Flight of the Maita Supercollection 3: Solving Galactic Problems Collector's Edition (170 page)

Maita knew of
fourteen planes it could use to one extent or another. There were
undoubtably many others. Maybe hundreds of others. This one Kurk
was from was new to it. The Frome plane was sometimes used. The
Targ plane was new.

There would be
plenty of others. What of them?

That was
stupid! In a mere few hundred years Tlorg would be ready to come
into the empire on its own and those other planes would still be
there.

This took
milliseconds. Maita checked through all the projects it had going,
then concentrated on the golems. They were on secondary circuits so
didn't need attention of the main computers that were Maita, but
Maita could take command at any time.

If machines
could sigh Maita would have done so then. Why couldn't, once, the
group take a vacation just for fun and not have any huge problems
present themselves?

This had
started out so well!

The golems were
arguing that the Fromes couldn't hear well and couldn't speak
without an accent on Tlorg because they had an extra dimension on
their plane. That was why they could live on Tlorg while the
Tlorgians couldn't live for more than a few hours on Frome. Yes
said one added dimension while No was meanly insisting it had to be
several others.

The way the
logic systems were arranged for the golems it would never be
resolved without outside help. Maita didn't want to override the
secondaries, then thought of an easy way out. It "spoke" over the
speakers in the hall in Z's voice.

"Yes? No?" it
proceeded. "I promised I would remain in contact through you two.
Stop the arguing and report what's happening there."

–
So? How
did you know we were arguing, Beanbrain?–

"You're always
arguing, Slugbreath!" Maita replied. "I said to report!"

+There's really
very little to report. It is a beautiful day, we are among our good
friends, the Fromes. There is no strife or hardship in the town.
Things are going very smoothly!+

–
Yee!
Smoothly!? You complete leadbrained idiot! It's going to rain any
minute, there's one hell of an electrical storm coming, the people
are killing each other for sport down there and you say things are
smooth?!–

"Knock it off!"
Maita snapped. "What were you two arguing ... discussing?"

+Well, I say
the reason the Fromes can't see well or hear well is because they
have an extra dimension in their plane. No says they have several
extra ones.+

"We see very
well!" Fale protested. "Iss just zhat we don'd hear zhe zame as
zhu!"

"The plane has
the same dimensions as we have here," Maita replied. "They're
stressed a bit differently. The subdimension we call length is at a
more oblique angle there than here making it relatively shorter.
Time is slightly different as we've long ago learned and force is
stressed at the angle of structure a bit differently. That's why
the Fromes can derive sufficient energy from our foods and air – a
bit more than they need, actually – but we can't derive enough
energy on Frome to live for very long.

"Fale, are
there any Fromes here on the dark continent? Would you know about
them?"

"Zhess. Zhere
are zum very vew, Boss," Fale answered. "Zhe zorzererz zhere are
nod easy do ged along wiz zo we zhday away. Iss known on Frome do
vly do Loosda if we are daken zhere. Zhe ones zhere now are wiz
King Dihn's zhips mosdly.

"Anyone elz
know of Frome on zhe dark condinend?"

The other
Fromes shook their heads.

"Zhere aren'd
any zhere, Boss," Fale reported. "We would know."

"Thank you,"
Maita said. "I must go now. Don't waste any attention to the golems
when they start arguing with each other. They let reality leave the
room when they start that."

"Iss drue! We
know!" Fale said.

Maita turned
the golems back over to the secondaries.

Here was a real problem. Z was over there and had been told
that a Frome told Zaft he was coming to her and the Fromes in the
kingdom didn't know of any of their people being on the dark
continent. Either there were a few Fromes still there from before
the time more than two hundred years ago when King Obie Lear
decreed the Fromes were to be sent home
(Now You See It – Now You
Don't
) or
there were rogue Fromes.

Perhaps
Mesorchii? No. They would be harder to keep than Fromes and their
plane was much harder to reach. It couldn't be because of Fromes
from the past. They didn't live that long, couldn't breed on this
plane and wouldn't be flying around for such distances if they were
being held against their will. They would have come to Loosta to be
sent home.

Still, there
weren't any rogue Fromes. It wasn't any part of their psychology.
Now Thing has discovered that strange monument or whatever and
Ehrak had found mines of some sort. They're mining lead, gold,
silver and several minor metals there.

Send spy
floaters to observe that monument and to study its construction.
This isn't making much sense.

*

Z went inside
the farmhouse where he was met by a rather striking woman in
flowing priestess gowns. She waved to a seat and offered wine.

"So you're the
famous demon-wizard, Boss!" she greeted him. "Welcome to Port
Placid. The wine, I fear, is the local product. I don't spend time
making Wizard's wine.

"I have reports
you met with the otherworlders. I imagine you are very curious
about them and their ships of space."

"Not really," Z
replied. "They are a rather ordinary sort of people, those I saw.
They are hiding from someone – someone from another world yet, I
surmise. They tend to act before they think thus have sent me a
challenge they cannot now back up. It must be rather embarrassing
for them. I have come and they are found wanting. They thought
their science would affright me, but I know much of this
science.

"My curiosity
is to why you would render your aid to such obviously inferior
peoples. More, I am close friends with many demons, being part
demon myself. I find it odd that Fromes would aid them."

"Fromes?" she
said. "There are no Fromes here. You set them free two hundred
years ago."

"I did not
investigate, but was told a Frome brought you the message I was
coming here to seek you," Z replied. "I sometimes also tend to
accept a thing out of context."

"The bird – not
a Frome!" Zaft replied lightly. "It's just a messenger demon
brought by the otherworlders or by ... by the otherworlders. It
carries messages in a small case tied to its leg."

"Ah! It comes
directly to the medallion you wear. I see," Z said. "I was
wondering how a Frome could come so very fast. The answer is that
it couldn't. Still, YOU offer aid to these otherworlders. May I ask
why?"

"I don't aid
them so much as I do business with them," she answered. "I've
arranged for them to receive certain ores for which they've traded
some of their science.

"Do you know of
radio?"

"Yes. The
Plutons use it. It was part of the thing Wruk and Kene used to
locate the otherworlder Immins two hundred years ago. Kurk has
shown it to me. He also showed me what a heat laser is, which was
good. The otherworlders tried to use one against me."

"And you are
well!?! I know the power of those lasers!"

"They are
merely energy weapons," Z said easily. "One can turn them back on
the user with the old spell. It is a simple thing."

Z finally
spotted the small surveillance floater secreted in the rafters so
would use a little psychology on the listeners. He would use every
opportunity to keep them confused and scared.

"This science depends much on energies that are stored in
various places within the ship or within the device that is to use
it," he lectured. "The ship has enormous energies stored in a
sphere resting below the exact center. The laser has much energy
stored in the handle one grasps to support it. Froh used many
devices, each of which had areas of stored energy inside. Those
otherworlders depend much on great amounts of stored energy, it
seems. That makes them very weak. I learned of a spell a few years
ago that can make all of the energy leave the place in which it is
stored (
Science!
).

"I will soon go
to Loosta where I will learn the spell. I will then tell these
otherworlders it is very obvious they are hiding here and they must
go. Had they come to meet us openly we would welcome them. We
gladly welcome the Fromes and the Targs. We welcome the Plutons.
Kurk is playing with the small children now in the pasture outside.
We do not fear others, even others with so frightening an aspect as
has Kurk. If they come to us we welcome them. These did not come to
us. They hid from us.

"This is our
world. We have the right to say this one may come here in welcome
and in peace and that one may not. We do not make those rules,
those who come make them. One must be a friend to have a
friend.

"I will learn
the spell, then I will inform these they may come to us openly and
freely and in friendship or they must go. If they refuse either
option they will stay because there will be no energy left in their
ship to take them away. If that is the decision the wizards here
may use them for demons, though I will insist on proper treatment
of them. The time of cruel experiment is forever over on
Tlorg."

"I would beware
making such strong statements about the otherworlders,
demon-wizard!" Zaft warned. “You would do well to remember that
you're part otherworlder yourself!"

"Yes. And I
came here in friendship and was received as a friend. My point
exactly, sorceress of little power!"

Zaft stared at
him, then shrugged. "You won't be able to act out your words. You
can't reach the energy in the ships. It's too much. You may be able
to turn the small energy in a laser, but they have lasers – and
other weapons – that can burn a whole city to nothing in a few
seconds! I've seen them!"

"You have seen
dreams of fools! There was never such use of power anywhere on
Tlorg. I would have known of it immediately!"

"I was shown
pictures – pictures that moved and made sounds of real things –
that showed the weapons in use!" Zaft cried. "The otherworlders
have too much power for us to fight them!"

"You have seen
pictures, video images Kurk calls them, and have been TOLD that
they represent true happenings. Has it not occurred to you that
anyone who could make the pictures, videos, could make false ones
as easily as they can make true ones? Perhaps more easily? Perhaps,
videos of things that do not in reality exist? Did you even wonder
if, perhaps, showing you these pictures and convincing you of their
reality might make you help peoples you otherwise would send
away?

"Kurk told me
such videos are made quite regularly on Hades and are shown to
millions of people at once on a thing called television. Everyone
on Hades knows that one does not BELIEVE the videos. They are for
entertainment. I would counsel that you be most careful of what
stories you believe that these otherworlders tell you or show you.
I would counsel that they are hiding here and are avoiding the
people of Tlorg on all of its planes. There is subterfuge in the
very presence of the otherworlders. Would there be any less in
their words? Would there be any less in their videos?"

"The videos
were of true happenings," Zaft insisted haughtily. "Do you think I
could be fooled by such things? Am I so easily tricked?"

"Very easily,"
Z said sadly. "It is your choice and your fate. Perhaps I make the
mistake of Kene and even Martin, by not ending you right here and
now, but I hope you will come to your senses and will see how you
are used before it comes to that. Consider very carefully precisely
how far you will go to aid the otherworlders. I am not known to be
tolerant of certain types of actions. Consider very carefully
whether or not you would involve this innocent family in any silly
intrigues. I will forgive your actions not one whit should harm
come to any innocent person, Sorceress of little power Zaft. Boss
does not idly warn!

"I go!"

Before she
could reply Z swept out of the room and out of the house. He smiled
at the people watching their small children being thrown in the air
and caught by a truly terrible-looking demon. He watched as those
children screamed in delight as that terrible demon put them all
three under one arm and brought them to the fence.

"It is now time
we were gone, Kurk. Choose the brat you want for dinner, bring it
along and we're away."

"Well, the girl
here would be tender, as would the smaller boy," Kurk said. "The
larger boy would be too bony and probably tough on top of it. Maybe
I could stew them all up in one pot?"

The children
giggled and poked at Kurk, then climbed on his back to ride to the
clamshell. Kurk and Z entered, then, after Kurk teased the children
for a moment, headed for a rendezvous with Thing and Ehrak.

"Well, Maita,"
Z said as soon as they were away, "It looks like they have a
floater disguised as a bird to carry messages at supersonic speeds.
Zaft almost made a serious slip, which I let go because of the spy
device in the rafters. It was when we were talking about the
bird."

Z related the
entire conversation.

*I would say
this is adding up to a very strange sum. I think I now know what
Maybe found and the reason for what Extrx found. Part of the
reason. Fale also said there are no Fromes on the dark continent
except those on Dihn's ships. I know what you're going to ask. I'll
try to get TR here to teach you the energy grounding spell as
quickly as possible. This is truly the strangest of the many things
we've been called to do. We're basically on unknown territory here,
but partly on more traveled ground. Perhaps it would be best if you
came back here until TR arrives. I've contacted it. Tab can handle
things for one day if TR isn't there. TR says that wizard used the
spell so you should be able to do it. TR tested the spell
successfully on a power sphere on a refueling platform. It's a
machine so there's no psy ability involved. Maybe you know part of
it from Tee's crystal. The real problem is you'll have to move the
energy through that massive insulation and shielding. If TR could
do it you can do it.*