Koban 6: Conflict and Empire (16 page)

“Tet, that was useful technology information, but I was actually asking about their physical capability. That was why normal humans couldn’t compete effectively in combat against the Krall, but you Kobani kicked their butts.”

“Oh, that. Well, we’ve only faced a security force species used by the Thandol in actual close space combat, called the Ragnar, which resemble an upright postured mountain gorilla of Earth, with longer human proportioned legs. We have two of them as captives, and they’re stronger than a normal human, but certainly not a Kobani, or even a Krall. They’re no faster than a normal human is, they prefer lower gravity than that of Earth’s, and they have nothing like the powerful body, redundant organs and self-repairing capability of a Krall.

“No offense intended to you at your age Adriana, but a younger you with a gun, facing one of them with a gun, in a one gravity field? I’d give you the mobility edge, since they evolved on a lower gravity world than did humans. I don't think, without powered armor, you’d want to go hand to hand with them. They have muscular bodies. But we Kobani could pull an arm off a Krall. This species is no contest one on one with us, but they’re smarter than a typical Krall warrior is. Like before, they also outnumber us.”

“So, the Ragnar are proxy fighters for the Thandol?” She asked. This made her wonder about their masters. “What about the Thandol? Are they tougher than their ape soldiers?”

“We also have two of those captive, and they resemble smaller sized elephants, four legs, with two very strong and flexible trunks below their mouths, paired with two somewhat smaller manipulator tentacles on the front of their faces above their mouths. They’re strictly vegetarian, have no tusks, and are almost seven feet high at the front shoulder. I think the Ragnar might be stronger, if not as heavy or massive.”

He mentally compared Maggi’s Mind Tap memory of interaction with prisoners of both species.

“
Adriana
, I don’t think either species would make better fighters than normal humans, because like our alien allies, they aren’t as adaptable or as innovative as humans have proven to be. They use fewer of the available habitable worlds if they’re too hot, too cold, extra dry or watery, and they both preferentially use worlds with less than Earth gravity.

“Bear in mind,
these aren’t the Krall on their evolutionary Great Path. They’ll want to win as quickly as possible, not spread the conquests out over thousands of years for improving their breed. And with their technology, they might be able to do that. Win quickly, I mean.

“From information gained from the Hothor species, a sloth-look-alike people but faster moving, they have many more warships than we do, and that’s yours and ours combined. Perhaps as high as twenty-five thousand warships.”

Shaking her head, Bledso said, “Damn it, Tet. Can’t you people ever make an enemy out of a weak alien species?”

He gave her a sour look. “Hell, we’ve never made an enemy out of any of them we’ve met. It’s always been gifts of violence, which we couldn’t refuse. Besides, there
were
no Kobani when the Krall first invaded, so we can’t be blamed for triggering that war. Humanity needed a miracle to survive them, and we provided that miracle for us both. The Federation has the most warships, and of course a relative handful of Kobani fighters. The PU has tens of millions of soldiers, sailors, and many hundreds of populated and productive worlds. To me, an alliance seems advantageous to us both.”

“Don’t get your knickers in a twist, Tet. I’m not blaming you or your people for antagonizing this empire. At least not without strong evidence to the contrary. You have always acted honorably and aboveboard in my experience. Admiral Mauss joined you and became a Kobani, now with Mind Tap she tells me. That’s a powerful testimonial from a person I know personally, and I always trusted her judgment and integrity implicitly.”

“You know about that?” He hadn’t seen Mauss lately, after she volunteered to go work with Nabarone, cleaning out the last of the Krall.

Bledso smiled. “Yes. She’s managed to stay in touch. She congratulated me after Marlene Strickland, with me on her coattails, won the election for DEW. We’ve shared text messages several dozen times. They came through that amazing new Instellarnet system that one of your non-Kobani returnees to Earth established. I think Golda’s probably aboard one of the two huge Torki hospital ships in the Poldark system, or perhaps the one at Greater West Africa or at Bollovstic. She didn’t say, of course, but I think she’s involved with the Kobani conversions you folks are performing on our soldiers and sailors, before they get discharged as the Krall war winds down.”

Mirikami tried to hide his surprise. It didn’t work.

She chuckled. “As fast as your muscle reactions are Tet, it didn’t prevent your irises from changing slightly. President
Strickland, when she found out, thought she was telling me something I didn’t already know, and I acted surprised. Admiral Foxworthy, who told me about it earlier, said she learned from scuttlebutt that some of her noncommissioned people took leave and traveled to worlds with Krall extermination sweeps still underway, instead of at some luxury port of call. They may have visited one of those giant ships for the second week of their leave, then returned to duty seeming to be more rundown than when they left. Except, within another week or two, they become the most vigorous, healthy and happy crewmates on their ship. Foxworthy has secretly, and personally, tested some of them for Mind Tap ability, by directing surprising thoughts at them while shaking hands. No reactions, so none appear to have received that modification.”

She watched his eyes again. “I guess that’s reserved only for those that live on Koban?”

The question seemed a bit accusatory, but not hostile. Aware of his reaction before, his eyes revealed nothing now, but his mouth did.

“Excellent detective work. We’ve debated admitting what we’re doing, offering Kobani mods to enlisted military members that want them when they go on leave. They’re approached by Kobani, usually spec ops members, those that do have Mind Tap, to make the offer if they display strong and positive interest. We know what their reaction will be before we ever tender the invitation. They aren’t asked to become Federation citizens, or to give up their careers, or make any lifestyle change whatever. No strings attached. We do inform them of the appropriate military regulations and Hub laws.

“Although, as you might suspect, if we came forward to talk about this, I’d have been more comfortable telling you before informing the President, if that wouldn’t be politically backward. Our final position was that when this inevitably leaks to the press, and the public learns about it, plausible deniability that those in charge of the PU didn’t know what we were doing would be your political and legal shields.”

Nodding she said, “That’s why we’ve kept silent. The president needed a hypothetical question answered first. She asked her legal team to research the appropriate laws and military regulations that pertain to military personnel that accept gene mods. I was sure you had done this already, or that Mauss had done it for you, because we don’t know of a single officer to whom you have furnished this conversion. Several outstanding enlisted members have refused offers to attend officer training when offered the opportunity. Using a
surreptitious
test, we have determined they were already Kobani. We now have a quick passive DNA test, and damned if we aren’t riddled with you guys. It’s obvious it hasn’t had a negative effect, because our highest re-ups are from those with the mods. They volunteer to go where the Krall are still found.”

Mirikami knew what he’d been told, but he wanted the VP to tell him the PU’s official position. “The legal determination was what?”

“Like Golda didn’t tell you.” She said pointedly. “There’s a difference in the oaths, and regulations, which pertain to enlisted personnel compared to those for commissioned officers. A PU military officer, from any planet in Human Space, Hub world or Rim, could potentially be subjected to
courts-martial proceedings. Our enlisted ranks are only subject to prompt discharge as an
Undesirable
.

“They might face civil proceedings if from a Hub world, because gene mods are still outlawed on worlds that are subject to federal PU laws. Each Rim world has jurisdiction over their citizens after they’re discharged from a commitment to the PU when they enlisted. Golda, as a general officer, retired or not, was committed to the PU for life, and might be in trouble if she came home and publicly revealed her change. Only the LOR continues to fight the repeal of the so called Gene Laws.”

Mirikami was relieved, and nodded. “That’s what we understood. Enlisted Hub citizens were advised that they might not be able to return home if discharged as an Undesirable, but that a number of Rim worlds would offer them sanctuary if they chose to remain in Human Space. Of course, the Federation would accept them.

“Concerning Mind Tap, if they agree to undergo additional vetting, to determine suitability for those mods, they are offered them only if they go to Koban for a month. If they refuse to open their minds completely to the examiners, or do but don’t qualify because of a number of individual factors, usually related to their motives for wanting the feature, they’re still welcomed as citizens. But they will not get Mind Tap ability.”

He was honest with her. “We gave everyone living on Koban that modification initially, if they wanted it, but eventually we came to realize that not everyone
should
have that ability. We can’t take it away, but perhaps three in a hundred people are predisposed to abuse their ability, with other humans or aliens, for personal advantage. Any Kobani, with or without that mod can easily block their thoughts, so they’re at no disadvantage dealing with those that have Tap ability. In fact, any human can easily learn to block their thoughts, as we told you from the outset.”

“Are you saying you never steal thoughts from anyone, human or alien, without their knowledge?”

He outright laughed at that absurdity. “Hell no! It’s the person’s motives for obtaining such thoughts, and how they intend to use that knowledge that matters to us. To protect ourselves, the Federation and our alien citizens, and all of Human Space, we stole unguarded thoughts from those Ragnar and Thandol prisoners. We certainly didn’t tell them they could block us if they knew about our ability and wanted to withhold the information. Eventually, they’ll learn what we can do, and it will get harder to find out what they’re thinking.”

He grinned. “I stole your unguarded thoughts once. When we first met on Poldark. I needed to know if you wanted to defeat the Krall badly enough to accept gene mod supermen to help you win the war. That was my narrow goal, and I didn’t probe for more than what we absolutely needed to know. Sneaky? You bet. But I wouldn’t have used it to try to block your career if you hated who we were, or to get into your bank account, or cheat you at poker. I’d just damn well try not to let you find out about my ability.”

She wasn’t exactly surprised he’d done that, but looked skeptical at his stated limitations.

He added. “I don't say that I wouldn’t do any one of those last things if an overriding larger good needed to be served, outside of my personal advantage. For example, two of our young men recently busted a corrupt financial and political system on a Rim world, where prominent people there were involved in murder, extortion, and political blackmail. That was done by pulling unguarded thoughts from the minds of the perpetrators, who were known to have hired some of the murderers.”

She frowned slightly, but only in thought. “I follow even Rim world news. Was that Chisholm last year? They sent a few hundred influential people to prison, some convicted of murder, including people involved in the corruption from off planet.”

“Yes, it was. Our young men didn’t profit from the millions or even billions of Hub credits they could have secretly pilfered from illicit and hidden accounts, which was money fleeced from the economy by many of the government leaders and criminal enterprises. The boys did lay claim to money paid to a couple of hired killers, who had been paid to kill some of those citizens that were trying to expose the corruption. Except, they only did so with the permission of the people who had been targets of those killers, after asking them first. That’s how we make the distinctions for what is allowed using Mind Tap. There are going to be gray areas, naturally. So sue me.”

She grinned back. “Nah. For the good of the human race, you’d pick my lawyer’s mind to find the case’s weaknesses. Let’s move on.”

“Good. I can tell you that we do intend to try to interdict whatever force the Empire sends to Tanner’s world. President Flacco was advised of the threat two days ago, before we reached Admiral Foxworthy. He’s recalled their local home guard members of the former Planetary Defense Force, and he’s opened the armory to check out the status of body armor, ladybugs, tanks, plasma rifles, mobile laser and plasma canons, including hundreds of heavy orbital defense lasers.”

“I can see the value of the orbital defense lasers, but do you and he think the Empire will actually try to land troops to take over the planet?”

“Adriana, I’ve not spoken to him yet, but my man that reported that the Empire had found this world did speak with him. After the explanation, and his speaking to some of the injured colonists that stayed behind here after leaving Zanzibar, he acted promptly. Turns out he was an officer in the PDF unit, and had faced Krall raiders. He’s experienced, and not willing to wait and see. I agree.”