Flight of the Maita Supercollection 3: Solving Galactic Problems Collector's Edition (140 page)

[ The two
questions being about odd people in a place of power giving the
king those advances and how they avoid being recognized as aliens?
Yes.]

"How many of
them there are and how they avoid detection," Z replied. "We
started with the supposition they were here. Now we know – but we
did anyhow. You told me you found something at the palace while I
was asleep. Fill me in, then we'll make some plans about how to get
this mess straightened out."

[ There are
beams and trip alarms and some sonics, too. The basement of the
palace has steel-barred windows which are covered with frosted
glass. Tempered glass so it won't break easily. I could sense a lot
of equipment using energies in ranges I can detect. I think the
ship or whatever is in the basement and the palace was built around
it. What's your plan about the magic from Tlorg? I saw you try that
and felt the glee from you. You also put the idea of magic and
sorcerers into Canj's mind. ]

"When we get
rid of the people causing the problem we'll still be stuck with the
problem – the interference with this culture," Z explained. "We
have to find some way to negate the ideas and confusions caused by
advanced technology. We have to refute it without leaving the idea
it must be done with some kind of evil magical power. It has to be
that such things can be done without magic and that they are only
evil if done with magic. I plan to get an idea going that this is
all simply magic and trickery. When we get rid of the magicians
none of the stuff will work, but it CAN work when it's done with
science, not trickery. They know of mesmerism so we can convince
them that very little of this ever existed except in their minds.
Mass hypnotism has been written about here. We may be forced to
bring in a couple of the Acnians to prove what hypnotism can
do.

"Maita, you and
TR and T Six are going to have to produce a lot of stuff that's
cheap imitation of the things they have and that doesn't work. Make
the things they'll have soon in such a way that someone can work
with them and make them work, if not as efficiently or easily.

"In other
words, leave the idea that the principle is solid, only the method
is flawed.

"I don't know
what to do about all that carved marble."

*We'll do a
hell of a lot better than that. I'll contact Heleemius. We'll do a
really crazy thing here.*

[ Don't contact
anyone. I know what to do about the city. You can use infrasonics
to decompose the marble. Z will have to demonstrate illusions and
get the concept of illusion into the minds of these people. I'll
find a way to get everyone away from the city when the time comes.
We can work that kind of thing, but now is premature. We have to
set it all up first. ]

They discussed
various other plans, but Thing wouldn't say more so they dropped
it. Maita had several hundred kilos of pink gold trinkets ready for
them as well as some chrome quartz statuary. In the morning they
headed back to meet Kit and Tab before the noonmeal. Z made a
production of taking rhodium gold earrings to Canj. When they went
to their rooms that evening they found soldiers there waiting for
them. They were to come directly to the palace to explain where
they got the illegal pink gold – to King Narum and his
scientists!

Royalty in a Trap

The crew were
taken into the main hall of the palace, which had a long table
laden with food and drink toward one end and beautiful marble
inlaid floors over all. The ceilings were arched domes with columns
toward the sides all around. The floor was raised a third of a
meter from the columns to the walls, a space of about 4 meters.

There were rich
tapestries on the walls that they could see were as fine as any
they'd ever seen anywhere and truly fine statues by each column, if
not nearly to the standards of the tapestries. A double plush
throne was on the end away from the entrance between the center
columns on a dais that was raised a full meter from the main floor
level. It was reached from the hall by five steps in black marble.
There was a strong carved door behind the throne to the right and
one to the left. There were dancing fountains to either side of the
double throne and a magnificently wrought symbol of the House of
Narum in gold on the wall between the doors behind.

"Very
impressive," Z said curtly to the soldiers marching on either side
of them, who didn't change expressions as they marched them ahead.
The man and woman on the throne were typical Saj, well-dressed in
plush purple robes trimmed in white with jewels sewn here and there
on them. They were early middle-aged and didn't seem to Z to be
very happy people for all the luxury.

When he was
close he noticed a trapped and wary look in their eyes and a
tendency to jerky movement. Thing was on his shoulder and sent the
feeling of fear to him. He deduced they were unwilling puppets of
the aliens so fear from them was definitely not unexpected. Kit
caught his eye and looked at the massive doors behind the throne,
then mouthed the word "steel" in Maitan.

That wasn't at
all unexpected, either. The aliens certainly wouldn't want anyone
able to break in on them. Steel doors were beyond the abilities of
the people here to pass.

The soldiers
came to stop before the king and queen, bowed low, presented the
crew, and stepped back.

Z didn't so
much as nod at them so Tab and Kit took their cue from him and
stared at the king and queen in stony silence. Thing reached a
tentacle toward them indicating to Z, Kit and Tab they were
probably good people caught in a trap they couldn't get out of.

Finally, Narum
said, "I am King Narum. This is Queen Hisla. I am aware of the
names you have given here.

"You have
brought a large quantity of pink gold worked into ornaments and
utensils into Royal City against the directives of law. You have
dispersed those things, also against directives of law. How do you
answer to these charges?"

"I'm called
Kemat," Tab said sharply. "I'm a buyer and seller of many things. I
first came into your city just four days past with my traveling
companion and friend, Lape the Fisherman. We were immediately
accosted by armed people who called themselves police. They
demanded we present identification, a thing such as I've never
known in all my years of travel! I was then asked where I was
from.

"I was born
right here in Royal City, as was Lape. It was then called Mihgd. We
stated this was our place of birth. We were then called liars and
were badly treated. We were not given the chance to explain we had
not been here in many years. We were not given much chance for
anything! We were thrown into a small barred cell and treated to
cold hard floors and poor and insufficient food! We were, in short,
treated barbarically!

"Our sole
passenger, Larg the Traveler, had remained aboard our vessel
protecting our investments. He came here when we did not appear
back there at the time we said we would and was able to explain to
your police that they had misinterpreted what we said and was able
to demonstrate to their satisfaction that we were simply honest
businessmen. At no time did anyone tell us of any of your idiotic
laws about trade. In fact, it was your people here who ASKED us
about the pink gold and the green quartz. It was a whore who said
she had been ordered by YOU to persuade us to bring the merchandise
here.

"I can assure
you it will very soon be well-known in many places how you treat
honest businessmen in this evil place! We traders have a system of
information dissemination you know nothing about and can't guess!
The word is already out that to bring pink gold anywhere near this
area or, probably, to bring green quartz, will result in this bad
treatment. You can rest assured any supply of those things you
might have had is now nonexistent. One of our runners will, by now,
have gotten the word started out even to the mines. They'll stop
any movement of the gold to this place. Count on it! We traders
stick together when mistreated!"

"There's no law
about pink gold here," Kit said shortly. "I checked carefully. This
is a trumped-up charge and we all know it so why not simply say
whatever it is you have to say?"

"We didn't know
the police held you," Hisla protested. "You are under no arrest
here!"

Thing was
waving a tentacle at her.

"Have you heard
of Zonn's talent?" Z asked sweetly. "Since when are armed soldiers
sent to force people who are NOT under arrest to come to you? As
Lape says, why don't you simply say what this is really about? If
you have a desire for pink gold, this is a strange way of getting
it. If Kemat was lying about his having seen to it you get no more
Zonn would have told us of that lie. NO one lies in Zonn's
presence.

"Why pink gold?
It's just gold with some kind of contamination in it. It's pretty,
but actually has less value than pure gold. Green quartz is brittle
and tends to shatter. It's hard to carve and breaks easily. If you
like green stones, there's plenty of jade to be found. Nothing
about this evil place makes any sense. We have lately much
discussed Royal City. There's something very wrong here.

"I know of
magic – but this is something ... different. There is great power
being used here. I can feel that. It isn't real magic, though."

"Magic is
trickery," Narum snapped. "This is science. This comes from knowing
how things work. Get the idea of magic from your head. It's silly
and childish."

"Oh?" Z said
and cupped his hands. The blue flame suddenly appeared and grew
slightly. Thing squeezed his shoulder to tell him it had caused a
reaction from somewhere outside of the room. Z made a spreading,
throwing motion upward and outward with his hands and the flames
swirled in eddies outward, changing to white, then orange, then
red, then disappearing two meters away.

"I always
though that was magic!" he said lightly. "Thank you for informing
me I was mistaken!"

"Oh, I'm quite
sure that trick can be explained by our scientists very easily,"
Hisla said. "It's probably a simple thing."

"Horvach of
Himple has formulated some mathematical theories he calls the laws
of thermodynamics," Kit said. "He is what you call a scientist. He
was prepared to propose those laws until he saw this demonstration.
Larj even was stripped clean, carefully searched, and was then
placed to above his waist in the water of a fountain where he
repeated the thing you call a trick. Horvach was forced to suggest
there were only two possibilities here. Either there was magic or
his proposed laws of thermodynamics were wrong.

"I say there is
magic, even if all that means is we can't YET explain why a thing
happens."

"And I say Larj
has a special type mind that is strong enough to do these things!"
Tab retorted. "This isn't why we are here. We were brought here for
you to further insult us. I've never heard of a place like this
city. It looks clean and pretty from a distance, but is ugly and
evil in reality. In all this gleaming marble is the stench of
decay. I can feel pure, concentrated evil in this very room!

"It will surely
fall! Corruption eats at the foundation of a thing and once the
foundation is rotted the whole structure will collapse! Mark my
words, there's no good here!"

"People always
react to science negatively at first," Narum said. "It's because
they don't understand it. There's much good here."

"There is so
much good that we passed two separate bands of bandits within sight
of this city," Z snapped. "There is so much good that your police
detain people in cold hard cells without reason. There is so much
good that every shopkeeper tries to steal from his customers. There
is so much good that your own court employs prostitutes to try to
entrap honest businessmen. There is so much good that every corner
has one of your policemen standing on it. There is so much good
that you have a very large army who serve no purpose other than to
oppress your own people.

"I will take
less of this good thing, thank you!

"There is so
much good that you arrest people and force them to come to you when
they violate nonexistent laws! There is so much good that people
are living like rodents, outside of the few who are favored by this
court. There is so much good that lands better used for growing of
foods are being used by your scientists to make things no one
understands and no one can use! There is so much good that you are
issuing money made of paper of no use except here in your good
city! There is so much good that people in your city are attacking
each other and robbing each other merely to survive!

"I will take
less of your GOOD, thank you!"

Hisla had
slowly risen during the acid tirade and was standing staring at Z
in horror, hand to her throat.

"That isn't
true!" she cried. "Science has brought good things to our
people!"

"Which of my
points do you care to deny?" Z asked pleasantly. "Why hasn't effort
been made to cure a disease such as the scabby rot? There are known
methods. Wouldn't it be easier and cheaper to use a little of your
science for THAT? Is the science only to be used for those useless
THINGS? Why is food getting ever harder to obtain among those
without court favor while your science uses the land that was
producing food for things of no use to anyone?

"When Lape and
Kemat were here as children they were taught numbers and writing.
Who is teaching those things here in your good city? Scientists?
Then why have I not found one child who can add numbers or write
his name? Why, when there is so much good pure water above in those
mountains, is the water in this city unsafe to drink? Can't your
scientists use some of their iron to make pipes to bring the good
water here? Can't they make pipes to take away the waste-filled
water that stinks so in what seems, from the mountains, to be a
clean city? They can certainly make bars with their iron!
Everywhere, there are iron bars to keep the good of your city
out!