Koban 4: Shattered Worlds (99 page)

“Who’s there?” Maggi quipped.

With a puzzled look at her, he shook his head and said, “They’ll see the holes we’ve burned, and that sure isn’t stealthy or fast. Can anyone think of a faster way to reach the central room, which surely has a pack of Krall defending it, with only twenty five of us to fight our way there?”

There were discussions about distractions, to get the Krall to look away or draw them away. Except doors opening and multiple Krall along the hall at intersections being probable, they would surely be noticed anyway. For several minutes, they discussed and debated, and Maggi, miffed that her ancient joke attempt hadn’t made her husband at least grin, sat down for a short rest. She leaned against the wall.

She noticed minor vibrations through her suit, which was likely due to movements nearby, or mechanical activity such as air handling. Realizing that with her suit on, she had been insulated from the feel of the ship, receiving only outside data via her microphones or helmet sensors. She wondered if she could hear sounds through the walls. Checking the atmospheric data and temperature again through her visor system, it remained very breathable and comfortably warm. Less oxygen than at home, but close to that of most terrestrial type worlds. She unsealed and cracked open her helmet, and took a test breath before lifting it off.

No surprise, it smelled too strongly of Krall. Feeling another vibration, she wondered if there were Krall running along the corridor the other side of this wall. The damned lizards never simply walked. She pulled off her helmet and leaned her head close the wall to see what she could hear.

There was little sound not coming from this room, not too surprising, since even lower tech human ships than one built by the Olt’kitapi provided their crews and passengers some peace and quiet. However, she could sense a voice, but didn’t understand what was being said. Her hair had fallen in an unruly blonde tangle over her ear when she pulled off the helmet, so she used her gauntlet to shove it back to press her bare right ear tighter to the wall.

Glancing up at the others, who were now deciding how to organize a physical assault on the control room from three directions, which they now considered their best option, she yanked off her left gauntlet, ear still pressed to the wall, and laid her left hand there in front of her face.

Mirikami was summarizing what the spec ops troops were proposing. “Then all three groups will hit the corridors at the same time, using our stealth as long as we can until we have to return fire. The eleven of us…,” he looked around and missed seeing one short figure he was most concerned about, and saw her crumpled on the floor, pressed against the outside wall with her helmet removed. Her eyes had a faraway look to them.

“Maggi, are you OK?” He stepped over and knelt to reach for her, concerned, when she used her right hand over her left forearm to wave his hand away, lifting her head away from the wall, wearing an odd smile below wide open blue eyes, left hand pressed tightly to the wall.

By Comtap she said, “Tet, pull off your right gauntlet.” When he did, she used her right hand to pull his wrist over to place his hand on the wall.

She said “Huwayla, meet my mate, Tetsuo Mirikami, he likes to be called Tet.”

****

Bohdar was incredulous at the symbols presented by the ship. Why hadn’t it offered this presentation before? He could see yellow dots on various decks that were his warriors, the scatter of blue dots of those that were dead that led into the bowels of the ship. There were white dots of the intruders, and the greens that must be their dead. One amber dot, next to two yellow dots in the control room, had to be the useless animal dropping standing next to him, held securely by another guardian.

Pildon, the putative animal dropping, appeared to be pleased with what he’d managed to ask the ship to display. He’d asked for the location of all of the creatures inside the ship, their life status, and their locations. He paid for his initiative with a hammer blow from the Gorth, delivered to the side of his skull.

With a snarl, the enraged Gorth stood over the Krall’tapi, barely able to resist tearing out the cowering creature’s throat. “Before they spread so widely, this knowledge would have ended them quickly. Now they are scattered many places. A third of the guardians are dead, and if this display is true, only four hands of them have fallen. This is not possible. Over ten warriors die for each of these animals killed?”

Pildon, fearful that if he spoke he’d be killed, and equally fearful that if he didn’t explain he’d die anyway. “I wanted to help you.” In truth, he only wanted to stay alive and he was certain that if they couldn’t Jump soon, Bohdar would have no use for his prisoner.

“I heard you ask your octet leaders many times where the enemy had gone when they seemed trapped and unable to escape. You asked them how the enemy could appear behind their octets so quickly. You wanted to know where they were and how they moved so quickly. I asked Huwayla if she could show me a picture of her own insides, as she did of the star systems she had disrupted. This is what she displayed for me. I didn’t know a living ship could do this. No one has ever had a need.”

Bohdar’s talons retracted, but he still stood over the soft Krall, staring at the contents of the holographic image.

Dolbor, seeing the guardian leader was calming down, had been analyzing the new battlespace image while the other had raged. He offered what he intended as a helpful observation, to prove his own worth to him. “Three isolated small groups of humans have moved closer to this command deck than most of your guardians know.” Instead, it was taken as being critical of Bohdar and his warriors, that they had permitted this.

The hateful glare bestowed on the Tor Gatrol’s aide suggested a death match might be in the making. This useless representative of the Tor’s staff did not have the protections of a War Leader or a clan leader, to allow him to refuse to answer challenges of lower status warriors.

The challenge could wait. He tapped his com set button on the shoulder of his armor, and selected a channel to link to ten of the closest octet leaders. Because of losses, there were no longer as many warriors in the ten squads, but there was only twenty-five humans that he wanted trapped and killed, and they were divided into three small sized units. By their positioning near the control room, their objective was obvious.

He issued orders for those octets to break contact with the enemy on the perimeter, and to move with all speed to the deck near the control room, with some warriors to be assigned to get above or below the specific compartments he designated, to watch for holes being cut for escape. He’d have the vermin trapped without escape holes this time.

It was a plausible plan, and an excellent way to trap pests in boxes. It presupposed the pests would be in the boxes when the trappers arrived to surround them. They weren’t.

Bohdar’s first clue came when the octets rushing to follow the Gorth’s orders suddenly slowed to literally a crawl on the display. They appeared to pause to check each room they had to pass. The sub leader was slow to note their laggardly ways because the white dots closest to him had begun to spread like flies, moving away from their previous three concentrations. They were brazenly moving in the corridors.

The reason Bohdar had needed so many octets to return to the command deck area, was because he’d incorrectly thought there was no way the enemy could penetrate to the inner area, not with every corridor under observation, from the edges of the heavy combat locations with these mysteriously efficient human fighters. Warriors were assigned to watch each corridor for doors that opened on their own. They would fire on them, and alert nearby octets to rush to intercept whoever had triggered them.

Somehow, twenty-five of the enemy was now loose in the nearby corridors, going in and out of compartments randomly. With their superior invisibility, they were difficult to locate, but his observers should have kept most of them from risking exposure in the unsheltered corridors. The doors were not depicted for the compartments (that had not been requested) so it was a moment before Bohdar saw that the white dots moved in and out, or passed through compartments and back into corridors freely. Every time a door irised open that should draw plasma bolt storms.

He saw one of the octets he’d summoned, entering and leaving every compartment along a corridor that led to the center. He called the leader.

“I ordered you to move to the center on those corridors, the humans there have broken out and you should have fired on them when you saw the door open. Why do you search each room?”

“My Gorth, all of the doors opened at one time. We fired through those that were close, and are seeking hidden enemies in each one. The doors remained open and no longer close when we leave a compartment. Direct us to the enemy.”

Bohdar saw several yellow dots of assigned watchers at an intersection near the center change blue, and a white dot turn green near them. He could hear sounds of fighting. He roared on the com set to order the warriors he’d summoned to move now to the center of the ship. With the doors always open, the humans were passing by his defenders like sand through a net. Detected only by chance or random shots, which connected before they could duck into one of the hundreds of compartments, many of which had two or more doors.

He saw a risk of humans reaching the command deck before his reinforcements arrived. He had thirty-two warriors with him, which no longer seemed enough. “Pildon, tell me how long before the ship can Jump.”

“Huwayla, when can you Jump to Telda Ka?”

“I am able to do so now,” was the glorious answer Pildon needed. With no explanation as to why she had not complied with his previous request to be notified when that was possible.

Bohdar screamed in roaring triumph, “Jump now!” Of course, the ship waited for a trusted operator to speak.

Pildon spoke in relief, “Huwayla, Jump immediately for Telda Ka.” Relief can be an
ephemeral
feeling.

“You are countermanding my previous instruction to remain here and open all of the corridor doors?”

Pildon looked like a prey animal caught in a dead end canyon, with deadly killers approaching. An appropriate look for him at this moment.

“I didn’t say that.” He looked at the blade Bohdar had produced, and felt the plasma rifle pressed to the back of his head by the shackle holder. His mind raced to find ways to save himself.

He tried reason, “You have been with me and heard every word I spoke.” They were unaffected.

He didn’t think appealing to Krall law or tradition would help. Mentioning that both Krall were breaking with protocol seemed too weak. Carrying weapons so close to a soft Krall was forbidden, although desperate or not, he couldn’t take advantage.

He selected logic. “She didn’t say no! She asked if I was countermanding a previous instruction. I will!” A flicker of Bohdar’s wrist and the plasma rifle was pulled away, the knife slipped into a sheath.

“Countermand your previous instruction.” Bohdar’s strained words proved he had barely kept his impulses under control

Uh oh. Pildon had never given that instruction, so being told to countermand it was tacit admission that this sub leader thought he had. He was as good as dead if he didn’t get clarification before the new instructions were issued.

“Huwayla, I countermand the instruction of whoever told you to remain here. Who was that?” He needed a sliver of hope to stay Bohdar’s hand after the Jump.

“Trusted operators, that are the new visitors, have asked that I remain here. There is a conflict of purpose if I do as you ask. I require a consensus, and two trusted operators agree with one another to remain here. Do you have trusted others to join with you Pildon? Within me, there are a hundred and two other trusted operators, and they have not spoken to me on this proposal. Only a builder may override a trusted operator consensus.”

Apparently if you weren’t
untrusted
, you were trusted if you had a quantum key. Good until proven evil. The Olt’kitapi truly had been a trusting species, if not great judges of character. In time with the Krall’tapi, their starting characters could have been molded and developed.

The untrusted individual actually in charge made the expected ill-tempered decision of someone of poor character. He used his suit’s com set for a general push to all of his warriors. “Kill the ship, we cannot Jump.”

He pulled his Raspani boring tool, and aimed the first one hundred twenty-two foot length, four-inch wide disintegration beam into the deck below the holographic projection, which showed white dots working their way closer.

As quantum decoherence broke the bonds holding atoms and molecules together, a spray of gaseous elemental material was ejected away from the path of the invisible narrow beam. Some of that vaporous jetting material had formerly been inorganic compounds, or metallic alloys, but some of it had been very organic, as part of Pildon’s lower torso.

Pildon gasped and clutched at his abdomen as he sank to the floor. Strangely, it didn’t hurt like a plasma bolt or blade would have. The holographic projection vanished, as demonstration that the downward aimed beam had also found technology to disrupt.

“Fire into the walls and deck,” he ordered his thirty-two warriors here with him. He chose another point on the floor to aim his next beam. He was frustrated that it didn’t work like a sword, where he could carve a path as he swept the tool sideways. It appeared to activate for only an instant, and then he had to press the activation button again, producing a new bore tube of disintegration. There was also a limit to how quickly he could activate the button, since for almost a half second the tool would not respond after a press.