Flight of the Maita Supercollection 3: Solving Galactic Problems Collector's Edition (178 page)

He also knew he
was deathly afraid. That was the most important part of it. He had
often heard that bravery was acting in spite of fear, that to act
without fear wasn't brave at all, but now he knew exactly what that
meant.

Kurk saluted
them and went trotting off toward the Jornian ship. Fale rose into
the air to perch on a large limb high in a nearby tree where it
could watch Kurk's progress. The golems rose to follow as planned.
Ehrak returned the salute with a grin.

"Gramps, you're
gonna be proud of me!" he said under his breath.

Thing gave the
victory sign with its tentacles. Ehrak felt the mental grin that
came along with it.

Show Time!

Z was locked in
a room near the center of the "needle" type ship. He knew the
farmer and his family were in an adjoining room because he saw the
girl, Klee, being led inside. He wasn't sure whether the sorceress,
Zaft, was in that room or in another.

What was Maita
planning? There was no way he could know, but he was positive the
crew would think of something. Meanwhile he might as well keep the
Prlnth off balance as much as possible. This would be as good a
chance as any he could expect to experiment with the magic he
reprogrammed in from the crystal made from the sorcerer Tee on that
first trip to Tlorg. He sat, cupped his hands and made the bright
blue flame appear. That was real magic or some kind of psy power.
He knew how to do several other things, though he didn't know
precisely how it really worked. The power to ground any energy was
from a different sorcerer on a different world, brought to him by a
machine. He could use that, but there was no reason to provoke the
Prlnth so long as the children were being held.

This magic worked, according to his personal theory,
through some power to affect things through dimensional planes.
What was done was actually very close to nothing in his case. The
true magicians on Tlorg had more of the psy ability so could affect
much bigger things. The machines could mimic the psy power in some
cases, too. TR had done so and that insane machine on EC
(
Tristar
) had most certainly been able to do a lot. That device had
been designed and built by a race who had a tremendous psy ability
so that was logical. That machine had been mostly a gestalt
amplifier.

Hell! It had
moved at least two STARS!

It had also
moved a miniature monopolar tunnel diode from a machine being used
to attack it. The diode was less than half a gram. They had all
worried it would soon decide to remove a few molecules from their
nervous systems, something the wizards here on Tlorg could do, thus
killing them.

The spell to
make the flame was accomplished by moving a bit of heat from
anything close at hand and making it stay above the hands. The
light bending spell was a matter of making ionized air flow around
your body in a peculiar way. The portals were opened by making a
small static charge move in a certain pattern through various
resistances.

Moving an
electron or a photon was as much as he could do. He could teleport
a short distance, but that was terribly dangerous. It was out of
the question. It was the only spell he knew that used large amounts
of energy.

How damned
stupid! Z knew how the locks on these doors worked. They were
electromonopolar relays! Move one lousy positron to the diode
rejection point and the door would open. It didn't matter that he
didn't know for sure which side to affect. He could try both.

Now, how to
make use of getting out of a locked room without making them decide
to kill him or giving them reason to scan his body for the shields?
He may need those defenses at any time. They mustn't suspect the
ability to use them. That meant figuring out what Maita would do
and acting in concert with it.

First off,
Maita would reject doing anything done before if only because the
Jornians may know about it. Maita would react in a purely logical
way – but Thing wouldn't and logic was the last thing they would
need here! Maita would defer to Thing on this, then fret and worry
like a mother hen whose chicks were threatened until they were all
safe.

What was Thing
going to do?

Thing was going
to decide Z would continue the wizard act so would assume he was
going to remain apparently unconcerned with anything the Jornians
or the Prlnth threw his way, yet he would show outrage because the
farm family was threatened. He made that clear when he sent the
recorders' information.

This could be
fun – if the Prlnth was confused enough to be off balance according
to plan, but didn't decide to kill them to avoid any possible
trouble from unexpected quarters.

Be outrageous,
but do NOT be threatening.

Z moved to the
lock mechanism, studied it and wished he had the ability the
wizards here on Tlorg had to sense electrical movements. Like with
the grounding of the power sphere he would have to test around a
bit.

He moved a
small charge around the area where he knew the lock diode was
located. The door slid silently upward, he then closed it again.
Because he bypassed the switch there would be no indication on the
monitor board the door opened or closed.

Good! There was
an idea! Might as well get started!

He again opened
the door, slid out and reclosed it, moved along the hallway, stood
for a moment outside of the room where the farmers were being held,
decided this wasn't the time, then proceeded along the hall until
he came to the mess room door. Most of the Jornians were seated
around a long table drinking gincha. He moved silently behind them,
then said, "Excuse me, please?"

A lot of hot
gincha was spilled in the next microsecond. Lahst was the only one
not at the mess table so it could be assumed the one who spoke next
was Nite Quant. "How the hell...! What...? How the HELL..!?"

"I'm sorry. I
didn't mean to startle you. There is nothing to drink in my
quarters and nothing to be seated comfortably on. I wanted to tell
you I will gather some of those things from my chariot and will
return so do not be concerned with my short absence. I wanted to
know if you would like some of the fine wine? I know from what I
was served earlier and on my previous visit that you have none of
the better quality beverages."

"Uh!!!" Nax
said. "Guhh! How did you get out of the room? That door is
electronically sealed! It sounds a warning if it's opened!"

"Get out?
Door?" Z asked, feigning puzzlement. "Oh? Was it locked? I don't
generally bother to open doors as it is far easier to go through
the walls so I didn't know there was a lock. I will have to open
the door to re-enter with my wine and pillows so your warnings will
tell you then?"

"Through the
WALL!?" Froh cried. "That wall is solid TitChroPlat! NOTHING goes
through it!"

"Oh, don't be
silly!" Z chided, smiling brightly. "It is only metal. I will
return in a moment. Would you like some wine?"

He turned,
strolled casually out to the floater (Where he quickly slid the
passive recorder disk into the slot for Maita's enjoyment – and
Thing's edification), picked up a few larger pillows, a container
of wine, some glasses, some sweetcake and returned to the Jornian
ship as the Jornians came running out with lasers in their hands.
They stood around not knowing what to do as he strolled as casually
as before up the ramp, into the hall and to "his" room. He cocked
his head to the side as he studied the closed door, then turned to
ask them how it was opened, explaining he couldn't carry liquids
and solids through the wall at the same time.

Nax slapped the
relay ID plate and the door slid silently upward. Z entered, tossed
the pillows beside the small ledge, sat the wine and glasses on the
ledge along with the sweetcake and asked again if they cared for
any. They didn't reply, but sullenly closed the door.

Z was sure
there would be a television camera watching him now so he poured
some wine into a crystal goblet, tasted it, waved his hand over it
(Drawing out some heat as he did so with the same spell that made
the blue flame), tasted it again, nodded and laid back. He spotted
the camera over the door and moved small bits of matter around
until he shorted out a capacitor, shutting the camera down. It was
a thing that could have happened in normal use so they wouldn't be
sure he had done it. It wouldn't do to have them see him open that
door.

Okay. They were
confused now. He could have simply walked away yet he seemed to be
moving in on his own. They wouldn't have any idea how to figure
him. He had learned what he wanted to know and had let Maita know
how he was going to handle his end of it. He knew fairly closely
where everything was on this ship.

The door opened
again. He glanced up with a questioning look at Froh, who saw him
sitting on his pillow drinking a bit of the wine. Froh flipped open
the camera panel, popped out a component board, popped in another,
then went back out, closing the door. Z laid back ignoring the
camera. In a while the camera could break down again – while the
wizard seemingly slept. This might be great fun for a number of
reasons!

*

Maita was as
fidgety as, according to Z's wild expressions, a cat at a dogfight.
It didn't know what was happening, could only guess at what Thing
was planning, couldn't use the few sensors left aboard the Jornian
ship and felt truly helpless about it. If there was only a hint of
what these organics would do!

Z's actions
would make no sense whatever so the rest of their little group
would do whatever he wanted them to where the Prlnth were
concerned. That otherplaner would become and would stay vastly
confused. Maita knew Z would plan on that if it didn't know
anything else.

Thing would fly
off as it had, would think the situation out on the way to the dark
continent, would decide what Z would be doing and would match its
plan to that of the Terran. Maita would stay in the thick of it
through the golems.

Z had
re-entered the Jornian ship almost an hour ago after sending the
passive recordings. Thing knew more or less what was planned by now
so there would be a rapid coming together of ideas. It was too bad
Fale went along because it would hamper the rest of their actions.
Everyone would have to stay in character. Perhaps that was good.
Perhaps this was going to become yet another legend of the amazing
wizard-demon, Boss.

Another message
was coming! Z came carelessly out from the Jornian ship – after he
was taken aboard at laser point – and slipped the passive recorder
disk into the reader slot. He then removed some items from the
floater and went back toward the spaceship as Jornians came rushing
out waving their lasers. Maita quickly read the information on the
recorder, sent it on to Thing and began to understand what Z was
doing.

It had known Z would protect those innocent Tlorgian people
and saw how this could work. It was great fun to see the
expressions on the faces of the spaceship crew when Z came up
behind them in the mess room. The oh-so-innocent "I didn't mean to
startle you" was a gem to be recorded along with such times as when
T6 had said "Excuse me?" to Rimalt and company years past
(
Describe
Intelligent
). T6 had given Maita all of those records.

Z was
determined to have fun with this, which was good. It was like old
times. It really was. Maita could relax its surveillance a bit now.
There was no immediate danger unless the Prlnth did something to
those farm people and Z went wild. Kurk would join him in that.
Maybe before they were all killed these Prlnth would learn a lesson
about Plutons and Terrans alike.

It was a good
time to check all the reporting stations in the empire and to
monitor the things an emperor was supposed to control. That took
almost three minutes, the empire was so vast, now.

Maybe Z was
right. The Tlorgians and the demons should be allowed to join the
Maitan Empire if they so chose. Kurk would definitely want to
travel around for a bit and Maita would as definitely like to study
the strange Pluton. It was so much like Z in some ways, yet was so
very different in others. Those two would soon become close friends
despite Z's reticence to become close to others. The one time past
when Thing came to Tlorg for the case of Kene and the Immins, the
Pluton, Wruk, was there, had been Kene's closest friend and had
shown the traits Kurk displayed. Good traits, if a bit primitive.
The Plutons were exceptional people, basically. Misguided and very
much entrapped in a stage of social development they should have
passed. Maita liked Kurk and TR liked Kurk. Thing liked Kurk and Z
liked Kurk. Fale liked Kurk and Burl liked Kurk.

Kurk was a
terrifying sight to most peoples and was capable of being as
terrifying as he looked, which was different from the Feach who
were as terrifying to look at, but who were very gentle,
compassionate people. Maybe the decision would be made by the
Zulians. Maybe Kurk could be presented to those people, their
reactions noted and when.... The Zulians would be fascinated by
Kurk and Kurk would love the Zulians.

It shows how
much Maita trusted its friends and crew that it didn't fret as it
was prone to do now that it understood some of what they
planned.

*

Thing, Kurk,
Ehrak, the golems and Fale met at the former rendezvous point where
Thing gave instructions.

[ Fale, if you
will be so kind as to quickly fly over the areas Kurk and Extrx
will tell you about to see that the mines are not operating Kurk
will come with me to the spaceship with the golems while Extrx will
move around behind their ship and stay concealed in the forest
until we call him. I think we can work this out fairly well. Boss
has communicated, as he often does through the golems, that he is
playing with the demon and the otherworlders so we will play that
game, too. I think we understand that Boss accomplishes much
through comedy. The lack of logic in our acts and those of Boss
will confuse the demons, though we must be exceedingly careful not
to do anything to make them harm the farmers and the children. If
Boss becomes angered as he will if those people are harmed it will
be a terrible thing for us as well as for those on that spaceship.
]