Flight of the Maita Supercollection 3: Solving Galactic Problems Collector's Edition (127 page)

So that was the
joke! Thing apparently told her of his sexual inhibitions and this
was to be a big joke at his expense. Maybe he could turn it around
on her – and Thing.

"Gotten any
what?" he asked innocently.

"Sex," she
said, grinning hugely.

Z looked
unconcerned as he said, "Well, no.... You see, I've been here on
Maita and Thing doesn't excite me that way. Are you offering?"

She laughed at
that and Thing jumped to wrap its tentacles around his head.

[ You dirty...!
You had us figured all along! ]

Z grabbed a
tentacle and pulled, but Thing held and managed to grab the chair
arm with another tentacle.

*If any of you
are wondering if we've lost our minds, there's a longstanding joke
among us about Z's inhibitions about sex. Thing contrived with Kaf
to make a joke about sex, but Z figured it out and turned the joke
around on them. You two knock it off! You can play later.*

"I'm trying to
knock it off!" Z cried. "It won't let loose of the chair!"

Thing climbed
over Z's head and back to its seat on the table where it tried to
look innocent. It was a wonderful way to break any tension and all
the participants began playing little tricks on one another. It was
really a farce, but still showed everyone the true nature of the
beings they were dealing with. They were very well-liked and
well-received from that point.

Z was asked
questions about not only his own but other races' views on sexual
mores. Other questions about all details of life in the empire were
asked and answered. The broadcast lasted for more than four hours.
They were all exhausted when it was over and Maita delivered one of
the fantastic meals they had discussed to all participants in the
session. They talked for awhile, then Thing and Z cleaned up and
rested. There was to be discussion for two days, then the vote. The
results of the vote were foregone.

Maita stayed on
Draq for three more days until two trader ships arrived, then
left.

*We seem to
have some kind of problem. I'm going to reverse course. It seems a
trader ship was attacked.*

"Where?" Z
asked.

*It seems the
traders found the psiltripium world. When they attempted to land on
it they were attacked. They called for help, but when the next ship
arrived it was too late. There's something or someone on that world
who's attacking anything that approaches without warning. I have
the world located on pinpoint coordinates and have told the traders
to leave. Fleet's standing by.*

[ I agree. Even
if it's an indigenous population they can't fire on anyone without
warning! No trader would attempt to land on a world that was
occupied if there was a warning. It's totally intolerable! Besides,
we know damned well there was no indigenous population! There was
no way that world would ever develop even viral lifeforms! ]

"We know that
definite fact! There ISN'T any INDIGENOUS population. It couldn't
have evolved in the time since the Krofpth empire was there and
there certainly wasn't anything on that type world to start with! I
agree! No population of any size could survive the planet's leaving
orbit and moving into cold space even if they could've survived
conditions there BEFORE it left orbit."

*They were
attacked with an old-style fusion missile. It was laser guided. It
was too close before they spotted it for them to shield. They
survived long enough to give a readout about it. It was produced in
the Maitan Empire three hundred years ago. That was obvious from
the laser guidance system’s emanations. You know what that
means?*

"Oh, for
Christ's sake! I hope you're wrong! This is something we DO NOT
need!

"It's the first
thing I thought of!"

[ Immins! ]
(Followed by a very colorful and inventive string of invective –
from all of them.)

Oh,
Groan!

Under ordinary
circumstances Z would be rolling on the floor helpless with
laughter. Maita had let loose with a long and very complex string
of acid invective in several languages. To hear a machine swearing
so effectively was certainly unique!

These weren't
ordinary circumstances. If there were, indeed, Immins on that
runaway world Z and Thing would both outdo Maita's swearing. Z had
much more experience with the form.

They had
thought the Immin race was extinct for a hundred years or more.
They had gone through a period of a hundred years when the empire
was established where the Immins were a part of so much of
everything wrong they came to expect serious trouble anywhere the
race was involved. Immins had expanded into many parts of space (In
stolen ships. They didn't have the ability to design and build
their own) and cropped up at almost every spot where serious crimes
were a major problem that Immin and criminal became very nearly
synonymous. They were inherently delusional, particularly the
females, to believe they could be rulers of the universe or more by
building large armies and destroying the populations of any world
who dared to resist them and taking over whatever government was
already in place.

They had almost
been successful with a couple of worlds. Two planets had been
infected with a genetically engineered bacterium that killed off
large portions of the people on them. They had dropped nuclear
devices on other worlds, which always sent Maita into a fury even
when there was no population. They had spread dangerously
contaminated foodstuffs across a large section of space –
foodstuffs with such cumulative slow poisons as thallium. The
toxins caused severe nervous system damage and slow painful death
after a few years of ingesting it. In the meanwhile it caused
genetic damage to the children born in the period.

The one thing
that saved so many worlds from the Immins was their penchant for
attempting to kill off each other as well as anyone else in their
way. Almost all their plots involved taking power away from whoever
was leader of even their own small group. Most times they were
fought by increasing the mistrust among their leaders and
instigating internecine wars.

The males were
almost always involved in the more petit forms of criminality. They
were often murderers and thieves and worse, but on a much smaller
scale. They didn't have the drive for personal power the females
had. They seemed perfectly willing to allow dominant females to use
them in any way they chose.

Maita exiled
the race back to Orta, their home planet, many years ago where they
destroyed themselves with nuclear wars. A small pocket of them was
found on occasion somewhere far across the galaxy – such as this
one.

[ Maita, they
would have to have been on that world for most of a hundred years!
I still can't believe it! I don't want to believe it! I'm so damned
disgusted I can't even think! ]

"What if they're.... What if they caused that.... Maita,
could they have made that world fly out of orbit? – I mean, knowing
all the while where it would go? Is that kind of thing even
possible? – I know it is! We did it to save Vendu! (Book
two:
Settling In
)"

*With a large
diffusion engine at a pole, yes. Moving it with explosives like the
antimatter we used would have torn it apart because of the already
established wobble.*

[ That would
mean they're established on a nearby world. They would've moved the
planet out of orbit for the specific purpose of forcing the
psiltripium to the surface. That would mean they slung the world
out of orbit, then were able to turn the diffusion engine to
increase the spin of the world. You can bet the largest deposit of
psiltripium in one lump ever discovered is right about on the
surface of that world. My only question would be what they intend
to do with it. There's no way they could hope to sell it through
any empire channels and now they have attacked a traders guild ship
so they simply made more trouble than they can hope to extract
themselves from. The guild will go after them in force! ]

“
How
long ago? Can't you trace decay on emissions from a diffusion
engine? If we can find when this thing was done we can understand a
lot, I think.

"They probably
don't know anything about what was going on in the empire, and
definitely don't have any idea that the empire expanded anywhere
near this area of space. They won't know about the traders
guild."

*I agree, though they should know how well traders stick
together even without a guild. They always have. They won't know
there are now millions of traders instead of a few thousand. I'll
drop out of IDmode when we're fairly close and trace backward. We
can see if they're trying to accelerate it or decelerate it. We can
determine how long ago they started. The distance is ... such....
It was no more than a hundred fifty years ago nor less than a
hundred twenty so we don't need the rest. It took them fifteen to
eighteen years to get out here in TTH one, which is the best they
had then. They started before we quarantined them on Orta or
probably before the Pweetoo wars (Book one:
Flight of the
Maita
) even
and probably didn't set a field so time dilatation would make them
age only two or three years during that trip. There's definitely
the likelihood they have no idea there are no more Immins in the
empire. I would be willing to quarantine them out here if they've
grabbed an unoccupied world. If they've subjugated an occupied
world it won't bode well for them. I won't forgive their shooting
an unarmed trader ship without warning! Nothing ever changes with
Immins! Nothing! Even clear across the galaxy and a hundred fifty
years displaced from Orta, they're exactly the same! The lousy
damned...!!*

It went into
another spate of swearing in a few more of the languages it left
out before. It was interesting if a bit terrifying to see a machine
that had completely lost its temper. Thing didn't lose its temper –
quite. It was so exasperated it was incoherent, though. Z knew
something between the two emotions with large doses of both. The
anger and disgust seemed to move across them in waves with a bit of
calmer response followed by swearing and fury followed by a calmer
period. After a time the pendulum-swing of emotions came to a
midpoint, a sort of seething fury, and finally stabilized.

"We have to
find the world they're using for a base. The psiltripium planet may
only have automatics so far as weapons are concerned. We’ll soon
know."

[ They don't do
things that way. There'll be a small crew. It'll be commanded by a
female. As Maita says, they never change. This is so DISGUSTING!
Will we NEVER be free of those damned...? Stinking slimy refuse!
]

"Well, we have
to free up that free-space world so the traders can get the
psiltripium. Maybe the price will come down enough that more
research can be done with it.

"Have you seen
the art with a little psiltripium in it?"

[ Yes, but
there are many better uses, I'm sure. I see we're approaching. How
will you handle it, Maita? Tab reported they have a case with art
containing psiltripium having been stolen. It's so stupid! What can
a thief do with it? ]

*There is NO
more important use for ANYTHING than art! I'll simply slag their
missile installation if they fire on us. We can find the world they
came from with standard procedures. I won't fool around with
warnings if they don't. I've had it up past the O dome with Immins!
If they're in an area where it's at all feasible I'll slag the
entire part of the world! I mean it! I won't put up with Immins
ever again! Not here and not anywhere!*

They approached
the planet, which was made visible only with special sensors as
they were plazsis from luminous bodies. Maita approached fully
shielded and slowly.

*There are
radio reflective scanners ... now a laser lock. I'm scoping the
source – a sort of flat dome. Here comes a missile. Want to bet if
its nuclear?*

They waited
until the shields detonated the missile, which was a fusion
bomb.

*That did it!
Here goes my answer!*

All of space
seemed to become a bright glare for perhaps five seconds. There was
a bubbling lava pit where the dome had been.

[ Great
colliding galaxies, Maita! You don't have to slag the entire
planet! The psiltripium will sink! ]

*I didn't. Just
under a square kilometer. I think we can safely assume we have
eliminated that particular installation. There's another scan from
farther around the planet. I imagine that one won't have the sense
to refrain from firing anymore than the first one did.*

That was soon
shown to be an accurate guess then the second missile dome was a
pool of bubbling lava.

*I've called
Fleet. Part of them are doing something for Tab and Kit, but ten
ships are coming. I've instructed them to search until they find
the base planet, then to continue searching for other possible
bases. It'll be more than twenty five days before they arrive, but
they can help to survey the area when this is finished. I'm calling
the traders guild with instructions to make a search, but do not
approach. We're being scanned again so I suppose there are two more
nuclear installations judging by the placement of these three. They
can detect anything approaching this world. I wonder why Tab's
using Fleet? What could he ... I'll be damned!*

[ Undoubtably.
What now? ]

*They have an
anchored diffusion engine at each pole! They could probably spin
the world or do anything else with it! Why can't a race with those
abilities do anything positive with them?*

"Have you found
the psiltripium?"

*It's over
toward your left and to your right. The planet is somewhat oval
because the spin threw masses out in two places. The thing's very
wobbly because the center of gravity's far to one side. They've
almost entirely stopped the spin now so the psiltripium will start
to sink. Maybe they've already discovered that and have kept enough
spin to keep it on the surface. That's an amazing feat of
engineering! Think what they could have if they would do something
positive! Now I'M being stupid! Immins do something POSITIVE?!
Really, Maita! You've got some defective chips! You don't have to
say it, Thing! I also know they didn't invent this, they stole it
from someone else.*