Koban: The Mark of Koban (5 page)

Walking into a nest of one of the mid-level Galactic Mining
employees, achieved by the simple expediency of kicking open the main door,
Telour found a family grouping of five. Two of which, by the nature of their
loose flowing lower clothing and smell, were females of their species. One was
mature, and one a half-grown cub.

The adult female assumed the assertive role in confronting
the large intruder. This was despite a larger male’s presence, who was
shielding the three human cubs of various sizes. Telour had discovered on Koban
that initially women assumed leadership roles, but were the physically weaker
of the species. Soon, a partial reversal of leadership roles had occurred on
Koban, after Krall requirements for specimens to use in combat to the death
eliminated all of the female leaders.

To humans Krall females were nearly indistinguishable from
males, although slightly smaller. The females fought alongside the males except
when heavy with eggs.

The woman spoke incomprehensibly, at least for Telour’s
command of Standard, the primary language of humans. “My Company will have you crude,
rude, despicable creatures in court for destruction of property and assault.
Galactic Mining protects their employees, and you will find that…”

Telour never learned what “that” might have been. He shot
her through her open mouth when she raised a hand holding a legal document
towards the three hundred sixty eight pound, seven feet one inch, saurian-resembling,
reddish gray, armed and toothy, bloodthirsty alien.

Her presumed mate followed her immediately with another shot
to the head as he shouted “Bastard” at the Krall. While the smaller two cubs
screamed and cringed, the larger half grown female moved to a food preparation
area. Telour paused briefly as he considered the ridiculous insult that humans
seemed to consider the word bastard to be.

Krall cubs hatched alone and never knew their parents. Their
only worth in Krall society came from the status they earned as they matured
and became warriors and leaders. All Krall, if he understood the human word
properly, were bastards by definition.

Looking down without the faintest trace of pity for the
terrified and wailing cubs, he casually walked towards them in the surprisingly
smooth glide of the bow legged Krall. He heard the faint swish of air behind
him, whirled in a lighting fast motion and spotted the heavy chopping knife
spinning through the air towards him.

His four digit taloned right hand swept up in a blur of
motion, plucking the knife out of the air by its handle, and with a flick of
the wrist, reversed the weapon towards its source. It was a defiant
thirteen-year-old girl at a kitchen passthrough opening. The heavy knife struck
her point first in the forehead, killing her before she barely registered its
return. Telour approved of her novice effort, as she fell dead.

He needed to keep moving at speed, since he could hear his
K’Tal firing in a human nest across the roadway, probably gaining kills while
his leader lingered. He now regretted throwing the human’s knife because he
hadn’t brought one of his own on his weapons belt. For speed and efficiency,
neglecting the benefit of the atrocity factor he had recommended, he drew and
shot the two younger male children as he spun to leave for the next nest
building.

They only had two days for this attack, and Telour knew it
wasn’t possible for eight thousand two hundred Krall to cull much of human
population on this ridiculously named Gribble’s Nook.
What was a gribble
anyway?
The alien wondered.

****

Sanji Gribble was a grandson of the original prospector, who
had found this planet while operating his own small Jump ship. The ship had
represented an investment of his entire family’s money. He filed a claim on the
huge kimberlite magma extrusions in a cluster of cratons he found. He did this the
same day he returned to the Hub to register the discovery of the mineral rich planet,
after spending an expensive and hazardous year alone, exploring his find. He’d
brought back several spectacular examples of diamonds, to substantiate his
find.

Diamonds of spectacular size, color, and quality, matched by
ease of access became John Gribbles’ legacy to his family. The atmosphere was
breathable, yet there was no elaborate environment to speak of, to protect from
the most efficient and crude methods of mining, digging huge open pits. The
family owned operation, no longer the largest mining operation on the Nook, was
still one of the wealthiest.

Grandpa had kept the planet’s resources secret for as long
as he could, and the name Nook reflected his decision to try to maintain it as
his own obscure and secluded treasure trove. By the time his seven years of
proprietary
rights of discovery had expired, he was wealthy enough to
keep larger mining companies from coming in and pushing him around.

Sanji had been CEO of Gribble Gems since his grandfather had
died in an accident eleven years ago. Sanji’s hardnosed toughness won him
support over any of the women in the family. Labor contract problems were just
one issue they faced every two years. The revelation that high quality copper
deposits were on Gribble land had caused friction with Standard Mining. At just
over 2% copper, the sizable deposit was the richest on the Nook. Standard owned
all copper export rights on the Nook, and demanded the right to strip mine on
Gribble land, paying for the access of course. They were still in court over
this issue.

When the Capitol Spaceport AI notified the Gribble CEO’s computer
of the arrival of sixteen strange ships, and shortly after that came reports they
were about to make unauthorized landings. Sanji came in to the office, a short
drive from his mansion, to find out what was happening. He learned from his  AI
that an unauthorized ship was about to land at the company’s small spacepad, on
the other side of Gem Town.

Their small AI had a link to the planet-wide radar system,
and a mosaic map of the world showed landings at nearly every mining operation,
large and small. Gem Town was on the low side of the population centers, with a
population that hovered near hundred twenty thousand.

The spacepad was where the lone company transport and the
family’s two space yachts parked, with an adjacent aircraft landing strip and
hanger. When he called him, the night watchman was concerned that the large
ship could be a diamond raider until Sanji reminded him that the two-month
supply of 25 million monthly carat output had Jumped to the Hub yesterday. A
prospective raider would never miss a shipment by that amount of time.

Suddenly his security guard shouted that people were coming
out of the big ship, shooting at everything. Was it a dimwitted gem raider
after all? Why were they shooting, when there was no opposition?

“Hawthorn, get the hell away from them,” he ordered the
guard. “Get below and into the vault area, close and lock the outer doors
behind you. Don’t draw attention and don’t shoot unless you need to defend
yourself. Your life isn’t worth protecting a handful of damned diamonds.” There
was only three quarters of a million carats of rough stones there now, a below
average one-day’s extraction.

There had never been a robbery attempt here, partly because Grandpa
John put some serious money into the underground heavy double vault system near
the spacepad. Rough diamonds were stored there until they made the short trip
to the heavily armored and armed transport. Then a quick launch to rendezvous
with an orbiting Jumpship as they readied to depart. The vault was the most
secure place on the planet, and Charley Hawthorn had been working for the
family almost forty years.

Sanji called up the security cameras from the spacepad, and
with a shock saw hundreds of huge men racing away from the big ship, firing
pistols that must contain explosive rounds. Anything they hit experienced a
small blast. The heavy company transport wasn’t being hurt at all, but the two
family boats, fine little Jump ships, were already wrecks.

He was annoyed amid all this by a call from the Capitol
Police. His AI had flagged it as an urgent call. Gem Town had its own
emergency, but he accepted the call. It was a night shift Police Lieutenant,
who informed him that sixteen ships had landed around the planet and were
attacking everyone and everything around them. There were multiple deaths
claimed, but unconfirmed because anyone that went to investigate didn’t make it
back or report what they saw.

“The same thing is happening here,” confirmed Sanji. “My
little police force is off duty, but would they be any use? We don’t have anything
besides short-range non-lethal weapons.”

“Sir, what I saw on monitors shows me these guys are taking
no prisoners, and…,” he paused uncertainly. “You may not believe me, but they aren’t
human.”

“Bullshit!” Nevertheless, Sanji manually used the zoom on
one surveillance camera, to look closer at the men, or whatever they were, who were
still running away from the just landed ship.

“Holy Balls!” he exclaimed. “Lieutenant, you were right!
These things are certainly not humans or even derived from humans. What are you
doing about this there, that we can do here?”

“My night captain has called out the SWAT team, and issued
weapons, but there are at least five hundred of the perpetrators, according to
the AI. I don’t think we can even slow them down. Look, Sir, I have other calls
to make, good luck to you.” The call ended.

Sanji needed to get everyone awake in town. The creatures were
running at an amazing foot speed towards the outskirts of Gem Town’s Agriculture Center, located almost two miles from the sometimes-noisy spacepad.

There would be a half dozen people on duty at night, caring
for the crops and livestock that fed his employees, and when they were here, fed
his extended family for that matter.

He first sounded the
seismic
event
alarm for the entire town, which
would at least get everyone awake. Then he called the Ag Center office, which
automatically rerouted his call to the supervisor out in the bubble compound.

“You’re up late boss,” answered Darlene Waltrip, noting the
caller’s ID on her phone. “We forget to compost the cow poop again?” She tried
to renew a humorous conversation they had a couple of weeks ago, when a
malodourous smell had drifted over to the people living closest to the Ag
Center.

Sanji cut her chuckling off, “Darlene, listen up, this is an
emergency. You’ll hear the seismic alarm any second, but the threat is really a
pack of armed raiders coming from the spacepad. They shot hell out of
everything over there, and they are coming your way next, on the run. I’m
calling for a general evacuation towards the mines.  Get yourself and everyone in
there moving, and I mean
right now
! Your life probably depends on this.”

Calling them raiders would save explanation time. Saying
killer aliens were invading wouldn’t speed the conversation.

“Uh…, OK boss, three are with me, the other two are
someplace in the bubble. I can’t just leave them.”

“Hit the fire alarm, make a speaker announcement and get the
hell out. Grab one truck, leave the other one for them and drive to the Pipe.
Spread the word as you go. I need to call Brad Carson, I gotta go.” He
disconnected.

There had been discussions in the past about what they might
do if a robbery in-force was attempted. Hiding their people in the “Pipe” mine
was an option they had considered. It was the closest ancient volcanic tube
mine to the town, and had several sets of big elevators that could hold fifty
people each, and a wide gentle spiral ramp for moving heavy equipment up and
down the nearly mile deep hole. At least ten or twelve people abreast could
safely trot down that broad ramp to get out of sight quickly. Numerous
exploratory side tunnels, cut at various points, were suitable for hiding.

Brad was the so-called Chief of Police, slash City Manager,
in their small community, in charge of the five men and one-woman force of
“peace keepers.”

Sanji was pleased to see his other office line was ringing even
as he finished with the Ag Center. It was Brad. As he picked up, he could hear
the wail of the alarm in the background. He explained the situation to Brad,
only this time he included the details of sixteen almost simultaneous landings,
the call from the Capitol City police, and his own direct observation.

“Brad, these things came out of their ship firing, both here
and at Capitol City, and probably everywhere. They never intended to try to talk
to us, and there’s no way you can face them with Jazzers and batons. Everyone
will be awake by now, so make a broadcast on all channels of the Tri-Vid
network, just tell them it’s murderous diamond raiders, and to hurry to the
Pipe mine, no delay and take
absolutely nothing
. They don’t have the
time. No one will believe you if you say something ridiculous like space aliens
are shooting at us. I sure as hell wouldn’t.”

“OK, Sir. Should I send someone out to help you get the
family out?”

“Brad, I’m in the office, I’m right in the heart of the
family compound. The alarm will have them awake and they’ll hear your
broadcast. We have plenty of cars here so we can make our own way to the Pipe.
I’ll see you there. Good luck.”

“You too sir.”

In reality, most of his family didn’t live on Gribble’s
Nook, but all branches had homes here, for when they had to put in their time
learning and running the family business. Sanji spent the most time here, and
was still off planet five months out of the thirteen-month Nook year.

He talked to the three family households presently here, his
younger sister Nita and her family, a first cousin Janice and her family, and a
matriarch old aunt, Mary and her contract consort of this year; it was eleven
people in all. Now he had only himself to save. Despite the offers his money
drew, he had yet to ‘sign the line’ on a contract for even a short-term
marriage, and had no children. The business was his wife for now.