Koban: Rise of the Kobani (95 page)

“Thank you, Captain Lebeau. I take it you were from the Old Colony of Gaul before Koban?”

“Yes Sir.”

“And who do I thank on the second ship?”

“Sir, it is Bob Danker. I’ve named my ship the Dagger. If learn how to fight her, I’d like to join you on future missions.”

“Captain Danker, I have no doubt we can find a use for your spirit, and with Mind Tap, you can gain the knowledge. I thank you as well.

“With the arrival of at least one migration ship, and the security of this system in hand, I’d like you, Francois, to make the half day Jump back, and bring the other ships here as soon as possible. You can try to contact your friend when you Jump. Stop the transfer of supplies at the waypoint, and finish the job here. We want to get as many Prada and Torki off this world as we can.”

“Sir, what about the Raspani, in the compound near the dome we destroyed?” It was Danker’s voice.

Mirikami had never even
thought
about the Krall having them here as food. It was a moment of horror for his oversight. He couldn’t leave them if he could somehow rescue them. “Bob, how many did you see and where were they? We were focused on the dome and ships.”

“Sir, the fenced area was about five miles north of the dome, around a small lake and some buildings. Let me think a moment…”

Mirikami knew what he was doing. Sorting through his visual memory and counting or estimating how many he had seen.

“I would say over two thousand but less than twenty-five hundred. They were panicked by the explosions and running around. Sorry I don’t have an exact count.”

“Close enough, Bob. That many will fit on a migration ship, but we need to move them to where a migration ship can land on a hard surface. I’d like you to fly back there and see if there is enough clear space on the tarmac after all that destruction. Don’t land, because we don’t know if all the Krall were inside the dome.”

“After that, Sir?” he obviously wanted some useful role.

“We need orbital cover, in case an enemy clanship arrives, or if you see any shuttle activity on the planet. If you do, don’t shoot without talking to me.”

After that, the Pride of Gaul Jumped, the Dagger orbited, and the Mark landed a thousand TG2s at the shipyards.

The Kobani spread out, as they had on CS2, some scaling the dome, others going through the four entrances. Teams went down into the first factory, and followed nearly the same tunnel layout to the other factories. Surprisingly, there were no Krall encountered in the factories below, and resistance was less in the dome than anticipated. It made Mirikami nervous. The Prada encountered obviously understood low Krall. Some of the TG2’s had switched off stealth and had spoken to them. However, none would talk or answer questions put to them. We were clearly not “Rulers” so they would not cooperate.

Ethan was leading the assault to clear the dome, and Mirikami called him on his transducer. “Ethan, there are too few warriors being found, and I’m concerned they may have gathered someplace to make a counter attack. I’d like you to have your teams capture all of the warriors you can alive, for Mind Taps.

“Don’t let anyone put themselves at risk, but with our superior numbers here and stealth, you should be able to wound some for capture. I know you have one of the needle guns, with the Death Lime thorn extract, but if they are all in armor, it won’t help until you’ve already made the capture. Be careful.”

“I will, Sir.”

Thad was in charge of the demolition teams in the factory directly below the dome, and even though proceeding with caution, there had been absolutely no opposition. Mirikami finally decided on the intrusive step he had been so reluctant to employ on any of the Prada. He wanted them to trust humans after Wister arrived to try to talk them into cooperating. However, that would not happen for another day at best. He made another transducer call.

“Thad, if the Prada won’t speak to us, we need to try to communicate with them before Wister gets here. If you can identify one of them acting like a leader, he will at least be an elder to those he’s directing. Gently, and I do mean that, catch one of them, and with a bare hand do a Mind Tap. Ask questions in low Krall and let me know what you learn. I need to know were the Krall are that we expected to be in this dome. There were only a few dead ones in the upper levels, and only a few have been killed lower in the dome. Some of them finally figured out we can’t easily be seen, and took shots when we made a noise. One clever devil set up water soaked walkways and shot his plasma rifle where he saw footprints appear. Our people saw his rifle’s pre-flash and ducked to make him miss, so he never got another chance.

“The Prada might know what’s been going on to pull the warriors away. That VIP visitor could be connected in some way. I’m happy we can bring down the rescue ships sooner, although I’d feel better knowing for sure we have no surprises.”

The two teams sent out to visit the Torki lodges were at least able to talk to the giant crabs, and told them that others from their race would be here soon to explain what was happening. When a Kobani casually mentioned the new Olt library opening for others from their race, and how it came about, they were suddenly eager to try a Mind Tap.

Mirikami warned the teams about how intense the Mind Tap effect had been on the Torki on Haven. It was decided to allow a representative at each lodge to undergo the mental exchange, without the rest of the community trying to share the experience with their Olts.

This time, there was a definite consensus that only mild images, clearly nonviolent and properly scaled images would be transmitted.

It was while Mirikami was discussing performing Torki Mind Taps that Thad received a surprising transducer call from Ethan, who had been informed by Jakob that the captain was too busy to talk.

“Dad, Uncle Tet is busy with something to do with the Torki, but I just captured a Krall, not wearing armor. I hit him with the needle gun, one tap in the neck, and now he’s too numb to move. I think the captain will want to see this blue suit for himself, and do his own Mind Tap. This one knows who the VIP was, and personally has something to do with his mental images showing me another
type
of Krall.”

“Are you able to send him out to the ship? We can’t risk the captain going in there, away from the Mark.”

“Sure, I can take him myself.  How about your work below the dome?  Are the cooling systems set to blow and flood the place? I mean if we can get the Prada to go to the surface of course, or up here into the dome.”

“Son, I have people Mind Tapping several elder Prada leaders right now. Even if we don’t convince them to trust us, we can surely get them to spread the word to evacuate the complex, so we can detonate the explosives, and flood the lower levels. There is a central office where they can make a public address announcement. Despite not being willing to go against the Krall, they appear to accept that they are a valuable asset for their Rulers, and they must preserve themselves for rebuilding. Whatever gets them to leave the factories is fine with me.”

“OK, Dad. This Parkoda character is actually pissed off at the Krall big shot that just left. He wished we had blown up his clanship before it left. He’s that Krall we saw running back to the dome as the VIP’s ship lifted. He had just flown over here before we attacked in that second ship.”

Thad, on hearing that name, responded quickly, “Meet me at the elevators in five minutes with your prisoner. I’m going with you to see the captain. The Krall probably reuse names often, since they
normally give themselves only one. However, this name is one used by a Krall that all of us older generation have reason to remember. It can’t be him, because this is a Graka clan world.”

“He naturally can’t speak right now
, of course, but he doesn’t like Graka clan at all. What was the clan for the other Parkoda? If I caught this one’s thoughts correctly, he’s from Tanga clan.”

“Holy crap! Meet me at the elevators in two minutes, not five. I want to see and Tap this Krall myself. The Parkoda that captured the Flight of Fancy was from Tanga clan, and
he was the one that blew open the outer gates at Koban Prime, which let in the animals and predators to kill people.”

****

Once Telour had left him stranded here, Parkoda had no desire to wait for off-planet transport in the hostile atmosphere in the main Graka dome. He was still on the lowest level, near the exit, when he saw four Krall coming towards him. One of them was a brown suited K’Tal he recognized as being the pilot that had flown Telour’s party around the planet and to the shipyards, for the inspection tour. Telour had ordered the ramping up of production even before the additional slaves arrived. This could be the task these warriors were assigned.

He hurried up to the K’Tal. “I request transport to the dome by the shipyards.”

Thistok looked at him with distain. The instructions passed down to them from Til Gatrol Telour, was that this Tanga clan low-status worm could only leave the planet on one of the migration ships, which would be coming here.

However, a sub orbital flight to the other dome was not off-planet, and besides, the environment in and around the other dome was far less pleasant than here. Therefore, he consented, thus unintentionally saving the worm from imminent pulverizing death.

When the clanship landed, the other four Krall made certain Parkoda made his exit first. The K’Tal openly reset the code to enter the ship, and sent a warrior to the other nearby ship to do the same. Parkoda had not even considered the possibility of stealing a clanship, since that would definitely eliminate his chance of regaining his position as the commander of the soft Krall compound. The thought certainly was in his mind now.

He decided to look over the middle levels of the dome, when the four Krall went up to the top levels to discuss Telour’s orders. There were Prada living here, which made the place stink. The last forest around here had died thousands of years ago so the central hall was filled with grub trees, artificial light for them, and an earthy smell.

The Prada paid proper respect to him, so it wasn’t as bad here for him as it would be in the main dome surrounded by hostile warriors. He was looking for a suitable set of quarters, just below the top three levels reserved for Graka clan, where he could evict a Prada family unit and take their home. He would force them to clean it, and bring in anything he needed, such as a cooler for storing Raspani meat and jerky.

At least his rations would be no problem. There were even a few Raspani inside the dome, wandering among the grub trees, eating grass and ferns that the Prada prepared for them. These animals were brought over from the grounds around the main dome for convenience. The histories said this world was once home to the long gone Doloria, so it had never been a colony of the Raspani. However, he commented that the meat herd here produced the best tasting meat he’d had.

A Graka sub leader bragged that the herd here had been imported from the original Raspani home world. That was why they had a richer taste. Thousands of years of breeding them on other planets had caused some of the natural flavor to diminish, forcing the Krall to feed them the spicy plants that made them more appetizing.

Parkoda was walking through the third Prada household, trying to decide which to take, when he heard the explosions of the two clanships, followed almost immediately by explosions overhead. He was considering this particular compartment because of its proximity to a stairwell, so he was able to start down ahead of the collapsing levels above. The destruction didn’t last, and there were no more explosions above. That meant only the high-level talks of the local Graka leaders were casualties, and were probably dead now.

That image was hardly unpleasant to him, but whatever clan was attacking here would not care that he was from Tanga clan, and would willingly help them in their destruction. He’d be killed as well. He never questioned that it was another clan doing this. This far from the joint council, enforcement of distant rules could sometimes breakdown.

He was armed of course. No Krall went unarmed. Parkoda had two standard pistols at his waist, and knives in his utility belt across his chest. These were of small use against a force of armored warriors, and this was not his clan’s territory to defend. He decided to avoid the invaders, and wait to see if they would stay around or if this was a hit and run raid. He assumed the latter, because the attack could not be one that was sanctioned by the council of clans.

If they had a strong enough force and were thorough, they might kill all the Graka warriors before leaving. He might be able to force the Prada and Torki to finish one of the clanships in the cradles, which were waiting only for electronics and fuel for a test flight. He envisioned a Jump back to his duty post with an unassigned clanship to his credit.
That
would help his status in his own clan.

He took refuge in an empty Prada compartment, which had a corridor window. He didn’t consider this to be hiding, merely avoiding having to fight and kill an enemy of his enemy. From a corner of his observation point on the third lowest level, he could see most of the central hall and its trees. A warrior in armor came into his view, crouching and working its way between trees. He saw it shot with a green laser through the faceplate, and fall forward. The color of the laser was unusual. The Krall, with a vision preference towards the red part of the spectrum, generally didn’t use laser weapons in the green frequencies.