Koban: The Mark of Koban (92 page)

Mirikami was well beyond intrigued this time. “This mental
flash, as you describe it, happens both on entry and exit from Tachyon Space?”

The three TG1s by the view screens each looked towards their
TG1 companions standing in their respective backgrounds for confirmation, saw
agreement from them, and answered in the affirmative.

Carson said, “It isn’t full-fledged long communication, but
a surprising amount of information is conveyed in the part of a second it takes
to enter the Jump Hole, or to emerge.”

Mirikami, as was typical, used his thumb and a knuckle of
the index finder to pull at his lower lip for a moment. “Noreen did you and
Marlyn make any arrangement to coordinate your Jump timings with each other? I
did not, and definitely was last to leave K1, for a nine light year Jump.”

Noreen shook her head. “Marlyn and I knew where each of us were
going, and the approximate time in the Hole, but I don’t know how we could
deliberately match entry and exits, not without going to the exact same
destination at the exact same time, as with a fleet formation.”

Mirikami agreed. “The first Jumps you each made, in
different directions, were several light years shorter than mine was, but not exactly
equal to each other. That means we probably never were entering or leaving
Tachyon Space at exactly the same time. The contents of the transmitted
messages must have been hanging around somewhere, in Tachyon Space I suppose,
until the recipient was entering or leaving an Event Horizon and able to
receive.”

“Tet,” Marlyn wondered, “I was pretty good in the Special
Relativity part of FTL and Jump Hole explanations, but how would a thought, no
matter how insubstantial, travel almost instantly over light years?”

He had a question too. “It doesn’t happen once we are fully
rotated into the Hole, or after the White Out, is that right?” He looked to
each of the TG1s close to him. They all agreed that it hadn’t worked that way.

“We will try some testing before we leave this empty system.
This capability may give us some sort of long-range communication, and do it far
faster than we can travel. We don’t have to be
light years
apart to
experience a time lag that we can measure. It is obviously happening only as we
shift into or out of Tachyon Space. We can make more short Jumps right around
here.”

“How do you think it works?” Sarge asked, from behind
Mirikami.

Mirikami shrugged. “None of us are scientists, and we left
those guys at home. However, one possibility I’m thinking of is the ‘spooky
action at a distance’ thing that quantum entanglement can produce. That’s where
quantum entangled photons separate, and no matter how far apart they fly, a
measurement of a complementary property of one, instantly determines the same
property of the other photon at any distance away. However, that property does
not allow actual communication, which would violate the laws of our universe,
with its velocity of light limit on information transfer.”

“Tachyon Space is out of this Universe,” Noreen reminded him
of the obvious, unnecessarily.

“True, but establishing quantum entanglement is not easy to
produce outside of a lab or in special equipment. I don’t
think
these
contact telepathy genes and superconducting nerves would be able to do that. It
could be another method altogether. Tachyons are odd beasts to us in our
Universe. It takes enormous energy to
slow
a near infinite velocity low
energy tachyon particle to very close to light speed. That complements the
enormous energy needed in our Universe to accelerate a low energy particle to near
light speed.

“We need the slowest, highest energy tachyons to create Jump
Holes. Perhaps the infinite velocity, extremely low energy tachyons, which are far
more plentiful, is something the thoughts of our TG1’s can effect, to modulate
them in some fashion, as we transit the boundary between Universes. The targeted
mind is the only one that can receive the message, perhaps ‘tuned’ would be the
right term, unless it was ‘addressed’ to more than one person. At least that’s
how it seems to work.” He waved his hands, laughing.

“Hell, I don’t care
how
it works. We can be
Krall-like this time and simply
use it,
empirically, until some
brilliant person figures it out and explains it to us. I can’t explain the
formation of holographic images in a Tri-Vid system, but I use the sets all the
time.

“I want to run a series of tests while we’re here, and we
can determine if a minimal Jump with a slower transition works better for
sending longer thought images or messages, or what happens if we do quick
repeated short Jumps. We always chose a direction to go when we Jump, but null
Jumps, which are simply entering and leaving an event horizon, are possible
without going anywhere.

“If we can use this, long-range communication home to Koban,
or between ships from anywhere, will give us a huge boost in capability and
coordination. We may be in the Morse code phase of a future interstellar phone
system! And I doubt it can be overheard by anyone if the sender and receiver
need to know one another.”

An excited buzz continued for a time, and the TG1’s asked
the three Captains to set them up their own three-way view screen conference,
for devising ways of testing with the three ships and the ten TG1s spread
between them. Another part of their excitement was that eventually, nearly every
TG would have this marvelous gene mod.

While the younger generation talked, Dillon soon brought the
older SG crews back down from the heights, where their active imaginations had
risen. “
We stink
. We need to do something about that.” He said.

Thad rebutted instantly. “Excuse me? I bathed, therefore you
speaketh for thyself,
scroungy
varlet
!”

“Oh, Yea? Tell that to Dorkda, sitting right behind you, oh
stinky one. I was never on that smelly tub, and yet he nosed out someone from
Koban at first whiff. I’ve been on long hunting trips with you. I’d bet my
money it was your drawers or socks.”

“Ha! Speaking of long range communication, I think he could
smell you through vacuum because…,” Thad’s no doubt brilliant retort was
spoiled by his wife’s, no, make that his
Captain’s
interruption.

“Boys! We can hold a hand’s free peeing contest later, but
what Dillon was so inelegantly reminding us of, is the fact that a Krall’s nose
is hound dog sensitive. We have to find a way to remove all scent of Koban from
our ships, clothes, equipment, and ourselves. Ideas?”

They eventually decided that a biological decontamination
station should work, and they had the means to build crude ones on each ship.
They could easily test the results on the one Krall they knew had spent years
on Koban. If they could get by his nose, it should protect their odorous
secret. With a Mind Tap, Dorkda couldn’t even lie to a TG1 to hide what he could
smell.

****

Several weeks later, now deodorized of Koban scents as
confirmed by a Krall nose, they were finally in possession of a workable long
rage communications system. They had developed a technique of exchanging images
and messages when creating an event horizon, without actually executing a Jump.
They could convey longer and more complex information by using a series of rapid
and repeated entry and exits. The only risks they found were for those in
Normal Space that might be too close to the flurry of gamma rays released by
the quick null Jumps.

A successful procedure was for the first part of a message to
inform the receiver how long the entire series would last, so they wouldn’t
miss the end of the message. It was a cumbersome method, but it worked. They
also discovered that after roughly eight or nine days, a message not pulled
from Tachyon Space quickly lost its cohesion. It didn’t completely fade when
the targeted receiver finally was able to “listen in,” but it didn’t make sense
anymore. It was not a noisy or weak signal; it was mental nonsense, without
meaning.

Once the ships separated for their missions, there was a
schedule set up for sending and receiving routine messages once a week, assuming
a ship were in a position to do null Jumps.

Mirikami brought them physically together for a final
briefing, before they made the Jump to Poldark. They did side-by-side hard
docking, using the built-in flexible pressurized collars from any of the four
airlocks.  They moved around personnel, and put the three prisoners on Marlyn’s
ship, to be taken to Koban for safer keeping. There was no shortage of more
potential Krall prisoners on Poldark.

Dillon and Thad rejoined Mirikami for the Poldark mission,
and the planned subsequent foray into Krall Space. Marlyn would eventually
return to Koban, via a circuitous route to avoid any back trail. She would be
taking two TG1s back for communications, even though there would be more at
Koban soon. A number of TGs wanted to explore with her. Ethan, however, wanted
in on Mirikami’s mission, and his mom understood.

Noreen would also have two TG1s with her, and twenty-five
other TGs. However, Carson also wanted to stay with Mirikami. Her mission was to
infiltrate Heavyside, provided they couldn’t get an outright invitation through
General Nabarone’s influence. Whatever human performance enhancing
experimentation was happening on Heavyside, Mirikami wanted to know what it was.
It could be that the PU military planned to test genetic enhancements in secret
there. In which case, the Kobani might be welcomed with open arms.

Mirikami continued the briefing. “We’ll emerge at a thousand
miles. Sarge says that’s well above the usual White Out for landing Clanships,
and also above the faster reacting low orbit defenses. Nothing keeps the Krall
from doing the same thing and using stealth mode to approach from more distant White
Out coordinates. Nothing, that is, except their love of the challenge of
getting away with it closer to the planet.

“We will all scatter after exit, although I’ll stay in high orbit
with you, until Sarge has time to look things over. I want to be sure the stealth
function works as well as expected, at least against Poldark’s sensors. We need
to verify we can keep continuous track of each other, as we could here.  Our
hull surface crystals will let us track other Clanships, and we think most stealthed
human ships. Other Clanships can track us as well, but I hope they are no more
curious than usual if they see us.

“After Sarge picks a secure looking hiding spot for me, I’ll
make the penetration and land. Give us three days, and if we have not radioed
you to leave, or we have not called, we need rescue.  If you are both able to leave
as planned, split up and start your individual missions. Questions?” He didn’t
expect or receive any. The few weeks, while they worked on Jump methods to
complement remote telepathy, Mirikami had coordinated several times a day with
Noreen and Marlyn on what they would accomplish on their missions.

“Fine. New subject. I don’t want to keep saying Captain
Renaldo’s ship or Captain Greeves’ ship. You’ve had time to think. What do you
want to name your first commands?”

“The Avenger,” Noreen was prompt to say.

Marlyn followed with, “The Beagle.”

“I think Avenger sounds like a fighting ship, but why Beagle
Marlyn? Is there some meaning there?”

“Yes Sir. Charles Darwin sailed aboard the HMS Beagle, for a
famous scientific voyage that discovered many new species, and it later
surveyed large parts of the coast of Australia. That’s similar to my
mission.”

“Excellent names, both of them. I wish we
could paint them on the hulls. However, that would ruin our stealth capability,
and certainly raise a question if seen by a Krall. We’ve not stolen our last
Clanship, but I’d suggest we avoid K1 for a while. We have a number of Spacers
at home, ready to return to space and join the fight. They will want tough
ships like these.

“I guess we need to say personal goodbyes now,
before we undock. We will probably talk again at Poldark, but we aren’t going
to meet like this personally for some time.”

After the three ships moved apart slightly,
but stayed in a formation, they chose the agreed upon equatorial spot over
Poldark, where they wanted to White Out. Per their dynamic star charts, the
ships started accelerating in the direction they wanted to be moving when they
arrived over the planet.

“Ladies, I wish you good sailing. I’ll see
you, or rather see the Avenger and Beagle on sensors when we White Out. Jakob
will send the time hack for the Jump, so we all emerge at once.

“It’s time we took this war to the Krall’s own doorstep, and
got some help from our own people. Good travelling and good luck. Mirikami
Out.”

Jakob sent them a ten-second countdown time hack. That would
be the last radio signal they would exchange, until Mirikami had met with
General Nabarone, and had his reply, or there was a problem.

Moving in a triangular formation, the three ships composing the
entire Koban Navy simultaneously winked out of this Universe.

HUMANS

Crew from Flight of Fancy

Tetsuo Mirikami

Captain of Flight of Fancy. From Old Colony of New Honshu, in
the Hub area. Became Commander of Prime City after Krall left Koban

Noreen Renaldo

First Officer of Flight of Fancy. From Old Colony of Ponce,
in the Hub area. Married Dillon Martin. Mother of TGs Carson, Katelyn, and
Cory.

Jake
(almost human)

Advanced JK series AI computer, installed on Flight of
Fancy. Able to operate many of the ship systems autonomously. Repository of
vast human library of documents, books, films, Tri-Vid shows, etc. A common
capability on long Jump passenger liners of that era