by an Olt’kitapi emissary of the Krall revolt, and of a war of extinction the Krall were waging against them. We learned that their pacifist ways were unable to resist the primitive species they had hoped to help advance, and to whom they had given basic tools of war for the defense of the future habitats. In absence of complete records today, we believe we Raspani were advised to flee from the edge of the Olt’kitapi volume of space, and to avoid contacting the Krall. The emissary said they were going to try to end the danger they had created, and would try to destroy the Krall world. We pulled away, and didn’t know then if they succeeded in that attempt.

“We stayed away from the edge of Olt’kitapi space for a thousand or more years before the Krall found us. After that, we fared little better than our early benefactors, except that instead of extermination, or enslavement as workers, you know our curse was to become a source of food to the beastly barbarians, whom the Olt’kitapi accidentally unleashed on the galaxy.”

He made the Raspani elbow squeeze gesture that served as a shrug. “That was long ago. I think the moon-world image you found in that Krall’s mind is in the system where the Olt’kitapi intended to start construction. The large round ended ships are possibly the mining craft that were designed for obtaining raw materials for building the habitats. The other Olt’kitapi ships we saw of theirs were not shaped like that. There must have been many more ship designs than just the Dismantlers involved in the future construction, but the Krall would only have seen the value in machines they could use for destructive purposes.”

Mirikami asked, “How do the mining ships work? What do they do that could destroy an entire world? The Krall histories claim their original home world was torn apart somehow.”

The elbow move again. “We do not have construction details in our library, merely possible designs for various enormous structures, apparently for us to study for our education. Obviously, they were not going to build all of the types depicted. Perhaps the shapes of what was to be built might suggest how it would be done. I can share the files with the general descriptions with the Torki, and with you Kobani, but the Prada and your guest here,” he indicated Mauss again, “do not have chips implanted to receive them.”

Mirikami had a solution. “Share the information with us Kobani as you proposed. A Comtap chip can link to an AI, and there is one for this building. I believe it will be able to show a visual representation of your images on the wall behind you, which is a Smart Plastic full screen display panel we bought in Human Space. We should move some tables and equipment out of the way.”

While the few items that might block a view were moved, Mirikami linked to the building’s AI. “Reception, I have a task for you in conference room three. Please respond on speaker.”

“Yes, Sir. How may I be of assistance?”

Mirikami had sensed the file transfer from Blue, but had not examined it as it flashed into chip storage. “I will send you a data file I received from a Raspani mind enhancer. It will contain some images that we wish to present on the wall screen in this room. Can you change the format the Raspani use, to display the image for us?” He forwarded the new files.

“Yes Sir. I have worked with Raspani and Torki image files many times. I have the files you just transferred to me. Should I present the first image? They are numbered.”

“Yes, please.”

An image from space of a metallic sphere appeared, with no scale to indicate its size, although pinpoints of remote stars could be seen in the background. There were protuberances spaced frequently around it, and there were regularly placed circular areas of differing size that could be portals, or airlocks. This could be a spherical orbital station, for all that could be told from the image.