Flight of the Maita Supercollection 3: Solving Galactic Problems Collector's Edition (116 page)

"Let's see
what's still here," Z suggested. "Do you think it's really possible
there are survivors down there?"

Again Maita and
Thing could read Z's changing of the subject so went along. They
would learn what he knew or suspected in time.

*Not now.
There's no evidence there has been any life here for a long time. I
think this is a race that died out completely.*

Z was fast
looking for something to say. Maita saw that and got a bit of
insight into what Z must think, so continued, *The race never had
the basic drive to make it survive for long. It was a lack of a
type we've repeatedly seen in our own travels. There's something
vital missing in that there is something of a personal survival
instinct, but not of a race survival instinct, if you get what I'm
trying to say. No dynamic.*

[ How do you
figure? I tend to agree about the social dynamic. ]

*Even with no
metals to speak of they had the technology to build spaceships or
anything else they wanted. I use floaters with fiberglass shields
to travel in space. You've both used them in space. They had
technology to produce gravitic repulsion drives. They built
neither. The chance for their race to prove its worth came when the
Krofpth contacted them and they actually saw that such things
worked. They used fiberglass vehicles to go from planetary surfaces
and even from world to world in a system, yet they did nothing. The
race had no drive to grow. They were as much as handed the things
they could use to advance themselves by the Krofpth Empire, but
basically declined the offer. Their potential was truly tremendous,
but they allowed it to pass unreached. They were doomed, probably
at a time when their race wasn't yet fully evolved. As sad as it
is, a great many races have no survival potential. This one didn't.
It seems to be a genetic lack.*

Z could almost
feel Happ's sudden interest and ... hope?

"Our empire
wasn't altruistic to the extent they would have encouraged that
much independent action," Happ protested. "Perhaps their potential
was lost to no lack of their own."

"Bull crap!" Z
snapped. "Their chance was there, full-blown, when your empire
withdrew. They were even using the technology then themselves. They
built things. They invented things. They simply gave up and got
exactly what they deserved. They met their full potential long
before they were even found by your empire. There was a limit to
their viability and they passed it. It's that simple. A race who
HAS a place in survival – will. If you'd bombed them into barbarism
they would've re-evolved after you were gone. This race didn't have
what it takes. Like Maita says, it's terribly sad, but it's also
the way of the universe. We've seen it before. There's nothing
anyone can do about it.

"This planet,
right now, is no worse than Mars, Maita, and this is centuries past
when they died out. It was much easier then.

"They had so
much and threw it away. I'll bet they were very likeable, fine
people. They just had a lack.

"I wonder how
many races like this we shore up to no purpose in the empire? How
many races who won't make the effort to save themselves even when
it would be a very simple thing?"

*It's arguable
as to purpose, but quite a large percent of them. You can probably
count the races with the actual potential to reach our place on
your fingers. The Maitans had it. Sadly, the Pweetoos had it. The
Eacherons have it and the Acnians have it. Each from a different
point of view. I think the Acnians are much like the Krofpth and
much the same thing would happen except that we're the influence
that would prevent them from the false idea of blaming themselves
for things not under their control. Perhaps their T-hypnotic
abilities would make them good leaders. They're a very
compassionate people, but not to the extreme of the Krofpth.*

[ Shall we stop
debating the inconsequentials and do a little exploring here? This
planet and its people, for all the lacks in both, is exactly what
I'm studying so far as societal imperatives are concerned. They as
much as committed racial suicide at the time when they should've
been expanding across the entire galaxy. As Maita noted, it was all
right here and they knew about it. They lacked societal drive of
any sort. It's a fantastic study of a race not worth, as Z would
say, their salt. ]

They got aboard
floaters and went aground. Maita sent several recording floaters to
explore the planet while the others went to mounds of sand that
were possibly covering something. A small driller-probe went
through the mounds, but found nothing. Meanwhile, the floaters
found two likely places to examine so the crew went back aboard
Maita to land close to a large glass structure.

*I'd say more
than half the thickness of the walls has been worn away by blowing
sand. It's still about eight meters of solid tempered glass. There
was an obvious entrance portal, but I can't see how to open it. If
you need anything to say this race could have accomplished anything
they made an effort to accomplish it sits right there in plain
view.*

[ Cut an
entrance and we'll reseal it when we leave. ]

A floater came
with a laser, which cut into the structure in a large enough hole
for them to enter, saving the plug to use as a seal. They went
inside to find a deep open hole.

[ This will go
to the uppermost levels of their last city. It probably had a
gravitic resistor drop chute, but we'll have to use the floaters.
The air tests too high in carbon dioxide and has virtually no
oxygen so we'll have to breathe the air on the floaters. Look
there. ]

It pointed a
tentacle at some forms to one side of the shaft. They were statues
of small furry beings.

"They look
almost like the Trath," Z suggested. "Remember them, Thing? They
were so cute and cuddly-looking, but were really mean little
people. I wonder whatever happened to them? It's been three hundred
years."

*They're about
the same as when we were there. The religion we started is
well-established and they aren't quite such repulsive little cute
cuddly things as they were. It's not impossible they could grow
into something, but I think they'll tend to be much like these
people were psychologically. In another two or three thousand years
Thing can see how exactly closely its sociomath has them
figured.*

Z grinned,
remembering the cute little beings who looked like cuddly
Teddybears, but who automatically hated strangers. The very next
race they met had looked, according to Z, "Mean as all hell!" but
were very friendly, open, outgoing people. He knew how they were
because they were members of the empire and were the major
suppliers of gincha, which they introduced the original crew
to.

They went down
the shaft more than four kilometers before they came to the
remnants of the city. It had been magnificent in its own way.

[ Well, they
certainly had more than enough structural metals to go anywhere
they wanted in the galaxy when they built this! This is built for
comfort, not efficiency. I see terrible waste here. This society
was in final decline long before this project was started. This is
decadence to almost the extent of that place we went to when we
started this trip. That Porth character. ]

"That
conspicuous waste is always a sign of serious decay," Z agreed. "I
don't have any sympathy for these people anymore. They had it all,
yet they chose to let it sit here and rot! Whatever happened to
them they definitely brought on themselves, that's for sure!"

*I'll use your
floater to record as much of this as I can. You get on Thing's
floater until it's done. There's not really much to see. A lot of
deliberate destruction. I'd say from the looks of the base of the
shaft the machines wore out and they didn't know what to do anymore
so they waited until they died out. It's very sad. Very sad. All
they had to do was climb the steps along the repair rail, yet they
stayed down there and died. Very sad.*

"It is that," Z
agreed. "Poor little things didn't have the basic survival
instincts. What's so sad to me is I can picture them totally
confused by what was happening. They couldn't know what was
happening to them or why.

"The thing that
bothers me about this kind of thing is that evolution can create
such a race, then discard it so callously."

*The universe
doesn't think nor does it consider or feel anything. It has no
compassion nor cruelty. It is. You may wish to explore inside one
or two of the dwellings or whatever they are before we go. Most
anything of any consequence will have been destroyed, if not by
time in the last days of this society's existence.*

They went into
three separate buildings, but there was, as Maita suggested,
nothing there. Everything inside was rotted away or taken out.
There was evidence of fires in the large open building they
checked.

[ I would
deduce the machines began failing and they began burning anything
flammable for light. They tried to build stairs out of here when
the gravitic elevator broke down, they were out of food and light,
then burned most of the oxygen out of their air. I'd say they died
rather suddenly at the end. They never thought of opening the
cavern to the repair stairs. They probably forgot they were even
there. As you said, walk up those stairs to safety, but they ...
didn't. It's that simple and that sad and that complicated. ]

*I agree. I'd
say what happened was that the gravitics gave out no more than a
year before the main generators failed. When those generators
failed they started burning things and it was all over within
hours. Remember, it takes power to get the air down here and the
carbon dioxide would quickly fill those caverns. It's heavy and
would settle. I seriously doubt they suffered much physically. They
got tired, went to sleep and it was over.*

[ Let's get out
of here, Maita. This is more depressing than you could know. ]

"I find it so,
too," Happ said. "I am heartened to know our empire was not the
cause of this. I feel very badly for these poor people. I would
like to be away from here."

"Your empire's
fault?" Z asked. "How in the hell could your empire have had
anything to do with it? These people didn't even have a survival
instinct, for Christ's sake!"

They went to
the dropshaft and out, then Maita had the servos replace the plug
and reseal the hole. The group went into Maita, and into orbit.

[ What next,
Maita? Do you have another world selected? Please try to find
something that's not quite so depressing. ]

*I think we
might find something of interest on Julpit. They were an
unclassifiable race who were never understood by others in the
empire. I don't know what to expect so it might be the best bet
while we're this close.*

[ Okay with me.
Just get away from here. ]

"Yep," Z
voted.

"Yes," from
Happ.

*Clean up and
rest. I'll fix a meal you should all like, then we'll see what
we've got.*

They went to
their own spots after a delicious meal to sleep. Happ required a
bit longer sleep period than Thing or Z, but also stayed awake
longer.

Maita reached
the world and orbited, sending various floaters aground. When Happ
awakened they had the information. There was a race of
unclassifiable beings there who weren't too very different from the
original inhabitants. The crystals were made for Happ and Z, Happ's
being edited for no more than language and the basic customs. There
was no sense in letting the Krofpth know the full potential of the
things. Maita had made the socket in Happ's neck and gained some
sense of his feelings. While these strange people were content
there was no need to put something on this crystal that may have to
be edited from later ones. The lack would be too noticeable then
and one doesn't miss what one's never known in such things.

"Have these
people had contact or anything, Maita?" Z asked.

*They know of
other cultures so we'll do them no harm. These people aren't the
same race that was in the empire. These are what were more pets
than anything else. They were just evolving intelligence at that
time and are just now coming to this point of advancement. They
have records of the former society and can read them so know of the
empire.*

"Did our
deserting of them cause their ruin?" Happ asked.

[ I thought we
had made it plain you can't claim credit for whether any of those
races did or didn't survive. If you want to insist on playing the
guilty party, go ahead – but leave such questions out of it. At
worst, you delayed the advance or decline of a race a few years.
That's all. Whether a race advances or declines is a matter of the
genetics of that race, barring the star going nova or something
such. ]

"You can claim
you failed to drag some race or another up when you could have, but
that's about the extent of it," Z agreed. "Will we ever know why
these people declined, Maita?"

*Maybe. They
have records of the old race, which died out only a few thousand
years ago. Maybe eighty five or ninety."

[ We'll learn a
lot more from being out there. Shall we go? The translators on my
floater will have to handle the language. It's mostly out of the
range of either of you. ]

They went down
the ramp to see the strange beings who were in a silent row in a
half-circle around the base of the ramp. They were somewhat like
the Mord, somewhat like the Zulians, somewhat like the Ternz and
somewhat different from any of them.

*We wish you
good fortune,* Maita said over the speaker on the floater in the
language of the planet. The crystal showed that they called
themselves the Tslrv.

"You are of the
Krofpth Empire?" someone asked.