Koban 5: A Federation Forged in Fire (66 page)

“His name’s Emperor Farlol, but I like your pronunciation better. What happened?”

“Thank the stars, Maggi linked to their Olts a few hours ago to warn them to be on guard. Our sentry ships are still enroute from Haven, so the Torki had quickly offloaded supplies to the colony, letting Water Drifter get off the planet quicker. She used her new Normal Space drive to reach orbit, and had started a survey of local ocean currents. The colony is conducting their first egg and sperm release and wanted to predict drift for...” he was interrupted by an impatient man.

“Stewart, you woke me up for this emergency call. I don't need to know about young crabs returning home two years from now. Tell me what happened please.”

“That same giant ship, or one like it, told them in the Thandol language they had to either join the empire now, or evacuate the planet before nightfall. That was at midday for the single nest site on Green Atoll thus far. The Torki had the language data packet Maggi sent them, so they were able to understand and answer them.”

With a sigh and a sense of dread, Mirikami asked, “And what happened? Did they attack the Water Drifter and the colony? I know the Torki would never agree to join their empire, and even a full day is too short a time to evacuate the size colony we put there, with only a single migration ship.”

“They immediately fired on the ship, and then the nest site when they said they wouldn’t join the empire. Didn’t even wait for sunset at the colony site.”

It was like getting teeth from a tulip to get this excellent
politician to provide pertinent militarily meaningful details. “I take it the ship was destroyed, and the colony wiped out?”

“Oh no. Thanks to Maggi’s advice, the Drifter was holding a Jump tachyon in their primary Trap, ready to flee. The ship’s captain used his Olt to warn the colonists to flee to the open sea just as soon as the Thandol ship appeared, even before they made their demands. As soon as the captain said they were a member of the Galactic Federation, and wouldn’t join the Empire, they were promptly hit with what must have been one of those weapons used at Paradise. Then they Jumped.”

“Who Jumped? The Thandol?”

“No, the Water Drifter, of course. They’re on the way back to Haven with internal damage. The Torki spokescrab on the ground at Green Atoll reported by Olt that the Thandol hammered the coastal cove of the colony, the building supplies and equipment, but everyone was dispersed into the ocean by then. No loss of life.”

“Wait! You said the Drifter is headed for Haven. How long ago? Who’s the captain, I have to stop him and change his destination. The Thandol will follow him home.”

“Uh…,” he quickly checked his memory. “Her name is Captain Tirdal.”

“OK. I’ll wake Maggi and have you speak with her Stewart, while I find out exactly where the Drifter is right now. Fortunately, at T-squared speed she can’t be close to Haven yet.”

He woke Maggi, sleeping next to him and quickly filled her in, as he dressed. He headed for the Bridge as he searched his Comtap for the link address of the Torki captain he’d never met.

“Captain Tirdal, this is Captain Mirikami. Are you headed for Haven, and do you need assistance? I understand you were hit by one or more Thandol warheads, or whatever you would call those things.”             

“Captain Mirikami, I’m relieved to hear from you. I initially started for Haven, but I have altered course to remain in the area near the colony. I wanted to confirm my change in plans with someone more experienced. It is possible the Thandol could pursue us to Haven, and I also wanted to return to Green Atoll to recover some of our people if we are able to evacuate them.”

Relieved, Mirikami congratulated her. “That was good thinking. We know that the Thandol track ships, particularly large ships like yours through Tachyon Space at higher dimensions. President Stewart says there were ships just sent to Atoll from Haven. Please contact them and have them meet you at some mutually suitable uninhabited star system, before continuing to Green Atoll. They could also be backtracked to Haven otherwise. I don't know if the Thandol know where Haven and Koban are yet, but I don't want to lead them there if they don’t know yet, especially before we have gathered our forces.”

“President Stewart told me who the commander is in charge of the ten ships he sent. I’ll contact her by Olt.”

“Good. How badly were you damaged? Did you lose any people?”

“We lost one male, who was passing near the empty center of the ship when the weapon appeared there. A quarter of his body was sheared away, but fortunately, his Olt and brain survived. Despite the pain, he dumped his personality into the Olt, as we learned to do from the Raspani. He will have to endure youthful molting again when his Olt is implanted in a returning Torkedia, but he will be restored.”

“How is it that you didn’t suffer serious or disabling damage to your ship?”

“This is a large ship as you know, with a considerable open volume located near the center for habitat water, which was just emptied before we departed Green Atoll, to save weight. That’s where the warhead struck, at our geometric center. It suddenly appeared inside of us, with no penetration through the hull or surrounding decks and bulkheads. The weapon disintegrated a volume of matter in a sphere that passed through two decks, but nothing critical for our operation. Because of our size, and the limited mass that was converted to atomic particles, there was only a small internal pressure increase.”

“Captain that confirms our suspicions we had at Paradise that the weapon suddenly appears inside the target. We already know that its destructive effect is a variation of the same quantum application of the Raspani boring tool. I wanted to assure myself you were safe, and to divert you away from Haven. I’m pleased that you had changed course on your own. I’ll check back with you later. Mirikami Out.”

The Mark was traveling in company through Thandol territory, using only the single rotation into Tachyon Space. This made their intrusion path virtually impossible to detect, but their rate of travel was very slow. They had initially Jumped in deeper, using T-cubed travel to penetrate well into Thandol space, as if headed for their central interior, leaving a strong wake pointing that way. Then they made White Outs, followed by a greater than right angle change in direction and lower speed.

They were now moving towards a star system that Pholowela had assured them was inhabited by a race that paid obedience to the Empire, but had been said to be a reluctant member. Where best to get honest answers about the Empire than from those that opposed the overlords?

He linked with the other ships with him, the Avenger, Ripper, Sneaky Bastard, and Wanderer. The Vanguard had returned home with the more fragile Torki and Raspani aboard her, and the four other ships at Paradise picked up settlers from the three other small towns.

After calling the other sleepyheads to their Bridges, he described what had happed at Green Atoll.

“Noreen, your hunch was right. They don't think any other warnings are required. However, that assumption and their visit to Atoll revealed something else they must know about us, which the Krall never figured out. They are aware we have instantaneous long-range communications. Without that, there isn’t any way we could have warned the Torki on the other side of our volume of space in so short a time, less than a day. Yet the Thandol expected them to know about the ultimatum, and were apparently not surprised the Torki could communicate with them.”

“Well, I’m not surprised.” Dillon asked. “The Olt’kitapi had tachyon modulated instant communications, and surely the Empire must as well. It’s an advantage we no longer uniquely hold.”

Noreen added, “Well, not even the Olt’kitapi had Mind Tap, to instantly and directly share mental contacts via Comtap with each other as we do, let alone via direct physical contact with any species. Our superconducting nervous systems and Mind Tap, plus Koban strength and reaction speed are advantages we need to seek ways to expand on. The Thandol can’t do that, because that isn’t exactly technology they can simply copy, and they probably don’t even suspect it exists.”

“They might, if they saw our Tri-Vid broadcasts from Earth.” Maggi reminded them, as she joined the group chat.

“Knowing it exists, and obtaining the capability are different things.” Mirikami stated. “Anyway, I’d rather we didn’t advertise it to them, because it’s unlikely the Thandol understand Standard, even if they somehow gained access to that old broadcast.”

“Hey, I have a thought.” That was Carson. “Our Comtaps have unique addresses for each person, as do Olts and mind enhancers, and now the Prada com sets, and all of them use tachyon modulation for instant communications. Have we looked into the equivalent of wire taps, to listen in on other communications?”

His dad seemed unsure. “Blue told us there are almost an infinite number of addresses possible and certainly different protocols for the message formats or modulation, even if the addresses were used in duplication.”

Ethan, always on the same wavelength as Carson suggested a solution. “Steal a device sample of whatever the Thandol use, and figure out how their system works. Then read out the addresses of significant people in their Empire. Listen-in to what they say if we can, or perhaps block its use by them at a critical time if we can’t do that. Simply contacting one of their leaders unexpectedly could give them a damned good scare. Can’t hurt to try.”

Thad, generally more practical and serious when it came to an approaching fight, spoke from the bridge of the Ripper, “Tet, I know you didn’t rouse us just to discuss Green Atoll, since it’s so far away. What’s going on in the middle of what we would call night?”

“I suggest we get to the Hothor’s home system sooner. We’re almost four days away at this speed, and less than one day at T-squared. I know its only minutes at T-cubed, but I don't want to draw obvious attention from the Thandol to these people by our visit. After a day at this speed, we are light years away from where we made our exit and we almost turned back on our previous path. I want to get useful intelligence as quick as possible, because the Thandol are stepping up their aggression, and might move against us much quicker and with a stronger response if they learn where Koban and Haven are.

“We had six hours of sleep, so I want us to spread out and stagger our higher-level jumps a bit, but still get there faster. I’ll speed up first, and I expect you to arrive within an hour or so of the Mark. We need to meet them.”

The Hothor were a two star species, with two planets settled in their original home system, much like the Earth-Mars planetary duo, and one colony world at a nearby star only five light years away. They had colonized the second world twenty-eight thousand years ago, and would have explored and colonized farther by now, except the Thandol wouldn’t permit them to do so after they made contact. They engaged in trade with neighboring empire species, and with the Thandol of course, the latter expecting them to buy more from them than anyone else.

Per the Dismantler’s database, the race was bipedal and omnivorous, eating fruits, nuts, roots, insects, and insect and animal byproducts. They rarely ate animals, according to old Olt’kitapi records. They had been tree dwellers in their remote past, and although they were ground dwellers now, they built homes within forested areas, retained much shortened, curved gray front claws, which they had once used for climbing. Their toe claws had atrophied to little more than gray human-like toenails, and they walked upright with a slight side-to-side waddle.

Comparing things to an image of Sarge was now apparently “Polo’s” standard for scale factor, so the Hothor appeared to stand between five and five and a half feet tall as adults. They had gray and white fur down their backs, with thick looking hair of a few inches in length, and thinning at the sides and on their upper limbs, and nearly gone on the front. Their arms were nearly hairless below their elbows, and the skin of the arms and hands appeared almost black with fine sparse gray hair there.

They had a round head with short hair on a long neck, the skull slightly smaller than a human’s head, with a circular, nearly flat and hairless face, with a small pointed muzzle and fine little teeth. Their wideset small eyes were dark, and looked rather sad, in a face that was as black as the skin of their arms. There appeared to be two slits between their eyes that served as nostrils, rather than being placed at the end of their small muzzle.

They all wore various sorts of footgear, and because their front torso was nearly hairless and they had external genitalia, they chose to wear various styles of differently colored smocks, on the front of their torsos only, looped around their necks and tied around their plump waists, or sometime clipped to their long fur on their sides. The smocks usually extended to just above the knees of their legs, concealing their genitals, and the clothes were equipped with multiple pockets of a variety of sizes, which often bulged with objects in them.

They vaguely reminded Maggi of large upright sloths. However, when Pholowela articulated them in her image, they didn’t move slow or sloth-like at all, and seemed to exhibit a quick, nervous seeming quality when they moved.

Their home world, which they called Canji Mot, had gravity in the mid-range of many of the habitable worlds humans had found. It was seventy-two percent of Earth normal, and it had a warm yellow sun similar to Earth’s Sun, rather than the more common cooler and red tinged suns. They were farther out from their star, roughly at a temperate spot equivalent to being between Earth and Mars in the Sol system. They had a slightly cooler climate than Earth, with larger polar caps.

Following his own advice, Mirikami Jumped the Mark, or perhaps the proper term was rotated to a higher dimension in Tachyon Space, directly into the T-squared level without doing a White Out to Normal Space first. Doing this from level one prevented a White Out gamma burst and a brief gravity anomaly in Normal Space. They were doing their best to stay unnoticed.

The Mark reached Canji Mot in eighteen hours, and did a White Out at roughly a thousand miles and descended slowly to enter a hundred mile orbit. This was considered a polite slow approach, allowing the Hothor an opportunity to observe them, and ascertain they were an unknown ship type, and therefore most likely controlled by an alien species.