Koban: The Mark of Koban (83 page)

“Hon, you
know that I have no more insight into this mod than you do. What has Dillon
said to Noreen? He works with Rafe on the genetics and mapping of the nervous
system integration. Aldry or Maggi can also give you a more technical
explanation. You know that, so what is it you expect from me?

“Is it reassurance,
which I don’t have to offer? I’m as worried as you are. I have the added
responsibility of putting our son in harm’s way when we confront more Krall,
which we will do. I can’t allow myself to consider my personal feelings when I
make a combat decision. For the decision on the telepathy mod, you and I can’t
make that for Ethan anyway. It is his decision, and he has decided. I plan to
support him in any way I can, and I’ll hold your hand if you will hold mine, as
we wait for the results.”

Marlyn
sighed, and hugged her husband. “OK. They will start the mod for the ten TG volunteer’s
tomorrow morning. Ethan and Carson are going first, claiming they earned that
right, and not just by earliest birthdate this time. Ethan insists on going
ahead of Carson, not that one hour sooner will make a difference. Alyson has
also opted for the mod. She is the only Hub City kid already fully adapted to
the earlier Koban mods. I can imagine her parent’s fears, since they never wanted
her to select
any
of the Koban mods, and they won’t even be here for her.”

“I’ll be
honest, I’m more worried about bringing these kids home alive than I am this
particular genetic change. We need additional Krall Clanships to explore the
worlds deep inside their space unnoticed. The Krall aren’t going to hand them
over, we’ll have to steal them, and we need more warriors captured alive.

“I warned
every one of our two hundred TG force personally. Don’t let me catch them knife
fighting a Krall, unless they are damned well out of ammunition. We will have
an ample supply of the Death Lime thorn extract, but in light of our kid’s
superior skills with guns, I told them to use some of the new hollow point
rounds with a bare slug tip exposed. They put a drop of the drug in the hollow
point, shoot to wound, and then just wait for the warrior to go numb. Carson
didn’t really have much option for his own duel. We didn’t have the new slugs
yet, and he needed to stall while Ethan and the cats worked their way closer to
the shuttle hatch.”

 Reynolds
decided to ask the same tired question again. “Are you sure I can’t have the
Koban nerve mods, and then the mind reading mod? We still have months before
the Jump.”

“Sarge,
Marlyn and I already have the Koban nerve mod, as a passive feature. However,
we can’t integrate our Koban nervous system mods with new Koban muscles or the
contact telepathy mod because we were not
born
with the organic
superconductors in place. We received those genes specifically so our children
would inherit them, and be born with them in place. Rafe doesn’t know how to
form the superconducting linkage to the Koban muscles if we grow those in our
in our older bodies, and the telepathy nerve endings will not form in our
bodies if we can’t do that part. The
organic
superconducting
neuroreceptor
s and motor axons formed in our children as the embryos developed. Me,
you, and any Normal made into a SG lacks those.

“We would already
have incorporated that mod if we could, and then would know in advance how it
would work, before our kids find out.”

He waved
his hands at Reynolds dismissively. “Anyway, I think you only want that telepathy
mod for playing poker. You’d find some way to touch an opponent’s hand to see
an image of their damned cards. I’ll bet you have a way to do that to me
already.”

“Colonel,
I’d be offended if I offended easily. How about a little game tonight? My boots
are smudged again.”

Mirikami held Alyson’s right hand, as her left
hand grasped a thick finger of Toltak’s right hand. The girl was the conduit,
linking Mirikami’s mind to the Krall’s mind. It was stunning how quickly she,
and the other nine Mind Tappers, or they had shortened the original nickname
even further to simply call themselves “Taps,” had mastered the use of the
ripper contact telepathy mod.

Years of frilling the cats had prepared the TG1s
for the experience, but along with becoming the focal point of the mental
sharing process, rather than a “client” of one of the cats in a relay, they had
shot well beyond the cat’s capabilities. They managed that feat in less than
three weeks of practice, after one or two weeks that were required to establish
the neural links within the brain and hands. The end cap superconducting
neuroreceptor
s and
motor axons completed the new mod’s linkage via the pre-existing “wiring” of
the superconducting nerves. There was less physical change than for the muscle
and bone transition they experienced previously.

Ethan and Carson were the first two to report
the sudden clarity of the thoughts they could sense from contact with each
other, and found they could easily select what thoughts and images they chose
to send. The thought filtering for humans, already well adapted for lying and
deception by nature, had no more trouble holding back a particular thought or
image than they had not blurting out something like “Yes those pants make you
look fat!”

It was possible for a TG1 to send thoughts and
words that were purely fabrications, and to have thoughts that Taps could
withhold. They soon found it was also possible for a human that was aware of a
Tap’s ability, to prevent their private thoughts from leaking. If you were
not
aware, and were unguarded, the Taps said it was as if you were mumbling aloud
to yourself all the time and they could make out most of what you were
thinking. The Krall, with no concept of such a mental ability, not only didn’t
mumble, they sent their arrogant thoughts and images boldly on any subject, particularly
when you pushed them in a desired direction, either verbally or with a though
picture.

Even when Mirikami suspected that both Krall were
aware that humans were sometimes stealing information from them, they didn’t seem
able to hold back thoughts. Perhaps their thousands of generations of breeding
for superiority made them indifferent to what “lesser animals” learned.

Just now, Mirikami had sent a silent thought
question to Alyson, to place in Toltak’s mind.
How is K1 defended from human
raiders that would try to land?

He was vaguely aware of Alyson’s dismissal and
filtering of Toltak’s initial and automatic mental snort at such a ridiculous
idea. She was one of the best of the ten new Taps at eliminating the “chaff” of
a Krall’s splatter of uninformative thoughts, which followed most questions. Alyson’s
follow-up thought did better.
If humans were stupid enough to try, how would
the Krall on K1 detect them and kill them?

That drew some smug information about how
alert Tanga clan was in watching for inbound human ships, how their grounded
Clanships had a warrior on duty in every craft to respond to another futile
human attack. That some Clanships were always in orbit, ready to intercept
human ships or missiles before they could enter atmosphere. A spontaneous
contemptuous thought, concerning small Dorbo clan, passed Alyson’s filtering.
Toltak thought they had not learned from past human attacks to maintain an
alert ground force, as did larger clans. Half or more of their Clanships sat
empty on the tarmac around their two domes.

At Mirikami’s request, Jake found an archived dynamic
image of K1, formerly named Greater West Africa, before the Krall exterminated
its population to have a base. When Toltak was shown an image of the rotating
planet, they asked her for the two Dorbo clan dome locations.

Alyson relayed the Krall’s thoughts, and received
an image as the locations passed. With Jake recording, they identified precise
coordinates for each dome. The two were only a few hundred miles apart.

Next, Mirikami asked about landing procedures
for returning Clanships, and the identification process or codes required at
K1. He received another mental snort. Because it was
impossible
for
humans to fly a Clanship this was a pointless, inefficient thing to do. No clan
had the right, or a reason to question the coming or going of any other clan.
They seldom even questioned the comings and goings of their own Clanship
commanders.

Mirikami mentally signaled Alyson he was
finished, and motioned her to come with him, deciding he had enough information
for now. “Alyson, please Link with the other two hundred mission TGs, and tell
them I want to meet with them this afternoon, at 1400 in the Great Hall. I’ll
locate Colonel Greeves, Sergeant Reynolds, Colonel Martin, and Commanders
Martin and Greeves. We’ll all be there, for a mission update.”

“Wow. Yes Sir. I caught a bit of your thoughts
Sir. I hope you don’t mind. I wasn’t trying to snoop.” She was looking very pretty,
with her big blue eyes wide with excitement.

“Then you know some what I have planned.
Please keep that to yourself until the meeting. It won’t be a secret for long
so it won’t be too much of a strain to hold it in for a few hours. Even if you should
you spend some of that time kissing and snuggling. Have a nice lunch with
Carson.”

Her face flushed, and she instantly wondered
how good her own filters were, if a non-Tapper had read her so easily. Mirikami
grinned at her red face, turned and walked away without explanation.

The blush confirmed it for him actually, but
he knew from Noreen that the two had been seeing each other every evening.
Carson had asked Reynolds for two hours away from training, a subject which
casually came up when Mirikami shared a late breakfast with the Sarge and Chief
Haveram. Carson told the Sarge he wanted to eat his lunch out on the top of the
ridge in the former combat range. In spring that was an attractive place for a picnic,
especially if you had a pretty girl to improve the view.

It was fun for the older generation to keep
these young supermen and superwomen on their toes. Particularly the TG1’s, the
designation the geneticists decided to give the TGs with the contact telepathy
mod. It was good to keep those kids wondering how the slow old SGs seemed to
read their guarded thoughts. A lifetime of experience, their own past mistakes,
and many romantic dalliances was enough of a predictor for the older generation.
Of course, for these youngsters, they
knew
they were the first to
ever
feel this way.

As he walked away from the adjoining
compartments where they kept the two Krall secured, he linked with the AI.
“Jake, lock the prisoners in, access limited to the Inner Circle unless Maggi
or I tell you different.”

“Yes Sir.”

“Has Mel Rigson tested the forty seven spare
transducers we have now, with you?”

“Yes Sir, and they all function, but older models
can’t directly Link with the other newer transducers. They require a relay
through my system.

They had gained spare modern transducers
(well, no more than twenty-one years old) from the OBO ships when they moved
them to low Koban orbits, and combined them with the three spare units left
from the Flight of Fancy’s original stores. Then they had a half dozen older transducer
models from the Rimmer’s Dream, also sitting on Prime City’s tarmac for almost twenty-one
years.

“Not a problem. Link me to Mel.” His former
Steward greeted him from the Fancy’s old infirmary, where the transducer
implant equipment he tested was located.

“Mel. I want only twenty of the newer styles
for this mission, except we know that twenty-one year old equipment isn’t
actually new. Sarge has the only modern piece on the planet, and Jake can talk
with him, but none of Sarge’s advanced features will work with our older
capability. I don’t want to take every transducer we have with me. I certainly expect
to return, but carrying all the eggs in the same basket isn’t smart.

“OK, Tet. Who gets the implants?”

“I want ten implanted on our TG1s, and the
other ten implants go to the team leaders Thad selected. You’ll have to check
with him for all of the names. Try to call them in by noon for their implants
if possible, since I have a briefing for them at 1400. Please catch Carson and
Alyson early because they have a picnic lunch date they tried to keep
confidential. Let them think you picked that little secret up from their
thoughts after you touch hands. It’ll drive them crazy to think their thoughts
leak to us old SG farts.” Laughing, Rigson said he’d do that.

“Set up a Link test using the new Jakob on the
Mark, as well as Jake on the Fancy.”

“Will do, Sir.”

The Rimmer’s Dream older JB series computer had
hosted a backup copy of Jake’s software for years. The clone programing replaced
a simpler AI, nicknamed Jeb, on the Dream. Marlyn had proposed they install her
old ship’s AI computer hardware on the Bridge of the Mark of Koban. This
permitted them to take a reduced version of Jake with them, calling that
version Jakob, to avoid a confusing communications overlap before they departed.