Koban (81 page)

“You seem to overlook they have you trapped here on a distant
hostile world where even they can’t survive without domes, walls, and weapons. No
matter what you do here, you can’t take that knowledge home with you because you
are never going home.

“The only reason you can even attempt these gene mods is because
you are
outside
the controls within Human Space, and happen to have a collection
of scientists that can not only figure out the lost science, but have a place to
work in isolation. That isn’t likely to happen anywhere in the Hub, now is it?”

Aldry, Maggi, and Dillon all agreed there was no other place
their work could be done. They didn’t add that this was related to the hidden purpose
of the Midwife project, or that they really were not repeating the hundreds of years
of genetic research, but were using records they had recovered.

Mirikami summed it up. “OK, Thad wants in, and to become another
guinea pig.”

“Hold on. What the hell is a guinea pig? I don’t want to become
part pig!” He laughed, but there was a concerned look.

Maggi chuckled. “It’s an old term for a dumb laboratory animal
that scientists once used to test drugs on before giving them to people. We didn’t
bring any of those with us, so we use dumb males instead.”

“Oink,” said Tet.

Maggi pointed at Mirikami. “I told you males are dumb. Guinea
pigs don’t oink they squeak, but they
are
a type of hairy little rodent that
might hide in a cave, scaring those of us that care about them. Dillon is a less
bright large hairy example.”

Elbowing Mirikami’s arm, Dillon commented, “She switches fast
from tearful hugs and hellos to her normal sarcastic and demeaning mannerism doesn’t
she?”

She smiled brightly across the table at her protégé. “Finally
found that cup you were looking for sweetie?”

Dillon lost his smile and reflexively put his knees together.

Aldry eased Thad’s mind, “Don’t worry, I do the injections, not
Maggi, and I’m gentle.”

Then she added, “This afternoon I’ll give you the briefing I
gave to Tet and Dillon earlier this week. There are other brand new mods, and
they will be ready for testing in a couple of weeks.

“Well, Dillon and I have time now to test the next two gene mods,
for strength and endurance. We won’t be pressed for time getting ready for combat.”

“Yes. Something else I need to bring up before we increase our
number of test subjects very much is their dietary needs. We can make all the supplements
needed, since that phase lasts only for several days. However, the high quality
protein from actual meat or vat growth meat fiber is going to run out quickly.
Our normal folks, and
I’m
arguably ‘normal,’ won’t appreciate going
hungry.

“You see how much Tet and Dillon needed to eat at the start,
and they need to keep eating hearty meals with a lot of meat and vegetables. The
small Hydroponics section that Jimbo has started can be expanded by a factor of
several hundred. What he has growing right now will meet over half of our garden
needs for normal metabolisms of several thousand people. We will be OK in that respect
even if we used that entire level for hydroponics, or even added another level.

“How risky is it to hunt for the meat? I’ve heard that rhinolo
meat is nutritious, but are extremely dangerous to hunt. Thad is there an alternative
to those animals?”

“We only hunted rhinolo because that’s all that the Krall wanted
to hunt. I’ve seen a dozen other species of animals on the plains, most are smaller
than rhinolo. There are different herds of grass and leaf eaters. If we can eat
one type, we can likely eat them all. However, there are more carnivores than just
the rippers. All of them are surely fast and dangerous to us.

“However, by using your shuttle, we don’t have to stand on the
damn ground facing a charging rhinolo to get our meat. We can try hunting this week,
unless I feel as bad as Tet and Dillon did for a couple of days.”

“You’ll feel crappy for at least thirty six hours,” Aldry told
him.

“Not too bad. I could still go along and advise even if I’m not
up to hunting…” he was about to elaborate when Jake interrupted, broadcasting to
everyone with a transducer.

“Attention, Attention, a large number of space craft have completed
White Outs into equatorial orbits. I have detected three hundred fifty one that
are the size and design of a Krall Clanship, and another eight with at least twice
the volume of the Flight of Fancy. Another thirty-one range in size between Clanships
and the Flight of Fancy.

“There is a great deal of ship-to-ship and ground communications
that I am recording for later translation. Over ninety percent of the spacecraft
appear to be Krall designs. However, eight percent of the ships are of human design.
I am detecting additional White Outs in the equatorial plane, apparently with more
human designed ships in tow. There are…”

“Stop Jake,” ordered Mirikami.

“Now we know why the Krall here headed for their main compound.
If that fleet towed a bunch of human ships here, they were in transit for a week
or more, and faster couriers could have brought news of the captured ships sooner.

“Jake, answer only for those people at my table, are all of the
craft that are larger than a Clanship of human design?”

“No Sir, two are of Krall design. However, including the most
recent White Outs there are thirty-seven ships that appear human in design. The
largest eight ships appear to be commercial passenger transports, as do eighteen
probable passenger ships approximately the size of the Flight of Fancy. Eleven of
the human ships appear to be cargo ships.”

“This has to be Parkoda’s raid, don’t you think?” Maggi asked.

“I think it’s more than one set of raiders. There were three
raids being sent, and Parkoda had command of one of those. This seems like a lot
of ships to call these a single raid group.”

Noreen was puzzled. “How long were they gone, just three weeks?
I don’t see how they could have boarded and captured that many in so short a time,
and bring them back.”

“They obviously made use of the towing method to bring so many
here intact. But that’s a lot of boarding, subduing and killing. Like you said Noreen,
that’s time consuming. They obviously made it at least to the edge of the Hub worlds.
Those largest passenger ships are rarely used outside the inner worlds. The Krall
can travel into human space fast, using their Jump technology, but our tow to Koban
took a week. I wonder if they found a way to do that quicker?”

Thad had a question pertinent to their immediate future, “Jake,
can you estimate how many humans total are on those passenger ships?”

“Sir, there are many unknown variables, but using upper and lower
passenger estimates for the size and number of ships, the number of people could
range from twenty thousand to twenty five thousand for a sixty to seventy percent
booking rate. If all were filled nearly to capacity, the total could be as high
as thirty five thousand, but that would be very unlikely.”

Thad looked around the room. “Remember how warmly your eight
hundred fifty or so bodies were welcomed here? What the hell are we going to do
with another twenty thousand? The dome has plenty of room, but not the food, furniture,
bedding, kitchens, and the zillion other things they need to live here.”

“There are eleven cargo transports. Perhaps those just have food
and supplies?” Dillon suggested.

Mirikami shook his head. “I doubt the Krall read cargo manifests
to select what thousands of humans might require.

“Do you realize what will happen to the Testing Days with so
many humans to fight? The Krall can hold more and larger hunts. This compound is
sizeable, but not large enough for a hunt with dozens of people to conceal. There
are a limited number of places with decent positions to defend.” Mirikami was answering
his own question.

Maggi as usual had the political and social aspect in mind. “There
is no lottery in place unless some rules change. The humans that are sent to fight
have been those with Koban adapted muscles. There are twenty seven hundred Primes
adapted, thirty six hundred people when you count the Fancy’s complement.

“If the numbers the Krall want to use for combat Testing increases
to match the new total numbers, the current captives are
not
going to accept
filling increased quotas while the newcomers spend a month and a half getting adapted.
Housing and food for the new arrivals will need to be established. Look how our
comparatively smaller number was resented when we came. I think there could be some
really poorly prepared people sent out to fight, unless we scale up our modification
program.”

Aldry warned, “I won’t treat people that are unaware of what
we are doing to them, so that means we have to go public soon. Secrecy will go out
the window, and the new arrivals may be highly resistant to the use of genetic mods
on humans.”

Thad was more coldly pragmatic. “That choice will catch on once
newcomers start dying in large numbers. I was ready for the idea, after my experiences
here, with only minutes to consider it, particularly once I saw the results with
Tet and Dillon. I’m certain most of the other dome residents will agree. They’ve
seen too much death out in the compound.”

In a shift of subject Thad added, “By the way, I may be a bit
of a loner in the dome but most of the long term captives in Koban Prime don’t care
for being called ‘Primes.’ Their calling you ‘Fancies’ hasn’t helped your own image.
That’s too separatist a terminology when we need unity. Some of them think you look
down on them, and many see your scientists as elitist. We need to find a term for
all of us that would be more inclusive.”

Maggi spoke her approval. “Who says there’s no room for political
thoughts in a military mind? That’s very insightful Thad. Any thoughts people? We
are about to become a much larger community.”

Ideas were bandied about, such as to call every one “Captive,”
which was shot down as depressing. They could call everyone a “Prime” but that already
had poor reception. Using “humans” was too generic and failed to identify their
unique separation from the rest of humanity.

Dillon reminded them that the Krall had promised that humans
that survived the testing period would be left alive here, but without the means
to leave the planet. Every human on Koban was going to live out his or her life
here, one way or another.

He offered this suggestion, “I think we should refer to ourselves
as Kobani from Koban. Just as I was formerly Rhamian from Rhama. It wasn’t a choice
to be brought here, but we
are
here and we will
remain
here for life.
I think we should start to embrace this world as our home rather than as our prison.
It’s certainly beautiful and fertile enough to love.”

“Koban’s deadly enough to fear it as well,” added Noreen.

“Then we have to become deadly enough to match,” added
Aldry. She shared a covert look with Maggi.

Finally, they favored the introduction of the collective term
of “Kobani” for every human on the planet. Rather than announce it as a decision
from some obscure committee, they would use the term themselves, and encourage the
personnel from the Flight of Fancy to drop the use of Primes as being offensive
to their fellow captives.

The arrival of the next wave of Kobani “immigrants” was soon
announced.

“Captain,” Jake spoke only to Mirikami. “There is a Krall communication
in Standard for you from Parkoda, transmitted from a Clanship in orbit.”

“Link the transmission to those of us in this room; send audio
only from myself but wait fifteen seconds to connect me.” He answered.

To the others he cautioned. “Parkoda’s calling from a ship in
orbit. You can listen, but I’ll do the talking.”

Jake routed the transmission to their transducers. “Human clan
leader of my Prize ship. This is Parkoda. Telour says you are able to hear my signal.
I order you to answer.”

“Parkoda, I await your orders.” Mirikami responded, hoping he
hadn’t waited longer than Krall impatience would tolerate.

Parkoda outlined the problem he needed Mirikami to solve for
him, while acting like it was his solution.

“The three raids were great victories. Two other raid leaders
follow my example. They bring many human ships, as I do with me, complete and they
still can fly but they cannot Jump. To keep more captives alive, we do not enter
the ships. The message I sent to your ship was used for them, and most surrender
to our strength. One hand of ships did not.”

He didn’t specify what happened to those four ships, but it couldn’t
have been good.

“We tow to Koban using bigger tachyon’s our K’Tal say we need
to move faster with big ships to bring. I order you to speak to clan leaders on
human ships, what you call Captains. They could not talk in Jump Hole, and some
I think will run now. We have destroyed the Trap makers on the hulls, but if they
do not submit we will enter with novices that do not know you are so weak animals.”

“I understand you Parkoda. If I am allowed, I can send a message
to every ship, all at one time to explain what they should do. I must use a radio
to do this, and the signal will go into space. Is that allowed?”

“Yes, the signal will use many hundred human years to reach other
humans. The war will start before then. Send your signal. We will listen.”

“Yes Sir. I will follow your order. Mirikami Out.”

“Jake, use the all of the standard emergency frequencies used
by the various Hub, New Colony, and Rim worlds.”

“Ready Sir.”

Mirikami started by telling them they needed to listen to what
he had to tell them about their captors, promising that he would speak with them
individually later. He told them who he was, his ship’s name and date of capture,
knowing they could check their records to confirm the Flight of Fancy belonged to
Interworld, and who her Captain was. They possibly could know of their disappearance,
since they were overdue.