Flight of the Maita Supercollection 3: Solving Galactic Problems Collector's Edition (24 page)

"Why?" TR
asked.

"Because I'm
going back there tomorrow and I want it to be damned glad it didn't
do anything to me today. If it thinks I'm expected to carry on a
set form of conversation when I signal it'll think twice before it
does anything to leave me in a position where I COULDN'T
answer.

"It now must
think we can have a message to the mainland in an hour. It didn't
count on that.

"I wonder what
would've happened if I'd let that robot seduce me? Could it have
performed?"

"YOU can," TR
replied. "I very much doubt the brain has sophistication enough to
build a robot capable of faking it very well. It would probably
have to get rid of you if you actually did anything."

"If it tries
any such thing again I'll give it a good physical reaction. Maybe
it'll be enough to warn it away. Too bad these people have no idea
of what rape is. It would be a good way to 'discover' this was one
of the golems we were warned about in the signals from the
mainland."

"Just be
careful. I saw what you had in mind back there, but you gave me a
scare.

"Maybe you gave
that thing a worse one! I think maybe you'll meet Noobish's poppa
when you return.

"I wonder what
they'll do about supplying a ship?"

"Keep an eye on
'em. That thing might hijack one."

I went back to
the north end of the island, beached, signaled, was signaled back
to, then went through the same ritual I had the night before. In
the morning I took the boat back to the beach to find Noobish and
another, older male robot waiting for me. I asked where the ship
was.

"They dropped
me off and transported some sick people on to the mainland," "Mr.
Hoosh" replied, after introducing himself as Noobish's father.
"They'll come back later. It'll give me time to explore
awhile."

"Uh, Nike
(That's the name I gave her yesterday)," Noobish said. "Did you
tell your tribe about me?"

"Well, I said
I'd met a party of miners here. I didn't say you was from Stormlee
or nothing, though. If they's think you're regular island hoppers,
it's not my fault.

"I don't think
you'll try to bring your city ways out here. You do an they'll run
you off fast. We all believe in live an let live. You don't bother
us none an we won't bother you, neither. Don't often come out here
nohow 'cept a coupla times a year for the eggs 'n to see what's
changed.

"Lotta
rockslides sometimes, an they was some tremors coupla days ago. You
feel 'em?"

"Yes, a bit,"
Mr. Hoosh replied. "They caused a few slides inside the caves. They
could be dangerous."

"I was gonna
tell the girl here the mining stuff may be safer out in the weather
than it'll likely be in there if'n the tremors start uhgin.

"Might not.
Don't often come too close together.

"Do sometimes,
though."

"Oh, we'll be
very careful, Nike," Noobish promised. "Daddy knows all about caves
and that stuff!"

"Humff! Then
you'd think he'd look for gold over to the valley side over there!
(Where the brain was right now mining gold and lead). They's some
gold an some lead an a little silver, too! Your poppa could make
you a SIGNAL MIRROR with some 'a the silver, maybe!"

I said that
very pointedly.

"Oh! I told
daddy about that and he yelled at Captain Harg for not telling
me!"

"The captain
had strict orders to drill everyone on board in all safety
procedures," Mr. Hoosh said. "He passed the order on or something,
but I insisted that is no excuse. It is always the responsibility
of the captain to see that things are done at all times. If a thing
is not done aboard a ship it is the fault and the responsibility of
the captain and I WILL NOT hear any excuses whatever!

"I WILL NOT!
There ARE no excuses for not doing a duty! There ARE NO EXCUSES! I
WILL NOT hear them!"

"That is true!"
Noobish took it up. "NO ONE is exempt from the responsibilities of
position! A captain who will not carry out his orders is NOT to be
tolerated!"

They both
seemed to catch themselves at the same moment. I had prodded the
brain in a military area and it was responding from its
insanity.

"Er, that is,
uh, I get very upset when my lovely daughter is placed in any
danger, no matter how slight," Mr. Hoosh explained apologetically.
"Please forgive me if I appear to overemphasize such things. I'm
afraid Noobie has sort of let me teach her too well about such
things. She becomes upset because she knows I'm upset."

"Well," I
answered conversationally, "I think that if you done hired this
Captain Harg to do a job he oughtta do that job, or he oughtta be
told to take a swim to another ship! Like you said, the captain's
the one what's 'sponsible for everone on the ship.

"I can have a
message waiting that he's to be replaced when he makes port. I can
have the message there an hour after dark an he can't make mainland
ports for two days'r more!"

"Oh, uh, no!"
Mr. Hoosh cried. "I think I have an, er, a, uh, understanding with
Captain Harg. There won't be anymore problems, we can be sure!"

I was getting
tired of this standing on the beach wasting time and stalling.
"Well! Let's see what kind of mining stuff you got there! I's once
on a mine. Cinnabar. Over to Tern Roost Island. Maybe I can show
you where to find gold, but there ain't that much 'a it here, I
don't think.

"Might be a lot
down deep. Rose quartz says they's some down farther."

I wondered how
they planned to get out of that! It wouldn't be thinkable they
would refuse to show me the equipment, either here OR on the
continent.

Mr. Hoosh
turned and waved me toward the cavern. I had to be ready for some
trick, so I kept all my sensors on full.

It was lucky I
did, because I was suddenly injected with an anesthetic from
behind. I feigned falling under the influence of the stuff, having
to modify all my sensor outputs to match. I was then taken aboard
the brain's ship, given a hypnotic, told I had seen some rather
decrepit and poor mining equipment, asked a lot of questions about
various aspects of island life and customs, implanted with a desire
to go home and to be away from the cavern I was suddenly sure was
going to fall in at any moment, and was taken back to the mouth of
the cavern and sat on a rock. I was then injected with a
counteractant to the other drugs.

I shook my head
and looked around at Noobish.

"Are you all
right now?" she asked, concern dripping from her voice. "Really!
The cave is safe! You need have no fear for us!

"I thought you
were going to have a heart attack! You actually fainted!"

"Old ticker
never done nothin' like that afore!" I mumbled, looking confused.
"I got wine on my boat. It'll steady me down.

"I ain't never
been scared in no cave afore. It must'a been the ticker made me
think they was somethin' wrong. Must'a been that. I just need a
little wine. I'll be all right.

"Don't hover,
girl! I ain't helpless!"

They helped me
down to the boat, where I took a long draw of the wine, then sat in
the boat a moment.

"I'm all right
now," I said after a few minutes. "Ain't even shaky! That's a
strange one! Usual I'm shaky for a hour'r more if I take a turn.
Never had nothin' like that 'un afore! Funny taste in my mouth.

"Mustn't'a been
the ticker at all. Bad fish fer tha dawnmeal. Could'a been that.
Fish can do funny things. That's what it was. I'm sure! Bad fish!
I'll dump what's left. Got to be more careful at my age!"

I said my
goodbyes and headed out. There was a spot under an overhang where
the watcher servos couldn't see me, so I stopped and told TR about
the whole thing and told it what my sensors showed while I was
aboard the ship.

I also told it
what I planned to do now.

The servos
above would automatically go to the far side of the crag to await
my coming out there, though one would stay on this side, just in
case.

I arranged for
the floater to take the boat on down the shore to lead the servos
away while I slipped into the water to proceed along the bottom
back toward the beach. The boat would begin its return trip now,
appearing to be drifting.

I waited until
I saw Noobish and Mr. Hoosh head for the beach, then slipped into
the cavern along with the returning empty cart. The last of the
plutonium except for a small amount in a nuclear warhead aboard the
ship was gone. TR had instructions about that.

I went to the
closest point to the ship and strolled out in plain view to stare
at it. I walked toward it and was beside the hatch when all hell
broke loose. Servos were encircling me as Noobish ran into the
cavern and toward me.

"I got real
worried about this cave falling on your heads!" I cried. "What is
all this?! What is this thing?! Where is all the stuff you showed
me afore?!"

Somebody Done Tricked
Somebody

"How did you
get back here? How did you get inside?" Noobish yelled.

"What's going
on here?" I countered. "This ain't what I saw afore! You done
tricked me!

"Why? What's
going on?"

"We saw you get
in your boat and leave," Noobish said. "How did you get back?"

"I got under
the cliff and got scared. It were unnatural. I jumped out'n my
boat. I swam back and came in with the cart.

"Those are
go-gotems! Those are the things they said for us to watch for!
They're all wire and metal, but they don't look like no Killit to
me.

"I don't know
what's goin' on!"

"I will try to
explain," Noobish said soothingly. "You are getting far too excited
for one with your heart condition.

"This is only a
large metal shed to keep the mining stuff in. The golems were given
to father by a starker over on Rocky Peak Island, which is near
Stormlee. That was the starker who helped to throw the bad one
out.

"The golems
have no mind and only do what we tell them to do. There is no
danger."

I was near the
hatch to the brain's ship, so managed to make the heartbeat
erratic, then to faint. I wanted to be taken inside of the ship
again. The brain would have to think the hypnotic conditioning
against the cave must have suddenly recurred under the overhang of
the cliff and I had panicked. Now it was in a very touchy
position.

It had
offloaded the plutonium and would have to get it back aboard and
would need time to get out. It would now become known it was still
here on Killit, and it could be certain the Tlesson army would come
back – and they wouldn't give up so easily next time. The trick
wouldn't work twice.

I wished there
was a way I could communicate with the brain, but that would have
to wait until TR finished its own projects.

I was carried
into the ship and placed in a small room by the hatch on a hastily
made bunk. I was glad Noobish was a robot. I'm a bit heavy myself,
but she wouldn't expect to be asked how she got me inside.

I waited a
moment, then "came to" again.

"Please don't
excite yourself again," Noobish pleaded. "This can all be
explained. You will see you are becoming upset over nothing at
all."

"If it ain't
nothin' at all, then you wouldn't'a tried to trick me! We don't
have no truck with none 'a your starkers or no magic men out here.
There ain't no place for your go ... golems.

"There's
somethin' wrong here! You can't keep me here! I don't flash-flash
tonight and you'll have a war party on your hands come mornin'! You
turn your golems against 'em and ain't no way you get away with it!
There ain't no way you can ever stop 'em messaging to the
mainland!"

"Please!" she
cried. "Listen to me! No one is holding you. You can walk out of
here anytime you want. No one is going to try to stop you. We are
only trying to mine some of the gold here and we have the help of a
starker who helped the people at Stormlee!"

"You had to be
here already when that happened in Stormlee! You ain't had no time
to get here! That's another one 'a your tricks! You ain't foolin'
me!"

"I didn't say
we came here AFTER the trouble in Stormlee! All this was many days
ago. Almost a quarteryear. I said it was the same starker who gave
us the golems that helped the people of Stormlee. No one is trying
to trick you."

Mr. Hoosh came
in and acted very concerned about my condition. He took up the
conversation exactly where Noobish had left off and became
disconcerted when I asked how he knew what Noobish had been saying.
He couldn't say he overheard, because he had come up a ramp and
inside in full view of both myself and Noobish.

I was enjoying
it very much.

Suddenly both
Noobish and Mr. Hoosh stiffened for a moment and Noobish headed out
at a run.

"What
happent!?" I cried. "You both looked so funny! What done happent to
her?"

"Didn't you,
uh, that is, there was an, uh, we heard an alarm outside. Didn't
you hear it?"

"I sort of
heard a buzz. That it?"

"Uh, yes! It
means a golem has found some gold out there. Noobish ran out to see
how much and whether it's any good for mining."

"Humff! City
women! She told me she didn't care nothin' 'bout no gold! Can't eat
gold! Ain't no good for nothin' 'cept rings! Ain't told the truth
'bout nothin' yet! Not once! Can't believe a word she says!"

He put on a
confidential air. "I'm really afraid she's what you'd call a
spoiled child. Her mother died when she was very small and I gave
her far too much. She hasn't a very good sense of values and has
always exaggerated.

"She doesn't
really lie, but she does, let's say, not tell the whole truth.

"I'll try to
tell you what has happened here. She should have told you from the
first, but she was afraid you'd interfere if you knew about the
golems.