Koban 4: Shattered Worlds (86 page)

Telour was unable to order the death of the Graka clan raid leader he had sent, since Pradop, lucky for him, had been killed in the navy counter attack. He was in a rage, which was best for the image he’d just cultivated a day earlier not to be displayed in front of the other clans. Somehow, two elements of the PU navy fleet had apparently fled to some location very near the Alders system. Their arrival time implied they had not been based in any inhabited star system, since the round trip for a courier and their return would not have reached the next human colony system. Hiding in interstellar space or a barren star system would explain why they were not found. Nevertheless, they were well supplied and organized, and had been somewhere to do that. It had to have been bad luck for them to be so close that the unprepared Krall raiders were hit unexpectedly by a force they were not prepared to meet.

A half a day later, the less damaged New Glasgow raiders returned for a similar reason, at first intercepted by a single navy task force. The raid leader had reformed his clanships to hold them off while the reduced ground attack continued, but only because they happened to have a finger clan present with a large number of anti-ship missiles. That altered strategy ended when suddenly thirty human controlled clanships appeared, and they preferentially blasted only the ships that carried anti-ship missiles. Those ships had not arrived with the navy ships, yet they immediately did White Outs behind the most threatening clanships, as if they knew in advance of which targets to hit first, without having seen which of them had fired the anti-ship missiles.

At least the second raid leader kept his life, because he did manage to destroy the central areas of the two largest cities before jumping to Telda Ka.

However, two such lucky surprise human counter attacks were beyond the realm of coincidence to Telour. It seemed impossible the humans had known of these in advance. If they had, they would have been waiting and with more force than displayed. Their delayed arrival suggested they were warned quickly of the attacks, and came as soon as they could, but far sooner than seemed possible.

When Telour looked at the star maps and considered the travel times, there were stars close enough to each of the attacked systems where navy fleet elements could have been waiting to hear of any attacks. But even so, their fast arrivals in under two days implied they had instant warnings and were ready to go. It could mean humans had developed a new communications technology, which might also explain their excellent coordination of multiple simultaneous attacks on Telda Ka.

That hint of an instant communication possibility worried him for another reason. His timing for the death ship attacks on multiple stellar systems could be in jeopardy if humans could communicate rapidly over long distances. Arrogant, ruthless, and predictable Telour might be, but indecisive did not describe him. He would send the death ship to the first star system as soon as the first defensive clanships he’d sent could reach their rendezvous point. The enemy couldn’t redeploy their navy forces fast enough to defend against this threat, half way across Human Space.

His logical decision to send clanship protectors for the unarmed Olt’kitapi ship had been soundly supported by his staff. A group stupid decision.

****

Mirikami was pulling at his lip after the closest K1 observer sent their report. “Both of the Krall raider forces have returned to K1, and although they appear to have landed to rearm with anti-ship missiles, they only launched back to widely spaced orbits, avoiding gathering them into the clusters of ships we’ve been successful at hitting by surprise.”

Dillon had been hoping they would see more than that. “We didn’t see any strange looking large ships White Out. I was hoping we could try a preemptive attack if any of those Olt’kitapi ships showed up. They looked big in Parkoda’s image, but we don't know how massive they actually are, so any gamma ray burst that isn’t a clanship is good enough for me.”

They were waiting with nineteen other Kobani ships, sitting several light days out from K1, close enough for a quick Jump to K1 if they had a promising target to attack, if one was reported by the twentieth ship that moved around randomly, a bit closer to the inner system. Based on Raspani assurances, they were told none of the Olt’kitapi ships would be armed. Other than running or Jumping away from attackers, it should have no means of defense.

“If the gamma rays have a unique signature, and registers as more massive than a clanship, then I think yes, we’ll take a close look.” Mirikami agreed. “Except we don’t know if it would even come to K1 first, or travel directly from where they are kept to the star system they want to attack. Other than sixteen clanships that left the Largest Graka clan dome last night, where most of the recent clanship activity has been centered, they don’t appear to be preparing for any sort of large assault. Of course I’m sure they know we’re watching them.”

Maggi offered an opinion about the dome that was the center of Krall activity. “Graka’s largest dome has been getting the most visitors. We didn’t see weapons loading happening at that dome and clanships leave the system from there, and other’s arrive and land there first. I think that may be the new council dome. If so, that says something about Krall politics and who the war leader might be.”

Mirikami had had the same thoughts. “You think that since Telour was the Graka clan candidate for Tor Gatrol that he’s probably still alive, and he’s selected his clan’s largest dome for the new council meetings.”

“Sure, that would offer him a base where he has his strongest source of support,” she confirmed.

Dillon fretted. “I wish we had more eyes watching the planet, and the eyes were much closer. We can’t see sharp details anywhere on the planet from out here. We don’t even know if the gamma ray burst we’re looking for is actually stronger than for an arriving clanship. If they’re largely hollow, like a migration ship, they could be less massive than the image you got from Parkoda implies. They might be mostly empty space inside, and have the exact same energy release on a White Out as a clanship.”

Maggi was her normal patient self. “That would be a highly unlikely coincidence don’t you think? Of course not. You
don’t
think, do you? However, we might see a sizable group of clanships surround it before it headed off for an attack, going along for the show and to join the attack.”

Fingering his lip a moment, Mirikami dismissed that notion. “Clanships can’t travel fast enough to keep up. They’d have to leave well in advance, or else the ship would arrive alone and have to wait for them without their support. With its speed, it could get away from any threat, but it may need time to do whatever it is that it does, to earn the nickname of a Dismantler. The clanships might go along for protection, or to simply record what happens for the rest of the Krall. We’ve seen clanships coming and going for two days here, but not in any truly large groups. Sixteen of them departed all at one time last night, for example, but I haven’t seen a larger pattern of movements than that. If they were attacking an entire world, I’d think they’d send a couple of hundred clanships at a minimum. Only we don't know if the Dismantler ships need any help.”

As Dillon had said, they’d hoped to detect a unique large gamma ray signature of a sizable Olt’kitapi ship on arrival to K1, and if they did, they were prepared to risk a mass Jump inward for a chance to destroy the vessel before it could be used. The Raspani knew only that the ship traveled much faster than clanships in Tachyon Space, but they didn’t know if it created a large or small burst of gamma rays when it emerged. As it happened, they didn’t produce an event like a White Out, which was named for the radiation burst created by uncontrolled rotations back into Normal Space.

****

The ship the Kobani sought was already sitting, unnoticed near the dome where Telour stood looking out at it, impatient to launch. He displayed a rare flash of indecision, related to his desire to initiate the attacks, and the need to have his witnesses in place before the death ship flashed past them. The clanships bound for Earth’s system needed over two weeks to arrive from K1, but the first target system would have its observers in place in another two days.

He slashed the air in frustration. “I want to send it now, but I need to wait another week. If the destruction of their home solar system started before the clanships arrived, my broadcast ultimatum would be an unheard echo of the event already begun. I need to tell them why this is happening first, and how to prevent destruction of future systems. There will be time enough for a few million to escape the Earth system, and I want their leaders to carry my warning with them as they are forced to leave many billions behind to die in the weeks that follow.”

Frakod, with intimate knowledge of the plans details, suggested a favorable compromise. “My Tor, the first system you selected from my list has the largest planet of all those that you intend to use. The death ship told the soft one it would require almost two days to build the energy required for full disruption. Why not send the death ship to the first system in two days even before the last four clanships reach the Earth system. They will already be in place near Earth before the death ship finishes its visits to the first three stars. That way you need wait only the next two days to send the death ship to start your revenge.”

That was something Telour wanted to hear. Frakod had studied the list of star systems carefully, with the goal of pleasing the Tor Gatrol and using the good fortune of the chance meeting with the war leader to his own best advantage. His advice was always devised to give Telour something he wanted, or liked to hear. Without any knowledge of Telour’s relationship with former Tor Gatrol Kanpardi, Frakod’s mannerisms meshed with Telour’s because they harbored the same degree of self-serving ambition, and both instinctively understood the need to serve the ambitions of the leaders that could reward them.

“You say things you know I want to hear, and offer me valid reasons for doing what you propose. Make the announcement in the great hall, Frakod. The departure will happen in two days, not one week. The earlier departure time will also serve me better. The vote for new Joint Council representatives could happen in four days, and with the early launch I will have more influence on the selection of which high status candidates from the Great and Major clans are chosen. I will offer my support for those candidates that will in turn support my actions before the new Joint Council. With my revenge on humanity already started, I will have greater influence on each clan’s voting.”

Just like that, another two days from the ticking clock for humanity’s future was skipped.

****

Mirikami turned to the others on the Mark’s Bridge, describing what he’d just received by Comtap. “Another patrol boat report. This is the second set of four clanships that have performed a White Out at a colony world, in a
Kuiper belt
region. Both exits were well beyond the outer planets. If we allow for the hours of delay for the gamma rays to reach the inner system, and we promptly hear about them as we just did, Jakob says the Jump time from K1 matches perfectly with the time of departure of sixteen clanships that left there together a few days ago. It looks like they sent four ships to each of these two stars. We may be seeing this happen two more times for the last eight clanships. I don’t know what they’re up to, stopping so far out, and so few of them.

“At Meadow, they are about 32 AUs out, well past the two outer gas giants. They were almost ten AU’s beyond the outermost super Jovian, named Thor, which could have shielded their gamma ray burst from the inner system if they had done their exit close to that. Thor is about seven times the mass of Jupiter, so if they had been interested in hiding their arrival they sure could have done that.”

He paused to talk to the AI. “Jakob, show a hologram from K1, where we are, out to those two stars, and show possible points beyond them for where the other two sets of clanships might reach inhabited star systems, allow for just another week of travel.”

A translucent three-dimensional image appeared above the control console, with K1 glowing red at the center, where the Kobani presently were located, and the two stars where the patrol boats had reported the Krall clanships arriving were displayed in glowing white.

Thad had finally become involved again in the war, after his wife Marlyn had died fighting a month ago here at K1. He noticed something immediately. “They went pretty far. Both of the stars are well into the Hub region. I didn’t hear what systems they were.”

Mirikami reached into the image with a finger to identify one point. “The system closest to K1 is Meadow, a G7 main sequence star. If you haven’t been there, it’s not such a pastoral world as its name suggests. I made a few runs there for Interworld Transport in my former life. It once was a major food producer when the Old Colonies only reached out to about a hundred light years from Earth, about four hundred fifty years ago. Meadow is almost 93 light years from Earth, and is much deeper into the Hub sphere than either New Glasgow or Alders, which were just hit by those big raids. These clanships could be scouts for future raids, but why send four of them when one would do? That seems inefficient for the Krall, and they’re much too far out from Meadow to observe details of its defenses.” He shrugged.