Flight of the Maita Supercollection 3: Solving Galactic Problems Collector's Edition (14 page)

"Nuff said. It
ain't none uh my bizznez, but would ya mind tellin' me why? – Tha
starkers, I'm a'talkin' aboot."

"Let's just say
they done some things to my family, an' that I'm a vengeful man.
What is is what is."

Both Partih and
Clare nodded at that.

I went back
into town with my seaman's pay and took lodging at the guild hall,
but would spend most of my nights with the bar whores. That was
what was as much as a custom here, and I wanted to appear as normal
as possible in most ways.

I spent all my
time in Stormlee talking to various people and gathering
information. TR was keeping in touch with Maita and the fleet, but
we weren't directly communicating between ourselves much to avoid
being detected by the brain. TR sent a floater with lightbeam coms,
but I wasn't very often in a position to use even that.

I waited two
days, then went back up to Overlook House to find a brand new robot
at the gate. I decided the best thing to do was to keep the brain a
little off balance if I could, and to do the unexpected.

The woman who
banged the first one with the rock was on the road and excitedly
told others I was the Liht who had done "all that stuff with the
golems" three days ago.

I told her I
saw there was another golem at the gate.

"Don't bother
nobody," she replied.

"Yuh," I agreed
sourly. "Ever stop to think maybe that starker had to kill off
Noobish and her father to make the golems what look like 'em?"

"Mebbe they's
still in thar."

"You gonna let
the starker keep 'em prisoners?"

She fidgeted,
and the others around began mumbling. No one had considered what
had to have happened. The brain was going to try to let things
slide along until the people forgot about the golems, building an
army in the meantime. I wasn't going to let that happen. It
definitely had limited materials and resources in the house, so I
could possibly use that to make it move. Robotics takes very
specialized materials.

I went up to
the robot at the gate with a crowd of twelve or fourteen people
following me, and said, "Golem! Tell the starker Liht is here and
wants to see Noobish, and he better not send no golem what looks
like 'er! When I says Noobish I means Noobish, not some damned
lying golem!"

The robot
scanned me, so I fed normal readings that would come from a Killit
to it.

"No one may see
the people here," the robot answered. "They have left orders that
they do not wish to be disturbed.

"You will go
away."

"Liar!" I
shouted. "They're prisoners or they're dead, and we ain't letting
you and your starker master git away with neither thing! I done
showed you that there ain't no ten golems no match for Liht! Ain't
no ten starkers no match neither! You tell Liht to go away from no
public road agin'n that there starker better have another golem in
there to take your job! You ain't gonna be in no condition to do
nothin'!

"When I tell
you somethin', you'd better jump, golem! You wire and metal things
break real easy-like! That starker in there will bleed real easy,
too!

"Now, you do
what I told you or I'm gonna see how easy you break right now!"

I traced the
radio between the robot and the brain and was able to decode some
of the transmissions by observing reactions to what I said and the
codes sent to bring out those reactions. There was a two two three
pulse, and the robot brought the finger laser up to point at
me.

"You shoot me!"
I yelled. "Go ahead, lyin' golem! You might even kill me, but then
everybody in Stormlee will come up here and tear that wall and
house down brick by brick and you and your master right along with
it! That whole place will end up in the water and you and your
starker along with it, golem!

"Go ahead! Use
your lightning finger trick on me! I dare you, you lying THING!
We'll see how fast you metal things sink!"

There was a one
two pulse and the robot lowered the finger.

Two two three
was attack and one two was stop. Good to know. The brain was
broadcasting speech directly to built-in speakers and was
broadcasting every movement at the same time. I didn't think it
could handle many at once. That was a lot of circuitry on different
wavelengths as well as a separate set of wavelengths for each
robot.

The brain
wouldn't let them calculate too much on their own, so would limit
itself. I think it had let the two who attacked me on the road work
under general orders, which was why it was in the trouble it was in
now.

The brain did
learn fast and did consider consequences.

The robot
simply went inside the gate and hung a lock on it. I yelled that no
lock was going to keep us out and we'd know if Noobish and her
father were dead or just prisoners in no time and that the
"starker" was going to pay a high price no matter what.

The robot
ignored me.

I turned to the
people following me and said, "So this is how the citizens of
Stormlee do for each other! Just let some lyin' trickery starker
come in and make a couple'a golems and you crawl around in the mud
and wring your hands!

"Well, Liht
does somethin' when it's his friends been done wrong! I knowed
Noobish a bit. She were nice enow to me, and I ain't lettin' no
starker get away with killin' her or worse! No sir! Not Liht!

"You hear that,
golem?! You better start runnin' right now! I'm gonna take you
apart wire for wire and I'm gonna stick all them wires where your
starker master's magic don't work!

"Whataya think
of that?! You THING!"

I turned and
went back into Stormlee, where I rented a small boat that would
move well along the coast. I was sure the brain would have sensors
out along the entire property and could spot me coming in easily
enough, but the boat was for the benefit of the people. I wasn't
going to be in it.

I waited until
dark, then rowed the boat out and around the cliff base until
twenty five meters before the bend that led to Overlook House, then
slid into the cold water, used water on my elementizer grid to form
oxygen for buoyancy, and moved around below the surface. I was sure
the brain could detect me above the water and, though there were no
submarines here, I was pretty sure it would have sensors
underwater, too. There would be a very limited area tight against
the rock of the cliff base where it couldn't detect me. Radar
wouldn't penetrate the water and sonar would be as useless against
that solid rock. I wasn't radiating anything else that would give
me away and was being most careful about sound.

There were
detectors under there that worked on sweep, but they detected body
heat, which I neutralized. I was exactly the temperature of the
rock I was clinging to. There is also an area of perhaps a meter's
thickness right at the surface where the air won't carry sonar well
and the waves interfere with radar. By moving horizontally in the
wave lap I could avoid most types of sensors.

I found enough
slices and clefts to be able to go above the water at times until I
was beneath the house. I moved to the far side of the property,
scanning the cliff carefully. I would have no trouble climbing, but
there wasn't anything to climb to above in most places. I was sure
there would be some way from the house to the sea, so kept
searching until I found the path even farther along than I had
been.

I now knew
where NOT to go!

I made my way
slowly up the rock face to find there was a wall along the top of
the cliff here, too. It was smooth and would offer no hand or
toeholds. I was sure anything that reached the top of that wall
would be easily detected – and as easily removed as a threat.

I called my
floater, gave it careful instructions, then waited until it
appeared moving flatly up the cliff face. I had it lift me
carefully, where I could see a large tree silhouetted against the
sky, over the tree, and close to an overgrown garden of some plants
with large variously colored blooms.

I could detect
the scanners in the area to avoid them. They came into a triangular
area on either side of the tree that it was easy to go above. There
was no protection from an airborne assault here, though I had no
doubt whatever the brain would build something before it began its
master plan. It wouldn't do anything to attract outside attention
to the planet, but would prepare.

That was fine
with me. It couldn't expect detection for years yet.

I gave the
floater input all the information I had and what I planned, though
even that would have to come as I learned. I had it then go to TR
to report. I may run into serious trouble, so wanted help to be
ready, and we didn't dare use any beams we had in place for
communications this close to where there had to be sensors.

I waited. A
robot came around the house after half an hour or so, scanned the
area, and went on.

I went under
the scanners in the area and to a doorway with a beam sensor. I
used an inertia field to fool it as I went through into a hallway.
Such things are really very easy if you have the technology. If the
brain was depending on these things this would probably be easier
than most such undertakings. A false sense of security in the brain
because of these devices would work very much in my own favor.

I could detect
the energy use mostly below and to my left, so the brain would be
there. I had to find a way to get directly to it, then find a way
to shut it off or something. None of it would be as easy as I would
prefer to think, but it shouldn't be too difficult, either.

See how soon we
forget? See how stupid even such a magnificent machine as myself
can be? I just SAID how dangerous a false sense of security could
be!

I found a long
hallway with doors to either side with a lot of very heavy, very
good quality furniture, but it was easy to see no one had been here
in some time from dust and a general air of neglect. That meant
Noobish, her father, and anyone else here were dead.

I looked into
the large kitchen to find there was no recent use of it, either.
There was no food around. The brain copied them and then got rid of
them – which means the copy of Tramth, Noobish's father, was around
somewhere to be called out when needed for things like the phony
Noobish coming to the gate to get rid of me. It would be a
special-purpose robot, as was the Noobish one, so would be stored
somewhere convenient until it was needed. I didn't believe it would
be armed, but I wouldn't be lulled by that. This was one tricky
machine, as I had already learned.

I looked into
each door and found another hall just before the front entrance.
This one was used so wasn't very dusty.

I opened
several side doors to find the Noobish robot, what appeared to be a
servant copy, and the Tramth one. I spent a bit of time, found the
power lead, and disconnected it. Until the brain had use for one of
them, there wasn't any reason to think it would know they were
useless. I then found the leads to the antennae along the roof.
These were the way the brain communicated with and directed all the
outside robots.

I cut all the
leads that weren't in use, then moved out of sight to laser the
ones being used. I was well-hidden, which was good, because a
heavily armored servo with various obvious beam weapons came from a
nearby doorway to check the wires. I studied it as well as I could,
but couldn't see any way to turn it off or to damage it. My small
hand weapons and built-ins wouldn't affect that much armor.

That was one I
wouldn't let slip my mind for one second. It was some sort of
private guard as well as a repair unit, so it had come from the
area where I would find the stairs or whatever would lead me to the
brain.

I waited until
it began to uncoil wire and to resolder them to slip into the
doorway it came from.

There were
wooden stairs with a steel rail to one side the servo must use to
come up and go down. At the rate it was working it would be out
there for no more than five minutes, so I went down the stairs to a
meter past a brace, cut the brace, went to the next and cut it, and
went back out. None of my sensors showed me anything but some sort
of large basement down there. The brain was some distance farther
and in another even lower area. The floor was solid stone, and the
servo would drop about eighteen meters – if my trap worked
right.

I hid again and
waited until the servo moved around the room to check other things.
That showed me where some of the amplifier equipment was.

It then went to
the door.

I suspected the
machine would simply repair any damage and not consider why all
that stuff went out at once. I almost stepped out of my hiding
place before I thought the brain would know when all of the leads
in use went. It was baiting a trap by trying to lead me to think
the servo was gone. There would be another robot waiting.

What if it was
supposed to be Noobish or one of those? Surely the brain would know
they weren't responding, and all hell would break loose!

There was a
squeal of metal, a ripping sound, and a crash that shook the floor
under me. I could now safely assume the servo was trapped down in
the basement at worst and damaged at best. It was sort of flat on
three sides and on top, so it may be unable to right itself if it
weren't on its wheelpods.

I went to a
window, where I looked out carefully to see four robots racing
toward the house through the window. I cut all the antennae leads
again and watched three of them suddenly begin running around in
erratic zigzags.

I took the
antennae leads and broadcast the one two signal at all the
wavelengths in use when I cut the leads. The three robots suddenly
stood at attention. Motionless. The fourth was pounding up the hall
toward me.