Koban 5: A Federation Forged in Fire (30 page)

She shivered a shoulder in acceptance of his statements. A Krall-like gesture that possibly predated the genetic divergence of their two species. “We know little of star travel, but I accept what you say of the time we need to journey to our home. None of our people has traveled beyond our dome’s enclosure, except when the Krall took any of us away to act as what they called pilots. The pilots never knew how far they had traveled when they returned, or where they were when ordered to tell the living ships to do things.”

“We understand, and you will be provided more information about us, you can ask questions, and you will have time to discuss this with all of your people. You do
not
have to join our federation, but you may find you will benefit more if you do. If you join this council, you can participate in creating the Federation, and decide later if you will join that.”

“I hear the translated word of
federation
, yet I don’t know what it is that you are inviting us to create. Is this a kind of clan?”

Maggi, after a quick Comtap link with her husband and others at the table, offered a broad description. “Toldot, we on this council, and past council members as well, have each considered what we need for our own people, and what we need as a united group. The term federation applies to a political system of partially self-governing planets, under a central federal government. In the Federation that we propose, the rights of the self-governed planets, and the division of power between them and the central federal government, will be defined in a constitution, which cannot be altered by any of the member planets or member species on their own, after they accept the constitution and become part of the Federation.”

“What does this constitution say?” The question proved Toldot was following what was being said.

“It has not been written yet, but there are historical examples from the records of several species we can use as guides. One of the future tasks of this council of multiple species is to write the proposed constitution, and include rules that we all can agree will apply to all of our member species and to the self-governing planets where they will live. If you join us on this council, you will participate in the discussion, and have the right of voting on the words to be placed in the constitution.

“It is probable that we will not write the best possible constitution, and discover that later it needs to be changed. There will be a process for this change to happen, as described in the constitution. However, constitutional changes will have to be approved by a yet undefined percentage of the majority of member species and or member planets. One species or one planet cannot change it alone.”

Toldot understood the weak position of her people. “We Krall’tapi are too few to fill even a single world. We would have little say in what other species or a more powerful world will do to us, or make us do.” From their experience of Krall domination, that made her concern understandable.

Maggi explained. “The constitution and a list of rights for members of the federation will be created, which will prevent minority species or a single planet, from being abused, or forced to alter their internal self-government by either another species or planet, or even the federal government, provided they are obeying the written constitution they agreed to follow. We will have an independent court system with judges from all species, to help settle disputes.

“The Kobani, the branch of humanity of which my husband and I are a part, have a population probably as low as do you Krall’tapi. Yet we are a full member of this council. We expect to grow in numbers, as will your people. A vast number of other humans are not Kobani, they already have their own government that is not part of the proposed Federation, and they will not initially be part of the government we propose. Some of those humans may ask to settle on planets we have taken from the Krall. They must join the federation we are forming to do so, but will be welcomed. Worlds currently part of Human Space may ask to join us someday, but they would have to accept our form of government, our future constitution, and accept that some of the leaders of the Federation are not human.

“We know there will be planets with multiple species living on them, as will be Haven, where we are now, and other planets with predominately a single species. In spite of that, no planet in the federation will be permitted to have laws that forbid other species to live and work there, as normal citizens of the federation and of that world. The constitution will take time to create, and if you join this council, you will have a chance to contribute to what it will say, and propose things to be included, removed, or changed. Your opinions will be heard, but not always used. That is true for any of the species here. If some people think the constitution needs to be changed later, there will be a process in the original constitution to permit changes to be considered and incorporated or rejected. All citizens of the federation will have an input and a vote.”

Maggi paused a moment to think on what she’d covered, and decided it was enough for now. “The best way to learn what we want to achieve, is join with us before we frame the constitution of the Federation, and observe the process. Your people will eventually decide to become members or not. If you decline participation, you will be granted the right to live where you are now, and to expand on that one world. But, you should know this. Our federation laws will apply to how you behave towards us, and our members will have to obey our laws when they deal with you. There are things, such as slavery and war that we will not permit on any world within our boundaries.” Maggi sat down.

“Thank you. My fellow Krall’tapi and I will speak of this in private after this meeting, if that is permitted.”

“Of course that’s permitted. We encourage you to do that.”

Mirikami picked up where he’d left off, after Nawella discussed the Prada hopes for returning to their home world. “There are going to be opportunities for colonies on worlds the Krall abandoned, and for whatever reason did not go feral or only went feral on an isolated continent. Obviously, worlds that were originally colonized by Prada, Raspani or Torki will have high priority for scouting missions, and if found to be immediately habitable, we Kobani will take the lead in removing any Krall threats found on them.

“It would be convenient if they would surrender, and accept being relocated to some common planet we set aside for them. The closer to feral they become the less they can even comprehend such an offer. In fact, I doubt if we can convince any Krall clans, on any world, to submit or yield to our superior force, even before they go feral.”

He sighed. “I fear the backlash from generations of the future, or from new species we will meet, who may, with some level of justification, accuse us of genocide if we wipe out the Krall. It will be difficult to preserve members of a species that only wants to kill all members of any other intelligent species they encounter. Any proposals?”

The Raspani, as sophisticated and intelligent as they were when their minds were placed in one of their mindless brethren, were unforgiving. They were constantly aware how the bodies they now inhabited had become mindless animals, a food staple that was force-fed a spice that made them better tasting to the Krall. Eradicating every Krall, down to the last egg gave them no qualms at all.

Per Nawella, the Prada now held a similar position, which Maggi and Tet at first found surprising, considering the long history of dedicated service and loyalty they had given the Krall. Then the elder worship instinct all Prada carried within them provided the answer. Even when told they should follow their own self-serving instincts by the Raspani, a restored true elder species, their instincts still led them to respect and share the elder species point of view. The galaxy didn’t need a single living Krall.

The Torki, enslaved, but never subservient, and not a food item to the warm red meat loving palettes of the Krall, were inclined to be more tolerant. Their view was similar to that of Tet and Maggi, and of many of the Kobani. Find a way to keep the species alive, if possible, but isolated and controlled.

It was not a surprise, at least to Tet and Maggi, when Toldot gave the symbolic thumbs down for her Krall cousin’s survival. Just freed from twenty-two thousand years of hatred, imprisonment, and brutality, the
soft Krall
motives were very personal. Toldot, whose husband was the most recent to die because of Krall cruel indifference to them, believed that any of her people would be willing to help eradicate them. That was also not a surprise, coming from the prototype of the original Krall thought processes. Except she knew her people were not strong enough to face their foe, even if the warriors were unarmed. It had been previously explained how Telour, whom she had seen strapped with metal bands into a rolling chair, had been incapacitated and paralyzed.

She asked, “If you Kobani could drug them all, it would make it easier for us to kill them.”

“That may be our answer.” Mirikami pulled at his lip.

Maggi gave him a raised skeptical eyebrow. “What the hell was the question? How do we easily murder helpless captives?”

“No. How do we capture warriors alive and transfer their butts to some world where we can safely turn them loose.”

Coldar said, “Won’t they lay eggs, and the hatchling go feral and eat them anyway?”

“They don’t do that on Krall nest worlds now, not with organized adults to keep their numbers in check and train and educate those they want to keep alive.”

Blue was concerned. “They will select the best of them for training as warriors. As they do now.”

“Sure,” Mirikami acknowledged. “With spears and clubs at first. We won’t give them any technology beyond basic and durable plastic housing against the elements, and clothing if they want, since they will use any technology to make weapons. They might relearn metallurgy to make swords and knives, how to build stone buildings for forts and conduct interclan wars. It isn’t as if they don’t know higher technology exists, but they’ll have to learn to build the tools to build it from scratch. They maintained their elaborate histories as an oral tradition for thousands of years, so they can use that same ability to preserve knowledge of how to survive in a primitive state until they produce writing materials. To recreate an advanced technological civilization will require hundreds of generations, and we’ll be watching.

“We have to assure they will have a world with adequate food for the population we place there, in the form of native animals, and fish or other sea life, and they will have to learn to conserve their resources. If they don’t do that, they will starve by their own hand. If they allow their hatchling to grow and reproduce without limits, they will die from that. If they split into warring clans and fight constantly, they will end just as they would have on their original home world. No altruistic species will come to their aid this time.”

“On what planet will they live? How many of them?” Blue was becoming resigned to having some of this evil species continue to live.

“I don’t propose more than one planet to be used, and I’m not suggesting we save all of the Krall we can. I’ve seen a couple of old empty Krall clan worlds that have considerable animal life that rebounded when they were gone. They both had gravity slightly above Earth standard, which no one but Normal humans would find agreeable. That means only my people are yielding a world that would make a good colony.

“As to how many to send there?” He tugged at his lip. “It’s callous, but we can’t dump billions of Krall on a single world. We’ll have to estimate what food resources are there, and account for the fact that they will exceed their initial needs until they are forced to conserve. They had to conserve clanships when they became more precious, so they can learn do that for food, or not. I don't care what they do, after we give them the opportunity.

“We’ll need to strip the chosen world of old domes, factories, and mining sites, which contain materials they might use to hurry their climb back from the Stone Age. Those of you that wanted billions of Krall deaths, you will have your blood. The heavier populated, more industrial clan worlds will be swept clean.”

He made his formal proposal. “Fellow council members, I propose we capture a few million warriors from worlds held by small clans, and transport them to some planet where they can survive in isolation, and we can keep them under observation. They may run their species into extinction, as would have happened if the Olt’kitapi had not intervened. We can place them on isolated landmasses to increase the chance one of the groups will survive. If the species continues, then we have not exterminated them, but it isn’t doing them much of a favor. I don’t ask that any of you opposed to this plan participate in its execution. To be honest, only the Kobani can do it anyway.”

With some reluctance, all but the new Krall’tapi representative on the council voted to keep some of the Krall alive. Then there followed a number of Comtap communications, with Mirikami and Maggi addressing the many ship groups operating inside Krall territory, asking them to look for other planetary alternatives for stranding the Krall survivors, in case the two planets Mirikami had previously seen weren’t the best options after all.

When that was done, Stewart moved on to the next agenda item. “What are we going to call our federation, when we go to Earth to establish diplomatic relations?”

Nawella thought it was obvious. “I thought it was to be the Haven Federation. Its capital will be Xenos, here on Haven.”

Coldar thought that was too limited. “Haven is but one planet among what we believe will be thousands. The Kobani have made it possible, and they will have a powerful influence and presence throughout the volume of space we will control, however large that proves to be. I propose we call it the Kobani Federation.”

Stewart, Tet, and Maggi literally stepped over one another’s words to object to this idea. The Chairman won the floor. “No. Thank you for suggesting that honor Coldar, but this is not to be a government of one people, their name held above all others. That, to my ears, and I’m sure to Maggi and Tet, grants one member of the federation too much credit, if you will. The Kobani are not a species, they are but one race of humanity, and our federation is not the Human Federation. If we attract trade with and colonists from Human Space, we don’t want them to feel that they are more important than any other species at this table or the species we hope may sit at this table in years ahead.”