Koban: When Empires Collide Read online

  “Oddly enough, these internal revolts don’t greatly disrupt the running of the empire, although it may cause it to pause an expansion, or delay suppression of some rebellious species while the new leaders consolidate control, or for the undefeated old Emperor to purge the opposition’s supporters. The history of past Thandol coups has been thoroughly studied by Maggi Fisher, and her team of Mind Tappers, who have studied the minds of two captured Thandol officers, one of whom is a high-ranking member of the Emperor’s herd, and is his second cousin.

  “You must be asking yourselves, why am I talking about Thandol politics, and social structures?” He answered the rhetorical question.

  “We hope to provoke a coup to replace Emperor Farlol the 84th, or to convince him a coup is being planned, which may divert the empire’s attention from their goal of annexing the Orion Spur territory.

  “That would gain us time, at a minimum, and can be combined with our attacks to keep their primary Thandol naval forces held defensively inside the Empire. Held back not only to defend against our attacks, but because the Emperor will suspect involvement of his own High Command with the supposed coup, or from highly placed officers in the navy that might want to bring down the Emperor. Letting powerful fleets leave the empire to attack us, and thus fall under the unchecked influence of rival males when so remote, could result in that fleet returning to surround the Emperor on his throne world, forcing his followers to yield, and result in his death and replacement.

  “A good result, from our perspective, is to help the Empire fragment into three or four regions, with at least three controlled by those security forces, and The Thandol perhaps retaining some control. We will strive to create open rebellions for the security forces, to take control of their own patrol sectors. Even if that fails, and the empire retains control, those Thandol naval forces will need to assume the security in any sector that revolted, and those ships will be unable to attack us. Fragmentation would put an end to any annexation of the Orion Spur. At least for the near future.

  “We decided on full transparency, to allow you to appreciate our common peril, and to understand why we are not going to hunker down defensively, to try to hide from an enemy that would eventually find all our inhabited worlds.”

  He gestured back to the others that sat on the stage with him. “Behind me are those that will accompany me to Earth, pausing only at Greater West Africa to pick up Admiral Mauss and General Nabarone, and fifty new Scouts built there, to deliver them to the PU Navy. The pilots of those Scouts are full Kobani, and they will Tap converted Kobani, released from the PU navy and army, to teach them how to operate the ships and the new gravity guns.

  “Wish us success, and we will keep you updated concerning our meeting on Earth, via Comtap and Instellarnet. We launch as soon as we leave the Council Chambers. Thank you.”

  They filed off the stage at the rear, to cheers and loud applause, voices sounding full of hope and confidence. Mirikami, walking between MacDougal and his wife, didn’t feel much like cheering.

  “Full transparency?” His question sounded a little bitter, from the tone in his voice. The cause was quickly revealed. “I still think I should have told them that it was probably my actions, leading the Scout attacks at Wendal and at Rogue 2, that precipitated the Emperor into ordering his rush to start the war. I misjudged how quickly the normally meticulous Thandol would move to initiate their attacks. I expected more probing small raids, and new feints by the Ragnar, at least for six months to a year. In that time, the deteriorating health of Farlol, and Maggi’s planted coup rumors, could have stayed his aggression.”

  “Stuff that attitude, Tet.” The words sounded more like they came from Maggi, but originated with the president. “I signed off on that mission, after you, and all of the participants expressed their views. Hell, Sarge wanted to kill the Emperor, and you pointed out how that would force their hands, err…, their trunks I guess, immediately. You and I presented him with the same argument against that, so we agreed that your approach seemed more likely to slow them down, and Maggi concurred. She has the greatest understanding of the Thandol psyche, from her frequent Mind Taps of Captain Halder, from that Crusher we destroyed at Meglor.”

  Maggi agreed. “I didn’t expect that strong of a reaction from the Emperor, because it would not be Captain Halder’s reaction, or that of Lieutenant Temthra. Neither is a Herd Master, and they aren’t as sexually and emotionally driven as is a Thandol male that achieves that high social status. Halder had influential relatives, and was a good commander, so he rose in ranks in that fashion, rather than by the love of power or a desire to dominate the herd.

  “I don’t think their reactions are the same as the more emotional one of a Herd Master, particularly an Imperial Herd Master. I estimated what Farlol’s reactions would be based on the emotions of the two less driven males we had with us to examine. The miscalculation was inevitable, because we were always going to place pressure on the Emperor, and if he knew it came from the Federation and we threatened his position, he would have struck out at us in the same way. Hindsight is always sharper.”

  Mirikami yielded. “OK. You could be right, and it doesn’t change the situation we’re in now anyway. Let’s get spaceborne.”

  ****

  Calling down to the dome above an underground factory, Mirikami obtained clearance to land directly from orbit to the tarmac, where the fifty new Scout ships had been parked after their shakedown flights. That always caused less consternation for nearby observers when they were forewarned, and the Mark softly popped into existence in a clear area near the south dome entrance.

  Henry Nabarone and Golda Mauss were waiting under the overhang of the entrance into the former Krall habitat. Henry looked even more fit to Mirikami’s eyes than when he last saw him. He recalled the overweight desk jockey he’d been when they first met on Poldark. Mauss was still lanky, and tall for a woman, but her Kobani physiology made her movements as smooth as a professional dancer. It forced a smile when he realized the muscular, brusque talking Nabarone moved just as gracefully as Mauss, as did any ripper or Kobani.

  They immediately started walking towards the Mark as it’s ramp extended, and the outer airlock lock hatch irised open. Because there was a normal atmosphere on Greater West Africa, the inner airlock hatch was also open, and MacDougal, Mirikami, and Fisher strode out to greet their friends, and passengers.

  There were handshakes between the men, Maggi and Golda offered handshakes that turned into hugs.

  Maggi asked, “Golda, you’ve been flitting around Rim worlds for the last two years, but have you been back to Earth?”

  “No. Not even to a Hub world. I’m quite recognizable after the war documentaries, and the revelation that I became a Federation citizen stirred several biographical profiles of me, and speculation as to why I immigrated. Defected, as one popular LOR aligned talk show host described what I did. He called for my arrest if I ever showed my face on any Hub world. He reminded his Tri-Vid watchers that as a four-star flag or general officer, in a time of war, that I was subject to recall at any time, and therefore by renouncing PU citizenship and becoming a GF citizen, I was guilty of desertion, if not treason. No matter that I continued to fight the Krall alongside the PU forces, and that the navy had forcibly put me out to pasture.”

  “Are you worried about it now, Golda? Perhaps we should meet President Strickland on more neutral ground, to protect both you and Henry from accusations of misconduct,” Mirikami suggested.

  “The war’s over, so I’m not worried about a peacetime obligation applying.” She grinned.

  Stewart smiled back, but offered a counter argument, “You don’t think the Empire’s attacks constitute a definition of war?”

  She shrugged, “For the Federation, and for Tanner’s, which is a Rim World, yes a state of war exists with the Empire. Nevertheless, no PU member planet has been attacked yet, and there has been no declaration of war against the Empire by Parliament. I believe after our meetin
g this week that situation might change, but by that time I’ll be out of the Hub region. Anyway, Henry and I have the same legal problem all of you have. We are guilty of implementing illegal gene mods at a time when we were citizens of the Planetary Union. Henry here is in deeper crap than I am, if it comes to those laws. He isn’t a Federation citizen in other than spirit, and is still an active duty general officer in the PU army.”

  Maggi’s eyes had her frequent mischievous twinkle as she looked up at Nabarone. “It would be more merciful to simply put him up against a wall and shoot him before we leave. It would save us a lot of courtroom time and attorney fees.”

  “Ha!” He countered, with a smirk. “Strickland may or may not know about me, but her VP, Bledso, sure as Hell does. They’d have to protect me to protect themselves.”

  “I doubt that would be required.” Mirikami pointed out, amused. “Their DEW party wouldn’t go after you in the first place. Even the LOR has started to change their tune on genetics, although their far-right minority base may never yield on that topic. They don’t have a significant influence on elections anymore, so they’re being ignored. Just try not to give a public interview, Henry, and blurt out some angry admission, OK?”

  “Yes,” agreed Maggi, adding her pinprick. “Do something unusual, hold your temper and keep your mouth closed in public.”

  He laughed. “Is this pot supposed to accept advice from the kettle? A whistling teapot of a diplomat at that.”

  “Touché, dear.” Which earned Mirikami a brief glare from his petite spouse, before she shrugged, nodded her acceptance of the obvious similarity between her and Henry’s blunt styles and opinions.

  Walking out of the dome behind them came fifty pilots, who were to deliver the new Scouts to Earth, and provide Mind Tap flight training to Kobani converts from the army and navy ranks. Mirikami recognized one of them immediately. It was Joe Longstreet, the former spec ops Captain. A younger looking man walking beside him seemed familiar.

  “Hi Joe. I haven’t seen you for a while. How’ve you been?”

  “Pretty good Tet. I’ve been sampling minds and recruiting candidates for Henry and Golda, then training the converts in all the new combat tricks we’ve learned with our expanded abilities. Bill here has organized three-day camps we hold for that purpose. The navy personnel in particular lack any ground combat skills, and none of the army or navy people, coming from enlisted ranks, knew how to fly anything.”

  The first name, Bill, of the familiar face was enough to trigger Mirikami’s memory matrix. “Bill Crager! I didn’t know you’d undergone the age regression treatment, you old war dog. I nearly didn’t recognize you. I guess you gave up ever going back to your First Sergeant slot on Heavyside?”

  “Hello Tet. No, I wasn’t going back anyway, not when all the fun was in the field. The camps on Heavyside were to be phased out even before we eliminated the last of the feral Krall. Highly trained spec ops became unnecessary, at least when so many regular army troopers mysteriously seemed to gain all those same skills. Our field recruiting was so successful we put the Heavyside camps out of business. The gene mod labs there were buried in a different budget allocation, so they’ve continued to make conversions when we send people to them. Admiral Foxworthy’s staff had already noticed how much vacation leave was taking place near wherever Migration ship hospitals were parked. Heavyside isn’t a very plausible vacation spot either, but at least it’s different.

  “I took retirement and discharge as soon as the war wound down and force reductions started. I had the seniority and age to muster out early. Then I signed on with Golda and Henry, to teach the new Kobani how to wipe their butts without breaking the toilets. I got Mind Tap genes on Koban at the same time I regained my youth. I learned how to fly Shadows, shuttles, and now Scouts. We’ll teach the new PU Kobani crews how to operate Scouts, and use the gravity guns to fire rods. Provided we bother to carry them anymore.”

  “Uh…, you mean you might leave out the gravity guns for the PU Scouts? They worked like a charm at Rogue 2, and if we’d only carried more rods with us we’d have caused greater damage.”

  Crager looked puzzled, glanced at Mauss, and his expression turned sheepish. “Sorry Mam, I guess I spoke out of turn.”

  She shrugged. “Don’t worry about it Bill. I was going to talk about the guns on our way to Earth.

  She looked at a confused Mirikami. “Bill didn’t mean the gravity projectors, just the rods and their gun.”

  “What about the gravity guns?” Mirikami was the one looking puzzled now.

  “Well,” she started tentatively, “they were your idea, and we didn’t want to imply they had no use in space warfare at all.”

  His confusion grew. “Golda, I authorized them to be installed on our new ships, but the gun wasn’t my idea. The design and concept are entirely the brainchild of a Raspani and a Torki. Blue Flower Eater and Coldar, whom I know you’ve met. They had to work hard to sell me on the idea, to convince me a gravity powered projectile gun was even possible, let alone practical.”

  Henry interjected. “I told you to explain it to him earlier Golda, before he left Koban. He’s not some prima donna to get upset, even if the gravity gun concept is lame. We just heard him say it wasn’t even his idea. The Prada, Torki, or Raspani couldn’t fight their way out of a thin plastic bag, not without our help and guidance, so their ideas on the proper use of weapons should always be suspect. They don’t have minds as collectively dangerous and destructive as humans do.”

  The comments had managed to confuse MacDougal as well. “What’s lame about the gravity guns? Tet’s squadron of five Scouts managed to knock out two Crushers, and nearly five hundred Thandol ships via direct fire. Then the gravity projectors steered the Crusher hulks into another thousand or so parked ships. How was that lame?”

  Mirikami grinned and raised both hands chest high, palms out, to hold off discussion. “Why don’t we step into the conference room on the Mark, get some drinks in our hands, and Golda can tell me what I was going to hear en route to Earth, while I let my AI, Jake, lift us off.”

  “It’s not called Jacob?” Henry asked.

  Mirikami talked as they entered his ship. “That AI is still installed on the Mark of Koban, which is now assigned to sentry duty in the Koban system. The personality kernel for this more advanced model computer was copied from my original JK model AI, that we called Jake. The original unit is still on the disabled Flight of Fancy, and its programmed personality traits were subsequently integrated into a newer state of the art system for this Mark. It was a bit of nostalgia on my part when I heard the original Jake was going to be phased out of controlling the power grid when The Flight of Fancy becomes a museum.

  “I know an AI doesn’t have feelings, but for twenty-five years Jake sat on the tarmac outside Prime City, helping to run the power grid. It’s not rational, but I felt like I’d abandoned a friend that helped us survive the trip to Koban, and the challenges of outwitting the Krall after that. That outdated JK computer will stay on the Fancy, of course, as the historian and guide for visitors, but the personality emulation at least gets to travel with me. It has a huge new internal database at its disposal, and instant access to Instellarnet to get other information it may be asked for, obtained from either Federation or Human Space libraries.”

  In the conference room, placed just above the centrally located Bridge, the group settled around the long table. With a chuckle and reference to Nabarone’s earlier remark, Mirikami said, “Golda, tell me what I, as an oversensitive lady opera singer, would have been upset to learn about gravity guns.”

  She laughed with him. “Tet, that was just Henry’s bombastic mischaracterization of my decision to wait. It isn’t that the rods you used have no practical application at all, but your perceived ammunition limitation at Rogue 2 caused you to allow too many of that sitting duck enemy fleet escape destruction. Their only practical defense should have been to jump for their lives, if they ever managed to get off that
airless rock in the first place.”

  “I’ll bite. What else would we have used to slam into them, after we exhausted our combined supply of five hundred rods?”

  Instead of providing a direct answer, she used one of Mirikami’s well known techniques, to guide his own thoughts. She asked him a question. “How did you launch the rods?”

  He assumed a curious expression, aware of what she was doing. “I know you know the answer; It’s done by using mini black holes to draw them down the launch tubes. Therefore, you’re obviously leading me towards something else.”

  “I am,” she admitted. “The mini black holes start small, then you use tachyon power to increase their mass in this Universe for greater gravitational pull, and guided the accelerating rods towards the targets. The black holes, if not precisely guided at the very beginning, could erode the launch tubes, right? And if not accelerated to stay barely ahead of the rods, they would eat the projectiles. Tet, why do you even have projectiles?”

  The surprise on his face was instant. “I’ll be damned! I let Blue and Coldar lead me down the primrose path they’d imagined, without question. I was so surprised they had even thought of a way to use the gravity projectors as weapons that I didn’t challenge their use of a dense material projectile.”

  MacDougal wasn’t enlightened in the slightest. “I don’t get it. What other type of projectile is there, if not material?”

  Maggi, familiar with her husband’s use of the Socratic method, which he sometimes used to push people to arrive at a logical conclusion on their own, hadn’t made the leap either. “OK, Lady Socrates,” she was looking at Mauss. “What did you just force Plato here to figure out for himself? If there’s no bullets, what good is the gun?”