Flight of the Maita Supercollection 3: Solving Galactic Problems Collector's Edition (118 page)

"The Krofpth
DID have everything to do with it. They are my ancestors!" Happ
argued. "From what I have learned a number of the prisoners were
nothing more than political dissidents. It was part of my research
on Library."

"That still has
nothing to do with you and you know it," Z said. "What my father or
mother may have done is no reflection on me, much less what some
ancestor ten thousand times removed might have done. I think you're
perfectly well aware of that. I think I know what a lot of this is
about, too!"

Happ looked
wary and a bit afraid, but said nothing.

"Maita? Can we
live down there in the open?" Z asked.

*Yes. It isn't
a comfortable world, but it isn't bad. There are large settlements
of four different races. One of them is reptilian, two mammalian
and one a sort of odd mix. Consider what we would've been faced
with if we'd accidentally found such a world!*

[ We would know
immediately from ecological chains they weren't native races and
would have immediately assumed they were colonists. Our dilemma
would come in trying to figure why such a forbidding world was
colonized by so many. We would've found the psiltripium and most of
our question would already be answered. Don't get dense on us now.
]

*Well! I stand
corrected, Rubberbrain. Tab and Kit – or rather TR and T Six –
developed a mass detector that shows the psiltripium from a plazsi
away.*

"Let's land," Z
suggested. "I want to go away from you with Happ. I want a private
conference with him.

"I'm sorry, but
even Thing can't come along because it would have to use the
floater, which would present a problem."

"I have nothing
to say I won't say in Maita's hearing!" Happ insisted quickly. It
was evident he was now definitely scared.

[ I think I
understand. I know what you two were viewing and I know what Z
discovered. Happ, there are things you don't know. I think it would
be best you go with Z and talk with him. You don't understand our
relationship and you have no least concept of what Maita's really
like. I'll simply tell Z to tell you about Tlesson and about the
Tristar. The emperor isn't what you think, either. You can say
anything you like to Maita, but I don't blame you one bit for being
very careful. I think your recent history – which includes the past
quarter million years – has well made you wary of machines. ]

*I take it I'm
still not going to get a clue as to what this is about?*

"You got it!" Z
answered. "When I want you to know something I'll tell you!"

Maita knew
somehow it was important to show Happ exactly how the relationship
among them was. Perhaps they should have been playing their insult
game all along. Thing obviously understood that, which was why it
started the dense bit. Happ must have some reason to fear a
powerful intelligent machine. There simply wasn't any other logical
explanation.

*Maybe I'll
decide to leave you stranded here for the next century or so! You
can talk all you want!*

[ Hey, Plastic
Brain! I'm not going to be stuck listening to your ego for the next
century simply because you want to have your gossipy sensors in on
every little thing! I'll turn you off! Sheesh! Who the unholy nine
hells do you think you are? Anyway? ]

"Ha! I'm the
only one who can hope to pilot this rustbucket except for that
computer with the missing chips!" Z fired back.

*Peon! I'll
have you know I'm platinum coated over the finest stainless alloys.
I do NOT rust! As for those missing chips, you impress me as one
with a planet out of orbit yourself! That gob of Silly Putty has
the gall to call ME a plastic brain?! It's plastic all over! Of all
the nerve!*

[ AhHA! I know
what it is! After all these years of Z's sexual inhibitions he's
finally decided they're stupid! He wants to be ALONE with Happ, now
doesn't he? ]

*I wonder if we
should tell him Happ's a male?*

[ Do you think
it would make a difference? ]

"Hey!" Z cried.
"I just want to tell ... make a difference? What the hell?! You
cheap plastic imitation of a rubber duck!"

[ I'm a rubber
imitation of a PLASTIC duck, Turkey-ass! While you're dumping your
stupid inhibitions you might as well dump them all! Wheeee! ]

Z grabbed a
tentacle and pulled so Thing let loose of Happ (who was undecided
whether to laugh or to panic) to swing around behind Z's shoulders
and try to pinion his arms. They wrestled a moment, but Thing was
able to spring to the top of the holovid screen. Maita turned off
the gravity, but it caught the frame and held.

[ Ha! You've
tried that one before! ]

*Have I tried
this one?* Maita sent a charge through the frame that knocked Z's
hand off of it, but which Thing ignored.

[ Yeesh! I'm
perfectly insulated, as you've had demonstrated at numerous times,
Dumdum! ]

"What are you
doing?!" Happ cried.

"Doing?" Z
asked. "I'm going to tie some fancy knots in those tentacles, turn
this motorized asteroid off and start my own world here!

"Kneel,
peon!"

[ Don't be
ridiculous! 'Kneel' comes from 'knee.' Do you see any knees? How
the nine hells do you kneel with tentacles! Maita was wrong about
you having a planet or two out of orbit! Your brain – assuming you
ever had any – went through a black hole! ]

*Ha! You can't
turn me off! All I have to do is charge the console!*

"How can you
say such things about each other?" Happ cried. "Is there something
here that affects your minds?

"How could it
affect the machine's mind?"

"We're just
playing," Z explained. "We do it all the time. It keeps us from
getting bored. Maita doesn't object if we have a private
conversation – really. Maita's our friend. It isn't what you think.
It's nothing at all like that machine on Wanderlust Island."

Maita suddenly
knew what the problem was with the Krofpth! It was obvious once Z
said that. Happ really looked scared then.

*Happ, I can
reprogram that thing easily. Your ancestors made the mistake of not
understanding the literal way a machine works and they made the
mistake of not making it truly intelligent. A machine that has no
independent intelligence is simply a servo and will do only what it
was programmed to do – and it will do it exactly. That thing should
never have been given any enforcement powers.*

"You are truly
intelligent yourself?" Happ asked.

[ Yes, Maita's
intelligent. We call the ship Maita because that's the emperor's
name. ]

Z wanted to
yell for Thing to shut up, but Thing caught the empathic message
and continued.

[ You see,
Emperor Maita as one individual can't hope to manage an empire of
thousands of worlds so we have the traders guilds and we have
thousands of machines to run things. None of those machines are
intelligent, but that makes for another serious problem. The logic
systems of machines and those of organics are inherently very
different. A machine can be programmed to be the most truly
benevolent leader imaginable, but it would still lack any actual
understanding. It would become a horrible tyrant because its
programming would be inflexible. Intelligent machines are the link
that makes it work. ]

"The Tslrv were
very much wrong about the fully machine-governed society in one
important way," Z explained. "You know that. It's what you have on
Krofpth.

"Maita, Tab,
Kit – their ships, TRD Sixty and T Six, Maita Searcher, Theron –
these are all important friends to the emperor and are vital to the
system's workings. They constantly interact with organic beings and
understand why so many things must be best controlled by being
least controlled. Maita understands your plight and will very
honestly help you. It's wrong for a race such as yours to be denied
contact and interaction with others."

*Your ancestors
developed a very strange guilt complex when your race began to
mature. It's unfortunate the programmers of your machine allowed
that to be put into the program. It isn't logical to the machine
that you can atone for things in the past. The past in inalterable.
It was given the program to control your race until you DID atone
for those old mistakes. The situation became impossible for the
machine. It may not relent until the Kropfth have atoned and it
isn't possible for you to atone because the past is inalterable –
ergo, maintain the status quo at any cost. This is as close to
stasis as a machine can make things. Complete stasis is its only
option.*

Happ shrugged
and looked afraid and defiant. Thing climbed onto his shoulder and
used its empathic talent to calm him.

"We gave the
machine control of all weapons!" he cried. "We have the choice of
doing exactly as it decrees or of being wiped out! It says our
guilt is much too deep! It says we have singlehandedly destroyed
all hope of this galaxy through our empire and that is one thing it
can't change! It says it has a duty to see we do no more
damage!"

[ And all of
that's because of some guilt or shame felt by one or more of its
programmers. Do you see how hopeless the situation is for the
machine as well as it is for you? ]

"Maita, you are
a machine!" Happ pleaded. "Would you help us against another
machine?"

*Very
certainly. That's precisely why Thing suggested Z tell you about
the Tlessarians and Tristar. Let me show you what was meant by
that. The Tlessarian brain ships are a more recent example.*

The screen cleared and a condensed version of the battle
with the insane machine on EC was shown (Book four,
Tristar
), then one of the Robot Worlds (Book seven,
Zulians and
Robots
),
then one of Tab's fight against the Tlessarian brain clones, which
were later manufactured by the berserker brain they had fought at
Tlesson (Book sixteen,
Machine Made
). Even condensed the show took more than four
hours and Thing and Z enjoyed it. It was things they had lived
through, but was presented in a very objective manner by
Maita.

[ You see how
Maita reacts to machines gone wild or to machines programmed
improperly. It programs literally millions of machines itself so
has little patience with putting personality traits of the
programmer into the machines. It would be more than rare to find
anyone pure enough to leave out ALL their personal prejudices.
That's why intelligence is so important in a ruling machine. With
that intelligence the machine can logically refute impossible
situations. It won't try to follow a faulty program it determines
HAS no resolution. If the machine had been given independent
intelligence it would have found it was misprogrammed the moment we
appeared on the scene. It was immediately obvious to it your
ancestors did NOT doom the galaxy. ]

"We'll help
with your problem," Z promised. "Don't tell us about it now. We'll
see these people here and explore a bit, then talk about it. We'll
have to make plans."

*I agree. We
don't want that machine to feel it has to protect its programs.
That would mean attacking the Krofpth themselves if it really was
programmed to destroy the race rather than let them leave the
planet again. I very much doubt it would attack you, but we must
act as though it would until we know as a certainty that it won't.
We must proceed with extreme care.*

[ Why do you
suppose it let Happ come along? I'd think there has to be ulterior
motive. A machine that intelligent wouldn't allow it without a plan
of some sort. ]

"Maita would
know more than I would," Z said. "I think that we're a living
denial of the thing's program in exactly the way Maita suggested.
It knew it the first millisecond it intercepted the first fastcom
signal. Here we are, a galactic empire where it was programmed to
assume there would never be such again. Its programming told it the
acts of the Krofpth race had doomed the galaxy to an eternal
barbarism.

"We're not
barbarians and we're representatives of a large and progressive
empire. There isn't any refutation of those facts. Its programming
was screwed up. If Happ knows the history of those programmers he
can tell who was the egomaniac among them."

[ Egomaniacal?
With that deep a guilt complex? You've got to be kidding! Who was
the most insecure? ]

"He thought he
and his race were so much born to be leaders of the galaxy forever
they had destroyed its chances," Z said. "What could be more
egomaniacal than that?"

*Yech! Are you
going to start trying to sound intelligent again? Don't you know
you always sound silly when you do that?*

[ Oh, come on!
How can you tell when he's trying to sound intelligent, Maita? He
sounds silly all the time! ]

They kept the
banter up all the way out of the ship. There was something akin to
hope in Happ's manner. He moved to touch Z and offered to carry
Thing awhile. Z felt the long centuries of oppression the people
had suffered under the control of a machine that was designed to
liberate them. He knew Happ was far ahead of himself and Thing in
evolution but still felt protective toward him. Sort of a father
instinct.

The first race
they contacted was a mammalian race. The people were much like
Terrans – what Z called a "Conan the Barbarian" type of massive
muscularity and a darkly threatening air about them. Thing withdrew
from them, saying they WERE threatening. Instinctively. It was much
like walking among one of those street gangs from back when Z was
abducted from Earth. There were no incidents, but the crew were
glad to soon be back aboard Maita.

The next group
were the reptiles. Thing and Z could tell by Happ's reactions his
impressions of them were much like Z's had been of the first race.
Thing's empathy said much the same about them, too.