Flight of the Maita Supercollection 3: Solving Galactic Problems Collector's Edition (128 page)

There was
another flash and soon another.

[ I take it
every installation here fired on us? ]

*Without fail.
There was a small ship at one of the diffusion engine control
buildings. It left the planet. I put a tracer unit on it with a
floater, so I can tell Fleet not to come unless they just want
something to do. Maybe I'll have them search all the worlds out
here for others. This one will be their royal exalted super
commander and queen-empress of the omniverse and other places or
something such. She'll head for wherever they call home.*

[ Modify Z into
an Immin form. He can go aground and can find out if they know of
any other worlds. Maybe he can instigate war among the queens of
the omniverse and other places. ]

"I don't refuse many things, but even looking like an Immin
is one thing I
will not
do! They had empire protection withdrawn from the entire
race more than a hundred years ago so we'll put a few of the
magnificent and glorious empresses of the fourteen TTH planes on
the probe!"

*There are
hundreds of planes. We can only use three or four of them for
reltime travel, but I'd suppose they won't declare themselves
rulers of planes whose existence they don't even suspect. Maybe
they will. I agree. I wouldn't subject Z to the humiliation of
having to look like an Immin. When we find their world I'll send
floaters to indiscriminately probe as many as I like. So far as I'm
concerned they aren't people, they're merely insane lumps of animal
matter.*

The seriousness
of all this would be plain to anyone who knew the crew and how they
acted. For Thing not to mention that Z naturally looked like a
particularly fine-featured Immin showed how little any of them felt
like making jokes or playing their game.

Maita followed
the ship in jumps. TTH1 was very slow, taking almost fifteen
minutes reltime to travel twenty plazsis. The world it went to was
almost three hundred plazsis so took almost four hours.

*They've
grabbed an occupied world, the (Two full minutes of censored and
acid invective)!*

[ Are they
using the natives or 'eliminating' them as useless to their plans?
]

*I don't know
yet. I think they're using them to some extent. They have four
colonies around four large cargo carriers. I can estimate from food
needs and time there were as many as twenty five hundred original
settlers. Say six hundred per colony. The natives are reptilian and
not unlike the norm – like Happ and Glo, though not nearly so far
evolved. I'm getting reports from floaters now. The natives are
quartered in enclosed compounds so they're being used as slaves.
(Another string of swearing). We have to find a way to separate
Immins from the natives. Suggestions!*

"Observe for
awhile. Get some of the Immins on the probes. See which of them are
fighting among themselves. They can always be counted on to do that
stupidity if they have more than one group under one commander.
Maybe we can do what we've done with them before and what Tab's
done. Get them to fighting each other and get the natives away,
then take care of the Immins."

[ That's the
best way to go if we can work it. Even if these knew about the
others in the empire and how they were defeated they'd react in the
same ways. They NEVER learn! ]

*I'll locate a
place for us to land. I can get down easily enough because they
have nothing on one continent. We'll land there then go wherever we
wish under water. I want to get the help of the people here, the
natives. I'll want to try to make them believe they're the ones who
threw the intruders out. I'm having Fleet come on to search every
world out here if it takes centuries. The traders are cataloguing
every world they come to and it's all going into the ship's
guidance systems. That will cut the time tremendously. I'm getting
some Immins on the probe on the dark side. They'll wake up with a
headache, but they won't know why. You two rest until I have
something to work with.*

Z and Thing had
trained themselves to sleep when necessary. The anger and tension
wouldn't keep them awake. Maita used the time to study the entire
planet and to find where everyone and everything was. It produced a
complete global map to project into the holovid screens when
needed. Thing and Z awakened naturally after about six hours. Maita
said there weren't any other worlds so far as these knew, but added
that THIS one didn't exist so far as any of the ones in the empire
a hundred years ago knew so that information would be viewed with
extreme suspicion. They would naturally keep their locations secret
from one another. Their plots to seize power from each other at a
later date would demand it.

*Each colony
has its own leader. They've been sniping at each other, but it
isn't serious – yet – except for the psiltripium world. The one who
controls that world is called Rena Gar Shonn and is at the colony
on the large island off the coast near the equator. It's probably
her private ship we followed back here. We are, incidentally, under
two kilometers of water in a shallow trench less than a kilometer
off the coast of that island on the far side from the colony. I'll
try to find some way to get her on a probe. If there isn't any
other way we'll invade her little fortress and put her on it if she
survives. I don't know if we can accelerate the troubles they will
inherently have with one another, but we can damned well try. I
know the layouts and the leaders and so forth of all the colonies
here and what each one specializes in. They seem to have figured
they would have to have separate specialties if this was to work at
all. Suggestions?*

[ We need more
information, I think. If there are two colonies of Immins it's
possible and even easy to cause trouble between them. We know that.
They'll do it themselves given a little time. Get all Tab's records
from TR about things he's done in the past. Maybe there's something
we can use. I'm sure we'll get some ideas. ]

"I know one
little thing we can start."

*I'm
listening.*

"Does one place
specialize in raising food?"

*One proteins
and one carbohydrates and so on.*

"Then we should
leave some evidence around they're infringing on each other's
specialty. The idea'll be that one place that produces ALL the food
will dominate everybody else – first, their competitor in food
production. Even Immins will know you can't eat psiltripium!

"I take it Gar
(The Immins use the middle name) produces all their industrial
tools and machinery?"

*Mining and
refining. Casting and assembly is by Zupa Lee Trisk and colony.
Food producers are: proteins, Palla Gae Torp – carbohydrates and
others, Nina Sic Kale. Gar's first captain and bedmate is Kep Lo
Natt and Lee's is Lerso Mi Kelp. I mention them because the
captains are known to be on the lookout for the easiest life. That
can be used quite often. The Immin female's very possessive of the
male and tends to jealous rages. They'll generally feel free to
sleep with any male they choose, but the male had BETTER not get
caught LOOKING at another female!*

[ We can give
them the hint it's the food producers who'll logically become the
leaders of greatest importance. They use computers, I'm sure. Maybe
I can tap in and give them a little shocking information – after Z
starts the trouble about going outside of a specialization. We can
start small until we figure a way to get the natives out safely.
]

*I'll use the
computers, too. I think I see a way to expedite our troublemaking
with food growers. They do everything by computer. I'll have both
computers come to the same conclusion at the same time. For
efficiency in controlling the food supplies of all colonies and
incidentally having pretty much absolute power over their fates the
food production really should be under one colony's direction.
That'll start Gae and Sic to thinking. The way Immins think is as
good as set in TitChroPlat!*

[ True! As soon
as they come to the proper conclusions I'll have Lo and Mi discover
that power is soon to be in the hands of one of those two. They'll
try to move in on Gae and Sic. Gar and Lee will find out about it.
They can then each be convinced it's a plot by the other to get
both males for herself. The one who controls the other's favorite
male considers herself the winner by default or something equally
silly. ]

"The more plots
within schemes within plots we can come up with the more convincing
it'll be to them. Now! To work! Gar knows her installations on the
psiltripium world were destroyed. Maita has to tap into her
computer's defense and intelligence circuitry."

*And?*

"What would she
do if her computer told her the only possible way those
installations could've been destroyed would be by someone who knew
about them for some time? Where's the only place in the damned
universe anyone could have known for any amount of time?"

[ Right here!
It would have to be one of the other colonies. All of this will be
how Immins act so they'll immediately jump to the conclusions we
want them to.... This can be fast! Gar has to discover it had to be
someone here right away. We have to worry about getting those
natives to safety fast. Maita, think of something! Z! We need one
of your weird ideas right now! ]

*I can tap into
her comp system with a floater. It'll be for her to use it before I
can give the information to her. I wonder if she uses it at
specific times? How can we get her to check on the items we
need?*

"We can make
her use it. If it appears she might actually be attacked she'll go
directly to defensive measures. You'll have to make her computer
make a likely connection to what happened to her mines and missiles
a part of it so she'll access what we want her to find. Their
natural suspicion will make her run to her computers first
thing.

"Maita? How do
they spy on one another? I know they do."

*Lots of ways.
Visuals, sonics, even a few floaters. There are sensors in all the
areas around each camp.*

"What if Gar
was to see some kind of evidence Lee was arming? Maybe she even
suddenly has some psiltripium? Where's the only place she could've
obtained psiltripium in a quantity that could be moved? I mean,
away from the gravitic focus?"

[ Yes, Maita!
Maybe a visual sensor could 'see' four or five strong males trying
to take a very small box from a ship that lands very soon now? What
could be that heavy? Where could they have gotten it – the ONLY
place? She'll run to her computers so fast the wind stream would
knock you down! ]

*Consider it
done! I know the best sensor. It's sitting in a tree near a little
clearing Gar must already be suspicious of. It looks like a cleared
place. It's caused by a large rock just under the surface, but she
doesn't know it. Her surveillance sensors will automatically call
her if there's any action in that space. I'll input directly into
the lens. A ship would have time to return about now so here goes!
Watch the readout.*

Maita showed on
the holovid screen what it was showing to the sensor: A small
scout-type ship came onto the clearing. After a few minutes the
port opened and four big men came from the direction of the colony
and stood around. A woman came to give them orders and they went
aboard. They emerged with a small box, perhaps a twenty-centimeter
cube of very good steel on a sling. Each of the four had a loop
from the sling around his neck and wrapped around his arm. They
were staggering from the weight and would have to pause every few
steps to rest it on the ground. They moved slowly out of the
picture. The woman was never very clear but the men were. The ship
lifted and was gone.

*I used
familiar faces on the men and made the woman about Lee's size and
shape. The box would logically contain about three hundred kilos of
psiltripium so I made them act as though they were carrying that
weight on an uncomfortable sling. The path they took wasn't
directly to the camp, but goes out to an area where there are caves
and other places to hide things.*

[ Wouldn't they
use the natives for that? ]

"No way! Not
something that valuable! Not if it was something they would be
bound to talk about! She'd use her most trusted captains."

*Exactly. Now
we'll see what Gar does. I'll carry everything in and out on the
screen. This could be very interesting. I'll print things as soon
as they appear on her computer screens.*

They waited
until the screen glowed:

>?– weight of object suspended on four corner carrier maximum load
for four T3 Immin males

>A: 342
kgm>

>?– contents cube (cm)20X20X20 @335+ kgm.

>A: p/l
neutron mass. p/l psiltripium. p/l psiltripium alloy w/Pb mass+

There was a
short wait while the answer glowed on the screen, then:

~Mode
IV23057-Tn1859-zTdsRw~

^CODE: NA
WARNING!^

^Code -
Rockslug prime 3.2426/<2^

=Prints
identify! NA WARNING!=

There was
another pause, then:

-READY!-

There was a
long complicated mathematically coded sequence describing the
attacks on the psiltripium world, then another describing the
unloading of psiltripium. The machine searched and deduced, then
printed:

>A: attack
well planned

= knew
operation world P1

= had time
used time planned

=-= attacker
this world colony

>B:
attacker offload proof success mission ZLT secret field.

= ZLT not
logical.

= SUM:
ATTACKER THIS WORLD COLONY! ATTACKER NOT ZLT! ZLT NOT IMPLICATED
CONSPIRACY

The screen
suddenly went blank.

"Why did you
tell her it wasn't Lee? I thought we wanted to get those two
fighting!"