Koban 6: Conflict and Empire (42 page)

“You and I think Thond might hold his tongue about what happened to him there. It would be more to protect his position as Force Commander, and about keeping the Ragnar in charge of their security zone, than of wanting the Thandol to succeed in their raid. If we hurt any force they sent badly enough, it would suit his long term goal to weaken them.”

Mirikami wasn’t sympathetic. “Humph. His silence won’t help the poor bastards on Tanner’s World.”

His wife gave him a look. “He certainly doesn’t give a damn about them. Besides, he knows Thandol Politics, so he may know it wouldn’t matter if he ‘fessed up anyway. The Emperor had already ordered their retaliation for your blowing up his personal Crusher. The Ragnar being handed their asses won’t change his mind, and it might make him want to prove how much better the Thandol are at punishing a
lesser species
.”

Mirikami was looking ahead to their next step, in a process to disrupt the Emperor’s plans. “As soon as we have some of the new Scout class ships to test, if their small tachyon wakes are as hard to detect as Max predicts, we can make faster T-cubed trips to visit our bug friends on Canji Dol and their Hothor protectors.”

Maggi’s eyes brightened at the prospect, since the trip was her suggestion. “Those sloths know a lot about the Imperial Court intrigue that lurks behind the scenes, and they can tell me the species that have individuals that provide servants to the highest placed Thandol. They may know which of those species are inclined to talk with us, and could be motivated to start mischief causing rumors, perhaps planting physical evidence to back the rumors we invent.”

She warmed to the subject. “The device addresses of high ranking noble Thandol, which I picked from Captain Halder’s memcache, can be used to inject distrust and suspicion, by storing phony subversive data packets in them, where they can be found and reported by loyal supporters of the regime. All of their Emperors are justifiably paranoid about being killed and replaced by ambitious competitors. It could come from a plot by a noble within Emperor Farlol the 84th’s own herd. Although, from what the Hothor told us, this Emperor has apparently been tolerated and better behaved than many have been in the past.”

She grinned. “Unfortunately, I think attitudes about good ‘ole number 84 are going to change, as politics become a bit unstable in Thandol-land. I’ve heard it on very good authority, my own of course, that discussions about a Farlol the 85th are about to start.”

****

Mirikami spoke frankly. “Rafe, I hope you have something interesting to show me. I’m up to my ears in tests of our new Scout craft.”

He looked surprised. “Don’t you have people to do that for you?”

“I
could
delegate that, but I’m planning to lead multiple Scouts into Empire space, with me and Maggi using one of them to visit the Olt’kitapi and Hothor. If these little boats are detectable by Thandol tachyon wake monitors, the surviving free Olt’kitapi could be captured or killed, and their Hothor protectors crushed.

“I won’t risk so much before I know for certain. I intend to make sure that when the Thandol really start to look for one of these, they can’t trace their movements. Our own monitors can’t see us at T-squared, or even at T-cubed travel, but the Thandol have been monitoring ship traces for much longer, and they may be better at it than we are. They have taxed and kept tabs on the other species in the Empire, who would want to avoid detection when their ships engage in unregulated trade, but we think they only use level one travel for that, one ship at a time, which is below the detection threshold. However, none of subservient races is allowed to develop T-cubed travel, so that level normally only contains large, hard to hide warships for them to monitor. Ships too small for carrying significant cargo, and are not massive warships, might not be detected.

“Since it’s my responsibility, I’m personally making certain we can do it safely. I’ll head into Empire space for a few days, to provoke the kind of reaction from them where they’ll
really
want to find our Scouts. If they can’t, then the mission will proceed as we’ve planned. I have more to do to get ready today, and I don’t mean to rush you, but what do you have that sounded so urgent that I had to come myself?”

“OK, then I won’t waste time on a buildup and an explanation of what Aldry and I, and our team has worked on in the last couple of months.”

He walked over to a wide hanging cloth, which blocked off one end of the long room from floor to ceiling. “We had Sarge arrange to have some equipment pulled from a couple of damaged Pillagers, which were left behind on Tanner’s World. Technicians from Max’s group reassembled the components from several tanks, and set it up for us. It’s fully operational.”

Rafe tugged at the cloth, which was held only by clips near the ceiling, and when it dropped, the flat topped turret of a Debilitater sat on the floor, with the directional antenna dish pointed at the center of the room. There were cables running into a Faraday cage, placed within the larger similar cage around the entire room.

“Wow, you have a Debilitater! Operational, I presume.”

“Certainly. You may have noticed the wire mesh, at edge of the old style door when you entered?”

“Yes, covered with a protective Smart Plastic veneer to hold the copper mesh in place, to prevent tears in the thinner sheets we’re using. The same color of veneer was on the rest of the outside of the wall that I could see. I’d assumed you’d shielded this entire lab, and your people, from a possible Debilitater attack if the Empire found us. I’ve seen whole blocks of residential units treated the same way.”

Rafe gestured at the smaller cage. “The fusion bottle, frequency generators, and the control system for the Debilitater are in there, to protect the testers. All we lack is the ability to rotate the antenna. As you probably have just surmised, the entire room is not really shielded from rays from the outside. It’s to protect those outside from this.”

“Ahh. You set this lab up for observing the effects of the radiation on test subjects. To gage how effective any biological based protection is. This does seem like progress, if you have subjects to test with this. Is that why I’m here?”

Rafe beamed. “Yes. Aldry is bringing two test subjects from our gene lab right now. Your time is limited, so why don’t we get inside the smaller cage and seal it, and I’ll apply power to the generator, so that it’s ready to output the complex Debilitater radiation pattern when we’re ready. I just Comtapped Aldry and she’ll be here in a minute.”

Rafe was meticulous when he closed the door on the smaller cage, and used a harmless form of radiation from a transmitter in the outer room, to ensure the cage was actually sealed and leak proof. “It wouldn’t do to let that radiation leak into here.” He chuckled grimly.

The Ragnar generator powered up in complete silence, but lights and digital gages, showing indecipherable Ragnar characters glowed. “It’s ready to go, and I only have to press that actuator with the safety interlock, to feed the signal to the antenna. It’s already aimed at that table at the far wall, where the test subjects will be.”

“What sort of living subjects do you have? And how effective is the protection?’

Rafe displayed a tentative, almost secretive smile. “One is from the original kuttlefish species Aldry and I studied. The other is a more complex land based animal.”

“Oh. So kuttlefish were already immune to Debilitater rays?”

“Not at all. Their natural protection was evolution guided, protecting them only from their own natural predators. A Debilitater is nearly as fatal to them as it is for us. Salt water provides some protection, diluting the energy. However, it’s easy to turn that dial,” he pointed, “and increase the power for greater penetration. As shallow water animals, they’d be as doomed as any other life on Koban that didn’t live in the ocean depths.”

A sound of disapproval was in Mirikami’s next words. “I don’t want you to kill a kuttlefish with this weapon just to show me it works.”

Rafe looked surprised, and then laughed. “Hell no! I’ve grown to like the clever little squirts. And Squirt is the name I gave to the particular one Aldry is bringing here. They move via a sort of hydro jet propulsion you know, so Squirt is sort of a pet now. Although he bites the hand that feeds him if you aren’t careful.” He flashed a healing scar on his left index finger.

“We sped up our research hugely, by testing gene changes in creatures that already had the carbon nano tube biofilms we wanted to mimic. Squirt is no longer equipped to survive in the wild, not if confronted by the native predators that usually threaten him. However, he has little to fear from a Debilitater. Unless it fell on him.” He chuckled at his little witticism.

“What is the other…,” Mirikami’s question was interrupted by a cheerful voice.

Aldry swept gracefully through the single outer door, and called out, “Hey Tet. Good morning. I’d have been here when you arrived, but Rafe and I expected you to ask for a full briefing about our work so far. He says you’re in a rush, so let’s get going.” With one hand on its bottom, she carried a ten-gallon rectangular aquarium tank, full of water and containing a yellow-bodied kuttlefish with black spots. The two-foot size marked it as still young, since they grew to nearly five feet long at maturity.

Even as he watched, the kuttlefish seemed to see Mirikami through the mesh webbing, and instantly changed to a color that nearly matched the pale blue wall color. This caused it to nearly vanish from view against that background, as seen through the clear water. Aldry, her Kobani strength easily lofting the tank one handed, carried it like a serving tray as she paused to pull the outer door shut, then turned and walked to the table. There, she used her other hand to help and smoothly deposited the tank with hardly a ripple, and not a drop spilled.

As she stood behind the tank, Mirikami was amused to see half of the kuttlefish shift color from pale blue to white, along the vertical line of the right side of her lab coat, seen behind the creature, letting it blend better with the changed background.

Aldry saw his smile and noted where he was looking. “Squirt is comfortable with Rafe and me, and the yellow with black spots is his happy color. He always gets food treats when we take him out of our main lab, so he arrived happy. He has good vision and he doesn’t know you, so he’s doing his best to hide from you in plain sight.” She reached into a pocket and tossed a thumb sized treat into the tank.

With a brief flash of yellow, no spots this time, the kuttlefish jetted to the food and its tentacles scooped it into its beak. It changed back to a pale blue, and settled into a corner of the tank, away from the white lab coat.

Rafe said, “I have the frequency generator already powered up. If you seal the door behind you, we can show Tet what we’ve accomplished.” He turned away from his wife, to examine the modulation settings on the Ragnar device, as she moved towards the door.

Mirikami assumed she was leaving, to fetch the second test subject, or to get out of the way for the test on the kuttlefish. She paused to look at a small wall panel near the door, and thumped the door with the heel of her hand, to verify it was securely closed.

At the sound of the thud, Rafe said, “OK. Here goes nothing.” He reached to lift the safety cover over the actuator switch, to send the generator’s energy to the Debilitater’s antenna, for transmitting the deadly radiation.

Tet went from watching Aldry stop by the door instead of leaving, heard the dull thud of her hand, and Rafe’s casual words coming immediately afterwards. Mirikami glanced at Rafe, his head was down and not looking out into the room.

Mirikami instantly went into Kobani combat mode, where events appeared to slow for him, as he realized the thud of Aldry’s hand on the door sounded exactly like the sound it made when it was pulled shut, a noise he’d heard twice since he’d arrived.

He spun and leaped, shouting, “Stop!”

The leap and warning would have been in time if Rafe was a Normal, but like any Kobani, he moved with complete assurance, and did so quickly. He’d acted promptly, to demonstrate an experiment he’d performed numerous times, to show the person that needed this project to succeed. He flipped the switch a hundredth of a second before he heard Mirikami’s shout, and the transmission that he activated needed only microseconds to radiate away from the antenna, filling the room, and reflecting millions of times from the walls.

Mirikami heard Aldry’s shout, just before he knocked Rafe’s hand away, and slammed the switch back down. Startled, Rafe looked at him in bewilderment.

“Was I in time?” He feared rising to his feet, in order to look over the blocking console, to see Aldry’s contorted form on the floor.

“In time for what?” Rafe asked, looking down at Mirikami. He’d still not looked up yet.

“Aldry didn’t get out of the room in time,” he said with dread.

“Why would I do that?” He heard her voice and footsteps as she ran their way.

“Rafe heard the sound of the door closing, and was about to activate the beam, thinking you’d left. I must have prevented the system from activating. I thought I was too late when I heard you shout.”

“I called out ‘what?’ because you yelled stop, and I saw you jump at Rafe.”

“Well, at least the radiation wasn’t broadcast.” He said with relief.