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

  It was building a plutonium reactor with the materials from the missiles! It would be unshielded and dangerous, but would work. This thing could be going again in fifteen years. It could also be poisoning the planet for all reasonable time as it built itself back. The waterwheel energy generation was being used almost exclusively in the building of the nuclear reactor. Most of the brain itself was only using standby current, which was negligible.

  I found the brain in its dented compartment. It wasn't wasting energy on sensors on a barren world so had no idea I was there. I found input sockets and modems, used passives to interface, and was able to read the thing. I then seized control of the servos and was able to disconnect the command circuits. I had the robot servos remove and replace the plutonium fuel core in its shielded containers and store them, then to come aboard the ship and shut down.

  I disconnected the waterwheel, then called a floater from TR to carry the complete command module and memory banks of the brain aboard.

  As we left Ziim for Killit I plugged into the brain to try to reason with it.

  "I already tried," TR said sourly (!). "It's completely erased itself. It's totally blank.

  "How did it manage that? There shouldn't be any way without some kind of sensors to detect reading and a power source with enough stored energy to handle the job!"

  "Probably an automatic response if the module's disconnected," I suggested. "I read all it knew before I messed with anything. This was number Tb oh four SP. When it was programmed there were only twelve planned missions, so Ander will still have to try to find one to put in stasis to read.

  "They should find the last one launched, which will be the closest to Old Home.

  "Shall we head for Killit? Maybe we have enough information from this unit to salvage some small part of what we're going to find there. I'm sure you noted from my input the thing was to avoid several systems – Killit being one of them. I think you'll also note the pattern it was to follow if it couldn't use what it found here. It was to avoid eleven particular systems, so you can call Ander on that. Maybe we're finally getting a break."

  "Maybe we could damned well use one!" TR replied.

  Killit

  We came in over Killit after searching every other possibility in the system. We decided to scan the whole planet with floaters to locate the brain exactly, hoping against hope it would be on a continent that wasn't yet populated, or that it was in a desert or something such.

  There were large palaces built and run with slave labor. The merchants were wealthy. Ostentatious opulence in all things was the status symbol but, unlike most such societies, there was no great building of walls or fences.

  There was quite a bit of very fancy landscaping around the larger buildings, but people were apparently expected to walk around and enjoy it. I found that very strange in what was, after all, a slave society.

  The people seemed to have a flair for landscape, though they could never hope to compete with the Woost or the Parf – or the Zulians, of course.

  TR sent a floater to get the language and customs as well as the props and information needed for my disguise.

  There were a few people with swords and long knives, but very little in the way of armies or police organizations. There seemed to be a number of religions, but the one we used on the probe for the language didn't take any of them very seriously. It seemed they were more for entertainment that something anyone actually would believe in literally.

  They were in an early iron age.

  The subject's feelings about the slaves was mixed, not really thinking of them as being any different than anyone else.

  Strange.

  I would be a free citizen, but not wealthy. The crystal from the probe showed the subject was now a shopkeeper, but had spent much of his life on the sea. It was a strange reading, and one I wasn't sure would be typical, or these were a truly exceptional people.

  I was going to spend some time among them. If not now, then I would return. I had a lot of questions I wanted answers for from that reading. It seemed altogether possible I'd stumbled on a new system of philosophy. These people would bear watching. I would also tell a couple of Inktan friends about them. Inktans are tremendous scholars, and would want to place a long-term study into effect.

  There was an extreme repulsion to lies and liars. The subject was extremely conditioned to react to any lie, no matter how small. It seemed to be a part of the culture. It was as strong as the repulsion among the Cheeth about theft.

  We located our brain in a large palace on a cliff overlooking the sea. It was close to a large bustling seaport and had spy sensors all over the place. We were again lucky in that the spies were broadcasting through radio. We could locate them before they spotted any floaters.

  We weren't lucky in that this thing was in a large population center. We couldn't simply blast it out of there. Some of the trouble we feared was coming true.

  I learned from reading the brain on Ziim that the robots would all be made with a locator circuit that could be activated with a short query pulse. I wouldn't have to worry about them, at least. I would be able to tell which ones they were immediately – even without the odor sensor that was still in place. (That took very little space, so would stay as a permanent part of me.)

  I doubted these robots were as good as the ones on Flimt.

  I couldn't see a way to get directly into that town, so opted to board a ship a bit farther along the shore and come in as a seaman. It would also give me a way to resolve certain seeming inconsistencies in the information I had from the probe. I was sure everyone wasn't so liberal as the one I was reading! Not in a society that still held slaves!

  I was more and more confused with the probe reading. There was some chance we had found a subject who wasn't quite sane in the society in which he found himself – or these people were truly extraordinary!

  There was a lot that wasn't as usual on this trip. I had never depended on reaching Maita or the crew much for information or suggestions before. Thing and Z were doing the type of thing I was generally doing while I did the kind of thing they generally did. I couldn't fault my success, so far, and hoped they could say the same.

  I had the floater take me to the forest outside of the most logical port to have ships going regularly to where I wanted to go. The winds would certainly be favorable to the trip, and these vessels were sailing ships with oars to be used when or if needed due to becoming becalmed. It seemed there were as many freemen as slaves manning the ships, which didn't really make a lot of sense to me. That was more confusing yet.

  I made it into the town in late afternoon, then to the guild hall, where I asked for employment on any ship going south to Stormlee Port City, which was where the brain was. They said that was an easy job to find, because seamen were beginning to avoid the place, and there was still a lot of trade for goods going in.

  I was using the name of Liht, and spoke with Klam, the guild officer there. I wanted to see if the information on the read was correct without giving myself away, and I wanted to have as many questions about Stormlee answered as possible.

  "I've been far north for several seasons," I confided. "What's going on down in Stormlee? I've had several say I don't want to go there. Place once had a good reputation, but that seems to be fading.

  "What's the skuzzle?"

  "Mostly hijackings and assassinations," Klam answered. "The indentured crewmembers say they're treated very badly, too, which is uncommon. Just ten years ago, Stormlee was the top port for us here, but now it's getting hard to find anyone who'll go anywhere near the place. It's getting so only indentured crews call there, and that isn't good. Most masters are saying they won't go if their crews don't want the trip.

  "It's mostly some kind of attitude. People there are afraid of something and don't even know what it is. They're suspicious. Things aren't normal. Everybody says there's a bad feeling about the place, if you know what I mean."

  "Uh-yup! I know 'xactly what you mean! I s
ay it's got to be a starker! Up north there was this here one who was really messing up one place, but the people finally found who he was and put him in exile on the most dreary island you ever saw!

  "Served him right, it did!"

  "But no one really believes in the magic powers. A starker is mostly someone to joke about."

  "But just mostly. It's all trickery, but it can be deadly, too. You'll die of poison if it's supplied in a trick or some other way! Some of the starkers are capable of anything if they can make people gain fear of 'em.

  "What is is what is!"

  "It used to be," Klam agreed. "It could be again in a place like Stormlee's becoming. I'll stay away from it. I ain't got no call to go there."

  "Yuh, but I won't! It ain't right no way. People shouldn't have to live like that.

  "I always stick my hand in where it ain't wanted. Always have, always will. It's my nature, you know.

  "Put me on the next crew to there and we'll just see if Liht's all that easy to scare, we will! Ain't nobody never scared Liht yet, ain't nobody gonna start now! I let my rock head get me into all sorts of crap 'bout this here kinda stuff! It's how I am.

  "What is is what is!"

  Klam grinned and shook his head, then handed me a paper he'd been filling out. "Give this to Captain Partih on the Wavewalker, dock three. Standard fee and meals. You sail at dawnlight.

  "He's a good master and a good sailor. If you're rockheaded like you say, you'll find a spiritmate. He's a rockhead 'n half again!

  "Fair. He's a fair man!

  "I wish you brisk breezes and warm seas."

  "And storms be in the desert when you're at sea," I finished the traditional sailor's parting.

  I went to the docks and found the Wavewalker. It was a medium-sized ship with a standard twelve-man crew, two officers, and a cook. I finished the crew, which were all slaves except one.

  I threw the bag TR had supplied aboard and handed the mate, a brawny, jolly man named Clare, the paper. He grinned, announced he couldn't read the damned thing and wasn't about to wake Partih when he would want to be up hours before dawnlight to watch the clouds and currents. It wasn't the very best time of the year for sudden storms and sailors to mix.

  I liked him immediately.

  He showed me a bunk and introduced me to Seelah, who shared the bunk (!).

  Seelah was a slave, was almost as big as Clare, and was much more intelligent than I would have thought a slave would be. He explained he generally didn't hit the bunk before four bells (a quarter hour before midnight) so if I was an early sleeper I would have to take the wall – unless I was an early riser, in which case we'd have to find other bunkmates, because he wasn't.

  I said that was fine with me. I was used to any hours, so we could work it out.

  I called TR and asked what this was all about and it said the Killits were evolved from herding animals and generally slept together – and besides, it thought Z was the one with those kinds of inhibitions.

  "I want to know what's expected is all!" I shot back.

  "I couldn't tell you. You'll know this time tomorrow! You'll have been there – and back!"

  I searched through the crystal, but such as these situations were often missed by the probe, when all it was looking for was language and customs.

  From what I could tell, there simply weren't any taboos in the society or any expectations, either, so I could do whatever might seem most productive at the time. The subject of the probe had many experiences with sleeping with any number of people, as well as sleeping alone. He preferred sleeping with several.

  Well, they touched a lot. I saw that.

  This was a stupid thing to be thinking about because, as TR said, by morning I'd know. Z was the only one who was inhibited about such things, and Thing even made jokes about it at times, trying to get a reaction from Z.

  I thought of the time it had gone on about the Mactowians and their habit of having sexual relations with everyone of either sex (They have the basic two, as most races do), and had asked me if I slept (In the sexual sense) with certain other males, but Z figured Thing was baiting him and hadn't responded.

  I'm built with full physical capabilities of whatever race I'm disguised as, with the obvious exception that I can't actually father a child with any of them.

  Sex was a pleasure response with these people, so they might enjoy relations as a way of relaxing, like the Isliponans did. Maita designed me to discover something of the thought processes of organic beings, so had built a pleasure response into me. It had been moderated because, as a machine, I have no limits – but my first lover, a Swaz woman named Lofe, DID have normal limits and couldn't have kept up with many such nights.

  It had been awhile, so I suppose I'm thinking enough like an organic about sex that the idea was hanging on. The Swaz, who I'm designed after most times, were evolved from schooling animals and hung on each other all the time.

  I thought about the time on Feach when Lofe introduced me to ... like you give a damn!

  A horny machine? I could hear Z now! Particularly with his repulsion to homosexuality. If Thing found out about what I was thinking now it would use it to drive Z into exasperation.

  I have to think about something in bed. I don't sleep, but have to feign it when there are others around, and turning off for the night is equally out of the question, so I pretend sleep and use the time in problem solving, though tonight it wasn't that.

  Seelah wrapped all around me and I wrapped back, but there was no sexual part to it at all, so I still don't know. I can say I'm glad a port city has the usual compliment of girls offering their sexual favors for whatever inducements apply in most any society anywhere. We arrived in Stormlee late the following afternoon and I spent that first night with a woman named Carnot. I had the organic response there to the situation in that I didn't have the same kinds of thoughts the next day. I didn't consider it, and didn't much care. I'll have to ask Maita if it programmed me that way, or whether it's something that developed naturally.

  I strolled around the town after we offloaded the cargo. We wouldn't have the return cargo until the following day, so I had a free afternoon and night, though I was on watch from one bell to dawnlight bell.

  I would sleep aboard while Seelah would stay in the town. I could "decide" to stay in Stormlee after the cargo was stowed without any inconvenience to anyone. There were plenty of people wanting to LEAVE Stormlee! An outgoing crew was easy enough to find.

  The palace where the brain's fusion generator was operating was up along a road to the south atop the bluffs and somewhat below ground level. I didn't yet know if there was some kind of basement there or a cave, but I managed to stroll out of town in that direction. I passed two robots who were walking together. They looked very natural, except that people seemed to avoid them fairly widely.

  That would be because of the lack of natural odor more than anything else.

  There was a wall and a gate around the palace, which wasn't the case with any of the others in the area. The wall seemed extremely out of place here. There was a robot guard at the gate.

  I strolled on past and stopped about two kilometers farther along the road for some wine and sweetcake at a stall. I asked about the palace.

  "I don't never remember seeing no wall 'round that kind of a place afore," I complained. "Don't seem right. Ain't natural. What's the point'a havin' all the plantin's, then keepin' people out?

  "Stupid, that's what it is! Stupid!"

  "We don't talk much about the place," the girl said. "I used to sort of run around with Noobish, but the past four years since her father started acting so funny she hasn't been let out so much and she's sort of scared all the time.

  "Like you noticed, it isn't natural. I guess it's been a year since we more than nodded, and she doesn't even seem to recognize her old friends.

  "Strange way to act. Maybe there's, you know, some bentheads in her family?

  "I hope not! She used to be such fun!"


  "Four years? That's about the time they ran that starker off at Northern Pass Port City.

  "There ain't been a lot of strangers around since, have there? Hard eyes? Give you the wilts to just be around 'em? Make your skin prickle?"

  "Yes!" she cried excitedly. "Not a lot, but a few! They're supposed to be slaves from Warnow.

  "Is there really a magic starker there?"

  "Could be. Some of them starkers is bad potions. It ain't funny when you start gettin' people all suspicious of each other.

  "People seem suspicious in Stormlee. Ain't natural."

  "Crazy things happen all the time," the girl agreed. "I wish Noobish would get out of there! She was always so much fun, and last time I saw her she was so cold!"

  I nodded, then went back down the road. I went to the gate and was starting to go inside when the robot stepped out in front of me.

  "What do you want?" it asked.

  "What kind of a question is that?!" I asked, feigning shock. "Since when does a person get questioned by some slave when he goes calling? What's going on here!?

  "What's a wall doing around a house?

  "Everybody said there are strange happenings in Stormlee!

  "I want to see Noobish! What's going on here?"

  Another robot made to look like a female came to ask what was the matter.

  "I want to see Noobish!" I shouted. "Whoever heard of this kind of treatment?! What's going on here!?

  "This ain't right, no sir! I want to see Noobish!"

  "I am Noobish," the robot replied. "What do you want? I'm busy and can't waste time visiting."

  "You are like hell!" I shouted. "Now liars, too?

  "What the hell is going on here?! This is an outrage! Do you think I came all the way up here and don't even know who Noobish IS? Do you know how long it's been since I heard a LIE?

  "What's going on?"

  One thing was certain from the crystal. These people didn't lie. There was no confusion or lack of information about that. If anyone was accused of lying, the reaction would be immediate and possibly violent. I was acting exactly like any Killit would act if they caught someone in a lie. The brain didn't have the sense to look around before it built a fence or wall to see that these people didn't do any such thing. It didn't learn enough about the people to know the strongest societal taboos.