Koban (96 page)

Thad had approached Aldry a month ago, and had started his own
second round of mods. The increase in fitness of middle aged Mirikami, and the even
more noticeable increase in Dillon’s younger and already impressive build had encouraged
many of the long time captives to apply for all of the enhancements.

The reception from some of the newest arrivals concerning the
gene modifications was more than cool (read that as hostile), and they strongly
opposed what was being done with the human genome. That faction was unsurprisingly
led by Ana Cahill, who had never gotten over being upstaged by Maggi. She also knew
that the good Captain had shunted her into a powerless committee organizer role
to keep her out of his and Maggi’s way. She owed them some kind of payback.

Cahill had the scientific credentials to attract those that wanted
to hear her knowledgeable sounding details of criminal research she had not actually
seen. However, she could correctly state that what was being done here was in violation
of laws enforced throughout Human Space.

The self-appointed opposition leader was overheard talking to
some fervently religious new arrivals about a new Purge. She seemed to forget about
her own scientific background. In the Great Purge of three hundred years ago, anyone
with even passing knowledge of the biological sciences had been subject to being
killed by the frightened women that filled the power vacuum. Scientists had often
been literally burned at the stake. Who said the Ladies couldn’t be ruthless?

Thad pointed out that the objectors had not been witness to the
thousands of bodies brought back from the outer compound over the years of captivity.
They had never had to wait to see if they would be sent next week to die at the
hands of the Krall. He predicted that after enough time on the unforgiving planet
they would alter their viewpoint. Particularly if they saw others adapt to the conditions
here better than they did.

Over two thirds of the crew from the Fancy had asked for the
first set of mods. The Stewards had been first to do so. Those men had served as
guardians on arrival day, and had served in that capacity often since then. They
were better motivated than most.

A bit more than half the younger scientists and their mates,
if any, had opted to apply for the gene mods. Many of the older people thought it
was too late in life for the benefits to help them very much.

Maggi and Aldry, taking a dose of their own medicine; literally
in their case, were going to go through all of the mods they had offered the others.
They reasoned that if two older women did as well as they hoped they would, this
might attract more of the older people that were having difficulty adapting to the
gravity and heat. There were several deaths per month in the older population.

Improving animal security near the dome was one of the first
issues they needed to address. They decided to go for a smaller protected compound
as a start. A week after the Krall pullout, over a hundred heavily armed men and
women drove twenty-five of the trucks out to the southeast section of the compound
wall.

Out there, the terrain was largely red dirt and sandy dunes with
almost no grass, mainly low underbrush. It was as far from the river and any water
source as you could get within the walls. There they hoped, correctly, as it turned
out, there would be fewer animals. They were able to salvage miles of wire and posts
from atop the wall and at several wrecked gates.

Fewer animals didn’t translate into none however. A lone predator;
it looked like a smaller tan relative of a ripper; pulled a screaming woman down
from wire collecting at the top of the wall. Her companions saw it drag her into
the dunes outside the wall. It had somehow scaled a thirty-foot smooth wall from
where it had crept out of the dunes. It was labeled a Desert Panther, and after
that, death riflemen were posted as lookouts. They went up the ladders ahead of
each crew of wire collectors.

Despite all precautions, two other deaths happened on the wire
scavenger hunt.

One came when a guard turned into a would-be hunter. He shot
and brought down a man-sized gazelle that he spotted from the top of the wall. He
had just climbed up the ladder and spotted several of the normally skittish animals
browsing nearby. He shot one of the beige and blue striped creatures and it dropped
in its tracks.

Excited, he went around through the closest ruined gate with
a truck and a couple of companions, planning to bring the gazelle back for its meat.
The inexperienced hunter jumped out of the truck, rifle in hand, and rushed up to
the prone animal and took a knee near its back, just behind its head.

The instant he laid a hand on the top one of a pair of two foot
long curved horns, the still breathing animal thrust its head sharply backwards
over its front shoulders. Both horns tore into the man’s right side, driven in at
least six inches. His two companions shot the dying animal several more times before
pulling the screaming man off the impaling horns. The victim bled to death before
they could get him to the first aid truck.

He had the posthumous honor of having that type of gazelle named
after him, in a macabre bit of gallows humor. His name was Daniel Thompson, and
the animals became the Thompson’s gazelle of this world, only with a different spelling
than for the extinct animal of Earth.

The third death was actually less amusing than it was made to
sound when retold by callous people, the men and women that had waited their turn
to die in Krall testing, lottery after lottery.

Thelma Calderon thought a motionless, partly dug-in sort of armadillo
analogue, was a grey boulder on the red colored soil. She sat on its armored back
only to discover the “rock” had a four-foot muscular tail with a club-like knob
on the end. It left a fist sized depression in the side of her skull, and a startled
expression frozen on her face. Then the squatty animal rose on short sturdy legs
and quickly waddled off into the scrub and dunes.

The same sort of rough humor made the new animal’s name Thelma’s
Thumper. Aside from everyone’s desire to survive here, it became a definite goal
not to stupidly get an animal named after you.

When they had gathered enough wire and posts, they headed back
in a fast convoy, staying bunched together. A detour of several miles kept them
far enough away from several hundred or so rhinolo, antelopes, and gazelles to avoid
their interest. Jake had reported sighting several rippers casually prowling through
the grass on the far side of that mixed herd.

The compound didn’t crowd as many animals as was often seen clustered
together out on the vast open savanna, despite the relatively abundant grass, trees
and brush on the west side of the small river. Perhaps it was the narrow openings
they passed through, potential choke points. A pride of rippers might wait on the
other side. This hunting strategy had already been seen several times, where they
would pursue a herd to the narrow openings, where they had to crowd together and
slow down.

Rippers would focus on calves and fawns, or the oldest or injured
animals as predators always did. However, they had a knack for generating injuries
by running alongside a rhinolo or antelope and bite or swat at their feet to try
to trip them.

Other than repeated scouting near the dome at night, there had
been no more successful ripper attacks. Infrared cameras on the multiple powered
ships were always watching. The rippers learned that no matter how carefully they
stalked, their prey had always moved inside the big den or into one of the not-live
flying things well before they could get into position to spring. This prey was
cagey, and the shared mind image from one kill proved they were smart and aware.
Soon they found they were blocked from scouting close in by the growth of the not-live
deadly gray vines.

The barricade was an electric fence, built around the compound
with a radius of almost two miles, with ten heavy strands stretched between twenty-foot
high posts. They used smaller gauge wire, from rolls they found in cargo containers,
to crisscross between the gaps, with trailing wires that dangled just inches above
the cleared ground. A cement plant was planned for making concrete, so they could
pour a twelve-mile circumference strip below the fence to keep anything from digging
under. A fence was less sturdy and much lower than the wall, but it was all they
could manage for now, and to clear them of the most dangerous animals.

They made four motor driven wire mesh gates wide enough for trucks
to pass through, but without using the more elaborate and safer double lock system
the Krall had used. However, here they could easily see if anything lurked outside
the fence, as opposed to a solid wall. They could cut the charge on the gates without
killing the entire fence and Jake, or Jeb, the other AI, could do it for drivers
so they didn’t have to get out of the now fully enclosed truck cabs.

The electrical barrier gave them a certain level of protection
from a browsing rhinolo or other potentially dangerous grazers. However, an angered
and reckless charging bull could tear the fence open for others to enter before
it died. That had happened a couple of times in the daytime when bulls decided a
human was too close for comfort. The bull died for its futile effort, but it just
wasn’t smart to get near any rhinolo browsing close to the fence. You couldn’t tell
when one of them might decide you needed a lesson in respect.

However, one major fence penetration was more troubling.

Jake alerted the night watch that three rhinolo, pursued by rippers,
had charged into the fence with the second two animals passing through alive, the
rippers had withdrawn. It was during a review of the IR recording the next day that
something caught Mirikami’s attention. He invited Thad, Dillon, and two men and
a woman that had become game hunters to maintain the meat supply. They gathered
on the Bridge of the Fancy, where a large screen was available.

“I want you all to watch the rhinolo fence breach from about
two thirty this morning. There was no moon, and it was cloudy, so there was little
natural light for the rhinolo to see. As you know, normally they avoid getting very
close to the fence, apparently being smart enough to recognize it as a danger.

“I’ve had Jake superimpose the fence digitally, which doesn’t
show up very well on infrared after its cool at night. Watch the animal infrared
images carefully, and offer your comments afterwards.”

Jake ran the recording. Mirikami watched the watchers, since
he’d seen this multiple times. Thad was the first to lean forward and show signs
of increased interest, followed shortly by Dillon and all three of the experienced
hunters. He saw Thad and Dillon both glance at each other at the midpoint, proving
they had noticed what Mirikami had seen.

When it was over, he said, “Clearly, all of you saw the ripper
images in the background, before the brighter large images of the rhinolo hit the
fence. The first rhinolo cow was killed at the fence, as you know, since three of
you helped drag the animals to the rendering pit and dressed them out. Who shot
the other two that got through alive?”

The woman, Gloria, raised her hand. “I got ‘em. One of those
was a cow too, and the other was her nearly weaned calf. They were afraid to charge
at the fence to get out, and we had restrung the wire by first light to close the
gap.”

“Being reluctant to approach the fence is significant, demonstrating
that the rhinolo recognize at some level that it’s dangerous to them.” Mirikami
noted.

“Anyone care to offer me an opinion as to why they recklessly
ran into a dangerous fence in the first place?” he asked.

Both Yancy and Carlos, the two male hunters offered their opinions
that the ripper attack had spooked them, and they simply didn’t know were the fence
was in the dark. Thad and Dillon, familiar with Tet’s methods and observational
skills waited. Gloria saw more to it than that.

“Cap,” using a nickname that had caught on lately, “Those three
were running a hundred yards out from the fence, on a track to the left that would
never have hit the wire, being chased from behind by two rippers. Then three rippers
hiding ahead of them jumped out and diverted them, one came from their right, the
other two in front. The only direction open was to their left, towards the fence.
Then all five rippers bracketed them as they were chased towards the fence. They
were driven that way.”

“And then?” Mirikami was pleased with her noticing that, but
what else?

Gloria considered a moment. “The rippers stopped when the lead
rhinolo hit the fence, and it stumbled and dropped in about ten feet and skidded
another ten or twenty. The second two rhinolo came through the broken wire behind
her untouched. All five rippers stopped, and then one strolled up close to the dead
rhino, went around it and looked towards the two that kept running. Then it turned
and went back to the other rippers and they all left.”

“Thank you Gloria. Dillon, anything you can add?”

“Tet, the rippers absolutely did it on purpose and they knew
exactly where the fence was. They all pulled up just short of the wire. They expected
one or more of the prey to be killed. When that happened one of them came close
to check on the dead cow. It must have been tangled in the wire so it left it alone
to avoid a shock. Those are pretty smart animals.”

“If I tell you that Yancy and Carlos found the dead cow completely
clear of any wire?”

Yancy thought about it again. “That’s right, we did. I wonder
why it didn’t try to feed on the cow? They have on other accidental electrocutions
that fell clear of the wire. They have damn good night vision, and they obviously
saw the wires before the cows even hit them.”

“It could have seen that the broken wires were at least teen
feet away,” agreed Carlos.