Koban 4: Shattered Worlds (88 page)

The Krall’tapi, as they became after the glandular change, recovered a former ability to learn to bond with a mate. They were able to form family units again, which stayed together without the inflamed emotions to kill one’s mate when you didn’t agree. To no longer watch coldly, as offspring that displeased you died in savage fights with other hatchlings. The family bonding restored the means and motivation to restrict reproduction, something that had also been lost from Krall early origins. Even back when the racial split happened, females did not produce as many eggs as the modern Krall did now, and bonded Krall’tapi females became fertile less frequently, and seldom culled any of their two or three offspring if they appeared healthy.

What Pildon didn’t like was the excessive destruction he was ordered to trigger, and the time that it would require. So long as he complied his extended family would be safe, but he also wanted to
return
to them. He knew only what the stories said about those that were successful on these missions, and not a one of those success stories told of even a second system being disrupted, let alone four of them. He didn’t want to be one of those that succeeded but never returned.

He was thinking constantly of how he could trim time off the process the ship itself said was required. He was doing this thinking, even as he sat on the tarmac on a planet he was told was Telda Ka, or Base 1. He had asked the ship for a close up holographic image of the despised Telour, whom he realized was standing close to the ship just before its planned departure.

Pildon had naturally never observed one of these ships vanish from the outside. However, the description of the atmospheric implosion, relayed to previous pilots when they returned, became part of the lore of the Krall’tapi. The tales spoke of crowds that had surrounded some ships, expecting a gentle lift off, and being knocked about and left furious. He wished he could entice Telour to come closer. Even if he didn’t get to see it, he’d know it had happened.

In any case, when the designated time arrived, the ship departed, and the outside view was replaced by a graphic view of normal space, showing the star where they had departed and the star of their destination, with pinpoints of stars they would bypass. He had learned on the longer trip to Telda Ka that you could obtain a larger view of the galaxy, or zoom in on the destination, or any point selected. He could see the mark move along their route that represented their equivalent position in what he thought of as the
real Universe
. They had already moved a noticeable distance towards the endpoint, so he knew it was a shorter trip that the one to Telda Ka.

Having been denied access to clanship travel his entire life, the speed wasn’t remarkable to him, but it had generated admiring comments from his captors. One of them now held his waist shackle at all times, but had no weapons. Obviously, so the captive couldn’t make a grab for a pistol, rifle, or knife. The weapons were all with the seven other guardians that watched him at all times. Not even those two that Telour had sent as his personal emissaries were permitted to carry weapons. Telour had been the only exception to that rule he’d seen, and all he brought with him were the standard and ancient Krall designed hand pistols. The guardians had kept a close eye on Telour as well, Pildon noted with amusement, keeping sixteen warriors with Pildon at all times when he was aboard.

Long before he could grow tired of standing quietly, with the comments of the Krall around him seldom directed his way, the image floating in front of them suddenly expanded and contained the new star system in which they found themselves. The primary star was just a brighter point at this range, with enhanced colored symbols showing the planets, and their orbits were traces of the same color around the star’s symbol. All of the symbols were scaled unrealistically large for ease of visual identification.

The largest planet, by a huge margin, was a gas giant that had at least twenty times the mass of all the other planets in the system combined. It would be called a super Jovian, with at least seven times the mass of the namesake of all gas giants in human astronomy. This one too was named after a god, Thor, one of the Norse deities.

Pildon knew nothing of this system, other than the large planet he was to designate to the living ship for disruption. He assumed there was an inhabited planet of some Krall enemy somewhere here. He didn’t know which one it was, or that its name had the meaningless sound of
Meadow
. He assumed it would have to be a small rocky world, but he didn’t really care.

In response to a prompt from an aide to Telour, Pildon opened his muzzle to speak to the ship again, but he suddenly noticed the display scale factor had shifted. It had pulled in close to their local position, apparently to show him something. There were four small but identifiable clanship shapes visible in the image. They had apparently just performed White Outs around them, forming corners of a square. They had been waiting close to the designated coordinates, and moved in protectively by micro Jumps after the big ship arrived. His guardians had reacted with grunts initially, and the one with his shackle chain had gripped it tighter. They relaxed a bit now.

There were no transmissions received, none expected, and none was allowed, because the receiving capability was deactivated on the ship, to insure it didn’t overhear stray electromagnetic signals from Meadow. However, these clearly were the four clanships sent ahead to ensure the living ship remained undisturbed, in its isolation.

“Ship?” Pildon asked, initiating his talks awkwardly this way. He’d never used a com set or radio before, although he’d seen them used by his Krall captors, and didn’t know how else to address the Artificial Intelligence.

“Yes.” It spoke in a voice almost like his, the same as it did the very first time it spoke to him. It answered in low Krall, but didn’t speak with the harsher tones of the Krall warriors, and it employed the same slight differences in pronunciation of certain words, as the Krall’tapi spoke the language. It sounded as if it could have come from his own community.

“Initiate the disruption of the largest planet, as we discussed when we were here before.”

“I have started to generate the fields. I will inform you when they have formed and have initiated the process of converting matter into the opposite form of matter. A very wide building material dispersal is still requested?”

The highest status aide from Telour prompted Pildon again. “Say Yes. We will gather the material later to start construction.”

“Ship, I want a wide dispersal. We will return here to collect the raw material for construction later.”

The AI was gently persistent. “It will take longer to collect and move the material to the proper orbits if you wait very long. Others of my kind should be present to do this faster.”

Pildon looked at the aide that had given him guidance.

“Tell it we have other construction projects to start first, and we will bring more ships after they all are started.”

“Ship, after we start other constructions in the other systems we visited, we can bring more of you to help.” The lie was in keeping with others Telour had told him to use.

The ship made helpful proposals now, “When four large projects are started so close together, there is a risk of losing much of the needed material if it falls into the star. It should be moved to stable orbits quickly, and sorted as soon as possible. The large disruption you have requested will cause the material to separate widely and very quickly. Material will fall onto others of the large planets you will need to disrupt later, and require more complex and difficult disruptions if large parts of this greatest world are permitted to join with them. My eight sisters could help us with so much to be done so quickly.”

Pildon, without checking with the aide, asked in surprise when it finished, “What eight sisters?”

The ship started to furnish names. “They are Pholowela, Molonsela, Harlshonla, Remela, Afromfela, ….”

It continued listing names, but Pildon wasn’t listing very well, not with two hands and eight taloned fingers lifting him off his feet by his throat. The highest status aide had instantly ordered the guardian to force him to be silent, before he could speak out of turn again.

“Speak without my answers or my questions heard first, and you will die.” The aide threatened.

Pildon wasn’t able to answer him, or even to breathe with his throat constricted so tightly. He gestured with his left hand. It had no meaning as a signal, but showed that he’d heard what he was told.

“Lower him and let him speak, but speak to me only.” The last words were said with a glare at Pildon.

In the background, Pildon heard the ship say, “…, and Treycila. They would all help you to start to build these four great habitats with me. Even with their help, it will take a very long time with so few of us. We could finish sorting the material sooner if we assemble the raw material pods one at a time before they scatter or merge again.”

Pildon said nothing, and looked only at the aide, whose name he hadn’t bothered to learn because the aide had never asked Pildon his name, as the Tor Gatrol Telour at least had done. Besides, only Telour had the life of Pildon and his family in his control, and this self-important aide did not. Perhaps he should gently remind him of that.

“I should have allowed you to tell me the proper reply, before causing you anger and to perhaps to end my useless life, which would then cause Telour to kill all that were sent on this failed mission.” It was a reminder that without Pildon alive to run the death ship, Telour’s revenge couldn’t be completed. Those words forged the shocked look he’d wanted to see in the eyes of everyone on the control deck, the guardians included. More than the fear of death, they feared the loss of status that the failure of this mission would represent in the histories, repeated by future warriors of their species for thousands of years.

The aide was mollified and in control now, and demonstrated that he did in fact know the soft Krall’s name after all. “Pildon, what does the ship mean when it says it has sisters?”

Pildon dipped his muzzle to show his confusion, “I never knew the ships had names, or that the others near it were called sisters. It implied
all
of the still alive ships would contribute to working on a construction project together, not just the four responsive ships. Perhaps they all can be made to respond again, and not just the final four ships.”

Both aides looked at each other, with the realization that perhaps the five now unresponsive ships could somehow be mobilized again. The ships commonly called “dead” would apparently remain that way. However, even the mere prospect of restoring the five unresponsive ships offered a status building opportunity.

Pildon made an offer to the aide. “Let me ask the ship its name. We can speak to it while the energy it is collecting for disruption is building.”

“Ask.”

“Ship, you said the names of your sisters, but what is your name?”

“My creators named me Huwayla.”

He looked at the aide (whose name he still didn’t know or care about), and suggested, “I can ask it how long we must wait here, and how this disruption is done.”

The aide issued another wordy response. “Ask.”

“Huwayla, how long before this giant world can be disrupted? How is this done?”

“You are the first to have asked my name, and used that. Thank you. May I have your name in exchange before I reply?” It must have heard his name, as was just used by the Krall aide. The ship was being formal and polite.

The aide shivered his right shoulder in permission, but raised his muzzle warning him to use caution in his answers. “I am Pildon.” He almost gave his last name, but thought that would anger all of the Krall here on the command deck, and spread the anger to Krall in other parts of the ship when they heard that the
soft one
had elevated himself with a second name.

“Pildon, the planetary disruption to the extreme scale we discussed when we visited here before, requires a longer time than the optimum disruption required to rapidly extract and sort the metals, rocky material, liquids, and gasses for making easy to access reservoirs of building material pods. The finished pods could be placed in stable orbits while other planets are gently disrupted and their material sorted into pods for storage. What you have instructed me to do will require almost two rotations, measured by the world where your people live.”

Pildon thought,
how did it know that?

The aide asked, “How did it know that?”

Dutifully, Pildon repeated the question. “How do you know where my world is, and the length of the days there?” Even Pildon didn’t know where it was.

“You traveled to reach me. I saw where your journey started, and the time it takes for that world to turn. Is that not where you and others like you live? Your people always have traveled from there, or back.”

A glance to the aide, where a right shoulder shiver granted him permission to answer the question.

“Yes. My people and I live there. How is the disruption caused?” It was best to shift away from the fact that the Krall’s secret location of his people was an open book to Huwayla, and probably to her sister ships.

“I will use general descriptive terms, unless you require the mathematics and physics. When you instructed me to begin, I projected a gravitational field to form an event horizon within the core of the selected giant planet I was directed to disrupt. I completed that initial process while we were speaking. There was condensed matter, predominately composed of crystalized iron and some heavier elements within that volume of the core of the planet. I formed an event horizon and the enclosed material was then instantly rotated into the alternate Universe, where spacecraft travel at many multiples of the velocity of light. The shock of the core collapsing to fill that void has initiated vibrations that will help weaken the core for our next step, which will occur in two of your days or less.