Koban: The Mark of Koban Read Online Free

lifting 425 pounds on Koban.
He could squat (he hated that term) 450 pounds, or about 684 in the higher
gravity. He had dead lifted 400 pounds, equivalent to just over 600 here.
    Although Dillon was still increasing what he could lift, Jake
informed him, in a bit of ego deflation, that his present efforts were not
world records if adjusted to Earth gravity. However, this was still far better
than other unmodified long-term captives on Koban could do, with years more of
muscle adaptation behind them. Including Thad.
    Therefore, when they parked the shuttle, the two newly
rejuvenated and competitive men raced one another to the top of the rocky hill.
Dillon would have won, but Thad Greeves, a former military man and a Colonel, cheated
by gleefully shoving him off a boulder into a deep drift, and beat the younger
man to the top.
    Laughing as he caught up with him at the crest, Dillon told
him, “You know I would have beaten you if you hadn’t cheated.” Neither man was
breathing very hard.
    Thad grinned. “In combat there’s no such thing as cheating.
You win or you’re dead.”
    “Hey,” Dillon protested, “this wasn’t combat!”
    “I know, so I cheated,” Thad laughed. “You’re lucky I didn’t
push you into that deep crevasse full of snow, just below the crest. I’d be sitting
here eating yak jerky waiting for you.”
    “It would serve you right if you had to eat that crud
for cheating,” Dillon told him with a grimace. “It’s called yak jerky
for its wonderful flavor.”
    “That’s just the spices I used. It isn’t so bad.” Thad
answered, defending his homemade snack. “I’ve eaten worse in field training.”
    “Well, I’ll settle for fresh yak steaks, medium rare
tonight,” and Dillon looked out towards the distant herd through the gray haze,
still plodding towards them.
    Thad advised, “We may as well settle down between these two
largest boulders to get out of the wind. I’m not cold yet, but these parkas and
our cold adaptation can only do so much. We have about half an hour before they
get close enough. I have some of Tet’s Earth coffee in a self-warming bottle
with me.”
    “Won’t the coffee smell give us away?” Dillon asked.
    “To a herd that was already downwind of this hill, sure.
Check the wind direction mighty hunter.” Thad teased. “Besides, our own human
scent is enough to alert them. They just don’t equate us with danger, not yet
anyway. Any strange smell might keep them too far away to shoot.”
    Slipping down between the two large boulders near the top,
they used their gloved hands to scoop out piled snow to make a sheltered
hollow, with an opening to the north, so they could still observe the distant
yaks.
    Thad triggered the power cell of a small bottle of coffee he
pulled from his backpack, removing the cup-sized cap. “I’ll give you the cup,
and I’ll drink from the bottle. It only holds about two cups worth anyway.”
    In barely a minute, they were enjoying the hot Earth-brew
coffee, which didn’t seem to taste as good when the beans were from anywhere
but Earth. Supposedly first cultivated by the mythical Juan Valdez, whoever he
had been.
    The two men made small talk for a time. They discussed the
people that had chosen to move to the abandoned main Krall compound on the
southeastern coast, now called Hub City by its new residents. The name reflected
their support for the laws and customs of the Hub worlds of Human Space. They
disapproved, strongly in some cases, of the genetic modifications of humans conducted
at Koban Prime. That was the former Krall compound, now called Prime City, where
the aliens housed their human combat test “animals.” The bio-scientists from
the Flight of Fancy had found several thousand willing volunteers for gene
mods, mostly from among former captives that had experienced Krall brutality
first hand.
    Half of the meat Thad and Dillon planned to bring back was
going to Hub City, because those more recent captives were as of