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

  "I'd like to give Emperor Maita the painting as a gift. Art of this quality is one of the few things he can appreciate and enjoy without a lot of people criticizing him. It's his one vice. It's the one thing he collects for himself alone, though he'll exhibit it at the gallery on EC. He strongly believes these things should be seen and experienced by everyone."

  He was staring wide-eyed in disbelief at me with the mouthful of sharp teeth hanging open. "It's ... I mean ... I could...?"

  "I'm serious. You'd have a quarter of a million credits to build on. That's probably not a hell of a lot to you, but it will get you out of debt."

  "I could pay off the ship, too! I would have sixty thousand credits left over. With my regular income and no other payments I could do all right!

  "I'll sell!"

  I used the com to tell TR to send a floater with the chits to pick up the painting. Tei helped to load it and asked if I would look at another fine painting in the bedroom. It was another Parf painting by some artist I had TR check on. It was, as all Parf paintings are, magnificent. It was a scene from the shore of Z's island on EC, with the red sun and the green both influencing the light.

  As we had all the paintings we could ever want of EC, I wasn't interested in buying it. "Freew didn't paint many, but she was considered one of the best at catching the light so well on EC. There's one she painted for him almost identical to that in Z's bedroom. That one was painted almost a hundred years ago. It should be worth more than two million credits. Tell him to take it to one of the better dealers on Bypass for the best price," TR reported. "If he wants to spend the time and trouble he can enter it in the yearly auction at Castle Drove in Octeen. That's seven tenthyears from now, but he could get three point five million easily there."

  I told Tei, but he said he loved that painting and didn't want to part with it, but it was good to know he had some assets.

  I took my leave and went back to TR.

  "Well, we now know pretty much where the brain is," TR announced. "Gorg reported they found two robots here and Hedda says they found three in various other places. The one on the satellite was easy, as there are only two hundred people there. There aren't many people on any of the stations, so they should identify all of them within a couple more hours.

  "I think probably we should move against PPF oh forty five and the robots at the same time."

  "I want to find all the robots we can and move against them at once. I want to make that brain leave populated areas if we can.

  "Your trace will follow it anywhere?"

  "It doesn't know anything about fastcom. If it messes with the set aboard the ship it'll screw it up. It can't find the trace. It doesn't have the technology."

  I called Hedda and Gorg and arranged to meet with them.

  I had seen a Flimt around a bit and saw him again as I left TR. He was obviously watching us, so I made it a point to go directly toward him from the ship. He had to act casual and I used my new sensor as I passed within a meter of him. He didn't smell anything like a Flimt. He smelled of ozone and plastic.

  I moved around the port building for a couple of minutes until I spotted a girl helping a blind woman to a seat. I went to them and said there was something fishy about the guy over behind the potted plant. He was following me and he gave me the creeps for some reason. I said I only stopped to talk to them so maybe he'd go away, because I couldn't think of any reason anyone would want to follow me.

  I then walked toward the snack bar so he'd have to pass within a few feet of them to follow me.

  I sat around the counter a ways and saw the woman nod as he passed and the girl stifle a yawn and manage to point to his back. I didn't see the follower, but didn't doubt this one had a tight tail. TR also had a minifloater there very quickly.

  I went on to meet with Gorg and Hedda. I explained we thought we knew where the leader of the robots was, but wanted to find all of the robots possible, then to make the leader run so the people of Flimt would be in no danger.

  "We have to be realistic," I cautioned. "If the leader sits right here on Flimt we have a problem. I don't believe there are any really big weapons, but a small one can do horrible damage. I've got to get that ship to run!"

  They had no suggestions, but said they knew there was danger from the first. The people of Flimt would cooperate in any way they could. If possible they would have a very slow evacuation of the immediate area. Most people left the spaceports in the small hours of the morning and they could arrange for more than usual to leave. We could strike at such an hour, leaving the machine with few hostages. It might well decide to run.

  We then concentrated on the robots. It took two more days, but we knew we couldn't find all of them on Flimt. We knew where the others were on all the bases and stations. TR made a suggestion and we decided to try it.

  We attacked the robots with much better weapons than generally carried and had little trouble defeating them quickly. We could use mirror shields against the laser beam weapons they carried.

  We took all the "carcases" to the prearranged point, where I took a few apart while I waited for the next step, which I hoped would happen soon. There had been bursts of radio communications from the robots when they were attacked, then silence.

  "They're going to the brain's ship, not there," TR reported over the floater (For Gorg and Hedda's benefit).

  "Keep them from getting aboard," I ordered. "Is there anyone around the terminal?"

  "Nope. Cleared out for quite a distance. I'll shield in case that thing decides to attack me. It knows damned well I'm the empire ship and that we've done this, so it might try to stop me before I start to follow it."

  There was the communications shut-off the shield caused. I'd be on my own for awhile.

  We removed the power packs from all the robots in case they were playing dead on us and I disconnected some other parts from the radio receivers. If there were any secondary backups they wouldn't do any good. There were self-destruct charges in them, but few had the chance to use them. I didn't want those to be set off, either.

  I didn't know whether to head for the port or to stay clear, so I went part way in case we had to leave in a hurry. It was about half an hour later before TR communicated again. "I've set a broadcast antenna outside with a servo," it reported. "All the robots must be here now. They're lounging around in the terminal. I doubt they realize only robots are in there, but they'll know soon. There are eleven of them.

  "I don't know what that thing's planning, but this waiting is nerve-racking, even if I don't have any nerves (Hedda grinned at that) to wrack.

  "I wish it would do something!"

  I kept working on the robot carcasses, trying to find a way to trace the settings on their radio transceivers, but the emergency frequency was sealed in such a way I couldn't find anything. TR would have to trace it with a wide scan.

  About fifteen minutes later TR called again.

  "The robots are beginning to head for the pads. They're still acting casual, but the whole bunch started at once, so it doesn't work too great, seeing as they're all that's here!"

  A few minutes later. "This doesn't make any sense!"

  Then, "Tab! Get here! Fast!"

  I ran for all I was worth (Several billion credits at the last overhaul) for TR. I jumped aboard and we took off immediately.

  "The ship's still there!" I cried.

  "It apparently transferred to another ship. The robots milled around a bit, then suddenly ran aboard the Ternz ship there and it took off. The brain must have gotten suspicious and changed ships while we were at Second Port or something. It outsmarted us!"

  "Can you follow?"

  "Sure. Fastcom code pulse. It's heading for Elit, I think."

  "It would have to go to where it was a programmed for, wouldn't it? Could that thing even reprogram coordinates? I couldn't read the robots directly. I need to manufacture an interface, so it can't read the ship and reprogram.

  "That's a break!"

  "Mayb
e," TR warned. "Elit has a lot of people."

  "Then we'll have to get that ship as soon as it comes into N space and before it approaches Elit. You were watching all the ships. Was there anyone aboard except the robots?"

  "Not that I saw. Two people left yesterday. No one else came aboard."

  "When you're positive of the destination, get there first."

  "Yo!" TR said, then we waited. Suddenly there was the lurch of going into TTH14 and immediately the lurch of coming back out.

  "It'll be here in about ten minutes," TR said. "I'm surprised I could make that short a jump in plane fourteen. I'll have to tell Maita about that one. Pretty good, if I do say so myself!"

  We waited until we saw the ship enter N space about a thousand kilometers away. TR didn't waste time it might use to shield and blasted it to vapor with a beam.

  "It didn't survive that blast!" TR said smugly (How does a machine do that?). "This time that damned brain really is dead! It couldn't have left that ship in TTH planes, and this is the first time it came out.... It was 'way too easy, Boss! I'm REALLY scared now!"

  "It's a pretty tricky machine, but.... Tr! Where is that PPF oh forty five?"

  There was a pause.

  "I'll be damned!" TR snarled (Snarled? On internals?). "It suckered us and we fell right into the trap! It's a good thing it doesn't know about the tracer. It merely sent the robots into an unoccupied ship and had them engage the flight program, knowing we'd be stupid enough to follow it while the real brain made a clean getaway.

  "Well, there are some traps that work both ways!"

  Following Your Shadow

  PPF045 was heading inward on a flat trajectory toward galactic center. It had TTH4, while TR had TTH14, so we'd be able to be waiting anywhere – if we could figure where it was going. It didn't seem to have a destination we could calculate. The moder wouldn't move the ship without instructions of some sort and the sequencer wouldn't respond to a purely random input. There had to be a three number mode-set reference.

  "I think its interface plot isn't all that great, Boss. It can program in whatever it wants, but it can't read what's there in the maps and coordinate settings because ... of something."

  "I'd say the fact it has destinations and coordinates only in set mode and what those destinations are – beyond a designation of name – is another of its problem. It knows where it's going but doesn't know what would be there. It has to discover how to access the descriptives and determine what all the little symbols mean. It started the ship before it decoded the moder and sequencer, so it set what it analyses the destination to be, thus it had to override ... this doesn't make sense to me, either, so don't say it!"

  "It's set some coordinates, and I don't know what or where. I can't figure its logic system."

  "Show me a three-dimensional scopic holograph."

  TR lit up the main holoscreen with the projection.

  "It's straight line. There's no way that thing can get fancy now, and I doubt it could change coordinates in flight. It had to set a straight path in the direction it wants to go, but hasn't figured the N E S W coordinates, so is heading in the direction. It must plan to go a pretty long way before stopping to end up in a likely place for us NOT to look. Just give me an overall graphic plot on my internals."

  TR can send that straight to my internals, where I see it as though it's on a full holovid projection. The straight line was heading for the center of a globular cluster.

  "This doesn't make any damned sense!" TR protested. "There's no life on the planets around any of those stars! 'Way too much radiation in those clusters for life to develop.

  "What's going on? Where's the logic in any of that?"

  "It only knows there seem to be a lot of identified coordinate settings in a relatively small area in that cluster. It's one a lot of traders have explored because there's a small deposit of psiltripium on one of the dead planets that were first explored there. It has no experience in exploration, so it can't cross-reference types of planets and doesn't know the area rating for the cluster is HXR-- for no life high radiational constants.

  "It's a machine and may not be aware the fact the radiation isn't of dangerous levels to advanced lifeforms generally still precludes the development of life because of cumulative damage to genetic chains. Nothing evolves when every generation is subject to extreme mutation.

  "It thinks it's heading for an area where it can hide on any number of worlds and can infiltrate its robots on a number of societies at once. It'll reason we'll think it'll use the same tactics as on Flimt and will sit in one spot to direct one set of robots, so it'll do the opposite.

  "Maita's experiences with it, and our own, agree with Z. It's very clever and cunning, but not very intelligent.

  "Clever but stupid."

  "We do still have one or two little problems," TR pointed out. "Number one, it'll have room to elude us in that cluster, so we should go directly to the center of the cluster so we can move fast when it comes into N space. I'd like to get that thing here and not have to chase it all over the galaxy. I don't want it to land on a planet – even an unoccupied one."

  "And two?"

  "It will be able to figure what HXR means and won't make the same mistake again. We won't get another chance like this," TR answered dryly (HOW does it do that?).

  We jumped to the approximate center of the cluster and figured where the ship would go. It might be coming directly toward the center, so we waited half a plazsi off of exact center.

  It was six hours later when the ship passed us.

  "What's going on?" TR asked.

  "I'd say it's being clever. If we know which direction it started we'll be able to figure this cluster, and we'd logically think the center. It'll just go another twenty plazsis to the other side.

  "So very clever, and so easy to figure."

  TR jumped to the far side of the cluster and we waited another six minutes – until it again passed us.

  "Okay, clever," TR snapped sarcastically (?). "What now?"

  "It's going to a near system on this side?"

  TR figured, then we jumped.

  "It's got to be here or it's going to have to go more than three thousand plazsis before it comes to another one on this direct route."

  The damned thing passed us again.

  "It can't know where it's going! Can you bring that thing out of TTH somehow?"

  "I can stassify its moder and it'll come out, but we'll be defenseless for four point two seconds, which is plenty for that thing. Is it worth the risk?"

  "I don't think there IS any risk. That ship was given a direction but no destination I'd say."

  "Oh. It sent us off after those robots, then actually did change ships. Clever, and we're stupid not to have figured it!"

  TR matched PPF045 in TTH4 and sent the stasis field out. We popped into N space together. TR could hold the shield for less than five minutes, so I immediately went across on a floater and into the emergency hatch. I shut off the drive, called TR, and searched the ship. I found nothing, reset the ship to return to orbit in the Flimt system, had TR reset the stasis field until I got off, and returned to TR.

  "We have to get to Flimt, and fast."

  "Yo!" TR snapped back. "I hope we can find where that thing went!"

  "Find which ship was stolen, get its fastcom code, and trace it down. Either that or trace every ship that left since we did. It may've just gotten aboard and waited for the crew, then left normally. It could take over the ship after it was in TTH drive and no one on Flimt would know about it."

  We took little time to reach Flimt “moving” in TTH14 and screamed onto the spaceport demanding spaceport records. Hedda called us back quickly to say she and Gorg were on their way to the pad, but the records were being sent by computer directly.

  "No stolen ships," TR reported. "We were gone no more than twenty nine hours, in which time only one ship left the system. I've given orders under Maita's seal that no ship is to leave the system until further n
otice. I've sent a fastcom call to LRT nine oh two CCT, and am waiting for a reply – it's coming in now. I'll put it on the screen.

  "Hedda and Gorg are coming up the ramp now."

  The script from the fastcom came onto the holovid screen.

  ~Re: Inquiry Maita AG/TRD-60

  We are commercial trader. There are no passengers and no outside machines or servos aboard. Cargo taken and sealed 3+ days ago. Please give description of suspected stowaway.

  Quarl Kep, Feach, Captain~

  Reply ^LRT902

  Please use only non-translated Feach language. Suspected criminal machine undetermined shape or size or robot of Flimt (Probable) aspect. Anyone who entered crew on or from Flimt – any race – in past 1-1/2 year MGS.

  Maita AG/TRD-60^

  "Why Feach?" Gorg, who had entered the room, asked.

  "The machine won't know it," I answered. "TR and I have been on Feach several times and speak the language as well as we do Flimt."

  The screen showed the reply in Feach:

  ~TRD-60

  Same crew unchanged 4 years MGS. No Flimt. 1 Mome, 1 Feach, 1 Eacheron, and 2 Searian. Nothing entered ship except self and Mome past day MGS.

  Kep~

  Reply ^LRT902

  Thank you for cooperation.

  TRD-60^

  "You know what that means, Boss?" TR asked.

  "It means that machine is still on Flimt?" Gorg asked. "How will we ever find it? We haven't any idea of what it looks like!"

  "If it's built a robot to house it it's not going to be easy," I agreed. "We'll have to find some way to detect it. I'm also going to call Maita after we make a plan and have a long talk. I think the whole bunch are off on the little case we gave them. T Six is with them."

  "Maita'll tell us to try to handle it and to call if we run into trouble, I think," TR said. "We got into this mess, acted stupid, and will have to get out of it ourselves – if we can."

  We discussed some things and I suggested the teams don't stop seeking the robots in the society, as this machine may have saved some back in reserve. I didn't think it knew how we found the robots before. We certainly wouldn't let up on detection on any of the stations.