Flight of the Maita Supercollection 3: Solving Galactic Problems Collector's Edition (125 page)

"It can be
found. We can't know where it went. It can't be more than a
thousand plazsis away – probably just a hundred or so – but we
can't find a dark body in that volume of space."

*There's
nothing for it to have perturbed either so we can't trace that way.
I'll put out on fastcom that there's a planet that may have a large
supply of psiltripium bulging out of its surface somewhere in that
volume of space. The trader'll find it!*

[ That's right!
The wobbling in the spin may throw the psiltripium to the surface
out of the stabilizing gravity of those stars. The planet will also
be cooling so the psiltripium might well be actually sitting very
near to the surface. It isn't entirely impossible. If enough of it
collected in one lump it could tear loose and be in orbit around
the original planet as a moon! ]

*It'll be a
great adventure so there will be a lot of traders out here very
soon. Well, Draq is next on the list. I certainly don't care to sit
around here looking for a lump of psiltripium!*

"Maita, may I
go home?" Happ asked. "I'm afraid I am suddenly getting homesick .
It is very hard because I want to be with you, but I am...."

[ It's all
right. We're enjoying your company, too. I'm aware what the longing
for home can be. Z and Maita can both tell you that! ]

Maita set
course for Krofpth and they were soon landing. There were several
traders already there. All of them were preparing to head for the
psiltripium planet's estimated area of space. Maita communicated
with them and explained to them what had been discovered to that
point and what had merely been assumed.

The people of
Krofpth were slowly adjusting to the new system and most were doing
well. The politicians didn't like it much, but they had little
power. TAR-1 had always had absolute power on Krofpth so there
wasn't really much difference. TAR-1 was the most efficient known
planetary administrator in the empire so Maita gave it a territory
that included the entire galactic dome. It would control the entire
area in the way Maita controlled the empire.

*That makes you
an empire within an empire. The Krofpth Empire is now much larger
than it was at its height. This time it won't fall into the trap of
accepting its own charges of guilt. The emotionally irrational time
is past. It's putting a lot of responsibility back on you at a bad
time, but the Krofpth are ready for it. You're a resilient race. I
believe TAR One will be a tremendous help there.*

"The Maitan
Empire and TAR One can run things," Happ agreed. "We will join the
traders guild and can justly be proud of those beacons and Library.
Those are lasting symbols that the Krofpth do their part in what
Maita describes as the family of life in the galaxy."

[ That's my
phrase! Maita couldn't come up with such a deep and apt
description! It can only repeat Z's trite worn out phrases! ]

"You mean such
a flowery and tired cliche’! You know damned well how you always
overdo anything!" Z said.

*Thank you, Z.
Happ, ask your friends if they'd like a meal of fried Mentan – or
would they prefer roasted?*

"I'm afraid it
would be far too stringy and tasteless," Happ shot back. Happ was,
by that time, familiar with the game, but this was the first time
he joined in to that extent. Thing, who was riding Z's shoulder at
the time, sprung to pin Happ's arms to his side and to bend its
eyes around to stare into Happ's.

[ What you say,
Pal? ]

"Maybe
parboiled? Slow? I know! Barbecued with that sauce Z makes for the
grazer ribs!" Happ continued. "Use a lot of extra tenderizer.
MMmfpth!"

Thing wrapped a
tentacle around his mouth. Happ opened it and held the tentacle
between sharp teeth.

*Hey! Don't
play with your food! Wait 'til I cook it!*

They played
awhile to the delight of the people, then Thing and Z went aboard
Maita after saying their good fortunes.

*Draq?*

[ Yes. ]

"Why not?" Z
asked.

Political Non-answers

*That's Draq.
It seems a peaceful place with a fairly high civilization.
Surprisingly unpolluted. Not much information, but I think a good
place.*

[ What about
radio and such? ]

*None being
used except for some shortrange stuff.*

"With all those
buildings and planes and even a couple of satellites? That doesn't
make sense! They have to communicate among all that stuff! It's too
close for fastcom!"

*They're mostly
using advanced fiberoptics and narrowly focused beamed light
transmissions. Radio is shortrange for use on their servos and
machinery. We can land. They have a sort of spaceport – or a place
where they launch the satellites and probes. The lightbeam system
is very good! Laser technology. They have a probe in near the sun
that uses low infra-red in a band the sun doesn't emit much in so
there's little interference. I can detect that and others near the
outer planets.*

[ Light beams
aren't apt to produce so much static as radio. Ion storms don't
affect them too much. I vote to land. We aren't going to learn much
out here. ]

"Yo! Head for
the pads, Maita."

They went
aground slowly so they could be warned off if the people so
desired, but they weren't contacted at all until they were aground,
when a car came out to them with two of the people on it. They were
mostly mammalian, but with some uncharacteristic traits, such as
scales on their backs as well as hair on their heads and legs. One
of those in the car was obviously female and the other was
obviously male. Z waved for them to come aboard, but then they
still had no way to communicate with them. Maita said to take them
to room two where they went enthusiastically. They were looking
over every detail of the ship. Maita used the holovid screen and
pictures to indicate the use of the probe for language. The female
volunteered to use the machine and had explained through pictures
how it might cause a severe headache.

Less than half
an hour later Z placed the crystal in his ear socket. Thing and
Maita were already speaking with Nol, the male. Kaf, the female,
had removed the helmet and joined them.

*Everyone can
go to the pilot's dome where we can talk. It's comfortable there.
Kaf can take the capsule on the console plate. It will alleviate
the headache, but might make her a bit intoxicated.*

The two were
fascinated by the elevator and the artificial gravity and were
excited about walking around on the "ceiling" with the ground only
three or four meters under their heads. Kaf was a little silly, but
Maita said that was expected with the painkiller.

"You don't seem
at all surprised to see us," Z said. "We can see you're advanced
enough to know there are others out there."

"Oh, there are
legends about a whole empire out there," Kaf replied. "Fifty or
more worlds. It's supposed to be benevolent. The legends say more
than a hundred, but we figure an exaggeration of at least
half."

*There were two
hundred sixty three member and held worlds in the Krofpth Empire a
quarter million years ago. There was no exaggeration .*

Each time Maita
spoke Nol and Kaf looked around for the source of the voice.

[ That's the
ship's computer. It gives out information and asks questions at
times it decides are proper. I'm not able to speak directly so must
use the speakers through a translator. We refer to the ship as
Maita whenever we wish to address it directly. ]

"It is
intelligent," Nol said matter-of-factly. "We once tried to develop
machine intelligence, but there are many questions of a nature we
couldn't answer so we decided to wait. We're a very patient people
in some ways."

[ What kinds of
questions? Perhaps we can answer them for you. We know of entirely
machine societies. We personally know several intelligent ships,
such as Maita, Theron, Searcher and a few others. We're all
friends. ]

"What if
emotions are part of intelligence?" Kaf asked. "Would our creation
of an intelligence with no one to relate with be a painful thing to
it? Did we have any right to construct a being who would live a
very extended life in emotional pain?"

"And what if
that intelligent machine was simply bored?" Nol continued. "A
machine intelligence would have to be very diversified. It would be
capable of complete knowledge of a subject. Then what would happen
to it? Extended boredom and no feeling of purpose?"

*Yes. Purpose
is a huge part of the solution to your problem. I'm primarily a
spaceship and was programmed with great curiosity so my friends and
I spend a great part of our time exploring – as we're presently
doing. Z has figured that should we explore one new planet every
day we'll still be discovering new ones in a hundred thousand
years. I admit I was somewhat bored for my first thousand years of
existence, but I was designed as a spaceship and was in constant
use so I could find ways to stay interested. The point is that you
must never build the machine ONLY to be intelligent. It must be one
with a specific and useful job to do. A direction. A purpose.*

"I never
thought much about it, but all the intelligent machines we've found
were built with a purpose," Z agreed. "Theron's a spaceship.
Searcher's a planoforming research station. There are two other
ships who keep in contact with us. They're partners with their
organic pilots – one doesn't own an intelligent being, machine or
not – and really enjoy the business and all the travel they're used
for."

[ One more
thing. You must never build an intelligent machine without the
ability to turn itself off or even destroy itself at a time and in
a manner of its own choosing. That's a mistake made by others in
the past. It's both thoughtless and unconscionably cruel. ]

"We've thought
of that," Kaf said. "What if the machine were doing something vital
where it MUST NOT stop? Something.... Well, what would happen if
Maita were to decide it didn't desire further existence while you
were in another mode?"

*Unlikely. If
I'm in another mode I'm in use as a spaceship. I'm designed to be a
spaceship. I'm content – at worst – when I'm in use. If I were to
decide to stop it would more logically be while damaged or stored
in some hangar. That's the basic value of my curiosity, you see. So
long as there's an unexplored world I'm curious. There are billions
of other galaxies, too.*

"I think I see
what you're saying," Kaf said. "It's hard to argue against what is
obviously total refutation of my arguments by your existence.

"You said the
Krofpth Empire WAS of that size? A quarter of a million years ago?
What happened to it?"

[ The empire
was like a badly programmed machine. It couldn't see any reason to
continue so it simply ... turned itself off. We represent the
Maitan Empire, which is a galaxywide trading guild more than
anything else. The Krofpth Empire was based on dominance and
conquest. The fact it was benevolent didn't change the fact it was
also pointless so it was doomed at the outset. Expansion merely for
the sake of feeling powerful can never work because there comes a
time when each added city or country or world must simply add to
the problems. The structure will then collapse from internal
weight, if you understand the metaphor. ]

"We know what
that is!" Nol said. "It almost happened to us, though on a very
small relative scale.

"We had a large
number of political divisions, each of which demanded the
productivity of its citizens to the end of expanding itself. Once –
after thousands of failures – world government was reached the only
way to go was for ever more control and that meant more and more
politicians, which meant more and growing discontent, which meant
protest, which meant repression, which meant police, which meant
bureaucracies, which meant a spiraling increase of all phases,
which meant ultimate collapse. I doubt there was ever a politician
with the mental capacity to see how pointless it was. They could
make speeches about all the good they were doing, but the simple
fact was they did no good. Every policy they put forth was to try
to fix the former policy, which was to fix the former policy to
that. We took the ultimate collapse and built something that seems
to work for us. It is built on..."

[ Just what
Chee-il did! You each vote on every issue that affects you, knowing
all the projected effects and costs. If it isn't working you simply
cancel it. That's logical and works when nothing else does. ]

"The thing I’ve
never understood about that system, which works amazingly well on
Chee-il, by the way, is how anyone decides to start a project like,
say, this spaceport," Z said. "The value of those bureaucrats, if
they ever had any, was in planning such things, then seeing their
completion."

"At fifty times
the cost and half the efficiency promised at the outset?" Kaf
asked. "Deny it! I dare you! Name anytime some major project of the
politicians came in within the projected costs! You can't do
it!

"We had
machines to do all that. All we had to do was to push buttons.
Anything that may prove pertinent to a project is put into the
machines automatically so they're very accurate. They are designed
to handle specific areas of governing or maintenance or water or a
thousand other things. They do it very well.

"The trouble at
first was to get people to cooperate. Each had his own little
project and nothing was done for a short time, then people began to
see that such necessary things as food production and energy
production were in danger of grinding to a halt. Vital services
cannot be allowed to degenerate, particularly necessary things such
as food, water and shelter so we obviously had to do something.
Sitting hungry in the dark can be a rather strong stimulus to work
together. It became no longer a question of who gets sweetcake and
who gets dry stale bread it was a question of whether everyone eats
or no one eats. As you can see, we opted for food for everyone.