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

by Moulton, CD

  "We have to find the world they're using for a base. The psiltripium planet may only have automatics so far as weapons are concerned. We’ll soon know."

  [ They don't do things that way. There'll be a small crew. It'll be commanded by a female. As Maita says, they never change. This is so DISGUSTING! Will we NEVER be free of those damned...? Stinking slimy refuse! ]

  "Well, we have to free up that free-space world so the traders can get the psiltripium. Maybe the price will come down enough that more research can be done with it.

  "Have you seen the art with a little psiltripium in it?"

  [ Yes, but there are many better uses, I'm sure. I see we're approaching. How will you handle it, Maita? Tab reported they have a case with art containing psiltripium having been stolen. It's so stupid! What can a thief do with it? ]

  *There is NO more important use for ANYTHING than art! I'll simply slag their missile installation if they fire on us. We can find the world they came from with standard procedures. I won't fool around with warnings if they don't. I've had it up past the O dome with Immins! If they're in an area where it's at all feasible I'll slag the entire part of the world! I mean it! I won't put up with Immins ever again! Not here and not anywhere!*

  They approached the planet, which was made visible only with special sensors as they were plazsis from luminous bodies. Maita approached fully shielded and slowly.

  *There are radio reflective scanners ... now a laser lock. I'm scoping the source – a sort of flat dome. Here comes a missile. Want to bet if its nuclear?*

  They waited until the shields detonated the missile, which was a fusion bomb.

  *That did it! Here goes my answer!*

  All of space seemed to become a bright glare for perhaps five seconds. There was a bubbling lava pit where the dome had been.

  [ Great colliding galaxies, Maita! You don't have to slag the entire planet! The psiltripium will sink! ]

  *I didn't. Just under a square kilometer. I think we can safely assume we have eliminated that particular installation. There's another scan from farther around the planet. I imagine that one won't have the sense to refrain from firing anymore than the first one did.*

  That was soon shown to be an accurate guess then the second missile dome was a pool of bubbling lava.

  *I've called Fleet. Part of them are doing something for Tab and Kit, but ten ships are coming. I've instructed them to search until they find the base planet, then to continue searching for other possible bases. It'll be more than twenty five days before they arrive, but they can help to survey the area when this is finished. I'm calling the traders guild with instructions to make a search, but do not approach. We're being scanned again so I suppose there are two more nuclear installations judging by the placement of these three. They can detect anything approaching this world. I wonder why Tab's using Fleet? What could he ... I'll be damned!*

  [ Undoubtably. What now? ]

  *They have an anchored diffusion engine at each pole! They could probably spin the world or do anything else with it! Why can't a race with those abilities do anything positive with them?*

  "Have you found the psiltripium?"

  *It's over toward your left and to your right. The planet is somewhat oval because the spin threw masses out in two places. The thing's very wobbly because the center of gravity's far to one side. They've almost entirely stopped the spin now so the psiltripium will start to sink. Maybe they've already discovered that and have kept enough spin to keep it on the surface. That's an amazing feat of engineering! Think what they could have if they would do something positive! Now I'M being stupid! Immins do something POSITIVE?! Really, Maita! You've got some defective chips! You don't have to say it, Thing! I also know they didn't invent this, they stole it from someone else.*

  There was another flash and soon another.

  [ I take it every installation here fired on us? ]

  *Without fail. There was a small ship at one of the diffusion engine control buildings. It left the planet. I put a tracer unit on it with a floater, so I can tell Fleet not to come unless they just want something to do. Maybe I'll have them search all the worlds out here for others. This one will be their royal exalted super commander and queen-empress of the omniverse and other places or something such. She'll head for wherever they call home.*

  [ Modify Z into an Immin form. He can go aground and can find out if they know of any other worlds. Maybe he can instigate war among the queens of the omniverse and other places. ]

  "I don't refuse many things, but even looking like an Immin is one thing I will not do! They had empire protection withdrawn from the entire race more than a hundred years ago so we'll put a few of the magnificent and glorious empresses of the fourteen TTH planes on the probe!"

  *There are hundreds of planes. We can only use three or four of them for reltime travel, but I'd suppose they won't declare themselves rulers of planes whose existence they don't even suspect. Maybe they will. I agree. I wouldn't subject Z to the humiliation of having to look like an Immin. When we find their world I'll send floaters to indiscriminately probe as many as I like. So far as I'm concerned they aren't people, they're merely insane lumps of animal matter.*

  The seriousness of all this would be plain to anyone who knew the crew and how they acted. For Thing not to mention that Z naturally looked like a particularly fine-featured Immin showed how little any of them felt like making jokes or playing their game.

  Maita followed the ship in jumps. TTH1 was very slow, taking almost fifteen minutes reltime to travel twenty plazsis. The world it went to was almost three hundred plazsis so took almost four hours.

  *They've grabbed an occupied world, the (Two full minutes of censored and acid invective)!*

  [ Are they using the natives or 'eliminating' them as useless to their plans? ]

  *I don't know yet. I think they're using them to some extent. They have four colonies around four large cargo carriers. I can estimate from food needs and time there were as many as twenty five hundred original settlers. Say six hundred per colony. The natives are reptilian and not unlike the norm – like Happ and Glo, though not nearly so far evolved. I'm getting reports from floaters now. The natives are quartered in enclosed compounds so they're being used as slaves. (Another string of swearing). We have to find a way to separate Immins from the natives. Suggestions!*

  "Observe for awhile. Get some of the Immins on the probes. See which of them are fighting among themselves. They can always be counted on to do that stupidity if they have more than one group under one commander. Maybe we can do what we've done with them before and what Tab's done. Get them to fighting each other and get the natives away, then take care of the Immins."

  [ That's the best way to go if we can work it. Even if these knew about the others in the empire and how they were defeated they'd react in the same ways. They NEVER learn! ]

  *I'll locate a place for us to land. I can get down easily enough because they have nothing on one continent. We'll land there then go wherever we wish under water. I want to get the help of the people here, the natives. I'll want to try to make them believe they're the ones who threw the intruders out. I'm having Fleet come on to search every world out here if it takes centuries. The traders are cataloguing every world they come to and it's all going into the ship's guidance systems. That will cut the time tremendously. I'm getting some Immins on the probe on the dark side. They'll wake up with a headache, but they won't know why. You two rest until I have something to work with.*

  Z and Thing had trained themselves to sleep when necessary. The anger and tension wouldn't keep them awake. Maita used the time to study the entire planet and to find where everyone and everything was. It produced a complete global map to project into the holovid screens when needed. Thing and Z awakened naturally after about six hours. Maita said there weren't any other worlds so far as these knew, but added that THIS one didn't exist so far as any of the ones in the empire a hundred years ago knew so that information would be viewed wi
th extreme suspicion. They would naturally keep their locations secret from one another. Their plots to seize power from each other at a later date would demand it.

  *Each colony has its own leader. They've been sniping at each other, but it isn't serious – yet – except for the psiltripium world. The one who controls that world is called Rena Gar Shonn and is at the colony on the large island off the coast near the equator. It's probably her private ship we followed back here. We are, incidentally, under two kilometers of water in a shallow trench less than a kilometer off the coast of that island on the far side from the colony. I'll try to find some way to get her on a probe. If there isn't any other way we'll invade her little fortress and put her on it if she survives. I don't know if we can accelerate the troubles they will inherently have with one another, but we can damned well try. I know the layouts and the leaders and so forth of all the colonies here and what each one specializes in. They seem to have figured they would have to have separate specialties if this was to work at all. Suggestions?*

  [ We need more information, I think. If there are two colonies of Immins it's possible and even easy to cause trouble between them. We know that. They'll do it themselves given a little time. Get all Tab's records from TR about things he's done in the past. Maybe there's something we can use. I'm sure we'll get some ideas. ]

  "I know one little thing we can start."

  *I'm listening.*

  "Does one place specialize in raising food?"

  *One proteins and one carbohydrates and so on.*

  "Then we should leave some evidence around they're infringing on each other's specialty. The idea'll be that one place that produces ALL the food will dominate everybody else – first, their competitor in food production. Even Immins will know you can't eat psiltripium!

  "I take it Gar (The Immins use the middle name) produces all their industrial tools and machinery?"

  *Mining and refining. Casting and assembly is by Zupa Lee Trisk and colony. Food producers are: proteins, Palla Gae Torp – carbohydrates and others, Nina Sic Kale. Gar's first captain and bedmate is Kep Lo Natt and Lee's is Lerso Mi Kelp. I mention them because the captains are known to be on the lookout for the easiest life. That can be used quite often. The Immin female's very possessive of the male and tends to jealous rages. They'll generally feel free to sleep with any male they choose, but the male had BETTER not get caught LOOKING at another female!*

  [ We can give them the hint it's the food producers who'll logically become the leaders of greatest importance. They use computers, I'm sure. Maybe I can tap in and give them a little shocking information – after Z starts the trouble about going outside of a specialization. We can start small until we figure a way to get the natives out safely. ]

  *I'll use the computers, too. I think I see a way to expedite our troublemaking with food growers. They do everything by computer. I'll have both computers come to the same conclusion at the same time. For efficiency in controlling the food supplies of all colonies and incidentally having pretty much absolute power over their fates the food production really should be under one colony's direction. That'll start Gae and Sic to thinking. The way Immins think is as good as set in TitChroPlat!*

  [ True! As soon as they come to the proper conclusions I'll have Lo and Mi discover that power is soon to be in the hands of one of those two. They'll try to move in on Gae and Sic. Gar and Lee will find out about it. They can then each be convinced it's a plot by the other to get both males for herself. The one who controls the other's favorite male considers herself the winner by default or something equally silly. ]

  "The more plots within schemes within plots we can come up with the more convincing it'll be to them. Now! To work! Gar knows her installations on the psiltripium world were destroyed. Maita has to tap into her computer's defense and intelligence circuitry."

  *And?*

  "What would she do if her computer told her the only possible way those installations could've been destroyed would be by someone who knew about them for some time? Where's the only place in the damned universe anyone could have known for any amount of time?"

  [ Right here! It would have to be one of the other colonies. All of this will be how Immins act so they'll immediately jump to the conclusions we want them to.... This can be fast! Gar has to discover it had to be someone here right away. We have to worry about getting those natives to safety fast. Maita, think of something! Z! We need one of your weird ideas right now! ]

  *I can tap into her comp system with a floater. It'll be for her to use it before I can give the information to her. I wonder if she uses it at specific times? How can we get her to check on the items we need?*

  "We can make her use it. If it appears she might actually be attacked she'll go directly to defensive measures. You'll have to make her computer make a likely connection to what happened to her mines and missiles a part of it so she'll access what we want her to find. Their natural suspicion will make her run to her computers first thing.

  "Maita? How do they spy on one another? I know they do."

  *Lots of ways. Visuals, sonics, even a few floaters. There are sensors in all the areas around each camp.*

  "What if Gar was to see some kind of evidence Lee was arming? Maybe she even suddenly has some psiltripium? Where's the only place she could've obtained psiltripium in a quantity that could be moved? I mean, away from the gravitic focus?"

  [ Yes, Maita! Maybe a visual sensor could 'see' four or five strong males trying to take a very small box from a ship that lands very soon now? What could be that heavy? Where could they have gotten it – the ONLY place? She'll run to her computers so fast the wind stream would knock you down! ]

  *Consider it done! I know the best sensor. It's sitting in a tree near a little clearing Gar must already be suspicious of. It looks like a cleared place. It's caused by a large rock just under the surface, but she doesn't know it. Her surveillance sensors will automatically call her if there's any action in that space. I'll input directly into the lens. A ship would have time to return about now so here goes! Watch the readout.*

  Maita showed on the holovid screen what it was showing to the sensor: A small scout-type ship came onto the clearing. After a few minutes the port opened and four big men came from the direction of the colony and stood around. A woman came to give them orders and they went aboard. They emerged with a small box, perhaps a twenty-centimeter cube of very good steel on a sling. Each of the four had a loop from the sling around his neck and wrapped around his arm. They were staggering from the weight and would have to pause every few steps to rest it on the ground. They moved slowly out of the picture. The woman was never very clear but the men were. The ship lifted and was gone.

  *I used familiar faces on the men and made the woman about Lee's size and shape. The box would logically contain about three hundred kilos of psiltripium so I made them act as though they were carrying that weight on an uncomfortable sling. The path they took wasn't directly to the camp, but goes out to an area where there are caves and other places to hide things.*

  [ Wouldn't they use the natives for that? ]

  "No way! Not something that valuable! Not if it was something they would be bound to talk about! She'd use her most trusted captains."

  *Exactly. Now we'll see what Gar does. I'll carry everything in and out on the screen. This could be very interesting. I'll print things as soon as they appear on her computer screens.*

  They waited until the screen glowed:

  >?
  >A: 342 kgm>

  >?
  >A: p/l neutron mass. p/l psiltripium. p/l psiltripium alloy w/Pb mass+

  There was a short wait while the answer glowed on the screen, then:

  ~Mode IV23057-Tn1859-zTdsRw~

  ^CODE: NA WARNING!^

  ^Code - Rockslug prime 3.2426/<2^

  =Prints identify! NA WARNING!=
<
br />   There was another pause, then:

  -READY!-

  There was a long complicated mathematically coded sequence describing the attacks on the psiltripium world, then another describing the unloading of psiltripium. The machine searched and deduced, then printed:

  >A: attack well planned

  = knew operation world P1

  = had time used time planned

  =-= attacker this world colony

  >B: attacker offload proof success mission ZLT secret field.

  = ZLT not logical.

  = SUM: ATTACKER THIS WORLD COLONY! ATTACKER NOT ZLT! ZLT NOT IMPLICATED CONSPIRACY

  The screen suddenly went blank.

  "Why did you tell her it wasn't Lee? I thought we wanted to get those two fighting!"

  *Because she has spy sensors at Lee's and not at the others so she'll know the ship wasn't Lee's. It also gives her something extra to worry about. If there's something going on with the food supply and Lee seems to have managed a deal with a food grower? Where does that leave her? How can she ever regain control of things if her installations are destroyed AND the food supply's out of her hands?*

  [ Neat! Exactly what an Immin would do. Join with someone, get the upper hand, then get rid of the one who helped her. Right the hell straight down the damned line Immin! ]

  "Good job, Maita! 'll make a sneaky snake out of you yet!"

  *I'm trying to get Lee to use her computer, too. I've tapped into all of them. I want her to get suspicious of Gar. You two get ready to lead those natives away from the compounds. Fast! It's getting late and will soon be night. I'm afraid we have to abandon the idea of making them think they did this because it's going to happen too fast, I think. Gar thinks she's been directly attacked so she'll damned well retaliate – with a direct attack. I want these people safe when that happens! Ideas! I want a way to get those natives to safety and I want it now!*