Flight of the Maita Supercollection 3: Solving Galactic Problems Collector's Edition (141 page)

"You may tell
me of the good your scientists are doing, but I assure you, it is
invisible good!"

"I've seen a
place like this before," Kit added. "It was much smaller, but the
problem was probably the same. That place was ruled by one family,
who charged what they called 'taxes' of all the people, supposedly
to pay for all the 'good' things they would bring.

"They simply
kept the 'taxes', of course. The difference here is that you are
stealing directly instead of taxing. That fact is obvious
enough."

"That's not
true!" Narum cried. "I will not countenance these accusations! I
don't answer to fishermen and buyers! We steal nothing from
anyone!"

"Really?" Z
asked. "Then how do you pay all those soldiers and police? How do
you provide food for them, even when your people don't have enough?
Who paid for all this fancy marble? Who pays your scientists? Why
is there so much food on that table in front of us while so many in
your good city have no food at all?

"Nothing is
ever truly without cost. To steal the labor of a person is, if
anything, far worse than stealing his money or property or other
things.

"I do not
accuse. I merely ask you to explain inconsistencies in your words
and actions. I ask you to share the deep secret of getting
something for nothing.

"I admit I do
not think for one second you can answer any of this in a way that
one with the least intelligence will accept.

"Incidentally,
the town Lape spoke of was called Farum. The people eventually
arose and killed the entire ruling family to the fourth cousin.
That family thought they had weapons to save them when that
inevitable act took place, but there is no weapon to save twenty
fat and corrupt rulers from ten thousand raging wronged people.
There is nothing on Savaraj that ever will stop such a one-sided
equation from reaching the obvious end. The numbers determine the
answer in any equation. They did in that one and they will in this
one."

Thing had
tightened the tentacle when he said "on Savaraj" to note there was
a strong reaction from behind those doors.

"We were told
by your soldiers we were to answer to both you AND to your
scientists!" Tab stated. "I think it'll be most interesting to hear
their answers to my esteemed friend's charges. I think he'll make
complete fools of them all. I think he'll make you see what you
don't want to see – that they're fakers and thieves!

"You say that
magic is trickery, yet you fall into the trap of believing any
magician who comes along so long as he calls his magic something
else. Horvach is a scientist. These here are tricksters. Nothing
more. I challenge them to make any sense when they're questioned by
a truly intelligent person!"

Hisla and Narum
whispered together, then called a page, who went into one of the
doors. He returned after a couple of minutes to whisper to Narum,
then went to stand by a column where he had been all along. Narum
and Hisla looked nervously at each other, then Narum said, "The
scientists are presently absorbed in an important experiment and
can't leave it. You may go."

"Hah!" Kit
snorted. "If THAT doesn't prove Larj is right, I don't know what
does! They don't DARE to face him! He'll show them up for what they
are! I'll wager fifty kleperts they didn't have any 'important
experiment' when they told you to bring us here, now did they? Hah!
They have enough intelligence not to face a storyteller, a
fisherman and a buyer! I'm surprised they have so much!"

"Come on,
friends," Tab suggested. "We'll go. I want to finish my business
here and go. This place is evil. I don't want to be contaminated by
too much exposure to its filth. Be assured there will be no more of
the pink gold or green quartz brought here. It is, according to
your very own words, against the LAW to bring it here!"

They walked out
while Narum and Hisla fidgeted. Back at their rooms Kit shook his
head slightly when Z started to say something about the meeting so
he knew the room had listening devices in it now.

"I wonder
what's really going on here?" he said. "The king and queen don't
have any power at all. That's sure! They're terrified of those
phony scientists for some reason. I'll bet those poor people are
under the spell of a sorcerer. One of the old-style ones who found
the power sources.

"It's very
strange I can't feel that kind of power here. The power I feel here
isn't natural power. It moves in very precise paths – and power
doesn't normally do that. This power is quite different. It is
contained, but can wreak the most.... It is a dangerous power. It
is NOT a natural thing.

"How odd! I
felt like there was someone or someTHING behind those doors –
something very evil! I wonder if there's some elemental there who's
broken loose? There's something that doesn't longer belong on
Savaraj in that place. Mark my words! Those socalled scientists
have loosed a terrible elemental demon on this place. It may only
be a demon of the mind, but I am not at all convinced those aren't
the worst kind!

"It's good you
were able to get the word to the boy about the gold and quartz
before the soldiers got us out of here. If many people didn't know
we were taken by them I'm certain we'd be in the dungeons under
that palace now. There is, indeed, a great and evil puzzle
here."

"I got the
distinct feeling that Narum and Hisla aren't in control, too," Kit
said. "I also got the creeps when the page opened that door.
There's something in there that doesn't belong. I can't argue
against that determination. I don't have your magical powers, but I
could feel there was a thing not natural behind that door.

"Did you notice
how Zonn reacted? Much of what they said they believed!"

"Yes. I
couldn't help but notice Zonn's strong reaction. It was on my
shoulder, weren't you little fellow? I wish you could talk! I know
certainly there's something you want to tell me!"

"I felt it,
too," Tab said. "How do you do that trick with the fire?"

"It's no
trick," Kit protested. "I heard all about the test Horvach
made."

"Oh, it has to
be a trick!" Tab insisted. "How do you do it, Larj?"

"It's no
trick," Z replied. "It was shown to me by an old sorcerer, one who
had learned that the danger in the old arts was that they could
imprison the spirit of a weak man...." He told a long gripping
story about magic, built mostly on his experiences on Tlorg where
he actually did learn some magic. All the science of the Maitan
Empire couldn't explain that simple little trick, though they were
all sure it was some kind of psychokinetic power.

"It sounds
good, but I still think it's a trick," Tab insisted stubbornly.
"Tell you what. Strip down and let me check you, then do it when I
say."

They sat around
a few minutes making normal little noises and comments such as
friends would make (knowing there was no visual sensor in the
room), such as Kit saying at one point, "Now I see why the women
chase after you so much!" and Tab asking how he got a scar on his
ass like that one.

Tab suddenly
said, "Now! Do it now, by the gods! I know for a fact there's no
trick now!"

"See? I told
you!" Kit exulted a moment later. "Is it a real flame? Is it hot or
... OW! DAMN! I'll say it's hot!"

They were
grinning at one another, knowing how the aliens were reacting to
that. Give them a lot to think about. Kit winked, then asked,
"Larj? Where's that power thing that moves between Savaraj and the
moons now? Could that be a trapped elemental who escaped and is ...
here? Could the socalled scientists here have found a way to bring
a sky elemental to ground? Could they hope to control such a
being?

"Listen to me!
I don't believe in elementals!"

There was a
long silence, then Z replied, "It's still there. It, too, is a
not-natural power. It, too, moves in a not-natural path. I detect
no evil from it, quite the contrary. I sense it is a benevolent
power, actually a very protective power. If it's an entrapped
elemental it is one of crops or streams. A benevolent one, not a
stormbringer."

If the aliens
thought Z could sense the restrictor satellite, which no one on
Savaraj could possibly know about, it would give them one more
puzzle to solve. Z hoped to freeze them from acting by throwing
many things at once at them that were beyond the norm here. Always
keep one or two little nagging questions that must be answered
hanging out there to forestall action such as simply having the
soldiers kill them all.

"We should
sleep for the night," Kit suggested. "I think I prefer to do
without the attentions of the local whores here. What Larj said
about their not bothering to cure such a simple thing as the
rotting scab disease makes me think that perhaps there are other
things here no effort is made to cure, if you get my drift."

"Yeah," Tab
said. "I'm glad we have the arsenic salve and the brownsting from
the seaweed, though neither is much good against those things. Even
the mold cure doesn't help with the shaky-crazy-slowdeath sickness
you can catch from whores! This evil place probably has a lot of
that kind of thing, too! I'll be glad to get out of here!"

They made more
noises like they were going to bed, Z and Thing actually doing so,
though the robots would silently use their sensors and would even
make contact with the floaters the ships sent out. Particular
attention was being paid to the palace's underfloor rooms and a
sophisticated network of sensors was deployed during the night to
detect every sound or energy use in the place. Maita planned to use
a sonic mapping device to locate the size and shape of the ship
there. It was able to place sonic pickups against the glass on the
windows to use them as large reflecting microphones. That device
was simply a matter of putting a highly reflective "dust" on the
panes and focusing a low-power laser at an angle to be received at
a differentiating pickup. The glass vibrated with sounds inside and
the laser was sensitive enough to detect the movements of molecules
if tightly focused.

In the morning
Kit asked Z and Thing to go back to the boat to bring them the
remainder of items they were to sell. Z knew there were things he
must be told so replied that he would be glad of anything to take
him away from the city. They had dawnmeal together, then Z and
Thing headed down the road toward Dockside Station. They remained
close to two other walkers for a good part of the way, talking
about various bits of gossip with Z staying in character by telling
a story, but the two turned along another road after about an hour.
Thing was on Z's shoulder and remained silent when Z said
something. By that, Z knew there was some kind of listening device
near them so he told a long and complicated story to Thing from
Larj's memory about a woman in a far city who was playing three
powerful men against one another, but her scheme came apart when it
turned out all three men were using her to keep abreast of what the
other two were doing.

When they were
near the boat Z stopped to "repack" the cart and "found" a strange
device in it. He looked it over, then started talking to Thing
again.

"I kept feeling
power moving, little guy," he said musingly. "I didn't know what it
was or where it was coming from. It seemed a rather strange, small
thing, but was constant in moving power and didn't diminish as we
traveled along so I felt it had to be someone moving along just out
of sight with us, which wasn't reasonable because we would have
been able to see them at various points. That, or it had to be
moving along with us itself.

"This must be
one of those science things. It has power moving in it with some
even moving away through the air. It's made of strange material
isn't it? Hard and shiny, but not metal. So very white!

"How does such
a small thing move so much energy?

"Now, this
thing sticking out here is metal, but it's more shiny than even
silver so I don't know what it is. The power is coming from it to
go into the air. I sense that. I feel the power like that of a
thunderstorm, but much less.

"I know what
these are. They have them in Sorghut and Droostus. They're called
metal screws and they hold things together. If you turn them they
come out and the things fall apart – so let's do that! I do wonder
what's inside of this evil contraption!

"Where's my
blade? Ah! See? They do turn! And they come out! Look, little guy!
All metal and wire and this stuff the thing is made of outside in
small planks inside! These are such strange colors, and look at the
threads of metal worked into them! Little round things and little
cylinders and this square thing and a wire to this little nub on
the shiny metal thing. There are small screws in the top of those
two square things and this one has a little wheel that sticking
partly out. There is certainly art and craftsmanship in these small
things, but why would I sense that nothing here was made with
hands? Why are there things written on the parts in a strange very
square script?

"I feel the
power coming from this round thing here and going through this.
It's a power that flutters when I speak. How odd!

"I'll take the
round thing out and take this metal wire – it looks like poor
silver, but how light – off of this.... Okay. It's off!"

[ It's just the
standard-component transistorized transmission crap. I'm not so
sure it can reach the eight kilometers back to Royal City, but
didn't want to take a chance. Maita has some things to say to you
about what it found with the floaters at the palace. ]

*And something
else. The aliens have a relay pickup for the transmitter about
halfway back and received it all, right up to the point when you
took the battery loose. I located the ship. It's an escape pod, as
Thing theorized. There's little happening near the windows so I
still don't have much there, though I hope they speak in their
native tongue somewhere close so I'll know where they're from. That
could tell us a hell of a lot. We still have to plan what we're
going to do to get these people out of the mess they've created
here.*