Flight of the Maita Supercollection 3: Solving Galactic Problems Collector's Edition (147 page)

"Maita
manipulates the outlaws much the same as you did the pirates when
you were establishing the first part of the empire," Tab said.
"That's a lesson learned from you. Those outlaw worlds and the
outlaw traders keep us up to date on a number of things we couldn't
know about any other way if we didn't have them right where they
are. Most of the danger and excitement is purely fantasy. They're
actually hardworking laborers earning much lower than average wages
– pretending they live in constant direct physical danger.

"Fantasy.
They're probably safer overall than most legitimate traders simply
because they don't want empire attention. They operate under their
own set of laws, true, but do it quietly. Everyone knows the rules.
The empire has its rules and they have theirs. Theirs are far more
restrictive in most ways. Some are in physical danger, but from
each other and not from any of the empire's police or anything.

"They ARE prone
to senseless violence. This system keeps them away from peaceable
people. We have to work out this thing here so there's a permanent
lesson to the Saj. Precipitate handling of it could impact later in
a very negative way. We're going to have to make the Jornians seem
like schemers who started something without considering future
consequences. They're going to have to appear complete fools, and
they're going to have to end up paying a terribly high price for
their greed.

"At least we
don't have to pretend their motives are anything other than what
they are!"

"The hard part
is we're going to have to make those among the Saj who have fallen
into the pattern of behavior this has set pay a high price, too,"
Kit cautioned. "We have to balance it so true science isn't stifled
while making it plain that runaway greed and science don't
mix."

[ We have to make it appear that science is one thing and
what the Jornians are doing is another. If we act now the people
will become antiscience orientated so the balance we must reach is
a delicate one. You can see how much damage that could do if it's
mishandled. We have far more opportunity to screw things up than to
do it right. They have a religion, if a weak and indefinite one. If
we do the wrong thing we could end up with another Kroon or Trat-il
(Book two:
Settling In
) or worse. I don't have to tell you what that could do! If
WE do the wrong thing now the cultural interference we're trying to
negate will be accented to a degree we can't begin to understand.
We have to act fast, but we have to be damned sure we know what
we're doing and what'll come later. ]

*That's my
greatest concern. If we do the wrong thing at the wrong time some
charlatan will jump right in. I don't want to have to put up with
that. I'm sure you don't, either. We can't get bogged down on this
one world trying to slap down each little rockslug who finds a new
clever trick. We have a whole empire to consider.*

"Okay, so don't
tell me!" Z said. "What a ridiculous lot of verbiage to try to
change the subject! I figured from the first we could appear to be
helping the Jornians by bringing the rhodium to them in quantity
and could force a little help for the people here with our little
subtle blackmail. So long as they don't have the chrome the rhodium
doesn't do them much good. These Jornians seem to be making a huge
weapon and will have a huge generator to power it. It can't be for
use against the Saj, so what IS it for? Have you stopped to
consider that while you make your plans? Has it occurred to you
that this isn't likely to all be here?"

Tab waved and
pointed along the road so they chatted about the news from the
mines and Z told a story until they were well past the travelers
coming toward the city, then they resumed their talk.

[ It would seem
they don't plan to stay on Savaraj forever and want a safe base
they can defend against the traders and against those they betrayed
in the hijacking incident. That means this definitely is NOT the
only bunch of them we have to worry about so we'd better be sure
they don't connect us with it yet. We have to get rid of these
without letting on we're involved. We have to make it appear Sarnof
was able to deduce who was behind it more than to use the actual
words of our four here. They can figure Sarnof didn't tell anyone
on Grlaq he worked backward from the hijacking. Kit says he knew
the crowd these were running with on Grlaq so knew what was going
on. They got rid of seventeen of them there. Lugac was the probable
leader so we have that to add to the confusion. Maybe we can use
Lugac's disappearance to our advantage when we get back. Maybe a
story Larj heard on this road? Anyhow, this will mainly be a place
for them to fall back to if anyone is still looking for them. They
don't have frequent communication among the groups. Maybe there are
only two, but we know there are AT LEAST two groups of them
involved in whatever they're trying to do. It doesn't end here.
]

*I agree.
They'll use any weapons to threaten the Saj, but they're to be
built for some other purpose. The next thing the Jornians will want
is chromium ore. They're stopped right where they are until they
get it so we'll use the time when they feel they're making great
progress because of the rhodium to set them up for some things
that'll make them appear to be both old-type
sorcerer-magician-showmen and fools. This isn't going to be as easy
as it sounds because they really aren't so stupid as you might
think. There are more people ahead so get into character.*

They went the
rest of the way to the boat with Kit telling about his nights since
he left Royal City and decrying the fact that Larj, old and feeble
and not too smart, could get all the women he wanted anywhere,
while young, handsome, brilliant Lape was lucky to have one allow
him to buy her favors! They had the company of three people who
were going to Royal City on the return trip so couldn't talk again,
but they all were in contact except Z and he could handle things
well enough. Thing used the opportunity to amuse the Saj and rode
into Royal City on the shoulder of one of them.

Root was
excited about receiving the ore. He was acting insufferably smug
and was getting a bit too arrogant again so Kit innocently asked
him if he still wanted the green quartz.

Flale took both
Root and Chart aside and argued awhile, then they acted like it may
be nice to have some of the green quartz, but it wasn't too
important. The arrogance and condescension stopped right there,
though.

The Jornians
tried to act actually friendly, but it was hard to pull it off when
they insisted in staying hidden in the robes and cowls.

Thing climbed
down into the cart when they delivered it to the palace. Chart and
Flale pulled it into the courtyard and opened a complicated set of
locks, then took it inside. They came out a few minutes later and
relocked the door carefully.

Tab and Z went
to check the ditches that would drain the city while Kit went to
the square to talk with customers. They all returned a little after
dark to ask if Zonn was still with Flale and Chart.

"Zonn?" Flale
asked. "It wasn't with us."

"Oh, yeah," Z
answered. "It was playing in the cart with the gold. It likes to
have people pull it around. I thought you knew it was there."

Chart started
visibly and ran to unlock the door and slip inside. He returned
after a few minutes and said Zonn wasn't in there. He was about to
close the door when Thing squirted out of it and examined a chain,
then climbed to Z's shoulder and began to inspect his ear.

"You got lost
again little guy!" Z scolded. "One of these days you'll wander off
and we won't be able to find you again!"

Chart and Flale
exchanged looks, but Root shrugged and said pointedly that a dumb
animal probably couldn't seriously damage anything in the
laboratory so long as it didn't break anything.

"Oh, it didn't
break anything," Chart said. "The lab door was shut so it couldn't
very well get in there. It was playing in the supplies I guess.
There are a lot of boxes to climb around on."

"Probably found
a warm spot and fell asleep," Kit agreed. "It didn't sleep all the
way to the boat and back.

"Speaking of
sleep! I could use some after this day!"

They went off
to the boarding house, cleaned up, ate and went to their rooms for
the night. Thing climbed onto Tab's shoulder and used the direct
communicator built into the robot while Tab gave the information to
the ships and to Kit. They set up the floater screen from the cart
base so Z could read what he should know. Kit put little devices by
the two microphones in the room to make sounds like sleeping people
might.

"This is a
diagram of the basement," came on the screen. "The cart was pulled
into here. This entire area is supplies of all types. There are two
doors, both closed, but no problem to open. This lab is a
processing room where the rhodium and chrome are extracted. They
have some supply of platinum and indium from the pod, which is on
this side. There's a door between the processing room and the lab
by the pod portal. The pod is seriously damaged. It's not usable as
it is now. It's definitely not repairable with the equipment they
have here."

There were
flashing lights as each point was described.

"I went inside
the lab through this opening. They're building a fastcom set.
They're using a moder, probably a spare backup from Sarnof's ship,
as a carrier unit. It'll use a lot of energy, but should be
effective. I memorized the settings. Maita can trace them. They
obviously plan to contact a specific person somewhere so I can't
believe we know as much as we thought we did. They planned to come
to this world all along. I imagine they planned to keep Sarnof's
ship, kill him and the crew and use this place for a base of some
kind. They're building a phase disruptor beam cannon as well as
quite a large number of smaller weapons. Heat lasers and such. I
believe they plan to hold this world and to use the Saj in their
plan."

This scheme was
sounding worse and worse. If they had planned to subjugate this
whole world all along this was some plot with quite a large number
of others involved. It was a good thing they hadn't moved too fast
or they might not have learned of it at all.

Did that mean
they had moved the operation to another world? WAS there another
like this – only held by a large contingent of Jornians?

"I see you
thinking, Z. It could be like the pirate worlds, but worse. The
pirates didn't try to take over planets that had indigenous
populations."

Z nodded and
sent worry and fear as strongly as he could to the little empath.
It understood.

"There's a door
from the lab here that's heavily locked. All the doors are armor
steel. This one goes to the upper palace, I believe. I have made
two very small adjustments to their work down there that they won't
detect until too late. I see some of what they've done to put Narum
and Hisla in their power so maybe we can make some demonstration of
force necessary. When they try to impress everyone of their power
it'll fail."

"How? What?"
came on the screen from Tab.

"Many chemicals
look very much alike. It seems some of their bottles have wrong
labels. Heat control is critical for some reactions. A control
thermostat is miscalibrated downward. That one could be
spectacular."

"In what way?"
came from Kit.

"They're
producing glycerol trinitrate, which is very easy IF you retain
control well enough, and gives a spectacular show. It's absolutely
vital the temperature not rise above twenty two degrees MGS nor
fall below fourteen during the reaction with the nitric acid. It
won't fall below fourteen. It won't fall below eighteen, as a
matter of fact – but it'll react at twenty six degrees!"

Z grinned at
Thing. He wouldn't want to be too close to that one! Nitroglycerin
reacting at nearly eighty degrees Fahrenheit was nothing to play
with!

"They are also
making nitrogen tri-iodide as a spectacular explosive for their
demonstrations. It seems they might find it was contaminated with a
bit of potassium permanganate and glycerin. That should be great
fun! I want to be there when they try whatever they do with that
stuff!"

They discussed
very little more through the screen so Z put it back into the cart
base and slept with Thing curled up against him. In the morning
they went to the square where Z told a very strange story designed
to get the attention of the Jornians. He could fairly well
determine who was there at the bequest of the scientists because he
didn't really fit well with the people of the city who weren't part
of the elite. Kit and Tab traded goods while Thing was ranging
farther and farther from any of them. It would spend a little time
with one, would be gone awhile, riding around on one of the Saj,
then would spend time with another. Some of the time no one could
say where it was.

The local
shopkeepers would give it morsels of sweetcake and honey when it
wandered in and the children loved to play with it. It was very
good at hide-and-seek because it could hide in trees or on top of a
wall or in a small space. It always played fair in those cases and
left a tentacle showing or something – though there were times when
it couldn't be found for hours.

The following
day Canj came to ask Larj to go to the palace to talk with Hisla.
Thing was playing nearby with several children and ignored Z when
he called for it to come with him. He shrugged and went to the
palace. He was taken to a large ornate room where Hisla was
reclining on a divan. She smiled a tight little smile as she
greeted him, rolled her eyes to the right and pointed behind her
with her thumb. He nodded slightly in greeting, keeping his eyes
directly on hers. She flashed a sour sign with her mouth as she
reseated herself.