Koban (32 page)

“Captain Mirikami,” Dillon spoke forcefully and respectfully,
“I promise to follow you whenever you’re ready to lead such a group. We need your
leadership and ideas to carry us through this.”

Startled, and embarrassed at the unexpected turn of events, he
merely mumbled, “I thank you for that support and trust. I hope it isn’t misplaced.”

Aldry took this opportunity to bring up a topic she had been
considering since yesterday. “On the matter of who goes on these missions, and who
Telour will exempt, I think this needs some painful and uncomfortable discussion.”
They gave her their attention, Maggi having already talked with her on the matter.

“We have a lot of smart and technically capable people with us,
but many are old and will hardly make fighters. If we expect to do the genetic work
we discussed, and for others to make the weapons we think up, we can’t afford to
lose those valuable people in risky fights before we get the results we need.”

“What are you proposing, Aldry?” Mirikami asked.

“I went back over that taped conversation last night, the one
you just reminded us about when Telour was left in charge. When you didn’t accept
his offer of what must have included immunity for yourself, he didn’t reject your
counter proposal to allow ‘advantages’ to go to those who help you organize or fight.
I think we can use that, don’t you?”

“Aldry, I don’t want immunity, nor be the ‘King’ that grants
immunity to his favored friends!”

“Hear her out Tet, Maggi asked. “There is something to this,
and she and I talked about it. Please let her continue.”

“I’ll listen. Go on Aldry.”

“The Krall respect their K’Tal class for their knowledge and
special skills, so why not establish that class for the humans you need to do the
preparations? Ask for immunity for your engineers that will make our weapons, for
our best minds that will attempt the genetic enhancements. We need those people
to stay alive for an extended period.” She paused for his response.

“That is probably necessary, but I will not make those decisions,
choosing which lives to protect from risk, leaving others fully exposed. What I
told Telour was accurate when I said my orders would not be followed or respected
if I did that, and I will
not
do that.”

“But...’ started Dillon, but he was interrupted by Maggi.

“So! You are not opposed to the
concept
, you acknowledge
that it can help more of us to survive this, but you will not make the immunity
decisions yourself. Simple solution here Captain.
You
won’t make them.” Her
hand slammed the table.

“A damned committee can spread that responsibility around, making
it clear that you have no say in their decisions. You said we can’t fight a war
by committee, but that doesn’t mean committees have no use.”

“I..., uh” Mirikami faltered.

“I second that!” said Dillon.

“Me too,” Aldry chimed in.

Both conveniently overlooking that this wasn’t a meeting of the
Consortium’s Board of Directors, that two participants weren’t even on the Board,
and Maggi hadn’t framed it as a motion.

“Captain, it’s a practical solution.” Noreen tentatively offered
to her superior officer, showing her own support.

“How would we convey the selections to Telour, and explain why
those particular people?” he answered, letting the rest know they had won their
point.

Aldry said, “Telour should hear it from you Tet, because we need
him to see you as being in charge, but the
people
will know you followed
the committee’s selections. The committee will take any heat or complaints over
grants of immunity. Assuming Telour agrees.”

Mirikami had a point to make of his own. “If this doesn’t produce
the results Telour wants the committee and I will be in an armed fight, if we are
lucky. Or found dead in our sleep if our own people get to us. Who would serve on
such a committee?”

Maggi was ready. “When Aldry spoke to me about this, I gave it
some consideration. I think it should involve between five to nine people, an odd
number to avoid ties, and have a rotating membership that lasts a month, to be decided
by our people as soon as Telour agrees to the proposal. The committee members themselves
would not have immunity while serving, so no advantage to volunteers. What do you
think?”

“It sounds like you and Aldry have given it more thought and
detail than I could have. In fact I feel positively ambushed!” but he laughed.

He conceded, “I’ll approach Telour as soon as we break up here.
I only know of one more item from my side, the ship I mean, and Noreen will talk
about that.” He looked at her image. “Noreen?”

“Thank you Sir. The first practice run-through for the engine
drop went as expected. Screwed up and confused. But Chief Haveram noted the problem
areas for the next one in…” she looked at her thumb nail watch, “about twenty five
minutes.”

“The Chief personally is supervising the cutting of as many supports
as he thinks are safe for landing. Our silent friend can adjust for the higher gravity
to put us down as easy as possible, feeding the information to the Navcomp and Engine
control system.

“All told, we have forty-two people, fourteen on three teams.
Enough to rotate them for breaks on the jobs that don’t involve cutting.”

“That’s good,” agreed Mirikami. “I think higher gravity will
be a greater hindrance than we anticipate. We are living with it now, but we can
sit down when we get tired. We are not close to being acclimated, and a mistake
due to exhaustion could blow us up, or start a fire we can’t control.”

“And concerning that Tet,” Noreen added, “when I asked the Chief
how we could safely drain those fuel lines dry, I inadvertently phrased the question
to him so that our
friend
suddenly offered a solution. It’s idea that we
didn’t think of, never having had the need.

“Our friend will calculate the precise cut off time of the fuel
feeds just  before we set down, using up what’s in the main lines, and switch some
emergency valves to send the residue to burn in the ten attitude thrusters that
are normally cut off as we settle on the landing jacks. “The lines will be bled
essentially empty before we ever light a cutting torch. The Chief says, and I quote,
‘It’ll be hell on my pumps and lines,’ followed by comments unsuitable for our guests.”
She laughed.

“Hmm,” hmm’d the Captain. “We better not need a last minute drift
correction. However, that isn’t any more risky that a hell of a lot else we are
doing. My compliments to you, Willfem, Jorl’sn, the Chief, and his Rats. Particularly
to our civilian volunteers.”

Shifting focus, Mirikami asked, “What’s new on the dirty tricks
side Dillon?”

Dillon had a report he was eager to give. “I spent last night
and part of this morning with your cargo specialists, Chack and Ricco, and scoured
through our invoice that I had you send to Midwife. I also talked with the two machinists
about what they can make and with Mister Rigson and Mister Branson about your pharmacy
supplies. Naturally our friend helped us all with research, chemical names and processes,
blueprints or pictures of devices.”

“Dillon, a lot of what we are planning depends on making what
we need the soonest.” Mirikami felt his chest tighten with apprehension. This was
key to a fast start, and critical to their basic plan.

“It looks promising.” Dillon stated firmly.

“Bob Campbell and Neri Bar; the Fancy’s machinists” he added
for the benefit of Maggi and Aldry, “looked at the designs for crossbows and darts,
air guns, remote actuators and trip wires, mine fuses and casings, and says they
are possible to make by the automated equipment if it’s programmed correctly. A
friend can help there greatly!” Jake was central to their plans.

“Fragmentation grenade cases are easy to do, they tell me, but
trigger fuses seemed tricky to me unless we can find some detailed design as a guide.”

“What are we going to use for an explosive?” Mirikami asked.

“That was part of what I was doing in the cargo hold,” Answered
Dillon. “I was looking for some supplies we brought for Midwife, verifying ingredients
I was told to check for in some cleaning compounds that seem harmless to me otherwise.
I was startled to see how much we have around us every day that can become dangerous
if you know how. You really do have a huge library,” he added.

“That friend says we can get quite a bang out of several mixtures
of material we have aboard. Some is almost like soft clay to be shaped as we want.
The description says it can be burned or dropped and not blow up, but a small detonator
makes any size hunk go off with a big bang

“Mister Rigson discovered that the pharmacy can be programed
for manufacturing small quantities of more volatile fusing materials with the raw
materials we have, so we can make the triggers. We also have remote radio control
devices that can be converted to use as actuators to make things go boom at a safe
distance.

“A mortar tube is child’s play to make, I’m told by your machinists,
because the smart part is in the shell and propellant, which we don’t have solved
yet. Baby steps, I guess. These would seem to be dead give-away devices when fired,
so those might require remote triggers and be pre-aimed.

“Land mines and booby traps, I am told, are easy to make and
fill with explosives and shrapnel, and can be formed out of metal or plastic. This
is the list so far, on things that shoot or go bang. The Defense Rests,” he
concluded with a pun.

“That’s a good start, Dillon. Is that it for your report?” Mirikami
asked.

“Nope, now for drugs.” He answered with a grin, and continued.

“Mel Rigson and Cal Branson checked your existing supplies, and
I fed the computer the invoice of all of the lab supplies and chemicals we brought
with us. We can make some compounds that rev up your metabolism and promote mental
acuity, some others that regulate lactic acid and oxygen transfer when you run or
exercise for an extended period, and let you do it longer and faster than normal.

“Koban has high Oxygen levels, so that last drug may allow us
to make even better use of that. I think we’ll have to find out the hard way. All
of these are detrimental to your health in the end, but so are the Krall.

“The good news is that we can turn out all of the drugs, and
in quantity. It’s more efficient to make one type for a while and stockpile it,
rather than switch back and forth. Nevertheless, we can make enough doses of most
of the human drugs for everyone aboard, many times over. We’ll have to see which
ones really help by trial and error, no matter what the medical records say, because
we aren’t using them as prescribed. But that’s it for me,” he concluded again.

Everyone congratulated him on the depth of his review and quick
results.

“Dillon,” beamed Maggi, “I think that I finally believe that
we might actually be able to put up a real fight.”

“Let’s not get too excited. All we have is untested theory.”
Mirikami cautioned. “And we can’t be the only race that had bright and unexpected
ideas that went up against the Krall.”

“Tet, you sure as hell know how to bring a Lady down,” she complained.
“Let’s not display that level of pessimism for our people, OK? We want them motivated
and positive. Let’s not start out sounding defeated.”

“You’re right Maggi. My apologies to everyone. That was an encouraging
list of things we can work on. Was there anything else?” He looked at each of them.

“Tet,” started Aldry tentatively, “the long range process to
boost human physical capability was touched upon in our last discussion, beyond
what drugs can do. The genetic approach.”

“You have something to tell us along that line Aldry?”

“
We
do,” she emphasized. “Maggi, Dillon, and I, plus almost
a dozen other people we brought along with us to Midwife have something to say.”
She had talked this over with Maggi late the night before.

She explained. “For two decades there has been a quiet need expressed
by parts of the Hub government, and certain Colonial Agencies, to find a way to
solve a crisis that has been slowly building on the New Colonies, and delaying establishing
colonies on promising worlds.

“Human settlement on so many alien worlds had only been made
possible because we had genetically modified our crops. Adapted our livestock to
filter out toxins in the new environments, to enable them to eat and digest native
vegetation.

“Genetic modification has
always
paved the way for humanity.
Reckless tinkering with
human genetics
caused our downfall. We came to Midwife
for the stated purpose of the project, but we also were sent there to use the remoteness
to do the research and work needed to reinvigorate our failing colonies. Research
that was essential to humanity’s future, but publically and politically unmentionable.”

“I take it that you are, to use an ancient phrase, ‘coming out
of the closet’ now?” Asked Mirikami with a smile.

“Yes and no” Maggi responded for her. “Aldry made some discreet
inquiries of our recruited group of scientists. We have a mixed result, but I’ll
let her explain.”

“Each of them agree that what we discussed is not only possible,
but that we can do it with the information and technology we brought with us.

“Most accept that it might even be necessary for long term human
survival against the Krall. However, down to every woman and man, none wants it
made known to even our fellow scientists and technicians at this time. I have their
support, but only if we retain the secrecy that had been in place from the start.
They worry that word will leak out to nonscientists, and some sort of miniature
version of the Purge will rear its ugly head here. I can’t blame them”

Mirikami pulled at his lip. “There isn’t any assurance that I
can offer to protect them, so what’s the consensus? Will they work on this if we
have the opportunity?”