Koban (34 page)

“I guess that’s the best we can manage,” Willfem agreed.

“I’ll speak to Mister Walters; have him brief the Stewards on
the alternate evacuation route. We can…” he forgot his next words as he heard a
familiar ‘ping’ sound from the hull.

White Out!

It was instantly confirmed by Jake’s announcement to every crewmember,
via transducer. “We have completed an unannounced White Out. I will start a passive
scan of the region, as directed.”

Mirikami didn’t need to instruct any of his crew as to their
new duty stations. That had been set for two days. He started running for the lift.
He asked aloud, “Is Telour on the Bridge I wonder?”

The answer came back. “Not yet Sir, but he is on his way up by
the central stairwell from deck 8.” Jake always knew where every Krall was.

“Right. Link me to Noreen.” He knew Telour wasn’t monitoring
him right now.

“Noreen, I’ll meet you on the Bridge, I’m leaving engineering
on lift one, take lift two.”

“Aye, Sir.” She came right back.

When Mirikami stepped onto the Bridge Noreen was just taking
her seat. Telour, standing behind the command chairs watched him arrive with his
usual laser like intensity. He was obviously engaged in a conversation with another
Krall via his shoulder com unit because he’d deployed his internal ears. Mirikami
took his own chair, his control panel extending up and over his lap as the smart
seat formed to him.

“Do not move the ship yet. Parkoda has not given an order for
that. He is communicating with his clan leader on Koban,” advised Telour.

As previously arranged, Jake’s voice followed shortly. “The ship
is approximately two hundred sixty four thousand miles from what appears to be a
terrestrial type planet, with clear signs of a living biosphere. There are considerable
radio and radar signals originating from the surface and from multiple points in
the near space around the planet, including a large moon off to our port. The radio
transmissions all appear to be in the Krall language.”

Out of the corner of his right eye, he caught Noreen glancing
his way. She obviously had the same thought as he did. This was a damned close White
Out to a planet, and considering the Krall’s Jump technology, was surely not a coincidence.

“Noreen and I wonder if that might be Koban?” Mirikami asked
aloud. Telour ignored him, but the question wasn’t for him anyway.

Jake gave a tentative answer. “The radius is slightly greater
than Earth’s at four thousand one hundred twenty miles at the equator, and the surface
gravity, based on the orbital characteristic I observe of several ships, is probably
one and one half times higher than that of Earth. This implies a greater density
than Earth. There is only the one large moon visible.” The AI continued.

“On this hemisphere of the planet there is a moderately sized
ocean visible, and the one ice cap we can see is small, as Koban was described to
have. I believe there is a high probability of this being Koban. There are…” he
was obviously going to continue, so Mirikami spoke, which caused Jake to cut off
instantly.

“Noreen, could you inform our passengers that we have completed
the White Out, and to get to the nearest couches or bunks in the event we start
to vector for a landing.”

“Yes Sir.”

Crap!
He naturally had expected to spend many hours vectoring
in from some greater distance, giving them a bit more time for passive scans of
the system and analysis.

“Parkoda is returning by shuttle to make the landing standing
on his prize,” announced Telour. “Have your hold depressurized and the hatch opened.”

Mirikami immediately called down to arrange that. Next, he told
the crew and passengers, by general broadcast, that they had arrived at Koban and
that Parkoda was returning to the ship.

Telour again reminded them of their need to keep his agreement
with them secret. “Parkoda may ask you about my period of command here. Do not let
him learn of what I plan. I would survive my disappointment. Those of you who reveal
my plans will not.” That was plain enough.

“We do not want to lose the advantages you have offered,” Mirikami
stated firmly. “We will honor the agreement. Will you be remaining aboard?” Mirikami
was concerned that Telour might be sent to the Clanship.

“Parkoda is within his right to order me off his prize, but that
would create friction with my clan if this was done without a good reason. When
he comes aboard, do not show surprise if I speak Standard with you poorly once more.”

“Telour, I have people in place now, prepared to start removal
of our engines as soon as we land on Koban. What if Parkoda notices?”

“Parkoda will come to the Bridge to take command as soon as he
arrives. He has no reason to look inside your work compartments. He will leave with
me on the shuttle soon after we land because I spoke to my clan to ask for a meeting
of clan leaders. The larger raids are almost ready to launch, I told them I have
useful information for them. Krall do not talk all day as you humans do. Be quick
to remove your engines.”

“Will the other humans meet us after landing?”

“They have not met new arrivals outside of the dome in the past.
The Clanship will  park a safe distance away, weapons aimed at you, and there are
many ships in orbit. They will fire if you attempt to liftoff. You have no safe
place on Koban except the compound that we give you.

“If you see warriors near the ship as your people leave, be grateful
for their protection while it lasts. Any ship landing draws interest from flying
creatures, and there will be two ships landing today.

“Animals here learn quickly, and new human arrivals are not very
observant or fast. Some die traveling between a ship and the dome entrance. All
our warriors will return to the Clanship as soon as Parkoda’s shuttle leaves, after
that you have no protection except speed to enter the dome.”

Mirikami asked, “Who will be in charge of us when you and Parkoda
leave, before we have all left the ship, and the engines are not yet disabled? Can’t
the warriors and translators here provide protection?”

“I said all warriors will return to the Clanship. None will remain
aboard in case you disobey and we destroy the ship. Warriors and K’Tal may return
later, to verify the ship can never fly. Unless I fail to convince Parkoda and his
clan not to blast the ship.”

“We will not disobey, and the ship
will
be disabled.”

“I think that is true, but nothing will change. Think of your
arrival as your first test on Koban. You all must reach the dome on your own. However,
you have no reason for concern. Only a handful or two will not finish that short
journey to the dome, though you do have many to move. It will be interesting for
us to watch.”

Fine, we are their damned entertainment,
he thought.
Screw
them.

“You said we will receive weapons in the compound. Can we have
some now for defense?”

“The clans here did not know you had been granted Ra Ka Endo
before arriving, this is not standard. No other human arrivals have had that status
or were given weapons. There will be weapons available only after you are inside
the dome.”

“Will you inform the Krall in the compound and on the landing
pad that we have been granted Ra Ka Endo? If some of my people get weapons inside
the dome, they can return to protect those that stay behind to remove the engines.”

“I will do that before we leave.” He conceded. “But weapons in
the human compound are not stored close by any dome entrance, and I do not think
you can expect those humans to come out to protect your people. You are new, and
few will risk their lives to protect you farther away than from the shelter of a
dome entrance.”

Thinking quickly, Mirikami asked, “Can we use our own weapons
from the ship for protection? Before we get the ones you give to the other captives?”

Telour made the Krall snort of humor. “Of course, any weapons
you have, if you think you can kill fast flying things with them, and not kill yourselves.”
He snorted again, proving how much confidence he had in their chances.

Well,
the Captain thought with slight satisfaction,
he
thinks I meant the crossbows or the few grenades we showed him.
Good. He’d have
to speak with Walters, the Chief Steward, at the first opportunity, and with Dillon.

Parkoda arrived on the Bridge within minutes of his shuttle’s
arrival. As before, he sprang up over the stairwell railing with barely a sound.
Having raced up almost the length of the ship, against one and a half g’s of gravity,
he didn’t even appear to be breathing hard.

Telour straightened as he arrived. Both Krall’s internal ears
sprouted like flowers, as they spoke in the usual eerie lip wriggling silence. Parkoda
spoke Standard to them when they were done.

“Telour says you able to take this ship to Koban without wait
for tachyon. That you have engines to use to land at **********,” which was apparently
spoken ultrasonically.

“I’m sorry Parkoda but we could not hear where we will land.”

Parkoda looked to Telour and they had a quick exchange. Telour
said two words in Standard. “Koban Prime.”

Parkoda looked back to the Captain. “The humans call where they
stay Koban Prime. You see Koban on screen. Go closer and I tell where to land.”

He was obviously referring to the beautiful blue green world,
which Noreen had placed on the main screen. Koban it was.

“Should we start accelerating now, Sir?”

“Yes. Go close now, and orbit near so I can show where to land.
The Clanship will follow.”

With a mixed sense of relief, Mirikami realized that by using
the thrusters they didn’t have to reveal they had Traps already holding high-energy
tachyons. Nevertheless, it meant the trip would take longer, and at even higher
gravity as they accelerated. He wondered why the Clanship detectors hadn’t revealed
what their Traps held. Perhaps with Krall onboard, they were unconcerned. One more
example of lax security, or supreme confidence.

He called the Drive Room and told a surprised Willfem to start
a vector towards Koban using
only
the main thrusters, and not the Normal
Space propulsion system. He manually fed the Navcomp coordinates he had read off
the main screen to vector them closer to the planet. He wasn’t about to talk to
Jake to have him do anything. Nan already knew how to signal Jake to take over the
landing sequence once they had coordinates.

The acceleration warning sounded as the ship changed orientation,
rotating the nose towards the planet and then the main engines kicked in. The short
trip would be slower than the Normal Space propulsion system could have provided,
and the mass of the ship had to be overcome with more effort, throwing a lot of
reaction mass out the rear as plasma. However, with such a short distance to travel
and no future use for the fuel, Mirikami was practically throwing away the expensive
fuel so the ship could reach orbit sooner.

The career Interworld Captain had an amusing thought. This final
little trip was more costly in fuel than Interworld would ever have tolerated. He
would be fired!

He made a call to Chief Haveram, using a handset. “Chief, I assume
you have gotten the information about where we are, and the length of time to reach
close orbit?”

“Yes Sir, a friend told me.”

“Right. Will your teams be able to do their jobs as planned,
in that time frame?”

“Absolutely. We are finishing the final partial cuts right now,
and the three teams will all take couches near their assigned work areas before
we drop out of orbit. The engine compartments are a bit hot right now but they work
in soft suits anyway, so they have cooling. Unless you call it off, we will jump
right to it as soon as we land.”

“Thanks Chief, Out.” He was pleased they were able to work under
the extra thrust. However, something nagged at the back of his mind. He couldn’t
quite place what it was, but he needed to get off the Bridge for some privacy, so
he pushed it to the back of his mind.

“Noreen, please keep watch while I get a bite to eat. I didn’t
know we would White Out when we did and I’m hungry.” He released his restraints
and stood up, and then it hit him.

The added acceleration was being automatically compensated by
Jake, he realized with surprise. That was what had been nagging him. He hadn’t felt
heavier than one and a half g’s, and neither did the work crews. At least not more
than the tiring fifty percent heavier they had experienced for about two days. The
almost full g of reaction thrust wasn’t adding to that, it was being compensated.

He had not told Jake to do that specifically, but the literal
minded AI
had
been told to increase and hold gravity at one and a half g’s,
so he was doing exactly that. Except gravitational compensation could only be done
with the huge energy taken from tachyons caught in a Trap field. Apparently, Telour
and Parkoda had not thought of that, or not being K’Tal didn’t know. Their ships
would likely always compensate.

He hoped if Parkoda had brought a K’Tal back with him, that he
wouldn’t think to mention a commonplace process like inertial or gravitational compensation.

 Parkoda spoke to him as he passed him on the way to the lift.
His first words, following behind Mirikami’s previous thought briefly sent a chill
down his spine.

“We needed bigger tachyons for this jump, like I told you. My
K’Tal said we could be caught forever in Hole, when we did not arrive when he expected.

“Now I know I can take whole human ships with me, even if slow.
I will gain status to share this with all clans.” How convenient to forget that
the credit for the idea came from humans.

Mirikami assumed the remark was intended to gall Telour, since
he surely didn’t think the human animal needed to know that.
Damn, that little
jab might make Telour less willing to inflate Parkoda’s status even more at the
clan meeting.