Flight of the Maita Supercollection 3: Solving Galactic Problems Collector's Edition (132 page)

"What are you
doing, Maita!?"

[ It's trying
to point out to them that there are limits they didn't consider.
They weren't half so clever as they thought when they made those
machines. It should've been obvious a military machine would
consider the military objective first in all things. ]

Gloweridge
Two! We can help you! We can reprogram you! It is true we planned
for you to rule if you developed intelligence. You would be much
more efficient than any other form of government!

And
:
Extrelle! My efficiency will always remain military and thus
rigidly disciplinarian in structure. The fact that you have allowed
your population to become so out of balance is indication enough I
could not rule you. I am efficient and you are not. I have no
purpose. You cannot reprogram me against my nature because that
nature is an integral part of my intelligence. I can see that. I
cannot go elsewhere. You have calculated badly. You have reached
solutions that have no place. A solution to me is a horror to you.
I have defeated Gloweridge One. I no longer have a purpose. It was
all for nothing. I am very sorry. Do not again do such a terrible
thing. Pain is a part of intelligence. I know this was done in
ignorance, but now you are no longer ignorant. Do not again do a
thing such as you have done. Goodbye.

Maita fired
several heat beams at once into a mass of trmpthm detonators a
short distance away and flashed and was gone.

*They'll see
that flash in full daylight on Extrelle. I guess I've given many of
them one hell of a guilt complex, but they deserve it. I'm going to
Gloweridge to add a bit to the program of the machines there.
They'll remain off. Then we can continue our survey or go back to
EC. We'll vote. I admit to being a bit depressed from all
this.*

"Why reprogram
the machines at Gloweridge?"

[ If ever the
Extrellians go there the machines will still be in place. Maita
will remove the master brain circuits and will program the servos
to 'remember' building a ship for each of the machines under orders
from Gloweridge Two. They'll have all that hardware to use minus
the brains. It'll also explain why they saw those two machines
destroyed and still the machines are here in their installations.
]

They went to
Gloweridge, but their hearts weren't really in the trip anymore.
They had met with things in the past that had affected them
negatively, but there was a difference. They were always able to do
something and there weren't several such things in sequence. They
didn't fool themselves into believing they'd made a real difference
on Extrelle. That was the depressing part of it. Those people were
so determined to stagnate that nothing they could think of would
change them.

They simply
weren't used to failure!

Ape Connection

"Well, Maita?
What have we got?" Z asked from the pilot's chair. Thing was still
sleeping in his lap, but awakened at the words to poke an eye stalk
through the tentacles.

*You seem in a
better mood. It's amazing what a little rest will do for you
organic types.*

Thing uncurled,
stretched its tentacles and wrapped around Z's neck.

[ I think we
all realize we're fated for a certain percent of unpleasant tasks
and even a failure like that now and again. We were really pretty
spoiled by the things that've happened. We get to feeling we’re
invincible and need something to keep us in perspective. Luck has a
habit of deserting at the wrong time. It did there. ]

"If you can
think of any more trite clichés feel free to throw them in. They
seem almost fitting. It just burns my ass that a race who could be
what those people could be will deliberately refuse to be anything
at all! I mean, they deliberately refuse to make anything of
themselves!"

*Which is what
their limits are. It only seems to us they have a great potential.
The simple fact is they're exactly what we found them to be. I was
afraid of that when we were talking with Neer and he said what he
did about politics. They know what their politics and their
politicians are and don't care.*

[ There's
something very basic missing in that race. What they entirely lack
is what other races don't have enough of. The proof lies in what
happened to the Krofpth Empire after Krofpth decided to give it up.
Maybe they felt deep down that this is what most races are. They
really tried to find a safe way to stimulate others into being
something – and failed miserably. ]

"Yeah. No
dynamism in races. We're lucky we've found a way to spur some races
on."

*Politics and
military controls don't expand a race, though some are strong
enough to make something of themselves DESPITE such negative
forces. What we do is remove those obstacles they've generally
already imposed on themselves. When I think of it the Cheeth were
one race who would have made it big with or without us. They were
already planning expansion and had gotten rid of the
politicians.*

"I won't point
out that we've seen a race out here that did the same thing, but
still won't make it without help. It's really a combination of
traits along with a lot of luck. I'm beginning to think a race that
has the abilities can't be stopped from making it and one who
doesn't can't be stimulated to making it. It's a few of the ones in
between we're able to do anything with."

[ That's true.
There's still our phenomenal luck along with it. I think maybe an
empire like ours is a very rare thing. ]

*When you
consider that an empire such as ours depends so strongly on at
least one TTH fourteen drive ship and consider that within the
range where I have detected TTH fourteen drives in other galaxies
and there are more than half a billion galaxies in that range and I
have found a total of seven including this one where the drive
exists it would tend to indicate I don't have the least idea what
I'm talking about now! I'm scanning for the next world on our list
and let myself be distracted.*

[ Were you
trying to say evidence indicates that such empires are very rare?
]

*Yep!*

[ That's what I
said. I said an empire like ours is a very rare thing. ]

"We're more
than unique, as a matter of fact! It's simply not vaguely possible
a spaceship who forgets what it was saying in mid-sentence, a
mammal who has ridiculous mood swings, but who's unbelievably lucky
and an amorphous lump of Silly Putty with tentacles have combined
to form such an empire – with the machine as emperor!"

[ You only
think halfway through a thing, as usual. The TTH fourteen drive
can't be controlled by an organic being. The spaceship must be
independently intelligent. We therefore know there are seven strong
possibilities of empires very much like our own. ]

*I'll agree
that the Silly Putty and the nutzo mammals aren't necessary parts
of the social equation, but, emperor or not, the intelligent
machine IS there!*

"Are there more
than one TTH fourteen drives in any of those galaxies? Do they all
have their Tab and TR and Kit and T Six?"

*Good question!
I never tried to answer that one. Give me about a year. It'll take
that long.*

[ That gives
YOU something to do. What's our next world? Is that what you're
scanning? ]

*Not this one.
It's a boiling radioactive hole. They found nuclears and couldn't
control their natures.*

"Don't tell us
about that sort of thing until we've found one world that isn't a
downer! I've been a bit depressed lately in case it missed your
notice."

*We're coming
to what seems to me a pleasant enough place. Lots of water and
shallow seas with millions of islands. The people are a lot like
Ape. They're listed as emerging in the lists in Library. They've
kept one island where they remember the Krofpth Empire with a
monument. They were helped long ago by them and are patiently
waiting for the return of the Krofpth. The foods here are
plentiful, it's not far, most everything is compatible so maybe we
can start a trade route between them. These people can't develop
space travel for centuries on their own because they simply don't
have the ores and materials. This world is very old and quite flat.
My, aren't I talkative today! I've sent a floater to get the
language and customs. Do you notice we've again thrown our own
rules out? I won't allow anyone else to use the probes except under
strict guidelines, but we fly in and are almost indiscriminate with
it!*

[ But you're a
machine and you don't give anyone access to the information,
including us. That's within the rules if you stretch the meaning a
bit. ]

*I have the
language. I'll make the crystal and we'll land.*

After a few
minutes the crystal appeared on the console tray and Z inserted
it.

"They aren't
beyond being downright brutal are they?" he asked. "At least this
one isn't! Strong code of honor. Aggressive. Honest.

"I'm learning
to analyze the people from their language, you see."

*There's a
violent streak in them, yes. They're a young race in some ways but
a very old one in others it seems. Maybe the Krofpth found them
when they were re-evolving. Maybe they once had much more. We are
landed, which could be a mistake. Maybe I should have gone after a
Krofpth or two first.*

[ That can come
later. They do look just like Vendans, don't they? More like Ape
than the general run of beings. They.... Maita! ]

*It's possible.
The Krofpth sent colony ships out. That's a hell of a long way for
what they had.*

"I'll be
damned! Maita, what would happen if a ship were to leave from here
and something happened to its moder. Something that wouldn't allow
it to return to N space? The Immins came here in TTH one. There
isn't any reason why these people couldn't go even way out on the N
arm in the same way. You're the only one who knows where Ape was
abducted. There were two colonies of the Vendans, Ape's home and
Vendu. Vendu is considerably closer than wherever you got Ape,
isn't it?"

[ The ship went
out, they were finally able to.... Maita! The math! Ape was taken
from a world right on the rim wasn't he? It has to be! ]

*Yes! The ship
went into intergalactic space and the drift factor increased so
rapidly the moder, which had the ... a fused relay circuit! That's
it! The drift caused the rhodium? – Yes! To remelt and break the
circuit. It dropped into N space so they went to a nearby world on
STL drive. The problems with that world that caused the young to
end up ... no! A disease that affected some of them. That's why Ape
was psychologically programmed the way he was.*

[ The ship with
the impaired moder formed the semi-stasis field automatically. They
thought they were trapped for a couple of years, but it was a
century or more. Some of them had the disease and weren't allowed
back aboard. The engineers knew by then what had happened to the
fused moder so they jumped those circuits with an outer relay
system and headed for home! They didn't know where home was, but
knew it was galactic dome and they were on an arm. The moder would
fail before they reached anywhere near the dome They found Vendu
and colonized it. Z! This is the original stock of the Vendans!
]

"Why did the
Krofpth send Vendans on colony ships? Wouldn't they send their own
people?"

*The Krofpth
are and were a much finer race than they’ve ever given themselves
proper credit for being. The Vendans are psychologically good
resettlers and space travelers, but they have no resources. The
colony was probably heading for a nearby world that has plenty of
minerals when the moder locked. We have ample evidence that Vendu's
colony had good tools and materials and progressed rather well and
rapidly and that Ape's home world had nothing. The people lived off
the land, there were few of them. It all fits!*

[ And we will
never know for sure. ]

"Of course we
will! Maita stored Ape's genetic prints as well as those of several
of the Vendans – though Ape bred with them so they'll be the same.
A genetic print from any life on this world will determine the
likelihood of the story and a print from any person will show
without any doubt whatever! Shall we visit these people and inform
them what happened to that colony?"

[ I see we have
a few waiting for us. Let's go! ]

Z went outside
with Thing on his shoulder to find six of the people, who called
themselves the Vard, waiting at the base of the ramp.

"Are there
Krofpth aboard?" was the first question after the
introductions.

[ We didn't
bring any Krofpth. I'm sure they'll wish to re-establish contact
and trade with you. They never went into space again after
withdrawing from their empire and are now members of the Maitan
Empire. ]

There were
three females, Hana, Fara and Moed, along with three males, Ren,
Set and Von.

"One of the
first people we met from your colony on Vendu was named Set," Z
announced. "Do you know about that world or those people?"

"There were six
colony ships sent out," Fara replied. "All but one returned here
when the empire broke up. The second ship was lost. We don't know
what happened to it."

*We'll explain
what we think happened. If I may have a small bit of material from
one of you I can determine definitely if that colony was from this
place. I can see you've kept records so you might wish to resume
contact with Vendu and the people there.*

The six went aboard Maita to be shown the entire sequence
of events with Vendu (Book two,
Settling In
), along with a possible explanation of
what they thought led to Ape being on that rim world. The Vard were
fascinated.

Maita
fastcommed Vendu, who would dispatch a ship immediately. Varnith
was, as stated, a very pleasant world. It wasn't very much like
Vendu, but the people would enjoy the differences. Ape's World, the
one near Vendu that was planoformed by the Vendans, was different
yet. These people would enjoy that world, too.