Flight of the Maita Supercollection 3: Solving Galactic Problems Collector's Edition (189 page)

They turned
around, started back down the creek and came to the first of the
sentries from this end. They were as careful to avoid those beams
and sensors going out as they were when coming in. They kept the
communication link in place as they went.

"It occurs to
me the fact that they're using mechanical sensors is a very telling
thing, but I'm not sure what it's telling us," Kit noted. "Except
that force, psychic or not, can only send, not receive. That could
be very important."

They made their
way into the lake and across to the far side above where vegetation
was affected. The floater from T6 came to report it hadn't found
anything of particular significance on its trip to the sea as Tab
and Kit sent full reports back to the ship.

"TR's returning and is in orbit," T6 reported. "We won't
communicate much. These who're doing this are alien to Grandish so
they’ll have the equipment to intercept us except on fastcom, which
isn't practical this close. We'll update in coded pulse from time
to time. If we need any help TR will be close at hand. It seems
something of an enigma as to how robots could be reached in such a
way as you seem to be. On the other side of that page, look at what
happened to Maita and the guys at eight plazsis (Lightyears) from
EC (
Tristar
). That was amplified psychic force of unbelievable power.
We can be sure there isn't any machine here designed as a gestalt
amplifier, but that doesn't mean that something on the order
doesn't exist. Maybe whoever's using the planet found some such
principle and is using it to keep the project, whatever it is,
safe."

"We can't
overlook anything," Tab replied. "Listen, T Six. Get in touch with
TR and have it contact Maita. They developed some sort of shield on
EC that may help us here. I know there's still a grid/circuit on
Thing that can activate the thing, as well as one embedded in Z's
skull that's activated through putting a crystal of some sort in a
secondary circuit on the information implant. Maita can tell us how
to program defense."

"Consider it
done," T6 replied. "I can contact Maita through the fastcom. They
can't detect it. We'll have to wait until Maita's free to find it.
The omniverse takes a little precedence over a problem here we
haven't ... I'm getting through."

They waited a
short while for the contact halfway across the galaxy to explain
how to wire a defense against psychic interference with the robots.
They would have to go to T6 for the process, but the floaters were
standing by so that was no problem. They still had several hours of
darkness. Maita ordered them to be extremely careful about psychic
abilities whether machine or organic because if there were
psychokinetic powers along with it such as telekinesis small bits
of their circuitry could be removed, leaving them for all intents
and purposes dead.

*Those powers
are nothing to fool with. I know!* Maita sent.

When the
implants and programs were in place they returned to the lake,
arriving about half an hour before dawn. The sunrise was almost as
spectacular as the sunset the night before.

"Do you feel
any different?" Kit asked.

"Definitely,"
Tab replied. "I didn't realize how much my mind was wandering. Play
back some of it yourself."

"I already
have!" Kit replied. "We wandered all around the subject! I can't
really believe how I felt about things!"

"Well, we have
some real problems here, but maybe we can handle them now," Tab
said. "I have a few questions that'll be answered automatically –
such as; can that power, whatever it is, detect us? Who knows we're
here?"

"I still think
the fact those detectors are there says a lot about whatever it
is," Kit insisted. "Maybe they know how to broadcast psychic
energy, but not how to receive it. Maybe they can't direct it. What
I want to know is how they can experiment or work with it if it's
strong enough to affect us. Think what an organic must go through
to try to work close to anything like that! How can they keep their
minds on what they're doing?"

"Maybe there's
some remote control," Tab replied after a little thought. "It could
be that the workers close to it are directed through the thing
itself."

"Mental
slavery? Is that what it's about?" Kit asked. "I certainly hope
not! There're any number of robots without direct intelligence to
do anything any organic can do and more. What would be the
point?"

"Somehow I
think it's much deeper than that," Tab answered. "I can't fathom
what purpose would be served with organic slaves. They're not
efficient, cost effective, trustworthy – everything a programmed
robot would be. Slavery simply doesn't make any sense. Once you
have enough technology slaves are useless. WORSE than useless! You
have to spend so much time and funds maintaining organics that can
be eliminated with properly designed and constructed robots.

"It's something
else ... but what? What are we up against here?"

"One thing's
sure. We have to stop it from affecting these people," Kit said.
"Another is that if Maita issues a direct warning of that kind we'd
better damned well beware! If there's one thing we both know it's
that Maita doesn't scare at all easily."

"I think you'd
better study along the lakeshores during the daylight hours," T6
put in. "Wait for darkness to return to that pumping station or
whatever. You've shown you can detect their sentry points in the
darkness. We can't know if that – whatever it is – can change the
positions of all of those sensors at will. Try to come up with some
sort of plan, but I doubt we can do much until we know something of
the nature of our quarry."

"How true!" Tab
and Kit said at the same time.

Psy Repulsion

The lake was
still with only a slight breeze. It was more than normally quiet,
too. There were occasional birds, but they didn't seem to stay more
than a few moments, then flew on. Even the fish seemed to seek the
far end of the lake.

"It seems to be
a general thing," Kit noted. "The closer to the stream down there,
the closer to the source, the more animal life of most sorts seem
to avoid it, but there were insects to within a few meters of the
sensors along the branch creek.

"Insects have
no considering mind. They don't have much of a survival instinct,
either."

"It doesn't
seem to act much through instinct," Tab replied. "It interferes
with the ability to reason through things. It affects perspective
and values."

"We can't view
ourselves as examples of anything specific," Kit reasoned. "We're
machines. The amazing thing is it affects us at all!"

"I was judging
more on what Lope said and what we've since observed," Tab
corrected. "My problem's about what the motive is behind it. It
seems to be a straight biological experiment of some kind, but the
value of those type things is generally openly shared with other
scientific communities. It isn't done on restricted planets, ever,
though there may be something native here being used for a base.
That's something we have to determine.

"T Six, check
through all the records of this world. See if there's anything
suspicious along those lines. Check with EC, too. University will
have registration of that kind of thing if it's done legally, but
we know it's not registered there or that would have been found
before we came.

"TR can handle
that from orbit. It can contact Maita for information. All the
equipment needed for this type of research had to be shipped in so
maybe we can find who's getting it. Work backward from there. Any
lines of research any of us can come up with, go with it. We don't
have anything at all to go on yet. A dead end is one less thing to
worry about."

T6 didn't
answer, but they knew it received the tight beam and would act on
the request. They would wait until they were in a much safer place
to hold any two-way conversations.

The rest of the
way around the lake didn't show much. The other creeks had been
checked with scanning floaters. Nothing to investigate there. That
would at least limit the problem to a small area – they hoped.

It was more
than an hour until sunset when they returned to the mouth of the
creek where the facility, whatever it was, was located. They
stopped to record all their ideas and findings on a small com
floater while they waited for deeper darkness. When it was fully
dark they again paddled up the creek, followed the branch, avoided
all the sensors and came to the little path. They pulled the skiff
above the water behind some low shrubs, then carefully made their
way to the knoll where they believed the pumping station was
located.

The entrance
was behind the hill among a pile of rocks. The internal sensors
built into the two traced the pipeline into the stream.

Inside the hill
was only the station. There were several pumps with pipes coming
from various directions to mix together in a large tank, there were
various chemicals being added there to neutralize the more
dangerous substances, then the mixture was pumped out into the
stream.

Tab hooked the
direct shielded line to Kit so they could communicate without being
detected. "They seems to have some little concern about pollution,
at least!" he remarked.

"Direct
dangerous pollution would be checked with a lot of public pressure
behind it so that doesn't mean a whole lot," Kit returned. "If they
tried a little harder they could eliminate what little danger there
is. This doesn't look like there's anything that would have to be
brought from offworld being used. Maybe the equipment in the lab or
whatever was brought in, though.

"Shall we try
to get inside?"

"I think we
have no choice," Tab replied. "It's going to be a matter of finding
the entrance. I don't know where to look so it's a matter of
searching until we find it. I'll go south, you go north. If you
find it come back and wait here. We go in together. Nobody does
anything alone until we know what's happening here. Remember
Maita's warning!"

"Fair enough,"
Kit said. "We'll have to avoid sensors and detectors so let's
record all we find. We can hook up when we meet back again. We
might need the information later, even those in the wrong
direction."

They
disconnected the line, went outside and moved apart. Tab found the
main entrance an hour and a half later, then returned to the
station to await Kit, who, it turned out, had also found an
entrance. They hooked together again to report.

"Do you think
it's two separate facilities or one big one?" Kit asked. "It could
be an emergency escape, too. If it's illegal they'd want a back
door. Make an internal map, we'll check it.... It's two separate
things. We have about six more hours of darkness so we'll have to
get out of here in five. Two hours for each facility and a half
hour for moving around."

"Yours is
closer if we go over that ledge," Tab said. "Keep a lookout for
sensors. Let's move!"

They headed
over the ledge, dropped on the far side and made the entrance in
about six minutes. They watched it for a few minutes, then moved to
get inside. It was locked from the outside with a simple
padlock-type mechanism so was no trouble for the robots to open.
They went inside to find offices filled with files. There was a map
on the wall that showed the place to have ten sleeping rooms along
a hall behind the room they were in. Kit signaled to hook up the
com line again.

"This is
general offices and quarters," Kit said. "We can record everything
we think has any significance to study closer later. There aren't
any computers to access so it'll all be written down if they even
keep records here. I'd give it fifty-fifty odds unless they're
actual scientists. Then they would keep careful records,
regardless.

"Well, maybe
whatever is behind this can stop them from keeping records. We'll
even have to wait on that! We have to be fast. I'll take all those
over there and you take this side. I estimate three quarters of an
hour if all we do is record."

Tab agreed,
then they set to work. It took them a few minutes more than they
planned, but they still had plenty of time when they finished. They
headed for the second entrance across the mountain. There was a
path of sorts through a small artificial cut in the mountain, but
there were several types of sensors in it. Tab offered the com lead
again.

"We can't
handle all the sensors at once," he warned. "We can climb over
those rocks if there aren't any pressure switches under them. I
think there would be. Too obvious a path if you want to get around
the cut."

Kit agreed.
They went back a short distance, found a rocky area they could
manipulate their way across and did so. They arrived at the second
entrance with only an hour and couple of minutes to use. The inside
of this entrance was slower going as the lock was on the inside
here and was of a deadbolt type. It was easy enough for a robot to
open, but they reasoned that, as the other one was locked from the
outside, the one who locked it must be here so they were far more
open to discovery in this facility.

There were
sensors of various kinds around the entrance, but they were spaced
in such a manner anyone who knew about some of them wouldn't know
about the others and would be caught. The ability of the robots to
"see" the sensor beams made it fairly easy to avoid any of
them.

The ability to
make a microscopic examination of the floor also saved them in two
places where there were pressure switches below the floor. The
slight distortion in the flatness of the apparently smooth surface
of the poured concrete floor caused microscopic cracks in a very
distinctive pattern every time a floor flexed even the fraction of
a millimeter necessary.