Koban (83 page)

“When will this happen?” The Krall seldom wasted time, so he
wasn’t surprised when Parkoda didn’t this time.

“My Clanship will destroy the gates while my K’Tal records your
war pictures.”

Mirikami tried a pointless appeal, “The arriving humans are not
prepared for the dangers here. They will not be safe until they enter the dome,
can this wait for two days?”

“Then you will need to move quickly. The Kobani animals will
see open walls, untouched grass, and very slow new prey. You should carry many guns.”
He snorted several times at this sage advice, obviously enjoying the images that
came to his mind.

Parkoda had one final order. “My K’Tal will go to my prize ship.
Give her pictures you say you have of human wars. If they show what I want, the
prize ship will stand another day.”

Crap! He needed a carrot to dangle
. Some advantage given
for what cost a Krall nothing had worked before.

“To save you the waste of a missile to destroy your first great
prize, I will give you war pictures to take to the clan meeting. Where humans are
fighting battles and using better weapons than I made for my own Testing Day. It
would be inefficient to lose all of the war pictures saved on your original prize.
Any clan leader could come here to see them for themselves, on the very prize you
captured. Do you agree Parkoda?”

He sounded reluctant, but told him “If the K’Tal brings back
true pictures of human fighting against human in a war, I will keep the other pictures
safe in my prize.” With that, he was gone.

“The channel is closed Sir,” Jake informed him.

The large Clanship touched down over a mile away, a hatch opened
and a K’Tal with a hand of warriors leaped to the hot tarmac, running towards the
Fancy.

“Ship wide broadcast and Link,” he ordered.

“Attention, a “K’Tal and four warriors will be entering the Fancy
by the cargo hold ramp, and at least the K’Tal will be coming to the bridge. Everyone
stay clear of the stairs.”

As he watched the Clanship lift again, he Linked to Maggi.

“Maggi, I need to make this quick so listen fast. The Krall never
knew we recorded our wars or made dramas about them. I think their super-fast visual
perception and impatience is poorly suited to watch our slow frame rate movies.
Parkoda wants a sample of a movie depicting a past war right now, almost this minute.
He’ll blast the ship if I don’t produce. He knows that I helped Telour, and he’s
going to make us pay by blowing up the outer gates now. I might be able to save
the ship if I give him evidence of our wars.

“I want to show them scenes from an old war movie, with weapons
something like we built to fight with here. Probably one from the mid twentieth
century. What can you recommend?”

“I’m sorry, but I really don’t know, Tet,” she replied, “I’m
not a fan of war stories. I watch cowboy and pioneer dramas. However, Jake can look
for movies with an actor I liked as a cowboy. I know he made some war movies about
what they called World War 2. John Wayne was his name, but these are not documentaries,
they were entertainment.”

“Thanks Maggi, I’ve seen some samples in the past and don’t think
the Krall will know the difference. I just need to show them that humans made war
within a recent time frame, and the weapons used match the low tech weapons we made.”

As they spoke, Jake’s perpetual monitoring had sent him searching
the ship’s vast library for movie titles, with the actor’s name mentioned by
Maggi placed in the credits. By the time Mirikami asked for examples, he had a list
of war movies.

With time short, he had Jake flash short samples on screen. He
found images of ground warfare of the type he wanted, but it proved particularly
uncomfortable for him. The title was
The Sands of Iwo
Jima, which had pitted American Marines against his Japanese Empire ancestors.
He
glossed over a synopsis of the story.

“The K’Tal has entered the stairwell, Sir,” advised Jake.

“Right. I will use the movie that’s on screen now Jake. Can you
display only battle scenes of the invasion of the island and the fighting there,
and skip the training and conversational scenes? I want the combat portions.”

“I can try Sir, but some conversation is involved in the portions
of the movie where there is fighting.”

“OK, fine. I’ll tell you when to play the battle parts or to
skip to another scene”

He heard a whisper of sound and caught a flash of brown uniform
as the K’Tal landed on the deck by the stairwell railing. He faced her. “Thank you
for coming. I believe I have images of former human warfare for you to see.”

“Parkoda wants me to make a recording of that fighting, an explanation
of why you made war, who was fighting, who won, how many died, and how long ago
the war was fought.”

No preliminary social interaction with a Krall, he reminded himself.
She spoke much better Standard than Parkoda he noticed, wondering if she also dumbed
herself down in front of him as Telour did.

“The images I have are of a small part of a worldwide war that
took place six hundred of our years ago and lasted for about six years.” He hoped
he had the general details mostly right. Earth history wasn’t an important school
subject on New Honshu.

“The war was between many different human clans for control of
territory and for the power to rule over other clans. It was fought on our home
world, and more than fifty six million humans were killed. My clan was one of three
large allied clans that lost that war, and my clan is fighting in the pictures I
will show.”

“Your clan submitted to the stronger victors?” she asked.

“Yes,” was all that he volunteered.

She detached a six-inch black cube from her utility belt. “Where
will you show the images?”

He pointed to the main view screen. “Here, on this large
screen.”

The K’Tal, who hadn’t bothered to tell him her name, aimed what
must be a lens that popped out towards the screen.

To Jake, but as if speaking to Noreen. “Play the segments of
combat.”

The scenes started with the naval and aerial bombardments of
the rugged volcanic island, and progressed through the amphibious landing, showing
chaotic random deaths from bullets and explosions, as well as more direct and targeted
individual killings by both sides, in the usual old Hollywood dramatic fashion.

When prompted Jake skipped to scenes of close quarters fighting,
machine gun and artillery firing, tanks, explosions, flame thrower use, hand grenades
thrown, and bayonet and sword use. The pictures followed the full gamut of movie
style combat of that era. He hoped he wouldn’t have to explain how the camera managed
to catch the faces and killings without interfering with the battlefield action.

The K’Tal kept her recording device aimed at the screen until
Mirikami could see that the battle had essentially ended. “Stop the movie.” The
screen froze on a scene of devastation and dead bodies.

“Is that what you needed to see, and have you recorded the images
accurately?” Mirikami asked.

Glaring at him because of the unintended inference that she had
not performed her task properly, she nevertheless played part of the record back.
Watching the image presented on the backside of the device for a moment, she was
apparently satisfied.

“The images were recorded accurately. Are they typical of your
warfare and ways of fighting?”

“Yes, for that time in our history. However, this was only a
small battle of a much larger war. We fought on many types of land, on the oceans,
in the air over much of our world. The battle I just showed you was on an island
in a large ocean. Other battles were in forests and jungles, on wide plains or open
deserts or mountains, and sometimes in our cities. We also fought under water. We
used air ships to bomb cities, and had great battles between floating water ships
like the ones you saw shooting big guns at the start, and between air ships in the
skies.”

The K’Tal motioned at the frozen image still on screen. “This
was different and more violent combat than I saw in pictures on the small ship.
Novices on that ship had killed the humans inside when they resisted, but some pictures
were flashing on a small screen when I entered. They stopped before I could get
a recording machine and I did not know the way to make them show again.”

The Krall looked at Mirikami and Noreen in an appraising manner,
with the typical laser like intensity they displayed when examining humans as an
enemy.

“You humans look too soft and weak to make war like I saw, and
you die easy from small damage.” She noted.

Mirikami responded to that. “When we fight with other humans
we are all equal to each other, so there is no advantage to any clan. Fighting the
Krall is new to us, but we will learn how to do that well. We will be an enemy you
did not expect, and you may be sorry you found us.”

“You told how many humans died in your war, but I do not understand
the human number ‘fifty six million.’ I will find out how many that is in our numbers.
Does that mean very many humans being killed, like those in the pictures?”

“You will find that the numbers I told you we killed are very
many more than all of the humans you have brought to Koban today, and I think many
more than all of the Krall that I believe are on this planet now or in your ships
in orbit here.” No need to mention that many of those millions were defenseless
civilians, because the Krall didn’t have defenseless people.

She told him, “I think we will move faster on the Great Path
as we defeat your worlds. Parkoda will be pleased with what I take to him. These
are better pictures of fighting than I saw before and now I have proof of them for
other clans to see. I was not truly believed, but now I will gain status with
Parkoda.”

Swiftly attaching the recording device to her belt, the K’Tal
made the usual unceremonious Krall exit, disappearing down the stairs in a rush
of air.

Noreen looked at the monitor data. “The Clanship climbed several
miles overhead and fired lasers and rockets towards the compound perimeter. Jake,
did you see what the ship hit and how many times?”

“Yes Mam. It destroyed twenty-eight gates visible to my cameras,
but four gates are out of my direct view behind the jungle and part of the ridge.
They fired thirty two times in a symmetrical pattern, probably removing all thirty-two
gates. The fenced enclosures around the outside of the gates that are visible to
me were also destroyed.”

“Those fences were electrified,” Mirikami noted. “The top of
the wall also had high voltage lines that are probably cut now. It looks like Parkoda
has finished letting in the wild life, damn him. The new captives will have to face
more than bugs and bats before they all can get down.”

“Parkoda is apparently landing to pick up his K’Tal and warriors.”
Noreen selected an image of the Clanship settling back to the tarmac a mile away,
with all five Krall running towards the craft. “We need to know if we have to get
off this ship before he lifts, Sir.”

“Or if he would give us the time anyway,” Mirikami said. “I should
have started an evacuation minutes ago. Jake, use the same frequency as before to
contact the Clanship. I want to talk to Parkoda.”

“Ready, Sir.”

“Parkoda, this is Captain Mirikami. Your K’Tal said the pictures
I gave her would please you. Is your prize ship safe from destruction?”

He answered quickly. “Yes, for now. Her report is that the pictures
are of a battle greater than any test we gave to humans on Koban. I can take them
to my clan Leader.”

Relived, he tried to ask for a bit more in value for those images.
“Will you leave the hand of warriors here to guard the transfer of new prisoners
to the dome? With the gates now open we will have rhinolo and rippers inside before
we can move everyone into the dome.”

The answer was quick. “No. Move faster and use the new weapons
you made at Telour’s order.” He clicked off.

As soon as his returning warriors were aboard, the ship lifted
quickly, arcing towards the southeast.

“I guess he’s staying pissed off at us. Initially he sounded
like he had shared in part of Telour’s credit for our Testing Day success, but apparently
not very much. This visit must only be for payback because of our role in clan politics.
I’m glad I found something I could trade for the ship again.”

“Tet, we’ll probably have some time before a herd of rhinolo
happens to spot the open gates. Jake can warn us when that happens, so we should
have time to get these first people unloaded safely.”

“Maybe a day or two will pass, but when they see…” Jake’s voice
interrupted him.

“Sir, five large animals have passed through a gate to the south
west, and are moving across the grasslands towards the river.”

“Damn. Rhinolo already? Are there more behind them?” He asked.

“Sir, they are not like the descriptions of the large bluish
green animals with a long horn on their nose.”

Her voice tense, Noreen said, “Jake, put them on screen quick.
Are they rippers?”

“Mam, from context of discussions I have recorded I believe rippers
are an Earth analogue of lions. A large carnivorous cat family creature, is that
correct? I am shifting a camera.”

Mirikami answered, “Yes. We were told rippers hunt in prides
like lions, and are supposed to be shaped somewhat like them but larger.”

On the verge of sounding a general alarm, Mirikami anxiously
watched as a side screen showed teal colored scenery streaking by as the camera
slewed towards the normally empty grass plains.

Before the image steadied, they heard, “I have no Koban animal
images to compare to them, but these are blue with white horizontal stripes on their
backs and sides, with two black horns on the top of their heads. They do not appear
at all like a lion.”