Flight of the Maita Supercollection 3: Solving Galactic Problems Collector's Edition (211 page)

Well, Nortich
and Givzoo were safe now and the spores at the labs were destroyed
so that was a bit less for him to worry about. His passives showed
him there was no power whatever from the place.

Was that it?
Had TR detected some power use by the fungoid and moved to
eliminate it? There was no least doubt TR would go to extraordinary
lengths to ensure the safety of Tab as Tab would for TR. They were,
after all, parts of the same being.

It was now
highly unlikely the fungoids under that hill had any automatic
feeders or servos working unless they had gravity feeds. With
Givzoo and Nortich gone and the spores stopped from getting
offplanet the fungoid was defeated completely. All they had to do
was to abandon this world for a few decades for the control bioform
to eliminate the fungoid forever. It was only a matter of getting
to Volich and getting the hell out of there.

Tab went
carefully around the hill again, then over to the one where the
fungoid was hidden. There were no sensors working without power so
he wasn't in such dire need of caution. He was still in danger from
the fungoid, of course. It could still remove pieces of his body if
it could firmly locate him, but it couldn't "see" him with the
shields up and the psy part of his mind off.

Maita warned
earlier about the thing developing an ability to get past the
shields so that would have to be considered. Don't get cocky or you
might get dead. Bear in mind also that Maita suggested another
danger. What if that second worry was real? What if the thing could
develop enough TK power to directly remove spores from Kuhlicht?
The power needed to get a few million spores to the nearer star
systems, one of which was Grandish Prime, was slight if it encased
them in something it grew that was insignificant in mass but strong
enough to protect them from space and fired away. To move an object
that massed at one gram, which would be enough mass for thousands
of spores and the encasement, would take.... At close to light
speed out here, about six MGS stams! That was next to nothing!

Okay. If the
spores could live for four years in the cases they could reach
anything within three point five plazsis. This was an area of the
galaxy with quite a density of star systems. Seven total, four of
which had planets that would support the fungoid. Using one
successful targeting as a jumping-off point if the thing was
undetected on that primitive world it could then fire its little
cases of spores by the millions. It would start in as little as six
MGS years.

In other words
this fight wasn't won yet! Not so long as that thing had any viable
point at all anywhere in the galaxy.

Tab shook his
head in a very ordinary organic manner as he searched for the
entrance to the hill's hiding place. Volich had found it so he
could.

It was behind
some low shrubs and rocks and was an entrance to a natural cave.
There was a burned stump by the entrance so Tab was sure a small
fungoid had once grown there. It had communicated that the cave was
there to the fungoid in the labs – so that was where Zantoo was
sent to grow the clones.

Was that
logical? How would the little fungoid be able to detect a cave?

Bugs, frogs,
night moving rodents and many other cave dwellers would pass right
by it every night. Simple enough. Send Zantoo to see what size the
caves were, then use them.

Okay, before
you go in check for something external to do. Something to distract
the fungoids in there, but that appears to be natural.

Tab searched
the hill thoroughly, found the feeder – which was definitely run
through gravity – and dropped a rock on the thin plastic line
carrying the mixture into the caves. It would take a short while
for the dribble's stopping to be noticed, but perhaps now there
wouldn't be enough food to produce much of a sporing. There also
wouldn't be so much for energy, thus for TK.

Go slow. Be
sure. After another check Tab went back to the entrance. He was
about to go inside when he noticed something by some rocks to one
side of the entrance. He checked to find Volich unconscious where
she had crawled under the outcropping to inject herself with
tranquilizer.

First things
first. Tab picked her up, carried her around the hill and over to
the next one near Zantoo's grave. He considered calling in the
floater there and then, but decided that wouldn't be safe so
carried her to Givzoo's ship. He used his own powerpack to call TR
on the fastcom unit there to tell it where she was. Kit would come
after her soon. It was a good thing Tab hadn't called a floater to
take her to TR because TR was more than a plazsi away!

Tab stopped the
transmission quickly. Fastcom uses truly exorbitant amounts of
energy and his personal packs weren't inexhaustible.

Tab then walked
back to the hill where the fungoids were hidden, took a very
real-looking deep breath (Had there been anyone to see it) and went
in. There was a large floater behind him with a phase shifter
weapon on it. It operated by interfering with the normal motion of
molecules making them vibrate radically, thereby breaking them
apart. Only vapor was left after a phase shifter was fired at
anything.

The entrance
was more than head high, but wasn't wide enough for the floater to
follow him. That wasn't something to be at all comfortable with! He
considered his options, then went carefully ahead while the floater
went to hover directly above the feeder line. If things went badly
the weapon could fire through the hill.

Tab meant to
try to communicate with the fungoids for his own satisfaction. He
worked out a way while coming back from carrying Volich out.

He opened a
little door behind his ear, removed a circuit board, unrolled a
long gang-wire cord he had taken from Givzoo's ship, connected a
number of leads, then moved a quarter of the way around the cave
from where he left it sitting. It was the psy part of his mind. He
was connected to it by remote through the wire.

He turned it on
and felt startlement from the fungoid.

"Don't attack!"
he said quickly. "There would be no point to it."

"Fel again, I
see," came whispering into his mind. "I made a major mistake in not
destroying you in the two times where I had you in my power."

"You never had
me in your power," Tab replied. "Please don't waste our time and
energy on such unimportant things. You are now finally defeated
completely. None of your spores can have possibly survived at the
lab building. The lightning strike caused a firestorm in there. It
melted all of the tubes and vials. You are defeated on
Grandish.

"This could
have been your world. It's a pleasant place. I simply don't
understand why you feel the need to expand in such a manner."

"That is not
true," came whispering in reply. "You expand. Your empire expands
constantly. You seize power on world after world. By this time you
will have taken over Grandish. It is a universal drive."

"You've been in
the minds of several members of the empire so you know full well
that isn't true," Tab replied. "We have outgrown the desire to
conquer. Any race not past that primitive stage isn't considered
for membership in the Maitan Empire. The Grandish want to know
other peoples and to trade with them. That's all the empire is.
It's a big trading guild. The Grandish will bring craftsmanship and
beauty to the empire and the empire will bring knowledge and
sharing to them.

"The Klaft were
working on an experiment to aid all of the empire without thought
of personal gain when they created you. The Feach student you
killed is from a race that has many times come to the aid of others
even at great personal expense. The same is true of the Mord and
the Sampth races. The Zulians are the most loved and respected race
in the empire, yet they disdain any power or control over
others.

"There would be
much you could offer to the empire and as much it could offer
you."

"I will give
power over myself to no one!" the fungoid snapped. "I see you do
not respond to my power because you have tricked me! You are a
machine! You are no more than one of these servos! So! Here is my
answer to your empire! I know a way to get beyond anything your
puny little empire can do. In two cycles I will be emperor. You
will all bow to my power. HERE is my answer!"

The little
circuit board containing the psy talent flew into component
pieces.

"That was
stupid," Tab said aloud. "Now I'm still here and you can't
communicate with me. You don't even know I exist. As far as the two
cycle thing goes you're not going to be able to get any spores off
this world so that plan's finished!

"I wonder if
you're really insane or if you merely think in a very different way
than I do. I guess I'll never know."

He noticed
there were two of the fungoids that were beginning to develop a
grainy look and a darkening color around the fringes, denoting they
would begin sporing in two days or a little more, depending on how
much psy programming they would have to undergo. They would then be
ready to be encased and sent into space. Tab didn't doubt that was
the thing that would destroy the empire in "two cycles" and was to
place the fungoid in the position of emperor.

Tab went back
out where he called the floaters in. The hill was reduced to a hole
that was eight meters deep and forty across. There was no molecule
of the fungoid left intact. He then called TR, who reported Volich
was aboard and was just then finishing the detoxification
process.

"I'll come in
to get you in a few minutes," TR said. "Maybe you can find
something to occupy your time until I arrive. I'll also send
floaters to search out and destroy any fungoids that are growing
there. They'll all be fairly close. There were no indications many
got far away from the labs."

"Are you
completely crazy!?" Tab demanded, aghast. "Have you forgotten those
balloons?"

"To tell you
the truth, yes," TR replied. "Volich said we could trace the data
back to determine how many were launched. The spores were in vials
designed to break open when the balloons touched down. We found all
of them and treated the areas for kilometers around them with the
bioform. We've also burned any that were already sprouting at the
time the bioform was released. There ARE no fungoids anywhere on
that planet except in your immediate area.

"You might want
to find something to keep your little mind busy for an hour or
so."

"I'll repair
Givzoo's ship," Tab replied. "I'll ... Are you thinking what I'm
thinking?"

"So! Find them
already!" TR snapped. "Rather obvious when you think of it."

Tab trotted
back to Givzoo's ship, went inside and began a microscopic search
of it. The spores that were exposed on open surfaces and so forth
weren't enough to bother with as he'd sterilize the ship in space.
After awhile Kit came in to join him in the search.

"What makes you
so sure there are any spores on this ship and who would ever
release them if there are?" Kit asked.

"It's the kind
of thing the fungoid wouldn't miss," Tab replied. "We can bet
Zantoo was made to bring some spores on board. The probe originally
showed that Givzoo, Volich and Nortich hadn't brought any in.

"Did you probe
them again, TR?"

"Yo!" TR
answered. "They were given the purgatives again. It wouldn't miss
an opportunity, either. They didn't take anything aboard, but we
did find a nagging suspicion in Nortich's mind about something that
came to her on the psy broadcast. There were two large spores
hidden in another cave. They were fully programmed."

"That would be
part of the pattern," Tab agreed. "It would make those and a few
intermediate ones as a matter of instinct. Did you find those
intermediate ones?"

"No," TR
said.

"Then that's
probably what we're looking for," Kit replied. "They'll be
somewhere aboard this ship or they're somewhere on Kuhlicht. We
have to find them."

"You know, I
have an idea," Tab said.

"Oh? Treat it
kindly, it's in a very strange place," TR quipped.

"Surely Zantoo
checked to see if the ship could leave here," Tab continued,
ignoring the barb. "The moder was removed. The power fuses were
removed. Volich put them behind the TTH coil housings. She told us
that."

"The spores
wouldn't be put that close to so much energy," Kit said. "It would
... be perfect!"

Kit and Tab
went to the main console where Kit turned out the fuse panel,
looked with microscopic vision (Though that wasn't necessary. They
were there in plain sight) and nodded to Tab, who rolled the moder
casement down. He looked behind it and grinned.

"Twelve of them
here so there'll be twelve of them there," Kit said. "Neat
arrangement!"

The spores were
in little plastic boxes with springs on the lids – springs that the
robots could see with their specialized visions, but that a
repairman couldn't.

"Worker turns
this out to tune the moder, finds some little jewelry cases, opens
the lids, gets nothing but dust. It would be natural to open them
all just to see if there was a jewel left in any of them," Tab
agreed. "What's a little dust? It'll blow away on the wind!"

"There's a
small wire in back of the fuses," Kit said. "Exactly enough to
cause the instruments to say there's a problem so there would be a
repair check of the fuse box. Same scenario, same result."

They repaired
the ship, called TR to meet them in low orbit, took the ship into
near space and thoroughly sterilized it. TR sent a microwave
generator it used to cover every centimeter of the ship, then
Givzoo, Volich and Nortich were transferred aboard while TR
sterilized itself. Givzoo would take his own craft to Grandish with
Kit and the other Klaft aboard as passengers while TR would take
Tab to land on the jetty near the now-famous glass plant. They
would spend some time there before finishing their plans on
Grandish.