Koban (35 page)

Mirikami decided he needed a little damage control. “This ship
is a great prize for you to show to all the clans. It will forever be an example
of what you did, when other clans see your perfect prize sitting on Koban. It
will be an efficient use of a place to store humans as the dome becomes
crowded.” That was to fertilize the seed that Telour was supposed to plant in Parkoda’s
mind, and to remind Telour of why he needed it planted.

Taking the lift to deck 8, he bypassed the small galley below
the bridge. The Krall’s super hearing would have overheard him that close.

As he stepped out, he saw a black clad warrior he’d not seen
before, who must have arrived with Parkoda. In fact, he realized just then that
he was able to tell them apart much better now, and wasn’t sure exactly when that
had happened.

As he walked to the snack bar, he nodded and spoke reassuringly
to the people he passed using the lounge couches, most of them with anxious faces.
He asked that they remain seated and strapped down unless they had need of a toilet
break, or a quick snack as he was getting. The snack area had no couches, and was
around a corner from the Krall warrior’s view.

After the usual question and answer, he knew he was unobserved.
He selected a sandwich from the automatic dispenser, and a drink. “I’d sure like
a Link to Mister Walters right now, if he is unobserved by anyone unfriendly.”

“Mister Walters is near several passengers, but no Krall are
monitoring his dinning alcove on deck 6.”

Knowing his voice would be recognized, Mirikami spoke without
any preliminary conversation.

“Nory, if possible don’t do more than acknowledge when I ask,
but you are presently unobserved by anyone large and red. I expect us to land on
Koban later today. I’m asking you to organize an evacuation through the cargo hold,
not
the usual passenger escalator ramp. We need the wider ramp for speedier
disembarkation, and for greater protection from dropping engine parts. Understand?”

“Aye Sir.” was all he said softly. Good man.

“After you instruct the other Stewards to line people up for
the evacuation, don’t start anyone down until Noreen or I give the order. We will
be using the stairs to descend as well as the lifts. All of the Krall will be off
the ship by then. Before that starts, I have a special duty just for you, and don’t
mention it to anyone.

“I want you to go alone to the locker in the corridor near mine
and Noreen’s quarters, and use your code to open it, which I will authorize, and
remove all ten of the objects and accessories, placing them in the black soft sided
carrying case also stowed inside. Take that bag to the cargo hold and stow it where
we can get to it in a hurry. Tell just Noreen and me where it is. Understand what
I’m speaking about?”

“Aye Sir.”

“Excellent. Captain Out.”

“I’d like Mister Walter’s emergency access code to be enabled
for opening any and all compartments.”

“It is Done Sir.” Jake responded.

He then called Maggi, Aldry, and Dillon, on a com line conference
call rather than a Link via Jake. All of them had gone to their cabins as arranged
after the White Out. Jake confirmed they were not observed.

When they all had picked up and acknowledged him, he said, “Folks,
listen to me first. Telour says after landing we will have to offload everyone into
the dome then bring them back to the ship later. Frankly, it is their first test
for us on Koban, and we will be running some sort of gauntlet, unprotected from
Koban life.

“To do this quicker, we need to use the ramp from the cargo hold
where we can evacuate faster, and with a larger ramp to shield against engine parts
falling out of the Flight of Fancy’s bottom. Parkoda and Telour will be leaving
almost immediately on Parkoda’s shuttle, as will every Krall onboard.

“Any Krall outside the compound are going back inside the Clanship
then, and we will be exposed to native Koban bugs, birds, bats whatever the hell
they are as we dash for the dome. They are drawn to landing ships, and might attack
and kill anyone spotted outside. Telour tells me we can’t count on the humans from
the dome for covering fire before we get inside. They apparently don’t risk their
asses for strangers. Dillon, is that idea Neri dug out of the war records yesterday
ready for use?”

“Ah…, Sir, you know we couldn’t test them here inside, didn’t
you? We have three of them built, but not loaded or pressurized. When do you want
them?”

“Right after that cargo hatch opens. As soon as the Krall shuttle
leaves and the cargo haulers roll down the ramp. I already told the two drivers,
Chack and Ricco, to wear hard suits, despite how clumsy and heavy they are. They
aren’t as strong as I hope the armor will be, but the haulers also have the roll
bars and metal cages over them for extra protection. Have your gear ready then.”

“I’ll go see Bob and Neri as soon as you finish with me. I don’t
think we need very long to load and pressurize them, but who do we want to use them?
They are pretty damn heavy, even if simple to operate.”

“Look for big strong volunteers. In addition, stick them in soft
suits with faceplates closed if necessary for protection. More from themselves than
the animals, I think. We have a lot of those suits in all general sizes in the cargo
hold. You had better get going. I have a hunch we will need those operational soon
after we land.”

“On my way Captain,” he clicked off.

“Ladies,” he shifted focus. “I’ll need you to listen to our friend’s
recording of my conversation with Telour and Parkoda on the Bridge after the White
Out, and then use your network of contacts to impress on your people the need to
rush like hell to get to that dome when they get off this ship. Please gather up
the drugs we have produced from the pharmacy, give everyone that wants them a Pep
or Oxy pill to take when we break orbit. And they can carry anything they can use
as a weapon, like a walking stick, umbrella, or anything like a club or knife.”

“Tet?” asked Maggi, a puzzled look on her face. “That’s the exact
opposite of what they were told when the Krall stormed aboard. Weapons like that
are useless anyway.”

“Oh, sorry, you haven’t heard the recording yet. This has nothing
to do with fighting the Krall. We’re worried about the native life. The Krall are
making this our first survival test. Unfortunately we don’t know anything about
what we might face.”

“Actually, we do a little bit,” Aldry interjected. “It wasn’t
related to our survival strategy or Krall defense tactics, but a few of our biologists
had questions like that. We know which flyers are supposed to be the most dangerous,
like the wolfbat, as the other captives call them, and the scorpion skeeter.”

“What? Are you flipping serious?” Mirikami demanded. “Why the
hell didn’t I hear about them?”

“Uh…,” she stammered. “I.., I wasn’t aware you hadn’t heard the
stories. Sorry Tet. The Krall don’t even consider them to be very dangerous.” She
ended lamely.

“Tet, I’m guilty too,” confessed Maggi. “I heard the stories
over lunches and never thought to mention them to you, or asked if you’d heard them.
You have been so focused on our real survival problems, and bugs and bats seemed
too trivial. They were something we could learn about after we met our co-captives.”

“Ok. Then make sure no one else about to face them is as ignorant
as I am! I need to get back to the Bridge, so you’ll have to ask our friend for
that recording. I’ll get back to you when I can.”

He switched off abruptly, piqued that they hadn’t told him these
things. Then as he headed for the lift, he considered the little things he didn’t
always tell
them
about each day. Like what he had planned with his Stewards
after they landed.
Ahh nuts! I owe them an apology.

As he stepped off the lift he bit into the last half of the sandwich
he had saved, just to demonstrate what he had been doing while off the bridge. He
knew both Krall would have their blazing red pits boring into him when the door
opened.

He resumed his seat. The two Krall continued standing silently
and patiently watching. Considering they never slept, he wondered again, what they
did to occupy the longer days they were so proud of not sleeping through. They loved
to brag to the humans, but didn’t seem have a lot of conversation when they were
together. Perhaps they talked more with fellow clan mates, and as far as he knew,
none of the Krall aboard came from the same clans.

Noreen filled him in on minor happenings while he was away, as
if he wouldn’t know. Such as arrival time to orbit, fuel consumption, relaxing the
acceleration restrictions for a couple of hours.

The latter was to let people eat, go to the bathroom, and learn
about and prepare for the landing and evacuation.

In the lift Mirikami had spoken to her by Link to let her know
what was being planned, and then instructed Jake on what to report, to himself,
Noreen, Willfem, and Jorl’sn, just as soon as his passive scans were complete.

That report came about ten minutes after Mirikami had returned
to the bridge.

“I have completed a preliminary survey of this stellar system,
and of Koban” Jake announced, “and I have located our galactic position relative
to the Hub. As instructed I will compare Koban to Earth and Sol system, in the order
of information requested, and I will attempt to be brief and concise.”

Sure you will
, each of the crew thought.

“Koban is the second planet from the G class star, and is in
an orbit slightly more elliptical than Earth’s with an average distance close to
one astronomical Unit. A year here is slightly longer than standard, at 371 Earth
days. The length of a day is just over twenty-two and a half hours, which results
in 395 days in their year.

“The planet has an axial tilt of roughly twenty five degrees,
compared to 23.44 degrees for Earth. The planet will therefore experience greater
seasonal variation than does Earth. I have identified a strong magnetic field, and
the northern hemisphere is in late summer, the southern hemisphere in late winter.
On this side of the planet there are two continents visible, unless the observed
land mass extends all the way around the planet. There are four continents reported
by the Krall, and the relatively narrow ocean between the two coasts seen on this
hemisphere is one of three seas Koban is said to have. Heavy forestation, possibly
jungle, is visible away from the coastal plains of both visible landmasses. There
are nine active volcanoes observable, and two are in eruption. Three mountain ranges
are on the western continent, one range on the eastern land mass.

“The single moon is two hundred four thousand miles from the
planet, closer and larger than Earth’s own moon, and it is denser, as is Koban when
compared to Earth. The tides will be significantly higher, and nights with a full
moon will be brighter. There are fewer large craters on the moon, which might be
explained by the observation that there is no apparent asteroid belt between Koban
and the first of four Saturn to Neptunian sized gas and ice giants in the outer
system.

“The inner terrestrial sized planet is on the far side of the
star and not easily observed. It has an orbit that lies within the habitable zone.
It appears to be only slightly smaller than Earth, and I detect signs of a biosphere.
However, the star’s glare makes this difficult to be certain.

“This system is just over eight hundred ten light years from
Earth, and almost two hundred fifty light years from Newborn. A galactic map is
available when you wish to view that.”

With that, Jake surprisingly quit talking. Mirikami was getting
better at instructing the AI on how to limit his frequent endless data streams.

Noreen and he looked at one another. Now they knew a bit about
the place they were going, and where it was located from home. Neither knew what
they could do with the information, but it felt comforting to have it anyway. It
made them feel they had some measure of control back, even if it was illusory.

They were orbiting three hundred thirty miles above Koban nearly
aligned with the equator Jake informed them. However, they still didn’t have landing
coordinates.

Mirikami knew the two Krall were speaking ultrasonically without
turning around to look. Even if he couldn’t hear their words, he could pick up the
sounds made by their lips as they rasped slightly over the small dagger like teeth.

Mirikami had said as they entered orbit that he needed coordinates
for Koban Prime to enter into his navigational computer for the landing. Parkoda
told him he would point to where they should land on the screen. Then to descend
until they could see the dome and land near that.

With difficulty, he convinced Parkoda that the Flight of Fancy
couldn’t operate like an aerodynamic military or explorer ship. It was a fat shaped
passenger ship, and never went to places that didn’t have traffic control and detailed
landing coordinates.

Evidently, neither Krall knew the coordinates, assuming the ship
could operate by seat-of-the-pants control, just as Krall ships did. When they asked
the Clanship for the planetary coordinates of Koban Prime, a K’Tal gave them numbers
that they didn’t know how to translate for the Humans. That was apparently the discussion
going on now.

“Human ships land at Koban Prime before now,” a clearly agitated
Parkoda informed them. “They had no numbers as you ask us to give. I will not lose
my prize for you.” He growled. There was clearly a threat implied there.

“Parkoda, I think the ships your warriors captured before were
smaller ships, designed for some atmospheric flight capability. They were not large
passenger ships like this one. We need to enter more gently, and set straight down
without much adjustment in our course. This ship does not fly like your shuttle,
or the Clanship in air. However, I have a solution to the problem that will let
us land safely.”