Koban (18 page)

Parkoda had an answer ready, “Koban is a small distance more
than you crossed to come here from your worlds. More energy makes you travel more
swiftly.” He said that with a sense of finality, despite it being completely wrong.
They would have to tread lightly here, to avoid appearing to contradict him.

“Sir, we will do as you order,” Mirikami assured him, “but my
ship will only travel at one speed in Tachyon Space, and it requires only enough
energy to move my size ship
into
Tachyon Space. The greater energy
tachyons take longer to Trap and move us no faster. We required twenty three of
our days to get to this star from half way inside the edge of human settled space.”

“And I ordered
you to catch more energy, to go to Koban faster.” Parkoda reminded him.

“Sir,” he was sweating out this reply. “Once we enter any size
Jump Hole we travel at the same speed in Tachyon Space. The tachyon energy you have
ordered us to capture would be enough to enclose a much larger space than this ship
needs. We will wait much longer to find such a very powerful tachyon before we can
depart, and we will travel to Koban no faster.

The Krall glared at him for an instant, but decided ask a question.
“A human ship does not go faster with more energy? My Clanship does this!” Then
he reluctantly added, “I have not before taken a human ship that still flies. Other
clans captured whole small ships, and they now sit on Koban as proof of their
prize. But they do not share secrets to help other clans to earn breeding rights
more quickly. I know all Krall ships Jump sooner than human ships but I did not
know human ships were also slow.”

“Is the speed of our travel so important?” asked Mirikami. “We
will still arrive where you order us to go, but not as soon as you expected. It
is the fault of weaker human science, and not your fault. You could return on your
ship, and your warriors and translators will brings us later.”

That was quickly negated by Parkoda. “I cannot go alone first!
I need my prize when I reach Koban, but I will miss a larger raid if I do not return
soon.” With an angry blurred slash of extended talons through empty air towards
them, he showed the first sign of frustration they had seen in a Krall. He could
have disemboweled them easily if he had chosen to do so, and it appeared he had
considered doing exactly that.

The dejected Krall leader explained his personal problem. “Some
other clans will like it if my new status is less, if my prize is made small or
if I am late and do not lead a new raid.”

As his explanation continued, it revealed why the humans needed
to care
very much
about his personal problem.

“I can carry many humans on my Clanship, as fast as I need, but
it will not carry all my captives. We must send this ship and two of eight of my
captives into a Jump Hole. My clansmen would speak more of my loss than my gain
for this, my greatest raid,” he lamented. “I cannot go slow to Koban and miss a
raid that strikes closer to your worlds. And with this large prize I will earn a
right to lead a greater raid.”

Poor alien killer, Mirikami thought sardonically. He’s caught
between a rock and a hard place. Travel slowly and miss a new raid to kill more
humans, travel fast and have to kill some he had already captured. Tough call.

Regretting his ignorance when he had stupidly pointed out that
their Jump Hole travel was done at a constant rate, Mirikami was furiously thinking
about any reasonable alternative to their immediate problem. Only a remote possibility
came to him, but it played to Parkoda’s ambitions.

“Parkoda, if you have a K’Tal that can describe your faster method
of Tachyon Space travel, perhaps we can go as fast as you want us to go. Maybe it
isn’t very hard to do. If we can do that you would keep all of your captives and
the ship as a prize.”

Even a ridiculous long shot was worth a try, since the alternative
was having the Krall kill over two hundred more of his people.

Instead of
a direct reply, Parkoda was suddenly speaking silently into his shoulder com.

Fearful that Parkoda had just issued orders to kill two hundred
ten people, Mirikami waited with a knot in his guts. He knew he could never accept
his own survival and leave his ship under those circumstances. Noreen would have
to assume command and continue without him.

They waited to see what had been decided for an agonizing time.
Then a brown suited Krall suddenly sprang up the stairwell without a sound. Parkoda
had glanced that way seconds earlier, apparently able to hear him coming. It was
unbelievable how beings so large and heavy moved so quietly, and with that unnatural
speed.

Their ears sprouted, and the now familiar pantomime of silent
lip movements started for perhaps a minute. Parkoda translated, “Delktor is a K’Tal
that knows of Jump Hole making. He made the Jump Hole for your dead animals.”

The uncertainty wasn’t over, but at least Parkoda was looking
for a solution for his own ego-based problem, which would coincidentally resolve
the human survival problem.

It seemed there was a third problem as well, one involving clan
rivalry and the Krall command hierarchy. “Delktor is not of my Tanga clan,” Parkoda
told them. “He does not want to tell me what I need to know, but I am leader on
this raid. He cannot hold this knowledge from me or he will lose status, or I will
challenge him and take his life. I will translate your questions.”

Mirikami asked his hopeful question. “Does Delktor know how to
change our method of moving in Tachyon Space, to make us go as fast as your Clanship?”

There was a brief exchange.

“This K’Tal has studied captured human ships,” Parkoda told him.
“He knows of differences for our ships and human. You catch same tachyons, but not
as quick as we can, but they can give you the energy needed. But it is why you move
so slowly when you leave this space that is my problem.”

Sure, it was
his
problem, of course.

“This K’Tal says a Krall ship makes something that is like second
twist in space, or a turn. I don’t know the human word.”

Parkoda spoke to the K’Tal again. There were some animated hand
movements, and apparent agitation on behalf of Delktor.

“He says it is almost the same as the change every ship makes
when a Jump Hole is made, when you turn or twist to leave this Universe.”

Noreen blurted out “The rotation into Tachyon Space! The event
horizon around the ship appears to get smaller as it rotates in a different dimension.
The Jump Hole really moves into Tachyon Space! That must be the first turn the K’Tal
means, and we call that a rotation.”

Parkoda made an effort to explain that to Delktor, who was obviously
not happy to have to listen to what mere animals had to say, even when relayed by
his superior.

Noreen made a sort of an open spherical shape with her two hands,
and crudely rotated them as she tried to squeeze them together, interlocking the
fingers, as if shrinking the sphere, and then, using one hand, she used thumb and
forefinger to suggest a smaller circular opening that grew smaller.

The K’Tal spoke again, and Parkoda translated. “He says you know
what he means, and you call that a rotation. The new twist is not a rotation to
leave our space but a second one, inside a different space where tachyons live.
All ships do the first rotation. Then Krall ships do another rotation, but I do
not understand how. The new rotation makes Krall ships move faster than if you do
not do that.”

He summarized, “Krall ships do a second rotation and human ships
do not.”

It might be a sort of progress, but Mirikami couldn’t see how
they could figure out how to do the second rotation inside Tachyon Space, when hundreds
of years of human experimentation had not stumbled onto this.

However, as long as Parkoda was at least willing to consider
how to have his cake and eat it too, Mirikami was willing to keep the discussion
going. It gave them a chance to think of another way out of their dilemma.

“Parkoda, I also do not know details of Jump Holes or entering
Tachyon Space, but will I ask the human version of a K’Tal that works in our Drive
Room. That person is who was ordered to fix the Traps, and tuned them as you ordered.”

“This is taking long,” Parkoda warned. Clearly killing two hundred
humans wasn’t his main concern, just the speed of the process that achieved his
final goal of getting to Koban in time.

“Sir, if we can move our ship faster, then you will win everything
you want. We have not yet caught the powerful tachyon we need anyway, so we lose
no time as we wait.”

“Talk to
your K’Tal,” he ordered.

Desperate times called for desperate and risky measures. Mirikami
moved to his console, and punched for the Drive Room, but started speaking before
anyone could answer. “Jake, just listen and reply only by transducer, I have some
questions to ask and I need an opinion.” Just then, Ms. Willfem answered “Drive
room, Willfem.”

It was a relief when Jake acknowledged him by transducer only,
and not on speaker. He switched to speaker. “Nan, I have you on speaker for the
Krall to hear, please listen to what I have to explain, and only then reply. Please
share this with the Chief and your Drive Rats on speaker. A couple of hundred lives
may depend on this discussion, and any one of you listening might have an answer
we need.”

Relax, there’s no pressure here
he thought, feeling sympathy
for the burden he was placing on her.

He quickly explained the Jump Hole speed issue and the travel
time problem and consequences. Then he described the two rotations that Krall ships
made into Tachyon Space. It didn’t take very long to tell because he didn’t have
any details to share.

As he spoke, the idea of somehow “fixing” the Flight of Fancy’s
Field generators to do a second mysterious new space rotation struck him as very
outlandish. Particularly for a ship’s drive crew to try to accomplish something
that had eluded our own the best scientific minds so far.

When he was done with the verbal and visual descriptions, he
gave them time to think about it and to toss ideas around. There were a couple of
questions, which he asked Parkoda to try to explain to Delktor.

Delktor’s reluctance increased, and its true cause was only gradually
revealed. It turned out that everything the Krall knew about Jump Holes, Tachyon
Space, and the second rotation that was described, came from other advanced races
the Krall had killed off or enslaved thousands of years ago. This was a fact that
Parkoda nearly had to challenge Delktor to get him to admit. The math and theory
behind it was beyond at least this K’Tal. He had hated revealing his ignorance to
Parkoda.

Mirikami knew they were standing on the verge of defeat; his
stalling was at an end. In desperation, he asked if anyone had any idea at all of
how to get the Flight of Fancy to move as fast as the Krall Clanship did in Tachyon
Space. It grew quiet as death.

Out of thin air, he heard “There is one possibility, Sir.”

It was a comment sent from Jake, via Mirikami’s transducer.

The Captain clutched at the straw in the wind and promptly parroted
those words aloud, “There is one possibility,” and then added, “And I want both
Noreen and the Drive crew to hear this so I’ll state it out loud as we go along.”
To a human this phrasing would sound crazy. How
else
would they hear his
thoughts? Noreen, having heard Jake addressed earlier, knew the AI was somehow involved.

“Let us please proceed with the proposal and I’ll repeat my thoughts
aloud, a little at a time as I think.” Jake proved his worth as a top of the line
AI as he resumed explaining to Mirikami, who awkwardly parroted him aloud after
each sentence.

“Adjusting the software that controls the Trap field emitters
is probably not something that can be done for the Flight of Fancy.”

Mirikami repeated the words, but thought
where the hell is
Jake going with this?
They didn’t have much time, and this started with a
negative.

“However,” Jake went on, “another solution may prove more practical.”

Mirikami repeated this, and couldn’t
wait
to hear what
his mouth would say next.

“A Jump Hole’s event horizon, when created with high enough tachyon
energy, can be large enough to enclose a much larger volume of space than the ship
that generates the Jump Hole actually requires.”

As that was repeated aloud, Mirikami realized it was essentially
what he had said to Parkoda, when questioning what use they would have for the ultra-high
energy tachyon. Making a larger event horizon didn’t make them move faster. Jake
was aware that Mirikami was repeating what the AI said, so it separated the sentences
for the Captain to have time to say them.

“When a Jump Hole’s event horizon is rotated into Tachyon Space,
everything that is inside the radius of the Jump Hole goes with it.

“Particles of dust near the ship’s hull, tools, and even docked
shuttle craft have been moved with larger ships into a Jump Hole in the past, and
arrived with the larger ship.”

Now the Captain thought he knew what his mouth was about to tell
him.

“Perhaps the same thing happens when the second rotation is made
through yet another dimension inside Tachyon Space.”

Mirikami parroted Jake’s words sounding a bit more assured.

“If the Krall Clanship can include the Flight of Fancy in a large
enough radius Jump Hole of its own making, and performs both rotations, then it
may take both ships to Koban together.”

Here was a proposal that might possibly work, assuming the Krall
would give it consideration.

Damn, he realized Jake wasn’t done talking yet, “I cannot predict
if the second described rotation will work as the first one does, if all of the
contents of the Jump Hole moved into Tachyon Space will stay with the Clanship.”