Flight of the Maita Supercollection 3: Solving Galactic Problems Collector's Edition (113 page)

"And how many
warships?" she asked.

[ I haven't any
vague idea. They belong to the Acnians. Maita should know. I guess
it keeps some kind of records on that sort of thing for
emergencies. ]

*About two
hundred sixty unless they've added or subtracted since we left. I
think Zeena was building them a special ship for emergencies of
whatever type the Feach and Acnians felt might be needed. I know
it'll probably have that stasis process thing in case we find
anymore insane machines or whatever.*

[ You know
it'll probably have? ]

*Stick it,
Rubberbottom!*

Glo's mouth
dropped open, but she quickly recovered. "What kind of weapons can
they carry where they wouldn't need more than that to control such
a large galaxy?!" she exclaimed.

[ They don't
control anything. They are there to answer any calls from Maita or
Hospital or Tab or Kit or Z or me. Any world can call them if
they're threatened or if they have an emergency. In a case such as
with Mord, the Zulians called them and several thousand trader
ships. The Mord world was going to be consumed by their primary so
we found them another world. Everyone came to help. It was a
tremendous problem, but we were able to solve it to everyone's
satisfaction. We found them a new world near a stable star. It was
very touching. ]

"You were able
to move an entire race?" Happ asked.

*Yes. We were
just in time, too. The star went nova in less than a halfyear from
the time we completed the job.*

"How could you
give them a usable biosphere in only the few years from when a star
indicates it will die?" Happ asked. "If you wonder about our
questions we are being given the questions through radio implants.
Everyone who wishes to hear is listening. The questions are from,
er, scholars."

[ We placed a
transmat portal under the sea on their world and allowed the
transfer to be done automatically. We also moved large sections of
plant and animal life through the transmat, getting a complete
biosphere. It's what we did with New Zule, but those people were
prepared to move while the Mord weren't. ]

"You speak of a
transmat," Glo said. "We determined such were impossible long ago –
and you don't have to quote me a lot of examples of impossible
things that are as much as everyday. We will wish information about
how this was done."

*I can't give
you the transmat. I have no idea how it works and we use it very
sparingly except when moving from point to point on EC. We
discovered the portals in use there. They were telepathically
controlled, which should mean only Thing among us could use them,
but such was not the case. Any of the peoples there can use them.
Even Tab and Kit use them.*

"You have
mentioned this Tab and Kit before. Why are you so surprised they
can use them?" Glo asked. "If one being can use them without a
telepathic or empathic talent there would seem to be no reason
other could not do the same."

[ They're
robots Maita built. If you wish contact with the peoples of the
Maitan Empire we have to ask that you don't tell anyone Maita, Tab
or Kit are machines. It's surprising that a machine can use a
telepathic device who wasn't designed by the builders of those
devices. It's one of the basic reasons we're so interested in
finding how the devices work. They seem to work on planal
interfaces, which tends to greatly multiply the impossibilities.
]

"We will wish
to know more about those robots," Happ said. "It is very possible
Maita can directly input this information for us.

"Perhaps you
would like to see more of our society and to ask questions of
us."

*I can input
much of the information you seek, but much you may obtain through
Library. We placed all information from that world on open fastcom.
There's a relay close. I'll show you how to use it. It will be easy
and will reacquaint you with those things that have been long
forgotten. I'm constantly amazed at the completeness of the
information there.*

"You would open
Information Center Museums to anyone!?" Glo cried.

[ Certainly. We
already have many thousands of top scholars and researchers going
there and probably more millions on fastcom circuits using the
facilities. There's much useful information there if anyone wishes
to search for it. Many have. It's time-consuming because of the
vast store of information contained, but patience is generally
rewarded. One finds what one seeks there – mostly. ]

Z laughed and
explained, "I can easily see our society's very different from what
you have. I think your questions tell us why. You still fail to
understand us at all because you view the system from the wrong
perspective.

"We aren't
militaristic. We feel such a system leads nowhere. Militarism's
self-defeating in the long run. It's back to the responsibility
thing. Holding power brings the responsibility. Military power
necessarily depends on repression, which breeds resentment, which
breeds revolution."

"The only way
to stop the militaristic aims of a race are for that race to
resolve its internal problems," Glo agreed. "This is a tenet we
have found to be true. I can deduce what you mean by the term 'long
run' and feel there is some misunderstanding because of our
different societal directives. Our own, uh, leader has made a long
detailed study of militarism. The fact of an empire's existing – or
so we thought – meant a strong military, thus those internal
problems that aren't easily solvable. One thing follows the other
in a logical sequence. A race that expands into an empire leader
has not solved basic and inherent problems. It appears to me the
fact you are a machine means you do not understand what is
happening. Your worlds will eventually seek to place themselves
into an ascendant position in relation to their neighbors. It is
the nature of a people. They have been forced by their very
evolution to do this. The race will not advance without being
aggressive, first against others to gain dominance of their world,
then against their own kind for personal gain, then against others
when they've reached the ability to go to other worlds.

"I very deeply
hope this is not true."

[ Then you
expect we've come here seeking conquest? ]

"It would be
logical to assume if you weren't controlled by a machine," Happ
answered. "With Maita in control we have an equation without
sufficient information. None of our factors are relevant to the
situation."

*You hear that?
I'm in control here! Don't forget that, peons! You will do as
you're told!*

"Stick it in
your focus coils!" Z snapped. "All I have to do is throw that one
switch and I'm in charge! Don't YOU forget that, you pile of reject
scrap metal!"

[ The two of
you combined don't have the intelligence to avoid a neutron mass! I
am the logical ruler! ]

*I can fly off
and leave you here and that's that!*

[ You're fully
aware you couldn't handle it yourself. ]

"We see what
you are doing and why, but consider that you may be much too close
to the problem to see it," Glo suggested. "Is there really a switch
that will turn Maita off?"

"No, but it
does turn control over to any trained pilot," Z answered. "I'm a
trained pilot. There are millions of trained pilots in the
empire."

"But they do
not know Maita is the emperor," Happ pointed out.

[ Tab and Kit
know, as do the Zulians, and now you. Over the years there've been
many beings aboard Maita, most of them were organic. The switch is
right there on the console with a sign that says it's an override.
]

*There was once
a very large – for the time – political entity called the Kheth
Federation. They were the first large group of star systems to
become partners in the Maitan Empire except through the direct
actions of Z, Thing, myself and a small collection of friends from
several races. I wanted no part of ruling, though it was part of my
design and original programing to rule or to administer government.
It was thrust upon me – and those people in charge at the time knew
I was a machine.*

"Thrust on
you?" Glo asked.

[ Maita was
petitioned by the Kheth Federation to allow them to join the small
empire we had recently established and turned over to the servo
machines. That federation was crumbling from an overabundance of
bureaucrats. Maita installed the servo machines, but had to run it
directly. We aided other races who insisted on joining and bringing
their friends in. We enjoy exploring such as we're doing now and
included the entire plane of the galaxy. There are a few worlds on
the domes who have joined. The machines do run everything now,
allowing Maita to be a spaceship, which is its primary purpose. The
Maitans had designed the administration abilities into the ship
when they knew the Pweetoos were going to decimate their group of
worlds. Maita can give your machines the information. The problem
with all your beliefs about what must happen is based on political
situations. When you eliminate the politicians you eliminate those
problems. People of most races want to get along with others. The
empire works very well through the device of assuming that. ]

"We can't see
government without politicians," Glo protested. "Without the
machines, that would be anarchy."

"Anarchy can
work – OR democracy – without politicians," Z said. "What did any
politician ever do?"

"They have done
great things!" Happ cried. "When we had the wars it was the
politicians who were able to bring us together to fight for
right!"

[ And who
started the wars in the first place? The fact one wins a war
automatically makes that side right. You have more intelligence
than to make such ridiculous statements. You surely aren't
conditioned to the point you will spout such ridiculous garbage and
expect to be taken seriously! ]

*Before you
argue that politicians have built this or that, stop to think at
what cost with those politicians and what cost it could have been
done without them. You had a wonderful empire once, one that built
many things. Great things. Library was one of those things, but if
you know your own history a few people on a few worlds made that
magnificent place privately. The only thing your empire produced of
lasting importance it also turned off when it retreated to ask
unimportant questions of itself. Those beacons. That is two things
your empire produced, which is two more than most produce. Had you
put aside petty political differences your peoples would have soon
worked things out for themselves and there would be no Maitan
Empire here. You made a terrible mistake when you withdrew
leadership, you know. That doomed all the races in your empire. We
will continue to take the coordinates from Library and will check
to see if any others survive.*

"The empire was
dying already," Glo explained. "There was and is much controversy
about the possibility some of them would have survived. We cannot
understand the need of leadership. That need denies most of your
arguments about politicians.

"What could we
have done? It was already decaying and at an ever-accelerating
pace. We couldn't stop it.

"Again. What
could we have done?"

"Forgotten the
military and war and desire to dominate like we have," Z replied.
"Don't you get the point of all we're saying at all?"

"Enlighten us,"
Glo requested. "There is obviously some point at which out thoughts
on these matters become divergent to the extreme neither
understands the other."

"The Maitan
Empire is mostly a galaxywide traders guild," Z answered. "They
need only the least minimum of control. People want to know others
and to interact with them. All we did was minimize the rules. There
are only a couple of actual empire laws – one is that there are to
be no nuclear weapons. Another is that no one is to interfere in
any way with a developing culture. I can't think of any others.

"The empire
will move in at the request of a world in those cases where people
are being harmed by others. Almost all laws are local and are
applied only to the world in question. There are really very few
laws on the worlds. Our example shows people the fewer laws, the
less problems.

"The traders
guild handles their own laws and rules, such as patenting and trade
rights and so forth.

"Oh, yes. No
world may become a member of the Maitan Empire who allows slavery
of their own or any other race. That's another empire law, but it
is flexible in that we have some insectoid societies, but they are
not slaves in that sense."

[ We promote
and work on the premise there are billions of worlds in the galaxy
so there can be something entirely new and exciting every day for
thousands of years for every race. I want you people to meet the
Zulians. ]

*We aren't
saying you are evil or any of that. We don't make judgements except
about races like the Pweetoos and the Immins and we had
overwhelming evidence on which to base those conclusions. I do
believe you've gone down a pointless path. You've misjudged and
misguided yourselves. You're a strong race or you would have died
out two hundred thousand years ago. I also think you want to go out
to meet others again and I believe you'll prove to be a valuable
asset to the empire. I hope you'll elect to join.*

"If we don't?"
Happ asked.

[ If you wish
we'll leave and will even place a satellite in orbit that will
guarantee you aren't contacted by anyone else from the empire.
We'll give you the broadcaster so you may turn it off at any time
you choose. You can contact us at any time through the fastcom
relays. Your fate is for you alone to choose. Perhaps you'll wish
to travel a bit to see for yourselves the truth about the Maitan
Empire. Perhaps it would be important for you to learn to
understand our point of view even if you choose not to follow it.
]