Koban (37 page)

She brought that image up. It had less detail, but the long-range
view angle from the west revealed blotches that appeared to be least two damaged
ships on the north side. Only the east side was clear of wrecks, and had only a
single Krall shuttle parked close to the dome.

“Go back to the other image Noreen,” he asked.

Mirikami studied the image for a moment. “I think we can land
closest to the dome on the east side, giving our people a shorter run for that opening,
and possibly use that shuttle for a bit of cover along the way. What do to think?”

“If we can pick the spot we want, and all things being equal,
the shorter distance seems safest to me, Sir.”

He pretended to call and talk on the handset again. “We need
to minimize the distance our people have to travel to get inside the dome’s large
openings, so we want to land on the east side of the dome where we can get closer.
Do you understand?”

“Yes Sir” was Jake’s instant response. “Should I also rotate
the ship so that the cargo ramp will be towards the dome entrance, to shorten that
distance more?”

“Yes, that would be best.” He hadn’t thought to ask for that.

They were down to twenty minutes, and the reentry burn would
start soon. The ship was longer than it was wide, four hundred fifty meters long
and three hundred meters across. The rounded tail was broken only by the now open
three main thruster ports. In the Jump Hole or using the reactionless drive, the
ports would be closed.

The ship, computer controlled all the way, would enter atmosphere
rear first, starting its braking from about three hundred miles high, thrust at
maximum to slow its momentum, and then to make a moderate speed atmospheric entry
that shifted to become near vertical at about thirty to forty miles, nearly over
the target. Then ride the torch all the way down, slowing as it dropped.

There was not going to be a plasma streak across the sky, which
less powerful ships produced when using atmospheric braking. However, a vertical
drop sucked up a lot of fuel. That was why the Fancy most often docked at a station,
transferring people and cargo for smaller shuttles to take to the surface.

At a height of five or six miles, the ten attitude thrusters
took over more of the braking, stabilizing the ship, and allowing the main engines
to start to throttle back. Within the last mile, the big ship was only partly held
up by its three weakening legs, but had ten strong thruster arms reducing the blast
directly below the ship.

At roughly a thousand feet, the six landing jacks extended accompanied
by a delicate shift closer to the dome, and a small rotation to align the cargo
hatch correctly.

The Fancy settled towards the tarmac, the main engines throttling
farther down as the attitude thrusters surged to take more of the load. The ship
set down lightly, the main engines cutting off a bit earlier than usual, as soon
as the first jack touched.

The side thrusters reduced their lesser roar as the ship settled
on the jacks, but were not shut off, as they normally would be. The fuel feed had
been cut to all thrusters, but the residue in the lines was still being pumped to
the smaller thrusters until each flame flared out, draining the lines of liquid
fuel and fumes. This screwed up the fuel pumps and collapsed many of the fuel lines.
Just as expected.

The Flight of Fancy had finished its last flight, and Koban was
its final home. The sounds of cooling and creaking joints were the only sounds,
for nearly a minute. Then there were distant calls heard, coming from different
parts of the sky.

Parkoda, without a sound, leaped and disappeared down the stairwell.

“Humph!” Noreen grunted. “Not much for sentimental goodbyes are
they?”

She shut down a number of systems, but kept the main engine and
thruster monitors online, watching for fires or other issues as the engines cooled.
Willfem, Jorl’sn, and Haveram had all reported their teams were picking up their
tools and cautiously looking inside access panes, checking on heat or toxic fumes.

Mirikami had Stewards watching every stairwell. They needed the
stairs for evacuation, but that wasn’t going to happen until the reckless aliens
were off the ship, or at least down in the hold.

 He had a side screen observing the cargo hold, and saw the double
hatch sliding open. He could see three blue-suited Krall, which from the back he
assumed were the three translators, including Telour, a brown suited K’Tal that
was likely the shuttle pilot, and about twelve warrior uniforms. This meant Parkoda
had brought more than the one with him that Mirikami had seen on deck 8.

Then sooner than he had expected Parkoda burst into the hold.
The other Krall all stiffened in respect, their fragile looking inner ears blooming
like ludicrous little gray flowers on those big reddish reptilian heads.

Moving in their usual swift and graceful feline-like manner,
all of the warriors and two of the translators promptly went to the edge of the
deck, each glancing skyward first, and leapt the thirty-four feet to the landing
pad, despite a g and a half of gravity. The tarmac was still blistering hot from
the landing, and the Krall were sporting bare feet and talons as they normally did.
Another demonstration of their toughness, but the cautionary glance to the sky by
each was noteworthy.

Parkoda, followed by Telour and the last two Krall in sight entered
the open shuttle hatch, which swung down and closed. In only a few seconds, the
craft lifted from the deck several inches, backed straight out of the hold, and
as it pivoted sideways, darted out of sight.

Mirikami selected the full array of external cameras for the
main screen, and observed in one of the frames the shuttle lifting away to the southwest.
Most of the Krall on the wide tarmac were running towards the Clanship, which Mirikami
could see had landed a half mile away, with a clear field of fire at them that would
not risk the dome. A blue clad Krall was headed for the dome, passing the nose of
the other shuttle. He quickly entered the shadowed interior, where several wheeled
and tracked vehicles could be seen parked.

The fact that they were all running could be the normal gung-ho
attitude they demonstrated in anything physical. Mirikami hoped that was the reason.

Checking the sky images, he didn’t see anything other than very
ordinary looking clouds, a deeper blue sky than Earth, but about the same color
as on New Honshu and some other worlds with G type stars. He thought he saw a few
specks in the distance, but wasn’t sure.

However, it wasn’t time for sightseeing no matter how curious
he was. “I wonder if there are any Krall left aboard.”

“No Sir, they have departed.”

“Ship wide broadcast.” Without waiting for a reply he started.
“Attention! This is Captain Mirikami. All of the Krall have left the ship, stairways
are usable for evacuation, but please watch your footing in this gravity.”

He glanced at a camera image. “The cargo hold ramp has deployed,
and has a non-skid surface with small corrugations that can catch your toes. Tripping
would cause a nasty fall on a fairly steep slope. Be extremely careful and watch
the sky before you step out, look for native animals, and use any weapons or shields
you could find for protection if attacked.

“Hurry at your best pace to the dome. The opening is perhaps
three hundred feet straight out from the ramp, with a deep recessed area for cover.
A Krall shuttle is parked partly in front of that opening. One of our two cargo
haulers is at the bottom of the ramp with a wide pallet in case anyone falls or
is injured and needs to be carried. The other hauler has a pallet as well, but it
went to the dome, to ensure we have access as we were told. It will return to the
ship. Your Stewards will be with you as escorts along the short distance you need
to travel. Good luck.”

He had debated on what to say, and decided his warnings were
redundant, because they should have already been spoken by the Stewards. He had
other things that needed doing, and they were now sitting at the top of a permanently
grounded ship.

“Noreen, let’s go down to the cargo hold to watch the evacuation,
and see who Dillon found for his toys. I hope we don’t need them. Was Mister Walters
standing by with our bag of goodies?”

“He is Sir, and the hauler drivers each have a different type.
From the protection of those cages we can find out if they work or not if anything
comes after them right away.”

“Ok. As soon as a lift empties, we’ll call it and ride down.”

Using a lower priority code, they called a lift as one emptied,
and selected the cargo deck when it opened.

“Link me and Noreen to Chief Haveram, Ms. Willfem and Ms. Jorl’sn.”

“Done Sir.”

“People, Commander Renaldo and I are descending to the cargo
hold to monitor the evacuation. Ms. Willfem, any problems to report from your team?”

They heard a grunt, then “No Sir, but it’s going to be damn hot
work, even with the suits. Pulling things apart with brute force will be tough in
this gravity, but we are on schedule. The Chief already hit a snag though.”

“Chief?” Mirikami inquired, knowing the four-way let them all
hear one another.

Haveram was breathing heavy as well. “One of the collapsed fuel
lines ruptured at a coupling before it was pumped dry, spraying the upper engine
compartment. We can’t light a torch or risk a sawing spark until we blow the fumes
out. The only airflow path is out the bottom. I have blowers running, but the fumes
also pass through the lower work areas. We’re opening compartments and panels at
the top to get a side air path out of the ship. That’s close to done, and the portable
blowers will send the gases that way.”

“You need more help?”

“No Sir, more time. My people that can’t cut on the engine are
helping to open the side panels. We already cut the hull open, and will start blowing
that way in a few minutes.”

“OK, I’ll check back. Ms. Jorl’sn?”

“Making good progress Sir. Dropping small parts out our bottom
like crazy.”

“OK. Mirikami Out.”

The lift opened on the backs of a crowd of chattering and excited
sounding people. They heard Maggi’s surprisingly strong voice over the hubbub.

“Go through the inner hatches single file, and
then
link
hands with other people to make six single file
chains
, not a line across!
Then walk with your chain to the ramp and support each other as you walk
carefully
down. Don’t try the horizontal line of six. If one person falls, they can take the
whole damned line with them. We don’t need any more broken bones.”

Oh, Oh, Mirikami thought. My initial idea must not have worked
very well. Hope Maggi didn’t break any of my Steward’s bones just to make them change
my instructions.

“Make way,” he shouted,” Captain coming through.” The people
near him promptly turned around, recognized him and squeezed aside to give him and
Noreen room to pass.

As they stepped through the hatch nearest the lifts, they saw
Maggi, Aldry, Cahill, and three other Board members near the top of the ramp. They
were organizing chains of people to walk down single file. If anyone slipped, the
person behind could help hold them up.

Mirikami was too short to see over the heads of people. “Noreen,
you giant, can you see Mister Walters or any Steward over by the ramp?”

“Got Walters, Sir. Left side of the main hatch.” She pointed.

“Good, stop to thank Maggi and her folks for having the good
sense to change a bad plan. Then join me with Walters.”

They each excused themselves as they cut through the lines of
people making their way to the head of the ramp.

When Walters spotted him coming, he smiled and held up the bag
shaking it, showing it was obviously lighter now.

“Good to see you Sir. I suppose you heard we hit a snag on the
fourth line of people to go down. A lady wearing heels tripped and pulled the two
on each side down the ramp with her.” He talked in an excited rush, out of character
from his usual unflappable nature.

“Actually Nory, I didn’t hear, but it appears a better way was
thought of. Was anyone hurt? Where are our people we were going to have on the top
of the ramp?” he asked.

“When Doctor Fisher arrived, just after the accident, she…,er,
sort of took over, and her folks listened to her. She had a pretty good idea, so
we changed your plan. Sir.” The added ‘Sir’ sounded like a sheepish sort of apology.

“Nory, staying with a bad idea would be stupid. Moreover, her
folks are doing fine. But where are our guys?”

He partly answered his own question by simply looking out the
open main hatch. Branson and Rigson were bending over the pallet the hauler had
on its front fork, tending to three people lying there.

“We had just started the evacuation when the fall happened, Captain.
The screams brought the first people already down back to the ramp to help, despite
our insistence they keep going.”

“How bad are those three hurt?”

“Scrapes and bruises for two, but the lady in the red dress probably
broke her kneecap when she fell. She wouldn’t take off her medium heels because
she heard the first ones down say that the ground was pretty hot.”

Mirikami saw that there were about fifty people now walking steadily
away from the ship in a ragged line, with several Stewards along their length. One
more Steward was at the bottom of the ramp directing people to keep moving. The
air was sweet smelling, mixed with the scorched scent of their landing. The temperature
was very warm, and the air heavy and humid. The sun, almost overhead, broke through
puffy white clouds. It was a beautiful day on Koban.

“Heard from Chack Nauguza?” he asked Walters. That was the driver
of the second hauler, and he should have gone directly to the dome. In hindsight
,
again
Mirikami thought, he could have carried some passengers on his own pallet
to save them the walk in heat and high gravity.