Read Flight of the Maita Supercollection 3: Solving Galactic Problems Collector's Edition Online
Authors: CD Moulton
Tags: #adventure, #science fiction, #flight of the maita
How odd! To sit
here and say, "I am not real and can prove it absolutely beyond
possibility of refutation!" was something the normal mind couldn't
cope with beyond the words.
There was so
much to understand and, though it was true that Thing, the Mentan,
understood things no other being did, Thing, the Mentan, knew
nothing. The simpler things were, the harder they were to
understand. That is a fact and that is also why so many socalled
"scientists" sought more complication as an escape. They couldn't
cope with the fact they couldn't understand a small, simple,
demonstrable, clear fact. The result was use of a language of their
own, designed to be un-understandable.
The Pads
understood it in their simple way. For them it all fit. For them
there was nothing to question. For them life was a loud, vulgar,
tasteless, impractical joke so why not enjoy it?
Maybe they were
right!
*
Kit would soon
meet with Tab on Perfect 3 to get the detective agency going again.
Kit liked the agency and liked the detective work. It was a
challenge to him. Tab was going to be a bit of a problem again. He
had been acting strangely since the original trip to Sharstedt and
would now revert back to that. Tab was deeply affected by the
Pads.
To tell the
truth so was he. He really liked them, but there was a place for
everything.
He was a far
different machine than was Tab in many important ways. Different
priorities.
How odd that he
and Tab were built and programmed by the same machine for the same
basic purpose, yet were so very different. Maybe machines actually
evolved in some ways. Tab was much less of the machine than Kit was
– but he was learning. He had jumped to save Yeld's leg and had
actually felt a pride and even a kinship with the man for a moment.
He also had truly enjoyed the play in the stream with Tab. The
truth be known he had enjoyed the interactions with the Pads, too.
He had felt a love and kinship with Z and Thing from the beginning
and had felt much the same about T6, Tab, TR and Maita, but that
was love of family. That was a love that wasn't programmed in. He
knew that. It had come from knowing them and had grown because of
the freedom he had with them.
He was growing
and changing. There was much to look forward to. He was a very new
robot!
*
Z swung by the rope to a lower crotch and caught to the
rough bark of the huge spreading oak-like tree, took what looked
very much like
Bulbophyllum medusae
from the waiting floater and secured it carefully
with the special ties he had developed. He moved around the tree to
place some Brassavola glauca that didn't just look like an orchid
from Earth, but were part of the big one by his patio he had taken
a piece from, brought from Earth a hundred years ago. It would be
another year before he had all the plants in the stasis chamber
planted.
Life was such a
strange thing. His greatest fear, that he would become bored after
living so long, had never materialized. He was anything but bored!
Even if he were to be somehow trapped here on EC the plants, the
Tendd, Joe's People, Maita and Thing would keep him from becoming
bored for centuries.
How odd! He
felt more love for five machines than he did for any organic beings
in the entire universe except for Thing.
He was a little
worried about one of those machines. Tab had gone native on
Sharstedt and this latest trip had brought it all back.
Well, there was
no need to worry. Tab would handle it. He had the whole family
behind him and he had a very active mind. Such things had a
fascination only for so long as they remained unattainable. Maita
agreed and would suggest after a time that Tab take a vacation on
Sharstedt in the guise of a Pad. Live among them for awhile. Thing
calculated he would tire of the lack of doing anything but pawing
all over each other in no more than a hundred days. Z figured less
than that. Too much of anything was enough! Even love, which the
Pads truly felt and shared, but they were evolved to it. Tab was
evolved to action. He would soon look again at the night sky and
wonder and wish.
The difference
in Tab and billions of other beings was that Tab could go out there
and could experience all of it. So could any of the members in this
strange family of machines and wildly differing peoples.
It was a very
big galaxy! Steven Parker "Z" Zutec hadn't even started good
yet!
Flight of the
Maita
Book 25
Vacations Don't
Always Work Out
(
Return To Tlorg
)
© 1988 by C. D.
Moulton
A vacation on
Tlorg results in the discovery of a scheme that could destroy the
universe? Kurk joins the crew.
Critic
comment
I was told to
honestly say what I think.
I don’t care
for fantasy, and this skirts very close and even crosses the line
now and again.
I like the
adventure and action and the premise. The story is quite well-told.
CD manages to describe a lovable monster in Kurk, something I
generally don’t like, and the golems are a scream.
I would not buy
the book because of the fantasy part, but would recommend it to
those who like a little fantasy sprinkled into their SciFi.
Worth somewhat
more than the price
*** P. R.
L.
Contents
Return To
Tlorg
Tlorg - Land of Coincidences
Steven Parker
Zutec, better known simply as Z, was born on, raised on and
abducted from the planet, Terra, some three hundred seventy eight
MGS (Maitan Galactic Standard) years before, sat on his terrace
patio on Empire Center, a planet situated at the center of gravity
of three differently colored stars. Empire Center, or EC, as they
called it, was exactly what the name implied. It was several
thousand plazsis (MGS lightyears) from the place of his birth. He
and his friends now resided there.
Z was reading a
CD Grimes detective novel written about the time he was abducted
back on Earth. The red sun was just coming up as the green one was
sliding down behind the mountain behind him. The fragrances of the
Maxillaria tenuifolia orchids, the odor of hot coconut cake, wafted
from the cascade of the plant next to the waterfall to his left.
Behind him the spicy scent of the brassos, another orchid, but a
hybrid with large yellow blooms, mingled.
He had a tall glass of juice with a flavor somewhat like
pineapple juice with a touch of cloves to which he had added a shot
of a rum-like liquor. There was a plate of amaranth muffins to
nibble on (It wasn't really amaranth, but one could hardly discern
the difference). He was deeply absorbed in the overly-complicated
plot of the book, called
Murder, He Guessed.
He had watched a TV show called
Murder, She
Wrote
before
he was abducted by the Pweetoos, an insectoid race, so he
understood the connection.
The temperature
was exactly right – as was everything else on this paradise world.
He was surrounded by unbelievable beauty at every turn. The trees,
beds, rocks and every available spot on the island, which was his
personal property, were covered with orchids and orchid-like plants
he had collected on hundreds of worlds. There were also bromeliads,
bromeliad-like plants, rhipsalis (Ditto), ferns (Ditto), anthuriums
(ditto), camellias (Ditto), caladiums (Ditto), etc, (Ditto) all
around.
The mountain
started at the sea edge, extended three kilometers under the sea
(Where his closest organic friend planted its own gardens) and
extended more than three kilometers in height so he had all the
climates necessary for any of the types of plants he liked. The
small waterfall earlier mentioned, containing fantastic fishes,
eels, snails, clams and so forth (As well as many of the lifeforms
that closely resembled fishes etc.) fell into the pool toward the
side of the terrace. The inset scene along the mountainside and
extending underfoot, inlaid by the famous Parf artist, Tous, two
centuries ago, was an extension of the beauty surrounding him.
There were no
artists in the entire galaxy – which was to say the Maitan Empire –
to match the Parf.
Well, maybe
some of the Woost. (The Zulians are a special case in all cases.
They, of course, have some artists as skilled and talented.) A
world they had recently had one of their "Little adventures" on had
the finest rugs and tapestries they'd ever discovered anywhere, but
the Woost and Parf seldom used those forms.
Life was
absolutely perfect and Emperor Maita, Z's closest inorganic friend
(Maita is a large spaceship, is independently intelligent and was
forced to become emperor when the group first established the
empire – not a thing of choice, either) could extend that life to
any length Z chose.
In the three
hundred seventy eight plus years they had been together there had
been no time for real boredom to set in so the two organics and the
three plus machines remained a close group. They often went on what
were rapidly becoming labeled across the empire as "The Emperor's
little adventures."
Some of those
who had for short times been members of the group chose to allow a
normal lifespan, raise a family and die a natural death. Some took
a shortterm extension, then settled down to raise a family etc. It
was the choice of the individual. Z felt there was a great deal
left to do before he chose to end his life. There were on the order
of sixty billion star systems in this galaxy alone to explore and
the several thousand he had already seen were each unique in its
own way – not to mention Maita had shown that they could go to
another galaxy where there were as many more star systems!
The small
tentacled being climbed the rocks from the sea, stayed low under
the plants until it was above the terrace the Terran was occupying,
then stealthily climbed a tree, swinging slowly and silently from
limb to limb until it was behind the waterfall. It slowly inched
along a branch, moved silently over to the rocks, grasped along
small irregularities on the mountain's face and dropped quietly
onto the ledge over the entrance door to the Earthman's domicile in
a cave under the mountain. The eyes on short stalks carefully
scanned the area, each seeking a separate spot as they worked
independently of one another (An extremely disconcerting trait to
those whose eyes DIDN'T work in such a manner). It noticed a
scanner lens watching it, made a sign with its extendable mouth,
coiled the lower two tentacles, studied the jump, then sprang onto
the Terran's head and shoulders, wrapping all four tentacles
suddenly around to pin him immobile in his seat.
A short,
startled yell escaped Z's throat as the book went sailing across
the floor and amaranth muffins rolled around, coming to rest in odd
places.
Thing, the
tentacled being and Z's closest organic friend, leaned over to
stare into Z's eyes with its own.
"Why, hello
there, Thing!" Z greeted brightly. "Anything new and interesting
happening?"
Thing, having
no lungs or vocal chords, but being an empath couldn't speak
directly so Maita had from the outset of their strange partnership
assigned it a tone and user circuits on all the emperor's own
systems. Thing used the speakers through its empathy to communicate
with others – except Maita, Tab, Kit, TRD-60 and T6, the machine
members of the group who received and sent directly to it – with
words.
Thing's tone
was a tuning fork sound before and after each thing it said ( [...]
) and a lower pitch than Maita's, which were preceded and followed
by a higher bell tone ( * ).
(Author's note:
the system of denoting Thing's and Maita's words was established in
the first chronicle of the empire before there even was an empire
and has continued. I'm not about to change it now. Maita has
established the tones in a complicated interior pattern that
fastcom carries exclusively for them over the entire empire.
Everyone now knows it's Emperor Maita or Advisor Thing when those
tones sound. )
The other
mechanical friends each had a vocal sound all its own.
Thing and Maita
also usually spoke in long unstressed paragraphs containing no
obvious paragraphing. That was no longer necessary, but was done
that way at first and no one bothered to change it. Everyone has
become used to it.
They played the
juvenile stunts on one another constantly. It was fun – and they
all had a great sense of fun – and kept them on their toes, so to
speak. Each had its individual sense of humor, too. They loved to
make jokes, both practical and otherwise.
The jokes went
through stages. Recently it had moved from puns to double entendres
to simple outrageousness.
[ Ha! You
yelled! I got you that time! ]
*It did, you
know. I was watching ever since it came from its gardens. You were
so absorbed in that stupid book it could hardly miss! You could
have waddled up the path and jumped on him, Thing. He was oblivious
to everything.*