Koban 6: Conflict and Empire (54 page)

“With that insight into their own minds as a guide, the Torki believe the compound eyes of the Olt’kitapi may have contributed to their exceptional mathematical ability, and helped them master the interdimensional geometries, which led them to develop an early Jump capability. They were mathematically aware of higher dimensions of Tachyon Space long before they discovered how to design ships with the ability to reach those levels. It’s why their Jump engine design for clanships could be modified with minor hardware and complex software, to reach T-cubed travel in Tachyon Space. We humans didn’t even see that geometric possibility, and our engine designs, to first travel in level one, then for level two they had to be scrapped, and yet again redesigned to reach level three for the even higher speeds. Only now do human engines have the triple level capability. Makes you wonder what else those bug eyes helped them learn that we don’t know.”

She found out quicker than she expected. She and Mirikami had been using their Comtaps to communicate via tachyon modulation for greater security, despite being so close together that lower power radio would work perfectly and more efficiently. This way they had a system that couldn’t be detected or intercepted. So they thought.

Unexpectedly, via their Comtaps they heard, “We agree that our improved grasp of geometries is related to the multiple visual images we must integrate, and which our brains blend to furnish us a synthesis of the Universe around us. We sense that your remarkable matrix memory provides you with rapid access to a large amount of information you can store biologically. We admire that flexibility, and redundancy. That biological solution is in addition to the technology of your mind enhancers, and that library storage area is based on the designs we provided to the Raspani, Torki, Krall’tapi, and the Flandarlans.”

Who’s that talking?
Maggi asked her husband, her hand touching his to share the thought privately and telepathically.

Mirikami answered the previous speaker via Comtap, while Maggi was still trying to decide who was talking. He knew who. There was none of the mental familiarity a Kobani sensed with Comtap use, when it was any creature they knew personally and had sensed their thoughts previously, but he was observant and intuitive.

Having seen a finger-like digit flip up briefly, on the purple alien approaching them, he said in Standard, translated to Hothor, “Greetings Prola. We didn’t know you had decided to adapt mind enhancers again, so soon after learning they were the source of the emotional risks your ancestors faced. My wife and I are both curious. How did you obtain our two different device addresses?”

Before she answered that question, she expressed her own surprise. “You knew I spoke to you both, but I did so independently, not in a group link. From your words you knew she wanted to know who was speaking to your mind enhancers, although I spoke to each of you separately, because I do not know the protocol of your devices for linking you together, as in a conference discussion.” She displayed the same quick analytical mind they had encountered on their first meeting.

“You exchanged information between you, but I did not sense tachyon or radio modulation of your mate speaking to you, by what you call a Comtap. Do humans have some form of mind to mind communications?”

Deliberately blocking her thoughts for anyone but her husband, Maggi said mentally via hand contact,
“They figured out I sent you a thought because we weren’t on our guard, but we had best keep our thoughts private for now. I doubt they know we can do that, but they will learn soon enough.”

“Right! But I may as well admit we have telepathy. All of Federation and Human Space knows that.”
Now he answered the last question.

“Yes, Prola, and if you can receive me, I include you Frithda. Only the Kobani variation of humanity, of which we are examples, have what we call contact telepathy. We must touch someone to use it.” With Comtaps, that wasn’t strictly true, but why elaborate if not required?

“It is one of our genetic enhancements, as is the memory matrix that can be linked to our Comtaps. Both memory matrix and telepathy gene modifications are possible because of our organic superconductor nerves, which we also obtained genetically, from the unique native life on the planet Koban, our adopted home.”

A different “voice” came through their Comtaps, and a tan digit wave told them that it was Frithda. “We had deduced you had a high gravity musculature, and your observed grace of movement and reflex speed also implied to us you had such a physical ability. We did not know it was artificially added, much as our mind enhancers used technology to support and improve our minds. You have added that to your remarkable biological enhancements. We would be extremely reluctant to risk such a serious alteration of our genetics, a science with which we have relatively little experience. It must have been a valuable contribution in your war against the Krall.”

“It was. Faced with the long and extensive Krall breeding program, that was why we risked extreme genetic changes. Although, humans employed disastrous gene changes in a war previously, and we paid the price of near extinction. There are certainly dangers involved. For our only chance to win the war against the Krall, or be exterminated, we accepted the risk.

“However, I still don’t understand how you discovered our Comtap device addresses, which use the same complex addressing that all of your devices use, with an almost infinite set of addresses possible. We normally have to meet someone and share a radio link first, before we can exchange our device address. Or we can provide, or receive, a database that lists many such links, normally with a basic listing of who will answer each address, and those are stored on our Comtap, Olt, or mind enhancer. Did you obtain such a list that included our addresses?”

“No,” Frithda admitted. “We don’t know where we could find such a list. But it wasn’t required. You were speaking to one another as you approached us, using a long range instant communications mode. Our mind enhancers sensed the tachyon modulation, and although we still do not know what your specific addresses are, we know that the first part of every communication between you contained that unknown address, as the only part that is repeated each time you communicate. We simply copied and used that initial pattern as the unknown address, because we knew from your proximity that the modulations originated from the two of you. Had you been on your ship in space, it wouldn’t have been possible to identify that exchange out of the web of many such communications and random noise.”

“Oh.” Was all Mirikami could think to say to that simple explanation. He’d just learned that “tachyon talk,” as some young Kobani called it, was actually sort of a community party-line, provided you had the means to detect the modulation, and if the data that was exchanged, after the address was sent, was not encrypted. That would be the next enhancement for Comtaps, to employ encryption for information they had foolishly thought was impossible to intercept, except by the intended receiver. They had routinely encrypted short range radio communications via Comtaps, knowing those could certainly be intercepted.

He and Maggi exchanged their device addresses with the two Olt’kitapi, and obtained theirs in exchange, for the sake of future long range instant communication. They had the option of blocking calls from them, as they could for any annoying callers in the highly unlikely event open communications with them proved to be ill advised.

Those details handled, Maggi was curious, “You have mind enhancers again. How will you protect yourselves from the tragedy that befell your race, when they were trying to stop the Krall attacks on them? Destroying the Krall home world was traumatic, and the sensing of those deaths proved more emotional than your ancestor’s minds could accept. Have you altered your minds?” The question was rhetorical, since she knew what had probably been done.

Prola answered, and confirmed her supposition. “The libraries of stored data contained technical information on use of the mind enhancers. We have removed the software coding that permitted them to automatically sense, interpret, and report the finest details of low energy tachyons. You might say we now have medium level sensitivity as a default, with the ability to adjust to an even less sensitive level if circumstances require. We sensed your own tachyon communications at that midlevel. If one of our people, with the newly adjusted parameters, should become mentally unstable and killed many members of any intelligent species at one time, they may regret their actions later, but not at a level where they could not endure continued existence.”

Mirikami felt less than reassured. “That’s good for your species. Is it good for the rest of us?”

Her answer was blunt. “You Kobani have caused billions of the Krall to die, and yet you can’t even sense the disturbance caused when their conscience minds break the links to the low level tachyon background field. I suspect most of your people do not feel guilt or regret at those actions against the Krall. We would feel that guilt and regret, but more weakly now, even if the actions were necessary for our survival. Today, we would survive the destruction of the Krall’s home world under the same circumstances that pushed our ancestors into taking that terrible and drastic action.

“We will not criticize the choices you have made for the survival of your species, but we were never a predatory or aggressive species due how our natural evolution progressed. We have not, we could not, and we would not want to artificially enhance our minds and bodies to become the most dangerous species we have yet encountered. Although, you humans often show empathy and compassion for others. Perhaps the telepathic ability of you Kobani humans serves to reinforce those traits, yet clearly does not limit your ability to defend your own interests.

“You have demonstrated those emotions with the Hothor and the other repressed species under the Thandol. As well as saving the peoples our ancestors helped to elevate to intelligence, the Torki and Raspani. Unfortunately, the gentle Flandarlans were made extinct by the Krall, before their mind enhancers had raised them far enough to achieve more than local interplanetary travel. They could not flee to other stars. According to our Dismantlers there is no record of them now, so they were all apparently lost.”

Mirikami realized the mystery species just named was simply one more of the unknown names of some of the races the Krall had completely eliminated. Prola was right. He didn’t feel regret at being responsible for destroying so many Krall, nor would he feel guilt, if those he ordered preserved out of hope for a better future for them, failed to overcome their deliberately inbred violent tendencies, and wiped themselves out on the world where they were now trapped.

Maggi and he were about to broach the real subject of their visit, when the astute mind of an Olt’kitapi again was displayed.

Frithda said, “We believe you have come to invite us into the Federation, to join you. Even if our old worlds and colonies are available to us, we do not wish to return to them. Those worlds are no longer our home, nor is Canji Dol our home, and here we place our hosts, the Hothor, at risk if the Thandol Empire unravels and enters a period of chaos. If we are found here, our benefactors may not survive the revenge taken. We want to go to where our ancestors were about to construct a multispecies habitat, which you have described as a Dyson Swarm, of individual planetary radius habitats. There is a name for that system in the Hothor language, which appears to most closely match a word in the Standard data base you furnished to them. We think you would call that star system Excelsior, as the place where we would bring many species together in peace, to allow them and ourselves, to eventually elevate our minds to a higher plane of existence, which our perception of the geometry of the Universe suggests may be possible.”

After a momentary awed silence, Maggi found her tongue. “Yes. Well, we do intend to invite you Olt’kitapi to live in the Galactic Federation, even if you still believe our name is overly grand for the small portion of the galaxy we claim. Are you sure all of your people wish to move there?”

Frithda splayed all twelve of his hand-like digits briefly. “We project that you humans will attempt to fragment the Empire, and if successful, will try to assimilate the pieces in the far future, into a growing Galactic Federation that may live up to the name you have selected. As for our people, why do you think so many have moved closer to you this time?” He waved his right appendage, the longest finger length grasper extended, to direct their eyes to the thousands of multicolored insects looking back at them. The other Olt’kitapi knew exactly what was being discussed.

“We are ready to come out from under our camouflage. We are natural builders and makers, and we desire to build and make great things again. With the regained knowledge of how to do it, contained in the many mind enhancers we were able to recover, we can do it more quickly than we thought. We want to create Excelsior.”

Mirikami cautioned them. “The only habitable place in that system is a planet sized moon of a super gas giant. It isn’t very welcoming, but your Dismantlers have survived there for many thousands of years. That red dwarf star may last a hundred billion years, but it doesn’t produce a great deal of energy to grow food on that world. We’ll help you if we can, of course, but we may find ourselves in a full scale war with the Empire.”

Prola dismissed concern over how they would cope with their new home. “We will have the raw materials to make what we require. Safe transport to there is all that we need to protect the Hothor, and the faithful Dismantlers are so large, that they cannot safely travel as fast as the small ship you used today. As for you providing us with resources to become established, we decline. As you suspect, you will be needing all the resources you can gather, and more. We have intercepted recent Thandol long-range tachyon communications.”