Koban: When Empires Collide Read online

  The two Olt’kitapi walked towards them as well, their four supporting legs moving quickly in an odd seeming insect leg pattern, which provided continuous tripod support when moving that slow. They could walk on just two legs to employ the middle limbs simple grasper hands, or use their upper limbs in walking or climbing, which they did less often.

  “Greetings, friend Tet and friend Maggi. Please identify your companions.” Prola’s single digit gesture of her left hand, her arms held up in that mantis-like pose, also invited the introduction. Her voice came to them via their Comtaps, spoken in perfect Standard.

  Maggi noted the similarity of her opening welcome to that of their AIs, mimicking how the Dismantlers spoke, whom she conversed with more frequently.

  Nope, I’m wrong, she thought. It’s the Dismantlers that mimic the recorded Olt’kitapi mind patterns they were given.

  Taking the lead as she had previously, as a titular ambassador of the Federation, Maggi made the introductions. “The female to my right is Allyson Martin, her mate next to her is Carson Martin.” She paused the introductions as both Alyson and Carson automatically extended their right hands towards the two Olt’kitapi.

  She hadn’t thought to discuss this with either of them in advance, but Prola handled the matter in her typically direct manner.

  “New friends Alyson and Carson, I am already aware that humans do not care for the Hothor body fluid offers in their greetings, so I am certain that isn’t what is intended by your extended hands. However, I recall a mention of a handshake gesture you humans use, which if I may spare you possible injury without also offending your sensibilities, I suggest we merely nod our heads, or bow, as I saw Maggi and Tet do when first we met.”

  She explained. “Our finger-like digits are not as soft as yours appear to be, and we have a few sharp edges and pointed tips on ours. There is no need to extract any of your blood performing a needless gesture of friendship. We already consider your people to be our friends.”

  The couple lowered their hands and bowed slightly, and Alyson spoke first. “We’re pleased to finally meet with the Olt’kitapi. Although, you may be unaware of a recent genetic adaptation we Kobani have added, to defend ourselves from the Thandol Debilitater radiation weapons. We were at no risk to shake hands.”

  “We do know of that antiradiation enhancement. I was referring to doing tissue damage to your hands from our grip, and not from some form of radiation from our limbs. You are an intelligent and fast thinking people. You must be implying there was an additional benefit conferred by the same genetic modification.”

  Alyson nodded. “Yes. Our skin is now also scratch and cut proof, and puncture resistant. Battle tested, I might add, against knives and claws. With that said, I find a simple bow a satisfactory gesture.”

  Carson added his own words. “I agree with my mate, friend Prola and friend Frithda.” He repeated his slight bow.

  The two Olt’kitapi pivoted their triangular faces towards one another in a rather human-like manner, looked back at their guests, and in unison each dipped their upper thorax slightly, effecting a bow.

  Maggi, unable to suppress a grin, started a turn towards the rippers for their introduction, when Kit spoke up using her Comtap, demonstrating her sense of humor and ripper informality.

  “Greetings Prola and Frithda. My name is Kit, I’m a ripper with no hand to shake, and your digits are not as dangerous as our teeth, so you don’t want us to grip them with our mouths. Not if you want them back. How about if we each just wiggle the tips of our tails?” She demonstrated with a dexterous flip of the end of hers, as she pretended to stare expectantly at the obviously inflexible exoskeleton plates at the posteriors of the two Olt’kitapi.

  The two insects seemed momentarily confounded by her request, before Kobalt came to their aid. “My sister believes she has a sense of humor. My name is Kobalt, and your suggestion to nod our heads to acknowledge our introduction works for me.” And he demonstrated.

  There was a brief audible chittering sound. Prola and Frithda each swiveled their heads down in a nod to the rippers.

  Frithda said, “Greetings, friend Kit and friend Kobalt.”

  “It appears,” Prola added, “that humans and rippers share more than a few genetics. We have previously experienced human examples of humor. You just heard our laughter, a trait we also evolved, suggesting that most intelligent beings appreciate the absurdities of incongruous words and actions.”

  “These two rippers,” Mirikami informed them, “were the first ever raised entirely with a human family. Their minds are a blend of human and ripper thoughts, but rippers in the wild had a well-developed sense of humor before humans met them. As you know, we derived our Mind tap ability from them. The rippers have an ethos, a set of beliefs if you prefer, founded in large part on their ability to read the minds of their prey. Yes, they are predators and kill to eat, even enjoy the kill. But, they have a sense of the value of the lives they take and don’t kill needlessly. They have fought and killed Krall to defend their home and families, and their prides. Humans are part of their extended prides now.

  “We humans have also fought and died to protect them. By sharing their telepathic ability, I believe that we Kobani have incorporated some of their ethos. Not entirely, because we evolved with different evolutionary drives, but they have had a moderating effect on our baser instincts. As the Koban gene mods spread to more humans over the centuries, I predict they will be passed to most of the trillion people in the Planetary Union, and then all humans will experience the moderating influence of Mind Taps.”

  Prola sounded encouraging. “That may be a factor in your favor, when The Silha experiences you, to determine the probable future for your species, if you are to be left unmoderated.”

  “Unmoderated?” Maggi asked. “What did you learn about it? You must have found references of its interaction with your ancestors. What do you mean by experience us?”

  “We found no reference to The Silha, and it did tell us it arrived in the Milky Way after my ancestors were dead. We discovered an earlier encounter of my ancestors with a different advanced being, which seems similar. It contacted my ancestors long after their development of their first gravity projectors. It came to them only when they dismantled the first test planet in a star system with no life, to develop the techniques for isolating the debris to use for constructing sample habitat shells.

  “Our records report the being had said it monitored my ancestors from a distance when they built and used their first gravity projectors. Prior to the planet dismantling, it had no imperative to learn more about a Type one species, but placed them in monitor status when they developed the tools to advance towards a Type two species.”

  “A Type one or two species?” Mirikami was intensely interested.

  “Yes, these are the terms I found in a copy of the human library you provided to us after we first met. It is written about more than once, of a description of how advanced a people are.”

  “I’ve heard of a term that sounds like that, called the Kardashev scale, but that classifies civilizations by how much energy they control. It wasn’t a species measure.”

  Prola said, “Species that advance to control all the energy output of their planets, are advanced to Type one from Type zero, then controlling the energy of the stars of those planets is Type two, and spreading to control the energy output of much of the galaxy that contain those stars is Type three. The species inevitably evolve and change as they develop the technology over a lengthy time. My ancestors achieved Type one status, and then proved they had built the tools and knowledge needed to evolve and advance to a Type two species, or call it a civilization if you wish, but our species also evolved and changed as we advanced. We did, and so has yours, although humans appear to have partly skip the slow progress of both technology, and of your own evolution.

  “It was the first planet my ancestors dismantled that drew attention. That was when The Jing|!| arrived to experience them.” The soun
d she made resembled the word “geng” with the soft pop of a pulled cork at the end.

  Mirikami wanted clarification. “You believe it was like The Silha, but called The Jing, with a pop sound at the end that I can’t easily speak. The Silha is now coming to meet you, and humans as well?”

  “Yes. To experience a people that now possesses and has used the tools of a Type two technology and species.”

  Mirikami patted his lower lip. “Experience. There’s that term again. You Olt’kitapi are here to be experienced again because you are starting your habitat construction with gravity control. How does that involve humanity? We may have settled a lot of planets, but we’ve not used our technology to use all the energy of any one of our planets.”

  The two insects pivoted their heads to stare at each other again, then with a brief chitter of insect laughter, they looked back at him. “Your humor has greater depth than expected.”

  Maggi realized they had misunderstood her husband. They clearly thought Tet was joking in some fashion, so she allowed them to think that, but acted as if she were the one that had missed the point. “Are you saying it is not here to experience you? Whatever that means?”

  Frithda was kind. “It was your mate’s subtle humor, friend Maggi. My species was declared ready for progress to a Type two species long ago, and that has not changed. As Friend Tet understood, The Silha is only here to determine if humanity has evolved enough to be trusted with the tools of a Type two species. It was amusing of him to humbly suggest otherwise.

  “Although, humanity has bypassed part of the technology of completing all the phases of planetary energy control, which defines a Type one species, by repeatedly moving to new stars before you ran short of energy. That isn’t unexpected for a daring and adventuresome species like yours, who expands rapidly, and adapts to, or changes unsuitable planets to meet your needs.

  “The keys we think for humans to have reached this point so early in your history, is the degree of evolution, both physical and technological that you have attained, with the borrowed and embedded Comtaps with instantaneous long-range tachyon communications, combined with your extraordinary borrowed genetic enhancements and superconducting brains. Then, you took one of our gravity projectors and replicated it for your use.

  “Yes, we determined how Tet managed to do that, when he properly prevented Huwayla from inadvertently destroying an inhabited planet. From that technology example, you were intelligent enough to replicate it and learn how to use it as a powerful tool, and as a weapon. It doesn’t matter how you arrived at the threshold of a Type two species, The Silha knows that you have.”

  Mirikami shrugged, and gave Maggi a concealed wink at her cleverness to pull that information from their hosts. He wasn’t that deep of a humorist. Now another key question needed an answer.

  “What is The Silha, and the other one that met with your ancestors?”

  “We cannot know for certain, nor did our ancestors, but we suspect The Jing|!|, and The Silha, are representatives of a Type four or higher species.”

  “What would that be, if a Type three civilization harnesses the energy output of an entire galaxy?”

  Prola said, “You continue to equate a civilization’s Type level with the energy use of that species. There are questions you have not asked or considered. Could it not evolve further without using its technology to control the entire energy output of its home galaxy? Would a species continue to evolve after achieving Type three? Would it need to harness an entire galactic cluster? You Kobani have bypassed most of Type one, why could not other species bypass other steps? As I suspect your impetuous species will also do.

  “For unfettered Type two species, with perhaps three or four arising within each galaxy in its early history, capturing the output of nearly every star in every galaxy would be inevitable, given enough time. The Universe we live in is nearly fourteen billion years old. We Olt’kitapi spent a hundred fifty thousand of your standard years after reaching space to achieve the threshold of a Type two species, and we developed at what we believe is a typical rate, as have the Thandol, and to a lesser extent their security forces. The Empire’s subservient species are stalled by the Thandol, until the oppressors evolve, or lose control.

  “You humans went from Type zero to the same threshold our ancestors reached in only seven hundred standard years. What does that imply to you? Think of the age of this galaxy, and the age of the Universe, and what you see when looking out into the Universe.”

  Mirikami saw where she was leading. “We still see billions of stars without Dyson swarms or spheres around them in the Milky Way, and billions of old galaxies still glowing. We can’t see the most distant galaxies as they might look today, but I’d bet they are the same as those nearby. If they didn’t go dark, there may be no Type threes after all this time, perhaps they skipped that step, or were prevented from dominating an entire galaxy. The Milky Way should have been completely settled by now, densely populated with the early species that arose long ago, and would be mostly dark. Do you think the first Type threes became Type fours, and have halted the process elsewhere?”

  Prola countered. “If they allow Type twos to enclose as many stars as they want, that would still dim a galaxy after this length of time. The Jing|!| did not threaten to prevent my ancestors from building Excelsior, nor did The Siha suggest it would prevent us from doing this. It also did not specifically say it would prevent or slow your own species from advancement to a Type two species or civilization. It may do so after it experiences you, if it is not satisfied.”

  “Darn it,” Mirikami complained. “What does that mean, experience? Satisfied with what? Do the records say what The Jing-pop did with your ancestors? Excuse my mangling of their name.”

  “We don’t know, Friend Tet. The Olt’kitapi that met with The Jing|!| did not discuss what happened. Not where we have been able to locate records, anyway. This is all we really know of them, and our suspicion that they are beyond a Type three species is a logical extrapolation without evidence. The Silha will arrive in a quarter of one of your days and we will know then.

  “Are you hungry?”

  The sudden change of subject was jarring, but the offer was welcome. At least it was until the choices of food was presented. Only humans and their hosts had palatable choices, because the rippers were unexpected guests.

  ****

  A meal of fruit, nuts, and water finished, the four Kobani were adequately sated, although Kim and Kobalt were less than thrilled with any of the fare, of mostly assorted fleshy leaves and cooked or raw insects that the Olt’kitapi had to offer. The brown and dried thumb sized worms were the least repulsive smelling thing at the waist high pedestals the Olt’kitapi stood at to eat. The cats, having eaten several hours before they left the ship, lapped at bowls of cool water.

  The atmosphere within the inflated and compartmentalized dome was more oxygenated than the outside air on Egg, and was surprisingly fragrant. There were hundreds of pots of plants that Tet and Maggi had not seen on Canji Dol when they met with the Olt’kitapi there. Inquiring, they learned these were not plants native to the Hothor worlds at all. Using their own ships, they had traveled to some of their lost worlds, and retrieved plants and shrubs gone wild from former gardens. Their ancestors had enjoyed cultivating and breeding colorful leafy plants and flowering shrubs, particularly those that were aromatic. It seemed the insects had an eclectic taste for sweet smelling beauty. The six visitors roamed among the unusual plants, pausing to speak to other Olt’kitapi, and the cats frilled any aliens that asked them to do so. After two hours of this, only a sharp word from Carson prevented a bored Kobalt from performing an embarrassing act, unsuitable as a guest of such gracious hosts.

  “Kobalt! No! You can’t mark that bush.”

  Sniffing it again, after having circled it in a recognizable fashion that Carson knew all too well, the cat complained. “It smells insufferably sweet. And it’s colored the same blue as plants at home. Pee would improve its sme
ll.”

  Wagging a finger in admonishment, Carson decided it was time to do what he and his wife had been invited along to do. “Why don’t you and Kit return to the Mark with me and Alyson, to get some red meat. It’s close to time for The Silha to meet Uncle Tet and Aunt Maggi. It asked for them by name, not us.”

  Mirikami, amused, watched Kobalt start back to the Mark, with Carson, Alyson, and Kit watching him until he was out of the dome. He’d lapped up a lot of water at their unsatisfactory not-meal, so his desire to mark wasn’t entirely a matter of claiming territory.

  Prola and Frithda approached, presumably to escort Maggi and Tet to wherever The Silha’s ship was expected to land.

  Maggi asked, “Will we watch the landing from outside? If it normally spends up to a year or more traveling between galaxies, I’d think its ship would be large. Perhaps the main vessel will stay in orbit, and it’ll micro Jump down in a shuttle.”

  “Friend Maggi,” Prola answered, “it shared nothing of itself, or its mode of travel. Nor do we know how its predecessor arrived to meet our ancestors. It only said it would seek myself and Frithda, wherever we were, and requested that you be with us, if you agreed to appear.”

  “How long do we have to wait?”

  “The arrival time, which we carefully coordinated with mind enhancer timekeeping, is upon us.”

  “Where is it then?” Mirikami asked, as a very soft pop sounded a few feet in front of him.

  “The Silha has arrived.” Frithda pointlessly replied.

  It was as impressive an arrival as it was unimposing. That it could appear inside the inflated dome, amid the four creatures that were awaiting its arrival was astonishing. That amazement was offset by an appearance that was entirely unthreatening, and which was in clear contrast to the power it claimed to represent.