Flight of the Maita Supercollection 3: Solving Galactic Problems Collector's Edition (195 page)

"If there's
genetic reason for their psy power – and that's hardly in question
here – it's in that material so can also be increased by exercise
of will. In other words the thing can think and can reason. We'll
not likely discover its motivations except by deductive
extrapolation. It's a plant.

"Maita once
found a planet full of intelligent plants and placed them off
limits because they can't understand us and we can't understand
them in most things.

"It remembers,
inherits the memory, reasons and is strongly instinctual in
protecting itself and its perceived territory. We've invaded its
territory and have physically harmed it – in its probable
estimation. We'll be indistinguishable from the Klaft to it.

"Then we have
the present combination. A fungus that grows exponentially, but
which contains that RNA, thus that gall. It can control its own
growth I'm sure. Givzoo and company obviously feel the same. I'm
equally sure it CAN'T control the fact it will mature and spore –
and die. Givzoo and company have probably deduced the same. It
knows full well it can never die a natural death for a number of
reasons.

"What Givzoo's
group may or may not know is the thing can probably grow as much
RNA as it chooses into each spore. I will deduce it can then
selectively program whatever it chooses into that RNA so far as
memory goes.

"Is all this
beginning to suggest what Givzoo fears so totally?"

"That it would
be almost insectile in any practical application," Tab said. "If it
can select what memories go into which spores it can program them
into everything from scientists to warriors. Program only negative
memories of animal societies into a few billion of the things and
it'll have one very formidable army! Even with millions of bits of
memory it'll still be a very small spore!"

"Then Givzoo
put that lab that far out there for it through trickery!" Kit
exclaimed. "He wanted to keep it away from the spaceport!"

"That seems to
be the thrust of it," Tab agreed. "But I don't understand why he
doesn't just kill the thing off!"

"Givzoo and
Zantoo are in the skimmer craft and are heading for A Port fast,"
T6 reported. "Perhaps Kit should be here to greet them. I take it
he's still a Bentan?"

"I'll be right
there with my good new friend, the native I rescued, Klist Mar,"
Kit replied. "Maybe we'll be able to make a plan together."

The two went by
fast floater to T6 where they were waiting when Givzoo and Zantoo
arrived. They came to their own ship, but Kit waved for them to
come aboard T6. T6 would fully shield the influences of the fungus.
It had learned that when it got the information to shield Tab and
Kit. When the two were aboard Kit introduced his native friend,
Klist Mar, and said the ship was a Zeenan P class and that psy
influences couldn't intrude so they were safe there. Givzoo would
remember Klist Mar from buying glassware from him.

"Stop this
immediately! The women will be treated horribly!" Zantoo
protested.

"Not so long as
that thing doesn't know about this," Tab said. "I tried some
experiments after it led me to that room. I found I can push it to
one part of my mind. I can't make it lose control of my body, but I
can hide my thoughts from it easily. It didn't do anything to us in
the bunks but try to make us sleep, but I learned how to get around
that. It knew I was still in the building, but it didn't know
anything else.

"I found the
files, you know. I can't read them, but Clohk Nate can. He spent a
lot of time in there and has reported to the empire about the
thing. The emperor says the thing is about to spore so we have to
be sure none of the spores get off of this planet. The emperor says
you will have tried to do something, but it isn't as easy as it may
appear from the first. It can stop you."

"You spoke to
the emperor?" Givzoo asked.

"Well, mostly
just to Fleet, but the emperor interrupted. He said it was very
important we understand the extreme gravity of the situation," Tab
replied. "Clohk spoke with him more than I did, but I guess I'm
more impressed than a citizen would be. I'm very impressed about
you, too. Emperor Maita said he presented you with awards for your
good works. Clohk says the emperor's very stingy with his awards so
your getting them says a lot about you."

"I don't
deserve any awards for the way I've handled this mess," Givzoo said
bitterly. "It got out of hand almost immediately. It was too far
gone before I knew about it. It has a ... cunning ... and hid its
development until it was strong enough to affect us. It took
control. We're afraid it will spore again, as the emperor also
fears. Is he aware the spores will have the memories of the
parent?"

"Yes," Kit
replied. "That's why we have to end it here. We can't take any
chances of it getting off of this world or even of it spreading
here. You have to get the women away from there so we can burn that
thing out. Fire will stop it."

"It's too
late!" Zantoo cried. "It's already spored once! It was only the
first growth of the thing – before it had learned to control the
growth rate. The spores were released into the woods – into the
stream so it will be growing around the lake.

"We think it
will control its growth. We think maybe there was a partial
programming of the spores so it will learn to hide."

"Can it kill?"
Kit asked suddenly.

"Yes, but
that's not really a danger," Givzoo said. "There are far worse
things it can do. There are things where you would welcome or even
beg for the release of death! It can get into the mind itself. It
drives you insane in a very horrible way, but it doesn't really do
that for any reason I can understand. It's perfectly well aware
we've killed a few of its kind and that it was itself a part of an
experiment, but it accepts that as being the way of the universe.
It holds no animosity, but it does seek power.

"I can't
understand it. It doesn't know pleasure so far as I can tell. It
doesn't have any concept of pain, though it knows animals do. It is
aware when it is in danger or when it has sustained damage.

"Oh, yes. I've
studied the thing very carefully and long! I know what it wants,
but I don't know why! It will punish me for speaking like this to
you. It doesn't know pain, but it knows how to cause it and it
knows how to use it. It can make me tell it exactly what I've said,
you know. You can trick it, but you can't lie to it. Do you see the
difference? The significance?"

"That's why you
could tell me so much earlier," Kit agreed. "You would have to tell
it the words you used to me and the words I used in reply, but
without the stress or without the double entendre. The words
haven't the same meaning like that. It'll learn, though. That's
inevitable.

"We can get rid
of the main thing here. We can then attack the new ones as they
come along."

"You can't
win," Zantoo answered, sadly. "The thing produces millions of
spores. It already has an estimated two hundred thousand spores out
there. If we miss one it all starts over. It's hopeless!"

"Another thing
is that those spores can survive as much as sixty years before
growing," Givzoo added defeatedly. "That is, the spores of the
original organism can. Whether these can last as long or longer is
unknown. It's something we have to learn. I don't see how it will
be possible to keep those spores on this world alone."

"Can the spores
survive in space?" Tab asked for T6, who was giving him
instructions through the internals. "If they can't we decontaminate
on the inside of every ship before it leaves."

"They can't
survive outside, but they can control whether or not the
decontamination is complete," Givzoo replied. "They can use a
post-hypnotic type of suggestion to have spores held in a container
and released elsewhere without memory of the agent. That will occur
to it sooner or later."

Kit went to the
fastcom, called Fleet and said, "This is a full emergency. I have
spoken with Emperor Maita about the situation on Grandish,
coordinates supplied on transmission. I believe the emperor will
wish to quarantine this world immediately. Ship will now give
particulars."

There was a
pause, then the fastcom dinged.

*This is
Emperor Maita. I have spoken long on this matter with citizen Clohk
Nate, Bentan, and have asked that he report what he finds on the
world, Grandish. I hereby decree that no one leaves or enters the
atmosphere of that world until further notice. This is a serious
matter and is code green to Fleet. Inform all that no latitude will
be allowed in this matter. Should any ship attempt to leave
Grandish it will be destroyed. This is the Emperor Maita on open
channel to Fleet and to all now in the area of the world, Grandish.
No ship will be allowed to enter or leave the atmosphere of the
planet, Grandish, until further notice on pain of destruction. I am
sorry. Fleet will dispatch six full battle cruisers to enforce this
quarantine. This is Emperor Maita. No ship is to attempt to leave
or enter the atmosphere of the planet known as Grandish on pain of
destruction. I am sorry.*

"Well, that
could mark our death warrants and I take full responsibility," Kit
said. "I feel it had to be done. The Fleet ships are shielded
against psy powers so it won't really matter if that thing becomes
planetary in size. It'll never get off of this world."

"I wasn't aware
that psy forces could be shielded," Zantoo said. "Who developed
that? The Acnians?"

"Emperor Maita faced such a power three hundred years ago
(
Tristar)
and developed the shields himself," Kit replied. "I'm sure
you've heard the story of Empire Center. EC was inhabited by a psy
machine that could influence others six plazsis away."

"But that's a
legend!" Zantoo cried. "This is real!"

"Then all you
have to do is to reach that thing right now. From inside of this
ship!" Kit said. "The emperor had the shield placed when I came
back from your laboratory and reported what I found. You can be
sure it'll work."

Both Zantoo and
Givzoo concentrated, but couldn't feel any influence at all.

"Then there is
some hope," Givzoo said. "If my staff can be moved out of the
influence of the fungus we can possibly discover something to
control it. I have some ideas, but I have to be careful about
thinking on a more concentrated level. I doubt we could eliminate
it altogether, though. That's asking an awful lot."

"We simply have
no choice," Kit said dryly. "Unless we eliminate it totally no one
will ever leave this world again. That's set in TitChroPlat! Count
on it!

"Now we have to
come up with some kind of plan to attack the thing."

"As a scientist
I have to question if we have a right to commit a total genocide of
those beings," Givzoo argued. "What we are discussing here is a
sentient intelligent being, like it or not."

"So were the Immins," Kit replied. "When it came down to
the Immins or everyone else the case was clear. Maita didn't pause.
You might also consider that this is an artificial lifeform so
we're simply stopping it before it gets started. Remember those
machines from Tlesson (
Zulians and Robots
)? Those military robots? They were
intelligent artificial lifeforms, but Maita and DeSixtee certainly
put a quick end to that. It took more than a century, but what must
be done must be done!"

"Then let's get
on with it!" Tab said. "I do have a couple of questions the emperor
sort of asked to get answers for.

"Why did you
bring it out here? Why not keep it on the world where it came from
or maybe take it to some planet that's not occupied?"

"Because it
forced us to take it off of Tesfort where we found it," Zantoo
replied. "Our first attempt was to take it to Crowlert, an
unoccupied world – at least occupied by sentient beings – but it
insisted we take it to a world with intelligent natives. We could
see the possibilities forming so made a pact to destroy our ship,
ourselves and the fungus, but it stopped us. Givzoo was able to
convince it that a restricted world would be best and safest and an
isolated area would be the only way we could succeed in protecting
it from discovery. We had hoped to attract the attention of the
empire, but that has come too late. We can hope the empire can keep
it and us quarantined here for all time! That is our only
hope!"

Chat With a
Fungus

Tab considered
for awhile, then suggested he go with Givzoo and Zantoo back to the
labs where he could try to reason with the fungus.

"It doesn't
think in the same patterns as we do," Zantoo protested. "Don't
think that we haven't repeatedly tried. It will pay no attention
whatever to many things we would consider in a very harsh way if
those things were done to us, then will take the greatest measures
against us for what has no meaning whatever to us."

"We aren't sure
it has any real intelligence. Not as we know it," Givzoo continued.
"We have no way to test such things, of course. The basic criteria
is not the same for a vegetable being as it is for an animal one.
Perhaps the emperor – or someone else in the empire – has
experience with plant intelligences."

"He does. He
once discovered a planet that was dominated by a plant
intelligence," Kit said. "It's off limits. Even the best computers
couldn't be sure about what would have importance to them. There
was also one huge difference there in that those intelligent
vegetables had mobility. These are rooted to one spot, aren't
they?"

"Yes," Givzoo
replied. "That doesn't help a whole hell of a lot when it can
program its spores with the essence of itself. Literally billions
of them."