Flight of the Maita Supercollection 3: Solving Galactic Problems Collector's Edition (138 page)

"There's energy
in their ship so they could fastcom for help if they needed it. If
it was a lost escape pod they would use the facilities to call for
aid. There's the protector satellite that they could reach with a
handmade crystal radio! They didn't. They have the energy. None of
it adds up.

"T Six, did you
try radio response? Are they capable of responding to, say, the FM
bands or such they haven't given to these people yet?"

"I checked the
emergency distress bands in everything. No response," T6 replied.
"The energy I detected isn't com energy. There's no fastcom capable
of working or we could detect the tracer beam."

[ We're getting
close to town so I'll have to stop speaking, but I think maybe an
escape pod from some ship. It hit too hard for the coms to survive
– or heated up too much. There isn't the energy to use the
gravitics to any extent and if it hit the atmosphere at too sharp
an angle there was only energy for a safety shield. It could have
burned up all the equipment in the pod. And none of that makes
sense either. If it was that hard or hot it killed the passengers.
Unless they're unbelievably stupid they'd make that crystal radio
and reach the satellite. ]

"Hells! The
first thing the survivors would have done when they had the chance
would be to make a lightbeam distress signal and could be detected
by the satellite in no more than ten nights on the outside," Z
argued. "They've developed radio so they would've also sent radio
distress signals. The emergency relays would soon detect them out
here if ships on the trader routes didn't! They know all about the
beacons and sensors so they could flash a signal that would be
received with a damned key chain torch!

"Maita? Check
for lost ships in the past twenty or so years."

*I did. None
close enough that they could have reached this planet in a pod and
no ships on these routes were lost. It could be a moder malfunction
that shunted a ship in here from another route, but I can't find
anything likely. We've definitely established it's not anyone who
wants to be rescued. They're up to something.*

[ What about
outlaw traders? ]

"They don't
operate anywhere near these kinds of areas," TR replied. "I've
checked everything we have on that subject. There's always the
possibility one of their old cheap moders shunted them in here, and
I guess we'll have to go with that as our most likely probability
until we know something more. We're still stumped as to why they
didn't make some kind of distress call. Maybe the fact they were
reported is strange in itself?

"Who reported
it, Maita? They never gave me the information."

*The teams
searching for Immins found the energy source where it shouldn't be,
but were able to determine it wasn't reasonable Immins were the
problem so they reported it to Narn, the Fleet captain who's
handling the search in this area and who called you. We would never
have found it if we hadn't instituted that search. Narn scanned the
world, decided something wasn't right and called you for lack of
any other idea. She wasn't sure it was the kind of thing that
should be reported to me. We'll have to stop the talking except
among the three of you who should have speech. You're coming to the
point where you could be overheard. Two bandit cruds approached the
boat, but I frightened them off. They can't understand their panic
so think there's a spell on the boat. These people respond very
strongly to certain infrasonics*

Z came to a
sudden halt and Kit almost knocked him over. He thought a minute,
nodded, and grinned.

[ Damnit! You
did that to drive me crazy! We can't talk anymore and I won't know
if you sent that impulse deliberately or not! I wish you hadn't
learned to send empathy so well! This had better not be your idea
of a joke! ]

"I may have an
idea," Z said. "We'll have to wait until we're in the palace to
check it out. It's one way of explaining a lot of things. Believe
me, the situation here isn't one I would use to play games. We have
the very real possibility that the only way to stop this is to
attack with everything we have and you know what that would mean to
that city."

A rider on a
mountbeast was approaching from the rear so Z, Tab and Kit made
small talk until he was past. They were then too close to the city
to risk the ships or Thing saying anything else aloud, though
everyone there except Z could communicate silently. Thing was
riding in the cart so it could be in contact with the relay on its
floater, but would soon climb onto one of their shoulders and would
be out of much of that, though it still had some contact within
three meters of the floater. It could also maintain contact through
direct contact with Tab or Kit.

They went into
the city and stopped at the police compound to pick up the
identification papers Seemum said would be ready for them. They
joked awhile and Z told another slightly bawdy tale about a girl
he'd met in the West Mountains. He wanted to cultivate Larj's
talents as much as he could as a way to gain entrance into the
palace. He was more and more sure getting inside that palace would
be the best and quickest way to find the answers they must
have.

Kit showed
Seemum some of the things they had to trade – oils and spices and
some very fine cloth – and was told that items of gold were things
the king was very interested in lately. The pink gold, mostly, and
white gold. Also green quartz from Narsjkland.

Tab said he was
the luckiest person on all of Savaraj! He had pink gold! He had a
sure source where he could get a lot of it if the price was
right!

Maita would get
a supply on board the boat very quickly for them so they could
bargain anytime. They decided to stop at a local inn for dawnmeal,
if a late one. It was a thing normal travelers would be expected to
do. They sat at a table, ordered eggs, the local substitute for
grits and a dark chocolate flavored hot drink that had a high
caffeine alkaloid content.

"So our king
wants rhodium and chrome," Kit said when they couldn't be
overheard. "He can get by with trace amounts if he gets it this
way, but there probably isn't any other way to get it."

"Moders?" Z
asked. "Surely he doesn't have anything near the sophistication of
equipment needed to make even the crudest type! Great exploding
galaxies! The course on designing moders takes four years at
University and we know DAMNED well nobody in that group is missing
or has been! A University graduate who winds up missing anywhere
would cause a galaxywide search!"

"Something
else, I'm sure," Tab said. "Moders or fastcom are about all that
use.... Oh, damn!"

"And
disruptors," Z agreed dryly. "That's the only big weapon,
inefficient as it is, they can produce, barring nuclears. BIG big
weapons, that is. Anyone in the empire knows nuclear weapons would
be detected and investigated immediately. No one would dare to take
that kind of chance, no matter what kind of chances they took with
other things. Maita has sensors on all the warning satellites to
detect them. They could depend on nuclears being known about and
reported within hours of developing any such thing.

"You know what
that means?"

"It means they
don't want to be found," Tab said. "The one sure way to get Maita's
attention would be to set off a nuclear bomb out in that desert.
With that.... They have to know about the restrictor satellite.
They would've used that to contact EC sixteen years ago if they
wanted to be found, meaning they're deliberately hiding here. We're
damned sure right on that point!

"I think we're
back to Immins, like it or not. They could pass for these people
better than any of the rest of the races from a distance and they
would have no thoughts for a picosecond about interfering with this
culture."

"And Thing
wants to point out that there would definitely be nuclear
stockpiles," Tab said. "This is anything but the Immins' style of
doing things here."

"Lord, I hope
so!" Z cried fervently. "Maita and I would both go off the deep end
if we found anything like them out here!"

They finished
their meal and acted puzzled as to how to use the fancy paper money
they had exchanged gold for at the police compound. Z noted they
were charged almost double the price listed on the menu. He took
out a piece of paper and a graphite stick to figure, glared at the
waiter, who was suddenly very nervous, and demanded, "You think
you're the only one who knows numbers?

"You can keep
what you've cheated us out of because we're going to spread the
word you are a thief and your food is in small portions and is
barely edible to top it! You made three kleperts sixty. It's going
to cost you three thousand six hundred kleperts!

"Come, Kemat
and Lape! We are to meet with the businessmen of the city and even
with the court. We'll see exactly how clever this thief really is!
Perhaps he'll learn as he sits on the streets begging that numbers
and figuring are not rare arts anymore."

They stalked
out with the proprietor trying to get them to take their money back
and crying it was a mistake. Kit turned to him on the street. "A
mistake, it was!" he said loudly. "When you steal from honest
people you lose the trade of honest people. A thief will soon have
only thieves for customers. Think hard on it! Soon, everyone who
goes in there will be as dishonest as you are! You'd best hire
someone to keep guard on what few things you have. You won't have
them long when all your customers are stealing from you as you
steal from them.

"I grow tired
of your mouthings! Begone!"

Tab and Z stood
close beside Kit. The man looked up at the three of them, one old
man in exceptionally good physical shape and two very large younger
men. He turned to slink back into his inn. Several people were
watching. They hooted at him as he went back inside.

Thing climbed
up to sit atop Tab's head and to bend over to peer into his eyes a
moment, then it settled more comfortably, wrapping a tentacle
across his eyes and another across his mouth. This was a
crowd-pleaser that they had used in several other places. People
found humor in such antics almost universally.

"Znnmf! Sthp!"
Tab mumbled through the tentacles. "Uh cnd see, dmnnt! Uh cnd
breefth!"

Thing bent the
eye stalks to peer at the tentacle, then moved it up just enough
for one of Tab's eyes to show. It looked out at the crowd and
seemed to shrug, which caused a roar of laughter.

Thing reacted
to the laughter by dropping behind Tab's head and peering over the
top at the people, which made them laugh even harder.

It came back to
his shoulder and wrapped the tentacles on that side around Tab's
head again, but this time Tab put an arm in the way and pushed the
tentacles aside.

Z told a funny
story about the time Lape was steering the boat through some
treacherous water and Zonn had wrapped around his face. "It was the
sheerest feat of magic that Lape was able to navigate around those
crushing boulders!" he finished. "Before that moment I would have
said that all-seeing with the mind was a trick, but I am not so
fast with rash statements now! It was the hidden ability of the
mind to see through solid things and the protections of the lesser
sea gods of old that allows us to walk and talk right now!"

There were some
small children who came from nearby houses to pass Thing among
them. The three travelers stayed to talk with the people while the
children played a game with Thing, Z sneaking in a few questions
about the palace and the people in it. Everyone was relaxed by that
time and answers came easily. They discovered the royal family was
liked and respected, but the advisors were as universally disliked.
That could mean a lot of things, including the natural use by a
politician of underlings to take the blame for all that goes
wrong.

Then they
headed on to the business and trading center near the palace where
they displayed their wares. They were able to sell several types of
standard wares while Z sat on a bench, placed his cart conveniently
and began telling the news from other places in Larj's finest
manner and voice, demanding news of Royal City in return and
seeming not to notice when people dropped coins into the cart. He
began by telling some slightly bawdy tales about supposedly
important people in other cities, which drew a much larger crowd.
Mujat came to ask him to tell about the charming lady he laid in
that sea town. He acted embarrassed but told the story, then some
more. People began to trade gossip after the storytelling session,
asking about specific places and people. He would tell what Larj
had known about them and listened carefully to what was said about
the important people in Royal City.

Kit and Tab
didn't know quite what he was doing and Thing came at times to hang
onto him, then to go back to the others. They spent the entire day
acting as much like normal traders and talebearers as anyone could
be. Z let several small things drop in his conversation, then, when
the business day was over, they went to an inn. There were the
standard prostitutes there and they were all sure some of them
would be in the employ of the aliens in the palace so Kit and Tab
each selected one who was particularly appealing to them while Z
acted aloof from all of that.

There was a
woman, quite striking, called Canj. She came after noonmeal to
listen to his stories. She came from the palace. Z saw her from the
corner of his eye and kept an eye on her. She asked if he knew
where the new gold mines had been found in the southern mountains
and covered the question by saying she always wanted her own gold
mine.

Mujat was close
at the time, made the "Wow!" sign by staring at her rear and
rolling his eyes so Z winked and started telling his risque stories
directly to her. She sat next to him on the bench and stared
intently into his eyes with a very obvious look. Mujat gave him the
"You've got that one" sign, punching the right thumb into the palm
of the left hand and walked off.