by Moulton, CD
Perhaps Mesorchii? No. They would be harder to keep than Fromes and their plane was much harder to reach. It couldn't be because of Fromes from the past. They didn't live that long, couldn't breed on this plane and wouldn't be flying around for such distances if they were being held against their will. They would have come to Loosta to be sent home.
Still, there weren't any rogue Fromes. It wasn't any part of their psychology. Now Thing has discovered that strange monument or whatever and Ehrak had found mines of some sort. They're mining lead, gold, silver and several minor metals there.
Send spy floaters to observe that monument and to study its construction. This isn't making much sense.
*
Z went inside the farmhouse where he was met by a rather striking woman in flowing priestess gowns. She waved to a seat and offered wine.
"So you're the famous demon-wizard, Boss!" she greeted him. "Welcome to Port Placid. The wine, I fear, is the local product. I don't spend time making Wizard's wine.
"I have reports you met with the otherworlders. I imagine you are very curious about them and their ships of space."
"Not really," Z replied. "They are a rather ordinary sort of people, those I saw. They are hiding from someone – someone from another world yet, I surmise. They tend to act before they think thus have sent me a challenge they cannot now back up. It must be rather embarrassing for them. I have come and they are found wanting. They thought their science would affright me, but I know much of this science.
"My curiosity is to why you would render your aid to such obviously inferior peoples. More, I am close friends with many demons, being part demon myself. I find it odd that Fromes would aid them."
"Fromes?" she said. "There are no Fromes here. You set them free two hundred years ago."
"I did not investigate, but was told a Frome brought you the message I was coming here to seek you," Z replied. "I sometimes also tend to accept a thing out of context."
"The bird – not a Frome!" Zaft replied lightly. "It's just a messenger demon brought by the otherworlders or by ... by the otherworlders. It carries messages in a small case tied to its leg."
"Ah! It comes directly to the medallion you wear. I see," Z said. "I was wondering how a Frome could come so very fast. The answer is that it couldn't. Still, YOU offer aid to these otherworlders. May I ask why?"
"I don't aid them so much as I do business with them," she answered. "I've arranged for them to receive certain ores for which they've traded some of their science.
"Do you know of radio?"
"Yes. The Plutons use it. It was part of the thing Wruk and Kene used to locate the otherworlder Immins two hundred years ago. Kurk has shown it to me. He also showed me what a heat laser is, which was good. The otherworlders tried to use one against me."
"And you are well!?! I know the power of those lasers!"
"They are merely energy weapons," Z said easily. "One can turn them back on the user with the old spell. It is a simple thing."
Z finally spotted the small surveillance floater secreted in the rafters so would use a little psychology on the listeners. He would use every opportunity to keep them confused and scared.
"This science depends much on energies that are stored in various places within the ship or within the device that is to use it," he lectured. "The ship has enormous energies stored in a sphere resting below the exact center. The laser has much energy stored in the handle one grasps to support it. Froh used many devices, each of which had areas of stored energy inside. Those otherworlders depend much on great amounts of stored energy, it seems. That makes them very weak. I learned of a spell a few years ago that can make all of the energy leave the place in which it is stored (Science!).
"I will soon go to Loosta where I will learn the spell. I will then tell these otherworlders it is very obvious they are hiding here and they must go. Had they come to meet us openly we would welcome them. We gladly welcome the Fromes and the Targs. We welcome the Plutons. Kurk is playing with the small children now in the pasture outside. We do not fear others, even others with so frightening an aspect as has Kurk. If they come to us we welcome them. These did not come to us. They hid from us.
"This is our world. We have the right to say this one may come here in welcome and in peace and that one may not. We do not make those rules, those who come make them. One must be a friend to have a friend.
"I will learn the spell, then I will inform these they may come to us openly and freely and in friendship or they must go. If they refuse either option they will stay because there will be no energy left in their ship to take them away. If that is the decision the wizards here may use them for demons, though I will insist on proper treatment of them. The time of cruel experiment is forever over on Tlorg."
"I would beware making such strong statements about the otherworlders, demon-wizard!" Zaft warned. “You would do well to remember that you're part otherworlder yourself!"
"Yes. And I came here in friendship and was received as a friend. My point exactly, sorceress of little power!"
Zaft stared at him, then shrugged. "You won't be able to act out your words. You can't reach the energy in the ships. It's too much. You may be able to turn the small energy in a laser, but they have lasers – and other weapons – that can burn a whole city to nothing in a few seconds! I've seen them!"
"You have seen dreams of fools! There was never such use of power anywhere on Tlorg. I would have known of it immediately!"
"I was shown pictures – pictures that moved and made sounds of real things – that showed the weapons in use!" Zaft cried. "The otherworlders have too much power for us to fight them!"
"You have seen pictures, video images Kurk calls them, and have been TOLD that they represent true happenings. Has it not occurred to you that anyone who could make the pictures, videos, could make false ones as easily as they can make true ones? Perhaps more easily? Perhaps, videos of things that do not in reality exist? Did you even wonder if, perhaps, showing you these pictures and convincing you of their reality might make you help peoples you otherwise would send away?
"Kurk told me such videos are made quite regularly on Hades and are shown to millions of people at once on a thing called television. Everyone on Hades knows that one does not BELIEVE the videos. They are for entertainment. I would counsel that you be most careful of what stories you believe that these otherworlders tell you or show you. I would counsel that they are hiding here and are avoiding the people of Tlorg on all of its planes. There is subterfuge in the very presence of the otherworlders. Would there be any less in their words? Would there be any less in their videos?"
"The videos were of true happenings," Zaft insisted haughtily. "Do you think I could be fooled by such things? Am I so easily tricked?"
"Very easily," Z said sadly. "It is your choice and your fate. Perhaps I make the mistake of Kene and even Martin, by not ending you right here and now, but I hope you will come to your senses and will see how you are used before it comes to that. Consider very carefully precisely how far you will go to aid the otherworlders. I am not known to be tolerant of certain types of actions. Consider very carefully whether or not you would involve this innocent family in any silly intrigues. I will forgive your actions not one whit should harm come to any innocent person, Sorceress of little power Zaft. Boss does not idly warn!
"I go!"
Before she could reply Z swept out of the room and out of the house. He smiled at the people watching their small children being thrown in the air and caught by a truly terrible-looking demon. He watched as those children screamed in delight as that terrible demon put them all three under one arm and brought them to the fence.
"It is now time we were gone, Kurk. Choose the brat you want for dinner, bring it along and we're away."
"Well, the girl here would be tender, as would the smaller boy," Kurk said. "The larger boy would be too bony and probably tough on top of it. Maybe I could stew them all up in one pot?"
The children
giggled and poked at Kurk, then climbed on his back to ride to the clamshell. Kurk and Z entered, then, after Kurk teased the children for a moment, headed for a rendezvous with Thing and Ehrak.
"Well, Maita," Z said as soon as they were away, "It looks like they have a floater disguised as a bird to carry messages at supersonic speeds. Zaft almost made a serious slip, which I let go because of the spy device in the rafters. It was when we were talking about the bird."
Z related the entire conversation.
*I would say this is adding up to a very strange sum. I think I now know what Maybe found and the reason for what Extrx found. Part of the reason. Fale also said there are no Fromes on the dark continent except those on Dihn's ships. I know what you're going to ask. I'll try to get TR here to teach you the energy grounding spell as quickly as possible. This is truly the strangest of the many things we've been called to do. We're basically on unknown territory here, but partly on more traveled ground. Perhaps it would be best if you came back here until TR arrives. I've contacted it. Tab can handle things for one day if TR isn't there. TR says that wizard used the spell so you should be able to do it. TR tested the spell successfully on a power sphere on a refueling platform. It's a machine so there's no psy ability involved. Maybe you know part of it from Tee's crystal. The real problem is you'll have to move the energy through that massive insulation and shielding. If TR could do it you can do it.*
"Hmm. I think it may be our only hope," Z replied, then continued in Tlorgian. "Kurk, I'm going to go back to Teeme to meet with a spaceship. A mechanical being who's a close friend of mine.
"I think you'll like TR!"
Crazy Invasion
TRD-60 came in under cover of darkness and over the mountain behind the castle under which Maita was sitting. Being a much smaller ship TR could land in the large courtyard. The near-direct contact would be necessary. The imparting of this kind of data couldn't be handled through the servo machines. The golems had taken all the Fromes into Forthern, ostensibly to aid the court system there and to seek evidence of intruding sorcerers between Forthern and Loosta, which would keep all of them away for a few hours. TR would be gone before dawn.
The clamshell arrived soon after TR settled. Maita was still reporting all they had learned so the group was included in the discussions.
*I’m thinking what we have there is a very real invasion, but I have no idea where the invasion is to take place. There's entirely too much we don't know about this. It doesn't seem to be sane from one perspective, but we may have a psychology we aren't familiar with here.*
"Do you mean the Jornians are planning to invade the world?" Kurk asked. "It would seem far more reasonable to have directly attacked Loosta from the first when there was no defense and no suspicion. Did Boss's coming here throw their plans off course so much they would wait?"
[ The Jornians aren't the invaders. Not directly. Who or what is behind it is our big mystery. ]
"Zaft let something very important slip," Z explained. "I doubt she even realized it at the time. She almost said something, caught herself, and went on with something else.
"The socalled 'bird' that delivered the message to her that I was coming to confront her wasn't a Frome. It wasn't something the Jornians might use. The mine tailings were diggings for various ores that reminded Maita and me immediately of the metals used in the opening of the portals. Maybe's discovery was of a very large portal that's apparently to be powered from the Jornian ship's power sources. It would indicate the movement either of large machinery or massive troop movements.
"There's an entrance here from a plane we know nothing of. There's someone in that Jornian ship from another plane. Our big question is whether beings from that plane are bringing an army here or whether the army's expected to go from here to there."
"So the plan is for you to ground the energy sphere if they try to open a massive portal, Z?" TR asked.
*Kurk, we call Boss 'Z' here. It isn't his real name anymore than 'Boss' is. You've probably guessed Maybe's not a real name, either. There's no way to pronounce Maybe's real name with words. We call it 'Thing', which is a nickname from Z's native language. TR, Kurk is, as explained, from plane TTH nine, the Fromes are from TTH seven, the Targs from TTH two. I recently learned the location of Kurk's plane from the seer, Burl, here in Teeme. I sent floaters to examine the odd portal placements Thing discovered. It would appear to be TTH nineteen, which can only be entered from this plane in a nonmoving mode, or through a portal in other words. Inertia can do strange things in those highly complicated planes. TR, please transfer knowledge of the grounding spell to Z and to Thing. Extrx and Kurk can relax, enjoy a good meal and rest until we come up with our plan of attack.*
Z, with Thing riding his shoulder, entered TR. Kurk elected to stay in conversation with Maita and TR while Ehrak went to his room on Maita to record some of his adventures.
Kurk was laughing in his terrifying way when Z and Thing returned. TR had just used one of its sharper "misinterpretations" of one of Kurk's statements to make a pointed joke. Maita, TR and Kurk had been playing the game for awhile.
Thing and Z went with Kurk into the dining hall for a delicious meal, then went to individual rooms to shower (a thing Kurk was very familiar with, but which was quite rare on Tlorg, though indoor plumbing was just becoming popular).
Ehrak came into the hall as they all returned later. TR was gone, having made a new friend of Kurk. The group wanted to leave before dawn to be back on the dark continent at sunrise there. The golems and the four Fromes came back in before they left so there was a discussion of where the Jornians became involved – and how. Nothing was solved about that, but Z was thinking hard about it when they climbed into the clamshell.
"Damn it, Maita!" Z said after they were under way. "How DID those Jornians meet whoever's here? How did they get here? Did they open a portal on the other end and come through here?
"That doesn't seem to make a lot of sense. The Jornians weren't here for them to come to."
"Maybe a sorcerer on Tlorg was experimenting and happened on the portal," Ehrak suggested. "The beings from that plane may have simply taken advantage of an accident."
[ I think maybe the math was worked out for the portal, but whoever opened it couldn't know what they would find there. It would be very complicated from what Maita has shown. I would like to meet whoever worked that one out! I have trouble with discovering how the Jornians were contacted. It seems too far less than likely they happened to come here purely by chance. Odds beyond a certain point are meaningless and that most certainly passes that point. ]
*What's most unlikely is that anyone from that plane could even survive here for any length of time. We have three too few dimensional stress points, at least! Time, when figures on the zeta qat axis, would seem to be a far different thing there than here. I'm speaking of the duration factor.*
"Maita, how far is this planet from a regular trade route?" Z asked.
*Nothing within fifty plazsis.*
[ Explorations? ]
There was a pause, then Maita said there may be something. It was checking. The clamshell was traveling at more than mach four so they were soon coming into their landing spot close to the seashore. Thing would go with Z this trip to the Jornian ship while Kurk and Ehrak would go to several spots the seeker floaters found where suspicious events or energy readings were taking place. That one enormous question was foremost in importance to this whole planet: Was the invasion to be OF Tlorg or FROM Tlorg?
*
Kurk watched the expert manner in which Extrx handled the floater. He received instructions on the use of the one he was using and was quickly becoming more adept, but the completely automatic way the otherworlder (Otherplaner?) handled the machine was fascinating to watch.
Extrx, or Ehrak as Maita and TR had called him, was more reserved than the others, but Kurk had the feeling this friend was certainly one he would want to have at his backside in the case of difficulties.
F
romes, Targs, Tlorgians, three different kinds of beings from another set of worlds, a machine and the Jornians. Kurk was meeting a diverse bunch of beings if nothing else. This empire with thousands of different cultures would be a neverending source of wonder and interest. Thing was certainly a being a biologist would be willing to spend a lifetime studying and these people had spoken of other much stranger beings.
Kurk liked all of these various peoples, though he didn't trust the Jornians. He was perfectly well aware they were less than truthful in their very being on this world, but he would reserve judgement on them as a race. Boss and Maybe both said they were diverse, that few of them were untrustworthy as were these here.
What was Maita really like? Kurk understood the reasons why none must meet the emperor face-to-face, but the great intelligence and sense of humor of the man (? Something else? Extrx had called Maita 'him' several times, but Maybe said 'it' and Z hadn't made any references of that type. Was Maita like Maybe?) shone through in a thousand little ways. Maybe had explained that Maita was controlling the funny golems through computers. The fun and intelligence of those devices was legendary on Tlorg. That that humor and intelligence was necessarily that of Maita was more than obvious.
All of the group agreed Maybe was the most intelligent of them all, yet they often made very hard statements to one another in their games. Even the machine, TR, had to stay in top form to compete in those games.
That, of course, was why they did it. It kept the mind sharp and expectant. Little was missed when others said things as a result. That was why Boss had caught that little slip Zaft made while Kurk was playing with the children. The use of one word, then the changing of the sentence when analyzed resulted in the sure knowledge there was someone else involved in this. It logically followed, but would have been much too easy to miss altogether.