Flight of the Maita Supercollection 3: Solving Galactic Problems Collector's Edition (130 page)

*Certainly.*

[ I see.
Program a floater. ]

"Yup!" Z said.
"Give it a picture and get it inside."

"Here come
other traders," Zorz said. "I'll have them stand off in case they
try to drop the shield and run."

Z sat back in
the pilot's chair to wait. Thing climbed from his shoulder to his
lap. There was nothing more to do so they waited for almost an
hour.

*Okay. It
worked. Much better than I thought.*

[ They had gone
inside the ship? ]

"From what we
can see it's sealed tight," Zorz said. "They retreated inside and
were preparing to make a run for it. We haven't found any
indication there were others here. Do you have other
information?"

*That was all
of them.*

"We will head
for the psiltripium world, then. We'll want to use this beam the
way it was designed to be used!" Zorz said.

They traded
good fortunes, then Z and Thing went to tell the natives they could
safely go home. The still burning Immin ship was lifted with a
servo as pilot and dropped into the sun, taking its two missiles
with it.

[ I guess we'll
never be absolutely sure we're free of Immins, will we, Maita?
]

*Only when
we've been to every world in the galaxy.*

"I hate to
ask," Z said. "But what about those ships that left Maita thousands
of years ago headed out of this galaxy? Were there Immins
aboard?"

[ You make me
sick! Why did you have to bring that up? You're disgusting! ]

*It doesn't
matter, Thing. There were no Immins aboard those colony ships.
Ironically, the Maitans would never place those of another race in
the danger of such an untried thing.*

"I guess that's
one bit of good news!" Z sighed. "Where to next?"

[ Anywhere
where we KNOW there are no Immins! ]

Fart?!

"We were doing
so great!" Z said. "Why do things have to turn so sour?"

[ We live
charmed lives as it is. We've never had more than half as much bad
luck as would be normal. How many times have we bragged that most
of the things we've accomplished was due to your phenomenal luck?
Besides, that turned out well. We saved a world from slavery and
put a stop to the spread of the Immins. Again. ]

*Z's afraid
that if he doesn't bitch now and then his luck will desert
him.*

"I also am
known to react badly when we're forced to do things like that! Good
old pacifist, Steve Zutec, as much as orders Zorz to wipe out
several thousand people! It's my psyche and I'll feel guilty if I
want to!"

Thing, who was
in a ball on his lap, sprung to the top of Z's head and leaned over
to stare into his eyes.

[ He doesn't
feel fevered, Maita. I think this time he really has gone nutzo on
us! ]

*He went nutzo
two hundred years ago. I tried to keep it a secret. In the first
place, I don't consider Immins as people. They're just galactic
refuse – or hopefully WERE! In the second place, Zorz was going to
defy me and wipe out the colonies anyhow. In the third place, you
were able to make him think about those nuclear bombs and to make
him slow down enough to protect the natives. In the fourth
place.... I lost my train of thought.*

[ You're both
nutzo! I'm trapped on a spaceship that's gone nutzo with the only
other passenger also nutzo! ]

Thing climbed
back to roll up in Z's lap.

[ Another way
of expressing it would be to say we're back to normal! ]

"Normal's a
relative term, and I doubt that any of your relatives are normal,
either. That's enough time to spend grieving for Immins. Where to
next, fearless leader?"

*We're meeting
with Fleet and a number of the trader ships on Fart. We'll decide
how to make it a permanent part of the regular trader reporting and
cataloguing to input information about any possible Immin or other
outlaw colonies anywhere in the galaxy. I think we can then return
to continue our spiral search pattern. Tab and Kit are on the
fastcom again.*

They exchanged
some information with the two robot detectives and Thing got into
an argument with their ships, TRD-60 and T6, about some scientific
innovations they were making. Thing won easily, of course. No two
supercomputers in the galaxy could hope to outthink it in
theoretical matters or abstract thought.

The meeting
with Fleet and the traders resulted in a plan where the Fleet ships
would take certain sectors and the traders others. They would scan
each planetary system in those sectors for the energy fields Immin
ships would necessarily be emitting along with any "holes" in the
energy scan that would indicate a shield.

They could drop
into N space in the system and scan it in less than half an hour
from two points, one on either side of the primary.

Maita explained
how to modify equipment they all carried to handle the job and
suggested they add a small computer to make the systems automatic
and permanent parts of the ships.

They were to
make no contact with any suspect worlds, but were to immediately
report to the Acnian ship, "Nerstine-il", the leader of this
segment of Fleet. It would be the job of that ship to investigate
any reports.

The search
would begin on galactic plane and move entirely around the galactic
dome for a "depth" of three thousand plazsis. Inside of that there
was little likelihood of finding anything. Maita would launch
longterm seeker satellites to roam through the entire galactic
bubble inside of three thousand plazsis. Permanently. They would
automatically report.

Then they were
again on their way.

*Next is a
pleasant world that was called TaHoot. That translates into `world
of the....'*

"FART?!" Z
suddenly exclaimed. “You said that world was called FART?!"

*What?*

"It just hit
me! I'm slipping! How could something like that get by me? That
world was called FART!"

[ Heee! Look at
the word in Terran English, Maita! And the world we're going to now
is called Hoot! ]

*How vulgar.
The word means 'World of the Hoot' in the old language. If those
beings still exist I'm sure Z will embarrass us all with his
inability to control his mouth.*

[ Why? ]

*You're getting
as bad! Because they look like owls, a bird Z knew on Earth. He
called them Hoot Owls. They aren't like the Parf. They're much more
like the Woost. Remember how Z acted with the Singee? (A race that
looked like large frogs and had names like Ploop and Blurp. Z had
made a fool of himself by bursting into laughter every time he
heard a new name. Thing had "explained" that Z was reacting to the
sulfur oxides in their air and had gotten him away and into another
room. The Singee were now well-known in the empire as intelligent
and honest.) THAT I can do without!*

"Find out what
their names are and exactly what they look like. If it's going to
crack me up I'll stay out of sight."

They approached
the world soon and Maita orbited to send spy floaters in. The Hoot
were extinct.

*There's
another race that evolved to wipe them out. It's also birdlike but,
where the Hoot were evolved from solitary beings, the present race
was apparently evolved from a type that nested and hunted in huge
colonies. The Hoot were hunters and these were scavengers.*

"Like seagulls.
Pretty, graceful scavengers that could destroy the nests of other
birds and eliminate them in one generation if they worked together.
They fought constantly among themselves and with anything else that
was smaller or weaker."

[ Survival of
the fittest? I've read your Darwin book, you see, Z. ]

*The difference
being the Hoot were a basically good race and could interact well
with others and these will never do anything except dominate this
planet for the rest of its history. They're a dead end and are as
far as they can ever go right now. A pity of a type we've run
across before.*

"This is
depressing. We needed a bright world with a good race after the
Immin thing and we get this! Birds with the psychology of
Immins!"

[ I have to
agree with that. Our luck needs turning around. Where to next,
Maita? ]

*An energy
source that wasn't on Library's lists at all. The energy is
definitely controlled and is definitely artificially produced.*

"Maybe a race
who aren't screwing up the place? Good!"

They were soon
approaching the system. Maita stopped at a distance.

*There's a war
between worlds here!*

They slowly
approached. They decided that so far as their rules were concerned
these people were in space and could be contacted.

*I'm trying to
establish contact. There's something strange here. I'm obviously in
contact with a machine and I'm obviously NOT going to be placed in
contact with organic beings. It's all digital. Even the
communications between.... Is this a machine like those Tlessarian
brains? I think we have a key. I'll put it all on the screen for
you.*

The holovid
screen lit.

Ship called
Maita! State your purpose here!

*I am exploring
for the Maitan Empire. My purpose is merely research.*

Ship Maita! Do not approach closer! WARNING! Do not
approach closer! This is a war zone! State your
intentions!

*I am a
research vessel. My intentions are only information gathering.*

Ship Maita!
intentions not understandable! Espionage is intolerable!

*I am research.
Your war is of no interest to this mission whatever. *

Ship Maita! Your presence is not understood. You are not
known to be hostile, but you are not known NOT hostile. It is
therefore decided in the interest of security that you will not
approach closer. This is a war zone! Should you approach closer,
you will be destroyed! This is not aggression, it is deemed
self-defense
.

*Are there any
organic beings within your war zone?*

Ship Maita!
Question not understood! This is a war zone. YOU HAVE BEEN
WARNED!

[ Maita, can
you contact the world they think they're warring against? ]

*I've been
trying. It's blocked. I'll move to the far side of the primary
where I can approach the other world.*

They waited –
to almost exactly repeat the words of the first communication with
the other world.

[ Maita! There
are no people here, only two military machines fighting one another
– they've totally wiped out their builders! ]

"Maita, we
don't need this! Not now! Let's just wipe out those two machines
and get out of here!"

[ No. There's
no reason to wipe them out. They may have been fighting one another
for centuries. There may be a purpose behind this, too. I only
assumed they've wiped out their builders. Is there any reason to
believe that, Maita? Is it equally possible the builders wiped
themselves out? These are nothing like the Tlessarian machine.
]

*To tell the
truth there's no reason to believe they're even from this system. I
don't see any evidence there's been any advanced evolution
here.*

"Then where did
they come from? It would be from a very close system.

"Which ones,
Maita?"

There was a
long pause, then they felt the twist as Maita went into the
IDmode.

*There's ample
energy being used in the system we're heading for. It seems
advanced. Maybe we can get answers.*

The world was
in the "pleasant" zone and was an "easy" type of world. There were
many very large and beautiful cities. Clean cities.

[ Can you get
the language, Maita? ]

They waited for
more than an hour while Maita sent a floater to get language and
other information. When it was back they called to the spaceport.
It was a small field that didn't show evidence of being used to any
extent. They were welcomed.

The people were
mammalian and much like the Bentans. Z placed the crystal in his
earlobe socket and went out the ramp with Thing riding his
shoulder.

The natives
called the world Extrelle. Several people came from various
directions to stare at them. Thing had its floater hovering
overhead so asked who was in charge. It was almost the old "take me
to your leader" cliché. Two people pointed to a building not far
away, but no one volunteered to take them so they began walking. It
took a few minutes. People would turn to stare at them, but didn't
really pay much attention.

"I haven't seen
anyone but these people," Z said. "Is there any evidence there's
contact with any other world? These people seem curious and
friendly enough, but why are they acting like this?"

[ The empathy
tells me they're very curious and they want to see and touch us,
but they have a code whereunder they must never invade the privacy
of others. I'm trying to discover some way to communicate that it's
all right. I'm confused by the information on the crystal. ]

*I'm going to
announce we're from a different culture and wish to speak with
someone and to learn about them. Here.*

The floater's
speakers carried the message. A female came to ask what they wanted
to know.

[ There are two
worlds in a nearby star system. Each has a world with a military
machine on it. They're fighting one another and seem to have been
doing so for some time. Are those machines from here? ]

"The machines
in Gloweridge? Yes," she replied. "I can't say much about them. The
clerk of the extrasystem information office can tell you. He's in
the government center building."

They thanked
her and continued ahead. It would serve no purpose to ask anyone
not a part of the specialty about anything. That would be viewed as
an invasion of the clerk's duties. Z shook his head and they went
into the building, read the register on the wall and went up to the
office of extrasystem affairs. It would be the office responsible
for the contact. They introduced themselves to Neer, the clerk, who
showed them the records since the Krofpth Empire. These people had
found a system that worked well for them. They were never
interested in expansion so kept only a small capacity to go to
space and kept the field so others could visit if they desired.