Koban (14 page)

Parkoda gave him an apprising look, seemingly aware of Dillon’s
probable real motive. However, he decided the offer had merit. He spoke silently
into his communicator, then in Standard. “They will be sent here before you Jump.
Two other captives were killed on the flight to this ship, by novices testing them.
That was wasteful.”

Parkoda summoned a warrior to stand watch on the Bridge, and
ordered the humans to proceed with him to the lower decks. They walked down the
stairs, the Krall apparently considering the lift to be a lazy form of transportation.

They paused to see several of the burned entry points. They were
told they would be permitted to repair the hull. Strictly speaking, the Flight of
Fancy could do a Jump riddled with holes, and no internal air pressure. Noreen mentioned
that a sudden decompression might kill some of Parkoda’s captives, and that she
could supervise the repair work. Mirikami confirmed this, so Parkoda indifferently
told him to have the work done.

Leaving Noreen in charge of a work team, Mirikami and Dillon
followed Parkoda as he took them to a more disturbing scene.

On deck 8, Dillon and Mirikami turned a corner only to find they
were in the body filled outer ring corridor they had watched on camera earlier.
There were at least two dozen mangled bodies laid heaped upon one another, numbers
that were hard to confirm due to detached limbs and heads. The stench of burned
flesh, entrails, and released feces and urine were overpowering in the confined
area.

Dillon spotted a woman’s face he recognized as a fellow scientist
he’d met in a conference on Rama, preparing for this journey a month ago. He had
thought Jeannette was attractive, and had spent a single but spirited night in her
hotel room. Not a good memory right now, with the back of her head and one eye missing,
gray matter splashed beneath the face up corpse. He retched, and added to the putrid
atmosphere.

Mirikami
managed to maintain a stoical face, despite his inner rage and revulsion.

Parkoda merely surveyed the gory mess and ordered the dead carried
to the large cargo hold airlock, to be shoved out and into a Jump Hole before they
departed. He told them to do it themselves or have some of the other crew do the
work.

Mirikami, careful to appear cooperating, grasped upon the unfortunate
example Dillon had presented. “Parkoda, the work would be faster and more efficient
if some of my crew did the work in vacuum suits, or they may experience effects
from the odor of body wastes as did my crewmember here, slowing the work.” Indicating
the still hunched over Dillon, he maintained the earlier fiction that he was a crewmember.

With a toss of his muzzle in a snort of derision or humor, Parkoda
confirmed vacuum suits could be used if that was faster. He told him to select the
crewmembers, have them suited, and working immediately.

“Parkoda, when I tell my people to go to the cargo hold to
get their space suits, will your warriors permit that?”

He responded with one of the ultrasound silent speeches at
his shoulder button. Then he told Mirikami to order his people to go.

Mirikami stepped to a wall mounted com station and made an announcement
for all ten Stewards to proceed to the cargo bay to don soft suits. He didn’t tell
them what they were going to be doing yet, because he certainly didn’t want the
passengers to overhear that missing friends or family members were dead, and being
disposed of in so a callous manner. They had enough stress to manage already. No
doubt some of the people who managed to escape the two corridors alive would have
told others of what they saw happening, of those left behind.

“Parkoda, there will need to be more communications between crew
members if we are to quickly prepare for a Jump. If I need to ask you to use your
time to instruct your warriors in what to permit, this work will take longer.”

“True. And this is known to us from other captures,” He acknowledged.
“But no large ships have been kept this whole. You have more crew and more spaces
for them to work than I have found in other raids.

“If you are given free movement and you betray my trust, a price
will be taken from your people. We can detect any Jump activity we do not allow,
and our translators will listen to your talk. If we find strong disobedience, some
will die, if any try to escape or to send a radio message for help, one in eight
will be killed.”

Mirikami, hoping this wouldn’t be their undoing, agreed. “This
is an offer of trust we will honor, and I will order all humans aboard to follow
your commands. I will not allow one of us to endanger many of us, to bring us dishonor.”

Parkoda studied the little human a moment, gaining his respect
in a small degree, for making such a Krall-like statement. It was the first such
he had heard in his experience of eight raids. Not only had he captured many prisoners
for testing on this single raid, with an operating ship, but also the animals might
even prove to be cooperative pack fighters.

He had seen nothing to suggest that one on one, any of them would
be a match for an experience warrior, though in limited cases an inexperienced novice
might fall prey to a clever fighter, but more so to a pack of such clever animals.
That would more effectively cull the weaker, slower, and more stupid from the Krall
bloodlines. That would be an effective use for these animals, since humans had poor
tasting meat, and there was no need for billions of slaves.

After a couple of seconds, about as long as they had noticed
Parkoda pausing to make any decision, he gave instructions.

“All of your people will be able to talk together, to do work
and repair the ship, to feed, sleep, and live together, as I have seen those already
on Koban do. It took much time for Kobani humans to earn this, and many were lost
in the teaching. Perhaps your clan learns faster.”

All of the people?
Mirikami had actually thought he was
asking this freedom for his crew, who were more disciplined. There was definitely
going to be greater risks with the civilians included, but advantages as well.

“Parkoda, when I tell them they have this honor, I will explain
their obligations and the full penalty if they disobey. Does talking include using
the ship intercom, to talk to those in far compartments, as we need to do for ship
repair, and to make it ready for a Jump?”

“They cannot
use radio signals that leave the inside of the ship,” warned Parkoda.

“I understand” Mirikami acknowledged. “I will make an announcement
to all, but if my crewmember here” indicating Dillon, “can use your granted trust
of honor, he can go from deck to deck, and instruct the non crewmembers directly,
to enforce a stronger form of discipline than they are accustomed to obey.”

Parkoda agreed,
and spoke at length into his communicator in the same eerie silent manner.

Afterwards, he added in Standard  “All of the other Krall, here
and on the Clanship now know that I grant your humans the novice testing rights
of Ra Ka Endo, which is the status you would be granted after landing on Koban.
There you would not survive outside without our protection, and have no place to
escape. Your clan is no more of a threat to us on this ship because you cannot
escape. We want for more threat from you humans, in truth.”

That was interesting, but not the time to probe, not right after
being given what the Krall considered an honor.

Turning to Dillon, Mirikami instructed him. “Go to every place
the passengers are being held, and also speak to any crew you find. Tell them
fully
of our honor bound commitment, and emphasize the severe penalties if that trust
is not upheld. The Board members in particular need to be included.”

Parkoda,
listening, asked, “Who are Board members? What are they?”

Mirikami gave a partial answer. “They are spokesmen for some
of the people we were bringing to live and work on the space station you destroyed.
They were going to stay there to study the world below that station when this ship
went home.”

“We looked at that world. It is dead and worthless. The captives
from the station told me the same thing. I did not believe them. Why study that
place? It is deadly to breathe, and hit by large stones and pieces of ice every
day.”

“Many of the people I brought here are trained to learn new things,”
Mirikami answered, “and one new thing on Newborn, the name we gave that world, was
the first start of life there. They wanted to see how that worked.”

“The Krall have those that learn of the world’s we own or want
to take,” admitted Parkoda, “how to build new weapons, better ships, learn the breeding
mysteries. They help us grow stronger. The K’Tal of the Krall do not always fight
as our best of warriors, but have value for what they know, and bring us strength.
We took machines from other animals that we defeated. Some machines we did not know
could exist, but our K’Tal learned to use them. Perhaps some of you humans are like
K’Tal.”

Suddenly,
giving Dillon a glaring look, “Your clan leader gave you an order, yet you stand
there.”

Dillon, thinking fast replied, “Yes Sir, but you are superior
to us all, and had not told me to go. Then you asked a question that I may have
needed to answer because I am a human K’Tal.”

“Leave us;
your clan leader can answer me.”

Relieved to get away, despite his desire to learn more about
their new enemy, Dillon headed for the center deck area, to explain the conditions
attached to their marginally increased freedom. He was also desperate to see how
many more of his friends and coworkers may have died. His mind was filled with the
last glimpse of Maggi, as that cloud enveloped her on deck seven.

Mirikami stepped to the wall com and announced the behavior code
they were to abide by, and that Dillon Martin was coming to speak to the various
groups, demonstrating by his actions the limited freedom they would have by his
very movement about the ship.

Next, Mirikami exercised his freshly granted freedom, although
the chill that came made him feel the hair on his still tingling left arm rise.
This call was only to the crew he had sent to the cargo bay.

That they were all males was no coincidence, since they had been
pulled from the ranks of Stewards, and those were never females. He had also wanted
physically stronger people for the lifting, and virtually all of the low ranking
service personnel were naturally men anyway. They were already in the hold, donning
their soft textured vacuum suits, the worry on their sweating faces apparent on
the small video screen.

When the Captain buzzed them, he called the senior Steward to
the com. “Walter, I have to ask you and the other Stewards to perform a very unpleasant
cleanup task. It isn’t in vacuum, as you may have expected, but you will be grateful
for the suits. Please bring an extra suit for me, please, since I will do this with
you. Also, bring four of the electric pallet cargo movers, and come up and meet
me on deck 8. We will be going to the outside ring corridor A, close to cabin 840.”

“Aye Sir,
the hold’s cargo lifts don’t go to deck 8, so we will have to use the central shaft.”

“I know, I’ll make both center lifts available for you, and I
think two movers should fit in each. The warriors watching you are expecting this,
so don’t be afraid, but also don’t stare at them, or pick up anything that looks
like a weapon, just in case.”

“Captain,” Walter asked, “isn’t 8 one of the decks where a lot
of people were hurt?”

“That it is Walter, except there are no wounded, only dead. It
isn’t going to be pleasant, but removing those bodies are what you ten men are going
to do. In addition, you’ll repeat that work on deck 7, same outer corridor, opposite
side, and in a few other locations. Don’t speak to anyone as you exit from the lifts.
The passengers don’t need to know what we have to do. That could prove fatal to
them if they reacted too strongly.

“I’ll personally meet you there, and start the people gathered
on deck 8 moving down to deck 7, for when you return loaded to the lifts. You’ll
go directly back to the hold and lay the bodies by the larger cargo door. If you
can find tarps of some sort, or opaque plastic covers, those will help cover them.
Oh, and locate something absorbent to line the pallet movers, to catch drips. Also,
bring some large basins or tubs. There are body parts.” He saw Walters shudder,
and shared the sentiment.

“Aye Sir.
We’ll be on our way as soon as we find what we need. How about cleaning bots?”

“Good idea
Walter. There’s a lot of blood.” I’ll see you at the lift doors.

Parkoda was looking at him impassively. “I think you can do this
on your own. I will return to the Bridge. The screen there shows this passage, and
the other, and it smells better. Our warriors will watch.” With that comment, he
left Mirikami in the death filled stinking corridor.

Alone, Mirikami stared with sick guilt at what lay before him
for a long few minutes. Then suddenly, his mind and duty were clear again.

“Jake.”

“Yes Sir.”
The prompt reply was gratifying through his transducer Link.

“Jake, limit your crew communications to transducers only, unless
a crew member uses a com station. Even then, do not talk over any speaker system
unless First Officer Renaldo, Ms. Willfem, or I order that to be done. Do not respond
to any passenger communications at all, and never to any Krall, or intruder, as
you called them. I believe our safety may depend on the Krall not knowing of your
existence. Understood?”

“Yes Sir. Are my standing emergency broadcasts messages to be
suspended if any of those situations arise?”

“Yes Jake. One of the crew should be made aware of the emergency
and release you to broadcast. Do not send any radio distress signal for any reason,
or permit any radio signal to be sent whatsoever. Please inform all of the crew
of what I have just instructed you, and repeat to them that this is to protect your
existence, as a resource that we do not want the Krall to be aware of.”