by Moulton, CD
"I can't find what he did to the Immin ship. Maybe he opened a portal and moved it into another plane."
"We detect some strong radio and microwave emissions ever since he came," Froh replied. "That's why we sent the note. It merely says that anyone from another world – in this plane – should leave."
"We Plutons are using radio, not Boss," Kurk said. "We don't use it much so as not to disrupt the society here, but we've been using it since Boss came to try to find out where he's been. We woke up the other morning and that enormous solid gold castle was up there on the mountain like it had been built there a century ago! We know for a fact he and his demons haven't been here on Tlorg. Not where they could be found."
"Then they ... they're really from space!" Froh insisted in Jornian. "I don't know if ... he's an empire agent. I know it! There isn't any other explanation. If only I could be sure...."
"Not now! What does the castle look like?" Nax interrupted.
"Like a castle," Kurk answered. "What do you mean?"
"Have you been inside?" Froh asked. "Can you be sure it's not a disguised spaceship?"
"I was on the ramparts and in the main dining hall for a few minutes before we came here," Kurk replied. "Fale stayed inside for the night. It described the place from the lower basements to the courtyard in the center as well as the sleeping rooms. It's really a castle. It's far too big, heavy and bulky to be a spaceship. It's large even for a castle here and some of them, particularly in Loosta, are more than a hundred meters on a side."
"I'd like to have a look at that magic shell!" Froh said in Jornian. "I'll bet it's a gravitic floater disguised as some sort of magic ship!"
Z pressed a few buttons under his robe. The floater in the center of the clamshell distached itself, folded into a disk a few centimeters thick and dropped out below the clamshell. It was in deep grass where it could move away undetected on small tracks. Kurk again made noises about the challenge for awhile, the Jornians backed away from the subject. Z suddenly turned, went to the clamshell, reached inside and poured himself some wine, He offered some to the others, who couldn't resist the chance to examine the craft. Froh asked if he could look the magic shell over. Z shrugged.
Froh went back into the Jornian ship for a couple of sensitive detector devices, then went over the clamshell carefully, though Nax said there simply wasn't anywhere for a unit to be secreted – after Z removed the table from the center that housed the floater when it was there and stood it outside so everyone could reach the wine and sweetcakes.
"How do you make it fly?" Nax finally asked.
Z shrugged, made a couple of passes with one hand turning on some of the microfloater disks under his robe at the same time. The meters went wild. He turned them off.
"It's the repulsor field principle," Z replied. "Isn't that what you called it, Kurk? You said a gravitic resonance repulsor field?"
"He makes some kind of antigravity," Kurk explained. "I take it you aren't going to challenge him?"
"No. He isn't who we thought he was," Froh answered. "We have no argument with him."
"I do have an argument with you, though!" Z snapped. "You are speaking as though I am not here again! I have tried to tell you such a thing is not polite. I find it most irritating! Perhaps I will return when you learn some manners!
"Come, Kurk! Please replace the table. I would be away from this place.
"I will return, otherworlders. I sense a great evil here. I sense you should not be here. I sense you hide from someone. There is much here that you would wish for us to know, though there is someone else who you wish not to know more than only us. It is most strange.
"Beware! You know not with what you toy! There are forces, once unleashed, that cannot be controlled with all of your science. There is great danger for everyone here. Nature is not in proper balance and that is never a good thing. Nature sometimes restores its own patterns with grave results to those who would disrupt the balance!
"I will seek this Zaft. I would speak with her. She has much to explain."
"Zaft isn't here right now," Froh replied. "She's gone to the seaport."
"Then we go to the seaport," Z said, turning his back on the Jornians. He moved away from the clamshell to sit in the soft grass and spread his robes around himself. The Jornians were puzzled as he began to mumble in English and came to stand over him. He pushed the button on the unit on the belt under the robe and the floater raced on its tracks back into the clamshell.
"Fearless leader," he said to the small transmitter at his throat in the necklace there (In English, of course). "Get the floaters to locate this she-wizard for me. We're going to have to force the issue here. This Zaft character will know what's going on."
"He's using radio!" Nax exclaimed, looking at his meters. "What's he doing? What's happening here?"
"I've noted before that his 'seeker' produces static on the radio," Kurk explained. "His mind produces some kind of psy-driven electromagnetic field. That's my theory. Whatever he's seeking he'll find. He never misses."
Z stood, pointed straight outward from the shoulder, turned about two thirds of a revolution and opened his eyes. He was pointing generally toward the sea.
"She is there," he stated positively. "We go.
"Come, Kurk, my friend. I would be back in Loosta, but there is something much amiss here. I will put all things to right. It is my duty to my world to bring nature back to balance."
Z and Kurk climbed into the clamshell, it rose into the air and went off in the direction he had pointed. They heard Nax yelling, "The meters! Look at the power of the field he's generating! Great humping Zulians! He could run a small city on that! He could run a BIG city on that!"
Kurk noted they were followed by a sensor sphere almost immediately. Maita said detectors showed a TV scanning device was sending video so Z pointed at it while the floater fired a heat beam at it. It exploded. Let them think that one over.
They were soon back to where they left Ehrak and Thing, who were off on their own floaters somewhere. They would wait.
"What do you think they're up to?" Kurk asked. "I didn't see any evidence of anything – but then, I don't know what to look for, either."
"I haven't any idea myself," Z said. "It would have to be a spice. Those two aren't really bad, they only want to protect what they think is something valuable. They do seem to be trying to avoid cultural interference, but that could mostly be to keep the empire away. If you knew what Maita does to anyone who gets caught damaging an emerging culture you'd know why they'd be terrified of taking any chances."
"I think you're overlooking one very important point," Kurk said. "They sent that stupid note. That would bring the empire down on them like mass to a black hole if you really were empire agents."
"If they thought we were unauthorized agents who were here after the same thing they're here to get it would be designed to scare us away," Z explained. "They found themselves in a situation that was bad no matter what they did. If they stayed silent until we left we might take whatever it is they want with us. If they made a lot of noise about the empire we would run – if we were illegally here.
"Believe me, Kurk. Maita considers cultural interference to be among the worst of all possible crimes. The results can doom generations. When the empire places a beacon satellite to warn against approaching a given world the empire's usually the very last to break that rule so they would be safe, if suspicious. It's their bad luck we ARE from the empire! We could go to the....
"Oh, for Christ's sake!"
"I take it you've thought of a couple of the things that've occurred to me?" Kurk suggested, grinning. "Such as how did they know you were here so quickly, half a continent away? Or maybe what they want is rare enough that one ship could take it all?"
"Or several other things," Z agreed. "They had the time to find out about us. This Zaft would've been notified by the Fromes. They then put out the radio sensors. That's one of the things that worry me."
"Radio sen
sors?" Kurk asked. "It seems logical to me. Anyone from space would certainly be using radio to communicate among themselves."
"You mean your people are still using radio?" Z asked. "It's normally only used for a short relative time in a society. The other things, light, gravitics and such are more efficient and are, in the cases of gravitics, infinitely faster. I worry because they would even try to detect radio. Very few ships are equipped to detect it anymore except on a limited few wavelengths that are used to control servos."
Maita had been listening to everything through the floater.
*I wouldn't worry about that, Boss. They would know these people have developed the lens and other things like that, which would put them centuries ahead of like cultures in ways. They would seek radio. I worry because you seem to think those two are the only ones here or even to think they're necessarily representative of all of the ones who may be here. You haven't taken the size of that ship into consideration.*
"I'm aware there are more just to run that class of ship," Z replied. "I can see what you mean, though. They would send the easiest ones they had to get along with as a diplomatic move."
"Maybe trained diplomats?" Kurk asked. "They might have even ... oh."
Ehrak and Thing flew in just then. They were listening to the exchange on the built-ins on their floaters.
[ There's obviously someone there who's very different in temperament than those two. Neither of THEM sent you that stupid threat. That was the kind of mistake the Jornians would never make. It might lead to exactly what they don't want – getting the empire's attention! ]
"Now they have to try to cover for that stupid mistake," Ehrak said.
*You begin to see. There's obvious instability in anyone who would make that kind of screw-up. We're left with something that's a bit more scary than a simple little hijacking job on a developing planet. Does it say anything to any of you they would use Tab's name? That's beyond belief. Of all the choices they could make only the Terran or the Mentan would be MORE designed to catch the attention of the empire!*
"You know something I don't about this," Kurk interjected. "What are you saying?"
[ That there's someone giving the orders there who is either not quite sane or is of some other race. We have to find out which one it is. If it's someone who's insane we have to remove them before they do any damage here. Tab, or Tabori R. DeSixtee, is a close friend of ours and is Maita's personal detective and troubleshooter, as Boss calls him. To use his name on that note was not something that anyone familiar with.... Maita, there's a thought! ]
"Why not remove them from this world, then?" Kurk asked. "Maybe they want the empire's attention for some reason. If their leader’s crazy maybe they're looking for a way out."
"Because if the Jornians are being directed by another intelligence we have no idea of what they have in place on this world. We can't defense something we aren't even aware of," Z replied.
[ Which means we have to find their motivation before we can act. If, as suddenly seems rather likely, the leader's from a nonmember world we may not have a clue to their psychology, thus we have no clue as to what they've done or will do in any given circumstance. ]
"Things become more and more complicated," Ehrak said. "In the old pirate days we could've ended it right then and there! No one would wait around trying to find what's behind something like this. We would put an end to it."
[ Yes. It was blind luck we didn't do inalterable damage to some of those races. There weren't thousands of cultures out there with the ability to move at will around the galaxy so it was much safer then. There weren't any with an ability to move those distances except for us, come to think of it. Only those worlds relatively near this one could have come here back then. We knew about all of them so knew how to react. Maita gave the galaxy the drive that lets us all go anywhere we please. Maita and ... his friends invented the improved drive. ]
*So what did you two find? Anything?*
"There's a route into the mountains and to the seashore," Ehrak reported. "There are branches from the main trail in all directions not far from here, but only those two seem much used."
"Which means?" Kurk asked.
"It's something that can be brought from the sea and from the mountains in one direction," Ehrak replied.
"If it's a spice it could be seasonal," Kurk suggested. "The side trails won't be used much until harvest time. I'm a biologist studying the crops and the methods here so I can help with that sort of thing."
*Very true. It's good to have someone who can see more than one perspective in all this – unlike certain tentacled types!*
[ Stick it in your ass, Maita! ]
"Hey! You two don't start now! You aren't the damned golems!" Z snapped, but the mood lightened. "You could send floaters along the trails to see where they lead. I want to locate this Zaft character. Maybe she knows what they're up to. Maybe she's not too very happy with what's happening herself. They may have some way to force her to make people gather the stuff."
"I don't think it's a spice," Ehrak argued. "I don't think they want any product or mineral from this world. It's something else they're after. I feel it. We have to find out who's behind it. That might tell us why they're here."
[ So you're a psychic as well as a demon? It just doesn't feel right? ]
*It doesn't really seem reasonable to me, either. There's something we don't know about this – I'm afraid it's something that we HAVE to know to proceed with any safety. I'll direct floaters along all those trails. Maybe and Extrx can go into the mountains to see what's there while Boss and Kurk can seek Zaft at the seashore. Perhaps, as Boss says, the she-sorceress will know something more.*
Thing and Ehrak gathered up what they thought they might need from the clamshell, then headed back to the joining of the paths. Z took a few things from one of the other floaters Maita had placed there for them, then he and Kurk headed toward the seashore.
"Maita, we have to locate this Zaft character fast if I'm to have credibility with the Jornians," Z warned. "I hope you've got some ideas? I should be able to go directly to her. You can be very damned sure they'll have some detectors to let them know when we reach her."
*She's carrying a little gravitic responder. I can – I AM – taking you directly to her. I rather imagine the Jornians DO want to keep tabs on her. They aren't the type to trust anyone. Kurk, our first order of business is to find out exactly who's running this show out here. As a known form of demon you should be able to get some information from this sorceress, but bear in mind she's probably armed with some kind of weapons from the Jornians. Boss, I'll leave it to you to try to find what they're after here. This continent is only spottily settled in a few large towns and a lot of little villages. It's not unlike the continent of South America two hundred years before you were abducted. There has to be some reason they contacted this woman. They're trying to use her to get whatever it is they're after, but she can't get it herself so she's acting as their agent. I've secreted spy floaters in various likely spots, but there doesn't seem to be any widespread knowledge of anything to this point. You'll have to compose your plans as you go according to what you discover.*
"May I suggest we don't use radio so much?" Kurk asked. "These long transmissions are likely to make them suspicious. They'll believe I'm making a full report right now. It may be good they believe that, but it may not."
*I'm using tight-beam light from a relay floater so they can't intercept in any way. We'll use radio only when we want to decoy them. You're very nearly to the little town where Zaft is staying. It's on the coast and is a small seaport, though not an important one.*
"Hmm. So small boats can come and go without arousing undue suspicion," Z suggested. "I think we've agreed whatever they're after won't be very bulky and isn't in large supply."
"Unless we fail to understand the psychology of who or whatever's behind it," Kurk cautioned. "Did you consider the possibility they don't want anything? They may be here for some complete
ly different reasons than we've thought of?"
*The worst danger isn't from what they're after, but what they could do to the evolving society here. There's a small building three kilometers outside of town on what appears to be a farm. Zaft is inside that building. I'll leave it to you to decide how to approach this, Boss.*
The clamshell sat in a field about two hundred meters from a large frame house. There were various grazers and birds around as well as the tilled fields behind. When the floater top opened Z and Kurk stepped out. Two small children and one adolescent boy stared at them from near the house. A door opened to allow a woman and a man to come out.
"I am here to converse with the sorceress, Zaft," Z greeted pleasantly. "Would you be so kind as to tell her Boss is here?"
"Is that a Pluton demon?" the boy asked, awed.
"Yes, I'm a Pluton," Kurk replied. "My name's Kurk. What's yours?"
"Uh, I'm Bettor – Bet – and this is my sister and brother, Klee and Men," the boy answered. "Do you really tear people in half?"
Kurk grinned and replied, "Not as a general rule. I have to admit I've got a temper and would probably do something like that if anyone attacks me. I get stupid when I get mad and do things I regret later.
"You've got some really fine looking stock! Want to show me around while Boss talks with Zaft?"
"Will you eat one of our grazers alive for us?" Klee asked, taking the huge demon's hand and pulling him toward the neat pasture. The others tagged along, Bet reaching timidly to touch the demon.
"That's only a story," Kurk replied lightly. "You can see a grazer's bigger than I am. I couldn't hold a whole one, but I do like a large juicy steak about this thick with a bit of ground spicenut and salt cooked over a hot fire 'til it's medium crispy on the outside and nice and red on the inside!"
"So do I!" Bet said. "I'll bet you could eat a lot bigger one than any of us! I bet you could eat a bigger one than ALL of us!"
They went on toward the pasture, the parents watching them nervously. "Have no fear of Kurk with them," Z reassured them. "He is very gentle with children.