Koban: Rise of the Kobani (65 page)

To do so many mods, starting from scratch with you men, we may need to do these in several stages, but we have now mastered all of the various processes.” He listed the three new mods that had been waiting in the wings.

“There is a set of genes to furnish us with ultrasonic hearing, possibly not as keen as that of the Krall, but we at least won’t need ears that pop out of our head to hear those frequencies.

“We will be able to smell the world almost the way the tiger-like rippers do, and we will have the night vision of those same predators. They partly use more of the ambient low light than we do, and their range reaches well into the infrared. It also includes the fringes of ultra violet frequencies.

“Understand this truth, my normal human friends. If you choose to become a Kobani, it means you will become one real dangerous badass in combat.” He didn’t think a sales pitch was needed, but there it was anyway.

“Excuse me, Dillon. I think we ten may have a problem.” It was Trakenburg. Doubts and sour notes were often ready at hand for him. He felt relief that he and his men were being included, but the vision and nerve mods worried him. “We have eye implants for IR vision, and a retinal data display that is interfaced with our onboard AI. We have platinum alloy overlays for nerve system control of our Booster Suits. I think they might get in the way of some of your gene mods.”

“You may have a valid point about the vision modification.” Dillon nodded. “We’ll have to study those before we mess with something you have that works. It does what we can’t duplicate biologically, with your internal data projection system.

“However, I’m on the design team for the mods, and the parallel nervous system of organic superconductors won’t care about those extra wires under your skin, any more than yours or our existing original nerves care. You automatically learn to use the faster responding superconductor set.

“Besides, I don’t think you will need the wire overlays to control those Booster Suits once you can see how much more you can do without wearing the suits. The suits can’t make you move as fast as the superconductor nerves and new muscles will, and I’ll bet you’ll find that even if the suits add extra strength, they will nevertheless slow your reaction speed down. We will have to see how that works out as we go. You may find ways to use both.”

The colonel was satisfied. “Fair enough. I also want my men to know that their acceptance of any of these gene mods is entirely their own decision.”

Mirikami stepped in again, to reassure them. “Please understand. We have thousands of people on Koban that have opted not to receive
any
of these mods. Others that wanted children only accepted the minimum number of clone mods that enabled that to happen in our gravity. We respected their wishes, and we will respect yours. They have paid personally for that choice by suffering under the gravity of Koban. Our 1.52 g’s is seven percent higher than what you experienced for your Heavyside training. You may already have noticed that we have increased gravity internally to 1.25 Earth normal. By tonight, it will be at what we consider normal at home. We need to readapt from Poldark’s low gravity.

“Incidentally, the talk about the gene mod improvements led me off track. Mentioning the people that refused our genetic mods helped me to recall other news.”

No dramatic pause this time. “There is a second habitable planet in the Koban system, which Captain Greeves started exploring when she returned, just before we started training with you men on Poldark. She named it Haven.

“It has gravity slightly less than Earth’s. Its name is appropriate, because it is where we will send some of our people to live. Those without gene mods that want out of Koban’s gravity well. It’s where the three alien races that the Krall enslaved will live, if we are able to rescue any of them. The biggest news to report is that there were representatives of two alien species living there already, in small numbers.”

Sarge, who had been quiet, spoke up immediately. “I’d love to meet an alien that isn’t out to kill me. It could be an interesting conversation if someone can translate.”

“Sarge, once you have the ripper frilling mods, you can sit down with them and ask your own questions, mind-to-mind. Maggi implies the Torki in particular are easy to work with, even if they are giant purple crabs with yellow legs.”

Mirikami enjoyed the startled looks on the ten spec ops men, as they wondered what kind of bizarre new life they had agreed to accept. Their reaction to these aliens might be a chance to see how the rest of humanity would react, once there were aliens to meet that didn’t want to kill you, or wouldn’t try to eat your nasty flavored butt if they needed food, and then complain as they chewed.

“For my part,” Mirikami continued, “Using our original genetic procedures, I was prepared to try the risky muscle and bone mods to increase my ability to handle the acceleration a Krall ship like this one can dish out. That was before we had the new nanites. Our previous roadblock to risk free full genetic upgrades has been removed. I can’t speak for anyone else, but I damn well intend to be a TG2 when I take the Mark of Koban out after those Krall bastards.”

  “Can we newbies get all of the mods in time for that mission?” Longstreet asked. “I damn well want to go. I joined you for the opportunity to fight them on their turf, even though I expected to be a physical liability. I was going along as an advisor in exchange for what I could teach you. This is more than I expected, but exactly what I wanted.”

His sentiments were echoed by Trakenburg and the other eight troopers. Not that Mirikami and his team were surprised by their attitude. The interview Mind Taps had revealed that all of these men sincerely wanted TG ability, but had come anyway despite thinking it could not be achieved, being limited to the less effective clone mods.

“I’ll have some of our TG1’s provide each one of you with one-on-one briefings of what the Mind Tap ability is like to use, and they will spend hours with you in the next five days passing along the history and specifics about Koban. I want you prepared to meet our rippers, how they look, think, and act. They are our most important partners on Koban, and if you hadn’t figured it out yet, some of our most vital genetic enhancements were derived from them. Thanks to rippers, you will be faster, stronger and more deadly than you ever imagined. Oh…, and you’ll be able to Mind Tap.” Their eyes reflected their eagerness to get started.

“Another cooperative species, not as intelligent as the rippers but smarter than any animals you have encountered anywhere else, are the wolfbats, a large flying mammal and a predator. Their genetic contribution is providing us with the means to hear into the ultrasonic range. Our TG’s carbon nano tube reinforced bones come courtesy of a dinosaur-like raptor, which can run at speeds and leap heights you wouldn’t believe in that gravity.

“Carson and Ethan told me a short time ago that an unexpected offshoot of the wolfbat modification is still being investigated. It seems the hearing mod gradually changes how efficiently people organize and save information in an organic superconducting neural network. It appears to be a result of how efficiently the wolfbats store and retrieve mental pictures. It was evolved to process echolocation data, and to organize the massive amount of information they receive.

“We can’t process echolocation sounds, which we can’t make anyway, but the superior data organization realized in the much larger human brain leads to an improvement in our memory storage and learning, with faster recall.”

Thad told them, “Not only will you love Koban’s beauty, but being a full Kobani means you can go outside and enjoy its beauty with far less risk. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still a dangerous place even after you have these mods. Don’t face off against a white raptor unarmed, or try to pet a rhinolo.

“However, it’s probably no more dangerous for a TG on Koban than it was for the weak, naked apes we once were in the forests and on the plains of ancient Africa. After you’ve lived on Koban, I think you’re going to find there aren’t many dangerous species you can’t get away from, or even beat one-on-one when you meet them. It will make being friendly and trusting safer.”

Mirikami wrapped up the briefing. “We have some planning to do, Krall targets to consider, and we need to set a time table for conducting our first raid to hurt the enemy. I hope the aliens on Haven will be able to advise us on where we should go first. Let’s split up into groups and get started.”

****

Five days later, the Mark of Koban performed a White Out a thousand miles above the equator of its namesake. The blue seas a shimmering contrast with the lush teal foliage, the occasional red-browns of deserts and dunes, with the white capped gray mountains and volcanic ranges. The additional view screens they’d had installed around the ship furnished the entire complement with the images. It was Home for most, and a new home for ten.

“Sir, the Avenger and the Beagle are both in close polar orbits.” Jakob informed Mirikami.

“Call them and Link them on viewer’s number one for Beagle and number two for Avenger.” He would use the ship’s unique skin coating to have a joint meeting between all three ships, assuming Noreen and Marlyn were aboard. They might have taken a shuttle down.

Mirikami didn’t see the Falcon, which Chief Haveram was bringing home with the last of the consumer goods and clothing they had bought for the fashion starved residents. Homespun clothing got old for many residents, who craved stylish, colorful, and durable attire. Hundreds of bolts of Smart Fabric, and a programmable Tailor Made brand machine had thousands of preloaded patterns of past and current fashions. Any would-be designers had the ability to innovate their own local styles.

Dillon, Thad, and both of their sons clustered near the screens as they lit up. Looking as if they were in an adjacent room, Marlyn and Noreen appeared smiling, looking at their husbands and oldest sons.

“Captains, hello” Mirikami began. “I didn’t expect to see you both in orbit. I wasn’t sure the Avenger would beat us here. Why the orbital gathering? I don’t see the Falcon. Chief Haveram was bringing home a small freighter we bought at Poldark, with consumer goods aboard.”

“Hi, Tet,” Noreen responded. “The Avenger has been here almost four hours, and I radioed Marlyn, who Jumped back from Haven to join me. The Falcon beat us both home, Tet. That’s a speedy boat, according to the chief. He had landed at Hub City even before I arrived. He’ll head to Prime City after unloading the goods for those local textile merchants.

“Don’t plan on landing immediately. Maggi left word with Jake to ask that we stay in orbit until all three ships could rendezvous. They knew our two ships were both due sometime today, via our Jump Tap messages, and Maggi has a celebration planned at Prime City.”

Marlyn, her face beaming, sat on an acceleration couch on the Beagle. “Welcome Home, Gentle Men. Maggi thought it would be great if all three ships landed in formation in a triumphant joint return. The Beagle has been here, of course, but seeing the three ships land together will be an event for everyone. We have visitors from Hub City coming, or they may already be there. I understand you have ten new members for our community aboard.  Maggi has a welcome all arranged for your guests, and for hers below.”

Smiling back, he told them, “Ladies, I’ll be delighted to have us all join the celebration. We haven’t had much in the way of formal ceremonies here over the last
twenty years, so things might be a bit screwed up, but let’s go for it. When do we land, and how did Maggi plan to have us clustered?”

The details were simple and Marlyn outlined them briefly. “The Mark will land closer to the south entrance, between the dome and the Flight of Fancy. The Avenger and Beagle are to land with the Fancy at the center of our triangle points. Many of the family members of the returning TGs and TG1s are already waiting inside the Fancy. Other guests will come out of the dome when the dust and vapors blow away in the afternoon breeze.”

It was the middle of autumn for Prime City, so the temperature on the tarmac would be cool and comfortable for those not genetically adapted for Koban’s summer heat.

Mirikami repeated the conversation to the rest of the ship, and the TGs were thrilled to have a big welcome home. Other than high school graduation, they had never had a large gathering in their honor.

After that, he spent time talking with Marlyn about the aliens, what they were like, how they were reacting to us, and how they felt about the Krall. They were interrupted soon, when Jake advised that the tarmac area had been cleared for their arrival.

In a short amount of
time, they were ready for landing. On cue, the AI’s for the three ships started the thrust vectors to drop out of orbit, and form up for the landing.

As they dropped closer to the surface, the AIs reduced the main thrusters and shifted lift control over to the lateral maneuvering thrusters, located higher on the ship. The purpose of this less fuel-efficient method was to reduce the heat on the tarmac, where people would soon be walking. The Krall, with their tough feet and talons, always raced across blazing hot pavement at each landing, even when not on a raid. It took the finesse of the built-in automated landing systems of the clanships to accomplish this, rather than the usual Krall pilot’s lack of concern for comfort, and a desire for speed. It was possible that none of the automated landing systems had ever been employed.

The three ships thundered down, surrounding the disabled Flight of Fancy. The instant their landing jacks touched, the thrusters all shut off simultaneously.