Flight of the Maita Supercollection 3: Solving Galactic Problems Collector's Edition (186 page)

"She tried to
point a laser at me so I broke her worthless neck," Kurk answered.
"I would've broken her neck if she didn't have the laser – if she
didn't kill me first with one of those spells."

"That's it!" Z
cried. "A spell! I can find the portal!"

[ It's not
using any energy now. ]

"But it has the
Leyden jars. I can detect them by using the grounding spell."

*That will
probably work. You have to seek the static charge to be able to
ground it. See what you can do.*

Z sat on the
edge of the floater, closed his eyes, made some faces for effect,
then turned to point toward the stream, then up it. Kurk went to
gaze upstream, then came to climb aboard the floater. Z joined him,
waited a moment, then pointed upstream and a bit to the left. The
floater rose to move in a straight line to where he was
pointing.

"I had to
ground it to find it, but it's over that way and not very far.
There! Where the water comes over those rocks!"

"She was
smart!" Kurk noted. "It drew its energy from moving water. It
didn't get quite so cold as a result. Is that it?"

There were
lumps of various metals around with the stream flowing through.

*Whew! It's a
good thing she didn't open it very far! That water flowing into it
could have been disastrous!*

Z and Kurk
picked up all the focus devices, put them aboard the floater, then
returned to the cabin. They drug Zaft's body to a depression,
dumped rocks on it, then had the floater to scrape dirt over
it.

"It's not deep
enough, but no one ever comes around here anyway," Z decided.
"Let's get rid of anything that could prove dangerous in the cabin
and get back to Teeme. We've managed to take care of this thing and
I want to spend some of my vacation having a vacation."

They spent a
couple of hours in the cabin removing all the magic paraphernalia
and all the papers that might possibly prove dangerous in the
future then headed for the castle, stopping to gather Fale in
Loosta, but the Frome had flown on to Teeme on its own. They
arrived at the castle in the late afternoon where Maita told them
Thing was with the golems at court and Ehrak was having his
afternoon meal at the old Net's Inn with Burl. They decided to go
to the court to see what the golems were doing, then they would
join Ehrak.

As they entered
the court Thing came out to greet them. The golems were handling a
few minor cases for the records so the extremes to be allowed in
courtroom decorum and the reasons for those extremes could be
impressed on the judge.

[ This is a
case of that sour woman leading that man's young cattle to her
place with food, then claiming they were hers because they came to
her and she took care of them. ]

"...and I got
my money tied up in them there grazers! They's mine!"

"She done led
them over to thar!" the man shot back. "They's aplenty food there'n
my place fer 'em! Allus was, allus will be!"

"Sos they likes
my food better'n yourn!" she spat. "I done fed 'em 'n they's
mine!"

–
Both of
you fools shut the hell up! I never heard anything like this
before! You've both got a dry stream for brains! I demand that
whoever allowed this to get to court be tried for bringing
frivolous charges! Idiots!–

+Now, No, be
nice! What No means, and I agree with him in this limited case, is
the fact the defendant has purloined the property of the plaintiff
through subterfuge that is obvious, therefore defense has no
applicable....+

–
AHHH,
SHUT THE HELL UP! Purloined? Property of the plaintiff? Sheeeesh!
You vacuumdomed moron! I thought YOU were the one who made the rule
that no lawyereeze could be spoken in the courts? You're even more
an idiot than these slimewads!

–
Those
grazers ain't yours, Blubberlips! Your tricks don't mean nothin' in
this courtroom! Baggypants here owns the grazers, always did and
always will so long as he don't sign no bill of sale, got
it?–

"What about the
money I done spent fer food fer 'em?" she asked.

+Any and all
funds dispersed for unlawful pursuits, in exempletum, for grazer
comestibles that were to be employed in the mis....+

–
YEEEEEE! Here we go again! Get a scribe! Get a dictionary!
Get the hell out of here you airbrained brass candle
holder!

–
What
Dingdome is saying is that you spent the money – sure you did –
so's you could rip off What's-his-name's grazers so you eat the
loss! Any of the food you got left over you can eat, too, except
for the odd grazer that don't belong to you anyhow so I catch you
eatin' any of them and you get to camp in the dungeons! Free room
where you can eat all the crap you maybe got left!

–
Next
damned case, damnit!–

Z shook his
head as they went out into the courtyard.

[ In case you
wondered the golems are showing them things that they're NOT to
allow in court. ]

"I'm glad of
that!" Z said. "I thought maybe Maita had gone off the deep end
with those golems!"

They had a good
meal in Net's, then went to a play. The next six days were spent
enjoying the people and the world. They removed the castle late at
night and, after coming in the morning to say goodbye to their new
friends, Fale and Burl in particular, and to promise someday to
return they headed back to EC. A team was coming to offer Tlorg
membership in the empire. It was landing in Loosta about the time
they left the world. Kurk was with them on Maita when they left
Tlorg.

New Home for
Kurk

Z came from the
mountain to his terrace to sit on the lip of the pool. The red sun
was slowly rising over the ocean where Thing planted its gardens
far below the surface. He watched as the big Pluton, Kurk, came
along the beach and turned up the path. He meandered along looking
at the big camellias blooming as he came higher along the path. The
cymbidium orchids were spectacular in contrast. Suddenly the Pluton
fell flat on his face!

Thing, who had
grabbed Kurk around the ankles from under a camellia, sprung to
stare him in the eyes.

[ Like a tree
that rotted through at the base! ]

"You dirty!"
Kurk exclaimed, grabbing at the little Mentan, who sprang onto its
floater.

Thing flew to
the inlaid marble terrace where it climbed onto Z's shoulder. It
was innocently chewing on a roasted oormfh root when Kurk came up.
[ Why, Kurk! How very nice of you to drop in! And how have you
been? ]

They played
these childish tricks on one another constantly. Kurk fit into the
normal – for this bunch – routines at EC perfectly. All of them
knew Thing could now expect something to happen to it along the
same lines, they just didn't know when or what. That was the fun of
the game. Trying to stay ahead of the others' tricks.

Ehrak was home
on Zeena, the clamshell floater was retired, perhaps permanently.
The golems were in storage, Tlorg was in the empire and Maita was
back to being the emperor.

Now they were
planning another little trip. They were bored with being around EC,
though it had only been seventy two days since the trip "home" from
Tlorg. They had stopped at New Zule on the way back from Zeena
where Kurk was even more taken with those strange and wonderful
beings than he had thought possible. He'd met a Feach, some Acnians
– beings much like Z except they had large compound eyes and a
T-hypnotic talent – some Momes, an Eacheron and a few other races
he hadn't really sorted out yet. Kurk liked these people. All of
them he met. He even liked the Jornians he'd met on Tlorg.

This was going
to work out well.

There was a
click, then Tab, the robot detective and Kit, the other robot
detective, stepped out from the transmat portal there on Z's
terrace. Kurk had met the both of them a few days before when they
returned from the case they were working on for Maita. He fit right
in with them, too. He liked them both as he liked both of their
ships. It was going to be an interesting life from here on out!

Flight of the
Maita

Book 26

Just Normal
Business

© 1988 by C. D.
Moulton

Tab and Kit go
to Grandish to investigate possible cultural interference. They
discover an intelligent fungoid with psy powers that could do
enormous damage to the empire.

Critic
comment

Rather a
strange tale. It has elements I generally don’t care for, such as
psy powers. I do like the exploration of how a plant might think
and the secondary story is fair if a bit too goody-goody. Despite
its faults it is a good book.

–
IA Rtng:
***½

Contents

Grandish Question

Pleasant Place

Psy Repulsion

Place Your Bets

Course of Action

Chat With a Fungus

Very Bad News

Critical Conditions

Pride

Temporary Controls

Not That Easy

Research and Discovery

Learning Process

Mannerless Clod Meeting

Just Normal
Business

Grandish Question

Tab (Tabori R.
DeSixtee), robot detective extraordinaire for the Emperor Maita of
the Maitan Empire, a galaxy wide conglomeration of free traders
(Maita is also a machine, but no one knows that, except for its
crew, the Zulians, Tab, TRD-60, Kit and T6. And a few here and
there) entered his ship, TRD-60 (Better known simply as TR) to find
Kit, also a robot detective for Maita, waiting there for him.

TR is a part of
Tab as T6 is a part of Kit. They share the same "brain" when they
so desire, are always in close communication through special
radio/gravitic circuitry, but each also has its own distinct
personality. The two detectives and their ships are independently
intelligent, having been made.... But that's another story.

Tab is formed
like a Swaz, in the basic shape (K-form) of the Kheth (Which is
Kit's shape), the Tlorgians (Where Maita was at the moment) or the
Terrans. The difference was that, as the Swaz are amphibians, he
had a few odd fins, gills and lacked hair.

Kit is
indistinguishable from a Kheth, who are a reptilian people, though
much in the form of others named. The robots are made to be able to
mimic all functions of the organics they so closely resemble. Very
few ever guess they are machines.

TR and T6 have
machinery on board that can change the robots to resemble many
other types of lifeforms when necessary along with an ability to
disguise themselves in some ways.

While the two
detectives and their ships can and do communicate silently through
the built-ins they prefer to remain in the habit of using
vocalizations most of the time. That's primarily so they won't
forget at the wrong time and give their true natures away.

They each have
their own sense of humor, too. Maita has a very good sense of humor
and strongly believes in the value of such traits when dealing with
organics.

"Hey, Boss!" TR
greeted as Tab came into the pilot's dome. "Maita called. I'm going
to be needed for a few hours on Tlorg so you two can stay on T Six
'til I'm back.

"Maita also says the entire omniverse is in jeopardy
because of those magicians on Tlorg (
Vacations Don't Always Work
Out
) or
something such. I thought it was a joke, but Thing says it's all
too real." (Thing is a Mentan, a small being with tentacles, is a
member of the regular “crew” aboard Maita and is one of the most
intelligent beings known.) (Well, the Mentans.)

"We can handle
this here," Tab replied. "Kit and I'll be on Grandish disguised as
natives. T Six can stay under the ocean on call. You can return to
orbit until we find out what's going on there. This planet seems to
be the focus for some kind of deal. We have to find out what it
is.

"That'll take
awhile I suppose so we'll play it as we find it."

"Let's make
some kind of plan," Kit suggested. "T Six, run down what we have to
know."

T6 can use the
speakers on TR as TR can use those on T6. There are also speakers
on various floaters carried by Maita and the other ships any of
them can use.

It answered,
"Grandish is at a nexus for trade in this area. There isn't much
known about most of the world as more than half of it's
agricultural and doesn't concern itself with space travel and
empire. The world is restricted by their own insistence. It was
brought into the empire with a hegemonous group of worlds the
Eacherons contacted before coming into the Maitan Empire Traders
Guild. That's the only reason such a basically primitive world is
even ON a trade run. The people are mostly mammalian, look much
like Bentans but with more color and are fairly docile most of the
time, though they can act quite violently if provoked.

"There's some
kind of interference with their culture. We see the results, but
not the cause. We have to find the cause and motivations behind it.
My suggestion is to, as you noted, disguise yourselves as natives.
The society's mostly in an early industrial age on all except the
one continent where the spacers come. The transhippers there are
based on a large peninsula to the south and east so few of the
people are influenced by them.

"There's not
too much travel yet so we can set you up as businessmen in any
number of areas. There's good communication on any given continent,
but not so fast or good between them.