Koban (31 page)

Now for the subject he had originally intended to talk about,
but the body removal had happened while he was down here, so he shouldn’t know about
that.

“Telour, a warrior killed one of my clan mates a short time ago.
You have a responsibility to protect my people, which have been granted Ra Ka
Endo and novice status.”

“I know of the event, I spoke to the Mizak clan warrior when
I heard your words about the stairs. He was bored and exercising, but did not violate
an honor code with a challenge when the female animal was damaged. I took a breeding
point from him for failure to detect the presence of an enemy. The death blow after
that was the proper result of the damage.”

Simply outstanding, Mirikami thought. I wonder how many points
before these killer bastards start to feel a real sting. “Will this prevent more
killings of the human novices?”

“Probably not,” he admitted. “We expected the journey to Koban
to have ended before now. Towing this ship is slower than Parkoda’s K’Tal had said
it would be. He may lose points. The young and low rank warriors Parkoda left with
me are frustrated, they desire activity.”

Mirikami realized this certainly put their status back in proper
perspective. Humans were potential entertainment for bored low-level warriors to
‘trip over,’ injure, and then justifiably kill.

“Telour, I ordered that the stairwells be blocked from use by
humans. I have to protect my people to retain their trust as a leader, and to be
useful to you. Are there other locations your warriors might exercise and
waste
some of the captives placed under your control?”

He was certain the sarcasm was undetectable by Telour, but the
idea of losses in a valuable resource, which Parkoda had entrusted him to transport
might
register, even if only minimally.

“The warriors from other clans occupy themselves in ways I cannot
predict. I am going to the Bridge after I eat the last piece of our Raspani. If
we do not arrive soon, your dead clan mate will be our new rations. I told the warrior
I would return the point if we use the meat. After he has a taste, he may
refuse the point.” This ended with a snort, showing it was Krall joke.

Telour seemed to consider that punch line. “It’s too high a price
for the bad taste, I think.”

On the other hand, maybe this death wouldn’t register as a loss
at all for Telour, not if a cheap dead resource still had use.

The afternoon after Isadora’s killing, Tetsuo, Noreen, Maggi,
Dillon, and Aldry were all participating in another information exchange, but this
time they were in three different locations, distributed around the ship.

Noreen had worked out a method with Jake of conducting a video
meeting, to replicate what they had attempted in the conference room previously.
They needed privacy not only from Telour but also from their own people, particularly
because they were discussing genetic modifications.

Maggi and Tet were ostensibly having a private meal set off from
the main dining room for privacy, with a video screen inset in the table. Aldry
was at her small cabin’s computer console. Noreen was with Dillon in his cabin sharing
his screen. He had made no secret they were engaging in an afternoon ‘interlude’
as they were called. This was a common sexual pastime among the tense and otherwise
unoccupied passengers.

“First,” Noreen spoke as the conference facilitator, “can every
one hear me? Please answer only if it’s safe for you.”

Tet and Maggi’s voices were heard simultaneously, followed by
Aldry’s affirmation. Dillon didn’t add his own voice until Noreen jabbed him sharply
in the ribs, to remind him that the others hadn’t heard his nod.

“Captain, it’s your meeting,” so she turned it over to him.

“This was a good suggestion Noreen. Our friend can Link us, and
he will warn us of intrusions.” As usual, Jake would advise them of potential eavesdroppers,
including human this time.

“Despite the absence of her body, the memorial service for Isadora
was broadcast ship wide. Its briefness was at Rafe’s own insistence. What you may
not know is that her remains were placed in a cold locker on Deck eight.”

Maggi hadn’t known that, and she turned towards Mirikami. “Rafe
didn’t choose cremation? He doesn’t want a burial on Koban, I hope?”

“He doesn’t know what I’m about to tell you, and please don’t
tell him or any others. Let them think she was dropped into a Jump Hole like the
others.” He looked at their faces on the monitor.

“Telour revealed that the trip to Koban has been days longer
than they expected, despite their faster mode of Jump travel. This must be because
the Clanship is towing our larger ship with them. The rations the Krall brought
aboard are running out, and he frankly said that human meat would be used to fill
their needs.”

Aldry’s shocked look spoke for the other two civilians. “Then
you have to cremate her body at once!”

“That
was
my first impulse,” he acknowledged. “But the
cold locker is the one inside the compartment the Krall commandeered. Who do you
propose will go to take the corpse away from them?

“Remember that the Krall basically consider us to be talking
animals. Something that they can use as needed, despite granting us Novice Status.
This marking,” he hooked a thumb at his tattoo, “is simply a cultural pretext that
they are using to keep their young warriors from killing us on mere whim right now.

“Telour deducted only a
single
breeding point for the
killing of Isadora, which will be restored if they use her for rations. When I say
he was reluctant to have her eaten, it was only because of the poor flavor of the
food. After we get to Koban, they will get sanctioned chances to kill us, where
they can
earn
breeding points for kills. We better hope we get there soon,
because I don’t know how much they eat per day.”

With that sinister warning delivered, silent nods were the only
replies.

“I have fewer things to brief you on this time, and most concern
how the Krall fight. There are some surprising lapses in their tactics that we might
exploit. Let me list them, and then we can talk about them.” He noted their agreement
and continued.

“In hindsight, I should have realized what questions a bunch
of scientists were likely to ask. We got useful information about their society
and history, but almost no practical data on what we will face when we have to fight
them.

“Ms. Jorl’sn and Motorman Johnson were particularly productive
in this respect today, and Noreen and I added questions of our own. We avoided asking
any questions of Telour. I’m not sure he won’t share any ideas he learns from us
with members of his own clan’s warriors. The other two translators are from different
clans, and don’t know what Telour has asked us to do.

“We discovered that the Krall prefer small unit raids in most
cases. Eight warriors with a senior leader on a small raid are common, and with
a sub leader for each octet if there are more units in a combined larger raid. They
generally fight until their unit’s losses reach about forty or fifty percent. Then
they call for retrieval, so that their performance can be evaluated, breeding points
awarded and enemy tactics and weapons reported.”

“Oddly the Krall don’t appear to use sea or water assaults, since
they can dash in and land where they chose. A warrior can stay underwater longer
than we can, holding their breath, but are far too dense to float without assistance.
I’ll bet they can swim only with considerable expenditure of effort to stay at the
surface. We might be able to use that as a tactic if we have water where we are
supposed to fight.

“They were asked about artillery and mortars. The concept was
learned from one of their opponents, but apparently never improved upon and
isn’t used. They aren’t very inventive and don’t improvise much until they observe
a tactic to emulate.

“Another advantage for us, if we can make the weapons, is they
have never heard of anything like hand grenades. I think that past opponents were
peaceful and civilized when they encountered the Krall, and didn’t possess such
weapons. Therefore, the Krall didn’t copy them.

“If their opponents had stellar societies tens of thousands of
years old, then violent tendencies of their early civilizations may have been long
forgotten. If so perhaps they wouldn’t think to employ ugly weapons like these,
and the Krall didn’t copy what they didn’t see. I’m only speculating, but why would
an old genocidal species not know about so many ways to kill that we, in our short
history, have already used?

“Humans have been quite inventive in the past, and if we can
make them we can try mines, booby traps, grenades, and mortars, none of which seem
to be Krall-like notions. No doubt, they will adjust, and even incorporate what
we show them, because they certainly are not squeamish about killing or stealing
ideas.

“And perhaps most encouraging for our experience to come on Koban,
Noreen and I confirmed independently something about the compound where humans live.”
He let them hang on his words for an impatient moment.

“I’ll kill you myself dear Mr. Captain, if you don’t stop this
damned habit of making us hold our breaths, waiting for your shoe to drop,” groused
Maggi, giving him a threatening look.

“Ok, Ok,” pretending to draw back in fear, hands warding her
off.

“The Krall don’t live in that compound where we will stay. It’s
a small one recently abandoned by the Maldo clan. Remember the question Dillon nearly
was killed over, when he asked Dorkda why they were leaving the planet they wanted
to call home? That compound is where his small clan once lived.”

Dillon, remembering that moment vividly, asked, “Where
do
the Krall actually live, and how do they control their captives? Telour said he
spent a lot of time with them.”

“The main Krall compound is quite some distance away. They only
maintain a few guards and some living quarters at the human compound. However, the
guards are primarily there to keep out local animals and maintain the walls and
electric fences. Ironically, this is so their human prey is safe until the
Krall have a chance to kill us. We might have more autonomy than we expected, once
on the ground.”

“What do they name their own compound?” Dillon asked.

Mirikami shrugged. “Apparently it’s like their ships. They
don’t appear to name them, just identify which clan uses them. They aren’t
particularly into aesthetics.”

“How is the fighting conducted?” Maggi wanted to know. “I had
assumed they just stuck some people with guns in an arena with warriors and watched
what happened.”

Noreen had that answer. “That wasn’t far from the truth in the
beginning, Maggi. Per what Kapdol described. But now it’s done more like the Krall
apparently expect to fight us on our planets.”

“And how is that?” Dillon asked.

“They send out a group of armored and armed humans into the large
outer compound, with weapons, and tell them to find positions to defend, or places
to hide. Then, after a few days for the group to prepare, an octet or more of Krall
novice warriors fly in without knowing anything in advance of what they face, and
hunt them. They kill anyone they can find, and expect the humans to fight back,
trying to kill any warriors they can.”

“How many people are sent each time and how have they done, did
you learn that?” came from Aldry.

Mirikami gave her the bad news they anticipated. “The Krall send
out anywhere from eight to sixteen, even thirty two humans of any gender. Four
to eight warriors hunt them.

“As to how well the captives do?” He shook his head. “Up until
Dorkda left on this raid, only a couple of warriors have ever been killed, and a
few seriously wounded. Although one was killed later, by his own octet leader, for
allowing himself to be shot in the back, not a fatal injury otherwise. Dorkda displayed
what I think was a mixture of amusement and contempt over the executed novice. If
you’ve seen them snort and throw back their heads, you’ve seen their equivalent
of a belly laugh.

“The sad news is that not many humans ever make it back alive,
yet the hunt only lasts one full day. For incentive, a human receives immunity from
all future testing if they simply make it through that day and night. The whole
group is awarded immunity if any one of them manages to kill a warrior.

 “People that is all I’ve got concerning actual fighting. Any
comments?”

“It’s grim, but don’t you think the captives there should have
had a bit better luck?” asked Maggi.

“I wonder about that too,” Dillon agreed. “Do they get any training
or have any strategy before they go out? I’d think some of them would set up an
ambush and try for a kill, no matter what the risk if the entire group gets immunity
after that.”

Mirikami shook his head no. “Neither of the other two translators
were aware of any planning the captives have done. But Telour implied that there
was no human leadership on Koban now.” He reminded them of the recording Jake had
made of that conversation.

“I suspect that any leaders the captives may have had were expected
to lead them in fights, and probably wouldn’t have survived the experience. Eventually
no one would take the job. It may be an every man or woman for themselves mentality
now.

“Telour seems to be the only Krall that has thought to try and
use humans to train and organize other humans. He is essentially offering immunity
for those organizers. I told him people would not respect or follow leaders that
were never put at risk themselves. I still think that.”

“Tet,” Maggi warned, “don’t let us hear you say you are going
to get yourself killed before we develop all these fresh ideas that are giving us
hope.”

Looking at her then the other three faces on his screen, he shrugged.
“I don’t relish dying uselessly, so if Telour will allow us a little time to build
our weapons and come up with tactics, I’ll wait to go out with our first prepared
group. However, I’ll never
be
a macho leader. I’m middle aged and hardly
imposing as a would-be warrior.”