Flight of the Maita Supercollection 3: Solving Galactic Problems Collector's Edition (53 page)

He then thought
it was because he wouldn't have a true and lasting love in his life
for a woman, but he truly and deeply loved the Maitan girl. The
emptiness was there for the entire four years she had been with
him. (He didn't know he was the father of her son, now a father
himself. He wouldn't be ready for that, even after three hundred
years.)

He had grown
some more here on Frim. Moodad had shown him how the emptiness was
filled if ever it was. He had to accept it wouldn't be filled for
him because it was the reaching for, not the attaining of, a great
dream. Moodad had reached his dream and was filled. Z's dream
wasn't within the grasp of possibility to hold. Moodad's dream was
defined and known, he set out to fulfill that dream, did so, and
was now truly happy. Z's dream was unreachable for the very reason
it was not defined. He didn't know what it was!

He didn't envy
Moodad. He was happy for him because the dream and its end were
there and because Moodad had accomplished it all, but now Z felt
there was no reason for Moodad to go on. It was done. Z would
continue to go on because he had a responsibility to Maita and
Thing, therefore, his dream must always be beyond his grasp. Life
would be intolerable, otherwise. He was very seldom philosophical.
He was the type who acted now and thought later, but, as stated
earlier, he had finally grown up.

He had known
only one time when he felt he may have reached his goal and when he
may be fulfilled. That was when the Pweetoos were destroyed and
Maita and that tyranny's people were freed. He was accepted by a
select group and was a part of that group. It was the first time in
his life he felt he had any personal worth. It was the first time
in his life he opened himself to emotional sharing. It was the
first time he ever had any reason to believe the fact Steven Parker
Zutec existed was important to anything. Looking back, Z could see
how easy it might have been to stop then and there. He would now be
much like Moodad. Fulfilled and happy.

No, he would
have been dead for two centuries or more, because that was
stagnation in its worst form. There simply would have been no
reason to continue. The sense of adventure would be gone, the love
for others would have become fixed. He wouldn't have ever been able
to enjoy the games they played. Without the deep respect and caring
for one another the jibes and insults would hurt and cause
retaliation. The fun would have died.

Life was that
more than any of the other things now. It was great fun!

With an entire
galaxy to explore, life couldn't become a bore. To play with Thing
like small children, running around in Maita, hiding to spring out
at one another, was an important part of the fun. Maita would
complain about it, but would instigate, at the same time. Maita
liked playing children's games as much as anyone else.

Z walked Lahlee
up onto Maita and the ramp slid in. The door closed, they went into
room two, which was very comfortable, then to the pilot's dome.
Maita would stop beyond EC to show her the magnificence of those
three stars set at the points of a perfect triangle, each its own
color with the single planet at the center of the figure.

Those people,
never met and never known except through that one work, had dreamed
a huge dream. They had established this figure in space as a beacon
to others, saying, "We are here! Come to us!"

Z looked at
Lahlee, strolling around the dome, and shook his head. She had
proved to be a fascinating person. She had learned everything about
the sea and about ships and was living a sort of dream of her own,
though the automation took much of it away. She had notices out
among the traders she was seeking employment as a captain or deck
hand on a more primitive world without all the automation. Tlorg
would accept her, but as a demon. They weren't yet ready to meet
otherworlders except as fantasy creatures.

She would be
happy there and would play the role of demon very well. They still
had a few pirates on Tlorg, along with kings and sorcerers. They
were at that stage of development. Z halfway decided to try to talk
Maita into setting something up, though he knew it would never
happen. Maita wouldn't take that kind of chance, but the argument
may stimulate it to find what she wanted.

Z looked around
the dome and felt warm and at home there. He couldn't begin to
think of all the adventures Maita and the dome were a part of. All
of those beings who had shared that dome at one time or another
seemed, for a moment, to be there, smiling and sharing stories of
the crazy things that had happened and the peoples he'd met.

Maita flashed
out of TTH drive at the best spot for Lahlee to view the EC system.
The dome cleared (It must be opaqued in most TTH planes. The normal
mind couldn't comprehend the extra angles and the viewer would
quickly go mad) to show the sight. Lahlee gasped. Z was awed every
time he saw it, too.

Maita once
brought the Parf, Tous, and several of his friends here and had
stayed in exact synchronization with the spinning of the system for
more than eighty hours. The painting Tous made was hanging in the
Emperor's Art Gallery on EC and the one painted by Bette was
hanging in Z's bedroom.

Any painting by
a Parf is unmatchable, and those two paintings were superb, even
for that standard. Somehow, there was more in those paintings than
there was in the actual viewing. Maita said it was because the
artists paints it as he sees it and what makes an artist is seeing
things differently.

There were
paintings by several Parf, several Zulians, and several Woost in
the Emperor's Art Gallery. It was said to have a painting there
was, beyond question, the highest honor any artist could
attain.

That was part
of the equation. There must be excellence in the dream. It must be
vast and awesome, but must have excellence, or it will fail.

Maita took them
into its hangar on EC and they disembarked. Lahlee asked if she
would meet the emperor directly, but Z had to disappoint her by
saying no one could meet the emperor directly and know who he was.
That was an old rule that wouldn't be broken for any reason. It
served well to hide the fact Maita was, in fact, the spaceship.

"Well,
philosophy time is over," Z mumbled to himself. "I'll probably keep
changing and growing – at least, I hope so – and will probably
always have that empty space somewhere deep in the soul I know I
don't have.

"All in all,
it's a pretty good life I lead! My decisions have real meaning at
times.

"I wonder, what
should I have Maita serve for dinner?"

Well, not
always.

Flight of the
Maita

Book 21

After the Old Gods

© 1987 by C. D.
Moulton

Kroon (Book
two) is experiencing a plague that could destroy the entire
population – and they can’t contact the empire.

This was
not meant as a part of the
Flight of the Maita
series, but was added by request of several
readers.

Critic
comment:

I was one
who asked Moulton to place this into the
Flight of the Maita
series. It is a very realistic
tale of an AIDS-like plague, and the solution is not beyond belief.
It is a good character study.

–
KL
Rating *****

Superb!!! *****
PA

Contents

Foreword

Questions

Bad News

First Meeting

Starting the Plan

Intense Research

The Horror Grows

Constitutional
Protections

Stabbing at Shadows

Other Avenues

Cling to Hope

Announcement

Solutions

After the Old
Gods

Foreword

After the Old Gods
was an idea that occurred to me after rereading an old
story of mine that was an insensitive treatment of the AIDS
question. That "old" story was written three years ago. I called
it
Well....
and in
it I treated the subject in a comedic manner.

I don't regret
the story in its own place, a compendium of things including
comedy/horror.

I have since
studied this virus and learned there is nothing whatever humorous
about it. When certain facets of the problem are extrapolated in a
"Worst possible case" scenario it's enough to scare pure hell out
of me. When taken in a lesser case scenario – it STILL scares hell
out of me – and I'm personally not in any of the socalled "High
risk groups."

The thing that
seems to me to be glossed over far too often is the fact that
viruses mutate.

There's another
point or two that went into this story. One is there are any number
of things that could be tried, but probably won't.

Another point
is something that happened a few years ago in the area where I make
my home.

Young
people were dying from an incurable cranial amoebic infection that
was contracted while swimming in certain stillwater ponds and
lakes. The symptoms were, so far as I could ascertain, identical
with what is called "Brain fever" in parts of Malaysia. Brain fever
is also contracted by swimming in warm stillwater ponds. I have
seen the affliction cured with some regularity there by having the
victim drink a decoction made from the stems, leaves and flowers of
an orchid,
Dendrobium crumenatum
.

Upon reading
about the disease I immediately contacted researchers at a nearby
university who asked, before anything else, what my degree was
in.

Not in a
related field. They ignored me completely. I am not "qualified" to
suggest a possible cure. I am ignored as a "Nutcase" to this day by
those people.

How many people
have died of amoebic brain infection since that time?

I don't pretend
to claim the treatment would work or that it is even the same
disease. I merely believe that, as some similar affliction IS cured
by the method, someone should at least ask if it is POSSIBLE the
orchid could offer relief – and TRY IT! There’s NOTHING to
lose!

There is
another odd thing that suggested part of the solution in this
story. It happened to two friends of mine who had severe head colds
and were in a certain place at a certain time. Their colds were
gone in a couple of hours.

I can't say
anymore here or I will give away too much of the story but, suffice
it to suggest the REASON for the solution in the story is the
explanation those two received for the curing of the cold.

Head colds are
caused by rhinoviruses of several types. I know better than to
suggest conducting research with this method on AIDS and other
viruses. I will be totally ignored because I am not "qualified" to
make those kinds of suggestions.

I AM a nutcase
in certain things. I work at it. There is no better way to get
privacy from certain types of people than if they find me
opinionated. My only hope is that someone will ask, "COULD
something like that work?"

The
Kroon, the race who is in the grip of this medical crisis, were
introduced in book two of the
Flight of the Maita
series,
Settling In
, and appear in other of the books. I will undoubtably use
them again.

I tend to like
some of my characters and to dislike others. I find I have mixed
reactions to the Kroon. Perhaps they are too much like the human
race in certain ways. Some of them are “good” and some aren't. Most
fall somewhere between.

However:
If you like the modern style of writing with a lot of unnecessary
vulgarity, with muddled morality, with obscurity or with badly
flawed "Heroes" designed to make the reader feel he isn't so
terribly bad after all. If you don't like bigger-than-life heroes
such as in
Star
Wars
, then put
this book down right now! You're going to hate it!

If you long for
a good old-fashioned straight-adventure story with clearly defined
rules of action and morality, read on!

C. D.
Moulton

Hudson, Florida
– 4/15/88

After the Old
Gods

Questions

Are the gods
really dead? Are the Ithians right?

It's a thing
which will require study. I'll have to read all I can and will have
to run the television show that brought this mess to a head to see
what really transpired. As is usual in this type of thing there are
far too many wild stories and far too many versions of what really
happened. There are, as always, as many versions as there are
people, but as a historian I can't allow anything so vague to
affect my thinking or my decisions. The best thing I can do is to
interview those directly involved with the alien craft and review
the television recordings which appear at this point to be rather
complete.

I never
accepted the old gods as they were presented. That I must admit –
and further, the Ithians were the only religion that could have
attracted me had I been forced to a choice. There's something
automatically repulsive to me about one who would tell me I must
accept a belief or I'm damned. Some of them would even directly try
to kill those who were of another religion – even a different cult
of the branch they supposedly represented.

Who were those
strange aliens who had come to Kroon to disrupt the society and to
destroy the beliefs of so many? What right did they have to
instruct us how to run our world? Hadn't Kroon done quite well
without interference? Were the aliens truly a positive thing?