Koban (84 page)

The image zoomed in and tracked on five animals staying close
together, similar in appearance to Earth antelopes. They were trotting towards the
riverbank. The lead animal was larger than the other four, and had two long spiraling
black horns atop a triangular head with a white face. It had white beard-like hair
under the chin and along the bottom of the neck, back to the broad blue–green chest.
Between the hindquarters, just behind the belly, hung proof of his gender. The four
smaller versions had shorter beards and no visible genitalia, so were most likely
the harem of the larger male.

“Jake, can you estimate the size from this image?” asked Noreen.

“The larger animal is almost ten feet long, excluding the tail,
and between seven and eight feet high at the hump over the front shoulders. I estimate
the horns are close to five feet in length.”

He had more. “On earth the weight could be between two thousand
five hundred and three thousand pounds. The smaller animals are each about one foot
less in each of the dimensions, and perhaps two thousand Earth pounds. The weight
on Koban is naturally much greater,” he added unnecessarily.

When the group reached the riverbank, they watched the water
and surroundings nervously for a few moments, then took turns drinking as several
kept watch. When done they moved away from the water to the lush tall grass, browsing
on that grass and blue leaves of nearby low shrubs.

“Link to Colonel Greeves,” Mirikami ordered. “Thad, are you still
in the conference room?”

“I just left, headed to organize a welcoming committee from our
dome folks. Figuring out how we’re going to feed them, and strip what we can from
their ships. What did the Clanship want? I heard some booms.”

“It was Parkoda, and he just blasted open all of the outer gates.
Within fifteen minutes we may have had dinner on the hoof trot inside the compound.”
Mirikami responded.

“Damn him. We can’t let a herd of rhinolo get close to the dome
and see humans. They will charge, and we don’t have much to stop them.”

“Thad, these are smaller and look more like antelope, and there
are only five.”

“I think I’ve seen them from the air, but the Krall only hunt
the more dangerous big guys. I don’t know if we can organize a hunt from our volunteers
or your crew. We’ll be busy as hell.”

“If anyone from the dome wants to hunt from a shuttle, I can
send Ms. Jorl’sn out to bag them from the air, and bring them back. There’s almost
fifteen thousand pounds of meat browsing by the river right now.”

“The Krall freezers could hold that much easy, but I’d start
with only one kill, to make sure they are as edible as rhinolo. Do you want me to
switch jobs to go hunt?”

“No. Protecting the new arrivals is more important, Thad. It
may be hard for you to ask, but see if some people from the dome will go.”

“OK. I’ll Link to Roni when I find somebody, if you’ll authorize
her to fly them out there. I don’t trust hunting any Kobani animal on the ground.
They have horns for a reason.”

Noreen scanned Jake’s estimates on her console. “Captain, the
first passenger ship, Marimba Destiny, is almost over head and ready for descent,
and a cargo container ship named The Branislov is perhaps twenty minutes behind
them. The Sky of Italy has just peeked over the horizon in her orbit, and should
be followed by Rimmer’s Dream in ten or fifteen minutes.”

“OK. I hadn’t thought about arrivals being so close, but all
four will be down in less than an hour. We need to keep people off the tarmac until
they get down.”

“Jake, external speakers, full Link, and ship wide broadcast
for me, now.”

“Ready Sir.”

“Attention, the first two of four ships are about to land. Stay
inside and clear of the tarmac until we give the all clear. The Krall Clanship has
destroyed all of the gates in the outer wall, allowing native animals to enter.
Stay well armed and vigilant and we will survive this. Mirikami Out.”

“Jake, get me frequencies for the all of the human ships.”

“Ready Sir.”

“This is Captain Mirikami again, of the Flight of Fancy. My ship
is grounded next to the dome where you have been ordered to land. After landing,
remain in your ships until we give you an all clear to disembark. Four ships are
landing close together. You can’t unload right away, not until all four are down.

“This process will be the pattern for each group of landings.
Make no mistake; the transfer to the dome will be harrowing and risky. We will try
to protect you and will help, but some people are probably going to die from high
gravity accidents, and some from the local animal life. You will see old blasted
ships near the dome when you land. The Krall have usually destroyed most small ships
after the people were out. My ship was the first exception, but we destroyed our
own thruster engines to save her from being blown up. I will attempt to negotiate
this process for your ships if the Krall will permit this. We need the energy and
the facilities on your ships if we can save them. Good Luck. Mirikami Out.”

The Four ships were all down within the next hour, with Mirikami
or his officers talking with each Captain to describe what needed to be done. As
soon as Rimmer’s Dream shut down by the west entrance, trucks were moving to the
passenger ships, and three man teams in armor with rifles were strung out along
the routes from the four ships to the dome, taking pot shots at the inevitable wolfbats
that began to gather overhead from the jungle to the north. The skeeters had also
been drawn by the movement and noise.

Ray McPherson had the first chance to demonstrate his improved
flamethrower when he torched three skeeters that descended from over the dome on
the south side. Dillon and Jimbo simply made fireballs as a demonstration for the
wolfbats, which not only stayed high and well away, but many squadrons elected early
to go hunt elsewhere for easier prey with less risk.

Skeeters weren’t smart enough to figure this out, and so kept
up a constant series of darting and swooping approaches, watching for opportunities
to strike. With several thousand people to attack, despite protectors and warnings
to watch out, at least a dozen people got stung, one dying from a single sting in
an apparent allergic reaction. Two more died when one fell down a boarding ramp
after a sting, and another fractured his skull when he fell off the back of a truck
as he tried to climb into the back. Gravity was more the killer in these two cases.

Three more people were lightly wounded by buckshot when a protector
fired at a flight of skeeters. She had focused so much on her targets that she forgot
the truckload of people fifty feet behind the bugs. She didn’t even hit the bugs.

The wheeled trucks could carry ten people in back with two gun-toting
guards, and two more rode in the cab with the diver. The halftracks could carry
eight in back plus two guards and two in the cab with the driver.

Each of the thirty-one working vehicles made seven or eight trips
each to transport two thousand three hundred eighteen passengers, and some crew,
leaving the minimum flight crews aboard the three passenger ships. Both of the Fancy’s
haulers moved five or six at a time on pallets, but they were slower than the trucks.

It took just over three hours to complete. A sharp contrast to
the reception the people from the Flight of Fancy had met, when the every man or
fem for themselves attitude had permeated the early captives.

Noreen gave her estimate of progress. “Well, we have about a
tenth of the job done, and about twenty two thousand more to come. Considering the
three hours we used this time, and the ninety minutes to get them out of orbit,
we can handle about five thousand people per day in two landings. The truck crews
are removing all of the supplies, food, medicines, bedding, and personal belongings
as we can get off them for now. This is the safest course until we find out if we
can keep the ships for housing and manufacturing.”

Mirikami pulled at his lip. “Parkoda hasn’t replied to me since
his Clanship lifted. If he’s in orbit he isn’t talking to me, or he may have gone
to their compound. I can’t send any of these ships back up for a passenger transfer
from the large ships unless we have permission. The other Krall Clanships might
blow them out of the sky as trying to escape.”

Maggi had rejoined them after riding shotgun on eight trips to
Marimba Destiny. “What was on the cargo ship that landed? They only had a handful
of crew aboard.”

“The Transworld Boxter is a container ship, as are five other
of the cargo ships up there,” pointed out Mirikami. “The crew has a list of what
companies or people the containers were going to, but no real idea of what’s in
each of them. The contents are encoded, and the crew and ports don’t know what’s
in any container, which reduces the amount of ‘diversions’ of valuable goods at
busy ports. There is always theft, but less if you can’t tell if you are stealing
electronics or turnips.

“Until we can set up their portable cranes to unload them and
break the seals, we won’t know what’s in any of them. It’s fortunate this one was
a Rim ship, or they wouldn’t even have a portable crane, counting on good port facilities.”

Jorl’sn had gone out with two Stewards and two men from the dome
to hunt for the five antelope. Surprised to learn that no human had ever named them,
Jorl’sn used her officer status to claim the right to name them.

However, her first suggestion was shot down as ridiculous. These
savanna animals filled the equivalent role of antelope on Koban. Noting that the
equivalent of ants on Koban had been named kants she had proposed kantelope, which
drew groans from the other four aboard the shuttle.

After watching them reach speeds up to fifty miles per hour when
she chased them from the air, she mentioned they ran like blue streaks. Then she
decided that blue streakers sounded accurate, so that was what she declared them
to be.

They were big, fast and agile, with an amazing leap in the high
gravity, attesting to their strength. The small herd turned away every time they
came close enough to hover for a decent shot. Finally, they swooped by and brought
a female down by firing out through the open hatch, and the other four animals continued
on their way. This behavior was completely unlike the protective attitude of rhinolo
for an injured herd member.

To avoid field stripping the animal out there, leaving guts to
draw predators into the compound, they used the cargo winch to drag the carcass
aboard and brought it back to the dome. They had perhaps eight hundred pounds of
meat to sample. After testing for toxins of course.

Jake advised that another four human ships were breaking orbit.
Apparently, the Krall were sending them down a “hand” at a time. Even from orbit,
they could easily see that the transfer of humans from the first landing had ended,
so they sent more ships down. This time it was two cargo vessels and two mid-sized
passenger ships.

They had streamlined their transfer process, putting off explanations
and questions until they were inside the dome. There were no deaths on the second
landings, and only a hand full of paralyzing stings from skeeters. The wolfbats
had all departed after two were killed by lucky shots taken at highflying squadrons.
It was late in the day and the high metabolism animals needed to find easier food.
They recovered only the corpses of the two dead bats for all their circling.

The captive’s mistake was in assuming that the Krall would give
them a break at sunset, but instead they sent four more ships down at dusk. All
of them were passenger ships with nearly three thousand people aboard. Things began
to do wrong just before midnight.

“Captain,” Willfem Linked in to Mirikami. “The glow of the dome
lights can’t really light the tarmac out here where Pink Nebula set down Sir. They
have some external floodlights that cover the escalator ramp, but the shadows cause
trip and fall injuries. We have some broken wrists and sprains. Are there any lights
we can use?”

“Nan,” Mirikami replied, “I have our two haulers with headlights
working two ships on the other side of the dome from you. They’re using pallets
like we did the first day, and the headlights help spot skeeters. I don’t have any
other portable lighting besides flashlights. Does the Nebula have cargo haulers
they could deploy?”

“Captain Johnfem says she can’t get to them because they are
behind heavy cargo. They were expecting to dock in orbit at Thor, and use the station’s
equipment and zero gravity to offload.”

Mirikami thought a moment. “We need to keep the trucks working
in pairs so one can wait and light the other while it loads. Alternating them has
been faster, but we don’t want casualties.”

Willfem brought up another issue, “Several people have said that
they have seen winking green lights out in the darkness. Has our friend seen any
further sign of the two animals he reported moving down from the woods to the north?”

“No,” he answered. “They were among the trees and low to the
ground. They would have to move fast to be this close in the twenty minutes since
he first reported their heat signatures. They were moving south however, towards
you and the north entrance.

“OK. Thanks Tet. I’ve asked him to notify me if he spots them
close to us.”

“Did Captain Johnfem put someone on watch to aid their old FT-1
model computer in filtering out false positives? Our friend has tried to teach it,
but a ‘Fat-one’s’ a bit too old a model of AI to handle that task without human
help. We don’t need any more false alarms to scare us into buttoning the hatches
again, slowing us down.”

“Captain, I think it’s that earlier scare than has folks seeing
green eyes in the darkness. Wolfbats don’t hunt at night, and skeeter eyes don’t
reflect green light. Speaking of pairing trucks, an empty halftrack just arrived
before our nearly full truck left. I’ll follow your suggestion and hold the truck
to give them better lights for loading the halftrack. I think more light will be
reassuring.”