Flight of the Maita Supercollection 3: Solving Galactic Problems Collector's Edition (142 page)

"Then you'll
look for a ship that had trouble in this area," Z suggested.
"That's what it breaks down to. The minute you find that ship
you'll find who they are and where they came from. Maybe we'll be
able to figure out what they're doing here. It isn't reasonable to
think they're simply lost. They could reach the satellite with that
transmitter right there."

[ They would be
looking for rescue in that case, I'm forced to agree. They
definitely wouldn't be deliberately hiding out here. It has to be
something else. We're missing something important. ]

"Thing, Maita,
it could be a simple shipwreck where the ones marooned decided they
could have a very easy and luxurious life here by making themselves
kings or something such," Z said. "They may have reasons they don't
want to go home. Maybe they were running from a criminal charge
when they wrecked or maybe.... Maita! Maybe they were criminals
being taken somewhere for trial and they jumped ship in the
emergency pod or blew the ship up or something on the order!"

*Nothing
possible in the past sixty years. It could be local lawbreakers
being taken home. The empire wouldn't know about that under certain
circumstances. We simply don't really have much to go on. If I can
find out where they're from I can trace it.*

[ We still have
to get in to see them. I have a plan of sorts. It'll need your
help, Maita. Maybe T Six and TR, too. Maybe all of us. ]

"I think I have
some idea of what you plan," TR agreed. "We'll have several
options. I think we can use a hypnotic on the people and won't have
to get them out of the city for it. It'll become a legend in a few
years. We'll have to get rid of the locomotives and a lot of
motorized equipment they've strewn around the nearby countryside.
Tab and Kit are locating where everything they made is so we can
dump it. We'll keep some of the things they'll naturally invent
soon anyhow in a repairable state. We can take out that diesel
equipment and make it unworkable, but leave the parts that would
work as well with steam intact because they have a small steam
engine in a couple of places. They use them to run looms to make
those tapestries.

"I've shown
holovids of some of the tapestries the floaters studied to Hars and
Gills on Parf and they're amazed. They're protesting that they
should be allowed to come here to view them in person so I've
promised to find a way to buy a few things to send to them."

"Tab and Kit
are being watched very closely now," TR threw in. "There's some
activity in the palace since you turned off the transmitter. They
can buy some tapestries in the guise of buyer. I think you two may
meet somebody on your way back to the city. I'm going to keep a
floater close in case they decide to get rid of you. They could lay
it to bandits."

*Get the stuff
and head back to the city – and Z! Please don't be too personal in
your attacks on Narum and Hisla. I think even Thing will agree
they're in a trap and don't know how to get out of it. They meant
well, but it has turned on them.*

"What the
hell!" Z snapped. "They sold their own people into this!"

[ Don't turn
into an asshole now, damn it! Put yourself into their place! Some
ship lands at your little dirt farm hovel in some backwater poor
town and people come out of it saying they're scientists who
invented the ship. It can do many things. It can make this a
thriving city and can make life easy for everyone. The scientists
give you a way to make a city of gleaming marble. Everything is
going fine, but people are starting to come to the city and the
increase in population is causing the troubles that always follow
that density of people. Also, the scientists are very powerful and
have weapons that can threaten the lives of everyone in the city!
It's all turning sour! There are more and more people coming into
the city and things are deteriorating fast, but these scientists
are keeping it all together. Maybe everyone isn't always so well
fed, but no one actually starves. Maybe there's sickness, but
that's to be expected in dense populations. If you try to get rid
of the scientists now what do you do for all of those people? What
happens then? You know my talents, Z. Narum and Hisla are good
people. They're terrified. It isn't them we're fighting. They're
desperately trying to do what they think is best for the people.
]

"Okay. I'll
take your word for it," Z said. "I just hope we can get this
settled without a bunch of innocent people getting killed. Let's
get the stuff and head back.

"I wish I knew
who they are and why all of this!"

They talked
about everything they could think of that may be important while Z
packed the cart with the wares the ships had placed on the boat,
then headed back. He placed the transmitter parts in a reed basket
atop the load in plain view.

The floater
told them they would soon be joined by someone in flowing robes. He
was waiting a few meters past the bend where the two parted from
them on the trip out.

*I can't get a
usable view of what's in those robes! It's generally the size and
shape of the Saj, though.*

"Can you get a
sensor close enough to analyze the smell?" Z asked. "THAT would
tell us what race they are!"

*I get far too
much on the odor sensors. They're deliberately hiding their odor.
They found these people react badly to them if they smell them.
I've seen only glimpses of the eyes, which could be anything except
Acnian, and the nose tip, which isn't so flat as the Saj. Still not
nearly enough. It will be much better if you don't communicate
anymore with me or use the floater aloud.*

Z started in
the middle of a long story and was telling it to Thing as they were
passing the road entrance. The robed figure stepped out to join
them. He spoke with a thick accent that really told little of his
origins.

"May I join
you?" he asked. "I'm going back to Royal City. I'm the scientist,
Lugac."

"An odd name,"
Z replied. "I'm called Larj, and this perfect audience is called
Zonn."

"Yes," Lugac
said. "I'm not of here. I travel far away. Very far."

He was peering
at Z from the coverings over his face, but Z could see nothing but
the shine in his eyes and the fine nose tip. Thing moved from the
shoulder near Lugac to the other one and was watching him
closely.

"Why do you
hide your face?" Z asked.

"I suffered a
terrible accident in my youth and became badly disfigured," Lugac
replied. "I find most people are bothered by such things so cover
the scars."

Thing was
waving two tentacles at him.

"Zonn detects a
lie, but that's your business," Z chided with the slightest
stiffness. "It's merely conversation, but I assure you, you can't
deceive me while Zonn is here. There's certainly no reason you
can't cover your face if you so wish.

"I was summoned
to the king's palace evening last where I was supposed to speak
with you scientists – but you failed to appear. If you wished to
speak with me, this wasn't necessary."

He turned to
hand the basket with the transmitter parts to Lugac.

"I believe this
might be yours," he continued. "I have removed the power thing.
Without the wires there is no path, yet it sends power into the air
when the power thing is in the path. How odd. Will you tell me of
its purpose?"

"Hah! I think
you know perfectly well what a mobile transmitting unit is," Lugac
said in Maitan.

"I'm sorry, I'm
afraid I don't recognize the language," Z replied serenely. "I have
traveled much, but have not heard such a pleasant-sounding tongue!
I would like to learn it!

"I was wrong
about one thing though, I see. It isn't the language of the
magicians. That one I know well."

"Queen Hisla
has spoken of your magic," Lugac said. "Would you show me?"

"Show you?
What? Do you mean the 'Flame of Thought'?" Z asked.

He cupped his
hands and made the blue flame, then disposed of it the way he had
at the court.

"You're a T-K!
Telekinetic!!" Lugac cried in some language Z didn't understand,
but Thing tightened a tentacle so Maita knew.

"What?" Z
asked.

"I said you're
able to make the energy ... make things move with thought," Lugac
said. "A rare talent!"

"It's a magic I
was taught, not a talent," Z corrected. "Why do you scientists not
find a way to cure the typical sicknesses overpopulation is
bringing to Royal City? Why do you allow the filth to accumulate in
the streets? The Saj are clean people. Why do you teach them to be
not clean?"

"And why do you
come here to stir up trouble?" Lugac asked. "There are always some
difficulties in developing civilizations. They will usually work
themselves out in time."

"Only if things
are following their normal evolutionary path," Z argued. "There is
nothing normal about your science at the stage of development of
this culture! You're wasters! You're destroying these people!"

Lugac whipped a
phase shifter from under his robes. "Before I fry you where you
stand you're going to tell me who you are and what you're doing
here!" he snapped. "No savage Saj would use those terms!"

"I am speaking
Saj so I am using only words which obviously WOULD be used by
them.

"I thought
there was something not right about you," Z said. "So now I
know."

"For all the
good it'll do you!" Lugac shouted and fired just as a spy floater
swooped down and fired at him. Z dropped and rolled, but still
suffered a painful burn on his arm. Thing was flung free and
bounced onto the cart, but it was all over.

*Are you all
right, Z?*

"Yeah. I got a
burn, but it's more painful than serious," Z replied as he pulled
the cowl back.

[ He's a
Jornian. He was speaking Jornian when he said you were telekinetic.
What do we do, Maita? ]

*The floater
will bury him. You and Z have to come here quickly. I'll get you
back to the city before dark. I want Z in the medical box.*

"I can handle
the burn, Maita," Z protested. "I've been hurt a lot worse than
this before."

*But you can't
explain it in Royal City. You'll have to go back in complete
ignorance of Lugac. They'll think bandits must have gotten him,
then they'll really have to worry because he doesn't look all that
much like a Saj outside of those robes. Let's get moving! This
might be the break we need to be able to stop the severe societal
trauma this sort of thing can cause. I'm beginning to form a plan.
You do the same. We may be forced to move fast – and soon!*

There was no
argument there. Z was taken on board Maita and was out of the
medical box and back outside of Royal City with an hour to spare
before sunset. The floater delivered them at the same spot where
first delivered Z. They came in behind the two bandits waiting
there in the trees to watch the road. Z grinned and shot them with
the stunner, then took their weapons and other items of value they
carried. He put the valuables by the roadside, melted the weapons
into slag, tossed them aside and went on into town.

Kit and Tab
acted worried when they met, then said Narum and Hisla had invited
them to the palace. Right away. Now.

Z nodded, then
took the transmitter parts from the basket and hung them around his
neck. Tab, Kit, and Thing all wondered if he had gone crazy, but he
felt he knew exactly what he was doing. "Let's not keep our host
and hostess waiting!" he suggested brightly, walking out of the
room. "I'd hate to keep them and their scientists in undue
suspense! I still want to know what they're doing here."

"And I want to
know the circumstances of their arrival," Tab added.

"I want to know
they're gone and these people are safe!" Kit said.

Nobody was
about to argue that point!

Jornian Alchemists

They came into
the hall to find Narum, Hisla, and three robed figures at the large
table picking at the choice morsels from this or that heaping
platter. The food was extravagant. There would be enough waste
there to feed twenty people.

Thing was
riding Z's shoulder and tightened a tentacle as he approached the
king and queen. The haunted look in Hisla's eyes killed any urge he
had to make punishing remarks. She hated this. Z changed his
tactics then. The three Jornians would have to be pushed as far as
possible. The best way to show them for what they were was to make
them react in a specific way to a specific prod. It would be a
matter of not going too far, though. They didn't need a pitched
battle at this stage. That would do more harm than good. It would
have to be done by drawing out the worst qualities of the
scientists.

Z made a
pleasant nod to Hisla, then to Narum, then approached the three
robed figures. He removed the transmitter from around his neck and
announced, "I take it you are these socalled scientists? I believe
you may have lost this in my cart. As I am a rather curious person
and as I found it hidden among my property I took the opportunity
to see what was inside of the thing.

"Very
interesting. I don't blame you for hiding your faces. If I had no
more personal integrity than you I would feel it necessary to do
the same.

"I wish to make
it plain from the start that I, for one, do not come here to enjoy
an evening with friends. After seeing you here hiding yourselves I
can believe it is as Kemat and Lape say. You are clever tricksters
who have placed the king and queen in an impossible position with
your trickery. You have no morals and no caring for anyone or
anything but yourselves.

"Science! This
thing merely moves captive energy around and makes a fluctuating
energy flow into the air. It doesn't take a scientist to know that
you can somehow use the fluctuating energy it sends away. I noted
that, as I spoke, the fluctuations followed my words exactly. Thus,
with no science, I can deduce that what I said near this device was
sent to you and you heard even here in the palace. This is an old
trick, and you don't even do it well, though you do it with smaller
devices. It is trickery, not even magic. Perhaps that's what all of
your science is? Old sorcerer's tricks in a pretty box?"