Flight of the Maita Supercollection 3: Solving Galactic Problems Collector's Edition (18 page)

Careful Steps

My easier
contact with TR made me feel better, even though I couldn't see how
it would directly help in other ways. It was still a matter of
finding some way to get directly to the brain without blasting a
hole in the mountain – or blowing the house itself into a
crater.

What if,
instead of me going into the cavern, I could make the brain come
out?

I didn't see
how. We could use the tube to flush salt water into the cavern but,
even supposing there wasn't a drain, that little tube wouldn't take
enough of a volume to do any good, and the robot would simply plug
it.

The
Hydrofluoric acid thing wouldn't work because, even if the tube
itself didn't absorb all the acid, the rocks would.

I did have one
idea about the tube, but wasn't sure the brain wouldn't detect what
I was doing.

It was worth a
try. I called the floater and had it use its elementizer on some
water. It then leaked the oxygen into the tube for awhile. Later I
had it shoot in the hydrogen at high pressure, then to fire a heat
laser down the tube. There was a lot of radio communication for a
few minutes, then the robot in there sealed off the tube.

Overlook House
was mostly stone and cement, so it wouldn't burn very well. It
would do us no good to burn the roof off – and that might make the
brain retaliate against the people.

I decided to do
a lot of smaller things such as the oxygen/hydrogen through the
tube. I hadn't doubted the brain could put out that little fire,
but I caused it to seal the tube. I would now seal it from this end
so it couldn't be used when we were away without disturbing a
little detector I put there.

This meant as
much as nothing to me, but the brain, from a military standpoint,
would feel defeat because I had the beam floater to use elsewhere
now. It was aware the beam was capable of doing a lot of damage to
the robots, so would have to take care.

I went up to
the top of the cliff with the floater trailing behind. I wanted to
weaken the brain a bit more without causing a strike against the
general area, so I instructed the floater to get rid of two of the
robots out front, then to retreat when the brain defensed. It would
then accept that it could bring us to a standoff, which would give
it time to build something better to fight me. It didn't want to do
anything to the people anymore than I wanted to cause it to harm
them if from very different positions of logic.

I was here to
save these people and it needed them to build a force. I mustn't
disturb that balance. If the brain felt it could hold me off some
other way it wouldn't attack. If I went too far I was precipitating
the very thing I wished to avoid happening at all costs.

It would only
accept attrition for a short time, then would try to do something
about it, so I'd have to seem to suffer some losses myself.

I called the
floater back to give it more instructions. I'd have to do something
I didn't want to do, but I was to the point of choosing the lesser
of two evils.

So went my
thought processes.

The floater
went above and toward the front of the grounds where it slagged one
robot. Others came out of the house firing lasers at it and it shot
another, damaging it, and then another, destroying it. It then
began to zigzag erratically, shot off some sparks, and seemed to
crash outside of the wall toward the south. There was a fireball
and black smoke, then nothing.

I reasoned this
would get rid of two robots while making the brain think it could
fight us. The robots would be kept out of direct sight and I would
have the floater come back later and again be "destroyed" without
doing any damage except to one small select spot.

I was starting
to make plans again. I had been a bit blocked at first, but was now
combining some seeming cleverness with a plan.

I needed to
build some confidence within the brain – to work on its programmed
psychology. It must be made to believe itself to be invulnerable.
The master brain that programmed it was a megalomaniac, believing
itself to be totally superior to anything else in existence, so
this thing would have the same basic defect in psychology.

I went back a
ways toward Stormlee to use the new transmitter.

"TR, do you
have any suggestions?" I asked as I finished my reports and
explanations.

We were using
our own digital code so, even if the thing could receive the
transmissions it couldn't make sense of them.

"Just don't
fall into the trap of being what you think that brain is," TR
responded. "You may be outsmarting it or it may be letting you
outsmart yourself. It's done that a lot! All of them have, as well
as the ones who built them. Those things are deadly and fast. Never
forget that."

"I've decided
to assume the brain is way ahead of me all the time and it's
letting me build my own trap at my own pace. It means building
several scenarios for every move.

"One, I'm doing
what it wants, so how do I get out of the trap it set? Where does
it lead?

"Two, what I do
isn't what it expected, but it's prepared a defense for any such
eventuality.

"Three, it had
a broad plan that includes such an action and, no better than
fourth, I've done what I planned to do and have actually...."

"You just
thought of something," TR accused. "That was a VERY sudden
stop!"

"I faked the
crashing of the damned floater. Great spinning galaxies! How many
times have these things faked being damaged and used it against us?
How could I be so stupid as to think something like that would
work?

"Have I set
that thing up to where it now HAS to attack these people?"

"I don't think
so. It sees such things as part of any operation. I'll send a fake
floater, all burned out, to the spot where that one seemed to
crash. It'll find a way to check, so will find wreckage. It won't
convince it, but it'll be a small point in your favor."

We ceased
transmitting a moment later. No sense in pushing our luck too
far.

I didn't like
the idea of all these technological fireworks in front of these
people, but it couldn't be helped. I still had to get inside that
house somehow to see what the brain was building.

I went back and
waited not far from the gate. TR sent a few milliseconds' burst of
information, directing me to look at the wall in a certain
spot.

There was a
very small metal box crossing over. I couldn't have seen it without
my telescopic vision. It was going to check the wreckage of the
floater.

Good!

Of course, it
would have detectors that were useful for other things too. That
machine wasn't going to waste time and effort on a single-purpose
mission of this sort.

I wanted to
confine it to the grounds, so would have to get rid of the little
sensor device after awhile, but for the moment it could only
help.

I used the
telescopic sight around all the wall I could see. Nothing further
seemed to be happening. I could detect a large amount of energy
being expended in the cavern, so the brain was building
something.

Then it struck
me. It was something that should have occurred right from the first
when I saw the brain through the fiberoptic lens in the tube.

"TR?" I said
over the new transmitter.

"Yo?"

"Does something
smack you solidly in the circuits about this? Have we seen
something that tells us a lot about the brain? Have we been playing
exactly the game that thing wants us to play?"

"What do you
mean?"

"Did you see
the dimensions of the brain in my report? How long it was? How big
around?"

"It was ...
Yurgh! ... oh, DAMN! It was ten times the size of any opening into
that cavern. That was a mock-up. It was a phony and we fell for it
like mass into a black hole!"

"It's a servo.
Where's the real brain? We didn't detect anything else on this
planet."

"I'll find it.
It's out-clevered itself again. These things only work if they
aren't anticipated, you know. That thing's directly connected to
the brain."

"So it hid
under deep water so its energy emanations would be dispersed and
grounded. It's damned close to Overlook. That servo's building
something important."

"And it's
designed very well to let us outsmart the brain," TR replied dryly
(HOW does it DO that?). "It won't attack the people here. That
wouldn't work.

"I'm going to
send floaters in there to get rid of the robots and servos, then
you can go in to confront the mockup servo. Make it think you
believe it's really the brain."

"I'm thinking
exactly like you are. Let's get this over with. The brain wants us
to think we've won, so we'll let it think that we think that it
thinks that we think...."

"Oh, shut up!"
TR snapped. "I get the point! It's what happens with clever when
you're found out."

I was glad
there weren't many people watching the house as ten or twelve
floaters came in suddenly. The robots began firing at them, but
were themselves soon slag. The floater went inside the house, and
soon TR sent a radio message (On a frequency the brain could
detect. We could be fairly sure it couldn't detect our new
transmitter at all, as the receiver would have to be installed in
the servo long before we arrived. The brain planned on the chance
it would be discovered, but it hadn't planned for it to be the
Maitan Empire who found it) to go in because the brain was now
defenseless and a floater watched it.

On the other
transmitter it warned me to be sure I was fully shielded, because
that servo might have a surprise or two. It had the energy
resources, so it must plan to use them for something.

I didn't think
it would try anything too likely to work. That would be
self-defeating. The whole plan would be ruined if I were seriously
damaged.

The people
watching were mumbling and showing a bit of fear, so I sat and
chuckled. When the fireworks started inside of the house I broke
out in loud laughter.

These people
knew me as Liht, who exposed the golems in the first place, so one
asked me what was so funny – and did I know what was happening?

"Know?" I said
through my laughter, "Sure I know! I started it!

"Thet starker
in there made golems ta try ta make slaves out'n all uh us, so I
done went ta tha island in a boat. Rocky Island, you know. Out
there.

"I done tol'
Gorta thet I seen a starker run out'n northcoast. Didn't tell 'er
where thet starker'd done gone!

"See, the one
up there made golems, too. Bird golems. Thet's how I knew 'bout
golems ut all. I done tol' 'im thet there were a starker et
Overlook House what made golems, too, 'n thet 'e said 'e was more
strong then thet un.

"Started a
fight, I did! Ain't no starker gonna let some other starker get a
top-up on 'em, 'n Ain't no starker smarter'n Liht! Ain't no ten
starkers smarter'n Liht! No sir!"

"You means
those air things is bird golems?" another asked. "Don't look like
no birds!"

"I don't know
'bout thet. All I knows uz thet they's bird golems. Go look et tha
one what got burnt up over there. All wires'n metal. You'll see! A
bird golem, ut were!" I pointed to where the floater had "crashed."
"Watch yer step tho," I added. "Ain't no tellin' what other kinds
there is of 'em. If ya kin make a bird golem, ya kin make a snake
golem er a rodent golem!"

That would
handle the sensor probe the brain sent to check the floater
crash.

I went boldly
in the through gate and to the house, down the hall, into the room
with the staircase, and looked over the rail.

I had seen four
robots in melted lumps on the way and saw two more at the base of
the stairs. There were two floaters waiting by the passage
entrance.

I went along
the passage and into the cavern where another floater was hovering
over the robot that had been with the brain since the stairs caved
in with it. It had been repaired in the meantime, but the floaters
had burned the legs and hands off of it to allow the rest to be
used as a communications set with the brain. Now I had to convince
the brain I thought this servo was really the master. As clever as
the thing considered itself to be, that shouldn't be a problem.

"Well!" I said
brightly. "Now it's just us two, so we can be honest with each
other.

"I'm sure
you've discovered I'm a machine sent by Tlesson and New Home to
find and destroy all the clones of the master brain that was once
in our home system.

"Considering
you were launched while the original machine was still in
existence, you probably didn't know it was destroyed until I
appeared here.

"It should've
become perfectly apparent at that time that it couldn't withstand
assault by both the empire and the people of New Home. The empire
was fighting your maker at the time you were launched, so you're
able to deduce you're nothing more nor less than an attempt of the
original brain to perpetuate itself and its insanity.

"This is the
first time I've seen one of you clones up close. I was under the
impression you were smaller, but then I imagine you've added a few
features."

There was no
reply. I had to get a response in order for the machine to act out
its plan.

"It's no good
remaining silent," I chided. "We're sure you have some very
valuable information for us about where others of your clones have
been sent and about the strategies that've been programmed into
them. We'll simply directly access your circuits and read
everything there.

"You can
understand, I'm sure, that I will wish to gloat a bit about
defeating you. You were definitely not an easy adversary, but you
weren't too difficult, either. You can see I have some much more
advanced programming than you clones. The designers of the original
were, after all, the ancestors of those who designed me, and their
science isn't so restricted as our programmings. We must stay
within a program while they can seek at any point and in any
way.