Koban 6: Conflict and Empire (41 page)

Maggi grinned. “That wasn’t so painful was it? Are you prepared to sense the thoughts of our nonhuman allies?”

“Yes, I think all of us combined can learn insights about you. I’m surprised that you are willing to allow that. We have a truce here on this planet, but that ends when we return home. I say that, because I know you already believe that anyway, and Kobalt will have sensed it from me, I think. I also want to share thoughts with you and the other Kobani. I suspect that with rippers living among you, that you know how to conceal your most guarded thoughts. Do you think the other species can do that?”

“Yes, but perhaps not as well as we humans.” She answered honestly. “I’m less worried about you Ragnar now, because I know you would take an opportunity to overthrow the Thandol if we make it possible. I’m sure you believe we will be approaching the Finth and Thack Delos with a similar offer, to revolt against the Thandol. That’s an obvious move by us, so I won’t waste time discussing it with you. If we reach agreements, the revolt has to be coordinated anyway. There’s plenty of time.”

“You know the Emperor will send us back here to attack federation worlds. We will do it too. They will be coming here as well.”

“Oh, you may have a useful delay tactic to use against them.”

“What would that be?”

“You now know the Planetary Union exists. It has its own navy and armies that you know nothing about. This world is within the volume of space where they claim dominion, but it isn’t part of their Union. The number of star systems humans inhabit is far denser per cubic light year than are the stars of the Empire, and more humans live on each of our many hundreds of earliest colonies than we observed on worlds in the Empire. We have adapted many worlds to our needs, more than the species you know of in the Empire, and we like heavier gravity than you do, but we can also live where it’s lighter. That increases the number of worlds we can use.

“As you learned from the people that live here, all humans are innately aggressive, and innovative in warfare. There are probably as many inhabited worlds in Human Space as there are in the Empire, even without counting all of the worlds of the Federation, which is much larger than Human Space. The Planetary Union was allied with us against the Krall, and they will do so against the Empire.”

She believed that, but it hadn’t happened yet, and she glossed over how many inhabited planets there actually were in Federation space. The other Federation participants in this meeting had been well briefed on what had to be kept secret, when Kobalt let the Ragnar participate in thought exchanges with them. Long experience with Kobani and rippers had schooled those here, on how to block thoughts the Ragnar shouldn’t receive.

She continued. “The Federation has already taught the Thandol that even a few of us wandering around in their empire can be highly destructive. You and your fleet learned that here, when we brought more force than you could handle, and used technology that even the Thandol don’t have. We can share our technology with the Planetary Union, because we are natural allies.

“If you share what you know now with the Thandol, they will take their usual long term approach, and spend an orbit or two just scouting before they even consider an attack on the Planetary Union. They may be less reluctant to do that against the Federation, because we are already at war. I assure you however, if they or you continue aggression against us, it will have harsh consequences. The docks at Meglor are not the only example of the destruction that can be repeated at other star systems. We know where the Emperor lives and we now know where the Ragnar live. If we are attacked, you will pay a heavy price.

“If you are patient, we will work to weaken the Thandol, giving their three security forces an opportunity to make them answer for their many millennia of brutal and harsh domination of you.” She hoped that would be true, but would settle for being able to spark a single revolt, even if it didn’t succeed. That could keep the Thandol too busy to worry about the Federation for quite some time. There were more “ifs” involved than she liked.

By the time the frilling was done, the Ragnar had a definitive sampling of how the different species within the Federation fared. There were complaints, but they had a chance to express them without repercussions, and they had equal votes on the ruling council of representatives. They also had many favorable things to say, and they universally acknowledged that the Kobani were the primary defenders of the Federation. They had been the primary engineers of the defeat of the Krall, and had liberated all of the other species from Krall enslavement. Although, they admitted that the Planetary Union forces had completed the liberation of planets the Krall had invaded in Human Space.

It had been a long day, and just before sunset every Group One Pounder, loaded with troopers and Pillagers they had collected from the city limits of Fort Bradford, were escorted to the only spaceport the Ragnar had managed to reach. Kobani ships performed that task, and assured the Stranglers were landed and left where they were when their crews transferred to Pounders. The Hoths were permitted to leave atmosphere, and travelled out beyond Tanner’s single moon, where they were met by the eight Spears that Jumped in from the two gas giants, where they had been lurking. Six of the Pounders, over all, were found to have damaged Jump Drives and would have been left behind, even though they had lifted to orbit.

“It isn’t necessary to abandon them,” Mirikami told Thond.

He described how a tow would work in Jump status, something the Ragnar had never done. Their T-cubed ships typically formed a tight event horizon to rotate into Tachyon Space, and it required a manual override of a safety feature to allow them to expand the horizon wide enough. They were easily able to trap a tachyon of sufficient energy, but that was normally considered a waste of the unlimited energy available. As a safety measure, they permitted no crews aboard the six damaged Pounders. The Ragnar were not convinced it would work until the first fully functional Pounder enveloped its tow ship, rotated out of the Normal Universe, and then back after a short Jump. The only unexpected event for them was the burst of gamma rays from the combined ships, because the computer control of the exit procedure couldn’t work to prevent that for the pair of craft. They were now ready to start for home.

Thond informed Mirikami that they would be following the same indirect route they used to arrive, but it was to conceal where they had been from the Thandol monitor ships when the reentered the empire.

With no sentimental words, or any communications at all from Thond, the remaining Pounders around the planet lifted from the four areas where they had originally landed. When they reached orbit, a safe distance out of the gravity well, they nearly simultaneously entered Jump Holes. The six Pounders with their tows, were staggered bit on their Jumps, since they had to enter their Jump Holes manually.

There were two Federation patrol boats nearby, which monitored the tachyon wakes, which proved that all of the ships were moving in the direction expected. Thus ended the Ragnar invasion of Tanner’s World.

Dillon asked Maggi. “Do you think Thond will tell the Thandol what happened to them here, or try to hide their failure, and let the Thandol walk into an ambush in six months?”

She shrugged. “The Force Commander is a quick study. When Kobalt asked him what he would tell the Thandol, he appeared to have no thoughts on the subject, but verbally said he would tell them why they should avoid Tanner’s World.”

“He blocked his thoughts?”

“I said he was a quick study. But he didn’t receive all of the lessons.” She smiled.

“Meaning what?” Dillon and Noreen knew the pixy smile and a twinkle in her eyes meant something.

“I taught him the proper method of saying farewell, when leaving a diplomatic meeting with humans.”

“Stop stringing us along, damn it.” Sarge was impatient.

“I told him their knuckle bump greeting was similar to a symbolic gesture we use, and described our method. I said for him to make sure the Thandol know to leave planets inside Human Space alone, as we shook hands.”

“And?” Mirikami prodded his wife.

“I’m not a ripper, so he wasn’t on his guard. We’d better tell President Strickland to be ready to repulse the next fleet. It’s the Thandol’s turn, in a PU meat grinder.”

Even forewarned, with the time of arrival preapproved, actually seeing the Mark II suddenly appear just one hundred feet above the presidential landing pad, in the glare of landing lights late at night, was a shock for both
Marlene
Strickland and her Vice President, Adriana Bledso. The ship appeared with only a mild pop sound, and settled silently to the pad. This was yet another technological leap in spacecraft design for the young Federation, and the shape of the ship was familiar, and chilling.

It was a slightly smaller version of the Dismantler named Pholowela, which had previously brought a contingent of Federation visitors to Earth. Another Dismantler had actually lived up to the name of its class of ship. Deceived by the Krall, the one named Huwayla had destroyed gas giants in two inhabited star systems, resulting in billions of deaths from the debris. This new smaller ship also had rounded ends, which is where dual gravity projectors were placed on Dismantlers, and somehow those gravity fields were used to cause planetary cores to explode. Mirikami had not mentioned if they now had that capability.

The Federation said they were planning to build a large number of the new Mark II class of ships, to replace the old clanship design created by the Olt’kitapi. Being an ally of the Federation seemed natural, and it sounded like a self-serving tactic for the PU if the Thandol Empire was as aggressive and powerful as they described.

The hull surface flowed in that weird alive seeming fashion, forming a ramp and opening a hatch. Strickland and Bledso recognized Tet and Maggi as they descended, and the tall man between them had to be the Federation’s President, Stewart MacDougal. They were the first three down the ramp, followed by the alien menagerie of the Federation Council representatives, two from each species, as if from some sort of galactic Noah’s Ark.

Having been forewarned of their presence, the pair of Krall’tapi still stirred feelings of unease with Bledso. The makeup of the contingent had been coordinated via the Kobani Comtap specialists, who were now sprinkled among government departments around the PU capitol of Denver. Two specialists were assigned to the Executive offices, one for the President of the Planetary Union and one for her VP. There was one with the Secretary of Defense, another with the Chairfem of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and one with the Secretary of State.

Apparently, many more such specialists were to be provided, for improved rapid and long-range coordination at less lofty governmental and military levels. At least that was what Strickland and Bledso had concluded, after receiving a message relayed through their two Comtap specialists, sent directly from President MacDougal.

When the formalities of a brief welcoming speech from Strickland, and a group introduction was complete, the process of awkward greetings was conducted between the gathered PU officials and Federation representatives, the latter being well outnumbered by curious humans. The majority of the PU officials had personally never seen an alien up close before tonight. Strickland thought it was high time that omission was remedied. 

There were rather a lot of officials, many from the President’s Cabinet, which after the Vice President included the heads of various executive departments. Such as the Secretaries of Agriculture, Commerce, Defense, Education, Energy, Health and Human Services, Core World Security (which meant the Hub), New Colony Development, Rim World relations, Labor, Interstellar Transportation, Treasury, the new Veterans Affairs department, as well as the Attorney General for the Core worlds.

One excited participant, and not a Cabinet member, was the PU President’s Press Secretary, Gerard Enright, who had arranged for the historic governmental recordings, which would be shared later with the news organizations, who were
not invited
to cover this event. The previous spectacle on the Capital steps would guarantee a circus atmosphere again if they were present.

He’d been busy coordinating with his assistants in positioning the drone cameras for the best angles, and he wasn’t actually watching the meet-and-greet process with each alien, to observe the differing protocols. One did
NOT
shake the largest claw of a Torki (you touched a smaller fine manipulator, located under their scary looking mouthparts).  For a Raspani, you nodded and squeezed your bent elbows to your sides. A Prada would shake hands just like a human, as would one of the Krall-resembling Krall’tapi (which left most greeters with a feeling of anxiety). Not all species had a specific greeting ritual.

As the line of Federation representatives finished the chore of symbolic greetings, they followed those ahead of them into the Presidential mansion. The Press Secretary, his directing of assistants in the drone Tri-Vid recording duties complete, dashed to the end of the receiving line, where a few Cabinet department assistants stood. He wanted to meet at least one of the aliens personally.

Enright hurriedly stepped between two people he felt he outranked, near the end of the line, and nervously extended his right hand in front of whichever was the last alien approaching from his left. It happened to be a ripper. A damned huge male.

Kobalt, expecting yet another touch to his frill, was amused at the sight of the man’s lowered and slightly cupped hand, extended for an inappropriate gesture with a species that could not shake his hand. The cat’s intense blue eyes met Enright’s, which suddenly opened wider with the realization of which species this was. The cat revealed part of his white incisors, and a wet pink tongue. The cat moved forward quickly, and his mouth engulfed the hand, a rough tongue delivering a moist lick.

Kobalt said loudly, via his neck fob, “If you’d wanted it cleaned, you should have washed it yourself, but not a bad flavor.” In contrast to the words, a frightening mental image that he sent to the man was far less benign.

Enright instantly jerked his hand back, staring at it in horror as if counting his fingers, and surprised the moistness wasn’t his blood.

Kobalt, chuffing softly, continued past the last two people in line, who had been observant enough to know to place a hand on top of his neck to touch the frill, as he in turn said
hello
or
good evening
, accompanied by a similarly mild thought.

The cat could hear the slight whir of a camera drone overhead, which had specifically followed him down the entire greeting line, and which had just recorded what would become the most popular clip on the news and Instellarnet for several days to come.

****

By the time the Federation’s contingent left Earth, the Planetary Union and the Galactic Federation had formally established diplomatic relations. The meet-and-greet at the Presidential Palace had been a prelude before they gathered again at the State Department building, with the press and ranking members of the House and Senate in attendance.

The news had been filled for days with stories of how the Federation, acting alone, had driven off an alien invasion of Tanner’s World, which most Hub citizens felt the PU had the moral obligation to defend. The administration announced publicly that because of legal limits placed on President Strickland by her political opponents, that the PU military had been unwillingly relegated to being bystanders, despite their knowing of warnings that an attack might happen. A public outcry arose against the obstructive policies of the Leaders of the Old Republic, which controlled both the House and Senate.

The LOR had repeatedly, and publically, blocked every effort to grant diplomatic recognition of the Federation, or to form a military alliance with them. Ironically, there were public comments in interviews given by prominent LOR members, that President Strickland should have used an executive order to preposition General Nabarone’s forces on Tanner’s world, with support from the
First Fleet, to be coordinated with the Federation forces.

Sensing possible losses in the upcoming midterm election cycle, the LOR reversed itself on a number of once vital seeming issues. Gene mods were no longer claimed to be the evil they were once thought to be. At least not by the LOR politicians desirous of reelection, although their rightwing, ultraconservative evangelical members were less than happy with them.

Strickland wisely neglected to mention that she had intended to use executive orders to put PU forces into the thick of the expected battle, except the Ragnar had launched an attack five months sooner than anyone expected. She admitted that only the Federation was able to respond quickly enough to help Tanner’s World in the first three days of the attack. The lack of instant communications had prevented her from even learning of the attack soon enough to mobilize the PU’s military response.

The astonishing stories of the resistance offered by of the people of Tanner’s World, and their small, previously disbanded Planetary Defense Force, stirred the patriotic emotions of all of Human Space. The tales of their innovations, sacrifices, and material losses, which brought about the remarkable destruction of three of four separate armored tank divisions, was creating legends. The Kobani fleet driving away the Ragnar fleet, and then helping to stop the fourth tank division, with the Kobani leaders next convincing the Ragnar to withdraw under a negotiated truce, was going to be a story retold many times.

Considering that Tanner’s had negligible armored capability of its own, their heroic defense of their home, against what should have been an overwhelming and successful invasion, created a sense of instant pride on behalf of citizens throughout Human Space. This action would surely join the legions of recent Krall war Tri-Vid movies.

Fresh attention was given to the revelation that the attack came from a previously unknown alien empire, which had first attacked several new Federation colonies, and had now branched out to attack a world within the sphere protected by the Planetary Union. It seemed a natural extension of the last war, to see the Federation united
again
in a common cause with the people of Human Space, opposing another powerful alien enemy. They were beginning to accept that the galaxy was brimming with other intelligent, space faring civilizations, and not all of them were friendly.

There had been twenty intelligent species living in the Orion Spur, seventeen were conquered by the Krall, and two others were humans and rippers, who were never defeated by them. Yet, a glance at a map of the Milky Way demonstrated that humanity lived in an isolated section of that vast star system, and they had not even explored the entire Spur.

Reports from several species living within the Empire, captains of supply ships rescued from Ragnar control, said the Thandol occupied only one ninth of the Sagittarius Arm. Even so, there were twenty-six technological, space faring species found within that volume. There were enough star systems in the Milky Way for there to be tens of thousands of intelligent species, and the realization had been driven home that some of them would prove to be inimical to their neighbors.

Humanity now had statistics that suggested about ten percent of the known intelligent species would prove to be aggressive and warlike. Although, none of them had yet seemed able to match humans in their ability to respond to aggression. For the first time, the Kobani were being considered a vital part of humanity. There were more citizens now willing to acknowledge that if they had to fight an alien empire, which wanted to turn them into their servants, they’d prefer to fight with Kobani-like advantages.

****

Home again, Maggi asked, “Who do you think will be the first Normal human volunteer for receiving a Comtap?”

Mirikami tugged at his lower lip. “If Adriana had her way, she’d go first. But as second in line for the presidency, I doubt if she, and certainly not Strickland, can receive medical clearance from their doctors for the implant. Not right away.”

“That was clearly one of Stewart’s better ideas,” Maggi agreed. “We don’t lose any communications security ourselves, the PU gets instant coordination, in or out of Tachyon Space, and we can jointly share intelligence all the way across the galaxy.

“They’ll soon be able to use a mind enhancer as well as the Raspani and Torki have done for thousands of years. They can’t share thoughts via Comtap, like a full Kobani can, and it takes practice to use and search through the huge library modules of data in a Comtap. Our wolfbat memory matrix is faster at that than technology can do right now, but Normals will learn to manage.”

Tet was relieved. “It eliminates our problem of assigning so many Kobani just to relay messages to and from us, or between them, which is a waste of our abilities. I don’t worry about their using the capability against us. We have too many common interests.

“By the way, why didn’t you want Stewart to tell Strickland about all the Kobani converts of enlisted men and women in the military, who already have Comtaps? I think they could promptly take good advantage of them.”

“Adriana asked us not to say anything about it. At least until Comtap use is more prevalent. If people knew some service members already had them, it would soon leak that those men and women are also Kobani converts, something that’s harder to explain and politically embarrassing. Foxworthy, who knows of our conversion program and has kept quiet, might get into hot water and have to be relieved. We want her in charge of First Fleet if the Thandol still conduct their attack on Tanner’s World.