Flight of the Maita Supercollection 3: Solving Galactic Problems Collector's Edition (12 page)

There was iron
in this cave, so it could then expand rapidly. Less than a hundred
years from now it could build another fusion reactor.

I went through
a narrow passage and into various rooms. The beam weapons were
usable but unpowered, as were the rest of the defenses. The
nuclears weren't usable because they must be launched. There was
some activity around some of those missiles, so I checked it
out.

It was building
a plutonium reactor with the materials from the missiles! It would
be unshielded and dangerous, but would work. This thing could be
going again in fifteen years. It could also be poisoning the planet
for all reasonable time as it built itself back. The waterwheel
energy generation was being used almost exclusively in the building
of the nuclear reactor. Most of the brain itself was only using
standby current, which was negligible.

I found the
brain in its dented compartment. It wasn't wasting energy on
sensors on a barren world so had no idea I was there. I found input
sockets and modems, used passives to interface, and was able to
read the thing. I then seized control of the servos and was able to
disconnect the command circuits. I had the robot servos remove and
replace the plutonium fuel core in its shielded containers and
store them, then to come aboard the ship and shut down.

I disconnected
the waterwheel, then called a floater from TR to carry the complete
command module and memory banks of the brain aboard.

As we left Ziim
for Killit I plugged into the brain to try to reason with it.

"I already
tried," TR said sourly (!). "It's completely erased itself. It's
totally blank.

"How did it
manage that? There shouldn't be any way without some kind of
sensors to detect reading and a power source with enough stored
energy to handle the job!"

"Probably an
automatic response if the module's disconnected," I suggested. "I
read all it knew before I messed with anything. This was number Tb
oh four SP. When it was programmed there were only twelve planned
missions, so Ander will still have to try to find one to put in
stasis to read.

"They should
find the last one launched, which will be the closest to Old
Home.

"Shall we head
for Killit? Maybe we have enough information from this unit to
salvage some small part of what we're going to find there. I'm sure
you noted from my input the thing was to avoid several systems –
Killit being one of them. I think you'll also note the pattern it
was to follow if it couldn't use what it found here. It was to
avoid eleven particular systems, so you can call Ander on that.
Maybe we're finally getting a break."

"Maybe we could
damned well use one!" TR replied.

Killit

We came in over
Killit after searching every other possibility in the system. We
decided to scan the whole planet with floaters to locate the brain
exactly, hoping against hope it would be on a continent that wasn't
yet populated, or that it was in a desert or something such.

There were
large palaces built and run with slave labor. The merchants were
wealthy. Ostentatious opulence in all things was the status symbol
but, unlike most such societies, there was no great building of
walls or fences.

There was quite
a bit of very fancy landscaping around the larger buildings, but
people were apparently expected to walk around and enjoy it. I
found that very strange in what was, after all, a slave
society.

The people
seemed to have a flair for landscape, though they could never hope
to compete with the Woost or the Parf – or the Zulians, of
course.

TR sent a
floater to get the language and customs as well as the props and
information needed for my disguise.

There were a
few people with swords and long knives, but very little in the way
of armies or police organizations. There seemed to be a number of
religions, but the one we used on the probe for the language didn't
take any of them very seriously. It seemed they were more for
entertainment that something anyone actually would believe in
literally.

They were in an
early iron age.

The subject's
feelings about the slaves was mixed, not really thinking of them as
being any different than anyone else.

Strange.

I would be a
free citizen, but not wealthy. The crystal from the probe showed
the subject was now a shopkeeper, but had spent much of his life on
the sea. It was a strange reading, and one I wasn't sure would be
typical, or these were a truly exceptional people.

I was going to
spend some time among them. If not now, then I would return. I had
a lot of questions I wanted answers for from that reading. It
seemed altogether possible I'd stumbled on a new system of
philosophy. These people would bear watching. I would also tell a
couple of Inktan friends about them. Inktans are tremendous
scholars, and would want to place a long-term study into
effect.

There was an
extreme repulsion to lies and liars. The subject was extremely
conditioned to react to any lie, no matter how small. It seemed to
be a part of the culture. It was as strong as the repulsion among
the Cheeth about theft.

We located our
brain in a large palace on a cliff overlooking the sea. It was
close to a large bustling seaport and had spy sensors all over the
place. We were again lucky in that the spies were broadcasting
through radio. We could locate them before they spotted any
floaters.

We weren't
lucky in that this thing was in a large population center. We
couldn't simply blast it out of there. Some of the trouble we
feared was coming true.

I learned from
reading the brain on Ziim that the robots would all be made with a
locator circuit that could be activated with a short query pulse. I
wouldn't have to worry about them, at least. I would be able to
tell which ones they were immediately – even without the odor
sensor that was still in place. (That took very little space, so
would stay as a permanent part of me.)

I doubted these
robots were as good as the ones on Flimt.

I couldn't see
a way to get directly into that town, so opted to board a ship a
bit farther along the shore and come in as a seaman. It would also
give me a way to resolve certain seeming inconsistencies in the
information I had from the probe. I was sure everyone wasn't so
liberal as the one I was reading! Not in a society that still held
slaves!

I was more and
more confused with the probe reading. There was some chance we had
found a subject who wasn't quite sane in the society in which he
found himself – or these people were truly extraordinary!

There was a lot
that wasn't as usual on this trip. I had never depended on reaching
Maita or the crew much for information or suggestions before. Thing
and Z were doing the type of thing I was generally doing while I
did the kind of thing they generally did. I couldn't fault my
success, so far, and hoped they could say the same.

I had the
floater take me to the forest outside of the most logical port to
have ships going regularly to where I wanted to go. The winds would
certainly be favorable to the trip, and these vessels were sailing
ships with oars to be used when or if needed due to becoming
becalmed. It seemed there were as many freemen as slaves manning
the ships, which didn't really make a lot of sense to me. That was
more confusing yet.

I made it into
the town in late afternoon, then to the guild hall, where I asked
for employment on any ship going south to Stormlee Port City, which
was where the brain was. They said that was an easy job to find,
because seamen were beginning to avoid the place, and there was
still a lot of trade for goods going in.

I was using the
name of Liht, and spoke with Klam, the guild officer there. I
wanted to see if the information on the read was correct without
giving myself away, and I wanted to have as many questions about
Stormlee answered as possible.

"I've been far
north for several seasons," I confided. "What's going on down in
Stormlee? I've had several say I don't want to go there. Place once
had a good reputation, but that seems to be fading.

"What's the
skuzzle?"

"Mostly
hijackings and assassinations," Klam answered. "The indentured
crewmembers say they're treated very badly, too, which is uncommon.
Just ten years ago, Stormlee was the top port for us here, but now
it's getting hard to find anyone who'll go anywhere near the place.
It's getting so only indentured crews call there, and that isn't
good. Most masters are saying they won't go if their crews don't
want the trip.

"It's mostly
some kind of attitude. People there are afraid of something and
don't even know what it is. They're suspicious. Things aren't
normal. Everybody says there's a bad feeling about the place, if
you know what I mean."

"Uh-yup! I know
'xactly what you mean! I say it's got to be a starker! Up north
there was this here one who was really messing up one place, but
the people finally found who he was and put him in exile on the
most dreary island you ever saw!

"Served him
right, it did!"

"But no one
really believes in the magic powers. A starker is mostly someone to
joke about."

"But just
mostly. It's all trickery, but it can be deadly, too. You'll die of
poison if it's supplied in a trick or some other way! Some of the
starkers are capable of anything if they can make people gain fear
of 'em.

"What is is
what is!"

"It used to
be," Klam agreed. "It could be again in a place like Stormlee's
becoming. I'll stay away from it. I ain't got no call to go
there."

"Yuh, but I
won't! It ain't right no way. People shouldn't have to live like
that.

"I always stick
my hand in where it ain't wanted. Always have, always will. It's my
nature, you know.

"Put me on the
next crew to there and we'll just see if Liht's all that easy to
scare, we will! Ain't nobody never scared Liht yet, ain't nobody
gonna start now! I let my rock head get me into all sorts of crap
'bout this here kinda stuff! It's how I am.

"What is is
what is!"

Klam grinned
and shook his head, then handed me a paper he'd been filling out.
"Give this to Captain Partih on the Wavewalker, dock three.
Standard fee and meals. You sail at dawnlight.

"He's a good
master and a good sailor. If you're rockheaded like you say, you'll
find a spiritmate. He's a rockhead 'n half again!

"Fair. He's a
fair man!

"I wish you
brisk breezes and warm seas."

"And storms be
in the desert when you're at sea," I finished the traditional
sailor's parting.

I went to the
docks and found the Wavewalker. It was a medium-sized ship with a
standard twelve-man crew, two officers, and a cook. I finished the
crew, which were all slaves except one.

I threw the bag
TR had supplied aboard and handed the mate, a brawny, jolly man
named Clare, the paper. He grinned, announced he couldn't read the
damned thing and wasn't about to wake Partih when he would want to
be up hours before dawnlight to watch the clouds and currents. It
wasn't the very best time of the year for sudden storms and sailors
to mix.

I liked him
immediately.

He showed me a
bunk and introduced me to Seelah, who shared the bunk (!).

Seelah was a
slave, was almost as big as Clare, and was much more intelligent
than I would have thought a slave would be. He explained he
generally didn't hit the bunk before four bells (a quarter hour
before midnight) so if I was an early sleeper I would have to take
the wall – unless I was an early riser, in which case we'd have to
find other bunkmates, because he wasn't.

I said that was
fine with me. I was used to any hours, so we could work it out.

I called TR and
asked what this was all about and it said the Killits were evolved
from herding animals and generally slept together – and besides, it
thought Z was the one with those kinds of inhibitions.

"I want to know
what's expected is all!" I shot back.

"I couldn't
tell you. You'll know this time tomorrow! You'll have been there –
and back!"

I searched
through the crystal, but such as these situations were often missed
by the probe, when all it was looking for was language and
customs.

From what I
could tell, there simply weren't any taboos in the society or any
expectations, either, so I could do whatever might seem most
productive at the time. The subject of the probe had many
experiences with sleeping with any number of people, as well as
sleeping alone. He preferred sleeping with several.

Well, they
touched a lot. I saw that.

This was a
stupid thing to be thinking about because, as TR said, by morning
I'd know. Z was the only one who was inhibited about such things,
and Thing even made jokes about it at times, trying to get a
reaction from Z.

I thought of
the time it had gone on about the Mactowians and their habit of
having sexual relations with everyone of either sex (They have the
basic two, as most races do), and had asked me if I slept (In the
sexual sense) with certain other males, but Z figured Thing was
baiting him and hadn't responded.

I'm built with
full physical capabilities of whatever race I'm disguised as, with
the obvious exception that I can't actually father a child with any
of them.

Sex was a
pleasure response with these people, so they might enjoy relations
as a way of relaxing, like the Isliponans did. Maita designed me to
discover something of the thought processes of organic beings, so
had built a pleasure response into me. It had been moderated
because, as a machine, I have no limits – but my first lover, a
Swaz woman named Lofe, DID have normal limits and couldn't have
kept up with many such nights.