How the Flight of the Maita Series Came to Be

by CD Moulton

that and the plot lines were coming together beautifully. Book three was going to establish the empire with Maita as the Emperor, but it was to be kept from the people of the empire that Maita was a machine for hundreds of years.

  I realized there would have to be a villain. I had introduced the Immins through Doe in book one. That was greatly expanded in book three, Pirates, when the Maitan Empire was formally established and the theory of societies was begun as a major interest of Thing. That would develop into socio-math (Thing reduces everything to math), which brought my thoughts to psychology of societies as opposed to psychology of individuals. It was another theme to work into the series.

  Book four was right on the line. Tristar brought Empire Center (EC) into the series to remain. I had a big problem there in that I didn't want to branch into fantasy, but had to establish EC and it had to be different from any other imaginable place in the galaxy. I'd already planned some of the later books that would depend on things that didn't exist outside of fantasy. The major problem would be in explaining it in scientific terms.

  Okay. There was an intelligent spaceship. We aren't so far from making intelligent machines. Covered.

  That ship was FTL. I had to find a way to make that reasonable other than warp-drive-Star Trek-don't-explain-it. If the series was to be coherent it must be explained.

  I've always had my personal theory about what the universe is, where it came from and how it works and I believe FTL travel presents only a small problem. Carrying enough "fuel" to reach the velocities. I took time out to write down what I felt about the universe, then to formulate it. Some of the ideas are in the articles at the end of this. The more I learn the more certain I become that I am correct. Every test is positive. Every prediction is met (those that don't take a lot more than my lifetime, anyhow). The science is solid and allows for some of the things I’ve added.

  The first book through the fourth didn't have much humor, while I've always felt that humor was as important a part of life as anything else. The basis was there for Maita to develop a sense of humor. Z had one, as did Tranz and Tom. Thing was studying humor and was actually slowly beginning to develop its own. Thing is an empath so could feel the way humor affected those around it and it enjoyed the feelings. The twists of logic appealed to it as well and the deliberate "misinterpretation" of words that Z called the "Gracie Allen" type of comedy.

  This naturally led to the idea of "running jokes" to thread throughout the series. Some of those forms would merely be expressions of deep affection based on Z's psychological resistance (inhibitions) to telling anyone he loved them. Instead, he made little sneaky insults designed to get a humorous response such as when preteens do so. Z is stuck in that juvenile mode in his reactions to what he perceives to be sexual situations. (Most of them aren't, but as Thing (or someone) points out in one book or another (Growing Up?) "When I say love, what do you think of? 'Making love' – or the emotion you had for your parents?"

  It's a matter of psychological conditioning from our childhood and is with all of us. In the society I'm part of if I were to tell another man I love him he'd look at me funny at best and would probably think I'm gay and coming on to him. Even a close friend who would know better.

  I warned you that I'm always off on one tangent or another.

  Tlorg was an idea that was there from the first. It only needed a way to make it Sci-Fi and not fantasy – and the universal theory made it not only possible, but likely!

  The idea for the M-82nds came about there and was something I was never sure about until book 32. They were used very sparingly because their part was 'WAY into the fantasy idea. Heleemius fit into that book.

  I introduced the golems in book five. They were to be short-term characters, but a friend, another author, read the book, said it was very good slapstick BECAUSE of the golems and demanded that I write them into future works – so I eventually did.

  Next I was somewhat influenced by Isaac Asimov's robot detectives, but saw a great flaw in Ike's presentation in that they were NOT independently intelligent beings and those "Laws of Robotics", though very much what a bunch of politicians would want, were totally unworkable and silly. If there are a number of races who would the "Not harm or allow to come to harm" bit about "human beings" apply to? Not any but Z, as he was the only Terran, thus human being, generally known in the empire.

  So. Maita made Tab and TRD-60, an intelligent robot detective and his intelligent ship. Tab was in the form of a Swaz, a character type introduced in a collection of shorts I'd written in a story called Heku. (The Vood would figure in a number of books and Tab or the Swaz would be very important to that. There were a lot of other characters and races taken from that collection, Serendipitous SF and Such Strangenesses, (SSFSS) who would appear in the Maita series.) This was the book where the Immins came into prominence as the evil race. The Inktans, Ternz and Feach are introduced and will be permanent members of the empire, Feach becoming the greatest medical world in the empire. University and Hospital are proposed and the Acnians are discovered.

  While I'm on this tangent, SSFSS was written mostly after the first three books of the Maita series, but Heku was a rather long short story that had been submitted to a magazine and got rave reviews from the editor BUT was either too long or too short. I felt changing it would ruin it so shrugged and said, "It figures!" (Much more colorfully than that, though!)

  I then wrote a few more things, some humor, some horror, some character studies. Then the first Maita book, then some stories, then another Maita book, then a murder mystery, then a bunch more shorts, etc. etc.

  The SF shorts incorporated ideas for stories and characters that fit very well into the Maita series so were used. The Inktans, T6, Rod Steele, the Acnians and who knows what else came from those shorts.

  Back to the subject.

  Tab and TR become members of "The Crew" at the end of the book and the Maitans are discovered, as is Maita Searcher, another intelligent machine.

  Okay, I had my society and the totally evil guys so had to get a counter to the evil. The next book introduced the Zulians, who would fill that particular niche. They were as totally "good" and respected as the Immins were inherently "evil" and despised. It also introduced the berserker, which was a mis-programed intelligent military machine.(Intelligent and military in th same sentence? Yeah! Right!) It would prove an on-going problem because it could produce clones of itself. The crew find Library and get a hint of an ancient empire that for some unknown reason abandoned space. My author friends derided the fact I had written a dozen or more short stories that would have been better suited to a dozen full-length novels meant I would run out of ideas at this rate!

  I suppose I might. Some day.

  This was the start of the conscious dependence on psychological points. Library's builders would have to be produced later and an explanation for their abandoning such a magnificent gesture as Library tendered.

  The point of the discovery of Library was NOT to lay the groundwork for another book at the time, but that's how ideas come to me. While writing that one it occurred to me that there was an area to explore and explain.

  The next book concentrated on Tab and TR and the next was a collection of shorts featuring Tab and TR. The Newlitch Problem introduced yet another extreme low of the Immin race and led to the discovery of the Inktans, among others, who would soon become the most highly respected scholars in the empire (in a few more books). This was another case of an idea engendering more ideas. (I just wrote down an idea for a story about Tab, TR and Inktans! That's how my mind works.)

  The psychology of dealing with the Immins' excesses solidified enough that later experiences would be modeled after what Tab found was workable. He found they were gullible and greedy, so that could be used against them, and they were extremely superstitious. Their system of logic allowed, even demanded seemingly outrageous responses. The females were borderline insane in their desire to become a queen or empress. They were both arrogant and egomaniacal.
Their thought processes were primitive and they were easily fooled if one fed on their superstitious natures and inability to comprehend where reality ended and fantasy began. A woman who lived in a fantasy where she was queen of the universe could easily be manipulated with the trappings of primitive luxury.

  "Call Me Tab" combined standard detection methods with technology, but Tab remarked that for every scientific advance there was an advance in methods and technology to overcome it.

  Book ten featured everyone and introduced the Woost, who will appear in the rest of the series. Tab and Z work together in a society that is being driven into economic slavery by a group of crooks. The TTH14 drive is tested and will be used. The crew meet the M-82nds and some of the original characters die (of natural causes).

  Ten was the original cut-off for the series, but it was already expanded to twenty. The differing personalities of the continuing characters were slowly defined and the "games" they played were established.

  It had occurred to me from the start that humor was an absolute necessity among beings who were going to be virtually immortal or life would become intolerable. Most people, to the amazement of Z, refused the life extension. They wanted a healthy life, but didn't want to