Koban (65 page)

“Wow.” That came from a man who had identified himself as Cody
Masters. “Those suits are bullet proof?”

“Don’t get too excited. Dillon, raise the fabric and check underneath.”

There was a deep indentation and cracked plastic where the slug
had hit.

“That’s what I figured. You might survive, but not unscathed
from deep bruising or broken bones. And that was not an explosive or armor penetrating
round.”

“I apologize again, Captain.” Ben looked sheepish. “I know you
promised to help us, and this will. But it isn’t enough to save us.” Now he sounded
dejected.

“Ben, this is only a defensive item,” admitted Mirikami. “It’s
intended to help keep you alive longer and give you a chance to go on the offense.
If any one of us kills a single Krall, it can save all of our lives.

“Get fitted for a suit here, and then I’ll escort you through
our dirty tricks department. We may have some things you will want to use.”

By the time he had given them a tour of the explosives, grenades,
mines, remote booby-trap triggers, quiet cross bows, pneumatic dart shooters, and
a couple of one shot mortar tubes, they were much less depressed as a group.

Next, he sat with them to spell out some of what he and Dillon
were planning, and offered them a part in working with them. Alternatively,
they could take the weapons offered and defend themselves on some completely different
terrain. He was a bit disappointed but not terribly surprised when a dozen men and
women chose to stay well away from the ridge, where Mirikami intended to draw the
Krall. Six of them didn’t even to say where they intended to go, but asked if they
could have some grenades and mines.

Deanna and three other volunteers agreed to participate in the
Captain’s schemes, and stayed behind when the others left to put in more practice
time on the firing range.

Mirikami sent Thad and Dillon to check on the two last minute
projects while he taught his combat volunteers how the various devices worked and
what they could do. That occupied a couple of hours. He told them about Thad’s new
proposal for concealment, which he admitted was risky, but probably less so than
how Mirikami had previously intended to wait for and ambush the Krall. They were
willing to take the risk with him, they said.

Mirikami joined Thad and Dillon in the machine shop in late afternoon,
working out details of the final innovations they had planned. It was well into
the evening when Aldry Linked in and raised hell again. She scolded Mirikami and
Dillon for not sticking to the dinner schedule of one final large meal for the two
men. Maggi confessed to having gotten so involved in the planning that she forgot
the time.

“Gentle Men,” she reminded them, “This is the last high protein
meal and nasty drinks you have to endure. Then an early night of drug induced sleep
while your temperatures peak and the alterations really start to activate. You have
to have that meal digesting or else you will steal the fuel and resources from your
other tissues.”

“Yes Mam.” Mirikami replied. “I’m headed to the dining room now,
with Dillon. Then we will go to our quarters to sleep. I feel like hell anyway,
and I think I have something wrong with my nose or sinuses. It keeps dripping, and
I’ve sneezed several times.”

“Congratulations, you probably have the first head cold in your
life.” Aldry told him. “By morning or noon tomorrow your suppression drugs will
have been excreted; assuming you keep your fluid intake up. Then your immune system
should fight that cold off in short order. By day after tomorrow, on Testing Day,
you should be feeling more energetic and more comfortable in the heat outside.”

Maggi pushed them, literally, off to the dining room where she
had Chief Steward Walters setting their table in the same alcove.

They were struggling to put it all down when the Captain got
a breathless Link from Cal Branson. When Mirikami heard what it was about, he asked
him to hold, and then had Jake include everyone at the table.

“Sorry Cal, I brought more people in on the Link with us. Start
again please.”

“We found Carltron and Blythe. The Katusha’s spotted two signatures
under the flooring of the firing range, on the right side where the movable targets
are located. I’m told this range was built for the Krall’s youngest novices when
the Maldo clan lived here. There’s five to ten feet of space under the artificial
terrain and fake hills and boulders.”

“How can you be sure it’s them?” Mirikami asked.

“Oh, we didn’t know at first Sir, just that there were definitely
two separate signatures down there, and using a process of elimination of who it
could be. There was a concealed access door that is apparently locked from the inside,
set in the floor behind one of the boulders and covered in artificial Kobani grass.”
He explained.

“But there’s no doubt now that it’s them. When the Primes tried
to pry up the door, the Blythe woman called up to them and tried to make a deal
before opening the door for them. Claims she was forced to keep Carltron’s secret
and to have sex with him or be sent out for Testing. She confirmed that he had been
taught how to use the computer by a K’Tal, and their second one shared the other
one’s data base.”

“Did the Primes make a deal with her?” Mirikami asked.

“No. Carltron apparently woke up when he heard Blythe shouting
through the heavy door. He claims the woman entered all ten of the names to be selected
at one time, just out of spite because they could go live on the ship and she couldn’t.
His defense is that he would never have done that because it was too stupid. It
would reveal their secret.”

“Ha!” Maggi exclaimed. “That part rings of the truth. He was
careful to keep the secret for at least four years, and if Blythe had entered just
one or two names this time, it wouldn’t have been noticed. It makes more sense that
Blythe might have done the deed.”

“Well,” Cal said, “It doesn’t matter now. None of the Primes
will let either of them see another sunrise if they can get to them. Their problem
is that the door was designed to withstand Krall training, which was never as tame
as the target shooting we do, in neat lanes using frangible rounds.”

“I understand Cal, but the Flight of Fancy complement is out
of it now.” Mirikami instructed. “You found them; now let the injured parties
resolve this on their own. It’s a grudge to settle, and it will get violent.

“Please keep all of our people back a safe distance and let us
know what happens. However, I want the four Katusha’s back on the ship for study
and in our safe care now. I have a use for them in two days, but I need to turn
in early so I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”

“Yes Sir. Branson Out.”

The next day they learned the Primes had used maintenance shop
torches to cut the hinges on the access door. Then at least a hundred of them took
turns firing buckshot rounds by the thousands through the narrow crack for a couple
of hours. The shots ricocheted around in the confined space. At first, there was
heavy return fire, but that died away after ten minutes. Finally, the riddled and
mangled bodies were found and tossed outside for the kants and wolfbats to pick
clean.

Mirikami and Dillon were still feeling some effects of their
fevers, but less that the day before, were grateful to have a normal portioned breakfast.
While eating, Mirikami ordered the first of the weapons Bob and Neri had made for
him stored in the shuttle cargo area. They planned multiple trips today, setting
up as warm a reception for the Krall tomorrow as possible.

Accompanied by the four volunteers that would work with Mirikami
and Dillon, Thad with Jorl’sn as pilot, flew out to the truck park area, leaving
some “presents.”

Next, the shuttle hovered at the top of the ridge, then at each
terrace as they unloaded material and someone to work with that. The last place
they landed was at the most frequent Krall shuttle parking area. They were counting
on the Krall following what had become a pattern of behavior.

The six combatants and Thad stayed behind to set up their four
additional locations, while Jorl’sn flew the shuttle back to the ship to ferry out
what had become three separate small teams.

The three trips for the other dozen selectees landed them in
the different locations where they had decided to make their stands. They were given
the additional equipment they had decided they could use. Most of them had their
hopes pinned on actions at the Ridge to save them all, but naturally formed a backup
plan of their own if that failed.

The machinists, Bob and Neri, spent some time with the other
three groups to explain how to set up and trigger the mines, and with use of dummy
grenades how to arm and throw those, and the count of five before they would explode.
After that, he left them to decide how to set up their own positions.

Tomorrow morning the humans would all be ordered out of the dome
by Telour’s warriors shortly after daybreak. The humans would be free to travel
by any means they chose, on foot, by truck, or by halftrack to where they would
fight. Having the use of a shuttle was a first for them, and gave them additional
time to get ready without having to spend the night outside.

The Krall shuttle would arrive in late morning, following a flight
from their main compound. The warriors, if novices, normally embarked in trucks
or halftracks right away, selecting which area they wanted to search first by scent
trail.

Mirikami decided to give them a good scent trail in the morning.
He spoke to Thad, who agreed to help. He Linked to Noreen, whom he knew was in the
dome observing them at work on the ridge.

“Noreen, I want you to ask for donations of old dirty clothes
from five or six particularly grimy looking Primes. Some of the former miners don’t
appear to be clean freaks. Offer them clothing items from the ship in exchange.
I want their unwashed clothes.”

 “Alright Sir.” She sounded unsure of the request.

“Hold onto them and pass them over to Thad when he comes in today.
In the morning, he’ll drive a truck out here with those clothes dragging from a
rope in back, leaving a scent trail for the Krall to follow, and then fly back with
Roni. Put them in a closed bag to hold their ripeness overnight.”

Noreen sounded relieved once she understood the purpose. “I was
afraid you were going to wear them for moment,” she laughed.

“No. I don’t want their odors anywhere near us,” Mirikami chuckled
in return.

Aware that the more experienced warriors usually flew out in
their shuttle to land where aerial observation suggested would be the best place
to start the hunt, he arranged for a second truck to be driven today to the base
of the ridge. He had it “hidden” behind some large rocks. Parked trucks or fresh
footprints were clues, of course, and implied the fastest and most efficient location
to earn points.

Unlike a simple one-point kill of an unarmed human, the hunt
allowed more points for prey that fought back, particularly if they fought smart
and well, or were difficult to locate. The outcome was never in doubt, merely the
length of time it took and the number of points to be earned by individual warriors.

By late afternoon, both Dillon and Mirikami were fever free,
and finding that the day didn’t feel as oppressively hot as usual, and they had
a feeling of energy that didn’t wane as they worked in the higher gravity, staying
more or less constant through the day. The mods were apparently starting to work.

They placed their mines and remote activated equipment at widely
spread locations along the terraces and ridge top, and spent much of the day carefully
arming and aiming devices, and concealing most of them. A few devices were intended
to be seen.

Dillon, in a flash of inspiration caused by the “pressures” of
the previous day’s food and drink excesses, defecated and peed just inside a dark
crevice, asking Frank Constansi, one of the volunteers, to watch for skeeters and
wolfbats. He expected that smell would draw in a Krall for sure. He was being very
careful to watch out for threats.

He wasn’t careful enough. Maggi was also watching from the dome,
using one of several fiber optic video monitors installed for that purpose. She
asked Jake to shift to infrared on one telephoto lens, to see into the shadow of
the slightly cooler crevasse.

On an open channel, everyone on the team of six heard Maggi.
“I hope you took some toilet paper Dillon. You might chafe your bottom out there
in the heat.”

She enjoyed the startled look on his face as he backed deeper
into the opening, tripping over his removed lower armor. Frank’s laughter was obvious
as he turned to look towards the dome and doubled over, hands on knees.

Out of range with his transducer, he was helpless to send back
an instant retort, even if he had one ready. He’d have to use the helmet com, and
his helmet was off for the moment.

She loved that boy like her own and was terrified that he might
die tomorrow. However, if she didn’t pick on him, he might realize just how worried
she was. She couldn’t allow that thought to undermine his confidence.

Mirikami chuckled and shook his head. He couldn’t see Dillon
up on the highest terrace, but the context was obvious. In fact, it sounded like
a good attractant. He emptied his own suit’s urine collector in a long trail from
near where the shuttle might land to the other side of the huge boulder. He looked
overhead as he did this, seeing more wolfbats today than yesterday.

The wolfbats were smart enough to recognize the preparations,
and had been circling high overhead all morning. From the direction of the woods,
they had heard a couple of shots, with bats flapping up as dots into the sky from
miles away.

Since communications security wasn’t an issue today, Mirikami
asked the woods team what had happened using the helmet com set. It was simply a
case of wolfbats getting too close for comfort in the treetops, and one of the people
had taken couple of shots, but missed.