Flight of the Maita Supercollection 3: Solving Galactic Problems Collector's Edition (154 page)

*Waters that
would scald Z are reasonably comfortable to them, though they
aren't really uncomfortable even when they're freezing. The higher
the temperature, the higher their levels of body energy. Even
boiling water is only slightly damaging to them – and they never
come into that in any case. They're not uncomfortable until eight
or ten degrees less than boiling.*

"You mean they
can stand being in water at more than ninety degrees centigrade!?"
Z asked.

[ Yes. Probably
a hundred five or six degrees centigrade before they even notice
any extreme discomfort. The pressure's a bit higher than Earth.
Water wouldn't boil until nearly a hundred fourteen. How are we
going to handle this? ]

"I think we can
locate the encampment the Jornians are using easily enough," Tab
said. "Kit and I can be natives here – they have no spoken language
so I guess we'll just call them natives instead of Sharstedtians,
mostly because it's easier – and can infiltrate right into their
camp. We can work sabotage in one way or another if we want."

"They're mostly
in those low mountains in the north temperate zone," Kit said.
"There aren't many mountains on the world and that's the only place
where they have much chance of finding any rhodium.

"Can they find
chromium on a world of this type, Maita?"

"They can with
the equipment they brought," Z said. "We can find their mines from
the material they dug out to get to those depths. They've got
enough heavy digging equipment to go clear to the core if it's
solid."

*There's
vulcanism under the sea in one large band so they haven't had to go
that deep. They can get certain of the things they need from
condensation mining the fumaroles, but heavy stuff will have to be
dug for the most part. I've located two operating generators and
two small ships so I have to suppose the large cargo ship or ships
aren't aground at the moment. The protector satellite has been
tampered with in an ingenious manner, it seems. I have a floater
checking it. There's a reflector built around it with a broadcast
unit attached that feeds the sensors only normal information. They
have a free hand to come and go as they please. They have detectors
only very close to their landed locations and have hidden
themselves inside caverns and tunnels in the mountains. Ah! They
ARE mining fumaroles! Very good technology, but stupid in another
obvious way! Tab and Kit can go in as Shar – we'll call them that –
and can begin infiltration. Don't use internal coms and don't
communicate with TR or T Six until you know for a certainty they
don't have detectors. Remember, they DO have a high technology.
Thing and Z and I will stay out here to try to work out some kind
of plan. We have an advantage. No. We lost it. Too bad we showed
ourselves on Grlaq, though we may still be able.... We have to
plan. We'll have to develop the plan as we go. Just be careful.
They have the power to cause a lot of damage if we force their
hands too soon.*

Tab and Kit
were delivered under water to as close to the mountains as
possible. There was a very large, deep lake that went to within six
kilometers of the settlement and deep streams feeding the lake from
the mountains. The ships sat in a trench under the lake with a
physical link to avoid detection. Tab and Kit could move at will
through the water and weren't paid much attention to by the Shar,
who were everywhere near the shoreline. They were accepted and Tab
knew the feeling of closeness he learned among the Swaz on Feach.
Maita, Thing and Z sat back in orbit around another planet in the
system, a gas giant, to decide on a course of action.

"What did you
mean they were stupid?" Z asked.

[ What? ]

"Maita said the
Jornians had a great technology there, but that it was stupid," Z
replied. "Why is it stupid?"

*There's a band
of asteroids that can be mined with ease here. They can get far
purer ores in greater quantity with less energy expenditure and in
far less time. To mine undersea fumaroles seems rather stupid to me
under those circumstances.*

"Couldn't you
detect their presence in the asteroids pretty easily?" Z asked.
"And from a long distance away?"

[ If they were
mining, yes. That's probably what they were thinking of, but
they're still stupid and wasteful in a way because there are plenty
of asteroids in other systems quite close where it wouldn't matter
if they were detected. I think they're like your own race in some
ways, Z. They do it the hard way for the sheer delight of being
able to produce and use that kind of advanced technology. ]

*Also like our
Terrans, they seem to choose the most unacceptable places and ways
when they do anything. There are plenty of open worlds without any
native populations to harm where they could be doing this.*

"Ah! But I
suspect they want to establish their own little empire so they use
these restricted worlds simply because no one'll check on them," Z
pointed out. "I think a hell of a lot of planning went into this.
It's a really longterm project. They want to establish themselves
in a protected place they can defend against the empire fleet if
they have to, then they'll develop better weaponry than we have and
we'll be at their mercy. We won't be able to move against
them."

[ Ridiculous!
]

"It really is,
but they're a young race and believe they're invincible," Z
replied. "They're just swaggering around convinced of their own
importance. Earth's only recently learning how juvenile that is and
is just lately being accepted in the empire. Frankly, I think we
let the Jornians in too soon, but they did have the technology to
leave their system.

"I'm glad I
don't have to make those decisions!"

*They'll grow.
I had the choice of letting them in or as much as quarantining them
in their system. They have the potential to become a great race and
quarantine would have destroyed them. I'll definitely have to keep
a closer watch on them for a few centuries so this kind of thing
won't happen again. The Shar are too underdeveloped for this to
harm them so our problem isn't really so much interference as it is
future disruption of the biosphere. From what we've seen so far we
can deduce they would never be among the greatest races in the
galaxy simply BECAUSE it's such an easy world. I've called TR to
come out to meet us. Z, go to the medical boxes and become a
Jornian. TR will put on another disguise. You can land and make up
your own story. Tab and Kit know a sign to look for to identify you
and you can tell them from the other Shar because of a purple
star-shaped blotch on Tab's right shoulder and a yellow hexagon on
Kit's center chest. Thing, I'm sorry, but you'll have to stay here.
There isn't any way to disguise you where they wouldn't know you're
the famous Mentan.*

[ To the
contrary. I think perhaps I can do something around the fumaroles.
I'd like to explore under those waters anyhow and that's the
deepest area on the planet so it'll be exactly what I want.
Remember, we'll want the ones in that dome down there out, too.
]

"Looks like you
get stuck all alone out here, Maita," Z said. "Sorry!"

*I'm used to
it. I'll deploy floaters to handle several little projects in the
system and fastcom to get reports for the emperor bit. Searcher's
active right now so I'm in communication with it, too. I may later
go into the trench where those fumaroles are myself. Let's get
started on all this!*

Z went to room
two to get into a medical box for modification while Thing went to
the cargo hold to set its floater up for the mission. TR soon
arrived and began modifying its outlines.

*

Tab and Kit
swam along offshore toward the river outlet into the lake. They
knew where they would go so were taking time to get as much
information about the place and the Shar as they could. The water
was quite warm and would get warmer. They were about halfway
through the spring warming season and the Shar were very active.
They would come upon large groups of them and would be checked over
thoroughly. They WERE strangers. Tab knew the touching of these
kinds of beings because the Swaz, which was his general form, were
of the same basic evolution. He enjoyed the inspections and the
feeling of several of the Shar hanging onto him. He stayed in
character, as he must, and returned the behavior, moving to the
beach at times to lay in the sunlight among others. Kit was using
his actions as a model and was fitting in well.

It took them
two Sharstedtian days to reach the small stream branching to the
right that would lead to the encampment about two kilometers
away.

The Shar were
in the little streams to only a slight extent because the waters
were much cooler and were swift, though they delighted in pitting
themselves against the force of falls and rapids so often did move
into the streams to play.

The Shar liked
to play. They would wrestle, males and females both in the swift
waters, but were careful to stay out of any real danger. Life among
them was a constant touching. When they slept in the water they
were generally in the mud on the bottom in rows, but when sleeping
on land they were entangled in large groups. Everything was shared.
That was a trait of easy worlds.

When Kit and
Tab turned into the stream several of the Shar followed them and
they played for more than an hour on the rapids a short distance
upstream before the followers finally turned and retraced the
upstream journey, diving and rolling in the swift current. Soon Kit
and Tab were alone. They didn't use their internal coms, but would
speak aloud when the time would allow, which was seldom.

"I have the
strangest feeling," Kit admitted. "It's almost what must be meant
by a longing. I want to dive into that stream and chase after our
playmates and spend the rest of time playing and laying in the sun!
At this moment I'm very close to telling the empire to stick it in
a black hole and going native!"

"Yeah. I feel
about the same," Tab agreed. "Too bad our programming won't permit
it.

"It's because
these are innocent, trusting people who simply accept us for what
we represent ourselves as being and share the very fabric of their
being with us. If those Jornians have done anything to harm these
people my programming's going to break down to the extent that
Maita isn't going to have a damned thing to do here because there
isn't going to be anything left of them!"

"I'm with you!"
Kit replied. "It's about half a kilometer more around that cleft up
there. No one's bothered us in any way and there was no fear of
coming into this stream among the Shar so I think the Jornians
aren't doing anything to hurt anyone. Maybe they're not interested
in anything under the water or on the lakeshores so the Shar don't
have any reason to interact with them."

"Not now, but
what they've already done could worse than hurt them in the future.
T Six and TR are checking for contamination of the biosphere. The
Jornians' systems can handle quite a bit of the life here meaning
their microorganisms can infiltrate and cause havoc later."

"Let's hope
there's nothing we can't reverse," Kit answered. "Shall we
proceed?"

They moved on
up the stream and came around the bend at the breach cleft where
the stream poured from about two meters above over the rocks. The
water cascaded and roared as the two climbed, all the while being
knocked around by the force of the falling water, making the
barking growl that was laughter among the Shar. There was a deep
pool at the base that the water fell into so Kit arrived at the
top, waited until Tab was up and standing in the current, then
tackled him, throwing them both off the top and into the pool
below. They forgot they were robots for awhile, playing as the Shar
would in the little fall, losing themselves in the delight of the
game, tumbling and falling and rolling in the torrent, plunging
into the deep bowl under the fall.

The fourth or
fifth trip up the fall they found there were several Jornians
watching them from the rocks above. They seemed to be enjoying the
play. They continued the game and soon moved upstream even farther,
studying the Jornians with great curiosity, but no animosity when
they were close. The Jornians in turn were studying them and showed
no fear so they knew there was some contact of some kind between
the races. There was a lot of familiarity shown by the Jornians
that could only have come from past contacts with the Shar. Late in
the afternoon, after locating the generators in the stream and the
water supply to the encampment, they went to lay on some large flat
dark rocks in the sunlight. They continued to tease at each other
with affection as they absorbed the warmth. Several of the Jornians
came close, one explaining about the Shar to another who had
apparently recently arrived in the encampment and who knew nothing
about the Shar.

"They're
completely without fear and are as completely nonaggressive, Grot,"
the speaker was saying. "We had planned to use them as hard
laborers, but they're useless. They play all the time and react to
pain only by going to aid one another. They don't understand it,
but will damned well move as a group against anyone who causes any
of them pain deliberately. We learned that the hard way!

"Because they
don't go after us and will even trust us doesn't mean they'll
tolerate our rule. They killed four people right at first before
anyone could do anything. We thought we could use the shocker wands
to train them, but the things hurt the ones they were used on – you
know what those things are – and their whole clan or whatever they
call them simply ripped anyone apart who was seen to have a wand. I
guess the first lesson taught here was TO us, not BY us!

"You get so you
really like them after awhile. They're like little children. They
don't usually come up this far much until really hot weather. When
they do come you have to get used to being felt up, and I mean
thoroughly! They'll undress you in a minute! You learn to feel them
the same way and they accept you. If you're inhibited the smartest
thing you can do is stay away from anywhere they are – which is
almost everywhere. It's not like I thought at first, any sexual
thing. It's just their way. They know every inch of everybody
else's body. An identification thing of some sort.