Koban (58 page)

“Are all of those things dangerous to touch?” he asked.

“Nope. Not the berries or roots, and not the animals and the
bird when they aren’t alive. The six-legged things I always have called ground hogs
because they dig burrows, but they forage above ground for the berries and for those
roots underground. They are also fast as hell and those six sets of digging claws
and their gnawing teeth will tear a man up something awful if you pick up a wounded
one. When I spot their burrows, I know there are these edible roots near them, and
probably a few berry bushes.

“That skinny blue thing with the bushy tail is a close analogue
of an Earth squirrel I think, or a Poldark tree skunk without the smell. That guy
is really fast in the trees and I don’t see them often enough to have a special
name for them, but I hear them a lot. I have no idea what they eat, and they don’t
have much meat on them. They can ruin your hunting with their loud chatter to warn
everything close by. That was just a lucky shot through some leaves to hit him.
He gave himself away with his big mouth.” He grunted in humor.

Reaching to the bottom, he lifted out a long necked green bird
that also had tall spindly legs. The bill was long and thin at the end, but right
at the mouth it flared much wider. The feathers were a beautiful iridescent green.
Thad pulled the wings out and they were not as wide as Mirikami expected for the
size of the body, and he said so.

Thad shrugged. “The denser air helps support them better, I guess.
This is a Dagger bird, which is a very appropriate name. They hunt in marshes and
at the edge of water. They stab small prey with the beak, toss it in the air, catch
and slide it towards the wide part of the beak to swallow it whole.

“If you get too close to their nest, you can get a flying dagger
beak thrust in an eye. Like every animal here, you don’t touch it until you are
sure it’s dead. The most innocent looking creatures can be dangerous, possibly venomous,
always stronger than you’d think, and much, much, faster than you expect.”

“What did you shoot them with?” Mirikami welcomed a distraction
just then, and happened to be interested.

“The small buck shot, fired from a short Krall rifle.” Pointing
at the one slung on his back. “The shot starts to separate a few feet from the muzzle
and gives you a wider coverage.

“I killed another ground hog, but a wolfbat had been in a high
tree watching me watch the burrow. It seemed to know better than to come after me
in my armor. But as soon as I fired, it flapped madly down and dived right on the
dying animal. It latched all four sets of hooked claws and flapped off easily with
the extra weight. Its lack of hesitation at the sound of the shot makes me think
it was waiting for that. It could have dived sooner when the animal cleared its
burrow opening, but I think it waited for me to shoot it.”

Thad returned the animals to the bag, but as he shifted things
around, Mirikami spotted a loose thorn laying on one of the two dozen or so Death
Limes. He pointed that out to Thad.

“Sometimes the defensive swat from the plant breaks off a thorn
when it hits the handle of the picker. The waxy surface of the thorn is sticky.
I don’t know how long the toxin lasts but lucky for me it does degrade with time.
My rhinolo horn was covered with the dried stuff. I had touched it before I smelled
the scent from the plant. I handled the horn when I removed it and then later mounted
it.”

“How did it get there I wonder?”

“The Rhinolo like the fruit too, and I’ve heard that on a couple
of hunts a Krall warrior used the scent of a crushed fruit in the grass to draw
an animal away from the herd. I suspect they use their thick hide and long horn
to shake or knock a fruit safely out of a bush when they want one. That could leave
waxy residue on the horn. Plus, for a time I bet it makes the horn that much deadlier
to anything they stick with it.”

“You told us that the Krall like the fruit, but won’t reach in
to get it. How do you know this?” He’d just had an interesting thought.

“I’ve watched them go out in a truck on perimeter patrol and
stop to get some on the way. I used binoculars and from a higher level of the dome,
I saw them run over Lime plant and spin a wheel to rip the bush out of the ground.
Then a warrior used a tool from the truck to pull away the fruit.”

“Do you think the toxin works on them like it does on humans?”

“I never gave it any thought. Humans finally die of total muscle
paralysis, in great pain until then. I don’t know what it does to a Krall, but they
obviously don’t like it. Why?”

“They told us they are either immune or resistant to most poisons.
Could you wrap that thorn carefully and pass it on to Aldry Anderfem to analyze
in one of our labs? We are looking for any new weapons we can find, and poison laced
bullets or arrows might be of use if those thorns are bad for a Krall.”

“Sure, I’ve been talking to some of your machinists about gadgets
I suggested they look into, or modifications to things you are already making. Aldry
spoke to me a time or two when I visited the machine shop. You must have her doing
something really sneaky, I couldn’t draw her out much.”

“I’d appreciate it if you’d keep that observation under your
hat, Thad. As we’ve learned today, not all of us humans can be trusted.”

“Speaking of that, I know people are looking all over for Talbert
Carltron and Arless Blythe. I hardly know him, but shortly after my two challenges,
I had an ‘interlude’ with Arless in my quarters. She came on to me strong. I
was more than willing, and she was talented. However, she was scared to death of
Carltron finding out, and begged me to be a gentleman and keep it quiet. So I did.”

“She told me she wasn’t worried for me personally because I had
immunity, which I thought was an odd thing to say, since the two men I killed had
immunity. That little mouse Carltron didn’t seem much of a threat. I now think she
meant my immunity would keep me safe from being selected if he found out. Our liaison
wasn’t repeated, despite my invitation,” he added.

Mirikami shrugged. “I think she traded sexual favors with Carltron
for her freedom from Testing Days, Thad. Perhaps she isn’t as guilty as he is, but
that sure as hell won’t save her if that pack of wolves find her.”

“No, it won’t,” he agreed. “About twenty of them searched my
truck as soon as I pulled under the overhang, wanted to know where I’d been. I decided
I’d not be my usual asshole self, and showed them my bag there. They had itchy trigger
fingers, and because I
was
in armor, they wouldn’t let me get a drop on them.
Not that I care about those two waste-of-air scum.”

Mirikami pulled at his lip. “I’m wondering where they could hide?
All of you must know every possible hiding place in the dome by now.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’m sure some of the people selected would choose to hide. I’d
think you’d know where to check the hiding places for them before the Krall picked
a replacement.”

“The Krall would just go get them and drag them out and make
them go or kill them. Why would
we
have to find them?” Thad looked puzzled.

“Maggi just briefed us on how the early lottery drawings were
done, about some people hiding and forcing replacements to be picked. The Krall
killed the hiders outright when they were found, but hiding delayed their death
and got someone else killed in their place.”

“Oh, sure. But that was well before I got here, before the Krall
implemented Ra Ka Endo and gave us these tattoos,” he hooked a thumb at his. “So
they can always find you through those.”

Mirikami felt a chill spread down his spine. He asked the next
question with apprehension.

“You’re saying The Krall know where we are because of these tattoos?”

“You didn’t know that? It’s how they recover the bodies and our
equipment after a Testing Day, unless a wolfbat tore out the throat and flew away.”
He said this in a matter of fact way, totally unaware of the stone that had settled
in his listener’s stomach.

“Thad, this is important if you know the answers. How do they
track us, and what capability do they have to hear what we say or to see what we
do?” All he could think of was that twenty five thousand year old alien technology
might be pretty advanced.

Greeves noticed that Mirikami’s normally darker facial color
had visibly paled. He turned serious as well.

“Tet, I don’t know how it’s done exactly, just that it’s the
device that injects the tattoos; they call it a Katusha by the way, and it can also
home in on them when they change a setting. They scan it back and forth in front
of them to get a signal light that increases in brightness as they get closer and
they aim towards it.

“What has you so worried Tet? What are you afraid that they can
do?”

Mirikami looked a little less tense. “The way you describe the
search sounds more innocuous than I first feared, but I need to know more.

“What I feared is that they have been listening to us all along,
and could possibly see what we have been doing on the ship. If they can do that,
then all of us here are certainly doomed, and possibly the human race if we fail
to accomplish what we have been trying to do.”

Greeves leaned back, giving him a penetrating look. “Tet, I’ve
always assumed everyone here is doomed anyway, but what the hell are you doing over
there to save the human race that might fail?”

“That part you actually know, fight them well enough on Koban
to convince them not to stamp our species out like bugs. However, we have projects
underway that I’m certain would get every human presently on Koban exterminated,
so they would need to restart with fresh ignorant humans. I think instead of a fresh
start they’ll kill our worlds and move on to search for better prey. They have almost
decided to do that anyway.”

“Damn. You sure think on a grand scale, Captain. You also put
a lot of necks in the same noose with you. But as I said, I’m convinced our necks
have been in a noose all along. It was just a matter of time before they grew tired
of their games and killed us all.”

“Maybe not. If we pull off the ‘fight better’ thing, Telour,
Parkoda, Dorkda, and Kapdol, all translators from different competing clans say
on their honor we will be left unharmed and on our own when they leave Koban for
many generations. They will go off to fight humanity for as long as they can make
that last.

“Then, one day in the far future, they will come back to
claim Koban as their new ‘Home World.’ After breeding and improving to face the
animal life here on equal terms. They don’t like not being the fastest things alive.
They also fully expect humans left here will be dust motes on a rhinolo’s butt by
then.”

“Well Tet, I think I can reassure you on the range of potential
surveillance technology embedded in these tattoos. The Katusha tattoo gadget can’t
find corpses much more than a hundred feet away. But I must say even solid rock
and our armor doesn’t seem to block them when the body is in a cave.”

Mirikami was about to say something, but Greeves held a hand
up to have him wait.

“I know this because I’ve used them several times. When higher
status warriors are too proud to do recovery work, they send us out in trucks to
recover armor and guns. You aim the things like a flashlight,” and he demonstrated
with his hand.

“Whew, that does relieve me a lot Thad. I don’t think they’d
hand those over if they had intelligence gathering value. After all they wear those
same tattoos.”

There was almost a ‘Bing’ sensation in Mirikami’s mind just then.
“We need to steal one of those!” he blurted. “If it can see humans through walls
it can see them too.”

Greeves shook his head. “Good God man. What’s it like thinking
like an amusement park thrill ride? From end-of-life as we know it, to let’s hunt
down the Krall and kill them.” He laughed, making his armor creak.

“They will ask for the Katusha’s back, so I don’t know what would
happen if you told them you lost one. That might prove fatal.”

Changing gears himself, he went back to something Mirikami had
said. “I know you have secret projects under way. What are the deadly ones the Krall
couldn’t tolerate?”

“Thad, I give my word that I intend to bring you in on those
projects when and if they prove out, but they could face opposition from humans
as well as Krall, so please excuse me if I hold back for now. However, when you
walked up a few minutes ago, I was thinking of some things that I haven’t resolved
in my mind yet. I’d like to explore those because I need to make a decision today
on a matter important to me personally, and you can help.”

“Sure. I have some time before that meat starts to smell, so
go ahead.” He leaned back against the table with a grin.

“Ok. Here’s my first question. No one that actually knows from
firsthand experience ever told me if that stuff,” he tapped Thad’s armor, “is any
good when a Krall comes after you.”

“It’s Krall made, following a human pattern of some armor they
must have found in an old outpost on the Rim. However, it’s much lighter that our
own best armor, just the way their guns are lighter, and it seems even stronger
but I’m not sure. I wish they’d found powered active camouflage armor to copy, with
high tech sensors. This antique solid brown color crap stands out against any background
here except dirt,” he complained.

Mirikami reminded him, “The Krall see into the infrared, and
I wouldn’t be surprised if they see into ultraviolet. Your heat would give you away
in infrared.”

“Well, temperature can be controlled with low tech means at times,
like wet mud.” He didn’t elaborate further.

“This stuff,” he patted his chest with a thump, “protects against
any of the buck shot rounds and probably the incendiaries which are slower flying.
Even from the soft-nosed slugs if they hit at a glancing angle or from long range.
For the explosive or armor piercing rounds, you may as well be naked if they hit
you. The Krall always carry multiple types of rounds with them.”