Koban: The Mark of Koban (80 page)

“Sure. I
wasn’t looking forward to the climb when I was asked to wait here for you. Even
with a rhinolo steak under the belt to fortify myself. That’s another one of
your beasties I want to see.”

“Not close
up you don’t, I assure you. They are the natural prey of rippers, and even they
only hunt them in a group, like a pride of Earth lions. Let’s go up shall we?”

The mechanical
engineers, physical scientists, and technicians stayed lower, to study the
systems that ran the ship, and were figuring out where to install a lift. Chief
Haveram and his Drive Rats, and several of the former ship engineers went up to
see the thruster engine. Mirikami visited that level first, to disarm the
grenades he’d left.

By then
all of the Inner Circle members were suffering the indignity of letting
sixteen, and seventeen, year old kids carry them up to whatever higher level appeared
interesting. Reynolds had given in to their help after trying to walk up the bottom
ramp and almost falling.

They gave
only a cursory look at the plasma cannons and fusion bottles that powered them.
They did the same for the heavy and light laser batteries. All were different looking
than human equipment, following simpler and more compact designs, but they were
things that operated using known principles of physics.

They sent
a team to look at a tough thin layer of crystals that seemed to coat the outer
hull. That was after Reynolds told them it was part of a stealth technology.
Human scientists had never figured out how it worked, even when they had wrecked
Clanship hulks to study. Single ships had a somewhat different hull type with
stealth technology, but that wasn’t understood either. One problem was that
humans couldn’t turn them on. There were small hanger bays for single ships
discovered inside, but the first eight bays checked on one level were empty.
There were three higher decks to search for an example of one of those small
ships. They eventually found eight of them, in the highest deck where the small
ships could be stored.

The Jump
Drive room, which had been Mirikami’s goal earlier, was about two thirds of the
way to the top of the ship, and not in the center, where most human warships had
theirs placed.

Thad
opened one of the two doors to the room, stepped through, and before Marlyn
could enter, closed the door with her outside. She had no tattoo, being from
the last group of captives. She could hear him through the door, which unlike
the thruster engine room needed no soundproofing. “Hey Sugar, I thought of a
way to have my own inner sanctum, a private space I can fill with just my stuff.
I need one of these keypads on a door in our quarters, where I can have some
private
me time.
” He chuckled at this demonstration of his superior doorman
ship. He heard the slightly muffled reply clearly enough.

“There’s about
to be a
lot
of that kind of time in your future big boy. I don’t need a
keypad to keep you out of another private little space you like to fill at
night.”

The door
whisked open instantly. “Please do come in my love. Explain all the intricacies
of a Jump Drive to an ignorant soldier.”

She gave
him a cool look up and down before entering. “You have the ignorant part
right.” She winked at Noreen on the opposite side of the room, who had opened
her own doorway and heard the exchange.

Mirikami
smiled at the byplay, and looked around at the unfamiliar controls and monitor
panels. Having seen several types of Krall fusion bottles, he recognized three
of the larger versions placed here, one of which could power the much larger
habitat domes alone. Clan ships were certainly not underpowered.

“If we
plan to Jump this bird, we have a lot of learning to do, and figure out what
does what. I hope this follows the other efficient designs the Krall use, where
minimal manual interaction and tweaking is required. We’ve never seen a
training or maintenance manual, and simple user guides only show how to operate
the equipment. Everything they use appears to follow a “use it until it breaks
and replace” system of logistics. We know they have slave races that build
these ships somewhere else, and they brought some slaves to Koban to build the
domes for the various clans. They don’t seem to want to do anything but fight, brag,
breed, eat, and crap, in that order of preference.”

Reynolds
was looking around at the bewildering array of alien designed equipment. “Kole
Grant, A college buddy of mine now in a technical analysis section, says the
Krall technology all appears to be idiot proofed, as if created for semi-illiterate
users. Guns, tanks, and ships often have highly redundant systems, employ some
self-repair capability and some are self-regulating to prevent overdriving an
engine, wearing down a plasma cannon barrel, or trying to cold fire one and
crack the ceramic or damage the focus coils. Their complex equipment doesn’t
need much in the way of maintenance, and some of the Clanships we’ve killed
show signs of previous multiple repairs, with several modular sections older or
newer than other major parts of the ships. Kole said he thought damaged ships were
often salvaged and reused. New ships come online only when needed. They must
have slave races do any of that work, because warriors sure as hell won’t or
can’t do it themselves.”

Mirikami listened
to Reynolds, and noticed again how educated he sounded at times, and at others
sounded like a good old country boy in the military. Yet he just referred to a
friend from college. He was more than he seemed, and the bumpkin persona might be
how he kept his Army superiors from pushing him into positions of higher
responsibility. Perhaps positions he would be uncomfortable holding. Mirikami
had encountered the type before. Competent people, possessing officer qualities,
but were not officer material because they didn’t want to lead or take charge
of anything.

Mirikami
caught Thad’s attention, and nodded his head sideways towards Reynolds, cueing
him to feel out the man, as he’d asked him to do earlier. They needed his help,
but had to find out where he might stand on gene mods and sneaking into Human
Space.

“Sarge, if
I were to return to Poldark, what would be the chances of my getting back into
the military? I was a Lieutenant Colonel in the militia you know.”

Gar
chuckled. “I guess it would be pretty damn good, considering you evidently got
a posthumous promotion. The Greeves training camp had a bronze plaque in the Admin
office that showed you as a full bird.”

“No
kidding? I wonder who thought that much of me?”

“Probably
your replacement to head the militia, Nabarone.”

“Major Nabarone
got the job? Good for him, he’s a good man. How did he get me promoted, even if
presumed dead, when all he got was a promotion to my old rank?”

 “Thad, I
wasn’t involved in the military at the time, and never heard of you until I
joined up and served at the camp named for you. But Nabarone was a Brigadier in
the Planetary Union Army by then.”

“Holy
crap, Henry quit the militia for the PU Army? I’d believe he’d sooner hang
himself than get under the thumb of the Ladies in charge of the Hub military.
And how did a force of the PUA get on Poldark, let alone get Henry to lead them?”

“I forgot
how long you folks have been out here. You wouldn’t know that Poldark voted to
join the Union, to get the resources to hold off the Krall. The late Governor,
Michael
Boldovic, was President at the time, and named Nabarone to lead the first unit
of ten thousand troopers. He may initially have also been in charge of TB-85,
the PU training base on Poldark, where much later I took my basic training.
When I was captured, several weeks ago, he was Major General Nabarone. If he’s
your friend, I suspect you have a way back inside if you want. But I’d
recommend against that.”

“Why’s
that?”

“Poldark
is going to fall. It’s only a matter of time. Two or three years at most, if
the Krall drag it out as they have been doing.” He paused.

“With your
background Colonel, I’d think you’d prefer to lead your own superhuman commando
force instead.” The symbolic thud of his words felt almost audible. The other
discussions in the room fell silent. Reynolds knew he’d hit the mark with that
reaction.

Mirikami
said, “I knew you were sharper than that good old boy language you slip in and
out of might suggest. This isn’t a test, and I’m going to tell you some things
openly, but I’d like to see what an outsider has gleaned from our activities
today, and from the performance of our youngest heroes.”

Reynolds
looked at the expectant faces. “Sure. I first thought your kicking my butt this
morning was attributable to the gravity. You were adapted and I wasn’t. But,
you are
really
well adapted Tet, as are all of you here. I met some Special
Ops types, which have trained extensively on Heavyside, a practically unsettled
world considered unsuitable for colony use. It’s on the anti-spinward side of
our Rim. The gravity there is about 1.4 times Earth standard I believe. Those
young soldiers could beat the older Ladies here in a climbing race to this
level, by just a little, but not you men, and probably not the more fit women.”

As an
offended “older Lady” Maggi cleared her throat as if about to speak, and
Mirikami held up his hand. “Maggi, get to know him before you tear him a new
asshole, OK? He’s new here, and defenseless against as sharp a tongue as a
dainty little Lady like you might wield.” The look Maggi gave him told him he’d
damn well be feeling how sharp that tongue could get soon.

“Go on.
Please speak freely,” Mirikami urged Reynolds.

He
shrugged. “You must have something like the drugs the Spec Ops guys carry, to
give their gravity bulked muscles a spike in performance when they need that.
Only yours lasts longer, and I don’t see a sign of the ‘crash’ effect, when their
drugs wear off. The gravity here is a bit higher, and the Oxygen is real high, but
none of you present the bulky muscles they have, so I don’t know what you did
to get more out of your drugs than they do.”

“That’s
all?”

He shook
his head sharply. “No, and you know perfectly well that isn’t all. I don’t want
to offend anyone if I’m wrong, but it’s hard for me to see any other answer.
Your teenaged kids are the supermen I meant Greeves should be leading as commandos.

“Hell, that
slender girl Alyson, she could run up the forty or so decks to reach this room,
carrying a fully loaded out Spec Ops trooper. Perhaps one wearing his damned
armor. Those kids are as strong as a Krall, and I suspect more so. I haven’t
had a real chance to see their speed, but two boys took out six top notch
warriors today.”

“Only four
of the warriors,” Mirikami interjected, with a grin.

“Right. A
super strong kitty did two. It doesn’t alter my point. No normal human can beat
any Krall one on one with only guns and knives. They did. We need that ability
desperately. I only hope the fools in the Hub government will accept genetic
enhancements.” There, he’d said it! He’d accept the moral outrage and anger if
they had found another answer.

Mirikami
looked him right in the eyes. “Sarge, I’m
offended
you think I would
lower myself to taking dangerous performance enhancing drugs. Take them
anymore, that is.” He grinned. “We did use some in our first months here,” he
admitted. “However, I’m equally offended that you think we would subject our
children to untried and untested genetic enhancements.” He paused, as Reynolds,
visibly uncomfortable, shifted his weight.

“Not
without
first
trying the genetic modification techniques on ourselves.
Which worked! We don’t use drugs for energy boosts because we don’t need them
anymore.” The Drive Room chamber, full of genetically modified people, filled
with laughter at Reynolds expense when he blew a huge sigh of relief.

“You had
me going there for a minute, Tet. I couldn’t see any possibility that these
youngsters got this way simply by being born here. The Spec Ops troops told us
Heavyside couldn’t sustain a real colony population because of the
miscarriages. Pregnant women needed to go to full term in the orbital station
at lower gravity. You people have been stuck on the ground in even higher
gravity. I couldn’t guess how you got around that problem unless these kids were
test tube births of modified fetuses. The Hub world populations, and our
central government, simply won’t listen to us, but the Rim worlds are asking
for clone armies again. At least the worlds on the spinward side have made that
suggestion, where the Krall are killing us Rimmers at their leisure.”

Noreen
clarified something for Reynolds, in case he still had a misconception about child
conception on Koban. “Carson over there was a normal conception and painful
delivery for me, as was Ethan for his mother, Marlyn. No test tubes were
involved. That is the case for every single child that has been born here. However,
the bio-scientists from the Flight of Fancy, a detail that I don’t believe you
know about, had to perform gene modifications on any prospective parents before
they could risk conception. All of us in here have the mods; almost everyone
you’ve met so far has them.