Flight of the Maita Supercollection 3: Solving Galactic Problems Collector's Edition (135 page)

*It's a
restricted world. I don't know what's happening there, but I think
you'd better go, Tab. Report back as soon as you know anything and
keep me up to the second if it's anything as nasty as Kit seems to
think.*

Tab stepped
into the transmat and was gone. Maita, Z, and Thing conversed for
awhile longer. There was a deep caring among the group and Z and
Thing were worried about the two robots.

Maita was often
described by Z as the "mother hen" type so wasn't letting on how
worried it really was. Finally Z and Thing, being organics, went to
the pilot's chair Maita installed for Z in his home. It was the
most comfortable place in the universe to him so he was able to
sleep. When they awoke and were updated on the situation, which was
that there was no further news, they went back to their projects.
There was no sense in sitting around worrying about something over
which they had no control whatever.

Z went to Long
Island to plant his new orchids and bromeliads while the tug
floater carrying the plants for him kept him in constant contact
with Maita and Thing. Thing stayed close to the main computer
console. They were both in those positions when Maita contacted
them.

*Thing, Z! Come
to me quickly! Tab and Kit need help! We leave immediately!*

The
Talebearer

Larj the
Traveler limped along the dirt road toward the city ahead. It was
the largest and most fashionable city on Savaraj, with many
gleaming marble buildings, some reaching five stories in height –
and that not counting the spires.

Two people rode
past on mountbeasts. Larj didn't envy them their conveyances – most
of the time – but this morning the old injury to his ankle was
hurting him. He had badly twisted it when he slipped on his way to
the stream to clean up this morning.

One must
balance positive with negative. On the whole the mountbeast is very
expensive and demanding to care for and must stick to the paths and
roads, thus limiting the rider to those paths traveled often before
him. Larj didn't care for those restrictions. A traveler must be
free to roam down even paths that weren't there.

No, there was
no envy, even on this morning. Larj the Traveler had freedom simply
because he DIDN'T have too many material possessions and because he
DIDN'T have mountbeasts! Larj would never forfeit freedom for
possessions. The price was far too high. He knew full well that
possessions would soon become the possessor. He saw examples of
that old truth daily and in all places he'd traveled – and he'd
traveled as far and wide as any.

No. Larj the
Traveler possessed much more in his freedom than those possessors
held with their wealth. It was far better thus. It suited him well.
He knew true contentment and they never would. He wanted nothing
more than he had now, they always strove to possess things and were
empty for having those things. They wanted, but knew not what they
sought.

Philosophical
today!

This city was a
new place. Never before had Larj ever been near this part of
Savaraj, though it was the one small last new place he could go. It
was pure luck that allowed him to sign on as deck hand on the barge
down the Tumult River to Dockside Station. At Dockside he heard of
the gleaming city and, being one who subsisted on reports from one
place to another, decided to see for himself if what was said of
the place in any way matched the reality. He could always get a
ride on down the river later. There was always work for a skillful
teller of tales. Larj wasn't afraid of hard work nor low pay. That
fact got him where he wanted to be, most times. He had a few
kleperts in his pouch for food and lodging and could then easily
find shortterm employment before moving on to the next stop.

There was
reputed to be something very corrupt about Royal City. Something
beyond the kinds of evil and crime that seemed always to be a part
of larger cities. It was a magnificent sort of evil. There was
genius behind it. Any truth to that and his reports would greatly
be enhanced in the future. If the words were false he would have
that to report.

Larj heard many
strange things. More than that, he remembered well what he heard.
There were reports of new ideas and new things, many of which came
from this city – things that were far from natural to a world such
as Savaraj and a people like the Saj. Things with the stench of
moral filth. There must be some truth if so many words were spent
on those reports.

On the other
shoulder, far too often the most words were spent on the least
content.

Larj was
curious and loved an adventure. A thing to add some spice to the
life of a drifter was a thing to be sought and the walking along a
road was peaceful and was quiet. It was sometimes a beautiful
thing, but could become ugly and frightening, too. There were
dangers.

It was only
about two more tets, two thousand wide strides, to Royal City. This
was the last hilltop along the roadway where he could pause to look
at the gleaming city across the carefully tended fields that
surrounded it. Larj stopped to enjoy the view, and a magnificent
view it was! Perhaps the stories had more in fact than in fancy –
though the reports of strange evil would as likely be true, should
that be the case. One must be wary. Things were often far different
from what the eye reported from a distance. One saw a wall from a
hundred paces and the rotted wood from two paces.

That was the
spot where two bandits attacked. Larj knew nothing except that he
was looking at the beautiful city, then everything ended.

*

Z was on the
floater in the guise of a Saj a kilometer outside of the city where
T6 said Tab and Kit were being held. Thing was on a floater close
by his side and they were in the last little stand of tall trees
before the city, trying to decide how best to approach. Somehow,
Tab and Kit had messed up. Something about not having proper
identification, something that was unknown by the person the probe
had been used on.

The city was
very large, comprised of more than three quarters of a million
people and they had stated they were citizens of that city, which
was a big mistake. They didn't have very much knowledge of the
place and were checked by the police there because they were of the
wrong age not to be in military uniform. The outlying areas didn't
have police or militias. It seemed there weren't many places
anywhere on the planet with particularly large militias. This city
was odd in a number of ways – which was probably why Kit chose it
in the first place. There were far too many police in Royal City at
a time of social evolution when there shouldn't have been any
organized police. There were several things that shouldn't be in a
civilization in that stage.

An older man
was coming along the road and stopped to gaze at the city. Thing
first saw the bandits attack and dove at them while Z followed only
a split second later. The heavy clubbing the man took had probably
killed him, but Thing nor Z either one would countenance such acts.
Two armed burly hoods attacking a defenseless old man was too much.
Thing used the stunner beam on one and hit the other a hard
glancing blow with some piece of equipment on the floater. Z
simultaneously hit both of them with stunner beams. They would both
awaken in a few hours in intense pain and would remain in pain for
several hours after that.

Thing went to
the old man while Z removed their weapons and anything else that
looked like it could have any value from the bandits. They could
assume some other bandits had jumped them. They were certainly not
going to profit from such acts if Thing and Z had any say in the
matter!

[ He's not
dead, but I think his skull is fractured and he will die soon. I
don't see how we could do anything to save him. We knew what kind
of period this is in a mammal's evolution, but I still hate to see
this kind of thing. He's just some poor old man who obviously
doesn't have anything worth stealing. ]

Z checked the
old man and had to agree. There was no way to save him.

*Put the probe
helmet on him, Z. Maybe we can learn something that'll make it
easier for you two to move about in the city. I would prefer he be
brought here to me for medical attention, but we mustn't do things
like that. I hate this sort of thing, myself.*

Thing checked
the helmet and placed it while Z kept watch on the road. After
Maita finished the probe it instructed them to take certain items
from the old man's body. He died while on the probe and those items
would definitely prove useful.

*Give the body
a decent burial in the trees where it won't be found while I make a
crystal of the probe's information. There may be good reason for us
to use the items you've taken and he certainly can't use them now.
I read enough directly from the probe to hope we can take his
identity for our own use here. I don't think he's known in this
area. It was foremost in his mind that this was the single place of
interest on the planet he had never seen. He was a philosophical
person and disdained wealth for freedom, which shows he was
intelligent.*

The floater Z
was riding took the probe information to Maita, who was under the
sea with TR and T6 a few kilometers offshore in more than two
kilometers of water. Z and Thing had traveled under water up the
wide river, then cut cross-country to the city.

Thing's floater
quickly dug the grave and they gave the old man as decent a burial
as they could under the circumstances. The floater returned and Z
was instructed to get aboard and to return to Maita for a bit more
modification. Thing waited and watched as the two burly bandits
regained consciousness and sat up, discovering they'd been robbed
in turn and swearing vengeance dark against whoever did that to
them. They actually cursed thieves who would do such a thing!

Z often says
there is no honor among thieves, Thing thought. The bandits soon
staggered off the roadway and made their way through the brush to a
path. Thing noted the path for any future time when they may need
to know of it and was turning to go to wait for Z when the two
bandits actually WERE attacked by three other bandits!

Thing had to
stifle the automatic urge to get into the affray. It decided this
was poetic justice and returned to wait for Z. It was jolted when a
floater came up with the old dead man on it!

*I found all
information about Larj, the dead man. He's from a great distance
and has never met anyone who could know him here, but is a traveler
so will be welcomed as a bearer of news. Z's programmed with
everything the old man knew and the information is ready for your
use in the floater's banks. You can go into the city with Larj and
can be explained any way you choose. Tab and Kit are being held in
a police compound that shouldn't even exist in this culture at this
stage. We can break them out, but don't feel that would be wise
yet. We still don't know what's happening here – or rather, we have
an idea, but don't know the reasoning behind it. TR and T Six and I
see no point in it. There's a great deal that needs explaining. I
don't like this at all! It smells strongly of cultural
interference! You know how I react to that sort of thing!*

[ It's an
influence from offworld. That's clear enough, but I admit I don't
see the purpose of any of it either. There isn't much of anything
anyone from offworld can use from this stage of civilization. I'm
sure you considered the extra danger this presents with Tab and
Kit? ]

*We don't feel
the dangers of identifying them as robots or aliens are acute at
this point. You'll have to try to get them freed from that place,
but your main task is to find where and who and so forth. Tab
suggested it's seems a lot like those Tlessarian brains in some
major ways, but there's simply no way one of them could have come
this far. It's not Immins. I keep saying that because I couldn't
stand it if those slime exist at all anymore! I'd rather think it
was the Tlessarian brain, but that doesn't seem to be
possible.*

"Unless one was
able to hijack a TTH ship," TR said. "What I see is a using of
these people, but not a direct type of enslavement. I don't think a
mechanical intelligence is involved here. Who or whatever's doing
this is in that city somewhere. It's possible they're trying to
drag the people here into a more technological civilization for
some unknown reason. Tab's done that at various times in various
places. It was necessary.

"Tab didn't do
the obvious damage that's being done here. This is going far too
fast. This isn't stimulating them to do things that're within their
grasp, it's handing them a finished product. It could be disastrous
to these people. To the whole world. This is exactly the kind of
things the interference laws are designed to stop."

*I agree.
You're called Larj the Traveler, Z. A good name for Thing would be
Zonn, which is a diminutive name of a sea animal not unlike it
except that Thing has four tentacles and stalked eyes and the
zortil has six tentacles and eyes in the body – and gills. And
scales. And sort of antennae by the tentacle bases. And – so I'm
nervous and tend to prattle.*

"Kit's called
Lape the Fisherman and Tab's Kemat the Buyer," T6 instructed.
"We'll use the internals with Thing's floater to tell you whatever
we learn. You'll have to, as you say, play it by ear until we know
enough to make one of our plans that never work. You'll have to
leave one floater and disguise the other as something common. Maybe
the crystal'll tell you how to do it."

"Maita, make a
large floater into a fishing boat conformation and identify it as
belonging to Lape the Fisherman," Z suggested. "They have their
symbols for ownership. Maybe a teller of tales can get a fisherman
and a buyer out of the pokey!