Koban (16 page)

“Men, I sincerely thank you for performing a dreadful task, with
as great an example of discipline and courage as I have ever seen under difficult
circumstances. I anticipate that the Krall will have us eject these poor souls out
the hatch soon, so perhaps cleaning your suits now would be a waste of time. I cleaned
my own because I’m going to visit the Drive Room, and then I assume I’ll be returning
to the Bridge to speak to Parkoda, the Krall leader. I’ll find out what we do next,
and check on the progress for getting Jump ready.”

He came to attention, and saluted them, and they all returned
it with a considerable feeling of respect. He had shared equally in the onerous
work, when he could have simply ordered them to do it alone.

“I must ask that you standby here for a time, and a couple of
you check on the progress of the cleaning bots. When a bot is free, have it clean
the lifts and the floors in front for decks 7 and 8. When those are clean enough,
I’ll let the passengers spread back up to them. I imagine decks 5 and 6 are quite
crowded.”

Before he
could leave, Walter had a question. “Sir, where are they taking us?”

“Gentlemen, all I have heard so far is the planet is named Koban,
which is apparently where they have collected many other captives. They said its
name means testing ground, testing
what
is anyone’s guess. I don’t know if
that’s a captured planet, but the leader said it would become their home.

“Parkoda is a translator and described it as a camp that we can’t
escape, but where they are needed to protect us if we go outside. Aside from that
seeming contradiction, I can’t tell you any more about Koban. I hope to learn more,
and to pass that information to everyone. As you can guess, probing them for information
can be risky.

“From what I can understand, they are pleased to have caught
so many humans alive in this raid, and intend to subject all of their captives to
some sort of physical testing, once they have enough people. They have been conducting
these raids for at least several years, and earlier prisoners were the ones that
made the warning recording we heard. We may be in for an extended period of captivity.”

He didn’t see a reason to tell them it would be combat type testing,
against their novice warriors. Time enough for that later, when the Krall’s killing
efficiency wasn’t stacked where they could see the gory results.

Then he left them and went down the central stairs, not wishing
to enter either of the still fouled lifts, passing through two crew country decks
to speak with Ms. Willfem and her people.

The Drive Room hatch was open when he arrived, and a warrior
was standing by the opening. Mirikami made a deliberate approach to the hatch, under
the same intense scrutiny every Krall he’d encountered seemed to conduct of any
human in motion. The black, red-pitted eyes were unnerving, but it made no move
to stop him.

He looked through the hatch, and saw a second Krall against the
far side of the compartment, also watching him. The warrior glanced in turn at Ms.
Willfem, Chief Haveram, Gundarfem and Yin-Lee, as they worked at their consoles
and instruments. They seemed comfortable holding things that probably would have
gotten them killed by the original boarding team of warriors.

The Chief
caught site of the Captain and called out to Ms. Willfem.

She looked up from her computer console. “Captain, I’m relieved
to see you Sir. Noreen had said you were involved in cleanup, and hadn’t heard from
you recently.” She noted his soft suit, and glanced at the warrior with fear in
her eyes; she knew what he had been cleaning up. The warrior continued to hold his
alert and slightly crouched pose.

“I have been busy with the Stewards, but I really should have
tried to call her again. She was supervising a team repairing the eight holes in
our hull, and I didn’t know exactly where she was after we crossed paths briefly.
Our normal location method is somewhat limited.” He knew she was aware that talking
to Jake was risky.

“Noreen is actually back on the Bridge,” she replied, “and has
been performing camera shifts and audio pickups for the…” she paused, considering
how to say what she meant. Mirikami helper her out,
“She’s probably helping Parkoda observe what we are doing
to get ready to Jump, I assume.”

Willfem, nodded her agreement, and added “Noreen coordinated
to make sure we could actually use our tools and instruments, without fear this
would be
misunderstood
by our guards
.
” He knew exactly what she meant.

“How are
we doing? Have the Trap fields been reset?”

“Yes Sir, but not tuned to capture any tachyons. As best we can
tell we have two empty but properly closed Traps. Noreen relayed that we were not
to set for a Jump tac until we were told we could do so. The penalty to try that
too soon was clearly explained to us.” She looked him in the eye, her fear again
showing.

Mirikami nodded that he understood her meaning. “So we could
troll for an appropriate Jump tac, once we have their coordinates?”

“All of our instruments seem to agree that we can, Sir. Though
we have no idea how they were reversed…, the Trap curvatures I mean. Closing and
restarting each one worked the very first time. If I had known...” She trailed off
weakly.

“Ms. Willfem, only a miracle could have prevented our capture
or destruction. We simply didn’t know how over matched we were at the time.” Laying
a hand on her shoulder, he recognized the same guilt feelings he too felt. Comforting
might ease that feeling briefly, but it would always be in the background.

“I know.” She accepted with reluctance. “Noreen told me that
we will probably Jump soon, after the cleanup is done, and some survivors from Midway
arrive.”

“Very well, since Noreen is on the Bridge, let me call her and
find out what Parkoda says we do next.” He stepped to a desk com set, and punched
the Bridge button.

Noreen answered
promptly. “We were following your progress sir, and I was expecting your call.”

This let him know Parkoda had observed him for some time, and
probably had listened to his conversations. He didn’t think he had said anything
that could cause any trouble, nor had anyone else in his earshot. They’d have to
make certain the civilians knew they could be watched and overheard.

“Please ask Parkoda what do we do now with the” he hesitated,
“contents of the cargo hold, and when will the Midwife survivors arrive?”

He was surprised when Parkoda answered. “A K’Tal will bring our
Jump Hole machine to remove your dead. That will need you to open the large door
to space, and if gravity is off, the dead can go out easy. Soon after, a shuttle
from our Clanship will bring the other humans.”

Mirikami explained that it was his responsibility to supervise
the body disposal, and he would be returning to the cargo hold. He thanked Willfem
and her “Drive rats,” as they proudly called themselves, and headed out the hatch
and back up the stairs, still avoiding the lifts.

He reached the hold in time to see two warriors setting down
a concave hemisphere set on a pedestal with a flared base. The whole thing stood
about chest high to a man, waist high to a Krall. In size and shape, it rather resembled
a deep birdbath, except that three cone shaped projections were equally spaced along
the rim of the bowl. Accompanying them was a blue uniformed Krall, carrying a brown
bag that appeared to be cloth of some sort, and another Krall in a brown body suit.

The blue uniformed one was probably another translator, and the
brown uniformed Krall must be the K’Tal that Parkoda had mentioned. The latter was
probably equivalent to a human technician.

The translator told him who he was. “I am Telour, of Graka clan,
second to Parkoda. Before we remove air, all need to wear protection. Are your clothes
what you need?” He gestured at Mirikami and then the other ten humans, all in their
soft suits.

“Yes Sir,” Mirikami answered, “we are protected from Space if
we do not do hard work, for a long time.”

“No,” the
Krall replied, “the work will be short, and finished soon.”

 He reached into the bag he carried and withdrew four soft transparent
items like slightly beige clear plastic bags, and passed one to each of the other
Krall, keeping one himself. They all held them out, with a wide opening at the top,
and smoothly stepped into what seemed to resemble essentially a large gossamer bag.

They pulled them up by the opening, but deftly slid them
under
the crossed utility belts, front and back, using their unusually long and flexible
arms. This covered their body suits up to their necks, and left their weapons and
other devices outside the bag’s floppy looking wide open tops. There was a black
oval patch several inches across, visible in the front at waist level. They each
tapped the patches, using several claw tips simultaneously.

What happened next was difficult to follow, but the bag like
pouches moved and shrank against their bodies, flowing around their torso and limbs,
making a fully form fitting garment, with the top now forming a snug circular fit
midway up their neck.

Telour picked up the fabric bag again, and removed what seemed
to be similarly translucent smaller items, with gray objects on each side. The
other three Krall slipped what proved to be smaller gossamer sacks over their heads,
and the lumpy side objects appeared to be positioned where their recessed ears were
located. Like the other sacks, these were somewhat larger than the heads they covered
and were loose, falling below the base of the neck.

When they performed a short complex tap at black patch on the
nose region, the head sack melded with the other one at the neck, and this time
it seemed to inflate, or balloon slightly, around their skulls, so that the covering
formed a slightly larger bubble over their heads.

The humans were amazed at what must be a Krall equivalent of
a soft space suit. Mirikami saw no air recycler, such as the two-inch thick flexible
backpacks of the suits his people wore. He noted that the Krall’s communicator disks,
attached to their utility harness, were outside the suits, and would be in vacuum
soon.

Telour gave them their instructions, “You will go to vacuum
in this hold. Open the big door, close gravity here, and push the dead out.”

That was clear enough, but Mirikami had a problem. If they could
not use the suit radios, coordinating the task would be complicated, and any other
orders from the Krall could not be passed to the humans.

In the name of speed and efficiency, of course, he told the Krall
about Parkoda’s order to them to not to use suit radios, but the human’s suits only
used radio to talk in a vacuum. He explained that his crew would not be able to
work as quickly if they could not talk or hear.

He didn’t mention there was a flexible plug-in cable that worked
between suits. They were not standard, and kept in a locker where the suits were
stored.

Mirikami’s hoped for exemption from the radio restriction in
this case was thwarted, when in silent reply, Telour donned and sealed his own soft
helmet, leaving Mirikami about to order his men to seal their own suits, and to
be prepared to do this job without communicating.

Next, the Krall reached into his bag of tricks and pulled out
a handful of flat black disks, with short fibers attached to their centers, He placed
one pad, short stem protruding, against the left side muzzle of his own helmet,
where it stuck. He then stepped to Mirikami, pushed his faceplate closed, and stuck
one of the pads in front of his mouth. Even before the faceplate finished its seal,
he could hear Telour’s deep growly voice, asking if he could hear. It was muffled
sounding, as if he had pressed his helmet against Mirikami’s own.

“I can hear
you Telour. Can each of my crew have one of these communicators?”

Telour responded,
by showing Mirikami the remaining three devices. “I brought only these.”

The Captain, taking advantage of the still pressurized hold,
loudly told his men to seal their suits; that Telour could talk to him via the black
patches he had placed on his faceplate, but there were only three more to share.

As the men sealed their helmets, Telour swiftly stepped forward
and pressed the pads on the faceplates of the first three men he reached at random.
Mirikami had hoped to pick the men himself, but decided he would rather not test
the creature’s patience.

With the patches, they found they could hear the Krall and one
another, if slightly buzzy sounding. Mirikami ordered the other seven men to stand
near the back bulkhead, and decided the four with audio could do all that was needed.

Telour ordered him, “Remove the air.”

Mirikami told Rigson, one of those with audio, to activate the
pumps to remove as much atmosphere as possible, before they vented and lost the
remainder to space. This normally took about fifteen minutes, but after several
minutes, Telour demonstrated his growing impatience by telling them to go faster.

“Rigson, you heard him, vent the air; we need to get this done.”
The Steward tapped several keys to enter the override code to vent the air early.
It wasn’t an explosive decompression, because the system wouldn’t allow that, but
they could feel their suits expanding much faster as the outer pressure dropped.
The Krall suits also expanded a small amount.

Mirikami had his men with audio patches connect safety tethers
with automatic retractors, attached to loops at their waist. The other end was clipped
to recessed attachments in the deck. He noted with satisfaction that the seven men
without audio followed their example. The Krall didn’t take any such precaution.

Mirikami then told Rigson to open the twenty-foot high forty
foot wide door. It split down the center as its sticky seals separated, and began
to slide sideways into their slots. As that happened, the Captain was disturbed
to note the effect the vacuum was having on the human remains.