Koban 5: A Federation Forged in Fire (64 page)

“No, I don't think the Thandol are
inadvertently
ambiguous at all. I think they are being quite deliberate, and I don’t think there’s any misunderstanding on their part. Nor do I think they care
where
the Olt’kitapi lived or had explored. I believe they intend to claim everything the
Krall
controlled, and for some reason that I don't understand, they’re using the Olt’kitapi name as some sort of pretext to demand control of much of the Orion Spur. It’s clearly a land-grab, but why have they invoked a long dead species name, and not just say they want the Krall territory? It isn’t as if we humans will agree with their reasons, or accept even the more limited boundary claim of the original Olt’kitapi volume anyway.”

Maggi saw immediately what his concern was. The words used at Paradise foretold that a wider conflict was coming, and soon. "Tet, I'll link to each of the ten new colonies, to tell them to be on alert, and for them to immediately report any message, like Paradise received, to Haven. I’ll ask Stewart to send armed ships, with all of the quantum key chips removed, to watch over those colonies in advance. We also should send ships to the Krall’tapi world, which probably should count as another Federation colony effort, although they haven’t officially decided to be a Federation member yet. They’re deep inside former Olt’kitapi space, and I’m damned if we’ll leave them to the mercy of yet another conquering species.”

Noreen cautioned, “The other colonies probably won’t get four well-spaced warnings like happened here. Not if the Thandol consider all of the planets we won as fair game for them, and they started here only because it was the closest representative planet to them. With T-cubed speed, they could show up at any colony and attack with no warning, at any time. This may have been a single, one time warning, for the entire volume of space they intend to claim. There was never an intention of their acting fair.”

Mirikami added, “Maggi, ask Stewart to post sentry ships over Koban and Haven. They’re at as much risk as worlds that were never embedded in Olt’kitapi space. Noreen is right, the Thandol intend to claim it all.”

Thad was impatient. “We can’t just sit around and wait for more shoes to drop, Tet. Sarge was right. We need to find and face up to them. If they were afraid of the Krall, we can point out that we beat the hell out of that enemy in short order, at least compared to the thousands of years the Krall rampaged along the Orion Spur. They should be damned worried about
us
. We have to show them why.”

“I intend to, Thad, but I want to know more about them first, to understand what gives them the confidence that they can push us around? They obviously think they have the right, and apparently, the might. They’ve had another twenty thousand years after the Olt’kitapi were wiped out. Even if they expand and change at a more sedate rate than we do, they surely didn’t stand still. Perhaps they were finally ready to face the Krall, but we struck first. They might think they’re ready to take us on instead, from a military standpoint.”

He shrugged. “It’s odd. I had thought the PU would be our source of pressure for control of the new territory, but the new PU president appears to have backed away from Medford’s early push to take over some of our vacant planets. The navy and army know what we did to the Krall, and that they can’t match us in space or on the ground. Presumably, they impressed that information on the LOR politicians in parliament, and the new president from the DEW party.”

Sarge was as subdued as usual. “OK. So how the hell do we learn about these new Thandol ass holes if we don’t go looking ASAP?”

Mirikami gave him a dirty look. “I don't know about you folks, but if all we know is how they sound when they talk, the size and shape of one huge capitol ship, and a little bit about one single weapon they used that’s delivered in a mysterious manner, we aren’t ready to fight them. Let’s start with physiology, culture, and language, before we charge into a fight. I want to learn what more the Dismantlers have in their databases. Can you help us with that Pholowela?”

“I can try, friend Tet. Yet, I do not have the skills or inclination for combat, therefore I may not know what sort of information you seek, or to offer what you would find useful. Could you ask me questions, and I can provide what I find in my data, or that my sisters may have?”

“Certainly. Can you start with a physical description of them, or perhaps an image? Please send it to our Comtaps.”

“Yes. They were originally a herbiferous herd animal. They look like this.”

The first image, a close up frontal face view without scale, was a bit of a shock. At first Mirikami though he was looking into the maw of a giant yellow squid, but as the image pulled back, it proved to be four amber colored tentacles around a protruding “V” shaped set of lips, with flat crowned teeth seen inside the open mouth, suitable for mastication of vegetation, not flesh. The two lower tentacles were much thicker and more muscular than the upper small pair. Then, as the ends of the lower set were seen in detail as the image pulled back, they proved to have more in common with an elephant’s or Moosetodon’s single trunk, since they were both hollow tubes of muscle, suitable for breathing, drinking, grasping and lifting. They had delicate tips for holding small things.

The upper two manipulators, about half the diameter and length of the larger set, seemed to be true tentacles, and even had small gripping suckers on the undersides. The ends of the tentacles became very slender, almost tendrils, clearly capable of fine manipulation. The image rotated to the side and pulled back farther, revealing that the head had a high blunt forehead and flat on top, with forward facing eyes in the conventional location for binocular vision. The manipulating trunks and tentacles were placed around the mouth, in front of the eyes where the creature could easily see what they held. The wide cranium, on the end of a proportionately longer and thinner neck than for the thick short neck of an elephant, appeared to have ample room for a sizable brain.

There was still no scale factor, and as the image drew back again, a hairless mottled skinned, amber and light tan colored body appeared behind the neck and head, which definitely was reminiscent of an elephant’s or Moosetodon’s torso. The length of the torso was less than that of an elephant’s, and less rotund. The four post-like legs were more slender than expected, making them seem a bit long in proportion to the body. That was a feature more in common with the taller Moosetodons of Koban. The legs, each with a forward facing knee, ended with flat wide pads similar to elephant’s feet, with more pronounced toes. There was a whip-like short tail at the rounded rump.

Sarge had a request. “Hey Polo, can you superimpose a human figure next to it for scale? Someone that’s say, my height? I’m more typical in height than Tet or Thad.” Actually, Reynolds was a bit taller than average, by about the same amount that Mirikami was a bit shorter, roughly two inches either way from average. Thad and Dillon were both well above average height.

Perhaps, because of the vast scale of the ship they had brought to Paradise, and a body plan that was similar to an elephant, they all were surprised to see that the flat back of the creature came only to the shoulders of the image of Reynolds. Its body was unadorned by clothing, except for a long carrying pouch slung snuggly below the underside of the two-foot neck, and items were attached by straps on the front legs above the knees, any of which would be accessible to the long trunks or the short tentacles. The two trunks proved to be roughly six feet in length, easily able to reach the ground without lowering the head on the flexible neck. The two thinner and higher placed tentacles, located just above and to either side of the mouth, were about three feet long.

“Hell, they aren’t much larger than a tall Raspani.” Sarge noted. “It’s their long legs holding their ass so high off the ground, which makes them seem bigger. And they’re mostly a dull yellow.” He sounded disappointed they weren’t larger and more intimidating. “Do they move very fast?”

As they watched, the still image became animated, and the walking pace was similar to an elephant’s, two or three feet normally touching the ground at a time. With a smaller body mass, and a body adapted for low gravity worlds, a Thandol could probably actually run, getting all four feet off the ground in a full out gallop. Something that an elephant or a Moosetodon never did. Those larger and heavier animals merely walked faster when in a hurry. A Moosetodon could walk much faster than an elephant in fact, since whiteraptors might be in pursuit, and elephants had no natural predators.

The walking speed increased, and evolved into a full run, a rather stiff looking gallop. The image slowed, and the Thandol turned towards the imaginary camera in everyone’s mind, and came to a stop. It shifted most of its weight to the pair of legs on its right side, and lifted the two large trunks and casually interlaced them, keeping their tips well off the ground without having to hold them up, as the neck relaxed and lowered the head slightly. It reminded them of a slouching man folding his arms, placing his weight predominately on a straightened leg with its knee locked, his hip slightly cocked in an energy-conserving stance. To complete the effect, the two tentacles weaved an intricate little twisting interplay with one another that caused the human observers to think of a pair of twiddling thumbs of a bored individual.

Maggi nodded, and quipped. “Yep, looks just like Sarge, when he’s thinking about what to make out of all that fuzz in his navel.”

Mirikami kept them on track. “Polo, what does your database say about their home world?”

“Friend Tet, that was unknown to my builders, but all of the worlds the Thandol colonized for their own use were only slightly more massive on average than those the Olt’kitapi preferred. Perhaps sixty five percent that of the planet where you stand now.”

An instant mental calculation and Mirikami said, “That’s about seventy five percent of Earth normal gravity for them. Did they seem stronger than expected for a lower gravity species? I’m thinking of their ability to resist accelerations in a ship, their strength in personal combat, and the weight of weapons, body armor, and equipment they might carry.”

“I have no measure of that, friend Tet. However, they did not normally engage in direct physical hostilities with other races when my database was last updated. They used three of their subservient species for that purpose, or they acted at a distance, as they did here. This is what induced my makers to try to engage the Krall, offering to modify some of them into the Krall’tapi form if they agreed, serving a combat purpose.

“Our old data indicates that because the early Krall warriors were adapted to a higher gravity world, they were expected to be stronger and faster than any of the three species the Thandol assigned to Imperial security. A high level of uncontrolled aggression was an obvious detrimental feature for the Krall, which the Olt’kitapi attempted to reduce. The Krall’tapi, with their involuntary rage glands disabled, and using their new mind enhancers, could fully operate any Olt’kitapi ship, equipment, or weapons.

“This was not the case for security forces in the Thandol Empire, because the rulers did not furnish even their most trusted citizens with access to the best combat technology available.

“In perfect hindsight, my own builders should also have proceeded with more caution with the Krall, at least until the Krall’tapi grew in numbers, and assumed the same defense responsibilities initially given to the basic Krall warriors. The original Krall would have eventually been allowed to continue with their personal intensive interclan wars.”

“Was there ever any actual fighting with the Thandol forces?”

“We have no records of that. With the weapons being furnished to the Krall, they were technologically equivalent to their potential opponents at that time and stronger physically. The Krall’tapi would have eventually been given even better weapons, with mental interfaces.

“We estimate that Earth normal humans, adapted to a twenty-five percent higher gravity world, would be a probable physical match for the heavier and larger Thandol. You do seem a more assertive species than they are. Lacking data, there is no means to compare you to their security forces. Of course, you Kobani should outmatch any of them physically.”

“How large is their population?”

“The Empire’s population could be close to that contained within Human Space. Despite your dense populations on a greater variety of worlds, the Empire includes a vaster volume of space. However, many of their citizen species will not fight for, or even willingly support the Empire.”

“What can you to tell us about those three species that provide their fighting forces?”

“I regret that I do not have any information concerning those races or their names, other than that they were not expected to be as effective at fighting as the Krall’tapi. I don’t know how my makers determined this because they did not meet representatives of the Empire’s fighters. At least I have no images of them.

“It was not easy for the Olt’kitapi to scout Empire territory using the faster T-cubed mode of travel, because it was easier for the Empire to trace scouting flights from their points of origin to where they ended. It is more difficult to trace travel at the first and lowest rotation into Tachyon Space, but those modes of travel are far slower. That limited their ability to scout very many of the Thandol worlds, or for the Thandol to scout the Olt’kitapi worlds where their own scouts could also be detected.”

“Ah. We had better learn more about that detection, before we go charging in on them or lead them back to Koban.”

“My sisters and I know how to do this Tachyon Space path tracing, and then do the conversion to Normal Space coordinates. We have remote imaging ability of massive objects in nearby star systems, and within about twelve light years, we can detect modest brief gravity anomalies such as formation of Jump Holes and White Outs. Larger events, like the huge Thandol craft that came here caused, we may sense it farther away. We can detect tachyon waves from motion through the sea of lowest power infinite velocity tachyons, particularly when more massive and slower objects use T-squared or T-cubed travel. The more massive the object being moved, the easier that becomes to trace. I can explain how this is done now if you wish.”