Flight of the Maita Supercollection 3: Solving Galactic Problems Collector's Edition (13 page)

It had been
awhile, so I suppose I'm thinking enough like an organic about sex
that the idea was hanging on. The Swaz, who I'm designed after most
times, were evolved from schooling animals and hung on each other
all the time.

I thought about
the time on Feach when Lofe introduced me to ... like you give a
damn!

A horny
machine? I could hear Z now! Particularly with his repulsion to
homosexuality. If Thing found out about what I was thinking now it
would use it to drive Z into exasperation.

I have to think
about something in bed. I don't sleep, but have to feign it when
there are others around, and turning off for the night is equally
out of the question, so I pretend sleep and use the time in problem
solving, though tonight it wasn't that.

Seelah wrapped
all around me and I wrapped back, but there was no sexual part to
it at all, so I still don't know. I can say I'm glad a port city
has the usual compliment of girls offering their sexual favors for
whatever inducements apply in most any society anywhere. We arrived
in Stormlee late the following afternoon and I spent that first
night with a woman named Carnot. I had the organic response there
to the situation in that I didn't have the same kinds of thoughts
the next day. I didn't consider it, and didn't much care. I'll have
to ask Maita if it programmed me that way, or whether it's
something that developed naturally.

I strolled
around the town after we offloaded the cargo. We wouldn't have the
return cargo until the following day, so I had a free afternoon and
night, though I was on watch from one bell to dawnlight bell.

I would sleep
aboard while Seelah would stay in the town. I could "decide" to
stay in Stormlee after the cargo was stowed without any
inconvenience to anyone. There were plenty of people wanting to
LEAVE Stormlee! An outgoing crew was easy enough to find.

The palace
where the brain's fusion generator was operating was up along a
road to the south atop the bluffs and somewhat below ground level.
I didn't yet know if there was some kind of basement there or a
cave, but I managed to stroll out of town in that direction. I
passed two robots who were walking together. They looked very
natural, except that people seemed to avoid them fairly widely.

That would be
because of the lack of natural odor more than anything else.

There was a
wall and a gate around the palace, which wasn't the case with any
of the others in the area. The wall seemed extremely out of place
here. There was a robot guard at the gate.

I strolled on
past and stopped about two kilometers farther along the road for
some wine and sweetcake at a stall. I asked about the palace.

"I don't never
remember seeing no wall 'round that kind of a place afore," I
complained. "Don't seem right. Ain't natural. What's the point'a
havin' all the plantin's, then keepin' people out?

"Stupid, that's
what it is! Stupid!"

"We don't talk
much about the place," the girl said. "I used to sort of run around
with Noobish, but the past four years since her father started
acting so funny she hasn't been let out so much and she's sort of
scared all the time.

"Like you
noticed, it isn't natural. I guess it's been a year since we more
than nodded, and she doesn't even seem to recognize her old
friends.

"Strange way to
act. Maybe there's, you know, some bentheads in her family?

"I hope not!
She used to be such fun!"

"Four years?
That's about the time they ran that starker off at Northern Pass
Port City.

"There ain't
been a lot of strangers around since, have there? Hard eyes? Give
you the wilts to just be around 'em? Make your skin prickle?"

"Yes!" she
cried excitedly. "Not a lot, but a few! They're supposed to be
slaves from Warnow.

"Is there
really a magic starker there?"

"Could be. Some
of them starkers is bad potions. It ain't funny when you start
gettin' people all suspicious of each other.

"People seem
suspicious in Stormlee. Ain't natural."

"Crazy things
happen all the time," the girl agreed. "I wish Noobish would get
out of there! She was always so much fun, and last time I saw her
she was so cold!"

I nodded, then
went back down the road. I went to the gate and was starting to go
inside when the robot stepped out in front of me.

"What do you
want?" it asked.

"What kind of a
question is that?!" I asked, feigning shock. "Since when does a
person get questioned by some slave when he goes calling? What's
going on here!?

"What's a wall
doing around a house?

"Everybody said
there are strange happenings in Stormlee!

"I want to see
Noobish! What's going on here?"

Another robot
made to look like a female came to ask what was the matter.

"I want to see
Noobish!" I shouted. "Whoever heard of this kind of treatment?!
What's going on here!?

"This ain't
right, no sir! I want to see Noobish!"

"I am Noobish,"
the robot replied. "What do you want? I'm busy and can't waste time
visiting."

"You are like
hell!" I shouted. "Now liars, too?

"What the hell
is going on here?! This is an outrage! Do you think I came all the
way up here and don't even know who Noobish IS? Do you know how
long it's been since I heard a LIE?

"What's going
on?"

One thing was
certain from the crystal. These people didn't lie. There was no
confusion or lack of information about that. If anyone was accused
of lying, the reaction would be immediate and possibly violent. I
was acting exactly like any Killit would act if they caught someone
in a lie. The brain didn't have the sense to look around before it
built a fence or wall to see that these people didn't do any such
thing. It didn't learn enough about the people to know the
strongest societal taboos.

This robot was
probably an exact copy of Noobish, which meant Noobish was probably
dead and disposed of.

"Just because
you look somethin' like Noobish don't mean you can pass yourself
off as her!" I continued. "You can bet she'd know ME! You don't
sound like her, and you walk different. She ain't some selfer! She
don't act like you! No way!

"She ain't
you!

"I don't
believe this! How can you just LIE like that with a straight face?
What kind of a THING are you?"

I was
attracting some extra attention with the shouting. It was another
thing that wasn't done without the very strongest provocation.

These robots
couldn't very well move against me with those witnesses. They'd
waited too long to act, and now I could show them as being very
odd, at the least. One would never accuse a Killit of being a liar
once, much less at the top of his voice and several times. The
brain didn't know that, and would react in a less and less natural
manner through the robots now. I would have to bait it into really
unacceptable moves.

These weren't a
violent people, but that one taboo was strong enough to get a
violent reaction! Call anyone a liar and they'd knock you on your
ass so fast you wouldn't know what hit you!

"I want to see
the REAL Noobish, right now!" I shouted. "I don't want to argue
with a couple of liars! You're both nothing but LIARS! You don't
even have the courage to defend yourselves when I say it!

"I tell these
people here that you are both LIARS! LIARS! I want to see the REAL
Noobish! Right now! LIARS!"

They turned
their backs on me and the male slammed the gate. That was the worst
possible move, so I decided to give the brain something to think
about.

"You're nothing
but GOLEMS! You're THINGS! You ain't got no spirits!

"LYING GOLEMS!
Where is your master? You ain't got no minds! No mind and no
spirit! You're golems! Starker slaves! Metal and wire monsters!

"Lying metal
monster GOLEMS!"

I then turned
to the eight people standing around. There was a concealed
microphone in the gate stanchion my sensors showed was broadcasting
toward the house, so I was glad when a woman asked me what a golem
was.

"It's a copy of
a natural man. It's all metal and wires inside. It ain't real. Just
a copy. A starker trick, no more.

"They don't
even act real! Look at them!

"Walls? There
has to be a starker in there – or worse! Tain't natural! No way!
Lyin' golems! It's a bad sign!"

I turned and
went back toward Stormlee. I met the two robots coming back up I
had passed earlier. They stepped in front of me and I felt the
radio beams giving them commands. I was stopped where the road went
along the side of the cliff and where there were rocks and boulders
about eighty meters below. They were to throw me over, but didn't
know my strength or what weapons I had.

I lasered the
one closest to me and kicked out. It went over the side as I spun
and shoved at the second one. The people who had been listening at
the gate were running toward us as I was able to get a second kick
into the robot. It skidded and held onto a rock, but I lifted the
arm loose and it fell. There was a flash and an explosion as it hit
the rocks, where it lay in a heap near the other with little fires
racing here and there along its limbs, which were torn loose by the
explosion, exposing metal frameworks and some very advanced robotic
technology.

I scanned the
things quickly and recorded everything with telescopics as the
people came to look over the side. The male robot from the gate
came racing after them.

"See?!" I
shouted. "Golems! Wire and metal!

"See? I were
right!

"Ain't no golem
no match for Liht! No sir! Ain't no ten golems no match for
Liht!

"You! Golem!" I
pointed at the robot from the gate. "You go tell that starker he
better get the hell away from Stormlee! You done got Liht MAD now,
you lyin' THING! Ain't no twenty of you golems no match for one
Liht! Not when he's mad! No sir!"

The people were
mumbling and arguing. The robot, had it any intelligence of its
own, would've seen it was in an impossible situation and would've
retreated, but that military brain would never retreat.

The robot
started to lift its arm to point at me as I fell and rolled toward
it. A heat laser seared the rocks behind where I'd been
standing.

I rolled to the
legs of the robot and jerked it off balance (Which a flesh and
blood Killit could never have done) and it swayed as it tried to
focus the finger laser on me. A woman came up behind it with a rock
and banged it on the head, which didn't damage it, but which did
distract it for a split second.

I yanked the
legs apart and rolled hard against the nearer one. This time it
went down and everyone was battering it with rocks. One man had the
sense to know that finger was dangerous and smashed it flat. We all
heaved at once and threw it over the edge, watching as it came
apart on the rocks below. The power pack threw a long arc into the
water nearby as it grounded out.

"Ain't no golem
no match for no Killit!" I cried. "Ain't no ten golems no match for
no one Killit!"

It became
almost a chant among the people, who kept staring over the cliff at
the three robots' remains on the rocks below.

I edged away as
more people came to look and the woman who hit the robot with the
rock was saying there was a starker magician at Overlook House and
he had all those golems was why you got the creepies when they came
near you.

Let the
Brain Think

I went into
Stormlee, where I melted as much as I could into the background. I
wanted the brain to have to think this over awhile before it could
act again, and possibly make it decide to retreat from a place
where it could find itself under attack directly. It had no choice,
if it stayed here, but to try to become a direct tyrant – and these
people now knew the robots weren't invincible, by any standard.
They had seen one Killit dump two of them, and they had
participated in tearing one of them apart themselves. The brain
would have to worry it had far underestimated these people, too. It
wouldn't know I was a robot, wouldn't have had time to discover I
had used a laser on the one. It would have to assume I was one
single Killit who handled it all by myself.

That would mean
it had underestimated the physical strength of the people, as well
as their intelligence and sophistication. It would be very much
off-balance.

I would have to
try to keep it confused. Two can play at this "ring in the robot"
game.

I found my way
back to the ship where I finished the following day's work and
reported I was going to stay there in Stormlee. Partih and Clare
were having a beer-like beverage together, and Clare said it would
be no trouble finding a replacement. Lots of people wanted to get
OUT of Stormlee – the trouble was in finding a crew to come TO
Stormlee.

"Heered aboot
tha golems," Partih said. "I allus said there was more ta ya then
we knowed. Good seaman, but dasn't think ya was quite right, if ya
know what I mean. Jest a liddle too good. Knowed ya wasn't from no
north country, neither. Yer accent's good, but 'tain't perfect, if
ya know what I mean.

"Figured ya was
runnin' from somethin', but dasn't take it as my biznez.

"Gonna miss ya.
Good hand. Like I say, a bit too good.

"A hardy breeze
and a warm sea ta ya."

"May seastorms
come when you're on the desert," I replied. "I've sorta dedicated
my life to gettin' rid of magic starkers, who're no more than
troublemakers. They've got one here who's a roadshow on 'is
own."

"Done heered,"
Partih replied. "Take care. Thisun's most smart enough ta make a
golem, if ya know what I mean.