Flight of the Maita Supercollection 3: Solving Galactic Problems Collector's Edition

by Moulton, CD

  "I don't see," Happ said.

  "If the planet was spinning the weight to one side could cause it to shoot off in a long spiral, increasing speed as it went. The weight would lead the overall direction of the flight path," Z lectured. "As the two suns are mutually orbiting we can't find where or when the thing flew out of orbit, itself. It tried to orbit both suns, but the wobble made it fly off at ninety degrees. Anything else and it would be orbiting the entire system or would be in one of the stars. It isn't in a star, and it isn't in orbit around the system.

  "It can be found. We can't know where it went. It can't be more than a thousand plazsis away – probably just a hundred or so – but we can't find a dark body in that volume of space."

  *There's nothing for it to have perturbed either so we can't trace that way. I'll put out on fastcom that there's a planet that may have a large supply of psiltripium bulging out of its surface somewhere in that volume of space. The trader'll find it!*

  [ That's right! The wobbling in the spin may throw the psiltripium to the surface out of the stabilizing gravity of those stars. The planet will also be cooling so the psiltripium might well be actually sitting very near to the surface. It isn't entirely impossible. If enough of it collected in one lump it could tear loose and be in orbit around the original planet as a moon! ]

  *It'll be a great adventure so there will be a lot of traders out here very soon. Well, Draq is next on the list. I certainly don't care to sit around here looking for a lump of psiltripium!*

  "Maita, may I go home?" Happ asked. "I'm afraid I am suddenly getting homesick . It is very hard because I want to be with you, but I am...."

  [ It's all right. We're enjoying your company, too. I'm aware what the longing for home can be. Z and Maita can both tell you that! ]

  Maita set course for Krofpth and they were soon landing. There were several traders already there. All of them were preparing to head for the psiltripium planet's estimated area of space. Maita communicated with them and explained to them what had been discovered to that point and what had merely been assumed.

  The people of Krofpth were slowly adjusting to the new system and most were doing well. The politicians didn't like it much, but they had little power. TAR-1 had always had absolute power on Krofpth so there wasn't really much difference. TAR-1 was the most efficient known planetary administrator in the empire so Maita gave it a territory that included the entire galactic dome. It would control the entire area in the way Maita controlled the empire.

  *That makes you an empire within an empire. The Krofpth Empire is now much larger than it was at its height. This time it won't fall into the trap of accepting its own charges of guilt. The emotionally irrational time is past. It's putting a lot of responsibility back on you at a bad time, but the Krofpth are ready for it. You're a resilient race. I believe TAR One will be a tremendous help there.*

  "The Maitan Empire and TAR One can run things," Happ agreed. "We will join the traders guild and can justly be proud of those beacons and Library. Those are lasting symbols that the Krofpth do their part in what Maita describes as the family of life in the galaxy."

  [ That's my phrase! Maita couldn't come up with such a deep and apt description! It can only repeat Z's trite worn out phrases! ]

  "You mean such a flowery and tired cliche’! You know damned well how you always overdo anything!" Z said.

  *Thank you, Z. Happ, ask your friends if they'd like a meal of fried Mentan – or would they prefer roasted?*

  "I'm afraid it would be far too stringy and tasteless," Happ shot back. Happ was, by that time, familiar with the game, but this was the first time he joined in to that extent. Thing, who was riding Z's shoulder at the time, sprung to pin Happ's arms to his side and to bend its eyes around to stare into Happ's.

  [ What you say, Pal? ]

  "Maybe parboiled? Slow? I know! Barbecued with that sauce Z makes for the grazer ribs!" Happ continued. "Use a lot of extra tenderizer. MMmfpth!"

  Thing wrapped a tentacle around his mouth. Happ opened it and held the tentacle between sharp teeth.

  *Hey! Don't play with your food! Wait 'til I cook it!*

  They played awhile to the delight of the people, then Thing and Z went aboard Maita after saying their good fortunes.

  *Draq?*

  [ Yes. ]

  "Why not?" Z asked.

  Political Non-answers

  *That's Draq. It seems a peaceful place with a fairly high civilization. Surprisingly unpolluted. Not much information, but I think a good place.*

  [ What about radio and such? ]

  *None being used except for some shortrange stuff.*

  "With all those buildings and planes and even a couple of satellites? That doesn't make sense! They have to communicate among all that stuff! It's too close for fastcom!"

  *They're mostly using advanced fiberoptics and narrowly focused beamed light transmissions. Radio is shortrange for use on their servos and machinery. We can land. They have a sort of spaceport – or a place where they launch the satellites and probes. The lightbeam system is very good! Laser technology. They have a probe in near the sun that uses low infra-red in a band the sun doesn't emit much in so there's little interference. I can detect that and others near the outer planets.*

  [ Light beams aren't apt to produce so much static as radio. Ion storms don't affect them too much. I vote to land. We aren't going to learn much out here. ]

  "Yo! Head for the pads, Maita."

  They went aground slowly so they could be warned off if the people so desired, but they weren't contacted at all until they were aground, when a car came out to them with two of the people on it. They were mostly mammalian, but with some uncharacteristic traits, such as scales on their backs as well as hair on their heads and legs. One of those in the car was obviously female and the other was obviously male. Z waved for them to come aboard, but then they still had no way to communicate with them. Maita said to take them to room two where they went enthusiastically. They were looking over every detail of the ship. Maita used the holovid screen and pictures to indicate the use of the probe for language. The female volunteered to use the machine and had explained through pictures how it might cause a severe headache.

  Less than half an hour later Z placed the crystal in his ear socket. Thing and Maita were already speaking with Nol, the male. Kaf, the female, had removed the helmet and joined them.

  *Everyone can go to the pilot's dome where we can talk. It's comfortable there. Kaf can take the capsule on the console plate. It will alleviate the headache, but might make her a bit intoxicated.*

  The two were fascinated by the elevator and the artificial gravity and were excited about walking around on the "ceiling" with the ground only three or four meters under their heads. Kaf was a little silly, but Maita said that was expected with the painkiller.

  "You don't seem at all surprised to see us," Z said. "We can see you're advanced enough to know there are others out there."

  "Oh, there are legends about a whole empire out there," Kaf replied. "Fifty or more worlds. It's supposed to be benevolent. The legends say more than a hundred, but we figure an exaggeration of at least half."

  *There were two hundred sixty three member and held worlds in the Krofpth Empire a quarter million years ago. There was no exaggeration .*

  Each time Maita spoke Nol and Kaf looked around for the source of the voice.

  [ That's the ship's computer. It gives out information and asks questions at times it decides are proper. I'm not able to speak directly so must use the speakers through a translator. We refer to the ship as Maita whenever we wish to address it directly. ]

  "It is intelligent," Nol said matter-of-factly. "We once tried to develop machine intelligence, but there are many questions of a nature we couldn't answer so we decided to wait. We're a very patient people in some ways."

  [ What kinds of questions? Perhaps we can answer them for you. We know of entirely machine societies. We personally know several intelligent ships, suc
h as Maita, Theron, Searcher and a few others. We're all friends. ]

  "What if emotions are part of intelligence?" Kaf asked. "Would our creation of an intelligence with no one to relate with be a painful thing to it? Did we have any right to construct a being who would live a very extended life in emotional pain?"

  "And what if that intelligent machine was simply bored?" Nol continued. "A machine intelligence would have to be very diversified. It would be capable of complete knowledge of a subject. Then what would happen to it? Extended boredom and no feeling of purpose?"

  *Yes. Purpose is a huge part of the solution to your problem. I'm primarily a spaceship and was programmed with great curiosity so my friends and I spend a great part of our time exploring – as we're presently doing. Z has figured that should we explore one new planet every day we'll still be discovering new ones in a hundred thousand years. I admit I was somewhat bored for my first thousand years of existence, but I was designed as a spaceship and was in constant use so I could find ways to stay interested. The point is that you must never build the machine ONLY to be intelligent. It must be one with a specific and useful job to do. A direction. A purpose.*

  "I never thought much about it, but all the intelligent machines we've found were built with a purpose," Z agreed. "Theron's a spaceship. Searcher's a planoforming research station. There are two other ships who keep in contact with us. They're partners with their organic pilots – one doesn't own an intelligent being, machine or not – and really enjoy the business and all the travel they're used for."

  [ One more thing. You must never build an intelligent machine without the ability to turn itself off or even destroy itself at a time and in a manner of its own choosing. That's a mistake made by others in the past. It's both thoughtless and unconscionably cruel. ]

  "We've thought of that," Kaf said. "What if the machine were doing something vital where it MUST NOT stop? Something.... Well, what would happen if Maita were to decide it didn't desire further existence while you were in another mode?"

  *Unlikely. If I'm in another mode I'm in use as a spaceship. I'm designed to be a spaceship. I'm content – at worst – when I'm in use. If I were to decide to stop it would more logically be while damaged or stored in some hangar. That's the basic value of my curiosity, you see. So long as there's an unexplored world I'm curious. There are billions of other galaxies, too.*

  "I think I see what you're saying," Kaf said. "It's hard to argue against what is obviously total refutation of my arguments by your existence.

  "You said the Krofpth Empire WAS of that size? A quarter of a million years ago? What happened to it?"

  [ The empire was like a badly programmed machine. It couldn't see any reason to continue so it simply ... turned itself off. We represent the Maitan Empire, which is a galaxywide trading guild more than anything else. The Krofpth Empire was based on dominance and conquest. The fact it was benevolent didn't change the fact it was also pointless so it was doomed at the outset. Expansion merely for the sake of feeling powerful can never work because there comes a time when each added city or country or world must simply add to the problems. The structure will then collapse from internal weight, if you understand the metaphor. ]

  "We know what that is!" Nol said. "It almost happened to us, though on a very small relative scale.

  "We had a large number of political divisions, each of which demanded the productivity of its citizens to the end of expanding itself. Once – after thousands of failures – world government was reached the only way to go was for ever more control and that meant more and more politicians, which meant more and growing discontent, which meant protest, which meant repression, which meant police, which meant bureaucracies, which meant a spiraling increase of all phases, which meant ultimate collapse. I doubt there was ever a politician with the mental capacity to see how pointless it was. They could make speeches about all the good they were doing, but the simple fact was they did no good. Every policy they put forth was to try to fix the former policy, which was to fix the former policy to that. We took the ultimate collapse and built something that seems to work for us. It is built on..."

  [ Just what Chee-il did! You each vote on every issue that affects you, knowing all the projected effects and costs. If it isn't working you simply cancel it. That's logical and works when nothing else does. ]

  "The thing I’ve never understood about that system, which works amazingly well on Chee-il, by the way, is how anyone decides to start a project like, say, this spaceport," Z said. "The value of those bureaucrats, if they ever had any, was in planning such things, then seeing their completion."

  "At fifty times the cost and half the efficiency promised at the outset?" Kaf asked. "Deny it! I dare you! Name anytime some major project of the politicians came in within the projected costs! You can't do it!

  "We had machines to do all that. All we had to do was to push buttons. Anything that may prove pertinent to a project is put into the machines automatically so they're very accurate. They are designed to handle specific areas of governing or maintenance or water or a thousand other things. They do it very well.

  "The trouble at first was to get people to cooperate. Each had his own little project and nothing was done for a short time, then people began to see that such necessary things as food production and energy production were in danger of grinding to a halt. Vital services cannot be allowed to degenerate, particularly necessary things such as food, water and shelter so we obviously had to do something. Sitting hungry in the dark can be a rather strong stimulus to work together. It became no longer a question of who gets sweetcake and who gets dry stale bread it was a question of whether everyone eats or no one eats. As you can see, we opted for food for everyone.

  "The sweetcake comes from personal initiative and simple hard work. We can guarantee that no one actually goes hungry and that no one lacks medical attention and no one is cold and without cover. All these things are provided on a minimal basis. It gets very boring to eat only the absolute minimum of bland food when you can do some work and have ample well-seasoned food. It makes you think when you can get salve to heal a burn but, with a little physical labor, can have the scars removed, too. There's a very big difference in laying around doing nothing at a temperature where you won't quite freeze or working a little and being in a more comfortable temperature.

  "The problem in the old way was there was no incentive. Those who were being kept by big government usually were taxed if they worked so were actually much better off not working. Some bureaucrat would decide who was deserving and who wasn't so it was very quickly spread along political lines. Many got far too much and others literally starved out in the cold with no medical or other help. Once a person 'qualified' for government aid it was as much as impossible for him to be taken off the aid. Some politicians then took the funds set aside for those projects to aid the needy and designated their use to the very wealthiest people on the planet. They bankrupted all the special project funds.

  "People here can be pushed so far, but there is a figurative line that must not be crossed. Those politicians finally crossed the line and paid with their lives. Now anyone can receive minimum help. Minimum is the operable word."

  "What about the handicapped?" Z asked. "What if they CAN'T work?"

  "I can't believe anyone who said what you said would look for excuses for bureaucrats and handouts," Nol said. "There are a few people – only very few – who are truly so disabled they can't do anything. They are taken care of – but, just be honest with yourself. How many can literally do nothing? Can't learn a subject and give advice? Can't read a page to check for spelling errors?

  "Only those with no mind at all or who are totally paralyzed will qualify."

  [ You still have to be able to guarantee total employment. I see Z's point. Believe me, we do not support bureaucracy in any way. We have yet to find any that isn't corrupt. That isn't to say all bureaucrats are dishonest. Feach is the galaxy's foremost and most respected pharmacological wo
rld because a bureaucrat named Lund actually did his job honestly and well. Unfortunately, he's the sole bureaucrat in an empire of more than four thousand worlds whose name comes up in a positive way over the past two hundred years. ]

  "There're always projects needing workers. Hundreds of them," Kaf replied. "Without having millions of salaried bureaucrats there's plenty of funding for those jobs. We find the average citizen is taxed about eleven percent of income. It isn't a great hardship at that level and we always have surplus funds. What is the effective tax rate in your empire?"

  *There are no empire taxes. It varies from world to world, but most of them opt to use the empire machines to run things. It's low. Perhaps lower than five percent on individuals because of offworld trade policies. Traders pay the taxes as a general rule and still lower prices result from the tremendous diversity of products available. Wealth isn't a very common aim anymore. THAT is one thing of which the empire is very proud! We've outgrown that personal greed thing to a large extent.*

  "How can wealth not be an incentive?" Nol asked.

  "Maita means excessive wealth isn't an aim except in some few individuals and in very few races," Z explained. "There's only so much you can buy. There are some terribly expensive things some will want, but wealth solely for the sake of money is very rare. Most people use their excess funds in travel. Even going to the vacation worlds, ostensibly to gamble, is more to see and hear other art and to meet strange and wonderful people and experience many different customs.

  "I have some paintings by Zulian and Parf artists. They're as much as beyond price – but they were given to me by the artists. I have jewels that're a fortune in themselves. The foods we eat are beyond price, but that's because we explored and saved foods from hundreds of worlds. No one would have the funds to have even a regular meal we enjoy because of what it would cost to import the foods from several worlds. Travelers and traders can enjoy the foods they collect for themselves. There's no practical way to ever know those foods, otherwise. We've learned you can't eat the money. It tastes like hell and there's far more satisfaction in collecting those things oneself than in buying the stuff."