Flight of the Maita Supercollection 3: Solving Galactic Problems Collector's Edition (31 page)

"Oh, then you
won't play Strategy for money?" Cloffit asked, showing a tendency
to want to pout.

[ Stars and
Comets is a game of mathematical skill. It isn't gambling. I admit
I am very good at it and welcome the chance to play for the very
highest stakes. In a case like that the money is incentive to
enjoy. It's definitely NOT a matter of chance! The game is one of
skill and strategy. ]

"Are you a good
loser?" Cloffit asked innocently.

[ Certainly! If
someone is more skilled than I at the game I can learn from them.
To have negative emotional responses to a teacher is
unconscionable. It's always my greatest hope that my adversary in
the game is better than I so I can become better, myself. One
learns very little when one wins too regularly. There is no real
incentive to improve. ]

"Ha-ha!"
Marmum said lightly, and with a slight sneer. "You'll
love
Cloffit then! She's easily the
best player in the vacation worlds!"

"Tec is going
to do the teaching, I assure you," Z replied. "I came to play
poker. I may not be nearly as good at cards as Tec is at board
games, but it'll make enough to offset any losses of my own!"

[ These are
friendly games. I think we should establish limits before we begin.
That will ensure that they remain friendly. We must ascertain that
any sums lost are not more than the participants can afford to
lose. I do not wish to cause any undue stress to anyone because of
simple entertainment. ]

"Oh, Tec!" Z
cried. "You know perfectly well we have unlimited funds. I'm sure
these people wouldn't bet more than they can afford, either!"

[ It is for the
majority to decide. I vote we establish limits both in bets and in
time. You know how you are, With. You played for three whole days
and nights on Perfect Three! It wasn't the only time. ]

"Well, let's
set a time limit at dawnlight," Marmum agreed. "You and Cloffit set
your limit for that game you're playing. I don't pretend to
understand it. You can play for points or the game or whatever. My
funds are substantial. I will guarantee any losses by Cloffit –
though it will be the other end up! No limits on our little
game?"

They all agreed
to that. Thing went to the board and slid into the seat, taking the
"caller" from its floater. Cloffit sat at the other side of the
board and pulled her play board out. The holovid screen above the
table lit to show the opening sequence. Thing drew out its own play
board and studied the setup as the floater moved to hover over the
set. Z felt several quick pulses on the internal recorder and
assumed thing wanted to test. It worked fine.

As the card
players were being shown to their seats, Cloffit said, "Ten
thousand point Strategy at a limit of ... what?"

[ Oh, I don't
care. One thousand per point? ]

She could
barely suppress her glee as she agreed.

"With, you sit
here," Marmum said. "I'll sit across (one short tingle), and Narmel
(Long tingle) can sit here. Tenn (Short long) can sit there, and
Gor (Long short) will take the other. Keal will serve refreshments
before you go?"

Keal nodded and
went for a tray.

Thing had given
Z the code for each as Marmum seated them, so the code would work
well enough. Thing would give the empathic read as soon as
something started.

A quick "bip!"
would mean the person was looking at a good hand while "Bip! Bip!"
meant a bad hand. There were other signals.

On the first
three hands Z broke about even. The signals were interpreted. They
deliberately held him to a close thing. The next hand, he won,
though Tenn and Narmel both had better hands. He then got fair
cards, bet heavily and lost, then again and won. Each hand the
stakes got higher and higher.

This was an
easy one to figure. Play it back and forth for awhile, slowly
increasing the stakes. Play some very good hands up and play some
close ones to get a gambler's excitement at a high point, then go
for the big bundle. The way the cards were suddenly going it was
obvious he was being dealt exactly the hands they wanted him to
have. Thing sent the long-short-long bip that meant the floater had
spotted them changing the deck.

Cloffit was
making little exclamations lately that got louder and more
disbelieving. She was obviously getting more and more nervous. When
Z glanced over at them at one time she cried, "Brilliant!
Absolutely brilliant!" She had less than ten chips while Thing had
several of hundred, at least.

The time limit
was coming up on Thing's game and the betting at the card table was
getting very intense. Z was down a hundred thousand credits and was
then being encouraged to try to get it all back. He said he had to
discuss something with Tec. He went with Thing and the floater onto
the little patio.

"They're set up
for the big one. I'll tell them you said I could bet anything I
wanted. I can't figure what they plan to do," Z said. "I HAVE to be
a step ahead of them!"

[ Take the card
on the floater tray. It is controlled by the floater. I think I
know pretty much what they intend to try. They've practiced it a
lot so far, and it has worked every time. They give you a really
great hand, except for one card. This one will become that card and
they'll keep coming back for you to call because each time you stay
in they can raise the bet. If you wonder what the signal was when
you first took your seat, Cloffit has a concealed computer calling
her plays. She can't believe I'm beating the machine, but when she
tried it on her own I beat her even worse. I'm arming the floater.
It could get nasty in there when they realize we've beaten them for
so much. ]

They went back
inside, where Z put an unlimited chip voucher on the table. "It's
just one night with a time limit, so I don't have any limit on me.
This'll give me a chance to get even!

"Let's see,
it's Narmel's deal, isn't it? We have to hurry. I could see the
dawnlight starting!"

"Let's make
this an unlimited hand," Tenn agreed. "I'll have to get home. We
can let this be the last one."

They all
agreed. Narmel announced, "I'll give With here a chance to get even
quick! I'll open for ... five hundred thousand?"

Z gulped
audibly, but said, "I'm in!"

They all put
their chits in the pile and got the deal. Z had a straight royal
suite run in stars – except for a deuce of moons. They each added a
hundred thousand to the pile except Gar Waht Be, who shook his head
and dropped out. He went to stand behind Cloffit to watch the end
of the game there and was heard to gasp all the way to the table.
Everyone looked at him and Z quickly substituted the card from
Thing. He discarded the deuce and drew a six of asteroids. Narmel
grinned and said he had this one beat, but good! He doubled the
pot.

Tenn dropped
out, Marmum stayed in and drew two. Z stayed and raised a million.
He was almost jumping for joy as Narmel grinned and saw the raise –
and raised another million! Marmum dropped out and looked like he
was going to cry when he looked at the pile.

Z saw the
raise, hesitated, then raised ten thousand, discarded the six, and
pretended to take another card. His eyes popped open and he laid
back in his chair gasping. Narmel matched the pot and called.

"Straight royal
suite – in stars!" Z screamed. "The unbeatable hand! I got the
unbeatable hand! I won! I won! I won! I got a royal straight suite
in stars! I won!"

Narmel grabbed
his hand and stared at the cards as Thing came over to sit almost
on the table to see for itself. It let the floater take the ten of
stars from the discard pile to substitute the ten of planets.

"But I
discarded the ten!" Gar cried. "How could you get a straight royal
suite in stars?"

Narmel grabbed
at the discard pile and gave Z a very hard look as he turned over
all the cards on the table. Z had the only ten of stars on the
table.

"What are you
doing?!" Z yelled. "The card's right here! You dealt it, yourself!
It was the first card I got! There's no way Gar discarded any ten
of stars this hand! No way! I had it from the first! The last card
I drew was the nova of stars! That's why I kept playing out the
hand. I could win from either end unless Narmel had a royal
straight suite in something else. Stars takes ties!"

He threw his
hand on the edge of the floater, which quickly substituted the real
ten for the phony. Narmel grabbed the cards, but the real one was
back. He studied each card carefully.

"I want to know
what's going on here!" Z snapped indignantly. "Something smells
very rotten! You dealt them, yourself! How can you doubt I have the
hand? It's right in front of you all the time. You have it in your
own hand right now. What's going on here?"

[ It would
appear that you were dealt the wrong hand. I can't understand
Narmel's attitude unless he knew exactly that he dealt you
something else – in which case you have been playing with a crook,
and not a very good one. He screwed up his own deal! ]

"Now,
now!" Marmum said, sweating profusely. "Let's not make a lot of
silly accusations! Narmel thought he had a stronger hand than he
did. He lost a lot of money.
It happens
, doesn't it, Narmel? Be a good sport. You can't win all
the time!"

"I don't know
how you did that, but I'll get even!" Narmel spat and walked
out.

[ Great
exploding galaxies! That was as much as an admittance he was
cheating! Marmum, I promise you absolutely that With would never
institute cheating under any circumstances. If a game is not fair,
I give you my personal guarantee it wasn't With who made it that
way! You can see from the fact I took all but twenty seven points
in the Strategy game I can earn all the money we could ever want.
There would be no reason for With to cheat. Cloffit is a very good
player, but she plays by the same logic as a machine. She could do
very well playing against a machine. She would always play to even
points or very close, but I play to position, so I am always two to
three moves ahead of her. She should practice with a living
instructor. That's what happens when you let a machine teach you.
You play the same way the machine does. It is an easy logical
sequence to counter. ]

"I play like a
machine?" Cloffit asked. "How can you say that? I don't think so at
all!"

[ Evidently,
you have been using a machine to practice. You have let the logic
of the machine dominate your play for so long you now play the way
a machine would. I thought you saw that at one point, because you
played secondary strategic positioning for a few moves. I was
beginning to worry, because that would have brought you up very
fast after another thirty or forty moves, but your habit took you
right back to the strategy the machine plays. Every move you made
except those few was the exact move a machine would have made. A
machine plays to a fixed formula, so can be defeated by playing to
the same formula and substituting the variables. ]

"I could have
won if I'd kept playing secondary?" she asked.

Marmum was
getting more and more agitated as she talked about Strategy when he
had just lost literally millions at cards.

[ You would
have at least given me a hard fight for the money. What do we do
about Narmel's cheating at the cards, With? Do you think the loss
of the money will teach him his lesson or should we now expose him
to others? You know how mammals think. Has he learned that one
little slip and all his cheating will only cost him what he
wouldn't have bet if he were honest? ]

"Oh, he'll
never learn anything," Z answered. "It seems most dishonest people
are born to be dishonest. They live their entire lives dishonestly
and can't change the pattern anymore than the machine thing in your
games can change. I'll give all the winnings to Hospital. We'll let
Marmum handle the rest of it. I'm sure he'll arrange that others
aren't taken in by the cheating.

"Let's deposit
this voucher and head back to Port City.

"I'm sorry this
happened at your home, Marmum. I know you're embarrassed that you
were used, but I know it's not your fault. You have no duty to
screen everyone who wants a friendly game of cards in your house!
Believe me, we don't blame you for anything anyone else did."

[ That's true.
We blame only Narmel for those things only Narmel did. I will
donate what I have won with the game to the school system here. I
hear it is the best in the empire for a normal school. I know how
expensive it must be to offer such excellence to everyone. Perhaps
we will someday meet again. ]

They made their
exits gracefully and went on Thing's floater back into town. Z
wasn't about to trust Marmum's private car and driver.

[ Do you have
any idea how damned sanctimonious you can sound? ] Thing asked, on
the way back.

"What do you
mean?"

[ Poor
dishonest Narmel and I'll give the money to charity and no one
blames you because you're the crook who set this whole scheme up!
That's what I mean! You can be as disgusting as they are! ]

"Really?
And
I’ll
give
mine
to the poor underfunded
schools
isn't as sanctimonious?" Z
replied sarcastically. "Oh, we
must
do this a
gain
!"

They teased
each other all the way, put the monies exactly where they told
Marmum they would ("Might as well rub a little salt in the
wound."), and went back to the shuttle to Port City. They had a
good breakfast aboard, then headed to the hotel. The room was as
they left it this time. They slept awhile, had a late lunch, then
went for a stroll around the port to see the sights. They used the
fastcom at the facility to talk with Maita, who reported Tab and TR
were in a cave on some primitive planet and there was no
communication. T6 was coming along well – if it could be found. It
had taken off in TTH14 and disappeared. Maita wasn't the slightest
bit worried, so they wouldn't worry either. TTH14 was very tricky
and T6 knew how to locate things even far from fastcom relay range.
T6 would return to Sentah as soon as it found its way back.