Flight of the Maita Supercollection 3: Solving Galactic Problems Collector's Edition (144 page)

"Not to mention
if you start with pink gold there isn't any point in turning it to
pink gold," Tab added cynically. "I know King Narum and Queen Hisla
wouldn't fall for any such ridiculous fabrication. You are
ridiculous imbeciles to even suggest such a ludicrous scheme. We
are NOT idiots! You might note than Zonn is waving all of three
tentacles at you, which means you're telling a very big lie! Surely
you know of its talents in that area. If you don't you're the only
ones in this city."

Kit suddenly
insisted, "Let's get out of here, Larj! This is accomplishing
nothing. I've got an idea of what they want the pink gold and the
green quartz for.

"Queen Hisla,
King Narum, thank you for your kind hospitality. We know it's not
of your doing these barbarians have so deeply embarrassed you this
night. YOU have our best wishes for a good fortune."

This sudden
urgency told Z Maita must have sent a message. It must have learned
something about all of this. Something that could change their
approach.

They left the
palace, Tab saying Chart made a grave mistake in bringing up
something like changing base metal to gold in this advanced a
society. The days of alchemy were generally held in ridicule by the
general public. The time of the court sorcerer was never strong
here and was recently past. People were very much aware of the
waste in such projects as transmutation.

They couldn't
speak of much inside the city so headed for the gates and out. When
they were a little distance away Tab stopped them. "Even with the
best pickups they can't hear us this far out – and both Kit and I
are producing white sound. Maita and Thing will speak through me.
We've discovered a thing or two.

"Maita?"

*I'm working on
a theory. It's something as old as the pirate worlds. I may have
something for you to do in sort of the interim here. Z and Thing
will stay there and I'll stay here. Tab and Kit will go on their
ships to see if this is the only instance such as this we'll have
to concern ourselves with. Z, you were getting too close to
mentioning nuclear conversion and transmutation processes. You
shouldn't allow such as these Jornians to so anger you. We can't
act so precipitously as to cause a confrontation until we're sure
we can protect these people.*

[ Z was only
partly as angry as he appeared. I was monitoring his temper and
would've made Kit or Tab intervene if he went too far. I see what
he was trying to do. We all tried to help, but we couldn't make
them do the things we planned. They wouldn't allow us to force
temper display by any of them. Z was trying to inject emotional
heat. It didn't work very well, but we did make them say something
inordinately stupid in front of the king and queen. That
transmutation statement was too far and they damned well know it.
What is it that's so important Kit and Tab have to go? ]

*Just a theory
as to how the Jornians got here and why they chose to stay. If I'm
wrong we'll know fairly soon. Make some excuse for them to get in
their boat and go. In the morning. A floater shows one of the
Jornians waiting at your rooms so maybe you can make a deal to
deliver rhodium gold or something. There should be any number of
ways to explain you two leaving for a few days. Think of
something.*

They discussed
various things. Z and Thing would have to find a safe way to close
out the Savaraj end of it themselves if they could. Maita was sure
they could contain the problem to Royal City. The problem was going
to be in working out a method of reversing damage the Jornians had
caused to this point.

When they
arrived back at the rooming house Root was waiting in the common
room. His presence had run all the other customers away and the
proprietor was wringing his hands.

Root went to
their rooms after them, asking that they hear him out. Z shrugged
and said he had five minutes and that was all. They wouldn't make
anymore time for greedy idiots and they were NOT interested in
hearing about anymore impossible schemes.

"I hope you
don't hold Chart's inordinately stupid remarks about transmutation
against us," Root began. "He was becoming highly frustrated because
you fail to understand what we are trying to do. We really DO have
an important quest here."

"So he insults
our intelligence?" Kit asked. "That's his method of explaining your
position so we'll accept and understand it? To tell you the truth,
it was almost what we expected from you."

"All right,"
Root said. "I asked for that.

"We must have
the rhodium, a metal that turns gold pink, that comes from the pink
gold. It's being used to make various things that will give Royal
City the power – I should say energy – to solve our other problems.
Chart didn't think you would understand the process so said the
first thing that came to mind. Even he admits it was an extremely
stupid thing to do. You had already greatly angered him with your
lack of understanding."

"So? I can
weigh the pink gold and measure its volume. That's an easy thing,"
Tab answered back. "I do that with many things to determine those
things' value. I can weigh the purest gold and measure its volume,
also. The difference shows this impurity would be only in the very
least quantities.

"I know, also
from experience, no two metals weigh the same thing in the same
volume so there's not much of this impurity at all. No one has ever
found what it is or has been able to remove it that I know of. How
can such small amounts of impurities produce energy?

"You can surely
understand why we'll think this is but another foolish piece of
trickery."

"Zonn will tell
you it's no lie, won't it?" Root asked. "I'm trying to explain what
we're doing.

"We want to
produce large amounts of energy. The rhodium will do this for us.
We KNOW of a process to use rhodium to produce certain forms of
energy."

"Why?" Z asked.
"Why do you want to produce all this energy?"

"To improve the
quality of life," Root replied. "If you have energy, you can have
many other things that make life very much pleasanter and easier.
Surely you can see advantages to having a large source of energy
available to be used in many hundreds of different ways! Surely you
can see how such vast supplies of energy could benefit
everyone!"

"For whom?" Tab
asked. "For our people or only for yourselves and the elite you
brought into existence? You seem to be very careful in what you do
NOT say for Zonn to examine for truth. We all know the greatest lie
is in telling only a part of truth."

"It'll help
everyone in the city to have unlimited energy!" Root insisted.
"There are many things the energy can bring. It'll help with food
and housing and all the things we're as yet remiss to produce. The
energy will enable us to use all the resources found around this
city.

"You see, I
admit we haven't always had our priorities as you would like them
to be, but one must crawl before he walks. There are many things in
life one must have before he can have other things."

It was obvious
enough to Z how carefully Root was choosing his words so as not to
show Thing he was lying. The lies were in the omissions to the
greatest extent. Tab had pointed out to all of them what Root was
doing. Still, this may be the best way to get Tab and Kit away,
so....

"Zonn indicates
you are telling the truth, but not all of it," Z said. "That is an
improvement and you must plan to improve things for the entire
city, though it's still my deep belief that you will improve things
for yourselves far more than for the people. That is more than they
have now so it would possibly suffice for a time. ONE MUST CRAWL
BEFORE HE WALKS, as you have so aptly stated.

"Kemat sold
most of his wares. I'll suggest to him that he makes a deal with
you. One that will keep some control out of your hands. We will be
very careful about that, make no mistake!

"Kemat will go
to get the pink gold, which you will buy at the regular price from
him. Lape and I will stay here to keep an eye on you and what
you're doing – the first part of which will be that you will use
your science to produce medicine for the scabby rots. It's
spreading in the city. You will produce that medicine before we
will do one single small thing to aid you in any way! Make no
mistake about that, either!

"You will also
agree to bring good water into the city as the first project as
soon as you have this energy you speak of. That also will be begun
before anything is delivered into your hands, though we know such a
large project can't be completed in a short time. Take that deal or
get out!"

"I'll make one
change," Tab said quickly. "Lape will come with me after the pink
gold because I'll need his strong back along. Zonn will stay with
you here. If these scientists are lying it'll tell you. You can
send the boy to deliver the word to us about it and there'll be no
gold from us – or from anyone else. Not now and not EVER! Make no
mistake about that, either."

Root would
agree to that deal quickly enough because an escape pod had the
facilities aboard to make simple antibiotics to stop the bacterial
infection and because the rest of it was a promise for later. He
could start to survey the path to deliver water without actually
doing anything. He could do as he pleased once he had the
rhodium.

He agreed to
the deal, saying very little about the water, but promising to
immediately find a cure for the scabby rots.

Tab and Kit
said they would leave first thing in the morning for the mines.
Root said he would pay the same for the whitish powdery deposits
that built around certain rocks close to the gold and which was
thrown out with tailings from a gold mine. That was rhodium complex
oxides and silicates, a much higher concentration of the metal.

Root left with
a feeling he had accomplished much more than he had hoped. He had
planned to merely open the gold purchases again, but now had a
large quantity coming in, instead. Maybe even high quality rhodium
ores!

Root also made
sly inquiries as to whether Larj saw or heard anything strange on
the return from his last trip to the boat.

In the morning
Tab and Kit left, Z and Thing going a distance out of the city with
them. Maita had nothing more to tell them so the friends
parted.

Z went back
into the city where he told his stories in the square and passed
much of his time flirting with the women. Mujat became a closer
friend, as did Seemum. Z began using a bit of psychology when so
many people came to hear him. Larj the Traveler had truly been a
master storyteller and his talents were useful, dead or not!

"I remember the
time, it was down among the southern islands," he said as Thing
moved about among the crowd, who were more and more intrigued by
the strange little animal who could warn them if anyone was lying.
It was constantly gathering more information and sending it to
Maita through the floater in the cart than Z suspected.

"I came upon
the most amazing bright castle on a rocky island. I was with the
lovely ... a certain ladyfriend who is most beautiful and charming.
She came with me to sail the fair azure seas and to enjoy the warm
breezes.

"We expected no
such fancy place and couldn't believe the materials used in its
building could be found anywhere in the island group. The fine
golden sun sparkled off of the gleaming tile roof while the tropic
shadows made fantasy spirits dance on the smooth pink walls. The
gardens displayed a wild riot of shades and hues tropical flowers
so often exhibit when the most nearly perfect conditions for their
growth are supplied. Trees and vines hung heavy with the fruits and
berries to make the farm stores here explode with their plenteous
offerings of delights to the taste. There were many birds of
exquisite colors and with voices to make the spirit rejoice. There
were sparkling ponds with bright fishes and snails and unequaled
water lilies.

"Being the
curious person I am I suggested we call to see who had built such a
fine castle in such a place. Surely the taste and culture of such a
person would be a benefit to all to know.

"There were
actually large slabs of the gemstone we call topaz inlaid into
black marble floors! The purest gold was utilized to border each of
those priceless floor stones! Tapestries of the most exquisite
taste, paintings and statuary of the greatest cultural refinement
were everywhere displayed in very quiet if excessive luxury.

"We were served
the most delicious foods by a woman who we could never clearly get
a close look at. She wore loose clothes and veils, but she was a
perfect charming hostess. She exhibited sophistication and a most
gracious manner.

"It was a
strange time. Everything was perfect on the surface, but underneath
one could feel that something was not quite right. There was an odd
feeling that one was seeing much that was, in a manner of speaking,
of no content. Things that were not quite there in the cold facts
of reality. Hollow shells or paintings made with inferior oils that
would fade soon, leaving a grey, stained canvas.

"Here was this
magnificent structure, but there seemed to be no way to keep it
clean! The water was held rainwater, but seemed to have some foul
growth that couldn't quite be removed. What seemed to be the finest
cloth tapestries from a short distance were, upon close
examination, found to have little flaws.

"Still, it was
a pleasant place in many ways so we overlooked the little wrong
things. We felt the balance was to the good. Nowhere in life does
one find true perfection so one tends to look for the good and to
ignore the tiny flaws.

"We went back
to our vessel, thence onward to our destination, refreshed and
delighted with only a slight nagging discontent we did not
understand and soon learned to displace from attention. "We spoke
of the place again, but never returned. There was that about the
place that made it far less attractive a place once one was no
longer there – like a spell that has enthralled and bound the
spirit, but which had no influence at a distance. In addition, the
pleasant company I was enjoying made it less than attractive to
leave the place I was staying even for short trips.