Koban: The Mark of Koban (66 page)

When the Clanship neared the moon, its sensors reported only
seven large ships in orbit there. If there’s any quantity a Krall is certain to
remember, it was the number eight, the basis of their octal number system, and
two hands of captured ships should be there. Toltak immediately ordered a scan
of the surface of the moon for debris, in the event one ship had somehow
spiraled in and crashed. They found no wreckage after a full orbit.

Next, she conducted a radar sweep of the space around Koban,
which produced scattered results. They found the eighth huge human transport in
an equatorial orbit close to the planet. There was no power detected from it,
and it registered cold on an IR scan. Toltak acknowledged it was possible she had
not heard of the final disposition for all of the human ships during the rush
and excitement of the Krall departure. She told her clan mates that she had not
personally seen eight ships orbiting the moon.

Two other radar specks, spotted in probable geosynchronous
orbits, drew scant attention. There were thousands of pieces of wreckage in high
and low elliptical orbits. They were the remnants of a demolished human cargo
ship, with pieces gradually falling out of orbit as they grazed the atmosphere
on low passes, burning up on entry. That ship’s human crew had attempted to escape
after arriving here. A Tanga Clanship commander had destroyed it, on Parkoda’s
order, as an object lesson to other human ships, thus carelessly cluttering the
space around Koban with its debris. It was this messy example that spared the
destruction of the eight larger ships, which were incapable of planetary
landings.

The search of the space around the planet and of its moon had
taken more than two hours. Her curiosity about the location of the final abandoned
ship satisfied, Toltak ordered Gapod to descend over the southern part of the largest
northern hemisphere continent, where she would identify the abandoned main Krall
dome along the southwestern shoreline. She was the only warrior of the six aboard
that had lived on the future home world.

Toltak sighted the old walled compound on the coast as they
descended. She was pleased at how well it had held up since the mass departure,
with some overgrowth visible, but far less than expected. Even the Raspani
enclosure still stood. If any of the food animals survived, perhaps they could
acquire some of that fresh meat when they finished their hunt. Dried field
rations of the spicy staple grew tiresome, but they needed to depart by midmorning
tomorrow, to avoid a late arrival at their base from raising too many questions
about their less-than-maximum efficiency trip.

There were several large animal herds visible from miles up,
which from the size of the specks appeared to be rhinolo. They’d have to launch
a shuttle after landing, but they would only need a short time to prepare that.
If they moved fast and efficiently, they could be on the savanna and hunting by
midafternoon, and eating rhinolo steak by late afternoon.

As the ship settled, she assumed some sea borne storm or a heavy
rain had washed the ramp area clean, because there was little if any dust
kicked up by the thrusters. The Clanship sank lower on its landing jacks than
on other planets, but because they had increased internal gravity two days
prior to landing, the local gravity matched what they had felt inside for those
days. In normal Krall fashion, the pilot and a warrior named Stilkap hurried to
the shuttle hanger to open the outer hatch and preflight the craft.

Toltak, and the three other warriors, Pindor, Kildar, and
Rudbit, drew six rifles from an armory rack at mid ship, selecting clips for both
armor piercing and explosive rounds. They ignored drawing plasma rifles and the
armor they had used on Poldark, stored in compartments below. It wasn’t that plasma
rifles couldn’t drop a rhinolo, quite the contrary. Nor was the sportsmanship
of a hunt a real consideration. Plasma guns made it such a sure safe kill that
there was no risk for the hunters, furnishing no test of their “Krallhood.” The
risk of death or injury increased the satisfaction of the kill. They would
likely kill one or two animals apiece, and cut only enough meat from one to
make the day’s meal.

Carrying the rifles and ammunition to the shuttle bay, the six
Krall donned weapon harnesses with pistols, and attached spare clips and personal
knives. Sealing the shuttle hatch, Gapod started the maneuvering thrusters, and
carefully lifted and guided the shuttle out of the large Clanship hatchway. As
soon as they were clear, he boosted smoothly towards the herds, and the hunt
they had been anticipating.

****

Mirikami pulled at his lower lip, reflecting on the departed
shuttle. “They clearly didn’t detect anything out of place here, or that party
of six wouldn’t miss out on a chance for a fight. I’m surprised none of them
even stepped out on the ramp, or checked the dome. They never show much in the
way of idle curiosity, but I expected them to want to look inside. I thought we
could ambush some of them under the overhang, out of sight of the Clanship.”

Thirty minutes earlier, the two expedition shuttles had
carefully parked underneath two of the dome’s large garage overhangs, to hide
them. There had been armed Hub City citizens waiting inside each of the four dome
entrances. They had quickly converged on the west entrance, where the Clanship finally
chose to land. Jake had control of both human shuttles now, was prepared to lift
them and fly low over the dome at full thrust to ram the Clanship. He had
watched and relayed the Krall’s departure track from the moon, and determined
they were most likely going to land at their old main compound.

Clustered behind parked trucks under the west entrance’s overhang
were the only three TGs they had with them at Hub City. Thirty-two Hub City
youngsters were in their eight-week adaptation phase as new TGs, over at Prime
City. Carson, Ethan, and Alyson, were huddled with Mirikami, Dillon, and Thad
behind a halftrack transport. Twenty other adult Hub City SGs were hiding
behind other trucks for added firepower. The two rippers were inside the dome
doors, with a couple of hundred other Hub City citizens ready to defend their
home. They had sent the cats there, out of sight, because if seen by the Krall,
they would provoke instant shooting, whereas an unarmored human being spotted,
even with a Krall pistol, wouldn’t seem like much of a threat to a Krall. That
was the expectation anyway.

They had no way of knowing how many more Krall could be
aboard the Clanship, nor if anyone would be standing watch. The shuttle flight
had Mirikami worried, in case it was destined for Prime City, but there were
hundreds of armed TGs there, with Jake able to warn them of inbound traffic,
which might take several hours to arrive if they stayed suborbital.

Jake’s remote surveillance cameras here at Hub City had
revealed one blue and one brown uniformed Krall enter the shuttle, along with
four black suited warriors, all with rifles. The brown suited K’Tal would
probably be the pilot, and the blue uniform was either a translator, or
possibly the mission commander. Except, what was their mission here? It didn’t
seem as if they were on high alert.

The big passenger liner in an equatorial orbit had been a
major worry for Mirikami, having moved it by thruster power five months ago
from the moon. Chief Haveram and a dozen former Drive Rats from various ships
had accompanied Mirikami on the risky shuttle trip. They had scavenged Trap
emitters from spares stores of ships in orbit at the moon. Then they picked the
ship to repair that had the least hull and wiring damage from the emitters the
Krall had shot off when they captured the big craft. Mirikami had placed it in
a stable circular orbit at seven hundred twenty miles, because at that height,
Jake predicted that it would have the least risk from impacts by the cargo ship
debris.

They had brought down all of the spare Trap emitters, for
modification on the ground to work with the selected ship’s different wiring
system. Chief Haveram did not expect to finish the changes for a few months, so
fortunately the hulk had been left cold and dead looking. The Krall had low
curiosity and little imagination, so apparently they never considered that a
clan of “dead” humans had moved the ship to restore its Jump capability.

If the Krall commander was still aboard the Clanship, and activated
the heavy lasers, the two shuttles might not survive long enough to ram. If the
plasma chambers were hot, and the cannon barrels preheated, the shuttles would
never close the gap for a ramming attempt. Jake had no heat sensors at this
dome, only visual cameras for Hub City, but he saw no shimmer of heat waves
radiating from the closed plasma cannon ports, suggesting an off-guard Krall
crew.

Mirikami mused aloud, but quietly. “The lower hatches are still
closed, and none of us know for sure if they are coded, or will activate for just
anyone. The shuttle hatch is wide open, but it’s at least thirty feet off the
tarmac. I’d like to try to get inside, to sabotage the Jump Drive or thruster engines,
and use the ramming plan only as a backup. How can I get up there? Do we have
some rope and something I can use as a grapple hook?”

Ethan and Carson, crouched behind the same truck with him,
shared a quick glance. Carson spoke softly for both. “Commander,” He used his
formal title in front of those from Hub City that could hear them. “Ethan and I
don’t need a rope or a grapple to get inside, and we can move a lot faster than
you can.”

“It’s at least thirty-feet up, and even you two can’t jump
that high.” Mirikami hadn’t said no. He wanted to know how they’d get inside.

“We can jump and reach fingers to nearly twenty five feet,
so with one to help toss the other, either of us can easily reach the lower
edge of the hatch and get inside.”

“Boys, it has to be me going inside. I know how to sabotage
a Jump Drive or their thruster engines and you don’t. Besides, I don’t want
anyone else in there if I have to order Jake to ram with the shuttles.”

Carson explained how they’d get him inside. “I’ll take a
rope with me, Ethan will help toss me higher than I can jump, and I’ll pull you
up with the rope. OK?”

Mirikami argued to have the two of them jointly toss him up.
They countered by telling him he didn’t have as sure a grip, and that he
couldn’t beat a warrior in a fight if he ran into one. Mirikami reminded
them
he’d outsmarted an entire octet once. As soon as the dickering had started, Alyson
crouched and dashed inside the maintenance shop, to return quickly with a coil
of rope tied to a truck’s towing hook.

She glanced at the two boys, still arguing with Commander
Mirikami, shrugged, stepped around the front of the halftrack and bounded,
graceful as a gazelle, across the hundred feet of tarmac to stand under a Clanship
landing jack.

Dillon tapped Carson on the shoulder and pointed. “Hey.
Brilliant strategy Gentle Men. Blather on until a young Lady does it for you. Very
clever plan.”

“Huh?” The befuddled word echoed from all three in the
debate that was about to be resolved.

Alyson waved, made a quick rotation twirling motion with the
hook dangling from two feet of rope. She stepped out from under the landing
jack’s support column and let go. The hook rose as she released the rope, and it
flew easily through the open hatchway. As it clanked to the deck, she ran at an
angle, pulling the rope towards the right side hatch edge, dragging the hook
towards a protruding arm of the hatch’s bottom push rod, where it snagged. She
made a left-handed test tug on the rope, lightly lifting herself a foot from
the pavement and swung back. As she touched down, she was facing the trucks
parked under the overhang, and she made a graceful deep bow, sweeping her free
right arm from waist level, out to the side. The implied “Ta Da!” was clear, as
she straightened with a smug little smile.

Thad chuckled. “I guess you have your way inside Tet. It
doesn’t look like anyone in the ship is monitoring the ramp area either, or
we’d have some reaction because they never wait for us.”

Tet stood, and was about to run across to join Alyson, when
he heard a commotion behind him, from one of the dome’s eight open personnel
and truck maintenance doors. Ana Cahill was forcing her way through the
clustered defenders, shouting and complaining loudly, as usual.

Mirikami rushed over, speaking urgently. “Keep your voice
down. Do you have a death wish? The Krall might hear you, even though the
hull.”

She glared at him. “It’s your fault we’re at risk. Your
‘superman’ project has made it likely they will kill us all now.”

Mirikami was stunned at the depths of ignorance this educated
woman was capable of displaying. In a hushed voice, he stated the obvious.
“They didn’t return to Koban because of any action by people they believed died
twenty years ago. However, they
will
try to kill us all now, or escape
to bring back enough warriors to finish that job. We need the element of
surprise Cahill, so shut the hell up.” He’d had enough of her nonsense years
ago, but had maintained a civil manner with her, until now.

She had the sense, seeing his anger, to speak softer, but
displayed no contrition. “The Krall left us alive on purpose, because we were
no threat to them. You criminal Primes have now created these monstrous children,
which represent a threat the Krall will have to answer. I want to speak for
those of us that opposed you all along, who stayed true to humanity’s laws. We
do not deserve to die with you criminals. I demand to speak for those of us who
should be spared.”

He glanced over to Mayor McDougal, “Stewart, please keep her
quiet and away from those doors.” Then he looked directly into her dark circled
eyes, the gravity sagged jowls proof she had refused the clone mods. The pudgy
face and body were a testament to how productive and more useful people had
kept her very well fed, and had protected for more than twenty years.