by Moulton, CD
They then were going to have to find the portal. Had he acted too hastily? COULD they close that portal if they found it?
He didn't think of Zaft again. His mind was unclouded by any doubts concerning his actions. He knew he had been right. He slept quickly and easily, the sleep of the innocent.
*
Z knew from the time they decided the portal must be kept from the Tlorgian side that Zaft was the one who was doing this. That was obvious enough to all of them. His instinct was to wait until Maita created the black hole, then he could trick her into using the hidden portal to escape his wrath. That would settle that! There really wasn't any way around it. Definitely Zaft must be eliminated as the source of this and many future problems. (God, how he hated that word! The Pweetoos had "eliminated" several whole worlds who opposed them, three hundred years ago!)
The trouble was it wasn't in his nature to do something like that. He would have to work himself up into a rage, then he would feel guilty for centuries afterward. He knew it wasn't logical to waste ten seconds feeling any compassion for something like her, but that was how he was. He still felt guilt about the total destruction of the Pweetoos, but not so much anymore. They were insects (Which was itself an illogical argument. There was an insectoid race who were as fine as any people in the empire) driven by an instinct to conquer everything in their path.
He felt guilty about the Immins, who were mammals, but who had every bad trait of the Pweetoos plus more, who had caused much more misery and pain to more worlds than all the others combined. He felt guilty about that insane machine (Tristar) even!
That was the way he was. He was tossing around in bed, thinking of all the terrible things he had done, dreading how he would have to steel himself to this distasteful job, knowing he would have more senseless guilt for it and not getting any rest. It was a little past dawn when Kurk came marching into the room, pushed him unceremoniously to the side of the bed and climbed in. The big demon was soon asleep.
Kurk had been working all night, hadn't had any sleep for more than two days and nights and was probably exhausted. It was a good thing he didn't have this kind of thing hanging over him or he might also find it impossible to rest. He really was working hard to help the people and needed the rest – besides, it was an excuse to put off any action for awhile on Z's part. There was no immediate danger now. Maita would have made the neutron mass so there would be no use of the portal. There were probably years ahead to work something out.
So procrastinate awhile longer. Nothing will be hurt by waiting. Maybe something will come up.
After an hour or so Z got up to go get breakfast. He looked at the sleeping Pluton laying there and grinned to himself. Even a Feach looked somehow vulnerable when sleeping, but this Pluton looked almost as fierce and dangerous as when it was looking right at you with those glowing greenish eyes!
So why did he feel protective of him?
Because he was a friend. Because they were going to be close friends for a long time.
Z sighed heavily, then went downstairs to the dining room where he told the several other guests stories of wizards. He started a joke session soon when one of them said she had seen the Pluton going upstairs earlier. It had scared ten centimeters from her growth!
"Yeah," Z replied. "Do you have any idea how much room Kurk takes up in a bed? There wasn't any sense in trying to sleep. He just pushes you out onto the floor!"
"Hah! My beds are plenty big enough!" the proprietor, Fak, exclaimed, puffing out his chest and trying to look indignant. "Even for a Pluton!"
"Oh, I agree!" Z replied. "But not big enough for a Pluton AND a wizard! Not when the Pluton will either shove you out on the floor or crush you in his sleep!"
A woman giggled and said, "Can you picture someone that big feeling amorous in his sleep? One big hug and there wouldn't be enough of you left to.... Hee hee!"
"Hah!" the proprietor cried. "If that Pluton got to feeling amorous with me I'd be so far from that bed it'd take a fast ship ten days to get me back here!"
"'I don't go for that kind of crap!'" Z quoted the popular joke. "Actually, I think if Kurk decided to get amorous with you – or any of us for that matter – we wouldn't be virgins in the morning!"
They all laughed at that. The woman said she'd heard only a part of that joke, the punch line, so would someone please tell it to her?
"It seems a trapper went into Black Forest way out toward Sundown Mountains where there haven't ever been any women," Z said. "He laid out his trap lines, built a cabin, dug a well and was settled in pretty well after about a hundred days. He was a normal sort of guy so he began to feel he could use a little diversion with one of the opposite sex. There was nothing for two hundred kilometers except for a little inn and supply store, run by friend Fak, here.
"He came into the little store, bought some flour and sugar and some morningbrew, had a short bit of beer and asked Fak if there were any 'professional girls' around.
"'Not for six hard days journey,' Fak replied, 'But we have the serving boy....'
"'I don't go for that kind of sex!' the fellow yelled, then stomped out of the inn.
"He went back to his cabin for another fifty days and was feeling a very urgent need for relief when he came again into Fak's Inn for supplies. He got the supplies, then had a beer. He said, 'I don't suppose there are any girls around yet?' to which Fak replied, 'No, but we still have the serving boy!'
"'I don't go for that crap!' the fellow yelled and again stomped out of the place.
"Thirty days later it was becoming too much so when the fellow came back into the inn for supplies he got Fak aside to ask, 'Look, Fak. If I, er, you know, with the serving boy, how many will ever know about it?'
“‘Just the five of us,' Fak replied.
"'FIVE?!' the fellow exploded. 'Why FIVE?'
"'Well now,' Fak replied. "'There's you and me and the boy. That's three.'
"'But why five, then?' the fellow asked.
"'There's the two guys who hold the boy down,' Fak answered. "'He don't go for that crap, either!'"
They all laughed at the old joke, then Fak told one on the Wizard Boss. They joked and laughed for awhile, then many of them went to their jobs. Z strolled around the town talking to people and learning what he could about them. When he returned to the inn for lunch and went up to his room Kurk awakened and explained what he had done at the witch's cabin. Z was shocked, then he was relieved. Kurk was completely logical and wasn't cluttered up with guilts and doubts. He did what needed doing, it was the right thing to do and that was that. Now they would still have to find that portal even though it wouldn't be open with Zaft dead. They would have to get rid of the devices that directed the energy to open it or someone else might use it.
As distasteful as it was Z went with Kurk in the clamshell floater to the cabin. They used all the sensors on the floater, but there wasn't anything to detect. The portal wasn't in use so there wasn't anything to find. They came to the cabin to find Zaft's body laying beside the path to the door where Kurk had tossed her.
"Couldn't you at least have buried her?" Z asked.
"You want to bury her I won't object," Kurk replied. "Ask me personally I don't think she's worth the time or bother.
"Do you think there's any way we can locate that portal short of looking at every square inch of this valley?"
"We can narrow it down some. It would have to be big enough for a Prlnth to come through. That means about two meters across. The placement of the control devices can be moved closer to hold a minimum opening. To avoid.... That's it! There was a constant energy drain through that portal!"
"In other words it's cold nearby?"
"Very! This is a subtropical area so we can find a patch of frozen plants and we've found our portal!"
"How big would that circle be?"
Z thought for a minute, then shook his head. "I wish I knew. I don't know how wide an area the draw would be from."
[ Frost of a low enough te
mperature to kill most local flora would be in a circle approximately seven meters across. We're back! Maita made the neutron mass! ] came from the floater.
"There's nothing that size in the valley. I scanned the whole thing."
"Then it's in a cave or something. We have to find it."
*I'll scan with the floater while you two search that cabin for whatever is there to be found. I won't ask why Zaft's body is laying over there.*
"She tried to point a laser at me so I broke her worthless neck," Kurk answered. "I would've broken her neck if she didn't have the laser – if she didn't kill me first with one of those spells."
"That's it!" Z cried. "A spell! I can find the portal!"
[ It's not using any energy now. ]
"But it has the Leyden jars. I can detect them by using the grounding spell."
*That will probably work. You have to seek the static charge to be able to ground it. See what you can do.*
Z sat on the edge of the floater, closed his eyes, made some faces for effect, then turned to point toward the stream, then up it. Kurk went to gaze upstream, then came to climb aboard the floater. Z joined him, waited a moment, then pointed upstream and a bit to the left. The floater rose to move in a straight line to where he was pointing.
"I had to ground it to find it, but it's over that way and not very far. There! Where the water comes over those rocks!"
"She was smart!" Kurk noted. "It drew its energy from moving water. It didn't get quite so cold as a result. Is that it?"
There were lumps of various metals around with the stream flowing through.
*Whew! It's a good thing she didn't open it very far! That water flowing into it could have been disastrous!*
Z and Kurk picked up all the focus devices, put them aboard the floater, then returned to the cabin. They drug Zaft's body to a depression, dumped rocks on it, then had the floater to scrape dirt over it.
"It's not deep enough, but no one ever comes around here anyway," Z decided. "Let's get rid of anything that could prove dangerous in the cabin and get back to Teeme. We've managed to take care of this thing and I want to spend some of my vacation having a vacation."
They spent a couple of hours in the cabin removing all the magic paraphernalia and all the papers that might possibly prove dangerous in the future then headed for the castle, stopping to gather Fale in Loosta, but the Frome had flown on to Teeme on its own. They arrived at the castle in the late afternoon where Maita told them Thing was with the golems at court and Ehrak was having his afternoon meal at the old Net's Inn with Burl. They decided to go to the court to see what the golems were doing, then they would join Ehrak.
As they entered the court Thing came out to greet them. The golems were handling a few minor cases for the records so the extremes to be allowed in courtroom decorum and the reasons for those extremes could be impressed on the judge.
[ This is a case of that sour woman leading that man's young cattle to her place with food, then claiming they were hers because they came to her and she took care of them. ]
"...and I got my money tied up in them there grazers! They's mine!"
"She done led them over to thar!" the man shot back. "They's aplenty food there'n my place fer 'em! Allus was, allus will be!"
"Sos they likes my food better'n yourn!" she spat. "I done fed 'em 'n they's mine!"
–Both of you fools shut the hell up! I never heard anything like this before! You've both got a dry stream for brains! I demand that whoever allowed this to get to court be tried for bringing frivolous charges! Idiots!–
+Now, No, be nice! What No means, and I agree with him in this limited case, is the fact the defendant has purloined the property of the plaintiff through subterfuge that is obvious, therefore defense has no applicable....+
–AHHH, SHUT THE HELL UP! Purloined? Property of the plaintiff? Sheeeesh! You vacuumdomed moron! I thought YOU were the one who made the rule that no lawyereeze could be spoken in the courts? You're even more an idiot than these slimewads!
–Those grazers ain't yours, Blubberlips! Your tricks don't mean nothin' in this courtroom! Baggypants here owns the grazers, always did and always will so long as he don't sign no bill of sale, got it?–
"What about the money I done spent fer food fer 'em?" she asked.
+Any and all funds dispersed for unlawful pursuits, in exempletum, for grazer comestibles that were to be employed in the mis....+
–YEEEEEE! Here we go again! Get a scribe! Get a dictionary! Get the hell out of here you airbrained brass candle holder!
–What Dingdome is saying is that you spent the money – sure you did – so's you could rip off What's-his-name's grazers so you eat the loss! Any of the food you got left over you can eat, too, except for the odd grazer that don't belong to you anyhow so I catch you eatin' any of them and you get to camp in the dungeons! Free room where you can eat all the crap you maybe got left!
–Next damned case, damnit!–
Z shook his head as they went out into the courtyard.
[ In case you wondered the golems are showing them things that they're NOT to allow in court. ]
"I'm glad of that!" Z said. "I thought maybe Maita had gone off the deep end with those golems!"
They had a good meal in Net's, then went to a play. The next six days were spent enjoying the people and the world. They removed the castle late at night and, after coming in the morning to say goodbye to their new friends, Fale and Burl in particular, and to promise someday to return they headed back to EC. A team was coming to offer Tlorg membership in the empire. It was landing in Loosta about the time they left the world. Kurk was with them on Maita when they left Tlorg.
New Home for Kurk
Z came from the mountain to his terrace to sit on the lip of the pool. The red sun was slowly rising over the ocean where Thing planted its gardens far below the surface. He watched as the big Pluton, Kurk, came along the beach and turned up the path. He meandered along looking at the big camellias blooming as he came higher along the path. The cymbidium orchids were spectacular in contrast. Suddenly the Pluton fell flat on his face!
Thing, who had grabbed Kurk around the ankles from under a camellia, sprung to stare him in the eyes.
[ Like a tree that rotted through at the base! ]
"You dirty!" Kurk exclaimed, grabbing at the little Mentan, who sprang onto its floater.
Thing flew to the inlaid marble terrace where it climbed onto Z's shoulder. It was innocently chewing on a roasted oormfh root when Kurk came up. [ Why, Kurk! How very nice of you to drop in! And how have you been? ]
They played these childish tricks on one another constantly. Kurk fit into the normal – for this bunch – routines at EC perfectly. All of them knew Thing could now expect something to happen to it along the same lines, they just didn't know when or what. That was the fun of the game. Trying to stay ahead of the others' tricks.
Ehrak was home on Zeena, the clamshell floater was retired, perhaps permanently. The golems were in storage, Tlorg was in the empire and Maita was back to being the emperor.
Now they were planning another little trip. They were bored with being around EC, though it had only been seventy two days since the trip "home" from Tlorg. They had stopped at New Zule on the way back from Zeena where Kurk was even more taken with those strange and wonderful beings than he had thought possible. He'd met a Feach, some Acnians – beings much like Z except they had large compound eyes and a T-hypnotic talent – some Momes, an Eacheron and a few other races he hadn't really sorted out yet. Kurk liked these people. All of them he met. He even liked the Jornians he'd met on Tlorg.
This was going to work out well.
There was a click, then Tab, the robot detective and Kit, the other robot detective, stepped out from the transmat portal there on Z's terrace. Kurk had met the both of them a few days before when they returned from the case they were working on for Maita. He fit right in with them, too. He liked them both as he liked both of their ships. It was going to be
an interesting life from here on out!
Flight of the Maita
Book 26
Just Normal Business
© 1988 by C. D. Moulton
Tab and Kit go to Grandish to investigate possible cultural interference. They discover an intelligent fungoid with psy powers that could do enormous damage to the empire.
Critic comment
Rather a strange tale. It has elements I generally don’t care for, such as psy powers. I do like the exploration of how a plant might think and the secondary story is fair if a bit too goody-goody. Despite its faults it is a good book.
– IA Rtng: ***½
Contents
Grandish Question
Pleasant Place
Psy Repulsion
Place Your Bets
Course of Action
Chat With a Fungus
Very Bad News
Critical Conditions
Pride
Temporary Controls
Not That Easy
Research and Discovery
Learning Process
Mannerless Clod Meeting
Just Normal Business
Grandish Question
Tab (Tabori R. DeSixtee), robot detective extraordinaire for the Emperor Maita of the Maitan Empire, a galaxy wide conglomeration of free traders (Maita is also a machine, but no one knows that, except for its crew, the Zulians, Tab, TRD-60, Kit and T6. And a few here and there) entered his ship, TRD-60 (Better known simply as TR) to find Kit, also a robot detective for Maita, waiting there for him.
TR is a part of Tab as T6 is a part of Kit. They share the same "brain" when they so desire, are always in close communication through special radio/gravitic circuitry, but each also has its own distinct personality. The two detectives and their ships are independently intelligent, having been made.... But that's another story.