Flight of the Maita Supercollection 3: Solving Galactic Problems Collector's Edition (174 page)

There were the
mines being worked ahead. He could probably stop them from
producing anything, but there was little point in doing so. If
Maybe was right the portal was finished and in place.

Maita said the
silver production must stop because that was what was used to move
the large amounts of energy. Every angle would have to be covered.
If one thing wasn't accomplished it wouldn't make any overall
difference that way. It was worth saving the omniverse if they
could. Kurk wouldn't like to know that so many billions of people
on so many billions of worlds in so many billions of galaxies had
struggled and hurt for nothing. The Plutons didn't fool themselves
into believing life or the universe or any natural thing was
obligated to be fair, but Kurk hated waste in any form. To end it
now would be a terrible, truly unthinkable waste. Maita and the
empire, which Thing and Ehrak had spoken so much of – the
Zulians.

How Kurk wanted
that one thing, to meet a Zulian! He simply couldn't make himself
believe that a race could be that truly wonderful. Neither could he
believe Thing or Ehrak made up any of the things they told him
about those people or the Acnians or the Feach. He was sure none of
it was false or an exaggeration.

Well, it would
be academic if the otherplaners weren't stopped here and now.
All-in-all Kurk had no least regrets. Regardless of the eventual
outcome he had lived an exciting and rewarding life on two worlds
in two planes, which was a good fortune denied to nine hundred
ninety nine point nine nine nine people out of a thousand!

*

Ehrak was
scared. Terrified. Zeenans never allowed such emotions to show, but
he fully well knew Thing would know through its empathy. That these
idiot beings from some other plane could destroy the entire
omniverse was totally unthinkable! It wasn't fair that any such
thing was even possible! How could the omniverse be so delicately
balanced?

It couldn't be!
There was some mistake in the math!

Zeena, like so
vastly many other worlds, had struggled through the millennia, had
evolved and grown to be a respected force in the galaxy. It
couldn't suddenly cease to be! All of that pain and work COULDN'T
be for nothing! IT WAS NOT FAIR!

Well, if Ehrak,
first son of Milah and Cord of Tenslo, Zeena, had anything to do
with it there would be no total destruction of anything but those
storage areas and that portal! No Zeenan was going to sit by doing
nothing when there was a threat of even small dimensions, much less
a thing that could make all life everywhere meaningless! Certainly,
Ehrak would not deny his heritage! He would DO something! He would
live up to the expectations of someone descended from Tom, who had
proven for all time and for all peoples that the Zeenan race
MATTERED!

Maita was
certain they could avert a catastrophe. Thing was positive, also,
which was reassuring. Thing was known as one of the finest minds in
the galaxy while Maita knew the planes better than any being or
machine in the galaxy.

If Z and Thing
could handle the sphere on that Jornian ship the immediate danger
was past. They would have time to ensure their success. If he could
only know they were successful he would relax.

Meanwhile there
was a power storage facility inside of that mountain and probably
some cables beneath the road there. The passive sensor on the
floater showed there were, indeed, cables under the soil. Ehrak
sent a boring machine down to dig to the cables and to set loose
some interesting little engineered biological micro-agents along
the entire length of the transmitting line. Those microbes would
produce an enzyme in the soil that would eat the insulation off of
the cable in a short time, making it useless. When Ehrak was sure
the dispensing of the lifeform was going along well he began to
carefully search the side of the mountain for a way into the
primary storage area. He found a small cave. It wouldn't allow him
to pass so he went on.

If only Maita
would send a message to him that Thing and Z had been able to
ground enough of that ship's power to give them time. While there
would be nuclear backups that sphere could contain a tenday's
production of the secondaries. If they must recharge there was a
tenday. That was plenty of time!

There was
another larger cave near a small stream where a machine was
carrying some kind of electronic parts inside so there would be
surveillance. Ehrak came as close as possible, turned on all the
secondary passive sensors and waited. There was a set of small
floaters released, probably by Maita, directly. They were dispersed
for several minutes, then returned one at the time to input the
information they'd found. The machines were automatic. There were
scanner floaters in various places, but nothing overly
sophisticated.

Ehrak sent
floaters to neutralize the spy sensors, then went down to the
machines laboring below. He videoscanned the parts, then went
inside the cave on foot, leaving his floater by the entrance.

He had to
return for the lights as the machines could work as well in the
dark as outside. They were on infra-red so the visible light he
used wouldn't be detected by them.

It was more
than a kilometer inside where Ehrak came to a fork in the tunnel.
There were metal tracks into both parts so he decided to enter left
so he would know to exit right. A half kilometer later he found
another fork, took the left again and was soon in a little cul de
sac with a finished power sphere hooked to input lines coming from
a drill hole above. He placed a small cutting charge a half meter
above the sphere on input and output circuits, injected the
biological agents to produce the destructive enzymes and went back
along the tunnel to the fork. He located one more sphere in that
branch, repeated the process of disabling it, went to the first
fork and along it to find one completed sphere and one about a
third constructed. The worker servos clustered around the
unfinished sphere so he left them at work. One sphere wouldn't do
them any good. Thing said two or even three were needed to start
the portal. It would then self-sustain according to the theory and
the spheres would never be needed again.

There would be
a major surprise when they tried to use these units! There would be
another if they managed to charge this one sphere and tried to
transmit its charge along that buried cable!

Ehrak retraced
his steps out of the tunnels, retrieved his personal floater,
recalled the smaller machines and headed to meet Kurk.

That was a
strange one! Kurk seemed almost amused by the idea the omniverse
might end at any moment. He certainly had no fear of the
consequences of their failure here.

Ehrak liked the
big ... demon. The term fit him. He was what could be honestly
called terrible even more than the Feach, but while the Feach were
terrifying to look at in their own way they were soon shown to be a
caring, even loving people. They weren't prone to violence. That
was one trait that showed very quickly and one felt very quickly at
ease among them.

Kurk wasn't
that way. There could be no real doubt that Kurk would think little
of the most horrible violence. He would think nothing about
literally breaking another person in half. One could feel
underlying violence in the big demon. It was there and waiting to
be released.

Kurk didn't
brag about his violent nature in any way, merely taking it as a
part of things as they are, but it was there. He was perfectly
truthful about his penchant for violent answers to a challenge.
We're all capable of violence of the most vicious kind. Even Ehrak
had no sense of hesitation under certain circumstances. Should
Maita determine it was the only realistic way to protect the
empire, the omniverse and most particularly Zeena Ehrak would not
pause to think before personally shooting down every one of those
Jornians and their otherplanal friends where they stood and without
warning!

"If it's to be
you or me I'm gonna SEE that it's YOU!" he muttered under his
breath.

Well, that was
– more or less – the way Kurk looked at it. Ehrak could say very
honestly he liked the big demon. He was always aware of the
enormous potential for mayhem when they were together, but he also
knew no fear whatever.

He didn't kid
himself, either. If the question ever arose Kurk would break him in
half and throw the bloody pieces in opposite directions even though
he was sure Kurk liked him, too. Kurk lived in a much simpler
universe than did Ehrak, to put it bluntly. Very different things
found importance in Ehrak's mind than did in Kurk's.

Was ANYthing
important to Kurk?

Certainly! How
stupid! They just weren't the same kinds of things that were
important to a Zeenan – and why SHOULD they be? They weren't even
from the same dimensional plane!

Things were
either right or wrong to Ehrak. There was a very strong moral sense
as well as an ethical one.

That was it!
Kurk had no moral sense whatever. Things were neither right nor
wrong to him, they simply were.

Was it
reasonable that anyone with such strong ethics had no morals?

Obviously.

There was Kurk,
waiting for him.

Kurk was
totally amoral, but was as ethical as anyone Ehrak had ever
known.

Odd. Ehrak
would have thought he would become fond of Z before anyone else,
but here he was knowing what he was now feeling for this monstrous
demon was fondness. He liked Z and respected him, he even
understood him, but there was some measure of distance between
them, a wall that didn't exist with the Pluton.

He shook his
head.

"What's the
matter?" Kurk asked.

"I was thinking
deep philosophical thoughts to keep my fear at bay," Ehrak replied.
"It just occurred to me that as different as you and I are I feel
quite close to you. As much the same as Z and I are I don't feel
any closeness. I like him, but I'm not at all close to him. I don't
really understand myself at times."

"I don't see
why you should feel any fear," Kurk said. "If it's this planal
distortion thing you mean, that is. It'll come out as it comes
out.

"Z doesn't
allow people to become too close. He reserves his closeness to
Thing, Maita and his machine friends. That's defensive, I think.
One doesn't become too close to people one must soon part from.
It's too painful to him. He's the type who gets emotional so he's
the type who gets hurt. If he was here two hundred years ago I
guess he's seen a lot of people he liked ... die.

"You aren't the
same Extrx who was here before are you?"

"No," Ehrak
answered. "That was my great great grandfather. Thing, or Maybe,
was here and Z was here. Maita will offer his crew life for as long
as they want it. He has machines that can do that. My ancestor
elected to refuse the treatments because he wanted a family so
didn't want to watch his own children grow old and die while he
stayed the same. I agree with that."

"I wonder if
the treatments would work on me?" Kurk asked. "I don't plan to have
anymore family. I have a son on Hades who has no intention of ever
having anything to do with me. I'm sort of weird there, you know.
Coming to live on a primitive world without all the pollution,
crime and such that Hades has to offer."

*Yes. Perhaps I
could extend your life,* came from the floater's radio. *It will be
interesting to discover. Boss and Maybe have just completely
grounded the power from that ship so we have time to work this out.
They're on their way back to the rendezvous point so if you'll meet
them there you can come back to Teeme to work out our next move. I
know Kurk will wish to simply have the empire take the ship from
Tlorg, close the portals and maybe eliminate Nrkll and Krll. There
are reasons we can't take that kind of chance.*

"Nrkll and
Krll?!" Ehrak exclaimed. "They've come out into the open? The
otherplaners?"

*Boss and Maybe
had a serious discussion with them about energy and planes. They're
most interesting. We'll have to work something out.*

"We're on our
way back," Ehrak replied. "I can't tell you how relieved I am! I
want to hear all you’ve found about the otherplaners.

"Let's go,
Kurk!"

*

On their return
trip to Teeme Thing stayed close to Kurk, learning to use its
empathic talent on this strange being from another dimensional
plane. On the one hand Kurk was a very simple person. The emotions
were there, just as real beneath as they first seemed on the
surface. Kurk knew no shame, but that was a statement of fact, not
a figurative one. Kurk recognized no wrong. Right, either. Those
weren't pieces of his beliefs, yet he was most careful to not
mistreat others, to lie nor to steal in any way – not because it
was wrong, but because it was wrong.

How odd!
Looking at it another way Kurk simply felt life was hard enough and
fair or unfair were no part of the equation of how things are. They
ARE, so why make it worse?

Ah! So that was
it! Kurk was a strong believer in revenge. If someone deliberately
causes you pain retaliation in the form of causing them even MORE
pain will make them stop so it's basic logic to stop it as quickly
and positively as you can. Conversely, if one makes the association
as pleasant as he can for those around him it is reasonable to
assume the favor will be returned.

The big demon
was capable of great love and great hate. Kurk was very highly
sexually driven and had no least societal inhibitions. He was
absolutely against force with it. Seduction was acceptable. The act
was pleasant but meaningless while having deep meaning on another
level. Love or affection had no connection with sex – but he was
aware that was a personal reaction.